Demon Age

by Raziel12

When the Sage of Six Paths died, the demons came. They swept aside the old kingdoms and plunged the world into an age of darkness. But from that darkness emerged the Five Great Villages. They pushed the demons back, carving out small areas of safety. But now the demons are on the move. War is coming. And Kushina Uzumaki is going to be caught right in the middle of it.

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

Centuries ago, the world was a place of constant, raging war. In a bid to put an end to all the bloodshed, a princess stole a sacred power. It gave her the strength to bring peace to the world, but the power she had stolen caught the attention of terrible beings that hungered to possess it.

For a long time, these creatures stayed away from the world of men, held at bay by first the power of the princess and then that of her son, the Sage of Six Paths. But eventually, the Sage died, as all men must, and his sons turned upon one another.

Mankind weakened itself, and then the creatures came – demons from another world. They swept over the land, a vile plague that crushed all the kingdoms of the old days. Mankind was scattered, broken up into countless clans that fought each other as well as the demons for what little remained.

More centuries passed until the days before the demons were forgotten, and the Sage became nothing more than a legend. Two great clans rose up – the Senju and the Uchiha. Descended from the two sons of the Sage, they fought for decades until Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha brokered a peace between the clans.

They decided to combine their strengths and take back as much territory as they could from the demons. The two great leaders carved out a place of safety amongst the towering forests of their homeland, a place where even demons feared to tread. They named this place Konoha – the Village Hidden in Leaves.

Konoha was but the first of the Five Great Villages, and slowly mankind began to take back its world. But the demons would not relinquish their territory easily. Two Great Demon Wars were fought. Tens of thousands fought and died to hold the demons at bay. In the aftermath of those wars, mankind began to expand its settlements.

But the demons were not defeated. Instead, they retreated to their hives, vast fortresses of twisted stone flung up amidst ashen wastelands. They would gather their strength and wait, wait for mankind to grow careless. And then they would strike.

X X X

"It might be a false alarm. Communication seals fail all the time."

Kushina glared at the young chuunin beside her. "Most people's communication seals might fail all the time, but mine don't. I spent a week setting up the seals in that town. If they're not working, it's because something has broken them."

The chuunin gulped and, and Kushina turned away as a flicker of movement caught her eye. It was Mikoto.

"You really didn't have to be so hard on him." Mikoto's voice was chiding, but her onyx eyes twinkled with amusement. They both knew that when Kushina was hard on someone, she did a lot more than glare. "I think you scared the poor boy half to death."

"I'm not that scary." Kushina huffed. "But there's no way that one of my seals failed without a good reason."

"Not that scary? The Academy's instructors still tell stories about the beatings you used to dish out to the people that made fun of you. You're like the bogeyman." The Uchiha frowned. "But you're right. Your seals don't just fail. Something must have happened. I don't want to believe it, but…"

Kushina grimaced and nodded. Neither of them wanted to say it aloud, but they had to consider the possibility that the town had fallen. For centuries, demons had plagued the world. The rise of the Hidden Villages had provided some measure of protection, and humanity had slowly begun to claw back some territory from the demons.

Since the founding of Konoha, several large towns and a host of smaller villages had been built. Ninja were stationed in all of them, along with complex arrays of barrier seals. The town they had lost contact with lay along one of the few trading routes into River Country. It was supposed to be safe – there hadn't been a large-scale demonic incursion in years thanks to the Third Hokage's campaign to cleanse the surrounding area.

If something had happened, it could herald the start of another war against the demons, much like the one that had driven the Uchiha and Senju to set aside decades of enmity in favour of the alliance that had eventually given rise to Konoha.

The absolute last thing that Kushina wanted was another war, not when she'd finally found a village that accepted her and friends to call her own. Then, of course, there was Minato. He could be a bit of an idiot sometimes, but he was her idiot.

"I hope it is nothing. But in case it isn't, Mikoto, I want your squad on my left flank. I've already got Hizashi and his squad set up on the right. Contact me if you notice anything. Until we learn otherwise, we have to assume that we're going to run into trouble. Stay sharp."

Mikoto flashed her a jaunty salute before she headed back to her squad, and Kushina rolled her eyes. "Stay safe, Kushina. Minato will have a fit if you come back with so much as a scratch."

Honestly, Mikoto was nice and all, but she always had to get the last word in. It must be an Uchiha thing since Fugaku was the same way. Unlike Mikoto, though, he had the world's biggest stick up his ass. Or maybe not – there was always Hiashi Hyuuga to consider.

Kushina glanced back at the three other members of her squad, a trio of chuunin she'd been assigned for this mission. "All right, guys. We need to pick up the pace. But don't let your guard down."

It was already well past sunset as they neared the town. Demons were always more active at night, so sentries were usually stationed outside the barriers to watch out for particularly powerful ones. A good seal barrier could keep out lower-level demons. A more powerful demon required a more hands on approach.

Sentries usually flared their chakra for passing ninja so that no mix-ups occurred. But so far, Kushina hadn't noticed a thing. True, she wasn't a sensor, but the chakra detecting seals she'd carved onto her right arm guard hadn't picked up anything either. A cold, heavy weight settled in her gut. Something was definitely wrong.

Kushina sent a flare of chakra through the communication seal on her left arm guard. "Hizashi, can you see anything yet?"

The Hyuuga's eyes were amongst the finest in his clan. He was also less of a stick in the mud than most of his clansmen. Kushina knew all about the situation between the Branch House and the Main House. If she had her way, the village would have scrapped the whole Branch House sealing thing years ago.

"Give me a moment." Hizashi's voice echoed in her head. The communication seals they used were yet another example of Uzumaki seals being putting to good use. The demons had a tendency to disrupt nearby electrical devices, which ruled out the use of radios and other similar equipment. "We have a problem. I'm picking up a lot of residual chakra but… I can't see the barrier."

"Are you saying that it's gone?"

"Yes."

"Damn it." Kushina bit her lip. That much residual chakra probably meant that a portal had opened up near the town. And if the barrier had gone down, there was a chance that everyone there was already dead. She took a deep breath. "We continue with the mission. All towns have a shelter. We might be able to get there in time to save any survivors."

They reached the town a short time later, and Kushina bit back a curse. Whatever had happened, it had happened too quickly for the townsfolk and the town's ninja to react. The bodies of civilians littered the streets. They'd been torn limb from limb, and great starbursts of blood stained the streets and the buildings nearby. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted two dead ninja beside a shattered wagon. They couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen. They were probably genin who'd been assigned to this town because of its large garrison of ninja. The idea would have been to ease them into action against the demons.

Halfway down the street she saw another young ninja slumped over against a wall. He'd been ripped in half. Not far away an older ninja, perhaps his jounin instructor, lay in a vast pool of dried blood. He was missing an arm and a leg.

Still, the town's ninja hadn't died easily. The streets bore scorch marks that could only have come from powerful fire techniques, and there were trenches and walls of rock that could only have been produced using earth techniques. There was even a long line of melted rock that had probably come from a lightning technique.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kushina spotted a puddle of viscous, black liquid. She knelt beside it, and her eyes watered at the bitter, foul stench of it. The liquid seemed to drink in the meagre light of the moon as the few remaining streetlights flickered and died. There was no doubt about what had happened now – she'd found demon blood.

Kushina stood as Hizashi leapt off a building and landed beside her. "Have you found any survivors?"

"None above ground, but I haven't spotted any demons either. However, I have located the shelter. It is below the main municipal building. I have the rest of my squad securing that area so that we can check for survivors."

"Good." She frowned. "Something doesn't fit here. We didn't lose communications that long ago. The demons should still be here. The last time that a village fell, the demons spent hours breaking into the shelter. The ninja out here are all dead, so why would the demons leave?"

"I'm not sure." Hizashi scanned the area again. "I haven't detected any unusual chakra here besides residual demonic chakra."

"Keep looking. We have to be missing something. I'm going to head over to the main municipal building to check out the seals. Maybe we'll find something there."

Kushina sent Mikoto and the rest of her squad to do another sweep of the town as she headed over to the main municipal building. How strange. There were hardly any bodies around here. The main municipal building housed the shelter and the chambers that controlled all of the town's most important seals. It should have been one of the demons' main targets and the most heavily defended location in town.

The fact that it had fallen, seemingly without a struggle, suggested two possibilities: either something had gone wrong prior to the demons' attack or the demons had struck so quickly that the town's ninja had been unable to mount a proper defence. Yet there had been almost a hundred ninja in this town's garrison. It should have been impossible for something like that to occur.

The inside of the building was a mess. A few ninja had managed to mount a last-ditch defence, but they'd been slaughtered. Blood coated the walls, floor, and ceiling. A dozen of them had died in the corridors leading to the shelter. She could only hope that they'd held on long enough to get some of the townsfolk into the shelter.

The seal control chambers were in a similar state of disarray. The ninja in charge of monitoring and controlling all of the seals were dead. From the looks of things, they'd never even gotten a chance to strike back before being torn to pieces. Most worrying of all, the heavy doors guarding the chambers bore no signs of damage. Protocol dictated that these doors be locked at all times. Had they ignored protocol, or had the demons found a way to unlock them?

Her worries only increased when she finally examined the seals themselves. The communication seal hadn't been crudely destroyed. It had been deactivated. Her brows furrowed. Destroying the seal would have immediately triggered an alarm. But it could be deactivated for as long as five minutes before an alarm sounded. It was a measure she'd put in so that routine maintenance could be performed without sending the town's garrison into a panic.

But demons didn't deactivate seals – they destroyed them. The barrier seals had been tampered with in the same way, and Kushina's gut clenched. Someone – or something – had let the demons in. No wonder the ninja hadn't been able to get into position. The seals they'd relied on had all been deactivated.

One of the members of her squad padded into the chamber, and she spun, one hand on her sword. Slowly, she relaxed.

"What's wrong, ma'am?"

"Someone deactivated these seals. We may have a traitor." Kushina growled and activated her communication seal. "Listen up, everyone. Someone disabled the town's seals. We may have a traitor. I repeat: we may have a traitor. Hizashi, have you started evacuating the shelter yet?"

"We're about to start."

"Keep a close eye on any survivors. If we have a traitor, they may be posing as a survivor." Kushina stalked out of the seal chambers and headed for the shelter. She'd never heard of humans helping demons before, but there was always a first time. It might not even be even be voluntary. Perhaps the demons had found a way to control people.

"Mikoto," Kushina said. "Have you found anything yet?"

"Not yet." Mikoto's voice had taken on the cold, hard edge that signalled genuine anger. Kushina might not be able to see her, but she knew that the other woman's eyes blazed crimson. Some of the dead they'd seen had been Uchiha. If one of their own had been responsible, Mikoto would find them and make them pay. "I'll let you know the moment I find anything."

"We've opened the shelter," Hizashi's voice echoed in her mind. "There are survivors, perhaps fifty. I'm examining them now. So far, all of them seem normal."

"Good. Take them outside. We can question them in the courtyard. Have your team form a perimeter. I don't want anyone running away while we ask questions. We need to get to the bottom of this."

Kushina met Hizashi and his squad in the courtyard. There were fifty-three survivors – an astonishingly small number for a town that had once had a population of several thousand. They were huddled together in small groups, at once grateful that more ninja had come and worried by how coldly they were being treated. Kushina saw a young child clutch at his mother and had to squash the urge to go over and offer a few words of comfort. Until she was certain that none of them were involved in disabling the seals, she couldn't let her guard down. Too many ninjas and civilians had already died here.

She was about to address the crowd when Mikoto's voice filled her head.

"I found something, Kushina! It was written by one of my dead clansmen so that only another Sharingan could find it. The traitor was one of the town's councillors."

"Understood. Do you know which one?" Kushina's gaze roved over the crowd. They were starting to panic now, and Hizashi had to shout for calm. "I need a physical description."

"I'll skip the name then. I've met him before. You're looking for a tall man, forty years old, with green hair and blue eyes. He had a limp the last time I saw him."

Green hair and blue eyes? Kushina's gaze snapped to one of the survivors. He looked to be the right age, and he had green hair and blue eyes, but he wasn't walking with a limp. No, he was striding right toward Hizashi's back. As she watched, a great quiver ran through his body. Something stirred under his skin like maggots writhing through flesh.

"Hizashi!" Kushina screamed. "Behind you!"

The Hyuuga turned as the councillor rushed forward, one hand stabbing toward Hizashi's eyes. The blow never landed. Hizashi ducked under the strike and drove one palm into the councillor's gut. He hurtled back and rolled to a stop fifteen yards away. The other survivors screamed and began to mill about.

"They're going to kill us!" someone shouted. "Run!"

"Stop them!" Kushina motioned at her squad. "Don't let them get away!" The civilians wouldn't last long if they ran off. The demons would pick them off before dawn.

She glanced back at the councillor. To her disbelief, the man got to his feet. Impossible. Hizashi's strike should have completely disabled him. Suddenly, the chakra inside him surged. The ground beneath him cracked, and an inhuman bellow tore from his lips. The chakra sensing seal on her left arm guard flashed red.

Demon.

The councillor was a demon.

The man broke into a ragged sprint toward Hizashi. His shirt tore as the flesh on his back writhed and twisted. The muscles there bulged outward, trying to burst through the skin. Kushina's jaw clenched. She'd never heard of something like this before, but a demon had somehow managed to take the councillor's place. She needed to try and capture it.

"Hizashi, get back!"

Kushina gestured and three chains wrought of pure chakra rocketed toward the councillor-turned-demon. The first chain pierced one of the councillor's legs while the second and third caught him in the gut and chest. Demons were notoriously resilient, so the wounds were unlikely to be fatal. Now if she could just hold him down for a little while longer, she could seal him away. Konoha would be very interested in how a demon had managed to impersonate or possess a human.

The councillor gave a low, keening wail, and the air was suddenly thick and heavy with chakra. Kushina's own chakra crackled in response. For reasons no one understood, the Tailed Beasts not only looked different from these demons but also despised them. Her chains began to shake before the councillor vanished behind a haze of foul, demonic chakra.

Her chains shattered, and Kushina reeled back. Not far off, Hizashi gave a strangled gasp. Whatever he had seen could not be pleasant. And the sounds – by the gods – the sounds were horrific. From within the cloud of demonic chakra came the sounds of flesh ripping, tearing, growing, and changing.

When the chakra finally cleared, Kushina's blood ran cold. The councillor was gone. In his place was a monstrosity torn right out of her nightmares. It was thirty feet tall, a misshapen pyramid of wriggling, maggot-like flesh that shifted rhythmically from black to nameless colours that skirted the very limits of her perception. Several spiked limbs jutted out from the demon's side, and a dozen eyes were scattered over its body, milky white with slit, amber pupils. A circular mouth yawned open on one side, filled with jagged teeth.

This was a higher-level demon, the kind that could open up portals for its lesser kin. Now everything made sense. This thing must have impersonated or taken control of the councillor. That would explain how it had gained access to the seal chambers. Then it had transformed, killing the ninja there and disabling the seals. Then it had opened up portals, allowing its kin to catch the town's defenders off guard. How very clever for a demon.

And the worst part was that if they didn't do something right now, there was nothing to stop the demon from walking into another town in the guise of the councillor and repeating the whole thing. It had managed to get through the town's barrier in its human guise and fool dozens of ninja. It had to be dealt with. Now.

"Mikoto, send a message to Konoha and then get your squad over here. We have a higher-level demon. We cannot let it open any portals. I want you to pin it down with suppressing fire. Hizashi, I need your squad to cut off its retreat. Do not let it escape."

One of her squad members took a step back as the demon lashed out and crushed one of the buildings beside it. "What about us, ma'am?"

Kushina palmed a kunai. On its own, the weapon wouldn't do much against the demon, but there was an exploding tag attached to it. "You have an earth affinity, right? Can you do something about the ground beneath it? Try to turn it to mud."

"Right."

"You two." Kushina pinned the last two members of her squad with her gaze. "Start preparing the strongest wind techniques you have."

Kushina hurled her kunai. It caught the demon halfway up its body, and the explosion rocked the street. However, the demon barely seemed to feel it. It rumbled forward with all the force of an avalanche. A swipe of its limbs smashed one of the buildings nearby and sent a hail of broken stone and shattered concrete toward her. She darted out of the way as Hizashi's squad unleashed their attacks.

The demon staggered to one side as a powerful wave of water slammed into it. The earth at its feet liquefied, and a bolt of lightning blew off one of its limbs. Another exploding tag detonated against its side. Yet the damage healed as quickly as it was inflicted. The limb grew back, and the ninja who'd severed it died an instant later, sliced in half.

"Keep your distance!" Kushina dodged as the demon hurled more rubble at her and her squad. "Don't let it get close."

Hizashi's squad scattered, but the demon lumbered after them. A wild swipe slammed one of them against a wall before another water technique drove it back a step. Hizashi threw another exploding tag and then had to dodge frantically as the demon hacked at him. Kushina hissed. Her friend couldn't rely on his Gentle Fist against a demon of this kind. It would rip him apart if he tried to close in.

Suddenly, fire rained down from the rooftops along the street. Mikoto and her squad had arrived. Kushina breathed a sigh of relief as Hizashi and his squad seized the opportunity to retreat. The demon roared, and leapt forward with a speed that was utterly at odds with its ungainly appearance. It smashed one rooftop after another, but Mikoto was more than ready for it.

Kushina caught a glimpse of crimson as the moonlight reflected off Mikoto's eyes. The Uchiha all but danced through the devastation, her lithe form moving with a grace that Kushina couldn't help but envy. Then she was safely out of the demon's range and running toward Kushina.

"That thing is tough." Mikoto scowled. "And it heals quickly."

"Yes, which is why we're going to need something a bit stronger than the techniques we've been using so far." She looked back at her squad. "Are those wind techniques ready?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Mikoto. Set that damn demon on fire."

"Gladly."

Mikoto's eyes narrowed, and her chakra surged. Kushina shivered. Even for an Uchiha, Mikoto's chakra was potent. "Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" Mikoto took a deep breath and drew her head back before spewing a massive stream of fire. The earth at her feet melted, and Kushina fought the urge to cover her eyes as Mikoto poured enough chakra into the technique to turn the fire white-hot.

"Now!" Kushina gestured at her squad. "Use your wind techniques."

The pair of wind techniques turned Mikoto's river of fire into a massive wall of flame that obliterated the street and swamped the demon. Kushina smiled grimly. They weren't done yet. Kushina thrust both arms forward. Chakra chains raced toward the demon, but instead of trying to tie it down, she drove the ends of each chain into the ground around it.

"Uzumaki Sealing Technique: Inward Reflecting Mirror!"

Her chains could do a lot more than grapple things. They were made of her chakra, and she'd learned to transmit sealing technique through them instead of just through her hands. This technique was something she'd worked on with Mikoto: a seal that allowed things into the affected area but not out of it. It wasn't enough to hold a powerful demon for long, but it wasn't supposed to. No, it had a different purpose. Fire could go in, but it couldn't come out. In short, her seal concentrated the power of Mikoto's attack around the demon, heightening its effectiveness.

Gleaming, mirror-like walls appeared around the demon. The fire of Mikoto's technique flooded into the affected area, and Kushina clenched her fists. The walls shrunk, closing in and concentrating the flames until they grew too much for the seal to handle. With a sound like shattering glass, the walls came apart, and a towering pillar of fire rocketed upward and outward.

The rest of her squad stumbled back as Kushina shielded her eyes. Beside her, Mikoto's crimson gaze flickered over the devastation, searching for some sign of their opponent. It was at times like this that Kushina wondered what kind of fire she would be able to unleash if she tapped into the power of the demon sealed inside her. But the Kyuubi was far from friendly. Even now, it hated sharing any of its chakra with her.

"Is it dead?" one of her squad members asked.

"Don't let your guard down. Powerful demons are very difficult to kill." The fire was slowly dwindling, but all the ash and smoke made it difficult to see.

"I can't see anything," Mikoto said.

"I can still sense its chakra!" Hizashi gasped. "It's still alive!"

Kushina jumped to the side as a half-melted lump of concrete the size of her torso shot through the air. One of the chuunin beside her was too slow to dodge, and the projectile ripped him in half. She cursed. She'd warned him not to let his guard down. In front of her, the demon was visible again. Its flesh was scorched and burnt. The eyes along its body had shrivelled away to almost nothing.

It turned slowly, and those shrivelled eyes rolled to glare at Kushina. Beside her, Mikoto began to prepare another attack. The demon howled, and the air around it bent and tore. Three gleaming pools of light shimmered into existence.

"Portals!" Kushina stepped forward, palming a pair of kunai with exploding tags. "Take out those portals!"

The demons had taken over most of the world, setting up hives throughout the territory they'd conquered, but legend told of how they had originally come from another world. These portals allowed them to travel between this world and that original world. Demons could also use them to travel from one place to another with astonishing speed. Only the seals maintained in each city, town, or village kept them from attacking settlements directly.

No one had ever worked out exactly how these portals worked or how the demons made them, but Kushina had been helping Minato in his attempts to replicate them using seals. If they could create their own portals, they would have a powerful weapon against the demons.

Rather than let them destroy the portals, the demon shielded them with its own body. It stumbled, badly wounded, but dozens of lesser demons poured out of the portals. Most of them were vaguely arachnid in shape with long, thin legs, and armoured carapaces. Yet no spider in the world had gaping jaws filled with teeth or clawed hands at the end of each limb. Each of the lesser demons was roughly the size of a dog, and the night was filled with a hideous chittering as they advanced.

"Mikoto, I need your squad to clear the road so that we can get close enough to shut those portals down. Hizashi, I want your squad to try and keep the demons contained. I don't want any stragglers getting away."

Kushina drew her sword and rushed forward, the remainder of her squad on her heels. The longer the portal was open, the more demons there would be. They had to destroy those portals as quickly as possible. A swarm of the lesser demons hastened to meet her, but fire streaked past her and incinerated them. With her Sharingan active, Mikoto could use her techniques without worrying about hitting Kushina or her squad.

More of the lesser demons charged. Kushina cut one out of the air and then ducked under another. A kunai from one of her squad members caught it in the eye, and she summoned her chakra chains again. She used them to slash through the demons closest to her before she latched onto a nearby building and hurled herself up and over the next wave of lesser demons.

The portals were essentially chakra constructs. The easiest way to disrupt them was to overload them with chakra-based attacks, and she had plenty of chakra.

"Water Release: Liquid Bullets!" She drew her head back and spat half a dozen high-speed spheres of water. Each was roughly the size of her head, and she shoved as much chakra as she could into them without destabilising the technique.

The pyramid-shaped demon threw its body between her attack and the portal she'd aimed at. Two of the spheres dug deep into its flesh and then exploded in a spray of water. But the other four blasted right through it and struck the portal head on. There was a high-pitched shriek, and then the portal came apart in a cloud of foul chakra and gleaming shadows.

"That's one." Kushina landed and stabbed a lesser demon in the head. Another slashed at her legs, and she jumped, spinning in mid-air to crush its body with a powerful kick. "Hizashi, aim for the portal on the left. I'll take the one on the right."

The Hyuuga rushed to obey. The Gentle Fist was almost useless against a powerful demon due to their inhuman chakra systems and devastating prowess at close range, but it was very good against portals. The big demon hurled some rubble at Kushina and then rounded on Hizashi. He ducked and dove through a storm of its blows before a handful of Kushina's chains wrapped around its body.

"Hurry up!" Kushina grit her teeth and dragged the demon back. Damn, it was strong. Even with her chains, she couldn't move it more than a few steps. And while she was using her chains, she was a sitting duck. One of her squad members took up a position beside her, defending her from the lesser demons. Mikoto and her squad unleashed another wave of techniques, and the horde of lesser demons thinned.

Hizashi landed next to one of the portals. He took a moment to gather his chakra, and then he was spinning, a large dome of blue chakra forming around him. It was one of the signature techniques of his clan, and the defence-turned-attack ground against the portal. The air crackled as the Hyuuga's chakra clashed against the portal. Finally, the portal shattered. The backlash hurled Hizashi away, and the Hyuuga slid to a stop several yards away.

"One left." Kushina let her chains dissipate. The demon roared in fury and took up a position in front of the last portal. It had to be running low on chakra because its wound were no longer healing quickly, and its flesh had begun to take on a grey tinge. "Mikoto!"

The Uchiha responded with another technique, this time a blast of lightning that drove the demon away from the portal. Kushina seized the opportunity and used her Water Release: Liquid Bullets to destroy the last portal.

"Don't give it a chance to open any more portals." Kushina sent out half a dozen chains to hold the demon in place. "Hit it now!"

The others unleashed attack after attack until the demon finally fell. It toppled to the ground and began to melt until there was nothing left save for a foul scent on the breeze and a vast, blighted patch of earth. It would be years before anything grew where the demon had died.

"What now?" Mikoto asked. The other woman's face was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and there were smudges of soot and ash on her face. Kushina almost laughed. It wasn't often that she saw her friend look so messy.

"We gather the survivors. I want all of them examined for even a trace of demonic energy. I'm not taking any more chances. Mikoto, you can use genjustsu to question them if you think you need to." Kushina tilted her to head one side as she tried to work the kinks out of her neck. Water techniques always made her neck sore. "Once we're in the clear, we make for the nearest town and drop off the survivors. Then we head back to Konoha. The Hokage will want a full report on this."

Mikoto's eyes faded back to their usual onyx. If more demons had the ability to infiltrate settlement, there was going to be trouble. "I'll get to it then."

A small shiver ran through Kushina. Without the heat of Mikoto's fire techniques, it was surprisingly cold. She couldn't wait to get back to Konoha and Minato. Her lips twitched. He would probably pitch a fit once he found out what had happened. Her gaze drifted back to the members of her squad. She'd lost one today and so had Hizashi. From the way a few of the others were limping, they'd been lucky not to lose anyone else.

She sighed. Maybe she was lucky that Minato's squad hadn't been available to come with her. If something had happened to Rin, Obito, or Kakashi, she'd never be able to forgive herself.

"Kushina." It was Hizashi. The Hyuuga's pale eyes had narrowed faintly. "I haven't detected any demonic chakra in the other survivors."

"Good. Let Mikoto take a look at them, and then we'll get moving."

Hizashi nodded, and Kushina's thoughts drifted inward, to the demon sealed in her gut. The Kyuubi looked nothing like the demons they encountered on a regular basis, and he hated them as much as she did. It was strange, but not even Mito had been able to tell her what was so different about the Tailed Beasts.

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Naruto, nor am I making any money off of this.

This story has kind of been hanging around in my brain for a while now. I've always liked Minato and Kushina's generation of ninja (e.g., Mikoto, Hizashi, etc.), so I wanted to do something that let me use those characters. I also wanted to put them into a different situation from canon since their fates are pretty much already decided there.

The set up for this story was influenced by a number of sources including H. P. Lovecraft and The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett. One of my favourite things about Naruto is all the lore involved. In this story Princess Kaguya Otsutsuki was responsible for bringing chakra into the world, but in doing so she drew the attention of other – greater – forces. And once she and the Sage of Six Paths died, the stage was set for the demons to make their move.

So, things are different in this version of the Naruto world. There are jutsu and ninjas and things like that, but the demons present the greatest threat. The various nations not only have to worry about each other but also the demons that would love to destroy them all. As for what role Kushina and the rest of the gang have to play, you'll just have to keep reading to find out ^_^.

I also write original fiction, mostly fantasy, and you can find links to it in my profile.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.