So as you've probably guessed, this story's title was taken from 'Human' by Christina Perri. It's just…fitting *smirks*. Let me make something clear right from the beginning. Naruto is truly a human in this fic so if you're looking for a creature!Naruto then you have sadly come to the wrong place but I encourage you to stay and take a gander! *snorts* (idiot, who says gander anymore).
See the end notes for some descriptions/definitions!
Please let me know if I should continue this story! (Also another warning*** I probably won't update this story as often as the others until I finish those!)
I don't own Naruto or 'Human'!...just the idea for this story.
I woke to the scratching of nails down the door I had bolted shut only hours ago. My face was pressed against a smelly, moth-eaten sofa, my left cheek numb and a trail of spittle smeared down my chin. I had been sleeping less and less lately but who could blame me? Demons and Yokai alike were haunting every crevice of every place around.
No place was safe, not even here.
I bolted upright, knife clutched to my chest and a gun strapped to my waist. I swallowed hard, feeling desperation and resignation fill my gut. I clamped down hard on the feelings, pushing them down until they were in the darkest corner of my mind, right along with him.
But he never stayed down for long, never left my thoughts for more than a couple of minutes nowadays. I could only hope that he stayed further away than the feelings did.
A hiss followed by a growl sounded before the door rattled and a piercing snarl shattered my eardrums. "C'mon out. We know you're in there," called a gruff voice. A mad chortle sounded again and the door creaked, the wood in the center splintering as I scrambled backwards. Shit. I pushed anything and everything in front of the door, save for the couch, to provide a barrier between myself and the beasts.
This is my world now; the constant fear of the yokai, the demons, and the thought-to-be myths and legends that littered the streets. They had decimated our population, the humans that is, a while ago. It seems like years have passed but from my careful count it had only been a few months. We were gone before we even realized what happened. We were gone and they needed us. We were gone, I say again but really we're just rare. The few of us left have even fewer choices; turn ourselves in and be sold to the highest bidder or be hunted down and then forced into slavery.
Some may say I'm being hunted but I like to think of myself as, ehem, escaping the man and fighting back, but even I know that the lucky ones died long ago. Yet, here I am, on the verge of being captured with my gun now raised and my knife lying on the ground abandoned where I had dropped it in my haste to draw my gun.
The door shattered, pulling me back to reality. Two cynocephalus, demons with the bodies of men and the heads of dogs, peered in. Their ears stood in sharp points on the very tops of their canine heads, entirely alert. Snouts twitched before dark brown eyes caught sight of my body, crouched in a corner, back against the wall and weapons at the ready.
"Now, now, there's no need for those, pet." One said gently, his head resembled that of a Doberman while his companion resembled a Pit Bull.
"Don't call me that," I hissed lowly. That was all we were to them now, pets.
"Ooo, feisty little human. I like him already. I'm sure Anubis will be thrilled, he really enjoys crushing their spirits." The pit bull growled, black lips pulling back to reveal sharp, pointed teeth.
"Fuck off, asshole." I spat as aggressively as I could. My gun shook with the effort to keep it up. My ribs burned where gashes given to me just yesterday by a run I with a manticore oozed and throbbed threateningly. I could still feel blood trickling down my skin, my shirt was so caked to me that I was almost positive it would never come off.
The cynocephalus' noses twitched and I knew exactly what they were doing. They were scenting me, seeing how much of a fight I would put up. "He's injured, severely too." The Doberman stated almost sadly, as he stepped forward.
I turned the gun to face him quickly, cocking it as he raised his hands and stopped in his tracks. "You're hurt, let us help you." He motioned forward again but before he could move anymore, I pulled the trigger.
The shock reverberated up my arm and, in my shock I made a rookie mistake. I dropped my gun.
The two were on me in an instant, taking advantage of my dazed state, and forcing my head into the wall.
I struggled weakly with my captors, even going as far as biting one of them before they stabbed a needle into my thigh. I gasped as cold fluid filtered through my veins. "Shh, pet," the Doberman whispered, pushing my fringe away from my face. "Calm down, we're only trying to help. You'll have a kind master once you're all healed." He smiled; well at least I thought he did. It was hard to tell with his canine features.
I managed a pitiful, "Fuck you," and a half-hearted groan, before the drug that was forced into my body rendered me incapable of anything other than slight vocalizations and blinking. I dropped like lead, dead weight to my captors and utterly defenseless. The Pit Bull caught me in one arm and lifted me like I weighed no more than ten pounds.
Screw them and their superhuman abilities.
My mind started to haze over; their voices were getting harder and harder to interpret, not that their already distorted voices were easy to understand by any means. I just had more experience than most. "Should we heal him here or back at the base?" the Pit Bull growled out, staring at me in a mixture of lust and hatred. He shifted me from one arm to the other, jostling my still healing wounds and tearing open older scabs. I yelped as pain lashed at my insides but dared not move any more. I tried desperately to remain still, but again, the drug in my system pulled my weight down and the wounds pulled harshly.
"How about we do it now? He looks like he's barely conscious now. I'm surprised what with all the blood around here." The Doberman said, pointing to the stained couch before deciding it would be better to lay me on the table. He brushed an arm across the surface of it, clearing it effectively and taking off his worn jacket, laying it down as a makeshift bed.
A few groans and whimpers escaped as I was dropped unceremoniously onto it. "Gently!" the Doberman hissed, eyes blazing. He kneeled over me as panic flared in my core once again. "It's alright, pet. This will only hurt for a second." He soothed, his all too human hand brushing the hair from my face. Instinctively, I tried to pull away, away from the creatures touch, but I couldn't move and soon my head was immobilized between the Pit Bull's massive thighs.
Human hands unbuttoned my shirt, making it tug at my wounds where the blood had dried. The Doberman tossed it aside after deciding it was easier to just cut off. A moment of silence followed and I feared that I had been found out but the only thing he said was an appreciative "Pretty…" as his hands slid over the sensitive middle of my tattoo, coincidentally on the tender flesh of my stomach.
"You know, this almost looks like-" the Pit Bull started, his hands wandering down to brush the scars on my cheeks before he was cut off by the cocking of a gun.
"Back away from the boy," a deep voice said slowly. Both cynocephalus' heads rose in unison, taking in the sight of their ambusher. There were some shuffling noises that made me aware that there was more than one of them. Please, if there is a god, let them help me. Let them be good people…or creatures. I really don't care at the moment as long as they're here to help me. The dog men's lips curled back menacingly, but their hands soon left me.
"Good. Now, get up, slowly, and place your hands against the wall," the same voice demanded calmly.
"Tsunade, Haruno, go check him." Another voice interrupted softly but just as demanding.
It was extremely disturbing to see a pink haired girl and a blonde woman come out of nowhere, practically popping out of thin air above me, seeing as I could barely move. It was almost as unsettling as the icy cold feeling I got as soon as I made eye contact with a dark haired man gazing intently at me in the doorway. A tingle of recognition raced down my spine at the gray eyes and cat-like pupils and I tried hard to disguise it as one of pain.
I could feel the marks on my face grow hot and visible, quickly shaking my hair over my forehead to cover the surely glowing crescents. My body was slowly thawing out, regaining control of itself, the drug was meant to be utilized quickly and they hadn't taken advantage of it. The blonde woman's light brown eyes roved over my body before settling on my face. Her eyes narrowed slightly but the tender smile she let me see made me forget all about it.
"It's okay; we're not here to hurt you. We saw you come in a couple hours ago but it wasn't safe for us to make contact. When we saw them come in, we took the chance and…well here we are." The pink haired girl said cheekily.
My eyes darted between them before landing on the icy male again. A stronger chill had my body quaking as cool eyes stared hard into my own. His steely gaze narrowed in thought before widening the barest amount as he pushed off the wall and darted forward. The man caught the blonde woman's hand, which was glowing an eerie green-blue. Her head flipped around and, with a harsh glare, snatched her hand away as if she were burned. "What are you doing? He needs to be healed now!" she hissed while the pink haired girl gaped like a fish.
"Yes," the man agreed roughly, getting another glare from her before he raised a hand to silence her outbreak. "But not by an elf. He needs a dragon healer."
A small gasp sounded from the corner where the cynocephalus were watching the entire scene over their shoulders. "I knew it!" the Pit Bull grunted. "He's Kyuubi-sama's pet!"
My body, now almost entirely thawed, froze again. God, why do you hate me? My muscles groaned in protest as I scrambled backwards on the wide table, only thinking to escape because if those people knew who he was then it wouldn't matter if they were here to help me. They would definitely turn me in. The people, if you could still call them that, in the room turned to stare at me, most of them uncomprehendingly; and, while their backs were turned, the cynocephalus sprung.
The Pit Bull launched himself off the back of the couch, landing over top of me and pulling my still sluggish body into his arms. My protests went unnoticed as chaos erupted around the room.
The Doberman had the leader of the group in a headlock, using his claws to provide a direct threat to his throat. The two elf healers stood with glowing hands, back to back, the pink haired one facing me while the blonde faced her leader. A man with spikey brown hair, a human by the look of it, was glancing worriedly from the leader to me and then to the dark haired man from before.
I felt the room chill over then, frost gathered on the window panes and the air crackled with a contained amount of electricity, as if the roof were just waiting on a signal to give in and crush us all. When I finally caught sight of the cause of the sudden and dramatic environmental change, I couldn't believe my eyes.
The dark haired man who had called me out was about two inches off the ground. His eyes were narrowed into leaden bullets that vaguely resembled the pipes that protruded from the ceiling. His pointed ears peaked out from his obsidian hair and called attention to the horns that managed to curl from the sides of his forehead, and there, in the center of all that smooth, pale skin was a diamond shaped red ruby.
It held my gaze captive and, unable to look away, I didn't even register the face that he was; moving, speaking, or the area behind him shimmering like a massive set of wings.
"Put him down, dog," the man growled, sharp while teeth bared ferociously. "You don't know of what you're holding."
The Pit Bull growled back. "It is you who don't understand filthy lizard. He is Kyuubi-sama's pet and we will be rewarded greatly for our find." He clutched me tighter, claws digging deeper into my side so hard that I whimpered and jerked away from him.
"You're hurting him, Dak," the Doberman murmured from across the room. "Kyuubi-sama will be even more upset if we injure him further."
Then, with the speed of a cobra, the leader struck him in the ribs with his elbow, his hand coming up full force to punch him in the muzzle. The Doberman howled in pain, his sensitive nose sending a string of pain through his nerves.
"Ra!" the Pit Bull screeched, his hot breath making my skin crawl as he dropped me onto the hard ground as he ran to his companion. The floor greeted me with a solid 'thunk' as my breath fled from my lungs and I struggled to regain it. My body trembled and the edges of my vision turned fuzzy.
Dark hair tickled my face and, through the strained fighting sounds, I could make out a few garbled words. "…-e okay, Sorro-"
I inhaled sharply, tears welling in my eyes at the fire in my ribs. Dammit. "…tell…don't...back!" I croaked. Ice spilled into the palm of my hand as I grasped a fistful of his shirt, fingers brushing bare skin.
"Shh." The man soothed, one cool hand brushing back my hair and revealing the glowing crescents on my skin. A soft sigh erupted from his lips and I watched in wonder as the steely gaze softened the slightest amount before snapping out of my daze in order to get my message across.
"Don't tell them. Don't let them take me back! Please!" I gasped, dispelling the cold that had settled deep within the man, as a sort of incentive, and replacing it with warmth and love that were desperately needed.
His gray eyes fluttered and he reached up, grasping my hand lightly against his chest. "It's true." He breathed and the last thing I saw was the glimmer of the ruby on his forehead.
xxx
Sasuke stared at the ragged blonde boy in his lap.
The boy, because he certainly wasn't a man, was so bruised and bloody that I was difficult to see the actual tan of his skin. His pants were torn and patched in many places and the reddish- brown rag lying on the ground was probably the remnants of his shirt.
He'd been on the run for a while it seemed.
His pale skin was growing paler and paler by the second, almost as pale as Sasuke's.
Acting quickly, he scooped the sacred being into his arms, the flutter of warmth still stinging in his chest where the boy had healed him, but it was accompanied by the urge to protect the boy, even more so than was natural for one of his kind.
A niggling of recognition fluttered in his wings as he brought the boy close to his chest, darting around the fighting going on in the room and jumping into the sky. The boy's plea repeated in his mind, his wide blue eyes begging desperately to the point where, even if Sasuke had wanted too, he couldn't refuse.
His wings beat harshly at the humid, summer air, carrying him up high until her reached the top of the building. Without further ado, he landed next to the giant skylight in the ceiling and was pleasantly surprised to find a garden, albeit, a little over grown but beautiful all the same.
The boy in his arms stirred slightly as the pollen from the flowers made him sneeze. The pain filled whimpers that came from him shocked Sasuke immediately from his dazed admiring. Blonde brows were drawn in pain; full pink lips parted to take in shuttering breaths all while his scarred cheeks turned paler and paler.
Sasuke dropped down to his knees, careful not to jostle the boy. His hand took on a dark blue, almost black, hue as he swiftly ran it over the trembling blonde's body.
His usually stoic mask was nowhere in sight as he winced at every injury on the small body. How anyone could harm such a beautiful creature was beyond him but then he remembered what the mutt had said.
The boy with the sunshine hair and ocean blue eyes was the Kyuubi's pet.
Sasuke's lip curled in disgust at the word. No being should be labeled as 'pet', not even a human and certainly not this one.
As he continued his healing of the boy, he began to recall all of the times he had seen Kyuubi refuse a pet, claiming he already had one but no one ever saw him. It wasn't until his pet had escaped that he had given any detail as to what his pet looked like and even then it was; 'Short. Blonde, with blue eyes and markings on his face.'
Not very helpful.
Those who were fortunate enough to escape Kyuubi's wrath when he had walked into an empty chamber were sent out to find his beloved pet.
Never would Sasuke have imagined to have found him halfway across the world, and for him to be the healer of all of Sasuke's people, yet here he was with his arms full of a, no, the Sorrow Dragon.
Okay so all of these creatures are real! Some of the attributes I make up so they might not be word for word the exact same but the general idea of them is there!
Creature Talk I:
Manticore: a mythological beast with a lion's body and a humans head
Cynocephalus: a member of an ancient race of men with the heads of dogs
Anubis: the jackal-headed god of death. He holds the scales that weigh the souls of the dead.
Yokai: all monsters and supernatural beings
Demons: an evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell
Sorrow Dragon: they absorb the sorrow of another being and replace it with and emotion that that soul needs most; it only appears once every 1000 years.
Okay! That's all for this one so please Review/Follow/Favorite! I love reading all your guys' comments!
If you haven't checked out my other stories please feel free to do so!
Thanks for reading!
Until Next Time!
