Disclaimer: Hello. my name is Inigo Montoya. I don't own Naruto. Prepare to die.
Chapter 2: Fateful Meetings, Bloody Battles
Rock Lee slammed his foot into the ground, his inner force bubbling up with incredible strength as he tried to force his body to transform into a human shape. His body shook as he tried to pull in his own strength. His mouth broke into a grin as he saw the hair on his hands and feet begin to recede into his skin. He could see his toes changing shape, his foot becoming flatter as his toes shrunk and his foot thumbs lost their opposable quality.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. A moment before he could feel his human form solidifying, he lost control of his energy and felt it explode outward. The resulting shock-wave sent it's owner hurling backwards into a nearby tree. Lee groaned as he pulled himself into a sitting position and looked down at his hands. They were as hairy as they had ever been. The backlash had caused him to revert to a full monkey form. Lee flipped onto all fours, supported by his knuckles, and began to slowly revert himself as far back into his human form as he could, his back straightening as he pulled himself along in his transformation as far as he was able to.
Lee sighed as he looked at his now human shaped, but still very hairy, hands, "No matter," he said to himself, "I shall master this skill yet!"
"AND IF I FAIL!" he screamed to the heavens, "THEN I SHALL PUNISH MYSELF WITH 300 LAPS AROUND THE HUMAN VILLAGE ON MY HANDS!"
Before he could try again however, his enhanced hearing caught the sound of a group of people, walking across the road to the village, nearly 100 yards away.
"Huh. how interesting. Could it be that they are here already?"
Hyuuga Hinata held her arms crossed over her chest and stared at the ground as she walked down the bumpy dirt road. Her teammate, Tenten, was walking beside her, chatting on about something or another. Hinata had to admit that she wasn't really paying any attention. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts. It still hung on her mind, that last mission, just like all the others. It was nothing too dangerous really, a simple D ranked goat sort of thing, something which should have been easy to handle for even the most inept of hunters.
Yet she had completely failed. She had it, alone, and was utterly beaten down. If Neji hadn't shown up in time, she felt certain that she would be dead right now. She was a failure to the team. Everyone else on the team was a C class hunter or higher, but even after all these years, she was still stuck as an E class, and quite frankly, the only reason that she was even that was because of her Byakugan.
"...eally think that if you applied yourself more, you could really start to improve as far as your skills are concerned." She caught at the end of Tenten's words.
"Huh? Oh...yes, I suppose."
Tenten sighed, "You weren't even listening, were you?"
Hinata turned her face away guiltily, "Yes, I was...or...I was trying to. I'm just feeling a little preoccupied right now."
"Hinata..." Tenten sighed, "You know that wasn't your fault." she spoke, referring to the previous mission, "You could have taken that billy-goat on an ordinary day, he just caught you off-guard."
Hinata's face scrunched up in shame. That was untrue. She had seen the creature coming. Regardless of her own lack of talent, no one could sneak up on the Byakugan. Neji had lied to the rest of the group so as that Hinata might not be so humiliated.
"I'm not good enough to be a part of this team." Hinata said with a sigh.
"Hinata that isn't true!" Tenten hissed at her, shocked, "You're just less experienced! You'll become better with time."
Hinata didn't think so. She had been doing this just as long as Neji had, and he was worlds ahead of her. Even if she became 10 times stronger then she was now, or even 100 times stronger, she wouldn't be anywhere close to Neji's level. She appreciated Tenten's attempts to make her feel better, but she knew good and well that the only reason that she was even allowed into this group was because Neji wouldn't go anywhere without her, and his skills were invaluable to such a group. She knew it, Tenten knew it (even if she was going to try to deny it to make Hinata feel better), Sakura knew it, everyone knew it. She was totally dependant on Neji. She always had been, and probably always would be, and there was nothing that she could do about it.
She was about to tell Tenten exactly that when Sakura's voice called out to the team, "WE'RE HERE!"
Hinata looked up to see Sakura standing atop a hill ahead of them. She couldn't see the village yet behind the hill, so she focused energy into her eyes, causing the veins around them to bulge out and activating her Byakugan eyes. Using her bloodline limit, she could look directly through the earth of the hill and see the village below. It was surprisingly small, dotted here and there with conical straw and wood houses, and she could see people walking among them, some talking, others carrying large bags of what looked like vegetables and rice. There couldn't possibly be more then a few dozen families in such a small village, and Hinata found herself wondering how such a tiny and defenceless place could possibly have managed to avoid any demon attacks up until now.
Hinata turned her attention back to Sakura, who was still speaking, "When we enter the village, we're going to have to start gathering information. The request for aid didn't make any specifications as to what kind or how powerful these demons are. All we know is that they are a full coven, and not one which is noted in the Bingo book, which in my experience almost certainly means that they are a group of mostly weaker demons ruled by a single stronger one, likely either C or possibly B ranked. However, it is a fool who goes in assuming a weak enemy without prior knowl-"
Sakura was interrupted by the quiet swish of a metal knife flying through the air, she pulled he head back and opened her eyes in shock as she saw a kunai fly within inches of her face. Immediately she heard a dull thud and what sounded like a high-pitched shriek from the direction of the trees. She turned her head to stare at Neji, standing next to her, his hand outstretched from the kunai which he had just thrown.
Rock Lee screeched his shrill, monkey screech as he hit the ground, the hunter's knife lodged in his shoulder. It would have been in the dead center of his head as well, if he hadn't anticipated the attack and moved out of the way in time. From so far away, the hunter had phenomenal accuracy with his throwing knives. Lee pushed himself into a sitting position and looked down at the blade sticking out of his shoulder. Angrily, he grabbed onto the blade's handle and wrenched it out, causing a second spasm of pain to shoot through his arm. The would was bleeding heavily, but he would recover soon enough.
Sighing, Lee looked up to an unusual sight. He appeared to be surrounded. No less then seven...no...eight, humans stood around him in a circle, one which he didn't notice at first because she appeared to be hiding behind the same long-haired boy who had hit him with the throwing knife. They all, other then the timid one, looked prepared for combat.
"Greetings, Hunters!" Lee said with his typical enthusiasm, "I admit myself surprised to see you here. Kiba-san's intel said that you would not arive in Konoha for another 3 days at least."
As he had anticipated, the group of hunters looked to be surprised by his reaction. He wasn't sure why people reacted to him the way that they did, but they always did.
The long-haired knife thrower took a step forward, his face contorted into an expression of rage. The boy pulled his hand back as though to throw a punch, though rather then curl his hand into a complete fist, he left his pointer and middle finger extended, "You must be one of the filthy demons who have been terrorizing this village."
Lee raised an eyebrow. He wasn't sure what Neji was referring to. But experience told him that if he tried to talk things out, he was just going to make things worse. Better to let Naruto handle things later.
"I must ask, noble hunter, how it was that you were able to spy my location from such a great distance. I was quite sure that I was well hidden. Is it possible that I need more stealth training?"
Long-hair's mouth twisted upward into a smirk, "There is no being on earth can can hide from my Byakugan."
Lee's eyes lit up in comprehension, "Ah, yes! I didn't recognize the mighty Byakugan bloodline power at first! How wondrous the gifts given to the humans by the Ancient Ones are!"
"That's a lie!" Long-hair hissed, his eyes flashing with rage, "My Bloodline Limit was a gift from Kami-sama himself! Not from any filthy demon!"
Lee shrugged with apathy. He knew very well that the humans and demons told a different history in many respects. Demons claimed that, in olden times, humans had been loyal slaves to the mighty demons who ruled over the earth, and as a reward for their loyalty, the demons had gifted the strongest of the human clans with great power. Of course, the humans, arrogant as they were, used these powers to revolt against their rightful masters and try to take control of the ancient kingdoms themselves. The human version of the story was significantly different. The humans claimed that the evil but more powerful demons had enslaved them in ancient times, and it was the great Kami-sama, who greatly preferred humanity, who had given them these gifts in order to defend themselves. They revolted and fought the demons for their freedom, which they eventually won.
Quite frankly, Lee wasn't sure that he bought either story.
"Don't let him get to you Neji," the pink-haired girl with the enormous sword strapped to her back spoke, "and don't kill him yet. Incapacitate him and take him alive so that we can force him to lead us back to his coven."
The long-haired boy, Neji, nodded to the girl and made a move towards Lee. Before he could attack, Lee hopped back onto his feet with lightning reflexes and slammed his foot into the hunter's gut, sending him flying back and slamming into a tree. Instantly, four more of the group attacked, but before any of them could land a hit, Lee had jumped into the hanging branches of the forest and dashed away.
Neji gingerly picked himself up and rubbed the back of his head, which had slammed into the tree.
"I'm sorry Sakura. I underestimated him."
Sakura shrugged, "It's not that big of a deal." she replied, before shifting her attention to one of the members who did not attacked, a quiet boy with a heavy, high-collared coat and dark sunglasses, "Were you able to get a tracing bug on him Shino?"
The hunter named Aburame Shino seemed to smile, though it was difficult to tell behind his collar, and held up his hand, palm foreward, a tiny black insect crawling across it.
"Of course." he replied.
Lee leaped from treetop to treetop, moving towards home as fast as he possibly could. With any luck, he had lost the hunters in his initial burst of speed and they wouldn't be able to pick up his trail for a while. At least until he could find Naruto and let him know that the hunters were so far ahead of schedule.
After a few minutes, Lee saw a figure walking through the forest ahead of him, and came to a screeching halt a moment before he slammed into him.
Kiba's eyes opened wide in shock and he fell onto his rear as Lee suddenly appeared less then an in front of him, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, YOU CRAZY MONKEY! GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK!"
Lee stood straight as an arrow and glanced down at his stunned friend, "KIBA-SAN! We must go and find Naruto-sama! The hunters are here earlier then expected and we must be prepared for pitched combaaaaaaat!"
Kiba seemed too stunned to speak for just a moment, then jumped to his feet, "That...that can't be. My sources have never been wrong in the past. I trust Hana absolutely."
Lee shook his head, "I do not know what has occurred to speed up their arrival, but I assure you that they are here."
Kiba turned his head away, an unsure look on his face. Suddenly however, his nose twitched and his eyes opened wide in shock, "What is that smell?" he asked.
Lee raised an enormous, bushy eyebrow, confused, "What smell are you talking about?" He took a sniff of the air, but couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary. Of course Kiba's sense of smell was even stronger then Naruto's, and at least 20 times stronger then Lee's own.
Without answering, Kiba's hand flashed out and grabbed at something in Lee's hair, behind his right ear. Trapped between two of Kiba's long curved claws was a tiny black insect, struggling fruitlessly.
"A tracer bug," Kiba snarled, "I've seen this before. It's a signature technique of the Aburame clan. I guess you weren't kidding." With a tiny crunch, Kiba squished the bug between his fingers, "That should buy us some time. Let's go inform Naruto."
"That is what I have been saying this entire time! Now let us go!"
Shino sighed as he stooped down to examine the minuscule remains of one of his prized insects, smeared against one of the forests thousands of trees. Tracers were more difficult to raise, and even in a nest of 100 eggs were uncommon. It annoyed him that this one was so senselessly killed.
"Can you still find them?" Sakura asked.
"Of course," Shino replied, "the pheromones are still on the monkey. But it will be harder, and take longer."
"I have to ask Sakura," Spoke the long and lanky boy with the short black ponytail, Shikamaru, "why are we going after these guys now? It seems too troublesome to me. You said yourself that it would be better to gather information first. Shouldn't we be going into the village?"
"Normally, yes." Sakura replied, "But this is far too good of an opportunity to pass up. Ordinarily, we would have to set a trap and ambush our quarry, but this demon can lead us right into their nest. And besides that, we did get a decent bit of info, just from that meeting. We know that our enemies are monkey demons, quick and wild, but without much in the way of special abilities, and usually naive and easily tricked, but fond of games. If we get in over our heads, we can always retreat and come back better prepared. If nothing else, this is a good chance to find out what we're up against."
Shikamaru shrugged, "Whatever. I was just looking forward to a nice warm bed and a real meal tonight."
"Don't be such a baby," the man with the strange, hooded black suit and the face-paint, Kankuro, said, "If you want good service, then it's better to wait until we slaughter these demons anyway. We'll be treated like heroes when we get back."
Temari, Kankuro's sister, rolled her eyes, "Is that all you care about?" she asked, "Let's just get this over with."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. There was a time when he had liked Temari, even cared for her, but that seemed to be so long ago. He had been more adventurous then, and she had been less cold. It had been happier times, before their lives had changed. Before Temari had followed her brother into the business and become a demon hunter, and he, being the romantic that he had been so long ago, had tried to follow her. It hadn't worked, but by the time he had realized that, he had already become accustomed to the life. Whatever. You have to deal the hand that your delt. But even today, 2 years later, he could still be astounded by how much his one-time companion had changed. How callous and cold she could be.
He was snapped out of his musings by Sakura's voice, still speaking with Shino, "So how long will it take us to reach their nest?" She asked.
Shino shrugged, "If I'm estimating the distance correctly, around 20 minutes or so." He leaned in close and whispered something in Sakura's ear that Shikamaru was only just able to catch, "10 if we left Hinata behind."
Sakura glared at him, "We're not leaving anyone behind." She retorted in the same hushed voice, then turned away in a manner that clearly stated that this conversation was over, "Let's go everyone!" she called out, and dashed off with impressive speed in the direction of the fleeing monkey demon.
Naruto turned his head to Lee, "Are you sure that they were right behind you?" he asked, his voice slightly impatient.
Lee nodded, "Yes indeed. I didn't realize that the bug had been placed on me until halfway back. Even if they couldn't continue to follow me, they should be able to guess my general direction. They'll be here soon."
Naruto nodded and turned his head back to the enormous clearing. It was the perfect place for a small scale war in the middle of the forest, where he could keep an eye on all of his pack, just in case. Naruto felt his eyes roll over each member of his pack, stopping for a moment to gaze at each individual member.
Kiba was as he ever was, hyper and eager for excitement, all wrapped up in a calm, collected image. His eyes always gave him away though. Kiba could never keep his emotions out of his eyes like some of the others could.
Lee was similarly excited, though Naruto suspected that it was more at the prospect of a great new way to test his strength then it was the thrill of adventure. Lee's monkey legs were practically shaking with anticipation, and his tail was whipping all over the place.
Ino, a rabbit demon, was more reserved, more worried. Naruto didn't blame her. Out of all of them, only Chouji was possibly weaker then her, both of them being C ranked demons. She wasn't really the kind who was built for fighting. One of her two rabbit ears bent down to cover her face, trying in vain to hide her worry.
Chouji himself was stuffing his round face with Kyuubi-knows-what. Naruto knew that this was his way of dealing with his own stress and wasn't all that worried about it. Like Sasuke, Chouji had very little distinguishing features of his demonic heritage, only a few areas around his arms and legs where his skin had a ringed, bumpy texture, like that of a caterpillar.
Garra was stoic and silent as ever. Except for the occasional flick of his eyes, the Tanuki demon could have been mistaken for a statue. For as good as Naruto was at reading people, he could never really tell what mood Garra was in without speaking to him. The Tanuki could have been bored to death or brimming with excitement for all he knew.
As for Sasuke himself...Sasuke was not here. He had opted out of this fight, stating that it wouldn't be worth his time...
"Even the leader is nothing more then a B ranked hunter right?" Sasuke asked, "Why should I waste my time with such weaklings?"
Naruto's eyes narrowed, "You really need to stop being so arrogant. Sure, we could beat these guys without you, but what would you do if one of the weaker guys, like Ino or Chouji, get hurt because you weren't there?"
Sasuke shrugged apathetically, "If they're too weak to protect themselves, then they deserve whatever they get. Why should I waste my time on them?"
"Ino really likes you, ya know. It would really hurt her to know that you don't even care if she gets hurt."
Sasuke laughed harshly, "Ino really likes everyone at some point or another. It's in her nature. She's a rabbit demon. She's horny." Sasuke smirked and looked at Naruto knowingly, "I seem to recall that when she first joined up, it was you who she was after. That didn't last either."
Naruto turned his head away. Honestly, he couldn't deny what Sasuke said. Still, it sounded extremely harsh, "I'm not going to make you fight with us, but I also won't make the others respect you for what you do."
Sasuke shruged, "Ill pass."
Naruto was snapped out of his reminiscing by the sound of footsteps walking though the forest floor. He turned his head up to see a group of people emerging from the shadows of the trees, led by a girl with pink hair who, in human years, looked like she might be somewhere around 16-17. He was surprised at this. He had honestly expected a man. In his experience, humans could be picky about such things as that. He was also surprised at just how beautiful she was, especially her bright green eyes.
By the look on the girl's face, she was surprised as well. Were they not what she expected? Naruto decided that the best thing to do would be to talk first.
"What's with the weird look hunter? You seem surprised." he grinned his famously charming grin and flicked his fox tail.
Sakura Haruno slowly shook her head, "What is this?" she asked, "You're not a monkey demon."
Naruto raised an eyebrow and turned his head to look at his tail, then glanced at his clawed hands, "Not the last time I checked, no."
Sakura's eyes flashed to Lee, who was grinning with goofiness and waving at her and her team. She ignored him, "I've never heard of two different kinds of demons in the same group."
Naruto nodded, "I get it. You met Lee and figured we must all be monkey demons. No, we're different from the norm. A family of demons who are all different, yet all the same."
Sakura glared at him, "It doesn't matter." She reached up to the two foot long sword handle that stuck out above her shoulder, and flipped the enormous cleaver-like blade over and into a fighting stance. Naruto was shocked that she seemed to be strong enough to wield the enormous chunk of metal in a single, steady hand, "You are still a murdering demon, and I will still end you."
Naruto sighed, "Is there any way that I can convince you otherwise? There have been a lot of hunters who have shown up on our doorsteps over the years, and the result is always the same. Either they're stubborn and try to fight, and we send them back to the village, beaten and bloody, or else they're smart enough to realize that we don't need to fight and leave peacefully. Are you going to be stubborn or smart?" He grinned at his own question.
"I am a demon hunter." Sakura replied, "It is my sworn duty to rid the world of monsters like you. You think that you can decieve me into turning away. You are evil, just like every other one of your kind."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "So self-righteous. Before you attack, perhaps you can at least tell me why you think we are so evil. What is the reason for believing that all demons are evil?"
Sakura's eyes narrowed in hatred, "The fact that you are demons is reason enough! I have slayed hundreds of you and every single one of you has proved me right. But if you need a personal reason, think about the three villagers who you and your group killed!"
Naruto's eyes opened wide is surprise, "Three dead villagers? I don't know anything about that." Naruto turned his head down as he wondered, if this were true, why the villagers hadn't come to him for help?
Turning his head away was a big mistake. Naruto heard the tell-tale swish of metal flying through air, and instinctively jumped backward, but not enough. With incredible speed for a human, Sakura had appeared before him and her sword, huge enough to cleave clear through 5 men in one slice, had grazed his chest, painting the ground before him with demon blood.
"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!" Sakura yelled, her forehead furrowed in anger, "THE VILLAGERS WERE KILLED BY A DEMON, AND YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!"
She swung her blade at him again, horizontally, but he was prepared now and jumped over the arc of the blade, slamming his foot into her face and sending her flying back into the ground, "If you aren't going to listen to reason," Naruto spoke as he looked down at her, his eyes now deep crimson with slit-like pupils, "then we have nothing more to talk about."
"ATTACK!"
Garra reacted faster then any of the other warriors could see, the cork to his sand gourd suddenly appearing in his hand while a tidal wave of tan granules flew from the gourd's core to wash the hunters away. Most of the foe were sent flying back by his attack, but two of the hunters managed to jump over his wave of sand, sailing through the air to land a few feet away from him at either side.
Without any warning or banter, the first of the two, a female with blond hair who wielded an enormous fan, attacked, sending a gust of high pressure wind at him from her fan. Before the blast could reach him, Garra waved his hand and his sand reformed into a shell around himself, protecting him from the blast. He flicked his finger towards the girl and a large tendril of sand shot after her.
A moment before the sand reached her however, a second figure jumped in-between her and the tendril, causing his sand to engulf him instead. Garra turned his head around and saw that the other hunter, hooded, with face-paint, hadn't moved from his spot, but had his hands outstretched, his fingers slowly twisting in strange patters. Garra squinted to see if there was anything that he was missing and was able to see a set of barely perceptible strings leading to the figure that Garra's sand had just engulfed.
Fantastic. A puppetmaster. Garra had always hated them.
The female dashed up to him, a knife in hand, and began slashing at him, over and over again, as fast as she could. Garra didn't move an inch, simply letting his wall of sand jump in-between each of her strikes. He heard a light crashing sound and turned his head to see the puppet fighting it's way out of his sand. The object was really quite hideous, with four segmented arms, three eyes (why, Garra had no idea), and hair like a rat's nest. With a shift of it's master's arms, the puppet flew toward Garra and began adding it's own attacks to Temari's onslaught, in the form of knives concealed within it's arms. With hardly any more effort, Garra shifted his sand shield to shift between both sets of attacks.
"This is pathetic," Garra whispered, a hint of annoyence entering his voice, "Back off."
His sand exploded outward, slamming into the female and the puppet and sending them flying backwards. Garra watched emotionless for a moment as the female coughed up a small splat of blood, then, convinced that she was out of the battle for a moment, shifted his gaze to the puppet, which appeared to be damaged significantly as well, before turning to the hooded, face-painted hunter. Garra's eyes narrowed and the hunter gulped as drew a kunai of his own.
Lee twisted out of the way of another of Neji's attacks and lashed out with his foot. Neji in turn deflected Lee's move and made to jab one of his strange two finger attacks into Lee's leg. Lee deflected this attack, and Neji deflected his own next attack. They went back and forth like this for quite a while, two hand-to-hand masters fighting at their best.
A bead of sweat rolled down Tenten's forehead as she held a pair of large shuriken in her hands, desperately looking for an opening to attack, but it was impossible. The two were twisting and circling around each other so quickly that she would be just as likely to hit Neji as the monkey demon. She wasn't going to be able to help at long range. She wasn't at Neji's level, nor would she likely ever be, but if she was going to help, she would have to enter the fray herself.
Suddenly, her descision was made for her as Lee landed a devistating blow on Neji's jaw, sending him flying back.
"NEJI!" Tenten called out in shock, and she charged at the monkey demon, kunai in her hands. She had always been fond of Neji, perhaps more then what was professionally acceptable. That was why she had originally made the effort to be nice to Hinata, because she knew that Neji would never accept anybody who wasn't good to her (of course that was a long time ago, and since then she had genuinely come to care for the younger girl). Now, to see Neji being attacked was unbearable to her.
She swung her kunai at Lee's head, who crossed his arms behind his back and ducked out of the way. Again and again she attacked, but her blades never met anything but air. Worse, the monkey demon had the gall to smile at her the whole time! Not an arrogant smirk, or an attempt to get a rise out of her, that kind of smile she was used to. No, this was simply a pleasant smile, as though he were enjoying a spar with a friend. It was infuriating!
"Your movements are good," the monkey said, "But you need more training. You are not fast enough to land a blow on me through such attacks."
Tenten gritted her teeth in frustration. She couldn't believe that this moron was actually coaching her! Did he really see her as so little of a threat! She stabbed her blade at his midsection, but to her surprise, the monkey caught her wrist in his own hand. She attacked with her other hand, but he just as easily caught that one as well. Desperately, she tried to knee him in the gut, but again it was fruitless as his own knee rose up to deflect it.
He seemed to be gazing at her with something uncomfortably close to adoration, "Such angry outbursts are unbecoming of one who is so lovely." He smiled at her, "You would be better suited using a more graceful style."
Tenten's brain seemed to blink out for a moment as she processed this strange comment. Suddenly, she realized that the demon was actually flirting with her, and she blanched. She had heard stories of demons who had lusted after humans...terrifying stories. Before she could react, the demon's monkey tail whipped out to wrap around her waist and pull her closer.
"I should hope that after our glorious battle, you might come over and meet with me, if you are not too badly hurt."
Tenten's stomach squirmed with disgust and she did the only other thing left that she could think of to get away. "LET ME GO YOU FREAK!" she yelled as she pulled her head back, and then slammed it forward in a furious headbutt.
Unfortunately, it was for not. The monkey demon's grip on her didn't lessen at all. Tenten pulled back to see him essentially uninjured, save for a small bruise on his forehead. More surprising then that was the look on his face. He looked...Sad? Dejected? Perhaps even slightly ashamed? Certainly not what Tenten had expected.
"Very well," The monkey said, "I suppose that is no different a response then I have ever gotten before." and he sighed heavily.
Before Tenten could respond however, a shadowed figure appeared behind Lee, jabbing a single finger into Lee's shoulder. Lee's eyes opened wide in pain and his arm went limp as a boned fish. Neji sliced at Lee with his own kunai, but the monkey demon was barely able to jump out of the way in time. Instead, Neji's slightly overextended attack left the slightest of cuts over the bridge of Tenten's nose. The girl hunter fell onto her back in shock.
Neji was holding his stomache gingerly, still clearly in pain from when Lee had hit him before. His Byakugan eyes were glaring with sheer hatred at Lee, a kunai clutched in his left hand, the tip of which was now stained red with a droplet of Tenten's blood.
He glanced briefly at his teamate on the ground before him, "Are you alright?" he asked. She nodded, the cut was quite shallow, and he turned his attention back to his enemy.
Tenten jumped to her feet, "You said I should have a more graceful fighting style." she said to the demon, her voice full of scorn now that she had regained her senses. She reached behind her and brought forth a scroll that had been attached to her back. Deftly, she unrolled the parchment and wiped the blood from her face before smearing it upon the open scroll. There was a flash of light and were a scroll had once been, there was now the most impressive weapon that Lee could remember seeing.
It was a large kusarigama, a sickle with a chain on the butt end of the handle with a weighted flail on the end of this chain. Tenten's own kusarigama had a handle which was nearly three feet long, the curved blade on the end being nearly half this length. The chain itself looked as though it might be around 15 feet long, though most of it was wrapped around her arm and torso so that it was difficult to see. The weight on the end of the chain was the size of a golf-ball with deadly looking spikes.
Tenten smirked at him, "See how deadly graceful I can be."
Hinata was shaking in fear as the demon with the frightening fangs and heavy leather jacket approached her. She wasn't sure what to do. She certainly couldn't fight this guy on her own. Why, oh why did she have to become separated from everyone else when that terrible sandman blew them all away!
The demon-person had his hands nonchelantly placed in his pockets, his eyebrow raised, "What are you doing here?" he asked, "You don't strike me as the fighting type."
Hinata's eyes opened wide in fear, "You-your wrong!" she yelled, "I can fight!" She charged at the demon with an open palm, ready to employ the unique, Hyuuga brand of martial arts. However, before she could so much at throw an attack, the demon twisted to the side and stuck out his foot, tripping her and sending her sprawling to the ground.
Hinata flipped herself over to look at her attacker, her hands shaking and her eyes open wide in fear. She placed a hand on the ground beneath her and tried to scoot herself back.
The demon rolled his eyes, "Why are you so afraid?" he asked, "I'm not going to hurt you."
Hinata's brow scrunched together in confusion and apprehension, "You're not?" she asked.
The demon shook his head, "Why would I? You guys were the ones who attacked us."
Hinata's eyes opened wide in shock. She couldn't argue against that. It had been them who had attacked the demons. On the other hand..."You are demons. Your clan killed three people in the village."
Kiba tilted his head in confusion, "No one in the village has shown up dead. I don't know what you're talking about. If people had been dying, the village leaders would have come to us for help, and we would never have attacked them."
Hinata wasn't sure what to believe. She had read the letter from the village to the hunters guild herself. It had clearly said that three people from the village had been murdered by the up-till-then un-aggressive local demon tribe. Sakura had said that it had been foolish of the village to wait so long to request aid just because the demons hadn't shown signs of violence until then. She said that demons always turned on you eventually.
Before she could say anything, the demon boy had walked up to her and was now holding his hand out to her as if to help her up, "My name is Kiba, of the wolf clan." he said pleasantly.
Hinata took a moment to stare at his outstretched hand, and was just about to take it when suddenly Kiba's eyes opened wide in shock and he pulled back. An army of a thousand or so bugs were crawling up Kiba's body and biting him all over. The wolf-demon screamed in pain and fell to his knees.
Hinata looked up and saw, calm and stoic as ever, her teammate Shino standing a few feet behind where she lay.
"Don't listen to anything that he says Hinata. He is attempting to poison your mind, but will simply stab you in the back whenever it best suits him."
Hinata's mouth opened and closed a few times, as though she wanted to say something but wasn't sure what it was she wanted to say.
Before anyone else could react, Kiba let out a might battle roar and jumped into the air, his claws outstretched, spinning like a drill and he flew 50 feet in the air. The centrifugal force causing the insects to fly off of his body and onto the ground. After a moment of spinning, Kiba fell back to the ground and crouched into a feral fighting position, a spine-tingling growl ripping from his throat. His hair had become longer and more wild, his fangs and claws were much sharper looking, and his eyes were now shifted from icy blue on the inside to a horrible yellow around the outside of his irises. Suddenly, all of Hinata's reservations went out the window as she looked at the terrifying creature before her.
"And so the beast shows his true colors." Shino stated calmly, "You should know that my insects feed on demonic energy, and they just had a decent feast just now. I would estimate that you are at a mere 60% or less of your full strength."
Kiba growled, "More then enough to defeat you!"
Shikamaru sighed in annoyance. "Why do I have to be the one who had to fight two demons at once?" he asked himself as he shifted his vision between the girl rabbit demon who was dressed in a skimpy manner, and the somewhat chubby demon with the bright red hair that he thought might be a young caterpillar/butterfly demon. Thankfully, neither of them seemed that dangerous, at least compared to the others who he had seen in the pack before. He supposed that he could deal with this if he had to.
The chubby demon attacked first, his hand expanding like a balloon as he swung it at Shikamaru. The young hunter ducked underneath the blow and quickly drew one of his kunai before throwing it at his attacker. The chubby demon moved out of the way just in time, but before he could make any other action the kunai seemed to explode behind him and the shock-wave sent him flying to the ground, unconscious.
Shikamaru stared at his foe apathetically. He had attached an exploding tag to the kunai before he had thrown it, and clearly this was not the most skilled demon. He turned back to where the girl demon had been standing before, but found that she had disappeared somewhere.
Shikamaru sighed, "How very troublesome." he mumbled, "Hey! Come on out where I can see you!" He didn't expect that to actually work, but if the enemy was arrogant enough, it was possible.
Without warning, something tackled him from behind and he landed face-first on the ground. Thankfully, it was just grass. He felt a light arm flip him over and he found himself staring up into the face of the rabbit demon, who was holding him down with by his hips with her knees and by his arms with her hands.
"What do you think you are doing?" he asked, silently wishing that he didn't have to deal with this. He looked into her face and saw what looked strangely like guilt and apprehension.
Slowly, the rabbit girl lowered her head down to his ear, "Please forgive me for this." she whispered, he voice nearly breaking. Before he could ask what she meant, she did something which very much shocked him. Something that he had not expected her to do at all.
She kissed him, full on the lips. Shikamaru struggled for a moment, as she breathed into his mouth, but then his body seemed to go limp. He wasn't sure why he wasn't fighting...but at the same time he didn't know why he was. He found himself remarkably enjoying himself for the first time in a long time. His pupils began to shrink and he, against his own will, began to return the kiss. He couldn't remember why he had been fighting or even where he was fighting, or who he was fighting. Heck, he was having a hard time remembering who he himself was. At the moment he felt like he could do anything that she asked him to do, gladly.
After a few seconds, the rabbit girl pulled back and looked into his face didn't move or speak in responce except to stare at her with a strange expression in his eyes. Again she lowered her head to his ear and spoke in an increadibly seductive voice, "Your mind belongs to me now."
Naruto jumped backwards from tree-branch to tree-branch as Sakura swung her sword at him again and again, each swipe cleaving clean through another of the branches that she had been standing on just before. He was surprised at the amount of malice which she applied to each attack. Something told him that something he said had struck a nerve.
Annoyed at this game of cat and mouse (and especially annoyed with being on the defensive in any fight), he anticipated her next attack, pumping a large amount of demonic energy into his hand and catching her overhead swing. The blade hit his open palm but did not pierce his skin. Sakura's eyes opened wide in shock.
"Why are you fighting so furiously?" Naruto asked, "Why do you want to kill me and my family? You don't even know us."
Sakura's eyes narrowed even further and Naruto could feel the increase in chakra (the human equivalent to demonic energy) pumping into her sword. Naruto's eyes opened wide as he felt the blade begin to slice through his hand.
"There is nothing,"Sakura stated between gritted teeth, "I hate more...then a demon who tries to deceive me into making me think that he isn't the evil thing that he is!"
Before the blade could slice his right hand in-half, Naruto slammed his left into Sakura's stomach, releasing a small burst of energy (small for him at least) which sent her flying back out of the tree and landing roughly on her back. Naruto flashed down in front of her and swung his fist downward. It met only ground, leaving a large crater in the earth, as Sakura flash-stepped behind him and swung her sword again. Naruto, sensing the attack, countered her flash-step with one of his own and appeared at her side, slamming into his foe with a wave of demonic energy that sent her flying back and crashing straight through the trunk of a nearby tree.
The blast would have turned an ordinary person into pulp, but Sakura gingerly rose back to her feet, "I will not be beaten by the likes of you." she stated through gritted teeth.
Naruto sighed, "Why do you hate me so much?" he asked, "It sounds to me like you have some bad experiences in the past with demons. Perhaps demons whom you trusted at one point. What happened to you?"
Sakura's eyes opened wide in shock, "Don't talk like you know me, MONSTER!" She screamed as she charged again, even faster then before. Naruto barely move out of the way of her strike in time and her fist impacted the trunk of an enormous oak tree which he had been standing in front of.
Naruto's eyes opened wide in shock as the tree was ripped straight in two and began toppling over. Before it hit the ground, Sakura grabbed onto the side of it, single-handed, digging her fingers into the splintering wood, and swung it at him like the worlds largest club. To shocked to properly dodge, the tree impacted with Naruto with all the force of a charging elephant demon and sent him flying back through the forest, shattering most of his ribs in the process and causing him to hack up blood.
Naruto landed and then continued to skid across the ground for at least 200 meters before he finally came to a stop. He looked up and saw an impossible sight, Sakura flying though the air, the enormous tree held up above her, ready to use it to pound him into the ground. The tree impacted on the ground and sent out a ear-shattering crash, accompanied by a huge mushroom cloud of dust and dirt.
Sakura smiled at her victory, her breathing heavy but her pride shinning. "Like I thought...just another murdering beast who acts like he's tough until he meets someone who can match him. Then he crumbles." She spoke.
"You sure about that?"
Sakura's eyes shot open in shock and fear and spun around to see her foe standing directly behind her, a thin stream of blood rolling down down from the corner of his mouth, and his left arm gingerly wrapped around his ribs, but otherwise un-injured. His red eyes were narrowed dangerously and his right hand, already healed from when her sword had cut it, was held out above his head, a shining will-o-wisp of blue flame dancing around his palm.
"Let's see how you take one of my attacks," He spoke menacingly, and he swung his arm down.
Sakura knew that she didn't have time to dodge, so in desperation, she flipped her sword around in front of her to use as a shield. The will-o-wisp impacted on the cold metal of the blade, and Sakura felt herself being flung into the air.
silverspetz: Hey silver :) Good to hear from you again. Yeah, I thought that since I am creating an entirely new world with entirely new rules (even if it is almost entirely based on Naruto), it would be good if I did a few things to establish some ground-rules for how this world works. Thanks for the kind words (I still will never like Naru/Hina, but I respect your opinions and am glad that you can enjoy my stories regardless). I thank you for your kind words, and don't worry, ;) I will be continuing Life Within Death (now that I have gotten more into the flow of college and I'm not working 24-7) as soon as I can.
Everyone else: Thank you for your reviews. There is nothing that an author loves more then hearing from his readers :)
