The Crimson Puzzle

Chapter two

Pieces 2 and 3

Éclair jumped back in terror at the sight of the blood that drenched her palm. Everyone looked up at her wildly, by surprise that the youngest sister would cause a scene like this. What the hell is blood doing on a grave stone?! The Konoha ANBU yelled in her mind freaked. She knew the others were fuming over her incompetence, but they failed to notice by now.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Clair?!" Shi demanded getting to her feet. Éclair opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out, she was still in shock.

Had no one else noticed the blood?

She shook with fright as Aiko stood up and walked over to the youngest sensing her distress. Aiko hugged the shaking woman lightly; she must have thought that Éclair was having a mental break down. No! Éclair wanted to yell to Aiko's mind. There's blood on my hands. Aiko stiffened to surprise and grabbed her hand to examine the blood.

"Oh my Ammy!" The Suna ANBU exclaimed. Everyone's attention was caught now.

"What's wrong?" Ran asked looking at Aiko's paling face.

"I-Its blood." Éclair managed to choke out staring wide-eyed at her bloodied palms.

Lycan frowned and shifted back into her wolf form and walked over to Raidon's grave stone and sniffed the stone. She barked and Ran came over to help the wolf. Shizuka and Aiko practically dragged Éclair to the closest creek to wash her hands. Clair shivered as she dipped her hands into the freezing water, it was too close to winter to jump into the water and swim.

Both watched her carefully so she wouldn't attempt anything dangerous. Shizuka then wondered aloud, "I wonder whose blood that was."

"I just can't believe that someone would degrade Raidon-chan's gave like that!" The Suna ANBU exclaimed upset. Her light blue eyes flared black outraged. "I wanna kill whoever did that!"

"First, we need to investigate and find out who did this." Shizuka declared rationally.

"Screw that!" Aiko replied growling. Éclair flinched at this growl and got to her feet quickly.

"W-Who could've done this…?" Éclair asked aloud. Neither girl could answer.

All together, they walked back to the grave. Thankfully, the fog had begun to clear over and reveal the graves better. Lycan was sniffing around the stone curiously; they had already found some blood on Lycan's nose from when she was touching Raidon's engraved name on the cold stone with it. Ran faced where they'd laid the flowers down, her eyes were closed and her head rested on the stone. She was in deep concentration.

"Well, what's the end result…?" Éclair asked starting to feel a bit better.

Lycan whimpered upset and shifted back to her human form. Ran heard the whimper and stood up concerned. Shizuka looked to Ran first. "You see anything?"

"Iie, it's almost as if someone's blocking my sight." Ran replied disappointed and slightly frustrated by this.

"Blocking your sight?" How's that possible?" Aiko asked confused.

Ran shrugged. "As far as I know, only Teresa can block them."

Everyone gazed to Lycan who just stared at the grave motionlessly distressed. She finally looked up at them. "It's Raidon's blood."

-

A span of six and half months passed since the four girls discovered Raidon's blood on her grave stone. This had shocked each girl mentally and this also caused each girl to draw apart from one another. Each went their separate ways; Shizuka continued to lead the Akatsuki until she decided to give the title to Konan. However, she remained a loyal member and secretly married Sasuke, now they've given birth to their first set of kids.

Éclair remained being the Hokage's girlfriend for the next few months. It was until March 7th that Naruto finally proposed and they were happily married on April 7th of the same year.

Aiko returned to Suna after the incident and was able to regrow her hair past her shoulders. She and Gaara continued raising Ai and Kano, Kano is now a Genin and Ai rose in her rank to a Jonin and then to an ANBU. Aiko remained an ANBU faithfully staying by her husband's side. Gaara of course remained as Kazekage of Suna, despite the hatred for the paperwork.

Lycan stayed in Konoha with Kiba for the next four months. After being one of the few people who attended Éclair's wedding, she left to the higher realms for a half a month to train other banished former Gods such as herself, only to return a month later with another Celtic Tattoo along her spine. (Which was a perfect thing in Kiba's opinion.)

Lastly, Ran traveled frequently between the Soul Society and Konoha for missions and meetings. Since taking over the full captain-ship of the 14th division, Yumiko moved to the 5th division to become Fukataicho under Hinamori-Taicho, Takuma became the Fukataicho of the 9th division, and Reizo became the vice-captain of the 3rd division. This left Sakumo and Frejya to share the 3rd seat while Yuuta took his claim over being Fukataicho; other seats became available for a myriad amount of people to enter the squad. Ran, however, stayed the same, kept her hair long and began to romantic relationship with Ikkaku Madarame, now the Taicho of the 11th division.

Ran felt slightly disappointed in herself for not keeping in touch with the others. She and Lycan were the only one's who'd attended Éclair's wedding. Both Aiko and Shizuka received a letter, neither however, sent a letter back and never showed up for the wedding. That had disappointed Éclair greatly and decided to continue the ceremony anyways attempting to hide her disappointment.

The brown-haired Shinigami dwelled on the past with her tired eyes open. It was one in the morning and she still hadn't fallen asleep. Lately, her sleep habits had become erratic; she could easily sleep for four to three hours each night. The visions she's been receiving were blurry and filled with screams for help; it was almost like someone was blocking them from her sight. The screams were the thing that kept her up at night.

Ran's head rested upon the wall of her house. Soon Ikkaku would notice these habits, if he hadn't already. Suddenly a pair of strong, muscular arms gently hugged her waist, she made no apparent movement. Ikkaku kissed her cheek tiredly.

"It's one if them morning…what's bothering you?" He asked stroking her messy brown hair.

"I…I can't sleep…" She stuttered blinking back tears. She was tired of not sleeping. "Th-The screams won't go away."

"Just don't think about." Ikkaku advised pushing a strand of hair out of her face. She blinked and gazed up to him. "Think about me instead, alright?"

The Shinigami nodded in reply and followed him into their bedroom. She lay down on her side and Ikkaku hugged her waist. She whispered to him. "Goodnight Madarame-kun…"

At first there was only darkness. It was also cold. It seemed like a laboratory of malice that experimented on humans cruelly and violently. The sound of footsteps vibrated through the air. Thump. Thump. Thump.

A door creaked open nearby. The footsteps headed for the door. Now it was warm, like she was thrown into a hell. Ran was thrown into the room that the door had opened to and skinned her knee as she landed on the cement floor. The room was a dark blue with a small bed covered in black bed sheets and a grayish pillow at the end of the bed. There was no window and there was an air vent across the room from the bed. Next to the bed was a small gray table with nothing on it.

A cold, malevolent kissed pressed against her neck, which made her shiver and let out a quiet moan. The man behind her began to remove her clothes. Ran frowned and jerked her body out of his grasp, he hissed. A vampire. She stared upon a teenage vampire boy Through his spiky coal black hair, his eyes gleamed as well sinisterly at her. He looked about 17 maybe 18.

He bared his fangs at her with a wild grin that could equally match against Ikkaku's except it had a sick and hungry look to it. Ran's body seemed to tremble with fright, though she didn't feel intimidated by this and she wanted to tense up and glare the vampire down, but that's not what her body did. The vampire licked his lips hungrily at her. 'Who is this guy? What does he want from me?' A dozen questions seemed to pop into her mind all at once and the body finally stiffened spying his tongue.

"W-Who are you?! What do you want from me?!" Those words shot out of her mouth, which shocked her.

'This can't be my body!' She thought with acknowledgement. She tried to feel around her waist for her zanpakutou, but her arm didn't cooperate with her very well. Her sword wasn't there. 'I always have Yuukikibou with me. I must be having a vision.' She concluded staring up at the hungry vampire. 'But of who? And why?'

"Don't worry my love." He tried to assure her. Bu the next thing she, he was behind her, one of her arms wrapped around her waist, and the other around her ribs just below her breasts. His touch was as warm as Ikkaku's. His tongue licked her earlobe. "I'll take good care of you."

Ran tried to yell out for help, but the body remained stiff. He lowered his mouth down to her neck licking it, the body moaned and she felt her face turn red and warmer. His mouth lifted back to her ear hissing quietly. "I'm afraid this will hurt a little…"

"What do you-!" There was a small crunch as his fangs penetrated into her shoulder. Just as the body cried out, he covered her mouth with his hand.

The smell of blood filled the air.

Ran screamed in panic and her fidgeted crazily trying to pry free of his grip. He kept a firm grip of the body she inhabited drinking to his own please. After a few minutes, he pulled his fangs out of her shoulder and violently threw her onto the bed as he began to lick his lips making sure he didn't leave a mess of blood on his lips. The body shivered, her eyes fluttering open and shut weakly. He chuckled darkly at her. "You still taste as delicious as the last time I drank from you, lover."

Ran tried to lift her body up, but her arms weren't cooperating with her and she collapsed back on the bed. Her voice replied in panic and fear. "Wh-Why are doing this? Wh-What d-did I-I to y-you?"

He frowned sorely at her and forced her to lie on her back and started to strip off her clothes. Ran shivered violently as he pulled a gray dress over her naked body. The man pressed himself against her with a grunt and his lips followed by against her shaky lips softly, as he did this he began healing the bite marks.

He would be an abuser to this poor girl. One moment he'd be kissing and loving her, the next minute he'd bite her and then start slapping her around brutally.

He then whispered to her. "I love you, Raidon."

Ran passed out.

Ikkaku finally was able to wake up Ran. She'd been shaking and crying out for help for the past 15 minutes. Once her eyes opened, he began to relax and smiled softly in reassurance to himself that she was all right. But someone was wrong.

Ran bent her head and began to weep.

Well, there's the end of the chapter for you guys to read and review, but of a little note; I'll update at least every 2 weeks, I've barely started writing the 4th chapter and yeah, so, I'll the third post right before winter break ends. Unless my boring going to be home all Christmas break is gonna work perfectly and I finish the fourth chapter, that'd be great. Oh, if you have flames, keep him to your selves please...-grumbles under breath -

Disclaimer: I own nothing...except the gravestone and Ran...those I would own. Naruto belongs to Kisimoto...I guess (Of course the manga to me has been going down lately, people need to give Naruto break, mental break down child alert) and Bleach belongs to Kubo! (Whoot! Awesomeness happening, Tosen dead, two to go!)

Happy Holidays everyone!!