Chapter 2 – Another's Dawn

Blood coated the walls of the small house and oozed over the floor in great puddles of crimson liquid, here and there torn flesh lay scattered half chewed up. The trio of mask wearing hunters crept through the horrific scene as silent as cats, as they passed one an open door they only offered it a quick glance. The sky blue wallpaper with painted rainbows had been ruined by the splashes of blood and the overturned cot was thankfully turned away from their eyes, the three figures continued to move until they reached the doorway to the master bedroom.

One of the hunters slipped passed the door and took his place on the opposite side as the other two readied to breach the door, after a few tense moments one of the hunters opened the door and the trio rushed in. It all happened so fast as one of the hunters was thrown back out the door by the demon, it was huge the size of a bear yet it's body seemed to be covered in welts and puss oozing. The body looked similar to a man but its legs were bent like a dogs and its arms which it had four of were twisted back in an inhuman manner, each of its paw like hands had six inch claws that looked as sharp as damascus steel. It's head was formed from a single mass of flesh that had a four eyes that were burning red like hell-fire, it had no nose but its jaw ran the length of the head all the way to the back of the head when it let out a howl of fury it's head opened nearly all the way open to reveal the masses of its twisted malformed teeth.

One of the hunters managed to dodge one of the demons swiping claws as the beast lunged at the two remaining hunters, the pair were carrying the standard hunter sword and kirkgur costume handgun. The blades were 40 inches of cold refined Damascus steel that had been blessed by several religious priests and had several runes engraved into its metal, some hunters would modify their blades over the course of their lives but the two hunters present had only the standard blade. The side-arm they carried was also the standard issue handgun all the Hidden Villages used, the .45 kirkgur Handgun was a revolutionary descendent of the M1911 and fired 7 rounds of .45 depleted uranium plated bullets that each had been blessed and engraved with runes by hand. As one of the hunters drew the gun out to level it with the demons head the beast dove for the ground with unexpected agility.

The two hunters had to leap away to escape the beasts gnashing claws and as it got too it's feet its four arms reached out to ensnare one of the hunters, the women's scream erupted into the room as the huntress was crushed in the creatures inhuman strength. The other hunter buried his blade into the beast but the demon howled in some manner of amusement and flicked the hunter away as he tried to pull the blade free of the demons vile flesh, the hunter was thrown with such force that when he hit the wall the plaster creaked and he felt the bones in his back splinter. The demon delighted by its victory didn't notice the figure in the door and as it applied more pressure to the women in ins hand s it delighted at the way here eyes popped out of her skull and her mouth cried out in agony. The shotgun blast torn the demons head off, a second blast ripped a hole in the demons back and exposed the creatures organs. A huge six foot blade was thrust through the pulsating heart and twisted with expert precision, the demon seemed to catch fire as its souls was pulled back through whatever creak it had escaped and its flesh turned to ash.

As the huntresses corpse fell to the floor with a thud the hunter with the claymore turned to check his fallen companion, as he knelt down he removed his mask and reaching down took off his fallen comrades mask.

"Are you alive Uchiha?" The knelling man's voice asked in a detached almost emotionless manner, he waited several moment before repeating the question.

"Yes! I'm fucking alive sensei but my back..." The fallen man looked up at the knelling man his oxen eyes glaring in pain, his pale skin was almost sickly looking and his raven coloured hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The kneeling man roughly rolled the raven hair man over so he was on his stomach and ran a hand down his back gruffly, at the midpoint of the ravens spine a number of his back bones discs had been broken.

"You're broken a number of bones and your likely got internal bleeding..." The kneeling man raised his hand and for a moment a light seemed to glow from the centre of his palm before he pushed down on the ravens back, the other screamed in agony as his bones twisted back into place and his flesh melded back together.

"I've stopped the bleeding and fixed your back but you better have the medic look at you when we get back to Konoha." the man said as he stood and pulled the raven up to his feet, as the raven unsteadily stood and used the wall to steady himself he looked around at the fallen body of the female huntress.

"What about Mio?" The ravens voice hitched as he noticed the women's broken skull and the crushed face, the other man walked over to her and placed his mask over her crushed face.

"She's dead Sasuke, we'll leave her for clean up and morn her later." the man said as he walked away not forgetting to collect the women's lost weapons, Sasuke picked his own blade up from where it lay in a pile of smoking ashes, as he slid it back into its sheath he glance down at the fallen huntress and said a silent pray for her before he followed his retreating sensei.

Three hours later Sasuke sat in the chopper listening to the engine roar and the blades of the chopper sing in their rhythmic manner, he was alone in the choppers passenger cable as his sensei had been sent out again with another group on another hunt. Sasuke was happy to be alone as he felt the shoddy healing in his body cause him great pain, he'd need a proper medic heal him when he got home. As he sighed and leaned back in the uncomfortable chair he raised a hand to his face and was surprised when he felt wetness, as he pulled away his hand he realised he was crying and as the dam broke Sasuke was thankful the pilots were unable to hear him.

'I'm sorry Mio, I couldn't protect you...I can't protect anyone.'

TBC