Mind reeling, I leap out of the way of the kunai. I know Kabuto hates me, but I can't understand why he would kill me just because I shouted.
"Hyah!"
Clang.
Both noises sound off simultaneously behind me. The minute I land safely on a branch high above, I peer down through the canopy to see a young ninja, hovering in midair after boldly kicking the weapon away.
"Feel the power of youth!" he shouts, rushing Kabuto fearlessly and, in my opinion, rather brashly. His dark hair flies back behind him as his feet carry him across the branches at a speed almost inconceivable, even to a shinobi who was raised by an S-ranked criminal. His long, lanky limbs are covered in a green suit with bright orange leggings and bracers. I cannot make out his face, but he seems worn from some sort of recent battle, his clothing torn in several places, small spatters of blood dotting his exposed flesh.
"Eight trigrams," says another voice behind me. The rest of his words are lost as, before I can move an inch, I am blindsided by a chaotic gust of wind.
Without warning, I am knocked off the small branch I crouched on and am diving headlong to the ground. The pain in the small of my back is unbearable. I clutch at it in agony.
Focus, Little Bird!
Naoto's cry snaps me out of my pain induced reverie. Blood pumping red hot in anticipation of the battle, I twist my body and push off the trunk of the tree that once held me, launching myself towards my unknown assailant.
Landing on a sturdier branch, I finally get a chance to size up my opponent. The verdict is certainly not pretty judging by his colorless eyes framed with grotesque, bulging veins. The headband he wears which confirms his affiliation with the Hidden Leaf and only intensifies my anxiety. His pale uniform rustles in the wind as he takes up another fighting stance, glaring at me with his Byakugan.
"Ah, you must be Neji," I mutter.
This statement seems to disrupt his train of thought. "How do you know my name?"
Quick as a flash, I whip a shuriken out of a hidden compartment in my bracers and toss it at him. He dodges it with unsettling ease, not even having to flee to a different branch.
Now, he takes the initiative once more, darting off his branch to strike at me.
"Tell me who you are," he demands.
A humorless chuckle escapes my lips as I skip out of the path of his palm. "I'm the girl who knows that if you're Neji, the overenthusiastic shinobi combating my partner must be Rock Lee."
As I retreat closer to the trunk, Neji's hand slams into the branch. I grimace as bark goes flying through the air, the thick branch nearly cleaved in two.
"If that's the case though, where's the other?" I continue, hoping to distract him with false pleasantries. "What's her name? Is it Ten Ten?
This time, his palm splinters the trunk itself. I quicken my pace as I note with dread that this indent in the wood appears slightly deeper than the last. I need a new tactic.
Unceremoniously, I step off the branch, allowing myself to plummet downwards out of the reach of the Leaf shinobi. The ground rushes up to meet me as I right myself…
Whump, whump, whump!
My cheek is grazed as three stray kunai flit past me. They embed themselves deep into the trunk of the tree, causing another shower of wood as they mangle the bark.
As I land on the loose soil of the forest floor, yet another voice, this one distinctly feminine but harsh, yells, "I've got this one. Go help Lee-san."
I hurriedly duck behind an especially thick trunk as she speaks, hoping that she will overlook my clumsy escape. Perhaps I can get a breath in before—
Whump, whump!
"Why don't you come out from behind that tree and face me, coward?" she shouts.
That must be Ten Ten, Naoto points out.
I'm well aware of this, I grumble back.
Hesitantly, I poke the corner of my eye around my wooden shelter. There, nearly twenty feet away indeed stands Ten Ten, her right hand poised to unravel a thick scroll she grasps. A few strands of thick, dark hair stick out at odd angles, causing her once neat buns to look raggedy. I can't help but compare two of the stray strands to devil horns the way they jut from her scalp.
"There you are," she mutters. Her hand tightens on the scroll, and I see her arm muscles tense in preparation to let loose the lethal volley the scroll likely holds. With a flick of her wrist, the scroll begins to unravel, puffs of smoke rising from the parchment.
Hands a blur, my fingers frantically form various hand signs. Thrusting my palms flat against the ground, I shout, "Water style, Ice Thorn Barrier!"
Massive stalagmites, thick, glistening icicles, rise out of the earth, sharp tips shooting fifteen feet in the air, their heavy bases cracking the ground around them. Their roots weakening and snapping as the soil splits, several trees tumble forward, providing even me with even more protection from the Leaf shinobi's barrage.
Aiko.
As the deadly storm shatters bark and ice alike, I widen my stance, ready to face the girl head-on.
Aiko, don't be so foolhardy. Move!
A dai shuriken lands at my feet, missing my toe by inches. I don't move, my eyes peeled on the barrier being brutally destroyed. I blink…
…and when I open my eyes, I am suddenly in a black abyss, the battle replaced with a massive silver wolf. His tails—his nine, bushy tails—wave behind him as if underwater as he gazes down at me with wise, human eyes the hue of ocean spray.
"That's enough of your pigheadedness, Little Bird," he rumbles, revealing canines easily three feet long.
"Naoto, let me go," I say with steel in my voice.
A humorless chuckle fills the air, his deep voice like an echoing rockslide. "You know what must be done before I do."
My eyes widen as the implications of his words hit me. "N-no, I can't…you would…there's no way—"
His gargantuan paw, as wide as I am tall, slams down before me, causing me to fall backwards on my rump.
"Yes, you can," he says decisively. "Yes, there is a way. And as for me…"
He trails off, eying me with gentle understanding. Slowly, his enormous head lowers until it lies flat on the ground beside where I lay. A single pale eye locks on me.
"As for me, you know that I am no typical tailed beast. I do not lust for destruction like my brethren. Show me an innocent, and I would wish them no harm. My nature—my only objective—is to protect my host. The minute you are not in danger, I will withdraw back into your body, I swear."
I hesitate. His words are true enough, but never have I let him loose before. Kabuto would find out about him. My father would discover that I'd been keeping perhaps his greatest success a secret from him. And worst of all, if Naoto lost control…
"Aiko, look at me."
I comply, though unwillingly so.
His eye holds no humor as he says, "I know I faltered today. But you must trust me to make amends. You must release me."
Uncertainty crashes over me like tidal waves on loose sand. With every beat, I feel my nerve slipping back into the ocean of desperation.
But I cannot do this alone, I realize. Hanging my head in defeat, I hold out my hand to the great wolf, offering my body as his vessel.
A single tail, feeling like silk, slides over my outstretched palm, traveling up the length of my arm. The furry tip reaches my cheek, tickling it playfully. I laugh lightly as the sensation spreads to my nose.
"You need to relax," Naoto urges gently. "If you do not, it will only make the transference of consciences harder on you."
"How do you know?" I ask. "You've never taken over my body before."
"Instinct," he booms. "Just as it is a human's instinct to suckle at birth, so is it the instinct of a tailed beast like myself to overwhelm its host."
Looking up at him, I inquire, "Why have you not offered to do this before then? It's not the first time I've been in a pinch."
His eyes gleam almost apologetically as he answers me by tightening his grasp on my arm. The tail binds my arm in a viselike grip, pinning it in place through sheer force.
"Itai!" I screech. "Naoto, stop. Naoto that's too tight. Naoto!"
Instead of hearing my desperate pleas, the wolf only seems to redouble his efforts, wrapping the rest of his tails around my body. Even my eyes are covered as I am painfully mummified. A shrill scream leaves my lips before they too are shrouded in suffocating fur.
For the second time that day, I allow the darkness to win over, fading into an even more intense nothingness.
For those that have been following the story so far, thank you all very much! =^.^= I'm so happy that people like the story even though I don't update much. The only thing missing are the reviews…if you all wouldn't mind, I always enjoy the input! Tell all your friends! Keep reading and believe it! (P.S. Yes, I am that cheesy, and yes, I use kitty whisker emoticons. If it's not your thing… =-.-= )