Chapter 3: The Premonition

Rin dashed through the kitchen, making a hasty apology to Ukobach for skipping out on breakfast as much as really did enjoy the well-prepared meals of his fellow chef in the morning. He barely missed hitting the low table on the way to the door and after managing to swerve out of the way he ran head-first into the wall making the world go black. Ukobach rushed out of the kitchen (a rare occasion) and started frantically shouting for Rin to wake up.

He tried to open his eyes but the pain in his head was too much. The shouting wasn't helping either. Wait a second, it wasn't shouting it sounded more like a demon of some sort. Like the angry roar of a demon that was backed into a corner. Like he sounded. Like he was afraid of sounding… The urgency of seeing the source of the animalistic growl grew rapidly as these thoughts occurred to him. He needed to see what was making those noises he was so scared of. He needed to see who was… If he was… He needed to know. If it was him, he'd figure something out, but if it wasn't him, then he needed to deal with whoever it was himself. The sound of aggression continued but as he listened closer to the howling demon, he detected something vaguely familiar in the tone of its roar, if a roar could even have a tone. He heard, beneath the burning rage of a demon with an insatiable desire for destruction, a cry for help; a cry for the pain to stop. He knew that other exorcists wouldn't hear the subtleties of the cry and so he resolved to find the tortured soul himself, before anyone else could do it more harm.

Instead of the noise fading at this resolution, the ache in his head died down just enough to allow him to open his eyes without experiencing the excruciating pain which previously prevented him from investigating it further.

Rin's eyes flicked open, then hastily shut once more. The light, even in the scarcely-lit room that he barely managed to glimpse, was too much to handle after his eyes being closed for such a long period of time. He opened them once more, slower this time as to avoid the stinging that the, as he had experienced it earlier, blinding light had caused him. As the dryness cleared from his vision, his world came back into focus and he finally laid eyes upon the source of the feral yowls. Oddly enough, now that he could see, he could also feel the thick, malicious energy ebbing off of the creature in front of him. It was a wonder he hadn't noticed it earlier.

What he saw amazed him, what he felt amazed him. It was unlike any demon or monster he'd ever seen. He would've described it as a fox that had been completely skinned and was dripping with so much blood that its muscles weren't even visible if it weren't for the fact that it had a face that largely resembled a teenage boy or at least that's what Rin thought it looked like. It was hard to tell because even its 'face' seemed to be covered in a thick layer of blood and what Rin had earlier assumed to be its mouth now looked, upon further inspection, like a rugged, fleshy tear that ran from one edge of its jaw to the other, gaping wide to show the searing white abyss that seemed to make up the majority of what lurked beneath the creature's outer shell.

It was glaring straight ahead, at what, Rin couldn't see, but what he could see, was how tense whatever it was focusing its attention on was making it. Its eyes, like hollow voids, burned holes into its attackers, concentrating so hard that it wouldn't miss any move made against it. No, that wasn't the right word for what it was doing, for once he felt like he should pay particular attention to using the right word and concentrating was not doing its state justice. What it was doing was more like it was relying purely on unadulterated instinct and inhuman reflexes to detect and evade any possible threats to itself without even needing to try. Although Rin doubted that in this primal state, whatever or whoever this was - why did he think it was a who? - would be doing very little strategic planning or any kind of planning for that matter. The demon seemed so disconnected from its surroundings but when its opponent shifted forward, it tensed and inched backwards towards the warehouse walls as if it wasn't caught up in an internal battle for dominance as he knew it was. It happened again, why did he know this? How could he? What was so special about this demon?

Now that its 'attackers' had shifted positions, Rin could see who they were. It was him… and that kuso-megane, but how? He witnessed the spitting image of himself edge nearer to the volatile creature and as he did so, it pressed back on its hind paws, getting ready to pounce. That's when something very unexpected happened. The demon fox stopped. It froze. Then it let out a grating cry and began to thrash about violently. He saw one of its tails flicker and half disappear, only to reappear a moment later. He saw it hold back a swipe of its chakra tendrils that would've almost definitely made contact with himself and his brother, he saw the light of recognition flash in its, once hollow eyes, dying out as quickly as it had been born mere moments earlier. But above all, he saw a human - a boy - and he wouldn't let anyone hurt him, over his cold, dead body.

He jerked awake in a cold sweat having burned away some of his bedsheets in his sleep and met his brother's eyes.

"Rin. What happened?."

"Ha-hah-*wheeze*-hah-'vegottafind'm"

"Rin? Find what?'

"K-ki-k-tsune...Yon-hah hah-bi no y-youko"

Rin slumped back onto his still-smoldering sheets with one word whispering through his mind. He didn't know where it came from, but he was determined, even in his unconscious state, to find the word whispered. To find:

Naruto…