Yo! Chapter Four is up. Thanks for the hits and reviews, I'm over two hundered! Send me reviews, I could use any and all criticism! I don't own Naruto but I do own this plot line. Hit me if any of this sounds familiar to anything you've read before! Just in Case!

IV. Splashes of Color, Black Eats All

Straining breath. Knees hit the ground. Viper sized body curled around and grew larger. It ate chakra to grow size but the avenger was leaking the purple miasma by this point. If he could ease the suffering by destroying this taint as it overrode the natural strength of his master then he would be satisfied.

"We should return to Shinkan to have these wounds treated." Words were slurred unintentionally but easily recognizable.

There was a negative shake of the head and raven locks stirred briefly.

"I owe him enough as it is." There was nothing the man could do theoretically. Though the summoner sage was the best healer he knew would be able to lend help, he was not a choice. That man served only those injured in a battle between summoners and the internal politics of summoner and summoned.

A head dipped in acknowledgement to the concession of the point. Shinkan would not deny them service but it was considered shaming to arrive and treat the man as a medic-nin. They had been skirting the edge of this village for the two days it would take for the sludge-like chakra to finally finish its cycle. In two days they could enter the village and search for aid and supplies.

Manda absorbed the chakra, eating as much of the power he could, stopping when his body became just too large for the space and let it simply pass through his channels and out into jutsu smoke. Yellow eyes never turned from watching the snow-white body and disturbingly black smears.

Lean arms were brought up close, hands making the simple release hand sign. He leaned forward so that they were barely touching his lips. One single hand was encased in the black, distorted flames while the other was holily clean. Slitted eyes narrowed even as his bloodlust picked up, fangs lengthening as he funneled chakra into his mouth. Poison began dribbling down his chin.

A single breath. One moment when red eyes closed. Black flared ominously red and began spilling over the careful net before they area around him exploded in lashes of fierce purple charka. They receded just as quickly, freezing in the middle of twining around a lithe frame. The explosion ate the chakra greedily, sucking the boy dry and still managing to draw out more.

There was a peaceful minute of respite. Then another hour before thick sludge began slipping out again. Red eyes opened and the scaly body began to feed off the hazardous substance. Yellow eyes were gleaming with a multitude of emotion as the body sent forth another shockwave that littered the area around them with rope-like chakra tendrils. Red eyes closed and there was another hour of peace.

Sweat made the body glow brilliantly under the moonlight. Blood looked especially ethereal mixed in. The black enhanced the fragility. Red eyes marked the ruthlessness. Scales, shattered into a rainbow over varying shades of black, grays and white, wrapped around this paradox. Pink wiped away red. Scales shivered.

More sludge poured out. Fangs lengthened in anticipation. He was drunk off the power being supplied to him. Synchronizing his chakra channels with the raven's, his body twisted as it tried to expand in the small place designated as their hideout. The raven was unmindful, body throwing out chakra as fast as humanly possibly.

Blood fell like teardrops from the corners of his eyes. The stress of constant release was eating away at the fragile controls. Already the Sharingan was taking over parts of his mind that it had no place in. It seemed to be expanding and collapsing all at the same time. Soft and ghostlike, a tongue flicked away the twin trails before the body closed tightly around him.

"Just one more day." He whispered breathlessly. A head dipped in confirmation. The sun barely slipped down into the encompassing darkness before the nightmares started. He watched the body thrash and silent screams rip themselves from his throat but he never once let a cry out.

Manda gave a content hiss of appreciation. The raven was a beautiful creature. His body wrapped so protectively around the raven boasted his claim over his master. None would be foolish enough to try to steal him away, entranced by the aura and power that exclusively belonged to this man. Yellow eyes kept watch, guarding over his castor until the moon above painted them and then passed the brush to the lady dawn.

Brackish and rotted chakra filled the clearing. Red eyes opened, the tomoes spinning wildly as blood raced down white skin, half marred black, and the cycle began again.

"A man fitting that description came through this way but we did not note the time. He traveled east."

He nodded, cloak dipping ominously and then he walked past the man, body betraying none of the pain that he felt. His sin was hidden under the thick wrapping. Manda was the size of a viper and curled into a draping figure, yellow eyes watching from the cloak's shadow.

There was a yip as he was driven onward and into town, following the scent into another residential area. He stayed to the side, clever enough to know that he would be driven away at the slightest sign of his presence. It was amazing how well dark red and white could mix into shadows. As he bounded between spaces, a strip of white fluttered after it, attached at the leg and then he was swallowed by shadows and vanished.