A/N: Well, here it is; Chapter five. Enjoy!

Neji gritted his teeth, and grasped his burnt arm. Things were going… evenly. Until, being the all-seeing Hyuuga he was, he noticed an abnormal amount of tenketsu centred on the general area of the heart and lungs, probably strengthening his breathing or heart-rate. So, using this small snippet to his advantage, he decided to block off the tenketsu in that area. Oh boy, was that a stupid mistake.

Of course, he didn't realize that those tenketsu were there to because of his seal; coincidentally, they were the same tenketsu that controlled the flow of demon chakra.

Now, the Akuma Fuujin: Onidoru required a constant flow of demon chakra; with the source blocked off, it activated a failsafe. That was quite simply, the expulsion of all demon chakra in the puppet (and the soul of the demon as well) and subsequently shove it back into the containment seal, thus forcefully re-opening his tenketsu.

The thing about yanking things open is that they tend to open much wider than originally intended, in a very sudden manner. Now, if doors were living things, they would undoubtedly feel pain every time they were jerked apart. They weren't, but Kairai was.

The sudden onrush of the Gobi's chakra, coupled with the pain of re-opening the tenketsu shortly after closing them (they were still a little sore from that), was very painful. It didn't help that a failsafe on the containment seal was linked to his heart; once the heart stopped beating for a small period of time, the seal collapsed inwards, killing the demon inside, shoving the rest of the chakra into his system, and possibly turning him into some sort of hybrid demon.

What hadn't been taken into account was just how long it would take before he could be resuscitated or whether his heart beat had merely slowed. The nature of his seal being linked to his heart, and the tenketsu by proxy caused a heart attack when they were ripped open. Chakra leaked into his heart at first, overfilling his central chakra vessels, but then the failsafe kicked in. Now that was a bitch.

The failsafe hadn't managed to pour all of the chakra into his system; the rest had already been drained off into the containment seal, but about one tails worth had permanently entered his heart, and through the heart, his bloodstream.

Now, muscles relied on two types of energy; clean, pure human chakra supplied by the vessels, and carbohydrates and nutrients from the blood. Whilst his chakra system didn't have any more demon chakra than normal, his blood was simply drenched in it. The pain and damage from using demon chakra was mostly caused by a lack of human chakra, the demon's having previously overtaken it.

But because the blood was soaked in the chakra, the human chakra could still reach the muscles. Not only that, but blood goes to every part of the body; the brain, the senses… the muscles.

One tails worth of chakra was permanently in his bloodstream, flowing through his muscles, his nose, ears, eyes, through his brain. Reaction rate increased, muscle power doubled, and sensory overload became a reality. There was a downside; blood flowed through everything, and because of his heightened sense of touch, pin pricks felt like kunai, kunai felt like spears, and spears would probably feel like cannonballs. Fortunately, demon chakra would be brought towards the skin with the platelets so healing rate was increased.

The first thing Kairai had been aware of was the smell of his own blood. The tenketsu were in the heart region, so the closing process had caused him to vomit up his precious life blood. The coppery scent filled his nose, as he could his chakra rushing through his vessels. He could hear his opponent's heart beat, as his muscles twitched in anticipation. He could feel the wind on his face, moving delicate and slightly demonically charged hairs. It was… invigorating. "So… intoxicating…" Neji decided to finish this battle. His opponent was on his knees, almost as if he was bowing towards him; he had a clear shot towards to the cerebral cortex. It was over.

He didn't see him move; it was a blur. A hand had shot out, gripped his wrist in a vice-like manner and jerked him down on his knees, as if bringing him down to his level. He lifted his head slowly; 'His… his eyes…' the whites of his eyes had a purple sheen to them. Grinning widely, Kairai's body tensed.

For Neji, it was as if the world had slowed, almost halting entirely. Kairai was standing up; he absentmindedly noticed that the jugular vein in his neck was glowing purple. He watched as his leg rose, in what could only by a rising kick to his chin. Watching, but unable to do anything about it, he closed his eyes as it connected, sending him hurtling backwards.

Snorting, he ran a hand through his hair. The power-induced euphoria had worn off, and it was back to good old ordinary, not-so-euphoric. He would have to question the Gobi later, but for now; it was ass-kicking time.

Tenten, in an admirable attempt to aid her teammate, hurled a volley of shuriken. Kairai twisted his body to an odd angle, avoiding the projectiles without so much as a scratch, although it the position was quite painful. 'Ugh, guess I overestimated my flexibility…' Righting his body, and stroking his sore back, he cracked his neck a few times.

Gai, having physically conditioned himself far more than Kairai, flashed behind him, in an attempt to knock him out. Mauve eye's widening, the silver-haired jinchuuriki was caught flatfooted, and sent crashing forwards. 'Shit! So fast…' The demonic chakra wasn't enough to help him keep up; it was too diluted. Gai's fist struck him hard a few more times, before his foot came rushing forward, only to be blocked by Yugito's hand. "I'm your opponent, or must I remind you?" she twirled a kunai dangerously, bringing it in a downward swipe.

Tenten threw another volley to distract Yugito, as Lee rushed forward to aid his sensei; not one to be left out, Naruto formed a Kage Bunshin and purposefully threw it into the path of the weapons, stopping them from reaching Yugito. Wincing as the pain of being stabbed hit his mind, Naruto formed three more and rushed at Tenten, utilizing what rudimentary tactics he knew. Distract the ranged attacker, so the close-combat specialists could deal with their fellow specialists.

Kairai and Yugito found themselves back to back, revolving around slowly, trading blows with the pair of Green Beasts and the stoic Hyuuga. Yugito ducked as Kairai spin-kicked, attaching ninja wire to some shuriken, charging it with static electricity; as soon as they had enough to theoretically knock out a Chunin, she released them in a random direct, catching Gai's leg.

Being the resilient fighter he was, he shrugged the main blow off. Kairai began a rapid combo of punches; he could smell it, hear it. The blood rushing in Gai's veins; somewhere, deep in the recesses of his mind, part of him screamed for it to be spilled, to let it run between his fingers like rain. Unconsciously, he moved from punching, to clawing.

Gai managed to roundhouse kick Kairai in the temple, toppling the younger nin backwards, allowing him a few seconds to survey the damage. Mainly shallow cuts tears, but there were some deep gashes; one was dangerously close to a tendon, but he'd be fine.

It was an odd show of synchronisation, fighting back to back. You had to predict your ally's movements perfectly for it to work properly. Yugito blocked the attacks that Kairai couldn't, and vice versa. For Kairai, it wasn't so much as carefully calculating Yugito's move, it was just predicting his opponents, and acting instinctively. Yugito, being the smart one, predicted his instinctive movements, and reacted accordingly, in which Kairai could predict because he knew what Yugito would choose to do the moment he acted. Simply put, Kairai was the one controlling things; Yugito reacted to what he did, and he predicted what Yugito did based on what he did.

Gai could see this; unfortunately, when it came to breaking their little dance of life and death, things were much harder. Kairai's instinctive reactions were predictable, and Yugito was easily capable of covering the holes in his defence. Compounding their problems, ranged support was cut off, and Kairai had a habit of counter-attacking whenever he got the chance. Being close combat, his fangs had quite a few opportunities to sink into flesh. Gai, however, was playing things safe; he could see the faint mauve chakra swirling around his fangs. Demon chakra was highly poisonous to ordinary humans, and Gai didn't want to find out just how poisonous.

The two Jinchuuriki leant back, leaning on each other. Both Yugito and Kairai suddenly broke into their own individual series of hand-seals; it was then, that it dawned on Gai. Kairai was the one pulling shots; Yugito was. Kairai's instinctive nature made him predictable, and Yugito tailored her reactions to so that he would move in a specific manner. And now, it was culminating into a joint jutsu attack.

"Suiton: Kabe no Mizu!" cried Kairai, forming the last hand-seal as Yugito shouted the name of her attack, "Raiton: Raikou Shushou!" Her hands sparked with electricity as a wall of water rose. Shoving her palm into it, the water electrified before falling forward like a wave, washing over Neji and Lee.

Gai, acting on his 'sensei-ly' instincts, immediately shoved his students out of the way of the high-voltage wave. The lightning coursed up his muscles, as he gritted his teeth in pain. This fight… was going to be harder than he had first anticipated. Kairai was panting slightly; performing a B-rank Suiton was pretty difficult when all you had was a canteen of water, and their collective sweat. The last part was always the funniest; the opponent stank afterwards.

Humour aside, this was dragging on far too long for Kairai's liking. He was starting to pant; he didn't like panting. When he started to pant, it meant he was getting tired. And when he got tired, he started to lose what little rationality he had.

That, of course, was a bad thing… very bad. When a Jinchuuriki became irrational, people had a very strong tendency to die. By people, he meant everyone. Unstable Jinchuuriki were ticking time-bombs, only without the helpful display. They gave off warnings signs and then it was bang… big, painful, bloody bang.

Kairai didn't want to go out like that; he knew that Naruto and Yugito would kill him the moment he did something like that. He was grateful for it, but he wasn't going to let it happen. So, he tried to end every fight as quick as possible; if he could kill them, things would be so much faster.

As a shinobi, he hated having to hold back and being restricted to keeping targets alive. It was so… constraining. He held back though, as killing Naruto's friends wasn't exactly a very friendly thing to do. So, he was forced to play nice with big mister Jounin… with hard fists and strong muscles. Damn.

Yugito, as if sensing his discomfort, placed a hand on his shoulder. Naruto had managed to knock Tenten out, and Gai's nervous system was a tad scrambled at the moment so Neji and Lee were the only ones in fighting fit condition. Kairai was getting a little animalistic, and Naruto was kind of tired from his fight with Tenten, but the trio could easily take the duo on.

Gai attempted to stand, but it seemed to take quite a bit out of the eccentric Jounin. Kairai flicked his bangs out of his face. "You lost." Now leave was left unsaid.

Neji seemed a little miffed, and Lee had disappointment written all over his face. Nonetheless, they both helped their sensei up and turned around to leave. "This won't be the end, Naruto-kun."

Kairai cleaned a little blood off his nails. "Tell the Hokage the next team will be coming home in body bags." The flash in his eyes told them he was serious… deadly serious. Yugito twirled a kunai, and even Naruto wasn't smiling. His melancholic expression, for reasons unbeknownst to them seemed so… natural. It gave him this tired look.

The moment Team Gai was out of sight, Kairai closed his eyes and took a calming breath. Fangs receded a little, and nails shrunk a bit; eyes lightened up. "Well… that went well… I guess… It could be worse… right…?" Yugito thwacked him on the back of his head, turning around in the opposite direction to Team Gai. "You're an idiot." Kairai huffed, and followed her, even though he started sulking in his childish manner. Naruto shook his head and followed after him.

'Gaara… I wonder how you much you've changed…'

The whole messed-up-seal thing is merely to provide a plot device. For every up, there is a down; Kairai's going to find out what next chapter, and naturally, he's not going to like it very much. At all.

On a sidenote, I felt like throwing in shameless self-publicity; read my small collection of one-shots. Please. I'm thinking of grouping them together into a collection; they might get more views; they just... get swallowed up by everything else