Spirit of the Night
"I stole it, off of an Uchiha body from the massacre."
Naruto paled in anger, he had great respect for the dead. This man had defiled corpses, a grave robber, a heinous crime. He had to focus to keep the Kyuubi's chakra from invading his system. He wasn't the only one mad; Ar'Keno was trembling in anger beside him. Naruto, extremely pissed, jumped at their target, Shinato, fist aiming for his face. Instead, he got kicked across the room, into a column of rock.
"Boy, only a fool rushes into a fight against a Sharingan wielder. Only a fool with a death wish." Shinato laughed. Naruto growled, jumping again, trying to land a hit. Once again, he was knocked back, although this time, Sakura caught him. Hinata stepped up, angry at Shinato for hurting her love. The two traded blows. Hinata was struggling against her opponent. She was pushing her speed to the limit, trying to get over his advantage of seeing her moves.
The two were amazing to watch, standing in one spot, arms blurring from the speed. Eventually, Shinato got a hit in, then two, then five. Hinata coughed up blood from the strikes, and fell to her knees. Shinato was about to deliver a devastating kick, but he was bowled over by a whirling gray tornado.
"Our turn!" Kiba howled, with Akamaru jumping on his back
"Juujin bunshin!" Akamaru transformed, and the two Kibas grew fangs and claws.
"Gatsuuga!" the two tornado's shot towards Shinato, who sidestepped neatly, but not before being enveloped in a cloud of smoke, throw by one of the tornados. Suddenly, he was being assailed from all sides.
"Your Sharingan is no good if you cant see! We can keep this up all day if we have to." Kiba shouted, throwing a punch. Shinato cursed, realizing the truth in those words. At the next hit, he grabbed the offending limb, and stuck an explosive tag on it. A large boom quickly commenced, followed by a yelp. When the dust cleared, Kiba was revealed kneeling over his dog, eyes clouded in anger.
"I'm gonna kill you!" he screamed, "Tsuuga!" Shinato smirked, "I know that trick already, Tsuuga!" He said, throwing himself into a spin, creating his own tornado. The two clashed, and both were thrown back. Kiba started another Tsuuga, while Shinato pulled out kunai, and began one of his own. This time, during the clash, the bladed tornado shredded Kiba. Shinato stopped spinning, and started towards the prone ninja. He was forced to stop when he felt his chakra being drained. He whirled around, facing Shino, and forcing the bugs off at the same time. He sneered.
"Aburame, I'm gonna crush you just like your precious bugs." Shino soon had his hands full defending himself from kunai slashes. The man was fast. Shino could barely dodge in time. His clothes got ripped from kunai, that's how close it got. Shino jumped across the room, panting hard. Shinato gave him no time to rest. This time, performing hand signs, he leapt after Shino, breathing out. Shino stood still, waiting for the jutsu to work. Shinato, almost reading his thoughts leaned down, picked up a rock and said, "It is already working, I covered that area with flammable gas." And he threw the rock. There was a spark, and Shino was enveloped in flame.
Sakura scuttled over to him, already healing him. Shinato walked over, and brutally kicked her across the face. She flew across the cavern, flipped, and landed against a column. Springing off, she leapt at their target. Shinato sidestepped, but Sakura's hand snaked across his chest, grabbing him, and bodily heaving him up. She jumped into the air, and started pounding him with all her strength. As they landed, Sakura was breathing heavily, with Shinato lying on the ground. Slowly, he got up.
"Ouch, that actually got me. Although, you should work on your strength, the fall hurt more than the punches." Sakura got pissed at that, and punched him hard in the spine, felling him. He lay, twitching on the ground. Suddenly, his leg started shaking.
"Arrgh, what was that? I cant get up. Was it a nerve attack? Good to know, it will help me kill the others." Shinato sent a wave of chakra through his body, fixing his nervous system, then kick-upped onto his feet. He launched a barrage of attacks at his opponent, and when he was done, Sakura couldn't articulate a sentence, let alone fight. He turned toward Naruto and Ar'Keno, sneering.
"All these people are weak, can you entertain me more?" Naruto gave up his battle with the fox, and let his chakra flood through his body, turning his eyes red, and giving him claws.
"Awoooooo, I'm gonna kill you!!" Naruto screamed, launching himself and Shinato. He flew straight into the man. Those two traded blows, leaping and jumping all around the arena. Shinato was using his advantage to the fullest, but Naruto's speed was overwhelming. They seemed evenly matched, then Shinato pulled away, performed some handsigns, and breathed out again. This time, instead of gas, a large ball of flame erupted. Naruto screamed again, forcing it back. Shinato did another jutsu, this time and earth one. He caught hold of Naruto's feet, and hands, immobilizing him. Naruto struggled, snarling and growling, ineffectively. Shinato was panting from the effort of holding him. His eyes were wide, and flying around, looking for a more effective way to stop the crazed ninja. His eyes landed on Sakura, still trying to undo the effects of his nerve attacks. He leapt at her, holding the jutsu, and tried to grab the girl. He was stopped by Ar'Keno, standing protectively over her, head bowed, body shaking.
"Move boy if you're too scared to fight." Ar'Keno got pissed at that, and lifted his head. His eyes were still yellow, but they were flickering to orange. He had the animal under control, if barely. Soon, the flickers stopped. Naruto was calmed down by now, slumped over from chakra exhaustion, but still conscious. Shinato smirked at the boy in front of him.
"If you don't move, I will kill all of your friends, brutally, right in front of you, then I will kill you." With that, Ar'Keno moved. Straight at Shinato. He leapt straight at the man, hands blazing through signs, and Shinato was trapped in a genjutsu. He couldn't see, couldn't move, couldn't feel. He could just process information. He knew he was in a genjutsu, and if he had lips, he would have smirked. Suddenly, the black splintered, replaced with the real world.
"Idiot boy, all genjutsus are useless against this eye." Then he was assailed again, again with complete blackness, but in this, he could feel, and move. He felt himself being hit, then heard a whisper.
"Kiba was right, if you can't see me, your eye is ineffective." He lashed toward the voice, but only hit rock. At the same time, he was hit three more times. He screamed in frustration. He tried to blow the darkness away, but couldn't. So he stopped. He focused inside him, and drew out his latent power. The power rampaged through his body, changing him. Both of his eyes changed color, both were now dark green, and became slanted. His hair turned midnight blue, and grew to mid-back. His face grew more animalistic. His teeth elongated, as did his fingers. Behind him, lashed a tail. He looked a lot like Kiba in his beast form, but worse. He had an air of control about him.
The black disappeared again. The new Shinato face Ar'Keno with a smug look on his face.
"This form, you w ill never defeat, not with that blackness, not with anything. This is the demon of beasts." Ar'Keno stared at him, not looking particularly surprised at the transformation.
"Didn't you get rid of our greatest advantage in that transformation, your Sharingan?" Shinato laughed.
"I only need that when I don't have an extreme speed advantage. With this form, genjutsu is ineffective, and I can read your moves. I have no need for it." This worried Ar'Keno, one of his best jutsu's was a genjutsu. Suddenly, he was grimacing in pain; Shinato had stabbed him in the shoulder.
"Wow, nice reaction," he said, "I was aiming for the heart."
"Don't let anything get in the way of our concentration, if you do, you'll die." Ar'Keno looked annoyed at himself, he knew this was true. He used some of his demon chakra to heal the wound, then leapt at Shinato with new speed. Shinato looked surprised with this new burst, but not worried. He still was faster. Then he got worried. Ar'Keno kept getting steadily faster, till he was almost on par with his opponent. They traded blows, and Shinato gained the upper hand. He was both faster, and had a longer reach. Most of the time, when Ar'Keno would try to take advantage of an opening, he would get pounded. Finally, he got a good hit in, and Shinato went flying.
Ar'Keno was not in good shape. He had a broken rib, multiple cuts, and had been hit way too many times. To top it off, his eyes were flickering again. Across the room, Shinato was picking his way out of what used to be a stalagmite.
"Brat, that actually hurt. Where are you getting this power from?" Shinato sighed, "It doesn't matter, that was a lucky shot, and I can still go faster." Ar'Keno's eyes widened, and he tried to dodge Shinato's lunge, aimed for his heart. It missed, barely. The kunai still went straight through him, and Ar'Keno coughed up blood. Naruto, watching the battle from within his constraints, was shocked. He started his struggles anew. Shinato wrenched the kunai away, and looked down on Ar'Keno. He was slightly puzzled as to why Ar'Keno was, instead of trying to stop the blood flow, clutching his head. Naruto knew what was happening, and doubled his struggles, but to no avail. When Ar'Keno looked up, his eyes were orange.
"What the hell is this?" Shinato was terrified. He could feel the raw energy pouring off of his opponent, and he knew instantaneously that he would die. And so he did. Ar'Keno shot around so fast Shinato's eyes couldn't process it before he was grabbed and thrown straight up. Suddenly, right above him was the thing wearing Ar'Keno's body. It kicked him to the side, and Shinato was speared on a stalagmite. As Ar'Keno's body landed, it laughed, a cruel laugh, sounding wrong coming from Ar'Keno's mouth.
"Finally, after so many years, that kid pushed it too far! He can't take his body back now, its mine, all mine!" It laughed again. Inside the mind, Ar'Keno's consciousness flailed against its cage, trying to force the animal down.
"Ar'Keno, what are you saying?" Naruto, now free from his restraints, yelled.
"Hah, kid the Ar'Keno you knew is gone. Each time he gets hurt, I come and save him, then, he tries to force me back. Well now he can't. This body is all mine." Naruto's eyes widened. He yelled at the demon, "Give Ar'Keno his body back you monster!" The demon smirked.
"As if, you brat. I just got free rein. I have spent thirteen years in this body caged. Now, I'm gonna use this to its full extent, and when I've had my fun, maybe I'll give it back."
"Wait, I thought your mind and Ar'Keno's toddler mind melded, one thing."
"Yes that is correct. But the more animalistic side was locked away." Naruto figured out that reasoning with the animal wasn't going to work, so he tried another tack.
"Ar'Keno, fight him, you are stronger and smarter, force him back! I know you can do it. You are the one who saved me, and listened to my ramblings. You figured out how to hunt the spy down, you saved us against the Sound, you saved us against Shinato. You are strong. Beat him back!" The beast laughed, then convulsed. It fell to the ground, shaking, its eyes were melting from orange to yellow and back. When the spasms stopped, Naruto couldn't tell who had control, Ar'Keno, or the beast. He called tentatively, "Ar'Keno?" The body stood up, and opened its eyes.
"Who else?" Naruto stared into those comforting yellow eyes, now drained with exhaustion. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank God." Naruto picked his way free of the rubble, and went to check on Sakura. She had somewhat recovered from the nerve attacks. She could use her mouth, and the upper half of her body.
"What the hell are you? What was that energy?" She yelled at Ar'Keno. He sighed. As he stumbled over, she scrambled to get away. Naruto held her, and explained the whole story, that Ar'Keno melded with a demon when he was young, was attacked, and killed his clan. Ar'Keno explained the inner struggle of control with the beast. They asked her not to tell anyone about this.
"Are you human?" Ar'Keno shook his head.
"Not completely. Because of the fusion, I'm part owl demon." He reached toward her to try to flush the chakra from the nerve attacks away, and paused.
"Do you trust me?" Sakura eyed him warily.
"I do. I shouldn't, but I do." Ar'Keno fixed her nervous system, then she went around healing the others. True to her word, she kept the demon thing a secret. They carried the others outside, and Sakura gave them medical aid. Kiba and Hinata were going to be pretty easy to fix, simple cuts and broken bones, but Shino needed more. He was really burnt to a crisp. They needed to get him to a hospital, as soon as possible, but he wasn't up to travel. Sakura couldn't patch him up enough to be moved more than just outside of the cave. If he didn't get more medical attention soon, he would die of his burns.
Ok, to make up for the insanely long wait last time, I worked on this as much as I could. Because it was already partially done, I finished in record time. But what are they gonna do about Shino?! Please R&R.
-Prauge
