Well that took forever, didn't it? I have more jam and a mountain of cabbages and a radiator if that will fix things.
Well I own zip, and we knew that. Well actually I own a small fortune in math textbooks, but I don't think all the Schaums' in the world are going to convince anyone to let me own Naruto. So we'll just remind you all that no one profits from this venture but... wait no... no one profits from this...
Shades of Grey 9: Dust
"Ugly fucker, isn't it." Ino looked down at the gutted remains of the… whatever it was. Naruto was staring at her, expressionless. Ino didn't particularly care for the look, besides, he was the one with the sword. The sword that appeared out of nowhere. "What?"
"What are you?"
"Shouldn't that be my question?" She shot back. "After all, I'm not the one that glows. Though it also brings up the question 'Was that a sword in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?'" She gave the carcass another disgusted look. "Do something about that will you? It smells absolutely foul."
He gave her another look, but formed a hand seal, sword still in hand. He touched the blade to the body, and it disappeared as if being burned up by the red sparks.
"So, sexy, what are you?" She asked, as if there was absolutely nothing wrong.
He wasn't clearly going to get anything from her, unless he gave the same courtesy. "Kitsune." He said shortly, he made a quick gesture. "And you?" The sword was gone.
"Shapeshifter, huh? Nifty. I'm all human myself. But mind bending is a Yamanaka specialty. In case you were wondering, no, I wasn't inside its mind. That'd have been terrible. I just… played around with its senses for a little bit. Not being inside probably meant I wasn't being very careful with its uh…" She gave him a look laden with innocent sheepishness.
"Why was it going for you?" He changed the subject abruptly, still uncharacteristically serious. "If you're as pure human as you say, why didn't it try to get rid of me?"
"Because you weren't what it was looking for. I'm cold. Let's go back to the hotel."
"You're not going to let this silly little event ruin my weekend are you? I'd have to insist you find your own room."
Naruto hadn't said a word to her since they began their walk back to the hotel, and now they were in the hotel room, there was no sign he was going to stop the silent treatment.
"I don't know why you're acting so high and mighty. I didn't lie to you, I simply withheld certain truths. You did exactly the same thing." She reminded him tartly, as she removed the slightly spattered jacket from her arms." She watched him stare out the window, before giving it up as a lost cause and went to find her detergent stick.
Callous. That was the only word he could think of for it. How could she just… She'd stopped, concentrated; he'd turned to question at her, seen she was focusing on something. The creature had struck then, it was a foot away from her when she opened her eyes and fixed it with a look. Her eyes were jewel bright in an unnaturally inhuman way, and the creature had stopped in confusion. It was all the time he'd needed to pull his sword into the physical realm and ram it as far as he dared into the writhing mess. And she acted as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And for her, it was… for him, it was. Why was this striking such a sour chord in him? Because it had been hunting her, not him?
His contemplations were interrupted by a sensual ringtone. She strode out of the bathroom, jacket in one hand and pulled her phone out of her purse.
"Hello? Oh, Mother!" she tucked the device between ear and shoulder and went back to cleaning. "You were with the Masata kid and you felt something, you say? Felt what? I'm not playing innocent; I'm simply asking what it is you think you felt."
At least she was consistent in her affectation.
"What do you mean you…" She dropped the garment on the bed and took the phone with both hands. "That watch you gave me for my… Mo-ther. Fine, so there was a tiny altercation. It was handled, I promise I'm telling you the truth. There's no need to send Mr. Popsicle out here to escort me back." She began to pace, chewing a fingernail absently. "If I were in any kind of trouble, would I be talking to you now? Of course I'm fine. It wasn't anything major, just unexpected. Yes, yes, I love you too. See you in a few days."
"Glad she thinks you can handle yourself." He remarked coolly, gaze never wavering from the flagpole across the street.
"Excuse me for not wishing to worry my mother. Can't believe she had a spell on my watch." Ino quieted, still muttering, still ignoring his bad temper. "I'm not ten any more."
"Are you so sure about that?"
Ino resisted the ever growing urge to just lob her cell phone at his head. With her luck he'd sprout claws and slice it in half, and then where would she be? Pissed off other worldly creature, no cell phone and demons breathing down her neck. Not the best of situations, but mildly better than pissed off other worldly creature, no cell phone and demons eating the mangled remains of her corpse.
"Is there a problem?" she asked sweetly curious.
He actually turned to look at her in shock. Then he realized the saccharine tone was just her temper hiding arsenic, cyanide and trinitrotoluene in cake.
"You tell me." He said flatly, refusing to bite.
"Why? When I'm the one who has no problem with what I am, and what you are, is there a reason I need to explain to you that you're throwing a hissy for no reason at all?" She took up her forgotten jacket and strode to the closet to hang it up. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
She didn't get an answer. She wasn't sure there was one to be had. Maybe his last girlfriend tried to put wards on her apartment only to remember too late that that was for vampires. Mother was right; men were far too much trouble to keep around for long. Though Ino wished Mother weren't so honor bound as to keep Father's name a secret. Ino had quite a few choice things to say to him, should their paths ever cross.
"Good evening, Yamanaka-san." Hyuuga Neji took the phone from the maid with a nod of thanks and dismissal. "How can I—"
There was a squawk of static and Neji's posture tightened.
"Ino was? Half an hour ago… no, I'm afraid I don't know what it could have been. She's too far away…"
Hanabi leant against the wall, running her fingers through her hair. It might have been a nervous gesture, but Hyuuga Hanabi had no nervous gestures. Her spar had been interrupted, which meant it was either very important, or someone was being exceedingly rude. She watched her cousin set the phone down with perhaps more force than necessary.
"Ino was attacked."
"By more than the usual jealous women?" Hanabi wondered if there was a draft or if it was a cold finger of fear gliding up her spine.
"By something that set off the wards she didn't know were there. Ino didn't give Yamanaka-san too many details."
"Ino? Not give details? She's either hiding something, or there isn't anything to say." Hanabi paused to think about her statement. "So how are we going to find out what it was?"
"There is no we. You and I do not need to go anywhere, especially anywhere not protected by people we know. Someone will be sent to investigate the area, and when Ino returns, I'm sure her mother will have a few things to say to her."
"All resistance shatters when Yamanaka-san chooses to act directly. So we've dealt with the 'what'. Any chance we'll figure out the 'why'?"
"We may need to ask Kurenai if Ino has done anything to warrant being hunted. However that will have to wait 'til their return."
"No signal?" Hanabi shrugged, before her eyes gleamed. "You tried to call Ten Ten?"
"You were in the middle of getting beaten, Hanabi-sama. Shall we continue?"
"Ooooh, I hit a nerve. Score one for the princess."
"Ten Ten, do you sense anything?"
"No." Ten Ten sounded confident, but she asked anyway. "Should I?"
Kurenai had been about to say no, but that had been before that brush of cold. She hushed her apprentice and extended her senses beyond her shields. There were things snuffling along the edges of her shields, things that wanted to get closer, but didn't. There was no real name for them, other than Dark. There was nothing recognizable as anything beyond their purpose about them. Kurenai felt the heat drain from her body. If even her honed darksense could not define them, then they were no natural nightstalkers. Cobbled together from things that were dead and rotting, nothing left to hold any sense of self or affinity, only Purpose. And the purpose in the things pacing the boundaries of her barriers was to Hunt, and Fetch. If Yamanaka Naoko had been there, Kurenai might have asked her to probe and gather information from them. Ino still lacked the finesse of her mother. But there was no use wishing for a mindwalker when the hunters were there now. But they went no further in nor farther away. They never stopped moving, walking the limits of the shields. Was Orochimaru growing so bold as to challenge a Guardian now?
No… he wouldn't have been so stupid as to send such weak creatures to capture a Guardian alive. Then they were after… Ten Ten?
"Try again, and concentrate. Do not settle for your own sphere of existence. As a Warrior of the Light, you must be able to protect those around you as well as yourself."
"Okay… there are two. But I don't know what they are." Ten Ten looked to her mentor. "I've never felt anything like that before. Are they revenants?"
"Something like that, I think. They aren't normal dead, but I can't tell what exactly they are. I don't think they're going to get any closer." Not if they're hunting you. Give thanks for Guardian powers, having to protect her means I don't have to pour my own power into what keeps those away from us. But why Ten Ten? More importantly… who else? I don't know what to do with the ones here, but letting them run loose isn't exactly a brilliant idea either. Shit.
Clarence looked at the thing squirming in his talons with clinical interest. It had had friends, but they had winked out soon after they left it here, presumably with a lunchbox and a 'good hunting'. He'd never seen anything like it, certainly not around this building. It didn't seem to be very intelligent, scrabbling to get inside, for what or whom, he didn't know. But that wasn't part of his job description. Information was Mariette's specialty. Once she fixed the thing with her golden gaze, it went slack. Clarence kept his grip just in case.
If Mariette could breathe, she would have sighed. She closed her eyes, releasing the thing from her questing mind.
"Get rid of it Clarence. There's nothing in there but the desire to hunt and capture. It identifies things by their relation to itself. There are only points of entrance and exit in this world, no actual locations for us to investigate. There is only summoner and prey, no one to question, no one to focus on. We can't do anything with it. So kill it and tell me more about this girl in the boys' apartment."
"Where are my trackers?"
Kabuto started awake.
"Uh—"
"They were sent to find people outside the Hyuuga estate, save for the Guardians. It can't be that hard to seek and capture. I just need one person, and then I'll have the pawn I need to find what I want. So where are they?"
"Not here? There were five, tracking those close to the girl. It's more than likely those people are well shielded. Hyuuga Hanabi is being trained by a Guardian after all."
Orochimaru scowled, and Kabuto wondered if it could be compared to a Gorgon's smile.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he hastily made his way to his worktable, to determine if the creatures had found anyone yet. The scrying pool ruffled and showed him two, pacing the edge of a boundary he couldn't see. There was no one visible, so whoever the shield belonged to liked keeping the dark at arm's reach. A search for the others led to nothing. That didn't bode well. And the two that were still there were losing that sense of purpose. They were falling apart, by poor construction or by the will of the owner of that shield, who knew. All Kabuto knew was that they wouldn't last another hour.
"More than just shielded, they have active protection. We may need to use something stronger." Orochimaru's frown intensified when he heard the news.
"See to it then. At least make certain you know where the marks are, if the wolves are destroyed." No more doing things by half now. It had taken over 24 hours for the hunters to even find the targets, and he still didn't know who they were, because he'd underestimated the lengths the Hyuuga would go to to protect their precious Heiress and her little friends.
I'm not dead! I'm not! I don't want to go in the cart.
