Naruto would not remember his dream, trapped in exhausted, near delirious sleep. He would not recall the voice...the words.

Only the color.

Green.

Like the color of deep, rich emeralds.

"Even here...for this...such effort." It said...whispered and breathy.

"My power is spent...bled away. I no longer have the strength...We have been cut open...and you...you are too small...too mortal to truly comprehend. " It was growing fainter. As though the bearer were being drawn more and more distant with every word.

"She stepped beyond her station; powers once believed immutable...brought low by her hand. Usurping the natural order...As you did."

"You...a child of dust..." There was no anger in its words. No bitterness. Only the faintest hint of sorrow. "Pity the worlds should you fail...You its doom...you its hope... you...pitiable creature that lives on memories of long faded ghosts."

"The wheels cannot turn forever without passage...Even we cannot endure like this...Do you have the strength? The will? To sacrifice again?"

"Pity the worlds should you fail child of dust...for you are its last, tenuous hold on existence."


Sango groaned, her whole body shrouded in bone deep pain. Every fiber of her body singing songs of aches and stiffness.

There was an insistent, periodic pressure against her shoulder, making her whole body lurch and shift, rocking back and forth.

Her brows knit themselves together, face scrunching up as she slowly returned to full consciousness before her eyes fluttered open, only to wince at the harsh brightness of the mid day sun filtering in through the barrier that was the rice paper door.

Miroku was hovering over her, one arm bound in a sling, a bandage around the crown of his head.

"Miroku?" She croaked, swallowing to moisten an all too dry throat.

The monk sighing in something akin to relief. "Sango. Thank goodness."

She wondered for a moment what had happened before she remembered the battle...the thing that had beaten them. "Where are we?" She asked, making an effort to sit up, fighting through the pain that lanced across her stomach and thighs where the muscles were put under the most strain.

"Inuyasha brought us here. Its a fishing village, they tended our wounds as best they could." The monks face suddenly took on a grave countenance. "He kept going."

Sango's eyes snapped open at that, staring at the monk. She had fallen before Inuyasha, knocked unconscious as bloodloss and wounds took their toll after it had already thrown Miroku through a tree, nearly snapping her monk in half.

Inuyasha could always take punishment, but even he looked to be on his last legs when she'd last seen him.

To carry them here and then keep going...

"That idiot!" She hissed.

Miroku nodded. "I know. We've been here for almost three days now. We'll never catch up on foot. We need to turn back to Edo, Get Kirara and maybe we'll be able to catch up."

Sango nodded, moving to stand before the pain came back, proving too unbearable as she tried to put her weight on her legs.

Miroku looked grim. "I'll see if I can negotiate for a carriage and horses."

The Demon Slayer grit her teeth, hissing through them as her wounds made themselves well known across her flesh.


When Naruto woke it was to bone deep aches along his whole body and a head that wouldn't stop pounding.

Weakly, feeling as though it was taking a small window of eternity, he managed to sit up, reaching down to look at the bandages

Dried blood was a good sign.

He reached down, slowly undoing the wound strip of fabric.

He winced at the unfamiliar sensation of dried scabs being tugged by pulled bandage strips.

Looking down at his leg he found a perfect, crescent shaped bitemark.

He reached down into his pouch, pulling a kunai free before slicing his thumb open.

He waited a moment, watching as fresh blood bloomed and dripped from the injury before wiping it off to reveal unbroken skin.

His healing was still working. For a while there he'd been worried traveling through time or Kyuubi's chakra suppressors had dampened it. But that wasn't the case. So whatever this was it was, thankfully, unique to Hakufu so far.

He stood up, wincing as a jolt of pain shot up his leg as he pressed his weight on it.

He couldn't walk far like this...

He channeled his chakra, molding it to familiar patterns as he made the handseal. A second later two clones sprang to existence at his side perfectly whole.


Ryofu Housen hated class.

Honestly, it wasn't so much the fact that she didn't like learning, because she did, she just didn't like learning like this.

Or maybe it was better to say she didn't feel like she learned anything like this.

There's only so much any student can take at staring at a droll teacher all day as he droned on and on and on and on. Endless lectures that just seemed to have little purpose other than simply boring her to death.

She sighed leaning back on her chair as she rolled her neck.

It was something along her peripheral vision that made her look to the door; making her do a double-take as she saw none other than the masked blond standing outside the classroom door. He waved happily from the other side of the wooden portal's windows.

The door to the ladies room was suddenly thrown open, as Ryofu burst in. "How the hell did you even get in here!"

"Well..." Naruto drawled, following her in. "I used the door."

Ryofu turned around, glaring as she propped herself up against the far wall, leaning on the tiled surface. "Funny." She hissed. "Toutaku has this whole place surrounded. No one can get in without him knowing. Whatever secrecy you enjoyed, you just blew it." She scoffed rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

"Not if they can see someone completely different."

Ryofu's eyes snapped wide open, at the drastic change in voice, her gaze snapping back down to stare at a blond haired school girl, with pig tails and three whisker like marks on her cheeks. She was wearing a uniform just like hers.

"How the..."

"Long story." 'She' said smiling-and giggling. "At any rate. Now we can talk with no one saying you're meeting with a 'Masked man'"

"Everyone saw you walk in here though."

"Even if they did..." She shrugged. "What's it matter? Masked man walked in, no one saw us in the hallway, if anyone sees us now...well...you're talking to a cute new-girl."

Ryofu raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Cute?"

She shrugged eying her nails appraisingly. "If ya gotta wear the suit, ya gotta make it look decent eh?"

Then the humor was muted, tempered with seriousness. "Well...either way you called me here for more than just idle banter I wonder...Soooooo..."

Ryofu smirked. "You said to me last time we met. 'I just killed the asshole.'"

"Something like that." The faux girl smirked. The door opened, revealing another student making her way inside, she looked at both of them for a moment before deciding to walk right back out.

Ryofu waited for the door to close before she finished her sentence. "Well...I've got the perfect opportunity for you to get another notch under that belt of yours.

The blond girl grinned.


Hakufu woke to the shadowed hospital room, the drapes were over the windows, the lights off.

She opened her eyes, blinking with momentary uncertainty before she realized where she was.

She looked around; finding Koukin asleep in a rather uncomfortable looking chair and Ryomou lying down on a rather compact looking couch. Both were sleeping.

She was startled to see a shadow move across her bed, she turned...

And found Naruto standing there.

The blond smiled. "Hey..." He said. "Feeling better?"

"What happened Naru-chan?" She asked, wincing as her dry throat was further irritated.

He tilted his head, one eye closing. "You don't remember?"

She shook her head, struggling to keep her eyes completely open.

The blond smiled gently. "Its ok. We'll talk later. Get some sleep for now eh?"

She smiled and before her eyes were fully closed she was asleep again.


"The finals?"

"Toutaku has to appear to represent the school against Kyosho." Ryofu answered.

"And Kyosho's looking to kill him...so you're thinking it wont be too difficult to stage an accident."

"Or for you to just kill him outright if Kyosho fails to bring him down. He'll be tired after his fights." She said. "The only people that can adequately represent this school against the people Kyosho has lined up, are me, and him. I'm a no show, he's got to fight them all. Either they kill him or he kills them all, in which case he'll be tired and easy prey for you."

"Hmm." Naruto rubbed his chin in thought.

Truth be told he had little doubt he could Kill Toutaku himself. What he wasn't sure of was, for one thing, where he was, what he looked like, or how many fighters could be with him and how strong they could be.

The only thing that gave him a moment's pause, was Ryofu herself. She was obviously strong and wanted Toutaku dead. Was he still alive because he was that much stronger than she was? Or was it because this so called Fate had something else in store for him, or her...

Still...this could prove useful. Toutaku was going to die, there were too many people from what he could see, gunning for him for it not to happen. The main question was what would happen after the dust settled.

He gave a mental shrug. He'd never been that good at planning too far ahead. "Still...I'm wondering why we should wait for the tournaments at all? Sure it could make our job easier but more things can go wrong in a public place. Tell me where he is now and I'll go deal with him."

"Hah!" She scoffed. "Not a chance. The moment there's any attack on him he'll know just what to do to escape. He'll have people flooding that room in seconds. You wont succeed and we have one shot at this. The public area has more things to take into account but it won't be a place that he'll be able to account for everything, and it'll get him away from the school where he has a lot of the clowns here ready to jump in and help him if things go wrong.

Though part of that was true; to Ryofu, the main reason she wanted to wait until the tournament was one reason and one reason only...

Chinkyuu.

The Tournament would give her enough time to get her out of the school to somewhere safe. If she let him go after Toutaku now, there was too much risk that he'd fail. And if he failed Toutaku would suspect her, it was in his nature. Then there was too much risk of Chinkyuu getting caught in the crossfire.

She could protect herself just fine. She wasn't so good at protecting others.

Naruto shrugged. "Now or later...doesn't matter to me much. Alright then, I'm in, so where's the final taking place."

"We'll know in about two or three days." Ryofu answered. "The representatives of Rakuyo; probably Kaku Bunwa -knowing Toutaku- should be meeting with Kyosho today, the neutral schools will get wind of the agreements and then they'll decide a place. Most likely a place Toutaku told them to pick." She shrugged. "When I find out, I'll tell you then you get there ahead of him, and..." She drew a hand across her throat. "When the time is right."

Naruto nodded. It sounded simple. Short and to the point.

So chances were it was gonna go completely wrong somehow.


Kaku Bunwa couldn't help but smirk as she looked at the outraged faces of the Kyosho students standing before her.

"What the hell did you say?" Genjo Kakouton second in command of Kyosho academy, snarled, fists clenched, and shaking, all but ready to pounce and strangle her where she stood.

"I'm afraid." She said. "That Rakuyo-private school will have to forfeit the final match of the Tournament."

There was silence between the three of them, heavy and tense.

"Well then." Hokou Kakuka, another of Kyosho's strongest drawled, hands in his pockets, he seemed relaxed. "When can we expect you to hand over the Gokuji?"

Kaku hummed, a finger tapping her her chin. "How bout...never." She watched their features tighten, Kakouton's lips curling, Hokou's shoulders straightening. "Does 'Never'...work for you?"

"The ones who win the tournament get the Gokuji!" Genjo barked. "By the tournament rules you have to-"

"By tournament rules!" She interrupted, cutting him off. "The ones who win the Gokuji must win it by combat...I'm afraid there simply will not be any combat for you to win the Gokuji from us in this tournament."

Genjo sputtered, his rage a palpable thing. "You...you sleazy little-"

There was a chuckle, a slow laugh behind him, and everyone in the room turned their eyes onto the young man sitting up from his laying position.

Motoku Sousou.

"Well then." The leader of Rakuyo smiled. "You won't mind if we just...take it from you...and kill your precious Toutaku in the process eh?"

Kaku smirked. "You can certainly try."


"Gah"

He coughed. It sounded wet.

His eyes blurred, the soles of his feet bled, every muscle burning and ripping over and over again beneath his flesh. His Haori and hair was caked with dried blood, one eye half lidded, barely even seeing any more as he followed her aura, her scent, the scent of that thing that had attacked them and focused on just putting one foot infront of the other.

There was only one source to follow now. This had to be the right one.

He reached down, ripping some green moss from the base of a tree trunk. He hadn't found any fresh water since yesterday.

Stuffing the green mess into his mouth he sucked out the moisture like a sponge, spitting it back out as the sour, metal tasting water wet his too dry throat before he coughed up wet blood to go along with it.

That accounted for the metal taste...

His bare foot snagged on an overgrown root, his whole body lurching forward to leave him fall flat on his face, not even having the energy to put his hands up to catch himself.

He crawled from there.

His hands gripped the grass and pulled himself further as he coughed again, this time with red staining the floor beneath his chin.

Soon enough, he reached a tree, using it to pull himself back to his feet as the world swam and faded.

He felt like dying at the base of this tree.

Then he pushed it away, pushed himself off the tree, and pushed again to get to Kagome.

The rain came suddenly, drenching his all too hot body, wetting the dried blood and cascading down his face in faintly red rivers.

He found the cave after what felt like an eternity.

He stumbled in, his legs giving out at the mouth of it before forcing them to obey and lift him back up.

Her scent was overpowering now, invading his nostrils. She was here.

But her aura...it was wrong...twisted...

decaying.

His body seized up, a surge of adrenalin giving him the strength to rush across the length of the cave, cutting up his bleeding feet on jagged rocks before forcing his way through winding stone and twisting passages.

When he found her, he nearly wept.

Laying down on a slab of perfectly cut stone, legs straight, hands clasped over her stomach, raven black hair spread out behind her like a curtain of the night sky.

Her aura was wrong, and now closer he could scent the faint traces of something that made his heart stop beating entirely.

Death.

The scent clung to her like a perfume. Weak still...but slowly getting stronger.

He stepped forward, now that all of his drive had been worn, and he'd reached his goal, everything was slowly shutting down, pure exhaustion he had held back through strength of will alone was attacking with the ferocity of rabid predators.

He fell right beside her, his breathing ragged as his eyes darkened.

"Inuyasha?"

The whisper was so faint he barely heard it. His mouth responding even as he coughed up more blood. "I'm here wench...go..." He nearly gave in to the darkness before he could finish. "Go to sleep...you're safe now...Nothing will hurt you again ok?" He wanted to crawl to her, to take her hand or throw his blood drenched Haori over her to shield her from the bitter cold of this place, to offer some more comfort.

But he couldn't even move...

If there was a reply, he never heard it as his body finally decided enough, his eyes fluttered closed as they rolled into the back of his skull.


Well here we go Soon enough thing's are gonna come to a head in both the Ikki universe revolving around Toutaku and the various schools and the Inuyasha universe revolving around Kyuubi's Machinations. Until then, hope you all enjoyed it, see you next time :p