Mystic Eyes and the Demon Within

By Jolly

A Naruto/Type-Moon story

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I'd like to thank t.m.p.a for their candid comments regarding both my story and my OC. Now that I've reread the story a couple of times, I've made a decision regarding Mystic Eyes and the Demon Within. I will be continuing this story until it's completion. I will be doing it 'as is', OCs and all. However, once I've completed it, I WILL be going back and doing a complete rewrite minus the OCs and fix several errors/gaps in the early chapters.

So eventually, there will be 2 Mystic Eyes stories out there, but for now I'll be completing my first story.

And while I agree with t.m.p.a on their comment about my OCs being comparable to Naruto filler episodes, I'd like to point out that while the 100 or so filler episodes were annoying as crap, they also had a lot of 'character building'. For example, the Protection of the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms is NOT in the manga nor is Hinata even in the manga all that much (less than 10 appearances total throughout the entirety, I think). Without those annoying filler episodes, I seriously doubt NaruXHina would have such a strong fan base as it does right now.

So as a favor to a cherry fanfic author, please take my OCs with a grain of salt and try to look at the early chapters as 'character building'. Rito is going to be sticking around for awhile longer, but the rest of them aren't going to show up again until near the end of the story.

Enjoy!

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Kitsune Village – Present day

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Rito exited the bus in front of the inn with the three tag-alongs close behind him. All three were giving him annoyed glares due to his 'behavior' the previous day. After arriving in the first tourist village, Rito had split off unnoticed and lost himself in the crowded streets almost immediately. He had returned to the bus that night, after thoroughly enjoying himself in the village, to find three very pissed off Japanese girls waiting for him.

He tried to explain to them that he usually did things on his own, but they weren't having any of it. They apparently expected him to follow them around the entire trip; something Rito hated doing. It wasn't a problem if it was just one other person, but following a group around got very boring, very quickly for Rito. So for the two days they were supposed to be in Kitsune Village, the three intended to keep him with them while they enjoyed the festival.

Needless to say, Rito had his own plans.

They all checked in and as luck would have it, the girls got the room right next to his own on the second floor. They 'dropped him off' at his room before making a rush for their own so they could get changed. Kimiko stayed in the hallway to act as a lookout while the other two changed. Not that it mattered to Rito.

He dropped his sports bag on the bed and tightened the straps on his backpack as he made his way to the balcony in the back of the room. He quietly opened the sliding door, so as not to give himself away, and closed it just as quietly once he stepped out. He glanced over the edge of the railing to check the area below for anyone, and once satisfied no one would see him he hopped over the railing while holding on with his left hand. 15 feet was certainly a dangerous height to jump from, but if you knew how to land, you could avoid injuring yourself. The trick was doing it while not making a sound.

Still holding the rail, he slid a bit down the side of the inn until he could only hold on to the 'floor' of his patio. Then, turning to check his landing spot, he kicked off the wall as he let go, doing a backflip into the grassy area behind the inn. He had to bend his knees to absorb the impact of landing and to reduce the sound he made, but he managed to escape without alerting anyone or injuring himself.

He glanced up at his room and the girls' room next to his before quickly making his way around the corner of the building in case one of them decided to check out their own porch right then. As he made his way to the front of the inn, he noticed something red dash along the tree line. He quickly looked to see what it was while reaching for his throwing knives with his right hand.

'A fox?' he thought as he finally saw what it was that had caught his eye. The small fox sat at the edge of the forest not twenty feet from where he stood and yipped at him. Seeing that it wasn't a threat, he took his hand away from his holster and smiled. He quickly removed his camera from his jacket pocket and snapped a picture to show the girls later. 'Maybe this'll distract them enough to not give me crap about ditching them again.'

After 'posing' long enough for Rito to take several pictures, the fox yipped again and took off into the forest leading up the mountain. Rito put away his camera and stared into the forest trying to determine where the fox had gone, to no avail. Just as he was thinking that he was wasting time escaping from the inn, he heard a scream from inside the hotel.

"RITO-KUN!!!"

With an amused grin, he quickly made his way into the village to enjoy the festivities.

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Tohno Mountain Mansion - Present day

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"What is that thing?" asked Naruto pointing.

Akiha and Shiki looked over at the blond, surprised at the question. Akiha gave an expression that clearly said 'are you stupid?'.

"That's a car, Uzumaki-san. You know, an automobile? Something used to take you from one place to another," she said sarcastically.

He glared at her. "Hey! I've never seen anything like this! We usually walk, run or jump to get where we want to go. Only the Daimyos and Kages get to ride around in carriages and stuff like that. The only thing I've ever seen that was close would be those 'train' or 'airship' things I saw in the Land of Snow."

Akiha looked like she had swallowed her sandal. "I apologize, Uzumaki-san. I keep forgetting that you're not from here..."

"So I guess you'll be riding like 'royalty' today, eh Naruto-san?" Shiki quipped in an attempt to break the tension.

Naruto smiled at him. "Yeah! I guess so, huh? Come on Hinata-chan! I can't wait to get to the festival! Now that I think about it, this'll be the first time we've gone to a festival together, huh?"

Hinata blushed at his words. This was something she'd always wanted to do with him. Unfortunately, the only festival in Konoha had been held on October 10th every year in celebration of the Kyuubi's defeat at the hands of the Yondaime. From what she'd learned during her time dating Naruto, that day had never been pleasant for him as the villagers had usually spent that day ransacking or firebombing his apartment or chasing him around the village in a drunken or half-drunken rage.

It almost seemed like fate that the first festival they went to together was the 'Festival of the Fox'.

"Hai, Naruto-kun, it is. Do you know what you want to do first when we get there?" she asked him. She really wanted him to enjoy the festival since he hadn't really had good experiences in the past.

"Umm... Not really. I was planning on just letting you girls decide what we did. What about you, Shiki?"

He shook his head. "I agree with you, Naruto-san. Festivals like this are a girl's time to be treated like princesses. So they should decide what we do." Naruto gave a foxy grin and nodded in agreement.

All four girls blushed at being referred to as 'princesses'. The thing was, they all looked like it, too.

All were dressed in yukatas, though Hinata had to borrow one from Akiha. She was wearing a lavender yukata with a silver daisy pattern while Akiha wore a red one with golden sakura trees all over it. Hisui and Nanaya's yukatas had the same mountain print on them, but Hisui's was jade with gold pattern while Nanaya's was amber with a silver pattern. The girls had spent most of the morning after breakfast getting ready and they all had their hair done up and had makeup on.

Naruto was wearing a pair of jeans and an orange shirt Nanaya had found in one of the storage rooms while Shiki was wearing khaki pants and a blue shirt. The girls had complained, but both guys wanted to save their yukatas for the second day when there would be a fireworks display.

"So shall we get going?"

They all piled into the back of the car and the driver started to make his way down to the village.

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It was a bit before noon when Rito found a spot along the fountain in the town square to sit down and rest for a bit. He'd been having a lot of fun seeing all the stores and playing the games throughout the village. He'd even won some stuffed foxes for the girls from one of the skill stands. He'd gotten the Tag-along Trio small ones and he'd won a large one for Sayuri. He told the man running it that he'd be by later to pick them up.

He had worried that he was going too fast and that he wouldn't have anything to do the next day, but according to one of the shop owners most of the booths changed on the second day unless they had done extremely well on the first day.

"Let's see, what's around to eat?" he asked himself. He had already eaten 'lunch' less than an hour ago, but festivals called for a little splurging. He spotted a caramel apple stand and smiled. "Bingo!" He got up from his spot and made his way through the crowd to get in line. After a short wait, it was his turn. "Two please!"

He paid the vendor and put one in his bag for later and took the other with him back to the spot next to the fountain to eat, putting the bag by his feet.

"Man, I haven't had one of these in awhile. I wonder what kind of apple it is?" he asked himself aloud as he unwrapped it from the plastic.

"Kaa-san, that man looks just like the man in the poster! That black jacket is so cool!"

Rito paused in his efforts to look up at the mother and child walking by. The little boy was pointing at him with smile on his face. He was confused for a moment, until he looked over to a poster on one of the bulletin boards the festival had set up around the village.

It was a poster advertising a live action fight performance in the town square at noon. It depicted a large man in black wearing an evil grin as the antagonist while the protagonist was a buff shirtless blond guy. He had spotted a couple of guys who fit that description wandering around together throughout the morning. He pieced his earlier observations together with the poster and came to the conclusion that they were going to be part of the performance.

'Good timing I guess. Snack and a show! I wonder what fighting styles they're going to use...'

He finished unwrapping his treat and leaned forward to take his first bite when he was interrupted once again.

"OI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

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After arriving at the village, Naruto, Shiki and the girls had gone straight for the shops to get their shopping out of the way. That way they could play the games later in the day when it was warmer. After an hour of shopping and paying for them to be delivered to the mansion, they had grabbed some kabobs from a vendor and made their way towards a couple of game stalls. The first one was the gold fish stand.

Nanaya wanted to get one, so she gave it a shot but couldn't manage to get one in the bag. Shiki and Akiha tried their hands at it as well, but failed miserably. The paper just kept breaking.

"Ugh... I never could get the trick to this," grumbled Shiki.

"Ano, if you want, I could try. I usually do well with this," Hinata offered.

"Sure, Hinata-san. Give it your best shot."

Hinata pushed back her sleeves and took one of the paper scoopers and a bag with water in it. She positioned the scooper close to one of the fish and waited for it to come close. She eased it slowly deeper until it was beneath the fish, then suddenly scooped the fish out of the water right into the bag.

"Yatta! Thank you so much Hinata-san!" Nanaya exclaimed hugging Hinata from behind.

Hinata laughed and smiled at the girl. "It was no problem, Nanaya-san. Just be sure to take care of it, okay?"

"I will!"

"That was great, Hinata-chan! I usually suck at that one," Naruto said with a grin.

"Arigato, Naruto-kun..." she said with a blush.

"So where to next?" Shiki asked.

The girls all looked at one another and nodded. As one, all four pointed to a stand down the road that had large fox stuffed animals as prizes. They had only seen a handful of people walking around with them, so winning one was apparently difficult. The group walked up to the stand and saw that it was a ring toss skill booth.

"Damn... No wonder there weren't many people walking around with them. Getting one of those rings on the tops of those bottles is mostly luck," Akiha said with a defeated expression. "I guess we'll try somewhere else."

Naruto just laughed. "Akiha-san, if you buy, I'll get you whichever ones you want. Oi! Old man! What're the rules?"

The vendor raised an eyebrow at the 'old man' comment, but shrugged it off and got on with business. "500 yen for a bucket of 50 rings. If you get a ring on the bottle, you get a small one. If you manage to make 2 on, you can trade in the small for a large."

"Hmm... hey girls, what sizes do you all want?"

Everyone around them except Hinata looked at him like he was crazy. "I'll take a large one, Naruto-kun! It's just about Kyuubi's size and it looks really soft," she said with a smile.

"Sure thing, Hinata-chan! What about the rest of you?"

The other three looked at each other and shrugged.

"Small," Akiha said still looking unsure.

"Small, please, Naruto-sama," said Hisui with a ghost of a smile.

"I want a large one! They're just too cute!" exclaimed Nanaya.

"Okay, so that's two large ones and two small ones. That's a total of six rings I'll need."

The vendor had been listening to the entire conversation with interest. "You sound confident, kid. You really think you can land six in one go?"

"This is gonna be a cinch, datte bayo!"

The vendor gave a laugh. "You've got guts kid! I like that! How about I make you a deal? If you can land all six rings on the bottles I point to, I'll give you the prizes for free. How's that sound?"

Naruto's eyes lit up with excitement. "Really, old man? You've got yourself a deal!"

The vendor handed him six rings and walked over to where the bottles were set out. He thought for a moment, then pointed at one of the easier small mouthed bottles. Naruto promptly tossed the ring and landed it on the indicated bottle. The girls and a couple of spectators cheered for him. Needless to say, the vendor was more than a bit surprised.

"Okay then, kid. Let's kick this up a notch." He pointed at a brown bottle further back, which Naruto landed with ease. This continued until they were down to the last ring, and with each ring the vendor grew more amazed and the crowd grew louder and larger. "Wow. Even that kid from earlier wasn't this good. That guy only made 1 in 10. Okay, no more mister nice guy! Let's see if you can land it on the one right in the middle!"

The bottle in question had a much wider mouth than the rest, but it also had a small sign on it that said 'Bonus'.

"Ne, old man. What's the bonus?"

"You land it and you'll find out, kid."

Naruto eyed the target with care. The bottle was just small enough that a ring could get around the mouth, but only if you aimed perfectly and got the right angle and spin. He tried figuring out the exact angles and velocity in his head, but only succeeded in confusing himself further. Finally he just decided to go with his gut feeling and after taking careful aim, tossed the ring. It flew true and landed perfectly on the 'Bonus Bottle'.

Behind him there was a loud round of applause at the boy's feat.

"Yeah! I nailed it! Yatah! Alright, old man! We had a deal right?" Naruto said excitedly with a grin.

The vendor shook his head in amazement. "Damn kid. No one's ever gotten that bottle." The old man grinned. "You're really something else, you know that? Alright! The stuffed animals are yours free of charge. Unfortunately, the 'bonus' prize is at my house, so you'll have to wait until later to get it. Are you able to stop by later this evening to pick it up?"

"Sure thing! We'll pick up all the prizes later so we won't have to carry them around all day."

Akiha, Nanaya and Hisui nodded their agreement. Hinata, however...

"Ano, do you mind if I get mine now, Naruto-kun?"

"Sure thing, Hinata-chan! Old man?"

"One large fox plush, coming right up!" he said, reaching above his head to get the plush. His sleeves slid up his arms a bit exposing some sort of marking on his left wrist and arm. "Here you go young lady! You've got a fine man there, missy. Hold onto him tight and don't let go, ya hear?"

Hinata blushed and hid her face behind the fox, but nodded nonetheless.

Naruto noticed the marking on the man's arm and tilted his head to the side. "Ne, old man? What's the weird marking on your left arm?"

The man looked down to where his arm had been exposed and gave it a wry grin. "Oh, that's just a crest that has passed down in my family from generation to generation. Nothing special."

"Oh, okay. Well, thanks for the plushes! See you later, old man!"

"You lot enjoy the festival now! And don't come back, ya hear?!" the vendor yelled with a large grin.

"Aahhh... that was fun. What next?" Naruto asked as the group walked away.

"Well, seeing as there aren't any more game booths around this part of the village and we've gone to most of the stores already, I suggest we wander towards the square and see if anything is going on over there," Shiki said.

The girls all agreed and the group started walking towards the center of the village while chatting back and forth and window shopping. When they finally reached the square it was almost noon and it looked like a crowd was starting to gather for something near the fountain. A black jacketed figure caught his eye briefly, but he disregarded it as he had seen coats and jackets of all sizes and colors that day.

The girls were all in line for caramel apples while Shiki and Naruto waited near the crowd trying to see what was going on. All of a sudden a child's voice rang out above the rest of the crowd.

"Kaa-san, that man looks just like the man in the poster! That black jacket is so cool!"

Naruto followed the sound of the voice and saw a little boy with his mother pointing at the figure he had seen moments before sitting on the edge of the fountain and unwrapping a caramel apple. He would have disregarded it once again, but his eyes locked onto the man's face. It was familiar. Damned familiar.

The man looked confused for a moment, then looked over at something for a moment before an expression of realization crossed his face, followed shortly by excitement. Then the memories hit Naruto like a ton of bricks.

Point Omega. Hinata-chan. Those hateful eyes. Looking into those hateful eyes while two of my clones held kunai to his throat. What the hell is he doing here?

His expression turned feral and he started to growl.

"OI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

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Author's Notes

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Chapter 10, complete!

So by show of hands, how many of you saw this confrontation coming? ^_^ j/k I really enjoyed writing this one. It just sort of flowed for me. I think I said most of what I wanted to say up top, so I'll cut the AN short!

Looking forward to writing the next chapter! Ja-ne!