Aono's Kaleidescope

by Inu-shommaru

Tsukune Aono, human, completely average... right? In this iteration, not quite. A boy who has known the meaning of misery stands in his place now, and his crimson eyes glare into the world as a testiment to this. Will the kaleidescope change anything? Note: Crossover change successful.

10. Wolves Descend

G'day Ladies and Gents. Now, before I get to answering the REVIEWS (Of which there were a decidedly moderate chunk missing compared to the norm as has been assumed based upon the past three chapters) I have a few announcements to make. First, I must inform you that I am, indeed alive... Now many of you might have thought that this was clear when I posted my last update, but I fear some of you believed me to be a zombie.

That is not the case. As it is, the best I can fathom is that some of you beleived that this not-T-virus could be transferred electronically. I am fairly certain it can't. If you start to gnaw on your arm, hit yourself. If you then attack yourself vigorously, I apologize and admit I was wrong. I will not, however, pay for nor attend your funeral.

Secondly, I and my beta/almost co-author have been reworking this story's plans. It has shifted towards a new direction that will incorporate a bit more direct Naruto-universe content. As such, it's future now violates the 'soft rules' allowing me to keep this story strictly in the R+V archive and as such, it will be changing place...within the year. Don't act like you don't know I'm a lazy SOB.

Finally... I STOLE A PIE!

Now, to respond to reviews (For which my literary stomach growls from starvation.)

Kuyou Fox: You sly little bastard! Thanks for finally reviewing... Fuckin' stuffed plushie. Anywhore, you think the future of this story will be as we both hope? For your - and my own sake (Sanity- I hope so as well.

Pyromania101: Homework? The hell happened to that bloody dog and it's insatiable appetite? Disregarding that, thank you for reviewing, my friend. I'm not sure what I will do with Tamao... It's not that including her would cause any problems, but I am simply unsure of if she warrants a more recurring role. Might do a poll... Might forgo it.

As for our beautiful snow flower... She will turn up soon-ish, though it will only be in cameos; she won't be joining the 'group' for a bit longer... After the group, well... Can't spill the beans, yet. Let's just say that the Mizore lovers will be pacified if I am able to pull this off decently.

Ressan: Thank you once more for your review, and that will be revealed in time. I will give you a little peace and let you know that the revelation is coming within the next five to seven chapters, and I can only hope that it is a decent reveal.

As for his training, well... I have his physical training and a few unique branches of training planned out and easily beleivable. Adding in the Shinobi techniques is a bit trickier... I've developed a way to make it work, but it's a bit crude, that is it may not be the smoothest explanation I've ever made.

SilverFLameHaze: I feel I must thank you on three fronts. The first, of course, is for reviewing plain and simple; not many take the time out to do it - for myself and others deserving of it. The second, is for the empathy towards that missed oppertunity. While it had, indeed, passed and di put me in a rut, I managed to drag myself out and got another slot of work, which I used a portion of to acquire this laptop.

My third and final thanks is more suited to you, specifically. I perused your profile and realized the thin path I have carved that fits within your preferences... Pfreferences which, I admit, we both share. However, as you, myself and many more likely know, preference doesn't breed niche.

Since you like this story, you may like another which will be coming out soon. Keep an eye out for it, Keelah Se'lai.

(T)ellimicus (Sun)dance: I will refer to you as T-sun, I have decided as I am quenched for time - must get this done before going to town in less than twelve hours and it is four in the morning, and I still must sleep.

While I agree Moka is a bitch, your data is a little skewered... Of course, you may be referring to what the anime has stated, and if that is the case, I am clueless. Most of my readers are aware that I lack local internet, and so downloading manga is my only connection to the series. Ergo this fact that the rosario can only be unclipped due to certain feelings, or that he is called Moka's 'Destined One' is lost on me (And shame on the translaters for THAT.)

Now as for Tsukune catching her easily? He didn't, but he is also not that knowledgable of his own powers yet. It would be akin to someone in a state of shock doing something extremely strenuous - like lifting a car. They don't know just how damaging it was/could have been to them until it wears off, or a proffessional looks at them. Not a great analogy, but I'm not here for my skills of comparison.

You're right, I made my own mechanism to the rosary which has yet to be revealed, and it should be clear that he doesn't LOVE Moka... She's physically desireably, and she does have an innocent personality, both of which somewhat attact him - but that doesn't mean he LOVES her.

Put it another way, think back to that one girl that you would've like to dig out and dive into, but knew that a tiger and a deer would find more in common than the two of you. No LOVE, no desire for much of a long relationship... Simple carnal attraction.

To quote you, 'That aside', thank you for enjoying the story thus far and reviewing. Also, I would like to take a look at this idea you have. PM it to me, and I will get back to you with my thoughts.

Goichi: Totally...

Guest: Thank you for your review? Also, FUCK! I've been face-booked!

Face-booked, noun: When people use you as a median to argue, without adressing you, yourself and at times ignoring you altogether.

I hate facebook.

Prodigal Priest:

First, quick Priest, I need a blessing for I have been Face-Booked!

Secondly... Hahahah! Well, I will tell you that optomism dies here, for now at least. Enjoy the reception and Gin's Debut with a grain of salt... I tried to do something beleiveable considering he IS a WEREWOLF.

Tell me how I did.

ManlyMonk:

Picked up on that did you? Yeah, I placed that part to hint to future events, and such a thing is entirely possible although they will have some serious issues to work through, first. As far as the 'dreams' go, well, as I've told numerous people: all will be revealed in less than ten chapters.

Guest: Thank you for your Review. Also, I STOLE A PIE!

Hyptohetical Spiritual Entity: Indeed, that is a terrible pit-fall that many do fall through. You are not alone in the infuriating rage that swells when such a thing happens. Unfortunately, there are times when it must happen lest Writers Block set in, and for that I apologize in advance for ever doing so.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for elaborating on that; you speak the truth. He does have a lot of time to himself, and between his past and analyzing that, and Asura teaching him to keep a level head amongst other things that are to be revealed, he knows that lying to himself for mere ego and pride is detrimental. Best to have hurt pride and fix that hole in your stance than brag about your 'glorious' bullet wound killing you in t-minus 10 seconds...

I understand completely then. I had the same, but mine were borne of a manic depressive background, more-so than simple anger that built up - though there was plenty of that, too. Yeah, it's amazing just how wimply one can outwit and demoralize one's adversaries by the simplest of actions - crude and aggressive may they be. Complete indifference shows weakness, but once faced and coming out on top, it serves its purpose and most stay wary. The dog that doesn't bark, and all that.

And I look forward to your next review, my quantum entangled artificial intelligent friend.

Melkor44 (Or Melko, not sure, sorry.): Thank you for that compliment, and you deserve a goddamned cookie for noticing that! Not a single person mentioned my attempt to gift them with an extended chapter for making them wait so damn long.

I enjoyed your hypothesis, but I will have pity on you. It doesn't happen in the canon Naruto timeline; while it has elements OF Naruto's main storyline in it, it holds no canon chronological times and the villages don't exist; at best, this takes place in an alternate Warring Clans Era.

I am greatful for you explaining my folly to me, and I will attempt to make up for it. Please make note that this chapter, through thirteen, have been completed and being the lazy SOB I am, I may not correct them. However, future chapters WILL be corrected of this issue.

You are correct in your assessment.

Well, Tamao displayed wavering signs of guilt in the fight, near the end. Thus, it only made sense to have her attempt to make ammends - to me, at least. I figured that Kurumu, being who she is -outspoken and very opinionated - would be the best candidate for an outburst of anger; she's very shaken at Tsukune's state and his potential killer tries to give him aid. She doesn't seem like the type to handle stress silently and well, so the paranoia and added anger taken into consideration, and she just... Explodes.

I am unsure if she will. Pehrpas, but don't hold your breath for it.

Thank you for your well-wishes!

Bigreader the Omniverse: I will say thanks for your corrections here. I never would have noticed the 'Dismember it', more-so than the others.

Nah, my stories are infected with the not-T-virus. Zombie stories that feed on other stories...Somehow. Leaving that derailed train of nuclear horse-piss behind, It does indeed exist in an AU timeline.

I agree with your feelings on that, though I think I've a far-off explanation. They're on a different planet that gets sent the shitty prototypes of Apple devices. Hence, computers and iHearts EKG machines, but not Mossbergs, furbies (remember those little evil bastards?), or Su-47's.

Jutsu: In a way, Training montage: Less of a montage, more of several trainers buffing him behind and somewhat in view of every chapter, Big weapon vs. Skill: Plans, lots of plans.

Guest: Hulu, I told you, go put your tampon in and stop bleeding all over the goddamned floor! The maid JUST cleaned from your inconsiderate tryst LAST CHAPTER!

Fuckin'... Basketball... Sunset... Down with the bloody red bitch!

Disclaimer: I own this as much as I own your first born krumpet. To help me own your first born krumpet, I have put this petition together. If you would please sign, I would appreciate it. 'Down with the blood red bitch!' I STOLE A PIE!

Chapter 10: Wolves Descend.

His eyes narrowed as he dodged another spinning heel kick with a one-handed cartwheel and subsequently avoided a sweep kick by the second man with sheer luck. As he straightened himself from the cartwheel, he was forced back to miss the thin, sharp rod passing mere inches away from his head. He released a sigh and grunted with a jump.

Entering into a spinning heel-kick in mid-air, he knocked one of the men across the face, sending him to the ground – though he didn't stay there for long. 'Just a few more minutes...' He thought to himself and took in a deep breath while preforming a set of hand seals, then wordlessly released a volley of six soft-ball sized plumes of fire which spread out in a ninety-degree arc before him.

"Housenka? I would have thought better of you, Uchiha!" Chouza Akamichi spat out and enlarged his right arm, swatting the fast balls of fire into nothingness. The Uchiha shook his head and jumped back twice, just in time for the redheaded man to realize that a slight pain was prickling the underside of his shrinking arm. Turning it over, his black eyes widened upon seeing the six shuriken stuck into his flesh, all of them covered with one of the unique and signature weapons of the Uchiha clan: paper bomb seals.

And each of the three covering every shuriken was alight. "Go, get outta here!" Chouza exclaimed in panic, worrying for his two comrades rather than his own safety. The slightly shorter one beside him, a stalky brunette man with pure blue eyes nodded and jumped away, "Right away, come Raiga!"

Sighing in an annoyed manner, the slightly feminine man retreated back as well, "Fine. I was so looking forward to preforming funeral rights, too..." The cool gray eyes of the tallest man of the three glared with boredom and a more than a little gloom through Chouza and to the Uchiha across from him. He tightened his hands around the two sharp pikes that were his weapons and helped to power and direct his jutsu, in both anticipation and annoyance.

In just five seconds, the tags went off with a massive explosion, kicking up a great deal of dust and smoke from the black powder. It was the perfect environment for a surprise attack – one which their opponent used well. In literally no time, Raiga found himself dodging another volley of 'pheonix flowers', expecting them to also contain explosive tag-laden shuriken. After dodging a thrown set of kunai, he looked over and briefly noted that his hunch was correct, before he found himself in a predicament as from point blank range, he heard, "Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu!"

"Goddamnit!" Raiga yelled and jumped to the side, only to see another masked Uchiha jump in his way with a single seal made with his hands and then stomp his foot on the ground, cracking the earth mere inches in front of him to send forth a curtain of fire. Gritting his teeth, he jumped high into the air, avoiding both jutsu when from behind him, words were whispered in his ear, "Today, the earth claims you as it's prize. Katon: Neppa!"

Raiga growled and spun around, drawing his two pikes which he considered to be short swords and crossed them, coursing electrified energy through them, "Raikyuu!" Rapidly, the electricity condensed into a ball of lightning that was hurled at the Uchiha who had just slammed his hands together. The crackling ball flew at the Uchiha who was hit, however he simply faded from sight, 'What!?'

Shifting his weight as best he could, he noticed that his opponent was beneath him. Gritting his teeth, the gloomy man felt a great rage boil within him; he'd been tricked! 'Fucking Uchiha and their illusions! I'll bury this bastard, or die trying!' He mentally assured himself, and brought his swords together, "Raiton: Raiden!"

Performing a mid-air flip to set himself upright, Raiga began to charge as much lightning-nature energy around and within his body as he could physically handle. The crackling of his body was only beaten by the sudden and intense flashes of white, blue, and bright yellow sparks of the multiple polarity currents connecting around him. Raiga's continuing yell from the end of the name of this technique had turned into a maniacal laughter as his gloomy-turned-maddened eyes glared down to the featureless Uchiha while he descended faster and faster to his target.

Within fifteen feet of his target, Raiga's speed suddenly increased and the last few feet were passed in literally a second as he slammed into the ground. The massive explosion of sparks died down, revealing a small crater and a visibly fatigued Raiga. His target, the Uchiha however, lay not beneath him twitching with the many volts of electricity coursing through his body. Instead, from behind him, an infuriated Raiga only heard the words, "Die."

The only thing he saw was the rushing form of the Uchiha, carrying a short wakizashi in a reverse grip. He didn't know what had hit him before the searing pain in his neck took hold and his vision blurred away, just as a feeling of numbness and vertigo overcame him. Raiga would think he had died at the hands of the Uchiha who had beheaded him, the truth however... wasn't such.

Laying atop the man was the vacant eyed form of the blue eyed man, three shurkien glowing orange in heat and still charring the clothes the man wore whilst boiling the skin near the incision. Through his throat was a long pike, roughly a foot and a half in length with a small hoop at the end.

When he had been skewered with the pike, it had launched the Fuuma clan member backwards where he had landed and stabbed Raiga through the crown of his skull, killing him instantly. The masked Uchiha slowly walked up to the duo and watched them, studying their death poses, contemplating something only he would know, deep in the recesses of his mind. He stood, as if waiting for something to happen, and finally... It did.

"Uchiha! You fucking wretched red-eyed bastard, you've killed my comrades!" The unmistakable voice of Chouza yelled out in fury. The Uchiha barely inclined his head to acknowledge his last adversary, and calmly backed away to dodge the shallow right-hook which extended outwards a good five feet as the limb grew to titanic proportions.

"Interesting that you would say that, Akamichi," He listlessly spoke with a hint of amusement. Chouza growled and jumped into the air, and immediately began to increase his body mass in great proportions to the point that he was easily fifteen feet tall and ten times as heavy. His angered face stared down at the diminutive stick that was the damnable Uchiha as he fell through the air, "This is for Takashi-san!"

The Uchiha lifted his head and an audible sigh escaped his obscured lips. Performing a set of hand-seals, he whispered, "Katon: Houka" Within a second an orange-yellow ball of fire escaped through the ten holes where his mouth was and shot into the air quickly, colliding with the large chest of the enormous Akamichi, where it exploded into a twenty-foot plume, blowing a one-foot hole through the man's armor, scorching the armor around the explosion and searing any unprotected skin to a second degree burn.

However, Chouza had the final laugh and landed on top of the Uchiha, squashing him into a bloody paste. Or so it seemed. The redheaded man's body decreased in size as he pulled himself to his feet, leaving him standing in a five-foot deep crater of his own design, only to have his torso separated from his waist.

Screaming, however, was not heard. Instead, Chouza merely chuckled bitterly as his lower half fell apart into ash and was scattered by the wind while, at the same time, his stomach began to produce ash which soon bulged and contorted into vague leg shapes before gaining color, revealing his lower limbs clothed in the same clothes as he, himself was, "Thought you had me, didn't you?"

A single, short chortle escaped the ambiguous Uchiha, "No... I honestly expected the other two to be corpse-walkers, too. A shame, it's such a pity to have to waste this on just you."

Anger was present on Chouza's visage, however there was also disbelief and curiosity just as evident now. He soon sauntered up his diminished courage and ran at the Uchiha, enlarging his fist which the black haired man easily dodged beneath. As he spun around, so had Chouza and he had increased his body size by roughly a half and was once more running towards the Uchiha, "Nikudan Sensho!"

He jumped into the air and his entire body turned bulbous and round, and soon began to spin. As he landed, his body spun out with a little difficulty before he raced with menacing force towards the enemy of his benevolent lords, the Senju. The Uchiha stood in place, watching with what seemed to be boredom as the large rolling body-made-projectile came towards him with the full intent of squashing him flat and ending his existence.

Suddenly, his stance changed – just a minute amount – and he braced himself with his legs, "Senju Tobirama, your brilliant mind's tweaking of your tragic ritual has become useless."

Within the thin eye-sockets of the mask, if one were looking at just the right angle, they would have seen the three tomoe sharingan which was swirling in orbit around the pupil shift, elongating into three points that then curved and left an ever thinning black line trailing to the right of it, connecting half-way up the 'sickle' next to it.

"Goodbye, Chouza," The Uchiha murmured as the titanic wrecking ball of flesh came ever closer, "Kamui."

The world warped, and curled in on itself, upon Chouza. A black pin-prick erupted at the epicenter, where, for a split second, everything was blindingly white. The visible world bent and shuttered for just a second before the body of the Akimichi sunk into the black hole. Without a sound, it faded away and the world returned to normal, only a few small scraps of clothing and a chink of his curiass left behind.

It was strange, Tsukune finally decided as he sat in his hospital bed sipping a cup of water that Inagi-san had given him, the way he had awoken from this latest dream-vision of his. Unlike most of the other times, his Sharingan had been active, it's crimson scintillation bathing his room in a light angry hue and tinging his vision with a light red tint.

Neither, he quickly discovered, had he been out of breath or covered in sweat as he usually had been. This, he figured, was not normal and thus was strange, and so, he had decided that a meditation was in order to see if something within him had changed somehow, or if he was simply...getting used to it, perhaps?

The immediate issue he found was that he couldn't meditate. The irritating reason for this was simple: the heart monitor behind him and to his left was steadily emitting the continuous cycle of noises, interrupting the induction of his mental surveillance. He had quickly given up, after contemplating the destruction of said medical equipment before deciding that the impending lecture, possible fines and likely punishment wasn't worth the trouble.

So he waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Twice, the nurse had come in and checked up on him, and then once more to bring him lunch which, while it wasn't 'hospital food' – using the common expression, it certainly wasn't the greatest assortment. Clearly some kind of...meat, but he knew that such information should remain undisclosed, for the survival of his appetite.

Eating most of the 'catered' food, Tsukune found himself staring out the window to his hospital room, a light frown tugging at his lips. His thoughts were on his time with the girls the previous night, and everything which had transpired... It was...nice, he had finally decided. Spending time with people – especially people whom he had a light fondness of, and who had an equal or greater closeness to him... as irrational as such a thing was to him.

'Perhaps not irrational, but more towards a lack of caution?' He pondered, and finally nodded, pleased with his rectification of his thoughts. He realized that progress had been made between the three of them, whether they or he liked it, or not; something he wasn't quite capable of answering with one-hundred percent clarity. He felt a connection form between himself and Kurumu as she retold how she, Moka and the mermaid managed to bring him to the infirmary – how utterly worried she and Moka were for his safety.

Such loyalty and concern wasn't something you could simply brush off, especially considering his track-record preceding the events. Only if he cared naught for his integrity and his own -ablieit skewered- form of honor could he allow himself to ignore their actions and continue on with his path.

A light grunt was made, the only sign of mild frustration in the solitary teen's thoughts. Then, there was what the voice had said. It was all disconcerting and more than a little worrying, if cryptically annoying. 'Bearing the burden which your eyes will continue to place on you by yourself, that will lead to your failure' What does that mean? A curse they may be considered, but I find it arduous to believe that their 'burden' would 'crush' someone... So many meanings, so few answers, hn.'

It frustrated him – how the voice would only speak in cryptic verbal poises, especially when – if he were correct – it was something that held quite a bit of weight over his future. Placing that momentarily on the back-burner, Tsukune turned his attention to Inagi-san who had once more entered his room with a very mild pep in her step. As she walked up to the side of his bed, he eyed the clipboard which she held firmly in her grip, 'She's giving the newest documentation a fair bit of attention. Likely, I've been resigned to take a few tests, more time in here, damn it all.'

"Well, Aono-san, " Inagi began, fiddling with the paper clipped at the forefront of her board, eyes squinted lightly behind her glasses, "I do believe that I have some good news for you."

Outwardly, he continued to eyes her in a nearly bored stare from the corner of his eye, though his thoughts shifted as to what may be written upon the leaflet that held a major portion of her attention. His luck would have likely intervened, causing the doctor's to find some rare strain of virus that they'd 'need' to study – keeping him in quarantine as a direct sequential effect. At least, that's what he had figured, against his rational thoughts, which had placed the paper as a medical release from the medical ward.

Seeing the expectant, but otherwise blank stare of the brunette teen, her light lime green lips pursed upwards as a small, bemused laugh escaped as low as a whisper. Deciding to cut the threat he was proverbially hanging from, she informed him, "Well, as of five minutes ago – pending your signature – you may resume classes, so long as you yield to the health directives, attached to the form."

He nodded, silently asking for the paper while a low sigh of relief left his body. She gladly handed it over to him, secretly admiring the teen as she bent down, slowly taking in a deep breath of his scent. Tsukune pretended not to notice, if only so his good mood would endure, and proceeded to read over the entire paper.

After nearly three minutes, he nodded to himself with a calm expression, 'None of this is disagreeable, however I may end up out of my element, considering the mentality of some of the students here. Ergo 'Don't lift over ten pounds' is liable to be disregarded.' Keeping those thought to himself, he pulled the black pen free from the top of the clipboard and scribbled out his signature, absentmindedly cursing the silver balled chain that tethered the calligraphy tool to the board, "Thank you, Chikiru-san. May I remove the instruments now, or shall I wait?"

She shook her head, "I've got to be the one to remove them, otherwise any damage to the equipment or harm caused to you will be solely on your hands – policy, you understand."

He nodded, completely comprehending her reason and waited as she drew the curtain closed, then detached all of the monitoring electrodes and sensor pads from his chest and back, as well as the pulse monitor upon his index finger. It was tedious, but he supposed that five minutes of letting this woman clear him of hospital property, whilst also getting her fix of looking at him in a way that seemed borderline between Kurumu and Tamao – Lust and hunger – was bearable and easily beat having to potentially pay for damages to the hospital. Plus, she wasn't radiating the impending feeling of malicious harm, making it all the more bearable.

At long last, he was free to go – if only just. His first act of freedom was to change into what was salvageable of his clothing from a little over a week prior – those that weren't too ruined, or those that the doctors hadn't cut off of him. This was, unfortunately, nothing. With a light irritation visibly showing, he made his way to the dorm rooms in a set of baby blue scrubs that felt and likely were a size too small, however he reigned in his ire and ignored the stares, gossip, and the overall feeling of claustrophobia induced by said clothes.

Barging into his room, Tsukune stopped as the smell of chocolate filled his nostrils with a mollifying velvet scent that literally had his mouth starting to salivate. It wasn't that he hadn't had sweets in quite a while – even though he hadn't, the last being the cookies which Kurumu had cooked for him after their battle – nor was it due to the fact that the hospital food was absolutely horrid.

The smell, for lack of better words, was absolutely intoxicating to him. It held such a sweet air that was palpable to the point it was nearly swimming in the air, and for once, he truly craved the morsels, wherever they may be. Looking around his dorm room, he didn't see anything of note on his extended island/bar, nor was there anything on the coffee table. Following his nose, he soon arrived in his bedroom to find a small plate of cookies, still wafting steam – though clearly not as much as a very fresh batch – and a small card folded before the ornate flower-printed plate.

Curiosity and wariness warded his hand away from the plat for the moment, as he instead picked up the outwardly blank card and flipped it over. Unbeknownst to him, as he read the contents of the 'latter', a smile crept ever so noticeably upon his face, 'Dear, Tsukune-kun! I've been worried about you since you were set within that awful hospital, and still couldn't stop thinking about you today. I decided to bake you these cookies in Home Ec... I hope they're still warm when you get to taste them! Think of me! Always yours ~ Kurumu.'

Several seconds passed as he re-read the message once, then twice. The feeling that had blossomed within the normally cold carapace that was his heart had him intrigued, though confused. It was easily similar to the warmth he felt towards Moka and Kurumu when he was around them, especially as of last night. However this particular feeling was somewhat less intense, yet oddly more chaotic within his proverbial emotional matrix. Shrugging, he opted to think it over at a later time as he popped one of the cookies gingerly into his mouth and nearly slumped to the ground. Nearly.

The dough itself had a slight, very slight tang of salt to it in addition to the creamy chocolate chips that melted easily in his mouth and ravished his tongue. More-over, he detected a taste that was foreign, yet had the same intricacies as a whole as the chocolate, hidden beneath the other flavors with just enough out to tantalizing his senses. He would later find it out to be a core of white chocolate melted into the dough.

Recovering from the euphoric sensation, the last Aono closed the curtains over his window and stripped himself of his already negligible clothing and examined his chest and what he could see of his back. New scars littered his body, although they were far less noticeable than he had expected; having more of his natural skin-tone as well as not rising as high – nor being as thick – as wounds of that magnitude generally healed to be.

As he eyed the wounds, he felt the all-too-familiar tingling of his eyes before the wounds seared in pain, and for just a moment, he could swear he'd felt them rip open again and begin to seep his life's blood from them. Blinking away the macabre thoughts, as well as his Sharingan, Tsukune gathered a spare school uniform and quickly donned it. 'Odd, I'll refrain from doing any such thing until such a time that I've nothing to do... This is worrisome.'

It didn't take him long to get his shoes back on and grab a small snack in the form of a celery stick to tide him over, and then hit the dusty trail that led to the Academy. The path was completely scarce of people, and for once, Tsukune felt somewhat exposed without other people walking, giving him yet another way to blend in and hide from any potential pursuers. He couldn't place exactly why such a thing bothered him now, when normally he'd care little about such things.

'Perhaps', he mulled in his mind, 'I've become paranoid after this recent attack. Probable, though unlikely. Hn...' As he continued down the path, casting a glance over his shoulder every few steps he took. The odd inkling that he got of malice and hunger – like that of the eyes that plagued him up until a week prior, the week of clubs and the mermaid incident.

So caught up in his paranoia was he that he didn't quite catch the fact that he began to take a divergent trail – an oft used, but thinner trail that was nestled oppressively between a massive grave-yard, or at least a patch of ground littered in ten times the Academy ground's normal amount. In contrast, the trees that clumped together around the paths seemed to thin, and one could easily see the gated in Track and sports field sitting before the gymnasium.

Seeing as it was the last class of the day, and even then, nearing the final ten minutes in said class, there was nary a soul putting the faux grass field to use and thus no one to correct the teen as he passed it by, managing to make his way back onto the covered walkway. He blinked, nonplussed for but a second before his mind rendered his self-composed mental map of the grounds, and his expression set into a blank stare once more, 'Now, to successfully reach Nekonome-sensei...'

As he passed through the small gap between the two metal covers, his eyes caught sight of something that shouldn't have been there: obscuring a small portion of the wall - in a nook where the two-story high main building of the gym met the one-story changing rooms and storage closets that protruded in a three-sided arch around the otherwise square building- was an irregular form that, when he flashed his Sharingan, was afire in a dim, gray energy and twitched horribly in the decreased viewing speed. Narrowing his eyes ever so slightly, Tsukune frowned and silently strode closer, curious as to the suspicious activities this obviously organic being was indulging in.

He crept up to the side of the mortar and stone building, noting the muted sounds of light whimpering, and whispering. 'Odd,' he thought to himself, brows knitting in suspicion as he knelt down just enough to gather his strength and pushed a negligible amount of youki into his muscles, allowing him to easily land on the outcropping's roof. His landing made little noise, and had the form of the obvious male crouched before him the capability to hear such a sound, he was far too distracted for such a delicate task.

Ignoring the biting pain that ignited in his pelvis and hip from the exertion, he strode slowly behind the other person, intent on seeing exactly what had caught his attention. The teen was of average build, Tsukune noted, though he had broader shoulders than most, indicating a potential higher upper-body strength – although, considering one's 'Human form' was an elaborate illusion for the most part- it was merely speculation. The iconic green blazer hung slack against his crouched form, and a swathe of messy black hair that sat atop his crown almost like a mane finalized all the preliminary details he could gather about the teen, himself.

Strafing a bit, Tsukune suddenly stopped as he noticed the thick windows that sat diagonally against the crevice between the two buildings, and more importantly, the image he could see through it. Though it was glared slightly from his position, he could easily make out the numerous girls walking to and fro within the room – only, this wasn't any ordinary room. Silver metal lockers lined the far wall, and a few rows lined up in perpendicular rows to the back row could be seen, separated by several white-wood changing benches.

Amongst all of these aesthetics stand many, many girls. Girls in various states of dress – or undress, as it were; some ruffling their physical education shirts – a white, form-fitting piece of cloth that was stitched with blue around the hem and collar, along with having their name written on it in the center. Others still walked about in a numerous collection of undergarments – Sports Bras and panties, all the way up to lacy bustier and thongs - as they changed, all slowly returning to their proper school attire.

His chocolate eyes narrowed even more after seeing this. It was one thing to admire the female form, to admire them in however you desired in a public setting – and more so – in private, although the former was a bit tasteless if overdone. It was, however, an entirely different thing to ogle women – or anyone, for that matter – whilst they perceived themselves to be safe, in an environment that held at bay the ogling eyes of most.

Just as Tsukune was about to speak to the other teen, a snicker escaped him, "Oh yeah, shoe me what you're workin' with!" Immediately after that, a mechanical whirring emitted from the crouched black-haired teen, followed by another. 'Pictures? Pathetic waste of space...' Tsukune thought to himself, a sneer of disgust upturning on his lips, and it turned to rage when another sight caught his peripheral, returning his gaze to the window.

Standing in a pair of white panties with a bit of intricate frill along the elastic band, and a matching bra that barely held her generous assets within them, was Kurumu Korono, resident Succubus and Tsukune's newest friend. To the far edge of his vision – from what he could see through the window – was Moka Akashiya meekly holding a conversation with the cerulean haired seductress as she finished ruffling her skirt and went on to button up her dress shirt, obscuring the black bra with pink bat stitching across the cups, already mildly obscured by her rosary.

Another mechanical whirring brought Tsukune out of his reverie and he quickly suppressed the crimson blush that had tinted his cheeks, schooling the rest of his features behind that of a narrow-eyed thin-lipped mask. Placing a hand on the peeper's shoulder he squeezed, hard, "Such a shame that you're fool-hearty enough to spy on the unwary, yet can't grouse enough will – or perhaps moral, something it seems you're lacking in as well – to work your way up to such a privilege."

The teen stiffened for a moment before he began to turn, chuckling nervously. His free hand made it up to the back of his head and scratched, ruffling his unkempt black hair, "It's not a lack of morals, it's just far more fun, y'know?"

He opened his eyes, and Tsukune could immediately see the anxiety that was pooled within him. In addition to that, he could also see the mischievous glint prevalent beneath that anxiety, 'He's planning something. Be on guard.' Tsukune allowed a smirk to pull at his lips and rebutted the teen, eying the strange almost-pink headband that held his wild hair out of his face, "Fun, indeed? Let us see how fun it truly is, then!"

As he shifted his weight slightly, the other teen made his move hastily, and attempted to sweep the smirking brunette's feet out from under him. This was easily enough jumped over, and was countered with a sharp shove accompanied by additional force from his knee which barely connected. The Sharingan host knew that he could easily hurt the other male who seemed more of a push-over than someone who'd rather fight, however that would be a waste of energy. Instead, his dual 'nudge' did exactly what he'd planned, and knocked the peeping tom onto the thick glass with an audible 'thunk'.

His smirk turned into a mild grin, and his eyes -though narrowed – crinkled into a mischievous glower, inspiring a truly disturbing image, "Enjoy the repercussions, fool." Without waiting any longer than to see the confused, and then horrified look on the dark claret eyed teen's face, he hopped off of the protruding building annex and began to speed-walk for a small distance around the gym, and managed to get onto the branching sidewalk that led to the Art Hall Annex within a few dozen seconds, 'Distance should be decent enough to help obfuscate any involvement I may be portrayed into having had...'

"And now," Tsukune murmured to himself, an undertone of amusement washing over his monotone, "for the fireworks." Dozens of girls, most dressed, but some still covering their forms in towels of varying color and design, barged out of the gymnasium's double doors and spread out, yelling angry obscenities.

"I see him, that peeping bastard is running into the woods!" He heard a shrill yell call from the mob of walking estrogen, and within moments they were all off! The brunette boy momentarily toyed with the thought of joining them in their holy crusade, if only for the pure amusement of seeing just how long it took them to realize a man was running alongside them. He shook the thought off, considering the danger to his person too great when factoring in the semi-nude women hiding behind a mere towel, and their unholy wrath. Still, he couldn't stop the wry smile that crawled onto his lips, "Better luck next time, fool."

As he turned to walk off, he heard another dozen yells, the most colorful of which was, "I'm gonna cut off your nads and shove 'em down your throat! Come back here, you prick-headed fuck tard!" Blinking, and at a loss for words, Tsukune merely walked off almost feeling sorry for the poor bastard. Almost.

Some time later, he estimated it to be about twenty minutes, Tsukune finally stood on the third floor of Youkai Academy's main building. Unlike the rest of the school, this floor's architecture was somewhat different – specifically the build of the office before him – as instead of the light woods, ceramic tiles, stainless steel metals and the such that made up the materials used in the first two stories. This one seemed to have been made of stone and mortar, and had a deep oppressive feeling to them that seemed to visibly darken the stone.

He sighed and walked up to the door, "Must I always deal with these theatrics?" Despite his aloof, somewhat annoyed statement, it couldn't be argued that somewhere in his chest he felt the smallest twinge of trepidation as he passed the threshold. As he grabbed the brass knob and pushed the door open, the distinct smell of some kind of incense and a slight undertone of old books invaded his nostrils.

The brunette schoolboy looked around the office, and noted that it was just the front – that there was another doorway, oddly shadowed perfectly so as to disguise it from prying eyes – of the office, likely used for reception. The walls were set in a deep crimson with paneling of mahogany on both the bottom and the top, and every fifteen feet had a thick, cylindrical column of the same wood rising from the hardwood floor covered with ornate purple and orange rugs to the ceiling. Both flanking walls from the entrance held a set of bookshelves that spanned the entire height of the room, a grandiose thirty feet – or so it seemed.

Behind the hardwood desk stood the figure that Tsukune had come to see. His mystical white priest cowl shadowed his face in almost the same way that the second doorway was shrouded, and yet two dim luminescent orbs smoldered in the shadow of his face playing the part of his eyes. Flashing his Sharingan for just a moment, Tsukune nearly froze upon seeing purple criss-crossing lines and odd symbols shimmering in an almost neon brilliance across the room, not to mention the massive black and white – but not gray – puddle of energy that was the Headmaster's signature, as according to his crimson eyes.

"Ah, you've arrived." The sentence was one of pleasant approval, yet the unnatural baritone in his voice would have sent shivers down the back of a lesser man. As it was, Tsukune had to physically suppress them as he felt the sensation of eyes upon him, yet he couldn't quite tell if the Headmaster was looking at him. A small grin appeared on the only part of the robe-garbed man's face that wasn't completely shrouded, "Now, what is it you require, Aono-san?"

He felt a small tick of irritation prick his mind, 'You know full well why I'm here, standing before you.' Despite his feelings, the teen had garnered the notion that it would be best to simply play along, for now, "Nekonome-Sensie instructed me to appear before you, that you had something you needed to speak to me about."

That damnable grin grew just a few centimeters as the holy-man turned to face Tsukune. It was disturbing to feel his observant gaze taking him in, nearly penetrating his physical being and peering into his metaphysical body – his soul. The nausea from this odd violation, or perhaps ogling of his person, literally churned his stomach. No, not his stomach – it was his psychic bond with the voice! Somehow, one of them had created a one-way bridge to the other and their displeasure was affecting the recipient.

"So she did." His terse reply, contradicting the grin on his face, only served to further irritate the teen who nodded tersely back, "Indeed. She did." Suddenly, the smile was gone, and the Headmaster reached into his robes and fished around for a moment. This continued, and continued, and continued, until finally he retrieved a folded piece of parchment that was closed with his wax seal – a crucifix over-top a pentagram, "Adhere to what is within – it is crucial that you do so. Aono-san."

Blinking at the offered parchment in confusion, he squashed the scoff that wanted to escape and wordlessly took the yellowed paper, slicing the seal in half with a crisp flick of his finger. Within was simply a statement informing him that he was to be placed within the Newspaper Club on account of his inability to enter a proper club in time, and his hospitalized status. He narrowed his eyes in a bored glare, 'I was sent here to obtain something which I already deduced? My time has been wasted, critically so.'

His glare turned to the Headmaster, only to find him strangely absent. He thought better of flashing his Sharingan in an attempt to find his signature – the less people knew, the better – especially those in any position of power. Shaking his head, Tsukune's mouth fell to a thin line as he left the oppressive office, intent on reaching his new club and seeing how this entire farce would work. His only solace, he figured, was the fact that his two friends would be there – ensure that, at least, he wouldn't murder himself out of sheer boredom.

Back in the office, the Headmaster shifted out of his self-contained bubble of magic that blended the light around him, a grin slowly spreading across his mouth, "You will learn – in time – that everything has a purpose, Aono-san."

'Something worrisome surrounds the Headmaster.' Tsukune thought to himself, stuffing his hands in his pockets as his mind ran through a few ideals as to what the man had been searching for. He didn't have any proof, but he was sure the holy-man imitator was seeing into him – as in, looking at some part of him not normally visible. There was no other way that he'd have felt as violated as he did.

It caused a moment of pause as well, 'Does my Sharingan incite a similar feeling in people when I look at them? Hn. At some point, I'll have to test it.' Nodding at this train of thought, he stored it for a later date and exited the stairs, turning left and nearly bumped into a young girl who was running past giggling. He muttered an apology and continued on, not noticing the girl's tilted head, then the frown as she continued on own the stairs.

He was fortunate that he missed the water that appeared out of nowhere and splashed on the empty space three paces back. Casting a queer gaze to the anomaly, he shrugged, "Stranger things have happened, I know it."

How impossibly right and wrong he was, though he didn't know it yet. As it was, Tsukune sighed as he approached the room – English, though the little monster cards holding the class numbers had shifted to state that it was the Newspaper Club. 'Let's get this over with,' the last Aono said to himself as he pushed the door open and immediately, "Tsukune-kun!"

The cry of two excited girls exclaimed and he immediately found himself momentarily shoved into the Succubus'...neck? It seemed that, either she missed, or decided to try a hug that wasn't so sexually charged – perhaps due to their talk the night previous. That train of thought however, was lost when Kurumu was lightly hip-checked out of the way by Moka who hugged him lightly, wary of any wounds he might still have before pulling away with a blush and a smile.

"You got out, Tsukune-kun?" Moka asked, a gentle smile and the receding blush still present. Kurumu finally came back into the picture by way of lightly pulling Tsukune's arm to her side, and as a consequence, mashing her breast against it. He felt that familiar tightness in his chest and abdomen, but calmed himself as Kurumu spoke up with a light glare aimed at the vampire, "Of course he's out! He's too great to be shacked up in some bed, with tubes and," she shuddered, "needles."

Arching an eyebrow, Tsukune asked the obvious, "Aichmophobia?" The blue-haired bombshell turned to him with a lost expression and blinked, "Umm..."

Moka allowed a teasing smile to show as she walked up to her friend and poked her in the temple, "Fear of needles, Kurumu-chan." The Succubus pouted and swatted the hand away, glaring at the vampire whilst holding Tsukune's arm tighter to her, "No, I'm not scared of needles, they just... There's only a few things I am comfortable penetrating my skin,"

Both the brunette and the rosette felt their cheeks heat up at the innuendo, though Tsukune managed to cool himself off quickly. Moka however let out a squeek, "K-Kurumu-chan, don't say things like that! You're insane!" The giggles that then escaped the vampire soon mixed with the Succubus, and Tsukune even felt enamored in the humorous air and eventually let a barely audible set of chuckles loose.

"Alright, settle down now!" Nekonome said, appearing from no-where. Tsukune eyed the door, wondering when the jubilant cat-like woman had snuck her way in. The three-some quickly took their seats in the front row of desks, the two girls knowing roughly what Nekonome was going to see, while Tsukune looked on in false boredom.

The blond woman smiled, her eyes squinted closed as she placed her hands together on the podium before her, "It's my pleasure to welcome you, Aono-san, to the Newspaper Club! I'm glad to see that you went to the Headmaster – I barely caught you in the hall, nya!" She worried her face and then blinked, "Gin-kun should be along any moment now; there was some kind of disturbance over by the gym, so I'm sure he's being himself and sniffing it out!"

'Not likely,' Tsukune thought with a rare smug tone, envisioning the hilarious ways in which the women would likely skin him alive for doing such a pathetic thing. While he didn't have a problem with violence, he would rather not fight as his 'Interceptor Fist' was designed inpart to stop enemy combos and send them back, but more so... It was designed to decimate his foes. Death wasn't an option he eagerly chose to seek, but that most certainly didn't mean he didn't have a sadistic side...

Being trained by Asura Momochi left one with a great desire to inflict pain, if only to spite the damnable man's memory. Luckily, he could reign in his emotions and was likely one of the top ten least impulsive people in Japan, if not possibly the entire Far East, 'Save Buddhist Monks, but I refuse to count them.'

"Today, after Gin-kun arrives, I would like you all to begin to write the paper's supplementary columns," Nekonome mewled as she looked between them all, and then at the brunette teen, "I'm sure you can ask either of these two, or your sempai, if you're confused."

Casting a sideways glance at Moka and Kurumu, Tsukune nodded and the two smiled back at him. It was nice to have friends, he decided after a few moments. He hadn't exactly participated in any 'friendly' activities that he knew of, and wasn't entirely sure just what friends were to do with one another, but... It was still a nice feeling. That didn't mean that he was too eager for more friends; it was still an alien and strange concept, but he'd gotten used to the two beauties that had stuck by him thus far.

"Nya, anyways, I've got to get to a staff meeting; I'm sure the three of you can handle yourselves until Gin arrives." With that said, the ever joyous blonde-haired cat woman lightly skipped out of the classroom, peeking her head back in for just a moment to say, "Ja ne!" With a twitch of her not-ear hair tufts, she was gone and the door closed.

Kurumu groaned, "She's had to go to a 'staff meeting' three times already!" She placed her face within her hands for a moment, before springing back to life and jumped from her desk to jump onto Tsukune's back, her lower body slinking haphazardly onto the desk behind him, "I'm so excited; being in the same club with Moka-chan has been fun, but it's going to get even more enjoyable with you hear, finally!"

Moka nodded, "We've both missed you, and while Gin has been nice to us, it's been... Ano, difficult..." A light smile crept upon her pink lips and with just the tip of her tiny fang peeking out in conjunction with the single stray cowlick, it made for a cute image. Kurumu released him from the backwards hug and moved to stand, as the other two did, "If Gin tries anything now, I know that Tsukune-kun can save me, too~!"

The vampire sighed in a mixture of amusement and annoyance as the busty girl brought up her damsel act, though it had much turned into a satire now, a way to both flirt with him and laugh at their first true meeting. She still hadn't figured her feelings out for Tsukune, but she tried to keep a lid on the ire that popped up whenever Kurumu would flirt with him; she knew she was jealous, but why, she simply couldn't figure out – and there were a number of reasons, some of which were shameful to her.

Still, she didn't want to impede the happiness of her first friend and her second best friend, yet she also refused to stand on the way-side and be outdone, ignored, or passed-by. Yet, she also felt that Tsukune held no such feelings for either of them at times – a feeling that send a wave of worry and trepidation through her. She sighed and smiled, thinking of the brunette boy a mere arms-length away,

'I hope... I hope that we'll always...'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door opening to reveal a fairly tall teen, roughly 5'7'' in height, nearly what Tsukune himself happened to be. His black hair was slicked back, and yet still held a wild sort of look to it, as if he were a beast that roamed the wild and merely tried to civilize himself. The mane of hair was held out of his face with a nearly-pink headband that was cracked on the edge, and sticking randomly out of his hair were bits and pieces of twigs and leaves.

The teen's dark claret eyes held a mischievous glint as he produced two bouquets of flowers, one a set of roses and the other, a mixture of butter-cups and daisies whom he presented to Moka and Kurumu with a flirtatious grin, respectively. Moka smiled gently and made a show of sniffing the flowers, then set them on her desk with nary another thought, clearly used to this routine – and annoyed with it, if the slightest narrowing of her eyes and the downturn of the corners of her lips were interpreted correctly.

Kurumu on the other hand nervously accepted the flowers and tried her best to be cool and cordial about it, but the look of lust the teen had beset upon her was causing her to feel flustered and lose her focus. She fiddled with the flowers for a moment, before taking a deep breath and looked over at Tsukune. The moment she saw the one she'd proclaimed to be her Destined One, all nervousness stripped away and she smiled contentedly, "Thanks, but no thanks, Gin-san... I only need my Destined One!"

As she gently set the roses back down, the teen shrugged, "Ah, well, at least I still have you two beauties in my club!" Suddenly noticing the new arrival, having ignored the big-titted girl's mentioning of him, Gin set about examining him with a critical eye and a friendly smile. He walked up to him and nodded his head whilst sticking his hand out, "Welcome to the Newspaper Club, I'm your club president, Morioka Ginei."

Visible surprise struck Tsukune for just a moment, "M-Morioka?" The surprise was palpable and struck him like a bolt of lightning raining down with unerring accuracy. How long had it been since he'd heard that name, six years? Long had he wondered about the policeman that had offered him solace and some form of closure on that chapter of his life; the one who'd assisted and was perhaps single handedly responsible for he and his mother's freedom.

Many thoughts ran through his head, some positive; the others a blend of neutral and negative. It took the normally quick-witted and analytical teen several moments to compose himself. The change was instant as the expressionless and jaded dull stare overtook the intelligent and surprised glimmer, and his mouth that had nearly been agape settled into a thin frown. Taking the other teen's hand, he shook it firmly, and noted the strength with which Gin squeezed his own, "Aono Tsukune."

With the terse introductions done, Gin let his eyes linger on Tsukune for a moment longer before the edge of his lip curved upwards. Casting his eyes onto the other two members, he nodded silently to himself and walked over to the podium-like desk, spying a few leaflets of paper, "Okay guys, today, we're going to be doing a few things: we need to write the columns for the paper to go along with our Front Page News, we need to research and gather information on the front page - which you've all chosen to go after the 'Rabid Peeper', and finally... We need to finish placing up the advertisement posters around the school."

Moka stepped up, an idea clearly on the forefront of her mind and the tip of her tongue, "Then we should start on the columns; they're the most time-consuming and we don't have any leads on the peeper, yet." The innocent vampire blinked her large jade eyes, awaiting the club president's ultimate decision, and it was a few seconds of thought before the black haired teen agreed, "Good thinking, Moka-chan. I wonder though, will we ever catch that bastard?"

Kurumu glanced to Moka, a distressed frown present for a moment as she remembered the large war-band that had erupted after gym had ended. She and Moka hadn't joined in, figuring that the peeper, as in all other cases, had vanished before he could be caught – and to their knowledge, he had.

Tsukune, on the other hand, sent a scathing glare Gin's direction, feeling his hand tighten into a fist and his youki flare within his body almost involuntarily. So, he was pretending to be innocent, going so far as to bring it up to speak ill of it. A decent tactic, he figured to himself, and dually-so as his less-than-decent interests lie with either of the two girls. 'Enjoy yourself whilst you can, but the moment you step out of line... I intend to set upon you the wrath of every woman in this school,' with a grim grin barely visible, Tsukune went along with the others, preparing to write the columns.

The first order of business was easily finished – pushing four desks into a makeshift table, and the second followed shortly; looking over newspapers from years past to figure out ideas for what to write in the column articles. After a minute, Kurumu looked up to Gin, "Can we write anything down, or is there a particular set of things we can talk about?"

Gin shook his head, losing his 'boyfriend grin' for the moment and adopting a more serious air, "Well, there's not a specific rule about what you can write, but it should be relevant to the events happening in, or around, the Academy." He noted the slightly crestfallen look on the blue haired girl's face and quickly backtracked, suddenly worried about ruining his chances with the girl, "Although! Although, if you tell me what you were hoping to do, I could see about letting it be published."

She immediately perked up some, her violet orbs holding a bold hope for the idea that swam about in her mind. Kurumu was no fool; she knew that there were a great many things that she wasn't great at – okay, even good at – but the also knew that she, as a Succubus, was naturally decent at the lowest of times when it came to giving love advice. Cooking was an avenue that she enjoyed, but it was really Tsukune's encouragement and praise over her cookies the time she'd made them that had her wanting to try getting them out to the public. She wasted no time in informing him, "I was actually hoping to do an occasional piece for recipes, along with a love-advice column!"

Hearing the busty girl's plans really surprised the elder teen who made a show of thinking about it, his eyes cast up to the ceiling as he hummed in thought. After several long seconds in which Kurumu and her two friends looked on in a mix of curiosity and hope – from Moka – and an intense demanding glare – from Tsukune, Gin finally plastered on his flirtatious grin, "Normally, I would have to run this by Nekonome-sensie, but for a gorgeous thing like you, of course!"

Seeing the happiness that sprung to life on the girl's face was the only thing holding back Tsukune's scoff. Crossing his arms over his chest, he chose to, instead, stare out of the window. It seemed as though his emotions were beginning to get the better of him today, and this only added to his ire and annoyance – much of it he had managed to still keep hidden by mere luck, it seemed.

This guy – Ginei Morioka – may be connected to Iori Morioka, but he certainly didn't act like the man, from what he could see. Momentarily, he wondered about his relation to the human officer – was he a brother, cousin, what? Speaking of, was Iori a monster as well? He certainly shared the same last name as Gin here, but that could easily be passed off as a coincidence, too. Shaking his head, he turned back to the group to see Moka calmly looking through one of last year's papers, meanwhile Kurumu had her focus almost entirely on the lined paper, writing something up - likely a draft of her column, if he were to guess.

He noticed her taking a peek at him, smiling before she went back to work, 'I wonder just what goes on in her mind.' It was an odd thought, he decided right after he thought it, but he couldn't say that he wasn't truly curious. As much as he figured he was an enigma to his two friends, they were the same to him, though Moka was a bit more readable than she on account of him having both known her longer and been closer to her. The succubus on the other hand, he didn't know much about her, and as such he found it difficult to get a bead on her, beyond the fact that she was – or at least believed herself to be – in love with him.

That was also another odd thing that confused him, but such things were for another time. He noticed Gin's stare locked directly on him and he instantly knew that Gin had something planned, something that wasn't for the good of him. Glancing at his two friends, he was aware that both were deep in their work - the rosette more than the bluenette, who would stop occasionally to mumble something, or cast an eye at him – ensuring that if he kept it short, he could easily flash his Sharingan and entrap the other male in a minor illusion.

Crushing that thought underfoot, Tsukune blinked his chocolate eyes, 'This is most unsettling; I cannot hold my frustrations in, and I keep wanting to use my Sharingan... Something is awry.'

Letting out a breath, he pulled a piece of paper from the center stack and then grabbed one of the papers that Moka wasn't leafing through. He wasn't entirely sure just what he'd like to add to the paper in the form of a column article, but he figured this would give him inspiration.

Time ticked by, and soon an hour had passed. Moka had begun to write on her own draft paper, long abandoning the articles, and Kurumu sported a bright smile as she finished up her first page. The brunette teen known as Tsukune however, was on the sixth paper from the previous year, simply finding what was written to be a uninteresting topic for he, himself to write about.

Setting the paper down finally, Tsukune sighed as he righted himself from his slouched position. Kurumu turned to him, "You alright, Tsukune-kun?" She then looked to the table and pursed her lips, "You haven't written anything... No inspiration?"

He silently nodded his head, glaring at the papers scathingly. "No... Nothing here seems to incite a spark of any kind. My lack of social skills seems to inhibit this, as I cannot give advice for said situations," he offered one failed idea he had, and ran his fingers through his hair. Some of his ideas seemed too violent for the paper, and a few were mere speculations that needed further research before he was confident enough to place them in the publication. It was frustrating!

The cerulean beauty gazed at her Destined One with a fleck of sadness in her eyes that soon shifted to a determination as a light smile upturned her lips. She scooted closer to him, leaning over to look at his paper which was blank save for small dots where he'd tapped the end of his pen in an effort to bolster his thoughts, 'Hmm... He's a smart guy, so I know he's been thinking of a lot of ideas...'

Looking at him confirmed her thoughts; the knitted brows, narrowed eyes that were partially glazed over, and the pen between his index and middle-fingers flipping to and fro were the most obvious ticks displaying how deep in thought he was. A softer smile spread across her lips before she reigned in her focus, 'Think, Kurumu, Think! Help your Destined One!'

Casting her violet eyes around the room in an attempt to figure something out ended abruptly when her eyes had Gin in their sights, 'Maybe... It couldn't hurt, either way.' Tapping Tsukune on the shoulder, she lowered her voice some, deliberately trying not to stutter as she flustered from the intense look in the brunette's eyes, "What about an article to help girls avoid peepers and unwanted perverts?"

Immediately he stopped, the pen suddenly becoming statuesque and his breathing stopped for the most ephemeral of moments. 'So simple... How did she think of it?' Tsukune wondered quickly, then admonished himself for such a foolish inquiry, 'Kurumu is a woman, so one would be led to believe she'd know.' Shaking his head, Tsukune offered the girl a small smile of appreciation before it dropped back into a passive line, "Thank you, Kurumu."

Being given his thanks, Kurumu beamed and hugged Tsukune's arm, feeling her heart flutter within her chest, "Anytime, Tsukune-kun! I'm glad to help!"

Immediately, the Sharingan host began to formulate a plan and no sooner started executing it, putting pen to paper and drawing the rough outline of what he wished to say out. He missed the semi-playful glares that passed between the two girls, nor the immolating scowl that Ginei had to swallow before anyone noticed.

At the two hour mark, Gin clapped his hands, startling the other members who had been relatively quite as they flew into their work. Three sets of heads swiveled to their elder, whilst one simultaneously finished shrieking from the shock, "What the hell is the big idea, Gin!?"

He chuckled and waved Kurumu's ire away with a light wave and a dazzling smile, "I didn't mean to scare you all. It's been two hours, so club activities are officially over. If you care to, you may stay and finish or hang out."

Moka yawned and stretched, then cast her attention to her brunette friend who was staring silently up at Gin with an unreadable expression. "Tsukune-kun?" She called, inciting his attention and receiving an inquiring eyebrow, "Yes Moka?" Glancing to the side, she spied the clock out of her peripheral, "Are you going to go right now?"

Taking a moment to consider it, he nodded his head, "I think I might; I've got a few things on my mind and an equal amount I need to check-up on. Yourself?"

She pressed her lips together and poked her fingers together beneath the table. On one hand, yes, she did want to stay and finish her article. She'd managed to finish her rough draft and was half-way through her final copy that was to be printed directly on the school's first paper this year. On the other though, she wanted to spend time with Tsukune; sure, she and Kurumu both had spent countless hours into the night by his bedside, but they weren't truly 'together', and she missed him – interacting with him.

At long last, after glancing down at her paper, she nodded, "Yeah, I think I'll come with you! I-if that's fine with you, that is..." She had begun strong, but her sureness folded when she realized that he might just want to be alone while he attended to whatever business he felt heeded his attention. Much to her relief, he welcomed her to go with him by way of a grunt of assent.

"You're not going to take Tsukune-kun off to the side without me there! Who knows what you'll do to him, vampire girl!" The Succubus growled, her voice sporting an indignant whine to it that made her expression of determination and jealousy in the form of a blush all the more endearing. Tsukune frowned, 'This is getting out of control... Why are these thoughts invading my mind?'

Ever since the girls had left the night previous, after the progress that had been made between them and the closest thing to a heart-to-heart that had been had between the two, his mind had unhinged some and he felt his inhibitions and mental blocks shift... Almost like they'd been weakened, but upon checking he found them to be as strong as ever. It seemed that the effects of this shift in his blocks was having repercussions far sooner than he'd anticipated, and it set him on edge.

"Less than what you'll try to do to him," Moka snarked back, a rare almost-smirk appearing on the sweet and innocent Outer persona's lips. In private, the pair had become quite friendly, not that they weren't in public, but it had allowed Moka to get somewhat comfortable with jibbing the Succubus at times. It was a confidence booster to be sure, but nothing like having Tsukune back in action and by her – their- side.

Kurumu fumed for just a moment as the atmosphere charged with a phantom electricity between the pair. Finally, the busty seductress grinned and grabbed onto Tsukune's arm, "C'mon, Tsukune-kun, let's go somewhere Moka can't find us..." She knew that it was a gamble, doing this, but she meant it in all fun – for the most part. She only hoped he didn't clam up and/or take it negatively as he seemed prone to doing at times.

Moka instantly grabbed Tsukune's other arm, defiantly glaring at her friend, "Let go of Tsukune, he's not yours, and he certainly doesn't need to go with you!"

The mirth that shined in her jade eyes contrasted the fang-baring frown that was sported by the vampire girl. At long last, Tsukune cleared his throat and eyed both members of the opposite sex, "Alternatively, we can all go to the same place and talk, or...hang out, as it were." The matter-of-fact way he voiced it somehow had the sting of a teasing jibe even in his dull monotone. He didn't wait for their reactions as he stood and walked off, knowing full well that he was going to be followed.

...But not by the girls.

On his way back to the dorms, Tsukune closed his eyes and let his raging and restless youki have some leeway, forcibly activating his Sharingan beneath his lids. He sighed, feeling as if the stress in his body was finally free with this expenditure of excess energy. His eyes ached, as did the rest of his body, but thankfully it was now the kind of satisfying ache one got after a hard workout, rather than the searing branding-iron pain that it had been.

His thoughts shifted to the two girls after a couple of seconds of reveling in his relief. He wasn't sure what to make of the actions in the Newspaper Club; on one hand, he was annoyed that no-one seemed to be able to keep solid grip of themselves and their agreement to keep the flirtatious and innuendo comments to a low as he acclimated. Moka's actions in retaliation were certainly a surprise to him, taking him by a complete blind-side.

On the other hand, however, Tsukune was very flattered that such genuine and beautiful girls had such a vested interest in him, which made it far more... intense, hence his hesitation and confusion. None had ever shown such an interest in him without an ulterior motive being involved – their interest in him being some means to an end they hoped to achieve. Selfish greed and arrogance taught him to never trust and never allow people to get close many, many times in school by way of these 'friends', and 'girlfriends', of which all of them proclaimed themselves as such – he never appointed them; never asked or really wanted them.

Frustration bubbled up from the depths of his mind, the acidic burn of this emotion almost tangible. These conflicting emotions – these warring thoughts that fought in his heart and mind, they were grating on his nerves! He bit his lower lip, narrowing his crimson eyes as the tomoe whirled about the central pupil in a furious rage, 'Moka, Kurumu, why do the two of you have to be so... goddamned perfect? I am quite unsure what to do; how to deal with this situation. What is even making me fret in this way!?'

By the end of his thoughts, his lip was bleeding somewhat, and his throat was emitting a very low growl. Realizing the possible scene he'd have caused had there been a great deal of students out walking at the time, he took a deep, calming breath and soon became aloof to his surroundings.

'Meditation,' Tsukune immediately thought to himself as he moved to leave the beaten path and head into the woods – the site where he'd been spending his night training himself. 'Perhaps meditation will help calm and reset my faculties... Afterall, I went without doing such a thing for eight days. Skimping for longer than my previous length of three days must be taking quite a toll...'

Half-way to the dark, occluding embrace of the dead woods, Tsukune stopped, his head bowed and his muscles slowly tensing as he hid his Sharingan beneath the chocolate guise, "You've been taking great pains to follow me and attempt to hide yourself, Gin."

From one of the nearby desolate shrine-like buildings, the familiar face of Morioka Gin peaked out, a stony expression showing on his face. He said nothing as he approached Tsukune in a wide arc, almost as if he were circling him – sizing him up. The two silently gauged the other, Gin's dark claret eyes dangerously narrowed in a silent fury as they stared at Tsukune's stationary aloof pair, the chocolate irises frozen over and empty.

"Tsukune... Aono...," The silence was finally broken by Gin dragging his name out in disapproval, in disgust and, perhaps, anger. The elder teen finally stopped right before Tsukune, his body half-hunched over, shoulders set high and broadened out as if he were ready to pounce. In return, Tsukune glowered right back, "Creepy Stalker."

Gin's eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a low snarl for just a second before he smirked, arrogance polluting the air in thick waves, "You've got guts... You know that, Aono?" He clasped his right hand into a fist with a widening smirk, an almost wistful look caressing his face. A moment passed and he gave a snicker, "I know it was you that pushed me onto the girl's window, forced me to get chased by all of those sexy girls – all after my skin, and not in the way I would like."

"Do it the right way and accidents are less likely to happen," was Tsukune's cool reply, his hollow monotone having a very empty resonance in the evening air. Gin snickered humorlessly, his nose crinkling in a glower as he curled and unfurled his hands, as if testing and readying them for an assault – as if they were claws.

"Heh," Gin chuckled aloud as he slowly glanced up into the sky, "The moon... She sure is beautiful tonight, wouldn't you agree?" Tsukune stared blankly at the teen, his body channeling youki into each muscle, pumping them up more and more. His instincts told him to be on his toes and, as of yet, they hadn't steered him wrong. A stiff wind traveled across the lands of the Academy, an ominous pressure resting upon the cooling breeze.

"You're pretty close to Moka-san and Kurumu-san, aren't you, Tsukune-kun?" Still not looking at the brunette, he addressed him despite the majority of his attention being focused into the sky. The intrigue in his voice was countered with a sense of disgust that welled up within Tsukune's stomach. His teeth grit and the pressure of youki behind his eyes was becoming immense – almost unbearable.

"Irrelevant. What do you want, Gin?" Already, the red tint of his special eyes was beginning to bleed over and create a crimson haze that was cast over his normal vision. The danger -the feeling of a hunter after his prey- permeated the air in a silent threat that left him on edge, and now this fool was bringing the girls into this – whatever this even was. It pissed him off; he didn't care to be in this situation with Gin, and yet not only was he here, a feeling of trepidation that slithered down his back and into his stomach told him that this was but the first act in a dangerous play.

"Want?" Gin questioned serenely as the clouds parted, and the moon's pale rays began to bathe the land in their soothing light. The teen's voice took a razor-sharp edge, his tone one of malice accentuated by the slightly deeper rumble beneath his words, "I've been around Akashiya Moka and Korono Kurumu long enough to get a feel for them, and I have to say... I like what I've seen!"

His head snapped down to reveal the teen's claret eyes were now a brilliant gold, a beastly strength gathered within them, just waiting to be unchained. Gin's teeth shown as he snarled, revealing canines that were a bit thicker than a human's – almost like that of a vampire, but they curved backwards and seemed to be blunter. His hair bristled visibly as he growled in two tones; one of a man, and the other of a beast.

Without a warning, Gin lunched himself at the teen who's eyes widened marginally as his elder schoolmate rammed a fist into his stomach with a force that was far harder than the mermaid's power tail slams, and Saizou's monstrous fists. Spittle escaped his mouth as his teeth audible clattered together, sending a sharp pain rocketing through his skull as well.

There was never a chance to recover as Gin upper-cutted him with his other hand, sending him a few feet into the air, where he arched at the apex and plummeted to the ground. Tsukune groaned in pain, his surprise still wearing off, when a foot slammed into his ribs and sent him careening across the plain, and into one of the few stumps that littered the area.

Water quickly filled his eyes as a memory assaulted his mind. "No, get back here, bitch! You're going to sit – I said SIT! - right here and watch this piece of shit take your punishment!" Isshin yelled, forcing Matsuri to the ground with a rough shove to her shoulder, worsening the healing green bruise that was still visible from an earlier time. The half-japanese man sauntered over to a kneeling child whose eyes steadily streamed two thin rivers of liquid and yet, not a single sound escaped him.

"You fuckin' faggot ass cunt-spawn, you think that I go to work to feed your sorry ass!?" Ishin brought his steel toed work boots to bare, bringing his foot back as he looked on with his one good eye, a sadistic hatred for the boy churning within them. His foot made contact with the boy's back, sending him stiffly down to his side. The audible crunch of bone being impacted was proof enough that it hurt like a bitch, but despite the rigid poise he took, not a sound escaped the boy, yet.

Matsuri screamed as he went to take another kick at the boy, grabbing Isshin by his waist and attempted to haul him down, "No, stop it you bastard! He's just a child – he didn't know any better, stop it; stop hurting Tsuki-kun!" The dark blonde abuser hissed a curse and elbowed Matsuri in the face, eliciting a cry from her along with the blood that now gushed from her now slightly crooked nose. Throwing a hateful glare her way, he made his way over to Tsukune, a gleam in his eyes as he took out his pocket knife from the far-too-baggy jeans he wore, "We're going to play a game; if you scream, I'll cut you – if you don't, I'll stab that little bitch, how'sat, huh!?"

The memory began to blur an distort, but Tsukune could still feel the phantom pains as Ishin began to kick him in the side – the birth of his unique torture method. His teeth gnashed together, his arm digging deep into the dirt as he remembered it – his first failure. Matsuri would never be able to properly have children due to his stupidity – his stubbornness and desire to not show pain before that bastard. All at once, he remembered something that, perhaps he had forgot – or perhaps he had set back in his mind and deemed it unimportant after some time.

'I will not allow myself to cause trouble for another, even if it means my pride – a selfless act is better than a selfish one.' Sure, it wasn't the most inspirational thing to remember, but at that moment, he knew exactly what he had to do and it was thanks, abstractly, to this regained memory.

Pushing himself up, Tsukune barely rolled out of the way of another one of Gin's kicks. He took a moment to wipe the beginning of the tears that formed away and forced the butterflies in his stomach that had escaped with the memories – it would only serve to stunt his effectiveness in a fight.

"So much for the bad-ass that beat Saizou, and the one who fought every mermaid to a stand-still," the taunt escaped the teen's mouth as it was fixed into a sneer. Gin began to chuckle before it became a full-blown laugh, "I knew it! I knew it the whole time – you didn't defeat anyone!"

Chocolate eyes flicked around as they took in everything, analyzing the situation, half-assed ignoring what the crazed pervert was blathering about, 'Increased aggression, likely due to monster transformation. Golden irises, reminiscent of a canine or feline species, though I could be wrong; possible werewolf, were-panther, or yoko. Additional symptoms appeared nearest to when moonlight became prevalent, exchanged words until then – stalling for time, most probable scenario. Analysis; Were-beast, wolf with an eighty-percent certainty, panther with twenty.'

"-defeated all your enemies for you, didn't they?" His eyes narrowed as he finished his long winded speech, a wide, mocking grin set upon his 'charming' face. He expected Tsukune to deny it, or perhaps for the brunette do his usual song and dance, from what he'd garnered from the girls -soon to be his prize- from their idle conversations. Instead, Tsukune laughed with his eyes downcast, the sound chilling to the bones in his body, "Of course, they fought all my battles for me – I'm simply incapable of fighting battles against such odds, I mean look at me... I'm thin, frail, slow."

'There,' Tsukune noted that his plan had worked. The suspected werewolf's eyes gained a look of hunger – an instinctual flicker that now viewed Tsukune as the weakest of the 'pack', as it were. Gin's lips parted as a feral grin took the place of his mocking smile, "Finally telling the truth. Now I'm sure...-"

Gin's body tensed, his muscles bulging beneath his school uniform in an inhuman manner; it looked as if a mass of tentacles, or snakes were slithering beneath his skin, coiling and balling up randomly. His arms became bulkier and then slimmed down as the sound of bones creaking and joints popping with a sickening wetness heralded the lengthening of his arms and fingers, thick claws now tipping each finger that used to be a mere nail.

His shirt and blazer then tore as he hunched over, placing both transformed hands onto the ground. A this was happening, his hind legs began to deviate and bulk up whilst narrowing slightly in the pelvic region with a gruesome squelch. Simultaneously, a tail, covered in sparse black and gray fur grew from his back-bone, somehow sticking out of his pants that had managed to more-or-less survive the transformation.

Standing back up on two legs, the perverted club president's head finally swiveling back towards the brunette. His face had changed with the rest of him; in place of the handsome pretty-boy face that the elder teen seemed to pride himself in, there was now a long snout with jaws agape slightly, displaying the rows of sharp teeth. His black nose sniffed the air, and a sadistic, hungry grin pulled at his jowls, "- that I can get you outta the picture, then... Moka-san will be MINE!"

No hint of movement came, and before he even realized it, claws were dug into his chest as his vision warbled, then moments later he found himself crumpled into a pile next to a boulder that lay in the plains, his back aching from hitting the rock hard enough that it cracked. The wind shifted, and Gin was right there, picking him up by the front of his shirt and tossing him into the air, only to be sliced across his back by the humanoid canine and sent flying down into the earth.

Hissing silently to himself, Tsukune could only think about his words. 'Moka, yours? I think not; you'll have to kill me before you put your paws on either of my friends!' The fury and sheer determination that bubbled up with his metal declaration, caused him to snap and instantly, his crimson gaze of despair became aglow in the darkened landscape. The world slowed down as his tomoe sped up in their orbit and for the first time, he could see truly how fast Ginei Morioka was.

The werewolf came speeding through the clearing, having made a sharp u-turn upon landing after sending the weakling to the ground. His vision blurred at the edges, he had borderline tunnel-vision whilst speeding around in this form – just one of the few weaknesses his kind had – but he'd long since learned to use his other senses to compensate. Rounding on the punk, he readied his claws for another swipe to the chest.

Crimson eyes watched as Gin sped through the clearing, the true paramount of his speed showing through as even under a time-dilation of twenty-four, the lycanthrope was moving at the speed of a normal person's run – faster than anything he'd seen move before. Despite this revelation, Tsukune still had enough time to release that pint up youki, activating flash-point to get out of the way in an instant. He skidding in a one-eighty to face his opponent who glared at the rock and then to his prey, feeling the throbbing pain of his claws being fractured, "How the hell did you manage that!?"

Resting his crimson gaze on the wolf, he chuckled, "How indeed; after-all... I'm slow, right? I can't fight my own battles – that's just inconceivable!" Bristling at the insult, Gin rushed over to his enemy and snapped his jaws closed over the teen's neck, a sudden gasp escaping the boy as the sensation of his teeth piercing the flesh sent a satisfied shiver down the wolf's spine. Then, nothing – no Aono, no flesh, no taste of blood or meat.

Nonplussed, Ginei looked around until he caught sight of Tsukune standing on the rock, an empty expression upon his face while tose crimson eyes – those eery crimson eyes – stared at him. Gin's breath hitched for a moment, 'No! He couldn't possibly be... A vampire?! No, no! It's just not possible.'

He toyed with the possibility that the brunette brat was a true, real vampire... If that were true, then there was a chance that he wasn't going to come out the victor – a small chance, but it still existed. There wasn't silver hair, so he wasn't a Super-Vampire – one of the those elite vampires. Just a stray – an outcast; a wanderer.

Looking closer, his tail straightened in concentration as his ears fell to rest lightly on his head. Crimson eyes, yes, but... He didn't have the iconic slits of a vampire; he instead had some weird... ring, or something. It looked to be separate objects at times, but he couldn't tell... It was as if they were orbiting his pupil, which was smaller than normal. Odd, once again.

"Why ain't you fighting me in your true form, huh? Too afraid to reveal yourself, or... are you a border-being, Tsukune-kuuun?" The menacing insult would certainly make any vampire bristle with rage and attack him, so when Tsukune merely raised a brow, the edges of his mouth turning down just a fraction, he realized that the chances of this boy being a blood-sucker were slim-to-none.

Across the battle-field, Tsukune eyed the wolf warily, unsure as to what the beast was asking him. Deciding it would serve no end to ask, he stored it away to question the girls about it at some point. Gin rampaged towards him in force after it was apparent Tsukune wasn't going to respond. Once more, Tsukune dodged out of the way using his flash-point, meanwhile Gin sliced through the Tsukune he saw, only for the ragged teen to fade out of view.

'What? Again? Fuck!' Gin cursed in thought, twisting his body around only to be nailed in the face with a powerful knee, followed up by a downward elbow. Despite the power behind the strikes, Gin barely budged due to his stocky figure and the natural grace being a werewolf bestowed upon him. In turn, he grinned and grabbed the real Tsukune by the neck, squeezing him tightly, his golden eyes filled with a hatred for the teen, and a delight in seeing him struggle.

The brunette's face began to turn an unhealthy puce color after a moment due to his lack of oxygen, and the feeling of all his ribs beginning to buckle in on themselves was difficult to ignore, however he managed, This concentration, though, caused his Sharingan to fade back behind his chocolate eyes, a fact that Gin also notice, "Once I get you outta the way, Moka-san will be free to accept my love, and maybe I can even get a little something from that big-boobed chick. I would say, 'Sorry it had to come to this', but... I'm not!"

Feeling his vision beginning to fail him as his peripherals began to gray out in tunnel-vision due to the lack of oxygen and blood-flow, Tsukune felt the sting of disappointment nip at him, as well as a deep-seated scathing frost at the thought of failing to protect his friends. 'If only... I... Were stronger...' he wheezed out mentally, feeling the wolf's grip around his neck begin to grow tighter.

'Power you will have, soon, boy... Do not give into the embrace; your mates are in battle with the lycanthrope. Awaken, boy!' Tsukune's eyes struggled to pull themselves apart, and he was soon aware that he felt cold, and his chest hurt and burned with an empty flame. It took him nary a moment to deduce what was wrong: he had no air in his lungs at all. Forcing himself to inhale, he fought through the tearing and ripping sensation that he knew not the cause, but speculated that his ribs had all fractured – if not snapped. It was nearly as painful as having to set his arm, but he had more experience with rubs – Ishin made sure of that.

Finally, his eyes peeled open, though his sight was still horribly blurred due to the mucus membrane that had formed during his..., 'How long was I out?' He was suddenly aware that the sounds of battle could be heard around him. Foot-falls and the beating of stealthy wings in the air, an inaudible muffled yell here and there. A tremor through the earth. 'What the hell is going on!?'

Blinking his burning eyes but finding that it wasn't helping, he finally reached up and peeled the goo out of his eye, and after a few blinks to moisten his eyes, he could see; he could see Moka running away from Gin, her shirt torn in places and clear scuff marks and friction burn on her legs and arms. Her hair was everywhere – not in the silky pink strands that it usually was.

She squealed in fear as Gin appeared before her, his arm going to swipe for her when she mustered up her courage and strength and shoved him. The Werewolf wasn't quite as surprised as Tsukune was, meaning he'd had this happen before and managed to stop himself short of colliding with another boulder on the sparse grassy knoll. Overhead, a flash of blue descended and swiped at Gin, making contact with him, if his howl of obvious pain was true in any sense.

Spinning around, he jumped and kicked Kurumu out of the air, sending her to ground, where she bounced one or two times before becoming prone for a second. She groaned and picked herself up soon enough, sporting a dark purple patch in the hair above her forehead, an obvious sign of her blood mixing with her beautiful locks. As she stood up, he could see a grim anger seething in her violet orbs from his side-long position.

The seductress took flight again, and the brunette teen noticed that she had three bloody claw marks across her stomach. His nerves ignited with fire as he remembered Ishin stabbing his mother in the stomach when he wouldn't cry for him, forever rendering her uterus barren. 'No... Kurumu-chan... You piece of shit!' Tsukune roared within his mind, unaware that his sharingan had flared into being. He looked around, seeing Moka flying through the air towards his position.

A grim smile forced its way onto the teen's face as he pumped youki into his legs and jumped the fifteen feet to intercept the bubble-gum haired vampire. He roped an arm around her, seeing her half-conscious eyes shift to his and the equally haunted fury he saw in Kurumu's eyes drain from the vampire's to be replaced by shock, hope, and then joy moments before she blacked out.

"You killed Tsukune-kun! Die!" Kurumu's hoarse voice screeched out, pained and anguished with the thought of her Destined One's 'death' fresh on her mind. Her nine-inch long magenta claws swatted at the wolf who chuckled as he dodged to the side and made to tear at her with his own set of modified nails. The succubus panted, blood absorbing into her cream sweater-vest and forming a rusty puddle, not to mention the bruises and scratches on her legs.

'We're incapable of beating him – I refuse to use Kurumu as bait; she's endangered her own life well enough already. Rest is needed. Moonlight has become stronger, possibility of increase in Lycanthrope's powers – seventy-five. No weapons to speak of, rudimentary weapons inept against strong skeletal structure. Allies in reserve – none..' He analyzed the situation with a grim frown, knowing that the longer he took, the more of a chance that Kurumu would be hurt and/or killed.

Turning his head to Moka, he grit his teeth, 'If she hadn't passed out – No, if I hadn't taken so long to awaken – the three of us would have been able to provide a stronger assault.' His eyes trailed along the innocent beauty's body, noting all the bruises and cuts that she had gained. Finally, his eyes landed on her breasts – or rather, what lay nestled between them.

His eyes narrowed, 'Current survival chance – twenty percent. I'd rather not unleash an unknown element, however... If there is a chance it might save Kurumu and Moka, there truly is no decision.' With his mind made up, he reached down and grasped the rosary, feeling the heat of the energy within – the energy he was about to unleash. No sooner did he pull the rosary from the chain when he was blown away as the massive explosion of malevolent energy spread out and encapsulated the entire realm.

In the sky above, the white glow of the full moon bled over into a crimson color, it's own magenta rays now lighting the land beneath as Moka Akashiya's prone form lifted up like a body possessed. Over the course of a few seconds, he hair drained of color from the roots to the tips, becoming a royal silver. Her fangs, cute and tiny, enlarged to the point that they actually stuck over her bottom lips regardless.

Finally, her eyes snapped open revealing those terrifying bloody orbs with the iconic reptilian slit pupil that seemed to rip into the soul of anyone they were staring at, and right now, that was Tsukune. Her aristocratic face contorted in anger, "You insignificant morsel, you dare look upon me after what you did to me!?"

In a moment she was upon him, her leg raised to roundhouse him in the side of the head. He quickly released what little youki he had the spare moment to store and pushed himself out of the deadly organic weapon. Activating his Sharingan, he dodged another roundhouse, "Save this grudge for a different time, vampire; the three of us are in trouble!"

There wasn't even a pause as Inner Moka launched another fist at him, piercing through his illusion, finding the satisfaction she felt suddenly drain away to frustration, "I can survive any threat which comes for me. I care not for you boy, nor the sleazy rodent – other than to obtain my retribution!"

She smirked and kicked an empty spot, and heard the sound of snapping bones and the unmistakable sound of a wheezing groan. She looked further than her leg to see Tsukune clutching his chest, blood trailing out of his mouth and one crimson freak eye staring at her in...betrayal. Her lips upturned slightly, amused, "You dared speak to me out of turn."

Approaching him with her hips lightly sashaying as she walked, she let out a throaty chuckle, "You dared to interfere with my justice against the succubus – who my host has been forced to co-exist with by you." Bringing a powerful foot down, she slammed him through the tree stump he had landed against, and several feet further back, likely skinning his back from the friction.

Her crimson eyes danced with a dark glee as she watched him squirm in pain, as he experienced in physical pain what she had been forced to endure in humiliation. Speaking of, she narrowed her eyes, those frightening crimson orbs seeming to glow ever bright, "You, an unsightly, lowly beast dared to order me to place my rosary back on – to rid me of my freedom!"

Bringing an almighty fist down onto his head covered said hand with blood which elicited a grin as she used her foot to roll him over, seeing his prone, and broken form below her was satisfying in it's own right, but.. Her eyes widened to a large degree as a cold fury ignited within her, her fangs seeming to extend even further than they had been, "Worst of all, you filthy cur, is that you succeeded!"

Inner Moka rested her loathing crimson gaze upon the broken teen beneath her foot, contemplating squishing him like a bug. Even as she mulled such a tempting thought over, the pressure she put on his stomach continued to increase and her smile widened as he squirmed. Kneeling down, putting even more weight on him and causing him to cough a large ball of blood and mucus, she inquired of him, "In which way would you like to die, worm?"

Tsukune's mind was trying to sort his thoughts out, but it was no easy task; between the ringing in his ears, the searing tear within his stomach and in his chest, not to mention to sublimated ribs he was certain he now had, the brunette could hardly articulate a word. He didn't think that Inner Moka – a royal bitch, but some extension of his Moka- would actually attack him, at least not before helping him save Kurumu. He supposed, in hind-sight, he should have been smarter – should have known better.

He groaned in pain as she pushed hard with her foot, lightly grinding it into his abdomen, the dark smirk growing with the sounds of his discomfort. A warbled yell that at any other time would have been a cause for alarm – a call for his attention – merely captured a small shred of what remained of his concentration. Blinking through the pain, he saw a fuzzy blue and purple blur crash out of the sky, and a barely perceptible black smudge run towards the 'crash site'.

"The debauched rat will be disposed of soon. A good dead that mindless beast is doing – I'd almost spare him, but he dares to think he can have me." She mirthlessly chuckled, her tone and the look in her eyes promising more pain that would be cast upon the wolf. No, not the wolf – anyone who got in her way. He barely registered her words, but he understood enough to know Kurumu was in dire trouble.

"M-...Moka," Tsukune rasped out, blood dribbling out of his mouth, partially on account of his dislocated jaw. The silver-haired super-vampire tilted her head, like that of a curious cat that had been playing with her meal. The blood-red slitted orbs regarded him as though he were something to be scraped off her shoe, and the irony wasn't all that lost on him. The vampire opened her mouth to taunt him, but his whispered words stopped her, "Mo- Moka-ch... Forgive me..."

Believing to understand the meaning behind his words, she smirked at him, "Omote – the one you speak of – doesn't exist any longer; not as long as I keep the rosary away from the anchor. Your last words are wasted – not unlike your existence..."

Raising her green clothed right arm high above her head until her elbow made a perfect right-angle, she sneered down at the weak, destroyed remnants of the beast that had humiliated her worse than had ever been done. Her fingers presed together and she took great pleasure in the anticipation of his death. That is, until she heard him making a sound not unlike he was gargling. She curiously stared down at him, watching him drown on his own blood – or at least, that's what she assumed was happening.

She was not prepared for a red-tinted bullet of water to rocket out from his mouth and strike her directly in the chest, knocking her back with a pained scream as supernatural red electricity arced off of her body – the purifying nature of the water having an immediate reaction to her. She looked down to see her cleavage becoming darker, as well as her left arm as the lightning arced about, "Y-you... Bastard! I will destroy you... F-For this!"

He groaned, forcing himself to drag his mangled body over to Moka who lay paralyzed, twitching involuntarily as the lightning slowly charred her skin, not unlike a gualded rash. As he made it to her, he grabbed the rosary out of her clenched grip and placed it back on the chain, watching as the evil vampire was once more replaced with the bubbly, sweet and innocent girl who he was proud to call his friend.

Yet, the lightning was still arcing off of her body – not as intense as before, but easily worse for the young girl who didn't have her other persona's pain threshold. Moka cried as her eyes snapped open, feeling the immense pain that wasn't unlike being branded – yet it never went away. She panicked as she turned her head to see the devastated form that Tsukune was in.

"T-Tsukune-Kun! W-What happened to u-us; to you!?" She bit out, her sudden panic over her best friend allowing her to ignore the purifying water. He shook his head, mouthing, 'It's okay, it's okay'. His voice cracked as he tried to speak further, "-ake...bl'd... -ka, drink."

Presenting his arm to her, he watched as she considered it, the hungry look on her face was prominent as she stared at the offered limb. Finally, she grabbed it and pierced her tiny fangs into his wrist. As she drunk, savoring his taste, the lightning slowly receded and her wounds healed; cuts closed rapidly as bruises lost their coloration and visible knots.

Finally, she stopped, looking at him with worry, tears visibly welling up in her beautiful jade eyes. Without another thought she bit deeper, and Tsukune felt another sensation – instead of the sharp pinch and the odd, but relaxing sensation of suction, there was now a burning that roared through his veins. It wasn't very hot, and he would later suppose it was because she did whatever it was she did for only a second, but he found himself regenerating some damage; his jaw resetting and some of the smaller cuts sealing. In addition, he could hardly feel the pain any longer, but it was still there – definitely still there.

"Thank you, Moka-chan. I'll be back – and... I'm sorry." She blinked owlishly, ignoring some of the pain that still plagued her as she looked at her brunette friend's retreating back. 'W-what...happened?'

Tsukune rushed over to where he could faintly remember seeing Kurumu – or what he assumed was her, at any rate – fall. His speed wasn't what it normally was, but he supposed this – in his state – was a hundred times better than what he could have hoped for. "Kurumu! Kurumu, where are you!?" He knew it wasn't ideal to go yelling her name, but he wanted to make sure she was okay... He needed to make sure she was okay.

It took him a few minutes, but he caught the sounds of fighting nearly two-minutes off from his original location. As he rushed through the trees and moved further into the woods, he came to a clearing made by way of the two monsters, both of whom were rushing at each other again, murder in their eyes.

'Kurumu...' Tsukune said her name in his mind, shocked at the state she was in. He was unaware of his Sharingan spinning wildly as he gazed at the two, enraptured in their battle. No, not their battle... He was seeing things – visions, but not... No, these were fragments, scattered images set in motion. He could feel a heart-wrenching pain shatter all feeling in his body, his entire soul numb as his mind vibrated with a mantra of thought – all rebuking the fact – what fact, he knew not.

His grabbed his head suddenly as his eyes seared in their sockets, and his body shivered and shook. He could hardly hold in the sounds that wanted to escape him from this mental/physical anguish, before it suddenly ended. He blinked, and somehow he felt that his eyes were... stronger? Nothing looked different – time hadn't slowed down anymore, nor could he see anything he couldn't before.

Shrugging off the odd feeling, Tsukune jumped right into the middle of the fight, his body moving into the path of a slash that would have taken out the Succubus' eyes. He could hear the sobs of a defeated woman behind him, and it made all the more furious. He didn't wait, nor did he say anything as he launched himself at Gin with renewed vigor, his anger almost corporeal in its intensity.

He focused his youki and fired a volley of water at the werewolf, knocking him off kilter and then rushed him, kneeing the wolf's stomach repeatedly whilst he grabbed the well-muscled arm and pulled it backwards until a sickening, but satisfying pop was heard. The wolf howled as his dislocated arm hung limp at his side.

Kurumu opened her eyes, feeling ragged and empty. She had fought her heart out in an attempt to avenge her beloved Destined One – her beloved Tsukune. The fear and fury that became unbridled within her when she and Moka had went to fetch Tsukune from his dorm after completing an 'urgent task' Gin needed doing, only to see the werewolf choking the life out of him.

Seeing him like that; his body purple from the constriction, foam pouring from his mouth as he tried and failed to gargle out breaths had her heart bleeding. She had ran over to him, tried to perform CPR on him, but his heart had remained motionless in his chest and his lungs remained static.

Gin had then taken the liberty of telling them that, having defeated their Alpha, he was now their Alpha and would claim Moka as his and Kurumu would be at his beck and call. The two girls, both broken hearted and with a fresh need to vent, rushed him. At first he treated it like a game, but soon – soon he began to attack them back, for real... They realized, even with their hatred fueling them, they were no match.

Kurumu had decided that if Tsukune had died, if her Destined One no longer walked the lands that he had once walked with her, then she would join him wherever he may be – but not without taking the horrid beast that had felled him with her!

Yet, as she opened her eyes, she stared in disbelief. 'No... It cannot possibly be... T-Tsukune... Please, in the Great-Lady's name, tell me that is my Tsukune-kun!' Tears of hope began to swell in her violet eyes, even as one was half-swollen shut. She felt the hope invade her heart and once more open it, the fresh wounds easily susceptible to the feeling. As he fought to were-beast, she caught a glimpse of him head on and smiled – no, she beamed, absolutely ecstatic that he was fine. A small laugh escaped her, 'He did tell me he was difficult to kill... Thank the Great-Lady!'

Knowing that he was alive, her body finally registered just how utterly exhausted it was and she collapsed to the ground, a content smile on her lips.

Back between the two fighters, Gin roared as Tsukune grabbed his canine ears and twisted them until he felt the cartilage tear in a series of dry pops. In retaliation, Gin swiped at Tsukune who dodged, only to be body-slammed into the tree nearest him. Gin's hoarse voice growled out, "I thought I killed you..."

Tsukune stared at him, his gaze long gone from one of careless indifference. No, he was livid, and it showed. "I got better..." Was the grim reply and the teen went to assault the beast again, only to feel his body give out from under him. Whatever Moka had done to him, it seemed to be wearing off, much to Tsukune's ire and Gin's delight.

Cracking his clawed hands, Gin licked his lips, "Looks like it was only in remission." He raised his hand and reached down, preparing to tear into Tsukune and rend his still-beating heart from his chest. He couldn't have predicted what happened next. As his hand made contact with Tsukune's body, before his claws could ever penetrate him, a luminous glow began to emit from under Tsukune's bloodied rags. As it grew brighter, Gin began to feel his hand burn horribly, and upon looking at it, he took a step back.

His hand was boiled open, the skin looking as though it had been eaten off by acid. Hre glared at the teen who seemed confused and mystified, unsure as to what was happening. The lycanthrope growled lowly, "Where did you get that!?"

Glancing at the club president's hand, and what it had done to him, he allowed a smile of sadistic satisfaction to creep across his visage, "Guy who saved my life... Twice now, I suppose... Iori Morioka!" The look of absolute shock and horror had the Sharingan host chuckling, until darkness claimed him only moments after Gin, himself collapsed.

Amongst the fallen bodies, a shadowed figured pushed forth, his body seeming to materialize out of nothing. His white-clad form and the eery glowing eyes leaving the candidate to be none other than the Headmaster. A truly devilish grin cracked across his lower face, as he looked down to the pale, bloodied face of one Tsukune Aono, "A little rough around the edges, however... Potential, you have in spades, boy. A little longer, child... A little longer."

Good to be done with this chapter! I honestly thought that I was going to take this in a different direction, but when this idea came to me, I reworked all my plans for the immediate chapters, and decided that it made the story more interesting; as opposed to merely following the canon in some farce of the word 'loosely', as I have been. Hopefully you were all taken aback and shocked at the brutality, and if so then I've done my job.

As I stated last chapter, I'll post a small section on non-canon monsters and abilities. Note that the jutsu and abilities in the flashback dreams will not be included unless actually used by Tsukune – or someone else in the present time. As such, here are your first two abilities:

Flash-point – Channels a massive ammount of youki into the muscles, and at their limit, the muscles mass will temporarily increase while the rest acts as super-enhanced adrenaline. Race: ?, Rank: Apprentice (A), Spell type: Alteration. Stage 1, Duration – 3 seconds; Stage 2, Duration – 6 seconds; Stage 3, Duration – 10 seconds, Alignment:Nuetral.

Water bullet – A spell in which air which is inhaled and then pressurized within the lungs while leftover oxygen and condensation in the mouth is condensed into water, then the molecules are multiplied to a specific size and compression, determined by the amount of youki used -which is also determined by the alignment one has to an element. Can fire thrice in succession. Race: Mermaid, Spell type: Combat, Alignment:Elemental.

If you find yourself disliking this catalogue of abilities now, or later, feel free to tell me so I might remove it; it's there for your benefit – I have the complete thing here with me at all times.

Now, I have some good news; I have finally found a job! It isn't glamorous, but it pays the bills, puts a bit of food on the table, and lets me keep the house, so I'm content. In addition, I may be able to afford another laptop soon-ish, which means updates will be on a more regular -and far quicker- basis.

Let me know what you all think of these fight scenes, and how have I portrayed everyone – is it better than I've done before, and does the dynamic of everyone's steadily shifting relationships click well? Hope to hear from at least half of you all that read this far down. Guten Nacht.

P.s. If you got the pie reference, good for you.