~Chapter 10~
-The Battle Between Ice & Dragon Pt I-
"YORU! SASUKE!" Sakura cried out, watching horror from where she stood in front Tazuna.
For the past fourty minutes, both boys were being beaten around as if they were nothing in the dome of ice mirrors. Yoru was breathing heavily, nursing his broken left hand away from any possible angle the masked Mist shinobi would strike. Sasuke knelt on the ground, panting slightly from the effort he placed behind his every move. While Yoru was fovered in cuts and small gash wounds, Sasuke had needles protruding from his knees, ankles shoulders and neck. Yoru wasn't certain how long Sasuke could hold out since Naruto was out cold behind and between the two.
Sasuke and Naruto arrived nearly too late when the masked Mist shinobi, Haku and Yoru was sure it was him, went at Sakura and Tazuna. Yoru had managed to kick the shinobi back and the three young boys had Haku surrounded... or they thought they did. Haku had used a move Yoru wasn't familiar with and Zabuza confirmed Kakshi's words. The Ice Mirror jutsu was a keke genki, a hereditary ability passed through blood. Like the sharingan was to the Uchiha...
"How's your sharingan holding up?" Yoru questioned Sasuke out of team concern.
Sasuke smirked, "Better than I could have imagined."
Yoru nodded his head and glancec behind them. "We have to find a way to get Naruto out of this. I'm running low on medical supplies and I can apply anything to his wounds whenever he attacks."
Sasuke agreed with him. For the first time since they were paired in the same team, they didn't fight with each other. Kakashi and Zabuza stood facing each other, neither moving and Sakura remained standing guard in front of Tazuna. Yoru shifted his postion, nearly faltering when his right knee about gave out beneath him. He cursed under his breath and righted himself quickly. Now, he wasn't sure how long he'd hold out. He was starting to get tired, his muscles arched and he could feel thm stiffen a little.
My chakra's nearly depleated... Sasuke's as well. We have to end this or we're all dead! he gritted his teeth, the bandage mask shifted with the movement of his jaw.
Naruto groaned behind him and Sasuke crouched down a bit lower, ready to lunge at the Mist shinobi.
"Naruto! Naruto, wake up!" Before Yoru could act, the Mist shinobi attacked and Sasuke jumped in front of the two.
Naruto was awake the moment Sasuke collapsed and cried out in rage. Yoru jumped away from another attack, pushing Naruto away and had grabbed Sasuke. He eased Sasuke down, checking to if the Uchiha still had a heartbeat. It was faint, buyt gave Yoru hope that he'd be able to help his teammate. He quickly dampened his fingertips with a mixture he had made with the herbal salve Haku had given Naruto.
"Come on, Sasuke. Stay alive...!" Yoru stood, turning swiftly around and caught a needle through the palm of his left hand.
He hissed in pain and pulled it out. Throwing it back at Haku the moment he caugt it through his hand. Yoru performed the hand signs fo a fire-style jutsu with one hand. Sakura recognized the signs and he eyes widened in disbelief.
N-no way! Yoru knows the same jutsu as Sasuke?! Sakura thought to herself, shocked.
"Naruto, get down!" Yoru called out.
Naruto saw what he was about to do and dropped to the ground the moment Yoru let loose a breath of fire. Yoru sucked in a little air and breathed out slowly to cut off the jutsu. He faltered and fell to his knees, "Sorry, Naruto... Sasuke's still out and I'm out of chakra..." everything started to waver in and out before it went completely dark.
Naruto lifted his head and Sakura cried out. Haku had slipped out of one of his ice mirrors and stood over Yoru's and Sasuke's fallen forms. He drew a kunai and knelt down.
"I have to admit.. you're quite the formidable foe... but this is the end... goodbye... Ryuuyoru youkai." Haku mumured, bringing down the kunai to strike Yoru's heart.
"RAAAHHH!" Naruto charged forward and kicked at Haku. The Mist shinobi dodged Naruto's attack and slipped back into one of his ice mirrors. He curse himself for hesitating to strike down Yoru. "I won't let you kill my friends!"
Yoru felt heavy... as if his body weighed a ton. He tried to push himself up, but couldn't. He frowned, tried again, but this time pain lashed out across his back and he screamed. His vision went from black to white then to red. He blinked back the tears that stung his eyes, struggling to breathe. His back burned with an icy chill that spread throught his entire body. Then his senses were flooded with the flickering and licking of flames, the sounds of terrified screams and the roars of a beat he never heard before.
White-hot heat filled his cold, heavy body. The agonizing pain began to ease from his body and he found it easy to breathe again. Yoru pushed up onto his deadly clawed paws and lifted his great horned head. Opening his maw and let loose another spout of white-hot flames that was hued a deep black violet and blue. But this didn't seem right... clawed paws? A horned head and a maw full of sharp teeth and wicked flames...? Shocked horror rushed through Yoru's mind once he figured out that the beast was him. That he was the one terrorizing the people.
Once his vision cleared more, he whipped his head about in confusion and a sense of his own fear. There were men in ancient armor fighting each other, women and children fleeing. He recognized the two clan symbols. Uchiha and Senju...
Where am I?! H-how did I get here? Wh-what am I?!
"Arashiryuu!"
His body acted on its own accord to the name being called. This time, Yoru watched the whole scene unravel befor him in third person. The great beast turned its head to face the man to its left side. Yoru soon realized the beast was a creature greatly feared as the tailed beasts.
"Destroy the Senju!" The same man demanded the great beast.
It roared and swatted away any Senju who dared to attack it and of those of its clan. The beast, Arashiryuu the man called it, charged forward into the throws of battle. Yoru shut his eyes to the gruesome scene and once he opened them, he found himself in a dimly lit great hall. He scanned the room, finding that the people in the room were Uchiha. His crimson eyes rested upon a chained and beaten man with hair as white a his. Another man, the same one who had ordered the beast Arashiryuu to destroy the Senju clan, stood befor the chained man.
"For your crimes against your clan," Yoru walked around the shadows of the ancestors of the Uchiha, trying to find a better view of the chained man's face. "I, Kagenashi, bind you to mortal form."
Bind him to mortal form...? What crimes had this man committ?
Kagenashi, the Head of the Uchiha, pressed his hand to the chained man's chest and a reddish black aura jumped between the two. The long white-haired man howled out in pain. Until now, Yoru hadn't realized that the chained man had two sets of curved horns. One set curved back and up in the back, the other set smaller than the first followed the curve of the larger set half way back. Yoru watched as the horns resided down into the man's head, disappearing from view. Even the claw-like hands the man had appeared more human like. Yoru watched with bated breath, not knowing what exactly he was seeing. The other two Uchiha who held the long white-haired man's arms let him go and he fell to the floor.
After Kagenashi had removed his hand moments before, the reddish black glow spread out from the right side of the chained man's chest to his upper right arm. It then spread out onto his back and stopped over his left shoulder blade and the small of his back. It dimmed down, turning into a black complex yet elegant design. Yoru's eyes widened and subconsciously touched his right shoulder. It was like his...
The chained man pushed himself up onto his forearms, his head down as he coughed.
"Wh-what have you done to me?!"
"I sealed away your power. Never again shall you use your power against your clan... Arashiryuu." Kagenashi turned away from the fallen Arashiryuu.
Yoru moved to stand at the side of the man who now was leavin. Arashiryuu lifted his head and Yoru's heart skipped a beat. The man had crimson eyes and teeth like him, but that want what startled him. It was like looking into a mirror... seeing yourself ten years from now, but Yoru was seeing an event that took place centuries before him.
"Not only ar you bound, but so too will your decendents by bound by the seal..." Kagenashi's voice echoed behind Yoru.
Arashiryuu gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet only to fall again. The long white-haired man cried out in pain, feeling betrayed by his only kin. "Brother!"
Yoru's eyes snapped open a he gasped for breath. He pushed himself up and looked about frantically. The white-haired youth spotted Naruto, but there wa someting different about the blonde boy. There were no wounds and Yoru sensed a strong chakra rolling off his friend in waves.
"Naru-?!" Yoru gripped his right shoulder, seethin in agonizing pain as the markings burned. "Argh!"
Yoru collapsed onto his left side, curling in on himself. Another pained cry broke from him. His skin felt like I was crawling and it was hard for him to think a his mindc fogged with the pain that tore through his whole being. Sakura and Tazuna watched helplessly from where they stood. Kakashi cursed himself for not being able to move away from Zabuza to help his foster son. If he did, he'd endanger Sakura's and Tazuna's lives. What's worse was the fact that the Nine-Tails was trying to break through the seal...
