Chapter 12: The Battle to Death and Un-death

As they soared through the air above the mix of grassy and rocky patches of fields, they were both hit by the worst sensation. They could both sense the black, evil chakra below them. There was no question as to whose chakra it was. Pain was standing there waiting for them, just standing there. Kakashi sent the signal for Akimara to land, and she did, knowing that he had a plan in mind.

Kakashi stayed on Akimara's back, and Pain stood there before them not looking at all intimidated by the sight in front of him. Kakashi was sure, no he was certain, that anyone with logical sense would be terrified by the sight before Pain at the moment, but yet he still stood calmly, ready. Akimara stood in an angry pose, her claws and fangs bared, ready to attack or take flight at any moment. He sat ready upon her back, ready to give any signal or attack that he could.

"Pain. What brings you here?" he asked, his voice as hard as stone. He was nervous and was doing his best to hide it. Apparently it worked well. Pain responded with a rather dark sounding chuckle. "What else? The thirst for blood and the glorious thought of the Nine Tailed Fox bowing down dead at my feet." He said in a slick voice that made Kakashi feel sick. He wanted to rip this guys head off, but he restrained himself. This guy could take him down with one finger if he made one wrong move. Akimara growled in anger at his speech.

"Now enough of that. You two are foolish enough to challenge me and you will both suffer the consequences. Now how to do this?" he said, with a evil smirk. Kakashi's eye widened. He lifted his headband to use his sharingan and Akimara waited for a signal. He sent her the one to take off and she did. She hovered above the form of pain, well now quite a few Pain look alikes. She growled in irritation.

She sent crimson blades at the forms of Pain and the battle started. As they launched attack after attack and defense after defense. Akimara had taken several wounds but she remained in almost prime fighting condition. She sent massive wind resengans at Pain and heard the solid thud of impact. She roared in pleasure and dashed off into the massive storm she had conjured so she could hide. She watched as Pain began to summon chakra and she briefly wondered what he was up to. She soon found out. Her storm disappeared and she lost cover. She had no choice now.

She dove down to the ground like a bullet and landed, letting Kakashi off. He grabbed the katana before he did and she provided the distraction for him. She launched at Pain like a pouncing cat and slashed with her claws and fangs. He heard the tear of fabric and flesh and he knew she had hit him. He watched her out of the corner of his eye and she flipped out of a cloud of dust with her shoulder raked open. His eye widened. Pain emerged, his clothes shredded and wounded. Kakashi took the opportunity.

He charged at Pain with his Lightning blade sword and he had the satisfaction of wounding a shocked Pain. Then his foe began to fight back. It was all Kakashi could do to block Pains moves. While he fought, he found he couldn't look into Pain's eyes. They would hypnotize him, making him miss, and increasing his ability to lose. His sharingan didn't help much either. Akimara was trapped outside a barrier of some kind that Pain had set around them, and she couldn't get to him to help him. All she could do was avoid the attacks thrown at her by his followers. She killed most of them and then looked to him and roared in panic. He was pinned in the ground, trapped by massive chunks of stone.

She killed the last few followers and realized why she couldn't get to him. She was in dragon form. He had set a barrier against dragon chakra. She might have to get out of dragon form. She leapt away from the battle and closed her left dragon eye. Immediately she began to feel herself shrink back into semi human form. Her body shrank to human form, with half dragon scales, her face half human and half dragon scales. Her clothes and weapons were on and she was in semi -human form. She ran back to Kakashi and found her worst fear awaiting her.

Pain was standing there above Kakashi's limp form and had a triumphant smirk on his face. Kakashi was dead. Dead from Pain's last attack, a nail that he had infused with sound sending it straight through his head, killing him. Her one human eye widened in horror and she felt herself go pale. She turned to Pain now, furious. He smirked at her, and asked in a teasing and over confident voice, "What are you going to do now, little girl? Kill me?"

She hardened her eyes and said in a voice that reminded him of cold marble, cold and smooth, "You tell me." He felt himself cringe. She was really a formidable opponent. Oh well, one more warm up exercise wouldn't kill him. He readied himself and she did the same. They both started of throwing shuriken and they deflected off each other. Then she summoned chakra in mid leap and sent a moonlight kunai at him. It hit straight through his shoulder and he was shoved back with the force of it. He grabbed the kunai and pulled it out of his shoulder and felt it pulled out of his hand and it went to her. She caught it and spun it around her finger and readied it.

The thing she wasn't ready for was Pain summoning the dragon out of her. He began to make the hand signs for it and she gasped. She was going to lose her friend that lived with her all of this time too. The pentacle appeared around her and she was unable to move. "Geariaka shintenshina no jutsu! Releasing of the dragon jutsu!" he cried out. She paled when she saw the soul of her best friend come from her eye. The red soul tried to go back into her and she tried to summon it back to her, but she couldn't.

He released her from the pentacle and she collapsed to her knees. And just as she did, Naruto arrived. He stood there in front of her on top of two toads, and his sage jacket flapped around him. He had a sage's scroll on his back and his eyes were accented by orange as were his irises. He was the last thing she saw before she blacked out.

Akimara POV

When she came to, I was laying once again in a white room of the hospital. I opened both of her eyes and looked around weakly. She was surrounded by anxious people. Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto, Sakura, and others I didn't know were all surrounding her. "Oh. She is awake, Tsunade." Said Naruto. Tsunade laid a hand on my forehead and asked, "How do you feel?" I shrugged. I still felt miserable. I had lost my two best friends within the space of an hour. Then… wait a minute. How in the hell was I still alive?

I sat bolt upright and I realized I had both of my eyes open. Both of my eyes were open, and I didn't have the dragon in me. So was I… oh crap. I was human. I looked at my hands. I had pale skin and normal nails, my back had no scales, and as I touched my face I found it was completely human. I lifted a lock of my long hair and looked at it. I almost screamed. It was blue black. All of it was. There was no trace of silver whatsoever. Darn it. I had no dragon left in me. I was completely human.

"Tsunade? Where is Kakashi?" I asked. Tsunade reeled back in shock. "A- Akimara? I-Is that you?" she breathed, as if she didn't dare believe it. "No. I'm a talking puppet." I said very sarcastically. "But but… you're human. Your hair is black. You don't have the-" I cut her off. "Dragon eye? Yeah, I know. That bastard pain summoned the dragon from me by force. I had no choice. I was helpless." I said while burying my face in my hands.

"Where is Kakashi?" I repeated. Tsunade smiled, while rubbing my back reassuringly. "He is in the lounge. And don't worry. He doesn't know you are here." I stared at her in disbelief. If he was in the lounge, that meant he was alive. Then how on earth… "How? He was dead before I passed out." At that Naruto smiled hugely. "I beat Pain's butt. I saved everyone he killed." I felt my eyes widen. I stood up weakly and grabbed my clothes. I ran into the bathroom and changed. No one tried to stop me. I was ecstatic. I hadn't lost him.

I changed into the black outfit I always wore. I ran back out of the bathroom and Tsunade was the only one there. She smiled at my obviously happy mood and she walked over to me. " Come with me. I'll fix you hair up and give it a trim." I nodded and she led me over to the table. She sat me down in the chair and began to run a brush through my silky tresses. I breathed out a sigh of relaxation. She grinned at my serene expression. She brushed out all of the tangles from my really long hair and trimmed the ends neatly. She swept the ends of hair up and then she got rid of it.

"I have one more thing for you." She said. I turned around to face her and she did the last thing I expected. She kissed my forehead with motherly affection. "Be safe now Akimara." She said. I nodded with a smile and ran out of the room. I was amazed at how easily I was able to move now. I had no scales holding me back, no half vision. I danced through the halls and streets to the Hokage's building where the lounge and office for all jounin were. As I approached the open door, I felt nervous. I had no idea what his reaction to my change would be.

I peeked in and apparently I made a slight noise of some kind as he looked up. I immediately whipped back around and took off. I heard him jump to his feet and yell, "HEY! Get back here!" he ran after me and I felt my heart pounding as I ran. I felt like I was running for my life, hair flowing behind me, heart racing. I was undead. I shouldn't be nervous like this.

When I say I am undead, I am not a zombie. I repeat, I am not a gross, disease carrying, half decayed, brainless zombie. I am the elegant undead. I am called a dionyseis, named after Dionysus, who fell in love with one of out kind. We really are beautiful too.

I ran for the training field, and he was on my heels. I just made it to the training field when he pounced on me. Grabbing me against his chest, and landing on his back, me on top. He held me tight, and I found it was useless to struggle. So I decided to spill the beans on the 'Hey!-I-am-a-human-now-because-pain-summoned-the-dragon-out-of-me thing'. I let him pin me to a tree though, just to give him some guilt after I proved it to him.

"Kakashi." I said. He shook his head and continued to hold the kunai to my throat. He seemed to be trying to force an illusion from his mind. "Kakashi?" I asked again. He shook his head again, his one eye pinched shut in effort.

I kept trying to erase her voice from my head. It was haunting me. Her death. She died trying to avenge me and now her voice was haunting me. I couldn't take it. It was too painful for me. I didn't want to think about it anymore. I forced myself to think about Naruto and I opened my eye. That's was when I saw her open her mouth and say my name once again and there was no denying it. It was Akimara.