Call of the Hunt
I don't own Naruto, Werewolf: The Forsaken or anything connected with World of Darkness.
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"English"
'Thoughts'
(Spirit's Talking)
"Japanese"
o!o Scene change
/?/ Different point of view
/VV Flash back
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Chapter 12
He studies the group of twenty-three Pure standing at the entrance to the park. It's been two weeks since the Halloween incident and still Kyuubi wasn't back yet, which makes him wonder if this was planned out by those Shadow Lords that the nine-tailed fox had went to visit. 'I just know that Kyuubi is going to be pissed off about this.' He muses as he remains calm in the face of overwhelming odds.
He glances around at his pack and then at the three water elemental spirits standing with Koic, those three spirits had decided to aid them as a way to gain more favour with Kyuubi as well as to have Kioc owe them one as well. It was unheard of for free spirits to help out in a fight directly but then, when it came to his pack, they seem to either bend the rules or make new ones. He also takes time to study the enemy's totem spirit, which has taken the form of a giant decaying grizzly bear; he can tell it's a grizzly because it has a hump. He guesses it's a diseased spirit and that would mean that most of the Pure were likely to be of the Fire-Touched.
He's the only one for his pack to remain in his human form, the rest of them were in their Urshul body. He knows the Pure pack standing before them thought this was going to be a walk in the park but he has more then a few tricks up his sleeve and he's not going to hold back, he has more then a few jutsus he wants to experiment with and now's a good a time as any to see if they'll work the way he thinks they should. 'Even if they don't, they should do something help out with this battle.' He muses to himself; he can't keep a wicked smirk from his face and a slight look of bloodlust from his blue eyes.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to show you just how much you guys have fucked up when you decided to show up in our territory." He says with confidence and he hears Jeremy whisper to Jenny and Rachel, (You'd think we're the ones with the advantage here.) He hears Jenny snort softly but the Alpha of the challenging pack says, a greying wolf, (You've got spunk, we'll give you that. Pity you happened to join the wrong side.)
He snorts and says in a dangerously soft tone, "You can't possibly imagine what I'm capable of, let alone what my subordinates are capable of. You think you're hot but we aren't the ones needing a pack of twenty to deal with a pack numbering less then ten members." That caused most of the enemy pack to bristle and one of the more scarred members growls out, (You'll pay for that traitorous scum of the Moon bitch!)
The Alpha charges at him before the larger, more scarred long members could. He makes a simple hand sign and the Essence he was gathering lashes out as he shouts out in Japanese, "Flare!" The Essence moves from within him and surges at the charging Alpha, there's yelps of surprise from both sides as the flames begin to burn the Alpha's body as his attack burns the Alpha's fur. (What the fuck did he do? And how did he do it?) One of the Pure asks.
The enemy pack backs up slightly, they watch as the fire burns itself out. He can tell that the Alpha was still alive but it's clear that the enemy lost its head since the Pure Uratha were not as charged up as they were before nor did it help that some of the larger ones were eyeing each other with a glint of suspicion and calculation. He wonders how long it'll before the burnt skin falls off to reveal fresh and healthy skin, he doesn't know how fast the fur will grow back though, but it's unlikely that it'll be within the hour.
"Not so cocky now, are ya?" He muses, snapping everyone from their thoughts. Another greying wolf snaps back, (So you have a few tricks up your sleeve, you can't use it now that we know about it.) He chuckles at that and replies, "You think I'm stupid, gramps? Oops, I forgot, you guys are just mad dogs that are a step above Bale Hounds."
That set them off, in their fury they forgot to remember they were dealing with a pack, not a single individual and thus it gave his pack mates time to choice which of the Pure they want to engage while the spirits also engaged in their own battle. He managed to use his Essence to augment his speed, allowing him to nimbly evade their jaws within the last few seconds. He fought the urge to transform, he need to remain the target of their aggression since unlike himself, his pack mates and friends have never had to deal with a mob before.
He remembers all of the times he managed to grow used to the mobs back when he was living in Hidden Leaf. He had learnt long ago not to freeze when faced with overwhelming foes, even if he never did fight back. Sure he knew he couldn't avoid getting injured from this, but his plan was working as more of his pack mates manage to force one of the Pure unconscious by restricting the air follow, doing a simple throat hold as their foes most likely trying to launch attacks at him. He's glad that they were able to keep from killing their foes, it was a sin to kill their own kind and he doesn't want them to deal with that, will, not yet at any rate so he used the Pure instinct against them by giving them a 'weak' target to focus on.
He is sent flying as a stray attack hits the edge of the group. He has countless bleeding cuts from biting attacks from the Pure. He sighs and once he's standing up, he straightens up and closes his eyes. He envisions a pool of mud within his mind's eye and as he hears a growl, his hands were already going through ten hand signs. He opens his eyes as he feels the Essence he gathered expands out of his body. The two charging Uratha stubble as the ground gave way, it's not long before the area within twenty feet of him also transforms into a vast area of muck.
Within twenty seconds the ground hardens again, trapping not only Pure but also his pack mates. He flushes in embarrassment but he can't help but collapse onto the ground. He listen to the efforts of not only the Pure but of his pack mates as they attempt to get out of the harden ground. He glances upwards to watch the battle occurring between the five spirits. It's not long before the bear looking spirit vanishes, thus admitting defeat.
It takes a few minutes before he feels much more energetic and he then stands up. He looks at the various Uratha around him and he snorts softly. "So, you want me to cut off your heads or will you surrender?" He asks the enemy pack and they all growl in response. "You're all a bunch of idiots and cowards. What do you say Koic? You are in charge of this kind of matter until your father gets back, what do you want to do with them?" He asks the three tailed navy blue fox spirit.
Koic cocks his head to the side as the fox studies the Uratha trapped in the ground. (Half of them were killed in the fight.) The fox says and he sighs, he turns away as the fox spirit lands and with a simple crack, Koic kills one of the Pure biting the Uratha's head off, because Kyuubi's their patron spirit, the foxes don't do much to him and the pack but the hatred that all spirits have for the half flesh wolves remains just below the surface, waiting to be released or expressed.
It's not long before only ten of the Pure are spared by Koic and those he knocks out by using Essence to increase his strength. With them being dealt with, he helps his pack mates get out of the ground. "Can't you guys just transform into your Urhan forms to get out of this?" He wonders as he helps Kurt get out of the ground. (I've tried to transform but something about this keeps me from transforming.) Juliana snaps and he blinks in stunned surprised. (I'm guessing that's why none of them entered into Kuruth.) Kurt muses and he blinks before he nods in agreement, he hadn't thought about them going into Kuruth when he preformed the jutsu…
It's not long before he grew tired of using his Hishu's hands and transforms them into the clawed hands of his Dalu form by using the Gift of Partial Change. He glances every so often at the crispy Alpha he fried, wondering when that one will wake…
o!o
He sighs as he stares up at the night sky; it's been slightly hectic two days since they sent the Pure Uratha packing out of their lands within the Hisil. He still remembers the questions that he was bombarded with about what he did to the ground a few hours after the attempted slaughter of the pack. He stuck with the truth for the most part; he had been experimenting with using his Essence in ways beyond using it to power his Gifts.
Surprisingly, after explaining to them how to use raw Essence to augment their speed or strength it wasn't long before they've mastered that ability though he's been issued warning about meddling with his Essence any more then what he had been, they didn't want him exploding when he forces raw Essence out of his body like he did in his attempts to use Essence like chakra when he tries to uses his jutsus. It didn't help matters when they informed Kim about the dangers and she managed to get him to feel guilty about keeping that under wraps, which makes him wonder if that's the reason why Jenny and Rachel told her in the first place…
'I'll never understand women.' He muses to himself as he brings himself out of that memory of his confrontation with Kim. He also didn't really get what Kim meant about why blonds were stupid but he didn't really take offence to it since he rather not have Kim explain it to him, he keep silent about the reference.
'I can't wait for things to return to normal once Kyuubi returns.' He muses to himself. He can't help but wonder what's keeping the nine-tail fox lord, he knows meeting can drag on and on but still, he kind of pegged the fox as the impatient type as well as someone would prefers action over discussion. 'Well, hopefully he'll return before the Pure launch another attack our way.' He hopes, while Koic was a nice change when it comes to dealing with any of Kyuubi's offspring, he finds himself missing the red fox lord since through his whole life, the fox had been his constant companion whether he was aware of it or not.
/?/Joe "Blackcrop" Harrison
He can't help but feel ashamed at having been outwitted by a boy just entering into puberty. Not only did he get knocked out within seconds of leading the charge but over half of his pack was killed by the three tailed fox spirit and it seems as if they never stood a chance to defend themselves because of something keeping them trapped within the ground, it kept them from transforming, let alone entering into Kuruth before the fox spirit bites their heads off. They heard rumours about an exiled lord being the patron of a pack belonging to the Moon bitch followers but he only scoffed whenever he heard about it, if anything it's more likely that a spirit lord would hook up with a Pure pack then a pack of the murders but then, all of the fox spirits have grown hostile towards them, so much so that they have reports of groups of fox spirit tearing through the bond entrapping fox spirits in fetishes.
'And now it was a fox spirit that killed our pack-mates, not the Moon bitch's slaves but a free thinking spirit. Bear-of-Poisoned-Fur wasn't just fighting that fox spirit in a one on one battle but those non-enslaved elemental spirits aided the three tailed fox. Why in the hell would those elemental spirits aid that pack? What was promised to them?' He wonders, he runs a hand over the top of his head; his hair was still trying to fill out despite the time between when he was engulfed in flames to now, which makes him wonder just what the blond Uratha had done to make his hair and fur grow so slowly.
He glances around the restaurant owned by Purging Flames Unbound pack, the owner was someone he went through intimation into the Izidaka with, one Vickor "Thorn-coat" Dodson. He nods to his buddy; Thorn-coat could be described as an old battle axe with gunmetal-gray eyes. Thorn-coat's hair is white with age for the man was four years his senior. The cloths that Thorn-coat's is wearing a faded out gray shirt under a fading brown leather jacket and wearing black cargo pants with a empty dagger sheath hanging from the belt.
As long as he's known Vickor "Thorn-coat" Dodson, his friend has always worn that sheath without a dagger in it, he use to bug his friend about it but Thorn-coat would only answer that their tribal patron, Gurim-Ur or Rabid Wolf, bid him to wear it as thus. Thorn-coat smiles warmly at him and he gets up to shake his old friend's hand, he has hopes that his friend might help him make sense of what happened during that confrontation that occurred two weeks ago. By now, news of what happened to his pack has most likely spread from pack to pack, so it's reasonable that his friend knows about it and would have had time to think about it.
They exchange pleasantries for the first hour, reminiscing about past victories and when they're reflects were so much more sharper though they were so much more fool hardy. It wasn't long before a comfortable silence hung between Thorn-coat and himself. Refills for their drinks appeared in a timely fashion, considering that Thorn-coat was the owner this was only to be expected.
"So, how did a pack of wet behind the ears rodents manage to not only drive off a pack of harden veterans but lose a little more then over half of their number?" Thorn-coat finally asks after five minutes of silence. He takes a sip of his beer and answers honestly, "That's what we'd all like to know. Honestly, their leader wasn't even thirteen and was kind of runty for his age. The kid did two tricks using raw Essence and well… My coat was burnt to a crisp and is still taking its sweet time growing back in and everyone but their Alpha became trapped in the ground and found they were unable to transform. The fox and the leader chatted and then the fox bit off members of my pack heads off."
Thorn-coat gives him a look of disbelief and he shrugs. "That's the gist of it, though we're still confused as to why three water spirits would aid the three tailed fox though." He adds once he sips from his glass of beer. "Were they bound to fetishes?" Thorn-coat asks, he's heard that question plenty of times since his pack got back onto pack land. "No, they were free from them and it didn't look like they were bribed either. They aided them willingly." He replies.
"'Mark him well, Heed his action, Words and Deeds.'" Thorn-coat muses softly as his old friend quotes the words of the old prophet Stalks-in-Green, he glances questioningly at his friend, noting the gazed look in his friend's eyes. He doesn't know what brought Thorn-coat to think of that prophecy at a time like this. "How many Uratha were in this pack you tried to dethrone?" Thorn-coat asks and he answers easily, "Seven members, though our totem spirit mentioned that there's a nuzusul that seems to be hanging around with the pack."
He believes that the nuzusul was most likely dating one of the pack members and that's why the local nuzusul was hanging about. "So when that one transforms, that'll make it eight." Thorn-coat muses out loud and he snorts. "We'll most likely be able to convince them to join us, it's not like they're stupid enough to tell someone who's not even an Uratha yet what's about to happen, right? Besides, the spirits prefer us Pure to the Moon bitches slaves, they'll keep us informed of when this nuzusul will be transforming and we'll rescue her before they taint her too much." He assures his friend, though for some odd reason, Thorn-coat doesn't look convinced.
"Maybe but don't you find it odd that our totems and our tribal patrons didn't want us to move against this pack right away? I think we just missed our chance of routing this pack out of that area and it remains to be seen if we'll ever get another chance to. Usually our totems and patrons would be ranting and raving over this defeat and yet, they remain strangely silent on this matter. There's something going on and I believe this pack is either going to be the center of it or at least, be the instrumental in fulfilling that prophecy that Stalks-in-Green recited before her death. It doesn't help that the Urdaga also received this same prophecy, word for word." His friend muses softly; he shivers slightly for some unknown reason.
He can't help but notice just how aged his friend was and he glances away, wanting to be rid of the feelings of uncertainty. He doesn't receive comfort from the surroundings either, he stares at the dart board where a picture of the full moon is pinned up. He could only imagine what that Moon bitch as in store for the Urdaga… for them all.