Lone Wolf

Intro: This is the start of the preliminaries.

Disclaimer: DO NOT OWN NARUTO. Do own my own OC's the team, Kaji, Tenshi, newly introduced: Jadoku and Irihi, Raion, and Akabara (this chapter)

Recap: When the names came on the board, they were not Atara vs. Sasuke, but instead read, "Akuma Atara VS. Irihi." As everyone else walked up the stairs to wait, Atara was left standing with a short haired girl across from her. She stared her down and as they exchanged a challenging glance, the examiner said, "Begin!"

Bloodshed and the Hospital, Chapter 14

Atara and Irihi glared at each other. Something about this Irihi girl was strange. Atara jumped back while sending shuriken towards her head. She dodged them and caught Atara off guard from the back. Atara spun around and stabbed a kunai into her stomach. Irihi fell to the ground, the kunai stuck in her. As she knelt down, she grabbed the handle and pulled the weapon out of her flesh.

"Go Atara! You can beat her!" Assai and Neko were shouting to her. "What a bunch of idiots," Irihi mumbled as she stood up. Atara's jaw hung open a little bit before she said bitterly, "Excuse me?" "You heard. I said they're a bunch of idiots." Atara's eyes narrowed.

In the stands Sasuke was standing next to Assai. He said amusedly, "Uh oh she's pissed." "Huh?" Assai asked looking at Atara's face. Her eyes did seem more fiery than usual.

Atara summoned her chakra to her hands and she charged Irihi, ready to beat the crap out of her for what she'd said. Irihi attempted to dodge Atara's attack but Atara came up in front of her where ever she went. Finally Atara landed a burning punch on Irihi sending her flying across the floor, a black spot on her clothing.

Atara stood waiting for her to get up. She stopped channeling her chakra to her hands while she waited. The girl was really making a show about getting up off the ground. She must be weak, Atara thought.

Suddenly Atara felt something stab her in the back. She fell to the ground, her own kunai sticking out of her. Irihi was reaching her open hand out towards Atara's head, a flow of strange chakra coming out of it, when Atara looked up at her.

Her face was contorted in an evil glare. Her eyes were burning red like fire, something that had never happened before. The short-haired girl was suddenly thrown back from Atara as two black demon wings sprouted from her back around her shoulder area. Atara stood up as a tail with a blade the shape of a scythe on the end shot out from underneath her clothing. She bared her teeth at the girl who was on the floor to reveal long fangs. Her face had seemingly darkened a bit as she'd began her transformation.

"Atara?" Assai was saying. He'd never seen this side of her and now that he had, it scared him. "Assai what is that?" Sasuke asked. Assai's answer was not very helpful. "I wish I knew."

From the corner of the room in a shadow of a doorway, a certain green-haired ninja was watching Atara. He grinned as he thought, She was able to release it with anger.

Atara walked over to Irihi and opened her mouth to reveal a split tongue. She could smell fear on the girl as she picked her up with an overly strong hand and threw her against a wall. She followed the strike up with a powerful kick and several punches, each burning into the girl's flesh. Irihi was unable to move now. "Never call Assai an idiot," she hissed to the girl before doing a front flip in the air (she's flying) and striking her back with the blade on her tail (odd). The point struck the girl's back and penetrated the skin, breaking the spinal cord and snapping the backbone in half.

The girl's body fell to the ground and blood poured out around her. Atara's anger was satisfied now and she turned back to normal as she softly landed on the ground. The examiner started to walk over to Irihi when he was interrupted by Atara's voice. "Don't bother. That last strike broke her back and severed her spinal cord. She's dead." His face was filled with terror as he checked for a pulse and found that she was right. Atara had killed Irihi.

Atara had made her way back up the stairs, getting scared looks from all but Gaara who seemed impressed (???). Atara stood by Kakashi who scooted away a little in case she was to sprout wings again. She looked at him innocently, pretending as though nothing had happened before waiting for the next fight to commence.

"Winner, Atara Ak--," the examiner started before an explosion interrupted him. Three figures could be seen within the smoke and as it cleared Atara could see that one of them had black hair and red eyes just like her.

"Kakashi is that him?" she asked the siver-haired jounin beside her. "Yes, Takai Akuma, but please Atara not here, not after…" he let his voice trail off as he noticed that the silly genin had already transported herself to stand in front of her father.

The green-haired ninja buried his face in his arm. Oh great, she just used a lot of chakra but she still wants to fight him and with no training. This is bad.

"Hello Atara," Takai hissed between his slit tongue and fangs. He was already transforming. "I would say hello father but you are NOT my father. You and I are nothing alike," Atara hissed back. "I saw you kill that girl. Good job, honey, you're getting stronger." "Don't speak to me as if I'm your little girl and you're the perfect dad, because I'm not and you're not."

Takai's wings were slowly coming out from under his clothing and his black cape pushed to the side to let them come out. Atara drew her daggers and she could feel her weakened body begin to transform again. She couldn't control it but it didn't bother her. Only she'd already used up a lot of chakra. This battle was one-way and she knew it but she didn't care. She would fight anyway.

Her wings sprouted out again as they had done before. Now the two shadow demons were facing off. They rose into the air. Takai held out his hand and motioned for Atara to come at him. She snuck up behind him and attempted to slash his throat but he got behind her and kicked her back causing her to fall to the ground. She landed nimbly like a cat on the ground, kneeling with her right hand supporting her.

She pushed herself off with her feet and came at her father, glowing red daggers in hand. She managed to slash one of his wings as he spun around to dodge her direct attack. She flew back in front of him preparing to strike again but as she flew at him, he raised a clawed fist and punched her in the stomach several times. Atara fell to the ground landing hard on her back.

She glared at him as she pulled herself back up. She summoned fire into her hands with her own chakra and Takai laughed evilly. "Okay then if you want to play that way," he said between evil laughs as he summoned fire into his hands. Atara didn't let his fire get any bigger as she threw the fire at him. He jumped over it, successfully avoiding its damage.

What he didn't see was that the fire had actually split in two as it was soaring through the air from the angle he saw it. After dodging the first fireball, he touched down on the ground just as a second plowed into his stomach. Suddenly fire came at Atara's face and she summoned chakra into her hands in maybe two seconds and threw the orb at the fire, deflecting it and making it hit her father.

When it hit him, he disappeared in a poof and Atara felt something slash her back. Blood stained her white shirt as she fell to the ground unconscious. "I could kill you right now, but that would hurt my pride," Takai hissed as Kakashi appeared by Atara's side. He laughed once more before disappearing along with his henchmen.

Sasuke and Assai were next to arrive on the floor, jumping down to see if Atara was even alive after that last blow. Assai's face was worried as Kakashi picked up her limp body and put her on the stretcher that the medics carried. Sasuke noticed and he put his hand on his shoulder. "She'll be okay. Atara's strong." Assai nodded.

The Hokage announced that the preliminaries would be completed tomorrow due to the events that had just happened and everyone was allowed to rest until the next day.

…Hospital…

The silver haired jounin came in following Atara's frail body on the stretcher. They'd currently stopped the bleeding as best as they could with her clothes on. Her breathing was shallow and this made him worry. The medics took Atara into a hospital room and Kakashi waited outside along with the others as three female medics came in to take off Atara's clothes and bandage her back to keep her from breathing to death.

After a few minutes, they walked out and Kakashi was told that he could see her. He walked into the room and looked at her sleeping form. Why couldn't she have listened to me? He asked himself. I tried to stop her. Hmm…Perhaps I should have grabbed her before she had the chance to go down there.

Atara's eyes opened a bit and she whispered, "Sorry I didn't listen Kakashi-sensei." "I bet you will next time," he said with amusement in his voice. Although she'd lost most of her strength, she managed to make a scowl at him. He looked pleased with himself. He spun around with a kunai in his hand as a green-haired ninja dressed in black, a large sword on his back, came up behind him.

"I'm here to see Atara," Jadoku said calmly. "How can I trust that you won't try to kill her?" Kakashi asked. Obviously this sort of behavior was expected from ninjas whose headband had a slash through the leaf symbol. "Aaa…Kakashi. I remember you from when we were genins. Jadoku is my name, remember?" "Oh…hehe," Kakashi said putting his kunai away as he rubbed the back of his head. "At least you're alert, Kakashi. I promise I won't harm Atara, I wish to talk to her." Kakashi nodded and walked out letting Jadoku talk with Atara.

"Why did you do such a stupid like that?" he spat as Kakashi closed the door. "S…Sorry sensei." "Sensei? Does that mean you accept?" he asked excitedly. "What do you think sensei?" she asked a mischievous smirk coming over her tired face. "Okay, I'll come get you once you're better. Why did you say yes by the way?"

"After…I lost…to him, I thought that…that you could help. I n…never transformed…before. Well not lately. You understand it right? This…this thing?" "Yes." "Well…that's why…I need you…t-to train me." "Good reason," Jadoku said with a grin. Atara's face remained serious. She'd lost to her father and nothing could make her laugh.

The only reason that she was able to transform was that she'd been angry at the girl before and her father made her even angrier. Perhaps there's a way to release it without emotions, She thought. It's just like when I was younger.

As Jadoku was leaving Atara turned to face him and asked, "Sensei?" "Yes, Atara." "When I transformed before I was angry. Can I transform without my emotions being heightened like they were then?" "Of course. I would show you but we're kind of in a hospital." "Right…That would be awkward," Atara said, her strength coming back to her voice.

"Bye Atara," Jadoku said. Atara nodded as he walked out. She reached her hand up to her neck, rubbing her fingers over the old wound. After all this time, I'll have control over that beast. She laid back down on her hospital bed, and drifted into a deep sleep.

Atara's Dream (real dream, not vision)…

A girl with black hair and dark grey eyes (almost black) was walking down an alleyway on her way home. She had just had the worst day at the Academy and it was only her first day. On her way there, a girl had thrown gum in her hair which she pulled out along with many of her precious black hairs. Then, the loud-mouthed blonde (Naruto) had yelled right in her ear on accident as he was calling Sakura and she'd had a headache for the rest of the day. "Life sucks," she murmured.

From the shadows a young voice came, "Maybe for you weirdo. Why are you so emo all the time?" Atara kept walking knowing who it was: one of the civilian boys and his gang of tormentors. She didn't know the jerk's name, nor did she care. They always got on Atara's nerves. She was almost out of the dark place when something metal hit her head.

Her eyes turned red as she turned around to see the boys through the pitch black darkness of the alley. One of them, the leader, was laughing at her and his comrades were laughing with him. Suddenly black wings and a tail appeared behind Atara. She flew into the air and jumped on top of the leader of the gang, slashing his throat with the blade on her tail.

The others managed to see her silhouette through the darkness and ran away before Atara could catch them. She grinned in satisfaction at their fear. They wouldn't know it was her, they hadn't seen her change. She returned to normal as she stepped out into the light of the mid-afternoon sun. It hurt her eyes for a few moments as she adjusted.

Seeing the ripped state of her clothes, she decided to make a beeline for her home. She ran as fast as she could to avoid the gazes of people on the streets. She had a cape on but she still needed to go change since there was blood on it (bad thing about murdering).

As she came to her doorstep, a familiar friendly blonde haired ninja greeted her. 'Great Assai's not stupid. He'll notice the blood,' she thought regretting that she'd ever spoken to him. Now he kept appearing in her life on a regular basis, not to mention that he was at the Academy with her.

"Hey Atara, you remember when those jerks took your daggers yesterday?" he asked. "Duh, it was yesterday. Why?" she asked, softening her voice as much as possible at the end. "I got them back for you," he said holding out the twin curved daggers in their black sheaths.

"Thanks Assai," Atara said quietly taking the daggers from him. She had started to walk into her house when a sudden noise like a blade slicing through the air entered her ear. She reached her empty hand out and caught the soaring kunai in mid-air.

Assai's jaw dropped. 'How did she know it was coming? Sasuke was so quiet when he-.' His thoughts were interrupted as a satisfied Sasuke walked up to Atara.

"Nice catch, Atara," he said smirking. 'Great more rivalry,' Assai thought shaking his head as he left. "Uh…Sasuke I have to go. Sorry." Atara pointed to the blood on her clothes. Sasuke remembered the first time that she'd attacked someone and he'd found her under a tree crying about it. He'd taken her back to her house for her to change clothes and helped keep her out of sight. It would have been trouble if they'd seen her with blood all over her clothes.

"What number is this?" he joked. "Sasuke it's not funny. I can't stand it when this happens. I have no control over this…thing. I don't even know what it is. And it's four." "You haven't told Assai yet have you?" he asked remembering how naïve he'd acted. "No and I'm not going to. He's one of the few people that actually talks to me. I'm not going to ruin that." "Okay," Sasuke said waving goodbye as he left.

Atara walked into her house setting her daggers on the kitchen table. She snuck past the nanny (okay so Atara's only like seven and not old enough to take care of herself so she has a nanny, courtesy of the Hokage) and went into her bedroom on the second floor. She got herself some clean clothes and went across the hall to the bathroom. A board sqeaked under her foot and she heard the nanny move downstairs.

"Where are you going?" she asked. "To take a bath." "Okay." Atara rolled her eyes and went in the bathroom. She took her clothes off and turned the water on, waiting for her bath to fill up. While she waited, she walked over to the mirror and looked at her neck. The mark was darker than it was usually. Two blood red marks from where she'd been bitten shown like a neon sign against her pale skin. She rubbed them gently, remembering the alley.

...Real world 10:00AM…

Atara opened her eyes to see that the sun had already risen and its light was flooding into her hospital room. She reached her hand up, and rubbed her neck before she heard someone clear his throat beside her bed. She snapped out of her trance and turned to face a confused Assai.

The light was highlighting his blonde hair (by the way his hair is not completely blonde it has streaks of light brown in it) and blinding Atara. Her eyes focused to the light and she looked over to her right to find that she had a vase of roses. One of them was red and had "From: Assai" written on its heart-shaped tag. Atara smiled. Then she asked while pointing at the other red one, "Who's that one from?" "I don't know," Assai said shrugging. Atara tried to think of someone who'd give her a red rose other than Assai but no one came to mind.

She took her focus off of the mystery rose and focused on Assai. When she looked at him, his eyes were cast downward as if in shame. "I should've told you," Atara said, knowing what was wrong immediately. Assai did not respond.

"I told him when it happened the first time," Atara said remembering the events that her dream had brought back to her mind. "Told who? What's it? First time?" Assai asked. (Three questions in one sentence from a nine-word sentence, that's a new record I think.) "When I was only six years old, I transformed like yesterday. I had gotten really angry at someone who was teasing me and I ended up killing him. When I changed back, I ran. I went to a place where I could hide in the shadows and cry away from that stupid nanny in my house. What I didn't know was that I was being followed by a certain onyx-eyed boy. He came up to me where I was sitting beside a tree crying. It was Sasuke. He asked me what'd happened and I was so scared that I told him. He wasn't afraid of me either. He helped me get back to my house so that I could get out of the bloody clothes and then I told him that he could tell no one about it. He promised not to, and I believe that he didn't seeing everyone's shocked expressions."

Atara's thoughts drifted back to the rose as she finished her story. She asked herself, Sasuke? Nah, it couldn't be. He's not the type to chase after girls anyways.

"You told Sasuke? Why didn't you tell me? And why did he lie when I asked him what you'd turned into?"

"Yes I told Sasuke. I was young and I didn't want to ruin my friendship with you. He didn't know what I looked like when I changed nor does he fully understand it. He's the same as you as far as that goes." "Oh. By the way, if you feel better there's a prom thingy for genins coming up after they finish the preliminaries. It's in a week. You wanna go?"

"I guess if I get better. Is it formal?" "Yeah, so put on your prettiest kimono if you're coming." Atara smiled. "Okay, I guess I can for you." Assai smiled back and came closer to give Atara a gentle kiss on her lips before leaving her to get some rest.

Atara thought about this thing. What if I have to miss my training for it? I don't want to but this would be my first real date with Assai. I guess I won't miss much and besides I learn quickly. No problem.

End: Right so I stopped it there because well its seven MS Word pages and that's pretty long for one chapter. Okay another note is that, in her dream she had just turned seven so this was before??? Sasuke's family died right? Well someone told me that, if it's incorrect oh well plz correct me if so. Anyways R&R. need feedback (positive plz, mostly voting) The need for voting is increasing, considering what Assai said in this chapter.

Neko Pairing:

Naruto0

Rock Lee1

Shikamaru0

Neji1

Kiba0

Shino0

PLEASE vote for Neko pairing.