A/N: Well, I feel pretty good about my return to glory. Well, not so much glory, but something along those lines.
New in store for everyone: just kidding. No spoilers. Let's just say that the next few chapters will result in some definite surprises, although if you think about it, it's been foreshadowed since about the eighth chapter.
You can blame kyouger for the slower update. I've had this chapter typed for a few days, but I was waiting for a few more of my readers to review before I posted it. And dude, it's not that a chick singing Let There Be Rock wasn't hot, it was just funny because she had a man voice. My band in World Tour has Kiora on guitar, Aiko on drums, Natsuko on vocals, and Melody on bass. I re-created the band from the story... -sigh- I'm so pathetic...
Anyways, I don't own Naruto, now get on with it.
Ganryu had a long scar running from the tip of his left eyebrow to the edge of his jaw on the right, running across his features like a jagged fissure. His blond hair was cut military short.
His companion's face was completely covered, save for a slit in his cloth mask through which a pair of dark eyes could be seen.
"Dat's Udo," Ganryu said. "You don't gotta worry 'bout him."
Kiora was already behind him, falling into stance. "Eight Trigrams, 256 Palm strike," she said. She dug in with her lead toe, dragging her right foot in a wide arc and striking with both hands. She was stunned as her hands came to a halt almost a foot from Ganryu's body. She jumped back, getting distance to prepare herself.
"Check yer hands, girlie," Ganryu said. Kiora noticed the lines of blood running across her palms. "There's four of us in the world. Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. Gaara was Earth, he had the sand to protect him. I'm Air, I've got all of the world's atmosphere at my disposal. To be honest, I'm surprised yeh still got hands."
Kiora grinned. "Obviously you don't know who you're up against," she said. "I am Kiora Hyuuga Haruno, Hyuuga clan patriarch gene user, and you are doomed."
She clapped her hands together, summoning her Chidori in both palms. She charged in, closing the distance in less than a hundredth of a second. Once again, her hands hit an invisible barrier. Ganryu stood with his arms folded across his chest, watching as Kiora attacked from every angle, only to be thwarted by the wall of air.
"Dammit," she muttered. "How do I get past something I can't see? I'm just wasting chakra with the Chidori, I need to think of something else."
"Well, while yeh're debating, I'll go ahead and make my move," Ganryu said, flipping through handsigns. Kiora felt the air around her grow heavy. She tried to breath, but her lungs couldn't draw in the thickened air.
A bolt of lightning split the sky an inch from her face, slicing through Ganryu's jutsu. Kiora collapsed to the roof, gasping in oxygen. That gave her an idea.
"Admit it, you still need my help," Kohana said, teleporting in front of her. "I'm awesome, you can admit it."
"It's fine," Kiora said. "I have an idea."
"What's that?" Kohana asked.
"I'm gonna get rid of his weapon," Kiora said, flipping through handsigns. "Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu."
A massive inferno erupted on the rooftop, consuming oxygen as it raged. Kiora charged in, once again stopped by Ganryu's barrier. She hit it full force with Chidori, electrolysis splitting the water in the air back into hydrogen and oxygen, more fuel for her fire. Finally, she drew her sword, feeling it slice through his weakened defenses. She slashed wildly, feeling the blade bite into flesh. She jumped back out of the inferno, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Kohana teleported to join her.
"Next time warn me before you start throwing around fire techniques," she grumbled, stroking her singed hair.
"You'll live," Kiora said. "I got him."
"That yeh did, girlie," said a voice behind them. "But it'll take more'n yer little knife there to take me down."
Kiora and Kohana spun, immediately putting up their defenses. Kiora's wild slash had perfectly traced his scar, slicing his face open from chin to brow.
"How are you not dead?" she asked out loud. Ganryu moved to step forward, but Udo cut him off.
"See to your injuries," he said. "I'll handle them. They penetrated your wind barrier once, they'll do it again." He pulled a guitar case off of his back. "I am warning you, Kiora. I trained using the notes of Tayuya of the Sound Ninja Five. Unless you are a master guitarist, you don't stand a chance." He strapped on a generic Strat-style guitar. "I'll even give you the honor of learning how my technique works. The strings of this guitar have chakra running through them. The chakra amplifies, overdrives, and allows the sound to manipulate shadow demons. The guitar itself is not important."
He strummed an E minor chord, and immediately the shadows around him began to distort. He followed it up with a G chord, C chord, and D chord.
With his chords laid down, his demonic shadows rose from the roof of the building. Standing eight feet tall, in long black cloaks, and with wide, bat-like wings protruding from their back, the four of them were a definite force to be reckoned with.
Kiora almost laughed as she recognized the lick Udo began playing. It was a combination of the start of the fast Freebird solo, with a bit of Flirtin' With Disaster thrown in.
"A southern rock guitarist," she said. "I can't stand southern rock."
Kiora didn't want to give away the fact that she could shred guitar, so she just listened to what key Udo was playing in and pretended to be having trouble avoiding his shadows. She tried to find Kohana, having lost track of her since Udo's monologue.
She spotted the vampire behind Udo and Ganryu, pulling a square package from his guitar case. Then, she vanished into her mist-like state and drifted off towards the former location of Ichiraku Ramen.
Kiora decided to go on the offensive. She clapped her hands together, summoning her Chidori. Then, a teleport put her behind her enemy.
"Let's see how fast your shadows are," she said, driving the attack home. Ganryu came to his partner's aid, erecting a wind barrier just before Kiora disemboweled him.
Kiora dropped to the roof and spun in place, sweeping out with her foot, hoping that Ganryu's wind barrier wasn't as strong down there.
Again her attacked was stopped. She teleported away, getting away before Udo's shadows could catch up.
Kohana appeared at her side, holding a jet black Gibson Explorer with EMGs and a Floyd Rose. "I thought Natsuko said it was torched?" Kiora asked uncertainly.
"It was still in its flight case," Kohana said. "It was spared. I've strung it with his weird strings. All you have to do is tune it."
Kiora strummed the open strings, cringed, twiddled the tuning pegs, and strummed it again. She ran her hand down the neck, energizing the strings with chakra.
She strummed a fat, Drop C open chord, the raw roar clashing with Udo's twangy tune. Kiora jumped into the intro from This Fire by Killswitch Engage, adding squealy pinch harmonics for effect.
"Bring it on," she said, grinning sadistically. Strumming another open chord, she started into a blazing fast tapping lick borrowed from Buckethead. From this, she transitioned into a Synyster Gates-style alternate-picking chromatic descending lick, which flowed into a Trivium sweeping lick.
As impressive as this was, she hadn't manipulated the shadows around her, and Udo's were starting to close in.
Frustrated, she strummed out four generic power chords. Finally, she saw a shift in the shadows. She remembered how Udo had to lay down chords to define his shadows before he started manipulating them.
She started improvising a riff using the four chords she just used. Two shadowy figures began to rise from the rooftop.
They took the form of Serenity Uchiha. Tears welled in Kiora's eyes at her fallen comrade. Gripping the neck, she started into a slow, mournful melody, sliding and bending notes, her guitar crying into the sky. Rage took over, and a set of diminished sweeps transitioned into an eight-finger tapping lick.
Serenity's forms leapt from the rooftop, shadowy kunai appearing in their hands. With one quick dump of the whammy bar, they struck, taking out two of Udo's shadows.
"I didn't figure you for a metalhead," Udo said. A quick key change brought him to a Kirk Hammett-style descending lick.
"Kirk Hammett is a talentless little bitch," Kiora said. She changed keys and started into the solo from Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria.
Udo started riffing to Blackened, and the shadows above exchanged blows in midair.
Kiora cut off her current lick and up-strummed an A minor arpeggio. Serenity's shadow kunai soared down from above, slicing all six of Udo's strings. His shadows disappeared instantly. Kohana bound Ganryu in one of her ice spells, and Kiora charged in, flipping through her Thirteen Handsigns.
She veered left, dodging the kunai that another Akatsuki member threw.
"So, Kiora, you returned," Nejimaru said. "I'm not surprised. You hero types are all too predictable." His Sharingan whirled in its socket, morphing into the Mangekyo. Kiora still stared him down, her Byakugan protecting her to an extent.
"Yes, the Byakugan is nearly equal to the Mangekyo Sharingan," Nejimaru admitted. "But it is nothing compared to this."
There was a huge puff of smoke, and Hakaishimaru appeared next to him. His eyes were not the deep black pools they usually were. Now, they resembled a red four-leaf clover shape on a black background, with a pupil in the center.
"This is my kekkei genkai," Hakaishimaru said. "The Nusumigan eye. Ancestor to both Hyuuga and Uchiha; more powerful than the Sharingan and Byakugan combined. I am the last member of the Hyuuchiga clan, father to Madara Uchiha and Hiashi Hyuuga. I predate even you, Kohana Haruno."
"So how are you still alive," Kiora asked, hovering just off the roof.
"That is for me to know, and for you to never learn," he said. "Now, let's get rid of that pesky patriarch gene."
He flipped through handsigns faster than Kiora could react. She made eye contact for an instant, then her Byakugan completely deactivated. She felt her feet hit the roof, and her chakra fell to its normal level. She knew the Eight Inner Gates had closed.
"What the hell did you do?" she asked, furious.
"I just stripped you of your kekkei genkai," Hakaishimaru said. His Nusumigan deactivated, and he turned away. "Kill her," he told Nejimaru before teleporting.
Before Nejimaru could strike, Kohana swooped down and teleported Kiora and herself to just outside the steel door to the shelter.
Kiora was already flipping through her thirteen handsigns, fully intending to go back up and tear Nejimaru a new one.
Nothing happened. Confused, she flipped through them again. Nothing. A third try resulted in the same. Finally, frustration began to take over, and she called out each sign as she hit it.
"Horse, Bird, Tiger, Ox, Rabbit, Monkey, Boar, Rat, Sheep, Dragon, Snake, Dog, and Cat," she said. Again nothing. She tested the telepathic link to Hiashi, but it felt severed as well.
Fear started to replace frustration, and she tried activating her Byakugan.
"It won't work," Kohana said. "Open the door, and I'll explain when we're inside."
Kiora swallowed, nodded, and flipped through the handsigns for the unsealing jutsu, and to her relief, the door opened.
Kiora immediately noticed that she had expended most of her chakra on the jutsu, but Kohana didn't give her time to dwell on it. She made a beeline for Sakura and Hinata's house, pulling Kiora behind.
She shoved her roughly into the bathroom. "Look," she said, pointing at the mirror. Kiora instantly knew why her Byakugan wouldn't activate.
Her eyes, always grey and pupil-less, were now the same shade of blue-green as Sakura's.
A/N: Well, there it is. The big turning point. Hope it's not too much for your minds to grasp.