Chapter 21: The Guilt of a Demon
I glared at the moon, unable to sleep. I was back in the middle of the clearing, sitting on top of the weird bones. The wind rustled my hair lightly. I had tried to go back to sleep when we dismissed or whatever, I honestly had... but I just... couldn't. I'd be going out with Taka to find the Hachibi, capture him, and extract the Bijuu. I wasn't nervous or anything. I'd gone after a few Bijuu already. But something felt... off. I didn't know what did, something just did. I growled and rubbed my head, before hearing somebody land on the bones behind me. I spun around to see Sasuke standing there, looking down at me. I glared at him, before turning forward as he moved and sat down next to me.
"What are you doing here? Come to mock me again?" I muttered, staring at the moon.
"Actually, I was wondering how you could sit in the moon now." I blinked and looked at Sasuke in confusion, and he sighed in exasperation.
"Y'know..." He trailed off, and when I still gave him a blank look he groaned. He sighed, and then did a wolf howl lightly. It wasn't that he did it bad, it was the fact that Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha. Just did a wolf howl. I snickered, but couldn't hold it back and started laughing my ass off. I couldn't breathe, and tiny tears welled in my eyes. As I gasped for breath between one of my fits, I realized Sasuke was laughing too, though not as hard as I was. Once I gained control of myself, I was able to sit up and smirked at Sasuke.
"Y'know, Uchiha, not everybody's weaknesses stay the same." I snickered. "I've had control of Garou for a while. It was hard at first, but eventually he learned that it wouldn't work, soo yeah." I looked back at the moon, my face blank again.
We sat there in silence, for what seemed like ever, listening to the wind whistle by. I was vaguely aware of this gnawing in the back of my mind saying that Sasuke wouldn't waste time out here just to ask one simple thing, and then stay. But y'know, I didn't care anymore. Not right now. I didn't think about how he'd gone to train under Orochimaru, my worst enemy, only to kill him and then come and kill Itachi. The only other man I considered an actual 'sensei' after Gakuro and Watiko.
I looked down at my hands, sitting in my lap, and then looked at Sasuke to find him glancing slyly at me. We stared at each other for a few moments, before I realized Sasuke was leaning in towards me. Our faces were only an inch away probably before I jerked back and rolled off of the bones and on to the ground, gasping 'No!'. I stood up straight and looked at Sasuke hesitantly. He looked at me in confusion.
"I promised. Three years ago I promised that I would kill you because you joined Orochimaru. And you killed both him and Itachi..." I trailed off. Why did I even care? I should've punched him in the face, not roll away like some coward! Sasuke just stared at me, and I turned and ran up the wall, leaping in to the hole that led to my room. I sat on my bed roll, and leaned my back against the wall. I blinked when I thought about the look in Sasuke's eyes. He actually looked... hurt. He almost never showed emotion and when he did it was for a split moment and then it was gone. This was easily identifiable, and it stayed there. I laid on my bedroll, and actually fell asleep in a few moments.
I woke up the next morning to find light pouring in through my room. I yawned and sat up, before looking out of my window. What I saw surprised me. Sasuke was still sitting out there. In the same spot. It looked like he hadn't moved an inch. I sighed and leaped out, landing on the edge of the area. I crossed over towards the bone mass, coming up behind Sasuke. Instead of climbing on top of them, though, I moved around them and stopped in front of Sasuke. Sasuke was staring down at the ground underneath his feet. He blinked and looked at me, his eyes cold as stone, as they normally were.
"C'mon, Uchiha. You can't be that bummed about last night." I muttered so nobody could hear us if anybody were up. He didn't reply. I sighed and shook my head, before turning as Madara leaped in to the clearing on the far side. He crossed over to us, and we all stood there in silence, until the rest of Taka joined us. I then realized that they were all wearing Akatsuki cloaks.
"Alright, let's head out." Sasuke spoke for the first time since last night I suspected. We all ran up the walls surrounding us and gathered in front of the forest line. Madara stayed in the clearing, and when I glanced back he was gone. We all then sprinted forward, towards Kumogakure. We traveled for a while. Probably a total of five days to get there. We camped out every night, and during all that time Sasuke and I barely even looked at each other. And we never directly spoke.
Finally, we reached the lightning country, and we were around the outskirts of the Lightning Cloud Gorge. I only knew of it from the map. We came to find a chain-link fence, that seemed miles long. Suddenly, there was a light gasp and we all spun around to find a ninja from Kumogakure standing there. He was either an old Genin or a Chunin from how he gasped foolishly instead of running when he saw us.
Suigetsu reacted first. He slammed his leg in to the man's stomach, knocking him in to the fence. Then his hand shot forward, while his body stayed back a few yards. It looked like he was made out of water. His hand clamped down on top of the man's head as Suigetsu's body ran forward and reconnected with it. He smirked sadistically at the man.
"So where's this eight-tails?" Suigetsu snarled.
"Don't underestimate our village! I have no interest in telling anything to the likes of you!" The man shouted back. Suigetsu smirked, and pulled his arm slowly back, the fence passing through his arm easily. The man groaned in pain. The man said something I didn't understand, until Sasuke decided to interfere.
"In a fearful heart, weak spots will always arise." He muttered as he walked forward, his eyes closed. He then opened his right eye only, revealing his blood red and black Mangekyou sharingan. The man stopped fighting immediately.
"That's enough, Suigetsu. Sasuke's using his genjutsu." Karin muttered.
"Man. And I was just about to have my fun tormenting him." Suigetsu muttered.
"Tell me the location of the eight-tailed beast." Sasuke demanded from the man. I crossed my arms over my chest and turned around, surveying the land behind us as Sasuke interrogated the man. I felt as if we had eyes on us, but nothing moved even slightly. The wind wasn't blowing anymore either. I narrowed my eyes, before Sasuke coughed.
"Right. We'll make camp in the forest tonight and then go after the eight-tails in the morning." We all nodded, before he led us in to the forest. We found a small clearing, and set about finding wood for tonight. Once we had, we piled it up, and then we all laid out our sleeping bags. The night came quicker than I expected it to. We started the fire, and boiled a pot of tea. While we were sipping our tea we had fish cooking. After we all ate, we sat around for a while longer before we went to bed. Out of the corner of my eye I couldn't help but notice how Sasuke kept glancing over quickly at me. I rolled my eyes and stared up through the branches at the setting sun.
Suddenly, a black and white cat darted out of a bush, headed for me. I stood up and met him halfway, before kneeling in front of him. His head came to the base of my neck when I knelt down. He was panting for breath, so I knew he had been running for a while.
"Koinu?" He asked, as we had never met.
"Yes, what is it?"
"Jiraiya, one of the legendary Sanin, has been killed." I blinked in surprise, and then narrowed my eyes.
"By who?"
"Pein."
I nodded, and motioned for the cat to leave. He nodded, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. I stood up, and grabbed my unpacked bag.
"I'm going." I informed Sasuke's group, who looked at me in shock, although they had heard the conversation.
"Why?" Sasuke asked first, his voice dull as if he didn't really care, though I knew that he did for some reason.
"I'm going to go to Pein."
"Why? So you can kill him for killing your sensei?" Sasuke sneered.
"If he had been my sensei, and I wanted to kill Pein for killing him, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, Uchiha." I growled, and with that I just walked away. Nobody decided to follow me, and nobody called after me. I walked through the forest until I was a decent way away, before doing a string of hand signs.
"Summoning Jutsu!" I shouted, before my traveling cheetah appeared. I hopped on his back without a word. "To Pein." My cheetah knew exactly where to go, and we were off. Don't ask me how he knew which way to go, he just did.
While we were traveling, I began wondering exactly when Naruto would show up. It was obvious that he would want revenge of Pein for killing Jiraiya. Jiraiya had been one of his main sensei. I curse myself for it now, but as we were going so fast I didn't expect anyone to try and ambush us, however, I was wrong.
After a couple hours of traveling, when we were entering the Land of Fire's territory, a body slammed in to me full force, knocking me off of Chimpo. Chimpo slid to a halt, and turned to look at me and the man that was on top of me. I growled and was about to attack, before I realized who it was on top of me.
"Dammit, Madara! Get off!" I snarled.
As the masked Uchiha stood up and got off of me, he watched as I stood up and glared at him.
"Why'd you do that?" I growled.
"Go back to Sasuke."
"I'm going to Pein."
"I don't care, go back to Sasuke."
"Since when have you been my mother?" I snarled.
"Since when have you felt the need to be by Pein's side?" He countered.
"Since I found out Jiraiya died, and you know Naruto will end up there!"
"You don't think Pein can handle himself?"
"I think he can. But I want a piece of action against Naruto myself."
Madara narrowed his visable eye at me, before snickering lightly.
"What?" I growled.
"You don't want to go back to Sasuke because he's falling for you." It wasn't a question, more of a statement of a fact he already knew.
"Why should I care about how somebody feels about me?"
"Because you're falling for him too, and you don't want to fall for somebody you've sworn to kill."
"Yeah, whatever, Madara. Make whatever claims you want to, I'm going to Pein."
"No, you aren't." Madara grabbed my arm as I turned to get back on Chimpo. I yanked it out of his grasp and glared at him.
"Look, do you want your top two ninja out there trying to capture the Kyuubi when he shows up? Or take the risk of losing your best ninja when he shows up?"
"If Pein dies than he dies. We will capture the Kyuubi anyway."
And that's when it hit me. What Madara had REALLY used Akatsuki for. I snarled and clenched my fists tightly, fighting back the impulse to pound this guy's face in.
"Now go back to Sasuke." Madara ordered, before turning to leave, as if he knew I would obey him.
"When were you going to tell anyone, Madara?" I snarled, trembling in fury at both myself and him. Fury at myself for being so stupid.
"Tell anyone what, exactly?" He asked as he turned back around.
"When were you going to tell us that we were all just pawns? That when we died it didn't matter to you?" I snarled.
"I'm surprised you actually care. Nobody's cared about you before, have they?"
"THIS WAS MY FAMILY! Sure, we were all freaks in some perspective, but they didn't treat me like shit! Even though I had a demon in me, it didn't matter to them! And now most all of them are dead, and you don't even care if they all die!" I shouted, before breathing heavily as I suppressed my anger, no matter how slightly.
"When were you going to kill me, Madara?" I asked, my voice lowering multiple octaves.
Madara was now turned to face me, looking calm as could be. He must've known that this day was coming soon.
"That's it, I'm done. I'm out." I took my ring off and tossed it to Madara, who caught it easily.
"You know that if you leave, the next time you meet an Akatsuki member they will kill you, correct?"
"They can try. But do I even care anymore?" I asked, and Madara shrugged.
"Fine, have it your way. But I will still end up with your demon, Koinu. One way or the other."
I jumped on to Chimpo's back, and he began running, though no longer towards Pein. He was simply running away from Madara, as I had no clue where to go anymore.
"Stop here." I ordered as we reached a small clearing in the forest. Chimpo stopped, and I made camp. I had to figure out where to go. I couldn't go to Konoha, I couldn't go back to the Akatsuki, and most likely I was in the Bingo book, so I really had nowhere to go. I didn't sleep, however. I just sat and stared in to the fire, kunai in hand.
And then suddenly, later in the night, a kunai shot out from the bush across from me. I deflected it and was instantly on my feet, scanning for intruders. Another kunai shot out at me, and as I deflected it a man ran out, kunai in hand. He engaged me with said kunai, and it was only as our kunai were locked and we couldn't move them for a moment that our eyes met. Mine piercing yellow, his emerald green.
I blinked as the firelight lit up his features, and my mind went blank. Brown hair, green eyes.
Motaroku?
Suddenly recognition dawned in his eyes, and he snarled and kicked my stomach, knocking me back. Definitely not Motaroku.
"Koinu." The man snarled, and instantly I knew him.
"Rai?" I asked, and the man only stared at me, so I knew it was him. The boy who was Watiko's nephew, who had befriended me before the third task in the Chunin Exams. I smiled lightly and stood up/
"It's been so long..." I trailed off as I walked slowly to him, but he only retaliated by holding his kunai up. I blinked in shock. "What're you doing?"
"You're in the Akatsuki now, Koinu. I have to kill you."
"I'm not in the Akatsuki anymore, Rai." I sighed.
"I still have to kill you. You almost killed my uncle, even though he had trained you and helped you."
"Rai, don't do this. Where's Watiko? I need to apologize anyway..." And then he leaped at me, lunging with his kunai and aiming for my throat. I instinctively blocked and pushed his kunai away with my forearm, before looking in to his eyes. He really did want to kill me. I gulped. I didn't want to kill Rai. At all. But... he was going to kill me. And I didn't want to die.
"I'm sorry, Koinu." He whispered, before it became a full on fight. I took out a kunai and lunged for Rai, who leaped away from me. I took a deep breath, and hardened my heart. I was used to it, I guess.
We darted and lunged at each other, metal clanging as our weapons clashed. I slammed my left fist in to his stomach, knocking him back before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Suddenly a man tackled me from behind, and I landed on the ground on my back by the fire, Rai on top of me. He snarled and reared his right arm back, before lunging forward at me. I caught it quickly and easily, but groaned as he put extra force on it. He went to punch me with his left hand, and I caught it easily too, though now I was struggling to hold both of his fists.
I scanned the surroundings out of the corner of my eye, before quickly making a plan. I shot my left hand forward, causing his right arm to slam in to his left arm, knocking them both away. I reached out towards my fire, grabbed one of the sticks on fire, and slammed the burning tip in to his shoulder. Rai cried out, before rolling off of me. I got to my feet quickly, still holding the stick. I had hoped that Rai would retreat after that, but he didn't.
"Wind Style: Wind Storm Jutsu!" Suddenly wind surrounded us, going every which way. My Akatsuki cloak flapped wildly around, as did my hair. The fire I had going was smothered from all of the wind, as was the flame on the stick I held. I grunted as debris flew in to my eyes, clenching them closed. I was disoriented. I couldn't smell any scents, or see, or hear. I was in trouble. Suddenly a large rock slammed in to my chest, sending me crashing between it and a tree. I grunted before the wind stopped, and I fell to the ground underneath the rock.
I growled and managed to wipe the grit out of my eyes quickly. I pointed my right palm out at Rai, before sending a beam of darkness energy out at him as he ran at me. The beam connected quickly, and he was sent flying back with a loud scream that echoed through the forest. I pushed the rock off of me and got to my feet, looking at Rai.
"Run away, Rai. I don't want to kill you." I told him as I foolishly walked closer towards his shaking body, which was face down.
"Then don't. Let me kill you!" He shouted as he quickly got to one knee and lunged forward with his kunai, aimed at my throat. My eyes widened in shock before my body reacted from instinct. A kunai shot out of one of my hidden arm pockets, and I ducked slightly to the right to block his kunai, before burying it in to his throat. Rai's scream gurgled with blood before cutting off as he collapsed to the ground, dead. I let go of my kunai, eyes wide in shock. Blood covered my hands, and I began to shake slightly as I sobbed lightly. I had just killed one of my only friends left.
I think the worst part was that he looked just like Motaroku.
"I just didn't want to die." I began whispering over and over in the darkness of the forest, cradling my head as I sat down. A twig snapped behind me, and I spun around, afraid reinforcements had come. I growled and wiped the tears away from my face as I saw that it was Kakashi Hatake.
"Leave. Me. Alone!" I shouted, however he didn't seem like he wanted to fight at all. He didn't even have his headband raised up to use his sharingan.
"You didn't want to kill him." He stated simply.
"Yeah, so? I still did." I whispered, tears forming in my eyes again.
"You aren't a cold hearted killer, Koinu. Even if you ran with the Akatsuki, who are, for three years. You aren't."
"So? It's not like it matters! I was in league with them, and now every single village wants my head! I have nowhere to go."
"Why not to the Akatsuki's base?"
"I quit the Akatsuki."
Kakashi stared at me for a minute, before sighing and rubbing his head with his left hand as he placed his right hand on his hip. It was a while before he looked back up at me.
"Do you want to come back to Konoha, Koinu?" He asked. My mind lapsed for a moment. Did I? I wanted a place to live. To settle down and fix everything that had happened. I shook my head though.
"Nobody will take me back. I'll be killed before I even enter the gate."
"Not if you're with me. And once we get to the village I'll take you up to see Tsunade. She may seem tough, but she has a particular soft side for knuckleheads." Kakashi chuckled lightly, and I smirked slightly before letting it drop, and just thought. I glanced down at the crescent moon necklace around my neck. Motaroku. I sighed. I owed it to him. I owed it to him to go back to Konoha. To make things right again. I swallowed down the lump in my throat and stood.
"Alright. Let's go." I said, and looked at Kakashi, who nodded.
A/N: Alright! There's chapter 21! I know, it was a little weird and fast paced, but just a heads-up, the next few chapters might be like that too. Sorry ahead of time, but I'll try to make them as good as I can! :) Please review, they're greatly appreciated!