Chapter 21: The Encounter
White eyes closed, and Hinata fell from the sky. Kingyo immediately dove after her. Racing nuerons accelerated on by electric sparks broke the speed of thought as his mind processed and planned. He needed her to switch forms.
"Hinata-sama," he roared. "Shift to your human form." Please be conscious enough to hear me. "Change forms," he repeated as he sped closer to her limp, freefalling form.
The violet heiress below him made no signs of stirring, and Kingyo's frustration whipped up the air around him. Stirred out of dormancy, a great updraft rose pushing against Hinata's dragon for opposing her falling force until Kingyo rose with the wind under Hinata and caught her. With a deep growl he suspended his winds, and the two dragons fell together. Fine, if Hinata wasn't conscious enough to change voluntarily, then he would just have to make her do so anyway.
Switching from dragon to human form always left Kingyo feeling slightly vulnerable. Peeling away protective scales and strong wings like an old skin and repressing an inner call sung in his blood to a muted whisper always felt wrong as if Kingyo was denying an integral part of his being, but everything locked away lurked below the surface ready to be called forth again. But the now dampened world mocked him. Even for safety's sake, every time Kingyo abandoned his true form for his human form, Kingyo put aside a significant part of himself, but the switch was more than necessary.
As Kingyo fell from dragon to human, Hinata subconsciously sensed his change and matched his actions until a pale girl with long, dark hair appeared clutched fiercely in his arms. Kingyo's white eyes narrowed. Now to find safety. At an unconscious thought the winds began circling into a swift downward funnel which quickly slowed their descent. Trees rose up, and in the trees Kingyo abandoned his winds for a quick descent down the tree trunks to the forest floor. In his arms Hinata began to stir.
"Hinata-sama," Kingyo said as they touched down. "Are you alright?" Hinata nodded demurely and pulled out of Kingyo's hold. Shifting his hold to an arm across her shoulders, Kingyo let Hinata try her feet and test her strength before he completely let go.
"Where's Tenten?" she asked Kingyo. Her hands flashed through a rapid succession of signs and then bulging veins highlighted her white eyes. "Did you lose her?" she asked and reached up to squeeze Kingyo's arm once.
"I haven't lost her," he gravely sniffed. "I know exactly where she is."
...
TenTen glared balefully at the tree canopy above her. She officially hated Kingyo now. She was stuck in a tree, tangled among the tree limbs with a bough beneath her back leaving her in a perpetual and painful arch, and another branch seemed to have twisted around her ankle ensnaring her unfortunate foot, and she hung from two vines that dug into the tender flesh of her elbows and slowly cut off her circulation.
Stupid dragon. "Catch," he says. That's all the warning she had before the treetops loomed up in front of her. Stupid, stupid dragon. Even now as she dangled glaring at the night sky the dragon still haunted her with his imperious commands. Even now her feet itched and her head rung with a new command. Return. Come. And her mind replayed the last who knew how many minutes.
Hinata in her dragon form had crumpled midair. Kingyo had immediately dove after her, but for some reason instead of tightening her hold and preparing for the oncoming rollercoaster, TenTen had let go. Her fingers had loosened, Kingyo dove, and gravity tore her off his back. And he had let her fall.
But by now TenTen was used to falling so the hapless freefall she found herself in failed to intimidate her. But it was as if he hadn't even noticed, but then the winds had come. A close circling funnel buoyed her up and down, slowing her descent. And twenty feet above the treetops that infuriating and strained voice said Catch.
Stupid, stupid dragon.
So here she was dangling among the trees supported by various sylvan elements and stuck. Now seemed the most appropriate time for a pity party if there ever had been a time.
"You're not a dragon," a curious voice spoke.
Eyes shooting upwards to locate the speaker, TenTen stilled. Instinct rather than eyesight located the speaker in the middle of an impenetrable shadow beneath the foliage of a tree limb. Shimmering out of the shadows, a girl waltzed forward along a tree limb and paused directly overhead to crouch down and peer curiously at TenTen's spectacular tangle.
"Strange, why would a human be traveling with dragons in the middle of Konoha? Have you been kidnapped?" the girl asked and a pool of her black hair fell over her shoulder.
TenTen didn't answer. Black hair, pale skin, some curves but not well defined: teenager. Quiet walk, black jumpsuit, blends into shadows, knows about Kingyo and Hinata: Dragon hunter.
Above her, the huntress dropped down, and TenTen's cradle trembled as the huntress' landing jarred the tree.
"In a bit of a bind, arentcha?" she asked as she cocked her head to the side. Disturbed by the dragon hunter's acrobatics, a leaf fluttered down and rested on TenTen's nose. For a moment Tenten glared cross-eyed at the leaf. "For a Kitajima," she finally said, "you're sloppy."
The hunter's surprise radiated across her face. "Big words," she deadpanned, "for one in such a perilous position."
A gleam of light danced in the hunter's hand, and TenTen twisted to the left as the kunai lept from the huntress' hands towards her web of constraint. The only sign of warning TenTen had of her imminent doom was the sudden slack in the vine binding her right elbow. Without the support from her right elbow, the vines around her gave a horrid snap. The world flashed white, and TenTen went from dangling precariously to falling backward and in the process wrenching her right ankle. Then she was dangling with her sole support borne by her aching, right ankle, and the universe's population of stars came out and danced across her vision even as her stomach plummeted to the soundtrack of all the world's bells ringing crazily in her ears. Tinkles of laughter invaded Tenten's suddenly hazy world, painting it shades of red.
Young upstart!
"Need some help?" the huntress asked as she wiped tears of mirth from her eyes.
Fury fueling her strength, TenTen performed the mother of all sit ups, shot upwards and grabbed surrounding tree branches for support, so instead of dangling she was now roughly horizontal. Pausing a moment to build up some leverage, TenTen shot forward again until she ws crouching on the branch which encircled her throbbing ankle and nose to nose with the huntress. Coiling her hands around the offending tree limb, she locked eyes with the huntress.
"No," TenTen replied nonchalantly, "I'm fine on my own."
Dark pupils contracted as TenTen suddenly vanished, a few leaves violently twirling in the air over the spot she formerly resided in. Dark eyes flashed across the canopy. she, the huntress could almost see an elusive trace of an air trail witnessed by displaced leaves. Peering down at the forest floor, the shadow clad huntress espied the brown, bun-tied teen and jumped down after her.
"Sorry," she blithely said as she skirted in front of TenTen's path. "Can't go that way."
Come, echoed the command in TenTen's head, and her feet twitched wishing for more than anything to obey the command.
But someone's in the way, Tenten grimly thought; she sized up her roadblock.
"What's your name?" she asked, and she tilted her head towards the huntress.
"Kitajima Latro, why?" the huntress replied testily.
No one gets in my way.
"No reason," TenTen levelly replied. And then she moved.
...
"I know exactly where she is," Kingyo finished gravely. Chakra engorged veins stood out proudly on his human face and in his enhanced field of vision he noticed the same telltale veins on Hinata's face. They slowly moved together until they stood back to back leaving no spot untouched by their sight.
"Kingyo," Hinata's soft voice split the air, "what color is the moon?"
Kingyo didn't even spare a glance for the luminous moon penetrating the night's black grasp. "The moon is the same color it was an hour, day, and month ago, silver," he replied simply.
"You're wrong."
Kingyo felt Hinta stiffen, and he tracked a drop of sweat glide from her forehead down her temples to the pale expanse of her cheek, settle, and converge with more of its brethren. The engorged drop sped down her face at the sight of a black wraith stepping out of the shadow of a tall evergree. The utter absence of light defined the slight figure, but deep instincts began drumming in the two Hyuuga at its approach.
"When a hunt is in progress the moon is dyed blood red," the young tenor said. "And the hunted only notice at the very end."
Two brilliant circles flared to life beneath the two dragons' feet, a sickly green around Kingyo and a pale violet around Hinata.
"Sealing Circles," the shadow said. "Harmless to hunters but deadly to dragons if they try to morph." He jumped, tendrils peeling back from its head to reveal a young face with messy brown hair and ice blue eyes. The cocoon of shadows peeled away revealing a long pole with a glint of a curved metal blade appearing in his right hand heading straight for earth. He landed in the middle of the violet circle opposite Hinata and sprung forward in a seamless transition of motion. Hinata blurred out of sight.
Watching on Kingyo growled. The seal on his head began to burn, but he remained the silent specter. One touch with the side of the circle, and the hunter's magic would swiftly stop his heart. The gentle fist would be hard to emply with the long reach of the hunter's weapon, but Hinata had just the eye and agility to get past the kid's defenses and employ the fabled technique.
Hinata and the hunter shimmered into view just long enough for Kingyo to notice the kid's limp right arm and the staff being wielded just as effectively with the kid's left. Hinata was fast, but the kid was relentless, fending off while drawing her towards the perimeter of the circle. Kingyo flinched as the pair flickered in sight as Hinata's earsplitting scream rent the air along with the sickening combination of crackling electricity and burning hair.
...
Come
...
TenTen flinched as the echo of a scream pierced her eardrums, and her hands frozen midway around her ankle ceased all first aid efforts. A forceful tug sent her stumbling forward a few haphazard steps forward until the biting fire in her ankle sent her sprawling to the ground.
Alright, alright, fine, she thought back at her keeper's call. I'm coming.
Sparing a glance back at her opponent-sporting a shredded outer cloak. The poor girl hadn't stood a chance (although she had been pretty handy with unintentionally providing TenTen with much needed supplies-medical, clothing, weaponry, and dental). After one last tightening of the bandages wrapped around her ankle, TenTen took off following the unspoken call while blending flawlessly with the shadows and the night.
...
With a snarl of indignation Hinata shoved the young upstart off her-consequently sending him flying. With great relief she darted forward, grateful to remove herself from the biting sides of the circle. If at any point she tried to leave or cross the boundaries of the circle, she would be fried like a bug struck by a bolt of lightning. But if she toyed with the child responsible in just the right way...
Sidestepping the incoming spear, Hinata pirouetted, and (in a way that would have her father rolling prematurely in his grave due to the sheer inelegance of the move) she proudly slammed her right foot into the hunter's stomach sending him flying across the circle. In mere moments, Hinata reappeared over his sprawling form with the blade of his staff coolly held against his throat.
"Your name."
Hateful spite burned in his eyes as he glared up at her. With a shrug Hinata lazily tossed the naginata at the tangent point where their circles met. Landing with a thud, the staff quivered and the circles wavered before combining into one large circle with the staff at its radius point.
"It would be best if you didn't move," Hinata chided the boy below her foot, and a slight wave of her fingers had thick ice restraints forming between his hands and the ground. the boy glared at her, but Hinata paid no heed as she crossed the circle towards Kingyo.
Swiftly appearing at her side, Kingyo scanned for injuries. "Not a scratch," he murmured after one final sweep of Byukagen revealed only singed hair and some minor bruising to be the remanents of her brush with the edge of the circle.
Hinata nodded her head wearily and closed her eyes focusing on the field of vision allotted to her from her kekkei genkai. She had disabled a child wielding a long range instrument using close combat methods without seriously injuring either herself or him.
"We're still trapped," she spoke aloud as her eyes scanned the forest determindly not focusing on her pinned attacker. The boy's presence was unsettling to say the least. Eerily shining in the sky, the blood moon still winked at Hinata chilling her to the bone and troubling her soul.
"When the moon rises, and the bloody moon fills."
Hinata flinched at the memory. Slowly the more eccentric quirks in TenTen's personality fell into place as the context for her previous unease was revealed in the form of the shadow cloaked hunter.
She knew, or at least, she guessed.
"Do you see anything?" Kingyo voice drifted into her thoughts.
Up above the moon winked red as blood and saturated the dense forest's brush, leafy limbs, and dark shadows with its crimsons rays, yet yielded no sign of anything afoul. No life stirred outside the now blue circle that imprisoned the Hyuuga. No sight, no sound, and no light except for that which the crimson crescent overhead radiated down.
"Nothing," Hinata replied, and she reeled her vision back to her immediate surroundings. "And that frightens me. His clothing obscures his chakra coils."
Kingyo nodded. "I can't see them either," came his somber reply. "Shadows obscure everything, even minds."
And the fact that the lack of contact between Kingyo and TenTen troubled him was transparently communicated to Hinata. Bowing her head, Hinata switched off her Byakugan, closed her eyes, and simply listened. Their foes could move outside the spectrum of light, utilizing and melding with the darkness for transport and defense. Such methods rendered even the Byukugen's penetrating gaze useless, so she stopped, stilled, and waited extending her senses outwards to pick up what her eyes could not see. Beside her Kingyo's steady reassuring, presence also quieted as he too searched out any weakness in the circle entrapping them.
Breath in. Breath out. Focus, stretch, and search. Black shadows painted an eerie path across her mind, and soon from an unknown horizon rose a crescent moon dipped in blood. And on the edge of her senses something moved.
The sound of shattering ice pierced the air, and even as the frozen water broke, Hinata had whirled back into a familiar stance and called her element to her. Around her the air stirred but the most riveting detail in the scene before her were two black clothed figures. One was the child she had trapped with ice, but the other was merely-
"A clone," Kingyo stated, his conclusion echoing her own. "Not as foolish as I once presumed," he acceded.
"Kingyo, the staff," Hinata urged and flinging an arm in front of her she sent her collected shards of ice flying toward Thing 1 and Thing 2.
Blinking, Umbra jumped over the oncoming barrage and rushed towards the center of the circle. Retrieving the naginata was priority. Opposite him the female pureblood with long, violet hair dashed forward, white eyes proudly representing the icy bullets she wielded. Perhaps he had been a bit too ambitious in his selection of prey. Of all the dragons he could have chosen to track, he had to pick the beautiful, aristocratic, and guarded pureblood when he could have settled with the air mutt.
Focus
Blue eyes quickly shifted to the strangely warped ball of air hurtling toward him. A swift upward leap and use of his clone for leverage had him shooting on a straight course to the ceremonial hunting staff, the key to completing his Turning.
She'll be a pleasure to kill.
Have to get the staff first.
A pocket of pain exploded on his abdomen as a compressed air ball connected, and Umbra fell to the ground. Quick footsteps behind alerted him to his clone's perseverance. Rolling to his feet, Umbra popped back up to the sight of the female and his clone going toe to toe, and his clone showing impressive but flagging blocking skills. Umbra swallowed as he melded into the shadows stretching from his clone and the female. The loud explosion of his clone as one of the female's blows connected effectively shielded Umbra as he covered the last bit of land separating him from the staff.
A grin broke across his face and triumphantly Umbra's fingers curled around the hunting staff. at his touch the staff warmed, and the energies within surged. Time slowed for an instant, long enough for Umbra to strike.
Finally, chuckled Umbra's seal as the scent of blood filled the air.
"Sealing Spell Two," Umbra cried, and he slammed the base of the staff into the ground. Fueled by the staff, hunting spells poured out as new sealing circles appeared and constrained the dragons in their humanoid form in much smaller quarters, and-most importantly-separated the two. Except for the female. Her sealing spell would prove much more special than the mutt's. Now to enlighten the dragons of their imminent doom.
The air mutt glared at him from within his five foot diameter sealing circle, but Umbra had his attention turned toward the female, the pureblood. Already her humanoid form shivered and rippled upon itself in unspoken tension, and the grit of her jaw and the pale sheen of her skin belied the stress the female was under as she tried to control the sudden urge within her to shift into her true, scaly form.
"Sealing Spell Two," Umbra began as he circled the female's circle, "adds a unique layer to the original sealing circle. The new layer forces all dragons within to revert to their true forms."
A red line, the second layer of the circle, rotated around the female, and the forest held its breath as the young female struggled internally to remain in control of the internal battle being waged within her as her external environment encourage her to shift.
"The fault with this layer is that some dragons, purebloods," Umbra admitted, "can successfully maintain their humanoid form. Except for those whom are bleeding from the same hunting staff that cast the spell."
A trickle of blood slid down the side of the female's milk white face, gleaming like a ruby nested in a bed of pearls, and a sudden explosion of light and scales revealed a simmering violet-scaled dragon with white eyes and daintily webbed wings coiled tightly around herself inside the narrow confines of her prison.
Beautiful. A worthy kill.
Go, strike.
"Once the dragon is in their true form the circle restrains them for either transport," Stop babbling and act "or," and Umbra brandished the naginata quite threateningly and allowed the extension of the finely honed blade to speak for itself.
Wonderful, you are dramatic. Drama doesn't conquer prey.
Shut up.
"Of course, the seal is quite an effective deterrent. No dragon once inside can move." Umbra paused and considered. "You know, usually by now most dragons are howling in rage and promising to draw blood. You though are by far the tamest dragon I have met, especially for what I've heard about purebloods." Umbra leaned on his staff, cocked his head, and considered with all the severity a battle hardened twelve year-old possessed. "I wonder..."
"Is it because you are female?"
Shrouded by the trees, TenTen peered uneasily at the scene below. Stupid boy. He knew better then to look down on females. Many of his clanswomen would hand his tail to him on a platter for such a remark, but she wasn't here to mentally chastise a foolish little boy.
She'd come as the nagging voice in her head had commanded. The sight below was everything she'd feared when she'd first seen the signs for the blood moon, the hunting moon. Her moon. The moon that called, and the moon that wouldn't disappear. The moon that had led her to the scene before her as faithfully as it had led her so many long years ago. And the moon that wouldn't let her move and forced her to watch the horror story unfold below.
Down below Hinata closed her eyes, and masked in the shadows up in the trees' protective bowers, TenTen locked desperate eyes with Kingyo.
I came, she thought. I came, but I can't move.
No one could interfere with the hunt. Either Hinata overcame the hunter, or the hunter would have her head.
In the next five minutes events spiraled quickly out of control. A string of almost simultaneous events almost too fast for the eye to follow or the brain to process started with Hinata suddenly revealing glowing eyes, and a water column slammed into Umbra knocking his staff out of his hands and into the air. A quick repartee with the Hyuuga Vacuum Palm knocked the airborned staff at such a precise angle that it soared up into the trees into TenTen's hands.
The quick descent out of the trees and into the field of battle perfectly mirrored the cataract of sensation in Tenten's mind until the deluge abated leaving behind a determined figure wielding the staff and gauging the scene befre her.
"TenTen," Hinata gasped, relief evident in her every word. "You're safe."
Brown eyes darted across the field. Kingyo and Hinata sealed-if amatuerishly-in a sealing circles, the young Kitajima hunter frozen temporarily in his own glacier, his teammate unconscious, and their leader conveniently hiding.
"You came," she heard, and she couldn't help but laugh.
"Of course," she replied and marveled at the ease speech fell from her tongue. After so long. "Of course I came. After so many years, how could I resist? Two dragons trussed up in sealing circles, and a ceremonial naginata used for a Turning. How could I resist such an opportunity?"
As doubtful expressions began to cloud the countenances of the dragons, she easily repelled the probing mental touch of the air mutt, and whirled the naginata staff easily through several kata, gathering its weight, balance, and durability before leaning against it comfortably. Comprehension began to dawn with a slight tinge of horror, and with pure insidious humor the 19 year-old, bun-haired, bangle wearing teen enlightened her audience.
"Oh," she said faking surprise. "Haven't you figured it out already?" And a malicious gleam entered those now cruel eyes.
"TenTen's not here right now."