Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to Daystar Clarion

Warnings: Graphic violence, gore, cannibalism, and language...along with canon character deaths

Dancing with Demons

Chapter Twenty-Three

Unexpected Happenings

Shikamaru liked Kazuya Natsu- not a big surprise, most people did. It was hard to come up with bad things to say about the genin, he had been quite popular at the Academy, getting along with everyone, tending to drift from group to group whenever he pleased. He had hung out with him and Chouji often enough that he counted the genin as a good friend. He was honest, hardworking, incredibly friendly, dependable, good to have at ones' back...

So it was with great reluctance that he approached the dirty blond's door; he hated to be the bearer of bad news, and this was very bad news indeed, enough to make him sweat as he knocked on the door of the Kazuya residence. He wiped his forehead as he heard someone approach, straightening from his slouch as Kazuya's mother greeted him at the door.

"You're Shikamaru, right?" she inquired with a welcoming smile, gesturing for him to enter, but he shook his head politely.

"Sorry, but this is urgent."

Her face stiffened, eyes running warily over his chuunin's uniform, face paling. He stopped a groan from escaping his throat- he remembered how she viewed shinobi from his visits to Natsu's bedside at the hospital several months ago. Not fun.

Natsu came into view, a happy smile on his face, no doubt due to Sunny's miraculous resurrection. "Hey Shikamaru. What's up?" he asked as he shooed his mother away from the door. She did so reluctantly. He waited until she was out of ear-shot before speaking.

"Sasuke's gone missing-nin on us," he watched as the smile faded from Natsu's face, replaced by confusion and disbelief.

"What?" he stepped forward, shutting the door behind him. "What do you mean 'he's gone missing-nin?' what...what happened?"

Shikamaru sighed, relaying the information Tsunade-sama had given him, watching the color drain from Kazuya's face all the while. Inside he cringed, Natsu was beginning to resemble the way he had looked in the hospital- eyes wide- staring at him in shock while a wheeze came from his chest.

"I'm gathering a Team together to retrieve him, and I need you to come along- you're good with the Kage Bunshin. Are you in?"

Natsu blinked rapidly at him, as if justing hearing his words. "What? Oh- yes, yes, I'll come. Let me get my stuff." He sounded dazed, and Shikamaru felt sorry for him. He opened the door, slipping inside to his mother's anxious inquiries. Shikamaru turned from the door, calculating who else to bring. Chouji definitely, and most likely Shino or Kiba. He didn't feel ready for this responsibility- didn't like being in charge. He sighed grimly

Being a ninja was so troublesome.

----------------------

Sunny bent his back over a branch, bending his spine as he munched lazily on peppermint, viewing the world up-side-down. Gaara was in his view, dirty, sitting in a nearby branch, face empty- but he could feel the air of contentment about him. Gaara had left Suna not three days after he had arrived, deciding that he no longer belonged there, He had wanted to be around his own kind, and had headed back toward Fire Country. The going had not been so easy though, and he had spent many months hiding from Hunter-nin pursuit. He had only recently arrived in Konoha territory, claiming, in the few words that he bothered to speak, that he had come across Dyadem, who was still mysteriously absent.

\Where did he go?/ Sunny had asked the night before.

"Into one of the Sound Four," at his puzzled look, Gaara elaborated. "Orochimaru's ilk."

Sunny had smiled. \I'm going to find that human- there is much I wish to know./

Gaara had looked surprised. "Orochimaru? He cannot be trusted. He killed my father and posed as him during the Exams."

\Ah, so that is who he was pretending to be. But I do not want his trust- only what he knows. He knows enough to kill Konoha's Hokage...Imagine what I can accomplish with that kind of power./

Gaara's face remained empty as Tsorn spoke up-he had been wrapped around a tree, munching away at a stash of squirrels. \I didn't know we were going there. Didn't you just have a disagreement with Dyadem over this?/

Sunny had just warbled at him in amusement, leaving Tsorn to mutter about a fickle mind.

The night had passed uneventfully, with him telling about his healing rest, then grossing Gaara out by eating spiders, snails, and butterflies. Cockroaches seemed to absolutely horrify him, though he only showed this by averting his eyes and the tightening of his lips. Gaara seemed to have an aversion to making facial expressions.

Sunny righted himself and dusted his pants of leaves and bark. He had to return to the village to retrieve human food for the red-head, since his body was human and he didn't seem to want to eat tasty bugs. The jinchuuriki did try to consume some of the squirrels, but most of that was draining the blood from it and picking fur from his mouth in disgust. A squirrel was something that should be eaten whole- due to very little meat, and only Tsorn had a mouth big enough for that. Sunny couldn't help but be disappointed with this- it seemed to reinforce the reality that Gaara himself was not demonkin, but a human with a demon trapped within him.

\I'll be back,/ he told them as he dropped from the trees and landed lightly on the earth. He headed for the village, warbling in his throat as he hopped the village wall and dropped into the human domain. They were oblivious to his presence, as usual, something he delighted in, though some of the females giggled at his hair and smiled, which pleased him. The more attractive he was, the easier it would be to lure them away- females always had the most exquisite meat.

He headed in the direction of Natsu's dwelling, sure it would be easy to acquire food from him since his mother kept pushing it at him. It was on his way that he scented the human female Sakura, smelling as tasty as usual... except for an added flare that made him pause and turn his sniffing nose in her direction.

Despair.

Turning in that direction, his bright blue eyes darted about the humans until they fell upon the pink haired female, hunched on a bench, face swollen red. Sunny approached, stopping before her and smiling.

"What's the matter? Someone hurt you?" He had promised himself earlier to use better human tongue- it had been digressing badly over the past few months.

She looked up at him with swollen red eyes and brushed hair from her face. "Sunny...it's you..." her eyes lowered back to the ground, and he bent over at the waist and tilted his head so he could see her expression. She looked at him. "Sasuke left."

He blinked. Left? Left where? She leaned away from him and sighed, more tears coming to her eyes.

"He's gone to join Orochimaru in Otogakure, and Natsu's gone after him with Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, and Hyuuga Neji." She wiped her eyes roughly. "I tried to stop Sasuke from going, but I'm too weak, always was..." more tears came. "Natsu promised to bring him back, but I'm scared he'll get hurt too..."

Sunny gazed over her head in silent thought. He hadn't expected this to happen so soon. His eyes darted about. Where the hell was Dyadem when he really needed him?

"When this...When did this happen?" he demanded, and saw her jump at the sudden heaviness of his voice, but he couldn't spare the time to care.

"Sasuke left last night, Natsu left this morning."

Sunny bared his teeth, hissing in agitation. The sun was halfway in the sky already- what was that called? Afternoon? "Which way?" he asked, glaring down at her wide eyes, smelling her fear.

"They w-went through the north gates- that's the direction to Hidden Sound."

Sunny shook his head, not unlike a bird settling its feathers, and rushed away, heading for the north walls. He hopped up the side of a dwelling and created a kage bunshin, and watched it leap back toward Gaara and Tsorn, with instructions to follow him. They parted ways, the clone going west while he continued north, in minutes passing through most of the village. Far from the actual gate, he was left unhindered as he scaled the wall and leaped into the surrounding trees. He stopped immediately though, so he could stare about in awe. He had thought the trees in the western area were big, but the northern ones were so massive, that he could stretch out on a single branch without any of his limbs dangling over the sides. Amazing- some of the leaves were even bigger than his head!

After marveling over size differences, he dropped down to the forest floor and began to sniff about, searching for familiar scents beyond the decay of leaves and the passage of animals. He got down on all fours and pressed his nose to the dirt, sniffing deeply, then shaking his head when particles went up into his nose. It was when he was wiping his face that he caught the sent of smoke and burning wood, drifting north-west from him. He leaped back into the trees and headed in that direction, running through the trees, since the branches were so thick, all the while the scent of burning things growing, until the air became a bit hazy with it.

His foot hit something, something thin, and before he could stop and inspect it, he heard a hissing sound- then there was a flash, an explosion, and he was engulfed in fire. He screamed in pain, crashing down to the earth, smelling his burnt flesh, unable to open his eyes. He lay where he was, hearing branches fall about him, groaning in the pain that ran from head to toe. He must have tripped a trap.

The pain dropped a level, telling him that he was beginning to heal from the burns, and he felt his eyelids soften, then open. He blinked blearily at his surroundings, burnt trees, then looked at his arm, a burnt appendage that was still smoking, the meat inside of it cooked. Aw crap, he thought nervously. This was some serious damage, healing rest kind of damage, and he forced his cooked body to sit up. There was a chunk of his thigh missing, and he could tell all of his hair had been burned off. Maybe if he moved, his body wouldn't drop into the healing rest!

Sunny struggled to his burnt feet, pain roaring through him, his eyes watering as he staggered away from the blaze. Several feet away he spotted a small pond, and he stopped to take a peek at his face, immediately turning away from it with a cringe. Most of the right half of his face was seared away, showing bone from his jaw line to the top of his naked skull, exposing his mandibles. Indeed his hair was all gone, remaining flesh a cooked red and black- actually, the only thing that had fully healed so far was his eyes. He was one big red and black naked burnt thing. There was only one thing he could do then.

Eat.

Moving more quickly, he paused to snatch up a badger, and ate it on the move, feeling its meat and blood burn away into energy the moment it hit his stomach. The burnt flesh on his back eased up a bit. More. If it moved, it went down his throat- rodents, insects- any animal foolish enough to have stuck around. He ate many reptiles- because they were attracted to the heat coming from the fires, and suffered a bite from a poisonous snake; he had eaten it, and its venom only gave him momentary nausea, not enough to stop him from moving.

He touched the right side of his face and felt smooth skin where there had been bone- saw that his arm had repaired itself to only angry blisters. His thigh though, still had muscle showing, and he still hurt in most places. But he had avoided the healing rest, thankfully.

He paused as the terrain changed, a battle had been fought here, according to the broken earth, the torn and uprooted trees, and the lingering scent of blood. Sunny followed the scent, immediately recognizing one of them,- the overweight human. He moved quickly toward him, making small pained noises as still burnt skin split with his movement, and came upon the area where the occupants remained. The overweight human was leaning against a tree, breathing hard- and not looking as overweight as he remembered, bloody and dirty. A gurgle turned his attention to the other human, much larger than the other, who seemed to be in the process of using up his last breath. He smelled of snakes- obviously belonging to Orochimaru.

Food.

Sunny staggered over to him, punched a fist through his chest and pulled out his still beating heart. He consumed it quickly, then began to tear the human apart, eating all of his muscular areas- though he was mostly fat, and slurping down his liver. When he was finished he inspected his body, which was fully repaired except for a light redness to it. He touched his scalp, feeling the tingle of his hair regrowing.

\Much better,/ he mumbled- though he was still hungry, then turned his attention to the other human, who was slumped against the tree, glazed eyes fixed on him. He rushed to him, sniffing him over in vague interest before asking him for his black pants- he was naked after all.

The human looked confused for a second, before asking, "Are... you going after Shikamaru and the rest?"

Sunny grinned toothily at him and nodded. The human's hand weakly fumbled with his pants, until Sunny became impatient and lifted him up, pulling the pants off and quickly putting them on. They were too big, and didn't come down to his ankles, but below his knees. He folded them about his waist until they held onto him, then turned to go, but was stopped by the human's weak voice.

"There were...four of them. They have Sasuke in a coffin...they're tough..."

He looked back at the human, watched him slip into unconsciousness, and couldn't help but to admire their loyalty, especially with Sasuke-boy being such a disagreeable human. He hopped into the trees again, fully healed, and headed after them. In no time he came upon a area that seemed thick with- spiderwebs? He touched one of the thick webs, and found that his hand was stuck to it. He pulled at his hand, digging his feet into the tree branch, but the web would not let go. His tail whipped out and smacked itself against the web, and he watched as it burned away, releasing his hand. He stepped around the webs, making sure that none of his body parts touched- pulling his tail back in.

Again he smelled blood and came upon two more humans, though curiously enough, one of them had six arms! Sunny dropped to the dark skinned ones' side, peering at his arms, sniffing him over, scenting the musk of snakes, but also the flavor of human. Did human's usually come with six arms? \I guess they do,/ he muttered to himself, then turned his attention to the other human, whose scent he recognized. The one with the pale eyes- the one he promised he would hurt for Natsu. He turned the human over, spying the holes in his shoulder and side, scowled, knowing that this one was a good as dead anyway. There was no point of making him suffer if he wasn't going to live to regret it.

He left him there, continuing on, hunting for Sasuke and the others, when he paused at a deep trench in the earth. He was about to jump over it when faint sounds of battle came from deep within. Were they down there? He peered down into its depths, eyes only able to make vague shapes of what may be rocks. He sniffed the air, scenting water, sediment...himself. He blinked and sniffed the air again. There was no denying it, it smelled like his cave did- there must must be an entrance down there somewhere.

Sighing, Sunny jumped over the edge and dropped down into the trench, seeming to descend forever, before he landed next to a small river, the impact rushing up his legs and spine. He shuddered, adjusting his body and immediately heard the harsh breaths of a human. Crouching behind the large boulders that dotted along the river, he approached the human, immediately recognizing him, the dog human, soaked with water, blood, sweat, and dog fur. He was hiding behind a boulder as well, cradling his little dog, and didn't seem to notice that another human with grey hair was on the other side.

"Man, that was a close one," the dog human said to his small canine, which he held in his arms protectively.

"Really?" the gray haired human asked with a leer, startling the dog human, who instantly began to smell of more fear. The gray haired one chuckled. "Guess you didn't smell me because I've been wearing your jacket eh?"

"Yeah," dog human replied wryly. "No wonder I couldn't smell anything."

The grey one moved over to him, pulling out a kunai. "And now you're going to die!"

Sunny leaped out as the gray one plunged his blade, his foot catching him in the wrist and knocking the blade away. The gray one leaped away, hold his wrist, surprised eyes staring at him.

"You!" the dog human exclaimed, looking shocked.

"Who the hell are you?" the gray one asked, glaring at him.

Sunny sniffed the air, sorting dog-human's scent from the other, and catching snakes again. All must belong to Orochimaru.

"Watch out!" Dog-human called from behind, and he turned to see something brown drop down upon him. For a second he thought it was Tsorn, but it was half his size and full of hard spiky skin. He blocked a hit to the face, feeling the strength in the blow, and feeling the creature's other hand grab onto his upper arm. "Watch out- They can enter your body and merge with it."

Indeed he felt something strange happening his skin under the spiked hand, but the creature released him immediately with a grunt, jumping back and shaking his hand.

"What's the matter Sakon?" The gray one asked, and the creature glared at Sunny.

"I don't know. I couldn't merge with him- he's different- down to the cellular level. He's not human!"

Sunny clucked in curiosity having no idea what cellular meant, and wanting to know if this thing was human, demon, or spirit- it didn't smell like demonkin, so it was either a human or a spirit. He charged the creature, dodged its swipe and kicked it in the head roughly, watching it skid to the ground. Both were low on chakra, that he knew, he could feel it, and as he charged the creature, saw that its flesh was lightening up, the horns on its head receded until it looked exactly like the gray haired one.

Then things got confusing. Now there were two gray ones, and while Sunny took a second to try to puzzle it out, one leaped upon the other and they seemed to fuse together.

"Sorry Ukon- I just need to rest a little," the one fused to the other's back grumbled. The one he spoke to changed back into the beast, glaring at him. Sunny sent his chakra hands through the earth and tried to grab the creature, but he jumped away and began to retreat, cursing as Sunny followed him. When they out of ear shot, Sunny called out to the two headed creature.

"Wait! I want to talk to you." Immediately the creature paused in its flight and turned to survey him warily.

"Who the fuck are you?" He panted.

"I'm Sunny. I talk to...I want to talk to you. I want to join snake-human-er Orochimaru." Getting proper human language together was proving to be a hassle again.

The creature narrowed it's black eyes at him, then widened in surprise. "You're the fox demon," Sunny nodded and watched as the defensive posture eased up a bit. "Orochimaru-sama mentioned you. He said that if you approached to escort you as well, but not to seek you out." It straightened, and reverted back to the human form, though he had never seen a human with two heads. He peered at the creature- at the legs poking out of the back.

"How you- how do you do that?" he pointed the identical human attached to him. "Are you from spirit realm?"

"This is mine and my brother's ability," he jerked his head back the way they came. "Just let me kill that Konoha trash and we can catch up to Tayuya. We'll take you to Orochimaru-sama."

Sunny turned his head and blinked back in the direction of the dog-human, then turned back to the approaching creature with a grin. "Fine," he said as he followed behind it, staring at the drooping head in fascination. It smelled human. It was human. A two-headed human, able to talk to one another, able to split apart... And he had thought that humans only came with one head- two arms, and two legs!

The dog-human came into view, and it seemed that he was dead, apparently succumbing to his wounds- or so the two-headed human seemed to think. He kicked dog-human's body onto the edge of the river and began to curse profusely.

"Son of a bitch- piece of trash! Wasted my time," he looked up at the cliffs and sighed. "We wasted enough time as it is," he looked back at him. "if we hurry, we'll catch up to her."

With that, he began to climb/leap up the cliff. A slight gurgling caught Sunny's attention, and he glanced back to see the dog human choke slightly on the water. Sunny bared his teeth in amusement and leaped after the gray ones, seeing him disappear over the edge, only for a sharp cry to come forth quickly followed by the hot scent of blood.

Sunny quickened his pace and jumped over the side in time to see Tsorn swallowing one of the heads, the body torn almost in half, from the left shoulder to mid torso.

\Tsorn you idiot!/ Sunny howled, and grabbed the body, yanking it from his jaws, and was startled to see that one of the heads was still moving, blood mouth opening and shutting, face twisted in pain and shock. \Why did you do this to him?/ He snapped, as the body slumped to the ground, its blood pouring into the dirt. \I needed him alive!/

"We thought you were chasing him," Gaara replied, coming into view from behind Tsorn, his arms folded across his chest in the usual manner. Sunny threw his hands up in exasperation and growled.

\I was following him!/

\Sorry,/ Tsorn said as he crunched away at the human. The other- undamaged head stopped moving, blood trickling from its mouth. Sunny peered at him.

\Does it taste good? Is it human?/

Tsorn nodded, tearing an arm off and handing it to him. \It's got an interesting tang to it./

Indeed it did.

Sunny stripped the arm of meat, then tossed it away, focusing at the task at hand. \We have to find this Tayaya creature. It apparently has Sasuke-boy, and is heading for snake-human./

He leaped into the trees, sniffing about as he moved and the others followed- Tsorn wasn't finished with the two headed one and carried it along as they went. Soon enough, they heard the sound of fighting and Sunny increased his speed, excitement rushing through him.

------

Shikamaru's breath was short, forcing itself through his lungs raggedly as he poured his chakra into the Shadow Neck Cantry, watching a shadowy hand slide up to her throat, but pausing, weakly, struggling to get there. The horns in Tayuya's head were close enough that they could almost poke him, but that was the least of his worries. If he let go, if he faltered at any moment, he knew that he was dead. He believed that Kiba, Neji and Chouji were alive, and he had sent Natsu on after Sasuke, but knew deep down that this mission had been a failure. The Sound Four had been too tough for them, but they couldn't back down- they'd had to try to save Sasuke.

Tayuya chuckled, her black and yellow eyes gleaming at him, her kunai pointed toward his abdomen- the only thing keeping it from plunging into his flesh was his shadow, gripping her fist and holding it back inches from him. "I must admit," she hissed with her strangely warped voice, "For a piece of shit, you're pretty good."

And stupidly kindhearted, Shikamaru thought miserably. He had been initially reluctant to hit a woman- it just wasn't his style. But...with his free hand he tried to punch her in the stomach, but her hand shot up and caught it. She grinned. Dammit! Shikamaru felt desperation run through him as he pushed more of his waning chakra into his jutsu, felt it creep up her chest and grip her throat. She gave a small gurgle, then began to exude more chakra, the horns poking out of her skull growing longer.

His chakra was waning, the shadow hand sliding from her throat as he tried to think up a strategy, knowing that the moment the jutsu released, he would be dead.

"Just a little bit more," she coached, yellow eyes dancing.

Suddenly the shadow hand that had been stopping her kunai from sinking into his flesh released. Shikamaru jerked back as she moved to cut into him, his heart practically in his throat- but suddenly, she froze, then jumped away from him, landing on a branch a few feet away.

Shikamaru dropped to one knee, sweat trickling down his face, not having enough chakra left to make a retreat, blinking at her. She had a frown on her brown face.

"The fuck..?" She muttered, sounding confused, bringing a clawed hand to her chest. "What the hell did you do, you little shithead?!!" She was glaring at him, rubbing her chest.

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru replied, warily.

Before the girl could reply, she made a choking sound, and her body twitched, a spasm running through her. Her eyes widened in terror. "What's happening?" she gasped.

A flash of yellow came at the corner of his eyes, and he looked to see Sunny stop on a branch, red eyes focused on Tayuya, a grin on his face. But he looked different...Shikamaru saw that he was wearing no jewelry, no feathers in his hair, he was shirtless, and wearing- Chouji's pants! Shikamaru paled. They were clearly too big for him, and had been rolled up at the waist, but he knew that they were his best friends' pants.

Tayuya gave off a pained scream, and he looked away from Sunny in time to see an arm shoot out of her chest, covered in her blood and pieces of her flesh. She staggered back against the trunk of the tree as her body changed back into its human form. Her eyes were wide in terror, and she seemed about to pull the arm from her, but another painful spasm hit her as a blue light flashed through her body, bright enough to illuminate her bones, and a shoulder and head burst from her chest.

A man slipped from from her body- a man much taller than she, covered in her blood, using arms to pull himself from her body. She fell upon the branch as his feet left her, and he stood up, naked except for her blood, and looked down at her. Shikamaru couldn't see his eyes, they were too dark, but he recognized the presence that the man exuded- the same feeling he had gotten when Sunny had been with his tall blue haired friend. Someone was laughing. Sunny moved to the bloody man's side, seeming in the process of laughing himself to tears. Between laughs, sounds came out, the same sounds he had heard him say to Gaara back with Lee. He leaned toward Tayuya's body and licked the blood and meat from her chest.

Shikamaru quickly averted his eyes, feeling like he was about to be sick. This wasn't the first time he had seen Sunny eat someone, but that didn't make it any less horrible. He could hear the crunch of breaking bones, the smacking of eating, and the frightening sounds of demons conversing. Someone approached, he jerked his head around, expecting them to attack, but it was Gaara, his mouth smeared with blood, something thick and red in one hand. His face was cracked, his eyes slightly wild, and Shikamaru knew he didn't have any juice to put up a fight. Gaara stopped his approach and brought the meaty flesh to his mouth and began to chew on it, his green eyes gazing past him.

He saw beyond the missing-nin, that another creature had joined Sunny and the blue haired demon, a tall creature, cresting at about seven to eight feet, brown with a slightly curved spine, as if it hadn't completely evolved from walking on all fours. Its body was lean and sinewy with muscles, its face coming out into a bit of a muzzle filled with sharp canines. Tucked under one of its long arms were pieces of a body, and as it shifted, the body flopped and revealed a damaged head with a shock of bloody gray hair.

One of the Sound nins! Hope rushed through him as the demons moved away from Tayuya, only to reveal nothing more than bloodstains and torn cloth. The girl was gone. Sunny moved toward him, face, chest, and arms smeared with blood, a grin on his face.

Shikamaru spoke first. "Where's Chouji?" he demanded. If the blond had killed him, he would fight him, even though he knew that it would be the end of him. Sunny paused, giving him a puzzled look, strange sounds coming from his chest. "You're wearing his pants," Shikamaru pointed at them with his good finger, the other being broken to get out of Tayuya's genjutsu.

Sunny blinked down at the pants he was wearing, then seemed to understand. "He is back with the big one," his voice came out as a heavy baritone, and at the same time, a light one, so that it seemed as if he was multi-toned.

"Is he dead?" Shikamaru asked tersely as the bloody blue- one flashed and became a small ball of light and began to float in a circle around Sunny's head, casting shadows here and there on the blond's face. Sunny grinned at him with bloody teeth and shook his head rapidly.

"No. I burrowed...is it burrowed? I burrowed this from him. He said that there were four of them. Where can I find Tayaya...Taya?" he seemed to confuse himself with trying to remember her name.

Shikamaru leaned against the tree trunk, feeling weariness and relief running through him. Chouji was alive- and if he had let Sunny borrow his pants, must mean that he had won the fight with Jirobou. Thank God.

"Tayuya," he answered, seeing that behind them the brown demon was in the process of shoving the head of the Sound-nin down its throat. Shikamaru averted his eyes. "And you just ate her."

The amusement dropped from Sunny's face immediately. "What?!" It would have been funny if not for the circumstances in which she had gone- though he knew that he owed them his life. "Dammit!" Sunny whined, throwing his hands up in the air in what seemed like defeat.

Shikamaru pressed on. "What about Kiba and Neji?"

The blond did not reply, instead stomping away from him and scowling, the blue light keeping pace with him, still turning in circles above his head.

"We'll still be able to find Sasuke," Gaara said suddenly, startling him. The red head was too quiet. "Just follow that one Leaf's scent."

Sunny turned to him with a grin. "Natsu." He immediately began to sniff about, apparently finding Kazuya's scent quickly. With that, it seemed the group decided to leave, moving past Shikamaru, but he found the energy to grab Sunny's arm, halting him. The blond turned red eyes to him, blue light making them look purple as the blue ball kept circling his head.

"What about Neji and Kiba?" he persisted.

"Who they?"

"Kiba, with the dog. Neji has the pale eyes."

Recognition passed over his face, and he suddenly yanked his arm from the shadow users grasp without much effort, but he didn't leave, instead waving a hand dismissively. "Probably dead now," Shikamaru felt himself go pale. "Yes...most likely dead."

As he slumped down on the branch, feeling weak and cold, Sunny patted his head before leaping away, trilling as they all disappeared into the leaves.

-------------

Two figures paused on a branch, both dressed in long black cloaks with red clouds on them. One was smaller than the other, with long black hair pulled back in a pony tail, while the other was a taller man with broad shoulders. His face was a strange grayish-blue color, with odd markings curving under both beady pale eyes-resembling gills. His ears were covered with the straps of his hitai-ate, which consisted of two flowing lines parallel to one another, then what looked like a scratch cutting through them. His thin lips parted into a sharp grin, it seemed his teeth had been filed to sharp points.

"So which one am I going to take? Please let it be the Kyuubi- Samehada would love the taste of Demonic chakra." There was lust in his rough voice as he patted his clothed sword affectionately.

The smaller one lifted red eyes and looked in the direction he could feel the Kyuubi and Suna's missing-nin jinchuuriki approaching. There was another unknown chakra signature moving along with them, which was curious, because the spies had said that Kyuubi had only been in the company of the Sand Jinchuuriki. Had they picked up a new friend?

"Very well. I'll take Gaara, and you subdue the fox demon. Let's do this quickly, Kisame."

The two Akatsuki members leaped forward, heading toward the area in which they would cut the group off- it had favorable terrain for Kisame; there was a small swamp in the area.

As they moved through the trees, the smaller one slowed slightly, feeling the chakra signatures pause- then stop completely. "They sense us."

Kisame gave an excited laugh. "Well let's go introduce ourselves."

They cleared through several trees and came upon their targets standing in another tree, waiting for them. There were three of them, one blond child with a blue light hovering motionless two inches from his head, the jinchuuriki Gaara, and a rather large brown creature on a higher branch. Of the three, only Gaara was moving, the cap to his large gourd popping out as sand began to trickle down on the branch. His eyes were angry even if his face did not show it. The other two seemed not to be moving at all, seeming to have completely frozen- but not from fear. The blond fox demon was staring at them in puzzled wariness, red and orange eyes focused solely on them from where he crouched. The brown creature did not have facial expressions, but its yellow eyes were heavy upon them.

"Who you?" the Kyuubi asked in a deep multi-toned voice, surprising Kisame.

"Hoshigaki Kisame of Akatsuki." he reached back and pulled Samehada from his back, releasing the binds that held the cloth around it, revealing the strange sword. The Kyuubi moved its head slightly forward, eyes on the sword, nostrils flaring as he scented it. "And this is my partner, Uchiha Itachi."

Those red and orange eyes darted to him, and a blond brow furrowed. "'tachi? Name is familiar..." The demon peered at him a moment more before his head tilted back to look at the blue light above his head, then his eyes narrowed, and suddenly a blast of killing intent rushed through the area as the blond demon looked back at them, eyes glowing now, lips peeling back to reveal sharper and more pronounced teeth. From behind him appeared the fox's tail, waving sinuously behind them. "You are not a friend. You are enemy."

Sand rushed toward them suddenly, and Itachi moved out of the way as it crashed through the trees. Creating several clones, he sent them quickly at the Sand demon. They rushed the jinchuuriki, kunai out, but each attack was diverted by the demons' sand, the ultimate defense, that came up and blocked each strike. The sand struck at each clone in return as the youth stood there, seeming unconcerned but angry.

Itachi sent another two clones in, and as these two got close enough, they promptly exploded, knocking the jinchuuriki several meters through the forest. Itachi followed as the jinchuuriki crashed through thick branches, his sand protecting him from major damage, until he crashed into a trunk. The gourd on his back shattered, pouring sand down to the earth. The red-head got to his feet quickly, green eyes enraged, face cracking as he lifted his hands and sent several shots of sand at him.

Itachi made the seals for a katon technique, inhaling deeply and blowing a large ball of fire at the sand. They collided with the sound of breaking glass, and out of the smoke the jinchuuriki appeared, having followed his sand. Sand gathered around his arms as he brought them down on the Uchiha, who upon being struck turned into a flock of crows, flying madly about him. Gaara's sand whipped about, trying to strike them from the trees.

"It's too late Gaara-san, I already have you trapped. Surrender." In the near distance, there was the inhuman sounds of howling, roaring, the feeling of massive amounts of chakra being used- demonic chakra- for it always felt more vicious and wild than human chakra. He imagined Kisame was having quite a fight- one that may be too much for him to handle, judging by the intense sound of numerous breaking trees and the scent of water drifting through the air.

The flock of crows reformed into the clone, pulling out his short blade katana and leaping toward the jinchuuriki. The sand was barely quick enough to stop the strikes, coming up almost a second too late, but it was enough for Itachi to plant another exploding clone past his defenses. The Sand jinchuuriki was once again knocked back from the force of the explosion, crashing to the earth, this time injured. Half of his right arm had been blown away, which he had lifted up to protect his face, most of his clothes were scorched away.

The sand writhed around his body as he tried to regain his feet, gasping in pain, but Itachi did not want to waste time or chakra- knowing that he may have to help subdue the Nine Tailed Fox Demon. He dropped down from where he stood and pulled out a senbon needle, aiming for the nerves in the sand nin-s neck. But the sand came up and knocked his hand away, then attempted to sweep his legs from under him. Itachi stepped out of the way, and saw that the sand was beginning to gather around the jinchuuriki in a ball -like sphere.

No, he did not have the time to waste with this one. As the jinchuuriki turned pained, hateful eyes on him, Itachi activated his Mangekyo, feeling chakra drawn to his eyes. The Tsukuyomi drew the jinchuuriki into the black and red world. "For three days, you will suffer the worst thing in the world." Quickly withdrawing, he blinked his pained eyes, feeling a portion of his chakra gone from a mere three seconds of use, but surveyed his work.

He did not know much about the sand-nin, therefore, he had chosen to leave the method of torture to the jinchuuriki's own mind. The 'worst thing in the world' was entirely subjective- it could be anything from one person to the other, but he had used it before on several different people, and the mental damage had been lasting. It would no doubt come up with the worst thing to him, and judging by the horrified look on the youth's face, it was enough. The sand jinchuuriki staggered forward, strange pained noises coming from his agape mouth, sand sliding from his flesh onto the earth. The red-head screamed once before dropping to the dirt, eyes rolling up into his head and becoming still.

Itachi looked back in the direction where Kisame was no doubt still fighting, due to the inhuman screams coming from that direction, and also for a small flood of water that came rushing toward him. Itachi picked up the jinchuuriki, tossing him over a shoulder and leaping into the trees, heading for his partner. They'd have been the only two of the nine to bring in two jinchuuriki instead of one. No doubt, Kisame would gloat endlessly.

------

The Kyuubi leaped for him immediately, face feral, bloodlust about him, but before the fox even reached the ninja, a pair of red, boiling chakra hands shot from the earth and made to grab him. "Nice," Kisame commented as he swung Samehada at the arms, and the sword sucked up the chakra upon touch. The sword hummed, a tremor of vibration running through it, and he felt its pleasure. "Oooh, you like that, don't you?" he laughed as he dodged the angry fox. The fox landed vertically on a tree, giving him a startled look before making the signs of a jutsu.

Hundreds of Kyuubi popped into the area, all giving deep snarls as they leaped at him. Kisame dropped down into the swamp. Breaking into seals, he called out, "Suiton: Bakusui Shoha no jutsu," and blew out a large wave of water, canceling hundreds of clones as he rode a wave into the trees. The brown creature dropped down from the foliage, swinging a massive hand at his head, but he blocked it with Samehada, watching as the scales forcibly peeled the flesh from the creature's arm. The creature didn't seem to care, bringing its other arm around to crush him, but Kisame blew it back with another release of water, only to quickly avoid the angry advance of the fox demon, whose chakra arms extended to grab him.

Again Samehada absorbed the chakra, humming in delight as he advanced on the fox, swinging his blade at the demon while avoiding the tail that whipped about him. He could feel the heat from it, but Samehada took it away, only for another tail to take its place. He took that tail too, then blocked the claws of the fox, hearing the crunch of bone, grinning in pleasure as his sword tugged at the chakra from the creature. But in that second, the demon leaned forward, not caring for its crushed hand, and gave a sharp- bark-like sound in his ear, causing him to wince with pain and leap away. He was then forced to dodge the brown creature, which had returned, but with the ringing in his ear, his equilibrium was off, and the creature managed to clip him on the shoulder.

He felt bones crack.

"Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu," Water rose up from the large lake he had created on the forest floor in the shape of sharks and sped toward the brown demon, catching it by the mid-riff and smashing it into a tree. Another one sped toward the creature as it gained its feet, but something blue crashed into it, destroying its shape and turning it back to simple water.

And then he was fighting the Kyuubi before he could see what that blue thing was, avoiding what may prove to be deadly strikes, judging by the damage its fist was doing to the surrounding trees. He kicked the fox down into the water, then quickly followed with a mizu bunshin. As the demon came up, the missing-nin used the water prison technique, trapping the demon in the sphere. With his arm in the sphere, he grinned at the demon as it floated and tried to writhe about in the sphere, looking started and confused.

"It's been fun, Kyuubi," he said, and the demon turned red eyes on him, face splitting into a grin. Kisame looked over to see his bunshin fighting the brown creature, but what caught his attention was the rather large blue wolf with black eyes and snarling black teeth approaching.

"What the hell are you?"

*What I am is the least of your worries, human,* The cool, soothing voice drifted through his head, completely opposite of the snarling creature. The wolf leaped forward, Kisame lifted his sword, and it immediately began to pull on the creatures chakra, enough to make it pause and settle into the water, black eyes surveying him quietly. The Fox demon began to make noises, growls, clicks, hisses- all three at the same time mixed with a cadence that said he was speaking, red eyes moving toward Kisame's arm.

He felt the cancellation of his bunshin, his pale eyes narrowing as the brown one leaped for him. Samehada hadn't pulled chakra from this one, and so he was forced to release the Kyuubi as the brown creature leaped upon him. There was a splash as the fox demon dropped into the water, then pain as he felt one of those chakra hands grab one of his legs as he tried to move away. Wincing in pain, the mist nin was forced into the water as he attempted to shred the brown one in half, watching the water turn red with its blood as he twisted in the water and cut the connection of the chakra hand, just in time too, for another large clawed hand had been about to grab him about the torso.

Kisame stepped onto the surface of the water, eyes darting about to take in who was where. The brown one was moving away from him, one side of its torso shredded, showing the bones of its ribcage. The blue wolf had Kyuubi by the shoulder, and was pulling the soaking demon above the water. The fox did not look injured- the hand that he had crushed looked perfectly fine- the fox looked fine- only irritated and wet. What stamina.

Kisame grinned again as he made the seals for another jutsu, "Suiton: Goshokuzame no jutsu." He slapped his palms onto the surface of the water and watched as water, the shape of sharks shot form his fingers and rushed at the demons. Kyuubi dodged the first one, but the second one ripped through its chest, spraying the water with dark, hot blood. The demon fell under the surface while the blue wolf charged the third shark and slammed its body into the jutsu, destroying that one. The fourth shark came in too quickly for the blue demon to recover, and it blew through it, causing a flash of blue light to bathe the area, making Kisame squint. He felt Samehada hum, and instinct told him to jump, which he did, and managed to avoid two of the fox's chakra hands which burst from the water to grab him.

He leaped up into the trees, watching as the Kyuubi lifted itself to the water surface, lips turned down as it stood, and Kisame saw that its chest was perfectly unharmed- having healed that fast. The demon turned and looked at the blue wolf, whose body was slightly sinking into the water, flashing blue, the shape seeming to morph at parts.

The brown creature trudged through the water toward the other two, speaking in the gutteral language he assumed demons must speak. And Kisame smiled.

It was agreed upon as a young ninja of mist, that one of the first things one learned was never to mix lightning jutsu with water jutsu, so most mist-nin stayed away from fights where the opponent used raiton attacks. But Kisame liked to use them- with the utmost care of course.

"Raiton: Kadzuchi no Kiba no justu." Electricity-like chakra gathered around his hands and shot past the trees into the sky, and a slight numbness in his fingers told him that he had been close to frying himself too. The sky beyond the thick trees grumbled, and the three demons looked up as several bolts of lightning shot down through the trees and struck the water. There were several monstrous screams, and again he was forced to shield his eyes as the blue wolf exploded into a flash of blue. There was the smell of ozone, smoke, and the sound of bodies splashing through the water. He lowered his hand, eyes focusing on the creatures staggering from the water into the mud. The blue wolf, was no longer a wolf, but a small flame of light, the exact same one that had been above Kyuubi's head before the fight began, except now it zoomed madly about the surface of the water, clearly damaged. It did some pretty amusing loops, several mid-stops, and weird flickers, before it zoomed across the opposite side of the lake and disappeared into the trees.

Kyuubi, had managed to crawl ashore, slipping in the mud, completely naked, and giving a decidedly nasty cough, smoke puffing from its lungs. Kisame dropped down into the mud, and the hacking demon looked over at him, red eyes changing, the whites filling with blood, and the pupils thinning to the point that they were almost gone. A grating sound was coming from the damaged lungs as the creature crawled toward him sinuously, mouth agape, showing a mouth with too much teeth, teeth that would do some serious damage if one was bitten.

"You are one tough son of a bitch," Kisame complimented as he tossed three senbon full of sedatives into the creatures back. The demon didn't seem to notice, still crawling toward him. More smoke drifted from its mouth as seven needles stabbed into its back. Kisame looked up to see Itachi standing on a low branch, black eyes gazing around at the water drenched area, the sand jinchuuriki slung over his shoulder.

The fox gave a spitting sound, something loud and strange, and he turned to see the demon slump into the mud, the sedatives finally taking over. Kisame chuckled and limped toward the seemingly unconscious fox.

"You're injured," Itachi commented in a monotone, and he nodded, pausing to lift up his pants leg and view a burned leg, from the knee down. His shoulder also ached painfully.

"Yeah, well I had three bastard to fight, not one," he approached the naked fox demon, plucking the ten senbon out of its back before turning it over. He almost jerked back when he made eye contact with the creature, about to stab him with another needle, but the blue eyes gazing at him were unfocused, more like staring past him, not at him.

Kisame's eyes narrowed, and he moved a finger in front of those eyes, about to be satisfied, but then he saw the eyes shift slightly in the direction that his fingers moved. "This bastards' still conscious!" he exclaimed in disbelief. The demon was loaded on enough sedatives to take down three elephants! He took out another needle and slipped it into the demon's neck, watching the eyes closely, but they didn't change- the pupils didn't get any smaller or larger. Kisame moved a finger again, and again the eyes tried to follow it. "I'll be damned..."

Itachi dropped down to his side and silently offered one of the bandages on his arm. Kisame cut it away and tied it around the demons' head, covering his eyes...and after a moment of thought, stuffed the rest in its mouth. He removed his damaged cloak and wrapped it around the demon's naked body, settled it over his shoulder, and they got ready to go.

At the same time, they felt eyes upon them, and both ninja turned to see the brown creature standing several meters away, smoke rising from its body, yellow eyes focused on them. Itachi took a step toward it, but it slunk away into the dark foliage, surprisingly silent for all its size.

They looked at each other- Kisame shrugged, and then they leaped into the trees, heading for their base. They had two extractions to do, but for some reason, the missing-nin felt that the extraction of the Kyuubi wasn't going to be as easy as the previous ones.

-----------------------

Tsorn watched them go, the two humans, with Gaara and Sunny, feeling a bit helpless. This had been completely unexpected. He did not know who this Akatsuki was, Dyadem had called them, but they had defeated all three of them. Tsorn slunk into the foliage, feeling his inside were cooked, his head fuzzy, and he began to dig a hole into the earth as he felt the healing rest descending. He dreaded this- the last one had lasted a full year- he didn't know what would happen to Sunny if he was gone as long again. The damage wasn't so bad- he wasn't in the shape he had been in last time. It should be shorter this time.

The brown demon dropped into the large hole that he had created and quickly began to cover himself as the healing rest began to descend upon him, making his movements slow, until they stopped completely.

------------------

The blue light zoomed through the forest, sinking into trees, rolling, dancing through the air, and though it seemed nothing more than a whimsical flame, the mind of it was in chaos, electrical pulses running through it constantly, bouncing about it, so that it could not even complete a single thought- its mind seemingly shattered.

The blue light was confused.

Sunny-Kyuubi injured- Gaara- No Shukaku- Who....?

Lights-humans, red clouds- storming through direction-Tsorn-Who..?

What? Who?

Water-pain- Akatsuki direction...What?

Direction. Wrong direction.

The blue light paused in the little dance it had been doing among the leaves, then turned back the way it had come, and continued to dance, stopping here and there, as if it couldn't remember some tune that it had been moving to. But it was somehow content in its confusion, when each pulse of electricity ran through it. It may kill many thoughts, but the blue flame was sure that it was going the right way.

------------

Kakashi leaned over his student, gently patting his cheek, trying to get him to return to consciousness. He lifted his head and glanced around at the area, making sure no one was coming upon them. The two remaining Sand siblings had pointed him in the right direction in which Natsu and Sasuke had gone. They had returned to Konoha in search of their missing brother Gaara, who had abandoned his village and had apparently come here. They had stayed behind to help Gai's student Rock Lee fight the sound-nin called Kimimaro, allowing Natsu to go on ahead and try to stop Sasuke from making a big mistake.

However, the gentle genin had failed. Kakashi sighed and picked the youth up in his arms, watching as two Leaf nin approached quickly.

"Sir! About three miles from here there was a battle," Kakashi looked in the direction they pointed to. Sunny? Nara Shikamaru had said that Sunny had shown up, with Gaara as well, and Chouji had said that he had let the blond borrow his pants. "Whoever was fighting, the fight looked big- like a war zone!"

"Any bodies?" Kakashi inquired, and the leaf nin shook their heads.

"We checked the whole area- found nothing but loads of water, broken trees..."

"Ozone," one piped, catching Kakashi's attention. "Felt like someone used a raiton jutsu, which is crazy with all that water around." The Leaf nins face turned thoughtful, then he said. "Except I've been down this way several times, and the only water you get is a small swamp." His eyes narrowed. "But there's enough water in that area to make a lake now."

"Seems like the work of someone from Mist." The other nin commented

Kakashi sighed, readjusting Natsu in his arms. "We'll look further into it once I get my student settled in a hospital."

Both ninja nodded and saluted him as he headed for the others. Two gone now.

TBC

Okay, so...Sunny and company never made it to Sound.

The whole thing with Itachi's Tsukuyomi 'worst thing in the world' was not me trying to be creative. I just couldn't come up with an interesting way to torture Gaara, so I gave up after ten minutes of staring at my computer.

I don't consider Sunny to be a very bright character, so he makes up for that in stamina and his ability to bounce back from almost anything.

Dyadem has an apparent weakness for lightning techniques. Samehada stopped him from possessing Kisame- every time he got close, it would suck out chakra.

Also there was some dialogue that was missed between Sunny and Dyadem because it was from an outsiders POV, but the next chapter will highlight some of the things said.

Next Chapter: Someone dies...