Taking the Form of a Demon

Kyuubi opened his eyes and pushed himself off the ground, noting a slight pain in his stomach. He stood in front of the familiar gates, peering curiously into the shadows that lay on the other side. He perked his ears, listening carefully for signs of movement from Naruto. At first he heard nothing, making him tense with anxiety, he should be able to hear Naruto's breathing at least. But as he listened even more closely, he could hear slight sighs of Naruto's breath, and he relaxed.

"Naruto…." He whispered. He wanted to make sure his companion was alright. Kyuubi sat thoughtfully for several moments, trying to remember what had happened. He remembered feeling an immense pain in his stomach, the exact spot in which the seal, the cause of every obstacle they faced, lay. He knew this could only mean one thing… someone had reinforced the seal as it unraveled, almost releasing completely, saving not only Naruto but also him. He noticed the seal was now much stronger than before, and a completely different atmosphere surrounded it. Something incredibly powerful- there was no worry of it falling apart again any time soon.

Kyuubi cleared his throat, letting out a harsher growl. "Naruto." He spoke firmly, trying again to arouse the blonde. He relaxed even more as Naruto responded sleepily, and he could hear the groggy replies from the shadows.

"Kyuubi… Wha-" Naruto's sentence was interrupted by a wide yawn. "What's going on?" As Kyuubi squinted into the darkness, he could see a moving shadow, as Naruto shuffled over to the gate. "The seal…" He said in amazement, admiring it's renewed power. The soft glow illuminated Naruto's face, his blue eyes reflecting it with an expression of wonder. "What's happened?" He asked, tearing his eyes away from the seal, and meeting Kyuubi's.

"Naruto… when I lost my chakra, and we barely had enough to live, somebody reinforced the seal to ensure our safety. Do you feel the slight pain on your seal? That's a sign that either the seal is falling apart, or has been reinforced… and looking at the seal now… I'd say that the seal has been stabilized, so that it's stronger than before." Naruto nodded and sighed.

"If that's the case," He said doubtfully, "Then why aren't you conscious. Why are you in these chambers?"

"I can answer that…" Kyuubi froze, recognizing the growl instantly. A shadow slipped behind Naruto, eyes glowing a fierce red as they met with Kyuubi's. Naruto's eyes, wide with surprise, suddenly turned fearful, as the figure smiled wickedly, and Naruto found himself unable to move. Kyuubi growled lowly, feeling the fur on his ruff prickle as rage began to overcome him.

"Let him go. Now." The intruder laughed, and stealthily maneuvered around Naruto, whose expression was terrified and blank. As the figure stepped into the light, his black pelt gleamed, and his eyes sparkled maliciously.
"Kyuubi-kun… so demanding of yourself. Why not let your evil side take over for a little while, hmm? You know… There's a war in Konoha, and your power would be a great help to Konoha." He smiled wickedly.

"You bastard… Leave me alone!" Kyuubi lashed his tails angrily, and pressed against the gate, his paws tingling to draw blood from the black nine tails on the opposite side of it.

"Kyuubi… Why so angry? I'm not here to hurt you… I'm here to help you." The black nine tails let out a deep laugh, his eyes flashing mischievously. "And I'm sure you'd hate if this kid was killed, after all this trouble you've been through just trying to keep him alive."

"No!" Kyuubi launched himself against the gate, realizing too late the seal had a protective technique on it, and he felt a terrible shock as he came in contact with it. Naruto, still paralyzed by the black nine tail's technique managed to choke out a question.

"Who….the hell… are you?" The black nine tails turned and looked at Naruto, his piercing red eyes showing brightly in the dim light.

" Kyuubi never told you? How interesting… " He chuckled, "I'm his other half. The half… with the power." Kyuubi growled, a fierce menacing growl.

"Let go of Naruto." His fur was ruffled with anger, but he calmed himself, suddenly changing his tone. "Please… don't hurt him." Kyuubi spoke submissively, and did not meet Naruto's eyes when he gasped in surprise, but instead continued. "What do you want from me…?"

"I want you to free me… Just think of how helpful our power would be in this war… And all you have to do," he spoke in a coaxing whisper. "Is let me take over for a while…" Kyuubi roared with anger.

"So you can what? Kill everyone?! Don't make me laugh!" The black Kyuubi lashed his tails angrily.

"Then the kid dies!" He ran at Naruto, and a bright flash blinded Kyuubi as the black nine tails hit Naruto. When he had recovered, he saw Naruto, his eyes still filled with fear, standing, seemingly unharmed. However, as the black Kyuubi turned, blood spurt from one of Naruto's cheeks and Naruto, now unbound from the technique, crumpled to his knees, covering his injury with his hand, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Shit… that… really hurts." He said, straining his voice in pain. The black nine tails smiled wickedly, ignoring Naruto, looking directly at Kyuubi.

"I could've killed him, but I decided to give you another chance… and show you what I'm capable of doing… And don't forget, our chakra is like poison to humans." He glanced over at Naruto, who was struggling to his feet, his legs weak from the quick-acting, poison-like chakra. The black nine tails slit his eyes. He hadn't given the boy a lethal dose, so he should recover in a few hours.

"And how do you plan to take over? I'm in charge of the body, and you're on the other side of the gate in comparison to me. And if I'm correct, you must come in contact with the one you posses."

The black nine tails smiled and walked towards the gate. "An interesting question." He paused and slid into the shadows, his eyes glowing in bright contrast. Kyuubi watched in horror as the nine tails passed through the bars of the gate, as if the gate itself didn't exist.

"How-"

"I'm not a real thing, remember… I'm merely a part of you, so I'm not held to this seal's boundary." Kyuubi looked over at Naruto, noting how weak he was.

"If you promise not to hurt Naruto…. I'll let you take over."

"Kyuubi…." Naruto coughed, before continuing. " Don't…" But Kyuubi shook his head, and watched as an evil smile spread across the black nine tails' face.

"Heh, very well then." Kyuubi closed his eyes, feeling a cold shadow overcome him, as the black nine tails took over his senses.

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Sakura slid, dodging several kunai, one landing dangerously close to her foot. She stood momentarily and shoved her hand into the ground.

"SHANNARO!" The ground in front of her suddenly broke into jagged rocks protruding from the ground, impaling three nin, and throwing the fourth off balance. Taking the initiative, she threw a kunai, finishing off the final nin before he could recover his balance.

Sakura hurried off, looking for someone else to fight. She turned a corner, and ran right into Tsunade, who was covered in head to foot with blood, but seemingly unharmed. A sign that many enemies had fallen at her hands.

"Sakura-san!" Tsunade beamed at her, a hint of relief in her eyes. "Thank goodness you're alright!" Sakura smiled, but it soon faded as she noticed three more enemy nins jumped, kunai out to attack Tsunade. However, Tsunade merely raised a fist at the exact moment, smashing one hard in the face. The other two Sakura quickly disposed of, throwing Kunai at them.

"I'll see you after this battle! Watch yourself!" Tsunade ran away, before Sakura could ask for the whereabouts of Naruto. However, she did not have to look long, for a mere second later, she felt a familiar chakra flood her senses. A chakra she had never wanted to encounter again, one of pure hatred, an essence of the shadow that followed Naruto.

Sakura was brought out of her thoughts, however, as a blood curdling scream filled the air, followed by a torn body smashing into one of the nearby houses, destroying it completely. She felt a scream catch in her throat as she saw the body, bloody and ripped apart, injuries she had never witnessed in such a degree. She tore her eyes away from the dead nin seeing movement in the corner of her eye. A familiar figure, one of neither human nor animal, was running around, throwing various nins in the battlefield, while shredding others to pieces.

The figure was a fox-like creature, almost an exact replica of a nine tails, different in only two aspects- size and the face. The face was almost human like, but had the fur and fury of a demon. Sakura placed a hand to her mouth, suppressing another scream. She had seen Naruto like this once before, but he looked even worse than before. The first time she had seen him like this, he only had four tails, but as Sakura watched the tails, lashing with rage, she was able to count six- at least.

The demon had destroyed an entire battlefield, killing both enemies and allies, and stood in a pool of blood, several clawed bodies laying near. He turned, about to leave, but Sakura called to him.

"Naruto!" She shouted, trying to wake the blonde from his murderous trance. "Naruto, snap out of it! Please…" She found herself paralyzed, however, as Naruto turned his gaze to her, his tails lashing, and his form dripping blood.

This is the worst I've ever seen him… Sakura thought. There's so much blood dripping from his demonic form. His blood. At this rate… if he doesn't transform back to his old self soon… She shook the thought away, not wanting to venture that far into the future. She needed to wake him, before he killed more, or even worse, his state became irreversible.

She ran to him, tears prickling in the corner of her eyes. Even though he did not show any signs of it, she knew that deep down, his true self was writhing in pain. She had seen what the chakra could do to someone, and Naruto, she knew, was always the one who was most heavily affected. Those thoughts made her lose all her senses, and she ran to him, her thoughts clouded by worry.

"NARUTO!" She yelled, tears flying behind her as she thought of Naruto, and rushed towards the figure, who remained in his alert stance.

Naruto's demonic form, tails lashing angrily, dashed towards his new target, anticipating the smell of fresh blood. He revealed a wicked smiled as he felt his hand slice through the girl's flesh, blood spattering across his face. The human crumpled to the ground, holding her wound, and shaking as she sobbed. She coughed up blood, before sinking into unconscious, her complexion pale from the blood that had drained from the injury. He raised his hand to finish her off, planning to slice her throat, but paused, seeing another human move towards him, shouting and cursing.

The demon dashed at the second figure, managing to leave a large gash in the figure's side, but stopped as a seal was shoved onto his stomach by the human. For several seconds, the demon Naruto staggered around, holding his head as a blinding pain passed through it. However, after a minute, his body had taken the form of a human again, and he fell to the ground, his skin beginning to heal over the raw wounds.

The man walked over to the girl who had collapsed, and gently picked up her limp form, looking sorrowfully down at Naruto.

"Naruto… what… have you done?"

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Hey guys!

I'm so terribly sorry for the delay in chapter-posting! As some of you may know, last weekend was my B-day weekend, so I was a little busy, and these past several days, I've been struggling to keep up with school work, so please forgive me.

HAH And not only that, but my internet has given out. That's why I haven't updated: I've found myself without the internet for over a month. In fact, I'm using Sketch's computer right now… 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter! I'm sorry to say Reversal will definitely be put on hold, until I A.) Get a new computer, or B.) Get a working internet connection. Not only that, I'm no longer able to get private messages, because is being stubborn and not letting me see my e-mail. Sorry if anything has happened that I've missed!

Inuluvr