A/N:

TheOne320

You should fear Pakkun. He is the cutest, grumpiest demon dog you will ever meet.

. . .

IX - Bargain

Chikako's eyes flew open and her back arched off the ground as searing pain lanced through her left arm. It felt like tendrils of lava wound around the skin, burning their way to the bone. When she looked at the limb, however, the tattoo was just like she remembered. The arm itself seemed perfectly fine as well, except for three shallow claw marks that were nestled in between the bands of ink. When had those gotten there? Kit had to have taken her blood to do his part, but she had no memory of him doing it. That was rather disconcerting. What concerned her even more though was the way she could feel her pathways reshaping to mimic the tattoo. That was neither normal nor pleasant and she was completely certain Orochimaru's chakra system had been independent of his Summoning Tattoo. She'd have noticed something that unusual.

The whole process lasted several minutes and then the pain was gone as suddenly as it had started. That probably meant Kit had taken care of completing the contract for her. She really should have asked what exactly the conditions where and if there was a written version she could read. Chikako trusted Jiro though. He would have warned her away if he hadn't thought completing the contract was a good idea and it was too late now anyway. Time to do her part.

Kit had said she could use the Summoning Technique to call on him, but that wasn't an option while she was wearing her shackles. Luckily it also wouldn't be necessary. Chikako had already suspected that the tattoo was actually a seal and the way it had forced her pathways into a new shape only confirmed that suspicion. A jutsu wouldn't have been able to mess with her body like that because her own chakra would have attacked the foreign chakra. A seal on the other hand could draw on her energy, avoiding the problem.

She wasn't entirely sure if activating the Summoning Seal directly required blood like the Summoning Technique did, but she already had a nosebleed from spending too much time in the Void, so she swiped her thumb under her nose and smeared the blood over the tattoo just to be safe. The necessity of that was something she could investigate later, preferably when she wasn't stuck on the hard floor of a badly illuminated cell.

Chikako carefully let her chakra flow into the seal, gasping when it drew in more and more. It felt odd, not painful exactly, but rather similar to slowly bleeding out. She wanted to pull her chakra back, but there was no telling what would happen if she tried. Not to mention the deal she'd made. If she didn't come through there would be a price to pay. A bloody one most likely. So she kept her breathing steady and let the seal take what it needed, concentrating on Kit and Sune.

Her reserves had grown quite a bit since she'd left Konoha and they were almost completely full because the only thing she had done lately was set her bones. She'd refrained from healing anything that would be visible to avoid alerting Babyblue to the fact that she could still use her chakra internally though, otherwise she'd be running on empty. That had been a good decision in more ways then one. The seal drained nearly eighty percent of her reserves before the pull finally let up and two white foxes puffed into existence at her side.

They were both sleek with brilliantly white fur. The smaller one had sapphire blue eyes, wide with wonder, and the bigger one's were rich amber. Sune let out an excited yip as she wiggled through the bars of Chikako's cell and into the corridor. Kit on the other hand chuffed and nosed the shackles. He made a motion that could have been a head shake, but it was hard to tell. Chikako wasn't particularly well versed in the body language of foxes and unlike Jiro, who behaved like a human, these two did not. If she hadn't been able to sense their chakra she would have thought them regular animals.

Kit circled her once, then tapped one of his front paws against the chain. A pulse of odd chakra, not entirely different from her own, spread through the metal and a moment later it disintegrated. He gave her a look she couldn't decipher before slipping out through the bars after his sister.

Now you can die unchained in a dungeon behind doorless bars, a voice in her head said. She couldn't actually hear anything, but the words were there and accompanied by a wave of disappointment.

Chikako jumped at the strange sensation of feeling someone else's emotions like that and Kit huffed from outside of her cell. She glared at him and then walked over to the bars. Flattening her palms against the metal hurt, but she only had to do it long enough to feel out and activate the seal that would open the cell. Calling her blade would have been more impressive she supposed, but she wasn't entirely certain she would have been able to wield it properly in the state she was in.

There was no way she would let Kit think she'd fucked up the one condition he'd allowed her by specifying the chained part though. That had been deliberate because the shackles were the one thing she couldn't easily deal with herself and the phrasing ensured that, even if he was willing to leave her behind, he'd have to get rid of them for her. Just as he had.

"Give me a little more credit would you?" She said out loud, unsure whether she could communicate telepathically, or whatever it was, with him as well.

The bars opened as slowly as they always did, but the sound of metal moving against stone seemed unnaturally loud. Chikako hadn't noticed before, but now it was quite apparent that the dungeons were too silent. No guards shuffling around and no distant screams. She had no doubt that, even if nobody had noticed her summoning the two kitsune, the noise getting out of her cell made would have alerted someone. With the shackles off she could sense several chakra signatures, yet Sune's was the only one moving around. Maybe she had already started amusing herself.

"Feel free to create a little mayhem," Chikako said to Kit, gesturing down the corridor. He made another chuffing noise that she decided to interpret as laughter. His eyes were glittering with mischief and then he bounded after Sune.

Calling them here had cost so much chakra that Chikako'd expected them to vanish again after only a few minutes, but now that they were there the drain on her was barely even noticeable. Chikako wouldn't be able to indefinitely sustain them like she could with Jiro, but at this rate she could easily hold them here for hours, days even if she didn't have to use the rest of her chakra for anything else.

She slowly walked in the direction the kitsune had left in and noted that their definition of fun did indeed involve slaughtering humans and decorating the walls with their entrails. If she'd been in Konoha that would have been a terrible price to pay, in this case Chikako rather appreciated their enthusiasm though because she was in no condition to fight anyone. Her plan had been to use a combination of stealth and the Body Flicker Technique to escape, but simply following the carnage was much easier. She hadn't been awake when the Earth shinobi had brought her in and afterwards she'd never gotten any further than the interrogation room. If this place was anything like T&I's buildings in Konoha the layout would be intentionally confusing to make it harder for prisoners to get out or intruders to get in.

"What is this?" A shrill voice shouted from up ahead and it took Chikako a moment to realize it belonged to Babyblue. She'd only ever heard the woman confident or angry. The unadulterated fear that permeated her tone now made it sound foreign, wrong. So far she hadn't heard any of the dead guards make a sound and she'd passed at least four corpses on her way. Their eyes had all been open wide in terror, mouths frozen agape on a silent scream.

Since Sune was the first one who had left Chikako suspected the female kitsune trapped them in a genjutsu and then moved on to the next toy. Kit tended to linger beside them and shortly after the chakra signature would blink out. By the time Chikako was close enough to see what he had done there was only a corpse and a lot of blood left. She'd prefer to get out as fast as possible, but she didn't want to risk running into anyone who was still alive either, so she kept her walk at a leisurely pace and stayed behind the two yokai.

"I see you met my friend," Chikako said with a wry smile when she entered the room Kit and Babyblue were in. She had no idea what was going on, but figured playing along wouldn't hurt.

Babyblue wasn't affected by any kind of jutsu, but there were gashes all over her skin. They were precise, all the same length and perfectly parallel. Blood slowly trickled out of each wound, soaking her clothes and dying them crimson. Behind her, chained to a chair, was the ROOT operative. He was naked and missing both ears, his nose and several fingers by now. His torso was partly skinned and his left thigh looked as if it had become intimately acquainted with a grater.

Chikako's upper lip curled back in disgust as she took him in. He might be Danzo's tool and her enemy, but she still hated torture. She took two quick, and painful, steps forward and flicked her wrist. Chakra claws glimmered in and out of existence and when the motion was over the tracker's throat lay open. He blinked at her while the blood flowed sluggishly even though it should have gushed out like a red river. A clear indication that Babyblue had used some kind of drug on him to make sure he didn't bleed to death before she was done playing with him. Sadistic bitch. She was supposed to be an interrogator, but this hadn't been about getting information.

You are angry with this one, Kit's voice chimed in Chikako's mind. It was more of a statement than a question, but a wave of mild curiosity that wasn't her own let her know he wanted an answer. She ignored him in favor of staring down Babyblue and contemplating how much of a hypocrite wanting to hurt the woman made her. Kit wasn't happy with that though.

She is the one that spilled your blood? He queried, more insistent. The words had started out almost neutral, with nothing more than that same mild curiosity to give them flavor. There was an undercurrent of anger though that had risen with each new syllable and by the end Chikako had the impression it would have been a shout had he spoken out loud instead of in her mind.

She glanced at him. His eyes were alight with fury, making it seem as if a fire burned deep within the amber. She had no idea why he suddenly cared. After all he'd been perfectly content to leave her to starve in a cell only a short time ago.

"Yes," she told him and then, after a last look at her torturer, walked out.

Screams followed her down the hall, just as horrific as those of the ROOT operative had been, but she tried to ignore them. She was glad to note that hearing Babyblue's pain didn't make her feel any better. Chikako wanted the woman to hurt, but she also absolutely loathed the idea of finding pleasure in inflicting pain. It was bad enough that she'd left Kit to play with his victim instead of just killing the woman.

The rest of the dungeons looked just as boring as the part Chikako had spent the last few weeks. She wasn't entirely certain just how much time had passed, but probably anywhere between fifteen and twenty days. Not that it mattered all that much. She wasn't on a time limit and she'd have to spent quite some time recovering before she could do anything more straining than walking and sleeping anyway. Since that very short list did not include hunting for food she began searching the corpses for money and inspecting each room she passed. Kit was taking his sweet time with Babyblue and she didn't want to get too far ahead of him.

There were a lot of empty cells in various sizes. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to Chikako. The place was huge and there were dozen's of guards, yet so far she hadn't come across a single other prisoner. The ROOT operative and her had apparently also been stored as far from the entrance as humanly possible. If it weren't for the second rate shackles and the slow seal to open cells she would have thought this was a high security prison after all. Then again, maybe her imaginary Ibiki had been right and Earth shinobi were simply not very competent. At least in this particular aspect. Their border security was either impeccable or Chikako's luck was shitty.

Besides the cells there were only few actual rooms. All behind heavy steel doors with neither keyhole nor handle. They too could easily be opened by simply pouring a little bit of chakra into a seal though. Why would anyone put that much trust into chakra-supressing shackles? Sure, the design meant that keys couldn't be stolen, but even if the prisoners never got to use their own chakra ever again, it made sings disgustingly easy for intruders. Maybe there was some special security feature she was missing or maybe the place was still under construction. The latter would certainly explain the empty cells.

Most of the rooms she entered held nothing but a chair or two and sometimes a table with torture instruments. She did however come across sleeping quarters and a kitchen. From the former she took a simple black uniform to replace her dirty clothes. The flak jacket was slate gray, with minimal shoulder padding and no neck guard. They also had two large pouches, one in the front and one in the back, but Chikako left them behind in favor of a backpack. The things were huge, the material too stiff and they also looked exceptionally stupid. It was as if no one in Iwa had ever even heard the word design. No wonder Babyblue had felt like running around in a dungeon dressed up like a doll was a good idea. The second modification Chikako made to the outfit was removing the shirt's sleeves. There was nothing wrong with them, but she wanted easy access to her Summoning Tattoo in case it did indeed require blood.

Her next stop was the kitchen. Since none of the chakra signature she could feel, except for Kit and Sune, where moving around she decided she had the time to eat an actual meal before she started to stuff her bag with food. The stuff was mostly unidentifiable mush in cans and tasted as good as it looked, but beggars couldn't be choosers. The knowledge that the guards hadn't eaten any better than her did bring a smirk to her face though. Served them right for throwing her into this shithole of a prison.

Kit passed her sometime during her meal, apparently done amusing himself with Babyblue. He looked in on her for a second, but didn't stop.

When she finally moved on Chikako was embarrassed to note that her uncanny sense of knowing how to navigate the dungeon was a big fat lie. She'd come across the sleeping quarters and kitchen on her own, but apparently Kit had been leaving a bloody trail for her to follow the whole time. It was quite obvious now that she could compare what corridors looked like before and after he'd come through.

She really wished she could tell whether he was being kind or not. Sune clearly didn't like her, but Kit seemed to constantly change his mind on the matter and it made her paranoid. Even more so than she already was.

At one point Kit's path split, but he'd helpfully left corpses behind to explain. One was a mig man propped against a wall in a sitting position. His right hand was nailed to the wall with a piece of rock that was roughly kunai shaped. All digits except for the pointer finger had been ripped of. Chikako went down that way first because the second corpse was a woman that lay flat on the ground. Her hand were equally mangled, both arms were outstretched with the index fingers pointing ahead.

Path number one lead down a number of narrow corridors and ended at a door that had been torn off it's hinges. For something that looked like a regular fox Kit sure left quite a bit of destruction in his wake. The room itself seemed to be an office. There was a wooden desk, a chair that looked almost comfortable and several steel filing cabinets lined the walls. They were all dented in some way or other and mostly empty. There was really only one thing Chikako cared for in the room. In the center of the desk lay her Bingo Book and the shogi pawn pendant Shikamaru had left her.

The book was opened to the entry for Wraith and smeared across the pages in blood stood the words 'thank you for the hospitality'. The characters were perfectly even and if she hadn't known better she would have thought a calligraphy master had written them in scarlet ink. Chikako decided to leave his message there for whoever came to investigate, but she did take the pendant with her on the way out, which was exactly where path number two led her.

It was night and even though she wouldn't feel the sun on her skin for another few hours Chikako was uncommonly grateful for the full moon. Normally she preferred the new moon because it made sneaking around that much easier, but today she had to kitsune by her side to make sure nobody would be alive long enough to bother her. Her eyes had gotten so used to the dimness of her cell that the world seemed almost bright to her now. She couldn't really make out colors, but no monochromatic detail of her surroundings escaped her.

It's the Void's influence, Kit said in her mind when he caught her starring. I don't know what made you but you are almost as much demon as you are human. Humans can not survive in the Void and so it pulled your demon side to the front, strengthening it in the process

Chikako wanted to protest. To tell him that that made no sense considering what she'd learned about yokai being created from the souls of dead people. But then Orochimaru was a sick fuck and he's looked into anything that could make him more powerful or held the promise of immortality. Both was true for the Tailed Beasts and without access to a real one he might very well have played around with the next best thing. It wasn't hard at all to imagine that he had learned what summons really were and the kitsune had told her that even the unbound yokai occasionally made deals. Not to mention that Orochimaru had a Summoning Tattoo himself. It wasn't like Chikako's, but it was the only other one she'd ever seen. Maybe his snakes had shared their knowledge with him.

"I see," was what she ended up saying after thinking through the implications. "Thank you for sharing."

Kit chuffed again at her attempt at politeness, but didn't comment. When he had been walking around as a little boy in the Void Chikako had mostly thought of him as cute even after he'd shown her that he was more than that. Bizarrely as a fox he somehow commanded respect. Sune on the other hand was a hotheaded brat no matter what she looked like. While her brother walked at Chikako's side like a trained ninken, she ran all over the place, inspecting every bush and boulder.

On their way back into Bear they came across two more patrols which the kitsune dispatched with frightening ease. Chikako would tell them how many approached from which direction, then Sune would sneak up on them to trap them in an illusion and even though Kit never moved from her side, his chakra would spike and the shinobi would fall to the ground dead a second later. She had no idea how he was doing it, but the fact that he always waited until after Sune was done implied that it didn't work otherwise. He was frighteningly powerful nonetheless.

. . .

The kitsune accompanied Chikako all the way to the sea north of Bear and didn't even kill anyone once they'd left Earth. Of course the latter was probably mostly due to the fact that they stayed close and Chikako made sure they didn't come near any humans. Sune complained several times about how boring that was, but the amused looks Kit threw Chikako said he knew exactly what she was doing.

Because she had to sustain the presence of the two kitsune Chikako couldn't afford to use any chakra to heal herself and her reserves were almost empty by the time they finally made it to a harbor. After listening to the sailors for a while Chikako snuck onto a ship headed for Frost, a small country between Hot Water and Lightning and as far away from Earth as she could get at the moment.

Once aboard Kit told her that it was time for him and his sister to leave. Apparently slaughtering all those guards in Earth meant that there would soon be enough souls to create another shade so they had to go take care of that. He did however leave her with instructions for a technique he called Fox Fire in exchange for the promise that she would call on Jiro as soon as she had the chakra to do so.

Chikako certainly got the better end of that deal. She seriously wondered if he knew that she would have summoned her tanuki the first chance she got anyway and had simply used it as an excuse to help her. Sune seemed to hate humans in general, but she liked Jiro, so maybe this was just another way for Kit to manipulate his sister. Not that Chikako cared one way or the other. There were no downsides for her.

Fox Fire, or Cold Fire as Jiro called it, was a technique that burned chakra to produce blue flames. They didn't look too different from the souls that had floated in the Void and just like those the fire didn't create any heat. It couldn't set anything else on fire either and barely even gave of light, which made it seem like a bad illusion at best. What made it dangerous was that it could consume anyone's chakra, not just that of the user. The whole process was also incredibly painful when directly applied to the chakra system.

Kit had said they'd been created as a torture device because it was almost impossible to kill someone using exclusively Fox Fire. So prisoners could be tortured as much as the interrogator wanted without risk of accidentally overdoing it. Still most yokai regarded learning how to use them as too much trouble. Inflicting pain the regular way required considerably less skill after all.

Chikako immediately saw the benefits though. Fox Fire might have been intended as a means of torture, but that didn't mean it couldn't be used in any other way. Being able to burn away anyone's charka also meant one could easily destroy wards and barriers of any kind. An ability like that probably also would have worked against the seal she'd been trapped with at Earth's border.

She soon understood why most didn't think mastering the blue fire was worth the effort though. The amount of chakra the flames needed was ridiculous and because Chikako didn't particularly feel like torturing herself she had to figure out a way to supply them with chakra while making sure the flames weren't in contact with her pathways.

At first she created balls of chakra and then simply set them alight, but that didn't work very well. They began to dissipate almost immediately and burned out so fast that they wouldn't be useful in a fight. Her second attempt involved keeping the balls connected to herself with a thin chakra string. That way she could keep it's form stable, but more often than not the fire would eventually race down the string and force her to cut it off or suffer the consequences.

What worked rather well was a combination of both. She'd create a chakra ball without connection and then make it burn. Afterwards she'd feed it more chakra by continuously pushing more tiny balls at the flames. That way the core of the first ball didn't lose it's shape, but there was no risk of burning herself. She could even make the initial ball move around because the extra chakra she fed into it retained it's velocity.

It was a lot harder than it sounded, especially if she tried to do it with more than one chakra ball at a time. Jiro took great joy in mocking her whenever she messed up, completely ignoring the fact that he couldn't do it at all. Chikako however was too glad to have him back to mind terribly much.

She had been able to summon him after a little more than a day of rest and after that she'd had more than enough time to heal herself and practice. Frost wasn't exactly around the corner and there wasn't much else to do on a ship when one had to stay out of sight.