ITT LIIIVVVEESSSSS lmao this is what quarantine has brought us to, stories that haven't been updated in forever coming back to life. xD Well I always meant to come back and finish rewriting this story and life got away form me there for a bit. But hey I'm done with school now, undergraduate and graduate school, so that should mean more free time right? With all the shit going on I think everyone's got free time right now. So here we are, I'm finally back with an update. For those that still read this anyway, and for those new readers, hello welcome. I'm gonna try really hard to keep up with the updates. I had plans to fully rewrite this story and to finish the sequel I wrote and want to see it through, I'm also making progress on some of my other stuff. So we'll see what happens.

Anyway without further ado here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just my own made up characters and story.

Enjoy!

As time went on Kyuu did her best to take on a new change. She was determined to stick it to the other Kyuu inside her head and prove her wrong and after realizing how poorly she had been treating everyone she was actively trying to do better. She worked on being nicer to people, did her best to lock up her temper and appear calm on the outside. She tried to be polite and a little cheery at times, but it was hard to keep the mask up. She was still a wreck on the inside. Bottling up her anger and negative emotions kept her from lashing out at others but it was taking a toll on her, she wanted to be better but she didn't know how to get passed all of this negativity eating away at her so she opted to pretend it wasn't there. Certain people could tell she was wearing a mask and pretending, such as Haku, but they were trying to help however they could. Slowly but surely her friends' constant support was helping her recover some semblance of her old self and she felt herself getting a little closer to people, but she knew she had a long way to go.

Kyuu was extremely impatient for Naruto to come back to the village. As much as she appreciated Haku being there for her and the others trying to be friendly and trying to help, she missed and needed her rock. After she realized just how important he was to her and how much she wanted to help him realize his dream, she really wanted to see his stupid face. She was impatient for him to come back so she could lean on him and because of the help he was supposed to be bringing back with him. She knew that whoever this lady was that he was bringing back to be the next Hokage would be able to heal Sasuke, Kakashi, and Lee. She was eager to see them all get better. She needed some normalcy back. While she waited, she tried focusing on taking one day at a time.

Finally, Naruto did come back. Kyuu was walking around the village and bumped into Shikamaru. He mentioned to her that Naruto was back and was heading to the hospital with the new Hokage. Kyuu didn't wait around to hear much else of what he had to say. She raced off to the hospital to find them. She tried Sasuke's room first and although Naruto wasn't in there, Sakura was. She was clutching onto a now conscious Sasuke.

A small smile spread across Kyuu's lips, seeing him awake. "You're finally awake, you big idiot." She smirked.

"Oh, Kyuu. It's wonderful, Naruto brought Lady Tsunade with him and she healed Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed turning to her.

"I can see that." Kyuu nodded. She hesitated for a moment before walking over to the bed and giving Sasuke a very quick hug. "Glad to see you've rejoined the land of the living." She stated as she gave him a quick squeeze.

Sasuke blinked in confusion at the hug. Although he was awake, he was definitely still a bit groggy and out of it.

"So where is Naruto now?" Kyuu asked as she stepped away from the two.

"He went with Lady Tsunade to go heal the others." Sakura answered.

"Right, well I'll go see if I can find him." Kyuu replied and slipped out the door to leave the two alone.

Kyuu began to walk down the hall and decided to head to Lee's room. She was very interested to see if this Tsunade person could heal all of the damage that was done to him. As she was heading to his room she passed by a window and saw that Naruto was leaving the hospital. Deciding that Lee and Kakashi could wait, and were likely busy anyway, she turned around and hurried out of the hospital after the blonde.

Kyuu ran up behind Naruto and latched onto his back, pulling him into a hug from behind. "You're finally back." She sighed as she hugged him.

"Uh, hey Kyuu." Naruto grinned recognizing her voice and the chill of her body as she hugged him, although he was a bit confused by the hug.

"It's about time you came home. I've missed you." Kyuu stated, releasing him and Naruto turned around to face her.

"It hasn't been that long. Besides, we had to bring back Granny Tsunade. Have you met her yet? She's been making her rounds healing everyone."

"No, not yet, but I'm sure I will." Kyuu replied with a shrug. She was sure that sooner or later she'd be meeting with the new Hokage to discuss her condition.

"You look different." Naruto commented. "A little bit happier maybe, or at least calmer." He stated.

"Kind of a long story, but yea, I'm trying to do better. Like you asked." She replied.

"Ok, well come on then. I gotta meet Iruka-Sensei for ramen and you can come with and tell me about it. Oh! Oh, and I gotta tell you about this awesome new technique I learned!" Naruto replied, grabbing her and pulling her along with him to his ramen shop.

Along the way Kyuu told him a bit about what happened. She left out the details of her new darker self but she explained that she realized more about what her existence means to her and about how people in the village, particularly the other genin, were trying hard to get to know her after everything that happened and about how she was trying to work on her temper and interact with others better. In return Naruto told her all about what happened during his trip with Jiraiya. She was extremely shocked to hear about his run in with Orochimaru. It made her gut uneasy. A sense of dread and foreboding crept over her when she thought or heard of him. She was however, extremely interested in seeing this new technique of his and of how powerful it was. She could feel it, he was stronger than the last time she saw him.

When they reached the ramen shop Kyuu decided to leave him to enjoy his lunch with Iruka. She wasn't very hungry and didn't want to intrude on their catching up. She said her goodbyes and headed home. Once home she found a note from Haku saying he was out running some errands.

Kyuu grabbed a blood packet from the kitchen and headed into her room. She sat on the edge of her bed and after finishing her lunch she just stared at her wall for a while. Alone with her thoughts, she felt her anger and the darkness creeping back in. Her face fell and she let out a sigh. She placed her hand over her heart. Or at least where it should be, she still felt like it had been ripped out from her chest, stolen from her, and discarded. She hated feeling this way. Thinking about Gaara and what he had done, tears began to build up in her eyes. She clutched at her chest and started to cry.

After a moment, angrily wiping tears out of her eyes, Kyuu stood up. She went over to her desk and pulled open a drawer. In it was a picture frame stuffed inside. She pulled it out and looked at it. It was taken during the month before the final exam. It took a while, but she had convinced Gaara to let her take a picture of them together. In the picture they were just sitting under the huge cherry tree. Both were leaning against the trunk of the tree side by side. She had draped one of her arms across his shoulders and was leaning her head against him, sticking her tongue out to the camera, with a cherry blossom in her hair and bright happy eyes. Gaara was looking off to the side glaring at nothing but one of his hands was placed gently on her knee.

It was an innocent photo, but it brought back all the memories and feelings Kyuu had during that brief period where she felt happy and special. Now looking at the picture was like looking at a nasty scar. She glared at the photo through fresh tears. After staring at the photo for a few moments longer and feeling more and more tears welling up inside of her, she threw the picture at the wall across the room, shattering the frame.

Letting out an anguished cry Kyuu sunk to the floor. She tightly hugged her knees to her chest and sobbed. She had done so well; she hadn't cried in so long. She had blocked out all the pain and the sadness, but it kept chipping at her walls until they cracked, and she crumbled again. All of the pain and the sadness and the anger from that night came back in full force. Kyuu rocked back and forth a bit while she cried and let out a wail before biting into her arm to silence herself. She continued to bite at her arm and rock until she got her crying under control.

When she managed to regain a semblance of composure, she pulled her fangs out of her arm and picked her head up. She glanced at the mirror across from her and stared at her reflection.

"I am a sad excuse for a vampire." She muttered wiping away tears. "I'm pathetic getting so worked up…" She looked down at her bleeding arm. "I'm just so stupid…"

She stared at the floor for a while, watching the blood run down her arm and drip onto the floor. She glanced over at the shattered picture frame on the floor and at the picture of him. She sighed heavily and began to sing to herself, hoping her trick of trying to sing out what she felt inside would help her a little.

~~~~~~~~~~My Immortal by Evanescence~~~~~~~
I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
[Chorus:]
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears

And I held your hand through all of these years

But you still have
All of me

You used to captivate me
By your resonating light
Now I'm bound by the life you left behind

Your face it haunts
My once pleasant dreams

Your voice it chased away
All the sanity in me

These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
[Chorus]
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me

I've been alone all along

[Chorus]

When she had finished singing Kyuu just stared at her feet. She didn't feel much better by singing. Just sadder. Though she wasn't crying anymore so she took that as a plus. She shot her head up hearing a knock on her bedroom door. Mitsune opened the door and stepped in.

"Haku just got home and let me in." She explained before stopping and taking a good look at her.

"Oh, I didn't know he was home." Kyuu replied, avoiding eye contact. She felt ashamed and embarrassed that someone saw her this way.

"What have you been doing?" She asked coming over to Kyuu and picking her up off the floor. She set her down on the bed and sat beside her looking at the blood stain on her arm where the puncture wounds had been.

"…I couldn't bottle anything else up. It all was just getting a bit too much and I figured since I was alone, I didn't have to pretend I was happy and calm." Kyuu answered staring at her lap.

Mitsune spotted the picture on the ground. "That picture set you off like this?"

"Yeah..."

"You need to let him go." Mitsune began gently and a little hesitant, afraid to upset her all over again.

"I'm trying, but I can't." Kyuu muttered, trying to keep any more tears from falling.

"…How can you care about him and love him so much? You didn't know him that long and he wasn't exactly nice to you, how'd you fall in love with someone like that?" Mitsune asked.

"...I don't know exactly, and I hate being asked about that." Kyuu snapped before forcing herself calm "There was just something about him, it drew me to him." She added.

"What do you mean? What about that guy drew you in?"

"…Well, you know the day we met?" Kyuu began a bit hesitantly.

"Yeah...?"

"The Hokage wanted to talk to me about my family. He told me about my father." She continued.

"ookkk..." Mitsune had no idea where this conversation was going but let her talk.

"He told me about how my dad met my mom. When he met my mom, he was in love with her almost immediately. But it was more than just love, he was drawn to her by something. By some unyielding force that drew him to her, and their souls connected." Kyuu began explaining.

"Soul mates?"

"Yes, in a way sort of, it seems to be a vampire thing that exists in my clan. We have this trait that we won't truly love someone until we meet that one person who we're drawn to and we'll do anything for that person. Our souls become entwined and from that point on we wouldn't be with anyone else. It was just that one person from then on and it was how we would find our immortal soulmates, the person we'd spend the rest of eternity with. Before my father it was always another vampire who my clan fell in love with, but my father fell in love with a human." Kyuu explained, repeating what the third Hokage had told her about it.

"So, you don't even have to know the person? Just like boom love at first sight?" Mistune asked surprised.

"I guess so, that's how my dad explained it to the Hokage and how he explained it to me." Kyuu replied.

"So, you're saying this connection, soul intertwining, drawn to thingy happened to you with Gaara?" Mitsune asked putting everything together.

"Yes, I think so…" She admitted.

"You think so? You didn't know the second you laid eyes on him?" She pressed.

"No, maybe it's because I'm also part human. Maybe that's why it's not necessarily an instant thing like it was for my dad, but I was, am drawn to him and can't deny how strong my feelings became in such a short period of time."

"But wait if there was that whole drawn to thingy how come he wasn't all over you too?" Mitsune asked suddenly.

"I think, again because dealing with humans rather than vampires, it can be a one-sided thing. You are drawn to that person they don't have to be drawn to you. "

"Oh…" Mitsune responded and a kind of awkward silence fell over them both. She didn't know what to say next.

Kyuu got up and began to pick up the broken glass from the frame. She had a better grip on her emotions now and was eager to clean up the mess she made during her outburst.

"So, what's it like being a vampire?" Mitsune asked curiously.

"It's hard to explain what it's like. Sometimes I think I feel like everyone else. Other times, most times, I feel completely different. It's not a feeling I can really put into words. I wish I was human, though there are a few perks that I do like." Kyuu answered the best that she could.

"Like what?"

"Well I like the powers that come along with it and my regenerating ability. The extra strength and speed come in handy on missions." She reasoned.

"What about the whole drinking blood thing, do you mind that?"

"No, not really, I suppose it sounds disgusting and gross at first, but I've been doing it all my life so it's not really gross to me. I don't know any different, you know?"

"Does all blood taste the same?"

"Well it all has the metal taste to it, but yeah, there's different tasting blood. Some have different scents too. Animal blood tastes and smells completely different form human."

"It has different scents?"

"Mhm."

"What kind of scents?"

"I can't really explain it, but like the scent shows whether or not we want to drink that blood. The better the scent the more we want that blood. It's like when you smell something good and you start craving that specific type of food."

"Huh…hmm anybody you know have a really good scent?" Mitsune asked curiously, tilting her head.

"What's with all the questions?" Kyuu retorted, a bit suspicious about why she was so interested.

"I'm curious. So, is there?"

"Yeah, a few I guess, but I have self-control and won't drink it."

"Oh, like who? Whose scent is the best?" Mitsune asked curiously. Kyuu hesitated before answering.

"...Gaara."

"Oh..." Mitsune answered quietly. It seemed like she was trying to distract Kyuu from him by playing 20 questions and it backfired.

"Yeah the scent of his blood was almost irresistible. I had to use a hell of a lot of self-control not to drink it."

"You'd seriously drink Gaara's blood?" She asked surprised.

"Well, not all of it. Just a taste here and there. It smelt so good." Kyuu mumbled sheepishly and looked at the ground.

"Right, I'll take your word for it. Anyone else?" She laughed.

"Well…Naruto's too, though not as irresistible as Gaara's. It's different and alluring." She admitted.

"Huh. That's interesting. Just their blood is super alluring. Wonder what makes it special." Mitsune mused. "Hey uh what about mine?" She asked.

"Yours?"

"Yeah is mine different than other people's?" She asked curiously.

Kyuu stared at her. She studied Mitsune's face. She was beginning to wonder why she was asking all of these questions. Her last question did stick out to her. Now that she actually stopped and thought about it, her blood was different. It wasn't like normal human blood, but it wasn't like Naruto's or Gaara's either. It was similar to theirs, but also so different. It didn't draw her in though, it pushed her away.

"Why'd you really come here?" Kyuu asked changing the subject and eyeing her suspiciously.

"Oh, well… I, I kinda just figured since you've been so honest with me about everything and upfront about the whole vampire thing, I should probably maybe do the same and be honest with you about something." She started hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Kyuu pressed, more suspicion and curiosity growing.

"Ok well it's a secret, ok? Not a lot of people know, and I'm not supposed to really tell anyone about it. So, keep it to yourself. Oh, and don't freak out on me either, alright?" She continued.

"Okay, well what is it?" Kyuu asked impatiently.

"...I'm-

"Hey sorry to interrupt. Mitsune-san, the new Hokage sent word, she needs you, she needs to discuss something with you. Kyuu you're supposed to go with me tomorrow to see her." Haku said coming in and cutting her off.

"Oh…alright I'll go see her." Mitsune jumped up, turning to the door.

"Wait, what about what you were saying?" Kyuu insisted.

"Oh, I'll tell ya later. Promise. The Hokage probably wants to talk about the same thing anyway." She answered, hurrying out the door.

Kyuu turned to Haku. "Why's she want to see us?" Though she suspected she knew the answer.

"She probably wants to talk to us about being vampires. I expected this to happen."

"Ah, yeah I figured the elders would probably mention it to her." Kyuu nodded. "Wonder why see needs to see Mitsune." Kyuu mused, curious about what the girl was going to tell her.

"Not sure. So, what have you been up to?"

"Oh, nothing really." Kyuu replied with a shrug, hiding the broken glass in her hand and her blood-stained arm behind her back.

Kyuu spent the rest of the night spending time with Haku. Not being in a talkative mood anymore the two worked on a puzzle together so that the silence wouldn't be awkward. Haku was just happy to have Kyuu out of her bedroom and to spend time with her, even if it was mostly silent. The next morning the two of them went to meet with the new Hokage. As they both predicted she wanted to talk to them about their conditions and everything the previous Hokage had set up for them.

Kyuu wasn't sure what to make of the new Hokage. She recalled Naruto calling her Granny Tsunade. She also recalled a conversation she had with Kaji who mentioned that Orochimaru's and Jiraiya's third teammate was named Tsunade and should be in her fifties at least but the woman before them looked young and beautiful. Though she couldn't deny the immense power the woman had, and she couldn't help but feel extremely grateful for the fact that she was able to heal Sasuke and Kakashi and was working on healing Lee. She knew based on their conversation that Naruto trusted her and respected her and that was enough for her to do the same though.

After some time talking with Tsunade and getting to know one another as well as explaining to her all the details about vampires as they could Haku and Kyuu left the office. Kyuu had a feeling that things would be different with her as the new Hokage but wasn't put off by it. The more they spoke with her, the more she grew to like her.

Though she had to admit, she was a bit annoyed to be leaving the Hokage office with a new mission whereas Haku was not. Kyuu was still extremely curious about what Mitsune was going to tell her last night and wanted to go find her to continue that conversation. Instead, she found herself heading to the village gates after stopping home to pack a small bag. Tsunade mentioned that she should expect to be gone for at least a few days.

At the gates Kyuu found her teammates for this mission waiting for her. Neji and surprisingly Kiraa. This was supposed to be her first official mission as a newly appointed ninja of the hidden leaf.

Kiraa had taken the fresh new start to her life seriously and had completely changed her appearance. Her once extremely long hair was now cut shorter, still long but now it stopped just passed her upper back. She tied it up in a half up half down style with a blue ribbon but still let bangs frame her face. She was dressed in a dark green sleeveless dress with a split going down both sides, similar in style to Sakura's, and wore black pants underneath. The pants were tucked into black boots. She wore a blue belt around her waist and her new ninja headband was tied to the belt. She also had on a pair of fingerless gloves.

Kyuu hadn't spoken to Kiraa much recently. Although they were working on being friends and although Kiraa assured her that there weren't many tears shed for her sister, Kyuu still felt guilty for killing her and found it a bit awkward that Kiraa had no issue being her friend despite the straight up murdering of her older sister… though it was justified and in self-defense… Still she wasn't extremely thrilled to be on this mission with the two, she had spoken very little to Neji since the Chunin exams and although she heard that he was trying to be less of a prick and nicer, she had a hard time forgiving him for what he did to Hinata.

"Ready to go?" Kiraa asked and Kyuu nodded.

"Let's get going then, Tsunade put me in charge, but this shouldn't be too difficult of a mission for us." Neji spoke up.

"Lead on." Kyuu replied, gesturing for him to start walking.

During their mission, which was nothing more than heading to a nearby village, collecting an important scroll from the village official, and heading back, Kyuu mostly kept to herself. She was polite and answered questions when Neji or Kiraa asked, but unless spoken to first she remained silent and distant. Instead of talking, she studied the two of them. They got along well it seemed and Neji definitely had a different vibe to him now after his loss against Naruto. Kiraa seemed to have adapted to life in Konoha extremely well. She seemed extremely happy to put her past behind her. Kyuu attempted to ask her a few questions about Orochimaru but she never provided much information, explaining she was kept in the dark for most of what she was roped into and her sister was the one who was obsessed with Orochimaru not her.

Their mission ended up being extremely uneventful, though as expected, it did take a few days to get to the other village, collect the scroll and head back. Personally, Kyuu found it to be a complete waste of her time to be on such a simple mission and felt that the other two could have handled it easily on their own. The monotony of it all left her restless and when she got restless, she got agitated and it was harder to keep her new temper in check.

When they returned to the village Neji said that he would report back to Tsunade for them and the three went their separate ways. Kyuu walked around aimlessly through the village, not really caring where she was heading, just in no real hurry to head back home. As she walked, she saw Shikamaru up ahead and headed over to him. She noticed that he was wearing a Chunin vest.

"Hey Shikamaru." She greeted as she neared him.

"Hey."

"Nice vest. So, you passed the exam?" She asked and he nodded.

"Yeah I just found out today. I seem to be the only one who did." He answered and began walking, Kyuu walked along beside him.

"Well I expected you to pass. You obviously have what it takes to be a Chunin with that brain of yours." She commented.

"You're not going to make a big deal out of this are you? I already had to deal with my team treating me to lunch." He asked.

"Nah, not if you don't want me to." She replied with a shrug and he smiled.

"I was surprised you didn't become one too." He stated as they walked.

"Ha! Me? After that huge incident with my match? I'm lucky to still be a ninja and not thrown in a cell. They all must think I'm a raging lunatic." She scoffed.

"It was bad timing. I know you have what it takes to be a Chunin; you're extremely intelligent and strong and you know how to handle things on missions. But, at the time you were extremely unstable, so they didn't get to see the normal you." He reasoned.

"I suppose."

"Next exam, I'm sure you'll make it."

"Thanks, Shikamaru."

"Eh, whatever. I'm just speaking the truth. Anyway, I got to go, I was heading to see my dad."

"Oh, alright. See ya later." She responded and turned to leave but then stopped. "Oh, have you seen Mitsune? I had something I wanted to talk to her about." She asked.

"Last I heard she was in the training fields." He answered.

"Alright, thanks." She turned to leave again but Shikamaru stopped her.

"Hey um, you guys are close right? You're friends?" He asked before she left.

"Yeah, I mean we're still getting to know each other but yea we're friends." She answered confused.

"Well there's a strange rumor about her going around and I figured you would know if it's true or not." He started.

"Rumor? What is it?" Kyuu asked curiously.

"Apparently someone heard her talking to the Hokage about something awhile back and according to the rumor, she isn't exactly human." He began.

"What?" Kyuu asked in shock.

"From what's being said. She's a demon, or at least part demon. I'm not sure if it's true or not because I don't really know her all that well, but I would like to know if it's true or not." He answered and shrugged. "I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter if she is or isn't since she seems like a good person, but I'd still like to know, you know? I figured if you two were friends and given what you are, she would've told you of all people about it." He finished.

"I don't know anything about it…" Kyuu answered with a frown. She wasn't sure how to feel about this bit of information. It didn't bother her if she was a demon, it bothered her that she didn't tell her about it. "…But I'm going to go find out…" Kyuu added, turning around and heading off to the training fields.

Kyuu stormed over to the training fields. Her mind was racing. It was all starting to make sense now. The reason for Mitsune's heightened senses, why she never spoke much about herself, why she accepted Kyuu being a vampire so easily and wasn't fazed by any of her abilities or vampiric quirks, and why her blood seemed different than everyone else's. Similar to the two boys with demons living inside them, but not the same, because it was more than that for her.

Kyuu felt herself becoming more and more angry the more she thought about it. She was angry at herself for not putting it together on her own, again too caught up in her own little world, fixating on her own issues and not taking in the people around her. She was also angry at Mitsune though, she was angry that she hadn't told her about what she really was. She of all people would have understood if Mitsune had confided in her. She should have told her about it, she knew that Kyuu was a vampire, she should have shared her own condition with her. Instead she lied about it. She lied… like everyone else… people always lied to her…

Kyuu reached the training fields and saw that Mitsune was still there training. Like Kiraa she also had gotten herself a new look. Instead of her usual all black, she was wearing a form fitting sleeveless turtleneck crop top, black fingerless gloves, and baggy high waisted pants that were tucked into her boots and were patterned int black and gray camo. Her headband was still tied around her waist like a belt. Her hair had also grown out a little bit and was more of an auburn color now.

"Hey Kyuu, what's up?" She greeted, seeing Kyuu heading over to her.

"Is it true?" Kyuu demanded, stopping in front of her.

"Is what true?" She asked confused.

"Is it true you're a demon?" Kyuu demanded again and she seemed surprised but then recovered from her shock.

"Half technically, so what?" She asked not liking the tone she was getting from Kyuu, or the glare for that matter.

"You didn't think to tell me about this? Me of all people." Kyuu snapped.

"What's it matter to you if I am or not?" She snapped back, folding her arms.

"It doesn't matter that you are half demon. I couldn't care less what you are. But what does matter, is that you never thought to tell me. That you lied about it to me." Kyuu retorted.

"I wanted to tell you. It's not really something easy for me to bring up, you know. Unlike you, I keep my condition on the downlow. Besides, I was going to tell you, I started to the last time we talked." She shrugged.

"You should have told me sooner than that. Especially because you knew what I am." Kyuu scoffed.

"Look, I was afraid to tell anyone, ok? I didn't want people hating me or trying to kill me or running me out of here or something." Mitsune responded still not fully understanding why Kyuu was so angry about it, but her temper was making her own continue to rise.

"I get keeping it on the downlow for most people, but why so afraid to tell me though, huh?" Kyuu retorted.

"I was afraid you wouldn't accept me." Mitsune shrugged.

"I'm half vampire. Surely you'd realize that if anyone was going to accept you as half demon it would've been me." Kyuu replied.

"I was still scared. I've told people in the past before I came to the village and it always ended badly, ok? I learned to hide what I am to protect myself. That isn't easy to unlearn."

"Well you still fucking should have told me sooner." Kyuu scoffed.

"Well I'm telling you now. Why is this such a big deal to you if you don't actually care?" She snapped.

"Because I don't like being lied to! And I don't like having to find out through a rumor."

"I was going to tell you! Can't you understand how I felt?" Mitsune tried to reason.

"How do you think I feel? Finding out my friend's been lying to me all this time. Realizing again that people always fucking lie."

"I'm sorry, alright? I shouldn't have lied." Mitsune apologized, shaking her head.

"That's it? Just I'm sorry I lied?" Kyuu snapped.

"What else do you want me to say? I'm sorry I lied. Get over it." She snapped back. "And get the stick out of your ass while you're at it. You're blowing this way out of proportion." She added.

"You just don't get it do you? I'm standing here once again finding out that I let my guard down and trusted someone who was again hiding shit from me and lying. You've been hiding shit from me all along. Just like they did. How did you expect me to react? Did you think I would just shrug this off as if it were no big deal after what I've been through?" Kyuu hissed at her.

"Ah so that's what this is about. Taking all of this, my own personal issues, and turning it to being about you. Of course, you are. You are truly such a fucking bitch at times, you now." She growled back.

Kyuu finally lost control of her bubbling temper at that. Without thinking she reached out and punched Mitsune in the face. She was a bit taken back by her actions, but it felt good to let some of all of that pent-up anger out. Mitsune stumbled back a few feet and clutched her jaw. She straightened out and glared at Kyuu.

"You are such a fucking self-centered bitch Kyuu!" She yelled at her, Kyuu glared darkly at her in return.

"Go ahead and glare! I'm so sick of your stupid attitude and walking on eggshells. Everyone is! All you care about now is wallowing in your own self-pity because you got your heartbroken. You either put on this little mask of pretend acting like everything is fine or you let your negative emotions run wild. It's stupid. So, you got hurt? So, what? It's part of life, everyone does. Yet, you act like it's the damn end of the world and only think about yourself. You only think about how much you've suffered and what you've been through. You treat everyone around you horribly now when all we're trying to do is help you. How do you think that makes us feel? Do you stop to think about anyone other than yourself anymore? No, you don't, you just keep focusing on feeling sorry for yourself. You've become such a self-centered bitch and it's pathetic."

Kyuu lost the last bit of her restraint on her temper and lashed out. She threw another punch at Mitsune, this one with more force. Although Mitsune blocked the punch, it still sent her flying and she crashed into one of the polls in the field. She quickly got up and threw a few kunai at Kyuu in retaliation, her own temper fully boiled over.

Kyuu drew one of her swords and swung, knocking the kunai away. Mitsune charged at her and swung a kick at Kyuu once she was near. Kyuu jumped out of the way and threw her swords to the ground, she wanted to fight this hand to hand. Mitsune's foot collided with the ground instead of Kyuu and it cracked the ground under her. She straightened back up and then seeing that Kyuu had discarded her blades, raised her fists, ready to go to blows with her.

The two were a blur of movement. They threw punches and kicks at each other and moved swiftly with both of their inhuman speeds. Occasionally the blurs stopped as one of them leapt away from the other to dodge an attack but then went right back in. Neither were really processing any pain from the blows that landed, to involved in their fighting to care. Kyuu swung a kick at Mitsune and she dodged it, swinging another one at Kyuu. Kyuu blocked the kick and grabbed her foot, she punched Mitsune in the face with her other hand and then threw Mitsune backwards like a rag doll. Mitsune flew back but instead of colliding with the ground, she stuck her hand out to stop her fall. She landed on her hand and knee, spun around and launched herself back at Kyuu. She kicked again and this time landed a hard blow to her gut and Kyuu went flying back this time. Kyuu stopped her crash to the ground and skidded to a halt on her knees.

The two girls crouched in fighting stances a few yards away from each other. They glared murderously at each other. Mitsune's nails began to turn into claws and her mouth grew fangs as her anger grew and Kyuu's eyes were now blazing scarlet. As Mitsune charged at Kyuu, clawed hand out and ready to slice at her, Kyuu dove for her discarded swords. Mistune's claws hit the ground where Kyuu had just been and left five deep gashes into the ground. She straightened up and charged after Kyuu just as she had grabbed her swords and started to swing.

Both girls froze, partly out of shock and mostly out of the fact that they were literally frozen in place. A huge mess of ice covered them both and kept them in place, only their heads were left exposed from the ice. Kyuu was stuck kneeling on the ground, both of her swords stopped mid swing at Mitsune. Mitsune was frozen just above Kyuu, both sets of her claws reaching out for her. If they hadn't been frozen, Mitsune's claws would have made contact with Kyuu's stomach and chest and Kyuu's swords would likely have taken her head off.

"What on earth do you two think you're doing?!" They heard Haku yell.

They both shifted their heads to the right to see Haku standing there. He did a few quick hand signs and the mess of ice broke into two pieces, separating Kyuu and Mitsune but still keeping them frozen.

"Get a hold of yourselves right now." Haku ordered and at the sight of her brother so angry and so worried, Kyuu's anger began to melt away. She took deep breaths, regaining control of herself, Mitsune seemed to be doing the same. With Kyuu's temper disappearing, the realization of how foolish her actions were was creeping in.

"Let us go please? It's fine now." Kyuu asked and Mitsune nodded.

After a moment of hesitation Haku released them both. Kyuu and Mitsune eyed each other wirily and Haku stared at them both sternly. "Why on earth are you two fighting and trying to kill each other?" Haku demanded.

"It doesn't matter. It's over with." Mitsune responded. "I'm out of here." She added, walking off.

"I'm out of here too." Kyuu stated turning away from Haku and walking in the opposite direction of Mitsune.

"Wait, this needs to be talked out, come back." Haku demanded but both girls ignored him and left. Haku watched Kyuu leave, he wanted to follow her and demand to know what was going on, but decided she needed space and to let her go. He'd get his answers later at home.

Kyuu walked around trying to clear her head. She was still irritated at Mitsune, but at the same time she realized how stupid she had been. She felt bad for losing her temper and lashing out at her like that. She lost control of herself. Again. She winched as she remembered Mitsune's words, she knew she was right, that she really had been wallowing in self-pity and making things about herself. She knew she'd need to apologize later to Mitsune. She sighed and looked up at the sky, when Kyuu found Mitsune in the training fields the sun had just begun to set, between the fight and her aimless wondering around the village, night had fallen.

Kyuu figured she should probably head home and not worry Haku much longer and began making her way that direction. As she passed through the streets she passed by the hospital and noticed a few strange things. The first being that the ground was damp and something odd on the roof caught her attention. Studying the roof, she noticed one of the water towers up there had a giant hole in it, likely the reason behind the damp ground. She tilted her head in confusion, wondering what caused it.

Deciding that she would ask someone about it later she pressed on, but it did start to stir up an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She kept making her way back home and as she turned down a street she stopped. She sensed two familiar presences up ahead. Sakura and Sasuke. Curious about what they might be up to so late she crept closer and hid in the shadows of some nearby trees to listen.

She heard Sakura beg Sasuke to not leave the village. Why was he leaving? Kyuu was aware of the darkness that was growing in Sasuke and that Orochimaru wanted him for some reason. Was this connected? She listened in on their conversation and she heard Sakura tell Sasuke that she loved him. She could hear the tears in her voice and pained her to hear it, it reminded her of her own confession. She heard Sasuke thank Sakura and it fell silent. Kyuu listened on for a few more minutes, there wasn't any more talking and she heard Sasuke's footsteps as he began walking away.

Kyuu stopped hiding and stepped out onto the road. She noticed that Sakura was lying unconscious on a bench. She tilted her head, not very surprised that Sasuke knocked her unconscious in order to leave. She felt bad for her and made a mental note to come back and wake her up before heading after Sasuke. He hadn't gotten too far ahead.

"Going somewhere?" She called as she neared him and Sasuke stopped walking. He let out a small sigh and turned around to face her.

"I'm leaving this village. Staying here will only hold me back. Don't think you can stop me anymore than she could." He answered, having a hunch that she heard their conversation.

"You're such a fucking idiot, Sasuke." Kyuu muttered.

"I told you Kyuu, I have to get stronger. I asked for your help and you refused me. This is my path now."

"It's not your path. It's not the only way to get stronger. Please, don't go down this road."

Kyuu felt weak and like she wanted to collapse. Her mind and heart had reached its limit today on how much it could take. On top of everything else, Sasuke leaving was just too much. She couldn't handle anymore.

"Please don't go…" She tried again.

"I have to. I will get my revenge. I will do whatever it takes, walk any path I have to, and join anyone who will further my goal. I will gladly sever any bonds I have here if that means I can kill that man." He retorted.

"Damn it Sasuke, stop! Your thirst for revenge will twist you and consume you. Please, can't you see how dark of a road you're going down? Please…" She responded taking a few steps closer to him.

"If there is the power I need at the end of that path, I don't care how dark it is or how much it consumes me."

Kyuu felt tears welling up in her eyes and she cursed as she started to cry. "Please don't go… Please stay…. I can't…. I can't lose you too… Please don't leave me too…." She cried, hanging her head.

"Kyuu..." Kyuu heard him mutter her name and take a few steps closer to her.

She was shocked to feel him put his arms around her and pull her into a tight hug. Her arms fell limp to her sides as he hugged her. The random act of affection shocked her, but her tears still continued to fall. She then felt a prick in her arm and a burning pain began to rush over her.

"W-what did you do?" She muttered weakly, her whole body felt like it was on fire and her knees gave out from under her.

Sasuke caught her and lowered her to the ground. She noticed an empty syringe was on the ground next to her. Why?

"I had a feeling you would try to stop me. Sakura too, though I knew I could handle her." He glanced over at the syringe. "Holy water, I couldn't let you stop me…"

"You…" Kyuu was furious, he injected her with holy water? She wanted to yell at him and lash out, but she couldn't move. She was in a tremendous amount of pain and a haze was starting to form over her eyes, as well as a darkness starting to fog her brain, she was fighting with every fiber of her being to stay conscious.

Sasuke stared at her while she scowled at him. He reached out and brushed her hair out of her face before releasing her completely and standing up. "Goodbye Kyuu…" He muttered.

"...Sas...uke..." Kyuu mumbled weakly, tears began to flow again, and she tried with all of her might to move. "Sasuke!" She screamed after him, crying as he walked out of her sight.

Kyuu closed her eyes and sobbed, furious at herself, furious at Sasuke, furious at the world. She cried and cried and unable to fight it off any longer, succumbing to the pain and to the dark fog, slipping into unconsciousness.

Kyuu awoke early the next morning. She was surprised to see that she was staring at her bedroom ceiling and not the sky. She sat up weakly in bed. Her brain was foggy, and her body ached. She recalled the events of last night and frowned. Well, he hadn't managed to accidently kill her with the holy water, but he did successfully incapacitate her. Which meant he was gone now...

Kyuu got out of bed and saw a note on her nightstand. The note was from Haku, stating he got worried when she didn't come home last night and found her passed out in the streets. He said he was being forced to go on a mission and wouldn't be gone long and pleaded for her to stay in bed and rest and that they would talk about what happened when he got back.

Kyuu briefly wondered if the mission he was on was about Sasuke. She wondered if others knew yet, if an order to stop him had been sent out yet. She shook her head to try to clear more of the haze and quickly gathered up her things as well as putting on a fresh change of clothes. She had to go after him. As she was about to leave and opened her front door, she was surprised to see Shikamaru on the other side, hand out as if he were about to knock on the door. Behind him was Neji, Choji, Naruto, Kiba, and Mitsune (who was deliberately not making eye contact with Kyuu). Judging by the grim look on everyone's faces Kyuu had a feeling she knew what this was about.

"Kyuu, we're going on a mission. Sasuke left last night and the Hokage's ordered me to get a team assembled and retrieve him. I need your help." Shikamaru explained and Kyuu nodded.

She stepped out of the apartment and shut the door behind her. "Let's go." She replied.

The group headed towards the village gates and while they walked Kyuu glanced at Mitsune. They both made eye contact briefly before looking away. Each were feeling guilty about their fight and neither knew if now was the appropriate time to talk about it. When the group reached the village gates Shikamaru explained the plan to everyone and Kyuu silently listened. She saw Sakura and Lee head over to them before they were able to head out. Lee, now able to walk around with a crutch looked upset that he wasn't able to go with everyone and Sakura looked miserable. She began talking to Naruto and began crying. Kyuu looked at the ground. She remembered Sakura's scorned confession and pleading, she felt an overwhelming amount of pity for her. Naruto promised her that he would bring Sasuke back to her and Shikamaru ordered everyone to get moving so the group headed off, leaving Sakura and Lee at the gates to see them off.

And there we have it another chapter down. Ahhh alll the angsty. Gotta love it. Hopefully this chapter didn't seem too rushed. I wanted to wrap up all of the "filler" so to speak and get back onto the main plot of whats actually taking place in the anime. But now, we're back on track, Sasuke's left the village and the team is off to find him. Which means a certain redhead will be returning soon tooo.

Also I've got mixed feelings about the Mitsune character, it was originally a character I added in for a friend and is based off of the character she gave me (I.E. the demon thing), I don't love it like I did the first time I wrote the story, but I want to keep the character as she was intended out of respect, though not even sure if that friend even reads this stuff anymore lol. Anywho, will be doing my best to try to keep her true to her original character while also shifting things more towards how I want them to go. (this would make sense to anyone who read my original version of this story on Quizilla back in the day). I feel like this and many other elements of the story that I've tweaked is just the price of trying to fix a story I wrote when I was a teenager. And oh boy is the original draft so cringe to me now lmao. I have hope though, I think I've done well so far with updating it and I've still got lots to go.

As always feedback is loved and appreciated. Even if it's nothing more than to yell at me for being away for so long. Hopefully won't take too long to update again lol.