Woo new chapter! This time it only took me a few months for an update rather than a few years... Anywho here's the next installment. As always feedback, feedback, feedback.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only my made up characters and ideas.
Kyuu ran along with the others, chasing after Sasuke as fast as they could. Her worry, anger, and sadness were growing by the minute. Each time she was forced to watch one of her friends stay behind to fight one of Orochimaru's henchmen her worry intensified. Would they be ok on their own?
The rescue team kept dwindling down lower and lower. Each time one stayed to fight Kyuu tried to get them to let her stay behind instead. She was already on the verge of losing Sasuke, she didn't want to lose anyone else today. Yet, each time she as forced to keep moving and hope that they'd be alright by themselves.
By this point it was just her, Naruto, and Mitsune. They were the only ones remaining in the chase. Even Lee made an appearance out of nowhere and took over a fight so that they could resume their chase after Sasuke. The surprise appearance of Lee caused an extra dose of anxiety in Kyuu's stomach. She knew that Tsunade had done a great deal with healing him, but was he truly ready to fight again? She repeatedly thought about doubling back and returning to help but kept pushing on with the others.
Kyuu suddenly paused in her running and skidded to a halt. The wind had picked up briefly and carried with it several familiar scents. She froze in shock.
"What's the matter Kyuu?" Naruto demanded as he and Mitsune realized she had stopped running. They were now chasing after a Sasuke who was on foot and Naruto was clearly annoyed that they stopped.
"…. why are they here….?" Kyuu muttered quietly to herself.
"Kyuu?" Mitsune asked in concern, speaking to her for the first time since their fight.
"…it's him…he's close…. why is he back?" She muttered, her mind was going haywire, as were her emotions. The scent on the air was as clear as day to her, the smell of irresistible blood, the intoxicating lure of blood mixed with sand… Gaara was back.
"Kyuu, what the hell are you talking about? Who's back? Mitsune asked confused.
"Kyuu, please, we need to hurry. Sasuke's getting away." Naruto pleaded impatiently.
Kyuu shook her head to clear it and tried to regain her focus. She had to get herself in check for the sake of the others. She would deal with him later. Right now, Sasuke mattered more.
She regained her composer and locked down all of the feelings and thoughts that were stirring. "Let's keep moving, its nothing." She answered quickly and began sprinting off again after Sasuke. Naruto and Mitsune glanced at each other but quickly followed suit and the race was on again.
"Kyuu, who's back?" Mitsune asked again while the three ran.
Kyuu paused for a moment before deciding to answer. "…Gaa-
Before she could finish what she was saying, she caught a glimpse of an energy blast coming their way through the trees. She quickly shoved Mitsune out of the way and took the full force of the blast.
Kyuu fell to her knees, bending over in pain and gritting her teeth tightly. She curled in on herself and grunted in pain as she recovered from the blast.
"Kyuu!" Naruto and Mitsune exclaimed in shock and rushed to her side. As they did another enemy emerged from the shadows of the trees. She had short brown hair and was dressed just like the others had been.
"Who the hell are you?" Mitsune demanded, taking a defensive stance in front of the others.
The girl didn't answer and instead she threw a few kunai at the three. Mitsune grabbed Kyuu and leaped out of the way, a kunai grazing her arm in the process, but she ignored it. Naruto landed beside the girls and Mitsune quickly passed Kyuu to him.
"Get her out of here. Keep going after Sasuke, I'll handle this one." She ordered, staring down her opponent.
Naruto nodded and helped Kyuu onto her feet. He supported her against him and the two dashed off.
Kyuu glanced back at Mitsune while she pressed on. A twinge of guilt over their fight and her inability to apologize lingering in her chest. She'd make it a point to patch things up with her when this was all over.
Mitsune glared at the silent girl. She glanced down at her bleeding arm and watched it begin to heal before turning back to the girl. She just stood there silently.
"That happened to sting a bit." Mitsune commented and crouched down in preparedness to fight.
Not wanting to waste any time and eager to finish the fight quickly she flexed her hands and her nails began to turn to claws. She cracked her neck as her ears changed shape and shifted to two furry ones on top of her head, at the same time a tail burst from her, both were auburn like her hair except for the tips which were black. Her eyes had turned to a near orange color and the pupils to slits.
"Forgive me, but I'd like us to finish this fight quickly." She continued and smirked, showing her new formed fangs.
"This fight was over before it began." The girl spoke for the first time.
"I couldn't agree more." Mitsune replied and charged at her.
Mitsune's opponent threw more kunai at her and Mitsune deflected and dodged each of them. While Mitsune had no issue dodging or deflecting the projectiles, she was making it increasingly difficult to get in close to her. Eventually though she found an opening and lunged at her.
Mitsune swiped at her with her claws and the girl narrowly escaped, blood sprayed from her arm as several long gashes ran down it, however she managed to get in a blow of her own as well. Mitsune jumped back away from the girl and yanked a kunai out of her thigh. She glanced at her bleeding leg then glared back at the girl.
The girl's arm hung limp beside her, blood running freely down it. With her other arm raised, she began to send energy blast after energy blast at Mitsune. Mitsune dodged them. This time due to her thigh, with a little more effort. However, her wound was beginning to mend itself and soon she'd make her counterattack.
As the fight dragged on though Mitsune began to become suspicious. Just like with the kunai the girl didn't seem to be making a great deal of effort in trying to harm her, rather just keep her away.
"You're stalling… what for?" Mitsune demanded, realizing what the girl was playing at.
"You finally caught on have you?" She replied, pausing in her attacks. "That's alright. It should be taking effect by now." She added and lips twisted into a smile.
"What should…" Mitsune paused, her vision began to blur around the edges, and she felt herself growing weaker.
"That would be the poison that all of my kunai are coated in. Takes a bit of time to kick in, but very potent once it does." She smiled.
Mitsune's eyes widened and she cursed under her breath. How had she not realized it sooner? All of the stalling was to let that first scratch take effect…. And a second dose when she allowed herself to get injured just to stab her again followed by more stalling.
"You bitch…" Mitsune hissed, pain was creeping in now, like someone had lit a small fire in her veins and the temperature was rising steadily.
"As I said, this fight was over before it began." She laughed.
Mitsune's knees shook and she stumbled as she struggled to keep herself standing. She glared murderously at the girl while panting, both from the effort to stay standing and the pain.
"You might have gotten one up on me here, but don't think I'm going to let you live." Mitsune growled.
Using what strength she could muster, she charged at the girl. Already infected with the poison she disregarded the amount of times that the girl cut her as she tried to fend her off. All Mitsune cared about was ripping this girl to shreds. If she was going out, she was taking this bitch with her.
The girl fought her off the best she could, but even in her weakened state Mitsune was stronger. She was like a wounded animal and little mattered to her beyond taking down the source of her anger and pain.
When the struggle was over Mitsune stood over the mangled corpse of her opponent, having done quite a number on her. It was hard to distinguish much of the remains as she now resembled being mauled by a bear and flesh reduced to ribbons. Mitsune looked away from the body and down at her front. While definitely covered in blood, she wasn't sure how much of it was her own. She could feel the sting of several new gashes on her arms and torso. The girl was weak, clearly relaying heavily on her poisons to do the heavy lifting for her. Unfortunately, in that aspect she had been quite successful.
Mitsune cursed herself for her stupidity and dropped to her knees, it was becoming too painful to stand. Her features shifted back to normal as she lowered herself to the ground. She dragged herself over to the base of a tree and propped herself up against it, gasping for breath from the exertion. Every vein in her body felt like it was on fire, her vision was now completely fuzzy, chills ran down her back and her body trembled. She leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes. She focused on breathing in and out, attempting to steady her breathing. She was in no shape to move and find the others, she just hoped one of them would find her before it was too late.
Kyuu had recovered from the blast that hit her fairly quickly. She was running along side Naruto unsupported now. A part of her was worried about Mitsune but she felt confident that, given the new information about her, she'd be able to handle her own in a fight. Though her worry did start to rise as time went on and she couldn't sense Mitsune trying to catch up with them.
Kyuu and Naruto were gaining on Sasuke now, he was just ahead of them. His wild goose chase had taken them so far away from the village she was surprised Naruto still had so much energy to continue to chase him. Now that it was just the three of them and he was within their sight, Kyuu contemplated using her vampiric speed to overtake Sasuke and stop him. She hesitated though, knowing it was Naruto's place not hers.
Still, the chase was getting old and as more time went on with no word or sight of the others that stayed behind to fight, she was at her wits end with the whole ordeal. As she debated how to proceed, she skidded to a halt again. She felt the sensation of being watched and quickly recognized a slightly familiar presence.
"Kyuu! Don't stop! We're gaining on him!" Naruto declared, realizing she had stopped again.
"Naruto, go on ahead. Keep after him and run as fast as you can. You need to get out of here, now." She hissed out at him, eyes darting back and forth as she scanned the trees around them.
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, suddenly worried.
"We're being hunted… It's another vampire." She replied, hands making their way to her swords.
"What?" Naruto frantically looked around.
"Leave this to me. Just go bring Sasuke back…" She urged and glanced at him, looking into his eyes. "…I tried to stop him the night he left… if I hadn't been so damn weak from everything that's happened lately, maybe I could have stopped him…. If I hadn't let my guard down. If I was stronger, braver, less of a pathetic mess…. Maybe I could have done more… or maybe it was always meant to be you… I know you're strong enough, I know you can do it. Bring Sasuke back home." She pressed.
Naruto stared at her for a moment and grasped her shoulder. "You're not weak and you're not a pathetic mess. You're one of the strongest people I know. I promise I'll bring him home." He squeezed her shoulder and then darted off after Sasuke.
"Good luck." Kyuu muttered as she watched him leave. Her gut told her that when he caught up to Sasuke there would be a confrontation. She hoped he could handle it.
Kyuu redirected her focus to the vampire that she sensed. She realized that it was lurking down on the ground below the trees. She jumped out of the them and landed softly to her feet. She drew both of her swords as she did so.
"Come out. It's just you and me." She demanded.
Unsurprisingly Kyuu saw a pair of familiar red eyes appear from the shadows of a tree across from her and a young woman with short black hair stepped out. The same woman she had come across during the attack on the Leaf.
"Glad to see you were able to notice me so quickly this time. Your perception has improved." She grinned. "Told you I'd see you again."
"What are you doing here, Sui?" Kyuu demanded.
"Ah, you remembered my name. I'm touched. I work for the snake guy, remember? I'm here to help him get his scaly little hands on your friend. Though I wasn't part of the original team, I'm what you'd call a reinforcement incase the others failed." She answered, continuing to smile.
"We'll stop you. Naruto will bring Sasuke home."
"We're not kidnapping him, you know. He's leaving of his own free will." She laughed. "That blond kid is in for a rude awakening if he thinks that that boy is coming back quietly. I've seen very few others with such a darkness in them like that boy."
"Yeah well, what the hell do you know anyway." Kyuu spat.
"A lot more than you, that's for sure." She grinned.
"I see your stupid attitude hasn't changed." Kyuu hissed, hating that this woman acted so clever whenever she spoke.
"And I see your stupidity hasn't changed either if you think you stand a chance against me. Last time I was simply playing with you. Today will be much different." She retorted, tilting her head to the side and continuing to smile.
"Well, one way to find out isn't there?" Kyuu shrugged and charged at her.
Sui smirked and as Kyuu swung one of her swords at her she blocked it with ease. Kyuu glared and spun around behind her, swinging at her back with the other blade. She simply drew her own sword in lightning speed and blocked the attack from behind without turning around.
"If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm on a completely different level than you are, child." She taunted, eyes flashing as she glanced at Kyuu.
Kyuu glared in return and made a sequence of fast swings, jabs, and slashes with both of her swords. Sui blocked them all with a bored look on her face and without moving more than the arm that held her own sword. This just infuriated Kyuu, her temper, ever tittering on the edge, was beginning to boil over.
Sui blocked another one of Kyuu's attacks and her face split into a grin. "My turn." She sang and swung upward with her sword so quickly Kyuu had barely a fraction of a second to respond. She blocked the blow with her swords, but the force of the attack caused them to fly out of her hands and she quickly jumped back away from Sui.
Sui smiled and picked up the swords that Kyuu dropped. She looked at them for a second and crushed them within her grip, unfazed by the blood that ran down her hand. She looked at her own sword in her other hand and tossed it away from her, letting it fly into the surrounding brush.
"I've always been more of a hand to hand combat person myself." She commented, looking at her bleeding hand with interest before turning her attention back to Kyuu.
Kyuu stood there watching her, tense and ready to reengage. The frustration of her weapons broken and tossed aside, her anger at herself and the situation, her concern for all of her friends, all of the raw emotions spilled over and she let them. She'd let them fuel her. Eyes blazing red, she charged at Sui.
Kyuu threw punch after punch at Sui, rapidly changing positions and angles with her attacks to try to throw her off guard. Sui deflected them all easily but was steadily being pushed back by the onslaught of attacks. Kyuu focused chakra into one of her fists and punched out at her face. Sui ducked from the blow and it connected with a tree behind them, splitting it in half from the base of the trunk.
"Not too bad." Sui commented as she assessed the damage and aimed her own punch at Kyuu. Kyuu quickly dodged the attack and Sui's fist collided with another tree. This one reduced to splinters as power ran through it. "But not quite where you need to be." She concluded, admiring her own work.
She lunged at Kyuu and the two quickly reengaged. The two quickly became a blur of movement. They threw punches and kicks at each other, one right after another. Kyuu did her best to counter and block as many of the blows as she could but she was still taking a beating. The attacks she did manage to land were hardly doing any damage to Sui while she in turn was steadily wearing Kyuu down with her blows.
Kyuu allowed herself to take a blow to the jaw and charged more chakra into her fist again managing to land a solid hit from the opening she was granted. She uppercut Sui hard in the stomach with the chakra fist. Sui gasped in pain and a bit of saliva flew from her mouth along with a few specks of blood. Kyuu pushed her fist into her stomach harder and twisted, making the skin twist along with her fist. While she did this, she charged chakra into her other fist and swung for her face. She felt her knuckles coliid with her cheek and her nose and she felt the nose break under her blow.
Sui flew backwards from the force of the two attacks and collided into another tree. It split from the impact. Though taken by surprise from the attack Sui was quickly back on her feet. She felt her nose and snapped it back into alignment.
"Good, very good." She commented, spitting blood. "You really have improved since our last fight." She laughed rubbing her stomach. "But let me show you how it's really done." She finished and then she was gone.
Kyuu blinked in shock and had no time to defend herself, Sui had reappeared right in front of her and before she could do anything, she attacked.
Kyuu felt several of her ribs break from the force of the blow she received. She flew backwards and before she could crash into the ground or a tree, Sui had appeared behind he and kicked her hard in the back, sending her flying forward with a few more cracked ribs.
Kyuu crashed into the ground and rolled back several yards before stopping, landing face first on the ground. Kyuu gasped rapidly and scrunched up her face as she willed herself to push through the pain. She put both of her palms on the ground and began to push herself up off the ground before crying out as a foot came slamming down onto her back between her shoulder blades.
Kyuu whimpered and her eyes stung with tears as she felt her digging her foot into her back and felt something pop. Though she knew her body would recover from these injuries, the knowledge did little to dull the pain. Suddenly she found her wrists being grabbed and her arms yanked upward.
Kyuu let out a loud scream of agony as she felt Sui twisting and yanking both of her arms out of their sockets. Sui laughed in tune with her screams.
"You're losing this fight. Get your shit together." Kyuu's inner voice rung out and she suddenly found herself in her mind again.
Kyuu picked herself up off the stone floor and looked at her other self. Things had changed. The chains restraining the other Kyuu were chipping and breaking in several places and the cloth that wrapped around her had become tattered and torn.
"Lend me some of your strength again." Kyuu demanded, though she hated to admit needing this side of her, she was losing, badly.
"I thought you didn't want my power? Thought you wanted to show the whole world you don't need me or my strength?" She mocked.
"I don't need you specifically, only a small amount of your power. I'm not letting you take control of me." She countered back in frustration.
"Oh, very well… As you wish, but just borrowing some of my power won't be enough." She sighed with menacing look in her eye.
Black chakra wrapped around Kyuu and she was pulled back from her mind. Quickly she spun out from under Sui and knocked her off her. She sent her flying out of the way and Kyuu hurried to her feet. She shrugged both of her shoulders while panting heavily and they both realigned themselves. She flexed her hands a few times while her arms resumed proper functionality and she cracked her neck. The black chakra was seeping off of her while her wounds healed, and bones repaired themselves. Once again glowing red markings covered her body.
Sui watched with wide eyes, taken aback by this sudden turn of events. Kyuu quickly charged at her and before Sui had realized it, she was in front of her and punching her hard in the face. Sui was sent flying again and Kyuu ran after her, kicking her and sending her flying in a new direction. She moved and reappeared in front of her and threw her up in the air, leaping up after her and driving her feet down on top of her, sending her slamming into the ground.
Sui's initial shock dissipated and before Kyuu could land anymore blows she was up off the ground again. "Now we're getting somewhere." She grinned.
The two reengaged with each other more violently than ever before. Even with Kyuu's power up she was still unable to overpower Sui, though she was doing a much better job at holding her own against her. The two were violent and vicious, they sent power filled punches and kicks at one another with little concern for self-defense and solely focusing on offense. They punched and kicked, threw and grabbed one another, slammed each other against trees, rocks, and the ground, bit and scratched, kneed and elbowed, it was a flurry of violence and the terrain around them was quickly being reduced to rubble.
The two broke away from each other and each took a moment to reassess their battle. Though both were tired and wounded neither showed any signs of slowing down. Sui began making rapid hand seals and shot fire balls at Kyuu, Kyuu dodged them and preformed a quick serious of hand seals in return and launched her own serious of fire attacks.
The fight was rapidly becoming a combination of physical attacks and a frenzy of fire. Both paid little attention to the blazes now burring around them unless they were forced to dodge the fires. While the fight was definitely more evenly matched Kyuu felt herself shifting to the losing side again. She was not used to her fights being dragged out this long or used to using so much chakra over such an extended period of time. She was growing weak physically and running out of juice. Sui could sense this and doubled down on her efforts, attacking more rapidly and more violently than before. Eventually Kyuu slipped up and lost her footing while dodging another of Sui's attacks. While she regained her footing, Sui took advantage of the opening and began pelting her with blasts of fire, fire ball after fire ball was being thrown at Kyuu until nothing could be seen but a giant inferno engulfing Kyuu and the surrounding trees…
"Were you going for original or extra crispy?" The other Kyuu asked as she looked down at Kyuu once again laying on the stone floor. This time Kyuu was a burnt and bloody mess.
Kyuu was burned, bloody, bruised, and broken. Her wounds healed rapidly but more kept coming, she couldn't keep up with this much longer and was drawing painful ragged breaths. Somewhere a part of her realized that while this was taking place in her head, her physical body was being burned, this only added to the hopelessness that she felt. She looked up at her other self, a still fresh gash on her forehead letting blood flow freely down her face. She hung her head back down; she couldn't hold her head up any longer.
"You're dying. Let me help you. I can save you, save us." The other Kyuu urged. "If you don't give me control, you'll die. Trust me." She pressed again.
Kyuu closed her eyes and nodded slowly, giving into her. She didn't have a choice anymore; it was life or death now…
Kyuu forced herself to pick her head up again and look at the other Kyuu, to see what would happen. The chains holding her instantly all snapped apart. She fell slowly and gracefully to the ground. Once standing the shackles on her hands and feet broke apart. She walked over to Kyuu and knelt down in front of her. She offered out her hand. "It will be all right." She encouraged and Kyuu raised her hand and placed it in hers, all the while never taking her eyes off of her.
As soon as their hands touched the cloth wrapping around her fell away completely and she could finally see her face. The face from her vision, her face, glowing red eyes with tiny slits for pupils, silver hair, more elongated fangs, and a sinister smile. She gripped her hand and pulled Kyuu to her feet so that they both were standing. Her smile grew wider and her eyes gleamed with blood lust and more power than Kyuu had ever imagined. Then everything went dark…
Sui stood cautiously near the fire where Kyuu should be. She had stopped screaming a while ago, but she could tell she wasn't dead. She waited apprehensively and then took a few steps back as the flames began to dance and grow wildly and then suddenly the flames were purple and black and shooting upward. Then Kyuu emerged from the flames, unscathed and completely different. Her hair had turned pure silver and red markings that were covering her body before were just peeling off of her and floating away. Her eyes were now blazing scarlet and her fangs appeared longer, as did her fingernails, they grew and became pointed resembling claws. The cross that hung from Kyuu's neck snapped off and flew away. There was so much power radiating off of her now that Sui took a few more steps back.
"What is this?!" She demanded.
"Kyuu's true vampire side." Kyuu answered with a twisted grin and then she was gone.
She reappeared in front of Sui and flicked her on the forehead. Sui flew backwards several yards and crashed into several trees before hitting the ground. Kyuu grinned and was gone again. She reappeared next to a large tree and gripped it, she ripped to clear out of the ground and flung it at Sui. Sui dodged the tree, but it seemed that was just a display of power and not an intention attack as Kyuu was waiting for her when she dodged it. She began an onslaught of brutal attacks against Sui. She was too fast and too strong for Sui to counter now; she merely took blow after blow and was tossed around like a rag doll by Kyuu. It was clear that Kyuu was toying with her now.
After some time, when Kyuu grew bored of her assault on Sui she relented. She had long since stopped fighting back. Kyuu let her fall to the ground in a heap and stared down at her. She looked feeble and weak now, barely holding onto life.
"Time to die." Kyuu smiled before finishing the job.
After she had disposed of Sui, she glanced around the area. The fires they started were mostly out now and much of the trees that had surrounded them had fallen. The battle had caused a massive clearing in the forest to form. She brushed some of her silver hair out of her face and spotted the cross that had fallen off of her necklace laying on the ground. She stared at it for a moment and knelt down. As she picked up the cross she winched and hissed as it burned her fingers. She stuffed it into one of her pouches and stood back up. She glanced in the direction that Naruto had headed off in but instead of following after, she turned and began making her way back the way they had come.
Gaara and Lee sat under a tree, next to a giant mess of bones; remnants of their battle. It was an awkward and uncomfortable silence. The tension was thick with memories of what Gaara had done. Gaara would have liked to head back to the village but the two were waiting to see if the others would return soon.
After more silence, Gaara glanced over at Lee and then looked away. A question was burning inside of him, but he couldn't bring himself to ask, afraid of the answer.
"Sooo…. You've changed…. not as uhh violent as before?" Lee asked after another pause of silence and Gaara nodded.
Gaara chewed on his cheek for a moment and then spit out his question before he could talk himself out of it again. "How is Kyuu?" He managed, hesitantly meeting Lee's gaze.
Ever since that dreadful night Gaara had begun feeling strange new emotions, regret and shame. The feelings burned inside him and intensified with every day that had passed. After his fight with Naruto and his realization that he could change, and he could be better he realized how much of a fool he had been which only further intensified his guilt. While new to the sensation of feeling guilt, it ate away at him relentlessly. He felt guilty for attacking the leaf village, even guilty for the damage he had done to Lee (though the fact that he was up and moving around just fine now helped ease that), and he felt guilty and ashamed of everything he had done and said to Kyuu. He had so much time to rethink all of the stupidity of his behavior and all he wanted to do now was make things right with her. His desire to fix the damage he had done burned as strongly as the shame behind it.
"…Not great, if I'm going to be honest." Lee answered after a moment of hesitation. "For a long time, all she did was lock herself up in her room and cry. She never smiled; she never showed any shred of happiness. Her temper's become extremely unstable and she's been a wreck." He explained and watched Gaara grow troubled by his answer, so he continued on "She's put on a brave front recently. Stopped locking herself up all the time and tries to put on a smile for her friends and brother but… we can see how hurt she is inside. You have no idea how much you hurt her or the pain you put her through." He finished.
Gaara looked away from him and to the ground. He wasn't surprised to hear that answer, he was expecting it. However, even though he expected to hear those words, it didn't take away the sting of them. He wanted to ask Lee how he could start to fix things with her but they both stiffened up in surprise and hopped to their feet, sensing someone coming from the trees.
Whatever was coming their way was dangerous, the power coming off of them was radiating, it was also dark. Something sinister and powerful was heading their way. The two got ready to fight and then froze in shock again when the figure broke through the clearing. It was Kyuu carrying an unconscious Mitsune on her back.
Kyuu was unlike how Gaara had ever been seen her before. Her jet-black hair was now pure silver, her purple eyes now scarlet. While her clothes were torn, dirty, bloody, and singed in a lot of places, she herself looked completely unscathed. Her eyes were cold and piercing and there was no emotion on her face. She also carried herself differently. Despite the extra weight of the unconscious girl on her back, she walked with almost a strut, shoulders back, head held high, and a slight sway in her step.
When she reached them, she lowered Mitsune onto the ground in front of Lee and stood back up, folding her arms across her chest, watching them both silently.
"…Kyuu?" Gaara began hesitantly.
Kyuu glanced at him for a fraction of a second before turning her attention to Lee. "The girl's been poisoned. She'll need medical attention quickly." She stated in a cold matter-of-fact tone, no hint at concern for her well-being.
"Kyuu? Why do you look like that?" Lee asked bewildered.
Well that answered one question for Gaara, apparently this was a very new change for her, Lee looked just as confused as he was.
"I'm a different side of Kyuu. Her vampire side." She answered. "You'll call me by my proper name, Kyuuketsuki, not her silly nickname." She added.
"Where is the real Kyuu?" Gaara demanded and again she only flicked her gaze to him for a second, returning her attention to Lee instead.
"I am the real 'Kyuu'. I am her true self. Yet, to simplify it for you humans, your Kyuu is sleeping right now." She replied, directing her answer to Lee, this irked Gaara greatly, but he held his tongue focusing on trying to process what was happening instead.
Kyuuketsuki dropped her arms to her sides and rolled back her shoulders before speaking again. "I'm just about out of time here, when we wake back up, it'll be her in control again." She began and continued to watch Lee instead of Gaara. "She trusts you; I'm leaving our body in your hands against my better judgement." She finished before finally turning her attention over to Gaara. She shot him a piercing glare.
"I should kill you for what you put her through, but without that heartbreak I'm not sure if she would have grown weak enough for me to awaken and take control. So, I thank you instead." She began and allowed a cruel smile to flash on her lips before she scowled again. "Stay the hell away from us now though, if you know what's good for you. Kyuu may be understanding and kind but I am not. Your brutality may have assisted me, but it won't be overlooked nor forgotten." She finished.
Kyuuketsuki stopped scowling at him after she had finished. She stared off into space for a moment and blinked rapidly before letting out a small grunt and closing her eyes. Her knees gave out under her and she fell to the ground as she slipped into unconsciousness. Both Lee and Gaara reached out to catch her, as they caught her, her head flopped to one side and her hair began reverting back to black.
"That was really weird." Lee commented as he watched Kyuu for a moment longer.
Gaara nodded and scooped Kyuu up into his arms. "Grab the other one, we need to get them back to the village." He stated, nodding to Mitsune on the ground. He couldn't recall her name, though he recognized her as the girl Kankuro hung around with previously.
Lee paused, debating on whether to comment on the fact that the other version of Kyuu entrusted him to take care of her but decided to let it go and grabbed Mitsune. It didn't look like Gaara would be inclined to let go of Kyuu so he wouldn't push it. Once Mitsune was properly supported on his back the two headed off back to the leaf village.
A woman dressed head to toe in black with a thick hood over her head stepped out of the shadows of the trees. Her long turquois hair cascading down her front. She gazed around at the demolished terrain and still smoldering embers of trees. She kicked debris out of her way until she found what she was looking for. She stared down at what was left of the corpse of Sui.
"You're a fool… you never realized our master merely used you as a tool to unlock her powers. You were never meant to survive. Well at least you accomplished that." She stated as she picked up the pieces of the chard corpse.
"Soon we'll be able to make our move and finally I don't have to spy on that freak any longer." She concluded and disappeared with the body.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, feedback is always loved!