Kyubi leaned against a wall and yawned, completely bored. The stone was rough against his back, and he idly twisted against it in order to scratch the itch that had developed on his shoulder blade. He lazily surveyed the room. There was Mai off to the side, gesturing curtly and giving orders to a scaly winged creature. Kyubi yawned again, not at all impressed. Giving orders was all the flaming annoyance seemed to do.
The fox's keen ears caught the sound of fighting outside, but none of it touched them in here. Of course, the demon could go out and join in, but he didn't really care to help Mai with anything else. Plus, the rebellion had already neutralized the strong supporters of the Lady; all that was left was those weak and/or easily cowed.
Boring.
It would almost be more fun to fight Mai's people, or the man himself. Kyubi couldn't read his energy levels enough to figure out how strong he actually was. It might be fun to find out. He toyed with the idea for a minute, than decided that he was feeling too lazy to start that right now. Plus, Naruto was still in Sanctuary, and Mai would be sure to take out any irritation from the fox-demon onto him. Restraint was a foreign feeling to Kyubi, and he mulled it over for a second. He was sure it was another side effect from the brat; another bizarre human convention. Maybe he would go see the boy now, he could see how much trouble Naruto had given the babysitters.
That is, if the brat hadn't managed to escape them. Kyubi hadn't really considered that option before, and he tilted his head up to consider. The kid was a lot weaker than him, but probably still stronger than most of the losers in Sanctuary. It was possible, actually more than possible.
Kyubi shrugged to himself. Oh well, if the brat had got loose he'd show up sooner or later. Kyubi covered another yawn, and then glanced at the kneeling and chained figure on the raised dais. Now she might be interesting to talk to.
Pushing away from the wall, the demon strode over and crouched in front of her, ignoring the two guards flanking her on either side. There were suspicious glances, but as long as Kyubi didn't actually do anything besides talk the guards seemed to decide it wasn't worth chasing him off.
"Still see the future?" He asked, cocking his head cheerily to the side.
The Lady stirred, hair sliding out of her face as she lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes no longer contained held bottomless star fields. Instead, with her power contained, they were a blank white. They looked like the eyes of a blind woman. "What do you think?" She answered, sounding tired. "And I never really saw the future in its entirety, just bits and pieces."
"Well, you certainly missed an important bit," Kyubi said, gesturing at the chains.
"Indeed." She suddenly bent forward towards him, far enough that the guards couldn't hear her next words. "But I still saw enough to know that things are not over, and they won't end with these," the Lady said, lifting her arms so that he could hear the chains clank.
Kyubi suddenly grinned, fiercely. "Good," he whispered back into her ear. "I was getting bored."
He drew away again and they stared at each other, red meeting blank white. The Lady sighed again. "You are unpredictable. But. . . not about everything."
The demon cocked his head quizzically. "Oh really?"
"Really."
Kyubi shrugged, and looked at her again, seemingly bored with the conversation. Then, idly, he reached out and traced the kanji tattooed on her cheek. "Outcast," he read aloud, voice an amused murmur. "Who gave this to you, the gods or the demons?"
"Both." Her face was as expressionless as her blank eyes.
"Did you make them pay?"
She drew away from his curious touch. "Only those that were within my reach," she said, voice flat.
"And you don't think I'm going to go back to that little ninja village and destroy it, and everyone in it, for sealing me away? How hypocritical of you."
"I think you have other priorities now. And he would never forgive you for doing such a thing."
"He'd forget about it, eventually. Demons have long lives."
"No, he would never forget, and he would hate you forever," she said, voice soft as she shook her head slightly.
He snorted. "What, this one of those pieces of the future you've seen?" He said mockingly.
"Yes."
Kyubi paused and stared at her, momentarily speechless. Then: "You've seen it?"
"Yes. Have you thought about what I've said? The child needs some space before he will fully accept you."
Kyubi's eyes narrowed. "So you keep telling me, I . . ." He suddenly cut himself off, and sniffed the air. A brief commotion at the entrance of the huge room drew both his and the bound Lady's attention.
A blood-splattered cyclops stumbled in. "Mai, they're fighting back, we can't . . ." he suddenly gurgled, grabbing his throat, and then fell over. His single eye was glazed.
Very obviously dead.
"Finally, something fun," Kyubi said, grinning in such a way that prominently displayed his fangs. He rubbed his hands together gleefully. "I so love violence."
The Lady snorted inelegantly.
In to the room spilled spirits, human freaks, minor demons, and things in between. Some carried weapons with which to free their half-god leader, others were their own weapon. They were met with more of the same, though these creatures fought for very different ideals. Kyubi's eyes lazily scanned over the melee, looking for that one bright presence that he sensed first. Sure enough, he spotted Naruto's spiky head of blond hair among those incoming, and he wasn't alone. The fox stared with more than a little amusement at the two dark human heads by his side, particularly at the one clothed in blue. "Well, well," the demon muttered. "Sasuke to the rescue once again."
With a burst of orange chakra, Naruto sent his fist through the metal armor of the creature in his way and then tossed the body aside. "Pervert-fox!" He shouted over the noise. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Ignoring the pitched battle taking place around them, the two held a staring contest. Naruto's eyes were smoldering with righteous annoyance, while the fox's gaze was merely amused. Neither of them reacted when Sasuke landed smoothly beside Naruto and looked Kyubi up and down expressionlessly.
His dismissive snort managed to draw their attention where his mere presence had not. "So that's the demon-fox? He doesn't look like much."
Red human met red demon eyes with an almost audible snap, and a new staring contest began. Kyubi's expression was disdainful. And Naruto could tell by his growing smirk that the demon was about to say something that was bound to piss off the other ninja. "Neither do you, human. Though I think I remember you, you're that Suseke guy."
"It's Sasuke."
"Whatever," the fox said, waving a dismissive hand in a gesture calculated to infuriate. Naruto's head pinged back in forth between them as if he was watching a tennis match. "And you've been the brat's teammate for how long?"
"Hey, who you calling a brat?!" The blond shouted in outrage.
They both ignored him.
Sasuke looked at the demon suspiciously. "We've been teammates for a while."
"My, aren't you slow."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Kyubi lazily inspected his claws, and then spoke casually. "All those pent up hormones must really be affecting your brain if you can't figure it out. Here, I'll clear it up for you. I. Got. There. First."
The dark ninja went still. Naruto glanced at him hesitantly. He wasn't sure what they were talking about, but whatever it was, the blond had a bad feeling. "Um, Sasuke?"
The other ninja didn't answer, but Kyubi spoke up for him. "Don't worry about Suseke, brat, he's mulling. With that stick up his ass, it takes a while."
Sharingan tainted eyes snapped up at that, and with a snarl worthy of the fox-demon himself, Sasuke attacked. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the tamed lightening held within his fist. Sasuke wasn't bothering with kunai or hand-to-hand, he had immediately started out with the chidori, which meant he had started to power up before the fox-demon had finished talking.
The loud noise of Sasuke's ultimate attack drowned out the other sounds of battle, and Naruto watched with openmouthed shock as the ninja used his terrible speed to close the distance between them and then leapt at the demon.
And was stopped cold.
A split second before Sasuke's attack had connected, Kyubi had lifted his own arms in a block. The uplifted fists where glowing red with concentrated power, and the demon had actually captured the ninja's chidori saturated hand in his own fist.
Sasuke had a couple seconds to stare in shock at his blocked attack, and then suddenly the energy trapped between them exploded. The force of the blast knocked the ninja away from the fox and sent him sailing with painful velocity through the air. Naruto cursed, and reacted, using his own speed and enhanced strength to catch Sasuke before he splattered all over the floor. The blond grunted with the force of impact, but managed to only get knocked back a few dozen feet instead of clear across the room.
Naruto landed and looked down at the boy in his arms. "Sasuke." And then a little louder when he didn't immediately respond. "Sasuke! Are you okay?"
Dark eyes fluttered opened in the pale face and blinked at Naruto for a second before focusing completely. "What the hell was that?" Sasuke muttered, weakly pushing himself out of the blonde's arms. He turned his head and stared at the demon-fox, who was, amazingly, still in the same place he had been before the explosion. One red eyebrow was cocked at him in amusement, and Sasuke tensed further. There wasn't a scratch on the Kyubi. "Shit," he breathed, staring in horrified amazement.
Kyubi grinned briefly, and then turned his attention to the small group of creatures who were descending on him with cries of "free the Lady!" The demon didn't even bother to move, he just increased the amount of chakra around him and the raised dais containing the woman with an impenetrable barrier. There were shrieks as the fox used his speed to briefly leave the safety of his barrier to inflict damage with his claws and then return behind it.
Naruto set the wobbly Sasuke down besides Shikamaru. "Watch him," the blond ordered, and then sprinted to the dais.
"Wait! Dobe, don't be stupid!" Sasuke called behind him, though Naruto was already ignoring him as he reached the barrier. With a snarl the blond called up his orange chakra and jumped at the wall of energy. He remained suspended for several minutes as his orange fought against the red, and then with a hollow cracking sound, the piece of barrier broke and Naruto was through.
The blonde's feet touched down on the ground briefly, and then he was suddenly tackling the startled fox-demon, sending them both crashing through the energy field and on to the stone floor, where they rolled, glowing with separate but like power as they traded blows.
Behind them, the red chakra barrier surrounding the raised dais and the Lady flickered, and then disappeared. The three injured creatures that had been kept at bay rushed over to free her.
Kyubi grunted in pain as one of Naruto's punches connected, and then he finally managed to pin the boy. The blond continued to struggle, and looked up at him, blue eyes glaring with betrayal. "I can't let you do this pervert-fox!"
Kyubi growled and held the struggling boy down. "And why the hell no?! Don't you realize that this is my nature?"
"And what about my nature?! I don't want to hate you!"
The fox's grip loosened slightly as he stared into tear filled eyes, and Naruto took advantage of the slight leeway to kick up and send the demon flipping over him. The powerful hit sent Kyubi careening through the air to crash against the wall behind him. Cracks split out from the point of impact, and with a pained grunt, the demon peeled himself off the wall and landed on the ground, staring at the blond. He took an uncertain step forward, expression suddenly strange, and Naruto tensed, not sure what this new look meant.
A wall of fire suddenly roared between them. "It's not going to end like this! I'll kill you all if I have to!" Someone screamed, voice odd and inhuman.
Kyubi hissed, and drew back from the heat. In front of him, several creatures were struggling to free the Lady from her chains, though it seemed that none of them were powerful enough to handle the manacles with ease. Still, he realized that this scene was what had provoked the shouted words. It was Mai who had screamed, and Kyubi felt his eyes widen as he stared at the man.
Before, Mai could have passed for human if not for the flames that danced on his head instead of hair. But now, that fleshy body had disappeared, leaving nothing but a creature of pure fire in its wake. The flame was vaguely body shaped, with burning coals in the place of eyes and a gaping hole for a mouth. Mai looked completely out of control, sending fire out in zigzagging paths from his body until the room was practically dripping in flame. One path hit a creature with bird wings and it let out a high-pitched scream before being incinerated.
Kyubi growled as he noticed one of the paths of fire snaking towards Naruto. Swiftly, he leapt through the burning wall separating them – chakra minimizing the damage to him – and grabbed the boy before leaping out of the way. Naruto's arms tightened around his neck as they flew through the air, and Kyubi felt him tense. "Sasuke," he hissed in sudden horror.
Kyubi glanced over his shoulder, only to see a virtual wall of unavoidable flame heading towards the two human ninjas and a group of their allies. Without even thinking, the demon turned directions in midair, using his chakra as a base to push off, and quickly landed before the endangered group. Quickly, he shoved Naruto behind him and roared as he sent a huge blast of his own energy to intercept the flame.
The impact caused a huge fissure to appear in the floor where the two met. Kyubi's eyes narrowed. Obviously, this wasn't any ordinary fire.
Naruto grabbed his shoulder and brought his attention to the increased flame around them. Escape for them was being cut off. "You can't stop them all!" The blond shouted.
Kyubi hissed as he thought quickly. Naruto was right; he couldn't stop everything. He could easily escape himself, and even bring Naruto with him, but that would mean abandoning the blonde's human friends to the mercy of the flames. And that, the fox suddenly realized, is something that Naruto would never forgive him for.
Suddenly the demon's eyes landed on the dais. Several creatures were still trying to free the Lady, though one of them had already succumbed to the fire. It appeared the chains were too much for them.
There was still one chance.
With a snarl, Kyubi leapt towards the raised dais, though every instinct he had rebelled against leaving Naruto alone to face the flames. He would just have to trust that the boy had the power to deal with them.
Kyubi barely dodged another path of flame, though the fire singed his back badly. Ignoring the pain, he landed besides the chained Lady, pushing one of her would be rescuers out of the way when it didn't move fast enough. Chakra aura fully in place, he bent down and yanked the manacles from her body, hissing in discomfort as they tried to pull the energy from his body. He tossed the chains to the side.
In the next second he was stumbling to the side as the Lady rose to her feet. Black energy swirled around her and she turned to face her flame-engulfed tormentor. "This is the end, Mai. Deal with it!"
The room went dark.
For a second, the flame battled against the encroaching blackness, and then suddenly it was swallowed whole. The only light in the room came from Mai himself. The darkness wiggled over him in curious tentacles, and he screamed as everywhere it touched his body the fire went out. Suddenly, the inky blackness gathered itself.
Then it reached for him.
He disappeared into the darkness, and then they heard him scream. Loud and high-pitched, the sound strained the limit of even inhuman vocal cords.
Abruptly, the noise cut off.
For a second, silence and darkness reigned supreme, and then it slowly pulled back. Gradually the blackness slunk away, outer edges of the room first, pulled back into the Lady. The room was bright again, though all traces of fire were gone, even the fissure where the Kyubi's energy had met the wall of flame had disappeared. As for where Mai had stood . . .
He was gone. Utterly.
With the lifting of the blackness, Kyubi's eyes immediately sought out Naruto. The blond was helping Sasuke to his feet, staring around the now fire free room in amazement. He appeared to be unhurt, and the demon let out a breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding. Naruto looked up and met the demon's eyes. He grinned and waved, and the fox lifted a weak hand to return the gesture.
Someone stepped up beside him. He turned his head . . .
And immediately fell into the blank, star-strewn space behind the Lady's eyes. With a wrench he pulled himself out and quickly avoided her eyes. "I see you're back to your full power," he muttered, irritated.
"And I see you made the right decision. For both of you," she returned.
Kyubi scowled. "Shut up."