Sowwy I took my time with this chappie. Camp and seeing I, Robot kept me from being on my Naruto vibe. Gomen nasai, minna. And now {dramatic drumroll}
ON WITH THE CHAPTER!!
"What do you want from me?!" Aki backed away slowly.
Tsukaji snickered, smiling a set of perfect white teeth.
"I do not want anything from you, but Orochimaru- sama does." He pulled out three senbon.
Aki swallowed hard, seeing the senbon. She knew she possessed a demon, but would there be higher attempts on killing her as well?! She'd rather not contemplate the possibilities at the moment.
"Now, " Tsukaji held the Pocky in his teeth like a dagger about to be thrown, "Are we gonna come quietly? Or do I have to take drastic measures, hmm?"
Aki trembled slight, before a voice intervened.
{Shut up, you wuss.}
"Siku, shut up." She hissed through gritted teeth.
{No. How can you let this guy get on our nerves!? I'd kill him if I was out, but seeing the current circumstances, I guess not.}
"HELL NO!! I ain't lettin' you try to kill someone! Foe or friend!" Tsukaji watched patiently, his eyes gleaming with interest as he nibbled down on his treat.
{HE. IS. TRY-ING. TO. KILL. USSSSS!}
(Running away always helps when in desperate situations.)
{THISSSS is NOT the time!!! We have to fight!}
"But we only just got out of the hospital!"
{Do I give a damn!?}
"YOU may not, but I do, thank yah very much!"
She heard the demon sigh discontentedly.
{You're good at acting. Bluff.}
"Well, have you made your decision?" Half of his Pocky was gone in their conversation merely out of boredom.
Aki gulped, trying to calm down and plan out exactly how she would get away from Mr. Perfect. She nodded slowly, coming towards him.
"Good." He purred through clenched teeth to hold his Pocky in place.
Aki slowly came towards him, still planning out. When she reached him, she bowed her head. Tsukaji was amazed at how gullible Aki was, and reached out for her. Without warning, she bit down on his hand, her teeth sinking through his skin. He screamed in pain, and slapped her away.
"You bitch! I gave you a chance! Now, you'll pay!" Aki dodged one of his senbon, and snarled, forming hand seals.
"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" She slammed her palm into the ground, blood smeared against her palm.
A small pft, but nothing more.
"WHA?!?!? NOT AGAIN?!?!" She pattered the ground with her palm, trying to make the jutsu work.
"GODDAMMIT, KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!!!" Tsukaji laughed darkly, and charged for her.
"PLEASE!! WORK, DAMMIT!!" She looked up to see Tsukaji's foot meet her face.
She rolled across the pavement, blood loosely painted on the ground. She slowly got up, holding a hand to her bleeding nose. She sniffed, and looked at the blood in her hands. Her eyes widened.
{Feeeeeeeed meeee.}
(No...no, I will not!)
{You cannot resist me…my hunger will be your pain…Let me have it!}
(NO!!)
{GIVE IT TO ME!!} Aki gripped her head, a searing pang shooting through her mind.
She cried out in desperation, the pain burning in her mind where she could not reach it. Her body slumped suddenly, her head bowed over.
Tsukaji narrowed his eyes, wondering if this was another trap or if she was for real. He warily approached her, pulling out the two senbon. He kicked her with his foot to see if she'd react. Red eyes flared into his sea blue, grinning in a malevolent and insane smile that pulled far too bad to reveal fangs dripping in saliva.
"She'ssssss not here right now." She flicked out a blue forked tongue.
Tsukaji's eyes widened; he never expected the demon to come out so quickly. Aki gripped his wrist and squeezed so tightly that she broke it, twisting Tsukaji's ruined hand behind his back to render him immobile.
"You wanted a demon, you assssked for it." Siku cackled darkly, pressing a foot against Tsukaji's back and breaking his arm.
He whipped him in the face with his restored tail, and clawed him in the abdomen, cutting vest, shirt and skin open. He saw the blood on her claws, and slowly licked them clean with his saliva- drenched tongue.
"You're sick!"
"You're not the firssssst to ssssay that." Sikuliah chuckled deeply in his throat.
Wings of shadow grew from Aki's shoulder blades, fanning out to block the moonlight on Tsukaji's body. Sikuliah squalled, spit and excess blood flying from his demented jaws. He fell onto all fours, scuttling towards Tsukaji like a beetle. With reflexes like lightning, Sikuliah latched a hand around Tsukaji's neck, and lifted him into the air, squeezing tighter.
"If thissss was me in my true form, I'd kill you in point blank. Sssadly, I am ssstuck in this body, but not for loooong…" He grinned, fangs reaching for Tsukaji's heart.
"W-Wait, Sikuliah- san! Orochimaru-sama wanted to give you power!" Sikuliah scoffed.
"Power…oh, really? And how was intending to do that? Place a Curse Seal on usssss?" Tsukaji saw the dragon tattoo burned into his right arm.
He grinned.
"Not in the least, Siku- san." Sikuliah squeezed harder.
"You stink of liesssssss, Tsukaji. Your deceit makes me sick."
He was coming close to snapping Tsukaji's neck, pressing his windpipe to the very extreme until the cartilage rings that held it in shape would crumple and suffocate him to death. Or a snapped spinal cord. He didn't know which he would die by first. He gripped the hand with his own, trying to breathe.
"Power cannot be "given", my dear Tsukaji. It must be earned through victories and defeats. Die knowing this bearing on your conscience." Tsukaji screwed his eyes shut, waiting for the pain to come and take him.
Instead, he felt the ground pummel what air was left in his desiring lungs, making him gag and gasp for breath. Sikuliah staggered back, holding his face.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" The eyes swirled back into the mahogany, the claws shrinking back.
The tail dispersed and the wings poofed into cloudy shadow and vanished. She breathed hard, a hand to her throat. The tattoos on her cheeks started to bleed again, burning a bright crimson like the blood spilt after a battle.
Tsukaji retained air and shakily stood up, still wheezing as he massaged his throat. Seeing Aki down, he grinned, and flung his senbon at Aki. She dodged one, but the other struck in dead center in the shoulder. She cried out in pain, trying not to fall. Tsukaji grinned, knowing something Aki did not.
"Now you're mine." He hissed, grinning.
He slinked towards her like a tiger retrieving his prey. Aki bent forward, trying to consume the pain before it did vice versa to her.
"Come."
"Iie." Aki spit blood into her palm, and pressed it against the stone.
"WHA?!"
"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!!!" A tornado of blue feathers and smoke appeared, and Aoihoshi loomed over Tsukaji.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" Aoihoshi leered at Tsukaji, whipping his tail behind him.
He was so freaked out that he tripped backwards and fell on his behind, trembling at the great stingray. He flicked his barbed tail again, the stinger glowing demonically in the moonlight.
"We will meet again. I swear it!" He yelled out in a jittery voice, his body vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Aoihoshi grinned triumphantly before turning to Aki.
"Howdy, Ak-" He tilted his flat head in confusion.
"I'm…I'm sorry, Aoihoshi, but thank you." She formed a hand seal.
"Aki?!"
"Tai!" He poofed in a swirl of feathers and smoke.
Aki looked down at the senbon lodged in her shoulder. Wiggling it slightly in her flesh and gritting her teeth, she wrenched out, a small trickle of blood falling from the wound. She looked at the senbon, holding it up in the moonlight. A strange glimmer slicked down the needle, as thought it was…
…Covered in something…
Aki gasped. Her vision slowly doubled, the needle fading from her sight. She struggled to get up, her energy being sapped within every strain on her muscles to take. She had to get home before she passed out. She lamely ran towards the direction she knew was home, hoping Kage was waiting there for her.
…………
Where the hell was she?! She said just a stroll! Kage strutted around Aki's apartment, worried if something had happened to her closest friend.
"Oh, where is she?! Sure, I gave it thought to tell her that I don't care if she possesses a demon or not, just as long as she'll still be my friend, but NO! She had to delay and dawdle! SHEESH! I mean," She paced back and forth faster as her self- conversation sped up.
"And now I bet she's probably covered in-" A hideous BANG was heard on the door, shutting up Kage.
"AKI?!" She rushed to the door, unbolted the lock, and swung it open.
She gasped, her eyes wide.
"Kage…please…" She keeled over, dead tired to the world.
"AKI!" She caught her before she fell, Aki's head resting against her shoulder.
She coughed meekly, moaning slightly against her shoulder.
"Aki, it's okay…" She carefully dragged Aki to her bed, placing her at the edge.
She peeled off Aki's shirt, and gasped at how many scars littered her body, much less the senbon wound. Aki started to fall forward. Kage caught her in the crook of her arm and gently pushed her back up, lying her down. She pulled the covers up to Aki's waist before going into the bathroom for a First Aid.
"Aki, you moron." She dabbed some rubbing alcohol against the senbon wound, "What the hell did you get yourself into THIS time?!"
…………
Sunlight bathed her face the following morning, birds gently twittering outside her glass pane door. She slowly opened her eyes, looking around. Did she make it? Was she alive? Where was Kage?
"Morning, sleepyhead." Aki turned her head to see Kage sitting next to her, smiling.
"Sleep well?" Aki tried to sit up in bed, but her shoulder hurt like hellfire, her arm numb and the wound stinging.
"Hey, stay still, dummy. You did a small number on yourself." Aki saw the sling Kage's arm was in, and bowed her head.
She was gone long enough for Kage to make up her mind.
"Aki?" She felt her chin being pulled up by Kage, " I forgive you, if that's what you're worried about."
Aki stared at her, nonplus.
"W- what?" Kage suddenly grabbed Aki in an warm embrace.
"I said I forgive you. You're still my closest friend and "adoptive sister"." Aki chuckled softly, sighing.
"Thanks, Kage."
"Mei-….Meiker…um…"
" "Meiki sanba"?"
"Yeah." Kage sweatdropped, making Aki laugh.
…………
"Tsukaji, I am vexed by your report." Orochimaru's beryl eyes glowed with frustration, rolling an apple in his hands thoughtfully.
"H- How so, milord?" Tsukaji bowed slowly in front of the snake, his arm in a sling and a black eye taking over his right one.
"Your orderssss, were only to, and ONLY, to retrieve Akiosu. And what happened instead?" He gripped the apple in his hands tightly.
Tsukaji swallowed.
"YOU LET HER ESCAPE!!!" The apple exploded in his death grip, "AND BLABBER TO BAKI THAT HE WAS A PAWN!! DOES THIS HELP OUT OUR PLANS?!?! I DON'T THINK SO!!" He glared at Tsukaji, and he suddenly fell to his knees, clasping a hand to a spot on the side of his neck.
"I could kill you, right here and now." The pain intensified on Tsukaji's neck.
"M-Mercy, Orochimaru- sama! I made a miscalculation- AUUUUUUGHH!!!!"
"A PITIFUL ONE, TSUKAJI!!" His glare darkened.
"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGHHHHHH!!!!!"
"But no." Orochimaru took his gaze off of Tsukaji.
He body swayed slightly, blood leaked from his mouth before he fell backwards, an arch of blood circling around his head.
"I'll give you another chance. And the rewards are bountiful if you succeed." Tsukaji coughed.
"Ari…Ariga…gatou, milord."
"But, if you fail," Orochimaru held in the word, "Death won't be half as bad as what I can do."
Tsukaji gulped, unable to moving as the pain dully throbbed through his entire system. Orochimaru sighed.
"Go to Kabuto. I can't have you in this disarray." Orochimaru stared at his apple- drenched hand as Tsukaji bowed and limped away.
He flicked off a piece, thinking as he did so. He chuckled darkly, his beryl eyes glowing in the dim light like headlights.
"Akiosu, you cease to amaze me."