MORE REVIEWS, PWEASE!!!! GOOD ONES, PWEASE!!!
Kit- C'mon, dude! We can think of a better review than THAT one!
AND THE REST OF YA'S; WHERE ARE YA'S?!?!
{grumbles} Lazy, good- for- nothing...
"I'd rather dance than talk with you, I'd rather dance, I'd rather dance than talk with you." Aki muttered the words as she bopped her head to Kings of Convenience's "I'd Rather Dance With You".
"Okees, time for lunch, Musichead." Kage sat down in a chair by Aki's, two bowls of ramen in her hands.
Aki hadn't heard her as she shimmied in her bed and bobbed her head to the music. She lightly snapped her fingers and grinned as the beat picked up. The music suddenly stopped with a small beep and she glowered at Kage.
"I was having fun, Kage." She pouted, folding her arms.
"I noticed." Kage handed Aki one of the bowls.
"Ah, thanks, dude." Aki flicked off her headphones to take the bowl.
Aki started slurping down her ramen while Kage took her time, eyeing the scars on Aki. She could sense the look coming from Kage, and looked up.
"Wassup?"
"Aki, how did you get those?" Kage put down her bowl, eyeing a few certain scars.
Aki looked down, and saw the raised lines on her sides and abdomen.
"These?" Aki sighed, putting her bowl down as well.
"Most of these were already made before I landed here. Corona made this one and this one. Remember her?" Kage nodded with a disgusted look on her face.
"Well, we got into a fight, and decided to use her manicures as a weapon…" Aki reverted back to that fight, and something struck her.
That voice. The hatred she felt coil through her system when she had Corona within her death grasp. It was Sikuliah.
And what of that other voice? Was that the older- looking version of herself she saw back at Nami no Kuni? If it was, she hadn't heard from her in a LONG time.
"Her parents hoarded her to a hospital where she got minor cuts and bruises, a scratch or two on the face." She scowled darkly, remembering everything that had happened before she was transferred to the Naruto realm.
"I needed stitches for my cuts, but was I given medical attention? No. Hell no." Aki shook her head, massaging one of the healing cuts.
A tear left her eye.
"What did I do wrong?" She looked at Kage.
"Where did my family go sour?" She looked at her wrists.
The dried, scaly skin seemed to pronounce itself more now, some pieces flaking off.
"Why me?" Tears rolled off her face.
"Aki?"
"Why was I given this? I never asked for it! I never wanted it! Why?!" Kage, hearing Aki's hysterics, snagged Aki into a warm, loving embrace.
"Don't ever say those things!"
"The school hated me! I swear it!! They were just itching for me to do something wrong! And boy, did they get it…" Her face screwed into a dark scowl.
Kage shushed Aki softly, rubbing her back gently.
"It's in the past, Aki. Shhhhhh." Aki let it all out in her crying, "It's okay, you can cry all you want."
"Fucking pricks…" Aki sniffed.
"Yeah, they are." Kage grinned.
Aki slowly pulled back, smiling at Kage.
"Thanks."
"Hey, anything for a friend."
"Anything?" Aki grinned slyly.
"Well, not ANYTHING." Kage picked up her bowl and went back to eating one handed.
Aki smirked, but a dark thought still lingered in her mind.
She was listening to music.
There was no chakra.
…………
"Now, I have called you all here to discuss an important topic." The Hokage leaned back in his seat, surveying all of the jounin silently.
"Yes, Hokage- sama?"
"We have recently discovered a new demon in our midst." Hushed whispers rippled through the group.
He held up a hand to silence them.
"We have also found out certain information that one jounin here did not present earlier." Kakashi kept his bored face.
"We have found out that this ryu demon's name is Sikuliah. We do not know where he came from and what he intends to do."
Asuma side- glanced with Gai, and both were worried.
"I suggest that we seal this demon before harm befalls our village again. We all know what happened a decade ago…" Some grimaced.
"If I may, Hokage- sama." Kakashi stood up.
"You may speak."
"Akiosu was found on our route to Nami no Kuni when we escorted Mr. Tazuna. She was wounded and wore strange garments at the time. It was a tattoo I saw in her palm that made me think she was ambushed and came from Konoha." He paused.
No one spoke.
"Of the demon, Sikuliah, I did not know when and where he possessed Aki. And how confuses me more. But in my eyes, sealing is too late for Aki." The Hokage raised his eyebrows.
"Why say that?"
"Because the demon has merged with her." Hushed flurries of words were exchanged.
"What do you mean by "merged", Kakashi?"
"When I visited her in the hospital, I saw that her eyes were not hazel anymore, but a deep mahogany. Not only that, but two blood red tattoos were on her cheeks. Presumably, these are to keep the demon at bay."
"Why merge though?"
"I think…"
"Hai?"
"I think she is undergoing an evolution with the demon."
…………
"Feeling better?" Kage rapped a hand against the bathroom door.
"Not really." Came a parched voice.
"Take your time then."
Kage grimaced as she heard Aki lose her stomach for the third time. After a few moments silence, save for the spitting, the bathroom knob turned and a pale- looking Aki trudged out.
"Sorry, mate."
Kage felt her forehead.
"Hey, it's okay. You better lie down." Aki did so, gritting her teeth slightly from the pain in her shoulder.
Kage came back with a thermometer and placed it in Aki's mouth.
"Damn, this ain't your day, it is?" It read 108.6 ° F.
Aki gurgled.
"I guess not…" She moaned, "Damn, why do I feel so crappy?"
Kage sighed.
"I dunno." She shrugged, getting an ice pack from the fridge to cool Aki's forehead down while she tucked her in with blankets.
Aki coughed, sniffing. Rain began to fall.
Thoughts never left her alone as she lay there; why was the senbon drugged and not poisoned? What did Orochimaru want from her? How did the village find out she was a holder of a de- wait a minute…she could answer this one.
Ino.
That son of a bitch. Aki remembered hearing her blabber about the demon she saw in the prelims and how she miraculously survived it (even though she just watched Siku from afar) in a restaurant she passed one day. That bitch; she was SOO gonna get it! Thoughts of Corona and her gang flooded into Aki's mind; not what she needed when she had a fever.
She sighed. This was certainly NOT her day…
Some time later, a knock was heard on the door. Aki had taken a sleeping pill since it was practically hopeless to sleep with the pain and the nausea. Kage closed her book and got up, rain blanketing the glass pane door.
"Yes?" she asked quietly.
"Open up, please. It's Kakashi." Kage unbolted the latch, and opened the door.
"Please be quiet. Aki's sick." Kakashi scratched behind his head before quietly entering.
Aki shivered in her sleep, turning over a few times in making the ice pack slip off. Kakashi took a seat near Aki, watching her with interest while keeping his "blah" face on.
"Any reason why you came here, Kakashi?" Kage sat down in her seat, opening her book up.
"I had some news for her, but if she's not feeling well, I can wait." Kage chuckled slightly, reading her book.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Kakashi sighed, and placed a hand on Aki's forehead. She jerked slightly at his touch, her eyebrows twitching. A sliver of pity rose in Kakashi's heart; he had to empathize with her slightly. She had been a target to Gato, didn't get along with Inari very well, was wounded many times, altered in their world, and possessed a demon.
…It had been one hell of a day for Aki…
Unconsciously, Kakashi's chakra had seeped into her forehead from his hand as he thought and felt sorry for her and wished he could've helped her in some way. Her flushed cheeks grew deeper as she gritted her teeth.
"Hmm?" Kage looked up from her book.
Aki's fists curled up silently as the chakra continued to flow into her body.
"Kakashi?" He didn't hear her.
He couldn't hear anything or see anyone anymore. He had locked himself in. He tried to pry his hand off, but something dark held his hand down tight as though it was glued there. And he was no longer "giving" his chakra to Aki. It was being sucked out of him as though he were a straw. Red eyes flared open, swirling with black in the irises. An insane and psychotic grin curled back Aki's lips, showing immaculate fangs poised on her bottom lip.
"Hello, Kakashi." Came a hoarse, occult voice from Aki's vocal cords.
His eyes widened.
"Sikuliah, let me go!"
"Iie. Our body starves for chakra. We cannot pass such an opportunity."
"What are you starving for chakra?"
"Mainly from our wounds, but also…It has to do with Aki's feeble mind."
"What do you mean?" Kakashi was starting to lose focus.
"She has been falling back into her old self. Not caring for life anymore, caring for her friends, not even you."
His chaotic grin widened.
"And besides, this is between me and Aki." A painful bolt of chakra sizzled up Kakashi's arm and overloaded his senses with scenes of death.
He found himself being killed over and over again, from being torn to bits to having his heart torn out and slowly devoured by the demon dragon right before his dying eyes.
Sikuliah closed his eyes, listening to the screams.
"Ahhhh, much better then the crap Aki forces me to listen to…"
Kakashi tried so hard to remove his hand from Aki's forehead, but suddenly, black tentacles of shadow bound his hand to Aki's forehead, forcing him to give up his chakra as a searing pain was in exchange. He screamed, but his voice refused to work. He tried to move, but it was like he was rooted to the spot he sat in. His brain shrieked commands for his body to move, but they were locked in the roller- coaster of pain and hell.
"………Kakashi…!!!…"
Pain pummeled his senses over and over and over again and again.
"……KAKASHI…!!!"
His chakra was very low at this point; he couldn't even open his eyes.
"KAKASHI!!!" A sudden and rather violent shake on his shoulder snapped him out of the malevolent phase.
He blinked, and suddenly looked around wildly. He tore his hand away from Aki's head, and her body slumped. He tried to get out of his seat, but with the lack of energy to his legs, he tripped back and fell out.
"Kakashi?!" Kage stood above him, startled and confused, "Kakashi, are you okay?!"
"I'm fi- fine…"His breath came in and out in sharp jets.
"You look pale. Are you sure?"
"Y-yes, I a- am…" He looked down at his vibrating hand.
He scurried up and rushed to the door.
"I- I have to go." No poofing trick this time.
He fumbled with the lock on the door, swung it open and slammed it shut behind him as he made a mad dash to his apartment.
Kage blinked, standing in front of Aki as she stared at the door.
"What's his problem…?" She turned back at Aki, and placed the ice pack back on her forehead.
She went back to reading her book, the rain thickening.
Aki's eyes flared open, red leering at her.
…………
Don't pass out, don't pass out, don't pass out…
Kakashi staggered down the water- swept dirt paths, trying to get back to his apartment.
Don't pass out, don't pass out, don't pass out…
What happened?! The demon has emerged slightly to tell Kakashi something, but what was it?!
Don't pass out, don't pass out, don't pass out…
Why did it take his chakra…? And why only his? Was this the merging he spoke of? If it was, he should know not to interfere…but what made him?
Don't pass out…don't pass out…don't pass out…
Why did he not let go? It felt like a genjutsu, but why wouldn't he snap out of it? Was it because…?
Don't…pass...out……don't…pass…out……don't…pass…out……
No, why would he do it because of that?! That's insane! But…then again…after that happened…He shook his head rapidly. No, it was something else. It had to be.
You're lying, Kakashi.
No, he wasn't! Go away!
Just fess up; you didn't want to let go.
Urusei; of course he wanted to let go!
You're a terrible liar, Kakashi…
LEAVE ME ALONE!
Don't………pass……out………Don't………pass……
Kakashi keeled over sideways, his body splattering the mud around him as the rain pelted his exhausted face.
"Aki…" He passed out, his keys stuck in the knob of his apartment building door.