Quietly, demons descended upon Konoha. They had spent the better part of an hour discussing attack plans- and now it was time to enact their plan. Now, when the Leaf was at its weakest.
They had one goal in mind: Kill the Hokage.
Their beloved Kyuubi-sama couldn't possibly like humans, and so they had blamed Shukaku for the influence. It was well-known that Shukaku's father had kept a few human mistresses long ago, even after he had had Shukaku by his mate. It was against the law to take a mistress when bound by the ritual of mating, and he had been executed for his transgression. Shukaku had been on his own since then.
Kyuubi must have been bewitched by the human leader- with the death of the caster, the spell placed upon their leader would die as well. Kyuubi would go back to his demon ways, if only they killed the Hokage.
They slipped past the watchmen, the demons with better noses at the head of the pack. They were following the scent of Sasuke for now- they could terrorize and kill the villagers later.
Sasuke quietly watched the silent streets of Konoha, reflecting on the events that had taken place scant hours before. It had seemed like an eternity.
'How could that happen?' Sasuke wondered. 'Why- of all people- did it have to be him? Why did Naruto have to be the demon general?' He smiled sadly, shaking his head. 'When did my question change to 'why was Naruto Kyuubi' from 'Why did Kyuubi pose as Naruto'?' Internally, he had already accepted the facts and moved on- now he had questions and wanted answers.
'Why did he leave right away? Why didn't he stay and explain himself?'
Deciding that he would get no more answers that night, he decided to start his daily ritual of cleaning and then sleeping. He turned back to go to the bathroom, removing his shirt and casually checking the mark in a mirror. It hadn't changed at all- it hadn't darkened or anything since the picture had become clear.
'Now that I think about it, it looks strangely like ... Kyuubi.' Sasuke thought, squinting and taking a closer look at the figure on his back. He counted the tails. 'One... two... three... Nine. There are nine- exactly the number that Kyuubi had. It can't be coincidence- it's connected somehow...'
A loud crashing interrupted his train of thought. He spun around and lunged for his weapon's pouch- he had taken it off when he had gotten home and left it on the table.
He was two feet from his weapons when a large hand shoved him against the wall, face-first. Sasuke 'oofed' and craned his neck to look behind him.
A large demon stood behind him, grinning maniacally. More demons were coming in behind him, until the room was filled with the bloodthirsty beasts.
"What are you doing here? Didn't your leader tell you to leave us alone?" Sasuke spat, unaware of the mutterings of the demons behind him- they had seen the mark on his back, and -unlike Sasuke- they knew exactly what it meant.
"We're under new leadership, human." one demon finally said, stepping forward. "How did you manage to enchant Lord Kyuubi so thoroughly as to gain that mark!"
"Enchant?" Sasuke was surprised, to say the least. "I never-"
"Don't play games, human! You will remove the spell you have cast upon our lord or it will be ended with your life!" the demon roared. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, the death-glare's effect lessened by the fact that he only had one eye to glare at the with, the other being pressed to the wall.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sasuke said.
"Liar!" The demon charged forward and slashed down on his back, through the mark. Sasuke winced, but allowed himself to show no other signs pf pain. "How do you bear this mating mark, then? Kyuubi-sama's mating mark no less!" Sasuke's eyes widened.
'Mating mark-!' The dark-haired man quickly regained his composure.
"I don't know what-"
"Don't lie, human!" the demon roared again, placing a single deadly claw against Sasuke's throat. "Your spell ends now!" The demon drew back his claw, wanting to bring it through Sasuke's neck in one clean sweep, hitting hard and fast.
Sasuke closed his eyes- he was pinned, and had no way to get out. He was going to die.
Surprisingly enough, the thoughts that filled his head were not those of the villagers, his friends, or his subordinates. They were filled with thoughts of bright sunshine locks and sky-blue eyes, adorable whisker marks marring the person's cheeks.
"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, hearing the displacement of air as the claw came down towards his throat, hoping against impossible hope that Naruto could somehow hear him, and somehow hear how sorry Sasuke was for not asking him to stay.
The demon's claw wasn't even an inch from his throat when a dark shadow hit the demon hard in the side and sent him crashing to the floor. Sasuke opened his eyes in surprise as the demon holding him down released him suddenly, sliding to the floor.
'Naruto?' he thought, looking at the blonde before him.
Naruto had been asleep, tears wearing him out, when suddenly he awoke and sat bolt upright.
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
'Sasuke.' his mind instantly hit on. Something was happening- something bad, and Sasuke was in danger. Before he realized what he was doing, Naruto was up and running as fast as he could, getting through the forest and through the streets of Konoha within a minute.
'Hurry, hurry- you'll be too late!' he urged himself, telling his exhausted body to move just a little faster.
There! He had reached Sasuke's house, noticing with a sinking heart that an entire wall had been torn out by demons. He pushed himself faster, faster...
He burst into Sasuke's room just in time to see one of his former subordinates bring his claw down, preparing to decapitate the Uchiha. Naruto launched himself across the room, tackling the demon just barely before the demon accomplished his goal.
He and the demon went tumbling down onto the floor, Naruto rolling up to a defensive stance and launching himself at the arm holding Sasuke to the wall. Sasuke dropped, eyes opening in what Naruto assumed to be surprise. He stood defensively in front of the dark-haired man, keeping a close eye on the demons now massing around him.
"I thought my orders were clear- my protection. My lands." Naruto hissed, obviously furious. A few demons before him quaked at his wrath, afarid, but some of the stronger ones looked proud of their actions.
"This human has bewitched you. We would have freed you with his death, but we will defer the honor to you." a demon said, deep voice making the house shake on its foundations. Naruto felt rather than saw Sasuke freeze behind him. Naruto was worried for the nin- Sasuke was defenseless, not having his weapons on him and too exhausted to manipulate chakra.
Sasuke was completely relying on him for once.
Naruto swallowed, then replied.
"All of Konoha and Sand are under my protection. That includes Sasuke- especially Sasuke." Naruto said, not looking behind him.
"Because the little human wretch has fooled you so thoroughly you caused your mark to appear on his back?" another demon demanded. "We will kill him- it will pass, we promise!"
Naruto froze.
'They saw... did they tell him anything!' He risked a glance back at Sasuke who- Naruto just noticed, swallowing thickly- was shirtless. 'Oh crap, they must have just seen it- maybe they didn't say anything?' He turned back to the demons.
"That mark appeared by itself- leave him alone." Naruto said, praying to whoever would listen that no one noticed the desperation in his voice. 'Please believe me, don't say anything... please, just shut up...'
"A mating mark doesn't just 'appear'! That human bastard has enchanted you!" the demons shrieked. Naruto felt the bottom go out of his stomach.
"Leave. Every single one of you- out of my sight. If I see you again I'll kill you." Naruto said flatly, allowing his chakra to flare and begin his body's transformation, just in case his men decided to be difficult.
"Never!" With that as their battle cry, they raced forward.
'Obviously a mentality of 'If we can't have him no one will'.' Naruto thought dryly, ducking several long swipes of deadly claws and snapping his muzzle at a few demons that come too close. 'I can't fight here- I have to get outside.' That thought in mind, he turned to Sasuke and quickly snapped the Uchiha up in his jaws, careful not to actually harm the man. Sasuke was shocked- Naruto could tell by the way his eyes widened with fear as Kyuubi came down upon him- but Naruto had no time to worry about that now as he curled his muscles and sprang, his leap carrying him away from the demons in the Uchiha mansion. He heard them give chase, but ran to a safe distence into town before dropping Sasuke- now slightly wet and musty-smelling with the fox's saliva.
"Stay." Kyuubi growled, leaping back to engage his former comrades in combat. He wouldn't allow any to get close to Sasuke, even if it meant blocking a few hard shots and desperate leaps with his own body.
Kyuubi ripped through one, immediately leaping to the next and biting down hard. The demon howled, scratching at his face and his flank, but Kyuubi just held on through the pain and the blood, wrenching the demon's neck so the creature suffoated on its own blood.
No time to relax- on to the next demon stupid enough to face him.
'There are too many!' Naruto thought, worried, as he kept on ripping demons down but only more seemed to take the place of the dead demons. He lost himself in the rhythm of battle and bloodlust, moving with a speed he hadn't known he possessed and barely aware of the humans behind him watching in awe and fear as he mercilessly ripped the demons down, letting the corpses fall where they wanted, and not seemingly slowed by any number of wounds.
Finally, they were all dead. Kyuubi was exhausted, feeling his eyes close involutarily as his tired body dropped.
His last conscious thought was not to hit the buildings, not to cause any more damage. He felt his body shrink and twist, landing on the ground as Naruto, the blonde ninja, and not Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox.
His mind faded to black seconds after hitting the ground, unaware of the humans surrounding him and creeping ever closer.
Sasuke dropped to his knees, shocked.
'Naruto looked so... scared.' he thought, recalling when Naruto had glanced at him after the demon's had mentioned the 'mating mark' again. 'Like... he didn't want me to know.'
Sasuke watched blankly as Kyuubi fought, ripping apart the demons and taking quite a few blows himself to hold back the bloodthirsty beasts. Sasuke was so entranced and so out of it that he didn't realize when Kyuubi had finished- he only realized that he was done when he saw the fox disappear from his veiw, dropping and morphing. Seeing that Kyuubi had fallen blocks away from where he was, he began to run, not caring that he was only half-dressed, or that the civilians were running away from Kyuubi and the nins running towards the fallen demon.
Sasuke ran as fast as he could, stopping when he got to the edge of the block where Naruto lay, horrified at what he saw.
Nins had gathered around the exhausted demon and were taking their anger and hurt out on Naruto as he lay helpless. They kicked the demon's ribs, making him yelp in his unconscious state. They threw out cruel taunts, demanding that Naruto get up and face them like a man.
"Stop it! Stop it this instant!" Sasuke yelled, coming to his senses, forcing his body to move again. Recognizing his voice, the group of nins stopped, more out of surprise than anything else.
"Hokage-sama, we were merely taking care of the demon general. If he awakens he could kill us all." Sasuke gave the man a hard glance, his steps not pausing for long.
"You owe him your life. Everyone does." Sasuke said, kneeling next to the blonde and carefully lifting him up. He heard sounds of protest behind him, but ignored it in favor of checking the blonde over.
'Not good.' Sasuke thought, noticing how pale the blonde was. His skin seemed almost white from blood loss, though Sasuke knew that the demon could lose more blood and not die- it wasn't good though, how much he had lost. A bruise was beginning to form around the blonde's eye, and around the right side of his lips. Blood trickled from a cut over the blonde's eye and ran from the right side of his mouth. The blonde breathed shallowly. Sasuke glanced farther down, noticing how thin the blonde's hands were- overexertion, causing Naruto to use up body fats to keep his body going. A slight depression in Naruto's side indicated the liklihood of a broken rib or two, any bruises hidden by his clothes. The orange jacket the blonde wore as ripped in several places, blood dying the material and making the fabric stick to sensitive skin. One of Naruto's wrists was twisted at an odd angle- most likely broken in the fall. One of his collarbones was bent, obviously broken. A leg hung limp, the ankle twisted- most likely broken in two places. Blood ran down Naruto's legs from his torso and numerous cuts on his legs. In short, Naruto was a mess and needed a med-nin, badly.
"Can someone get Tsuande or Sakura here? He needs a medic." Sasuke said, glancing around at the stunned ninja. "What are you waiting for? Get them!" he commanded, begging silently for one of them to get over their shock and help.
No one moved, except for one nin that moved closer.
"Hokage-sama, I think you might need to rest- we'll take care of the demon." Sasuke was about to scream at the man when running footsteps alerted him to more people arriving.
He was extremely happy when the footsteps turned out to belong to none other than Tsuande and Sakura, carrying medical kits. They dropped down beside Sasuke, Sakura explaining as Sasuke handed the limp blonde over to the older medic.
"We saw Kyuubi fighting and saw him get pretty badly hurt- we thought that we might be able to help and grabbed a few things for out kits. We came as quickly as we could." Sakura said quietly, looking Sasuke in the eye. Sasuke just nodded.
"Thanks." he said, turning to Tsuande as she straightened up.
"There is a possibility of internal bleeding, a broken collerbone, ankle, wrist, and a bone in his leg. One of his ribs is also cracked, and he might have a concussion- the bruises and cuts aren't doing a ton of damage, but he needs a transfusion." Tsuande said, serious. "We need to get him to a hospital, but we can't jar him too much."
"Use a healing jutsu- something to patch him up enough for me to carry him. We can give him proper treatment when we're at the hospital." Sasuke said, in a tone that allowed for no arguement. Sakura and Tsuande looked at him, surprised, but then Tsuande nodded and began forming signs to bring out her chakra and mold it. Soon she was healing Naruto, and the blonde was looking quite a bit better- Tsuande declared that he was well enough to be carried, so long as Sasuke was careful. Sasuke barely heard and gently lifted the blonde, silently walking to the nearest hospital and not even looking to see if Tsuande and Sakura were following.
'You'll be all right, Naruto. I'll make sure of it.' Sasuke silently promised the unconscious blonde in his arms.
A/N: Good? Bad? Interesting? Confusing? Too fast? Too slow? Ooc? Tell me! Hopefully we all enjoyed this chapter- see you next week.