Disclaimer: Again…I don't own Naruto
Chapter 17: Here and Now
Think, Kina yelled at herself. THINK!
"This is taking too long," one of the Shinkirou men said.
"We need to break her faster," another agreed. "Kori probably informed the demon that she's missing already. Touka?"
The leader of the banished Suna clan, a tall, sandy-blonde man, stood up and nodded. "I'll take care of it."
Kina lay her head on her knees, letting the hair that had escaped her braids fall over her eyes. Using that as a cover, she watched as Touka went through the motions of opening and closing a door that wasn't really there.
He must be in the genjutsu, too, she thought.
She saw him stand over Temeki and roughly grab her arm. Temeki yelled in pain and fought to remain by Naruto's side. The bigger man solved the problem of her squirming by lifting her over his shoulder. He opened another imaginary door and dropped Temeki on the floor in front of Kina.
"Why are you doing this?" Temeki sobbed. "What do you want with us?"
"It's not my fault," Touka said calmly. "I'm not the one who brought you and the boy into this."
"Why?" she asked again.
Touka pointed behind the girl to Kina. "Ask your Mistress," he said. "Unless she does what we want, the blonde brat dies." With that ultimatum, he walked through the imaginary door and sat down next to his companions.
Temeki turned to Kina and saw her hunched over herself. "Kina-san!" she yelled. She crawled toward the other girl and looked for wounds. "What do they want? Why do they want to hurt Naruto?"
Kina looked at her and Temeki was shocked at how dull her normally vivid purple eyes looked.
"I don't know," Kina finally answered.
"Kina-san," Temeki begged. "Say the code word."
Kina stared at her like she was insane. She wants to transform into Sasuke? Kina gaped.
"No."
Temeki knelt in front of the other girl and grabbed her knees. "Please, Kina-san. Say the code word. It's the only way we can get out of here."
Kina was dimly aware of Touka and his gang talking among themselves.
"Code word?" one man asked.
"Maybe it will summon Gaara here," another said.
"Shut up, all of you," Touka demanded. "We'll see soon enough."
Kina knew that it was tempting, but she couldn't let Temeki transform. Tsunade had warned both her and Gaara that Orochimaru's spy network had been sniffing around Konoha more and more often lately. Letting Sasuke out would be the equivalent of placing a huge neon sign over their heads saying: "Here we are! Lookit! Lookit! Sasuke's HERE!"
"Kina-san, please!"
She brought her head up and looked sharply at Temeki. "No," she said, finality ringing in her voice. "I refuse to do something so rash and stup—is that blood? Are you injured?" she asked as she noticed the rag in Temeki's hand.
Temeki looked down at the bloodied rag and said, "Yes, it's blood. But it's Naruto's."
It's Naruto's.
Before Kina could stop herself, she grabbed the rag and wrapped it around her own hand. She watched as the red liquid smeared her skin. Her eyes narrowed and her breath hitched as she slid into unconsciousness.
And I said that I wouldn't do anything stupid…00000000000000000
Touka looked at the limp form of the Kazekage's woman and scoffed. "Look, Bado, not only is she weak of body, she's weak of stomach," he murmured.
Bado, an older, dark haired man, looked at the younger man and shook his head. "That she may be, Touka. But she is strong of will. We placed her in that genjutsu for almost thirty minutes. She refused to answer any questions we gave her and she didn't even acknowledge the screams of her two companions when we tried the echo torture genjutsu. She just sat there with her head in buried in her skirts."
"Let's try the echo torture again," Touka said.
"The Lady is unconscious."
"But the handmaiden isn't," he argued. "She's already been broken once. Perhaps she can persuade her mistress when she wakes up."
"Touka…" the only woman in the group said. "You've seen how the girl reacted when she saw the boy. She's just an innocent and we've done enough damage to her psyche. Is it worth this?"
He turned to his sister and slapped her hard.
"Suna is worth anything!" he yelled. "Now, do it!"
00000000000000000
Temeki watched in horror as Kina fell over onto the dirty floor of the cottage. (1)
"Kina-san?" she asked. She shook the girl's shoulder, but she seemed to be in a trance. "Not you too! Wake up, please. Wake up!"
She looked around the room. It wasn't any different than the room that man had dragged her from. It was bigger and had a table and a few chairs, but that was it. The only door was the one she had come through and there weren't any windows to climb out of.
I don't even know if it's day or night, Temeki thought.
She placed the other girl in a more comfortable position on the floor. It was odd, Kina fainting that way. When she had found Sasuke by the river, she didn't hesitate to prod at his wound and sew it closed. Why should she faint at the sight of a bloody rag?
And when did I start thinking of Sasuke as a completely different person? Temeki wondered. I am Sasuke!
Temeki was brought out of her thoughts by a strange sound. Her head snapped up as she heard a groan come through the door to the other room.
"Naruto?" she asked.
The groan turned into a yell and the yell into a scream.
"Stop it!" she cried, running to the door. She pounded on it, but it was locked on the other side. "Stop it, he didn't do anything! We didn't do anything!"
But the agonizing screams continued.
Temeki slid down the door and cried. Her gaze slid over to Kina's unconscious form, the beginnings of hate burning in her eyes.
When you wake up Kina, she thought bitterly as Naruto screamed again. You'd better tell them what they want.
00000000000000000
Kina was falling.
White clouds passed by her and the wind blew her hair and clothing every which way.
She looked down and saw nothing but more clouds.
What the hell?"So you've finally come, brat," a silky, but harsh, voice said.
She looked around, but there was no one there.
"Above you," the voice answered her silent question. "Foolish humans. You rarely look at what's above."
Kina looked up and gasped. A pale skinned woman with her purple eyes and matching purple hair hovered above her.
But this woman had black wings coming out of her back and talons for hands and feet.
"Who are you?" Kina asked.
The woman/bird floated down and hovered in front of the girl. Kina noticed that she wasn't falling so much as floating anymore.
"I am Tsubakiri," the woman answered. "The eagle demon trapped in your wretched body."
"Umm…" Kina murmured. She didn't know how this demon would behave. Should I try to imagine her in a cage? Kina thought.
From her conversations with Naruto and Gaara, that might be the wise thing to do. But the woman was being nice…sort of.
The woman half-smiled. "There's no need to cage me, girl," she said. "I have no wish to take over your body."
"Why not?" Kina asked, oddly insulted.
The woman raised a talon and looked at a bead she held in it. "I have no reason to," she answered. "My reason for living is gone."
"Reason for living?"
"My husband," the demoness answered. "He is dead. Along with his murderer."
Demons have husbands? Kina wondered.
Yes, they have husbands, a voice answered her silently. They can have children too—if they're lucky.
"How…?" Kina asked.
Tsubakiri smirked. "We share the same body," she explained. "We have a tenuous connection to each other's mind…and each other's chakra."
At the mention of chakra, Kina perked up. "Can you help me then?" she asked. "Y'see, last year an asshole named Itachi bound up your chakra, but as I said…he's an asshole…so he messed it up and bound my chakra too. Now we're in a little jam and we might die if I don't do something now, so can I have access to my chakra and a little of yours too?"
Tsubakiri stared at the girl for a while, assimilating the quickly spoken speech.
"That does not concern me," she said. "I do not care if I die."
"But you've got to!" Kina said. "Temeki and Naruto are counting on me! They already want to kill Gaara for being a so-called monster. But if Naruto wakes up, he'll be pissed. And then most likely he'll let Kyuubi out and—"
"KYUUBI?" the woman screamed.
Kina watched as the woman's hair became wild and her face twisted into a mask of pure hate. The claws on her talons sharpened and fangs grew from her mouth.
"He's alive?" the woman hissed.
Kina backed up a few feet and held her hand to her heart. "Sort of…" she answered.
"Explain!"
Wow, she sounds like Gaara in a bad mood, Kina observed.
"Now!"
"He's like me—I mean us," Kina said. "Kyuubi was sealed inside Naruto when he was a baby. Naruto, I mean, not the Kyuubi."
"He's alive," Tsubakiri repeated. She seemed to pace back and forth midair. "If I kill this Naruto, then Kyuubi will die too, right?"
"Umm…I think so."
"Forget what I said about not taking over your body," the demoness lunged at Kina.
Kina stepped to the side and automatically went into her battle stance. "Whoa!" she yelled. "Time out! What?"
"I need to kill Kyuubi," Tsubakiri growled. "I need to avenge my mate."
"Naruto's my friend! I can't kill him."
"You, my dear, will have no choice once I take over."
"If you kill Naruto, Gaara's gonna be pissed," Kina stalled as she evaded the eagle demon.
"As if I give a shit about Gaara's feelings," Tsubakiri yelled.
Kina blocked a punch and rolled underneath a talon. "You might not, but I do," she snarled. "Gaara cares for him a great deal. Naruto's the one who saved him. He helped Gaara realize that he could live a normal, happy life. Even though he has a demon like Shukaku inside him."
Tsubakiri froze so suddenly that she fell several feet before she gathered her wits and flew to where the girl hovered.
"What did you say?" she asked. "Did you say Shukaku? Shukaku's alive?"
"Yeah…he's in Gaara," Kina said, not letting her guard down. "You're in me and Kyuubi's in Naruto."
"How?"
"We're demon vessels," she answered as if the answer were obvious.
Tsubakiri looked sharply at the girl. "So here and now, you three hold each of us in your bodies and minds?"
Kina nodded and held up her hand. "And here and now, we're all friends."
"Which one have you picked for your mate?" Tsubakiri demanded. "With me in your subconscious, they would have been drawn to you and you to them. Which one have you chosen?"
"Gaara," she answered with no hesitation.
Tsubakiri nodded and held out a talon. "An accord then," she said. "I will release your chakra and give you access to mine. In exchange, I only ask to hold Shukaku when you sleep."
Kina nodded. It was no more than what she already did with Gaara. She held out her hand and winced when the sharp talon pierced her flesh.
"Deal."
00000000000000000
"They're here," Pakkun said, at the forest's edge.
"There's no one here," Kakashi noted. "Only a field."
"You must have gotten the scents wrong," Kankuro said.
"No," Sakura said. She stood up and waved her hand. "There's a genjutsu on the field. A big one."
"Sakura's right," Temari said.
The men turned to the two women and Neji asked, "How can you tell?"
"Kunoichi are naturally inclined to feel out genjutsus," Sakura answered. She grabbed a few leaves and let them go. The wind blew them towards the field, but as soon as they reached the beginning of the grassy field, they disappeared.
"Neji," Gaara ordered. "Use your Byakuugan and see what's going on."
The long haired teenfolded his hands into theMaster Sealand whispered, "Byakuugan!"
"Well?"
"There are ten people directly 20 meters in front of us," he answered. "Three of them are a bit separated from the others. Two are lying down on the ground and one is kneeling on the ground and seems to be crying."
Neji focused on the crying figure and inhaled sharply. "It's Temeki."
"So the two on the ground are Naruto and Kinabuhi," Gaara said quietly.
"Naruto's placed 10 feet from the women," Neji said. "I sense two other genjutsus at work."
"The Shinkirou Clan is known for its multi-layer genjutsus," Kankuro informed the others.
"There's something odd about Temeki," Neji whispered. "I can't place it. Her chakra's off."
"Focus on the other seven," Gaara barked. He didn't know if the Hyuuga could see through Temeki's disguise, but he didn't want to risk it.
"What are we going to do, Gaara?" Temari asked.
The answer was swift and unequivocal.
"We're going to take them back."
A/N:
The end is coming…I can see it! Wait…is that a sequel? Yes, no, maybe?
What do you guys think?
(1) Remember, Kina's not in the genjutsu, while Naruto and Temeki are.