Disclaimer: New episode of Naruto tonight! W00t! Oh, yeah…Naruto's not mine.

Chapter 18: Demons, oy!

Kina's eyes fluttered open slowly. She sat up and looked over at Temeki. The girl was leaning against a wooden door. Only the door was semi-transparent and Kina could see Naruto, still unconscious, in the next room. She looked around and saw the Shinkirou gang still sitting where they were before. The only difference now was that she also saw a table and two chairs transposed over their bodies.

What's going on? she asked Tsubakiri.

I'm allowing you to experience both the genjutsu plane of existence and the real plane, the eagle demon answered.

Kina could barely hear the screams coming from Naruto's room and knew that they had been torturing Temeki with them while she was unconscious.

"Temeki," she whispered.

The girl looked at Kina with bloodshot eyes. "You have to tell them, Kina-san," she cried. She ran to Kina and grabbed her hands. "You have to tell them what they want. Naruto's dieing in there!"

Let me talk to the girl, Tsubakiri said. I will calm her down.

Kina agreed and stood up. She took out her silver fan and flicked it open. The clueless idiots forgot to take her fans from her. She hid a smile behind the fabric. Then again, she thought. I never gave them a reason to.

Temeki frowned as Kina fanned herself and looked around the room.

What is she doing? Temeki asked herself.

She's looking for cracks, a soft voice said.

The girl wanted to shake. Was she hearing voices?

Do not worry, the voice said. Kinabuhi has a plan.

How can I trust that you're telling the truth? Temeki asked.

You either trust Kinabuhi or you don't, Uchiha. But if you want Naruto to live, I suggest you do.

Temeki relaxed. She didn't know why, but she did trust the purple-eyed girl.

Kina walked over to the table and chairs and plotted.

She couldn't just strike impulsively, she decided. The first thing she needed to do was dispel the genjutsus Temeki and Naruto were under. But she needed to know which Shinkirou controlled which illusion.

Kina turned in the direction of Naruto's screams. In addition to the echo torture illusion she and Temeki were hearing, Kina was sure that the blonde was under the influence of a sleep illusion.

As she made a move toward the door to Naruto's room, Kina pretended to trip on her skirt and stumbled against one of the "chairs".

There! Kina saw Naruto's eyes blink twice before the ninja controlling the genjutsu regained her bearings and sat back up. She made a mental note of the girl and sat down on the other "chair."

"I'm so clumsy all of a sudden," she said.

She heard a grunt as the ninja whose head she sat on struggled with the unexpected weight. She felt him use his chakra to raise her butt off of his head a bit.

"Things will be alright, Temeki," Kina said, fanning herself. She looked across at the girl and noticed that the wall behind her flickered twice. Kina smiled and stood up. "Gaara will find us."

Tsubakiri, Kina said. Tell Temeki to get ready to get Naruto and run.

As the demoness did as Kina ordered, the girl fell to her knees in a fake swoon.

"Kina-san?" Temeki asked.

"It's okay," she said, taking out her gold fan as well. "I'm just a little dizzy."

She noticed that the other ninja were tense. She hoped that they didn't suspect anything. Just in case, Kina positioned herself on one knee behind the two ninja posing as chairs and rested most of her weight on her left foot, which she planted firmly on the ground.

She quickly fanned herself for a few minutes. When the Shinkirou ninja relaxed once more, she snapped her fans closed and silently released their blades. She hid the blades in the folds of her skirt and waited for them to relax just a bit more.

"Are you alright, Kina-san?" Temeki asked.

She turned and smiled at the blue-eyed former Uchiha. "I will be as soon as you grab Naruto and run," she said.

Before anyone could react to her statement, Kina pulled out her fans and stabbed the blades into the ninjas in front of her. She had aimed for a spot between the second and third Cervical vertebrae, so the shinobi were dead before she even pulled the blades out.

The genjutsu of the cottage immediately disappeared and Kina rolled away from the Shinkirou gang. She rose onto one of her knees and held the blades in front of her.

"Get Naruto and run, Temeki!" she yelled. "NOW!"

Temeki blinked as the genjutsu dispelled itself and ran to the boy. "We have to go, now!" she said. She ignored Naruto's mumblings and hauled him up, fear for their lives giving her her old strength. She held the boy by one arm and started running to the edge of the field.

"How did you see through the genjutsu?" Touka demanded.

Kina smiled as she flicked open the fans, revealing their bladed edges, and rose into her battle stance. "That's my power, boumei-nin." (1)

"She's mine!" Touka ordered his men. The bitch killed my sister! Touka cried in his mind. "You're dead woman."

She laughed as she felt Tsubakiri's chakra mixing with hers and smiled at the man with fanged teeth. "On the contrary," she said. "I feel very much alive."

Touka and the others watched in horror as the Kazekage's woman grew fangs and claws. Her hair escaped from its braids and flowed around her body. Purple chakra gathered around her and her eyes began to glow and took on a more tilted look with each passing second.

"No wonder the raccoon bastard married you," he whispered. "Monsters need other monsters, after all."

"'Raccoon bastard'?" Kina asked. "You're not referring to my husband, now, are you?" Her voice echoed throughout the field. It sounded as if two people were talking. Indeed, Tsubakiri's voice mingled with her own and gave her power.

Touka never had a chance to answer.

Faster than the others could see, Kina lunged at the man and sliced him with her fan from navel to ear. She retreated back to her original position and watched with a smile as the man's body fell to the ground in two pieces.

"Touka!" the other boumei-nin shouted. They looked at the woman and grabbed their weapons.

"Kamaitachi no Jutsu!"

Fierce, slashing winds attacked the men and they were forced back from Kina. She turned around and saw her Suna family as well as Kakashi and Neji. Temeki, Sakura, and Naruto were further behind them. The pink haired kunoichi's hands glowed green as she healed her friend and teammate.

She looked at Gaara and smiled.

"Kankuro," he calmly ordered. "Capture them."

The puppet master nodded and yelled out, "Kugutsu no Jutsu!" The arms of his puppets reached out and wrapped around the remaining four Shinkirou Clan members.

"Gaara," Kina cried as she ran to her husband. Once she was in his arms, she crushed her lips to his, forgetting about her fangs. As his blood filled her mouth, she felt Tsubakiri's presence in her mind grow.

A gold/purple flash blasted the two lovers apart and everyone braced themselves as both Kina and Gaara began to growl and writhe on the grass.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked. He looked over at the fallen couple and felt Kyuubi roar in his cage. He grabbed his head and yelled to Kakashi, "Bind me! Kyuubi wants out!"

Kakashi was afraid something like this might happen and simply slammed his hand into the ground.

"Oni-fuu: Kanashibari no Jutsu!" (2)

With Naruto safely bound by the jutsu, the others looked at Kina and Gaara, ready to bind them if they got out of hand.

Gaara looked the same. Except for the fact that his gourd had disappeared and that the sand from it was forming a long tail and pointed ears on the boy. His green eyes became almost translucent as he grew fangs and claws of his own. The blue and white Kazekage robes he wore billowed and stretched around his suddenly taller and more muscled frame.

Kina screamed as she positioned herself on her knees. She felt her back itch and felt the kimono she wore rip as beautiful purple/black wings tore through the muscles of her back. Her hair grew even longer as it whipped around her body. She stood up and looked down at the tattered remains of her kimono.

I liked that outfit, she pouted.

"Tsubakiri," a dual toned voice called out.

Kina looked up and saw Gaara, but not Gaara.

"Shukaku," she whispered. Well, Tsubakiri whispered it. The demoness was using Kina's vocal chords, so she had no choice but to allow Tsubakiri control for now. As long as she didn't hurt anyone.

Shukaku/Gaara walked up to Tsubakiri/Kina and smiled.

"Where the hell have you been, woman?" he asked before he kissed her.

Neji smirked and relaxed his stance. The two demon vessels ignored everyone else and kept kissing each other.

"I guess that means that they won't be hurting anyone," Sakura muttered.

Naruto stared at the two and yelled at Kyuubi in his mind.

See? he asked the demon fox. They're together again. Not only as demons but as humans! You've lost!

I will have her, Kyuubi snarled from behind the gate of his prison. You could have her if you wanted.

I don't want her, Naruto answered. We're friends now. So give it up!

Naruto felt Kyuubi subside, but knew that he would have to give the huge furball a major talking to once everything was back to normal. He knew from experience that the demon fox would grow disinterested and bored after a while. It was only Kyuubi's issues with the past that made him act up. He'll give it up.

Naruto would make sure of it.

The remaining members of the Shinkirou Clan watched in wonder at the sight of the two demon manifestations.

"Tsubakiri," the eldest, Bado, gasped. "She's returned."

Tsubakiri/Kina pulled away from Shukaku/Gaara and looked over at the captured nins.

"What should we do with them?" she asked.

Shukaku/Gaara shrugged and answered, "They are from your Clan, Tsu-chan. Sabaku is mine. I have no care for what you decide."

She ran her purple gaze across the faces of the men and frowned. "You are of the Shinkirou Clan?"

Bado nodded.

"Why did you attack me and seek to destroy the one called Gaara?" she demanded.

"Suna belongs to the Shinkirou Clan," the youngest of the prisoners yelled. "The Sabaku Clan only brings death and monsters to Suna!"

"A zealot," Shukaku/Gaara sighed. "How they annoy me…"

Tsubakiri/Kina stepped away from her husband and faced the captives. She folded her right wing over her shoulder and let its wingtip cover her right eye.

"The Sabaku Clan is the lifeblood of Suna," she replied. "The Shinkirou Clan was created by the Sabaku and exists only because of them. A mirage cannot be formed without the desert. Neither can the Shinkirou exist without the Sabaku. That is how it has always been. Surely you have been taught this." (3)

"Lies!" the youth shouted as he struggled. "Shinkirou is beauty while Sabaku is death!"

"Wrong," Tsubakiri/Kina corrected. "Sabaku is infinity—devoid of time, enmity, or malice. Shinkirou is death—escape it and find peace or remain within it and die. That is Suna."

"Tsubakiri-sama!" Bado pleaded. "I beg your forgiveness! I was weak and foolish…"

"Yes, you were," she answered simply. "And what of you two? Do you repent?"

The other two Shinkirou shook their heads, defiant even in the face of their Clan's demon matriarch.

Her eyes narrowed and she growled.

"Very well. My decree is this: for the old man, I grant you the gift of peace. For the others, I give the gift of death. The Shinkirou has decided."

Tsubakiri/Kina snapped her wing back over her shoulder. Four feathers flew from the limb and impaled themselves in the middle of each man's forehead.

Shukaku/Gaara laughed and hugged the eagle demoness from behind. "I thought you granted the old man peace?" he asked.

Tsubakiri/Kina nodded and answered, "I did."

"I'm really late, aren't I?"

She laughed and nodded again. "As much as I enjoy seeing you in the flesh, Shu-kun, Kina and Gaara's bodies won't be able to sustain us for long."

"You're right," he sighed. Shukaku/Gaara looked up and gave a wicked smile. "See you tonight?"

"Of course," she answered before closing her eyes. Kina felt Tsubakiri withdraw and knew that Shukaku was retreating from Gaara as well.

Neji and Kankuro barely made it to them in time before the two teens fell to the ground unconscious.

A/N:

Okay…last two chapters coming up! Wow, this is the fastest I've finished a fanfic ever! Must be because I love Gaara so much! .

(1) boumei-nin means "exiled person"

(2) Oni-fuu means "demon seal" and kanashibari no jutsu is the body freeze technique most ANBU members know.

(3) The literal translations for Sabaku and Shinkirou are 'desert' and 'mirage.' So Tsubakiri is being quite literal in explaining Suna politics to the young man.