I'm tired, I'm depressed, I'm failing at literature and English, and all my noir files don't work…

Yep, that's this week ranting… I'm might be less tired than last week, but I feel twice as bad!

Why? Because I didn't go to the gym at Sunday, I had a dream that people are yelling at me to go already, it was very creepy, so I went on Monday, but I didn't feel good so I only did 3\4 of what I'm supposed to do, and it was the only time I went this week, and I should be going there 3 times a week.

Second thing, I got my English test back yesterday, it was a mock exam to the finals and I got 63, which means my bitchy teacher won't let me take it this year and I'll have to study English another year, which really sucks! And I also need to hand over some stupid project about something, but I have no fucking idea what to do with it…

Third thing, I'm suffering from a writer's block, for the past whole month! I only got about half a chapter done, so my reserves are dying quickly on me.

It was about enough ranting for one day, so here is the story..

Chapter 5: Call for relatives

Karen looked at the name over and over, there was no mistake about it, even though the demon within her said he never heard about her, Karen knew she had to meet that woman, the scroll contained only scarps of information about her, but Karen could still gather enough knowledge about her from everyone else who came from the leaf, she decided to solve the mystery of that woman, she swore to find out who was Uzumaki Reilla.

"it says she comes from the cloud, are you sure it's not just a coincidence?" Shally asked, their was no chance that Karen would happen to have a long lost relative and nobody would tell her about it, "besides, the cloud is far away, a families don't travel those distances" she laughed inside of her, her mother was from the rock village, she told her that under an unfortunate turn of events she had to run away from it, her mother vowed her not to allow anyone, even her father, to learn about their bloodline, the promise was easy to keep as the uses to the bloodline were rare, even her mother had troubles recalling the last time it has been put into real use.

Nevertheless, Shally always had the itch to use it when she saw her friend, it was like it was calling for her, to create the seals and to let the power wage around, to release the hell from within her and to let the inner demon loose. "maybe you should ask Uchiha Sama or someone else from the leaf?" Shally suggested.

 "No use, if they would want me to know about it, they would have told me long time ago" Karen answered.

*************The leaf Hidden Village*********

"Who are you, woman?" the man asked the approaching character, the man was born and lived on that ground, after the disaster struck, he decided to stay there and become the guardian of the land, he asked the rest of the survivors to take care of his niece, he couldn't stand to be around her any longer, he was both ashamed and afraid at the same time, shame since he failed to protect her mother as he swore to, and fear as he saw her father at the girls face and knew that she could do the same.

"I'm the reprehensive for the cloud, the Reikage has sent me to prepare the ground for the chunin exam" she answered, staring into the man's eyes, she recognized him as an Hyuga, it was her second time visiting the leaf, and the first time she was there after what happened, over the past years she avoided asking or trying to investigate the reappearance of the Kyubi, it was a mystery she couldn't let go off and still she couldn't drive herself to face it.

"so, the five Kages have realized that the shinobies heritage wouldn't last for long now, the only way to keep us valuable now is to convert ourselves to demon hunting?" her face brought back memories from his brother in law, the blond hair and beast-like smile. He couldn't stand to look at her for long, he only wished that she wouldn't ask about the child, he hated himself for leaving her alone, and hated the fact that in few months or years, he will have to meet her.

"so this is the place where the Kyubi remerged, I guess his container is dead, what about Naruto's Family? Are there any survivors?" Reilla asked the Hyuga. "Karen is still alive, she lives at the Sound village now, Sakura, Sasuke and Ino should be watching over her" Neji answered.

---------**************----------

"can you believe this? It's only been two months since we got promoted to genins and they're already thinking about the chunin exam!" Gray was thrilled with happiness and excitement; he knew he could never gain the Sharingan eye, but he still vowed to make his father proud.

 "Don't get all over yourself, they just said that this is a small teaser for the exam, they think that some of us might decide to give up on the chunin, but still, the fact that we are allowed in this training doesn't mean we'll even be suggested for the exam" Doro responded, all the genin teams were in this training together, and Doro found himself with an ex-leaf and another sound instead of being with the girl of his dreams.

 "you better not be taking advantage of this, Hob" he cursed his teammate in his mind.

"What kind of thing do you think it is?" Tack asked the two girls, they were informed that a summon has failed and now an unidentified summoned creature was on the loose, the jounin instructors only said that the thing was about 90 centimeters and was intelligent enough to be counted as a C-ranked mission.

Karen didn't answer, she knew exactly what creature was the target, a customized demon, created in the image of another, that was how the Kyubi described them, she learned much more on demons on the past two months than in her whole life, and she suspected that she was the most knowledgeable person in the village about that subject.

"How should I deal with this one?" she asked inside her head, "you aren't the one who is going to fight it, it would make you look too suspicious, leave this one for the rest" the Kyubi answered.

Shally looked to her left side, her eyes twitched when she looked at one of the branches; it was the same kind of twitch that she felt when she saw Karen. She took a glimpse at her two friends, Tack was talking nonsense and Karen was in her own world as usual, Shally decided it was safe and performed the seals, a wave of new senses has crushed her.

 everything was pitch gray to her, she felt numb all over her and the sound of the birds was nothing more than a scratch in her ears, she was about to let go of the blood ability when she turned to the branch again, then she saw it.

Two eyes stared at her, she began to see color whirling outside those eyes, the colors soon took over the entire body of the creature, Shally couldn't begin to describe all the colors, it was a wonderful mix of all the rainbow colors and much more, then she heard a growl, to her, it was like heaven – a thousand symphonies banged her head, each one with a unique voice that contained all the feelings that she had ever felt, each heart pulse of the creature was a new melody, after a second she smelled the scent of it, the smell was addictive, like sniffing the very essence of life, she stared at the demonic summon for what seemed like hours, and she  knew that she has seen true beauty.

"ahh, Shally, what's wrong?" Hob asked his teammate, she was standing on a branch in a bizarre position, like she was frozen in her movement, her head was set locked on a tree forty feet from her, he looked at that direction, his eyes confronted a hellish looking dog, that in some ironic way, smelled like the girl of his dreams, "found it!' he shouted when he jumped towards the tree, he heard footsteps behind him and saw Gray and Tack following him.

"Where is it?" Gray shouted, he was already holding out a shurikan with a string attached, he planned to capture the thing, he was sure that would make his father feel proud.

All of the demon's instincts has told him to run, his mind was fairly simple, one mission was imbued inside it, surveillance, he knew that he failed his invisible master, he jumped between the trees he saw three humans after him, one of them held a slight resemblance to someone in his past, but the demon dog didn't have time to think about it, nor did he have enough self conscience to even consider thinking about issues which didn't hold direct contact to his goal.

He was almost at the wilderness when he realized that one of the boys has been pursuing from the ground and closing in on a frightening speed, the boy has got to the trunk of the tree that the demon was on, and punched it, the tree has begun to shake, and the dog demon knew that it was his end, with the chackra erupting out from the tree, he knew that he'll lose his balance and fall down to the earth, but still, The red furred dog decided it was a better way to end his life than to return back home.

"good one, Doro!" Tack shouted, he threw the light bomb into the air and signaled to the jounins that the creature was defeated, smashed to the ground. His eyes widened as the beast's body begun to vaporize, first the skin, then the meat and the bones were last, leaving no sign of the creature's existent other than the memories. "where's the body?" Ealla asked, despite her knowledge about demons, she could never understand how they disappeared without a trace, and she also needed to see the boys facial expressions.

 "I dissolved into thin air, don't know why" Tack answered, "as expected…" Ealla thought to her self, "gather everybody, tell'em it's over and that they will meet there jounin instructors in 20 minutes at their regular place" she said, all that was left to her was to try to imagine who was the dog and what connection did all the newly discovered demons have with the leaf village.

**************Leaf Village***********

"look out, for the right!" Neji heard the warning, a few years has passed since he saw his first demon, but Neji now noticed that each demon held an undeniable resemblance to someone, and this one was in a quite ironic way, an almost exact copy of himself.

"has it always been like this?" Reilla asked, her three nights at the leaf village ground were nothing else than demon exterminating, from the first dog like creatures to the demon she has just strike, Reilla knew who was the model for it, she heard about it from Naruto and even met him in person, it was the son of the previous Kazzakage, the sand's strongest – Garra.

"do you wish to see the source of them?" Neji suggested, if the Kages have planned to send 12 years old kids to the spot, they were clearly nuts in his perspective. The technological advancement has required the shinobies to reconsider their ways, more and more customers have decided to turn to the alternatives, snipers, armored carriages, tap wire-ring, they weren't a match to a good ninja, but their low price has convinced most customers to turn to them.

"the source, what is it anyway? She answered, the same thought passed in her mind as well, the village wasn't a place suitable for kids, it wasn't suited to anyone.

"we're here, the source of all the demons" he stated, they were under a cliff, stone was shattered down on the ground, but within it all, was a pool with an endless spin inside, she looked at the pool, deep under the liquid, she could see a face of a blond man with birthmarks on his cheeks.

From the behind the stones, another demon looked at them, he clinched his fist, chackra began to erupt from his hand, but then it settled down, as close as they were, they weren't his target, his target was far away at that time, but he knew she would come soon…

*****chapter five – end*******

yep, here is where the plot starts, I've brought back some old characters (Neji, and Reilla, both are Karen's parent's cousins), and there are new two details about Shally, the fact she came from the rock hidden village, and the fact she has a hidden bloodline.

There is another character with the same attributes; I'll be sending an online metaphoric cookie to whoever guesses who it is…

What else? That's about it, so here's some shout outs (!) and after that there is some info about Gray.

Synaptix: Konohamaru was loyal to Naruto when they were kids, but a lot of things happened since then, including Naruto becoming a missing nin and destroying the leaf village, so he has some knowledge about getting too close… but still, I think I'll give him a bit more spot light soon.

And about Karen's strength, she will become much stronger soon, but don't think it'll change the mood of the story, it won't be one of those "I'm cool and I kick ass" stories, because no matter how strong anyone is, everybody has their own psychological issues.

Eikou:

So, you're writing a shaman king fic? It's kinda funny, since I got the last 25 eps from a friend of mine last week and I'm going to finish the series tomorrow! So I could read your stories without being afraid of spoilers! And if we're speaking about shaman king fics, can you link me to a few good stories from that section? Cuz I'm really terrible when I'm trying to read any new anime fictions… I always fall on some messed up stories that I can't even understand…

I don't really dig most humor fics, a lot of them relay on stupid gags I've hated from the anime, while angst relays on making me feel bad, which is really easy!

No matter how you look at it, bible class is bad, I have a test tomorrow, and I don't know shit!

Trust me, the army is just pure EVIL, I've been in a pre army camp a few months ago, the food is worse than I've imagined, and I really hate waking up before the sun!

Anyway, I'll try writing a bit more today, but as said before, I just can't write latly!

Oh yeah, I got two reviews for shadow of life, so here are the shout outs (!):

GuyWhoCares:

Well, the Q&A section was there for the readers questions, but since I didn't get any, I didn't have much to write…

The deal with Hinata is yet to be reaveled, this story deals with it much more, but I won't say anything else!

HMR:

Well, this is kinda useless to write here, but SoL story ended and has a sequel, which is what you're reading now…so this whole shout out (!) is pointless.

Here's some information about one character:

Name: Uchiha Gray.

Connection to original story: Ino's son (father's name was never written down), Sasuke's adopted son.

Age: 13

Specialty: unknown. He stayed one year in the academy, but then become the #1 rookie.

Appearance: kinda looks like Ino's dad, just more of a child with some Sasuke attributes, a low ponytail blond hair like Ino's…

Issues: one parent is making him hang out with Karen, the other doesn't really approve of it.

And since that was just useless, here's some more useless crap.

Name: Rock Tack

Connection to the original story: Lee and Sakura's son.

Age: 12

Specialty: kinda hard working type of guy, illusion knowledge.

Appearance: like Lee, just with pink Sakura hair, and a bit better fashion sense..

Issues: nothing really, he's the plain average guy you'd expect Sakura to be his mother.

Did you see how I managed to write so much pointless stuff on one chapter? But don't worry, the next chapter will have some implied yuri (which won't last long) and a really neat history of one character!