Chapter 10: The seen threat and the unseen demons.
"Uh...ahh"
Naruto found himself being awaken by the sounds of groaning and the subtly increasingly forceful shifts in the bed. His white sleeping clothing were starting to become uncomfortably itchy, 'What...is going on?' Naruto lifted his arm to rub his eyes...or at least that's what he thought he was doing. When he didn't feel the pressure being applied to his eyes he realized that his hands hadn't moved because they couldn't move, they were being pressed down, and no matter how tired he was from his previous mission he had the presence of mind to wake up. His training dictated that much, it also dictated that he should have realized this sooner and he wouldn't be in this situation at all.
Naruto's eyes shot open, looking upward through the sliver light of the moon shining through the his bedroom window. His own met black circles around closed eyes, a peaceful face of a sleeping Gaara, who was holding him down by the wrist and surrounding his body with sand. "Gaara! Wake up!" Naruto shouted, struggling against Gaara's much stronger hold, it was becoming even harder to move against the sand creeping over him.
"Damnit..." Naruto growled, he was trying his best to do this physically, but it was getting harder to fight against Gaara's hold and his sand with out using Chakra. "Gaara!" Naruto desperately thrust his head forward, slamming it into Gaara's and knocking him on to the floor. The sand immediately loosened and streamed weakly off of Naruto's body and bed.
The other boy's eyes shot open from the fall and sharp pain "Uhhh..." Gaara pushed himself off of his back and on to his knees, holding one hand on to his throbbing forehead. "What happened?"
Naruto pulled his legs over the side of the bed, leaning forward lightly and resting his head in his hands. His expression was as steady as he could make it, but he was obviously saddened and distressed. "..."
"It happened again didn't it." Gaara sighed. "I'm sorry, I"
Naruto shook his head. "Gaara. It's not your fault."
"It was real!" Gaara pounded his fist into the ground, "Damnit! It couldn't have been a dream! It couldn't have! You were...there was a...Damnit!"
Naruto reached outward and put his hand on Gaara's shoulder. "It may have seemed real but-"
Gaara pushed Naruto's hand away, he didn't want Naruto to touch him, he didn't know what he could have happen anymore. Honestly he was still confused, was this real and that was a dream, or is this a dream and was that real. "No, I'm serous!"
"Are you ever not serous?"
"I may not have had many dreams, but that couldn't have been a dream. I felt everything, I tasted it, I smelt it." Gaara shifted his bare shoulder towards Naruto, revealing a large and open cut that lay there.
"Whoa!" Naruto flinched "Th-that wasn't there before!" Naruto jumped off the bed and walked behind Gaara, looking over the wound closely. He remembered all of the other times this happened there was a story behind the dream, "What happened?"
Gaara sighed again, his voice becoming more of it's natural monotone. "We were in this room...I was sleeping...and then there was this...creature, it was on top of you...it was trying to kill you. So I tried to stop it...I pinned it down and..."
"That's new..." Naruto said, pulling a first aid kit from under his bed. "It wasn't you this time." All of the other dreams before Gaara had accidentally killed Naruto himself and didn't even realize it until it was too late. Gaara always did exactly the same thing in the real world as he did in the dream, so however Gaara tried to kill him in the dream he was doing the same thing to him in real life. Naruto would have called it sleep walking but...this was obviously not the case.
"There's a demon inside of me..."
"Me too, what's new?" Naruto joked in his usual manner.
"No...there's something different. I can't explain it but there's always this change right before it happens...right before it happened." Gaara told him, "I should just stay away from you."
"What? No." Naruto objected quickly. "I don't want you too." Naruto wrapped his arms around Gaara from behind, hugging him tightly. Holding him back, holding him there.
Gaara shifted and broke out of Naruto's grasp, "No I can't." He said, standing to his feet. "What If I try to kill you again?"
Naruto still found it amazing that Gaara could still keep his same tone of voice while saying anything.
"It's ok, I can handle it." Naruto said, bringing himself to stand also. "You know I can."
Moonlight from the lone window shined directly on to the bed, everything else was covered with a thick shadow. Gaara stood within half of that shadow, Naruto completely shrouded on the opposite side of the window, still holding the first aid kit in his hands. Gaara shook his head "No...I don't want to hurt you."
"Gaara. You know I can handle it!" Naruto tried to wrap his arms around Gaara again, only to have Gaara's arms hold him at bay. "Please...just let me"
"I'm sorry." Gaara shook his head again, "I might hurt you."
"...I don't care."
The door opened, both of them looked towards it and saw Iruka standing there in just a pair of pants that one could easily conclude that they were hastily thrown on, obviously in the mist of worry. "I heard some...interesting noises, are you two alright."
"Fine." Gaara said, walking away from Naruto and past Iruka into the hallway.
"Gaara..." Naruto called out softly, he knew Gaara wasn't the type to change his mind about anything. Naruto shook his head and sat down on the bed, there was no use going after him, it would only make things worse, he only sat down on the edge of his bed with a heavy sigh.
Iruka sat down next to him next to him, wrapping his arm around Naruto's shoulder. "It happened again?"
"...Yeah." Naruto sighed. "I don't know what's going on with him."
"So he doesn't want to stay around because he's afraid he'll hurt you?"
"Uh-huh, I mean I can take care of myself, he doesn't have to worry about me."
"Naruto, he's more worried about what he might do. And he doesn't want to stay around you if he can't control himself." Iruka looked down at him, it was killing him to see both of them so unhappy, there was that parental instinct again. It was making him even more worried about Naruto. "He's right, you may just have to respect that for now."
"What am I suppose to do! I can't just let this happen!" Naruto shouted.
"Naruto calm down." Iruka pulled Naruto a little closer, trying to comfort him or at least ease him. "How do you think he feels? He obviously loves you, just look at him. He's protective to fault, and almost completely selfish with you. He doesn't want to do this but...what other choice dose he have? He was never stable to began with, and when he finally able to be truly happy, When he finally is able have you, and sleep since the first time he can remember. This happens, how do you think this makes him feel. "
"II" Naruto shook his head and slumped into Iruka's hold, letting his head fall on to the man's chest. "I guess your right..." He still didn't like it. "...But how do you know all of this?"
"Two weeks ago, Gaara came and talked to me. Do you have any idea what's causing this?" Iruka asked.
Naruto paused for a moment, thinking about it before he nodded again "He said...something about a demon, he said there was one inside of him, he felt it. And not the one that's already there."
"Well try to get some sleep tonight, we're just going to have to figure it out in the morning." Iruka ruffled his hair lightly before he stood up and walked to the door "Are you going to be alright Naruto?"
"Yeah, I guess so." He sighed. "But I'm not going to give up on Gaara, I'm going to get to the bottom of this."
! - ! - !
Gaara sat down on the sofa in the lobby, immediately feeling a small chill through out the small room. Shadows crept from every corner, even with a window on both walls, the silence was haunting to him now, even though he was long since use to it. He'd grown accustom to Naruto, who was always some source of noise, weather it be mumbling in his sleep, snoring lightly, or shifting around, even his breathing. Being alone in this dark, quite room with out Naruto's constant noise and light, it was depressing.
'...hn' He missed Naruto already... 'What's happening to me...It was real, I know it was. There's no way dreams can be that real...' Gaara sat back on the sofa, resting his arms on top of the backrest and letting his head fall back. He stared aimlessly at the ceiling as he thought, "I felt it this time...that change...when it started becoming too real...something caused that." He said to himself, nothing could be said otherwise, he knew what he felt. Gaara sighed, maybe in annoyment, or maybe he was just feeling sad for the first time in his life. "I don't even know what's real anymore...Am I dreaming now? Or am I awake?"
It didn't matter, with out Naruto it was impossible for him to go to sleep. He'd just be left with his thoughts as he'd been for countless nights. This didn't appeal to him anymore, he was afraid of himself now. Not for his safely but for Naruto, every time this happened he only went for Naruto...no one else.
"Huh?" Gaara glanced over toward the front door just as it opened, a man coming through hastily and shutting it behind him.
"I wasn't sure someone was still up. I need S.D.I's help bad." the man said. He was young, by the looks of it, somewhere around 19.
"It's D.S.I." Gaara corrected him.
"No, I'm sure it's S.D.I, and you should really get that sign out there fixed. " The man walked over to the front desk and lead against it, painting slightly.
'You can't be serious.' It was times like this Gaara wish he could still kill people, before this guy would have been dead already. But he had to control himself, at least when dealing with clients. Besides, Naruto would be mad if he killed a client. 'Where's Iruka, I'm not going to deal with him.' "You are aware that it's 2 in the morning."
"Yeah, and if it wasn't such an emergency then I would have waited." The man said, lifting his forearm to wipe away some sweat on his head. "I came all the way from the Tea country because I heard you guys could do the job. And who else can you get at this hour?"
'I'll be damned if I waste my time on this idiot, where's Iruka?'
! - ! - !
Konohamaru squirmed and shifted erratically in his sleep, the sheets became entangled around his limbs in a binding hold as he did so. Flashes and images ran through his mind, awakening him from his dream with a syringing headache. No...Konohamaru didn't know if he was still dreaming or not, all he knew was that he was aware that he was somewhat aware. At most he knew the pain.
He saw glints of images, the forest, the forest that use to stand here before the storm. Red...blood...blood marked the trees...the ground...screams... A masked"Ahhhhaaa!" Konohamaru's hands clinched his head and his eyes shot open, as soon as he awakened his headache faded and so did the dreaming images. "What...is...that...?"
Through the flicking lights of the burning flames still lit in the basement, he could see something black, it looked like an extremely dark smoke rising above him. It lifted to the ceiling and instead of spreading outward along the solid barrier, it went right through...
'What was that?' "Oh crap..." Konohamaru hastily untangled himself from the sheets and climbed out of his bed, he was wearing nothing but his boxers and never slept with a cover over him down here. Though it was naturally cool underground the 8 torch dishes and the large flame Konohamaru kept going kept the place evenly warm. "What's going on around here."
A cold breeze blew through from the east, causing each one of the flames to flicker and tilt to the side. For a moment Konohamaru could see his breath... There was nothing here that could generate a breeze, and that breeze was warm, yet he was still able to see the white cloud of his breath. 'Something's here...Something's going on around here...' Konohamaru shuttered involuntarily, his mouth went dry, his hands were shaking, he was afraid...
"I'm...not going to run, I'm not going to run." Konohamaru repeated over and over to himself, his voice shifted from low and weak as what he was saying became less as a calming method and more of a statement. "I'm not going to run. I'm not going to run! You hear me! I'm not going to run!" He shouted, though he'd never been so afraid in his life. "Your not going to scarce me out of here! Not this place!" He knew if he ran now he'd never be able to come back down here, and this place was too important to him.
This place was a shrine, to Konoha, to the leaf, to the Hokage name,...to his grandfather. Everything he held dear, everything all of those things represented, this place was much more important then fear.
"Konohamaru."
"Whaaa!" Konohamaru flinched at the mention of his name, quickly turning around with his hands up offensively, but he dropped them directly afterwords and relaxed. "Sasuke?"
"What's with you?" Sasuke asked, judging by how tense he was Konohamaru was ready to strike. "What are you doing?" Sasuke stood before him fully dressed with a backpack on, he looked as if he was about to go.
"There's something strange going on around here... It's creepy." Konohamaru was tempted to shudder again, he took a step closer to Sasuke and clinched on to his arm. "There's defiantly something here... I saw...something..."
"We'll talk about it when I get back, I have to go on a mission."
"Now? It's like 1 o'clock."
"It's an emergency, I need to go now."
"Can I come?"
"No."
"What? Come on, I've been training really hard and everything, and you said it was an emergency." Konohamaru pleaded "Emergency."
"No."
"I've been working really hard. I want to help..."
"It's too dangerous."
Konohamaru shook his head, looking around the room carefully as his original thoughts returned to his mind. "It...might be too dangerous to stay here. You might as well let me go." he said. "Seriously, I may not have been ready before but this time I am. See watch." Konohamaru did a few quick hand seals that clouded his body in quickly rising smoke. When the smoke clear a mirror image of Sasuke stood, only in an strangely Konohamaru like posture, it was odd.
Sasuke folded his arms as he looked down at Konohamaru using Heinge, making the most pleading face he'd ever seen. He sighed in annoyance, he couldn't resist it... Why not, as long as he kept Konohamaru to the side and out of the way, it'd be good training for him to watch. Yeah...right...that's it. Sasuke looked away "Fine." He snorted. "But you have to do everything I tell you. Everything."
"Got it!"
Sasuke looked back down at Konohamaru, only to find that he was fully dressed in blue shirt, black pants and his scarf of course. '? How did he...nevermind.' "Konohamaru, make sure you follow my orders, this is dangerous enough and we don't need any mistakes."
"Ok."
! - ! -!
"This better be an emergency! It's too early for missions." Kiba said in annoyment, leaping in tall steps across the baron field of the remaining dead trees and hard earth. They could see clearly ahead now in a place that used to be obscured with obstacles. It was depressing to see an area that was formally an vibrant forest now a complete wasteland 'Hmm...I should do something about this when I get back. I'm sure if I work around the budget there's something I can do about this.'
Konohamaru would have agreed if he had not been so happy to go along, "What exactly are we suppose to do?" He asked, he was panting a little, it was hard to keep up with Sasuke, Neji and Kiba when they were in a hurry, he wasn't that fast yet.
"Well." Neji lifted his hands to his chin as he did when he was thinking of something. "He wasn't too clear on the details but from what he described there are 4 different types demons attacking the fields, some type of Insects, something large maybe a beast. He also described something underground that he didn't get an accurate description on, and the last one he didn't encounter, it instead just hid in the shadows. The client thinks it might be one of the weaker ones because it didn't try to attack him."
Kiba glanced over at Neji "Insects? You think it's those same one's from before?"
"Doubtful, the description didn't match up."
"Alright." Kiba shrugged, he and Neji had another encounter with the strange insects from before, once may have been a coincidence, twice... "Then what's the plan Sasuke?"
Sasuke looked back at his three teammates, he knew their strengths, and their weakness. Now all he had to do was to figure out how to use them in the right way, which was why he was a good leader of his team because he knew how to do this most effectively "Neji, what type of landscape are we fighting on?"
"Crop fields, but by now the insects have taken out the whole crop."
"Hn...I'll take the insects. Neji you find whatever's underground and handle it, Kiba, you handle the beast. After that we'll handle the last one together." Sasuke said.
"What about me?" Konohamaru asked, still trailing behind and struggling to keep up. His stamina was good though, he might not have had the strength to keep up but he kept himself close enough behind with out expending all of his energy by trying to stay ahead.
"Hmm..." Sasuke wasn't sure Konohamaru could handle anything, the insects would be in too many numbers for him to even attempt to take on. Whatever was underground was too uncertain to risk, and whatever this beast was it sounded too dangerous.
"What about the last one? The guy said it was probably weak." Konohamaru pleaded. "Come on, at least let me check it out."
Sasuke looked back at him...he couldn't protect the boy forever, Konohamaru didn't want that... "Fine, you go check it out and that's all."
"Alright."
"Don't try anything, if you want to be a ninja you'll have to learn what risks you can take and when you need to retreat."
! - ! - !
! - ! - !
The land lay on the outskirts of the Tea village, a 10 acre farm that was 8 aces of crop. A house and shed lay on another separate acre though it didn't nearly take up that whole space, but it was enough for the 3 people that lived there. The last acre was were rows and rows of trees bearing oranges, Kiba couldn't help but muse how strong those people must have been to work this land by themselves.
It was just approaching dawn by the time they arrived, the twilight between day and night that arrived at 4:30 am at the end of summer and the beginning of fall. There was a small earthquake as they walked along the wide strip of land between the home and the rows of various crops. Sasuke stopped, holding one hand on his hips as he looked around. He could hear the buzzing of the insects from were he was, they were still on the very edge of the fields, most likely feasting there.
"Alright go."
A quick burst of wind followed as Neji and Kiba quickly sprang in to the air and disappeared. Only Sasuke and Konohamaru were left. "Remember what I said." Sasuke told him.
"I will." Konohamaru nodded before running off towards the house.
! - ! - !
Sasuke could see why the man would consider this an emergency, from the looks of it there was some hard work put in to these fields. And these locust demon were destroying all of that work, half of the fields were already eaten by them, Brown insects with glowing red eyes, about the size of his palm. Sasuke took the safest route around the 4 remaining acres, he knew he'd reached the end when he saw the, wilted, brown and fallen stalks of what looked as if it used to be corn. All of them were covered with small bite marks, only those bite marks were at the top, and weren't very large.
They were certainly not enough to make the stalks fall, or to turn them brown in a matter of time as minimal as 2 hours. Sasuke paused to think about this for a moment as he watched a cloud of the brown insects rise and fall in an erratic manner over the remaining plants, it could be compared to the movement of waves.
'Hmm...All of these demons were attracted by the storm's Chakra...so they aren't eating these plants, they're draining Chakra from them.' Sasuke thought, slipping off his backpack and tossing it aside. 'I could just set fire to the crops, but that defeats the purpose. How do I get them away...' How? They were drawn to Chakra so use Chakra.
Sasuke clasped his hands together and concentrated, his body became so tense that it trembled. Chakra began to build through out his body, it covered him like a thick smoked and it shone in a blue aura. Sasuke begin to yell out at the top of his lungs "Hey Demons! If you want Chakra, come and get it!"
His voice was quickly over lapped by the buzzing of wings rubbing together, his Chakra flicked when the gust of thousands of the insects rush past his body as a strong wind did to a small flame. With in seconds he was surrounded by the rushing swarm like a wave had crashed on top of him. That's how it felt, and he was washed away with in them in the same manner. He hadn't expected this, he hadn't expected that speed or that power. He needed to get them off of him for a moment.
Sasuke quickly did a hand seal "Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Doing his best to take in a deep breath with out gaining a mouth full of demons, Sasuke blew out an immense ball of flames strait up into the air, engulfing the locust directly above him and letting them fall in a rain of small, flaming bodies. But it didn't do any good, he was still being carried in a wave of the locust who were fighting to attach themselves to him and his Chakra. 'No...it's not enough...'
Sasuke grimaced and let out a loud cry of pain when he felt himself fly head first through a tree. Then a sharp pain emitted from his back as he felt the demons below him rise upwards in their fight to latch on to him. He was pushed upward in to the air, quickly crossing his arms over his face to prevent them from going for his eyes and mouth, which they seemed to be going for the most. "Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke blew out another blast of flames from his mouth, though he wasn't able to take in a deep enough breath and the flames came out weak and small, barely worth trying.
"Gyaaah!" Sasuke felt like he'd just ran into a brick wall, the locust above him were pressing down, now fighting more feverously to get at his Chakra. He was being smashed from all sides, he could already feel the pressure rising inside of his body, he couldn't even breath. 'Ahhhhh...!' A blunt pain came from his now reddening left arm, The pressure was much worse there. The locust were pushing down harder on one point, somehow they pushed down hard enough to reach and break through a blood vessel with out breaking the skin.
It was too much... Sasuke felt a strange feeling past the pressure and pain, something creeping up the side of his face. Black marks appeared on the right side, his curse seal was spreading down his neck, torso, arms, legs... The pain from the locust's pressure became less and less, until it didn't hurt anymore... 'This...power...it's coming from the curse seal...' It was creating a pressure of it's own, it pushed outward on his body from the inside. It was just as painful.
Sasuke lifted his hands, doing the seals of a fire jutsu but he was unable to finish from the pain. "Gyuuaaah!"
His Chakra flared, the once rising smoke like aura became a torrent of blue flames. The pressure at the center of his body and the source push the oddly colored fire outward from all sides in a sphere that devoured the locust. The flames swirled and churned like a raging sea with in the extending orb, incinerating everything, every last insect of the swarm.
Finally the pressure became too intense, Sasuke was putting out much more chakra then he knew he had. The blue fire cased and Sasuke plummeted from the center, he'd been about 100 feet in the air as far as he could tell, he didn't have time to reassess his estimate, he lost conciseness before he hit the ground.
! - ! - !
Of course there had to be a hole if the man seen what was crawling around underground, of course the underground demon came to the surface. But just enough to pull down one of the trees in the orchard in to the ground and disappear again. Neji saw it do so at least twice before it realized he was there. Now he was fairly certain it wanted him since it hadn't taken any more trees.
With Bakyugan active, Neji stood in the very center of the orchard, trying to find the mysterious demon. It wasn't easy, this monster was quick while it was drilling, it was much slower when it came to the surface. But after it was in the ground again it was much too fast for him, that's why it was suicide to go into one of the holes and enter one of the many tunnels that had been created. Neji knew this, he also knew that this monster was predictable.
Neji stood completely silent, holding his breath for complete silence. Even with the Bakyugan that gave him pre-emptive on the demon's attack, it was still to fast to avoid with the range his blood limit gave him, it wasn't far enough. So he relied on hearing before sight, and he heard what he was looking for. The sound of the ground shaking deep below the surface, it was growing increasingly louder...and till the volume reached a certain level. "!"
Neji reached into his holder and drew an explosive tag, pressing it on to the ground and then jumping into the air just as the demon came into Bakyugan range. It was a strange mixture of a worm and millipede, a worm's body but a millipede's head, but it was at least 7 feet long and 3 feet wide. 'Trepient, an earthworm demon that is an extremely fast digger.' Neji thought as he watch the large head burst through the ground mouth first, it's mouth seemed to open wider then it's own head and every inch of it was lined with sharp teeth, all the way back into the throat.
The trepient devoured the tag along with the dirt in it's attempt to reach Neji, it nearly did with only a few inches to spare, but lucky for him the monster didn't jump.
A loud blast could be heard from inside of it's body, causing the trepient to fall flat on to the ground and squirm for a moment. But it was resilient and kept moving, driving it's head back into the ground and buried it self deeper then before. It was clear that it intended to make a jump this time.
Neji retrieved two Kunais and wrapped another tag around the both of them. He dived backwards just as the trepient fell burst through the ground with it's mouth wide, and this time it jumped, but it flew right over him. It immediately noticed he was on the ground this time and the trepient tilted accordingly, bringing it's mouth down over Neji. Neji smirked... it was over now. He tossed both Kunai's into it's mouth and jumped backwards as the two explosions blew it's body apart
! - ! - !
The beast truly was a beast, a werewolf demon. It stood 6 feet tall with a white fur, claws an inch long on it's hands and feet, bushy tail, and humped back that made it lean forward. It had the strangest eyes Kiba had ever seen, one golden, the other red, both with two narrow slits side by sides for the pupils. They were hypnotic, he was unable to look away no matter how hard he tried.
"Akamaru, mimic me." He said, still watching the werewolf walk towards him, just looking at the beast filled him with fear. Akamaru barked at him from the top of his head, "What! What do you mean you can't?" Of course he knew why, that werewolf had did something, it was those in those eyes, it's effect, It prevented Jutsu use.
Akamaru wined.
"It's ok boy, just stay by me." Kiba said, both of them could hear the nervousness in his voice. They watched the demon lift it's nose in to the air and sniff lightly...it could smell his fear, and he had plenty of it. The wolf growled and ran at him, it's speed was amazing, before Kiba realized it the wolf was right in front of him with it's arm pulled back. Kiba's eyes widened as they once again connected with the wolf's and he lifted his arms to block, "Uhaha!" The claws slashed him brutally, sending him flying backwards and sliding to a stop a few yards away.
Kiba lifted his arms in front of his eyes which he still could stop them from fixing on to the wolf's, both of them were in bad shape. "Ahhh...damnit! It's like...I forgot all of my Jutsu." Kiba gowned as he stood up, shaking his head lightly 'Go on the offensive!' He told himself, charging at the wolf demon with clinched fist. Kiba jumped into the air as he dawned on the beast, trusting his foot into the side of it's head, revolving completely in mid air and kicking it again with the other. The wolf stumbled back disorientedly.
Kiba crouched down as he landed, driving his elbow into it's stomach and then sweeping his foot across the ground into it's legs. Instead of falling, the wolf sprang forward, grabbing him by his biceps and throwing it's whole weight on to his body. Kiba fell flat on to the ground, feeling his legs being pressed, held together between the wolf's knees and it's claws digging into his arms preventing movements. 'Those eyes...' He was once again trapped under the hypnotic effect of those eyes... they were what was filling him with fear, the effect was even more intense now that he was pinned down by the demon...unable to look away.
It tilled it's head back and howled a howl that made Kiba shudder, he flinched when he felt the wolf press it's whole body down and laid on top of him with it's mouth open, sinking it's teeth into his left shoulder. The pain made him cry out loudly, he was sure everyone had heard it. "AAHHHAAAAAAA!"
Akamaru growled, springing off of Kiba's head and biting down on the wolf's ear. The demon growled and pulled back, flicking the small dog off and slashing him with it's claws, batting him away. "Akamaru!" Kiba found the will to pull away from the wolf's eyes, punching the creature as hard as he could.
The werewolf fell off of him and Kiba was on top of it immediately, grabbing the large demon by the neck and sending a furry of punches into it's face. It didn't last long, the wolf drove it's claws into Kiba's chest between his abdomen, drawing another scream , and tossed him away.
Kiba's body smashed through the wooden fence behind him, sending him tumbling into a field of dead crops where Sasuke had taken care of the locust. "uhhhh...Bastard." Kiba clinched his chest as he pulled himself on to his feet. He'd never been in so much pain in his life, but he wasn't going to let this thing beat him, he had no choice for him or Akamaru. He just barely notice that the wolf was down on all fours running at him, Kiba spread his legs and braced himself.
The werewolf dived at him with arms outward, Kiba placed a leg backwards and threw a strong punch at the demon. The werewolf snarled, catching his arm in it's mouth as it landed, Kiba had to step back to keep it from falling on him. Kiba pulled his arm back, raking his flesh across it's fangs as he took it out of the demon's mouth by force. The werewolf ripped at him with it's claws, tearing apart his jacket and causing him to stumble back. 'No...!' Kiba found himself once again locked in those strange eyes, he forced away the fear and pressed forward.
The wolf caught his hands as he was about to strike, and they ended up deadlocked, their hands clasped together, both pushing against each other. And this was when the size difference was really visible. Kiba found himself staring upward at a growling demon about 14 inches taller then him, fear was returning in full force. Kiba wasn't nearly strong enough to stand against it, he found himself sliding backwards and his knees buckling with the wolf barking at him while it leaned down towards his bloody shoulder with it's mouth wide. 'No...I can't...keep...' Kiba's eye's widened again, his mouth falling open slightly as his legs gave way and he dropped to his knees. He pushed back as hard as he could but only managed to slow the wolf down slightly...
The wolf snorted as it moved slowly closer and closer to his shoulder, Kiba was surprised to see it stick out it's tongue and started licking the blood flowing over his skin as it tried to bite him. "Get off...of me!" Kiba fell backwards, rolling and kicking the wolf upward. The wolf flew upward into the air...and curled into a ball. "Huh!" Kiba watched as the werewolf rolled in the air...and preformed a jutsu, Kiba's own Gatsuuga no Jutsu was raining down from the demon's spinning body on to him. Kiba rolled out of the way of the drilling blasts, drawn a Kunai as he did so.
"Hungry huh! Eat this!" Kiba threw the blade into the air, striking the falling demon in the throat and forcing it out of the ball it curled into. "And this is for Akamaru!" Kiba sprang into the air, pulling his left leg back and kicking it in the back. Then he let himself fall will the wolf, drawing both of his legs in to his chest as the demon hit the ground and then landed on it's back with a powerful stomp.
Kiba fell back on to the ground, watching the wolf howl as it choked on the blade in it's neck. 'What a lucky break...' He sighed, it was feeling dizzy from all of the blood loss, but he couldn't stay down. He had to find Akamaru.
"Don't move right now, you'll just make it worse."
Kiba looked up and saw Neji standing over him with Akamaru in his arms, the small dog was already bandaged up and wagging his tail wildly at the sight of the other boy. Kiba smiled, he was looking at the perfect picture. "Hey Neji, what happens when you get bitten by a werewolf?"
"Werewolf?" Neji looked down at him questingly.
Kiba pointed to the 6 foot odd wolf laying just below him. "Dose what I think happen happens or is that just a bull?"
"I doubt it's what you think." Neji said. "But that bite looks pretty bad."
"Yeah, there's more." Kiba lifted his clawed arms and pointed to his exposed and bleeding chest. He smirked, his voice becoming slurred as he talked "I think I'm about to pass out right now."
Sure enough, he did pass out from blood loss a few seconds later, there was now a pool where he lay. "Kiba...just hold on, you'll be alright."
! - ! - !
Konohamaru walked carefully though the empty house, finding little left of it but shreds. He constantly heard things, shakes, rattles, shifts, footsteps... 'It's nothing probably...just trying to scare me into running away...right?' Konohamaru wasn't so sure.
Konohamaru looked around the living room, still dark in the rising sun. But there were nothing in these shadows, he heard things below though... Cracking, popping, snapping, scorching... "What is"
The floor broke through under the boy, everything from the center of the room slid downward in the widening hole that spread until the boundaries of the walls were reached. "Ahhhhhh!" Konohamaru tumbled through the debris of broken wood and furniture into the darkness of the cellar. "Uuffh!" Konohamaru hit the concrete ground hard, the first thing he was aware of besides the pain was that he able to smell the overwhelming sent of smoke and burning...wood...He'd been set up, that floor had been set to break.
Konohamaru climbed on to his feet, looking around the void of darkness only pierced by the dim light from above, even that was somehow being blocked out now, as if someone was putting a top over the hole. "What's going on!" He shouted, the sound of his voice unsettled what was already here, glowing red eyes opened and peered at him through the darkness, 4 or 5 of them all looking undoubtedly at him. He'd never forget that glow, the demon foxes...
'No...! No no no!' Konohamaru shook his head furiously, wishing this wasn't real, he felt paralyzed with fear watching the red eyes in front of him approach with quiet footsteps. 'There's no way out, I have to fight... no...somebody help me!'
The shrouded wolf growled and ran at him, he could tell from the speed of those eyes. "No!" Konohamaru yelled. He flinched and fell backward, feeling the gust of wind as the fox's body passed over him. Konohamaru rolled to the side and got on to his feet, immediately seeing another one coming towards him from ahead. "Stop!" Konohamaru dived forward, just barely slipping under it. Fear...fear...it built, it made him want to scream but he stopped himself from doing so, so it came out in a different way.
His Chakra radiated outward, filling his hands, his feet, his arms his legs, giving him a yellow glow. It pulsed, radiating brighter then dimmer, reaching outward as if being pulled or sucked, then returning to it's normal state only to pulse again. Giving him flashes of the demons when they got close enough, one of orange foxes came suddenly into sight, Konohamaru dived to the side and backed away, his Chakra increasing his speed of movement. Before he would have never been able to get away.
Konohamaru felt a weight fall on to his back and press him down, "No! Get off me!" Konohamaru rolled to the side and out of it's grasp but felt teeth grazing his neck and drawing blood. The boy winced as he ran into a wall, he pressed his hands against it and used it to get onto his feet. Konohamaru once again saw another fox pup come at him from the side, he jumped up a few feet off the ground and thrust his foot into it's face, sending the demon sprawling back into the darkness. With out his speed increases he wouldn't have gotten that hit off.
Before he could hit the ground he felt himself being pinned down again and claws scraping at him. An open mouth was pressed against the back of his head, squeezing down tightly, Konohamaru threw his elbow back and knocked the one pinning him down off, only to flinch again when he saw another fox come into his Charka's light. Konohamaru rolled to the side, then swept his foot towards it and knocked it off of it's feet. It growled at him... and directly after that Konohamaru felt a sudden heat...then an explosion that knocked him into the wall on the other side of the room.
"Gyuaaaa!" Konohamaru fell to the room after smashing into the wall so hard that he was sure it would leave an imprint, he felt blood streaming down his back...off of his shoulders... Konohamaru clinched his eyes and ignored the pain, his life was at stake. He drew the Kunai holstered in the waistband of his pants, watching the 5 pairs of eyes advance toward him. "No...Why are you after me?" He got nothing but a bark as a reply before all 5 of them lunged at him.
"GGGAHHHHAAAAA!"
! - ! - !
"Damnit! I just saw him!" Kisame shouted, looking through the house. "He was just here!"
"Kisame, calm down." Itachi said, looking around the hallway that connected the front door to the rest of the house as he walked into the living room. "Did you notice it?"
"What?"
"The rest of the house is in shambles...but this room is empty." He said, there was nothing here but a hard wood floor. Itachi knelt down on to the floor, looking over it carefully, the floor was old, it seemed as old as this house, everything seemed normal but this room was still suspicious.
Kisame shrugged. "What do you think?"
Itachi was silent...'Sharingan.' His cold, black eyes shifted to blood red as the Sharingan was activated, he looked passed the floor... "There's Chakra bellow us, a black chakra... almost like a void."
Kisame looked down at the floor questioningly. "That's weird, this place doesn't have a basement."
A faint yellow light flickered through the floor boards, barely visible at all, Itachi saw it clearly, it was Chakra, very familiar Chakra. "That's it."
Kisame nodded and drew the large sword on his back, lifting it over his head and driving it into the ground. The wood shattered and dispersed, opening wider as Kisame stuck again. After that it was just wide enough for them to see through, revealing a 10 foot drop to a concrete floor where Konohamaru lay on his stomach. His head was turned to the side, staring at the wall and his eyes were half open, as if in a daze. Blood was streaming from under his shirt and over his shoulders and legs, as well as a few open scars on his arms.
"What the hell?" Kisame jumped down into the hole, he shuddered as soon as he landed. This place gave him a strange feeling. "Kid? You ok?"
"B-Boss? How did you get here ...you saved me."
"Saved you? From what?"
Konohamaru lifted his arms, slowly pushing himself upward with a hiss of pain from his movement. He looked around slowly, his mouth falling open wider and wider with each inch he scanned "There...where foxes. They were here...they did this to me."
Kisame lifted his sword, holding it outward and looking at the tip with a concentration. His Chakra flowed through the sword and Flames ignited over the top have, lighting up the hole room in a red glow . It was completely empty...completely empty, not even any debris. "Nothing's here."
"No! The floor fell in, a lot of them, they were here!" Konohamaru climbed to his feet and looked around frantically, "They were just here until you showed up..."
Kisame looked up at Itachi still kneeling by the hole "What do you think? I don't see anything."
Itachi still had his Sharingan active, and he still saw the same thing. "Your surrounded by some type of Chakra, and Konohamaru, your Charka is badly damaged."
"Badly damaged?"
"Have you been using it down here?"
"Yeah."
"It looked as if something was filtering it out of you, it's patchy and wounded. Both of you should get out of there now."
Kisame grabbed Konohamaru by the waist before he could make any objections and jumped to the surface, setting him down next to Itachi. "What is it? What's the problem?"
A breeze blew through the room coming from below, it was warm, but the white cloud of each breath emitted from the three. Itachi and Kisame looked at each other.
"Guys...look!" Konohamaru pointed down to the hole...or at least where it used to be. Where a cold, dark room once lay was now nothing but a concrete foundation for the house."
"I knew I didn't see a basement." Kisame said, rubbing the back of his head uneasily. He jabbed at the stone with his sword, striking harder and harder after each previously blow he emitted on to the rock. It was real, solid all the way through.
Itachi looked around for any signs of what could have happened... 'That black Chakra...what was it?'
! - ! - !
! - ! -!
Sorry I'm late, that's going to happen a lot now that school's back in. So to make up with it I made this an extra long chapter, an important one too. Sasuke learned something, Kiba...well, you'll see. Nothing really happened to Neji, that's going to change (cough safecough), Gaara keeps unintentionally trying to kill Naruto when he's asleep. And Iruka got bit by something in the last chapter. Oh yeah, Itachi and Kisame (Yay!) save Konohamaru from...I can't give that way. But I can tell you there's a hint in the beginning of the chapter, and it doesn't have to do with Gaara.
