Chapter 18: The domino effect part 1
Konohamaru walked into storage, a room on the first floor filled wall to wall with steel filing cabinets. It was more or less considered Sasuke's office because of his job, one filled tediously with paperwork, paperwork that was now out of the open cabinets and scattered all over the floor with Sasuke sitting in the center of what looked like a blizzard. "Sasuke? What's with the mess?"
Sasuke glanced back, then down at the paper in his hands "The purpose of my position is to keep records on everything, missions, monthly profit reportings, demons, things of that nature." He said annoyedly "And to file any other forms or legal documents acquired, all of this is done for statistics, profit and earning reports, client history, and detailed analysis of demons for future reference."
Konohamaru waited idly, knowing Sasuke was going someplace with this, Sasuke had a point to everything he did. The boy rubbed his increasingly red and itchy eyes and sniffled a bit.
"I was looking for a form for a certain type of demon described in an upcoming mission." He said, setting the paper in his hand down in one of the growing stacks on the side of the room " With every thing that's been happening I wasn't able to establish a filing system, and I can't find a damn thing!"
Konohamaru nodded, it wasn't like Sasuke to be so disorganized, but he was right, organization was hard too-- "Aaachooo!" Konohamaru sneezed loudly, his chakra flaring up in a quick flash, both of them combined was enough to scatter the papers in two of the piles into an rain of paper.
Sasuke looked up at him through the falling files, he wasn't too happy.
Konohamaru rubbed his nose and smiled nervously, glad at the moment that he was himself and he had a certain level of obtained patience credit with Sasuke. "Uh...maybe I better leave."
Sasuke already had become frustrated with the fact he had been sitting here for an hour going through hundreds of papers, this wasn't helping his mood "That's a good idea." he refrained from using a tone too dark, which made him sound even more scary.
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"You know, just because your sick doesn't mean you have to leave." Gaara said, sitting under the waterfall that lay about a mile away from SDI. He was on a large island like rock mounted directly in the center, his legs crossed, with out a shirt and headphones on his ears. Apparently he'd spent the money to get it as well as the CD player water proofed.
Konohamaru nodded "Everyone's better off this way, If I'm gone until I get better then no one else will get sick. I'd just be in the way if I stay."
Gaara closed his eyes and began concentrating, lifting sand from his gourd that was back on shore. "Dose everyone know your leaving?"
"I told Iruka." Konohamaru said, sniffling a little as he watched the sand drift over to Gaara. "What are you doing?" He cringed and sneezed.
Gaara compacted the sand into a perfect orb, then spikes rose from the interior of it. Next the sand started to flatten out in to a paper thin square plane before him, and in a surreal effect it rippled as if it was the surface of a pool of water being disrupted by am object being thrown in. "Training." He said dryly, before he couldn't get anywhere near this level of control over the sand's shape, he could barely shape it into something remotely round and keep it floating at the same time. But now...
Konohamaru had learned not to bother Gaara when training, since Gaara was like Sasuke, he was easily annoyed. Though Gaara's tolerance for annoyance was much less. "Well see ya."
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"You want to stay with us for a week because your sick." Kisame said, looking down at Konohamaru who'd traveled quite a distance to reach him and Itachi "Why, Your friends kick you out?"
Konohamaru shook his head, looking around the inside of Kisame's home from the door, which had been completely repaired after being nearly blown up back when they fault Reedamaru's hunter-nins. "No, but I don't want to get in their way or make them sick, they have enough problems."
"But." Kisame started "You want to get in my way and make me sick, No thanks brat." Kisame close the door on him, or rather tried too but Konohamaru jumped in-between and in an attempt to keep it open.
"Come...on...Boss!" Konohamaru growled in a strained voice, pushing from the other side while Kisame held the barrier easily with one hand. "You--Achoo!" Konohamaru sneezed, making his chakra flare up suddenly, Kisame was force to take a step back.
'What the hell?' Kisame let go of the door, watching Konohamaru fall flat on his face inside. "Fine, you can stay." Kisame gave up annoyedly and slightly aggravated, shutting the door behind him.
Kisame headed upstairs while Konohamaru stood up and tried to follow, only to find his scarf was stuck in the door. Konohamaru clinched his scarf and pulled, it seemed to be completely stuck "Let go damnit!" Konohamaru planted a foot on the wall and pulled harder "Let-- Achoo!" His Chakra flared with another sneeze, blowing the lock off the door and knocking it open. Konohamaru stubbed backwards with the scarf free, but the door swung back and slammed into his face making him fall back on to the ground. "Owww!"
Itachi walked through, glancing at the door, then at Konohamaru. "Konohamaru, what are you doing here?"
"I got sick." Konohamaru sat up, clinching his forehead. "I was just in the way back home."
"So you came here, so you could be in my way."
"That's what Kisame said."
"Kisame was right" Itachi sighed, annoyed at Kisame's blatant soft spot for this kid. "Fine, just don't--"
Konohamaru sneezed "Achhoo!" and his Chakra flared up in a quick flash. He fell back down midway in his attempt to stand "My head is burning..."
Itachi placed his hand on Konohamaru's forehead, "You have a fever, go lay down...somewhere. And repress your chakra, you have too much of it then your body can handle that fever is causing it to seep out and it's making you sneeze." Itachi knew that could be damaging.
Konohamaru cringed, feeling as if he was going to sneeze again, but he repressed the uprising chakra and the sneeze faded also 'It worked?' "You were right Itachi, it worked." With the fact that Itachi just taught him something in mind, he shouted out "Hey, you wanna go train?"
"Go lay down." Itachi said, walking past him with annoyment growing.
"Come on! Please?" Konohamaru asked, following behind him.
"Go lay down." Itachi repeated.
"Owww."
"If your not going to listen to me." Itachi sat down on the black couch, removing the cloak around his shoulders "Then go do something that doesn't involve you bothering me."
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"Find it yet?" Naruto looked around a slightly neater Sasuke's office, now stacked high with papers and leaving only a few on the ground.
"Here Dobe." Sasuke tossed a paper back forcefully at Naruto and continued with his task.
"Someone's temperamental." Naruto snorted, looking over the paper. "Jerk."
"Shut up Naruto." Sasuke waved the bond off, tucking a stack of papers under his arm and walking over to one of the file cabinets, "I wouldn't be surprised if that demon ate you."
Naruto shot him a look, glancing quickly down at the paper to see what demon he was talking about. "It's a Muck demon, a muck demon can't eat me. And they say your a genus." Naruto said in a cocky manner.
"Baka." Sasuke rolled his eyes as he closed the drawer. "Didn't you listen to Kakashi? It's not normal sized Umizuki, it's 9 stories tall."
Naruto froze, he felt his blood run cold "N-Nine stories tall!"
Sasuke smirked at Naruto's expression "Figures you'd be scared."
Naruto snapped back, growing angry at Sasuke again "I'm not scared! Hell, I can beat it by my self!"
The image of a large demon covered in black mud devouring Naruto whole crossed Sasuke's mind, the thought of it made him laugh out loud "I'd like to see you try idiot!"
Naruto glared at him "I will, Just you watch!" Naruto, feeling evidently high in confidence of his clam...more like highly motivated to prove Sasuke wrong, got an impish idea. "I'd even bet you on it."
Sasuke shook his head "You'd lose that bet. And why would I want to come in the first place, it's your team's mission."
"If your so sure then let's bet on it." Naruto said, an impish smirk appearing on his face "If I win you have to do whatever I want for a whole month."
"And If I win?" Sasuke asked
"You won't." Naruto snorted, "But if you do, same thing." Naruto extended his hand with the same smirk on his face, he was really confident on this."
"Fine dobe." Sasuke shook his hand and walked past him "Get your rest, I have so much for you to do."
"We'll see about that!"
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Kisame descended the stairs from his bedroom, heading toward the kitchen when he nearly stepped on Konohamaru who was perched in an odd position at the bottom step. "What the hell are you doing there?"
Konohamaru didn't look up, he just kept moving in a slow, zombie like manner. "Dominos."
Kisame leaned over him questioningly in an attempt to see what he was working on. 'Huh?' Just like Konohamaru said, Dominos were being set up in the most intricate design the boy could think of. There were a trail of black squares leading from a few feet in front of the door, where it split into two rows then proceeded to zig zag and cross itself in several points, before it acceded a stairway of books on to table, then circled a single domino in 10 alternating black and white rows. After that it ran directly into the single domino that lead to a ball, that ball would roll off the table and on to a line under it on the floor where another trail would start, the one Konohamaru was currently working on making ascend the stairs.
Konohamaru looked like a dazed zombie, he was even moaning slightly even, Kisame was almost sure he saw drool. Apparently he really was sick, and it was starting to catch up with him. "I'm impressed..." Kisame said, following the line, it was almost hypnotizing... "You though of all of this by yourself." Kisame found himself standing at the start of the line, staring at the first Domino, subconsciously inching toward it.
"Kisame!"
Kisame glanced back, Itachi was standing behind him "What?"
"Those Dominos are the only thing keeping him out of my hair." Itachi said "I'll make it clear, I have work to do and I don't want him bothering me. Do.not.knock.them.over."
"I wasn't." Kisame snorted, he actually was. It was like an itch, it was so tempting...
"Don't."
"I wasn't."
Konohamaru didn't seem to notice them, he didn't seem to notice anything but the fact that his head was pounding, and his body as aching, and his nose was completely congested, and his eyes were itchy and watery, and his sinuses were killing him. The medicine Itachi gave him was making him sleepy...really sleepy, much too sleepy. 'Great, I think I fell for something...I think Itachi drugged me---' Before Konohamaru could finish his thought he was unconscious and snoring lightly.
Kisame glanced over at Konohamaru, then smirked to himself.
"I see that look." Itachi warned "Don't do it."
"I'm not." Kisame said 'But if one accidentally falls over while he was sleeping, and it just happens to hit the other...'
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Kiba sat anxiously Lee's safe, his hands between his legs gripping the edge of the steel box and his heels pressed against it while he leaned forward. His tail swept slowly across the safe as he waited, "Find anything?"
Neji walked though the rows of books and into his study, "No." Neji sat down at his desk and leaned back in his chair, "What are we going to do with the third floor?"
"I already have that covered." Kiba said, he'd spent the money to have it built, of course he was going to do something with it. "Anyway...I still think we should just crack this thing open, I could do it by my self now. Sure it would take a while but--"
"No Kiba." Neji said firmly "That would most likely break what's inside."
"Well, have you tried looking through it?" Kiba, apparently much more flexible, leaned forward and pressed his nose against it with out moving his lower body an inch, Neji notice how it was an odd, painful looking position but it was easy for Kiba. "I thought your Bakyugan could see through almost anything."
"I tried but..." Neji thought back on what he saw when he tried "But I can't, it's like there's something inside that distorts my view of the contents, it's beyond recondition. And it's shifting around."
Kiba continued sniffing, though unable to smell anything but steel. "Think whatever's inside is alive?"
"Imposable." Neji shook his head, completely sure about this "That safe is air tight and it's been sealed for what looks like a number of years. Nothing could survive."
"Well if you don't want to do it my why, how are you going to figure out the rest of the combination?"
Neji rested his elbows on the desk and held his head in his hands "I don't know, looks like the only thing I have to go on now is whatever's left in Lee's house and Gai..." This was becoming frustrating, what else could he go on? What would 2 numbers would Lee use? How could he determine something like this 'What would Lee do...Damnit Lee! Why didn't you tell me the combination? Just to torture me?...No, he wasn't like that...'
Neji sighed, starting to feel bad about knowing his teammate better. 'I wonder if he's alright...'
"I'm going to find Gai."
"Alright." Kiba jumped off the safe "I'll come with you."
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"Will you two lay off of each other." Kakashi grabbed Naruto and Sasuke, pulling them away from each other. "We don't have time for this."
Naruto shot one last look at Sasuke before turning away and folded his arms "Fine."
Sasuke continued walking ahead, ignoring Naruto completely. Instead he chose to survey his surroundings, swamp overshadowed with strong trees, high grass and murky water that was ankle deep. It was rather dark, and the consecutive fog didn't help their vision. Though they figured they wouldn't need a form of light, how hard would it be to spot a 9 story demon? Apparently it was proving harder then expected.
"Are we in the right spot?" Iruka asked, "We should have seen it by now, maybe Mr. Meioto was wrong and it moved on."
Gaara stopped "No, it's still here."
"How do you know?" Kakashi scouted out the area once more, he should have seen it by now, it couldn't still be here.
"Because we've been standing on it all along." Gaara pulled away abruptly as soon as that fact became known to him, he got a hint after he felt the mud under the water's surface starting to travel up his legs. He didn't get anywhere though, the dark muck had a tight grip around him and it was growing tighter. It would have been hard for Gaara if he hadn't had a layer of sand separating him from it, the only thing Gaara had to do was expand the sand outward and he could slip out.
"Whaaa!" Naruto started hacking away at the muck climbing up his body with a kunai, moving in an almost panicked manner.
"Calm down, if you struggle too much then it'll just be harder to get out." Kakashi told him, Kakashi didn't have trouble with it. If he surrounded himself with enough Chakra then it couldn't swallow him, apparently Iruka and Sasuke figured this out too, Naruto seemed to be the only one that hadn't.
From the swamp's waters, mud started to rise and pile on to completely by itself, growing larger and larger until it was an enormous unmistakable heap before them. The 5 of them watched as the demon started to take shape.
"Well, at least we know it's still here..." Iruka stared up at the still growing body, still trying to figure out how they would defeat something like this. They still had one thing to their advantage, and that was the cover of all of these trees surrounding them, they could easily hide themselves. Their only way to fight something like-- "What the--!" A strong impact slammed unexpectedly into his back and something dug into his shoulders as he was knocked forward, pushing him face down into the low waters.
Kakashi immediately looked back toward the source of the sudden out cry and splash, he found something he defiantly hadn't expected. A impish red demon with two sets of green eyes, one above the other, the buds of horns growing out of the top of it's head and a medium sized tail wiping behind it. "! It can't be the same demon as before?"
Iruka threw an elbow back into it's face hard enough to knock it off, he rolled over, coughing out inhaled water and then gasp loudly. Iruka sat up abruptly "No way, it can't be?" he recognized this demon, how could he not? The marks from where it had bit him on the leg was still purple.
The imp demon flipped upward, landing on it's feet "Iruka." it called out in almost normal voice, though there was a second, deeper demonic voice underlying the first one, it sounded like there were two of them speaking at once.
Iruka shuttered as he drew a Kunai and tossed it towards the imp demon, he struck it in the arm and forcing it to stumble back just long enough for Iruka to stand. "Why do you keep coming after me!" Iruka lunged forward, grabbing the imp by the neck with one hand and slamming it to the ground. Still with a firm grip on it's neck and holding it's head beneath the water's surface, Iruka drew his fist back and slammed in into the demon's face.
Before he could go in for another attack, or before the imp could push him off, they both felt a sharp change in the ground bellow them. "Huh?" Iruka looked around unexpectantly.
"Iruka!" Kakashi ran towards the pair "The ground is--" He was too late, before he could get out another word he saw the weak sink hole under Iruka and the demon give way and both of them fall through to a hole in the earth. "Iruka!"
"Oh man, Iruka!" Naruto immediately ran toward the hole, but he was stopped by Kakashi.
"No, you three handle the demon." Kakashi wasn't sure Naruto would be able to help Iruka much, or at all. That Demon was capable of things, it could mutate again into who knew what...Kakashi ran toward the hole and dived in.
"Well Naruto." Sasuke turned back toward the mass of growing black muck before them, watching a large arm force it's way outward and slam down to the ground before them. An opening appeared as the demon exposed it's mouth, forcing another arm from the shaping mass of black muck. "Here's your chance."
Naruto stared up at the muck demon with his mouth falling open slightly, then he looked over at Sasuke and scowled. He saw an unaware Gaara starting to build Chakra for a transformation, "Gaara, I'm going to do this on my own."
"What? That's foolish." He said "There's no way I can let--"
"I can do this." Naruto said. "Just trust me."
"Naruto." Gaara was confused at why he would want to attempt taking on something like this on his own, what was the point of putting himself in danger needlessly? "Are you sure?"
Naruto smirked "Just leave it to me!" He said confidently, that confidence was shaken along with everything else when a loud screeching cry sounded from the creature. It'd taken full form, a large torso with two arms and a head devoid of eyes, it didn't have a lower body.
'! What the hell did I just get my self in too?'
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Konohamaru yawned lightly, rolling over. He didn't care that he had just fallen asleep on the stairs, he barely noticed, what he did notice was that his head was still burning and his throat was sore, which was only made worse by the nagging itch to cough. Itachi warned him against that also, with Konohamaru's excess of Chakra and small body, coughing would only bring up that chakra in a corrosive manner and rip apart his throat. "Owwww..." He closed his eyes again, trying to go back to sleep.
"..." Kisame gently placed his foot on Konohamaru's back, waiting for a moment, Konohamaru didn't seem to notice, Konohamaru didn't seem to be able to notice anything. That same smirk from before subconsciously appeared as he lightly nudged Konohamaru forward toward the domino on the step below him. He probably should have felt bad about kicking Konohamaru down the stairs, but he didn't, infact he was looking forward to it.
Just a little farther...a little...! Kisame abruptly stopped, scowling to himself when he saw Itachi looking at him. "Don't even think about it."
"Think about what?" Kisame looked up innocently.
"Leave him alone." Itachi warned.
Konohamaru opened his eyes, glancing over at Itachi, then Kisame questingly. Then he cringed as a sneeze erupted from him unexpectedly bringing a flash of chakra outward, one that just barely reached a domino on the step below him. Kisame watched it wobble and shake, waiting, hoping it would fall...but somehow it stayed standing 'Oh come on, just fall already!'
"Is it suppose to hurt this much?" Konohamaru curled into a ball, clinching his burning head with both hands. "Damnniiiiitttt!"
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"Impudent Humans." The demon roared, it's voice shaking the trees and high weeds of the swamp when it spoke "SDI will fall."
"Impotent!" Naruto growled, rolling up his sleeves "Nobody calls me Impotent and gets away with it!"
Gaara just sighed and shook his head while an amused Sasuke resisted the urge to insult him right then.
"Alright demon!" Naruto yelled, charging toward the large monstrosity with a Kunai in hand " Come and--Ahaaa!" He was cut off when the muck demon lifted it's large hand and slammed it down on a ant like in comparison Naruto. Seconds later Naruto could be seen being sucked up the demon's arm as if being carried by the current of a river. "Whaaaa!"
"Naruto, it's body is made of mud." Gaara called up "Don't fight it head on! Use Chakra!"
Naruto rolled around and tried to swim back down the monster's arm, but he was quickly pulled inside of it's body. "Weaklings, is the best the great SDI has to offer?"
Naruto held his breath, feeling himself being smashed from all sides 'Ahhaaaaa! I HAVE TO DO THIS! I GATTA DO THIS!' Naruto clinched his body into a ball...pushing...pushing...struggling..."Gyaaaaa!" His Chakra was unleashed on one big, painful rush, and almost immediately afterwards he felt a strong push and he was forced out of the demon's body, sailing through the air, and then crashing into a tree behind Sasuke and Gaara.
"Naruto, maybe you should...rethink fighting this by yourself." Gaara reached into the clouding dust created from the crash and pulled Naruto out.
Pushing wet hair off of his face, Naruto declined "No way, I can do it...It just caught me off guard that--" Once again he was cut off as the demon slammed it's palm down on the three of them, flattening in the murky waters before clinching them in to it's fist and extracting their bodies from the ground.
"Pitiful humans." The Murk drew it's arm back, holding it self up with the other, then throwing the three of them outwards. Naruto, Gaara and Sasuke flew fell helplessly toward the ground, Sasuke slamming into a tree and breaking through completely and skimming along the ground to a stop a few feet away. Naruto hit the water's surface and skipped off like a stone, his body bouncing a few feet away before he fell to the ground again, sliding to a stop with a large trail behind him. Gaara was thrown the farthest, his body crashing into a cliff wall that separated the swamp from the plains above on higher ground a half mile away.
"!" Naruto cringed, feeling a sharp pain in his back where he landed. "Ahaa..." It became even worse as he tried to stand, threatening to bring him back down, but Naruto pushed through it. And he was fairly certain that a pain this intense could only mean something was broken, or close to it. "DAMNIT!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, feeling the Chakra pushing from the seal ripping through him and exploding outward.
The red energy engulfed his body, raising from his heals like a thick smoke. From that encasement of Chakra radiated a loud roar, causing the smoke like substance to dissipate enough to make his body visible. His hair grew longer along with the marks on his cheeks that became bolder and more defined. His finger nails grew into sharp, white claws, and fangs made themselves visible inside his mouth. He could feel the change, he could feel the cracked seal on his stomach pouring with energy, though he could no longer feel the pain in his back that should have been there. "I...can beat the demon!"
Naruto stood firm as the demon pulled itself toward them at an unexpectedly fast speed, being the closest it reached him first. Naruto jumped upward toward the demon, much higher then usual, his body covered in an outline of red as he drew his arm back and swiped at it's face with his claws. The demon cried out as a flood of thick mud was thrown from it's body and it was knocked back a little. "Damned fools!" It yelled, clearly hurt by Naruto's attack. The Muck lifted it's hand and grabbed Naruto out of the air, squeezing his body tightly.
"Naruto!" Sasuke, covered in a lately highly active curse seal, landed on Muck's fist, grabbing Naruto by the shoulders and pulling him out of the slick muck, but immediately he was smacked away by a powerful backhand from the demon. But not before freeing Naruto.
Sasuke was suddenly engulfed in sand, sand that halted his helpless flight and pulled him down safely to the ground. The muck drew it's free hand back and slammed it's fist into Naruto, but a similar barrier of sand hardened and surrounded and him, blocking the impact of the blow though not with out nearly breaking. Naruto grabbed on to the hardened wall with his claws and climbed to the top, jumping into the air and rising above the demon's arm just as Muck punched the barrier again, this time smashing through it.
With another deep roar, Naruto drew his foot back, using Chakra to hasten his descent until his body was a body was a blur of distorted crimson. "Eat this!" Naruto shouted, rocketing into the demon's head with a powerful kick, knocking it on to it's back with a tall splash of muddy water causing a deep imprint in the ground with earthquake resulting.
He landed next to Gaara and Sasuke.
"This is too dangerous, I'm not going to let you fight this alone." Gaara said, the tone in his voice and look in his eye leaving no room for argument. Naruto, having seen that look before, didn't make any. "I think I can at least hold it down with my sand." Gaara said "Then you and Sasuke should be able to fight it from there."
"Your not nearly powerful enough to slow it down let alone hold it." Sasuke objected, watching the demon's body melting away down into the swam, knowing there was no way they could fight it if it succeed in liquefying in to the ground. Also knowing there wasn't a way they could stop it from doing so. "And it's too late for that, I'm not even sure if there's a way to fight it when it takes this form."
In fact, how could they even defend against it? They couldn't stay off the ground, being the only way to avoid an attack from the muck. Damn gravity.
"I know that." Gaara removed the gourd from his back and sat it down behind him. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, beginning a set of complex hand seals.
"No way, your not going to use that are you?" Naruto said in disbelief "You don't know what it might do to you."
Gaara didn't seem to be listening, he just continued the sets of hand seals, ending with his right fist being clinched in his left hand. "Overclocking Ninpo!" Gaara's shadow changed shape, becoming a black spot under his feet, then it shifted into a golden light, a golden light projecting a clock with numbers surrounding it in roman numerals. The transparent hands spun around uncontrollably, the faster the spin, the brighter the light. Growing brighter and brighter until Gaara was completely consumed in a beam, followed by a burst of wind and a shockwave that knocked Naruto and Sasuke off their feet when the clock's image shattered and the light faded.
"G-Gaara?" Naruto looked up at the boy, seeing only one particular change in him, that his green eyes were glowing brightly and there was a darker tent to him...
Sand circled Gaara's heals in a tornadic spin, Gaara didn't seem to notice that. He clinched his fist tightly, causing the ground to shake violently. The water shifted around like an ocean during a storm, trees were being torn from their roots. Though Naruto and Sasuke didn't feel it, they were being lifted up by a mass of sand. That sand hardened into rock, rock that floated a good distance off the ground. 'He's doing all of this by himself?' Sasuke thought to himself, watching a stone walls being created and rising from the ground to incase Gaara's body just in time as the black muck shot upward out of the water and reached for Sasuke and Naruto. 'How can he make a defense that strong? It normally would have been easily broken through by something like that but it wasn't even scratched...'
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Iruka rolled over, forcing the imp down and holding him beneath himself as they tumbled through the dark hole. He felt the sharp impact as they landed on something solid, Iruka still mounted on top of it. The Imp arched upward, driving his knee into Iruka and kicking him off. Iruka slid backward, only after a few inches he felt himself going over the edge of whatever and they were on and falling again.
'What kind of place is this?' Iruka watched as the small light from the surface reseeded from him quickly, he had enough instinct to know when the ground was approaching so he was able to land on his feet. By the time he was on the ground again he couldn't see that light anymore, only faintly hear falling water from the direction of the hole in this pitch black cave. He could use that find his way out. 'Maybe if I get out in time I can trap that demon...' It surely couldn't find him again after that.
He heard the sound of something hitting the ground before him and saw the odd pairs of glowing green eyes open in front of him "Iruka." It was the Imp.
"Why do you keep following me?" Iruka retrieved another Kunai from the holder attached to his waist, watching the eyes closely to track it's movements. He saw them spring towards him and he lifted the Kunai to block it. The imp reached forward and latched on to his shoulders, prompting Iruka to drive the Kunai forward, slashing the Imp across it's chest then driving his shoulder into it's torso.
The Imp stumbled back, falling completely after a kick to the chest from Iruka. It's eyes instinctively closed, hiding itself with the distinct knowledge that Iruka couldn't see in the dark. 'Where is it...' Iruka looked around carefully, trying to find some way to track it. Sound wasn't working, there was too much noise from falling water. Though he didn't have Kiba's sense of smell, which would have worked, he was the best tracker since he was the one that taught Kiba all of his skills.
Iruka knelt down, pressing his hand against the small pool of water layering over it...He felt small vibrations, one coming from his left where the water from above was falling into the pool he was inside of, and another coming from the right...Iruka jumped into the air abruptly and tossed the Kunai towards the Imp behind him.
The Demon, surprised that Iruka had found him, spun around, catching the blade with his tail and flicking it back at Iruka. He didn't even have time to notice it until it struck him in the chest, luckily the side opposite of his heart. "!" Iruka landed hard on his back, he was sure he'd hit him... Ignoring the pain he reached for the Kunai in his chest, but his hand was suddenly pulled away and pinned above his head, 'I...couldn't even sense it coming...' Well, he was quite aware of the Imp's presence when he saw those glowing green eyes open, looking directly at him, it was unnerving.
"You said...you want to know why I keep ...coming after you ...I...can feel you..." The Imp slowly lowered his head toward the kunai embedded in his torso, though encountering some resistance from Iruka. Eventually he got close enough for him to remove the knife with is tail, then run his tongue over the seeping blood. "I'm drawn to you...I...need you..., I can feel you...you taste good." The demon pressed it's mouth against the wound, sinking it's teeth into his flesh and inhaling sharply.
Iruka didn't just feel his blood being drained, he felt something else being drawn out from him. 'It's...absorbing my Chakra!' He could see it, small streams of light were being pulled from his body and into the demon's mouth. "That's just creepy." Iruka forced his hand out of the demon's grip and grabbed on to the Imp's head "Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" A blast of sharp wind shot out of his palm, blowing the Demon away.
There was no use of Iruka hiding from him, or even using concealing Jutsu in a fight, the demon was drawn to him. Mainly by blood though it looked as if also by chakra, and it wanted more...it needed more.
"Iruka!" Kakashi dived downward, his body illuminated by the light of a very static Chidori discharging lighting in his palm. Kakashi drove the force into the demon's back, it roared out loudly..."What?" Kakashi looked down at Iruka...his body started sparking, then streams of electricity came out of nowhere, causing him to cry out in pain also.
Kakashi landed on his feet while demon fell face down in the short waters. "Iruka!" Kakashi was fast enough to catch Iruka before he hit the ground, whatever had just happened was enough to knock him out...Kakashi hit the demon with the Chidori...and Iruka was electrocuted too. It had said before for that it could feel Iruka...and if Kakashi hit the demon and Iruka was damaged with the same kind of attack. Then that could only mean one thing, they were connected? 'What the hell did that thing do to you?'
Kakashi sat Iruka down on the ground, checking him over as best he could in the dark. He was completely unconscious and alive "Iruka...!" Kakashi looked up, the ground started shaking, hard, 'Damnit, not now!' Kakashi picked up a discarded Kunai and jumped into the air to avert the oncoming cave in.
The Imp lifted it's head from the water weakly, coughing out some of the liquid from his lungs. "I-Iruka..." He moaned with a light bit of pain, very aware of the remaining electricity coursing through his body because of the water, there were even small streaks of lighting still streaming across his body. Biting back the pain, the demon reached outward and grabbed on to the next solid object and pulled himself forward, stopping to cough out some blood 'He...can...make me...better...I need him.'
! - !- !
With failed attempts to reach Naruto and Sasuke, or to break Gaara's defenses, the Muck demon had no choice but to reform, which was what Gaara had been waiting for. Even in Overclocking, his Sand was weak, some times powerless against water, which is why he was depending on Naruto and Sasuke. If not Naruto, Sasuke knew a way to solve his problem.
"The bets off." Naruto said, "Gaara jumped in."
Actually Sasuke had intervened to help Naruto, but he had no choice since the demon was attacking indiscriminately, or at least that's what he said to himself. But on the other hand... "No way dead-last, you were getting your ass kicked." He snorted, watching the muck pile up in front of them, taking shape again.
"Die Humans!" The Muck opened it's mouth widely and spit out a ball off black mud, after which it started in hailing with a powerful suction that the ball seemed to be moving too fast to be effected by, though everything else was.
"Oh shit!" Naruto veered back, it was too large for him to doge, and the vacuum the muck was creating inhibited his speed drastically, he had to struggle not to be pulled in. "Get ready! It's going to hit--"
The Curse seal erupted, forcefully invoking Sharingan to take effect and a hazy purple Chakra to disburse over him 'What--what happened?' He had more pressing matters to worry about, Sasuke started the hand seals to a fire jutsu, swallowing air with deep breaths, Sasuke blew outward, though instead of regular flames, a blue fire was forced out of his mouth in a enormous wall.
The wall of blue fire engulfed the large projectile, almost instantly the ball fell from the sky, frozen solid. "Whoa...Sasuke? When did you learn that?" Naruto looked down at the falling ice in amazement.
Sasuke shook his head, feeling a crushing pressure on the inside of him pushing out. It was painful, just as before. "Just get ready!" He yelled in aggravation, drawing in another deep breath and blowing out normal flames this time though in greater amounts then last time. The wave of fire propagated outward, colliding with the muck demon.
It howled loudly, surrounded by intense fire. "Stupid fools." The muck demon dove it's arm out of the flames, driving it's fingers in to the ground and pulling it self through the flames, seemingly effected at first glance. But exactly what Sasuke had wanted to happen, happened. The mud that made up it's body had hardened, it wasn't liquid anymore, though physically it had more defense, still...
Naruto smirked, This was a perfect time for one good Rasengan ...
Sand rose from the ground the size a tidal wave, substantial amounts of all falling on and surrounding the hardened muck demon, smashing it down and trapping it underneath. "Desert Rain." All of the sand rose off of the monster and floating in the air , forming into a grainy cloud that had to take a lot of strength on Gaara's part to create as well as lift. Then all at once the tons and tons of sand came down in a torrent spike shaped rain drops so thick that the demon couldn't be seen through it, though Naruto and Sasuke could be hear the creature being ripped apart quite easily.
"Whoa, Gaara." Naruto looked down to shield Gaara had been using to protected himself, but it was completely gone. "Huh? Where is Gaara?"
"Forget about that Naruto...look around." Sasuke said, a slightly fearful tone in his voice, defiantly surprised.
"Huh, what is--What hell!" Naruto looked around, watching more and more piles of muck growing from the swamp around them. 5 or so more of them, surrounding them. "There's no way we can fight all of these."
"You two should move. Preferably very far away."
Naruto nearly fell off the rock platform when he heard Gaara's voice behind him, Gaara grabbed him by his collar and pulled him back on to his feet. "Where did you come from?" Naruto asked, panting lightly from the surprise. "Nevermind, We have to find Iruka and Kakashi and get out of here."
"You two just leave, I can handle these on my own." Gaara said in his usual calm manner, then he lifted the headphones around his neck over his ears and started messing with the CD player on his waist while his body started to sink into the rock pillar, completely disappearing with no trace. And just to give them both a little incentive, Gaara let the platforms holding Naruto and Sasuke up break apart.
The mountain of sand that had just destroyed the first Muck demon started to shake and shift around on it's own, right before exploding loudly into a cloud of dust. Something much larger jumped out of the cloud, landing directly in the center of the 5 demons...Shukaku, complete with illuminated eyes and a tan glow over his body, oddly enough there were a pair of headphones hanging awkwardly over his large ears that made the fierce creature look a lot less dangerous...if anything he was more, much more. "So, you've set a trap for us, and I assume there isn't really a Mr. Meioto..."
"So you think now that you've change that you stand a chance." One of the demons said. "Your still just a weak human.." Another one said "You SDI bastards die now!"
Shukaku didn't hear anything after that, the blaring music prevented him from listening to any other responses from the demons since it came to a rift and the loudest part of Gaara's favorite song, It also prevented a few other things, like himself being taken over by the demon he'd transformed into. "My existence wont be erased by the likes of you!" Shukaku charged forward, lifting his paw and swiping one of the muck demons ahead of him, it's whole body flew backwards in a mass of liquid. Shukaku drew in a breath and spit out a massive ball of sand that smashed into it while the demon was still in mid air.
Shukaku turned around with a quick agility that made his body a tan blur for a split second, slamming his tail into a Muck coming from behind, then rising to his heels and driving his head into one approaching from his left, next kicking the one behind him with his hind legs. The fifth came from his right side through Shukaku was expectant. He dropped to the ground and rolled hard, rolling directly through it and causing it to fall face first to the ground. Shukaku sprang on to his feet behind it, drawing back a paw and swiping it across it's back hard enough to send it flying forward.
'He's so strong now...' Sasuke found himself taking a step back, watching a transformed Gaara beating the demons so easily.
"Go Gaara!" Naruto cheered him on. "Hey, I like that song!"
Shukaku stood up on his hind legs, adjusting the awkward sitting headphones on his ears before he drove his head into the ground. The faint vibrations could be felt when he howled into the earth, then his Desert rain attack rose up from the ground, shooting upward in much thicker spikes then previous before. The muck demons were torn apart, leaving all of them just a pile of black mud scattered across the ground.
"He's not even tired." Naruto sat down the ground, seeing the sand fall and Shukaku's fury body in the center of it all.
"It's not over yet." Sasuke told him, pointing to one of the piles of mud...at first it seemed completely lifeless...but it started to twitch, all of the scattered liquid did so at the same time. All of it started to pull together, piling up on each other again. "It looks like all of them...joining together."
"What! No way, Gaara cant handle something that strong, even with Overclocking." Naruto said worriedly. "We have to help him!"
Shukaku stood on his hind legs again, watching the demons pile on to each other, already much wider and taller then him and not yet finished growing. '!'
"No more of this! Humans will die now!" It's loud voice thundered "SDI will be destroyed by my hands and no one else's!"
'The demons are even fighting over who wants to kill us...' Shukaku thought, taking a step back as the growing body started to become frightful even to him. 'The different species weren't working together, they were fighting each other to gain claim on our lives. When Iruka said we were breeding animosity, I never thought it could possibly be this bad...' That was a scary thought, but it did make since, SDI had killed some rather powerful demons. And large numbers, it seemed like every day for the last 6 months they'd been hunting something for a mission or just because it was a threat to Konoha or another populated area...this was a very scary thought. To think a whole race was after them...
But more pressingly, these demons...or he should say this single demon looked as if it could actually do so.
! - ! - !
Kakashi landed tiredly at the bottom of the dark cave, averting a cave-in in the dark wasn't an easy task. He dragged himself through the ankle high pool of water, searching around for Iruka. '?' He noticed a faint green light just ahead, and a light blue one, almost like Chakra... 'That light...almost the same as...!' "Iruka!" Mentally kicking himself for leavening Iruka alone and defenseless, Kakashi ran towards the light.
When he got close enough he could see what was happening clearly. The blue light was Iruka's chakra, and that green light was the Imp demon's eyes. He was sitting against the wall, an unconscious Iruka being held in his lap and his fangs buried into Iruka's neck. Iruka's Chakra was visible because the demon was also absorbing it too. "I-Iruka!"
Kakashi grabbed the demon by his head and pulled it's teeth from Iruka's neck. "Get off of him damnit!" Kakashi pushed Iruka's dormant body to the side, kicking the demon away. He grabbed Iruka before he could fall in to the water, wishing he could see right now. "Iruka, Iruka!"
Kakashi wrapped his arm around Iruka's waist and lifted him on to his feet, leaning him against the wall. He felt a strong sense of fault about this, though he didn't know the demon was some how linked to Iruka when he used the Chidori on it, it was his attack that made Iruka pass out in the first place, and he was the one that left Iruka alone afterwords. "Iruka, you have to wake up..." Kakashi lightly slapped Iruka's cheeks, he felt cold... "Iruka!"
"Mmnnanaannn..." Iruka moaned incoherently, he was light headed, dizzy, weak, short of breath. "Ahaagggaaaraaa..."
Kakashi resisted the urge to hug him, "I'm so sorry, I wouldn't have interfered this would have never happened." He was right, Iruka was holding his own and had a very good chance of winning, especially after the training Kakashi was giving him from his request. "Iruka..." Kakashi squinted his eyes a bit when a light-blue light flashed, making their surrounding's visible. 'How dose this thing keep mutating?'
The Imp like demon clinched it's head and groaned painfully, it's body started to bulk up, the muscles in his arms, legs, torso grew substantially. His tail grew wider, stronger, longer, and white horns sprouted from his head, the four small, unremarkable green eyes became two normal sized white ones with brown pupils. "URgaaaa!" It's voice was deeper now too, completely demonic in nature with no second tones. With a rush of blood from his back, wings sprouted, medium sized ones covered in black feathers.
"Oh...no..." Kakashi hadn't even noticed that his mouth was hanging open. "What the hell are you?"
The demon stood up strait, about a foot taller then before, no longer just an imp but a full devil. "Get away, he's mine!" The vampire roared, charging at Kakashi with wings outstretched.
"Leave Iruka-sama alone!" From above Kakashi came flying down, grabbing on to the demon's horns and slamming his face into the ground.
Kakashi looked at himself, realizing that he was staring at his Doppelganger, 'Iruka-sama?'. Then he heard Iruka moan in pain. "Stop it! If you hurt it you hurt Iruka!" he growled
The copy looked at them, then the demon glowing with the light blue Chakra. "What did you do to Iruka-sama!"
"I didn't do anything!" Kakashi shouted bitterly, he had to get Iruka way from these two, he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. But he couldn't leave, if he did his Iruka infatuated double would no doubt beat the hell out of the demon and do what ever it took to kill him. And if the devil died...
"You son of a bitch!" Kakashi's double grabbed the devil the his horns, ready to attack again when the devil bucked him upward, then grabbed by the neck. The demon drew his free arm back and punched him in the stomach, his strength sent the mirror flying backwards, landing right next to Kakashi and Iruka.
'Damnit! I have to get him away from these two!'
