Chapter 11

"Sora! Wake up!" Naruto shouts again bringing our attention back to the problem at hand. Seeing Naruto try to kick the beast boy only for the energy fingers to wrap impossibly up his leg and slam him back down into the earth. Creating a small crater from the impact. "Naruto!" Sakura gasps pushing to her feet and running to his aide. The beast boy reaches up and grabs the sides of his own head as he opens his mouth. A bright white ball forming in front of his mouth my heart gives a shuddering pound.

"Sakura! Get out of there!" I yell in fear before I shove myself to my own feet and push my exhausted body into a run in their direction. Sakura looks away from Naruto to the beast boy and gasps just as he lets loose the power he had been building up. Faster! Come on, get there! I yell at myself. "Run! Everyone!" She lets out just as the ball of light crashes over the ground.

Stopping in front of them I suck in a breath shoving what little bit of energy I have left out of my body. Faster! Do it! I yell at myself feeling my body arguing with me. Creating a dome of my blue light I hold my arms in front of my face feeling Naruto and Sakura inside the shell with me. Panting I focus solely on my shield, tightening the flow of energy, hardening it in place. As the ball reaches us I step my right leg back behind my left steadying my stance feeling the power pushing against my shield. Threatening to break it and me along with it.

I can feel the burning power of concentrated energy against the shield as if it was on my own skin. I could feel my shield wavering making me yell in both pain and frustration. "What's this?" I heard Naruto ask quietly as I feel him looking around.

"I'm not.. sure." Sakura breathes before I feel their eyes on me. My feet scooting back from the force against my shield.

"This is my shield." I explain to them with a grunt, my gaze flickering from a red haze to clear and back again. The pressure building against me until I feel the power slip around my shield and move past us.

As the smoke clears leaving the beast boy in view I drop my shield and nearly collapse. Catching my balance I stare in front of me at him, my breathing heavy with my own lack of energy. "You guys alright?" I ask in between breaths.

"Yeah, what about you?" Naruto says calmly and I nod in response to him.

"I need to heal you, Naruto." Sakura says gently as I feel Naruto trying to move.

"You more than anyone... should know how quickly I heal." Naruto says as he manages to get up. "Anyway, I will get Sora back, no matter what, then you can take care of his wounds."

"Naruto... Okay." Sakura says quietly before she too gets up. Naruto begins to walk towards Sora, I step forward as I see his eyes roll into the back of his head. Reaching out I catch him before he can hit the ground. "Naruto!"

"I'm fine." He grunts gently placing a hand on my shoulder as he stands straight again. "You two get back to the others, this is between Sora and me." He utters quietly as he tries to catch his breath.

"Right." Sakura speaks barely above a whisper as Naruto moves past me, his steps slowly picking up speed before he actually runs at the beast boy. "Kira." She speaks lightly and I nod, jumping with her out of the crater to the others. As I land though my knees buckle beneath me. Sakura goes to catch me but I shrug her off.

"I'm alright." I tell her as I managed to keep my feet underneath me. "Thank you." I whisper. My eyes catching Yamato's briefly and he smiles.

"Sakura, I need you." Ino says shakily taking Sakura's hand and pulling her towards Choji in the trees. She then kneels as Choji holds his hands out for her. Her hands begin to glow green as she tries to heal him. "My medical ninjutsu couldn't heal him." Ino explains with worry watching Sakura.

"Wounds from the nine-tails chakra." Sakura tells her as she shakes her head and her healing energy disappears. "Take longer to heal. A sharp needle-like pain will linger in the wound."

"I'll be okay." Choji says as Yamato moves over to look at his hands.

"As I thought. It's just like when Sakura was wounded." Yamato states making Kiba turn around in distaste.

"So what then? Does that mean Naruto is the only one who can control him?!" Walking over to them I nearly wince at the pain still in my leg causing Yamato to look at me.

"That would seem to be the case." He sighs and closes his eyes.

"No way!" Kiba responds looking down. I close my eyes a moment before clicking my tongue and turning back towards the fight. Seeing Naruto run at the beast boy repeatedly just to get hit back again.

"That hurts!" Naruto groans after the last hit he took. Making me sigh. Feeling Yamato walk up beside me as his eyes too were on the fight.

"You risked your life back there." He speaks low enough so the others couldn't hear him. "Hn." He nearly chuckles making me look up at him. "You saved them didn't you."

"You act like you didn't expect that." I mutter making him chuckle briefly again before he sobers becoming more serious again.

"Well to be perfectly honest." He says lowly. "I didn't." I shrug at his words seeing Naruto standing in front of the beast boy just before he lets out another howl. This time sending the red energy outwards like whips. Raising my arms to my face I fight to see what was going on through the gusting energy-filled wind.

"Captain Yamato! Sora is acting different from Naruto!" Sakura yells over the wind and roars causing me to look at the two of them. Seeing Sakura now on the other side of Yamato.

"That's right." Yamato says with his left arm raised to help protect himself as he continues to stare down at the two. "This is just a theory, but I don't think Sora is capable of housing the nine-tails chakra." Dropping my hands I look down at the howling beast boy. I couldn't help but feel he was right.

"The energy is escaping from his body at an alarming rate." I say bringing their attention back to me before I smile.

"Kira, this isn't a time to smile! With what's happening to Sora and Naruto is down there!" Sakura hollers at me just so she can be heard and I shake my head causing a sound of confusion to come from her and Yamato. "What is it?" She asks now looking back down at the two boys.

"Soon the energy will leave his body completely. Being rejected by Sora's own being it will dissipate into nothing from no longer having a host."

"But that!" Yamato gasps and I nod again.

"The nine-tails is a demon that is housed inside of Naruto. I know this. I didn't even have to be here at the beginning to figure out what was going on with Sora. Somehow just a part of the nine tails chakra was sealed inside of him. That is an amazing feat to be sure." I pause feeling them watch me again. "But unlike Naruto, Sora doesn't have the actual demon inside of him. Just energy. There is no way for it to replenish itself from the main source. Eventually, it will be used up." I look away from the scene in front of me to meet their gazes. "To me, that was obvious since the first sight I had of this situation So we had only needed to buy time and make sure he didn't cause too much damage." I look down at my hands as I feel the others moving closer to us to be able to hear what is being said easier. "To put it this way. Sora does not have the ninetails itself inside of him. He cannot generate the demon's energy, that would be impossible. So once the reservoir is gone. It's gone. That's it."

Looking back down at the scene playing out I smile. We did it. This is the end. Seeing Naruto running for Sora again I nearly sigh. Naruto then punches Sora knocking him to the ground. Naruto spent and hurt, lands face first but he continues to watch his friend. "Naruto!" Sakura yells as the energy makes a ringing sound. Reacting with the air and causing lightning. It begins to swirl around the two boys raising higher up into the air. Until it begins to look a lot like the fox demon itself.

It roars out with black-lined yellow eyes the head being the only thing truly distinguishable amongst the swirling red tornado. It lengthens out compressing its own energy to make its body more like a snake as he roars down at us. "What is this? Is this the... Nine-tails?" Ino asks above the noise.

"What an enormous amount of chakra." Kiba gasps staring disbelievingly up at it. The image then fizzes out in that electric ringing again as it begins to distort.

"What?" Sakura asks only to have her question further reiterated by Lee.

"What's happening?"

"The chakra is dissipating." I tell them watching the sight before me, my ponytail whipping around me, smacking against my still stinging flesh.

"So then.." Sakura breathes as it fades completely. The wind and debris dying down to nothing. Leaving Naruto and Sora laying on the ground.

"Sora." Naruto breathes looking towards his friend. "Hey, are you alright? Sora!" When his friend doesn't wake up Naruto raises up on one arm. "Sora!" Sora then makes a minute amount of movement as Naruto crawls on the ground over to him. "You're finally awake, Sora."

"Let's go." Yamato says and I nod. The rest of us following behind him towards the two on the ground in the center of the huge crater.

"Naruto.." Sora breathes making Naruto smile.

"let's go home, Sora." He continues to crawl slowly up to him.

"Go home?" Sora struggles to speak. "Where am I supposed to go home to?"

"What are you saying? The leaf village of course!"

"Konoha... You mean the village I tried to destroy?"

"That doesn't matter!" At Naruto's words, I stiffen and my movements stop. Causing my gaze to fall to the ground. "You're our friend!" So, your actions don't matter? Is that what he is saying. As long as you have friends here then nothing you've done against the village matters? "It doesn't matter what people say. We're friends!" Shaking my head I look up as Sora gasps.

"That's right!" Sakura says as the rest of them stop next to the two boys. Even from here, I can feel them smiling warmly down to the boy.

"He looks okay." Choji says happily as Ino pipes in. "I'm glad!"

"Sai?" Sakura suddenly asks making all of us look towards Asuma and Sai.

Sai looks down a moment as he starts to talk. "Would you guys include me, too?" I couldn't help but smile. It was almost as if he had spoken my words for me.

"Hell no." Naruto mutters to him with a sour look on his face. Causing both Sai and I to look at him.

"What?! No way!" Sai exclaims in disbelief before everyone starts to laugh as if it had all been a joke. Sai raises his left hand and cups his chin trying to figure out what was going on. Walking over to him I put a hand on his shoulder, careful to not hurt him. "What was so funny about that just now?" He asks as he looks over at me.

"They were joking. You are their friend." I tell him lightly as I look to the group of what used to be kids. "They knew by saying no it would confuse you."

"Why would they joke about something like that?" He asks and I shake my head.

"I'm not entirely sure. Maybe to alleviate the tension from this fight?" I look back over to him. "Don't think too hard on it. They are your friends. I've never known another group of people so willing to accept someone else. Just to create bonds they can share." Silence fell between us as he thinks about what I said. Yamato who had just been laughing looks at me. A smile he has never shown my way etching his creepy face.

He walks away from the group towards Sai and I casually before stopping next to me. "Kira, a word." He says gently and I nod to him turning away from Sai to follow him away from the noisy group. Stopping in the trees he looks out over the village. Lit aglow by the lights in the buildings. "I want you to be honest with me." He sighs but makes no move to look at me. Coming up next to him I fold my arms in front of me. The skin is still pink from the previous wounds. "What you said to Sakura.." He pauses taking in the silence. "Is it true?"

I sigh openly, feeling two more people lingering in the trees just out of sight. Their eyes were upon the two of us. "All of it." I breathe to him causing him to suck in a breath. "It's all true." I reiterate so he knows I'm serious. "I'm not human."

"After all this time, why do you finally tell us now?" He asks and I look down sifting through my own thoughts. I was mostly telling myself those things to regain control. But the cat's out of the bag now and there's no way to stuff Tora back in it.

"I guess, it's as I said. I want to be accepted. For all that I am. Naruto and Sakura." I look up at the village seeing Yamato now looking down at me. "They've accepted me even without me giving them a reason to. Knowing I'm different, won't change their views."

"That explains why you risked your life to save them." He chuckles and I nod. Well, I guess they know most of it now.

"For our eavesdroppers." I speak up without looking in their direction ignoring Yamato's startlement as if he wasn't expecting me to know they were there. "There is one more thing for you to know." I take in a breath. "I don't care if you like me. I don't care if you don't trust me. I will protect Naruto and Sakura with my life." I turn to face them as Tsunade and Shizune come off of behind a tree. "However, that becomes much harder without me having a constant supply of nourishment." I straighten my shoulders. Steeling myself for what I am now about to tell them. "I don't eat like you do, well I can, but it doesn't do the same for me. I will need blood packs to keep me going. If I can't get them, it would be as if a human was starved for a long period of time. When they see food they'll devour it without any reservations or control." I raise my hands as I shrug in a why not movement. "I'm telling you this because I'm completely out and I don't want you guys getting upset with me for stealing."

"So that's the rest of it." Tsunade smiles and crosses her arms looking at me. I very nearly tilt my head in question before my eyes widen with realization. Sighing I drop my hands to my sides.

"I see, so you read the report from that time." I speak aloud. It's understandable really. "Yes, that is what I kept from the old man. The last bit of information he thought would be critical. Just because my eyes gave me away." I turn to look back to the village now wanting nothing more than to be away from them. "My gaze tends to becomes shrouded in red. The only sign I have to my eyes changing colors and it doesn't turn red all the time either. It happens when I am in a highly emotional state, damaged or… When I'm thirsty and am in need of blood. Originally, I refused to tell the old man because I seen him as family. He was a grandfather to me. I didn't want to jeopardize that relationship." I explain to them feeling the pit of pain brewing in my stomach from even talking about it.

When Shizune goes to speak I raise my hand to silence her. It's my turn to talk. Everyone always talks at me wanting me to tell them everything. So now they just need to shut up and listen before I change my mind. "I didn't hate the old man because of the choice he made. I never did. I understood his reasons. He knew that Orochimaru wanted me. Even marked me. There was so much he didn't know about me that he feared for the safety of this village. My childish antics brought on by a chemical imbalance didn't really allow me to cling to my more rational thoughts. I still wish he would have trusted me but what is, what is." I sigh and look at the smiling women. "I was never going to give in to the curse mark. I was frustrated yes with my own shortcomings but I knew, that if I did go to him. My life would be nothing but hell. A constant repeat of those weeks with the interrogation core. Unlike the old man. Orochimaru would stop at nothing to figure out what makes me tick."

"To bring this speech to a close the part that no one ever believes." I sigh. Not sure if I'm going to regret telling them any of this. "I am ninety-seven years old next month. In my family, I am still an infant. So you see why I don't go around shouting it from the rooftops." If this village can accept people who have openly attacked them. People who have gone against them. People like Sasuke who has slipped into darkness and would kill them without hesitation. Then they can accept me for all I am.