This chapter had maybe 100 words yesterday when I left for work in the morning; I came home a man possessed and passed out before I could write this AN. Funny how that works, huh?

Review response:

1. Noahendless: Yuurei is coming into his own as a demon, including a (relative) lack of a moral compass, compared to most of his contemporaries. In Makai, might makes right, and power is the driving force of how demons act toward one another.

2. TigrezzTail: It was a very, "I feel like doing this, and nobody can stop me" moment for him; strictly speaking, Naruto can't afford for the passage of time to be the driving force of his demonification. Killing people and absorbing their strength is his primary method, because the stronger his body is, the more of his power he can display. This is one reason he hasn't made attempts to consolidate the strength he gathered in the City of the Dead, while Shukaku did so almost immediately after being given some of it.

Let's get this trainwreck moving.


"I have to say, I wasn't expecting a welcoming party."

Yuurei looked at the gathered shinobi, cool mist sticking to his skin before the heat inside of his body caused it to evaporate. He had traveled with Yugito, Tayuya, and Fu, running across the mild sea's waves rather than wasting time sealing a ship that he didn't know how to sail. Though Tayuya was pale, and more than a little ragged, Fu and Yugito barely even seemed winded; the redhead muttered darkly under her breath about the inherent unfairness of her fellow women having demons sealed inside of them.

"You must be joking, Yuurei," Kidomaru said, grinning. "With as much chakra as you were using to get here, you probably messed with sensor-types as far away as Kusa. Why wouldn't we come?"

"Never thought I'd be glad to see you fuckers," Tayuya grimaced. Without hesitation, she leaned into the back side of Yuurei's left shoulder, not caring about the fact that she was essentially showing weakness to her teammates in the Sound Four.

"You heard that, right, Kidomaru? She said she missed us!" Sakon's eyes lit up, a sly expression covering his face as he spoke. "Please tell me we got that on camera."

The distinctive sound of a camcorder's side-panel closing shut came from Jirobo's hands, a puff of smoke causing the evidence to disappear to a safe place before Tayuya could make an attempt to destroy it. To the side, Sai and Ayame shook their heads in distaste.

"I'm glad to see you well, Banchou," Sai said. "With companions that prestigious, I'm surprised that any help was called for."

Sai's follow-up was meant for Ayame, who'd sent him the message that their erstwhile leader was making his way to Kirigakure. Personally, the young Ne commander would rather settle his own affairs in Konoha, but he had news that Naruto—or Yuurei, as he chose to title himself now—would want to hear. It could wait until later, of course; there was little doubt in Sai's mind that a return to Konoha was the last thing on his leader's list of wants and needs.

"Oh, please, you know you wanted to come." Ayame's snark wasn't missed by anyone present. She walked up to Yuurei with a smile on her face, but mixed emotions in her eyes, and the brunette's arms slipped underneath his before coming across his shoulders in a hug.

"You're a real ninja now," the demon said with pride. "I'm happy you're here."

The warm tone of his voice wasn't missed by anyone, and even Sai was somewhat taken aback by the tender closeness his compatriots shared. As children in Konoha, Ayame had served as the Banchou's right hand, but they had never seemed as close as they were now. For Yugito, Fu, and the Otoyon, who almost exclusively knew Yuurei by his willingness to fight and kill, it was a shock to their systems. Yuurei closed both of his eyes as the bottom of his jaw came to rest over Ayame's hair, a gentle smile on his face as his left arm clutched her from the back and held her close to his chest.

"I thought you were dead. We all did. And you sent a clone to tell us? You couldn't be bothered to do it yourself?" Ayame questioned, and Yuurei felt a pang of guilt in his heart.

"I couldn't," he affirmed, his thumb beginning to rub a gentle line into the smaller woman's shoulder. "The fewer people in Konoha who know that I'm alive, the better. The two of you, Shikamaru, Sasuke...that's all that it needs to be. Naruto died in glorious service to his village, as his parents before him. Yuurei, the Ghost, will honor that legacy."

"Not to interrupt, but we need to get moving. The fact that we beat anybody else by this much time is luck, and all of us need to get out of here before we figure out our next course of action. I'll defer to your judgement, Yuurei." Ukon's voice echoed from behind his brother's head, and the demon's eyes snapped open as he moved on from his brief and gentle rest. Releasing Ayame, Yuurei backed up a step and locked his eyes on the northeastern horizon.

"They're fighting," he observed as his Sharingan spun lazily in its socket. "Kidomaru, Jirobo, Sakon—take Fu, Yugito, and Tayuya wherever you've been holding out. Sai, Ayame...with me."

"Fuck off! I can fight!" Tayuya's protest was cut short when Yugito put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head when the redhead looked in her direction.

"We've been moving almost non-stop for weeks. Just because we can keep moving doesn't mean we should, Tayuya." Yugito's stoic face held a slight tinge of resentment, her slightly-narrowed eyes almost wanting to accuse their master of leaving them behind.

"I've treated you too harshly. Take this chance to rest, and wait for my return." Yuurei admitted his fault with a look behind his back, and his eyes were focused on Tayuya and Yugito moreso than Fu. Having said his piece, he sprang into action, and the remaining members of the newly-joined group watched as Sai and Ayame followed after him. Though he'd placed a compulsion seal on Yugito and forged a contract with Tayuya, Sai and Ayame had grown up with him—they were his closest and most trusted friends.

"This way to the hideout," Kidomaru said with a wave of his hand. Moving at a ninety degree angle to the path that Yuurei had taken, the spider-summoner led his teammates and Yuurei's companions away from the beach they'd met on.

Thin forestry quickly came into view, and Kidomaru changed directions a few times in order to avoid being found too easily. Finally stopping, he made a half-Ram seal, and looked back at his newly-enlarged group with a grin that soon faltered.

"We're he—" He froze mid-sentence, counting heads and hair colors. "Where is Tayuya?"

Yugito and Fu jerked their heads behind them, only to see that the trailing redhead was nowhere to be found.

"You don't think she..." Fu trailed off, her eyes meeting Yugito's.

"Yep. She definitely did," Yugito replied. The blonde closed her eyes and took an audible deep breath. Exhaling, her mismatched red eyes opened, and she shook her head. "Fuck it. Unlike the rest of you assholes, I actually have to follow his orders."

Yugito's harsh tone was accompanied by a deep-set glare and the violent trembling of her hands and shoulders. From the day he placed the enslavement seal on her, this was the furthest Yugito had been from Yuurei's side, and only when faced with his absence did she realize how comfortable she'd gotten in her proximity to him. If anyone was going to fight by his side, it should be her! Not some half-trained Chunin that Orochimaru had robbed from Konoha's cradle, not a half-dead Tayuya whose greatest expertise was her Genjutsu capabilities, her!

Matatabi's attempts to soothe her indignant rage meant nothing in the wake of the brand that her brain had been imprinted with. In spite of the fact that it was only partially absorbed into her subconscious mind, that was enough for it to completely derail her train of thought in irritation. Had the entire seal been taken into her body, it would have demanded that she belong to Yuurei, and her subservience was required. As it stood, there was room in the margins for her brain to fill in some blanks—she belonged with him, and any newfound sense of servility was optional.

Aware of the many pairs of eyes on her, and the swirling storm of chakra that she was unconsciously gathering inside of her meridians, Yugito choked her rage down before disappearing into the underground safehouse that the Sound Four had temporarily appropriated from Orochimaru.

The three and a half men looked between one another and Fu, who raised her hands in helplessness and confusion—frankly, she knew even less than they did.


Silence fell over the battlefield as Yuurei stepped forward, a sandworm tooth in his right hand. Both of the opposing sides felt a horrendous presence approaching them, as the demon made no attempt to conceal his presence, and the already low visibility of the misty plain seemed to deteriorate further under the presence of a nameless darkness.

"Who dares?" He shouted, his gaze higher than the heavens as he looked down on all those gathered before him. A kunai flew in his direction, but before it could get within arm's reach of him, a black flicker sent that same kunai back to the ninja who'd thrown it. After it struck the offending ninja in the throat, a young woman in black full-body armor appeared in his place. Though one or two of the nearby ninja had the awareness to get away in time, Ayame's dual-wielded kunai split through a series of throats. Blood spattered against her armor, and the fierce expression on her face was accentuated by those drops of blood that flew onto her cheeks and nose.

A series of ink tigers rose up from the ground beneath Yuurei's feet, their voracious roars resounding as they crashed into the jutsu aimed at Ayame. With an opening presented to her, the brunette flicked her two kunai away without bothering to see if they killed anyone else, and her hands raced through a series of seals before the earth erupted in an explosive spray of grass and dirt beneath a point she specified. Her armor hardly seemed to slow her down, and the bare-handed punch she delivered to an unlucky Kiri-nin left his ribcage without any ribs in it.

"Are you with the rebels?" One of the former aggressors asked in terror, barely guarding herself from death as Sai and Ayame coordinated their assault like the veteran partners they were. At her question, Yuurei let out a barking laugh that made the other side of the conflict freeze in terror.

"Not at all!" Yuurei's voice exuded a mocking sense of superiority. "It doesn't matter if one, half, or all of you die—I came to kill you!"

Having said so, he launched his glittering sandworm tooth toward the kunoichi who'd spoken. The force he'd used had been excessive, and after it cut through her throat like a railroad spike into the earth, it carried forward and killed three more unfortunate shinobi. Recalling the refined weapon, he stored it away, and determined to truly test the extent of his Sharingan's abilities. Launching into the crowd of Kiri-nin, he felt the burning sensation of being stabbed through his right shoulder. Ignoring it, he twisted, and the pull of his claw-like nails tore bloody strips out of the offending ninja's throat. Without bothering to remove the offending knife that had come between his shoulder and his collarbone, he simply rolled his shoulder high; an unnerving crunching sound followed, and Yuurei felt the knife flatten under the pressure of his crushing bones before it fell out of his body of its own accord.

Proceeding to test the limits of his long-cultivated physique, Yuurei felt further strength pour into him with every enemy he killed. He paid no mind to the wounds he received in the process—for every kunai in his back, for the long knife that had been stabbed through his left arm, and for the screw that had been drilled through his foot in an attempt to root him to the ground, he had killed half a dozen ninja apiece. Roaring in revelry as he continued to fight, he was content with this display of lethality; taking care to maintain a safe distance from Ayame, he embodied a whirling dervish of death.

"Kill him! Before he turns on us, and it's too late!" So came the cries of more than one member on the opposite side, seeking to take advantage of their foes' predicament while strangling danger in its cradle by killing Yuurei.

"Yes!" The demon laughed as he put one hand on a Kiri-nin's shoulder, and the other on his face, before pulling hard enough to rip the poor man's head off at the neck. Launching the offending corpse into the oncoming front line of those who dared approach him, he followed its path. Hooking his fingers into the sightless eyes of the disembodied head in his hand, Yuurei used it as a club to shatter the collarbone of his nearest newfound opponent. Feeling his improvised weapon crumble into bloody fragments and splinters, he grinned in approval of the cavernous dent it had left in the dead rebel's head. Seeing the slaughter of their comrades, the rebels who'd held themselves back looked at one another in terror before fleeing. Though their more aggressive compatriots would curse them before their deaths, none of those who turned tail and ran were doubtful about whether they'd made the correct decision.

Sai's ink-based beasts continued to rip through the ranks of the Kiri-nin, and Ayame cast one jutsu after another in order to prolong her offensive. Fire and earth gathered around her, and her stone-coated hands became a moving kiln that turned living beings into rehydratable corpses. Swords and kunai glanced off of her armor, and the brunette's low ponytail swayed heavily with blood. Gathering the moisture in the air, she returned a Suiryu Endan with one of her own. At this point, several of the still-living Kiri-nin began making an attempt to flee. As they turned on their heels, though, a haunting melody filled the battlefield.

From the dark mist above the floodplain, the crisp and mellow sounds of a flute's low register began to flow. As the musical enchantress descended, there were myriad features that stood out about her—the ruddy brown color of her skin; her vibrantly red hair; the glowing golden fang marks on her left collarbone; the unearthly yellow and red that had appeared in her brown eyes; the multitude of horns extending from the back of her head—but nothing was as apparent as the gorgeous pair of feathery black wings that had erupted from Tayuya's back. With the golden light erupting from the seal that Yuurei had used to replace her Infuin no Kai, Tayuya's black wings displayed an iridescent radiance similar to the youki that cloaked her master in his fully transformed state. With a solemn expression on her face, she played measure by measure, and phrase by phrase.

One by one, the remaining Kiri-nin began to clutch their heads and die, writhing in agony. Still, Tayuya's song continued, and her wings flapped gently as she began to lower herself. Hovering a few inches off of the ground, the redhead felt a euphoric rush of power flow into her from the outside world—as if she was drawing in and assimilating the strength of each and every person who died. With every movement of her fingers, somebody else joined the small mountain of dead bodies. If her eyes had been open, she would have seen the same wisps of light flowing into her body that she'd grown used to watching Yuurei obtain.

"Tayuya?" Yuurei asked. "I thought I told you to rest. You need it."

"And I told you I could fight," Tayuya replied as she lowered her instrument from her lips. "Look at you, master...you aren't in any shape to be complaining about getting help. I haven't seen you this hurt since Nami no Kuni."

Yuurei wanted to roll his eyes at that commentary, but Tayuya was right—he hadn't suffered any particularly serious or enduring wounds in Konoha or Suna. Only in the battle that resulted in the destruction of Nami no Kuni, when he'd first transformed into his natural demonic state, had he taken this much damage. The difference was that in Nami no Kuni, he'd only begun to adjust to having his Sharingan and exploring the memories it held. After his trip to the City of the Dead, everything had changed. The blond also wasn't sure what to make of Tayuya's new appearance, nor the fact that he was clearly responsible for her transformation into some subclass of demon.

Tayuya's flute disappeared in a puff of smoke, and her blacker-than-pitch wings encircled Yuurei before she pulled him close to her. Draping her right hand down across his shoulders and back, she moved his head to rest against her sternum, and began to pick the weapons out from his skin.

"You should have more faith in our abilities, master. With everyone together, there wouldn't have been a need to fight like you did. You have to consider our feelings, too." Tayuya floated gently, sending a small smirk of superiority in Ayame's direction.

"Are you...a demon? It feels like you've become a demon," Yuurei said, surrounded by a comfortable and familiar youki. It reminded him greatly of his own, but it was different—almost a metaphor for the bond they shared after she'd given him her oath.

"The seal you gave me replaced the one that Orochimaru put on me as a child. I was so angry at being left behind, I used it the same way," Tayuya said. The feathery walls of her wings tightened as she finished picking the refuse of battle out and off of Yuurei's body. "I think it's meshing with the oath I gave you, because there's no way I'd call you 'master' as a human. I'm also having a hard time swearing."

Yuurei chuckled at that, and Tayuya held the blond demon with both arms as she laughed with him. Looking at the field of death around them, and then seeing the wild mass of golden hair against the top of her stomach, the alluring demoness laughed again. Yuurei inhaled the scent of rain as he took a deep breath, and Tayuya laughed again as his hands placed themselves around her waist.

"Sleep, master." Tayuya's words were laced with youki, creating a hypnotic suggestion that Yuurei was unwilling to resist. He felt his eyelids grow heavy, and found that he was unaware of having left the ground until he felt the wind rush by him. Tayuya's majestic wings moved in time with her heartbeat, whose pounding rhythm brought Yuurei to the gates of comfortable rest. Fully relaxing himself, he drifted off to sleep as Tayuya maneuvered through the misty sky to find the safehouse that her former comrades were using as a base of operations.

Having been left behind long ago, Ayame and Sai looked at one another with dry-humored expressions before leaving the killing field.