Hey guys, Yuri here, and I have brought another chapter of Demonic Love for you all!
At last, we are now onto the second to last arc of my story and I have to admit that this chapter was a lot easier to write than the last, so the hiatus wasn't that long at least (if you can even call it that). Also I would like to point out that I had the help of Naruto Wiki with a few descriptions so that credit goes to those amazing people that created it.
So, shall we get on with it.
Like always, I apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes, repetitiveness and poor writing. And I also don't own Naruto or it's characters. I'm just using them for the story. And any OCs that you see in this story are mine.
Enjoy!
Is this... the end of the world?
Hinata watched the creature in front of her with terrified eyes. The body of a girl that used to have skin had been corroded away, and stained the shroud housing her with her own blood, the six tails moving this way and that. The monster in front of her was inside a large crater that it had formed, it's white, bowl shaped eyes staring at the ravenette, a growl escaping the jagged white which had to have been it's mouth.
The city of Konohagakure laid in ruin, the girl's friends, as well as the civilians of the city, were on the ground, either unconscious or dead. A wicked chuckled echoed through Hinata's ears, her eyes moving past the thing in front of her and training on the man with long black hair, very pale skin and snake eyes. It was a mistake looking into those eyes. It made her body seize up, and kept her rooted on the spot.
"Now then," the man spoke, raising his arm slowly until his thin finger point directly on the Hyūga girl. "Kill her."
Hearing his command, the creature slowly went on all fours, like a fox, and was getting ready to pounce. Hinata's legs began to quiver, her heart beating loud and clear in her ears. The moment it lunged itself at the girl, everything went by in slow motion. The white jagged mouth grew wider as it roared, extending it's dark crimson, clawed hands ready to tear her apart.
And unfortunately, Sakura wasn't going to save her this time.
After all... she wasn't here.
Sakura-chan...
...A few days earlier...
Hidden way deep in the Demon Forest, the Demon Lord Sasuke traveled to the laboratory that his head scientist, Orochimaru, had built. Sasuke had seen heavy, black smoke coming from within here and since he was extremely bored, because the pinkette hadn't done anything lately, he decided to come an investigate. As he walked through the trees, the king of all demons could sense his own kind, the wild ones, everywhere in the forest, but it seemed none dared to try and attack him. Well, almost none. A demon suddenly appeared from within a bush, it's teeth bared and brought back into a snarl as it growled at the man. He didn't even take a glance at it, the creature not worth his time, and carried on making his way.
But the demon didn't like that. The monster lunged itself at Sasuke, whatever brain it contained not knowing the immediate threat that he was. Without batting an eye, flinching or doing anything else other than making his way to his objective, the demon that was now close to the Demon Lord vanished into mist, the fight that it had readied for, finished in a second.
Now he normally doesn't get surprised by anything, but when he saw the massive tree, that lead into the facility, have a huge gaping hole coming out from it, his interest piqued a little. There where massive wood chippings outside the tree, so whatever caused the explosion had come from the inside. Venturing further in, Sasuke noticed bodies in the dimly lit hallway, a lot of them, demon and human slave scientists, loitered it's floor and blood splatter covered the walls and ceiling. Continuing on, the Demon Lord soon came upon the main part of the facility. A wide open space, tanks that would normally suspend people in liquid where all shattered, the ones that had occupants on the floor, unmoving. Demons and human slaves alike where in the process of clearing up the mess and when they noticed that he had entered, they all looked down, daring not to meet his eye and carried on, albeit more nervous than before.
"P-Please, sir, forgive me!"
A terrified voice brought Sasuke's attention to what was in front of him. Further down, stood two people, one being the man himself, Orochimaru and his assistant, Kabuto if the man recalled, and they towering over to other individual demons with lab coats.
"So tell me," Orochimaru spoke, his creepy smile not leaving his face, but his eyes showed something different; anger. The king of all demons had to admit that he loved seeing the man with snake eyes angry. It was very humorous indeed. "Out of all the people that had died here, you two where the only people had been left to live?"
"W-We can e-explain!" one of the demons shouted, sweating bullets. Without saying anything, the man named Kabuto walked behind the two demons kneeling on the floor, but they were too focused on the head scientist to notice, too afraid to tear their gazes away.
"I know that girl, and from the carnage here, she wouldn't have hesitated to kill you were you stood," Orochimaru continued. "So my only guess, is that you two hid somewhere, too afraid to do anything. Which is understandable." The two demon looked a little relieved about those words, but coming from him that meant a death sentence, which was happening right now.
The man behind the two scientists knelt down, conjured up two needle shapes infused with demonic energy and impaled them into the back of both demon's necks. Their eyes widened with horror as both fell limp to the ground. They weren't dead however, Sasuke could still sense their weak energy levels, but they had been paralyzed.
"I like to give my thanks gentlemen," said Orochimaru, "you have volunteered yourselves to be part if my next experimentation." With the snap of his fingers, two other demons went to the head scientists side, and with a motion of his head, they picked up the two bodies and left, Sasuke practically hearing the silent screams of those two soon-to-be dead demons.
"Orochimaru," Sasuke called out, the man himself turning his head slightly to meet gazes. The pale man smiled at him, but the Demon Lord didn't miss the look of irritation.
"Ahh, Sasuke-kun," the man said casually. Again, this man was the only one that spoke to him in such a way. "What do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"
"I was hoping you would tell me," Sasuke said, moving closer to the pale skinned man. "There's a giant hole at the entrance, that looked like it had come from the inside and smoke flying out from within it. Care to explain, Orochimaru?"
"A small side project," was his answer. "It seems that she fled here, and left for the land of the humans. But I'll be getting her back soon enough."
A small side project? That was it? Really, the king of all demons should force the information out of him. Sasuke, however, closed his eyes. Hmph, it doesn't matter. As long as his 'project' didn't get in the way of his plans, which would be happening very soon, Orochimaru could do whatever the hell he wanted. But...
"See that you do, Orochimaru," said Sasuke, "because you will be leaving the Demon Realm, and until you find that pet project of yours, you are forbidden from coming back." With that, Sasuke turned on his heel and started to walk away. As he left, he found this situation amusing. This pet project of Orochimaru's was able to get by the Demon Lord without detection, and escape this place.
The dead bodies of demons guarding the portal that lead to Human Realm was the sight Sasuke was met with and he couldn't help the smile on his face as he made his way to back towards the castle.
This will be interesting.
"What shall you do, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked his master, when the Demon Lord was no longer in his presence.
"We shall do what he says, and go after my little pet," Orochimaru told him. His snake eyes met the black orbs of Kabuto. "Go and fetch the Kaguya boy. We're going to need his help."
"Of course. And then?"
His smile widened impossibly long. "Then," he continued, "we'll kill Haruno Sakura, before the killing king himself."
"Haaaaah! I wish summer wasn't over," Tenten complained, looking up toward the cloudless blue sky.
"Tenten, you've been saying that for the past week," Ino growled, a tick forming on her forehead, the chopsticks in her hands slowly get crushed together between her fingers.
The blonde was right. It had been a little over a week since summer vacation came to an end and everyday since then, the four of them, Hinata, the scythe wielder, the ravenette's childhood friend and the huntress, had been eating lunch together on the school's rooftop. And everyday, Tenten had been saying the same thing over and over. And that's what was happening today, continuing the trend. The brunette directed her gaze to the blonde by her side and glared at her.
"Shut it," she said, "I spent almost half of my summer in school, and another some of it doing homework, so I have every right to complain."
"And whose fault was that? Oh right, that was your's," the huntress retorted. "Had you concentrated more on your studying and finished your homework earlier, you'd would have had that summer," she told the naginata student, going back to eating. But the brunette wouldn't let her off that easily it seemed. Looking annoyed, the brunette's grey gaze turned to the bento that Ino had in her lap and with her own chopsticks, took one of the items that the blonde had been about to pick up, popping it into her mouth with satisfaction.
"Wha-?!" Ino stared in horror and then turned her head to give Tenten her death glare, her teeth grounded. "What the hell, I was going to eat that!"
The brunette swallowed. "You snooze, you lose." Two could play at that game. "You need to be fast-" Tenten was cut short when the blonde suddenly leaned closer and with quick reflexes grabbed a few things from her friends bento box and placed it in her own. Like the blonde, Tenten took on the same expression. "What the hell! I was saving those for last!"
"You snooze, you lose," Ino repeated, a smug smile appearing on her face. The two girls then began to stare at one another, and Hinata could have sworn that she saw lightning spark between the two of them. The ravenette smiled at her two friends. They had become very close in a short amount of time and it seemed something had happened during summer break, but neither talked about it. But whatever it was, Hinata didn't mind not knowing, so long as she saw her friends grow closer, that was all that mattered. Thinking that, the ravenette turned her sights on the girl sitting next to her.
Sakura was eating her packed lunch, that Hinata had made early this morning, with vacant look. It was similar look she had seen when she and the pinkette went to the amusement park. The demon girl had been acting a little differently since there little trip, but Hinata never asked her what was wrong. She knew that if Sakura wanted to talk about it, she would. Just like when she opened up a bit more about Yukiko. So Hinata would gladly wait. So returning her gaze back to the brunette and blonde, she saw that they were still glaring at each other.
Thinking that it was best to cut in before they accidentally killed one another, Hinata giggled at them. "You two are so close aren't you?"
That remark got their attention, the both of them screaming out, "We're not!" before they looked at one another again. They immediately blushed when they both realized that they were in fact very close to one another that they separated instantly. And just like that, it was another normal school day.
With school finally finished, Tenten left for her club, but not before telling Sakura that she would have to make an appearance again at the gym sometime soon. Apparently, seeing the girl twice in action, the pinkette had gotten herself a fan club. Hinata didn't know what to feel about that. It was nice that the demon girl was now getting recognized, even the girls in class started to get really friendly with her, but it didn't sit well that she was becoming less special. The girl shook her head, her jealousy getting the better of her again, and chastised herself. No matter how much she wanted it, Sakura wasn't her's, so she had no right to think those things.
After that, the duo made their way towards the shoe lockers and noticed that Ino was still there getting her shoes on. Making their presence known, Hinata asked her if she wanted to go home together, the blonde, not seeing the downside, accepted the invitation. When they got to Ino's home, Saginomiya Flowers, they were met with a kind old lady, the one who owned the store and let the blonde stay, named Saginomiya Shiori. The way the woman treated Ino, like she was her own granddaughter, made the huntress blush, even stuttering when she nearly forgot to call her by 'Obā-chan' instead of her last name.
Declining tea that the woman offered, Hinata and Sakura left old lady Saginomiya and a blushing Ino behind, heading for their own home. Considering that there was a lot of traffic and people were talking around them, it was quietly peaceful. It had been quite awhile since a demon had made an appearance, and Hinata hoped that it would continue, but the girl knew that nothing was ever that easy, especially dealing with demons.
Forget about that, Hinata she thought to herself. Now wasn't the time to think of unpleasant things. Right now, she was alone with Sakura, and as someone said, 'you never know what's around the corner'. So with that logic, Hinata decided to speak up. "So, Sakura-chan," she called out, breaking the silence between them. "Is there anything you would like for dinner tonight?"
"Anything's fine," she said, looking at Hinata. "What ever you make is good regardless." Hinata's eyes widened before she tore her gaze away, a blush coating her cheeks from the complement. And also now she knew the girl was in a better mood than she was at lunch. Just as the ravenette was going to suggest a dish, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye.
Across the street, someone was running through the crowds of people, bumping into them, causing some to fall to the ground, and without apologizing, continued to run. It was a young girl with blonde hair, a few shades dark than Ino's, that went up to her lower back, and she wore what looked to be a ragged brown dress, which looked dirty than anything she ever saw. "Sakura-chan," the ravenette stopped walking, the pinkette following suit. "That girl over there," she said pointing at the running blonde.
"Girl?" Sakura repeated, following the ravenette's finger until she herself saw the girl. "What about her?"
"I don't know," she replied. "But looks like she's running away from something." She didn't know why, but she had a bad feeling. Without saying anything, and thankfully that the near by traffic lights had turned red, Hinata bolted straight after the girl. Sakura cried out Hinata's name but she didn't listen, her only focus on the girl that was on the run. She was fast, but luckily enough, Hinata was able to keep her in her line of sight and she was soon lead to what the civilians of Konoha dubbed as the 'Forest of Death'. This was also the place where Tenten had been attacked by the white skinned fiend, and the ravenette had gotten hurt.
Did she go in here? she asked herself, panting as if she just done a marathon. "Hinata!" Sakura cried, running up next to me. "Why did you suddenly run off like that?"
"The... girl.." Hinata breathed.
"The girl from before? She's in here?"
The ravenette finally got her breathing under control and stood up straight. "I think so," she said, staring into the darkness of the trees. The sun was slowly starting to set, making the forest grow even more dark. Clearing her throat, ignoring that the forest looked a bit creepy in all it's glory, the Hyūga girl took a step forward- "Let's go." - and the pair went into the forest. But as they walked through the dense trees, a thought came to Hinata's mind. If she found the girl, what would she do then? Before she could think more, a hand, that belonged to Sakura, stopped her where she was. "Sakura-chan?" she called in a questioning tone. She looked to her friend and saw that she had her eye closed.
After a couple of seconds in silence, the pinkette opened her one sea of emerald and began walking a specific direction. Hinata stayed quiet as she followed the demon girl, wondering where she was taking them. But then she realized. Faintly, she could hear the sound of labored breathing. It was coming from one of the many trees that were couple or more feet away from them, but Sakura lead the way, no doubt thanks to her enhanced hearing. Because of it, they were able to find the girl that Hinata had been looking for. She had her back to the tree she was resting on, and almost looked to be calm. Or was calming down. Unfortunately Hinata stepped on a twig that was loud enough to warn the blonde girl of duo's presence.
When the girl's blue eyes (the ravenette saw that the girl also had three whisker markings on both cheeks) stared at the two girls, she jumped up, and started to back away slowly. "W-Wait," Hinata called out to her, knowing that with those shocked eyes of hers, the girl was about to run away. "We're not here to hurt you. We just want to talk." But the girl didn't care either way if Hinata talked or not. The blonde girl in ragged clothing took a few more steps back and then started to run again. Thankfully Sakura thought ahead. Using her demonic speed, the pink haired girl flitted in front of the escapee.
The blonde let out a yelp of surprise and fell back on the floor. And that was when Hinata seized her chance. The Hyūga girl knelt on the floor, next to the fallen blonde and touched her shoulder. The girl jumped from the contact. "It's okay," Hinata tried again. "We're not going to do anything. We want to help you."
A long beat of silence. Then, "You can't help me," were the first words the ravenette had heard from the blue eyed girl. "Which is why you need to leave. Now!"
Surprised by the sudden outburst, Hinata backed off slightly, and then she saw it from the corner of her eye. Her white gaze spotted a sharp, long white object coming at her at high speed, not having the time to move out of the way. Suddenly, her gaze was met with cold silver of Sakura's scythe as it deflected the incoming projectile, piercing a nearby tree instead. Her eyes widened as she saw that the white object had impaled the tree without so much as leaving any splinters, piercing it clean through. And to think that could have been her instead.
"I'm impressed," a monotone voice, coming from within the trees, said. Then, the person that went with the voice came out, vivid green eyes, surrounded by pale skin, stared at the trio of girls. Th owner of those eyes and skin belonged to a young man with two, scarlet dots on the forehead of his masculine facial features, shoulder-length white hair that was divided down the middle of his head with two separate partings on either of his face, framing it. He wore a long sleeve, loose fitting, light lavender zip-up shirt, black pants that were cut off around mid-calf, bandages wrapped around his ankles and open toe sandals. Finishing off the look was a purple, robe-like belt which was tied in a inverted bow around his waist.
"I honestly thought that it would go through that weapon of your's, but it look liked I was wrong," he told them.
"You bastard," Sakura growled, her fingers tightening on the polearm of her weapon. "Who the hell are you?"
"Kimimaro," the man called himself, spreading both arms ever so slightly. Something began to move inside the skin of Kimimaro's arms, his wrists opening up in to perfect circles, before more of those white, spiked objects came out, grasping them in both hands. "But I know who you are Haruno Sakura. You are not my target, for now. But stand in my way, and I'll have no choice but to kill you."
Sakura reached up for her eyepatch, and took the thing off. Now, with both orbs on her target, her eyes narrowed. "You can try," she told him, her demonic eye glowing as black flames engulfed her clothes, replacing them with her cherry blossom patterned kimono. The man named Kimimaro didn't waste time in attacking. As soon as her transformation was complete, the man lunged at her, cutting the air from above.
The pinkette took the blow, blocking the attack with the scythe's polearm, and caused a deadlock. Sakura gritted her teeth and turned to look at the ravenette with the corner of her eye. "Go, Hinata!" she grunted, "Take her and get out of here!" Hinata nodded, knowing the routine by now, and took the blonde's hand in her own.
"Let's go!" she shouted, forcing the girl up and taking her back to the entrance.
Seeing Hinata's retreating form, Sakura turned back to person that deserved her whole attention. The man, Kimimaro, was extremely strong. He wore a complete stoic expression as he pushed into her scythe harder. The pinkette could feel the ground beneath her begin to cave in, little by little.
"You really think you can take me?" he asked, his face not betraying even a hint of emotion. In fact, he looked bored. "You are a complete and utter fool."
"That may be," she said. "But there is no way in hell that I won't try." Mustering up some of her demonic strength, Sakura pushed the man's 'blades', twisted her body and kicked the man in the chest. We went backwards, but stopped himself from smacking into a tree. His composure remained the same though. When he stood up straight, Kimimaro closed his eyes and moved his neck from side to side. The sickening sound of bone moving back into place was heard before he opened his eyes, vivid green meeting heterochromic orbs.
This fight was going to be a long one.
They were nearly there, the exit to the forest clearing was almost upon them. "Come on!" Hinata cried out. "We're almost out!" The sound of someone out of breath was all she got back from the girl, but they had to keep moving. All of sudden, the blonde girl let out a short scream, her footing getting caught on a stray root of a tree, before she tumbled onto the floor.
"Are you alright?" Hinata asked worriedly.
The girl bore a pained expression, telling her she was fine. Then, her blue eyes looked at Hinata's gaze. "Forget about me," the blonde said. "Get out of here while you still can."
"If you're worried about that man, who was chasing you, you don't need to worry," Hinata tried to reassure her. "Sakura-chan can take of herself." With that, the Hyūga girl helped the girl up again, and ran the remaining the distance that it took to get of the forest of trees.
"You don't understand!" the girl exclaimed. "He isn't the only one you need to worry about!"
The ravenette looked back, wondering what the girl meant by those words, but she nearly found out the hard way. As soon as she left the confines of the trees and was in the open space, three projectiles, different to the ones Kimimaro had used, flew straight at her. Luckily, with a cry from the girl behind her shouting, "Watch out!" the blonde wrapped her arms around the ravenette and pushed forward. The three projectiles missed her, but in exchange caught the girl in the back, three tears on the back of her ragged dress. On the ground, Hinata managed to turn herself around with the girl's body on top of her, asking the blonde if she was alright.
"I'm fine," she said. Hinata wouldn't have believed her but when she saw steam coming from the three scratch marks that had been inflicted upon her back, and the wounds closed up, instead, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Not even Sakura's self-healing was that fast.
"I wouldn't say that," another voice spoke, Hinata's white gaze turning from the girl's back, to the person that had thrown... whatever it was that they had thrown. Wearing a black robe with red lining, there stood another young man with onyx eyes, behind glasses, and ash-grey hair, which was tied into a ponytail. The corner of his lips turned into a smirk, causing the blonde, that Hinata held onto by the shoulders, to growl and narrow her eyes.
"It's time to come back to us... Kyūbi."
And that's another chapter done and a new beginning for another arc.
Thanks for reading as always and please leave a review and tell me anything that can help improve the story or my writing. Also constructive criticism is also very appreciated.
See ya next chapter!