Standard Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Glee. Also, please forgive any spelling and grammar errors, I try to catch them all but I know I'm not always successful. Yay! This is the first update of the new year, and I hope you all enjoy it!
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xXx-Chapter 39-xXx
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The stillness around her felt unnatural, Yugao could still feel the heat from the flames as her student had recklessly pushed past her threshold point to total conversion. The power and force from the explosion had been awe inspiring and terrible to behold. In all her years she had never seen anything create that much devastation.
Yugao sat there bewildered, surrounded by ash and smoke with Hizashi laying down in front of her. Covered in burns and completely out of chakra, he was at least breathing, though in critical condition. Hizashi was the only reason she was still alive. When the wall of flames had come for her she was certain that it was the end. Nothing in her arsenal of jutsu was powerful enough to stop the flames from getting to her and she was too injured to even think of out running them or finding cover, but looking around that probably wouldn't have done her any good, anyway.
It was as she closed her eyes and accepted her fate that Hizashi had jumped beside her and used up the last of everything he had to protect them both with his Kaiten. But even that powerful technique hadn't been enough to completely protect them from the blast, though it had protected them from the worst of it. Hizashi had born the brunt of the explosion and had first and second degree burns all over his body, while she was only a little singed. It was painful, but not debilitating.
Black snow began to fall and Yugao thought it the strangest thing until she realized it was ash. She gazes up at the sky and sees the mushroom shaped cloud of smoke billowing down. Such power and destruction, she knew what the Third believed her student was capable of, she had read the file, but seeing this… it had to be true, there was no other explanation. Though, Yugao felt it ultimately didn't matter at this point, her student was dead.
She couldn't sense Rin at all, nor could she sense the jinchūriki either. All Yugao wanted to do was curl up into a ball. The shock at the immensity of the explosion was beginning to wear off and the pain in her stomach was coming back. Yugao raises her top a bit, exposing the open wound and concentrates her chakra into her hand, doing the little bit of first aid she was able to. She would need to see a real doctor when she got back to the village, but she could at least stop the bleeding.
Once she has taken care of herself she goes to work on Hizashi. Despite his burns, the worst of his injuries were around the head and she didn't dare use any chakra on wounds there, so she reaches into her pouch and pulls out some bandages. Nami, Hizashi, herself, and the three brothers were the only survivors of this mission. Hana had died to save Rin and Rin had sacrificed herself to stop the jinchūriki.
She felt numb inside as she carefully begins to wrap Hizashi's head, and tries to think of how she's going to get everyone out of here. None of them were fit to travel, but she was at the very least conscious. She couldn't give up, she couldn't let this mission end in… failure…
If she got Nami back to the village then the mission would be marked as a success, but there was nothing about any of this that screamed victory. She had failed her ultimate mission, which was to train and protect Rin, and Hana was dead. Hizashi had used all of his chakra, was covered in burns, and he had taken a serious head wound that she didn't know if he even could recover from, and who knew if Nami would survive the journey? How, in any way, was this mission a success?
Suddenly, out of nowhere she is hit with the faint presence of demonic chakra, and an agonized and angry scream rips through the air. Yugao concentrates, focusing her senses on the source of the demonic chakra. She looks over to where her chakra senses are telling her the source is and a soft gust of wind blows the smoke and ash out of the way and standing there, struggling to her feet is the jinchūriki.
Her skin had been seared off completely, and she was just a mash of skeleton and charred meat, but she was alive. Angry, blue flames began to swirl around her, and Yugao could only look on horrified as her flesh began to repair itself. Yugao clenches her fists, as a sense of complete despair falls upon her. Her student had sacrificed her life, Hana had died, and yet the beast was still alive.
The jinchūriki lets out one more shriek, her skin pink and fresh and her hair begins to grow back out, and within moments she is back to her normal self. The blue, cat-like chakra cloak wrapping around her. Yugao's shoulder's slump and all hope fails her, jinchūriki truly were a force of nature. If it could survive Rin's explosion, then what hope did she have?
She watches the jinchūriki carefully, and as she does so Yugao slowly, futilely, draws a kunai from her pouch. If she was going to die, she would go down fighting, she owed Hana and Rin that much at least. But seconds pass and the jinchūriki is paying her and Hizashi no mind. Instead their focus is zeroed in on a location about a hundred yards away. Yugao follows their gaze, and another gust of wind pushes more ash and soot away, and for a moment Yugao isn't sure what she's seeing.
And then her eyes focus and she realizes what it is, who it is. It's Rin, but different, Yugao had never seen anything like this. She had seen chakra cloaks even before this, and she'd heard descriptions of techniques like the Uchiha's Susanoo, but this was something different entirely. It was as if Rin's body were made of living flame, contained and shaped to human form. Her hair normally blonde was flowing about wildly behind her, an inferno of the same flames that made up the rest of her.
The light she emanated made it hard to look at her, but the form was so mesmerizing it was impossible to look away. Her student turns her head slightly and for the briefest moment they make eye contact. Her eyes were no longer the lovely shade of blue that they usually were, but a brilliant white that had the intensity of the sun and Yugao found that she could find no emotions or thoughts behind them, no trace of the young girl who was her student.
There was none of the conflict or doubt, none of the fear, or even a bit of the angst that was normal for that age. Nor was there any of the compassion that Rin was usually incapable of concealing. And in Rin's arms, were the last ashen remains of Hana Inuzuka, a skeleton that was crumbling away to dust and scattering to the winds. And when the remains are gone, Rin's stares down at the empty space for a moment, before her hands drop to her side.
Yugao couldn't understand it, how was Rin still alive? During their time together Yugao had become quite attuned with her student's chakra signature, and while she was nowhere near as powerful a sensor as Rin, she was still one of the strongest in the village. She should have easily been able to pick up her student's chakra signature, especially with how much energy she was putting out. The ground was literally melting beneath her feet, the amount of chakra that would take would be…
And then it hit her, that the amount of energy she was putting out was oversaturating the area with her chakra. To anyone who was far away, Rin was probably a bright beacon that was screaming her location to any and all chakra sensitive people for miles, but Yugao was so close that her senses were overwhelmed. It wasn't that she couldn't sense Rin, it was that Rin was the only thing she could sense. Even the potent chakra of the jinchūriki was barely pushing through.
This was beyond anything that Yugao was equipped to handle, she didn't even know where to begin. Rin needed so much more than she could provide. What in the hell had the Third been thinking, asking her to do this and… and his plans for her in the future, what was he thinking? She couldn't make sense of anything right now.
And then the jinchūriki snarls, her twin tails whipping angrily behind her, lashing out. And then, almost faster than Yugao could follow, the jinchūriki charges at Rin. There wasn't even enough time for Yugao to shout out a warning, but it wasn't needed.
One second the jinchūriki is charging in, ready to try and tear Rin to shreds, the next, faster than she could blink, Rin has backhanded the jinchūriki and sent her flying away. Yugao has to whip her head to the right to follow the trail of destruction, it happened so fast. And with a loud, earth shattering crash, the jinchūriki slams into a nearby boulder, crumbling it to pieces.
As the dust clears, Yugao can see the jinchūriki struggling to her feet. The left side of her face has an imprint seared into it and her cheekbone and jaw have been shattered. But the damage is quickly repairing itself, the burn heals away into nothing and jaw and cheekbones knit themselves back together until its as if nothing had happened.
The jinchūriki growls but this time there is more caution there, and she doesn't charge recklessly in, instead studying her opponent.
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What was she dealing with? What kind of monster was this murdering bitch!? Matatabi was the only reason she was alive, the twin-tailed cat supercharging her with chakra, managing to keep the spark of life awake in her, even as her body was nearly incinerated from the force of the blast. Yugito had been forced to retreat deep inside of herself, deep inside the cage itself, in order to keep her mind from going crazy as her body endured those flames.
She had been arrogant in her anger. Seeing the pain on that girl's face, knowing that she was hurting in the same way that Yugito was over the loss of her sister… it had made her arrogant and stupid. You never, ever, under any circumstance drew out a fight. She should have slain that girl when she had the chance, she should have reacted when she started to use her technique, but she had been so angry, so furious, and so cocky that she had wanted to beat the girl down, break her and humiliate her.
She wanted to make this Konoha girl feel as helpless as she did. She wanted to let the girl give it everything she had and then show her that it wasn't enough. She wanted to make her suffer. It had been a mistake and it nearly cost her, her life. Her arrogance had almost allowed Yoko's murderer to defeat her. She wasn't going to make that mistake again, and as soon as her body was at full strength, and Matatabi gave her the go ahead, Yugito had wasted no time in trying to strike the girl down.
What did she care about whatever technique the girl currently had on? She was just some lowly, murdering scum, while Yugito was a proud jōnin of Kumo, and the bearer of Matatabi, the two-tailed demon cat. What was some strange fire cloak to her, especially compared to the raw might of Matatabi's blue flames? And so, once more she had charged in, intent on ending it quickly, and then suddenly her face felt like it was being melted off and her jaw had nearly been knocked off of her face, and then boom! She had been back-handed into a boulder, shattering it into a million pieces.
As Yugito struggled to her feet, she looked at Yoko's murderer warily. She was a jōnin of Kumo, trusted soldier of the Raikage, Killer B's training partner, a jinchūriki. She was one of Kumo's ultimate weapons, and yet she had just been knocked aside like trash.
"What is she?" Yugito thinks, frustrated. "Is she Konoha's jinchūriki… I don't sense any demonic chakra?"
"No, she is not one of our kin."
"How can you be sure? Even Lord Raikage doesn't generate this kind of power and no one has seen the nine-tails in years. Could she be its latest vessel?" Yugito asks Matatabi.
Besides the power that working with Matatabi granted her, the wisdom of the ancient cat demon was another boon that came from working with it. And right now, she needed information, because that girl had just unleashed a technique unlike any she had seen before, and just now she had just knocked her aside like she was some fresh faced genin.
"I know my sibling's chakra, this feels nothing like it."
"There's no way some brat could produce this much chakra!" Yugito growls.
"No." Matatabi agrees, "It is not human, it's…"
"It's what?" Yugito asks, she'd never heard Matatabi sound like this before, if she didn't know better she would think the demon was nervous.
"Old… ancient, even by my standards. I have never sensed chakra like this before, I do not know what this girl is, but we need to be cautious. Whatever the source of her power, she is dangerous and I cannot save you from another blast like the one earlier."
"Then I'll have to kill her quickly." Yugito says, trying not to let what Matatabi had just told her, bother her. It didn't matter what this girl was, all that mattered was that she pay for murdering Yoko. She had let her rage consume her and had fought like a beast, but now something more was at play and it was time to temper the power of the beast with the cunning of a kunoichi.
But the fact was, she wasn't sure how to proceed. The girl was just standing there, her form completely changed. She was living fire, and it was a technique unlike any she had seen before.
"You killed Hana." The girl says, her voice is strange, echoing with power as if she was harmonizing with someone else as she spoke.
Yugito gives a cocky sort of grin, that doesn't reach her rage filled eyes. She sends chakra to her hands, reinforcing them into claws that could cut through steel. "Don't worry, you'll join her soon enough."
"When I killed your sister, I made it quick." The girl says almost casually, like it didn't matter, and Yugito's lips curl into an angry snarl.
"Don't you dare talk about her!"
"Just a quick slice of my blade and her head was gone, she was dead before she hit the ground. No pain, no suffering."
A shiver of anger passes through her, some of it her own, but some of it belonging to Matatabi as well. Caused by the indifference that the murder was being spoken of, the bond between demon and container shining through. Unlike the other villages, Kumo jinchūriki learned to work with their demons and formed a bond.
The girl then gives a slight tilt of her head, her bright, searing eyes staring right at her. "Your death will be much slower."
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Yugao watched as her student and the jinchūriki stared each other down and exchange a few words. And then in blink, there's an explosion of dirt and flames, as Rin dashes forward and slams her fist into the side of the jinchūriki's head, sending her flying, Rin then disappears, faster than Yugao can follow, and appears in the pathway of the wayward jinchūriki and sends her flying in a different direction with a kick.
The assault that Rin was leveling against the jinchūriki was brutal, and Yugao could barely follow it. Guy, going full out, maximizing his chakra out put could maybe reach the speeds that Rin was currently working at, and could produce the kind of power that Rin was generating with her strikes. But the backlash would be terrible.
Rin, however, seemed to be under no strain as she knocked the jinchūriki around the battlefield like some kind of rag doll. Nothing the other woman could do was able to fend off the assault. Each strike from Rin was followed by a small boom, from the impact. Each hit breaking bones and searing flesh from the skin. At one point, when the jinchūriki attempted to counter with a strike with her chakra tail, Rin had caught it in her hand, and the used it as a grip to whip her over her head and slam her into the ground.
It was clear to Yugao that Rin held the upper hand, all she had to do was end it and they could get out of here. But as the fight progressed Yugao realized that Rin wasn't trying to win the fight, she was drawing it out. Each of her strikes was designed to cause as much pain and damage as she could, but not enough to kill. Rin was drawing it out, giving the jinchūriki just enough time to heal from the worst of the wounds before inflicting new ones all over again.
"YAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The jinchūriki shrieks in pain as Rin grabs onto her face and forces her down onto her knees, and just stands there holding her face. The jinchūriki is clawing helplessly at Rin's arm, her chakra whipping around violently, as she shrieks in agony. The smell of burning flesh polluting the air, overpowering the charcoal and ash.
This was not Rin. This was not her student.
"Rin, stop!" Yugao calls out, struggling to her feet. Rin tilts her head in Yugao's direction, and the two of them lock eyes once more. And just like before, all she is able to see is the intense white light, burning behind those eyes.
"Rin! That's enough!" Yugao calls out again.
Rin looks from Yugao to the jinchūriki, who's cries of agony were now more of a choking gurgling sound as her face had been melted off from the heat. Rin lets go of the face and for a moment Yugao breathes easier. And then the moment is broken.
"No." Rin says, her voice echoing with a strange power behind it. "It's not nearly enough."
Rin then grabs the jinchūriki by the face once more, instantly undoing the repairs that the demon had been making to its host, and she slams her into the ground head first. Rin holds her there as she writhes in pain, kicking and clawing, trying to make her escape. But it's futile.
Yugao attempts to take a step towards her student, not sure what she was going to do, not sure how she was going to stop this, but knowing she had to try. But her legs give out from under her and she falls back to her knees.
"RIN! STOPT IT!"
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Hana was dead.
This girl killed Hana.
Hana was dead.
This girl killed Hana.
Hana was dead.
This girl killed Hana.
It was her fault, she killed Hana, she had to pay. The flames, the flames were telling her this, feeding her anger and her pain. She killed Hana, so she had to pay. She had to make this girl suffer. Hana hadn't deserved to die. There was nothing else in this world, only her rage, her hatred, her vengeance, and Hana's death.
She had to make this girl suffer, she didn't have a choice. The flames were telling her she had to. She had to hurt the one who killed Hana. That was all there was to it. Her screams of agony were the balm that would quench the flames.
She had to.
She had to.
She had to.
The flames were surrounding her, consuming her, feeding into her anger and hatred, feeding into her pain.
She killed Hana.
Hana was dead.
It was her fault.
The flames needed to be quenched and only vengeance could do that. Vengeance for Hana. There was nothing else in this world. She had to make this girl suffer for Hana's death and she would destroy anything foolish enough to get in her way.
"You pushed yourself too far and too hard. You forced what you were not yet ready to wield and now you've lost control." A voice from the flames echoes around her. It's a woman's voice, gentle and calm, but powerful as well.
Quinn whips her head around trying to see through the flames and the rage, to discern where the voice was coming from.
"You should not have pushed it, you were coming along just fine. And you certainly should not have done this while in such an emotional state. You've lost complete control, haven't you? My sweet girl, you will pay a heavy price for this."
Quinn roars as she shakes her head violently, trying to recapture the rage. The voice was calming her down, and she didn't want to be calm, she didn't want to feel anything but rage. She wanted to lash out, she couldn't survive the pain otherwise.
"Dear heart, focus on my voice. You must regain control. Let go of your hatred, too much pain has been wrought and now your soul is dangerously out of balance. For your own sake, please my love, let go. This is not why you were brought here and this is not who you are."
Quinn recognized the voice, she'd heard it before, so very long ago, but where? Where had she heard this voice before? And suddenly her world comes back into focus. She looks down at the girl she was pressing into the ground and she realizes what she had been doing. Quinn gasps and backs frantically away from the girl she had just been… oh god, what had she done!?
"Quiet your mind, my love, you are losing control again. Focus on my voice."
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Yugao watched as her student suddenly stumbled away from the jinchūriki, almost in fright. She was still covered in flames, but they seemed somehow less wild, less an inferno and more in control. Something was changing once more. Was Rin finally running out of chakra or… or was her student regaining control?
"Rin?" Yugao calls out softly, but whatever was going to be said is interrupted by a pulse of demonic chakra. So powerful that she could physically feel it, not just sense it. The pulse of chakra, also pushing at the ash and smoke as it disturbed the air. Blue flames suddenly explode from the body and a terrible, inhuman roar fills the air.
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Yugito stood before Matatabi, gazing into the eyes of her partner. She had retreated so deep into her own mind that Yugito wasn't sure that she would ever be able to get back out again. She knew that outside, out there, she was enduring an agonizing death. She was going to die. She was going to die at the hands of Yoko's murderer.
"It can't end like this?"
"Don't do anything stupid child-"
"I can't beat her, but you can."
"Yugito." Matatabi growls in warning.
"You can get justice for Yoko." Yugito says, resolute. Yugito looks down at her hands and in them is a simple paper seal that once used to adorn a cage that kept Matatabi trapped. The seal, once a lock, was now a bond that allowed she and Matatabi to share their power.
"Yugito!" Matatabi roars, angry, scared. Scared for what the first human that she had come to respect and even care for, in what felt like eons, was going to do.
Yugito smiles sadly up at her partner, her friend. "Goodbye my friend and… I'm sorry." And with that she tears the seal in half, and the powers that held the beast in check were destroyed and Matatabi, the twin-tailed cat demon was released.
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xXx-Author's Note-xXx
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Well, there you have it, the first update of the new year. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and have enjoyed the story thus far. Just to clarify, the amount of power the Quinn/Rin unleashed when she reached total conversion was equivalent to Pain's technique that completely wiped out Konoha, only rather than just force like he used, her technique was backed by fire. Essentially, a small nuclear explosion, just without the radiation. I want to thank everyone for reading this story and for your support, and I hope you all liked this chapter. I'm already working on the next one and I hope to have it up soon.
