Yoh! I know it took me forever to update and sorry bout that. First I got a huge author's block on this fic and then a lot of things came down on my head (for example my grandma's condition, which gotten from bad to horrible). I must say that writing between studying, Christmas preparations and other things sure can make you dizzy.
As usual I wish to thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. It means a lot, so thanks and I hope you'll review this one as well. Naturally, anyone who wishes to review is free to do so.
I must say that this chapter looks slightly different then what I've imagined at the beginning (meaning when the story was appearing in my head) and I'm not that happy with how it turned out. SPOILER WARNING: Also, for all the manga fans who're waiting for Sai and Yamato to appear, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you guys a bit, coz you'll have to wait a bit longer… the flashback will take a bit more space then I've first thought it would. SPOILER END.
I believe that's all what I had to say, so without further to do, here's the newest chapter of "Love, Demons and Bloodlines", finished only about five minutes ago:
Chapter #16: Sealed Emotions – Yugito's Story part I
"Well, it's a little clearer how you meet Yugito…" admitted Kiba with a slight nod. "I still don't see how this all will lead to the events you mentioned before… so far it seems you and her got along pretty good…"
"That's the problem with life…" replied Kyouki with a forced smile appearing behind his mask. "It's not as simple as we want it to be. The fact is Hana and Yugito became good friends after this… Yugito began visiting our household quite often and I grew to at least tolerate her, however, no matter what my sister said, I just couldn't find a way to trust her… in the end, shinobi is still only human, isn't he?" and with that he lowered his sight.
Naruto also lowered his head and stared at the floor. His childhood memories flashed through his mind as his eyes narrowed and filled with sorrow. Hinata noticed that and wanted to say something. Something that'd comfort the blonde, yet nothing came to her mind, so she just lowered her head as well. After a short silence, the former cloud-nin decided to continue:
"But things looked good for me back then… I managed to become top of the class, even with having very little skills in nin- and genjutsu… and I became friends with a certain girl by the name Renge… besides me, she was the only one who didn't seem to hate Yugito in our class… and then the graduation day came when we were divided into three-man teams and became gennin… now that I look at it, I'm not sure if I should feel lucky of which team I ended up in or angry…"
---Four years ago in Kumo Gakure---
Kyouki looked around the roof, but besides himself and two girls his age there was no-one on it. The boy let out a sigh and then turned to his two companions. The first one was Yugito, a girl he knew for over three years now. The other girl had medium-length, blonde hair, which was falling freely to her shoulders and sky-blue eyes. She was wearing a black t-shirt and a yellow vest on that, along with black pants. You could also notice a hitae-ate with the cloud symbol on her forehead. But the thing that drew the most attention was a small, black cat that sat on her left shoulder.
"What the hell?" yelled the boy, slightly annoyed. "This is where we're suppose to meet our jounin instructor, dammit! So where the heck is he?" and with that he began throwing his hands up and down, making Yugito only shook her head at her teammate's behavior, while the other girl just sweat dropped.
"I see you'll require a lot of work, since you couldn't even see through such a simple genjutsu…" he suddenly heard a voice and as he turned around, he notice his sister appeared right in front of him out of nowhere, almost as if she suddenly began materializing from the air. "It seems to me that Yugito-chan and Renge-san managed to notice that something was wrong from the very beginning…"
"Huh? What are you doing here, sis?"
"Isn't that obvious?" asked Hana, slightly surprised, before smiling widely. "I'm your new, jounin instructor!" and at hearing that statement Kyouki's jaw almost smashed the ground. The older girl only turned towards the other two kunoichi and waved to them. "Well, I've never expected that you three will land in one team, even less that I'll be the one who'll have to baby-sit you, but it should be fun… however first things first: I've prepared a special test for you… follow me…"
---End flashback---
"Oh man, you had to fetch the bells as well?" asked Naruto with his eyes widen, but Kyouki only looked at him slightly surprised. He then glanced at Shino, who just shook his head. With a single drop of sweat falling down his face, the former cloud-nin finally replied: "I don't know what you mean by 'fetching bells'… but that's not really the point… I don't suppose I should tell you what sort of gennin exams are taken in our village. The important thing is we managed to pass and became a cell… it turned out that we're really strong and pretty soon Raikage began giving us more demanding missions then other, gennin teams received… one of them was the one that brought the end to everything…"
---Four years ago---
"Why is that note so important again?" Kyouki asked out loud with his hands behind his head as he and his teammates walked down the road. Yugito merely glanced at the masked boy, yet said nothing. Hana let out a sigh while shaking her head. The one to answer the weapon master's question was Renge: "I told you already that this is a special scroll that we're suppose to bring to the Mizukage! It's of high importance to our village…"
"Yeah, but what's with this whole B-rank?" Kyouki shoot back. "It's basically just a four-day walk… it's not like we'll be attacked or anything…" and just the moment he said so, he jumped back in order to avoid a kunai that came right at him and sunk deep into the ground where he stood just a second ago: "The story of my life…" he complained as he glanced up at the nearby rock.
There, on top of it, stood a man with long, black hair, made into dreadlocks. His eyes were bloody red and he was wearing a black t-shirt with a red vest on that and baggy, black pants. To his back there were attached three, Fuuma Shuriken and Yugito also noticed a hitae-ate with the slashed sunglass symbol wrapped around his left arm: "A missing-nin…" she announced simply as her eyes set on the man.
"A team of girls…" whined the man as he shook his head slightly. "And there I was, hoping for a challenge on this task…" but the moment he said so, Renge appeared right in front of him and slashed her hand at him. The missing-nin instantly jumped back, realizing that slashes appeared on the rock where he just stood. It was only then did he noticed that the kunoichi's nails grew longer and more sharper, resembling claws more then nails.
"A Nekobishi, eh?" the man asked with a smirk as he glanced at Renge, who stood few meters before him on the same rock. A moment later, her black cat jumped back onto her left shoulder, but the girl didn't even made anything of it. She had her eyes set on her opponent and didn't took them of him for a second. "The only clan which position in Kumo is equal to the Inuzuka in Konoha… maybe this day won't be a total lost after all…"
Without a word Renge feed her cat with a soldier pill and as the black fur-ball 'meowed' loudly, a cloud of white smoke covered both it and the kunoichi. The man only smirked under his nose as the smoke cleared, thus revealing two blonde girls standing before him, each a mirror image of the other.
"Lets go, Kuroko!" yelled the Renge on the right as both kunoichi went through a series of the same hand seals. The man felt chakra gathering in their hands and narrowed his eyes as the girls' arms got surrounded with a thin, chakra field: "Tora Tsume!" the two cried out as they charged straight at their opponent.
The man immediately jumped back as the first Renge suddenly appeared before him and launched an attack with an opened palm, only with a little bended fingers, at the place where he stood. At the missing-nin avoided the assault, the kunoichi's palm hit the rock, making it break into tens of pieces in a fraction of a second.
"So this is the famous technique of the Nekobishi, eh?" the man thought to himself with a smirk as he reached for his Fuuma Shuriken. "Most interesting indeed…" and with that he bite his finger while the other Renge was already flying towards him.
In a flash he wrote something on his shuriken's blade with his own blood and to the blonde girl's surprise strange, red markings suddenly began glowing on the huge weapon. As the kunoichi throw another attack with an opened palm at the man, he simply blocked the assault with his Fuuma Shuriken, making the cloud-nin's eyes widen at the fact that the weapon didn't go to pieces.
"Abra cadarba, you little witch…" the man shoot with a smirk as he swung the shuriken at the girl and cut her torso. Luckily for the kunoichi the cut wasn't too deep, which was probably thanks to the fact that when her attack connected, yet didn't break the weapon, the girl used the hand with which she attacked to bounced off, thus increasing the distance between her and the missing-nin.
"Renge-chan!" Kyouki only managed to yell as he charged forward and captured the kunoichi in his arms before she hit the ground hard. Meanwhile the missing-nin landed safely few meters away on another rock, only to realize Hana was already behind him, biting her thumb. With a quick motion she drew a single symbol on the scroll she unwrapped, making a small cloud of white smoke appear. As the air cleared, she was holding a long spear with a huge blade in her hand and used it to pierce through the man's chest.
The missing-nin however only spun the shuriken in his hand and used the spinning blades to deflect the Cloud kunoichi's weapon, throwing it off course. With a smirk on his face he charged forward at the defenseless female jounin, who couldn't use her weapon at that moment, with an intention to cut her open by using the Fuuma Shuriken that was still spinning in his hand.
As the huge shinobi star cut the girl's body in half, the man's eyes widen as the kunoichi only seemed to fade away in the air. "A bushin!" he realized instantly. "But then where's the real body?" and as on queue the large spear got covered with another cloud of white smoke, revealing that it was the real Hana, who held a kunai ready in her hand. "That b…" was the only thing the man managed to think before the female jounin swung her knife at his face.
The missing-nin reacted immediately and only thanks to that did the whole assault ended with him receiving just a small cut on his left cheek in stead of getting his head chop off. As he jumped away from Hana, he tossed his huge shuriken at his opponent.
Hana however simply jumped over the incoming shinobi star and picked out more kunai. But as the shuriken flew bellow her, the missing-nin performed a quick hand seal and in a flash he switched places with the weapon he just tossed.
"Kawarimi!" Hana cursed in her mind and she turned in mid-air with an attempt to deliver a spin-kick into her adversary, yet the man managed to block the attack with his right hand and launched an assault with an opened palm at his opponent with the other, hitting her hard in the chin.
"Damn it!" Kyouki cursed after placing Renge softly on the ground as he pulled out his chain and threw the sharp end of it straight at the missing-nin. The man acted immediately and flipping in mid-air, he grabbed the incoming chain right behind the blade, stopping its flight. As he kept on falling, the missing-nin suddenly started spinning, thus making the cloud-nin's chain wrap around his body.
Kyouki felt his weapon trying to fly out of his hand. The boy tightened his grip on the chain and managed to keep it in his hand, yet just then his feet left the ground as he was pulled straight at the missing-nin, who was still spinning as he was getting closer to the ground. The moment the masked boy found himself near the man, his opponent launched a kick into the Kumo shinobi's stomach and once the attack connected, the young gennin was send flying several meters away and came to a stop after rolling on the ground for a bit.
In a flash the missing-nin unwrapped the chain that surrounded his body and now held it in his hand as his own. A wide smirk appeared on his face as Kyouki narrowed his eyes while setting them onto his opponent. A second later the boy's older sister appeared next to him with her spear in her hand. She pointed the tip of the blade at the missing-nin with her face colder then the masked boy has ever seen it.
"You're really a troublesome opponent…" stated Hana calmly, without moving an inch. "Akumo, a special jounin from the Hidden Sand that became a missing-nin after his failed attempt to kill the Kazekage… I must admit that you certainly earned your reputation…"
The man only widen his smirk at her words: "Oh, so you heard about me? Don't know if I should feel flattered, but I don't suppose it matters in any way… I still have to kill, so…" and at this point he jumped forward, unleashing the chain he collected for his adversary. Hana instinctually bended over, thus making the attack go above her, yet Kyouki didn't turn out to be fast enough and got his right arm cut by the blade at the end of his own weapon.
"Kyouki!" the kunoichi yelled with concern as she glanced at her brother for a split second, yet that turned out to be enough for Akumo as he already found himself near her and swung the blade on the chain like it was a sword in the attempt to pierce right through the young woman. However this time Hana was fast to react as well and by sticking the blade of her spear into the ground behind her, she used her own weapon to bounce off the ground and delivered a powerful kick into the missing-nin's face, thus forcing him to take few steps back.
Without wasting a second, she pulled out her weapon from the ground and charged forward, swinging her spear in hope to cut her opponent in two, yet Akumo was ready for that. In a fraction of a second he threw the chain at the incoming spear and as the two weapons collide with each other, the chain began wrapping itself around the spear.
Before Hana managed to react, the former sand-nin grabbed the other end of his chain and having both his hands on Kyouki's weapon again, he tossed it way, making the female jounin's spear, which was wrapped by it, flew out of the Kumo shinobi's hand as well (A/N: sorry if you lost track of what's going on, but no matter how hard I tried, I just didn't seem to be able to write this part better).
With no weapon in her hands, Hana acted immediately and placing her hands on the ground, she performed a Belgian Helicopter, aiming to kick Akumo hard in the face. The missing-nin however managed to crouch down in time and spinning on his foot, he launched an attack with his other leg at the Cloud kunoichi's hands in order to throw her off balance.
As Hana's feet flew right above Akumo's head, the former sand-nin's attack connected and the female jounin landed on the ground with her back facing the surface. In a flash the man picked out several kunai with an intension to use them to pierce the woman's body, yet he stopped right before tossing the knives as a strange sensation hit him.
"What the…?" he began as he felt sweet falling down his face. "This killer intend… where's that coming from?" and in a flash he glanced to his left where Yugito stood. The man noticed that the kunoichi was holding her head in her hands while her body began trembling. He took a single step back, overwhelmed by the feeling: "That brat… what the hell's going on?!"
Kyouki also stared at his teammate, unable to make a single move: "Is that… Yugito?" was the only thought that came to his mind as he couldn't take his eyes off the kunoichi, almost as if he was charmed. And then the blonde girl suddenly lifted her head up, thus revealing a pair of completely dark eyes. The future demon hunter only 'gulped' loudly as his body froze stiff.
In a flash Yugito jumped forward, straight at Akumo, pushing her hands out front. It was only then that Kyouki noticed her nails turned into claws. As his teammate reached its 'prey', the girl let out a wild roar, that didn't sounded anywhere near human. That very sound made the blood in his body stop for a split second and his heart to beat faster, like it wanted to jump out of his chest and run away.
Akumo instantly jumped back as Yugito slashed at him, but even though the former sand-nin managed to avoid getting cut by the claws, a sudden charge of electricity shoot from the kunoichi's body and hit him hard in the stomach, making him let out a quiet 'ugh' before extending his flight. The missing-nin then came to a sliding stop and glanced up at the girl, whose body was now completely surrounded with electricity, shooting sparkles here and there. The pair of black eyes shoot small charges of electricity as well which traveled from her pupils to the back of her head.
With another roar, Yugito charged forward at Akumo with an intension to pierce through his chest by using her claws. Her speed seemed to increase and thus the missing-nin didn't manage to react in time to dodge the attack completely. He jumped to his right, thus avoiding a fatal wound, yet still his left shoulder got cut by the kunoichi's claws.
Akumo grabbed his wounded shoulder, only to realize that it was charged with electricity: "By just touching, she managed to do that?" his eyes widen in surprise as he glanced at Yugito, who was already charging at him yet again. "Who… what the hell is she?" and with that thought he jumped away onto a nearby rock. "That hag… I can't outmatch her… seems I'll have to retreat for now…" and so he performed a quick seal, disappearing in thin air.
"Hey, where the hell did he go?" demanded Kyouki as he looked around the area, but couldn't spot the missing-nin. Hana only let a sigh as her brother helped her up: "Probably he used Shunshin… at least that's what I can tell from the seal he performed… and if I'm correct, he's nowhere near here at the moment…" and with that she glanced at Yugito, who now collapsed to her knees, whose body was trembling. "Kyouki, help Renge-san… I'll see if Yugito's okay…" the boy only nodded and the ran towards the cat girl, who was still laying on the ground where he left her.
"Renge-chan, are you okay?" he asked the moment she got near her while he helped her sit up. The Nekobishi heiress glanced at her teammate and managed a weak smile before replying in a quiet voice: "As okay as someone with his torso cut can be…" and at those words she made a motion like she was about to collapse again, yet the masked boy held her tight.
"Don't worry, that bastard's gonna already…" Kyouki announced with worry showing in his eyes as he looked at the kunoichi's face. The girl smiled again and placed her hand on his cheek: "I wouldn't worry either way… coz I'm sure you'd protect me, just like now when I was falling… wouldn't you, Kyouki-kun?" and as she said so, a small blush appeared on the boy's face, which was mostly hidden behind his mask.
Meanwhile Hana reached Yugito and placed her hand on the young kunoichi's shoulder, making the Jinchuuriki raise her sight. The female jounin smiled to her subordinate, which seemed to calm the demon vessel a bit. Her body stopped shaking, yet for some reason, tears gathered in her eyes. The Haraise heiress didn't say anything and so the young gennin sobbed and was the first to break the silence: "Hana-sensei, I… just now… I didn't… I'm sorry…"
"I know…" the jounin stopped her calmly, still not showing any anger nor fear. "I know… you were only trying to protect us… the one who should apologize is me… I'm suppose to guard you guys. And you were the one who saved us… you did a great job, Yugito-san…" and with that her smile widen. "However you should use your… gift… carefully. I respect what you just did, but remember that demon chakra isn't something to take lightly… now come on, I need to see if using Raijuu didn't caused any damage to your body…" and with that she helped the young girl up, but the blonde still seemed worried.
"Hana-san…" she began, her voice shaking slightly. "This time… it was different then before… I used Raijuu's chakra before, but this time it wasn't the same… it was almost as if I could touch it… I felt his anger… his hatred… for the first time I felt that it wasn't me who was using him, but the other way around… I fear…" and at those words her voice froze for a second. She swallowed her saliva loudly before she managed to continue: "I fear that next time… I won't manage to maintain any control over him…"
"Well then, we'll just do our best to not let him run lose again…" announced Hana, still smiling warmly, and this time it managed to relaxed Yugito. The two girls walked slowly towards their teammates, yet little they didn't know, Kyouki kept his eyes set onto the young Jinchuuriki.
---Flashback ends---
"So this is what happens when Jinchuuriki goes out of control? Hinata wondered as she looked with a worried expression on her face at Yugito and then, for a split second, glanced over at Naruto, before lowering her head. Kurenai noticed that and a worried expression appeared on her face as well, yet she decided to say nothing to her subordinate. In stead she set her eyes onto the demon hunter: "So, Kyouki-san, I was wondering: it seemed more like Yugito-san saved your life back then… then why your aversion towards her?"
"As I said, it's a bit more complicated then it may seem…" the masked boy replied, staring at the floor. "I know I should be grateful for that time, but… it's just that when I saw her face when Raijuu taken over… it was one sight that I'll never be able to describe with words… when I was that empty pair of eyes, I felt all: sorrow, hatred and fear… almost as if those black pupils dig out the worst emotions from the bottom of my heart and made them come to the surface… I felt terrified of Yugito back then…" and with that he glanced over to the young kunoichi, who still sat a little further away, not moving an inch.
"And have you ever considered what she must've felt when the demon taken over?" Naruto asked him, without even looking at the former cloud-nin. At hearing that the Kumo kunoichi glanced at the other blonde, slightly surprised, yet she said nothing. "I'm not accusing you, because you can't imagine what it's like… nor would I wish you to… but I've experience it too… the darkness that fills your heart… you can feel the rage taken over you… and even though you can still see everything, you cannot control your own body… you can only watch as the beast does whatever it pleases with your own hands… it's even worse then being a puppet…"
"In a way we're all just puppets…" Kyouki replied calmly. "But I think I at least understand your point… however, no matter how much we'd want, we can't change the past… and I would really want to change it… after the fight with Akumo, we set up camp in order to rest, hoping that some of our wounds will get better… but our troubles… were only beginning…"
---dark clouds gather… Kyouki's story continue---
And this concludes this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll leave me a review once you're done reading. It'd mean a lot.
And now I just wanted to say one, final thing before I got: MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! Hope your holidays will be a blast! Take care and until next time!