Chapter 5: Sidetrack
"Sakon…?" Moriko whispered again with confusion apparent in her tone.
"What?" Sakon's grip around her neck loosened a little. Moriko's eyes went blank and Sakon gave her a puzzled look before turning to his brother. "Brother, something's up with her."
"Huh?" Ukon turned his head to the side to look at Moriko. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Kiba who himself was eyeing Moriko with a baffled expression. "Drop her. We'll deal with her later and finish this guy first." Ukon spoke again. Kiba frowned almost immeadiately.
"Alright." Sakon dropped Moriko with a shrug. She stared straight ahead with zombie eyes, confusion written all over her face.
"What's going on? I've met lots of people who gave a familiar vibe but this one's different."
"Moriko! Hey!" Kiba shouted swinging his foot to block Sakon's kick that was directed at her. "Snap out of it!" Kiba bit Ukon's arm and sent him flying with a kick. He quickly turned to Moriko and grabbed her shoulders. "Moriko, what's wrong?" He shook her a little before quickly turning around to block the irritated twins. Akamaru ran towards Moriko and bit her shirt, gabbing her to a farther location to keep her away from the battle.
"Sakon, level 2." Ukon ordered as the pattern on his skin glowed and covered his whole body, transforming his appearance into that of a red-skinned devil.
"Alright, alright." Sakon smirked, doing the same.
Kiba's yowl sounded like a soft whisper. Like a voice from a far away distance. Moriko clutched her head as she felt something unraveling inside of her. She saw herself in a dark void and heard voices, lots of different voices. Pictures flashed quickly before her kneeling figure one after the other that she couldn't even tell what the images looked like. Moriko's head throbbed with the unexplainable thing that was happening to her.
Moriko raised her head over a still screen with flickering images in front of her. "This… I've seen this before in my dream." She lifted her hand and tried to touch the giant hologram-like screen but it only shattered into pieces and disappeared.
Moriko began to think of the constant dream she kept dreaming about. The boy in his dream was always a blur and his voice was never clear. Whenever she tried to call out his name, she'd always wake up. "This Sakon guy… is he…?" Moriko frowned at the thought. She looked around again at the numerous holograms all over the place. They all played different scenes but only two people appeared in all of them.
"That's the younger me and… that boy." She cocked her head slightly to one side and focused on the young boy. Each time she watched a hologram very carefully, the images of the boy became clearer and clearer.
"Almost all of this appeared in my dream and yet they all seemed to have happened in real life… They all feel so familiar to me." Moriko wondered if they were all fragments of her memories of the past as the holograms only showed a younger her. She thought of how she could never really remember any memories when she was young.
Moriko walked closer to the hologram but it disappeared and reappeared in a farther direction. Moriko found herself absorbed in her own thoughts when she heard a child's scream. She looked behind her and saw her younger self running in the forest with tears streaming down her face.
Another scream was heard and young Moriko looked back in the direction she was running from with a horrified face. Her face showed fear, guilt and regret and this continued to play tricks with Moriko's mind. "This a part of that dream… the one I had yesterday." Moriko frowned in confusion.
"That dream felt painful and I kept saying sorry." Moriko placed her hand on her chest recalling the dream.
-Meanwhile-
"GAROUGA!!" Kiba and Akamaru had transformed into a two-headed wolf. That attack was their last one. Sakon and Ukon have already split up, they summoned a giant gate that had a demon's face embedded in it and chains hanging off of its side. It blocked Kiba and Akamaru's Garouga but they were able to damage the gate, Rashoumon, Orochimaru's absolute defense.
Before they transformed into their normal selves, Akamaru took a pissed at Sakon's face. He cried in pain with his hands over his eyes. "My eyes! This isn't normal piss, it's acid!" Ukon punched Akamaru as soon as they have transformed into their true form. Kiba landed with his feet on the ground and looked around to find the missing Ukon.
"Where is he?"
"Yo. Looking for me?" Ukon had his head extended out of Kiba's arm. "This is my ability. I can kill you by ripping your cells off." He smirked. Kiba looked at him with a terrified expression before grabbing a kunai out of his pocket then stabbing himself in the stomach. The two cried in pain, blood spurting out of their mouth.
"Suicide? You fool!" Ukon yelled as Kiba pulled out the bloodied kunai.
"Our bodies are connected right? I wonder what would if I do this." Kiba smirked. "Let's die together." Kiba straightened the kunai and aimed it at his stomach again. He gathered courage while he closed his eyes before plunging in the sharp object into his flesh.
Ukon's eyes widened and made a wise decision to get out of Kiba's body before he takes another critical hit in the abdomen. Kiba yelped as he felt the sharp edge cut his insides.
"I'm losing a lot of blood." Ukon thought, raising his head to look at his opponent with a kunai thrust into his stomach.
Kiba tried to think clearly, trying to ignore blood running down his flesh. He took out the kunai and scowled at Ukon. He felt his hands shook and his whole body weakening. Kiba knew he needed to escape badly. He was out of chakra, Akamaru blacked out and Moriko was in a hypnotized state.
"The smoke screen won't last too long but… if I move quickly I'll be able to grab both Akamaru and Moriko." Kiba threw the kunai at Ukon, which he blocked easily with his armor-like arms. Kiba quickly threw two, small smoke bombs that immediately exploded into thick, dark clouds.
Kiba used Shunshin and grabbed Akamaru. He turned around to get Moriko next but she stood up and ran away. Kiba blinked then looked down at Akamaru. "A diversion?" He wondered and then decided on escaping through the opposite direction.
"Shit, where did he go?" Ukon ran around the cloud of smoke, swinging his arms around to clear them off. He looked at the rock where Moriko was dragged. "She's gone! Where did she—" He looked up and saw a disappearing figure of girl. He smirked.
"Did she really think they can get us by separating?" He turned around and saw an unconscious Akamaru on the ground. He walked towards him with a sneer. "Hooh… so he left his dog and ran away huh? What a shame." As soon as he was only inches away from Akamaru, it bloated up and exploded with several kunai flying through the air.
"That bastard, I'm gonna kill him!" Ukon swore loudly, the bandage on his right foot absorbing his blood from the several cuts he got from the trap.
"Sakon! Sakon!" Ukon called out angrily.
"What? You're hurting my ears—ah, aniki…" Sakon stared at his staggering brother who had already changed back in his original form.
"They both escaped and went separate ways. I'd want to rest for a while but we have to finish this quickly." Ukon said as he looked at his bloodied uniform. "You catch the girl, the bastard's mine."
"Aniki, are you sure you don't want to regenerate first? You're all messed up." Sakon looked at his brother from head to toe.
"I said I'd want to but we don't have time for that. One went left and one went right. We're in a valley so there's no other way besides left and right… we don't have a choice but to split up if we want to get them." Sakon nodded and reached for something from his pouch.
"Here, you need it more than I do." Sakon threw a red pill at him.
"Blood restoring pill?" Sakon nodded.
"You've lost too much blood already." Ukon flapped his hand, gesturing Sakon to get on his way. Sakon turned around to walk away but then stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Hey, about that girl…"
"What?" Ukon chucked the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. There was a short pause between the twins before Ukon quirked an eyebrow. "What?" He asked again in a hasty tone.
"… Nothing." Sakon mumbled and walked ahead, leaving his brother looking after him. Ukon stood up and straightened his posture.
"Is something bothering you?" Ukon asked again in a monotone. He clicked his tongue when he got no response from his brother. "Hey, doesn't that girl give you a surprisingly familiar feeling?" Sakon stopped in his tracks and looked back. "That got his attention. I knew it…"
"I told you it's—" Ukon already disappeared with the shunshin technique. "Tsch… stupid brother." Sakon speeded up with shunshin and tried to ignore the matter that Ukon brought up. "So he noticed it too…"
Meanwhile, Moriko didn't know that her body had subconsciously moved on its own accord. She leapt from tree as soon as she had reached the forest part of the valley. She once again dropped to her knees with her hands firmly grasping her head. The pain woke her up from her daze.
"This pain again…" She hissed then blinked at her surroundings. "Where… am I?" Moriko stood up and tried to remember what had happened. "I was in a dark space with some movie screens of some sort. It felt like a dream but was I really sleeping?" She raised an eyebrow as the silliest theory came to her. "Did I really fall asleep and sleep-walked here?"
There was silence between the nature and Moriko. "Nah." She said as she waved her hand dismissively. "So… a while ago I said someone's name. If I'm not mistaken, I uttered that oto nin's name as he reacted when I said it." Moriko's musings were interrupted with a sudden sound ringing in her head.
"Not… this again." She groaned as her eyes slowly went blank again. Moriko opened her eyes to see herself back in the dark empty space. "I'm gonna develop a nyctophobia if I keep coming to this place." She whispered to herself as she felt goose bumps.
Helloooo Moriko The voice earlier had come back
"You again."
Alright, let's get this done quickly.
"Huh?" Moriko looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.
Pull your shirt up. The voice ordered nonchalantly.
"What?" Moriko snapped back incredulously. "Why?"
Just do it and you'll see. Moriko gave a suspicious like before the voice spoke again. It's fine, no one's here. I'm a girl, you're a girl, no problem right? Moriko heaved a defeated sigh and peeled off her top.
"Now what?" Moriko asked, her hand holding up her shirt against her chest.
Look at the left side of your chest. Moriko looked down and was surprised to see a seal that held a great resemblance to that of Naruto's seal.
"What is this…?" Moriko ran a hand over the symbol on her chest, looking at it with great curiosity. "Since when did I have this?"
It's the Hisa Seal, you've had it ever since you were born. It will only appear when I've awakened already. And that was yesterday, when you talked to me for the first time.
"Are you saying you're sealed inside me?"
Mmhmm… The voice answered casually.
"Who are you?" Moriko asked skeptically.
Me? The voice coughed a bit and spoke again. Oops, sorry. Forgot to introduce myself. I'm Kagerou. The voice answered genially.
"Kagerou…" Moriko repeated to herself. "What are you?"
You silly, I'm human.
Rewritten: May 2 08
I nearly tore out my hair while I reread this chapter. It's horrible and confusing. Reading the first few paragraphs last night already gave me the feeling that I was gonna have a hard time rewriting this one. And guess what, I really did. Curse my old self and my pointless twisted plot.