Hey Readers! Another long delay, I know, and I'm sorry about that. I'm currently in Japan right now and loving every second of it! But yeah, here's another chapter of Promise!
There will probably be only one or two more chapters in this story, and I STILL haven't actually decided who Naruto is paired off to, so... Review and request a pairing! If you want. ;)
あけましておめでとう！！！
'Promise'
Chapter 13: The Duel of the Demons
"Hell hath no fury like a women scorned." Sasuke thought to himself. The full meaning of those words were clearly apparent with the raging demoness a few steps in front of him.
They continued walking until they came across a section of the Annex corridor with a hole in the ceiling.
"That looks like Sakura's handiwork." Sasuke said, noting that it appeared she'd used a lot more chakra then necessary. Kyoko was silent, choosing to jump through the hole. Following swiftly, Sasuke kept his eyes peeled for any more enemies. He'd gotten sick of all the surprises in this screwed up world.
A few minutes later, and they came across a room with the door kicked in. Sasuke could see Hinata bending over an unconscious Naruto, with Sakura tending to an injured Shinobu.
"What happened?" Sasuke bent down next to Hinata, looking over Naruto's battered body. He was alive, but covered in scratches, and a prominent bite wound on his neck. It looked as though he'd been ravaged by a vampire.
"Shinobu and Naruto. They were both controlled by the real demon controlling this Annex. Her name is Kanoko." Sakura explained quietly. "She's the one who stole control of the genjutsu, and the only way to stop this jutsu is to fight her."
"Where is she now?" Kyoko had been silent up until now. She was no longer in a rage, but she was clearly still angry. The sight of Naruto had calmed her down, even if it was just a little.
"The Core of the Annex." Hinata pointed at a door opposite the one they had entered through. It was where the irritating noise of grinding gears seemed to be coming from. "Her chakra signature is coming from there, and she's not even trying to hide it. She also seems to be surrounded by several other signatures."
"The other's from Hinata Inn?" Sasuke guessed. Hinata nodded.
"Probably. Who else could it possibly be?"
As they spoke, Shinobu began to regain consciousness. Her eyes slowly opened, to be greeted with a smiling Sakura.
"How are you feeling, Shinobu?"
The girl shook her head, wincing. "Everything...hurts..."
Sakura's smile faded slightly. Shinobu had taken a serious beating whilst they had been fighting. And the demon presence inside of her had vanished, so the benefits were also gone. She now had to heal with Sakura's help and her body's own capabilities.
"We'll look after you, that's a promise."
As Sakura spoke, Hinata was holding onto Naruto's hand, praying he'd be awake soon. It was partly her fault he was in his condition, but she knew him to be strong, that a weak girl's attacks like hers wouldn't keep him down for long.
"I think it's time we went in there and punched Kanoko into the ground." Kyoko growled. Her patience had finally run out, and she was itching to destroy the one who had taken her mess and made it ten times worse.
"What about Naruto and Shinobu? We can't just leave them." Sakura knew that they both needed medical attention. Shinobu especially, as she was only human.
"Then you stay and watch over them. We need to end this, now." And with that, Kyoko walked through the door towards the core. Looking after her, Sasuke nodded.
"This world won't last much longer. Let's hope we can save what we can, and get home." He followed Kyoko, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Turning to face Sakura, Hinata nodded.
"I'll go too. I want to help them, and save Naruto. Please, watch over them." Hinata left the room, a solid look of determination on her face. An eerie silence echoed in their wake. Just the sounds of Shinobu's gentle moans of pain, and Naruto's breathing.
Sakura concentrated on healing Shinobu with her medical jutsu's. She suspected it was internal bleeding and cracked ribs, amongst other minor injuries. Within five minutes, Shinobu's face returned to it's natural colour. Her healing was complete.
Naruto was a different story. She had no idea how to heal the teeth marks in his neck. Every jutsu she tried had no effect. It was frustrating her, close to the point she was ready to break out it tears again.
"Naruto...please...wake up!"
おねがい
"So you finally came." Kanoko smiled at them. As predicted, she was surrounded by the occupants of the Hinata Inn, minus Shinobu, all of which with the same demonic grin and glowing red eyes Shinobu had.
"Let the others go, they have nothing to do with this!" Kyoko growled. Kanoko laughed softly, her eyes slowly beginning to turn a glowing red.
"We are all the same. Caught up in a world which defies normality. But the thing is, we were created along with this world." Indicating the other demons around her, Kanoko looked at Kyoko directly.
"It's because of you this world was created. And it's because of you the occupants who live in this world are slowly losing their humanity. You have lost control of the world you set out to create, and because of that, the world is falling to ruin, held together only by the Core of this Annex."
"What the hell do you mean?"
"We control the Core. It's the only way we survive. If the Core is destroyed, this world fades away, and we all die." Kanoko's expression was serious. "So you can imagine that we don't exactly want the Core to be messed with in any way."
"That's not true." Kyoko sounded uncharacteristically calm. "You won't die."
Kanoko smirked. "And how would you know? You lost control of this world ages ago. Things aren't the same as when you created this world."
"You still won't die, whether or not I have control of this world. You won't die because you're a part of me, and you all exist within me." Kyoko was fiercely determined to get the point across, hoping that she wouldn't have to fight in the end.
"When this world fades away, you will still live. I didn't just 'dream' you into existence. I breathed life into you. When we return to Konoha, we will all return together."
Kanoko began to laugh. A hysterical laugh that showed she clearly didn't believe a word that Kyoko was saying. Which was fair enough to her, as Sasuke and Hinata were also having a hard time believing it. To breathe life into imagination would require godlike powers, unlike anything they had ever seen before.
"That's ridiculous. Breathing life into the imagination? You're a bijuu, not a god! You do not have the power to create life, only to take it away."
"I swear it. I have that power." Sasuke and Hinata had never seen Kyoko as she was now. Calm, determined, and not angry in the slightest. Almost as though she wanted to help.
"Lies! I do not believe you." Turning to face her companion demons, Kanoko screamed at them. "Get them!"
A line of red eyes where Keitaro and the other Hinata Inn residents suddenly vanished. Shadows jumped, darted and weaved at insane speeds towards Kyoko, Sasuke and Hinata. Sasuke activated his Mangekyo Sharingan seconds before he was almost decapitated by Kitsune and Mutsumi. They were holding kitchen knives, and were using pots and pans as shields, parrying and attacking with co-ordinated ease against Sasuke and his sword.
Hinata had to use an 8-trigrams, 64-palms guard just to fend off Keitaro, Naru and Kaolla at the same time. Bouncing away from the dome of silver-blue chakra, the demons raced back in, apparently uninjured from the attack.
Kyoko was dealing with Sarah and Haruka, both seemingly having swallowed a gallon of jet fuel each, as they were simply not still long enough for the human eye to register. It was a hard job keeping track of them with her demon senses. All of the Hinata residents were armed with various household items, like kitchen knives, hammers and screwdrivers to match against the shinobi's kunai. Which surprisingly seemed a decent enough match.
水
The amount of noise coming from the fighting room was unbelievable. It was like hearing a line of aircraft engines explode one after another, constantly. Sakura was amazed the building was still standing at all. It sounded like all hell had been let loose.
One of the explosions rocked the room she was in. Shinobu, who was now wide awake, was cowering behind her, all but hysterical.
"Sa...kura..."
Looking down at Naruto, Sakura saw one of his blue eyes slightly open. A small grin was planted on his pain-contorted face. Her mind shocked beyond belief, she instantly bent over and hugged him.
"Naruto!"
Returning the embrace, Naruto tried to sit up. Groaning in pain, his eyes flew open when another explosion practically threw him sideways.
"What the heck was that?" Purple energy was flowing around the building, systematically tearing off parts of the walls and floors. The three of them looked around. The entrance to the room was now blocked, with a huge amount of debris from an upper floor totally decimating it. The only way out of the room was towards the Core room.
"Let's go!" Naruto stood straight up, placed Shinobu on his shoulders, and ran for the exit as fast as he could, with Sakura inches behind him.
魔王
Kaolla, Sarah and Haruka were unconscious by some extraordinary miracle. Sasuke was bleeding from a deep cheek wound, three stab wounds on his arms and left leg and had a nasty gash on his forehead. Hinata's velvet jacket was a torn mess, with her shirt and fishnet-clad chest peeking through the tears, of which almost all of it was splattered in blood from numerous cuts over her arms and chest, as well as two cuts going across her face. Kyoko wasn't much better off, but her wounds were constantly healing on the go. Her clothing was now missing an arm, and was also a torn mess.
Standing across from them, Keitaro, Naru, Kitsune, Motoko and Mutsumi were grinning demonically at them. Kanoko was smirking, well aware the numbers were in her favour. Her side looked just as beat up at the Konoha shinobi, although they weren't giving any signs of pain. The shinobi on the other hand were on the verge of collapse.
"Well, now. Do you want a quick and painless death, or a long, drawn-out and painful one?" Kanoko smiled. Sasuke slowly looked up into her face and grinned in a way he imagined Naruto would.
"Go to hell, bitch."
Hinata and Kyoko quietly chuckled, wincing in pain. He had voiced the exact same words they were all thinking. They weren't dead yet.
"I didn't want to use this power. But it looks like I'm going to die if I don't." Sasuke looked directly at Kanoko, his Sharingan slowly spinning. "I've been using this Sharingan defensively, which is rare in my style of fighting. However..." The spinning got faster and faster. "Let's see what happens when I try going on the offensive." Closing one eye, Sasuke growled. "Tsukuyomi."
Instantly, Kanoko became deathly still, her eyes unfocused. The demon companions around her started to look confused, their red eyes glaring at one another.
"The Sharingan user... get him..." They all said simultaneously, in a strange, unearthly echoing voice. Speeding towards Sasuke, Kyoko and Hinata stepped into his defence, well aware that Sasuke was vulnerable using Tsukuyomi. Hinata unleashed another 8-trigrams, 64-palms guard, whilst Kyoko rushed in headfirst, punching and kicking everything within a few metres radius.
The five possessed Hinata residents jumped simultaneously, diving straight for Sasuke, just out of Hinata and Kyoko's reach. The events afterwards seemed to move in slow motion for the two girls, as from nowhere, a Giant Rasengan pummelled all of the attacking demons out of the sky, sending them flying to the other side of the room.
"Naruto!" Hinata cried in relief as she ran towards the grinning shinobi. Sakura walked to his side, holding Shinobu's hand. They all turned to face Sasuke, who was still concentrated on Kanoko.
氷
Kanoko found herself locked in a wide room, with Sasuke glaring at her. The walls were running through various spectrums of black and red, and the floor was matted with blood. Walking towards her slowly, Sasuke began to talk.
"You are going to let us walk free."
Kanoko smiled her fake smile. "I don't think so. This is still my world you're in."
"You are wrong. Tsukuyomi is a whole different dimension altogether. Which also proves you can exist outside the world created by the Kyuubi."
"LIAR!" Kanoko screamed, losing her patience. "We will all die!"
As Sasuke walked towards her, apparitions of Keitaro and herself appeared. They were smiling at her, echoes of her childhood self, along with Keitaro when he was a child.
"Kanoko, let's go home." The childlike vision of Keitaro held his hand out to the real Kanoko. The vision Kanoko also did the same.
"No! Stop it! This isn't real!" Kanoko was freaking out looking at the two visions. Sasuke walked up behind the two visions, and knelt down beside them.
"This is the first time I've ever used Tsukuyomi to help someone. These visions I pulled from your memory. If you really were just some figment of somebody's imagination, then this should be impossible." Sasuke held onto the shoulders of the two visions gently, gripping solid cloth instead of his hand just falling through.
"These memories are real. That is why I can touch them." Sasuke gave a small smile to Kanoko. "Which means, you're as real as I am, Kanoko."
Kanoko was silent, but her expression was a storm of emotions. In the end, she couldn't hold it any longer. She broke down, sobbing in her arms. Sasuke and the two visions walked up to her, placing their arms around her. Kanoko could feel the warmth from the touch of all three of them.
"Never let anybody say memories aren't real. Memories are a big part of who were are, and if we focus on them hard enough, we can realise that they are as real as anything in this world." Sasuke said gently to Kanoko.
Turning round, Kanoko threw her arms around his neck, sobbing heavily into his shoulder. Slightly taken aback, Sasuke placed her arms around her, allowing the world behind him to fade away into the real world.
零
The Hinata Inn residents had changed back into humans. They were all unconscious, with their wounds slowly healing themselves with a strange, purple energy. The same purple energy that was still pulling apart the Annex slowly.
"We need to destroy the Core." Kanoko stood up, slowly walking towards a door on the other side of the room. The sound of crunching gears was immense, which indicated it was definitely where the Core was being kept.
"The only way we can break the Core, is to go against the spell of the Annex. Which means..." Kanoko looked at Naruto. "The girls all have to tell you something very important." She indicated Hinata, Sakura and Kyoko. All three of them instantly flushed red.
"What is it?" Naruto said as he pushed his way into the Core room. Gears were turning in an immense contraption that seemed to be linked to the clock at the top of the room. The purple energy was being generated here.
Turning around to face the girls again, Naruto repeated himself. "So, what is it?"
The girls all looked at each other.
"Well...?" Hinata smiled at the other two, who both smiled back. "On the count of three?"
The other girls nodded. "One..."
"Two..."