Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Naruto. Kiara is owned by Yusuke'sSister.
Claimer: I do own the plot line, the Kuro Tournament, Kristy, Jason, Jessica, Chris, Bashere, and anything else related to them.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
'Telepathy'
Jinchuuriki - Youkai name - # of Tails - Youkai type
Yugito - Azami - two/Nibi - cat
unknown - Hiroshi - three/Sanbi - shark
Sasori - Kenta - four/Yonbi - scorpion
unknown - Mikio - five/Gobi - wolf
Itachi - Tasuki - six/Rokubi - weasel
Deidara - Sadao - seven/Shichibi - badger
Orochimaru - Nobuo - eight/Hachibi - snake
Ages
Kristy - 19
Itachi - 14
Deidara - 16
Sasori - 21
Yugito - 9
Orochimaru - 40
(1) - Sanbi no Kisame means "Three tailed demon shark".
--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--
Under A Bloody Moon
Chapter 12
The Mist
--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--
The Valley, February, 1 Year SA
I stared at Sasori with wide, shocked eyes. No way. There was no way that what he was saying could be true. I mean, Hiei? He couldn't be in this world! Surely it was just some guy with the same name...And skill with the sword. And speed.
...Right?
"Kristy?" Itachi said, concern creeping into his voice. "Are you alright?"
Quickly I shook myself from my stupor, my face taking on uncharacteristic seriousness. "We need to go to the Mist. Now. And yes, I know that things are pretty tense right now, but it doesn't matter. We need to speak with this jinchuuriki, and there's also something else that I need to check out."
"Can I come?" Yugito asked hopefully.
"No," I answered firmly. "Stay here and don't leave the Valley. There's food's in the fridge if we're gone for that long. The rest of you, go collect your things and meet me in the living room. We're leaving in five minutes."
No one argued, though they did all exchange a quick glance before moving off to collect their things. For my part I began picking up several scrolls containing things that I might need. If this Hiei was the one I knew--which, though I tried to convince myself otherwise, I knew was the truth. He was called Jaganshi Hiei, after all--then...Well things just got really bad, not because of Hiei, but because of what his presence meant.
The last I could remember of the Makai was Bashere releasing that portal while Hiei ran towards me. Hiei clearly had gotten caught in this portal as well, and sent here with me. The problem was that this meant that there was a high possibility that Bashere was here as well. Which was bad. Really, really bad.
"Kristy..." Orochimaru spoke from the doorway. I glanced up briefly and saw a frown on his face. "You know this 'Hiei', don't you?"
"...Possibly."
"Nobuo..." Orochimaru began, only to hesitate. Curious, I turned to fully face the golden eyed jinchuuriki. "Nobuo says he recognizes the name, but can't remember where he's heard it before."
"He's definitely a youkai though," a smooth voice said from the side. I tensed up and looked over to where a ghost-like Nobuo was leaning up against one of the walls; he was projecting himself into the physical world.
From the moment I'd first met him, only a day after Orochimaru had joined the Akatsuki, I decided that Nobuo was a strange character. Though he was humanoid in shape, he also clearly resembled a snake. Nobuo stood at almost six and a half feet tall, towering over the rest of us but me in particular, but was so thin he seemed to be made of nothing but bones and skin. His skin had a grayish tone--which Orochimaru doubtlessly got from him--and his head was completely smooth, devoid of any hair, even eyebrows. He was wearing a simple black traditional Japanese outfit.
Out of all of this however, I'd have to say that Nobuo's two most defining features were his nose and his eyes. Or his lack of nose, rather. It was flat against his face and consisted of two slits, exactly like a snake's. Nobuo's eyes honestly bothered me. They were blood red, but at the same time were nothing like Hiei's.
While I was glad to have finally met Nobuo, he hadn't been able to tell us what had happened to Rokuro; according to him he'd been caught in the same portal as Sadao. Short of finding Rokuro himself, we now had no way of knowing what had happened. Although...I could ask Bashere, but I'd much rather hope that I'd never meet him again.
"Nobuo," I greeted with a nod of my head. My eyes slipped back over to Orochimaru. I was thankful that the jinchuuriki didn't have the same eyes as his youkai. "And if he is who I think he is, then yes, he's a youkai. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get a few things from my room."
Without waiting for a reply, I left the room and hurried down the hall. Once in my room I began to swiftly gather a few things I thought I might need, but my mind was barely even half on the task. Instead, I was thinking about this new revelation.
Hiei...Kami, I couldn't believe that Hiei was actually here. In this world! I wondered briefly why the Jagan hadn't told me, but just as quickly brushed that thought off; that bastard probably thought this whole situation was infinitely amusing.
My hands stilled of a scroll as my eyes stared through it, not actually seeing it. It had been so long since I'd seen any of my friends and now I was on my way to see Hiei. It all seemed so surreal. Hiei...I wondered how he'd changed in the last few years. He must have had to adapt to this world as well, which was probably why he'd joined these "Seven Swordsmen of the Mist".
My eyes closed as I titled my head back and allowed a small smile to flit across my face. It would be...nice to see him again. I'd thought of him and my other friends so much over the past year and a half. I couldn't help but wonder if he'd thought of me too...
Just as soon as that thought passed through my mind a blush immediately leapt onto my face. Kami, what was I thinking?
"Kristy-nee-chan?"
I jumped in surprise and whirled around to face my doorway. Itachi was standing there, one dark eyebrow arched and a curious look on his face.
"Itachi...!" I squeaked as I quickly pushed down my flush as it threatened to darken in embarrassment. It must have looked so weird for him to see me standing there, smiling at the ceiling. "Um, what is it?"
His eyebrow didn't lower. "We're all ready to go."
I almost jumped again in surprise. Shit! I'd completely forgotten that I was packing. In a whorl of motion I quickly pushed all of my things on top of a scroll that was spread across my bed. A quick burst of youki later and all of the items had disappeared.
I absolutely loved sealing scrolls like this one. The seals on them basically allowed you to seal items away into a "pocket-dimension", where they'd be stored until you unsealed them. They were incredibly useful because they allowed you to carry many items without them taking up any space.
"Come on then," I called over my shoulder as I hurried out the room. "Let's go." I didn't need to look back to know that Itachi was rolling his eyes.
Everyone, including Yugito, was gathered in the living room. I knew without needing to ask that they all also had sealing scrolls on them; apparently such scrolls were very common among shinobi, for obvious reasons.
"Everyone ready?" I asked brightly. Once they'd all nodded I turned to Yugito. "Make sure to stay out of trouble, Yugito-chan, and keep on training with Azami-san."
Yugito nodded, although she looked more than a little disappointed about being left behind on this "adventure". I smiled reassuringly at the child and the called up the shadows around me and the others, prepared to travel to Water Country.
--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--
Hidden Mist Village, February, 1 Year S.A.
The Village Hidden in the Mist was much like I'd expected it to be. Namely, misty. The buildings were the same half feudal era, half modern era style that was found throughout this world, but they were half hidden by the mist that permeated the entire area. Considering as the Village was located on an island I suppose it wasn't that unusual, but I still felt as though there might be some sort of a jutsu causing the mist.
"Split up," I told the rest of the Akatsuki, "And search the Village for any information about where the Seven Swordsmen are. Be discrete but quick about it. When you've found something tell me by using your new rings."
The four shinobi nodded and then almost instantly disappeared. I took the main street of the Village--a broad avenue clogged with throngs of people, mostly civilians--as my area to search. As I walked I skimmed the through tops of people's minds, looking for any information of whereabouts of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Unfortunately, since most of the people were civilians, there was little to no information to be found.
After almost an hour of useless information I was starting to get more than just a little frustrated. These Swordsmen were supposed to be famous, so how come practically no one knew anything about them? I released a sigh. Well, that's shinobi for you; ever paranoid.
'Kristy?' Sasori suddenly called out, using our new rings to link our minds. I had to smile briefly at their effectiveness. 'I believe I've found some of the Swordsmen, including the jinchuuriki.'
'Alright. Tell me where you are and how to get there. I'll pass this on to everyone else as well,' I replied. 'don't confront them for now; just keep tabs on them.'
I just a minute I was flying through the backstreets of the Village, invisible to the naked eye. Traveling at top speed, I quickly made it to the open training ground, where Sasori was waiting.
I came to a stop next to the redheaded shinobi, who barely even glanced at me. He was crouched on one of the upper branches of a tree while watch three figures in the distance through the foliage.
"Is that them?" I questioned.
Sasori nodded. "Yes. Wanna guess which one's the jinchuuriki?"
I raised an eyebrow in confusion, but as soon as I looked closer at the three men I realized what he'd meant. The first two of them were normal--well, at least relatively so. The first man stood at about five and a half feet, had long dark brown hair, and wielded a two hook bladed swords. The other was over six feet tall, had black hair, and had bandages covering his nose and mouth like some sort of makeshift mask. A massive head-cleaver, about six feet long and one foot wide, was strapped to his back.
The last man, however, had blue skin. Blue. I was pretty sure I'd never even seen a youkai with a blue skin. This one was almost certainly the jinchuuriki, unless he'd recently decided to take a dip in a vat of toxic paint. He also was just about as tall as the black haired man, had spiky blue hair that was only just a few shades darker than his skin--, and had a broadsword that was a little smaller than the second man's head-cleaver. All three of the swordsmen were in their early twenties, though the second man looked to be closer to my age.
Well, at least we now knew which jinchuuriki we were dealing with; that skin could only mean that his youkai was Hiroshi, the Sanbi no Kisame(1). And were those gills on his cheeks? How did that even work? Definitely the shark youkai.
The soft sound of a pair of feet landing on the branch next to me signaled Itachi's arrival on the scene. Shortly afterwards Deidara and Orochimaru joined us as well.
"How should we approach this situation?" Itachi asked quietly. "The rest of us were Missing-nin when you found us, but he's still loyal to his Village."
I opened my mouth to reply, only to halt and narrow my eyes when my ear caught something. "Wait," I said instead and focused my sensitive hearing on the three in the field.
"We shouldn't be out in the open like this," the first man was saying. His tight voice revealed his nervousness even as his face remained impassive, instantly making me curious as to what he was talking about.
The black haired swordsmen snorted. "Raiga, to anyone else it'll look like we're getting together to spar," he said. "And besides, we'll be able to tell if anyone other than an S-class shinobi approaches.
"Still, Zabuza, I don't--"
"Oh for the love of--" the second man, Zabuza, cut in, "Kisame, can you please tell this moron to shut up and stop whining before I force him to shut up?!"
The jinchuuriki wordlessly rolled his eyes and then turned his back on his two companions, letting them know exactly what he thought of their bickering.
"It doesn't change the fact that this could ruin everything," Raiga growled. "It's rare to see more than two of us in one place, so--"
The man was cut off by a forth person, one much shorter than all of them, appearing suddenly in their midst. All three of them jumped and Zabuza even half drew his sword.
"Hiei! Don't do that!" Kisame snapped. "We're already high-strung as it is!" Hiei simply leveled one of his famous death glares on Kisame, instantly shutting the jinchuuriki up.
In my spot in the tree my hands balled into fist and my eyes opened wide. 'Hiei...' I thought while staring at the short fire youkai. Kami, it was so strange to see him after so long. He hadn't changed at all, but of course he was a youkai and it had only been a year.
A grin wormed its way onto my face and a giddy feel bloomed in my stomach. Wordlessly I signaled for the rest of the Akatsuki to stay where they were and then leapt from the tree. Using pure speed I practically blurred into existence in front of the four Swordsmen.
The second my feet touched the ground I had five blades aiming for my neck. Twisting and ducking at the same time I avoided Zabuza's head-cleaver, pushed Kisame's broadsword away with one foot, and deflected Raiga's twin hooked swords with one of my katana. In the next second I brought my second katana up to parry Hiei's blade. A wide smirk on my face, I pushed myself forward until I was just inches from Hiei with only our blades separating us.
Hiei's face briefly formed a scowl, but in an instant it disappeared to be replaced with shock as his crimson eyes met my own. His grip on his katana slackened to the point that it almost slipped from his grip and he took a few stumbling steps backwards.
"Kristy?!" he spluttered as he stared at me incredulously. "H-how-- Where...What?!" There was a brief pause. "...What happened to your wolf ears?"
--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--X--
A/N: (cringes away from readers) Erm, sorry about the long wait after the last cliffhanger. Ironically, I usually tend to be more busy during the summer. I fully blame work. And, yes this is another nasty cliffhanger (grins) I honestly meant to go quite a bit further in this chapter, but I figured that I'd better get this out now, so that you don't have to wait any longer.
I should also mention that a head-cleaver is basically a massive broadsword. Massive as in human-sized. And yes, Kisame's blade is also technically a head-cleaver rather than a broadsword, but when writing it's easier to refer to them as two different names. There's links to pictures of the three members of the Mist Seven and their blades in my profiles. Oh, and please also note that Kisame's sword is currently not wrapped in bandages like it is in Naruto.
And finally, thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter! It's really encouraging to know that so many people are enjoying this story. Tell ya what, if I get another large batch or reviews for this chapter, I'll try to get the next chapter done really soon. Granted, my sadistic little muse will probably force me to anyway, but that's beside the point. Ja ne!
--B.I.