A/N: Yes! The Ninja Life of Kichino Sarafu is finally completed! And I'm giving you the last chapters in one big encore!! I'm wokring on the sequel, Possessed, right now. It might take longer than this one, but its gonna be hella tight!! Stick around for Volume 2!!!

Unexpected Encounter. Eternal Rivals.

My heart was beating in my head, yet it seemed to not be there at all. I could feel the blood pumping through my veins. I was getting anxious. Moregayo said that he caught scent of bloodshed a ways off from here, but how were we to be sure that was even the right way?

After a while, I began to get agitated. This was driving me nuts. The love of my life was in danger, and I had no idea where he could be. I soon found myself in the direction of the Sand Village. The desert was dry and lifeless. It was empty. It left me with a bad feeling. Just as we were beginning to change direction, a great wall of ice blocked our path. Moregayo, going at such a great speed, couldn't stop and smacked into the wall. He disappeared in a poof, and I fell to the ground. I looked around in anger.

"Dammit! I don't have time for this! Who-"

I stopped in mid-sentence. I found my perpetraitor. It was Hinako. She was wearing a long black robe with red clouds on it, and her hair was as snow white as I remember it. She was smiling at me.

"Sarafu. It has been so long. It seems you were in such a rush you didn't even stop to say hello to me. And even after I came all this way to meet you."

I didn't react to her cocky manner. I was too surprised. "Hinako?" I finally managed to get out. "Where have you been? Tsunade told me that you left the village right after I did. Where did you go?"

Hinako's face pulled into a tight smile, that wrinkled her eyes and gave her the look of a fox. "To Akatsuki. I'm a member now."

My face hardened, but I wasn't still like I was with Tsunade. "WHAT?! Akatsuki?! Does that mean-?!"

"Yes," Hinako interrupted. Her foxy smile looking all the more ugly to me. "I'm sure by your rush here that you've heard about Gaara. Wherever you went, it obviously wasn't secluded enough. We're going to take the one-tailed Shukaku from him, and I must tell you, the side-effects will cost him his life."

"What?!" I roared. My blood felt thin with how fast it was rushing. My heart was merely a flutter. "You're going to kill Gaara?!"

Hinako nodded, as if she were explaining something simple to a child. "You'll be happy to know that I suggested it, although I really didn't expect you to find out. I figured you went back to the Sky, where you belonged. But I was hoping that you would return here, so that we could have a little reunion fight. Too bad Jin doesn't know anything about this. He still has no idea where we've gone. I'm sure he misses his 'big sister' so."

Hinako laughed. It was a relieved laugh, like she had been holding it in for all the time I met her. What happened to her? How could Hinako have become like this? Sure, she was always cold and distant, but never. . .evil. She reached behind her and whipped out her scythe. In my shock, I had missed that detail.

"Now, Sarafu, we must say farewell. Forever!"

She charged at me, and I was too shocked to move out of the way, and she sliced my arm open. That woke me up, and I leapt away from her, whipping out a scroll. She moved towards me, again, and I managed to finish my encantation. Dodging her attack, my two swords, Life and Death appeared out of the scroll. I grabbed them quickly, and blocked Hinako's next attack. She seemed absolutely delighted.

"Oh, poor, poor Sarafu. It seems you can't teach an old dog new tricks. You'll never defeat me like this."

I grimaced at the ego attack, and charged her. She flicked her hand in the air, saying "Ice Shards!"

"What?!" I gasped in surprise, but managed to dodge and block a few of the shards. The rest launched themselves into my flesh. My eyes were wide with horror. How in the world could she perform a jutsu without any hand signs? That's impossible! Well, I can do it too, but. . .

Hinako laughed aloud. "Oh, Sarafu, while you have been sitting away, doing whatever it was you were doing, I've been training, every minute of my life, to get into Akatsuki, and when I found out this neat little trick, they welcomed me with open arms. I can perform these simple jutsus with just a flick of my hand. I've done nothing but get stronger these past years! There's no way you can beat me Sarafu! You're still Academy level compared to me!"

She shoved her scythe into the ground and declared "Ice Element; Frozen Typhoon!" I looked up in horror, as a great wave of frozen water began to generate itself from the scythe. It loomed like a skyscraper in front of me. It was so huge. There was no way I could avoid it. Instead, I began to slice the air above me with both my swords, and as the wave came crashing down on me, I had gotten so fast, it was almost a blur. I began to slice the ice as it poured down on me. By the time the ice had settle onto the ground, the place was covered in shattered ice. But there was a hole where I stood. I had crushed the ice around me, so that I was untouched. However, that manuver did cause me to sweat, and breath a little more heavily.

Hinako smiled at me somewhat with pride. "I'm glad. It would've been a shame if this ended so soon. Come at me Sarafu! Just try and kill me!"

I couldn't see her from the deep hole of snow I was in, but I could just imagine the cocky smile she had on her face at that moment. It agitated me, somewhat. I shoved Life into the ground, and carved a circle into the untouched ground. Like a burst of pressured water, trees began to grow out of the ground at the speed of sound. They burst through the ice, and brushed it aside as if it were air and thundered their way towards Hinako. I was on one of them, where I could be protected, but get a good view. I was right. Hinako did have a cocky smile on. I was getting angry. I remembered years of abuse and insults I had taken from Hinako. How much she had bullied me. Upstaged me. Now, I didn't see her as a friend who had betrayed me. I saw her as a caniving enemy. And this enemy had threatened the life of my true friends. I was going to stop her, at the cost of her life.

"Hinako!" I called out from the river of trees. "Today, you die!" Hinako's face turned serious, and she ran to the side to dodge the barrage of trees, but they just began to grow in the direction she ran, as if it were water. It spread out, and blocked Hinako from all sides. There was no choice for her. She would have to destroy them. She leapt into the air, and began to slice a hole in the cage of foliage. However, the other trees began to wrap their branches around her. I smiled. I've got you now!

I was wrong. Hinako chuckled, and then her scythe began to glow with a white chakra. It flew from her hand and began to slice up the wood holding her. And, when Hinako was free, it came my way, flying through the air. It seemed that Hinako wasn't too old to learn new tricks. What other techniques had she learned during my absence? I fought the scythe, but foolishly, averted my gaze away from Hinako. I was too late to react when she shoved a kunai into my back. I coughed up blood and fell from the branch I was standing on. That was to my luck, because if I had stayed there, I would've been sliced to pieces by Hinako's scythe. But, I was falling to my doom, and I had a terrible gash in my back now. Everything wasn't going to hurt like hell. I landed on the hard ground on my side. It knocked the breath out of me. I was too busy gasping for air to run away from Hinako, when she grabbed my neck and lifted me from the ground. It didn't help my breathing problems. I grabbed her hand frantically, trying to release her grip. My legs kicked around, but they never seemed to hit her. My lungs began to hurt as she closed her hands around my neck, with that psychotic look on her face.

"Sarafu, its a shame that I must kill you now before you can see the corpse of your dearly beloved, but I'm afraid our meeting here must be cut short. I'm needed back at the base. I hope this won't come between our freindship."

She squeezed harder and my eyes began to roll into the back of my head. It hurt. It hurt so much. Everything was blacking out. But my mind seemed to be perfectly fine.

I don't want to die! I want to live! I want to breath! I need air! I can't move my body any more! Oh, I don't want to die like this!

Then don't, a voice inside my head answered me. It was deep, but high-pitched at the same time. It made it hard to tell wether it belonged to a man or a woman. But it did radiate a familiar sense from it. Live. Thrive. Kill. Feed. You don't have to die here. I can help you.

H-how? Who are you?

Silly Hatchling. I've been with you all this time, and you do not recognize me? Well, you do ignore me after all. Everytime I come out at the Full Moon, you always ignore the transition and wake back up with no memory.

You! You're the. . .Moon Dragon?!

Yes! I am. Now, we both need this body of yours. And its been so long since I've seen the outside world, why don't you let me out, huh? I want to feast!

The way the voice said 'feast' made me shudder mentally. It tortured me. I could feel its urgings. Its beastly wants. I wanted to eat meat. Tear into the flesh and bone. Drink the blood. Quench my hunger. I wanted to burn those foolish humans. Let them suffer and turn to ash. Let them realize in their few moments who was the stronger beast on this pitiful planet. Make them regret all their actions.

I gasped. A little surge of air filled my lungs, but it was just enough to make me open my eyes. Everything was a blur, but I could distinctly smell human. A delicious human full of delicious seasoned chakra. She was ripe and good for the kill. The perfect prey. My grimacing lips curled into a smile. Fangs began to protrude from my mouth. My hands, which had become limp grasped Hinako's arm harder, my newly formed claws cutting into her flesh. She let out a little yelp of pain and let me go. Or, it was more like I pulled her hand from my throat. This sudden surge of power flowing through me was exhilerating! I could feel the rush of the hunt. My heart pounding in my head. The delicious sight of the terrified prey. The lovely feeling of my teeth sinking into the muscle. I heard a scream of pain as I realized that I had bit Hinako's arm.

She sliced at me with her scythe. Although it didn't cut me, it did make me release her and back away. "You freak!" Hinako spat at me with frantic eyes. "Are you a cannibal or something?!"

I chuckled. This whole situation seemed amusing to me. I could feel my wings folding themselves out of my back, but they seemd to be growing, getting bigger.

"No," I answered her, but it didn't seem to be me who was speaking. "I'm a Dragon!"

Now, I'll show you, Hatchling, my real power.

...to be continued.