READ THIS!!! IT'S VERY IMPORTANT!!!

WARNING: Lots of blood in this chapter, too much dialogue, as well as bad fight scenes and too many inserted notes of my own twisted mind. (Ignore all the parenthesis if you're trying to avoid them) I don't own Naruto, or anybody except Ayumi. Enjoy and review.

Chapter 7: The Whole Truth, Right?

Ayumi stared down at Naruto, grinning like a maniac. "That's right. When I was three, the Nine-Tailed Fox massacred my family when they defended the village from its' attack. I was taken in and trained, and now I want to avenge my clan." The blonde just stared in shock. "But, but I didn't do anything! It's not my fault what Kyuubi did before it was sealed in me!"

She was no longer grinning, but glaring at him like he was less than dirt. "Do you think I care? I know that. And now the only way to avenge them is to kill the demon, and the only way to kill the demon is to kill you." Naruto stood up, bright green eyes narrowing in suspicion, watching his every move.

"NO!" "What did you say!?" "I said NO!" Naruto was glaring right back at Ayumi now. "I'm sick of it! I'm sick and tired of everybody ignoring me, of treating me badly because of the damn fox demon! So what if it killed your clan? It's gone now, locked up inside me. I'm miserable enough as it is, I don't need you here to make life harder!"

As Naruto finished his screaming, a tense silence filled the clearing as his words rang out. Sakura was wide-eyed. She had no idea...nobody had ever told her about Naruto. She had never thought to question why he was an orphan, or why all the villagers shunned him. Kakashi and Tsunade held their breath, waiting for something to happen. Sasuke was only half-conscious, and he barely heard anything the blonde said. Just something about a demon...and a massacred clan... (Sasuke's going on a mental rant here about Itachi, 'cuz he's emo like that)

Tsunade stepped forward slowly. Green eyes darted to watch the older woman. "Ayumi Edochi...they said you were dead. Everybody believed you were killed by the demon fox, too. But that was over twelve years ago. Where were you all these years? What were you doing?" The girl remained silent, still glaring sheer hatred.

"Might as well tell you. I don't plan on letting you all go after this, anyway. After I was branded when I was two, my family stopped treating me like a child. They saw me as a thing: not a person, but a tool."

A tool... team 7 thought, remembering the last person who referred to shinobi as 'tools'. (...I give ya three guesses on who)

"A year of this I suffered. They trained me harshly, always pushing my limits..." "But when you were a year older..." Tsunade started. Maybe she could lull the girl into a false sense of security before she killed them all. (yeah, that would be nice) "Ha. When I was three, my family was massacred. The demon fox attacked the Village Hidden in the Mist; my entire family went to fight it. I was the only one in the family under 20 years old, so I was left behind. The next day, I awoke to an empty house. I found out that they were all dead. Later, I went to the battlefield."

She paused here, green eyes clouded over with memories. "I went to the battlefield, and the blood was fresh. It had been less than seven hours since the demon had killed them all."

An uncomfortable silence settled in the area, but went unnoticed by Ayumi. "And after that, I ran. Ran away, for I don't know how long. That...that was when Kinahaku found me."

"Kinahaku? Didn't you say that was your last name?" Sakura asked. "Yes, I did. I lied. I would have told you my real name, but Kakashi came along. Anyway, Kinahaku came when I was at my weakest. I was ready to kill myself, but she stopped me. Kinahaku told me that she could take me to a person, one that would value me as a person, a human being, and not just as a tool or weapon. I foolishly believed her. She lied to me, just that once, but otherwise, she was kind to me."

"Wh-who was the person? The one that Kinahaku brought you to?" Naruto asked, completely captured by the story. "His name...was Zabuza."

Silence.

Silence.

More Silence.

Stunned Silence.

"Za-Zab-Zabuza!? You were taken in by Zabuza!? The creepy sword guy!? With Haku, and we beat him on the bridge, with Tazuna, a-and—" "Yes, Naruto. I was taken in by Zabuza. He trained me for nearly twelve years. I thought I was ready to fight you, so I went on an information gathering mission to see where you stood. I learned you and your team were out of the village on a mission. Zabuza was hired, while I was gone, to kill the bridge-builder, Tazuna. He took only Haku with him, but he failed, and died. I returned, and saw their graves."

The clearing again sat in silence, waiting for the girl to continue. A breeze blew across the clearing, sending leaves and dust scattering. "I saw their graves, and became ultimately depressed. I went back to the village, seeking news of what had happened. But, when I was recognized, the villagers rejected me. They mocked me, teased me, and shunned what I had become. I was thought to be dead, but I had gone to the village's traitor, instead. Even though I was the last member of one of the villages' greatest clan, they drove me out. I left willingly, for I refused to fight my once home. I thought it was all of them that had died, Zabuza, Haku, Kinahaku, so many others. So I went back to the graves, one last time. After that last visit, I planned to kill myself." (emo much?)

Ayumi paused for a minute. Naruto had stopped glaring long ago, and was now standing patiently while the girl recalled her past. Kakashi and Tsunade were standing still, wanting to hear the story. Sakura's mind was reeling with all this new information. Sasuke was glaring at her, but Ayumi either didn't notice or didn't care. "What makes you so strong?" he called out, still slumped on his teachers' back. "What was your families' bloodline limit, that you could make a person like this?" He tried to stand, but fell to his knees.

The girl blinked slowly, and raised unfocused green eyes toward him. "My family...is gone. It is no longer the families' limit, but mine. Mine alone. They are gone, and I am the last."

"The Edochi bloodline limit is much like Haku's manipulation of water." Kakashi offered. (Because Kakashi knows everything!) "But, there are two major differences. Haku needed hand signs and official jutsus to control the water, but the Edochi clan didn't. And, while Haku could control water...the Edochis were the clan that manipulated blood." Naruto and Sakura gasped, but Sasuke just frowned. Tsunade spoke up next. "Usually, the clan would injure themselves, and use their own blood to attack, but they could control any. However, it is much harder to attack with blood that is unseen. What kind of training did Zabuza put you through to let you kill with such ease?"

Ayumi laughed coldly at that statement. "You think it is easy, what I do? It isn't. But luckily for me, the human body is weak. It is so dependant on the blood; it's really child's play to kill someone. Just send more blood to the brain than it can handle, or snap a few veins and arteries, maybe even freeze over the heart, and the person will die in seconds." (NOT a Mary-Sue!)

Naruto gulped at how calmly and emotionless she was as she explained everything. "Yes, sometimes it is quite easy. But most of the time, it takes immense focus, and great precision. I know the layout of the human body well, possibly even better than you, Tsunade." "Earlier, when I threw that shuriken at you, you said 'I could have sworn she told me you had better aim'. Who told you that?" "Kinahaku, of course. She taught me most of what I know. Kina was like an older sister, someone that actually cared for me. She made me smart; Zabuza made me strong and fearless. The sessions with him were brutal, but Kinahaku would always be there to comfort me, and heal any wounds I had. She taught me so much..."

Another silence fell as the girl quieted. "But, I digress. Back to the story." Her usually smooth voice was void of any feeling, and cold as ice. She was detaching herself from her past, so that she could live in the present. "I went to my masters' grave one last time, after which I was going to kill myself. As I was getting ready to leave, a person snuck up behind me." Ayumi smiled, however small it was. "It was Kinahaku. She was still alive, and as soon as I realized it was really her, I was overjoyed. I asked her what had happened, and she told me the whole sad tale. Which made me ever the more determined to kill the demon fox."

She turned to Naruto, and green eyes wet with tears narrowed at him. "That was when I started to journey here. It took longer than I expected, months, really, because my old village sent group after group of ninja to stop me. I had to continuously backtrack and swerve to avoid them. But eventually, some of them got smart. I was caught several times by various groups, and I had to kill. I didn't want to murder those from my old home, but they left me no choice. They were stopping my mission, my purpose. I was not about to be stopped, not when I had worked this hard and come this far. So, I arrived at the Leaf Village. I met Naruto early on, and I met his team the next day."

She was talking to the sky now, tears threatening to spill from wide green eyes. It was as if the group was not there, and she was all alone, recalling her entire life. "Well, I immediately disliked them all. But I had to play along. They didn't like me either, I could tell. Kakashi, at least, I knew was suspicious. He followed me, and I told him I was a ninja from Mist. Later on, I regretted telling him, because he told the Hokage, and she remembered who I was. But before that, I fought Uchiha Sasuke." Four pairs of eyes switched to the aforementioned boy, who was simply staring intently at the girl.

"They said he had an unbreakable mask, incredible speed and strength. But I thought he was weak. I got under his skin easily, pushed his temper. He charged me, and I kept dodging. I kept taunting him, about how he was weak, about how the last Uchiha was a disappointment. He got angry. Said things to me, that I didn't know anything about his family, his brother, of what it was like to lose something precious to me. That was his mistake." Her voice cut through the almost-empty clearing like a diamond through paper. "He didn't know. The last Uchiha didn't know about me, or what I had been through. My family, Zabuza; they treated me badly, but I was still tied to them. Bonded inexplicablely. I still mourned their deaths. He lost his family once, all except for a brother. That brother that killed them all. But I lost my family twice. My blood family and the family that took me in. I cared for nobody after I believed them dead. But, we are even, I suppose. The ones in our family that we were closest to are alive. But then again, we might not be even, because it was the one closest to Sasuke that killed his family. Maybe we're even because I lost twice, and he was betrayed. But that is the past. It matters not anymore. All that matters is the present, and what you do in it to determine your future." (Wow, it's all confuzzling, ain't it?)

She blinked and took a deep breath in. "'The present is all that matters'. Kina taught me that. After I knocked Sasuke out, she found me. Tried to persuade me to come back. Said that nobody blamed me for what had happened, or for what I had done. I threatened her, and she gave in easily. When I was suspicious, she told me something. From that comment, I discovered that she was pregnant. When I told her what was going on, she persisted that I try to come back. I adamantly refused, and I told her to let me choose my own path for once. I had had very little control over my life before this time. She finally left, called me 'little sister'. Do you know how long I wanted to hear that from her? She was the closest thing I've ever had to someone that actually cared for me. But, before she left, I promised to fulfill my purpose and then return to her. Kina and her husband, who had been another servant of Zabuzas. She had liked him for quite some time, actually, but he was too dense to realize it. But when he died, they stuck together to try and survive. I guess that is when he realized how they both felt."

Ayumi turned misted eyes back to Naruto. "After that, I went to the Hokage. I wanted to see if she would recognize me. She didn't, at first. Eventually, she did remember, or else they wouldn't all be here, now would they?" She turned to the group. "Now you know. About me. About my life, my past. And you already knew my present. Now, I am telling you this: Interfere with my purpose, and I will not hesitate to kill you. I have not come this far to be stopped, right before I succeed." Her eyes, that were seconds before filled with tears, cleared suddenly. "Now, prepare yourself, Naruto Uzumaki. For now is the time your story ends." (Whee! FFX reference right there!)

Ayumi pulled a kunai out of her sleeve, and Naruto quickly jumped back. She tucked the fan in her left sleeve, and brought the sleeve of her right arm up. "This is the brand of my family." She bared her tanned arm to reveal the kanji of 'Edochi' on her forearm. "It was given to me when I was two. When my family first discovered that I carried the trait. I've carried this burden ever since. That mark is permanent. No matter how many times that skin is cut, burned, or injured in any way, it will heal perfectly. The mark will still be there. It is a constant reminder of who I am, and what I don't have. What there are no more of." She raised the kunai in her left hand, and brought is slashing down on her forearm. Right on the mark. (...I told you she was emo)

The girl didn't even flinch as her blood splattered on the ground. She grimaced, however, as a soft white light issued from her arm, and she snarled as she showed off a perfectly fine patch of skin. The mark was still there, jet-black and clean, as if it was new, and had never been touched. "You see!?" she screamed. "Forever I will live with this! This is a curse. I am branded. My destiny was decided years ago. It was fated that we would all be here, now, as I fulfill my purpose." (Hm. She and Neji might get along well if she survives)

She turned on Naruto, running, and threw the bloodied kunai at him. The blonde ducked, narrowly missing the object. He jumped to the side as she aimed a punch at his stomach. She growled and turned to him, whipping out a wire. Naruto jumped back a few paces and stared Ayumi down. She ran at him again, invisible wire gone unnoticed by him. It, however, was noticed by a certain Uchiha. "Naruto, watch her hands! She's got a wire!" the boy called out to his teammate. Naruto turned his attention to her hands, and noticed the glint from the weapon in the sun.

Ayumi smirked and quickly pulled out another kunai with her free hand. While he was distracted with the weapon in her left hand, she jabbed out with the knife. Unfortunately, the blonde saw the kunai coming and moved to the left at the very last second. (His left, her right) Ayumi locked one eye on him, and turned the knife out, slashing empty air where Naruto had been standing milliseconds before.

She frowned, and looked up in the trees for him. "Come out, come out, wherever you are, dear Naruto." She said it in a sing-song voice, but her tone was cold and hard as ice. The blonde boy stared thoughtfully from his hiding spot in the bushes. This girl wanted him dead. She was strong enough to kill him, too. That didn't work out well for Naruto. But if that was the case...why hadn't she killed him yet? Ayumi had more than proven that she was capable of killing in an instant, much less regretting it or hesitating before killing. That's when it hit Naruto: Ayumi was toying with him. The girl was drawing the fight out. But why?

"Na-a-a-ru-to? Where are you? Come out and play. Come out, so I can kill you. Come out, so I can avenge my clan, my master. Come. Out. Now. So I can fulfill my purpose in life, my destiny. Come." It was another summons, one that once again froze Naruto in place, and sent shivers down his spine. One summon he had no intention of answering.

"Come on, Naruto. I promise it will be quick. Earlier I thought of dragging it out, of making you suffer like I have these past twelve years. But I changed my mind. You've suffered, too. Not any more than me, but still; you've suffered, like me. So few can comprehend our pain, Naruto. Wouldn't it be nice for that pain to end? To never suffer again." Her tone was changing again. It was morphing, from steely cold to soft, cool, inviting. "To never have the villagers mock you again. Never, if you come, will you feel pain or suffering. I can release you. Disconnect you from the ones that don't understand."

Tsunade growled at her words. "Damn her to hell! What does she think she's doing? Kakashi, we have to—" "Hokage, if we make a move to do anything, she'll kill us. If we wait, and if Naruto doesn't give in to her falsities, we might have a chance of getting everyone out of here alive." She growled in answer, frustrated. "Damn it. You're right. She could kill us in an instant. Even if we surprise her, we'd have to kill her before she knew what was going on." "That's right, Hokage. She's unstable right now. Obsessed with pointless revenge. If provoked wrongly, she could go crazy and murder us all. We have to stay here, and not do anything. If we attack, and she has even a millisecond of knowing, we'd be dead." The old woman had her fists clenched. "I get it already! Don't attack, just leave her alone. Doesn't mean I have to be happy with it."

Sasuke had his eyes Sharinganed, watching the girl carefully. He knew Naruto was hiding in the bushes and not in the tree tops where that girl was looking. If something didn't happen soon, they'd all be doomed. There had to be some way to distract her, so somebody could get help. Attacking was not an option; she'd kill them in less than a second. Because, although he hated to admit it, she was right about one thing: the human body was very dependant on blood. And with her being a manipulator of blood, it seemed impossible to win. One little thing wrong in the blood, and a person would die quickly. Sasuke's head pounded with the thinking. So much was against their survival in this situation. Why did she have to be so strong? How did she know about Itachi? Why did everything revolve around blood? Whose blood you had, the blood spilled everyday without remorse, those damn blood-red eyes...Sasuke's head pounded. (Agh! drowns in Sasuke's emoness)

Naruto had heard the older ninja talking, and he grudgingly admitted they were right. If anything happened to make Ayumi more unstable than she already was, they were all in trouble. But the girl was still crooning to him, in that sweet, calm voice. The worst part, Naruto thought as his stomach clenched at the realization, was that a lot of what she was saying was true. "Naruto...come out of hiding. You are Naruto Uzumaki! Self-proclaimed next Hokage! But you'll never be Hokage if you hide." It was true. A Hokage didn't hide when there was danger, they protected their loved ones. "Oh, Naruto, come on. You're only making this harder on yourself by drawing it out. Everybody's waiting for you. I'm waiting on you, Naruto. It's not proper to keep a lady waiting, now is it?"

Ayumi drew out another kunai, and pulled up her sleeve again. This time, she held her palm open as she brought the knife over it. Thick red liquid dripped from her upward facing hand. Ayumi began to laugh. It was the same cold, joyless sound she had made earlier, when fighting Sasuke. The Uchiha shivered at hearing the sound again. Naruto stiffened at the noise. It just wasn't natural, that sound. It was like the pained shadow of an echo of a mirthless laugh. There was no happiness or warmth or humor in it, just cold. Naruto itched to get this over with so he would never hear that inhuman sound again. The only thing left to wonder was...how? Ayumi could control blood. Her own, anybody else's. It seemed nearly impossible to get near her. If she noticed anybody about to attack, she would kill them.

The girl's green eyes sparkled with childish delight as she moved the dripping blood from her self-inflicted wound. Her right hand was dropping the liquid every few seconds, and she moved it back and forth, creating a small puddle of blood following her movements, back and forth. She giggled as she brought the redness over her head. The group almost threw up in revulsion as she used her left hand to take the blood and shove it back into her palm. She grit her teeth, but smiled insanely as the last bit of blood reentered her system. (I warned you about this, don't forget that!)

"Naruto...come out here, dear Kyuubi container. Come to me, and let me release you. From failure, pain, suffering, disappointment. Let me be your freedom, and you will bring mine... Help me, Naruto Uzumaki. Isn't that the Hokage's duty? Help me, Naruto, and I can help you..." She was smiling demonically, and clenched her fist as a drop fell out. She focused on that droplet of blood, and it stopped, floating in midair. Ayumi looked up, straight ahead, the spot following. She drew her lips into a thin line, and the drop formed a stake. It froze in the blink of a green eye, and Ayumi looked sharply to the left. The blood shot in her gaze, right into the bush Naruto was hiding in. A twisted smirk surfaced on Ayumi's face.

Naruto was thrown out of the bush, pinprick of blood sticking out of his chest, right above his heart. Ayumi pulled out her fan again, and lifted it. The Kyuubi container flew up in the air. "I also considered killing you with your own blood, but decided against that also." The group tensed, all except for the girl. "I declined that notion because I thought it would only be appropriate to kill you with the blood of the person that killed you." She laughed at her own twisted logic, and Naruto growled. (yeah, she's pretty much lost it.)

"What the hell is your problem!? You keep talking about revenge, and how you're gonna kill me, but so far all I've seen is you being a crazy person! Are you even trying?" She moved the fan to point to the left, which pulled Naruto closer to her. "Naruto, as a ninja, even as dense as you are, you should know better than to invite death into your home. Because if you invite it in, there is no stopping it. Are you really that eager to die?" Naruto's eyes widened. "I thought not. I'm giving you a chance to defend yourself, idiot. I suggest you take it before I lose my patience."

"If you really wanted to kill me, you would have done something by now! What are you, a coward!?" She was still glaring at him. "Never!" She pushed him against a tree. "Never!" She slammed his body against the rough wood. "Ever!" He twitched as she forced him against the tree again. "Ever!" A trickle of blood escaped from Naruto's mouth. "Call me a coward!" Once more she threw him against the tree, this time leaving a huge dent from the force of the blow. "You know nothing, Naruto. You are a fool. And I will kill you this day." She used the fan to pick him up again. His entire body was twitching, and several places on his clothes were stained red from where his skin had been cut by being slammed into a tree.

"No, you won't." She glared icily at him. "What did you just say?" "I said that no, you won't kill me this day." "And why ever not? Right now I have the perfect opportunity, and you know it. At any second, I can end your life." "No." He was panting. Naruto's head hurt, she might have given him some kind of bruise during the throwing. "No, you won't. If it was really your intention to kill me today, you would have done it already. You keep talking about what you're going to do, but you don't back it up. For some reason, I don't really care why, you refuse to kill me. After all, you've had the ability to all this time, but you've done nothing." "Naruto, I'm simply drawing out the fun. You know that any second, I could stop playing with you and end your life. I greatly enjoy that kind of torture. You are scared of me, of what I can do. That is why you hide. Because if you weren't afraid, you wouldn't hide from me. You would openly challenge me, not mock me as I hold you on death's edge."

"But, that's just it. I'm not on death's edge." "Foolish child. That's exactly where you are." "No, I'm not." "Okay, you're not." Ayumi put the fan down, and Naruto's feet hit the ground. "She is." Ayumi turned the fan on Sakura, lifting the kunoichi into the air. Her green eyes widened in fear as she tried to move. "Maybe killing this thing first will convince you of the severity of your situation."

ALRIGHT! Sakura death! Next chapter is more lame fighting, the Kyuubi appears, and Ayumi reveals a secret! O.O (possible spoiler, but a lot of people agree with this theory)

Also, two people have update alerts on this fic, and one of them (both maybe) never leaves a review! I mean, it's nice, having the alerts, but could you say something, please? And don't expect the next chapter up for a while. All these were written before I put the fic up, and the next chapter isn't even started yet. Maybe all your coughlovelycough reviews will inspire me? (that's a hint, people!)