A/N: Sorry about the wait... life and all. My store closed down (not for lack of trying), and we're remodelling it into something else, which I will again be managing. That's a lot of work... in addition, I'm still whacked out on sleep deprivation due to the death of my grandpa (I was the one staying up with him every night night that week, and the night he died- at 1AM- I was up till four, and haven't slept more than a couple of decent nights in the month since then for some reason).
BUT! You have a chapter of TROLL, and I 'HAVE' been writing other things as I can- so there's some OH, maybe a bit of LB2, and even some Fallout: Son of the Old World coming soon(ish). There's also been quite a bit of work on my To-Love-Ru harem fic, several of my HP fics, and another of my (shorter, probably, so I won't be posting it until it's done) Naruto fics (probably strictly NaruHina), and another three-to-five chapter NaruHina fic... and lastly, news about a new project- a Star Wars / Naruto crossover. But he's NOT getting with Aayla Secura, Shaak Ti, Adi Gallia, or any other Jedi Knight or Master... Also, I'm pretty sure the concept for the xover is unlike anything you've ever seen. Anywhere. It only bears vague resemblance (if you squint real hard) to a couple of ideas I've seen elsewhere. Again, anywhere.
But I like it, and I think it'll be both fun to write and fun to read.

I also have to apologize for any errors; this chapter is unbetaed (not even by me), since my beta apparently dropped off the face of the planet yesterday- we'd been in daily contact for a week (after a long dry spell), but then nothing, as soon as I get this chapter done. lol
Still, that's enough blathering from me- enjoy the latest chapter of TROLL!

Chap. 13 The Demon's Touch

Even as the situation in Oni no Kuni went from 'standard' to 'really bad', a certain Konoha Lab Team (number seven, coincidentally enough) finished putting on full Hazardous Materials gear, finishing with activating the decontamination and Nuclear-Biological-Chemical seals that would, if they worked properly, hold any of the above NBC agents inside the lab where they were working.
Some might consider it macabre to lock the four scientists in the room in which they would die if there was an actual contamination, but they took it in stride. This wouldn't be the first truly hazardous material they'd worked with, and each knew that it was better for the four of them to die in agony than for any unknown plague or similar be unleashed on the unwitting populace of Konohagakure.
"Six, you about ready?"
"Roger, Lead," the crisp voice echoed from the annunciator in the team leader's HAZMAT hood. Unlike the others, he had a full readout of all of the team's vitals, as well as much of the mission-critical data they were scanning for projected on his Heads-Up Display. The others only had their own data and pieces of the information, so that, hopefully, they would not be able to piece together things that they'd be better off not knowing.

"Copy that," he replied, "Four, Eight, you good?"

Both of the women on the team, one about forty (his age), and the other a rookie and only about twenty, both clicked the affirmative.
"Starting recording... visual on... audio on... Mission is Go. Open up the package."

Two weeks ago, a scroll had been delivered from an anonymous donor with a simple note, that suggested the labs might want to take a look at it, just in case it was dangerous or useful. No one had thought much of it, having several prank 'donations' a year did that sort of thing to the working environment at the labs. Even if the more creative ones were their main source of work-related entertainment.

Team Five had been assigned the project, and the brusque, no-nonsense Genbu Harashi had taken it up as soon as his current project was done, trying to get the waste of time off his work docket.

Except, things hadn't gone as planned. Harashi was a very by-the-books sort of guy, but his team... well, some of them were not. So when the container was opened, certain amounts of something black, purple, and green had floated into the air, and the one who'd done so, a recruit by the name of Donoba had inhaled much of the substance.

He had been hospitalized six minutes later, suffering from asphyxiation, hence their precaution with the HAZMAT suits, and NBC seals on the examination room. Personally, both Harashi and Yokohama Eichi, the lead of Team Seven, thought Donoba's carelessness had earned him that trip... and he'd be paying for the medical bills himself, since he was officially on punitive leave until the enquiry was finished.

But his team were professionals, even the rookie, and they could figure this out without risk. They were ready.

Only... it appears that they were not.

Six, A.K.A. Moto Nobumasu, screamed in a high-pitched fashion as the crowbar he'd been using dissolved. Six backed away in a hurry, holding both heavily-gloved hands up to the front of his mask's visor to hide his vision of... whatever was in there.

The container's lid had fallen completely open, and the light cloud of smoke, or whatever, was already falling in a loose circle around the package, having whooshed out with the sudden depressurization. Eight was trying to reassure Six that it was going to be okay, that nothing was happening, when Four tentatively stepped over to look inside the package.
Unfortunately, Eichi was distracted from that occurance by watching the suddenly-fluxuating vitals on Six's HUD display. Hyperventilation, spiked adrenaline and norepinephrine... he was going into shock, and fast. "Six, calm down!" he growled, "And Four! What the hell are you doing in there?!"

The older woman snorted, "I've seen worse shit in my grandkid's diapers. This isn't that ba- holy crap!"
Four began to back away slowly, one hand raising to point into the container, shaking badly enough that it was visible even through the very baggy white suits. "It's... it's moving. It's watching us!"

The old woman wouldn't be able to take the same shock Six would, so Eichi decided they would have to abort. He hated failing missions, but with half his team already going down... they were scientists, not ninja! They weren't trained for this!
"I'm closing it," he said forcefully, "Prepare to decon and clear the room! Burn the whole thing out if you have to!" The instructions were keyed over the broad radio, so the control room would hear. The second they were in the deconamination airlock, the entire room would be bathed in super-hot flames, hopefully cooking... whatever it was in there. Then an bio-acid spray would be the next step, one hour almost completely immersed in the stuff, before they were allowed to shuck their suits and step out into the rest of the lab... where their suits would be burned as well.
Except, when the team lead reached the door of the large container, he froze. There were, indeed, many miniscule eyes, thousands of thousands of them, turning toward him... and a mouth? It had a mouth?
Reflexively, he kicked the door shut and turned to run toward the decon room, beating even the terrified Six inside. He barely stopped himself from slamming the shut button, consigning his team to a terrible fate, before all of them were inside.

When Yokohama Eichi entered the control room nearly an hour and a half later (after decon and a lot of bracing coffee), the fire was still going strong. "Why the hot room?"

His boss growled, "Because every time we shut it off, the thing gets bigger! If we keep it burning, it just eats the flames, but at least it doesn't grow!"

Eichi paled.
What had they done by opening that thing?

(O)(O)(O)

Fortunately, the attack by the enemy was... well, not much of an attack. Sure, the fifty or so bandits and low-life thugs led by a tall, battle-worn mercenary the rest of the attackers called "sir" would have been a major threat for most farming villages, and probably even would have posed a fair threat to the guards at the Oni no Kuni main temple complex. Sure, the bandits were outnumbered two to one, but the active-duty guards were... well, young.

Inexperienced.

Not a one of them, Naruto knew, had been blooded. The only person in the Temple to have had any conflict with an actual human being besides himself and Kakashi had been Miroku, and that was with their current enemy's predecessor, nearly twenty years ago. It had also, from what Naruto had been told by Kakashi, not been much of a conflict. Miroku's Priestess powers, fully trained at the age of twenty, quickly smashed the dark arts of her enemy, leaving him catatonic for several days before being carted off.
The fact that he later escaped prison did not come as a surprise to Miroku, of course, since she'd forseen this whole debacle several times.

While several of the bandits had been killed by either the lucky, or the cooler-under-fire guardsmen (who were skilled in kata and forms, even if most did not have the psychological bearing or training to have an easy time killing), the majority had been wiped out by Kakashi, with a few who had slipped past him, approaching where Naruto guarded Miroku and Shion, just inside the main entrance to the courtyard where the guards practiced daily, and where Naruto had been cutting leaves... so many leaves!

"Fools," he chuckled as he watched the nine bandits approach warily, each with weapons ranging from poorly made and worse-maintained swords, to a few yari, and one relatively new-looking naginata, probably poached off a dead samurai guard, "You think just 'cause there's nine of you, you're gonna lay a hand on the Priestesses?"

"No," one of the attacking bandits laughed with something like real bravado, "we think we're gonna kill 'em 'cause you're just a kid, stupid!"

"Yeah!" another called out, flourishing his yari, "But maybe we oughta have a little fun with the ladies first, eh, lads?"

Several of them, all but one, laughed darkly while behind Naruto, both Shion and Miroku growled in frustration and anger. It didn't sound like fear to Naruto... for some reason, it seemed even crazy Shion trusted him to handle this rabble. Who knew?

"Fine then," Naruto said calmly, moving a hand out to beckon the men forward in a manner similar to Rock Lee's Goken stance, "if you think you've got what it takes, bring it on!"

Of course, that made all nine of them attack at once, but Naruto was waiting for just that eventuality. "Kage Bunshin!"
Nine bandits were met with eight clones, and in moments, eight bandits were down. The last stood before Naruto. He had frozen in fear, the naginata trembling even as the man, scruffy and probably only seventeen or so, was pointed straight at Naruto's throat. "You don't really wanna push you luck, do you?" Naruto scowled. His seven remaining clones- one having dissipated at the same time it had struck down its opponent- gathered in a half-circle to flank the young bandit, "Probably ought to clear ou-"

"Naruto!"

The blonde in question was shocked by the fear and worry in the older Priestess' voice. In a blur, the boy turned away from the bandit even as his clones continued to hedge in on the young man, who seemed frozen in fear.

What he saw gripped his heart in ice. Shion was on the ground, bleeding profusely. "Shion!"

He did not hear the sound of his clones thrashing the young man, who had apparently been too terrified to run. He did not hear Kakashi's voice telling him to calm down.

All he heard was the rushing in his veins, and the slowing thrum of the beautiful young Priestess' own heart as her precious vitae pumped slowly onto the wooden slats of the temple entryway.

Then, in a blast of orange and red, Naruto disappeared.

The bandits, in full route, began to scream in the forest outside the Temple, and the trees began to shake. The guards, most of whom were now on the walls to make sure they didn't come back, stared in disbelief. Had some angry, vengeful demon appeared in the forest to destroy the men who'd attacked them?

Their superstitions were closer to the truth than any but Kakashi and Miroku knew.

(O)(O)(O)

When Naruto returned, early the next morning, he was bathed in blood from head to toe, only a few places clear of it, and though his jumpsuit was in tatters, most of the damage seemed to have been stopped by the armor mesh Naruto wore beneath it, because aside from being exhausted and covered in ichor, he seemed perfectly healthy.

Kakashi forced the young man to bathe and dress before he gave his student 'the news', knowing that, after what he'd probably done, he would need the time to be normal.
"So how is she?" Naruto asked, when he found Kakashi sitting on Naruto's bed, reading his porn, after stepping out of the shower. It had taken nearly an hour for the water to stop running red.
"She'll be fine," Kakashi got the easy one of the way first, "apparently one of the bandits I never even saw had a bow, and he took out enough archers to gain the wall. He had one shot before I took him down, and he got lucky... scored a line across Shion's jugular, but it wasn't that deep. Miroku's power and my own minor healing jutsu fixed her up right as rain... though she'll need a day or two of bed rest to recover her blood pressure. She'll probably only have a minor scar."

"That's... good," Naruto sighed, flopping down on his back next to his sensei, across the bed, "what's for breakfast?"

"Nothing, yet," Kakashi answered slowly, while flipping a page, "it's barely six, the sun only rose while you were in the shower. Did you lose track of time that badly?"

Naruto just grunted, and a moment later, Kakashi heard light snores. "I guess if you can sleep through it, it's not affecting you too badly, is it? Not any worse than Wave..."

(O)(O)(O)

After his light lunch (breakfast), Naruto slowly, hesitantly, tapped on the door he'd come to know so well in his dreams. A moment later, one of the Temple Staff he didn't know opened the door, before bowing low, "Ah, good afternoon, Uzumaki-san," the older woman said with a smile as she did so, "Shion-sama is still resting, but she asked me to allow you to visit. Her mother seems to think it's alright too, so I'll give you a few minutes. And thank you for saving her."
Naruto blushed and shook his head, "It was nothin'... honest!"

The matronly woman merely shook her head and gestured him into the room, before leaving and closing the door behind her.

He found Shion dressed, thankfully, not just stepping out of the shower, though she was wearing what appeared to be flannel pajamas with a button-up top. They were... "Are those pink, with little white bunnies on them?" he snickered.

Shion looked up from her book at Naruto with wide eyes, glanced down at her chest, and turned nearly as pink as her shirt, "Sh- Shut up! My mother had them made for me!"

"Heh, I just never took you for that much of a girly-girl, that's all... they look good on you."

And they did, he had to admit. For all her issues, he had admitted early on that Shion was attractive, and the way her chest filled out the flannel was... well, he was going on sixteen, and he liked it. A lot.

Apparently, though, Shion had not been ready for such a comment, because she turned an even deeper shade of pink. "Shut up!"

"Anyway," Naruto said after watching her for a few minutes (she actually kind of reminded him of Hinata, in a way... though less quiet, obviously), "I just wanted to see how you're doing. And... and apologize if I freaked out your guards. Or you."

Slowly, Shion set the book down on her lap and reached one hand up to the bandages around her neck, stroking a small pink patch, "It's... not too bad. Mother knows how to use our family power to heal some wounds, and your sensei was able to help finish the job. It's bleeding still, but not too badly... about like a knife cut on your palm."

Naruto nodded. He didn't know how the pampered princess knew how much those could bleed, but he'd become quite familiar with them, as many young ninja did, back in the academy when starting out kunai and shuriken training. Bunch of hellions though the lot of them (especially Naruto) were, they were also uncoordinated and a bit young, truth be told, to be handling razor sharp implements... even training ones. But the lessons had been learned quickly and well, and pretty much no one cut themselves on their own tools after graduation.

Even Naruto.
"That's good," he replied with a smile. He was finding it difficult to find a place to look. Shion's deep lavender eyes were... well, a bit mesmerising, to be honest. Something like a Hyūga's or Yamanaka's in that the pupils seemed to be nonexistent (though if one looked closely, they were quite visible), but also several shades more purple-pink than Hinata's or Neji's, the ones with the Byakugan he knew best.
At the same time, he certainly couldn't stare at her neck... for one, it was covered in bandages, and two, he didn't want her to think he was dwelling on it. He wasn't... he cared that she'd been hurt, of course, because it was his job to protect her, but... things happened. He hadn't seen the archer, hadn't seen the arrow, and there was nothing he could've done, because he was not a healer. In fact, he had been forbidden from ever trying to learn healing jutsu- even the most basics- by Sakura and Tsunade both. Something about his chakra being too unpredictable and wild.

He understood... if it was harder than a basic henge as far as chakra control went, he was pretty hopeless.

Below her neck was worse, because Naruto would be dead if he was caught staring there. Her dainty hands were now folded in her lap over the book, but they were also somewhat uninteresting.
Her room... well, he'd seen it before. He knew what was in there...

Even though the first time (and only previous) time he'd looked inside was for a split second.

That...

Naruto paused, but was unable to come up with an answer. All he knew was that the dreams of the room were enough to show him what was actually there. Maybe his subconscious was just filling in the details his conscious mind didn't know?
Meh, it didn't matter.

"So," he said awkwardly, "Sorry you got hurt. I didn't even see that arrow..."
"It's fine," Shion said quietly, turning her eyes from his down to where her hands had started fidgeting on the book, "I know you... you fought hard. I was watching while your clones fought that group... and my mother showed me what she saw... and when I woke up a few hours later, I still heard the... the screaming."

Naruto paled. No doubt, she thought he was a monster for doing that... was that why she was so nervous? In that case, there was only one thing to do. "Anyway... yeah, sorry about that. I mean, I kind of lost it... I'll leave you alone, and try to stay out of your way while you-"
"No!" Shion cried, reaching out a hand to grab him, but he was too far away, so she let it fall after a moment, "Don't go... stay for a while?"

"Um... okay...? I just thought, you know... since you know what I did, you wouldn't... want me to be around. It's not like we get along real well, anyway."

Shion blushed, for some reason, but then pointed at the chair by her bed, "Please, sit. I... I have to apologize for the way I've been acting."

"No, you don't," Naruto frowned, though he obeyed by spinning the chair backwards and sitting in it, leaning over the back, "You already did, for everything that might have been rude. Your mom's pretty strict, huh?"

Shion shook her head, though she was once again staring at her hands, "No... not at all. It's just... she worries. And I do have to apologize, for me, not because Mother told me to. Because it's... the right thing to do. So I'm sorry, Naruto, for the way I've been treating you. Can... can we be, um, f- friends?"

"Sure!" Naruto smiled at once, sticking out a hand for her to shake, "I can always use more friends!"

"I've... never actually had one before," she sheepishly admitted, "just servants and guards... I'm kind of close to a few, but... of those, only Taruho is close to my own age, and he's kind of... you know, taciturn."
"Taci... wha?"
"It means quiet," she said softly with an odd smile, "He doesn't talk to me a lot. Like he's embarassed by me or something. He talks to his friends, but not me."

"Oh," Naruto scowled, "I know what that's like, believe me... but he'll come around. Maybe he just likes you, but doesn't know how to admit it?"

Shion's blush returned full-bore, "Maybe... but I don't... feel that way about him. I thought about it, for a while... he is the best-looking of my guards, but... he's kind of, you know... not my type."

"So... what's your type?" Naruto asked, honestly curious.
The blush deepened, though he couldn't figure out why. "Well... brave, and strong... tall, and handsome..."
"Taruho's all those things," Naruto commented, "unless you don't like glasses, but I guess he's still alright with them. He's almost as tall as Kakashi-sensei!"

"Maybe," Shion shrugged, though she winced as the action pulled her bandages, "but he also has to be witty, and charming, and innocent, but wise, and..."

"And...?" he prompted, after a few seconds of silence.
"And b- blue eyes are good, and b- blonde..."

"Oh. That sucks," he said quietly, "The only blondes I've met in Oni no Kuni are you and your mom. There's a few in Konoha... why don't you come by in a few years, and I'll see if I can find some for you? One of my friends has a few cousins that are guys... and most of their family has blue eyes and blonde hair."

For some reason, a brief expression of fury crossed Shion's face, like she wanted to rip her luxurious hair out, but it passed quickly. "That's... alright," she replied quietly, "Maybe I'll visit, but I won't be looking for-"

Shion froze.
"Shion?"

Her eyes darkened, before chevrons of lighter colors, pointing inward, began to appear at the edge of her irises, moving in toward the center, where each, as they met in the center of her eyes, vanished in a tiny flicker of light.

This continued for several seconds, while Naruto continued to call her name in increasingly frantic tones, before Shion gasped loudly and put a hand on her chest to help steady her breathing while she relaxed back into the pillows of her bed.

"I saw you die... at least, I think it was you?"

"Huh?"

Shion shook her head, and took a few seconds to gather her thoughts. "When... our family get visions. Of the future. They are always right... our future selves, they can die... when that happens, our spirits travel back in time, because time doesn't mean the same thing to a spirit, to join with the present us and give us a vision of how we died. Along... along with that, is a vision of a person who will die to protect... us. So the line continues."

"Oh," Naruto shrugged, "Sounds complicated. Whatever... but you live, right?"

Shion nodded, but looked away toward the window her bed sat under, "But you..."
"Meh, whatever," Naruto shrugged, "Wouldn't be the first time I've died. What did you see?"

She gasped and turned back to look at him, wide-eyed. Naruto was glad to see they'd returned to normal. It was pretty, in a way, but seeing her eyes do that kind of freaked him out.

"I saw... a crater. You had... iron rods in you... some kind of strange metal, it may not have been iron. You were fighting someone, at the bottom of it I think... you were pinned. He drove another one through your heart, and... and then..."

"Seriously," Naruto shrugged, "Don't worry about it. Sounds painful, but I've had worse."
"Naruto," she said frostily, "You died. No one survives having an inch thick rod go through their heart!"

Calmly, Naruto unzipped his jacket, and threw it on the floor, before raising his t-shirt. For a moment, Shion blushed, then he remembered he was sitting in a chair backwards, and stood.
Shion's blush deepened again.

"This scar," he pointed to a wide, white one almost six inches across just between his pectorals, "was when my best friend, the bastard, shoved a hand covered in lightning through my chest. All-but destroyed my heart completely, and hit both lungs. Also, from what I've heard, put enough current through me to flash-cook an elephant. Whatever that is. But I'm still here."
"You... but how..."

"Well, I don't really like talking about it," he said quietly, "but since you shared your secret..."

So he told her everything.

And all she said after was, "So that's why... you lost control?"

Naruto shook his head, "Well, I didn't. Not really. I was pissed off, but I was still... aware. I could have stopped if I wanted to, but I didn't want any of them to escape. A couple did, but most didn't. They hurt you, and they had to pay."
"Naruto..."

Only then did he remember to put his shirt on, though he left the jacket on the floor for now. Shion's room was very warm... had been since he'd come in.

"Anyway, I should let your maids get back to work... you get better soon, okay? I guess now that the danger's passed, we're only gonna stay a few more days, but I want you on your feet by then, deal?"
"Deal," Shion replied with a wide, genuine smile. It was the biggest he'd ever seen on her, and it made his heart swell.

A/N2: Not much to say. Till next time- read and review, folks! It does, like with many writers, spur me to write faster and more!