Beasts Within

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Prince of Tennis. I do not own anything besides the original characters that are included in the fanfic.

All the Jinchuuriki are around 12-15 years old to stay within the middle school category along with the rest of the PoT cast. I know that the ages are wrong; I'm just making them fit into the storyline. All of the canon characters will most likely be OOC considering I can't stay to a certain personality of a canon character no matter what I do. The Jinchuuriki have total control of their Bijuu but can still talk to them whenever. When they release the chakra of their Bijuu they become stronger of course and their voices are a mixture of their voice and the bijuu they contain, therefore 'Demon Enhanced Speaking' when they do activate their powers.

"Chat" Normal talking

'Chat' Thinking

'Chat' Telepathy between Jinchuuriki

"Chat" Demon enhanced speaking

Special Thanks to demoncat13 for being so supportive of this fanfiction. Thanks for all the reviews and hope you like the chapter!

Tail 21: Pre-Regional Worries

It was a week before the Regional Tournament. The attacks against each Jinchuuriki were becoming more frequent. They started at low C-ranks to begin with and began working the way up the rank ladder up to high B-rank ninjas. Rose told all of them to stick together as much as possible without making their respective teams suspicious which was hard for Han, Roshi, and Utakata since they were separated into three schools.

"I knew it wasn't a good idea to separate them completely!" Rose yelled at herself at she smashed the tennis ball against the wall again for the nth time in about five minutes. She had been working on her aim by aiming in a small spot and changing the spot every time.

"What are you talking about?" a voice said from behind Rose.

Rose immediately widened her eyes and caught the tennis ball before whirling around to see who had startled her. She immediately relaxed as she saw Marui standing there and sighed. "Don't scare me like that you idiot," she commented before turning back to hit the wall again. "As for the separation, it's none of your business," Rose said hitting the ball in a rhythmic pattern again.

"You know," Marui interrupted causing Rose to catch the tennis ball with her hand again before she turned her attention to him. "Practicing with a real person would be a lot more fun than practicing against a wall that can't fight back," Marui suggested pointing the racquet on his shoulder to the empty court behind them and popping his gum again.

"Sugar freak," Rose said with a sigh as she started heading to the court along with him.

~Time Skip: Half-Match Later~

"Come quick!" a non-regular tennis member yelled out excited about the match playing right now.

"What's going on?" Kirihara asked getting back from his own practice with Yagyuu-senpai.

"I don't know," Yukimura said with a sweet smile before adding, "But I sure want to find out."

"She's doing much better against him isn't she?" they heard a tennis club member comment. Immediately, they knew they were talking about Rose since she was the only female in the entire club.

"Yeah," another mentioned, "At least she's not smacking into the poles like last time. That freaked me out."

The tennis regulars immediately went up to the front of the crowd to see a rally going on between Rose and Marui.

They noticed what the other members were talking about when Marui had hit another 'Tightrope Walking' technique, and Rose went to return it.

Kirihara was worried that she would hit the tennis net pole like last time until he saw her hit it and then pivot on her foot to swerve away from the pole at the last second.

"How did you come up with that?" Marui asked returning the shot.

"I kept spinning around so much during practices sometimes," Rose started before returning that shot with a high lob, "That I thought I could use it to avoid getting hurt like last time."

"Nice thinking," Marui said rushing towards where the ball would land. "But not good enough," he yelled returning the lob with a smash towards Rose's side of the court.

"You think you can win with that!" Rose yelled before rushing over towards the area where the ball would smash into. She quickly pivoted on her foot like she did to avoid the pole before spinning to catch the ball and send it back to his side of the court with the same power he had used for the shot.

They all watched as the ball zipped over the net just barely enough to drop right after and land in Marui's court. "My point, my game," Rose commented putting her racquet onto her shoulder.

Nobody except the tennis regulars seemed to notice when Rose had flinched as soon as she had raised her arm up past her shoulder to put the racquet there. They decided to talk to her about it later and not right now where everyone could hear.

Yukimura decided to let the club go early for a break, and the regulars decided to spend the night at Rose's mansion like they used to when she first showed up. They didn't notice that she had already grabbed her bag and rushed home without even bothering to check up with them.

When they noticed the girl was gone, they were confused and started rushing to the mansion as well. They opened the gates once they got there and quickly went inside. They were about to go to their rooms before they heard someone yell, "Dang it! It broke already!"

They quickly went to the west wing of the mansion where they heard the noise but they couldn't see anything besides an empty hallway where they heard the noise from. All of a sudden they saw Rose appear in front of them after apparently jumping from the ceiling beams.

"You guys get here faster every time don't you?" Rose asked putting her hands on her hips with a smirk on her face. She mentally sighed in relief. Before she opened the door to the crystal room, she heard the regulars enter the house and head towards the hallway that the room was in. She had to quickly turn back around and go up into the vent right above the ceiling beams in order to make sure that the others didn't see the Jinchuuriki rooms.

"What's wrong Rose?" Kirihara asked with a concerned tone.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked tilting her head.

Yanagi stepped up and gripped Rose's arm gently getting a wince from the girl. "You're injured," he said blandly.

Yagyuu stepped up next with a roll of bandages he carried around just in case Rose got hurt again. He removed Yanagi's grip on her arm and rolled up the sleeves of her jacket. Gently wrapping the bandages around her arm, Yagyuu said to Rose, "You ought to be more careful. We don't need you getting hurt now of all times…"

"Yes senpai-tachi," Rose said wincing a few times because of the bruises on her arms. She had gotten them from the last fight she had. Stupid B-rank ninjas decided to ambush her in a group of ten. She would have been fine to take them out in one swing if Kirihara didn't decide to show up soon after. She had to knock the boy out before doing anything to the ninjas which gave them a chance to injure her.

"Now what's this about something breaking?" Yukimura said with a sweet smile on his face.

Rose got the hidden meaning however. He was telling her to either 'Tell, or we'll force it out of you,' which she did not want to happen. She didn't know how he could torture people, so she didn't want to take any chances.

Shrugging, Rose came up with a quick lie and said, "The vent. Stupid thing broke again, so I had to do a few minor repairs to it to get it running again," before she pointed up to the vent she had climbed through to get there. The hinges were a little off from her jump which she was grateful for considering it helped convince the regulars that it was the problem she was talking about.

The others seemed to buy it before Yagyuu finished bandaging Rose's arm. She flexed it to test it and smiled at the response as it didn't hurt as much anymore.

"Try not to spin so much," Yukimura warned shaking his head with a small smile. "We have another question Rose-chan," he said smiling at the girl.

"And that would be?" she raised an eyebrow at the question while gently touching her bandaged arm.

"Why couldn't we get into the mansion until we wiped some blood on the gate and door earlier when those people attacked you a while ago?" he asked bluntly with a blank stare on his face.

Rose gulped quietly in shock before she went through scenarios in her head to try. She finally came up with one and said, "It's the security system. A blood check system if you will. Only my blood and the blood of people I add into the system will be able to open the gate and door." She quickly added a smile of reassurance hoping that the group would buy the lie she came up with.

The group seemed to buy this lie as well as they were nodding their heads. Yukimura sighed before saying, "Let's get some dinner then-"

"I'm not cooking!" Kirihara and Rose yelled at the same time. Neither of them could cook very well which left Yugito in charge of the cooking at Rose's mansion.

Jackal sighed before saying, "I'll cook alright guys?"

"Alright!" the two youngest regulars yelled with smiles on their faces before they rushed off to the game room. The other regulars followed while Jackal headed to the kitchen to start cooking something for all the tennis regulars. Yugito and Killer Bee had called earlier to tell them all that they would be eating out with their own tennis team.

Rose and Kirihara were playing DDR again. Rose wanted to play it, and Kirihara used the excuse of 'helping their speed' to play it which Yukimura and Sanada allowed considering the two usually played the game on extreme mode.

Rose could feel the beat of the music, but she was entirely focused on something else. She let her body move to the beat and hit the DDR panels while letting her mind wander. The song was going to go for about five minutes anyway, so she had time to think.

'I can't believe the barrier broke early!' she yelled mentally. She hit another panel as she thought, 'Now I have no choice but to carry my weapons everywhere. Good thing I replaced the windmill shuriken with the katana I got on my birthday a while ago. I wonder how the others are preparing for this…I haven't even told them yet. Maybe I should,' she thought before sending the message throughout all nine of her rings.

Only one person noticed the rings glow a message even if he couldn't understand it. He was always the only person to notice the special things about her while the rest of the team didn't really notice them. Marui could only wonder what was up now. He could see that Rose wasn't really focused on the game and letting her body move on its own accord to the game.

Rose glanced at her rings to see them glow back a message saying, 'We got it. We'll stay prepared and try to keep together. See you at the Regional Tournament!' Smiling, she sent back another message telling them all, 'Be careful and see you all at the Regional Tournament!' Then she set her focus back on the game and started to incorporate some of her fighting moves from the ninja world. As soon as the game ended, she widened her eyes. She knew that the Akatsuki would show up when they were all together…would that mean…they would strike during the Regional Tournament…she hoped not…