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 all your support for the fanfiction!

Tail 28: Am I That Important?

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked before her legs buckled again, and she fell to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Estrella yelled trying to pick Rose back up from the ground only to make it worse as Rose's wounds and bruises started to be even more painful.

Rose started to whimper from the pain and wished that the pain would be over quickly. She didn't notice as a few hands stretched out over her wounds and started to heal them.

Once Rose did start to notice the pain lessen, she glanced over to see Fu, Yugito, and Yagura all healing her wounds from the battle. "So," she said hoarsely, "You finally remember huh?"

Everyone looked towards the girl with a fond smile. "How could we ever forget you now?" they all asked.

Smiling, Rose just closed her eyes and whispered, "Thank you all," before she fell asleep and into her dreams.

The three Jinchuuriki kept healing her until they were sure that her wounds were healed to their best ability which was saying something considering there were three of them…

"Roshi," Fu said turning her attention to the five-tailed Jinchuuriki. Once she got his attention, she asked, "Can you carry her back to the dorms for some rest?"

Roshi nodded before picking Rose up as gently as he could without waking her. Everyone smiled at the peaceful sleeping girl in his arms as they started to walk back towards the dorms.

"So?" Kirihara asked suddenly breaking the silence that reigned over the group for the past few minutes as they walked.

Turning towards the Rikkaidai boy, Naruto asked, "What is it Kirihara-san?"

Kirihara looked to the rest of his team for confirmation. He saw them each nod in response to telling what had happened to Yukimura before he turned his attention back to Naruto. He took a deep breath before asking his question. "So Rose was the one to help with Yukimura's illness?"

"Eh!" the others yelled at the boy. "Yukimura was ill!"

The Rikkaidai players could only flinch from the loudness of their voices before they all looked towards Rose to see her still napping peacefully. Sighing in relief, the Rikkaidai tennis regulars all glared at the others for almost nearly waking up Rose from her slumber which she needed.

"Yes," Yukimura answered looking at the ground. "I was diagnosed with Guilian-Barre Syndrome earlier. I thought that I had healed from all the rehab I had done before school started…"

The Jinchuuriki looked at each other before stopping in their tracks. They all turned towards the tennis regulars and said, "We are sorry for deceiving you since we have been here."

Yugito stepped forward and looked towards the Rikkaidai captain, "It's true that Rose helped you recover from your disease. She gave you something to help you recover quickly from the disease."

"What was it?" Marui asked interested in how Rose had helped his captain recover.

Sighing, Yugito looked at the girl sleeping in Roshi's arms and then turned to look at them all. "Do you remember the trip we first took to the hospital to visit you Yukimura-san?" she asked the captain. When she got a nod, she then asked, "Do you remember the bottle of red liquid?"

Yukimura was about to nod again before realization made its way onto his face. "It can't be," he stated before looking at the girl, "That liquid was her blood?"

"What?" the Rikkaidai regulars yelled as quietly as they could in order to try and let Rose sleep.

"Correct," Utakata replied while also stepping up while Yugito stepped back to check over Rose's injuries once more. "Her blood was in that bottle and very potent as you can tell since it worked in under three weeks," he explained to the team. He added on, "But using that solution for your disease came at a price. That price was that she would weaken. Every time she gives her blood to another person, especially a non-ninja, her own powers will weaken. If she does weaken, she is at a greater risk to be killed in battle. In all of my years of knowing her, you are the first person to ever be allowed to use her blood."

The Rikkaidai members were just plain shocked. Yukimura was worried for the girl that risked her own safety for his. Sanada, Yanagi, and Yagyuu were actually shocked and showed it breaking their stoic faces. Niou couldn't help but blink in surprise at the new information they had learned. Jackal was looking at the ground in worry and in shock as he thought about all the girl had done in their team. Kirihara and Marui were the ones to look sad as they stared at the girl they came to like as a friend, sister, and something else that Marui could not figure out.

"But why would she do such a thing?" Yukimura asked once they reached the dorms and went inside.

Smiling, the Jinchuuriki went into one of the guest rooms they had in the dorm. They set Rose onto the bed before putting a pillow beneath her head and covering her with a blanket.

The Jinchuuriki gave the 'shush' signal to the tennis regulars before walking out of the room and closing the door quietly.

Once outside, the group walked into the living room and sat down on various chairs and couches around the room. The tennis regulars followed their examples and sat down where space was available which sometimes ended up being the floor or on the armrests of the couches and chairs.

They were silent for a few minutes until a voice broke out and said, "The reason she did that was for your sake Yukimura-san."

Looking up, Yukimura saw that Utakata was the one that had spoken.

Utakata saw the confused look on the captain's face and explained further. "You were in grave danger without her help. We could all see that," he said motioning towards the other Jinchuuriki in the room. Turning back toward Yukimura, Utakata added, "You were in grave danger of dying this year. She wanted to prevent that…hell, we all did. But we cannot help as our blood does not have a healing property like hers. We all do not believe that a boy young as you should ever have this sort of disease."

The regulars were astounded…Yukimura would have died without the girl's help?

"So," Kirihara said glancing at the Jinchuuriki from the ground. "What now?"

Utakata looked toward Fu who pointed at herself in confusion. When Utakata nodded, Fu sighed before getting up and moving over to the window to look outside. "You should be grateful to her," Fu remarked toward the regulars. She could feel their expressions change to one of confusion. Fu chuckled before turning towards the regulars with a small smile gracing her features. "Why I say that you ask?" she commented tilting her head to the side before she gave them a wide grin. "Well then," she closed her eyes before continuing, "Now that I remember her and have restored our mental bonds…I keep getting these thoughts in my head about how to cure Yukimura for good…and I know that they aren't my own thoughts."

Before anyone could open their mouths to speak, they all heard a sudden scream from the guest room that Rose was in.

Rushing up to the room, Killer Bee opened the door quickly to see Rose curled up in a fetal position on the bed bawling, trembling, shaking, and nearly screaming with her cries.

The sight broke everyone's hearts, and Marui tried to get to Rose to comfort her. "Are you alright?" he asked the girl quietly.

Rose didn't answer with words and clung onto Marui like a lifeline. "Don't leave me…please," they all heard her beg. "Please don't leave me. I-I don't want to be alone anymore," they heard her plead to Marui.

Marui looked worried for the girl before he started to rub her back in circles. "There, there," he said trying to comfort the girl. Inside he was freaking out considering he had never done anything like this before…especially comfort a girl that could kill them from what he now remembered…

"I-I don't want to be alone anymore," they heard her say again and again. "I just want someone…anyone…to care for me…like I belonged…like I mattered…like…like I was important," she said before turning her stare towards the ground.

Everyone could see the girl's eyes…they were full of pain and sadness…but most of all…loneliness.

"What happened?" everyone gently murmured without letting Rose hear it.

Marui suddenly remembered one of the entries in the journal that he read in Rose's room.

It read, 'Am I even important? Does anyone even really care for me? Does anyone truly love me? Do I matter to anyone at all? Am I going to be alone forever, or will someone finally save me? Am I truly meant to be alone after all?'

"It'll be alright Rose," Marui said pulling Rose into a comforting hug. "It'll be alright. You are important…to all of us. We all care for you. We all love you. You are one of the most important people we know. You will never be alone again Rose…never…"

Rose was starting to calm down before she looked up at Marui. She gave the boy a gentle smile before whispering, "Thank you…for understanding…" She nuzzled her head into the crook of the boy's neck before falling asleep with a peaceful smile on her face.

The others in the room were shocked at how Marui could calm the girl down like that with no problem at all.

Marui was wondering how to get away from Rose without waking her up. Turning his head as far as he could, he asked, "How do I get out of this position?"

Before anyone could answer, another voice said, "Don't. You'll be fine, and you all have a break today anyhow. We need to finalize our choices for the Japanese team line-up."

Turning towards the voice, they looked at the door to see Estrella with a clipboard in her hand.

Estrella looked at the clipboard before listing off the players, "Doubles 2 will be Atobe Keigo and Sanada Genichirou. Doubles 1 will be Kikumaru Eiji and Oshitari Yuushi. Singles 3 will be Sengoku Kiyosumi. Singles 2 will be Fuji Syuusuke. Singles 1 will be Kirihara Akaya, and the replacement shall be Echizen Ryoma. Any questions?" Looking up, she saw that they had no questions about the line-up…but they did have questions about her relationship with Rose.

Sighing, Estrella closed the door before walking over to Rose to pat the girl's head. "She's had a tough life…she never really spent any time with her parents, so she never had a real loving family. You don't know her past as well as I, but I won't tell you about it unless she permits. After all…it's her life…not mine…" she said with a fond smile on her face as she looked at the little Jinchuuriki. "Let her sleep there…she's had a tough few days," she remarked as she stood back up and headed out the door. She whispered to everyone, "Take good care of her…she deserves it…"