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This chapter we get to see some more action before they get to face off with the Akatsuki :D the demons make a comeback too :P
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**Chapter sixteen**
It was the second day of their travels to the other side of the decimated city. Shannon was letting Sasuke lead the group while she trailed along at the back, deep in thought. She couldn't help but wonder if what she was doing was the right thing – letting the ninja help her recover her mother. She wasn't their priority, and Shannon felt guilty about putting them in such a dangerous situation. The Akatsuki were very powerful opponents; not to be taken lightly.
There was no guarantee that her plan would even work.
"Why the long face?" Shannon was shaken from her thoughts by Shikamaru's voice. He and Lee had dropped back to walk on either side of her.
She smiled slightly, shaking her head. "It's nothing," she replied. "I'm just thinking if this whole plan will work anyway."
"The Power of Youth will guide our path!" Lee announced, raising a fist to the heavens. "We will not fail!"
Shannon chuckled and the brunette ninja beside her smiled. Kiba yipped at their heels, panting in the heat of the midday sun. Shannon looked down at the puppy for a moment or two. She could hardly call him a puppy anymore – in the past few weeks or so, he had grown quite a bit. His legs had grown longer, his fur lightened, his muzzle lengthened and his teeth were larger and sharper than before. His head now reached Shannon's hip.
Her smile turned melancholy as Shannon stroked Kiba's head affectionately.
"You'll look after him when I'm there?" she didn't trust herself to meet Shikamaru's eyes as she directed her question at him. She didn't want to see anyone else's fear. It would make her feel even worse about the whole situation.
Shikamaru gripped her hand reassuringly. "He'll hate me until you get back, so you'd better get this done quick."
Shannon chuckled at his joke and squeezed his hand in return. "Thanks Shika," she said quietly.
"No need to thank me," he replied. "It's all up to you now."
"I know," Shannon grimaced. "That's what I'm worried about."
…
The sun began to set that evening, and the squad decided to set up camp for the night. Shannon had her back against her pack as she leaned on it, looking intently at a kunai she had managed to get from Hinata. The flickering light of their small fire reflected off the polished surface of the weapon, making it gleam.
Shannon heard a ruckus behind her, but she made no move to see what it was. During the twilight of the fading day, she had a pretty good idea who was behind her.
"I thought I told you to go with the others," she said with an exasperated sigh as Ashley stumbled into the pool of light.
"And let you have all the fun? Never," Ashley replied haughtily, straightening her tattered denim jacket. "And anyway, I'd feel safer with you guys."
Ashley paused a second, her gaze scanning the group or resting Konoha nin - none of whom seemed too surprised to see her - before settling on Sai, who was sleeping at the opposite end of the fire. "Much safer, with all these…strong ninja around to protect me."
Shannon looked up from her weapon, caught Ashley's perverted smirk and followed her gaze over to an oblivious Sai. She laughed loudly. "Only you, Ash. Only you. What is it with you and the weirdoes?"
Ashley shrugged and winked jokingly at her best friend. "I can't help myself. Psychopaths just drive me crazy."
Shannon chuckled as Ashley flopped down next to her. "You know, I sort of had a feeling you'd come after us."
The redhead shrugged. "What kind of best friend would I be if I just left you to face your demons alone?"
Shannon just snorted, turning her attention back to the kunai in her hands. She felt her stomach sink a little as her doubts returned. What if she couldn't pull the plan off and the Akatsuki defeated them? Then what?
Ashley noticed her friend's mood change and threw an arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm comfortingly. "Nothing will go wrong, Shan. You have a skilled bunch of people here. Nothing could possibly go wrong."
"I hope you're right, Ash," Shannon whispered, leaning her head on Ashley's shoulder. "I really hope so."
…
Shannon had a really bad feeling when the group started off again the next morning. A nagging suspicion in the back of her mind that something was going to go wrong.
They were walking through what used to be the financial district – Shannon remembered there being tall modern buildings of glass and steel. She used to love driving through that section of the city. Now, all the glass lay broken and shattered over the ground, and the steel frames of the buildings were twisted and blackened.
The only sound the group of nine made on their way was the constant crunch of their boots on gravel and shards of glass as they walked. Shannon kept glancing around nervously, the horrid feeling in her stomach only intensifying.
"What's the matter?" Hinata asked as she walked next to the nervous brunette. "You seem uneasy."
"It's probably nothing…" Shannon muttered, her gaze flickering from one ruined building to the next. "I just had a really bad feeling about something…"
"A woman's intuition rarely ever lies," Ashley tried to joke, but Shannon could hear the seriousness in her words. Whatever it was, she could feel it too.
Frowning, Hinata tried broadening her senses to try and understand what the other two girls were apparently sensing. Her lilac eyes widened when she picked up a new energy source. Multiple new energy sources, unlike anything she had felt before.
Naruto, who had been walking next to Hinata, noticed her stiffen. "Hinata? What is it?"
But before she could answer, their attention was suddenly drawn to the clatter of pebbles hitting the ground and shards of glass falling from cracked panes.
Shannon and the rest of the group slowly turned around to face the source of the noise. The feeling of unease intensified in her stomach to the point where she felt physically ill. Ashley gasped when a gang of about seven demons appeared before them, stationed on various jutting metal ledges from the ruins of an old bank.
"Those, Naruto, are demons," Sasuke told his horrified blonde companion, his expression grim.
Ashley, Shikamaru and Shannon were vividly reminded of their last encounter with a demon. Needless to say, they weren't exactly ecstatic of the prospect of taking one on again. Especially since there was not one, but six of the hellish fiends.
Shannon swore profusely, her fists clenching as she glared at the mocking monsters leering at the Konoha squad.
"No need for such language, girl," one of the demons sniggered, his red eyes narrowing as his sharp grin broadened.
Shannon gritted her teeth, but otherwise kept her mouth shut. All she needed right now was a ticked-off demon to deal with. Sakura growled and drew a kunai, holding it at the ready.
"No weapons, pretty girl!" Sakura cried out as one of the assembled demons suddenly appeared in front of her, grabbing her wrist and disarming her of the weapon. It grinned evilly, running a long forked tongue over its knife-sharp teeth.
"Let go of her!" Naruto roared, launching himself at the taller creature.
As if on cue, the rest of the demons swooped in for the attack.
Shannon ducked, shoving Ashley down to the ground with her as a demon with silver claws came rocketing down towards them. Shannon could feel the shadows awaken beneath her skin, the adrenaline coursing through her veins urging them to fight. She panicked, shoving them down to whatever recess of her subconscious they resided it. She wouldn't become that heartless killer again. That wasn't who she was.
There was a loud cry of pain behind her as one of the hellish creatures sent Lee smashing into a pile of rubble. Sakura was soon to follow. Naruto roared a battle cry as he charged the offending demon, already creating multiple shadow clones as he ran. Shannon could only watch helplessly as each of the clones dissipated under the demon's crushing blows and Naruto was swatted away like a fly.
Shannon shook her head roughly. She wouldn't be helpless. She had been training for a reason. She gritted her teeth and jumped to her feet, her eyes narrowed in determination. Time to put that training to use.
She let out a harsh battle cry of her own as she charged the demon that had incapacitated three of her comrades already. It turned to look at her with an amused expression, blocking her punch with one hand. Its other hand came around and smacked her hard across the head, knocking her sideways. Shannon hit the ground, skinning the palms of her hands on the shards of shattered glass littering the floor.
She rolled quickly out of the way as the demon's cleaver-like tail came crashing down on the spot she had been in mere moments earlier. Shannon jumped to her feet, readying herself for the next attack. All around her, she could hear the shouts of both her comrades and enemies alike, all mingling together in one great cacophony of noise.
She cut the noise out and focused on the demon stalking towards her, a predatory look in its burning crimson eyes. The shadow tendrils threatened to break out once again, and Shannon had to force them back down. Then demon took advantage of her distraction and launched itself at the brunette girl. Its elbow connected solidly with her midsection, driving the breath from her lungs and slamming her into a concrete pillar.
Shannon slid to the ground, coughing weakly. That moment was all it took for her mental blockades to come crashing down and the shadow tendrils to burst into action, blocking the demon's next attack. They wrapped around its wrist and jerked its arm away from her head, snapping the demon's elbow with a loud cracking sound.
The creature cried out and stumbled away, clutching its dislocated arm. It glared at Shannon venomously as she lay panting against the pillar, her shadow tendrils writhing around her form like black smoke.
"You!" it breathed, a savage snarl contorting its features. "I know about you…you're the one who took Aios out!" the demon's snarl morphed into a vicious smirk. "The half-demon."
"Half-demon?" Shannon growled, pushing herself to her feet. "I have no clue what you're going on about."
She was becoming aware of the fact that the killing intent was slowly taking over her mind. All she wanted to do was tear the wretched demon in front of her to pieces. Shannon snarled, shoving the traitorous thought to the back of her mind. She could control this. She would control this.
Suddenly, another one of the demons came careening out of nowhere, slamming forcefully into Shannon's opponent. The two creatures landed in a tangle of arms, legs and wings against the wreckage of a highway on-ramp. Shannon snapped her head in the direction where the demon had come from, and saw Shikamaru panting in an attack stance. It looked as though he had thrown the demon all that way by himself.
"Shika…" Shannon's eyes widened when she met his intense gaze.
"Don't let those get the better of you, Shannon," he said, breathing heavily as he motioned to her shadow appendages. "You're far stronger than that."
Before Shannon could decipher his words or reply, there was another cry behind them. Shannon gaped in horror as Sasuke – Sasuke, the greatest fighter of the group – was thrown like a rag doll across the street and into a large boulder. The demon he was fighting was on him in a second, driving the Uchiha into the solid rock. Sasuke cried out again, blood flying from his mouth.
Shannon's mind seemed to shrink away from the conflict. Her consciousness couldn't handle it. She suddenly found herself looking at the scene like she was a mere spectator at a theatre.
Hinata was floored by a vicious uppercut, the demon slamming a talons foot down on her back. She cried out and was still. Sai was trying to fend off two other demons with his ink creatures, but they were swatted away like gnats. One of the demons droves a knife-like tail into the ROOT member's shoulder, rendering his left arm useless. Another jab to the side had Sai down for the count. Ashley was unmoving on the ground next to him.
And then all four of the remaining demons turned on the two standing humans. One of them – a demon with three eyes and a club-like tail – launched itself at Shikamaru before he or Shannon could even blink. Shikamaru didn't even have time to shout out before he was viciously clubbed in the stomach and smashes into the ground.
He didn't move.
Shannon's fragile state of mind snapped. The killer instinct seized control of her mind. The flowing shadow tendrils around her darkened and grew longer. The four demons looked at her curiously.
Half-demon. The phrase kept floating around her mind like poison. She didn't care what she was, as long as she could kill these creatures that dared hurt her companions. The demons made to attack her, but they didn't get far. Her shadows snapped out like whips, catching the hellish creatures around the midsections and twining themselves around their wrists and ankles, rendering the demons helpless.
"Wha-what is this?" one of the creatures snapped, trying to break free but with no success.
"This?" Shannon's voice was deadly calm. Icy. She tightened the shadows binding the four demons until they were being stretched out like toffee. "This is a little thing we humans like to call revenge. You might have heard of it where you spawned from."
The girl's expression was set in a firm scowl, her eyes hard, dancing with a fire of their own. The demons screamed as their joints began popping out of place, but Shannon didn't stop. She just increased the pressure.
Her heated gaze took in Shikamaru, unconscious in a depression in the ground. Hinata, in an unmoving heap a few meters away. Sakura, Lee and Naruto buried under a mountain of rubble. Sai and Ashley lying face-down on the ground. Kiba howling hysterically from his hiding place under the carcass of a train. And Sasuke propped up against a blackened building across from where she stood. His one eyes was cracked open, watching her. His breathing was ragged, his body battered and bloody. She could almost read the expression on his face – fear. Respect.
This wasn't the way it was meant to be. Sasuke was meant to be fighting. He was the strong one, not her. And yet here she stood, ripping these demons who dared lay a hand on her precious companions limb from limb single-handedly. And she was enjoying it.
Some shred of her former self managed to surface, reminding Shannon that killing was not something to be enjoyed, of all things. Then Shikamaru groaned, shifting weakly in the small crater he lay in. Shannon's inner killer repelled her conscience and she took one more look at the screaming demons in her clutches. Her glare hardened into a look of pure rage and she screamed insults at the vile creatures.
Her shadow appendages snapped taught. The demons screams were abruptly silenced.
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