A/N: Hello all. Just wanted to say sorry for taking so long to update. I've been tweeking this chapter for the last 2 weeks and I'm finally okay with it. And just to let you all know I will be including an original mission before the chunin exams. As usual please read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Text examples:

"Hello." Biju or jinchuriki using biju's powers speaking

'Hi.' Person thinking

'Hi there.' Person speaking through mental link

'Howdy.' Biju speaking through mental link

Chapter 15: Another Kind of Demon

It was dark and quiet. Eerily quiet. The Kiri ninja with the two horns on his headband did not know where he was nor did he know how he got there. The last thing he remembered was seeing a horrific smiling face that defied reality before everything turned to darkness. Slowly he started to move about, cautious of his surroundings. He did not know if there were traps or enemies in the vicinity. It felt like hours had gone by while he searched but there was nothing. No stars, not trees, no wind, nothing. So he stopped and crouched down. He placed his hand on the ground and found that it was as smooth as glass.

'This is wrong.' As he stood he heard something behind him and turned around. There in front of him was a figure. He could not quite make him out in the darkness so he walked forward with caution. As he approached the figure seemed to move towards him.

"Why brother?" The voice surprised him. He knew that voice his whole life. He moved forwards more quickly.

"Gozu? Is that you?" He asked.

He was sure that it was his brother talking to him, but something was strange. The voice sounded hallow, lifeless. Almost like listening to a distorted recording. The figure that could only be his brother stopped moving and swayed side to side.

"Why Meizu?" Gozu questioned.

The ninja shook his head in confusion. "Why what?"

Gozu took another step forward. "Why did you kill me?!"

At that moment his brother reached out and grabbed him. At the contact his senses were flooded by stimulus. He could hear deep raspy breathing. Smell the putrid scent of rotting flesh mixed with old blood. Fell the vice like grip his brother had on him. And he could see. It was almost like his eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness. Before him was indeed his brother, but it was not the brother he knew. No, this was the remains of his brother. Gozu did not look alive. His skin was pale and some of it seemed to be flacking off as he continued to sway where he stood. His clothes were in tatters and so bloody that everything seemed to be a dark red. His face was the worst though. His face was covered with festering wounds and maggots crawling in them. He even saw a single maggot crawl out from underneath Gozu's left eye. The sight sent is stomach reeling.

"Get off of me!" Meizu exclaimed as he tried to pull away from his brother, but he was held tight. So he raised his hands to try and push his brother off and when he did he found a rusty kunai in his hand.

Gozu's head turned to look at the weapon. "So you want to kill me again brother? Is that is?"

Meizu was frozen. He did not know what to say. He had no idea where the kunai had come from, but suddenly his mind was assaulted by images of him carving into his brother with the kunai he held. They were so clear in his mind. He remembered the sensation of cutting into his brother's flesh as Gozu screamed for him to stop. It was horrifying, but what was worse was the feeling he was remembering. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed hurting his brother. He opened his mouth but his voice could not be found so his thoughts were left unsaid.

'This is wrong.' Meizu thought.

Gozu's grip lessened and Meizu took advantage of the moment to pull away, though he did not go far.

Gozu seemed to snarl as his brother backed away from him slowly. "Where are you going brother?!"

The shout caught Meizu off guard making him freeze in place for a second. In that brief span of time his brother opened his mouth and gagging sounds could be heard. After the final loudest gag a torrent of old blood, bile, and maggots shoot forth from Gozu's mouth. Meizu was covered in the disgusting mixture so thoroughly that he did not think he could ever get clean. At that thought the stench finally hit him and made him fall to his knees as he vomited on the floor.

Gozu walked over to stand above him. "You were always the violent one. You enjoyed killing too much. I can't say I'm surprised really. It was always just a matter of time before you snapped and turned your anger towards me. It's sad really. If we had never come here in the first place maybe none of this would have happened. You know I can't even remember why we came here in the first place. Do you remember? It seems so long ago now. Do you remember why?"

The two horned brother was still recovering from his vomiting spell, but he was well enough to respond. "We came here to kill Tazuna. You know that."

Gozu just shook his head, not that his brother could see it since Meizu was still facing the floor. "I know. But I can't remember why. It's all so cloudy now. Why did we want to kill him?"

Meizu almost responded, but he stopped himself. Once again he felt the glass like floor underneath him.

'This isn't right. It can't be real, but why didn't I realize that sooner? If it's not real it can only be one thing.' With that thought in mind Meizu pulled back his chakra before he let it burst forth with all his might.

He opened his eyes as he let out a gasp and was greeted to the sight of a pleasantly sunny day with birds flying about the sky. It was such a contrast to where he had just been that he was left confused as to what had happened. But slowly it came back to him as he looked around and spotted a black haired woman standing in front of him. She had her eyes closed but they opened as he looked at her.

"You did better than I thought you would. I almost had you too." The woman said.

It took a minute for Meizu to process what she said and when it did he got pissed off. "It was you wasn't it bitch? You were the one controlling the genjutsu!"

Kurenai smirked as she nodded. Her actions sent Meizu over the edge and he began to curse at her violently. After a few minutes into his rant Kurenai stood up and strode towards the Kiri ninja.

"That's enough for today. We'll pick this up again tomorrow."

Meizu was about to respond when he felt something sharp pierce his neck. He blinked a few times before he slipped into unconsciousness.

-Campsite-

"Naruko."

The red head looked over her shoulder to see Kurenai appear out of the woods dragging one of their captives behind her.

"Yes sensei?" The red head asked.

Kurenai let go of Meizu as she entered the circle around the fire that had breakfast cooking. She grabbed some of the food before she sat down.

"I want you to go get Shino and bring him and the other one back here with you. We'll start taking down camp while you're gone." Kurenai ordered.

With a nod the red head got up and headed to the other side of the road where Shino waited with an unconscious Gozu. The trip was uneventful and soon the two genin returned with the Kiri ninja in toe. When they arrived half the camp had already been taken down. A smile appeared on Naruko's face as her girlfriend walked up to them with a plate of food in her hand that she gave to Shino.

"Here you go Shino. Eat up and then you can take down your tent." Hinata said with a pleasant smile.

The insect user nodded his head as he began to eat. Hinata and Naruko smiled at each other before they linked hands and headed over to their tent to pack it up. The action did not go unnoticed by Tazuna who could not understand why a nice girl like Hinata would be with a lowly half-breed. It did not make sense to him, but he decided to keep his mouth shut. He did not want to be hit by Kurenai again. With a shake of his head he turned and went back to cleaning up around the campsite.

Kurenai was pleased that everything was going quickly and smoothly. The fire had already been taken care of and all the tents were away except for Shino's because he was the last to start that morning. Her gaze then turned towards their captives as she tried to decide what to do with them. She did not need to think long as an idea came to mind.

"Naruko? How much can one of the Hiro Trio carry?" The sensei asked.

The question caught the red head off guard for a moment, but she quickly put her mind to it before she snapped her fingers. "Probably about two hundred pounds each. Why do you ask?"

Kurenai nodded. "I want you to summon them so they can carry the Kiri ninja."

Naruko frowned a bit and she shook her head. "Not going to happen. They won't like that. They're not pack animals for manual labor. If you're worried about transporting them I can just use some clones."

Kurenai was actually quite pleased that her student spoke against her order. It showed that the red head thought about her orders and not just blindly followed them, a trait that could prove beneficial in the future.

The black haired woman gave Naruko a nod. "Then make some clones. We need to get a move on."

The fox girl smiled and performed a few hand signs. There were four puffs of smoke as four clones appeared. The clones grabbed some tree branches and tied the captives to them. When they were finished two clones grabbed each branch and lifted it onto their shoulders. The way the Kiri ninja were tied to the branches made them hang with their backs to the ground with their wrists and ankles tied to the branch. With a nod from the red heads Kurenai called once again for Y formation and the group set out again.

Another two days had passed and Kurenai had still not made any head way with the Kiri ninja. It was obvious that they were hired by Gato, but she could not get anything useful out of them. She had no idea where their base was, if they were working with anyone else, or even how long they had been working for Gato. It seemed that the brothers were made from stronger stuff than she thought. With less than a day left before they reached the Land of Waves Kurenai had to make a hard decision, one that would have been much easier for her if she did not have genin on her team. But this had to be done and it might be better in the long run for her to expose them to this now rather than let them hold onto false ideas. With her mind made up she called for a halt and turned to face the captive brothers only to find nothing behind her. Kurenai's eyes shot open in shock as Naruko let out small growl.

"Someone destroyed my clones." The red head stated with grit teeth.

"What?" The question left Kurenai's mouth just as she realized that they must have escaped.

But that was impossible because the brothers had all the chakra points in their arms and legs closed. There was only one explanation. They had allies! Kurenai whipped her head around and was relieved to see that her team was still okay, but that is when she noticed the mist forming around them.

"Everyone on guard! We don't know how many of them there are!" The sensei shouted.

The genin were all on high alert. Their backs were towards Tazuna as they scanned their surroundings. They could not see anything, but they could all feel a presence in the air. It was oppressive and threatening. The feeling put all of the genin on edge. As they waited for an attack the mist slowly becomes thicker and thicker till it was almost impossible to see anything at all. They all seemed to have the same thought run through their heads.

'This is not good.'

Just as the thought crossed their minds they heard a whistling like sound in the distance. Kurenai pinpointed its location first so she turned and pointed.

"Naruko!" Kurenai commanded.

The red head turned towards where her sensei had pointed. "Right!"

With a deep breath and some hand signs the fox girl preformed the Great Breakthrough ninjutsu. The resulting burst of wind ripped into the mist and collided with what appeared to be a giant cleaver like sword causing the blade to lose momentum and fall to the ground. The wind was strong enough to disperse some of the mist around the area where the blade had fallen. They saw a tall pale man with short spikey black hair walk out of the mist to pick up the weapon.

The man chuckled as he stared down the ninja. "Not bad. I guess I'll actually have to take this a bit seriously."

Kurenai froze as she took in the man's face. She recognized it and if he was who she thought he was things did not bode well for her team.

"Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist." Kurenai said.

Zabuza chuckled again as he hefted his large weapon onto his shoulder. "So you've heard of me. Can't say I'm surprised. I know who you are too, Kurenai Yuhi, the Genjutsu Mistress."

Kurenai snarled as he said her name. "Who hasn't heard of the Demon of the Mist who tried to assassinate the Mizukage? I can only wonder why you tried though." This was most certainly not good.

Zabuza let out a snort. "That man is a tyrant. He's been fueling the Blood Line Wars in Kiri for years. I would have been doing the world a favor."

He was talking. That was good. It meant that Kurenai would have more time to form a plan. She was going through everything she knew about Zabuza in her head as well as things that she could infer about him now that she had seen him. It did not take her long to come up with a strategy. Though it was not one she was very fond of. She glanced briefly at her team before she resolved her will.

"I'm going to fight him on my own. You three stay back and guard Tazuna." Kurenai stated.

She could hear words of acknowledgement from behind her as she charged at Zabuza. Once Kurenai had given her orders the genin took up defensive positions around Tazuna. All three had a watchful eye on Zabuza.

The giant of a man smirked behind his mask. "Seems like someone wants to play."

With a laugh Zabuza took his weapon in both hands and raced out to meet Kurenai head on. Just before they were about to collide Kurenai pulled out a kunai and readied herself for the engagement. She saw Zabuza shift is weight and prepare for a heavy horizontal swing that would have cut Kurenai in two if she had not seen it coming. So as the strike came she ducked and rolled to the side. As she came up from the ground she drove her kunai between Zabuza's ribs. The impact caused his form to shift a bit before it burst and fell to the ground as water. Kurenai quickly went on guard when she realized that the Zabuza she had just fought was a Water Clone. To make matters worse the mist in the air was thicker than ever. Not a good thing when you were facing off against an opponent who excelled in assassination techniques. Her only option was to wait for him to fall for her bait and hope she was faster.

"Sensei! Behind you!" Hinata shouted.

Kurenai acted instantly to Hinata's shout and brought her kunai to bear just in time to take the full force of Zabuza's swing. The attack was still strong enough to send her flying a few feet away but the early warning had probably saved her life. When she righted herself yet again she saw that Zabuza was gone, back into the mist. She had no idea where he was and she was a trained Jonin, which made her wonder how Hinata had known where he had attacked from. Her train of thought stopped when she saw her team and Tazuna drop to the ground right before Zabuza's large blade cut above their heads. The black haired woman rushed quickly over to her team and as she did she saw Shino punch the Kiri assassin with his Earth Fists ninjutsu only for the man to burst into water again. Kurenai made it over to her team and was relieved to see that they were all alright. While she was helping Tazuna back on his feet they heard an ominous laugh come from somewhere in the mist.

"She's pretty good. Is she a sensor type, or is she one of those Hyuga that I've heard so much about?" The man chuckled almost as if he could see the look of shock and dread on Hinata's face. "Either way I have a method to deal with that."

Everyone was on their feet again and prepared for the next attack. Hinata had her Byakugan active since the beginning of the fight and once again scanned the mist for Zabuza. Before she could vaguely make out where he was, but now she could not see him anywhere. She frowned as she deactivated her Byakugan.

"I can't see him anymore." The blue haired teen said with a frown.

"How did you even see him in the first place?" Kurenai asked.

Hinata scanned the trees before she answered. "The Byakugan allows me to see chakra and the chakra networks in the body. There is chakra mixed in with the mist but it's not very much so I could still make out Zabuza's chakra network, but now it's like he's everywhere. He must have poured more chakra into the mist so that it would match his. The fact that he can even do that is incredible."

Kurenai was impressed by the explanation. Not only did it seem like Hinata had a full understanding of the capacities of the Byakugan but had also come up with a reasonable explanation for how Zabuza was able to counter her eyes. Clearly Hinata put a lot more thought into things than she let on. After the thought passed she refocused on the matter at hand and decided on a course of action.

"Alright everybody. Here's the plan." Kurenai said softly as she gestured for her genin to lean in closer.

Zabuza was crouched close enough to his target that he had heard the young girl's words. It pleased him to know that he had guessed right and that his counter measure had worked so well. He was not close enough however to hear the plan that Kurenai had come up with, so he just waited and observed. He saw Kurenai disappear in a flurry of red petals. The dark haired boy threw his arms up into the air and Zabuza could make out small insects dispersing into the air above him. The red head made some hand signs and then two rings of about ten clones each appeared around the group. It did not seem like the Hyuga had done anything at all. He was mildly impressed with the set up. They would be alerted to his advance no matter what direction he came from. It would make it almost impossible for him to reach them undetected, but that just made it more fun. He enjoyed a challenge. With a silent smile he jumped into the air.

The genin tensely waited to see if Zabuza would attack. They had to rely on Kurenai's plan and hoped that the Kiri assassin did not catch on. Naruko's eyes shot open as a rush of memories flooded her mind.

"To the left!" The fox girl called out.

The genin focused their attention on the left just in time to see Zabuza appear out of the mist. Shino was once again the closet to the man and readied his Earth Fists. He watched as the behemoth of a blade came swinging out of the mist. The strike stopped mid swing as two of Naruko's clones parried with kunai in hand. The brief opening was all Shino needed to strike, but as he unleashed his punch he heard the almost unperceivable clicking of his insects alerting him to danger. His fist made contact with the man before him only for Zabuza to burst into water. Shino realized the trap too late as he looked up and saw the Demon of the Mist fall from the sky.

As Zabuza fell her brought his blade to bear and swung with all his might in an attempt to split Tazuna in two, but as his blade made contact his target disintegrated into thousands of red petals. One of which landed lightly on his hand. Before him he saw himself standing in an open field as mounted riders closed in on him. Their spears leveled with the grounds as they pierced him from all sides. He blinked and the scene was gone. He stood frozen as he saw the petals continue to swirl all around him. The next petal landed on his neck. He was in a town. There was a raised platform with two men on it. One was standing with an executioner's axe. The other man was him. He was kneeling with his head on a wood block. The axe fell and he watched as blood was sprayed into the air. He saw the petals again. Again and again the scenes slashed before his eyes only for him to return to that world of red petals. How many times had he been made to watch his own death? He had lost count. It had been too many. He wished that they would just disappear and to his surprise they did. He blinked a few times to refocus his eyes. He saw some kids looking at him. He recognized them and soon it registered to Zabuza that he must have had been in a genjutsu. His mind came back to him as he remembered his target. He tried to move but he only fell to his knees. That is when he felt the pain and realized how hard it was for him to breath. He lifted his hand to his side and felt the deep wound there. He heard someone step closer to him and saw a black haired woman on his left.

Their plan had worked. Kurenai had transformed into Hinata and set up a genjutsu that would make anyone in range think that Tazuna was still in the middle of their formation. It was risky but clearly the risk was worth it.

Kurenai kneeled down beside him. "I pierced your lung and let your blood seep into it for a while. It should be flooded by now. You don't have much longer."

Kurenai was ready just in case he made any last ditch effort to take any of them out. Zabuza pitched forward and started coughing violently. When he finished there was a large puddle of blood beneath him.

"Finish it." Zabuza said with a low and raspy voice.

Kurenai nodded and approached him only to be stopped when several senbon landed in front of her. She looked to her right and saw a man dressed in a green haori wearing a white Kiri mask.

Kurenai narrowed her eyes at the man. "Who are you?"

The masked ninja bowed his head. "I am a Hunter ninja from Kiri. I have been tracking Zabuza for months now. Thank you for aiding me even though you were not aware of it."

Kurenai nodded but she was till skeptical of the whole thing. It was possible that there was a Hunter after Zabuza, but she had to be cautious.

"Well I won't get in your way so by all means go ahead." Kurenai said as she gestured to the body.

The Hunter nodded before he crouched down next to Zabuza and impaled his throat with a senbon. The action caused Kurenai to raise an eyebrow.

"Aren't you going to remove his head?"

The masked ninja looked back at Kurenai. "I only have senbon on me currently. I need to transport the body back to my camp before I can remove it."

Kurenai nodded. Again it seemed plausible, but why not push a little? "We have penalty of kunai you could use. I know it's standard procedure to remove the head and burn the body the second the kill is made."

The genin were shocked by the statement. They had no idea why anyone would do that to someone who was already dead. The Hunter and Kurenai stared at each other before the Hunter threw senbon at them while picking up Zabuza and ran off, but Kurenai was right behind them.

"Stay here!" Kurenai called over her shoulder.

Her orders where heard by her team and they took up position around Tazuna who was standing behind a tree with Hinata. They had been there since Kurenai told them the plan. Once they were together they conversed quietly until Kurenai finally came back.

"I lost them about two miles into the forest. He's very fast." Kurenai walked up towards her team until she noticed the hard looks they were giving her. It took her a second to realize why before she smiled faintly. "Red petals dance on fluttering winds."

As the words left her mouth the genin visibly relaxed. She was glad that they did not attack her on sight when she did not give the pass phrase.

Hinata looked over at her sensei. "Sensei, why did he run away?"

The black haired woman walked up her students before she answered. "He was most likely working for Zabuza. Hunters normal remove the head so they can collect the bounty and then burn the body. Since he did neither I can only guess that he wasn't an actual Hunter." The Hyuga nodded. Kurenai looked over everyone. They were tired, but not to worse for wear. "Alright. We need to keep moving. It would be a bad idea to stay here for longer than we have to." With nods form all around the team took formation and started down the road again.

A/N: Well I hoped you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Till next time.

Next Time: Naruko meets the family.