YAMANAKA INO I

It's not every day that you die. It's not every day that you are the cause of someone's death. All Ino wanted to do was make Sakura wet herself. Not that she already wasn't wet due to the rain, but that was all she wanted to do. She didn't want Sakura to fall from her balcony and to her death. Really, Ino didn't. Maybe Sakura did see it as that. As nothing more than an accident. One that should never have happened.

And the one thing that Ino was hoping to avoid, happened. All because of Ino's stupidity. Now her best friend was trapped in the worst possible thing ever along with herself. And if Sakura died, it would be nothing but Ino's fault. It was Ino's responsibility to keep Sakura alive now that she was one of them. It still felt weird to say that.

For more than a year, it had only been herself, Sasuke and the stupid brat Konohamaru. Ino knew that no else aside from them would survive. Every time that Ino opened her eyes to the gymnasium in Daikanyama, she expected everyone to die. Well, to die a second time. They were already technically all dead. But Ino had no intentions of dying a second time. No way in hell was she going to die a second time.

Yami had managed to explain what the hell they were supposed to do well enough, but Ino knew that Sakura would still have questions. And she sure as hell knew that Sasuke would just blow it off and knowing Konohamaru, the brat would just hit on Sakura the whole goddamn time. Yes, they were annoying, but their usefulness far outweighed whatever annoyance Ino felt whenever one or the other opened their stupid mouths.

So as Ino and Sakura walked around the abandoned DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, she did her best to inform Sakura on her new and important job…well it was important, but Ino wouldn't say that it was a job. More like a matter of life and death, which Ino supposed also applied to some jobs, but this more so than something like being a soldier.

"So…" Sakura began. "Can you tell me how all of this began?"

"Not really."

"WHAT!? You're joking."

Ino chuckled. "I'm serious. Sasuke's been doing this for so goddamn long and he doesn't even have a clue. All we have is speculation. But we all agree that thing's aren't as they seen. These…Aliens and monsters. We have to be doing all of this for a reason. Sasuke seems to think that it's to prepare us for some invasion. Alien, demonic or maybe even both. I don't know."

"That's sounds like a load of bull."

"What you still don't believe me? Your best friend? The great and wonderful Yamanaka Ino?" Sakura shot her a distrustful look. Ino sighed. "Look, I know that you probably don't trust me all that much right now. Especially considering that I kind of-well I did get you killed. Unintentionally. But-'"

"I don't blame you. It's just that you should've known better." Sakura replied, running a hand through her pink hair. The armour that she had wasn't upgraded like Ino's was and she wasn't really sure if Sakura would be able to fire the Zephyr Gun without the recoil breaking her shoulders. "I just…I just need to know what the hell is going on."

"Relax. Everything will be fine. So long as you listen to and follow me. And Sasuke as well." Ino grumbled. While she was grateful that Sasuke had given her that apartment, he could've been nicer about it instead of just tossing the key in her face and saying that he would handle all the finances. Hell, he could've just been nicer in general. But, Ino did suppose that was part of his charm. After all, nice guys finish last. Right?

"What about the kid?"

Ino wrinkled her nose at the mention of that brat. "Konohamaru? Yeah, just don't. He thinks he's all that and acts like the leader of the group. He isn't. But, he is good. Though he's more likely to use you as a meat shield rather than actually cooperate with you. So be wary of that."

"So it really is just the three of you?" Ino nodded her head. "Must've have been rough." Again Ino shook her head.

"Not really. All I had to do was listen to Sasuke. I mean that dude's been doing this thing for a long fucking time. If there's anyone that can survive all by himself it's Sasuke." The dude was a veteran when Yami first summoned Ino almost one year ago. Taught her everything she needed in order to survive. And while she didn't like Sasuke one bit, Ino was grateful to him for everything he had done for her, even if he didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart either.

"Alright." A moment of silence washed over the two of them. Sakura observed the large Zephyr Gun in her hand whilst Ino scanned the area. Ino wouldn't have been surprised if most of the new people, if not all of them, were already dead. That's how it played most of the time. Everyone is in a panic to save themselves and never think clearly. If there was anything that Ino had learned on her lonesome, it was that you were better off waiting till the pack had thinned. Use them as bait. It was a despicable strategy, but it worked.

Ino reached up to her visor and tapped the side of it. For a second the black tint flashed red before returning to its original color. Her view then changed to that of a thermal one. Hm…A lot of heat is concentrating over there. Must be all those poor saps. Ugh. If only they didn't rush out there like a bunch of morons. She knew that it wasn't really their fault that they were acting this way and this was just their instincts kicking in.

There was one time where she had asked Sasuke to take charge to save more lives. And it was then that Ino realized that Sasuke was right. No one listened to him. After all, he was just a teenager, right? What the hell would he know? Nothing. So instead, let's all move together as a group, yelling and screaming and crying and attraction all sorts of attention.

To her left, she saw Sasuke's heat signature. He was alone and slinking around by his lonesome like he usually did. Ino wouldn't have been all that surprised if Sasuke somehow managed to get an invisibility upgrade for his suit or something and was hiding it from everyone like he was hiding right now.

Prowling around far ahead was Konohamaru. He was the only person in the area that should've had a heat signature that small. The brat was alone. Looking for whatever it was they were supposed to hunt. Hellcats or something like that.

Most of what they had to hunt were aliens. With the occasional demon or monster, and the local vampire mixed in as well. There were also the occasional humans dabbling in things that they had absolutely no business with. Kind of like herself. Except she had permission from a giant, glowing, sentient orb of light that could talk and probably got off on them dying. Ino couldn't remember if she dealt with Hellcats before, but she knew for a fact that she had to have fought and killed some sort of giant monster/alien feline at least once.

"Hey, what did you just do right now?" Sakura asked, leaning against a wall, wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead. "Your visor like…glowed or some shit."

"Oh that? Thermal imaging upgrade. Yami allows you to upgrade your suit after every mission." Ino replied. "Just got this upgrade from the last mission. Anyways, come on, let's go and find Sasuke. If shit starts to go down, Sasuke's the one you want to be around." Already some of the heat signatures began to disappear. And fast. Ino wasn't afraid…it was just that there was a chance that Sakura would get in the way.

"Sure. Yeah. I'd rather not have to go and fight aliens already." Sakura muttered, getting up off of her knees. Ino's visor flickered and retracted off to the sides. "Nice."

"Thank you." Ino said as she looked around. She had already drawn her katana and was just waiting for something to pop up. The thermal imaging vision had a tendency to not work when Ino needed it the most or to "mysteriously" malfunction. Tch. Maybe the stupid brat had something to do with this. It wouldn't have been the first time. "Sakura. Look, I know that you aren't in any condition, nor do you have any experience in fighting, but I'm a little blind here and I need you to alert me of even the slightest sign that something is there and is going to eat your face off."

"Aren't you exaggerating a little bit?"

Ino shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. But I am serious about this. My thermal imaging isn't showing fucking jack. Either these fucking Cats are Predators or they have no fucking body heat. Either prospect isn't good." Sakura gulped and clutched the Zephyr tighter. "And if we do indeed encounter something, don't panic. Just…try and hide and I'll deal with things as best as I can."

Sakura paled. "As best, you can!?"

"Hey, I never said that I survived with skill! I survived because of sheer, dumb fucking luck alright?" Ino rebutted. "It isn't my fault that Lord Luck has a boner for me all the time." Sakura raised an eyebrow,

"Lord Luck?"

"I'm not a lesbian Sakura. It can't be Lady Luck."

Her cherry haired best friend rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I can't remember, but were you always this weird? Or am I just now noticing how weird you are." Ino shrugged.

"I don't a fucking clue how you didn't notice how weird I am girl." Ino replied, swinging her katana around. She adjusted her and flipped her katana into a reverse grip. By no means was Ino good with a sword. Not even close. But she was serviceable. Sasuke had made sure of that at least. Still, Ino would have much preferred one of the Oberon Guns than a katana. Sadly though, the chance of Yami spawning one has less than twenty-five percent. Of course, Ino could also just go to Sasuke and ask for one. That hoarding fuck. Or maybe when Konohamaru died. That kid always kept one on his person at all times.

As Ino once again sheathed and unsheathed her katana, there was an unfamiliar noise farther down the hallway. Sakura stiffened but nonetheless continued to follow Ino. The blonde put a finger to her lips and drew her katana. She had considered naming it, according to the rules of being a badass of course, but forgot to do it every time as the thought would just slip from her mind. Ino was sure that an egotist like Sasuke or someone with delusions of grandeur like Konohamaru would've named their swords. Probably something cheesy and cliché like Masamune or Murasame.

The sound began to get closer and closer. Sakura began to fidget around, her skin draining of color, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Her grip on the Zephyr Gun growing tighter with every second. "Do you hear that too?"

"Yeah." Ino replied. The sound got closer and closer. A shadow appeared at the end of the hallway. "Sounds like liquid dripping to the floor. Whenever you hear that sound during a mission, always assume that it's blood." If it was even possible, Sakura got even paler. Despite the situation, Ino laughed.

"Don't laugh!"

"Sorry. I just couldn't help it." Ino laughed more as Sakura pouted and puffed her cheeks. "Hey, if you do that, it'll only make me laugh harder."

"Well stop laughing and then I'll stop pouting." Sakura shot back. Something fleshy fell to the ground abruptly. Sakura let out a squeak. "What the fuck was that!?"

"Calm down. Probably just a body part. Nothing too serious and nothing you won't get used to after a few missions." Ino reassured, twirling the katana around. Soon the figure stepped into view. "Woah."

It was one of the guys from earlier. A police officer if Ino remembered correctly. And boy was he fucked. His entire left arm looked like it had been dissolved by acid and his everything from his right elbow down had fallen to the ground. Part of his shoulder was torn out and one of his legs looked like they had been rotated seven hundred and twenty degrees. Or three-sixty twice. All over his body were shards from one of the Mortis Guns that Yami had spawned. He took one look at Ino and Sakura.

"R-run."

And then his throat exploded.

Sakura screamed and Ino went right to work. Standing behind the officer was what Ino presumed was a Hellcat. It was disgusting, that was what it was. A mockery of a tiger. Gnarled, tree like limbs with glowing scarlet veins protruded from a grotesque and twisted body with a gigantic eye on the side. The two eyes on what Ino assumed was the face, were misaligned and way too close to one another.

Before it could charge at the two of them, Ino thrust her katana into its chest. She grimaced at the murky, black and very viscous blood that the beast excreted. It dove at her. Ino sidestepped and swung upwards, cutting off one of its limbs. The Hellcat completely missed its next lunge as Ino ducked.

"Ah!" Sakura yelped as she fell on her ass. Eyes wide with fear. The monster cat turned its gaze to her. Ino quickly jumped atop its back and impaled its neck into the ground. "I-Ino! What should I do!?"

"Back off!" Ino said through gritted teeth as the cat began to force its way up. "I won't be able to hold this thing off for long!" With a gulp, Sakura backed off and hid behind a large planter box. "Now to deal with you! Fucking pussy ass…pussy!" Ino yelped as the Hellcat bucked her off of its back.

"GRAAHH!" It roared at her. With a sneer, Ino put a hand to the bastard sword on her back. Her katana was stuck in the Hellcat's neck. To think that only one of them had been able to cause her this much trouble already. Just as the monster dove at her, Ino drew her sword and slashed through its neck, grabbed her katana and sliced the torso in two.

"Hah…Hah…Fuck. That was way harder than it had any right to be." Ino muttered before turning to the cowering Sakura. "Yo! Come on! Cost is clear. Well, for now. Keep an eye out for those cats. If they could be called that." With a grunt, Ino kicked the body to the side.

Farther down the hallway from whence the officer and the Hellcat came from was the sight of a bloodbath. Sakura turned a smidge green at the sight of someone's intestines splattered all over a window. Blocking the way were several corpses. All of them were covered in a slimy, viscous black substance that was slowly eating away at their already burned flesh. A head was being inside out by something even more disgusting than maggots. Whatever they were, Ino didn't want to know.

A chill ran down her spine as they came upon a family of three huddled up. All of them lying dead in a pool of their own blood, feces and vomit. The father shielding the mother. But from what? There weren't any more Hellcat corpses. Just the one that Ino had killed. It wasn't all that hard to believe that none of them would have been able to take even just one down. But…multiple of them were police officers and Yakuza. They must've known how to at least fire a gun! Unless they were taken by surprise.

"Huh," Ino muttered to herself. "I've only counted like ten people. Where's everyone…else…" Several pairs of glowing red eyes peered at the two of them farther down the hallway. Sakura bumped into Ino's back.

"Oof! The hell? Why are you block…ing the way?" Sakura's voice quivered as three more Hellcats came out of the darkness. All of them covered in blood. Behind them was an even bloodier mess. One of the Hellcat's held a spine with the head still attached in its mouth. "Ugh…Ino…"

"Activate your suit's distress signal and find Sasuke. All you gotta do is tap the main chest piece to turn it on. As long as the signal is on, any of the hunters in the area should be able to find you. Heck, if Konohamaru comes, don't complain. At least he can do as well as I can." Ino said in a voice that she hadn't her heard herself use in years. "I'll find you once I'm done here."

"Alright." Sakura nodded reluctantly. "But…can you try to come back alive? I don't think I can survive Uchiha-san and Sarutobi-san all by my lonesome."

"Heh." Ino grinned as the Hellcats growled at her in unison. "Who do you think you're talking to here? Now go. Before you get caught in the crossfire." Sakura left, albeit reluctantly. All the while, the area around the base of her neck was tingling intensely as Sakura's suit began to emit waves that only their suits could detect.

Ino twirled around her bastard sword and swung it upwards as one of the Hellcats dove at her. Its body producing a loud screeching noise as it flew through the air. Her bastard sword cut its front limbs off completely. The head caved in as Ino's foot drove through its skull. The other two circled around her. Thrusting her katana at the larger of the two, Ino rolled forward. The smaller of the two lunged at her and got a bastard sword in its mouth for his troubles.

Backing away slightly, Ino clutched her two swords tightly. Both remaining Hellcats glowered at her and bared their teeth. In response, Ino grinned at them toothily. The larger one came at her feet while the smaller one flew through the air towards her torso. Ino sidestepped and split the smaller one horizontally.

The remaining Hellcat missed and embedded its large ass head into the hallway wall. Not wasting any time, Ino threw her bastard sword at it, pinning the head to the wall. Behind her, she could hear the legless Hellcat crawling towards her, pieces of its head falling to the floor.

"Sorry little guy," Ino muttered. She flicked the blood of her katana and drove it right between the Hellcat's eyes. "Huh…The hell is…that?" There was a very, very loud and deep growl emanating through the seemingly empty hallways. Ino's eyes quickly darted around looking for the source.

"Come on you fucking pussy!" Ino hollered. "Show yourself. Don't make me go over there and fuck you up! Because I will do it!" She walked over and picked up her bastard sword. Before leaving to find the source of the disturbance, Ino decapitated the large Hellcat just to make sure that it was really dead after all.

She came upon more of the other hunters. Most of them looked like they had been devoured by only one Hellcat. A giant one. Bigger than the other three. For all Ino knew, it could have been one really small, yet determined Hellcat that refused to give up and the others just decided to leave it alone because they felt sad or something. Sometimes even Ino herself didn't know what the fuck was running through her mind.

With black blood splattered all over her face, Ino got closer and closer to the sound. And the closer she got the more worried she got. Because now it didn't sound like just one growl. It sounded like dozens. All at once. A bead of sweat dripped down her forehead and Ino was half tempted to wipe it off.

Far ahead was a translucent window with black blood splattered all over it on the other side. That could not have been a good sign. Like at all. "Alright Ino. Calm down. Calm down. You've been through worse than a couple of overgrown cats." Ino muttered to herself as she reached the window.

Even before her hand touched it, she could feel the vibrations coming off of the glass. With a gulp, Ino slid down the hallway to the entrance into the room with the bloody window. As she rounded the corner, Ino froze.

It was a storage room. A bunch of miscellaneous objects and a fuck ton of boxes. But the thing that caught Ino's attention was the absolutely monstrous Hellcat curled up near the back wall. Suckling from her teats were several dozen Hellcats, all smaller than the smallest one she had killed so far. But the mother cat had to have been like twenty times larger. Its ears just barely brushed up against the top of the ceiling and it was fucking sitting down.

Slowly, the large feline monster opened its onyx eyes and gazed at the frozen Ino. Within seconds, all of her babies had stopped suckling and her growling at Ino like the little shits that they were. With every slight twitch of the muscle, the baby Hellcats got closer and closer. Ino slowly and carefully back out of the room. One wrong step and it would all be over.

And then Ino slipped on a bloody puddle.

Immediately, several Hell…well, they weren't cats…so Hellkittens Ino decided were already upon her. Quickly thinking, Ino one in half whilst rolling away from the others. The mother and several of its siblings mewled in anguish. Ino clutched her katana and bastard sword and crossed them together and begun to spin them around like rotor blades.

Several overeager kittens jumped in her way and were torn to shreds. Using the cover of the ribbons of flesh, Ino retreated from her current predicament. There were way too many of them for her to eliminate all at once. And if there was even the slightest chance that they could surround and overwhelm her, Ino would be screwed. And not in a good way either.

She soon reached the bloody hallway where she had slain the three adult Hellcats. Though now that Ino came across that giant monster of a mother, she wasn't sure if the three she killed were adults or not. Regardless, Ino wanted to get into as open an area as possible. Though a bloody, body filled hallway wasn't the first thing her mind would associate with openness. But, if Ino remembered correctly, if she kept going down the hallway, she would eventually reach an open clearing with a lot of benches and a view of the Tokyo Skyline.

Nipping at her heels and chewing through the corpses of the dead hunters was an absolute swarm of Hellcats that reminded Ino more of swarms of giant man-eating insects chasing after the protagonist than they did fluffy little kittens. Ino bit back the bile as they viciously tore through chunks of meat and bone like they were tissue paper.

Sakura's distress signal was far gone now. All the way across to Odaiba's Aquacity. Ino just hoped that she was with someone who could help her. And hopefully far enough away that from another breeding ground of Hellcats. Unless of course she and Sasuke came across one. That…That would not be good. Especially if the one they found was bigger or being pumped with a mutagen on something like that.

And it was at that moment that the wall in front of her collapsed.

Standing in front of her and baring her disgusting teeth dripping with black ooze, was the mother Hellcat. It snarled at her, but Ino wasn't stopping for that. Slid underneath the belly of the Hellcat. Several meters ahead was a revolving door. Ino quickly rushed through it, slamming her body into the glass. The army of cats followed behind closely, with their monstrous mother stomping around, leaving giant paw prints all over the place.

If weren't for the fact that Yami could somehow make all the damage caused somehow disappear, then perhaps Ino would've been slightly worried about the damage that she caused. But alas, they weren't. And of course, there were those three words that Sasuke always said.

Not.

My.

Problem.

It didn't take long for Ino to start following Sasuke's lack morals. In fact, it was quite possibly the only reason that she survived this long. Of course, that didn't mean she felt good about it. Nor bad either. Just indifferent. Like always.

The Tokyo Skyline slowly appeared in front of her. Flickering lights and dazzling neon lights all over the goddamn place. If it weren't for the fact that she had lived in Tokyo for so long, Sakura would've been awestruck. Well…not really.

Ino was brought out of her reverie by the sound of several pillars being turned to dust underfoot. Or was it underpaw? Regardless, the giant Hellcat was right behind her. To Ino's immediate right was the waterfront and to her right was a wall. Ahead of her was a narrow path that offered absolutely no advantages to her at all.

With a sigh, the blonde sheathed her swords and burst out into a sprint, running out past the narrow path and out into the heart of Odaiba. The streets were mostly empty. If Ino remembered correctly, Sakura's tracker was all the way at Odaiba's Big Sight Convention Center. Off in the distance, Ino could see the Yurikamome Elevated Train Station. There was no way that Ino could let the fight get all the way to the train station. Even Yami wouldn't be able to stop anyone from noticing.

Or so Sasuke claimed.

After reaching an open enough space, Ino pivoted and faced the giant monster cat and an unlimited litter of children. There were at least fifty pairs of scarlet red eyes glaring at her. Their snarls filling the air in unison.

Ino drew her two swords and stood in a defensive stance. "Well? What are you waiting for?" Ino egged them on. The mother cat stopped growling and began to prowl along the edge of the circle that her children had formed around Ino. Immediately afterward, at least ten Hellcats charged at Ino all at once.

With a grin, Ino spun around. Several Hellcats flew off to the side, halfway cut into half. One of them hung onto Ino's back. Before it could do any damage, Ino rammed her back into a parked car, splattering it with guts and brain matter. Thrusting her bastard sword entirely through another Hellcat's mouth, Ino spun around and cut the throat of another.

"Gah!" Ino hissed as a set of uber sharp teeth raked across her back. Twirling her katana around, Ino thrust it behind her. Even more black blood spewed all over her face as a loud squeal rang out in the large clearing. The mother roared and even more of her children surged forward.

Her swords were covered in sticky black blood as she sliced and diced through the ocean of Hellcats. Even though she had been swinging her swords almost nonstop, Ino could barely feel the fatigue. At least that was something good that Yami had done for them. Removing the lactic acid buildup in their arms and converting them into additional energy.

While Ino was wrecking her children, the mother Hellcat's eyes began to narrow and shifted into a darker shade of red. Almost a crimson blood color. Ino momentarily made eye contact. The mother's lips curled up into a snarl. Grimacing, Ino ducked underneath a leaping body and split it in half with her bastard sword and dug her sword into a snarling mouth and swung upward, splitting the head in two.

Her body was tingling towards the east. Towards Yurikamome. What the hell did that mean? Sakura and Sasuke were all the way in Odaiba's Aquacity. And last Ino checked Konohamaru was still in DiverCity. But then again, Ino wasn't paying all that much attention.

A screaming Hellcat flew right over her shoulder and crashed into a bloody parked car, smashing its window into pieces and getting shards embedded into its body. Piled up around the car body must've been at least two to three dozen lifeless corpses. And even still, there were more Hellcats lunging at her like maniacs than there were in the beginning.

However, it finally seemed like they were starting finally run out. "What the hell?" Ino muttered to herself, spinning around and vivisecting two Hellcats simultaneously. She eyed the Mother cat. "Is she getting smaller or some shit?"

And indeed it was.

She stopped getting smaller when there were only around ten or so of her children left. The mother cat was still gigantic. Around the size of an NBA Center or something like that. With a huff, Ino slashed her two swords horizontally like a pair of scissors, slicing off the head of the Mother cat's last kitten.

"GRRR." It growled. Wiping the sweat and blood off of her forehead. A dopey grin formed on Ino's face. The grin disappeared as the body of the Mother morphed into a more…human…like form.

Standing in place of the giant mockery of a cat, was a humanoid being covered in thick, black fur. It was a woman. If the breasts and the facial structure was anything to go by. Her arms and thighs were absolutely monstrous. Like she had injected every kind of steroid known to man. Her hair was thick and messy and reached all the way down to below her butt. Covering her torso was fur. Well, except for her nipples.

"Fuck."

That was the last thing Ino said for a couple of minutes as the Hellcat lunged at her so fast that even with her suit's enhanced vision, all Ino could see was a black blur, which admittedly is already hard to see in the darkness of midnight. And even with her enhanced reflexes, Ino couldn't move before the mother was already on her ass. The mother dug her monstrous forearm into Ino's stomach and threw her back into a wall. It promptly collapsed upon her.

Before she could even get up, the monster was already upon her. She picked Ino up and flung her deeper into Odaiba. Ino's body smashed through several high rise buildings before colliding into a turnstile from Yurikamome and sliding down. Her landing spot marked by a splotch of blood. Ino spat out blood onto the ground.

There weren't that many people around which was rather surprising, yet also made sense. It was rather late at night and at this time, most people would've been at home. Sleeping. Snugly. Wrapped in their blanket with nothing but sweet dreams.

Ino looked up in time to see the Hellcat drop in and ram her shoulder into Ino's. She drove the two of them through the turnstile and into a kiosk. "GAH!" The Monstrous Cat continued its rampage, driving through several walls. There was a train behind them if the loud screeching brake sound was any indication. Ino reached for her sword. Only to remember that she dropped her swords back in the clearing.

It was only when the monster slammed her into the train, tipping it over and ripping the train car cleaning from the rest of the train, did the Hellcat let go of Ino. And it quite literally tipped it over onto its side. If everyone inside was dead, Ino would not be surprised. She reached over and wiped the blood off of her mouth and picked herself up from the overturned train car.

Standing at the edge of the metro platform was the Hellcat. Civilians running around like headless chickens in a panic. The security was nowhere to be seen. Or they were until a tiny Hellcat came up and dropped a head of an officer at its mother's feet. Ino followed the trail of blood to a room by the stairs leading down to street level.

Technically Ino would have been able to take the Hellcat on with her bare hands. Her suit allowed for that much. But she wasn't sure that she would be able to even last half a minute against something that superhuman. Sasuke had done it before. But then again, Sasuke was a freak.

The tingling in her suit had disappeared.

"INO!"

Both Ino and the Mother cat turned to see Sakura stumble up the stairs with Sasuke right at her heels. Sakura looked like a mess. Her suit wasn't torn all over the place like Sasuke's was. Her face was covered in dirt and there was a large cut on her cheek. Her eyes bloodshot and her hands had sores all over them.

On the other hand, despite having the entire top half of his suit looking like it was burned off by acid, Sasuke's skin looked as flawless as ever with his only injury being a large cut on his chest. His hair was slightly disheveled. In his hands was his Nodachi. And just like her swords, his was covered in black blood. He shot her a look.

Without warning, the Mother Cat lunged at them. Sakura screamed whilst Sasuke raised his sword and dug his feet into the ground as the Mother cat only barely drove him backward. The Mother cat tilted its head in confusion.

With no hesitation, Sasuke pushed it back and swung his sword horizontally at the monster, his blade a blackish gray blur through the air. Whilst he kept the Mother cat's attention, Sakura ran out from behind Sasuke to Ino's side.

"Man, you look like shit." Ino grinned as Sakura pulled her over behind a pillar. And technically she wasn't wrong.

"Are you kidding me!?" Sakura screeched. "Ino you look like, and you literally were, thrown through several buildings! I'm surprised you aren't dead!"

"Eh, didn't I tell you? Lord Luck has the hots for me." Sakura rolled her eyes. "But anyways. Don't think I didn't see you drooling over Sasuke's abs over there." Immediately, Sakura's cheeks flushed pink.

"Shut up. He's a hunk. But he's the biggest asshole I've ever meet." Sakura responded. "I wanted to throttle him after only like five minutes. Not only is he the biggest jerk I've ever met. He's also the most narcissistic. Is it bad that I want to hurt someone this much?" For a moment Ino thought that Sakura was joking. And then she saw Sakura's face. Ino sighed.

"That doesn't matter. Right now, you need to channel that anger and use it to eliminate whatever that thing is." Ino said. There was a black blur flying towards them. Grabbing her best friend by the shoulders, Ino took cover against the pillar. Flying past them was Sasuke.

The Uchiha flipped in midair and stuck his sword into the wall of the other side of the metro platform. His sword bent a bit, but otherwise held up against the concrete walls and dispelled Sasuke's kinetic energy. The Mother Cat walked up to the edge of the platform the Ino and Sakura were on. She took a look at the two of them before dropping down onto the tracks.

"Sakura. Do you still have the Zephyr Gun?" The pinkette shook her head. "What do you mean? Did it run out of ammo? Because if so, then it overheated. It doesn't run out of ammo. Did you throw it away?"

"No, the….thing we were fighting snatched it from me and broke it in half."

"Shit," Ino muttered. "Well, fuck. We can't leave until everything is dead. And we can't kill anything if we don't have any weapons. Well, we can. But…it'll be difficult as fuck. And way too time-consuming. Fuck! Where the hell is Konohamaru!?" Ino punched the pillar beside her. Several long cracks appeared and the pillar began to crumble.

Across from them the fight between Sasuke and the Hellcat was growing more and more intense. How Sasuke could swing a sword that big around that fast was beyond Ino. Even with his suit enhanced body, it shouldn't have been possible.

Beside her, Sakura sighed. "Could things get any worse?"

"No. Sakura. Don't say that, don't you ever say that. Only bad thing's ever come out of-'"

BOOOM!

Then the wall to their collapsed and out came the tiny body of Konohamaru. Following him…was even more monstrous looking humanoid Hellcat. This time with horns and a golden sword for an arm. And Konohamaru looked…bad was too weak of a word to use. His left arm was limp against his body and his forehead was busted up, the blood streaming down his face, his suit torn up. Sticking out of his left leg was a piece of rebar.

Walking down the steps leading down to the streets was another Hellcat. Except this one was armored. The look on Sakura's face at the sight of it was beyond terror. It was like she had just seen death in human form. It shot a look at its two brethren and a smile broke out on his mouth.

"Get them."