FINAL CHAPTER! Thank for reading it this far! makes me very happy! very happy indeed! in fact, i think i might've ticked Kaze-sama off a bit ^^; oops. oh well! R&R please!
Disclaimer: i still don't own and i have come to realize that i may never own *tears up* no fair... why must they hog them so! share the love!
A few peaceful weeks pass by allowing the odd group to get somewhat accustomed to each other. After going next door to allow the shinobi to sleep for the night, the Cullens walk back in to see Kiara standing in the kitchen with Sasuke cooking as Kaze lies on the couch, her arm flopped over her eyes and looking paler than usual. No sooner did they walk in than Kiara paled then turned around to gag. Sasuke looks at her in worry as Kiara covers her mouth and nose with one hand and continues to cook with the other.
"What's with you?" Emmett asks, walking into the kitchen.
"You smell." Kiara grumbles, her voice muffled by her hand.
"What? But don't we smell the same as your friend?" Emmett says, slightly offended.
"No. She smells much better than you and the pack." Kiara says, putting the food into the oven then walking into the living. She sits down across from Kaze and tries to keep from gagging again. "You ok, Kaze-sama?"
"I'll be ok…" Kaze whispers, her pale lips barely moving.
Kiara's ears go back and she places a hand on Kaze's forehead, making Kaze flinch a little. "You're feverish… are you sure you're ok?"
"Yea… Just don't let them stay too long."
"Alright. If you say so." Kiara says, standing up and motioning for the Cullens to leave then follows after them, leaving Shino in the house with Kaze.
"What'd you mean we smell?" Edward asks, glancing at the closed front door.
"You smell like a person who put waaaaaaaay too much perfume on. All flowery and such, it makes my nose burn and gives Kaze-sama and I a headache." Kiara explains.
"…That's what Jake says…" Bella says. "You kinda smell human to us though there's a small… musk I guess you could say mixed in."
"Probably because Kaze-sama and I spend so much time with each other. If I remember right she's never smelled as bad as you." Kiara says, sitting on the porch's top step. "Jacob-san and his pack smell worse than a gym full of sweaty weight lifters. It's that musky scent." Kiara says, with holding another gag. "And when you put your two scents together… I'm surprised Kaze-sama and I haven't gotten sick yet!"
"Though your friend does look pretty sickly in there." Emmett says, looking over Kiara to the front door.
"That's… because of something different." Kiara says.
"What's wrong with her?" Jasper asks. "She's in a lot of discomfort."
"… Confidential." Kiara says, standing to her feet. "You stay out here, I'm gonna go check on her."
The Cullens trade looks, Carlisle catching Edward's worried look as Kiara walks inside, closing the door behind her. Kiara gets inside and sees what she expected, Kaze sitting in Shino's lap with her mouth to his neck and the slight scent of his blood slowly filling the room, telling Kiara that Kaze just started to feed. Kiara quickly bites her thumb, does a few lightning fast hand signs and puts up a barrier around the house so that it prevented the vampires outside from smelling Shino's blood and freaking them out, in a since putting the three into another dimension.
Seconds pass and Kaze pulls away, her eyes and fangs briskly returning to normal as she wipes Shino's blood off of her mouth. Kiara walks up to them, her face showing no emotion, and puts a hand on Kaze's shoulder.
"You ok now, Kaze-sama?" she asks, watching Shino press a hand to the fang marks on his neck. "You need to close those puncture wounds."
"I'll be ok now, thanks." Kaze says gently, leaning forward to lick the puncture wounds, making them disappear, before pulling away again. "Were you able to convince the others that nothing was going on?"
"Pretty much. I distracted them with how they smelled." Kiara says, smiling happily. "Emmett took offence when I told he stank."
"I'm not surprised." Kaze mumbles, standing up to lie the now anemic Shino on the couch. Kaze looks at him, her face regretful. "I always hate doing this to him…" she whispers, running the back of her finger smoothly along his pale cheek.
"He wants to do it for you, Kaze-sama." Kiara says, trying to comfort her best friend. "Come lets get him to your room so he won't be disturbed as he sleeps." Kiara whispers, pulling Shino onto her back and walking up the stairs. Kaze follows, ready to catch Kiara in case she lost her balance seeing as Shino is taller and weights more than Kiara.
"That's one strong magic barrier you put up." Kaze says, glancing around.
"I had to make sure that there would be no chance of them smelling or hearing what was going on. I don't want them to know that you feed on him." Kiara says, putting Shino in Kaze's bed and covering him with the covers. "I'll keep the barrier around him for the time being, just in case."
"You sure? That wastes a lot of your energy…" Kaze whispers, her face growing concerned.
"Kaze," Kiara says sternly, giving her friend a stern look as she moves the barrier. "It doesn't matter to me how much energy it takes, I wanna protect both him and you from them. I still don't exactly trust them."
"That's true… Jasper does look at them like he's holding something back." Kaze whispers.
"Exactly, which is why I'm doing this." Kiara says, shutting the bedroom door and walking back into the living room. "I get the feeling he's the newest of the bunch besides Bella-san, even though she seems like she's has strong self-control."
Kaze follows after Kiara, really debating whether or not she should let her friend do this. Once Kiara gets downstairs she stops and looks at Kaze, her face dark.
"Kaze I can feel that you're hesitant about this. I know what I'm doing, I'll be fine besides Shino-kun is more important right now than my own health." Kiara almost snaps at Kaze, taking Kaze by surprise at Kiara's unusual forcefulness.
"Kia? Are you irritated about something?" Kaze asks, lifting an eyebrow. "You hardly ever call me with out a 'sama' much less no suffix at all and you're being snippy…"
Kiara pauses, then glances away, trying to hide the pain on her face and in her eyes. She lifts one fist to her chest and holds it there, as if she's trying to stop the invisible pain in her heart. Her ears are back and her tail is unusually still, almost between her legs.
"It's nothing." She finally whispers.
"Kia, that doesn't look like nothing to me. You're acting funny what's going on?" Kaze asks, more forcefully. "You're never snippy with me even when I know I've ticked you off, you're using a magic barrier which you hardly do AND you're keeping secrets from me! What the heck is going on?"
I feel as if somethin' really bad is going to happen to you… Kiara thinks, still looking away from Kaze. "Don't worry about it, Kaze-sama. Sorry I worried you."
Kaze sighs and shakes her head as Kiara silently walks away. She flops onto the couch and watches as Kiara leaves the house and the Cullens, this time followed by Sasuke and the wolves, walk back into the house. Kaze's nose wrinkles and she covers her nose and mouth.
"Oh c'mon! We can't smell THAT BAD!" Emmett yells, throwing his arms up.
"You can and you do." Kaze mutters, her hand still covering her nose and mouth.
"What's wrong with Kia? She seems upset." Sasuke asks, looking over his shoulder at where Kiara disappeared after walking out the door. He turns and notes that Kaze's face has grown slightly grim but it's quickly covered by her famous stoic mask. "It's so bad that you have to put the mask from when we were kids, Kaze?"
"She won't tell me what's wrong." Kaze states. "It's not like her."
"No… It's not…" Sasuke agrees, his face becoming worried and forlorn. "What are we gonna do?"
"What can we do, Sausy? Pretty much nothing since she won't tell us what's up." Kaze says, answering her own question.
"We could get Ibiki to-"
"You're not even gonna finish that." Kaze snaps, her face growing dark.
"Right… stupid suggestion…" Sasuke says, his face slightly fearful. "Maybe Sai could get it out of her."
"No. Remember that she doesn't really care for him." Kaze says. Her face becomes slightly confused as she looks around. "Speaking of which, where is the emotionless cross dresser?"
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him since last night." Sasuke replies, now looking around as well. "Could that be what's bothering her?"
"No. It has something to do with me, I know that much." Kaze says, shaking her head.
"Really? How d'you know?" Sasuke asks, looking back at Kaze, his face confused.
"… I just know." Kaze replies her voice soft. I don't want to tell the vamps…
Edward frowns at Kaze and she jerks guiltily knowing he heard her last thought. Then he sighs and uncrosses his arms.
"Do you want us to leave then, Kaze?" Edward asks smoothly.
"… I just don't want you to know." Kaze says. "It's really none of your business why I think it's about me."
"That may be true, but it could deal with the safety of my family." Edward replies.
"Trust me, it doesn't." Kaze says, shaking her head. "I would tell you if your family was in danger."
"Would you?" Edward asks, lifting an eyebrow. "You seem very secretive."
"Trust me I have a reason to be. And yes I would. Family is important." Kaze says.
"Hey where's the dude in the glasses? He hasn't been here since we left." Seth says.
Kaze stifles her guilty jerk with a sigh and by crossing her arms. "He went to bed, said he didn't get enough sleep last night."
"Oh. I hope he gets enough sleep then." Seth replies. "Oh! I know!"
"You know what Seth?" Jacob says, rolling his eyes.
"I wanna go play with Kiara!" Seth announces, running out the door then phasing.
"… He's lost it." Leah murmurs. "Why would he wanna play with her?"
"Watch it Leah." Jacob warns. "Keep in mind she saved our butts more than once."
"That doesn't answer my question Jacob." Leah retorts, growing angry.
"Easy, easy, we don't want any fighting." Carlisle says. "Right now they're our allies."
"He's interested in how good of a fighter she is, Leah." Edward says, his eyes closed and arms crossed. "I think he's gonna challenge her."
"Hmph. Good luck with that." Kaze snorts.
Suddenly, Kiara comes tearing through the house, even jumping over the Cullens heads by jumping on the walls, and runs upstairs. Kaze, Sasuke and the wolves blink in surprise at the stairs while a majority of the Cullens are thinking 'how'd we not hear her coming?' and are touching the top of their heads.
Kaze stands, just about to follow after Kiara, but stops when she sees Kiara jumping over the banister onto the living room floor. Sasuke and Kaze's eyes widen when they notice what Kiara's wearing.
Kiara's wearing black pants, black sandals, a black tank with a grayish vest over it, both the tank and the vest exposing a black spiral shaped tattoo on her upper left arm, close to the shoulder. On her hands are her normal black fingerless gloves with the metal plate just behind her knuckles. She has a full length katana tied to her back, a small elongated black pouch strapped to her right thigh, and a small oval shaped pouch strapped just above the left side of her butt. Her long hair is tied up in a high ponytail and her headband is tied around her forehead. Finally a white and red mask sits cockeyed on the right side of her head.
"Kia… what's with your Anbu uniform? What's wrong?" Kaze asks.
"I'm going to do some snooping around, see if I can find any sign of those rogue vamps. I'll come back if I sense any change in…." Kiara pauses, glancing at the Cullens and wolves. "In… anything here."
"Search for Sai while you're out there." Kaze says, getting Kiara's hint.
Kiara's ears perk and her face becomes confused. "He's not here?"
"No."
"Hmm… alright. I'll look for him too." Kiara says, running towards the door. She shouts one last 'See ya!' before disappearing.
Seconds after Kiara disappears, Seth comes back his face a mix of shock and fear. Kaze and the others turn their attention to him. Jacob and Bella go to Seth and rest a concerned hand on his shoulder.
"What's wrong Seth, you look like you've seen a ghost." Jacob asks.
"I might have…" Seth murmurs, his gaze glazed over and unfocused.
"What do you mean by that?" Bella asks, her face slightly skeptical.
"Well… Kiara and I were racing when she suddenly froze and looked over her shoulder. When I followed her gaze I saw one of the werewolves we fought before the Cullen's showed up. Not only that but there was a vampire right beside it, one of the ones that Kaze's grandma described." Seth explains, his face becoming even paler. "I think it was one from the more aggressive coven Suki's coven talked about."
"That explains Kiara's frantic movements when she first came in." Sasuke says.
"And why she decided to put on her Anbu gear." Kaze finishes. "She hates wearing that uniform."
"Why's that? It looks cool especially the mask!" Embry says, motioning to his face like he has a mask on.
"It makes her hot." Kaze says plainly. Kaze quickly stiffens then looks at the door as Kiara, shouldering Sai walks in the front door. Kaze leaps to her feet and goes over to help Kiara put Sai on the ground, noting that Kiara's clothes are tattered. "What happened?"
"The coven ambushed us." Kiara pants, sitting down on the floor heavily. "There's only three in the coven like Suki-san said but they somehow tamed those brainless werewolves."
"How many of those are there?" Kaze asks, busy healing Sai's wounds.
"About a dozen. I've never seen a pack of those so big… usually what order they have disappears after about four pack members so they wind up killing each other. That's what really attacked us. If I wasn't faster than them, Sai and I wouldn't be here right now." Kiara says, her breathing slowly returning to normal. "Sai got scratched then knocked out but I was able go get him out of there before something worse happened."
"This is just great." Kaze growls under her breath.
"The psychic may be controlling the wolves." Suki says softly, making a majority of the wolves jump and look at her. "Otherwise, Kiara-san is right, they would kill each other."
"I figured as much." Kiara mutters, grinning evilly exposing one of her fangs.
"What's with that look? You're givin me the creeps, Kia." Kaze says, shivering slightly.
"Heh, Heh… I planted a little something… special on the one I suspected was the Psychic." Kiara says, chuckling darkly.
"Sabrina has long blonde hair and green eyes, she's the Psychic. Kathy has chocolate colored hair that falls to her chin and brown eyes so dark their almost black. Luke's hair is black and spiked and his eyes are bright blue, like the sky." Suki explains then quickly shivers as Kiara's evil look becomes smug as well.
"I knew it was the blonde…" Kiara says.
"How'd you know?" Sasuke says, trying to keep from shivering at his girlfriend's unusually sinister mood.
"One) the blonde's arms would twitch ever so slightly just before the wolves would attack, two) her eyes were trained on us and finally she was standing farther away than the rest of the coven." Kiara says, lifting a finger with every reason she listed. "The usual appearance of a puppet user."
"Which also means that her close and mid range tactics are poor." Kaze says, a thoughtful finger on her chin.
"Exactly. That means that either the male or other female must have control of either one of those." Kiara says, nodding in agreement.
"But Luke's a water user and Kathy's an earth user…" Suki says.
"That may be so, but I've seen water users only handle close combat and earth users handle only mid combat." Kiara says.
"This is great, Kiara. Now we know how to counteract their strategies." Kaze says, her own look becoming sinister.
"These two are starting to freak me out…" Quil whispers to Embry who nods in agreement.
"They're eager for the upcoming battle." Jasper says, smirking slightly. "It seems they haven't had a challenging mission in a long time."
"That's right, Jasper-san." Kiara says, looking over at him while Kaze finishes healing Sai. "Lately we've only been doing back up for other teams. That's boring and well, they usually don't need us. So, this is a perfect opportunity to really let loose."
"This is going to be fun." Kaze says, smiling eagerly.
Alice soon predicted that the coven and the brainless werewolves would attack in four days. So over the next few days, Kiara and Kaze go over various strategies with the Cullens and wolf pack. They now stand, waiting for the coven to show. Kiara and Kaze are both in their Anbu uniforms and all of the shinobi have all of their gear on, ready for battle. The pack has already phased and stands behind the shinobi in a half circle. The Cullens also stand in the small meadow though only Emmett's face is eager for a fight.
Kiara draws the katana out of it's sheath tied to her back and stands with it in her right hand, blade slanting towards the ground. Kaze stands still watching the forest in front of them while Shino allows his bugs to start to swarm around him, Sai reaches into his kunai pouch and Sasuke also pulls out his katana that's sheathed behind him. Emmett starts to crack his knuckles and the wolves start to snarl seconds before three crazed werewolves leap through the forest at Kiara and Kaze who stand in front.
Kiara flips her katana around so she's holding it backwards and in a flash beheads all three of them. She stands up straight and glares at the forest as she flips her katana around so she's holding it correctly. Her eyes are red with three dots surrounding her pupils. Sasuke smirks and his eyes change so that they match Kiara's. Kaze's eyes shift so that they're almost glazed over and wrinkles appear beside her eyes.
"Whoa! What's going on with their eyes?" Emmett asks, pointing to them.
Edward smirks. "They're bloodline traits. Kaze's is called the Byakugan while the one Sasuke and Kiara have is called the Sharingan."
"Whoa, freaky. What do they do?"
"Help us fight better." Kaze replies. "Get ready, the rest of the pack is coming."
"Coming fast too." Kiara adds, reaching over to grasp her katana's hilt with both hands.
The Cullens crouch in a defensive posture while the wolves' snarls grow fiercer. Kiara smirks and bends her knees while moving her katana out farther behind her with her left hand over her body, ready to grab the hilt again.
As soon as the first few snarling wolves break through the forest's edge, Kiara disappears. When she reappears, she's already cut through four wolves.
"Hey! Leave some for us!" Emmett yells, running into the fray.
Within a few minutes, the whole pack of crazed wolves is dead. Kiara and the others stand, glaring at the three vampires as they walk out of the forest. Luke walks forward, his face smug but impressed.
He takes a deep breath, smiles then looks directly at Sai, Shino and Sasuke. "It seems you've brought us a snack for the road." He says smoothly, his eyes shining.
Kiara snarls and starts to rush forward but Kaze grabs onto her arm, stopping her. Then Kaze looks over her shoulder at Jake, Seth and Embry and nods. The three wolves nod back and grab onto the three other shinobi and run off.
Luke frowns in a kind of pout as Kaze looks back at him. "You took the food away…"
"They're not food." Kaze growls.
"You sure? You're scent was mixed with one of them." Luke says. Kaze's cheeks flush and Kiara snarls.
"Kaze let go of my arm." Kiara says darkly.
Kaze quickly follows Kiara's order allowing her to phase and launch herself at Luke. Luke's face warps in shock and he quickly sends a water whip towards Kiara. Kiara dodges it and tackles him, sinking her teeth into his throat. Sabrina and Kathy pale and begin to back away, their eyes on Luke's corpse hanging from Kiara's mouth. Kiara drops Luke's body and stalks, menacingly, towards the two female vampires. The pair turns to run away but is stopped when they see an excited Emmett and a smirking Edward behind them. Their faces warp in horror before the Cullen brothers break their necks in one swift move of their hands.
Once all of the lifeless bodies have been taken care of, the group head back to the house where Shino and Sasuke bombard Kiara, who's in her human form, and Kaze with harsh words that quickly turn to relief when they see that everyone was ok. Shino even hugs Kaze while Sasuke throws his arms around Kiara.
"That was really easy. I don't like it." Emmett grumbles, his arms crossed and face almost a pout.
"It's better that way." Kaze says, holding Shino close.
"It's not fun though." Emmett whines.
"If you want fun, go spar with your family." Kiara growls.
"… Edward knows every move I make while Jazz is… a pro." Emmett says, earning chuckles from his family.
"You could always arm wrestle with Bella again." Edward says, hugging his wife to his side.
"No way! She's still in that first year, she'll beat me again!" Emmett protests quickly.
Small chuckles ripple through the Cullen family as Edward wraps an arm around Emmett's shoulders.
"Don't worry, there's only a few months left then you can be the strongest again." Edward says, his chuckles turning into full-blown laughter as Emmett glares at him.
Carlisle shakes his head at his family while smiling broadly. "Its best we get going, I need to get back to the hospital."
"That's right! We left kind of abruptly…" Esme says, holding onto his arm.
"We need to get back to Paul and the rest of the pack." Sam says gruffly though it's obvious that he's happy about the thought of going home.
"Poor Paul… he's gotta be insane by now." Seth says, smirking slightly.
"You don't seem very sympathetic there Seth." Jacob comments. Seth just shrugs at him. Jacob sighs then looks at the shinobi. "Tell yer leader that we're heading home and everything went well."
"Will do." Kaze says.
She and Kiara look at each other before Kiara steps up and bows to the pack and to the Cullens. "Thank you for helping us." They both say though Kiara's tone is a bit more polite than Kaze's gruff tone.
"You're…welcome?" Jacob says, his voice unsure.
With that, and after Seth convinces Kiara to keep in touch, the wolves and Cullens leave, leaving Kiara, Kaze and Sai with the task to explain to Tsunade all that happened in the past few weeks. The two girls start walking towards the Hokage tower, glad that everything is over.
"So, you and Seth have a special… thing that Sausy-chan needs to know about?" Kaze asks, smirking at Kiara.
Kiara's face turns red with shocked embarrassment as she turns to Kaze. "NO WAY! He was just pushy and I felt bad to refuse him. Besides, he was the only one of them that I liked…"
"Riiiight." Kaze says, her tone still teasing and making Kiara's blush deepening.
"It's true!" Kiara protests. "My heart is only for Sasuke-kun!"
The two continue with this friendly banter all the way to the tower. Tsunade was glad when she heard that everything was solved smoothly and that the wolves had returned to their own town. She dismissed the girls to enjoy their free time that is until their next mission eventually came up.