Scroll 11: Nightly Attacks

Meanwhile, the Meko that Inu-Gilligan sniffed was just a cardboard cut-out. WTF? Since when did cats know how to cut things! So where was Meko now?

Gilligan blinked, jerking his head back a little when it turned into a cardboard cut-out. He kept on crawling a bit until he caught a certain scent. He then started making his way toward the main gate. All around him, little teddy bears started popping out of the ground, walls, even the rooftops. Gilligan was good at tracking things, even more so with help. They were all silent, but would be a very disorienting sight if anybody noticed them. Cute as he was, there was a very determined look on his face.

Meko had left a stupidly stupid trail of cat-tracks. He was irked at Meiko and showed it. The presents would be found by some unfortunate person in the morning, but Meko didn't care. He owned the whole frigging village. Oh well. As the brown-pepper and white cat sauntered towards to front gate, he didn't know he was being tracked.

Gilligan transformed into one of the teddy bears himself. He then pointed towards the gates and pumped a fist into the air. All of the teddy bears rushed in a single file line towards the gate, their little feet making tiny pitter-patter noises that human ears would think of as nothing more than rats. Meko should be able to tell the difference though. They weren't running at him, but they were running in his general direction.

Meko's ears pricked forward; away from the hapless bug he was stalking.

"My, my, my; that's a lot of rats. I hope they aren't from the Rat Village…" Meko chortled to himself as he left the bug and went after the little pitter-patter of feet. Meko knew the footsteps were too cushioned for rats, so this might prove, for him, to be most interesting. "Come on out, my hapless running mystery, I won't hurt you…much." Meko sang softly as he closed in to the noise.

The line of teddy bears rushed by Meko; and continued towards the city gate. One changed back into Gilligan and looked at Meko. Gilligan then twisted, halfway down the spine, all the way around so he was looking at Meko face-to-face, but Gilligan's face was upside down. "You're a strong kitty."

"And you, Teddy-Bear nin…are most…intriguing. You were the one on the Uzaruki whelp, were you not?" Meko had blinked his fabulously gold-green and blue eyes at the human. "You were also the one that I played with yesterday. Do not deny it, I remember your scent." He shook his whiskers and smirked to the world.

"Come on, you can help me." He grabbed Meko and tossed him onto his back, pulling a 180 and dashing off. He ran up the line of teddy bears, almost absorbing them into himself. With each one he got back, he got a little bigger. He eventually just ran through the village gate, barely fitting through. Either way, if Meko was still on it would be an odd experience. Him riding somebody else; Meko yowled rather piteously as the Teddy-child grabbed his royal body and ran off.

"CAT-NAPPED! I'm being cat-napped by a teddy-child, ooh the humanity…" Meko was pretty hilarious as he did nothing to escape or draw attention to himself. It wouldn't matter anyway: only those that Meko wanted to hear, heard his voice; the other humans, just heard annoying cat hisses. "Cat-napped and taken to where, O Teddy-san?" Meko went limp in Gilligan's grip, making the scene look oh so gut-bustingly funny; like Meko was a piece of paper fluttering in the wind.

XXX

"Well then, Meiko dearest, here we are, so close yet so undetected. Well, the Twisted ninja are. The Darkness can't be close or that traitor Trydna detects them. Are you really sure you're not afraid? Well, time to prove you're a big girl." Two large, gnarled hands rose out of the ground a little in front of her, as if widening a hole.

The disembodied arms reached out and pulled the person out of the inky hole. The person was sort of tall at 6ft even, and looked to be a dried-blood color. His skin was knotted and twisted, and his joints looked a bit misshapen, as if somebody had grabbed a skeleton and shaken it badly. His hair was tied back in a giant spiky ponytail. There were various stitches all over him. He turned around, and he had a normal set of eyes. Then the rest of them opened, revealing he had a ring of eyes that went all around his head in a circle. He knelt down and held out a hand.

"Are you sure you're brave enough to keep going? Or would you like to go back to where your sister is stronger?" He was enjoying his taunting of such an idiotic girl.

"Ew, you're gross looking, that's so nasty…" Meiko wasn't afraid, but she sure was disgusted. She covered her eyes and wondered if his eyes had colors. She slowly took her hands off her Akashingan eyes and her weak genjutsu was in place. James wore a normal navy-blue bodysuit and had on shoes. Imagine that, a kid strong enough to trick herself into a genjutsu. That was pretty darn strong; or clever.

"What happened to you? You look like a messed up something at a tornado spit up."

"Have you had that birds and the bees talk? Or whatever your parents call it; when our bodies started changing it was much more dramatic. If you wish to hide the truth from your eyes for now, I will let you do so. There will come a time when you can not." He turned around and continued walking, disappearing behind a tree. "Here is our camp, Meko-san. Join us if you wish. Training will begin as soon as you want, if you still want to."

Meiko snorted, trying to enhance her toughness. "So, you don't wear clothes? How dull is that?" She motioned to her own appearance. A navy-blue shirt and black shorts complete with green sandals. "Clothes are SO fun. You need to find some that you like." She nodded and followed James to his camp, smiling like a kid getting toys.

"I wear a pair of pants. If you wish to keep those clothes in good shape, you should find another pair. Training with us is rather…grueling." He put emphasis on the 'us' part. It was always so much fun when he made them ask, then they blamed themselves when they found out. James was standing in the middle of a field, occupied by a closely-knit together bunch of trees and shrubs; all of them things that shouldn't be here.

"So you want me to go back and get another pair of clothes? Tch…what a waste of time. Why not just train me now, this very minute, instead of me going back and getting changed? What is up with these stupid bushes anyway? Are you going to stupid rape me or something? Not very smart for an adult, are you, James…a ninja comes prepared…" Meiko had slipped a trio of kunai into her hand; and they sat between her fingers, like claws.

James tapped the ground. A few of the bushes just poofed, and zooming shapes burst out of them and off into the night. James laughed. "Child, if I wanted sex I would have gotten it in your room while you slept. Very well, if you are that eager to start, strike me now."

Meiko narrowed her eyes and propelled herself forward, reaching out with her kunai-laced hands, aiming for his ugly, spotty kneecaps with the tip of her third and fourth finger-ed kunai claw. It was a feint, and she surged her energy into her arm and made it go upward towards his face.

XXX

Gilligan slid to a halt as a few nameless ninja slid into view in front of him. Then a severely malformed person just sort of faded into view. If Meko was experienced, he would know it was just a genjutsu wearing off. The person wore only a belt that had a strap that covered his crotch. He seemed to be missing a few layers of skin off the top of his entire body, and he had no eyelids. His hair looked like dolls hair almost, it was so thin. His body parts didn't match, like he'd been pieced together.

"Gilligan; you traitor! You knew what the plan was, and you didn't listen. You've avoided us for six months, and we know you know that. Now you stand before me with some cat upon your back, and are attempting to undo a plan of ours. Give us a reason that we should not kill even you, our brother…"

All that escaped Gilligan's mouth was a demonic growling noise. Meko knew they had a very tense situation indeed.

"Hm, very useless human-puppets, I suppose it would be wasteful to standing around and do nothing, am I correct, Teddy-chan." Meko had wriggled up Gilligan's back and now was perched on his head, those duo-colored feline eyes gleaming with internal light.

"I find these – things – to be offensive. Shall I dispose of them, Teddy-kid?" Meko was never one to use the kinder side of the -chan suffixes of nicknames. He was a cat after all, and cats were most high in the world. It wasn't that Meko hated Gilligan, no; the now hissing cat found Gilligan amusing, and thus an object worth paying attention to.

Gilligan cleared his throat. "You can't kill me – you're only stalling." He grabbed Meko off his back and threw him at them. He was pretty sure Meko could defend himself to a decent extent. It helped that Meko was now surrounded in a cloud of Meko-like plushies that mimicked his moves. Gilligan had fallen into hundreds of little teddy bears that were now rushing the enemy, all of them with red eyes, fanged mouths and claws; all in semblance to a little kid's nightmare.

Meko was like flying death, his claws left deep lacerations where he touched. The black cat landed, on his feet of course, and pounced back towards another nin, this one slightly less hideous than the two before. His fur began to crackle and glow with chakra, as it raced through his small feline body. Claws and fangs bit deep into skin, tearing chunks out as they retreated. Meko was pissed now. He had been insulted by these puppet-rejects and they were going to pay. Nobody called him a 'some cat'.

XXX

The ugly James head tilted backwards with a sickening cracking noise, and as Meiko moved up to stab at his head, his chest thrust out and slammed into her. He laughed.

"That was a decent attempt for a beginner." His head snapped back into place. He just smiled at her, wondering what she would try next. If she were more experienced, she would know they had a silencing field around them, no sound in or out.

Meiko threw her left hand of kunai at the man and lowered herself to the ground, placing that left hand on the darkened ground. She drew a circle and a small symbol in the dirt as her fingers collected the mud and dirt. She then shot up and brought her fist back down to punch the symbol. The ground rocked as a fissure grew like a snake towards James, hoping to trap him in the earth, or at least trip him up.

The Kunai went straight into James left shoulder, and sunk in just a little too deep than it should have for the force it was thrown. James went straight into the ground up to his waist. He just sort of smiled at her. "Not very observant are you girl? Remember how I first met you? And how I came out of the ground?" he just sort of sank into the ground even more. The last part of him, as he sank, was a hand of his that did a jutsu. A ring of eyes floated around the clearing, going in a circle, all focused on Meiko. They did nothing for now.

Meiko snarled as she launched a kunai barrage in a 360 degree circle, hoping to hit the eyes and put them out of commission. She was starting to get a little wierded out now, and wanted to go back home to her warm bed. "What's wrong, are you running away already?"

The eyes just shot out a bolt of lightning at each of the kunai. James voice could be heard from all around her, as if the eyes acted as speakers.

"Why would I run away? All I did was a normal trick; an everyday habit. It is something that I do when I sneak into other villages and persuade kids just like you to leave them. Those eyes; they're a defense circle. It would take somebody much stronger than you to get out of them. You're trapped. And it's all. Your. Fault." He emphasized those last few words. His hands had slowly, and quietly, snaked out of the ground and were now gripped tightly around Meiko's hands. "And now, all we have to do is wait."

XXX

The ninja that Meko attacked got ripped up. His arms came off, as well as a leg. Gilligan leapt at his brother with arms wide open, hoping to end it early and trap him up. The Nin just rolled out of the way, straight in front of Meko, and as he rolled the body parts stuck to him. As he stood, they re-assembled themselves on his body, so he now had an extra set of arms and his legs were like a tripod. He just grinned and his hands blurred in jutsu. The body that Meko had sliced up glowed as a symbol on its chest flashed. There was brief second for Meko to get out of the way before it blew up.

Meko launched his feline body off the shredded body with grace and spun like a saw away from it as it exploded. This wasn't going to be a walk in the Konoha Dog Park at all. He landed on his feet again and took a quick look around to see if the Teddy-Nin was up to anything.

Gilligan paused for just a moment as a look of deep consideration crossed his eyes. He then latched onto Meko's back, and something incredibly creepy and disgusting happened. He kind of just melted all around Meko, and molded onto his body. His voice could be heard in the feline's ear.

"Don't just rip him apart, try and shred him. This might be confusing, but I'm like a part of you now. You move and attack, I'll help. I'll explain later." The other one, meanwhile, got wide-eyed and roared:

"WHEN DID FATHER TEACH YOU THAT?" and rushed at them, all four hands doing simultaneous jutsus.

Meko smiled to himself as the boy did whatever. As long as Teddy-San didn't think to fight AGAINST Meko's royal person, then the cat would be more than happy to go on a murderous rampage against the others. And that Meko did. Sparing no hesitation, Meko extended his claws to the fullest, and now that child was out of harm's way, Meko went into over-kill, growing to the size of a bicycle, the cat launched all out, tearing limbs from sockets and shredding anything he got his claws into.

Before he could complete his jutsu, Meko had jumped him. He was torn up, and rather horribly. All the while he had a snarl on his face. As Meko acted, the mold on his body reached out and grabbed what was attacked, what was torn and what was shredded. Surprisingly, moments later, it was over. The body was nowhere in sight. With nothing more than a poof, Gilligan was standing in front of her, watching the last ninja run off. He turned around and looked Meko in the eyes. For now, he was silent, wondering what Meko would make of all this.

XXX

Meiko snarled once again and then tried to fight against the things that held her hands down. She couldn't do hand signs or any jutsus; big mistake on her part. Her panic began to rise, making its way from her stomach into her throat, making her breath catch.

"I t…I thought you said you were from the ninjas that Onee-san found today…you lied to me! What do you hope to gain by lying to me, you traitorous idiot!" Meiko hissed out, trying not to break down and shiver.

"Oh. We are. But the difference is that we found her. We weren't even going for her. And how am I a traitor? I had no alliance with you; there was no pact between us. You followed me out here because you were jealous of your sister; a person who has been through more than you. You think you should be stronger than her? Think that single night of training would make you surpass her level? Ha!" By this time, he had risen a bit more out of the ground and was standing behind her. He leaned his hands on her shoulders as he whispered into her ear. "Nobody but you can see me, try anything more than shout for help and it will end quickly. Succeed, and it will end slowly. Help me, and we will make sure it never ends at all." He was, of course, talking about her life.

Meiko sobbed once, trying to turn around and kick the guy's nads off. She hated being tricked like this. Meiko really thought this guy was with the group of freaky looking ninjas that her sister had managed to pull into the village for the day. Meiko Uzaruki hadn't taken the time to think that the enemy would still have the guts to hang around after the Konoha ninjas had taken care of them.

"What do you want with me?" She finally whimpered. "You know I'm not going to give you anything…"

James laughed when she tried to do that. He pinched a nerve on her arm to render it useless, and spoke again into her ear. "Brat, if I wanted something from you, I could have broken you open and taken it. Calm down, I think your job here may soon be over." He stood there, his hands on her shoulders and looking towards Konoha. The floating eye-ring had stopped by now. All anybody else would see was Meiko standing there.

XXX

Meko purred loudly and shrunk down to his normal size before whipping his bloody claws on the near-black grass. The full moon had risen well above the horizon and shone a silvery light on the landscape.

"Well done, Teddy-nin. You are most adept at being a ninja. Most of the current croup of Konoha genin brats couldn't hold a candle to you." The cat smiled with satisfaction and looked up into the sky before hissing and flattening himself to the ground. "Most unpleasant…Uzaruki-san is on the hunt. We should go before she finds us…"