Chapter 34 Behind the Back

Meiko Namikaze moved toward the base heading toward Samui's bedroom, she paused for a moment and knocked. She waited a few moments then she heard Samui's voice.

"Come in." stated Samui as Meiko walked in to see the older woman, now a Rhyuu standing there in a an ice blue tank top with tan shorts. She was in her Rhyuu form with blue scales highlighted with some yellows, the scales across most of her body where larger with smaller more mobile scales around her face. Some parts where even naturally armored, she had yellow horns which matched the little hair she that had remained. Her wings where sticking out over her shoulders and even her head so that it came within a couple of inches of the ceiling. Her tail rested to one side and moved back and forth a bit with a mind of its own. As Meiko stepped in she realized how cold it was, and instantly wished she brought something warmer than her normal cloths.

"Meiko what can I do for you today?" inquired Samui

"Well I thought you would want to talk, I know more about the Rhyuus and demon in general then you do." explained Meiko as her hot breath formed a mist in the air.

"Alright." said Samui as she noticed that Meiko was shaking a bit in the cold. "Maybe you should become a demon yourself, all that fur will help you more than skin."

Meiko lowered her head a bit and dropped the false front that made her look human, she grew in height an inch or two and bright red fur rippled across her body, white fur appeared down the center of her body from her muzzle down. She always had long hair but now the fur around the top and side of her head was longer giving the appearance of a hairdo. Her eyes became silted and her mouth became full of sharp teeth.

"Better but still cold." stated Meiko "I bet your perfectly happy?"

"I am, this feels great." admitted Samui "Almost beach like weather but I am an Ice Rhyuu am I not?"

"I would bet my life on it, it is kind of hard to tell the difference between an Ice Rhyuu and a water Rhyuu." explained Meiko "There only 8 types of Ryuu left."

"What do you mean?" inquired Samui "8 types?"

"Ok, basically Rhyuus are one class of demons and in the past there used to be 16 different types of Rhyuu based off charka types. They could all mate and produce another Rhyuu of totally different kind but over time only 5 became dominate and the others became rare because they were born of a union of the elements of their parents." Explained Meiko

"Like how in natural chakra it take water and wind to make ice and fire and earth to make lava Justus?" inquired Samui, it made some sense. "So an Ice Rhyuu could only be born of a wind and water Ryhuu and so on?"

"Correct, but the odds of getting an Ice Rhyuu or any of the others was rare, the child could easy take the chakra types of their parents solely and be a water or a wind Rhyuu." Explained Meiko wishing it was as simple as the other demons. "I don't know the odds of an ice but it was about 25% or so."

She had not thought much about the different types of Rhyuus, she only knew this because of her sensei Rin was in a similar state. The Kami's like the Rhyuus where all one race based off elemental chakra and in the past they had just as many types of Kami's as Rhyuu only to be killed off until only five types remained. She decided to explain the way in a different way.

"My sensei Rin is a Fire Kami, Kami's are similar to Rhyuus in that they are separated into elemental chakra types but can have children with any other kami." explained Meiko as Samui nodded. "As a fire Kami, if she would to have a child with a water kami it used to be that there was a chance a boil type kami could be born. If she had a child, instead with say a lightning kami then she could have a storm type kami."

"I see." stated Samui "So I am even rare among demons, nice but you said 8 Rhyuu types are around but there are multiple chakra types why are only 8 remaining? What are they and where are the others?"

"Well your base elements Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Lightning where the common ones. With a handful of Ice, lava and Storm Rhyuus left in the village. Ice Rhyuus are very rare, I only knew of fifteen of them in the entire village, about the same for lava and I think there was only two storm Rhyuus." Explained Meiko "Then according to the records the other 8 where killed off by humans and so far none of them have been reborn naturally, maybe with transforming humans they can come back. I am not sure, none of the dead races have."

"Dead races?" inquired Samui as Meiko nodded her head.

"There were dozens of different races which once walked across the earth that form the base of many mythical creatures. Things like Centaurs, where actually a type of demon same with trolls and giants, and others they were all demon races killed off by humans." explained Meiko as she tried not to remember the dirty looks she got from her classmates when they were talking about human massacres. "None have come back even when the priests who know how to control the transformation to some degree have tried to transform a fellow demon into them, it hasn't work with humans either…well as far as I know."

"I see." said Samui

"Now, what questions do you have for me?" inquired Meiko

"Only a handful, there is a man I am fond of back in the village if he is a Rhyuu it will not be an issue but what if he is a different demon?" inquired Samui

"Well the same plant that can turn humans into demons can with some special justu turn demons into different demons." explained Meiko. "Normally a priest from that demon class has to do so that you become that demon, which may explain why none of the dead races have come back but there are cases where a person is turned into a totally different demon then what they wanted."

"I see and if that happens how many times can I turn?" inquired Samui "I don't think it would be unlimited."

"If you were a pure demon, you could turn 3 times but formal humans can be turned only 2 times. If they try again after that…well you don't want to know," explained Meiko as she saw the coldness in Samui's eyes.

"Tell me anyhow?" inquired Samui

"Liquefaction, that is what happens." explained Meiko "You or anyone else would come out as a puddle of bones, organs and body mass. Well that is what I have been told happens."

"Ok, I will avoid that." stated Samui "How about life span? Having a child and other things, does any of that change? I would like to have a family sometime in the future."

"Yes and no." stated Meiko "Your life span has likely increased but you will not live for hundreds of years like the ancient stories about dragons say, the oldest Rhyuu in the village is 121 years old but she is on death's door. Hell I will have a longer life span then a human with maybe an extra 5 to 10 years but for most demons the life span is generally the same. Some even have shorter life spans then humans."

"I see, and starting a family?" Inquired Samui "I would like to have kids someday and remember stories of dragons laying eggs is that true?"

"Yes that is true for Rhyuu and Nure-onna, those are the snake demons." admitted Meiko "But the…act of making that egg is the same and when the child comes out of the egg everything is basically the same."

While Meiko was explaining things to Samui, back in the Leaf village Kakashi could not believe where he was. Hand Rin where on their way to an apartment so that they did not have to spend a night with their sensei when they had heard a party going on in the Inuzuka estate. They had expected looters or something else along those lines but instead it was a welcome home party for the long missing Kane Inuzuka. Now he and Rin both stood outside the gate leading into the backyard of the estate with the smell of smoking meat filled the air along with music.

"Kakashi how have you been? Someone bring some beers for my old friend and his guest." said Kane Inuzuka with a large smile as he moved forward and hugged his old friend. "I haven't seen you in years, a lightning Kami not what I thought you would be but it does make some sense, you where always skilled in lightning justus."

Kakashi was at a loss for words as Kane moved toward Rin and studied her for a moment, "Rin Nohara…right?"

"Yes." confirmed Rin as she tried to remember some stuff about the man who had been in the grade below her in school. She had never spent much time around the man, all she remembered was that he was funny, a slight prankster and that he and Tsume were a couple since they were in school. Other than that she knew next to nothing about this man.

"Where the hell have you been?" inquired Kakashi as he finally found words.

"You know around and about." laughed Kane in that playful annoying way that he was famous for among his fellow ninjas. Kakashi as he looked around the house, everything was perfectly clean. No broken glass, no looting, even the lawn was mowed, the only thing even slightly out of place was that the human photos on the wall didn't match the demon who now called it home.

"You have been gone for a decade." counted Kakashi

"10 years, 7 months and 9 days." answered Kane sadly, as he took a drink from his beer. "I was on a mission."

"A mission, there is no way the Hokage would allow a man to do an almost 11 yearlong mission when they have a family most of all when they are head of a clan. Maybe if you had no family or wasn't the head of a clan, even so it would be unheard of for the Hokage to do such a thing." stated Rin as Kane nodded his head in agreement.

"It wasn't for the Hokage, the Leaf village or even humanity I was working for the demon council." explained Kane as Kakashi and Rin eyes widened. "My handlers told me that they wanted you to do the job but they couldn't trust you. Personally I would disagree with them; you didn't really have a choice but to follow their orders considering your heart issues."

"How do you know that?" inquired Kakashi as suddenly it hit him.

"You have been working for the demons haven't you?" inquired Kakashi as Kane nodded his head before taking a big pull on his beer. "How long?"

"Just over 12 years." stated Kane as Kakashi's and Rin's eyes widened. "They needed someone with my tracking skills and contacts with the more shady parts of the human world to track the movements of key people. So they came to me and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I couldn't refuse them or else myself, my loving wife and my children would all be killed."

"So you where blackmailed into helping them?" inquired Kakashi still not believing it totally.

"Yes and no, they never came out and said it but they did promise to make sure my children lived through the coming virus and that the Inuzuka clan would reserve a pardon for the crimes of the distance past." explained Kane with a slight laugh. "The gold and money I was able to send back to Tsume-chan was also a great benefit, but it will never make up for missing so much my children's lives."

"I am sure they will forgive you." reassured a fellow Inuzuka clan member as he patted the leader of his clan on the back. "You did it for them it was either you or your wife."

"Wait Tsume was in on this too?" inquired Kakashi he was nearly at a loss for words, Tsume was on the village council and had access to all but the most secret information. If the demons had Tsume and Shizune they would have access to every secret in the Leaf village.

"Yes, the demon council let us pick which one of us would go on the mission for them. Tsume-chan offered to go out instead of me, saying I should stay as head of the clan but children need their mother." Explained Kane "So I went and got my hands or should I say claws dirty."

"Wait how long you have been a demon?" inquired Rin "I have never seen you around the village?"

"I was turned shortly after I took them up on their offer, I never went to the village." explained Kane "I did make mine and Tsume-chan roadside meet ups more interesting for sure and when she gets back with our kids she and I may decide to make our family bigger."

Kakashi and Rin just looked at him not sure what to say.

"What you think I am too old? You are only a few years younger than me and Tsume is still young enough too." explained Kane "It wouldn't be different if the two of you had a child."

Kakashi and Rin shared a look, both of them knew that because of Rin's heart issue caused by Kakashi's chidori that having a child would likely kill her.

"Wait…you and Tsume slept together after you had been turned into a demon?" inquired Kakashi, trying to get the idea of Rin out of his head, Kane simply nodded.

"We are married, that is what married couples do." Laughed Kane "She joked about doing it werewolf style but Tsume was always wild that way."

"That is sick," stated Kakashi

"Tsunade did it too with Dan, only she didn't know he was a demon same could be said for others I am sure." countered Kane with a small laugh. "Hell if the stories are true, the founder of multiple clans across the world got some of their skills from raping the ancient demons. According the demon's records, my clan got our ability to speak to our hounds by forcing it out of the demons in multiple ways."

"Why?" inquired Kakashi "Why did you do it?"

"I did multiple missions around the world and separated myself from my children all to save my clan and my children from the events of the demon take over." Explained Kane

Flashback

"Who…what are you?" inquired Kane Inuzuka as he looked at the creature standing in his living room. It was a large creature with jet-black fur with silver highlights and golden eyes, silver claws tipped each of its fingers. Pure white teeth could be seen in its long muzzle. It looked like a wild beast; however it was dressed in something that wouldn't be uncommon for a ninja. It had black pants with a hole for its tail and a grey shirt. A green jonnin vest, which looked like a Leaf village vest, was over it all.

"Kane Inuzuka…my name is not important I have an offer for you and your family." Said the creature

"If you came for our kids you will die," growled Tsume from behind him, she was protecting the hallway which lead back to where their two kids slept unaware of what was happening in the living room.

"No, I have not come to take your pups I have come to give you a chance to save them and your pack." Stated the Creature "I am a member a race of demons and we are going to retake the world you humans have taken from us. We need your help and if you help us we will both forgive the actions your ancient ancestors did to our kind and ensure that your children make it through the coming storm."

"What storm?" inquired Tsume

"We are in the process of making a virus which will kill most of humanity and those who aren't killed will become a demon like myself or one of the other races," stated the demon "If you agree to help us, we will make sure your children are safe from the virus and are turned into demons."

"You would save our family our clan?" inquired Tsume

"Your family yes, your clan we will try our best but your clan is among the larger clans in this village some will die but we will make sure your property is safe and the most that we can are saved." confirmed the Demon. "All we want from you is information and we require one of you to do missions for us outside the village. To do this right one of you will have to disappear for some time. We will give you some time to considering this."

"And what is stopping us from running to the Hokage and stopping you?" inquired Kane as the creature laughed.

"First who would believe you? You saw a demon in your living room might as well say you saw a ghost." laughed the demon "Secondly we have other allies in key locations in every village in the world, some are pure born demons others like we hope you will become are humans who agree to work with us."

End Flashback

"You agreed to work for them?" inquired Kakashi as Kane nodded his head.

"It was a hard choice but as long as my children live I will be ok with what I have done." explained Kane before taking a big pull on his beer emptying before grabbing another from a cooler. "I am a monster but I hopefully I saved my children."

"At the cost of thousands of others?" inquired Kakashi as his old friend nodded his head.

"Yes, I knew that the storm was coming and I couldn't stop it so I decided to save what was most important to me, my family." explained Kane. "Would it have been better if I would have said no, been killed by the demons to keep the secret and then have my children follow me into the grave a few years later? Personally I think not."

Naruto walked through the base toward his destination, the medical area. He stopped outside the door and paused for a moment before knocking on the door.

"Come on in." came Ino's voice as Naruto pushed open the door to see Ino sitting behind a desk near the door with a large mound of paper work around her. Nearby Karin was looking at a computer screen, which showed a close up view of a cell of some kind. He turned his gaze toward the back of the room where he saw Sakura sitting at a stool with her back to him. Ino simply gave him a knowing smile before tilting her head toward Sakura.

"I bet she knows." Thought Naruto as he moved in between two tables which was covered with multiple machines toward Sakura. He fought back the idea of grabbing her but as a joke but decided ending up being punched throw a wall will not be worth it. Instead, he placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to jump a bit before moving around to stand beside her.

"Hello Sakura-chan." Said Naruto with a smile as his hand moved up from her shoulder to the side of her neck.

"Naruto-kun what are you doing here?" inquired Sakura with a loving but tired smile.

"Well I came to tell you that if you come over tonight I will not be there until late." explained Naruto as Sakura raised an eyebrow. "I got assigned to guard duty from 2 to 10. I know how you tend to skip meals when you're busy and I didn't want you to think I was standing you up when you came by."

"Ah, well I was going to tell you at lunch that I will have to work late anyhow." explained Sakura "The DNA breakdown will not be done until 9 and after that it will take some time to study them."

"So we both have to work late." laughed Naruto "So how are things going here?"

"Ino is double checking Shizune work, so far nothing but Shizune was double checking everyone work on top of her own work so she could have hidden something." explained Sakura "Karin is keeping to herself but judging from the cursing I have heard from her, she has found nothing. I am looking at DNA break downs to see if the cure for the virus could be located inside the DNA structure of demons."

"Have you found anything?" inquired Naruto as Sakura shook her head.

"No, the only thing I have found has risen more questions than answers." Stated Sakura as she pulled up three DNA samples on a computer screen to show to the man she loves. "See I have complete DNA breakdowns of Meiko, Samui and a dead demon. They are so different from each other that they are closer to human DNA then each other. It doesn't make much sense."

"Well maybe more samples will get you a better image of differences." Offered Naruto

"That is my hope; I am currently having the computer break down your DNA along with Fu and my own." explained Sakura "Then I am going to break down Sasuke's because he has it and is alive and two samples from people who died. One from the Leaf and one from here, maybe with all that we will get a better view on what the hell is going on."

"Well, let's hope…if we have to get more demon samples maybe we can go out and get some." Offered Naruto "We have to find a cure."

"Maybe but that would be a major risk, let's see what happens first." explained Sakura before laughing a bit. "How about this I will bring your dinner up to you at the guard post maybe we can spend some time not talking about this horrible stuff."

"Sure, it would be nice to have someone to talk to." admitted Naruto "Hinata is nice but she isn't that much of a talker."

"Is Naruto-kun trying to two time us, by going behind our back to be with Hinata?" thought Inner Sakura.

"No, Naruto-kun doesn't even know Hinata has a crush on him." countered Sakura

"You are on duty with Hinata?" inquired Sakura as she went digging for information, "I expected Sai, he is our teammate after all."

"Well from what I was told Hinata didn't have a partner and since I slept in I got assigned to her by Kiba default." explained Naruto with a shrug as Sakura nodded her head. "Not sure why Kiba didn't team up with her or even Shino, they are both her teammates but they are with different people?"

"I am sure they have their reasons." stated Sakura who knew the reasons, she couldn't really blame Kiba for trying to get his friend together with her lifelong crush. He did not know that he had been taken by her the night before. "Maybe we should tell people we are together; it will be hard to hide it from everyone?"

"Why hide it in the first place?" inquired Naruto "It isn't like anyone will really care?"

"What about your sister?" inquired Sakura, not adding Hinata.

"I am sure she will be fine with it," explained Naruto "I think the bigger issue would be dealing with my parents once we find a cure and set the world right."

Sakura laughed a bit before nodding her head.

"True and I might as well tell you, when we were having our little battle I kind of punched your mother in the face." Admitted Sakura as Naruto blinked for a moment before laughing.

"Well I am sure many girlfriends have wished to punch out their boyfriend's mother from time to time, you just did it for real." laughed Naruto as Sakura nodded her head in agreement and joined him in laughing at the idea.

"More wives probably wish to punch out their mother-in-law's from time to time then girlfriends," countered Sakura with a laugh of her own.

Hinata's heart was pumping as fast as she thought it could possibly go as she walked up toward the guard post. She had been spending the entire morning since she found out she would be on duty alone with the man she loves trying to figure out what to do. She had debated what to say and what to do, she had run different simulations through her mind but she still had no idea what to do. Kiba had arranged this, she knew and he had given her some advice.

"Just tell him you like him and that you would like to get a drink after duty." advised Kiba in her memory "The world is gone to hell, it isn't the time to hide things."

"All well and good but what do I do if I ask him and he says no." added Hinata to herself as she entered the guard post only to find Naruto sitting down infront of a row of 10 TVs, two rows of five. The images on the camera flipped between different images of the outside world every 15 seconds or so, she saw a dog on one of the screen highlighted by a yellow box.

"See, the system atomically locks onto motion and alerts you," explained Neji as he stood beside Naruto explaining how the system worked. After he explained how to manually rotate the image and flip between interior and exterior. Neji flipped to show Meiko sitting in the common area reading a book and in another screen, it showed Samui walking down a hallway. Samui was not even trying to hide that she was now a demon while Meiko appeared human. "Do you see your sister as a demon or a human? Can you see the demon under the false front?"

"I can see my sister, and I can see that she is a demon." explained Naruto as Neji saw that Naruto's eyes had become silted. When he switched back to a different channel, Naruto's eyes remained silted for a couple of moments before turning back to normal.

"Good, we now know that for sure now," said Neji as he moved on to the communication. "There is also a headset which is attached to the radio, you can listen for any broadcasts but the system is set up that unless you have three people here you can't broadcast back."

"That way no one gets tempted to broadcast out by a fake call from loved ones?" inquired Naruto

"Yes, but you can still listen. Shino thought he heard some a voice through static but it was just an automatic emergency broadcast message." added Neji "Any other questions?"

"No." answered Naruto as Neji went on to explain the same thing to his cousin before heading out of the room. Hinata's heart raced as she tried not to look back from her station at Naruto. She failed and found that she would take sidelong glances at him as he sat at the desk, he had a book of some kind along with a notebook and a pen. Every so often, he would write something down but other than that and taking some sips of water he said nothing.

The Daimyo's beach house sat on an small outcrop of land which shot out into the sea and was surrounded on three sides by white sand cover beach. The beach itself was not natural but man made, a large dock where a luxury yacht used to sit shot out off, the sand covered beach. The state of the house itself was horrible but it was easily visible for anyone passing by that it had had great promise. The bad state that the luxury house was in was because of looting which had taken place. The house was three stories tall with large glass windows on three sides so that anyone in the house could see the ocean front view at any time. The front part of the house was set before a large garden with a paved path leading up to the house.

Hana Inuzuka, Anko, Hanibi Hyuuga, Guy and Yoshino Nara moved up the stone path toward the house, the rest of their group had remained almost a quarter of a mile inland and on high alert. The team going in knew that they were walking into a possible death trap, with ocean on three sides it would be easy for a small force to hold the landside and give chase to anyone trying to escape across the water.

Hana outstretched her hand and pushed open the cheery wood door and stepped over broken glass as she entered the house. The inside like the outside was a total mess; the wooden panels on the wall had been pulled off and burned in a fire pit, which was visible in the distance. The furniture had either been stolen or burned as well because it was missing. Broken glass was everywhere and the smell of human waste reached her Inuzuka nose.

"I see no one inside," explained Hanabi as she moved behind her.

"I wish I could agree with you but there is just too much overwhelming human waste smell to confirm that." explained Hana as they moved though the house, Hanabi and Anko moved up to clear the top floors while Guy stayed on the ground floor searching for anything useful. Hana and Yoshino moved down toward the basement level, that was where they would find the communication center and the other guts of the building.

"The communication center should be under the wine cellar," stated Yoshino as Hana looked at the older woman. "I have been here before as a guest of the Daimyo? He was hosting a party for the head of major clans in the Leaf. Good food and wine but the company most of all the Daimyo was horrible."

"I see." explained Hana as they reached a large heavy wooden door, it took some force but they forced the door open and was instantly hit with a stretch which sent both of them into a struggle to keep from throwing up. Finally they forced opened the door and walked into the dark void of the basement, when they reached the bottom of the stairs they flipped on the lights and was greeted by a horrible sight. There were at least three dozen bodies of men and women all in different levels of undress. Some of them where in the nude and two of them had cleared died while having sex. All of them had no clear sign of any infection, there was no boils full of puss or any other signs of infection. There was broken wine bottles on the floor and countless empty bottles lying everywhere. A large table sat in the center of the room with an overturned bowl and a large container of rat poison.

"A suicide party." stated Yoshino as she held a cloth to her nose to help fight the smell of the dead bodies.

Slowly the two women moved across the floor, there was wine bottles on the rack but none of them reached for any of them. It was unlikely that someone had done anything to them but they didn't want to risk it. They moved down into the lower levels of the house toward the communication center, it was down here because while the Daimyo needed it but he wanted it out of view of his parties. They had to push open another thick door and moved down into the lowest level of the house. There behind a simple metal door was a large desk with multiple buttons and an even larger TV screen in front of it.

"Alright let's see who we can contact." said Yoshino as she started up the communication dish, the backup generator kicked in at once. She began to flip some more switches and picked up a some headphones and began to broadcast out into the rest of the world. The dish, which would be required to broadcast groaned a bit as it moved into the needed position to broadcast out to the world.

Half a mile up the breach, Tsume Inuzuka's head snapped toward the sound coming from behind her. She could see the Daimyo's beach house in the distance behind her and she saw something moving. It was too far for her to see what it was, but with her now enhanced demon hearing she heard something man made moving.

"What?" inquired Utakata as a water kami he had heard nothing.

"Someone is in the Daimyo house we just passed." Stated Tsume as she spun around and began to head back the way they had come.

Back in the underground base, Hinata's heart was pounding as she decided to go all out she could not spend all duty with this just building up in her.

"Nar..uto…kun there is something I always wanted to tell you but…I never could work up the coward." stuttered Hinata without turning around to face him. She saw in her mind him turning to look at her and if she looked into those perfect blue eyes when she did this she would not be able to finish. "Listen…I know this is a horrible time, everyone has so much on their mind, but I…I always liked you and…would you like to get some tea after our duty?"

Hinata stopped and waited for the world to come crashing down, if she had to she was ready to bolt from the room in embracement. For the longest time Naruto did not say anything and in her mind she saw him trying to process the information, maybe putting his hands behind his head like, he always did when he was thinking. Two things was going to happen she knew, either he would say yes and her dreams of being with Naruto would finally get off the ground or he would say no and her dreams would die in flames. Instead something she did not expect happen she heard the movement of pen on paper. Finally, she turned around and saw that Naruto had his back to her and was looking down at the notebook. He was writing down notes at first she did not understand then she saw that he had on a massive set of headphones on his ears as he listened to the radio and TV broadcasts from any station in range.

"He didn't even hear me." said Hinata sadly unaware that Naruto had in fact heard her through the headphones but had no idea what to say. He was about to say something when a voice came over the radio. He paused for a moment making sure he heard correctly, he flipped some switches as the image of a tired looking woman appeared on the screen.

"My God…" said Naruto as he pressed a button which broadcast through the entire base. "Shikamaru anyone else I have Shikamaru's mom broadcasting on communication channel and she isn't a demon. Get up here now!"

Well I hope you liked this chapter and I hope the little surprise about the Inuzuka clan being allied with the demons did surprise you. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.