Chapter 46 In the Ancient Past

The night was pitch black, the moon was supposed to be full but thick clouds prevented any light from coming from the full moon. The rain had stopped but it looked as if it was on the verge of starting at any moment. Most people and demons where sound asleep but Minato and Kushina Namikaze where wide awake as they rested in what remained of the same honeymoon suit in 5 star beach front hotel. It was the same beach front hotel and room that the two of them had used when they had just married in secret.

Minato Namikaze lowered the now dead phone, there wasn't even a dial tone back on the receiver and looked at his wife. In the darkness it was hard to make out her body but the outline of it in the darkness of the room told him she was looking right at him.

"That was Sasuke Uchiha." reported Minato

"You said his name." confirmed Kushina "He has demands to give us our kids back?"

"Sounds like he has demands to surrender the location of where ever our kids are hiding." Explained Minato "He is turning traitor and in return for some consideration he will open the door for us to get our kids back."

"Well, whatever they want give it to them." stated Kushina before pausing for a moment, "What is it that he wants?"

"They want three things, first we need to show them that someone who is infected can make it through the change, second two of them want to be the same demons and lastly one of them wants to remain human until he dies." Stated Minato "We have three days to show them that an infected human can be saved by being transformed, they say there is one of the plants nearby."

"Ok all we have to do is find a human who is sick and that shouldn't be an issue." stated Kushina as Minato shook his head.

"Not in this area, this area had been cleared out and evacuated I don't know think there are any humans within 50 miles of this place aside from our children and they are hiding." countered Minato as he watched his wife's hope sink. "I need to get back to the Leaf village, hopefully we can arrange it from there."

"Alright." said Kushina as Minato quickly pulled one of the famous three pointed kunai and placed it into the wall. "Be back soon."

"I will." said Minato as he disappeared in a flash of light, the flash faded Kushina was all alone in the room with nothing but her thoughts.

Miles away Minato Namikaze appeared in a flash of light on the roof of small abounded roadside rest stop. He had left the kunai here as a place to fall back to, it was something he always did when he fought in the war and he paused for a moment before using the thunder god justu and disappeared in another flash of light. When he did the justu again he reappeared inside the study of in his own house. He was breathing heavily from the effort of jumping such a great distance but he quickly left his house and headed out into the Leaf village.

The rain hadn't reached the village yet but it was clearly visible in the distance, as he moved though his house he reached the front door only to get a blast of sound. In the distance, he could see that the center of the city was alive in light and sound. As he moved down the now clean streets he noticed that a lot of the buildings had been modified to allow multiple demons to use them with ease. Multiple new homes were also either going up or being modified. When he reached the center of the village he found the streets packed with people celebrating. Strings of lights ran between telephone poles and food carts where handing out different kinds of freshly cooked food. It reminded him of one of the many festivals that he had gone to when he was younger and the celebration after the signing of the treaty ending the war. Only instead of humans walking around demons where moving around from food cart to food cart. Eight legged Jorogumo moved over the crowds with their long spider like legs while the water crab like cousins the Heikegani moved through the crowds in ways humans couldn't possibly due. The other more human like demons where moving more traditional, people were laughing and having a good time. Many people where drink and a few people where pairing off and heading away back to their new homes.

"Buddy put a smile on your face." Said a drunk kitsune who seemed about his son's age only he was wasted from over drinking. "The red flu is gone and it is the celebration of some religious holiday."

"October 10th, the celebrations of Vulpecul Jing the first Kitsune." stated Minato, that was a holy day of celebrations in the demon village and a day of sadness for his family.

"That is it." stated the drunk kitsune as he wondered off allowing Minato to push forward toward the Hokage building pushing his way through the crowd as best he could.

Back under Nysa Naruto and Sakura where taking a break from love making and where just enjoying being with each other. Three sets of lingerie covered the ground, the two clones had disappeared their job done and now Sakura was leaning against Naruto. Both of them enjoying the afterglow of what they had just did.

Sakura's head was on his chest as his hand ran through her hair.

"Damn…that was good." said Naruto breathlessly as Sakura chuckled a bit.

"I hope my clones and I didn't tire you out too much." laughed Sakura playfully as she recovered as well.

"Just give me a little bit." answered Naruto

While Naruto was recovering Samui moved down the halls of the base until she was at Hinata's door. With a simple knock she opened the door and entered the darkened chamber. What she found sickened her, the fur around Hinata's face was matted and clear signs that she had been crying was easy to see. She was dressed in a white tank top and pants, the only thing missing from the classic breakup look was a gallon of ice cream.

"What do you want?" inquired Hinata sadly as she let the other demon into the darkened room.

"I found out that there are demons in the city above us, if we make our escape now we can end this once and for all." stated Samui as a look of uncaring came across Hinata's kitsune face.

"Naruto-kun is making love to the pink whore right now." complained Hinata as if she hadn't heard a word that Samui had said. "I need to get him back."

Samui was on the verge of strangling the woman but she needed her, so she took a deep breath and calmed herself as best she could.

"Well if you help me get out of here we can turn the man you love and reunited him with his family, he will be grateful and who knows a certain someone with Pink hair could end up dead." Advised Samui, the idea of having Sakura die caused Hinata's eyes to widened. Samui could see the wheels turning in Hinata's head, she was imagining different ways she could kill Sakura without having the blame fall on her. Then her head dropped.

"But we need three pass codes to get out and while you know what your teammates code likely is and I know what Naruto-kun code is but we need a 3rd." stated Hinata

"You know almost everyone here and your telling me that you don't know what your sister's code would likely be or your sensei's code?" inquired Samui as Hinata's eyes widened.

"1018611." Said Hinata "That is Kurenai-sensie's code that or 6111018, I forget if she puts her or Asuma's birth month and date first."

"I have studied the system they have here the best I could, once we are at the door we will have only two chances to put in wrong codes before alerts go out." Explained Samui as she weighed her options. She knew her teammate's code that she would use and Hinata was obsessed with Naruto so that code was in the bag. "We can risk it, are you sure it is one of those two?"

"Yes." Confirmed Hinata as Samui nodded her head.

"Good now get ready." ordered Samui

"How do we get pass all the cameras." inquired Hinata

"Do you think I have been doing nothing in my room, I have been using every tool I have to loop the camera feeds from the doors." stated Samui luckily Orochimaru had put some medical computers in some currently unused labs and using that she had broken into the monitoring network. She couldn't access the codes but she did find a way to loop the cameras for five minutes. "Be ready we do this at right before 5 am."

"Why then?" inquired Hinata

"Because they carry out a shift change at 5am so the people on duty will be tired and looking forward to getting off duty." explained Samui "Do you understand?"

"Yes, I get the plan." Stated Hinata "I'll be ready."

Elsewhere in the underground base Meiko Namikaze was tired and upset, even so she wanted to work off some steam so she had gone down to the training area and had spent a while beating up on some plastic foam dummies. With a roar of anger she brought a spear through the plastic foam dummy chest the tip coming out the back.

"I was told you used a boa staff." said a voice from above her as she turned and looked up. The training field was in truth a large cinder shaped room with cells for medical prisoners honeycombed into it. The main entrees and exit was on the top level and it was there that Shikamaru Nara stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He wasn't alone, his parents were also on either side of him.

"I do." Admitted Meiko as she pulled the spear out of the chest, the foam was self-healing and reformed back into a dummy of a man's head and chest. "However, like my mom, I know how to use a spear, scythe, Ngao and Nagamaki. My mom knows more but I am still learning but that isn't what you are here to talk to me about it is? Three military planners wouldn't be interested in what I use as a weapon."

"We are but not that much." admitted Shikamaru "What we want to know is some of the ancient history of the demons."

"Why?" inquired Meiko

"Because we want to understand where they came from." explained Yoshino "There is no fossil evidence that demons are real, there are no artifacts and aside from stories they were nothing but myth aside from the tailed beasts that is."

"We now know that they are real, we want to know where they came from." explained Shikaku

Meiko shrugged as she sealed away her weapon and grabbed a drink of water.

"Nothing really to tell, the priests and priestess say that the demons where born from the holy plants and that they populated the world and built a society." Explained Meiko as she started to climb up the stairs toward the three Naras.

"Where?" inquired Yoshino

"What?" inquired Meiko

"Where on earth did their civilization start?" inquired Yoshino as Meiko paused and thought about it.

"I forget the name of the human name of the river but it was called the Nyska by demons and it is in the land of rivers." stated Meiko "Ancient history was never my strong point at school, a lot of it demonized humans and I was one at the time."

"Could be the Nista River." offered Shikamaru "That is near where some of the earliest human civilizations where."

"I agree." confirmed his father as Meiko looked at the three Nara's.

"You know that the Nara clan founder is one of the most hated humans in history." Stated Meiko "Your clan founder is basically a mass murder and some demons wouldn't mind seeing you dead."

"Well…" said Shikaku as he tried not to think about what could have happened to his brothers and sisters, cousins and distance family who had made it through the flu and hadn't made it out of the Leaf village. He was clan leader, he belonged to the main branch that could be traced to the founder of the clan. He was supposed to be responsible for them and he had abounded them.

"That is another thing how could the demon society which would have been more advanced then humans be defeated by them." stated Yoshino

"Bronze." stated Meiko

"Yes, but a single weakness doesn't win a war and the more advanced a population the larger it is." Countered Shikamaru as Meiko blinked. "If the demons have a larger population, with more advanced society then they should have been able to crush humans who would have a limited bronze weapon."

"Well…all the stories say that humans descended down on the demon villages and like an unending flood." Explained Meiko as she remembered all the horror stories about burning cities, slavery, death and multiple war crimes carried out by the humans as they massacred the innocent demons. "The humans came and destroyed demons society and drove the handful that were still alive and free into exile for all these still alive to the island I was raised."

"An unending wave, that means that the humans outnumbered the demons but the demons had a more advanced society." stated Yoshino "They should have had the larger population…something isn't right. We need you to tell us more about the origins of the demons."

"Not much to tell, well besides the whole religious stuff about how the spirits within the holy Furutsubaki-no-rei plant gave birth to the first demons." Stated Meiko "There are slightly different stories for each and no one is for sure how many demons and how many types there where. Then there is stories about how the demons came together and formed a community and the like."

"We want to hear them all." Ordered Shikamaru as Meiko let out a moan of frustration.

"Alright, but can this wait until morning?" inquired Meiko "I am tired?"

"Sure, maybe with Temari's help we can get a better understanding and Sakura or Ino would also be useful in finding the truth." stated Shikamaru

At that moment Meiko's father had forced his way toward the Hokage building and up toward the Hokage's office. In truth he had no idea where he would find the person he was looking for but it was the 1st place the came to him and he wasn't disappointed. Standing by the large window, a window in which he used to gaze out at the village when he was Hokage, standing by the window was Shizune and almost all of the demon council members. All of them had drinks in their hands and aside from Shizune they all appeared to be having a good time. Shizune was the first one to notice him.

"Minato what are you doing here?" inquired Shizune with surprise in her voice

"We need to talk." stated Minato

"Have you found your son already?" inquired the kitsune member of the council, her smile hid the fact that she really wanted someone who seemed to be as strong as Naruto. If he became a Kitsune which given his parents, sister and the Kyuubi that was within him was all but certain it would be a huge boost in power to the kitsunes. While the council was officially a group of equals there was a power balanced based on which demon group had the stronger members at the time.

"No…well not fully." Stated Minato "My wife and I where in a hotel room in Nysa when we got a phone call."

"All the power is gone in that area." Countered the Rhyuu member of the council

"Yes, but they were channeling chakra through the lines to use the phone." stated Minato "Sasuke Uchiha called and said if we meet his demands he would tell us where my children and everyone else in his group are hiding."

"And what are those demands?" inquired a Kami member

"Two of them want to be the same demon." stated Minato as all the council members shrugged that was something easily given and in fact it was something that wasn't even had to be requested. It was something that was already going on, they were transforming couples who had become different demons or even people who simply disliked what they had become and wanted to change. "Another demand is that one of them want to remain human until he dies."

"I assume that isn't one of your kids?" inquired the Inugami member

"No." confirmed Minato

"Still that is something we can agree upon, their group has to be over a dozen people and if we let one of them remain human until they die it is worth it." stated another council member. "Is that it?"

"No their 1st demand is the hardest, they want to see someone who is sick transformed into a demon." Stated Minato "They say there is one of those plants nearby and they want to see that before they give us the location."

"That shouldn't be hard, we just need to transport a sick human to that location and that it done." Stated another council member

"However there aren't any humans in that area that we are aware of." countered the Rhyuu "We need to transport a human from one of the transformation camps we have in the land of Rivers."

"We have only a 3 days to do it or else the deal is over." Stated Minato

"Hard…very hard but not undo able." added the council member "The army is moving there tomorrow to use it as a staging area for taking the land of Earth and the northern nations. We need to do that before winter sets in."

"I'll radio Dan." stated another member

"Where is he?" inquired Minato

"He is gathering forces to go after the humans who attacked our home." explained the council member.

In the land of swamps Konohamaru sat beside a low moss fire which made more smoke then light. With the thick tree cover there was no chance of any light or smoke from getting out. Beside the fire where small fish which had been caught with the help of local fishermen who had fished these waters for generations. The locals had lived an isolated life and that isolation had been what saved them when the red flu hit. The flu hadn't reached them and that meant that while the world died they carried on as normal. If the Mist ninjas hadn't decided to use this area as a base then they would have gone as if nothing was going on, the demons could rule the world for years without being discovered. Unknowingly this was also the way that the demons who had lived through the fall of their race thousands of years ago had carried on until coming together and forming a plan to retake "their" world.

"I heard tomorrow we are going to hit some small village in the Land of Tea." stated one of the mist soldiers "There is a camp there were they are turning people into demons."

"I don't know why we keep hitting places like that." countered another ninja

"The Mizukage hopes to get more people to fight." said the first

"I get that, but we never do." Countered the second ninja as Konohamaru just sat looking into the fire. "The only time we got anyone out of a place like that was when we picked up two Leaf Gennin and one of them turned traitor."

"Dude, he is right here." countered the first as he pointed toward Konohamaru who waved off the insult.

"It's alright, Meogi-chan was a traitor to humanity." Stated Konohamaru as the two mist ninjas looked at him for adding chan. "Her heart was just…too soft to do what has to be done. She wanted to be a medical ninja to save lives and to help people. Hell, she told me once she had to be talked into becoming a ninja by her parents, she wanted to become a caregiver to preschool age children."

"Sounds like she had a kind heart." stated the Mist Ninja

"Like you said, she had too kind of heart for what needs to be done." stated the second ninja as he routed the tiny fish so that the other side could cook. "Until we win or until we die, we must have the strength to do what needs to be done."

Less than a day boat ride away from Konohamaru a very alive but no longer human Moegi stood on a balcony looking out with her one good eye at the massive amount of damage which had been inflicted by the attack. The demons where not even attempting to rebuild, they instead where searching the remains of homes and business for useful items and personal items. They instead where gathering up the items and burying the dead before they headed to the main land. From the balcony Moegi had a view of a large funeral mass for the dead.

"Is something wrong?" inquired the Priestess and fellow Yoshei, Sister Yui. The priestess had been almost like a mother taking care of her and helping her adapt to the change.

"It is just…" said Moegi as she watched the demons move through the rows of coffins paying last respects to those who died. "That is something we would do."

"We you are a demon now." explained Yui as Moegi looked down at her body. It was her new demon body which reminded her of one of the fairies she had heard fairy tales about. "But I understand what you mean. Everyone dies and death is something universal to both demons and humans, it isn't surprising that the ways both cultures have for honoring the dead is similar."

"Question? If all the fantasy creatures humans have in fairy tales are actually based on demons then what are demon fairy tales about?" inquired Moegi as Sister Yu blinked.

"Good question, I hadn't expected you to inquire about that." stated Sister Yu "Well most of our stories about the first demons and how they built our culture. They built cities, created writing and the arts, they tamed animals and nature itself. Some of the stories are almost certainly pure fantasy like how the first demons where turned darkness into light and how they could control nature itself."

"And what about the humans?" inquired Moegi "Where they?"

For a moment Sister Yu paused and bit her lip, she held her breath for a moment before letting it all out.

"I guess it will not matter in a few weeks considering that when the effects of the change wears off and the anger against the council hits it will be uncovered." Admitted Sister Yu "The ancient stories tend to leave something out, in the stories humans are nothing but monsters. In truth in what little bit of historical documents that were saved from the human massacres of the ancient demon cultures. There is some evidence that at least some humans where forced off their land to be turned into farm land and towns as the demons extended outwards."

"Wait…wait…wait." said Moegi as she waved her hand in front of Sister Yu to make sure she didn't keep talking. "Demons pushed humans off their land and you wonder why they killed demons?"

"No, but does forcing people off their land to turn useless grasslands and forests into farms and cities worthily of massacring people, enslaving others and destroying a whole culture worthily of that?" inquired Sister Yu

"And in response to that your people created a virus and killed countless people and destroyed a whole culture just to save your own." Inquired Moegi as Sister Yu nodded her head.

"Yes, that just shows we and humans aren't that different and what both demons and humans are able to justify their own goals no matter what it does to others." explained Sister Yu "If I wanted to be somewhat heartless, I would say saving the multiple different cultures of the demon races is worth destroying the single human one but I think most of the reasons behind this whole thing was fear. Fear of the demon races dyeing out and pure revenge against the humans. Neither side has clean hands here."

Back in Nysa it was well past midnight as Karui and Hana Inuzuka sat at the bar inside the base, the two of them weren't alone. The two women weren't alone working as the makeshift bartender was Kiba. The three of them where playing a sort of drinking game, with so many fine drinks that they had access to they were mixing them into new drinks. Hana and Karui had already taken their turn and it was now Kiba.

"I call this one the end of the world." Stated Kiba as she put the two drinks in front of the two woman, a third matching drink was in front of him.

"And what is in it?" inquired Hana as she sniffed the drink, as Karui eyed it with her own golden eyes.

"A lot of really fine whiskey and other spirits that I wouldn't be able to afford this much normally." Explained Kiba as both women downed the drink and instantly regretted it.

"Damn…fuck." coughed Kauri "What the hell is in that? It tastes like cinnamon."

"Well I used a bottle of something called Cinnamon fire whiskey and some other stuff." admitted Karui "Besides it's a sort of play on word, the world is on fire and fire whiskey."

"Was he always like this?" inquired Karui

"No, he was worse." stated Hana as she looked at the young woman, she was of age with her brother and she had seen the two of them talking more than once. They had even eaten together with her and it caused the older sister in her to put two and two together. She wasn't sure if they had done anything together but if there wasn't the two of them where dancing around each other not sure how to move forward.

"Damn, you must have had a horrible childhood dealing with him." added Karui

"Well considering that our parents are traitors to humanity he was a lot better in respect." explained Hana as both Inuzuka siblings lowered their heads for a moment.

"I just don't get it why would they every agree to help these inhuman monsters destroy humanity." stated Kiba "I also don't understand why the fuck people aren't fighting them? I know they have been turned into demons but why aren't they fighting back?"

"From what Sakura, Ino and that red-haired women told me it has something to do with chemical changes in the mind after they are turned to make them like what they see." explained Hana only to have Karui shake her head in disagreement. "You don't agree?"

"Not totally." stated Kauri "I don't care how much you may like something you can hate it deep down and I think that the true reason why we don't see people fighting back is because they have bought into this whole chemical in my brain makes me like it bull. No it is a whole big lie, people convince themselves of it and it becomes a moot point, I am also sure some will enjoy the change. All the demons really need is time, in a generation or two being a demon will be totally normal and humanity will be a distance memory. They will remove all traces of humanity and it will be as if we never existed."

"Here." said Kiba as he pushed a drink, this one just a normal straight shot. She looked at the drink, then at Kiba, then back to the drink before finally resting her golden eyes on Kiba. The two of them just looked at each other as she reached up and took the drink, their hands touched and stayed together for a long moment. "Sounds like you need a drink."

Kiba and Karui both smiled before pulling apart, all this just confirmed what Hana had come to suspect. Yes, her bother had a thing for her and she had a thing for her. Normally dating a person yet alone a ninja from another village meant going through a lot of paperwork, background checks and other issues to prevent spying. Then again the world was burning and none of that really mattered anymore.

Elsewhere in the base Temari couldn't sleep, she had spent weeks on little to no sleep first trying to contained the virus within her village then on the way here. She should have just fallen asleep within seconds after finishing her shower and falling onto the bed, but sleep alluded her for hours. Finally she got out of bed and decided to explore the base, she walked around the darkened base. The base was quiet as everyone had gone to bed, she had memorized the lay out of the base when Shikamaru had shown her around. It wasn't that complex of a lay out, she found herself outside of Shikamaru's door. She turned the handle to her amazement it was unlocked, she scanned the darkened room and saw what she expected to see. A low bed with a sleeping Shikamaru in it, a low table which was covered with books and a desk which was also covered in books. For all his brains he had a habit of leaving books around.

"This is such a stupid idea." Said Temari as she walked into the room, the sound of the door closing caused Shikamaru's eyes to open as he sat up in bed. In the darkened room, he could see Temari standing there in a simple pair of black shorts and a white tank top even so he thought for a moment she had walked out of his dreams.

"Temari what are you doing here?" inquired Shikamaru

"Couldn't sleep." Explained Temari as she paused for a moment. Shikamaru looked at her, he had never seen her unsure before but that is what she looked like now. "Mind if I join you?"

Shikamaru blinked for a moment before nodding his head and moving over to give her room, that was the only thing he actually knew to do. One of the best military planners didn't know what he should do next as Temari moved into bed beside him. He tried not to think about what his 18-year-old mind wanted to do with the 19-year-old women who was now beside him. Temari made it worse as she moved toward him, resting her head on his chest.

"I will not hold it against you if you are thinking what I know you are thinking." Said Temari as she breathed in his scent, it was causing calming and she could feel her body relaxing "However I just want to sleep."

"Alright." Said Shikamaru as he moved his arm tenderly to rest on her shoulder, however Temari never heard him she was already asleep.

Above their heads Kushina Namikaze hadn't been able to do anything more then move back and forth in the hotel room like a caged animal. She just kept running through the events of the past few hours. She had rushed out into the rain filled evening because her children had been spotted nearby. She had missed them and had broken down in a way that made her feel shameful but then with a simple phone call a chance to get her children back came to back to her. This one even included a time table, three days if they could provide the demands she could hold both of her children for the 1st time in three days.

She had imagined that for almost two decades and now it was about to happen. Suddenly in a flash of yellow light her husband appeared in the room with her. Her head snapped toward him and the smile told her that the council had agreed to the demands.

"Now we wait?" inquired Kushina

"No, we still need to keep up the appearance of searching for them. We have to assume that they are watching us and who knows we can maybe find them." explained Minato as Kushina nodded her head. She wanted to go out and start the search or at least find the rest of the group they were with to fill them in. The Haruno's and the Inuzuka's each had kids which were likely with her own children, she knew for a fact that Sakura was with her son.

"Maybe when this is all over we will finally have that family dinner I have been planning for so long." stated Kushina with a smile.

Sorry for the delay, I hit the duel issue of a couple of busy weeks plus writer's block. I hope you can forgive me. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.