FOOK YEAH! I'm back! Here we are, back where we started. After moving back and forth, I'm back to my trusty (to a certain extent) laptop, writing the next chapter to this here story. I missed you guys! Kinda. Yeah, not really. I KID! I guess I needed the mini-vacation for a bit.

By the way, did you see the latest Naruto chapter? IT'S A SURE SIGN OF EPIC-OCITY! I'm not gonna spoil it for those that haven't read it, but it's sweeet! YA GOTTA READ IT! I'm still giggling over it.

Anyway, I guess I'll have to get back to work. Especially with writer's block's corpse still behind me. Surprisingly enough, it still slows me down considerably. Not by much, but still a bit.

I don't own anything.

He was known as many things. To his family, he was known as the troublemaker. To his friends, a type of brother. To any lover he once had, he was a great guy. To his enemies?

Their executioner.

No matter how many people tried to take him down, they all died. He knew what he was. He new what he wasn't. He knew, yet he never reminded himself what he was and still is. 'I am Shishi. I am Akyo's brother. I am the strongest shadow demon ever. I am...' That last part was something he knew, but refused to remember. Very much like a having a stranger next to you. You know the person is there, you know that it's someone you don't know, but you still know its there. He knew that the answer was there. But he refused to look at it. He refused to remember. He was happy now, being Shishi, being the brother of Akyo and to an extent, Naruto. He was being a shadow demon. He was happy...

At least, he told himself this to keep himself from remembering. Yet here he was. Running. Running towards the youki that forced all those memories into his head, reminding him what he truly was. And he needed to destroy him. Once he was dead, there would be no need to remember ever again. He could just forget again, be happy again, be a part of a family again. He would no longer remember his 'brethren', nor the man who made him like this. It would all fade, forgotten. And it would fade soon.

'Ready or not,' he thought, his body seeming to loose more shape and looking like a mass of hands and hind-legs running, a large mouth and eyes barely managing to stay looking forward while large tumor-like bumps appeared around his body. 'here I come. I'm going back, one last time.'

Quickly spinning in mid-air, Neji barely managed to dodge a beam of fire zipping past his head. The rest quickly scattered, all of them surprised to find a little girl no older than four holding a crossbow in her small hands. She had bright red hair, red eyes, and freckles around her face. Her attire was mostly just a puffy pink shirt, puffy white pants, a little party hat, and pointy shoes. However, it was the man next to him that really looked out of place. For one thing, he was a clown on a giant spiked ball, balancing on the spikes alone. Unlike most clones, his clothes seemed more... puffier. In fact, it looked like he had more puff than anything else. And his eyes were the same red as little girl's.

"Look Egao-chan (Smile)!" said the clown in a booming voice. "More people!"

"Yeah! And they dodged the attack too!" the little girl cried excitedly, jumping up and down on her own bright-blue ball. "Yay! They won't sleep as quick as the rest did!"

"Fire-demon." Naruto murmured, looking at the girl before looking at the big guy. "And... iron?" The rest instantly looked around, trying to see if there were any more demons around the place. "Neji, Shikamaru, can you get rid of them?" he called, almost not being able to trace Shishi's youki. Neji and Shikamaru nodded before Naruto teleported next to Sakura and got a hold of her, both of them and Akyo flashing past the two clown-people and quickly continuing their way after the runaway demon.

"Oh poo!" pouted the little girl, looking in the direction they left. "They didn't wanna sleep, Keba-aniki!" (Google says it means Fluff. Is this true?)

Keba, the large clown, shrugged his shoulders and turned to the two boys left behind. "No need to be sad! Let's play with the rest of these young kids while we're here. It would be rude to leave guests behind." He grinned, which was creepy seeing as he was wearing the whole clown make-up. The little girl nodded and pointed her crossbow at Neji, smiling all the time.

"Nap time!" she sang, firing line of condensed fire that nearly hit Neji square in the chest. He managed to duck, as Shikamaru jumped to his right, just in time for Keba to jump up with his spiked ball and smash it where Shikamaru was a few seconds ago. The spikes on the ball twisted once before they shot out in all directions, Forcing Shikamaru to take cover lest he end up looking like swiss cheese.

Neji tried to convince himself that he was fighting a demon, but it was hard when said demon looked and acted like a little girl. Granted, one that wanted to kill him, but it was a little girl nonetheless. Managing to dodge another blast of fire, he leapt towards the girl and kicked her legs from under her, trying to follow up with a jyuuken strike that would have probably knocked her out, but she raised her crossbow and blocked, at the same time spitting on Neji something that nauseated him for a moment. It took him a second to realize what it was.

'Oil!' he thought in panic, quickly making a substitution just as Egao clicked her tongue, making a small spark appear as it ignited Neji's form. She was a bit surprised when only chunks of burnt wood appeared where the boy once was. She looked around, a bit nervous. This was the first mission that Nori-sama had sent her on, and she didn't want to disappoint him. He wasn't exactly a forgiving man.

"Where are you mister blind-eyes?" she sang out, righting herself on her ball while looking around. Neji meanwhile planned what to do from behind a tree. This girl may have a crossbow, but she still knew how to keep people away. He quickly leapt a bit deeper into the forest, using his Byakugan to keep an eye on the girl as she bounced on her ball, still looking around.

Shikamaru quickly hid managed to leap his way through most of the trees as they were being crushed by the giant ball that the clown was currently rolling with. While being chased, the Nara heir noticed that the clown wouldn't throw any of the spikes. He also noticed that the spikes that were already thrown were beginning to slowly crumble into dust. And as that happened, the spikes on the ball were being replaced by new ones. The fact that they were still on the ball and not being thrown as soon as they appeared did seem odd.

"Keep still brat!" shouted Keba, jumping up while grabbing on of the spikes on his rolling ball. Throwing it at Shikamaru, the ball barely passed his head as he ducked and changed his direction, heading straight up a tree before jumping off of it, just as the ball crashed into the tree and toppled it over. Keba somehow managed to land on the ball again, redirecting it to go after him once more. Gritting his teeth, Shikamaru hid in a bush while observing Keba. He frowned when he saw the last spike appear on the ball. (He still wondered how the giant clown managed to run on it without stepping or tripping over any of the spikes) With a grin, Keba jumped again and shouted, "Metal-style: Spinning Circus Disaster!" Shouted the demon, standing on one hand on the ball while at the same using his fingers to make the whole thing spin at ridiculous speeds. As that happened, the spikes on the ball seemed to grow a bit before taking on weird shapes. Though incomplete, they seemed to form flat elephants and monkeys and all types of animals began to form, all of them thin enough to cut through the trees and ground around them.

Shikamaru quickly brought his hands up, ready to substitute, when with a 'twang' the animals all detached themselves and were sent flying all over the place, forcing Shikamaru back to the treetops. From up above, he saw that the ground was carved with a spiral shape from the bladed animals dragging along the ground. They almost instantly turned to ashes once they were nearly ten yards from Keba, who didn't even seem slightly winded. Shikamaru jumped a bit higher, crouching behind the tree while letting his hands form a semicircle, his habit for when he thinks.

"Please keep still!" Egao pleaded, shooting three more streams of flame while bouncing around using her ball, Neji quickly twisting in and out of the trees as he tried to hide from the little girl's quick barrage of laser attacks. During his 'fight' with the little girl, he learned two things. She can only shoot fire from her bow that she could charge up to make it thicker and oil from her mouth, and she can make sparks using her tongue. That's about it. He didn't really count the ball as a weapon, though it was actually pretty useful for when she needed to jump to high places, or run fast. With that in mind, he new that beating her wouldn't be simple. Jumping straight towards her, he tried hitting her arms, but she again managed to block both hits by using her crossbow. Not wishing to give her any chance, he quickly reached his hand out and managed to clasp her mouth before she could spit some more oil at him. His other hand lashed out and managed grab her arm that held the crossbow, making sure she didn't try using that close up, since he couldn't dodge if she did. For a minute, they stood there, Neji's narrowed eyes looking into Egao's wide ones with unadulterated annoyance.

"Please, stop being so childish." he said, unintentionally hissing at her in a most un-Hyuuga fashion. Another few seconds past before Neji's ears caught something. It was... sniffing... and whimpering. Coming from directly in front of him. 'Oooohhhh... Shit.' he groaned in his head, not having time as the little girl suddenly jerked her head back and screamed at the top of her lungs (blowing his eardrums at the same time).

"KEBA-ANIKI!"

Shikamaru looked up from his seated position, the clown smiling down on him from the giant spiked ball. "Admit your defeat boy." Keba said, looking down at Shikamaru as the final spike on his ball appeared. Until he heard a familiar scream.

"KEBA-ANIKI!" he heard Egao cry out, and his grin instantly disappeared to be replaced by a worried look.

"Egao!" he gasped, and instantly turned around and started running on his ball, making it go in the direction of the little demon's voice. He didn't get far though, before he suddenly had something tug on his neck while at the same time, multiple things were slapped on his back. "Wha-" he heard a fizzle, then... BOOM! He flew forward, his spiked ball stopping while he suddenly found his whole body suspended in mid air. He looked at his elbows, abdomen, and ankles, which he noticed were bound by ninja wire. "Fool! You think this will keep me down? I'll rip you to shreds once I get down!" he shouted, struggling against the wires.. He noticed too late the explosive tags attached to his lower back.

'BOOM' There was a trembling in the earth as multiple trees fell. Keba fell, his body buried under the large amount of tree trunks and branches. Acting quickly, Shikamaru managed to place a few extra exploding tags on the surrounding trees, activating them quickly to make more of the trees fall on Keba's spot. He stood there, listening for any form of movement. He didn't have to even wait a second before he heard something. But the more he heard, the more he realized that the sound was becoming fainter. He jumped on to the pile of trees, immediately seeing the large hole that Keba must have dug up to burrow into the ground. "Shit!"

"GET OFF ME! STRANGER!"

Neji wasn't sure what to do. Every time he tried to cover her mouth, she would only move her head farther away and continue to scream. Physically, it was a better alternative to being burned, but it still made him a bit uncomfortable that the girl was suggesting he wanted to do something to her.

And he almost didn't notice the ground shaking beneath him. Good thing he did, or his legs would've probably been crushed from Keba suddenly popping up from below with a now smaller iron ball. He threw it straight at Neji's legs, making the boy leap up and let go of egao. The little girl managed to land on her ball before abandoning it in favor of landing on Keba's shoulder. Hugging him fiercely, she buried her face into Keba's neck while he softly patted her back, whispering comforting words into her ear while keeping an eye on Neji, who was still in his stance and keeping an eye on both the demons.

"It's okay now, Egao-chan. Keba is here now. No need to cry." he murmured, though he was leaking an impressive amount of KI at the two genin. "I'll get rid of the bad people now. But I need your help for that. You know what I mean, correct?" he murmured, smiling down at the little girl. Looking up at him, Egao quickly nodded before her body began to give off a red glow. Neji watched as her youki went from looking human to some form of monkey, then into a small ball that landed on Keba's hand. He then placed the ball next to his spiked one, the light quickly seeping into said weapon. "Now you will fall, humans. When we fight as one..." the ball suddenly began to melt and lengthen, forming a long chain that was attached to the spiked ball. On the other end, the metal lengthened into a large hammer that protruded spikes from one side while the other had a cavity that seemed to be emanating a small glow. "... we have never been beaten."

And with that he jumped towards them, fire bursting from the hole on the hammer to increase its speed and power. Both the genin manage to jump up to evade the wide horizontal arc. Shikamaru attached himself to a tree using his palm, quickly attaching his leg as well. Neji however jumped off the branch he was on and quickly countered, his movements flowing like water while Keba twisted his body around to try and dodge the Jyuken strikes. With a few more strikes, Neji managed to hit Keba's heart area, but it only seemed to annoy the clown as he didn't double over or anything. Jumping back a bit, he was surprised when Keba threw the hammer in his direction, missed deliberately, and managed to wrap the chain around a tree behind Neji. With inhuman strength, Keba pulled the tree off its roots and tugged it towards him and Neji. Ducking, Neji winced when he felt one of the stray branches cut into his left shoulder-blade. He had to move to the side when Keba threw the spiked ball, now holding the hammer again while spinning the spiked ball by the chain. He redirected his sight towards Shikamaru, who managed to appear behind him and his shadow was quickly crawling towards the demon clown. Keba began jumping around, gritting his teeth every time the shadows would come close to him. Throwing the spiked ball towards the Nara, Shikamaru managed to bend his waist a bit to the side, only getting a scrape as the ball hit the ground behind him. Quickly retracting his shadow, Shikamaru wasn't prepared when Keba did a quick whip of the chain, the chain wrapping around his neck. He grunted before trying to calm down, or as calm as one could while being strangled by a chain around their a quick set of hand seals, he poofed away to be replaced with a log. It splintered to pieces with a tug when Keba pulled the ball back to him. Neji appeared behind him, getting the demon to round on him and throw the ball at him next.

Bad idea. "Rotation!" spinning around, Neji released chakra from all over his body while shifting closer towards the spiked ball, which bounced right off and began its way back towards Keba, who was too surprised to dodge as the ball slammed into his left shoulder, tearing off a good deal of the demon's arm. Gritting his teeth, he leapt back while watching the two genin and letting his youki heal him. The three met eyes, ready for anything. And as one they moved. While Neji quickly closed the distance, hitting Keba in the chest, Shikamaru moved to the treetops, trying to stay out of the clown's field of vision.

Meanwhile, Keba heard Egao's voice coming from the hammer. 'Aniki! you don't have much youki left! We need to leave, now!' Egao pleaded, trying to reason with Keba. However, he had no intention in leaving yet. He still had a job to do.

'I must finish this. Nori-sama won't accept failures. If I don't...' he thought, looking down at the hammer in his hand. "Not yet, Egao-chan. We need to get rid of these pests first." he growled out, his features distorting and twisting as fur began to grow all over him, the make-up disappearing to show a real almost-permanent grin on his face. Now covered in a grayish fur, his face was that of a canine while two tails extended from his spine. "It has been fun, but it's time for you to die!" Keba declared. Youki crept from his body down the chain into the spiked ball, which then had every spike twisted into a crude drill shapes. Letting out a horrible high-pitched laugh, the Iron-hyena let his tongue stick out while crouching down in front of the two. With a gulp, Shikamaru readied more explosive tags.

'I only have six left. Gotta make it count.' he thought, looking over to Neji. "I need you to Keep him distracted for a while. I gotta gather a bit more chakra." he said, making the ram seal to start gathering chakra. Nodding, Neji shifted his body so it hid most of Shikamaru from Keba's view.

"Here goes." mumbled Neji, sprinting forward while charging chakra into his dodging the kick Keba sent at him, he jumped to the demon's side and hit his abdomen while jumping back just as the spiked ball came crashing into the spot he was on. As soon as he could, he dashed to the side before he could be hit by the already rising spiked ball. It continued like this for a little less than a minute, Neji jumping forward and striking the demon before quickly jumping back, dashing to the side or back, then jumping back in to attack. Finally, Keba had enough of this. While the attacks weren't powerful to a demon, it didn't change the fact that the boy was beginning to seriously screw with his youki. While he had no organs to harm, he could probably be killed with a few shots if the boy was lucky enough to hit his 'heart'.

Jumping straight up just as Neji rushed in for another attack, he sent youki into the spiked ball and hammer as they steadily grew to ridiculous proportions. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Neji ran up a tree 'til he was to the top and jumped off it, intercepting Keba in mid-air. The demon, caught off guard by the impulsive attack, was too late to bring his arms up as Neji gave his face six quick strikes, making the demon groan in pain as he began to descend, Neji not far behind him. As soon as they both hit the ground, Neji wasted no time in taking a familiar stance.

Shifting his body further, his arms extending to his sides as his abdomen twisted, his arms extending to either side of him as he shouted, "Eight Trigrams: One-hundred Twenty-eight palms!" With a burst of speed, he was in front of Keba with his attack already commencing. "Two palms! Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms!" With every barrage, Keba stumbled back, his youki actually leaving his body and into thin air as the chakra began to push it away from his body. Nonetheless, he kept a firm grip on the ball and hammer. "Sixty-four palms!" He felt some hits come uncomfortably close to his heart, which he was more than certain the boy was aiming at. Tacking a firm stance, Neji let loose the final barrage. "One-hundred Twenty-eight palms!" at the end of the attack, one too many had finally hit the heart, making Keba stumble back as he hit the ground. Before he had time to think, his body was paralyzed by a shadow connecting to his own.

"Success." Shikamaru said to himself, a grin on his face as He got up, Keba doing the same. Walking up to the demon clown, Shikamaru made a few more hand signs, Keba mimicking him to no avail. Another tendril of shadow appeared, this one twisting around Keba with a few bits of paper around it.

'Shit!' thought Keba, recognizing the pieces of paper almost instantly. He had no time to even jump or struggle as the tags instantly exploded, his left arm instantly flying off while disappearing into a cloud of youki before it even hit the ground.

When the smoke cleared, Keba was back in his human form, except with an arm gone. That of course was growing back right before their very eyes, and Keba's breathing was labored and uneven. The hammer and chain disappeared in another flash of red before Egao reappeared and crouched next to Keba, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Keba-aniki!" she screamed, quickly pulling the battered demon's head onto her lap. Glancing up at the two genin, she quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out a strange glowing blue ball. It looked alike like Naruto's Rasengan, except that it looked to be contained in a glass ball and had a black core. With a quick hit, she broke the ball and both the demons were engulfed in blue smoke Taking a defensive stance, both genin prepared for the worse. It was a surprise when they saw that the demons were gone, leaving no trace beside the destruction.

A man wrapped in shadows was leaning against a giant stone leg that belonged to the Shodai Hokage's statue. He looked at the other statue standing on the opposite side of the waterfall. 'Uchiha Madara. Interesting young man, really.' he thought, a grin on his face. A few yards from him was his boss, Nori. The ice-demon was pacing back and forth, an unhappy look on his face.

"Where are they!" he hissed, his fists clenching and unclenching as his anger showed by the amount of ice around them, as well as the edged of the river being topped with ice. "They were supposed to be here an hour ago! Getting rid of humans shouldn't take this long!" The man just shrugged, his body showing he was very much relaxed.

"Don't worry so much, Nori-sama. I'm sure they're just fooling around with the poor things and will be here s-" he was interrupted by a plume of blue smoke appearing in front of him, and the sound of crying entering his ears. 'Sounds like Egao...' he thought, quirking an eyebrow as the smoke cleared to show her and Keba. Keba was unconscious, obvious by the closed eyes and breathing. Egao was in tears, bending over Keba while gripping his shirt tightly.

"T-They were s-so mean! (Sniff) They g-ganged up o-on hi-m! H-He was a-almo-most killed!" cried Egao, her tears wetting Keba's shirt. The man didn't move, finding the scene irrelevant really. Nori, however, wasn't as unresponsive. Bending down next to Egao, his face did an entire one-eighty. With a smile, he patted Egao's head lightly while almost appearing calm.

"It's okay now. It'll all be okay now, Egao-chan. I'll take care of everything. Are you thirsty?" not even waiting for an answer, he pulled out a vial filled with a blue liquid and gripped Egao's jaw. Not giving her a second to protest, he forcefully spilled the contest down the young demon's throat. When the last drop disappeared, he let her go.

She cried almost twice as much, this time because of the horrible pain. She tried to open her mouth to scream, but no sound escaped as she felt her small body stretch, twist and expand. The shadowed man just watched with no real interest. He didn't know Egao personally, and Keba and her were very annoying anyway. "We should get going. We have the boy, and my own kid will be here soon anyway." mumbled the man, extending his hand into the shadows to open a hell-gate. Places where battles took place were always good places. So much negative emotions.

"Right." murmured Nori, entering the gate without a second glance towards Egao. As the ice-demon entered the gate, the other man stepped out of the shadows and showed a man with hair sleeked back in spikes, almost like feathers. His nose was also pointy, adding to the bird-like appearance. With his all black clothing and a white-furred collar, he almost appeared like a human vulture.

"Goodbye Egao. Enjoy the little bit of life you have left." he said, patting her already changing head. With that, he also entered the hell-gate, leaving behind a crying and suffering young girl.

OKAY! That's a wrap! Now, my updates won't exactly be as frequent as they used to be. Mainly because, yes people, I have a life outside of Fanfiction. Doesn't mean I won't spare a few hours a week to work on this though. So... yeah. Also, I'm ridiculously bummed because I lost my puppy. No, she's not dead, I just couldn't take care of her properly. I had to give her up to some nice family. Met them once before moving away, and I'm sure they're taking care of her. Still gonna miss my little devil though. She was so beautiful. (Sniff sniff) My puppy...

Anyway, next update will NOT be soon. Not really sure when. Probably in a month because of work and crap. Okay, maybe later than that. We'll see... hopefully... I'll shut up now...

...

Bye!