The sounds of rushing footsteps could be heard echoing down the corridor, with the one producing them wishing they would cease. As a ninja she could walk silently, however it wasn't quite so easy to do the same running on brick walkways. She had to put more thought into running away from the men after her more than the way her feet connected with the ground.
She turned around, there being little light in the corridor but she had rather good eyes. This was no ordinary corridor she was inside, she was in an underground waterway, essentially a clean sewer. Had her reflexes not been on full alert, she might have missed the chain bursting out of the water coming for her. She jumped and rebounded off the wall to get further away, but she did not run.
'He's nearby. It's time to fight back.' She told herself.
When she got a good look, she saw it wasn't actually a chain that had been thrown at her. It had been a scythe, maybe a large kusarigama, with three blades for some reason. Such a design only confused her, sure it looked intimidating but it couldn't be practical. But those three blades were clearly sharp, for they were embedded in the wall.
"You've got some moves babe." A taunting voice said to her from the shadows. "I've got the slowest attacks in all of Akatsuki, so it's not really surprising that you dodged me."
"So Akatsuki is finally brave enough to come me now." The woman said.
"We weren't going to avoid you forever. We just knew it was more practical to go for the jinchuuriki with less security first."
"Hidan, this is Nii Yugito, host to the Nibi. Don't let down your guard." A man with a mostly covered face warned.
"No need to tell me that Kakuzu. That's why I'm hoping we just get this one over with." A man with silver hair and no shirt replied. "But first, I need to offer up my prayers to Jashin-sama." He added while holding up a rosary.
"Not that again." Kakuzu complained.
"Hey, I don't like doing this either, but Jashin-sama is a strict god." Hidan justified.
"Go ahead and pray, take all the time you want because you think you lured me here." Yugito said, forming a hand seal. "Think is, I lured you here instead."
With a flare of chakra some seals in the corridor suddenly exploded, all positioned by the exits and making them cave in on themselves. No one got hurt, but that clearly was not Yugito's intention.
"Now that I know you're with Akatsuki, I can't leave you leave Kumo." She stated.
Hidan looked to his partner. "Oh would you look at that. The bitch thinks she's got us cornered." He sounded as bored as he looked.
Kakuzu simply kept his eyes on his prey. "You actually only made this better for us Yugito. You can't escape either."
"I don't plan on escaping you. I plan on killing you." Yugito threatened as a chakra aura started to spring to life around her, taking the appearance of blue flames before taking the shape of a large two-tailed cat.
"A jinchuuriki that can turn into it's bijuu... didn't see that one coming." Hidan said, retracting his scythe and getting ready to fight.
Hanabi watched as Aru continued to work in the clearing, all the while still unsure of what he was doing.
After the Incubus had finished drawing in the earth with the tree branch he tossed it aside and then began to set large rocks in various spots, stopping every few minutes to judge the distance between each rock and occasionally move them a few inches. Then he left for a moment or two heading into the woods.
Hanabi would have attempted an escape but she did not want to risk being captured again and incurring the wrath of this demon. Plus, her natural curiosity got the better of her. About five minutes later Aru returned with a pile of tree logs, carrying them like one would a bundle of twigs. He walked into the center of the clearing and dropped the logs there, then begin to pile them with what Hanabi guessed were various herbs and other plants.
When he seemed satisfied with the pile Aru snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared above his hand, flickering in the wind but the light remained strong and vibrant. The Incubus then flicked the flame into the pile and suddenly-
WHOOOSH! It exploded into cascade of orange, red, and yellow with dark yet oddly sweet smelling smoke rising from it and into the darkening sky where for a brief moment lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.
Aru turned his back to the fire and walked over to Hanabi, not even acknowledging the girl he eased down onto the ground with a sigh and leaned against a tree.
There was silence then, only the wind, the rustling of the leaves and branches in the tree, and the occasionally caw of a bird came to ear.
Finally it was Hanabi who spoke. "What the hell are you doing?"
Aru did not even turn his head when he spoke. "You truly are ignorant if you cannot tell when a man is relaxing." He said in a nonchalant voice.
"No, I am talking about that." She said as she nodded her head to the clearing where the fire still burned strong and bright.
"Preparation." Aru said simply.
Hanabi was starting to loose her patients with this man "Preparation for what?"
"You'll be a lot happier if you don't know." He told her ominously.
There was a long moment of silence between the two of them for a while and finally Hanabi out of boredom and curiosity decided to strike up conversation with her captor.
"Are you really a demon?" She asked.
"No, I'm two dwarves in a trench coat with a wig." He said with an eye roll. "Yes I am a demon, a demon lord to be exact."
"Okay, it is just you don't look very…demonic."
"Oh really? What were you expecting?" Aru asked as he sat up a bit.
"I don't know, horns, a tail, fangs, and claws." She said.
Aru sighed. "You just described low level demons which while nasty-looking are mostly just primitive creatures. Higher level demons like myself are more refined in our appearance and are capable of altering it at our will."
"I see." Hanabi said as she thought about the next question, hoping maybe she might get this guy to give up some piece of vital information. "So you said you are a demon lord, but lord of what?"
"Think of that as my rank in demon society, one held by only the nine most powerful members of demon kind. I suppose you could say it is the same level as one of your Kages."
"So it is decided by who is the strongest and most capable of being a Lord?"
"No, it is decided by whoever can kill one of the current demon lords. I took the title when I took the head of one of the previous demon lords."
"Why did you kill him?"
Aru was silent for a moment before speaking. "Because he was arrogant, biased, and disrespected Lilith."
Hanabi stared at Aru. "You really love Lilith don't you."
"You find that surprising? We are capable of love not just lust. I worship the ground Lilith walks upon. I searched the world for a hundred years to find her. And I will not let anyone keep me from her."
"Naruto will."
Aru smiled then, a very dangerous looking smile. "Then I will kill him too."
"What the hell is this thing?" Naruto asked, fending off the hellhound with several clones. The clones had the same injury he had but they at least could keep the beast distracted.
"I don't know, but it's definitely demonic." Hinata said. "Maybe Lilith's mate sent this after us."
"Then we should send it back." Naruto suggested, looking like he didn't mean send it back in one piece. Some clones created some rasengans and charged at the hellhound from all around, giving the creature little chance to dodge. The chakra orb hit the fur and oddly the resulting sound was like a chainsaw against stone.
The creature was in agony, like most beings having a rasengan pressed against their exposed flesh would. With it unable to move for a moment, other clones rushed in to give it a royal beating. The hellhound was in no position to put up a fight, and the clones only stopped when the burning sensation of touching it reached the limit of what clones can tolerate before dispelling.
"Did you get it?" Hinata asked when the smoke cleared. Then she could see just one Naruto standing next to the downed hellhound, the blonde trying to soothe his burnt hands and the hellhound might as well having spirals for eyes at that moment.
"I'm almost disappointed it went down this easily." Naruto groaned, moving to check in on Hinata and make sure she was okay. "What do you think it wanted?"
"Don't get too comfortable just yet you two." A voice came out of normal, causing the two to look at the hellhound. The creature convulsed like it was having a full body spasm, and then it burst into dark blue flames but there were no cries of pain. The flames faded after about seven seconds, but what remained made both ninja gasp.
"Kiba?"
Lying on the ground, looking much like Neji had after Naruto defeated him years ago, was the aforementioned Inuzuka nin. His eyes were unfocused, a portion of skin and clothes were missing thanks to the rasengan, and there was no sign of Akamaru anywhere.
Hinata rushed over to check on her old teammate, but a few steps away Kiba's head twisted, in a manner that looked unusually involuntary, to look at her despite his unfocused eyes, and his mouth drooped open.
"Listen well you two, for I will not repeat myself." A voice that was not Kiba's at all came out, the lips not moving to match the words in the least. It was more like Kiba was simply transmitting someone else's words.
Hinata gasped and stepped back, while Naruto got protective in front of her. "I remember that voice. Aru is up to something."
"I want Lilith back. I want her back now. You cannot hide from me forever. I will send others after you like this boy here, and if you refuse to comply, you'll be forced to kill off whoever comes after you." Aru's voice stated.
"He expects us to kill Kiba?" Hinata asked.
"No, if he did he wouldn't be showing us Kiba right now." Naruto claimed. "He's taunting us instead. Telling us what he'll do unless we give him what he wants."
"Oh, and just in case you two decide you can live with killing this boy, I feel I should point out I do already have someone else who can be used to be my next weapon. This little girl is just as useful to me as a demon as... well, I've probably said too much." Aru taunted. "Wait, actually there is one last thing I should tell you. Hanabi says hi."
Hinata looked like she wanted to gasp but lost the ability to breathe at the same time. "What have you done with my sister?" She finally managed to croak out.
"Anything you want to say to me, you can. Just tell my little pet here that you will bring Lilith back to me. Until then, have fun." Aru finished, then Kiba quickly burst into those same dark blue flames again.
"This is sick." Naruto rued.
"What do we do?" Hinata asked as the flames went away, revealing the hellhound again only this time it was healed and fully conscious. It growled and jumped at Naruto who resorted to taijutsu to fend it off.
'Is this thing really Kiba? Or was that a trick to affect our ability to fight back?' Hinata thought, staying out of the fight as she had no idea what to do.
'I'm lucky this thing isn't any stronger the second time, but now that I know it's Kiba under all this fur, I'm kind of limited in how to end this fight.' Naruto thought, trying to give the hellhound more hits than it was giving him but without getting fatal. 'But if this thing is Kiba, then maybe I can beat it like how I used to beat Kiba before.'
He ducked under a claw swipe and threw a punch at the exposed genitals of the hellhound. The creature howled in pain and grabbed itself, kneeling on the ground.
"Now Hinata-chan!" Naruto said, rushing to his girlfriend and grabbing her hand, running off away from the beast.
"Naruto-kun we can't just leave him." Hinata protested but made no attempt to stop the whiskered blonde.
"We're not, we're just going to get a bit of an advantage first. Trust me Hinata-chan."
The Hyuuga princess nodded. "I do"
"What the fuck happened here?" Tsunade said when she arrived at the Hyuuga estate, having been alerted to the attack within Konoha. Medics were already there treating the fallen hyuuga, and for reasons Tsunade didn't know Tenten was there seeing to Neji.
"We were attacked by one man, but he was no ordinary man." One of the Hyuuga, his right eye swollen shut, told her. "We tried to get rid of him but he overpowered us like we were just bugs in his way."
"Can anyone identify this man?" Tsunade asked. 'Please tell me it wasn't the Akatsuki.' She added mentally
"He called himself Aru, a demon lord." Neji claimed, emerging from the Hyuuga dojo, he limped slightly, his body ached from fighting Aru.
'I never thought I'd be so upset to hear it wasn't the Akatsuki doing it.' Tsunade complained. "What did he want? Did he say?"
"Yes, he was after my daughter." Hiashi answered, this time emerging himself, the lower half of his body bandaged.
"Hinata?" Tsunade asked.
"No, my other daughter." Hiashi clarified. "But he didn't say why."
"Your other daughter?" Tsunade asked, then got horrified. "Oh Kami-sama!" She said as her mind suddenly started connecting the dots.
"What? What is it?" Hiashi asked, not liking the sound of what the slug sannin said.
"Aru wants Lilith, Lilith is with Hinata, and Hinata is currently unreachable. So what better way to make her reachable... than to have a way to force her to come to him?"
Hiashi and Neji bought were mortified to hear this, of course, how could they not realize this? It was one of the oldest ploys in the books, using a family member to force another to obey. "You have to get her back!" Hiashi said and to everyone's surprise he fell to his knees. "Please, Lady-Hokage, I beg you, my daughters, save them, both of them please."
Never in her life did she think she would see the proud Hyuuga Hiashi kowtow like this, after overcoming the surprise Tsunade looked to Neji. "How fit are you?"
"I should be ready for a mission shortly. My body is just a little stiff and my heartbeat is returning to normal." The Hyuuga prodigy answered.
"Good, I'll speed the recovery along, then you and your team and go track her down. Tenten, go find one of Hinata's teammates so they can provide additional tracking support."
"Yes Hokage-sama." Tenten said, pausing just long enough to give Neji a kiss on the cheek then rushing off.
'Them too? Seems like all the kids here are growing up instead of just Naruto and Hinata.' Tsunade thought. "While we're waiting, tell me what you saw this Aru did. The more we know about what he did the better. Because we are going to bring this bastard down."
"Nice to be out of the hospital." Kakashi said as he walked out into the street.
"Hi there Kakashi." Asuma greeted. "Good to see you're still kicking."
"Sometimes I think the shinigami is intentionally saving me for last." Kakashi remarked.
Asuma laughed a small bit even though Kakashi didn't fully mean it as a joke. "Anyway, good thing I caught you. I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Like what?" Kakashi asked.
"Hi Asuma." Kurenai said, coming up to the two men.
Asuma looked like the woman now had his complete attention while Kakashi still looked normal. "Hello Kurenai. What brings you here?"
"Oh nothing really. I just saw you two and thought I'd say hi." She answered.
'Yet she only mentioned Asuma by name.' Kakashi thought, looking back to the bearded jounin. "So, what was it you wanted to discuss?"
"Oh, nothing that can't wait." He said, brushing it off. "I guess I'll catch you later." He then headed off, and it sure didn't seem like a coincidence that Kurenai went with him.
'Now I really want to know what he was going to say.' Kakashi thought.
Recovered and enraged, the hellhound went back to searching for its prey and her protector. They had run off into the woods, but with its nose it could track them easily.
The scent trail went to a river but that didn't stop the creature. It walked right into the water, steam emitting from where the contact was, and it trekked thru like this was nothing, stopping at the other end. It got confused, the combined scent trail suddenly split into two, the boy going one way and the girl going another. Traces of the scents of the others remained mixed in, but given the two were mated they were bound to have the scent of their mate on them.
The Master had made it clear that the girl was the true target, so the hellhound followed that trail. The trail weaved between the trees, looping and zigzagging, but still trackable to the demonic canine.
The trail came to a stop right at a tree, going up. The hellhound looked up, seeing the white-eyed girl seated on a branch too high for easy access.
"Sorry, but you're not getting me." hinata said.
The hellhound made an attempt to climb, but its paws made it too difficult to get a grip. Pieces of bark got torn off the tree, but then it simply planted its paws on the tree and used some chakra to get some leverage. The wood around the tree started to burn at the same time, not yet burst into flames but definitely turn a hot red, and it started climbing up.
Hinata looked surprised and alarmed, then jumped from the tree to the next one. The hellhound jumped too, missing the tree and starting to climb again. Hinata jumped again, but the hellhound didn't follow. It looked to the branch she was landing on, and breathed a stream of dark blue fire. The branch caught fire, and Hinata ended up falling to the ground on her back. The hellhound jumped and landed right above her, growling jaws just above her head like it could bite her face off at any second.
"I... I'll go. You understand?" She said, trying to pacify the beast. "I'll go back to Aru. Just please, don't do anything to Naruto-kun or my sister."
The hellhound stepped back, keeping its eye on her but appearing to understand. She got up and dusted herself off. She looked around, trying to see Naruto, but the creature growled dangerously, almost impatiently. "Alright, I get it." With a sad expression, she walked to it, and the hellhound glowed a bright white that soon engulfed her.
When the light faded, neither were there anymore.
Breathing very shallowly, Yugito was alive but only barely. She was pinned down in a way that almost looked like crucifixion, only both hands were pinned together above her head. Laying below her was the equally still and shallowly breathing body of Hidan, laying within a circle diagram with a spike in his chest.
Kakuzu sat off to the side like he was waiting for something but didn't want to be. "Get on with it."
Hidan turned to him. "The ceremony must not be disturbed. It won't be much longer. Don't give yourself a heart attack dude." Slowly he proceeded to remove the spike, with some blood gusting out now that the wound wasn't closed. "Crap that hurt."
"Don't you have any shorter prayers to do this with?" Kakuzu said as he got to his feet.
"Trying to take the easy way out of honoring your god is sacrilegious." Hidan warned. "At least we got the jinchuuriki. How many to go?"
"I don't remember off the top of my head. But the next one is in Land of Fire."
Aru was relaxing against a tree enjoying a book, looking like he was merely killing time. Given the lateness of the hour and the fact he still wore sunglasses, how he could see anything was a mystery. But that was the least of Hanabi's concerns.
The young heiress was wide awake, refusing to go to sleep with her abductor around her. He may have said he wasn't interested in any sexual activity with her body, but she sure wasn't going to just take his word for it. And even if he was being honest, there were other ways he could hurt or use her.
There was no doubt that this man was a psychopath, he was high functioning but still incredibly dangerous and willing to do whatever it took to gain what he wanted. And that was enough to keep her awake.
There was a sudden flash of light, coming out of nowhere so suddenly it almost blinded Hanabi. Aru however acted like this was no different than a light in a room being turned on, and glanced up from his book.
"Good boy." He said with a smile as he got up, seeing the hellhound along with a nervous-looking Hinata.
"Hinata!" Hanabi called out. Hinata put a finger to her lips, telling the younger girl to withhold herself for the time being.
"What do you want?" Hinata asked Aru
"I think you know exactly what I want dear." Aru said with a smile. "But do you need me to clear up any confusion?"
"I think it's clear as crystal." Hinata replied. "But you're not getting anything out of me until you let these two go." She gestured to both Hanabi and Kiba at that.
"You're in no position to set terms here missy." Aru stated then he looked at his two captives. "But their role is done here anyway and I am a demon of my word if nothing else, so sure, they can go."
With a wave of his hand the hellhound burst into flames again and revealed Kiba and the collar that had been wrapped around his neck fell away as if made of ash.
"Huh? What happened? Wait, am I really free of that nightmare?" He asked himself, seeing his body back to normal and no commanding voice in his head.
"Yes my boy you are free of your contract to me. And I must say you did a superb job. So please enjoy your money. You earned every coin." Aru said with a cruel laugh.
"Kiba, take Hanabi home now." Hinata said, keeping her eyes on Aru.
Kiba looked to Hinata. "No way am I leaving you here. That man is-"
"I know what he is, but I need you to trust me."
"But Hinata-"
"Kiba, trust me. This must happen." Hinata pressed.
"Go ahead and take the girl home Kiba. Your services are no longer needed and frankly you could use a bath after all that work I put you thru." Aru advised.
Kiba growled at the man, wanting to rip him apart. "Hinata, you're not really going to... you know?"
The white-eyed girl gave him no answer or even a look his way.
"Hinata you can't do this!" Hanabi pleaded "There must be another way!"
Hinata continued to give no response.
"Looks like your sister knows the best she can do is get this over with. So away with the rest of you." Aru said, brushing off the other two as if they were nothing more then annoying insects.
Kiba glared savagely but went to Hanabi, moving to cut her bonds but decided to leave them. If he cut them, she might try to fight off the incubus and only make things worse. So he picked her up and put her over his shoulders.
"Put me down! He can't do this!" Hanabi objected, kicking and squirming.
Kiba gave Hinata one last look, silently pleading for her to not go thru with this. She returned the look and simply gave a pained blink. Nothing left to say, Kiba left as quickly as he could.
'Naruto, if you're not dead and that's why this is happening, you wll be once this is over.' Kiba vowed.
"Relax girl, just let Lilith take control for a while and pretend you're just dreaming. After a while Lilith won't even need to be in you anymore and maybe she can help alter your memories so this won't even be a dream to you." Aru said like he was trying to be reassuring.
Hinata frowned. "Let me ask one thing, is there any other way to get Lilith out without resorting to sex with you?"
"Well... let's suppose there is such a way. Why would I tell you when I could just have sex with you?" Aru replied.
"Humor me. I get the feeling this isn't the first time Lilith has had a human host. You've probably had one too. Were there any other ways to free yourselves without hurting the humans?" Hinata pressed.
"Well you're right about us needing human hosts once in a while. But you must think I'm an idiot if you believe I'm going to tell you an alternative to me having sex with Lilith right now. So, let her take charge woman."
Hinata frowned, but then smiled. "Sorry Aru, but you're going to have to use your own hand tonight if you're horny."
Right then, Hinata burst into smoke and was replaced with Naruto, dressed in Hinata's attire.
"What is this?" Aru asked, confused.
"Our plan. You'll never get Hinata now." Naruto said, taking a stance. "Ugh, these clothes aren't so comfortable on my body."
"So you're going to beat me with crossdressing?" Aru asked, then snapped his fingers. "Oh wait, let me guess... you managed to get away from Kiba just long enough to disguise yourself as Lilith's host and even switched clothes with her to fool his nose. So she's hiding safely waiting for you to come back to her."
"Wow, you're not as stupid as you look." Naruto joked, knowing that the real Hinata was currently on Mt. Myoboku being guarded by the toads, and possibly uncomfortable wearing his clothes too. The switch was needed to trick Kiba's nose and they didn't have any time to come up with alternatives.
"But I'm much stronger than you look boy. I took down that girl's entire family, what makes you think you can beat me?" Aru threatened.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, it's what I do." The blonde said with a smirk and launched himself forward to attack.