Sleepless D: Sorry for the late update, I've been busy with work and I've applied for university, so my updates may vary. Peace out.
The moon spreads across the night sky, showing what little the sandy desert showed. The stone walls that surround the Hidden Sand Village. Several Shinobi watch the desert, not expecting much. One yawns as he looks down the pathway into the village. The small fires along the wall that leads the way remain untouched and lighting the way, though unbreakable darkness surrounds that which is not lit. He coughs a little and goes to turn around, but he feels something hit his chest. He coughs a little more, looking down and notices a small bolt in his chest. His body doesn't process this and he looks to where it came from. Another bolt goes straight through his eye, whipping his head back and his body going black and explodes into dust and shadows.
Metal collides with the stone ground, causing a couple of guards to turn, looking and seeing in confusion. One of them draws a kunai and slowly begins to head toward where the sound while the other examines the surroundings. The first Shinobi walks forward, looking around the shadows and soon notices something that would've made that sound. A small pile of kunai and shuriken. He steps forward, soon noticing two arrow bolts also laying on the ground. His eyes narrow, looking around and wonders why there's a pile of weapons for no reason and moves forward, looking for any more clues.
Blood splatters across the floor, his eyes widening and looks down, seeing blood dripping down his shirt. He goes to call out, but all he can do is gargle as blood runs down his neck and into his throat. His eyes roll up, soon collapsing and his body turning black and shadow like before hitting the ground and turns into shadow and ash.
The second Shinobi grunts and yells in shock, getting smashed into by an unknown force and a blade narrowly missing his chest and cuts into his arm. He looks around, spotting the person before his foot takes a step, hitting nothing as he falls off the wall and yells in surprise. The person that attacked him, he wore black, leather clothing that allows them to blend into the dark perfectly. Several pouches along his body while his blood stained blade remains ready as he stares through his black gas mask. He raises his left hand and a bolt fires at him. The Shinobi quickly tilts back, narrowly dodging it narrowly as he falls. The Shinobi twists his body, aiming to have his feet aiming for the ground and his hand reaching out, brushing the wall as his chakra focus on his hand triples as it slows his decent and his feet start grazing the wall. The Shinobi's other hand reaches into his pouch and pulls out a kunai. He looks up, his feet pushing to rush up back at the wall. A sudden flash of steel goes by, confusion setting in as he stays there, looking onwards and the colour in his eye runs. A paper thin line goes across his eyes, his face and along his headgear. The top of his head begins to slide and falls. His body becomes black as shadows and ash before falling, turning into them.
A figure stands at the top of the wall, breathing deeply before composing himself, his outfit different to the others as his colours are a deep red rather than black. He scans the area, seeing fires put out as people turn to ash and shadows, "Is the area secure?" he asks, scanning the area and removes his mask. The man appears to be that of at least forty, it is hard to determine as his body has been through wars and a scar grazes the right side of his face, licking the corner of his brow and runs down from the corner of his eye, almost like a tear.
His eyes look to the left, seeing a woman wearing the same outfit as he, but keeps her mask on. "Yes, the others will ensure that no eyes glance this way. We have secured our escape as soon as we collect the blood."
The man nods, looking up and vanishes, the others vanishing the same way and reappear on the next level, "Remember, the target has the ultimate defence, killing it will be more difficult that gaining blood from the body. We are to draw blood and retreat. Those are my orders, don't die out there, or you'll shame the homelands. We are Malacology, we fight for ourselves, expect to be the last survivor, don't fail the mission." His voice carries, deeply as the others lip those words themselves, almost like a prayer. They vanish, leaving only shadows behind and the streets of the Hidden Sand Village are unknown to the threat.
Xxxxx
Gaara stands atop the Kazekage Tower, staring at the sky as the rare cloud thickening across the sky. Gaara sighs a little, knowing the weather is to snow for a short time, as it does in deserts, but it dries before anyone is aware that it even snows. Never does one often see the desert snow, but Gaara knows when it comes, having spent every lonely night watching the night pass.
Gaara feels his mind relaxed ever since he woke up to see Naruto and nearly half the Sand Shinobi Force standing over him. Gaara clasps his head, feeling the mark on the side of his head that he gave himself years ago. It feels odd, knowing that Shukaku is gone and he can probably sleep, but it scares him to try and sleep.
Gaara soon feels something, something not right and he watches the village, wondering what was happening. He closes his left eye and covers it, focusing on his chakra and mumbles to himself, "Opening of the Third Eye." And the sand around him forms into an eye that flies high into the sky, scanning, watching, waiting for what this feeling of dread is.
His sands shift, forming behind him and his eye glances, seeing his shield up and the shadows rising from nothing. Men form from the shadows, some women, but they dress the same, black leather, gas masks and weapons hidden amongst their body. Gaara turns, looking at the new comers and could sense the dread from them. He does not feel fearful, it's almost like the world, life itself is fearful of their existence.
"Who are you?" Gaara questions, watching carefully from his and his third eye. They don't respond and they just watch him, calculating and looking at the sand, "Are you with the Akatsuki?" again, no response, they watch him and he watches them, seeing more come from the shadows like cockroaches and they showed no fear. "Must I kill you all?" again, nothing came from them as they start to move forward.
Gaara's sand erupted around them, surrounding them and tightening rapidly. Gaara held his hand up, ready to crush them, but his eyes narrow, he doesn't feel resistance, nor does he feel anything trapped in his sands. The sand behind him rise rapidly, stopping several bolts from hitting him as figures start appearing from all sides, vanishing in a blink of an eye and reappearing in the same manner. The Kazekage felt somewhat confused, wondering if he's under a Genjutsu or if they have the same speed capability as Lee. Gaara's sands rush around him, blocking off several bolts that do nothing to harm him.
Gaara loses interest and his sand explodes in all directions, surrounding them all with sand and waits, confused again as he feels no one within his sand. He feels his sand erupt from his shoulder, he looks back, spotting one of the attackers' blade tried to slice into him, but his sands blocked it easily. Their left hand raises and his sand blocks something. He looks and notices some sort of device attached to his wrist, almost looking like a crossbow or something similar. Gaara notices something, the bolt stuck in his sand is glowing blue. An explosion comes from the bolt.
Gaara stumbles from the force, bits of his sand turned to glass from the heat and flames. Gaara feels something tug, almost like a force is pulling him away and he narrowly scans an attacker reaching out to him. Gaara feels the sand armour covering his left arm, abdomen and torso tear off and fly straight at the attacker. The sand stops abruptly, hanging in mid-air, only a few feet from the attacker.
Gaara watches, the sand the attacker took is no longer in his control, making him somewhat confused and could see that the attacker wasn't expecting that result. Gaara waves his hand, the sand around the attacker engulfs him, this time however, Gaara could feel resistance. Gaara closes the palm of his hand, "Sand Burial!" he roars and blood splatters across the floor and some of it sprays across the roof and hits the ground below.
"That idiot." One of the other attackers stated, showing no sign of anger or fear or even caring in her voice. Gaara sees her vanish once again from the corner of his eye and soon feels something entering his personal space. Movement below causes the sand around him to explode and a figure flies away, skidding across the ground and stops several feet away.
Lights started turning on from the ruckus of the fighting. Several figures started rushing across the rooftops and soon stop in their tracks. Shadows rise and conflict soon spreads across the multiple rooftops. The shadows seem to have the advantage in combat, but they were unable to land a hit as sand blocked the attacks from them.
Gaara stands within a ball of sand, his eye rising and ensuring that his people don't suffer any loses. The low ranking Shinobi are escorting civilians away while high ranking ones fight for Gaara. Word spread across the village that they're under attack, but the enemy doesn't appear to be from any Nation or even Akatsuki. The sand around the village continues to rise, creating a barrier to block the projectiles that went long and risked the civilians. The sands outside the walls rise and Gaara aims to remove any possibility for the enemy of getting away from his grasp and protect any more risks of his people.
Kankuro comes from the crowd of civilians and lands on the roofs, scanning the area and seeing the enemy. He curses under his breath and wonders how they got in this village and wonders if another traitor is amongst their midst again. Kankuro pulls out his scrolls and summons Black Ant and Crow. The two puppets fly across the area, firing off projectiles and hitting a couple of the attackers. Kankuro smiles as he ensured he has fast acting poison applied to his weaponry and watches the two he hit drop to their knees, seeing the poison take effect.
A Sand Shinobi dives to kill one of the downed attackers. The ground explodes around the attacker, catching the Shinobi by surprise as the area has smoke and bits of flame and rubble spread across the area.
Kakuro watches, confused by what just happened and soon sees the Shinobi fly out, falling to the ground and slides across the ground, blood leaking from his abdomen. A figure comes from the smoke and Kankuro sees the attacker he injured come out like nothing happened, even pulling out the needles. Kankuro curses, wondering if the needles didn't pierce deep enough. He can see the blood on the needles, so that's out of the question. Did he actually load a poisoned batch? Again, out of the question. The only conclusion he can think of is that the attacker either has an immunity/tolerance to poisons or there's some foul play afoot.
The attacker charges, aiming to kill the man he wounded. Kankuro flicks his hand and the ground below the wounded Shinobi shatters and a giant shield surrounds him and closes, sealing him in the giant puppet Salamander. Kankuro smirks as he sees the person stop, knowing he has to focus on him now and he's set the trap.
The attacker looks at Kankuro and then back at the Salamander, not really showing any interests. The figure seems to take a breath and vanishes into shadows. Kankuro scans the area, looking behind and above to find the attacker, but he's nowhere to be seen. He listens now, trying to find any sign of where the attacker went. Thunk thunk thunk 'What was that?' Kankuro thinks for a second, looking around and something flashes. Salamander explodes into flames and shrapnel. Kankuro raises his hand to block out the light and is in shock, wondering how anyone managed to deal damage to Salamander. His thoughts stop on that and he notes how it exploded. 'That came from the inside…how did that happen?' he wonders, soon hearing something land behind him. The ground explodes and Kankuro's fingers move rapidly, spotting the attacker get caught in Black Ant and sealed within. Crow dismantles and fires rapidly into the Black Ant, stabbing into it. The first few stabs hit something inside, the others just thunked, hitting nothing and Kankuro watches carefully.
The Shadows take form nearby. Kankuro looks and spots an attacker, but blood starts dripping onto the ground and Kankuro concludes that it was the guy he was attacking. "What king of ability is that!?" he questions, watching carefully, but gains no reply.
The wounds are obviously serious enough, the black hiding it well, but he can see the blood spurt from his neck, spurting with each heartbeat. The attacker holds his blade, stained with blood and raises it. The blade soon points inwards, aiming for his own abdomen and without a second thought, plunges into his stomach and twists. The man gargles something, the blood running into his windpipe that left little to no translation as he explodes into shadow and ash. Kankuro watches, confused by what just happened and quickly reassembles Crow and readies his actions to help with the conflict.
The world flickers, almost like a film reel just jumped a scene. Several explosions go off at the same time. The Kazekage's tower being the place of origin and flames rise from it rapidly. Several Sand Ninja erupt into ash and shadow. Kankuro looks utterly shocked and wonders what happened. The sand seems to lower and fall, making Kankuro panic now. "Gaara?!" he screams for his younger brother.
Xxx
A few moments earlier; Gaara watches the few that remain focused on him. A couple of attackers wearing dark blue and the other two wearing dark red. He sees them communicating, though they're lacking lips to read as the protective dome is preventing any sound from coming in. They have been avoiding all attempts of Gaara's sand that try to grasp them.
The four attackers pull out small containers and they seem to inject themselves with its contents. They all start twitching a little, catching the slight movement from the group. One of the red wearing attackers steps forward. Gaara sees that he wore no mask and could see the man's face clearly. The man being of at least forty, though difficult from the chaos of war and the scar grazing the right side of his face. Gaara could tell just by looking at him, his eyes have seen more death and betrayal and perhaps more than Gaara has ever witnessed. He felt somewhat sympathetic of the man, knowing some of the feelings in his unmoving eyes. The man raises his left hand and it glows and the world flicks.
Gaara is thrown back as the shell shakes from some rapid explosions that destroy the surface and Gaara sees the sand collapse from the heat, turning to molten glass. Gaara goes to remove the molten glass, but the world flickers again and Gaara feels his body pull and his sand fly out. Pain erupts from his neck and feels sand surround his body try to stop the pain. Something warm drips down onto his collar. Gaara's eyes slowly turning and seeing the second red clothed person squatting next to him, her hand near his neck and soon realises a syringe stabbed into him somehow.
The remaining sand surrounds them and enclosed, wrapping him and the woman tightly and he goes to crush her with his sand. The sand expands and Gaara is sent falling back as another explosion went off. The woman pries herself out before the sand can be reformed and her left arm is broken in several places and on fire. The other red attacker raises his hand and the others seem to stop in place. The attackers start retreating and the woman watches Naruto before mockingly saluting Gaara before vanishing in shadows.
Gaara holds onto his neck, trying to keep calm as he feels blood run between his fingers. The sand continues to wrap around him, cradling him as he tries to stop the bleeding. Gaara's panic continues to rise higher, having a phobia of his own blood still. He swallows and feels himself shiver in anxiety and his breaths are shallow and panicky.
A hand grasps his shoulder. Gaara's head quickly spins to the person, his sands racing up to attack. The sands stop when he sees the worried eyes of his brother. Kankuro quickly reaches into his pouch and pulls out bandages that he usually uses to stop sand entering loose clothing. Kankuro applies the bandage to Gaara's wound, "It's alright, Gaara. It's alright…" he whispers, his voice reassuring, "Get the Medic!" Kankuro orders, seeing the Shinobi rush around the area, trying to pinpoint the attacker's escape route.
Xxxxx
The attackers vanished from the village. Those that were injured or near death before they escaped committed hara-kiri and vanished with ash and shadows. The number of deaths of the Shinobi force is unknown, but with the number of MIA and the fact the attackers vaporised their kills somehow, they believe it levels just beyond the seventies, civilian casualties remained at zero. Gaara was wounded and suffered some minor blood loss, but he wasn't gravely wounded as Kankuro feared. They sent word to the Leaf and the other allied Nations to the attackers and their dress code.
Xxxxxxxxxx
It's been several days since then and up to a week since Naruto received that nightmare, or vision, or whatever those were. Naruto has been hearing things in the darkest of places, though he doesn't know what they say or what they mean. He has spent a considerable amount of time with Hinata, sometimes seeing a sparkle in her eye that remind him of her old self, though she remains emotionless. During their time, whenever he wonders why she's with him, she seems to answer him without a question asked, 'I'm doing it for my old self'.
The other members of Konoha 11 have been whispering that she has found her old feelings, though little shows of that since she doesn't show any. However, during the time Naruto suffered from a great illness that left most people in shock, Hinata never left the his appartment. Susumu has been jokingly saying, or what they hope has been jokingly suggesting that Hinata's scratching an old itch before destroying what's left, like a praying mantis. Eri is what others consider Shino on a responsive level, the group unable to learn anything from her other than to never get touched by her and that she trusts Hinata's actions.
There has been chaos across the major Nations, random attacks and people disappearing, most linking to those of Jinchuuriki, even attacks on said Jinchuuriki. Most have been connected with Akatsuki, but there's another player, out there collecting samples from bodies or attacking said Jinchuuriki.
Naruto had felt more eyes are on him than usual, and some of them weren't his friends and companions. Naruto hasn't seen Hinata for a while, hearing that she and both her teams have left with Kakashi since Kurenai is 'unable' to proceed with any missions for the near future, some saying she's no longer a Shinobi. Naruto hasn't really bothered with keeping up with news and details of most of his friends since Hinata came back.
Shikamaru and Choji have been checking on Naruto since he seemed to be hanging out with Hinata. They did notice that Naruto has been twitchier, like he's expecting Jiraiya to jump him with embarrassing pictures or something. They were currently eating with him at Ichiraku Ramen.
Naruto stares at his portion, not feeling as hungry as he thought. Shikamaru looks at him, examining his features and could easily tell he's been lacking sleep. Naruto's hair is more of a mess and his skin has lost its tan and he did remember Naruto being violently ill about a week ago. Nearly everyone thought that was odd since Naruto was never sick due to his high vitality. Naruto twitches and looks back, looking into nothing and just shivers in nervousness.
"You okay, Naruto?" Shikamaru questions, patting his shoulder and sees Naruto turn to him, surprised almost, like he forgot he was there. "Seriously, you haven't been yourself for a while. What's going on?"
Naruto just shrugs, "I'm alright, I have just been hearing things." Naruto tells her, feeling confused and shivers a little.
"Hear things? What things?" Choji asks, slurping up some some noodles.
"I don't know…I really don't…"
Shikamaru looks at him, seeing the tension, but there's something else, "Anything else playing with your mind?" he asks, leaning against the table and feels worry for Naruto.
"It's…complicated." Naruto whispers, resting his head upon his hands as he tries to think, but things flicker in his mind and Hinata enters more often than not. "I guess; I'm worried about Hinata…"
"Worried? She's only been gone since yesterday." Choji tells him, swallowing the last of his food before ordering his sixth bowl. "Did something happen between…you two? Did she actually stay with you, to look after you?"
Naruto looks at Choji for several seconds, contemplating the words Choji said, "…Yeah…she was there…and I guess what she did was considered 'looking after'. But what you have in mind is…is very different to how I was taken care of…so to speak." Naruto tells them, though the first day was almost caring, but it got weird after that. He can't remember much, but the moment he woke from his fever, it got very weird.
"What happened then?" Choji asks, curious enough to momentarily stop eating.
Flashback
Hinata hasn't moved for twelve hours now, staring at the wheezing Naruto on her lap, sweating heavily and continually receiving a damp cloth on his forehead and neck. Naruto groans and slowly rolls over and slowly drags himself to the bathroom, leaving Hinata sitting there.
Naruto coughs hard, dragging himself on his hands and knees and his head meets the toilet. He coughs hard into it, spitting the taste of vomit in his mouth that's been stewing there since last night. He gags a little and slowly drags his body to the bath and turns the cold tap on. Naruto shoves his head under the cold, flowing water, washing away all the sweat and other stuff in his hair which he doesn't want to think about. He tilts his head to the side, allowing the water to now flow into his mouth, spreading around his mouth that gradually removes the taste that lingered in his mouth and continues doing so. Naruto throws his head from the flowing water and chokes a little, forgetting to breathe for several seconds and coughs a little, spitting into the draining water that circles down the drain.
Naruto manages to turn the tap off and stick his head into a towel on the floor, allowing the already damp cloth to take more moisture coming from his head and sighs. 'Being sick sucks…' he says to himself, feeling his head pounding.
"Two Tails Jinchuuriki found. Deceased."
Naruto's stomach clenches and Naruto dives for the toilet, his head inches from the surface of the toilet as his stomach empties itself once again. Naruto coughs, choking a little and heaves in pain, shivering horribly. 'I just got the taste from my mouth…' Naruto says to himself, feeling horrible again as the horrid taste of vomit spreads across his mouth.
"Essence taken."
Naruto coughs and vomits again, feeling worse and slowly leans back and scans his bathroom, seeing no one here. He becomes confused and wonders who talked, knowing that it wasn't Hinata. The voice was male and it came from nowhere yet everywhere. The voice was dark, emotionless, almost similar to Hinata, but dark, husky and cruel.
Naruto coughs a little more, spitting into the toilet and lays his head on the toilet seat, closing his eyes and enjoying the coolness of the seat. The floor seems to swerve and Naruto's never felt more glad about holding his less than hygienic toilet.
Xxxxx
Naruto coughs in pain, his skin tingling from coldness and could feel his skin exposed to a cold wind. He feels something brush against his bare skin and Naruto opens his eyes, winking in pain from the bright light. He coughs again and slowly raises himself from where he is, realising he was on his bed and coughs again. Something moves next to him and he looks to his side.
Blood leaks from his nose and Naruto feels absolute shock and surprise while his eyes widen and burn from the extra exposure to the air. Hinata lifts herself from the bed and burns Naruto's mind's eye. She was not wearing anything, her extraordinary pale skin showing the signs of battle or something similar to it across her skin. The two scars that seems to catch his attention are on her lower abdomen, one looking like a large stab wound, the other looking like a surgical scar close to the first. Naruto rips his eyes from her scars, realising how close he was looking at her lower part, unintentionally mentally burning the small amount of midnight blue hair that covered her womanhood and looks up. His eyes unwittingly met Hinata's surprisingly large breasts with such lightly pink nipples, so light that it nearly matched her skin complexion. His eyes soon stroll up the scar on the left of her jawline and scrolls up to meet her eyes.
She doesn't seem fazed and turns to get out of bed. Naruto's eyes soon spot another scar which makes him somewhat horrified. A large scar has been engraved into her back, but it's been cut to make the symbol for 'Envy' into the centre of her back and another scar that looks very recent, the symbol for 'Wrath'. She stands up and walks over to her clothing which is neatly piled on his bedside table.
Naruto opens his mouth, but only a dried croaking came from his mouth. Naruto didn't know what to say or ask. His blood was rushing and his heartrate was going from fast to slow. If Naruto didn't know better, he was sure he was having a stroke or heart attack.
"You had a fever, didn't break for nearly two days. You sweated out most of your clothing and you needed something to keep you warm. Nothing in your house was…hygienic enough to wrap around you. I gave you body heat from my own, I also made sure you ate and drank plenty of fluids." Hinata tells him, wrapping herself with bandages, mostly around her torso and a little around her legs and hips before she started dressing herself up.
"…Wait, two days?!" Naruto yells in surprise, momentarily forgetting what happened a minute ago.
"Yes, you passed out on the toilet and I've been looking after you the entire time." She tells him, looking at him and Hinata sees her smile a little, though again, it vanishes, "You may need to get some new clothes, I haven't had time to clean any clothing."
Naruto looks down, now his eyes widen when he sees his own blond pubic hair showing and quickly covers himself up. He looks towards Hinata, confused and embarrassed as he sees Hinata turn to leave. Naruto coughs again, looking away and blushes, "Th…Thank you…" Naruto whispers, looking out the winder and shivers a little, feeling better than he had a couple of days ago.
A few seconds pass and Naruto feels soft fingers cup his chin, causing him to turn his head slightly and feels soft lips press against his forehead. His eyes widen as he sees Hinata's chin and can see the bandages wraps under her shirt. "It's alright, I'm doing it for my old self." She says and brushes his cheek.
"…Can…Can I ask you something?" Naruto asks, leaning up and looks her in the eyes.
Hinata smiles at him, looking him in the eyes, "Ask me later, I need to go back home to change my clothes and sort some things out." She whispers, brushing his cheek again and begins to leave.
"Seven Tails Jinchuuriki found. Deceased. Beginning to extract essence."
Naruto's mind feels like it's being poked by a red hot poker. He grabs his head and groans, holding his stomach and somehow holds his vomit back. He shivers and opens his eyes, looking outside and then to Hinata. His eyes widen, seeing her hold her head in pain, but she straightens and leaves the room.
"Did she…hear that?" Naruto wonders, feeling worried and scared by hearing voices.
Sleepless D: Well sorry for the lateness of this update. Please enjoy and review. Peace out.