Chapter LIII
The Predator and the Prey
TW: For a warned audience
In order not to lose my cool, I lock away all my anxieties into the back of my mind to focus on my goal. Fatigue is constant, my lungs are starting to burn and my already meagre chakra is shrinking. I'm grateful to have come across Shikamaru and Chōji to help me; without them, catching Naruto alone is impossible. Shikamaru hides it, but I know his injury is hurting him. The bleeding has decreased, yet it still persists a little; the cuts are deep and require care.
That I can't connect with Naruto worries me, like this sordid possibility that this group is calling him like a siren song that is futile to fight against; this haunting song is a clever trick to gain the trust of its victim, who doesn't realize that they will be swallowed into the abyss. In all this, I know that other shinobis will soon interfere. The whole thing drags on and many have witnessed this feral Naruto who sows panic by his mere presence.
I have to limit the damage and prevent more people from knowing about his condition as a chakra devourer. I can't let him wander around the village indefinitely, nor do I have the luxury of following him to the place he's trying so hard to reach, to the point of running away from me. The guy who kidnapped Naruto disappeared in a snap of the fingers, after all.
I have to put an end to it, and I have no right to fail a third time.
The sapphire-eyed boy has left us far behind while we were recovering from his last attack… However, if I trust my nose, he stopped somewhere. Either he has reached his destination or something or someone stands in his way. I sincerely hope that this is the first hypothesis … especially since Naruto doesn't move from where he is. Immediately, I make a sign to the kids to express my observation to them in silence.
Nearby, we stop on one of the high roofs to scan the surroundings, listening attentively to the slightest noise. I notice that we're about a hundred metres in front of the building, in which Naruto resided before he moved to my home.
When I see the blond on all fours on the roof of the building in question searching the place, while sniffing and wagging his tail curiously, I sigh with relief. Shikamaru and Chōji are quick to see him too. It must be said that his golden mane, his luminous eyes and his slightly exposed back contrast with the darkness. All in all, that he's alone and not faced with a threat reassures me, although I don't know the reason why he stopped his race here.
We carefully observe each of Naruto's gestures. On all fours like an animal, he ventures onto the balcony of his apartment to open the door… However, the latter is locked. He examines it with touch, as if he were looking for a lock. Then, he steps over the guard to continue his inspection of the building. He clings to the wall using his nails to keep his balance on the slightly sloping roof.
When he reaches his bedroom window, he peeks inside—something that accentuates the swings of his black tail that betrays his growing excitement. The said window not locked, Naruto opens it to sneak in and therefore disappear from our field of vision.
What does that mean? Is this the place in which this group would have set a trap for him? Naruto no longer has the slightest interest in going to his house. Otherwise, he would have escaped long before, and this isn't the first time he has set foot there since his return to Konohagakure. I exchange a look with Shikamaru who wears a confused pout while frowning. Needless to say, he finds it weird too.
Without further ado, the three of us jump to reach the window through which the blond entered. Since I hear a relatively silent mayhem, I hold my breath and cautiously approach to look inside.
My student is rummaging through his room, which he's turning upside down; quickly, it's a mess. He opens the doors of the cupboards which he empties of their contents. He rummages under his bed, pulling out the stored objects which he shamelessly throws behind him, as if they were unimportant old trinkets. Naruto is fiercely searching for something, that's understood.
"Naruto...?" I call out to him, slowly entering the room, while the kids observe what is happening.
Naruto's agitation ends when he suddenly freezes. Suspicious, I feel a cold sweat bead on my temple and I dread what he's about to do. His immobility doesn't last, but it seems to last for hours…
The teenager comes out from under the bed and when I see what he's holding in his hands, I'm flabbergasted; at that, my brain stops working. Naruto gets up and shows me a plush in my likeness, the smile sketched to his ears as he lets out silent laughter. He then sits back down on the ground to stare disconcertingly at it, humming inaudible sounds. He's now perfectly calm.
Tell me I'm dreaming. I refuse to believe that Naruto caused a massive panic, exposed his feral and chakra devourer condition to others, got possessed by his instincts, and caused my mission to fail … all that for that?! For this thing in my image that he remembered I don't know how?!
I didn't want to believe Sakura when she told me about it; since she was laughing, I thought she was joking. Moreover, judging from the state of the plush, Naruto had it for a long time, long before he left with the late Jiraiya. I don't know why he made this thing that looks exactly like me, but it gets on my nerves, especially since he's gazing at it in a certain way that makes me feel really uneasy.
I shake my head to come to my senses. This catastrophic night isn't over; the bluish markings like his irises still glow with equal intensity, as do his blond and black hairs erected to the peak of their ability. I return my attention to the confused and visibly disillusioned young shinobis. They're appalled at this particular, disturbing object.
"Did Naruto cause all this trouble for that...?" Shikamaru asks, jaded and in disbelief.
"Looks like it," I grumble, clicking my tongue in my mouth. "I take the situation in hand, but keep watch in case he flees again. Naruto's still bewitched. I'll let you know when he's normal again."
They nod and leave. As for me, I close the window and the blinds, so that he forgets this exit door through which he could escape. Although it plunges the room into darkness, I manage to see thanks to the soft light cast by Naruto's body. I must say that the gleam in his eyes makes him somewhat terrifying; a true wild beast in the dark, whose irises are the only thing visible in absolute, oppressive darkness.
To say I'm nervous would be a euphemism.
In addition to intensely contemplating this plush, he began to sniff it long and deeply, while stroking the face and white hair with his fingertips. My organ of love skips a heartbeat when he licks that stuffed Kakashi while tightly hugging it. I don't know why, but my hairs stand on end, goosebumps win me over…
As he's about to swipe his tongue a second time, he feels it and suddenly turns his gaze to stare at me. In response, I stiffen, terrified. His feral, wide-open eyes are as sharp as a hawk that has spotted its prey. His eyelids have stopped blinking, and that doesn't bode well. Those eyes are the same when the beast inside him rises to the surface to devour the last bits of the boy I know… No… That's not quite it. This look is icy, the same one I had the misfortune to contemplate.
Before me stands a beast stripped of humanity.
I am convinced that Naruto isn't aware of his actions anymore.
I no longer feel at all safe in this too small room.
"Easy, Naruto," I whisper, raising my palms forward.
His eyes glued to my person, the blond abandons this plush on the ground. He gets on all fours and his tail wags in a way that isn't at all normal. According to his posture and the gestures in his limbs, he's about to pounce on me.
I was right since he jumps with his hands open to catch me. I narrowly avoid him by rolling over. I barely have time to glance behind me as Naruto is already in the air, his hands determined to reach me. He brushes past me and his sharp nails claw at my shoulder as I dodge a second time.
My breathing quickens and my heart gives in to panic; his intentions, whatever they may be, send a shiver of dread down my spine. No matter what he has in mind, I don't intend to be captured by his shackles made of flesh to find out…
With my sad chakra reserves, I won't be able to free myself from him… All in all, I'm still hesitant to use my Sharingan for now.
Silent, Naruto slowly approaches me, clawing at the floor as I step back to maintain distance. He stops. Seeing his lower limbs, he prepares to pounce again… Unfortunately for me, the blond fakes me.
Instead of a high jump, Naruto did a low jump with which he manages to grab my legs to knock me backwards. As I fall, I hit my head hard, stunning myself for the time of a breath. Nevertheless, I quickly come to my senses and the pain that stings my legs helps me a lot to pull myself together.
Naruto digs his claws into my skin to climb and get closer to my chest and face. Because of the panic in which I sink, I can no longer think. Without being able to choose, I aggressively and violently push Naruto back, giving him a well-placed punch to stun him. Besides a head movement that follows the direction of the blow, he barely reacts, if at all.
With vivacity, his hand painfully grabs my right wrist and my left is imprisoned by his tail. The sudden sharp pain makes me flinch as he slams my hands hard against the floor, crushing them and spreading them apart more than my arms can handle. Spread apart, I'm forced onto my back and his free palm presses my chest until it interferes with my breathing. My legs make unnecessary movements, indirectly hampered by Naruto's body straddling me.
My cognitive thoughts are sabotaged by a growing agitation, to which is added this terror caused by my reptilian brain, which has awakened for obscure reasons. When I open my eyelid, my eye meets Naruto's luminous ones.
The effect is immediate.
My iris can no longer deviate from his and my whole body is petrified, to the point that blinking is impossible. A shiver runs through me. Tingling swarms under every centimetre of my epidermis, of my being held hostage by imaginary and absolute bonds. My lips are welded together, my red eye is doomed; only my heart and my organs are still functioning.
Naruto releases my sore and immobilized wrists similar to this stone carcass. My body has become a prison. I feel as if I were experiencing the phenomenon of a nocturnal paralysis, except that the demon really exists and is indeed on me. No matter how hard I try to move, even the little toe, nothing helps; I don't generate the slightest tremor.
I'm bewitched by a petrification spell.
His spell is far too powerful.
This is such that I can't mould my chakra.
Even if I could open my left eyelid, I couldn't use my Sharingan, since my chakra froze like ice in my chakra veins. I'm starting to get cold and if it were possible, I would shiver and chatter my teeth; I suffer from frostbite, although it's not real. My organ of love excruciatingly hurts from struggling like a devil in holy water. My breath is too short and too fast. I start to sweat.
I am at his mercy.
In my helplessness, I sink into a nameless terror when I contemplate this distorted face far too close to mine. Naruto's smile is unhealthy. His eyes pierce me without shame until I feel molested by his gaze. I don't recognize him and I sincerely fear what he wants to do with me. I try to scream, but my throat is tightly knotted. I don't know why I'm so panicked… It's not me, far from it.
Something about this Naruto breaks the shackles that bind my survival instinct to which I succumb.
Despite my paralysis, none of my senses are altered and I feel absolutely everything.
The perverse grin on his lips, Naruto closes his eyes and presses his forehead against mine. His palms rest on my face which he caresses before slipping them into my hair, making me shiver; at that, his claws brush my skin with pain. His face rubs against mine as he sniffs me deeply in a disturbing way.
To my horror and disgust, he licks me from my chin to my hair. I feel the unpleasant, pungent texture of his tongue on my abused skin, especially the area not covered by my mask which he hasn't removed, although he has lowered it too much for my liking. The latter slides dangerously too close to my visible eye that I can't close. Since the sticky appendix is abundantly covered with saliva, a filthy drop of drool slides down my forehead to my nose. I notice that my wet epidermis is going numb at an alarming rate; within seconds or less, I feel nothing and my skin is freezing, as if that part of my face has become a block of ice.
For my ordeal and dismay, Naruto starts again and licks my left side, soiling me with his shameless drool. The blond lies on top of me. He tightly wraps his tail around one of my legs, in a paradoxically pleasant vice. With dread, his body briefly rubs against mine and brushes my intimacy with his…
Naruto is titillated, and his excitement increases over time.
In my desperation, I try to mould my chakra, to make my chakra network work, my muscles … but my whole being refuses to obey me. I am trapped like prey in a snare; I can only remain motionless, undergo this inevitable nightmare which is only at its beginning. Naruto's now clear intentions engender an emotional mess that torments me with malice and in which all mental reflections are impossible.
I've never been so scared in my entire life.
My face is anaesthetized and covered in dripping drool; his weird tongue shut off my sensory nerves, and his eye powers did the same to my motor nerves. The feral boy slides his hands down until they reach both sides of my neck. Without hurting me, he rips and scratches my tank top to expose the left part of my neck which he hastens to lick, making me jump in my mind.
As the sensations fade and disappear, I can feel a deeper and deeper intrusion into my flesh. I realize it's my pupil's fangs as a sharp pain shoots through all my nerves. He just sucked out a small amount of my precious limited chakra; from then on, a fire spreads and warms my frozen skin, insensitive to its sweet suffering.
While tenderly stroking the back of my head, Naruto withdraws; the fangs stick out from my neck in an excruciatingly unpleasant phantom sensation. Continuing his torment on my incapacitated self, he runs his tongue back into my neck, into which he sinks his sharp teeth like the point of a kunai elsewhere in my flouted skin. No pain until my bluish essence is devoured and a tiny amount of venom is poured into it. Fatigue is absent, non-existent; this is far from enough for me to fall asleep.
I have no way of seeing the extent of the damage since I am a prisoner of his technique. Other than breathing and moving my dark, drying eye, there's nothing I can do. I can't even blink my eyes.
While stabbing me with his demon fangs, Naruto continues his infernal movements on my body. His unhealthy and intimate excitement increases in intensity after each bite; his black tail tightens, twists more…
Slowly I stop fighting, surrender to his intimate torture and reluctantly accept it…
Unable to use my chakra from which he siphons the last drops, I am doomed.
I know it only too well, alas…
There is no escape…
I became his thing…
With my sleeping skin, I don't feel his tongue licking me a third time… However, as he was about to stab me with his teeth, Naruto suddenly stopped. At the same time, the imaginary and ultimate shackles that held me captive suddenly disappeared. I don't care to understand why I'm free. In a nameless rush, I push Naruto away with all my strength, without the slightest delicacy; I push him out of me with all my limbs. I wiggle my leg furiously to free it from his tail, which luckily doesn't stick to me.
Panic devours me like a fire blazing with kindling oil. I frantically back up to the wall before slamming a hand into my injured, painless neck; the hot, sticky liquid shows that it's entirely covered with my still fresh blood. I'm paralyzed with fear. Both of my eyes are wide open, staring at the blond. My breathing is sonorous; I'm hyperventilating. I tremble like a leaf carried away by hurricanes. I'm willing to bet the pallor of my skin is whiter than snow now…
As for Naruto, he takes a long time to get up on all fours and struggles to hold himself up with his forearms. I notice that his hair has returned to normal; at that, the shine in his eyes and markings has disappeared to plunge the room into darkness. Accustomed to the dark, I manage to see.
The sapphire-eyed boy almost collapses. He utters muffled moans and he pants heavily, implying that he's exhausted, even drained of his chakra. Blood begins to flow from his eye sockets like scarlet waterfalls. He did use his eyes to bewitch me… I am now convinced that his eyes outclass the Sharingan, by far. I was weakened, of course, but to be petrified in this way, including my chakra… I've never seen such a powerful and ultimate petrification spell. Even at my full potential, I wouldn't have been able to free myself … or anyone else, for that matter.
The extent of his chakra devourer powers gives me goosebumps and freezes my blood in my veins.
Although Naruto seems to have finally come back to his senses, I can't calm down. I'm way too upset by this assault of a sexual nature. I fear the physical and mental damage if his technique hadn't stopped… Unfortunately, my body still experiences the movements of his pelvis against mine to torment me in a vicious way. Withdrawing my palm for the time of a breath, it's coated in hot blood, forcing me to press the wounds with it to silence the crimson discharge. They aren't alarming, although the bleeding persists.
After a long, unspeakable moment, Naruto brings his hands to his head, gritting his teeth. Once the crisis is over, he wipes his eyes and observes the surroundings, sniffling; a veil of great confusion covers his entire face. Obviously, my student doesn't remember what just happened or why we're here. Strangely, his gaze sweeping the room didn't see me. The teenager seems to trust his nose a lot more than anything else.
A few sniffles later, his attention finally falls on me and Naruto freezes. His breathing starts in a rush. The panic in which he sinks seizes his whole being in the grip of terrible tremors. Weeping moans escape his lips and tears accompany the reddish ones before he frantically takes a few steps back. He rolls up into a ball, hides his head and face with his arms, while his black tail wraps around his own self; the tuft of hair at the end of the latter is placed in front of his face, forming this impenetrable barrier and shell. I hear his complaints to which his sobs mingle. Everything escalates in intensity; this melody of despair tears the silence and twists my heart.
Naruto realized the harm he did to me. To see him crumble like this… None of this was intentional… This Naruto doesn't want to hurt me, this Naruto is free from malevolence… It's the feral beast that hides in his entrails that is to blame for this assault, this same beast driven by lustful and indecent desires for dubious reasons.
I lock up all these emotions in a corner of my head in order to calm down and pull myself together … with difficulty. I can't forget this episode in which I almost got … well … anyway… It's not important. Naruto needs me. I forbid myself to let grief and regret torment him any longer. The evil in his heart is so great that he whines louder and louder.
I struggle to my feet, my palm still firmly nailed to my traumatized skin. Before comforting my pupil, I must release the kids from their task of supervision. I approach the window to pull up one of the blinds… As I do so, I hear muffled cries of panic. Naruto crawls frantically through the darkness, avoiding contact with the night light. Once out of reach, he curls up in a ball and continues to cry and whine.
I frown, puzzled. I watch the sky while waving to Shikamaru and Chōji that I have the situation in hand. I'm looking for what can cause this panic in him and obviously, it has to do with the dark sky. During an emotional crisis, he doesn't react to the slightest thing… That he reacts this way isn't at all normal. I'm worried sick and gnawing at my blood. While scrutinizing this dark tapestry adorned with its stars and its moon as bright as the sun, only one hypothesis comes to mind.
Could it be related to the full moon? In fact, I only see that. If I take into account what happened right before Naruto escaped, it's plausible. He started acting weird as the sky cleared and the dark clouds covering the moon's rays dispersed. Since Naruto is a nocturnal creature, it would seem that the moon has some powers on him and awakens his feral instincts… Having seen him avoid all contact with the rays, I'm sure of it.
Slowly, I close the blinds so that no light can enter the room. Carefully, I get to Naruto in the grip of a grief impossible to describe… However, the latter hastens to move away to keep his distance from me; he's unable to offer me the slightest glance and is curling up more and more on himself. I squat down, holding my palms out in front of me, kindly. Luckily, the bleeding in my neck finally stopped.
"Easy, Naruto. It's all right. I understood that it wasn't your fault," I whisper with tenderness. "Was it the full moon that made you do this?"
In addition to hiccuping loudly and rolling into a ball, he's shaking like never before. Given his upset state and his silence, I don't expect him to answer me… Against all expectations, his tail rises with a timid movement and I glimpse his blue and wet eye that he hastens to hide again. It's darkened and it seems dark to me … so dark that it isn't normal; I feel as if the light has left it and that a shroud of darkness veils it. I didn't have time to see it well either, and the darkness limits my visual abilities. All in all, this glance is his way of confirming it to me.
"It's okay, Naruto. I know you weren't in control of your actions," I reassure him, though I can't think of anything else. "I forgive you, Naruto. Everything's all right. I mean it…"
I try to approach, reach out a hand to him in the hope of consoling him or silence his pain… But Naruto panics and crawls out of me, until he finds refuge in the shadows of his bed, under which he hides to escape me and thus, disappear.
I crouch down on all fours to take a look. The upset teen is curled in a ball, his back against the wall. He's hugging himself with all his limbs and he continues to shake like a leaf. His irises drowned in tears are directed at me without really looking at me; he observes the void in front of him. Seeing him about to break pains me, stabs my heart, and once again I feel so helpless.
"Naruto, please. Get out of there. Don't stay in your corner like that. That's a thing of the past now. Come to me…"
Unfortunately, the feral boy only cowers further. He hides his face again with his arms and his tail, escaping loud complaints of despair… I call out to him many times, but Naruto has stopped reacting to my voice. He lets himself sink deeper and deeper into darkness; that he doesn't seek comfort in my arms doesn't bode well for his psyche. Sadly, I can't force him either… If Naruto fiercely avoids me, rushing him will make things worse.
I can only bend to his will.
Since it's useless to insist, I heave a sigh. I sit on the floor opposite to the bed. The mental fatigue caused by all these chaotic emotions suddenly catches up with me. I'm about to collapse under this pressure that weighs down my shoulders. I had the worst night and day of my life. I wish to wake up to say that it was all a terrible and odious nightmare… Alas, I am aware of being imprisoned in the reality from which I can't escape.
I can't forget this incident, this scene that already haunts me and torments me mercilessly. My body can't get rid of these sensations inked on my skin, these sensual movements too close to my sensitive area, his tongue on my face devoid of feeling and my neck bleeding raw… Vivid images bombard my mind on what would have happened next … how far Naruto would have gone…
Was I really about to be sexually assaulted by my student? I'm aware that he has become a feral beast, that touching his tail awakens sexual urges… However, I never would have believed that he could do something like that to me by neutralizing me with his terrifying powers… Moreover, this nightmarish Naruto sowed sincere fears in me; it woke up my reptilian brain which prevented me from making rational decisions. I panicked… This has never happened to me before. That and that assault…
I had become a prey and him a predator.
I slide a careful hand over my injured skin, brushing it with my fingertips. I detect the marks of his fangs, which have penetrated my flesh; the wounds are covered with a thin protective layer. Luckily, according to where they are, he didn't pierce my jugular, although one of the marks is dangerously close. I find other much smaller ones near my shoulder. They're his third attempt to bite me before he suddenly freezes; he didn't have time to push them all the way in.
Thanks to his venom, my blood clotted pretty quickly considering the size of the gruesome holes. However, the dose that travels through my body is far from being enough. I'm covered in my own scarlet fluid which dries up and causes discomfort. I'm exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally. I'm unable to treat my wounds—rather, I don't feel like it.
Nevertheless, I experience almost no pain … in fact, it's non-existent if I have to compare; his saliva erased his murderous fangs and numb the pain. The affected areas, including my face, are excruciatingly icy like this morning. Of course, I have some twinges because of my desecrated chakra vein and the fire that spreads in my body.
If Naruto is able to bite me painlessly using his drool, why didn't he do it? There must be a good reason since he doesn't want to hurt me… That said, between biting me cold and letting him lick me with his filthy tongue to make this ritual "comfortable," the choice is easy. All in all, his salivary glands produce a particularly useful substance.
In this silence broken by Naruto's increasingly taciturn tears, I close my eyes. I try to empty my head, to calm down my irregular heart… I try to forget the phantom sensations on my body victim of unspeakable abuse. Gradually, my breathing stabilizes.
After long minutes, or hours, I can't say, I hear a sudden dull noise.
As he struggled to get out from under the bed, the sapphire-eyed boy hit his head. Strangely, his eyes look in my direction without really seeing me. His face is saddened and the tears continue to roll down his cheeks. He hesitates to reach to me.
Without hesitation, I open my arms to him.
"Come, Naruto," I invite him with infinite kindness.
On all fours, Naruto hastens to snuggle tightly into my arms. He rests his head against my chest while sitting between my thighs; at that, his black tail embraces us both with a shy movement. One of his hands searches for mine, which he can't find. Gently, I offer him mine; his fingers quickly intertwine with mine, never letting go of me, even though they inadvertently scratched me. He brings these to his chest before sticking even more. From then on, the tremors disappear, like the frantic race of his heart.
"It's gonna be fine, Naruto. We'll both wait for the sun to come back," I whisper, stroking his shoulder, before laying my head against his.
I don't see him, but he closed his eyes; his loosening grip transcribes his imminent drowsiness. This puzzles me. Naruto must have exhausted all of his chakra reserves to claim sleep during a nighttime period, in which his body stretches, even when exhausted. However, it doesn't make sense. If I take into account his drowsy state before his bewitchment, it's possible that the full moon pushes him to sleep, as it gives him a surge of energy if he's exposed to its rays. I wonder if it wasn't the fact that I plunged the room into absolute darkness that saved me from the irreparable…
Maybe…
All in all, drained of my strength, in every unimaginable way, I close my eyes in a vain hope of dozing off or getting some sleep. His venom runs through my body, of course, but it's not enough for me to fall asleep or find rest. Moreover, even if Naruto were awake, I couldn't feed him; I don't have an ounce of chakra left to offer.
For this night, I forget all my problems.
For this night, nothing else matters.
For this night, it's just me and Naruto.
Hellow! A few short words from the author!
I hope this story continues to pique your interest! This chapter closes the third book
The fourth book, called "Emotion," will start in two weeks! (August 11)
I sadly need to take a week off from my fanfiction; I'm in burn out...
Thank you for your valuable comments that give me a boost of motivation
