Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Every One Has Their Demons ❯ Secrets Revealed! ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

you’ve all undoubtedly noticed, my chapters are becoming longer and longer, and so it’s taking much longer to update. Don’t like it, then ask for shorter chapters. Also, I’d really like it if those that read my story tell their friends who watch Naruto about it. I’d also like it a lot if you were to review. I don’t care if you think there’s something wrong about my story, review and tell me. Though, if it’s over the fact that this is a yaoi story, then death to you, since you’d be stupid to read such a story and then go off and complain about the pairings.

Constructive criticism would be very much welcome, I only want the best for my readers, and pointing out good points in my story would be good too, since I’ll get depressed and stop my story if no one thinks it’s even the slightest bit good. If you think my spelling and grammar suck, then tell me, though I highly doubt that this is a problem as I have spelling and grammar check. If you don’t like the fact that so-and-so did this and so-and-so did that, then tell me, I’ll fix it in the next chapter.

I might not manage to make a yuri pairing in this story, so don’t worry about that if that’s what you think is wrong about this story, though that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to try.

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Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Tsukiko started off towards the front gate, Kakashi leading them. In almost no time at all they were in front of the gate, and Tsukiko was standing slightly behind Sakura, not wanting to be noticed.

Neji, Tenten, and Lee were there already, along with Gai. “The ninjas from Suna will be here soon. We needn’t wait long. Then there’s just a small walk from here to the Fire Lord’s house.” Gai explained to Team 7, as they didn’t receive Tsunade-sama’s notice. ((Those of you, who think that her name should be Tsunade-hime, think about this. The honorific hime is used for royalty. Is Tsunade royalty, I ask you? The answer is no, and also, the honorific dono is used for lords, which Tsunade also isn’t. So, there’s your average American stupidity showing through on those two very common mistakes. No offense to my readers, I just can‘t stand it when some one reviews to tell me that I‘m not using the right honorific, though they say it‘s a suffix *Not true! * for her name…))

Kakashi nodded and Sakura moved towards Lee to talk to him, Tsukiko stood rooted to the spot, her wall gone. Despite her being emotionless on the outside, she was really very panicky on the inside. To her surprise, Naruto walked over to her, dragging a rather reluctant Sasuke with him. “Hey, Tsukiko, that was a brilliant plan back at the training grounds!”

Tsukiko stared at him with her emotionless eyes. “Thank you. It was a plan that my old team used. They’re dead now.” She didn’t think twice about saying that last sentence. “I don’t know how they died, I just saw them, their throats sliced open viscously, laying dead on my door stop. My sensei was dead too, though she was disemboweled.”

Naruto looked a little uneasy about this, but was spared an answer when Neji walked up to him. “Naruto, I wonder who they’re sending from Suna. I hope they’re sending strong ninjas, we don’t need to be caught in a corner with only ourselves to protect the princess.”

Naruto nodded and pointed at Tsukiko. “Neji, this is Tsukiko, our new team member. Where’s your new team member?” Shino had been moved to Gai’s team, and Naruto was wondering where he was.

Neji sighed in annoyance. “Shino accidentally drank the punch last night, so he’s home with a hangover. He’ll catch up to us easily later on today, after all, we’re going to have to move rather slowly with the Fire Lord’s daughter in all those robes.”

Naruto nodded and noticed three forms coming their way. “Look!” He pointed excitedly as he recognized the three forms as Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. “It’s Gaara!” He then rushed over to his redheaded friend and gave him a friendly hug; Gaara earned two jealous glares from Sasuke and Neji.

However, Gaara could care less, so long as Naruto was hugging him. Naruto pulled away and patted him on the back. “Long time no see, huh Gaara?” He asked in his hyper active tone of voice.

Gaara smiled, having become more expressive over the years, and nodded. “I see that Konoha’s changed its team composition as well. Our fourth member is on another mission, she needed to go heal the sick in the south. A nasty virus showed up down there.” He explained as Naruto led him over to where Sasuke and Neji were standing, both glaring a Gaara, who in their opinion, looked a little too smug. Tsukiko had wondered off to one of the trees and took to sitting under it, watching the groups getting acquainted.

Sure, Tsukiko felt a little envious of them. They all had friends, and she had no one. Of course, it was always better off that way. She started to wonder how long her team would last this time before they were killed. Not that she really cared, oh no, that would be very bad. Any one she cared for would die the next day, or disappear suddenly.

‘I wonder how much longer until they figure out my secrets…’ Tsukiko not only has a demon locked away, but she has a bloodline limit. Though she has no control of either of them, they were both rather dangerous. Like the sharingan, she can copy things, though she only needs to touch a person, whether in a fight or outside of it, with both of her palms at the same time and she knows every technique they do. Granted she can’t use the techniques with out a lot of training, and she wouldn’t be able to use other country’s techniques, as well as her own country’s, but she still knew them.

The whole idea about putting the demon in her was the idea that her blood line limit would allow her to be, hopefully, strong enough to contain the demon. Strong enough to keep that foul beast out of every one’s hair. This was all at the expense of the poor girl, since every one knew her secret, and she was surprised that many in Konoha didn’t know what she was. Of course, it was quite the amount of time since the eight tailed panther was let free to destroy at will, so that might have helped her out a little at this village.

She was very surprised when the Sand ninjas appeared in front of her, Naruto leading them. “This is our fourth member, Tsukiko Nanashi. Tsukiko, this is Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. They’re the sand ninjas that were asked to help us out with this mission.”

Tsukiko stood up, her face expressionless, and scarring the crap out of Temari and Kankuro as they were suddenly reminded of a younger version of their younger brother. “It’s nice to meet you, my name, as Naruto-sama has said, is Tsukiko.” At that Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara busted up laughing.

“You call him Naruto-sama?” Temari asked, who was laughing the hardest, Gaara was laughing only a little, but it was truly funny.

Naruto crossed his arms. “Me and Sakura tried to get her to call us just by out names, but she insists on adding ‘sama’ to the last bit of our names. She does this with every one.” His voice stated that he was a little bit cross.

Tsukiko didn’t even blink at the sand ninja’s sudden laughing fit. When their laughter died down, she held out her hand. When Gaara shook her hand, he felt the same under laying charge of chakra that he did when he shook or touched Naruto’s hand. Though, the sand nin didn’t show that he felt that sudden pulse of chakra just under the girl’s skin, he was certainly unnerved by it.

Shaking off the feeling, he let go of her hand and turned to Kakashi. “Our sensei won’t be here, he’s with our fourth member in the south. We didn’t expect to be sent here two people short, we apologize sincerely.”

Kakashi waved his hand. “It’s no trouble, you should be enough help, Gaara.” He had vaguely noticed that Temari was wearing a kimono much like Sakura’s, her fan most likely hidden in all the folds on her back. Tenten is wearing the same time of kimono as Sakura; they both had gone shopping together. Tsukiko was the only one not wearing a kimono, and heaven help whom ever tried to do so.

Gai started to walk in the general direction of the Fire Lord’s house; they needed to pick up his daughter soon. “Come on guys, we’ve got to be on our way.” He shot over his shoulder, suddenly taking a serious attitude towards the whole situation.

Naruto and his group started closely behind Sasuke, Sakura, Neji, Kakashi, Lee, and Tenten. Suddenly, Naruto found three people beside him, all trying to get his attention. Sasuke was to his left; talking about all the new techniques he knew and would teach some to Naruto, wanting his rival to be able to keep up with him. Naruto argued that he could keep up with him any way, but was still eager to learn new techniques.

Neji was to his right, trying to talk Naruto into going to a new Ramen stand that opened up on the edge of town. Naruto argued with him that Ichiraku was a good enough ramen stand, but would be glade to accompany him while Neji tried the new Ramen.

Gaara was behind him, trying to talk him into catching up on what happened. Naruto told him that he would love to after the mission was completed, or when he didn’t have to get somewhere.

In the end, Naruto managed to tune all three boys out, oblivious to the fact that all three had a crush on him. Sakura noticed this, and snickered. Lee, who was currently walking while holding Sakura’s hand, asked her what was so funny.

“Neji, Gaara, and Sasuke all have a major crush on Naruto. They’re trying to get him to spend more time with them, while trying to get him to ignore the other two. Poor Naruto’s trying his best to ignore them.” She nodded backwards slightly and Lee looked back and laughed a little as well.

Their walking pattern had changed slightly, Tsukiko was currently walking in the back, Temari and Kankuro were walking in front of her, Gaara, Neji, Sasuke, and Naruto were walking if front of Kankuro and Temari, followed by Sakura and Lee, and in front were the two senseis and Tenten, Kakashi reading and Gai going on about some dribble about youth that Tenten had blocked out. ((Wow, I think that’s a run-on sentence, though I don’t know where to split it up at….))

Tsukiko kept to herself, thoroughly freaking out Temari and Kankuro, who were thinking that she acted too much like their younger brother used to. It wasn’t long before they reached the Fire Lord’s house, err… mansion. Temari and Kankuro were glade of this, as it gave them a reason to leave Tsukiko behind.

Tsukiko walked up to the door along with the others and watched as Kakashi knocked on the door. Sasuke, Neji, and Gaara were trying to stand as close to Naruto as possible with out touching him, as the boy would undoubtedly move away from them and never talk to them again. They could tell that he was slightly annoyed already, and more than a little testy.

When one of the Fire Lord’s servants opened the door, they were ushered in. Sakura felt under dressed as she walked into the hall. She vaguely noticed that Tsukiko was being avoided like the plague, as the servants would move at least 10 feet away from her as she passed them.

When a beautiful, much too beautiful for Sakura’s liking, girl walked down the stairs, her long raven hair pulled back into a formal bun and wearing a lot of jewelry made of gold and a 12 layer kimono walked down the stairs all the servants bowed to her, and didn’t raise their heads.

“How nice of you to show up so soon.” Her soft voice floated over their heads, as her bright blue eyes looked them all over. When she saw Tsukiko, she backed up the stairs, into her father. “Daddy, get her out of here.” She said in a terrified voice as she pointed a shaking finger at Tsukiko.

Every one in the group turned to look at who the ‘princess’ was pointing to, and was surprised to see she was pointing at Tsukiko. Sakura’s temper flared back up at once. ‘How dare she point at my friend and team mate like that?!’ Her hand involuntarily squeezed Lee’s hand tighter.

The Fire Lord looked warily at Tsukiko for a moment. His daughter continued to beg and plead that the girl be removed from her presence right away, though her father didn’t comply. Tsukiko just stared up at her with blank eyes. “I’ll leave. Don’t worry, you won’t see me. I’ll be in the trees.” She turned to start walking when a hand was placed on her shoulder, causing her to stop.

“I’m sorry, my daughter didn’t mean that. She must have sensed a strong amount of chakra about you. She’s always been terrified of people with a strong amount of chakra, ever since that night, and she’s able to pick up a person’s chakra signal easily. You don’t have to leave.” She had turned to see the Fire Lord apologizing her, something that struck her dumb, though she didn’t show it.

“It’s no problem, if she’s scared, I’ll leave.” Tsukiko then removed his hand and walked out of the mansion, she took a seat in one of the trees, ignoring any sounds of protest made by Sakura. She had never been any good at controlling the panther’s chakra levels, and the demon seemed a little uneasy around all those people at once. No wonder it’s chakra levels were spiking every so often.

When Tsukiko left, the Fire Lord’s daughter relaxed visibly. “I’m sorry about that, but she scared me, a lot. My name is Sana Kurata.” ((Miho Obana, forgive me for the name…)) Sana told them in her rather soft voice, her features of her face softening from the frightened look that she previously wore.

Kakashi stepped forward and introduced every one. When the introductions were over, Sana’s father saying that his name is Akito Kurata, Sana walked the rest of the way down the stairs. “We’ll be traveling by carriage, I won’t make it too far other wise. I’m unable to walk far with out long breaks in-between.”

Kakashi sighed, but nodded all the same. If they were going to be riding in a carriage, it’d cause much more of a scene then if they were to walk, but never mind that. If Sana couldn’t get far on foot, they’d have to travel by carriage. “I hope you’re ready, we’re leaving immediately.” Kakashi then turned around and started to leave the house, not wanting to stay longer than necessary. He wanted to get back to Iruka, and it’d be hell trying to go this long journey with out his kiobito.

They group started on, Sakura throwing Sana one last angry look. They’d get the carriage ready, and then Sana, Sakura, Tenten, and Temari could ride in it. Pretending to talk about things that normal teenaged girls talk about.

The group quickly set up the horses, not all of them worked on this for it’d be a waste if every one tried to hook up the horses at the same time. “Uh, we’ve not gotten any one that can drive a carriage.” Sakura pointed out and Kakashi looked around for a few seconds before pointing to one of the many servants. “He’ll do.” With that said, the servant climbed up and took a hold of the reins.

After everything was situated and such, Sakura, Sana, Temari, and Tenten all climbed into the carriage. Tsukiko, who had been sitting patiently in one of the trees, walked off to meet them. When she got there, Naruto walked up to her for the third time that day. “Why aren’t you going with the girls in the carriage?”

“Simple, you’d have to be crazy to try and put me in a dress. Skirts are ok to a point, but dresses need burned.” She said in her creepy monotone voice, causing Kankuro to shudder when he remembered how much like Gaara Tsukiko was.

By this time Gaara too noticed that Tsukiko was a lot like him, and had found it creepy to know some one who was just like he used to be. However, he didn’t point this out for fear of scaring the blonde. He knew that Naruto was scared of him, mostly because he used to kill for fun. Now, he doesn’t kill for fun, but he still does kill every so often on a mission.

“Well, we ought to be going.” Kakashi said before giving the horses a slightly start, causing them to take off. Sana started to scream the moment the horses were going too fast. Temari instantly tried to calm the girl down enough to stop the ear piercing shrieks that were causing her head to throb painfully.

The other ninja took off after the carriage, Tsukiko, Naruto, Gai, Neji, and Lee to the left, and Kakashi, Sasuke, Gaara, and Kankuro to the right. Much to Sasuke and Gaara’s annoyance, Neji was running almost right by Naruto in the trees. Of course, they needn’t run too fast, as the horses had slowed down to a trot.

After they got about a kilometer away from the house, Tsukiko and Gai fell to the back; Neji and Lee ran to the front, leaving Naruto to guard the side. Tsukiko was running directly behind the carriage, Gai ran a little to her left and in front of her, then came Naruto way to their left and in the middle. Neji was in front, almost directly in front of the carriage and Lee was to his left and behind him. The right side mirrored the left; going from front to back was Sasuke, Gaara, Kakashi, and Kankuro. There was one spot empty, but Kankuro used one of his puppets for that spot instead of them using a person.

It is a nice and effective formation, almost nothing could get to the carriage this way. The key word being almost. Half way to the Tea Country, they were attacked by ninjas from the village hidden in the Rain. There were about 50 in all.

Neji, who saw them coming, told Naruto to make 100 clones of himself and send them out. Of the 50 original people, 25 of them survived. Neji told the group this and the carriage stopped in its tacks.

“Don’t worry, I’ll try to take them all out. In the meantime, Gaara, use your sand to create a tightly packed ball around the carriage. Kankuro, get ready to use your puppets, you’ll be the next one in case I can’t take them all down. Kakashi, you’re after Kankuro, Sasuke, you’re to attack with Kakashi, Gai and Lee are after them, and Naruto will be our last resort. If all else fails, Gaara, take Sana-hime away using your sand. The girls will fight. Tsukiko, I don‘t want you to step in unless it‘s absolutely necessary.” This is Neji’s ultimate plan, since he was put in charge of strategizing on the mission. Kakashi and Gai nodded, showing that they approved of the plan and every one tensed as Neji took off ahead.

About 10 minutes later the group herd Neji’s shout. “I couldn’t stop them!” As the boy tried to run after the 20 or so that managed to dodge his Divinity Field. True to Neji’s original play, Gaara formed the tightly packed ball, freaking out the driver and Sana, and Kankuro rushed forward in hopes of stopping the ones that got through. Unfortunately, his puppets can only take on so many people at once, and 18 ninjas got free. Kankuro relayed this message, and Kakashi and Sasuke rushed forward, both taking on two people at once.

When Kakashi and Sasuke failed to stop them, 14 more got out of the mess, and Gai and Lee both started to take out 3 at a time, though 8 of those people got free and Naruto had to fight them. His clones were no match against the Rain ninja’s, as they some how knew which Naruto was the real Naruto, and 5 more got free.

Gaara immediately put up a sand barrier, watching as his teammates continued to fight. He quickly pulled Sana out. “We’ve got a problem. Girls, tell the rest I’ll be 5 miles east of here with Sana. You have to fight. Tsukiko will wait until we reach a dire situation, and then she’ll jump in. Neji will give the order.” Sure, Gaara could have taken them all out easily, but Neji hadn’t told him to, so him and Sana took off under the cover of his sand, Gaara giving Sana a piggy back ride so she wouldn’t have to run.

Temari pulled off her kimono and you could see her normal outfit now. Her fan was indeed hidden under the cloth, put more to a diagonal and down further on her back than normal, the kimono hid it easily. Sakura and Tenten followed suit.

Soon, the five remaining ninja found themselves in a fight with the three girls. Sakura using her medical know how to try and stop them from moving, Tenten using her weapons to try and kill them, which wasn’t going so well, and Temari was trying to take out 3 of the ninja at once with her fan, which was harder than it looked. These ninja had to be of jounin level, they were too strong to be genin or chuunin.

Finally, one of the remaining ninja got free and took off after Sana. They didn’t get five steps before Tsukiko attacked. Unfortunately for them, the demon inside of her had taken complete control over her body, and wanted blood.

Instead of using normal ninja weapons, like the rest were, she was using her bare hands, which had grown claws. The eight tailed panther demon is a lot like Kyuubi, the only difference is their level of strength. In a battle of strength, Kyuubi would win hands down, though in a battle of wits, the panther would win no problem.

Still, Tsukiko literally ripped the ninja apart, with her bare hands. The ninja’s screams stopped the battle as every one looked to see what had caused the Rain nin so much pain. What they saw scared them, blood dripping off of claws, black eyes, and longer canines. Add to that the black chakra that had some how replaced the normally white chakra and you have a frightening picture. Kakashi knew what was happening, along with Gai, Naruto managed to figure it out, and if Gaara were there, he’d know as well. To the others in the group, it was a complete mystery. Neji wasn’t able to see what was happening, still taking care of the five that hadn’t gotten past him. Though every one had been pushed together in one big spot since the Rain nins were bent on getting to the now up turned carriage. The horses long since gone.

Kakashi and Gai increased their efforts tenfold in order to get through these ninjas in time to stop the bloodthirsty girl. Unfortunately for them, Tsukiko had just finished tearing one of the ninjas apart and was currently working on the other four that the girls had forgotten about.

Black chakra washed over the ground, causing every one to stop dead in their tracks. The chakra acted almost like tar, making movement near impossible. Tsukiko had, by then, killed and torn up the other four ninjas, their bloody bodies lay in a heap by the first one he had gotten to. The other ninja were more than a little disturbed by this. Neji was currently using his chakra to cut through the black chakra on the ground in order to reach the fight, to see what was going on. His opponents were dead back there, him having destroyed their hearts and other internal organs.

When he saw what was going on, he immediately tried to get to the opponents by Kakashi and Gai in order to free them so that they could re-seal Tsukiko for the moment. It would be bad if the girl’s secrete were figured out, and even worse for every one would turn to Naruto, especially Sakura who had seen him fight like more than once. She’d figure it out first, and then it’d only be a matter of time. Keeping Naruto’s secrete relied on keeping Tsukiko’s secrete at the moment.

Neji was able to free Gai and Kakashi from their opponents, and he started on the others, his chakra supply was being drained quickly from having to use it to create a blade around his feet so that the black chakra didn’t immobilize him like it did the others.

Tsukiko had, by then, taken out the opponents that Kankuro was supposed to be fighting, and turned to Naruto’s opponents, who were currently frozen in fear of what was to come. Her face held the first emotion that most of them had seen in a while, only this wasn’t a very happy emotion. Her smile was large, *Much like Sasuke’s when he fought those Sound nins in the second exam. * and her teeth showed, though blood was pouring off of them like crazy. Her outfit was soaked in blood as well, but the panther didn’t care. All it cared about was more blood.

Neji had managed to take out all but one person, his chakra reserves were taking a heavy toll, and he was soon unable to keep up the blade around his feet. However, Tsukiko managed to take out that person in the most gruesome display that any of the Suna or Konoha ninja had ever seen. She had first disemboweled the person, leaving him half alive, and then slowly tore his body up using her nails. “Now then, we’ll not have a repeat of this, I hope.” The panther’s voice was thick and came out as more of a growl than anything. Then, she bit his neck and tore his head off. By this time, she had managed to get the person on the ground and was leaning over him like an animal.

Looking up from the mess that was the blood meal the panther had been looking forward to for a month at least, Tsukiko quickly managed to pull in her chakra, her face dripping with blood. Temari had long since thrown up, having been reminded of her brother too much to keep her dinner down. Kankuro was white with shock, Sakura had put a hand over her mouth, Tenten had fallen to the ground, shaking too hard to stand. Lee had back up several steps, Naruto, Neji, and Sasuke stood there, watching the girl intently.

Tsukiko growled low in her throat and took a step towards Sakura, who back up. Kakashi, seeing this as a threat, jumped forward, a piece of paper in his hand, Gai was right behind him. Tsukiko turned around just before the paper hit her. She was unable to stop the paper, but managed to put a large, gaping wound in Kakashi’s left leg.

The black chakra, which had taken to surrounding her, dissipated immediately, and the panther fell to the ground, unable to keep consciousness. Kakashi sighed in relief, Gai, who had been ready to back his rival up, sat on the ground, to calm down. The blood bath was over, and there was a lot of explaining to do. Unfortunately for Naruto, his secrete just might come out. ((Gore, blood, all mine…))

Kakashi grabbed his leg in pain. The adrenaline leaving hi body meant that he could feel the pain. All of the others were injured only slightly, so Sakura rush to Kakashi in order to heal him first. She noticed that even though Tsukiko was stabbed and cut several times, she didn’t have a mark on her. This had happened before, so she didn’t need to worry about it.

“Kakashi, what was that about?” Sakura asked as she used her chakra to heal Kakashi. Kakashi merely shook his head. Gai answered for him. “We’ll ask Tsukiko later, I think it’d be best if you herd things from her. Where’s Gaara and Sana?”

Temari walked forward. “I’ll go get him.” Her opponent’s blood was all over her front from Tsukiko’s rampage. She opened her fan up all the way, the three ‘stars’ showing up, and took off to get her brother. In minutes she was back, Gaara and Sana questioning her like there was no tomorrow.

When Gaara and Sana saw the battleground and a passed out Tsukiko, they thought at first that the girl had been killed. Upon further inspection, seeing her chest rise and fall with her breath, they realized that she was merely unconscious.

Kakashi sighed as Sakura finished healing his injury completely and sat on the ground, putting his head in his hands trying to think of how best to explain this situation. Gai now had Lee sitting beside him; all the others were trying to sit as far away from Tsukiko as possible, and Neji and Sasuke were sitting behind Naruto, who was sitting the closest to Tsukiko. He knew what would happen if she woke up and still wanted to kill, he’d have to step in. Only one demon can fight another, as was proven in his battle against Gaara.

Tsukiko sat up, holding her head where the slip of paper had just dissolved into her skin. If her shirt had no back, you’d see the blue star glowing faintly as the writing was replaced. “Wh-what happened?” When the panther took over, the girl was unable to remember anything it did. Looking around the really bloody ground at all the torn up bodies explained everything to her.

Sakura walked forward and put a hand on her shoulder, since Tsukiko had suddenly looked really very scared. That was the second emotion that she had shown today. “What happened?” Was all Sakura managed to ask the panic stricken girl.

Tsukiko, who had just then gotten control over her emotions, pushed Sakura off of her and replied in her monotone voice. “Nothing that concerns you. I’ll go clean up.”

Sakura, who had had enough of this girl who didn’t let any one become her friend or know anything about her stood up and grabbed her arm, an angry look on her face. “Don’t you dare say that it’s not of my concerns. You just slaughtered 11 people, tearing them apart, and put a nasty wound in Kakashi’s arm in front of us all. What if you had killed him? Then Konoha would have had to kill you. Do you understand that?”

Tsukiko stared at her and with out warning, punched Sakura hard in the face, the contorted features of her face had yet to disappear, and when she rushed forward to follow up on her punch, she suddenly found several people holding her to the ground. Tsukiko was growling low in her throat, the panther had yet to come out completely, but was starting show again. “Let me go clean up and you’ll live.” Her voice was distorted, but you could still hear what she was saying.

Naruto had pulled on Kyuubi’s chakra, Gaara was hiding Sana in a cocoon of sand Gai had pushed Tsukiko’s head to the ground, Kakashi had her right arm behind her back and Lee had her left arm behind her back. Neji had pushed the pressure points in her hips to immobilize her legs, and the rest of the teams were standing, ready to fight.

Sakura had almost fallen to the ground, but looked at the feral looking Tsukiko with a hurt expression. “We only want to help you, Tsukiko. If there’s something that we can do, then we’d like to help you.”

A laugh that had no humor behind it made it’s way through Tsukiko’s mouth. “Help? You want to help me? You saw that kanji, I’m a killer, a killing machine. I feel no remorse from killing, I feel no pain, I heal quickly, and I’m one of the most powerful people you’ll ever meet. The only one that’s stronger than I am is Naruto here, and he’s only that strong because-” Why he was that strong was lost as Neji had pushed a rock into the girl’s mouth, not wanting to stop her words with his hands for fear of getting bitten, and he didn’t exactly have a strip of cloth with him. He then pushed all the pressure points on her body to stop her from moving, or even sitting up properly.

“You can get off of her now, she can’t move.” He said in his rather calm voice. Naruto let go of the chakra that he had pulled from Kyuubi and gave it back to the fox. Tsukiko couldn’t feel her limbs or anything except her head, but that wasn’t good enough. She couldn’t even feel her chakra any more! Neji pulled the rock back out of her mouth and the dirt on the rock fell out of her mouth with brown colored spit.

Tsukiko glared at them all as Lee pushed her over, Gai and Kakashi having left her post. “Talk, what was that all about?” Sakura said to the rather angry girl.

Tsukiko grinned that manic looking grin and took a breath. “Simple, I’m a demon. A real, live, demon. The eight tailed panther is sealed in me, happy? I’ll tell you something else. The Kyuubi, the one that you all hate-” The rock was back in her mouth. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she bites down hard, her sharp teeth easily breaking the rock. She spit out the fragments and Neji desperately looked for another rock. “Is inside Naruto over there. Just ask him, and hope he doesn’t lie.”

Neji, who couldn’t find a rock, gave Naruto a helpless look as the boy’s face turned white. Neji and Gaara, of the kids, only they knew. He looked at the others, who looked at him with shocked expressions on their faces. Naruto knew it then that he wouldn’t be able to take it if they looked at him like the rest of the villagers, and he took off.

Tsukiko’s animalistic laugh followed him as he ran, faster and faster. Using his chakra to propel him forward, he managed to cover a pretty large distance in a small amount of time, but still he kept running. There was no way that he was going to stay in one spot for long; they’d find him then. Instead of going in a straight line, Naruto turned right, he continued on.

It wasn’t until the sun had set and the moon had made it half way across the sky that he stopped. He wagered a guess that it was early in the morning, around 2:00 or so. Where he stopped was a small cave, maybe large enough to fit a four or five people on the ground and a fire in the middle. He didn’t make a fire though, the smoke would suffocate him.

The entrance was well hidden, bushes blocked it, and the trees in front of the bushes would have hid that. If it weren’t for him falling in exhaustion in to the bushes, which had looked rather comfy, he wouldn’t have seen the cave at all. There was another smaller tunnel in the back, leading somewhere. His senses told him that there wasn’t anything back there, Kyuubi didn’t growl or anything, so he figured that he was safe. Instead of making sure that no one had followed him, Naruto decided that he would fall asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

Back with the group

Much to Sasuke, Gaara, and Neji’s dismay, Kakashi wouldn’t let them go after Naruto. Instead, they were to sit here and wait for Tsukiko to get out of her mood, which took a while and another slip of paper from Kakashi.

When Tsukiko was finally calm, Sakura and Tenten pulled her off to a spring that Neji said was a few miles away and Sakura forced her to take a bath, telling the girl that if she didn’t that Sakura would scrub from head to foot. Yes, every one was very scared of the girl, but they knew that voicing it wouldn’t do her, or them, much good.

After Tsukiko finished, Sakura tossed her kimono over her head. At a protest from the girl, Sakura threatened to force her into the dress any way. Seeing the situation as a lose-lose thing, she pulled the dress on and tied the obi, finding it bigger in the chest and hips, a little tight in the waist, and a little long, but that was the same with Sakura’s other outfits.

When Tsukiko emerged, clean and dressed, she looked a lot like a kicked puppy when she walked up to Sakura. “Sorry for hitting you, but you shouldn’t touch me when I’m like that, the demon will feel threatened. I didn’t mean all that, it was all the panther’s talking. You know I wouldn’t hurt a comrade, right?” She asked, hoping that Sakura would forgive her. Even if no one else did, if her ‘friend’ forgave her, which was all she needed. ((I’m not too sure if Sakura is really a friend so much as a safe guard against the others…))

Sakura looked hesitant before nodding. “Yeah, I forgive you. We’ve all had more than our fair share of things going wrong, or people trying to control us, so we know how it is.”

Tsukiko sighed. “Just make sure that I don’t have to fight again, or the same thing will happen, I guarantee it.” It wouldn’t do any good to have every one afraid of her, it would compromise the mission.

Sakura nodded and started to lead Tsukiko to where Tenten was standing, a safe distance away from Tsukiko. The panther-girl put on her monotone voice and expressionless face and walked back to the blood bath, glad to see the bodies gone. “Sakura, I’ve got a problem…”

Tsukiko trailed off as she felt her chakra drain take a hold of her and looked rather scared as all her bruises and cuts that the demon had been told not to heal, the ones made by her brother when he was punishing her, showed up. Sakura looked at her and saw this. The once white porcelain skin was now covered in blue and purple, in some cases even black, marks. Just like when she had taken her shower. The kimono, which had a low v-neck, showed the kanji ‘killer’ on her chest just barely. Cuts and scars criss-crossed her skin, and Sakura didn’t know what to do.

However, they didn’t have long to think on it as Tenten, who was feeling rather brave, pushed Tsukiko. “Come on, we’ve got to get to the others.” They had emerged a little ways away from where every one was standing, and they walked up to them.

Kakashi noticed grimly the many marks on Tsukiko, but decided to not let them bother him. “Tsukiko, tell me, exactly what happened.” He barely registered the kicked puppy look that crossed her face before she returned it back to being emotionless.

“I’m sorry, Kakashi-sensei, the demon took over. Apparently it wanted blood, and a lot of it. I’ll try to keep better control over it from now on. If I have hurt any of you, I apologize deeply. I hope that this will not compromise the mission.” Before she turned to walk to the tree, a hurt look crossed her face.

“Also, what I said about Naruto, don’t pay attention to it. I was trying to make it so that I wasn’t alone in the mess. Please, go get him and say I’m sorry for telling lies about him. I’m sure that he was scared that you wouldn’t believe him if he told you that he wasn’t Kyuubi.” She then jumped into a tree and crossed her arms.

Kakashi nodded. “We should send three people out to get him. Neji, you take Sasuke and Gaara.” Yes, he knew that they had a crush on Naruto, and that was the only reason why he was sending them, well, besides the fact that Neji could find Naruto with his eyes. Gaara could relate, and Sasuke would drag him back kicking and screaming if he had to.

Neji scowled, but wasn’t about to complain, he’d look suspicious after all. Sasuke nodded, and Gaara looked off in the distance, as if thinking, before nodding as well. Neji used the Byaakugan, in order to try and find Naruto’s unique chakra system, unique only because it was much more like a fox’s than a human’s chakra circulatory system. Locating it quite a ways away, Neji started off running, Sasuke and Gaara followed silently. Kakashi shook his head as the three boys took off, wondering who would eventually get the boy.

When they reached the spot, Neji couldn’t see the opening in the wall, neither could Gaara or Sasuke, though they knew it was there. Naruto knew that they were there, and he silently slipped down the tunnel, since by the time they had caught up to him, he had awoken and sat in the cave, thinking over what had happened.

Sure, panic and terror at what they must think of him reigned free in his mind, but he wouldn’t let it show. Neji had been unsuccessful in finding the crack in the wall that Naruto managed to squeeze through. Sasuke came up empty handed as well. Gaara, however, had managed a smart way to do this. Using the sand, he pushed it into the wall until the sand lay flat. When he pulled the sand away from the wall, there was one area that was deeper than the rest, more sand came from it.

Thinking logically, Neji pushed the bushes away from the wall to see that opening. The three boys then started into the cave, following the small tunnel until they reached the small chamber that Naruto had just been in.

Annoyed at being unable to see Naruto, Sasuke turned an angry glare to the Hyuuga boy. “I thought you said that he was in this mountain side, that’s why we came in here.” Neji glared right back at him.

“Hold on a second.” He activated his Byaakugan once more and noticed that Naruto was moving, pacing, further on in the mountain. “He’s further in. Come on.” Neji then crouched low to the ground and disappeared into the wall. Sasuke and Gaara followed, having noticed the hole as Neji went in.

Naruto could tell that they were coming, and he didn’t want to meet them, so he had set up a brilliant plan, unsure if it would work, but it was a good idea. He had placed clones at regular intervals in the cave. Shadow clones, to be more precise. He knew that Sasuke would be able to see through the technique, but Neji wouldn’t, and they weren’t about to use Sasuke’s eyes for finding him. He planned to send clone after clone out, mixing in with the bunch, in hopes to eventually leave.

The tunnel, much to the three searching boys’ dismay, was rather large. That and Neji had claimed to see over 50 Narutos, meaning that the dobe had managed to make himself a generous amount of shadow clones. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and had Gaara stand at the entrance to the cave.

Quickly, he scanned the area, looking for the real Naruto. When Sasuke pointed at one of the hiding Narutos, one that was hiding behind a pillar of stone, Neji moved silently, being careful not to fall in the thin but deep stream that ran down the exact middle of the cave.
“Naruto?” The Hyuuga boy asked, a little careful to keep his voice quite in the cave that magnified every sound tenfold. He didn’t receive a reply. “Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, myself, and the rest of the group would love for you to come back to us. Please don’t hide, we don’t want to have to force you to come back, but we will if we have to.”

Naruto had tensed at the voice, knowing that Neji had pinpointed his location, and that the boy wouldn’t give up, he had one of his clones throw a rock at him. The point of throwing a rock was to not hurt Neji as much as a knife or other blade was. He created another clone and had it start off in another direction, the pillar large enough to hide the cloud of smoke. While that clone took off, causing the distracted Hyuuga to go after it, Naruto tried to sneak away quietly.

When his plan didn’t work, Gaara had stopped him by walking in front of him; he caused mass chaos by having all the clones shout the same thing. “Try to catch me if you can!” While they started to run off in random directions. A few managed to trick Gaara into following them outside, some went under water, luring Neji after them, and more managed to get Sasuke caught up in a fight, since he knew that they were clones, Naruto didn’t have much choice.

The real Naruto managed to start digging with his bare hands, being careful not to rip off his finger nails this time. That had hurt, and he had no intention of repeating it. Much to his dismay, when he managed to finally break the surface of the rock, Neji, Gaara, and Sasuke were all standing above him, arms crossed, and annoyed looks on their faces.

Naruto made another bid for freedom, but was stopped dead in his tracks by sand closing around his ankles. Forgetting what Neji had said earlier, Naruto totally freaked out. ‘Shit! They’ve been sent to kill me! Gaara’s going to finish it off right now, and I’m going to die!’ He started to try and pull the sand off his ankles, which of course, didn’t work.

Sasuke put a comforting hand on Naruto’s shoulder. “Dobe*, why are you trying to run away? It’s not like we’re going to kill you on the spot. You’d have to be crazy to think that we want to kill you.” Like always, Sasuke was able to read him like an open book.

“Every one hates me now, don’t they?” Naruto asked, having finally calmed down enough to breath right. Neji and Gaara had decided that it would be best if they gave Naruto some space and sat down a foot away from him. Sasuke backed up and sat beside them.

Neji frowned at the question. “Why would every one hate you? You’re no different from the Naruto that was talking cheerily to every one before this whole mess with Tsukiko started.”

Naruto looked at the ground, seriously thinking of bolting just then. “It’s because I contain Kyuubi. I hold a demon, the most feared and hated demon in all of Konoha.” His voice had taken a depressed tone and he decided that he wasn’t going to live to see tomorrow, he was going to be murdered in his sleep.

Sasuke shook his head. “Naruto, that doesn’t matter. No one’s going to look at you any differently than before. The other villagers were wrong to hate you for so long.” Yes, Uchiha Sasuke, ice-bastard extraordinaire, had managed to notice this little problem. So, putting two and two together, or was it more like one and one? Any ways, putting two and two together, he had managed to find out what Naruto feared the most quite easily.

Naruto blinked, gripping his knees, the urge to run away quickly was still there, and he was trying not to act on it. “Why? Why wouldn’t they? I house a demon, something that could kill them in an instant, so why wouldn’t they look at me differently?” Of course he knew the answer to this, or he thought he did. It’d be nice to hear it from some one else.

Gaara chose this moment to speak up. “Because, they’re your friends. Friends that care about you very much. They know that if you were going to attack and kill them, then you’d have gone ahead and done so already.” Yes, this was exactly what Naruto knew that they’d say. Neji and Sasuke nodded their heads to confirm it, and suddenly those three boys found a very hyper active blonde boy hugging them tightly. After Naruto hugged Sasuke, having gone from left to right rather quickly, he stood up, his grin back in place.

“Lets go back, ok?” He asked the three still shell-shocked ninja boys sitting in front of him before all three boys returned his smile, something that every one did since it was rather contagious, and stood up. “All right, lets go.” Neji replied, Sasuke nodding and Gaara just started to walk.

((It killed me to split that up into three parts. I didn’t know how I was supposed to do it, so I just typed, like I’m doing with most of this story… That’s right, your author is making this up as she goes along. Nothing’s written down before hand, and nothing’s planned out. I just started to type one day and said ‘Hey, this looks like a nice fanfic, I think I’ll post it…’ and so I did…. Kinda makes you worry, huh?))

So, Sasuke led the group back, with Neji and Gaara talking to Naruto. Sasuke, Neji, and Gaara were still annoyed at each other’s presence, though the fact that Naruto would be returning with them made up for it all. “Oh, Naruto. Tsukiko says she’s sorry for spilling your secret. She hopes that you’re not mad at her or anything.” Sasuke managed to remember this before they made it back to the now clean area.

Naruto thought about this for a few seconds. “Of course I’m mad at her, but I’ll forgive her. It must be tough having to guard against that demon panther all day and night…” Naruto said that last bit almost to himself, and received a nod from Gaara as the boy agreed with him.

Since night had fallen just shortly after the group cornered Naruto, the teams had decided that it would be best if they made that fighting area their campsite. Well, they didn’t park in the middle of the road, they walked off a bit of the ways, but still, it was close enough for Tsukiko to be able to see the blood shed. Sure, the bodies were gone, but the blood was still there, staining the ground red.

When Naruto returned, he clenched his fists, awaiting the horrible glares that he expected, and instead had his breath knocked out of him by Sakura, who had been extremely worried about her friend. “Naruto, are you all right?” She asked in a concerned voice.

Naruto nodded. “Yeah, I’m all right, you don’t need to worry about me, Sakura.” He smiled warmly as the other members of his team, and even Temari and Kankuro, wanted to know the same thing. Kakashi and Gai were off in the distance, Kakashi playing some odd board game; Naruto had never seen it before, and going up against Gai. When Naruto assured every one that he was ok, they let him be, since he looked pretty drained on chakra. Instead of going to sleep, he jumped into the tree where Tsukiko was, sitting a branch just above her.

“Are you ok?” Tsukiko asked in her extremely creepy monotone voice, Naruto shuddered at the tone, but answered none-the-less. “Yeah, I’m all right.”

The silence stretched before Tsukiko said something else. “I’m sorry for what happened. I’ll control the demon better next time. There will be no need for worry; it will not get loose again. The seal was almost gone, and it was hard to keep the demon inside of me. I’m sorry for making you all so scared and causing so much trouble. Do you forgive me?”

Naruto stared ahead for a few seconds, causing Tsukiko to doubt if he would answer at all. “Yeah, I forgive you. So long as you never try to kill us.”

Tsukiko sighed and thought about attacking Sakura, and knowing that she attacked Kakashi, but not remembering it. “Just make sure to keep every one away from me if I get like that again. If you touch me, there’s a 100% chance that I’ll attack.”

Naruto nodded and jumped down. “You should get ready for bed, Shino should be here soon. He was in charge of bringing the supplies.”

True to Naruto’s word, the bug user appeared a few seconds later, a rather large pack on his back. “I’m sorry I’m late.” Was all he said before he put the pack on the ground, an audible thud and a big dust cloud rose up at the pack’s landing.

“I’ve got everything.” He pulled out some food, and even tossed Naruto some instant cup Ramen, Miso Pork flavored.

“Thank you Shino!” Naruto called from his spot in front of a raging fire Sasuke had lit with a quick fire jutsu. He put on a pan and boiled water. Most of it would go to tea, but he’d pour some of it into his cup Ramen.

Sasuke snickered as he grabbed one of the sandwiches being handed out. Some kind of meat, lettuce, tomato, and onion. There was sandwich spreads and Sasuke chose a random one, turning out to be Mayo, and spread it on his sandwich before starting to eat it. Tsukiko stayed in the tree, she’d grab a sandwich when every one was asleep.

The sand nin suddenly surprised her with the gourd on the branch in front of her. “Aren’t you hungry?” Gaara was just trying to earn brownie points from Naruto, seeing as how the boy thought of her as a poor soul who couldn’t control her demon. True, he knew the same fate, but at the moment, he just cared about Naruto.

“No, I don’t need to eat much.” Not true, but then again, who doesn’t lie these days? She just hoped that her stomach wouldn’t grumble, that’d prove her wrong. To contradict her thought, her stomach rumbled.

“Doesn’t sound like it to me. I think you just don’t want to go down there. Here.” He said and handed her one of the sandwiches he was holding. Gaara receive a suspicious look from Tsukiko, but ignored it and went back to ground level to talk to every one while munching on his sandwich.

Giving in, after receiving several concerned looks from Sakura and Naruto, she took a bite out of her sandwich. No, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Sighing, she continued to eat her sandwich.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

With the group

Naruto was, once again, sitting between Neji and Sasuke, Gaara had decided to be subtle and sit across from him. They were currently talking about some new techniques. Of course, Sasuke and Naruto couldn’t use most, if not all, of Neji’s attacks, but it was fun to hear him explain the techniques.

Neji, it seems, has learned a higher level of the Divinity Field, this one with 256 strikes. ((I don’t care if you guys don’t think that that’s possible, because the strikes multiply by two with each level. So, if you multiply 128 by two, I’m sure those of you out there who don’t rely on a calculator can do the math easily. It’s 256, so there are 256 strikes.)) Naruto knew that he wouldn’t want to get into a fight with him. He had already been on the receiving end of the Divination Field, 64 Strikes, and the Divination Field, 128 Strikes, each time he was lucky to stand up afterwards. If he were to get hit 256 times, he’d surely pass out, unless Kyuubi came to his rescue.

Sasuke fully understood what Neji was talking about, Gaara wasn’t really paying attention. He was busy staring into the fire, thinking about what he had come across earlier. “Naruto, would you come on a walk with me? I want to talk to you about Tsukiko.” He asked as he stood up. Well, you could say it was more of a statement than a question, since Gaara had started to turn tail and walk on. “Neji, you and Sasuke stay here. This is something that only Naruto and I can understand.”

Naruto stood up, nodding. What Gaara said was true, and they needed to find some way to keep Tsukiko under control, and help her keep her demon sealed up, since it would prove difficult if Tsukiko were to suddenly turn into the eight-tailed panther in the middle of a fight. There was no telling if they could control her.

Neji and Sasuke were both about to stand up, but Naruto shook his head. “Gaara’s right, there’s no way that you two could understand how this works. I’m not calling you stupid or anything, it’s just, you’d have to have a demon sealed into you if you wanted to understand, fully, how it works.” Sasuke growled, but nodded, if not reluctantly. Neji just sat back down, ignoring the triumphant smile on Gaara’s face.

It may be to talk about another, but at least he was going on a secluded walk with his crush. Naruto walked away from the fire, ignoring glances from the others, and followed Gaara to the side of the stream where Tsukiko had cleaned off earlier that day.

“She could prove, problematic, in the future. If that happens again, not even the seals from Kakashi could stop her. We’ll need to help her to fully control that demon inside of her. Otherwise, one of us could get hurt.” Gaara said as he sat down by the side of the river, just out of reach of the wet stuff.

“Yeah, but how would we go about doing that? I never had to teach my demon a lesson; I was always able to control Kyuubi. Maybe her seal isn’t right? Or their chakra could have fused completely?” He suggested as he sat down beside Gaara, both boys were oblivious to the eavesdropper in the trees behind them.

Tsukiko had finished her sandwich, stuffing the entire thing in her mouth when she saw Naruto and Gaara leave. She had then followed quietly behind them, being careful not to make any sounds or disturb any of the surroundings. That would allow the two shinobi in front of her to know that she was there, not good.

At the moment, she was indignant that they wanted to help her. How stupid did they think she was? She didn’t need their help, nor did she want it! How could they think that she was in need of ‘help’, the worst word in any language! That word was given only to those who are weak, and she was never, and would never, be weak.

“I don’t ever recall having to teach my demon to obey me, he never really showed up often, and when he did, it was because I was asleep. He’d come out if I was feeling a strong emotion, but after I was about five or so, I stopped feeling emotions, so I wouldn’t know how to help her out either.” Not that he wanted to help the girl out; he just didn’t want any difficulties due to her loss of control.

“Yeah… Maybe Ero-sannin will be able to help her out! Naruto exclaimed.

Gaara shook his head. “I don’t think he could. He might be able to seal her back up. I herd that her seal was slightly broken. Like you, she has a seal, and her own is a lot like yours, only slightly different. Though, that’s what Kakashi had said to me.” The silver-haired jounin had pulled him aside to speak to him about it. Kakashi had seen her seal when her shirt fell up after he had to string her up by her ankles halfway through their small fight.

Just then, a rustling in the bushes, like something large forcing its self forward, was herd. Both shinobi stood up and took defensive positions.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~

*Dobe-Dead last, moron. Sasuke’s pet name for Naruto.

There, I’m leaving it at that. I think their conversation is better left at that moment.