Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Moonlit Shadow ❯ What is this? ( Chapter 1 )

I could not stop death

 

 

so he kindly stopped for me

 

 

the carriage held but us and immortality

 

 

The chunin exams. The one time when I have the hardest time with my self-control. Not too hard though, I still had some self control. Not to mention all the noise they made with their not too original thinking. But of course all those years of living among humans weren't in vain - I did gain some self control, if only a little.

 

 

I nimbly jumped from tree to tree, barely making any noise as my feet lightly touched the branch only to push off again. The low buzz of the gennin in the forest thoughts was easy to ignore. The only thoughts I didn't block out were the chunin in the forest and that was because I needed information on what was going on, and they could easily call me if needed.

 

 

Humans were pathetic, not being able to look after themselves. They didn't deserve the rank chunin.

 

 

They had already been informed that they weren't going to have privacy in their thoughts.

 

 

A small breeze came running its silk-like finger through my short silver hair and carrying the smell of blood to me. My sense of smell told me the blood had been spilled about 30 or so seconds ago and it was also mixed with the smell of … sand?

 

 

I stopped and faced the direction it had come from. It came from a clearing about four kilometers in that general direction. I ran at my full speed and was there in two seconds flat. I had stopped in a tree just outside of the clearing, in plain view - but not one of the three in the clearing noticed my presence.

 

 

Pathetic humans, not worthy to be ninjas.

 

 

There were also three other gennin hidden in the bushes: two boys, a girl, and a dog that was cowering on the ground. I identified them as leaf shinobi by their headbands.

 

 

`Akamaru's freaked,' the boy with the red marking on his face referred to the dog. `That guy must be really strong - we have to get out of here!'

 

 

`T-Those guys are s-scary,' the only girl stuttered in her mind. Pathetic.

 

 

`My bugs, they're acting strange.' So the boy with the glasses was an Aburame.

 

 

I then turned my attention to the three in the clearing that the ones hiding were talking about. The girl and (clearly the oldest) was standing about 20ft away from three dead bodies in the middle of the clearing. Her blond hair was tied up in four ponytails, and she had a look of confidence on her face that faltered when the youngest turned to face the bushes where the other three were hiding. Before he could kill the three the other boy, the second oldest, came in and grabbed the fiery headed boy by the strap he used to carry his gourd.

 

 

“Listen, I'm the older brother and you will do what I say!” his voice would have been inaudible to normal human ears but to mine it was perfectly clear.

 

 

“I do not consider you a sibling, let alone a person I would take orders from. Let go before I kill you.” his voice was a monotone, one that clearly scared the older boy clad in a black jumpsuit thing.

 

 

“Please Gaara, for your aneue (sister), no more killing,” the blond said hesitantly, speaking for the first time as sand poured from the gourd `Gaara' carried on his back.

 

 

So they were siblings. There were a lot of differences, but I could clearly see the subtle similarities that no one else would even notice. But it wasn't how they were related that interested me, it was the fact that the boy Gaara had the power to control sand. He had almost as much chakra as me.

 

 

`So this is Shukaku's container,' I thought. It amazed me even if it didn't show on my face. All that power in a mere child. It was easy to tell. The obvious blood lust, the rings around his eyes and the sand.

 

 

His cold sea foam eyes slid in her direction and she visibly flinched. He grunted and the sand slowly retreated back into his gourd and she breathed out a breath of relief.

 

 

He was clearly the one who killed the three that lay on the clearing floor, the blue color of death slowly creeping onto their skin, and traces of sand still lingered on their clothes. This must have been what those three hiding in the bushes saw. But of course they had already left the scene, it was human instinct to shy away from danger; it is a natural sense of protection.

 

 

`God, I thought he was going to kill me!' the boy in black thought in relief. `I wouldn't put it past him though…' his last thought was thought with such hatred that it made me growl under my breath. I was slightly relieved that the young boy couldn't hear the detest in the other boy's thoughts.

 

 

But that feeling passed just as fast as it came. It was replaced by the icy sharpness of my mind mixed with mild curiosity.

 

`Thank god - I thought he was going to kill him,' Temari's thought were nothing but a dull annoyance in my mind. Such trivial thoughts were not worth my time when humans only thought about their own self preservation or someone else close to them. But oh no, not ever the odd one out, the one who stood out from everyone else, the freak. But what else was I to expect from humans? In all the numerous years I had been alive I had only met a few humans I could rightfully respect.

 

 

They older boy and girl continued to think about trivial things and I decided to just ignore their thoughts, until they were once again a low buzz inside my mind. When I tuned them out and got as close as I could to silence only then did I realize that not one thought was to be heard from Gaara's direction. At this I closed my eyes and listened hard. It was unusual that I would go to such lengths to hear someone else's thoughts, and wondered why I was going to such lengths for some petty human.

 

 

I studied him, saw every move of his body from the blink of his surprisingly captivating sea foam eyes to every twitch of his body that he wasn't even aware of. As his older siblings continued to think their thoughts still not one was heard from Gaara.

 

 

I felt a moment of unease.

 

 

It was strangely irritating. I was used to a constant drone of thoughts. Well, at least during the chunin exams; most of the time the forest was quiet with only the sounds and incoherent thought of the animals. But I could even hear the animals; why couldn't I hear him? Maybe if I got closer, but if I got closer they would definitely notice me.

 

 

As I was thinking Gaara finally seemed to notice that I was just outside the clearing they were in. His cold eyes looked in my direction and gave the coldest look I had ever received. He called his sand out of his gourd and sent it in my direction. His siblings, not yet aware of what was going on, were startled when I easily dodged the sand and landed right behind them.

 

 

“Who the hell are you?!” demanded a still surprised Kankuro. Although he was trying to hide it he was slightly afraid, I could smell it on his skin.

 

 

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't really interested in him; it was Gaara who I was here for. I walked around the two older siblings and regarded each of them icily. They were stronger than normal gennin but nowhere near my level. I would be more than enough of a match for them. They both tensed up in anticipation for an attack, thinking that I was here for their scroll. I turned my back on them, no longer interested, turned to face Gaara and walked very, very slowly towards him.

 

 

A gust of wind rushed by, blowing up some stray leaves so they danced in the air, Gaara directly in the path of it. His scent hit me like a dozen blunt kunai embedding themselves slowly into my flesh. There was no image frightening enough to show what happened to me at that moment.

 

 

In that instant all the self control that I had built up like a wall between me and the outside world shattered like fragile glass. All that remained of my last shreds of humanity were torn away.

 

 

I was thirsty. I hadn't had blood in over 2 weeks.

 

 

I was the predator. He was my prey. That was the truth, the antagonizing bitter truth.

 

 

Nothing mattered but how to deal with the witnesses, not that they would be much of a challenge - they were nothing but extra damage in my head. Not even the mystery of his thoughts mattered anymore. He wouldn't be thinking them for much longer anyway.

 

 

I never thought such a smell as his existed.

 

 

He had the sweetest smelling blood I had smelled in over 80 years.

 

 

If I had know blood like this existed I would have roamed the country, even the planet, until I found it.

 

 

I could already taste his blood. My throat burned like fire. My mouth was as dry as the desert from which he came. Hunger that was an echo of thirst twisted my stomach - I needed his blood to quench this impossible hunger.

 

 

He looked at me, his facial expression was unemotional but his eyes showed shock. The reflection of myself in his eyes might have saved his life for a few seconds.

 

 

His scent made my brain slow, hazy, and unwilling to cooperate. It was a struggle between my mind and body. I crouched on the ground and dug my now razor sharp fingernails into the earth but the ground easily came up leaving ten long rake marks as I clenched my hands so hard I drew blood.

 

 

I tried to focus on the face I had seen in his eyes a few seconds earlier. I was revolted. In my mind I was standing before a mirror. In that mirror was my reflection; a monster. A monster with black eyes with absolutely no white left in them, elongated nails, and a feral snarl showing sharp fangs.

 

 

The wind blew his scent to me again and the few moments of control I had ended. I hated the wind with unjustified hatred, it was torturing me.

 

 

I knew what would happen next.. I would approach him and kill him. But first I would have to take care of his siblings.

 

 

Destroy evidence - the number one rule.

 

 

If I killed him first it would give his siblings about 15 seconds to react. It would be more difficult to catch and kill them if they were fighting or running away but not impossible. But there would be plenty of time for screaming and attacks, though I highly doubted that someone would come if they heard screams.

 

 

And his blood would lose its warmth if I killed him first.

 

 

So his siblings first, then.

 

 

I would have to kill them quickly. They wouldn't be able to escape into the forest; I was faster and could stop them before they reached it. It would take about two seconds to snap each of their necks, giving Gaara only four seconds to react.

 

 

No.

 

 

I couldn't kill them. Normally I wouldn't try so hard to keep a human alive, especially from myself. But this one was different.

 

 

His scent punished me, drying my throat.

 

 

My breath became ragged. But I didn't have to breathe.

 

 

I quickly stopped the flow of air to my lungs. The relief was immediate but not complete - I still had the memory of the scent in my head, the taste on the back of my tongue. I wouldn't be able to resist for long, maybe long enough to get out of there.

 

 

The monster in my head laughed. Taunting me. Urging me.

 

 

I hissed with uncharacteristic hatred towards the boy.

 

 

I have always hated humans but not ever this much. I hated him; he was forcing me to become what I had tried so long to suppress. I hated this frail human for making me feel this way. Hating him helped a little, it distracted me a little.

 

 

It was an uncomfortable feeling, not breathing. My body didn't need oxygen but it went against my natural instincts. Smell was the main sense I used. It was used in the hunt and warned me of danger. Not that there were many things as dangerous as me.

 

 

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard sand being sent my way. I dodged with ease and jumped into a tree. When he attacked me it gave me a few seconds of icy clarity to think and force my body to move away from the clearing.

 

 

When I was farther away it became easier to think, even though his scent still lingered in my head. My nails shrunk back to their normal size and my fangs shortened so they no longer poked over my bottom lip. My black eyes slowly changed back to their original blood red as the bloodlust left my body.

 

 

I would have to hunt soon if he was to be in the forest at such close proximity. My throat was still dry and burned viscously.

 

 

.

 

 

oooooooo

 

 

Three rain-nin lay dead at my feet, their tan skin already turning blue as death took its hold on their bodies.

 

 

 

It hadn't taken much effort to kill the three. They were weak and I felt no remorse at killing them. They were eventually going to die anyway, I was just speeding up the process. But they had been the first people I had killed in a while. I usually just hunted animals; they were plenty to sustain myself.

 

I couldn't kill him. Why couldn't I kill him? It would have been too easy. There was nothing exceptional about Garra, yet something held me back.

 

 

When I had killed the ninja from rain, I had felt no remorse or guilt. They were average. Garra was something more than average, something I couldn't place. He had the sweetest smelling blood I had ever smelled. It was abnormal.

 

Turning, I left the scene, sparing no glance at the three corpses that I left behind.