Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Battle Lord Chronicles: Under A Bloody Moon ❯ The Jinchuuriki ( Chapter 2 )

A/N: Back again! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! I'm really happy with the review turn out for this story. Anyways, this story goes a bit deeper into the concepts of the Naruto world, such as chakra. If anyone who doesn't know Naruto is having trouble understanding then please just let me know! I'll try to clear things up as best I can. Please read, review, and enjoy! Ja ne!

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Naruto. Kiara is owned by Yusuke'sSister.

 

Claimer: I do own the plot line, the Kuro Tournament, Kristy, Jason, Jessica, Chris, Bashere, and anything else related to them.

 

(1) - "Shinigami" means "Death God".

 

(2) - Itachi means "weasel" in Japanese, so basically his father named him that because of the weasel youkai sealed with him.

 

(3) - Chakra is the energy that shinobi use to perform jutsu. It's kind of like reiki, chi, etc.

 

(4) - "Taki no Kuni" means "Land of Waterfall".

 

(5) - Doujutsu means "eye technique"

 

(6) - I have a picture of the sharingan. It's in my profile under this story title in the pics section.

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

'Telepathy'

 

Thanks to my beta reader, Anna Jaganshi.

 

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Under A Bloody Moon

 

Chapter 2

The Jinchuuriki

 

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"They created their own Jinchuuriki," I murmured softly in realization. "...You."

 

Itachi nodded solemnly. "Some priests had captured a weasel youkai," he told me, continuing on with his story. "When I was only hours old my clan's seal mast sealed the youkai within me, sacrificing his own life to summon the Shinigami(1) to complete it."

 

I stared at Itachi in shock. The whole Jinchuuriki thing was a shock as it was, but it was the idea of this Shinigami that truly blew me away, and also gave me some hope. It meant that this world might have connections with the Reikai. Who knows, this "Shinigami" might even have been King Enma himself!

 

"That makes a lot of sense," I admitted. "The whole Jinchuuriki thing, I mean. And it's pretty cool too; you have both your own power and the power of your youkai to fall back on!"

 

"Yeah, but that's the only upside," Itachi said bitterly. "I'm very lucky because no one other than my clan knew that I was a Jinchuuriki. Usually ones such as myself are despised and feared for the youkai that we contain and, because we aren't as strong as the youkai, people can take it out on us.

 

"Though I was fortunate because few knew about my nature, it was bad enough with my clan knowing. I was nothing more than a weapon to them. My own father was the own who named me 'Itachi'(2)."

 

I shook my head sadly, feeling strong sympathy for these Jinchuuriki. Even youkai, violent as they were, didn't hate ningens enough to be so prejudiced against, for example, a youkai with a ningen sealed inside of them. It seamed that fear was indeed a powerful motive.

 

"So what's happened then?" I asked quietly after several minutes of silence. "You would have used youki recently for it to be hanging around you like it is. Not to mention that you're practically covered in blood..."

 

Deep sadness flitted across Itachi's face for a moment before his expression went dark with anger.

 

"It was him," he hissed out in fury. "After years of holding him back, the weasel youkai within me finally managed to take control of my mind. It was only for three days, but it was enough. The first thing that he did was to kill my best friend in order to activate the ultimate level of my clan's doujutsu. He then laid low for two days until, last night..." He took a large gulp of air. "He-- he completely massacred my clan. Even my parents. And most of them were just defenseless civilians!

 

"I managed to take control just as my little brother came home. He didn't know that I was a Jinchuuriki and I didn't want him to know, so instead I fed him some bullshit about how I did it to 'measure my capacity'. I--I didn't know what else to say to throw him off, but now..." He shivered. "...Now they're after me as a criminal, as a traitor to my own village. Kami-sama, what am I going to do? I many be considered a prodigy, but how am I going to hide from all of the ANBU, from all of the Hunter-nin...?!"

 

I saw that Itachi was beginning to panic so I quickly placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't worry," I said softly. "You could...you could...You could come with me! Yeah! I need to find out more about this world so that I can eventually leave and you need to hide, so why don't we travel together? What do you say?"

 

Itachi frowned thoughtfully. "Well..." he started hesitantly, "Y-you are a youkai and I don't really have anywhere to go..."

 

"Then it's settled! You're coming with me!" I declared before Itachi could say anything else. I leapt to my feet and began walking in a random direction. "Come on, let's go!" Suddenly I paused and look back at Itachi, sweatdropping. "Umm...Which direction should we go in?"

 

I thought I saw amusement flash across Itachi's face, but it was gone so quickly that I could have imagined it. He stood up and glanced around the area, taking stock of where he was.

 

"Judging by the direction of the sun we're north of Konohagakure no Sato," he murmured. "So we need to keep moving north. We can head towards the border of Taki no Kuni(4); we should be able to hide safely there. But first, it'd be best to take care of things here."

 

Under my curious eyes Itachi proceeded to clean up the campsite so that, eventually, it looked as though no one had been there in the first place, even to my own enhanced vision.

 

"Sweet," I said in awe. "You've got to teach me how to do that!"

 

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "You've never been taught about tracking?"

 

"I'm not a shinobi," I pointed out. "I've probably learnt very different things than you, such as...other...things...than tracking, for one."

 

Itachi shrugged and walked past me. "Mmm. Now, should we travel in the trees or on the ground?"

 

"Well," I started to say I as I turned to face him, but before I could continue my mouth dropped open in shock at the sight before me: Itachi was calmly walking up the side of a tree. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed loudly. "How the hell are you doing that?!"

 

Itachi's head jerked around in surprise and he raised one eyebrow at me. "I'm guessing that chakra(3) control is another thing that you weren't taught...?"

 

I stared blankly at Itachi. "...Chakra?"

 

"Yes, chakra; life energy, you know?"

 

"Oh! You mean like Reiki! Kind of like how youki is the energy of youkai, where I come from reiki is the energy of ningens," I explained. "I'm guessing that chakra is your version of reiki."

 

"Close," Itachi replied. "We actually know of reiki here as well. It's our spiritual energy. Chakra, however, is made of a combination of both spiritual energy and physical energy. So chakra is half reiki."

 

My eyes widened. Physical energy? As far as I knew there was no known way to harness physical energy, at least there wasn't where I was from. This world was becoming more and more interesting by the minute.

 

Itachi focused back on the tree in front of him. "What we shinobi do is release a small, constant steam or chakra to our feet--or hands, as the case may be. This causes us to stick firmly to the surface beneath us, to the point that we can even walk on the ceiling. It's also a good chakra control exercise."

 

"Damn, that sounds really useful," I said with a grumble. "I won't be able to do it though; youki manifests mainly in the form of elements rather than pure energy. It's too bad..." I let out a sigh, but quickly brightened. "I'll try the treetop path anyway though; it'll leave less of a trail, if one at all."

 

Within the next few minutes I was up in the air, leaping from branch to branch. It was really awkward at first, but easy enough once you go the hang of it. It many respects, it was actually easier for me than it was for Itachi, despite his years of experience, because I had natural strength and speed on my side. For example, while he had to use chakra to lengthen his jumps, I was under no such handicap. I actually had to be careful not to put too much pressure into my jumps lest I accidentally break a branch.

 

For several hours we traveled in near silence, focused on the forest around us. I knew that Itachi didn't entirely trust me yet--we had just met after all, and I was a youkai--but he'd decided that his best choice was to go with me.

 

Quite suddenly however my ears picked up the sound of several people coming in our direction. More of those ANBU, if their speed was any indication. If we didn't move faster, we were going to get caught.

 

"Get on my back," I ordered Itachi firmly. He faltered slightly and stared strangely at me, but my eyes were facing the direction of the newcomers. "We need to get out of here. Now. Get on my back."

 

Itachi hesitated for only a minute before wordlessly nodding and getting onto my back. As soon as he was secured I nearly tripled my speed and began racing through the woods. I curved around the path that the other shinobi were taking and was soon far beyond them. As I felt my leg muscles begin to burn I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold top speed for very long, but I needed to get just a little bit further.

 

The sound of rushing water caused my ears to perk up. I slowed down a bit, and then came to a complete stop in front of a large river.

 

As soon as I stopped Itachi slid off my back. He stumbled around for a moment, looking decidedly pale.

 

"Don't go so fast next time," he groaned when he could finally speak.

 

I smiled sheepishly at the boy. "Sorry about that; there were some shinobi approaching our position so we needed to get out of there quickly."

 

Itachi just shook his head in exasperation, though there was a glint of awe in his eyes. "I didn't know that anything could move that fast, especially not without chakra enhancement. Are all youkai that fast?"

 

"Well, no, though in general youkai are faster than humans. I'm a specialist in speed though. There is one youkai, however, who's faster than me..."

 

'Hiei...' I though sadly. I couldn't help but wonder what my friends were doing at that moment. What had happened with the tournament? Did they miss me like I was beginning to miss them?

 

I was broken from my reverie by the sound of Itachi's voice. "We're near the border of Taki no Kuni now," he commented while eyeing the river. "That didn't take quite as long as I'd expected it to. If we travel north along the river we should eventually come across a town that I know of. We can get any supplies that we need there, and then we can make plans for what to do next."

 

I nodded my agreement and then flashed Itachi a grin. "Well then, shall we?"

 

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The next day passed rather quickly. By late afternoon of the first day we'd reached the village that Itachi had mentioned. Itachi then used his super ninja stealth skills (my words, no his) to filtch some food. We made camp about five miles from the town that night.

 

Currently we were in the middle of nowhere, far from any towns or signs of life, climbing a mountain.

 

"Why are we doing this again?" Itachi asked blankly.

 

I paused in mid step to consider the question. "Well...For one, we should eventually get a good view of the surrounding area from up here. And two...Do we really have anything else to do right now?"

 

Itachi muttered something unintelligible under his breath before sighing. "Fine," he said shortly.

 

The two of us continued on in silence for several more minutes before my eyes suddenly picked something out of our surroundings. Instantly, I rushed over to it, Itachi trailing along behind me.

 

"A cave!" I exclaimed excitedly. "That's so cool! Why don't we check it out and see how far back it goes?"

 

"Kristy..." Itachi began with a sigh, but I was already entering the cave that I'd found, so he just let out another sigh and then reluctantly followed.

 

The cave, I found did go back quite far. So far in fact that eventually even I, with my wolf eyes, was beginning to have trouble seeing. In order to solve this problem I lifted one hand up before me and channeled some youki into it, effectively creating a ball of fire. It worked perfectly as a--literally--handheld torch, lighting up the area we were in.

 

Now it as Itachi's turn to be shocked by what I could do. As soon as the fire appeared he leapt back away from me with wide eyes. He stared at the flame for a moment before gathering his wits and his composure. He snorted wordlessly and then turned his attention back onto the tunnel again. I flashed Itachi a grin and then pressed onward into the cave.

 

We walked for what seemed like hours through the twisting tunnel but never came to an end. I was beginning to wonder if it went all the way through the mountain. Finally, just when Itachi and I were about to stop, the tunnel like cave came to a dead end.

 

For a moment Itachi and I just stared at the jagged wall before us. His eye twitching slightly, Itachi turned to me.

 

"This is what we came all this way for?!"

 

I scratched the back of my head and smiled sheepishly. "Eh, well--" Quite suddenly I stopped, noticing something in the wall. It was difficult to see because it blended in with all of all the shadows, but...

 

Stepping forward I ran a hand down the wall. Almost immediately my hand found a wide, but hidden, crack in the wall. Excitedly I slipped into the crack, which was just wide enough to move along sideways in. With a sigh Itachi followed after me.

 

We moved along for only a minute or so when sunlight appeared up ahead. After quickening my pace, I soon broke out of the small space and then immediately gasped in surprise.

 

Spread out before me was a large field, filled with trees, grass, and wildflowers. Apparently what everyone had thought was a mountain was really an inactive volcano. Over time this valley had formed here, in the middle of it. As I stared up at the cragged edges of the volcano that circled high above me, I realized that no one knew about it because no one was able to reach the top of the mountain.

 

Itachi breathed in sharply as he too came out into the valley. Turning to grin at him I noticed that the spot that we'd come out from was a barely noticeable crack in the side of the rock wall.

 

"This is perfect!" I exclaimed happily. "We can stay here and no one will be able to find us!"

 

Itachi's lips quirked upward into a smirk. "Yes," he agreed. "This is a great spot to hide. Perhaps that 'adventure' through the cave wasn't as pointless as it had originally appeared."

 

I stuck my tongue out at him playfully and then, with a laugh, ran out into the valley.

 

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The next week passed rather quickly. Itachi and I had set up camp in the valley near a natural spring. We would go down into the nearby town for any supplies we needed, including a new shirt for me. One day an idea came into my mind.

 

"Let's spar!" I declared as I walked up to Itachi. Said boy blinked in surprise as he looked up from whatever he'd been doing.

 

"Huh?"

 

"Let's spar!" I repeated. "I don't really know what your capabilities are and you don't know mine, so this is the best way to find out."

 

Itachi smirked. "I guess that I'll have to use my sharingan against you, ne?"

 

I blinked. "...Sharingan?"

 

"Yes, my clan's doujutsu(5)."

 

I continued to stare blankly at Itachi, uncomprehending. "You've mentioned this 'doujutsu' before. What is it?"

 

 

"Uh..." For a moment Itachi stared at me in confusion, before abruptly remembering that I wasn't from this world.

"Oh, well, you see, some shinobi clans have special abilities passed down through their genetics. These abilities, called bloodlines, are capable of being unlocked only by members of their clan, except in very rare cases. My clan's bloodline is a doujutsu--eye technique--called the sharingan. As it is indeed a doujutsu it manifests itself in our eyes."

 

Itachi closed his eyes for a second, concentrating. When he opened them again his normally dark irises had turned crimson red and there were three tomoe(6) shaped pupils space around a normal central pupil.

 

"Sweet," I breathed out. "What does it do?"

 

Itachi's smirk widened. "Well, you'll just have to find out, won't you?"