You and Your Demon

Chapter 2 – Unlocked Power

Hotel of Stars

When Hinata had gotten dressed and geared up She left her room to find Naruto, Shino, Kiba and
Akamaru out in the hallway.
"Ahh...Shino! Have you got flea's up those sleeves?" Kiba was covered in little red dots,
which he was scratching at ferociously; Akamaru was also digging his paws into his own neck.
Shino carelessly turned away to greet Hinata. "Morning Hinata. Did you sleep well?" judging
by the nod he nodded in return and continued, "good, we have a busy day ahead of us and Tazuna-san
is already waiting for us downstairs in the lobby".

"Oh you've finally bothered to pull yourselves down to duty," Tazuna said in his usual irritating
rough voice, "I thought you were suppose to be ninja."
"Aah! Old man you-" Naruto started but he felt a tug on his jacket and turned around to see Hinata
blushing.
"S-sorry Tazuna-s-san, we were jus-" Hinata stammered before she was interrupted by a loud bellow
of laughter from Tazuna.
"Haha! Don't worry pretty one I just like to annoy Naruto here about being a ninja as I recall
when Inari used to do that to him and he would get very pissed, Haha" The old man choked out before
his face change to a more serious expression and continuing, "now, everyone follow me to a place
where we can discuss your mission." He left the building still trying to hold back from laughing as
they went out to the street.

--------------------------------------------------)o(--------------------------------------------------

Forest Entrance

The group had been walking for a while and they were now far away from the village and nearing a
small forest hidden away in a gully. Naruto was first to break the long silence as they stopped at
the top of the gully, "Old man, how much further now?" he whined.

"Oh shut it Naruto and quit complaining" Kiba argued
"What! That was the first thing I've said in too long-" Naruto blew up.
"But still not long enough" Kiba finished.
"You don't have to worry about anything because you've been riding Akamaru the whole way"
"Hmm, your right," Kiba stated and Naruto went silent. He jumped off Akamaru and held his hand out
towards him. Naruto grew a smile on his face and was about to step forwards but Kiba stopped him,
"Not you Baka, Hinata!"
Naruto looked to the girl on his right before lifting his hand behind his neck to its usual position,
"Yeah I knew that, I was just getting ready to help her up."

Naruto put his arm around her waist before helping her up onto Akamaru.
"Ok everyone, we're a safe distance now," Tazuna finally whispered and turned to look at the group,
"now, apart from Naruto does anyone else know about The Forest of Chakra?" He looked at each of their
faces but Naruto was the first to answer, "What’s the Forest of Chakra Tazuna-san?"
Tazuna slapped his hand to his forehead before sighing, "Are you serious? You've already been there
plenty of times."
"What? When?" The boy began with one of his eyebrows raised.
Tazuna let out a low huff, "when you were here last time, your sensei, umm...Kakashi, took you there
a few times for training with that other boy and girl and sometimes you wouldn't get back till it was
time for dinner." He paused and waited for a reply from Naruto but it didn't come for a long while.

"Oh," Naruto puffed finally with his head down as he was caught in the flood of memories of training
with team seven, he looked back up, "what about it?"
Tazuna smiled and waved his arm out, "well, this is the entrance to the forest. But before we go in
I'll tell you how it achieved its name."
"Hmm," Shino had finally said breaking his silence since leaving the Inn, "There's a strong sense of
Chakra coming from within there."
"Exactly," Tazuna continued to smile, "every form of plant life inside this forest is rich with chakra,"
he watched as the shinobi stared in disbelief until Naruto came to, "Hang on, doesn't everything have
chakra anyway? I mean, well I have a technique that draws Chakra from nature anyway." Hinata, Kiba and
Shino's eyes widened.

"Mmm. Yes but with these plants the pure scent of the flora revitalises ones physical chakra not so
much supplying them with nature chakra," Tazuna stated calmly, "that's why we value the forest so
much here on the island and we've tried to keep it as secretively as possible but..."
"But what?" Hinata asked with determination.
"Well, we prize the forest so much because the herbs that grow in here are enhanced even further
with the supply of physical chakra. But the plants don't generate their own chakra, the chakra is
produced from a flower called Aoi Ryuudou (which means 'Blue Flow')" Tazuna plunged his hand into
his pocket and slowly pulled the closed fist back out and held it in front of everyone. Slowly he
opened his hand and revealed a white petalled flower with a withered white stem, he turned it over
to show the silver underside of the petals as well, "This is the Aoi Ryuudou," he continued, "when
it is living the petals take on a bright blue glow of visible chakra, these flowers are the makers
of The Forest of Chakra..."

"But?" Shino urged him on.
"But lately they've all seemed to be disappearing and the forest is slowly dying," gasps cried from
the group of shinobi, "we fear that a group of rebels have been stealing them to sell on the black
market, but we also believe that whoever has taken them may be using them to create more super herbs
that could easily be sold at a high price. As our village has no shinobi in it we have no need to
harvest the Aoi Ryuudou and harnessing its power, instead we decided that it would be safer to keep
the forest hidden and preserved, but it seems that someone else has opposing ideas."

Kiba bent down to pick the dead flower out of his and held it to his nose and then shook his head
before holding it down to Akamaru who also shook his head, "hmm, we won't be able to track anything
down if we haven't got a fresh flower," he said with his head bowed as though in shame. Naruto put
his hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry Kiba, we'll just have to search the forest for the flowers
remaining."

Shino was also bent over the withered flower with a bug sitting on the tip of his out stretched hand,
"It seems that my bugs can't pick up a fresh trail either, we'll just have to hope that Hinata's
Byakugan will help locate them," He said as he looked up to find Hinata already staring into the
entrance of the forest with her doujutsu already engaged, but she turned around and shook her head,
"The forest is flooded with chakra so I can't make out anything I look at in there." They all stared
at their feet in disappointment until Naruto lifted his head, "Well it looks like we're going to have
to use our own eyes," He yelled in his usual cheery voice, he turned to the elder, "Tazuna-san, you can
leave it up to us to track down the Aoi Ryuudou!" Tazuna nodded, wished them luck and turned to head home.

-------------------------------------------------)o(---------------------------------------------------

The Forest of Chakra

Deep in the forest, the group wandered around gazing in awe at the different plant life that surrounded
them, there were thickets of bush with strange yellow berries that even Hinata had never seen or heard
of before, patches of small herb like plants in the ground with green stems and small leaves, there was
also huge and thick trees that were so tall that they couldn't see the tops.
When the team made it to a clearing they dropped their packs and decided to rest up, while everyone laid
down to get something out to eat Naruto wandered curiously around the clearing, he definitely felt as
though he had been here before.

Hinata watched from the distance as he stopped moving, he was staring at something on the other side of
the clearing. She watched as he forced his feet to defrost from their frozen state before slowly walking
towards the base of a tree. He brought his hand up to touch the trunk and ran it across its width.
Curiosity got the best of her so she stood up and wondered over to him.

He slid his fingers into the groove of the slice that was perpendicular to the trunk, he looked to his
left and saw that the tree beside the one in front of him also had a track of perpendicular cuts that
went up the trunk of the tree and disappeared in the trees overgrowth. He felt someone's presence behind
him as tears began to sting his eyes, "where are you now, Sasuke?" he whispered as Hinata's hand came
to rest on his shoulder. She didn't know what to say but as he began to move out of her reach her hand
weakly begged for him to stay as it slid off his shoulder and trailed down the material of his jacket
before dropping to its owners side. He trudged over to the centre of the clearing where he dropped to a
knee and felt the ground as memories of passing out on this patch of grass one night surged through
his mind. He fought hard against them but the tears seemed destined to cascaded down across the
whisker-like marks on his cheeks and he looked up over towards the base of another tree, through blurred
vision his imagination let him picture a boy who's face had slightly faded but remembered Haku's
voice as they spoke about their dreams and picked the herbs out of the ground, now all that remained
was a patch of dirt. He put his face into his hands and tried to block out the memories. He felt someone
stand over him and soon after he felt a pair of arms snake down, around his neck and tighten under his chin.

Kiba and Shino watched as Hinata tried to comfort their comrade. "I'm sure we will see him someday,"
she whispered softly.
"N-no its n-not that..." Naruto returned in his own over-ventilated voice, "It's just… What happened?"
he paused for a bit feeling the Hyuuga’s warmth cloaking him, "w-when we came here on that mission so
long ago, he...he..." He clenched his fist and beat it into the ground before standing up straight
with determination in his cerulean eyes, "He sacrificed himself to save me!" he forced in a hushed growl.
He felt dizzy when the image of his best friend punctured with hundreds of throwing needles came back to
him and returned to a whisper, "and now... he only cares about power... lets just go and find those
flowers."

The leaf nin watched as Naruto threw his pack on in silence and began to walk back into the depths
of
the forest. It took them a moment for everything to sink in until they realised that their teammate
had left and they quickly threw on their own gear before chasing after him.
The group walked for what felt like an eternity, without Naruto with them the silence seemed thicker
than air. They passed small shrubs and mossy patches some of which seemed to be withered slightly.

"Na-" Hinata began to call out before she felt a warm hand cup over her mouth. She jumped and let
out a small shriek before turning around to find Kiba staring ahead.
"He's just a little further in front of us," he whispered, "but it looks as though he is found
something."
Just as he pointed said Naruto out they heard a whisper call out to them. Naruto was slowly waving
his friends towards him while pointing through the gap of a tree with another.

The Nin crouched low and swiftly scurried over to him, "What is it?"
"Ssh ssh," the blonde hushed them as they neared, "look," he whispered pointing out into a small
clearing, "there, at the base of tree."
The others looked through the gap in the trees and their eyes all widened, there was a small patch
of about twenty white and silver flowers with light blue auras around them. Kiba got up to move
closer but felt a strong hand hold him back, which he looked at before turning his head to its owner.
Shino remained crouched but was still looking out into the clearing, "can you not smell them?"
he said calmly.

Kiba flared his nostrils and immediate crouched low back to the ground, "Shit! There must be about
five or six of them," he cursed under his breath as he realised he would've been ambushed had he
kept walking towards the Aoi Ryuudou. He continued to sniff the dull scent as he spoke, "What do
you think they're waiting fo-" he was cut off as a howl of deep laughter came from the other side
of the clearing. Slowly a group of shadows emerged revealing small clique of shinobi, each wore
dark brown garments with a black village forehead protector though they all had a slash that cut
through the symbols, they also carried a large array of weapons and some had a few crates under
their arms. A tall man with a worn out bandage wrapped around from the base of his neck to the tip
of his nose stood in the middle of the clearing and turned to face in the direction that the leaf
nin were hiding. The man's voice was rough and abnormally deep as he growled, "You can come out now kids."

The members of the group all stiffened as they watched the shinobi reach back over his shoulder and
watched him brandish a thick bladed cleaver that looked, from memory, about as long as the Mist Nin'
Zabuza's.

"Oh come on," The brown clad ninja intimidated, "You seriously can expect to be stealthy shinobi if
you have a team mate wearing that orange jumpsuit that could standout anywhere, night or day,
but especially in a forest."
They all looked a Naruto who was drenched in a deep embarrassed blush, “Sorry guys,” he mentally
criticised himself, “we’ll just have to take them on face to-“. Before he had a chance to finish
he felt a pair of gloved hands wrap around his neck and a fist plunge deep into his gut, completely
winded he dropped to the ground as he watched, through half closed eyes, his teammates also being
attacked and dropping to the ground.

---------------------------------------------------)o(-------------------------------------------------

Somewhere…

A couple of hours later, the sun was beginning to set as Naruto's eyes began to shift open, blurry at
first he could make out his team mates to the left and right of him and Hinata in front of him.
He tried to move his hands to rub his eyes but found that they wouldn't move, so after blinking a
few times he looked up and found them bound together and tied around a tree, he looked down and
found his waist and feet were also bound to the same tree by a thick rope which he tried desperately
to wriggle out of.

Figuring that it was useless he lifted his head up and examined the rest of his team, first he noticed
Hinata unconscious and hanging helplessly right in front of him, the sight of her angered him greatly
and he tried to call out to her when he found something wedged in his mouth, so all he could let out
was a struggled groan. He looked to his left and found Shino also unconscious and to his right Kiba was
also out cold, Ugh what have I gotten us into? he cursed to himself, Wait. Where's Akamaru?
as a slight chance of hope flickered through him and he scanned the area around him, only to be
disappointed to find the huge dog with rope tied around the neck to the ground as well as a band wrapped
around his snout to stop him from biting.
Before Naruto could think of a plan he heard many footsteps coming towards them from behind,
well in front from Hinata's position.
"Ahh, One of 'em isss finally awake," a cold voice hissed in Naruto's left ear, when the speaker
finally stepped in front of him, he noticed it wasn't the same big guy from before in fact the
speaker was a girl with snake like features; her eyes were slits and she had a forked tongue that
slipped out of her curled lips to test the air every now and then. Another gang member stepped out
from the shadows and began to exam Hinata across from him, "ooh it looks like we'll be getting rich
as well as having some fun tonight" the rather bulky man chuckled.

Naruto tried to yell out at him, tried to get him to back off but couldn't get passed the cloth
wedged in the back of his mouth.
"What isss it little one?" The snake woman giggled, "Cat got your tongue? Allow me to assiiissst you."
She put her hands on the tree either side of Naruto’s head and opened her mouth. Slowly the forks to
began to creep out and soon the whole tongue began to slither through the air like a snake itself as
it made its way towards Naruto's open mouth. He tried to scream as he felt the cold tips lap at the
roof of his mouth and pierce the gums around his teeth, the tongue wrapped around the foreign object
and began to slid down his throat. Before he had the chance to bite down hard once his jaw was
released the girl had retracted her tongue along with a strange black clump that she quickly
deposited inside her pocket. Naruto coughed and spat trying to get the sickly taste out of his mouth
as she spoke, "I told you I would help, but I'm afraid that that isss all I will do." Naruto felt a
slight wave of relief as she finished but then remembered that he was still tied up and was in no
position of helping himself or his friends.
"W-wha..avv...yu.." Naruto tried to force out.

The woman gave a high-pitched laugh, "what have we done to you? Haha, well you won't be talking well
for near of a week because I just injected you with a bit of numbing poison, don’t worry we aren’t
the killing type but we wont let you simply run free," she stopped to let her tongue lash out it lick
the air before continuing, "your two boyfriends will be out for just as long, hmm." She finished with
another guffaw before turning to Hinata, "and the girl, well the rest of my gang has decided on
keeping her so you won't have to worry about the extra baggage anymore because we're going to be
taking it off you." The other man cut the binding ropes off her with one swift downward slice with
his kunai before catching the limp girl and throwing her over his shoulder, "Hah, I hope she's tight,"
he laughed as he slapped her on her backside and disappeared back into the shadows, the snake woman
also followed leaving Naruto trying to scream, "Hinnn....aata..!!" but the cry of her name barely
came out louder than a breath. An hour had past by and panic had over come him as the sun had fully
submerged below the horizon and the silver moonlight shone softly through the treetops. He shook
violently trying to free himself but soon began to regain himself. need to calm down he thought
to himself, need to concentrate. He closed his eyes and the wind began to pick up its speed
through the leaves. He felt himself warming on the inside of his body as he established the link to
the Kyuubi in his mind, slowly he opened his eyes as they morphed into their sage appearance,
Kyuubi, are you there? [Well obviously kit, where else would I be?] I dunno, asleep maybe...
[What! You think I'd sleep through this! I've been waiting for you to come and talk to me,
to get me to give you my power. I know you want it kit, you need it, crave it, but more importantly
you love it] the fox smiled wide revealing a row of pointed silvery white teeth and winked.
hai, so lend me your power [As you wish kit, now go get your girl back].

Naruto closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them and the small clearing was lit up by
bright golden brown glow, wow, they feel different Naruto exclaimed at the sense of his eyes,
Did you tweak them or something? The Kyuubi shook his head, [No, they're just developing],
Oh I see, well Kyuubi, care to join me The Kyuubi nodded with a deep growl and Naruto
waited for the fox to seep out and shroud his body in its chakra form, Well? He asked impatiently,
[I've got a better idea] showing Naruto a few hand signs he said [try performing this jutsu]
Naruto's eye's raised, We haven't got time for training, Hinata is in trouble and I have to
save her, a tear welled up in his eye and slid down his cheek, halfway down it evaporated as
a thin line of red chakra seeped out of one of the whisker like marks and wiped the tear,
the heat causing it to disperse. [I promise that if this works it will aid you greatly] the
demon showed the three hand signs again and the last one caught Naruto's attention,
whats that one? [Ahh this one, I made up for myself it means Demon, but don’t let
the name put you off. So the order is Tiger, Demon, Fox ok? And this is what you say...]

right I got ya, Naruto answered before putting his hands together.[Just let me heal
your throat so you can speak] Naruto nodded and waited a bit before feeling warmth in his
throat and continuing. Tiger. Demon. Fox. "Reflects of a Fox – Demon Mimicry!" He bellowed,
immediately he felt his back arch him down to the ground and he placed his hand out in
front of him palm down as he landed on his hands and knees. He watched as his hands curled
and grew into claws, his gums began to bleed as long canines grew and forced him to open
his mouth and bare his teeth, he felt his ears twitch as they grew to a point and felt a thin
layer of red fur grow on the outside of them. what did you do to me? he growled
[well for one I wasn't the one who performed the jutsu and two did you not listen to the
words you just called out Teme?! The jutsu gives you my abilities and heightened senses
you should be grateful, although there's probably side affects like your ears and...]
He trailed off.

Before Naruto could say 'and what?' he heard a loud rip in is pants and let a out a loud roar
of pain, near by owls and other night animals scattered after the sudden out burst. He reached
over behind him with one of his claws and used a nail to slice a hole on the back of his
trousers and his eyes widened in horror as a long tail flung out of his pants as though it
needed to breathe, three quarters of the tail was the same red as his pointed ears but the
top quarter including the tip was the same golden brown as his eyes. SHIT! What the hell?
Thats not good! What was the point of growing that?! [Its just a side affect but I'm sure
you'll find that it has lots of uses, it's like an extra limb, look at me, I have nine of them].

”Yeah and look where you ended up,” Naruto muttered, I need to find Hinata, but how?
[Kit, i just gave you all my senses! Use your eyes, ears or follow your nose its up to you!]
Naruto straightened back up but continued to feel the force of his spine wanting to return to
his four legged position, he looked up and saw the dark clouds blanket over them in the night
sky as easily as if it were day, you always see like this? he asked the fox in wonder,
who merely nodded in return.

Naruto walked up to his bound friends and simply sliced of the ropes with his claw before
catching them and carrying them under the protection of a tree, once his unconscious teammates
were down beside the Nin Dog he was jumping four legged from branch to branch on the top level
of the forest as the rain began to plummet around him.


Cheers
Till next time > Leaf > Out