Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Battle Lord Chronicles: Under A Bloody Moon ❯ The Weasel ( Chapter 3 )

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) - If you'll remember, Bashere has only been Battle Lord for seven to eight years, while Tasuki has been sealed away from thirteen years. Thus, it's seems impossible for him to know about Bashere.

 

(2) - Nibi means "two tails", Sanbi means "three tails", Yonbi means "four tails", and Gobi means "five tails".

 

(3) - Rokubi means "six tails".

 

(4) - Genjutsu means illusion technique(s).

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

'Telepathy'

 

Thanks to my beta reader, Anna Jaganshi.

 

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Under A Bloody Moon

 

Chapter 3

The Weasel

 

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Itachi and I moved into a large, flat, open space near the middle of the valley. It was the perfect spot for a spar. We started the fight with just basic marital arts--or Taijutsu, as Itachi told me it was called here--, testing each other's strength. We quickly saw just how good the other was and began to get into the fight in earnest.

 

Before long Itachi was going full out and pulling out all the tricks he knew. I was pleasantly surprised by his abilities, though I did have to hold back on my speed and strength a bit--after all, he was a ningen while I was a youkai.

 

After almost a half an hour of constant fighting Itachi and I finally sopped, both of us panting heavily.

 

"You're good," Itachi conceded.

 

I grinned in reply. "You definitely are too. But..." Grin widening, I shot one hand out before me. Instantly shadows around Itachi rose up, wrapping around him. Itachi's face showed surprise for only a split second before it reverted to a strange and unnatural blankness. I really began to get worried however when his eyes began to flicker between showing the sharingan and being pure black with no white in them at all. At the same time, youki began to leak off of him.

 

In a few quick strides I was standing next to Itachi. My hand hovered over his shoulder for a moment; I wasn't sure whether or not it was safe to touch him, considering the youki.

 

"Itachi?" I said worriedly. "Itachi?"

 

He didn't respond. I debated with myself for a moment before taking a deep breath and doing the only thing that I could think of at the moment: I dove into Itachi's mind.

 

The first thing that I noticed within Itachi's mind was that I was standing in a massive stone room that stretched on in front of me into darkness. Like in all minds there was a strange unseen light allowing me to see my surroundings, but it didn't do too much good.

 

This whole situation was strange. I always first appeared in the halls of someone's mind, where their memories were. So where was I now...?

 

Hesitantly I began to walk forward, moving deeper into the room. Maybe Itachi's mind was just arranged differently or something. Before long I could see something ahead of me: There was a massive set of bars stretching across the width of the room. In front of the bars sat a large, hulking figure that was radiating youki.

 

As if sensing my eyes on them, the figure suddenly whirled around. I cursed under my breath as they began to bound towards me, revealing themselves to be a weasel youkai. He was interesting because he had a human-like form, but was covered in fur and had a snout-like face with lines just like Itachi's on either side of his snout. Six long, sleek tails fanned out behind him and is eyes were pure black, with no whites in them at all.

 

"Who dares to disturb me?!" the youkai roared.

 

I stood my ground against him as anger began to build within me. Here was the youkai who had forced Itachi to kill his family. Here was the youkai that had forced Itachi to leave his village. Here was the youkai who had caused the pain that I could still see lingering in Itachi's eyes.

 

"I do," I snapped in reply. I was going to give this youkai a piece of my mind and if I could defeat Bashere, then I certainly could stand up to this guy.

 

Surprised, the youkai stalked to a stop in front of me. "You--" he began and then abruptly cut himself off, staring in shock at me. Or, more specifically, at the left side of my face. "Th-that mark! You're the Battle Lord?!"

 

I blinked in surprise, not having expected him to recognize the mark. Did this mean that he was from the Makai? How did he end up here?

 

The youkai quickly sketched out a bow. "Forgive me, my Lord. I had not known who you were."

 

"Umm, it's fine," I said, shifting my feet uncomfortable. That sure had been a sudden change in his attitude. "I'm Kristy," I said awkwardly.

 

The weasel bowed once more. "I am Tasuki," he said and then paused. "...You defeated Bashere?"

 

I jerked in surprise. He knew of Bashere? How? Hadn't he been in the world for longer than Bashere had been Battle Lord?(1)

 

"Yes..." I said cautiously.

 

Tasuki let out a sigh. "It is as I feared then; Bashere did succeed in becoming the Battle Lord." He grinned suddenly, revealing pointed teeth. "But not anymore. He's not anymore."

 

"How do you know of Bashere?" I questioned with narrowed eyes.

 

For a moment anger flashed across Tasuki's face, though it was not directed at me. "He's the one who sent me here," he replied quietly.

 

I breathed in sharply. Tasuki had been sent to this world by Bashere?! That meant that Bashere did have something to do with what had happened to me, though I'd already suspected as much. After all, this was Bashere that we were talking about.

 

"Why?" I demanded. "Why did Bashere send you here? And for that matter, how?"

 

Tasuki took a moment to gather his thoughts before answering. It was quite clear that he was repressing emotion--mainly anger at Bashere.

 

"When I first met Bashere," Tasuki began, "I knew that he was a good fighter. But I also knew that he wasn't good enough to defeat me. At that time I and seven others were serving the Battle Lord of that time, Rokuro. We were kind of like body guards, though Rokuro-sama certainly didn't need it, and we were called the Biju, the tailed beasts, as we all had different numbers of tails.

 

"Things first started going downhill when the first and weakest of us, the Nibi, disappeared. We didn't think anything of it at first--she was prone to wander from time to time--but then the Sanbi disappeared as well. Within the next two weeks the Yonbi and Gobi(2) also disappeared and by the that time we were starting to panic. There were only three of us left and we still had no idea what was going on. There was no sign of the missing Biju, either alive or dead.

 

"It was then that I was approached by Bashere. I was wary because, as the Rokubi(3), I was 'next', but he simply asked for a spar and I knew that I didn't have to fear him being able to defeat me. Strong as he was, he wasn't good enough to take down one Biju, let alone four. When we sparred it turned out just as I'd expected. Though Bashere was a bit more skilled than I'd previously thought he was, I still won. It was after the fight while I was tired however, that Bashere used a skill that I hadn't known he'd had.

 

"You see, Bashere is one of the few with the right amount of power and genetics to be able to create portals. All of the youkai lords can, but a simple psychic youkai? No one expected it. Bashere caught me from behind with what I can only describe as a liquid portal. It was almost like a wave of power that could transport you.

 

"When I arrived in this world I was so weakened and confused that a group of monks were easily able to capture me. I'm sure that you how that story ended." Tasuki let out a sigh. "I don't now what happened to the rest of the Biju or Rokuro-sama, but I can only assume that something similar happened with them. There is no way that Bashere could have beaten Rokuro-sama; he was the most powerful youkai in the Makai, having held position for almost a millennium, an unheard of amount of time."

 

I stayed silent for several long minutes, turning over this new information in my mind. There was so much about the Makai that I didn't know, I realized. Why had I never thought to ask about how Bashere became the Battle Lord? Though I'd been so determined to feat him, I'd unconsciously put Bashere up on a pedestal as this great and powerful warrior. To know now that there were not many youkai who were so much more powerful than him...I had a long way to go skill-wise if I ever wanted to catch up.

 

There was one thing that as itching at the back of my mind however. Though I now completely understood about what had happened to Tasuki, what about what had happened to Itachi?

 

"Why did you kill Itachi's family?" I asked, voicing my thoughts.

 

Tasuki snorted. "They imprisoned me," he replied gruffly. "Away from my fellow Biju, away from my Lord, away from my life. When I had a chance, I took my revenge. Wouldn't you have done the same in my position?"

 

Though I stayed silent I was mentally disagreeing with him. Even if I'd been sealed away like that--and thank Kami that I hadn't been--I wouldn't have just massacred a bunch of people like that. Not all of them had known about the sealing, and even fewer had actually been a part of it. Plus, according to Itachi over half the clan had been defenseless civilians! I would say nothing of my opinion however because I did understand why Tasuki had done what he'd done. Plus he'd been raised in the Makai, which made him infinitely more vicious than me.

 

"I'll help you," I promised quietly, but determinedly. "I'll get you out of here and back into the Makai. It's a win-win situation; you'll get out of here and Itachi will be relieved of his 'burden'." I grinned widely.

 

Tasuki stared at me in surprise before matching my grin with one of his own. "Thank you, my Lord," he said with another bow. "Thank you."

 

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When I arrived back in my own mind Itachi still looked blank. Not a moment later however, the apathy was replaced with confusion as his eyes settled on the crimson red of his sharingan.

 

"Wha...?" he said in confusion.

 

I grinned at Itachi, suddenly feeling quite happy. "Hello Itachi-kun!" I chirped. "Sorry about that, but apparently Tasuki, the youki within you, reacted violently to the feel of my youki, so I had to go have a chat with him. He shouldn't be bothering you any more."

 

Itachi's eyes widened. "You--...I...he...Huh?"

 

I laughed in amusement at his expression before playfully ruffling Itachi's hair, shoving my hands in my pockets and walking away.

 

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A week after I'd talked to Tasuki I was strolling around a large town on the border between Taki no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni. I was in the middle of a large, bustling market and fitting in surprisingly well.

 

A while ago Itachi and I had decided to build a permanent house in the valley. Because we didn't want anyone to be suspicious we were getting the materials and a building contractor--whose mind I would eventually wipe--from the other side of the country. I was the one who traveled the fasted, thus the reason why I was here alone.

 

As I walked around I marveled at the village. Since arriving in the world--had it really already been two whole weeks?--I had found that it was like a strange mix of ancient and modern Japan. People dressed traditionally and there were no cars or computers, but there were many things that I associated with modern times, such as electricity and even TVs! It took a while to get used to, but I found myself liking it. It actually kind of reminded me of the Makai.

 

In the past week I'd also gotten some new clothes in order to help me fit in better. I was stilled wearing black pants and my black boots, but now I also had on a crimson red kimono-style top with black lining and a black obi. It reached down to my mid thighs, but was very easy to move in.

 

I also had an illusion over my face, hiding my "warlord" tattoo"--after all, it wouldn't be very inconspicuous to walk around with something like that. The whole "illusion" thing was actually pretty interesting. It came about when I'd seen Itachi performing a Genjutsu(4), the shinobi branch of illusions. Fascinated by it as I'd been, I'd quickly experimented more with creating my own illusions using my psychic abilities. The end result was a mimic of Genjutsu that I could control very easily. It was done by placing a layer of psychic energy over my face which tricked people's minds into seeing something other than what was actually there, just like a Genjutsu.

 

Before long my meanderings brought me closer to the edge of town. I knew that I really should continue to look for a contractor, but I felt like just wandering around for a while.

 

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something flicker. With a frown I turned to face the tree line, where the forest outside of the town began. There was nothing there however and I was just about to turn away again when the air around the trees suddenly flickered again. For a moment I felt a faint tugging on my mind, telling me to walk away, but I easily squashed the sensation. Instead, I began to quietly stride toward the trees, determined to find out what was happening.

 

It was about 200 or so feet in that I got my answer: There was a confrontation. A squad of five ANBU was facing a single young man, who had his back up against a three.

 

The guy looked to be only about fifteen or sixteen. He had blonde hair that was held up in a pony tail with long bangs covering one side of his face. He was dressed as a shinobi and had a strange bandana around his head that had a metal plate on the part that crossed his forehead. The strangest part, however, was that I could feel faint amounts of chakra leaking off him.

 

As I watched, the ANBU began to close in on the boy. My eyes narrowed at them; I was really beginning to dislike these masked weirdoes. I knew that it was irrational and was only because of what had happened to Itachi, but that didn't change the way that I felt.

 

"Surrender now," one of the ANBU commanded, "And return with us to Iwagakure or forfeit your life."

 

The boy grinned almost cockily and began to slowly raise his arms up before him. "I choose option C!"

 

"Watch his hands!" one of the ANBU screamed. As the men jumped into action the blonde's grin widened further. It was then, without any warning, that the entire world around us seemed to explode.