Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Battle Lord Chronicles: Under A Bloody Moon ❯ The Missing-nin ( Chapter 4 )

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) - Missing-nin is the term given to shinobi who have abandoned their Hidden Village. They are considered traitors and are hunted down because of the secrets they may hold. Basically they're "criminals" who ran away from their village.

 

(2) - Yonbi means four tails while Shichibi means seven tails.

 

"Talking"

'Thinking'

'Telepathy'

 

Thanks to my beta reader, Anna Jaganshi.

 

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Under A Bloody Moon

 

Chapter 4

The Missing-nin

 

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It was during this chaos, as fire and debris flew around me, that I came to a split-second decision. Using the technique that I'd been working on since first seeing Jason use it, I stepped into a section of deep shadows and, after only a moment of concentration, began to sink down into them. I reappeared out of the shadows of the tree behind the blonde boy. Wrapping my arms securely around his shoulders, I quickly pulled him back in with me.

 

As soon as we tumbled out onto solid ground somewhere on the other side of the town the teen leapt away from me, snarling. "What the hell?!" he gasped while looking around wildly.

 

"Sorry about that," I muttered. "But I needed to get you out of there and there was no time for warnings."

 

The blonde paused in his mad scrambling and finally turned to get a good look at me. He looked wary and ready to run at any second, but also curious.

 

"Who are you? Why did you help?"

 

I grinned brightly. "Name's Kristy! It's nice to meet you. And I helped you because it looked like you needed helping." I paused for a moment, thinking about the youki that I'd felt earlier. "...You're a jinchuuriki, aren't you?"

 

"Hmm, I'm Deidara--" Abruptly, the teen breathed in sharply and then proceeded to gape in shock at me. "Wait, what?! H-how did you...!"

 

"I could feel the youki on you," I stated matter-of-factly. "This is so great though! I can't believe that I managed to find another jinchuuriki so quickly!"

 

Deidara's eyes narrowed. "Another jinchuuriki? Do you mean to say that you're one yourself?"

 

"Oh no, not at all. But my friend, Itachi, is one."

 

"Itachi? As in Uchiha Itachi?"

 

"The very one," I replied with a smile. "Do you know him?"

 

Deidara eyed me. "No...But I certainly know of him. Such as that he massacred his clan not two weeks ago."

 

I found myself scowling briefly. "Itachi-kun did not kill his family...His youkai did."

 

Deidara stared at me for another minute before finally nodding resolutely. "I thought that there was something off. No teenage boy should be able to destroy his entire clan, genius or no."

 

Before our conversation could go any further, Deidara and I found ourselves facing the squad of ANBU, who had apparently managed to find us. They didn't waste any time issuing a warning this time, but instead just outright attacked.

 

With a sigh I turned to Deidara. "You don't mind if I take care of these guys, do you?"

 

"Be my guest!" the blonde yelped while scrambling backwards.

 

With a grin I turned my full attention onto the approaching ANBU. There were several ways that I could quickly take them out without harming them, but there was something else that I wanted to try.

 

The first thing that I did was to call up my shadows to wrap around the men. Surprised as they were, all except for one were caught. That one I quickly wrapped in a bind of psychic energy around him until the shadows could hold him still, and then released the first binding. Psychic energy didn't work very well as a bind for more than a few seconds; it was too fluid, too uncontrollable.

 

The final step was something that I'd never done before, but also something that I needed to practice with. I took a deep breath to help me concentrate and then left my body via astro projection. I then swiftly moved into the mind of the first ANBU.

 

Once I was in the halls of his mind, I quickly moved forward until I reached the door at the end. Unlike usually, this time I didn't go through that door. Instead I turned my attention onto the door along the hall that was closest to the end door. A quick glance inside showed that the door did indeed lead into the ANBU's most recent memories.

 

Gently, I closed the door and let out a sigh. Now came the tricky part, that that I wasn't so sure about: I needed to erase his memories up until that point where Deidara had caused the explosion. That was the reason why I'd had to use astro projection instead of just entering the man's mind; it was something that required quite a bit of energy.

 

I took a deep breath and thane placed one hand on the memory-door. As psychic energy gathered beneath my hand the door began to pulsate. I concentrated hard on the portion of the man's memories that I wanted to erase and then--

 

Abruptly, the door exploded. I attempted to shield my face with my arms, but quickly found that it wasn't necessary as nothing hit me anyway. The debris just...disappeared. I blinked my eyes in surprise and confusion and then stared on in shock as another door suddenly materialized in existence where the first one had been, replacing it.

 

I paused to frown fiercely at the door. What the hell? Why hadn't it worked? I'd been studying the mind recently and I'd been so sure that that would work...

 

Letting out a sigh I hesitantly opened the door once more. Maybe if I saw the part that I needed to erase again--

 

Suddenly I froze in surprise. The memories contained on the other side of the door didn't include what had happened after I'd taken Deidara away! They cut off after the explosion instead and, before my very eyes, the man's mind began to formulate the idea--and thus the memory--of him getting hit by some debris and falling unconscious.

 

A wide grin nearly split my face in two. This was perfect! Not only had I managed to erase the memories that I'd wanted to, but his mind was starting to fill in the blanks! I'd remembered hearing somewhere back in school that the human mind could do that, and now I had proof right before me.

 

When I pulled out of the man's mind I found that he had indeed fallen unconscious. The erasing of memories must do that to a person.

 

Still grinning gleefully, I proceeded to enter the minds of the other ANBU and wipe their memories as well. Once that was done I returned to my own body.

 

As I blinked open my eyes my first sight was of Deidara leaning over me. A concerned frown marred his tanned face.

 

"Hey," he said as he pulled me to my feet. "Are you okay? You just kind of collapsed after..." He gestured towards the ANBU, who were all slumped over in their bindings.

 

"Oh, don't worry about that; I was just taking care of their memories. I hope you don't mind that when they wake up they'll think that they were knocked out by your blast. They won't remember me at all."

 

Deidara took a moment to gape at me. "T-their memories?!" he exclaimed loudly. "What the hell?!"

 

I grinned widely. "Yep! All it takes is a bit of psychic aptitude...And intensive training in the arts of astral projection and sufficient energy to keep your body alive, but that's beside the point."

 

"Still," the blonde said while shaking his head in amusement, "That can't be normal. And it definitely wasn't in the form of jutsu."

 

"Of course not. Youkai abilities are quite different from jutsu."

 

Deidara cocked an eyebrow. "Youkai? But I thought that you said that you weren't a jinchuuriki?"

 

"Hmm? Well it's true; I'm not."

 

"But then how--" Deidara started in confusion, only to cut himself off as he began laughing. "You can't seriously expect me to believe that you're a youkai!"

 

I rolled my eyes in annoyance at his disbelief. "Oh no, of course not!" I began sarcastically. "I'm just a normal non-shinobi fighter with the ability to control shadows and erase people's memories."

 

Deidara's laughter disappeared and a strange look crossed his face. "You mean you're really...? But, but, you don't look like--"

 

"--A seven foot scaly monster? Yeah, you'll find that many youkai--higher level youkai in particular--look quite human. Not to mention that I'm technically half-ningen, even though I'm a full-blooded youkai. It's a complicated situation."

 

I probably should have been a bit more careful about whom I revealed my heritage to, but Deidara was a jinchuuriki and technically was in my debt since I'd saved his life so I figured that it'd be okay. Plus, it was the only way that I could properly explain what had happened.

 

"Still..." Deidara murmured.

 

I rolled my eyes again. "Look," I muttered in annoyance. "What do you want? A fucking demonstration?"

 

Deidara grinned cheekily. "That'd be nice!"

 

Growling I lifted up one hand and a ball of shadow-flames sprang into existence there. Deidara jumped slightly in surprise at the sudden movement, but a grin quickly made its way to his face.

 

"Wicked!" he exclaimed. Despite myself I couldn't help but grin as well. "So..." Deidara said after a moment. "I'm guessing that that tattoo had something to do with you being a youkai?"

 

Surprised my hand involuntarily rose to my face. Crap! The illusion that I'd had on must have dropped when I left my body! ...Though, granted, it wasn't as if it mattered much now since it was just Deidara and I.

 

I smiled sadly, still touching the tattoo. "Yes," I replied. "It's...a mark. It signifies my status."

 

"As a warlord?" Deidara asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

My grin turned almost feral. "Mmm. As the Battle Lord of the Makai." Seeing Deidara's confused face I let out a laugh. "I'll explain it later," I told him while waving him off. "I actually still need to explain it to Itachi-kun. I'm surprised that he hasn't asked about it yet."

 

"That's right; you're with Itachi, aren't you? ...You wouldn't happen to have a secure place to hide then, would you?"

 

"Hmm?" I said, blinking in surprise. "Well, yeah. We're at a...place...where no one else can get into. I'd venture to say that it's very secure."

 

Deidara's face broke out into a bright grin. "That's great!" he exclaimed. "You wouldn't mind if Sasori and I stayed with you then, would you? We need to hide from the law for a while..."

 

I paused, confusion making itself known on my face. "...Sasori?"

 

"Oh, right!" Deidara suddenly exclaimed while waving his arms around randomly. "Sasori is an old friend of mine whose been a missing-nin(1) forever. We've been traveling around together for the past few months, ever since I finally ran away from my village. He's staying in the town right now, at the hotel."

 

"And he's...?"

 

"A jinchuuriki? Yes. He holds the Yonbi while I hold the Shichibi(2). I'm sure that he'll come with us once we've explained what's happened! After all, I do kind of owe you for helping me out and all..."

 

I waved Deidara's statement off. "It's fine, it's fine!" I said. "Now, let's go find this friend of yours, ne? We can start heading out before sun set then, after talking to him."

 

From there Deidara quickly led me back into the town and to a well-lit hotel. It was there, in one of the rooms on the upper floor, that we found this "Sasori".

 

As soon as we stepped into the hotel room its single occupant whirled around to face us. A snarl was on his face and his wary eyes were glued to me.

 

The man, Sasori, I guessed, looked to be around my age, perhaps just a year or two older. He had bright red hair that fell around his face in a style similar to Chris', and smoldering brown eyes.

 

Immediately, Deidara began waving his arms around. "Wait, wait, wait!" he exclaimed, hoping to forestall senseless violence. "It's alright! Let me explain everything first!"

 

Sasori's angry glare shifted onto the blonde. "Talk. Now."