The Two-Tails Cat Demon looked like the incarnation of deadly grace to the Leaf ninjas. Her gigantic form was sleek and toned like a panther, muscles rippling under her skin with every movement. White-hot flames flickered and pulsed across her soft blue fur. Her three-foot long claws dug into the stone floor of the ravine like it was soft dirt. The feline's fangs were longer than Neji was tall, perfectly straight, painfully sharp, and completely unmarked. Her deep yellow eyes watched them, her slitted pupils almost a vertical line in the brightness of the floodlights. At the same time, her ears swiveled around, searching for the sounds of any creature she might not be able to see. The expression on her face was incomprehensible to the teens, but her posture seemed to be completely at ease, her hackles were not raised and her twin tails hung flaccid behind her.
The Two-Tails cat took a deep breath, blue flames shimmering in the corners of her mouth. After filling her lungs, she spit out a cone of cyan fire at the four Leaf shinobi. The teenage warriors scattered to avoid the inferno. Hinata activated her improved Byakugan, and both she and Neji studied the demon's chakra. The four ninjas spread out as they had been trained; knowing that if they separated, at least they could divide the monster's attention, and prevent her from attacking more than one of them at a time. But as soon as they were out of the path of her attack, the feline stopped as if confused. After a few instants of consideration, the cat turned to her left, following Hinata and Tenten. The weapons expert was already signing when the demon's jaws opened again.
"Hinata, get clear," she advised, before finishing, "Doton: Rockslide Jutsu."
The walls of the canyon on either side of the young woman broke apart, and tumbled towards the creature. The cat demon continued her clockwise rotation another half step, and breathed fire on the stones rumbling forward on Tenten's right. The inferno nearly caught the human, and fused the rocks together. But the boulders on the other side of Gai's student continued unimpeded, crashing into the demon's face and front left leg. Hinata, having taken her friend's warning, continued to observe the creature through her silver eyes.
To the monster's rear, Neji completed his own technique, incanting, "Water Style: Extinguishing Deluge Jutsu."
A column of water erupted from the male Jonin's hands, expanding into a wave that washed over the demon. The flickering embers across the cat's body expired, and between the rocks and the flood, the monster nearly fell over. Sakura charged in, hammering her lightning charged fists into the feline's right rear leg. The girl's strength, combined with the numbing effect of the Ranshinsho proved to be enough to knock the demon on her side.
"Get up," a new voice shouted, "Kill them. Burn them to ash!"
Previously hidden behind the Two-Tails was a teenage girl, perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of age. Her build was balanced, neither slender nor bulky. She wore a Hidden Snow headband, with a ragged line cut through the insignia. Her pale green eyes stared wrathfully at the Leaf ninjas. Her hair was a deep shade of pink, bordering on purple, and was done in five short, tight braids. Her uniform consisted of a tight, light grey jumpsuit, with a metal breastplate covering the upper part of her chest. She held a mace loosely in her right hand, and a silver amulet tightly in her left hand. The Snow renegade realized she had been spotted, and gripped her weapon more firmly.
"We meet at last, Sakura Haruno," she announced, "Now I can finally pay you back for killing my sister."
"You must be Mayuko Kakuyoku," the medic realized, "You look a lot like your sister."
"It's too late for flattery," the renegade snorted, and then she noticed the cat demon was lying where she had fallen, licking her stunned leg.
"What are you waiting for?" Mayuko yelled at the demon, "Hurry up! Kill the male, then the other two females. But save that one for last."
The cat lurched to her feet, faster than she had been moving before. She jumped towards the wall above Tenten, knocking the human aside almost gently with one of her tails, and then rebounded at Neji, her teeth spread wide enough to consume him in one bite.
"Eight Trigrams, Empty Palm," Hinata struck the demon's neck, diverting her away from Neji. The Hyuga heiress caught onto the feline's hair, and began jabbing her fingers into the monster's chakra points.
"No! Burn her off! Stop the other one!"
Hinata jumped clear as the cat's coat ignited again. Tenten had been charging towards the Akatsuki ring candidate, but the demon hissed and plume of steam cut off Gai's female apprentice. Hinata's eyes narrowed as she considered the scene.
Naruto slumped up against the wall, defeated. He had been stalking around the sewer outside the fox's prison, still riled up by the battle and by the Kyubi's last barb. He could tell that the demon was still withholding her power, and he thought if she would just give it to him, he would be able to kick his healing powers up to a level where he could overcome the drug keeping him unconscious. He argued the point with the spirit, but she ignored him. After almost twenty minutes of pacing and trying to convince his 'tenant', he gave up and decided to rest.
"Let me ask you something," she said suddenly, a few minutes later. There was an odd timbre to her voice, and he squinted at her curiously. When he did not deny her, she continued.
"Pretend Orochimaru had captured you," she posited, "and was going to make you his new host. But you had a way to kill yourself, and destroy his hideout in the process. What would you do?"
"Would I kill him; if I do the kamikaze thing?" Naruto asked after some consideration.
"You don't know," she told him, "But you will ruin his plans."
"Well, if he takes over my body, I'll be dead in three years either way," he shrugged, "So it doesn't matter either way."
"And if that wasn't the case?" she countered, "What if he had upgraded his possession; and between that and your regeneration, you'll live your full lifespan."
"Well, in that case wouldn't it be better to live?" he suggested, "After all, Hinata or Sakura or Gramma Tsunade might find a way to save me."
"Maybe," she agreed, "But it would be a million to one shot. And not like those books you read, where a million to one shot is really a two to thee shot. And in the mean time, the snake would be using your body to do all sorts of things you'd hate."
"Basically, would you rather die on your own terms, or live as a slave to someone you hate," she simplified.
"That's a heck of a choice," he told her, "I mean, as a ninja I'm prepared to die on a mission, but I still do everything I can to stay alive. But being enslaved by an enemy... That's not much different from being dead. And besides, Orochimaru would probably want to find a way to kill my mind, kinda like you. So who knows how long I'd live."
The demon ignored the barb, and watched him closely. Naruto closed his eyes and rubbed his chin in thought. Finally his blue orbs slowly reappeared and he exhaled in decision.
"In that case, I'd rather die to try to take down Orochimaru, then let him use me," Naruto told the fox.
"Why?" he added, looking confused now that he was no longer focusing on the quandary.
"That's what I thought you would say," the fox nodded her head, before turning away from him again.
'She obviously was talking about herself,' Naruto was not totally dense, 'but how could she hurt the Akatsuki by dying? And for that matter, how could she die?'
Hinata was thrown into the cliff as she stopped the cat's razor sharp claws with Ginmaki. The demon's other forepaw collided with Sakura, but the powerful medic accepted some minor burns to catch the limb and force the monstrous feline back. Both the cat and her controller's eyes widened at Sakura's show of strength. Neji hurried over to his cousin, while Tenten darted around the demon towards Mayuko again. The Snow rogue barked another order, and the cat's tails slammed into the ground, nearly knocking the weapon mistress down, and blocking her path.
"Are you alright?" Neji asked Hinata quickly, helping her stand.
"I am not in any danger," she answered, "just some bruises and a cracked rib."
"Wait here," he told her, "I will get Sakura."
"No," she shook her head, "You need to keep distracting the cat. I have another idea."
Hinata quickly summoned her familiars. She dispatched Sol to fetch Sakura, and Luné to help keep the feline's attention. Neji nodded to her, and then followed the male squirrel. Hinata returned to observing the battle as she clutched her injured side. She had downplayed the damage she had taken from hitting the rocky wall, and she knew that Neji could see just as well with his Byakugan. But she felt there was something else going on here, and she wanted the chance to observe from a distance for a few moments.
Luné darted in, unnoticed by the demon or her handler, at least until he drew a kunai shaped short sword from under his sash, and stabbed the cat in the paw. The feline yelped, more from surprise than pain, and she turned to look at the new annoyance. But the black squirrel was already scampering away, and his action gave Neji an opening to hit the cat with another water jutsu, dousing the monster's flaming fur once more. Sol reached Sakura at that point, whispering her message to the medic, before drawing her own blade and joining the fray. Mayuko continued to bark orders at the cat, while Tenten remained intent on reaching the demon's mistress.
"Like fighting the porcupine," Sakura noted, as she began to knit Hinata's injured bone, "Only about twenty times worse."
"No," Hinata shook her head carefully, so as not to disrupt the jutsu, "The Two-Tails Cat is much more dangerous than that, or at least she should be."
"What do you mean?" the medic queried her teammate. With the fires out, Sol was able to climb up the demon's right front leg, and slash at her shoulder. The cat shook the albino squirrel off, and was nearly knocked over again when Neji and Tenten hit her with tandem earth jutsus.
"It looks like the cat isn't really trying to hurt us," Hinata suggested, sounding slightly dubious of her own assertion.
"If this is not trying to hurt us, I'd hate to see that demon get serious," Sakura said darkly, moving to the second crack rib that Hinata had tried to conceal.
"No, she is doing exactly what she is told, and no more," Hinata explained in a whisper, "And when she is able, the demon appears to be bending Mayuko's orders to avoid hurting us. Like every time Mayuko orders her to go after Tenten, the cat does so immediately, even if she is in a position to kill one of us."
As Hinata offered that, Sakura looked back and was treated to a live example. The cat was preparing to unleash another gout of flame, this time at Hinata's summoned allies. But then Tenten used her Shuriken String Jutsu, and the Hidden Snow renegade again yelled for the demon to defend her. The cat stopped her attack, and absorbed the mass of blades with her left rear leg, even though she could have blocked while still attempting to barbecue the ninja rodents.
"Why is the demon doing that?" Sakura wondered.
"I don't know. Maybe whatever process they are using to control her limits her will," Hinata suggested, "Or maybe she resents the Akatsuki."
"It doesn't matter much," the healer noted, "We're basically at a stalemate right now, but it won't last forever. Eventually the cat will put one of us out of commission, and it will be all downhill from there."
"That is why we need to find a way to turn this hesitation to our advantage," Hinata noted, watching the cat again.
As expected, the Leaf and Sand teams had met in the Land of Forests, and had continued after a short break. Just before nightfall, the allies had rendezvoused with the Mist shinobi, just north of the Hidden Cloud Village. By two hours after midnight on April 22nd, they had reached the entrance to the canyon.The Nine-tails Fox Demon rose slowly, almost majestically, and walked to the bars of her cell. She sat down, and stared intently at her Jinchuriki.
"What?" Naruto fidgeted, uncomfortable, "Are you going to attack me again?"
"Unfortunately, that wouldn't work," she said sadly, "I haven't been able to figure out a way to prevent you from assuming that hybrid form of yours."
"Then are you committing my face to memory, before you get stuffed in that ugly statue and become Madara's slave again?"
"I hate you," she told him simply, after a moment of thought, "It goes without saying that I detest your species. You should be the servants, the playthings of my kind. Instead, you imprison us in rings, in statues, and in your own bizarre bodies. You spread across this world like a fungus."
"But you hold a place of honor," she paused in her calm rant, glaring at him, "If I could, I would burn your limbs off, centimeter by centimeter. And then I would eat your organs one at a time, until you were begging for death. And once you did, I would let your body regenerate, and start the process over from scratch."
"And?" Naruto tried to sound unimpressed.
"And despite that, I don't totally despise you," she admitted. Naruto shuddered, wondering what she would want to do to him in that case.
"You have provided me with amusement, a few interesting experiences, and some annoying yet compelling insight," she informed him. Naruto rubbed his eyes in confusion, he could have sworn the fox looked smaller.
"You are the best of the three Jinchuriki that I have been consigned to, not that that is saying much," she complimented him in a backhand fashion, "There are times I think we almost understand each other."
"So what is the point of all this?" Naruto continued to look uncertain.
"The point is," the fox seemed amused by his naiveté, and saddened as well, "right now I have to choose between you and Madara. Madara Uchiha, the creature I hate most in this world, the one I despise completely; or Naruto Uzumaki the helpless pup who had kept me trapped for more than sixteen years."
"As things sit now, you could not escape even if I sent you all of my power," she answered his earlier inquiry, "The jutsu they are using to extract me is altering our perception of time, and the way our powers mix. I have already tried send power to your body, and they increased the dosage of the drug to match. And since you cannot access you body, how much power I can send it is limited."
The Kyubi was definitely smaller now, just a shade over twenty feet in length.
"Then I guess you don't have a choice after all," he noted in resigned defeat.
"No, there is one way," she shook her head, "One way to potentially escape the Akatsuki, and to thwart Madara's desires forever."
The demon was shrinking noticeably at that point, she was barely larger than he was. At the same time, Naruto realized he could feel the Jutsu drilling through the seal, and the sedatives coursing through his blood. He felt truly clearheaded for the first time since waking up in their mindscape. And then he took a step back in fear as the five-foot long fox demon walked cleanly between the bars, her nine tails twitching nervously.
"Good bye, Naruto," she said hatefully yet fondly, "I wish you good luck, but only because I don't want this to have been a waste."
The demoness crouched down, and then pounced at him. Naruto crossed his arms before his chest to block the expected attack. But instead of colliding with him, the Kyubi no Kitsune became insubstantial and passed right through him. Naruto felt a new, powerful warmth infuse his chest, even as he spun around to look for the demon. But the spirit was gone, and the sewer faded away, leaving him in an empty, silvery void.
"Mistress," one of her assistants called out to the lead scientist nervously. The Akatsuki's chakra and jutsu expert was taking a break, and she raised her head to look at the underling.
"What is it?" she asked grumpily. The answer she received was full of fear and confusion.
"The seal is gone..."