Painfully Aware with So Much to Learn

Chapter Thirty-one: Unclean

He could barely hear the carrot top rant about pain through the ringing in his ears as he desperately tried to swallow a panic attack, his lungs burned with stress as he felt cold metal scrape against his bones at every twitch.

Just outside the gaping hole the jinchuriki was fighting in, Shikamaru was trying to will his leg to be less broken. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" He muttered to himself as he tried to reposition the useless limb to no avail.

"Naruto has sustained severe injuries, he's been pinned by the final pain." The sheepish monotone of the cat-sized slug on his shoulder said. Shikamaru felt his mind go blank, he could hear a familiar ringing in his ears but he pushed past that.

He was pissed. He quickly shoved the neck of his dirty vest into his mouth and then straightened his leg with a sickening pop. His jaw clenched painfully around the cloth in his mouth and he thanked a few celestial beings there was no one to stop him from doing what he knew full well was completely stupid. He fixed himself a shakey splint from surrounding rubble and the bandages he had in his kunai pouch.

He stood up, and he felt his eyes water at the strain on his still very broken leg. But he didn't have time for that, he needed to help Naruto.

"This is to honour our sensei, isn't it?" A deep monotone questioned, yanking the shaggy blonde ponytail Naruto had insisted on growing. All the boy could do was whimper at the terribly familiar feeling of being treated like an old doll. Suddenly, the pressure was gone from his head. Strands of blonde hair tickled his neck and nose.

"Hey!" Naruto heard a familiar voice echo across the partially dead field. "G-Get away from him!" The puppets eyes were now fully turned to the raven, leaving Naruto shocked and terrified.

He felt one of the bars on his legs loosen while Shikamaru made a show of distracting the pein. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw shadows creeping over his whole body, weak from the lack of shade. Suddenly both his legs were loose, and he felt he could breath a little easier.

Then he heard a pained gasp, he turned to see Shikamaru getting flung through the air like a piece of paper in heavy wind. He felt his heart sink further than it already had. "STOP!!" He yelled desperately, thrashing in his remaining empalement.

He was forced to watch as a metal pole splattered Shikamaru's blood into the soil. His thoughts stopped entirely, all he heard was a ringing in his ears.

'He hurt him'

'He hurt him'

'He hurt him'

His thoughts barely felt like his own as they echoed through his mind.

'Make him pay he HURT HIM'

He didn't focus, his skin began to glow in an instant. His skin glow darker than it did before, almost read. The whites of his eyes were replaced with black, what was once stars now held x's, his canines grew until his lips couldn't contain them and his clothes burned with a dark red heat.

He ripped himself off the metal, not flinching. He was behind the ginger in an instant, a deep snarl on his mouth and a deep hunger in his eyes.

The 'man' was down in an instant, faster than anyone could see, even the doujutsu carefully spectating.

Only once the corpse had stopped moving did he calm his breathing and fade out of the horrifying form. He quickly rushed over to Shikamaru with glowing orange hands.