Babysitted by the Uchiha Avenger

Chapter Twenty Three

Now, I really want to get this across correctly:

I had just had pretty much all of my skin torn apart. My blood vessels, veins, and arteries, were in tatters. There was a massive, nine-tailed demon fox possessing my untrained, 14-year-old body, and I was pretty bashed up from the events of that night already.

As you can imagine, that's quite a bit of physical pain.

However, none of that came close to how much fucking pain I felt when I saw blood gushing from three deep gashes in Sasuke's gut.

I felt agony ripple through me, so much of it that even the jinchurikii screamed.

I felt someone tackle me, and I went sprawling because neither I nor the jinchurikii had the strength to take it. I opened one eye to see who it was —

Naru.

He'd taken control of his body again. Barely.

There were tears streaming down his face as he tried to pin me down, tried to calm me down. I could barely hear him over my own screams (or were they the demon's?).

"You would swear I had...ripped your heart out of your chest..." she gagged. "I can't move anymore..."

Naruto's face shifted back to the fox's. "Are you really that weak?" He bellowed. Naru shook his head, trying with all his might to stay human.

He lost control for a moment and caught my jaw with an iron fist. I howled, she howled, Naru's grip on me tightened.

"Lucy! Snap out of it, please!" he begged. He shook me by the shoulders, tried to meet my eye. "You've got to! Or we're all going to..."

He didn't finish but he didn't have to. I knew exactly what he meant.

A sudden silence fell over my mind. It didn't feel like I was in the warehouse anymore, more like I was being suspended. Slowly, cautiously, I opened my eyes, prepared for the worst. I was alone, in a swirling void. The chaos and pain I had just been feeling was gone. I looked to my arm, and saw the bruises from the shackles had disappeared.

"Where...am I?"

This is your soul, you idiot girl.

I whipped round, and gasped. Not six feet in front of me was the demon fox, the jinchurikii. She sat still, watching me calmly.

"My soul. And I suppose...I have to try and get you..."

Out. Yes, I believe so.

"How did we both get here?"

Our conflicting morals have sent your body into an existential paradoxial state. It wants one soul, not two. One of us has to leave.

I wasn't quite sure how to tell whether the fox was serious or not (what do foxes look like when they're kidding?). I simply studied her gaze.

"I'm assuming I can't shove you in a bag and put you in a bin?"

The fox actually laughed. It is a fight determined by our strength of will. All you must do...

She propped herself on her hind legs, and held up two of her paws.

...is let yourself overpower me.

Can foxes smirk? I'm pretty sure she was smirking.

"You don't seem to think I can do that."

She didn't say anything.

"And...if you overpower me?"

I get your body as my vessel forever. And your soul dies.

I gulped. "O-okay."

I sat myself in front of her, and crossed my legs. I lowered my eyes for a moment, my heart pounding.

If I failed here, Naruto, Sasuke, and everyone I'd looked up to since I was a kid would die. It seemed unbelievable that I had only met them in person that night. Really, it felt like I had known them all my life. The feeling seemed to be mutual.

If only I died here, Kishimoto's story could still go on. But knowing the jinchurikii's plan, knowing what she wanted to do...there was no way I could lose.

The happy ending I'd spent all night trying to convince them was there, was something I was going to have to protect now.

I raised my gaze again.

"I'm ready."

This time, I'm sure she smiled.

Prepare to die.