Journey of the Three Failures

Chapter 29: As Beasts

Journey of the Three Failures

Chapter Twenty-Nine: As Beasts

Part One: Howl

Naruto ナルト

"This shape he's assumed..." old man Hiryuu murmured, astonished. "I fought him once in the earlier stages of his curse, but this... Just what kind of monster...?"

"It's the fullmoon state, alright," I said, and Lee nodded. My eyes narrowed as Neji growled and snarled, terribly, at the summoner and familiar, strings of drool stretching between his fangs; he was too wild to remain intimidated for long. "But by the look in his eyes, and how much trouble he had activating it, he doesn't take that form very often."

Even saying it, I knew it made little sense. What did he do every month, afflicted with that curse? I doubted he had the control to suppress the change by sheer force of will; even Hinata, though having predicted it might be possible, couldn't do that. Not that she would often like to...

"Nee-chan's... form? It looks a bit less formidable..."

I turned my head at the soft voice of the kid in Hiryuu's arms, curiously feeble but watching all the same. I studied her as I spoke.

"A half-demon – that's what your sister is now. Her full power is too potent for it to be desirable to channel nonstop, so she typically restricts most of its influence. What we're seeing now is the appearance her body takes when she breaks that forced restriction, and her youki is allowed to run at full force."

"Even so," Lee noted, "this true han'you state is only equivalent in power to the third or fourth ring of her own Blood Seal, at best. She will not match Neji in physical strength right now, and given the further enhancement of his remaining senses, he will probably not be impaired by his blindness any longer. Furthermore, if he is anything like Hinata-san was with the fullmoon state so long ago, he will be fighting purely on instinct..."

Hanabi shivered as another cutting roar hit the air. She looked to her sister on the battlefield, who took the brunt of the threatening, fiendish vocalizations without so much as flinching. "If she c-can take that shape as well, why isn't she? Can she match him this way?"

I grimaced. "The curse tends to turn its user feral, more so the further it's allowed to progress. While she is fairly good with controlling herself now, there's no guarantee that the curse second state, generating the amount of power, stimulation, and impulse that it does, might not cause her to slip and kill her opponent in the heat of an intense battle.

"But," I added as Hanabi's face grew uncertain, "that doesn't mean she's putting herself in jeopardy here, y'know? The youki release is her happy medium... and the state in which she can most effectively synergize with that big blazing dog over there."

"You still believe in her, do you not?" Lee asked the girl.

"Of course!" she replied. "Brute force isn't everything..."

I smirked. "Unlike Neji, using her curse won't corrode Hinata's soul or sanity because hers doesn't run on darkness. She worked to see to that end. And it's only because of her pure spirit's fortitude that she can control and command a fair amount of demonic power while resisting corruption. She won't shame her way – or her beneficiaries – by losing to an out-of-control monster."

On the field, Neji snarled, his head down. He opened his mouth, a droplet of energy rolling to life between his fangs, emitting an ominous glow.

He lifted his head, launching a blast of frothing liquid toward them like a cannonball. The liquid bullet curved in the air, expanding as it flew; Hinata and Kurogiba leapt apart, letting the speeding projectile shoot between them and explode a ways on with a thunderous crack.