Autumn faded into the bitter winter in the Land of Fire. The mornings were cold, and Shizi fought to remove herself from her warm bedding to do her missions. Today was her free day, so she decided to take her elderly equine friend out for a light exercise to loosen frozen joints. She climbs over the wooden fence and searches for the pale horse in the white pasture. The animal was sheltered at the farthest corner of the field, huddled under a bare oak tree to act as its windbreaker. Shizi slipped the bridle over the horse's head before using the fence to launch onto its back.
As she travelled through town, she picked up the blonde Naruto as he was on his way to train. They said hello to the usual gatekeeper duo before weaving through the trees out to their shared meadow. Naruto tucked her braid into her coat before wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her to his chest as she tapped the sides of her horse with her heels into a loose trot. Gradually, she worked up to a circling gallop around the perimeter of the clearing. She rounded the last turn and had to instantly swerve around a Shinobi as they stumbled into the clearing, red blood staining the pristinely white snow at their feet. Shizi and Naruto instantly slid off the horse, letting the equine slow to a stop on its own as they dropped into the snow with weapons instantly drawn for an attack.
"Who are you and why are you in the Land of Fire?" Naruto demands as he stepped protectively between Shizi and the mystery human. Their scent drifted to the brunette neko and she struggled to remember exactly where she smelled this before. It was hard to differentiate between the intruder's stark white hair and the pale snow. But once she did she instantly knew who this was, she fought her in the Chunin Exams so long ago.
"Yasei? Why are you all the way out here?" The boy's royal blue eyes glanced over at the female beside him as she spoke.
"You know her?" Shizi rushed to the bleeding girl and began to bandage her injuries enough for travel.
"Yeah, she was my opponent in the Chunin Exams. The one with the black and red reaper."
"The one who almost killed you?" The anger was very much evident in his words and Shizi simply nodded before forcing both of them to a stand, Naruto instinctively helping stabilize the two. Her horse knew it was needed and was instantly present. First Shizi climbed on and Naruto handed her the very unresponsive Yasei before climbing on as well. They raced through the snow and the gate to the closest hospital. Shizi shouted for help, catching the attention of a portly nurse with a scowl on her wrinkled face.
"We don't service freaks."
"It's not for me. It's for her. Please, she needs help, she could die." The nurse glanced down at the nearly unconscious female with her, noticed her drooping dog ears, and glared.
"We don't service freaks."
"Help her!" Demands Naruto angrily, earning his own glare from the nurse.
"She's dying. Please." Silence was her answer, and she growled in her throat. She hands the girl over to her blonde partner before snapping out her hand and gripping the nurse by her throat.
"You will help this girl. I will pay her fees. Or I will rip out your throat with my teeth and drink your blood from your veins." The woman blanched and nodded, Shizi dropping her so she could scramble away for the needed doctors. They warily took the white haired female from Shizi and took her back into emergency medical care. Shizi stared down at her bloodstained hands with wide eyes of concern and horror.
"Shizi? Are you okay?" Naruto asks quietly as he gently held her shoulder.
"I have to go back out there."
"Why? Whatever attacked that girl could still be out there!"
"Exactly, what if it's enemy Shinobi? Or a deadly animal? It could really hurt someone!" Naruto nodded and they raced back out to the clearing. They found the bright red blood where Yasei collapsed, and the trail of bright crimson leading off to where she was before. Naruto insisted on going first, in case it was an enemy hiding in the bare trunks. They walked until almost noon the trail leading out towards the Land of Rice Paddies- the place where Orochimaru is rumored to hide with Sasuke. The two reached a rather small clearing before Naruto abruptly stopped, the small neko bumping into his back.
"Naruto? Are you alright?" The blonde Uzumaki was totally silent and still. She placed her hand on his shoulder blade only to snatch it back in pain. He was on fire, even with the chilly temperatures around them. Red started to boil around him, the Chakra too much for his body so it was overflowing into the shape of a fox. Naruto snapped around so quickly that Shizi scrambled backwards in fear. His beautifully blue eyes were now ruby red and filled with bloodlust, his clothes were overtaken by crimson fur colored after the blood they sprung from, his teeth were sharp and bared hatefully, and four tails morphed from his tailbone.
"Naruto?" Her answer was growls and a slash with his clawed hand, just barely missing her cheek as she dodged. The boy drew immensely close to her body as she leaned away in terror.
"Run." She took his advice instantly and sprints away in a random direction as she hears Naruto eagerly pursued her. A huge oak tree exploded as he launched a Chakra bomb at her, a large piece of the wood splinters off into her abdomen. She cries out and holds her hand to her injured side, but never once stopped sprinting. She streaks through tree trunks in a frenzy, not caring that she was smearing her own blood all over the trees around her, leaving a perfect trail for Naruto to follow right to her.
The amount of blood she lost caused her to become tired and dizzy. She stumbled to the white snow at the edge of a random clearing, reserved to be unable to run any longer. A massive crack let her know that Naruto had downed a tree that got in the way of him and his prey. She forced her weak body up onto her hands and knees, watching as her blood stained the snow in ranges from maroon to pink. Sizzling sounded behind her and she knew it was him, his extreme body heat melting the snow at his feet.
"I'm done running... Naruto..." Shizi pants out and drops her head down into her forearm. She was roughly flung over onto her back and Naruto dropped down to his knees around her, the snow hissing away to dead grass around his knees.
"But can I... just have one... last thing?" Naruto growls and placed his clawed hands beside her head with a malevolent hiss. She shakily removes her hands from her wound to place them softly on his furred cheeks. Shizi lifted up in spite of her screaming pains to press her lips to his. He was frozen in shock, but the real Naruto stuck inside the angry body above her recognized what was happening and so kissed her back.
"Shizi?" Her grey eyes slit open and she watched as the boy returned to his original person. "What happened?"
"It's okay, it's fine." Her side exploded in pain and she flinched before holding her abdomen again to try to staunch the flow. His blue eyes followed her arms and grew wide with horror and regret.
"I did that to you didn't I?" She avoided his eyes so she couldn't see the remorse in them. "I'm so sorry, Shizi."
"It's not your fault, you weren't you. There was something on that clearing, a Genjutsu or something like that. We just need to get out of here."
"But, Shizi, where is here?" She looked around the clearing but found nothing familiar at all.
"Ummm... I'm not sure. But I left a trail, so we can follow that." Naruto stood and refused to let Shizi do the same, forcing the Kunoichi to let him carry her. He turned the way he had come, but it was all pristine and pure, like it never even happened. Her blood trail was gone, the melted snow that Naruto caused was gone, even the broken tree wasn't able to be seen.
"Shizi..." His royal blue eyes looked over at her in confusion.
"I don't understand. What's going on out here?"
"I don't know. All I know is we're lost and nobody knows where we are. You're injured, and I'm not sure if whatever happened before won't happen again. We could very well die out here."
YOU ARE READING
Beautiful Monsters
Fanfiction"The true measure of a Shinobi is not how he lives, but how he dies..." Shizi Yemao's pretty smile hides her secrets and her pretty eyes have cried too many tears. It's scary what her smile has come to hide, and she has gotten better at hiding the...
