Beautiful Monsters

Chapter 37~ Impending of the Forbidden

Kakashi Hatake paced the doorway of his house he shared with Shizi Yemao, his levels of worry rising with every turn he took. Shizi should've been home by now, she should've been home yesterday. He was also informed that Naruto was missing as well, so it was a safe bet to assume the two were lost together, possibly out in the woods somewhere. He couldn't take this waiting around any longer, so he summoned Biscuit and told the tracker hound to find the neko. He followed the dog through the village and out into the forest around Konohagakure. Biscuit was darting back and forth in the snow until he stopped at two lumps in the white, whimpering and gently pawing at the closest mound to him. Kakashi dropped to his knees and summoned all his hounds to help him dig out what Biscuit had found. His hands were freezing, but he didn't care if it meant finding Shizi and getting her to safety.

His hands tangled with brunette hair and it gave him the conformation he needed to keep battling the snow to his daughter. Once he got her head and shoulders free, he tugged her from the snow slowly. His heart began to race when he noticed her blood coated abdomen, she must've gotten injured out here. The hounds had uncovered the stiff body of Naruto, dragging him free of the cold snow. Kakashi checked Naruto over for injuries, noting the huge claw marks over his chest, before lifting him up onto Bull, the biggest of his hounds.

The Jonin Shinobi made sure Naruto wouldn't fall off before lifting Shizi to his chest and racing back home to Konoha. He raced around the town to the hospital that didn't mind the differences of the small girl. Both the boy and the girl were accepted into emergency treatments, leaving Kakashi and all his hounds in the waiting room, where they stayed for hours in anticipation for Shizi's name to be called. Kakashi had fallen asleep against his dogs' sides, having not gotten much sleep the night before as he worried himself exhausted over the neko. But when the doctors called for the family of Shizi Yemao, he was instantly awake and at the doctor's side in a second, his hounds right behind him.

"Is she alright?" He was surprised to hear a slight shake in his usually steady and distant voice.

"She will be. The wound on her side was deep, and filled with splintered wood that had started to fester. We cleaned out the bacteria and removed the splinters. She was lucky she didn't puncture a vital organ. But you can go see her tonight if you wish to."

"And Naruto?"

"He was much the same, his claw wounds missed the vitals, but was deep and needed to be stitched together. We placed them both in the same room since Naruto has no parents we assumed you would want to keep an eye on his wellbeing." Kakashi nodded and asked for their room number, vanishing when the doctor rattled it off. He released his summons on his hounds before walking into the whitewashed room quietly. Shizi and Naruto were both asleep in their beds, facing one another like they knew the other was there at their side. Kakshi moved a chair between the two, sitting down right as Skura came barreling into the room.

"I got the news, Kakashi-Sensei, are they okay?"

"They'll be fine. Just need to rest up and gather their strength." She nodded and shifted a chair around to sit beside the silver headed male.

"What could they have been doing out there?" Kakashi shrugged at the pinkette's question, he had no idea either. But maybe there's an answer somewhere in the village. He asked Sakura to look after them and swept away in a poof of leaves when she agreed. He summoned Pakkun, and asked him to backtrack Shizi's scent to see where she went after she left with her horse for the woods. They went to the gate and the hound sniffed for her day old smell in the snow. After much searching, he found it and the Jonin followed him through town to a hospital not too far from the gate. Walking in he was met with the same sour-faced nurse that tried to refuse Shizi her request.

"How can I help you, young man?"

"Yesterday a girl came in with a blonde boy and possibly an injured person."

"We have lots of injured patients, you'll have to be more specific than that."

"The girl is about this tall," He held his hand up to his heart, "she has brown hair and grey eyes. The blonde is taller and had blue eyes and is pretty loud. Oh, and the girl has cat ears instead of normal ones." The nurse scoffed at this part, remembering the exchange they had.

"Yeah, I remember her. Little brat came in with a girl with white hair and dog ears, both freaks. She threatened my life if I didn't take the white haired girl in for treatments. Said she'd pay for the bill, but hasn't returned. Damn yokai are untrustworthy, the lot of them." Kakashi lifted a brow in a look that said he wasn't at all amused with her comments about his daughter and the girl he recalled from the Chunin Exams as Yasei Okami.

"I need the room number of the girl she brought in." The nurse looked down at her clipboard and read off the name and room number, looking up to see Kakashi already gone. She scoffs once more and returns to her rounds, muttering to herself about yokai and thievery. Kakashi slid aside the screen door to Yasei's room, the girl was instantly on the defense in the unfamiliar room. He lifted his hands to show he carried no weapons and intended her no harm.

"Hello, Yasei. Do you remember me?" She looked him over before stiffly nodding, her eyes searching for her reaper that she couldn't find.

"Yeah, where is my reaper? Where did they hide Kuro?" He stepped through the threshold and stopped a nurse to ask if she came in with a weapon of any sort, which he was informed she wasn't. He returned to see the girl having slipped off the bed and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"They say you didn't have one when you came. Maybe you dropped it in the woods where they found you. But that's not why I'm here. I need to figure out what you were running from. It could've tried to kill Shizi and could also pose as a threat to this village." Yasei sat back on the cot in thought as she tried to remember why she was running through the Land of Fire.

"I remember my village was attacked, my Sensei told me to take Kuro and find help from the closest Land, which is the Land of Fire. But whatever was attacking my village just wanted me- Kuro specifically. So I also came to warn Shizi of the potential attacker coming for Jingxiao."

"Why would they try attacking an entire Shinobi village for a single reaper?"

"Because when you obtain all the reapers, you can unleash the greatest power that the Shinobi Nations has ever seen. The reapers called it their Forbidden Form. The closest to this form is Jingxiao, and he is the last piece. They've taken the rest of them, including Kuro. Now they'll come for the last one. And when all the reapers are in their Forbidden Form, whoever wields it will be like a god. Death and life is in their control, even time itself. Unstoppable and catastrophic to all in its way."

"They've taken every reaper in the entire Shinobi Nations?"

"No, all reapers are sorted into categories. The lowest are the Gedan reapers. They have no consciousness, essentially just metal and power at the complete will of the wielder. Second are the Chukan reapers. They can converse with the wielders, act like a helper during battle, but that's all they can do. Last are the strongest of the reapers, called Saiko reapers, and they are the ones who have the most power and a consciousness separate from their wielders, able to pick and choose who can and can't use them. And even inside the categories there are power levels, and the Forbidden Form is composed of the highest of the Saiko category- only about 5 in all. There's Ketsueki, Hametsu, Zetsubo, Kuro, and Jingxiao."

"And they've taken them all?"

"All except Jingxiao. And when they find him, there will be no stopping the end of everything as we know it."