The Dragon Queen // (Under Revision)

Hero

Yowai vaulted off of Naruto's shoulder, landing squarely a short distance away. Both were breathing hard from their intense battle, and Naruto was still trembling in anger.

"Why do you torture her like this? Where did you come from?" Naruto said, wiping away a smudge of blood from his jaw with his thumb.

"Tsuyoi created me. When a Dragon Queen is Chosen and recieves the Dragon Seal, she is literally swamped with a whole ten years worth of gathered energy. Tsuyoi is the Seventh Queen. She has almost eighty years of reiki stored within her. She must have had all negative thoughts pulled away and separated from the rest of her spirit, to preserve her sanity," Yowai said, tapping her temple. "Tsuyoi happens to have so much negative energy that it manifested into another being. Me. See, what I tell ya? Your girlfriend is evil!" Yowai taunted, edging close to him.

Gritting his teeth, he swung at her, but Yowai was too fast and his anger was too great. He staggered, unbalanced. Yowai popped into his blind spot in an instant, cracking him hard in the jaw with a left hook.

Blood erupted in Naruto's mouth as he bit his tongue. Before he could regain his composure, Yowai placed a foot in between his own, pushing her body right up close to his. Rocking forward, she swung again, hitting him in the cheek. Then she grabbed his shoulder and planted her fist squarely into his stomach.

"Aagh!" He gasped, blood flooding his mouth. He'd forgotten how solid Tsuyoi's boxing-style punches were. He felt like he'd been hit with a block of iron. Yowai stepped back, letting him fall to his knees.

"You can't win. You're holding back because I look like Tsuyoi." Yowai crossed her arms, mildly annoyed. "Just because I look like your girlfriend doesn't mean I act like her. I'm ruthless. I'll kill you without blinking."

"Oh yeah?" He shot back. "So when Tsuyoi slit my throat in the garden, that was your doing?" When Yowai flinched at his words, he had his asnwer. Tsuyoi had acted on instinct, not that her body had been taken over by this monster. But that day when she yelled at her patrons...that was Yowai. "She can be pretty ruthless too, so don't feel too special. You're just a fake."

Yowai snarled, her lip curling. "Don't make me kill you, Hayride."

Naruto stood, clutching his stomach. Anger flared up. "You're not Tsuyoi." His voice lowered dangerously. "Don't you ever call me Hayride! Not in her voice!" He charged her, abandoning any sense of pain. He would save Tsuyoi.

Naruto! A growl sounded in his ear, making him falter.

Yowai took the opening, hitting him across his jaw twice. Naruto grunted in pain, landing on his bum.

"Nice timing, Natsukashii," he mumbled. His cheek was swelling. He touched it and winced. So much for feeling no pain.

Sorry! Tsuyoi needs your help! The Dragon Spirit's high-pitched voice had been deepening the last couple days, and it rumbled in his ear, making his skull buzz. She's in the Black Room, and she needs you to wake her up!

"What's the Black Room anyway? Is that what we're in?" Naruto asked, pushing himself to his feet.

"From what I'm gathering, the Black Room and the White Room physical manifestations of the inner layers in Tsuyoi's consciousness," Kurama observed, joining the conversation. "That Chizu hag has a foothold in her mind and manipulates what Tsuyoi feels for certain amounts of time. It also appears to me that she's putting a severe emotional strain on Tsuyoi spiritual energy, but I don't know why."

Do you remember when she was screaming before? In the White Room? Natsukashii piped up. She was expelling so much reiki that if she was in her physical body, her temperature would have reached over 200 degrees. She would have literally melted!