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CHAPTER 9 IS UP!! Hey everyone, sorry this took like…a month… but hopefully the length should help make up for it. Over SIX. THOUSAND. WORDS!! Crap, this was exhausting to make . Also I’m in the beginning phases of a move so I might not upload anything until after the school-year starts. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be writing so I’ll do my best to make this story great and continue to improve my writing skills.

“HAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

The beast let out an eat-splitting howl that lightly shook the ground under the ninja’s feet that went on for a full minute.

The freezing breeze began to blow again around the clearing and swirled around the demon as if they were summoned by him somehow. Dancing around the demon like the wind itself was alive.

The creature everyone assumed to be Hōkkami, the Arctic Wolf, raised a paw up to its face and flexed his newly created extremities, a sly smile creeping up on his snout.

“Excellent, excellent!! This is truly a form worthy of a demon! It’s simply exploding with power!” The bluish-grey werewolf looked his new body over, examining every inch of the newly created limbs, torso, and tail that swayed side to side in slow wag. Hōkkami raised his arms above his head then spreading them open like a speaker would do before he said something important.

“Gaze upon your new master and tremble, maggots!!” As expected no one moved except Naruto, who was gritting his teeth in anger and the only thing trembling were his fists, just waiting to smack that stupid smile of his into next week.

Hōkkami lowered his arms and chuckled to himself. “I see you still haven’t accepted your destiny yet. No matter. I will take it upon myself to instruct you in a lesson in humility.”

The wolf demon raised his left arm and quickly swiped at the air in front of him, causing his serrated claws to shoot out like projectiles at the group of ninja.

Finally, the Hokage gave the order to attack. “GO!!” And they all split up to avoid the flying talons, which did much more damage than expected, slicing through several trees and rocks before finally lodging themselves somewhere deep in the forest.

Immediately Gai and Lee attempted at Leaf Coiling Whirlwind, both of their legs hurdling toward the still grinning wolf in a powerful roundhouse kick, but right before they made contact, Hōkkami vanished into thin air causing the two to stumble a bit on their landings.

The strategy for the moment was to have Gai and Lee use taijutsu to test Hōkkami’s speed and power limits while also looking for any accessible blind spots. The two giant eye-browed ninja were perfect candidates for the first frontal attack because they possessed incredible skill in taijutsu and had enough speed to retreat if the target proved too powerful for them alone.

The other ninja were waiting in the nearby trees, either standing next to them or perched on a branch, waiting for Gai to approve the second wave of long-range fighters and Naruto’s clones for a powerful offense at relatively safe distance that would cause as little damage to their numbers as possible.

Hōkkami reappeared a split second later behind the two and started slashing at them with his claws, but Gai and Lee were able to block or dodge most of the attacks. However they couldn’t keep dodging forever and it seemed like with every swipe Hōkkami was picking up speed, even fast enough to cut up both of their shirts a few times and making a few scratches.

Gai thought that they had done their part and found a blind spot in the small of his back in the sides of his pelvis, so he made the signal which was shouting at Lee. “Go Lee, show him the results of you countless hours of training!!” Something he would normally say, except Tsunade asked him to say it using those exact words as the signal to move in.

Out of the trees several dozen Naruto’s jumped down at Hōkkami, going for specifically for the legs and back. If he couldn’t run he couldn’t defend himself, and that was a normal blind spot on almost anybody without the Byakugan. And just after him, Tenten and Shino would launch their own attacks of various weapons and parasitic insects to try to immobilize Hōkkami so that one of their sensei’s could deliver a powerful, fatal blow and free Patrick who was still presumed alive inside the beast.

But just as Naruto’s clones were about to make contact with the wolf demon, they all froze, like time had stopped around them. Then they all dispersed in cloud of smoke, hiding Hōkkami for a few brief moments as the weapons and insects also left the line of sight, diving after him into the thick plumes of smoke.

And while Shino was looking through the smoke trying to see the form of the wolf demon, he felt a disturbance in his hive-mind. He felt all the insects he just sent out to attack Hōkkami go silent at once, not even a release of pheromones to tell the other beetles that the enemy was dangerous.

A wind blew through and revealed what had happened. Hōkkami stood in the exact same spot he was when the clones first attacked, but protruding out of his body were several of the same pointed ice tendrils that were used to wrap up Patrick’s body. These however were much longer, extending outward about 15 feet from his body.

And all around his feet were the weapons Tenten had thrown, except they had been given a thick coating of ice, making them little more than blunt weapons if they even made contact with Hōkkami, which it appeared that they didn’t because they were in a pile around the demon’s clawed feet. And mixed into the pile at first glance was what looked like pebbles, were actually Shino’s insects that were frozen along with Tenten’s weapons.

The tentacles retracted into Hōkkami and he started talking again, much to everyone’s displeasure. “Fools, thinking you can defeat me with such simple tactics. Why don’t you stop all this fighting and just accept your destiny as demon fodder? I might kill less of you if you give up now, how does that sound?”

“GO!!” Tsunade ordered the rest of the battalion to move forward for what Naruto was waiting for the entire time, a full-frontal assault.

Hōkkami simply smirked and licked his chops at the legion of several deadly ninja running full-force, at him with lethal intent.

“…hehehe, like lambs to the slaughter…”

Gai and Lee moved to rear to get quick medical treatment for their cuts while Neji and Hinata went to confront the demon. Their job was just to distract Hōkkami for a few seconds while the experienced ninja would come up from behind and attack with anything they could to slow down the beast.

They expected the Hōkkami to put up some sort of defense, at least of fighting stance, but he did nothing. He stood perfectly still with his arms limp at his sides and his nose pointed toward the ground with a the same creepy grin everyone had learned to hate with a passion.

The two Hyuga prodigies charged the demon from the front and they could see Kakashi along with Tsunade rushing from behind and with Hōkkami just standing there it was the perfect time to attack.

Normally the gentle fist wouldn’t have as much of an advantage over an inanimate object as a living creature with a chakra network, whatever the ‘Hōkkami turned Patrick’ had its own chakra network that spread through the ice as if it were real flesh and blood. This was an advantage the intended to exploit.

But without warning, right as Neji’s palm was about to have a nice little chat with Hōkkami’s snout, the ground began to shake underneath their feet causing him loose balance and giving the wolf demon the chance to easily sidestep the attack and jump into the center of the glade.

Hōkkami raised his arms to the sky and the quaking grew much more violent.
“Rise, Garden of Nightmares!!”

The earth seemed to react to Hōkkami’s shout. The ground underneath the ninja’s feet started splitting, any birds that happened to be sleeping nearby flew away and the tree’s the rest of the Leaf nin were hiding in fell over, forcing them into the clearing.

Suddenly the quaking stopped for a split second before several small individual explosions went off all around the glade, stirring up large dust clouds over the circumference of the clearing. But over the billows of airborne dirt the ninja present could see the tips of something terrifying.

The dust soon settled, revealing a forest of giant azure ice spikes at least twice as tall as the surrounding trees but no thicker than a human arm completely surround the clearing, all of them creaking and swaying in the breeze and doing nothing else.

“Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr, wonderful, WONDERFUL!! With this kind of power at my disposal, the human race is about to become an endangered species! Now my children, ATTACK!!!”

The giant pointed ice poles twitched slightly before they all bent with incredible speed and pointed themselves at the group of Konoha nin as if they were snakes who just caught a fresh sent of mice.

In one instant they launched themselves forward like giant striking snakes. Moving with extreme speed and precision, they began to ensnare everyone.

The first wave was more or less easy to stop, only needing to be sliced in half with either a kunai or some other type of weapon before they fell to the ground, apparently lifeless.

After the first wave Tsunade did a check to see if anyone had been tangled up in the attack, but everyone was still free. Exhausted from fighting them off but free, some stumbling a little over piles of now limp and dead ice tendrils.

“You really think that was enough to stop us, stupid wolf-jerk! I’m gonna kick your ass now!!” Naruto boasted confidently.

Hōkkami didn’t even try to look worried; he simply rubbed his indigo tongue over his icy cold fangs. “Oh really? I’d like to see you try.”

The second wave of vine-like tendrils swirled, looped, and zoomed around the ninja as they danced around the piles of inanimate icy tentacles as they dodged, ducked, sliced, and jumped without a moment of rest, trying desperately to attack the one controlling the cold tendrils and save Patrick from his imprisonment.

“Oh, you didn’t think it would be that easy did you? Sending a group of…children to fight the Great Arctic Wolf, RULER OF THE FROZEN WASTES, KING OF ALL THAT I SURV-UMPH!!”

Unfortunately, Hōkkami didn’t have time to finish his tantrum before Kakashi dodged and jumped up underneath the monster and shot a fireball twice the size of the demon himself, sending him flying several feet in the air and landing with a loud thud.

“How DARE you!! I’ll serve your corpses at my victory feast when I destroy your village!!”
Hōkkami’s body, while somehow alive, was made out of ice and had some weakness to flames. The finer details of his snout and stomach melted together and most of his body appeared to shrink and become shinier as the melted ice water coated his singed grey fur and according to Kiba he smelled like wet dog and burnt hair all at once.

However his body was quickly recovering, swelling back to its original size and the water freezing in his fur almost instantly as the ashen hairs sprouted where the old ones were burnt off.

“Ok, I’ve played with you all enough. Now I’m bored, so let’s make things interesting…NOW!!”

The vines everyone had defeated previously in the first wave of attack began to slowly slither around everyone’s ankles except for Hinata and Neji, who were able to avoid them thanks to their special eyes.

The rest weren’t as lucky however, the vines moving so silently and quickly that they had already contracted themselves around the other ninja’s ankles. Once they attached themselves, the ninja felt instantly weak, cold, tired, and sleepy all at once.

Some were able to try and fight back a little longer than others but eventually everyone succumb to the shire amount of lethargy that stuck their systems in an instant and drained them of their thermal energy.

The remaining vines quickly tied up the now weakened and slowed ninja, paying special attention to their hands, legs, and heads to make sure that none of them could make any hand signs or trying anything funny.

Even the Hyuga’s eventually gave in to shire force of numbers as the ones they kept chopping half would just attack them from below while the uncut ones would attack them from above and were tangled up and hung up with the rest of their fellow Leaf ninja.

Even Tsunade’s inhuman strength wasn’t enough to snap the thick, cold tendrils. “Bastard, how are these things still moving, we chopped em’ to pieces!!”

Hōkkami nonchalantly picked some random invisible thing out his fur and fiddled with it between his claws. “What do you mean ‘how are they moving?’ These aren’t snakes or vines you can just slice and dice and they drop dead. I’ll explain it so that even a human can understand. What your currently entangled in are what are called ‘ether-cables’. Basically they’re extensions of my own mind, able to hear and respond to my own thoughts at lightning speed. Like let’s say for example if I wanted them to start strangling you…”

The so called 'ether-cables' tightened around the strung-up ninja, cutting off the blood flow to their arms and legs. In some cases the cables were wrapped around their necks and they started to strangle the Leaf nin.

“And if I told them to loosen…” And just as he said, the tendrils loosened and thankfully no one passed out from asphyxiation.

Normally, something as weak as some ether-whatever wouldn’t be hard for someone like Gai, Tsunade, or even Kurenai to bust out of, but unfortunately the cables had been quickly draining them of their thermal energy since they attached themselves. Slowly draining their strength, and if Tsuande hated one thing, it was feeling powerless.

“Hoo, this feeling of weakness. You feel like you can’t do anything, like all of your training was just a huge waste of time, like when push comes to shove you’ll let down the people who matter most to you, right ‘Lady Hokage’. Just like what happened to Dan…”

The slug sannin was stunned silent, how could this freakish, nightmarish, bastard know-!

“Hmm? You’re wondering how I know about Dan, the one man you ever truly wanted to spend the rest of your life with? The first man you gave your cursed necklace to? Hehehe, let me say this is quite a treat. In all my years of being a empathy-vore I have NEVER heard a story as rich in irony as yours. The woman renowned as the world’s greatest doctor…couldn’t even save the life of the one she loved. Tell me, when he was bleeding to death, with nothing more than your meager medical skills to delay the sweet release of death and prolong his slow and painful suffering, what was the last thing he said before taking his final breath? Did he try to comfort you with something like ‘It’s an honor to die for my country’ or some garbage like that? He was simply failing to comfort you, trying to make it seem like he didn’t die due to your incompetence. But we both know that isn’t the truth.”

“SHUUT UUUPP!!!!!” The Hokage was on the brink of weeping, the tears already welling up in her eyes. Who was he to talk to her about Dan like that?! HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW DAN, HOW IN THE FUCK DID HE KNOW ALL THAT?!!!

“As I said ‘Lady Hokage’, these are ether cables. They are connected to my brain. And now that they’re connected to you, I’m linked into your brains. Currently I am pulling up all of your worst, most traumatic memories. And the only reason I’m telling you all this is because I know none of you will live to see the next sunrise.”

“Shut up wolf-jerk! Just give Patrick back and go die in ditch!!” Naruto talked big, but something like that coming from a child who was currently tied up and dangling sideways…
“Oh, you want the brat back. Well, would you like to see him?”

Hōkkami raised both of his paws and slashed off the fur on his stomach. You could just barely see it, but if you looked hard enough, you could see a head of white hair attached to a dark outline of a human body through the thick, indigo-tinted ice-flesh.

“That’s him?! What happened to him?” Naruto asked, both confused and worried.

“The brat is dead. He can’t hear you, see you, or even smell you. He has been given the great honor of being my new body’s power source, and as you can see he’s doing a fantastic job!” The grey fur spouted anew where Hōkkami had shaved himself with his claws, covering up the only view of the white haired ninja.

Tsunade didn’t want to believe that Patrick was dead, but she had to admit the situation didn’t look good for him.

She had to be sure though, so she whispered to the person hanging upside-down to her immediate left.

“Psst! Neji? Is your byakugan still active?” The Hyuga prodigy, if it weren’t a very serious situation, looked hilarious. He was dangling a few feet on the ground, with his long black hair rubbing against the ground like a mop causing small rocks, leaves, and twigs to become tangled up in it giving him the look of a crazy homeless man who lived in the forest and never washed or combed his hair and simply let nature do what it will with it.

“Y-Yes, Lady Hokage, why do you ask?” He tried to shift his weight around so he could actually took at the Hokage when he spoke to her and show her the proper respect, but given the current situation, with him suspended off the ground upside down with his arms, legs, and neck being intertwined with several of the turquoise ether cables, he decided to skip on the formality for once.

“Can you tell if Patrick is still alive in there?” Tsunade asked.

Neji refocused his x-ray like eyes on the beast and targeted the child’s form inside of the wolf-demon. At first glance he would say, ‘Yes he was defiantly dead.’

For one thing there was no heartbeat, he wasn’t breathing, and his chakra network wasn’t flowing. But when he took a closer look he could see only the tiniest movement in the network to show he was still somehow alive, but whatever was keeping him amongst the living wasn’t going to last forever.

The fact he wasn’t breathing and lacking a heartbeat could mean that he was simply in a state of suspended animation, like some of the movies about aliens frozen in ice his classmates had tried to convince him to see, however he turned them down in order to continue his training. They talked about it the next day in school, but didn’t particularly care until now. The situations did seem rather similar…

“I believe there is still a chance he is. But if we are to save him, we must act swiftly. His chakra flow is slowing down and is being absorbed in that ‘thing’s’ body. Like he said, it would take approximately an hour for him to be fully assimilated forty minutes ago. Best-case scenario, we have less than twenty minutes…”

Thanks to the mind-linking vines attached to everyone present, he was able to listen in on the conversation between the two and was not pleased with it in the least.

“You still believe this child can be saved? Ridiculous!! Even if you were to somehow wiggle out of those ether cables, like the worms that you are, you’ve already wasted over forty minutes of the hour you have before we become permanently fused. How do you intend to defeat me exactly? Holding hands and singing?!”

In trying to crush their hopes, all Hōkkami successfully did was make everyone even more angry and confirm Tsunade’s theory that he could still be saved. But he did raise the question of how they were to actually defeat the demon when and if they could escape the ether cable’s iron-like grasp.

“Allow me to give you a harsh lesson in reality. In this world, there are no happy endings. There is only suffering, pain, and death. This child has been reduced to less than that of the average human, a truly pathetic sight. I gave him the chance to change the world in my glorious image! A world ruled by demons!! The reason my host has stayed fast to my ideals and avoided human contact can be answered in a simple proverb. ‘A heart that has been bathed in blood and darkness, cannot be swayed be petty dreams or pretty words.’ He has accepted the fact that he is worthless up to this point, until you insects filled his feeble little mind with fantasies of salvation! I can tell you from experience that he would rather die than serve me, but will ironically be preserved forever as my body’s power source, and there isn’t a damn thing you or your incessant chattering can do about it!!”

“You’re wrong!!” Naruto shouted, still dangling sideways from one of the tentacles, but still giving Hōkkami one of the strongest glares he had ever given anyone. “It’s because of the darkness in his heart, that even a little light shines brightly!! You can try and hide him from people, from making friends, but he still did! That’s why we’re here, because we care about what happens to Patrick and that’s why we’re better than you! Because we’re not afraid rely on others for help when we need it, WOLF-JERK!!!”

The demon gave him his own fierce glare, as if he was trying to kill him just by looking at the blonde ninja. “YOU, I have quite enough of!!”

Hōkkami stomped over to Naruto and raised a paw over his head and prepared to slice his head off and play a game of dodge ball with it, but right before he swung, he stopped.

“No…no, that won’t do. That won’t do at all….I thought of something much better. Much, much better.”

He spun around and walked away from Naruto and stopped right in front of a very frightened Hinata. Hōkkami leaned in close, his large, red eyes gleaming with evil intent into the tear filled pale lavender pools of Hinata’s eyes, then glanced back to Naruto without turning his head away from the Hyuga heiress.

“Killing you is too easy. Someone like you, who would sacrifice their life for their ‘friends’. I would bet anything that you would beg for death if I were to say…hurt this little girl.”

Hōkkami ran a claw down the cream colored cheek of the trembling and terrified Hinata. “Such purity, such innocence. Like a blank canvas, just waiting to be painted. Ahh, but what color to start with?”

The wolf demon raised the same claw back up to her forehead and pressed lightly, just about breaking the skin of her temple.

“HINATA!! DON’T YOU TOUCH HER, I’LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!!!” Naruto started trashing twice as hard as before but the tentacles kept him just barely restrained and the same could be said for everyone else in their group when the demon ran his ice-cold claws down Hinata’s cheek.

“How about some…red…”

A tiny white ball of light formed within Hōkkami’s chest where Patrick was and traveled up into his left arm, through his hand and claw, and finally disappeared into Hinata’s head.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” Hinata let loose a blood-curdling screech as she flailed while still constricted, like a trapped animal. No one had ever seen her act so violently or yell so loudly or so animalistly before. It was truly horrifying.

“HINATAAAA!!! WHAT DID YOU DO YOU BASTARD!!!”

Hōkkami addressed the enraged ninja with fake confusion that was soaked in sarcasm. “Who, me? Nothing really, I just made them better friends is all.” The wolf demon snapped his claws and the ice tentacles that were restraining Hinata loosened and receded back into the ground. The Hyuga girl fell onto the ground in crumpled heap and quickly wrapped her arms around her legs in a fetal position, mumbling inaudible whispers into her knees with a fearful look in her eyes.

“What the hell do you mean ‘better friends’?!! Let. Me. Down. NOW!!!” Just to be safe, Hōkkami waved a paw and gave everyone a few extra spike restraints. Double the restrains for the still fiercely flailing Naruto.

“It was to my understanding that friends shared things. Things like stories, games, feelings… and memories. All I did was show you how I plan on creating perfect host bodies for my demonic army. By giving them the brat’s memories and driving them insane!!”

Hinata’s murmurs started growing louder and began to sound more like words, which Hōkkami did not fail to notice.

“Hmm? Did you say something my dear? Please say it loud enough for everyone to hear.”
The wolf demon pulled up the pale-eyed girl by her collar and held her up in front of everyone like he was displaying a prized animal before a crowd of awaiting spectators.

“Go on now, don’t be shy. Say what’s on your mind, hehehe!”

She didn’t even seem to notice anyone was there, not even Hōkkami, who was holding her by the scruff of her neck. Hinata just seemed to be staring in terror at some strange illusion created by the sadistic demon.

“S-So…much…b-blood…everywhere…blood. Please, make it stop! MAAAKE IT STOOOOP!!!”
Hinata finally fainted, her arms flopping to her sides while her head tilted to the front as she simply hung by Hōkkami’s claws like a limp rag doll.

“Hmm? I was wondering when she would pass out. Poor little thing couldn’t handle all those emotions all at once could she. The same thing happened to the brat when he actually made those memories, only of course when he passed out, I slaughtered all the survivors of his village. Hehehe, ahh memories.”

The sadistic wolf demon juggled the little girl on the tip of his claw and using his other hand to rub his snout to show he was thinking over an idea. “Maybe I’ll give her to Kitaguma. I’d finally be free from that bumbling moron!! I swear if he wasn’t part oracle I would have killed him a long time ago, but I suppose he’s still useful in the end.”

“GRRRRRRRRAAAAAHH!!! TOUCH HER AGAIN, AND YOUR AS GOOD AS NEUTERED YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!” A wave of anger and hatred so powerful emitted from Naruto that it even gave Hōkkami the shivers, although he just tried to played it off, throwing the Hyuga heiress aside like a piece of trash and strutted right up to the orange wearing ninja.

“Well now, if this isn’t interesting! I’ve never felt such powerful and condensed hatred come from a human. A child no less, fantastic!! You shall be the first I feast on…”

Hōkkami leaned forward and placed both of his paws on Naruto’s shoulders and small lines of frost trailed from them, spreading all over his body until he was not only tied up with weird ice vines but also frozen in a cocoon of ice!

The wolf demon leading forward with his hands still on the blond ninja’s shoulders, his gapping maw opening over Naruto’s head.

But right when it looked like he would clamp his jaws over the blonde ninja’s head and rip it from his shoulders, a dark substance started steaming from Naruto’s mouth like thick black smoke, which looked to have the viscosity of a floating liquid, which rose into the maw of the hungry demon.

“Your hatred shall give me strength!!” The demon said, although the way he said it made it sound like he was speaking with food in his mouth, muffled and a bit hard to understand.
Naruto was doing considerably worse however, the more shadowy, smoky smog-like substance was sucked out of him, the more drained he looked.

His cheeks grew thin, wrinkles appeared under his eyes, and even his completion grew pale and dark. His yellow hair lost its shine and started to go dry and thin. His eyes lost their luster and clouded over when the last wheeze of protest left his thinning lips. It was like he was ageing a year a second until he would eventually decay into nothing but skin and bone!

But right when it looked like Naruto was about to die, his eyes bulging out of his seriously thinning face, the opaque dark substance suddenly turned a different color.

A deep, dark, red-orange mixed with speckles of black floating in it, and when it changed color Hōkkami started make hoarse and gruff coughing and gagging sounds when the red energy shot down his throat.

The wolf demon continued to gag and dry-heave as he tried desperately to stop the steady flow of red chakra-like substance from entering his mouth. He fell on his back, clutching his neck and rolled around, making strange guttural choking noises as his blood red eyes bugged out in confusion and fear. Two emotions he had never experienced personally.

“*KAAH!* WHA- *AAH!* IS *KAK!* THIS?!!! *GAAK!!*” He had never in his lifetime of four-hundred years, tasted hatred so powerful, so ancient!! WHAT WAS THIS KID?!!!

Naruto’s completion began to return to him, but his eyes were dark red, similar to Hōkkami’s own demonic eyes and he spoke in a much more fierce and boisterous tone. It was the Kyuubi speaking directly through Naruto, a very rare occasion.

“YOU THINK YOU’RE THE ONLY DEMON HERE?!! YOU TRULY ARE A PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A DEMONIC ENTITY, TASTE HATRED’S TRUEST FORM!! THEN MAYBE YOU’LL LEARN SOMETHING!!”

The stream of red nine-tails hatred grew thicker and flowed faster than before, actually forcing Hōkkami’s mouth to open wider to accept more of the raw, powerful, burning hate-energy.

“This i-is impossible!! No h-human can defeat me! I am Hōkkami! I AM PERFECTION!!”
The ether cables melted as Naruto generated the nine-tails cloak, forming a single tail. But for some reason didn’t go feral and attack everything. Instead he used both is hands and his newly formed tail directed even more energy into the wolf-demon’s maw, effetely shutting him up.

“WELL THEN, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ACCEPT MY ‘GIFT’ AND NOT DIE A VERY PAINFUL DEATH!” Luckily Naruto’s friends had all pasted out due to their blood-pressure lowing because of the cold, so they didn’t witness the one-sided demon show-down with the two unwilling hosts and the only people conscious to see the legendary event were the adults, who were not only scared, but extremely interested in how the clash of two evil beings would turn out!

As the crimson, destructive energy continued to flood the demon’s entire artificial being, his body started bloat to the size of a small wagon and began to crack in random places, the red energy leaking from the fissures and evaporating into the air.

The openings in Hōkkami’s ice-flesh kept widening and his body was straining to stay together despite the expanding combined with the gashes making him extremely unstable. Sooner or later, something would have to give.

Hōkkami’s new body bulged out like an inflated balloon as big as the dome on the Hokage tower before a loud, final cry of pure fear and pain escaped the wolf-demon’s jaws along with a considerable amount of the nine-tail’s chakra.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Finally, unable to contain the incredible power of the Kyuubi, he exploded with enough force to blast the limp and almost lifeless ninja from the grip of the already disintegrating ether cables and blow around a few trees until they became uprooted and flew into other trees and knocked them down like a game of giant, green dominos. Dust clouds spread out over a ten-mile radius and were spreading the tailed-beast’s chakra with it, creating several low hanging misty red-orange clouds that floated around the surrounding forests of the Leaf Village.

Luckily it would eventually thin out over time until it had all dissipated into the atmosphere, but the blast-zone were the ninja were was in bad shape. The clearing had spread itself by a good mile, all of the grass and plants disappearing and being replaced with scorched, cracked earth. The remains of the ether cables had been reduced to nothing more than tiny piles of snow and chunks of frost.

The Leaf ninja slowly recovered and found Naruto, asleep and out of the nine-tails cloak, about twenty feet from the epicenter of the blast. Of course what held everyone but the medics who were treating Naruto’s attention was what was in the heart of the explosion.
Inside of a small crater, the smell of the nine-tails chakra (apparently similar to a mix of paprika, sulfide, and blood according to Kiba) and something burning radiated from within it.

The burning scent coming from the charred and still lightly smoking body of Patrick, which was somehow still in one piece after the gigantic explosion.

But whether or not he was still alive was a different question all together. And when you added up the fact that he was barely alive to begin with before the blast, the odds weren’t in his favor.

Tsunade left Naruto’s treatment to Shizune since his injuries weren’t life threating, the fox-cloak absorbing most of the impact, but still causing his body some less than serious abrasions and scrapes that would heal themselves in no time.

She slide down the edge of the shallow, rocky pit and hastily checked the fanged ninja’s vital signs as she effortlessly heaved him off of the scorched earth to help him heal properly.

“Oh thank God…” He was miraculously still taking short, wheezy breaths and his heartbeat slow but steady. The majority of the damage done to his body was similar to Naruto’s and was already starting to heal now that it was exposed to the cold night air.

The Hokage hoisted the weakened and tired body of the former demon host over her shoulders and climbed out of the crater.

Exhausted, groggy, and in a particularly bad mood, she had NO patience at the moment for anything but a hot bottle of sake and some drunken conversation with her assistant about how now that she was in charge of the entire Land of Fire’s military force, she shouldn’t get black-out drunk every chance she got to do so. But tonight she wouldn’t hear any of it, she needed a drink and she needed it SOON!

“Uhhhhhh! That was tiresome, but at least that stupid demon is finally dead and gone.” She fell on her butt and sat Indian-style to halfheartedly make sure her pupils were applying the correct type of treatment for chakra burns and fatigue to Naruto and Patrick.

However Shikamaru, just as tired and sleepy from as everyone else, refused to sit down with his friends when they all decided to take a break before Patrick woke up and they could celebrate.

“Shikamaru? What’s wrong, we beat him. Look, even Hinata is feeling better! You can relax…although we didn’t do much…” Ino asked her usually relaxed team-mate and pointing to the shy, red-faced girl who said she didn't remember what Hokkami had shown her and began to blush when Shino told her Naruto was able to defeat the wolf demon when she became injured. Of all people Ino thought Shikamaru, one of the laziest people she knew, would want to sit down after such an exhausting ordeal.

The strategy genius didn’t sit down with everyone, but looked down at all of them with a glare. A look he rarely used and usually meant whoever he was giving it do either said something stupid or forgot something extremely important…

“I think you are all forgetting one thing before we start relaxing. Didn’t Patrick say that he had three demons in him, and that TWO were supposed to be released?” Everyone’s eyes widened upon remember Patrick’s exact words to them in the Hokage tower.

‘Other legends of my village spoke of ice demons that lived in the tundra and feed on the misery of lost travelers. Their names are Hōkkami, The Arctic Wolf…and Kitaguma, The Northern Bear…’

Everyone slowly turned their gazes upon the unconscious form of Patrick, thinking over Shikamaru’s words carefully. If he was right, then the exorcism wasn’t complete and they needed to get back into battle mode as quickly as possible.

“Ok, I think we might have a minute or two before he this ‘Kitaguma’ takes over, so let’s-”

“Where brother?”

While the Leaf ninja were paying attention to Shikamaru, nobody noticed or even heard Patrick silently stand up, and it scared the crap of them like something from a horror flick.

At first they didn’t even know it was him do to his deep, husky voice and were about to attack him before they even realized the voice was coming from a child of only thirteen.
Under further inspection it was pretty obvious he was possessed. His wounds had already healed with unnatural speed and his eyes had changed color yet again. Only instead of being like Hōkkami’s, blood red with a vertical black slitted pupil, both of his eyes were a deep, dark, soulless black. Like two perfect obsidian orbs had replaced the once sparkling icy-blue ones.

“WHERE IS BROTHER?!!”

The beast roared over the now extended and still smoldering clearing, the echo almost loud enough to reach all the way back to the Leaf village, and nearly deafening those present.
Shikamaru sighed deeply and loudly while he placed his hands over his ears.

“How troublesome…”

Ok, this felt like a good place to stop, so I stopped. If you read the whole thing you get a complementary pat on the back!! Hope you all enjoyed it and as always favs and comments mean the world to me so don’t be shy!!

Naruto and its characters © Masashi Kishimoto

Description
CHAPTER 9 IS UP!! Hey everyone, sorry this took like…a month… but hopefully the length should help make up for it. Over SIX. THOUSAND. WORDS!! Crap, this was exhausting to make . Also I’m in the beginning phases of a move so I might not upload anything until after the school-year starts. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be writing so I’ll do my best to make this story great and continue to improve my writing skills.

“HAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

The beast let out an eat-splitting howl that lightly shook the ground under the ninja’s feet that went on for a full minute.

The freezing breeze began to blow again around the clearing and swirled around the demon as if they were summoned by him somehow. Dancing around the demon like the wind itself was alive.

The creature everyone assumed to be Hōkkami, the Arctic Wolf, raised a paw up to its face and flexed his newly created extremities, a sly smile creeping up on his snout.

“Excellent, excellent!! This is truly a form worthy of a demon! It’s simply exploding with power!” The bluish-grey werewolf looked his new body over, examining every inch of the newly created limbs, torso, and tail that swayed side to side in slow wag. Hōkkami raised his arms above his head then spreading them open like a speaker would do before he said something important.

“Gaze upon your new master and tremble, maggots!!” As expected no one moved except Naruto, who was gritting his teeth in anger and the only thing trembling were his fists, just waiting to smack that stupid smile of his into next week.

Hōkkami lowered his arms and chuckled to himself. “I see you still haven’t accepted your destiny yet. No matter. I will take it upon myself to instruct you in a lesson in humility.”

The wolf demon raised his left arm and quickly swiped at the air in front of him, causing his serrated claws to shoot out like projectiles at the group of ninja.

Finally, the Hokage gave the order to attack. “GO!!” And they all split up to avoid the flying talons, which did much more damage than expected, slicing through several trees and rocks before finally lodging themselves somewhere deep in the forest.

Immediately Gai and Lee attempted at Leaf Coiling Whirlwind, both of their legs hurdling toward the still grinning wolf in a powerful roundhouse kick, but right before they made contact, Hōkkami vanished into thin air causing the two to stumble a bit on their landings.

The strategy for the moment was to have Gai and Lee use taijutsu to test Hōkkami’s speed and power limits while also looking for any accessible blind spots. The two giant eye-browed ninja were perfect candidates for the first frontal attack because they possessed incredible skill in taijutsu and had enough speed to retreat if the target proved too powerful for them alone.

The other ninja were waiting in the nearby trees, either standing next to them or perched on a branch, waiting for Gai to approve the second wave of long-range fighters and Naruto’s clones for a powerful offense at relatively safe distance that would cause as little damage to their numbers as possible.

Hōkkami reappeared a split second later behind the two and started slashing at them with his claws, but Gai and Lee were able to block or dodge most of the attacks. However they couldn’t keep dodging forever and it seemed like with every swipe Hōkkami was picking up speed, even fast enough to cut up both of their shirts a few times and making a few scratches.

Gai thought that they had done their part and found a blind spot in the small of his back in the sides of his pelvis, so he made the signal which was shouting at Lee. “Go Lee, show him the results of you countless hours of training!!” Something he would normally say, except Tsunade asked him to say it using those exact words as the signal to move in.

Out of the trees several dozen Naruto’s jumped down at Hōkkami, going for specifically for the legs and back. If he couldn’t run he couldn’t defend himself, and that was a normal blind spot on almost anybody without the Byakugan. And just after him, Tenten and Shino would launch their own attacks of various weapons and parasitic insects to try to immobilize Hōkkami so that one of their sensei’s could deliver a powerful, fatal blow and free Patrick who was still presumed alive inside the beast.

But just as Naruto’s clones were about to make contact with the wolf demon, they all froze, like time had stopped around them. Then they all dispersed in cloud of smoke, hiding Hōkkami for a few brief moments as the weapons and insects also left the line of sight, diving after him into the thick plumes of smoke.

And while Shino was looking through the smoke trying to see the form of the wolf demon, he felt a disturbance in his hive-mind. He felt all the insects he just sent out to attack Hōkkami go silent at once, not even a release of pheromones to tell the other beetles that the enemy was dangerous.

A wind blew through and revealed what had happened. Hōkkami stood in the exact same spot he was when the clones first attacked, but protruding out of his body were several of the same pointed ice tendrils that were used to wrap up Patrick’s body. These however were much longer, extending outward about 15 feet from his body.

And all around his feet were the weapons Tenten had thrown, except they had been given a thick coating of ice, making them little more than blunt weapons if they even made contact with Hōkkami, which it appeared that they didn’t because they were in a pile around the demon’s clawed feet. And mixed into the pile at first glance was what looked like pebbles, were actually Shino’s insects that were frozen along with Tenten’s weapons.

The tentacles retracted into Hōkkami and he started talking again, much to everyone’s displeasure. “Fools, thinking you can defeat me with such simple tactics. Why don’t you stop all this fighting and just accept your destiny as demon fodder? I might kill less of you if you give up now, how does that sound?”

“GO!!” Tsunade ordered the rest of the battalion to move forward for what Naruto was waiting for the entire time, a full-frontal assault.

Hōkkami simply smirked and licked his chops at the legion of several deadly ninja running full-force, at him with lethal intent.

“…hehehe, like lambs to the slaughter…”

Gai and Lee moved to rear to get quick medical treatment for their cuts while Neji and Hinata went to confront the demon. Their job was just to distract Hōkkami for a few seconds while the experienced ninja would come up from behind and attack with anything they could to slow down the beast.

They expected the Hōkkami to put up some sort of defense, at least of fighting stance, but he did nothing. He stood perfectly still with his arms limp at his sides and his nose pointed toward the ground with a the same creepy grin everyone had learned to hate with a passion.

The two Hyuga prodigies charged the demon from the front and they could see Kakashi along with Tsunade rushing from behind and with Hōkkami just standing there it was the perfect time to attack.

Normally the gentle fist wouldn’t have as much of an advantage over an inanimate object as a living creature with a chakra network, whatever the ‘Hōkkami turned Patrick’ had its own chakra network that spread through the ice as if it were real flesh and blood. This was an advantage the intended to exploit.

But without warning, right as Neji’s palm was about to have a nice little chat with Hōkkami’s snout, the ground began to shake underneath their feet causing him loose balance and giving the wolf demon the chance to easily sidestep the attack and jump into the center of the glade.

Hōkkami raised his arms to the sky and the quaking grew much more violent.
“Rise, Garden of Nightmares!!”

The earth seemed to react to Hōkkami’s shout. The ground underneath the ninja’s feet started splitting, any birds that happened to be sleeping nearby flew away and the tree’s the rest of the Leaf nin were hiding in fell over, forcing them into the clearing.

Suddenly the quaking stopped for a split second before several small individual explosions went off all around the glade, stirring up large dust clouds over the circumference of the clearing. But over the billows of airborne dirt the ninja present could see the tips of something terrifying.

The dust soon settled, revealing a forest of giant azure ice spikes at least twice as tall as the surrounding trees but no thicker than a human arm completely surround the clearing, all of them creaking and swaying in the breeze and doing nothing else.

“Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr, wonderful, WONDERFUL!! With this kind of power at my disposal, the human race is about to become an endangered species! Now my children, ATTACK!!!”

The giant pointed ice poles twitched slightly before they all bent with incredible speed and pointed themselves at the group of Konoha nin as if they were snakes who just caught a fresh sent of mice.

In one instant they launched themselves forward like giant striking snakes. Moving with extreme speed and precision, they began to ensnare everyone.

The first wave was more or less easy to stop, only needing to be sliced in half with either a kunai or some other type of weapon before they fell to the ground, apparently lifeless.

After the first wave Tsunade did a check to see if anyone had been tangled up in the attack, but everyone was still free. Exhausted from fighting them off but free, some stumbling a little over piles of now limp and dead ice tendrils.

“You really think that was enough to stop us, stupid wolf-jerk! I’m gonna kick your ass now!!” Naruto boasted confidently.

Hōkkami didn’t even try to look worried; he simply rubbed his indigo tongue over his icy cold fangs. “Oh really? I’d like to see you try.”

The second wave of vine-like tendrils swirled, looped, and zoomed around the ninja as they danced around the piles of inanimate icy tentacles as they dodged, ducked, sliced, and jumped without a moment of rest, trying desperately to attack the one controlling the cold tendrils and save Patrick from his imprisonment.

“Oh, you didn’t think it would be that easy did you? Sending a group of…children to fight the Great Arctic Wolf, RULER OF THE FROZEN WASTES, KING OF ALL THAT I SURV-UMPH!!”

Unfortunately, Hōkkami didn’t have time to finish his tantrum before Kakashi dodged and jumped up underneath the monster and shot a fireball twice the size of the demon himself, sending him flying several feet in the air and landing with a loud thud.

“How DARE you!! I’ll serve your corpses at my victory feast when I destroy your village!!”
Hōkkami’s body, while somehow alive, was made out of ice and had some weakness to flames. The finer details of his snout and stomach melted together and most of his body appeared to shrink and become shinier as the melted ice water coated his singed grey fur and according to Kiba he smelled like wet dog and burnt hair all at once.

However his body was quickly recovering, swelling back to its original size and the water freezing in his fur almost instantly as the ashen hairs sprouted where the old ones were burnt off.

“Ok, I’ve played with you all enough. Now I’m bored, so let’s make things interesting…NOW!!”

The vines everyone had defeated previously in the first wave of attack began to slowly slither around everyone’s ankles except for Hinata and Neji, who were able to avoid them thanks to their special eyes.

The rest weren’t as lucky however, the vines moving so silently and quickly that they had already contracted themselves around the other ninja’s ankles. Once they attached themselves, the ninja felt instantly weak, cold, tired, and sleepy all at once.

Some were able to try and fight back a little longer than others but eventually everyone succumb to the shire amount of lethargy that stuck their systems in an instant and drained them of their thermal energy.

The remaining vines quickly tied up the now weakened and slowed ninja, paying special attention to their hands, legs, and heads to make sure that none of them could make any hand signs or trying anything funny.

Even the Hyuga’s eventually gave in to shire force of numbers as the ones they kept chopping half would just attack them from below while the uncut ones would attack them from above and were tangled up and hung up with the rest of their fellow Leaf ninja.

Even Tsunade’s inhuman strength wasn’t enough to snap the thick, cold tendrils. “Bastard, how are these things still moving, we chopped em’ to pieces!!”

Hōkkami nonchalantly picked some random invisible thing out his fur and fiddled with it between his claws. “What do you mean ‘how are they moving?’ These aren’t snakes or vines you can just slice and dice and they drop dead. I’ll explain it so that even a human can understand. What your currently entangled in are what are called ‘ether-cables’. Basically they’re extensions of my own mind, able to hear and respond to my own thoughts at lightning speed. Like let’s say for example if I wanted them to start strangling you…”

The so called 'ether-cables' tightened around the strung-up ninja, cutting off the blood flow to their arms and legs. In some cases the cables were wrapped around their necks and they started to strangle the Leaf nin.

“And if I told them to loosen…” And just as he said, the tendrils loosened and thankfully no one passed out from asphyxiation.

Normally, something as weak as some ether-whatever wouldn’t be hard for someone like Gai, Tsunade, or even Kurenai to bust out of, but unfortunately the cables had been quickly draining them of their thermal energy since they attached themselves. Slowly draining their strength, and if Tsuande hated one thing, it was feeling powerless.

“Hoo, this feeling of weakness. You feel like you can’t do anything, like all of your training was just a huge waste of time, like when push comes to shove you’ll let down the people who matter most to you, right ‘Lady Hokage’. Just like what happened to Dan…”

The slug sannin was stunned silent, how could this freakish, nightmarish, bastard know-!

“Hmm? You’re wondering how I know about Dan, the one man you ever truly wanted to spend the rest of your life with? The first man you gave your cursed necklace to? Hehehe, let me say this is quite a treat. In all my years of being a empathy-vore I have NEVER heard a story as rich in irony as yours. The woman renowned as the world’s greatest doctor…couldn’t even save the life of the one she loved. Tell me, when he was bleeding to death, with nothing more than your meager medical skills to delay the sweet release of death and prolong his slow and painful suffering, what was the last thing he said before taking his final breath? Did he try to comfort you with something like ‘It’s an honor to die for my country’ or some garbage like that? He was simply failing to comfort you, trying to make it seem like he didn’t die due to your incompetence. But we both know that isn’t the truth.”

“SHUUT UUUPP!!!!!” The Hokage was on the brink of weeping, the tears already welling up in her eyes. Who was he to talk to her about Dan like that?! HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW DAN, HOW IN THE FUCK DID HE KNOW ALL THAT?!!!

“As I said ‘Lady Hokage’, these are ether cables. They are connected to my brain. And now that they’re connected to you, I’m linked into your brains. Currently I am pulling up all of your worst, most traumatic memories. And the only reason I’m telling you all this is because I know none of you will live to see the next sunrise.”

“Shut up wolf-jerk! Just give Patrick back and go die in ditch!!” Naruto talked big, but something like that coming from a child who was currently tied up and dangling sideways…
“Oh, you want the brat back. Well, would you like to see him?”

Hōkkami raised both of his paws and slashed off the fur on his stomach. You could just barely see it, but if you looked hard enough, you could see a head of white hair attached to a dark outline of a human body through the thick, indigo-tinted ice-flesh.

“That’s him?! What happened to him?” Naruto asked, both confused and worried.

“The brat is dead. He can’t hear you, see you, or even smell you. He has been given the great honor of being my new body’s power source, and as you can see he’s doing a fantastic job!” The grey fur spouted anew where Hōkkami had shaved himself with his claws, covering up the only view of the white haired ninja.

Tsunade didn’t want to believe that Patrick was dead, but she had to admit the situation didn’t look good for him.

She had to be sure though, so she whispered to the person hanging upside-down to her immediate left.

“Psst! Neji? Is your byakugan still active?” The Hyuga prodigy, if it weren’t a very serious situation, looked hilarious. He was dangling a few feet on the ground, with his long black hair rubbing against the ground like a mop causing small rocks, leaves, and twigs to become tangled up in it giving him the look of a crazy homeless man who lived in the forest and never washed or combed his hair and simply let nature do what it will with it.

“Y-Yes, Lady Hokage, why do you ask?” He tried to shift his weight around so he could actually took at the Hokage when he spoke to her and show her the proper respect, but given the current situation, with him suspended off the ground upside down with his arms, legs, and neck being intertwined with several of the turquoise ether cables, he decided to skip on the formality for once.

“Can you tell if Patrick is still alive in there?” Tsunade asked.

Neji refocused his x-ray like eyes on the beast and targeted the child’s form inside of the wolf-demon. At first glance he would say, ‘Yes he was defiantly dead.’

For one thing there was no heartbeat, he wasn’t breathing, and his chakra network wasn’t flowing. But when he took a closer look he could see only the tiniest movement in the network to show he was still somehow alive, but whatever was keeping him amongst the living wasn’t going to last forever.

The fact he wasn’t breathing and lacking a heartbeat could mean that he was simply in a state of suspended animation, like some of the movies about aliens frozen in ice his classmates had tried to convince him to see, however he turned them down in order to continue his training. They talked about it the next day in school, but didn’t particularly care until now. The situations did seem rather similar…

“I believe there is still a chance he is. But if we are to save him, we must act swiftly. His chakra flow is slowing down and is being absorbed in that ‘thing’s’ body. Like he said, it would take approximately an hour for him to be fully assimilated forty minutes ago. Best-case scenario, we have less than twenty minutes…”

Thanks to the mind-linking vines attached to everyone present, he was able to listen in on the conversation between the two and was not pleased with it in the least.

“You still believe this child can be saved? Ridiculous!! Even if you were to somehow wiggle out of those ether cables, like the worms that you are, you’ve already wasted over forty minutes of the hour you have before we become permanently fused. How do you intend to defeat me exactly? Holding hands and singing?!”

In trying to crush their hopes, all Hōkkami successfully did was make everyone even more angry and confirm Tsunade’s theory that he could still be saved. But he did raise the question of how they were to actually defeat the demon when and if they could escape the ether cable’s iron-like grasp.

“Allow me to give you a harsh lesson in reality. In this world, there are no happy endings. There is only suffering, pain, and death. This child has been reduced to less than that of the average human, a truly pathetic sight. I gave him the chance to change the world in my glorious image! A world ruled by demons!! The reason my host has stayed fast to my ideals and avoided human contact can be answered in a simple proverb. ‘A heart that has been bathed in blood and darkness, cannot be swayed be petty dreams or pretty words.’ He has accepted the fact that he is worthless up to this point, until you insects filled his feeble little mind with fantasies of salvation! I can tell you from experience that he would rather die than serve me, but will ironically be preserved forever as my body’s power source, and there isn’t a damn thing you or your incessant chattering can do about it!!”

“You’re wrong!!” Naruto shouted, still dangling sideways from one of the tentacles, but still giving Hōkkami one of the strongest glares he had ever given anyone. “It’s because of the darkness in his heart, that even a little light shines brightly!! You can try and hide him from people, from making friends, but he still did! That’s why we’re here, because we care about what happens to Patrick and that’s why we’re better than you! Because we’re not afraid rely on others for help when we need it, WOLF-JERK!!!”

The demon gave him his own fierce glare, as if he was trying to kill him just by looking at the blonde ninja. “YOU, I have quite enough of!!”

Hōkkami stomped over to Naruto and raised a paw over his head and prepared to slice his head off and play a game of dodge ball with it, but right before he swung, he stopped.

“No…no, that won’t do. That won’t do at all….I thought of something much better. Much, much better.”

He spun around and walked away from Naruto and stopped right in front of a very frightened Hinata. Hōkkami leaned in close, his large, red eyes gleaming with evil intent into the tear filled pale lavender pools of Hinata’s eyes, then glanced back to Naruto without turning his head away from the Hyuga heiress.

“Killing you is too easy. Someone like you, who would sacrifice their life for their ‘friends’. I would bet anything that you would beg for death if I were to say…hurt this little girl.”

Hōkkami ran a claw down the cream colored cheek of the trembling and terrified Hinata. “Such purity, such innocence. Like a blank canvas, just waiting to be painted. Ahh, but what color to start with?”

The wolf demon raised the same claw back up to her forehead and pressed lightly, just about breaking the skin of her temple.

“HINATA!! DON’T YOU TOUCH HER, I’LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!!!” Naruto started trashing twice as hard as before but the tentacles kept him just barely restrained and the same could be said for everyone else in their group when the demon ran his ice-cold claws down Hinata’s cheek.

“How about some…red…”

A tiny white ball of light formed within Hōkkami’s chest where Patrick was and traveled up into his left arm, through his hand and claw, and finally disappeared into Hinata’s head.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” Hinata let loose a blood-curdling screech as she flailed while still constricted, like a trapped animal. No one had ever seen her act so violently or yell so loudly or so animalistly before. It was truly horrifying.

“HINATAAAA!!! WHAT DID YOU DO YOU BASTARD!!!”

Hōkkami addressed the enraged ninja with fake confusion that was soaked in sarcasm. “Who, me? Nothing really, I just made them better friends is all.” The wolf demon snapped his claws and the ice tentacles that were restraining Hinata loosened and receded back into the ground. The Hyuga girl fell onto the ground in crumpled heap and quickly wrapped her arms around her legs in a fetal position, mumbling inaudible whispers into her knees with a fearful look in her eyes.

“What the hell do you mean ‘better friends’?!! Let. Me. Down. NOW!!!” Just to be safe, Hōkkami waved a paw and gave everyone a few extra spike restraints. Double the restrains for the still fiercely flailing Naruto.

“It was to my understanding that friends shared things. Things like stories, games, feelings… and memories. All I did was show you how I plan on creating perfect host bodies for my demonic army. By giving them the brat’s memories and driving them insane!!”

Hinata’s murmurs started growing louder and began to sound more like words, which Hōkkami did not fail to notice.

“Hmm? Did you say something my dear? Please say it loud enough for everyone to hear.”
The wolf demon pulled up the pale-eyed girl by her collar and held her up in front of everyone like he was displaying a prized animal before a crowd of awaiting spectators.

“Go on now, don’t be shy. Say what’s on your mind, hehehe!”

She didn’t even seem to notice anyone was there, not even Hōkkami, who was holding her by the scruff of her neck. Hinata just seemed to be staring in terror at some strange illusion created by the sadistic demon.

“S-So…much…b-blood…everywhere…blood. Please, make it stop! MAAAKE IT STOOOOP!!!”
Hinata finally fainted, her arms flopping to her sides while her head tilted to the front as she simply hung by Hōkkami’s claws like a limp rag doll.

“Hmm? I was wondering when she would pass out. Poor little thing couldn’t handle all those emotions all at once could she. The same thing happened to the brat when he actually made those memories, only of course when he passed out, I slaughtered all the survivors of his village. Hehehe, ahh memories.”

The sadistic wolf demon juggled the little girl on the tip of his claw and using his other hand to rub his snout to show he was thinking over an idea. “Maybe I’ll give her to Kitaguma. I’d finally be free from that bumbling moron!! I swear if he wasn’t part oracle I would have killed him a long time ago, but I suppose he’s still useful in the end.”

“GRRRRRRRRAAAAAHH!!! TOUCH HER AGAIN, AND YOUR AS GOOD AS NEUTERED YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!” A wave of anger and hatred so powerful emitted from Naruto that it even gave Hōkkami the shivers, although he just tried to played it off, throwing the Hyuga heiress aside like a piece of trash and strutted right up to the orange wearing ninja.

“Well now, if this isn’t interesting! I’ve never felt such powerful and condensed hatred come from a human. A child no less, fantastic!! You shall be the first I feast on…”

Hōkkami leaned forward and placed both of his paws on Naruto’s shoulders and small lines of frost trailed from them, spreading all over his body until he was not only tied up with weird ice vines but also frozen in a cocoon of ice!

The wolf demon leading forward with his hands still on the blond ninja’s shoulders, his gapping maw opening over Naruto’s head.

But right when it looked like he would clamp his jaws over the blonde ninja’s head and rip it from his shoulders, a dark substance started steaming from Naruto’s mouth like thick black smoke, which looked to have the viscosity of a floating liquid, which rose into the maw of the hungry demon.

“Your hatred shall give me strength!!” The demon said, although the way he said it made it sound like he was speaking with food in his mouth, muffled and a bit hard to understand.
Naruto was doing considerably worse however, the more shadowy, smoky smog-like substance was sucked out of him, the more drained he looked.

His cheeks grew thin, wrinkles appeared under his eyes, and even his completion grew pale and dark. His yellow hair lost its shine and started to go dry and thin. His eyes lost their luster and clouded over when the last wheeze of protest left his thinning lips. It was like he was ageing a year a second until he would eventually decay into nothing but skin and bone!

But right when it looked like Naruto was about to die, his eyes bulging out of his seriously thinning face, the opaque dark substance suddenly turned a different color.

A deep, dark, red-orange mixed with speckles of black floating in it, and when it changed color Hōkkami started make hoarse and gruff coughing and gagging sounds when the red energy shot down his throat.

The wolf demon continued to gag and dry-heave as he tried desperately to stop the steady flow of red chakra-like substance from entering his mouth. He fell on his back, clutching his neck and rolled around, making strange guttural choking noises as his blood red eyes bugged out in confusion and fear. Two emotions he had never experienced personally.

“*KAAH!* WHA- *AAH!* IS *KAK!* THIS?!!! *GAAK!!*” He had never in his lifetime of four-hundred years, tasted hatred so powerful, so ancient!! WHAT WAS THIS KID?!!!

Naruto’s completion began to return to him, but his eyes were dark red, similar to Hōkkami’s own demonic eyes and he spoke in a much more fierce and boisterous tone. It was the Kyuubi speaking directly through Naruto, a very rare occasion.

“YOU THINK YOU’RE THE ONLY DEMON HERE?!! YOU TRULY ARE A PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A DEMONIC ENTITY, TASTE HATRED’S TRUEST FORM!! THEN MAYBE YOU’LL LEARN SOMETHING!!”

The stream of red nine-tails hatred grew thicker and flowed faster than before, actually forcing Hōkkami’s mouth to open wider to accept more of the raw, powerful, burning hate-energy.

“This i-is impossible!! No h-human can defeat me! I am Hōkkami! I AM PERFECTION!!”
The ether cables melted as Naruto generated the nine-tails cloak, forming a single tail. But for some reason didn’t go feral and attack everything. Instead he used both is hands and his newly formed tail directed even more energy into the wolf-demon’s maw, effetely shutting him up.

“WELL THEN, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ACCEPT MY ‘GIFT’ AND NOT DIE A VERY PAINFUL DEATH!” Luckily Naruto’s friends had all pasted out due to their blood-pressure lowing because of the cold, so they didn’t witness the one-sided demon show-down with the two unwilling hosts and the only people conscious to see the legendary event were the adults, who were not only scared, but extremely interested in how the clash of two evil beings would turn out!

As the crimson, destructive energy continued to flood the demon’s entire artificial being, his body started bloat to the size of a small wagon and began to crack in random places, the red energy leaking from the fissures and evaporating into the air.

The openings in Hōkkami’s ice-flesh kept widening and his body was straining to stay together despite the expanding combined with the gashes making him extremely unstable. Sooner or later, something would have to give.

Hōkkami’s new body bulged out like an inflated balloon as big as the dome on the Hokage tower before a loud, final cry of pure fear and pain escaped the wolf-demon’s jaws along with a considerable amount of the nine-tail’s chakra.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Finally, unable to contain the incredible power of the Kyuubi, he exploded with enough force to blast the limp and almost lifeless ninja from the grip of the already disintegrating ether cables and blow around a few trees until they became uprooted and flew into other trees and knocked them down like a game of giant, green dominos. Dust clouds spread out over a ten-mile radius and were spreading the tailed-beast’s chakra with it, creating several low hanging misty red-orange clouds that floated around the surrounding forests of the Leaf Village.

Luckily it would eventually thin out over time until it had all dissipated into the atmosphere, but the blast-zone were the ninja were was in bad shape. The clearing had spread itself by a good mile, all of the grass and plants disappearing and being replaced with scorched, cracked earth. The remains of the ether cables had been reduced to nothing more than tiny piles of snow and chunks of frost.

The Leaf ninja slowly recovered and found Naruto, asleep and out of the nine-tails cloak, about twenty feet from the epicenter of the blast. Of course what held everyone but the medics who were treating Naruto’s attention was what was in the heart of the explosion.
Inside of a small crater, the smell of the nine-tails chakra (apparently similar to a mix of paprika, sulfide, and blood according to Kiba) and something burning radiated from within it.

The burning scent coming from the charred and still lightly smoking body of Patrick, which was somehow still in one piece after the gigantic explosion.

But whether or not he was still alive was a different question all together. And when you added up the fact that he was barely alive to begin with before the blast, the odds weren’t in his favor.

Tsunade left Naruto’s treatment to Shizune since his injuries weren’t life threating, the fox-cloak absorbing most of the impact, but still causing his body some less than serious abrasions and scrapes that would heal themselves in no time.

She slide down the edge of the shallow, rocky pit and hastily checked the fanged ninja’s vital signs as she effortlessly heaved him off of the scorched earth to help him heal properly.

“Oh thank God…” He was miraculously still taking short, wheezy breaths and his heartbeat slow but steady. The majority of the damage done to his body was similar to Naruto’s and was already starting to heal now that it was exposed to the cold night air.

The Hokage hoisted the weakened and tired body of the former demon host over her shoulders and climbed out of the crater.

Exhausted, groggy, and in a particularly bad mood, she had NO patience at the moment for anything but a hot bottle of sake and some drunken conversation with her assistant about how now that she was in charge of the entire Land of Fire’s military force, she shouldn’t get black-out drunk every chance she got to do so. But tonight she wouldn’t hear any of it, she needed a drink and she needed it SOON!

“Uhhhhhh! That was tiresome, but at least that stupid demon is finally dead and gone.” She fell on her butt and sat Indian-style to halfheartedly make sure her pupils were applying the correct type of treatment for chakra burns and fatigue to Naruto and Patrick.

However Shikamaru, just as tired and sleepy from as everyone else, refused to sit down with his friends when they all decided to take a break before Patrick woke up and they could celebrate.

“Shikamaru? What’s wrong, we beat him. Look, even Hinata is feeling better! You can relax…although we didn’t do much…” Ino asked her usually relaxed team-mate and pointing to the shy, red-faced girl who said she didn't remember what Hokkami had shown her and began to blush when Shino told her Naruto was able to defeat the wolf demon when she became injured. Of all people Ino thought Shikamaru, one of the laziest people she knew, would want to sit down after such an exhausting ordeal.

The strategy genius didn’t sit down with everyone, but looked down at all of them with a glare. A look he rarely used and usually meant whoever he was giving it do either said something stupid or forgot something extremely important…

“I think you are all forgetting one thing before we start relaxing. Didn’t Patrick say that he had three demons in him, and that TWO were supposed to be released?” Everyone’s eyes widened upon remember Patrick’s exact words to them in the Hokage tower.

‘Other legends of my village spoke of ice demons that lived in the tundra and feed on the misery of lost travelers. Their names are Hōkkami, The Arctic Wolf…and Kitaguma, The Northern Bear…’

Everyone slowly turned their gazes upon the unconscious form of Patrick, thinking over Shikamaru’s words carefully. If he was right, then the exorcism wasn’t complete and they needed to get back into battle mode as quickly as possible.

“Ok, I think we might have a minute or two before he this ‘Kitaguma’ takes over, so let’s-”

“Where brother?”

While the Leaf ninja were paying attention to Shikamaru, nobody noticed or even heard Patrick silently stand up, and it scared the crap of them like something from a horror flick.

At first they didn’t even know it was him do to his deep, husky voice and were about to attack him before they even realized the voice was coming from a child of only thirteen.
Under further inspection it was pretty obvious he was possessed. His wounds had already healed with unnatural speed and his eyes had changed color yet again. Only instead of being like Hōkkami’s, blood red with a vertical black slitted pupil, both of his eyes were a deep, dark, soulless black. Like two perfect obsidian orbs had replaced the once sparkling icy-blue ones.

“WHERE IS BROTHER?!!”

The beast roared over the now extended and still smoldering clearing, the echo almost loud enough to reach all the way back to the Leaf village, and nearly deafening those present.
Shikamaru sighed deeply and loudly while he placed his hands over his ears.

“How troublesome…”

Ok, this felt like a good place to stop, so I stopped. If you read the whole thing you get a complementary pat on the back!! Hope you all enjoyed it and as always favs and comments mean the world to me so don’t be shy!!

Naruto and its characters © Masashi Kishimoto