A New Day Dawns Crimson

Unedited:

"Honestly?" I asked. "I kinda wanna see how this all turns out; call it a sick curiosity. Besides, it's this or the Tora mission, and asking me to face either a blood-thirsty, murderous, disgusting creature or to meet Gaara again, I know which I'm choosing. To Suna for me."

Coren nodded, the corner of his mouth upturning.
"That's one; what about you, Hanako?"
The girl shrugged.
"I'm sick in the head and I hear voices whisper in the back of my mind, always arguing and never shutting up. Right now, though, they're agreeing on one single thing; tanning at Suna sounds absolutely blissful."
Coren nodded again; that was two yes's.
Finally, he turned to Lilligant.
"...Should I even bother asking?"
Lilly smiled, shaking her head.
"I'll follow you everywhere that I can help, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
"As if I'd want to," was his response, one of his rare not-creepy smiles gracing his features. "Alright then; it's decided. We'll be heading out to Sunagakure to meet with Sabaku no Gaara and his family."
He turned on his heel, pulling his hunter-nin mask from his back-pack.
"Don't want to unnerve them," he said simply, slipping it on, hiding his eye as black as pitch from the world. "Let's rock."

---

Coren ground to a stop.
Three days had passed since they accepted the mission.
Surprisingly enough, besides a bit of banter, there was little talk. The only person to actually talk seriously was Kushina, who said that while she didn't trust this whole thing at all, she was still gonna stick with them. She couldn't go ditching her students, now could she?
Coren tossed the scroll to Kushina, who nodded.
She walked towards the gate before them as Coren took in the sights.
They stood before a massive wall of sandstone, perfectly aligned with the walls of the valley within which resided Sunagakure no Sato.
The light from the sun beat down mercilessly upon the sand, shining down upon the guard-ninja and the walls they protect so studiously.
Coren smiled slightly.
"Y'know, they're leaving themselves so open to attack right now," Kiyomi said from inside his mind. "It would be so easy to just simply fling a kunai into their throats and slay them where they stand."
Coren chuckled lightly.
"You hold no more control over my choices than Nightmare, Kiyomi."
"Can you blame a girl for trying?"
"Yes," he said mentally, his smile hidden beneath his mask.
"What's up?" Lilligant asked.
"The voices are acting up again," he responded calmly. "Their attempts to control me are actually entertaining today."
"I take offense to that."
"As you should."
Lilligant nodded.
“367?”
“Unregistered.” Lilligant frowned.
“I thought you told me about all of them.”
Coren sighed, scratching the back of his head. “The White Snake’s Seal of Heaven.”
Lilligant flinched.
“…I see. It makes sense; only Anko ever survived it… Sorry.”
Coren shrugged.
“Don’t worry. I’ll register her when the mission’s complete.”
“…Her?”
“I never claimed to have normal ways of handling insanity.”
Lilligant sighed, shaking her head.
“Well, alright. Just don’t-”
“Like I said; they’re naught more than entertainment today.”
“…Just be careful.”
“I’m more than simply careful; I’m paranoid.” He smiled softly, even though she couldn’t see it. “I suppose that that’ll actually come in handy today, won’t it?”
Lilligant sighed again.
“Hey,” Kushina suddenly called. “We’re ready to head in. They recognized the seal, and had word sent ahead. Let’s go.”
Coren nodded, following dutifully.
He and Lilligant were going to have a long discussion soon, it would seem.
How it would turn out, not even he knew quite for sure…

---

Coren snapped off a salute, standing before the Kazekage and his daughter Temari.
“Lord Kazekage,” he said calmly.
“At ease,” was his response. His eyes were focused on the people behind Coren, though. “I see you brought your team.”
“No offense meant, sir, but I don’t trust your village enough to come here alone.”
Saiken frowned slightly.
“And why is that?”
“The same reason I never leave my house without strapping at least my sword and seventy pounds of explosives;” he said, his tone unwavering. “I’m paranoid.”
“…If you can’t even trust your own home to be safe, why should we trust you?”
“If I may offer my advice, sir, then I would prefer it if you didn’t trust me, or my team. You will live longer if you trust as few people as possible.”
“That’s quite a cynical way of seeing things.”
“I prefer realistic, but I suppose that in recent times, they are synonyms for each other.”
“Unfortunately so.” Saiken sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Now then, on to business. My daughter requested your assistance due to the fact that you are the reason behind our troubles.”
Coren raised an eyebrow, but stayed quiet.
Temari stepped forward.
“Ever since you beat my brother, he’s been practically comatose. He won’t move, he won’t eat any more than is necessary to live, and… He’s always whispering.”
Coren frowned.
It sounds like he broke down.
It’s actually kind of normal for one who revels in victory to lose, and then feel lost within the endless cyclone of emotion that resulted from the center of their universe being stolen from within their own souls.
…Or is it abnormal, and this world is so crazy that it seems standard?
…Now isn’t the time for philosophical discussions.
“How can I help?” he asked.
“It is my understanding that you have a Yamanaka in your team, correct?” Saiken asked.
Hanako stepped forward. “That would be me.”
“Good. I believe that, if you can enter his Mindscape, then you may be able to help him.”
Coren frowned.
“That sounds rather dangerous. What of Shukaku? I imagine that he won’t take kindly to visitors.”
“…” Saiken sighed, not saying a word.
“…You realize that, if you’re placing me against a Bijuu, this is an S-Rank?”
“Do you really think your Hokage would give you an S? An A was pushing it.”
Coren looked at his team.
“…Hanako, I’m gonna need your help. You up for a little mental trek?”
She hesitated for a moment, but nodded.
“Wherever you go, I go; you’re the leader of this team, after all.”
Coren nodded.
“Where can I find him?”
“Temari will lead you there.” Coren nodded. “Oh, one more thing.”
Coren paused.
“…I need you to take off your mask. Your chakra signature is the same as it was in the Chunin Exams, but I can’t let you go in there without seeing your face.”
Coren sighed.
“Damnit…”
He grabbed the mask and lowered it, looking right at Saiken.
His eyes widened a bit, and Temari gasped.
“What happened?”
Coren shrugged.
“A training accident. It won’t interfere with the mission; you don’t need to worry about that.”
He brought his mask back up, hiding his eye.
“Shall we?”
Temari hesitantly nodded, before leading him and Hanako away, leaving Lilligant, Kushina, and Jacob in the room with the Kazekage.
Saiken looked over the team with distaste. “You and your team is allowed free-roam within my village until the end of this mission. I hope that you won’t be causing any trouble for the villagers.”
Kushina nodded, saluting him.
“No, sir. Is that all?”
“…Yes. Feel free to leave.”
She nodded again, turning on her heel.
“Let’s go, you two. We need to find a hotel to stay at.”
With that, she walked away, leaving the others to follow her.

---

Saiken’s POV

As he watched them walk away, he frowned.
He didn’t like this. It all seemed… Off.
Kuroi Taka was the captain of Keitaro’s team, so what was the Kyuubi’s jinchuriki doing here?
Is it a threat?
…No. They wouldn’t risk someone so important for that. It’s something else.
…The boy? That eye of his… The darkness hidden within was obvious to him, to someone who eyes clouded in the shadows before.
He looked just like Gaara, but he doesn’t act like it.
To hide one’s emotions, one’s pain behind a mask…
…This boy will make a fine shinobi.
At least, he will if he survives the coming obstacles.

---

Kushina sat down on a bed, sighing deeply.
“Damnit.” She looked around, rather irate. “We’re in the middle of another village, and we’ve already split the party… This isn’t safe.”
“It’s fine,” Lilligant said with a smile. “Whatever happens, Coren will protect himself and Hanako.”
“How can you have that much faith in him?” she asked, scowling. “We’re in enemy territory! He may be able to beat that jinchuriki, but he can’t take on all the active shinobi in this village.”
“He doesn’t need to.” She laid down on the second of the two beds, looking up at the ceiling. “He’s smart; so is Hanako. They’ll escape; they’ll make it back to the village, even if Coren has to leave a trail of bodies along the way.”
“I’ve fought him. He can’t handle a jonin.”
Lilligant’s smile turned playful.
“Oh? Have you ever fought him when he’s going all out? When he stops holding back, letting himself cut loose?”
Kushina frowned for a moment.
“Hey, Jacob. Coren told me that you missed the fight between him and Orochimaru. Wanna hear about it?”

Unedited:

"Uh... Sure?" I frowned slightly. "Does it have something to do with the whole 'my eye is black and I can survive being bisected' thing?" I asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable being in the same room as a crazy jinchuriki and a jonin without either Hanako or Coren around.

"The former? No. But the latter? Yes." She focused mostly on Kushina now. "Coren told me that the whole thing was a curb-stomp battle, that if Kuroi hadn't come in, they would've died. Funny thing, though?"
She sat up now.
"The shortest amount of time for those two to have scaled three floors on an elevator wire is at least three minutes. He fought Orochimaru for three whole minutes, and still got out of there alive. You might be able to beat that snake, but when you were a genin, could you?"
That shut Kushina up nicely.
"So yeah, he can take on a jonin with Hanako's help, and if there's anything that I know Coren's learned, it's that running away is a lot easier if you don't have a moral code keeping you from embedding your kunai in the enemy's genitalia."
Kushina (and Jacob) flinched, imagining the horrid pain.
"Trust me. At the very least, they'll get back to Konoha."
She turned away from them, though inwardly, her smirk didn't exist.
"The question is, could he make it back sane..?" she mentally asked herself.

---

Coren had followed the sandy-blonde girl for a good two minutes before arriving at a door.
It wasn’t as large as Coren expected, but really, with how bad this village treats their jinchuriki, it didn’t surprise him.
Temari had told him and Hanako some of the stories about Gaara; about how their father had sent assassins after Gaara for the sole purpose of training him, or having the boy die for being weak.
Coren was actually a bit surprised when the urge to beat the stupid out of Saiken came from himself, and not one of his other selves.
“He’s in here.”
“From what I’ve heard, not all of him is.”
Temari glared at Coren, who didn’t even bother changing facial expression.
He opened the door, hearing Temari say
“Gaara? I brought someone to see you.”
Coren slid his hand into his pouch as he walked into sight.
He locked eyes with the red-headed boy, and saw it.
At first, it was a blank stare, as if he didn’t even exist anymore.
But now, something was building.
“Hey there, Gaara,” he said calmly.
He pulled out a seal, pumping his chakra into it.
The wave of sand that shot towards him suddenly just died down, falling to the floor.
“Chakra suppressant seal,” he said coldly. “Chakra can’t be used within three feet of me.”
Coren started walking forward, and the hatred turned to fear within the other boy.
“G-Get back!”
“No.”
Coren grabbed Gaara by his shirt, lifting the redhead above himself.
“Grow a god-damn pair and get over yourself. Killing doesn’t validate your existence; there’s nothing that does.”
He threw Gaara towards the wall.
Temari ran after him, but the sand saved him once he exited Coren’s radius.
“Y-you’re wrong! M-Mother said-”
Coren stepped forward, back-handing him across the room.
Gaara weighed all of 15 pounds wet; he used his sand so much that his muscles damn-near atrophied.
“The Ichibi is a demon lord; of course death appeals to it.” Coren took another step, making Gaara backpedal.
“Coren, stop!” Temari yelled, stepping forward.
Hanako placed her hand on her arm, stopping her in place.
Coren paid her no attention, taking yet another step forward.
“The taste of blood in your mouth, the feeling of bone crushing underneath your strength, the sound of flesh squelching in the shifting sands; it’s appealing, isn’t it?”
Coren crouched down in front of Gaara, who was practically petrified.
“Take it from a real psychopath piece-of-work;” Coren leaned forward, almost touching his forehead to Gaara’s. “No matter how gratifying it is to gut someone and cover the walls with their intestines like streamers, it is only a temporary answer.”
Coren stood up, pulling a second seal from his pocket.
“I can’t help you get over the darkness that’s wormed into your soul, but there is something I can do.”
“W-What are you doing?” he asked, terrified.
“It’s time for me to meet your mother.”
His eyes widened as Coren placed the seal on his forehead.
“Hanako.”
She nodded, forming a hand-seal and letting go of Temari.
“Yamanaka Clan Technique: Group Transmission.”
Temari suddenly lashed out, grabbing Coren’s arm, just before everything went black.

---

“…Are you an idiot?” Coren asked, turning towards the sandy blond.
“I can’t let you do this without me!” she yelled. “He’s my brother!”
“You’ve finally come, have you?” a deep voice rumbled out.
Temari and Hanako flinched, but Coren just turned towards the speaker.
Throughout his field of vision, even with his Byakugan, he could see nothing but the endless, shifting sands of the desert, the auburn sun blasting down mercilessly down upon the earth for miles and miles.
The sand began to break apart at a singular point, a crevasse within the ground appearing as something rose from it.
It was a paw.
A giant, veiny raccoon paw.
Coren sighed, drawing his sword.
“I will not allow you to terrorize me or my child any longer.”
“Says the reason behind his instability.”
“Those beasts that call him family did this to him!” it roared out, the desert itself quaking under the force of its voice.
“And if you never existed, had not rampaged and forced the hand of the Kazekage, do you think this would have happened?”
“Don’t you dare speak to me of such things, you insolent human! I have survived for eons, spent millennia alone! Rage dug through my very being, and I couldn’t stop it!”
“That’s a load of crap.” Coren stepped forward, raising his sword before him. “Rage can be controlled, can be stopped; no matter how faint and weak the candle, the darkness shall always run. It is not the fault of the villagers that you could not keep your flame lit.”
The Ichibi dragged its torso from the crevasse, now glaring down at the boy. It was larger than any building any of them had ever seen; its head alone was the size of six buildings together.
“The darkness can not be stopped! You humans brag so much of pushing back the darkness for years, but what are years compared to millennium!?”
Coren sighed.
“To you, a being without age, the darkness would be strong. You would have nobody, nothing but your own kind. But nobody wants you or yourn, do they?” Coren stepped forward, lowering his blade. “So if they have no need for you, what need have they for you?”
Ichibi bit back a reply. Anything it said would only help the boy’s point.
“But what of Nibi, of Sanbi? Kyuubi or Hachibi?” He started walking forward, staring down this beast the size of a village. “Why would you be alone when eight more exist? Eight more powerful, immortals?”
Ichibi’s eyes went wide.
“A falling out?”
“What do you know of our kind!?” it roared again.
Coren didn’t even flinch.
“Only as much that you’ve let slip.”
He didn’t pause in his walking.
“I come here not to slay you, not to seal you. I came here to ask you something.”
“And what would you have to ask?” it asked, hissing ‘you’ like it was the greatest insult.
“Why does a mother’s love come from you to him?”
Silence took over the desert; not even the shifting of the sand could be heard for a time.
“…You are a fool,” it said, now near-silent.
“If I were anything but, I wouldn’t be here.”
Coren sighed, scratching the back of his head.
“You aren’t gonna let us leave, are you?”
“Not after what you’ve done to my child.”
He shook his head, looking up again at the titanic demon above him.
“Hanako, get her out of here.”
“And you?” she asked.
“…”
Hanako’s eyes widened, understanding his silence better than any words.
“What’s going on?” Temari breathed out.
“Seal – Release!”
And then, Temari and Hanako awoke outside of the realm of sand.
Temari fell backwards as Hanako charged Coren, checking everything she could.
“…You god damn IDIOT!”
She tightened her hand around Coren’s forearm.
“YOU CAN’T BEAT IT!”
Hanako’s voice broke as blood began to drip from Coren’s arm, her nails digging deep.
“Why… Why would you make that seal..?”
She slumped forward, tears falling.
There, written in the inscription of the seal, read something so simple that even Hanako could read it.
“Transference of Soul.”

---

Coren smiled as Hanako and Temari disappeared.
“Afraid to see them die?”
Coren nodded, turning to Ichibi.
“Hanako is one of the few people that I qualify as my ‘friend’.” He rested his sword on his shoulder. “She thought she could drag me out with her and Temari; she thought she had me tricked.”
Ichibi’s face contorted in confusion.
“You bested a Yamanaka’s control?”
“Y’know that seal on put on your kid’s forehead?” Coren smirked. “From the moment she activated it with her technique, my soul was placed into this body. I, and only I can choose when I return.”
“And yet you stay, when you know your death here will leave your body as nothing more than an empty husk.”
“Trust me, Ichibi; I won’t die here. I think you forget; both of us are tenants here in this land.” Coren removed his mask, his grin turning homicidal. “You and I are on equal footing.”
“Equal? You are nothing more than a human, and I am the First Demon Lord, Queen of the Shifting Sands, Shukaku no Ichibi! You can not win; there is no chance!”
Coren slid into stance, his second eye slowly turning black.
“Now that’s my kind of odds.”
And then, he charged.

---

“What the Hell’s going on!?” Temari said, whirling Hanako around.
“This idiot… He’s fighting the Ichibi alone, and he can’t get out!”
Temari froze.
“W-What?”
“This seal is designed to keep him locked in here until Gaara lets him out!” she screamed, tears falling. “H-He thinks he can beat it!”
Temari’s eyes widened.
“Why would he do that!?”
Hanako couldn’t answer that.
Only one person could, and for all she knew, he was dead already.
He couldn’t beat a demon lord.
“…Please win,” she breathed out, dropping to her knees. “I don’t want to be alone…”

---

Nightmare slammed his blade into Ichibi once more, the black flames from the blade incinerating an entire arm, only for it to return from the sands around them.
“You can’t defeat me! You would have to raze this entire world down, turn it all to cinders!”
“Good! Orochimaru was pathetic compared to me; maybe you can give me a CHALLENGE!”
Ichibi tried to block Nightmare’s next attack only for half of its body erupt, sending infinite pain through its mind.
But it didn’t scream.
“I can’t get hit again by this boy… No, I can’t call him that.” Ichibi’s sand suddenly began to dissipate.
Nightmare’s face contorted in disgust.
“Don’t tell me you’re dead already; I’ve only just begun.”
“Finished?” the deep voice rumbled. “Don’t worry; I’m just getting warmed up.”
Nightmare’s grin returned at that.
“Good… Great! Excellent!” Nightmare began to laugh, black energy pouring out of him now. “If this is what it feels like to fight you, the weakest of the Demon Lords, I can’t wait to fight Kyuubi! The thrill I’ll feel!”
Ichibi frowned.
“You act so confident,” it said, its voice beginning to lose its deepness and gravelly overtones. “How do you know you will not die today?”
Nightmare grinned maniacally.
“Die? Never. I could never die when there’s so much crimson ichor left to spill!”
Ichibi shuddered.
“Tell me something, boy; before we continue fighting.”
Nightmare frowned.
“Talk is for the weak and pathetic.”
“Then just humor a final request.”
Nightmare tilted his head, but then smirked.
“Now you’re speaking me language. What is it, battle-brother?”
Ichibi shivered at being called that.
“Where did you get this power? I recognize it well; the power of a demon. You were not born with it; I know this much.”
Nightmare now looked confused.
“…What do you mean? I have existed for as long as Origin has. I am another facet of himself!”
Ichibi sighed.
“You do not remember… I see.”
The sands of the desert had now completely calmed; the crevasse didn’t even exist any more.
“How unfortunate. When this all ends, my curiosity will be left unsated.”
Nightmare’s face twitched, anger beginning to fill him.
“Explain what you mean, raccoon! What do you mean I’m a demon!?”
The sands begin to twitch and twist, and Ichibi’s voice suddenly changed completely.
“If you can beat me,” a feminine voice proclaimed, “Then you shall get your answers.”
Ichibi rose from the sands, the raccoon form abandoned. Before Nightmare stood Ichibi’s human form; constructed originally to comfort Gaara, but now for use in battle.
She wore standard shinobi gear, her hair the same shade as the sands upon which she stood. Upon her hip was a similar gourd to the one Gaara had, but smaller. In her hands was a naginata, no less than six feet long.
“Come, Nightmare;” she said in a voice of steel, “We have a fight to finish.”
Nightmare growled, though not without a playful overtone.
“You certainly know how to motivate someone, Ichibi.”
“Call me Shukaku.” She spun her weapon in a spiral, bringing its blade to point to the ground. “At the very least, I’ll let you use my real name.”
Nightmare’s grin only widened.
“Absolutely beautiful!” he howled. “If this is what demons are like, then Hell is where I wish to go in death!”
Shukaku’s lip twitched upwards at the irony of that statement.
“Soon enough you will find yourself there,” she said calmly. “Shall we dance?”
Nightmare lofted his mighty blade above his head, grinning like a maniac.
“May the very Earth be scarred from this battle, may the ground shatter and the sky rain crimson! Let us begin!”
Nightmare charged forward, slamming blade into Shukaku’s side, only for her to block it.
With a swift movement, she smashed her weapon into Nightmare’s arm, making his drop his blade.
She drove the bladed point towards his stomach, but he quickly kicked his weapon into the air, catching it and blocking the attack.
“Beautiful!”
He suddenly pushed against her, shoving her back as he slammed his blade down once more with even more force.
Shukaku’s naginata splintered and shattered, reverting to sand to be absorbed into the ground once more.
He suddenly stopped, leaping back.
“…What?”
Nightmare chuckled.
“Draw your weapon again, Shukaku. I will not kill you when you haven’t a blade in hand; I would not show such disrespect to such a worthy foe.”
Shukaku tightened her hands into fists, but a smile wormed its way onto her face.
“…I think I’m starting to enjoy this,” she said, her voice warming.
“Then the true battle has only just begun.”
She waved her arm and summoned from the sand, two tonfas, which she held in hand as she charged.
Nightmare dodged and weaved away from her attacks quickly, though he had no room to counter.
Finally, he made use of his chakra and summoned a shield of it right where he tonfa would hit.
As she drove it in, gold collided with indigo; chakra began to roll off the two like never before, and they quickly leaped away from each other.
“You already have so much control over your demonic chakra,” Shukaku said, shocked. “I have never heard of a human learning it so quickly.”
“There has never before been a human quite like me,” Nightmare said, grinning.
“…True enough.”
Shukaku tossed aside her tonfas, instead drawing a pair of serrated tanto’s.
“Shall we?”
“Let’s!”
They both charged at each other again, only for a side-swipe to obliterate one of Shukaku’s tanto’s.
The second managed to slash Nightmare’s side, but his own swing mirrored hers and slashed into her side as well.
They both leaped back, but for only a moment, as Shukaku summoned a wakizashi to replace the lost weapon and charged again.
He, again, destroyed the first of the two quickly, but sustained damage from her second, before mirroring his pain onto her with his own blade.
It continued like this for the longest time, with skin giving way to sand, and sand giving way to the Blade of Nightmares.
An unknown period of time passed as they just tore into each other, and soon enough, neither of them could differentiate between the blood spilled from their bodies and their enemies.
The very ground was drenched in crimson blood, and the katanas in Shukaku’s hands were stained the same color.
Both panted deeply, breathing heavily as they got ready to attack once more.
“…Stop…” a voice whispered. It went unheard.
Nightmare charged at Shukaku, swinging his blade once more, the blood staining the ground as he and she both cleaved into the other’s bodies. The had long ago foregone blocking; now, all that mattered to them was the blood splatter and the scent of iron as the blood dried in the desert sun.
“…Stop..!” the voice whispered once more, unheard again.
Nightmare felt his blood drain from his body even more as she slashed for the 90,587th time into his femoral artery.
He slashed into her stomach for the 96,816th time, the blood splashing on the already-red earth.
“Stop!” The voice had begun to yell, but driven so much by the lust for the other’s blood, neither combatant could hear it.
Without her katanas, Shukaku spawned a pair of western-style blades, dual-wielding them and cleaving into Nightmare.
He simply stood there as they embedded themselves in his body, taking his chance now.
With her blades stuck inside of his rib-cage, there was no way for her to dodge now.
He raised his blade and did a side-swipe, bisecting her for the 4,092nd time.
“STOP!” the voice suddenly roared, shaking the very foundation of the Mindscape.
This time, he was heard.
Nightmare growled, whirling around and searching for the voice.
“Who DARES disturb my battle!?!”
A familiar patch of red hair popped up in his peripheral vision, and he turned around, intent on slashing into the infernal boy.
But then, when his blade was millimeters away from the child’s throat, he noticed it.
…He really was a child.
…Why couldn’t he do it?
He stepped back, looking at Gaara.
He… He looked like he was five, now.
In one’s Mindscape, they take on the appearance of their soul.
…Does Gaara see himself as this?
“Gaara!” Shukaku yelled, running to him, holding him tight. “Please, don’t hurt him!”
Nightmare’s eyes widened at the sight.
The first Demon Lord, prideful to a fault, sat there in human form, holding a human child close to her chest, requesting him to spare the boy.
“…Absolutely disgusting,” he muttered. “You can take the field once more, Origin. I’ve lost my urge to fight.”
His eye began to take on its standard appearance, leaving Coren to sigh.
“I suppose even the things of nightmares would have boundaries,” he muttered.
He looked over the duo, frowning.
“Y’know,” he said softly, taking a step towards them, “You never did answer my question.”
Gaara’s eyes widened as he tried to slide away from Coren.
“GET AWAY!”
Suddenly, the very desert itself collapsed onto Coren, crushing every single part of his body into a fine mist.
Then, he found himself standing there like nothing happened, the only evidence of it now being spilt from Coren’s stomach onto the crimson ground.
“…I forgot,” he muttered between retches, “that you’ve got god powers here, kid.”
He wiped off his mouth, sitting back. The squelching sound of the blood-stained sand meeting his torn, bloodied clothes not being a pleasant one, he focused on something else.
“…I think I know my answer now,” Coren said with a sigh. “You lost your light so long ago, but when another light appeared before you, you couldn’t let it be extinguished.”
Shukaku’s eyes widened as Coren stood.
“His impenetrable defense; it’s you trying to protect the one that you’ve raised since his birth… You’re trying to protect your son.”
Coren sighed, shaking his head. “I came into your mind, Gaara, to knock some sense into you, to tell you that death isn’t the only way to validate your existence.”
He held out his hand to the boy, slowly. “It seems, though, you already have a reason to fight; you just never realized it.”
Gaara’s eyes widened further, even though it didn’t seem possible.
“Don’t fight to validate yourself, Gaara. Fight to save Shukaku the pain of losing her only child.”
Now it was Shukaku’s turn to be surprised.
Gaara’s eyes went back to normal before they burst out of his head, and after a moment’s hesitation, he nodded.
…He was like a kid; he was so innocent.
The bloodlust was gone…
…How..?
Coren shoved such thoughts out of his head, adopting what felt like the first real smile in years. Not one of those ones he did to reassure everybody, or the ones he did that creeped people out.
…Funny. It took a murderous psycho-demon to get him to actually smile.
Gaara stood up slowly, walking to Coren, before taking his hand and shaking it.
“I-I will!”
Coren help but smile even wider at his innocent tone.
“Then it’s time to wake up, little one.” Gaara nodded once, before everything went black.

---

Coren’s eyes shot open, and it was all he could do to not retch.
Of course, he would’ve done it if it weren’t for Hanako shaking him like a…
…Damn, too nauseous for a bad joke.
“Move.” His command was firm enough to get Hanako to slide away, and he leaped up to the window.
As he ruined some random Suna-nin’s perfectly good, not-vomit covered set of clothes, Coren wondered if Gaara was finally awake.
“…Thank you, Keitaro,” was his answer.
After Coren pulled away from the balcony, he turned to look at the red-head.
“Y’know, you pull of the teenager look a lot better than the six-year-old one.” Gaara frowned.
“…I suppose I do.” Coren felt his face to make sure his mask was still there.
Yup; that’s good. Wouldn’t want Hanako seeing his smile.
“…Hey, don’t go fighting just for her, okay?” he asked, now all serious. “She isn’t the only one who cares about you.”
Coren gestured to Temari.
“She’s the only reason I came here; she cares about you a lot. You need to fight to protect everyone you care about from pain, not just one. Understand?”
Gaara nodded.
“Of course. I think I finally understand what my existence means, thanks to you.” Coren chuckled.
“Just promise me to stop going on murder sprees, and we’re even.”
“Agreed,” Gaara said, completely serious.
“…Remind me to teach you about sarcasm,” he said.
“I recognize your attempts at humor; I just do not find them entertaining.”
“…That stings, man.”
With that, he turned to Temari.
“Hey, you.”
Said sandy-blond turned to him.
“Take care of this idiot, alright? I gave him back the will to live, but he’s still got a lot to learn.”
Temari nodded, but didn’t really take her eyes off Gaara.
“Alright then; that leaves only one thing left to do.”
Coren now turned to Hanako.
“I’m sor-”
He was cut off as she slammed her fist into Coren’s crotch with enough force that the sound of bone shattering could be heard throughout the entire village.
Coren blacked out instantly.
Hanako wiped the tears out of her eyes.
“You ASSHOLE!!!”
If Coren didn’t have instant regeneration, he wouldn’t have survived that attack.

Meanwhile, in Coren’s mind.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! SWEET MOTHER OF RAPTOR JESUS, MY GOD DAMN BAAAAAAALLS!!”

---

Kushina’s POV

It had been around five minutes since Hanako and Coren came back, and around seven since you got to the hotel room.
Hanako had obviously been crying for some reason, and she’d carried in an unconscious Coren, the only explanation for him being out like a light-bulb that exploded violently being “He pissed me off.”
Kushina wouldn’t touch that subject with a fifteen-yard pole.
She’d taken Lilligant and the unconscious one to the bathroom, saying something about how Coren needed to be treated.
Once again, fifteen-yard pole.
According to the messenger that came in a minute after Hanako had come back, the mission had been completed already, and that meant that they could spend up to a month on vacation here in Suna, since they weren’t expected back in Konoha for that long.
Besides the whole thing with Coren, this couldn’t have gone better. The group was even invited to have dinner with the Kazekage himself, right after Coren recovers!
Kushina’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a muffled scream came from inside the bathroom.
Something about how things weren’t supposed to expand to the size of basketballs upon impact, then Lilligant saying to calm down, and that ice and regeneration would make everything fine.
“…Fifteen-yard pole, Kushina. Fifteen-yard pole,” she muttered to herself.
This was going to be a long mission.

---

The remainder of the night had been so extraordinarily uncomfortable that nobody could even make a quip about Coren’s condition.
Seriously, Hanako spent the remainder of the entire day huddled up in a blanket on her bed, silent as the grave.
Coren was also taken to a hospital, and oddly enough, he’d had to leave with a towel wrapped around his waist. Kushina had almost asked, but when Lilligant answered it before she did with ‘it’s to hide the swelling’ she shut up and didn’t think of it any longer.
A wise choice.
Neither Lilligant or Coren returned that night, and Hanako had taken all of the fun in the air, murdered it, ripped out its entrails, and then burned it all to cinders before tossing it down the River Styx, never to be heard of forever-more.
That meant that she and Jacob were stuck sitting there in silence for the entire day and night, unable to say a damn thing in fear that Hanako would gut them for making the slightest sound.
Hell, Kushina couldn’t even go to the god damn bathroom out of fear of ticking her off! Even she couldn’t hospitalize Coren, so what the Hell did she do to him!? And how could she keep it from happening to her!?
Finally, around the mid-afternoon of their second day there, Hanako finally left the confines of her bed, saying that she was going out for a walk.
As the door closed behind her, it felt like a 600-pound weight had been lifted off Kushina and Jacob’s backs, and the red-head took advantage of this.
“ItwasfunbutIhaveplacestobe!” she said, fast as a gunshot, before leaping out of the window.
Hanako would come back eventually, and she did not want to be there for it.
That left Jacob all by his lonesome, with one person avoiding him, one person he probably shouldn’t want to go talk to, another person who, if Jacob’s ears served correctly, had testicles swelling to the size of basketballs and still growing, and finally, a slightly crazy nurse with an even crazier protector.
That gave him several choices.

[] Go meet Coren and Lilligant at the hospital
[] Find Hanako and talk to her
[] Track down Kushina and chat
[] Go out into town and have some actual fun
[] Get your lazy ass back in bed and sleep off your existence

Choose your path. Or don’t. Real men make their own paths through destiny. These’re just suggestions.

Unedited:

[X] Track down Kushina and chat

I quickly ran through my choices.
There was no way I was going to the hospital. I had good enough ears to pick up on what Lilligant said in the bathroom, and I don't even want to have the chance of seeing Coren in his state. That would be agonizing to just see.
Hanako... She's kind of scaring me right now. I don't know what Coren did to her, but whatever it was, I didn't want to be the one who handled the repercussions.
The last teammate of mine that I could follow was Kushina; the demon teacher from Hell. Somehow, the idea of following her didn't seem to enjoyable.
With all that in mind, I headed out to the town. At least I'd be able to see if there's anything (or anyone) important enough around here to tell the group about.

You chose:

[] Go meet Coren and Lilligant at the hospital (Why Coren is insane)
[] Find Hanako and talk to her (Why Hanako's acting like this)
[] Track down Kushina and chat (A conversation with the Yondaime)
[X] Go out into town and have some actual fun (REDACTED)
[] Get your lazy ass back in bed and sleep off your existence (This option was a joke. If you had chosen this, I'd've slapped you.)

Alrighty. Now that you know what the other choices were, let's get on with this story.
And yes, that does mean that I created five separate timelines. No, I’m not writing them all down for future reference.
…I’m not!

---

You left the hotel room. When you get outside, there are a variety of shops and things nearby. Which do you go to?

[X] The Pub (Chosen in Chatbox)

You make your way to the pub. Genin were technically allowed to drink, being adults, right?
DM’s warning: Drinking is a test of Endurance. If you flub up a drinking roll, then you will get drunk, and I will make it embarrassing.

Chatbox Logs:

Let us begin our game, then.

You walk into the bar. It's a pretty standard place; it isn't overly well-kept, but it's definitely better than you'd expect. There were, like, no broken glass in or around the bar.
As you walk up, the barkeep speaks up.
"Another ninja, huh? Y'must be one of 'em genin from Konoha. What can I do ya for?"
You make a smart decision, and go with the weakest booze available.
"Playing it safe, eh?" The barkeep nods, though a few snickers are heard from around the bar. "Here; this un's on the house, since this'll 'prolly be one of many."
You down it fairly quickly.

Endurance Check: 9
Necessary: 5
Check Passed.
+1 Endurance (At thread end)

You gesture for him to bring another drink. He's about to get another of these 'apple-tini's, but you ask for something a smidgen stronger.
He hands you some beer.
"Don't go spillin' yer guts on my bar, kid."
You down the drink.

Endurance Check: 20
Necessary: 10
Check Passed.
+3 Endurance (At thread end)

You blink.
That was stronger, but not by much. Maybe it was just a bad mug?
...Meh.
You call for another one of the weak ones.
The barkeep nods.
"Better safe 'n sorry, eh?"
You down what he hands you.

Endurance Check: 1
Necessary: 5
Check Failed.
+1 Endurance (At thread end)

You feel that one hit harder than the rest.
...The barkeep's right. Better safe than sorry.
You tell him that' enough. You aren't here to get drunk, after all.
He nods. He was used to handling on-the-job ninja, so that wasn't too much of a shocker to him.
"Alright then."
He turns away from you, servicing another customer.

Results:

You look around the room, keeping an eye out for any notable ninja.
Probably due to it being the middle of the day, there were only three people here, not including yourself and the barkeep.
There was the person who you'd sat next without noticing. She had shoulder-length brown hair and seemed the closest to your age. She had the standard shinobi gear on, though she didn't have the Chunin flak jacket; she was a genin. She was swirling a drink; it wasn't any of the drinks you would've chosen, but if you had to guess, it's that one between beer and appletini in terms of strength.
The second person was a male. He had brown hair like the girl next to you, but his was much shorter; it was all of an inch or two long. He was a shinobi too, but he had a chunin jacket on. He had a beer in hand that he hadn't taken a sip of since you walked in.
The third person was another girl, though she was blond with hair that goes down to the small of her back. She was sitting way in the back, in a booth. She was looking away absentmindedly outside, like she was deep in thought. She had shinobi equipment on (do ALL ninja here drink?) and was wearing a flak jacket. The drink in her hand was an appletini; either she's a lightweight, or she isn't here to drink heavy.
That leaves you with three choices. Which do you choose, and how do you approach them?

[] Brown-haired girl who knows the barkeep
[] Contemplative blond looking out the window
[] Brown-haired chunin guy, not drinking

[] Brown-haired girl who knows the barkeep
[X] Contemplative blond looking out the window
[] Brown-haired chunin guy, not drinking

Unedited:

I decided to talk to the blond. She seemed to be pretty deep in thought, though, so I wasn't sure if it was a good idea. I walked over and sat across from her, sitting patiently as I looked the other way. I wouldn't want to interrupt her thoughts or anything.

DM's Notes: You are beta to Nth degree. Just saiyan.

After three minutes straight of waiting, you end up sneezing, dragging the blond out of her thoughts. "Oh, damn," she said, her eyes widening. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"A few minutes, I was waiting for you to finish you thought before I said anything. Unfortunately my body betrayed me, sorry bout that." I finished with a smile.

She nodded, though she still seemed a bit absent-minded.
"...Hey, do you mind if I borrow your ears for a moment?" she asked, looking out the window again. "I think I need someone to listen to my thoughts. Just thinking 'em doesn't seem to be helping."

"Shoot, I been through a lot of stuff the past few days so what ever you want to say, say"

She nods.
"I have this friend who was on a missions," she started out, though she quickly went quiet.
"...That sounds just as stupid as it does in movies." She shook her head. "I went on a mission a few days ago. It was an escort mission; shouldn't have been too hard. I had another chunin backing me up, so I felt pretty confident that it'd be finished fast."
She sighed.
"We failed the mission. Hard. We got attacked, and our mark died, we were beaten into unconsciousness, all of the supplies our mark was carrying were stolen, and if it weren't for a Suna jonin out patrolling at the time, we wouldn't have survived."
She sighed again, leaning into the back of her seat.
"The problem is this; when I failed the mission, the only thing I could think about was that my chances at reaching jonin were screwed."
She brought her drink to her lips, drinking a small bit.
"It took me three days after that to realize that I cared more about my career than I did the person who died because I failed, the supplies stolen from those that need them, and a group of merciless murderous marauders nearby."
She scratched the back of her head.
"The biggest problem?" she said, turning back to Jacob. "I still don't care. I've had three beers, four of these... Whatever they are, and a mug of Firebrand, and the only thing that's changed is that I think I might've been checking out the brown-haired girl at the bar several times. I'm not sure. My eyesight's kinda blurry."
At the mention of them, she wiped away at her eyes.
"...That's probably just the booze. Anyway, as it turns out, I have no moral compass whatsoever, and that worries me more than the fact that somebody died because of me. You said you've been through a lot of stuff recently; any of it give you any advice for me?"

"Well all I can think of is, keep training, keep working towards your goal and if someone dies because you couldn't help them well, help anyone who know the person and learn from your mistakes so it doesn't happen again. In the case of your moral compass you'll want to ask my friend about that cause I've got nothing.

The blond frowned.
"Real help there, guy."
She sighed, resting her forehead in her hand.
"The problem isn't that I failed at protecting someone, it's that I've always been told that as long as I stick to my morals, everything'll be fine; I guess they just forgot to take into account that I don't have any!"
She downed the rest of the drink, a look of distaste on her face.
"Great, now I'm angry, and I don't even have any reason to be. Just great."
She put her glass on the table, obviously resisting the urge to smash it.
"Any other bits of advice, White-Eyes?"

"Well the only thing I can think of is, with or with out a moral compass you can still be a good ninja, maybe not a morally good ninja but a good ninja never the less. I don't see why not having a moral compass would make you any less of a ninja."

"Well, maybe I want to have a moral compass!" She leaned forward, the anger apparent on her face. "Maybe I don't want to be a good ninja; maybe I just want to know right from wrong!"
She brings her hands to her face, massaging her temples.
"Y'know what, white-eyes? I hope you never become a psychiatrist. This has been, without doubt, the worst conversation that I have ever been in."
She sighed.
"Barkeep, bring me a bottle of Firebrand."
The barkeep sighed.
"Yes ma'am."
He went to go grab it as the blond turned back to Jacob.
"Now, I'm going to drink myself into a coma, which, hopefully, will help me sleep off the moral ambiguity. That makes absolutely no sense but, for some unknown reason," she said sarcastically, "I don't care. Just get out."
Her hostile tone mixed with how drunk she was made you beat a hasty retreat.
You messed that up pretty bad.

Results:

After that unfortunate occurrence, you notice that, with the amount of time you spent in the bar, it was probably best to leave.
The fact that the chunin over there was also about to get unbelievably drunk and probably try to beat you into a coma when she is also helps you make this choice.
You leave the pub, only to find someone you weren't quite expecting in the middle of the street.
"Yo, what's up Ghost-Eyes?" Coren asked, smiling a bit. Even more surprising than the fact that he was here was the fact that he had pants on, and that they fit. "Heard you got a pretty low score in the last minigame, and I'm here to break the 4th wall just long enough to tell you what you did wrong."
Coren stepped forward.
"You tried to convince her that having a moral compass was fine, but that's not what she wanted to hear. She wanted you to tell her that that having a moral compass would only get her killed in the most painful, agonizing way possible. She doesn't care if it costs other people their lives; that's kinda the problem. But she does care about herself. That means if you'd convinced the selfish part of her that a moral compass is bad, the rest would've quickly followed; the booze certainly would've helped that."
Coren scratched the back of his head.
"Anyway, now it's probably best we pretend like this never happened. The DM wouldn't be too happy if we started metagaming."
Damn straight I wouldn't.
"With that," Coren said, shuddering at the reverberating voice within his skull, "We should head back home. I've got to talk to Hanako, and you, Lilligant, and Kushina need to hear the story behind my hospitalization. You ready to go home?"

"Yeah, I most likely should not become a psychiatrist. On a completely different note, how did you get out of the hospital, and are you sure you should be talking to Hanako? She did nail your balls so I heard."

"Trust me, her nailing me wouldn't have ended this badly for anybody," he muttered. "It's because I really need to apologize for the stuff I did. And how did I get out? You'd be amazed how well my healing factor works. Any other questions, before we head back?"

"Nope, any questions I have you will not answer until every body is around."

Coren nodded.
"Alright then; let's head out."
He started walking, but paused for a moment.
"...Actually, I have a question." He turned and looked at Jacob. "Have you ever thought you knew everything about something, but then somebody tells you that everything you've ever learned doesn't even begin to scratch the surface?"

"Nope... So are we going to go get our ass kicked sometime soon by Hanako, or are we going to keep on delaying the inevitable?"

Coren frowned.
"... I suppose we should head out."

---

...You are a bit of an idiot for not asking about why Coren just said what he did. I'm just saying.

---

Coren arrived at the hotel room with Jacob, knocking lightly on the door.
Hanako opened the door, making eye contact with the former for a short moment.
Surprisingly enough, Coren didn't flinch or back away, and Hanako didn't make any motion to slap him.
"Yo," Coren said, his tone relaxed.
"Finally out of the hospital, eh?" She opened the door all the way, letting the duo in. "Sorry 'bout that."
"Don't be," he responded calmly, walking in. "Let's just not talk about the nut-shot heard around the world."
"Deal."
With that, Coren leaped into the air, did a somersault, then landed on one of the four beds, only to bounce off of it into another, and then another, and then land on the one furthest away.
"...I love these beds," he said calmly, contrasting his grin.
"I know, right?" Kushina asked, jumping into their conversation. "I mean, they're so comfortable!"
Coren turned to her, glaring.
"I may have forgiven Hanako for hospitalizing me, but I still haven't forgiven you."
"Damn it..." she muttered.
Lilligant sighed, showing that she, too, was in the room.
"Umm... Everybody?" she said hesitantly. "I think Coren has something to say."
She looked at the black-haired boy, who muttered something that sounded a lot like 'traitor'.
"Yeah, I do." He sat up, scratching the back of his head. "Tell me... What do you all know of the Bijuu?"
Coren first looked at Jacob.
"You first."

They are very powerful and Garra has one. That's about it i'm afraid.

Coren nodded.
"Hanako?"
She shrugged.
"I only know that they're supposed to be Demon Lords."
Coren nodded again.
"Lilligant?"
Another shrug.
"I know that they are chakra constructs, and that you can seal them into humans. Anything else, and you'd have to ask a jinchuriki."
"That's the plan," Coren said calmly, turning to Kushina. "So... Do you want to talk about your tenant, or should we talk to Gaara about his?"
Kushina's jaw tightened.
"How did you figure it out?"
"The jinchuriki is always part of the Kage's family; it's some sort of tradition," Coren said calmly, standing. "The First Hokage's wife, the Second Hokage's step-sister, the Fourth Raikage's brother, the Fourth Kazekage's son," Coren listed off. "They're all jinchuriki."
Coren stood up, scratching the back of his head.
"It also doesn't help that you're quite well known as the ANBU operative known as 'Fox'."
Kushina frowned.
"I guess I need to work on keeping a lid on my identity, huh?"
Coren chuckled.
"Maybe making a lid in the first place would be a good start. In any case, what can you tell us about your nine-tailed tenant?"
She sighed.
"Not much. It's not the talkative type."
Coren nodded.
"Alright, second question; who here recognizes the children's story 'Akumagakure's Fall'?"
Nobody could honestly say they'd heard of it. Kushina said as such.
"Can't say I have. What's it to do with the Bijuu?"
Coren sighed.
"It's a pretty simple story. After the Sage of Six Paths defeated the Juubi, Ten-Tails, his children were set loose upon the world. Their first target was what is now referred to as 'All Ends Crater', and was once the Hidden Village of the Demons; a land where a group of nuke-nin, traitors, had made a village. It was a haven to those who didn't wish to live under the rule of the leaders of other lands.
"In the toned down, civilian kid's story, the Bijuu were defeated by the Rikudou Sennin, and everybody lived happily ever after. In the story told to trained ninja, they don't mince words; Akumagakure was there at 6:00 A.M., and at 6:05 A.M., there was nothing but a massive crater in the Earth."
Coren looked over the group, his point starting to sink in. Nuke-nin tended to be A-Class ninja, and an entire village of them was said to be obliterated in five minutes.
"They say that a single person escaped that day; a woman by the name of Satsuki Uzumaki. She was the mother of Uzushiogakure's founder, and Kushina Uzumaki's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother."
At that, Kushina's eyes widened.
"How didn't I hear of that!? I've looked over every entry in the Hokage's archives, and I've never heard of any Satsuki!" she yelled.
"Calm down; I'll get to that soon enough," Coren responded softly.
She seemed to calm down for a moment.
"Anyway, as I was saying, Satsuki escaped, with child born from her husband. She later died at the age of 96, which is rather young for an Uzumaki, who can live up to 150 before looking like a normal 45-year-old. Her son, Arashi Uzumaki, was told the story many times as a child, and he was told how the Bijuu could never be killed permanently, only sealed away in a human. They say that Uzumaki Mito, your grandmother, Kushina, was the first jinchuriki, but those who say that were wrong. The very first jinchuriki was actually Satsuki Uzumaki's husband; the Sage of Six Paths."
Kushina was the only one not surprised at the fact that the Rikudou Sennin was a jinchuriki. That might be because she was absolutely dumb-founded that she was related to the Sage of Six Paths.
"Now, as you'll all remember, the Rikudou Sennin supposedly had two children; the Uchiha, and the Senju. To the Uchiha he gifted his eyes, from which the Sharingan was born. The Byakugan is an off-shoot of that. The Senju gained his pure chakra, the ability to use the Mokuton, and the ability to control Bijuu.
"But to his third child, the bastard son born from the body of a jinchuriki, was given the power of the Bijuu; incredible regeneration, long life-spans, and chakra levels that would make any Kage drool. This made the Uzumaki the perfect candidates for holding the Bijuu within them; that's why the Kyuubi, the strongest Bijuu of all, has always been contained in a Uzumaki; because any other human would never survive. Their resistance to the demonic chakra is even more powerful than that of the Senju, because while they have pure chakra, the chakra of an Uzumaki is demonic."
Kushina's teeth ground together audibly. She probably took that as an insult.
"It's why Uzushiogakure was razed to the ground. The stories tell that it was because of their incredible skill in fuuinjutsu, sealing, but that was only what people used as an excuse. An entire village of demi-demons with the powers of seals would be able to take over the entire planet, but another trait that Uzumakis tend to share is a love of life."
Kushina calmed down a bit. She took that as a compliment? Weird.
"They never began a war; they had defeated many an army, but they never started conflict. Finally, though, something came and tore them apart. The survivors of Uzushiogakure say that it was an incredible army, one filled with ninja with more power than even their Kage could match. But these weren't ninja," Coren said, frowning deeply. "These were the Hanyuu."
Kushina flinched.
"...It said that name, once," she murmured. "The Kyuubi said that if I ever meet one, that I should run."
"Then he was being smart," Coren responded. "Hanyuu are not human; at least, not completely. A demi-demon like an Uzumaki are humans with demonic energy. Hanyuu, however, are half-demons trained in Hell."
"That's... Not possible," Hanako said, trying her best to keep track of all the knowlege-nukes Coren was bombing her with. "Hell can't be escaped; Shinigami makes sure of that."
"Shinigami isn't the only god," Coren stated. "There are four; Shinigami, god of death, is but one. The other three don't have names, but they rule over life, chaos, and order. As far as I know, the god of chaos has only shown himself twice in history; the first time was when he came down from his perch in the skies and showed mankind the meaning of truest despair; from that day forward, he was known as Jashin. The second time was when he led the forces that destroyed Uzushiogakure."
"Why would he destroy the village?" Lilligant asked politely. "I mean, wouldn't the god of chaos like a village of demons?"
"Demi-demons," Coren corrected. "And no; he despises demi-demons because they gain their power through their blood, not through their own strengths. He is the god who champions those who would defeat the strong with skills they themselves learned, rather than with a pair of magic ocular organs, or with powerful chakra coils. People like Rock Lee, who was born without working chakra coils yet still became so powerful are the kind that he likes."
"But why destroy the village?"
"They were a threat," Coren stated simply. "You would think that a world-war would be something Jashin would like, but instead, he saw it in the long-run. It would last maybe a few decades, but then the Uzumaki would rule this world, and then no chaos would remain; only an unending reign of order. Such a thing is unnatural; even the goddess of order agreed that a balance struck because of fear and death was not one that could be allowed. And so, the Hanyuu led the attack on Uzushiogakure, and they were almost annihilated. However, all of the gods had agreed that no matter what happened, they were never to exterminate any of the three bloodlines born from the Rikudou Sennin. This led to them sparing three Uzumakis; one man, and two women. Uzumaki Mito was one of them, and the other two, for all we know, died in a ditch somewhere.
"Now, I'm sure you're wondering what this all has to do with the point I'm getting to," Coren said.
"Ah-DUH," Kushina said.
Coren glared at her a bit. "The point is that according to Shukaku, I'm a Hanyuu."
Kushina's breath hitched.
"Yup, that's me," Coren said with a sigh. "I'm apparently a half-demon, though how, I have no idea. According to good 'ol Ichibi, the first possibility is that both of my parents were Hanyuu and somehow I was separated from them, or that somehow, before I was old enough to remember it, I absorbed the energy of a demon somehow. The first seems more plausible to me, to be quite honest."
Coren looked over his team, checking out their reactions.
They were pretty much what he expected; shock and confusion.
Except for from Lilligant.
"I always knew you were odd, but I can't say I was expecting that," she said plainly.
"You... Aren't surprised?" Hanako asked, dumb-founded.
"Hanako, if I let Coren surprise me every time he said or did something completely unbelievable, then I would have my face permanently locked in a shocked expression. Seriously, this isn't nearly as bad as the time that he described to me the top 364 ways to kill a person using only a tooth-pick, a soldering iron, and a plastic flip-flop. The graphic description about how he'd shove the flip-flop so far up the opponent's ass that it ruptured his organs and dented his skull was a bit shocking, coming from an 11-year-old."
As she said that, Hanako noticed that he'd pulled a flip-flop seemingly out of nowhere, and was now toying around with it absent-mindedly.
"In any case," he said, throwing the flip-flop out the window as a cat screeched, "I think this's something that we need a second opinion on. The idea that I'm a half-demon is... Rather disconcerting. It would mean that, for my species, I'm actually normal. Take that into account; an entire species of me. Isn't that terrifying?"
Hanako shuddered, and Kushina reflexively hissed, scooting away from him quickly.
"...I feel like I should take offense to your reactions," he said, looking between the two girls. "Oh, by the way... I sort of... Did something."
Lilligant frowned, glaring at the boy.
"Oh no. I know that tone. I swear, if this is anything like the time you got Anko to have sex with Kurenai, I'm going to beat you."
Coren stepped back.
There were very few things Coren feared.
An angry Lilligant was one of them.
"No, no; it's nothing like that!" Coren said, raising his hands defensively. "Besides, it's not my fault Anko went through with it! Blame Kurenai and her hot body!"
"That's not helping your case!" Lilligant yelled, before palming her face. "Just... What did you do?"
Coren sighed, scratching the back of his head.
"I, uh... May, or may not have accidentally developed a fan-club here in Suna."
"That's not too bad-"
"I may have also accidentally gotten Gaara's sister in it..."
"...How did you even do that?"
"Well, you know that walk I went on after we left the hospital?"
Lilligant nodded.
"...I might have gone to chat with her."
Lilligant frowned.
"Damnit Coren, what did I tell you?"
"To turn my swag off every night so I don't wake up covered in women? And a toaster?"
She gave Coren her best 'da faq' face.
"When did I EVER say that!?"
"..." Coren just kept quiet.
"I told you not to go talk to her! I knew this would happen!"
"Yeah, but telling me not to talk to her is like saying 'don't press the big red button', or 'don't look down'! You know damn well that nobody can resist!"
Lilligant looked at the ceiling, silently screaming as she started pulling her hair.
"You already have a big enough fan-club in Konoha, thanks to you pulling all those stunts! Why can't I take you anywhere without you turning women on!?"
"I'm just too damn awesome! I can't turn off my swag!"
Hanako looked at the two of them, shock clearly adorning her face as they continue their argument about how Coren needs to learn how to stop making women hot and bothered.
"...How can those two possibly be yelling at each other about sex appeal when we just learned that he's part demon?"
Kushina just stared blankly at the two arguing individuals, holding something in her hands.
"...Is that a camera?"
"You have no idea how much his fan club pays for this stuff," she said, her laughter nearly exploding from her gut.
"My swag can't be contained!" Coren yelled out at his red-headed mother-figure. "It's like a sword of steel tempered in the pits of Hell itself; there exists no sheath that I can slam my blade into that can stop my burning energy!"
The floodgates have fallen.
Kushina's eyes filled with tears as she started laughing, her entire body convulsing as her guffaws racked through her. She laughed until her stomach hurt, then until she began to cry, all the while recording everything else that Coren said, from the innocent 'That's not what I meant!' up until she passed out from laughing so hard, when she heard him say "My swag can not be contaaaaaained!" and he comically jumped out the window, only to bounce clean off of it and onto the bed.
Hanako stared blankly as this all happened.
Lilligant was yelling at a twelve-year-old for being too hot for desert ninja to handle, her substitute teacher just passed out from lack of airflow due to laughing so hard, and her strongest teammate just lost a fight with a window.
It's this level of absurdity that just made her look over her life, climb into her bed, and inject herself with enough sedatives to knock her out instantly.
Lilligant then sat down next to Jacob, Coren now being too busy holding his bleeding nose after his run-in (more like run-into) with the window to continue their discussion.
"So...," she said said calmly. "How's the weather?"
Hanako suddenly started screaming and ran herself through a wall.
Lilligant's eyes widened, looking at her.
"Weirdo," she said calmly, before turning back to Jacob and Coren. "So, where were we? Something about your tempered swag?"
And nobody ate dinner that night.

This thread has been concluded.
A crimson dawn has sunk below the black dusk. Many questions are answered, but far more questions arise.

The day began like many others; with breakfast. Following that, however, was what separated this day from all preceding ones.
Kushina Uzumaki had told them she was their new trainer, and began to show them her usual routine.
Standing beneath a waterfall, climbing it with one arm tied behind your back, and avoiding her strikes, and with Coren, all three of these at once.
His pride led to a steep fall, both literally and metaphorically. The boy, once thought unbeatable, is beaten so badly that he was incapable of movement, and his teammates had to carry him home.
The day that followed was filled only with more agony as their training continued, but Kushina told the team of what the next day would contain.
They started their mission upon the dawn; a mission to Sunagakure to find out the problem with their jinchuriki, Gaara no Subaku, with Coren's lifetime friend and psychologist, Lilligant assisting them.
Coren and Hanako are taken to the demon container while the other three team-members head to the hotel at which they will be staying.
The first group takes a venture into the mind of Gaara, into a desert extending outwards into eternity, where they meet the Ichibi no Tanuki, Shukaku. Thought to be a merciless, destructive beast, she is nothing but a powerful mother, protecting her child from anything that could harm him.
Coren forces Hanako and Temari from the battle, choosing now to release Restriction 367 again and letting Nightmare roam once more.
The battle drags on for an unimaginable amount of time, until finally, Gaara appears within his own mind, and the battle concludes.
Coren understands Shukaku's motivations now. He tells Gaara not to fight for the validation of one's self, but for the protection of those around him, and leaves the boy's mind.
He is then hospitalized due to Hanako's outrage at what Coren knew to be on-par with a suicide attempt, and left for home.
Jacob then took center-stage, heading to the local bar to see if he can't do much.
He quickly meets a girl sitting there in the back of the pub, staring mindfully out the window, and asks her her problems.
Unfortunately, due to asking all the wrong questions, he is met only with outrage as she shoos him away, seeking solace not in others, but in powerful spirits.
He then left, returning home alongside Coren, where he explains many things, from the destruction of Uzushiogakure, to who he truly is.
Hanyuu; half-demons. What does this spell out for the group? A darkness rests within Coren, but what is it? What is Nightmare, and where does he come from?
These answers can only be found by tuning in next time, on www.TNTNaruUzu.forumotion.com

Bonuses:
Drinking Game: +5 Endurance [Jacob]
Bar Game: -50% EXP [Jacob]
Completed a Thread: +5 EXP (Jacob), +10 EXP (Coren)
Kushina's Training - Jacob: +5 Speed, +5 Acrobatics, +5 Luck [Jacob]
Kushina's Training - Coren: +5 Acrobatics, +5 Endurance, +5 Chakra Control [Coren]
Defeated the Ichibi no Tanuki: +25 EXP (Coren), +13 EXP (Jacob) +10 Earth Elem. Mani (All)