Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Of Wolves And Roses
Of Wolves and Roses:
Chapter 15: The Blood on our hands
“If one saw the carnage that day they would have assumed there had been a war in that small house.” Kyoshiro laughed as he backhanded his brother through a tree. “Our father put up quite a fight, considering how weak he was. Not to mention old. I assumed he would have died quicker but n-”
“SHUT UP!” Shenyo replied as he swung his sword and nearly cut his brothers cheek. Kyoshiro lashed out with his hands which he’d morphed into his usual claws, while the rest remained unchanged. Shenyo blocked, spun and swung for his older brother’s throat. Kyoshiro leaned back a fraction of an inch, dodging the blade and ducking low for a sweep kick. As Shenyo fell off the tree branch he pulled out a kunai with an explosion note on it and threw it into the branch his brother was standing on. The note exploded as soon as it hit.
Shenyo caught a branch and spun up onto it as he watched the smoke with his sword raised up by his head. With anxiety in his stomach he watched in suspense as the cloud of smoke cleared and the last flaming bits of tree fell from the place his brother had been. With a sigh Shenyo began lowering his sword when he heard a low whistle directly to his right. “Some explosion, huh? Hey, whatcha looking for?” Kyoshiro asked, as he looked to his left to smile casually at Shenyo’s sword. Shenyo thrust the sword at his brother’s throat. Before the blade made contact the branch was severed, dropping Shenyo again towards the ground. As he fell he threw a kunai with an explosion note again. Kyoshiro came flying down, through the explosion, as he screamed. “You think I’ll fall for that old gambit? Don’t mock me!” Shenyo smiled and thrust his sword up as he was caught by the net of strings tied to kunai, shuriken and senbon that he’d created several minutes before. Kyoshiro’s eyes widened as he finally saw the trap. “HELLS ARROW!” He yelled as he swiped out his claws. Shenyo only barely managed to get his sword up in time to stop a certain death. He and his brother started falling rapidly to the ground.
Kyoshiro laughed. “Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Father revealed the secrets of his techniques to me with his last breaths. You’d’ve been proud!” Shenyo sighed, tired of his brother’s mockery. With a grace only a Vamp-nin could accomplish he caught a branch with his legs and flipped away from his brother as he slid along the ground.
“Are you done talking shit? Cause it’s time to spit blood.” Shenyo said, cold creeping in on his senses. His vampire powers were awakening. But Kyoshiro saw it too. He phased and came flying at Shenyo with a speed he had no hope of matching. That was when he saw it, a black arrow flying through the brush. The arrow pinned Kyoshiro’s arm to a tree. “What the…?” Shenyo mumbled before he noticed what exactly was going on.
Senra, Kato, Yahiko, and Nita all landed in the clearing, armed. Senra had his sword on his back and was holding a pitch black bow in his left hand. When Senra landed the bow disappeared and he fell forward with a groan. “Dang… I used too much chakra… I’m almost empty…” Senra mumbled as he started to stand with the help of Yahiko. Yahiko sheathed her tanto sword when she picked Senra up. Kato and Nita both stood with a kunai in a white knuckled fist. Nita’s face was a mask of fear and worry, Kato's was a mask of anger.
Shenyo assessed the damage to himself as he turned to face his brother. He was missing his left arm. “Guess I can’t play guitar anymore…” He mumbled. He glanced at his brother and saw him fighting against the black arrow in his shoulder. Releasing a series of howls and snarls Shenyo knew were curses, Kyoshiro strained against the arrow pinning him to the tree. Shenyo’s hair fizzled as it turned from red to snow-white from roots to tips. “Let me show you a TRUE Hell’s Arrow, brother.” He said as he took a step forward, his strength causing the air to cackle around him. His hair floated up from the shear pressure of his strength. There was a horrible grinding noise as Senra walked up with his sword in hand. He twisted the handle and yanked down. The matter the blade was made of seemed to waver before it darkened and then shrunk to half its original length. The portion that was created by spreading the handle looked like a muscle and when Senra shoved his left palm against the bottom it flexed and spread enough to show one of Seiichi’s (the demon in Senra’s sword) eyes. Strong chakra emanated from both of them. Kyoshiro merely growled as he closed a clawed hand around the arrow, causing it to fizzle out. He let the long brown hair fall from his grasp as he stood to his full height, not bothering to play dead anymore. ‘What the… that arrow was a strand of Yahiko’s hair? How peculiar…’ Shenyo focused his thoughts back to the matter at hand and assessed Senra’s chakra level. He gauged that Senra had enough to perform a double hells arrow with him. “Let’s do it. You ready Senra?” Senra nodded and they both charged.
“HELL’S ARROW!” They cried as Kyoshiro charged straight at it. He went to jump over the advance but Yahiko had been included in the plan.
“Kill, Sho-Ten-Bo!” As she cried her attack out, her tanto grew to a length of 20 feet, knocking Kyoshiro out of the air. There was a loud boom that filled the air for a good time before the dust settled showing Senra on one knee breathing hard, and Shenyo standing beside him. Kyoshiro was lying on the ground groaning. He got up and growled at Shenyo.
“I’ll kill you for this injustice, brother!” The wolf snarled the word as though it were acid to his tongue. He moved quicker than Senra could follow and kicked him square in the chest, sending him skidding to a halt just in front of Yahiko. Kyoshiro laughed as he disappeared from sight and reappeared behind Yahiko. With another mocking laugh he backhanded her in the head and spun to throw a kick into Kato’s chest as he charged forward.
They both collapsed, leaving only Nita, who was frozen with fear, Senra, who was now completely empty on chakra, and Shenyo who was pissed and only growing stronger with every passing second. The hair on Senra’s neck stood on end when he saw Kyoshiro march out to greet his brother’s attack. They fought like only two people who hate each other more than anything could. Senra stumbled to his feet and took up a stance to protect Yahiko, who lay behind him.
Before Senra’s mind could register what his eyes couldn’t fathom, Kyoshiro disappeared and Shenyo stood, his long sleeve dress shirt open and flowing in the wind, with his leg in the air and his remaining hand in his pocket. “That’s it? Stupid mutt! You should know your place.” Shenyo’s vampire side had taken full control and was proceeding to throw insults at the werewolf, who as of yet was still missing. There was a loud thud as Kyoshiro landed, growling behind Shenyo. The wolf’s fur was no longer grey but the same shade as Shenyo’s hair. He disappeared again and reappeared holding Shenyo by his throat against a tree. “Honestly? You’re going to choke a vampire to death? You really are dumber than you look, you know.” Shenyo said as he punched his brother’s shoulder, tearing the bones out of their sockets with a vicious snap.
Kyoshiro howled and released his vampire brother. He was rewarded with a swift kick to the face, sending him flying through the branches over head. Before he could be brought down by gravity, though, Shenyo had made it into the tree tops behind him and kicked him in the back of the head, sending him flying to the ground.
Kyoshiro hit the ground with an explosive boom and, before he could get up, several long, red tendrils shot from Shenyo’s severed arm and impaled Kyoshiro. “You don’t know what you’re doing brother! You must hear me out!” Kyoshiro cried, right before he was torn asunder by Shenyo’s blood.
“Know your place.” Shenyo snarled before dropping to the ground and picking up his arm and beginning to reattach it with his blood. “In a vampire blood becomes a living entity, its own imitation of life, of power. This is the ultimate power of the Nosferatu blood line.” Shenyo’s hair faded back to red as he finished the healing. “Nita?” He asked gently, trying not to scare her. He was approaching her as one would a stray that had just seen you kick another. She glared at him, angry that he would treat her as such. He misread. “Nita, love? It’s okay, don’t be afraid…”
She looked at Senra, giving him a quizzical look, to which he nodded with a smile. The second Shenyo was in range, she belted him across the face as hard as she could. “HOW DARE YOU WORRY ME LIKE THAT!?” She cried, losing control of the tears in her eyes. “I thought I was going to LOSE you! Do you have an inkling of how bad that would have hurt? I NEVER would have got over it, Shenyo, I love you!”
Shenyo sighed as he took her into his arms. “I know, and I’m sorry. I love you too.” He nestled his face to the top of her head and sniffed. He loved the way she smelled, talked, laughed and just plain everything about her.
“You owe me a bath…” Nita mumbled unhappily.
Shenyo couldn’t help but smiling as he picked her up bridal style. “Well then! Let’s get to that bath then.”
As they left the clearing, Kato groaned and sat up, mumbled something about leprechauns and racism then stumbled drunkenly after them. If it hadn’t been for the way Senra was so worried about Yahiko, who now lay unconscious in his arms, he would have laughed.
He stood from his sitting position, and, still cradling Yahiko to his chest, he walked the long walk home. When he got there he nudged the door open with his shoulder, walked to his room and set Yahiko on his bed. He thought about changing her clothes but quickly dismissed the idea. Ai would have to be the one who did that, He thought as he turned and headed to where his sister was sitting on her bed, reading ‘Red Dragon’. He’d seen the movie, scary stuff. And it seemed Ai was so caught up in it that she didn’t hear him walk up behind her. Doing his best Anthony Hopkins impersonation, Senra called out, “Oh, Clarice? You will tell me when the lambs have stopped screaming, won’t you?”
Ai screamed and jumped as Senra said the first bit. She was catching her breath while he finished the quote. “That was SO uncool, nii-san!” She said with a glare. “What do you want?”
“Yahiko. She’s on my bed, could you change her? She’s kind of unconscious at the moment sooo….” Senra couldn’t think of how to finish the sentence so he let the last word trail on, hoping Ai would pick up the slack.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m on it. Oh, and no peeking! If you do, I’ll pop you in the jaw.” Ai made her threats, grabbed a set of clothes, minus underwear, Senra noticed, and walked to the other bedroom where Yahiko lay. Several moments later Ai walked back in and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb and grunted “okay.”
Senra walked over to his room and walked to the bed. He was relatively calm, considering he planned to sleep in the same room as his new girlfriend, in the same bed, on their first day together. He WAS relatively calm, that is until he pulled back the blankets and noticed that despite Ai’s “Okay” Yahiko was stark naked. This must be her revenge for scaring her, Senra thought, looking at Yahiko’s body as he did. She seemed fuller than the last time he’d seen her naked, which was a couple of weeks ago since he had been blind when he’d passed out in the Suna hotel room. Senra was torn. Should he go sleep on the couch, ignore the naked body next to him and try to sleep, or should he ‘resuscitate’ Yahiko.
End
Chapter 15: The Blood on our hands
“If one saw the carnage that day they would have assumed there had been a war in that small house.” Kyoshiro laughed as he backhanded his brother through a tree. “Our father put up quite a fight, considering how weak he was. Not to mention old. I assumed he would have died quicker but n-”
“SHUT UP!” Shenyo replied as he swung his sword and nearly cut his brothers cheek. Kyoshiro lashed out with his hands which he’d morphed into his usual claws, while the rest remained unchanged. Shenyo blocked, spun and swung for his older brother’s throat. Kyoshiro leaned back a fraction of an inch, dodging the blade and ducking low for a sweep kick. As Shenyo fell off the tree branch he pulled out a kunai with an explosion note on it and threw it into the branch his brother was standing on. The note exploded as soon as it hit.
Shenyo caught a branch and spun up onto it as he watched the smoke with his sword raised up by his head. With anxiety in his stomach he watched in suspense as the cloud of smoke cleared and the last flaming bits of tree fell from the place his brother had been. With a sigh Shenyo began lowering his sword when he heard a low whistle directly to his right. “Some explosion, huh? Hey, whatcha looking for?” Kyoshiro asked, as he looked to his left to smile casually at Shenyo’s sword. Shenyo thrust the sword at his brother’s throat. Before the blade made contact the branch was severed, dropping Shenyo again towards the ground. As he fell he threw a kunai with an explosion note again. Kyoshiro came flying down, through the explosion, as he screamed. “You think I’ll fall for that old gambit? Don’t mock me!” Shenyo smiled and thrust his sword up as he was caught by the net of strings tied to kunai, shuriken and senbon that he’d created several minutes before. Kyoshiro’s eyes widened as he finally saw the trap. “HELLS ARROW!” He yelled as he swiped out his claws. Shenyo only barely managed to get his sword up in time to stop a certain death. He and his brother started falling rapidly to the ground.
Kyoshiro laughed. “Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Father revealed the secrets of his techniques to me with his last breaths. You’d’ve been proud!” Shenyo sighed, tired of his brother’s mockery. With a grace only a Vamp-nin could accomplish he caught a branch with his legs and flipped away from his brother as he slid along the ground.
“Are you done talking shit? Cause it’s time to spit blood.” Shenyo said, cold creeping in on his senses. His vampire powers were awakening. But Kyoshiro saw it too. He phased and came flying at Shenyo with a speed he had no hope of matching. That was when he saw it, a black arrow flying through the brush. The arrow pinned Kyoshiro’s arm to a tree. “What the…?” Shenyo mumbled before he noticed what exactly was going on.
Senra, Kato, Yahiko, and Nita all landed in the clearing, armed. Senra had his sword on his back and was holding a pitch black bow in his left hand. When Senra landed the bow disappeared and he fell forward with a groan. “Dang… I used too much chakra… I’m almost empty…” Senra mumbled as he started to stand with the help of Yahiko. Yahiko sheathed her tanto sword when she picked Senra up. Kato and Nita both stood with a kunai in a white knuckled fist. Nita’s face was a mask of fear and worry, Kato's was a mask of anger.
Shenyo assessed the damage to himself as he turned to face his brother. He was missing his left arm. “Guess I can’t play guitar anymore…” He mumbled. He glanced at his brother and saw him fighting against the black arrow in his shoulder. Releasing a series of howls and snarls Shenyo knew were curses, Kyoshiro strained against the arrow pinning him to the tree. Shenyo’s hair fizzled as it turned from red to snow-white from roots to tips. “Let me show you a TRUE Hell’s Arrow, brother.” He said as he took a step forward, his strength causing the air to cackle around him. His hair floated up from the shear pressure of his strength. There was a horrible grinding noise as Senra walked up with his sword in hand. He twisted the handle and yanked down. The matter the blade was made of seemed to waver before it darkened and then shrunk to half its original length. The portion that was created by spreading the handle looked like a muscle and when Senra shoved his left palm against the bottom it flexed and spread enough to show one of Seiichi’s (the demon in Senra’s sword) eyes. Strong chakra emanated from both of them. Kyoshiro merely growled as he closed a clawed hand around the arrow, causing it to fizzle out. He let the long brown hair fall from his grasp as he stood to his full height, not bothering to play dead anymore. ‘What the… that arrow was a strand of Yahiko’s hair? How peculiar…’ Shenyo focused his thoughts back to the matter at hand and assessed Senra’s chakra level. He gauged that Senra had enough to perform a double hells arrow with him. “Let’s do it. You ready Senra?” Senra nodded and they both charged.
“HELL’S ARROW!” They cried as Kyoshiro charged straight at it. He went to jump over the advance but Yahiko had been included in the plan.
“Kill, Sho-Ten-Bo!” As she cried her attack out, her tanto grew to a length of 20 feet, knocking Kyoshiro out of the air. There was a loud boom that filled the air for a good time before the dust settled showing Senra on one knee breathing hard, and Shenyo standing beside him. Kyoshiro was lying on the ground groaning. He got up and growled at Shenyo.
“I’ll kill you for this injustice, brother!” The wolf snarled the word as though it were acid to his tongue. He moved quicker than Senra could follow and kicked him square in the chest, sending him skidding to a halt just in front of Yahiko. Kyoshiro laughed as he disappeared from sight and reappeared behind Yahiko. With another mocking laugh he backhanded her in the head and spun to throw a kick into Kato’s chest as he charged forward.
They both collapsed, leaving only Nita, who was frozen with fear, Senra, who was now completely empty on chakra, and Shenyo who was pissed and only growing stronger with every passing second. The hair on Senra’s neck stood on end when he saw Kyoshiro march out to greet his brother’s attack. They fought like only two people who hate each other more than anything could. Senra stumbled to his feet and took up a stance to protect Yahiko, who lay behind him.
Before Senra’s mind could register what his eyes couldn’t fathom, Kyoshiro disappeared and Shenyo stood, his long sleeve dress shirt open and flowing in the wind, with his leg in the air and his remaining hand in his pocket. “That’s it? Stupid mutt! You should know your place.” Shenyo’s vampire side had taken full control and was proceeding to throw insults at the werewolf, who as of yet was still missing. There was a loud thud as Kyoshiro landed, growling behind Shenyo. The wolf’s fur was no longer grey but the same shade as Shenyo’s hair. He disappeared again and reappeared holding Shenyo by his throat against a tree. “Honestly? You’re going to choke a vampire to death? You really are dumber than you look, you know.” Shenyo said as he punched his brother’s shoulder, tearing the bones out of their sockets with a vicious snap.
Kyoshiro howled and released his vampire brother. He was rewarded with a swift kick to the face, sending him flying through the branches over head. Before he could be brought down by gravity, though, Shenyo had made it into the tree tops behind him and kicked him in the back of the head, sending him flying to the ground.
Kyoshiro hit the ground with an explosive boom and, before he could get up, several long, red tendrils shot from Shenyo’s severed arm and impaled Kyoshiro. “You don’t know what you’re doing brother! You must hear me out!” Kyoshiro cried, right before he was torn asunder by Shenyo’s blood.
“Know your place.” Shenyo snarled before dropping to the ground and picking up his arm and beginning to reattach it with his blood. “In a vampire blood becomes a living entity, its own imitation of life, of power. This is the ultimate power of the Nosferatu blood line.” Shenyo’s hair faded back to red as he finished the healing. “Nita?” He asked gently, trying not to scare her. He was approaching her as one would a stray that had just seen you kick another. She glared at him, angry that he would treat her as such. He misread. “Nita, love? It’s okay, don’t be afraid…”
She looked at Senra, giving him a quizzical look, to which he nodded with a smile. The second Shenyo was in range, she belted him across the face as hard as she could. “HOW DARE YOU WORRY ME LIKE THAT!?” She cried, losing control of the tears in her eyes. “I thought I was going to LOSE you! Do you have an inkling of how bad that would have hurt? I NEVER would have got over it, Shenyo, I love you!”
Shenyo sighed as he took her into his arms. “I know, and I’m sorry. I love you too.” He nestled his face to the top of her head and sniffed. He loved the way she smelled, talked, laughed and just plain everything about her.
“You owe me a bath…” Nita mumbled unhappily.
Shenyo couldn’t help but smiling as he picked her up bridal style. “Well then! Let’s get to that bath then.”
As they left the clearing, Kato groaned and sat up, mumbled something about leprechauns and racism then stumbled drunkenly after them. If it hadn’t been for the way Senra was so worried about Yahiko, who now lay unconscious in his arms, he would have laughed.
He stood from his sitting position, and, still cradling Yahiko to his chest, he walked the long walk home. When he got there he nudged the door open with his shoulder, walked to his room and set Yahiko on his bed. He thought about changing her clothes but quickly dismissed the idea. Ai would have to be the one who did that, He thought as he turned and headed to where his sister was sitting on her bed, reading ‘Red Dragon’. He’d seen the movie, scary stuff. And it seemed Ai was so caught up in it that she didn’t hear him walk up behind her. Doing his best Anthony Hopkins impersonation, Senra called out, “Oh, Clarice? You will tell me when the lambs have stopped screaming, won’t you?”
Ai screamed and jumped as Senra said the first bit. She was catching her breath while he finished the quote. “That was SO uncool, nii-san!” She said with a glare. “What do you want?”
“Yahiko. She’s on my bed, could you change her? She’s kind of unconscious at the moment sooo….” Senra couldn’t think of how to finish the sentence so he let the last word trail on, hoping Ai would pick up the slack.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m on it. Oh, and no peeking! If you do, I’ll pop you in the jaw.” Ai made her threats, grabbed a set of clothes, minus underwear, Senra noticed, and walked to the other bedroom where Yahiko lay. Several moments later Ai walked back in and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb and grunted “okay.”
Senra walked over to his room and walked to the bed. He was relatively calm, considering he planned to sleep in the same room as his new girlfriend, in the same bed, on their first day together. He WAS relatively calm, that is until he pulled back the blankets and noticed that despite Ai’s “Okay” Yahiko was stark naked. This must be her revenge for scaring her, Senra thought, looking at Yahiko’s body as he did. She seemed fuller than the last time he’d seen her naked, which was a couple of weeks ago since he had been blind when he’d passed out in the Suna hotel room. Senra was torn. Should he go sleep on the couch, ignore the naked body next to him and try to sleep, or should he ‘resuscitate’ Yahiko.
End
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