Life beneath the Red Moon (Last Part)

Inside the World of Infinite Dreams:-

Having the 'Hero of the Sand' fighting on their side seemed a much more lucrative proposition than killing her.

That was the only reason Pakura was alive now.

That and a few of the bloodline clans wanted her to strengthen their bloodlines and their rival bloodless clans wanted her to catapult their families into the ranks of bloodline nobility.

It was a clever scheme, she mused, as she walked the streets of Kirigakure.

The Hozuki clan played the bloodline clans, who had quality shinobi under their command but suffered in terms of quantity against the populous bloodless clans, weakening both and pointedly removing their detractors during the chaos of their confrontation. A classic case of divide and conquer policy. It was no wonder that the first, second and third Mizukage all came from the Hozuki clan.

Shadows shifted at the edge of her vision. A squad of Kiri bloodhounds permanently assigned to monitor her.

She shook her head as her lip curled into a self-depreciative sneer. It's not as if she has anywhere to go.

It was time to face it, she was an abandoned child of Suna, being raised as a psychological weapon by their rival in preparation to attack the morale of their floor soldiers.

She had been dispatched on a solo recon mission and her route had been leaked to the Kiri shinobi for the price of her bounty on the Kiri bingo book.

The inevitable ambush had occurred. Sadly, no miracles were in sight and she had been smoothly apprehended and offered the choices of submission or death. She had chosen to go on living just to spite those geezers in the Suna council.

She had been kept out of the loop in the recent days and any classified knowledge she might have had was dated. Still, she had to sit and copy it out for them as per terms of her surrender. It was only now, after nearly six wrist-cramping hours of brushwork, that she was done and allowed free access to the city… well, as free as a suspicious shinobi on foreign soil could be, she supposed.

Anyway, from the grim atmosphere, it seemed that the undercurrents were surging these days. The Hozuki clan had bitten more than they could chew, apparently, and the hostilities between the two factions had spiralled out of control.

News of bloodline clans being exterminated and social propaganda aimed at inciting the superstitions of the illiterate grassroots population were in abundance in these parts.

She kept tabs on such gossip. After all, as the primogenitor of a brand-new bloodline, she was smack dab in the middle of this political vortex.

As she passed by an alley, an inexplicable force tugged at her heart. She stopped her footsteps and peered into the dank corner.

There, among the garbage lay an unconscious waif.

He was all skin and bones and even in this snowy winter, clad in the thinnest of smocks.

When her eyes fell upon his red and gold curls, lustreless after prolonged abuse, the tug in her heart intensified and she couldn't help but pick him up in a fireman's carry and use a quick shunshin to return to her apartment and begin nursing him back to health.

…

Lin Feng didn't know how long he had spent in that daze. He didn't know how he had reached the city from the village or how he was left unconscious and practically naked in the alley in his emaciated state. All he knew was he felt an inexplicable connection to the woman who had saved him.

Her hair and mannerisms reminded him of the woman in his dream.

He nearly fell off the tree he was hidden in as the headache hit him. It was a frequent occurrence. Thinking about the dream would cause an image of the moon to appear in his mind. In fact, even in his sleep or merely upon closing his eyes, his mind would drift to the scarlet orb in the sky. It would leave his mind hazy and he would forget about the dream, only to be reminded of it by Pakura's presence.

It was driving him insane.

He shook his head to clear his mind. It wasn't time to be thinking of such things, his target approached.

Being at war, Kiri had no time to coddle its new recruits, thus, fresh genin were being used to police the interior while the trained and battle-hardened ones were invested in the war.

It was a sink or swim approach, with several genin casualties at the hands of gang bosses and criminal overlords.

This was to be Lin Feng's first mission, a straightforward ambush and eliminate operation with the tracking and intelligence part already taken care of by another genin.

His powerful bloodline and the environmental advantage given the ubiquitous snow cover was in his favour and the takedown was expected to be a cinch. It was more of a first blooding to get his psychological insecurities with killing out of the way.

A man wrapped in a hooded fur coat ran along the ground at a quick, yet energy conserving trot headed for the Land of Fire border. From the intel, Lin Feng knew that he was a drug dealer on the run who had been outed by his competitor. Hard evidence of his clandestine activities had been leaked to the investigative squad and a warrant had been declared.

Even though he knew the man was guilty and deserved capital punishment and with the doubtful blood of the population of his entire village on his hands, his hands till grew clammy as his grip on the kunai tightened. After all, his memories of that particular incident were thankfully hazy.

Just as the man approached his tree, he clumsily threw the kunai at him. The tool wobbled and clattered on the ground most inexpertly. But it had done its job.

Spooked by the sudden attack, he had leapt back towards the tree opposite to it and held his back against it to prevent being sneak attacked… which was the last mistake of his life as the sap in the tree froze into an ice thorn and impaled him from the back of his head and came out of his mouth, dripping with blood.

The man twitched and spasmed for a bit before going limp like a marionette with its strings cut and hanging off the ice spike.

Lin Feng held in his nausea and got off the tree. He collected the kunai and approached the corpse. Bile pooled at the back of his throat at seeing the blank, sightless eyes.

Unable to take anymore, he emptied his stomach. After there was nothing left, he stood shakily and approached once again.

Holding the kunai to the neck of the corpse, he closed his eyes and careful to avoid the spurting blood, sawed at it until with a plop, the head came off.

Holding it gingerly by the hair, he sealed it away in a scroll as proof before trying once again to void his stomach.

…

Back at their quarters, Pakura arrived at the refrigerator, took out a bottle of sake and poured out two glasses.

She smiled comfortingly, "Drink up. It'll help."

She took up the liquor, bent her head supinely and poured it down her throat in one go.

That heroic stance could put many men to shame.

"Haah... This stuff's flavour is inferior to that of the ones from the Land of Fire but it is more potent. It can actually let you vent, generally speaking, is a good thing."

With how she usually acted around him, he sometimes forgot that she wasn't a demure lady but a fierce warrior who had walked the line between life and death for the most of her life.

Lin Feng shook his head and also took a swig fiercely.

*cough*cough*

The unexpected burn of the liquor going down his throat made him start coughing.

"Ha-ha." Pakura laughed uproariously. "Look what happens when you try to show off."

When he finally managed to settle down, his eyes had teared up from the hacking coughs.

"Water it down at first… this one is too strong for beginners."

He followed her advice and cautiously took a sip. This time, he managed to keep it down and soon the warmth from the alcohol spread in his chest, driving the guilt from his first kill to the back of his mind.

They sat in silence, drinking one glass after the other, taking advantage of anaesthesia that alcohol is in sole possession of to release the exhaustion in their hearts.

"*hic*... It is not good, I felt... How can't the bottle, bottle be opened?"

"That is not the bottle, it's a glass, idiot." Lin Feng roared, snatched the empty glass from her hand and flung it to the ground.

"You dare to snatch this *hic* young lady's liquor? You must be tired of living." Pakura stood drunkenly and cocked her head to glare at him.

The glare that would have usually frightened him silly was ignored in his inebriated state. Lin Feng too stood up staggeringly and took a step forward.

"Come… who fears whom? Idiot." He stepped onto the fallen glass and slipped and fell on to the ground distressed.

The liquor tore down the camouflage of civilization. Lin Feng's brain was devoid of thought, he only wanted to vent the despondence and negative mood in his heart.

*clink* *tink*

The empty glass rolled away as she bumped into it.

"Whom did you… you scold? *hic*..." Pakura drilled under the table, crawled on Lin Feng and smiled drunkenly. Her enticing red lips were slightly parted exhaling scalding hot liquor vapour.

Lin Feng wanted to revolt.

However, his present opponent was Pakura.

That terrifying enhanced muscular strength, suppressed him with ease.

"Get down, I must be on top." Lin Feng was whispering, as he pushed and shoved. Pakura who was riding his body was entirely still. He tried to sit up with all his strength.

"Hey hey? *hic*..." Pakura lost her balance for a moment and almost tumbled off him. Angry, she clutched the collar of his kimono and slammed his back into the ground.

She narrowed her bleary eyes into seams, "This young lady must be on top."

Pakura, who was staring at Lin Feng with a feral vision, suddenly maliciously kissed him.

"wū wū! Damn, you knocked against my tooth..." Lin Feng mumbled unclearly through the blockade of her mouth.

Two large and soft spheroids pressed on Lin Feng's chest, making him feel scant of breath. His attempts to shove them away met with failure as the soft shapes deformed within his grasp.

"..." Warm liquor vapour blew lightly on Lin Feng's face, destroying his final reason.

They were drunk.

There is a saying that alcohol is the premier catalyst of moods.

Earnestly seeking his body, she sucked Lin Feng's lower lip, her ample bosom rubbing against his chest. The close beads of perspiration covered the entirety of her fair neck, saliva outlined a silvery bright trace between their lips. Her flexible, slippery tongue pried open the Lin Feng's mandibular joint, dissolutely pestering his tongue, their four eyes relative to each other...

Their clothing, that was in the way of their intimacy, was gradually torn off and thrown in one side. The mild feeling of flesh touching flesh made Lin Feng send out a low roar of pleasure. Perhaps it was his masculine instinct, he wanted to press her beneath his body and push her to the ground, but the strength of Pakura was above him and she pressed down on his shoulder aggressively, keeping him from achieving his wishes.

Her beautiful eyes narrowed to a seam, Pakura, in the throes of her lust, put out a hand to take away the cloth belt of his waist. Straddling Lin Feng's waist, the corners of her mouth glistened with his saliva. Moistening her lips, that were dry because of the fire of her desire, by running her tongue over them, Pakura untied the knot of her skirt impatiently...

"Umm..." The ache and scalding hot feeling of invasion let her eyebrows wrinkle slightly, making her moan in pain.

The comfort that the lower part of his body transmitted made Lin Feng incapable of controlling the flame of desire that moved restlessly within his body, simultaneously, the pressure on his shoulder reduced much.

Alcohol is strange, it can dilute all rational insistence, make one cast behind all consequences and pursue the most primitive, but most wonderful joyfulness.

Erupting with a low roar at breaking through his fetters, Lin Feng did not know why she gave up resisting, nor did he care as he counter-attacked and pushed her to the ground. He held her slender and toned thigh, maintained the posture of this distortion, then...

…

In the future whenever he recalled that crazy night, it hadn't left behind too many impressions in his brain, but he vaguely remembered that the battlefield shifted to beside the refrigerator from the dinner table, from the living room to the kitchen, to the bedroom along the corridor.

On the sofa, by the stair rails, before the window, on the rug...

Everywhere had traces of their fight.

Lin Feng did not know why his battle efficiency elevated to such an altitude, moreover it was his first time, from the pale red mark, it could be seen that it was also her primary experience.

After the sound of his low roar mingled with her tender respite as they reached their respective release, the villa returned to the past tranquillity.

"... Sorry." To be honest, at some point, Lin Feng had become sober, he had discovered that Pakura was also the same. With the presence of the chakra coursing through their bodies, it was no surprise really. But seeing her unwilling to terminate this happiness, he had not chosen to stop, but had chosen continuation.

"Is this your response?" Somehow, in Pakura's heart there was no anger, but one type of relaxedness that came after laying down one's burden.

It was as if she had found a dependence? The feeling of family? The dust laden emotions from when she was still a child living with her parents? She didn't know, but whatever it was, it felt nice.

"I will be responsible." Lin Feng said somewhat stiffly as his face flushed. As it was his first time dealing with an emotional entanglement, it left him flustered.

"Titter," Pakura smiled charmingly, changing to a comfortable posture to continue to lie down in the crook of his elbow, drawing circles on his chest with her fingertip gently, "Although you are a man, but you are sometimes very cute."

"cough cough!" Lin Feng was almost choked by the Pakura words. He just wanted to rebut with sarcasm, the vision was actually drawn to her proud chest, after some time, he realized the teasing expression on her face.

"Is this young lady's chest attractive?" He blushed. 'How can a woman be so unscrupulous and have no demeanour?' He criticized in his mind. Remembering that she was orphaned young and had never been coached in etiquette, he relaxed.

"Attractive." Lin Feng swallowed his saliva and replied honestly.

"You took my maidenhood while drunk." Pakura, at this moment looked like a cat who had eaten her fill and was playing with the remaining mice, as she teased Lin Feng with a faint smile.

"Yes." Lin Feng braced himself to say.

"After you men have relations with a woman, do you become so timid?" Pakura raised her head and rested it on one arm. The enticement of this posture attacked his mind, making a part of him recover. Before this, he was unable to imagine that the barbaric woman could have such an aspect of femininity.

The contrast between the lazy attitude and her feral nature brought about an indescribable charm.

"..." Lin Feng had a feeling of being toyed with by her. A deep diluteness welled up from within him.

'Good, from the strength I truly am not her match...' Lin Feng comforted himself in the heart, after all he was ninjutsu focused and had always kept a healthy distance from taijutsu. It seemed that he would have to make persistent efforts if he wanted to regain his pride as a man.

"At this time shouldn't you say something like you will always love me, or pledge to protect me for a lifetime? In the romance novels isn't that how it usually goes?"

"... I am unable to make such a commitment, realistically speaking, it's more likely that you'll be the one doing the protecting," staying silent for a moment, Lin Feng sighed with a solemn expression and said sincerely, "but, I can pledge that I will cherish you for a lifetime, if you are willing to be my woman."

"..." Pakura looked at the sincerity on his face and her eyes slowly misted up.

How long... She had roamed about all alone in this world of blood and violence.

Struggling to crawl out of the shadow left by the death of her parents at her own hands. Fighting to protect a village whose people feared her. Avoiding the pursue of suitors who saw her only as a tool to improve their bloodlines. Death was her final home to return to.

However, now someone was willing to become her dependence...

"*Titter*, this young lady is very difficult to raise." The countless words, only changed to a chuckle with teasing finally. Regarding such a future, Pakura was very confused, because from the moment her parents died, it had been instilled into her that she didn't deserve happiness. Only by serving the village could she redeem her sins. That's what she lived by… till the village abandoned her.

"I'll manage."

"... I, have been rejected by my village." A flurried expression flashed on her face.

"I do not care."

"I, I have the blood of my parents on my hands." The Pakura expression was shivering slightly, the imposing manner of Lin Feng as he pressed on step by step made her suddenly feel cornered.

"I know, it wasn't your fault."

"..." A short silence descended between the two people, only leaving the weak sounds of their respite.

Lin Feng felt that his throat was somewhat dry, he had inexplicable feelings towards the present woman. Although rationality told him that it might just be gratitude towards her for taking him off the streets, that two months were too short a time for love...

However, rationality be damned!

Lin Feng had no regrets as he calmly waited for the reply of Pakura.

"... What are you waiting for? My man." Pakura smiled suddenly, that charm, making him lose the power of thought.

Seeing him stare at her dumbly, Pakura smiled angrily, but soon gave up on her anticipation and pasted her lip close to his ear.

"Fuck me." The slightly hot air current blew off Lin Feng's rationality once more.

With a carnal roar and a sensuous moan, a new fight started...