The Weight of Regret

Yugao would not forget that feeling. When it was over, she quickly took off the rags from his eyes and...she regretted it. She would not forget the look of disdain on Hayate's face when he saw her. When she untangled him, he had stumbled to his feet. Any attempts of her to help him to his feet were rebuffed immediately.

"Get away from me!" Hayate snarled, a vicious cough escaping his throat due to his illness. He walked out of the door without a single other word to her.

Perhaps it was this that...subdued Yugao. Yes, she would seek to irritate Naruto with her words, but...she was too afraid to do so with anymore action. Whatever he commanded of her, she did whether she liked it or not. She trampled down her own defiance. A heavy price was paid to teach her that lesson. That's why she was here...feeling the bones of her prey against the steel of her blade as she cut into him mercilessly. He shouldn't blame her! He should have just accepted the offer! It would have been easier for him. Perhaps...he should have blamed himself...for not having the power to oppose her. Perhaps he should blame himself...for being a weakling!

"Te...ugh!...fuak! Y-You...bitch!" He said. Yugao didn't finish the striking blow. Instead she removed her blade and kicked the bleeding man to the floor. A mighty crash followed and he grunted in pain. However, the purple-haired anbu didn't stop there. She reached into her coat and pulled out a vial of red liquid. She pulled open the cork and poured the red fluid onto the man's open wound.

"ARGH! W-What...are you...doing to me?" He asked. She did not reply to him. She didn't even know what she had done either. All Naruto told her was to pour the vial over the man before he died. She did just that.

"It...It's hot! It hurts! It hurts! Make it stop! What did you do?! AH!" Yugao watched as Daijin's left arm suddenly snapped to the right as if it had been possessed by some otherworldly force. Then his neck snapped back. The gargles of his screams were a pain on Yugao's ears. She pulled out an earpiece and placed it in her ears. The static of an open channel radio headset was a welcome distraction from the terror behind her.

Daijin screamed and screamed. Why wasn't anyone helping him? He...he could feel something moving inside him! It burned and it pricked his skin. Veins strained his body from his chest to his face. With one final scream, a row of blood sickles exploded from his arms, chest, and legs. He fell down to the floor. His soulless eyes had told the ancient tale that his soul had been reaped by the Shinigami.

Yugao took off her headset and placed it away. She wondered what his last moments were. Were they calling out for help? Well, there was no point in that. Yugao had killed all of his help. If one were to walk out of the building...they would have seen the corpses she had slain of people guarding him.

The purple-haired anbu raised an eyebrow when she saw the corpse twitch. "No more horror movies," Yugao thought to herself, but then she saw one of the arms move. Soon the other followed as well. They pushed the body off the floor and it stood on its own two feet.

"Ah, so it does work like I thought. Nice work, Anbu-neechan! It's a successful experiment," Daijin said. However, Yugao stiffened and turned to face the risen man.

"That speech pattern. Naruto?" Yugao asked. Daijin gave a smirk in the same way the Anbu agent had seen from the young blonde boy.

Daijin walked through his room and patted her on the shoulder. "No need to worry, Nee-chan. The real me is still back at the hotel. Now, all the steps are complete. Both the Flower and Fruit Groups are mine to do with as I please. Perhaps you should leave. I'll take care of the clean up outside," he replied.

Yugao had a lot of questions to ask, but she held her tongue. She merely bowed and vanished out of sight. In time, Naruto smirked from within Daijin's body. "You know, Yugao-neechan. I didn't command you to bow to me that time," he said to himself before he walked out the door. Such spilled life force should not go to waste.

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