kuro-shinzui-ookami

CHAPTER 9; Beast of the Full Moon, Secret to the Sword

“Sasuke…It’s getting pretty dark. We should head home…” A gentle wind was blowing through the silent Uchiha’s soft, dark hair. “Err…Sasuke?” Indifferent, He was staring at the starry night sky. Still on her back in the grass, Kotori turned her head to him. “Sasuke!” She snapped her fingers in front of his face. Startled, he abruptly turned to her.

“What?!” He blurted.

“Were you even listening to me?!” Kotori said in retort.

“Wha? Oh, sorry, I kinda zoned out, heh…” Sasuke sat up and held his head. “Ugh…blood rush…that’s what I get for lying on my back half the day…” He sighed “…errgh…w-what did you say earlier?”

“Um, what I said was that we should be heading home now, since it’s getting so dark out.”

“Oh, you can go ahead. I kinda wanted to practice with the double-edged sword for a while. Ya know, since I haven’t actually had a chance to really play with it yet.” He smiled a little.

“Oh, ok.” Kotori got up and proceeded to walk down the path leading back to the Manor. “J-just make sure you’re back before 12:00 or something, alright? I don’t want to be up all night worrying about you.”

“Yeah, I know how that feels” He crossed his arms and glared at her.

“Ok! Ok, I get it, I’m going! Geez…” Kotori turned her heel and left. Sasuke rolled his eyes and picked up the pair of broad daggers, linking the two together. He carefully slid his thumb along the sharp edge of one of the ends.

“Heh…nice…” He smirked, soon after noticing the three training logs where Naruto was tied during Kakashi’s bell test. Sasuke started twirling the double-sided weapon as if it were a baton, held it behind him, and charged towards the middle stump.

Rrrrhhhiipppp

You could hear the crackling sound of bark tearing apart. “Whoa…” He blankly stared at what was left of the base. Though it was hard to see in the dark, there was a whirling mark left from the impact. In which closely resembled the mark left by a Rasengan attack.

Sasuke continued fooling with the sword, unaware of the passing time. Stopping for a break, he looked up into the sky. There was a full moon, and it was right above him. “Crap…it’s midnight. I gotta head bac-” But he was startled by a soft hissing sound coming from below him. “What th-” There were strange bright blue glowing markings, slowly inching up the bottom half of the broad sword. Strange indeed. The scores looked almost as if they were of another language…an ancient one.

Hissssssss

“AGGHH!” Sasuke hastily dropped the weapon when the scriptures reached the handle. There was a faint scent of burning skin around him as he stared at his hands. “Owww……Geez…” He abruptly glanced back up at his daggers and took a few steps back. “What the hell’s going on with that thing?” The Uchiha watched as the markings reached the other end, and the weapon suddenly burst into a billion particles of light. They hovered limply in the air for a moment, clustered together, and rushed at the now terrified boy. They consumed his entire body and threw him down, knocking him unconscious.

-----

Sasuke’s perception slowly slipped back and forth, in and out. When he finally found the balance, he stood up, dizzy and disoriented…“What the…am I…shorter?” Sasuke shook his head and looked down, only to find… “P-PAWS?! W-what’s happening?!” He ran to the lake he was thrown in earlier and looked at his wavy reflection. “No…way…” He tried to catch his breath. “I’m…a wolf?” He shook his head once more. “No…no It’s gotta be genjut-”

“This isn’t an illusion.” A soft voice spoke, seemingly out of nowhere. Sasuke was startled to find that another being had appeared in his reflection. Right behind him. “WAHH!” The Uchiha whipped around. Only to discover…another wolf? It was pure white with sky-blue eyes and it was staring directly at Sasuke’s necklace. It was the only thing, besides his headband, that he was wearing, but hadn’t noticed it was still on him. It was a special pendant made up of three pure black talisman. Sasuke’s had it since he was very young. It’s one of the only possessions left from his mother, who gave it to him for his 3rd birthday.

He, himself was a golden brown color. Actually, he looked more like a dog than a wolf. With dark grey, almost black patches all about him. These being over his left eye, his right ear, a stripe up his snout, the tip of his tail, and three of his four paws were the same color, going half-way up each leg. The only golden brown one being his left front limb. He also had an arch on his side of the same color. His eyes had pitch black pupils, With a golden iris.

“You’re the one?” The white wolf looked surprised at the sight before him.

“I-I’m the what?” Sasuke backed up; his paws touched the edge of the water, which rippled. The other wolf slowly circled Sasuke, sniffing all around him. “Eh, may I ask what your doing?!” The white wolf stopped in it’s tracks and sat down.

“Hmmm…” It stared at him intently. Completely silent. Sasuke glanced over to the mountains surrounding the hidden village of the leaves. The moon was much lower than it was before, meaning it was around 5 O’ clock AM.

‘CRAP! How long was I knocked out? Geez…Kotori’s gonna kill me…' The white beast was still watching him. 'w-what is he staring at?!' The other wolf smirked as soon as Sasuke turned back to him. The Uchiha just stared back with a (doggy) eyebrow raised.

“Heh, let’s see what you’ve got!” The white beast disappeared and re-appeared behind Sasuke in a split second. Before the Uchiha could realize what happened, the wolf bit his tail.

“OW! What the hell?!” He barked. In response, the other wolf crouched down as if it were getting ready to pounce……which is just what it did.

“W-Whoa!? What are y-” Sasuke immediately dodged the assault and whipped around to the beast, who was looking back at him blankly.

“Wow, you’re pretty fast!” It replied.

“Yeah…well you’re impulsive.” Sasuke gave him one of his ‘what’s-wrong-with-you?!’ looks he often bestows upon Kotori.

“Heh. That makes two of us.” The other wolf smirked again and shot towards the Uchiha, who slid out of the way.

“I see how it is.” He replied, growling and launching himself at his ‘opponent’. The other wolf simply ducked, and Sasuke tumbled into the lake……again. “DAMMIT! That’s the second time today!” He scowled. “GRRRRR, That’s IT.” In an instant, Sasuke’s eyes turned bright red. He glared at the white beast who was grinning impishly.

Was. The instant it saw Sasuke’s eyes, it backed away and sat in the grass. “Yeah…you’re the one.” He muttered. “Ok, we’ve got a lot, of work to do…”

Sasuke shook the water off himself and looked at the beast with one eyebrow raised. “Er, w-what do you mean?” The white wolf glanced at the mountains, the sun was peeking over the crests.

“Eh, I-I’ll fill you in tomorrow-”

“Tomorrow?!” Sasuke interrupted. The beast looked around and whispered in the Uchiha’s ear. “Meet me tomorrow night. Same place, 10:00 PM." Sasuke blinked cluelessly as he watched the creature walk towards the forest.

“H-hey! How do I change back?!” He exclaimed. The other wolf stopped in it’s tracks and turned.

“Hold that necklace up to the sun when it’s completely visible. Meaning no clouds, trees, mountains, even birds in front of it, ok? Oh, and to change into your wolf form, lock your talisman into the three slots on your combined daggers. This can only happen at night time, past 8:00. Otherwise it’s not dark enough. If it happens to be a cloudy or rainy day, you can get stuck in your wolf form the entirety of the daylight hours too, so be careful. Don’t let anybody know your secret. I’ll fill you in more extensively tomorrow.”

“B-but-” Sasuke was still utterly confused.

“Look, I really have to go now. Do ya know what time it is anyways? Shouldn’t you be heading home?” With that, the creature turned tail and left.

-----

By now the sun had completely risen over the ridge. When it was completely uncovered, Sasuke grabbed his necklace and held it to the giant flaming star in his mouth. The trio of talisman showed the glowing blue markings, similar to the ones on his sword. But this resembled a sun or fire. He morphed back into his human self, and his daggers lay on the ground, apart from each other. The Uchiha cautiously picked each up, and ran back to the manor as fast as he could.

Piczo