Sho yawned again as his eyes felt heavier now that he'd had a bit of an emotional blood-letting. "Hey, Hata-san? Could I ask you for a big favor?"
'Anything you want that I have is yours, honey...' Naughty giggled lustily.
The kunoichi gave the vulgar part of herself a shove. "Um, sure, Sho-kun... What-What is it?"
"I know it's been a long day for you, too, but I REALLY have to get some sleep tonight." He prefaced. "Because of that, I'm going to use the forced sleep technique I forgot to use last night, but it carries a minor risk..."
"Risk? From sleeping?" She asked confused.
He chuckled wryly. "Risk from nightmares. When I use the technique, I lock myself into a REM sleep until a pre-set condition occurs - like an alarm going off or sunlight on my face - or at least 10 hours pass. The problem is that if I fall into a nightmare like the one that woke me up this morning so violently that I woke YOU up while in that state, I won't be able to escape it on my own. If that happens, my body will be rested, but not my mind..."
Motoko smiled at him, grateful for his trust in her. "And we can't afford to have you being mentally exhausted." He nodded. "So you'd like me to say up a bit longer to make sure you don't get stuck like that?"
"Would you please?" Inugami asked politely with a look like he was worried he was asking too much of her. "You don't need to be up for more than an hour; any problems should be evident before that point. I hate to have to ask this of you, but you're literally the only person in the Palace that I'd be willing to trust for something like this."
The red-haired kunoichi felt an electric thrill course through her veins at the normally self-sufficient medic-nin's words. They weren't as powerful as the ones she longed to hear, but to hear Sho-kun say that he TRUSTED her was a GREAT start; he had never said anything along those lines to her before.
"Of… Of course, Sho-kun! I'd be glad to!"
Inugami looked relieved. "Has Tanaka shown you the Illusion Break technique?" She nodded. "Using that will break the Forced Sleep jutsu and allow me to wake up on my own or be woken up by a simple shoulder shake."
"You can count on me, Sho-kun." Motoko Hata said with a smile, a thumb up, and a confident wink.
'If I only dared to tell you how much I already do, Motoko...' Sho thought to himself as he knelt to pull back the sheets on his futon bedding.
> Seriously... < The dry voice agreed. > We'd be a LOT more nervous about locking ourselves into an unwakeable sleep... After all, she could have her way with us and we'd never know it. <
THAT thought, but not the one before it, Motoko Hata heard. Her cheeks turned as red as her hair as her Naughty side made an 'Hmm...' of contemplation. Fortunately for her, his back was turned and saved her from explaining why she was suddenly embarrassed.
Sho rolled his eyes. 'I thought you were already asleep; you ACTUALLY managed to go a whole ten minutes without making a single lurid comment.'
> I get nauseous when you go all Emo like that. < Sho's passenger said sardonically. > Besides, you were doing at least a portion of what I want you to do with Motoko-chan. <
The medic-nin ignored the horny bastard; too tired to make yet another futile effort to chide the shameless voice. He pulled the covers up to his navel and raised his hands into the Rat seal. "Ninpo. Forced Sleep jutsu."
The kunoichi's chakra sense felt an oddly muted surge of Sho's mystical powers - probably because he was directing the effects internally rather than externally. Inugami's heavy eyelids surrendered in their efforts keep his eyes open while his arms fell limply to his sides as sleep overtook him.
Motoko stepped over to look down at the unconscious older teen, watching as Inugami's slim but muscular chest rose and fell in the steady rhythm of unconscious breathing. She waited a few moments to make sure he was asleep before she began to contemplate the oddness of the last few minutes.
"What on earth was that..?" She asked herself aloud, turning her back as she tried to puzzle through things. "What was that dry voice? Why could I hear it? How on earth could Sho have been hearing a voice from my dream? Am I going crazy? Is he?"
{Oh, Motoko-neechan is still up...} A childish sounding voice said with a yawn. The voice sounded like Sho's used to before his voice started to shift towards his current, more adult, voice two years ago. {I guess she's synchronized enough now to hear Sub when he and the Boss talk...}
'Sub..? Boss?' Hata asked as the surrealness of the situation was kicked up a notch.
The voice gasped in horror before Motoko could wrap her mind around this new development. {Oh, no... Not this dream... Got to wake him NOW…} The voice gave the mental impression of trying something that then failed to work. {Forced sleep? Oh, not good, so NOT GOOD! }
"Wow..." Sho Inugami murmured in his normal voice; albeit slightly drowsy sounding. "Such a pretty shade of green against a field of blue..."
'Green on blue?' The red-haired young woman thought in confusion her mental wheels still spinning on the first strangeness, to say nothing of the child's voice or this newest development. 'But what could he be seeing that's...'
Motoko Hata's eyes went wide as she realized that from where - and how - she was standing, Sho Inugami would have an unrestricted view up her nightie at her emerald green panties! She jumped away and spun to face him. The medic-nin's eyes were open and staring upwards!
"Sho-kun, you pervert!" The white-haired young man didn't respond to her words; in fact, his eyes didn't even follow her. "You said you couldn't wake up on your own and you go and take advantage of the fact that I thought you were asleep! I thought you were better than that, Sho-kun!" She cried, feeling both betrayed and offended by the older teen.
"I wonder where that woodpecker is..." Sho Inugami's eyes looked around and there was a slight shift to his neck as if he was trying to look around to see something that Motoko couldn't. Then he paused suddenly looking right and left as if he realized he'd forgotten something. "Oh, crud... When did I lose the Senseis and the others?"
The kunoichi blinked in confusion, trying to hold onto her irritation at him. "Woodpecker..? Senseis..? Sho Inugami, if you're trying to worm your way out of me being angry for looking up my nightie, it's not going to work!"
The white-haired teen gave a disgusted sigh as he continued to seem oblivious of Hata's ire, his eyes moving faster, as if hunting furiously for the sight of something. Finally, he sighed in defeat. "Well that's just great... I'm completely lost! I was missing Saki-obaasan so much that I wasn't paying attention where I was going, so I have no CLUE how I got here..."
He moaned, sounding depressed. His eyes looked down as the blanket moved slightly over his right foot; as if he'd kicked at the ground. "Man... She's been gone two weeks now and I still miss her this MUCH..? God, I hope I don't have to live with this hollow feeling in my heart where she used to be for the rest of my life. That would really suck..."
"Obaasan..? Sho-kun, your grandma died seven... years..." Motoko's objection trailed away in realization. 'Oh! The jutsu DID work! I don't know why his eyes are open, but he's asleep!' She felt a measure of relief when she realized he hadn't looked up her nightie to look at her underwear, he was talking in his sleep about whatever scene his dreams are showing him; probably a part of the forest around Konoha.
{Please let her remember… Please let her remember..!} The child's voice repeated, giving her the mental impression of someone praying.
Hata's eyes scrunched, what was the child so worried about..?
Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
Losing the Academy teachers.
In the forest.
Two weeks after his grandmother's death…
"Oh, no…" She gasped in horror, suddenly placing the events. "He's not just dreaming… Our talk must have made his sleeping mind think of…"
"UWAH!!!!" The unconscious medic ninja screamed in abject terror, startling Motoko Hata so badly she fell backwards to the floor. "WILD BOAR!!!" Inugami began to thrash about in his sleep as he began to run for his life in his memory-turned-dream.
"OH, SHIT!" Motoko swore as she rolled across her knees to get over to the terrified young man. Sho's exposed skin had already begun to bead with fear sweat as he was forced to re-live the moment that "Oni" Inugami had been born. His sightless eyes were moving all over the place as the youth he was in his real life nightmare was searching for any means of escape from the boar as he ran through the Konoha forest.
"Sho-kun, you need to snap out of it!" The orange-haired kunoichi demanded as he gripped his shoulders fiercely enough that her fingernails bit into his skin. "Please, wake up!"
Inugami remained oblivious to the kunoichi's words or the pain from his shoulders as one of Hata's nails dug in far enough to start drawing blood. In fact, either in response to the real pain or a memory of trying harder to escape when the events he was reliving had originally happened, his struggles actually managed to increase in ferocity as he began to sweat buckets. Inugami's cries of terror were rapidly losing any sign of rational thought as he drowned in his fears of a boar long dead by his own hand.
"WHY COULDN'T THEY TRUST US WITH A WEAPON?!" Sho demanded as his breathing started sounding ragged, though Motoko – whom had seen the kind of shape the young man she was interested in for years – suspected that it was more a memory of being out of breath than an actual problem.
'He's completely freaking out!' Motoko thought as she straddled Sho's muscular chest. She was too focused on helping him to feel the sting of embarrassment at taking such a potentially honor-compromising position. 'I know I don't weigh that much, but maybe I weigh enough that I can keep Sho-kun from hurting himself while he's thrashing wildly.'
The medic-nin's throes of terror were so random in their movements, but backed with such strength, that it gave the kunoichi the impression that she was trying to break a wild horse or ride a pain-maddened ox. Sho's continuously and wildly searching two-tone eyes, still seeing the past rather than the present, abruptly locked with Motoko's for the briefest of instants.
{Hurry, Motoko-neechan! You need to wake him up the way he told you to; he's nearly at the precipice!} The child's voice cried out in a warning.
Deep in the pit of her stomach, Hata knew the child's voice was right; that the worst was yet to come if she didn't act quickly. Releasing the death grip she had on Sho's shoulder, Motoko Hata's right hand jumped to the young man's forehead. "Illusion Break… Have to knock him out of the Forced Sleep jutsu!"
The child's voice gave the impression of going wide-eyed. {She can hear me, too?}
"Come on… Focus, Momo!" She muttered to herself, too busy trying to save Inugami to reply to the voice and struggling to mold chakra in the midst of the wild ride Sho was providing her. An abrupt twist of the medical ninja's powerful abs caused Hata's left arm break free of his shoulder to cup his firm, well-defined pectoral muscle on the same side. Any pleasure she would have normally garnered from her feel of his strong body was completely overwhelmed by the sensations her hand was picking up through the muscle.
"Oh, shit, his heart feels like it's beating two hundred times a minute... I know Sho-kun's in good health and I don't know how long it can keep this up before it gives up, but I'm willing to bet it isn't very long." Hata breathed as she pried her hand from Sho's chest to join the other at his temples. "Got to snap him out of this now! Release!" She declared emphatically as she forced the chakra, properly molded or not, into Inugami's skull.
The chakra flow was stunted by the impure mixture, but his screaming stopped and the struggling eased slightly as he began to breathe harder.
{Too late, Motoko-neechan…} The child replied sadly. {Too late…}
The medic-nin's body suddenly shuddered underneath Motoko's thighs and he winced in pain. "Oww… I tripped…" His eyes snapped open as the terror etched on his face intensified. "Oh, damn it, the pig found me! I-It's right on top of me; I can't run!" Tears began to run down his face. "Oh, God... I'm going to DIE! Got to get away!! Somebody… Anybody… Help me..!"
The medic-nin's trashing increased so suddenly that he bucked the swordswoman, throwing her off him and into the nearby wall.
"Owwie..." Motoko moaned in pain as she grabbed the back of her head in a reflexive pain response, her eyes closed as she writhed in pain. The blow would probably leave her with a lump there for a day or two. "Okay. Guess I WASN'T heavy enough..." She breathed in frustration as she tried to blink the stars out of her eyes.
'Let's not do that again, huh?' Naughty asked. 'At least not unless it's the naked rodeo...'
Motoko ignored the voice; too busy trying to save Sho's life to waste the time. As Hata's vision cleared, she looked over at Sho Inugami. The kunoichi blinked several more times in confusion: the "fleeing" medic-nin was now within some kind of translucent, glowing bubble.
The bubble looked rather insubstantial, like it was made out of the sheerest silk, and its surface was covered with a twisting snarl of colors. The main color was a muddy brownish-gray, but there were also the occasional flares of mustard yellow, blood red, and midnight black.
"Did I hit my head so hard that I'm seeing things?" Motoko asked as she reached one hand towards the bubble. As she did so, she noticed that her OWN arm was enveloped by a similar bubble. Unlike Inugami's, with its dim, unhealthy-looking colors, the kunoichi's bubble was adorned with a blend of bright royal blue and emerald green with thin veins of pale pink and turquoise splitting green from blue. As with Sho-kun's bubble, the colors were in motion, but where HIS were like a pot of boiling oil, hers were shifting like a placid river.
Pushing her curiosity aside for the time-being, Motoko's hand continued its journey to Sho's forehead, their two intangible bubbles intersecting with each other, but the colors didn't blend together. "Come on…" She focused harder, getting her chakra mixed correctly and slamming it into him. "RELEASE!"
"I-I'm trapped!" Sho whimpered like the terrified child whose memories he was reliving had at the time. The child's voice now made sense – Inugami had sunk so deep into the nightmare that the Illusion Break was no longer capable of snapping him out of the Forced Sleep jutsu.
"Gomen, Saki-obaasan... I miss you, but I don't want to die yet." He cried as he gritted his teeth. "Come on, Sho, think! We've got to do SOMETHING!"
As Sho-kun said the word "something," he seemed to reach for something within himself, like he was about to attempt to mold chakra, but he focused in his efforts in a way that Hata had never sensed before. Suddenly, like some kind of hidden door was suddenly ripped open, a hole - for lack of a better description - appeared within Inugami's chakra pulse.
Motoko Hata's chakra sense went wild, causing her to pull her hand back defensively. Motoko caught a "whiff" of some rancidly foul chakra for a brief instant - unlike any she'd ever detected before, but one she would never possibly forget. There was practically no energy to it, almost like the dusty residue kicked up when someone opens an abandoned room for the first time in years.
Sho's own chakra began to disappear into the "hole" like water into an unstopped drain. As it did so, a surge of crimson blossomed on the strange bubble enveloping the medic-nin's body and spread rapidly outwards like a rush of bubbling lava. An animalistic howl of raw nerve-grating agony clawed its way from Sho Inugami's throat as he doubled over, curling up in a ball, and clutching his left forearm with his right hand.
"Oh, God, Sho! What's happening to you?!" The kunoichi asked, genuinely terrified now. His other nightmares had been rough, but this was of a whole new order of frightening simply because she knew, without a shred of doubt, that THIS had really happened to the medic-nin all those years ago!
His eyes were like dinner plates in his mixture of pain and terror coursing through him. "Aaahh!! My, my arm..! What... What the hell is that thing that just came out of my arm?!" Sho demanded in the voice of someone enraged by the violation of their own body. His arms crossed in front of his chest, left over right, as he seemed to be reaching over his shoulders. "Nnngh! My back... It feels like it's on fire! Wh-What's h-h-happ-pening to me?!!!"
From the core where the lava red had started, the intangible bubble began to turn black, like a disease corrupting his very soul from the inside out. Almost instantly Sho Inugami's entire form was enshrouded in a shade of black deeper than the darkest night Motoko had ever seen. The darkness was still translucent, so the kunoichi could still clearly see the rictus of agony that had been made from Sho's face as it suddenly faded away and his body relaxed, as if he'd gone to sleep.
"Yessss!" The medic-nin spoke, sounding unusual… Sho's voice was normally a honey tenor, but for some reason it had dropped an octave or two to a resonating bass. "It's been too long since I last got to spread my wings..! And that foolish old man isn't paying attention, so I'm free for the first time in so long!" The voice cackled maliciously.
{Oh, man…} The child's voice complained sadly. {The Boss is going to be so upset that you're seeing this, Motoko-neechan… He never wanted you to know…}
"Wings?" Hata repeated. This entire mess had suddenly made a sharp left out of worrisome into bizarre. While she didn't quite understand what exactly what was going on here, Motoko suddenly knew in her heart of hearts that whatever it was happening, THIS was the whole and sole reason that Sho Inugami felt obligated to try and keep everyone at arm's length!
Sho sniffed the air. "Hey..! The kid not only let me out, but he even arranged for a meal! Here, piggy, piggy, piggy... Give me your soul; I'm hungry for it and your flesh!"
Motoko Hata's eyes widened in shock at the medic-nin's words as he devolved into animalistic growls and grunts as he attacked the boar… She'd never believed the strange stories that the others had spread about what Sho-kun had done to the boar, but seeing this was so much more terrifying than anything the stories had ever suggested. The kunoichi's instincts were to run as far away as possible, but her love for Inugami stilled her feet.
In the midst of the black aura that surrounded the medic-nin's body, a small pearl-sized object of silver light slid into view. {Motoko-neechan, you can hear me, can't you?} The child's voice asked as the pearl pulsed like a living thing.
The swordswoman blinked in surprise. "Uh… Yes?" She shook her head wincing. "Ow… I must be losing my mind; first my own mind beats me up, then I start hearing voices that aren't talking, and now I'm seeing things."
The youthful voice made a childlike giggle. {You're not losing your mind Motoko-neechan. As the Boss is fond of saying "It's perfectly normal to talk to yourself; even argue with yourself. It's when you LOSE the arguments that you're in trouble." The whole thing where you imagine the angel and succubus on your shoulders is called cognitive dissonance – it's when a person has conflicting feelings that they can't instinctively resolve and their mind pushes it up to the attention of the waking mind.}
The child voice's words came with this sense of being the absolute, irrefutable truth and actually eased the kunoichi's fears. "And the voices..? You, that dry voice that belonged to the demon in my dream last night and Sho's when he wasn't talking out loud. What were those?"
{Technically that wasn't your dream, Motoko-neechan… It was the Boss's; you merely got caught in it because you and he were mentally synchronized as you slept. As near as I can tell, your chakra sense allows you to empathically connect with others – it's why you have such a caring nature – but the closer you are with someone allows for a limited form of telepathy. It's like a radio, though; if you lose mental synchronization, you won't hear anything and you'll only hear things that are being "broadcast" on the mental frequency you're tuned to.}
The sense of unreality was beginning to fade and a bit of embarrassment crept in as she realized she'd violated Sho's privacy in the worst way possible.
The silver pearl shook slightly in negation. {You had no way of knowing, Motoko-neechan. With practice you'll learn how to turn the "radio" on and off at will.}
Hata blinked. "Wait… You can hear MY thoughts?"
{Oh, is THAT what those are? My apologies.} The unseen child asked in honest confusion. {Where I am, thought and speech are one in the same; I can't always tell the difference since I don't have eyes to see if someone is moving their mouth or not.}
"You're blind? I'm so sorry!" Motoko said, feeling sympathy for the child-like voice.
The child chuckled merrily. {Motoko-neechan, I'm not really real. I'm a part of the Boss's mind – specifically his Unconscious mind. I am only awake as he sleeps, so I "see" the world much like a bat does, though I can freely access the images that the Boss's eyes take in when he's awake.}
"The Boss..?" Motoko repeated, remembering how Konohamaru referred to Naruto as "Boss." She blinked. "You mean Sho-kun?"
{He's the Boss!} The voice agreed. {The dry voice you heard was my counterpart, Subconscious. He's the embodiment of everything the Boss thinks and feels, but doesn't want to ADMIT that he thinks and feels.} Sho's Unconscious shook his imaginary head. {He's a bit of a perverted jerk, but that's not really his fault.}
The kunoichi blushed. "You mean Sho-kun actually likes me?"
The child-like Unconscious mentally nodded. {Always has. But because of the trauma you see him reliving now - the disaster that split his psyche into The Boss, myself and my counterpart – that's what makes him keep you at bay… Especially since your brother told him how you feel; he's happy and terrified at the same time.}
Hata's jaw dropped. "Raiden did WHAT?!" She demanded, feeling furious at her younger brother.
Unconscious gave the impression of making a calming gesture. {Before you get too mad at him, the Boss didn't exactly give him much choice… Uh… Let me try THIS..!}
The kunoichi's mind was suddenly filled with images; like watching a video recording.
>>Fortunately, although he didn't know why it was happening, Sho Inugami was able to react fast enough to catch her before she hit the fence or the ground. "Motoko-san?" He asked out of reflex, but the look on her face quickly told him that she was as incoherent as her brother at the moment.
He set her gently on the ground, leaning her against the fence. He activated one of his medical jutsu to evaluate her condition. Inugami sighed, looking at Motoko Hata. He frowned - as much as he hated the thought of doing so, he had to leave her here to be able to continue his assignment. Reaching into his pouch, he pulled out a pad and a pen. He scratched out a quick note, folded it up and used one of his extra ribbons to tie it to her wrist - he didn't see any pockets on her outfit and she wasn't carrying her tool pouch or her sword.
Rising to his feet, he gave Raiden a not-so gentle nudge to the ribs to rouse him. Raiden coughed. "Oww... What the hell?"
"You got bested by a nine-year-old." Sho said. "And then your sister passed out. I've got a mission to complete, so I can't stay any longer than I already have. I would have carried her home, but I don't know where you live and doing so would have left your butt in the street blocking traffic."
"Right..." Raiden Hata said, wiping the blood away from his nose. "Well, it's not the first time I've had to do so because of you…"
Inugami's eyes narrowed as he grabbed Raiden by his shirt. "You get two minutes to explain that statement and then we start finding out which bones you can have broken and still be able to carry Hata-san."
Raiden paused, weighing his options and groaned as he looked at the medic. "You didn't hear this from me, okay?" <<
Motoko shook her head as the images faded; it had been so odd to see herself from the outside. "What was THAT?!"
{The Boss's memory; your brother's words made him so angry he would have followed through on his threat – and forgotten that hurting him would hurt you – if Raiden didn't tell him. As his Unconscious, I can access everything he's experienced to cross-reference information as he sleeps – that's my purpose. If Subconscious is the thoughts and feelings that the Boss doesn't want to admit that he has, I am the embodiment of the thoughts and feelings he doesn't even KNOW he has and wouldn't be willing to share if he did know. The Boss would be mad as hell at me if he knew I was telling you all this…}
Motoko's heart began to ache. "So THAT'S why he started pushing me away… He never knew before Raiden let the cat out of the bag."
The voice sighed, sounding painfully like Sho. {Yes and no… I knew years ago, but I can't talk to the Boss directly – we're opposite sides of the coin. I can give him dreams of what I want to tell him, but he doesn't always recall them when he wakes.}
"Wakes? Oh, god, Sho-kun!" Motoko suddenly remembered the hellish dream Inugami was living through. She looked down at him, but he seemed to be moving in slow motion within that odd black bubble.
{Relax, Motoko-neechan, we have time to talk a bit longer… As his Unconscious, I can control time within the Boss's dream state, so I've slowed him down to a crawl to delay things as much as possible. You see, at this point, the Boss's true power – the power that fears, that he calls a Demon – has only begun to deal with the boar in response to the stress and the desire to stay alive. Because the Boss was so terrified, he lost consciousness and never knew how long the "Demon" took over. Because of that, I can make time slow to a crawl because he doesn't know if it only lasted 10 seconds or 10 hours. Slowing time has bought us a bit of time before the REAL problems begin.}
"True power?" Hata asked in confusion. "Is that what is making me see these odd bubbles around him and me?"
The voice giggled again. {Oneesan, be serious... I know you've got this impression that the Boss is all that and a bag of chips, but even HE can't see the 'bubbles' you're talking about with any of his powers. No, that ability is all yours; the blow to the back of the head and your worry for the Boss merely woke it up… In fact; take a look in the mirror.}
Confused, Motoko looked into the mirror and gasped in surprise… Her normally green irises were a kaleidoscope of all the colors of the rainbow. "What on earth..?"
{From what I'm getting from your properly integrated subconscious mind, Motoko-neechan, your chakra sense and empathy have merged together to create your own Dojutsu, like Hyuuga-sensei's Byakugan or the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan. The colors you're seeing are your own aura as well as the Boss's… It's a Reikigan, if you will.}
"Reikigan, Aura eye?" Hata repeated, dumbfounded. "But where did it come from? Dojutsu are a Kekkei Genkai; my family doesn't have one."
The voice shrugged. {Afraid I don't know, Motoko-neechan… I'm afraid that is a mystery you'll have to figure out later… No part of you knows where it comes from, only your instincts know how it works. But, just like your brainwave radio, you'll have to practice with it to control it.} It paused for a beat. {And before you ask, I have no clue what the different colors mean; auras and stuff like that are a field of mysticism that the Boss has no interest in.}
Motoko looked back at Sho. His mouth was opening and closing as if he were eating something, causing her to shudder slightly. She focused on the silver point. "Okay, I'll put it aside for now. You were talking about Sho-kun's true power? That is what has him so scared of letting people close?"
An impression of a nod. {Now, I'll be the first to admit I don't completely understand it... The Boss has never studied anything like it before and I, ultimately, can only know what he knows and what my senses can pick up. That means the Boss, the bulk of Sho Inugami's consciousness, will know even less than I do, so I wouldn't recommend you talking about these things with him unless he brings it up first… He won't remember this or even know what you're talking about.}
"I understand."
{Okay, so as strong as the Boss appears to be to you and the others, it's only the bright side of the moon that is his true power, the power that he has mostly learned to harness and uses rather regularly. But, just like the moon in the night sky, there's another power in him that exists for use in an absolute emergency, one the Boss doesn't know how to control, but his body knows how to call upon when it is needed.}
Hata's eyes went wide. "You mean the 'Demon' that came out to save him from the boar."
The voice made an emphatic nod. {Right! Now, because the Boss, Sub and I were still unified back then, he could still absorb the energy this "dark moon" side power needs to function from the world around us and the unconscious will to survive activated it. But because we weren't ready to control that power, we lost consciousness and it ran on its instincts.}
"Killing and eating the boar."
{Exactly. Now the "Demon" for lack of a better choice of words ran out of energy and we woke up. Seeing what we had done to the pig – and believe me, it was NOT a pleasant sight – caused Sho Inugami to mentally break into the three pieces we are now. When that happened, the Boss instinctively closed off our ability to draw in the special energy the "Demon" needs to operate from the world around us. He was afraid that because we couldn't control the power THEN, we'd NEVER be able to control it. Sub keeps trying to convince him otherwise, but the Boss is stubborn.}
"Don't I know it…" Motoko said ruefully. Then she blinked, recalling the conversation with Anko Mitarashi when her team had been looking for the Dragon Heart herbs. "Are… Are you describing Senjutsu chakra? Does Sho-kun has the potential to be a Sage?"
The voice was silent for a few seconds as it considered her words. {I'm… Not sure, Motoko-neechan. It definitely sounds like nature energy now that I think about it, but it feels like an incomplete answer. See, Senjutsu chakra can be collected anywhere, but from what I dimly recall from before I was split from the boss was that we only gathered the energy when we were near someone who died… But it didn't always happen. It's confusing…}
"Death..?" She repeated, recalling that foul, decayed "odor" through her chakra sense when Inugami activated the power in his dream. "So because he's afraid of this power, he's kept himself from collecting it anymore. He CAN'T become the Demon he fears within himself?!" Hata blushed as she recalled the dream/nightmare. "You mean that if Sho-kun knew that power is truly under his control he… I…"
{Would likely be using the –sa honorifics like the two of you were in the shared dream this morning in the next few years.}
Motoko wanted to celebrate that notion, but she suddenly recalled the "hole" Sho's chakra had started pouring into when he summoned the "Demon" to save himself. "You mean that if he'd had any of that special energy saved, he could have transformed just NOW?!"
{Yes. Fortunately for everyone – the Boss, you, the residents of Mizumiyo Palace and Kawa City – the tank is empty… Just as the Boss has become far stronger than he was as a child, the other power has grown as well. Had he unconsciously transformed…} The voice gave the impression of a horrified shudder.
Hata frowned. "Wait, in the dream, he's transformed, but his body's still drawing energy… Why is that?"
{THAT'S the part I was worried about, Motoko-neechan! His body's like a furnace without the pilot light lit… Unless the "spark" of the transformation occurs, the fuel will keep pouring in! If the Boss had even had a miniscule amount of the special energy, I could have tricked his body into thinking he had transformed and then the dream would have been able to play out. That's why I've slowed time in the dream as much as possible, to slow the energy draw.}
Motoko grimaced as she got the visualization of Sho's "furnace" leaking its fuel. "Is this as bad as it sounds like?" She breathed in dismay at the thought of Inugami dying from expending his life force once he ran out of chakra. "I'm going to lose him before we even get a chance..?"
{It's worse than than…} The voice replied grimly. {There's only so much room in the body to mix chakra at once. When that space is full, the chakra will begin to compress until it hits a maximum density… It will then either implode like a black hole or explode like a supernova. Either way, not only will the Boss die, but he'll make a sphere of destruction between five to fifteen meters wide.}
"This room is in the middle of the Palace!" The kunoichi breathed in horror, suddenly wishing for her brother's massive lexicon of curse words. "Oh hell... There's no WAY we have enough time to evacuate the Palace. What can I do?"
{You need to drain the Boss's accumulating chakra and wake him up. You were on the right path with the Illusion Break; he's just in too deep for you to drag him out with your power alone.}
Tears began to fill the kunoichi's eyes. "I don't know how to do that…"
{I'll walk you through it. It's a simple chakra extraction process and then you can use the Boss's energy as your own to break him out!} She began to protest as she remembered Sho's words the night he'd gotten energy from Shao Fukamichu. {This is different, Motoko-neechan. He's giving, not receiving. Your Thunder chakra will blend with his with ease. You'll need to get on him like you were before.}
The kunoichi blushed slightly as she rolled the comatose medic-nin onto his back and straddled his core once again. "Okay, now what?"
{How does the Prince wake the sleeping Princess in those stories you love?}
Hata's eyes went as round as dinner plates as her lips tried to express her conflicting feelings. "You mean… I… Sho-kun…"
{It's the easiest way to move chakra in a hurry, as Itou-neechan found out when she needed energy.}
"Kimi? Sho kissed Kimiko?" Motoko asked, stunned; that knowledge threw a slightly different light on her and Haruno's attitude in the emergency meeting when Sho mentioned a chakra transfusion. The light around her arms suddenly turned a mixture of dark green and red as she felt jealousy for and betrayal from the other kunoichi.
{It wasn't like that, Motoko-neechan. Neither she nor the Boss liked having to do it, but at the time it was the only way to get out of a bad situation. And Nakahito punched us in the face for it, the jerk... But because of it, he trusted her enough to ask her about you when your brother told him your feelings. She encouraged him to accept them despite his fears.}
"Oh..." Motoko breathed, feeling a swell of gratitude in her breast for such a good friend like Kimiko as her aura reverted to its natural colors.
She took a deep breath to center herself before leaning down to kiss Sho Inugami. As their lips touched, she could feel their chakra networks touch and merge, much as she had the times when he used his Mystical Palm to help her, but far more so!
It was as if Sho-kun had become an extension of herself and she were now a part of Sho at the same time: neither dominating the other - just a harmony so perfect that it was impossible to tell one from the other. It was terrifying and amazing all at the same time.
As the kiss continued, Motoko could feel the chakra pooling, just starting to compress upon itself, within Sho's belly as if it were in her own. She felt sluggish as she became aware of the dozens, hundreds, THOUSANDS of miniature barriers created by the medic-nin within his own mind to protect him from being constantly bombarded from his photographic memories.
'No wonder the Illusion Break wasn't working…' She realized. 'There are so many barriers here; I wasn't reaching the right one to break!'
Drawing the near-overflowing energies from where they were pooling, Motoko pulled Sho's chakra into herself, kissing him deeply. As the energy passed through the kunoichi, she stripped it of the negative feelings filling the medic-nin and replaced them with positive ones: her compassion, her desire to help, and, most important of all, the love that she felt for him, but had never been able to express aloud - a love that had been INCREASED with the knowledge of Inugami's dark secret rather than destroyed as the medic-nin feared even more than he feared his deeper power.
The cascade of now positively-infused chakra swept across the medical ninja's internal barriers. It ignored the ones that Inugami had made out of mental self-preservation – to keep from constantly reliving his memories – and struck only the ones that kept Sho asleep.
{That's PERFECT, Oneesan!} The voice cheered, as Motoko's and Sho's chakra connection separated, followed swiftly by their lips as she felt embarrassed for taking advantage of him. {It wasn't the same as the original triggering of power, but it was sufficient that I was able to push him to the next part of the dream! It's not pleasant, but it's no danger to anyone else...}
Motoko Hata felt a longing for the unity that she and Sho-kun had shared for those brief moments, but deep in her soul she knew that unless Sho Inugami was actively seeking that unity, she would never experience it again except in her memories.
She looked at the silvery spot in Sho's aura as a small portion of the black color shifted to a more pleasant-looking mixture of lavender and orange/yellow. Even though she knew the voice lacked an awareness of the world around him and wouldn't know the difference if she'd been looking elsewhere, it made her feel like she was looking the child in the eye. "Should… Should I wake him up?"
{Nah… Like I said, the memory sucks, but if we wake him now, he'll probably try to Forced Sleep himself again and we'll be right back where we started if he falls back into the nightmare. And I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted from linking up the Boss's chakra network – it's not part of my normal duties and I wasn't sure I could even do it. We're just lucky it worked…}
Hata climbed off of Inugami, her self-embarrassment quotient filled for the foreseeable future. "Still, I hate leaving him in such a nightmarish memory/dream thing… Isn't there something I can do to help him have happy dreams?"
A mental shrug. {Is your singing voice still as good as I remember?}
"Reeehhh?! Singing?" She squeaked in confusion at the question.
{Yeah. Sound and scent are the most powerful senses when someone's asleep. We can't make fresh Rakugan cakes, the Boss's favorite desert that Saki-obaasan used to make for us to make him think of those times. I doubt you have any cherry blossom and rose oil perfume either, so we need a song. Saki-obaasan used to sing to us when we had a bad dream or couldn't get to sleep.}
The voice gave the impression of an arched eyebrow. {Don't you enjoy singing anymore? I remember when we used to play Hana Ichi Monme... It was your favorite game when we were in the pre-Academy school; you used to sing your heart out.}
The kunoichi flushed slightly – she kept forgetting the child's voice WAS part of Sho Inugami and had his memories. "No! No... I-I-I can s-sing. It's just I don't feel all that confident when other people are around... For Sho-kun's sake, though, I'll... I can do it." Motoko Hata answered as she took a deep breath to try and shore up her trembling courage.
She knew in her heart of hearts that neither Sho nor the voice would be judgmental of her singing, but being the sole performer and center of attraction still scared the kunoichi. The green-eyed, fiery-haired swordswoman racked her emotionally overloading brain for a song that she could remember all the lyrics to, but swiftly came to the realization she was drawing a complete blank.
{Then just pick something with a peaceful tune, Motoko-neesan; it's not like the Boss will be aware enough to know the difference.} The voice encouraged the kunoichi before she could paralyze herself with indecision.
"H-Hai... I can do that." Motoko agreed as she took a fresh breath; a wordless tune from her own childhood popped to the front of her mind.
She opened her mouth and began to sing. Her voice was a soulful alto as she sang the simple melody that rose and fell gently and would tug at the strings of anyone that had anything with a passing semblance of a heart.
Motoko's mother had taught it to her when she was very young, saying it was a song that her own mother - Motoko's grandmother - sang before her death when Motoko's Kaasan was a mere child.
She imagined it was the song of a young woman who had loved and lost her life because of circumstances beyond her control, but had never given up on her love.
{Motoko-neechan…} Unconscious breathed, awestruck. {I never knew you'd become such an amazing singer!}
Hata's cheeks turned nearly as red as her hair. Sho-kun's compliments were rare and far between, even if this one WAS coming from a part of Sho-kun's mind, it was as good as the real thing, right? After all, it WAS probably something Sho-kun would say if he was awake at the moment.
With that realization firmly in her mind, it still took every fiber of her resolve to not dissolve into the mushy love-stricken state that such a compliment would cause. There was still too MUCH riding on this successfully working to allow her normally timid nature to take over... Sho-kun and the others were counting on her; even if they didn't know it.
{M-Motoko-neesan!} The voice said excitedly. {The nightmare is beginning to shift, keep it up!}
Motoko Hata looked down at Sho Inugami's sleeping body. The boyish fragment of Sho-kun's mind was right on the money: the black void that had swallowed the medic-nin had shifted drastically in the few minutes since the swordswoman had begun singing. The medic-nin's aura had turned emerald green for the most part, but also had a large section of pale pink creating a moat for small islands of gray, black, red in addition to the silver representation of the voice. As the gray and red islands shrank down to mere thumbnail-sized dots, the rictus of horrified terror that had been on his face finally eased into a look of peace.
Sho's subconscious was ecstatic. {You did it, Motoko-neechan, you did...}
Abruptly the silver patch vanished from Sho Inugami's aura as if it had never been.
"Hey... Hey! Are you still there?" The kunoichi called, worried that there was some new problem in the making.
The skin around Sho Inugami's eyes clenched slightly as a soft, painful sounding moan escaped his lips. The two-tone eyes fluttered open just enough to allow a blurry image to fill the medic-nin's brain. The half-awake young man seemed to look at her. "Un...dine Kawa?" He asked sleepily.
'The Goddess of the River Country..? Why would he say that?' Motoko wondered momentarily before the leaned forward to brush his bangs from his forehead and smiled lovingly down at him. "It's okay, Sho-kun... I'm right here and I'll be keeping an eye on you. Now relax... You need your sleep..."
"Gee... My very own Goddess protecting me... Let's see that Demon try and get out now..." The medic-nin slurred as his eyes rolled up into his skull as he fell back into the arms of sleep.
As Inugami's breathing returned to its sleeping rhythm, the hand-sized silver island popped back into existence in the young man's aura and all the dark colors, save for a thumbnail-sized dot of black, disappeared altogether.
The mental voice of Sho's unconscious yawned as it woke up. {Sorry for cutting out like that, Motoko-neesan. I cannot function when the Boss is awake as I said before. Anything happen while I was out?}
"He called me Undine Kawa for some reason and instantly relaxed. Any idea why?"
The voice giggled. {I know you looked in the mirror to see your Reikigan, but did you actually look at yourself, Motoko-neechan? In that liquid-looking silk nightgown and with those gorgeous red-gold locks of hair of yours, you could have been the model for that mosaic of the River Goddess. In his half-awake state - heck, even when he's fully awake - the Boss thinks of you as an angel; you just got upgraded to Goddess in his mind.}
The kunoichi swordswoman felt her spine turn to pure mush. This time Sho-kun himself had given her probably the compliment of all compliments; she'd just needed a translation to understand it. The fact that he'd not been fully awake made the young man's words all the more powerful... They were pure, honest emotion from the normally closed off medic-nin; given without conscious forethought.
The young woman yawned as the adrenaline rush from trying to save Sho-kun's life began to wear off. "I'm so sleepy..." She looked blearily at the silver speck in the medic-nin's aura. "Hey... Would you be able to wake me up if he falls into that nightmare or something like it again?"
{I dunno...} The boyish voice said with a mental shrug. {My own power is almost completely depleted for the night and I still have to handle my normal duties. I doubt I'll be able to talk to you again anytime in the near future; it takes a lot of effort for me to talk in words instead of feelings and thoughts.}
The kunoichi nodded understandably. "Then I'll just stay here beside him; just to be on the safe side." She felt herself blush at the appearance of being forward.
The voice sounded surprised. {All night? You're nearly at your own limits already, Ms. Motoko.} There was a now of worry in the child's voice.
Motoko Hata nodded. "Sho-kun would do the same for me without thinking twice about it if our roles were reversed." She answered, confident enough in her knowledge of Sho Inugami's feelings towards her to say that unhesitatingly. The kunoichi knew that she would never be able to tell the medic-nin that she KNEW about his feelings towards here - much as Sho-kun hadn't after Raiden spilled the beans. They were still at a stalemate, but at least now she had the benefit of knowing with absolute certainty that they WERE playing Shogi.
{You really are something special, Oneesan...}
"Is that your opinion or his?"
A mental wink as the presence faded away; its attention turning inward. {It's unanimous between all three of us: the Boss, my counterpart and I.}
The kunoichi felt a thrill of pure ecstasy course through every single nerve of her body. Again, it was not as good as hearing the words she really wanted to hear from Inugami, but for now, they'd do.
Tears of joy and relief from the assurance that her feelings were the same as Sho-kun's - although he played the cards close enough to the vest to leave her guessing at times - welled up in her eyes. The light of his aura faded from view as her new eyesight reverted to normal. She reached over and dimmed the lights in their little hideaway.
"Oh, Sho-kun..." Motoko wept with joyful sadness as she laid her head on the medic-nin's chest again. The strong, steady beating of his heart rang like a pleasant gong in her ears. "I... I know you won't remember any of this when you wake up in the morning, but for now, can I at least dream of a future when you can trust me with everything you keep buried deep in here..?" She placed her hand on his muscular pecs, blushing slightly at her forwardness. "And this time when I do, I'll know that it could happen; that it isn't all a mere fantasy..."
As the kunoichi breathed her wish aloud, Motoko Hata's heart slowly, imperceptively altered its rate until it mirrored the sleeping medic-nin's until she finally drifted off to join him.
* * *
Date: April 24th, 13 years following the Kyuubi's attack
Days since Teams 11 & 13 reached Mizumiyo Palace: 6
Time: 1:30 AM
After a few brief hours of semi-restful slumber, Sho Inugami woke.
He blinked his eyes; he was still exhausted and was feeling an odd weight on his chest. Glancing at the one monitor visible from his futon, he saw that he'd been asleep for less than three hours.
"Damn…" He muttered to himself. "I must have had a nightmare and Hata-san broke my Forced Sleep technique." Inugami tried to sit up, but the weight held him back. "What on earth?"
Activating his Mystical Palm jutsu, the security closet was filled with its gentle green light.
"Hata-san..?" The medic-nin breathed in stunned surprise as he saw that she was the weight holding him down. Motoko lay with her cheek against his chest, ear directly over his heart. One leg straddled his and her slim, but strong, arms gripped him like a koala on a tree.
His mind began to spin as he tried to imagine what kind of nightmare he must have had for the normally shy young woman to be willing to sleep in such a position.
Then, in the healthy gloom, he noticed some early bruising starting to form on her upper back and some swelling on the back of her head. She'd fallen over when he'd first teleported into the room, but there was no way these were from that…
"Oh, Gods, I must have been thrashing about in my sleep and hit her…" Sho breathed in horror as cupped the back of her head with his glowing hand, healing the swelling instantly.
As the minor injury disappeared, Motoko Hata moaned in her sleep, where she was now independently dreaming of them in the future. Her hand tightened on the side of his chest in a sleeping hug. "Anata wa akumade wanai, Sho... Daisuki no hana eien ni, Sho-sa…"
You're no demon, Sho… I love you forever, Sho my love.
Inugami's heart began to pound even as he stopped breathing for a moment in stunned shock.
Sure, he'd known about her feelings thanks to her brother, but to hear them from her own lips – even if she were asleep – was an amazing revelation. The fact that she was using the almost the same words she'd used as she'd died in his dream made her words echo in his mind like the ringing of a temple bell.
The medic-nin reached down and pulled the blanket of his futon up over her shoulders; afraid to disturb the sleep of this goddess made flesh.
"I love you, too, Ha…" He whispered softly as he cleared away the last of the bruising, but paused, confident she was asleep. "...Motoko-san; even if I am a Demon…"
And with that, he ended the glow and returned to sleep; quickly finding himself back in the kitchen with Grandma Saki and Motoko Hata enjoying freshly baked Rakugan cakes while chatting about the day's adventures they'd shared...