Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.

Chapter 1-

In my darkest dreams I hear the rain and I see melted shadows on a horizon.

A thin shape with a black blade struggling to stand, grim and determined. An unarmed figure that was clearly a woman, her dress billowing and sinking into the black rain. A powerful man with a heavy blade and a shorter man with a shield propped up by another woman, impossibly thin and frail.

Before I can reach any one of them they all crumble into the dirt. Just ash now, burned by the rain.

There's another man though, standing just beyond the rain. And in my world of black and grey he beacons me away, red eyes challenging me to step under his red clouds instead and into a shower of blood.

Without pause I always pursue.

Sasuke Uchiha-

"You're quite the liar new guy." the sharp toothed man who spoke leered thickly at me but even so it would have been obvious it was me he was talking to, I was the only 'new guy' left alive after our earlier encounter. The pale haired man passed a card to his partner in whatever game they were playing and he beckoned for me to take the free seat at the table.

"I don't remember saying anything to you, never mind telling a lie." I took the seat offering him a sneer in turn before I found myself dealt in to the next hand. The man who had already spoken just shook his head, running a hand through his messy white blonde hair leaving it even more tangled.

"You don't have to talk to tell a lie new guy. Actually not talking usually helps." he muttered swearing a little as his gigantic friend won the hand. I wasn't quite familiar with the game yet just laying down cards when gestured to. Still grumbling the pale man offered me a significant look.

"You don't even know what the lie was do you?" he asked feigning innocence that didn't quite go skin deep.

"Well why don't you fill me in." I tried somehow winning the next deal. The crux of the game seemed to be having most of whatever card was 'in play', an additional card flipped after we were dealt our hands.

"Well you see, we take bets on who's most likely to die or survive out of the newbies. Now Juugo my man; who, who is safe money?" he continued losing another point as this Juugo played the better card. The orange haired behemoth only grunted vaguely though.

"Right, boys with shields, boys with enchanted charms, the ones that keep their heads down. Good odds they're making it. That other guy with two swords swaggering about like he'd a badass though, dead every time. Or used to be every time." The man finally succeeded in winning a hand shouting victoriously for himself before taking his turn as dealer.

"So you bet on me to die, and lost some coin?" I tried wondering where this was going exactly. Funny thing to make an enemy by not dying.

"I bet on you and lost, big guy here scored big though. Serves me right for betting against him, like that's ever worked out well." as if to prove the pale man's point Juugo easily took the next hand much to his friend's dismay.

"Suppose I ought to be flattered then." I remarked eyeing the ginger haired man for a moment, I'd originally figured he was just quiet to contrast his motor mouthed companion but I was beginning to wonder if he might actually be mute.

"Maybe, he said you were a Wo-may-king or something." returned the man waving awkwardly at the words pronunciation. Juugo offered him a glare.

"Womagki, Suigetsu." corrected the giant ending my suspicions that he may have been mute. The sharp toothed Suigetsu was quick to pronounce the word wrong again with an uncaring shrug.

"Whatever, means magic eater right. Red eyed Mystic eating demons. Juugo here hails from way south, got a whole book or two of superstitions for ya. They go with his freaky powers." If Suigetsu was offending him it didn't really show on Juugo's face, maybe he'd heard it often enough before or it could have just been his poker face.

"Magic eater huh, can't say I've ever tried that." my comment earned a laugh from the pale man but the ginger one seemed almost put off tilting his head to observe me a little more carefully. It was a heavy gaze and I wondered why I only knew that it should have bothered me, instead of actually feeling bothered. Maybe I was used to something similar.

"Right, I mean who would like. But you must have seen some combat before you joined us to this joke, I don't think half the Magnus Blades fight like you do." muttered the man only half sneering through the compliment. His eyes reflected a keen interest though, one that left me suspicion that there was still some other point to this impromptu get together.

"Magnus Blades?" I asked at the unfamiliar term. Elite warriors from the sound of it but from where I wasn't sure, the cities arm maybe. Certainly not anyone in this guard company. I'd taken to working for them a month back, protecting ships from pirates or coastal runs and the best warriors I'd seen so far were these two.

"Not a local then, they're the Colosseum's Champions. Legends the lot of them and pretty much unchallenged. Though I did hear that new Lady Captain in the City Watch trounced one or two of them." explained the cheerful swordsman. Tidying up the cards he leaned across the table a little conspiratorial.

"Why do I have a bad feeling all of a sudden?" I asked not sure if I should be worried or not as the pale haired man looked suddenly very abashed and his partner sighed heavily.

"It's because Suigetsu has a plan." offered the redhead voice a low tight re-verb.

"Hey now it's a good plan. See the Colosseum does these group matches and we've been looking for a third member, someone aggressive with a little speed would fit right in." explained Suigetsu in his defence, it certainly didn't sound like too bad of an idea. I'd only taken this job in the first place to break up the monotony.

Hinata wasn't going to like it though.

"You fight well, Womagki." chimed in the giant Juugo nodding to me in his approval, for some reason I got the impression that was a significant gesture.

"I'll have to think it over...and..." I felt myself trailing off as I pondered for a moment over the terminology. It still didn't flow quite freely from me no matter how many times I told myself it. Or she said it.

"And?" prompted the smaller of the pair at my hesitance.

"I'll need to talk to my wife about it." I left the table with one of the men as silent as when I'd arrived and the other one laughing up a storm at my expense.

Hanabi Hyuuga-

I was here again.

Maybe the only thing that unsettled me about it any more though had how comfortable I had grown in this other world. The rain fell up towards the sky and the gravity seemed poised to crush me, ready to force me to my knees if I tried anything more than a rigid walk. The high oaken doors of the House of Lost Things stood before me, the carved changing names seeming to be oddly inviting.

I pressed in as I had too many times before seeking out the Shadow or something else that might offer me answers.

I found the same person I always found though.

Her dress was stained in a way that must have been accidentally, a dirty black that spoke of the worst kind of care and her hair was tangled up in dust and spider webs. She was a too real shadow, a ghost I wanted nothing to do with. But I knew already exactly what she'd ask once she saw me. It seemed too ironic after so many times to even seem remotely funny.

"Have you seen Sasuke?" my own voice asked as the woman that looked like me on my worst day shuffled over grasping at me as her eyes pleaded for something, anything. I understood her desperation.

"No, I told you, he won't come here." not that I thought she'd listen this time. Not that I would have believed her either if the roles were reversed. I shook her free from my numb arm actually missing my prosthetic for at least it's utility, the girl crumbled in on herself the way she always did. The way I might have before I'd been a Raider, when I was just a girl.

"Then why are you looking here!" she hissed surprising me slightly as a cool anger slide across her paler features, like looking into an angry mirror it seemed. I swallowed a sigh and fixed her a look, the one I used on Gaara when explaining a rule or something he'd done wrong. It did grate that I knew a look like that so young though.

"Because someone here knows where he is, she might even be keeping him prisoner." I answered calmly as I dared. I didn't really think the Shadow had Sasuke, I didn't think she could keep him anywhere against his will. But she'd dropped hints the last time she'd appeared, lots of mocking hints that she knew more than she'd been sharing.

So I was going to try and interrogate a Goddess, minor deity or not.

"You just want him for yourself but he's mine." she shot back none of the venom leaving her tone. I wasn't even sure it was right to blame the girl from her hostility, she might have been based on my image but it was the Shadow giving her form and most likely stirring up her ire.

"I do, and if you haven't noticed I am you." she looked as if she'd been smacked as she stammered back a little searching for her voice as her grimy fingers and broken nails traced her chin roughly. The blaze in her eyes returned soon enough though.

"No, I'm Hanabi, Hanabi Hyuuga." she stated firmly shaking her head in a self assuring manner as if just saying the name gave her more clause to it. I snorted tersely shoving her back as she got a little too close again.

"Ya and I'm..." except my name wasn't coming out, at all. I was shouting it in my mind but it wouldn't seem to move past that. I frowned as my twin began to giggle at the trouble I was having.

"I know what you are, the damn Shadow explained it really quite well. You became Hanabi Hyuuga, so yes you are in a sense her. But you were someone else first, and this place knows that. It needs that name first. First name first not your new name." she explained scampering about like some beast more than a human, I glared at her remembering my own talks with the Shadow.

"We were one, when Sasuke exorcized the Shadow though he took you too." I found myself defending. Could only one of us use the name I wondered, in here. Then what made her more worthy.

"No, no, no. I was supposed to be one person but then you wormed your way in with me. And Hanabi was two but then you got rid of me. You became Hanabi, but you were someone else first. Someone mean and cruel and bad cause you hurt me, you stole from me." she was growing more feverish as she drew closer more and more deranged like a stalking beast. I shot a hand out and watched her go tumbling back hitting the far wall, hard.

And she burst into snow, and dancing ice that reflected my own flushed features back like a thousand judging eyes.

"Enjoying the game little one?" called a small voice from down the hall and I turned in time to glance a little girl dressed all in black grinning wickedly at the scene she watched. Then she vanished, running, and I hobbled after.

I was Hanabi dammit. I was Hanabi and nobody else whatever head games the Shadow wanted to play.

Sasuke Uchiha-

"You're, by the God's you're alive!" the shaggy haired captain sounded much too surprised to see me still breathing and above deck, I couldn't even recall actually meeting him so it was anybodies guess just when he'd placed a bet on me dying.

"It really wasn't much." though I hadn't much to compare it to, the group that had attacked the ship hadn't consisted of very impressive fights. Though I had to recall what Hinata had said about the warriors here on the Southern continent, she'd claimed they weren't up to the standards of where we'd been before. She was absolutely insistent I didn't take any jobs going to the North though, only small trips along the Southern coast.

"Not much heh-heh, you'll have to tell us of the 'not much' so. Over drink, yes!" he announced in a bellowing shout laughing along to whatever it was he found so funny. I shrugged in response unsure how I wanted to respond, we'd be back in the city just past nightfall and my priority should be...

"Thanks for the offer, but I need to check in with my wife." It still felt strange calling Hinata that, maybe when my memories came back it would come more naturally; when I could remember how we met, first kisses and things like that. She'd be worried though, she had been since I'd signed up for a job.

"Ah your wife yes, beautiful woman. She let you get on another boat though, big surprise. And your hair, you look like a pirate now heh-heh." the Captain continued gesturing to my overgrown hair. It was almost past my shoulders now so I suppose I did look like one of the many pirates, or I would if I added a few hair ornaments and got a face tattoo.

"Wait, you knew my wife?" I asked sure I was keeping the sudden possessiveness out of my voice.

"Aye aye, took you across remember? You, your lovely wife and the sister. And the boy too. Kept this I did, been offered boots filled with gold but I kept it I did." he belted out in his hearty voice pulling the sword on it's belt half free from its scabbard. It seemed pretty plain as weapons went so I had to assume there was some story I was forgetting about it.

Still. Wife and sister? And a kid too. Hinata hadn't mentioned anything about them. She hadn't mentioned a lot of things most I had accepted as either being too painful or difficult to explain. But this was something that needed an explanation.

Hinata Hyuuga-

"Hiya Auntie Hinata!" the voice chirped excitedly before I could even knock the door handle. The door was wrenched open not a moment later by the grinning redhead who seemed intent on dragging me inside the house. It was about as messy as a I expected from Hanabi with clothes and sheathed weapons lain around the room.

"Big sis is out back, practising." the way he said it held an air of reverence to it. I guess Hanabi must have made an impressive sight training these days. She'd taken to the use of the City's Magnus Blade's combat style, she'd been halfway there already but they had a much larger pool of Chaos magicks for her to chose from.

I'd caught a glance of her a couple of times. That massive shadow blade of hers cutting through the air in her empowered arm, it seemed almost like she'd been channelling the old Guard Captain of Naru himself. And that was to say nothing of her Chaos Magick, she'd blended enough passive strengthening to move like no natural human could, as fast or faster than those with Greater Gifts empowering them. And she threw fireballs, neon coloured magic fireballs, it was hard not to find that impressive.

"Right well I guess I'll start dinner then, are you gonna help me?" The boy nodded happily at the prospect dragging me along next to the small kitchen. I'd brought the ingredients myself in anticipation for our meal, Hanabi had a habit of forgetting to stock up for our get togethers.

"Okay, first we need some water. Two pots full." I gave my order's like a mission knowing how much the kid liked to play soldier, Hanabi's influence I was sure. He'd come a long way since we'd first arrived in the City, good days where he was a normal kid and bad days where he'd just curl up shouting and screaming every now and again but never saying a word.

Sometimes I felt guilty I'd left handling that to Hanabi.

The pots were on the stove bubbling, the meats already added and some bread baking when Hanabi entered the room pulling Gaara into a light hug as he greeted her. Then she gave the vegetables I was chopping as very lightly veiled suspicious look. I stifled a giggle.

"Big girl's like vegetables Hanabi." I teased and she pouted sending Gaara off to wash up. I wondered if I was going to have to order her off too.

"Yeah yeah, soldiers need meat though." she waved it off setting her sword off to the side of the table, then a knife followed by another knife and a smaller blade I knew could clip onto her artificial hand; a hand that's fingers were now moving in their disturbing sluggish magic powered way. I knew from experience there would be no talking her out of putting the weapons anywhere more than arms distance away.

"If you say so, since when was I Auntie Hinata by the way." I asked adding the vegetables to the meat enjoying Hanabi's slightly stricken look maybe a bit too much. Was I starting to look old, I was still in my twenties.

"Oh that, he learned about different members of the family in his studies. Seemed to think he had to have one of each so since you were older he figured you were Auntie Hinata." explained the soldier shrugging, it was her turn to look a little too pleased with herself though.

"Not fair." she laughed at my grumbling but I didn't mind so much.

"Anyway did you move, I dropped by your old place but it was empty." asked my sister leaning on her one good arm her eyes a bit too keen for her casual manner. We weren't that long back on good terms and I knew she feared I'd slip back into old habits. Drinking away my misery.

I knew I wouldn't, my fear was she'd find the reason for that though.

"Ya, I wanted a bit of a new start to I moved. I'm on the docks now, a houseboat. All the water's comforting." I answered purposefully leaving out a description of the ship. I'd have her around sometime, when Sasuke was away with his new found job.

"Hmm I can understand that. How long you staying anyway? I think Gaara would appreciate a few of your stories." she moved on seemingly relaxed. I was finding it a little unsettling though, after some time apart it was hard not to notice how different this Hanabi was from the one I'd grown up with.

"I think I can do that." It was nice telling Gaara tales of fierce-some dragons, heroic knights and guile maidens. It reminded me of the few good memories I had of the tower in Naru, of Sara and Orca.

Tenten-

"Seems like a world away since we last spoke you know." It had been a long time since I'd last really spoken to anyone really. Or at least anyone I'd really wanted to talk to. The man's face swivelled it's one good eye crackling open to stare blankly at me.

"I...how the hell did you even get here." he growled out moaning painfully as he shifted about in his chains back and shoulders clicking. I offered him a laugh that I hoped was mean spirited enough.

"Didn't take much, in case you haven't noticed, you're not the threat you used to be. Though I had a little help, they're probably not finding it as easy." I spoke and pulled free the blanket I'd brought with me tossing it over his ruined legs. They weren't exactly a pleasant sight, roughly and likely painfully sealed to keep him from bleeding out.

"There's no guards on me any more?" he sounded a little more alive at the prospect and I had to stifle a laugh at the genuine hope shining in him. Would I have to explain that he couldn't exactly fill his old armour any more.

"There were four, two weren't very good. They're dead now. And another pair that couldn't be offed, they're being distracted." I answered uncaring. Men with a Gift that bad at fighting really deserved no sympathy when they died. Though there seemed to be some of that in the Hatake's eye.

"And you're just a battery now. For the beast that took your legs. These chains feed him, keeping him alive coiling around the city walls." The massive dragon was an unsettling sight, devil's weren't supposed to come that big and they definitely weren't supposed to stay so long. It had taken a while to track down the reason for that, Gifted dissidents had been wrapped up to serve as it's power generator.

"The thing?" he asked eye confused as he shifted again painfully.

"Giant snake devil, made you into what you are today. Patrols the city wall keeping people from fleeing and taking their chances with the Daemons." I explained a little. There was a lot more to it really, he was just looking a bit too strung out to understand much more.

"I...Never got a good look at it." he remarked and I snorted, I bet he hadn't.

"Yeah well all that brings me to what I'm doing here. See I'm planning to do a little travelling, all packed and even a couple of maps that might hold up, only problem is I don't want a monstrous serpent devouring me. Really not keen on that. Some people offered me a way in here, an easy way, to get you out." I started folding my arms and wondering if he'd already figured out what I was really here for.

"Your getting rid of it's power then." he reasoned quickly, apparently the Hatake hadn't lost his sharp mind though he definitely wasn't all there yet.

"Yep, that chain breaks and the snake grows a bit more sluggish." I responded, a couple of more batteries removed and it might even dissipate, if not fall into hibernation.

"You're here to kill me." he whispered seeming about as concerned about that as most would be about the weather.

"Well yeah. You killed my friend, and I never did have many of those. And you seemed proud of it, rubbed me the wrong way you know." I didn't mind the chortle that came from him once I'd finished. Some people wanted to die laughing that was their own business. Still though...I didn't feel good about this. Those people were risking a lot to get their hero back.

"You wanna let me in on the joke?" I asked as he laughed like a drunk at happy hour. So he explained.

"Do you remember me rescuing you?" I called to the man pacing slowly through the room, he still didn't seem right on his feet but it was certainly an improvement. It might have even been impossible for anyone who lacked his genius. It was frightening to think what he might have achieved if he gave up the booze.

"No, I can't say I remember that." he answered with an easy shrug unconcerned as he stumbled a bit and righted himself.

"Was going to kill you." Again he reacted to this threat with no real concern, didn't even miss a step.

"Sounds about right." he remarked stopping and trying to walk backwards instead, this proved significantly more difficult for him though and each back step seemed like a trail.

"Yeah well, just wondering if you remember what saved you?" I asked making another supply note on my pad, the snake was half the speed it used to be now and if rumours were true Orochimaru was now sending some of his own Saints to act as temporary batteries as a form of corporal punishment.

"You're still planning on leaving then?" He asked in response his one good eye blank as he turned to me. He was getting the hang of pivoting at least.

"Of course Soldier boy, I'm a mercenary not a brave knight out to protect the innocent." I remarked stretching a little bit, the Hatake went back to his practice.

"Just wondering if you wanted me to pass along any messages. Should I happen among anyone we know." I offered watching as the warrior twisted quick enough to almost slip on his unsteady legs.

The Magnus Warriors of Blaac Callussen were famed warriors, all winners of the single combat tournament in the cities famed Colosseum.

Once they were victorious they were presented with an enchanted weapon. A rarity on the Southern Continent as iron ore was a rarity and the obsidian glass most weapons were crafted from rejected all but the most gifted Alchemist's enchanting.

Most were noted for skilled use of Magic in conjunction with their weapons either orderly or chaotic. In total there was a history of hundreds but there were only nine currently listed on the Colosseum boards, the rest either dead or retired.

Of them the uncontested best was a man known as Killer B, the Legendary Octopus. He was also the eldest and fought least often drawing the greatest crowd. His eight swords were said to be each tied to a different God but he'd never been known for ever needing more than one revealing only a storm and a greater fire enchantment.

When under attack it was said that any Magnus Warriors active were promoted to Generals in the city Guard.

First chapter on a not new story. I hope I haven't made anyone who liked Fading wait too long for this, and I hope the updates for this and my new story The Demon Queen keep coming quick.

Anyone leave a review if you like, set an alert if you wanna know more.

R&R