Demon's Bride Ch: 15

Groaning softly, Naruto slowly started to open his eyes. To be honest, he had no idea how long he had been out for but figured that maybe him being ambushed in Hinata’s apartment by two demons, with one of them in a tight revealing outfit was only a dream. Chuckling to himself, he yawned softly before he started to rub his eyes mumbling “Hinata… you up?” He sighed in content before he started to look around… and noticed that he wasn’t in the apartment anymore. “No…” He shot up in his bed and looked around trying to figure out where he was… there was no way that he could be in Demon Realm right now!

Checking his pocket, Naruto sighed softly when he felt that Hinata’s comb was still in his pocket that was something at least. “Where am I? A cell?” He mumbled to himself, not really sure what it was that was going on.

“To be honest, you are… you were placed here to be detained until your hearing.” Said a new voice, causing Naruto to look up in confusion at the new voice. Naruto just narrowed his eyes at the demon, not wanting to trust him. Demons could never be trusted, not with how some of them wanted to kill him for his power… however that was supposed to work, he had no idea… but he knew that demon’s wanted it… The man walked out of the shadows and made himself visible as he said “you do know that I can get you to work with me… like this.” He held out his index finger and shoot out a bolt of thunder at the fox causing him to yelp in shock and fall over.

“What the fuck!?” shouted Naruto before he glared at the man, getting a better idea of what he looked like. The man was tall, with grey hair that pointed upward and of course, defied gravity. He had a black eye with the left eye covered in some kind of black headband that just seemed to flow behind him and the cloth also reached just below his neck. He wore a simple dark blue pants, a green vest and fingerless gloves, also he wore a mask that covered half of his face from his nose and down his neck, and of course, Naruto noticed that he had pointed ears at the sides of his head... The man crossed his arms as he stared at him with his visible eye as if trying to figure out what was wrong with Naruto… Though to be honest, he didn’t know what it was that he’d be looking for.

“What happened to your eye?” asked Naruto with a frown.

The man just sighed before grabbing a chair and sat by the cell bars and stared at Naruto with his one eye. The way he stared at him sorta made him nervous… The man didn’t say anything, as if preparing himself for something that he could do or say to Naruto. Suddenly, the man said “it’s better off closed, that’s all you need to know. Now, I am Kakashi Hatake, I was asked to speak for you at the hearing.”

Frowning, Naruto tilted his head as he asked “hearing? What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything wrong.” He tried to think back to when he was ambushed in his home, though no matter what, he just couldn’t think of it for the life of him. Breathing deeply, the young man had tried to think on what he could do but nothing came to mind… He just couldn’t think of what he had done wrong for the demons to think that he had done something that would require him to come to a hearing.

“You are accused of killing Kuro Takeo Junior… I want to hear your side of the story Naruto…” Kakashi said softly, wanting to sound calm for him so he wouldn’t cause problem or at least distress Naruto.

Though of course, the fox demon just glared at him, not sure if he could trust this guy. After all, the guy had only been assigned to help him but nothing more. Baring his fangs at him, Kakashi just sighed before holding up his index finger once again and sent a shock through Naruto’s body causing him to fall over and groan. “Stop being a brat Naruto and just tell me what had happened?”

“Stop shocking me! What the fuck kind of demon are you!” shouted Naruto.

“I’m a thunder wolf, dog mix.” Kakashi said with a sighed before he started to pull out a brief case and started to pull out a note book and paper. Looking up at Naruto, he calmly said “now… tell me what happened to have everyone think you killed Kuro in cold blood…”

Naruto sighed softly, not sure if he could do this… He didn’t know if he could really tell Kakashi anything, though to be honest if he was being accused of this, then he would have to do this. Sadly though, Naruto knew that he would have to tell them something or else there was a good chance that Naruto wouldn’t see Hinata again, the thought of that caused pain to shoot through his heart and soul. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, the young man had to think back on the whole thing…

Looking up at Kakashi for a moment, the young man asked “would you even believe me? I know no one ever really believes me other than my parents.” He frowned a bit, not thinking that the thunder demon would ever really believe him… hell, he figured that he would end up being thrown in jail anyway after the hearing and court. The thought of that bothered him, there was no way of knowing what would happen yet he had a god feeling that it would happen either way. The fox would never see his chosen again… and now, he would have to deal with this agonising pain that would bother him until either he would be thrown into jail or sentenced to death.

Breathing deeply, Naruto started to go on with his story. “I was staying in the human world with a woman named Hinata. I needed a place to stay so she offered me her home. I was grateful…” Okay, he wasn’t really grateful at the time since he was saved by her though he wasn’t going to mention that to this guy. Then he’d know that he was saved by a human… That was the last thing that he needed from this guy was to be criticized by anyone about being saved by a human and not being grateful in the end.

“Staying with her for a while, I started to see her as a friend, and tried to keep her safe as best as I could. Though she was late coming home one day and I went to find her, seeing that she was being attacked. Someone had sent a Poison Demon after her…” Naruto wanted to growl at that part, though his look was giving that away for him. It was easy to see that the mere mention of Gaidoku made him want to rip something apart…

“Did you say a ‘Poison Demon’? But that doesn’t make sense, they were all killed off….” Kakashi said with a blink of his visible eye.

“I did… I saw him with my own eyes and he was after Hinata. I almost died fighting him or at least I was very low on chakra after the fight.” Naruto said with a frown and started to wipe his face. It seemed just thinking about that battle almost wore him out, though he was still thankful that Hinata’s chakra was still within him, and able to keep him strong for a good long while. “I didn’t get a chance to kill him though, he disappeared and said his ‘master’ would come back for her…”

“His master?”

“Yes… I didn’t know who he was to be honest but I wanted to find out… After a while, I went to pick up Hinata from school and that was when I saw her talking to someone. I got closer and saw that it was Kuro, pretending to be a human.” Looking up, Naruto saw that Kakashi was looking a little curious about the whole thing. That was something, he didn’t look angry or anything of the sort. In fact, he was just very curious about the story that he was telling him.

“I had a feeling that I knew Kuro from somewhere, but I couldn’t think of where it was from. I tried to warn Hinata about him, but she wouldn’t believe me…” That memory still hurt him, it made him think back to when he believed that she hated him, but he knew that she didn’t hate him. She had just been angry because he had insulted her and he still wanted to make up for it. Breathing deeply, he went on. “Hinata got mad and slapped me, saying that she never wanted to see me again so, I left for a while, not wanting to see Hinata with him.”

Kakashi started to write some things down, it made Naruto wonder if he had to write this to be sure that it was true. Though he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure what it was that the man was writing but for now, he would just have to deal with it, he didn’t want to think of what the man was really writing and just wanted this whole thing to be over and done with.

“I hadn’t slept well for a while and that was when I knew what I had to do… Or at least I got help. Another demon wanted to help me keep Hinata safe, so we followed Hinata and Kuro on their date, and… I don’t remember what happened much after that because I passed out. Sasuke told me that they left and we followed.” Naruto said before leaning his head against the bars as he tried to keep himself calm and relax himself, no matter what the memory kept bothering him of ‘what could have happened’….

“A masked woman had been there, keeping Hinata safe until Sasuke and I arrived… I fought Kuro, and was close to getting killed.” He placed a hand on his chest, feeling the wound still, and just how cold he had felt from the ice sword. Tightly shutting his eyes, Naruto wanted to forget so much, the sight of Hinata looking down at him, thinking he was going to die…

“You alright?” asked Kakashi.

“I’m fine… I almost died though, but I was saved by Hinata… After that, I fought Kuro, and the Poison Demon had showed up and had almost hit me until he missed with some weird dagger. I didn’t know what more would happen though before I killed Kuro Gaidoku had left, leaving his master alone.”

“So, you did kill Kuro?” asked Kakashi.

“Yes, but only because I was protecting Hinata, and myself. I didn’t care what happened to me, but Hinata had to stay safe. She had her whole future ahead of her… I didn’t. Not to mention, from what I knew Kuro had been killing human women for years…” Naruto said with a small shrug, he moved his head away from the cell as he stared at Kakashi and went on with the story. “After that, I left with Hinata, though she was still a little mad because I, myself had almost killed a human getting chakra though I think it was because she didn’t want the guilt of a human’s death on her just so she could live.”

“So, do you know who this masked woman is?” asked Kakashi.

“No… I only know that she is a fox demon. To be honest, the woman never removes her mask, one time though her mask was damaged but it repaired itself.” Shrugging, Naruto calmly said “though she’s helped us a lot, I don’t know what it is that she wants but… I haven’t complained since she’s helped Hinata a lot….”

“Is that all Naruto?”

“Yeah…. I only killed Kuro in self-defence… Hinata would have died if I hadn’t killed him… not to mention, I saved hundreds of human’s lives.” Said Naruto before he leaned back a bit on his chair as he sighed softly.

Kakashi nodded before pushing himself up onto his feet. “Okay, this will work for us I believe Naruto. Just wait here for a while and the hearing should begin shortly. I don’t know when, but it shouldn’t take too long now.” With that, Kakashi started to walk off, leaving the young fox demon alone to his thoughts.

***

It had taken a few hours, though right now Naruto was sitting down at a bench as Kakashi sat next to him. It was rather annoying that he had to stay quiet about the whole thing, it just sucked to be honest. Though at least he had Kakashi speaking for him thanks to all the info that he had given him. Well, all but Hinata being his chosen. He just couldn’t give that information to anyone. The only one that really knows is his parents, Sasuke and… Hinata. He had finally told her and hoped that would be all he needed to do for now.

Looking around, Naruto saw five demons sitting down on a high chairs and a high table where they could read over some of the files that have been submitted to them. Though, they wore mostly hoods but he could at least make out from the symbols, there was the Dog Clan, Cat Clan, Hawk Clan, Snake Clan, and Raven Clan. There sure were a lot of them, though at least there would be a tie breaker.

Letting out a soft sigh, Naruto turned to Kakashi as he asked “will everything be alright?” Kakashi turned to Naruto and could only nod, they had to make sure that it was quiet for everyone or else they would get in trouble. Hell, he had taken a risk just speaking now to Kakashi though it seemed that they were far too busy with chatting to each other trying to make sure that everything was prepared for the hearing.

Frowning a bit more, the young man wondered what would happen in the long run… he just hoped that he would be able to get out of here with proof that he had fought in self-defence and nothing more. Though with how a lot of people hate him or stay away from him there would be no idea what would happen to him if he lost the trial or if he would end up losing anyway. Oh god just thinking about it scared the crap outta him but knew that he had to be careful or else his stress would be sensed by some of the demons that could sense emotions like he could…

“Now, we shall process with the hearing of Prince Naruto Uzumaki of the Fox Clan, and the death of Prince Kuro Takeo of the Ice Wolf Clan.” Said the head of the Dog Clan. Naruto wanted to groan, did they have to have the full titles with their names or was that to make him feel bad that a prince, killed another prince for whatever reason they think it is. “Naruto, you have been charged with killing Prince Kuro in cold blood, by his father Kuro Senior.” Was Kuro a popular name with their family or what? “King Kuro, please step out.”

Soon, a tall man that was an older version of his son Kuro came out. The man was tall for sure in demon standards… his black hair was a little grey from age though he was still powerful for his age. Hell, the man was older than his own parents and that was saying a lot. The man, Kuro Senior was wearing a black robe with some icy blue swirl patterns which made Naruto know for sure, that he was part of the Ice Wolf Clan.

“I would like to go over some facts if that is alright with you council.” Said King Kuro before he saw them nod. “Thank you.” Coughing into his fist, Kuro started on with his story. “For years now, I have thought my son was dead… I didn’t think my wife and I could ever recover from the loss. Then, we were told that our son, Kuro was in fact alive… until…” He soon turned his gaze onto Naruto, hardening his gaze into a hard glare. “Prince Naruto, killed him in cold blood… Kuro did not deserve to die and yet my son was slayed for no reason!”

Naruto started to growl, the guy was lying! He had never killed anyone in cold blood and Kuro had a reason to be killed! He was killing innocent women and he was almost about to kill Hinata, his chosen! No one fucks with another demon’s chosen no matter what anyone says.

Kakashi soon rose in his seat to stand before making his way toward the council. “If I may, I’d like to say what happened, in Naruto’s words…” Kakashi had said with a calm aura flowing around him. It seemed that Kakashi was sure of himself, sure that he wouldn’t lose this hearing to the point where he wouldn’t have to go to court in the first place.

“You may Kakashi Hatake.” Said the Cat Demon.

“Thank you.” Kakashi coughed into his hand before he went on with his story, well, Naruto’s story but maybe a slight shorter form of it. “Naruto has told me that he was living with a woman while he was in the human realm. He had become friends with her which, as many people know is a huge step for him because he has never trusted anyone.” Naruto stared in shock… he knew that he didn’t trust anyone? He didn’t even tell him that…

Kakashi looked back at Naruto for a moment when he saw the shocked expression on his face. Turning back to the council, he went on. “He had been staying with her for a while and had gone to her school the one day to get her because of attacks that everyone, both in the demon and human realms knew were happening and wanted to keep her safe. And, it just so happens that it was a good thing that he had gone back, for… there was a demon chasing her, and trying to kill her.”

People started to whisper among themselves before the Hawk Demon said “what makes this connected to Kuro’s death Kakashi?”

“The demon that had attacked the woman, was working for his master… Naruto had managed to defeat the demon, and then they met again much later.” Kakashi walked further toward the council before adding “Naruto had a bad feeling about the man that the woman had been talking to, and it just so happened, to have been Kuro.” People blinked in shock. “Apparently, Kuro had been a student in a human medical school… and that was how Naruto found Kuro. Naruto of course had a bad feeling about him and told the woman not to go near him yet she didn’t believe him to be dangerous.”

“Again Kakashi, what does this have to do with Kuro?”

“Let me finish council… and you shall know.” Kakashi glared at them for a brief moment, feeling the electricity sparking in the air for a brief moment making everyone go silent. Inhaling softly, Kakashi went on. “Not wanting to take chances, Naruto, and a friend, had gone to make sure that Hinata was safe… so they followed the two and sadly… Naruto had blacked out before Kuro left with the woman.”

Naruto clenched his hands into tight fists, just wanting this whole thing to be over and done with… he wanted to be with Hinata, to hold her in his hands and nothing more. Sadly, he knew that he had to sit… and wait. “Naruto had managed to find the two of them, and Naruto fought Kuro hoping to protect the woman.”

“But what if she was with Kuro of her own free will?” asked King Kuro.

“That may be true, she did have the choice but… have you forgotten your mate’s ability to attract the opposite sex with an alluring scent that would have them completely unaware of them going with that demon and believe it to be their own choice? The woman, had been affected by that scent of your son’s because he is part Ice Demon, much like your mate, which makes him part of the Ice Wolf Clan because your clan, have always been Wolf Demons that mate with Ice Demons… hence, you’re powers.”

Naruto’s eyes widened in shock that was why Hinata went with him? It wasn’t her own choice? It had been that ability? Man, he really had to pay attention to be honest in those lessons that his parents tried to give him. Yet it made sense, Hinata’s sudden change of personality when he talked about how Kuro wouldn’t have gone with her… and why at that time of all times… Because… he was using his ability to lure her to go with him…

King Kuro growled as he said “but how are you sure, that Kuro was using that ability. My source had told me that Kuro was protecting his chosen! A woman named Hinata Hyuuga, a human woman.” Everyone in the room gasped out in shock hearing that Kuro had a chosen, a human chosen.

Naruto’s eyes started to glow red, his anger was starting to radiant from his body, his own demonic chakra growing with his rage. “Kuro was protecting his chosen from this… monster. He never came back because he was afraid to let anyone know that his chosen was a female human… and Naruto, was jealous of such a union and wanted it for himself, and just killed Kuro like that hoping to take Hinata for his own.”

“You bastard!” shouted Naruto before he went to lung for him. Only to be stopped by Kakashi with… amazing strength for his clan… “I’ll kill you, do you hear me! I’ll kill you for making up those lies about my-“ He cut himself off and bit his lip only to scream out in pain as he felt a shock go through his system… and fall to the ground… hard.

“Council, may I call for a recess?” asked Kakashi.

“Of course, there is no way of knowing if it is true, that Kuro was in fact, with a human woman for sure unless we bring in this… Hinata.” Said the Snake Demon.

“Give me some time and I can see if someone can go find her.” Kakashi said with a bow before he lifted Naruto and carried him over his shoulder and started to walk away.

***

Itachi sat down on his chair outside of the hearing hall. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he wondered what he could do. It was bad enough that two demons had a tough time just capturing one demon, but for his own brother to get involved with the Fox Prince? That was another story. Letting out a soft sigh, he ran a hand through his long black hair as his dark black eyes looked saddened by the whole thing… He knew that he had to do something to help but what? He didn’t know what he could do and had a good feeling that he wouldn’t know what to do since he brought the Fox Prince to his jail cell.

Though he knew that the law was the law… it was why he was the guy to go to in order to bring in the demons that have broken the law if they try to put up a fight. His ability to control or hypnotise people to do what he wants… it works. Shaking his head, he leaned back in his seat as he wondered what he could do… To be honest, he was a little bored… and had hoped that he had brought a book with him though he didn’t know what he could do.

“Itachi.” Said a voice, causing Itachi to blink and turn his head as he saw Kakashi walking over to him. “I need you to do me a favor…” Kakashi said with a sigh, soon Itachi turned his head and saw a passed out fox demon. Itachi raised an eyebrow at Kakashi as he tried to figure out what had happened. “Naruto went a little berserk… I think this ‘Hinata’ woman means more than he says… I need you to find her and bring her here, she may be able to shed some light on everything for us.”

“I need something of hers to track her though.” Itachi said with a sigh before pushing himself up onto his feet. Kakashi soon grabbed something from his pocket, a small bag. “A baggie? Really Kakashi, a baggie?” That was something new, what the hell did that bag have anything to do with him finding this woman?

“I found a hair brush in Naruto’s pocket while he was out cold. It smells like a woman and I think it may be Hinata’s. But the only other person to know if it is hers is your brother… Maybe he knows…?” Kakashi said with a frown on his face.

“Sadly, I cannot talk to Sasuke because I’m his brother… But I will make sure that it is her… Can you open Naruto’s eyes for a moment or at least shock him awake?” Kakashi nodded and set Naruto down on the chair and sent a shock through his core… Naruto of course yelped in surprise and his eyes widened in shock when his gaze met with Itachi’s now red eyes. “Naruto… I want you to answer me this… and this alone… is this Hinata’s hair?”

He held out the bag of hair, opening it a moment for Naruto to get a whiff. Naruto closed his eyes, holding a dreamy sort of look to him for a brief moment. “Yes… it is Hinata’s scent… her… her lovely scent…” Odd how he acted that way but perhaps it had something to do with what Naruto was hiding from everyone…

“Naruto, what does Hinata mean to you?” asked Itachi.

“Hinata… she… she is…” Soon, Naruto bit his lip, hard to prevent himself from speaking. He wouldn’t allow himself to speak… He had bitten his lip so hard that it had started to bleed, which made Itachi frown for a brief moment. “H… Hi… Hina…”

“Do not force yourself Naruto… go back to sleep. Awaken, when you feel another shock through your body.” Itachi said with a calm voice as he watched Naruto slowly started to fall asleep. Standing upright, Itachi calmly said “I’ll check it out, because I have Hinata’s scent, it shouldn’t be too hard for him to track her down now that he had her scent… A portal that will automatically take him to her home… or at least to where she was… it should be perfect to track her no problem.

“It may take me a while but it should be enough time to get her to the hearing.” With that, he snapped his fingers as a portal formed. Opening the bag, Itachi tossed it and watched as the portal turned lavender and blue as it swirled together within the portal without them fusing together. “I sense something about the portal as it fused with Hinata’s hair… Because the hair had been with him for so long… his feelings had infused themselves within the strands. There is something between those two.” Itachi said softly before turning back to Kakashi. “Just make sure he stays asleep, though I didn’t put too much power into getting him to sleep so in case he doesn’t start to cool down from the shock, use that eye of yours to help you calm him down.”

“You know what that does to me.” Kakashi said with a sigh.

“I know…” He sighed softly as he looked back up at the portal. This may be the only chance they had to save Naruto, sure many people may think it is better that he is dead though he couldn’t allow that to happen. Sure, Itachi didn’t like fighting anyone, he was after a pacifist but that didn’t mean that he was going to stop another’s destiny… At least so long as there was hope that it would bring peace for others.

“Itachi, do you have anything that would help Hinata know that you do want to help Naruto?” asked Kakashi.

“I do… I have something that I swiped from Naruto while he was asleep. He won’t even notice it’s gone until I reveal it during the hearing.” He chuckled a bit before walking into the portal. Oh yeah, this was going to be rather interesting.

The journey through the portal didn’t take as long as he thought it would. Though maybe it was because of the emotions that were infused within the strands, would make the journey quicker, perhaps Naruto was always eager to return to Hinata… Why though? It wasn’t like he had to return to his- wait… was it possible that Hinata was…? ’Now this just makes things all the more easier to win for Naruto…’ thought Itachi as he went through the portal and soon… found himself on the other side.

Once he was on the other side, Itachi found a lovely woman with long blue hair standing in her apartment, which was still in the mess he left it in with the others. Odd that she hadn’t cleaned it up unless she either just got home or… she was distracted from something. Either way, he knew that she was needed in order to save Naruto…

“Miss, I need you to come with me. It involves Naruto.” Said Itachi, after that he saw Hinata turning to him with wide eyes, she almost looked like a deer in headlights to be honest.

“Who are you?” asked Hinata.

“My name is Itachi Uchiha… I am from the Demon Realm, do you know someone named ‘Naruto Uzumaki’?” Itachi calmly said.

“Of course I do… he’s been living here for a while now… Did something happen to him?” Hinata said with worry and concern in her voice.

“He was brought to Demon Realm for a hearing. They are to determine if the death of Prince Kuro Takeo was criminal in nature. They may end up charging him if they do not find the matter to be self-defence. The Ice Wolf King, Kuro says Naruto killed Kuro in cold blood.” Itachi said with his arms crossed.

Hinata just glared at him for a brief moment, it made him a little curious as to why she looked at him like that, and though maybe it was something he said? He didn’t really know, since he couldn’t read human emotions, or sense them for that matter. “How do I know what you say is true? Do you have Naruto at all?” asked Hinata.

Breathing deeply, the young demon reached into his pocket as he pulled something out… only for Hinata to gasp in shock. In his hand, was the sword charm that Naruto had in his pocket. It seemed that she knew what it was… Indeed, she knew what it was and for that, Itachi was thankful, it just made things a lot easier for the all. “That’s Naruto’s sword…” whispered Hinata in shock before she shook her head trying to get all of this shock out of her mind. “How did you…?” she asked.

“I don’t’ have much time to explain it to you Hinata, but what I can say, is that Naruto is close to going to court and getting the death penalty… You have to go as a witness or he’s dead.” Itachi said, hoping that she would go with him… this was the last thing that he needed. The only thing they both needed, was for the blue haired woman to come with him to the Demon Realm so they can hurry up and save Naruto… though that was only if she was going to go willingly… If not, he would have to take matters into his own hands.

“I’ll go… I’ll go to save Naruto.” Hinata said with a serious expression on her face. Finally, things were getting easier for them… Naruto may survive this after all, and for that Naruto would be so very thankful. With that said, they both left through the portal, hoping that it would have been enough time for them to get to the hearing since they had a short… very short recess…