Oh god. I can't begin to say sorry for this taking so long guys! I have so much going on right now. I have to do a year of study in half that time, and it's left me with not much other time on my hands!

But to those of you who have been patient, and itching to see some action, then wait no more! Behold, the 4th chapter of Mercer's Progeny!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or Prototype. Though I wish I had Mercer's powers.... -sigh-

Chapter 4: Consumed by Death

The day had arrived.

It was the finals of the Chuunin Exams, and the tension in the air was so thick, you could poke it. (A.N. Yeah, the whole "Cut it with a knife" thing is way overused and old, so I made up a new one. I think it's alright –pout-)

Konoha had been under very strict laws since Hayate's disturbing revelation. The teams from Suna and Oto had been watched very carefully, but from a distance, to avoid suspicion. Jounin, ANBU and Tokubetsu Jounin had been called back from their missions within the week of the finals, and briefed on the situation. Sarutobi was on edge, not knowing just how Orochimaru might infiltrate Konoha, or even if he would.

"No, if I know Orochimaru, he'll definitely try and battle me directly somehow." Sarutobi mentally mulled. He knew how problematic it could be. Even being a Kage, his age had still taken its toll. If Orochimaru went all-out, there was no doubt Sarutobi could lose.

Baki's interrogation was a long and grueling process. In the end, it took the combined efforts of Morino Ibiki, Mitarashi Anko AND Yamanaka Inoichi to get him to confess. He had spilled a great deal about the plan. The attack would occur when Uchiha Sasuke was due to fight Sabaku No Gaara. Five large Snake Summons would breach the outer walls at five evenly spread out places, after which Suna and Oto nin would spill through the broken areas, effectively swarming Konohagakure at various locations. The plan was cunning, and somewhat bullheaded, but effective none the less. Tensions were high indeed.

However, through all the tension of the Konoha nin, none was as high as Gekko Hayate's.

During the month leading up to the finals, Hayate had been training in secret, even going as far as to decline several missions assigned to him. In that time, he had learned the extend of his speed and strength, and some new handy abilities of this "Black Flesh" as Hayate affectionately referred to it as.

The Flesh was not only able to cling him to walls, but it would also cushion his fall from a great height, though he would still dent the ground considerably. He also discovered just how strong he had become due to the Flesh. He discovered both of these facts on a mission to stop a powerful bandit gang. Hayate had been hesitant to accept the mission at first, but he thought of it as a way to test the extent of his abilities, despite his doubts that it may actually hinder him.

Needless to say, he was awestruck when he punched one of the bandits only mildly, and while he blocked, the bandit's forearm bones cleanly snapped. Hayate could hear it. The bandit leapt back in a world of pain, his left arm from below the elbow down was useless. Hayate lunged at the bandit while he was stunned and delivered a powerful kick to the bandit's head, but only powerful enough to knock unconscious……

……yet it knocked the bandit's head off.

Hayate's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. First, one of his half strength punches had cleanly broken the bandit's arm, then one of his knock-out kicks had knocked the deviant's head off. He looked at himself in awe.

"What in the nine levels of hell is happening to me…." Hayate pondered with a sense of fear. He went over what had happened to him in this past month.

He was injected with a large vial of black liquid that supposedly cured his condition.

He was stabbed in a vital spot, yet did not die. Or rather seemingly died but returned to life.

He could cling to walls, run incredibly fast, and land with the force of a cannonball, all without the use of chakra.

He could break opponents like they were cheap toys.

And he knew, in the back of his mind, that it wouldn't end there.

Hayate pushed the thought of that mission from his mind as he headed for the stadium alongside some of the other Jounin, Yugao included. He had done a good job of hiding what had been happening to him…. Or so he thought.

Yugao knew better.

She had been a Jounin for a long time, and Hayate's girlfriend even longer to know when something was troubling him. Yet every time she asked him, he would smile, say nothing was wrong, and kiss her gently. She always smiled, loving his gentle kisses, but she could feel the sense of turmoil running through Hayate's mind without any fancy Yamanaka-style jutsu.

She decided it was time to try again.

"Hayate-kun" Yugao spoke firmly, stopping both her and Hayate from walking. "We need to talk."

"Can't it wait, Yugao-chan? The Chuunin exam finals will be starting soon, and since we-" Hayate began, but was cut off when he noticed Yugao's expression.

Worry.

"Yugao-chan? What's the matter?" Hayate asked solemnly, placing a hand on her cheek, as she gazed into his eyes.

"Hayate-kun…… You trust me…. Don't you?" Yugao asked, almost with a sense of desperation. Hayate was a little taken back by the question.

"Of course I do….. Why would you think I don't?" Hayate replied reassuringly. But this only seemed to infuriate Yugao slightly.

"Then tell me….. are you hiding something from me?" She asked him firmly. Yugao was afraid she sounded a little too aggressive, but she wanted answers. Now. She had been screwed around by Hayate's evasive routine too long.

Hayate withdrew his hand slightly. "This again? Yugao-chan, how many times do I need to tell you that there is nothing wrong? I'm fine, trust me!" he replied with a small smile, leaning in for the usual kiss, but was shocked when Yugao backed away, looking stern.

She didn't say anything more, but the look on her face cleanly said "You're lying."

Hayate raised his hand again, as if to place it on her cheek once more. "Yugao-chan…."

"Hayate, listen to me." Yugao spoke in an assertive tone. "I've been a Jounin for almost 4 years now, but I've been your girlfriend for longer. What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't realize when something was wrong with my own boyfriend? Something that, for one reason or another, he was keeping from me? Tell me that!" She spoke with mild anger, her voice rising toward the end. Hayate looked a little shocked, but sighed.

"I'm sorry Yugao….. But now would not be a good time to bring it up. What if I-"

"Now might be the ONLY time you can bring it up!!" Yugao half shouted, now allowing her fury to bubble slightly. What could be so important, so secret, so….. bad, that Hayate had to keep it from his girlfriend?!

Hayate raised his hands in a 'Calm Down' sort of way. "Yugao-chan, please! I promise I will explain when I can….. Really I do! But believe me when I say now would not be a good time..." Hayate spoke reassuringly at first, but afterwards sounding resigned. Yugao sighed also.

"…..All right, Hayate-kun." Yugao said calmly, her small smile returning to her pretty face, yet it was riddled with falsity. "We will survive this invasion first. But afterwards, I want an explanation. And it had better be a good one."

Hayate nodded slowly. "It's a promise, Yugao-chan." He said calmly. At least, as calmly as he could muster at the current time. The pair continued on to the stadium for the finals to begin.

The first match was interesting. Hayate almost fell asleep as the Hyuuga boy Neji drawled out his story about "Fate" and "Destiny" and "Being higher than Naruto". Hayate had never been a big believer in fate or destiny. He was mildly impressed when Naruto actually managed to defeat Neji using some rather unorthodox tricks, such as burying himself, and turning Neji's attacks against him.

The next fight was also interesting, yet he was surprised when Shikamaru withdrew from the round, complaining of supposed lack of chakra. Needless to say, Hayate was shocked when he heard that Shikamaru had the next 200 moves planned out in his head. He knew of the Nara IQ being incredibly high, but he'd never really seen much of the sort up close.

With no shock to any of the Konoha nin present, the puppet boy from Suna withdrew from his match with the Aburame kid. They knew it had to be part of the planned invasion.

Sasuke and his sensei Kakashi had arrived late for Sasuke's match with Gaara. Hayate was positive that Gaara was a large intended part for the invasion. The match was quite interesting. Sasuke had used recently trained speed and agility to get under Gaara's sand defense and actually land some powerful taijutsu strikes on him.

About twenty minutes into the match, several explosions were heard. The civilians were panicked, but after some reassurance from the Hokage, they calmed themselves. It was then revealed that the "Kazekage" was in fact Orochimaru. He and the Sandaime leapt to the rooftop of the main stadium building, and a large purple barrier was formed around them.

Hayate wasted no time.

He was to report to the eastern wall, where the fourth hole in the wall was formed. Yugao was stationed at the fifth hole. Hayate felt nervous for not being stationed at the same location as his love, but he silently swore to help her once he stopped the advance on the fourth hole.

He waited for a moment, until he was sure no one was watching, and began his mad, extra-speedy, crater-leaving dash toward the fourth breach. He was still amazed that he could move so fast. He couldn't anticipate that he was about to be amazed in another way. Maybe even horrified.

THIRTY MINUTES LATER

Hayate was swatting the Suna and Oto nin aside like they were flies, and was not even breaking a sweat.

He jumped to the side and delivered a powerful kick to an Oto nin's ribs, shattering them. He landed on his hands, flipped forward and sprang off all fours like a frog, spear tackling straight THROUGH a Suna nin.

Hayate stopped for a moment to realise what had just happened. He had tackled THROUGH a shinobi. Cutting them clean in half. His train of thought was interrupted when he heard a Konoha nin shout "AAAAHHH!!! What the fuck IS that thing!?" Hayate ran toward the nin. "What's going on?!" He demanded. The terrified Konoha nin pointed at something outside the breach, and as Hayate looked toward it, he was also stricken with mild fear.

What they laid eyes on….. was horrifying. It looked like a mix between a skinned dog and a skinned ape. Its pink flesh and razor sharp claws glistened with freshly spilt blood. Upon closer inspection, this creature appeared to have no eyes. Yet its mouth was lined with razor-like teeth. It looked toward Hayate and the Konoha nin, and let loose with a screeching roar as it leapt through the air. Thanks to Hayate's enhanced reflexes, he was able to roll quickly out of the way. His comrade wasn't so lucky, as the creature sliced clean through him with its claws. "NO!!!" Hayate screamed in despair as his comrade was turned into mincemeat. The creature turned toward Hayate, and released the same screeching howl, seemingly staring at Hayate, and growling. Hayate's fear was suddenly replaced with a sense of anger at this creature for slaying his comrade. He stared angrily at the creature, getting into his fighting stance.

"You just made a fatal mistake, you ugly fucker." Hayate snarled at the creature before him. Said creature lunged at Hayate with surprising speed considering its size. Hayate managed to dodge again, and landing in a favorable way, he was able to spring at the creature, delivering a powerful punch to its face. The creature skidded along the ground slightly, screeching in pain, before turning to Hayate again.

Hayate glared at it. "CMON! COME GET ME!" he shouted angrily at the creature, as it lunged at him once more. Hayate dropped to the ground as the creature sailed over him, and, timing it just right, Hayate shot his legs upwards with a powerful double kick, planting his feet square in the creature's chest, sending it flying upward and backward, as it hit the ground with a dull slam. Hayate sprang to his feet and got into his stance again. The creature looked a little stunned and weakened now, but it still screeched and bounded toward Hayate once more. Hayate ran toward the creature, barely realising he was, as he slammed shoulders with it, entering into a deadlock. The creature pushed fiercely, but Hayate wouldn't concede. Hayate then had the idea to use the creature's force against it. Letting himself roll backwards, he threw the creature backwards, kicking it for extra leverage, as he flung the creature into a nearby wall. It hit the wall with a crashing and slight crunching sound.

The creature staggered to its feet, looking weak and dizzy now, also bleeding from some of Hayate's hits. Hayate sprinted toward the creature, planning to deliver a killing blow, as he leapt toward it, fist drawn back, and delivered it to the creature's face with a sickening CRUNCH. His fist shattered the skull of the creature, much to his amazement.

But it was what happened next that amazed him more.

As his fist connected, he felt three strange things grow from his back, and moments later, saw three… tentacle-tendril things zoom past him and embed into the creature. It took him a moment to realise they were the same black flesh that had been helping his speed and strength. The creature cried out in agony as the black flesh seemed to ….devour it slowly. As the creature became less, Hayate felt his lost energy returning, and his small wounds healing. Soon, he had "consumed" over half the creatures mass, and he was feeling a pulsing sensation in his arms.

He looked down at them, and saw the black flesh surrounding them, he groaned loudly in pain, before screaming as his arms began to feel like they were being ripped apart. After a moment or two, the pain stopped, and Hayate looked down at his arms, his heart skipping three beats at what he saw.

Claws.

Two-foot long claws.

Four of them on each…. Hand? Hayate looked at his arms, and they were now made from a solidified form of that same black flesh leading all the way up to his shoulders. The flesh manifested into something akin to hands where his hands should have been, and they made way for the fiendish looking claws replacing three of his fingers and both his thumbs.

Hayate could barely move for the next 5 minutes as he observed the claws. Trying to remain focused, he figured he should test them to make sure he wasn't just hallucinating. That fighting the creature hadn't somehow knocked him out. He saw a Suna nin off to the right, looking for his comrades. Hayate moved stealthily up on him, and without a word, drove his right claw into the nin's chest. The nin made only a gurgling sound as his body went limp. Hayate withdrew his claw, and the body fell to the ground.

Hayate then remembered the tendrils that had consumed the creature before, and wondered if they worked on human corpses. He also wondered why he was thinking like this, but figured it had something to do with this new….. virus, for lack of a better word.

He thought of the tendrils consuming the body of the Suna nin, and as he imagined it, one of them shot out from his back and into the body of the Suna nin. The black flesh swarmed the corpse and broke it down, seemingly absorbing it through the tendril, as Hayate was feeling regenerated like before. Not as much as before, but still quite a bit. Soon, there was no trace of the body ever being there, save for a little blood.

Hayate was beginning to like his newfound powers, when he heard a high pitched, all too familiar scream.

"YUGAO-CHAN!!!" Hayate screamed as he heard his love crying out. He went to run, but remembered his claws. He didn't want to freak out Yugao by running toward her looking like this. He tried the same trick with the tendrils, imagining his arms returning to normal. And with a slight whirring-slush, and some black flesh movement, his arms were normal again, no evidence of the claws ever being there, clothes still perfectly intact and all. He was impressed to say the least, but knew he didn't have time to think on it.

He dashed toward the fifth breach area as fast as he could.

Hayate was horrified at what he saw. Bodies. Bodies everywhere sporting the same slash marks as given by the strange creatures he'd fought only moments earlier. Several bodies of said creatures were littering the ground among the fallen shinobi from all three currently at war countries. Hayate could care less about the bodies right now, he looked around frantically for the origin of his loved one's scream.

"Yugao-chan?!" He called out in panic, fearing the worst for just a moment.

"Hayate-kun!" came a weak, yet panicked reply a bit to his right. Hayate turned and was greeted with the blood-icening sight of Yugao, severely wounded around her midsection and arms, and even a gash across her face. Hayate was about to run over to her when he heard that all too familiar screech some distance behind her. He watched in horror as another of those creatures smashed through some nearby rubble, sporting several injuries of its own, but seemingly unaffected by them. Hayate ran toward Yugao, determined to get there first.

"Yugao-chan!!! LOOK OUT!!!" He screamed at her. She was barely able to react in time as she jumped to the right. The creature couldn't react in time as Hayate shoulder barged it, and to his amazement, managed to lift it off the ground. He used his momentum to roll forward with his grip on the stunned creature and flung it toward a nearby stone wall. The creature hit the wall with a loud SMASH, a screech of pain and the sound of concrete crumbling. Hayate turned to his love.

"Yugao-chan! You need to get out of here! Get to a medic nin as fast as you can so he can treat those wounds!" He commanded, his voice written with worry.

Yugao looked pensive for a second. "But Hayate! What about the creature?!" She said, also with worry. Said creature was growling as it tried to regain its bearings after being thrown into a wall.

Hayate shook his head. "Don't worry about me! I can handle this thing! Pleaase, you need to get to a medic!" He said with a tone of finality, the worry never leaving his voice.

Yugao nodded slowly, and blew him a gentle kiss, which he caught and held to his heart, as Yugao used some of her remaining chakra to begin her leap across the buildings toward the sactioned medical point.

Hayate, now free of any observers, turned to the creature, who was now on its feet, and leering (or at least Hayate thought it was) dangerously at Hayate. Hayate let a smirk cross his face. "Time to die, ugly." He said with confidence as he raised his arms to the side, the black flesh swirling around them again, and within a second, his arms had become the lethal claws that they were only minutes ago. Hayate stood in a way that said "Come and get me." As the creature charged at him. Hayate dodged to the side as the creature swiped at him. "My turn!" he shouted as he swiped back, slicing three nasty gashes in the creature's front right arm, the same one it had just used to swipe at Hayate. The creature shrieked in pain as it landed, right arm now off the ground slightly due to pain. The three gashes were nice and deep, as they were now flowing with dark red blood. The creature screeched again and charged at Hayate, who nimbly leapt over the creature and drove his claws into its lower back, causing it to shriek out in pain once again, now bleeding more. Yet the creature still looked able to fight, as it turned around and growled at Hayate, who leered at the creature, promising a slow and painful death by tendril consuming, as punishment for harming his girlfriend. The creature charged Hayate once again, still determined to eviscerate him. Yet Hayate was too fast; he dashed forward and rammed his right claw into the creature's solar plexus, causing it to shriek even louder this time as blood poured out from the wound, and ran down Hayate's transformed arm.

Hayate immediately drew upon the thought of the tendrils devouring this thing quite painfully, and as he predicted, four tendrils lashed out and embedded into the creature's skin. Said creature shrieked loudly as the tendrils slowly and punishingly consumed it, and Hayate felt that last little bit of strength returning to him as the creature became no more.

Moments later, there wasn't even a body left. Hayate returned his arms to normal and looked over the bodies once more.

This day had truly been terrible. Many good Konoha shinobi were lost, and the peaceful village now lay almost in ruins. Hayate shed a silent tear for the events of the day before setting off to the medical point to check up on his girlfriend.

Hayate was standing in the hospital beside Yugao's bed, as she lay in a drug induced coma for the pain she was in. Hayate had gone to the medical point, only to find Yugao had been taken immediately to the hospital, due to severe internal bleeding, and several points of severe blunt force trauma. Hayate didn't even wait for his own checkup as he rushed for the hospital. Before Hayate made it to the hospital, he picked up a stray kunai and slashed himself a couple of times. Not much, but enough to make it look like he'd been in a battle. He was relieved when the wounds didn't close as he didn't will them to. He really didn't want unneccessary attention right now. Not with the….. "changes" he'd been experiencing.

Hayate stood silently as he watched his girlfriend lay in a coma before him. Wounded by a country of misfits and traitors, allied with those who were meant to be KONOHA'S allies.

At that moment, Hayate thought to himself:

"I don't know what those things were, but I'm gonna find out. And I'm gonna find out why all this happened."

"I'll hunt them all down."

"And I'll make them pay."

Whew! Chapter 4 done! I tried to make it longer, really I did. I wanted to make it epic like Dirty Reid's stories! Though I dunno if I succeeded.....

I'll let you guys be the judge of that. If you think it's too short, hopefully the content makes up for it!

As for the coming chapters, I'm still open to suggestions as to which powers he should gain next.

Until next time, Thank ye for reading! I promise I will try and get chapter 5 out quicker!