Hikari heard the sound of fighting outside and she knew Ryuu had arrived. The paralysis was almost gone, she could move her right side again, but it was not yet as freely as she wanted it to be. Her eyes turned purple and she watched the scene play out beyond the barrier. He wasn't hurt. Good. Actually, he seemed angry. Out of control, almost. The very thing she'd just fought back. She'd won her own battle with herself. She wondered if he would. She knew it was a bit different, as she was literally battling another being that resided inside of her in order to retain control of herself, whereas this wasn't another entity, it was him. If he were going to come back from this, he'd be battling back himself, rather than a beast that lie trapped inside.<br/><br/>She watched from beyond the barrier as he quite literally tore through them until he had taken them all out, except one, who seemed nervous. Ryuu attacked , as he had with the others, but this one, he just kept pounding. He didn't stop. There was no reason to keep going. But she knew, he wasn't fully in control of himself. She could see it, sense it. She cursed to herself and dropped the barrier, knowing it was no longer necessary. She could move again and the enemies were all down. All that was left now was to stop him. The question was how. She didn't have an answer, really. But regardless, she had to do something.<br/><br/>"RYUU! STOP it!" she yelled at him, her voice carrying enough force and power to send a literal blast of cold air his way. "I'm not hurt! I'm fine!" she informed him, this time not yelling quite as loudly as she had before. It was true. There wasn't a scratch on her. Not even a drop of blood, her own or her opponents'. She hoped this would be enough to stop him. If not, she'd have to resort to other measures, which would be less than pleasant. One way or another, though, he had to be stopped. She needed him to stop. If it meant intervening and preventing him from continuing to pound on someone who was long dead and losing himself further to whatever this was, she wouldn't hesitate.<br/><br/>After a moment, once he'd stopped pounding on the guy, or more accurately, the corpse, she moved closer to him. She stopped next to him but looked down at the corpse instead of him. The man wasn't even recognizable anymore. He had, quite literally been torn to pieces. Her face was blank, not showing a hint of anything as she stared down at it before turning to face him. His face held an admittedly somewhat scary expression. It was no more scary than what she'd seen from Kuro, Rin, or even in her own reflection at times, but it was different simply because it was in stark contrast to his usual expressions. That made it rather unsettling to see. Still, she kept any reaction from her face, which remained blank. "Are you okay?" she asked him. Her voice was calm and level, and the concern was obvious, even if the usual warmth one might have expected was lacking.<br/><br/>Was this really all because he thought she was hurt? She wondered. Then again, she had no room to talk, and she should understand such a reaction better than anyone. The only times she had ever let her emotions, especially anger, get the better of her was when her friends were in trouble. That was the reason she'd broken the seal that contained the beast inside of her, and it was the reason for the beast's appearance almost every time since that day. When she saw her friends hurt, that anger and pain often led to the beast surfacing, and usually she was too focused on destroying her enemy to care how she did it or what lines she crossed to do so. It didn't happen too often anymore, but she remembered all too well the things she did, the people she hurt, the lines she crossed. She thought that he had done this for the very same reason. To protect someone he cared for. And he took it so far, lost control because he was angry because he thought his friend was hurt. She could be wrong, of course, but she didn't think so.<br/><br/>"We should go." she spoke up once more, her voice calm and level as she reached out a hand, placing it on his shoulder and pausing for a brief moment before she began to turn away, her hand dropping to her side as she did. They needed to get this information back to Tsunade. Besides, there was no point in lingering here. She was frustrated with herself for being distracted, for letting the beast creep up, for letting herself get caught in a paralysis jutsu, and having to be rescued. She hated having to be protected, to be rescued. And Ryuu had to do this... He tore someone apart because of her. Because she let herself get caught. That blood was on her hands as much as the blood of the ones she'd killed was. It was her fault he had to do that. It was her fault that he committed such an act. All of it was her fault.<br/><br/>She cursed herself and inside she was fuming. She was frustrated and angry. Yet on the outside she appeared perfectly calm. Not a single emotion slipped through. Not one. Of course, this meant that she wasn't even bothering to put on her usual happy mask. No, this time she reverted back to the one that was easiest. Cold, blank, emotionless. It was easier this way. Easier than exploding on him, easier than walking around all pissy and making him believe it was his fault, as though he should have stood by and let his comrade face the enemies alone. As though it were wrong for him to intervene. It wasn't. It was simply annoying to her that it came to that. It wasn't his fault, but she didn't know how to explain that to him, so it was better not to have to explain it. Then again, her being cold and distant probably wasn't a whole lot better, especially since he hadn't known her back when this was her most common expression. He'd met her after she'd met Kuro, when she'd started smiling again, for real. When she'd started to be warm and friendly again. Still, she thought it was better than being angry. He might not understand why she was shutting herself off, but it was better than him thinking she was angry at him.<br/><br/>She glanced back towards him for a moment before pulling her hood back over her head and looking up to the sky. It was still dark out. She briefly wondered if he was tired, if he'd want to rest, but decided that if he was and he did, he would let her know. For now, she was restless and wanted to move. So, with that she leaped up into a tree, waiting for him to follow before she headed off towards the village.