There are many names for parallel worlds. The shadow world. The other world. The positive/negative world, depending what side you are on. The dual world. The dark world.

I like to call this one the Billy world. Why? Because that's my name.

You're wondering about my eye patch? I got it when…oh? You mean my other eye patch? Well, you see, there was this pirate and…

No? You want to know about my third eye patch? Um…well…

But we've strayed from the story I was about to tell. Now let's see…how to begin…

Chapter 1

It started, as these things usually do, with something small. In this case, it was a soft humming sound that woke Nezuke Jouroba from his nap.

Jouroba ran a tired hand over his eyes and tried to figure out what it was he was hearing. He didn't even hear it as much as feel it, as one would a fly buzzing next to your ear. At his advanced age, it was a blessing that he could hear anything at all. A phantom sound would be just another sign of his long life closing in on him. Satisfied that's what it was, he brushed a hand past his ear before turning over and trying to find some more sleep.

But despite his best efforts, the sound persisted. And he found he could actually feel it as well. His bed was softly vibrating to the pitch of the humming. Reluctantly, Jouroba sat up and peered around his room. His old bones protested and he longed to return to his rest, but not until this little mystery was resolved.

Nothing seemed remiss, though. Light poured softly through his partially drawn curtains, illuminating his room enough for his tired eyes to see that nothing was out of place. Though diluted by the mist outside his window, he could see that it wasn't dark enough for supper, when he usually woke. Confused, the elder turned partially and stopped as the painting that hung above his bed caught his eye. It was slightly tilted, and as he watched the vibrations he could still feel caused it to slip a bit more out of line.

A thought occurred to him, and a small sliver of alarm started to grow in his chest.

Ignoring his shaking joints, Jouroba reached up and pulled the painting off its hook, revealing a small safe. The humming sound was slightly louder now and definitely coming from the safe. With a hand that shook with more than age he turned the knob and pulled open the door. He reached in and pulled out a heavy box covered in protective charms. With a sigh, he placed the box between his legs and settled down in front of it.

For a moment he just stared at it, afraid to go any farther. Then, without warning, the humming and vibrations ceased. The sudden silence was more terrifying to his old ears than the humming had been. Reaching a decision, he slipped a finger under the ancient bindings and tore them free. Before his courage could fail him, he flipped open the lid and peered inside. Nestled on a soft, velvet bed was a large pearl the size of an egg. It looked just like the last and only time he had seen it before, except for one detail. Back then, it wasn't glowing softly with a pale light.

Jouroba stared at it for a moment, then shuffled out of bed and started hurriedly pulling on his robes. "The Mizukage must hear of this." he muttered to himself as he rushed as fast as he could towards the door.

***

"You're right." Homura said as he looked with distaste and the softly glowing sphere in her palm. "This is indeed a problem. But what should we do about it?"

Kohara slipped the orb into an inner pocket so neither of them would have to look at it. "Ideally, show this to the Hokage. But Danzo's been missing since the gokage summit."

"And Tsunade is still unconscious…" Homura rubbed his chin in thought. "With Jiraiya dead, the next highest jonin would be Kakashi. But he's also missing."

"Probably shadowing the Kyuubi child." Kohara waved her hand as if to brush the unpleasant thought physically from the air. "We could send a messenger hawk after him if no other option is available. What of the head of the Hyuga clan?"

Homaru ground his teeth and started walking, prompting Kohara to follow in his wake. "It is a place to start. We are Konaha's chief counselors. If we don't protect the village, who will?"

***

"Really, we have other scouts who can go." Temari tried again with a sigh. "You don't have to keep going out yourself."

"I can handle the desert better than most." Gaara said softly. He stared at his brother and sister with hard eyes that broke no argument.

Kankuro almost laughed, but wisely kept it in. "Look, we know you're strong, but you're place is here. What if…"

"Lord Kazikage, I need to speak with you immediately."

The trio turned and regarded Elder Daisu Fuki, who was striding towards them with as much dignity as her age-bent frame allowed her. She was clutching something in her hand opposite her cane.

"We were about to go on patrol, Elder." Gaara said with his usual uncomfortable difference. "Perhaps when I return…"

"There is no time." she said, cutting him off. Garra's eyes widened in surprise. "What I've discovered is of grave importance to the village's safety. You two should go rouse the sentries and guard the wall."

"Who do you think you're…" Temari started, but Gaara raised his hand and cut her off. He gave them an almost imperceptible nod and grimaced. Kankuro and Temari glanced at each other over his shoulder and vanished in a puff of chakra.

"All right," Gaara said, turning his attention fully upon Fuki, "you had better start at the beginning."

***

Elder Gaibo was saying something, but the Tsuchikage wasn't listening to his prattle. His attention was fixed upon the orb resting on the table before him. It glowed innocently in the shadow cast by the pavilion's canopy, but he knew what that glow meant.

In his mind's eye, he could remember seeing it for the first time. He was but a child when it was offered to his father, then the Kage. And the bloody war that came not long after…

What terrible timing. We've just started preparing for Akatsuki, and now this? If they've all activated again…after all this time…with effort, he shook these thoughts out of his head and glared daggers at his counselor.

"I knew this story before you learned of it, Gaibo. Stop carrying on like that and let me think."

Gaibo swallowed the rest of his recount and lapsed into silence. From the Tsuchikage's right, Kurotsuchi leaned over the table to get a better look at the pearl. "Oh, let him talk, gramps. We haven't heard the story, right Akatsuchi?" The large ninja shook his head but said nothing.

"We don't have time for campfires tales." The Tsuchikage snapped. He snatched the sphere up and glared at the others, a fire burning behind his eyes. "The danger is real and upon us! Recall all patrols and cancel all anti-Akatsuki operations. I want every available ninja loyal to Iwagakure here and ready to defend it now!"

***

Lord Raikage stood facing out the window of his office, his hand clasped over the stump of his left hand behind his back. "So if what you're telling me is true, we're going to have a fight on our hands."

Ropou Lazu, the oldest member of his advisors, nodded his head in ascent. "They will undoubtedly try to retrieve the pearl. I recommend we hide it in the caves…"

"No!" The Raikage spun around and everyone in the room could see the eager glint in his eyes. "Let them come. I want to see the power these demons you speak of hold!"

Lazu swallowed and looked around the room for support. Knowing how their leader could be when his interest was piqued, no one met his gaze. "My lord," he tried anyway, "I think you're underestimating the danger they will present. And with our focus on eliminating the rest of Akatsuki…"

"No matter who they are, if they want to mess with us they will taste some of this!" The Raikage smashed his fist into the wall beside him, crushing the support pillar and sending pieces of the wall flying everywhere. Lazu crouched and tried to make himself as small a target for falling debris as possible, but everyone else in the room just rolled their eyes and sighed.

"Besides," the Raikage continued, "we have our own demon for them to contend with. Let's see them try and attack us!"

***

"What do you think they've been talking about for the last hour?" Kankuro wondered aloud. He and Temari were standing at the top of the cliffs leading into Suna. Below them, a team of twelve ninja they had roused from their normal posts waited in the pass.

Temari put her hands on her hips and deliberately turned away from the street were Gaara and Fuki had been speaking. Half an hour ago they had rushed into the administration building and they hadn't heard from him since.

"He'll let us know what going on when he can." She said, trying to sound indifferent and failing miserably. "I just hope he does it soon. Staring at this minor sandstorm is boring."

Kankuro glanced up at the swirling sands just outside of the village and frowned. "Hey, don't you think that it's bad luck, this storm kicking up all of a sudden right now?"

Before Temari could answer, one of the sentries they had ringing the cliffs landed next to them. "There's a huge chakra source just outside the village!" he said swiftly.

"What?" Temari exclaimed. "How did someone get so close without you sensing sooner?"

"I don't know." the man swallowed. "But it will be here any minute and…"

"No, she's already here." Kankuro said and pointed.

A figure was walking out of the sandstorm barely one hundred yards from the gates. She was dressed mostly in brown leathers, with loose pants tucked into darker brown boots that pulled up puffs of sand as she walked. Tan sleeves that looked separate from her shirt opened to a point over the back of her hands, where she wore a pair of leather gloves. Her auburn hair was cut in a flat line falling over her forehead with a longer lock reaching to her neck in front of each ear. A long ponytail curled out of a decorated bandana tied over the back of her head.

She wore no obvious weapons besides a long knife in a sheath behind her hip. A ninja headband was tied over her waist, but the dark sunburst it depicted was unfamiliar as any village they could think of.

"Hey, you!" one of the jonin in the pass called to her. "Who are you? State your business!"

The mysterious woman smiled and took a deep breath. Mist poured from her mouth as she exhaled in a rush, quickly obscuring everything around the pass from sight. The sand ninja on guard shouted in surprise and those on the cliff heard the sound of weapons being drawn.

"Come on!" Temari shouted and leaped off the wall, Kankuro and the sentry at her heels. But she wasn't halfway to the ground before the screams started. They rose out of the mists sharply, not one at a time but in a chorus, as if all of the guards were being attacked at the same time. But the time she landed, the screams had nearly stopped and she could hear no sounds of fighting.

A figure stumbled out of the fog, clutching at his slit throat. He half fell in her direction, eyes pleading. "I was…nowhere…near..." he wheezed. "How…did…" The man collapsed and didn't move again.

Temari unbound her giant fan and whipped it at the mist, thinking to clear the battlefield first. But the mist just swirled in a slow circle instead of blowing out. Hrmph…don't underestimate my wind! she thought, gripping her fan tighter and pouring twice as much chakra into it. She spun in a tight circle and unleashed a mighty stream of air that nearly carried her off balance. Almost reluctantly, the mist slowly pulled back and dissipated into the air. Eleven bodies were revealed scattered around the pass where they had fled or gathered when the mist had fallen, but the mysterious shinobi was gone.

"Where did…" Temari started, but a sudden exploding pain in her chest choked off the rest of her question. Painfully, she looked down at the small tip of steel poking out from just below her neck.

The strange woman whispered into her ear from behind. "Now, that's not very nice. I wasn't finished with that jutsu." She pulled her knife back out, and Temari crumpled to the ground.

"Temari!" Kankuro screamed, flinging his arms wide and calling upon his chakra strings. The wrapped bundle on his back exploded and revealed itself to be his faithful puppet Crow, which he launched at the shinobi standing over his sister's prone form. Spikes dripping with poison popped out of the puppet's mouth and wrists as it closed the distance.

The woman smiled and flipped the knife over so she was carrying it point down in her fist. "Really? You're going to come at me with these?" Her first two blazingly fast strikes knocked the puppet's arms wide and she ducked moments before the head detached and launched itself over her shoulder. She tucked forward and closed in on the puppet's main body.

Got you, Kankuro thought in victory as he twitched his finger, activating the hidden blades along the inside of the puppet's arms. The next move would wrap those arms around the woman, where he could slice her to ribbons.

Rather than fleeing from the sprung trap, the woman stabbed her blade into the puppet's chest. "Puppets and fans... where I come from, every novice knows how to use these. You will never catch me with such toys." So saying, she ripped her knife out, revealing the puppet's delicate innards.

***

Gaara's head snapped up from the table as the first scream echoed in through the door. He took a running leap and was outside before the second scream joined the first.

"Lord Kazikage, no! This is what they want!" Fuki called after him, but he was already gone.

Several jonin fell into line with Gaara as he ran, but he waved them back. Whatever was up ahead, it promised a fight and he didn't want anyone to get caught up in his attacks by accident. The screams had stopped and Gaara couldn't tell if that was a good thing.

He arrived at the pass and froze, taking in the scene in a glance and immediately wishing he hadn't. His ninja were lying everywhere, each with a slashed throat or stabbed chest. Temari lay closest, bleeding from an ugly hole between her breasts. Kankuro was curled up a little further away in a steadily growing pool of blood. His favorite puppet Crow was cast not too far away, a large hole ripped into its middle. He couldn't tell if any of them were breathing.

And in the center of it all, clearly waiting for him, was a strange kunoichi. She was sitting on a body which he recognized as one of the villages chakra sensing sentries, and she was cleaning a bloody knife on his clothes.

"Who are you?" Gaara demanded. Without giving away what he was doing, he started channeling into the sand around her.

"You can call me Kizutsu." She answered, standing and adopting a fighting stance. "And are you the Kazikage?"

"I am." Without any warning he rose his cupped hand and the sand around Kizutsu swirled to life. Caught off guard, she barely had time to react before she was covered from head to toe in a thick layer of sand. The ball rose into the air on a pillar of sand until Garra was satisfied that he had her safely away from any outside forces. He could feel her moving around in there, but he knew that she couldn't escape.

"Never invade my village." he said calmly, crushing his fist. "Sand Cof-"

A sudden sharp pain cut him off in mid jutsu. His eyes opened in shock at the large gash that had opened on his palm as he was squeezing it. But…how did this happen? he wondered, frozen at the sight of his own blood.

Of course, the breaking of his attention caused his control of the sand to lapse. In an explosion of grit, Kizutsu burst from the sand coffin and sped amazingly fast at him. Flat footed though he was, Gaara still managed to raise a wall of sand between him and her blade scant inches away. Kizutsu's knife, however, stabbed in and out of the sand as if the wall had been made of water. The wall collapsed as she pulled back, and Gaara clutched at his bleeding shoulder.

"What…kind of a blade is that?" he asked.

She smirked and fainted forward, dodging the grasping sand that sucked at her feet, and then leaped clear over his head to land at his back. Gaara anticipated the move, and was already collecting a huge pile of sand. As she landed and spun to stab him, the pile took on the form of his Shukaku no Tate, a large body with outstretched arms and head made of condensed sand that was his greatest defense. Even if your knife can break it, the blade's not nearly long enough to reach though, he thought as he turned to face her.

But rather than break off her attack, Kizutsu pressed forward and angled her strike to stab downward. The knife sank its full eight inches into the Shukaku no Tate's chest with hardly any resistance and time seemed to freeze. After an endless moment, Kizutsu pulled her knife out of the hole she had carved and stepped back. A thin trickle of sand poured out from the hole, steadily increasing in size and speed as the jutsu began to sag. With a hiss the Shukaku no Tate collapsed to reveal Gaara on his knees, clutching at a bloody hole in his chest.

Barely able to breath and wracked with unfamiliar pain, Gaara barely reacted as she walked up and placed her knife at his throat. With the flat of her blade she lifted his chin until they were looking eye to eye.

"I…will not reveal...the pearl..." Gaara managed.

"Is that so?" Kizutsu cut in with a pout. "Well, that's quite alright, you don't need to tell me anyway. I can tell where that is. But there's something else you have that I need, before someone interrupts us." With that, she jerked the knife roughly across his exposed throat.

***

Ao twitched and stepped away from the table. The Mizukage watched him as he stared at the far wall and unfocused his normal eye. She knew that he had sensed something and waited for him to explain what he saw.

Chojuro wasn't as patient. "What is it? Is something out there?"

"Let me concentrate!" Ao snapped. "There's this huge chakra signature that appeared quickly to the west, but now it seems to have stopped moving just outside of the village."

A ninja burst into the room as he finished speaking and quickly gave his report. "There is a strange ninja at the village gates, demanding a meeting with the Mizukage." The guard gulped. "He said…he said that he had important information regarding the village of Demons."

The Mizukage put down the map of the region they had been planning with and put a hand over her left pocket. She could feel the lump of the pearl Jouroba had given her not even an hour ago press into her palm. She had promised him she would keep it safe.

So, she thought, I am already challenged with keeping my promise.

Aloud, she said, "Well, let's not be an ungracious host. Tell the man I will meet him, outside at the amphitheatre. Let's hear what he has to say."