Night was closing in fast on the seven oddly marked kittens. Disoriented and exhausted- their chakra was minuscule in these tiny bodies- it was unanimously agreed on that they should stop for the day and rest under a tree. Even the silver, aggressive kitten did not fuss much besides an occasional hiss. As the last remnants of light filtered through the leaves from the branches above, the orange tabby with black markings on its face contemplated their situation before drifting off to sleep.
That damn bastard.
To think that Pein would be able to do this even to me! If I had caught onto his plans of getting rid of us I would have killed the fool before he so much as made a single handsign. He must have transformed us into these useless creatures just to further humiliate us as well…
The moon rises and darkness blankets the landscape just as seven anachronistic kittens heaved their labored breaths into other sounds of the night.
The next morning, a miko dressed in her traditional red and white clothing walked down a dirt path while carrying a woven basket filled with medicinal herbs. She kept her eyes straight ahead but those who knew of her knew that this miko was Kikyou, the Great Miko of the East, and that her senses were vigilant and observant.
Meowwwrrrrr.
The sound comes from the right. Immediately, Kikyou jumps to her left and feels her spiritual power gathering at her fingertips, buzzing and tingling.
Hiss!
This time, Kikyou recognizes the sound is from a cat and hesitantly tiptoes towards the bushes that lined the sides of the dirt path. Holding the basket close in her left arm and keeping her right arm ready to attack, she finds the source of the cat cries.
Underneath a large, leafy tree there were seven kittens interspersed between the roots. Her eye focuses on a silver one with lilac eyes that was currently hissing and clawing at another kitten, tan and riddled with stitches.
"Okay that is enough out of you, little one!" Kikyou cries out and reaches for the silver kitten before its claws could swipe at the tan one. Unfortunately, its claws landed in Kikyou's arm and now all the kitten's attention is focused on the miko who had seemingly come out of nowhere (and for some of the kittens, the fact that she appeared undetected sent faint chills of uneasiness). With a hiss of pain, Kikyou pulls at the silver kitten's paw, each of its claws plucking itself out from under her skin with a drip of blood. The silver kitten stares as the blood dribbles out from the four little holes in her arm, its eyes focused as if it understood what it had done.
"You mean little thing, don't you know better than to attack your littermates?" Kikyou guesses that they must have all been littermates from the way they were all crowded together under a tree. She manages to push the kitten up her arm as she heals the four puncture wounds with ease. The kittens note the slight glow of purple coming from her fingers but it is gone before they can comprehend it. With a sigh and a weary look at their skinny bodies and messy fur she says, "I am guessing that none of you have homes. Why don't you all come with me and I can get you fed for one night?" She asks as if these animals could understand her speech, but in a world filled with demons and witches, it wasn't too far fetched.
Kikyou didn't know whether to accept or be wary that some of the kittens seemed to nod at her, answering her question. The kitten in her arm wriggled and hissed until the miko dropped it, the kitten gracefully landed on its paws and strutted over to the tan kitten's side, having the whole ordeal from earlier forgotten. With nothing more than a questioning brow, Kikyou decides that she could carry them all in the basket, if she takes out all the herbs she spent the past hour collecting.
Sigh. But all creatures deserve to be cared for and it is a miko's job to see to it. Kikyou sighs audibly and closes her eyes before reaching into the basket and taking out all the herbs.
The kitten with sleek black fur and red orbs stares at the woman as she removes things from her basket. The once-man-now-cat thinks about her earlier proposition.
Will she really follow up on her offer or is this some trap? She has not done anything alarming and she did seem to appear out of concern from Hidan and Kakuzu's squabbling. Though how she appeared without my notice leaves me to wonder: Is she a shinobi who is capable of concealing her chakra? Or is she just a civilian, who knew how to walk quietly enough that not even my heightened senses could have picked up her footsteps?
His thinking is interrupted when he sees Tobi march towards the woman, her own eyes flashing to the tabby, and sniffs at the plants that were taken out of the basket.
Daring fool. At least this confirms that she means no harm from how she allows Tobi to inspect her herbs like that.
"Since you stepped up, you can be in the basket first." Kikyou reaches down to the orange tabby and picks him up. Just as she touches the kitten, it meows gently and she can't help but smile at the creature's cuteness. "Cute one, aren't you?" She says as she puts the tabby into the basket and strokes its head once. It purrs happily.
Next, she reaches over and grabbed the two closest ones to her, the silver and tan kittens. The tan one allows to be held, albeit a bit wary of the hand grabbing him. The silver one however, tries to run but Kikyou expects as much and snatches him up and into the basket before it could dash off. "Little meanie." She quietly chides the silver kitten who is now hissing at her from inside the basket. The tan one droops its ear, almost as if sighing at the sight before it. Before Kikyou puts the tan kitten down, she inspects the stitches on the kitten that she saw earlier.
"My spirits, what has happened to you?" Kikyou gasps at the amount of stitches on the kitten's body that actually extends over its entirety. The stitches themselves however did not seem like any string that she has seen before, instead they were pitch black and sturdy. Without further contemplation she gathers spiritual energy in her fingertips and lightly brushes them along the kitten's body.
Kakuzu freezes, the sudden feel of chakra- no, not chakra, something similar but different- pulses through his body. Immediately, his fatigue, bruises, and cuts are healed by the woman and then his initial shock wears off.
She wanted to heal me. Interesting, that power of hers. That not-chakra.
The other kittens seemed to perk up and focus intently on what the glowing purple around the woman's fingers meant. The shinobi-men-turned-shinobi-kittens could feel the spike of energy, not exactly chakra but not not chakra either.
The red coated kitten narrowed its eyes at the woman, she didn't seem surprised by what she was doing, could she have been a ninja like them? Her "chakra" however didn't feel like anything else he's sensed before. It was something that felt ancient and sacred, something that took on the silhouette of chakra without taking its full form.
Perhaps this convenient "meal" could prove to be more useful than we originally thought. The red kitten takes a glance at the other kittens and with their own looks, it seems they all agree that this is no small matter.
"Strange. Your stitches will not close up...but it seems your smaller cuts have gone away. Perhaps that is all we can hope for, for now." Kikyou purses her lips together, struck with this mystery as to why her miko powers cannot even close up the small stitches on the kitten's body.
After placing the tan kitten into the basket she stands to get the next two. Picking up the yellow and red kittens with ease, she gently places them into the basket. The yellow one seems to hmmph as it is put down, and the red one rolls its eyes. Kikyou has brings up her hand to her lips to stifle a feminine giggle.
These kittens get more interesting by the second. It is like they each have a personality of their own! Kikyou thinks with a small smile. The yellow and red kittens both huff out indignantly.
Finally, she goes for the last two kittens but finds that as she turns to look for them, they both were already trying to climb their way into the basket.
"I see you are all ready to get fed, hmm? It is fortunate that the temple is not too far from here, surely we will make it in time for lunch."
She gives them all a gentle smile. In return, she gets a few blinks, a blank stare, a hiss, and a hearty meow as a response. She giggles again as she slowly lifts up the basket, careful not to disturb the kittens within, and returns to that dirt path, abandoning the herbs and leaving as quietly as she came.