Amaya sprinted through the sand dunes until the tree line was barely visible. Grains of the hot sand got in between her paws but she kept running. The setting sun beat down on her black fur and she wished that she had gotten another drink before running through the desert.
The sun finally dropped below the horizon when she finally caught her first glimpse of the Village Hidden in the Sand. She suddenly had a flashback to last night, when Deidara helped her when she collapsed and he and Sasori accepted her. And this morning, when Deidara had held her and Sasori used her as his own little puppet.
She skidded to a stop, stirring up the sand, lit only by the moon. Amaya wished she was with them. Although she was free again, she would always miss them.
Early the next morning, she snuck through the gates of Suna and into the city. Amaya found an alley way behind a butcher shop, broke the lock with her heavy paws and teeth, and quietly pushed open the door. She didn't want to cause much damage, but the raw slab of meat on the table was to tempting. Pulling half of it off, she began gnarling at the tender muscle.
"Hey! Drop it! Bad dog!" Lights turned on in the room and Amaya looked up to see a large man had picked up his butcher knife.
She froze in shock for just a second before grabbing the rest of the meat and running into the alleyway, dodging knives all the while.
She couldn't help but put on a wolf-like smile full of meat. Running through the streets with stolen meat maddened her blood rush. She could tell her chakra was strongest in the area. That is, until something hit her side, knocking her across the ground.
She dropped the meat and snarled at her attacker. 'Déjà vu,' she told herself. 'Pein.'
But, it wasn't Pein, or any of the Akatsuki for that matter.
She had turned on a tall boy, about her age, who had a mask over his mouth and black hair falling over one of his eyes. He looked at her, dazed, before hearing the shouts of the butcher. Standing up, he grabbed Amaya by the fur on the back of her neck and hoisted her into the air.
"You've stolen this meat, haven't you, dog?" He stared right into the wolf girl's silver eyes and noticed the abnormally strong chakra it was emitting. This wasn't just a regular animal. Judging by it's massive chakra, he could have easily mistaken it as the five-tailed demon, that is, if it wasn't already sealed inside himself and this wolf had only one tail and was far to small.
This animal had something human in it, though. But, just the same, it had stolen from his village.
Amaya struggled against his hold glaring at the boy, trying to bite him, until she held the butcher run up next to them.
"What happened, sir?" The boy looked up from Amaya to the red-faced man, who was still holding several butcher knives.
"Lord Kage, this animal broke into my shop and ate an entire roast. I demand it be killed!" At this, he waved the knives in the air and the boy who Amaya guessed was Kage moved her away from the angry butcher.
Kage dug into his pocket, pulling out probably more than a thousand yen and gave it to the man. "This should cover the cost. I'll see what I can do with the dog."
"Thank you, Lord Kage." The butcher accepted the money and bowed low. With this, Kage tuned on his heel and walked away, dragging Amaya, still struggling, on the ground.
After about ten minutes of dragging, Amaya was thrown into a small crate. She could tell that she was near the center of the city by the direction Kage had walked, but wasn't the Kazekage's Tower in the center?
The door was closed and locked and Amaya watched the boy walk away. Minutes passed with out anything heard. After about ten more minutes, she decided to try escaping. Amaya sunk her jaws around the cage bars and pulled as hard as she could, but only managed to pull it toward her and make her cage even smaller. She lunged all of her body weight at the walls of her environment and made another large dent. She continued to torment the box for the next half hour until the door to the room opened.
"Wow, it is strong. Kage was right." A teenager that looked like he was dressed as a bat in face paint walked forward and knelt down to look in the cage at a very irritated wolf.
"Is he sure that this was a chakra enhanced crate, Konkuro? That would be almost impossible for even me to break through." A girl was now next to the other boy, but she held a giant fan that seemed kind of intimidating.
Amaya growled at them before lunging at the front bars of the cage, almost nipping the boy's nose. This time, she broke through two bars and could stick her muzzle threw. To bad she couldn't pull it out.
"Heh heh. Guess it isn't too strong." Konkuro chuckled.
"I'M A GIRL, BAKA!" Amaya shouted as loud as she could while still being restrained by the cage bars. Kokuro, who had been sitting about four inches from her teeth, jumped back and accidently kicked the already tortured crate door, just enough to release Amaya's muzzle.
The wolf then charged one final time at the door, blowing it open, and crouched down, growling at the pair. Her fur bristled all the way down her neck to her tail and her ears lay back.
"Whoa!" Konkuro stood up slowly and opened a scroll, summoning one of those puppets that look like Sasori's. The girl opened her fan and held it behind her back, looking at the wolf. "Temari, I should say Lord Gaara needs to know this." He stepped back slowly and picked up what looked to be a leather rope. "Umm… come?"
Amaya snarled loudly at his comment. "Why would I want to come to you? I don't even want to be here! This is all-" She yelped in pain as something hit her neck. A sebon. Posioned. She felt her body grow heavy as she slumped to the floor. Amaya looked up to see that while she was focusing on Konkuro, he was controlling his puppet, firing weapons.
"You've got some guts, girl." Temari closed her fan and leaned on it. "Gotta remember, puppet-masters have many bodies."
Konkuro put the puppet back into the scroll and walked toward the wolf. He then looped the leather cord around her neck. He pulled her off the ground and forced her to walk forward. "Now, come."
Amaya growled as she was forced down the long hallway and into an elevator. Konkuro was holding the leash and Temari walked behind them. Several other gaurds were scattered throughout the building a at least four by each door. But then there was one last door. This one had probably twenty in the surrounding hall.
Temari walked ahead and opened the door. "Lord Gaara, she is here."
There was a silence then Temari stuck her head back out and motioned for Konkuro to bring the wolf in.
"Lord Gaara. This is it." Amaya turned her head to growl at the puppeteer, then turned back to face this "Gaara".
Gaara had a red blog of hair and the symbol for "love" on his forehead, which was odd because his face almost said "pure hate". But the feature about him that was most stunning was his eyes. They had dark black rings around the outside and were a light aquamarine, no pupil. He said nothing, just stared at them.
Amaya growled again in frustration and sat down. The sebon was still in her neck and she was still slightly subdued so she couldn't attack, though, the poison seemed to be wearing off rather quickly. To waste time, she turned her head around and chewed on the leash. Her teeth easily sliced most of it, but she left some of it whole so it seemed as though she was still tied up.
"Kage, you were right to bring her here. She is not just a regular animal." Gaara finally spoke. Amaya looked around for where the other boy may be, but did not find him.
Amaya huffed/barked at Gaara and glared right back at the Kazekage. They stared at each other for a moment before Gaara broke the eye contact.
That did it. She had dominance and the poison had worn off. Snapping her head back, she broke the remainder of the leash and sprung at the desk, disappearing just before she hit it and reappearing behind Gaara. Jumping up toward what she thought was his neck, she was immediately thrown back and against the wall, which she took off running on and was pinned down almost as soon as she had taken her first steps on the wall. Looking down at her body, she saw four more sebon in her neck and sand pinned her down.
She raised her head to look at Gaara, who had just raised one hand toward her, and Konkuro, who had a puppet out. "Other than attacking, she can also speak, so we know that she is not just a regular wolf. Not to mention that this leash was even more chakra enhanced than the crate she destroyed."
"Is this true?" Gaara asked. Noticing Amaya's muscles relax, He released her from the sand.
"It is indeed, Lord Gaara." Temari bowed slightly and walked over to Amaya, who could only muster up a small growl.
Everyone in the room looked at the wolf that hated it. She couldn't decide if she would talk or not. She could talk, and then they might ask her a bunch of annoying questions, or she could keep quiet and annoy them.
"Woof." She decided to annoy them, but still tell them she could talk.
Kakuro glared at her while she could see a hint of a smirk on Temari's face. Gaara sat motionless.
"Who are you?" Another man with white cloth over half his face stepped forward.
Amaya turned toward him, decided her little game was over, then remembered the sebon. "Pull these stickers out and I might tell you something."
Without a word spoken, the poisoned spikes were pulled off at the same second something was put around her neck. This new collar also had two more spikes.
"Okay… That was slightly painful." She shook her fur out as she felt energy return to her. "What is this collar for?"
"Just answer the questions." She saw Kakuro cross his arms and roll his eyes. Amaya stuck out her tongue at him then turned back to Gaara and the other man, seeing Temari struggling to hold back giggles.
"Who are you?" The same man repeated.
Sighing the best a wolf could sigh, Amaya sat down and gnawed at her paw. "Amaya. Can I go now?"
"Clan?" The man looked surprised at how the girl answered so easily, but continued to ask his questions.
"None."
"Village?"
"Nope."
A shock was fired through what seemed to be her new collar and she emitted a short yelp of pain and crouched down. When it was over, her fur bristled and she snarled at her questioner. "What the heck was that?!" she growled.
"That collar is electric. Whenever you do not cooperate with us, you will be shocked." He spoke with a calm face as he faced the snarling beast in front of him.
"I was telling the truth! I have no village!" Amaya sunk lower to the ground and charged him, only to be shocked mid-air.
"Who is your teacher?"
"I have none! What do you want with me?" She was shocked again. "Ow! Leave me alone!" With this she set out in a full sprint towards Gaara's large desk and crawled underneath it, only to be shocked again. "Stop it!"
"What is your vil-" The man continued, just to be cut off.
"Baki, clearly she has lived most of her recent life alone and her jutsus suggest that she had very little ninja training." Gaara sat in his chair still at the desk and didn't move as Amaya poked her head out from under the desk to look from him to Baki and back.
"Is this true, Amaya?" Baki looked back at her exposed head with an almost confused expression.
"Yep. I've only learned a few basic jutsus and hand-signs. Also, my ture family was murdered when I was young, then the people who looked after me were killed and kidnapped."
"Does that mean that there are more of you?"
"Of me? Well technically, we are all different and…" Amaya noticed how her little audience were glaring at her now. "Alright, alright. I seriously doubt that anyone is left. I don't remember anything really well from that time, only running." She crawled out from under the desk and scratched nonchalantly at her collar with her back leg.
"Are you always a wolf? Your chakra is too strong for you to be in this form all of the time." Temari now stepped forward to ask her question.
"No. I was… in a fight and… well you don't want to know the details, but I am human… kind of… I just have a tail and ears when in that form." Amaya said, standing up and walking toward the blond. "I would turn back, but I don't know how!"
"You must remember something about your village!" Kakuro completely ignored Amaya and Temari's conversation.
"Hmm… Well let's see if you remember anything if I kill your entire family and you have to live be yourself. Not to mention that I was five!" She growled at the man. Amaya ran up to him, jumped on the table in front of him, and snarled about a foot from his face. Maybe she should have stayed with the Akasuki after all. Some of them might have been annoying, but they were a loud nicer!
"Like you could!" Kakuro spat back, coming so close that their faces were inches away from each other now.
They growled at each other for a moment before Baki shocked Amaya again to get her attention.
"Ow! You know you could just ask me for my attention, right? Gosh!" Amaya said, breaking eye contact with Kakuro.
"Ha! You deserved it, dog!" Kakuro stepped back some, only to lean even closer to the snarling beast. Amaya looked him straight in the eye, then, decided how to really anger him. She didn't care if she got shocked or not, she just wanted to ruin the face-paint. Heh heh heh.
She licked him, ruining all of that perfect purple paint. Chuckling, she barely felt the electric shock as Kakuro stole the remote and shocked her repeatedly. She fell off the table laughing and saw that Temari, Baki, and even the ninja guards were also laughing.
Kakuro was still shocking her when a shadow swooped past him and the remote disappeared. The wolf stopped laughing and crooked her head to the side slightly. "What the heck was that?"
"Kage! Do you always need to use that jutsu?" Temari put her hands on her hips, and looked around. A low chuckle sounded and a shadowed area appeared on Gaara's right side. The shadow formed into a figure, then into the boy she knew as Kage.
"It's either that or be normal, and I prefer this!" He grinned under his mask, than turned serious toward Kakuro and Baki. "But don't torture her. She would make a good ninja. Especially if we can figure out how to change her back into her human form."
"Okay, one: Since when have you been here? And two: How do you suppose we do that?" Amaya jumped onto Gaara's desk and sat down, facing Kage. The only real reason she sat on Gaara's desk was because if she walked behind the desk, most likely the guards would get mad at her, and if she sat in front of the desk, she could not see his face, which annoyed her.
"Several ideas. Some include intense pain, loss of chakra, meditation, fighting-"
"Fighting won't work. I already fought you and kind of Kakuro, and I only felt more powerful than ever. Intense pain might work, but that should be a last resort I think." Amaya interrupted Kage, but it did not offend him. Her input shortened the list a lot.
"I think it should be at the top, administered by me…" Kakuro mumbled, crossing his arms.
"Shhhut it!" Amaya jerked her head around momentarily to snarl at the boy, who jumped back a step in surprise. Then she faced Gaara and Kage once more. "I'm not really sure how I could loose enough chakra to change back, but it might work. And can all of you please stop hiding your chakra form me. It's pointless. I can see that Gaara's a lot larger than your showing. And it's really annoying watching you al hide it." With this, she saw several of the ninjas flinch straight and Gaara's eyes widened a small amount before going back to his normal glare.
"How long have you seen our chakra?" Baki guessed stepping forward and letting his chakra expand as much as possible.
"Ever since I got here. But only since I turned into this form." Amaya said, turning her head toward the speaker. "And don't try to make it look larger than it really is. I can see how it really looks. So far, the only ones that has a chakra larger than mine or equal and are showing their true size are Gaara and Kage."
"Why don't you stop hiding your chakra, then?" Kakuro asked, annoyed.
Amaya shrugged as much as she could in this form and let her chakra expand, almost letting it fill the room. It was about the same size of Kage's and both of their's were smaller than Gaara's. She saw Kakuro flinch but stand right back up before anyone else in the room noticed. "I've still beaten you twice." He said, crossing his arms again.
"In this form. And I usually set my mind on defense unless I have the upper hand." Amaya said, standing up on Gaara's desk to face the puppet-man.
"Ha! I doubt you could beat me, even if your chakra was the size of Lord Gaara's!"
That cut her. She snarled and crouched down, facing Kakuro, who only smirked and pulled out a scroll, summoning a puppet. Amaya lunged at him just when she felt the strongest shock she had ever felt be administered, knocking her to the ground in a limp pile.
"Oomph!" She groaning when the shocking stopped and stood back up when the electric currents subsided. "I hate this stupid collar!" She moved her front paws, trying to rub it off of her neck. "I just want to hurt him a little! Please! Gosh! That hurt!" She continued to pull at the shock collar except this time with her back feet managing to push it to her ears. "Kage! What the heck was that setting? Weren't you the one that said to stop shocking me? Gosh!" She continued to rant as Kage looked from her to the remote, slightly shocked at the power.
"Maybe it's faulty?" Kage asked looking back to the still struggling wolf. "Wait… Hold on…. Amaya, can I see your right paw real quick?"
"If you don't shock it too! Crap! That hurt more than that sword!" She jumped back onto the desk, not with out some trouble from the after shock of the currents, and gave Kage her paw.
Upon not-so-close examination, Kage's eyes widened at the sight of a human hand with fur starting at the wrist. He flipped the paw over and saw that the claws had disappeared and there was just smooth fur on the top. "Well, I think we just found out what changes you back, Amaya, and I'm afraid it's going to be painful."
Kakuro laughed, and Amaya, before Kage could pick the remote back up, jumped down and bit his ankle. She laughed around his bone when he hollered and bit down harder. She felt the bone under her jaw and was about to snap when she was shocked even harder than the last one.
Her jaw unwillingly released and the wolf crippled down on the ground. It felt even worse than when Kisame's sword swiped her ankle, or when she changed forms in the first place. This felt as though thousands of lightning bolts were hitting every pressure point in her body at once. It lasted for what felt like hours, but she knew it only lasted about a minute and a half.
"Gosh! Kage! That hurt even more! Get this evil collar off me!" She stood up shakily and wrapped her hands around the collar, trying desperately to pull it off. But thn, she stopped, looking at her hands. "Sweet, it worked." Amaya said calmly. She looked down, finding that she was in the outfit she wore during her fight with Hidan, minus the cloak. However, she noticed her Akatsuki ring was still on, but nobody seemed to notice. She shook herself out so that her ears stood back up and tail fluffed out and moved back and forth. "Well, that did hurt, but it's nice being human again!" she said with a smile toward Kage.
"Like your ever human," Kakuro mumbled, trying to act like the bite didn't hurt.
Amaya turned on him once more, ears laid back and tail swishing back and forth annoyed. "Kakuro, even though I'm human, I have at least five times as mush chakra than you! I could beat you anytime, boy!" She walked up to him and poked him in the center of his forehead, making him lose balance for a second.
"Amaya," Everyone in the room turned to face Gaara, who still sat expressionless at his desk. "Do not attack Kakuro. Baki, please brief here on the situation here."
"Yes, Lord Kaz-" Baki started, only to be interrupted by Amaya.
"Oh come on! Pease Gaara! I just want to hurt him a little bit! And why can't I just leave right after that?" Gaara deepened the glare he was giving her, making her shut up immediately.
"Come, Amaya." Baki said, turning his back on the Kazekage and Kage, who seemed to be holding back a laugh at Amaya, who also noticed how the older sand nin spoke to her.
"You don't have to call be around like a dog…" She mumbled, following him out of the office along with Kakuro and Temari.
"It's what you a-"
"Don't you DARE finish that sentence, batman!" Amaya said, growling at him. They growled at each other in the hallway while the girl and her sensi watched them bicker.
"They're just like siblings. Always fighting, even though they've only known each other for about an hour." Temari said, slightly amused.
Baki nodded, before he asked the girl nicely, "Amaya, if you would be so kind as to come with me, please?"
"Will you let me go if I come?" She said, still not breaking eye contact with Kakuro.
"We'll see." Baki said, watching the two, glaring at each other. Amaya surprised him when a small smirk appeared on her face, but was quickly replaced by a loud snapping noise, which concluded with Kakuro on the floor and Amaya laughing at him.
"Don't snap at me!" Kakuro yelled, standing up.
"I couldn't help it! You were really starting to annoy me! Oh my gosh!" She said, between laughs. Temari couldn't help but laugh as well at Kakuro's face. It was twisted into a grimace and an embarrassed blush just visible through all of his white and purple face paint.
"Alright, I've had my fun for now. What do you want, Baki?" Amaya said, finally calmed down from he laughing fit.
"Just come with me, and I'll tell you what you need to do." Baki was starting to get really annoyed with having to keep repeating himself, but didn't let it show. He turned his back on the three and they all walked to the large meeting room at the end of the hall.
'This ought to be fun.' Amaya thought.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Please review!!!!! I love reading them! They make me feel all special and warm on the inside! X3 Thanks to all the people that have reviewed so far!!!
Okay, sorry it took so long to publish this, but I couldn't decide weather or not to have her arrive at Sand, or the Akatsuki find her before she got there. I finally settled on this one and I hope you all enjoyed it! X3
