I was falling. It was a deep dark pit with no end and no bottom, just falling farther and farther into nothingness. It felt like eternity, was this all there was after death? A deep, dark abyss? It was my version of hell, so much worse than anything else I had ever experienced. And it hurt. Every piece of my body ached as though on fire was burning through my veins.

I looked down, and for the first time I thought I saw a light. It was dim at first, but after falling for so very long, it was something. Soon it got brighter, and brighter, and before I knew it I crashed into it.

I could hear voices, quiet murmurs as I waded through the darkness, slowly finding my way back to consciousness. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I felt a pressure on my hand, and I was pretty sure I heard crying too. Slowly the voices started to make sense as I swam my way closer to the surface of the darkness.

"The chakra from the 6 tailed wolf has stabilized in her body. Her lack of chakra already present is probably how she made it this far. I don't know if or when she will wake up. This is beyond anything I have ever experienced." It was Tsunade, sounding stiff and professional.

I tried to make a noise, to say I was awake, but they had something crammed down my throat, making it hard to even breathe. I tried to move too, but I felt like I was pinned down.

"But she'll survive this?" That was Neji, coming from somewhere beyond Tsunade.

"I don't know. Like I said, I have never experienced this before." She answered.

Of course I'll survive it you moron, I thought. I mean, it would be so lame if I died on my first mission. I heard quiet crying coming from beside me, and a "There, there" come from Sakura. I realized the person crying must be Kylie, and I felt overcome with guilt.

Slowly I managed to open up my eyes. It was so bright that I winced. Tsunade was standing by the bed, looking at the other members of the room. Kylie was sitting on a chair next to the bed crying, holding one of my hands tightly, Sakura standing next to her trying to comfort her. A few feet away from her was Naruto, looking stressed and quite a bit less hyper than usual, and even Sasuke was here, standing against the wall farthest from the bed. On the other side of the room was team Gai, Rock Lee and Gai were standing in the corner, Lee pacing nervously while Gai watched his pupil. Tenten stood next to Tsuande on my left, opposite the side of Ky, and Neji stood a few feet behind Tenten.

There were 9 people in the room, not including myself, and not one of them noticed I was awake. Sue me, but I was a bit irritated.

"What are her chances?" Gai asked gravely. "In your best medical opinion."

Dude, I was awake! Ugh!

"I don't know," Tsuande said. "Maybe 50%."

Kylie let out another sob at that, and I squeezed her hand. Her head shot up, eyes red and bloodshot. I wondered how long she'd been here crying. "OhmyGod, she's awake!" Ky yelled, on her feet. I tried to make a noise but I couldn't. All eyes immediately turned to me.

I lifted my hand up. We both knew a minimal amount of sign language, so I could at least spell a message.

I moved my hand slightly, spelling out the message as best I could.

"What's she doing?" Tenten asked, "Hand signs?"

"No it's sign language." Kylie said, watching me carefully. "She wants the thing out of her throat."

Tsuande looked at me critically. "Im sorry, but it's important to keep it in there, it's keeping your lungs from collapsing."

I made another few hand movements.

"Tawny don't you dare!" Ky gasped at what I said. I glared and she reluctantly translated my message. "She said if we don't take it out she'll yank it out herself."

"She'll be okay. Her lungs are less damaged than most of her other organs." All eyes turned to Neji, who had his Byakugan activated and was directing it at me.

Tsuande looked between me and Neji for a moment, then apparently decided something because she came over and carefully removed the instrument crammed down my windpipe.

I gasped in a breath when it was gone, letting out a groan at the pain it caused, but Neji was right, I could at least breathe on my own.

"What the friggin hell happened?" I asked, but my voice was scratchy and hurt. Actually, everything hurt. Every time I tried to move anything I'd get a sharp pain from that area of my body.

Kylie looked at me, her eyes shining with tears. "Th-the spirit thing entered you and messed up your body. You were convulsing and shaking and your heart even stopped."

"How did we get back so fast?" I managed to get out, but it brought on a round of painful coughing.

"Gai-sensei brought you back, we returned a day later. You've been unconscious here for nearly 5 days." Tenten said, watching me with worry all over her face.

Finally, I decided to ask the question I didn't really want to know the answer to. "How badly am I hurt?"

"For whatever reason, you and Kylie do not have chakra networks," Tsuande said slowly, "when the chakra of the spirit beast entered your body, it forced its own way through your system, creating pathways that were never meant to be there. It damaged many of your organs, including your heart, lungs, liver, and many major muscle groups, which is why you're in so much pain. Your body was never meant to handle chakra, so either you will adapt to it, and the extra chakra will heal you, or…" she trailed off, not looking at me.

"Or…" I pushed.

"Or your body will reject the chakra, and try to force it out, in which case it will probably kill you." She finished.

I blinked. Well that wasn't too terrible, at least compared to other things. I laid back and closed my eyes, feeling beyond exhausted.

I wondered if they had an animated version of vicodin here, to kill the pain. My arms and legs throbbed, and my chest burned as if I'd swallowed soup that hadn't had time to cool.

As if reading my mind Tsunade gave me a button. "This will put you to sleep and give you something for the pain. Just push it when you want to get knocked out."

I nodded. "In that case, now would be a great time. But I'd rather not have you all watching me sleep." I added, hoping they'd get the message.

"I shall come back to check on you later my pupil! You were very courageous and I'm proud of you." Gai declared, ushering the other genin out of the room.

"I'll visit you tomorrow!" Tenten said as she was being pushed out by Gai.

Kylie and Tsuande stayed in the room as everyone else filtered out.

"I'm not leaving." Kylie said stubbornly.

I gave her a grin. "I didn't really expect you to, but you should go back and get some rest, you know I love you but you look like hell."

She sniffed. "You had me scared to death."

"I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose." I said,

"But still! You should have been more careful. You had no business being a decoy when you haven't been properly trained." Ky sniffed, looking like she was about to start balling again.

"Chill Ky, I'm gonna be just fine. A lot of sleep, some of your awesome cooking, and a shitload of chocolate, and I'll be good as new in no time." I told her with a strained smile. "Now go home and get cleaned up while I take a nice long trip to lala land."

Kylie nodded reluctantly, and hesitated getting up. She threw one last worried look at me before she went out the door, closing it quietly behind her.

"That was brave of you, going into that situation with such a lack of experience." Tsunade complimented, checking all the tubes and gadgets sticking out of me.

"Thanks. So tell me doc, what are things probably gonna look like from here? Will I be able to use the chakra from the wolf?" I asked curiously.

"I don't know. For now you should just focus on recovery. We have to make sure that the chakra stabilizes in your system before we look any farther ahead. I'm going to do some research as well, to see if there is anything that may help the transition," Tsunade said, "and I should warn you now, it will not be a pleasant few days while it does stabilize. Your body will be going through a tremendous amount of stress as it tries to adjust to the chakra. That button you're holding will become your new best friend."

Well that was a cheerful thought. I knew I could survive this though, I just had to have faith and fight it. "Okay, well unless you have any objections, I'm gonna head into wonderland. I have a mad hatter I need to find."

Tsunade looked at me strangely, obviously not able to understand the reference, but seemed to understand that I meant sleep. "Okay, I will start looking into some jutsu that may help."

"Thanks doc," I said pressing the button twice.

I layed back and started counting, wanting to know for reference sake how long it would take for the drugs they gave me to knock me out.

I got to 26.

I was in a cage. It was a big cage, but there were bars on all sides of me, and far above my head. They kept me trapped in darkness, as I wondered how I got here.

I had to wonder why I always ended up in the creepy places.

"Because that's where you imagine us to be." A female voice said from behind me, raspy but strangely soothing, reading my thoughts.

I shot around, suddenly realizing I was in my mind, where the 6 tailed wolf was. As I turned around, I was greeted by a strange sight.

It was indeed the wolf spirit, but instead of being ginormous like the nine tailed fox it was small, only slightly bigger than a regular wolf. It wasn't as physical as me, it was made up of blue energy, shaping it, as the chakra radiated around her. It was scary, but for some reason she didn't appear threatening.

"It's because I'm not here to hurt you," she said, reading my thoughts again. Creepy much?

"Then what are you here for?" I asked cautiously. From what I'd seen from the epi's, I wanted to tread carefully around a tailed beast.

"I'm here to make a bargain for you." She replied smoothly, curling up comfortably on the ground, her tails wrapping themselves around her like a coat. She looked at me and then to the ground, expecting me to do the same.

I sat slowly, crossing my legs but keeping an eye on her. "What kind of bargain?"

"You have my chakra now, whether either of us like it or not. If you should survive the transition of it, then I think we could be useful to eachother." So far not to bad.

"So what are you proposing?" I asked curiously.

"I give you full access to my power, on two conditions." She purred, looking at me with bright eyes.

"I'm listening." And I was. If I could find a way to harness her power, I could be a decent ninja.

"The first is that my power is never to be used as part of the Akatski organization again, and the second is that should you be in a serious risk where there is a real danger to you dying, in which case I would die too, you summon my physical form using a summoning jutsu." She said.

My mind reeled to a halt, on both conditions. "Wait, Akatski? When did they have you?" I asked baffled.

She studied me like I was slow in the head. "The young lord who was trying to imprison me in those girls was a pawn for the Akatski. They gave him my soul with the condition he find a vessel for it."

Okay made sense, now onto the second condition. "And how the hell am I going to trust you out and about on your own? If I summoned you, what is to say you wouldn't do the same thing as Shikaku and the Nine Tails?"

Her nose went up in a huff. "I am nothing like those untamed barbarians. They simply want freedom for the sake of destruction."

"And why do you want it?" Again, I was curious.

"In all honesty I don't really care if I'm free now or not. It would be nice, seeing the world again for my own eyes, but I don't mind seeing it through yours. My condition is based on the fact that if you die, I do as well, and should you be close to death, that I could save both our lives." She licked her paws absently.

"I absolutely agree to the first one. I will to the best of my ability ensure you will not fall into the hands of the akatski. As for your second condition, it sounds reasonable enough, but I want to do some research just to make sure you're not feeding me a bunch of crap." I decided.

"Alright. Let me know of what you decide." She said, standing up and turning around, her tails swinging behind her.

"Wait!" I called before she disappeared. "What should I call you?"

"Makade." Was all she said, before disappearing into the darkness. The cage faded from around me, and again I was lost in darkness.

Author's note. Hey guys! Thanks so much for sticking with me! I hope you're enjoying the story so far, and I'm finally getting a handle on where I'm going with this!

Just for reference, Makade is an Native American name for "Wolf" I didn't know what to call her, so I just went with that!