Okay, so, last chapter I forgot to mention that the sister story is out! Only one chapter, kind of boring so far, but it's going to get a whole lot more interesting. I was going to work on that chapter before this one but I figured considering I left off on something of a cliff hanger…if any of you were looking forward to the fight with the sound nin…that's not this chapter. So…sorry to disappoint. BUT YEAH Sister story is out there, if you guys are interested, go ahead and take a look :)
OKAY So a big big big thank you to my reviewers because you all make me so very happy; Jasmine-.-Momo-chan, romyblossom, redxcherrie, Sakura'sGhettoInner, PockyPaint, Animelover XD, Jane Odair, BloodyGirl, Demon-Child-XIII, RinDey, LoverForAnime, Black snake eyes, and a couple anonymous as well. Thank you very much for reviewing!
It started in a small room, with a small bed in the center, and a young black haired girl crying. An old woman lay there, breathing very faintly, watching the young girl as she wept. I ached to console the girl, but I knew they couldn't see me. I was standing just behind the young girl and the woman hadn't noticed me.
"Hush, Young one," The old woman spoke softly, stroking the girl's hair. "This is the way it must be."
"But I don't want you to go!" The little girl wailed, clutching the old woman's hand. The old woman simply shook her head, waving her hand for a large book to appear, and she handed it to the small girl. The girl shook her head violently, shoving it back into the woman's arms.
"Little one," The old woman spoke, "Little one, Anika, Shush." The little girl stilled, staring up at the woman's aged face. "This will always happen. My time is up."
"But it doesn't have to be!" The little girl, Anika, spoke. "I don't want to do this. Not if it means you have to go."
The old woman smiled, sliding the book back to the girl, "We always have to let go of something we love." There was a beat of silence, before the little girl took the book from the old woman's hands, and the old woman laid down, let out a long breath, and stilled. The girl sat there, book in her lap, tears in her eyes, before she stood and walked out of the room.
There was a jump, of sorts, something like a time-skip, and the little girl was there again. Not much older, but a bit taller than normal. She didn't have the book in her possession, it seemed, and she sat on the side of a road just outside of town.
A man stood in front of her, leaning down to speak with her. I couldn't hear words, so I neared them, leaning by the girl to try to see the man's face. His face was like a distant memory, like when you can't quite remember someone's face and the features keep changing.
"They don't like me here." The little girl spoke, "Because they know what I am. I don't hide it."
The man nodded, smiling slightly, "Can you show me what you are?"
The little girl nodded, waving her hand and showing him her book. He reached out to touch it, but she pulled it back, "You cannot destroy it." She said, "Not yet. Granny used to say that only we knew the ways. But I don't know." The man nodded.
"Have you been alone since your grandmother left you as the successor?"
The little girl nodded solemnly, and the man smiled again, "How would you like to be somewhere you can help?" The girl stared up at him skeptically, so he continued, "I can take you in. You can help me. If you are on my side, surely I would be unbeatable." He flashed her a grin, and a slight blush lit up her cheeks.
"I am not that powerful."
"Ah," He spoke, "But you could be." She lifted her head to meet his eyes again and he held out a hand for her to take. With a wave the book was gone, and the little girl took his hand. It was her grin that alerted me to who she was. White teeth, straight, with pointed tips.
Another jump, and I was in a training area. The girl was older now, pretty, in a very dark sort of way. Black hair, glossy, falling down her back, dark, deep set eyes, very pale skin, and a tall, willowy figure. The resemblance to the witch I knew was there, but she looked nothing like the skeleton the witch was when I met her.
She was doing physical training when the man walked in again. She froze, whirling around to see him. She looked at a loss for words, glancing frantically around the room and trying to grasp for words.
"I want to see how your magic has improved." Was all he said, walking up to her as she gaped at him.
"Are you not angry with me?" She asked, staring up at him wide-eyed.
"Is that an apology?"
Her expression darkened, looking off to the side and refusing to meet his eyes, "You should not have sent me on that mission if you wanted him alive. You know how I feel about others of my kind." He nodded, taking her chin in his hands and forcing her to look at him.
"Training. Now." Was all he said and a blush lit up her cheeks when he turned away. She quickly summoned the book.
"What do you want to see?" She asked, turning to him. He watched her from the opposite side of the room.
"I want to see just how indestructible that book is." He spoke, and her entire body froze. She very cautiously turned to look at him.
"Why?" She asked suspiciously.
"To ensure your safety of course," The man spoke, "To make sure that nothing can destroy that. You told me you are essentially powerless without it. "
"Yes, that is true…" She said, "We need contact with our book to cast spells, or at least the paper, though the paper only allows for one casting. Only simply things can we do without it."
"Then we will ensure your safety." He said, coming closer. He placed a single hand on the book, "We will see what this does."
His hand lit up in green flames, and the witch fell to the ground screaming.
Another jump, and I found myself in a very dark room. I couldn't see much save for the crumpled silhouette on the floor in front of me and the small barred window to the left. I could hear the steady drip, drip, drip of water falling onto the cement floor. The figure on the ground didn't stir. I wondered if they were dead.
Suddenly the door swung open, and the light blinded me. I heard the shuffling of feet, a few barked out orders that I didn't quite catch, and my vision cleared just enough to see them dragging the figure out of the cell, and, like a dream, I suddenly found myself in a dimly lit room. It was very simply furnished, with an armchair beside a table at the far side and a fireplace along the wall. Against the wall opposite the fireplace sat the figure from the dark cell. I could see their legs illuminated in the dim light, but the rest of them were cast in shadows.
The door behind me opened, and I went to jump out of the way to hide, but they literally walked right through me. Flinching almost violently, I watched as the man strode into the room.
The figure on the floor snarled and jumped for him, and she was suddenly illuminated. It was the witch, but she looked much more like the one I knew now. Though her hair wasn't the matted mess I was graced with seeing, her face was now gaunt, and her eyes seemed to be buried in endless black pits. The man quickly dodged her and she hit the ground near the fireplace, narrowly avoiding burning her hands.
The man tutted in disapproval and I heard her growl from her place on the ground. "Why do you fight when you've already lost." He asked, locking his hands behind his back.
"I have not lost," Her voice spoke, slightly raspy but still as musical as it always was.
He grinned then, seemingly mocking her. "Tell me, what can you gain here?" He kneeled down beside her and lifted her by her chin, "I have your only chance of beating me. I could destroy it and you'd have nothing."
"You cannot destroy it," She snarled, trying to pull away from his grip, "You cannot. It is impossible."
He smirked then, turning and pulled up his sleeve, biting his thumb and running a streak of blood down his arm. I expected him to summon an animal or something, but instead he summoned the book. Now was the first time I got a good look at it. It was thick, with gold lined pages and some foreign writing on the cover. At the sight of it the witch leapt toward him, and he quickly cast a jutsu, and the corner of the book alit in those green flames from before. The witch fell to the ground mid-leap and began writhing in pain, letting out a scream that I gave a start at. The man covered the flame with his hand and she ceased her movement.
"Think of that as a warning of what I can do."
"Why are you doing this?" She croaked, lifting her head off the floor, "I am no help to you dead."
A smirk lit up the man's otherwise implacable features, "Evidently you are no use to me alive either. You do not follow my orders."
"I do not follow anyone's orders!" She bellowed, sounding amazingly authoritive for someone lying on the floor. "I will not be your slave simply because you hold that. I can still kill—"
"You can do close to nothing to me, and we both know it." He interrupted, placing the book on the table and opening it to a random place. He scanned the page, but when I came closer, confident they couldn't see me, I only saw unfamiliar symbols. "You brought this upon yourself." He spoke. The witch stayed silent. "If you hadn't disobeyed me." He flipped to another page, "And I suppose you might have been better off never trusting me, poor girl."
"Go to Hell." She spat, lifting herself onto her knees. He cast a side glance in her direction, before beginning that jutsu again that cast his hand into green flames, reaching toward the book he ripped the page out and she winced, falling back onto her hands. He crumpled the page in his hands as the strange flames engulfed it, and the witch whimpered on the floor.
He threw the page to the side, leaving it to burn, and she blindly patted down the paper, "Make it stop burning, make it stop," He said nothing but continued to flip through the book, "Please,"
With the ghost of a smirk, he made a single hand sign and the paper stopped burning. Her shaking hand reached out to grasp the remains of the paper and she pulled it closer to her. The man began to speak again. "That man needed to be brought to me alive. You blatantly disobeyed my order because of a personal grudge. So I blatantly disregard your trust because of a personal grudge as well. Poetic justice, wouldn't you say?"
"That man was better off dead," She growled, clutching the paper in her hand.
"Only to you," He growled, clutching the edges of the book, "He could have worked for me,"
"He would not have," She laughed from her spot on the ground, "He would have no reason."
"You had reason."
"You found me at an opportune moment. I was the new successor and I was afraid. You took advantage." She uncurled her fist on the paper, lifting herself to sit back on her feet. "At the darkest moment in my life, you would appear as a friend. You would draw the truth of my kind out of me in order to use it to your satisfaction, to use it against me." Shakily she brought herself to stand, "Just because you have a source, doesn't mean I'm powerless. And I will get that back."
He scoffed, turning his head to face her, "And how, pray tell, will you—" She spoke some foreign language under her breath that I only caught only because I had moved to stand closer to her, then the desk in front of the man violently burst into flames. She walked calmly forward as he reared back and she grabbed the book herself. Though the flames licked the book, it didn't catch fire, and the flames simply parted for the witch. I watched in awe as she picked up the unscathed book and turned to face the man.
"Maybe you should have chosen the page you burned more carefully." While I had been lost on basically the whole idea of the book and why it was so important, I gathered that it was some sort of spell book, and the paper on the ground still had a spell she could use. It was obviously some sort of life-line, it was virtually indestructible by outside forces, like the fire she cast. So how did that man manage to destroy part of it?
She had the book in her hands now, as the man called for his guards. With the grace only shinobi could have, men filed into the rooms and prepared to fight her. I could hear the ruckus and the murmured spells but I went toward the paper, leaning over to read it. Again, it was symbols I couldn't help to understand, and though the edges were jagged, they weren't burnt. It wasn't like he was burning it into ashes. It was more like he was erasing its existence. But as I watched it, it slowly shriveled up into itself and then it was gone.
I heard a loud scream and turned to see amidst the flames the man had the book back in his possession. Looking absolutely livid, he held the book as it flickered with those strange green flames. The witch had fallen to the ground again, writhing in pain, begging incessantly for him to stop. But he didn't. All he did was drop the burning book to the ground and turn to walk away. The shinobi followed silently, as the witch writhed around on the ground.
I turned away, but I could still hear her screaming. I tried to block it out, sorting out the events in my mind. A young girl betrayed by a man who she had labeled as her savior. His power over the book was probably meant to be a control mechanism, but all it did was make her rebel more. So, when she proved to be too wild, he opted to destroy her.
The screaming had stopped, but she was shouting things in a foreign language and the book was still burning before her. I noticed she had a paper from the book clutched in her hand that was safe, and she was reading from it. The book didn't stop burning, but she stopped screaming. She laid there limply on the floor, staring blankly at the paper she had left as the book burned, and part of the paper that she had in her hand shriveled away, only leaving a strip of it left.
I gathered that she had ripped the page out while it was in her possession. She must've known she would be caught so found a spell that could help her, and used it to save herself from whatever was happening to her in regards to the burning book. She laid there until the book was completely gone, and even then she didn't move.
Everything else I saw in flashes. Staring for days on end at a spell I couldn't read. Then, I saw myself. I was watching my face off with the witch before. I saw her dig her nails into my abdomen in that countdown, and once I was gone and she was on her own, I watched as the scrap of paper faded away into nothing.
You have until the day I met you to kill the man that I want. If you haven't completed it by then, I will not kill you. You will simply cease to exist.
Time travel is a fickle thing.