WARNING: Short, but FREEEEEEEAKY chapter! MORE REVIEWS, POR FAVOR!!
And no, Cyn Wraith, I have NO intention WHATSOEVER to stop NOW! Are you f&cking kidding me? I'M ONNA ROLL!
In the distance, a light shined.
…………
"Nyoink!" Aki snatched the Mist shinobi's Heaven Scroll, "I'll take that, thank you."
Kicking him in the back, she leapt into the trees, leaving three very dazed Kirigakure ninjas in the clearing. Flipping the faint yellow scroll in her hand, she slipped it in her backpack, and was on her way to the tower. It was a good day; she had kicked off at least four teams and was getting an increasing pile of scrolls.
She fanned out her hair, and retied it again, fixing her green glasses. Her staff was sheathed and her Tojo blades were resting against the palms of her hands. She had decided to take it easy a little, since her stomach was still acting up. She didn't know what was causing it, and it always seemed to happen when she was fighting.
Aki shrugged and went her way, whistling to "Start the Commotion".
She didn't know that Destiny hadn't stopped toying with her mind.
…………
Everyone always called her Kage.
She never knew why; they just did. Maybe it was because she had hated loneliness and had always followed one step behind everyone else. She had moved all over the globe, sometimes even out of country. She had moved from France to the US, and was very anti social for she knew her mother might want to move closer to her job again.
She was always anti- social for fear of a broken heart, but she was a vibe person; she couldn't help being attracted to the good ones.
Though, today wasn't her day. She was wondering where her friend was to break the news to her; she was moving back to Maine. She knew that her friend hadn't been at school for at least two days. One said that she was under house arrest, and Kage had laughed at the joke, but now…
She went back to her house after school, and collected a few items to cheer her friend up. Her custom made stereos, which were small but packed a powerful punch, were placed underneath the bright red scarf and wolf plushie. She pulled back the drawstring and flipped the satchel flap over. She grabbed her bike helmet, and rode off, making sure her mother wasn't going to drag her back.
When she got there, the door was unlocked.
"Hello?" She gently tapped on the door.
She carefully walked in, and avoided the cats that greeted her with relief more than joy.
"Huh?" Kage walked over to the counter in the kitchen.
A blue ceramic cup was holding down a yellow note. Kage pushed the cup aside and read the note:
Christo!
If we're not here by the time you get back from work, we're out looking for your sister! She's run away!
Mom
"SHE WHAT?!" Kage dropped the note and ran out the door, closing and locking it so that the cats wouldn't escape.
Where could she be?! She reverted to the conversations she had with her friend.
"I hate this school……Wish it could burn down…"
"Why am I here again?"
"Wish I could burn it……"
"Wish I could burn it…"
HOLY CRAP!! That's where she was! Kage pedaled faster than her track skills could master. What the hell was she doing there?! She got to the building and dropped her bike as she ran to the gym doors. They were locked. She tried the entrance. Locked.
Why the school, of all places?!
She looked up at the hill, and noticed something gleaming in the setting sun. Scrambling up the hill, she gasped.
Lying on the grass was a knife.
She bent down, and saw that it was clean of blood. So was the grass. She did see, however, footprints. Sandal footprints. Checking so see no one was around, she followed them out of the school grounds, and into the surrounding forest, gripping her satchel in shivered anticipation.
It was then she found it.
The strange hole in the forestry wall.
"Huh? I don't remember that being there." Kage scratched her head, and approached the hole.
A cold breeze moaned from the entrance, making Kage's legs quake in sickening fear. She wanted to turn around……and yet, she couldn't.
She drew closer, closer still. What was this feeling? It wasn't good, but nor was it bad. It was like the lion was saying, "Come here" to the mouse, "I'm not gonna hurt cha."
"Come. Come closer……" Kage's legs refused to listen to their brain.
"No, closer…Closer, yesssss…" Kage was entranced by this opening.
She outstretched her hand, and as soon as her fingers touched the shadow of the hole, her body was sucked in, leaving nothing of her behind.
…………
"HUH?!" Aki woke up instantly, sharply turning her head.
It was midday, the sun soaring patiently through the sky. Aki was breathing in short jets, and a drop or two of sweat slid down her face.
(What was that feeling..?) She ran a hand through her bangs.
"I must be dreaming things…" As much as she wanted to believe it, her words contradicted her feelings.
Swallowing hard, Aki reached into her backpack and pulled out her photos. Kakashi was grinning, as always, which made Aki stop for a moment and melt. Her karma cat was normal to her eyes, glancing up at her with her googly eyes, and looked up at her new kitten, Karma, which was snoozing on the grass in front of her feet. She then lipped to the last picture that contained her friends and her.
She took a short glance, but her heart froze, and with a squeamish pit in her stomach, her eyes swiveled back to the picture, wide with horror and incredulity.
"NO WAY…" Her eyebrow twitched in fear.
"This can't be…" She stared at the photo.
"This is..!"
…………
She was tumbling through darkness, gravity off duty. She gripped her satchel like she was hanging on to the last bit of sanity she knew. Light suddenly exploded upon her, and gravity had evidently returned. She was now falling from the sky, and at an alarming rate, none the less.
Through the flimsy wisps of cloud, she squinted and saw green rushing into her face. Wind whipped at her eyeballs and tears streamed behind her as she fell into a rather large and dark forest.
It was like the clocks had slowed down, and everything has reduced to a crawl, except her. Her abdomen was the first to make contact. She slammed into a thick branch, knocking the wind out of her. She started to slide, and desperately tried to cling onto the bark, but with no air to power her muscles, she slipped off and fell a good fifty feet until her back smashed into another bough. She cried out in pain, blood lightly spraying from her mouth. She limply slumped off that branch and fell through weaker twigs as her body smashed against the ground, burying her in twigs and leaves.
Blood started to leave from where her head could be seen.
…………
"What was that?!" Aki glared into the trees.
(I heard a scream…) With a horrible feeling writhing in her stomach, she felt as though she knew the creator of that outcry.
"Karma, we're off!" Aki leapt into the tree branches, and started to leap like a cat towards the epicenter of the cry.
Her cat trilled slightly, shook her head, and jumped after her.
(Let me be wrong…Please, be wrong…) Aki's thoughts grew more desperate as she came closer to the yelp of pain.
She slid short as she saw it.
Lying on the grass in a clearing, was a feminine body covered in branches. With her heart having hysterics, Aki slowly inched towards the body. Something was wrong.
VERY wrong.
"Hey." Aki whispered, more out of fear than the apprehension of getting caught.
"…"
"Hey. You alive?"
"…"
Aki circled her body once very slowly like a tiger inspecting its kill. She bent down, and prodded the shoulder with a finger. A short exhale of breath was enough evidence for Aki that this person was still in this world.
"This doesn't feel right…" Aki started to pull back branches.
Strands of blonde hair covered in blood somehow woven themselves into the wood, and Aki had a hard time of pulling them off. She noticed this person had a taste for dyed hair; two very large underbangs of hair were first blonde, then a forest green, then an electric blue finished them.
Aki, seeing the blood, pulled bigger branches off and swept away the rest of the small stuff. A small puddle of blood had seeped from the stranger's mouth, her hair covering her face like a fanned leaf. Heaving the body over, Aki pulled back the hair to check the face.
She finally knew how a senior citizen felt when their heart has the death attack.
…………
"This...this can't...can't be possible…..." If Aki's eyes could have gone any wider, her eye sockets would break.
Lying in front of her, unconscious with a line of blood running down her right cheek, was…
"KAGE?!"