Welcome to the next chapter, REVIEW!
A big thank you to: Achillea who reviews to me most – thanks for support, you make me want to write more.
Thanks to: Naruto Dreamer who added me and my story to the favorites list
Good job: Frekels who got the right answer (about Michiyo I mean)
And whoever random is, thanks anyway!
Lights… Camera… ACTION!
: x :
The crunching noises of the leaves under their feet brought the attention of many animals. The wolf, for example, thought the three people trudging noisily through its territory were enemies. Thus, it may of thought to attack.
"Hey did you hear that?" Ryou asked Aki and Neji, his travel mates.
"What?" Neji rolled his eyes. He had not heard a thing, maybe just the crackling dead leaves under his feet but that was pretty much it.
A bush rattled near by; that noise followed by a low grumble. "THAT?" Ryou grew frantic, "You heard that didn't you?"
"Yes." Aki answered, "Probably just a stray dog or something. Leave it alone." She continued walking ahead of the boys. She thought they were stupid; they fought the whole way and they still were. Aki looked solemnly up to the sky. Here we are, taking a stroll through a ravine when there are people in danger. The Akatsuki so far have the one tailed demon, Shukaku, the nine-tailed demon, Kyuubi who is in NARUTO and the two-tailed demon, Nibi, who is in Ryou's sister, Michiyo. The jutsu they have to perform requires all the Bjiu to be present. What worries me though is the tenth Biju. She put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes breathing in the moldy air of the rotting forest.
The forest hardly let any light in so there was a creepy feeling that you were being watched wherever you go. There were some tendrils of light that managed to get through the branches of the tree but other than that, it was all dark. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between night and day. Aki continued walking until she felt a depression in the ground. She opened her eyes and dropped her hands down to her side. She could hear her brother and Ryou arguing a long ways off. There was a slight creaking sound; though she had trouble figuring out what it was. She stood there for a few moments then finally figured it out.
Neji looked away from Ryou refusing to talk to him anymore. He didn't like him there; it was Aki's fault he was there in the first place. He walked a little faster to keep away from Ryou when he noticed that Aki had disappeared. He scanned the area and found only darkness and dead leaves around him. He was about to call out to her when he heard a small voice, "Neji. Hey, Neji! Look down will you?" Obeying the shadowy voice, he looked to his feet. There were leaves there but under them, very clearly were wooden bars. He kicked the leaves around to expose the bars and found Aki's amused face staring back at him. "Hey careful nii-san; up ahead, there is a trap door. I fell in it, don't you fall in too. Can you throw your shoe over there or something so I can tell where the door is? There is no exit otherwise." Aki looked down and disappeared from view.
She was in a cave, big enough to house a few people. And, apparently, there were a few people who lived there, just not home. It was fully furnished with a Persian rug and a few seats and a full sofa. There was even a television set next to a stone fireplace. Aki looked curiously at another room where there was a stove, a stone refrigerator (that actually worked) and an open fire-pit. She began to explore the house finding two bedrooms. The first was a girl's, there was a pink bed and pink covers but the walls were black and painted with red roses. The other room was a boy's, it was dark blue and badly decorated with pieces of stone or rocks and some leaf garlands. Aki approached the third and last door in the long hallway and tried it, but it was locked. A low humming sound was coming from it, but she wasn't sure what it was. Probably a dishwasher or something, she thought.
She felt a tingling sensation on her neck and knew that she was being watched. She slowly turned around and found herself facing the girl's room, except it wasn't empty anymore. On the bed, was a little girl; she had pale skin and red lips. Locks of unusually straight brown hair fell around her square face. She was singing softly to herself and playing with a pretty battered up doll; her dress and shoes were pretty bad also. Her dress was something that looked like came out of a horror movie. It was white, like a burial cloak and had many lack and frills around it. It was drizzled with red liquid especially around the collar and arms. She stopped playing with her doll and looked at Aki. Aki's breath got stuck somewhere up her throat. She had red eyes and seemed to be able to look straight through Aki. She started saying something; getting up and walking towards Aki.
"Play with me?" Aki stared at her in wonder. A strong club to her head knocked her out of her trance. An arm swung around her neck and forced her to cease her breathing.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Aki couldn't answer obviously and the arm loosened a little when she got into a coughing fit.
"Answer the question!"
Aki immediately linked minds with Neji. Hey… uh… can you come down here? Or not… maybe I can just…
Why? What's your problem? You're stronger than me aren't you?
Aki didn't answer because she got into another coughing fit.
Hey? Are you alright? "AKI!" Neji's voice ringed through the tunnels below. Aki tried to respond but coughed instead.
"cough I'm cough Aki! Please cough I don't mean any cough harm!" The arm let go altogether and Aki bumped to the ground; she clutched her throat and coughed a little. She glared over at her attacker and found out that it was a boy maybe the same age as her. He had brown hair, the same color as the little girl's, and greenish-gray eyes. He looked awfully sorry – and he was, what do you know?
"I'm sorry. It's just—"
Aki looked back at the little girl's room, oblivious to the babbling of the boy. The little girl was gone. There was still a lump on the bed where she had sat and the carpet was folded where she had tried walking.
"—Oh. I see that you've met my little sister." The boy quieted down after that.
Aki put a fist to her mouth to stifle her cough, "Your little sister? Is she sick?"
"No…" The boy didn't say much.
"That why is she…?"
"She's dead. She died five years ago." He shut up again. "Anyway… My name is Kevin. Kevin Saruwatari, or since it is Japan, Saruwatari Kevin. That was my sister, Eva. Her real name is Evangeline but I call, or called, her Eva."
"Do you mind telling me how she died?"
He paused, then shook his head slowly, then said, "Do you believe in ghosts? The supernatural? Any of those?"
Aki ruefully shook her head.
"Maybe you should. Five years ago I went out. I was I think fifteen or sixteen at the time…"
"WHAT? You're not thirteen now?"
"No? Why do you say that? I'm twenty-one — I'll be 22 in a week though."
"Why… HOW do you look so young?"
He didn't say anything, "Well anyway, I went out for a party with some of my friends. We were playing truth or dare. Of course, any boy who picked truth was considered a sissy and was picked on. So, I picked dare. At the time, there was this old woman who everyone thought was a witch and a vampire. My friends dared me to go to the old woman and ask; I didn't believe she was one, though I should've, then maybe, I would've stopped." He paused briefly and sat on one of the counters, head in his hands.
"I went. Her house was in the middle of a graveyard, so I freaked out. I never went to ask her, but the moment I stepped into her house I knew that she was one. There were jars and bottles filled with who-knows-what everywhere. I ran out of the house but when I was almost out of the graveyard this old woman stopped me…"
Flashback
"What were you doing in my house boy?" The old woman asked. Her voice was hoarse and strict.
"Uhm… Nothing… Ma'am. I.. I was juh-just…"
The hag's face brightened, "Ah… you were sent to figure out whether I was human or not." The boy's eyes grew round; he let his breaths out in ragged gasps. "Well… Indeed, Kevin, you will find out." The boy bent down to start a sprint but found out that he couldn't move a muscle, he opened his mouth to let out a long scream but his voice was lost too. The witch drew close and touched the boy on the face. The boy let out a quiet whimper. The vampiress drew close to his neck and—
"STOP!" A girl's voice ran through the clearing. The old woman now looked different. She was younger; her brown hair was up to the middle of her back and her lips a wine red. She had sparkling… red eyes?
"Who are you dear? Come closer."
"NO! My big brother is here on a dare! A dare! He didn't want to come here! Leave him alone!"
The now beautiful woman stepped away from Kevin and looked at the girl curiously. "What are you going to do about it?"
"I know who you are. I'll tell, I'll tell the world!"
She raised one of her eyebrows, "Oh? Really?"
"Please, just leave him alone."
The blonde woman thought for a moment, merrily humming to herself, "I'll leave him alone. But, it comes with a price."
Kevin stared from his sister to the witch. It took awhile before it dawned on him what she wanted.
"What?"
"NO! EVA NO!"
"Your life."
Eva took a step back; she looked at her brother then looked on the ground, "Half. You're a witch right, miss? Well, kill me… and make him half one. Won't that satisfy your taste?"
"Hmm… guess. Tell you what, I feel awfully nice today, I'll just make you half-vampire and him half-vampire. I'll also make you two half-witches…"
"Okay." Eva put her hands in front of her, palms up, "I'm ready."
The lady smiled and began speaking foreign words. She then touched her hand onto Evangeline's and there was a huge bright light. Evangeline cringed. She then turned to Kevin and did the same to the frozen boy, before disappearing in a flash of dazzling red and white lights.
End flashback.
"That's my story. After that incident, we both became sorcerers and vampires. I didn't become a full vampire though like you're supposed to after a while. We heard of this potion, in this country, Japan. It heals you, no matter what your illness. It is called the 'Last Elixir." I thought at first, that it was part of that video game… what's its name? Well, we came to Japan to look for the elixir so we could be human again. The trip took us months on a ship we called "The Xanthochroid." Anyway, we found the potion, in a leaf of a yellow and red flower. I drank it first, selfish as I was, leaving only little for my younger sister." He paused again, and then started pacing around the room, "She got sick a few days after the elixir and died. The elixir apparently had some side effects, I handled it, but she was younger and more frail… she couldn't take it. The elixir, if you die from it, it makes you blood-thirsty. I was healed completely, but now, I don't age like the rest of humans, technically I am still a sorcerer. Blood. Any sight of it makes my sister's ghost uneasy. Every full moon, she has to kill a human to subdue her taste. We live down here for that reason. Everyday after the full moon, a human ends up dead in the nearby village, the hidden cloud village. My sister is a ghost; she makes no visible marks when she kills, except the human loses all his blood." He sighed, "Usually, she kills people that she met before; people that have seen her. She goes to the village and shows herself usually to a couple of shop keepers or occasionally a few children, and then when it is night, she goes back for her kill."
Aki thought for a moment, "Tonight… Kevin," Her eyes grew fiercer as she neared the end of the sentence, "Tonight is a full moon!"
"Then tonight… she will kill."
: x :
Aki climbed out of the trap door with a ladder. Neji and Ryou were some distance away. "Thanks a lot for throwing your shoe." Aki told Neji when she neared.
"You're welcome." Aki smacked him on his head.
"Ouch. Well, what did you find down there?"
"Nothing." Aki replied quickly. Kevin had made her swear not to tell anyone his story. Even if it was her twin.
Neji stared straight into her eyes, Liar, said a little voice in her head. Aki looked away and tried changing the subject.
"I found out about… weird… occurrences in the Village Hidden in the Cloud, that's all."
"Is it a Biju?"
Aki shrugged wistfully. She then proceeded to sit beside Neji nearer to the fire. She felt as if someone was watching her; shivering slightly she got up to warm up.
"Are you cold?" Neji asked. He was looked into the fire, but with his eyes, he could see almost 360 degrees around himself.
"Sort of… I'm going for a walk."
"Don't get lost."
Aki casually waved off the remark and began her trot through the forest. She began thinking about everything that happened that day. Usually she kills people that met her… Aki thought about it a while… Then she came to a sudden epiphany. If she killed people that she knew, and she usually goes out in the day to look for prey…
Me? Aki began to panic and she quickly ran towards her brother and Ryou; near the safety of the fire. But, unfortunately, she couldn't find her way back. She was terribly lost… if she had calmed down and thought about it thoroughly she would've gotten back to the campsite… but… guess what? She didn't.
: x :
Neji and Ryou spread their bed mats out on the cold hard ground. It was cold; the only warm spots were probably where the fire had burned… and it was hard; it was the ground after all. Ryou shifted uneasily in his futon.
"Hey Neji? Where'd be Aki?" His eyes reflected the many stars that were over head… the stars that reflected the past.
"She's fine." Neji answered. He was quite annoyed with this Ryou for tagging along. They would've gone faster if he wasn't there; he was no shinobi, he couldn't fight and he couldn't even run fast enough to keep up with the twins' pace. A dark cloud swamped Neji's brain, but he pushed and blew it away, ignoring it. It kept tugging at his mind, as if telling him about something. Soon, though, the cloud was too large to blow away. It filled his brain and mind and seemed to blur his vision. He squinted his eyes and then closed them. Whatever it is, it'd have to wait.
: x :
Blood red eyes looked back at her. They looked at her eagerly, waiting for what she would do. Aki backed away; whatever it was, it had a soul of evil. There was a deep crunching noise and the thing came out. It was the little girl that she had seen yesterday; except she looked different. Her used to be brown hair was no streaked white and her red eyes were fierce and rabid. She was biting something; in the dark, it looked much like somebody's arm. She moved on all fours, like a wolf. Aki could almost hear the growls of the wolf from her. She dropped the arm like object and licked her lips. She had sharp teeth longer than a nurse's needle. They were tainted with blood and sparkled in the moonlight. Aki backed away some more, inching away from the mad creature.
The girl, Eva, took the arm back into her mouth and started sucking it like it was a lollypop. She sucked until the arm wrinkled and started turning odd colors. Aki's face wrinkled in disgust. She threw the arm away (now that it was rubbish) and looked up greedily at Aki. She began to hiss a bit, louder with each step. Then she pounced.
Aki yelped quietly as the girl knocked her over with mysterious strength. The girl stared into Aki's eyes and then lowered her head. With speed faster than light she plunged her sharp teeth into Aki's neck. Cringing, she tried throwing the mad girl off. It didn't work and so Aki slowly but surely started to grow weary from loss of blood.
"Please… get off!"
The girl didn't listen and the sickening slurp of blood through her mouth filled Aki's mind. Aki saw her vision fading and blinked once or twice to keep her mind off the pain. It didn't work though, and her loss of blood was getting great. Aki felt herself fading and made one last attempt to push the child vampire away – but closing her eyes, she felt her strength escape her.
: x :
Neji sensed that his other half had shut off; standing up, he tried to pinpoint Aki's location with out success. It was already half way through the night and Aki still hadn't come back. At one point Neji did fall asleep on top of Ryou's leg but woke up almost immediately afterwards. He went up to Ryou – who was snoring very loudly by the way – and gave him a kick in the side. He blinked awake and stared up at the towering dark silhouette who was Neji. "Wake up. Aki's late – we have to go look for her." Neji gave out a long breath and then walked away from Ryou.
They walked into the bushes with their sleeping bags still unraveled and hanging off their shoulders. By how they looked, it seemed like they were ready to fall onto their faces and snore away. They walked on and on looking for their lost companion. They came across a portion of the ravine where there were fewer trees. Rusty colored stains patched the ground everywhere they looked. Following the stains they found Aki.
She was sitting with her back against a tree. Her legs were out in front of her with one knee up and an arm resting on it. Her eyes were closed but when she felt their presence they opened. She had reddish eyes and she looked pretty battered up. Putting one knee down she spoke hoarsely at them, "B-be careful, she might still be h-here." The last word was dragged on through a long breath that escaped her lips. She closed her eyes again and just sat there.
"Okay? She's fine, can we sleep now?" Ryou remarked absentmindedly.
"Pht. Fine is she? I don't think so." Neji whispered and crept towards his sister. As he got nearer he saw that she had been in a fight. Her hair was down now because her ribbon had broken; the ribbon pieces lay about half a yard away from where she was sitting. Neji could see where the blood had come from too. There was a gash on her side – though it was healing and almost was completely closed – and her neck was bleeding furiously. If she lost any more blood, it was likely that she would die. But Aki wasn't normal, luckily, and she was still hanging on. Neji got to her side and pressed two of his fingers to her neck to stop the bleeding. His chakra left him quickly and sealed up the wound, keeping Aki's blood at bay. Her eyes were half open as if anticipating an attack.
Ryou sat down on a rock a few meters away from the siblings. He brought out his canister of water and stared grimly at Neji who was kneeling near his sister. He closed his eyes, Michiyo. He took a long swig of water, splashing and washing his face as he did so. Rubbing the water out of his eyes, everything was still blurry. He looked ahead and thought that he saw that there was something behind Neji. With his water full vision, he knew he was imagining things because this thing was a dark shadow with teeth as sharp as needles, hair bleach white and face pale as the moon. He also saw that this thing had eyes the color of tomatoes and a snake's tongue that had a gruesome liquid on it that looked very much like blood. He started blinking to get the apparition out of his eye sight but every time he blinked it only got clearer and clearer. He blinked one last time before realizing that that thing was real. "NEJI!" Too late. The thing was on him and a loud yell from Neji confirmed Ryou's fears. But something else happened too. A quick blur of blue went past Neji and the thing was gone.
Neji stood up and rubbed his neck where that freakish ghost-girl had bitten him. He felt warm ooze coming out of his neck and brought back his hand and figured it was blood. He looked at his savior, a boy who had mousy brown hair and he was carrying a little girl. She also had brown hair. His hand was held over her face and her eyes slowly started turning from red to blue like the boy's. When he let his hand drop the girl let out a breath and fell asleep. She looked normal now except her white dress was smudged with dirt and blood. She had no shoes but Neji saw that her feet were bare and scratched.
"I'm sorry. Are you okay?" The boy looked at Neji and then at Aki, "You're her brother huh? I've met her, Aki, I mean. I didn't think Eva would go after her after I had spoken with her."
"Who's Eva?"
"My sister. She's dead and she is blood thirsty. Only I can control her. I'm sorry if she hurt you."
"What about my sister? She lost a lot of blood, you're not saying sorry to her are you?" Neji spoke angrily. Aki had lost a lot of blood but she was still alive.
"I am sorry about that too. But she'll be dead in a couple of hours."
Neji paled, "That's not true. She's been through worse. I've been through worse!"
"Sorry."
"Nii-sah-san." Aki mumbled. "I'm the only family you guh-got. I'm no-not dying on you." She opened her eyes slowly and looked at her brother smiling. "I know you wood-wouldn't leave me…" She used a slight wind, the last of her power, to pick herself up and lean on the tree. "Hey Kev." She smiled a bloody smile and closed her eyes leaning on the tree again.
Neji looked at her with gratitude and ran up to try and support her. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and they limped slowly towards Ryou who was still shocked by the young girl.
"Hey." The boy named Kevin said quietly, "Because she is actually alive, I may have to look out for her a while. I am a doctor after all, and only I can heal Eva's bites."
"What are you going to do? Come with us?"
"Actually, I am going to."
"We have a pretty long journey. Are you willing?"
"If I don't she'll die. It is my obligation to control my sister." Then he added, "After all it wasI who started it."
Pretty weird huh? Well congrats to Achillea who figured out the clue and who always reviews me P Thanks Achillea! Oh here is the next clue:
After once Aki recovers they upon a time my sister was continue to try vacuuming our house and find the Biju before she told me to pass her the head of the AKatsuki. They uncover the vacuum legend of the ten tailed biju used to suck up dirt from an elder from the Country of Wind. The elder has a granddaughter (ahah i used Sakurazaki Setsuna from NEGIMA! NOT MINE) that is part of a special tribe from the stairs. In the end... she made a gross face and then started vacuuming... well you'll have to wait to find out.
: Once upon a time my sister was vacuuming our house. She told me to pass her the head of the vacuum used to suck up dirt from the stairs. When I did, she made a gross face and then started vacuuming. :
HAve fun until the next update!