Chapter 40: Kestrel Heights Fiasco Arc - We Didn't Start the Fire

Wow...I can't believe that this took me a week to write! I'm so sorry, everybody! I've been busy celebrating spring break and doing schoolwork during the week, as well as setting up my new DA account! That's right, you can check me out on DeviantArt now! My username is AngelofKonoha, since they won't let me use apostrophes in my name...

Consider this very long chapter as both a continuation of the previous mini-arc and the introduction to the next major one, the Akatsuki Christmas Arc! I also had to make a new Google Docs for the story, since the first one was over 400 pages long and lagged every time I tried to type something. And we're only on the fortieth chapter...oh Kami...

Disclaimer: Kishi-san! I own— I mean, I do not own anything in this fic other than the plot and my OCs! Now please have these mean people put me down!


Kaiya's POV

"Fire!" the girls screamed. "Fire! The gym is on fire!"

I panicked as well, even though I knew well that there was no fire. But in a few moments, the smoke from the transformation was going to clear to reveal that "Masaru" was really a magical yellow kitten. That was why I was screaming, trying to play along and keep them from noticing what was really in the middle of the smoke cloud.

I was about to rush outside when one of the random girls on our team grabbed my arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked me, panic filling her eyes. "There's smoke in the gym! You have to leave! This isn't the time to be making animal noises, Kaiya-chan!"

Interesting, I thought as I processed her words. She doesn't suspect that it was a cat at all…

"Sorry...meow!" I blurted, trying my best to copy Firework's voice when I made the animal noise. "I...woof! Oops, I just make...baa! Animal noises when I...moo! Get scared...meow!"

The girl sent me a weird look before proceeding to run outside with the rest of the people in the gym. "Okay...but please just hurry and get out! A fire might start in this gym!"

When I saw that everybody had left, I quickly ran back towards the bleachers to retrieve my backpack and the bottle of lavender perfume inside of it...if only it wasn't so far away! I turned around, and came face-to-face with Firework, now clearly visible from the slowly dissipating smoke. Clenching my teeth together, I snatched my backpack off of the bleachers, but that wasn't before another random girl grabbed my hand and led me outside.

"What are you doing?" she asked me, panic in her voice. "Hurry up and get out! Can't you see that the gym is burning?"

It's not! I wanted to yell at her. It's not true! It's just normal white smoke from a ninja transformation!

But of course, I couldn't say that, so I just nodded and followed her out of the gym. However, before I completely left the gym, I was finally able to get the perfume bottle out of my backpack and throw it inside.

You better change back as quickly as possible, I mentally told Deidara as I followed the girl outside. Or else I'll strangle you in your sleep for blowing our cover that we worked so hard to protect.

Sasori and Konan found me the moment I stepped outside, and dragged me aside, away from the stampeding students that the coach was trying so desperately to control. Itachi and Hidan reappeared next to me moments later, having originally been amidst the crowd of students. But unlike most of them, Itachi remained silent, while Hidan was grinning like a madman.

"Hearing those pathetic kids screaming in pain," he cackled sadistically, "I like it. Jashin-sama will be pleased with this sacrifice."

I couldn't help but slap his face. "Dummy," I rebuked him. "Nobody is going to die. Everybody got spooked because Deidara had to sneeze, and after seeing all of that smoke fly into the air, they thought somebody had set off an explosive or started a fire or something."

"Will people realize that Masaru is missing from the group of students?" Konan chimed in.

Averting my gaze back towards the panicking and interspersed crowd, I shook my head. "I doubt it. Nobody seems to be keeping track of who is evacuating the building and who isn't, and the coach is trying to maintain order right now. That should be enough time to make sure that Masaru will be able to escape."

"How exactly will he transform back in time?" inquired Sasori. "I don't think that the brat can open his backpack as a cat to retrieve his bottle of lavender perfume."

"I secretly threw one at him before the girl dragged me outside," I confessed. "I just hope he knows how to spray himself."

But moments later, my fears were quickly broken when Deidara emerged from the gym. He looked rather ticked off, and in his hand, he clutched my perfume bottle. As I got a closer look at it, I noticed that the bottle was significantly more empty than it was when I had first tossed it to him.

"Ugh…" he muttered, his voice definitely sounding irate. "Now I'm going to be stuck smelling like a lavender garden for a long time, un! I hate this perfume!"

"How hard did you squeeze the nozzle?" I questioned, realizing that he had definitely sprayed himself with a huge amount of perfume. "I think you might have pressed it way too hard and drenched yourself in lavender by accident."

Deidara cocked an annoyed eyebrow at me. "You think?"

I just shrugged. "Well, at least it's better than having your identity being found out. The students here will absolutely freak if they found out if you were a kitten, in good ways and bad ways. Kagami-chan and Mayu-chan have already cuddled you to death enough, right? Now imagine all of the students here squeezing you tightly and promising to never let you go for hours…"

Instantly, he paled, shivering. I laughed at his misery, remembering the first time he had been held by my playful little sister and dubbed as a girl. "Don't remind me!" he wailed, causing us to laugh even harder.

"Anyway," Sasori deadpanned, pointing to the blaring fire alarm above our heads that we had all somehow failed to notice, "What do we do, now that everybody thinks that the gym is on fire?"

"Blend in," Itachi suggested, and we all nodded in agreement. We all faded into the crowd, acting almost exactly like the ones that were quickly stampeding out into the evacuation zone. More kids joined them from different classes, the smoke having triggered the fire alarm in every classroom. Following the nearest group of kids, we matched their pace, but kept calm, not going into needless hysterics.

We knew about the "fire". It was probably going to take a while for the other kids to realize that there wasn't even a fire to begin with, and if there was, we didn't start it. Well, Deidara kind of did, but nobody could really hold in a sneeze unless they wanted to risk hyperventilation.

As we walked, I extended an arm out to Deidara, waiting for him to give back the perfume bottle. Surprised, he took it with his own hand, thinking that I wanted to hold hands with him throughout.

Obviously, that was not the case.

"Masaru," I decided to inform him, getting slightly irritated at the fact that my hand was being held, "you can let go of my hand now. I only wanted my bottle of Asuka lavender perfume back."

His eyes widened, and he sighed, letting go of my hand. Reaching into his pocket for the bottle, he handed it to me, while Sasori shot him a slightly sympathetic glance...if you could call it that. Puppets didn't display emotions, after all.

"Thank you," I told him. "Hopefully, the school realizes that there's no fire going on soon. I kind of want to play with the giant volleyball again or just move onto Art class."

He shrugged. "I prefer Art, but then again, we aren't using clay anymore. Why do we need to make those ridiculous paintings using chopsticks, again?"

"The point of that project is to make a small picture out of dots," I explained. "The chopsticks are used to stamp paint all across the painting, since they have blunt, circle-shaped ends. But you seemed fine with it for the past few days."

Deidara grumbled and folded his arms across his chest. "That's because I didn't have a freaking choice. And I know what the chopstick art is all about and how to do it, but why is it so relevant for the future?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe when you're left alone in your world, with nothing but a stick and flower nectar, you can use it to paint signs or messages to tell people something. Perhaps they can be used as a diversion or something?"

"But what's wrong with using clay?" protested Deidara. "If I had clay, then I could just find my way back to the base with a clay bird, like Akane! What use would paint be to me, un?"

"Still," I countered, "what are you going to do if you don't have any clay on you? Weren't you complaining for such a long time about it until I started buying you clay? You were pretty irate without any!"

Immediately, he froze. Realizing that he had probably lost, he sighed and continued walking. "Well, I guess you have a point. But I doubt that I'm going to end up in a situation where paint and chopsticks save my life."

"You never know," I mumbled to him, shaking my head. "You never know."

Suddenly, we heard the sound of a siren blaring, and instinctively, all of our heads flipped around. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of red from the fire truck that had just pulled up by the school. Ten seconds later, I facepalmed, slumped my shoulders, and straight-up-groaned.

Great. Of course they just had to phone the firemen…

"We need to hurry over to where the teachers and the principal are waiting," declared Sasori. Nodding in agreement, we continued racing over to where the teachers were desperately trying to calm down the terrified students.

All of us got in a random line, which also happened to be Daichi's class. Noticing my presence, he turned to look at me, worry clouding his gaze.

"Do you know what happened, Kaiya-chan?" he asked me, taking note of my fake distraught expression. "Is there a fire somewhere?"

"No," I answered. "I think that the smoke alarm mistook a cloud of perfume or something in the gym, or maybe somebody even played a prank. All I know is that it happened in the gym and that the students were all screaming, but there was no fire. I don't know why the school phoned the firemen…"

Daichi facepalmed. "Some kid must have. I probably would have phoned the firemen as well if I saw what was happening. Nobody thinks in an emergency situation, after all. Well, there goes the rest of my fifth period…"

I sweatdropped as the firemen filed onto our campus, thoroughly inspecting the school for damage or flames. Sighing, I watched them unsuccessfully search the campus for about twenty minutes, with the Akatsuki sitting behind me.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, a fireman walked up to the principal and whispered something into his ear. However, this was rather pointless, based on his immediate reaction.

"There's no fire?"

No duh, Sherlock.

Huffing, the principal informed all of the teachers, who, in return, began growing angry. "What happened, then?" many of them growled, still trying to grasp the situation. Behind me, I watched Deidara gulp nervously.

"It appears that some sort of smoke bomb or huge cloud of perfume scared a few of our students into thinking that there was a fire," the principal explained, causing all of the once-frightened students to let out a sigh of relief. "Teachers, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by this childish prank. You are all free to return to your classes now."

We all sighed in relief, then proceeded to head to Fujimoto-san's classroom for Art. I watched as the fire truck finally left the parking lot, having found nothing but small remnants of Deidara's transformation and the smell of lavender perfume in the gym.

The class was a hubbub at the moment, filled with kids that were still trying to question the nearest groups to see if they knew what was going on. A couple people even asked us what had happened, since they knew that we were in the gym at the time the fire alarm was issued. We knew what happened, but instead, we just denied it.

Surprisingly, I ended up getting away with that lie, and so did the Akatsuki.

"Good afternoon, everybody," greeted Fujimoto-san. "I was planning to give you a review of the techniques we've learned in this class so far, but the false fire alarm kind of threw us off schedule. Since we will no longer have enough time to take the test, you are all free to work on your chopstick art."

Most of the students let out a cheer after that, and rushed to the countertops to grab pairs of chopsticks and their respective art pieces. I grabbed what I already had of mine: a lotus.

I wasn't even sure why I decided to paint a lotus out of all the flowers that I could choose from, especially since I didn't know what it represented. But then again, lotuses were really interesting flowers: ones that could be so beautiful despite sprouting in muddy ponds.

After all, what mattered was the lotus itself. Not the environment it lived in.

I wasn't sure what kinds of designs the Akatsuki had made, save for Deidara, who was drawing what seemed to be a bird. Actually, now that I thought about it, I didn't even need to look at Deidara's paper to see that he had decided to draw a bird. A bird perfectly represented his personality, anyway.

Based on his backstory, I could tell that he still wasn't sure where in the world he belonged, other than the Akatsuki. Birds are always looking for a place to call home, and Deidara's soul seemed to be doing the same, attempting to search for people that would accept him for who he was. And no offense, but birds were also pretty stupid and cocky, just like him.

I decided to lean over slightly and peer at Itachi's drawing, which was also a type of bird — a crow, to be exact — that was slowly spreading its wings. Well, that was what I just assumed from the outline, as he had not painted it yet.

Dipping the end of one of my chopsticks into a bottle of pink paint, I stamped the painted end in a pattern on my sheet of paper, trying to use dots to create another petal. We couldn't use paintbrushes or any other tool other than chopsticks, so everything had to be drawn by either dots or very thin lines.

I was careful to stamp the bottom of the petal first, then slowly make my way up to the top of the petal as the paint began to wear off of my chopstick. It proved to be very effective when it came to shading, with darker hues of pink near the bottom and lighter pink shades as the petal grew taller.

Next to me, Deidara seemed to be struggling with his bird, unsure of how to use the chopsticks to properly stamp small dots in a pattern. After viewing the odd lines and patterns he had already attempted to use on his paper, I could instantly tell that he did not have much of an experience or an idea about how to do chopstick art.

"Masaru-san," I said, scooting my chair beside him, "do you need help?"

He grimaced. "I'm good. I can figure this out on my own, thank you very much."

"Are you sure?" I teased him, smirking as another one of his lines went awry. "You look like you're having some trouble right there."

"Trouble?" he scoffed, turning his head away. "Please. As if I would have any trouble doing anything."

"You had trouble controlling your own bird," I reminded him. "Remember how you got splashed by Akane that one time and fell ill with an annoying fever? Remember how you keep on telling her to stop doing things that would accidentally kill me in the process?"

After that, Deidara sighed in defeat. "Very well, then. Are you going to give me a boring lecture on how I'm not holding the chopstick right or something?"

Snickering, I shook my head. "There is no right or wrong way to hold a chopstick. However, I can give you a few words of advice when it comes to chopstick art, since I did a project very similar to this last year."

Smirking, I grabbed Deidara's hand, causing him to flinch slightly at the sudden content. His cheeks turned slightly pink, but I just assumed it was because he was still slightly upset about my comments on his work.

"When it comes to shading," I explained to him, "make sure that you go from the bottom to the top. That way, the shade of the color that you're using will lighten as you move up. Just keep in mind that this usually doesn't apply when you're trying to create the outline of whatever you're drawing. What kind of bird is this, anyway?"

"I don't know," he mumbled. "I've just been playing around with different colors, but I didn't draw any distinctive features of a certain type of bird yet. Why? Did you think I was trying to paint a portrait of Akane using these chopsticks?"

"Not exactly," I responded, moving his hand towards the bottle of paint. Controlling his hand's movements, I dipped the end of his chopstick into a jar of red paint, then proceeded to shake it.

"Also," I continued, "make sure that you wiggle the end of the chopstick a little bit inside of the jar. That way, you won't have any accidental paint drips or splatters when you move your paint-coated chopstick end to the paper."

Deidara scoffed. "I already know about that one...I mean, what artist doesn't? However, thanks for the first tip, though. I never focus too much on shading whenever I practiced my art."

"Neither did I," I replied. "But it turns out that shading makes the drawing seem more realistic and professional, despite how tedious it can be."

I let go of Deidara's hand, allowing him to dip the end of his other chopstick in a jar of yellow paint. Swirling the end around in the paint for a while, he gently lifted it up and dabbed the paint on his sheet of paper again, following my instructions on the shading.

Both of us continued working on our respective designs, though I had to eventually admit that Deidara made slightly more progress than me. He had almost all of the bird's underbelly and wings painted, while I had completed only about two and a half lotus petals before the bell rang.

Almost instantly after the dismissal bell rang, lots of backpacks were thrown into the air, prompting all of us to quickly grab our masterpieces and belongings and duck underneath the desks for cover. I was glad that we did that, because a couple of backpacks landed in front of me, where I had been just sitting. And judging by the sound they made when they collided with the floor, I probably would have gotten a severe concussion if they had landed on my head.

Stupid, heavy eleventh-grader backpacks.

Well, at least school was over for another two weeks, until a few days after Kagami's eighth birthday, which also happened to be New Year's Day. However, instead of happy, as I usually would have been, I felt more relieved that I wouldn't have to deal with the whole situation about hiding the identities of the Akatsuki in a school where many kids probably knew about Naruto.

Fortunately for me, none of the Akatsuki decided to hurl things into the air, and instead, all released happy sighs of relief once they heard the familiar ding. But even though it had been only five seconds since it had rung, the sound of the bell already seemed so distant.


Deidara's POV

Nobody knew how relieved I was feeling when the clock struck two-thirty.

It wasn't that I hated chopstick art or anything...Kaiya made me kind of appreciate it a little bit more than I used to. I was just glad that I didn't have to deal with the dumb high school and wearing a girls' uniform every day.

Although I would hate to admit it to Sasori, Kaiya was right. Practicing normal, traditional art was actually quite fun, as long as we could pour emotion and feeling into it. I did feel quite the spur of enthusiasm when I painted the bird, surprisingly.

Currently, we were heading home, almost back to our normal selves. I felt tempted to completely wash the brown dye out of my hair, but I decided to leave it, since we were still going to go out in public. The thought of anime fans swarming me and trying to throw a hug or plant a kiss on me felt extremely disturbing.

Yet for some reason, I didn't feel like I was on a break of any sort. But that was probably the result of being part of a criminal organization who didn't really need school. The only reason why we had gone to high school was to collect scintillating orb fragments from teenage experiences, but only about a handful came out of that.

However, on our way back to the house, my eye caught something shiny floating in front of Kaiya's face. I was tempted to grab it, but she quickly snagged it before I even had a chance to extend out my arm.

From the way it sparkled brightly and made the familiar noise, I instantly knew that it was a shard.

The shards seemed to get slightly easier to find, but definitely not during high school experiences. Actually, at this point, I really wasn't sure if we needed to use high school to find the shards.

Finally, after walking down the sidewalk for a short period of time, we reached the house. Yukio was already home, the door wide open as he waved to us.

"Welcome home, everybody!" he shouted. "Come on inside, and we can have fun!"

Excitedly, we all rushed inside to enjoy our winter break...until Yukio purposely slammed the door in Hidan's face.

We all got a good laugh out of that.

"You're all free to do whatever right now," she announced as soon as we all got inside, causing Hidan and I to cheer, "but Deidara, we need to talk."

Immediately, I stopped cheering.

"What did you say?" I asked, wanting to see if I heard her correctly or not.

"I said," she repeated, "Deidara, we need to talk."

For some reason, that comment made me gulp nervously, especially since it seemed that her fingers were clenched into fists at her sides. "Okay...where do you want to have this 'talk'?"

"Right here is fine," she muttered, in a slightly irritable way. "You guys, is it okay if you clear out of the room for just a second?"

They reluctantly nodded, and everybody headed upstairs immediately. I think Hidan tried to stay to see what was going on, until Sasori used his strings to drag him up the stairs.

Kaiya approached me, an unreadable gaze in her gray eyes. Instinctively, I blushed, especially with the way she was walking towards me.

"Um," I stammered, "what did you want to talk about with me...alone?"

"You see, Deidara," she deadpanned, "since they didn't really feel like giving you detention, I prepared a suitable punishment for you as soon as we got into the house."

"Punishment?" I questioned, shooting her an odd look. "Is this because I sneezed in the gym?"

She shook her head. "I'm not punishing you for sneezing, since that's something that people can't control. However, I am going to punish you for trying to speak and nearly blowing all of our covers in the gym. Feel fortunate that everybody was too busy panicking about the smoke hear you meow."

Kaiya then smirked, opening her left hand. I took one quick look at the pigeon's feather in her hand and decided that I did not like what she was insinuating at all. Before I even had the chance to run, the feather was at the bridge of my nose.

"You're not going to— ah-choo!"

In five seconds flat, I was reduced to my kitten self, squatting on the floor and glaring at her.

"What are you planning to do?" I growled, but once again, I forgot that it would only come out as a meow. Still, it seemed that she understood every word that I had just said.

"Well," she grinned crookedly, opening her other hand to reveal a laser pointer, "I think I should make it a suitable punishment for a kitty, at least." I stared at the item in her palm in horror, and growled at her.

"You wouldn't dare, un!"

Immediately, I zoomed behind the couch in complete fear of the toy in her hand, praying that she was only kidding. But Kaiya, being the oh-so-smart one, just snickered and clicked the laser pointer on, shining the bright red light behind the couch, the beam of light landing right in front of me.

A funny feeling coursed through my veins. My paws twitched. My ears twitched. My teeth chattered as I slowly resisted the urge to pounce upon the dastardly red light that Kaiya was shining in front of me. But despite all of my efforts, I could not take my eyes off of it. I felt as if I had been lured into a deep, deep trance.

Must...touch...light… my brain mumbled incoherently. Must...touch…

I rapidly shook my head, trying to omit the very thought of touching the light from my brain. But of course, my eyes continued to remain wide open, staring at the light as if it were hypnotizing me.

"Well?" asked Kaiya, looking down at me with disdain. "Are you going to chase it? Or have you become immune to it? If you don't want to chase it, I guess I can just go upstairs and chuck all of your clay out the window instead…"

Okay, that did it.

Fully enticed by the red beam of light, I pounced on it, trying to slam my paw on top of it. Obviously, I had not learned from four months ago, when Kaiya and Kagami had first used the laser pointer on me.

"Come back here, you scallywag!" I yowled in fury as Kaiya moved the beam of light away from me. "You're going down again! It is time for redemption, baby! This kitty got razor-sharp claws, un!"

I was pretty sure that the beam of light had also put me on major crack. Luckily, since I was a cat, nobody could understand what in the world I was trying to say. However, I was also slightly sure that my constant yowling was a major factor contributing to her mirth and entertainment.

Dashing around the couch, I continuously pounced on the red light, missing each and every time. My paw slammed repeatedly on the floor and carpet, and if I had the chance to look at myself in a mirror, then my eyes would probably be as red as the light that I was trying to capture.

Hypnotic, I thought. Mesmerizing. Spellbinding. Captivating. Enthralling. Captivating. Enticing. Enrapturing. Riveting. Beyond fascinating…

That was pretty much all of the words that were flowing through my mind as I pounced over and over again. My tail was wagging wildly, even though I was pretty sure that cats didn't wag their tails when they were excited.

I probably would have continued chasing it until the night fell upon the world, had I not have heard the clicking noise coming from Kaiya's hand, signaling that she had clicked off the torture device. No longer under the spell, I bared my teeth at the laughing gray-eyed girl, then leaped upon her. She barely had any time to respond before I tackled her to the floor and dove at her hands, clamping my teeth around the pointer and jumping back onto the floor.

"Alright, that's it!" I growled at her angrily, spitting the pointer out so that it strategically rolled underneath the couch. "I'm not a freaking animal anymore, un! You can't control what I do!"

Kaiya glared at me, then whipped out a bottle of perfume before sighing. "I guess that's enough blackmail for one day," she mumbled, squeezing the nozzle.

Thankfully, the time it took for my transformation to occur was enough time for me to digest that sentence and look at what was around her neck.

A video camera, I realized. How did I not see the stupid thing around her neck when I jumped on her? And to think that Kaiya has another camera other than that dumb Polaroid that Kisame stole…

"Gimme that!" I growled, grabbing the camera. "You're not showing that video to the family, are you?"

She mock gasped as she tugged back on her camera, groaning in pain every now and then. "How do you read my mind so easily? And you do realize that this hurts me every time you pull, right? Ow!"

I immediately let go, not wanting to hurt her. Unfortunately, this caused the camera to bounce back and hit her square in the face, sending her back to the floor.

"What was that for?" she yelled at me. "Haven't you studied the Laws of Motion at all to realize that with every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction?"

I scowled. "Well, excuse me, princess!"

Honestly, I swore at that moment, her eyes flashed a dangerous red, almost as if she had the Sharingan. "Idiot...what did you just call me?"

Instantly, I backed away, feeling the deathly aura radiate from her body, almost as if she was surrounded by chakra. Either way, I wanted to bolt away as quickly as possible before I had to face her wrath.

"Do not call me a princess!"

"Ow!" I roared as she began whacking me with a pillow. "Okay! I get it— ow! Now will you stop doing this— ow! What happened to being satisfied with your punishment— ow!"


Kagami's POV

That night, I woke up in a place that I hadn't been called to for almost a month.

Actually, I couldn't have felt more thankful when I saw the cotton candy-colored clouds floating in the air, along with the sparkling girl floating in front of me.

"Rin-chan!" I shouted in glee, watching as a smile lit up her starry face. "It's so nice to see you again!"

She let out a giggle. "You too, Kagami-chan! It's been a while since we've talked, hasn't it? Sorry, but my chakra levels are just running low from practicing this jutsu…"

"That's alright," I quickly reassured her. "Anyway, why did you call me here instead of talking to me inside of my head. You look like you have just enough chakra for that."

"Oh, of course!" she exclaimed in realization, then looked straight up. "Shisui-san! You can come down from there now! She's here!"

I shot her a puzzled glance. "Wait, there was actually somebody named Shisui up here in the Pure Land? I thought that you were just making that name up out of the blue!"

She shook her head in the negative as another shining star descended towards the area which we were standing on. "Actually, I wasn't. Shisui-san has just been quite busy lately, that's all. He's been my good friend up here for years, even though he came here about thirteen years after I died."

Suddenly, my eyes widened in realization. "Wait! Doesn't that mean that he knows about how you stole the forbidden jutsu in order to be able to talk to me?"

Rin nodded. "Of course, but don't worry. Shisui-san is very nice and down-to-earth. I trust him more than anybody else in the Pure Land. Besides, he's an Uchiha, so he constantly helps me understand a little bit more about what Obito is going through. Now quickly close your eyes!"

Immediately, I squeezed both of my eyes shut, prepared for the flash of blinding light that was supposed to come with the transformations of the Pure Land inhabitants. "Okay! They're closed, Rin-chan!"

I didn't receive a response until about ten seconds later. However, it wasn't Rin who gave a response.

"You can open your eyes now, little one."

Slowly, I opened my eyes, then gasped at the second starry figure that had appeared before me. Sure enough, it was a young boy who looked about sixteen, with onyx eyes and dark hair that was the same color as Itachi's. His body seemed to sparkle with more stars than Rin, even though I knew that he was younger than her.

"This is Shisui-san," Rin informed me. "Together, we've been gathering a few bits of important information about the Neko Asuka Noroi no Jutsu and any known users."

Shisui extended his hand out to me. "You must be Kagami-chan. It's a pleasure to meet you. Rin has described you very well...you do look a lot like her, after all…"

I was taken aback for a moment, but quickly shook it off, remembering that this Uchiha boy was not Obito and tried to shake his hand. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that he was a ghost, and my fingers awkwardly passed right through his hand. "Yeah, I get that a lot nowadays, even though I don't have markings or short hair. Anyway, what would you like to tell me?"

His gaze instantly turned serious. "You see, both of us have found pretty important bits and pieces of information about the scintillating orb. Eventually, your siblings and the Akatsuki will all need to know this, and you are free to use my name again."

Rin nodded. "Shisui-san was the one who originally discovered the information about that jutsu and the scintillating orb, though I forgot to ask him before using his name as the person you met in your dreams." She rubbed her head nervously and shot a glance at the boy. "I'm sorry about that…"

"It's fine," he reassured her. "What's important is that your name wasn't used, or Obito would have definitely gone crazy, knowing him. But still, Kagami-chan, please pay very careful attention to what both of us are about to say, as we are counting on you to pass this information on to everybody."

He took a moment to clear his throat, then began again. I took a step forward, wanting to make sure that I was not going to miss anything that he said.

"The fragments of the scintillating orb seem to become more common as you spend time with the Akatsuki and teach them about how your world works. You and your siblings are doing an exceptional job, and for that, we commend you. However, the pieces are still quite small, and it will take over a hundred to form the whole orb again. Based on our further research and studies, we have managed to calculate that the size of the complete scintillating orb is about the size of one of your world's golf balls."

"So onee-chan was right!" I couldn't help but blurt out, bouncing up and down. Shisui and Rin both giggled, before returning to stern expressions.

"Your sister is a very smart individual," remarked Rin. "However, it may take a while before you collect all of the pieces, as you only have just a little bit less than half. The Akatsuki don't need to hurry and head back to their world, but their chakra surges are much weaker in yours. You saw what happened to Pein's necklace, right?"

I nodded sadly, recalling the time when he was unable to use his jutsu to push it out of the way of a speeding car. "That was originally supposed to be a very strong jutsu, I'm guessing? But I feel so bad for him...maybe we can all find him a new one for Christmas…"

"The Shinra Tensei is one of his most powerful jutsu," Shisui added. "Unfortunately, there is nowhere to properly train like a shinobi in your world, so everybody's chakra is weakening from lack of training. We do not know what will happen, but as for right now, basic jutsu, like the chakra strings Sasori uses, seem to work just fine. We're currently researching a bit more on that case right now."

A serious expression developed on my face, and I was pretty sure it matched the ones on both of their faces. "If that's what's going on, then we need to get them back to their world as soon as possible, once we have all of the shards."

Shisui nodded. "Correct. And you know that holiday that you just brought up...Christmas, was it?"

"Yes," I replied. "Do you wish for us to try bonding with the Akatsuki as much as possible during that time? It is a family holiday, after all."

"Indeed," replied Rin. "As much as possible, but make sure that you all have fun as well. Christmas is a great opportunity to collect as many shards as possible, but you will need to teach them a lot about the holiday. We shinobi don't celebrate it or even know about it."

I saluted her and Shisui. "Understood. I'll be sure to tell my everybody as soon as I wake up!"

Shisui and Rin dipped their heads. "Good," they said in unison. "Kagami-chan, we're counting on you. Treat it like a secret mission, and make sure that you use the correct name when you talk about us."

"Got it!" I shouted, just as the darkness arrived to flood over me. Rin and Shisui both waved at me before dematerializing into rays of starshine as my eyes fluttered shut again, ready for the dawn to break again.

I must get this message to them as soon as my eyes open...


A/N: Oh my Jashin, the lag on my computer was horrific throughout writing this chapter. I couldn't even write on my tablet because the lag caused it to constantly crash...

Well, after a lot of planning, I decided that this story is going to be exactly seventy chapters, though I may change this. The next five or so chapters will be primarily focused on how the Akatsuki adapt to winter vacation and the spirit of Christmas. In addition, I am absolutely certain that Chapter Forty-One through Chapter Fifty will be set from the last two weeks of December to Kagami's birthday, also known as New Year's Day. Next chapter is focused on Kaiya and Deidara again, although I am quite surprised that there are a few of you that seem to support them as a couple. I honestly thought that you guys would not like or think too much about the two being together at all...

All I'm going to say is that a lot will happen in the next two weeks for sure...

Feel free to ask any questions regarding the story! I will try my best to answer them in the subsequent chapters!

Question: Favorite YouTuber? I really like PopularMMOs, DanTDM, and FBE, if the last one counts. I'm a sucker for reaction videos as well as Minecraft ones.

Ja ne!

— Tenshi —