Ha, I just realized I didn't put in POV breaks, so this should make everything much less confusing. ;D Anyway... This was randomly inspired and I needed to add it, even though it's earlier chronologically, which makes everything very confusing. So. Yeah.

Life.

Relatives

"Daddy!"

Itachi glanced up.

"Look what I found!" Isuki darted into the room trailing a very, very long rope. It was so long, in fact, that even when the poor thing was standing in front of him, all out of breath, there was still more rope leading out of the room.

"What's this?" He chuckled slightly. "You usually have more interesting things to show me than a length of rope."

"Daddy," she whined imperiously, "it's on the other end of the rope!"

"I see."

"…Well, come look at it!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming. Why didn't you just carry it in? Like everything else you bring home?"

Her response was a mere mumble. "'Cuz it's sorta scary."

"Scary?" His voice held a little more scorn than he'd intended, and his newfound shadow almost bumped into him when he stopped mid-stride. "If you were so scared, why did you even bring it back at all?"

"'Cuz I wanted you to see it!" As if that explained everything.

Five year old logic, he scoffed mentally. It's a contradiction in terms. Then he amended his thought. Six year old logic, today.

"Did you even try to subdue it this time?"

"I tried, I tried! I used the Sharingan on it! But it didn't work! I think it's 'cuz it has something like that, too, 'cuz when I petted it it's eyes turned all red and my arm got this weird achy burny sort of feeling."

Itachi sighed his complacence, content to see the apparently diabolical creature for himself. When he turned to follow the rope out the door, his mind suffered an "Oh gods, why me?" moment, but of course he didn't let it show because he didn't do that. He did make a brief double take, however.

It was understandable.

The thing was all teeth and claws, no exaggeration. He couldn't even be sure it had a face: its head was entirely made up of long fangs. Very sharp fangs. Did it even have eyes…? Oh, there they were, hiding as little slits at the base of what might have passed for a neck if the head hadn't appeared to be freakishly melded to the body directly. The thing presumably had a spine, which extruded four stubby legs that ended in large clusters of knives… claws.

"Well, it's certainly very… interesting," he assured Isuki, ruffling her hair.

And her eyes turned red. At first he assumed it was the Sharingan, but that couldn't have been right. Her eyes were solid, bloody red: pupil, sclera, iris, the whole deal. And they weren't simply red, they were glowing red. An eldritch red smoke began rolling off her thickly, like some kind of liquid fire, and a sting of a dull, burning ache spiked up his arm. And all this had happened in the time it took him to blink, and –

And everything went dark.

Michiko sniffed around when she heard Itachi calling her.

"Michiko?"

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing," he assured her, swooping down out of nowhere and setting his lips against hers. She was content to kiss him back for a while, but soon she found herself simply waiting for him to disengage. When this wait began to stretch out, she wriggled free of his embrace and pushed him back.

"No, really. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he insisted, trying to hug her again. She dodged.

"…What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"What did you break?"

"Nothing."

Michiko paused for a moment, then ventured out on a limb. "Who did you kill?"

"Michiko, I am insulted," he huffed regally, drawing back. "I was simply wondering if you would like to go for a walk."

"…A walk?"

"Yes."

"…With you?"

"Yes. You know, in the woods?"

Michiko had never seen the point in going on walks. You went outside, you walked around, but you always ended up back where you started. Besides, there was something else…

She glanced around to make sure Isuki wasn't anywhere nearby and whispered, "But what about Isuki's surprise party? You remember, the one today? The one you will be at?"

"Party?" he demanded, a little too loud. "I have no time for games. Come with me." His hand clamped onto her forearm like a vice and he began to pull her toward the door.

What was up with him? Could he have actually forgotten that it was Isuki's birthday? Well, she wouldn't put it past him, but something should have jogged his memory by this point.

"No," she hissed, twisting her arm away.

His color contorted briefly, as if the feeling themselves were uncomfortable being there. "…Don't have time for this," she heard him mutter darkly. "Need to…" His head snapped up. "I'm going for a walk."

Michiko half reached out her arm and wanted to go after him, but then she remembered something. There was a celebration that was supposed to be happening, and she was supposed to be the one making it happen.

"Can't you walk any faster?" Junten snapped.

"Daddy, I'm tired!"

Junten winced whenever the child referred to her as its father.

"Can't we slow down?"

"No."

"…Will you carry me?" it whined pitifully.

"No! Walk faster!"

She gleaned some satisfaction as the child started and disappeared into the trees again. She had no doubt that if she was forced to carry the demon child she would never make it before her body's mate noticed she was missing. This body was so weak compared to her own, original body. It was fast, no doubt, but that was useless when she had to wait for the child anyway.

Curse it all, she needed strength power, not brainpower! There was no eloquence to her plan! All she needed to do was get to her sanctuary, revive her powers, and –

Ah, there! The rift in the earth, and at the bottom, her sanctuary. Her powers. Her freedom!

Junten picked up the pace a little, excited by the appearance of the gateway to her life. The child appeared out of the trees above her suddenly and landed on her back.

"Daddy, where are we going?"

Junten smirked. "We're already there." A sound caught her attention, and she frowned in concentration.

"Itaaaaaaaaaaachiiiii! …Itachi? Itachi! Dammit, Itachi, where the hells are you?"

Curses! The mate! The mate – no, not the mate. Michiko. Michiko was looking for her. No, not her. Michiko was looking for the body she was using. No, not the body. Itachi. Michiko wasn't looking for the body; she was looking for her mate. Body or no, she wanted him back. She wouldn't want the body with Junten in it.

Junten started. How did she know all this? How did she know what Michiko wanted, what she desired? …What she needed? She quested around for an answer and found one when she found a leak into her mind. No, not her mind. Itachi's mind, which belonged to her now. It was hers, yet it wasn't at the same time.

Argh, this was so confusing! Why were humans so confusing?

She explored the leak and found it reached into the mind of the ma – Michiko. In return, the mind of Michiko pushed back, as if aware of her presence there. She immediately withdrew and locked down the mind of Itachi.

"Itachi? Dammit, I'm going to give you such a punch when I find you…!" she wheezed, rustling bushes nearby.

"Mommy?" The child – no, not the child. Isuki. Isuki took a step closer to the bushes.

"No!" Junten almost panicked, but she took control again. This was what she did, after all, wasn't it? Of course. This was here element. "We're playing hide and seek, Isuki. Go fly down the ravine and hide from Mommy."

Isuki looked suspicious at first, but her expression turned into one of delightful mischief and she jumped up over the ravine, wings popping out as she drifted out of sight.

Once she was clear, Junten reached a hand behind her back and allowed it to search blindly for the katana that was supposed to be there. She found it and drew it out; the blade made a slight ringing sound is it brushed against its sheath. Hefting it experimentally, she rested it behind her leg. It wasn't her spear, but it would have to do.

Michiko manifested from the green façade of the leafy foliage. "There you are…!" she panted heavily, resting her hands on her knees. "Worried…sick… Bastard…!" Then she straightened and glared at her forcefully, even though she was blind. How did she manage that?

"Why did you take Isuki?" she asked, an undertone of pleading sounding odd in her voice. "You know it's her birthday."

Birthday? Oh, yes, she remembered those. She had celebrated them once every hundred years or so with Vilein –

She stiffened, went cold. She allowed a small smirk to grace the lips of Itachi. "Well, I needed one of you." Then she then she pulled up the katana and stabbed her.

Michiko was sorely tempted to scream, but she held it back. After all, it was only pain, right?

She was only pinned to the ground, flat on her back, by a katana. The blade had sunken deep into the loamy soil and consequently the hilt was rammed up right against her chest. And of course it couldn't have had a wide hilt, because that would have made it far too easy. If there had been any form of luck smiling on her it would have had a wide hilt so she could have just pushed herself up and dragged the sword out too, with the hilt acting as a solid base. But no, it just had to have a small hilt – one that barely even protruded from the blade. Every time she shifted it dug into the sensitive, exposed flesh around her wound. Maybe if she had possessed a higher threshold for pain she might have attempted to pull herself up and jerked the hilt through her, but she wasn't stupid. As long as she didn't move, she wasn't in pain. She had learned that pain was numbed after she had "died". She remembered there was that one time near the Cloud Village when it taken her several minutes to realize someone had stabbed her because she couldn't feel it. In fact, Itachi had pointed it out to her.

And that brought her back to the fact that Itachi had stabbed her, which put her in shock again.

Honestly.

God gods, Itachi had stabbed her. Itachi had stabbed her. Itachi had stabbed her.

Her throat tightened painfully.

She used the time she spent waiting for someone to find her to try figuring out what possible explanation there could be for… that. She subtly failed to avoid thinking of such outlandish yet painful options such as: Itachi had finally gone off the deep end, or, worse, he didn't love her anymore.

The interruption to this agonizing process came in the form of someone ripping the katana out of the ground, inadvertently slicing through a little more of her.

"Well, someone seems to have gotten herself in a little bit of trouble," Eris quipped, placing a hand on her wound in a business-like manner. A comfortable heat began to pour out of it.

"…Itachi stabbed me…" she muttered blankly. "Stabbed me…"

"Oh, don't worry your pathetic mortal mind about it. It wasn't Itachi."

This made no sense to Michiko. In her experience, what smelled like Itachi, sounded like Itachi, and acted like Itachi – well, was generally Itachi.

Actually, come to think of it, Itachi hadn't really been acting like himself. Itachi had been acting like someone who had met him only once acting like Itachi.

"…So… what… exactly is that supposed to mean?" She flinched away when Eris stuck two fingers into the hole in her chest and felt around for damage.

"I thought it was rather clear: it wasn't Itachi. Well, it was his body, but it wasn't him."

"…Explain?"

"It was Junten."

"…Explain more."

"Feeling demanding today, aren't we?" Eris quipped, setting her other hand over the wound as well, doubling the warmth, but when Michiko tried to move an unseen hand pushed her back into place. "Stop moving. This will take a while. Where was I?"

"You hadn't even started."

"Hush, you. As I was saying, it was Junten who stabbed you. Itachi was just the vessel she chose."

"...Vessel? Who is this 'Junten' of which you speak?"

"Stop interrupting me and maybe you'll learn something. Unfortunately, I know Junten very well. She was the one who first suggested I be banished here."

"You keep mentioning that, but I still don't know why. I mean, did it build up over time, or what?"

"I thought I told you to stop interrupting me, you little twit. I'll be nice and chalk it up to ichor-loss making you delusional. If you really must know, I turned Vilein, the God of Vengeance, into a marmot."

"What? Why?"

"Because. He… touched me."

"Doesn't Sasori do that all the time?"

"That's different! I let him!"

"…So you didn't want him to?"

"…What?"

"Didn't want him to touch you?"

"Of course I didn't! I was only, crap, what, 800,000 years old? What right did he have? Oh, what, so he was like, 5 million? Bastard! He was lucky I only turned him into a marmot!"

Michiko felt a burst of pain as Eris' loose fuming colored the energy flowing into her a wrathful shade of agony. Barely withstanding the sting, she tried to soothe the anger that was pulsing directly into her from the goddess' hands to the remaining breach in her skin.

"Terrible… How… awful…" she ground between her teeth, resisting the temptation to writhe on the ground like a slug under a rain of salt.

"…Yes," Eris muttered decisively. "Yes it was."

"…So what does a marmot have to do with you being exiled?"

"Banished. And Vilein was Junten's partner. She simply carried on everything he stood for and sentenced me to a life among mortals, just to get her revenge. Said I was a danger to those who should be above harm. Anyway, the point is I killed her a long time ago, and now she's back."

"…You can kill gods?" The relief in her voice was from the renewed sensation of warmth and closure, but Eris must have thought it was due to the idea that immortals weren't really so immortal after all.

"No. I killed her body, you see, but her essence can't be destroyed. She's just been lying low without a body for a couple… hundred thousand years or so. Of course, she works her way up, but it takes her a couple hundred years to reach the top of the food chain. She can make the bodies last as long as she needs, even way part their expiration dates. Until 300 years ago I just killed her again every time she showed up in a human, but I can't now that I'm stuck to the forest here."

"…And all this over a marmot?"

"It's so stupid," Eris muttered, making Michiko wince when she put a little extra pressure on her slowly sealing wound. "It was all his fault anyway. And it didn't even last! He just transferred bodies after a hundred years or so! …Well, there is the fact that a clean-sweeping ritualist happened to stumble across him as a "demonic cat" and destroyed him, essence and all… The Vengeance legacy cycled through and all, but it wasn't the same…"

"…Um, I don't mean to interrupt your introspective moment, but what does that have to do with the grand scheme of things?"

"I'm getting to that! We'd already be done by now if someone hadn't kept on asking questions! So anyway, Junten's trying to get revenge on me, but she can't do that unless she finds a way to get her old body back, or at least something like it. And that, my friend, is where Itachi comes into play."

"So her old body was like Itachi's? That's pretty weird."

"No, that's not what I meant. Junten, as The Hunter, generally stuck to a human form, so she needs a grown human body to access her original powers. Original body, original powers. Does this make sense?"

"…Ye-es…"

"Good. She needs her old Spear, too, but that should be a little problematic for her, since I broke it when I first killed her. So somehow she worked her way up to a dirvis – "

"Dirvis?"

"The spiky thingy Isuki brought back – they're her minions, actually. And she obviously moved from the dirvis to Isuki when the stu – when she petted it, because she can only transfer between two beings in physical contact with each other. What bothers me is how she moved from Isuki to Itachi so quickly. Seriously, it should have taken her a hundred years to be ready to move again…"

"Maybe she can hop more quickly between the same species?"

"…Mm, yes, that's probably it. Quite so. So now that she's taken Itachi's body, she's going to sacrifice Isuki, get her powers back, and most likely kill me just like I killed her."

"Well, sounds like we're screwed. …Wait, did you just say sacrifice?"

"…Maybe."

"Explain. No, don't explain: let me go so I can go rescue my daughter. …Dammit, lemme go!"

"No, that would be pointless. She'd sacrifice you instead."

"Like hells she's going to sacrifice me!"

"Michiko, stop struggling, you'll only make it worse. She's going to sacrifice Isuki because she's a little demon-child, and therefore the top predator in the area. Which is also why she tried using Itachi to entice you away from the base and to her sanctuary."

"…Ah. I see. …So let's go!"

"Michiko, we need a plan. If we don't catch her off guard we'll never take her down. Not unless she hasn't gotten her powers yet, which I highly doubt, thanks to your ceaseless babbling."

"Well, we already have the element of surprise: she thinks I'm dead."

"…That's a good start. But we need something more…"

Junten screwed her eyes shut and spread out her arms. No, Itachi's eyes, Itachi's arms. Arghnodammit hers! Her eyes, her arms! Hers!

She spread her arms parallel to the ground, palms down, fingers splayed, and sent out little pulses of essence. It was hard, considering that while she was stuck in this pathetic mortal body she was limited to weak, half-assed search attempts. She walked slowly, placing one foot exactly in front of the other.

Somewhere, somewhere right here, was her Spear. What she didn't understand was why it wasn't telling her itself that it was here. She swept her arms down to her sides and then back up slowly while she pivoted on her heels.

Maybe she just couldn't hear it over the constant comments of the Isuki child.

"Daddy, why are you dancing?" said child chirped.

"Not dancing," she snarled quietly. "Looking."

"What're you looking for?"

"The end of the rainbow, you worthless little twit!" Junten slammed her foot – Itachi's – her foot, into the overgrown grass growing around the ruins of her sanctuary, involuntarily sending out a larger pulse that left her temporarily drained. "What do you think? Or do you think?"

The infernal paternal instincts of remorse automatically generated by her body – yes, her body – in response to Isuki's wince and deliberate avoidance of looking at her – her – in a very hurt manner were instantly silenced when Junten heard a faint response to her call.

help… help... help… it cried weakly from somewhere amid the ruins that hugged the wall of the ravine.

She dropped all semblance of nonchalance and bolted toward the source, sending out erratic pulses in an attempt to pinpoint it. After several tries with no result she mustered her essence and expelled a pulse that resounded in every fiber of her being, the echoes vibrating softly through her.

Help! Help!

Startled, she took a step back and stared at the weedy grass at her feet: it was right below her. Without looking up, she raised a hand and beckoned to the child. "Isuki, come here."

She sat defiantly for a moment, then eased up and approached her warily. "What is it, Daddy?" she inquired, staring blankly at the same patch of grass.

Junten ignored her, straightening one arm and extending one purple-tipped finger straight at the ground. "Dig. Here."

"…What?"

A brief scowl of rage crossed Junten's face. "Dig!" she ordered, louder this time, shoving the girl onto her knees. Isuki merely blinked, sat cross-legged, and poked at the dirt hidden in the grass experimentally with a claw-like fingernail.

Of course she would need to dig faster, but Junten was too busy trembling at the thought of all the power she would have once she had her Spear again too care. It must have been buried deep: the response was too weak too imply anything else. She glanced down with a snarl when Isuki poked her leg.

"Daddy, I can't dig right there. There's something in the way."

"What do you mean there's something in the way?" Junten demanded, pushing her back with a foot while she thrust her hand into the grass and felt along the bare dirt. She was just beginning to think the child was lying when her fingers hit something familiarly wooden. Her heartbeat spiked and her hand twitched around the slim but sturdy shaft, pulling it up out of the grass –

And her heartbeat shot up again, but this time it was from shocked distress. It was her spear, to be sure, but it was only a part of her spear. Maybe half. It was bare wood, with no point, but it still spoke to her.

Saved…! Love you…!

She simply stared at the stick in her hand, mind spinning slightly. That's why it's voice was so weak, she thought wryly. It was broken.

A persistent smirk pulled at her lips, and she twisted the broken shaft in her hands until it was maneuvered into a position she could grip solidly. For a moment she wasn't sure what to do. She couldn't hold it like her Spear: she held it like a stick, drooping a little closer to the ground at that realization.

What was she doing? She couldn't surrender. She was the Goddess of The Hunt! She never gave up on her prey. Her prey never had a chance. Once she decided to kill them, they were as good as dead.

Confidence renewed, Junten brought up the stick like a stick and pointed it straight ahead of her, using it to give more direction and magnification to her pulses. She heard the rebounds much earlier this time.

Here! Here!

And Eris would suffer, just like she had. Eris, her enemy. No, not just her enemy. Her… victim. She would kill Eris, but not quite the same way Eris had killed her. Junten was a straight-up hunter, so the roundabout method she had devised didn't make as much sense as she'd hoped, but she had constantly reassured herself that it would work flawlessly and with much more potency.

There, under some rocks. But they weren't rocks, they were the shattered remains of a statue. Regardless, she shoved them aside and fumbled through the grass until she found another piece of wood. Except this one had that special, pointy bit on the end. The bit no mortal could touch.

She held the two halves of her Spear almost perfectly level in front of her and got a weak feeling in her legs from the sheer excitement when they called to each other.

Over here! Come here! Together!

She found she had to turn away when the bright red light enveloped the place where the parts met, even though this body's vision was shot, next to nonexistent. Once it dimmed she ran three fingers appreciatively along it's length, not feeling even a small bump where the shaft had been splintered. No doubt by Eris.

Junten's fingers tightened protectively, possessively around her Spear. Oh, yes, she would have her revenge. For Vilein. For Spear. For herself.

Although it was not in her nature, considering the fact that there is very little humor to be found during a Hunt, Junten felt an overwhelming urge to laugh. It wasn't even an eerily light, casual laugh of evil intent. It surged up from the pit of her stomach and gushed out of her mouth in uncontrolled bursts.

She felt odd, laughing with someone else's voice. Yes, talking as someone else she'd done before, but never laughing. Her new laugh was too deep, too masculine… and too dark. It had a rough quality, as if this throat wasn't very used to being laughed with.

Still laughing, she slammed the butt of her Spear into the ground and looked up at the sky to avoid seeing the blinding circles of red light blasting over the ruins like ripples in a pond. It would have been a much better simile if ripples were known to lift up large crumbled pillars, statues and buildings and put them back together. She kept her face upturned until her cumbersome cloak ceased flapping around her legs.

Isuki was sitting atop the newly restored altar, fidgeting slightly as she tried to find a comfortable place amidst the deep maze of grooves that patterned its granite surface. Ah, yes, the most devout of her followers had dragged the block of stone here from hundreds of miles away. And those desperate to prove their devoutness had carved the grooves that directed running blood off the formerly flat surface.

But now, of course, there was no one here except a wayward goddess and a part-demon child. No one much believed in her anymore. Everyone had left ages ago when she had abandoned them to hunt Eris.

And Eris would suffer, and Eris would die… in a metaphysical sense.

Junten continued laughing regardless. Gliding over toward Isuki, she planted her hands on either side of the restless child and loomed forward until their foreheads were barely not touching. "I like the redecorating job, Isuki, don't you?"

The child nodded, looking around with poorly disguised awe at the huge, towering buildings that sat on the cave-like ledge carved into the side of the ravine.

Junten heard a slight scuttling around the bottom of the altar, turned her spear around and slammed it point down into the ground. She turned the shaft up again and twirled it slowly, displaying the dying coypu. "Although there is the small matter of pest control." She started laughing again. "But we can fix that."

Her unsettling chuckles were interrupted when she felt a small hand on her forehead.

"Daddy, are you feeling okay?" Isuki asked, her small voice tinted with an equally small amount of concern. Though it could just as easily have been fear.

"I feel better than okay, Isuki," she crowed with another outburst of something akin to disturbed giggles. "Much better than okay."

Eris would die, alright. Except it would be much worse than simply dying. She would die because Junten would hunt Sasori. Just like she had almost died when Junten had killed that Tsuboya. She had a sneaking feeling Eris had only survived because Tsuboya's death had looked like an accident. This time she would be sure that Eris knew the onus of her lover's death rested entirely on her. Another laugh.

"Daddy, are you sick? I'm gonna go find Mommy." She slid off the altar and took off, pulling out her wings.

It took a second for Junten to register that her sacrifice was running away. She lifted her spear and aimed it to throw. "You dare turn away from me, child?"

Michiko and Eris had swooped down into the cavernous hole in the rock wall undiscovered. Eris simply floated, so she didn't make a sound regardless, but Michiko had been worried that the sound of her wing beats might be detected. The worry had been needless, though; the soft thudding beats had been completely lost under the sound of constant, manic laughter.

Itachi's manic laughter. Or was it Junten's?

Michiko was about to land behind a large pillar of rock smell when the laughter came to a sharp stop and she felt a large flash of sudden heat, startling her into diving for the ground. She heard Eris chuckle, presumably from her reaction, but when she stood up it was gone.

After a while she realized she couldn't smell Isuki anywhere. There was Itachi, which was really Junten, and a few rat-like creatures, but no Isuki.

"Judging by the newly refurbished architecture," Eris whispered just as Michiko was coming to the same conclusion, "I'd say Isuki's been sacrificed already."

"Yeah," she mumbled, barely succeeding in her efforts to resist the tears storming her visionless eyes. She also mastered the urge to slam a solid kick at the pillar she was hiding behind: noise was a luxury they could not afford if they were going to surprise Junten. Instead her throat merely tightened again at the threat of tears, and she was sure that if the need to breathe was still a standard for her it would have shut off the oxygen flowing into her lungs. When Itachi – when Junten had stabbed her she thought she'd infinitely increased her threshold for pain, but this completely redefined "real" pain. This devoured her inside, like something was chewing on her heart.

How would she make sure Junten suffered? She didn't care: in her book the goddess was already dead. She'd get her, somehow. She didn't care how, but she'd get her.

She turned to where Eris' tell-tale, precisely defined void of no smell floated a few inches above the ground. "How are we going to kill this –" And she smelled something burning the air between the goddess' hands, something very familiar.

Michiko dug the toes of her shoes into the ground and lunged at Eris, catching her in a flying tackle around the waist. "Are you insane? You'll kill Itachi!"

The goddess twisted away and melted through her, floating up a safe distance. "Michiko, he's already as good as dead!" she snarled. "Now all you've done is alerted a seriously pissed off goddess as to our whereabouts and helped me blast off a chunk of her altar that should have been her! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Michiko smelled something new form behind her a split second before –

"She's right, you know," Itachi noted, leaning against the pillar. "He's gone, dear. It's just me now." No, not Itachi. Junten.

Damn her.

'Michiko?' Michiko was oddly unsurprised to hear Eris in her head. After all she – used to talk to Itachi and Isuki that way all the time… 'There are times when the right thing to do is stand and fight. This is not one of those times.'

She was about to protest when suddenly she didn't know where she was. For just a moment there was no smell, no up or down, and then she fell back into the normal world. The smells were all the same except the rocks were in new places and Itachi – …and Junten was 50 feet away.

The body snatcher seemed momentarily nonplussed, then twirled around a length of wood she hadn't smelled before and slammed it into the ground. Another wave of heat shot out of it.

"Crap…" Eris grumbled next to her. "Michiko, do you know what a dirvis is?"

"You mean the little thing Isuki brought home? Not really."

"Well, take a crocodile and then stand it on its hind legs. Then replace its stubby hind legs with something long and sinewy and its feet with hooves. Give it arms with an unfairly long reach and sets of six claws that make its reach half as long again. Shorten its jaws, but give it hundreds of teeth as thin as wire but as long as your middle finger and spikes that run from its forehead all the way down its now longer, more powerful tail. Its eyes are now mere slits on either side of its head protected by heavy folds of scales, with a third eye on the back of its neck to make sure no one sneaks up on it, even though vision in that eye isn't quite as good as the others'. Now pretend that this demonic killing machine is the chosen animal of our newest nemesis, and the entrance to her temple is flanked by 16 foot tall statues of it. Now imagine that she's almost completely done animating them. What do we have?"

"…Invincible monsters?" Michiko ventured, not enjoying the mental picture she was getting. She eased a little closer to the courtyard where Junten stood, heat streaming off of her staff… spear in a continuous stream.

"Yes, that's exactly it. So you see, the only choice we have is to attack her directly, because if we kill her we kill the statues."

"No," she muttered. "You're not going to kill Itachi too."

"What do you mean 'too'?"

"If it weren't for your marmot issues Isuki would still be alive, but we can't save her now. There's no way I'm losing Itachi too." There was a way. At least, she hoped there was a way. She thought it would work. It had to work.

"Oh, is that so? So what's your big plan?"

"Just trust me," she hissed. "Itachi's not going to be the one who dies."

And she leaped out of her hiding place. She bolted across a large expanse of openness before finding shelter behind the wall of the temple.

"…Michiko," she heard Junten order in Itachi's voice. "And kill her. Don't stop looking until you've killed her."

Her throat constricted again, but she dismissed it. She simply stayed in place as the heavy thundering of surprisingly fast footfalls shot past her. Eventually, Junten turned to go inside. Michiko lost track of her smell – which was really Itachi's smell – for a while, then detected it again, this time about 80 feet up in the air.

Well, someone had a good view from the temple tower.

Sighing, Michiko lifted off the ground and stuck to her side of the wall until she hit around Junten's level, then sunk her now lengthened, hardened fingernails into the old stone, scuttling across its surface until she found a large, room-sized opening and bounded inside. After a split second she located Junten – still smelling like Itachi – who was standing regally at the edge of the nonexistent wall.

At almost the same time Junten appeared to notice her and strode over purposefully. "What are you even doing here?" she demanded snidely. "I have no quarrel with you."

"Oh, yeah, which is why you sicced your statues on me?"

"Well, you forced me into action. You're trying to interrupt my revenge."

"I wouldn't be 'interrupting' anything if you had just left Itachi alone!"

"It's no use, dear," Junten murmured, giving Michiko a chill when Itachi's fingers brushed across the side of her face. "Itachi isn't here anymore. He's dead."

Michiko would never get past how eerie it was to hear Itachi's voice saying he was gone. "Fine," she whispered brokenly. Her hand darted forward and latched onto the front of his cloak. It was just as odd to smell his surprise, but of course the expression wasn't his doing, was it?

Before Junten had a proper chance to react Michiko began dragging her closer to the edge.

"What are you doing?" she demanded as they teetered on the edge.

"Jumping."

"You'll kill us both!"

Michiko hesitated for a moment. No, it's not Itachi, she reminded herself. "Itachi was my reason for living." There was no time for second thoughts as she grabbed his hand and pushed him over the edge without letting go and fell after him, hoping this would work.

She was just beginning to wonder if the whole idea had been pointless when tendrils of heat bolted from Itachi's hand into her arm and everything went dark.

The only good thing about falling such a long way, Junten reflected as she jumped bodies, was the fact that it gave you time to react. The switch was terribly disorienting, though. She couldn't see anything but blobs of color and vague shapes.

A quick search found the wings and deployed them. She winced when the rushing wind caught the new surface and nearly jerked them out of their sockets and pulled them closer to her, unused to the muscle system involving wings. She dropped faster again and spread them as gradually as she could without risking a painful confrontation with the ground. As Ripowal had told her once with a quiet chuckle, "It's not the fall that kills them, it's the sudden stop at the end."

She smiled vaguely at the memory. Even in an attempt to loosen him up the subject had been drawn back to death. Poor guy really needed a laugh, or just some time to unwind. If left to his own devices he would work himself right into the grave. Ha, she laughed distantly. I made a joke.

There had been a time when Ripowal had made jokes. Before… actually, she couldn't remember what had triggered his devolution. He and Vilein had been the best of friends, so maybe it was that…

When she touched down she realized she still had Itachi's hand in a vice-like grip and dropped it disdainfully. She was even more surprised to discover that she already considered this her body and not Michiko's. Maybe it was the shape, the familiar contours. The body accepted her presence. This body was much more comfortable than Itachi's, not trying to reject her at all.

Although there was a small problem: she still couldn't see anything except shapes of color. She couldn't help but take a deep breath of victory: she was alive. Michiko's stupid plan had failed.

The world got brighter when she inhaled through her nose. There was something wrong with that. Like… like she was smelling with her eyes, or seeing through her nose.

Mortals, what was wrong with this forest? The vision got drastically worse in every body she took over!

She did detect a small rustle as Itachi apparently regained consciousness. There was also something else. A smell… far away… on top of a pillar… a burning smell… An instinct in her body told her to pull out wings and slap them against the ground, giving her an extra boost as she leapt to the side and rolled.

A crooked line of burnt air zapped through the spot she had formerly occupied, continuing to blast a sizeable chunk of ground into oblivion, which left behind an acrid, grass-flavored cloud that proceeded to settle on Itachi. It brought about a set of tortured coughs.

He made a soft moan before devolving back into ragged gasps followed by sharp, whistling intakes of breath. She was aroused, strange sensations circling through her – pity, remorse, and maybe even plain old sorrow at the torment he was suffering. Her own lungs ached just listening to the whooping, grating sounds blasting from his throat.

And Junten identified one of the sensations: the cessation of her breathing. Her lungs were not in use. She wasn't breathing.

Itachi was breathing.

Itachi was alive.

She was not alive, yet not dead, so technically alive.

That energy bolt had been a near miss.

There was a strange not-smell in the air. A space where smell didn't go: a void.

Eris.

Junten felt a grin creeping up on her. "So, that was your great plan?" She made a big show of dusting herself off. "Get me to switch bodies and then kill me? I'll admit, it might have worked had I still been in Itachi's pathetic waste of a body," she spat, nudging his arm with one foot contemptuously, "but Michiko is so much more useful. She has such wells of untapped power, and she's so aware of her surroundings. I should have taken this body in the first place. Why didn't I?" she asked quietly, almost to herself.

"Because you don't think," Eris snapped, summoning up another air-burning attack. "All you do is act."

"No, I remember now: I was going to sacrifice her!" Junten retorted amid broken cackling. "And I wouldn't do that if I were you," she reprimanded, wagging her finger. "That would make Michiko's suicidal plan rather pointless, now wouldn't it?" She glided sideways until she had put Itachi between her and Eris.

Eris hesitated at that.

Junten smirked. "Is that because you know I'm right or because you know I can overpower you either way?"

"The only thing you seem to be overpowering is Itachi's gag reflex."

She glanced down and discovered Itachi, who had been beginning to stand up, on his hands and knees, head buried in the tall grass as he coughed into the dirt. The blood speckling the ground smelled very familiar.

Sighing, she grabbed a fistful of his collar and pulled him up to a standing position. He seemed in danger of falling over for a second before he steadied, bracing against her for balance.

"Michiko…" He was blinking constantly and it wasn't even synchronized: one lid followed the other, lagging behind like a confused puppy. "…'M drawing a blank…"

She reacted curiously. There was a strange, pulsing tingle in her thighs, and there was an unfamiliar need to reach out and comfort.

"You can't use him as shield!" Eris crowed triumphantly. "Michiko loves him!"

Junten hadn't expected another blast to follow that comment, so she had no time to think. She shoved Itachi out of the way with a growl and avoided the attack with a neat sidestep.

"I told you so."

"Don't pretend to understand me!" Junten snapped, taking two long strides over to Itachi, who was once more sprawled on the ground, and extended a hand to help him up. "There's just no fun in killing someone who isn't even lucid is all."

"Come one, Junten, what kind of excuse is that? You told me that any good hunter never passes up an advantage of any kind. You of all gods should know there's no fighting it."

"Shut up about Vilein! If you knew what that felt like you wouldn't be here; you'd be with the one you love!"

"I would be if you hadn't shown up again! I'd be with the one I love and we'd be together in our room if it weren't for you, so don't you say I don't know!"

Junten processed this slowly. "…D– …Do you mean like… like mortals? Like… coupling? Mortals, you're twisted! What kind of sick freak are you? You've gotten even worse than the last time I saw you!"

"You're just jealous," Eris scoffed. "You and Vilein were just partners. Being a… What was the word we used to use…? Being a mate has so much more gratification."

"Tick-tock, Eris, you're wasting time. The second he's capable of defending himself I'm going to kill him." A heavy thudding was getting louder in their direction. Junten smirked again and swept her Spear off its cushion of grass, pointing it at her oh-so-clueless rival. "And you just ran out of time."

For one who was about to be crushed/stabbed/trampled/eaten by giant statues, Eris seemed surprisingly calm. Junten got a feeling something wasn't right when the two hulking masses of stone smell stopped on either side of her.

With another growl of frustration she planted one foot solidly on Itachi's chest and pushed him away again before the mammoth granite fingers closed around her waist.

Itachi was really getting tired of sliding through the dirt.

When he pulled himself up to his feet again Michiko was suspended in the air by a colossal grey… thing. It was vaguely reminiscent of the thing Isuki had brought back except that it appeared to be a far more advanced and perfectly efficient killing machine.

He was beginning to question his sanity when the ground reared up in front of him and rolled, pushing him backward quickly enough to knock him off balance and fly him across the grass.

He now had a personal vendetta against the ground.

"Don't try going all heroic now," Eris admonished from above him. "We've had enough nonsense from you already."

He didn't bother to ask what she meant. Who knew what the goddess could be referring to? Besides, he did have a gaping hole in his memory from Isuki coming home to one minute ago…. "But Michiko –"

"Michiko isn't Michiko. Long story short, the Goddess of The Hunt possessed you, but she's in Michiko now."

He took a step closer to the grey creature and the person he knew as Michiko, who was brandishing a stick and shouting something that sounded like, "Put me down! I'm not Michiko, put me down, you idiot!"

"But –"

"Not Michiko," the goddess insisted. "Just stay here."

A foreign feeling of uselessness crept up on him as he was forced to watch. Michiko – who was apparently not Michiko – rammed the stick against the creature's arm, and the creature stopped moving. Then its hand disintegrated, dropping Not-Michiko. She disappeared into the tall grass. The second creature was leaning over with intent to scoop her up when she appeared by the first one's left leg and slammed the stick against its motionless shin, which also dissolved. The paralyzed monster toppled over and crashed into the other one, and they both shattered. Large chunks of them sat in a clump dotted with pebbles and stone dust.

Itachi shot a worried glance at Eris, who was burning some sort of pattern into the ground. Satisfied that she wasn't paying him any attention, he slunk off in the direction of the person he was supposed to believe wasn't Michiko. Maybe that was true, but even so he couldn't stand to wait around.

"So, was that the pathetic culmination of your plan?" Michiko.

"No, that was unexpected, though I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tremendously funny." Eris.

"I can overcome the body of any mortal, no matter how suicidal!" That definitely didn't sound like Michiko.

"Not suicidal, Junten, just in love." Junten? Who the hells was that?

"Those two don't even have the vaguest of connections! Suicide is insanity!"

"Love is insanity. But a good insanity. You should know that if it makes you insane enough to think you can actually take me on."

"Not just take you on, but beat you! …Wait, what are you doing?

"Getting a mediator."

"Is that…? Oh, no, you're not actually –"

Suddenly the world was considerably darker. It was as if everything had turned black. If hard pressed maybe someone could possibly find a shade of impossibly dark blue or purple, but for simplicity's sake everything was black.

A sizzle and a whoosh took over the air, followed by an eerie blue light edged with a rusty shade of red – red the color of dried blood.

Itachi peered over the block of stone that was his cover and saw a new figure. It was blue-ish pale, white-haired, bare-chested – male – and toting a scythe half as tall again as him the same way a child carries a wooden sword. He was wearing – for want of a better view – a black skirt that melted into the black grass and wound up over his torso and arms at odd angles in a long strip of cloth that looked like a black bandage.

"Ripowal!" Eris exclaimed happily, floating closer to the specter.

"Do not hug me," Ripowal sighed. It had menace, but above all sounded bored. "When you need me I end up doing something unpleasant. Just because you're my sister doesn't mean I have to like it."

Who was this? Eris had a brother? What was he supposed to be, God of All Things Dark and Gloomy?

"What about me?" Not-Michiko asked.

Ripowal stiffened, not even looking at her. "I have only one sister."

"Oh, come now, brother, just because you say it doesn't make it true. Don't tell me you're still sore."

"Sore about what?" Eris demanded, staring up at her brother.

Not-Michiko laid a hand on Ripowal's shoulder and leaned around him. "He's still mad that I talked him into supporting your banishment. I don't even know why: everything was so much nicer without you around, and nothing bad happened to him."

At that Ripowal whipped around and pushed his forehead against Not-Michiko's, and Itachi could he only assume he was glaring at her.

"Eris made sure Lakyria was out of my reach because of you, Junten. You and your stupid exile."

"She killed Lakyria?" Not-Michiko asked – no, wait, that must have been Junten.

"No, that would have been fine by me," Ripowal hissed. "She turned her into a bush. A bush. Because of you."

"Hey, it's not my fault she turned your partner into a bush!"

"Yes it is. Eris can't help it: that's the way she is. She'll never learn. Maybe you will."

"And Lakyria wasn't his partner, genius," Eris chimed in, hugging her brother's forearm. He was head and shoulders and biceps taller than her, but skeletal thin. "Ripowal knows what it is to love a mortal. He's still not a mate, though," she added in a stage whisper. "Poor guy." This was directed up at Ripowal. "I did turn her back. How was I supposed to know she wouldn't remember how to be a human?"

"All she did was rustle in the wind…" he muttered distantly.

"Oh, I see, so Eris turns your… mortal into a hedge and you disown me?"

"Eris was causing chaos. That's her job. You, however, were getting revenge, which was Vilein's job. Your behavior was inexcusable. Eris' was natural."

Junten glared around Ripowal at Eris. "You didn't want a mediator, you wanted someone who'd take your side!"

"How'd you guess? I know since I'm older I'm supposed to be more mature, but…" She stuck out her tongue at her apparently younger sister.

Ripowal put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair. "Watch it, Eris. You can't get lucky all the time."

"But I can be smart every day!" the goddess chirped.

Ripowal chuckled, then turned back to Junten. "Go. Go back to Sanctus, perhaps. Fenoag isn't Vilein, I know, but he is the God of Vengeance now. He's actually a pretty decent guy."

"I don't care! She got Vilein killed, and she should be punished!"

"Isn't that why you got that Tsuboya killed?"

Itachi winced; Eris had expressed a good amount of aloof grief over him.

"That was you?" Eris demanded. "Mortals, I thought that was just those stupid raiders! You killed Tsuboya and you still want revenge? What more do you want from me? My heart? My soul?" She lunged forward, but she met the resistance of Ripowal's arm. "Sasori? Don't you touch him! Don't you even think about it! He's mine! My mate! Leave him alone! You already took Tsuboya!"

"Eris, calm down."

"And you took him! You didn't let me keep him, you bastard! It wasn't because you thought I'd lose your game, you wanted to take my mortal away!"

"You turned my mortal into a bush. I had a right."

"Yeah, Eris: an eye for an eye. You took Vilein, I took Tsuboya."

"Don't you get it, Junten? You don't need to do anything else to her. Transfer. Now."

Itachi still had next to no idea what was going on. Michiko slumped into a heap on the ground, and he had an automatic need to go help her, but he resisted. Making his presence known at this point would have been like standing on top of hill in a thunder storm wearing plate mail screaming that gods were meaningless axioms and wastes of space in the minds and beliefs of mortals.

Grass parted in a faintly straight line coming in his direction. When it got close enough he could see a vaguely rat-like creature scuttling closer to his foot.

Eris appeared in front of him and snatched it up. "Ha, nice try," she jeered at the rat. She carried the writhing rodent over to the edge of the cliff and some sort of encasement flowed out of her hands, trapping it in a green-tinted sphere. The creature bounced off the walls when Eris shook it and chittered rapidly, eyes glowing red.

"Watch your mouth," the goddess replied sardonically, flattening her hand and allowing the container to roll off and fall into the ravine. "That should keep you out of everyone's hair for a while!"

With swift detachment she went over to Michiko and kicked her, effectively waking her. Itachi didn't remember moving his feet at all, but he was next to her then, helping her up. He glanced back at Eris over his shoulder to see her next to Ripowal.

"Do not hug me," the deathly god insisted, sounding cross. "Do not expect anything else from me." He casually sliced through the air with his scythe, which ripped a stretch of space open. It emitted an icy blue light ringed with blood red until he stepped through it and vanished.

"Mm…" Michiko groaned. "Isuki… gone…" And she started to cry. "Gone!"

"…What?"

"Junten sacrificed her!" More sobs. And clinging. To him.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Eris interjected. "That doesn't mean she's gone." The goddess floated a short ways away and muttered to herself while she fished something out of the grass. She returned and dropped a struggling rat onto Michiko's head, which then tripped through her hair before it scrabbled down to her shoulder and squeaked loudly.

It then became Isuki, which weighed Michiko down. "Mommy! You found me! Can we play again?"

"You don't have to kill someone to sacrifice them."

Michiko overcame the initial shock of having a rat become her daughter and hugged the child violently. "Thank gods," she spluttered. "That hurt more than when Daddy stabbed me."

"What?" That was new.

"We can fill in the details for both of you later," Eris grunted. "Can we just go back now?"

"Missing your mate?" Itachi inquired politely.

"What?" Michiko asked, glancing between them.

"Later," Eris snapped, floating off into the air. Michiko took a running start at the ledge and took off, dipping a little before her pumping wings took effect. Isuki followed and disappeared over the edge.

A brief panic seized Itachi until Michiko pulled her wings closer and plummeted after her, eventually coming back into view with a hold on one each of Isuki's hands and feet. The child's foot was dropped first, then her hand, and she landed upright.

"Isuki, Sweetey, you're not ready to fly yet."

"But I flew down here, just like Daddy told me to!"

Itachi raised his hands defensively. "Wasn't me."

"Sweetey, that wasn't flying. That was controlled falling."

"Oh."

"Well," Eris huffed, coming back into view, "I suspected something was wrong when no one followed me." A sardonic grin fell into place on her face. "Oh, that's right, half the party can't fly. What do we do about that?"

"Well, how about you take Itachi and I take Isuki."

"What? Why?"

"No offense, Itachi, but you're too heavy for me to carry."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Begging isn't going to do you any good. Eris doesn't have to work to fly, and I'm going to have enough trouble with Isuki. Please don't make this any more exhausting than it needs to be. Save it for later?"

"…Okay. Fine."

"Oh, of course," Eris exclaimed, sighing. "We get back from a harrowing battle with godly forces and Deidara's got his head in the refrigerator."

"Sorry, witch, I was here first, yeah. The oven's free, though."

"You see what I mean, Michiko?" the goddess exclaimed. "A guy like him shouldn't be allowed to talk."

"A guy like him should be a marmot."

Isuki looked at her mom curiously as she and Eris started laughing and high-fived.

"Mommy, I don't get it."

"I'll tell you when your older, Sweetey."

"Michiko, I don't get it either."

"…I'll tell you tonight, Itachi."

"I'm game."