Disclaimer: I don't own
Chapter 6: Sealing the Cursed Seal
When Autumn woke up next, she found herself in a fairly large room. The room had very large windows, which allowed lots of sunlight into the room. So much sunlight, that she was almost blinded as soon as she opened her eyes! Her clothes had been replaced, and by judging by how drowsy she felt, she was sure she had been asleep for a while. Autumn blinked, confused. This looked nothing like the little prison Orochimaru had put her in, which he had dared called a house. Just where exactly was she? Her mind drew a blank.
"Oh so you're awake!" Came a cheerful voice. Autumn looked over at the door. Standing in the frame... Autumn rubbed her eyes trying to make sure she saw it right. ...Pink? That's when it clicked. Who in the Naruto series can act extremely happy, has pink hair, and wears a reddish forehead protector as a headband? (It's never that hard to figure it out.) It was none other than the one and only Sakura Haruno. (Shippuden)
Autumn squeaked. Why was her life so messed up? It was as if every other day she was with a different group of "NARUTO" characters.
"Are you okay?" Sakura asked, concerned, as she walked over to Autumn's bedside. "You don't have a fever, which is a good thing."
"How long have I been asleep?"
"About a day and a half. But, from what I understand, that's normal for patients who have the cursed seal." She explained, looking out of one of the windows.
"Why are you here?" Autumn asked. It was the first time she had bothered asking anyone that question, and it certainly wasn't going to be the last. Sakura looked her, and smiled.
"I'm here to help you!" Autumn thought about smacking her over the head, but decided against it.
"FALL!!" Just then, May ran into the room. She was followed by a weary looking... Naruto, Kakashi, Yamato, and a very annoyed looking Sai. May jumped on Autumn, potentially trying to hug her to death.
"M-May?" The poor injured girl gasped.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" May apologized to her friend. Naruto was practically on the ground out of breath, while Kakashi and Yamato merely looked a bit tired. Sai on the other hand seemed just fine.
"May... I need you to tell me something..." Autumn looked at her friend as seriously as she could. May just nodded.
"What… did you... have... for... Breakfast?"
"I forgot."
"Then girl what, what are you on, because you have been bouncing off the walls for, judging by these guys, over three days!" Autumn exclaimed, referring to how tired team Kakashi looked. "And I know you ain't hyper, so what's in your system? It ain't sugar!"
"Hehe... Sorry"
"Right. Now someone wanna tell me what the heck is going on?"
"..." No one answered.
"How about what happened after I blacked out?" And that's when everyone looked at May.
"What! Me?"
"Yes you, now tell me since these people obviously have no clue!" May looked nervously around the room.
"Well, Autumn... Actually those creeps just... Disappeared! And after you blacked out for a bit these weirdoes appeared in their place!" That last part earned May a glare from all of the 'Naruto' characters in the room.
"Okay then! So what's your story?" Autumn asked everyone else. No one dared to speak. Autumn sighed; this was going to be a long day. At least Orochimaru knew what was going on! (Not that he had ever shared that information with her)
"May?"
"Don't ask me Fall!"
"Right, I should have known better. I'm blow' in this joint!" And with that Autumn got up and started to walked toward the door.
"Wait for me!" May yelled after her. Sadly neither one of them made it out of that door, because Sakura dragged Autumn back to bed, and May ended up being held captive in a little wooden cage.
"Oh no you don't! Trust me, that seal is uncontrollable! It could go off at any second! You're not going anywhere until we seal it!"
"You're going to seal the seal? Nice. I'm outta here!" Autumn ran past Sakura and almost out of the window, which was her goal. Instead, a giant black snake, made apparently out of ink, caught her. Sai.
"I really hate you all." Autumn groaned, rolling her eyes and not bothering to struggle in any way, shape, or form.
"That may be very unfortunate for you, because, considering the circumstances, we might be here for a long time!" Sai said, fake smiling, as he let the snake drop the poor girl back in the bed.
"Not if I can help it." Autumn muttered. JUST now remembering her original question, Autumn looked to her good friend May,
"Where are we in the first place?" (Z: You JUST NOW realized you don't know where you are? You are sad.) May pushed her head through the bars of the wooden cage,
"Remember that house that, that one dude offered for free? Well congrats! You have a new home! And thank David for helping with bringing your stuff from the motel too, so you won't have to worry about that. By the way, Dave wanted me to ask you, 'what was in that safe'?"
"I'll tell him later, did you bring my laptop?"
"Under your pillow!" Autumn gave her a look.
"…"
"I called in a favor from the Tooth Fairy."
"Right." Autumn brought out her laptop, and set it in front of her.
"So, can we get this over with so the evil weird peoples that are holding me hostage in my new home can finally let me go?"
"Sorry, but you're too weak at the moment. There's a big chance that you wouldn't live through it." Sakura said, sincerely. Autumn glared at her and did one of the things she did best. Became annoyingly smart.
"Well you were weak until you hit the age of 14! I could probably beat you at that age to a pulp, and I'm only 12!" That hit a nerve. Sakura gained a deadly aura. Everyone, except May and Autumn, moved into the farthest corner of the room.
"Wait what about me? I'm still in a danger zone!" May yelled, and thankfully for her, the cage disappeared, and sunk into the wooden floor. Sakura raised a fist threateningly, causing Autumn to gulp.
"Would you like to repeat that!?"
"Yes, actually I would, but you might want to ask how I knew that, where you are, and who I am first." Sakura was just about to pound Autumn's face in, but thankfully for both of them, Kakashi and Yamato intervened.
"Stop Sakura! She's right!" While they restrained Sakura, Autumn took the liberty of pulling up some Naruto episodes on her laptop to help with her explanation.
"HA! TAKE THAT SAI-TEME! I HAVE MY OWN SHOW!!" Naruto boasted.
"Yes Naruto, you do, now will you just sit down?" It had taken a full hour to finish explaining, and even more time to convince them that the whole world wasn't stalking them. After that, then the water works came, and… Well, yeah you get it. Anyway, now Autumn had "forgotten" to put in the captured by Akatsuki part, but she did mention her high chakra levels. Kakashi decided to seal the mark ASAP and Sai hadn't said a word. May had gone home only to leave Dave in her place because she didn't want her best friend to be left in the hands of total strangers. (Most of my friends don't care about Naruto, the only one would be Mandy, and she'll come in later)
"So can I leave now?"
"No!" Was the unanimous answer.
"I'll seal the mark first, and then if you can still walk you may leave." Kakashi said, standing up.
"Okay people, everybody out." Kakashi shooed everyone out so he and Autumn were the only ones left.
"You should know this is going to hurt a little."
"I watched you seal Sasuke's. You really shouldn't lie, this isn't going to hurt a little, this is going to hurt a lot."
"Very well then, I was just trying to ease your peace of mind."
"Just get on with it!" And he did, just like he did with Sasuke he drew the symbols and started. For the umpteenth time in this stupid story, Autumn found herself in pain, only this time, she didn't faint. She screamed for what seemed to like hours, but she didn't faint. Eventually her body fell limp, and she was breathing heavily, but her eyes were still open, and she could talk.
"I guess… I'll just have to leave tomorrow." She said weakly, as Kakashi placed her in her bed. He patted her head once, and left.
Autumn awoke late the next afternoon.
'I must have fallen asleep... OH CRAP!' Autumn sat up as quickly as she could, but when she did, she grasped her shoulder in pain.
"Careful!" Autumn looked to the side. It was Sakura again.
"I'm fine." Autumn said, moving to get up. Sakura grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back into bed.
"Oh no you're not! We get it, you're strong, but even the strong need to rest!" Sakura scolded. Autumn scowled and sat back on the bed. Sakura's face softened,
"I heard Kakashi-sensei say that you were conscious through the whole sealing process..." Autumn nodded.
"It hurt... a lot,"
"I can only imagine!" Sakura said, cheerily.
"Ya know Kakashi said I could leave if I could walk..." Autumn's attention went out the window.
"That offer only lasted for right after the sealing process was finished." Kakashi said, walking into the room. Autumn glared at him.
"Great, I always knew there was a good reason why you annoyed the heck outta me!"
"Hmmm..." Kakashi pulled out a book, but this one wasn't like the others, it had a camo pattern, and what looked to be a broken lock on the front.
"It says here that you thought that I was, and I quote: "-so hot that I could just bake cookies on him!" end quote." (I don't own that line either) Autumn grew a blush that if it wasn't for the roof, probably could have been seen from space.
"W-w-where did you g-get th-that?" Autumn stuttered, while Sakura laughed.
"Oh this? I found it in some safe downstairs."
"Wow Kaka-sensei! Looks like you've got a secret admirer!" Sakura joked. Autumn shot both of them a glare,
"Did you ever suppose that it was in a safe for a reason!" He just shrugged, and Sakura kept laughing.
"That… was my diary..." Autumn said, looking down. Sakura laughed even harder. "... From over two years ago..."
"How long?" She asked.
"As I said, two years... I think that's when the series first premiered in America. I had my parents lock it up in the safe... It was the last..." Autumn stopped, and so did Sakura when she saw the first tears start to fall from Autumn's face.
"I-i-it wasss th-the llllassst th-th-thing they did fforrrr m... m... me." She didn't continue right away, she couldn't. She was crying to hard.
"What happened?" Sakura asked. Kakashi, feeling this was a 'girl moment', left to check on Naruto. Autumn dried her tears and tried to calm her breathing.
"It all happened two years ago..."
Flashback...
Autumn walked through the front door. She had just returned from school, and she was going about her normal routine. Come home, grab a snack, call mom at work. Because she was only ten, her mom always had her call when she got home. Just in case. Autumn went upstairs and grabbed a banana, and then she went to call her mom.
She tried several times, but all she got was voice mail. She just shrugged it off thinking that her mom was on another call, instead she called her dad. His cell phone rang once and went straight to voice mail. That was odd. Autumn just left a message and finished her banana.
Autumn looked at the clock, it was past 6:00 her parents should have been home by then. Being a responsible child she cleaned her room and got prepared for bed.
Autumn checked the clock again it was 7:02 Where were they? Autumn called both of parents' cell phones this time, they both went straight to voice mail. 'That's really odd' she watched "Law and Order" for another hour or two, and then went to bed. As she crawled into her bed she felt a pair of eyes on her. Autumn looked at the window. The window itself was closed, but the blinds were open. She walked over to the window and looked into the night. It was a full moon. Pulling her eyes from the shining orb in the sky she dragged herself to bed and fell into a peaceful sleep.
End Flashback...
"When I woke up the next morning, I was surrounded by police. They told me that my parents had never made it to work that day. Their bodies were never found." Autumn concluded her story.
"Wow..." Sakura gasped. Autumn smirked at her,
"Since then I've had insomnia, which I've started to get over recently."
"So your parents just disappeared?"
"Yep, I haven't had any clue about what happened to them, but I know for a fact that they're not dead. If they were I'd feel it." Sakura looked down sadly,
"I'm... sorry."
"It's okay, besides I understand that you've lost someone close to you too." Sakura smiled sadly.
"You really shouldn't have done it though."
"Done what?"
"Let him get to you! If you were stronger back then you could have stopped him from leaving by force, also he would be a bit more reluctant to knock you unconscious and leave you on a bench." Sakura gave a nervous laugh and twitched.
"In fact he might have offered to take you with him!"
"Really!"
"According to fan fiction, then yes!" Sakura wasn't too sure what it was Autumn was talking about, but it made sense to her, after all she was created by someone in this world right? While Sakura was thinking about it Autumn slipped out of bed and silently made her way to the door.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"YIKES!" Autumn jumped about two feet off the floor and landed on her butt. Looking up she saw that it was just Kakashi again.
"What's going on?" Sakura asked, snapping out of her trance.
"Nothing, but I think you might want to keep a closer eye on your patient though." He said simply.
"I was just going to get something to eat..."
"Speaking of which, Sakura you might want to go shopping, it looks like Naruto and Autumn's friend, May was it? Well is seems that they've eaten all of the food."
"WHAT!" Both Sakura and Autumn yelled, but for two different reasons. Autumn yelled because of the completely absurd idea of Sakura going into a public place alone, and Sakura yelled because they ate all of the food in the house.
"HOW CAN THEY EAT ALL OF THE FOOD!"
"Apparently a lot of it was ramen." (I love ramen!) Sakura just sighed and walked toward the door.
"WAIT!"
"Nani?" Sakura asked, turning around.
"You can't go out in public! You're famous! And the pink hair is definitely gonna stick out!"
"Don't worry I'll use a henge!" Sakura said cheerily, "And if it makes you feel any better, I'm taking Naruto and May with me."
"Could you take Janet with you too? I know you can keep Naruto under control, but May is different. That girl can get hyper off of water!" (It's the truth, and one of my other friends gets hyper when she eats carrots)
"Umm right..."
"Don't worry knowing Janet she'll be here in Three... Two... One." Just then they heard a door slam open.
"I take it that, that is your friend?" Kakashi asked, looking out of the door.
"Yep!"
"Well then I'd better get going!" Sakura said, walking off.
Sakura had just left with Naruto, May, and Janet in tow. It was a beautiful Monday afternoon in October. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and in Autumn's new mansion there wasn't a sound to be heard... (Yeah right, can you spot the lies? Let me rephrase this into reality... Get ready... Here I go!)
Sakura had just left with Janet. Sakura and Janet had to drag both Naruto and May out of the door kicking and screaming. It was a somewhat depressing Monday afternoon in October. There was no sun that day, it was hidden behind the dark clouds, the birds had left, and all that was left were the crows to caw. And in Autumn's new mansion there wasn't a sound to be heard except the sound of breathing, panting and hearts pounding. (Much better.)
Autumn was the one panting; she was currently bound to her bed by a giant black snake that was made completely out of ink, courtesy of Sai. Why you ask? Simply because the three idiots standing in front of her apparently had issues with the phrase, "Let freedom ring", and took the quote, "Give me liberty, or give me death," quite literally.
Before she had left, Sakura had given strict instructions to not let her 'patient' leave the house, or be up for more than three minutes, and according to Kakashi, for the next forty-eight hours the 'patient' had to be supervised at all times, just in case. Well by now the 'patient' was... Highly annoyed. (Autumn: -pushes Zathura out of chair and takes computer- AW HECK NAH!) Their 'patient was more that highly annoyed, she was pissed! (Zathura: -gets up and smacks Autumn with frying pan- will you be good now? Aututmn: -from floor- NEVAH!) While Kakashi, Yamato, and Sai made sure that there was no way to escape the reinforced prison that was called her house (Used to belong to Orochimaru remember?) Autumn plotted her soon to come revenge. The poor girl brought her head up and looked at her 'captors'.
"Will you please allow me the wondrous privilege of being free?" She asked in a sickeningly sweet voice, which seemed to belong to an angel.
"..." First there was silence, it seems to have worked, but only Kakashi showed visible signs of it.
Then...
"NO!" Came the unanimous reply. Apparently "the voice of an angel" had no effect on two jonins and an ANBU. Autumn glared at them and reverted back to her usual somewhat sarcastic demeanor.
"Gee, you're sure quick to answer...Well then, ya wanna remind me why I'm tied up, AND BY A GIANT SNAKE NO LESS!" This time it was just Yamato who answered,
"Sakura has been gone for fifteen minutes, in that amount of time you've tried to run away twice, last time you jumped out of a window, and you're tied up so you don't play another prank on us like you did the first time."
"Oh come on! You've got to get admit that was funny!" Kakashi and Yamato both glared at her.
"I don't think having cheese poured over their heads was "funny" in their view." Sai said, fake smiling
"Humph! Maybe it wasn't funny to them, but to me it was hilarious! And in this world, that's all that matters."
Flashback:15 minutes ago...
Autumn was staring at the ceiling until she heard the door slam shut down stairs. Then all got quiet. Perfect. Kakashi was still in the room, but Autumn would take care of that.
"Kakashi..." She spoke quietly, as if trying not to scare an animal...
"Hmmm?" Autumn sat up.
"Mind if I go downstairs and get a glass of water? Or has Sakura restricted me from doing that too?" Kakashi flipped a page in his book before he answered,
"Actually she has... -page flip- I'll go get it." Kakashi left and Autumn set her plan in motion. Using her chakra to increase her speed Autumn rigged a trap on her ceiling right in front of the doorway, consisting of lots of cheese, a washtub, and some chakra strings. It was very simple, as soon as someone walked through the door they would trip the wire and the tub would fall. Unfortunately for them, both Yamato and Kakashi came in.
"I hope you don't mind, but-" he never got to finish that sentence. As soon as he set one foot into the room the tub of cheese fell, and Yamato who was right behind Kakashi got hit as well.
End Flashback...
Autumn laughed sheepishly at the memory, and Kakashi just shook his head, there was still some cheese in it, but he had an amazing Hair Jutsu that made his hair almost perfect again.
"You're worse than Naruto at your age," he said.
"It's not my fault that you don't act like a jonin most of the time! Besides I knew that you would fall for it, I just didn't expect Yamato to come in at almost the same exact moment!"
"And how did you know that I was going to fall for it?" Autumn gave him a smirk,
"Episode three."
"?"
"You're a TV show remember? In episode three Naruto set up a very simple trap and you fell right into it, "A ninja must know their surroundings" I think you said that." Kakashi gave her a look and thought for a little bit,
"Well then if you remember that, then do you remember what I said after that?"
"In which version?"
"What?"
"There's the Japanese version where you say, "I hate you all," and the English dub where you say, "You all are a bunch of idiots,"."
"... The second one."
"Right, don't worry, I feel the same way about all of you!" -insert face fault- Autumn and Sai just sat there fake smiling at each other until Autumn used her chakra to give her enough strength to break through his snake, and jump out of the window for the second time that day. Kakashi sighed, he had, had enough of this.
"I'll get her," Sai said drawing another snake to go after Autumn. After she had jumped out of the window, she used her chakra again to latch onto the wall, it was a long way down, and she wasn't about to make the journey without a parachute. Sadly for her, Sai had made an even bigger snake, and this time it reached down the wall and swallowed her whole.
The snake made it's way back into the second story window and puked Autumn back on the bed, covered in ink.
"That was NOT fun." She stated.
"Too bad, I guess you can stay in there until you learn to love it!" Kakashi said giving Sai the signal to have his snake eat her again. And there Autumn sat until Sakura came back twenty minutes later.
It was dark and quiet inside the snake, Autumn was considering suicide, but decided against it when she heard yelling coming from outside of the snake. The next thing she knew she saw... Sakura and Janet beating the crap outta Sai, Yamato trying to break up the fight, and Kakashi not really caring. Autumn crawled out of the snake, and went downstairs, but when she got down there she was met with a BIG surprise. There was an Akatsuki robe lying on the stairs! Autumn panicked, did this mean what she thought it meant? Were they coming back? Autumn shook the idea out of her mind, they wouldn't come back unless she fell asleep, and as long as she stayed awake, she was okay... Right? Dismissing any bad thoughts Autumn quickly picked up the cloak and hid it in a random closet that just happened to be there.
Wednesday...
Skipping to Wednesday, Halloween was quickly approaching, and Autumn was no where near prepared for it, she still had to get a costume, find some decorations (though her house didn't really need them), and help hire a DJ.
"Fall!" David yelled, running up to her. School was out for the day, but she had stayed late because the student council, and the Obsessionists, had wanted to talk to her.
"What?"
"Here." Dave handed Autumn Zack's electric guitar, Zack probably lost it in a bet, but whatever.
"What do you want me to do with this?" She asked, confused.
"Play it."
"What do you want me to play?"
"Something..." Autumn sighed, getting a straight answer out of most of the Obsessionists was almost impossible.
"What is "Something"?"
"IDK! Just play already!" Autumn did as she was told and strummed a few chords.
"Hows that?"
"Perfect!" Autumn started to get suspicious,
"What is this all about?"
"You're going to join our band, and we're going to play at the dance." David answered honestly.
"Oh... WHAT!" Autumn yelled in his face,
"You heard me, welcome to the team." Autumn twitched, and walked away, if she objected Dave would have the council vote. Knowing them they'd vote her in anyway.
"Can't we afford a DJ?"
"Yes, but the DJ can't play everything on the request list, so we're playing."
"But, why me?"
"We need another vocalist, as well as a lead guitarist, congratulations" Autumn glared at him and walked away, she couldn't believe that he had just wasted her time, when she could be trying to find a costume.
"Be here at 6 tomorrow!" Dave yelled after her. Autumn just sighed again and continued to walk home. She was walking today because according to Sakura she couldn't use her board because she was at risk of falling off and getting injured, and that may cause the cursed seal to activate.
"How'd it go?" May asked. Autumn had just had her first rehearsal with the band, it sucked. They played perfectly, but the rest of them had issues with each other, not their instruments.
"You don't want to know." Autumn said, going to her room.
"Did you finish your homework already?" May asked following her. Autumn panicked,
"What homework!"
"Oh never mind we're on different teams." Autumn smacked May over the head. Returning to what she was doing Autumn found what she was looking for, she had been looking for a website that could tell her more information about the Akatsuki. The cloak she had found was real, it wasn't like the fake satin ones she saw on the costume sites, and she had tried to burn it, it didn't work. It was real all right.
"Where are the others?" Autumn asked.
"They're in the basement, why?"
"Never-mind. May, go home."
"Why?" May whined, she practically lived at Autumn's new house; it was so big and interesting.
"Just go." May sighed and left. After Autumn was sure she was gone, she went down to the basement with the cloak in her hands, it was time to tell them the truth.
"Kakashi?" she called into the darkness.
"Oh Autumn, what is it?" He questioned, appearing out of the darkness in front of her.
"I need to talk to you all."
"Can it wait? We're in the middle of-"
"No it can't wait, it's important!" Autumn held up the cloak. Kakashi 'Oh'ed and went to get the others.
Autumn had gotten them to assemble in the living room, which previously must have been Orochimaru's meeting room, because it was big, and had plenty of chairs.
"Has Kakashi told you why I called you all here?" Autumn asked, all business-like.
"We're out of ramen again!" Naruto shouted, earning another slap from Sakura.
"I'll take that as a 'no'... I've called you here because of this…" She held up the cloak. Sakura gasped.
"In the beginning of this Fall I was suffering from insomnia, I still am. But I fell asleep once... When I woke up the next morning I found out the Akatsuki were in my home, for weeks I was forced to live with them. They trained me, and I was to be their tool. Then about a week ago they left. They just disappeared. Then I was forced to go one day with Orochimaru, who I had recently found was living in this house. Finally he disappeared, and you all came. But the last time I fell asleep, I found this cloak somewhere in the house." Autumn made a fist and tried to stop herself from punching something.
"Do you really think that they might come back?" Sakura asked.
"I'm sure of it."
"Well, you said that all of this happens when you fall asleep?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, so?"
"Then don't go to sleep!" He said, priding himself for his genius. Autumn just rolled her eyes and went back to her room. She had the perfect idea for a costume now.