Chapter Two, for all of you interested, Authors note at the bottom
Lets Bring the Boys Home to Mama
The hostility in the room was thick enough to taste. I sat on the bed, facing four very angry, and very confused criminals. Twiddling my thumbs, I waited.
After I while of watching Kakuzu pace in front of me, I sighed. "Well?" I asked, looking expectant at the Akatsuki.
"Well what?" Sasori snapped. "You owe us an explanation, girl. Give it." He glowered in my direction.
"I'm sorry. It's kind of hard to explain things without knowing exactly what you want explained." I seethed back.
"Hush." Konan said, stepping forward and addressing me in her soft voice. Gesturing to the circle I had drawn,she said. "Explain this first."
"Oh. Thats a four tiered binding circle- a fifth level spell." I smiled. "I used it to release whatever spell has been placed on you- and place my own. But don't worry, the conditions are much more different. As are the capabilities."
"And these 'spells'," Kisame spook from his place against the wall, "How do they work?"
"I manipulate the energy around me." I said. Lifting my arm in front, I pulled a series of air currents in the palm of my hand, and began heating them with my own energy. "Some things have to be done with my own energy- my aura, like heat- or moving things." I tossed the ball at Kisame, it blew his hair as it warmed his face. "See?"
"Can everybody in these lands do this?" Kakuzu rumbled, looking between me and Kisame with a spark of interest
"No," I said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. '"My clan-er, my family," I corrected myself, trying not to sound like Gramps, "Is one of the last of our kind. Only a few people can do this- and I'm the first person in my family to have this power since Gran- and shes almost two hundred." I said sheepishly.
"So what are you, then?" Sasori said. "A witch?"
My eyes narrowed. "No." I snapped, "Don't you ever call me that." Kisame raised his eyebrows, obviously surprised by my defensive reaction.
"Oh?" Sasori challenged, a smirk playing across his wooden features. "And why not?"
"Witches were- are still- burned." I replied, remembering the times Gran describing the dark age of our people. How the air stank of blood and ashes.
Sasori snorted. "I could 'burn' you now, girl. I will call you what I wish, regardless of you," he examined me with an air of disgust, "Or your petty little feelings."
"Excuse me?" I spat. In hindsight, it probably would have been best to remember I was sitting in a room with four S-ranked criminals. Regardless, I stood, glaring at the red-headed puppet.
"You're excused." He said flatly.
"I just rescued your sorry wooden ass from the side of the road, and you dare-"
"Enough." Konan said with finality. She glared at the red-haired prick, then turned to me. "You said you had knowledge of us- yet this land seems far more different than ours. You can explain this?"
At this I paused. "Thats a bit more complicated," I admitted. "You see- you're actually not even in the same world as your own. Here you're fictional- a collection of antagonist in a popular series called 'Naruto', which originated in a country called Japan, and came here, to Canada." I smiled sheepishly, "I'm afraid that's all I can tell you for now."
"Wait." Kisame said, raising his hand as if to push this very knews away from himself. "You tryin' to tell me, we're part of an entertainment product," he emphasized, "Named after the goddamned Kyuubi." He finished in disbelief.
"...yes?"
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me. That brat? Really?" Throwing his hands in the air, he then began to grumble to himself. "What couldn't it just be called 'Kisame'."
Kakuzu paused in his paysing. "You mentioned you placed your own spell on us. Elaborate."
"Please." I said.
He turned, looking at me questionably. "I could kill you, if you weren't aware of that. Snap you in two before you even understood what was happening."
"Actually you couldn't," I replied. All four of them soon looked at me in disbelief. "No really," I added, "The contract you agreed to prevents you from harming me- or any of my 'kin'. You literally won't be able to. This goes both ways- neither me or my kin can do anything to cause intentional harm." I grinned.
"Or?" Konan asked.
"Or what?"
"What will happen if we do, girl?" Sasori said with a sigh of exasperation.
I blinked, "I'm not sure, actually. Lemme check." Walking past Kisame, I added a polite 'pardon me' as I collected the open Grand Book of Shadows from it's place on the floor. Quickly skimming, I began to read aloud;
"In the event that this contract be broken by the proselyte* , they will return to their original form, and if it be from the volunteer, they shall be stripped of power for thrice their crime. But warning, to the proselyte- for if they stray more than three leagues from the volunteers being, the contract will be not, until they have returned by their side." I paused. "Well that kinda sucks."
"What? Why?" Kisame demanded. "It's not gonna turn us into toads or anything, right?" He said with a grin.
"No, no," I said with a snort, "But if any of you try to hurt me- you'll turn back into cats. And if I hurt you, then I loose my magic for three days. On top of the fact that you can't get more than nine miles away from me or else you'll turn into cats-again, and have to touch me to turn back."
Konan frowned. "Exactly how long will this contract last?" I shrugged.
"Until you're home, and safe." I shut the book with a small clap. "Now," I announced, "Do I get a turn for questions, 'cause I really don't see how I can help with that with what I have at the moment."
Sasori blinked. "You think you could bring us back to our homeland?"
"I can try," I said with another shrug, setting the Book back with the other of its kind, and pulling out a pad of paper. "But first- where are the rest of you?"
They looked at one another. "...I'm not sure… I don't exactly remember much of anything." Kisame finally said, the others nodding in agreement.
"Can you tell me what you do remember?" I proposed.
"I remember a sudden pain," Sasori said, " Almost a burning- had Deidara not been in front of me I would have thought the brat had set me on fire. He was saying something too- along the lines of "Fuck, Sasori no Danna did you poison me?- and then.. black." He concluded, a soft frown on his features.
"Mine was much the same," Konan added, Kisame and Kakuzu giving nods of agreement. I scribbled down the words burning and sudden.
"We're your partners with you?" I asked. All of them nodded, and I quickly added the words partners effected- where are they? "So where are they…" I mumbled aloud, chewing the end of my pen.
A sudden thump was heard from above, and all of us froze, eyes glued to the ceiling as of we'd be able to spontaneously see through it. A muffled curse with a familiar voice carrying it floated through the ceiling to our ears. "Shit." I said quietly, eyes widening. "I completely forgot about that." I admitted.
"What?" Konan asked, her paper jutsu activated in case of an attack.
"...remember when I first found you, and I said I wasn't sure if you'd be able to stay?"
"Yeah?" Kisame responded, tense, with his hand on Samehada.
"I sort of forgot to mention that I still live with my family, and now we have to convince my mom to keep you." I said quickly, scrambling to find my housecoat.
"You're kidding, right?" Kakuzu rumbled.
"No, no, it'll be fine," I said nervously. "I managed to convince her to keep Toby- just sit there and look cute and lost." I purposely ignored the look Sasori shot me.
"...and if she refuses to keep us?" Konan asked.
"...you'll probably live in the back yard, to be honest." Shrugging on my housecoat, I pointed at the lethal criminals. "Just stay here, and wait for my signal." I told them, as I opened my door and exited the room.
"What's the signal?" Kakuzu hissed after me, as I began to ascend the stairs. I ignored him.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I rounded the corner into our kitchen, spotting my mom pulling out the eggs from the fridge. She was an older women now- getting into her forties, with a plump body, laugh lines and tired eyes. We both had the same hair- or did, until I decided to dye mine, and she to cut all hers off, a reddish brown that curled with stubborn audacity and an insane amount of thickness. Her eyes we're brown- I inherited the blue from my dad, and she would stubbornly tell you she was taller than myself, despite the fact that I was skinnier than a stick and had at least a good inch or two over her. She looked at me and gave me tired smile- mornings after midnight shifts will do that- and said, "You're up later than usual," as she placed the carton on the counter and turned on the stove.
Glancing at the clock told me it was nearing 11, and that this was indeed, much later than usual. "Yeah," I said nervously, scratching my head, "About that…"
My mother was immediately looking at my with suspicious eyes. "Annie…" She said with warning, pausing to crack an egg in her pan, "I swear, if you caught your room on fire again it's coming out of your paycheck this time." She said, pointing the egg shells threateningly at me.
"Nonono," I said shaking my head, "..though I did blow my light bulbs again," I added as an after thought.
She looked to the ceiling, sighing heavily. "Your dad will change it when he gets home," She said. He normally went for coffee with Gramps Saturday mornings, and wasn't to be expected home until well afternoon.
"Though it's… not exactly that either." I said, taking a cautious step forward. Moms eyes turned to me, and she waited for me to explain further. "...you might wanna get dressed-"
A dramatic sigh came, "Annalena Elizabeth Mayfleet, you may be seventeen, but you are most certainly not aloud to bring people home to spend the night-"
"Not like that, not like that," I said firmly, raising my hands in defense. Mom raised an eyebrow, caution slipping into her features. "We do have guests," I said, eyes flicking to the stairwell, "...that we won't be getting rid of for a little while…" Her eyes narrowed.
"A demon?" She asked, voice low, as she too eyed the stairs leading to our basement.
"No, but," I paused, frowning. "You know what- this might be easier if I just introduced them." I turned towards the stairwell, ignoring my mothers look of confusion. "C'mon up guys- remember what I told you!" I called.
Slowly, four S-ranked criminals made their way up our basement stairs- decked out in all of their organization uniform, and carrying weapons. Kakuzu came first- looking more than just a little embarrassed- and had he not been sporting his head gear, his face would have been as red as the clouds on his cloak. Kisame came next, putting on a friendly grin as he tried to squeeze both himself and his sword through my stairwell. Sasori looked vaguely uncomfortable as he shuffled past us- and finally, Konan came last, wearing a polite smile and far too much grace for my mother to handle.
As they stood behind me, my mother still stood in silence, staring at them with shock.
And eventually, the inevitable happened.
And that's the end folks! This one took a little bit longer than expected to write, more difficult than I expected to put this into terms. Anyway, notes for this chapter are:
proselyte- can literally mean disciple, or follower. In this context, it mean the person who has agreed to a term.
Stay tuned for the next chapter when Mrs. Mayfleet blows a gasket!
Reviews = love!