Day 7:

-Blue Nova compound

Lyra looked down at the dead human, her eyes fixating on her own dead body. No thoughts entered her mind as she stared blankly. Her gaze moved down to her arms, they were blue and much colder than she remembered. Her head smacked the bed frame as she fainted.

-Thunder country

Zeke opened his eyes, the blurry world slowly coming into focus. "My head…" He was no stranger to hangovers, but this one topped them all. "Ugh… I guess the thunder country likes its alcohol strong." He tried to sit up but was held down by something. A quick look at his chest revealed that "something" to be Iria, sprawled out and drooling on his chest. "Funny, I don't remember releasing the jutsu, guess I can't maintain it with a hangover. O well, no one saw her so it doesn't matter." He gently rolled Iria off of him, allowing him to sit up. "So… what's my plan from here? I seem to be traveling with Iria, but I don't exactly have an end goal at the moment. I guess I can't really plan anything until I know what Iria is trying to accomplish, although I get the feeling she isn't entirely sure either." Zeke rolled off the bed, barely managing to walk into the bathroom and get a glass of water. The cool water made him feel a bit better, at least enough to stop the nausea. A cool hand touched his neck, the surprise causing him to swallow water down the wrong pipe.

"You're a jumpy one."

"You move too quietly."

"Comes with the job."

"You need a new career then. You would definitely be way more likeable as a model or waitress or something, the whole commando thing is a pretty big turnoff."

Iria probably would have responded rather violently, but she was way to tired and hungover to care. "You're one to talk. Sketchy assassin/womanizer sums you up pretty well."

"Life would be terribly boring if people held themselves to the same standards they hold everyone else to."

Iria sighed, "So, moving on from that rather inane subject matter, can you put the illusion on me again?"

"Sure." Zeke quickly recast the genjutsu, giving Iria the form of the blonde again.

He turned around, staring at himself in the mirror. "Now you're almost as good looking as me."

"I was thinking of…" he turned around, realizing that Iria was long gone.

She had already exited the bathroom, leaving unnoticed just as she had entered. "In a bizarre way, I'm starting to enjoy his batshit crazy way of thinking." She walked out the door before hearing a response.

-Blue Nova compound

"These aren't mine, and these aren't mine, and these definitely aren't mine." Lyra touched her left leg, the smooth blue skin felt alien to fingers, "and these aren't mine either." She attempted to find a logical solution, desperately trying to avoid slipping into total hysteria. For the first time in her life, she was completely unable to comprehend her current situation. Her body, or what she thought was her body, was clearly dead, its limpness and bent neck certainly suggested that it was dead. Seeing her own body on the floor was almost as confusing as being stuck in someone else's body. Lyra had always been able to take other forms, but this was different, this wasn't her own body transforming into a new one, this was her stuck in someone else's body, or something like that. "What if…?" Lyra froze, suddenly looking at her surroundings. Her memory of the last few hours flooded back to her, "This is the Blue Nova compound, Biara was about to… or DID, just kill me. Except… I seem to be inhabiting her body now." Scenarios that could possibly explain the baffling situation began racing through her mind, but she quickly cast them aside, deciding to focus on her immediate safety first.

"How do I get out of here? Should I leave… or stay and try to extract information? No… that won't work, they will definitely realize that something is wrong. I should escape for now. But what to do after that?" Danzo's withered face suddenly appeared in her mind, "Of course, I should seek Danzo's counsel, he will know what to do, better to let him take care of the situation."

"First off, I have to find some clothes." She quickly dressed her former body in her own clothes, then put on Biara's top. "I can't walk through Konoha like this…" Scanning the room, she spotted a brown, inconspicuous looking coat complete with a hood that covered her face, "Biara probably had this exactly for this purpose." Lyra walked towards the door, nearly tripping over her own legs. "Will definitely take a while to get used to these long limbs." She opened the door a crack, peering into the hallway, "Coast is clear." She stepped out, then slid back into the room. "What's my plan… should I just make a run for it?" She looked at her body again. "With very little thought, she picked up her former body, slung it over her shoulder and began walking down the hall." She made every effort to look rushed without looking nervous, "I don't think the Blue Nova have any idea what happened. If I walk through the compound looking like I urgently have to take this body somewhere maybe they will leave me alone." She wasn't thrilled with the plan, it was extremely risky, but she didn't have any better options.

Lyra's thoughts were interrupted.

"Matron I have the files that you requested, would you like to see them now?" The unknown asari seemed rather unsure of herself, she was staring at the body but clearly wasn't about to say anything about it.

"I'm busy." She walked away, avoiding eye contact with her apparent underling. As she traveled through the base, several more asari passed her, all of them pretending not to notice her cargo. "I guess they're afraid of me." It took several minutes to find her way out of the base, but she eventually escaped, squinting as she walked out into the morning sun. "It's morning? I guess I was unconscious for a while." Looking back at the asari compound, "I can't believe I made it out of there. But am I really safe? Maybe they know something is wrong and they are waiting to ambush me. Hmm… but that wouldn't make sense, now that I am outside of their compound it would be almost impossible to catch me, and they would probably be spotted. I guess I really am safe, at least for now, though I should hurry to Danzo." Lyra looked down at her cargo, "But what to do about my body, I can't just carry it through town." She sighed, "I guess this is what illusion jutsu is for." She turned her body into a log and started towards the root compound, hoping no one inspected her too closely as she walked. "Good thing the streets are completely deserted this early."She pulled the hood tighter over her face, briskly walking towards the Root compound.

-Streets of Konoha

Sakura walked lazily down the street, watching as the city of Konoha gradually woke up. Technically, she was on a mission, but only sort of. She was supposed to "check in" on Naruto and Miranda. Obviously, that was code for "spy on them" but even knowing that, she wasn't entirely sure what she was suppose to do. "Do I just awkwardly watch them for a few hours then report back? Tell them that Naruto was himself, he ate a bunch of ramen and generally acted like an oaf. Miranda… well, I don't really know a whole lot about her, but I doubt there will be anything terribly interesting to report. Even if she was a spy or whatever they think she is, she definitely won't do anything while I am there."

She sat down on a park bench, calming her mind before continuing with her mission, "I really don't want to do this, but I guess I don't have a choice." Her attention was suddenly pulled away, "Did that woman with the brown hood on have blue skin? She… didn't look human." She shook her head and sighed, "I must be even more tired than I thought, hallucinating and thinking I'm seeing aliens."

She walked the rest of the way without saying a word or thinking about the mission at all. She paused briefly before knocking on Naruto's door, taking a deep breath "Might as well get this over with."

Her hand rapped loudly against the door. No answer. "Is he away? This is earlier than he usually gets up." She knocked again, louder this time. Still no answer. After waiting several minutes, she knocked again, this time loud enough to wake the neighbors. "Was that Naruto I just heard? It sounded like him, but it sounded like him groaning not speaking. Well… since he seems to be ignoring I guess I have no choice." Sakura pushed open the door and quietly stepped inside, immediately freezing as she looked at the bed.

"Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that Naruto on top of Miranda?" Closing her eyes for several seconds didn't cause the unimaginable scene to disappear, "I guess it isn't a figment of my imagination." They both had their eyes closed but the expressions on their faces made it abundantly clear that they were enjoying themselves immensely.

Sakura backed out, almost tripping over her own feet as she rushed away from the two interlocked bodies. Her knees felt weak as she leaned against the walls of Naruto's apartment, her legs sliding out from under her. "Well… this changes things." Sakura's mind was racing, trying to determine her course of action. "Should I tell the hokage? Should I walk inside and confront Naruto?" Sakura breathed deeply, calming herself down. "I shouldn't do anything right now. I'll come back later and talk to Naruto, make a decision then." Sakura walked back towards the hospital.

-Root compound

Lyra slowed as she entered the Root compound, "Safe." She paused, scanning her surroundings, "But why are there no guards?"

"I've been waiting." Danzo stepped out of the shadows, looking her over. "Place the body over there and follow me to my office." Lyra was beginning to recover from her state of shock as she followed Danzo, his presence and the familiar Root compound calmed her nerves.

"I have many questions and important…" Danzo hushed her. "In time."

"But my body…"

"I know. Follow me."

They entered the office, a looming empty space only adorned by a few pieces of furniture and sealed file cabinets. "He's never allowed me in here before. Actually, I'm not sure that he's ever allowed anyone in here." Danzo turned towards her, examining her in a rather unsettling way.

"It actually worked…" For the first time in her life, Lyra thought she saw a smile flash across Danzo's face.

He continued, "It's not my tendency to doubt myself, but I honestly didn't expect this plan to succeed."

In a frantic voice "Danzo, please allow me to explain the situation." She was silenced again.

"I'll be the one explaining the situation." He paused, "Sit down." Lyra looked over at the only chair in the room, a menacing amalgamation of black leather and wood. She sat down on the floor, looking up at Danzo.

"Where to begin… Well I guess I'll start with why you're in that body." He stared at the ceiling for several seconds before continuing. "As you know, you have the power to take on other people's forms. That unique power is the reason why I took you in as a child. However… I had always suspected that there was more to your power, that being able to take other forms was…" He paused, "A symptom, but not the power itself. The real power, as I have suspected for a long time, is that your soul isn't attached to your body." He closed his eyes, carefully picking his next words. "Most people have a "default form" they can use illusion jutsu to make it look different or some form of transformation jutsu to temporarily alter it, must they must always return to their original form. That isn't the case for you. You can change form, and permanently stay in any form because you don't have a default body. You seem to consider that young green haired girl to be your "default body" but that is merely an arbitrary decision you made."

Lyra interrupted him, "None of this explains why I am suddenly in Biara's body, or how you seemed to know this would happen."

"Yes I know, I was about to get to that part. Through spying on the asari, I discovered that they "mate" melding their minds with another individual and copying their genetic material to make a new individual. I suspected that if this were to happen with you, that your "wandering soul" would take over the body, and it looks like I was right. The entire scenario went exactly as I predicted, you mated with the asari leader and then she killed you. What she didn't know, is that your soul had already taken over her body and that it would replace her own the next time she slept."

Lyra was furious, not because Danzo had withheld information from her but because he seemed to regard her survival as inconsequential. "Yes, it worked, but your "plan" was more a guess, or a series of guesses I should say. If any one of those had been wrong I would be dead."

Danzo closed his eyes, "I have been keeping everybody in this organization alive through a "series of guesses" for many years. Countless people want to destroy Root, many of them living around us in this city. My guesses and predictions about future events and how to maintain power and leverage have kept you alive for years, the only difference is that you were always shielded from it until now."

Lyra was staring at the floor, still furious but smart enough to not risk irritating Danzo. "Am I needed at the moment or may I have some time to myself?"

"You won't be needed until tomorrow, or maybe the day after depending on how things play out. You may leave."

Lyra left the compound, making sure the hooded coat hid her face and body as she returned to her apartment.

-Thunder country

Zeke sat on the edge of the bed, thinking over his plan. "So Iria needs to stay away from her former teammates for an unspecified amount of time, which presumably ends when they leave. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing when they are leaving. The only way to find out would be to contact Root, I'm sure Danzo will know if they leave. Of course… that's IF they leave, we don't know that they won't be staying for several years."

Iria entered the room, interrupting his thoughts. "Hey there." He looked up,

"Hey yourself. I've been thinking about our current situation. I think it's best if you stay hidden until the asari leave, or at least until they stop chasing you."

"Yeah I've been thinking myself. I don't think we can just wait until the Blue Novas leave. They aren't going to leave until they accomplish their mission and who knows how long that will take. They may be here for several years and they won't stop looking for me until I am found… or dead."

Zeke interrupted, "What exactly is their mission?"

"Their mission is to carry out the will of Matriarch Alexeris. Alexeris had many ideas, but her most important was to create a higher form of asari. She wasn't the only one with that goal, in fact far from it. But the majority of the asari matriarchs despised her, which ultimately led to her execution. Her more fanatical followers formed a group known as the Blue Novas. They scattered all over the universe, attempting to realize her dream."

"And how are they going to achieve that?"

"Well for thousands of years, they didn't really have a goal, they just traveled around the universe spreading her ideas. Making a higher form of asari sounded great but no one really knew how to do it. But all of that changed when your planet was discovered."

"Our planet? What's so special about here?"

"You have a novel form of mental power unlike anything we have ever seen. When an asari mates, the offspring inherits the genetics of both parents. So by mixing asari biotics with your form of power, we could theoretically create offspring with both powers. This is the first time that carrying out Alexeris's will actually seems possible."

"So they're going to mate with citizens of this planet then leave?"

"I don't really know the plan. In fact, I doubt there is a coherent plan. The current matriarch of the Blue Novas is no longer rational, most of the organization doesn't approve of her but no one would dare stand up to her."

"Why? How hard can it be to overthrow one person?"

"Depending on the person, very difficult. You see, as asari grow increasingly older they continually lose physical power but continually gain mental power. The matriarch is astonishingly old, her mental powers are indescribable at this point. So no, she isn't getting overthrown anytime soon. When the current matriarch dies of old age, Biara will take over, she is next in line."

Zeke started into the distance, lost in thought, finally speaking up, "You don't seem very happy about all this. I get the feeling you don't agree with the Blue Nova's mission."

"I never said that!"

"No, but I'm pretty sure you think it."

Now it was Iria's turn to go silent for a while. A look of sadness spread over her face when she eventually spoke. "The Blue Novas are just going to get themselves killed, and probably millions or even billions of other people while they're at it. Most of the universe doesn't wish to see a "higher form" of asari, the entire universe will descend on them if they do achieve their goal." She laughed, "I guess the indoctrination failed on me."

"Indoctrination?"

"Yeah, the Blue Novas have this chant they sing several times a day, sometimes the matriarch gets overly zealous and has them repeat it over and over for hours on end."

"So let's hear it."

She smiled, "You sure, you might get indoctrinated."

"Don't worry about it, all previous attempts to make me follow directions have failed miserably."

"Here goes." Iria closed her eyes.

"Since time immemorial, the Blue Novas have carried out the will of our deceased matron Alexeris. Though she no longer graces the universe with her presence, her dream is eternal. Like the nova from an exploded star, we carry her light forever, enforcing the will of Alexeris upon the universe. Alexeris demanded the creation of a higher form of Asari but the cowardly matrons disagreed. They killed her and thought they extinguished her ideas. But they were foolish. Everyone has two lives. You lose your first life when you die and you lose your second life when you are forgotten. The Blue Novas will never forget her ideas and so we grant her immortality. On this planet we will realize her dream and make a higher form of Asari."

"So I take it the Blue Novas think rather highly of themselves, the arrogance expressed in that chant was almost palpable."

"All cults think highly of themselves, they couldn't function if they didn't."

"Yeah… I have some experience with that myself."

After a long silence, "So getting back to the present, what are we trying to achieve at the moment?"

"Iria stared at the ceiling, "Well like I stared to say before, we shouldn't wait for the Blue Novas to leave. They can't leave until the matriarch says they can, and that could be a while." She paused, "They seem to think I betrayed them somehow. Right after I captured you, I receive a message ordering me to report to headquarters. The matriarch needed to "speak to me" thing is… the matriarch never speaks to anyone other than Biara, unless she is severely displeased. I probably would have been jailed and/or executed, so I fled."

"So you think it's a setup?"

"It had to be. I didn't do anything to displease her." She sighed. "I need to try and contact Biara, have her speak to the matriarch and clear my name. Otherwise, I fear I'll be running forever."

"Any plan on how to do that?"

"No… none. Let me think for a while."

"Do you think it's safe to stay here?"

"Yeah, at least for today, we shouldn't stay long though, they'll be looking for me."

-Konoha Hospital

Naruto entered the hospital, walking through the sick ward until he found Sakura, "I haven't seen her today and she already looks pissed off at me…"

"Hi. So uh… you wanted to speak to me."

She glared at him, "We need to speak, but this isn't the place. I'm working all day and most of the night. Be in your apartment tomorrow afternoon." She leaned in close to him. "And if anyone learns about you and Miranda going at it, we'll both be in trouble."

Naruto's face turned red, "I'll uhh… make sure that doesn't happen."

They parted.

-Lyra's apartment

Lyra had been starring into the mirror for the past 2 hours, looking at her new form. She probably would have been crying, but this new body didn't seem capable of it. She had changed bodies countless times before, always staying within the human realm. This was her first time leaving that comfort zone. "Seems like my ability to change form is gone. Am I stuck in this body forever?" She closed her eyes, the fury that had been burning brightly since she parted with Danzo was beginning to subside. "Is this really what he wanted to have happen? Me stuck in this alien form. But why? What's the purpose of me being in this body? Danzo has been training me for years, what's the purpose if he was going to take away the only ability that made me special?" She closed her eyes. "I guess I should stop thinking about it. Better to hear the explanation in more detail from Danzo himself." She laid down on the bed and closed her eyes, attempting to sleep. It wasn't night time yet but the thought of this day going on any longer was more than she could bear.