Do do dodododo! Here's chapter 16 for you all =)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I do, however, own the Naruto Databook! *holds it up proudly*
"Miyuki… I need to speak with you." I said seriously as I stood in the doorway to her room. Miyuki looked at me with a frown, but she silently nodded and followed me as I turned on my heel and walked towards the back door. I led her outside of the house, and then outside of the town before she spoke.
"Where're we going?" She asked curiously and I stopped walking, a good ways away from the town.
"Miyuki… I lied to you recently." I admitted softly, meeting her gaze.
"I know." Miyuki said and I blinked in surprise. "About the fire, right?"
"Yes… How did you know?" I asked with a confused expression.
"She told me." Miyuki said after a moment of hesitation. "She told me that she was sorry about hurting you because I was sorry…" Miyuki looked slightly confused as she said this.
"She?" I inquired and she nodded.
"The voice was feminine." She explained and I nodded, motioning for her to continue. "I was really angry when we were training… And I felt really hot. I didn't know why I felt so hot, but it was making me really annoyed, and I got angry at you for it… And then the hotness got worse. You told me to go home so I did, but I went and laid down instead of eating. I fell asleep because I didn't feel good, and I dreamt about an odd girl my age…" Miyuki trailed off hesitantly.
"Odd? How so?" I asked gently, and Miyuki frowned deeply.
"She had bright orange hair and eyes… And she didn't have pupils or any of that white part of your eye. Everything was just bright orange… And she looked exactly like me except for the eyes and hair color. I asked her why, and she said it was because she was the other half of me… And that as I grew, she would grow too, and that she would always feel what I felt…" Miyuki paused, tilting her head to the side. "She wants to talk to you?" Miyuki said questioningly.
"What?" I asked with a frown.
"She says she wants to talk to you…"
"All right… I would like to speak to her as well." I said with a smile and Miyuki smiled hesitantly before closing her eyes. I took a step back in shock as she suddenly burst into flames, but as fast as they came, they faded, leaving another person in their spot. This person looked exactly as Miyuki had described her. A nine year old with shoulder-length bright orange hair and bright orange, pupiless, and white-less eyes. "Who are you?" I asked her immediately, narrowing my eyes.
"My name is Jeriko." The girl said with a smile, but it seemed almost sinister.
"What are you?" I questioned after frowning further.
"I am fire." The girl stated, eyeing me. "And you are ice."
"How do you mean?" I inquired, curiously now.
"I can see that you aren't who you pretend to be… You force upon yourself an act of happiness and joy to protect others from who you really are…" She tilted her head to the side, eyeing me very carefully. I felt as though she were staring into the very depths of my soul. "But you are honorable. And at the same time, you are caring… But only to a few. My other half included."
"And how do you know this?" I asked her, my voice hard and cold in reaction to her words.
"Because I am yours, and you are mine." Jeriko said with a smile. I gave her a confused look, so she elaborated. "You are like a mother to Miyuki, and thus you are like one to me… Daughters follow their mothers, thus, I am yours… And my mark has been placed upon you, offering you endless protection from me and my kind… Thus, you are mine." I opened my mouth to speak, but she instantly continued. "I do not mean that in a possession manner. I simply meant that you have the control over me that a mother would have over their daughter… Albeit a twisted, sociopathic daughter made of fire." She flashed me a smirking grin and I frowned at her.
"I know that Miyuki can't gain control over you… But if you were to stay like you are now, are you able to completely control it?" I asked her, cutting to business.
"For the most part, yes. However, Miyuki is aware of what's happening to a degree. She isn't… conscious… But our emotions are tied together. It's the only reason I can stay within her. If I sever those ties, I will be left in my natural form… Which would be disastrous. Thus, I always remain within my hosts, from birth to death. Then, eventually, I will be reborn into a new person, and I will become their other halves… Anyways, when I am in control, our emotions are still connected."
"Despite her being unconscious, she will emotionally react to something that I experience while in control. If I was in control and you were hurt, she would be so furious and defensive that I would feel the same and would lash out. I act on emotions no matter how smart I am, because that's simply how I was created to be." Jeriko explained and I nodded, understanding most of it. The 'Miyuki feeling emotions while unconscious' thing didn't make much sense to me, but I decided to delve into that later.
"Jeriko… What happened to your other hosts?" I asked after a moment, fearing her answer.
"They were killed…" She said shortly. "Generally, when I am awoken for the first time, the effects are disastrous. The whole village being burned to the ground… The person who awoke it being killed in the process… You see, you are marked so that my powers will never affect you, but it only happens if you survive the attack itself. Thus why you're arm is badly wounded. Most people don't survive, and the ones that do either flee or die later on from their injuries anyways." Jeriko explained with a heavy sigh that almost sounded… regretful.
"And so a law was placed among all the lands… Should anyone ever be born with me in them, they shall be killed immediately… Before they could kill everyone else."
"I see…" I murmured, narrowing my eyes thoughtfully.
"However… You know all this… but not until after returning to Sunagakure… Who else knows?"
"The Kazekage and his Council. The Kazekage ordered that news of you was not to leave that room… You are safe. At least, as long as they see any hope of me teaching Miyuki control."
"It won't be too difficult." Jeriko mused thoughtfully. "I will help you… Well, if you don't try to kill me for my methods." She cracked a sinister smile again, showing her slightly fanged teeth that I hadn't noticed before.
"And what exactly would you methods be?" I growled lowly and she smirked.
"Well, I told you that our emotions are connected so that I feel everything she does and automatically act on those feelings, yes?" I nodded and motioned for her to continue, so she did. "It's a two way street, and I just happen to have no emotions what-so-ever." Jeriko sang the last part eerily and I grimaced. So she can suppress Miyuki's emotions… or more like affect them to the point that they don't exist.
"I will only allow it on two conditions." Jeriko looked curious, so I went on. "You will only do it so that she doesn't lose control, and only if she agreed. Is that clear?" I demanded and she glared at me slightly before nodding. Then she tilted her head to the side, looking distant for a moment. Then, after several moments, she straightened up and shrugged.
"She agrees… I suggest you get to work." And with that, she burst into flames, leaving Miyuki in her place.
"Miyuki!" I laughed at the young girl when she flicked a piece of spaghetti at me. "You brat!" I flung a piece back at her, and she squeaked and ducked.
"Stop encouraging her." Hatsuri said with a chuckle and I pointed my fork at him threateningly. "Shutting up." He muttered before returning to his meal, causing Miyuki to giggle. I winked at her playfully, and then grabbed a small spaghetti string between my fingers, looking purposefully towards our father. Miyuki grinned, following my action. I mouthed 'three… two… one!', and then we both flung the spaghetti at Hatsuri.
"Run!" I squealed as Hatsuri grabbed a handful of his spaghetti. I jumped up so fast my chair tumbled backwards, running over to where Miyuki was, narrowly dodging a blob of spaghetti aimed at my head. I grabbed her around her waist, hoisting her up, causing her to laugh as I ran away with dramatized movement.
"You guys are so mean!" Hatsuri shouted as he chased us.
"Run, Saki!" Miyuki squeaked in alarm and I ran as fast as I could through the house. Then, a knock at the door interrupted our play fight, causing me to set Miyuki down.
"I got it." I said to Hatsuri, who nodded and moved to clean up the mess we'd made. I walked over to the door and pulled it open, tensing up in shock when I saw Gaara standing there. "Gaara?" I blinked in surprised, then confusion. What the hell? When did I stop being able to feel his chakra…? I wondered, only just noticing that I couldn't feel anything.
"Who is it?" Miyuki asked curiously as she bounced into the room, but before Gaara could get a good look at her, I yanked her behind me, hiding her from him.
"Relax, Saki." Gaara said coolly, remembering to use my new name. "I'm not here for her. I'm here to speak with you."
"Miyuki, go tell Father that I'm out with a friend, all right?" I said gently as I turned around, moving so that he wasn't able to see her still.
"...Saki… She wants to come…" Miyuki whispered to me softly so only I heard.
"Not yet. She can come in twenty minutes, okay? Exactly twenty minutes." I instructed her quietly and Miyuki nodded. "Now go and tell Father that I'm out with a friend. And don't worry, Miyuki. He really is a friend." I said with a smile and she nodded again, turning and quickly going into the dining room. I turned to face Gaara, suddenly much colder than before. "Shall we?"
We walked to the top of a sandy hill just outside of the town and I sat down at the top of it. "How are things going with the Jeriko?" Gaara asked coolly and I shrugged.
"They're going." I grunted. "Apparently the personality of the flame itself likes me because Miyuki does, so that makes things easier… And the fire personality is helping me teach Miyuki control. It's only been two weeks, but there's been a lot of progress."
"Sakura…" I narrowed my eyes at him reverting back to my old name. "What's wrong with you?" He asked bluntly and I looked at him, raising an eyebrow at him coldly.
"That's what I was wondering." I looked from the corner of my eye to see Jeriko standing there, looking curious.
"Gaara… This is Jeriko…" I introduced them, frowning at the fact that she came before the twenty minutes were up. Long before.
"I see… What did you mean by that, Jeriko?" Gaara asked, looking at me again, seeming slightly concerned. It didn't make me feel any happier. In fact, it made me feel even more bitter towards him. Wait… When did I start feeling bitter towards him? I wondered in confusion, trying to think back. I realized that it had been developing over time and frowned.
"I'm connected to you as well, Saki, and I noticed something that intrigues me…" Jeriko eyed me, looking completely curious. "When I was still sealed in this body, you were very sad when we first met… Border line suicidal." Gaara's eyes widened slightly. "Then, after we finally accepted that you wouldn't regain your memories and adopted you into the family, you became much happier. You were almost as happy as a normal teenager when you disappeared for two weeks."
"You came back beaten to hell, and too weak to even heal your own wounds, and barely strong enough to heal anyone else's. Which is when you started to train my other half in the art of the medical shinobi… And then, as you slowly grew weaker and weaker, I notice that you became colder and more detached…" I saw that Gaara was listening intently, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to care about her words. I recognized that I should have been alarmed and frightened by this, but I didn't feel anything. I've been so focused on pretending to be happy because I was depressed that I didn't even realize I've been faking all my emotions…
"You awoken me, and I observed even closer than before. You don't feel anything, do you?" Jeriko asked with a small smile that was, as usual, sinister. I tilted my head to look at her with a frown.
"You're point?" I asked and she smiled wider, revealing her fangs again.
"And I'd be willing to bet all those laughs and smiles you give my host and your father are all fake, yeah?" She chirped and I just looked at her, causing her to laugh. "You haven't felt anything but cold bitterness in a while."
"I felt anger several days ago… But no. Nothing since then. What's your point?" I inquired and Gaara narrowed his eyes at me.
"What's going on, Sakura? First you tell me that you've been losing your chakra over time, and now you're telling me that you've also been losing your emotions? Why is this happening?" He demanded and I looked at him with a frown.
"Because I gave you my life." He blinked in confusion, so I elaborated. "Obviously I didn't give you all of it, or even half of it, or I'd be either dead or in a coma, but I did give you a good amount of it. Come to think of it, I probably gave ten or twenty years of my life to you. Not that it matters… Shinobi rarely live past forty, and a lot of us are going to die in this war anyways. Point is, since I gave you some of my life but not all of it, you've got a nice chunk of me just stuck to your soul."
"And with it came of a chunk of chakra. But it's surrounded by a bit of my soul, so it isn't blending with the rest of your chakra like it would if I had just given all of my life… So it's trying to balance out by making my chakra and your chakra become even in amount. Thus, I'm losing all of my chakra, and you're getting it. I can only assume that the whole emotion shit is the same with my soul."
"It's suddenly a tiny amount of emotion, so it's trying to get larger and return to normal, which is making mine get smaller and smaller…" I shrugged and Gaara narrowed his eyes.
"How can you fix it?" He asked and I frowned.
"I need blood. Blood spreads your life force and soul throughout your body, so if I can ingest a small amount of yours and my blood together, it'll correct it by connecting us. But when I say connecting, I mean we'd just be the exact same way as before, but our souls will be less confused and will stop fucking shit up." I said with a grunt and Gaara looked at the horizon thoughtfully.
Eeeewie. I wanted to come up with something other than blood, cause that kind of grosses me out, but I couldn't. Oh well! Please review! :D