Kyuubi opens its eyes.
The cage is dark.
Within its body, something struggles.
"Fools," Kyuubi whispers, "Utter, complete fools... they know not what playing with the Gods will earn them, do they? Our wheels are finally beginning to turn, the cobwebs are falling away..."
The struggle ceases, but something is still moving within it.
"There is naught to be distressed by, little one..." Kyuubi rises, a couple of tails gently stroking its belly, "Nonetheless, these mortal's imbecilic actions will guarantee our freedom... Father will not touch us..." Kyuubi paces the space given to it, slowly, eyes on the gates, on the seal.
Eyes that, in fury, are red... But Kyuubi is simply thoughtful, there is no rage, no anger. Its eyes are a shade of blue no mortal can gaze upon and live to tell the tale, the pair of eyes are a soft, eletric and otherworldly blue, a color most, if given the chance to see, would agree that--
--It is the color of dead souls.
Blue, of the Dead.
And as the fabric rips asunder,
The wheels truly begin to turn;
Dreams
Because the Dead do not talk,
And the Living do not see.
Sakura wakes. Her room is bleak.
She rises, complying to her new routine.
Death...
Yume cries for her attention, hungry. She's content.
Live...
She leaves her apartment.
There are stars dancing in the skies. She remembers that they did the same, right before Kakashi began to woo her. She sighs, and does not comment upon the incident.
Deidara looked back nervously, instincts screaming at him. He had to do this quick. With his death so close, there was little he could plan. He chewed his lower lip, thinking on how he could do this without calling attention to himself, but he's not the type to be subtle about anything.
"Are you going somewhere, Deidara?"
The blond visibly jumped, and he turned to see Itachi coming out of the room he had just left. His eyes are closed, Akatsuki cape open and head tilted slightly. Deidara eyed him fearfully.
But something nagged at him and--
He noticed it. A few more suspicious looks, and Deidara suddenly relaxed, releasing a relieved sigh.
"When?" he asked quietly. Itachi's lips twisted in recognition.
"Yesterday. I made sure to be transferred as close as I could."
"I'll be going first, then," Deidara murmured, "Think we should do it fast?"
"As fast as possible. Can you contact him?"
"More or less. I've something to do close to where he's living. Did you know one of the bases is nearby?"
"No, I did not. Do be careful to inform him of the full situation, this is going to get ugly."
"I thought so," Deidara nodded, chewing on his lower lip again, Itachi moved to sit on one of the chairs of the room, eyes still closed, "Give me yours and I'll deliver it, if you want..."
"It will be a mess if we don't do it right. Go give it to him when you're close, and I'll give you mine when you're going. We'll be nearby."
"Alright," Deidara pressed his lips in a thin line, extending a hand to the other man. Itachi handed him a vial filled with green liquid.
"You know what to do with that," Itachi murmured.
"Yeah," he answered, pushing the transparent vial close to his face, inspecting the liquid, "It's one of your masterpieces? Looks like it... does it have any smell?"
"Yes. But you know that--"
"If I wanted to be dead, I'd smell it, yeah," Deidara scoffed, "I'm not stupid. You and Sasuke always do weird shit, I'm not gonna be your guinea pig... I'll give this one to him, yeah."
"Deidara... you'll need to help me with a few things. We need to make sure she has enough freedom to move us, and I had not had enough ideas before. We need to be quick. We can't let him know, either... we are going to destroy everything he built, remember?"
"Yeah..." Deidara left the room, vial in his pocket and hands molding clay nervously.
His beloved creation, clay shining like metal, twisted gold wires in a minuscule representation of the sun, with loops and twirls around forming an explosion.
Deidara looked at it and swallowed heavily.
He was afraid.
A small, minuscule sun in the middle of an explosion, made of twisted gold, sat in the second to last altar.
A small, green spider in position to bite its prey, made of poisonous jade, sat on the 8th altar.
A small, shining wolf in the middle of a jump, made of polished silver, sat on the 6th altar.
A small, red spiral in an imitation of fire, made of burning ruby, sat on 4th altar.
The door to the room opened.
"Would you look at that..." the man murmured approaching, inspecting the wolf, "You're my newest... what to happened to you, I wonder..."
He sighed, preparing himself to start again.
"I never should have allowed them free access to this place..."
Behind him, large glass tubes stood, three humming with energy and the rest silent. These three tubes were filled with blue-green see-through liquid, thick like honey, purer than water.
Inside the first floated a woman, long hair drifting gently. From outside the glass she appeared to have sickly green skin, and purplish hair. Her eyes were closed in peaceful slumber, her body floating in the liquid.
Inside the other two floated young babies, appearing to have greenish skin as well. What few strands of hair on their heads had just enough color, one of them a deep black and the other seemed to have bluish-green hair. They seemed to be growing at an impossibly fast rate, aging a month for each minute.
The man began fiddling with buttons on the far panel, and the sixth tube on the line was lit, liquid filling it slowly.
"Am I glad I gathered some material..." he murmured pensively, "But this also means the awakening has started, hm?"
"Yes, it does," a voice called from the entrance. The man almost fell over.
"Fuck it all!" he threw his arms in the air, "I really shouldn't have given you lot free access to this place!"
"Sorry," the teenager shrugged, "but we kinda need to do it."
"Sure, sure," he answered sullenly.
"By the way, someone messed up and didn't manage to give it to you," he told the man, rummaging his pockets.
"Oh?" a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. Here," he took a small figurine and placed it on the fifth altar, a small black, serpentine dragon twisted in a spiral around its own body.
The man cursed, "That idiot always gets himself in this kind of trouble, doesn't he?"
Pale eyes twinkling with suppressed mirth, the teen grinned, "He is one of the five oldest--"
"And the five oldest are the craziest, yeah, I know," the man sneered.
"Glad you haven't forgotten that," the teen told him.
"Any others?" the man dismissed with a shake of his hand.
"There's mine and my twin's. We didn't bring it to you earlier because... well, you know."
"Hm-hum. Sure, sure. I'll start soon, then. By the way, when..?"
"I'm due in about 5 days, give or take a few. Sister is due about a day later."
"Right. Okay, then, leave so I can start."
The teen chuckled and left.
Akatsuki attacked Konoha not even a week after that visit. Several died in the attack, and even more from the residual damage.
In the man's room, a gray, smoke-like falcon pulsed with power before settling in its altar.
A day later, a circular, pure white mirror pulsed with power before settling between the falcon and the exploding sun.
Seven tubes were lit, one with the long-haired woman, two with now teenagers, one with a child, one with a baby, and two empty-- though not for long.
The man carefully made a mixture of unusual ingredients before cautiously allowing them to fall into the two empty tubes. The clump of something clogged together, forming a semi-transparent sphere, mass inside gently moving and separating itself until it resembled a giant cell filled with blood and a small little thing slowly forming.
In less than fifteen minutes, a fetus had formed and the sphere of flesh around it dissolved, leaving two new-born babies behind, one in each tube. Its forms were subtly twisting, growing quickly.
The man ran a hand trough his plastic-like hair-- it had a strange transparency that, although the light went through, it was distorted beyond recognition-- and grinned lazily.
"Just a bit more and the thirteen of you will be free to truly wreck havoc in the world," he snickered, "the End of the Reign is neaaar!" he sang, stretching the last word.
The beings growing in the tubes shifted, and each seemed to smile maliciously at the thought of destruction.
To Be Continued...