Chapter Fifteen: Death Has Come for Me
~Amaya's POV~
"So, you know you're dead?" Analia asked Nagato ten minutes after everything had been explained. Well, everything from last night anyway. The rest of the kittens had come down after I'd sent Kakashi to get them and save him from being mentally raped by Analia. It did not help that we knew what he looked like underneath that mask.
"Yes. Akatsuki is dead." Nagato said.
"You don't sound that disappointed." Ariel perceived scratching Yahiko. She'd decided that before we turned them human she was going to enjoy the purring bundle in her arms. Not that Yahiko was exactly protesting.
"We've had time to get over it." Itachi answered. Sasuke meowed next to him, who was promptly shut up by Sakura and Naruto's meowing.
"And you want me to take Team 7 back to Konoha to just before they were taken?" Analia continued.
"That would be preferable since we were fighting in a war. Sasuke and Naruto were just finishing their last battle." Kakashi explained.
"Sciunt de eorum finis?" Ariel asked. (1)
"Neque illud. Et dices ad eos. Ne festines sum." I answered. "Mihi dictum est, ab eo quod est, tantum scire ad locum certaminis, et ait Heliseus sagitta salutis Indra quando miserunt Sasuke Naruto incenditque Rasenshuriken."
"Quattuor autem annos fabula finitur." Analia chimed.
"Sesshomaru erat a Japan scriptor racionabilia temporibus." I pointed out.
"Ita autem Micha suscepta de manibus eorum, cum nondum elit. Et mansit solus Sesshomaru."
"O bene tibi parte. Hanc unquam prius exerceri?" I asked. Analia shook her head.
"Nec cuiusquam tamen accipitur ut quid cogitatis Go (2) retro? Narrationis exitum eius plus quam quinque annos."
"Well, sh*t, this could be a problem." I muttered in English.
"What?" Nagato asked.
"Due to your story ending four years ago I don't know if I can take you back." Analia explained slowly. When Naruto started to freak out very loudly she waved her hand and his mouth snapped shut. "Sorry Naruto-Sama but you didn't let me finish. To take you back would be like time-travelling to me. I don't know if I can do that since no one has ever done it before."
"What about those apples you send through the air and then they randomly come out when you're not expecting it?" Ariel asked. Right on cue an apple came out of the wall and came flying towards me. I was prepared to let it hit me or to duck but Itachi's hand flashed out and caught it before anything could happen. I blinked.
"Thanks, Itachi."
"Hn." I glared at Analia.
"Why are you throwing apples at me?"
"I didn't!" Analia protested. "I just end up throwing things sometimes." She immediately looked pensive. "But I suppose I can look into this further. I always end up doing something that takes my focus away from this study."
"How long do you think it would take?" Nagato asked. Analia shrugged.
"I'm not sure. I'll have to see if I can do it first. Does anyone have anything from Konoha that I can use to help me focus?"
"They're cats." I reminded her.
"Right. We should probably change them back." Ariel said. I looked at the clock to see it was 11:42.
"Give me a little while first. I want to check on the kids." No sense in me using my magic before reinforcing the shields. Analia and Ariel understood how my mind worked as they nodded.
"We can start after lunch. We need to figure out the words for this." Ariel said sensibly.
"Do you still have your Book of Shadows (3)?" Analia asked. I waved at the library.
"It's somewhere in there. I put it away once I figured I had everything in it down. Although I should probably look at it again if I can't even remember if it had a spell for this in it."
"It probably does." Ariel said.
"Goddess knows our mothers got into enough trouble when they were our age." Analia agreed.
"What's a Book of Shadows?" Kakashi asked. I looked to Analia.
"You see what I've been dealing with? You explain. You can see how I've been doing things for a few hours now." She nodded looking thrilled at having Kakashi and Nagato for a while. I got up to go relieve Kakuzu and Kisame of their duties. They were the only two who hadn't wanted to come down and meet Analia and Ariel.
I gently touched Memphis' pulse to check it with mine. I may not have much experience in the Healing field, but I did know some things.
I needed to see how far along the healing process was for them. Thankfully since Keira and Memphis were children they wouldn't remember the fear. But that fear would have to be put into a certain memory or kept until something happened enough for the fear to finally settle. You couldn't erase fear completely. But you could redirect it.
I just hoped it wasn't redirected into something stupid like a fear of fish like their mother. (She couldn't even look at fish without getting goosebumps. And I didn't even know why!) (4)
"Will they be okay?" Itachi asked coming in. I made sure to flip Memphis over, so he wasn't drooling on his pillow.
"They should be. The fear usually takes a while to redirect. But most of the children who've been exposed to a Disturi take 12 hours to adjust."
"They aren't the first?" Itachi asked moving Keira's arms into a more comfortable position. I sighed ruffling Memphis' hair. It stuck up to look like Dr. Two-Brains (I have been forced into watching PBS shows on more accounts than I care to remember.) (5)
"No." I murmured. "50% of all children in the world experience a Disturi's influence from birth to ten years old. That's how they come up with the term for 'monster under the bed' or 'monster in the closet'. A few like Keira and Memphis are exposed to more than a glimpse. Most of them, if not treated right away, end up going insane from fear."
"How many children have been exposed?" Itachi asked. I stood up after sending a small wisp into Keira and Memphis. I met his dark eyes.
"12% of all children. Only 4% end up being treated right away. Two percent end up in an asylum for life. Three percent of them end up going insane and killing as many people as they can before they die. The last 3% end up committing suicide before they reach twenty. We try to make sure that doesn't happen but… some children end up falling into the cracks." I looked back at Memphis and Keira.
"They won't end up like that." I nodded.
"I know. But let's just say I won't be leaving them alone for a while." I laughed humorlessly. "… I never should have gone on that stupid mission." Itachi didn't say anything as we left the kids. The sun was out so no demons would be awake until nightfall and no doubt Kisame and Kakuzu would run back to their 'owners' once I came down.
"Your phone is blinking." Nagato said when Itachi and I were in the living room. I could hear Analia and Kakashi in the library looking for the Book while Ariel would no doubt be in the kitchen making something to keep us going. She was feeding the cats to since only Konan and Yahiko were in the living room with Nagato.
I looked at the phone to see I had a message. How had I not heard it ring? Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kakuzu and Kisame run back upstairs. (Aw, how cute.) I touched the missed calls.
"You have three missed calls." The automated voice said. Analia came in, to hear who would be cussing me out today. "First missed call at 5:23 am."
"Amaya!" Sh*t, there was my aunt. Ariel chuckled seeing my face pale. "Are you all right? Are the kids all right? I had a premonition (6). Call me as soon as you get this."
"End call."
"Sh*t, I am in so much trouble." I moaned.
"Just be glad that she doesn't know it was Disturi." Ariel said.
"I wouldn't doubt it." I muttered. "She knew the second we got into her liquor cabinet, and she wasn't even in the house. Let alone the country."
"Second missed call at 7:36 am."
"Amaya Black this is Andromeda. Call me back as soon as you get this."
"End call." Huh that was new. "Third missed call at 9:24 am."
"Maya." I froze at that sweet voice that radiated coldness. "It's mommy honey. I heard about the Disturi, and I just want to know if you're all right. If I don't hear from you soon I'm coming for a visit." A scream sounded that sounded like a demon in pain. "Stop moving, you and your minions dared to hurt my child. This is your punishment. Anyways I love you baby."
"End call."
"F*ck!" I picked up the phone and dialed the last call.
"I thought your mother was evil?" Kakashi asked coming in with Analia. Ariel and Analia exchanged a glance that I was grateful enough to see that it was nervousness and not fear or sympathy.
"Did you not hear the demon screaming in the background?" I asked. "Connie is psychotic."
"How bad would that be?" Nagato asked.
"You've met Gaara right Kakashi?"
"Yes. He's the Kazekage."
"Well think of his psychotic younger days when he killed everything that breathed. She is worse than that. You don't threaten her family and live to tell the tale. Ironically enough she doesn't hold that against herself when she tries to kill me every other month."
'Leave a message and I'll get back to you when I'm done.' Connie's voicemail was interspersed with screams of bloody murder. And she said all that in a cheery voice.
"... Mom, its Amaya. Whatever you're doing please stop! I want to make sure that I still have some demons to kill when I'm able to find a baby-sitter." I growled.
"And she wonders why we say she's her mother's daughter." Ariel muttered.
"Better than a daddy's girl." Analia stated. I hung up before dialing my aunt next. "What are you cooking anyway?"
"Spaghetti and meatballs. I figured it was either this or lasagna."
You should have gone with lasagna."
"What's lasagna?" Itachi asked.
"Shh." I hissed.
'Amaya?'
"Hey auntie!"
'Oh thank goddess. Are you all right? Where are the kids?'
I'm fine auntie." I responded quickly before she could go into a rant. "Keira and Memphis are taking a nap."
"You should tell her now. Less pain that way." Analia said.
"Whose side are you on?" I hissed ignoring the amused looks the ninja were giving us. This was a matter of life and death, and it should be taken seriously, or I'd never be able to use magic again. At least not in this life.
"Amaya? What are you not telling me?" I threw a dark glare at Analia. She held her hands up in a defensive position.
"A… um… a Disturi attacked." I said lamely. I waited a total of five seconds while it felt like my heart was pounding like a drum and going to give out at any moment.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN A DISTURI ATTACKED!? WHERE WERE YOU?! WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN?!" I held the phone away from me as it continued to shriek in the voice of my aunt. The air around me began to get very hot and uncomfortable.
"I feel so sorry for you." Ariel said patting me on the shoulder.
"Yeah don't worry; we'll get the ninja home if you die in the next few seconds." I gulped as the air sparked with magic.
"WE'RE ON THE NEXT FLIGHT OUT!" I'm going to die.
I banged my head into the wall for the hundredth time wishing that I could turn invisible. Or at least teleport to the furthest corners of the earth. Sadly, the world was round and had no corners and if I did run, my aunt would hunt me down. So, banging my head against something seemed like the sanest thing to do.
"That won't help." I sighed dropping to the ground in a fetal position.
"No. But it will hopefully help my headache." Nagato sat beside me. "My aunt is going to kill me."
"We won't let that happen." I snorted.
"You haven't met my aunt. She makes Tsunade look tame." I mumbled. "And by all rights she should be mad at me. I did leave her kids alone with a very lazy Guardian when I could have gotten anyone else. And I am hiding a pack of ninja in the hopes that the fangirls don't kill me for meeting you."
"... You know, you're just like Itachi." I flicked my eyes to him. He was staring at the other wall pensively, not that I could read his mind. "You're both so irritatingly self-sacrificing and good. You two plus Yahiko and Naruto."
"You make it sound like it's a bad thing."
"In our line of work it is." Couldn't argue that point.
"Yeah... I can relate."
"What's with the mirror in your closet?" Nagato asked out of the blue. I stiffened but didn't answer. Nagato waited silently. Something told me he was prepared to wait until my untimely death for an answer.
"That mirror isn't just a mirror." I finally sighed. "It was entrusted to me for safe-keeping. It's something that all Black women protect."
"What does it do?"
"It's called the Mirror of Lilith (6). It's in the Encyclopedia." He nodded. "Anything else you want to ask?"
"Who was your favorite character in our story?" I blinked.
"Seriously?" I asked, deadpanning. "You're going to ask that?"
"Analia seems to like Kakashi and Ariel likes Kakuzu." I snorted.
"Analia and Kakashi could be the same person. Ariel actually likes Obito, or Tobi, simply because he was a good person."
"And you?"
"I have a long list." I replied vaguely smiling secretly. "But you're not going to figure that out anytime soon."
"Can I hear three people from that list?" I shrugged.
"I don't think three people would change anything. Number Two is Minato Namikaze. Number Ten is Jiraiya. And Number Six is you."
"I'm a favorite?"
"I know. Curious isn't it?" I smiled. "But it took guts to bring people back from the dead; and all on the faith that Naruto would make things right. You may have started out good then gotten warped and redeemed yourself, but the bad wasn't your fault. I lost two people I cared about within a few hours of each other, and I was tempted to turn evil. Hell, I probably would have if it weren't for Analia and Ariel tying me to a bed for a week."
"Hm." I wondered if I was stuck with another Uchiha here. Weren't Uzumaki's related to Uchiha's distantly? If they were related to Senju then weren't they also related to the Uchiha? (Wow, and here Naruto and Sasuke are probably cousins. And Nagato and Itachi.) "You're an interesting person Amaya."
"Why's that? Because I'm the only person who will help and not rape you all in your sleep?" A twitch! He twitched his lips!
"That too. But you hold firm to your belief that there are two sides to a story. I've seen you argue both sides of a story and so has everyone else." I nodded thinking about all the times I've wondered about my mother and father.
"Well, I've found that out on one too many occasions. People do things, beautiful things, bad things, even horrible things, but there's always a reason they do it. Kisame killed his friends in Kiri because they were traitors, if I remember correctly. Sasori turned out the way he did because his parents died on a mission. Itachi killed his family because he didn't want Konoha to end up divided. I take care of my siblings because I owe my aunt and I don't want Keira and Memphis to end up seeing Innocents as a burden."
He nodded.
We sat in silence in the hallway listening to the TV run and people talking. Analia was asking Kakashi if he could still mold his chakra here and if he could show her Raikiri. Ariel was asking Itachi what it was like to live in Akatsuki while flipping through the Book. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were playing tag with Sasori, Konan, and Yahiko. It seemed like the perfect family/friend moment.
I caught a flutter in my peripheral. Keira's magic was getting bigger. She was waking up. Memphis was still down and out but he would be up in an hour. I got up.
"Keira's awake." I explained. Nagato nodded. "For the sake of everyone I better go make sure Kakuzu doesn't hurt my squishy." At least not until I get a chance to hug her to death. (It might be my last time.)
I flew upstairs anxious to see my little squishy (being a falcon was good for something). I hadn't realized until then how much I missed having Keira and Memphis around and annoying me. It was nice to have a child around to make you smile at their craziness. (And to cuddle).
I shifted right before I reached their door and opened the door quickly and quietly. Keira was sitting up yawning while Kakuzu was on her lap purring.
"Keira." I murmured. Keira looked at me and smiled sleepily.
"Maya!" I smiled and shoved Kakuzu over to pull my little squishy into a hug. Her small thin arms came around me to hug me back.
"About time you woke up baby." I muttered. "It was too quiet."
"How long was I sleeping?" Keira asked as I pulled away, reluctantly.
"You slept all night and almost all day." I said taking in her squishiness. She looked over at Memphis before asking her next question.
"When did you get back? Why's Memphis still sleeping?"
"I came back at midnight. You and Memphis were already sleeping when I came home. You don't usually stay awake that long so it's no surprise you slept this long." Lying was a hard thing, but a necessity in life. "Bianca went home when I came back."
"Oh." Her face brightened. "I didn't like her. She wasn't nice." I chuckled.
"I know. Bianca rarely is nice." I helped her get out of bed noticing the way she seemed a bit wobbly. It wasn't an uncommon side effect, but I would be keeping an eye on that. I looked at Kakuzu. "Beauty you can go downstairs. I'll get her dressed." He glared at me but did as I 'asked'. I still needed to explain some things to Keira.
"Are there people downstairs?" Keira asked.
"Yeah. Ana and Ariel are helping me with something. Some guys ended up being turned into animals and they want to get turned back into human now." Kisame's ears pricked. "Ariel's looking for the spell."
"Can I watch?"
"Yeah I guess. Keira..." How to say this? "What if your cats were really a bunch of guys from the story I've been telling you about? And they wanted to stay here, except for a few of them."
"... I don't know. I guess that would be okay." Her voice sounded so confused. I nodded helping her change out of her pajamas. She had a right to be confused. But thankfully she didn't really freak out.
I picked her up when she was done changing. Kisame meowed.
"Let's go Oreo. I'm pretty sure Memphis will be fine up here." Keira and I could talk to him about that. Hell, their Uncle Dom was a werewolf. (My mom had a lot of lovers.)
"Hey, I found the spell." Ariel said when we came down. She smiled at Keira. "Hey little one, you going to watch the magic?" Kiera nodded taking in Itachi, Nagato and Kakashi warily. (Maybe I really should expose my brats to men more often. They were getting my tendency to be uncomfortable around them.)
"Should we do it now?" I looked at Naruto who was meowing and pawing at my leg desperately. Who can say no to those blue eyes?
"Alright." I put Keira on the couch. "You remember the rules when we do magic?"
"Don't move. The magic is unstable without words and could target me before you begin." I nodded.
"Good girl."
"We can watch her." Nagato offered. I blinked at him before looking at Keira who was trying to hide.
"Keira this is Nagato. That's Itachi and that's Kakashi. They're friends and they won't hurt you." She didn't look convinced. "It's Cutie, Dark Knight and Scarecrow." I said pointing them out. Analia and Ariel were trying to so the amusement from showing on their faces as Keira only shook her head. "Alright. Maybe another time."
"You three might want to move back." Analia ordered when Keira refused to look at them. "Kitties make sure you all stay in our line of sight if you want to be human again."
I glared at Hidan. "If anyone cusses I will not hesitate to turn you back into a cat." He nodded quickly.
"Here." Ariel handed me a piece of paper with a spell written on it. "Analia hold the other side of the paper. I'm in the middle."
"We've done Power of Three spells before mother." Analia growled.
"We haven't done anything like this in a while though." I said amused.
"I think she just wants to meet Sasori." Analia said.
"I don't blame her." I said loyally sticking up for Ariel. She just rolled her eyes at me. We calmed down to gather our magic. Ariel's hands in mine began to heat up. I felt Analia's magic wrap around me like smoke as a black 'pocket' became visible out of the corner of my eye.
"Human then, Human now.
Let this magic rise and let them come back how
They were once, they are again,
For all to see and for all to touch, regain.
From the Power of Three we let it see,
From the Power of Us so mote it be."
The air crackled as the cats all began to grow and shape. They glowed with magic as it did it's work.
It was like watching a fast-forwarded movie on evolution. The tails shrunk or fell off, the ears went back into their head as it grew. Hair fell off as the hair on their heads shifted back into their usual do's. Limbs lengthened and grew as they finally stood up to their natural height.
When the light faded and there stood the rest of Akatsuki, and Team 7 Keira didn't hesitate to come to me to hide. My body naturally moved to protect her as Hidan opened his mouth.
"About da-dang time." Hidan said. I had to thank Kakuzu and Kisame for hitting him to change his word midsentence. I caught Ana and Ariel's twitches as they caught sight of their favorite characters. Before I could do anything a loud scream deafened me. Keira and the ninja jumped.
"NARUTO!" I watched in irritated amusement as Analia and Ariel glomped him. The poor blond didn't know what to do with the two of them.
"I can't believe I got to meet you before I died!"
"I can't believe you actually exist! If I'd known I'd have left for Konoha years ago!"
"Uh… um…" Naruto stuttered. Keira tugged me. I looked down at her to see her watching her 'aunts' with wide eyes.
"They're weird." She stage-whispered. I chuckled.
"You don't know the half of it kid. They're actually holding a lot of their excitement in." Keira looked disturbed. Ana and Ariel had heard our little discussion along with everyone else and glared at us.
"Kid when you're our age you'll understand why we're freaking out about a room full of hotties like them." Analia deadpanned. I glared at her.
"Don't corrupt my Squishy. She's still got a few years before she finds out about the opposite sex."
"With you as her 'example' we'll be lucky if she even has a boyfriend." Ariel muttered.
"Look Hidan doesn't wear a shirt." I said in mock-excitement. Ariel was instantly distracted by the Jashinists muscles.
"No, he does not." Hidan grinned at her obvious line.
"This b- chick knows what she's fu-freaking talking about." Hidan said smugly. I had to congratulate everyone's glares at his slips.
"I just know that this is going to be a headache." I sighed.
"He's learning." Konan said.
"Slowly." Yahiko chimed. I smiled in agreement. "So where are we going to sleep?" Sh*t.
GM NASAI: (1) "Do they know about their endings?"
"Nope. And I'm in no hurry to tell them that. From what I've been told, they only know up to the battle when Sasuke threw Indra's arrow and Naruto fired his Rasenshuriken."
"But their story ended four years ago."
"Sesshomaru was from Japan's feudal era."
"Yeah but Micha took them back when their story was still going. And only Sesshomaru stayed."
"Oh, well you have a point. Have you ever tried that before?"
"Why do you think no one's taken Go back yet? His story ended more than five years ago."
(2) Go- I 'took' him from Pretear. Don't worry I know who belongs to who and I won't be claiming any credit for him. I just wanted to bring in someone that I thought was a good enough guy who didn't end up with anyone. And his show did end a long time ago. Not sure when but it did end.
(3) Book of Shadows- the way I figure it every family has one. Not every witch will probably have the same life experiences and so with that they'll probably have different spells that they used for different situations.
(4) My aunt really is scared of fish. But I'm too polite to ask her why. (Even though the curiosity is killing me.)
(5) Keira and Memphis, for some reason, love watching PBS. Not that I should complain since it's actually interesting. Better then that... Yo Wobbly Gama, Wubsy Woo, something like that. I can literally feel my brain cells dying when I watch that show. Die, Brobee!
(6) Premonition. We all have that even though we're not witches. Or are we? But I figured that since witches are more sensitive then they would have this as a sixth sense. Some witches are just more finely tuned. Hence Amaya and Ana getting busted for drinking alcohol that wasn't their's.