"I must request to know how you did that."
We stood on a building, tracking Sayaka as she ran around and hunted down a variety of strange beings -Witches and Familiars, apparently.
I'd pointed her toward the smaller dark maelstroms, and, lo and behold, I was right, they were Familiars.
She almost seemed to be having fun, using excessive amounts of force as much as she could, then happily draining it into the Grief Seed where I proceeded to take feast on the Darkness and Kyubey would take the Emotion.
This was her 8th Familiar, and I can honestly say it's surprising that Kyubey took this long to ask.
I had a feeling that it was because Sayaka was too far away to hear it, now.
'I couldn't tell you.'
"Couldn't, or wont?"
'Both. I couldn't tell you because there are no words that I could describe it with. I won't tell you because it is extremely dangerous.'
His head cocked to the side, but it was only an action. He wasn't -perhaps, couldn't be- surprised.
"Dangerous?"
'Devastation.'
"On what scale?"
'Planetary.' And so, so much more.
And this time, I did feel a flicker of surprise from him.
The question it was about to ask was cut off, as Sayaka sprang up over the roof, a slightly grey Grief Seed in hand.
Wordlessly, she handed it to me. I in turn, handed it to Kyubey, needing only the slight moment of contact to completely drain what little Darkness had accumulated, who promptly drained it and handed it back to Sayaka.
Then, I pointed westwards and she was off like a rocket again.
Kyubey waited until she had no chance of overhearing us, before speaking. "You are not lying."
It wasn't a question, but I scribbled a 'No.' anyway.
'I advise that you do not go looking into my nature. Such a thing has had terrible consequences before.'
Which was technically true; Xehantor, Xehanort's Heartless and Xemnas were all in the past. For me anyway, though I still wasn't sure if they had been born yet. Or even if they would be. Butterflies were a hell of a thing, after all.
"You are remembering something." It stated.
'Yes. How could you tell?'
"Your head moves slightly to the right when you do."
Just as observant as Shikaku, Kyubey was.
The conversation was stopped again as Sayaka came up again, the Grief Seed once more a light shade of grey.
I noticed that her clothing was a bit torn, though Sayaka herself was completely uninjured.
It took only seconds before she was off again in another direction.
"Is there any way to remotely dislodge the emotions?"
'I'm not sure.'
It was certainly a thing to contemplate. The Grief Seed, before I had taken the Darkness from it, had had an excess of Darkness. That there were more of those things around was highly concerning, concentrating that much Darkness in a single place is something I would very much like to avoid.
But it's not like I could stay here forever, and constantly flitting between this World and the Elemental Nations simply wasn't an option.
As much as I would have liked it, I simply didn't have the ability to be in 2 places at once.
But, I remembered, I did have the ability to leave a piece of myself behind.
I cast my mind back to the spot I'd left on the piece of rock. It was always in the back of my mind, except now I was consciously paying attention to it.
It was... unchanged, just as I left it.
Aha.
I looked down at the pen in my claws, a mental smile firmly in place.
Opportunity.
I pushed.
Blackness crawled up the pen, enveloping it with a tiny part of Me. It crawled, though the shape didn't change, merely the colour.
I Felt it, understood every part of it. The mechanism, the spring, the outer covering, the ink; all now corrupted with My existence.
It looked like an ordinary, if completely black, pen.
But I could do more to it than that.
The colour changed as I warped it, a spiral of blue tribal markings appearing along its length, the ends sealing to prevent it from being pulled apart. The colour I'd added only because of decoration, for contrast against complete blackness, glowing slightly to offset the dark.
I could tell that Kyubey was about to ask a question, but he wouldn't get a chance to; Sayaka was about to land on our roof.
She was smiling, a brilliant look that made the night a little bit brighter. She as happy, I could feel that, see it on her face, in her eyes. Happy to help people, happy to go full out, happy to be outside.
She tried to give me the Grief See, but I simply held up the newly changed pen.
"What is that?"
Refraining from answering, because I just realized that I'd corrupted my only pen, I waved the pen and then pointed it at the Grief Seed, holding it out for her.
She took it, confused.
"Hold it to the Grief Seed." Kyubey said, managing to interpret my actions.
Her mouth opened in a small 'o', before pressing it to the Grief Seed.
I feel it.
I pulled, and the Darkness in the Grief Seed flowed through the pen and into me.
Sayaka noticed, then handed the Grief Seed to Kyubey who passed it back a second later.
I pointed to one of the few remaining Familiars on this side of town, and she flew off on the hunt after it.
I turned back to Kyubey, feeling the pen moving as Sayaka pass through the city after the Familiar.
Kyubey, this time, was not looking at me, but rather looking after Sayaka.
The creature was definitely interested this time.
Then, it vanished.
I stared, surprised that Kyubey had just vanished, just like that.
A pen bounced off the ground and Kyubey reappeared, back as if he hadn't been gone at all.
"You said you would be leaving."
I picked up the pen, mildly surprised it'd actually gone and got me another pen.
'Soon, yes. I have business elsewhere.'
"Unfortunate."
I felt Sayaka, across the city by now, touch the pen to the Grief Seed. I all but absentmindedly pulled the small amount of Darkness that had accumulated within into myself.
"Will you be returning?"
'Perhaps. Eventually.'
"We will meet again should you return."
'Noted. Tell Sayaka I said goodbye.'
I left the notebook and pen there, before becoming shadow and dipping away from the World, opening a Corridor of Darkness through to my entry point.
I exited it and reached into another Corridor, the one where I put my Gummi Block when I had come in.
Oh Gummi Block, whatever would I do without you...
Probably be stuck in the Sea in the Skies, forever.
Gummi Block in hand, I pushed away further, towards the edge of the World and the Dimensional Barrier.
Time to head home.
Home.
When had I started calling the Nara compound home?
Shikaku, Yoshino, Shikamaru.
I'd changed little in my time with them, only ever growing and growing.
Barely a day here and I'd changed myself into a NeoShadow. A small one, sure; but a NeoShadow nonetheless. It's nice to be bipedal again.
Though, only because of the Grief Seed. If I'd never seen that thing, I wouldn't have figured out how to change into this form for a while yet.
I breached the Dimensional Barrier and opened a Corridor of Darkness to my little getaway rock.
And wasn't I an idiot for that?
My claw became a blade, sharpened edge coming from my wrist.
I pulled, and the change crept up my arm, condensing into the shape of the blade. Another shift of will, of Darkness, caused the blade to suddenly become flexible, noodling around in mid-air like some demented and very, very sharp rope.
I'd figured out how to change myself ages ago. And I never once made the connection that I could do that the rest of my body.
I fell to the ground again, my body warping and changing back into my old Shadow form.
I was Darkness. I didn't have a set physical form. My physical form was what I wanted it to be, and what I had the Darkness for.
I stood up again, moving to my much more comfortable 4 and a half foot tall NeoShadow form.
If I'd figured this out in time for Tobi, I could have...
No, I still probably wouldn't have got that guy, but I certainly would have left much more of a mark.
Might have made it much more difficult for that bastard to try and take over the world.
Could have saved more of Sasuke's family, could have protected the Uchiha better.
But, no; I didn't have the knowledge, didn't have the power and didn't have the skill.
And I needed much more of all three.
Power came regularly, as I took a piece of Darkness every day and made it into Me. It was growth, but it wasn't growing fast enough to use to the full potential, but to fix that... I'd have to take more.
The pen I'd left with Sayaka and Kyubey would help; the Darkness I'd taken from the Grief Seed, even with the extra amount that had been -and still was being, I noted- gathered from Sayaka's activities, still wasn't as much as I devoured every single day, it was just different enough that I noticed what I was doing wrong.
I'd need to start draining more if I was going to take Tobi down in any way other than surprise attacking him. I'd have the help of every other ninja, but the more I could offer, the better.
Knowledge and skill, on the other hand, required testing and practise.
The former I could do while I wasn't busy. The latter, I could get from sparring with the Nara.
I mentally snorted.
The Nara are not going to want to spar.
I'd make them -I had the blackmail material to do it-, but that wouldn't be the best option.
Maybe I could convince Teshika to let me spar with his Genin team.
I found the trail of Darkness the rock had left in the Sea of the Skies, then followed it to find the Elemental Nations again.
Another Corridor of Darkness opened, and I was off.
That'd be a plan, actually.
Maybe I could even pull a Tora, have a bunch of Genin chase after me while I try to avoid them.
I exit the Corridor of Darkness, and bring the Gummi Block to bear
Like before-
Returning, adding.
Experiences are transferred, communication passed back.
Two pieces of the greater whole have been irrevocably joined, and rendered greater for it. Experience and memory is enriched, and the Heart grows stronger, the Soul grows greater.
Separating, subtracting. The connection is lost, but the effect remains. Hope blossoms in both.
- the Gummi Block effortlessly passes through, and me alongside it.
I enter the World, dropping the Gummi Block into Corridor of Darkness and leaving it safely out of anyone's reach but mine.
And then I emerge into reality and promptly find myself with a Kunai stuck in my face.