The Masked Girl (Naruto Story)

Chapter 37 - Dead? Yeah, I Thought So.

Recap:

"Uhh..." Was my oh so intelligent reply. "What the heck?" I did as I was told, and nearly fell over again as I kind of stood up. On air. Or something. "It's like....I'm in space or something."

"Nope." Juubi shook her head. "You're in the afterlife, kit." She gave a sly smirk. "And you're dead."

Chapter 37 - Dead? Yeah, I Thought So.

Kumiko's P.O.V.

I shrugged. "Dead? Yeah, I thought so. I kinda figured I was going to die when my organs started malfunctioning, and then I woke up here."

Juubi gave me a frown. "Hmm. Didn't think you would.....most humans can't believe it at first." She muttered, a slightly sullen undertone to her voice.

I squinted suspiciously at her. 'Was that...disappointment I heard in her voice? Hmm...Only one way to find out.' "Juubi-san...."

"Yes?"

"Were you...were you disappointed when I knew I was dead from the start?" I questioned her incredulously.

"Well...Ah....No. Well...Maybe, but only a little." She finally admitted, looking anywhere else but me. "It's quite funny how humans react, you know?" She explained quickly, obviously flustered. "A-Anyway, I'm sure you have other questions to ask, right? No use lingering on this topic. Eh heh....."

I smiled as she tried to change the subject. Since she's smaller than me, I thought she was quite adorable. Not that I would ever say anything, of course. She would just grow to her full size and step on me before I finished the word 'cute'. Niiiiice....

With that lovely image in the forefront of my mind, I decided I should probably drop the subject. "I know you said this was the afterlife or whatever, but what exactly is this place? I'm not sure what I'd imagined, but..." I wave a hand at the empty black surroundings. "...This is just plain weird."

She tilted her head a little, thinking. "Take a seat." She finally sighed, taking her own advice as she sat down on the, um...space?

I carefully lowered myself, expecting to fall once I 'sat' in space. To my utmost relief, I didn't, simply floating there.

"Alright. So in this place, you are - obviously - dead. And as you realized, you can move around and sit and stuff. If you were extremely evil or whatever, you would just fall for forever in this afterlife, but if someone you knew was here, they could stop your falling, but only if they were not falling themselves. Anyways, you can imagine things to appear as well - but only inanimate objects." To demonstrate her point, she closed her eyes for a moment, and only re-opened them when a black, comfy-looking couch appeared. Jumping on top of it, she sat down and regarded me with a regal look. "Now, you try." She demanded.

"Um, okay." Closing my eyes in concentration, I wished for a floor to appear. With a rug, maybe. When I opened my eyes, I was sitting on a royal blue fuzzy rug, which covered a white, mosaic-styled tile floor. "Cool!" I grinned, running my fingers through the thick rug fibres.

"Yes, I suppose it is quite interesting." Juubi nodded, still looking regal. "Since you've got that down, let's move to the next thing. You can't talk to the living usually, but you could look at what they're doing." Waving a hand - er, paw, Juubi nodded to a large square piece of glass that had appeared at some point. "You can see what the currently living are doing. Sort of like...a mirror to the other world." I stared at the glass as its surface first glowed a pale, almost milky, white, before clearing to show Ibiki-sensei cooing to Shiver. Oh. My. Kami.

I snickered, not trying to hide it at all as I laughed. "Morino Ibiki, the feared interrogator and torturer, cooing. Who would have guessed?"

"Yes. He's usually quite serious, but little Shiver the wolf seems to melt him into a huge pile of mushy goo." Juubi smirked. "Anyway, you get the idea. You could exist in the living world, but only for a little while, lasting from seconds to minutes. You would be a leaf, or air, or something like that. Most people seem to end up being the wind, touching the shoulder of someone they know before coming back or something. Occasionally, you could whisper a few words, but nothing that really means anything." Juubi shrugged. "I guess that's where the concept of ghosts came from."

"Oh." I nodded. "I wonder how's Team Seven doing...." I furrowed my brow in worry, mentally berating myself for not thinking about them sooner.

"Pfft, they're alright- well, probably. If they were here, you would feel a slight tingly feeling and you would hear a whisper of their souls, like when you search for people's chakra, and you would know who that person was. But that would only happen to you if you actually knew them when you were alive." She explained, pausing for me to take it in.

I nodded. "I guess that makes sense, kinda."

"You can visit people who are dead too." Juubi began, though I cut her off almost immediately.

"Wait wait wait! So, I could visit my family?!" I asked, hope and excitement making my eyes shine bright.

"Unfortunately for you, because you're my Jinchuuriki, not yet. I'll explain that in a moment." Juubi says, causing me to deflate. "But as of now, you can only meet people who've died after this point in time."

I tried not to let my disappointment show, though I could tell by Juubi's pity-filled expression that I was failing miserably.

"Normally, you would think of them and begin walking, and then you end up wherever they are in a few minutes. But for you, well, you're dead, but not exactly. There's a myth that says cats have nine lives. Normal cats don't of course, but there is a hint of truth to the story. I am the Juubi. I have ten lives. I am immortal; I only need one. I can't do anything with the others, so I could give nine lives to any of my hosts. They were all rather rude, so I didn't do anything for them. But, you were polite, and I thought you were interesting, kit." Juubi stared straight at me, giving me a feral grin. "So I gave you those nine lives. You wanna go back to Konohagakure and Team 7?"

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Hey kitties, Kuro here! So, I haven't updated last week, I guess I just didn't feel well and was busy. :(

But I've updated this week, so.....am I forgiven? >.<

This afterlife thing took me forever to think up of, since last year, and I've been tweaking the idea for some time. Do you guys like it? I know it makes her kind of overpowered, but I really liked the idea, so I put it in anyways. ^_^'

Please:

VOTE!

COMMENT!

AND FOLLOW!

-Bloody_Moon

P.S. And please, please, please don't steal my idea. I haven't seen anything like this for an afterlife idea thingy yet, and I read on several sites, so....please don't copy! If you do, I will hunt you down and and sic Kumiko on you. On that note, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)