Gone [Naruto fanfic]

#37

"About seventeen years ago, I was pregnant. It was the middle of winter and everything was quiet. The fields didn't need to be attended too, and work had mostly stopped. The only thing there was to do was sit inside our homes in front of fires, keeping each other company. I was due to give birth soon, so other than that we didn't have much else on our minds. Daiki was small, only about five years old, and he would keep insisting that he wanted the baby to be a girl so that he could have a little sister."        

Aimi paused                                                                                            
But then, one night something terrible happened. First we heard what sounded like thunder in the distance, and the ground shook slightly with each boom. Within a short amount of time it grew louder, and then we heard a loud crash."

Aimi's eyes grew distant, pain and horror clouding them.

"What happened?" I asked slowly.

"There were shouts and screams, so my husband rushed outside to see what had happened." Aimi looked at me. I could almost see the memory flashing in her bright green eyes.                           

"I looked out the window since it was difficult for me to move much more. What I saw was terrifying. One of the village houses had been destroyed, and flames began to engulf it. Beside it stood a huge beast, like nothing I've seen before. It was the size of a house and resembled a tiger. It's coat was darker than the night sky itself, and glowing blue stripes covered it's coat. Half of the beast's face was scarred, and it had several strange tails of different shapes and sizes. Then, it turned it's face toward me. It's blue eyes burned right through me, paralyzing my body. It roared, then began to charge through the village, destroying entire homes with a single swipe of it's claws."

Aimi began to shake, and her voice wavered. I put my arm over her shoulder to try and calm her down.

She took an unsteady breath, then continued. "After a few minutes, it left the village, leaving several homes destroyed and in flames. Several people died that night, and some were seriously injured. The next day, we held a meeting to discuss what had happened. An older man arrived at the village not long before the incident to retire from being a shinobi, and he claimed he knew how to rid ourselves of the monster. He said that it would need to be sealed inside someone, and an infant would be ideal. But it also came at a cost, the one sealing the monster and the mother of the child would most likely die."

Aimi hung her head, and clasped her hands tightly. "I was the only one who was pregnant at the time. I didn't fear death, but I didn't want my child to grow up without a mother. So we discussed the situation further. Eventually we found a way that I would still be alive, but it would be a huge risk. The unborn child would have to be transported into another woman, and I would never be able to bear a child again. We would have no control over who the new mother of the baby would be. But we hoped that it would work, and that someday, our child would find us."

Aimi looked at me again, her eyes searching mine.

"Amira, when I heard you say that you were from a different world, and that your teacher had suspected that you came from here, it made me think. I-I'm not sure if it's true, but can you somehow see if the demon inside of you is the same?" Her voice shook with uncertainty, which was very unlike her.

-She thinks I'm her child.

Butterflies began whirling in my stomach and my heart pounded like a drum.

-All right you! Start talking!  Are you the same beast or not?  Did you or did you not come here seventeen years ago and half-destroy the place?!