The Dragon Ninja

Chapter 11

(Sapphire)

After the catastrophe with the sand, I don't think I will ever be able to go to a beach again. The boy, Gaara, didn't seemed dazed by the kill at all. He was a scary one. He walked beside me for a little, but then ran up to his teammate. He then whispered something and she looked at him wide eyed. I couldn't make out what he said however.

"She's not from there!" the girl shouted suddenly. She looked back and me and then at her brother again. "She can't be!"

"Are you guys talking about me?" I asked hesitantly. "I'm sorry if I did anything."

"What village are you from?" she came up and asked me eagerly. I gave her a perplexed look. "It would all make sense. Please, just tell me."

"I'm not from a village. I'm from a town called Magnolia," I responded.

"You were right," she whispered and looked back at Gaara. "You are right."

"I don't like this sudden tense change," I whispered to myself.

"Do a jutsu, anything," she said to me again. I raised my hand and conjured water. "No!"

"What?" I said suddenly as the smooth ball of water blew up with her sudden outburst. "I'm sorry, but did I do something?"

"Go home! Your people have already ruined our village! What else do we need?" she yelled and her other teammate, Kankuro I believe, came and held her.

"We know about the rifts. You are not from here," he started and I smiled.

"And you can help me get back home?" I asked with my smile filled with hope.

"Not right now and I don't think for a while. Just please hang around here and try not to draw too much attention to yourself. After we find your teammates and we are done with this test, please look for us and we will start to help you."

"Start? Why can't you do it as soon as possible?"

"Because all the riffs are open. Gaara and I went the other day to keep an eye on them and we noticed that they were all open—"

"How do you know?" I interrupted.

"The gems were glowing. When the gems are glowing, that means that the riffs are open. For most of the other worlds, it's easy to return. But after uncontrolled experimentation, and faulty research, we found that to return to that this world is the hardest to leave. I don't know how it works, but we've had a case like this before. There were 3 riffs open at once and the only way to send the person here back, is to close all the riffs. I don't know how to explain it correctly or how it works, but I can tell you that I know you aren't from here," he finished.

"How do you close the riffs?" I asked as I walked closer to them.

"The person in that world has to return. They usually go back after completing a certain task."

"What's the task for this world?"

"I don't know. It's different for every person we've come across many people and for most of them it has come to dying. We don't know if when you die here you just return or you actually die. We don't have any research to support one or the other."

"Oh god," I whispered to myself. "Why is this all so hard and confusing? Why is your teammate so upset?"

"A couple years ago, a man by the name of Zeref came and destroyed our village. He confused us for some place and searched for someone named 'Mavis'. When we told him that whoever he was looking wasn't here, he went into a frenzy. He beat up Temari pretty bad and she was embarrassed in front of the whole village. He also killed a few of her former classmates and friends who were trying to help. It hit Temari hard."

"Oh god," I said to myself as I looked back at the blonde.

"We'll help you, we swear. We just have things to do."

"I guess," I sighed.