Aella had gone and seen Dezzy once more, had had more blood taken so that Dezzy could be sure that the sickness wasn't returning, and after being given a clean bill of health was told she was allowed outside. She was still supposed to take it easy, and was given a wireless communicator so that if anything happened she could call for help - though, Aella was rather sure someone was going to end up joining her rather quickly.

So, she had found herself a comfortable spot only a little ways away from the drawbridge: near a small tree with some grass, and had planted herself down on top of the blanket she had brought with her. To the right of her was a plastic lunch box which was open - the contents of which were a few sandwiches, an apple, a banana, some jerky,  and several containers of juice and water. To the left of her was a bag containing odds and ends to keep her occupied while she sat there including some mangas, paper, drawing supplies, ect. 

Frost, who was huge even by dog comparison due to him having belonged to her mother - Aisling the retired Hakage, was laid out in front of her. He was comfortable but he wasn't sleeping - he wouldn't go to sleep until they were either back inside or someone else had shown up to watch her. Hoshi, who seemed to constantly be growing, was sprawled halfway across her lap with his butt hanging off because he was just too big. Aella had a manga open in front of her, laying on top of Hoshi who had passed out already, which she had read several pages of until she came to a stop with a frown on her face: something had popped into her head that she couldn't quite figure out.

With his phoenix aura bright orange around his body, Jr sped through the skies above, leaving behind bright glowing orange trails. So Yokuchi was no more since Holeman, Mits and Mits' sister Emiko left. Holeman and Mits were going to continue on to Hinowa, the village raised after he blew up Kori, and Emiko was going to stay here, and perhaps become a part of The Dark. Everyone who staied eventually did.

What was Aella going to do? The story reached his ears about how Aella was really a clone of his “sister” here, Aisling, and how she was a clone of some other woman named Amaya, the woman who'd ran out of here after bringing Aella. It didn't make Jr as mad as his father, but it did tick him off. Nobody had the right to play God but God himself. The fact that those dog people allowed cloning in the first place made him mad that he didn't do something when he had the chance to. But knowing his father, this sort of bullshit wasn't going to be left unchecked...

Jr sped toward the ground and stopped quickly as he neared it, creating a warm breeze that spread throughout the whole village. He set his feet on the ground and walked over near where Aella was sitting with her two dogs. His phoenix aura disappeared since he didn't want to burn her or the two animals. ”Niece!” he said with a grin, until noticing the frown on her face. ”....You alright? Feeling sick again? Need me to go get Dez?”

Aella looked up from her manga as she felt the warm breeze that was caused by Junior, as did Frost. Frost sniffed once in his direction, yawned, and then laid his head down and closed his eyes upon Junior nearing: he felt it was safe to sleep finally since Aella was no longer by herself while being outside. Hoshi meanwhile remained completely and obliviously asleep on her lap. Aella giggled softly, a sudden smile taking over her frown as she shook her head; wild golden-brown hair swayed as she did so.

"No, I'm feeling okay. I was just stumped by something." She held up her manga so that the book was open and she could show Junior the picture on the inside. It was a manga of some young kid who looked maybe about ten years old who was secretly a superhero who ran around fighting bad guys and saving the day. "I don't understand why it's okay for people like this kid here to get really strong, really young, but it's not okay for me to.", she put the book back down on top of the sleeping Hoshi when she finished explaining, frowning once more.

"Hiroyuki said that he could rank me up to Special Jounin but he didn't want to because he didn't want me to leave the village yet...not until I'm older I guess. At first I was okay with that... but then I see you, and Dezzy, and Mitsukai, and everyone is really strong but still young.. so, why can't I be strong too even though I'm little?" When she finished asking her question a little male-child sounding voice could be heard in the air, seeming to come from Aella and sounding equally as curious, "Yeah, why not?" After the voice spoke a small panda cub looking bijuu faded into view next to Aella with a piece of bamboo in its paw which it was nomming on. Hoshi finally opened his eyes, saw the panda cub, and barked happily as his tail being to wag. Aella reached over and one arm hugged the panda. "Hello Lil' Bai!" She then looked to Junior, figuring she should explain the sudden appearance of the bijuu. "Junior this is Lil' Bai, Lil' Bai this is Junior. Lil' Bai's dad used to protect the forests of Konoha... and then I saved Lil' Bai when he got stuck in a tree... Lil' Bai asked to be sealed inside of me so I could use his powers since I helped him, but sometimes he can appear like this."

Jr frowned somewhat. Hiroyuki was holding her back? Jr guessed that perhaps the guy was worried about her safety, but that wasn't any real reason to deny the child of reaching her potential. It was like denying an flower of the sun. ”I don't think that's right,” Jr responded. ”I don't ever remember my mom or dad trying to stop me from becoming strong. Its like he's trying to keep you short longer than you should be; he's not letting you grow. You're here with us now, why not go ahead and see how strong you can get? Nobody's gonna stop you.”

He'd had a strange feeling about Aella since she arrived. He soon found out what this feeling meant when she revealed that she was a Jinnchuriki, sort of like he was. A panda, the son of another panda that used to protect the forests of that village that Spook came from, Konoha. The appearance of the panda made Hi No Seishin take a small form of her own next to Jr; even in a miniature form, she had large magnificent orange wings.

”This is Hi No Seishin,” Jr said. ”In my case, she tried to barbecue me, and I had to convince her to join with me. It kinda wasn't easy...”

”How many times do I have to apologize?” asked the phoenix, pecking Jr upside the head several times.

”Oww, yeah yeah...” So how was his father going to take the news. Knowing him and that all seeing eye of his, he probably already knew. That dog man over there talking big and saying he'd wipe out Makkura, then the cloning thing, and now the knowledge that Hiroyuki purposely held back Aella from developing her talents. He thought quite possibly that there was a chance at a war after all, if he knew his father...

Aella's head tilted suddenly to the side as she stared at Junior. Brows furrowed as her curiosity peaked. "They didn't?", she asked suddenly. When she straightened her head back up she had a new look of determination on her face: she was going to become as strong as she possibly could get even if that meant her having to stay in Makkura for forever to get it done. "Then I'm going to become as strong as I can get, even if it means I gotta stay here for forever to do it!", she said in a determined voice. She then watched as a beautiful bird that she knew from books she had read to be a phoenix appeared next to Junior. "So pretty...", Aella whispered softly in awe.

"I like barbecue.", responded the panda cub responded to Juniors comment as it continued to gnaw on the bamboo in between its paws which was growing shorter and shorter as he did so in a slow but steady pace. The panda removed the bamboo from its mouth long enough to tilt itself forward so it could probably look around Aella and at Hi No Seishin. "Hello there!", the panda said happily before shoving the bamboo back into its mouth.

Aella giggled at Lil' Bai before focusing again on Junior. "Can I stay here for forever?", asked curiously as her head tilted once more, the question brought on as she remembered her previous statement.

Aella stay here in The Land of Shadows? Hmm. There were sure to be some hard feelings and people probably investigating. Dogs sniffing around. Drama was sure to follow a move like this, but Jr didn't really care. Would someone seriously be stupid enough to enter the country and call themselves attacking? After 5 years, Jr still didn't think so.

”I think this would be the best place for the child and her cute panda,”said Hi No Seishin.

”...Me personally, as the appointed Kuraikage, I don't mind. You should ask dad though. You were there at that summit; you know how that dog dude Kenta feels about us. A move like this is gonna start a fire back in Niwa, and who knows what's gonna happen. You also have to know that we're all labeled as 'the bad guys' and the villains. Are you sure this is a move you want to make?”

If Aella were to stay here, this would mean that The Land of Shadows would be in possession of 2 Tailed Beasts and 1 Ancient Phoenix. There was his dad with that weird eyes stuff, and of course his sister Dez with all of those crazy medical techniques she'd learned. With Aella, Makkura would gain a significant mass of muscle, and in the process become one of the strongest countries on the map, if not already.

The panda would have likely blushed had he been able to at being called cute and simply continued to nom on his bamboo. This was the first time he had been outside of Aella in a good couple of months: he never really liked to chance the wrong person finding out about him and trying to completely remove him from Aella - something he didn't want to risk since she had nearly died once already. So, he was eating up all of the time outside of Aella that he could for the moment, especially since he felt with the amount of control the Kane family had on Makkura that it was safe enough to do so.

Aella thought over Juniors answer and his question: thinking deeper than a normal child would. She knew there was a chance that if she wanted to stay here long-term someone was going to complain. She also knew that if she made Makkura her permanent home that she could end up looking like one of the bad guys. However, all of that was trumped by two facts: the first and most importantly was the fact that she had a large lump sum of family here in Makkura, and the second was that she could get as strong as possible. "I'm sure this is where I want to stay. Most of my family is here now, and I can become as strong as I can be here. I already learned my ice release here from Avery, so I'm sure there's a whole lot more I can learn too. Besides, everyone else might think you're the bad guys, but you guys wouldn't hurt me, so it doesn't matter."

Hoshi, who was getting bored with just sitting around since the pup wasn't used to Aella's lack of constant running around, suddenly pounced on Frost. The large dog opened one eye, stared at the pup for a moment and then very slowly and dramatically fell over onto his side. 

"Where's grandad now?", Aella asked curiously.

He'd seen and heard everything. Aella wanted to stay here? That was fine. He thought this was the best place for her anyway, as there was no one to hold her back. Alec knew Aella was old enough and had the intelligence to make her own decisions about what she wanted to do with her life, so he didn't plan on being an obstacle. The thought hung in his head to go and end Hiroyuki and also Niwa, for threatening the village, for allowing people to play god, and for purposely preventing Aella from becoming stronger, in times like these, with maniacs and cannibals on the loose.

He seemed to just appear from the shadows, clutching his polished Blind Fury stick sort of like a cane. The Kane Katana was at his left side, glowing; the atmosphere about the weapon moving in a fashion that resembled water. The familiar sarcastic grin was on his face at the news that Makkura had become much more powerful in terms of military strength.

”I'm here, grand baby... I have no objections with you staying here, if you're sure that's what you want. But like Jr said, as long as you know what you're getting yourself into.”

”Well that answers that question, eh?...” said Jr as his father walked out of the shadows. Hi No said hello to him before vanishing again.

Things were sure to get interesting soon. Yokuchi lost a lot of it's power, and now, so did Niwa. He didn't much know how the Kumo people would react when they found out, or even the new Hinowa village that appeared in Kori's place; the village that would be the new home of Holeman and Mitsukai.

” Well... I think i'll go get me something to eat and crash. I'm starvin... Come find me in the Tower if you need me Niece, yeah?”

The phoenix aura appeared around Jr as did the incredible warmth as he lifted off and sped towatd the large tower in the center of the village....

[Exit]

Lil' Bai gave a wave towards Alec before he got up and hugged Aella which she returned. After his hug was done he simply walked right into Aella and through her, disappearing as he returned to resting within her as he normally was - he wanted to get all of the rest he could before Aella wanted to do the training she was likely planning on eventually accomplishing.

Aella looked towards Junior as he said he was going to take off and go find some food and nodded. "'Kay!", she said in response. She then slowly and carefully got to her feet: she wasn't used to moving this slowly or carefully, but things were getting easier the longer she stayed here in Makkura. Technically, there was nothing wrong with her, minus the 'ghost pain' as Dezzy had called it which she had explained was her mind remember the pain the sickness had caused, but she had said it would go away soon on its own. Once she was on her feet she walked over to Alec and then reached up, wanting picked up and a hug. "I know what I'm getting myself into!", she said with a giggle. "I wanna be strong like Junior, and Dezzy, and everyone else. The last time I was here Avery taught me how to combine my chakra and make ice, so I figure I can learn a lot more here too! Maybe I can even teach someone something too.. "

Alec reached down with his right arm to scoop the child up from the ground. It seemed like only yesterday when Jr, Serenity and Destiny were small enough to be picked up in this fashion. Alec started walking back down the main street toward the Tower, tapping along with the Blind Fury stick in his left hand. Along the way several villagers and pedestrians waved and spoke to Alec and also the little girl he was carrying. One of the merchants came along and handed Aella some free candy.

'We'll sort you out a room in the Tower. You have the Holeman radar so I don't have to worry about you getting lost in there. I'm sure you'll also see that there all sorts of secret rooms and chambers in there, a lot I still haven't discovered yet. There could still be all sorts of hidden treasures in there added onto the ones we've already found, so keep your eyes open...”

She knew what she was getting involved with here, so it was official. Chess pieces had been moved across the board. As far as threats went, there was this so-called Lightning Guy out in Kumo, and whoever the big chakra signatures belonged to in Hinowa; one of them possibly being the Kurai person that Mitsukai mentioned. Alec began to consider traveling to Hinowa with the two kids, to see how this "paradise" looked after an attack as deadly as the one Jr let off that day, and also to get a look at the guy.

Aella's smile grew as she was picked up and Frost and Hoshi got up and started walking after them simply because Aella had thumbs and could open the bag of jerky in her pocket and give them some. Aella returned the waves with a giggle. Upon being handed the free candy her mouth turned into a little 'o' shape. "Thank you very much!", she said happily before sticking the majority of the candy into her pocket and a piece of it into her mouth.

She then focused back on Alec as he began to speak while she continued to nom on her candy. She nodded to his words. "I like treasure. Maybe I'll get to find some really awesome treasure and then give some to Gemma. Gemma's my best friend..." Suddenly realizing something she had yet to mention she reached to the collar of her shirt and lightly tugged free the necklace she wore that had a single dragon pendant on it. "This necklace is special. Gemma is half dragon so I have a dragon one, and 'cause I have a panda sealed inside of me she has a panda on hers. The necklaces let us poof to each other like the warp panels do without having to use them: all I have to do is use my chakra to make it work. So, she might show up all of a sudden 'cause she doesn't know I'm here, and that's how I go visit her.", she said, her voice having been lowered so that it was a whisper as she explained about the special necklace she wore.

lec made his way through the village and across the bottomless moat that surrounded the tower, opening the door and heading inside. He listened to her tell him about a friend of hers, Gemma. The two of them shared a special necklace that allowed either to call the other to them instantly. It was good to know, otherwise Alec didn't know what kind of a reaction would happen to a little girl suddenly appearing out of thin air. There would also be no telling what Jr would do. At least now he could warn everyone.

”Good to know. I can inform everyone now. Otherwise something bad might have happened if some girl just appeared out of nowhere.”

Alec put Aella down in the large front room with the black and white checkered floor and the large chandelier. He needed to go and find Holeman and Mitsukai to find out when they were headed toward Hinowa. The kid with the big chakra signature, Kurai was what Mits called him... To be as young and as talented as they were making him out to be, it kept itching at his curiosity.

”Keep your headset with you all the time, Aella. That way you'll always be connected to everyone. I think I should go and entertain our guests before they move on, you know how to find me if you need me...”

After rubbing the top of the child's head, Alec moved off to go find the two former residents of the sand...

\Exit\