Ladies and Gentlemen, Annacat101 is back! (applause... hopefully) :D

I'm sure you'll be happy to note that my leave of absence has been terminated, and it's all due to my author friend (currently traveling to Turkey with me... any of you guys here?) WolfyoftheWinds and our story that we've written together (she types, and we conspire) .net/s/7223033/1/The_Aftermath aka The Aftermath

If you don't know the original source material, Team Fortress 2, that's okay, I didn't either until we were starting the damn thing. Two teams, RED and BLU, (with 9 awesome characters per team) compete against each other in a video-game type life, complete with a Respawn System... until it breaks. This is the story of what happens when shit (aka DEATH) gets real.

LONG STORY SHORT IF YOU GUYS REVIEW THE AFTERMATH, WOLFY WILL PUNCH ME UNTIL I WRITE A NEW CHAPTER SO YES I AM BRIBING YOU MWAHAHA I'M EVIL (I probably will write one, since helping Wolfy has gotten me into a writing mood)

Wolfy here: If punching her doesn't work, I'll just keep forcibly subjecting her to more and more TF2 fanart and genius until she actually does write that chapter for you all, so rest assured, it'll happen before we go home. C:

Enjoy :D (if you do check out The Aftermath, READ THIS FIRST)

Rock-a-bye baby

You thought you knew everything, didn't you? Watching us all from that untouchable pedestal of yours, keeping track, thinking you saw everything that needed to be seen.

But that's the problem. You look but you do not see. Even with our fancy eyes, most of us are still as blind as bats. I was, too. Back before.

But I was changed, you know? I guess I always had the potential to be this good, not that you ever noticed it. I mean, I always knew I could do things others couldn't. That what my "gift", in truth a curse, lacked in the obvious ways made up for it in others. Ways I couldn't understand before, to be sure, but I felt it. All the time. I might have told you, if you'd been there. If I thought for even a moment that you would listen. But you never did. You never believed I could be anything more than a liability.

Now you will burn

But that doesn't matter anymore, does it? I've found people to fill the spaces you've left in my life. People to protect. People who need me. And I can help them.

Isn't it the best feeling? Feeling like your life matters to someone else? We're so desensitized to it, dying every day has shut us off from life as well. It takes an orphan with no friends, with no family, with no *anything* to open our eyes to what we've been missing.

I woke up when my heart stopped. Everything became clear to me, in that moment. Knowledge of what I had to do before I died. Of what I have to do to you to ensure the people I love are safe and free. Dying woke me up to life.

You're waking up now, aren't you?

But, unfortunately, you're too mired in your ways to change. Words alone cannot convince a man like you. That's why I used action. No one would have expected it of me; a weak and useless failure. But then again, that was rather the point.

When the wind blows

Well look at me then, blabbering on like this. Another thing you knew about me that was wrong. I would have spoken more often if I had even a sliver of hope that each word wouldn't be turned against me to flay me alive from the inside.

Speaking of flaying, did you know that our skin is at least three times as sensitive as the normal shinobi's due to our gift? I'd give you a lecture as to the specifics, but like I said, I've realized that you're not much of a man for words, so I might as well give you an active demonstration. People like you wouldn't acknowledge that someone else has point until it's engraved into your skin or some other similarly dire demonstration, after all. I'll conceal the wounds under your clothes, later.

Scream as much as you like. There's no one around for miles.

Your stomach will churn

Remember what I said earlier? About my powers being different? You can feel it, now, can't you? I can, too. I can feel the capillaries twisting under my fingers, the nerves shrieking their horrified tales back to your brain. I can feel each shuddering breath you take against my legs as I sit astride your chest, more clearly than the actual sound of it. I can feel the sweat drenching your hair as I hold up your head and carve a line of fire into your skull. Do you recognize it? I'm almost done now.

It's the Caged Bird symbol, since you don't seem to be responding to my question. It's okay, manners don't really matter to me anymore. it's a good thing, too, since those curses you're spouting at me aren't exactly appropriate for our respective social statuses.

You've gone back to screaming now, I see. Does it really hurt that badly?

I could end that, if I wanted. Cut off the electrical current from your body to your mind, or maybe the just the ones connecting to your voice box. I probably should. More chance of getting caught if I let you scream, regardless of the distance I've taken you from our 'home'. It would be fitting, seeing as how you silenced me for years. But that'll come soon enough.

I'm in no rush.

But you still don't understand, do you? You keep shaking your head. It's a lovely white color in contrast to the red of bruises forming under your skin.

For when your mind breaks

I'm not going to kill you. That would be counterproductive to the changes I want to make to this hellhole of a clan. Its funny, really. If we hadn't had the external pressures of the rest of Konoha to unite us, we would have consumed ourselves long ago. We still will eventually. I'm just going to quicken the process along, and ensure that the innocent do not burn alongside the guilty.

So like I said, I'm not going to kill you, even though you're equally as guilty. I didn't even have to hurt you in order to forward my plans. Bet you didn't think your sweet, innocent, fragile liability would turn out to be so good at torture, did you?

Don't worry, I wasn't expecting an intelligible answer.

You'll finally see

You're going to be my puppet, you see? Your body will lead the clan but your mind's electrical patterns will have been altered to copy mine. Sort of similar to making a solid clone, but much more delicate and long-lasting. No one will suspect a thing until it's too late to stop this formerly great clan from falling completely. I've had a lot to time to research the brain in the hospital. You know, the place I was in for a month that you never visited me once.

But I'm sure you had a good reason, and if I'd stop sending shocks of electricity to your heart, I'm sure you'd be able to tell me. Maybe you were training Neji, perhaps trying to make amends. But you can't. You're too blackened by your own sins to make anything right.

I'm not doing this for my own revenge. I'm doing this for Neji, and for all the people this clan has enslaved and murdered. I'm doing this to spare the children who would have been born in the filth of this decaying "family". I'm doing this because there's no other way to fix this. And you are going to be the instrument of it's destruction.

So down must come Daddy

Don't fake it. I know you're not dead.

I was going to ask you a question, you know? Right before I severed the final connections that would trap you in the darkness of your mind forever. But I don't need to, anymore. This isn't about me, and it isn't really about you, either. And quite frankly, I don't even care about the answer.

You're a just liability, Hyuuga Hiashi.

I dont require your approval, or even your acknowledgement any longer.

I just need you gone.

And we'll be free