A tryst with destiny (Tales of a Gutsy Ninja - 2)

Chapter 39 : The root of the problem

Aira P.O.V

I found myself floating in pitch black darkness.

A sense of Déjà vu hit me as I tried to make sense of what was happening. Ah right...it is just like the time when I died and met Amaterasu. 

This situation, could it mean that I...failed?

"Aira...it has been a while, hasn't it?"

Aira: Nice to see you again, megami-sama...does this mean that I died a second time?

It seemed like an eternity had passed before she finally materialized in front of me. The blinding radiance reminded me that my life in the Narutoverse was a 'dream-turned-reality' and not something that should be taken for granted.

I'd already been in this world for four long years...and so much had happened during that time.

But this is not the way I wanted things to end...the last memory being me involved in a reckless fight with Kakeru.

Amaterasu: Is that regret I see?

Aira: How do you think one would feel? I painstakingly laid down the plan and...just before it comes to fruition, I find myself here? Am I dead? Did I...fail?

The expression on her face told me all that need to be said. But before Amaterasu could answer, a voice rang through the void that surrounded us. 

A voice I only knew too well.

A voice that I was willing to risk everything for.

Gaara: W-What is going on? Aira?

Amaterasu: It seems Gaara-kun managed to make it to our meeting place.

She grasped through the darkness and pulled Gaara by his arm.

Pale, wide-eyed and shocked beyond belief.

He was in the same position as me.

Aira: H-How did Gaara end up here! It couldn't be!

Amaterasu: No, rest assured Gaara is not dead. He must have been close when the seal activated.

I touched my chest and felt a pang of regret when I saw that there no longer was a mark on my chest. Gaara seemed just as shocked when I pointed it out.

Gaara: I still don't understand...what is going on?

Amaterasu explained everything in order. My death and being sent to Narutoverse as a wager with Amaterasu-no-o-mi-kami. She even told him how Nobunaga and Kakeru too were from my world.

She called us...the ones chosen to turn the tides of the world.

Gaara: I...see...

Amaterasu: I'm sorry you have to witness this...but you might as well take it as a change to bid farewell to Ryuugamine Aira.

I bit my lip and smiled wryly at a devastated looking Gaara. 

Gaara: What do you mean 'bid farewell'?

Amaterasu: Aira, you know why...right?

The wager with the goddess. I was supposed to save the world, not fight a battle that did nothing for me or the world.

Aira: I...am not from the same world. I died in my world. In exchange for a rebirth in your world, I made a wager with honorable goddess here...and I failed that wager. Gaara, do you know what happened to me in the end?

Gaara: You slipped into a coma due to the pain and the shock that your brain received...

Aira: I see...I didn't die but it was no different from failure.