A cold wind blew across the partially covered form of Joey as she laid in the snow. Her form slowly shook as her eyes were starting to open. “Am I dead yet?” She said flatly as a small bit of cold and pain spread throughout her body. “Nope, still alive. Well, mostly.” she sighed and tried to push herself up, causing the snow to fall off her body.

“Where the heck am I now?” She sighed and wobbled a bit as she stood back up on her legs. Joey went and started to brush the remaining snow off her body. “Never thought I would be glad to have fur. Being stuck without a natural fur coat would have been a problem.” She sighed once more and then started to look around.

A barren, snowy wasteland greeted Joey. Once again dark clouds overhead blocked the sun and darkened the area. Several small gusts of wind blew right through her, causing a small chill to the fluffy adventurer. Joey wrapped her arms around her body as she gave a quick shiver. “Yeash, better get out of here before I become a pupsicle.” she chuckled weakly and tried to get her bearings.

All around Joey were fields of white snow. Every direction looked the same to her in the arctic environment. “Yeash, looks like I picked a fun area to crash land into.” She grumbled and tried to find any landmark or cave to get to.”Nothing, nothing, nothing and, oh snow.” She chuckled weakly as she scanned more of the area. She glanced back up at the clouds and sighed. “Can’t even use that for direction or time.” She sighed but then remembered the trick she pulled back with Gekigami. “I could but…” She looked down at the snow and cringed at the thought of being disoriented from the light reflected off the snow. “Yeah I will pass.”

With one last sigh, Joey looked around and started to take off in a random direction.

“Forward is the only way. However, is this way forward? Or am I going backwards without knowing? Also, when the heck did I get so philosophical? Man isolation does weird things to people.”

The snow crunched under Joey’s footsteps as she walked on. The scenery was not changing at all and her footprints were getting covered with the blowing winds. “Ug, am i even going anywhere!?” She cried and stopped for a moment. With a groan she sat down in the snow to take a rest. “Maybe I did die and I am stuck in a cold purgatory. Forced to aimlessly wander the barren snow fields for all of eternity.” Joey groaned and flopped back on her back as she stared up at the gray skies.

As Joey laid there, a wolf’s howl suddenly cut through the silence. Joey quickly sat up and looked around. “What the heck was that!?” She cried and looked around once more. Joey hoped to hear it again as her ears were curiously twitching around as they tried to pick up a second howl.

After a long moment of nothing, She sighed “Must have just been the wind.” She groaned and rubbed her furry forehead. The howl rang out once more and she quickly sat up. “No that wasn’t any wind…” She cried and then inhaled and howled back at the wasteland.

“Still can’t believe I can do that.” Joey said with awe after her howl. She leaned forward and tried to listen in “I do hope I said something friendly with my reply.” She chuckled nervously as she waited for a reply.

The response was much quicker this time around as the other howl returned. Her ears twitched and she was able to look over and lock on a direction. “THERE!” She cried as she looked slightly to the right. Joey gave a howl back and took off running in the direction the howl came from.

Joey ran with all of her might as the snow was getting kicked up with her footfalls. Every so often another howl would escape her and the return howl would come back faster and louder. “Definitely in the right direction!” She laughed as she could not wait to meet her savior. “Oh I hope they are friendly, and maybe have hot coco?” She chuckled and kept up the pace.

As Joey made his way up and over a snowy hill, she stopped and gasped as the sight before her. There was a large tower before her; slowly her eyes followed it up as it seemed to extend through the clouds. “Wow..” She said in a bit of awe as her gauze followed it upwards.

One more howl rang out and snapped Joey back to her senses. “Huh what!?” She cried and looked around confused. One more gasp escaped her as she noticed a ghostly figure nearby. Joey narrowed her eyes a bit as she tried to make out the ghostly form. “Wait a second...is that?” She took a few steps closer and saw a white furred wolf with red markings watching her approach. It almost looked like it was smiling.

<Finally we meet, face to face.> A familiar voice chuckled inside Joey’s mind. <Took you awhile to get here.>

Joey stared blankly for a moment as she slowly took in her appearance. “Amaterasu!?” she cried.

<Heh, yep. The one and only. Well, not anymore I suppose.> A sad whimper escaped her as she started to walk around and take in Joey’s appearance. <That better be a winter coat growing in, I don’t remember being that fat.> She chuckled and circled joey a few more times

“Amaterasu, just what the heck is going on here?!” Joey cried and reached out to try and touch the wolf. However, his hand passed right through her ethereal form like it was nothing.

<Hey careful, that tickles.> She chuckled a bit. <Also, no need to be so formal, call me Ammy, like everyone else does. As for what is happening, well, where can I start?> A sigh rang out in Joey’s head.

“Well, how about how you ended up..” Joey seemed a bit hesitant to finish.

<...dead?> Ammy finished for her and seemed to look at the snowy ground sadly. One more sigh rang out in Joey's head as she looked sadly at her eyes. <I suppose that is a good place to begin. Have a seat.> She sat on her haunches and watched Joey sit in the snow next to her.

<Well then, I supposed it started when I had gotten word that evil forces were planning to resurrect Yami. I left Chibimaru behind and decided to investigate the rumor, hoping it was not true. When I arrived at the location, I found it was overrun with thousands of imps and demons. Things seemed to be quite over my head, but I could feel the dark energy of the ceremony radiating throughout the entire area. I had to act fast and stop them. The odds were not in my favor but I had to do something to prevent Yami’s resurrection.>

<I lept in and tried to eliminate as many as I could. However no matter how many I fought off, they just kept coming back with more and more numbers. I tried to ignore as many of the small fry as I could and try to go in for the head honcho who was leading the ceremony. I got Injured pretty badly as I plowed through and barely made it. I was able to damage the dark priest, but it seemed that Chibimaru had followed me and gotten himself captured by some imps.>

Joey’s mouth hung open as she slowly took in Ammy’s story. “But, but you won, right? Yami is not a threat to this land anymore?” Joey shot a nervous look around at the snowy wasteland.

<I suppose you could say that.> She sighed once more. <I had to do what I could to stop Yami by all means. Using my cherry bombs, I went and caused explosions that set off a chain reaction through the unstable dark energy. I was able to grab chibi and tried to run out of there, but the explosion engulfed everything and set the two of us flying out of there.>

<When we woke up from the blast, we landed back in the mortal realm. I tried to stand but my body was heavy and I could feel the tolls of battle taking effect on me once again. Not knowing anything that happened back in the celestial plain, I did the one thing I could do to protect my child. With the last of my energy, I transformed my child and made them human; temporarily sealing away their powers. Knowing that they would be safe from anything that might swear revenge, until they would be strong enough to take my place. With the last amount of strength I possess, I gave a smiley as I collapsed next to them and faded away.>

Joey’s eyes were slowly getting wider as she was starting to take in Ammy’s words. “So what your saying is that...I’m Chibimaru!?” Joey cried out as she looked her body over. “But that doesn't make sense! If that were true then why am I female!?”

<No Joey you misunderstand. You are not chibimaru...you are his son.> Joey stopped looking herself over and then turned back at Amaterasu with a look of shock and confusion. <You..are my grandson...and chibimaru, is your mother.>