-- she has no idea how she got here.

What. Did she get kidnapped again?

A man walks through a door that suddenly has always existed, calling "Juliet?" in a very bored receptionist tone.

Juliet stands, a little startled. She feels like she should be more alarmed than she currently is.

"That's me. I am the only one here though."

"In one sense."

"We're ready for your consultation now."

"Did I make an appointment?"

"The same way everyone does."

"I, uh, don't actually remember. What am I in for?"

She walks towards him.

"You're here to discuss your afterlife options, Ms. Juliet."

She blinks.

"-- I'm what?"

"In for an afterlife consultation. Hm, let's see if I remember... Ah, yes. Magical burns, sustained in the course of fighting alongside a certain Klaus against enemies of his."

"That... I don't remember that. Is Klaus okay?"

"That information isn't in my file on you."

"Can you find out?"

"Not trivially. Our department handles over a hundred deaths a minute. You could spend karmic balance on such an answer, but your totals are rather... Low."

"How is that calculated? Was it the vampirism? That wasn't exactly my idea."

"You had a rather low total starting out, given your past lives' actions. During this life - numerous counts of murder, justified and not, self deception, using the sire-bond as an excuse for your actions, attempted murder, betrayal... We could be here all day, listing your many negative strikes, but I am quite busy."

She sighs, frustrated and a little resigned. She isn't even going to bother defending herself. It's all true.

"Past lives? How many times have I died?"

"According to my records, this is your seven hundred and eighty second time through this office."

"Is that normal? Have we met before? Why don't I remember?"

"Remembering past lives is unusual. And that is an oddly high number - most people either accumulate enough karmic balance to remove themselves from the reincarnation cycle, or else end up enough in the negatives to be removed by us, before that point."

"Do you know why I'm still around then?"

"Seems to be a habit towards taking on the morals of those around you - usually to poor ends, but not always, enough to balance things some."

"It's kinda reassuring, actually. That I'm still me in whatever life I live. What happens now?"

"We sit down, look over your options, and you make your decision on your next afterlife."

"No chance this was a mistake and you'll let me go back to my life?"

"You don't have nearly enough karmic balance for something like that."

She sighs and moves on. This isn't the first time she's died -- at least in her last life. The only difference was she was stuck in purgatory last time.

"Okay. Let's do this. Give me my options."

He leads her into a rather bland office, and provides her with paperwork. There's lists of options - including what she can afford, and what she can't. Leaving the cycle for paradise is too expensive. Several nice reincarnation options - lifelong luck, royalty, a peaceful life, memory of past life - are too expensive. A few potentially useful powers are available. A few credits are available - lifelong bad luck, or a congenital defect or disease, or a genetic predisposition towards cancer, will allow her to purchase more, but not significantly so. Coming back as a non-sapient is ridiculously cheap. Coming back in poverty, or assorted bad circumstances, is relatively cheap. 

She bites her lip. All these options suck a lot. And not in the fun way.

"Are there other types of credit options?"

"Not - "

A phone rings. "Hold on, I need to take this."

He stands, sort of loiters at the back of the room, puts his phone to his ear (it's not clear when it started being in his hand).

"Yes, ma'am - really ma'am - right away, ma'am," he says, with pauses between. The voice on the other end isn't audible at all.

He pockets - or vanishes - his phone once the call ends, and turns to Juliet.

"There may be. One of our other offices is experiencing a critical shortage of souls. You'll get a massive karmic credit for doing this favor for us, enough to put you well in the black - perhaps enough for paradise in a few lifetimes, or a miraculous resurrection from where you died, if you keep a positive karmic balance going forward. You won't be in the same world, and are unlikely to meet any of the souls you've ever known. You won't have options on time period; the soul shortage is for a specific window."

"That's... that sounds good." She could find her way back to her last life, do better. "What sort of world is it?"

"One often at war, in the region they need, though not presently so. The least dead-end career path can be charitably described as 'child soldier.' It has a potential apocalypse, about fifteen years after your scheduled birth - which would, in fact, be a positive karmic attribute to avert. The local magic takes the form of energy that can be channeled into an assortment of powerful techniques; it's one of the more flexible magic systems in terms of sheer breadth."

"Well, I'm no stranger to violence and death. I was a hybrid. And I've been through an apocalypse situation before. Would I have the ability to use the magic myself?"

"Most likely, yes."

"Would I remember this? Remember me? Who I was before?"

Everyone she has ever loved? She doesn't want to forget them. Not ever.

"Past life memories is an option, albeit one usually out of most people's price ranges. You should be able to afford it now, though."

"I want it. What other options are there; can I afford any more?"

"Let me see... Usually you'd have to go down to their office, but they're overwhelmed right now, and have sent me the needed paperwork." He removes a stack from one of the ones on the desk.

"Your options are listed here..."

Among the advantages, which cost credit:

-past life memories (100 points)

--perfect memory of past life (2 points)

-lifelong luck (50 points)

-shinobi start (10 points; Dan clarifies this is the main class of people able to use the magic)

-noble start (25 points)

-large chakra capacity (2 points; Dan clarifies that chakra powers the local magic)

-good chakra control (2 points)

-natural taijutsu skill (3 points; Dan translates 'taijutsu' as 'basically martial arts')

-eidetic memory (1 point)

-natural talent for inventing techniques (2 points)

-quick learner (1 point)

-lifelong companion (1 point)

-clan start, medium (10 points)

-clan start, bloodline (25 points)

-clan start, powerful bloodline (50 points)

--choice of clan or bloodline (10 points)

Among the disadvantages, which give credit:

-persecuted bloodline (-5 points)

-demon host, not useful (-5 points)

-demon host, useful (-2 points)

-small chakra capacity (-1 points)

-weak chakra control (-1 points)

-extreme poverty (-5 points)

-inability to use chakra (-5 points; only available to those with 'shinobi start', cannot be taken with other options mentioning chakra)

-born an orphan (-2 points)

-fate entanglement (-5 points)

--fated enemies (-3 points)

Juliet has 124 points to spend.

Juliet ticks the option for memories of her past life, and perfect memory of that past life. She has a great memory already, but she very much doesn't want to take the chance. She also picks up eidetic memory for the same reason. Lifelong luck is too expensive, even if it would be very useful.

She hovers of the word shinobi and looks up at him

"Ninjas?"

"Yes. There are also samurai, which are rarer and more isolated."

"Interesting." Juliet ticks the shinobi start option and files his information away for later. "This is all really familiar. Though I'm still really fuzzy. Is that normal?"

She continues down and takes natural taijutsu skill, large chakra capacity and quick learner.

"Your abilities will kick in once you reincarnate, if that's what you mean?"

"For the clan options: clans are a sort of extended family unit. Membership in one provides advantages - a support network, money, and for shinobi usually special clan techniques. Bloodlines are special powers belonging only to that clan."

"I think I've had enough with bloodline magic for several lifetimes. I'll pass on that." She ticks clan start, medium though. "But having a clan sounds nice."

...she also picks lifelong companion.

"Alright. Any other selections, or questions?"

She bites her lip and calculates her total.

"I need to pick some disadvantages."

"Hm, yes. Let me know if you need explanations for any."

"Explain... demon host."

"This world has an assortment of things that can be loosely referred to as 'demons,' ranging from minor spirits to some of the most powerful beings in the world. Being a host gives you access to a small fraction of their power, but risks inviting what's essentially corruption and possession. Demon hosts are often emotionally unstable and widely hated."

"Not unlike werewolves..."

Is that really something she wants to repeat? She loved being a werewolf, but that didn't mean it didn't also bring misery and countless enemies.

"Possibly somewhat different, but the general idea is similar, I expect, yes."

"I need to save the world, right? Being a demon host would probably impede that significantly."

"I'm not an expert on this world, so I wouldn't be able to say for sure. Not usually my field."

"Fair enough." She looks through the options again... and picks fate entanglement and fated enemies. "That sounds ominous enough that it could be related to the whole apocalypse thing."

"There could be a variety of things, but given the timing, that does seem likely, yes."

Juliet nods and hands him back the form.

"With two points to spare."

"Good. That'll be usable next life. Building up a buffer is quite useful."

He reads through her forms, nods, says, "All checks out. You should experience the transition momentarily."

"Thank you. Do you have any advice?"

"Don't take the world at face value," he says. "And try to build up your karmic balance."

"Hopefully with my memories intact, it'll be easier. Thank you again."

"You're quite welcome."

And the world sort of goes dark and fuzzy and warm.

-- it's terrifying, but also exciting and nice and comforting. She embraces it.

Meanwhile, outside the Inuzuka clan head's house - and the location of the newest clan member's birth - 

A large but unnaturally quiet wolf ghosts past the wards, past the sentinel dogs - one older dog whines, and strikes up agitation and a baying goes up -

The wolf avoids any people, though. (She doesn't really feel like being harassed while making that deadbeat take care of his brat.)

A tiny, newborn wolf-dog pup is settled on the clan head's front stoop, a note left in scent (it's me and I'm annoyed), and a shinobi finally lays eyes on her - 

She looks up, grins, and vanishes.

-- it's not long before her nice, comforting warmth is interrupted. No, completely taken away from her.

It's violent and shocking and really really awful. She finds she can't think properly. Everything is so much.

The midwife cleans her and hands her off to her mom soon enough, who wraps her chakra around her baby in a soothing blanket, crooning a lullaby and resolutely ignoring the people outside shouting about a wolf god.

She still has no idea what's going on, but something -- someone? -- is holding her and making it better and that's really all that matters right now.

She's never had a mother before, a distant thought.

Her new mom certainly doesn't seem inclined to let her go - the embrace is loving, but not soft, fang and claw turned outwards.

(The lullaby is similar, listing things a mother dog fights and kills to protect her litter, going all the way up to the great gods themselves, teeth bared against a hostile world.)

-- comforting. It calls to something primal within her, something that never truly goes away. It's different now, new but still familiar.

She cries now. Even more overwhelmed. But happy.

The clan does eventually calm down, and people begin coming in to talk to Tsume while she rocks her baby. A tiny Kiba toddles in, hand held by his sister Hana, to stare at the baby.

(Tsume decides to keep and raise the wolf-dog. It smells like one of them, probably a child of a less careful nin-dog, and it feels fitting, to raise the pup alongside her own daughter.)

She can feel -- sense -- others nearby. It's hard to move, and she doesn't particularly want to, but she tries to pay attention anyway. Reach out to them.

Tsume makes a delighted sound and reaches back.

!!!!

Her limbs are so heavy, never having supported her own weight before. She tries to hold tight and --

sleepy.

Her mom croons her to sleep.

She goes easily. Filled with strange, new feelings and emotions.

She can't wait to live this life.

Her mom carries the new human pup with her everywhere, and when the wolf-dog pup starts tumbling after them she laughs and carries that pup along, too.

She's off from missions while on maternity leave, so the pups can have the experience of being hauled to clan meetings and councils - they're a bit of a pain but the look on everyone's face at having to deal with her is worth it - and training. She considers getting a genin team, and chuckles at the thought of training them with a baby on her back.

Sounds fun, and it'll effectively extend her leave, so she signs up for the next graduation.

Kiba's getting too big to think being carried everywhere by his mom's neat. He instead runs about with the pups his age, toddling in and out of trouble at quite impressive speeds.

She talks to the pups, too, nearly constantly, and her nin-dog Kuromaru teaches both the dog tongue.

She notices gradually that the wolf-dog pup seems to have slowed down on aging after leaving 'entirely helpless', shrugs, figures who even knows with nin-dogs and nin-wolves-who-might-be-gods.

Tsume also turns over names in her head, eager for her baby's first word - when the pup will be officially brought into the clan, and granted a human name.

She finds this all fascinating and spends all of her time observing the world around her.

Her clan is the best clan. Filled with so many interesting people and hounds. She feels like she has a pack again. Except this time it feels right. They're family. She loves them.

She misses her dad and Klaus and Hayley and Hope and Tyler and Stefan. But they help so much.

She picks up the language quickly, she knew a little Japanese before, but she was no where near fluent. She has fun in the attempt of actually producing her own words, it comes out as babbling nonsense, but it's fun and she needs to practice.

Eventually, while ruminating on something for a while, she reaches up and pulls on her moms hair to get her attention.

"Yeah, pup?"

Okay, she will get this right. And her body will obey her.

She reaches down to her wolf, holding them tight and says, pronouncing her words clearly and deliberately, "In-a-zu-ma."

Tsume grins.

"Saving that one up, huh?" she teases, then scoops both pups up and declares, "You two can have your name party together! Does Inazuma have ideas on yours?"

"Grrrr!" She giggles.

Inazuma doesn't say much of anything.

Inazuma snuggles closer and starts nipping at Juliet's foot instead.

"I think the records office won't let me put 'Grrrr' on your registration, unfortunately. Quite silly of them."

And she starts back home.

"Tsu-me?" She suggests. Her mom's name is pretty.

"Hm... Kids should get their own names. How about Raizume?"

"Raizume," she sounds out, curious. She doesn't know what it means.

"Means 'next claw' or 'lightning claw'. The tsu in my name becomes a zu when it's the back part of a word."

She nods. She didn't know that, she's still learning.

"Lightning?"

"Lightning causes thunder. Thunder is the boom when it rains."

Inazuma perks up and growls playfully.

"Or maybe the sky wolf is going grrrrrr because she's telling the ground wolf to leave her little lighting alone."

She giggles and hugs her mama and her Inazuma.

"Little lightning!"

Tsume tosses her in the air, catching her on the way down. "Little flying lightning!"

(She'll have to see about finding a lightning-natured trainer for Raizume eventually; the pup's dad was probably a Kumo shinobi, after all.)

She screams with excitement and starts growling some more.

Her mom growls back and nuzzles her nose.

Then, as they arrive at the compound: "Guess which pup had her first word!" she calls.

There's quite a cacophony of congratulations, from humans and dogs alike.

"Inazuma!" she gifts them all.

They flop into Kiba's lap in response.

Kiba is very impressed! Naming a pup is a good use of a first word!

He clumsily pats Inazuma and says, "Inuzuka Inazuma!" in a delighted tone.

Their response is some more nibbling!

Raizume snuggles her mom some more. Snuggling, she has decided, is the one of the best new parts of her existence.

Happy mom snuggles!

And, later that day: the name party, with a not sweet pastry sort of thing both Raizume and Inazuma can safely eat, and a show of Raizume giving away and receiving little gifts (Tsume lets her help pick the little gifts, from a collection of foods. She mostly gets 'future wishes' in return - things like little charms blessed by a mountain priest, books, toys safe for both dog and human, and red stripes painted on her cheeks by her grandmother so she looks like her mom.)

Raizume loves all the attention and giving out all the gifts. She tries to tailor them to the right people, giving them things she knows they would like.

She wiggles out of her mom's snuggles and finds the closest mirror to poke at her face and the markings there.

They're really very similar - two upside down triangles in bright red, one on either cheek - and don't smudge on being poked. She doesn't have her mom's highlights around the eyes, but most people don't.

She likes them, it reminds her of --

-- she stops short and looks up at her mom again, startled.

Her mom is grinning down at her, the movement emphasizing her own fang marks.

"You're an Inuzuka proper now, pup," she says.

-- she's so stupid. She had this nagging sense of familiarity even before she was reborn but now...

"Inuzaka of... Konoha?"

"Yes pup! We're in Konoha!"

That's... everything makes so much more sense now. Her brother is Kiba of Team Eight. From Naruto.

She's been reborn as an Inuzuka in Konoha.

That's... her life has always been weird. In this life and the last. She'd been a vampire-werewolf hybrid. But this is beyond even that.

"You okay, pup?"

This is really a lot. But she nods.

Scoop hug, and letting the pup choose if she wants to go back around people - Kiba was never shy, but Hana sometimes got overwhelmed by crowds.

Inazuma yelps and pulls Kiba over to Raizume and Tsume.

He can hug her and be the best big brother and growl at anyone who bothers her!

She smiles at him and cuddles him too.
He's not some fictional character. He's real and he's her brother.

She looks up at her mom. "You're shinobi?"

"Yup. You will be, too, someday."

(She'd been moderately worried, actually, when Rai didn't talk by the time most shinobi children do, but she's heard of kids hiding their abilities when they're still unsure before, so, hey, her kids: the smartest and sneakiest in the bunch.)

She nods seriously. "I'll protect you. And Kiba and Hana."

Awwwwwww.

"And we'll do the same! That's what the food you gave out means, that you'll provide for the clan, and the gifts we give you show that we'll provide for your future."

More snuggles.

It wasn't really real before. The future danger -- the apocalypse. She had no insight. But now with the knowledge she has, it feels pressing. It's real.

"Love you, mama."

"Love you too, my little lightning," Tsume says.

"Love you mostest!" Kiba insists, wriggling.

Raizume shakes her head.

"I have all the mostests."

"Noooooo, I love you more!"

"I said it first. First wins."

"But I'm bigger!"

"I'm spirit-big."

"That's dumb!"

"Still true."

"Grrrrrrrrr."

"Grrrr!" a little louder.

"Rawr!" at the top of his lungs.

He's so much louder than she can be, so instead she jumps at him, still growling.

Wrassling!

He's older and bigger but she has Inazuma.

-- who licks his face.

Puppy kisses!!!

Kiba takes this as a truce and licks Rai's face.

She giggles and snuggles close to him, making little puppy noises.

"Best Kiba."

"Best Rai!"

Snugglesnugglesnugglesnuggle.

Tsume chuckles and scoops her little hellions up.

The party winds down, soon enough, everyone aware of the need to not overwork toddlers, and Tsume lays them to sleep.

Rai starts getting more focused attention in the days and months and years to come, clan members helping her with words, with walking and running and playing, with working alongside Inazuma and other kids (there is a tremendous focus on collaboration games, rather than competition games - turn-based story-telling; group obstacles and puzzles; races where what matters is when the last team member crosses, not the first, so everyone who's smart hangs near the back to help out the younger and slower players. Even the play fights - outside of spontaneous wrestling of course - are often group affairs, one entire age group against a smaller number of older kids or rarely teens, and more than once if Rai starts wrestling Kiba or Hana in a public place a younger kid will jump in on her side, shrieking in laughter, until whatever little argument turns into a full-on brawl. This seems unusual, for Konoha - Tsume takes her to the parks, too, and most non-Inuzuka kids want to see who's fastest or smartest or strongest or best).

Raizume is definitely once again reminded of a werewolf pack. She loves it. It's so... freeing being able to let loose that wildness that she was always taught to hide. She loved her father, but he was constantly terrified of people finding out about her, about the werewolf thing, that she was never allowed to play with other kids and be herself.

She excels tremendously in all physical activities. It's different from being a werewolf, the energy coming from somewhere else. She supposes that has to do with chakra and the natural taijutsu skill she picked up. She was always really athletic anyway, even before she was a hybrid. But this was definitely different. She picks up on all the tricks and reasons behind their activities, and goes out of her way to excel there too. Helping everyone out and setting a good example. She wants her clan to be good and talented and strong. They need to be to survive whats coming.

When they're at the park, she keeps her eye out for anyone else familiar, but otherwise ignores the non-Inuzuka kids. She doesn't have time for everyone, there are only so many hours in a day and she's got so much life to live.

Most of the kids ignore her back. (There's a few random Uchiha kids, sometimes - both the Inuzuka and Uchiha live near the edge of the village, in their own isolated compounds. It's hard to tell which ones are which, there's more than one around Kiba's age and the Uchiha dress their boys and girls the same. There's the children of minor clanless shinobi who live around here. There's a handful of civilian-born hopefuls.)

There's a sad little boy, who seems to wander between playgrounds to lurk on the edges and mope and occasionally try to play if someone isn't mean to him.

(Tsume never warns them away, and will keep a hawk-like eye out for anyone being a shithead to Kushina's brat, but he's new and weird and poorly socialized and an outsider, so most of the Inuzuka kids will hesitantly try to play with him once or twice, then end up in a bad argument that everyone takes wrong, and then drift off.)

-- speaking of familiar. Raizume walks up to him one afternoon and hands him the ball she was playing with.

"I'm gonna go over there," she points to a semi far away distance, "and you haveta throw it to me really hard."

!!!

A friend!

(Maybe she's pretending like that meanie from the orphanage, but maybe she's not...)

"Okay!"

He is not a good thrower ahhhhhhh he's gonna miss and she's gonna HATE HIM - 

And when she gets there, he throws as hard and good as he can...

And misses. He doesn't throw the ball hard enough, and it goes way off to the left.

Raizume laughs loudly and chases after it really quick, trying to catch it before it hits the ground.

"You're fast!" he says, but frowns. "The ball was bad and threw off my aim."

"If it's bad that means you have to figure out how it's bad and throw it different."

"...How?"

"It went left so maybe you should throw it right."

"Okay? ...You still want to play with me?"

"Yeah! I wanna play ball!"

Also get to know the protagonist and key player in the coming apocalypse. But playing catch was really fun too.

!!!!!!

They can keep playing ball! Naruto remains really bad at it, but he's enthusiastic and actually fairly good at correcting with relatively few nudges. He doesn't think like a lot of kids do, his brain comes at ideas from sideways and backwards and above but never the way you're supposed to go, and no one's taught him how to try a bunch of ideas instead of just slamming himself against the One Way, so he's not good at that, either.

He's loud and brash and has a much younger kid's understanding of boundaries, too, but he doesn't need to be told twice not to do or say something accidentally mean, even if he sometimes mumbles about people being weird.

Eventually Rai does have to go home. Naruto droops, then, hesitantly, "Will I see you again?"

Raizume nods and hugs him.

"You're nice and funny and remind me of my brother. Next time I'll bring him and we can build a secret fort!"

!!! Hugs!!!

"That sounds great! Oh, I'm Naruto!"

"I'm Inuzuka Raizume. Thank you for playing with me, Naruto."

"Heh. It's cool."

"I'll see you later, Raizume!"

She waves, picks up her ball and runs back to her mom.

Her mom scoops her and takes her home.

On the way, "You made a new friend today, huh?"

She quits growling at a random pedestrian and looks up at her mom.

"He looked lonely."

"He did. A lot of people have trouble being his friend, I think."

"Don't care what other people think. I gotta teach him how to play catch better."

"You're a great teacher! He's lucky to have you." (Rai certainly has plenty of experience, from 'supervising' her mom teaching genin.)

"If someone's mean to you because you're nice to him, and they're bigger than you and the other pups together, you let me know, alright? I'll set them straight."

"I'll try really hard to do it myself first. I'm scary!"

"The scariest!"

To prove this even more she will grrr and start nomming on her mom's shoulder.

Overdramatic fake flailing! "Ah, I am defeated by the mighty lightning!"

She makes thunder noises and starts giggling. Her mom is so good.

Her mom would say she has the best kids!

Naruto has a freak out when Raizume doesn't show up the next day, or the next, and gets spinning in his head until she shows up the week after, and then he feels stupid because duh, a lot of kids only come to the park sometimes.

She runs up to him, pulling Kiba by his hand behind her.

"Hi!!! I missed you!"

"I miss you too!"

Fort? (Naruto has had a whole week to think up Secret Fort ideas, including sneaking into the tiny orphanage library and then the bigger public library to look at building pictures. Many of them are a bit too ambitious. All of them are enthusiastic. Most include a drawbridge, which he practiced making out of sticks and strings at the orphanage. Drawbridges are cool.)

Raizume is so pleased and has a lot of her own ideas. She took a few college architecture classes and design is one of her passions. She makes sure to pack a lot of paint, because they can't have a fort without it being pretty and she likes any excuse to do art things.

She also makes sure to bring a full packed lunch for Naruto and also face paint because they have to eat some time and building things is hard work and also any excuse to paint someones face is also a thing she abuses.

She may have gone a bit overboard.

No such thing!

(Naruto is overjoyed at the paint. This is going to be the most colorful secret fort ever.)

While Rai's off making friends, Tsume faces an increasing number of worries - all in the meetings her children aren't allowed into.

The Uchiha are getting restless (with decent reason, she thinks, though of course they're expressing everything as dickishly as possible), the village is getting angry - at the Uchiha, at the Nine Tails' host, at the concessions to Kumo, at the entire world, bitter and seething and ready.

It fades back, sometimes, the deep hatred beneath the surface turning into a tight tension among the adults. It spills over to their kids - most still don't like Naruto, even with him being taught the Inuzuka version of manners. Most Uchiha kids play on their own, not really interacting with other clans. 

She scowls when she hears a rumor about Itachi being accepted into the ANBU Black Ops at such a young age - the fuck Sarutobi, she's read the founding charter of Konoha and banning that sort of shit was why her clan signed up, but no one remembers, no one sees a damn problem with throwing their children into the meat grinder - 

It's not all stress. Her clan's thriving. Her kids are great. Kiba starts the Academy, and apparently is competing for last place with Naruto. (She doesn't have time, not anymore, so she arranges for a cousin to sit with him and go over everything as many times as needed). 

Then, a few weeks into the Academy's second quarter, she's woken by a deep sense of wrong and an ANBU at her window.

She doesn't come home for a week.

When she does, she pulls her children close - Hana, who's Itachi's age, Kiba who's Sasuke's classmate, Raizume who's brave and clever and practically a guaranteed candidate for early graduation and so so small.

(There's a gaping wound, where a founding clan used to be.)

(Sasuke won't wake up for another three weeks.)

Of course she hadn't forgotten about the Uchiha. She hasn't forgotten anything -- the perks of her great and also magically enhanced memory -- but she couldn't do anything about it. Th massacre is such a huge event in her memories, preventing it,or doing anything to put it off course was... she has so many regrets.

So many people dead. Sasuke will never be the same. She hasn't even met him, but she knows him. She related to him so much back when he was just fiction, he was her favourite character. But, still --

She clings to her mama and cries and cries and cries.

"I'm sorry."

Tsume's crying too, and Hana, and Kiba.

It's a crying sort of situation.

"I'll do better. I promise."

She will. She has to.

"Oh, honey, oh, it's not your fault we broke the world, I'm so sorry..."

"I didn't do enough. I can do better. I'm gonna grow strong and be smarter and think better and save everyone."

Such tight hugs. "My sweet little lightning," she starts, then chokes up because oh gods.

So many hugs.

Things are a bit more somber for a while after that. Naruto reports Sasuke withdrawing and getting sad; Kiba reports him getting into fights with other kids left and right. Mostly Naruto, but also a few others. Sasuke seems to have gone from 'shy and sensitive' to 'cruel and cold.'

Tsume takes extra care in training her kids - and in making sure they are kids. She refuses point blank to have Raizume admitted early to the Academy, no matter her genius. She makes sure Hana knows she doesn't have to push herself - Hana thinks for a bit and confides, quietly, that she thinks she'll be happy at chuunin, as a clan vet, she doesn't think she wants to be head even though she knows the clan needs someone - 

Tsume hugs her, says, yes of course. They'll figure something out - Kiba or Rai or a cousin as the next head, family is family is family and the Inuzuka aren't picky about the lineage of who acts as their face to the world.

Eventually things lighten back up a bit. People move on, and put things out of their minds. The empty places where the Uchiha were get eroded away.

Eventually, it's Rai's turn for the Academy.

Raizme would have liked to have gotten to the Academy earlier, but relents after she understands how much her mom feels about the issue. So she spends her time working very very hard, sticking close to her mom and her Kiba and her Hana and her Naruto and thinking about the future.

When the time finally arrives, she's brimming at the rim with excitement and energy and sheer eagerness. Finally.

The entrance exams are a breeze. Staying at the top of the class is a breeze. Apparently, the system won't let you skip grades - even though Raizume easily could, between her last life's experiences and this life's perfect memory and hard work. Instead, you can study at home, and apply to take the graduation exam early (how kids with civilian - or simply busy - parents are meant to make it is never explained), while remaining with your age cohort otherwise.

Tsume puts her foot down against Raizume graduating before age ten (coincidentally the same year Kiba will graduate).

She does not complain, but she's unhappy about it and seeks to overachieve to the nth degree. She's showing off a bit, but does actually want to do her best and make her clan proud. Plus graduating with Kiba and Naruto seems like a good choice. Their class will be involved in a lot of the plot and she needs to be a part of that.

Tsume picks up on the unhappiness and arranges tutors - drags in someone to teach her more advanced math, see if she has any aptitude for sealing (which is somewhere between math and writing and art), and more subjects like geopolitics. Starts her training herself in elemental release, right alongside her genin. (Tsume is fire and earth and not particularly good at lightning, but she has friends and can call in favors if that's Raizume's path). Makes games of it, of course.

Raizume picks everything up quickly, hungry for things to keep her mind and body busy. She'll go insane if she doesn't. Sealing is interesting, and it quickly becomes something she spends a lot of her free time working on. She can get frustrated with the math, math is so boring, but the other aspects of sealing make up for it. It's something she hasn't encountered before, it keeps her mind engaged and thinking and creating.

She has no patience for politics, but makes sure to dedicate a decent amount of time to it. It will definitely come in handy later, with the fighting and wars ahead.

With no surprise she her affinity is lightning. But her second affinity is water.

"Is that normal, mama? Having two elements that you don't have."

"It is, sometimes. Affinities are weird, and only kind of genetic. Your father also used lightning, and might have had a water affinity, too, so I'm not surprised if you inherited that from him."

"You haven't spoken about him much."

She doesn't particularly care. It's hard to care about people she knows nothing about.

"Didn't really know him much. Met him on a mission, just long enough after Kiba's dad left, and, well..."

"Were you in Kumogakure?"

It's not like she hadn't noticed she was darker then her mother and both her siblings. She's pretty sure she looks exactly like she did in her previous life, which was not what she expected. So she'd taken the time to study it up during one of her geopolitical lessons.

"Not that time. We were both in Water Country where we didn't belong. He was from Kumo, though, even if he kept trying to pretend to be a Kiri-nin."

"I bet you didn't believe him for a second. Did you save his life and sweep him off his feet?"

"Got him out from a Kiri patrol that'd gotten suspicious - audacity is the secret to lying a lot of the time, and I have that in spades. Convinced them I was his superior officer there to take him in for questioning. My jurisdiction, obviously."

Raizume laughs.

"I'll keep that in mind for when I get my own missions. Maybe I'll fall in love too and run away and have a fairytale romance. Live in a castle! With a moat. And a dragon."

"Inazuma might get jealous if you got a dragon," she says, laughing.

"Maybe they could be a dragon." She looks down at them. "Can you turn into a dragon, Zuma?"

They growl at Raizume, nipping at her feet.

I'm better than any stupid dragon.

"A wolf-dog-dragon would be pretty silly," Tsume says, nodding at Inazuma. "Dogs are neater, anyways."

And prettier. Look at my fur. It's the prettiest.

"Prettiest of all the puppies!"

"Definitely! Dragons are all dry and scaly. Not fluffy at all."

Raizume pets her pretty puppy and looks up at her mom.

"Do you think he's still alive? The Kumo-nin?"

"Don't really know. He probably doesn't like me much anymore, anyways." Given how much she'd stolen from him, she wouldn't be surprised.

Raizume giggles and hugs her mom.

"You're so cool. Best mom."

"Hah," she says, laughing. "You're the best youngest daughter!"

"In the whole world," she says, wise and knowing.

"In every world there ever could be!"

She giggles and hugs her.

"Do you think Kiba and I will be teammates?"

"Unfortunately that's pretty unlikely. Family's usually not put with family - they like to diversify teams a bit."

"Can you guess who I'll be placed with?"

"Hm. There's a lot that goes into it - personalities, existing friendships and enemies, fighting style, who's going to need which jounin. You're very up-front, and more of a front-liner than a tracker, so you'll probably be on a generalist or powerhouse team. You don't know anyone in that year other than Naruto, your brother, and distantly some of your brother's friends, so relationships unlikely to impact things a lot."

That kinda sounds like Team Kakashi. Which... could be a problem? But could also be exactly where she needs to be.

"I do love punching people."

"I've noticed! My little lightning bolt hits hard."

"I'm not that little. My body will match my mind soon. And I'll be a shinobi."

"I pity your poor jounin-sensei."

"I can't wait."

"I bet."

And soon enough, it is in fact finally time for Raizume to take the graduation test.

She gets there early, ever the over achiever, and picks a seat right up the front.

She's not the youngest there, because hope springs eternal, but she's the first one done. By a long shot.

She's allowed to leave the written exam as soon as she finishes, and then run through taijutsu, weapons, and the basic three techniques. 

She excels at the taijutsu and laughs with joy the whole time. Maybe not a good practice to take, but she's so excited! The weapons and basic three are a breeze too but she doesn't think much on it. They're boring compared to actual proper hand-to-hand combat.

The scores take a week to be posted - publicly, with rankings included. Raizume's on top, with Uchiha Sasuke ranked number two, Yamanaka Ino number three, and so on.

Kiba's ranked fourth to last.

Naruto's ranked last - and above the score threshold.

...that's unexpected. And totally not what was supposed to happen.

"Congratulations, you two! What do you say we go out to eat?" Tsume calls. Kiba cheers and punches the air.

Right as Naruto barrels over, wrapping his arms around Raizume in a bear hug. "I passed!!!" he exclaims. "Thank you so much Rai!"

She laughs and hugs him back.

"I'm pretty sure you did all the work."

Naruto's a pretty good hugger! "You taught me tons, though." Then he spots Kiba and Tsume. "Heh. Hey Ms. Rai's mom! You guys celebrating?"

"Yeah, figured I'd feed these two pits at some point." Inviting him seems awkward, not seems mean...

"You guys have fun, Ichiraku promised me all I could eat if I passed!" he says, disentangling from the hug and waving. He looks a bit sad, but not as depressed as he would've six years ago.

"Nope. You've had enough ramen for a whole lifetime, you're coming with us. Real food and puppies and music. It's gonna be great. We need to celebrate together."

"You're not stopping me from redeeming that, you know."

"I can try. But I'm pretty sure you're gonna come out the winner regardless."

"Well, if you want to try to do the impossible, I'm not going to stop you."

"I am the definition of impossible. Try me." She takes his hand and pulls him along.

Okay, so she totally screwed up here. Which was probably foreseeable. Giving him all those tips and training really counted for something. But she couldn't just leave Naruto all alone and without any support. He's her friend and she loves him.

He laughs, and lets her pull him.

"Hey, Naruto, bet I can eat more than you," Kiba says, ignoring his mom's groan.

"You're on!"

"Naruto, you have not witnessed the amount Kiba can put away. I'm pretty sure he's a black hole in human form."

"No clue what that is, but you haven't seen me going."

"It's like this huge hole in space that nothing can escape from. Not even light. We call him Black-Hole-Kiba. So you have a lot to live up to," she teases.

"Sure. Right. That's definitely true."

"Of course it's true. I am a paragon of truth and virtue."

Kiba starts choking on his laughter.

She bumps into him, trying to push him over with her shoulder.

"You're supposed to support my lies, big brother. Solidarity."

"I'm feeling more of a bro code with Naruto right now," he says, bumping back harder. Akamaru yips in agreement.

"Betrayal." She gasps and turns to their mom. "We gotta get a new Kiba now. The old one doesn't work good anymore."

"Sorry, pup, his warranty expired."

She sighs dramatically. "Suppose we're stuck with him then."

"Like a burr."

She laughs and bumps him again. "Who do you think you're gonna be teamed up with?" she asks them both.

"Dunno. I did well on tracking and like survival. A team around that'd be boring, though. Don't really have a dream team."

"You, me, and Sakura-chan!" Naruto chirps. "That'd be great!"

"I'd pretty sure Sakura would murder you, Naruto. Well, at least until you overpower her with your Everything. But even then..."

"What, no faith in me? I'm wounded."

"I can tell. You look so downtrodden."

"I'm utterly heartbroken. I shall never recover, instead spending my days wasting away - "

She giggles and tackles him.

"You're such a bad liar."

He rolls with the tackle and tries to put her in a headlock and give her a noogie. "Not as bad as you."

She struggles in his arms, and quickly breaks out to jump away from him.

"Not the hair! I just made it all fancy."

He exchanges a glance with Kiba -

And they both pounce, right for the hair.

!!!

She quickly jumps onto a roof and starts running towards home.

"I am the number one rookie! You'll never get me!"

Inazuma jumps up too and runs with her.

Running!!!

"Wrong way, pup! Restaurant's this way! Unless you want us to eat without you?" Tsume calls, as Kiba and Naruto give chase.

"I'll never surrender!"

"Guess I'm having a nice quiet meal all on my lonesome, then..."

"Noooooooo," Naruto calls, fake-pouting as he abandons the chase, Kiba following.

"Once again I am victorious," she says as she jumps down.

Inazuma growls at her.

No, I wanna run.

"You can all run around after food, how about, cub?"

They look down at Tsume expectingly.

Kuromaru too.

He snorts. "I'd be glad to beat you any day, cub," he says, while Tsume laughs.

"Come on, pups, the food won't eat itself," she says.

They ignore his words and jump down, satisfied with that.

Raizume jumps onto her mom's back.

"Where are we going, mama?"

"I was thinking yakiniku! Something for everyone."

"Just so long as it's not Ichiraku's, I'm happy."

"I'll convert you one of these days," Naruto says, but obligingly follows Tsume towards the free food.

She continues to cling to her mom's back, not bothering to walk.

"I wanna be in a team with Ino. She's so pretty and creepy and I think she'd be a great teammate."

"Sounds like it. Though usually when there's a Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara all in the same year they get put together."

"That's so not fair," she pouts. "Ino is so cool, I wanna be her friend."

"You could just talk to her, dweeb."

"I tried! But she's so pretty, I couldn't do it."

"Can't relate."

"Sakura-chan's pretty like that!" Naruto declares.

"Can you talk to Sakura? Or do you run away like I do with Ino?"

"I can talk! And then she gets mad and hits me, but not in like a friendly wrassle way, she got really mad when I laughed and tried to play."

She makes a face.

"Her loss. You're awesome, Naruto. Anyone that can't see that isn't worth being around."

He doesn't seem to know what to say at first, settling for, "Thanks."

She smiles at him. "You're welcome."

And feelings are icky so he bumps her shoulder, but in a friendly way, as they're arriving at the restaurant.

Inazuma nips at his heels and runs in ahead of them.

Raizume giggles and then jumps off her mom's back to find the best seat.

The restaurant's a bit crowded - apparently Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji decided to celebrate here too, bringing their families with them - Chouji's siblings take up two tables on their own, and Ino's laughing with Shikamaru's little sister about something.

Tsume gets them a table, shouts some greeting at the adults over the noise.

Raizume does not blush and instead goes and quickly takes the best seat.

She will not get embarrassed over a pretty girl. She's totally better than that. She is! Plus she's ten. Technically....

She takes the menu and hides behind it instead.

One of Ino's older sisters smirks at her.

The main attraction is platters of meat and vegetables you can cook at your table, but there's also pre-cooked food. Mostly meat dishes.

Oh no she's been caught. She needs to play it cool.

She tucks herself close to Naruto and hides behind his shoulder.

"Why This."

He laughs and then bounds over to Chouji and promptly makes himself the center of attention.

Ugh. Boys.

She follows behind him tentatively.

Ino's sister whispers something in her ear, making Ino jab her in the stomach with her elbow and wave sort of awkwardly at Rai.

She waves back also very awkwardly.

Why is this so hard. She never had any trouble talking to people in her last life... she also never really interacted with kids her own age until she was well into her late teens. But still.

Inazuma huffs, nearly knocks Raizume over from behind and walks over to them.

Appreciate how pretty I am.

Definitely the prettiest pup, is the agreement.

(Seating ends up getting rearranged into a kid/adult rather than clan split.)

With attention focused on Inazuma, Raizume sticks close to her brother and Naruto.

Ino will eventually detangle, sort of sidle over, and say, "Hey! Raizume, right? Congrats on the top spot."

More blushing!

"Thank you! You got -- uh -- third, right?"

"Yeah! Top kunoichi in my year - I'd say overall, you seem more 'menace' than traditional kunoichi," Ino says, voice slightly teasing.

"Why menace?"

"Please tell me you remember biting Shikamaru."

"That's not menace, that's a valid contribution to society. He needed to be bit."

She laughs. "I'll give you that."

Pretty!!

"My mom said you're going to be in a team with him and Choji. Are you excited?"

Shrug. "Eh. I've known them forever, and it kinda feels like - you know, this path a bunch've people go down, and it's obvious where to go, and. Well. A shakeup might be fun, too."

"What would you do? If you could do anything."

Laugh. "Oh wow. No clue." Sort of awkward shrug. "I mean, don't know. I like learning stuff - not really like Sakura. More like how stuff relates? Like, this flower with that, that person with this... Don't think that's very usable in a fight, though."

"Have you tried sealing? I've been learning it since I started the academy. It's really interesting and complicated and connective. Brings in a bunch of different things together. It's fun to puzzle out."

"Huh. Might look into that, sounds neat. Thanks!"

"You're welcome!"

The conversations around the table drift on, people mostly starting talking about school but quickly getting into a massive variety of other topics - books, they're talking about putting in a movie theatre, wow is it unseasonably hot - without much of a common thread or anything. Shikamaru pretty much only talks to Chouji, but everyone else is friendly.

Kiba and Naruto have their promised eating contest - and the Akimichi kids join. Chouji's third-oldest sister reigns supreme, laughing when even her brother gives up.

Raizume mostly keeps to herself, takes out her artbook and starts on a new sketch. This whole socialising thing is cool and everything, but... okay she just doesn't care much about these near-strangers. So. Art!

People leave her to it. 

Eventually people have other places to go and the crowd starts dispersing, faster as conversions die down and food settles.

She's not paying much attention, too caught up in her work. And her thoughts.

What if this whole Naruto-passing-the-exam shifts the known future dramatically? He was supposed to go off and get the forbidden scroll and learn the shadow clone jutsu. Will he still learn it now? Unlikely, since its forbidden... And what about Mizuki? He's a traitor and will still be around. Will he still try to steal the scroll? Should she tell someone about that???

She looks up at Naruto.

He was also supposed to find out about the Nine Tailed Fox. Did he find out another way? Or will they just continue to let him live in ignorance.

The world doesn't see fit to answer her thoughts, unless Naruto excitedly saying "bye" to everyone counts.

Tsume approaches their table, Hana having apparently shown up during the dinner and tagging along.

Hana goes ahead, to hug her siblings, congratulate them, and apologize about being late - clinic had a quick emergency. Dog's fine, but very thoroughly scolded about stuff he shouldn't eat.

"Ready to head home, pups?" Tsume asks.

Raizume shakes off her stupor, waves goodbye to everyone and hugs her sister. She would have liked Hana's company during dinner, but her job is important, so she understands.

-- at her mom's words she gets a sudden idea.

"Can I walk Naruto home, mama?"

"Sure, pup."

She looks at Naruto.

"If that's okay?"

"Yeah!" he replies, nodding with a broad grin, then, to Kiba, "See you at assignments!" (Kiba waves back.)

She hugs everyone goodbye and tries not to fidget or show any sign of her rising nerves.

"Thanks for walking with me," Naruto says on the walk back. It's getting to be officially the end of the day, but there's still people out and about, and he has to swerve to not run into people a few times.

"Well, you're pretty much my best friend. So it's my duty. But, uh, I may also... I need to talk to you. In private. Preferably somewhere kinda-super as secure as we can find? Without leaving the village."

"That's not my apartment, then... Or the Hokage monument... There's this one weird shrine I'm pretty sure no one's watching because there's glowy stuff around it and not even bugs inside, but it was really old, and super dirty before I cleaned it up."

"Yeah, your apartment is super not the place. Is the shrine far, do we need to run?"

"It's outskirts? Like, the back outskirts, out behind the monument. Running might not hurt - and hey, didn't we want to have that race?"

Race! Finally.

"Let's do it. Lead the way."

He'll give a point they've both been to that's near-ish the shrine as an end point, then, and "Onetwothree go!"

(He's fast, but not Inuzuka fast).

Inazuma is off. Racing ahead of them with a burst of great speed.

Raizume isn't far behind. She loves running. It reminds her so much of her previous life. It's not the same, she'll never experience that feeling of running as a wolf, four legs and wind in her fur. But it's enough. Her troubles and fears and anxieties briefly fade away until it's just her and the freedom of letting go.

They don't beat Naruto by too much, at least, if you ask him.

The destination is a nice clearing by one of the little streams that eventually flow into the Naka River - there's still one of their old 'secret' forts in a particularly sturdy tree, and a deer path cuts across a shallow part of the stream.

Naruto's laughing when he arrives, not at all out of breath, and says, "Come on, the shrine's nearby - I was exploring out from here when I found it."

"This place is great. We should come out here more often."

Inazuma leaves them to go chase the deer.

"It is! I think some other kids moved into the fort, actually - we should scare them someday."

He'll lead the way to the shrine at a walk, content to just enjoy the evening woods.

She walks alongside him, not wanting to ruin this.

She's a little scared. Which... Isn't a very familiar feeling. At least not in this lifetime. It's kind of ridiculous considering the world they live in. Wars, and death and child soldiers.

It feels like they're on the edge of a cliff. She doesn't want to take another step.

But...

He doesn't mention her mood, but does catch her hand and squeeze companionably. 

They get to the shrine soon enough. It's old, wooden, and beginning to fall apart in the sheer damp that pervades Konoha - one side's sagging, and the roof's not as present as it should be. Still, there's obvious signs of someone working hard to repair it - braced beams, a few replaced boards, and the like. There's also faint glimpses of seals in the trees around it. There's an enormous Uzumaki spiral above the entrance, paint faded until there's only a few scraps of red in the cracks.

"I don't know if it keeps non-humans out, or anyone not-me out," Naruto says. "But I brought an injured squirrel in once and he couldn't get back out on his own, so it might be a good idea for me to hold your hand while crossing the barrier?"

She squeezes his hand in response.

"This is really impressive, Naruto. You made this?"

"Nope! It was here." He goes quiet a bit. "Dunno much how seals work, but - I keep thinking. Maybe someone made it, and they made it so they could get through, and anyone related could get through, and..." He laughs, awkwardly.

"I have been fixing the building though! It was way worse when I found it, I thought there's probably spirits there 'cause abandoned temple, and they're probably really angry 'cause their house's broke, but then I thought I'd be angry if someone broke my house, but mostly sad, so I told them I'd fix their house up! ...Which might be the actual reason I can get through, if the spirits like me? Anyways, there's, like, one whole working shrine in all of Konoha, so I asked the priest there what to do about an old shrine, and she told me bunches."

"The building looks great. You've done really well. With everything. No wonder they like you."

"Aw, thanks!" Hand-holding through the barrier, then - Raizume gets through just fine. "I'm hoping when we're genin I can get some more money, buy some proper supplies. Get it really nice."

"I can't wait to see it. Maybe I can paint a mural, if that's okay We could work on it together."

"That'd be great! The paint does need a bunch of updating, and you're really good at forts. It's a lot of the same stuff, building-wise?"

A beat, and, "Anyways, you wanted to talk?" he asks, voice kind of nervous.

She nods and bites her lip. Trying to find her words.

"I should -- I want to preface this by saying... you're one of the cleverest, nicest, most loyal and best people that I know. I trust you so much. I think you've already put so much good into the world and I know you're not going to ever stop. You're my best friend and I love you."

"Is? Something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I just -- this is really deeply personal and it's going to be upsetting and I just -- I shouldn't be telling you this. It's a village secret. We're not supposed to talk about it. But technically I found out in a weird way and I was never really forbidden from saying anything. And we're shinobi now, they expect us to go out and fight and to kill for them. You deserve to know."

"What is it?"

"You mother was Uzumaki Kushina, the host of the Nine Tailed Fox. While she was giving birth to you, and as a consequence of outside forces, it was released. Your father, the Fourth Hokage, had no choice but to seal away the Fox into you."

"How - what - the fuck?!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't -- I didn't know how to say it better. It's -- I'm so sorry."

She wants to hug him she wants to take it back -- but she can't move.

"How do you know that - why do you know that - do you know why - oh gods is that why everyone hates me - "

"I don't hate you. I could never hate you. They don't know you. You are not the Fox. You are Naruto and you are Good and Great and Perfect and they're idiots."

He appears to be on the edge of hyperventilating!

-- she hugs him. And holds him and tries to give him everything.

"I love you. I love you. You're going to be okay. I'm here."

He calms down, slowly.

"I - I didn't know. Anything." Breath, and, "Thanks. For telling me." He's quiet, then: "The old man never did. You said it's a village secret... I guess you'd get in trouble if I yelled at him about it."

"I want to give him the benefit of the doubt..." she sighs. "I think he loves you."

"Yeah. But... You did me a really big favor," he says. "I shouldn't risk that." Hugs.