Ah, a first chapter of a new part. I suppose you can blame my sister for this being posted now. She kept moaning at me about it.

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Laura came home from work, she was exhausted from a serial killer that even the ANBU had had trouble with. She'd finally solved it and was looking forward to a break.

She unlocked the door to the house and threw her bag at the sofa.

"Umph."

Laura frowned the sofa wasn't supposed to make noises, maybe someone was sleeping over it might but Sasuke would use her room and Naruto had his own, no one else really slept over. She got into the living room and saw a familiar head of silver hair.

"Max!" She was rewarded with a cushion in her face from a tired Naruto who Laura had woken up with the yell. He then noticed Max's sleeping form on the sofa.

"She's back, she actually came back! We need to tell people. Do you think Tsunade knows?" Naruto said almost in on breath.

"Do you think Itachi knows?" Laura added looking grave. Naruto's eyes widened and he nodded as well. A third person joined them, barley visible in the darkness.

"So this is why you decided to wake up the world," Sasuke mused also looking at Max. Naruto looked between Laura and Sasuke, and the room Sasuke had just emerged from in his boxers.

"Do I want to know what you were doing in Laura's room?" Both mentioned had the decency to blush under the confused gaze of Naruto. When Sasuke had returned he had realised just what happened when he did nothing, he had visited Laura at work with her favourite take out and had been waiting for her to get back.

"Jeez you guys, I try to sleep on the couch so I don't wake you lot only to get woken instead," Max grumbled.

"You're awake!"

"If you lot understood the concept of quiet I still would be," she said sitting up rubbing her eyes, she hadn't gotten enough asleep to be back on her usual sleep pattern. Atlantis had a different day system, the days being longer by three hours. There was no way she'd get anymore sleep though, not now that they knew she was back.

"Have you reported to Tsunade yet?"

"No, I thought I could get some sleep first" Max said in a sarcastic voice, it was ruined by the fact she ended it with a yawn.

"I get the picture, you're cranky because we woke you, you should probably report in soon, you've missed quite a bit so need to catch up" Laura said, her sensible side showing. Max nodded and stood, stretching, the others winced a bit as her joints clicked loudly.

"See you in a bit, don't do anything I wouldn't," Max said with a smirk directed at Laura, she had obviously noticed Sasuke.

"Is there anything you wouldn't do?"

"Fair point," Max shrugged. She left the house, taking a long route to the tower. The sun had begun to rise so the early risers were up and around starting to clutter up the streets.

She headed down some secluded alleys avoiding the civilians, due to the limiters she didn't want to waste chakra when she didn't need to, so she was walking. It wasn't that surprising when she bumped into someone. She was surprised when she saw it was an ANBU captain.

She muttered and apology before moving around the man. The man who hadn't moved a muscle since Max had bumped into him. It was only when Max had turned the corner he snapped out of it.

"Max?"

Max walked into Tsunade's office surprising the three occupants. Tsunade because Max used the door, Kakashi because Max was back in one piece with no obvious injuries, and finally Shiba because Max was just there in general, Max hadn't seen Shiba since her first time at the academy. Along with Shisui Uchiha, Shiba was supposed to have been on her team.

"Look what the cat dragged it," Shiba sneered. Max chuckled, she had wondered where she had gotten the personality for Zeta from. It was one of the reasons she had asked the Third to change her team.

"It can talk? I didn't think that it had the brain power… or the brain" Max retorted. A change of scene was nice, taunting Teyla got repetitive.

"Ladies please. Shiba, I understand what your requesting but I need to think about whether I can sort it out along with everything else that's happening" Tsunade said cutting up what promised the be the beginning of an argument.

Shiba bowed and then left not without a smirk in Max's direction, leaving Kakashi and Max still there in front of Tsunade. Kakashi threw a scroll at Max who caught it and stored it in its pouch.

"I suppose I should tell you that scroll was blank," Max grinned.

"So what brings you back?" Tsunade asked calmly. It was taking everything not to be smiling broadly at the girl's return.

"You did ask me to come back when I could, until now I've been halfway across a galaxy isolated from earth, I trust you got my mission reports"

"Of course, I still wonder how you managed to get them here," Tsunade said, hinting about wanting to know.

"Ah, that's a bit tricky and there's no way I can explain it, so anything interesting happen?"

"Team seven now consists of three jounin," Kakashi injected, he knew Max wanted to know about them but forgotten to tell her earlier.

"Awesome. Why is Sai on the team?"

"You're aware of ANBU roots? Sai was recommended by Danzo to keep an eye on Naruto and other reasons that became known later. Naruto's worked his magic and Sai now has feelings"

"If Danzo crosses the line…" Max offered. She knew finishing that sentence was next to treason. She had had a brief encounter with ANBU roots when Danzo had tried to recruit her and temporarily succeeded until he found she only joined to vandalise the HQ. She had then told him to stick it.

"That reminds me Max, that book of yours-" Kakashi started.

"-I don't want to know who I've offended now" Max interrupted.

"It more of the fact Sai read it a while ago and decided to experiment with his sexuality… on Naruto and Sasuke."

"I'll bet they loved that," Max sniggered. "What did Shiba want anyway?"

"To transfer from her team to become Itachi's partner"

"What rank is she?"

"Chunin of the seduction section." Max burst out laughing, SedSec was a running joke for the jounin and higher. Anyone who didn't have the fighting skills to become an active fighter went to SedSec.

"And she wants to be Itachi's partner, he needs someone who can help him, not hinder him. Second thought, please do, Itachi can accidently forget about her when they get attacked or something"

"Max…"

"What, you know she's a pain as well"

"Max, listen up, you may have only got back but there's something you need to know, Shiba and Itachi are going out," Tsunade said breaking the news with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Max was silent for a bit.

"When I told him to get a girlfriend I was hoping for something along the lines of anyone else" Max looked at the two suspisiously. "You aren't telling me something. What aren't you telling me?"

Kakashi looked like he was about to say something but a glare from Tsunade silenced him.

"If you aren't going to tell me then I'm going to go, I have other people to catch up with," Max said placing a scroll on the desk and jumping out the window. Next port of call: Hana's house.

Visiting Hana didn't quite go to plan. Max's next stop would defiantly be home so she could get rid of the dog slobber. Hana had been happy to see her, they had caught up a bit about the last few years. Hana was currently dating Radiou, a shinobi Max vaguely remembered working with on an occasion.

After a quick shower Max headed to her next destination: the memorial stone. She saw team seven training there so watched them from a distance, to see how long it would take to be noticed.

Not long it seemed as she was hogtied before she realised what was going on. She quickly understood she'd been watching a genjutsu. The three boys of team seven towered over her and Kakashi over them. She used FA to make sure it wasn't another genjutsu.

"You're getting slow Max, I thought you were a Sannin"

"I blame my stint on Atlantis and some people who woke me up too early this morning," Max said glaring at the two.

"It's a good thing you turned up then, we can have multiple pairs sparing today" Kakashi suggested, Max could see him smirking and wanted nothing better than to punch him.

"But you said you would help me with my new Rasengan," Naruto pointed out.

"Looks like you don't need me," Max said hopefully, wriggling around a bit, they had tied her up well, maybe she could apperate away so they wouldn't catch her as she made her escape.

"Not exactly, I did remember Naruto, we just have another person who's going to be training with us." The way he said that gave Max a very bad feeling.

"Sorry I'm late I just- Max? You are back." Another figure towered over the boys. A distinctly familiar one.

"Itachi? No wonder Kakashi looked so smug. Now if anyone cares to untie me before I find a reason to take a long holiday, far away"

"But you said you would come back" Naruto pouted, or at least she thought he was, they was standing in her light so she could see very little detail.

"And I did Naruto, here I am. I didn't mention for how long though" Max muttered, she shifted position a few times to try to find an easy way out of the situation. "Are you guys just going to watch?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me" Naruto shrugged, Max thought he might have been a bit hurt by the fact she might leave again. She would have to resort to other methods. She concentrated a bit and there was a small pop as a pair of silver ears, it had been a while since they had been out so it was a strange feeling. She added a pout and wide eyes to the mix and looked up at them.

"Aww, so cute," Kakashi cooed, he still had that damn smirk. Max blamed him for everything but wasn't going to give up her act yet, she could see the others crumbling to her adorableness.

She felt the ropes loosen slightly, none of them had moved, or visibly moved but it had been enough for her to escape. She slipped out and disappeared from sight. She hadn't gone far, watching them from a tree was good enough for her. She had FA on so she wouldn't be caught by the same trick twice, then she noticed something. Using FA she could only count four people, one was an illusion.

"You may have fooled the others but you haven't fooled me yet," Itachi told her, sitting on a tree behind. He jumped forward onto Max's branch and reached to her furry ears to stroke them.

"I didn't think I would, yet you fooled me." Max's words seemed colder than she had intended. She felt Itachi pause in his stroking and withdraw his hand.

"You heard about that then?" he sighed, Max got the same feeling she was missing something.

"Tsunade could have been more subtle about it but yes, I know. It's fine, I just would have liked to be told by you"

"I didn't really get a chance. I haven't even been able to say hello yet"

"You have time now," Max pointed out.

"How about over breakfast, we can catch up while you eat" Itachi was looking pointedly at her, she did think she looked that skinny. While she hadn't been eating properly it wasn't her fault. Food just wasn't as appealing after many attempts at poison and controlling her.

"I'm fine"

"Alcohol is not breakfast, it doesn't look like you've been eating properly. Rations don't count as food over long periods of time," Itachi lectured, he had figured Max probably wasn't actually paying attention. He would figure something out. Maybe ask Tsunade to request a mission for Max to deliver something to the hospital. Max feared the nurses as much as the next shinobi.

"I suppose I can deal with breakfast, so long as Shiba isn't there," Max agreed, breaking Itachi out of his planning.

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