Chem course work still in the making but, I'm almost done, so what do I do... Update :)

Probably wont be much longer till I start updating regularly again, but I'm going to see my schools production of Sweeney Todd tomorrow night so nothings going to get done then.

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While only being here a day Max has already shown that she needs to have a careful eye on her health. As always she is disregarding her health and from my observations since leaving the village she hasn't slept for more than a few hours every few days. She's acting as normal as she gets but is getting a bit antsy about not being allowed on mission other than the first.

Haku's medical journal on Max's mental heath entry 2

"What do you mean I can't go on the rescue mission?!" echoed down the halls near the central spire.

"You're needed here, Otter needs you help with something," Dr Weir said with as much authority in her voice as she could manage.

"It had better be important" Max growled before shushining out of the room to find the aforementioned ninja. It wasn't too hard, who else has an above average chakra pool.

"I need your Chakra"

"No 'hi, how've you been?' No 'are you busy?' No 'I do hope I'm not stopping you from going on a potentially action packed mission'" Max said her word getting bitter.

"I need your chakra. I've figured out if I turn a percentage of the water in the flooded parts of the city carefully then because ice is denser than water we should float to the top"

"Couldn't it have waited?" Max whined.

"No, this needs to be done now. In order for the water to turn to ice the energy needs to go somewhere but it'll need to be channelled first"

"Do you think we could put it in the ZPM thing that is almost depleted? McKay, could you come to the ZPM room" Max asked, she was getting an idea. The door opened and McKay walked in.

"What, I was already coming here. I was wondering about something"

"Please tell me it wasn't something to do with the fire I can create"

"How did you guess?" Max looked at him and just shook her head. Some genius. "Anyway I was thinking-" Max snorted, "maybe you could try to fill up the ZPM with what ever you use to make the fire" The ZPM was the power source of the city.

"Methane? I'm going to assume you mean the energy." McKay didn't seem to have actually been listening as he was rambling to himself.

"Let's get this done with. I assume all I need to do is mould the chakra and transfer it to you? The excess can be siphoned into the ZPM" Haku nodded. It was an understanding that Max's chakra control wasn't brilliant and the control needed for this was something she didn't have. If she split it then it could work.

It was still risky, if she got distracted too much then she might use too much and hurt Haku.

She began a set of seals while beginning the first stage of meditation. McKay stopped rambling and watched as Max's hands started to glow blue. She finished the seals abruptly and the glow intensified. One hand was placed on Haku's shoulder and the other on a console nearby. Haku began his own set of seals some with both hands and some with only one. Both of them had their eyes closed in concentration.

"McKay, we're getting some weird readings, there's ice forming around the city, a strange power signal is being emitted near your position" the three occupants of the room heard this but only one acknowledged it.

"Its ok, Rho and Otter are trying to raise the city, they said there might be excess energy," McKay explained. The door opened again and Captain Duke entered.

"I'm supposed to be watching over at least one of them," he said nodding to the two shinobi. The city jerked violently causing the four occupants to stumble around trying to regain their balance. Max had been jerked out of her meditation trance almost hitting her head on the console nearby as the floor tilted.

The room shuddered again and Max did hit her head. Haku had been lucky, he had managed to keep his balance but he knew there was no reason Max shouldn't have been. In fact now he looked properly Max's Henge was fuzzy. The kind of fuzzy that a shinobi who hasn't slept in a week. When this was over he was going to have a little chat with her.

He tried to keep the ice going but with the connection broken he was tiring quickly. The power needed was huge but at least most of it was formed the jerks were form the city beginning to lift of the bottom of the ocean. It was about the point at which it wasn't about to float quite but it wouldn't sink had it been able to.

"Ookami? Are you ok?" Haku asked, he said it English for the benefit of the other. If he had asked in Japanese Max would have answered in Japanese then had to repeat in English wasting time.

"No worse than usual" was Max's dry answer. Haku sighed, Max's usual state varied a lot, at Hogwarts it was drunk, in Konoha it was normally hiding an injury from her latest mission. The nurses in Konoha had been briefed on her usual trick on hiding or playing down an injury. The only one who could find all of them without fail was Laura but only if Max stayed still for long enough. Here was a new place so Haku didn't know what 'the usual' was yet.

The three of them noticed Max attempt to get back into her trance but she couldn't. Haku suspected concussion.

"Drop your Henges" Haku ordered, he was going to check Max properly to make sure. Both McKay and Duke looked between themselves slightly confused.

"Max, I can't help you if you are this stubborn. Tsunade gave me the authority to over rule your orders should your health be in danger." He could hear the growl coming from Max, he knew he had just given away her name and the fact she didn't like people giving her orders didn't help.

"Can't I wait until we've raise this place? There's no point making sure I'm telling the truth if we all drown anyway" She snapped and tried to mould her chakra again bypassing the trance. Haku sighed Max did have a point, he felt out to the ice he had already made. He could feel the city on the verge of floating up he just needed to give it a small push.

He felt Max's hand on his shoulder and started the seals again, he could see Duke ready to catch Max if she fell again. The city shifted again but they didn't fall, they had been expecting it.

Haku pushed a small amount into the ice and felt the city begin to rise he kept the ice levels steady so it wouldn't rise too fast.

The second light flooded into the room from the sky Haku rounded on Max who panicked and turned only to see the door being blocked by Duke.

"You are going to get a full medical check from Doctor Beckett before being allowed to do any duty," Duke said looking her directly in the eye. She didn't even have to look at Haku to know they he agreed.

-

In Konoha things weren't so great. Laura was about to tear her hair out from boredom. Without Max around to create some chaos life was incredibly dull. She wondered where Max had gone.

In front of her was a file on the latest case she had been assigned, she was currently the only one allowed to do solo work the others had partners but Laura had proved she worked better without a partner. She only had help if she asked for it.

"Hey Lou" She greeted the other girl currently in the house. Louise looked like she had only just got out of bed from the dishevelled hair and rumpled clothes. "Long night?"

"You have no idea, we're finally catching up with the rate Max and Itachi catch them. That's only because Max isn't helping now she's gone" Lou sighed as she slumped down in a seat.

"I bet Max has already been in trouble a billion times by now," Laura said, Louise nodded in agreement.

"I'll add the fact she's probably threatened at least seventeen people"

"I never thought I would say this but why can't she get into trouble here, I'm slowly going insane with all this paper work, everything's so boring"

Both girls were still sat at the table doing work when Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi turned up. The three of them also looked bored.

"I have never wished for an invasion more than ever" Naruto groaned, Sasuke grunted in agreement and Kakashi just seemed oblivious.

"What brings you three here this fine morning?" both Louise and Laura had their suspicions and the suspicion was.

"Food." Typical, at least they didn't have to ask who was cooking. Louise never cooked but when Max did she could create anything from the most amazing food in the hidden countries to the stuff that could melt rock. Max never did tell them why.

Itachi knew but he wasn't going to tell, he knew Max did it to put everyone of her cooking so she could skive off the cooking on missions and the like. He was currently on an assassination mission so he couldn't complain about being bored. Well he could, seeing as Max had always done something to make them interesting.

Tsunade looked at the sheet in front of her, it was a promotion for Itachi when he completed his current mission. Had Max not been a Sannin she would have been given the same promotion. Max's mission report from the invasion sat idly next to her booze.

She knew she should read it again to make sure she had all the details but it was so haunting. Though it was only because of that scroll she had seen how good Max was at acting. Sighing Tsunade took a swig from the bottle. It was something Max had left for her, something called Vodka. She needed to get some more of it. Maybe she should send Itachi, he might see Max and get the full story or at least know it wasn't his fault.

She knew he still blamed himself for not protecting her. It would kill him inside if he knew the truth but not Max's side of it.

-

Max was stuck in the infirmary. It didn't seem to matter that she knew exactly what was wrong with herself. As anyone could tell the doctor she knew that she disregarded her own well being so of course she knew how she got hurt.

She was lying on her stomach while her back was examined, Haku had told Beckett of the signs of Max using a Henge. She heard the door open and groaned. She was at least glad she had had the foresight to keep her bra on or it could have been embarrassing. Her head was tilted away from the door so she couldn't see who it was and FA was just too much effort after the amount of energy she had used.

"What is it that England does to kids these days?" Beckett sighed pausing in his examination to see to the new person. That narrowed down who it could be.

"Aren't you from Scotland, you've probably been to England too at some point" Max said rolling her eyes. She could feel the newcomer sit on one of the beds, the air moving around differently told her that much.

"How do you think I know what I'm talking about?" Max didn't have to even look at the doctor to know he was smirking. He was back to poking her scars to see if any were new enough to need to be looked at.

"You're a doctor, they're like mind readers, evil mind readers" Max growled. She winced as Beckett jabbed her side particularly viciously with a probe thing. "See my point" Max added, irritation evident in her voice. "None of these things need looking after! I'm fine!" Max sat up and pulled her T-shirt back on defiantly glad for at least the bra.

"I'm still going to say that you aren't going on active duty for at least a week," Beckett said looking sternly at her. He turned to his other patient while Max put the rest of her amour back on. Once she was done she looked at the other patient so she could see who to feel sorry for now she had annoyed the doctor.

"Well well, Alex Rider, that's a face I haven't seen in a while" she smirked. The patient looked at her puzzled. Max only shook her head, she reached up and removed her mask revealing her grinning face.

"Max!" Both of then heard Beckett groan.

"Figures you two would know each other"

"Alex! Long time no see, last time I saw you you were being hunted by Scorpia and I saved you arse because Mi-whatever were so up their own rectal cavity. What brings you here?" Max asked looking at the not-so-teenage spy.

"I could ask you the same thing," Alex returned.

The two of them chatted for a while catching up, since most of the time Max classified her own missions she was allowed to tell him what she wanted. Alex unfortunately did have confidentiality issues with his missions.

--

"ANBU captain? Are you sure?" Itachi was looking at Tsunade sceptically. Half the time he was coming back from his missions injured, it wouldn't do for his team to end up the same.

"The responsibility will be good for you, you'll meet your team tomorrow at training ground 15. They haven't got a particular specialisation but I'm sure you can find one" Itachi nodded and left after being dismissed.

One good thing came with the promotion. He had just one a bet with Max, they had been trying to get to the position of ANBU captain for a while so had made a bet on who would get it first. Max had bypassed it so her rank of Sannin didn't count.

Itachi just wished Max was back even if it was just for a day.

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