Training with Shisui is a lot harder that Fuuko imagines. Each punch and kick comes with an assault of alternatives, each casual thought is disconcerting fountain of information and knowledge. She wonders if she'll ever become Hatake Fuuko. Her body works fine on autopilot, smoothly dodging and flickering, countering his attacks, but she doesn't feel like she actually belongs when she struggles to assimilate her thoughts into the body's movements. It's suffocating trying to belong. Her body feels ill-fitting, like a dress that's too tight. Each spew of memories is smothering, burying her (she isn't supposed to exist).

"You're leaving your right side open," Shisui tells her, stopping in front of her. His tanto is held out on his side and he frowns at her.

(She never leaves her right side open, left but never the right)

"Maybe I'll just run through my katas," she says, flicking her kodachi in a practiced move as though there is blood on it (there always is blood on her kodachi). She thinks running katas to bridge the fissure between her memories would help, except the look on Shisui's face is strange. Like she's said something wrong. He doesn't stop her, regardless, when she moves to the side to run through her katas.

Her kodachi feels familiar and unfamiliar in her hand. Her body moves effortlessly through the motions (actions that would have caused her agony in her then life), even with the thrusting and lunging, her heart barely increases, her breath is even like she's just walking.

(This is the body of a shinobi. Enduring like the sky itself endures.)

Her sword swings noiselessly, she flips in midair, letting the act of fighting (dancing) wash over her, her movements speeding up with the completion of each set of katas. By the time she's done enough to please her, her muscles are quivering and the early morning sun has turned into a noon sun. Shisui is practicing with Itachi in a training ground close enough for their presence to brush against her sensory range, Kakashi is lounging on a grass patch nearby, reading a very familiar orange book.

"Nii-san," she greets. The words still feel stilted on her tongue no matter how many times she practiced it in her head. He's still that man, that guy from the manga. Even with all the childhood memories that floats up with a thought of him, she still can't erase that part of her.

"Ah. You're done." He arches an eyebrow at her. "Want to get some lunch? I'm thinking of curry rice."

"What! Let's have udon!" Shisui flickering behind her with a fresh bruise on his face. "Tamaki-san makes fantastic tempura udon."

"You're not invited, Shisui," Kakashi grumbles.

Shisui places a hand on his chest, gasping in mock horror. "Rude! For all the things I've done for you-"

"What exactly have you been doing for Kakashi-taichou?" Itachi asks. His eyes hovers on her, another frown at the kodachi in her hand. She was getting tired from all these frowns. They should just say what's on their mind instead of frowning at her, like she's doing something wrong (and she probably is, but that's not the point). She glances at the sword in her hand, wondering what exactly she's doing wrong this time.

It hadn't occurred to her this morning, that she had been sitting on Kakashi's seat until much later. Sitting by the window had been a very natural thing for her in her then life. Was anyone looking after Mr Barky? Her cute little fluffy puff, oh how she misses him.

"Fuuko-san?" Itachi calls out in his quiet voice. "Are you feeling well?"

"Nii-san!" The group turns to see a little black haired kid running towards them, hands swinging neatly wrapped packages. "Okaa-san told me to bring you guys bentos."

"Well done, otouto."

Shisui shunshins to Sasuke, grabbing him and swinging him back and forth. "Lunch! Oh Sasuke-chan, you are such a good boy!"

Sasuke struggles for a few moments, pushing Shisui's cheek from his before giving up. "Fuuko-neechannnn…" he whines, blowing his cheeks up in a great pout. "Hellp..."

It felt weird that Sasuke recognised her. How had she known him? Why couldn't she remember anything about him?

"Nee-chaaan!"

She takes an unconscious step back.

(He'll grow and become a monster. He'll try to destroy Konoha.) She remembers him from the manga, the sword he stole from Orochimaru, the sword that he wields as he kills Danzo. They're not memories of this life or that life, but it feels all the same.

Her head throbs the longer she stares at him. The drumming on the sides of her head threatened to explode. Her breath rasps, her shoulders shake.

"Wolf, run!"

"Taicho!" She skidded to a stop, bending backwards to dodge his tongue. She flips sideways, narrowly missing his sword.

"Run!"

She turns. She needs to run, run away. She leaps from tree to tree, there isn't any other thought in her mind except the need to run. Where is she running to?

"Fuuko!"

There isn't enough air in the world for her. She's drowning even as she runs across the numerous training fields. Her lungs are burning like she's attempted to transverse Kiri to Konoha in a day. She isn't far enough yet.

"Fuuko! Stop!"

Not safe. Have to get Cat back home, promised Fox. Have to-

She slips. The rays of sun beating against the green leaves, dust motes swaying in its wake. Was this the first time she had seen the sun and leaves since waking? The blue of the sky is almost hypnotic and had it not been for the sharp thud and brief pain in her back, she might not have realised that she had landed on the ground. She's fine, her body had automatically adjusted for a injury-free fall.

Shisui lands beside her, her brother is far behind. She stares at the patch of blue sky, unblinkingly. Shisui has always been the fastest between the four of them.

"Fuuko?" Shisui kneels beside her.

She tilts her head at him, her voice is so low and guttural that it sounds foreign even to her own ears. "Have to get Cat home." She paws at the ground, her body not moving as well as it should (chakra strings).

"I'm fine. Cat is fine. Cat is safe," Shisui says, dodging her flailing arms and spinning the strings tighter around her. He pins her to the ground, henging into Cat. "We're safe."

"Have to get Cat home," she insists. Her breath comes out in stuttering gasps as she struggles to get up. His dark eyes flash into red, gleaming, forlorn eyes.

"And I asked myself, can a body exist without a soul?"

"Sleep," he says.

"And I said yes."

Then she welcomes the darkness.

\W/ \W/ \W/

She wakes. The side of her face cold from where it was pressed against the window.

Just a dream.

She shifts the blankets that cover her legs and wheel her chair around to where the fire is. A dream where she could run across the rooftops and soar in the trees, where her body no longer ached with each movement. She raises her hand, her elbow and shoulder protesting at that action. Her hand trembles as she stares at it. Pale, soft, weak hands, just like she remembered. (Strong and powerful.)

Mr Barky looks up as she wheels up beside him, wagging his tail in anticipation for pets. (Bakushou raises an ear lazily) She scratches his ear and looks up at the clock. Almost dinner time, should start cooking. She rolls her wheelchair down the hallway, Mr Barky following her, his tail beating a drum beat against the wall.

The bathroom's still lit with a tub full of water. Why it's full? She steers her wheelchair next to the tub. There is a woman lying in the tub. Her dark brown hair floats to the surface of the water. As she leans over to check if the woman's breathing and stops. Her own reflection has silver hair, and dark grey eyes.

(Just tou-san and nii-san.)

Beneath the surface of the water, the woman opens her eyes. Her eyes are green and they are so familiar. She opens her mouth, thin lips mouthing the words that flicker across her mind.

(We are Hatake Fuuko.)

A warmth landed on her head, jolting her out of her thoughts. Kakashi arched an eyebrow at her, his lips quirking upwards. "Yosh, yosh," he said and ruffled her hair.

"Why did you do that for?"

"You were having a series of bad thoughts and being your nii-san, I decided to interrupt it." He rubbed his thumb on her nose bridge. "Stop frowning." Kakashi hauled her up and dragged her to the training grounds.

The woman points at Mr Barky sitting by the door, waiting. Getting up, Fuuko followed Bakushou into the dark fields. Above is a red full moon hanging heavily above the horizon, the dark Uchiha grounds surrounds her. There are bodies strewn all over the roads and a person crouches on the top of a electric post, staring down at her.

(Red, gleaming eyes.)

She remembers this. Not as a set of memories from either life, but a memory of a story she once read.

(Never useless again.)

Everything here isn't real. Not a dream, but a genjutsu. Fuuko takes a last look, committing the scene to memory. It hasn't happened yet and wouldn't happen if she can help it.

She places her fingers into the tiger seal.

"Kai!" (Kai)

\W/ \W/ \W/

Kakashi and Shisui are hunched beside her when she wakes.

"How long was I out?" Her tongue feels thick and languid in her mouth, like she's been days without water and her voice has a chafe that sounds painful even if it doesn't.

"Just five minutes," Shisui replies, shaking his head. "I'm sorry I had to knock you out… I know I promised not to."

Fuuko shakes her head and pushes herself off the leaf-littered earth. The midday sun filters through the massive canopy, giving strange shadows to the two men's faces. Kakashi's face is blank like his Hound mask and though Shisui's is expressive, his eyes are lined with exhaustion. "It's fine."

"Do you… want to talk about it?" Kakashi asks.

Died in the labs. Was reborn. Don't know why either. Not exactly the things she wanted to share with Kakashi even if the she before would have trusted him with her life. It sounds funny no matter how she transposes the words and probably guarantees a trip to Inoichi-sensei, so she says, "No."

Kakashi takes it better than she expected him to. It probably says something when he doesn't even push the issue, instead he runs through some hand seals and summons a tri-coloured collie. He probably thinks that she wants some comforting. Her awkward nii-san, who finds words of comfort harder than an S-rank mission, falls back on summoning her favourite ninken.

The collie eyes her with his beady brown eyes. "What did you do now?"

She barks a laugh. "What makes you think I did something, Bakushou?" The collie only gives her an unimpressed look.

"Well come on-" he slaps his tail in Kakashi's face. "Pick her up so we can go get some yakiniku."

"I can walk, you know," she says when Kakashi picks her up and slings her across his back, his arms hooked around her knees. Shisui is right beside her, filling the silence with his endless chatter. Fuuko is happy to enjoy this brief moment. Whatever that had happened to make her flashback so vivid and immersive, it had helped to integrate her different sets of memories; or the very least, accept that she's here to stay.

She shovels any other insecurities that threatens to swallow her and focused on black haired boy, first find out where Danzo's plans are and then maybe save Shisui. Fuuko leans against nii-san's shoulder, breathing a small huff and despite the fact that he says nothing, she feels him squeezing her legs as though saying, 'I'm here'.

Notes:

I so need someone to discuss plotlines and/or beta for me, well if anyone's interested, let me know!

Meanwhile to discuss some things that I'm sure has crossed everyone's mind while reading chp 3, yes, Fuuko's memories are fragmented and out of order. She doesn't make a lot of sense and she's very painfully aware of this. I have a lot of things I want to add to Fuuko, so much stuff that I'm beginning to think that it is too much details.

Since Kakashi has a family member still, I think his personality development after Minato's death would be different, as such he's a bit more vocal (and closer to his post anbu personality) that what would have been predicted.

So questions: Shisui or Itachi? Who do you prefer?