Gale stared at the famous Third Hokage. Her uncle 'Ruto spoke of the old man often. And had given her a few things so she could finally take the jounin exam, since the ancient law forbid it in her own time.
"So...you are the future daughter of Rabbit and Weasel. I thought Time Travel was forbidden by the Sage?"
"Time Travel is the last taboo. However things in my time have for some reason become twisted and from what we can tell it's source was in the past. So after my Mirror Twin showed up I was allowed to pass through the gates. My father and uncles made very sure I was well prepared for a trip to the past, despite the fact that the illness that struck the Elemetnal Areas had hit them just as hard as everyone else."
"What sort of illness?"
"One even Tsunade-baa-chan has never seen. She was one of those hit the hardest. I am one of the rare few completely unaffected. Me and my nin animals were the only ones."
As she said nin animals, a red fox with a tomoe shaped mark on it's forehead appeared.
"Yo. So you're the one Boss Kage always talks about," said the fox.
"Hono, be nice."
"I am bein' nice. I ain't calling him the other name Boss Kage calls him am I?" said Hono.
"What other name?"
"Pervy Gramps."
Itachi, when he heard that, choked back a laugh. He was one of the few who knew that the Third was an avid reader of Icha Icha.
"That reminds me. I have something to talk to you about old man, in private. Uncle 'Ruto said it was the best chance I had at finally taking the Jounin Exam," said Gale.
"You do realize that I would have great difficulty convincing the council in allowing those two back in the Outlying areas again, don't you?"
Gale bounced an odd ball that had been in her bag to reveal a few things. One was a scroll in a familiar handwriting addressed to the Hokage. Another scroll had a seal that read 'IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS, COPY IMMEDIATELY AND PUT INTO CIRCULATION!'. The third scroll was the one that caught his attention. It had all the markings of an S-rank mission.
"Inside are the mission parameters and the payment should it be successfully completed. Papa said this would convince you to let them go back to Tokyo long enough for whatever to cause the sickness back home to be reversed."
The Hokage read that scroll first.
"Mission Parameters: Restoration and reversal of mysterious illness caused by an aberration in the past.
Due to a certain anomaly, an illness caused by the past becoming out of sync with the future threatens everyone. If the Elemental Area is to survive, this anomaly must be corrected before the situation becomes permanent. The Chunin in charge of this mission shall be Gale Kushina Usagi Uchiha of Crystal Flame, or as it is known in the past, Konohagakure.
Should the mission be a success, Konoha would receive in payment several important items not limited to heirlooms of the Rikudo Sannin, vital documents pertaining to current events, and several missing weapons and/or scrolls that have been stolen by enemy nin during battle.
This is an S-rank mission on a Need-to-Know basis. No information about future events shall be spoken of unless it is absolutely necessary to correct this anomaly."
"So...you are a chunin?"
Gale reached into her bag and tossed him a rather thin BINGO Book.
Name: Gale Uchiha
Rank: Chunin (Is considered S Rank Jounin)
Age: 18+
Gender: Female
Specialties: Fuinjutsu, kenjutsu, Magic, and Summoning
Ninja ID Number: 7511255
Elemental Affinities: Wind, Light and Fire
Known Aliases: The Eternal Gale/Konoha's Timeless Wind
Description: For reasons unknown, Gale Uchiha appears to be around Nine years old, despite being well older than twice that. Any remarks made about her appearance is a sure fire way to anger her into killing the one who mentions it, usually in the most painful way possible. Like many of the recently restored Uchiha clan, Gale is a veritable prodigy of fire type jutsu, though she shares a similar chakra affinity to her Mother, the former ANBU commander Siren of the Seals.
Bounty: 1,750,000ryou if captured alive. 1,500,000 if delivered dead. Please note that those who have attempted to bring her in alive have all been killed by her Uncles and their associates.
The Hokage looked at the deceptively small girl with grayish black hair.
"How the hell are you a chunin with an S Ranking in the BINGO Book?!"
Gale cursed rather eloquently about the civilian council before she explained.
"Because of my family, I have been unofficially barred from taking the jounin exams in my time. All because of a law that had been in place before my mother took her true place in Konoha."
"What law?"
"Those with known royal blood can't be elevated higher than chunin unless there is a sufficient number of heirs available. And since I am their first born, I ended up getting the raw end of that deal," said Gale sourly.
Itachi winced. He had read about that law.
First born of a noble bloodline could become jounin if their status wasn't known to the shinobi forces. However if they were well known as nobles. Then they couldn't be raised higher than chunin because of the fact that jounin got killed in battle more often than random chunin did. It would be a cold day in hell before a noble managed to secure a jounin ranking, even with an S Class mark in the BINGO Book.
"This...This is...!" said the Hokage in awe.
Gale had undone one of the scrolls that she had brought thanks to some advice from her Uncle Naruto. When he heard where she was heading, and what time period, he had made a suggestion about how she could finally attain the jounin rank that she had been unfairly denied since she reached the appropriate skill levels centuries ago.
"I have up to volume thirty which is when the old Perv finally croaked. Took Uncle Naruto ten years to finally take over his godfather's legacy as a writer of porn, though his work doesn't suck half as much since he has someone to actually proofread for him."
"What do you want in exchange for lending me some of these?" asked the Hokage seriously, trying hard not to drool.
"I want to take the jounin exams. And if I pass you sign all the appropriate paperwork that labels me a jounin here in the past so the council in my time can't screw me over again simple because of who my parents are."
"Done. So if you earn a rank in the past you get to keep it in the future? Good to know."
"More like Uncle 'Ruto couldn't promote me because the council kept bitching about bias in the exams, and I can't take the thing outside the village because I am legally a Konoha citizen."
"He finally made Hokage?"
"Oh yes, and he never complains about the demonic paperwork that all the other Kages do."
The Kage looked at her with stars in his eyes.
"Tell me the secret! Please!"
Gale looked at him with a gleam in her eyes.
"Oh no, I'm saving that piece of bribery for something good if anything worth that secret ever comes up!" she smirked.
Her uncle Sasuke had taught her the fine art of blackmail and bribery since she was a genin. Centuries of experience had turned Gale Uchiha into a world class bitch when it came to getting what she wanted.
There was a reason why Anko Mitarashi (Who she called Aunty Anko to the woman's delight) had handed over her title as the T and I's Bitch Queen to the girl. And it wasn't because Gale was good at getting information from captured ninja.
Two weeks later, Gale was the proud and vindictive owner of a new Jounin vest. Years of being denied because of her heritage had angered her beyond belief, but she had at last earned her proper rank.
She couldn't wait to hear the council in her home timeline complain about the fact that she had found a loophole in the law. Oh how she was going to savor that moment!
Gale walked into what would become Crystal Tokyo and inspected the area with bored interest. It wasn't like her home at all, and the air was horrible.
She looked at her future mother.
"Would you be insulted if I said I was decidedly unimpressed with this place?"
Itachi snorted in amusement.
"Not in the least. It stinks to high heaven, killing is frowned upon, and people literally piss themselves whenever you up the KI to a certain level," said Itachi flatly.
"For the last time Itachi, Tokyo is a civilian city!" she growled.
Father and daughter shared a look and said in unison "It reeks."
Usagi threw up her hands in exasperation. Thankfully she had enough sense of mind not to invite an Inuzuka with them, or she would have to hit the aspirin hard.
"So which way is the house?"
"Why do you want to know?" asked Usagi.
"Simple. I want to meet my twin sister that I was never allowed to see except through mirrors."
The two stopped and looked at her.
"Explain."
"Small Lady Serenity is my twin sister and I suspect the cause of my current inability to age properly. Because there is a subtle genjutsu on Crystal Tokyo, I was never allowed to meet her face to face except through mirrors, which we always spoke through written messages. Had either of us meet in our future timelines before this moment, the genjutsu would have broken and Neo Queen Serenity would have had a lot more trouble than she needed to rule," said Gale.
"What sort of genjutsu?" asked Itachi.
"The kind that made shinobi hidden from this side of the Elemental Areas. She apparently had to deal with a lot of fighting, and to insure no one questioned the fact that she was queen, she placed a genjutsu to keep the Elemental Areas away from her side. You agreed to it so long as she didn't try to enforce her rule on the shinobi and keep them from doing what they've always done," said Gale.
"So basically it was a way to keep the peace and prevent her from forcing the shinobi to stop killing each other on a regular basis."
"Pretty much. Aside from a few martial arts masters or monks, no one ever came from the Crystal Tokyo side of the Elemental Areas. Last I heard there was talk of the people being moved to a large side dimension so the two sides never met," said Gale.
"So how do you know about Small Lady?" asked Usagi.
"Simple. We met by accident in our mirrors and one she got over the shock we turned into best friends. Believe me, it was rather amusing to see the look on the Queen's face when she realized that you had a daughter the same age as hers. They allow it so long as the sides stay separate," said Gale.
"So why were they so shocked?"
"Something about a prophecy of mirror twins causing disaster if they met before the past and future converge. Pluto mentioned it and gave me a few odd looks after a while, but eventually she dropped it. Though she did at least warn me if Small Lady happened to be coming."
"Pluto?" asked Itachi.
"One of the Outer Senshi. They are the only ones allowed into the Elemental Areas simply because they guard from the outside-in, instead of protecting her directly. Though apparently they go through Pluto's gate first to keep the contamination from chakra to a minimum whenever they visit."
Itachi pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Exactly how many girls are we talking about here?"
Gale counted on her fingers silently.
"Well, counting the Outers there should be at least nine. We never count outside Senshi," said Gale.
"Outside senshi?" said Itachi faintly.
"Each star system comes with their planetary senshi, though they rarely come to visit. When they do, they mostly come to see Mother instead of her past self, simply because they can relate to her better. Of the Outer Senshi, there are Pluto, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. She loves coming over because she can beat anyone who makes fun of her senshi title up without worrying about Neo Queen Serenity complaining about it."
Itachi could see that one happening. Some of the Academy students used to bandy about really bad puns involving that planet.
Small Lady Serenity (or as she was now called by Mamoru her future father) Rini, looked at her twin sister in shock. For the first time in nine centuries, she could meet Gale Kushina Usagi Uchiha face to face without a mirror in the way.
So it was only natural that she tackle her fellow time traveler in a hug.
"Gale!"
"Hey Rini-chan. It's about time we got to meet."
Rini quickly told her other half about what happened in Crystal Tokyo, and Gale mentioned the illness that had spread like wildfire. Both events occurred within moments of their mother's being cocooned in crystal, seemingly in slumber.
Though apparently the ninja were more resilient to whatever the hell lay waste to almost all the civilians in Crystal Tokyo, because only a few of the older shinobi and civilians had died. Most of the shinobi in the Elemental Areas, even the weaker ones, were just really, really sick.
So far one of the senshi had been captured. Rei, the miko that had learned a lot of fire tricks from Itachi, had been taken by the same enemy that had appeared in Crystal Tokyo.
Fortunately since the house was in Usagi's name, no one questioned where the two little girls came from. Her parents were still watching over Naruto and the boys for them.
At least until they could claim that they were taking them on a year long training mission once they reached genin. After a brief discussion with the Hokage, he promised not to pair any of their fangirls with the boys.
At the rate they were going they would make an effective genin team all on their own.
"So Rini, do you have any aunts or uncles?" asked Usagi.
"No. The scouts act like big sisters, but they're often really busy."
"Too bad you couldn't come visit me. Uncle Sasuke and 'Ruto said they would love to show you a few tricks that even civilians could play on people," said Gale.
"That reminds me, who are your uncles Gale?"
"There's Uncle 'Ruto, the Hokage, Uncle Sasuke the best Kenjutsu master, and Uncle Sai, who doubles as the royal painter for whenever we want a portrait done. Those double as a defense in case of an invasion."
"Do you have any aunts?"
"Well, all of my uncles are married, though I can't tell you their names in case they try to meet them too early. But there is one aunt that I can speak of. Aunt Haku," said Gale.
"Haku?"
"A girl they rescued on their first C rank to Wave. They tried to spare her master, but he got killed before the other employer revealed that he was going to betray them anyway. Mother was the one to keep Aunt Haku from giving into her grief," said Gale.
"So what now?" asked Serenity. She had been living practically alone aside from a few clones that doubled as her parents to keep people off her back. For the past few weeks she had been alone, Luna and Artemis had moved the base to the basement, careful to leave the sealing array alone.
No one would think twice about teenage girls meeting their friends in a house, so it was the perfect base.
Though they still kept some of it under the game center as a back up.
Gale went with Ami to a girl who claimed that she could find anything. Ami wanted to find Rei and hoped the girl could help her.
However, mere moments upon meeting her, Gale went into battle mode. The girl was giving off some seriously foul chakra, and she didn't want to be around when she got ready to fight.
"Ami, move!" cried Gale, pushing the girl out of the way.
She got hit, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
"So...we have another Rabbit here?" said the girl sneering.
"Who are you?" demanded Gale. Serenity and Makoto came into the room, trying to help their friend.
"My name is Berthier!" she said.
Gale reached for her fox ball.
"Kitsune Flame Magic!"
With a poof of smoke, the ball turned into a mask. It resembled a kitsune mask one would find at festivals, though the coloration was primarily white and red.
"Mission, Start."
And with that, Gale vanished from the visible spectrum. Her speed was second to none, and the woman didn't stand a chance against her sword.
"Release Sailor Mercury and I won't take your head," said Gale coldly.
Berthier, realizing the small girl was a bigger threat than any scout, released Sailor Mercury before the girl could follow through. At the very least the scout wouldn't be fighting for a few weeks after the damage she had dealt.
Berthier vanished before the girl could injure her further, though not before she took a good long look at her face.
Gale was a much better fighter than Rabbit.
