Underlined - English

'Italicised' - thoughts

NOA

With a flare of chakra and a 'KAI' and suddenly I'm the most aware I've been since we left Konoha.

Which we are back in now. Right. Thinking is so much easier now that I've managed to burn the drugs out of my system.

A slight shift, a jolt of pain. "Man, I have got to stop waking up in so much pain," I croak out, eyes closed. No, bad Noa. Talking isn't a good idea. Bad, bad idea.

My eyes flutter open, and I'm no longer in a medical ward but a large, featureless room. I'm laid down on the hard stone in a pair of pants and a hospital gown - the kind with an open back, and I can feel the grit of dirt or dust against my still-raw back.

And I'm not alone.

"What did she say?"

Was that the Sandaime Hokage?

"That she needs to stop waking up in so much pain."

Okay. Kakashi I can deal with.

"Sassy one isn't she?"

Don't know that voice - a woman. She's out of my field of vision.

"She may have picked that up from my daughter."

Mr. Yamanaka. I think I remember him being in my room.

"Or Ino picked it up from her."

Mr. Nara. Okay. I definitely remember him being there - he squeezed my hand.

No one does anything for a long moment, and I decide that laying on the ground is the dumbest thing ever. I can't think of any injuries that would stop me from sitting up - other than my stupid back - so I brace down my forearms and force myself up.

My gasp of pain echos through the room, but I'm sat upright - and that's all that matters. (I decided to ignore the woman's - was that the head medic? - muttering about reckless patients.) As soon as the bolts of pain finish destroying my back, I look up and am suddenly face to face with the God of Shinobi.

I blink and try not to react - and fail spectacularly. "Sandaime-sama?" I question, half confusion and half greeting. The man in front of me is more stoic than even when we first met and he thought I was a plant to get to Ruto.

Good times.

"Noa," He greets back, voice level and emotionless. "Do you know why you're here?"

The question throws me off, and I have to work to form a response. "Ummm. 'Cuz I got hurt after taunting Zabuza of the Mist with information I shouldn't really have?" I croak out, wincing at how disused my voice sounds.

The Hokage doesn't react to what I said, and simply keeps his very dangerous gaze on me. I'm too afraid to break eye contact, so I start to babble - no matter how much it hurts my cords.

"Um … Well I know that taunting a missing nin is a bad idea I kinda had an excuse cuz I was in the shinobi bar - I know that I wasn't supposed to be but I needed to find Anko cuz she told me that if I didn't return her borrowed trench coat as soon as possible then she'd turn me inside out and I really have to take whatever that woman says seriously - and I realized that drunk shinobi can be really easy to eavesdrop on and there was this gaggle of chunin and they were just sitting there talking about their last mission and I didn't catch all of it but they were talking about how so much of the Mist was in shambles and there were nin defecting left and right 'cuz they didn't agree with the Mizukage. So I was like why not look into the Mizukage and those who defected from Kiri cuz you never know who you're going to run into -"

I cut off sharply when the Sandaime holds up a single hand, and I swallow nervously. His mask finally breaks, and he treats me to a grandfatherly smile. The KI that I didn't even realize he was giving off is suddenly gone and I can breathe again.

When he speaks, his voice is warm. "I'm sorry for the suspicion, Noa. We didn't expect you to be so observant - we apologize for underestimating you. However, that isn't why you're here, Noa-chan."

Oh. I was under suspicion. 'Underestimating' me my ass, they thought that I was an imposter or a sleeper agent or something.

Babbling for the win.

"Noa-chan. Do you remember ever getting injured on your back?"

I blink at the familiarity of the question, and my gaze darts to where Kakashi is standing stiffly next to Ino's dad. "My back hurts right now." I admit, thinking back. "But other than that, not really. Maybe a kick or bruise - nothing really debilitating - I mean serious."

The Sandaime nods carefully, but his face in inscrutable. "Noa-chan, you have two scars on your back."

"I'm sorry, what?"

Another little smile, but then he's serious again. "Noa-chan, you have two fifteen centimeter long scars running parallel to each other between your shoulder blades."

One blink. Two.

"When the hell did I get that?"

I'm thinking back on both of my lives - trying to figure out where two scars like that could've come from - when I realize the Sandaime is still speaking, "- family."

I mentally shake myself, and shift into a loose cross legged seated position. "Huh?" I question numbly. "Didn't catch that. Shocking revelation and all."

Ever patient, the Hokage starts again. "We believe that the marks on your back are a sign of a Kekkei Genkai - a bloodline limit that was passed down through your family."

A Kekkei Genkai - the fucking hell?

I think back. When I was born in this world, I thought at first that it was just one big trippy dream. I was two by the time that I drew the parallels between the Naruto books and the world I was living in.

I never knew the woman who bore me in this world - as she succumbed to illness after giving birth to me, and I wouldn't know what to think of her if I did meet her. She was from out of clan and as I grew, the family that I was born into spared me no love. They were a small, traditional clan that lived in a village a few clicks from Konoha. They were disgusted by how foreign I looked, and thought me the devil child because of the language that I spoke - they barely fed me and fired the nanny they had hired for me. Akimi was the only person who I cared for at that point, really.

Did they have a bloodline limit? Was that why they were disgusted by me? My mother was from out of clan, did they think she cheated on my father? So were disgusted that I could never inherit the limit?

Didn't excuse them being assholes, but that does make them - maybe - the tiniest bit more understandable.

But what was their name? C'mon Noa, you lived with them for three years before you finally cut loose. Tsunami? Tusnaba? Tsubai? No, it was -

"Tsubasa?"

I feel four sets of eyes and one eye bore into me, and I realize that I spoke out loud.

Shit.

Mr. Yamanaka draws level with the Sandaime, and squats down to my eye level. A thrill of fear runs through me, but I know that he would never enter my mind without permission if there was another option.

I hope.

"Noa-chan," He asks, voice gentle. "Where did you hear that name?"

Shit shit shit shit shit.

I gulp, and decide to keep as close to the truth as I could. "I dunno. I think I heard it as a kid? I dunno why I remembered it just now."

He nods, seemingly taking what I was saying at face value. After all, the Noa they knew had no reason to lie. Lucky me. "Do you remember anything about the Tsubasa? They're a clan - an ancient one that we thought all died out."

"All died out?"

The words tumble out of my mouth before I realize what I could be giving away, but my present paranoid company seem to chalk it up to my nerves and the situation. It is the Sandaime who answers me. "The last of the Tsubasa resided in a small village to the east of Konoha, but were wiped out in a mass assassination by Kumogakure - who they originally defected from.

Holy shit. Those bastards were dead.

Thank fucking god.

"No. I think I only heard Auntie mention them once or twice, and always with something negative to say about how much they valued blood purity."

More like what I thought about them, but oh well. At least the jounin in the room look unsurprised.

"So - I'm a Tsubasa?" At least Team 7 can be a collective group of shinobi that belong to clans that don't exist anymore. I was happy with how I was now - I don't want any bloodlines from people who didn't care about me to define who I was now.

Kakashi gives me a semi-genuine eye smile, but I can feel the tension radiating off of him - was this some kind of big deal? It just meant that I had a powerup, right?

Something on the wall catches my eye, and as I look more properly around the room I realize that there are a bunch of seals on the walls - and that the door is locked sturdily shut.

Trying to hide my nerves from my voice, I dare to ask. "So if I was just hurt because of using my bloodline incorrectly, then why am I here - with…" I do a quick headcount, "A kage, my jounin-sensei, the head medic, jounin commander, and the head of T/I?"

Shikaku's lips twitch, and Inoichi's shoulders loosen, just a bit, at my casual use of humor - but it's the head medic - Mesuji? - who answers me.

"It's because your bloodline is out of control - and it's killing you."