"Master Jiraiya?" Inoichi calls warily. "How old is this child?" With what he was seeing in her mind, he wasn't as confident with his assumption as he was before.

Jiraiya gives him a puzzled look. "I'd guess around Naruto's or your own daughter's age. Why?"

"If what you're saying is correct, then how does she have vivid memories of yours and Lady Hokage's time in the third shinobi war? In your genin days even?"

"Excuse me?" He blurts in disbelief. He couldn't believe it went that far back. He had assumed that it went as far back as the time Yasuko was born, but for it be even further than that was unthinkable.

"Not only that, but even the memories that she shouldn't have even been present for? Or rather wasn't present for." He corrects himself. He scrunches his eyebrows together tightly as the images of a new incident start revealing themselves to him. As soon as he's done watching it, he glances at Jiraiya worriedly. "The Kazekage… "

Jiraiya nods his head. "I've already told her."

"Very well." And then Inoichi returns to his task once again. "I'll try and find an explanation to all this."

"Thank you." Jiraiya says with a sigh.

Ending up with more questions than answers than when he had first gotten here was taking its toll on his already stressed brain. But what wasn't he already used to by then?

::

"So, basically I'm to make sure bad things that could happen don't happen and that's why I have the future seeing ability." Yasuko mumbles to herself. "And then the past seeing ability is to know who I'm dealing with and to help me understand them better and where they're coming from?"

"You figured that out rather quickly." Notes Hagoromo.

Yasuko smiles and rubs the back of her neck sheepishly. "I guess so."

Hagoromo smiles before pausing suddenly and hitting his staff on the water making the surrounding area turn dark with the only light being around the area Yasuko and him occupy.

"Why'd you do that?" Questions Yasuko as she gets halfway up cautiously and glances around to everything that has disappeared from her sight- which wasn't much except water… and blankness.

"Our time is about up."

Yasuko looks back at Hagoromo before he too disappears from her sight. "Wait, but I still have questions!" She calls out. "And you never told me the rest of what you needed to say!"

"I'm aware." He says bitterly. "However, they should all be answered within due time. I'll make sure of it." He tells her. "Now, I have no control over what you do from here on out, but I sincerely hope you use your power for good."

"I mean, I was planning on doing that anyway." She mumbles. She had already tried the other option, not purposely, but she knew she didn't like it too well.

He gives a small laugh. "Of course. Well, as an aid, you can use the portion of my chakra that I have bestowed you to help guide you along the right path. The child of prophecy, Ashura's reincarnate, aid him in any way you can. Indra's reincarnate will be harder to aid, but do so in any way you can. You will help them bring a greater peace to this world." The single area of light illuminating Yasuko's area starts to fade away. "All I can tell you now is that the pain will soon fade, but it will be replaced with something new." He adds, watching Yasuko's crestfallen expression. "Until we meet again, Yasuko."

Yasuko blinks in confusion before closing her eyes, hands by her sides, and head bowed slightly. "I'll do my best."

She wasn't going to waste this second chance, not if she had anything to say about it.

Which she did.

This time.

::

"Any luck?" Wonders Jiraiya.

Inoichi shakes his head as he removes his hand. "Unfortunately no."

It was strange though. While most of the entries that Inoichi had tried to unravel were somehow protected from prying eyes, there were those that weren't- those that Yasuko herself had managed to unravel.

It seemed as though once she unlocked those memories, only then could he see them too.

But why was that the case, and what role did the reappearing Rinnegan play in all of it?

"Master Jiraiya." Inoichi calls. "Have you ever wondered if the legend of the Sage of Six Paths was really just a legend after all?" He turns toward Jiraiya. "That he really did exist?"

Jiraiya crosses his arms and sighs. "Y'know, I've been starting to think the same thing too. Someone might say I'm overanalyzing things again, but ever since she said that he's been somehow talking to her, it's always been nagging at the back of my head no matter how much I try to forget it."

Inoichi blinks. "You mean he's able to communicate with others even now?"

Jiraiya chuckles. "You'd think knowing that he'd passed away centuries ago would've told me otherwise." He narrows his eyes at Yasuko. "But I can't help but think that it has something to do with her chakra."

Inoichi too glances back at Yasuko and nods his head. "It would make sense. Even now I can sense just how vast her chakra reserves are despite her state. But there's also something… " He pauses. "Something off about it's aura."

"Exactly." He sighs. "Although everyone has it to some extent, I'd say chakra is still one of life's greatest mysteries." He says, tilting his head back so he stares up at the ceiling. He glances back at Inoichi and smiles. "Take a break, alright? You've done a lot."

Inoichi nods his head without complaint. "Very well." He begins to glance back at Yasuko. "It should be a while before she… " His eyes widen in shock as he meets Yasuko's eyes that are suddenly staring up at him blankly.

"Careful." She softly whispers, eyes brimming with tears. "This is a second chance, don't ruin it."

"What's wrong?" Calls Jiraiya, walking over quickly as he senses something is off.

"I- " Inoichi says stunned as Yasuko's eyes suddenly shut.

Jiraiya steps around Inoichi, narrowing his eyes in confusion as he sees her sitting there unconscious still. "I thought I heard her talking for a second there." He muses.

Inoichi lets the sudden tension, he hadn't realized had been in his body, go. "No, you heard right, Master Jiraiya."

But despite the voice they heard, the person speaking through that voice was definitely not Yasuko.

Inoichi could say he knew that without a doubt.

As the two moved towards the other side of the room to converse and gather all their details together after transferring the unconscious Yasuko from the chair to a mat, the tears brimming in Yasuko's eyes earlier start to slip down her cheeks slowly.

::

When she finally regained consciousness, the first thing she realized was that she wasn't in the interrogation room anymore. But she also wasn't in the hospital either. In fact, she had no idea where she was.

Yasuko stands up, the blanket covering her frame slipping off and falling to the ground messily as she examines her surroundings.

There were two doors to her left, a window straight in front of her, and a bag behind her.

She walks over to the bag, crouches down, and carefully unzips it, examining it's contents.

There were a pair of white shirts, black pants, and black fingerless gloves.

Sitting down crossed legged, she pulls out one of each, except for the gloves to which she pulled out both.

Yasuko gets up, clothes in hand, gloves on her bed until she returns, and walks over to the first door on her left and was greeted by a short hallway. She moves to the next door and opens it, walking in as she found her destination.

When was the last time she took a shower anyway?

::

As she begins drying her hair with a towel, Yasuko stares down at the note left on the windowsill.

Yo!

If you're reading this then you're awake! Congratulations!

You didn't regain consciousness in the time Inoichi had predicted you would, so we moved you from the T&I building to a regular apartment building. You're welcome in advance.

Clothing is in the bag behind your bed mat and breakfast is in the kitchen if you find it.

I'll be outside at 9:00 either way.

- Jiraiya

Yasuko glances around for a clock, heading out of the room and around the apartment when there isn't one in the room she was in. She finds a bento box sitting on the counter in what she assumes is the kitchen, grabbing it with her as she continues to search for something to tell her what time it is.

"Come on! Come on! It's almost six! We have to get there before the line gets too big!" She hears someone shout from outside.

She heads back into her room, bento box in hand.

She still had time.

::

After a rather delicious breakfast of steamed rice and miso soup, Yasuko lids the bento box and places the leftovers back on the counter for later. As she got through a few pieces of the grilled fish she knew she wasn't going to finish it so it sat beside the natto that she took but a few bites of as well.

She estimated that it had only been about forty five minutes or so since she woke up, meaning she still had around two hour and fifteen minutes to waste.

But on what?

She sits there for 2 more minutes in silence before getting up and going back to bed.

::

"-oor! I've been out here for 10 minutes now!"

Yasuko groans and sits up, staring forward with tired, blank eyes as she listens to the shouting voice from outside her apartment door.

"Do not make me shushin my way in there! I will do it!" He wouldn't. He could sense Yasuko's chakra and she seemed fine, so there wasn't an immediate need to enter. But he was getting tired of standing there when he had already told her beforehand he would show up at 9. If she had read the note that was.

Either way, she was bound to wake up at some point. He hoped.

Yasuko blinks tiredly. Who's voice was that again? It sounded familair.

She sighs and stretches, trudging towards the door shortly afterwards and staring blankly at the person on the other side before nodding slowly as her brain catches up. "Oh, you're finally here." She says with a yawn as she begins walking back into the apartment, Jiraiya in tow. "I got so bored waiting I went back to sleep."

Jiraiya shuts the door behind him and laughs. "So you did read the note."

"A few hours ago, yes." She says, offering him the rest of the bento box, placing it back on the counter when he declines. "This place needs a clock or two though, I lost track of time."

"I see that."

Yasuko glances at him tiredly, before walking back into her room. "I'm gonna quickly go wash up again, we can head out right after."

Jiraiya blinks as she shuts her bedroom door behind herself. He glances around the kitchen and rest of the apartment for something to do.

This place really did have nothing to pass time with, did it?

::

A few minutes later, Yasuko walks out, the drowsiness washed away. "So, why'd you show up so early, where are we going?" She asks Jiraiya, who's sitting on a mat writing in a scroll.

"Tsunade wants to meet with you again." He answers without glancing up. "Uh, apparently she was already heading towards the hospital yesterday and wanted to check your condition herself before sending you off to Inoichi." He adds sheepishly.

Yasuko stifles a laugh. "Did you get in trouble?"

"Ha ha ha, very funny, kid." He only got a lecture and a books spine smacked against his head.

A few moments pass before Jiraiya glances up. "And also that guy we helped out was brought back in." He adds

"Oh." She simply says. She already knew that him being brought back was a huge possibility, but still. After he tried so hard to leave to.

But maybe his condition was worse than he was letting on though.

She sighs and moves to put on her sandals. "Where does she want to meet exactly?"

"The Hokage Tower."

"Oh, ok." And then she suddenly freezes. Something was off. There was something she knew she was forgetting, but she couldn't put her finger on what.

"Is something wrong?" Jiraiya calls.

She nods and stands up. "Except I don't know what, so I have a question."

"That… makes perfect sense." He deadpans. "Question about what?"

"What happened while I was out exactly?"

::

Being out cold for almost an entire day meant she was kept much more out of the loop of things than she already was.

Team 7 had already been sent out to the village Hidden in the Sand yesterday. All the information they could've possibly needed had been relayed from what Inoichi had gathered from yesterday's session.

And yesterday's session?

It hadn't went the way a lot of them had hoped it would.

Her memories were "locked" as Inoichi described it. There was no way in opening them unless she herself had opened them, according to Inoichi's theory.

Thing is, she still didn't understand the full concept of how to unlock them.

She would look at people, but depending on who that person was, either she would get visions about them or she would get nothing.

And it didn't just apply to people or living things, because as she clearly remembered, it also happened when she had been chased down back in the forest. The trigger that time was a kunai knife and an explosives tag.

But on the bright side at least she managed to figure that much out when the person who gave the power to her himself couldn't tell her.

"Ugh." She groaned, dropped her head in her hands propped on the table.

Jiraiya side eyes her concerningly. "If I knew you'd complain this much about stopping for breakfast I would've came by myself." He huffs, eating another mouthful of rice.

Yasuko stared at him through her fingers before sighing. She'd try and explain it when they got to the office, but seeing as she didn't even fully understand it herself, then it was probably better off not mentioning it at all.

::

"Would you look at that, the kid lives." Tsunade says as Yasuko and Jiraiya enter her office.

Shizune sighs. "Probably not the best choice of words." She mutters.

Yasuko clenches her jaw and simply stares past them and out the window quietly. One day it wouldn't bother her as much. It being that she had died before, somehow. But that one day was not today.

"You were out for quite a while, Yasuko." Tsunade notes.

"Yeah… um, I was told that a lot happened during that time?" Yasuko says, turning her gaze from the window to the hokage. "Did any of what Inoichi did help at all?"

Tsunade smiles and nods her head. "We received the message from the Hidden Sand as Team 7 was getting their mission briefing. Inoichi was on his way to give me a report on his findings and gave us some information he believed would he useful." She props her chin in her interned fingers resting on her desk. "I'd say that helped, wouldn't you?"

Yasuko's eyes drift downwards. "I suppose… " She says hesitantly.

Tsunade narrows her eyes cautiously. "You helped us a lot, but you don't sound happy about it. Why?"

Yasuko snaps her eyes forward. "No, no, it's not like that really. It's more of… " She runs her hand over the back of her neck. "What if it doesn't happen the way I saw?"

There was nothing but silence and a sudden chill that had entered the room, despite none of the windows being open.

Yasuko's eyes dart everywhere but at them until she hears Tsunade sigh.

"If it doesn't happen the way it was supposed to play out, then let's hope it just means it was a better result than what it would've been."

::

"Was there something else that needed to be talked about or was that all?" Yasuko asks after a while, pointing back towards the door. "If it's alright, I wanna talk to Inoichi myself about yesterday too."

"Inoichi was sent out to assist Team 7 this morning. so I'm afraid that won't be possible." Tsunade says.

Yasuko blinks. That was definitely different. In her visions, Inoichi didn't get sent out at all. "Oh." She simply says. "I guess I'll ask when he gets back then."

"About that… "Jiraiya starts. "You're actually gonna be hanging with me for a while so that meeting with Inoichi is going to have to be postponed."

Yasuko glances up at him in confusion. "As in, out of the village?"

"Yeah."

"Am I even allowed to do that?"

"Uh, why wouldn't you be?"

Yasuko narrows her eyes and glances at Tsunade. "I don't understand. I mean, I could be a threat that no one knows about yet, shouldn't you all be taking more caution than this?" She hoped she wasn't their enemy, but what did she know.

Jiraiya's eyes twitches. "Are you doubting my abilities? I'll have you know I was able to keep Naruto out of everyone's hands for almost three years." He huffs, offended. "What kind of trouble is another kid, that no one even knows about yet, gonna cause?"

Shizune sighs with a smile, relieved that at least some of the tension in the room had dissipated.

Tsunade shakes her head at Jiraiya's antics before turning to Yasuko. "We've agreed that honing your abilities would be a good step in not only helping you survive on your own, but also in helping us as well. So from now on you'll begin training on doing just that." She says, her arms now resting flat on her desk. "Keeping your ability a secret, for now, would be the best course of action. If people, specifically the Akatsuki in this case, caught word of someone who could potentially see the future, they would surely use you to their advantage."

Yasuko doesn't bring up the fact that they were kind of doing the same thing, but just for different reasons.

"You can't properly defend yourself so in this case, you're at the disadvantage." Adds Shizune. "Training you to defend yourself and hone your abilities would be the first step."

Yasuko tries to come up with a counter, coming up with any possible reason, but to no avail.

"So you understand?" Guesses Jiraiya.

She crosses her arms, and sighs, closing her eyes.

She didn't really have many options. In fact, she kind of only had the one option: Train with Jiraiya until she could defend herself properly enough.

It seemed pretty straightforward.

Except that she had zero experience at all, at least not any she could remember.

"You've been thinking for a while." Notes Jiraiya.

Yasuko opens her eyes. "Trying to figure out how not to become a liability." She simply states. "I mean, despite what I've already been able to do chakra wise, I still have no idea how I did it."

"So, we'll start with the basics again." He says, nonchalantly. "And if you're determined enough it shouldn't take that long." He reaches back and pulls out a kunai knife and hands it to her.

Yasuko stares at it confused, glancing up at Jiraiya for an answer.

He urges her to take it by shaking his hand lightly. "Grab it and try and aim for the space between the windows behind Tsunade."

Yasuko glances at Tsunade in a panic. "But what if I- "

"Tsunade can stop it if it comes too close." He reassures, glancing towards Tsunade for her confirmation.

"I can." Tsunade confirms, relaxing herself back in her chair as she nods her head for them to continue.

"See?" Chuckles Jiraiya, turning back towards Yasuko. "What'd I tell ya, now try it."

Yasuko turns her head between the three occupants in the room, four if she included Tonton who was sleeping in the corner, before shakily grabbing the kunai from Jiraiya's hand as he pulls another one out. "Why another?"

"You're going to do it twice." He explains.. "One with your eyes open and one closed."

"Wait what?!" Yasuko shrieks, clenching the knife tightly.

"Calm down, you'll do fine." He reassures with a laugh, placing a hand on her shoulder. He turns her towards Tsunade and steps back. "Now try the first one."

Yasuko gulps, her knuckles turning white from how tight her hands are clenching the knife. She glances from the wall down at Tsunade.

"Go ahead kid." Tsunade says with a small smile.

Yasuko's fingers loosen around the handle as she takes a deep breath and positions the kunai so her pointer finger is inside the small circle at the end. She pulls her hand back towards her chest and quickly flings it forward, letting the knife slip through her fingers and jut forward.

It hits the wall above Tsunade head with a dull thud.

Yasuko blinks and stares blankly at the kunai in the wall. "It… worked." She turns her head towards Jiraiya who's suddenly started clapping slowly.

"Maybe you're training won't take as long as you were afraid it would." He chuckles.

::

"Having my eyes closed is a different matter though."

"You nailed the other one just fine."

"And my eyes were open at that time."

Jiraiya clicks his tongue. "Pretty sure you shut them when you threw."

Yasuko shrinks back slightly in embarrassment. "I-I did not."

"Yep, you're right. Now just throw."

"But I-"

"Throw it."

Yasuko scrunches her eyes tightly and flings the second kunai forward.

She cant help but smile as she hears it hit the wood with another dull thud, but that smile suddenly drops as she hears the metal clink against glass and fall to the floor.

She opens her eyes and glances up at Jiraiya. "Now what?"

The kunai had hit the side of the wall that bordered the window, but not close enough for it to stay stuck in the wall.

He raises an eyebrow down at her. "What, you wanna do another?"

"Um, well it seems pretty straightforward and I managed to get it the first time." She pauses. "I think I can try another one if you need me to."

"Quiet a change from your panicked state earlier." Tsunade laughs, placing the kunai Shizune plucked off the wall and the one she grabbed off the ground down on her desk.

Yasuko laughs sheepishly. "I didn't think it'd go that well at first."

"But it did so we're only going to practice that in between other things and focus on hitting moving targets." Inputs Jiraiya. He walks over to the window and eyes the mark on the wall left by the kunai. "You also held back on that second throw." He mumbles to himself.

Yasuko furrows her brow and turns back to Jiraiya. "How am I going to hit movi-"

"Well it's about time for me to go!" He suddenly says, cutting Yasuko off. If he told her how they were going to do it now, she'd refuse right on the spot.

Tsunade shakes her head with a chuckle. "I suppose it is time isn't it." She says, tossing Jiraiya his kunai back. "Don't get in any trouble while you're out."

"Well, obviously." He scoffs. "I'll be back at some point." He turns and begins walking out the door only to stop and glance back at Yasuko. "Let's go?" He says, waving her forward.

"Oh, we're leaving right now." Yasuko realizes as she follows after. She glances back at Tsunade and Shizune one more time and smiles. "Thank you."

They both nod their heads with smiles of their own and Yasuko turns back towards Jiraiya.

"Have a safe trip you two!" Shizune calls after them as Jiraiya shuts the door.

The two begin heading down the flight of stairs out of the building.

"Alright kid, grab your bag and clothes, and meet me by the gate." He says as they exit the building.

"Got it." Yasuko says.

And they split off.

Tenth chapter done!

The journey begins!

Gonna try and get back into writing this more once I find wherever I lost the story plot outline. I have general ideas remembered though so we'll see what happens until that sheet is found.

Other than that,

Thank you to those that read, reviewed, followed, favorited, or just took the time to just check this out!

Thanks for reading!