"Together we shared a bond not even death would violate."

~ Dee Remy, There Once Was A Boy

...

Mitomi quickly pulls a sweater over her head. She ignores Sparrow's less than discret judgment. ANBU signals existed for a reason, if he hadn't wanted to see her naked then he should have just used the proper signals versus just breaking into Shikamaru's bedroom. "You have your own apartment!" Sparrow hisses at her as she climbs through the window to meet him on the roof. Mitomi flips him off.

"I also have a boyfriend who makes me feel incredibly safe. Where do you think I would want to be when my brother is weeks overdue on a mission? Not by my self to imagine every possible horrible situation that could have happened since they went into the fucking lions den." She hisses back, just as fervently. Mitomi can feel the look of indignation from him despite the fact that he was masked up.

"I was told to come inform you that Team 7 has just returned from their diplomatic mission to Ame. The Godaime is requesting your presence. Should I inform her that you will be along shortly?" Mitomi flicked his arm, the idiot should have led with that.

"Fuck you Sparrow, I can come along now." He makes a very disapproving gesture in regards to her appearance. To be fair, she is wearing pajama pants and a sweatshirt that is much too big for her. Sparrow scoffs finally.

"Shower and dress appropriately Mitomi. No one is in critical, the Godaime will appreciate it if you don't show up looking like after sex." Sparrow flickers away before she can stab him. Asshole. He was going to pay for that comment the next time they had to spar. She'd make him eat dirt.

Mitomi slips back in through the window, Shikamaru is sitting up in his bed. "Everything okay?" She smiles.

"Yup, Team 7 is back and I'm being summoned. Probably to inform Naruto that my memories are back and Kosuke is dead. Wanna walk with me?" Mitomi removes the pajama pants and reaches for her skirt. A midi style wrap skirt that the Suna sisters had sent her a while ago. She keeps Shikamaru's sweater on because it's hella comfy, she just tucks the front half into the skirt. Her now short hair is sticking out in crazy directions so she ties a plateless headband around her crown to keep the wisp out of her face.

Shikamaru lazily makes his way out of bed, he tugs at his sweater as he passes to grab a clean shirt and his jounin vest, having slept in his shinobi pants. "Am I ever going to get this sweater back?" Mitomi pauses in slipping on her heeled sandals. She bites her lip.

"This is my favorite sweater…" He raises his brow, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You say that about all of my sweaters." She smiles at him.

"They are all very comfy and soft." Shikamaru sighs, shaking his head at her. He slips his sandals on easily.

"How troublesome. I'm going to have no sweaters left for myself." Mitomi loops her arm around his, tugging him out of the door. Tsunade probably wouldn't appreciate it if she made her wait any longer.

Mitomi wished she could put this conversation off as long as she could… But she is glad that Naruto is back safe from his mission. Despite not agreeing with it. She was curious to see how the meeting had gone, why had they been delayed so long coming back. Knowing team seven's luck something fucked up happened.

Gods she hoped that they all still had all of their fucking limbs. She was not going to be impressed with any of them if they came back missing limbs. Mitomi was still fucking pissed at Kisame for losing his arm when they fought Obito so she could flee. Dumbass.

Shikamaru waits outside the office window for her, she smiles her thanks as she slips in quietly. He'd be there for her when this was over. Tsunade raises her brow. "You took long enough." Mitomi shrugs, pointedly not looking at her brother or his team.

"I was still in pajamas." She explains with a careful tone, Mitomi did not miss the disapproving air coming from where Sparrow was hiding. Tsunade dismissed Team 7 with the exception of Naruto. Then pins the red head with a look, that tells her that she has to be the one to talk now.

"Is everything okay granny?" Naruto questions, sending odd looks Mitomi's way. Mitomi sighs.

"My memories are back." She starts and it earns a huge grin from her brother who goes straight to trying to hug her. Except Mitomi flinches away, because she still wasn't okay with casual touch from everyone other than Shikamaru. Naruto stops, his face drops, she feels horrible. Mitomi reaches for his hand instead.

"Sorry… A lot happened while you were gone. My memories were sealed with the use of fuinjutsu, Kosuke was responsible. He attacked me, and now he is dead." Mitomi doesn't let go of his hand… she takes in every horrible emotion that crosses her brother's face. She can't help but to feel solely responsible for them.

She killed Kosuke… Kosuke who had tricked them, and played with their emotions. Played at family. Naruto had loved him instantly. Mitomi hated being the one who had to break her brother's heart.

"Why?" He finally manages, he doesn't pull away, but he looks like he wants to.

You need to tell him the truth.

I know.

Mitomi takes a deep breath before glancing back at Tsunade, who is really just here to mediate between them, she nods. The princess of whirlpool activates her strongest privacy seal. One that only people keyed into it could hear… so she was about to out herself to Neji too. Shikamaru and Tsunade already knew and Sai who was also conveniently on duty right then had already lived through it once.

"Because my memories are dangerous Naruto. And in the wrong hands they are a death sentence. Kosuke didn't want me to have access to them anymore… I changed too much, and made it where he couldn't rule the world anymore. I stripped him of his pawns, and power, and because he didn't exist in my first life I had no idea that that is what I had done.-" She takes a deep breath, pushing herself forward without giving her brother time to react.

-I lived this exact life once before. Born Uzumaki Mitomi on the tenth October as the kyuubi raged. I died at twenty-one after watching everyone that I love die. Including you. I knew from my past life that there were survivors from the fall on Uzu.. but I didn't save them last time. I didn't know that Kosuke was going to be evil. I am so sorry." If she had known… she would have let him rot there for the rest of eternity instead.

"What do you mean, you lived this life before?" Mitomi has to force herself not to cry at the betrayed look that resides upon her brother's face. She swallows harshly.

"Reincarnation is real… And I have an eidetic memory. I knew everything that was going to happen to us before it ever happened… I knew Orochimaru was going to attack the village during the chunin exams, I knew that Gaara was the ichibi jinchuuriki before I met him, I knew how to defeat every member of the Akatsuki because I've already done it once. I've always known the truth about our parents, I know every single bijuu's name, I watched them all die. I've seen every single member of our generation die. I never wanted to tell you, but I have to, because you deserve to know. I have and I will always be your sister." Naruto's hand drops from her grasp as he pulls away from her. Eye wide, confused, and conflicted.

Because what this admittance does is convict her guilty of every terrible thing that still happened. Because her brother is not stupid, and he realizes this too. There is so much blood on her hands.

"It was a really long mission, I'm tired. Granny can I go?" Naruto looks away from her and Mitomi's heart drops in her chest.

Rejections. Just what she hadn't wanted to deal with a second time around. He'd never forgiven her the first time around… would it be like that now?

Naruto leaves when Tsunade nods her head. Mitomi doesn't wait for her dismissal and slips wordlessly back out the window. Shikamaru is waiting for her with a contemplative look.

"Maybe we should go pay Asuma-sensei a visit." He suggested that distracting Mitomi with the idea of seeing Asuma and Kuranei's new baby would be a good thing. Mitomi leans into his side once they jump down to the street.

"Sure."

Asuma looks all sorts of relieved to see them. Mitomi smiles as she slips past him and into the moderate sized apartment to scoop a crying infant out of their very tired mother's arms. She coos at the squealing baby girl who is slow to calm but the bouncing and the rather warm buzz of chakra under Mitomi's skin works miracles. Kuranei smiles gratefully as she stands and goes to hopefully take care of oneself for a change.

"Not that we are complaining but what brings you two by?" Asuma questions while Shikamaru pulls a travel Go board out of his vest from a special storage sealed Mitomi crafted for him. Mitomi takes a bottle that Kuranei hands her before the older woman says she is going to go shower, Mitomi smiles as she bounces Mirai in her arms before adjusting her so she can feed her the bottle more comfortably.

"Obviously so I can steal all of Mirai's sweet cuddles, and claim my spot as favorite auntie." Shikamaru smirks fondly in her direction. He liked being right.

"Hinata and Ino will probably try to fight you for that spot." Asume responds tiredly. Mitomi snickers, they can try.

"They will lose. How much longer do you both have of parental leave left?" Mitomi knew that her interference would change a good deal of things, Mirai being born a couple months earlier was one of those things. She wasn't going to complain, the little baby really was the sweetest thing most of the time. Mirai was only three months old, there were still so many new and scary things for the little thing to deal with. Especially with ninja children who were so much more aware of their surroundings than most.

Chakra was a bit of an achilles heel at times.

"Maybe a month or so, but who knows if we are even needed these days. You kids have really become something else." Mitomi grins at him. In another life he'd been one of the loudest voices in her defence, these days she was just treated like one of his annoying genin. Kami knew she spent so much time with Team 10 that Asuma just sort of adopted her into the team.

They were her best friends in the very end.

"The jounin sensei of this generation were something else." Asuma smirks at her retort, then turns his attention to the board.

"How is your old shishou?" Asuma questions after a moment. Mitomi goes to burp Mirai who just finished the bottle.

"I haven't seen him in a few weeks, he's been doing some long diplomatic mission in the capitol... I think. Daimyo is getting old and his son is supposed to be taking over soon, but that guy is a jerk." Which meant that someone was bound to try and assassinate him, which meant her shishou who was ultimately a guard specialist was very busy preventing that from happening.

"Unlucky business that." It really was.

The new daimyo was going to be an asshole.

Mitomi parts way with Shikamaru a few hours later. She needed to track down her brother. This wasn't something she could just let fester. They were going to have to talk it out. Especially if they wanted to bury Chiyo peacefully at last.

She needed Naruto to understand. Needed him to be on her side. She couldn't live life having him hate her a second time.

XOXOX

So recently I discovered my birthday is the day before Minato's.. I don't know how I feel about this. Especially since I will now be a year older than him… how bizarre.

Thank you for reading!

~LaRae