A/N: So I want to start off by saying that I want to thank everyone who added this rewritten work into their favourite and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.

What do you know about family?

The furious words of Sasuke echoed in her ears as Natsuko stared blankly at her little brother's face. Even though in the end her husband apologized for those cruel words, she would always remember those words whenever she was forced to bury a member of their family. It never got better when she buried them.

If anything, she just got even more numb from the process.

I wish I had Kurama or Sasuke with me. The nine-tailed fox would grumble and scold her for being so numb before he reminded her that this was a part of life. Sasuke would have given her a hug in private and tell her about how they would all meet again. Unfortunately, she did not have that same support anymore.

She exhaled and flickered her eyes to the sake bottles. One drink wouldn't hurt and while it was against the law when it came to the law of Japan, she was 125 years old when it came to her mental age. I used to give so much crap to Yusuke about drinking. Her baby brother was always so eager to grow up.

Well grow up in the worst ways.

"You know the plan was always for you to die after me," she declared, picking up one of the few unopened sake bottles. The fruity taste clung to her tongue, reminded her of the late nights where Shikamaru would drag her drinking because of work. "What is the point of you being the younger brother if you are going to die first? You were supposed to grow up!You shouldn't be stuck as a 14-year-old!"

The hysteria leaked out of her voice and Natsuko furiously rubbed her eyes. Maybe this was the side effect of being reincarnated because while her mind was old, her body still had the emotional control of a 15-year-old girl. She hated it. This was just apart of life and if her brother was lucky then he would reincarnate.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as a strange, familiar energy pulsated throughout the room. But shouldn't the Shinigami take him by now? Hope stirred inside of her as she looked around the room for the source of the energy. She paused when her eyes took in the floating form of her brother and the blue-haired Shinigami next to him.

What the hell was happening?

"Natsu-chan, are you drinking?" Atsuko demanded, reaching her hand out to yank the bottle out of her hand. "You are only 15! You can't go and start drinking just because…"

Tears leaked out of the woman's eyes and Natsuko lowered her shoulders. With a reluctant sigh, she strolled towards the trash bin and threw the unfinished sake bottle into the bin before making her way to the brown-haired woman. With as much gentleness as she could muster, she hugged her mother.

"Yusuke is in a better place now," she soothed, patting her mother on the back. "Maybe he is in a place where he could fight as much as he wants."

The woman sobbed. "He would be here instead if I've been a better mother to him! If I had just been a little bit more strict with him then maybe he wouldn't have skipped school."

"I shouldn't have nagged him to go to school," she admitted quietly. "Now I can't go to school without remembering that I'm one of the reasons that he died."

In the distance, she could see Yusuke shaking his head at them. He looked almost ready to scold them, or rather scream at her for the blame. He probably thinks I can't hear him or even see him. Normal humans couldn't see ghosts and there were only few humans that could sense ghosts.

She didn't know whether she could see ghosts because of her chakra or because she was a reincarnated soul.

"You were always acting like Yusuke's mother even when you were a year-old," Atsuko mused, looking up at the ceiling. Natsuko froze and then looked away from the woman, who was for the first time in months…sober. "You only cried whenever Yusuke was so fussy and when you were just a little bit older, you were the one that made sure he eat healthy. You made sure he studied while I…"

Guilt flooded the woman's expression and Natsuko turned away from her. I did that because I had three kids and neither me and Sasuke were there for them. Her eldest son acted out because she was rarely at home while Sasuke was out doing missions. In a way, her little brother had been her chance of correcting the mistakes of her past life.

"Yusuke might be gone but…I need you, Mom," she lied, pushing the woman off of her. Atsuko blinked and blinked before parting her lips just a little bit. I hate doing this. But she didn't want to bury the woman before it was her time. "I need you to be a better Mom and that means you have to be sober because I don't want to bury you as well."

Tears welled up in the brown-eyed woman's eyes and she sobbed. "Natsu-chan!"

The wails sliced through the air and Natsuko tensed up when the woman yanked her into a hug. It wasn't that she wasn't used to hugs. She had been hugged by a few female friends in this life. But Atsuko had never really hugged her. Neither her nor Yusuke experienced many hugs from this woman.

The woman cared about them but…she just didn't know how to be a mother.

"You need to let go of me," she wheezed, prying the slender hands of her young mother off of her. "I have to go and get some study materials for my science test , next week."

Atsuko hesitated. "Natsu-chan, you don't need to go to school next week. Your teachers can't expect you—"

"— I have to do the test eventually," she reminded her as she made her way to her bedroom. Even though her back was turned away from the older woman, she felt the sadness pouring out of the woman's eyes. "Besides, I punched my science teacher yesterday so I made an enemy out of him."

The woman scowled. "Bastard deserved that punch after insulting your brother during his wake."

He deserved a kick to his balls and a rasengan to his stomach. The rage bubbled inside her blood and the urge to throw a knife at the wall was great but she held herself back. It would be better if she tried to regain control of her emotions because that bastard of a teacher might find a way to ruin her life.

She needed to make something out of herself because someone needed to provide for this family and unfortunately, she was the only one that could do it.

"Natsu-chan, what are you doing here?"

She lowered her hoodie and offered a tired look at the bookstore owner. The old man offered her a frown and inspected her as if searching for any clues about her mental state. After a couple of minutes, the man sighed and tapped his cane against the floor. The taps echoed like a never-ending bell in the store, a constant annoying ring if you asked her.

"I want to get some books for my test and my high school entrance test," she replied, pulling her hoodie back up. A couple of people offered her looks of disapproval while the old man thinned his lips at her. "Trust me, if it wasn't for that then I would be cleaning up the mess inside of the house."

There was a long, almost uncomfortable silence before the old man placed a wrinkly hand on her shoulders. "How are you holding up, Natsu-chan? This is a really difficult time for you and your family."

"I will…plow through," she replied quietly, shrugging the man's hand off of her shoulder. Yusuke was her brother, the brother that she practically raised, but he was not the first body that she buried. Not the first death that she witnessed. Images of her children, Sasuke and her own friends flashed through her mind and her heart throbbed once again.

The old man exhaled. "Your brother was a good boy."

Now why are you lying to me. She offered him a feeble smile and nodded before dragging her feet to the back of the bookstore. Yusuke was a lot of things but a good boy? No, he had been a little hellion but…Yusuke had been her hellion. Sometimes, he reminded her of her oldest son with all of those fights.

"So when he gets into trouble, he is my son? You were the one getting into fights when we were in the Academy."

It would be a long time before she could see Sasuke and resumed their little arguments. Although maybe her husband had been reincarnated like she had been or maybe he had another fate. It was just so difficult for her to know but if he was reincarnated, then maybe they would see each other again.

Another deep intake and Natsuko looked up at the bookshelf that loomed over her. She studied the various colorful exercise books, dismissing the ones on the bottom and then steadily worked her way up. All of those books were books that she owned but the bright red book on the top self was definitely not something she owned.

Tiptoeing, she reached her hand out on the top of the shelf and scowled when her fingers barely brushed against the shelf. Do I have to jump? That was going to be annoying. She exhaled and looked around the area. There was no one there, which meant that it should be safe for her to jump.

"Do you need any help in getting that book?"

Blinking, Natsuko turned around and nearly yelped at the sight of a red-haired boy standing behind her. He was probably around the same age as her second body and had such delicate-features that she almost mistaken him for a woman for that appearance alone. Except she could clearly see the Adam's apple on his throat.

She paused when her eyes took in the vivid greenness of his eyes. Emeralds. That was the best way to describe just how green his eyes were and for a brief moment, she wondered if the boy was Sakura's descendent. Her friend had such green eyes except Sakura's eyes were of a lighter shade.

Heat began to creep up on her cheeks when the boy cleared his throat.

"Actually, could you get me that science book on top?" she asked, offering him a sheepish smile. "I'm actually too short to reach that bookshelf."

The red-haired boy offered her a gentle smile and nodded before leaning forward to get the book. He doesn't feel human. His energy didn't have the same energy as the people around them. It was more vile, almost like he had youkai energy inside of him and that was rather odd.

She had never met a human with this mixture of energy.

I know he can't be Kurama. The fox would have noticed her immediately. She still had aspects of her original appearance from her golden hair to the whisker marks on her cheeks. He…would have recognized her in some way while this boy seemed ignorant over what she was. Perhaps, it was mere coincidence that he had a human body but energy that resembled a youkai.

"Thank you for getting the book for me," she paused and then offered him a smile. "I don't know why the Old Geezer have to put the book so high!"

The boy offered her a polite smile and looked down at her with thinly-veiled curious eyes. Right, I haven't bothered to muffle my chakra. If she could sense his energy then it stood to reason that he could sense the energy pouring out of her body. Well, it was rather too late for her to muffle her energy around him.

"You are getting ready for the High School Entrance Exam?" the boy enquired.

There was something about his words that told her that he was probing her. If I was a naïve girl then I would think he was genuinely interested in me. No, the boy had some kind of assumption when it came to her. A false assumption if she thought about it with careful consideration.

Well, there was no harm in her telling him.

"Yup," she smiled. "It is never too early to start studying for the entrance exam."

With those final words, she offered him a bow and made her way to the front of the shop. I don't want to deal with another Youkai trying to attack me again. It would be horrible if she was late because some idiot thought that it was a fluke that she had this much energy. With a sigh, she lowered her chakra and offered one last glance at the strange boy standing near the end of aisle.

If things went well, then this would be the last time that they saw each other.

"You finally met Natsu-chan, haven't you?" The bookstore owner asked when Kurama handed him the novel to be checked out. A clear click sound sliced through the air and a blank look crept up on his face when the man offered him a smile. "She is a looker, isn't she?"

Ah, he thinks I'm interested in her in that way. He flashed a polite smile to the man and stared at the fading figure of the girl that had just left him. Even though she was far away from him, he could still sense the energy pouring out of her like slow-moving springs of water. It might no longer be like an avalanche of energy but it was still enough for even a low-sensing demon to sense her.

"She is rather…attractive," he agreed.

"Too attractive if you ever asked her little brother," the owner commented with a laugh. The smile on his face widened just a little bit before it converted into a frown. An uncomfortable silence befell upon them, almost threatened to choke him. The old man shook his head. "The poor girl must be having a horrible time right now."

Kurama eyed him. "What do you mean?"

"Right, I forget that you don't live in this part of the town," the owner said, shaking his head. Despite the fact that there was an apologetic tint in his voice, the man seemed to be almost bouncing with eagerness. "Well Natsu-chan's brother died in a car accident just yesterday."

That explains why her eyes seemed to be a little bit red. He relaxed his shoulders and looked out at the door. However, it did not explain why the girl seemed to have that much energy inside of her. So much energy that it could call leagues of demons towards her. So much energy that it almost reminded him of his teacher.

Shaking his head, Kurama commented. "She's very resilient if she could bring herself to come out after such a horrible event."

"That child is probably one of the most mentally-strongest people that I know," the owner agreed, turning away from him. "She practically raised that boy while her mother was too busy partying and fighting with Natsu-chan's father, and now she probably has the unneeded duty of making sure that irresponsible mother doesn't do anything stupid."

He kept quiet and looked down at the book in his hands. Did her brother also have whisker marks on his cheeks? Are they descendants of that human? His former teacher had been fond of humans, a little bit too fond if he considered things and there was a theme of which family that his original teacher kept his eyes on.

But the descendants of that human were supposed to have inky black hair and were supposed to be reasonably well-off or so he presumed. It wasn't like he made it, his duty to oversee that family and after the barrier had been placed, well his former teacher could no longer come to the living world.

"What is Natsuko's last name?" he asked, turning his whole body away from the man.

"Urameshi," the owner replied.

Then it is coincidence. He shook his head and made his way towards the door. If that girl had the last name of Uchiha, then it would be easy to presume that Natsuko was just merely a descendent of Uzumaki Naru and Uchiha Sasuke. An ignorant descendent that had been born with so much power.

There was still a chance for her to be her descendant and if he had met the girl earlier then he would have done some research into her family history. Now, all he could focus on was the plan of saving his mother's life.

The sight of several fully-emptied sake bottles told her that Atsuko couldn't stop herself from drinking the remaining sake and beer in the apartment. Natsuko sighed and put down her books on the table before making her way to the young woman. Just this once, she would cut the woman some slack about drinking so much.

Her first actual child is dead. That was a pain that no parent ever wanted to endure and while Atsuko wasn't the best mother, Yusuke had been a child that she gave birth to and loved. Natsuko closed her eyes and lifted the blanket from the floor, placed it on the sleeping woman before looking at her brother's sleeping form.

"Y'know Atsuko is practically a child herself," Natsuko commented, leaning against her brother's coffin. There was no answer, not that she expected for her deceased brother to answer her but it was reassuring for her to vocalize her thought. "She had you and me because that bastard pried on a child that didn't have much attention from her parents."

She gazed at Atsuko and gripped her own chest as her youngest great-grandchild came to her mind. Rin. Her youngest great-grandchild had resembled her despite inheriting Sasuke's hair coloring. She had been a little shy girl, who focused more on being a wonderful kunoichi then on any boy.

Her youngest great-grandchild had been no older than Atsuko, except this body's mother had been pried on a grown man.

She exhaled and placed her hand on Yusuke's cheeks. A subtle heat caressed the palm of her hand like the crackles of a camp fire. Heat? But Yusuke is supposed to be dead. Rising up from her position, she pressed her ear against her brother's chest and slid her fingers towards his neck.

It couldn't be possible but…

Thump. Thump.

But…it seemed like it.

"You were definitely dead when I checked you in the hospital bed," she muttered, pushing her hair back. "And you were definitely dead when I saw your spirit roaming through your wake…so how is this possible? The dead can't come back to life like this."

Worry stirred inside of her as various possibilities came to her mind. The dead could never come back to life through these means and she was probably the only living person that knew about that jutsu. The jutsu that was used to bring Gaara back was also a possibility but she didn't know the technique to do it.

The only possibility that someone wanted her brother to come back to life and that wasn't a good thing. Nothing comes for free. If her brother did come back to life then what would be the cost of this exchange? What did her brother have to do to earn this right again? A chill ran down her spine as a realization dawn on her.

What did those bastards want with Yusuke?

"It looks like your sister is still awake," a girl commented. Natsuko froze and slowly turned to the direction of the voice. Shock struck her like lightning when she caught sight of Yusuke floating above the table alongside a blue-haired teen. There was a look of annoyance on his face as if he didn't want her to be awake.

Her little brother groaned. "Well if Mom drank this much then it means Natsu-neechan has to clean her mess and she needs to be awake to do it. I guess we have to wait for her to go to sleep and then ask her not to cremate my body."

The girl frowned. "You sound relieved that we have to wait a little bit longer to make the request to her."

For a very long moment, her brother made no explanation on his feelings. Instead, he floated towards her and then rested his bottom on top of his coffin. He sat still, almost like he was contemplating for the first time in his life. I wish it didn't take death for him to contemplate on things. She kept her eyes focused on the wall, unwilling to show that she could see him.

"Natsu-neechan is going to scream at me when I go and see her in her dreams," Yusuke explained. "If Keiko only nagged when I'm at school then Natsu-neechan nags at me when I'm at school and at home. I bet she will give me a long rant about why this is a good reason for me to stay in school!"

He truly was an idiot.

"Well I'm sure if you tell your sister that you were coming back to life then she will cut down the rant," the woman commented. "Besides, isn't it normal for any loving sister to scold her little brother when he cuts school?"

Yusuke scowled and looked away while she just looked down at his body. Well that explains why his body is now warm. She darted her eyes to Atsuko and then looked down at her brother's body. If he was coming back to life then there was no need for her to proceed with the funeral arrangement.

Natsuko inhaled and placed her head against Yusuke's chest. If I'm going to make a show then I better make a show of listening to his heart. If she just suddenly woke her mother up and informed her that Yusuke was warm and seemed to have a heartbeat, then her brother would be suspicious of her.

That blue-haired woman would be suspicious of her and she did not want any more attention on her. Although, I want to find the deity that made me go through the reincarnation route. She had been hoping so badly to be reunited with her parents, with her children and her husband but this happened to her.

Hell if she had to be reincarnated, she should have been reincarnated to a responsible mother and a decent man.

Shaking her head, Natsuko made her way to her sleeping biological mother and took several deep breaths before probing the woman with her finger. Groan filled the room and she watched as Atsuko began to stir from her drunken sleep. Eyelids fluttered and it was not long before brown eyes came to her view.

"Natsu-chan, you're back?" Atsuko yawned. The reeking scent of beer burned her nostril and it took all of her will power not to move away from the woman that gave birth to her second body. She hated this. Not for herself because she was a grown woman stuck inside of a teenager body, but for Yusuke.

He deserved better than this.

"Yeah, I got the supplies that I need," she replied. "And I think we might need to give Yusuke another check before we cremate him."

The 28-year-old woman blinked and rubbed her eyes. "Natsu-chan, what do you mean?"

Now this is where it gets debatable. Her heart pounded against her ribs like a furious caged animal as nerves began to creep onto her. She had to be careful when it came to informing the woman about the fact that Yusuke was going to come back to life. That she heard a rather faint heartbeat when she placed her ear against Yusuke's chest.

She exhaled and steadied herself. "Well I wanted to remind myself that Yusuke wasn't coming back, so I pressed my ear against his chest and…"

Tears sprung out of her eyes like waterworks and Atsuko trembled for the longest time. Grief was a strange thing. Even though the woman grieved for her son, she could not bring herself to comfort her. She couldn't bring herself to pull herself together and that just highlighted the difference between them.

When her oldest son died in a mission, she blamed herself but she made sure that none of her children comforted her through her loss.

"And…what?" Atsuko demanded, wrapping her hands around her hoodie and tugging her towards her.

Natsuko inhaled. "And I heard a heartbeat! It was faint but it's a heartbeat!"

The older woman blinked and blinked before rushing towards her brother's body. For the first time in years, the woman hugged Yusuke's body. Hope flashed through the woman's eyes and there was absolutely no doubt in her mind that the woman heard the rather faint heartbeat.

Tears spilled out of the woman's eyes and Atsuko sobbed. "Yusuke is alive! It's a miracle but he is alive!"

"Yeah, it is a miracle."

A miracle that came with a huge price because there was no way that her brother could come back to life without a price. I'm just concern what his price might be. She inhaled and smoothed the wrinkles of her hoodie before picking up the empty bottles and beer cans from the ground.

She just hoped that the price of his revival was not going to be something that her brother would regret.

"I know this is a dream but I just want you to know that I'm really proud of you and that I have always been proud of you."

Natsuko stared at Yusuke's nervous eyes and quirked her lips into a smile when her brother gawked at her. She knew it was a dream, knew it from the fact that they sat in her favorite ramen stand in Konoha and were being served by Teuchi instead of Keiko's parents. Of course, her brother didn't know that.

She didn't know if Yusuke could also see her dreams.

"You aren't going to scold me for not running fast enough? For not being in school?" her brother demanded, waving his hands at her.

She offered him a smile and looked down at the imaginary bowl of ramen. "There was no way that you could have seen that car coming, Idiot and if you haven't saved that little boy then it would be his mother burying him in the cold, hard ground."

An awkward silence filled between them and Natsuko looked down at the steaming bowl of ramen. In her dreams, she would gobble it up as she was surrounded by her friends and teammates of the past. It would be the most delicious ramen in the world but now if she taste it, it would mean nothing to her.

There was no one but her and deceased brother.

"I don't regret saving that little boy but it turns out that even if I hadn't saved him…then he would still have survived," Yusuke confessed.

She clenched her jaw and stirred the ramen with anger. Splashes of ramen stained the counter and she wished she could throw it at her brother because he put them through hell. Shaking her head, she inhaled and commented. "Then…that almost made your death pointless, doesn't it?"

"You really know how to make me feel better about myself!" Yusuke complained.

A snort escaped her lips as the vein on her forehead twitched with irritation. "Yusuke, do you realize the hole that you put inside of me? Inside of…Mom? I can't go to school because all I can think about is how those bastards came to school because they either wanted extra-credit or wanted confirmation! Then that stupid teacher…"

"I didn't think that I meant that much to you or Mom," he admitted, looking almost uncomfortable. There was almost an uncomfortable tone in his voice as his eyes flickered from her to the empty seat beside him. "I always thought that life would be easier for the both of you if I wasn't around. That no one would miss me if I was gone."

She kept quiet for a second and looked at Teuchi's back. "And now?"

"I realized that my big sister is a huge crybaby and that she needs me more than I thought," her brother admitted. There was almost a smugness to his tone as if he was pleased over the fact that she needed him. I will let him have this one. She quirked her lips into a smile and stared at him. "You…really ruined your reputation just because of me."

She snorted. "I would do it again because no one insults my baby brother."

There was a tiny smile on Yusuke's face and not for the first time in her dream, did she want to rush towards him and hugged him like there was no tomorrow. But this was not the time and it would never feel as good as actually hugging his body. She inhaled and looked back down at her ramen.

"So where is this place?" her brother asked, flickering his eyes around the scenery. "It doesn't look like any ramen stand that we have been to."

The smile slipped off of her face and Natsuko cleared her throat. "This is just some place that I…visited with friends."

Her brother inspected her for just a second before bobbing his head. Of course, he believed her. Unlike him, she had a couple of friends in Middle School. Not close friends but friends that she would occasionally meet whenever her schedule would allow her. Friends who believed those rumors about her brother.

"We should visit this place then," her brother said, looking away from her. "You and me haven't hang out since those losers kept hogging you away from me."

She offered him a clueless smile. "And how would we visit this place? I'm alive while I don't know what you are. You gave me a complete shock when I found a heartbeat in your body."

The words lingered in the air as an uncomfortable silence filled between them. The only sounds that could be heard was the lively chatter of the civilians in the background of her dream. It wouldn't be home if it wasn't for those sounds. Their words were muffled because of the dream but she could almost imagine what was being said.

"Well I'm not dead," her brother said. He paused and crinkled his nose. "Well, I am dead but I won't be dead for long. I mean you heard the heartbeat and well…fuck, I don't know how to tell you this."

She grinned. "Then just give me a good idea of what is going on."

"I'm getting a second chance in life," her brother admitted. "So we will eat ramen in your favorite ramen stand soon! Now just make sure that no matter what happens, Mom doesn't cremate my body. Even if the doctors make any stupid claims, just don't allow them to cremate…because I'm going to come back! And we will eat all the ramen that you want to eat!"

It sounded like a promise and…well now that she had the message then it was only natural that she did her part.

No matter how long she had to wait, she would make sure that Yusuke's body wasn't cremated before he came back.

A/N: So it would be nice to hear your thoughts on this chapter and what you think about the rewrite so far.