AN: Yo this is a continuation of my story "A Vagabond In Death" so you'll need to read that for things to make much of any sense, but I guess you don't really need to if you don't want. Things will just make a lack of sense for a while.

Chapter Title: Rebirth
Arc: Preparations.

I awoke with a long drawn out breath, inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth.

The air was cool, crisp with frost, yet I felt warmer than ever.

Taking another meditative deep breath I glanced around the room, it was my room, there were the swords and other weapons displayed in the racks on the wall. The large bookshelf next to my desk, the same one that once held all my notes and diary entries that were an attempt to keep myself grounded and never forget, now gone burned away in a fire. The memory planting itself firmly in my mind playing the scene out in almost perfect detail.

It faded when I lifted my left arm. Only my shoulder responded with the stump of the arm lifting the sheets I was under, I stared at the point in the blanket where the stump was raised for a long period as my head waned watching and waiting to see if it would come back.

It didn't.

Another long breath.

This time putting my mind at ease as I turned to face the window that had the curtains pulled in front of it, there was a soft white light leaking under the blackout curtains. The light faded mutely into the dark of the room causing me to wonder what time it was.

I used my right arm to situate myself into a sitting position in the bed with the pillow I had been resting on up against my lower back feeling particularly comfortable.

There was a glint of light in the corner of my eye as the light sneaking under the curtain reached the metal frame of the desk chair. It caught my attention and I found myself looking at it, watching as the light moved around the reflective surface.

Finding my energy and strength I moved my legs around from under the sheets out to the side of the bed letting them hang over the edge and touch the cold wooden floor of my room. I got the chance to notice the button up pajama shirt and ankle length pants I was wearing with these little kunai and shuriken on them. My feet had a shiver travel up through my body when they touched the floor causing a slight jolt in me.

It took a few tries but I eventually felt comfortable enough to stand. I felt my weight sway as though my body wasn't the same as before. Maybe it was the lack of an arm? Or maybe something was truly different?

The floorboards creaked as my steps were thoughtfully light and mindful not to be loud, stretching my toes. I flexed them several times before stepping toward the desk reaching my right hand out to stabilize myself on the sturdy wooden frame.

Opening and closing my eyes twice I noticed the colour was a little dim and like it was harder to judge distance as well. I nearly missed the part of the desk I had been reaching for almost toppling in the process causing a couple soft thuds as I stumbled.

The distinct sound of childish cheer bubbled out from behind the door of my room followed by soft rushed footsteps, then a caring tone of a woman chiding her child as she followed after-

Click

The doorknob clicked as it was turned and pushed open, I was unable to defend against the strong force that slammed into my legs knocking me down onto the bed with an Oomph! This was followed by a tight hug, fingers digging into me tighter and tighter not so subtly begging me never to leave again.

"Take!" Akatsuki cried out, somehow tightening her grip on me further as she happily indulged herself in using my clothing as a place to wipe her snotty nose as tears fell from the dark haired girl's eyes.

"Welcome back Sweetheart!" The woman said, picking the both of us on the bed up in a warm embrace so tight and warm that despite its suffocating nature felt all the more loving.

When I was finally released from their grasps I tried my best not to cry, but I could stop the tears from flowing, like salty waterfalls I joined my mother and sister being hugged again.

Mum was in a violet kimono and my sister was in a salmon pink one.

In a way I couldn't believe I was back, it felt like an eternity since that day. The day I had been imprisoned in my own mind, it had been two whole years and I was so fucking tired, it had been a testament to my endurance and ability in a way. I was forced through trial after trial of fights and what I could only call mental gymnastics.

Have you ever tried to think yourself to death? I hope not, because it was awful and I never wish to go through it ever again.

I don't know how many times I fought my way through memories that haunted me.

A few more minutes passed before I was let go and allowed to sit up as my sister let go sitting next to me while our mother stood up, stepping back and cast her bloodshot eyes at us.

"I'm glad to be back too Mum." I said breaking the silence.

"How do you feel?" she asked with her raising her brow.

"Tired..." My voice trailed off as a yawn erupted from me, I covered my mouth with my right hand. "But I- I'm better."

"Good, we're going to have breakfast now, come and join us." Mum lifted my sister and carried her out, I nodded and stood up.

First I went to the drawers that had my clothes in them and pulled out a white tank-top, a fresh pair of underwear and the familiar navy blue Kimono that seemed to be a little shorter on me now, as it didn't quite reach the middle of my shins the way it used to. After dressing I slowly made my way over to the window and opened the curtain allowing the sunlight to engulf my room, my view was filled with bright cloudless skies and bright grass, hardly the middle of winter that I remembered.

When I walked through the house I began to notice how off my center of gravity felt, it was like it had moved or maybe I was taller? Maybe I was just weak from being in a coma for… in a coma for…

"Mum how long was I-?" I made gestures with my hand as she looked at me when I stepped into the living room where she was putting rice into a bowl for Akatsuki, herself and me.

Along with the bowl of rice there was miso soup, grilled fish, tamagoyaki and some natto.

"You were in a coma for-" she turned looking at a calendar on the wall that had days crossed off except for what I assumed was today seeing as there was clearly 'he woke!' written on it. "A little over six months." she said with a smile that reached her eyes and looked particularly bright.

"I see… thanks for the food Mum." I sat down at the low table on a cushion and broke the reusable wooden chopsticks into two and started eating.

It was good, really good.

I felt like I hadn't eaten in days, I wonder how they kept me alive while I was out? Was there like an iv drip or something? Was I taken to the hospital for extended periods? Was I originally there but got moved back here once they figured there wasn't much else to do for me?

There was something I hadn't really addressed yet and that was what I was going to do going forward, beyond just recovering, I had become a teacher at Ume's dojo right? So there was that but what else could I do? There's so much more, I'd like to train again… I want to get strong and become who I was, I had fallen apart and left everything I was behind to become a mess.

"Do you think you'll go back to teaching with your Aunt?" Mum asked when we were finished eating.

I guess she was wondering what I was doing next as well.

"I might, but I don't think I'll be able to for a while, those kids are really strong and I don't think I'd be much use getting battered around by them." She laughed and my sister thanked Mum for the meal before disappearing further into the house.

"How old is she now?" I asked looking to the hallway my sister had gone down.

"Four turning five next year."

"Time flies doesn't it?" I said looking over to a window nearby looking out as I rested my chin in my palm.

"It does, it feels like yesterday you were only up to my knee and now you tower over your father." A somber smile crossed her lips, blue eyes looking into mine.

"Tower?" I asked with a raised brow wondering if I was really that tall now.

"You've become taller than him now, it looks like your coma facilitated a growth spurt in a way." a pregnant silence filled the air as she seemed to stop and think. "You're as tall as my father now… we could always break out a tape measure and check if you like?"

"Granddad, huh…? I guess so, do you want me to get it?" I asked, but she shook her head and took all the dishes into the kitchen before returning after a few minutes with a tape measure in hand.

Kaede offered me a hand, her soft dark skin grasped my calloused hand and pulled me to my feet at which point I realized how right she had been. I didn't realize how much taller I was, maybe that's why my center of balance was off.

"Alright mister stand with your back to the wall, ankles against the wainscotting-"

"The what?"

"The bit that sticks out from the wall, it's there to keep chairs from messing up the wall." she nudged my feet so my ankles were against it like she said.

Her dark-blood red hair which I supposed could be called burgundy, swayed as she knelt down pinning the bottom of the measure to where the floor met the wall and stood raising it up as high as she could before getting me to hold it up. Then she disappeared for a moment before coming back with a book and putting its spine down on my head against the wall and marking it on the tape measure.

"Alright you can hand me that-" she took the measure from my hands before bending down and unpinning it and looking at it. "Ah… two hundred and… some… what's that in feet?" she asked.

"Err… there's twelve inches in a foot, so like six foot five?" I said and she nodded then something flashed on her face.

"Oh it says right here what the feet are next the centimeters." Mum said brushing hair out of her eyes, I glanced at the strip seeing that she had marked half a centimeter over two hundred.

"That must mean I'm finally taller than Sensei." I commented thinking about how the man had always towered over us, then there was Lord Jiraiya who if I remembered correctly was only an inch taller than the Sensei and Dad.

I started to wonder about that… I should probably go see him and Hinata to see how they're doing, I mean they haven't seen me in six or so months, but for me it's been so much longer than that. I look forward to seeing how the Hime is doing and if Sensei finally married that lady or got her pregnant.

"Mum, can we go visit Ume?" I asked her making her look at me for a moment as she tried to decide, I could see the gears in her head moving as they tried to come up with an idea as to why I'd want to be traveling around the village while I was still a little under the weather.

But it wasn't some big brained plan or anything, I just wanted to see my second mother again.

"Sure sweet heart, let me just get your sister and we can head over in a little bit."

[Wake Up and Read the Poetry]

A slightly laboured breath escaped my lips as we turned the corner on the long dirt road that had the wall around my aunt's property on it. The wall running a good length of the road as their property was massive, it made a warm feeling well up inside me as we slowly trotted our way to the main gate of the property.

Akatsuki had asked me to carry her but I wasn't strong enough yet so she was riding on Mum's shoulders pointing out things and making sure I hadn't forgotten them after my 'Big Nap' as she had designated it for me.

I had yet to see my reflection since waking and I was a little worried to see the truth of the damage my other self had caused, considering my head far exceeded my shoulders reaching the middle of my back I had a good idea that there wasn't any of my natural reddish colour left and that it was all white. Now in full contrast to my dark skin.

The scars I had on my face I remembered, it was hard not to after all. I went through all sorts of hell and they were the reminders, well that and the most obvious of the damage in the form of my arm.

I was drawn from my thoughts when my sisters voice yelled out over the fence as we reached the gate and I was in the middle of opening it-

I suppose the surprised look on my Aunts face was worth the trip alone, she looked like she had seen a ghost or like a corpse rise from the dead. It would've been a little insulting if not for the fact that she and likely many people might have thought I'd never wake again.

"I know Mum's fashion sense is awful but you shouldn't stare, Ume." I joked at the woman as she closed her gaping mouth a smirk replacing it, Mum hit me in the side making me wince a laugh out.

"And here I thought I'd buried you out back with the rest of my broken tools." Ume said, stepping forward from where she had been using a broom to brush stones on the main pathway in their property.

"It's good to see you." Mum said letting my sister down who ran further in saying she was going to get our uncle while Mum and Ume hugged before I was dragged into one as well.

Bone crushing as it was, I was glad to see her again.

"Come by to see how a master teaches their students?" the woman asked, looking at me with a raised brow.

"I know how you teach students, you beat them until they're unconscious or learn to get fast enough to dodge and fight back, as much as I hate to admit it- that probably saved my ass way more times that I ever care to say."

"C'mon birthday boy, we can go inside so you don't melt in this heat." Ume said ushering us in the house.

"Birthday boy?" I questioned looking at her then my mother who looked like she'd been slapped with something.

"Oh I completely forgot!" Mum said to my side.

Huh I suppose the calendar did say it was the fifteenth of July… dang so how old was I now?

"You're seventeen you goof, of course you'd be the one to forget how old you are." Rolling her amber eyes she walked into the kitchen leaving Mum and I in the living room of the house.

The layout of my Aunt and Uncle's house was similar to a lot of the older Japanese style mansion houses that still existed in the Village.

Seventeen though… that didn't sound right at all wasn't I like fifteen?

When Ume returned she noticed my confused face. "Kaede you did tell him he was enrolled into the academy two years late right because of what happened right?"

My mother shook her head.

"Explanation please?" I asked, I felt like this was something I should've known right?

"When you were born you didn't have chakra, you know that right?" Mum said, waiting for my confirmation which I gave as a nod. "Well… because the hospital was worried and trying to make sure nothing went wrong, your first two years were spent in a room your father and I rented so that they could monitor how your body dealt with Chakra."

"And so you left when it was safe and my body was stabilized right?" I probed.

"Right." She took a deep breath. "But you didn't seem to remember anything during those years at the hospital and only really seemed to..." she made gestures with her hands. "Act right if that makes any sense?"

"Yeah I understand you Mum, I was a really special kind of kid that caused you a lot of problems." I said with a dumb look.

A fist bounced off my skull as an arm rested on my head as Ume lent in to add to the conversation. "C'mon Kaede this big dumb moron is our big dumb idiot who can only cause us heartache and headache-"

Whatever she had been going to continue with was cut off by my sister leading the charge of my uncle by hand.

"Ain't that the truth." he said carrying my niece in his arms and handing her off to Ume who took the young girl and left the room.

"How are you doing?" I asked him, he gave me a shrug.

"Those brats you were teaching were missing you, are you here to take them back?" Matsuda's dark eyes lazed over me before rolling as he lifted my sister so she could sit on his knee as he sat with us.

When Ume came back into the room Irisu or you know, just Iris, was in a nice looking yukata same with my aunt who was wearing a matching ones that were navy with lilies and fronds all over them.

"Now let's get a small party going!" My aunt cheered causing the kids to cheer in succession, my mother joined in with a smile, so I did and then my Uncle gave me a long dry look and huffed a laugh.

[Older than you thought]

Things had started making a lot of sense after hearing that I was actually two years older than I thought for a majority of my life. The height of course makes a more sense, I can't imagine me being as tall as I am now while being as young as I thought, it just wouldn't have made any sense unless I was destined to become fucking seven foot tall or something.

But I had decided to get over it since it wasn't like I could change anything about it.

The so called party that we had was just as Ume said it would be, a small party, Matsuda cooked us lunch and dinner all a part of a celebration for me waking. Also for my birthday, but that wasn't important.

I was just sitting in my room now, the sun had set and I just wanted some time to myself to reflect, they hadn't really given me much of a chance to do any of that yet. So here I was thinking, nothing too strenuous at the moment thankfully. Not that I could stand to think that hard after all that mess…

Something relevant to the 'other me' is that I had a feeling he was in control during that period mum mentioned where I was in the hospital because I did have that weird memory of my birth sure, but right after that is just a blank and didn't really come back around until the first time I asked Dad to teach me how to use my Chakra and become a ninja.

Ninja, huh… that's something I could never do again could I? I mean I guess I have Dad's prosthetic, but I didn't really feel like I deserved to use it after what I did- after what caused his death. It just wasn't' my place to use it.

Training again would be good fun though right? I mean I'd like to.

There was something else on my mind, something important.

I needed to buy knew clothes since none of mine fit me anymore and all my old armour was fitted for when I was significantly shorter than I am now. So that was annoying, when I was feeling a little better, or just tomorrow I'll go and see if my account still has money in it that I can spend. Then go around and get a ton of outfits measured up as well as get a few new Kimonos and Yukatas.

Also I guess I'd never be able to do Kyudo again so that was completely out of the question, I couldn't use Chakra unless I wanted to have what happened before happen again and just straight up fast track my death.

On that note.

I had seen my reflection, you know how I didn't want to and all.

My hair was stark silvery-white, my face was shredded with scars the way it had been since I was young, only one of my eyes was still amber, the other now a milky white that almost looked like a Byakugan.

Sitting on the edge of my bed I fell backward onto my back looking up at the ceiling, my room wasn't lit, I hadn't turned the light one when I came back and it had gotten dark. My window was open since it was summer and gods knew the Land of Fire knew how to be as hot as a blast furnace at the height of summer. It was amazing how close to the Land of Wind's temperature it got here during the summer, though obviously Wind was a desert and often got double if not triple the temps we got during summer there.

Not sure why you'd actively want to move there if you could help it, that's for sure.

I'm glad it had been late spring when we went there to do that mission with the prince and the danganronpa dude, or whatever his name was?

Anyway I was tired and wanted to rest.

[Hot topics]

When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I did after going to the toilet was dressing in a black Jinbei with an intricate koi fish design on the back and some ninja sandals. It was a nice outfit, I liked it and it still fit really well so I didn't need to replace it which made me happy.

Mum had already woken up, she and my sister were gone so I was alone. I knew Mum worked and my sister was old enough to go to kindergarten.

So that left me with a question of what to do today.

I could go and see my Aunt again, I could find Sensei or Hinata to see how they were doing.

Yeah… Let's go see Asuma.

And so I did some stretching before getting one of my old kunai pouches strapped to my hip and put the medication I had found on my desk with a note that read 'take two three times a day with a meal.' With them I did put two Kunai in the pouch so that if I needed them they were there, an old habit I didn't want to kick.

I did leave Mum a note saying I went to see Asuma so she didn't worry.

The village had changed in the… six months… since I had last seen it properly, then again when he was around it was the heart of winter. But that was then and this is now. The people around the village appeared to be in a buzz about something, I kept hearing fragments of a story as I walked around. There weren't that many people talking about it, but it was enough for me to wonder what the full extent of the situation was.

Basically what I heard boiled down to was that the Kazekage had been kidnapped and killed by some organization with cloaks that had red clouds on them.

The red clouds on cloaks sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. In the end I gave up on trying to remember who they were after a ten minute period that I spent looking into the sky trying to find the name. It was the tip of my tongue but I didn't really care any more.

It took me about three hours of walking around the village without actually really looking for him at any spots I thought he'd be at before I found Asuma, he was leaning against a wall smoking a cigarette and reading a small booklet that I'm sure read 'Bingo Book'. I still had an old one of those but I never really cared too much to remember everything in them plus at a point when the thing said 'flee on site' it just wasn't worth remembering what they could do since most people at that stage could probably kill you by looking in your general direction a little funny.

"Jounin-san, could I ask for your help? I lost my Hitai-ate- I dropped it." I tried my best to make my voice sound different, but I guess it was just a little too dry and deep to easily change, which just made it sound like a voice crack instead.

"Hm? Sure I ca-" The bearded man looked at me with confusion as the cigarette fell from his lips. "Takezou?!" he said, eyes brightening as I was pulled into a hug by him.

When we stepped back from one another he gave me a raised brow as he appraised my appearance.

"How's it going old man?" I asked a smirk creeping onto my face.

"Good, I'm glad to see you back in action- I heard you were in a coma? Are you alright?" He looked happy to see me and that made me feel… Well, it made me glad to know people cared.

"Thanks, yeah I was, Mum said six months and they still aren't really sure why. Guess it might've been self-inflicted or something." I answered.

"A self-inflicted six month long coma?" he said with an arched brow. "You need to stop beating yourself up so much, yeah? I mean we're still all here for you even if you aren't a ninja anymore." Asuma breathed a sigh and directed us to get off the street and out of people's way.

"Hey..." I sighed, trying to find the courage. "Wanna go get a drink or like to eat lunch together and catch up?"

Sensei gave a nod. "Sure, let's go get a drink, I know a good restaurant that sells good Sake with their food." Asuma put his arm around my shoulder then made an unsure expression. "You got taller again did you?" he said with a laugh.

"Mum said I'm about as tall as her father now, so I guess it runs in the family." I paused for a moment to think. "Did you know I'm seventeen?"

"What did you not know you were two years older than the other two?" Sensei asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Er… I didn't, I only found out yesterday." he gave a knowing look.

"You were always too distracted to see the things right in front of you weren't you?"

AN: I hope you enjoyed my foray back into writing Naruto after a year or so of not even reading stories related to it. It was really fun to write for Takezou again either way and I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.