A/N: I do not own anything. This story is merely the product of an overactive imagination.

Previously:

"You said she made sure of a better world. H-how did she do that?"

"She killed a man."

I was almost afraid to ask.

"Who?"

"Shimura Danzou."

"And as far as I know, that one murder has changed the timeline quite thoroughly, for the better I would wager," Maya stated rather seriously, a glint of something in her eyes.

I paused momentarily at that, but blurted out the first thought that came to mind.

"Not that I am not happy I don't have to deal with that man, but as far as I am aware, one death should not affect the timeline so drastically, the butterfly effect notwithstanding."

"Oh you would be surprised at how much one warmonger can change the status quo."

"I myself was quite surprised by the effect one death can have. Previously, I had not paid much attention to Shimura Danzou, whose actions, while appalling, were nowhere on the level of, say, the Yondaime Mizukage's Kekkai Genkai Purges. Or the Fall of Uzushio at the hands of Kiri and Kumo. To say nothing of the Sengoku Jidai," Shinigami-sama mused, sipping from their cup.

"Huh. That is true. I guess he was more of a puppet-master than an outright threat. More insidious. And all the more dangerous for it. It certainly makes it easier for us now that he is long dead," I said.

"It really does," Maya agreed.

"So, what exactly changed due to his untimely death? I assume the Uchiha Clan is well and alive?"

"Yes. Alive and flourishing."

"And what else?"

And so Maya began to speak.

Apparently, Danzou had been quite the busy bee in the original timeline. Due to his death, quite a few more people were alive. Uchiha Kagami, one of the Nidaime's prized students and Danzou's teammate was not only alive, but also the Hokage's Advisor. Senju Nawaki, Sannin no Tsunade's little brother, whose death broke her, was the hospital's director, having decided to follow his sister's footsteps, as well as being one of the few fuuinjutsu masters in the village. Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang, was alive and one of the legendary heroes of konoha; the mission which discredited him either never happened or was completed successfully. The Third Shinobi War started a few years later than it had before. The Hyuuga Affair never happened. Tsunade had left the village, but had come back after the Kyūbi attack.

I was left reeling.

Rubbing at my temples to stave off a headache, I asked, "Is anything recognizable about this timeline, or are we supposed to go about it blindly?"

"Well, the Kyuubi Attack did happen, and the Yondaime and his wife did die ater sealing it in their son, Naruto. The Kannabi Bridge mission went exactly the same. The Sanbi was sealed in Nohara Rin and that ended just about the same," Maya answered.

"The Akatsuki was also formed after Ame no Yahiko's death at the hands of Hanzou the Salamander. Young Obito was rescued and groomed by Uchiha Madara. The Yondaime Mizukage is still under Obito's genjutsu. Zetsu's plans continue unhindered, mostly. Fortunately, the ranks of Akatsuki don't have Uchiha Itachi. As well as Akasuna no Sasori remaining a loyal Suna nin," Ootsutsuki Hamura continued.

My eyes widened at the last fact.

"How on earth did Sasori not defect?" I asked, baffled.

Here, Maya smirked. "The wonderful butterfly effect. As much as I can gather, the fact that his parents are in the realm of the living contributed heavily to that. In the original timeline, his parents were killed by Hatake Sakumo during the failed mission. Now that they are alive, well…one less enemy on that front."

Huh.

Well, that was… neat.

"Any other questions, darling?" Maya asked.

I cleared my throat and said, "Just a couple more, I think. You said the Yondaime died sealing the Kyuubi. I take it was Namikaze Minato?" I waited for her nod, and continued, "Then who's the Hokage now? There is no dearth of Kage-level shinobi in the village now, apparently."

"The Godaime is Tsunade. That at least hasn't changed. Originally she wanted no part of being the Hokage, but after the Kyuubi debacle, she had no choice."

I nodded, pleased.

Then, gathering my courage, I addressed the God sitting in front of me, "Shinigami-sama, I wished to ask you something. Why me? Why choose me for this task?"

Maya sucked in a shocked breath.

A pleased smile slid onto their face at my question. Mentally, I released a whew of relief at the lack of offense at my bold question.

"I needed someone who was empathetic enough to help a world not of their own, but ruthless in their execution. Someone of high intelligence and skilled at tactical planning. Your previous life's work in counterintelligence of your nation will be of tremendous help. I also needed someone who was aware of the story based on this world. You just happened to meet all of those expectations. You are a remarkably level-headed young woman and I have no doubt you can and will rise to the occasion."

I bowed at their words, as much as I could from my seated position. "Thank you for your kind words,

Shinigami-sama."

The kami then got up and intoned, "Before I take my leave, take heed. Your path will be fraught with difficulties but faith shall see you prevail. And to help you in your journey, I bequeath you two gifts. You shall be able to summon and communicate with any spirit, provided they have passed onto the Pure Lands. They will not be able to disobey any command from you. Secondly, a boon freely given, to be used once. Thus, I bless you, blood of my blood."

And then we were two.

"Blood of their blood?" I demanded, incredulous.

Maya sighed, but answered, "The divine have to follow certain rules while interacting with the mortal world. They can only interfere with those who are of their blood. This is why many of them sire demigods. Apparently, our paternal grandmother is of a clan which descended from the second son of Ootsutsuki hamura, the first-born founding the Hyuuga clan. The clan was destroyed when Uzushio was decimated."

"Oh."

What else was I supposed to say to that.

I guess it made a certain amount of sense seeing as the transmigrations of Indra and Ashura were born in the same bloodlines. Even the Uzumaki clan descended from a daughter of Ootsutsuki Ashura.

We sat in silence for a while after that. I gazed around the large room, not surprised that it had taken the form of a library. The layout of the room imitated the library I used to take refuge in my past life. My safe haven from the clamour of the masses.

I was still a little freaked out that I was not freaked out about dying and reincarnating into a different universe. However, I was also somewhat thankful for my panic being nonexistent. I despised losing control of my emotional and mental state. It was why I hated getting drunk as well.

A clink brought me out of my reverie, and I looked up to see Maya settling back after putting her cup on the table.

Her fathomless black eyes were eerie in their scrutiny, and I suddenly understood why I had had so much success in the interrogation rooms in my previous occupation.

I cleared my throat.

"So what do I need to know before I go back to the physical plane? I don't think I should leave my body unaware for too long."

Maya waved a hand, "Oh, don't worry your pretty little head about that. Time moves differently here. When you go back, you'll find only a few seconds have passed in the real world." Resting her chin on her hands, she continued, "There are quite a few things you should know, though. Firstly, we are currently eleven years old and enrolled at the shinobi academy. However, from what I've gathered, we are two years older that the so called Rookie Nine. Due to the complications in our chakra, we had to wait for two years before starting ninja school. With me so far?"

I nodded, but asked, "Complications?"

"I mentioned before that you had not been aware of our transmigration until our Yin and Yang chakras had balanced out, right? That's basically why. At birth, our chakras were at a 7:1 ratio with Yin high. So we had to catch up. Our mother is a retired jounin, and she helped with out physical conditioning. Now, we are roughly at 2:1, which was supposed to be our original distribution. We still need to bring it to 1:1."

There, Maya got up and went to crouch by a nearby shelf. She ran her fingers along the spines of the books and picked the one I assumed she was looking for. Coming back to our table, she handed me the book, which had Taijutsu written on top.

Curious, I opened the book and almost dropped it. Flashes of what I assumed to be memories, ran through my mind, all of them of me practicing taijutsu. I had to shake my head to clear it after the memories stopped. I know had a working knowledge of the different styles of taijutsu Haruno Mebuki had taught us. (Calling her mom felt a bit weird, as I had been an orphan since my childhood before.)

Maya had a smirk on her face as she observed me coming out of the memories.

I narrowed my eyes. "You knew that would happen."

She shrugged, "I had a feeling it was going to be like that. I have to get my entertainment from somewhere."

She then waved a hand to indicate the messy library.

"Those books are our memories. I could not arrange the ones from this life. Their placement is due to you. Mind, I am not blaming you, it is understandable as before today, you were a nine year old girl. No child has a well organised mind, though you did try."

I absentmindedly nodded, my attention on the multitude of books I needed to go through to get my memories.

This is going to hurt.

A/N: Please review!