Now and Never

Bensha felt the wind tug at her hair. She looked up at the sky with calm eyes. She stepped off the tree and fell to the ground. She landed with a light thud and started walking.

"Tell me," She spoke quietly to the wind. "my resurrection, how do I return the path of events for it? How do I return Setsuko to her rightful place in this world and sleep again?" The wind didn't answer. Bensha didn't seemed phased by this. "Or will you let me find my answers? If so, will you let her fears harm me?" The wind was still and Bensha laughed. "Or course!!!! The snake must to be destroyed before I am released!!!" Bensha smirked. "Then the snake will die." Bensha leapt up into the trees once more and jumped form branch to branch as quickly as she raced towards the Hidden Sound Village. "And I will rest until the wind decides my resurrection!"

Yoko watched Tenshi drink from a cup. The Branch Family had finally returned to the Uzumaki Estate. Yoko had been surprised by the outsiders staying. The two children and the masked ninja. And Tsunade said that the sand triplets would be staying there. They had too much room for the small amount of people staying there. The meiko stared down at her tea.

"So what's wrong?" Tenshi asked gently. Though the Leaf-nin were in shock by her real gender, Yoko knew better. The two had grown up together and Yoko had seen Tenshi before Tenshi realized her true nature. She just was too feminine too be male. While almost every single man would refuse to dress as a woman, Tenshi embraced it. Yoko had watched Tenshi turn from the gentle and shy boy into the quick prankster/peacemaker woman. Tenshi did things her own way and saw no problem with the way she was. Though male, Tenshi was always referred to as her. But . . . what most prompted the unique way she lived was when Yoko was a young girl being taught to be a meiko. When Toshiko had first shown her the ways, Yoko was eager to try her new abilities. She used her abilities to improve her jutsu from the Death Scrolls. She looked at everyone's soul. When she had seen Tenshi's, it shocked her. Tenshi had a girl's soul. When she thought about it, it all made sense. Tenshi always dressed in clothes that could be for either gender and he always seemed to gentle where as other boys would be rude and harsh. He spent more time making sure he looked nice than she did. And he seemed to have faint crushes on other men. When she told all this to Tenshi, he seemed happy. He smiled at simply said, 'Arigatou Yoko-chan. You have made things easy for me. Now that I know the reasons, I am no longer worried.' The next time she saw him, the little boy she knew was gone. In his place was a cute little girl who would always seem like a late bloomer in life. Tenshi could be mistaken for a real woman anytime. People always saw her as a flat chested pretty woman. Yoko snapped out of her musings.

". . . arigatou, Tenshi-chan." Tenshi blinked in surprised.

"Nani?" She asked in confusion. Yoko looked up at her a smiled sadly.

"Ore . . . ore . . ."

"Hai?"

Robin watched Setsuko. The woman was picking flowers again. That's all she seemed to be able to do. Her domestic skills were . . . useless, at best. The only things that Setsuko could do was wash some laundry, knit, and sew. That's all. It appeared that fighting was her true calling. No matter how much they tried, she made things impossible. Yukio tried to teach her to cook. Setsuko is only able to boil water. Gardening . . . everything she touched, died. Cleaning . . . well . . . it was alright . . . singing . . . it was useless to try and find that out until she got her real body back. But the Setsuko from holy mud seemed to be able to carry a tune. She could only do alittle bit of laundry. She was slow and clumsy. She couldn't do a lot of laundry at once, somehow they seemed to leave huge stains on the clothes that weren't there before if she did a lot. Interior decorating . . . Robin gave a small shudder. The woman was only able to do some basics, everything else seemed to come from nightmares Robin had buried and tried her hardest never to look back on. Setsuko had no real idea how to arrange flowers either. She just put the ones that looked pretty together. Tenshi nearly fainted at the arrangements Setsuko had made. Robin never understood most of those things, but some she was able to gage by the others' reactions. Yoko took one look at Setsuko's cleaning and had vowed that Setsuko must never try to make a profession out of it. Yukio tasted some of Setsuko's cooking and banned Setsuko from making meals other than ramen. It was all she could do without destroying the taste and kitchen. Akira never allowed her to garden. After she killed off his garden at the Celia mountains, he said she couldn't garden without him to try and save the plants. Masaru had told her to not worry about the laundry anymore, he said that he would save time and not have to have it done twice. The only thing Robin truly knew was how to fight. And she would have to wait until the real Setsuko came back to know about that. Robin leaned back into the tree trunk and stretched, popping some of her body to try and think about what she had been told.

Flashback

"Seung . . ." The girl looked back at Robin.

"Hai?"

"Tell me, how does you sensei fight?" Seung smiled and only shrugged.

"I've only seen alittle bit. She's kinda strong. Kakashi-san would know better. I heard he knows her style and abilities better than most." Robin nodded and hurried ahead to catch up with Kakashi. His response was not so helpful at first.

"Why?" Robin sighed as she glanced back at Setsuko who was being carried by Masaru.

"I . . . I want to be able to understand my cousin better. I do not know the real her. Everyone talks about her skills in certain areas but we don't know much about the real Setsuko. There is only so much the clay Setsuko can do that would properly reflect."

"So why her fighting skills?" Robin repressed a faint blush from her embarrassment.

"I really can't do many other things than that. Alittle cooking to get by and some mending on my clothes but nothing else really. I suppose I am more like Setsuko than other Branch Family members. They have all these skills outside of fighting and I don't. I guess . . . I guess I spent too much time when I was younger on training than other things." Kakashi was silent for a moment before answering.

"Setsuko is naturally strong. The demon sealed within her gave her that. But, her stamina, though pretty good, is only that of someone who had been on the run and fighting for over a decade. She doesn't train in those aspects so they aren't that wonderful." Robin nodded, deep in thought.

"What of her use of chakra?" Kakashi thought for a moment.

"Her demonic abilities allow her body to grasp the concepts but still, she doesn't have as much a reserve as most Jounin. Though she is able to use chakra without using handseals but the attacks are extremely unstable and not as powerful as others."

"Her chakra . . . with the demon, I would think she would have plenty." Kakashi sighed and he leapt off a branch and onto another one.

"Yes and no. Her chakra does not work the same as ours. Most of it resides in her blood. She got that from the demon sealed into her when she was young. So, when you count the chakra in her blood, she has more than any Jounin. But that can only be used in her blood. She can't use it for anything but the blood. Chakra she can use for ninjutsu is somewhere above chuunin level."

"What of genjutsu?" Kakashi shrugged.

"I don't think she can really use that much genjutsu. The only genjutsu I have seen her use is henge. There may be one or two other basics she can use, but that's it." Robin nodded as she ducked under a branch.

"I see. Her taijutsu?"

"She really doesn't have that. She fights in her own way. She was never taught that so her fighting style is more like street fighting. But because she never knew ninjutsu and genjutsu, her hand to hand combat skills are remarkable. With her, things are more brute force than style. And she has an uncanny ability to shake off attacks better than anyone I know." Robin nodded once more.

"What about weapons?" Kakashi smiled faintly.

"She has a 12 Blades of Death." Robin nearly tripped over her own feet.

"Nani?! Those things are pretty rare. They are heavier than other weapons so they are mostly good for smashing things instead of cutting because of the weight, even though the blades are supposed to be very sharp." Kakashi nodded.

"Hai. But Setsuko seems to be able to use it for cut more than smashing and bashing things. She calls hers the Shinigami." Kakashi had to catch Robin before she fell to the ground from shock. Robin quickly recovered from the shock.

"The Shinigami? No wonder that she can use it so easily."

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked, slightly confused.

"The Shinigami. I thought it was only a silly myth. A normal 12 Blades of Death is 12 blades sharpened to the point of cutting through rock with ease. But it was said that the ultimate 12 Blades of Death was the Shinigami. There are said to be ancient designs that only appear when bathed in the blood of an enemy! The hardest metal is cut through by that like soft butter. Enchanted with power beyond what any normal human can handle. That was what the Shinigami was said to be. A God of Death turned into a weapon!" Robin glanced at Kakashi. "If that is the Shinigami, then she would be able to use it with ease. It is said that the Shinigami reacts to the amount of chakra in the blood. That is why those ancient designs are suppose to appear in blood. It was jutsu to make it harder to use. Only a few which had the ability to use a certain type of jutsu would be able to use it. The more chakra in the blood, the lighter the Shinigami would be. The less, the heavier." Kakashi sighed as things seemed to come together.

"That makes sense. I've seen those designs on the blades. And with Setsuko using the Shinigami so easily while everyone else would find it hard to use, your theory is probably the only explanation."

End Flashback

Robin brushed some of her hair out of her face before leaping to the ground. Setsuko had just stopped and started to stared off into space.

"Setsuko-sama?" Setsuko blinked a few times before turning back to her.

"Gomen. I was lost in thought, that's all." Robin nodded as she sat down in the grass next to Setsuko.

Bensha dodged the attacks. The man with the red eyes, Itachi, had stopped her from killing the snake. She threw her hand forward to stop the kunai, the wind threw them back at him. The ancient demon leapt up into the air as she performed ancient handseals from her youth. She landed and stood. A tornado had formed around her, making it impossible to get to her. She simply stood and waited as the wind lifted her hair up and flung it about. Bensha closed her eyes as she listened to some ninja scream as they died after trying to break through the barrier of wind. But suddenly, a pain erupted from within her. Bensha grabbed her stomach as her eyes snapped open in pain. She fell to her knees as a choked groan escaped her lips. The tornado faltered slightly, enough for a few ninja to break through. They attacked Bensha in her weakened condition, causing the tornado to completely disappear. Orochimaru smirked as he stepped forward with Kabuto behind him.

"Bensha-chan, I thought that you would be more careful when you came back." Bensha glared up at him to which he only laughed. "Oh, Bensha, Bensha, Bensha. Didn't the wind tell you? With your cursed seal, you are under my control . . . before I was willing to let you do things on your own, but now . . ." He knelt down and lifted her chin up so she would look at him in the eyes. "Now I think you'll just have to be forced." Orochimaru stood and dropped her back to the ground. "Don't worry, I'll set you free. All you have to do is destroy Konoha." Orochimaru laughed as Bensha struggled against her pain.

". . . Y . . . YARO HEBI!!!!" ((Bastard snake)) Bensha screamed in pain. "Ore . . . ore . . . imei . . . teiku . . . atto . . . tame ano goshou!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ((I will take you to the afterlife)) Bensha felt more pain surge through her body, causing her muscles to give out. "A . . . aaa . . . .aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Yaro . . . . yaro!" The pain intensified greatly. ((Bastard)) "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Bensha screamed out in pain.

"That won't work Bensha-chan. Besides, all you have to do is a simple little task. You said so yourself, you are more powerful than humans. This should be nothing for you." Bensha felt her mind slipping away.

"You . . . damn . . . . snake . . . kill me now . . . . or I will kill you . . ." She hissed weakly. Orochimaru laughed.

"Now my dear, I can't do that. Your cursed seal is just what I need." Bensha glared at him.

"You talk without sense . . ." Once more the snake laughed.

"My dear, your cursed seal harbored something that is very useful to me. It transferred a bit of Uchiha DNA into the correct . . . body parts . . . once nine months are up . . . I'll have a new body with the ability to learn the Uzumaki forbidden arts. Hopefully I'll find a demon within that time to seal into the newborn. Then, if all goes well, I'll know the Uzumaki forbidden arts, have demon chakra and healing abilities, and the Uchiha bloodline to help out some when it comes to learning new jutsu." Bensha tried to get up but the pain inside of her doubled.

"K . . . kouro . . . . kontan no Setsuko . . . kouro . . ." She whispered as everything went black. ((run soul of Setsuko))

Setsuko felt her eyes widen as her body jolt up. Her back arched slightly as five words were pounded into her head. The clay doll fell onto her back as Robin moved to her side quickly, trying to help.

"Setsuko-sama?!" Robin yelled in surprise. "Setsuko-sama!!!!"