English: "Hello"

Japanese (or just: the language that Tenrai speaks): "Hello"

Tenrai kept her breathing even and her heartbeat slow as she came back to the conscious world. It smelled like an infirmary, and as she listened to the beeps of machines the memories of the last few days slammed back into her head. She nearly cried as her heart became a gaping empty hole. Her Itachi was dead.

Voices snapped her out of her wallowing and she resolved to have a breakdown as soon as she would have the privacy to do so in peace. She only caught snatches of the conversation near her, but that was enough for her to deduce that they were talking about her. She opened her eyes and silently sat up, still keeping her heartbeat slow to avoid alarming anyone, and took in the arguing people at the foot of her bed. David and the red-headed healer, the Doctor, were arguing while John and a brown-haired bespectacled man watched in amusement. They became even more amused as they spotted Tenrai sitting up and winking at them. The brown-haired man cleared his throat, earning himself a "What!" from both the arguing people. Tenrai snorted.

Before she could blink David and the Doctor were at her bedside, poking, prodding and talking a mile a minute. Tenrai gazed beseechingly at the two smirking men by her feet. "Escape?"

John snorted, then rattled something to the two mother hen which caused them to back off, before he stepped forward. "Good to see you awake, Tenrai. This is Daniel Jackson, he is a linguist."

That got him an uncomprehending look.

"I speak many languages." Jackson smoothly cut in. "Perhaps yours as well?"

He looked a bit like a hopeful puppy and reminded Tenrai a bit of that blond Jinchuriki, Naruto. She shrugged, then decided to try it out. "Do you understand me now then?"

"Hai!" Jackson answered brightly, then he started muttering to himself, earning a long-suffering look from the Doctor, who had just tuned in. Tenrai just sat straighter. "Can you ask where my wakizashi, my short sword is? I lost it as I fell through the ring. And where am I? What is that ring? Who do you work for? What kind of work do you here?"

Jackson was derailed from his musing by her questions, and both were distracted as he started answering everything she asked to the best of his abilities.

It took a few days, but then Tenrai was released from the infirmary. David's team, whom she had learned were called SG-13, were waiting for her as she stepped into the hallway with her box of weapons and tattered clothes under her arm. She was wearing a borrowed uniform from the SGC. She had been talking with Daniel, or Puppy as she thought of him, a lot those past days and had found it would be as good as impossible for her to go back to her own world. Yes, own world. She had also learned about the Stargate, life on other planets and everything out there. It had been a bit shocking and overwhelming, but also very interesting. Daniel had also been teaching her more English, so she would be able to express herself better in a language that they would understand.

Sal took her box from her as soon as she stepped out into the hallway, getting an amused look as he huffed and sagged a bit at the unexpected weight. David threw an arm around Tenrai and led her away, the team following. "We'll take you for food first, Tenrai, then we'll show you where you'll be staying." He frowned a bit, then spoke again. "Say, don't you have a last name?"

"Last name?" The unknown term earned him a quizzical look from Tenrai.

"Yeah, like a family name? Uh, clan name?"

"Ah, yes!" Tenrai nodded. "Clan Monotachi. My name Monotachi Tenrai." She smiled a bit. "Not big clan, but all nice. Not eh, stuck up shitty little pigs."

The last she muttered as they entered a large hall, passing Daniel Jackson, who snorted coffee through his nose at her words, throwing him in a coughing fit, which was made worse by the fact that he tried to stop his snorts at the same time. Tenrai smirked at him. "That's what you get for listening in, sempai."

Daniel looked a bit embarrassed, but still took he invitation to join them for lunch. He joined Tenrai at a table as SG-13 went to get them some food. It didn't take too long, as they were just before the lunch crowds and there thusly wasn't a queue. Tenrai and Daniel chatted quietly, and as the team returned she looked at Daniel in confusion. "Daniel? Where are chopsticks?"

SG-13 snickered as Daniel tried to explain forks to her, but in the end he just demonstrated the usage of the tool. In the meantime the lunch crowds had arrived, and quite a few people were staring at Tenrai. The story of her arrival, and how she had taken a staff blast for a SGC-member, had quickly circulated on the base. They were eating and chatting amiably when a man, probably a new recruit, tried to chat up the unimpressed Tenrai.

"So you're new here? I could give you a tour if you want to. I know all the good places around here." He gave what he probably thought was a roguish grin. SG-13 and Daniel as one rolled their eyes in exasperation, Tenrai gave the soldier an unimpressed one-over over her shoulder, then pointedly turned her back on him and resumed her conversation with Daniel.

The young soldier slowly turned red with anger and embarrassment, especially as his friends, who were sitting a table away, were snickering at him. Hit in his pride he tried to grab the shoulder of Tenrai, to at least make her look at him properly, but before he could even touch her shoulder, he suddenly found himself face-first on the floor, his arm held behind his back in an iron grip. Silence descended on the cafeteria as others saw what was happening. Tenrai had the arm of the soldier in one hand, leaning slightly on it to keep him on the floor. She was straddling the bench, having turned a bit to get in a better position to take the man down. She sneered down at him as he gasped for air after having gotten it driven out of him in his collision with the floor. "Foolish boy. No time for children. Go play else, come back when not hiding behind mama skirts."

She pushed him away from her, then turned back to her lunch and resumed eating. Only Jack O'Neill, who had entered the cafeteria just before the soldier had tried his luck, noticed Tenrai tucking away the knife she had been palming in her other hand the whole time. He raised an eyebrow. Now that wasn't something he had even seen in a woman of her age. The only persons he had even seen that twitchy in a friendly environment were Black Ops. soldiers that had just come back from a particular difficult assignment. He frowned, then decided to remind the General that they still didn't know anything about her apart from her name.

He frowned deeper as he realised that they knew nothing of importance about her at all. They knew her name, her age, that she had siblings and that her mother died when she was young, but in all of her conversations with Daniel she had been very skilled in getting the conversation on the topics that she wanted to discuss, once in a while throwing in some titbit about herself to make it seem like she told them about her. She was a pro, no doubt about that. Now was just the question: was she their enemy, or not?

Tenrai sighed silently as she was lead to the office of the General, the leader of the people she had ended up with. She had been expecting this for a while, but it had honestly taken them longer to interrogate her than she had thought it would take. They were a lot more trusting that shinobi, that was for sure. She gave a slow smirk, unnerving the Airmen escorting her and making David, who was leading her to her destination, raise an inquisitive eyebrow. She just gave him another smirk, and stayed silent. As they reached the office of the General, the Airmen stopped outside the door, but David followed her in. Inside the General, the Doctor and their top-team were already waiting, alongside the rest of SG-13, and David took a seat alongside them. Tenrai refused the offer of a seat and took up an almost military stance in front of the table. She saw O'Neill narrow his eyes, and threw him a quirky little smirk along with a raised eyebrow. The General cleared his throat to get the attention of everyone in the room. "Well, then, Miss Monotachi, I believe you are long overdue for some answers. So please explain to us how you managed to get taken by the Goa'uld."

Tenrai gave him a quirky smile and bowed her head. "Good. Maybe best if Daniel uh.. translate?"

Daniel grinned. "Translate."

"Yes." Tenrai nodded at him. "He translate for me. Better that way." She cocked her head to the side, and as the General nodded, she started talking while Daniel translated simultaneously. "As you know, my name is Tenrai Monotachi. I told you some about my family, but to understand how I found our Stargate, you would have to know about our culture. We have a Feudal culture, our landmass is split up in countries, each ruled by one leader: the Daimyo. This leader had armies of samurai, but the larger countries, or simply those who could afford it have another, more powerful force at their back. These are the Hidden Villages." She glared at Jack as he opened his mouth to made a joke, and he clicked his moth shut. She continued. "These Hidden Villages are ruled by the most powerful, called the Kage. He is the leader of the force of his Village, the shinobi, you might know the term ninja a bit better."

All raised an eyebrow as she used the term ninja, but they stayed silent.

Tenrai took a deep breath. "The Villages are built up from separate Clans and civilians, and before the Villages were formed the Clans simply wandered the lands, being hired by the highest bidder to fight for them. After the Villages were formed, shinobi were more easily assessable for the normal people. If you had enough money, you could go to a Village to hire shinobi for almost any task you wanted, from guarding to farming. But our best business was and always will be killing."

The silence that fell on the briefing room was stifling and Daniel chocked slightly in his translation.

"My Clan was part of the Village Hidden in the Mist, or Kirigakure. It was a harsh life there, for the climate wasn't what you'd call benign. Over time, the people of Kiri blamed all that, and any other misfortunes, on the people with special abilities, we call them Kekkei Genkei, that ran through families. Those families were hunted down and exterminated." Tenrai took a deep breath. "My Clan was one of those. The only reason we survived was because we held a crucial role in the defence of our Village, but that didn't stop the people from treating us like lepers. I became a shinobi, or kunoichi I should say, for that is the female term, when I was four. I made my first kill when I was five and got so sick and tired of the attitude of my people that I left my Village at fourteen. I was branded a traitor, and put on the list to be exterminated by one of the specialised team for that, the oi-nin, or hunter-nin." She ignored the shocked gasps of the people in the room and continued. "I met up with an old family friend and travelled together with him and his companion. We encountered some things, but it all ended in me being the only survivor of an encounter with enemies, and I was wounded. In my wounded state I stumbled over the place where the Gate of our planet had been sealed away, where I learned of the False Gods, and how they had been driven off and killed by my ancestors, the first shinobi. After learning this, the Stargate activated, and seeing how I had never seen anything like it before, I was kind of rooted to the spot and thus shot with one of their bolt staffs. That hurt like a bitch."

Daniel snickered at bit at her almost joking tone and Tenrai made a face at him before clearing her throat and standing back at attention.

"When I woke up, and was able to move again, I encountered SG-13, who were in the same cell as I was. When I spotted that they didn't have weapons and looked to be locked in, I assumed they were also prisoners and saw no problem in helping them break out, thus ending with me in your base. That's all."

Silence stretched over the room and Tenrai swore she almost heard some crickets chirping in the distance before anybody moved. Colonel Jack O'Neill was the first. He leaned over the table and looked at her with narrowed eyes. "So you're a killer."

She simply nodded.

"How many people have you killed?" The Colonel gave her a hard look. Tenrai shrugged. "I don't know. I never counted. I just followed my orders. Shinobi aren't supposed to think, they are only tools for their Village."

"That's bullshit!" The sudden outburst from Daniel shocked everybody a bit.

Tenrai blinked, then smiled at him. "I know. That's why I left."

The General coughed to get her attention. "You said special abilities, Miss Monotachi. What did you mean with that?"

"Oh." Tenrai blinked, then raised a hand in the air. "Just that I can do things like this." With a twist of her wrist she pulled water from thin air, leaving to rotate above her fingers for a moment, before in froze and split apart in ice-needles, that shot forward and embedded themselves in the wall at her mental command. Then, with another twist of her wrist the needles evaporated and the only prove that they had been there at all were the small holes in the wall. The people in the room gaped, looking from her, to the wall, then back at her. Finally Major Carter managed to get her wits together. "You can't do that! That's not possible!"

Tenrai smirked at that response and in a flicker she disappeared and reappeared right in front of the Major, crouched on the table. "Really? Not possible?"

The Major fell silent, her mouth gaping. This time the Colonel spoke, as he looked at her with narrowed eyes. "How did you do that?"

In another flicker Tenrai disappeared and reappeared in her former position in front of the table. She shrugged. "Training, bit of chakra."

"Chakra?" Daniel tested the term, and a light came in his eyes. You mean like an inner energy? We have some cultures here that also talk about it, but they can't do anything with it, it's just their belief."

Major Carter snorted in disbelief. "Right, an inner energy that you can manipulate. That's just their imagination."

"Tch." Tenrai turned her nose up at the Major. "Unbelieving civilian."

"Daniel, what did she say?" Carter had understood from the derisive tone of Tenrai's voice that she hadn't given a compliment, but the fact that Daniel hadn't translated it immediately gave her the final clue. "Daniel?"

"You civilian." Tenrai looked down at her. "Not believe until seeing. When seeing scream it is not true. Typical. Only believe what is right what you say, nobody else ever right when you say it not."

"Excuse me?" Carter started going red in the face. Tenrai just blinked, then gave her a toothy smile, that had too many teeth in it to be called friendly. "Imagination to this?"

And with those words she disappeared. David was the first to look up, and her gaped, a motion the was followed by his team until the others also looked up. Tenrai was sitting calmly on the ceiling, her legs crossed and her arms behind her head, looking down on them with a thin smile. "Still unbelieving?"

Carter only gaped.

The General cleared his throat. "Miss Monotachi, what else would be possible for you with chakra? Are there limits to what you can do with it?"

Tenrai shrugged. "Many things, most jutsu. Uhm… techniques. Also help during fight, makes stronger, faster, tougher."

"Techniques?"

With a grin Tenrai nodded. "Hai! Want to see?" She looked around for a moment, measuring the space before shrugging. "Need more space, though."

They had changed locations to a deserted and out of the way training room. Tenrai had set them up against on wall, grinned, then with a flurry of her hands she spat out a large fireball that splashed against the opposite wall.

Another flurry of her hands and a small dragon made out of water roared and splashed against the same wall that the fireball had hit before.

Another flurry of her hands had their surroundings warping around them, trees shooting up from the ground and all colour leeching away from their vision until they saw everything in black and white. Then something horrific rose from the ground as if the ground had turned into water. It was huge, and looked like a mismatched cross between a crab, a turtle and a fish, with three tails and malicious red eyes. It roared, sending them flying back as a wave of dread washed over them. Then all suddenly disappeared and they were back in the room, in the same position they had been when Tenrai had started that last technique and nothing had changed. Chris gasped violently. "Fuck! What the hell was that?"

Tenrai turned back around, looking a bit smug. "Ninjutsu, genjutsu."

"I meant that strange thing… beast."

"Ah. Sanbi no Isonade." Tenrai smiled viciously, a strange light in her eyes that made them take a cautious step back. "Great Demon, protector of Clan."

"Demon?" Daniel and Chris spoke at the same time, causing Tenrai to laugh. "Yes, demon. One of nine, great Lords, forces of nature. Great Ancestor, grant us your power."

Daniel sputtered at her last, murmured comment and he looked at her with wide eyes. She shrugged. "Legend says that Sanbi was the one who taught my Clan how to use their talents, and He has always looked out for our Clan. Never has He harmed or attacked anyone of our blood. The least we could do is respect Him."

Still a bit shaky he nodded, but didn't translate it to the rest of the people, much to their annoyance. Tenrai didn't say anything.

The General took a single, deep breath before he had his composure back. "Is that all you can do, everything that is possible with your energy?"

Tenrai looked at Daniel for a translation, then shrugged in answer as Daniel translated her words as she spoke them. "There are many techniques that are possible with chakra. Most of them are Elemental techniques, some simply chakra exercises, it all depends on your affinities and your imagination. You can even heal with it."

"Heal?" Sal perked up, seeing how he was kind of the medic of SG-13. Tenrai gifted him with a soft smile. "Yes, heal. Watch."

All watched as she pulled a knife from somewhere and they started forward as she made a deep cut in her arm. Sal shot towards her. "Quick, stop the blood…" He trailed off as a green glow engulfed the hand of Tenrai and the cut closed and smoothed away as she ran her glowing hand over the wound. She smirked at him. "See? Heal."

"That… is quite remarkable, Miss." The General stared for a moment longer at her unblemished arm as she wiped the blood away, then gathered himself. "I thank you for your cooperation."

Tenrai shrugged. "Can't go home. Must make new one then. But warning." Her eyes sharpened and the air was suddenly heavy, forcing them to gasp for breath. "I no test person. One comes after I, I kill them. Slowly."

The General nodded. "That is understandable." He pushed a button and the two Airmen that had been guarding the door came back in. "These men will escort you back to your room. I think we all need some moments to process the information you gave us. Tomorrow we will speak again."

Giving a shallow bow Tenrai followed the soldiers out of the door, giving the other people a cheeky wave before disappearing down the hall.

The General fell back in his chair as the door slammed close behind her back. Colonel O'Neill leaned back and frowned slightly. "Well. That was interesting."

SG-13 was silently conversing among themselves and all nodded as they came to a conclusion. Major Hawkwood stood up and cleared his throat. "With your permission, sir, we would like to leave. I promised Tenrai to teach her our poker and she would teach us the variant she knows. If you'll excuse us?"

At their commanders nod they swiftly left. Colonel O'Neill sighed and leaned back in his chair. "This is quite unexpected, isn't it, sir?"

"Yes." The General nodded, then he smirked. "But I'd personally love to see what she would do against the NID. I almost wish they would try something."

"Sir, you'd have a assassin cut loose on American citizens?" O'Neill raised a mocking eyebrow as his eyes twinkled. The General just gave him a stern look, then waved them off. "Off with you all. Keep a discreet eye on Miss Monotachi, but I doubt she'll try anything. Dismissed."

With final salutes SG-1 left the office. General Hammond sighed deeply as soon as he was alone and opened his drawer to find his bottle of painkillers. He'd need them for the headache he'd get from this.