Max goes home, but it isn't exactly how she left it.

It took about an hour to get Tony up to speed on the Stargate program. He took it surprisingly well, joking that Abby would kill to know about the program and it would blow McGee's mind.

"So how come I now have clearance for this?" Tony asked Max when the call finished.

"It's complicated. You remember how I said us being related was impossible?" Tony nodded. "Well, that's because I only stepped foot on this planet when I was ten." It took a while for that to sink in.

"So you're an alien?" Max nodded, she would leave it there for the moment, mentioning other dimensions could wait.

"I want to show you my home. To do that you needed clearance."

"Is this the same home Itachi said you've been avoiding for months now?" Tony asked. It did explain some of her friends. It was too dark to see Max scowling.

"Did Itachi tell you why I've been avoiding it?" Max asked almost scathingly.

"No, he said you had your reasons and left it at that." In all fairness Max did see her reasons as very understandable, but the tale would take too long and she didn't want to talk about it.

The two siblings grabbed a bite for lunch, Tony explained the latest case they had. They had found a sailor in a disgusting hot tub. Tony had been giggling while he told her of how Gibbs had made McGee get into the filthy water to get the body out. The best part, Tony had told her, was the look on McGee's face when he realised that the water level was too high and would spill into the boots.

It would be mean of Max to drag her brother from the investigation, so she might as well tag along. Well, that was her justification to Director Vance, who didn't look impressed but relented.

So, with the rest of the gang they were crowded around the dead body in autopsy. Ducky was rambling on about something as he poked through the deceased's body.

"So the poor sailor died by drowning." Ducky was saying, inspecting the lungs. Tony snorted a bit. "Not from the hot tub though, if you look there is a lack of algae that was found in the water. No, this man was drowned elsewhere, and quite violently, if you look her there is an indentation on his head. By the looks of it he was pushed against it in the struggle. I've sent samples up to Abby of the water found in Bick's lungs." Gibb's noticed Palmer, Ducky's assistant doing something and went over to look, and probably intimidate the guy, the others following leaving Max to watch the autopsy progress.

"Ah, Maxine, it is nice to see you again." Max let the use of her full name slide, it was Ducky, he was unlikely to change. "I hear you've been on a few adventures. I trust there are still some places you've visited that haven't been wiped of the face of the map." Max almost choked, trying to remain calm and innocent.

"I had nothing to do with that."

"Of course not my dear." Ducky had that knowing look. "Oh, well this is interesting."

This was the cue for the others to stop pestering Palmer and gather around to puzzle over the fragment of a $100 bill found between the teeth of the dead person.

"Was there any other money in his body?"

"No, his stomach was empty."

Max was still focused on the fragment, something was weird about it, she could feel it. She scanned it with FA only to immediately switch it off.

"Is there an ultraviolet light around?" Max asked, it seemed so out of tune with the rest of the conversation going on around her that she got weird stares from the team. "Trust me?" She offered as an explanation, she looked at Palmer who scrambled off to find one.

He soon returned and shone it at the bit of money, as Max knew it would fluoresce. She had managed to slip out while they had been waiting. She really didn't want to be asked how she knew to look.

The battle was lost. Konoha was smoking from the battle it had seen. Many ninja were missing or dead, replaced by rogues and mercenaries. Civilians feared leaving their homes, a curfew keeping them controlled. Bodies just lay in the street, an unofficial martial law now in place.

The Gondaime was gone. In her place stood an Uchiha watching over his new kingdom. Behind him two of his loyal ninjas appeared to report in.

"No sign of her. She hasn't been here for over a year according to reports."

"She'll be back. Do not allow her to reach the village alive."

Max was watching time pass in a dangerous way. At Gibbs's desk. She of course got many looks, some of sympathy and some wondering if she was crazy.

As she was sat, feet up on the table, tilting the chair back she noticed someone familiar walk past with Director Vance. In turn she was noticed and approached, Director Vance left waiting by the windows.

"Well, Agent Rho, this is an interesting place for you to be."

"As with you Agent Harkin." The man who had led the mission at Silverstone looked a bit sheepish.

"Actually it's Major Malloy here." This was a problem. DiNozzo had seen this guy, and possibly knew vaguely of his identity. To what extent Max had no idea but it could mess up whatever plan was in the works here. "You caused quite a stir at Monaco. Bond is still complaining about the paperwork."

"Like they didn't expect it," Max snorted titling the chair even further back. "You should probably run along like a good little agent. You can even watch your job be done by this team." Harkin gave her an unimpressed look. "I could of course help or hinder but for my brothers sake I will watch and not interfere."

"Your brother is here?" Harkin's face paled.

"I didn't even need to engineer this," Max giggled. "Just say you were reassigned and that was your Agent name or something and hope they don't check," she looked at her watch. "I believe you have meeting to be in, run along little agent."

A caravan steadily made its way through the desert. To any outsider it probably looked like a simple group of travellers. To a more trained eye most of the group consisted of Shinobi. The few civilians were closer to the centre of the group so to be better protected.

Not everyone was there who should have been. Many were missing, having stayed behind to aid their escape. No one wanted to think about it.

As the sun set they set up camp, huddling around a fire. Not many words were traded. It was hard for them to believe the events of the last few days, even after having lived them.

"We should reach Suna tomorrow." Words that weren't needed but served as a comfort. They should be safe there.

It was fun for Max to mess with the British agent, even better to watch her brother interact with Harkin. Watching them butt heads was amusing to both her and Ziva who was unsurprisingly charmed by the Brit. There was something about that accent.

It was part way through watching Harkin get interrogated Max got a phone call. No caller ID. She flipped open her phone and answered it.

"Go home, they need you." The phoneline then went dead. Max's eyes were wide, she knew that voice. That was impossible.

The second the mission wrapped up Max was on the next flight to Colorado Springs, DiNozzo was questioning her on her home, she was only answering because she'd put up some privacy seals.

The sense of urgency spurred Max to the SGC as fast as possible even using some light genjutsu to green light travel through the stargate. Her brother looked amazed at the sight of the circle of what looked like water.

"Abby would kill to see this," he murmured before Max dragged him through.

The second they were clear of the event horizon Max knew something was wrong. The site was safe, goblin wards kept them safe from accidentally being discovered by someone not supposed to be there. A quick blast of FA confirmed Max's suspicions.

Just outside the wards was another matter. Several groups of people waited. That was never a good thing, even if they had Konoha headbands they were not from the village, some of them were missing nins. This didn't bode well.

"What's wrong?"

"Everything. You should go back, or at least stay here until this is sorted. You'll be safe here. It's protected." In the time Max had been gone many things could have happened and at this point in time she feared the worst. There was no way she would willingly bring her brother into a situation like this, he wasn't trained.

"No way, Itachi told me you would likely leave me the second adventure turns up."

"This is not an adventure. This is stuff that you have no experience in, let alone training." Max was getting a bit frustrated, the longer she left this the more that could go wrong.

"He told me you would say stuff like that."

"Did he also tell you of all of my enemies, ones that can kill you before you even realise you're dead?" Max asked scathingly. "Not to mention the ones that would torture you until you're begging to die, twisting your mind until you don't even feel human. This is a whole other level to what you are used to. Let me at least find out what's going on." Her brother considered her words before nodding.

"Keep me updated?"

"I'll leave a clone here to keep you informed." Max didn't mention what else it would/could do. She had a quick pat down of her weapons and scrolls before leaping out of sight, apparating mid leap in the small gap between two of the wards, the people camping outside wouldn't notice her but she was beyond the wards that prevented apparating.

She headed to Konoha under several layers of disguise, each done in a different way, there was no point doing two henges, it would only raise questions if one was seen through and if there were multiple in normally was hostile. With no idea what was wrong she could only assume that nowhere was safe and work from there. Just outside Konoha she picked a tree and observed.

She had no idea that her closest ally was still miles away. She was Konoha's public enemy number one with no idea of the bounty that was on her head, dead or alive.

The lunch time rush was a good time to infiltrate her home village, she blended in with the crowds, slowly taking a route to her flat. She could feel eyes on the crowd, searching, so far she hadn't been singled out. As soon as she was close enough without many people to distort her image she used FA on her home. It was empty. That wasn't the strange thing, in the surrounding area there were no less than three people watching the flat. Why would they be watching an empty flat unless they were waiting for someone?

Without any more evidence Max hoped her suspicions were wrong. She hoped there was some logical reason for the guards. Slowly in that same way she got near her flat, she headed to the Hokage's tower, ready to switch with a clone and apperate directly into Tsunade's office.

It would have been nice if Tsunade was in there when she checked. Instead she checked several times to make sure FA hadn't developed a fault. It had to be wrong.

There was no logical reason why Shisui Uchiha was sitting in The Hokage's seat. Max flashed out FA as far through the village and beyond as she could go and not one chakra signal pinged back as friendly.

She was screwed.

Bet you didn't see that coming.