Hoshihi's screams awoke his entire clan.

The agony in his emerald eyes, coupled with the sheer pain in his cries terrified both the young and elders alike, but only the latter knew what his suffering meant. Aotsuki herself, titan-like yet silent as a ghost, ripped through the crowd of cats and stopped in front the terrified young feline, hovering before her like a guardian angel. The almost full moon threw stark light, casting cruel shadows over their clearing, but she still saw him clearly.

"W-what's happening to me?" he managed to whimper between waves of pain.

Aotsuki's pale blue eye met Kibaki's for a moment; only when she got a nod from the old medic did she turn her attention back onto her former apprentice. Watching him clench his teeth and spasm made her heart ache—he was so brave, wrestling against his own suffering, fending off those agonising screams.

She had to say something.

"I'm so sorry, Hoshihi-kun, but your Lady Summoner is dying," she said, gentle as she could. "I've never lived through this myself, but my mother, the familiar for the Lady Summoner before Shinku-kun…"

"No! No, it's not possible, she can't…" The young cat's voice choked and he screamed again as his nerve endings lit aflame, all under his clan leader's contrite eyes. He fought to stand back up on his shaking legs and glared at her. "Hitomi can't die! It's impossible! Send me there and you'll see she's okay, I…"

He choked again, his body arching with agony, and collapsed to Aotsuki's feet.

The clan leader shut her eyes and lowered her head until her nose brushed against his spasming shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Hoshihi-kun. You know I can't do that. I could only send you to Shinku, and you didn't learn to do that with her yet, so…" She trailed off. Her mother had reacted this way too when her own summoner had passed away, so she knew informing him that he couldn't form a bridge between worlds with a lifeless body on the other end would only make matters worse.

Poor Hoshihi. He thought little Hitomi-chan was invincible, brilliant, strong enough to overcome all the obstacles on her path when in truth, hardships beyond any conceptions prowled in the dark, ready to strike when the Hikari clan cats couldn't intervene. "Come, Hoshihi-kun. No matter what it is and what happens next, you need medical attention. Kibaki-sama will give you poppy seeds to help you sleep through it."

The cats stepped away to let their leader and the injured cat walk through to the medic's den. Hoshihi whimpered with each step, as if he was walking on embers. The other cats stared at him, their eyes darkened by mourning and pain, for him, for what the world had just lost. Soon enough, the other cats of that generation and little Hai, her fur bristling with fear, would untangle themselves from the others and follow the familiar to the medic. They would watch him that night and all the following day, until his heart went back to the hunt, or failed trying.

The forest would never be the same again.

"… waking up!"

There was a distant ruffling noise, so far away she barely heard it. She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids only shuddered before they went still. She let go of that impulse when she understood it was no use. She was so, so exhausted… and why was that? She remembered dying once more. Had she been sent to another place? Through the crushing fatigue and its suffocating effect, she felt a tear roll down the side of her face, all the way down to her ear. She didn't want to go. She didn't want to leave the people she had learned to love, start anew somewhere else. She couldn't.

"Now, now," a voice said above her head. "Don't cry, it's okay."

Through the heavy fog surrounding her, she thought that voice was familiar, but then she focused on it and the impression dissipated. She tried to swallow and her whole body arched in pain.

"… space, she'll probably…"

With a weak sigh, she lost consciousness again. She didn't want to stay, anyway. She wanted to go back to her world, Naruto, Kurenai, Ensui, Kakashi, and all the others waiting for her return. She wanted them and nothing else.

The next time she woke up, she was still unable to open her eyes, but her body hurt. It wasn't the burning ache of a wound, but rather a constant, generalised, icy pressure crushing her limbs mercilessly. She groaned, struggling against the invisible restraints to escape the debilitating sensation…

And failed.

"I know," a voice said next to her. "It's gonna feel better soon." The person who had just spoken took her arm, brushed against her wrist then wrapped their hands around hers. There was a pulse of something and the pressure started to dissipate in her limbs, making her sigh in relief. "Everything will be okay, now, don't worry, little one. Go back to sleep, go back…"

A warm wave bloomed from where their hands were linked, and she obeyed without any resistance.

Third time's the charm? she mused as she woke up again. This time, she actually managed to pry her eyelids open, groan, and slightly turn her head. It was a good sign, right? She heard a noise next to her, a brush of fabric against fabric. She attempted to fully open her eyes then, but the light, too strong and stark, stabbed her directly in the brain and forced her to closed them again with a hoarse whimper.

"Naruto-kun, close the blinds!"

Her heart started racing in her chest when she heard that name, that voice. She hadn't… she hadn't left? Her hands twitched on fabric – sheets, she assumed. There was a strange wheeze to her breathing, stemming from somewhere within her throat. Once the excess of light was gone, she tried again to open her eyes, successfully this time. Her sight stayed blurry for a moment then cleared slowly.

Above her was Naruto, beaming at her.

Her whole body tensed, so suddenly and brutally that a dull ache washed over her like a wave. She wasn't gone. She wasn't gone! She felt tears of relief form at the corners of her eyes and run in her hair. Naruto's smile turned to a worried grimace; he didn't understand, didn't know what it felt like to believe that she'd never see him again.

"Tears, kid, really? You're back, there's no reason to be upset." Tsunade appeared in her line of sight, glorious in the darkness of the room, a proud smile on her lips and her eyes gleaming with some deeply-rooted satisfaction. She sat at her bedside and put her hand, enshrouded in minty green chakra, on her forehead. Hitomi knew this jutsu: it was a diagnostic technique, quick and thorough, but a lot harder to learn than the first-aid version Yoshino had taught her.

"Here," Tsunade said, presenting a straw to her lips, "try to drink. Little sips, one at a time. You don't want to vomit in this state, trust me."

Little sips. She could do that. And so she did, immediately starting to feel better as the fluid doused the parch in her throat and began fuelling her body with much-needed hydration. Her furred tongue began showing signs of life, too, allowing her to actually feel the inside of her mouth with it. Around her, she finally noticed her other teammates: Haku with his arm in a sling, Zabuza standing watch, Shizune next to the window and Jiraiya, who she had thought to have been the brink of death, sitting on a nearby bed, a book between his hands, looking at her with obvious relief.

"What… How…"

She failed to formulate a thought or a completely cohesive question, but Haku stepped forward and answered, as if he could peer through the fog surrounding her mind and discern her confusion. "A week passed since our fight against Orochimaru. You regained consciousness several times since then, but it never lasted this long. Looks like this is the one?"

His last sentence was a question to Tsunade, who nodded and answered. "Yes, it is. Your heart isn't at risk of failure again, your lungs are almost completely mended and the internal bleeding has stopped. Your meridians, however, aren't done healing yet after what you did to them. Speaking of which, what did you do to them, Hitomi-chan?"

Hitomi looked at the Sannin hesitantly. Well… If everything went according to plan, the woman would soon be Hokage and work closely with Shikaku, who would probably disclose the information. Besides, she wasn't Hiruzen; no way she would accept Danzō bossing her around. "I awoke the… the Yūhi Kekkei Genkai. We don't know much about it – the only living being able to explain how it works and how to control it is a very old ninja cat I can't summon at will and…"

Her eyes went wide with horror. Without even a thought for consequences, she threw her blanket off herself… only to be shoved back towards the bed by Tsunade's gentle hand.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? You stay in bed, kid!"

"No, Hoshihi, I have to…" She wheezed in pain, struggling against the Sannin. She wasn't even putting much force to keep her in place, yet Hitomi could barely move an inch under her hand.

"It's her familiar," Naruto said, strangely appeasing despite the tension unfolding next to him. "Why do you need him, Hitomi-nee? You're safe here."

"I-I was supposed to summon him five days ago to talk to him about Hai-chan. If he felt my death…" She didn't need to finish her sentence. In their line of work, some tardiness was often expected due to the wildly unpredictable nature of missions, but familiars felt their partner die, and as it stood, her familiar had no way of knowing she was alive. To make matters worse, most familiars wasted away quickly after their partner's passing.

The mere eventuality of not having her cat anymore made her nauseous.

"You can't summon him in your state," Tsunade said, her tone firm and severe. I sealed your meridians for one more week so they could heal correctly. They were burnt, kid, you can't fix that with a snap of your fingers."

Hitomi slammed the back of her head against her pillows with frustration, her body a knot of pain and worry. If only her mind could work its magic and find a solution… she knew her Library was there, she was aware of it, but each time she tried to enter it she slipped away. Without it, she didn't know how to dispel the fog of fright that slowed down her thoughts.

"Wait," she pleaded, her hoarse voice filled with hope. "With my blood, anyone can summon him. Naruto…"

"I got you!" he beamed. Then, looking a bit skittish, he turned to Tsunade. "Hum, can I take her blood, Baa-chan?"

The medic pondered for a moment, amber eyes darting between Hitomi and Naruto as they gazed at her in almost pleading desperation. They both saw the moment the Sannin softened—when Naruto called her that cute name. "Fine. A little cut on the back of her hand, nothing more. And don't go deep!"

Just as he was instructed, Naruto nicked the skin behind Hitomi's hand open with a analgesics running in her perfusion had to be some potent stuff, because she didn't feel much more than a tingle as she watched her blood run out of the wound. Naruto collected it on his fingers while Tsunade, with a spark of chakra, sealed the cut.

The blonde boy slammed his hand against the ground, creating a plume of smoke in the room.

When she saw her familiar, Hitomi let out a whimper of sheer distress. Horrified, she had to press her cold fingers against her lips to silence herself, her dark red eyes taking him in from the tip of the ears to the extremity of the tail. He was so thin, his bones almost jutting out of his shoulders like blades under his ginger fur, dirtier and more tangled than ever. He forced himself to stand up, battling against his weak, shaky paws. The eyes he turned towards her were a dull green, faded and lifeless, and for a terrifying second they stayed that way – then he understood who he was staring at.

He let out a startled cry and jumped on the bed with such force he almost made Tsunade trip. He didn't care—that much was obvious. He crawled over the sheets until he was completely laying on her, his paws caging her and his head over hers. He breathed in deep, then collapsed on top of her without any regard to his weight inhibiting her breathing.

Who needed that bodily function anyway? Not her, that was for sure.

Slowly, without any reasonable control of her body, she raised her arms and petted his flanks in long, shaky strokes, drawing the deepest purr she had ever heard from his chest. "I thought… You were… I…"

"I know, Hoshihi. I'm sorry. Never again, I swear, never again…" Oh, it was so stupid to promise such a thing. She couldn't, not with everything she'd have to face at Sasuke and Naruto's side, with all the trouble their team attracted, like a lamp attracted moths. However, in that moment, she could accept perjuring herself – the future seemed so far away anyway, so blurry and futile.

"You were… You were dead… Everyone was telling me… You were dead, weren't you?"

Hitomi sought Tsunade's eyes, silently calling for help. The medic nodded and spoke, her tone professional and carefully devoid of emotion. "Your heart stopped for thirty-two seconds while I was trying to close your wounds. The bond between you and your familiar appears to run deep, so he would have felt it in the spiritual world."

Hitomi let out a heavy sigh as she continued petting Hoshihi. She had died, of course. Her mind had detached from her being like it had before her rebirth—if only it had been briefer, such that its effects wouldn't have rippled through their bond.

Her failure had cost him more than it did her, and she absolutely detested that fact. When had his last meal been? She could almost see the very bone of the ribs she was brushing her finger against, at this point, and it was her fault.

"I came back, Hoshihi. I'm okay, and I'm very sorry."

"Please, Hitomi. Is the one responsible for this dead?"

"No." Haku answered on her behalf, his voice soothing and gentle. "Kabuto knew he'd manage to escape if he hurt Hitomi, because saving her would be our priority. We had to let him escape. Too many of us were injured, and the only ones who could still walk around were the medics and Zabuza-shishou, who had to stay and protect us all."

Hitomi glanced around while Haku spoke, until her gaze rested upon Jiraiya. Bandages were visible under the large and open haori he wore instead of his usual clothes, far too thick for a mere stab wound—it was clear he had suffered more than just that. Sighing, she let her gaze wander once more, this time landing on the other Sannin in the room, and also her saviour. "Didn't you have a very bad case of hemophobia?"

"Not anymore," the medic said, a shadow of a smile on her lips. The underlying tension in her voice told another story, but Hitomi decided to probe no further. Without Tsunade's willpower, she would have remained dead; it seemed wise not to go around sticking her nose into her saviour's old wounds. "Hoshihi, was it? Please jump off the bed now. My patient needs to breathe correctly if she wants to recover."

The cat obeyed so quickly he almost tripped on his own paws. Some semblance of life was returning to the cat, though it was obvious he was still exhausted and famished. Hitomi glanced at Haku, who understood her intentions before words even left her mouth. "There are some woods not so far from here. I should find something fit for a ninja cat there. What do you like, Hoshihi-san?"

"Eh?"

"Food. To eat. You need it. It would be silly to die of starvation now that you know your Lady Summoner is alive, wouldn't it?" he said that with his sweetest smile, but with a firm tone that wouldn't be taking no for an answer.

The cat nodded after a moment, still a bit lost. "I like rabbit, and boar, too, since here it's small enough that I can hunt and eat it." He had often told Hitomi about the monstrous size of animals in his world; there, boars were almost predators to ninja cats but, in the physical world, their tusks could barely scratch his skin and he loved their juicy meat.

"Rabbit and boar, coming right up!" Haku beamed before he jumped out the window without a care for the sling that kept one of his arms pinned against his chest.

Peaceful silence settled over the room, until Naruto, realizing that Hitomi was likely still lost and overwhelmed, decided to update her on the situation with a surprisingly hushed voice. He explained that Tsunade had accepted the Hokage mantle and was roaming through every gambling house in the neighbourhood –they were in a clinic belonging to a friend of Jiraiya's, apparently– to enjoy her freedom while it lasted, ducking out for some fun whenever she could leave her patients' bedsides. Hitomi shut her eyes and listened intently as her brother described the past few days to her, feeling almost as if they were back home and he was telling her one of his silly stories.

She ended up falling asleep before Haku came back.

When she opened her eyes again, everyone was asleep, Hoshihi included. There was a little pile of bones carefully cleaned out in front of him. Based on its head, Hitomi guessed it was half a boar. Her cat was sprawled on the ground next to her bed in a way that stopped anyone from approaching her from the right side, his still meagre flank rising and falling with the deep, peaceful rhythm of his breathing. For a long moment, she stared at his ginger form, her heart beating too fast and too strong in her chest.

She would have left him behind if she had died.

Haku, who had been sleeping in a sitting position under the window, slowly opened his eyes. A tender smile bloomed on his lips when he noticed she was awake as well. He stood up and went to sit next to her on the bed, gently petting her black curls. Her hair was probably a mess, but the boy didn't seem to mind. They stayed silent for a while, Haku staring at her face as if her features hid the answer to a question she didn't know anything about.

"I really thought you wouldn't make it," he whispered. "Your heart had already stopped once and you weren't waking up… Tsunade-sama is incredible at what she does, and she said you were healing, and yet I was so worried."

"I-I'm okay now, I think. I sometimes have weird feelings in my chest and meridians, but I'm okay otherwise. The analgesics Tsunade-sama gave me are so strong I'm not in pain at all."

"Burns to the meridians... You never mentioned anything like that in your letters."

"That's because it never happened before, not even during the invasion—and trust me, I took chakra from almost everyone I killed back then. But Orochimaru's… It was like poison and acid alike. I felt it burn everything it touched inside. Sending it back into his veins immediately after didn't seem to help either; the energy he had inside him even when he was so close to death, and the sheer quantity of it… The Sannin are a whole other class of shinobi."

"And yet, Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama don't look terrifying outside of battle. I fought next to the Hermit and I was so out of my league, it was overwhelming. I'm kind of glad I was put out of commission before Orochimaru could kill me."

"How did it happen, by the way?"

"Hum… The big snake he summoned, Manda… He hit the toad's head with his tail so hard I fell. I don't even remember hitting the ground."

Hitomi hummed, her eyes staring into nothing. She had only survived thanks to luck and the comrades around her. To make sure Orochimaru wasn't a threat anymore, she had paid a heavy price, but it was worth any pain she could live through. He couldn't threaten Sasuke or her village anymore. She brushed a hand on the bandages wrapped around her chest, under her breasts. She felt a faint tingle where Kabuto had stabbed her, but the memory of the pain itself was just as vivid and real as when she was actually stabbed.

"People are going to explode with worry when I tell them, aren't they?"

"Probably. Especially your mom. Based on what you told me about her, she's either gonna enrol half the Jōnin in your village to train you, or wrap you in layers and layers of cotton, ship you off into the deepest part of the Deer Forest and make the Nara watch over you so you can't leave."

Hitomi groaned and Haku let out an affectionate giggle. He kissed her on the forehead then went back to his spot under the window. "You should go back to sleep, Hitomi-chan. You can't heal from such serious injuries by chatting in the middle of the night."

"That's right," Zabuza grunted. "And you wake people up on top of that. Go back to sleep, both of you, or I'm gonna use one to knock the other out."

With a last snicker, the two teenagers relented. Hitomi closed her eyes and easily slid into sleep. She almost jumped back awake when she finally entered her Library, only to mentally swear when she saw the sorry state it was in. Shelves were knocked over, foul water spilled across the floor up to her ankles, reflecting the mental image of herself she used inside her mind ever since Itachi had entered it with his illusion spell. The pillar supporting the cage for her meridians was tipping off, the white stone crackled from the base up to the cat's chin.

With a contrite sigh, she got to work.

When she woke up, satisfied with the repairs and reorganisations she had worked on all night, the sun was shining again, its light pouring in through the large window in her bedroom. Haku had been right to convince her to sleep more: she already felt more coherent and, even if the analgesics were wearing off and allowed her to feel aches all over her body, at least she had feelings in her limbs. With a little sigh, she rubbed her face and looked around.

Jiraiya was the only one there, sitting on his own bed and reading another novel. Hitomi frowned, surprised, when she realised it was one of hers, one she had lent to Naruto. It was a collection of fairy tales from the Previous World and adapted for the Elemental Nations. She had struggled with it but was satisfied with the result, especially since it could be read by children and still hold deeper meanings for adults.

"You asked him before you took it, I hope?"

The hermit didn't seem surprised at all to hear her speak all of a sudden. Who could even take such a shinobi by surprise? He smiled and waved the book towards her, still reading – she could see his eyes move along her handwriting. "This is really good, you know. I could send it to my publisher if you want. He'd be delighted to have such a book to publish, the tales always sell like crazy."

"Why not," she answered after thinking about it for a short moment. "That would be more money coming my way. I have quite a lot of it already with all my crazy missions, but I won't refuse some more. I might need it, one day."

"That's the spirit! And your brother said you had other books. How many did you write so far?"

"Seven. Some are volumes for series that aren't yet complete, others are collections like this one. I even have a poetry collection." From Edgar Allan Poe, because she loved his writing so much. The Raven was probably her favourite piece despite its length. The delicate rhythm of the verses, the gloomy atmosphere drawn word after word… She felt it was perfect for her world as well. Bittersweet, dark and lovely.

"I'm coming back to the village with you all, of course. Tsunade-hime doesn't want me back on the road for a while after she becomes Hokage. She wants me to help her settle in and such."

"She mostly wants to keep an eye on you, Jiraiya-sama. She saw you with a sword through your chest, she's probably worried for you."

"Err… Anyway, I could jump on the occasion to read your other books, Hitomi-chan. If it doesn't bother you, of course. I know it's always a bit complicated to show your prose to someone new."

The girl shrugged carefully, trying and failing to avoid spreading pain into her shoulders. "Of course you can. But don't try to eye my mother up while you're there, eh? She's taken."

When she heard the hermit burst out laughing, Hitomi finally allowed herself to relax. Everything was okay. Her friends had survived and, surprisingly, she had too. Their mission had been a success despite the obstacles they had met. She was allowed to rest…

For now.