Days after the group returned with a revived Kiyoshi, Sakiya sat in the hokage's office with the Leaf Jonin who had accompanied her into the desert. She was currently twirling the pendent between her fingers.
The Hokage's chief aide looked to her as he inquired, "What does it mean?"
The man's question had seemingly broken her out of her trance as she responded, "hmm? What does what mean?"
Shikamaru nodded to her pendent and rephrased, "the inscription on the back, 'life bond', what's that about?"
Sakiya closed her eyes momentarily and gained a small smile as she recounted, "it was long before I was born. My parents met when they were teenagers. My mother was poisoned in a hollow attack, my Dad carried her to the medical unit while my grandfather stayed behind to defeat the hollow. While she was being treated they found evidence that my mother had endured many assaults—some that should've killed her, and actually probably did—briefly."
A pink haired woman with green eyes, whom Sakiya had learned to be Sakura, Sasuke's wife, inquired, "So your mother's like the myth about cats? She has nine lives or something?"
Sakiya giggled as she nodded, "or something. We use kido spells, they're sort of close to your ninjutsu techniques—but some kidos are forbidden because they're considered too powerful and difficult to control, some are only possible to perform if you're descended from specific bloodlines. One such spell: Fennikusu Yokusei, was only practiced by my mother's maternal bloodline. When their home was invaded my grandmother performed that spell on my mother, sealing away her power which cost my mother her memory but also granted her an ultimate protection. Each time she was on the brink of death, one the restraints keeping her shinigami power at bay would be removed. Instead of dying, she'd heal and recover as if nothing had happened, and she'd be stronger than before."
"For obvious reasons it's not commonly practiced and aside from her clan, only the Kuchiki family and the kido corps were aware of its existence," Sakiya added.
She wet her lips a little before continuing, "So when my parents first met, my Dad and grandfather figured out which clan my mother was descended from when they realized that her amnesia was a result of that spell. Similar to my maternal grandmother's heritage, my paternal grandmother was capable of a rare spell as well, which at some point was taught to my father. 'Seikatsu Tsunagu', or 'Life Bond' it essentially acts like a protection spell that binds the caster to someone else. If their life is ever on the verge of ending, or they've taken serious injury, the caster will feel it and be able to transport themself to the person they used that spell on and defend them. I didn't know until recently that spell is multigenerational. Nor did I know that it was used as a means for parents to protect their children and as it turns out, their grandchildren—however my father used that spell on my mother as soon as she began living with them. He had to utilize it once, months after she began living with them. They'd had some kind of argument I guess and she ran off into the harsher parts of soul society, but her past caught up with her and then my Dad caught up with her attackers. They were life bonded—and the necklace is my mother's."
Her smile faded and added, "What I don't understand is why he didn't show up 12 years ago."
The group was silent, processing the information until Naruto asked, "do the Shinigami have any enemies?"
Sakiya nodded, "two, in fact. Hollows, essentially spirits that feed on the souls of the living, the main reason we exist is to defend living humans from them. And the Quincy. Quincies are more or less humans with unusual abilities—they can see and defeat hollows as well—except they destroy the soul of the hollow instead of cleansing it as we do. For that reason we've been at war with the Quincies for a thousand years—at least that's the last I knew of it."
"Maybe that's what kept him away. You did say that he's a Captain, and he's now the head of a noble family," Sasuke offered.
"Not a noble family, the first noble family. The Kuchiki clan ranks just below the royal family itself," Sakiya corrected.
"That would explain why that one guy kept calling you 'princess'," Hanabi chimed in.
"No. He called me that because he knows that there's never been a female head of the Kuchiki clan. They've all been men. He calls me princess to weaken my resolve, to make me second guess my value just because of a twist of fate," the raven haired teen objected.
"It's the same with the Hyuga clan, and yet I'm the heir to my clan," Hanabi offered. At this Sakiya's grey eyes met the white featureless eyes of the brown haired Kunoichi. After a moment the raven haired girl gave a small sigh and inquired, "Something I've always wondered: why are female shinobi called kunoichi? Why aren't they just shinobi like the men?"
"Not sure. Some data suggests that it comes from 'nine plus one', referring to the ten-" Sasuke began before Sakiya held up an open palm to stop him from continuing.
She shook her head and plainly stated, "it always seemed ridiculous to me. Man or woman it doesn't matter. A Shinigami is a shinigami. We have the same training, the same skills, and all who attend the academy and graduate from it swear the same oath and you're in service to the Gotei 13 under the same terms. Likewise I've always seen a shinobi as a shinobi regardless of gender. For that reason, I don't tolerate being called a princess. A princess is delicate, fragile, needs protecting, that's how they're always depicted. If I am to be a princess, I'd rather be the princess who defends with her words and blade equally, whichever the situation calls for."
Naruto smiled and nodded in agreement while Hanabi offered, "if you do end up leading your father's clan one day, I can see you bringing it into a modern belief system."
Shikamaru and the others voiced their agreement with Hanabi's assessment but then Naruto asked, "How did Iwabee handle you coming back with a new scar?"
"I don't display my body to him, so he hasn't seen it. Although he did notice I was a bit tender for the first day I was back. I try to hide it. But that kid can read me like a book," she confessed with a slight pink tint to her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.
"He cares about you," Sakura pointed out.
"Yeah well, he is like family in a way," the teen admitted. Her eyes met with Sakura's as she added, "and the next one we have to revive was like a second mother to me. Minori's element is water, so I'm thinking the village hidden in the waves, or a nearby lake would be best."
At this Shikamaru met Sakiya's eyes and asked, "if that's the case, why didn't we revive her first?"
"Because reviving Minori means submerging her in water, and the further submerged she is the more rapidly she'll revive," Kiyoshi, who had been silent until that point answered on Sakiya's behalf.
Sakiya nodded, "and Kiyoshi was especially efficient in locating even the faintest hints of reiatsu when he was an unseated officer."
"Something to note about the Takahashi clan is that before we were disgraced, we were very close to the Shihouin clan, which traditionally always lead the stealth force," Kiyoshi added.
Sakiya nodded, "The Kuchiki clan had also worked very closely with the Shihouin clan throughout recorded history. They're essentially like our version of the police, bounty hunters, shinobi, and prison guards, but for the reason that Kiyoshi mentioned—anyone that was born into the Takahashi clan with shinigami power was assigned to the stealth force automatically."
"I'm not much for combat but if you need someone located in a 3,000 mile radius and describe their reiatsu, I can pin point them in ten seconds," the man with reddish brown eyes offered.
"In other words, if Minori started to sink too far down, he'd be able to tell quickly enough to bring her back to a safe level—if that were to happen," Sakiya added.
"Although if that were to happen—it would mean that she's unlikely to revive," Kiyoshi concluded.
AN: Fennikusu Yokusei, and Seikatsu Tsunagu are not cannon kido spells. They're spells that I created for the storyline in 'Cherry Blossom Memories' which tells the backstory for Sakiya's parents before her mother was sent on the away mission and ultimately ended up being listed as M.I.A.