DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.

Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Mito speaking to the Kyuubi in her mindscape," etc .)

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

This chapter covers events/highlights of Mito's life over more than a two-year period.

Kakashi asked Naruto to hold up his shirt so that he could channel chakra into his seal.

Thanks to Danzo, the kid knew that he was a jinchuuriki, and really, Kakashi was pissed that his sensei would lie to him and everyone else about it. He "got" that they needed to get Mito back but Minato really busted the rules, and the last thing his sensei needed was more trouble with the remaining Elders or the horrible Council. He'd like to think that it wasn't as if he was still obsessed with "The Rules;" this time he was bothered because his sensei was simply inviting additional trouble.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Kakashi gasped and almost tried to run - his shinobi instincts losing to those more interested in his survival - but Minato had latched onto his shirt - to which his mask was attached so he couldn't. It was even more humiliating because Naruto-brat was openly laughing at him.

"Kashi-nii's a naughty boy," he sang.

"Kakashi IS a naughty boy," Minato agreed with his son darkly. "Into my office, you brat," he growled to his student, tossing his grown ass in there. "Naruto, I need you to stay with… Raido-san, okay?" he asked after looking around to see who might have seen what his idiot student had done. "RAIDO-KUN," he yelled down the hall.

"Sir?"

"I need you to keep an eye on Naruto-chan," the very tired Hokage said. Raido wilted, actually pouting. He could understand that a little. Naruto was a handful.

Naruto's face, in the meantime, suddenly looked so much like a young, tomboyish Kushina's that Minato wanted to cuddle him mercilessly. Naru looked absolutely furious which was adorable. "Kun, Daddy! Naruto-KUN!"

"Hai, hai," Minato replied easily as he patted his son's head. He planned to use the "chan" honorific with his son for as long as possible. He ordered everyone that had possibly seen the seal into his office, then activated a privacy sealing array. "Explain."

Kakashi winced. "I knew I'd seen the seal before. Several times in fact."

"And you wanted to confirm that he's a jinchuuriki," Minato surmised.

Reluctantly, Kakashi nodded his head.

"Fine. You're on babysitting duty for a month," he told his student - who almost looked like he was going to cry. "You baka. Naruto… This stays in this room, am I clear?"

"Hai!"

"Naruto only has a small fraction of the Kyuubi's chakra," he admitted. "Sandaime-sama planned to split the Kyuubi's chakra in half but there was an issue with the sealing." No one said anything at first, but Genma was the first to speak - probably because Kakashi was in so much trouble. Usually, his brat student spoke for the group when they were receiving orders.

"Is there a problem with the seal?"

"Not with Naruto's," Minato breathed, "and Mito-chan's doing well." Too well for her supposedly good mental health to be real. He tapped his pen on his desk, deeply concerned for his daughter. Her reports had become more like they used to be and he hoped that meant he'd repaired their relationship somewhat.

When she was found after her abduction, Tsunade said that Mito wouldn't live through being resealed, and unlike the Suna jinchuuriki's seal, Mito's was complex - and of my own design - Minato lamented. That contract seal required a sacrifice of the life of the jutsu's caster to the Shinigami. Unfortunately, that is what was needed to split the Kyuubi's chakra into Yin and Yang halves.

Mito's chains, however, had interrupted that.

Minato had never been more afraid in his life of the way the Shinigami glared down at his daughter and sneered something at her: words he didn't know and never asked for. Neither he nor the Sanddaime had the chakra to fight her chains by that point, and Hiruzen died of a broken chakra core and subsequent heart attack. He prayed that meant his predecessor went to the Pure Lands instead of into the Shinigami's belly. He shuddered, just thinking about it.

Was Mito safe? – That was the question.

It seemed like that had always been the question, from the very day she was conceived.

Months later -

She was finally leaving. Running through the forest, Mito jumped into the trees, sailing through the air and almost wanting to shout. This was business, though. No, this was personal. Either way, this was… important.

Landing on the forest floor, she felt the edges of the vortex genjutsu that was said to keep anyone away that didn't have Uzumaki blood drawing her in: it was quite weak right now. That genjutsu had hit her father once when she was little, and Mito remembered laughing with her mother as she followed her to the Uzumaki Temple while watching her father walk around in circles, rubbing his chin as if he'd forgotten something outside of it. Or maybe he forgot everything.

"This is the greatest, dattebane! Kami-sama and my beloved ancestors, the eddies and the sand: help me keep strong, girly geniuses out! Except for my beautiful little ocean, of course."

"Kaa-chan! An ocean can't be little!"

"Aa, you're right, Mito-chan! It's still funny to see your Tou-san look so silly, ne?"

"Y-haha-yeah!"

The memories weren't quite so painful anymore. If anything, Mito was glad to have had as much of her mother's time as she'd had. Once inside the vortex, she could see the temple. Gritting her teeth and steeling her nerves, she could already see that everything was overgrown. It made her feel sick.

"Speak freely, Mito-chan," Kushina insisted. "Uzumakis aren't ones to hold back or apologize for things they can't help. Sure I've gotta clean this place up, 'ttebane…"

Mito's lips quirked up as she remembered looking up at her mother, whom, even back then, the little girl was sure was supposed to be singing or simply quiet as she burned incense instead of talking to her at such a fast clip.

"But it's a… Well, it's the fighting, ya know? And since people are stupid and fighting, I'm unable to come back as often as I'd like. As WE'D like, ne?"

"Hai!"

"And there's no way any decent Uzumaki would not forgive – OOPSiES: double negative – hahaha - wouldn't forgive those of us who remain when we can't help but…"

Mito remembered slowly approaching her suddenly teary-eyed mother and hugging her leg until she was picked up again.

"It's fine, Mito-chan. Kaa-chan's sorry," Kushina said, sniffing as Mito ducked her head into her hair. She rocked her daughter for a bit before putting her back down, having some doubt whether or not Minato was still wandering around aimlessly outside the vortex. "When Mito-hime, whom you're named after, moved to Fire Country, the clan built this for her." In a quieter voice, she admitted something that had long bothered her. "To move the masks and so many scrolls here, though: they had to know the attack was coming."

Tsunade had voiced the same thing quite a few times. She'd also told Mito that those remaining with Uzumaki blood were angry that they hadn't been told… "They were angry that no one from Uzushio said goodbye or were allowed to fight with them," Mito said, wrapping up some of their thoughts in a neat little bow. Shaking the memories off, she stepped up to the shrine's final barrier.

"My heart pumps with the flow of the sea," Mito said firmly, taking the first step of nine to enter the shrine. "The foam of the waves is in my blood," were the final words that would allow her into the shrine itself. Mito's shoulders slumped when she saw and smelled what her neglectful time away had caused. The temple was a dusty, stinky mess: seals must have failed. "Aw, man…"

Her first job, then, was to check and redo the seals.
2. Power up the vortex
3. See if the cleaning supplies are still here
4. Find some fish food - how those koi were alive was beyond her right now
5. Get that saltwater fish tank out of here and bury it or something

On and on the list went. How was she supposed to do this and be back before nightfall? "Oh no!" It was already mid-day. She'd been so lost in memories and regrets that she'd lost track of time.

"The past is a whirlpool that will drag you to the bottom of the sea if you allow it, Mito-chan."

–Mito hadn't known what her mother meant when she used to say that, but she sure did now. That didn't mean that it changed anything.

"Uzumakis are a fun bunch, Musume, but never forget our vengeful nature. May Kami attempt to protect those who have harmed us, because we certainly won't."

As soon as she was 100%, she was going to hunt down Obito.

She found the cleaning supplies and soon a sea of kage bunshins were working from the rafters down. She was going to have to come out here at a later date and work on the roof and floor after buying some shingles. "Man, do I wish I had Mokuton abilities."

Mito wasn't sure whether or not it was permissible to clean the masks with a kage bunshin but considering that she'd always been scared silly of them, she had to force her bunshin into the task. The place soon looked much better and the only thing that couldn't be salvaged was the sludge-filled saltwater fish tank that had previously rested along the back wall.

After praying and promising to return as soon as possible, Mito locked up and took off at top speed to reach the Fire Temple.

Asuma waited by the gates, 'Ruto-chan circling above him. He swore that the bird was trying to shit-bomb him, but the more important question was why Daimyo-sama had allowed Mito to leave and didn't tell him.

Is that really fair, though? Mito-chan and I are at equal rank now, even though she's still a brat. A too-easily kidnapped brat. Seeing the colors of her crazy hair break through the leaves of the trees at sunset, he breathed out a sigh of relief and folded his arms across his chest in (for now) silent aggravation.

"Yo," Mito greeted him - filthy but happy. 'Ruto-chan landed on her shoulder.

She'd tried to let him go after determining Danzo was dead, but the parrot preferred to stay with her. "And hewwo to you, my little feathered fwiiiiiend!"

Asuma groaned, even more put out with her now. "'Yo' yourself. Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?"

Mito raised her scarred eyebrow at him. "What are you, my father?!"

"Mito-chan!"

"Mito Mito," 'Ruto-chan repeated.

"Whatever, Asuma," Mito said tiredly. "I need to shower and change."

"Get the fuck outta here, Asuma!"

Asuma took a deep breath and gently grasped her shoulder, ignoring the parrot. "I worry about you."

Mito glared at him but relented to his older brotherly instincts, knowing they would only get worse otherwise. Plus, she didn't exactly like being touched anymore. "I'm fine. Actually… Just between us," she said, her voice becoming quieter and quieter, "the temple is pretty close to here. –I shoulda gone and tended to it a long time ago."

"Oh," Asuma said, not knowing what else to say. He'd heard about the Uzumaki Temple but for Mito to have even admitted its general location showed a lot of trust. He also didn't want to mess with the place as all of Mito's ghost stories revolved around it.

"And you know my clan is associated with the ocean, dontcha, Asuma-nii? Well, if you - a non-Uzumaki - were to go into the Uzumaki Temple, your blood would boil and my ancestors would drag you to the bottom of the sea!"

Shizune had been with them - they were all young at the time but Shizune was the oldest - that dark night and he remembered how horrified she'd looked. He wrongly thought she was an easy mark.

"Oh yeah? Well, the monkey summons used to be people! The monkeys' wives all used to be naughty little human girls that they…"

"Sarutobi Asuma," Shizune had shouted. "I will tell your father!"

"You're no fun, nee-chan," Mito pouted - probably wanting to hear more about how to become a monkey.

"Oh, I'm plenty of fun," Shizune said dangerously. "Did you two know that my brother, Dan-sama, used to take over people's bodies in battle?" When both little kids nodded, she began her horrible tale.

Asuma had mentally blocked out exactly what she'd said, but Tsunade and Jiraiya had found him and his little sister curled up together with Mito crying, both of them terrified that Shizune was going to take over their bodies and hand them to Iwa. —Shizune had gotten into a lot of trouble.

Asuma and Mito learned that it was always the quiet ones you had to watch out for that night.

"Some of us are getting together tonight," Asuma admitted, giving Mito fair warning. Mito nodded before leaving to clean up and he quickly moved into action.

After showering, Mito was far past surprised when she entered her little room because it was filled with her comrades, and it was a very tight fit. "Yo? Not that I mind Asuma letting you in," she said, shooting a glare at her brother anyway, "but I was only expecting 'Ruto-chan to be here."

"'Ruto! 'Ruto!"

Asuma stood up, nervously holding a piece of paper. They all had pieces of paper.

"Mito-chan," he said, rubbing the back of his head nervously as he began to read. "We, your closest friends…"

"Where's Anko then?" Mito asked rudely. They were in HER room; she didn't care and she was very tired and ready for bed.

"Right," Asuma agreed, looking around the room and shifting uneasily. "She refused to come."

"Well, that sucks." Mito couldn't help but look over at Tou, whom she'd introduced to Anko around a month ago. It was probably too early for Tou to dip her toe into the relationship waters after Mai's betrayal, but Anko was very happy that she'd finally met another pretty woman hitting for the home team who wasn't too much older than her.

"It does; it really does," Asuma muttered under his breath before clearing his throat. "Since the attack, you've come a long way physically…"

"What does that mean?" Mito quickly asked, looking around the room at her fellow Guardians of the Fire Temple. "Is this an intervention?!" she shrieked, scaring the poop out of the parrot who began flying all over his cage and screeching, too. "What the hell's this all about?!"

While Asuma threatened the bird who was saying terrible things about him with various wind jutsus, his hands at the ready in the Tori position, Tou stood up to try to calm her younger friend. She seldomly saw Mito when her hair did that floating "thing," but Kami, Mito was terrifying when it happened. "Mito-chan, we've been discussing it, and although you may not be particularly good with children…"

"I'm fucking GREAT WITH CHILDREN!"

"Of course," Tou half-lied reassuringly, "you have a little brother, after all…"

Mito collapsed onto the floor and grabbed her hair. "FINE! ...I have something to tell you." The room was silent, but Mito put down an additional silencing seal just in case the others hadn't. She needed to tell them this anyway, and hopefully, it would get them off her back about whatever it was that they were going on about. "It's an S-class secret. …I'm the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi." Not a single expression changed. "YOU KNEW? You could… you could ACT like it's a surprise!"

After a beat, Seito gasped dramatically, his hand over his heart, making a few quietly laugh.

Asuma began reading again about how worried he was, but Mito interrupted him again.

"So this is about Sora-kun, isn't it?"

–Yeah. How was she supposed to be around Sora-kun sanely when every time she went near him, the Kyuubi would go nuts, calling him an abomination and wanting him dead? To (not really) appease him, she avoided the kid as much as possible even though the boy was Naruto's age and seemed like a sweetheart.

"Not entirely," Chiriku said. "You went through a tremendous ordeal and we believe that you are not allowing yourself to process your grief or trauma."

Mito stared at him for a good minute. "I acknowledge my grief and trauma moves within me like the sea, thank you very much," she said before nearly rolling on her back. She hadn't put the ointment on it yet, though. And her skin back there was so fucking tight.

"You blame Sora-kun for what his father put you through," Asuma claimed, shocking her when he brought up Kazuma. "It's only natural."

Mito blinked at him for several seconds. "No. I really don't," she said but began to question herself. Was she just blaming the Kyuubi for her own issues?

He really did have it out for that kid, though. "This sucks, man." She needed information from her father. He'd been putting off her worries and had asked her not to mention them in another letter, but enough was enough. "Fine. Read your letters and tell me what a horrible person I am."

So they did. – Or at least that was how she perceived it.

Mito felt worse than terrible.

Her comrades left without saying another word when they were done, and Asuma felt like he'd made a huge mistake. "We all care about you, Mito."

"Thank you, Asuma," she said, her mind very much elsewhere. They say I need religion, huh?

Maybe they were right. After all, she had been pretty happy at the Uzumaki Temple. But what her friends were saying wasn't the same as what she believed. What they were advising sounded more like what she heard the Elders and that priestess - Shimura KIKO for fuck's sake - tell others to do. Between the Elders and Kiko? Yeah: they didn't exactly set a good example of either the Will of Fire or (certainly) anything more profound to her.

Over a year later -

"He's… going to be surprised," Asuma said again, his pack thrown over his shoulder.

"I guess," Mito said as she approached the giant red gates. She reached up and pet 'Ruto-chan who was riding on her shoulder with a small white towel underneath him. "No matter what: it's just for the weekend.'

"Hai, hai."

Asuma wondered if Yondaime-sama would let his daughter go once she was "home," however. They had a couple of days off and Mito decided to surprise her father after ensuring through Spiderman the spider monkey that he was in the village. He approached the gate guards who were gawking at the two of them. It had been a fairly long time since he was home and he could admit that Mito was quite striking. "Izumo-kun, Kotetsu-kun, how's it goin'?"

"It's been a long time, man!"

"I didn't know you were coming," Izumo added. Asuma chuckled: the duo that was quickly gaining a moniker of "the eternal gate guards" were just like he remembered, although a little taller than they had been as Genins.

"We're just here for the weekend, then we've gotta go back to the capital," Asuma said, glaring at the two when they were looking his little sister up and down like she was a piece of meat.

"So," Mito smiled dangerously, "are you going to get the Hokage or what?"

"I'm… sorry?" Izumo asked.

"Holy shit, man," Kotetsu said, backing up a step. "She's The Reaper."

Mito closed her eyes before taking a deep breath, wishing that she'd never left what she now considered her home in the capital. She absolutely despised that moniker. "I want to see my father now."

"Father," Izumo said stupidly, still fawning over the idea that The Reaper was showing her face in Konoha. And what a face it was - although that's not where he was looking. (He didn't even notice the bird.) She was in a fairly standard Konoha Jonin uniform - the ANBU tattoo clear on her lovely shoulder - but the short shorts she was rockin' were really doing it for him.

"This is what happens when you push me in the water," Mito shouted furiously at Asuma before turning to the gate guards. Her pants had gotten soaked on the way to Konoha thanks to wrestling in the river with that idiot! "Stop looking at my legs, Chunin!"

"Her hair did that thing," Kotetsu mused in a high voice shakily, struck absolutely stupid because this woman's hair really was ALIVE, MAN! It was listed in her Bingo Book profiles but he thought it was just a myth!

"Oh for fuck's sake," Mito said and stomped her way into Konoha. She let Asuma sign her in. By the time she reached her father's office, she'd had WAY beyond enough of Konoha's perverts and kicked the office door down. "Yo."

Oh shit: it looked like her father was going to have a stroke. She ran up to him, calmly asking him to breathe after having been forced to throw two of his ANBU out the window so that she could effectively run a diagnostic on him. Oh no: he's crying! "Tou-san! Cut it out!"

"Mito! You're… you're really here," Minato whimpered.

"I'm here; I'm here," she repeated as she hugged him and her parrot circled the room. She sent a glare to his remaining guards, telling them to fuck off and forcing them to leave so that they could have some privacy. "Are you okay?" she asked in just over a whisper before sticking her tongue out at her father's secretary who looked into the door (and broken door jamb) in horror. That woman was showing WAY too much cleavage! "I thought you were going to die on me there!" Her father squeezed her tighter but let go a little when she winced. –He had her around the waist and awfully close to her scar. "You'd better never."

"Never what?" Minato asked, grabbing a tissue and wiping his face off.

"Never die on me."

"I'm - I'm just so surprised, hime," Minato said after a minute. "Are you… are you back to stay?"

"I have a couple of days leave and you're not getting out of this," she said, shaking her finger at him once and determined to be strong. Being in Konoha was giving her the creeps already.

Minato tried to hide the pain he felt that his daughter wasn't home to stay. This was a day for celebration, after all. "...Out of what? I'm pleased as punch you're here!"

Mito grumpily mouthed the words "pleased as punch," realizing that her father was either getting old or hanging with old people way too often. She noticed the little bit of white in his blonde hair and slumped. "You're old."

"I beg your pardon? Oh. Yes. Yes, I suppose that compared to you I am."

"Is Naruto-chan around?"

"'Ruto! 'Ruto!"

"Mito," Minato said, momentarily focusing on the bird who'd just crapped on his best couch. Fortunately, it was leather so it could be wiped off. "Tell me you brought a birdcage." Mito only gave him a deadpan look - she was so beautiful. The shape of her big eyes was all Kushina although everyone agreed she otherwise looked more like him. She was a beautiful representation of both of them, from the colors of her hair to the colors of her eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just that… you're so beautiful."

"Oh Gods," Mito mourned before whistling for 'Ruto-chan to sit back on her shoulder.

"Your scars healed beautifully."

Mito took a deep breath, her eyebrows climbing high, not really considering her looks so much anymore. She gave him a big fake smile, refusing to go down that road of asking herself how much he really cared, considering that he hadn't seen her since that day when she was in the infirmary.

I told him I was fine. I told him to focus on Naruto when he wasn't working. This is for the best.

At least she'd finally get to meet her brother today. And as far as the scars on her face went, she had healed pretty well - more importantly, all her teeth had grown back (oddly enough,) although her canines were longer and pointier for some reason. She thought the scar on her upper lip made her look fierce, and the one from her eyelid that went up and divided her red eyebrow was kinda badass.

"If I'd known you were coming," Minato began reluctantly, "I would've made sure that Naruto was here." His poor daughter looked as if she'd just been socked in the gut. "He's on a field trip with his class."

"Oh, that's… that's nice," Mito nodded, reassuring herself that at least her brother was doing well. She'd have time to quiz her father and others on that while she was here - whether he liked it or not! Slapping her hands down on the chair in commitment, she jumped up as it broke into pieces. "Sorry! Hey," she said fiercely, pointing a finger at him again. "We need to talk somewhere we have absolute privacy!"

Later, Kurama listened carefully as Mito and her sire came up with a plan to transfer his chakra back to him from that Sora brat. Interestingly, it seemed that Mito's little brother had some of his chakra, too. He'd have to get that, as well.

Mito found Asuma with Kurenai - naturally - and obnoxiously cartwheeled into the ramen bar, throwing her arms around him just to be irritating. "Yo! How's the date going?"

Asuma swore to himself that he'd maim her as soon as they were alone.

Kurenai glared at her.

"So unfriendly," Mito pouted, turning to the ramen bar owner. "Can I have one of everything, my good man?"

"ABSOLUTELY," Teuchi said, grinning as he would remember that hair anywhere. "It's been an awfully long time, Mito-ch- Mito-hime."

"Bah! Don't call me hime, please. No honorifics - please."

Teuchi smiled: her mother was the exact same way. "As you wish, Mito-chan… 'Mito!' As long as you call me Teuchi!"

Kurenai, in the meantime, did a 180. "It is so nice to finally meet you! I'm Yuhi Kurenai."

"Pleasure," Mito said, dipping her head. "Namikaze Mito: that's my name, embarrassing Asuma is my game!"

"I fucking hate you."

"Asuma-kun," Kurenai scolded heatedly as Mito smiled victoriously. The beautiful red-eyed kunoichi turned back to her, deciding to ignore her handsome Genin teammate. "I like you already. Would you like to join us?"

"I... WOULD," Mito agreed.

Who knows? –Maybe being back in Konoha wasn't quite so bad, after all. And of course, that's when she poofed away.

"Namikaze Mito," the enormous panther growled. "It is time."