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

After finally getting a little sleep, Mito was escorted to a new island. Again.

The devastation Yagura was inflicting on his own country was almost unimaginable. Or it would have been, had Mito not been to Uzushio recently. The currently purple-haired kunoichi could admit she was bitter about that and in a presently shitty situation: one of her own making. Obito still hadn't returned to anywhere within her sensing range and Mito was being watched like a hawk.

I mean, of course, I am; it makes sense …

And then there was her one message from home. She knew 'Ruto-chan wasn't bird-brained in anything but a literal sense - but the fact that he kept sneakily finding her as she was moved around was a little unexpected. And the way he'd waited for her to be alone to bring her that kind-of-awful note? –He was extremely impressive.

And such a cutie-patootie. She was glad her favorite bird was free and even happier that he still wanted anything to do with her after she'd caged him.

Mito thought about the note she'd (finally: at last) received from her little brother and sighed miserably. Part of it had been coded but by the time she figured it out, Mito wasn't sure whether she was glad to have been able to make sense of it or not.

Dear, You Know Who You Are (sensei says it's bad to identify yourself or other people in writing, ya know,)

I tried and tried to write to tell you how I felt after I found out and everything but how was I supposed to even get a message to you? Cigarette-Oji brought us your cussing bird cause he pooped all over his apartment (good prank, by the way,) and then I knew what I had to say. I gave the parrot - who's got a weird name, ya know: what's that all about? - a mission to find you and deliver this to you. So here's my message:

Come home, you damn chicken. I dare ya! I'm ready: believe it!

- N

"At least he didn't give us away, I guess," Mito murmured to herself as she tried not to fall asleep. Cigarette-Oji: that had to be Asuma considering his terrible habit and the fact that she'd left 'Ruto-chan with him. It was kind of funny that Naruto referred to him as his uncle when Mito saw him as her slightly-older brother. "That little brat," she mumbled under her breath fondly. Or maybe in aggravation: she was too weary to really think more about it right now.

And after writing him back, I sent that note to Anko … Mito still wasn't sure if she should've been so honest and probably desperate-sounding in it. She'll probably make fun of me if I ever hear from her again.

Maybe she won't see me as strong and cool enough to be her friend anymore.

Mito reminded herself that the one good thing about being here at the moment was that she was SO close to someone who was part Uzumaki: she was almost sure of it. There was also another jinchuuriki here, fairly close by but on an eastern island from where…

"Fox!"

Mito jumped to her feet and then rubbed her nose underneath her mask before scratching the back of her head, wondering if she'd overreacted or had been asleep. "What?"

Ao clicked his tongue. So far the Konoha kunoichi had proven her worth, being beyond competent, but she would remain under observation. No one had died from her treatment yet. –At first, he thought it would be best to kill her and be done with it rather than have assets that could be in the field watching her instead. Thus far, however, she'd saved a lot of people that most certainly would have died without her seemingly enormous talents.

It had definitely annoyed him that she wished him good luck with killing her - and threatened to strangle him with a comrade's intestines that she had been holding at the time. How outrageous! It didn't matter to him that she was exhausted and angry! Although perhaps I should have washed up before re-entering the O.R. she'd hastily set up.

Her threat was an ugly reminder that inside that supposedly kind and definitely snarky med-nin was a demon: probably the great Nine-Tailed Fox since she admitted she was from Hi no Kuni.

Mei-sama was ensuring her safety, threatening anyone who would harm "Fox" - of all the mocking, irritating code names - by painful death and had been wanting to meet her. As her strategist, Ao wouldn't allow it even if he understood how few decent med-nins their side of the war had.

"In my day, a subordinate would use respect when being addressed by a superior."

Mito looked past him and gave Mangetsu a dry, disgusted look at that little comment. Neither of them could stand the man she called "This Guy," but the teenage swordsman had assured her that he was too important to kill or maim. Otherwise, Mangetsu said he would've killed him, himself, long ago because he was so annoying. "You know I'm not your subordinate. I'm assisting you and you're lucky to have me while I hunt my target."

"So you say," Ao sniffed.

"So I do," Mito agreed after a beat. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you need me for something?"

"Chukichi-san has requested you."

"I'll escort her there," Mangetsu confirmed. Chukichi and some other sensors were only a few tents over. He didn't appreciate the way "Lord Ao" rolled his eyes and scoffed at him.

- So what if he supposedly had a crush on Fox? She was cool as hell when she wasn't nagging the crap out of him.
- And she had to be guarded so there ya go.
- Plus she had a thoroughly incredible ass, legs, and nice hair. And her eyes? Oh, her eyes…
Whatever. Ao can shove it!

The two left the med tent and Fox stretched, popping her back and neck harshly. "I wonder what Chukichi-san wants."

Mangetsu had wondered the same thing. "Probably to test you or somethin'."

"Great," Mito drawled sarcastically. "Are you still using that ointment I gave you?"

"Yes …Mom." Fox chuckled and ruffled his hair which Mangetsu didn't appreciate at all. Fox didn't seem to see him as a man and that was depressing. Once they reached the sensory unit - if one could call it that - he hollered out for Chukichi who seemed to be in a heated conversation and then sat down next to some guys that he once attended the Academy with for a few awful weeks.

Chukichi turned, his attitude also doing a 180 as he smiled at the masked foreign kunoichi. Mangetsu felt his stomach turn.

"Chukichi-san." Mito was glad to see him again. He reminded her so much of the monks that she'd lived with for so long. His chakra was always calm and serene but serious. "What can I do for you?"

"I'd like your opinion on something," he said uncomfortably. "Would you like to sit down?"

"Sure." Sitting on the ground was fine. Chukichi was with seven ninjas and the kunoichis there were giving her weird looks - one of them smiling at her just a little too much. Mito internally cursed her anxiety disorder, telling herself that she was doing better than she was only weeks ago with it. Her mantra for dealing with it was Fake It 'til You Make It. "Hello. I've met a few of you before and as you may know, you may call me Fox; I'm in your care."

"How are you finding your time with the rebellion?" Chukichi asked pleasantly.

Mito thought he might be faking that. "Disturbing, to tell you the truth. I'm so disgusted with… Sorry," she then breathed lamely, scratching the back of her head. "I've just seen too many people hurt or killed that should've been peacefully leading their lives."

"Indeed," Chukichi agreed before broadly gesturing toward his comrades who were sitting in their circle. "Will you join hands with us?" Fox gave him a skeptical look and he assured her that she would be fine. She swapped with a clone anyway - something he had seen her do many times before - and he agreed to let the original Fox watch their sensory unit in action.

The ninjas (all with eyes closed) didn't quite hold hands, Mito noted but seemed to gather strength from the way they were barely touching one another.

"Whoa," one kunoichi said, looking up at the purple-haired clone and then to her original.

"You gave us quite a power boost," another ninja commented.

Mito's clone looked up at her with a bright goofy smile on her mostly masked face, embarrassing her original to death. "You should check this out, Mi-Fox."

Mito dispelled her, internally berating the gone girl for almost revealing her name. She couldn't be sure but the more she used it, the more Mito was certain there was something "off" about the shadow clone jutsu. "May I?"

"Please," Chukichi insisted. Fox took her clone's place and seemed to reluctantly touch his hand and Lee's, the shinobi who was sitting on her other side. He thought it was interesting that Fox had no problem reaching in to heal someone's wounds or internal organs but seemed uncomfortable with a more common touch. He'd reported the finding only to Mei-sama. In his estimation and experience, Fox had scars not necessarily related to those he'd seen on her arm. – Or those might be tattoos. It was hard to tell.

Mito sucked in a breath when her senses were magnified exponentially. It was like the people she'd focused on were right in front of her! She could almost see them! "Holy shit. –Sorry." One of the kunoichis had chortled at her little outburst.

"Fox," Chukichi said quietly, "you can feel Yagura-sama, can you not? How many chakra signatures are with him?"

"Four. Or five?" Mito questioned what she was feeling, and with her eyes closed, didn't see the way some of the others looked at each other. The fifth, for lack of a better way to describe the presence, didn't feel like a person - and that one guy that she'd sensed before… Does Kiri have a third or fourth jinchuuriki?

"No."

"Oh! Uh… Thanks, Kyuubi-sama!" She wished the fox would provide a little more information since he knew that, though.

"Che!"

"Forgive me," she continued. "There are four ninjas and another… presence with Yagura. There are over 200 ninjas on the island he's currently on and thousands of civilians."

Chukichi chuckled but knew it didn't sound genuine: it certainly wasn't. He stood and the kunoichi followed him, offering a quick bow to his comrades and most likely wondering what this was all about. Once they were far enough away and around a corner, he asked Fox to make a silencing seal and was impressed when she simply put her hand to the ground and told him it was done. "You… wrote a seal with your chakra?" Fox nodded and he leaned against a wall, crossing his arms and wishing that Kiri had more sealing expertise. "Samehada."

It sounded to him like Samehada was the other "presence" Fox was detecting.

Mito's head drew back. "The sword?"

"Can you tell me what else you noticed?"

Mito shrugged. "Someone - for a normal person - with an incredibly large chakra signature that… Well, it was almost like the other 'presence' I felt was a part of him. He's water-natured but so is almost everyone around Yagura. There was another guy with an unusually large chakra signature, too: I'm sure you noticed." Not as big as the probable-Uzumaki one tent over, though! "My target has a Fire affinity but," she chuckled darkly, unable to help it. "He took off and hasn't been back." Damn you, Obito. Chukichi looked understandably concerned but unsurprised. "I promised to help, though, and I will. For as long as I can."

"I believe you." The Kiri nin rubbed his jaw, knowing that what he was about to ask might be out of line - or perhaps even subversive. Then again, Fox had just confirmed something very disturbing: Kisame had at least temporarily sided with the Mizukage and it sounded like Samehada may have accepted him. The sword was incredibly picky and horrible to fight against. He knew that Mei-sama had not sent Kisame to Yagura, not to mention that he had attacked Mangetsu. "How familiar are you with jinchuurikis?"

Ao had informed him and their leader of what Fox was.

Mito almost snorted. "As much as people here, I guess, considering that you have to deal with Yagura. –Konoha was the first to seal a tailed beast into someone." She hoped that explanation was vague but enough to satisfy him because she sure wasn't going to advertise that she was a jinchuuriki. She and the Nine-Tails had agreed that she wouldn't use his power (and only would if she had no other choice) until the very end, either fighting Obito or Yagura. Or both. And then if I survive, I'll get the hell out of here …

It was hard enough to get any adequate rest here; the last thing she needed was to worry that Kiri would try to steal the jinchuuriki that was right under their nose.

In a nearby tent, Ao sneezed.

"In my day, men used a handkerchief when they sneezed," Mei said sarcastically to her advisor, imitating his Old Man Mannerisms.

"Forgive me, Mei-sama."

"Tch. l want to meet that kunoichi, Ao."

"I understand but…"

"No, you don't," Mei hotly interrupted. "Do you think I cannot protect myself?!"

"She is a jinchuuriki: you must remember that first and foremost - she is like Yagura-sama!" Ao gasped as he realized that he'd really ticked off his lava and acidic boil-wielding leader. That was never a good idea!

"Ao," she said sweetly, "do you think I didn't remember that?" Mei was pleased that the man looked terrified. "Now shut up or I'll kill you."

"Yes, Mei-sama! I humbly apologize."

"Hmph!" Mei crossed her arms and thought more about the whole thing. The foreign kunoichi had saved so many of her comrades and her country's children that she strongly felt that as the rebellion's leader, she should thank her, personally. "What if we gave her a test? She could prove her… mmm: not loyalty per se, but her commitment to our cause. When she succeeds, I'll give her my sincere thanks!"

Ao hummed, wondering what in the world Mei was thinking. "You seem so assured that she will succeed! –What test are you imagining?"

Elsewhere -

Chukichi was now extremely worried - not to mention a little terrified. He could feel the grief pouring off of Fox and considering that, there was no way she could be deceiving him. It all began with a simple question:

"Do you believe that a jinchuuriki can survive extraction?"

Her first reaction was to animalistically snarl at him as she held a kunai to his throat. Fox was… extremely fast. Then her unique eyes looked so haunted…

"No," Mito sighed as she flipped her kunai around in her hand and put it away. It was impossible that anyone knew that she was a jinchuuriki: she hadn't leaked demonic chakra and even if… Her godfather's grief-stricken face entered her field of vision as if he was really in front of her again.

"I'm sorry, kiddo. Minato and Naruto are fine, but Kushina was taken off life-support a couple of days ago."

Kaa-chan…

"...A jinchuuriki cannot survive extraction."

"You may have just given yourself away."

Mito flinched within her mindscape. She rubbed her eyes, refusing to cry: something that had become a habit for her. "Tch! The way you just pop in and say stuff always freaks me out, Kyuubi-sama." The fox just shrugged.

"Speaking of extraction, let's go free Isobu!"

"As if I can do that right now," Mito said with spite, wishing she could. Yagura was an absolute monster and needed to be stopped before he caused any further death and destruction. Who knew what would follow him in Kiri but she couldn't imagine a leader being any worse. "I need a way to get closer to him. Maybe tag him or tag something that's in his office before I can pound the shit out of him. Oh; Yagura, I mean. Not Isobu, of course."

Kurama snorted. He knew what she meant and had watched through her eyes as Mito punched and kicked things before. If the kunoichi went all out, he knew that she could sink one or more of these awful islands. A little voice inside his head that he'd long ignored said that she was a fitting, strong vessel for him - if he was forced to have one.

He told that little voice to fuck off.

"You know, freeing him means that they'll try to seal your brother again later," Mito added, regaining his attention.

"Not if we kill Yagura: at least not for a long while. –And Isobu has ways to disappear. He's smart."

He'd fucking better be! His younger brother could create underwater dimensions. Supposedly.

"Yeah, I guess so. I hope so, anyway, Kyuubi-sama."

Mito cleared her throat and tried to smile apologetically at the Kiri sensory nin. "Sorry about that; I think I need an outlet for my aggression," she said with a soft snort, doubting he would accept her apology. "It's been a while since I've even sparred."

Chukichi nodded in understanding, glad that she hadn't gutted him. "Would you like to spar with me? …If your patients are all stable?"

"Why not?" Mito shrugged with a smile: he had surprised her. Unless he's using a spar as a set-up to attempt to kill me, of course. "Most of those in the med tent are ready to go back home - if they still have homes," she said: the last thing uncomfortably. "Anyway, it's not wise for me to spar around other people." She smiled at him a little slyly from behind her mask. "I tend to cause a lot of damage."

"As do I."

"Well, there ya go!" She left to go check on her patients and listen to the nurses' gossip. Chukichi returned an hour or so later.

"We're moving out."

Mito nodded, glad that she had all of her belongings sealed on her person 24/7.

.

The next afternoon, Mito found herself outside of a big tent with the other (non-Yagura) jinchuuriki in it. Kiri really needed silencing seals because Chukichi was in an impassioned argument with another Jonin. She went through her katas while she waited for the men to get it together. Mangetsu had often offered to spar with her but that little brat constantly tried to get her to punch him in his water-logged head, thinking it hilarious. –And of course, it wasn't like she would let herself go all out on a kid!

"Let's kill this jinchuuriki, too."

"Oh, come on! I'm not killing everyone you ask me to! Just Obito and Yagura!"

"Fine," Kurama groaned, totally not pouting.

"I'm going to summon a friend." Mangetsu groaned and backed several steps away. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu! Hey, Kei!" Mito loved the lynx: he was so big, furry, and cool!

Kei seemed to be in the middle of cleaning himself since he was chewing on his paw. "What up?"

"Not much! I'm still hunting that guy."

"Want me to go kill him?"

"Nah," Mito said as she rubbed him behind his really cool ears, appreciating his offer. "WELL, yes of course I want one of us to kill him but he took off. I've got a hunch he'll come back, though."

"A hunch, huh? –I always say ya gotta go with those." He finished grooming his nails and gave Mangetsu a curious look. The swordsman was looking everywhere but at him - which both Kei and Mito found amusing. "You know what I got my paws on recently that was really good? A moose!"

"Really?! Where did you find a moose?" Mito asked, more interested in seeing a real live moose than in eating one. Probably. I'd definitely try it if they put moose meat in ramen. At this point, she missed ramen so much that she'd eat it with anything.

"At home," he said somewhat deceptively. "I stole him from that smug cougar," he snickered. "Moose nose is incredibly delicious!"

Mangetsu began turning blue in the face before he dramatically groaned and liquified altogether. Mito was a bit grossed-out, too. No moose nose in my ramen, thank you very much. "That's… nice." Her eyes went wider as Kei turned and dashed into the ocean, seeming to frolic in the waves before he found what looked like a HUGE tuna. He pranced back with it in his jaws; it was still flopping around in an escape attempt. Kei was soaking wet but looking otherwise very pleased.

"I get the eyeballs!" He went back to fish out another: they all would eat well that night, Mito knew.

Then she heard a scream. There was a blast of demonic chakra and Mito saw red. "What the hell's… WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Some Kiri Jonin was trying to extract the tailed beast from a guy around her age! A big bluish-white… thing? It took half of her concentration to NOT strangle the guy trying to extract the demon with one of her chains - she punched him through the top of the tent and into the sky instead - as she thought up a seal. The one that Asuma had in case he had to use it on me … Closing her eyes and ignoring the Kyuubi's excitement, she used her chakra to pulse that seal onto the guy's forehead.

Fortunately, it worked… She returned briefly to her mindscape. "What… Who was that? Was that the Six-Tails?" She didn't recognize the form the Six-tails had taken and had fortunately been able to settle the demon in the jinchuuriki before he'd been released. Mito wasn't sure of what she saw, really.

She received no answer.

Great: the Kyuubi was obviously pissed off at her and not speaking again. She looked up at a Chukichi who was shielding her and talking down some other shinobis and shook her head, thinking about what fighting Yagura might be like if he let Isobu free. "I'm really not ready for that, am I?" The chakra just now had been so fricking… acidic as it filled the air - and even simply a small part of the six-tails was just so big.

"Of course, we're big, you moron!"

"Was that guy I punched aligned with Obito?" Again there was no answer from the big fox.

Mito tried to reign in her temper as she quickly began performing a diagnostic jutsu on the male jinchuuriki. The handsome guy seemed okay: just out cold. "What in the seven levels of hell is going on here?"

Chukichi sighed. "I warned Harusami-sama not to do it." He ordered the other sealers out and told them that Fox was under the protection of Mei-sama. He grimaced as he looked back at Fox, realizing that she'd put together who exactly Mei was and was gaping at him.

There was only one "Mei" in any bingo book Mito had ever seen!

"Lava no Mei?" Mito asked breathily. "Terumi Mei… Oh my God." Terumi Mei is probably the part-Uzumaki I've been sensing. Holy shit: she had some scrolls that belonged to the Terumi clan that she'd dug up in Uzushio. "I want to see her. Please."

.

Utakata woke up in a panic to find a group of identical masked purple-haired kunoichis sitting around, encircling him, eating fish.

"Yo!"

Utakata put his head back down. I could've sworn Master had tried to kill me. "I'm dreaming."

"Aw! Dreaming of me?" the group of clones drawled and then laughed at themselves. They were hilarious.

"Apparently, yes." Utakata looked one of the kunoichis up and down more appraisingly as a lopsided grin crawled up his face before laying his head back again. He was exhausted and if this kunoichi/group of kunoichis was going to tease him, he'd tease her right back. "It's a very good dream."

The group of kunoichis squeaked and blushed fiery red. Thank goodness they were all wearing masks. Mito dispelled her clones, feeling it was safe for the flirty guy since he was awake now as she cleared her throat, feeling horribly embarrassed. Why-oh-why did her clones act that way?

"Are you feeling any pain?" She began to run a diagnostic again, looking away from the guy's slim but handsome face and pretty golden eyes. –They were a darker shade than Orochimaru-oji's, and so much nicer. Almost the color of golden amber …

"My hand," Utakata said uneasily after swallowing hard.

His hand had fisted and looked okay but as soon as Mito touched it, she gasped. The world tilted on its axis again and there she and her patient were, standing in front of their giant, multi-tailed tag-a-longs.

Saiken grinned, incredibly excited. "Kurama! You didn't come when I called but I caught you!"

Mito was trying not to freak out and squeal: she'd always loved slugs - until she realized what the big slug had just said. "'Kurama,' huh?!" She turned back to the orange formerly unnamed menace -er, fox and saw him sputtering before he yelled at his sibling.

"Shut up, Saiken!"

"Aw, Kurama! I've missed you! And listen to you: you sound just like you always have - even when we were little." Saiken tried to make his voice deep and mean like Kurama always liked to sound: "'A name as great as mine should not be known to those beneath us!'"

"That's because it shouldn't," Kurama shouted. "I will kill you!"

"Aw, I've missed you, too, Aniki! You should've come when I called."

"I was hoping to get you out of him," Kurama said as he glared at Saiken's jinchuuriki, "so that he would die."

"Aw, but I like him!"

"The hair," Utakata exclaimed breathily, gaining Mito's attention. He'd barely registered what his burden had said. The kunoichi with the long purple hair in a fox mask was in front of him - in a bizarre version of his mindscape - with two-toned hair and eyes, no mask, an extremely pretty face with tiny little whiskers on her cheekbones, and… "I saw your profile in the Iwa bingo book! You're Namikaze Mito: The Reaper!"

Mito gasped again. "Motherfucker! …Oh man," she whined. "Now I have to kill you!"

Saiken laughed. "That is definitely your jinchuuriki, Kurama!"

Both Kurama and Mito began groaning and cursing again: him at his slug sibling and her at being found out.

"You realize that you just saved him from death, you foul-mouthed monkey," Kurama hissed at his vessel.

"You're a foul-mouthed monkey," Mito quietly snarked back at him. That sent the fox on a tirade about another one of his brothers for whatever reason. Mito knew Kurama - Kurama: I can't believe that after TEN LONG YEARS I've learned his name - was right, though.

"Yeah, I know," she said about the jinchuuriki guy as she turned to him. "I'm obviously not going to kill you right now. But please: you can't tell anyone who you think I am."

Utakata wondered what a Leaf kunoichi - the Hokage's daughter or sister is who she's supposed to be - was doing with the rebellion. "I might agree to that if you tell me why you're here and what has happened to me."

Suddenly they were kicked out of their shared mindscape, finding themselves back in the sealing tent. "I can do that," Mito chirped. She made a clone to go get the guy some fish. "What's your name? Chukichi-san left before he got a chance to tell me."