DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe. THIS Mito is mine.

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

Emphasis

Bijuu, etc. speaking

Bijuu, etc. thinking

After finishing her report, Mito took out a separate piece of paper to write a more personal note/letter to her father and brother but found herself unable to do so.

Naruto was… Well! From how well Naruto was doing at the Academy (and Mito knew that her father worried about how her baby brother's grades varied, [depending on the subject,] from being the best in his class to the absolute worst,) she knew for a fact that Naruto had long known how to write. So why had he never written back to her? She could imagine that a lot of spoiled little kids simply wouldn't want to, but she'd been including letters for him at least monthly since he was a newborn baby.

And she hoped like crazy that Naruto wasn't a "spoiled little kid!"

Knowing her father as well as she did (and Mito sometimes wondered how well that really was,) he wouldn't put up with Naruto NOT writing to her if for no other reason than it would be considered "rude." It was only recently that she'd begun anticipating a "thank you" note from Naruto, himself for the occasional gift or trinket she'd sent to him. But she never got those. Instead, she always received thank you notes from her father - or rather, his big-boobed secretary, more frequently.

Over the past couple of years, Mito occasionally traveled to the capital city's big shopping district to guard members of the royal family, so she'd been able to find what she felt were more conventional presents for her family and friends. Before that, anytime she ran across something she thought a little boy might like - be it an occasional something new but tossed out from Daimyo-sama's family (they tossed out gifts like they were corn kernels) or even a cool rock - she'd sent it along as it was the best she could do back then.

"Naruto loved the pyrite! He finally put it on his desk after taking it to school for Show and Tell and hardly put it down the whole day."

"Naruto really liked the stuffed tiger you sent, Princess. When he learned about a giant, real version of one showing up at Ichirakus and waltzing down Senju Avenue, he was very upset that he had been spending the night at his friend's place and missed it…"

Mito had also made him a few things over the years and… yeah. Did her brother even know that he had an older sister? And why hadn't she fully realized this before? She'd wondered about it - almost as if the idea had been a joke - but the reality of it was now settling in her stomach like a lead weight.

Did she really have a family in Konoha anymore?

Mito stared at the blank paper in front of her and tried to ask about Naruto - but couldn't get any farther than "Dear Otousan"

Giving it up, for now, she summoned a messenger cat, wondering who would show up this time. "Ah! Cheetah-sama and… cub-sama?" She still had a whole lot to learn from them.

"Hello, Mito-hime," the mother cheetah said as she gave her summoner a long look before looking back at her bratty son. "Stop complaining, Shun: you are a cub." Mito only smiled at the cub - didn't try to pet either of them, didn't immediately use her cub's name - which made her feel more at ease. "I am Toshi. You may begin referring to us by name."

"I'm honored: thank you, Toshi-sama!

"I hate honorifics."

"I actually do, too," Mito chirped, her eyes popping open with glee when Shun jumped into her lap. "May I… would you like a scratch behind your ears?" she asked uneasily.

Toshi sighed and lay down on the floor while her son received what looked like a very good scratching if all that purring and rolling around was anything to go by. Maybe she had been wrong: perhaps she would request something similar from Mito in the future.

"Wow: well you two can just spend the whole day hanging out here!" When the cub didn't resist her nails running down his back it was all Mito could do not to squeal. Shun was so cute! And soft!

"I thought you had a message you needed to be delivered," Toshi reminded her.

"Right, right. Sorry about that. It's just for my father and not urgent." Her report wasn't even interesting. Yes, she and Asuma were still observing Daimyo-sama and things going on at court, etc., but since the whole… Kazuma thing, nothing of scandalous interest was going on at the Capital.

She and the other guardians had begun training the ninja monks and monks in ninja training daily. There were some really talented kids that were coming along and Mito almost felt like a sensei. –Which is what they called her but still seemed a little weird. She thought she might be a little too young to be something similar to a Jonin-sensei.

"It is an official report, though," Mito told the cheetah. She didn't know the cats extremely well and wouldn't want Toshi to discard the message or carry it around for weeks.

"This is my first time!" Shun exclaimed.

"I'm sure you'll do a great job," Mito assured him with a gentle smile.

"Your father's the Hokage?"

"That's right, Shun!"

Shun gave her scarred arm a pouty glare. "Your arm would look better with spots." Mito chuckled while his mother began scolding him.

"That's not how it works. The brand shows that she is ours," Toshi explained. Again.

"She should have spots," Shun said firmly. His mother gave Mito an apologetic glance. "There's no reason she needs to look like a damn tiger!"

"SHUN! You know better than to use coarse language!"

"She does it," he said, putting his paw on Mito's chest as he sat up in her lap. "I heard her during the test! She was saying 'fuc– NGGGNHHNHEI!" Mito had grabbed his snout.

"Sorry," she apologized to Toshi, hoping that she'd been forgiven for both cursing during that test (a lot) and manhandling her cub a bit. You brat! "Don't get me in trouble!"

"I could send you home," Toshi said simply, which made her cub go stiff for all of a second or two.

"What about our mission?! I want to see how fast I can run through Fire Country! There are supposed to be lots of even bigger trees in Konoha."

"It's my mission; I'm just bringing you along," Toshi reminded her son.

"Sorry," Shun said with a nose-wrinkling pout that made Mito, once again, want to squeal or kiss his cute fuzzy face off. "It's just that she's already got striped hair…" *POOF*

"Forgive him, Mito-hime."

Mito wondered how she poofed her son away like that. "I… do have weird, streaked hair," she lamented. That sounded slightly better than saying she had striped hair, didn't it? Probably not. Her crazy red and blonde hair was what it was, though. "Do you want some water or something before you go?"

"That would be nice. And I was also tasked with requesting Konohan gear from you - so your summoning had perfect timing."

"Good!" Mito led the cheetah out to the mess hall and wondered exactly what she'd meant. "Gear… Something with the Leaf symbol?"

"Yes. We've never partnered with someone from a ninja village," Toshi said while watching Mito put water into a large bowl. She licked her lips as she spotted a frightened woman making what she believed were fried potatoes. They looked and smelled good. She secretly liked human food.

Humans as food? Not so much.

"I know what the toads wear," Mito said to herself, considering it more as she tapped her lips. "Do you want hitai…"

"No."

"Okay. Jackets or vests?" Mito asked, figuring that a lot of the cats would fit into something a really large ninken might. "Or belts?"

"Not belts."

"I'll see what I can do," Mito said, deciding THAT was something she could write her father about. "Can you stick around for a few more minutes?" The cheetah nodded.

Asuma strolled in and raised his eyebrows at the cat. "You're a cheetah."

"And apparently you're a genius," Mito sassed. "Asuma, this is Toshi; Toshi, this is my older brother, Asuma. We were just talking about gearing the cats up."

"Ah," Asuma said, going for the coffee. He wondered why the cheetah was following him - and why he was turning his back on a predatory cat. Oh well, he needed caffeine and figured if he didn't get some, he would die anyway… "Oh - it's nice to meet you? I'm in your care. Or something like that." Yeah, he was really sleepy.

"You smell like monkeys," Toshi said sourly. "Monkeys taste terrible."

Mito began laughing, eventually wiping a tear from her eyes. "I'm sure Asuma tastes terrible, too, not that anyone has had that non-pleasure."

"A 'virgin' then."

Mito threw her head back and laughed more while Asuma sputtered at them, officially deciding that cats sucked.

.

In Konoha -

"Anko-chan," Minato greeted the teen, surprised that his daughter's best friend wanted to see him - or was in Konoha at all. He'd received a message saying that Orochimaru's apprentice had shown up at Konoha's front gate without warning and since he needed some fresh air anyway, decided to meet her there. "It's nice to see you," he smiled although Anko didn't look well. "I wasn't expecting to see you or any members of your… group again until a while from now."

- Two and a half months from now, to be precise.

Anko smiled at him - a little brokenly, he thought.

"Walk with me?" he asked. Anko nodded and remained quiet beside him as they trekked back to his office. Once inside, he observed her more carefully. No bruises and she's clearly been traveling, and although she looked pale it wasn't necessarily unhealthy. After kicking his guard and ANBU out, save Genma whom he guessed that Anko could sense was hiding in the shadows, he asked the second question that came to his mind. "What can I do for you?"

Anko slowly and deliberately reached into her weapons pouch and presented him with her "other" headband. The musical note (which would be somewhat comical if it weren't also somewhat traitorous) had been scratched out - and Anko dropped to one knee with her fist over her heart after placing it on his desk. "I've been dismissed from my duties in Otogakure. I… didn't know where to go or if I'd be welcomed back, Hokage-sama."

"I see," Minato said simply. He had a lot of questions and wasn't sure Anko would answer any of them truthfully. –Or if she even could, considering how she'd reportedly been marked. "Did Orochimaru send you back to Konoha?"

Anko paled even further. "No sir."

"I want you out of here this instant! Grab your gear - everything in your room - and get out! RIGHT NOW!"

She had never been truly afraid of her master until that moment but still didn't understand what she'd done wrong.

- Were her students going to be okay? Had something terrible happened?

"We'll have to set you up with a place to live," Minato said as he pushed some papers around. He heard the teen's wet sniff and gave her a few seconds to compose herself before speaking to her more quietly. "I'll allow you to follow Tsunade-hime this afternoon but you know the protocol for shinobis that have been out of… 'formal contact,' let's say."

"T&I," Anko assumed. And ANBU will be following me.

"That's right. …You've been good to my daughter, Anko-chan."

Anko bit her quivering lips. "Thank you, sir. Mi-chan's my best friend."

Minato smiled at her more genuinely. "Well! It won't be long until she moves back to Konoha, too." Pulling out a scroll to send to Tsunade, he didn't see the way she went stiff.

Anko knew that Mito wasn't looking forward to moving back to Konoha but she wasn't going to say anything. Orochimaru-shishou - she grimaced at the memory of the person she saw as her parent screaming at her - but he'd said that Mito was suffering from PTSD and some kind of phobia of displaying "displaced" anxiety disorder or something. –Along with some other crap.

Mito seemed okay but she was all kinds of messed up.

She pulled out her old Konoha headband, remembering how excited she'd been to graduate from the Academy. "May I wear this, Hokage-sama?"

"I think I'll take it for now and we can discuss that later, yes?" Naruto rushed into the room and Minato grimaced, especially at the way Anko's expression softened at seeing the little ball of energy despite what looked like her disappointment in his decision.

"Who's that?" Naruto asked rudely, pulling his lips to the side as if to help him decide what he thought of the purple-haired lady.

"I'm Mitarashi Anko," she said, sticking out her hand. Naruto went to grab it but his father put a scroll into her hand.

"Tsunade-hime's at the hospital. Check in with her or Shizune-san directly."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Anko said, knowing when she was clearly dismissed.

Minato signaled Genma to follow her.

"You don't like her, Daddy?"

"I wouldn't say that! Now… What have I told you about bursting into my office, young man?"

.

In the months following, things remained boring at the Capital. Mito and Asuma spent most of their time either training, guarding the Daimyo and his extended family, (and mistresses,) or working with the younger monks - who were getting used to the admittedly lazy but large cats that were hanging around.

After her first two-day training trip to the mountain, many of the cats decided they wanted to check out where their summoner lived. Most of them decided they liked the sun and mild weather of Hi no Kuni's capital.

Mito's life was simple but she was happy to finish out the remainder of her "sentence" there. Her father had commuted it, but she had requested that he not tell the council or elders because it would only cause him more problems. Other than her father and Naruto, she had no reason to LIVE in Konoha.

Tsunade and Shizune weren't there full-time, Jiraiya was almost always out in the field, and even Hideki was supposed to be on a very long-term assignment. Orochimaru-oji, of course… She felt bad about the way things had gone the last time she'd seen him but was sure that something weird was up with him. …Not to mention the fact that he lived in a whole other country.

After training a few new girls who had transferred in, (new evaluations and security protocols were enacted after the attempted coup,) Mito no longer had to work as a miko.

"What?" Mito asked Chiriku as he tsk-ed at her. Her parrot was on her shoulder although it spent a lot of time hanging on or around her summons. "It's not my fault they look scary." The lioness nearby (still refusing to give her name) quietly snarled at her but then leaned down fully to enjoy the sun more. "And that they are scary," she added, smiling more when she saw that the lioness seemed to grin, too.

"It's not that," Chiriku said, wanting to pet the lioness but having learned that wasn't a good idea. Yet. "I am concerned because you can't seem to avoid confrontations with Sora-kun."

"That's not fair," Mito growled at him, shaking her head. "That kid is way too interested in me." And Kyuubi-sama wants to eat him . She'd told Chiriku and Asuma what the deal was with Sora. They were horrified that Sora's father, their traitorous former comrade, Kazuma, had turned his son into a pseudo-jinchuuriki.

"Has Daimyo-sama agreed to… the procedure?" Chiriku didn't know what else to call it but supposedly Mito and Yondaime-sama had come up with a way to safely relieve Sora of his burden.

"Daimyo-sama is nervous about it and wants Tou-san to be here when we do it, and Tou-san's schedule hasn't allowed him to come," she said with a wistful sigh. "Tou-san agreed to Daimyo-sama's idea because he's nervous that I'll - or Kyuubi-sama - won't let up and will reach out to take Sora-kun's chakra." She pulled a face and watched 'Ruto-chan fly over to land on the lioness who didn't move. Her cat partners apparently didn't see the parrot as either a bother or threat enough to go after him although Mito had warned the bird that he should leave them alone. "They're worried that something will go wrong - but I won't let Sora-kun get hurt!"

The lioness raised her head and looked over at the two ninjas, giving the bird a quick glare, too. "If Mito or the fox get carried away, we are prepared to step in."

"That's right," Mito chirped.

Later, during their hearty lunch in the mess hall, Asuma tapped her leg while she was speaking with Tou. Mito looked over to him and saw him gesture toward the little brat, himself. "That's not yours, right?" she asked her brother who shook his head and tapped one of his pockets. Mito knew that he kept his chakra blades in them: one on each side. Plus the blade Sora was carrying wasn't Asuma's style. "How did the brat get those?" Asuma shrugged but continued to watch Sora as he showed off his new weapon to the other kids.

Sora was only holding one chakra blade but that was alarming since if Asuma had his, the only other person at the Capital who had ever used any type of them was Kazuma.

Kazuma was in prison if he was still alive. "Tou-san would've told me if he'd let that bastard go."

Tou bit the inside of her cheek and nodded toward Sora. "I'll ask him. I'm supposed to work with the kiddies on their taijutsu this afternoon."

"Thank you, Tou. I'm doing ninjutsu training with the older ones. Maybe we can all discuss it tonight?"

"Sure. No problem, Mito."

"It" happened while she was at the Uzumaki Temple.

Something happened to make Sora lose control. Asuma saw the carnage the kid was causing and he didn't want the kid he'd come to like - Kazuma's son - to come to any harm. He had time to throw one of Mito's kunais and hoped that it would bring not only his sister but the Hokage as well.

Mito landed and couldn't believe her eyes, which were immediately drawn to Sora. Something… beastly was going on with one of his arms as he whipped out not only wind but demonic chakra, poisoning some of the monks and killing others without even touching many of them. "Sora-kun! Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Tora appeared and winced. When he and the other chiefs agreed to have Mito as a summoner, he and Fuyu had warned them about how dangerous a jinchuuriki could be but before now, the others only saw Mito as a powerful ally. With demonic chakra poisoning the air, he knew he was right - but quickly realized that Mito wasn't the one emitting the dangerous aura. "You shoulda summoned Kei or Ana!"

Mito yelled over the chakra that was crackling through the air. "I don't even know who Ana is! I don't want you to get hurt but you or one of you has to help me. Don't let me hurt this kid!"

She whimpered desperately as her skin began burning off – she simultaneously yelled for the boy, hoping he could get control of himself. Internally, she was begging the Kyuubi to wait for a few more minutes, but the fox felt he had waited long enough to get his chakra back. She made a handful of clones to go help the injured but wondered if they'd be able to do anything to help her comrades, medically, since she was quickly losing control. Her chains wrapped around and pulled the out-of-control boy to her as she went through the hand seals to take and seal his additional chakra. Sora swiped his beast-like arm over her belly and Mito saw her blood fly just as another chain shot out of her and impaled the boy's abdomen. "NO!"

She fell back and it was over. Crawling over to the boy, more chains shot out of her back and she felt the chakra that was poisoning the air flow into her through them. "I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry." It was so hard to in any way heal him when she was wounded and in so much pain - shaking with what felt like 3rd-degree burns as she continued to bleed from her gut.

Minato showed up in a (delayed) flash with his team and ran to his daughter. "MITO!" It looked like all of her skin had been peeled or burned off! And she was bleeding badly.

"ST a Y A w AY FROM M E!"

She healed the boy as much as she could before keeling over. Her last bit of consciousness from that terrible day was Tsunade-baa-chan's worried face over her as Mito lay in her own clinic. She looked to the side and sighed: it looked like Sora was going to live.

Weeks later -

Asuma fumbled with his pack, knowing very well what his troublesome sister was trying to pull.

"I can't go into Konoha with ya, Sora-kun, but… I should be right behind you two, shortly, ne?" She looked at Asuma with her big heterochromatic eyes - batting her long eyelashes at him, hoping he'd back her up.

After their little "episode" Daimyo-sama had changed his mind about how cool it was to have a "powerful jinchuuriki" at his beck and call.

"I want to stay with you, nee-chan," Sora said, pouting.

Mito smiled, incredibly glad that the boy both forgave her and remembered very little about what had happened to him. He, too, was being dismissed from the capital but Mito felt that it would be good for him. He had… unintentionally… wounded and even killed - when does it end? - quite a number of their friends and he needed a fresh start.

The kids AND adults were treating him differently; it wasn't his fault! Her father was allowing the little monk to enter the Shinobi Academy in Konoha and Sora was very excited about one day becoming a ninja of Konoha.

The kid didn't seem to know what shyness even was, so Mito figured he'd be happy there.

"A minute, Mito," Asuma whispered to her, tugging her elbow so that he could speak with her in more privacy. Sora sat back down on the ground, laughing when 'Ruto-chan landed on his head. "Your father's gonna flip out if you don't report back with us."

"Bullshit," Mito drawled easily. They weren't expected in Konoha until the first of the month. "It doesn't take a week to get to Konoha, Asuma," Mito deadpanned at him. "Especially by Hiraishin. He knows that I've wanted to visit Uzushio and retrieve whatever I can."

"You told him that you're going there first?"

"Yes," she lied brightly. She needed to find something to get that juinjutsu off of Anko and the others. Plus, from what her mother had told her, the stuff there belonged rightfully to their clan.

Asuma tsk-ed at her, not believing her for a second.

"Hmm. Have you heard from Anko-chan? …It's been a while."

"Why would I have heard from her?" Asuma asked.

"Never mind! Jeez." Mito dragged Asuma over to Sora and asked him to stand up before holding her finger out for her little parrot friend. "Okay, buddy! If you want to meet us there, we're going to Konoha. I'll be there soon but Asuma will take care of you in the meantime." She forced a scroll on the scowling Asuma that contained 'Ruto-chan's birdcage, food, newspaper, and everything else he needed.

The black parrot flew overhead in circles, muttering curses before clearly calling out, "The fuck, Asuma!"

Mito laughed as 'Ruto-chan headed toward Konoha and grabbed the boys' shoulders. Flashing to just outside the gate, Mito felt her heart begin to pound, her skin getting clammier and clammier even as she told Sora that she'd see him soon. Asuma looked a little desperate but Mito waved at him and next landed at the Fire Nations' border.

Leaning over on her knees, she bitterly laughed at herself and all of that pent-up anxiety. "That was a close one."

.

She had been alone, digging through the ruins of Uzushio for almost a week (and it turns out, her father was furious but couldn't get into Uzushio to bring her back,) when the fox called her to her mindscape.

The Kyuubi looked like he would rather have done anything else, however. "I need you to see something."

Mito felt like the room turned upside down and sitting in front of her was what looked like an uncaged Kyuubi and a… turtle? Mito sucked in a breath and then another as she stepped back. "Sharingan!"

The turtle's eye was a Sharingan!

"This is Isobu," Kurama said reluctantly. He'd been furious with Mito when she didn't force her father to aid her in immediately getting some of his chakra back and putting it off for as long as she did. MITO-2 had the nerve to be equally as furious with him when he took matters into his own hands. "He is not answering."

Mito counted what she supposed were his tails although they weren't as obvious as the Kyuubi's. Three. "He's here?!"

Kurama rolled his eyes. "He is near enough. He had… requested my assistance." He'd cried out to us for help. "Isobu is… gentle."

Mito thought that the Kyuubi sounded disgusted with calling him that, but his eyes only showed worry. "You care about Isobu-sama."

"He's my brother. Of course, I do!"

"I see," Mito said blankly as she stared up at the unmoving turtle. "Your eyes looked like that..." Her eyes narrowed and darted toward him. "You think Obito might be close by."

"If it's not Madara it's one of those other loathsome Uchihas that are controlling him!"

Mito sat down and began meditating, reaching her senses out farther and farther. They were close to some islands in the Land of Water...

"I didn't realize it at the time, but Yagura-sama is Isobu-sama's host, huh?" Now that she was a jinchuuriki, she realized what that power felt like - at the time, she'd just thought that the Mizukage's chakra was two-fold and dense.

I was dense.

The Kyuubi didn't respond. It wasn't until nightfall - by then she was about to pass out - that she felt him just on the very edges of her senses. "Obito."

Mito unsealed the fox mask she hadn't worn in years and summoned a cat.

It's hunting season.