Chapter 63

Third Person POV

Kakashi held his student tightly by her shoulders as she continuously coughed up blood. He punctured her lungs, and made a hole in between her chest.

She was supposed to be dead by now. Even if she managed to shift just in time to avoid the Raikiri piercing her heart, the damage was too severe. And yet here she was, breathing although struggling, still mocking him with that sharp tongue of hers.

He shifted her slightly as he pulled her closer against his body. Her head rested against his chest as he supported her back with his arm. He could feel her warmth slipping away as he looked down at the gaping hole he placed in her body.

"I didn't know you're the type--to cuddle someone you just tried to kill," Asuna whispered tiredly. "Unbelievable..."

Kakashi kept silent as his hand steadied against her chest. He could see her bones and flesh sticking out. A warm glow of chakra hovered over her body and Asuna laughed, as if she was trying to mock him once more.

She coughed up blood, staining Kakashi's mask.

"Don't tell me, you're trying to save me?" Asuna laughed once more, albeit weak.

"Stop moving," Kakashi said.

"Oh. Are you gonna prescribe me to get a decent amount of sleep and eat a balanced diet next Dr. Hatake?"

Kakashi didn't speak. The damage was too much. Her heart was beating out loud for him to see, without the flesh and muscles to hide it.

Like the only thing that was keeping her alive was her desire to mock him until her last breath. Like if she stopped throwing vile words to him, she would die.

"You had a lot of chances," Kakashi started as he tried his best to stabilize her condition. "You could have killed me if you really wanted to. Why did you so far as to even save my life?"

Asuna raised an eyebrow. "I was trying to get you to owe me and then let you feel the pain I felt when Kyuuji betrayed me."

Kakashi face hardened.

"You're getting too sentimental for a war criminal sensei. To be honest I thought you would just Raikiri your way to me. Didn't know you were a fan of talk no jutsu," Asuna's vision was slowly starting to slip away as black dots hovered her vision. And yet, she was too stubborn to give up.

"You should stop talking," Kakashi advises as her flesh trembled and more blood poured out of her wound every time a word came out of her lips.

"Nah, I'd die for sure if I do. I still have to kill you remember?"

Kakashi felt her leaning against him. He knew she didn't mean it, she probably didn't even noticed the way her body reacted to his warmth.

"Besides, you're not here to kill me, are you? You're probably still hoping that you can fix me. Sorry to ruin your day but, I'm beyond saving."

"Lady Tsunade ordered to bring you back alive," Kakashi replied flatly.

Asuna whistled. "Oh? The old hag did? Wow, I'm pretty sure I massacred her people. Didn't know that was a petty crime by her standards."

Kakashi lifts her up, with his arms holding her shoulders and the back of her knees with a firm yet gentle hold.

"Since you have a lot of energy to keep blabbering. I'm pretty sure you would be able to survive the trip getting back to Konoha."

Asuna rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Oh please. Just finish what you started. Look, can't you see? I'm dying. Like literally. You made a hole out of my body remember?"

Kakashi sighed, Asuna's personality was rubbing on him without even realizing it. "I did. But you're still breathing."

"Barely," Asuna exasperated. She wasn't even exaggerating.

Her life force was slowly starting to slip away. Blood pooled on the ground she lied on earlier.

"Hey..." Asuna mutters weakly catching Kakashi's worried attention. "My head's going black. I think I'm dying."

"You are."

Asuna forced a chuckle. Until she could no longer fight her own body from losing consciousness. Asuna's eye lids didn't close all the way. Her gold eyes that sparked with bloodlust earlier slowly dimmed. Her warmth dropped several degrees colder and Kakashi gripped her shoulders tightly.

Kakashi dropped a scroll on the ground and it rolled open all the way around them. Written kanji scattered around the ground he was standing on before both of them disappeared in a puff of smoke. Leaving only the mess they made around the forest and half of Asuna's blood still fresh on the ground.

"Reverse Summoning no Jutsu!" Kyuuji hissed as he felt a tug on his huge chakra reserves. It pulled more than half of his energy.

He dropped on his knees and felt pain throbbing around his chest from the wound Asuna stabbed a week ago. It still haven't fully healed yet.

A puff of smoke erupted from the clearing, alerting everyone surrounding the seal.

A familiar silver-haired Jonin appeared, battered, bruised, and clearly tired from a fight with a little devil. Around his arms was an unconscious girl, no older than 13, heavily breathing trying to take as much oxygen as possible to supply energy for her cells to keep her alive.

"Yo," Kakashi greets everyone in the room who were clearly tense and not in the mood for games when he just brought back a demon with him. Alive.

"You look like a scarecrow carrying his sack of rice," Shikaku commented as soon as he entered the clearing. A make-shift sealing area all made for a single child.

"Then let the scarecrow carry his sack," Kakashi mutters down his breath.

"Only that you're carrying a bomb not a sack," Shikaku's lazy expression turned serious as he saw the girl still breathing. "You brought her back alive."

Kakashi didn't reply and instead shifted his focus on the half Ryuugaime struggling a little from the chakra depletion of using a Reverse Summoning.

"Been a while since I saw you down like that," Kakashi commented.

"I don't think it's the right time to reminisce about the old days Kakashi-san," Kyuuji coughed a little as his gaze landed and softened on the familiar long haired girl.

Just then, several ANBU members appeared before them, alerting everyone on the perimeter.

"Step away from the target," the masked leader said, voice hollow and cold. "By order of Lady Tsunade, the fugitive is to be taken into ANBU custody for interrogation."

Shikaku frowned. Kyuuji glared. Kakashi deadpanned, already knowing who's behind them and it clearly wasn't their Hokage. His grip on Asuna tightened.

"Interrogation?" he repeated. "You'll have to go through me."

"You're in no condition to fight," the ANBU said calmly.

Kakashi's eye narrowed. "Try me."

Kyuuji stepped up beside him, tired from this shit. "We weren't told anything about an immediate transfer to ANBU. Only Lady Tsunade herself can authorize that. I don't see her here."

Shikaku followed suit. "There are... factions within the ANBU we don't trust. Tell Danzo he'll have to send someone less obvious next time."

The ANBU agent twitched but said nothing.

Kakashi turned his attention back to the ANBU leader. "Tell Lady Tsunade. I'll wait. She wants her alive? She'll have to come herself."

Asuna stirred in his arms, her brow twitching in a brief flicker of pain or consciousness. Kakashi immediately shifted her weight to protect her head, hand tightening around her shoulder. Kyuuji noticed her small movements out of the corner of his eyes.

The ANBU didn't move, but tension coiled in the air. Everyone's chakra was flaring slightly, enough to signal, not one step closer.

Then-

"STAND DOWN."

The voice of the Godaime Hokage split through the stand-off. Tsunade's chakra presence hit the air like a thunderclap. Everyone turned as the blonde woman stormed through the doors, her robes flaring behind her, Shizune panting to keep up.

"Did you really think I wouldn't feel your chakra the moment you appeared in the village?" Tsunade snapped at Kakashi, then turned her glare on the ANBU. "You dare try to take her before I even get to see her myself?"

The ANBU dropped to their knees before they disappeared without a trace.

"Thanks for the dramatic entrance," Shikaku mutters.

Tsunade didn't reply and instead shifted her focus towards the young girl on Kakashi's arms and walked closer with her aggressive trudging. "We have no time to waste--" Tsunade froze on her tracks.

"She's alive," Kakashi reports before it was followed by Tsunade's booming voice that commands attention.

"She's already half dead!" She yelled as she eyes Asuna's condition. "You used Raikiri on her? It could have killed her! I specifically told you to bring her to me alive!"

"She is," Kakashi replied calmly. Like he was too tired to put up with this shit.

Behind them, Shizune instructed medics to put the dangerous Ryuugaime on the stretcher. Kakashi moved forward instead and placed the girl on the stretcher himself.

"You tried to give her mercy? After what she did to your village?!" Tsunade squats down on the floor to further assess her condition. "We could have lost our only lead to the real mastermind behind this incident!"

Shikaku eyed Kakashi. Surely, the copy-nin himself could easily disarm the young girl himself. Even if she proved to be a threat to an average Jounin, Kakashi was different and on an entirely otherworldly scale. Shikaku sighed. Kakashi knew that bringing the child back alive would only subject her to interrogation, torture, and eternally locked underground beneath Konoha.

'She has grown a soft spot on him.'

Tsunade's hands glowed softly with a green hue as she hovered over the hole on Asuna's body. Tsunade creased her eyebrows at the massive damage that should have shut down her whole system, no matter how much chakra she has. So why is this girl still alive?

She started fixing the damage Kakashi's Raikiri had brought to the criminal's respiratory system. There was only a small piece of her right lung left, barely functioning.

Shizune attached an oxygen mask to Asuna's face before she proceeded to attach an IV line to the back of her hand.

Kakashi stepped back and rested his back against the wall. He has burned most of his chakra away. Kyuuji could tell.

Just as Tsunade initiated the cell regeneration on Asuna's gaping chest, her chakra flared and swirled around her wound and pulsed through her veins. Her eyes widened as Asuna's bones started to reform as pink flesh regenerated and covered her ribs.

Tsunade's Mystical Palm Jutsu stopped halfway and yet her cells continued to regenerate. As if they had a mind of their own. Her tissues threaded themselves back together. It was like her own cells had a mind of their own. Like her own flesh and bones were fighting death itself without their owner's command.

The speed of her regeneration. It far surpassed everything she'd seen.

No. It can't be.

The last time Tsunade had seen something absurd like this was in her teenage years. And her grandfather was the only one capable of doing this. And that was because he was carrying the genes to be able to create mokuton.

A pure-blooded Ryuugaime of all people can't be related to the Shodai Hokage.

Tsunade recovered from her shock before her voice boomed all over the place.

"CALL EVERY SEAL SPECIALIST. I DON'T CARE IF THEY'RE DRUNK, SLEEPING, OR BURIED DEAD. DRAG THEM ALL HERE!"

Kakashi creased his eyebrows in confusion. Shikaku shot up from his position as every Chunin dispersed from their positions.

"We have to seal her immediately before she wakes up and crashes this whole building down!"

Jiraiya was the first one to arrive, a huge red scroll on his back, as if summoned by her shout. "Heard you from a mile away, Tsuna," his grim eyes studied the scene, the half-dead girl, a sagging Kakashi, multiple fuijutsu specialists entering the field, and Tsunade's panicked chakra flooding the room.

Tsunade glared daggers at him without missing a beat. "Took you long enough, you damn pervert!"

"Calm down, Hime," Jiraiya muttered. "I'm here now."

He knelt beside the stretcher where the unconscious Ryuugaime lay. For a moment, he hesitated. The girl's body was stitching itself back together before his eyes. Muscle fibers snaked over ribs, pink skin blooming like veins across exposed organs. It wasn't natural.

Jiraiya pulls down his scroll as he started binding Asuna's chakra. "We need something to store this massive amount of chakra. Scrolls alone won't be able to handle it if I do this every single day."

Shikaku stepped forward and stared at the horizon of the village. "I've been thinking," he started catching everyone's attention. "I propose we use her chakra."

Kakashi tensed. Kyuuji frowned. Shikaku noticed their violent reactions under those piercing gazes, but dismissed them.

"You mean we drain it?" Jiraiya asks, and Shikaku shakes his head.

Shikaku's voice remained measured, but there was an edge to it that suggested he was calculating the cold reality of the situation. "Not drain. Feed off of it. We can use her chakra to reinforce the village's barriers. Amplify our defenses, strengthen our seals. We've never had access to chakra like this before. It's powerful. And it's a resource that could make Konoha invulnerable to external threats for the foreseeable future."

Tsunade crossed her arms as she looked back down at the girl. "It's inhumane but, we cannot risk getting infiltrated again."

"Her chakra reserves rival those of bijuus. And her dojutsu has the ability to manipulate chakra. We can make use of it. Soon, intel that we have a living full-blooded Ryuugaime who can use the Seiryuugan would spread. We have to prepare for the worst-case scenario," Shikaku paused when he saw Kakashi drop to his knees in front of Tsunade.

"Hokage-sama, I don't have any retorts about using her chakra as a barrier to protect Konoha. But-", Kakashi took a breath. "I believe that if we force her to use her dojutsu, it would only serve as a double-edged sword. One slip-up and she would use it to drain everyone's chakra."

Kakashi had other reasons. But, of course, no one would really listen to him if he said that there's a possibility that using the Seiryuugan costs her memories. Kakashi haven't given up on her yet after all.

Tsunade huffed. "Jiraiya, incorporate her chakra directly into the barrier. Shikaku, have a team of Fūinjutsu specialists control it. And Kakashi," she turned her hazel gaze towards the silver-haired. "Go and take a rest at the hospital. You've done enough. We will handle the rest. Thank you for your service."

Kakashi bowed his head lightly before Kyuuji helped him up. "Thanks."

"Rest first. I'll make sure they won't go as far as forcing her to use her dojutsu," Kyuuji whispers underneath his breath, so low that only Kakashi heard it. "She has already gone through enough."

Lhexi's POV

I wandered around as chains rang in the distance. Thick, ashy fog enveloped the ground I walked on. My eyes scanned the place I was in. It was peaceful for some reason unknown. The sky above me was a bruise-colored void, swirling with faint, ghostlike figures whispering languages I couldn't understand. The ground beneath my feet was pale, cracked, and cold as stone, yet it gave no weight to my steps.

A red Tori gate appeared behind the fog, and I paused for a moment. I realized where I was.

The Land of the Dead.

I walked around as I wondered if time ever stopped moving here. As I approached the gate, a white silhouette appeared before me. Tattered white robes, white hair, and an oni mask covering his face as he bit down on a tanto? But I recognized it. I have seen the same being painted on pages of different history books I've read.

The Shinigami.

I blinked my eyes, not afraid, I was already dead after all.

"Little one, it seems as though your soul is lost," his voice sounded like death itself, ashy, low, dark, and felt like it could swallow you whole.

I tilted my head to the side. "What do you mean, I'm already dead, right?"

"Your soul does not belong here in this world. It appears as if you have been forced out of your will to come here," he continued as his form remained floating inches above the ground. "Thus, your fate does not fall on my hands."

My eyes widened.

"Which means...? I mean, where do I go then?" I asked softly.

"You are to return," his white frame didn't move, just continued to hover before me.

"But, how will I go back to my world?"

I asked as the wind shifted, the temperature dropped, and the fog around us circled around me.

"When the blood moon comes, and all eyes fall into a dream, the door to your world shall open."

His huge frame disappeared off into the fog as it engulfed my body and I narrowed my eyes before everything went dark once more.

Silence.

Unbelievably quiet.

A groan escaped my lips as I felt a stinging sensation on my pinky finger. It was white. The room is. Like I'm stuck in an asylum.

Then, the pain was back, this time on another finger. My vision slowly became focused behind the strap of cloth bound with a strong seal to ensure that I could not use my Seiryuugan. They should have plucked it out. I could see the familiar silhouette of a man sitting across me, pliers in hand.

Ugh. Not him. Again.

"--I will ask again, who are you working for?" Ibiki questioned, and I heard him quite loud enough the second time. "We've been through this, Asuna. You took a long while napping afterall."

"Me," I replied almost instinctively as my eyes curled into a smile. I mean, it's the truth.

I tried to move, then I felt a buzzing sensation that seemed to dull my senses and even absorb my strength. I looked around at the situation I was in. I was strapped to a metallic chair, with paper seals bound to every corner of my body.

My fingers trembled, and I glanced at the sight. Oh. He cut them.

I didn't panic. Not at all. My mind was oddly calm. Probably because as soon as the pain registered in my brain, it disappeared as quickly.

"You haven't learned your lesson," he phrased as he grabbed another one of my fingers. 

Lesson? I'd been through hell and back, and this was his idea of education?

I watched as he stationed his pliers around my finger.

Click.

The blade cut through my skin first, before it sliced through the muscle and bone.

"Should I say ouch?" I asked as the corner of my lips twitched up.

Ibiki didn't flinch. Predictable. The man had the emotional range of a brick wall and the personality to match.

My finger hit the floor like a poker chip someone lost interest in. 

I really didn't need this.

Waking up in Asuna's body was bad enough, but this? Strapped down like some lab rat, my pinky missing (thanks, Ibiki), and my eyes covered with a damn seal so I couldn't use the Seiryuugan? Top-tier hospitality.

I flicked my gaze across the room, the white walls sterile and too bright behind the cloth, with paper seals pasted everywhere like some kind of weird feng shui gone wrong. Each one arranged in a pattern that seemed designed to suck the life—or at least my chakra—right out of me. Slowly. Like someone taking tiny sips from a fancy bottle of sake.

Smart.

But I wasn't exactly born yesterday.

Or yesterday's yesterday.

That's when I noticed it, my severed fingers began to twitch.

Well, that's new.

I stared, mildly amused, as cartilage stitched itself back together, the meat reformed, and the skin knitted itself seamlessly like a reversed bloom. No scar. No trace. Not even a blood drop left behind.

Regeneration.

Real regeneration. Not chakra-assisted healing. This was cellular. Mitotic. Like Hashirama's, only slightly more dramatic and definitely more rude.

Hashirama's cells. Of course. I remember when Orochimaru caught me once. I blacked out before he could do anything irreversible—or so I thought. That new arm he gave me back then... I thought it was just chakra-enhanced tissue. Turns out the snake bastard slipped in something extra.

And Asuna... she figured out how to tap into it. Mitotic regeneration at this level wasn't just freakish. It was unnatural.

I should've been horrified.

"Ugh," I muttered. "Of course she'd get upgrades after screwing up the escape."

Instead, I sighed. "Well. Isn't that just peachy? I do everything to make sure we both escape Konoha, I even handed her the perfect moment to disappear, and what does she do with it?"

Ibiki didn't answer. Good. I wasn't talking to him anyway.

I leaned my head back against the cold metal and muttered to no one in particular, "She got herself caught. After everything. How embarrassingly typical."

The room pulsed. No, not the room—the seals. I could feel them now, like spiders crawling just under my skin. Whoever did this was good. Layers of chakra flow disrupted, drawn out through nodes along the spine, knees, and wrists. Efficient. Designed not just to restrain motion, but to slowly siphon and reroute my energy somewhere else.

But where?

I closed my eyes. Reached inward.

There. Four specialists stationed outside. I could feel them—not clearly, but their chakra signatures flickered like candles under wind. Constant. Straining. Keeping the drain going.

"Who are you working for?" Ibiki repeated.

Gods, he was persistent.

"Is this a trick question?" I asked sweetly. "I thought I was self-employed. Unless we're counting the angry voice in my head with murder issues."

Ibiki didn't flinch. "You're not alone. We know there's someone else."

I narrowed my eyes.

Huh.

He thought there was someone. Which meant they haven't probed my mind yet.

"Why not just have Inoichi dive into my brain and dig up the party guest list himself?" I asked, a casual lilt to my tone.

That got a reaction.

His jaw twitched. "He can't. Your mind is locked."

Interesting.

"Oh, is it now?" I tilted my head, lips twisting upward. "And here I thought the Yamanaka clan could crack anything. How disappointing."

He stood. Quiet now. Thinking. That's the problem with people like him—they look for logic. For structure. They can't process chaos unless they can organize it into something with a label.

"You had people here," he said finally. "Friends. A life. You were loyal. Even if you had other plans when you entered through the gates, I'm sure someone was at least able to reach into you."

I felt that one. Sharp and deep. The words rang somewhere close to the version of me that used to laugh with Naruto and practice kunai forms beside Sasuke until sunset bled into the sky.

I closed my eyes for a second. I would've cared. The old me.

But it's so damn tiring to do anything anymore. I don't even know what the hell I'm doing. I just wanna go back home. Home.

I cleared my throat, letting the words fall like shattered ice. "You think I care about any of that?"

Ibiki stepped closer, his shadow stretching over me like a dark shroud. "You're lying," he said flatly. "I read the reports Kakashi wrote during your past missions. You care about something, or you wouldn't have tried to protect them." 

I didn't respond. What was the point? They wouldn't get it. They were too entrenched in their black-and-white world of shinobi and loyalty.

I took a deep breath, letting the pain of the interrogation room sink into the back of my mind, the stink of antiseptic and fear, the coldness of the metal chair seeping into my skin. It was all so... ordinary. So utterly, painfully ordinary.

"Fine," I murmured, the corner of my mouth turning up in a smirk. "Let's play your game. You want a story?"

The interrogator's eyes narrowed, but I felt his curiosity spike. Good.

"Once upon a time, there was a girl named Lhexi. She was from a world far, far away, a world of books and coffee shops, where the biggest threat was a deadline." The words flowed out of me like a dark stream of ink, painting a picture in the air.

"And she found herself in the body of a dead girl named Asuna. A girl from a world where everyone had superpowers and everyone was trying to kill everyone else. And she thought, 'This is great! I can write the most epic fanfiction ever!' But then she realized she couldn't just write it. She had to live it."

I chuckled, the sound echoing eerily in the room. "But she had other plans. Plans that didn't include raising the future Hokage."

Ibiki's hand shot out, slapping the seal on my forehead so hard that stars danced across my vision. The pain was intense, but it was nothing compared to what Asuna had felt. Nothing compared to the void that had been growing inside me ever since I took over her body.

"I don't care about your delusions," he spat. "But you will tell me who you're working for."

I opened my eyes, the purple of my irises swirling with a hint of the gold that was Asuna's soul. "I told you. Me."

The room was silent again, the only sound the steady drip of my regenerating blood.

Ibiki leaned in, his breath hot against my cheek. "Then why are you here?"

And I leaned back, smiling through the pain, the seal on my forehead burning like a brand. "Because she had a destiny to fulfill. And apparently, I'm a glorified sidekick."

The room grew colder as my words sank in, the air thick with the scent of his doubt.

But he had no idea. No idea that I was the hero in my own story. That I had plans. Big plans. And Asuna was just the vessel to get me there.

The door slammed open, and the world outside rushed in—chakra, whispers, the smell of fear.

"Ibiki-san," a voice called from the corridor. "We need you. Now."

He grunted, his hand lingering on the seal for a moment before he turned and left without another word, the door sliding shut behind him with a hiss.

Silence once again. I blinked my eyes behind the cloth. So, for me to go back home, I have to make sure that the Tsuki no Yome Project comes to reality? Which means, I would have to help Black Zetsu. Urgh. Not necessarily him. 

Obito? Then, Madara.

Which means the Akatsuki?

I have already ruined the timeline. Which means that there's a chance that it might not happen if I don't fix it and help Madara reach his dream. 

The silence was perfect.

Too perfect.

I tilted my head slightly. No one left in the room. Ibiki's chakra signature faded several meters down the hall. His heartbeat was already syncing with another pulse—someone in command, maybe a Hokage aide. Their presence stirred the corridor outside with murmured tension. Something had changed. Something important.

And no one was watching me.

Finally.

I focused inward. The seal on my forehead still pulsed with faint chakra, but weakly, like an old lamp on its last flicker. That was their mistake. They thought it could suppress the Seiryuugan indefinitely.

It couldn't.

Heat gathered beneath my skin as I concentrated on the seal across my chest—the one directly bound over the center of my chakra network. I let out a slow breath, and chakra began to circulate. First my fingertips, then my wrists. I imagined a wick burning slowly up my spine.

"Here we go," I whispered, voice steady.

I clenched my jaw and flexed my fingers—what was left of them. Burn it.

The first seal ignited.

The paper hissed before it burst into embers, the flame curling up my arm like it had missed me. I could feel the seals unraveling one by one, peeling away in bursts of smoke and heat. Pain flared, dull and clean. My chakra, once funneled outward by their design, snapped back into me like a lasso breaking free from a post.

I blinked.

The cloth seal on my eyes burned away in a flash of white fire.

Blue.

Three concentric blue rings shimmered around a glowing iris as my Seiryuugan snapped open.

And then—

Movement.

I twisted free of the chair with an ease that startled me. My center of gravity felt different. Lower? No—sharper. Leaner. My stride lengthened across the tile. My limbs moved more fluidly, joints tighter, body more coordinated than I remembered. The shift was so subtle I might've missed it if not for the way I reached the vent in two steps instead of three.

Weird.

I didn't have time to dwell. My vision flickered into layers—Seiryuugan sight parsing chakra like threads of colored light strung through shadows. Four ANBU are on the floor above. Two more are closing in fast. The hallway outside this room? Lined with pressure seals and trip wires, I could now see glowing in faint white light.

No problem.

I sent a ripple of chakra into the floor, disrupting the seals just long enough to dart past the door. No alarms. My bare feet landed silently on polished tile as I slid into the corridor, eyes scanning.

My breath was even.

Too even.

Feels like I've been trapped like a specimen for a while, months maybe, and I hadn't atrophied? No hunger pangs. No fatigue. Just this tight, coiled energy beneath my skin. The body moved without hesitation, like it had been training while I slept. I was stronger—taller, too. I brushed against the top of a low-hanging beam I was sure used to clear my head.

Had I grown?

I shook the thought away as the first ANBU rounded the corner.

"Prisoner is escaping!" he barked, blade already mid-swing.

I caught his wrist.

The Seiryuugan flared. His chakra flickered—an orange thread pulsing along his dominant arm. I pulled it.

His chakra collapsed with a grunt, and his knees hit the floor before he even registered it.

"Too slow," I said.

I dashed past him, turning down the next hall just as two more appeared but this time, smarter. One dropped smoke. The other channeled wind to scatter it. Clever. I lunged low, swept the wind-nin's legs, and with a flick of chakra through my fingers I pressed my palm against his chest as I ran past him, and burst the seal tags on his flak vest. His chakra scattered like leaves.

The third seal in my eye shifted.

I felt the door open.

The outer gates.

I didn't stop running.

As I reached the far hall, another ANBU dropped from the ceiling, blocking my path. This one was fast. He managed to parry my first strike, but I wasn't aiming to hit.

I didn't have to touch him, in a pulse of blue chakra, I inverted the flow of energy through his tenketsu. His scream was silent. He collapsed like a marionette with its strings severed.

The Seiryuugan burned in my skull as it forcibly erased a memory, but I kept moving. I'll worry about it later once I've escaped.

Outside. I needed to get outside.

One last door. Reinforced. Locked.

I stood still before it. Closed my eyes. Let the Seiryuugan pull chakra from every wire, every node in the room, and press it into my palm. My fingers curled around the energy like it belonged to me.

Then I pushed.

The explosion was contained but precise. The door blew outward in a perfect ring of scorched metal. I stepped into the open air and tasted night for the first time in—

A chill slid down my neck.

I looked at my hand. Longer. Fingers more slender than I remembered. My stride felt older. Stronger. I exhaled. I looked back at the tall building that once caged me. A genjutsu was cast around it to hide it. 

I ran towards the forest with my bare feet, although the pathways were unrecognizable to me. Strange. I have explored Konoha a dozen times before. Instincts kicked in, and I immediately flipped away from the shadow that stretched behind me. Trying to catch my shadow.  

Another masked ANBU attacked me from behind with a katana in hand, and I dropped low, my right leg and left arm outstretched, before I swept him off his balance. Then I flipped and threw a heavy kick aimed at breaking his ribs. I pressed my heel on his wrist as I took his katana as my weapon. 

I didn't remember moving this fast and strong without having to enhance my kicks and fists with chakra. I outstretched my chakra as I probed around me. I stretched the radius to 4 kilometers. Strange. My limit used to be one. The shadow-user behind me ran backwards. I didn't press to kill him. 

Instead, I analyzed my current situation, four ninjas were to my right, fast, approaching. Another four behind me. Two to my left. They want to trap me and make me run north? Clearly a trap.

Still. The city lights were southeast. I jumped from one tree to another, my calves having more strength and power than I remembered that I could flee twice as fast as I did before.

My breath caught in a halt as my eyes widened. I was sure that this wasn't Konoha's direction. I clearly saw the flicker of city lights behind me earlier. 

Ah.

So the city lights earlier was a Genjutsu? 

Meant to catch me off guard. 

I narrowed my eyes at the scene before me.

I stood on the edge of the Hokage Monument, the cold wind tugging at my hair as I looked down at Konoha. The village stretched out beneath me, peaceful and bright, too peaceful. A few streets below, I saw the faint, dark scars I had left behind. I remembered the fire, the smoke curling upward from the buildings I'd burned. Yet somehow, the streets were already rebuilt. New roofs, fresh paint. The scars had vanished, erased as if they never existed.

How? I wondered, eyes narrowing. Then I felt it, a strange barrier rippling beneath the village's surface. It hummed with chakra, unfamiliar yet faintly familiar. My chakra. My gut twisted. Someone had sealed Konoha tighter than ever before. I was wondering where they were taking the chakra they siphoned off my body.

So they were using it to protect the very village I swore to destroy, huh?

Shadows flickered around me like restless ghosts.

"Not bad," I muttered as I turned around to face the ninjas I was running away from earlier.

"Target locked," a shinobi, I don't quite remember, wearing a green flak jacket, muttered below his breath as he touched his earpiece.

The blade on my hands flickered with the reflection from the moonlight as I surged lightning-chakra to feed it. Their chakra signature tensed, and my tongue flicked in annoyance at the Kagemane user who once again tried using the same technique. His form was cloaked with darkness as he stood behind a tree. 

I leapt between the rocky pillars of the monument, weaving and dodging the shadow that split and tried to capture mine as more ANBU and shinobi closed in. Their attacks came fast and relentlessly. My Seiryuugan flared to life, the blue circles glowing in my vision, tracing their chakra threads, disrupting their control.

I tuned off the chakra in my eyes as I flicked before them, katana burning with lightning in hand as I sliced through the air and into their flesh. Cutting and electrically shocking them at the same time. A kick shot up from my right, and I leaned back just in time to avoid it. 

A new presence arrived. A presence I knew so well, and yet I refused to believe if it was truly the boy I knew. After all, the one I was facing was taller and older than that boy. 

"Step back," he ordered the others, and my eyes widened a fraction at the familiar tone. 

His voice was calm and steady, with that cool, quiet intensity. It's smooth but sharp, controlled and deliberate, and it carries an edge of coldness. Just like the boy I knew so well. 

What the hell is going on here?

A tall figure stepped from the darkness, his fox mask gleaming under the moonlight, a katana in hand, moving with deadly grace that matched my own. His blade sang a cold song as it met mine. 

Lightning pulsed through his blade as I frowned at the absurd skill of this man. I threw a kick at his knees, and he parried my attacks easily. I don't remember any ANBU having insane skills like this before. 

The air around us thickened as I condensed the moisture in the air into countless tiny water droplets suspended like glittering jewels between the trees.

A faint shimmer spread, and those droplets began to freeze—crystal-clear, razor-sharp icicles emerging from their liquid shells. They grew rapidly, thin and deadly, each one honed to a sharp tip. I could smell the slight shift in his chakra signature. Panic? Not for him. But for his comrades, perhaps?

He leaped back, and I grinned as I channeled chakra towards my legs as I flickered before him, my blade aimed to slice through his vest, then to his chest. 

With a swift, fluid motion, I formed signs as icicles shot out in every direction, piercing through the ranks of shinobi, ANBU, and ninjas who had closed in on me. A spray of crimson marked the silent forest as the sharp ice skewered armor and flesh alike.

I heard him click his tongue, and I grinned as he headed towards me, lightning erupting from his hand. I heard the familiar sound of a thousand birds. An unknown memory flashed before me, a stinging pain shooting through my head. A flash of silver. and a flash of lightning. 

I leaped back and I leaned backwards as the fox-masked appeared before my eyes. Fast.

"Shit." I hissed as my Seiryuugan flashed golden, three blue circles rotating. My fingers flexed first as I aimed at his chest as well, before lightning covered my hand. His chidori died down as I controlled the flow of chakra to his hand, plummeting it. 

Then, in the brief moment my chidori was about to lock towards him, his fox mask tilted, and the moonlight revealed something I never expected—eyes.

Red. Swirling. Sharingan.

My breath caught.

My arm moved on instinct, aimed to strike—but I hesitated just in time.

Behind the mask, Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise, perhaps as I leaped backwards, creating some distance away from him. 

"Sasuke...huh?" I whispered lowly below my breath. 

The name tasted strange on my tongue.

He lowered his blade just enough to guard, but the tension between us was razor thin.

It seems like years have passed since we were all children together. Now everything made sense. A long time has passed while I was wandering through the Land of the Dead. 

Still. He's grown so much. His movements, once awkward and filled with a desperate need to prove himself, now hold the confidence of a seasoned shinobi. 

A smirk plays on my lips as I sheath the stolen katana and drop into a more casual stance. "It's been a while, Sasuke," I greet him, my voice a low purr that echoes through the night. 

Which means. I glanced behind the tree, and I smiled as I recognized the man using the Kagemane Jutsu. He appeared from the shadows, taller, his hair pulled up like a pineapple, just like I remembered. Just that, an empty sleeve hung loosely where his arm should be. 

"Her Seiryuugan is the problem," I heard Shikamaru whisper as he stood next to Sasuke. 

"I'm aware," Sasuke responded without taking his eyes off me. 

I whistled, catching both of their attention. Now that's character development. Didn't know that those two could actually work together. 

I sighed. "Shika--", I called, and the man's eye twitched at the nickname. "How long was I asleep?" I probed and he narrowed his eyes. 

"You weren't," I raised my eyebrows at his response before I giggled softly at his next words.

Shikamaru's voice cut through the tense air, dry as ever. "You've been mocking everyone who tried to talk to you all this time. Threatening to kill everyone once you escape. Honestly, you're a real pain in the ass."

Asuna did? 

Sounds just like what she would do.

I smirked, folding my arms. "Well, what can I say? People don't listen unless you shout."

Sasuke, standing silently beside Shikamaru, narrowed his eyes but said nothing. Shikamaru, however, rolled his eyes like he was dealing with a stubborn kid.

"Seriously, you act like we're all just waiting around to be your next victims," Shikamaru continued, voice heavy with mock annoyance. "It's exhausting. If you ever get out of here, don't think you'll have a minute's peace."

I laughed—a cold, amused sound that made the night chill a little deeper. "You two really take this seriously, don't you? I'm flattered."

Shikamaru groaned, running a hand through his messy hair. "You're impossible. But yeah, we're serious. Because if you actually do what you say, we're all screwed."

Sasuke, standing rigid beside him, didn't crack a smile. His cold gaze stayed fixed on me, but there was an unmistakable weight to him now, like he was more than just a shinobi. Of course, he wouldn't react. He was all grown up now. An Important Person. Probably had a desk job and everything.

"So," I said, tilting my head, rephrasing my question, "how long exactly was I caged?" I looked from Shikamaru's unimpressed face to Sasuke's silent, unreadable one.

"Three years," Shikamaru said bluntly, folding his arms.

Three years. I blinked, scanning my own reflection in a nearby puddle. Brown hair, gold eyes. The girl staring back was no longer thirteen, not quite sixteen, and yet... I hadn't really noticed.

My eyes scanned Sasuke again, the way he stood tall and silent, shoulders squared, not the boy I remembered sulking in corners. His chakra was different too, denser, grounded. And then there were the eyes. Still sharp. Still painful to look at for reasons I didn't want to unpack.

"You got taller," I said casually, pointing my chin toward him. "Finally hit your growth spurt, huh?"

"You're still insufferable," he replied coolly.

"Aww, I missed you too," I grinned.

Sasuke didn't rise to the bait. Typical. He was always better at emotional constipation than witty banter.

Shikamaru, however, muttered something under his breath about "damn psychopaths flirting mid-battle." I ignored him.

My grin widened. "So? Aren't you going to ask how I got out?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly, like he already knew but didn't want to say it aloud. Shikamaru just sighed like someone already halfway through a migraine.

"I'm afraid to ask," he muttered.  "Knowing you, it's either you sweet-talked the sealing tags, or the seals got so fed up with your personality they just gave up."

"Close," I chirped. "Turns out if you hum the right tune in D minor and wiggle your toes just so, the entire sealing matrix short-circuits. Who knew?"

Sasuke actually blinked. Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You're not serious."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I teased, giving a wink just to see how deep I could dig the vein in his forehead. "Come on, Shika. You of all people should've known better than to wrap a Ryuugaime in a bunch of seals and expect her to stay put. I'm not some caged canary."

"You were," Shikamaru shot back. "For three years, you were so bound up with seals you couldn't even wiggle a finger without tripping a hundred alarms. Don't act like you Houdini'd your way out of that on the first try."

I stretched, arms over my head, deliberately casual. "What can I say? I'm a fast learner."

You weren't supposed to know, but of course, it hadn't been me in that cage. Not really. That thing—she—was the one shackled with seals wrapped like paper around a kunai. I remember the feel of the seals only vaguely, like a bad dream someone else had and I woke up feeling sore for no reason.

And apparently Asuna had been charming. Mocking, murderous, a true people person.

"I'll have you know I'm very charming," I said, tossing my hair dramatically. "Besides, maybe I just made friends with the paper tags. We played cards. Very cooperative once you get to know them."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes hard enough to injure something. "Right. And the chakra-dampening array just packed up and walked out, too?"

"Maybe it wanted a vacation," I shrugged.

"Or maybe someone helped you." His voice was suddenly sharp beneath the dry sarcasm.

Oof. Okay. Not the time for jokes. I straightened, my smirk fading a little. "Well. I helped myself."

Shikamaru's expression darkened. "You think this is a game?"

"No." I stepped forward, closing the distance between us with the casual grace of someone who definitely knew it looked like a threat.

"I think I've been locked in a glorified broom closet for three years while you all played politics, ran diagnostics on my brain, and only dropped by to watch the Inoichi Mind Show. Which I don't even remember, by the way. Rude."

"You tried to kill him," Sasuke said.

"Again, vague memories," I replied, waving a hand. "You'll have to narrow it down."

The silence that followed was thick. Sasuke took one small step forward, hand on his blade again. Shikamaru's shadow shifted, long and sharp across the ground.

Uh oh. The mood's changed.

"I don't know how you got out," Sasuke said quietly, "but you're not walking away from this." 

Ah, there it was. The grown-up voice. The voice that probably now gave missions and signed execution orders. The Uchiha Sasuke, Responsible Adult voice. Weirdly authoritative. Not sexy at all. Nope.

"Aw, come on." I placed a hand over my chest, mock-wounded. "You're telling me after all our history, you're not gonna let me off with a warning? Maybe a probation? No 'Lhexi-chan, don't do murders while on house arrest' clause?"

Shikamaru's jaw clenched. "You're not even supposed to be Lhexi anymore. That's the problem. Your real name is Ryuugaime Asuna."

I tilted my head. "Maybe. Maybe not. Depends who you're asking."

"Cut the crap," Sasuke muttered, already raising his blade.

I whistled low before my eyes narrowed. "And here I thought you were supposed to be the mature one now."

Their chakra flared, and mine pulsed in kind, instinctively responding. 

Shikamaru's shadow stretched like a living thing, reaching out with deliberate slowness, creeping toward me. I froze, eyes locked on the dark tendrils as they wrapped around my ankles. "You're predictable, Shika," I teased, one eyebrow raised.

Sasuke stepped in, silent as a hawk, his Sharingan swirling fiercely. Before I could blink, his hand shot forward, delivering a swift blow to my neck. Darkness rushed in.

But even as my body slumped to the ground, a smirk played on my lips.

Shikamaru's voice was sharp, unamused. "No time for your games, Lhexi. This ends now."

Sasuke's gaze was ice—cold, deadly serious. "We're not letting you slip away again."

Suddenly, my body shimmered, crystallizing in an instant. The ice spread fast, slick, cold, and flawless, turning me into a frozen statue. I tipped over like a graceful sculpture falling in slow motion.

Meanwhile, miles away, my real body was already slipping through the shadows, far from Konoha, leaving behind only the icy trickery.

I could almost hear Shikamaru groaning through the distance. "Damn it...she's got more tricks than a circus."

A/N

Ugh...Im so damn exhausted. Exams are finally over. Grades are uploaded, and I don't wanna open my portal. Just glad that we're already halfway through.