It was one long, strange scream of pain as Mystique's absorbed mutation saw Rogue cycling through every other person – mutant and normal human both – that she'd ever absorbed as Charles helped her to eliminate them all from her psyche. The first one was Cody, the footballer she'd touched when her powers had first reared up. Then Kurt, Pietro, Ororo, Scott, Freddie, Mystique and her fake face Risty, Kitty, Sabertooth, Lance, Webber Torgue – the boy who called himself 'Arcade' – was cycled through as well. After him came Jamie, then Magneto, Jean, Todd, Hank, and finally Cane, the Juggernaut, before Rogue was finally herself again.

With a last cry and a weakly gasped breath, she fell forward into Logan where he was knelt in front of her. Out cold – and considering the strain she'd been through that evening, he didn't for a second blame or begrudge the girl.

"Augh!" Charles grunted out in his own, pained yelp as he removed his mind from Rogue's.

"She's... gonna be okay, right Charles?" Logan asked as he scooped the girl up in his arms.

The wheelchair-bound psychic didn't answer fast enough, but he did sag in his chair.

"Charles?" Logan pressed.

"I... I don't know yet," the professor admitted with a sad shake of his head, himself exhausted by the strain of eliminating all those personalities from the girl's mind.

Logan stiffened at the unsatisfactory answer – but in fear for the girl in his arms, rather than in anger at the other man – and held her just a little closer as the team moved in around them. Before he could turn to take her to the van though, her eyes popped open and she screamed again.

There was a great tearing sound, and a feeling all up and down his arms that reminded him unpleasantly of any and every time he'd ever spent in a lab. There was an additional sensation of falling, but Logan was joining Rogue in the realms of 'out cold' with disturbing alactricty. He just barely felt them both (because he was still holding onto the girl) land on something firm, moving... and furred.

~oOo~

Logan came to when a shaft of light lanced arcoss his face and into his eyes, and woke himself up with a grunt. The memory of Charles not being able to confirm if Rogue would be alright was what really jump-kicked him though, and he sat bolt-upright, eyes slamming open to look for the girl – only to find that she was still held in his arms.

"I'm not gonna lie to ya kid," he said softly as he pulled her limp form closer to his chest, and wrapped up one of her petite, gloved hands in one of his own. "Getting over this ain't gonna be easy. Something about betrayal. It sticks with you, but trust me, you learn to deal with it. You move on, and you let your real friends be there for you."

That little hand he was holding squeezed back, much to his surprise, but Logan couldn't help smiling (just a little) when he looked up to see Rogue awake.

"Thanks Logan," she said softly, and there was a tiny smile tugging at her lips as well, even as tears ran down her face at the same time.

"Forgive my intrusion," a feminine voice said.

It came from a few feet away, and both mutants looked over – Rogue carefully, as she was still very weak, and Logan sharply, protectively – to see a woman with deeply red hair. Not red like Jean's, or auburn like Rogue's, but a more rose-like pinkish-red that had been done into two buns on either side of her head. Two buns that each had a scribbled-on paper talisman hanging from them. She also had dark eyes, a purple spot in the middle of her forehead, and wore an off-white robe that vaguely resembled a kimono.

"My name is Mito, formerly of the Uzumaki clan, now wed into the Senju," the young woman introduced herself. She couldn't have been a day over twenty. "My husband, Senju Hashirama, said that he had captured a demon in this wooden prison? I came to seal it away..."

"I'm Logan, this is Rogue," Logan told her. "Not seen anybody else, but then, we only just woke up after falling and landing here."

Given that Rogue's arm was uncovered though, and the way she was holding it and her head, he had a good guess of where the 'demon' this woman was looking for had gone. A questioning glance at Rogue, with a pointed look at her arm, and she nodded slightly in confirmation – then winced at the motion and cradled her head again.

"Mito?" another voice called, this one masculine. The owner of the voice joined them soon after his voice reached them. "Mito, is it done?"

"The Kyuubi is not here," Mito answered with a gesture to Logan and Rogue. "Hashirama, this is Logue-san and Rogue-san. They... they say that they fell and landed here, and that they did not see the Kyuubi."

The man had long black hair and wore russet-red armour over blue clothing, and he blinked at the woman in confusion at her statement a moment before he turned his attention to Logan and Rogue.

"Well... welcome," he offered, the tone indicating that he had clearly, just that moment, decided that he would welcome them – and yet he did not question if he should or not – but was also extremely confused as to what had happened. "You are welcome to make Konohagakure your home, if you have no other," he offered as well.

"We got one," Logan assured the man, even as he scented the air. "Not sure we're ever gonna be gettin' back to it though," he admitted.

Rogue shook her head (slowly, her head was still pounding) in agreement.

'Weird' was part and parcel of things for the X-Men. From the moment a mutation manifested, 'normal' went right out the window. Still, finding themselves in a completely different world was... well, destabilising. They were going to have to learn the rules of the way the world worked almost completely from scratch again.

~The End~