Perfect Timing

Summary: A highly utilitarian girl from our world gets thrust into the midst of the Third Shinobi World War. All she wants to do now is avoid changing the original story.

It's not as easy as it sounds. OC/Reincarnation.

Chapter 17: Confined Doom

It's the end, but also the beginning.

'

It was by sheer luck she'd managed to make it out of Itachi's eyeline in time. A second later, no, even a fraction of a fraction of a second later, and his Tsukuyomi would've finished activating, trapping her in its power. He might start looking for her once her Tomeru was deactivated, so the choice she'd make now would be vital to her survival.

So long as he can't see me, he can't use the Sharingan on me, right? she thought desperately to herself. Is that how it works? Darn it, I wish I'd paid more attention during the series!

She was at her limit. She'd taken almost four minutes to run to the other side of the village, near the exit gate. Soon, she'd need to deactivate her Tomeru, or risk another bout of total body paralysis—and this was quite possibly the worst time for that to happen.

But could she really escape him? Even here, in the midst of a frozen crowd, was she safe? And god, wasn't Obito supposed to be around here somewhere too, now?

Wow, she was really fucked.

It'd just been a few weeks ago that she'd watched him train with Shisui's clone, the look of friendly admiration evident on his face. Had that really been the same boy? Sure, she'd known the massacre was coming, and even if she hadn't expected to witness it in person, it shouldn't have been so harrowing. She'd literally seen all the scenes play out before.

But why had it been so much more terrifying in person?

Of course it would be. You just saw him kill his family.

Reina wanted a moment to catch her breath, to collect her thoughts, anything. But there wasn't time. She had to make a choice.

Try to run from the village to safety? That was risky, as both Itachi and Obito would be leaving sometime soon. If they'd bother to look for her, she'd be isolated and alone. She might even accidentally lead them to Sora-ku, though she had no idea what would happen then.

Would Itachi try to kill his friend? Would Obito make him? Or would something else happen that she couldn't predict?

No, she decided, it's safer to stay in the village.

Safe, of course, was a relative word. She needed to make sure there were other shinobi around her, then, if she were to risk a run-in with the two Uchihas.

Wait. If Obito's here with him, there's probably one person he's trying to avoid. Reina realized. This might be her only chance.

Quickly, she made the journey over to Kakashi's apartment.

'

'

In all honesty, Kakashi wasn't even the most ideal choice. He fights Itachi later on in the series, and falls to his Tsukuyomi quite helplessly.

Still, it was better than nothing.

"You," Kakashi looked startled as Reina deactivated her Tomeru with a grimace. She'd gone a little over her own maximum time limit, the timer on her wrist having appeared in full fora while now. Still, she was able to move all parts of her body like normal, so it seemed she hadn't pushed it too much.

She was righ outside his apartment's window, where she quickly realized he had seals placed around his rooms to fend off intruders, and gestured for him not to deactivate them as he opened the window.

"No, keep them," she said, "just move them to the side for now so I can come in."

She waited a little anxiously for him to do so, before jumping into his room and slamming the window behind her. "Okay, now put them back quick!"

Kakashi stared at her, perplexed, as he obeyed her commands. "What's going on with you?"

Reina wanted to scream it in his face, all her fear, anxiety, and fatigue bubbling up in her throat—but instead, she was somehow able to maintain control of her volume she said, "I just saw Itachi kill his clan."

"...What?"

She fell to the floor on her hands and knees, feeling all the weight of the day's events finally come crashing down. "I'd just broken out of my jail cell when I walked into the street and I saw... I saw him, Kakashi," she blurted out. "he's probably going to leave the village soon. Once he does, we can—"

"Reina, slow down. You're spouting nonsense," Kakashi said, voice surprisingly calm, "and you look like you've been through hell. What happened to your hands? Are you sure you're not just seeing things because of the pain?"

"Kakashi, I'm not talking about some sort of hallucination," Reina's breath hitched, and she tried not to let her haggardness weaken her tone as she spat out, "Itachi killed his clan. I saw him. He had his sword through that long, brown-haired Uchiha's chest. He tried to use the Tsukuyomi on me. I only got out in time because of my Tomeru!"

Now she was getting his attention. Kakashi practically jumped back a foot, eyes wide as saucers. "Are you sure about this?"

"What the hell, what kind of sick joke would it be if I wasn't? Wait, don't leave—"

Kakashi had taken his jacket off a hook near the door, and was heading towards it. "This is serious, Reina. If it's true, I have to go report this to the Hokage, immediately. If we act now, we might be able to catch him before he escapes."

"No, no!" Reina cried, "You can't go out there right now, he's way too powerful, what if you run into him?"

"All the more better. I can take him down in person."

"You can't beat him," Reina was practically screaming now. "you really, actually, can't! Did you hear me?"

"Stay here and treat your hands," Kakashi said, ignoring her words as he gestured to a closet in the hall, "I have medical supplies in there. Don't leave this apartment until I come back, okay?"

"No. Hell no, if you're going out then I'm coming with you,"

"It's not safe."

"Do you really think it'd be safer if I were alone right now?" Reina demanded, "I'm the only witness to his crimes, he might be coming after me as we speak!"

Kakashi paused, something swimming in his one exposed eyes as he thought her statement through. "...True. Then stay very, very, close."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

Reina hadn't been this afraid of the outside world in a long time. Stepping outside the threshold of Kakashi's room, into a world where Itachi might be searching for her in the night; well. Her life had officially become a horror story.

No really, it actually was. Itachi was very capable of literally popping out of nowhere and killing her on the spot. She might not even realize it was happening until it was over. Jump scares weren't as fun when they were actually happening to you.

"I think we should go back to your apartment," Reina muttered as they jumped the rooftops near Kakashi's place towards Hokage Mountain, "this was a bad idea. He might still be here, and we—"

"Look," Kakashi said, glancing down. They had almost gotten to the Hokage's office when Kakashi spotted the green-clad figure. "there's Shikaku."

Reina felt a surge of hope at these words. Yes, if Shikaku joined them, they might have an even better chance at surviving if Itachi attacked them! Surviving, mind you, not winning.

She was being optimistic, not stupid.

"Reina!" Shikaku looked startled as Kakashi and Reina appeared before him. "Aren't you supposed to be in..."

"Let's talk about it somewhere quietly," Kakshi said, glancing around them, "it's not safe her—"

A piercing siren filled the village air. A voice shouted a message that made Reina's shoulders drop in relief.

She, Kakashi, and Shikaku stood there silently as they listened to the announcement coming from the roof of the Hokage's office above them.

They were alerting the village of what Itachi had done. The entire village would now be on the lookout for him.

And surely Itachi and Obito were both long gone now.

It was a horrible moment, forever marking the end of the Uchiha clan as they knew it; but it gave Reina relief.

She was safe.

For now.

'

'

(5 years later)

She'd still get nightmares about that night. Every time she dreamt that scene, she'd recalled each stark detail perfectly.

The smell of death in the air. The image of the bright red of his eyes against the black of the night. Even the sound the man had gasped when he'd slid off the sword.

She later found out his name was Inabi Uchiha; Shisui had been the one to tell her.

Needless to say, he hadn't taken the news of the Massacre well.

"I should've known. I should've known. He would do anything for Sasuke. Anything."

It was the first time she'd ever seen him cry.

And the next week, he was gone.

She knew she should be worried about him, but it brought her comfort. knowing he was probably going to try to stay alive this time.

He had to, seeing as he had a new purpose now. One he'd quietly stated the last time she'd seen him, walking out the door of Grandma Neko's shop in a hooded cloak.

"I'm going to find Itachi."

She tried not to think too much about that.

Since then, however, her reputation in Konoha had swelled, having been the only real shinobi to survive Itachi's attack. As a result, demand for her to take part in missions had greatly grown.

There was one in particular the Hokage was insisting on.

"What? Hell no."

"Reina."

"Oh come on."

"It's really fitting, isn't it? One," the Hokage held up a finger, as if he wasn't speaking to a 21 year old woman. The same age she'd been when she'd died in her last life, ironically.

So technically, he was counting fingers to a 42 year old woman. No wonder Naruto kept calling him an old fart.

He continued, unaware of her internal monologue. "you are familiar with the territory, though it's been some years since you'd lived in Kiri."

"Yeah, over five years. And like you said, I lived in Kiri, not the Land of Waves. I'd only ever passed through there a few times. Next?"

"Two," the Hokage's middle finger sprung up alongside his pointer, "Sasuke Uchiha will be on this mission."

Reina wanted to roll her eyes. She knew where this was going.

"And as someone with the only Kekkei Genkai that's proven it can go up against Itachi's—whose location remains unknown, and who could very well be looking to attack his brother while he's away from the safety our our village—it seems pertinent that you should be there in case."

"So I'm a human meat shield if Itachi comes to slice up his little brother? Hell no! And how many times do I have to tell you people, I'd only managed to get away from there in time out of sheer luck! It definitely won't work twice!"

"And three," the Hokage continued, ignoring her words, "it would be best to have someone nearby with seal prowess, as Naruto Uzumaki will also be attending."

"Oh please, if his Kyuubi chakra acts up, it'll only be a benefit to the mission," Reina snapped. "I doubt it'd get so out of control they couldn't handle him themselves. I'm not some glorified babysitter, Hiruzen, you can't seriously think—"

"Aw, c'mon Reina," a voice spoke from behind her. "don't you think it'll be fun?"

"No," Reina spun around to face Kakashi, "I don't! And didn't you guys already accept the mission already? Why am I suddenly getting pulled into this?"

"Well, you'd just arrived back from your last mission," Hiruzen said, "we didn't realize you'd be coming back so early, and with just enough time to spare before this team had left for their trip. What good luck, isn't it?"

No, it was terrible luck. This was the one mission Reina would've wanted to avoid with all her heart.

The mission to the Land of Waves.

And she had just barely paid off her debt to Zabuza.

She was still fuming as she and Kakashi exited the Hokage's office, taking a leisurely walk down the hall and stairs when they'd usually be shushin'ing out. Her chakra, however, was spent from her last mission, and it looked like she'd need to be conserving it for yet another one just a few days later.

"Why the heck are you so for this, anyways?" Reina asked Kakashi, shooting him a sharp look. "Isn't it annoying that you're going to have to share authority over your team with a chunin? Won't that cramp your style?"

"Mah, I don't care about stuff like that. And this way with both of us there, I get to do less work!"

"You. You're lazy. And rude."

"I'm not rude."

"So you admit you're lazy."

"Well. Maybe." Kakashi said. He then blinked, or perhaps winked, it was impossible to tell with the covered eye. "Anyways, I'm sure it'll be fine. It's just your run-of-the-mill escort mission, nothing to worry about."

He just really had no idea, did he?

'

'

"We'll be having a Chunin joining us on our mission."

Kakashi had announced this to his team in the middle of the Third Training ground, where two of the students had been seated, glaring off into space in a silent rage over their teacher's tardiness. The third had stood a few feet behind them, practicing his kunai throws at the line of trees nearby.

"What? Why?!" Naruto had shouted, jumping to his feet. "Are you trying to say the Hokage doesn't trust us to handle the mission ourselves?! And you're a jounin Kakashi, having you there would be more than enough for just a C-rank—why do we need a lousy chunin too?! "

"Well, she doesn't look like much, but she's still somewhat skilled." Kakashi said. "She studied under one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist for years in Kiri, and passed the chunin exams after taking it without a team, so that's something at least. Since it's your first C-rank, we might want the extra help."

"If she's so great, why haven't we heard of her?" Sakura asked, leaning forward to rest her chin on her fists, a frown forming on her face as well.

"She keeps a low profile. Something you guys could learn a thing or two about." Kakashi said dryly. "And both Naruto and Sasuke have met her by now."

Sasuke scoffed as he walked over from where he'd been practicing, pouching his kunais as he did. "I have? I don't remember anyone like that."

"Well, maybe you'll realize once you see her," Kakashi said, gesturing at the space behind him, "why don't you come out now, Reina?"

On cue, Reina shunshin'd into the field right next to where Kakashi stood, a blank expression on her face as her gaze fell upon the kids.

Sakura looked Reina over with curious eyes.

Reina's pale, if not somewhat sallow features belied a strange, enigmatic presence. Her face was shadowed by the long lengths of inky black hair and sharply cut bangs, under which brown-green eyes peeked through. She held herself almost ambivalently, though her scarred hands spoke to years of combat experience Sakura had yet to see herself or her peers prove themselves through. And though the woman was of well-below-average height, a hard edge of muscle decorated her limbs.

She had been an unexpected addition to their mission, but this was someone with skills the ever-mysterious Kakashi thought highly of; and she even seemed to have the Hokage's seal of approval. Surely that meant some level of great ability was involved. Perhaps this was someone for Sakura to finally look up to—an adult that she could confide in, or perhaps even ask to act as the female mentor Sakura had been secretly searching for.

"Man, one thing I didn't miss was how the Land of Waves always smelled like rotten fish." Reina spoke loudly, picking at her ear as she turned to Kakashi. "You think there'll be a bar on the way there? Maybe I won't notice if I'm wasted."

Sakura's image of an admirable kunoichi mentor was immediately shattered.

"Reina, at least introduce yourself first." Kakashi sighed.

"Oh, right. Well, some of them already know me, right?"

Naruto's jaw dropped. "Wait, seal-lady, is that you?!"

"Oh, fuck you," Reina said, turning back to face the genin. "I've told you my name a million times. What's it going to take for you to actually remember it?"

In truth, she hadn't actually seen Naruto much the last few years; his lessons hadn't exactly shown much promise (traditional schooling methods truly failed the boy's tactile learning style) and she'd been on a slew of missions lately. It wouldn't have been surprising if he'd forgotten her name altogether.

"I know you," Sasuke glared, standing behind where Sakura was seated with his fists balled at his sides. "you used to hang around him."

"Who—Oh. Your brother Itachi, the murderer? Yeah, I did. Used to hang around you too. Do you remember that?"

"I don't," Sasuke replied dryly.

"Come on, you were already like, 6 years old. You totally remember."

"I don't," he repeated.

"What about the time I brought you to collect cat paw prints?"

"No, I—"

"Or the time I made you cry because I tipped over your tomato basket?" Reina sighed, "Itachi didn't let me set foot in the compound for a week after that. In my defense, what kind of kid is that into tomatoes?"

His face, now as red as a tomato too, brought Reina deep satisfaction.

"Well, if you guys are done now, I thought we could have a little training session. Get to know eachother before we head off on the mission together," Kakashi said cheerily, "what do you say, Reina?"

"Hell no. Why am I suddenly getting all this extra work?"

"It won't be much work," Kakashi reminded her, "they're still genin. Surely even three on one, you'd have no trouble?"

It was true. Despite how powerful these three would become, they were still pretty much at the lowest point of their shinobi careers. As a chunin, she really shouldn't be that worried about taking them on. Not yet, at least.

"Fine, I'll wail on some kids," Reina shrugged.

Reina hadn't seen much of Sasuke since the funeral, and even then, she'd only witnessed it from afar.

That funeral had been terrifying, by the way. Mostly because of the large swarm of crows in attendance. Reina had realized a beat too late that they had probably been the summons of the fallen Uchiha. Shisui had said it was their clan's signature, after all.

But it was sweet that they'd all come to gather for their fallen summoners.

The same went for Naruto; she'd been so booked with missions lately she hadn't really seen much of him these past few years. And honestly, he hadn't been able to improve much at seals in that time either. As the Hokage had put it, the boy seemed to 'lack his mother's talents'.

That man could be harsher than you know.

"Alright guys," Reina said, standing in the middle of the field, holding that famous set of bells in her palm, "apparently you guys have already failed at this with Kakashi already, so let's give it another go."

"This'll be a piece of cake, seal-lady!" Naruto grinned, "We already know what to do here—work as a team! And we've already had practice with a jounin!"

"Did you get the bells when you fought him? No? I thought so. So see if you can get them when faced with a mere chunin," Reina teased, gesturing to her green jacket.

"You're on!"

She hated to admit it, but as they all got into position, she couldn't help but admit she was starting to feel a little nervous. These were the biggest future heroes (well, one villain) of Konoha history, after all.

Naruto, with his raw, tailed-beast power. Sasuke, the child prodigy with a thirst for revenge. And Sakura, one of the brightest shinobi to ever grace their lands?

Even as a chunin, she knew she'd be meeting her match here with the three genin.

...Or so she thought.

Really, it did surprise her just how badly they were doing.

"What—is—happening?!" Naruto cried, watching as his one of his shadow clones was taken down by yet another one of Reina's.

He'd coordinated his attacks with the rest of his team, as the group seemed to have learned their lesson since their bell test with Kakashi—well, most of them, anyways.

She'd almost forgotten that at this point in the series, Team 7 was still so, so inexperienced; especially compared to herself. Though years later they'd each make their own meteoric rises in strength and ability, for now they were still 12 years olds whose only experience as shinobi only came from books and schoolyard-level rumbles.

Take just now, for example. It'd only taken two minute for Reina to lead the team to the nearby river, a move the team had failed to resist, instead following her to her destination easily. Naruto had brought out his signature shadow clones, not realizing Reina was now able to summon her own water clones now that they were near the river. In fact, by his reaction, it seemed like this was the first time he'd even seen or heard of a water-clone jutsu.

Well, in his defense that was more of a Kiri thing anyways.

Sakura had then used the opportunity to try and distract Reina with a genjutsu—which was strange, because though her chakra control meant Sakura would (similarly to Reina) have a natural affinity for genjutsu, Reina hadn't remembered her using it in practice much in the series, much less against chunin-level shinobi. Reina had dispersed it easily, only to roll her eyes when Sakura attempted yet another one of them moments later. What did she think would happen if she tried it a second time?

Now, from the corner of her eye she could see Sasuke, who had evidently grown impatient watching their team's strategy fail, sidestep his post before running straight towards her water clones, even as they were being handled by Naruto's own look-alikes.

"Wait, you bastard! What about the plan?!" Naruto screeched, watching Sasuke burst into the swarm of clones, before throwing up a series of hand seals.

How long had it been since Kakashi's bell test with them? A month? Yet here the Uchiha was, doing the loner move again. It was an evidently emotional strategy for a shinobi to be employing, enough to make her wonder what'd spurned him on this time. Was it her association with his brother that angered him? Did her presence surface bad memories?

How she missed being able to hear everyone's inner monologues like she could in the show. Surely knowing what was running through Sasuke's mind would help clear this up immensely.

She could see his frustration, however. It was an imbalanced fight. They'd tried compensating for Sakura's current ineptitude at offense by having her utilize her talents in genjutsu; something that would never work against Reina, who had far more experience with that particular shinobi art. Of course, these kids shouldn't have known that.

Still, in reality, Sakura should've been in charge of all the sneak attacks while Naruto distracted her with his shadow clones. Then, while she was busy with them, there would've been a clear opening for Sasuke to go for Reina's throat.

They were trying to play each other's strengths now, which was a good sign, but they needed to adapt their strategy to their enemy's strengths as well.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

"Oh okay," she mumbled, taking a step to the side, and not a moment too soon.

The giant fireball had missed her, but instead the damage had been taken head-on by her water clones. She felt as they dissipated under the blazing force of Sasuke's kind-of-gross mouth-jutsu. Two of Naruto's own clones fell into the water at the same time, having been mid-fight with hers, and therefore scorched into near oblivion as well; unfortunate collateral damage.

"Good job, Sasuke! You're amazing!" Sakura cheered, running up to the group.

Reina frowned, wishing the girl would lust quieter. Maybe that was why they hadn't chosen to have Sakura play the stealth role.

"What the hell, Sasuke?!" Naruto fumed, sidling up to his teammate, his pants soaking wet from where his fallen clones had splashed him after their hard fall into the river. "A little warning would've been nice, next time! What happened to all that teamwork we were talking about?!"

"Your clones were losing!" Sasuke snapped, "When Plan A doesn't work, you go to Plan B!"

"But why does Plan B involve you frying my clones into a crisp!"

"If you were any better, you would've moved away in time!"

"I can't move all my clones at once that fast! Do you know how big that fire was?! It was the size of—"

"Nice try guys," Reina said suddenly, before slamming her foot down into the cracked earth, and down into the soil beneath that. She grit her teeth as she did; that was her bad ankle, so that'd probably not been the best choice. Still, she wanted to make her point. And it looked cool.

A yelped cry rang out from underneath her foot, before the soil gave way and revealed Naruto's face, sporting a large purple bruise from where Reina's foot had landed.

"Crap!" Naruto cried as his shadow clone poof'd away. "How'd you know?!"

In truth it wasn't the worst tactic to attack from underneath, but unfortunately for him, she'd remembered him already using that move on Kakashi in their initial bell test. Once she'd felt the slight shift in the soil under her feet, she'd immediately known what was happening.

What was interesting was how they'd tried to distract her from the attack with their bickering. It'd impressed her, just a little, that they'd at least had the self-awareness to know how much attention their petulant bantering could gather.

She had just opened her mouth to answer Naruto's question when she felt the sudden pull of another attempted genjutsu coming at her. She frowned as her head whipped to face Sakura standing a few feet away, whose hand seals were up. Reina dispelled it yet again with a sight, noticing how Naruto and Sasuke were gearing up for another attack. It'd again, been their attempt to deflect attention by having Sakura use genjutsu. They still weren't learning.

With great speed, she turned and sic'ed her own genjutsu on the pink-haired girl; she didn't want to go too intense, but she did want to debilitate the girl. It was way too easy to dispel her genjutsu attempts, so she needed to send the message to the team that this method really wasn't working.

I'll just give her something related to Sasuke and Ino dating or something, Reina thought, easily working her magic on Sakura, the girl's eyes blanking within seconds of her genjutsu's activation.

Well, that'll keep her busy.

She watched as Sakura fell to a heap on the floor, Naruto rushing to her side almost immediately. Ironically, Sasuke was the one to ignore Sakura's comatose state, and instead continued speeding towards her.

He was much faster than most his age, but still nothing compared to Shisui. Thankfully she's already learnt what the best of the best looked like when it'd come to speed—and after all her unwanted training sessions with Gai as well, she was no longer a slouch herself when it came down to it. She was faster than Sasuke, at least at this moment, and felt confident in that fact as she shushin'd several feet up to where Sasuke was still mid-run. She stopped and held her arm out, ramrod straight.

Reina watched with a smile as Sasuke ran into her arm neck-first.

The choking sound echoed through the forest as the young Uchiha fell onto his back, clutching his throat.

The glare he'd sent her as he went down was seething. He didn't seem to appreciate being clotheslined in front of his entire team.

"HAHA!" Naruto scream-laughed.

That was it. That was the most satisfying moment she had ever, ever, experienced; in this life and last.

This might not be so bad after all.

'

'

They never did get the bell from her, which at the beginning of that day, would've made for the biggest surprise of Reina's career. It was hard to believe progress these three would make in a short few years would be that astounding; in fact, it made Reina feel a little bit bad about her own Slow Loris pace.

Shikaku only solidified that insecurity the next morning at breakfast. Not before a very unwelcome wake-up call, however.

Reina'd just gotten back from yet another training session with Team 7 until late the night before, so she'd chosen to let herself sleep in today, on her day off.

As a result, it was upsetting when the relaxing effects of a good night's sleep vanished into thin air as she woke up to the face of a young boy hovering only inches above her own.

A moment later, he had a kunai to his throat.

"AUGHH!" Shikamaru yelped, backing away so quickly he fell on his rear.

"What? What?" Shikaku shouted, slamming the door to the room open. "What happened?"

"Your son happened!" Reina snapped. "What's he doing, creeping on me this early in the morning?!"

"I was trying to wake her for breakfast like you asked," Shikamaru said, raising his hands in defense, "but I kept calling and she didn't move, so I was checking to make sure she wasn't dead."

Reina glared as Shikamaru retreated with his hands still up in the air; his untrusting gaze never left the kunai in her hold until he was well out of sight.

"That's definitely your kid," she said dryly, only hearing Shikaku's light chuckle from behind her as they followed Shikamaru's path down the stairs, "how can someone be so lazy that their idea of checking up on a dead person is just to look at them?"

"Haha. Very funny. Well, you and Yoshino agree there," Shikaku sighed as they made their way through the living room to the breakfast table, where Shikamaru had already started setting their plates. "once she comes back from her trip this week, she's going to spend hours complaining how cluttered we've let this place get without her. How troublesome."

"Speaking of kids, you know, I've noticed a lot seemed to be born right after the war. And Danzo once mentioned there'd be an influx of genin soon..."

"Well, villages always have a lot of kids right after a war ends."

"Why's that?" Reina joked, "Need to replenish the workforce?"

"Yeah."

"...Oh."

"And," Shikaku continued, scooping out rice into their bowls as Shikamaru took his seat across from them, "after so much violence and loss, we look towards the children to give us hope for the future. At the end of the day, we need them just as much as they need us."

Reina fell silent, staring at the braised fish laid out in front of her. "That was surprisingly corny. I'm not sure I can stomach this now."

"Same," Shikamaru said before digging into his own meal.

"Haha," Shikaku rolled his eyes now, "anyways, you're awfully humorous this morning Reina. Anything new going on? How're all the missions going? It seems like you've been going on a lot lately."

"Terribly."

"Ah. Well, that's too bad."

"Thanks. Really helpful."

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Weren't you a prodigy growing up?" Shikaku asked, shaking his head. "At the rate you used to be going, you'd be jounin by now."

True, she had breezed through the Academy thanks to her advantage as a reincarnation, but that advantage had mostly fizzled out in usefulness when it came to honing her shinobi skills. Now, it was more about the effort she'd put in, as well as the natural talent she didn't have; making the idea of being a jonin laughable.

"That's kind of crappy, trying to make me feel bad for not succeeding at the rate you'd expect from seeing my childhood success," Reina frowned. "you know, some kids seem really smart growing up, and end up just being normal."

"Yes," Shikaku confirmed, "that's definitely what happened with you."

"HEY." she huffed, "Well, I'll have you know, I am living up to my potential in a way. The Hokage himself requested me to join in on a C-rank mission with Team 7 to the Land of Waves just the other day."

"Oh, going back suspiciously close to Kiri, are we?"

"Uh, the Land of Waves isn't that much closer to Kiri as it is to Konoha. You'd have to take an entire boat to get to either from there."

"Didn't you say yourself you didn't want to go anywhere near Kiri for a while? I believe you mentioned not wanting to run into that swordsman you traveled with ever again."

"Uh," Reina took a big gulp from her cup of soup before she said, "I mean, yeah... I probably did say that..."

"Whatever, it's your funeral," Shikaku sighed, "if you die for real this time, I'm not drawing up the paperwork."

"Wha—" she started to protest, but was suddenly interrupted by Shikamaru, who'd been silent for most of this exchange.

"Wait, you're going with Team 7?" Shikamaru blinked, chopsticks raised midair, "Naruto's team?"

"Yeah, why?" Reina blinked. She'd remembered that Shikamaru wasn't one of the kids wary of Naruto thanks to his Kyuubi status, so the interest in the blonde seemed unfounded.

"S-seriously?" Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly as his chopsticks lowered, "That idiot gets to go on the first C-rank of our year?!"

"Whoa, is this a Nara being competitive?" Reina gasped, "Wow, I think I've seen everything."

"I mean, the D-ranks are such a drag themselves," Shikamaru groaned, leaning back in his chair, "at least a C-rank wouldn't have you dealing with those dumb cats all day."

"Don't let Nora hear you saying that."

"Do you think they're ready?" Shikamaru asked, surprising Reina. "To take on a C-rank? Even with you and Kakashi there, it's still really soon. I doubt they get along too well either, even if they're on the same team now."

"...Honestly, no," Reina said slowly, "I don't think they are."

"Oh?" Shikaku raised a brow, "You don't?"

"No. Not yet," Reina said thoughtfully, "but I was always bigger on books than experiences when I was younger. It took going on real missions and seeing real action to understand what I'd be up against. I think this'l be a good experience for them, if anything. But they are having a lot of trouble working as a team, so..."

She hadn't thought to worry about it too much, honestly. She knew from the series that, as long as her presence hadn't changed anything, everyone would make it out of this mission alive.

Well, almost everyone.

Reina wouldn't sleep nearly as well tonight, now that she'd remembered the fate that awaited Zabuza and Haku at the end of this trip.

It'd been years since she'd seen them, though she'd heard of their botched attempt to take down Yagura through the newly formed intelligence network she was gathering information from (which mostly consisted of talking to a lot of drunk, traveling shinobi in bars). She'd remembered that coup having been mentioned in the series, a sign that things were going as they were meant to for that pair, despite her interference; but that only meant death was still awaiting those two at the end of the road.

It was times like this she would think to herself, what was she going to do? Was she going to keep standing by, as she'd always done? Or now that she'd helped Shisui survive his own death, was it time to start preventing all the other ones too?

Saving Shisui had been an almost accidental, unintentional incident. At least that's what she'd kept telling herself. And at the end of the day was it worth the risks, to pile more interference on top of that?

She'd been watching carefully and so far, not much had seemed to change since she'd saved the Uchiha; no unforeseen butterfly effects, no big changes in the story, nothing. But was possible that adding one more rock to the pile would be what finally tipped it over.

"...I guess we'll just have to see."

And with that, a few weeks later she and Team 7 set out for the Land of Waves.

'

'

A/N:

Arc 3 is heeere! We maaade it! Just to clarify, each 'Arc' starts after each major time skip (For example, Arc 2 started after that first 7-year time skip, if you guys remember. Which I definitely don't expect you to).

Basically:

- Arc 1 was Chapters 1-10

- Arc 2 was Chapters 11-19 (19 being this one)

- Arc 3 started this chapter (19) once we had that 5 year time skip. It was kind of weird for this arc because it started mid-chapter, but it just ended up that way with how the story was paced.

I'll probably have to name these arcs later as we go on, but for now, we're sticking with the number system.

Also, note on upcoming hiatus:

I miiiiight have to take a short break for a few months to finish planning out this next arc, since unlike the other stories I've been planning out, this one requires the most research. I'm at the point now where I'm looking up clips from the series to write almost every scene, which I don't really have time or patience for anymore l o l. While I was really excited to get us to this point and finally start writing stuff related to the main series, I'm a little burnt out on all that right now. Still, I am super fond of this story, and will try my best to push on and make sure PT gets the ending it deserves! Juuust after a little reprieve.

Alas, here we are, finally at the main series! Thanks guys, for being such awesome readers; hope you're looking forward to the next update!