"Possibly somewhat different, but the general idea is similar, I expect, yes."

"I need to save the world, right? Being a demon host would probably impede that significantly."

"I'm not an expert on this world, so I wouldn't be able to say for sure. Not usually my field."

"Fair enough." She looks through the options again... and picks fate entanglement and fated enemies. "That sounds ominous enough that it could be related to the whole apocalypse thing."

"There could be a variety of things, but given the timing, that does seem likely, yes."

Juliet nods and hands him back the form.

"With two points to spare."

"Good. That'll be usable next life. Building up a buffer is quite useful."

He reads through her forms, nods, says, "All checks out. You should experience the transition momentarily."

"Thank you. Do you have any advice?"

"Don't take the world at face value," he says. "And try to build up your karmic balance."

"Hopefully with my memories intact, it'll be easier. Thank you again."

"You're quite welcome."

And the world sort of goes dark and fuzzy and warm.

-- it's terrifying, but also exciting and nice and comforting. She embraces it.

Meanwhile, outside the Inuzuka clan head's house - and the location of the newest clan member's birth - 

A large but unnaturally quiet wolf ghosts past the wards, past the sentinel dogs - one older dog whines, and strikes up agitation and a baying goes up -

The wolf avoids any people, though. (She doesn't really feel like being harassed while making that deadbeat take care of his brat.)

A tiny, newborn wolf-dog pup is settled on the clan head's front stoop, a note left in scent (it's me and I'm annoyed), and a shinobi finally lays eyes on her - 

She looks up, grins, and vanishes.

-- it's not long before her nice, comforting warmth is interrupted. No, completely taken away from her.

It's violent and shocking and really really awful. She finds she can't think properly. Everything is so much.

The midwife cleans her and hands her off to her mom soon enough, who wraps her chakra around her baby in a soothing blanket, crooning a lullaby and resolutely ignoring the people outside shouting about a wolf god.

She still has no idea what's going on, but something -- someone? -- is holding her and making it better and that's really all that matters right now.

She's never had a mother before, a distant thought.

Her new mom certainly doesn't seem inclined to let her go - the embrace is loving, but not soft, fang and claw turned outwards.

(The lullaby is similar, listing things a mother dog fights and kills to protect her litter, going all the way up to the great gods themselves, teeth bared against a hostile world.)

-- comforting. It calls to something primal within her, something that never truly goes away. It's different now, new but still familiar.

She cries now. Even more overwhelmed. But happy.

The clan does eventually calm down, and people begin coming in to talk to Tsume while she rocks her baby. A tiny Kiba toddles in, hand held by his sister Hana, to stare at the baby.

(Tsume decides to keep and raise the wolf-dog. It smells like one of them, probably a child of a less careful nin-dog, and it feels fitting, to raise the pup alongside her own daughter.)

She can feel -- sense -- others nearby. It's hard to move, and she doesn't particularly want to, but she tries to pay attention anyway. Reach out to them.

Tsume makes a delighted sound and reaches back.

!!!!

Her limbs are so heavy, never having supported her own weight before. She tries to hold tight and --

sleepy.

Her mom croons her to sleep.

She goes easily. Filled with strange, new feelings and emotions.

She can't wait to live this life.

Her mom carries the new human pup with her everywhere, and when the wolf-dog pup starts tumbling after them she laughs and carries that pup along, too.

She's off from missions while on maternity leave, so the pups can have the experience of being hauled to clan meetings and councils - they're a bit of a pain but the look on everyone's face at having to deal with her is worth it - and training. She considers getting a genin team, and chuckles at the thought of training them with a baby on her back.

Sounds fun, and it'll effectively extend her leave, so she signs up for the next graduation.

Kiba's getting too big to think being carried everywhere by his mom's neat. He instead runs about with the pups his age, toddling in and out of trouble at quite impressive speeds.

She talks to the pups, too, nearly constantly, and her nin-dog Kuromaru teaches both the dog tongue.

She notices gradually that the wolf-dog pup seems to have slowed down on aging after leaving 'entirely helpless', shrugs, figures who even knows with nin-dogs and nin-wolves-who-might-be-gods.

Tsume also turns over names in her head, eager for her baby's first word - when the pup will be officially brought into the clan, and granted a human name.