A little choked laugh, then, the idea settling - contentedly, actually, around her - "I think when they pass here it'll be... We'll have other stuff to say? But. I hope that'll be far enough I've gotten a sense of what the Pure Land's like... If we can talk there, I'd - like to tell them. And if we can't, I'll tell them before we cross, I guess."

"A solid plan."

Small smile.

"...I died for them."

Solemn nod. "I figured you had."

"What happened?"

She's quiet for a moment, then: "Our city was being invaded. The leader of our enemies, Orochimaru, figured out a technique that can bring back the dead as immortal, tireless monsters under his control. He brought back the two most powerful figures in our history."

"There's some - family drama with this. I'm from the Uchiha clan. I'd been the last loyal member. My older sister killed the rest of our family except me and my brother, then my brother defected, and he defected to Orochimaru. He was helping with the invasion."

"The Uchiha have a really powerful bloodline. The basic version is... Really good? But not the most amazing thing out there. It speeds up your processing, gives you perfect memory, and lets you copy most techniques. But there's a more advanced version that you can only get from - "

"Jakkou - my sister - said the trigger was murdering your most precious person. She killed her best friend."

"Jakuan - my brother - didn't have it. Not yet. And - it's a really big clan secret, but I think Orochimaru knew about it, and that he wanted Jakuan to develop it. And... I think he was just going to force Jakuan to kill me. I'm the youngest and weakest of my siblings, and I'm not - useful, like they are."

"I figured out really early in the invasion that all of Orochimaru's forces had orders not to kill me, even by negligence or accident. To capture me, if they could, but with a really, really big emphasis on not letting me die. That included the undead, and the orders on them were absolute and overrode other stuff. And Jakuan was in the fight, too, and - if he didn't care if I died, forcing him to kill me wouldn't work."

"...Ah."

"The most powerful people on our side went to keep the undead away from the city. I think - we'd lost, by the time I'd died. It was just a question of how well we could evacuate. No one had a way to permanently put down the undead."

"But we could slow them down, and... In a big fight like that, it's really, really easy for someone my level to get killed, and the people on our side figured out what I was doing. And then Jakuan was pulled into the fight to protect me, but - he's dumb and emotional and he isn't a huge threat against people that level when he's upset, so that was keeping him out of the city, too."

"I yelled at Jakuan a lot. That Orochimaru was manipulating him, and that my death was gonna be Jakuan's fault for giving his loyalty to Orochimaru. I told him I wished he was dead. I'm... Hoping my death took Jakuan out of the fight, maybe distracted him long enough our side could kill him, or turned him against Orochimaru."

There's something painful in her chest.

Squeeze.

"You're one of the bravest people I've ever known. I'm honored to have met you," he says, voice both gentle and intensely sincere. "And... I don't think your death was in vain."

"Another blurry future?"

...She doesn't know how to process the bravery part.

"That, but also - logic and faith."

"Better than desperation, I guess."

Squeeze.

Then, musingly: "You know, you feel like a mirror to me in the Force? And - your story sounds familiar, in some ways, though... Sadder."

She glances over at him.

"...A mirror's a good way to say it, yeah."

"My siblings are named Jacen and Jaina. They're both older than me, twins. Jacen's - a real jerk. Angry, prone to grandiose ideas, unforgiving. There's a possible future - less possible now, I think - where he turns against all of us. My grandmother's wife sort of dragged him back to being less dumb. Jaina though... She's cold. It's harder to say what she's for or against, and... Just about everyone likes her. She's a good bureaucrat, and she strikes most people as a moral pillar. I wouldn't - be entirely surprised, though, if she murdered even people she loved to some end or another. I don't think it's likely, but... I don't think anyone else sees that shard in her? Not really."

"...Yeah."

"My mom, Leia, is the leader of the New Republic. She's important and ambitious and wants the best world for everyone, and she's stubborn in seeing that done. She doesn't like being told she's wrong. My dad, Han, is a bit more care free, or he acts that way at least. Also doesn't like being told he's wrong. Both of them flip between avoidant and insistent when something's wrong, but in different patterns, that either balance each other out or collide in sparks."

"My mom's brother, Luke, is an important Jedi Master. He wanders a lot, especially looking into history, and taking students sometimes. He's wise, though he says he doesn't always feel like it."

"And - I'm named for my grandmother, Anakin. She'd done terrible things, and... I don't really know why mom named me after her. Their relationship's still rocky."

"She's worked since before I was born to make up for what she's done, and... She's complicated, I guess? She's got a lot of trauma and a lot of wisdom all tied together."

It's apparent, suddenly, somewhere in his face - Anakin isn't, actually, that much older than Tobi. He's probably still in his late teens, even.

"...I was named for my grandfather, Tobirama. He's - one of the undead. He'd been a... Not loved, but solidly trustworthy leader? But my clan had a really unpleasant view of him, and... Yeah. 'Rocky' describes mom's relationship with him, I think. His clan and ours had been enemies before founding the village, and - a lot of people thought he never got over being our enemy. My uncle really loved him, but... My uncle's stories were about the only positive thing I ever heard about him from - family, and not a history book."

Nod.

"This world contains strange things indeed," he says, musingly.

Small smile. "Yeah."

"I'm glad it's been - less terrible for you. Or at least terrible in different ways."

Hum. "I'd say less terrible, yeah, on pretty much every count."

Snort. "Well, this is the worst first place ever."

He shoulder bumps her. "I bet."

"I don't know the way to the Pure Land, but... I know the way back to my body. You wouldn't have a body, probably, but - ghosts are a thing, sometimes, and my grandmother's wife has mentioned in passing before having spoken to some. My uncle definitely has."

She...

Doesn't know.

"...I don't want to be alone," she says, staring across the river. "But I don't want to be gone when my friends pass."

"Well, hopefully you could come back, but..."

"It'd be a risk, yeah."

...It hurts.

The possibility of - somewhere that isn't this empty riverbank. The possibility of never seeing her friends again. The possibility of never seeing anyone again - if she stays or goes. Something could go wrong.

But... She has a sense, in the ill-defined way she sometimes does, that the way leaving with Anakin would go wrong would look like not existing, or like not being able to come back. That she won't be trapped, alone in the universe.

She - doesn't have a sense, one way or another, if she even ever could meet her friends, here. If anyone's going to come to lead her to the Pure Land. Just empty hopes.