He flares a piece of Susano'o between them, a single ethereal bone, to buy him enough time to fling himself out of her way - and he creates a shield of fire between himself and Jakkou -

She takes advantage anyways, flash rifts tearing through the fabric of reality to make a path -

For her to retreat. She hates melee.

Crows of fire pour out from under her cloak, winging for both her siblings - mostly Jakuan - and they explode into sharpnel when disrupted -

Tobi twists - and uses Hiraishin again, flitting between the crows to disrupt enough these won't kill Jakuan, filling the space between the twins with fiery death, and then reorienting and zipping for Jakkou.

Her little sister is very, very annoying.

Jakkou gestures, ripping enormous rifts around Tobi, blindingly bright and deep enough to cut through the edges of their universe, distorting time and space and disrupting the flow of chakra around them.

The rifts start to close on their own, of course, but not nearly as fast as her normal ones.

Hiraishin is a time-space ninjutsu, so - yeah, that fucks with it. But unlike her siblings, Tobi can feed data from her sensory powers through her sharingan and predict more than just the flux and flow of yang chakra.

Getting out of here without getting torn apart should still be nearly impossible.  Jakkou's gotten a pretty good measure of her Hiraishin, apparently. But Tobi's a seal master, and -

She's known Jakkou can open rifts for a while.

Dimensional stabilization seals flare at her fingertips, slashing at the rifts' edges, tracing along the exactly correct threads, weaving a path as her Hiraishin flares throughout her body -

She hadn't known Jakkou could cut all the way through the edge of the universe. She's compensating a little -

She realizes she's not compensating enough, not for what's on the other side, an entire two seconds before the rifts twist and try to close in a chaotic scramble, several inverting -

It's enough warning to make that scramble non-fatal. It's not enough to stop it.

One of the inverted rifts spits out a man -

A very, very familiar one. He lands on his feet, draws a metal tube that hums with power from his belt as he falls -

The second visitor to emerge is, perhaps, less familiar.

She makes up for this by being generally angrier and more powerful.

The third is between them in terms of both anger and power - the same sort of less familiar as the second -

She gets her own lightsaber in her hand and steps into a better defensive formation with her wife and grandson as she tries to figure out what the fuck is going on. 

She doesn't let her shock throw her off balance. She can't afford to.

But Tobi isn't really on the offensive here, and she needs information - and she'd never expected the man she saw in the Pure Land, the kind one who offered her another life - to come here.

She hasn't met the other two, but - if Anakin was the mirror of her across worlds - she can tell whose mirrors they are. 

And that means - probably they're on her side here. She hopes. (She's pretty sure Jakkou doesn't actually really care if Tobi dies, though she's not exactly aiming for her little sister; Jakuan's being more protective, but - this is a dangerous fight.)

Jakuan's shock does throw him off, though only a little. He gets a tiny bit of distance, Susano'o hovering at the edge of his mind, and stares at the newcomers warily.

(His heart's increasingly not in this fight. He doesn't want to go blind, but... He can't stand to see Tobi killed again, and seeing his little sister throw herself into a fight like this - )

(He wants to scream.)

That's never happened before. She doesn't want to show weakness - she backs off, her techniques work best with distance and her dear little sister makes that very hard - she needs information, and no one else looks like they have 'a fight to the death' at the forefront of their minds.

Her chakra shifts subtly. (Hiding techniques from her sister is... Very annoying, but she's been learning to do it over this fight.) And she asks, at the same moment - "Who are you?"

"Stand down first, children, then we will speak. I have no patience for this... sibling rivalry."

He takes a small step back.

"...I won't restart the fight. I'm not lowering my shields." He's keeping his attention pretty firmly on Jakkou.

She doesn't say anything, but doesn't seem about to imminently attack.

"Jakkou. Acknowledge that you heard me."

She inclines her head. "I heard you," she says, voice soft and even. "Though it is rude not to answer my question. Who are you?"

"I am Occlus. This is Ani, and Anakin. Tobirama- hello, by the way, it is good to meet you- is an alternate universe version of him, and you two," she points to Jakkou and Jakuan, "are the same of his brother and sister. Now. I know the three of you I am familiar with have been taught better than to be attempting to kill each other in such a fashion. Are you also capable of meeting that very low standard while in my presence?"

"It's good to meet you, too," she says, turning her gaze slightly toward the newcomers.

"I'm not trying to kill Tobi."

"I can keep to any truce terms."

She sounds and even feels perfectly honest.

"Can is not will, girl. Do not try to play games with me." Occlus has seen them all before.

Even if they get Jakkou to claim she won't attack -

Tobi's sister heard of honor once and apparently decided it was for fools.

"We're calling a truce," she says, flatly, sharpening her bubbling anger into her grandfather's calm ruthlessness. "If you break it, I will help Jakuan kill you."

"And if you don't like that - leave."

She isn't a perfect mirror of her alt, it turns out. Baby Anakin has never in his life felt this cold, focused this intensely - given off such an aura of threat. (Self control means her KI is only unleashed when she wants it to be. It's coiling around her now, heavily enough that weaker shinobi and civilians would be hallucinating their deaths.)

She observes Tobi for half a heartbeat, gaze hard. And then - "Very well."

Her KI has been a wild, vicious thing, snapping at Jakuan out of time with her actual attacks. It recedes now, and with it goes much of the haze in the air, a sensory shroud it's just now apparent isn't normal for this world.

It's harder to read her now, though. The shroud is pulled tight, concentrated.

"Thank you." She sounds more sarcastic than anything.

Her KI vanishes like it was never there, her emotions receding into calm analysis. 

"Good."

"Jakuan. You will not be attempting to kill either of your sisters. Is that understood?"

"I won't be the first to break the truce," he says, with a little glare at Jakkou.

(He's younger than Jacen had been during Jacen's spiral into the worst parts of darkness. He feels older, somehow, almost settled.)

She nods.

"Now that that is settled, what is going on here?" She points at Tobi. "You first."

"I received intelligence that an S-rank fight was beginning near the southern border, and so I moved to investigate." By 'received intelligence' she means 'sensed,' but her exact range is a tightly kept secret, so. "Uchiha Jakkou and Uchiha Jakuan were already in conflict at the time. I surmised they each intended to kill the other in order to advance their sharingan. It is not in the best interests of Konoha for either to obtain such a thing. Therefore, I interfered in the fight with the primary goal of forcing them both to retreat. However, if that turned out to be impractical, Konoha would accept the death of one or both in a way that denies the other what they want."

She sent for backup, she doesn't say. She's curious if the interlopers can detect the shinobi moving to reinforce her - they're still out of the range of all but the most powerful sensors.

"Thank you." She points at Jakuan. "You."

"She surmised correctly."

(Tobi's words hurt him, but they always do.)

"No further details to add? Justifications, thin or otherwise?"

"No."

"The Mangekyou will kill them if left alone. You're already half blind, aren't you, Jakuan?"

"I hadn't thought you to be the type to play loose with Konoha's secrets, little sister."

"You're not Konoha."

He glances away.

Hmm.

Jakkou's turn. Occlus looks to her expectantly.

"If you're looking for moral worth, you won't find it anywhere in this world."

"I want power, so I'm taking it."

"I have presided over the slaughter of entire planetary systems, girl. I am not looking for moral worth, I am looking for common sense. And so far the only one of you to display any is your sister."

"Tobi has no common sense whatsoever or even a lick of self preservation instinct."

"And yet, her reinforcements are almost here. Where are yours?"

...Small twitch.

"I see."

She tilts her head. "What would you consider common sense?"

"To begin with, cooperating with the powerful strangers who suddenly appeared, rather than pointlessly antagonizing them."

"Tobi considers you her allies, first and foremost. Is she wrong?"

"She is not."

"Then cooperation's a waste of time."

(There's a small tendril of power reaching out, tentatively, from Jakkou. It's subtle, tiny little pressures on their perception, little testing flicks...)

A vise of invisible force clamps around her neck. "Cease," Occlus says to her, then turns back to Jakuan. "Only insofar as you are determined that the only way to fix your mistakes is to ignore any and every opportunity to change your course that appears."

The little pokes stop.

"I have no interest in returning to Konoha."

Occlus lets her breathe.

"I don't care where you put your political affliations. Stop trying to kill your family."

"...In his defense, I will in fact keep trying to kill him so long as he's not politically affiliated with Konoha."

"Has grandfather dearest not lifted my kill order, then?"

"Are you still a traitor?"

There's been a seething anger in him this entire conversation.

"I betrayed no one. I went AWOL at twelve! I never fucking agreed to be one of Konoha's fucking attack dogs, and I couldn't survive on my own so, yeah, I joined up with the only missing-nin group that could keep hunters off my back and didn't contain a fucking patricide - "

"You abandoned me!"

"Yeah! I did! I was a kid and all I'd ever done was fuck up, and that wasn't changing anytime soon, and your precious Konoha is the one that ditched us first." His voice cracks a little. "So I ran, because I'm a coward, and I had no idea how to take care of a little kid, and maybe if I wasn't around they'd give you to someone actually decent."

"Guess you have always been an idiot."

He flinches, then, with another well of anger: "Why are you always angrier at me than Jakkou? She - it's her fault we were - trapped, she killed everyone and - "

(He'd been training with Tobi that night, and Tobi had freaked out, a little child sensor with a world of death unfolding in her mind, and Jakuan had gotten her to safety then tried to stop Jakkou, to talk her down or - )

(She was chuunin, ANBU. He was newly a genin.)

(Jakuan has always been weak to genjutsu, and Jakkou's always been cruel.)

"Why," his voice cracks again, "Aren't you yelling at her?"

...She looks away.

Occlus is getting the feeling she will need to have a talk with Jaina when they get home.

"Anything to contribute?" she asks Jakkou.

"Oh, just the answer to Jakuan's question."

"The execution of the clan was authorized by the Hokage himself. I haven't committed treason, and Tobi's always had her principles."

He goes stiff.

And, to his little sister - "Did - you know - "

"...Not until after the invasion. Grandfather discovered the truth during Danzo's tribunal - Danzo was the head of Jakkou's division in ANBU. Grandfather had him executed for nearly starting a war with Kiri."

"And then grandfather told me."

"It's supposed to be classified."

"For war."

"Not for killing his children."

"...He's a good shinobi."

"Fuck you."

"Do we all understand each other a little better now?"

"You know, I actually want Jakkou even more dead now."

"That is a fair reaction."

He lets out a sharp breath.

"...It is?"

"Yes," Ani says, the first time she's spoken up. "It's very, very fair to be angry at anyone who enforces the will of someone who once bound you."

"Ah."

(Baby Anakin is, meanwhile, sending his alt his most disappointed look.)

"Though you must have a care your anger does not overmaster your reason."

"I've noticed."

He sounds exhausted. Also angry, but... He's been angry for a long time.

"It can be be a powerful motivator, but it consumes even as it drives. One cannot live by rage alone."

"Haven't been left much else."

"You may wish to consider building something yourself."

"Hard without resources."

"That suggests a logical first step."

"Are you offering?"

She spreads her hands, palms out.

"If you are willing to accept that I will not permit you to murder your siblings."

"Do you have a proposed alternative for the thing where I'm dying and the only native fix involves Jakkou dying instead?"

"Healing is among my abilities."

"Jakkou's got the best healer anyone knows of. That's just slowed it down for her."

"As I am not of this world, it may be that I can do better."

He glances, uncertainly, at his little sister.

"...I got my teammate officially released from Konoha's control. She's Kiri's now, even though she had classified information."

"Senju Tobirama isn't cruel. He's ordered you be left mostly alone, and Konoha doesn't have any bounties out for your death anymore. He won't tolerate threats to the village, no matter who they come from - "

"But while the Sandaime's Konoha might never have dreamed of amnesty, grandfather created the village with the people who murdered his brothers, in the name of peace."

"Just... He's a good shinobi, and he's smart enough to see how well Kiri's amnesty policies have worked, and to see that harassing you would be - pointless. He doesn't care nearly as much as most people nowadays do about things like bloodlines falling into enemy hands, either, so - he's not thinking of your genetics as village property."

"I still think you're a traitor, and - I don't really want you in my life. But the Hokage has the right to contest that, and I think he'd be inclined to."

He's quiet in response.

"To me, that sounds like a foundation."

"I suppose."

Why is he this tired.

"Come then, Jakuan. Join me."

He comes over - not letting Jakkou out of his line of sight, which he manages to make a lot less awkward than it should be.

She nods approvingly.

"And you, Jakkou?"

She tilts her head, visibly considering, then -

"No."

"Very well. Find me, should you change your mind."

"We'll see."

"And stop trying to kill your siblings."

"We'll see."

"Hm."

"Will you try to stop me from leaving?"

"I will not."

"I won't, either."

She regards them...

And then leaves.

So be it.

So be it, indeed. "What next?" she asks.

"Tobirama, will you tell your lurking reinforcements it's safe to come out?"

Small smile. Then, raising her voice - "The social awkwardness is over, sensei!"

"Aah, well, if you're sure..."

She glances at her brother, then - "I'll avoid screaming at Jakuan for the next few days. Promise."

"That's very thoughtful, Tobi-chan."

Kakashi ambles up, book in hand.

"This is my teacher," she tells the dimensional travelers. "Hatake Kakashi."

"And..."

She's quiet.

Then, to Kakashi - "During the invasion, while - while I was dead. I went to the boundaries of the Pure Land, but... No one from my family came to lead me over, so I was - trapped."

"I met him there," she gestures at Anakin. "He wasn't dead, but - he was traveling, in a way, between realms. There's more than just the Pure Land and Impure World, it seems."

"We spoke, and he offered to take me back to his world. I'd probably be a ghost, but - the alternative was being stuck on those shores, for - I wasn't sure how long. I wouldn't be - alone, if I followed."

"...And then I heard Sayuri calling my name as we were leaving, and I turned around."

She glances over at him, unsure. "I hadn't - expected you'd come looking for me."

"Of course I did."

"I didn't actually know for sure you'd been resurrected, and... It sounded like you were in trouble."

She smiles a little.

"Interdimensional visitors, eh? You know, Tobi-chan, I used to think you were the normal one."

She laughs. "Naruto's the normal one, sensei."

"Unfortunately for us all."

Giggle.

Then: "Oh, no, wait, I take that back. Naruto isn't the normal one - I'd just switched normalcy ranks with Chihiro. She reads romance novels now."

"Tobi-chan... I read romance novels."

"You read porn in important meetings. Chihiro is in a book club."

"Potato, tomato."

"You can be borderline normal, then."

"I suppose that will do."

"Well then. Are we all coming back to Konoha?"

She glances at the newcomers, then.

"In the absence of firmer plans..."

"We can - see through whatever happens with Jakuan, I guess. But unless something changes, I'm starting my rotation to an ambassadorial team soon..." She hesitates for a moment, then: "That might be something you three would be interested in, actually. The same way Anakin feels like my mirror - there's some people in Kiri, where I've been assigned, who feel like the mirrors of you two." She gestures at Occlus and Ani.

"That does sound interesting, yes."

"They're interesting people."

To Kakashi then - "Shinrei and Amajina feels like her," nod to Ani, "And Elaise and Elieyha like her," and to Occlus.

Jakuan is eyeing Ani way more warily now.

"Oh. Wonderful. Yes, introducing them to their counterparts in Kiri sounds like a fine idea."

"Aren't you and Shinrei friends, sensei?"

"Part of adult friendship is foisting difficult problems off on each other."

"Oh, I see."

"You'll learn."

"Let's get going, then."

Onward!

...After a while, Jakuan falls in beside Tobi.

"During that invasion... Did anyone else who died have people meet them at the border?"

"Yeah."

"Everyone who'd talk about it did. Even just ancestors."

"Oh."

"You know, I think I'm less angry with Jakkou now."

She laughs, humorlessly.

Then, almost apologetically: "Something'd always been wrong with her, I - "

"What she did didn't feel personal."

"It did to me."

"...I'm sorry."

"About that, and - I never asked what happened, even after you got out of the hospital."

Tiredly: "I wouldn't have answered, anyways."

"Her Mangekyou gave her a genjutsu technique. She wanted to test it."

Her breath hisses through clenched teeth.

"Well, fuck her, actually."

He laughs a little.

"So. Tell me about - your life?"

A pause, before: "I've been apprenticed to grandfather since not long after the invasion..."

And she talks - as generically as possible, thoroughly avoiding anything classified - about what she's been up to. Which means her story has next to no detail, but it's still not a bad way to pass the run back. (They're speaking quietly, but - the others can still hear them without too much straining.)

Good, they seem to be bonding. (Violent sort of world this seems to be.)

(Incredibly so. Tobi's diplomatic position means her exposure to it is - a bit off kilter, compared to Jakuan or what her in passing stories suggest is the norm. Apparently, she's stopped a lot of assassinations, against herself or others - she mentions casually she's been getting better at taking assassins alive for T&I to take.)

(Notably, her life seems to involve less violence than normal. She isn't herself an assassin.)

(There's a subtle pattern - it's likely that her grandfather's protecting her, despite her repeated insistence he's neutral and doesn't put any individual shinobi above any other village member. (Something she very, very obviously considers an admirable trait. That's another strong difference from baby Anakin, who focuses that same intensity on personal loyalty.))

They approach Konoha quickly.

Indeed they do. These shinobi move quickly. Occlus lends strength to Ani or Anakin if it seems like they need it.

Anakin more often than Ani.

Ani needs some help, though - she's never felt like she fully recovered from Vader's injuries, and while she is very good at compensating with the Force, this pace tires her out over time.

- And, of course, Tobi notices.

She loops back. "Do we need to slow down?" she asks. (She's acting like their current pace is already a slow, rambling walk.)

"Unless there is pressing need not to. Typically we would use vehicles to cover this sort of distance at speed."

"...Like a boat?" She signals up to Kakashi to slow their pace. (And signals her grandfather, whose attention turned to them recently, that there's no issues of concern.)

"In broad strokes, yes, like a boat. Intraplanetary transportation technology in our world is primarily based on repulsor technology, which allows vehicles to float or fly above the surface."

She makes an interested noise. "We don't really use vehicles for anything except over-water travel - but there's not a lot that can fly, and we can't go off planet - though I think the air issue is a bigger deal than getting up there." Thoughtful frown. "Depending on how you define 'interplanetary,' it's possibly 'we can't do that anymore' - like, the moon got up there somehow."

"Moon are typically a natural phenomenon. And in cases where they are not, the implied level of physical and engineering knowledge is high enough that I would be surprised to find the associated society had since regressed far enough to lose powered flight."

"It's hard to spot the absence of something in the archeological record, especially something in the sky - but there's detailed celestial charts from three thousand years ago that don't describe a moon, and then poetry fragments from five hundred years ago that describe one. But the oldest narrative records we have are eight hundred years old, with no detailed records until about three hundred years ago."

"But, those charts are some of the only strong evidence we didn't used to have a moon - there's a thick layer of ash and large patches of heavily disturbed landscape we think is at least a thousand years old, worldwide, which seems to have destroyed most older evidence of - everything."

"...Also if I wanted to stick a second moon in the sky I'd use chakra. I'm not sure how you'd actually get up there without it... And chakra techniques can fail to be passed on very, very easily, especially if they're higher powered or more complicated, and techniques resting on a rare bloodline effectively never get passed on."

"Ah, a different paradigm entirely." Occlus nods. "That evidence sounds consistent with what I would expect for the creation of a moon from the planetary crust, rather than miscellaneous spaceborne debris."

"Yeah."

"You can affect stone the same way with normal techniques - Kage-level fights tend to rearrange the landscape, same if anyone picks a fight with a bijuu - but it's usually like... A hole in a mountain range, or a new island. Not something that big."

"And Kages are... leaders?"

"In a formal, political context, they're the leaders of the five most powerful shinobi groups on this continent. 'Kage-level' is also a shorthand for really powerful shinobi, and you sometimes hear the leaders of less powerful but still significant shinobi groups calling themselves Kage."

"But leaders of non-shinobi have others things they're called."

"A separate political structure, then?"

"It varies, a little... The daimyo - the leaders of the actual countries - are all samurai, and in most places the shinobi are either subordinate to the daimyo or are an autonomous territory closely allied with the surrounding country. All of the five great villages except Kiri are at least in theory autonomous, and Kiri's doing a third thing - their government is fully integrated, and they don't really distinguish between traditions of chakra use."

"I see."

(They are going so slow. Tobi hasn't escorted civilians in a while.)

"...It's going to be a really long walk if we stick to this pace," she says. "Do you mind being transported by other people?"

"Yes," Occlus says. "I do."

She doesn't make a face. Her emotions are kind of grumbly though. "I could just use Hiraishin, I wouldn't be carrying you... And then it'll be less than a minute."

"What is Hiraishin, and why did you not suggest this in the beginning?"

"It's a space time technique. I still need anchors for the long distance version, so I can't use it arbitrarily - but I've got an anchor on sensei, so I could loop back a bit more slowly."

"I didn't suggest it at first because if there's no emergency, I need clearance to inform visitors what my range and speed are, and to even bring visitors in with it in the first place - especially someone like Jakuan, and Hokage-sama had been busy."

"Also it's chakra intensive, and the non-emergency anchor isn't the most efficient one, so I don't use it if it wouldn't save me more than a few hours. But we're, like, a bit more than a thousand kilometers out still."

"Quite a distance." She glances at her companions.

"I'd be alright with being transported."

"I would, too."

"These two first, then. The rest of us can continue."

"Alright." She lets her grandfather know. "I'll take one at a time; it's a bit better that way." She glances at her sensei. "Do you want me to come back here after?"

Kakashi flicks his eyes over Jakuan and Occlus. "If you're not too worn out."

"I don't think I will be."

"Then I'll be in your care, Tobi-chan."

Grin. "Be right back."

Then: zoom! She isn't immediate on each return - she needs to talk to the border guards and do hand-offs - but she definitely gets back quickly.

...It is also plausible to the Force-sensitives that she could modify this technique only a little to enter hyperspace with it. She seems to be technically crossing the distance in between, but - in some ways she isn't, really. She is definitely not leaving the sonic booms she should be, and neither passenger feel like they just moved.

Hm. Impressive.

As long as they're running back... Does Occlus object to quizzing on engineering?

Not so long as her interlocutor does not mind that she is not an expert in the field. (Still fairly knowledgeable, though.)

A non-expert overview is a good place to start. (Tobi: has a perfect memory, can extremely rapidly assimilate and apply new information, and can do improbably complicated math in her head - she does in fact start musing about using seals to augment or replace physically engineered elements of a vehicle, and the parts she mutters out loud sound like they're based in principles that'd be impossible for most people made of cells to hold in their heads at one time.)

"You think quickly."

"A bit faster with my sharingan active," she gestures at her red eyes. "But in general - yeah, all shinobi do, and I'm faster than most."

"A useful talent to have."

"It's convenient for sealing."

"What does that involve?"

"The most basic methods involve externalizing the paths chakra would travel in your body, to create a preformed technique you can activate later. Though the most common are using that to create a container - a stable anchored technique can do things an actively formed technique can't, and the most basic form of that is energy storage - creating stable ways to slowly remove a storage seal's contents is extremely hard, though, so you mostly find that in explosive tags..."

She rambles on for quite a bit. It turns out each sealing tradition or style calls on very different skills, and Tobi knows several, but 'think on your feet,' 'good at math,' and 'eidectic memory' are common requirements.

Seems a fair trade for galactic engineering as they travel.

She fully agrees.

Excellent.

And sooner or later, they'll arrive.

There's someone waiting with the gate guards (and Ani and baby Anakin) to meet them. He's pale - albino, likely - and wears a different style of armor than most other shinobi they can see, and he doesn't have any discernible marks of office, but... He carries himself with an air of authority.

Also, he looks and feels similar enough to the three Uchiha, and something deep in him brightens a bit in fondness when he sees Tobi.

"Welcome to Konoha, visitors," he calls out.

"We thank you for the welcome."

He inclines his head. "I am Senju Tobirama, Second Hokage of Konoha."

"Who are you?"

"I am Occlus, This is my wife Ani and our grandson Anakin. It was he who encountered your Tobirama during the brief while she was was dead."

He regards them for a moment, then half turns. "Follow me."

Into the city.

To a tower near the back, in front of a cliff soaring over the city (with four faces carved into it; the one second to the left is Tobirama's).

(Just out of sight, several powerful guards fall into formation around their group.)

On the way - "What were your intentions coming here?"

"Here to Konoha, or here to this world?"

"This world."

"We were meditating on Anakin's vision in an effort to gain more information about it. This had unforeseen effects when the subject of our scry turned out to be engaged in combat with one who can rip holes between realities."

Thoughtful nod.

"I've already spoken to your wife and grandson," he says then. "So some of the formalities can be handled quickly - they've indicated a desire to accompany Uchiha Tobirama for the near future."

"Yes. She is one of the few points we recognize."

"There are no significant problems with that, so long as Kiri approves unaffiliated guests for her."

She nods.

"Is anything required to expedite this?"

"They have a delegation here, who can't make that determination but could go ahead and ask the questions Kiri will have regardless."

"Very well."

Onward, then. Setting up the meeting with the delegates doesn't take long at all - the Hokage had warned them to expect this - and their questions are mostly rather simple. (There's some mental probes from one of them - not genjutsu and not mind reading, but it feels like a much more focused version of Tobi and the Hokage's sensory powers.) Affiliations, intentions, history with Kiri, relationship to Uchiha Tobirama, understanding of and willingness to follow the country's laws and Kiri's rules for guests...

Occlus answers the questions honestly, though many of them are meaningless, offworlders as they are. She is a polite brick wall to the mental probes.

They don't seem surprised by 'polite brick wall,' and don't push very hard. (They do keep trying, of course.)

Kiri's main rule of note is they'll have an escort within Kiri's borders until the Mizukage judges otherwise. This seems to be a near universal procedure.

Sensible. And acceptable.

Alright.

They'll send their evaluation with the Hokage's message; it'll likely arrive well before Uchiha Tobirama will need to set out.

Conveniently so.

After:

"I'd like to spend the meantime trying to make a vehicle for you guys," she says. "Kiri's really far, and I can't Hiraishin there."

"A fine idea. A design from our world aided by your sealwork?"

"My thought. It'd be a good first major project, too."

"I would be happy to assist."

"Me too."

"It'll be fun."

Good.

Her brother had his own tense questioning session with the Hokage during their talk with Kiri's delegates - Jakuan's going to need to stay somewhere Konoha can monitor for a while, but she usually stays at her grandfather and his brother's place, which should count... Does Occlus and her group want to stay there, as well?

If it won't be too crowded. She prefers having space to herself.

It isn't. Her great-uncle really likes being surrounded by nature, and, also, usually hosts important guests like the daimyo, so there's a small compound surrounded by a forest.

That sounds suitable. They will accept the invitation.

Cool.

Enormous compound also means workshops and unused empty spaces, and there's no visitors other than them and her great-uncle is away, so they can have the run of the place...

Plenty of room to prototype the speeder. Replicating the repulsors and the inertial dampers will be the main sealwork challenge, Occlus feels. Depending on the quality of local metalwork, the body might be entirely mundane. It only needs to support itself and the passengers.

Local metalworking is good quality, though most people prefer artisanal pieces for big works like this - and some materials take chakra or seal work much better than others.

...Is there a reason not to make it out of wood, speaking of?

In theory... no, wood should serve as well.

Excellent.

"The thing is - everything has chakra, so everything actively resists exogenous chakra being pushed through it. The extent of this varies, but it more or less varies with the base material's ability to respond to changes in its environment, with some carryover. So, a dead plant is easier to affect than a live plant, but harder than something that's never been living - unless you modify the plant as it grows to accept and channel exogenous chakra."

"And my great-uncle can grow plants very, very quickly, and he grew up with a seal master, so customly shaped wood that takes seals well is very easy for me to come by."

"A wood hull it is, then."

Grin. "Cool."

And that does actually alter some of their constraints with the seals, which Tobi starts explaining...

Occlus doesn't know much about sealing, but is still a decent sounding board. Some principles of design just don't change between fields.

It's hardly instant, of course, even with all three visitors, Tobi, her grandfather, and a Jakuan who's sufficiently bored over effective house arrest to act as their calculator working on this.

But they're able to get prototype designs by the time the approval for Tobi's guests comes back, and a more-or-less workable repulsorcraft by the time Tobi has to leave Konoha. (Though she's planning on riding along to monitor and control it - they haven't had the chance to test it over long distances yet.)

No time like the present. The Force can soften any untimely falls.

It'll be good experimental data! And she can probably repair things.

Better than walking, in any case.

Incredibly so. She'll have to see if she can tie these to Hiraishin anchors...

(And she only has to do in-flight repairs the once, and they don't fall out of the sky, so, a very successful test fight.)

Indeed.

They stop at the border of Kiri, of course, and then are asked to proceed on foot. (Luckily, Tobi had built the capacity to be sealed away into their craft; she vanishes it into a scroll.)

And then - "Some of my friends have come out to meet me," she tells the visitors, then confirms the three (Elaise, Chihiro, and Sayuri) are fine to have as escorts.

So - in past the border gate, to where her friends are waiting.

Occlus... senses something familiar...

Elaise isn't the natural sensor Tobirama is, but her sage training cues her to the oddity. Feels like... Elieyha, almost.

She grins as her friends come in sight, waving at them - especially Chihiro.

Sayuri waves back!

And we interrupt this very special reunion to bring you: 

Ani feels something familiar, too, and her reaction is not puzzled squinting.

(She doesn't look away from the - echo - of Palpatine - but does pull on her Force bond with her Mistress rather dramatically.)

That- that is her apprentice's face staring at her beneath the pinned-up hair. Young as the day Occlus plucked her off Korriban. To find her here-

But her Ani needs her, so Occlus takes all that and bundles it away.

"Ani," she says, gripping her tight around the shoulder and pressing in on her presence in the Force with her own comforting weight. "Be here. With me."

Occlus is good and strong and smart, and knows what she's doing. Always.

Ani obeys, like she always does, and the parts of her mind taking actions attune themselves entirely to her Mistress's will, while all the inconvenient panicking parts fold themselves away until her Mistress wants her to pull them out. 

"...Tobi. Explain?" 

She's - well, not eyeing anyone, her bandages are very firmly over her eyes currently - but her the way her attention focuses very much implies 'ready to deal with an attack.'

Uh.

She was not anticipating that, but, also, she can tell who Ani noticed immediately before freaking out, and Tobi is very good at sensing connections between people -

Apparently including alts of people.

"...We have interdimensional visitors, some people mirror across universes, and they're all sensors. So - uh, flashback?"

That makes her more watchful waiting, but - less worried.

She just sighs.

"Unexpected memories, yes. On... several counts." She nods at Chihiro. "I trained a girl with her face, once."

She shifts, slightly uneasy.

Something noticeably protective flares in her.

"Mirror isn't the same as copy," she says, eyes a bit narrow. 

"No," Occlus says. "It is not. The woman I knew is long dead. One of the unspoken perils of living to advanced age, I am afraid."

"...Oh."

Chihiro should never, ever be dead, a mirror of her or otherwise. 

"...I need a soul to - be relevantly in reach to resurrect them, so. It'd probably take a lot of work to figure out, but - I can try, for her."

"I thank you for the thought."

...There is a lot of conflicting information in her environment right now, and even if she knew how to process it - 

Her Mistress is going to make the decisions, here, and processing stuff necessary to major decisions is - hard, like this. But there's a weird noise in her head, different from how Ani usually feels when quasi-dissociated. 

Ani doesn't want things, but getting her somewhere calm might be helpful. 

She's shifting from wary to concerned.

(...That woman feels familiar.)

Occlus continues soothing Ani through the Force.

"But perhaps we can speak more later. At the moment... my wife needs some time alone."

"I can get everyone up to speed here, and if everyone's okay with it we can go ahead on into Kiri - and then you can let the gate guards know when you want an escort in?"

"I think that would be best."

She nods.

And - onward towards Kiri with everyone but Occlus and Ani.

And Occlus settles down gently, with Ani in her lap, stroking her hair.

"Ani. Breathe with me. You remember how to do this. Find what's wrong and show me. We will fix it together."

Her mind opens to her Mistress.

The strongest thing - the thing that shocked her into the worst episode Occlus has ever seen -

That girl had a near perfect echo of Palpatine's Force signature. Even her emotions, how they curled only subtly through the Force - her possesiveness of the other girl - 

Ani - 

Has no idea what to do with that information, and she isn't currently processing all the many conflicting things, there, her mind seizing only onto similarities -

She had a flashback, a vivid memory of Palpatine when he first started befriending her, when she first started liking him. She's still not well anchored in time. The Force seems to think she wants visions of Palpatine now, and Ani can't process anything enough to stop it.

(This is not something she thinks about, ever.)

Occlus has a different opinion than the Force about what visions her Ani wants, and the will to make it so. There are happier times on the way back to the present.

Aggressive cuddles. 

...She hasn't actually done much detangling of her relationship with Palpatine or her feelings about - everything, beyond 'it sucked.' She's encountered and dealt with plots of his, dug through his artifacts and records - but that's someone a stranger to him could do. 

...Ani had heard the girl's words. Seen her wariness but not aggression, her protectiveness of those around her, her immediate offer to throw significant effort at resurrecting a mirror of - someone close to her. 

She's getting to where she can process that, albeit sideways.

(Her thoughts are unfolding in real time in front of Occlus. She wants to be ashamed of these ones. She has an old fear attached firmly to them.)

The part of her mind entirely dissociated from this is certain she would have found the girl charming, would have liked her, if not for that - shock.

She'd liked Palpatine, once.

Ani has no need to be ashamed of her thoughts. They are simply what they are.

He hurt her.

She kept liking him, even - after. She couldn't not.

He was good at being liked. She's - disturbed, by that. Ashamed still.

And she's probably going to be leery of whether this - mirror of him - is the same way, once she processes that far.

She was young, then. Ani has more people now, better ones. Ones she can trust to keep her within herself.

Snuggle. 

No one else saw Palpatine for what he was, not until it was too late, but -

None of them were Occlus. 

Indeed not.

But she is here now and will guard her Ani jealously from those who would wrong her.

Smile and nuzzle. 

And...

This isn't Ani's world, and - there's two local alts of each of them. Maybe one would know more.

They can certainly ask.

Mmhmm.

...The girl mentioned - being able to resurrect people. 

If she can reach their soul.

Ani would like to bring Elesse back, Occlus assumes.

Yes.

Elesse should get to exist, somewhere, even if Ani never gets to see her again. 

They'll have to see if they can't perhaps do a little better than that.

She'd like that. A lot.

More snuggles. 

(...Will Occlus be okay with - Ani's feelings about Elesse suddenly becoming very relevant again? (That half-formed thought has an echo to it, a flavor like how Ani's thoughts had when their relationship was... Floundering in its first decade, as Ani's very shaky ability to have preferences had begun slowly eroding again. It's not quite as bad as it'd gotten then, but...))

She's had time to come to terms with her wife's wandering heart. As long as Ani knows whose feet she's coming home to kneel at.

Yes.

At the end of the day - she's Occlus's, always and forever. 

That's enough.

(Kiss.)

Kiss!

(...Ani now wants to go catch up to the other so they can get back to somewhere that contains chairs for Ani to kneel beside.)

If she's ready.

There's - an extent to which she isn't, but... That part won't become ready by sitting here.

Sometimes she needs to face her demons, as unpleasant as it is.

That's her girl.

Up then, and Occlus will signal the gate guards they're ready.

They get their escort into Kiri, then. Ani spends the walk leaning on Occlus mentally, but - moving helps. She recovers a good bit more and steels herself.

They're met at the lip of the village proper (the gates are placed along the nearest major road in, but it doesn't actually go directly to Kiri, instead to a separate caravansary).

The woman's familiar - she feels far more like Ani in the Force than Elaise feels like Occlus.

Also.

She is Very Fucking Powerful, both women's senses inform them. 

She smiles at their guard and says, "I'll take it from here, Nami."

The guard bows with a, "Yes, Asano-sama," and fades back into the fog.

The woman just looks fondly exasperated, but shakes her head. To their visitors: "I'm Asano Shinrei, one of the Mizukage's councilors. It's good to meet you."

"Likewise. I am Occlus. My wife, Ani."

She nods, peering at - her alt, she supposes.

Gentle smile.

"I can take you guys straight to the diplomatic suites - Mizukage-sama understands you've had a long journey, so you won't need to do any of the formal check ins until tomorrow."

"Thank you. Is Anakin already there?"

Nod. "Last I checked."

"Tobi's with her friends, currently, so Anakin's the only one in residence."

"Very well. Lead the way."

To the diplomatic suites set aside for Konoha's delegation, then.

And on the way, voice soft - "There's something a bit delicate I'd wanted to talk to at least Ani about. I'm unsure who else you'd want present."

"Occlus," she says immediately. "...Though maybe not Anakin."

"It depends on the nature of the delicacy. Though yes, maybe not Anakin."

"It's related to the delay you had coming in."

"Then not Anakin."

Serious nod.

"I understand."

"I'm not in a rush, so - you can get settled and talk to him, first."

"Will you be waiting somewhere?"

"I'll be lurking on the roof, like a proper shinobi."

"We'll find you when we're ready, then."

"Alright."

And the rest of the way to the suite. Shinrei leaves them at the door. 

Inside.

Anakin can be reassured his grandmother will be okay, and she'll get his impressions of the new people, see if he has any concerns.

Elaise is... Odd. Not much like his grandmother, but - a lot like her, in other ways.

...The girl who freaked Ani out and the mirror of Occlus's old apprentice are married, by the way. They seem very, very protective of each other. 

Well. Good for them, if they're happy.

Anakin should try to make friends, Occlus thinks, most of their alts here seem around his age.

Or close enough - Elaise is just about his age, while Tobi, Sayuri (the girl who freaked Ani out), and Chihiro (her wife) are something like four years younger.

Within the margin of error.

Four years is a lot less of a difference than it seems.

"Yes, grandma."

"No sass, young man."

"Absolutely no sass whatsoever."

Occlus laughs.

"If you're settled here, Ani and I need to go up to the roof for a time. Try not to eavesdrop, hm?"

"I'll be good, promise."

She nods at him.

Then back outside for her and Ani and jump up to the roof.

Shinrei meets them there. "I would actually like much of this conversation to happen somewhere secure," she says. "It touches on - some very highly classified things."

Everyone is still very politely pretending not to know Shinrei is Yagura, after all.

"What do you consider secure?"

"There's a conference room within the diplomatic residential area that relevantly counts - the people it's insecure against already have access to this information."

"Very well. Lead the way."

To the suite, then. "Who was her mirror in your world?" she asks, in the tone of someone who already suspects the shape of things. 

Ani doesn't seem able to answer. 

"A man who caused my wife a great deal of personal harm. He pretended friendship to gain her trust and once he had it, broke her in half to suit his whims and used the pieces that remained as he saw fit."

"Some differences, then, but... A mirror all the same."

"Important differences, I hope."

Sigh.

"I can sense the same echoes you can."

"Two echoes can exist at the same time, but - people reincarnate, too."

"And Sayuri is not the first of her alts you've known."

"No."

"Years ago - and this is the extremely classified part, for all that a significant number of people have probably guessed - "

"I was Yagura, the Mizukage before our current one. I took office during the Second Great War, and I negotiated its end."

"I was a jinchuuriki - someone with a bijuu, a powerful being of pure chakra, sealed in me. It turned out... At least one man had the ability to not only control bijuu, but influence the jinchuuriki through them."

"He turned me against my people. I broke out of it, eventually, but - it was too late, then, for the Kiri of old. I tracked him down and died killing him, and my country descended into open anarchy."

"I was unable to pass into the Pure Land and so lingered. Eventually - "

"I came across a young child with a near precise mirror of his chakra."

"She was badly wounded at the time - and Sayuri's power allows her to heal herself in proportion to how much she heals others. She had no control of it, yet, but - fear and desperation are important components of bloodline manifestation, and the first burst is always incredibly strong."

"She resurrected me, and - I found myself in the middle of a war zone, newly alive, with an unconscious toddler who resonated perfectly with the man who broke me."

"Sayuri is my daughter in every way that matters. She is not that man."

"I see. Thank you for telling us."

Occlus gently probes Ani for her reaction.

Sad, mostly. Empathetic. 

"Raising her sounds - hard."

Small smile. "It was. But children always are, and at least I got to skip potty training," she teases.

"How fortunate for you. It is not as fun as it sounds."

"It sounds approximately zero fun, so." Fond smile. "She's been good for me."

"And you for her, it seems."

Soft smile. "That's been my greatest hope, that my children and students will do better than I did, and I'll have had some part in it."

"Mm. I know the feeling."

Grin. "They haven't quite surpassed me in power, yet, but they're doing very well in general."

"Well of course. Any time they have to train, we do as well."

"They're accelerating, though, faster than I am. It's good."

"You are fortunate."

"I got very lucky with all of them." Smile. "I've somehow ended up with five at least partime students. It's quite ridiculous - they're Sayuri, Elaise, Elieyha, Chihiro, and Amajina."

"And Tobi had said Elieyha and Amajina seem to be alts, too..."

"Yeah. A lot of interesting coincidences."

"Fate, perhaps."