"My name is Mitsuko. Eighteen years ago, I was born in the Land of Rivers. I fled the war after losing all my relatives in an attack by Suna shinobi puppets," Reiko reported, not letting go of me. "I was found by a friend of the owner of a small eatery in Konoha, where I've been working temporarily. I would be very glad if a certain young master, who recently lost his mother and couldn't bear life without caring feminine hands, were to hire me as a maid."
"Have you already been checked by the Uchiha or the Yamanaka?" I asked, still smiling stupidly.
"Of course!"
"Then the young master agrees," I said, biting her hand to finally make her let go.
"Ow! What was that, Chi-chan?!" Mom protested, rubbing her palm.
"So it really is you," I snorted, tasting a few drops of her blood. "Let me heal that."
"Oh, so you can do that too," Reiko raised an eyebrow in surprise, offering me her hand as though for a kiss.
"I'd recognize you by taste for sure," I assured her with a smirk, instantly closing the small cut with the Mystical Palm.
"That sounded kind of suggestive," Mom laughed, sitting down at the table across from me.
Yeah, if I didn't know who I was looking at, I would never have recognized Reiko in this girl: wheat-colored hair, honey-colored eyes, a pretty face, a slender but not athletic figure. She didn't feel like a shinobi at all!
"Did you suppress your chakra core?" Reiko shook her head. "But I can't feel it. It's like it went out and changed… Kage Kagami Shinten no Ho?" This time I guessed correctly; the girl nodded. "Then I'll have to get used to it."
"Don't you like it? I've wanted to change my image for a long time! You know, I got tired of my old hair color," Reiko—no, Mitsuko now—ran a hand through her hair.
"You look a bit like Tsunade," I remarked with a snort.
"Hehe, I've always liked that girl. I wanted to be like her."
"Hmm. For some reason, I think you wanted to be like the heir of a famous clan like the Senju, not specifically that girl."
"That too," the girl agreed easily.
For a few more seconds, I studied her carefully, getting used to the new appearance. Only then did I finally ask:
"So what happened there?"
"Cause of my death?" Mitsuko raised an eyebrow. "Same as the official version—a trap, a stone maw. We were caught by shinobi from Iwa. Only the mission was suicidal from the very start. We were sent into territory effectively occupied by the Land of Earth to rescue Grass shinobi who were supposedly still operating there. According to the reports, they really are there and are even guarding something. But you know what the ninja of the Hidden Grass are like. Those lands were long since ceded to Iwa, and Reiko knew it. That's why, a few days before her departure on the mission, I—Mitsuko—appeared in Konoha."
"And how exactly were you managing to be in two places at once?" My lips curled into a grin on their own.
"Shadow clones, and—" for a moment, a familiar chakra flared from Mitsuko, and her eyes briefly turned red, "—this."
A crimson sclera, a dark red iris, and a horizontal pupil burning like scarlet fire against it—the Ketsuryugan, the Eye of the Blood Dragon. A dojutsu I had only heard of, said to rival the Three Great ones.
"Ahem!" Something caught in my throat. "You really know how to surprise, Mom."
"I didn't expect it to awaken either," Mitsuko beamed, pleased with the effect she'd produced. "And not just me—everyone forgot that I carry the genes of the Chinoike clan. They thought I wouldn't be able to awaken it. Or that the kekkei genkai simply hadn't been passed down to me."
"And how did it appear?" And more importantly—do I have it too?!
Mitsuko looked into my eyes with a hint of sadness and, letting out a heavy sigh, began to explain:
"You know, the Hidden Villages have always hunted those with kekkei genkai. They would accept members of certain clans, abduct people with the right bloodline, and, in the end, even steal the genes themselves. These days it's all done the way you prefer—in laboratories. Test tubes, cell transplantation. But back then, it was the old-fashioned way: they'd send in a specially trained kunoichi to seduce the right shinobi and wait for results. That's how it was with my mother. That's how it was with me.
"The only difference is that in my case, no one doubts I managed to 'steal' the desired genome," a gentle smile flickered across her face, "while your grandmother, as everyone believes, failed. I couldn't awaken the Ketsuryugan until recently—too little experience, no knowledge of the proper methods, and simply not enough chakra. Everything changed when you sent me into a coma. After that, my body strengthened, my chakra reserves increased, and for the first time I felt… something! My eyes first turned red not long ago, though I only realized it later."