Mio pov:

Ryoshi and I sat in the living room on the couch together lost in thought. The shocking news of the war that he had given me was yet to be digested in my system.

The news about what Madara was trying to do, the number of people he had killed, forgetting the peace of the world for something as selfish as ruling the world....somehow I was hoping that all of this was just a bad dream. He might have been a bit over ambitious, but from what I was hearing, he seemed even merciless and monstrous than he was when he massacred the Uzumaki clan a hundred years ago!

My head was starting to hurt with all the thinking. I leaned forward on my knees holding one hand on my forehead. Shaking my head once, I got up. "Ryoshi? Do you want some coffee? Honestly with all this stress, everything is so exhausting." I mumbled with a sigh.

"Yeah....I guess I'll have some too." I nodded with a smile and headed to the kitchen to get some coffee for the both of us. As I stood in front of the bowl in which I had kept the coffee to heat, I got lost in though again.

Madara.....Madara.....Madara.....what was I supposed to do to stop him? I had tried to explain things so many times to him, yelling at him, telling him gently....how else was I going to get him to understand that he wasn't going to get anything by fighting and aiming for something like ruler of the world?

I loved him. I loved him a lot. I cant lie about this one fact. If I did, I would just be lying to myself. I loved everything about him; his handsome face, his physique, his warm chest, the gentleness in his eyes that I saw when he looked at me despite that cold facade, his strong and almost crushing embrace, his intoxicating scent, his soft lips pushed up against mine, just him.....I even went to the extent of remembering how he had kissed when I was almost naked. I couldn't resist him.

Me just in a towel with him crushing me to his chest, his arms just a fabric lengths away from touching my bare skin. Just thinking about it made the hair on the back of my neck stand in both fear and light-headedness.

I sighed, turning off the stove and pouring the hot coffee into two cups. I walked back to the living room and handed the cup of coffee to Ryoshi as I sat down next to him. I took a sip from my cup and sighed. The heat of the liquid soothed my dry throat. The caffeine had already started to kick in after the first few steps easing the throbbing of my head.

Thankfully, Ryoshi and I didn't have anything to talk about during our coffee. Both of us were in too much of a shock from the news we had received just a little while ago. Hey, anyone would be especially if it concerned the very existence of the world.

After I was done with my coffee, I stood up. "Ryoshi? I'm just going to go out for a stroll....some fresh air will really help me clear my thoughts." Ryoshi just nodded, probably still too worried to say anything. I nodded back, picked up my light sweater, my book and some money before heading out.

I had started to learn healing jutsus since about a month. Oppa had thought that it might be a good idea because it was something that was very important during times of war. I took it up on a whim, learning from Ryoshi himself since he was pretty good at healing jutsu. But the surprise was, I was an excellent healer.

I picked up on herbs and human anatomy really easily. My chakra control was really good and my healing was really quick. I had helped some ninjas passing through the village and they had thanked me with so much money and clothes and groceries. Apparently, none of the doctors they had seen had been able to heal their injuries. It was so bad that some of their limbs were non functional. I had been able to pin point the chakra points that were being blocked off and small misplacement of bones and muscles that were causing the problem. I had healed them back to their 100% original capabilities.

I thought that studying medicine here would pay off. It could be an additional income, as well as take my thoughts off all the complicated things that were happening here. So I had thought of bringing along the book to read to get my mind off Madara now....though I had a feeling that it wouldn't help me in the situation I was in now.

I reached a small cliff after about a ten minute walk. It was dark, the full moon being the only source of light here. The cliff wasn't too high....it was maybe about ten feet high so I didn't feel like I was standing on the end of the world.

I sat down in the ground and opened the book to read the part about healing mental and psychological illnesses. I wasn't able to concentrate though because my thoughts kept floating back to Madara. I sighed hopelessly as I closed my book. I knew reading wasn't going to help....

I stood up and stepped closer to the edge of the cliff. There were some small bushes at the bottom of the cliff and beyond that all I could see was thick forest cover. It stretched for quite a distance before exposing another cliff on the other side. It was so far that even if a person was standing there, they'd probably be the size of a fly.

I sighed again deciding to head back. Staying here wasn't helping anyway and it was already late. I might as well try to sleep or I could just talk to Ryoshi in an attempt to help vent out our concerns.

I was about to turn around, but I felt a hard push on my back. I stumbled forward, waving my hands madly as I tried to stop from losing balance over the cliff I was standing on. But it was no use. I lost my footing and fell forward. I yelped shutting my eyes and waiting for the thorny bushes below to hurt me when I fell.

I opened my eyes when I realized I was taking longer than necessary to land. But instead of the bushes, I saw trees and my eyes went wide as I landed through the branches. After hitting multiple branches, I finally landed on the ground with a thud.

"O-ouch....." I was holding in my breath trying to ease the pain on different parts of my body. I was sure I had several bruises and I bit my lip and shut my eyes as I lay motionless for a while. When I felt like I could breathe again, I slowly sat up and looked around. How on earth did I end up in the forest? Its not like someone threw me off the cliff I was standing on, right? And if Madara had something to do with this again, he was dead meat!

First punching me in the gut and now throwing me off a cliff?! He's got a lot of nerve!

I stood up and dusted my clothes. I looked around, not really able to pin point from which direction I had come. I didn't know which side the cliff was on. I sighed, picking a random direction to find my way back. Man, I felt like some primeval nomad. I kept getting thrown all over the place and I had to look for new places to stay! Darn....

I walked for about ten minutes but I got no sight of the cliff. I had no idea where I was; my direction sense in forests was hopeless to begin with so how was I expecting I'd find my way back here. I stopped in the middle of a clearing and sighed. "Aww man....now I can't even tell which way I came from!" I muttered to myself annoyed. Every side looked the same, every clearing looked the same; I wouldn't be very surprised if I was even walking around in circles.

I was brought out of my thoughts though when I heard a rustle in the bushes. I narrowed my eyes looking in that direction. "Um....is anyone there?" I could sense about five people around me. They were pretty strong, their chakras high. But why were they hiding? Then again, in times of war like this no one could be trusted.

The question had barely left my mouth and I found myself staring into sharp brown eyes with the tip of a kunai held barely a few millimeters from my throat. The five people I had sense earlier were surrounding me now, one or the other weapon held dangerously close to my throat. My breath hitched and my eyes went wide.

"Who are you?" I blinked calming down a bit before looking at the man in front of me. His eyes were menacingly narrow and the thick smell of blood hung around me because of the blood on these people's clothes. I swallowed the bile that seemed to rise in my mouth because of my disgust. "I asked you a question, woman!!" I flinched as the man yelled again.

Now that I looked at them, all these men were dressed in armor with different weapons on their side. They had white forehead bands and on the shoulder part of their armor, they had the Senju insignia engraved on the metal.

I was a little concerned now. Senju insignia? Had I ended up in the past again?

But for the time being, I really think I should answer this guy's question. The weapon he was holding was getting closer to my neck and if I didn't say anything soon, I was gong to end up as minced meat. I racked my brain for a good reason, wanting to play safe instead of telling them about my ability to read minds and predict danger.

"I um.....well, I....I'm a wandering healer!" I finally said lamely. I cringed as these guys narrowed their eyes further. "Wandering healer? We have heard of no such thing." He was skeptical and I began to panic when one of the others pressed his sword against my skin. It wasn't hard enough to cut me but I shivered feeling the cold metal press against my skin.

"W-wait! I'm not lying! See? I even have a medical ninjutsu book with me!" I held it out in an attempt to make them believe me. One of them took the book from my hands and flipped through some of the pages. He nodded to the others and I heave a sigh when their weapons were pulled away from my throat.

"We will believe you for now. Come, you should be reported to Butsuma sama." I blinked. Reported? Reported?! What was I, some criminal?! Jeez these guys!! But wait....Butsuma san? Wasn't that Hashirama's and Tobirama's father? So I really was back in the past huh? Oh well, at least a mentally stable Madara would be here. It was definitely better than the crazy guy he was in the other time I was in.

Maybe I was back in the time I was before Madara sent me to the future. Then I could just explain things to Hashirama and Tobirama and everythignn will be okay.

I just nodded and we began to walk through the forest again. I was in the middle and the five people were walking around me leaving not even the smallest niche for an escape. I shook my head with a sigh. These guys were being too paranoid.

"As a woman, you should learn to dress decently. If it wasn't for your indecent dress sense and your blue eyes, we would have killed you immediately assuming you were an Uchiha." I raised a brow. Again with the decency and Uchiha crap? Seriously? Couldn't I go one day in this world without such complications?

"You're enemies with them?" I asked and the one on my sides glanced at me. "Yes, you didn't know? Both the Uchiha clan and the Homashu clan are the Senju clan enemies. You were observing our armor so I'm sure you know which clan we're from." Wow, he could tell what I thought just by my reactions? These guys must be really good....

I hadn't heard about the Homashu clan before. Was that a new clan that had popped up? I wonder how much time had passed since I was sent to modern Konoha....no wait....that cant be possible. Konoha was already formed and the Uchihas and Senjus were living together peacefully even when I left!

I rubbed my forehead with my fingers feeling the stress building up again. Where on earth was I now? Or rather, which time frame was I in now?

We reached a primeval looking settlement soon after. I looked around noticing that I stood out a bit too much in front of the others. Everyone here were wearing dull colored clothes, most of the men wore armor similar to the ones the guys escorting me were wearing. There weren't many women around and even they were dress in rather dull colored clothes. They wore long ankle length kimonos and many of them whispered and sneered seeing the way I was dressed.

The most common thing noticeable though was that they were mostly dressed in shades of maroon. Signature color of the Senjus if you ask me.

I sighed. Oh man....I was back to the beginning, wasn't I? Don't tell me that I was at the point where Hashirama and Tobirama didn't know me or hadn't even met me before. I really didn't have the patience to start things from scratch again.

We made it to a large building in the middle of the settlement. The guys escorting me led me through a series of hallways and we came to a stop in front of a door. One of them knocked. "Butsuma sama." I heard his low voice from inside giving us permission to enter so the door was slid open and I was pushed inside with a hand on my back.

When I saw Butsuma san, my eyes went a little wide. He looked.....young! Well not too young but definitely younger than I remember him to have been. There were three kids sitting in front of him, one of them with clenched hands. When Butsuma san saw me, he looked over me and frowned, giving me a look of slight disgust.

I restrained from rolling my eyes.

"Hashirama, Tobirama, Itama, you may leave now. We'll continue our discussion later." That's when my eyes were ready to bug out of my sockets. The three kids got up and walked past and I couldn't take my eyes off them. These kids were Hashirama and Tobirama?! Wait.....and who's Itama now?

I was still looking at the door when the three kids left. "And who are you?" I was brought back to the present by Butsuma san's voice. I looked back at him in a slight daze. "Huh? Oh um.....I'm a wandering healer....I was sort of lost in the forest and I ran onto these people." I waved around to the five people in the room.

Butsuma san narrowed his eyes. "Wandering healer? I have heard of no such thing before. Not from any other clan either." I sweatdropped with an awkward smile. "Uh....yeah....but I usually prefer some anonymity? Although I doubt its going to be anonymous anymore...." The room was silent for a few minutes. I was starting to get really annoyed by how serious everyone was and I would have ended up opening my big mouth if Butsuma san hadn't spoken up first.

"I see. Very well, I will believe you. However, to make sure what you say is true, I want you to heal someone." I just nodded to him and one of the five people who had escorted me here left the room after nodding to Butsuma san's gaze. A few silent minutes passed and the man entered with someone following him in something that looked like a wheelchair. A primeval looking one anyway.

The person sitting in the wheelchair had a thick blanket draped over his legs. "This man lost both his legs in the war against our enemy clan. He has no feeling of his legs anymore. If you can heal him, I may consider keeping you alive." "Oh, um...yeah sure. Whatever you say."

I walked to the man, kneeling at his level. I took off the blanket from his legs and ignored the hole boring glare he was giving me. I touched his knee, his calf muscle, his hips and back asking him if it hurt anywhere. He couldn't really feel anything of his legs but one part of his back seemed to give him a piercing pain when I touched it. Butsuma san had stood up and walked to us when the man had yelped. He was watching me rather skeptically and I stood up.

"I need you to lie him down on his front so I can examine him better." The others in the room helped the man, helping him up and laying him down on his stomach on a mattress on the floor. I sat on my knees next to him, lifted up hos shirt and examined his back a little more. One of the bones in his spine seemed to have been dislocated. It was putting pressure on the nerves and causing the numbness in his legs. He wasn't actually crippled.

Running a hand through my hair, I lifted his placed my and on his back, fingers positioned on the bone that was out of place. "This may hurt for a moment, but please bear with it, okay?" I smiled at the man. He looked wary but nodded. I took a deep breath and in one swift movement, pushed the bone back in place.

The man screamed in agony and immediately, I was thrown off. My back made painful contact with the floor and Butsuma san was hovering over me, his eyes menacing and a kunai at the base of my throat. I stopped breathing my eyes going wide. The guy was still in pain letting out moans and groans.

"Woman! What do you think you're doing?!" "You just told me to heal him! That's what I'm doing! I still need to heal him completely!" He narrowed his eyes his glare only getting harsher. "Wench!" This time though, my brow twitched in annoyance. " Look buddy, my life is on the line here. I really don't want to get my butt whopped by anyone here so just give me a chance, would you? That guy's spine was under pressure because one of the bone's was dislocated. Forcing it back in place is very painful so I have to heal his spine and the pain now." I explained.

Butsuma san narrowed his eyes, not moving for a moment. Then he got off me and I sighed, sitting up as well. I went back to the patient and held my hands over his lower back where I had popped the bone back. I began healing and after a few minutes, the guy didn't look like he was in pain anymore.

When I was done healing him, I moved away. The man stayed motionless for a minute and then slowly got up on his knees. He stood up, wobbling quite a bit. He almost fell but I caught him as he breathed heavily. "I can.....I can feel my legs again.....I can stand....." He was gripping me quite tightly in his shock and surprise. I smiled sheepishly. "Um....you're kind of hurting my shoulder?"

"Ah.....sorry." He let go, managing to stand on his own. "Butsuma sama....I can walk...." Everyone was watching me with wide eyes. Hey I had pretty good medical knowledge especially since I had been trained in the CIA.

"I see, you weren't lying. Your healing skills are beyond what I expected. You will be an asset to us....very well, Yuutaro take het to a spare room and make sure she's guarded well. I have to attend a meeting now and I will come to ask you some more questions later." I rolled my eyes but nodded. Why is it that I always had to get interrogated for something? I had to do some information gathering myself, but I had time so for bow lets relax a bit, shall we?

Shaking my head, I just followed this Yuutaro person to where I would be staying.

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