Disclaimer: Not mine.

"You know, I go to the theater to be entertained... I don't want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug abuse... I can get all that at home."

-Peter Cook

She wasn't suppose to be alive. She completed her journey and took the bad guys down. But the Gods have other plans, one God in particular. For the favor she did It, It will return it... thrice the good will.

-v-v-

Waking up wasn't like she expected it to be like.

But then again, she never thought she'd be waking up in the first place.

After all, she was suppose to be dead.

-v-v-

"Why Master? You know you cannot rest eternally. Why do you try? You only cause yourself more pain."

A hoarse laugh echoed through the caverns.

"Why? You know why Death. I do not wish to have this gift." The word was spit out between teeth, the noun a curse. "This gift." It was spoken softer, as if the speaker was lost in memories. "I did not ask for this Death." It was something a child would say, and she was no longer human.

"No. But everyone wants it. They strive for it. They kill for it. They would do anything to escape me. You have seen this yourself Master. You friend... your enemy... everyone. Why do you curse this gift that I have given you?"

The entity floated around the teen, 'voice' curious and just a bit concerned.

"Humans." She coughed. "Ba! Nothing but sheep they are." A slim and pale hand was raised, fingers spread and looking as young as it ever did. "Following someone who had no intention of leading." A quick shake of the head and black hair fell over tired brown eyes. "I would like to see my loved ones Death. I would like to live with them, smile with them, laugh with them and cry. Just cry."

"You can see them. You are Death's Master. Just call on them."

"But I'm not really with them, am I? I am not allowed to tell them who I am, who I used to be."

"Master-"

"I can do nothing." She cut the other off, head falling to the side and hand dropping, her hair fell around her in a halo- making the teen look like a fallen warrior. "You are dismissed Death. Finish collecting the souls."

"Master..." The cloaked figure said nothing for a moment before bowing. "As you wish." And disappeared with a whispered sound.

The teen was silent, fingers clenching around an invisible foe. "Death's Master." She chuckled, a raspy sound. "Ha."

It had been about fifty years since her last hibernation.

She didn't want to see anymore.

A humans life was just one big, never ending cycle that repeated itself every century or so.

War. Peace. War. Peace. WarPeaceWarPeace.

Where one ended and the other began, she still hadn't been able to figure out.

And all she wanted to do was sleep.

Humans have always had free will, a power that most Gods and Goddesses didn't have.

There were rules they all had to follow. Rules, that if broken, resulted in a fate far worse than Death.

But the rules hadn't applied for the Master of Death. A person- not a God, but not human.

"Master... I request your guidance."

Death was back, looking as worried as a hood covered figure could.

The teen cocked her head to the side, a distant look of curiosity in those weary eyes. "What happened?" She murmured. "That you had to come to me?"

"I have... been summoned." From the depths of its cloak, Death held open a skeletal hand which balanced a crystal ball shaped object, a light blue color still glowing.

"This soul..." The teen studied it for a second, an apathetic face holding a sort of wonder. "How long have you had it?" Death squirmed as much as a being of Death could, looking off to the side.

"No longer then a minute Master."

"How did you come to find such a treasure?"

"I had been summoned." It repeated slowly. "This soul was exchanged for another."

When Its' Master said nothing, Death continued with some trepidation.

"A man from that world summoned me as a last effort to kill another. The other was evil." And from Death, that meant a lot. "It was far past his time to die, but for some reason... I could not take his soul."

As Death finished, It started to tell Its Master of the technique used to summon It, not leaving anything out.

"Perhaps this old soul-" She took the orb from Death, a softly smiling wrinkled face appearing in her mind. "Didn't have anything left to give. You sealed the snake's arms, did you not?" Death nodded, cloak dipping.

"I have Master."

"Hn." A small glow filled the teens' hand, engulfing the globe and letting it take on a human's form.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's P.o.V-

He regretted everything.

Regretted letting his most promising student escape, regretted allowing Minato to sacrifice himself, regretted not helping Naruto when he most needed it... regretted everything.

But he had a village to run. He couldn't let the need of one overtake the need of all.

So he did what all Hokages did for villages...

He took out the threat. Though he should have- could have!- done it back when he had first found out about Orochimaru's experiments.

But that was the past. He was dead. So this is an obvious reason why he was so freaked out when he awoke to a room of light, standing face to face with a brown eyed teen.

"Who are you?" Immediately on the offensive, the old Hokage's hand went to his weapons' case only to find it gone... with him feeling younger then he ever did.

Brown eyes said nothing, a deadened look on her youthful face.

It was the teen's companion who answered.

"I am Death."

Even as off balanced as he was, Sarutobi could hear the capitals in the ghostly 'voice' that fluttered at the edge of his consciousness and pushed away all doubts and uncertainties.

It was terrifying.

"If you're Death." It took everything Hiruzen had not to run at that second, everything not to attack and everything not to faint. "Then why am I here and who is she?"

"It is not my place to question my Mast-"

"You can call me Kagome." All signs of death slipped off the teen's face then and there, leaving only a sparkling facade. And, as hard as he tried, Sarutobi could see nothing wrong with the skillfully crafted mask in front of him. All he could see was a teen's enthusiasm and a genins' optimism in life.

"That doesn't tell me who you are." To the side of the Monkey Summoner, Death shifted slightly, robes looking from the teen to the 'older' man.

"It does and it doesn't." Kagome agreed, an amiable smile tilting his lips. "What I need you to do is sign this." A pile of paper of appeared then, much to the astonishment of the old Hokage.

"I thought I got away from suddenly appearing paperwork." He grumbled, taking the stacks suspiciously, but hell- he was dead! What could paperwork do to him now? That is... until he read what he needed to sign.

"You want to be a Konoha shinobi!"

Kagome looked amused then. "I am already a shinobi for your village." She corrected. "Everyone else just didn't know that."

Sarutobi gave the other a deadpanned look, an eyebrow lifted. "I do not seem to recall a-" He looked down at the papers again. "No, I know there isn't a Higashi Kimimuri in my Village."

Kagome smiled, head cocked to the side looking disturbingly like a cat playing with a mouse. "But there will be." She muttered. "I am Death's Master." She giggled, the sound not taking away the look the old man had seen in the beginning. "I only have what's good for nature. And there are a lot of... baggage your Village has that I must get rid of."

Her face darkened, slightly scaring the Professor of the Shinobi world. "This... Orochimaru guy... he summoned two souls not too long ago, isn't that right Death?" The 'voice' made him jump, forgetting the entity was there in the first place.

"Yes Master."

"So if I get rid of those... people who seek a permanent vacation from Death, will that fill the quota the Others demanded from me?" The Others, as in the Gods and Goddesses. All had demanded she take at least three stained souls every hundred years of so. If not, she wouldn't be able to leave her home for half a millennium... basically house arrest.

"Yes Master. But there are multiple souls that have lost their light. You would be able to cease 'soul taking' for another millennium or so before the Others get disgruntled."

"Good." She turned to Sarutobi then, who was trying to gain as much information as possible. "Are you going to sign it?"

He only had one choice. Hello? Talking to the Master of Death here. Death's Master?

He signed it.

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Beta needed. Preferably one who's patient.