Naruto, Madara is my girl.

"I'm not a lolita fan, I'm not a lolita fan..."

Akira repeated the words over and over in his head, but it didn't help. Mito's current age flipped the entire situation around, by the time he ressurected, she's been older than him now.

Instead of feeling like he was protecting some innocent girl, the whole thing now felt backwards, like some strange reversal of roles he wasn't prepared for.

"It doesn't seem impossible... No, no-now's not the time to think about this."

He shook his head, forced his thoughts into place, and when he looked up, his focus was back where it should be.

"Mito, if I remember right... we didn't get married before I died."

"Mm," she answered lazily. Her finger traced light circles over his chest as she spoke. "We only married after you died. I've been your wife for almost ten years now."

"Ghost marriage? No-no, that's not the point." Akira frowned. "You said it's been ten years? That means you married me when you were just…"

His eyes widened. Even during wartime when girls often married young, fourteen or fifteen was normal, it was weird hearing it out loud from Mito herself. To someone from Akira's original life, under-eighteens were basically toddlers in disguise.

"Uh-huh." Mito nodded slowly and bit her lip. "I thought you were really gone… I thought I'd be alone forever…"

As her words faded, she dug her fingers into the side of his waist-but her touch met muscle as hard as stone. Her eyes narrowed and she took in the scent on his skin, there was no warmth to it at that moment. Just rot and cold.

"Brother Akira... what is this...?"

He gave her a weak smile, one hand lifting to rest over hers on his side. "I really was dead."

Mito froze before jerking upright, brushing hair back from her cheeks. The flickering candlelight made everything look different, lit up the cracks carved into Akira's skin like they were part of some broken statue.

All her long-held suspicions crumbled at once. He hadn't been hiding for some secret plan. He hadn't faked his death to work in the shadows.

He really had died and somehow come back.

Mito might have been the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, but even she flinched at anything involving ghosts and the dead. There was fear in her eyes even as she tried to keep her breathing calm.

"Are you… are you really Brother Akira…?"

"Obviously." Akira gave her another crooked smile. "Or do you want me to eat you while you sleep?"

Her lips parted in surprise. The tone in his words, his face, it was exactly the same. The fear started to ease away as she nodded once and leaned forward again.

"...then what are you now?"

"I'm semi-resurrected. Half-dead. Half-alive." He kept his tone even. "Eventually, I might end up back in the Pure Lands."

Her hand reached toward him immediately, but he raised his own and stopped her gently before she could speak again.

"Don't panic. I have one chance left to come back properly… but we have to understand what happened first. There's too much about my death that doesn't make sense."

Mito leaned closer again and nodded intently.

"What exactly?"

"The fact that I'm dead." Akira said it flatly without flinching. "Back then, Tobirama killing me just didn't make sense. That's not how someone like him acts."

He rubbed his fingers briefly along her arm while thinking aloud.

"If Tobirama really believed I was dangerous, he would've tried bringing Hashirama into it first before making that kind of call… unless…"

Mito narrowed her eyes but began talking anyway after sorting through everything in her head.

"You and Uchiha Izuna died together… After that, Konoha's foundation really started solidifying."

"Wait, stop."

Akira held up his hand sharply and stared at her hard.

"What do you MEAN we died together?"

"Huh?" Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Didn't you know? Neither of you would give up, you fought until you both stabbed each other at once…"

Akira jabbed at his chest with disbelief written on every inch of his face. "You're telling me Izuna and I killed each other?"

Mito nodded again slowly while watching his reaction carefully.

He clenched his fists in silence for several seconds, and then cursed Tobirama under his breath so fast she couldn't catch half of what he said.

"That bastard… set me up with Izuna?"

He gritted his teeth as realization kept crawling louder through his head.

"And on top of it… no vengeance… no resolution… just two people twisted by war until they killed each other for nothing."

His mouth opened again-but this time, what came out was someone else's name entirely.

"Madara, what about her?"

Akira grabbed Mito's hand before he even realized he had moved, the grip so tight she winced slightly but didn't pull back right away.

"Ah-shit, sorry!"

"It's fine," she said softly before continuing. "After your death... Madara agreed to build Konoha alongside us..."

Her eyes dropped briefly as she tried recalling the exact moment things turned again.

"After we married, Madara fought with Hashirama again. She tried to kill Tobirama, but she lost... and after that she left Konoha altogether."

"Huh…" Akira frowned fast-and deepened that frown hard enough to crease his whole face two seconds later. "Wait, how'd she know it was Tobirama...?"

And then it clicked.

'Black Zetsu should've shown up around that time.'

He didn't say it out loud, but Mito saw it in his face anyway as he replayed every decision he ever made since resurrecting.

"A complete setup…"

His jaw clenched again slowly as he pieced it together, Madara losing Izuna's eyes, not being pushed far enough into despair, Black Zetsu rewriting everything behind the scenes...

"No wonder Tobirama killed us both right then, and no wonder Madara knew who to blame."

Akira laughed under his breath-but there was nothing amused about the sound of it this time.

"I wanted to wait…but after this…"

"Brother Akira?"

Mito called out softly when he suddenly fell silent again, and he turned back toward her with surprise in his eyes like he'd forgotten she was there at first.

"Oh, I was just... thinking…"

She shifted positions without waiting for him to finish and asked calmly:

"You like Uchiha Madara, don't you?"

Akira opened his mouth but nothing came out right away.

Yes? No? Either way, someone was getting hurt if he chose one answer over the other too soon.

Before he could pick which lie or truth to tell, Mito whispered softly.

"I already knew."

Her eyes stayed gentle, even now, as she leaned into him again and reminded him of exactly what he'd always said years ago about who he liked:

"Strong… confident… has long legs… and acts cold until they're not."

She rested against him again without following it with anger or jealousy-instead curling around him just enough for him to feel her warmth through that cold skin of his half-living body.

"I don't mind," she added simply, "Just don't forget me."

Akira pulled her closer without thinking twice before breathing into her hair.

"Mito… thank you."

"Don't leave me behind again."

"I won't."

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