A story always has two sides. And you, well, you only saw one.

We could start at the beginning. The whole "birth, death, rebirth" process. But I've never been one for wasting time. If anything, life in this world has taught me that we don't have much of it. So I'll cut to the chase. I was born to a mother I never knew, fathered by a man I never met, and born in a land I had only read about in black and white pages of a book a lifetime ago.

I'll skip the wailing, the crying, the absolute terror that ran through me once I realized where I was and what was happening. Being reborn into this world isn't a blessing as much as it is a curse. Maybe if you're born in Konoha, or Suna, you could consider it a "blessing." Sure, you'll go to the academy! Sure, you'll learn ninjutsu! Sure, you'll be able to use chakra and move around and jump several feet in the air and you'll be SO! SUPER! COOL!

Give me a fucking break.

You'll have to kill. You'll have to maim. You'll have to witness war crimes, rape, murder, kidnapping, trafficking, because that's what this was. This world was, is, always will be, war. Humans don't change just because a black and white panel exists. You see the bright side. The "Peace is attainable!" "No more death!" "Good always wins!" side.

You see the Konoha side.

You don't get to see Kiri.

I remember I cried. The fear of being in this world was one thing, but learning I lived in what could possibly be the most brutal of the countries made my small body shake and tremble with silent sobs that made my caretakers believe I was having seizures.

But this was Kiri. And there were very little medical ninja, if any, available for civilians. Let alone orphans.

There was no mercy here.

But in the middle of it all, in the middle of the war and the pain and the bloodshed that comes with being a human being in this land…there was one thing that held me together in this time.

A little girl. A baby.

I was a twin.

I remember the first time my eyesight cleared, and how I stared at her in awe…a little wiggly thing with brown hair and a gummy smile, that always, always, always tried to snuggle up next to me. A baby that, for some reason, unbeknownst to me, loved me, unconditionally, without any doubt, without any fear, and without any prejudice.

At first, it wasn't easy. I didn't know who she was. I didn't know who I was. I was just 'baby.' And she was 'baby #2'. She would reach out, and I would roll away. She would try to hug me, and I would cry. I was convinced that I didn't want her. I didn't want anyone. I wanted to be alone, to live out this life as quickly as possible. Because I knew this world.

And I knew how it ended.

I had no desire to figure out what "time" I was in. Kiri was always fighting, so the wars that went on past the entrance doors didn't exactly "narrow" anything down for me either. I didn't care to meet Naruto, or Sasuke, or even the Sannin. I was angry, and bitter, and I wanted nothing to do with this.

But…

But she was so..

I had never had a sibling in my past life, and I hadn't known what that form of love was. I didn't know how to describe the feeling in my chest of absolute pain and hurt and wonder that dwelled inside me. I wanted to protect her. This world was cruel, it was so, so cruel, and I remember thinking god just please let her live let her be okay let her be safe.

Maybe that's an innate feeling that comes with family. Maybe it's something that's formed, or grown into. I don't know. I know shouldn't have cared. I shouldn't have bothered. She wasn't REALLY my sister any more than I was REALLY supposed to be in this world.

But she was my sister.

And I was in this world.

And In between my angst and anger…I grew to love her.

How could I not?

How do you not love someone who is always there with you? There for you?

I accepted her. And she loved me.

I wanted, so badly, for that to be enough.

But it wasn't.

Love never is.

We kept growing. Time didn't stop, time never stopped, and it went by so much faster than I ever wanted to. Babies became toddlers, and toddlers are curious. I was able to deduce that we lived in an orphanage. Nobody, except an array of different adults that I quickly figured out worked there, interacted with us. White walls, multiple beds, lots of other children who were just as lost as us. We also weren't allowed to go outside, for reasons unknown to anyone in the orphanage except me.

Can't have toddlers in a battlefield, can you.

I remember crawling around on a cold wood floor and being followed by that little brown haired girl. I never knew what to call her. I hadn't heard anyone use our names, if we even had them. Whenever adults would let us out of the crib, they barely spoke, aside from a simple "hello" or a "hey you" in a language I was slowly, but surely, beginning to learn.

But nobody ever called us by name. So for a long, long time…we were just…'hey you'.

But we were growing. And soon we began to walk, to speak, to grasp the environment around us in a way that made us wonder WHY things were the way they were. And she was so CURIOUS. It was so hard to just let things be, to ride this wave out until it gently took us to the shore. No, she wanted to jump off a tsunami, to face the tide head on, to risk drowning if it meant she got to see the fishes underwater.

She was always, always, so adventurous.

And I just wanted easy. I wanted no attention drawn to us. I was perfectly happy not knowing my name, or how fucked up the world outside really was.

Realistically speaking, I should've. I should've done research, I should've looked to see what timeline I was in, who I was around, what I could do to 'save the day.' Maybe if I had, Sasuke wouldn't have to grow up without psychiatric help after his clan was killed. Maybe Naruto would still have his parents. Hell, maybe the Uchiha wouldn't have had to die.

But I was barely learning how to run.

What, exactly, would you have me do?

We got older, and soon we were running around, our legs finally strong enough to support us at reasonable speed, and it got harder to act as though the outside didn't interest me. Because it interested her. So much. And soon enough, I wasn't able to stop her. She wanted answers. So, we went looking.

Maybe we shouldn't have.

The adults in the orphanage dwindled in numbers. There weren't many to begin with, but as the time went by, they became more and more scarce. And the kids…their numbers started dwindling as well.

"Do you ever wonder what our names are?" She asked me once.

I frowned at the thought, staring at her as she stared out the window.

"No." I answered honestly. "We probably don't even have names."

"Tai said everyone has names." She pouted. "We should find ours."

"Who's Tai?" I asked, yawning as I sat up.

"The older boy who used to sleep in the third bed on the fourth row!" She smiled. "He's gone now. I don't know where he went, but…he said everyone has a name, and that we should find ours someday."

"Hm." I frowned, dismissing the story as nothing more than a possible dream.

Orphans didn't have names.

Orphans didn't have anything.

"Come on." She whined. "Don't you wanna know? What if its something beautiful, like "Sayuri" or "Kaiya." She smiled.

"That can be your name if you want." I grumbled.

"No, silly." She laughed. "We have to find our real names. We can't just name ourselves!"

I sighed in annoyance. I had to admit that names were important. It was the first step in identifying who you were. And while I didn't particularly care what role I played in this world, or who I was "meant" to be…she did.

And she wanted to know.

So, I draped my small feet off the matress and hopped off, my tiny body waddling towards the the entrance of the "sleeping area" we all stayed in. There weren't many of us left. Me, my sister, and maybe 3 others who fell asleep for hours on end and sniffled often. Maybe they were sick.

Maybe they were crying.

I never got to know.

"Come on." I said, waving her over as she wiggled her way off the mattress, both of our legs working hard to get us to an adult.

"There's usually someone in the kitchen." I admitted. "She doesn't talk much though."

"You think she knows our names?" She asked.

"Shes got to." I responded. "She marks off whenever we have lunch."

I rounded a corner, tugging my sister towards the cafeteria as we saw her.

A small, frail, gray haired old woman, silently chopping whatever vegetables she could muster. Food was scarce.

Everything was scarce.

"Scuse me." I muttered, as I walked up to her, tugging at her skirt. "I have a question."

"Hm? Oh, uhm… Yes, dear?" She said, quickly wiping her eyes, her face torn. I suddenly forgot what I came here to ask, my mind shocked by the sudden display of emotion I was witnessing.

It had been a long time since I had actually SEEN sorrow.

The kids in the orphanage never really showed any emotion. My sister always smiled, but that was because I made sure she was happy…

It had been so long since I had seen pain like that. It was like realizing where I was all over again. It was like looking in a mirror. The old woman I could've been, should've been in a different place, a different land, a different world…watching the person I WAS instead.

It hurt me.

"Ne, baa-chan." My sister said, quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, little one." She said, wiping her eyes. "I'll be alright. Don't trouble yourselves with the sorrows of the grown ups." She laughed. "Go enjoy yourselves. Lunch will be ready for everyone in an hour or so."

"…whats wrong?" My sister said, extending her arms towards the woman. The woman leaned in from her seat, instinctively, letting my sisters tiny hands travel over her weathered face. Young fingers who had never known blood, murder, or sorrow, sloppily wiped away the tears streaks that framed her cheeks.

"…you both have been here a while, haven't you?" She smiled, looking at us both. We looked at each other. How would we know?

I never marked our birthdays. I never kept a calendar.

Being ignorant of the outside was easy when you didn't keep track of time. Judging by my sisters body, we were (maybe) three years old. But I wasn't totally sure.

"I guess." I muttered.

"….." The lady swallowed hard as she sat up, my sisters arms dropping to her sides as the woman began to speak. "The orphanage will be closing soon." She said, softly. "We…we can't afford to keep it running any longer."

I felt my body freeze as my sister jolted in surprise and snapped her head towards me.

It's a strange feeling, being helpless. Especially when someone relies on you. The orphanage had never been luxurious by any means, but it had been a home. It fed us, it let us grow in a safe environment. And that alone was a luxury many couldn't afford in this world. It had been our one safe haven. Our little home.

And it was being taken away.

Maybe that's why I could relate to the old woman so much. Because when I looked at my sister, and her eyebrows dipped, her lower lip jutted out, and she mouthed "What?", she was looking to me for guidance. For help. For answers to "what do we do? Where do we go? Whats going to happen to us?"

And I didn't have any of them.

I had nothing to give her. Not even a comfortable lie would suffice. I couldn't tell her we would be okay, because I wasn't sure we would be. I couldn't tell her where we would go, because I didn't know if we were capable of going anywhere. And I couldn't tell her what to do. Because I had no idea.

I was frozen in my tracks.

But she needed me. And her eyes were beginning to water.

So I smiled. My hands trembled, and my voice shook, but I told her the one truth I could guarantee her.

"Hey." I said, walking over to her as she wrapped her arms around my torso. I caressed her head as she sniffled into my chest.

"It doesn't matter." I said, honestly as she turned to look up at me.

"Hm?" She asked

"It doesn't matter what happens. Because no matter what, we're gonna stay together, okay?"

She sniffled, wiping at the tears that never got to fall as she swallowed hard.

"We are?"

"Of course we are." I said. "We'll be together, always."

"Always?"

"Always." I repeated. "Now, go say goodbye to baa-chan and go wait for me out in the sleeping area, ne? I'll meet up with you in a bit."

My sister nodded as she released me from her grasp, turning to the old woman. She stared at us for a moment before reaching out and stroking my sister's cheek.

"…. you both deserved so much better." She said, sadly. "So…so much better."

My sister swallowed hard as she gave the woman a soft smile. "It's okay, baa-chan." She replied, taking the woman's hand in hers. "Nii-chan says we're going to be together. If we're together, we'll be okay."

The old woman stared at me, her gaze calculating my leveled one. For a second, I could swear she saw through me. Just as I had seen myself in her…. perhaps she saw herself in me as well.

"Your Nii-chan is very smart." She said, her eyes never leaving mine. "Listen to her well, and I'm confident you both will endure."

"I promise, baa-chan." She smiled. I felt a pang grow in my heart.

A child only knows what she's exposed to. She hadn't known any different than the orphanage. She didn't know war, or what lay behind the entrance doors. She didn't know what lay on the battlefield, or if she would even participate in it.

No.

You tell a child things will be okay if we stay together, and they believe it. The same way the children of my old world believed in Santa, or the Tooth Fairy.

I knew the truth. She didn't.

And I wanted it to keep it that way.

"Ja-ne, Baa-chan!" She said, as she walked away. "Nii-chan, don't take long. I wanna know soon!" She smiled.

I waved her off with a smile as the old woman remained in her seat, not paying any mind to the vegetables in front of her.

She was helpless. And I could feel it in my bones. It was a wave of ice that drenched every nerve in my body, a bottomless pit being dug into my stomach. The feeling of "there is absolutely nothing left, nothing left, nothing left" echoed inside me. I knew the feeling all too well...and it hurt.

It hurt.

I swallowed hard as I walked up to her, touching her hand softly as she jumped and turned to look at me.

"Oh, little one." She sighed, her voice cracking as she cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. Is something wrong?"

"…no…" I said, staring at her face sadly. Her eyes were red, her skin, dry. She'd been crying so much…so so much.

"I…actually had a question for you."

"Yes, my dear, what is it."

I took a deep breath, running through the possibilities in my head from worst to best. Worst case scenario, we were Senju, Uchiha, or Hyuuga. Noble clans, who demanded their members be ninja and were famous for their fighting ability. Best case scenario, we were Naras, or perhaps even Aburame. Lost kids from noticeable clans who could easily gain access to a safer place, but where the pressure to be a ninja wasn't so potent. Hell, if we were in the right time frame, even a clan from Kumo or Iwa would do.

All in all, I just wanted to live.

I wanted my sister and I to fucking live.

I let out the breath I was holding as I looked at the woman, concern growing in her face.

"Do you...by any chance...know our names?" I asked, tentatively.

"Your…names?" She blinked.

"Yeah." I said. "Nobody really talks to us, so…we don't know."

I saw a flash of emotion go through her face like lightning. Was that-pity?

"…you don't know your names?" She asked quietly. I shook my head.

She bit her lips as a tear fell down her face. "I helped deliver you…" She whispered, choking back a sob. "And you don't know your names." She sniffled, quickly wiping a tear away as she sighed and reached out for my hands. I placed my tiny ones in her gray and weathered ones as she pulled me in, crouching out from her seat so she could look me at eye level.

"I'll tell you your name." She began, as she gave me a small smile. "But you have to promise me something."

I swallowed hard before nodding my head as she pulled me closer.

"You keep your sister safe, ne?"

"Of course." I said, defensively.

"No." She snapped. "I could see it in your eyes earlier. You…you're older. You're a child, but…you're not a child." She said, carefully. "You're an old soul, like your Mother was."

I felt my throat close.

"So you take care of her." She whispered again. "And you make good on that promise to always stay together. Okay?"

"Always." I said, repeating the promise we had made earlier.

She smiled softly at me before pulling me into an embrace. I shifted uncomfortable at the gesture, before deciding to reciprocate it, out of politeness if nothing else.

"Your name is Rei." She said, quietly. "You were born November 15, 30 minutes before your sister…. Your name is Nohara, Rei."

My body stiffened.

Nohara.

Nohara.

NOHARA.

That name.

I felt my hands clench. I felt my eyes water, and an entity that I can only name as 'fear' crawled into my heart, worked its way into my veins, clasped its icy hand around my spine and held it in a vice that made my body tremble like it never had before. Figuring out I lived in this world, figuring out I lived in Kiri, those realizations had been nothing compared to the petrifying mind number icecoldfear that ran through me.

NOHARA.

I felt a lump build in my throat as I let that name echo inside me…like the chidori would echo in her chest…like her name would forever echo in my heart…like her last words would echo in the mind of a man we hadn't met yet.

'ka..ka..shi…'

"Your sisters name is-

"Rin." We said, together.

Rin Nohara.

Kunoichi of Konoha.

Graduated academy by age 9.

Jinchuriki of the 3 tails.

DiED At AgE ThIRTeEN.

I pulled back from the old woman, tears brimming in her eyes as well as mine, as I shook my head.

No.

No no no.

She couldn't be Rin. She couldn't be Rin. Rin didn't have siblings. Rin wasn't born in Kiri, was she? No, Rin wasn't born here, Rin wasn't...No...

"….You protect that little girl." She said, her tone harsh as tears brimmed in her eyes. "You hear me? No matter what."

I felt my lip tremble as a few tears spilled out of the corner of my eyes as I nodded, lifting up a dirtied sleeve to wipe them back. What was happening? What was this?

"I will." I promised. "I swear."

"…I...I've lost important people to me." She said, her tone somber. "I thought if I just kept my head down and did good deeds, good things would come. But…in this world… you have to be strong. I know you don't want to be...I didn't want to either." She admitted. "...but you have to grow strong. Do whatever you must. Forgiveness isn't important as long as you both just live." She said, grasping my face in her hands. I sniffled, nodding again as I felt my lip quiver.

"Just live." She said once more, as her grip on my face softened as she began to stroke my cheek.

What a request.

I often wonder how it felt for the only wish to have for a child is for them to survive the outside world. How it felt to know you could no longer protect them and that they have to fend for themselves when they are so clearly unready…how painful…how…agonizing…

I nodded once more, choking back the array of sobs that was slowly building in my chest.

"I promise." I said. "I promise, I'll grow strong…I'll protect Rin."

"Always." She said, mimicking my promise to Rin earlier.

"Always." I promised.

I had wanted that to be enough.

I had wanted my resolve, my determination to gain strength and protect at all costs to be enough.

I had thought changing things would be easy. Like the butterfly effect. One small little flap on the edge of the world, and a tsunami reaches the other.

But time is set. And even though twists can occur, even though people who weren't here originally suddenly can…it is a difficult, difficult thing to alter.

My name is Nohara, Rei. Born November 15, in Kiri. Older twin to Nohara Rin by just a small 30 minutes.

And this is our side of the story.

AN: Ah, yes, the almighty rebirth fic. Are you surprised? Did you think i was better than that? Plot twist- IM NOT.

To clear a few things up, this was actually inspired by Silver Queens reincarnation roulette. If you read the one where Meimu Uchiha is the main character, theres on phrase where she talked to Rin, and says something like "by land or by sea, theres no escaping mist shinobi." Implicating that Rin was actually a Kiri Spy all along.

(maybe not, but thats how i took it.)

So then the imagination wheel started whirling and I came up with this. (and yes, Meimu may or may not make a later appearance. I gotta clear that with Silver Queen first though, since, you know, she's not my character.)

Maybe its good, maybe its awful, i wont know. BUT YOU KNOW! So let ME know in the reviews :)

Thanks! 3