The first thing Sasuke was aware of was that he was not dead. His body hurt, a lot. Now he had entirely expected to wake up in hell, having some kind of demonic force keep him in agony for the rest of his life but, as it turned out, he was alive. The second thing he was aware of was that someone was trying to talk themselves through healing him, like Sakura had done initially as well. Then the sharp pain racing up his leg slowly was pushed back until it was gone. Also the ache behind his eyes slowly eased. Deciding to risk it he cracked open one eye and shut it as the world lurched and a sound escaped his lips. His healer gasped, seemingly surprised that he was awake and he felt angry. Who the hell was healing him?

Slowly he opened his eyes and looked over to see a woman with cropped dark brown hair kneeling beside him. She was not dressed like she came from any of the Hidden Villages. She wore a pair of tight dark brown pants tucked into low purple boots and a creme colored tunic. She had vaguely familiar features but he was sure that he had never seen her before. She appeared to be about Kakashi's age. She was muttering to herself before she clapped her hands together over him. His body jerked violently as he felt infections burn out of him and bruises heal with brute force. Letting out a harsh breath he lay there panting and glared at her furiously.

"What the hell did you just do?" he demanded.

"Healed you," she said opening one eye and giving him a withering look before closing her eyes again.

"That hurt," he snapped.

"I'm not the one who got themselves hurt in the first place," she returned sharply.

He said nothing, just glared up at her. She lowered her hands and sat back looking down at him. She was not that tall, if he was on his feet she'd barely come to his shoulder. She cocked her head to the side and looked at him, as if she were studying everything about him. He felt naked under her eyes though he knew that he was fully clothed. He eased himself up on his elbow before she pushed him back to the bed with a quick shake of her head.

"You're too weak," she said, "I'm afraid I haven't healed more than a papercut in thirteen years," she frowned, "memory loss, not a good sign. You were conscious for a bit back there."

"I was?" he asked, "I don't remem--"

"Finally it ends."

"I will take your eyes!"

Pain

Fire

Sasuke felt the sting of someone yanking him back to reality. The world, and his healer, swung back into focus as his memories of his final battle with his brother failed to consume him.

"Its best not to remember an attack until your body is ready for the stress," she said, "otherwise it can make healing much worse and with me as your healer that is the last thing you need."

"Why are you my healer?" he demanded, "where's Sakura?"

"You already asked for Sakura," she said, "I don't know where she is but right now you're stuck with me."

"Do you have a name?"

"Rin," she said standing up, "my name's Rin."

"Why are you healing me?"

"Because the man keeping us captive--whichever one he happens to be at the moment--has a sick sense of humor. Now hold still," he opened his mouth, "mother of all," she shook her head, "Uchiha's, you're all the same! The second you need healing you don't want it. You'll all fight until you pass out before you admit that you've been injured," she shook her head, "you and the Hitakes. Maybe if you all didn't insist on getting yourselves injured all the time you wouldn't need any healing!"

"What?" Sasuke opened his mouth wondering how the hell he had managed to anger her when he had been unconscious most of the time.

"Sorry," she said, "I'm taking things out on you I shouldn't," she shook her head "I apologize."

"I deserve worse," he said looking away.

"Does this have to do with your brother?" his eyes snapped towards her, "I come from Konoha, I knew Itachi, though I only met you once when you were small enough that even Itachi could pick you up with one hand," Sasuke looked away, feeling his eyes burn.

"Itachi changed," he said looking away, "Itachi's dead."

"That must be why--" she trailed off looking down before looking back at him, "I knew an Uchiha, who was always glad he never had a brother. Maybe its impossible for the Uchiha brothers to exist at the same time," she smiled faintly and shook her head, "well, at least you won, something I'm sure you're Sakura will be very happy about."

"Yeah and Naruto when he gets the chance to try and beat the crap out of me," he added darkly.

"Naruto?" she gasped, "you know Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Yeah," he said, "he was on my team under Kakashi," he looked at her, "how do you know Naruto?"

"I don't," she said, fumbling to change the subject, "Kakashi Hitake is your teacher?" she demanded, coming with straws, "silvery hair, mismatched eyes, wears a mask always?" she narrowed her eyes.

"We spent an entire day trying to get his mask off," he said.

"Don't even go there, I spent two years trying to get that thing off and, as it turns out, he's just got--"

"Another one underneath," Sasuke finished.

"Its why you never see him eat," she shook her head, "well Kakashi's a teacher now huh? I did not see that one coming," she chucked, "much less the teacher of an Uchiha."

"Kakashi's a good teacher," he said, "my circumstances were--" he struggled for the right words, "unique," she nodded stood up before sitting down heavily, "are you alright?"

"I told you, I haven't healed anything in a while--hell I haven't used Chakra in a while."

"I thought you said you were from Konoha."

"Missing nin," she said with a shake of her head, "since I doubt the Hokage decided to honor my request."

"Tsunade can be a stickler," he agreed.

"Tsunade's the Hokage?" she demanded. He nodded and she laughed, "well Konoha's certainly changed since I was last there--what?" she asked as he looked at her, his eyes sobering, "what?"

"You're Karina Uzumaki," he said, 'the Fourth Hokage's student," she looked away as if she had been struck, "you helped him seal the demon into Naruto," accusation crept into his voice, "you condemned him to hell!" he roared, lunging forward. His fist made contact with her before his body decided fighting was a bad idea and collapsed against her, "you almost killed him."

"Almost?" she asked weakly.

"He has friends now, he still defends me after everything I did to him," he sagged forward, "he's well loved by everyone--but he wanted a family and you stole it from him," he looked at her, his eyes blazing, "why did you leave."

"I didn't know what Minato was going to do," she said shaking her head, "if I had known, if there had been any kind of time, I wouldn't have done what he asked me too," she closed her eyes tightly, "I told him there had to be another way but he didn't listen to me," she opened her eyes and blinked back tears, "I shouldn't have run away but after everything it seemed like it was the only way."

"There's another way, there has to be," Sasuke argued and Rin got the distinct impression he wasn't talking about her situation, "everything's changed and after what I've done--I can't go home," his eyes seemed overly bright, "I don't have a home."

"You sound like someone I knew, a long time ago," she said, "his father was a hero who lost his way. Only instead of finding his way back his father killed himself in front of the young boy. The boy spent his life making sure that he would never, ever be like his father until he became something like his father used to be without even realizing it. He never got along with his team-mates either. Their healer was in love with him and his other team mate was loud and talked enough for the both of them. But, when the healer was captured, the boy's team mate made him see that fighting for someone was more important than fighting for something."

"Did he save her?" Sasuke asked after a moment.

"Yes," she said, "he saved her but he became someone else, someone she didn't know. He was too blind to know that she had been in love with him from the start."

"Why are you healing me?" Sasuke asked, changing the subject, "if Madara is going to use me--"

"I'm not going to let him," she said firmly, "and neither is Obito."

"Who?"

"The idiot who talks to much in my story is Obito Uchiha, related to you somehow no doubt," she smiled, "I thought he was dead but it seems that he's alive and in trouble," she glared over her shoulder at a shadowy patch, "and I'm going to get him back--I just haven't figured out how," she smiled at him, "you remind me of Kakashi though."

"Kakashi? Always-late-Icha-Icha-reading-teamwork-is-the-most-important-thing-Kakashi?!" Sasuke shook his head, "he's more like Naruto. Always late--"

"Really because when I first met Kakashi he was always early," she said.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows and Rin smiled at the idea that Kakashi was always late nowadays before being seized by a sudden sadness. Always late but still wearing a mask. It seemed that Kakashi had not simply become Obito but some twisted combination of himself and Obtio. For some reason that made her heart twinge. Rin had not allowed herself to think of Obito or Kakashi in a long time for this exact reason. In fact, she had not allowed herself to think of anyone in Konoha for a long time. Every time she did, her heart clenched painfully and her mind would flash back to that horrible night when the world had ended.

Dimly Rin wondered if this was the fate of Konoha's children. Was it their fate to have their futures determined by their pasts? Were they destined to forever pay the debts created by their predecessors? She had run from Konoha but she had not escaped what she was meant to be, her sitting in a cave held captive by Obito was proof enough of that. The fact that she had remembered enough to heal Sasuke in any respect was also a clear indication that the past was not as far out of reach as she would have liked it to be. She looked at the hands in her lap, almost seeing the blood on them, the blood that would always be on them.

"Rin?"

Rin looked up at the sight of Madara Uchiha walking into the room. He looked at her, something undefinable in his eye. Frantically she searched her mind for what could be going on inside of his head. Was it possible for someone to be half himself and half someone else? Was he somehow Madara and Obito at the same time? She saw him draw out a hand and flinched backwards until she saw it was a folded robe. He offered it to her and she accepted it with numb hands, feeling something hard concealed inside of it. Her hands covered his for a moment and he jerked backwards as if the physical contact had hurt him. She hung her head, he really was becoming Kakashi.

"You should change your cloths, I've put one in there for the boy as well," he told them briskly, "you are of no use to me dead," he added and walked off.

Rin waited before opening the robes and pulling out what had been concealed inside. It was a rock, a wet rock. Rin sucked in her breath, her heart thudding wildly with hope. The rock was wet enough that he couldn't have gotten it from far away. She turned it over it her hands, looking for anything he may have hidden but found nothing. Touching a finger to the stone's surface she brought it up to her lips and touched her tongue to the liquid, tasting the salt. She saw Sasuke shoot her a confused look but she barely registered it.

She knew what to do, Kushina had made her learn amid much protest on her part. She had sworn she would never be a killer and it had taken weeks for her elder cousin to explain that what they could do, as Uzumaki's and as citizens of Whirlpool, was a tool. It could be used for good or for evil. Rin had never been as good as her cousin, she had never wanted to be as good as her at using what she called 'tools'. But she knew how to use them none the less. Ignoring the questioning looks from her companion she held the stone in her palm and lowered her hand.

The stone hovered there, trembling in what could have been mistaken for excitement. For a breathless moment nothing happened. Then, slowly, the stone glowed a bright violet before shooting off into the darkness. Rin shot to her feet and raced down the hallway after the stone. It shot down the hallway as it raced to join its brothers. Rin ran after it as fast as she could before the stone shot upwards and lodged itself in a crack. Rin closed and then opened her eyes, allowing the violet she had colored the stone to spread along the water seeping through the stone and found herself looking at a blocked doorway, water trickling down the opposite side.

"I see you put it to good use," Madara's arrogant voice came, "I knew you would," he struck out and she felt his hand cut painfully into her cheek before his nails jammed into her jaw, "but you aren't going to use it."

"Why not?" she demanded, her voice muffled as her jaw protested all movement, "I could."

"You could but you won't," he said and she got the distinct impression he was smiling beneath the mask, "and we both know why," she looked away sharply before he dropped her to the ground.

"I am going to use the damn exit!" she she hissed shoving herself up, "you know why? Because you got yourself killed, not me--besides what the hell are you complaining about," she glared up at him, "you're not dead," she jammed a finger into his chest, "you're turning into Kakashi."

"I am Madara Uchiha," he snapped grabbing her finger and twisting.

"You've got a mask. You're silent most of the time," she looked at her finger, "obviously not afraid to hurt others as long as it furthers your goal--should I go on?"

"I am not Kakashi."

"Just like he's not you?" she demanded, "you know what? Next time bring me orange goggles and a blue mask. I should just turn into both of you and settle this once and for all," she snapped glaring at him.

"We aren't children anymore Rin," he said, his voice cold and hard, "there is more than our lives at stake now," he shook his head, his voice slipping into whatever it was that made him Obito, "damn it Rin! You have to get out of here!"

"Why?! So this can start all over again?!" she shouted at him, "you don't get to play with me, with Konoha like we're puppets for you to toy with!"

"Then kill me!"

Rin froze. The scene was so similar. But the players had changed, the location had changed and yet somehow, somehow it was still happening. He wanted her to kill him and she couldn't bring herself to do it. Kakashi should have killed her that day at the memorial, like Obito should have died when the rocks fell on him. At least he died for something he believed in. At least his death had meant something except heartache and pain. All of them, they should be dead and yet, and yet somehow they were still alive. They had all turned into Kakashi, she realized. Unable to find themselves they had warped into version of each other.

"Not yet!" the words tore from her lips, "if I can't find a way to save you then I will but not yet--you have to let me try to save you!" she cried. He looked up, obviously shocked, "you owe me to let me try to save you."

"I suppose I do," he said, his voice soft, "i wish I didn't."

"Me too," she said, "maybe Minato was right, maybe sacrifice was necessary for the next generation to not grow up like us," she shook her head, "let me try to save you and if I fail I will be back and I will kill you."

"You promise?"

It seemed like a final, terrible twist of fate that here, on the ground, in a cave somewhere her possessed friend was making her swear to kill him. She held out her hands and slowly he placed his own on top of them in a gesture of consent.

"You aren't going to like it," he said his voice soft and regretful.

"I rarely do," she said.

"What he is, what I am, its dark Rin, dark and twisted and more evil than anything we've ever seen before," he looked at her, "you'll change, like I did if you know what it is," she wanted to ask what 'what' was, what he was talking about but held her tongue, "it'll warp you," he looked at her, "but if you want to--promise me it will be only you who does it."

"I promise," she said, ignoring the voice in her head that was screaming at her not to do whatever she was about to.

"Why? We haven't seen each other in thirteen years--"

"Because I love you," she said looking up at him, "and because even if I can never love you in the way I should, I love you in the only way I can," she tightened her grip on his hands, "and I will find a way to bring you back."

"What horrible things must I have done to deserve friends like you," he said with a soft shake of his head before he withdrew his hands, "you're about to go to a very dark place," he moved his hands up to his temples, "good luck Karina Uzumaki, you'll need it."