Chapter 4

Rin lay sprawled with a gaping wound in her back. However, much to Obito's surprise the wound healed in a matter of seconds, leaving behind a very faint pink scar that would eventually fade away in time. She hadn't even cried out once when he had struck her, instead she pulled herself on both legs. She didn't stagger, she was in total control of her body.

Obito almost faltered. Her healing abilities weren't the only thing that had advanced over the years.

It was her. He remembered the laughter, the smiles the two of them had shared together. No. No fucking way. He wouldn't allow himself the small glimmer of hope that was battling its way through years of grief. This shit didn't happen in real life. People didn't get handed second chances on a damn platter.

He'd prayed for a miracle more times than he cared to admit, but his prayers had gone unanswered. Or had they?

"You're losing it," he muttered.

This woman who remarkably resembles Rin, albeit with no purple rectangles on her cheeks, was staring down at him.

He rubbed his hands over his face and then over the back of his neck. Then he stared down at Rin. He wanted to believe it. He'd be just the sort of dumb ass who'd give this any credibility. But this wasn't genjtutsu, no one was that good. He remembered standing over her, pressing his fingers against her neck, pressing against slippery cold skin, where her heart should have been. Where her pulse should have been. She had been covered in blood.

Rin was gone.

Rin was dead.

She wasn't coming home.

Rin...

.

Her name floated insidiously through his mind.

It looked like her. Made sense it could be her. He hadn't stayed behind long enough to see her body being shipped back. He was getting carried away. There had to be some other explanation. Someone was messing with him. He didn't know why. He didn't care. He curled his lips in disgust. This was probably all Kakashi's doing.

Obito scanned her face, her beautiful face, gorgeous brown eyes, her hair which had grown so much longer and her body with definite curves. He hated the hope that sprung to life within him. His heart thumped like a jack hammer inside hie chest. His pulse raced so fast that he felt light-headed, almost like the night he came across her lifeless form.

Was this what it felt like at the end of the road? Was all that was left was for him to start barking at the moon? The thought took him by the throat. It had teeth. It wouldn't let go.

"Rin.."

Her eyes became wide, taking in his drastic appearance.

"It is you... isn't it, Obito?"

Rin crumbled, her eyes filling with tears. Harsh, ragged sobs came deep from her chest and shook her entire body as they spilled from her lips.

"It is you! Why... why, Obito? I thought you were dead all these years... you've become..."

"I haven't changed... Rin—I ..."

"Yes, you have... I don't..."

"No," she said in an even voice.

He scowled. "You don't know what happened after your ' died ' Rin. A lot has changed. I have changed. "

"Obito..."

He clenched his teeth.

"You weren't even dead, were you?" he whispered. Then louder.

"After all those years of mourning you! You come back from the damn dead, and now you're telling me that I've changed?! You're the one who chose to die at the hands of the man you loved after being forced becoming the host of the Three-Tails! Don't act as though you're feelings are hurt, because let me tell you something you have a perverse way of looking at what's right and wrong!

"You were dead! Dead, never coming back. And I blamed Kakashi, whom I trusted to protect you with his life and you took that away by taking your own, all for the sake of your precious village! Don't try and change me now... it's too late."

It was her turn now.

"I thought you of all people would understand! They were going to destroy Konoha! I couldn't let them use me like that! What happened to you? The boy who took pride in his clan and wanted to become Hokage!? What do you plan on achieving by doing this?"

"Is that all you have to say? Is that how you feel, Obito?"

She was startled by his low chuckle.

"I plan on creating a world where you never would have died in the first place... as far as I'm concerned, you're not even her. This world is nothing but an illusion filled with false hopes and dreams. There's only what you give the world and what the world takes from you."

"Obito..."

He paused.

"Will you at least let me explain...? Please? Do you think had I not been an unwilling host I would have killed myself? I was caught in the in-between... you're telling me you wouldn't have done the same thing? The old you... I can't even compare anymore. You're a stranger."

"And you're an imposter," he mustered all the venom and cold into those words. Rin swiftly dodged another blow, leaping backwards far away from him.

I couldn't get through to him... Obito...

"Rin!"

It was Kakashi. If she didn't get away, Obito might kill her. He would and wouldn't feel the least guilty. In his eyes she was already dead. Even when she thought she had seen a flicker of recognition in his eyes, it had disappeared.

Rin stared back at her teacher and his son. She mouthed two words. I'm sorry.

She had her head bowed, eyes closed in regret. There was nothing more she could now. Obliviously words were lost to him now.

As she was ready to head back towards the sub-division as quickly as she could, a shadow loomed over her and she felt a pain that sparked all of the nerves and fibers of her very being. She lost consciousness, catching images of the shinobi crying in alarm.

"Shit, he's going to kill her, we have to so something."

Tatsuya was interrupted by the formation of a dark-colored prism that encased them all. It was a barrier. Next, a very large and floral-like object erupted from the earth, their petals revealing large and dangerous orbs.

Obito barely stood over Rin's unconscious form.

Is she... really?

She began to move slightly. She noticed that she wasn't inside the barrier along with the others. She panicked.

She caught her sensei's eyes again. The they were gone, back to his son as he discussed something with him. She prayed fervently it was plan that wouldn't get them all killed. But this was the son of the Fourth Hokage. She had faith he'd come up with a strategy, meanwhile she thought about how she could break through to Obito. And the answer came to her as clear as rain.

She couldn't. He was a man too far gone. She forgot everything else. His words came back at her, piercing her gut. He knew that she loved Kakashi. She knew that he was in love with her, but she could never have reciprocated those feelings, ever.

"I don't understand. Why Obito? Why you?"

Kakashi sucked in several steadying breaths. He felt close to going completely insane with anger, grief, and guilt. How could he have not known she was alive? He could have demanded proof. Instead he blindly accepted his friend's death.

Why...?

The world around them shattered into splinters and crumbles as the bombs designated one by one.

After fifteen hours of labor, Chinastu gave birth to a seven-pound, three-ounce baby boy. His tiny insistent cry filled her ears. She could just make out his thick patch of dark hair on his tiny, blood smeared body.

"He's perfect," her mother whispered. Chinastu lat sweaty and exhausted. She barely had the strength to lift her head and face her newborn son. Dark bags had lined themselves underneath her eyes, making her older than she was.

"Chinastu, wake up. Have you seen him yet?"

"... b...baby... my baby..."

Her newborn son was placed beside her, cradled where her head was, She angles slightly and almost gasped at the light blue bundle. His eyes were closed in slumber, but she could see them shifting behind the pale lids. Both fists were out, clutching the warm blanket he was nestled in; and Chinastu reached out and grabbed his finger. That little hand reached out and grabbed her finger. She brought him close, cuddling the baby while shedding tears.

Her mind recalled an event from long ago.

After the session of their lovemaking, he gently splayed his hands over her belly, smiling. She gave him an amusing grin.

"There's nothing in there... yet, anyway."

"There's that word you like to use."

"If I do get pregnant..." she pressed.

"I hope it's a boy who looks just like you," whispered Chinastu.

He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "What if its a girl?"

"Whatever we have... it'll be a piece of you. I was thinking of an name if we do have a boy. Mom thinks it'll be a girl."

"What name were you thinking of in particular?"

"I was hoping to name him after the greatest shinobi I knew."

"Have you thought of a name?" asked the nurse.

"Yes..."

"I'll think you'll love it..."

"His name is... is..."

"I want to name him after your best friend... or if it is a girl maybe my grandmother," she laughed.

"Perfect," he whispered. "That's... perfect... Chinastu."

"His name is Uchiha Shisui, the man I met more than once, but will always remember. I love you, Shisui Uchiha!"

When she woke up, she wasn't on the ground anymore, but in someone's arms.

"Hey, wake up."

"Tatsuya?"

He looked... different. He was shrouded in some form of chakra shroud, as were all of the Shinobi Alliance. Was this the kyuubi's doing?

Another difference was that everyone was outside of the barrier; and she was within a safe distance away from Obito.

Tatsuya placed her gently on her feet and she too now was covered in the warmth of the kyuubi's chakra.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked.

"Everyone is fine..." he comforted her.

….

She watched a conversation between Sasuke and a tall man. She remembered him as Jugo, that was his name right?

While she was left to be with Kakashi, Tatsuya had managed to squeeze himself in between. Later, he was whispering something in his ear.

Rin left Kakashi, joining a pink haired kunoichi.

"Rin-san?"

"Long time no see, Sakura.

Smiling silently, Rin gazed once more at the father-son duo, the mix of emotions overwhelming.

"That Uzumaki boy, has truly grown up, hasn't he?"

Sakura nodded. "He saved all of us... "

"Then again, he is the son of the Fourth Hokage. I'm glad... Naruto... is... someone I could see as Hokage."

She laughed. "He reminds me of... how Obito once was..."

"Rin-san..."

"Hey, can you keep a secret? It concerns your friend... Uchiha Sasuke."

She nodded.

As Minato Namikaze and Naruto Uzumaki both stood in triumph, far away baby Shisui Uchiha was smiling in his mother's arms.

"I realize now... I won't be the one able to convince Obito anymore, Sakura. I don't think he's Obito anymore. I won't forget the old him... but the current him... has to die."