Rin isn't what he expected. Just looking at her he'd been expecting her spit fire and a hit first attitude. Even with the reports he'd been given he had thought that they had been exaggerated about her stand offish nature and her quiet temper. When she doesn't say a single unnecessary word to him throughout the entire five hours he spends in the Hokage's office he realizes that his information is greatly undercut.

Rin, for all she looked like an Uzumaki and had the sealing skill for it, was clearly her father's daughter. It's in everything she does, the way she watches him with sharp intelligence that doesn't gloss over anything and a hidden attentiveness that tells him she's soaking in everything he and Sarutobi are saying like some kind of red haired sponge.

The Hokage had been prompting him to get to know the twins since they were born, back when he's first left the village and in his few trips between. So he tries, if only to avoid a lecture.

When he offers to take her and her brother out for dinner to get to know them her face darkens and she buries her face away into the notebook. The vague catches he manages show that the work is more advanced than most jonin can manage, let alone newly minted genin. He itches to get a look at where she is, what she's doing, it's a curiosity that's driven him since he first discovered the delicate art that he has become known to be a master in.

"He's not here. Had a mission," that's all she says. Getting her to say anything is like pulling teeth. He looks back at his old teacher who is shaking his head ever so slightly, as if he were disappointed. It makes Jiraiya and his god daughter both cringe.

"We can go," Rin says in what sounds to him like an amendment towards the old man. "But when he gets back you have to see my brother. "

"Ah, I guess if I have to. Girls are so much better than boys are though," he says theatrically, falling into the familiar role of the pervert. He expects a glare, or an eye roll, or to be ignored.

Instead he sees the barest ghost of a smile. It's gone as soon as it comes.

"Can we get ramen?" Rin asks, looking up at him with eyes so wide an innocent it has to be an act.

Yep, she's her parents daughter all right.


I liked Jiraiya much more than I disliked Kakashi. He too had abandoned us but he, at least, had reasons. Being a spy, a spy master no less, was extremely dangerous, and kept you on the move almost constantly. That was no way to raise children, even put in comparison with where we had been reared.

It also helped that I knew that one day he would teach my brother for years instead of just a few weeks or not at all. I wasn't going to proclaim my undying love for the old perv, but I won't say that he was entirely intolerable. That, and he paid for several bowls of ramen with only theatrical complaint and only tried to weasel a few words out of me.

Over all he was nice. If nothing else he was trying. I even got him to choke laughing.

"Is it true your brother wears orange?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Why?" he wondered.

I replied, "Because he likes it. It's a good color."

"If it's so good why don't you wear it?" Jiraiya challenged, shooting a look to the blue dress I favored.

Without even blinking I explained, "I would rather not look like the byproduct of a carrot and tomato having a few to many drinks."

My words were so ridiculous he ended up laughing himself blue. I was pretty sure he was a few days behind on sleep.

People only laughed like that when they've been awake too long.

He put up with me for a while more, letting me eat my fill at Ichiraku. At the end of the night he walked me home, to the same little apartment I'd had all my life. He wasn't drunk but his footing was unsteady and I could see dark circles threatening to round his eyes.

I wondered again how long it had been since he'd slept.

How did any ninja sleep, seeing what they saw? Knowing what they knew of the world? I didn't quite understand it.

Soon enough I would have to learn for myself.


"This is crazy," Genma told me, going over my notes and the final product one last time. I stood in front of him at one of the training grounds, letting the grass brush my exposed ankles. I tapped my fingers against the hem of my shorts, watching the mirror image of myself finish steadying herself. The older ninja was staring down at both of us, slowly seeming to understand that he wasn't going to get us to change my mind.

I was determined. I had worked hard and gotten into scrolls that I had no business poking around, pushed through history and waded my way until I was up to my eyeballs in information to sort out.

It had taken me the last three years to get it right but now I had it, I knew I did. I just needed to test it.

"Did you say that when Dad taught you?" I asked reasonably. Genma twisted his senbon in a way that told me he didn't like my logic. He took it out of his mouth and set it away somewhere before he squared his shoulders and gave me a single hard look.

"Just do it," he ordered shortly.

I grinned, my clone made a hand sign and with a burst of chakra she disappeared.

Across the training ground a spot of brilliant red and bright yellow appeared.

I had never cheered so loud.

Genma ruffled my long red hair, handing almost all the way down my back now. It brushed the yellow battle dress I had, hanging around my face in a brilliant red frame.

"Not bad, kid," he said. Recognition of that strange accent connected. The sound like his tongue didn't quite fit in his mouth.

Bear.

Genma was Bear. He had watched over her for years before the accident. He had taught her to read and write and now here they were, with her greatest success and joy being shared with him.

If he thought anything of rin hugging him, he didn't say so. Just wrapped his arms around her in turn.


Kurama didn't want to teach me how to use chakra chains, mostly because he was afraid I was going to use them against him, but I have managed to convince him that it would be a good idea. I couldn't make any more than three and keep control of them, something I was going to change with extra training. Right after I finished the book.

"What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy," I read aloud from the book my memory had placed in my hands. The bean bag shifted in under my back, the thick carpet ruffled with the strong breaths of my tenant.

Kurama watched me from behind the thin bars, laying on his side. He was stretched out in the now wide, open space of his cage, relaxing on the monstrous cushions I had conjured for him to lay on. His eyes had closed, he was completely relaxed. If not for the occasional twitch of his ears I might have mistaken him for sleeping.

It was nice. I liked reading, I liked reading aloud and Kurama preferred hearing me tell tales than listen to only his own silence.

He seemed particularly fond of George R. R. Martin.

I didn't blame him.

I set the book aside and walked up to the cage he was still trapped in. One day, he would be free. But for now he was stuck with me and I did do what I could to make the best of it.

One my side of the bars I lay down, stretching out on the ground. I reached through, my hand passing harmlessly through the thin pieces of metal until I could run my finges slowly through the thick orange fur. It could only touch a little.

Kurama tolerated my small affections.

We were the same, he and I.

Both creatures of vengeance, hating the world around us and seeing retribution for crimes done unto us. There was a bond there.

A bond of hatred.


All through the time my family was missing I filled every waking moment with as much as I could. Books, hospitals, the Hokage, training. Genma, Tenzo, Hanabi, the Aburame, all of them were a huge part of keeping me from escaping into the night, desperate to find where my brother had gone.

All I could do was wait and pray that they remembered what I'd told them, back when we'd first learned the word 'Sacrifice'.

They are children, all of them, sitting around a text book in a pink themed bedroom. There's lemonade and cookies split between the five of them, Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Rin, and Hinata.

Homework is spread in front of them, vocabulary words and history lessons that are all propaganda and suggested wording.

"Loyalty, to never abandon and follow without question," Sasuke quoted obediently when Sakura aimed the question at him.

The next was offered to Naruto who dutifully recited, "I don't know," and was then passed to Hinata.

"S-s-sacrifice, to give every th-thing for your friends and comrades. E-even your l-life," it was before they had trained the stutter out of her.

On the edge of the bed Rin scoffed openly. "That's stupid," she stated flatly, "What kind of an idiot would die and leave their friends to grieve for them? That's just selfish."

I don't know if they'd taken my words to heart, all I could do was hope. It would go against their natures, I knew. Martyr syndrome ran rampant through the ones that I cared for most. It made me feel guilty some times for my own desire to live.

Well, there was nothing I could do about it.

I just had to have faith that, somehow, it would all work out like it did last time. In the meantime, I trained. I tried to get stronger. Hanabi beat the shit out of me regularly and so, too, did Tenzo.

I had been a solo genin for two weeks when I finally blocked a punch from my teacher without jerking from the sight of movement towards my face.

Tenzo stared at the cross block I managed to create, looking just as surprised as I was. I watched a smile crossed his face before his hand descended on my head and he ruffled my now very long hair. People certainly seemed to like doing that.

"Well done," he said, pride warming his voice.

I preened under the praise, smiling up at my teacher. I had been learning to like him a lot lately. He seemed to genuinely care about me, and want to help me improve. In turn I tried to do as he asked, even when it went against my own instincts.

"Let's try again," I rocked on my heels, looking up at him with a small smile.

He returned it and nodded, motioning for me to get into my stance.

I did so.

It had taken him at least twenty times to get my feet to stay in the right position, another two dozen to break the awful habits that I had fallen into without anyone to pay much attention to what I was doing or to want to correct me previously.

Even then I still ended up messing up more often than not, much to my own chagrin.

I had come to the conclusion that I would be perfectly happy if I got to stay as mid/long range combatant.


On the same day that the village gates opened to my family once more the eyes of my sleeping teammates opened, all of it occurring just in time for news to reach us that confirmed what Jiraiya had been hearing whispers of for months.

Sunagakure and Otogakure, the villages of Sand and Sound, both Hidden, had made an alliance with each other that was not public.

The only reason for that to happen would be if they were trying to keep it a secret, and use it to get the drop on some unsuspecting sap. Considering the fact that most of the business that was rightfully Suna's had fallen into the collective lap of Konoha it wasn't hard to guess who their target was.

Plans were drawn, messages sent out and jonin retracted as discreetly as possible,

Danger was fast approaching and the instant I had the chance I dragged teams 7 and 8 together for as much rushed training as I could. I wasn't, strictly speaking, supposed to know any of this. By all rights it was totally confidencial.

I just happened to overhear. And even if I hadn't, I already knew what was coming. I knew I had to prepare.

The others took their cues from me and started working, all staying on edge.

Through it all Tenzo and Kakashi watched us, their eyes betraying their ANBU origins. They knew what was up, and eventually the test tube child stepped in to help while his older counterpart offered 'helpful' commentary from the side.


"You kids aren't going to fool him with this box," I warned one last time, taking the paints back from Udon. The boy sniffed uselessly, peering up at me through his glasses. On the other side of the cardboard construct sat Moegi and Konohamaru, who I had actually known for longer than my brother. He still definitely preferred Naruto, but that was irrelevant. I was still going to help them bug him.

It was childish, sure, but they were good kids, so I didn't mind.

"Of course it will!" Konohamaru cried, "The Boss'll never know what hit him."

I sighed and shook my head. "Alright, but don't blame me when it doesn't work." I patted his head, flaring chakra across my palm.

They again insisted that it would before running off, holding their perfectly square 'rock' above their heads. I rolled my eyes and started walking, glancing to the sun for the time. It was time for training with my team and I would rather not miss it.

It was our first real training exercises since the disastrous first test we'd had.

When I said I didn't want to miss it I may have forgotten about the fact that both Shino and Hinata were from actual clans and had been training since they were tiny children by people determined to succeed.

Hinata had helped Naruto and I in the Academy when we were struggling to know just the basics but mostly she wasn't sure herself. I'd never sparred with her when she was using her clan's form, the one she had known for practically her entire life.

Needless to say my ass was promptly handed to me.

Shino was on even ground but that was probably only because he was long rang.

By the time Tenzo let us take a break I wasn't happy. I was not pouting.

Hinata and Shino looking more worn out than I was. It was probably because they'd been comatose for over a month but to be honest I had crazy high stamina since my rebirth. Kurama said (bragged) that it was because of him. I didn't take much offense, he was probably right. I could probably go a good week without sleep before I started hallucinating.

Metabolism was still a problem though. By the time we were twelve my brother and I had figured out where we could and could not go, and where would give us good stuff vs. rat poisoning.

Which, fun fact, you can grow an immunity to.

It was the best they could do to get back at us or what they thought we'd done without giving themselves away to the Hokage or physically hurting us. No one more than a few years older than us had ever laid a hand on either Naruto or me. Which, I suppose, is something.

"Sensei," I spoke up, one of the first words spoken by anyone other than Tenzo that day, "Can we go to training ground 4? Team 7 is there and I have something for them and all three of you."

Tenzo looked only a little surprised. He took a minute to think it over before finally inclining his head.

"I don't see a reason why we can't," which was just a wordy 'yes'.

So the four of us went on our way, taking the relatively short walk from our training ground, 7, to the other. The training grounds labelled 1-10 were used for low genin, 11-20 for higher genin. 21-50 were mostly used by chunin of varying skill sets, and anything higher than that was either special, unused, or jonin territory.

When we got there Sakura was holding a green hand over the arm of Sasuke, who was glowering at a definitively smug looking Naruto. I waved the three of them over once they noticed that I was there.

The three joined us four, Sasuke still nursing his right arm. I sent a questioning look at him and he shot an accusatory glare at my brother. Behind his Sakura was rolling her eyes.

"Naruto kicked him so hard he almost broke his ulna," she answered my unasked question.

I gave a small 'ah' before turning to my brother for his defense.

The response I got?

"He said I couldn't do it!"

Boys.

Sakura didn't hit him like she would have in another life. I would have stopped talking to her if she did, best friend or not. Instead she flicked his ear, which was still enough to make him come whining to me.

I patted his head idly. "You're fine. Sit down, I have something for you."

Sakura looked at Sasuke who looked to Hinata who voicelessly conveyed her own confusion.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, lowering himself to the ground. The others joined him and me, Tenzo included when I motioned for him to come into our circle.

From out of my weapons pouch I produced six coins attached to strings. Upon each one was three lines forming a triquetra. It was the point I had decided to use as a sealing anchor. Mine was different from Minato's, which was different from Tobirama's.

See, the thing about sealing is each mark means something, when combined they mean something else, but in the end it's all in the intent. Minato's marker might as well have been the full word, Tobirama's was a compacted formula. Mine was simple a symbol.

"What is it?" Sasuke was the first to ask, inspecting his curiously.

"It's a marker. If you need me, push chakra into that and I'll know and be able to get to you."

It took Tenzo only a few seconds to understand what it was.

"You recreated the Hiraishin," he realized, staring at me in what very well might have been disbelief.

"The Flying Thunder God, Hiraishin no Jutsu. It was the teleportation technique that the Forth Hokage used," Sakura said, looking over the necklace in wonder. She was genius when it came to almost everything, but somehow seals always eluded her.

Naruto grinned widely. "So you finally got it right?" he asked, slipping his on.

"Yep," I nodded. He'd been on the receiving end of many a rant about space time being full of shit. He had listened, said some obvious things that I should have noticed before, and sent me on my way to search for Genma. He was fantastic at sealing, but if I'm being honest I was much more advanced. He simply didn't have the patience to sit around practicing all the time, or he would have been better than I.

"I have one for your teacher to," I admitted, fishing the last one out. "I don't know if he wants it but if he does give it to him," I instructed, handing it to Sasuke. The boy nodded his understanding.

I didn't really want to give one to Kakashi, he didn't seem worth it, but I also wanted to be able to get to him in an emergency. Bad at teaching or not he was still one of the strongest ninja in the village, and if there was anyone you wanted at your side in, say, an invasion, it was him. So I was giving one to him, as well as Genma, Jiraiya and the Hokage when I saw them later.

"Can we see it?" Sakura asked, tying the thin cord around her neck before tucking it under her dress. She still wore the red dress I remember her wearing in the first half of the series. She just like it. There was no harm in it either, it was actually specially designed not to get in the way during a fight. The only issue was the color. Not that red wasn't a good color for her. It just wasn't logical. I managed to wrangle clothes of white, green and yellow out of some irritated shop keepers.

"Er, yeah," I rubbed my cheek, standing up.

I pulled out kunai from my pouch and placed it between my palms. I breathed in, concentrating on making the symbol on my palm before transferring it to the kunai. It still took me a few minutes to get it done, and it wasn't really reliable yet. My chakra control was better, but it was hard to do delicate things like lay out seals with touch instead of brush.

Once I had the mark properly in place I flung it as far across the grounds as I could. When it thunked solidly into a tree.

I clapped my hands into the seal, pushed my chakra and let the world suck away into a void. It lasted a split second, not even a tenth before I slammed face first into bark.

I fell backwards onto my rear end, blood flowing freely from my nose.

I needed to work on my landings.


"What are the circles?" Jiraiya asked when he was presented with the necklace. He knew what they did, but they had to mean something. All seals did, whether it was in the language of sealing or just to the person who's intent it was fulfilling.

Rin looked from him to the Hokage to Genma to the ground, her hand going to her cheek.

"It's, um, kinda corny but, it's supposed to be unity?"

When he gave her a further quizzical look she continued. "Mind, body and soul. Past, present, future. Creation, preservation, and destruction. All that stuff."

"Why are you giving these to us?" Genma asked.

Rin shifted on her feet, still looking at the ground. She was such a strange girl. Smart, but her confidence seemed to depend on the day. Angry, but willing to smile. Jiraiya didn't understand her at all. Her temper was a frightening thing. A slow thing.

"If things get bad with Suna and Oto, I wanna be able to get to you guys if I need to."

Jiraiya went to pat her head, ignoring the minute flinch when he reached out. She really was too clever for her own good. Then again, she was in the hokage's office so often most people seemed to forget she was there in the first place. A dangerous girl, indeed.

"You'll be fine, don't worry," he instructed, ignoring the soft snort from the red haired girl.

"You will," he insisted.

He hoped he wasn't lying.


When I finally tracked them down Team Gai they were in the middle of a two way spar between those that I recognized as Neji and Lee. Tenten was watching from the sidelines while Gai made corrections in their form or just spurred them on.

I let the boys continue to have at it, my goal now in sight. Tenten was the best markswoman I knew, even if I'd never spoken directly to her. If anyone could help me with what I had planned it would be her.

Ignoring Neji and Lee, as well as Gai, I approached her. She had never been nasty to me so I wasn't sure if I would be driven away or welcomed. I doubted it would be the former, from my knowledge of her Tenten was a relatively nice girl.

"Hey," I said once I was close enough.

She started, looking over at me. I was good at not being noticed when I really tried.

"Uh, hi?" she offered, looking between me and her teammates, as if they had sent me to her for the secrets of life.

"Are you Tenten?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

She nodded. "Yeah. Who are you?"

"I'm Rin. Uzumaki I mean. Rin Uzumaki. I heard you're good at throwing things?" when she nodded I pulled out a thin pack and flicked it open, pulling out my Hiraishin weapon of choice.

"What about this?"

Tenten took one of them from me, looking it over curiously. Slowly she nodded, handing back the razor sharpened metal card.

"Yeah, I think so."


"I am not his girlfriend!"

I don't know why Sakura was so offended at being with my brother. I just knew that she was probably going to beat Konohamaru into pulp if he didn't shut his mouth. After trying to sneak up on Naruto earlier that day and failing they'd kept trying to ambush and trick him.

It got to the point that, when Sakura and I were walking down the street with him, they had almost jumped us too. Udon had promptly been kicked in the face by Sakura, who was a much better fighter than me any day.

And thus, the squabbling had begun. It felt strangely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why.

"Ew, no," Naruto was agreeing. I shook my head.

Konohamaru, being a mouthy brat, kept going. "Yeah, I guess you're right. No way some ugly girl like that is the bosses girlfriend."

Both my brother and I froze.

Sakura growled, audibly growled, and turned to the child. If I thought that Kurama was scary an angry Sakura was absolutely terrifying. She was a demon in her own right, beating the hell out of the Hokage's grandson before she grabbed my hand and started leading me away from the scene of the pain.

Unfortunately we weren't far enough when Konohamaru opened his mouth again.

"That ugly girl with the big forehead, is she even a girl?"

I heard Naruto gulp and Sakura's self-control snap.


Why were there so many kids in this village? There weren't nearly this many in the sandy streets of his home. At least, none that approached him with loud voices and arrogant proclamations.

He gave the boy a good shake by his scarf, snapping at him to quiet down before surveying the other three locals that were in front of him.

Was everyone here so colorful?

There was a blond kid in bright orange, a pink (who had pink hair) girl in red and red head in a lot of white and yellow. Weren't they supposed to be ninja? They had the head bands. And why were the girls hair so long? It had to get in their way.

"Let him go!" the boy demanded hotly.

The red head tacked a, "Please?" on.

Kankuro scoffed. "I'm only having some fun," he complained, giving the boy in his grip his scariest smile. The kid looked ready to start crying.

Was everyone in this village weak?

"Let him go," this time the command was more forceful, less frantic. It came from the red head again. Her hair was almost the same shade as Gaara's, a few shades brighter.

"Or what?" he demanded, ignoring Temari's reminder that they were supposed to be behaving.

His mouth was open to say something else when weight registered on his arm and the lack of ginger got to him.

His head started turning just in time to find a foot stilled inches from his face. The weight hit him at once and his arm dropped to his side, sending the girl that had appeared there cartwheeling to the ground, catching the boy on the way there.

Violet eyes met his black, aggression shining in their depth.

"You're here for the exams, right?" she demanded. She didn't wait for him to answer. "If you think you're ready to be chunin then you're an idiot. Attacking a child, in the home town where his grandfather is the kage?"

Behind him he heard Temari suck in sharply, his own lungs growing cold.

He had threatened the Hokage's grandson.

"No way is that brat related to the Hokage," he snapped. There was no way. The shrimp was loud and useless. He couldn't be related to the Professor.

The girl let the little boy down, patting his head on top of the weird circles that intersected his helmet patterns.

"Believe what you want. You still shouldn't threaten people when you're guests in their own village. It's not only rude, it's bad diplomacy. Shouldn't the son of the Kazekage know this? Or did you skip those lessons to buy tacky make up?"

Any regret or worry he had vanished in a haze of red. He lashed out trying to grab the front of her shirt. When she moved he misjudged and ended up punching something soft.

Purple eyes widened at the same time as his. An angry shriek came from the other two, he didn't know which one.

That had not been his intention.

Temari's first connect with the back of his head the same instant a foreign foot invaded his crotch.

"You don't touch girls there!" both of them shouted.

He sunk to the ground, groaning.

Why him?