Disclaimer: Naruto is the property and creation of Kishimoto Masashi. I own none of the characters and places mentioned in this story.
Third's POV
It was a usual day in Konoha. The sun had just begun to rise, the birds were chirping and almost all of the streets of the village were empty, except for a small group of people that were in front of the village's entrance.
"What's up with the long faces?", asked with enthusiasm a young woman with long brown hair, which was the team's sensei.
Katashi and Orito couldn't understand their sensei at all. Is seemed she was emotionally unstable. One moment she would scold them for their lack of teamwork, one moment she would be scared out of her skin, searching for enemies that weren't there, the next moment she would be to the point of crying and then there were the moments when she was very happy and enthusiastic. They thought that, maybe, she did have multiple personality disorder.
As for Izumi, she was completely mesmerized by her sensei. She really thought her sensei was cool and one of the most amazing person she ever met. She liked the fact that Rika-sensei always stood up for her and didn't discriminate her because she was an Uchiha. What she tried to figure out was why her sensei had eyes full of sadness. She often acted happy and enthusiastic but Izumi realized this was only a mask to hide her pain.
"What could make such a young woman suffer so much?", often wondered Izumi.
After a few hours Team 4 took a break, with the package they needed to deliver to a Suna ninja at the border of the Land of Fire, safely kept in Rika's backpack.
The mission went smoothly. Team 4 met up with the Suna ninja, delivered the package and prepared to turn back home. But unbeknownst to Team 4 their troubles were just about to begin.
Thirty minutes had passed, after the package's delivery, and Orito insisted for a break so that he could pee. Rika agreed to Orito's request for a break and decided that the team should eat something, too, after Orito's return. After Orito returned, the four of them got their sandwiches from their backpack, but as they prepared to take their first bite, Rika got an unsettling feeling. She felt foreign chakra at the river that was 200 meters in front of them.
Not wanting to worry her students, Rika excused herself saying that she needs to wash her hands at the river, before eating.
Rin's POV
As soon as I got to the river I encountered a shadow clone, in the shadows of the trees, that I destroyed easily with a kunai. Almost too easily.
Then I realized. This was a trap. Whoever followed us, wanted to separate us and like a fool I fell right into their trap. As I hurried back to the spot where I left my team, I heard Izumi's scream. After hearing her scream, I began to run much faster towards the spot where my team was, but all I found there were only the backpacks of my team and their sandwiches.
"Great sensei I proved to be", I scolded myself.
"But who could have attacked my team and why?", I asked myself with a knot in my stomach.
But this didn't matter right now. What I needed to do right now was to find my team and make sure that all of us returned home safely and sound.
As soon as I found some tracks I could follow, I ran in the direction of the tracks.
After a while of following the tracks, I realized that I got closer to the border between the Land of Fire and Kirikagure. That's when my blood froze in my veins. The people which turned me into a Jinchuriki.
"What if they somehow found out I was still alive and I was the one they targeted right from the beginning?", I asked myself, fearful.
But I didn't ponder too much on these thoughts because I was pulled into a bush. As I prepared to attack whoever pulled me in that bush, I suddenly realized, that the people inside the bush were Orito and Katashi. I hugged them fiercely, when I noticed that Izumi wasn't there.
"Boys, where is Izumi?", I asked with worry in the pit of my stomach.
At my question, the two boys looked down, avoiding my gaze.
"Where is she? Where is Izumi?", I asked one more time.
"We don't know!", screamed Katashi.
"I used a smoke bomb and me and Orito made shadow clones to deceive the enemy while Izumi remained with our shadow clones, still being chased by the enemies. This was the plan that me and Orito concocted in case of real danger. Izumi knew nothing about it", added Katashi with tiredness in his voice.
After his confession, I remained frozen like a statue. I felt disappointed, because to me this was like both Obito and Kakashi would have abandoned me in our mission at Kannabi Bridge. They didn't have no sense of teamwork and here I thought they only lacked teamwork. How wrong I was. I knew what I needed to do right now.
"Who were the enemies?!", I asked, the boys, even though I suspected and dreaded already the answer.
"The ninja from Kirigakure", they both answered with a dry voice.
"I see", I answered coldly but all I felt inside was fear and sickness. But I still needed to save Izumi, despite my feelings at the moment.
"Return to the village as fast as you can. And no matter what, don't use known route for ninja and leave no trace behind. I will go and save Izumi. When you get to the village tell Lord Hokage to send the Anbu.", I said in a commanding and brave voice to the boys.
"But what about us?", asked the two of them at the same time.
"Who will protect us on our way back to the village?"
The nerve of those brats. I couldn't believe them. After abandoning their comrade, they had the guts to ask me to do the same.
"No! In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that's true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. And just so you both know I'm very disappointed by your behavior. Izumi would have never abandoned either of you, ever", I added with a strong voice.
"And if you came to hide in this bush near the border of Kirigakure, hoping that I will come and take you back to the village, while leaving Izumi behind, then you have misled yourselves", I added with utter disappointment.
After they both looked resentful at me, they left.
"Now the hard part", I thought sourly, as I began to pinpoint the exact location of the enemy's chakra.
A few hours later
After walking blindly like a snake in the grass, I finally found their location.
The first thing I noticed was that there were forty enemies. The second being that Izumi was tied up by a tree with her eyes closed. I couldn't tell if she was unconscious or in a genjutsu.
Now I needed to concoct a plan to save Izumi from their midst.
"But how?", I asked myself while struggling to come up with a sound plan.
Unfortunately, for me, I didn't have the luxury of time to come up with a plan because I was surrounded almost immediately by Kiri ninja.
Damn it! I knew this could happen the moment I pinpointed their location. Especially if there was a sensory type in their group.
As I assessed the situation, I noticed that some Kiri ninja were still guarding Izumi while the others surrounded me. Then I counted how many ninja were around me.
"Great, 25! I always liked these odds", I thought to myself, sarcastically.
"So boys how it's gonna be?", I asked with a trace of smugness in my voice, even if , on the inside , I was terrified to death.
"Are you gonna give me back my student or I will have to use force to take her back?", I asked while pulling out a kunai from my pouch.
"No!", came the hoarse reply of one of the ninja.
"This girl will be the perfect gift for Lord Mizukage", added the same guy.
"So force it will be then", I replied as I jumped in midair and made the hand signs for a water jutsu.
"Water Elements: Crashing Waves", I shouted with confidence while some of my enemies that were around me counterattacked with a water wall.
As I touched the ground once more, I used a water whip with which I snapped, in one swift move, the necks of the Kiri ninja that were taken by surprise by my first attack.
Then, as I was preparing to finish the other of the Kiri ninja with another water jutsu, I was caught in a water tornado that send me, crashing, right into a tree.
"Secret Technique: Razor Rain – Cutting Rain Technique", I heard another Kiri ninja utter as a heavy rain began to pour down on me.
"Good. Now this will give me the opportunity to have more of a fighting chance", I thought with little relief as the Kiri ninja jumped away from me after the rain started.
But as I tried to use another water jutsu, I constated to my utter terror, I had no more chakra.
"Foolish kunoichi. Secret Technique: Razor Rain – Cutting Rain Technique is used to cut off the chakra of the person that comes in contact with", added the ninja, which used the technique earlier, with a gleeful voice.
"Now we can bring two gifts to Lord Mizukage: an Uchiha girl and a proficient water user", added another Kiri ninja with an ominous tone.
"No, no... !", I thought frightened, while pulling the kunai in front of me, in a defensive position, while the Kiri ninja began to get closer to me.
"Three Tails, lend me your chakra!", I asked my tenant with a pleading voice.
"No. I will never share my chakra with such a weak host", came the acid reply of my tenant.
"Three Tails, please, I need your help", I tried again desperately.
But no answer came up this time.
As the Kiri ninja kept coming closer and closer, I went into a mental breakdown.
I got down into a sitting position, I leaned against the tree trunk as much as I could, I buried my face in my knees and became disconnected from the cruel reality because I knew what will happen to me when the Kiri ninja got their hands on me. My only regret was that I wasn't able to save Izumi.
Obito's POV
"Those fools! How dare they to go behind the back of Lord Mizukage and abduct someone from Uchiha clan?! If this incident will lead to a war between Kirigakure and Konoha, it could lead to the discovery of me being the one that controlled Lord Mizukage for years, now", I thought angrily as I jumped from tree to tree to the area where the rebelled Kiri ninja were.
Once I got there, I saw the least expected person, for me to encounter there, Rika Nokizara from the Leaf Village.
"So boys how it's gonna be?", I heard her ask the Kiri ninja, that surrounded her, with confidence.
"Are you gonna give me back my student or I will have to use force to take her back?",I heard her ask again with the same boost of confidence.
Then after another round of exchanging words between Rika and the Kiri ninja, I saw from the tree I was in, how quick she disposed off of some Kiri ninja.
"Interesting. She has gotten stronger since our last meeting. But then again, those were pathetic fools which let their guard down in the first place", I thought to myself with amazement and pride.
Then the unexpected happened.
The gutty Rika Nokizara which tried to fight me, knowing that I could kill her at any moment, gave up the fight.
She got into a sitting position, leaned against the tree as much as she could, like the tree was gonna protect her, buried her face in her knees and began muttering No.
This was one of the most unsettling sights I ever saw in my life and it didn't bode well with me.
"That will not do! I'm the only one which had the right to kill this woman!", I thought angrily as I jumped in front of her, my back facing her, and my face facing the Kiri ninja.
But she still didn't react in any way, even when I was standing right in front of her.
Third's POV
"Who the hell are you clown?!", asked one of the Kiri ninja as a masked man jumped in between them and Rika.
"I'm no one and this woman is mine to kill", replied the masked man with a cold tone.
"So the clown wants to play?! Boys, let's show this asshole, why we are called the Village of the Bloody Mist", added another Kiri ninja.
And so a fight ensued between the Kiri ninja and the masked man.
But no matter how hard they tried, none of their attacks had any effect on the masked man, while the masked men butchered most of them.
So one of the remaining survivors threw a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it towards Rika.
But as soon as the masked man saw the kunai with the explosive tag attached to it, jumped in front of Rika, seemingly to protect her.
After the smoke cleared, the Kiri ninja saw shattered pieces of wood and a wooden dome almost destroyed, while the masked man was standing beside a recovered Rika, whose eyes were burning with a fighting spirit. Then the masked man began to run forward, while Rika threw a kunai with a thin thread attached to it in the direction of the Kiri ninja.
"Now!", shouted Rita.
"Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!", uttered the masked man as he burned, with the help of the thread, the remaining Kiri ninja.
As for the Kiri ninja guarding Izumi, they were a piece of cake for the masked man.
Obito's POV
"The fight was going so well... until that asshole threw the kunai with the explosive tag attached to it, in Rika's direction... and something inside me urged me to protect her so I got to her and used my Senju DNA to create a wooden dome around us. It did cost me a lot of chakra by doing it, but I had other urgent issues I needed to attend to", I thought with irritation as I grabbed Rika by her armspits and got her upright.
"Get a hold of yourself!", I screamed at her, but she still didn't react.
So I slapped her pretty hard, enough that her cheek reddened, but at least she woke up.
Then she did something unexpected. She leaned into me and said "Thank you for saving me!", with barely a whisper. Then, maybe because, I didn't hug her or because of some other factor, she raised her head from my chest and got as far away as possible from me.
Then she brought her hand to her cheek to assess the damage.
"You didn't need to slap me so hard, you asshole", she replied, venom lacing her words.
"Sorry for not being a gentleman in this case, but you know, I didn't have any other way to wake you up since you were pretty disconnected from reality. So will you help me take out those ninja or not?", I asked with sarcasm in my tone.
Rin's POV
After Madara killed all of the Kiri ninja, I untied Izumi, which by all accounts was sedated, and put her against the tree trunk when suddenly I heard leaves rustling and saw a young man that was a Kiri ninja ran away.
"I will go after him and kill him!", replied Madara in a cold voice.
Then I did something I never thought I will ever do. I got in front of Madara and touched his right arm.
"Please, spare him!", I added with a pleading tone.
"Why I would do that?", he asked without caring that I touched him.
"Because he could say you were a Konoha ninja and then Kirigakure won't pull moves like this again", I added with certainty.
After the masked man pondered on what I said, he agreed to my request.
Then I found out that the only reason for helping me, was the fact that me and Izumi being taken hostages would have tangled his plans.
"The Anbu are coming", he said with no care whatsoever.
"I look forward to your explanation when they will find my sword among the other, my sword being in addition to the other swords and for the burned bodies since you don't know any fire style jutsu", said Madara with arrogance as he teleported away.
And just like Madara predicted, one of the Anbu that arrived, which was Kakashi, asked me about the additional sword and the burned bodies.
"But how would Madara know Kakashi so well?", I asked myself disturbed.
A few days later
After the fiasco that took place, during my mission, I began to train in fire jutsu.
I hated myself for being weak, for leaning into Madara, believing for a split second he was Obito, and for counting on the hunter of the tailed beasts to save me, like my tenant called Madara, when he admonished me back in the village.
So right now I was practicing fireball jutsu when the rain began to pour hard on me as I fell down on the bridge ,and lost my consciousness because of exhaustion, where only members of the Uchiha clan practiced their fireball jutsu.
Unbeknownst to me someone watched me practice and when I fell down and lost my consciousness because of exhaustion.
I hope you all liked the chapter.
Also important notice. I don't have a betareader anymore. If someone it's interested please pm me.