Chapter One: Initial Shortcomings
According to everyone, it was a miracle that Rin Nohara had been able to survive being impaled by the chidori at close range, dip into a coma, wake up from said coma, and be perfectly okay all in one week, a day before Tsunade and Jiraya were set to return to the village. The hospital staff ran a variety of tests on Rin, but it was clear no one really knew how to handle this situation.
Physically, Rin was fine. Brain activity was normal. Mentally, Rin seemed fine.
Everything was normal, just like Rin had never been injured before.
Tsunade barged into the hospital in the same confident aura surrounding her like she was still the head of the hospital. Even if she wasn't, most of the hospital staff recognized her and bowed to her as she passed, before scurrying out of Tsunade's way. Her heels clacked against the tiled floor as Tsunade made a beeline to room 132, where supposedly a shinobi was able to make a spectacular recovery.
Tsunade didn't bother knocking; instead, she flung the door wide open. All of the occupants in the room stood up, to acknowledge her existence, all save for Rin who merely pushed herself up in a sitting position. That caught the attention of Minato, who hurriedly bent downwards to give her a hand.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed as she surveyed the occupants in the room. Minato. Kushina. And Minato's brat.
The first thing that caught her attention was the small purple diamond on Rin's forehead, just like on her own.
So the kid was able to do it, huh.
"Looks like you were able to master my technique," Tsunade stated folding her arms over her chest in an attempt to look more intimidating.
"All thanks to your guidance, Tsunade sama," Rin murmured, still polite as always.
Tsunade couldn't help but admit that the girl was intelligent. Sure, Kakashi was a certified genius, but his reputation overshadowed the real genius: Rin. To having figure out how to utilize medical ninjutsu at such a young age, even younger than Tsunade herself, to being able to crack an S ranked poison designed by Tsunade herself in less than three hours as a genin, and finally to being able to apply the theory of her strength of a hundred seals technique with no guidance was certainly impressive.
Tsunade remembered a timid ten year old girl approaching her at the hospital, wanting to inquire pointers. However, her stuttering and lack of self confidence put off Tsunade into taking her as a pupil. After explaining the basics of her strength of a hundred seals technique, Tsunade told ten year old Rin that if she couldn't master her jutsu, then she had no right to become her apprentice.
A virtually impossible challenge, seeing that even Shizune wouldn't be able to unlock it. Tsunade had no use for a unconfident medic, so she had set her up to fail.
Except it seemed that Tsunade had severely underestimated Rin's intelligence and abilities.
"Let me check up on you." Rin nodded and Tsunade approached her, hands already glowing green as she started scanning from Rin's head all the way down her body. Tsunade paused briefly when she reached the spot where Rin was supposedly pierced with the chidori.
"Here, right?"
Once again, Rin nodded in confirmation. Tsunade gave a thorough examination of the area, before concluding that the wound had healed completely. Tsunade shouldn't have been surprised, since it was her jutsu after all, but to heal such a large hole without dying of blood loss first was incredible.
"You were lucky. Two more inches to the left and you would be dead. Even the strength of a hundred sealings can't recreate a heart."
"I know."
Tsunade saw the pleading look in Rin's eyes, the same pleading look that she had seen many times before. She mentally sighed, hoping that she wouldn't regret her decision. "You have permission to be discharged from the hospital."
Rin's face lit up like she had received the greatest present of her life. "See sensei, even Tsunade sama says I can be discharged. I can go to your coronation!"
Minato bit the bottom of his lip, as if to restrain himself from protesting against it. Everyone who knew Minato knew that was exactly what he wanted to do, but who was he to argue against Konoha's best medic?
"I'll stay with her the entire time to make sure she doesn't collapse," Kakashi offered, hoping to ease some of Minato's worries. Minato nodded.
Today was Minato's big day, the day where he would be sworn in as the Fourth Hokage. It wouldn't do him any good to be worried about other things.
Rin was too excited at the prospect of being let out of the hospital to find it strange that Kakashi would volunteer for such a thing. It was no secret that most shinobis despised staying in the hospital longer than was necessary, especially medic nins when they were the ones being treated rather doing the treating because the only time that happened was when things went really wrong.
"Great! Now that's settled, I'm going to home, shower, and get a change of clothes. See you at the ceremony later, sensei!" Rin was so excited to be out of the hospital bed. With the precision expected of a medic nin, Rin pulled out the needle connected to the IV drip and all of the equipment sensors that was attached to her body before swinging her legs to the side of the bed. Her bare feet touched the cold tiled floor, but even that didn't bother Rin.
Minato really looked like he wanted to say something, but a hand from Kushina prevented him from saying anything. After all, he should be glad that his student was okay, healthy enough to be active.
"Rin, was it?" Tsunade called out before Rin could dash out of the door. Rin poked her head back into the room, her brown eyes full of curiosity at what the sannin legend wanted with her.
"If you still want to become my apprentice, come find me after the ceremony. A promise is a promise after all."
If it was even possible, Rin's smile became even wider.
Rin never felt so proud of her sensei as she stood among the crowd as she watched Minato come into view donning his Hokage hat and newly made Fourth Hokage cloak. The crowd erupted into cheers, most notably Gai who was screaming something about the power of youth. Besides her, Kakashi looked worn out by Gai's antics, but that didn't deter him from letting a small smile grace his face. It was hardly visible, practically unnoticeable for strangers, but for those close to Kakashi understood the significance.
He was happy. He finally had something to be proud of.
Rin reached over, wrapping her hand with his, squeezing it tightly.
I'm here for you, the gesture screamed.
To his credit, Kakashi didn't push her hand away. Instead, he relished in the comfort and the warmth that it provided while his lone eye was fixated on Minato sensei, who was currently giving his speech.
It was the typical "I will do my best to protect the village" kind of spiel, but it was coming from Minato sensei. He was genuine.
Perhaps, things were looking up.
Predictably, Kakashi headed to the memorial stone after congratulating sensei on achieving his dream. Rin wanted to join him, Kakashi knew, but couldn't because she had promised that she would meet with Tsunade after the ceremony. Still, Kakashi would probably be there for so long that he would still be there when Rin came around to visiting Obito.
Like usual, Kakashi let the tips of his fingers brush against the carving of Obito's name on the stone before kneeling down in front of the memorial stone.
"Sensei became the Fourth Hokage today," Kakashi told him. "I know you would be proud of him too."
Kakashi paused, wondering if he should finally come clean about what happened to Rin. Obito probably already knew, Kakashi reasoned, if he was watching over them, so Kakashi found himself recounting every detail of the mission and berating himself for failing to keep his promise to Obito.
As Kakashi described the events, he felt his left eye pulsing, as if this was Obito's way of condemning Kakashi for his mistakes. The uncomfortable feeling faded away until all that was left was a dull sense of pain and a trail of blood that ran down his face.
The look of fury written all over Tsunade's face was forever implanted in Rin's mind as she numbingly stared down at her hands. Her trembling, blood covered hands. Rin still hadn't found the strength to get out of her seat to the nearest washroom, to get rid of the blood. Or perhaps Rin kept the blood on her hands to serve as a constant reminder that she had failed the ailing shinobi in the operating room.
When Rin found Tsunade after the ceremony, the first thing that Tsunade wanted to test was the level of her medical ninjutsu and knowledge. Rin had passed the knowledge part with flying colors and she was certain that the application part wouldn't have been a problem either. After all, if she could perform high risk, high level operations out in the field with only her basic medical supply, then being in the operating room was nothing.
Except Rin forget that she wasn't the same as before. When she reached down to make an incision on the patient's chest with her chakra scalpel, Rin ended up damaging his organs instead, causing a lot of internal bleeding. Hence Tsunade's furious expression before singlehandedly tossing her out of the operating room.
As someone who chakra control came like second nature to, Rin had a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that she had to practice chakra control. But was it even possible to achieve the same level of control that she once did with such an immense amount of chakra inside of her?
Romo told Rin that it was possible, but what did deities know about medical ninjutsu?
At some point, Rin eventually found her way to the washroom although it was prompted by urging from a civilian nurse, who lectured her on all of the potential infections that might occur as if Rin didn't know any of that. Still, Rin said nothing and nodded numbly as her feet carried her to the nearest washroom. Using her shoulder to push open the door, Rin went the first sink and turned the tap on.
The blood dyed the water pink, yet even when the water turned clear again, all Rin could see was her blood soaked hands. Rin continued washing her hands, eager to get the blood off, but it was still there. It wouldn't go away.
It wasn't until Rin scrubbed her hands raw did she finally realize that the blood wasn't real. Sighing, Rin turned off the tap, staring at her red hands. Rin sent a small amount of chakra to her hands, hoping to heal her split knuckles but when pain flashed through her left hand, Rin immediately stopped.
Her hand was bleeding.
Rin couldn't even heal herself anymore, much less others.
She wanted to cry. She felt the tears in her eyes, but Rin forced herself to tilt her head backwards to contain them. No, she wouldn't fall back down this spiral of acting weak. Rin would find a way, even if she could no longer use medical ninjutsu.
Just shortly after Rin finished bandaging her own hands, the doors to the operating room opened and Tsunade was the first to storm out. Her hazel eyes briefly flickered over to the girl who was sitting on the bench, before her eyes fell to the bandaged hands. Tsunade didn't address her yet; instead, she gave final instructions to the other medics on how to care for the patient.
"You should have left," Tsunade stated evenly, genuinely surprised to see that the girl had stayed. Perhaps, the thirteen year old girl in front of her wasn't her timid ten year old self. She definitely wasn't, seeing how Rin magically fucked up a simple operation.
"I have to face the consequences as a result of my actions," Rin responded.
"Come." Tsunade began heading towards her office, trusting that Rin would follow her. Rin did, making sure to keep three steps behind her. Not too far, but not too close either to feel the full brunt of the anger rolling off of Tsunade.
Once inside her office, Tsunade gestured for Rin to shut off her office doors. Tsunade made a few hand seals before clasping her hands together in front of her.
"This room is soundproof. Now start talking."
Rin wasted no time in confessing to Tsunade. If there was anyone that could help her figure out her problem with chakra control, then it would be Tsunade.
"I have the sanbi sealed inside of me."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed at the admission. "I see. When did this happen?"
"My last mission." Rin paused, wondering if she should continue to divulge any more details of the mission. Minato sensei had already been briefed and he told her to keep the fact that she was a jinchuuriki under wraps for now, but Rin trusted Tsunade.
"So that's why your chakra control is complete shit."
"Yes," Rin admitted. "I think even with additional training, I won't be able to reach the precision needed as a medical ninja."
"So what will you do?" Tsunade prompted. There was absolutely no compassion written on Tsunade's face and to be honest, that scared Rin. If the one person who Rin thought could help her wasn't willing to help her, then there was no hope.
"I don't know. I want to be a medical ninja, but…" The I probably can't now remained unsaid and it lingered in the silence between the two of them.
"You don't sound very confident," Tsunade deadpanned.
"I want to continue being a medical ninja."
"Why?"
"I want to be able to save my comrades and not have to helplessly watch them die."
"And how will you do that when you are convinced that there's no way to hurdle over this obstacle?"
Rin fell silent. Tsunade was right.
"Come back to me when you have an answer for me."
It was a clear dismissal so Rin shuffled out of the room, shutting the door behind her. It felt like she was ten years old again, when Tsunade issued her first challenge to unlock the strength of a hundred seals in order to become her apprentice. And now that Rin finally did it, after three long years, she couldn't even perform a simple medical ninjutsu.
Rin dragged her feet as she traversed through the streets of Konoha, instinctively moving to sidestep the civilians. Her mind was whirring with all sorts of possibilities, but Rin was drawing a blank on a feasible solution.
Her feet carried her to the doorsteps of Konoha's library. The first place her ten year old self went to, after being issued the challenge. Perhaps her thirteen year old self wasn't all that different; after all, her first instinct was to seek out more information.
Rin didn't know how long she stayed in the library. In fact, she wasn't even aware of how much time had passed until one of the employees came by and told her that they were closing for the night. After apologizing for delaying their closing, Rin left the library with a stack of books. During her time at the library, Rin had managed to fly through the academy level books on chakra control, as well as the genin level ones, and now had chunin level books in hands.
Even so, Rin had learned absolutely nothing new. If she wanted to actually learn something new, Rin would probably have to ask Kakashi to borrow some of the jonin level books for her. However, that would mean having to explain to Kakashi why she needed the books in the first place, especially since he knew she had impeccable chakra control.
Rin's eyes snapped open at the sudden realization. Her thought process just now...must have been how Kakashi thinks everyday. For all of the flack that she gave Kakashi for not sharing his problems with his team, now she was doing the exact same thing.
Maybe that was why Kakashi insisted on shouldering his burdens by himself.
Deciding that she would seek out Kakashi tomorrow, Rin opened the book and flipped to the first page.
At some point in the night and in the middle of reading, Rin fell asleep as evident when she woke up with her cheek plastered against page 415 of one of the books. Sunlight was already streaming into the window; the birds chirping noisily outside. Rin sat up, stretching out the kinks in her back before heading into the bathroom to get ready.
The first place Rin went was Kakashi's apartment, but like she expected, he wasn't there. Of course, Kakashi would already be out and about, doing something productive at this time. Rin then went to some of Kakashi's favorite training spots, but those places were surprisingly devoid of the silver haired boy.
Perhaps, Kakashi was on a mission.
Rin opted to search some of the other parts of Konoha before going to the Hokage's office to ask about Kakashi's whereabouts. However as time went on, Rin began having self doubts.
Would Kakashi even care?
Sure, Kakashi seemed to cherish his teammates more than ever after the Kannabi Bridge mission, but he still remained stand offish. Did he consider Rin as a friend or was he simply just a teammate that he was obligated to protect since he made the promise to Obito? The more that her self doubts consumed her, the slower her steps had gotten, until Rin halted in the middle of one of Konoha's busiest streets.
Did he care?
"Rin?" Rin jerked out of her thoughts when she saw the very person she was looking for, eyeing her with concern.
She let out a nervous chuckle, one that Kakashi was sure to have picked up on.
Of all of the places that she had to run into Kakashi...didn't he like solitude? Why was he here?
"Can we talk?" Rin requested. Kakashi nodded, understanding that she wanted to speak in a more private setting. Predictably, Kakashi led her to one of his favorite training spots, Training Ground 6.
"Are you busy?" Rin was stalling, she knew.
He raised a questioning eyebrow at her before responding, "Not really."
The small part of her that hoped Kakashi would say that he was busy so she wouldn't have to follow through with what she was going to say got squashed immediately.
Surprisingly, Kakashi was patient with her as Rin opened her mouth, then shut it again, unable to get the words out of her mouth. To him, she probably looked like a gaping fish, but her mind was solely focused on how she was going to begin the conversation.
Finally, Rin decided to the hell with it. "I have a problem and I need your help."
"What kind of problem?" Kakashi asked warily, suspicion in his eye. Both of them knew that Rin never asked Kakashi for help, if she ever had a problem, Kushina nee and Minato sensei were her first choices. Heck, Rin would probably seek out the other shinobis from their graduating class before coming to him. The only person Kakashi would be ranked above would probably be Gai.
"I need to borrow a jonin level book from the library, but I don't have access, so can you borrow it for me?"
Kakashi's shoulders sagged in relief. If that was what Rin needed, then it made sense that she would ask him since he was the only jonin among her friends and it was a trivial thing to bother Minato sensei about.
"About what?"
"Chakra control." Rin had whispered it in such a soft voice that Kakashi was almost sure that he didn't hear her right. Rin? A book on chakra control when her control was miles ahead of Kakashi's?
"Did you say chakra control?" Kakashi asked, needing the confirmation. Rin nodded. Judging from the solemn expression on Rin's face, Kakashi knew that she didn't really want to be questioned about it, so rather than asking her why, he went for a more open ended question.
"Is anything wrong?"
Rin shook her head slowly, before halting as if she was remembering something, then nodding.
Almost ten years of shinobi training couldn't have prepared Kakashi for the bomb that Rin was about to drop on him.
"I can't use medical ninjutsu anymore."
For the second time during their conversation, Kakashi wondered if he had heard her right. Except this time, Rin stated it pretty clearly although her words were slightly rushed as if she wanted to just get it over with.
For the longest time, Kakashi associated Rin with medical ninjutsu, to anything related to healing, so it was strange to hear those words come out of her mouth.
"What do you mean?"
"With the sanbi sealed inside of me, my chakra control…" Rin faltered at the end, trusting Kakashi to be intelligent enough to understand. He did.
"Is there any way to retrain your chakra control?" Kakashi was sure that Rin had already gone over that possibility, but he wanted to have all of the information so he could figure out how to best help her.
"My chakra control can be trained to be better than it is now, but it won't reach the precision required to utilize medical ninjutsu. I'm trying to see if there is another way to help with that, but so far all of the books I've gone through haven't been very helpful."
"What's the problem?"
"My problem?" Rin repeated, confusion written all over her face.
"What's different that made your chakra control like this? You need to figure out what the problem is before you can find solutions," Kakashi lectured.
She frowned, her eyebrows knitting together in concentration. The problem? Rin hadn't really thought about it, but rather had just been blindly searching for methods to improve chakra control. Except all of the methods written in books just detailed chakra control exercises that RIn had done prior to learning medical ninjutsu.
So what was the problem?
According to what Romo told her, if he was to be believed, Isobu was cooperating with her. So far it seemed so too, since Isobu remained relatively dormant and didn't bother her. Yet she could always feel his presence, the large quantity of foreign chakra in her…
That was it!
"I think it's because I have too much chakra now," Rin explained. "Before, my chakra reserves were average, but my chakra control made up for that, but now I have a large quantity of chakra and I don't know how to handle that."
"Hmm, so theoretically if you are able to reduce your chakra reserves back down to an average amount, then you should be able to have the same level of control?"
Rin nodded. "I think so, but how?"
"Seal it away?" Kakashi suggested, in a manner that revealed he didn't think it was a plausible solution either.
"Then I wouldn't be able to tap into that chakra if I need it," Rin countered.
"Tap into the chakra…?" Kakashi questioned to himself, the gears in his mind turning. After seeing the mark on Rin's forehead, it dawned on him.
"Your seal," Kakashi began, "You can tap into it when you need it right?"
"Yes. To achieve it, I had to divert my chakra network to fill up a reservoir with chakra while the rest was for daily use. Now that I achieved it, I only tap into the chakra when I need it and-oh."
"Oh," Rin repeated, understanding what Kakashi had been implying with his question. She couldn't believe it had taken her that long to catch on.
"Thank you Kakashi. I think I figured it out." With that, Rin bid him good-bye, in a hurry to start working on the solution. Why hadn't Rin thought about it earlier? It was the exact same principle as the strength of hundred seals, except with such a large amount of chakra, Rin would need to create multiple reservoirs to contain it all. Was it even possible to create that many reservoirs? And if it was possible, would that mean she would need to spend three years filling up the reservoirs all over again?
She needed to speak to Kushina nee to figure out exactly how the tailed beast's chakra affected her own.
There's no need, a deep voice boomed in her head. Rin faltered for a moment, that wasn't a figment of her imagination was it?
"Isobu?" Rin said aloud. It was all that she needed to say before she felt herself being jerked into another unknown plane. Yet this time, the landscape was full of water, a seemingly endless amount.
Rin took a few steps forward, glad that she hadn't lost her ability to walk on water. Every step echoed loudly through the vast plane, like this place was designed to expose all intruders to the keeper of the dimension.
When the still water began to ripple lightly, before turning into a wave of water, Rin hated to admit that it took a lot more concentration and exertion on her part to stay afloat on top of the roaring water. Her eyes were fixated on the creature that was slowly emerging in front of her, water dripping down its body. Its single red eye was fixated on her, almost like it was sizing her up.
Maybe calculating its chances of breaking out? Kushina nee told her that Kurama wanted nothing more break out of his jail and constantly antagonized her since he was able to break free.
The two of them remained in a staredown, until Rin broke the silence. "I'm Rin Nohara." Her hand reflexively reached forward, ready to shake the other person's hand before she remembered that it was the sanbi, not a human. She retracted her hand.
"You may call me Isobu." Surprisingly, his voice was gentle and calm, the complete opposite of how Kushina nee described Kurama.
"What is this place?" RIn questioned, figuring that it was safe. Isobu didn't appear to have any desire to attack her anytime soon. Perhaps Rin was just too naive for her own good.
"A landscape in your mind," Isobu responded. "I currently reside here. If you ever want to come back all you need to do is conjure this imagine in your mind. To go back to your world, release the chakra at your feet and let yourself sink."
Oh. That was good to know, Rin supposed, but she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with that information. Why had she come here in the first place?
"You wanted to know how my chakra affects your chakra network, correct?"
Rin nodded. Isobu must have sensed her confusion. From all of the stories she heard from Kushina nee, Rin thought Isobu was surprisingly...nice. Perhaps this was entirely Romo's doing, but if it was an unwilling promise then Isobu could be a lot ruder. After all, Romo only said he was going to be "cooperative," not "nice."
"For the most part, I can keep my chakra contained in this landscape," Isobu explained. "However, due to the massive amount, a part of my chakra leaks into your network every time you use chakra. I can't control that."
"How much?"
"About half of your current reserves when you are not using your chakra. When you do use it, the amount will multiply based on the amount you do use."
"So potentially, I will have more of your chakra than my own?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me more about the properties of your chakra?"
"I am a water type. My previous host was able to use my chakra for genjutsu."
"I see. Thank you, Isobu. I think I know what I need to do now." Isobu gave his version of a human head nod. With a final farewell and the promise to visit again once Rin figured out her problem, Rin released the chakra at her feet letting herself sink.
When her whole body had sunken into the water, Rin's eyes snapped open. Her blurry vision took in the familiar landscape of Training Ground 6 except the sun was starting to set already. Had time already passed so quickly?
Still, Rin was eager to get started. She sat crossed legged, in a mediating position, conjuring a mental map of her chakra network. Since unlocking the strength of hundred seals, the pathway to that particular reservoir had cut itself off and would reappear when the reserves needed to be refilled. Rin formed another reservoir right next to that one, a much larger one before redirecting her network to that one.
The catch was how she was going to make sure all of the chakra that went into that was Isobu's. The obvious answer was to separate it by the viscosity of chakra, as Isobu's was considerably denser than her own, but how?
Rin still had a lot of work cut out in front of her.
A/N: Hi guys!
Here's the usual disclaimer about me not owning any of the characters, except for OC or the Naruto universe.
Thank you so much for the feedback from last chapter, glad to know that some of you are enjoying the story thus far. Sorry for the boring chapter, but I need to lay the foundation for Rin's abilities since not much is known about her aside from her medical ninjutsu.
Thank you for reading! Feel free to let me know what you think and until next time!
-MM