Chapter Thirteen: Angel of Death
It was hard to breathe. Every breath she took seemed to irritate her lungs even further, sending her into another coughing fit. Before her was a mangled body of a dead shinobi, spine snapped clean in half. Struggling to push herself to her feet, Rin used a nearby wall to stabilize herself as her shaky legs carried her out of the alley, seconds before the building next to her was decimated into pieces.
Rin's eyes widened as she registered the searing hot chakra, belonging to a furry orange tail. It was so close to her that Rin could feel the intense heat radiating off of it. The tail swung once more, screams from civilians piercing the air as rubble from the crushed buildings began to fall. Despite her burning muscles screaming at her to stay put, Rin lunged for a small girl, pushing her to safety.
Moments later, Rin felt a blunt force slam into her torso, sending her flying meters through the air. Her entire body felt like it was burning, she felt like screaming but her lungs were collapsing on her after her ribcage was shattered on impact.
Two minutes to live, her medical mind told her, that was if she didn't die on impact from the landing.
With great effort, Rin turned her head to follow the sound of a loud beast roaring. There, slightly obscured by smoke, was the nine tailed fox in front of the Hokage mountain. Its nine tails flashed wildly behind him, extending outward to cause any damage that it possibly could, while his claws swiped at the shinobis that were bravely trying to contain the fox.
No, none of that struck her as odd. The Kyuubi had gotten loose and wanted revenge on Konoha for keeping him in captivity. Kushina's seal had malfunctioned, that was all.
And Rin would have sincerely believed that if not for the fact she saw the familiar three tomoe pattern in both of the Kyuubi's eyes.
The Sharingan.
Rin woke up with a start, pressing a hand to her chest to feel her rapidly beating heart. She took in deep breaths, counting to five before releasing just like she had instructed panicking shinobis to do many times over. It had taken her two minutes to gather her bearings. Tossing her blanket off of her body, Rin clambered out of bed, her bare feet padding against the cold floor. Brushing aside the curtains to her window, Rin stared at the almost full moon.
It had been white before it slowly began to be tainted with red, until it was the shade of blood. The shade of blood, with the same markings as a Sharingan. Rin closed her eyes, shaking her head in hopes to get the dream out of her mind.
It wasn't real.
The Uchihas would never betray the village, even if they were a bit hostile. If the intention was there, Itachi and Shisui would surely know and inform the Hokage. They hadn't mentioned anything of the sort, so it wasn't real.
The dream wasn't real.
Too bad Rin couldn't even convince herself it wasn't real. The dream had been too vivid, almost like Rin herself was there at the time, for it to just be a nightmare. And the fact that the dream came just a day before Kushina was due to give birth...the time when the seal would be the weakest.
It had been over three years since she had a dream similar to this and it had turned out to be very much real. Was this another one of Romo's warnings? What could she do about it?
Rin couldn't fall asleep for the rest of the night, after going through theory after theory at how the enemy nin managed to sneak past Konoha's defenses to extract the Kyuubi from Kushina.
The burning question on her mind was who knew about Kushina's pregnancy. Very few people knew about the Kyuubi sealed inside of Kushina, and even fewer people knew the exact location where she was going to give birth. Even Rin wasn't privy to such information. A traitor…?
The Sharingan in her dreams had definitely been very real, but Rin firmly believed that it wouldn't be an inside job. In that case, it left a list of Uchihas who defected the village or a non Uchiha who possessed a Sharingan. But how many people aside from Kakashi have an eye transplant? It would be extremely rare, considering how notoriously protective the Uchihas were of their precious dojutsu. From what she gathered through her conversations with Itachi and Shisui, the Uchihas would rather destroy their eyes before their death rather than let it fall into enemy hands.
A missing nin Uchiha was the most plausible option, yet Rin couldn't remember any Uchihas being listed in the missing nin section of Konoha's bingo book. The last known traitor was Madara Uchiha, after his growing discontent at the lack of inaction by the Uchiha clan, but he was long dead - killed by the Shodaime in battle.
There were bound to be defectors that wouldn't be listed, but that meant they weren't seen as a high level threat. In that case, would the Uchiha even have a Sharingan strong enough to control the nine tailed fox?
The following morning, Rin asked - demanded - to see the security measures for Naruto's birth. Naturally, Minato was suspicious as to why his student was asking to see it, when he made it explicitly clear to Team Ro that they would be off duty that night. He had already gone through his fair share of arguing with the three other stubborn headed members. When Rin hadn't shown up along with the other three to demand they be placed on duty that night, Minato had thought she was the sensible one.
But now she was here, the day before Naruto's birth, adding onto Minato's growing headache concerning last minute preparations and the never ending paranoia that was growing inside of him. Minato couldn't deny that there was an eerie feeling that pervaded him, almost like it was warning him that something was going to happen.
Having his student demand to see the security details only intensified his paranoia.
"You know that you are my student and that I trust you with my life, but I can't let you see it. This is on a 'need to know' basis."
"Sensei, please trust me," Rin pleaded. Her bloodshot red eyes swept the entire interior of his office, almost like she was looking for something that wasn't there. Her hand wouldn't stop shaking, no matter how much effort she put in trying to curb it. "Something is going to happen tomorrow night."
All of the ticks in her body language, along with the quiver in her voice made Minato believe her. That Rin was genuinely freaked out about something, but could it be caused by paranoia? Could paranoia alone cause his student to look like she had seen a ghost?
"I've already put in place the highest level of security that I possibly can for tomorrow," Minato tried to placate her. Except it was hard to do so when he shared the same paranoia that she did. "There's nothing to worry about, Rin."
Rin didn't believe him. Heck, Minato himself didn't even buy into his own lie.
Rin desperately wanted to tell her sensei about the dream she had and the other dream she had, which turned out to be very real. But that would require pointing fingers at the Uchiha clan, when there was no real basis of accusation except "a sixteen year old girl saw it in her dreams which may or may not be a vision." What if Rin was all wrong and it turned out to have just been a nightmare? It had been over three years since Romo planted the first dream in her mind, after all. And it wasn't like Rin could go die again so she could ask Romo for confirmation.
"At least let me be on duty tomorrow night," Rin pleaded, her final request. She wasn't sure what her added presence would do; would it even change anything? But it was better than sitting in her apartment, driving herself crazy over the millions of theories that ran through her head.
"There's already more than enough Anbu on duty tomorrow."
"But I'm a medic," Rin argued. "I know you have medics, but an extra hand wouldn't hurt. Besides, I also have some knowledge on seals. Maybe I can be some sort of help. If anything, it would be good to know how the process works for...for myself."
Rin hadn't really wanted to throw that last argument out there. Her sixteen year old self wasn't ready to remotely even think about starting a family, especially not when she didn't even have a boyfriend. Yet, Minato couldn't refute that preparation would be good for her, as another female jinchuuriki.
The same situation would inevitably happen to her.
"Fine," Minato conceded. "But you will stay in the corner of the room until you are needed. You will follow all of my orders without question, do you understand?"
Rin nodded.
"I'm going to teach you a simple teleportation technique. It's not as fast as the Hiarishin, but I want you to use it to get out of there if anything happens, alright?"
Again, Rin nodded. Minato hoped he wouldn't come to regret his decision…
Technically, the three of them were supposed to be off duty, but technically, they did follow the Hokage's orders. They were off duty. The three of them were devoid of the traditional Anbu garb, instead reverting back to their normal jonin clothing. For Kakashi, it was the standard jonin wear, with the long sleeve navy shirt and pants, along with the green jacket. Kakashi had even taken to wearing Rin's gift, the forehead protector. It was slightly slanted on his head, but it screamed more of a "fashion statement" than "I have something to hide." After all, Kakashi had gotten so annoyed looking ridiculous with his old headband, having to tilt it a good sixty degrees to cover his eye that he forgoed wearing it altogether.
Both Uchiha cousins were wearing their typical high collared Uchiha shirts, with dark shinobi pants. Shisui had his tanto strapped to his back, while Itachi had chosen to forego carrying his sword tonight. Instead, he was carrying a sleeping Sasuke, who had been left in his care as both of his parents had gone out. Itachi knew that his father would disapprove of him sneaking out with Sasuke, but Itachi couldn't deny that all three of them were paranoid.
Tonight was the night that Kushina was giving birth. Over the course of the last twenty four hours, Shisui had experienced his mug cracking twice, always a sign of bad omen. For Itachi, he had woken up in cold sweat during the night, with his Mangekyo Sharingan activated. As for Kakashi, there was pain throbbing in his left eye, something that he usually only experienced after using his Mangekyo powers. It had been so bad that Kakashi had to seek out Rin to check out his eye, but even Rin looked considerably pale and nervous, like she hadn't slept in the last two days.
Rin would later inform them that she did indeed, not sleep well for the last two days.
Their paranoia seemed to be exclusive to the four of them, as they had run into other shinobis during their stroll through Konoha's streets. Not only were genin carefree, but chunins and jonins even seemed to be at complete ease.
It was entirely possible it was because they weren't burdened with the knowledge of the nine tailed fox being sealed inside of Kushina and the complications that arose at birth.
"Listen…be on your guard tonight, alright?" Rin warned them earlier that day. She proceeded to launch into an explanation of her weird "dream" the night before, but the details were scarce. All she could tell them was seeing the Kyuubi wreaking havoc on the village and how she died in her own dream, after taking a hit from the Kyuubi.
Rin purposefully neglected to mention seeing the Sharingan, not wanting to alarm the three Sharingan users or force the Uchiha cousins to start suspecting their own clan.
Upon hearing about Rin's dream, the three of them agreed that they would wander around the village that night. If they couldn't be on duty, then at least they could be on standby to help the civilians evacuate if anything happened. That, and they were slightly bitter that Minato actually allowed Rin on active duty.
But no one could actually deny that Rin would be infinitely more useful than the three of them combined when it came to the birthing process. So they settled for leisurely wandering through the streets of Konoha.
Gai eventually found them. Or rather found Kakashi, since he wanted to challenge his self proclaimed eternal rival to another spar. To which Kakashi declined, citing a mission, early tomorrow morning and proceeded to offer Gai a game of rock-paper-scissors to get him off his back.
Gai's loud declarations of how "unyouthful" Kakashi was being, woke Sasuke up. One look at the weird green man with a bowl cut, Sasuke began crying loudly. Sighing in exasperation, Kakashi proceeded to spend the next three minutes shooing Gai away, while Itachi attempted to bounce Sasuke up and down in his arm, just the way he liked it.
Sasuke didn't stop crying, not even when Kakashi finally succeeded in getting Gai to leave.
"Something is wrong," Shisui stated, peering at Sasuke's red and puffy face. "He's usually not a crier. Not when he's your arms."
Itachi looked worriedly down at his bawling brother. "Perhaps, he will feel more at ease if I take him home."
Shisui and Kakashi preferred having Itachi there with them, in case anything happened, but it couldn't be helped. Itachi's duty came before whatever self imposed duty they had placed on themselves. Besides, it could have simply been immense paranoia on their part. Best case scenario was that nothing happened.
Right as Itachi turned to head in the direction of the Uchiha compound, Izumi spotted him, calling his name out. Itachi stopped to his tracks, greeting the girl, who approached the three of them. Izumi shot a curious look at the crying baby.
"Che, now he's crying in your arms?" Izumi commented.
"He's probably not used to being around so many people," Itachi suggested. "You came from the hospital?"
Izumi nodded. "Mehhh, I'm so tired. If I would have known that I would be pulling double and triple shifts when I don't have missions, I might have reconsidered learning medical ninjutsu. I mean, at this rate, I won't even have time to prepare for the chunin exams. And now Rin doesn't spend that much time at the hospital, everyone turns to me for suggestions. Like if you can't ask Rin, then you ask the apprentice? What kind of logic is that? I'm nowhere near Rin's level; I don't know a thing about open heart surgery…"
A loud roar in the distance cut Izumi's rant off. The three members of Team Ro immediately followed the source of the sound, only to find exactly what they had feared.
The nine tailed foxed unfurled all nine tails as it angrily made the first swipe at Konoha, tearing through three buildings in the process. The civilians began to panic, the shinobis diving out of the shops and readying their weapons to fight back.
Itachi shoved the crying Sasuke into Izumi's open arms, instructing Izumi to head for the shelters. Izumi recovered from her shock within the next two seconds, nodding her head fiercely before taking off towards the evacuation zones. With an authoritative voice, Izumi began to shout at the civilians to follow her, gathering stray genin along the way to help with the cause. The Uchiha police force immediately jumped into the fray, rescuing as many people from underneath the rubble and spreading out through the village to direct all non fighters to safety.
The chunins were gathered to be on standby, citing that Sandaime had issued an order to keep the younger ninjas out of the fray. Kurenai, Gai, and Asuma were present among the group, despite the latter being a jonin. All that were present itched to participate in the fight, especially after hearing constant roars in the distant, seeing the smoke permeate the dark sky, and hearing the rumble of destruction that followed.
Pulling out their masks from their weapons pouch, the three of them donned their Anbu masks, lessening their chances of being stopped, even if they weren't in Anbu uniform.
"What's the plan, taichou?" Shisui asked as they ran full speed towards the Kyuubi. Before Kakashi got a chance to answer, the three of them scattered as a tail crashed into the ground, where they were moments before. They reconvened at the top of the roof of a nearby building, giving them a front row view of the useless attacks launched by other Konoha shinobis. Instead of stopping the fox, it only seemed to irritate it more, having to constantly swipe away the projectiles thrown at him.
"We need to subdue him and get him away from civilization," Kakashi ordered. Plucking open one of the pockets of his flak jacket, Kakashi retrieved a scroll, unrolling it to reveal the kanji for "chakra suppressing chains."
"Shisui, can you use your body flicker to surround the fox and use these chains to hold him into place?"
Shisui nodded grimly. "I won't be able to last long. One minute tops."
"One minute is all we need," Kakashi replied. "Itachi, I want you to use your Mangekyo to subdue the Kyuubi. I'll provide cover for you."
Despite Itachi's self doubts of his own ability to be able to control the fox, Itachi agreed. Kakashi made the universal motion to scatter and the three of them leapt to perform their own duties.
The first order of business for Kakashi was to find the man in charge and call off the useless attacks on the fox, which were doing nothing more than causing more shinobis to be killed. Kakashi easily found him in the fray, ordering him to call off the attacks. The man looked hesitant to obey, one turn of a head to allow him a close up view of his Anbu mask startled him into doing his bidding.
The Sandaime appeared, summoning his summon, pushing him to the outskirts of Konoha, jamming him right against the Hokage mountain. Taking advantage of the fox's momentarily captivity, Shisui activated his Body Flicker technique, leaving after images surrounding the fox as he circled him, pulling along the chakra binding chain. After making his round, Shisui tugged on the chain, jamming the fox's legs together and a few tails that were caught.
The fox roared, swiping away at the Shisui images, but the images held.
Meanwhile, Itachi scaled the Hokage mountain, looking for an opening to place the fox under his genjutsu. Down below, Shisui was making quick work of climbing over the fox, ducking and dodging along the way to avoid the fox's sharp claws, while tugging along the chains. Seeing that Itachi didn't need help, Kakashi met Shisui at the ground, taking the end of the chain from him while Shisui went again, pulling along another chain.
The fox was struggling within the chains. Kakashi and Shisui knew that they wouldn't be able to hold him much longer. Kakashi channelled his lightning natured chakra through the chains, sending an electrical shock to the fox, but that only bought them an extra thirty seconds, which allowed Shisui to finish his third round of chains.
From above, Itachi managed to reach the fox's head, using every bit of chakra to ensure that he stuck to the fox while the fox thrashed about, roaring in anger.
What Itachi saw stopped him to his tracks, leading him to be thrown off of the fox's head as it effectively broke free of the chains. Kakashi and Shisui both retreated a distance away as they watched the fox throw his head up in the sky, opening his mouth. A black ball of chakra was forming, growing bigger by the second.
Itachi wiped the blood that trickled down his chin as he joined his two comrades on the rooftops.
"It's already being controlled by someone else," Itachi reported, breathing heavily from the stabbing pain in his ribs. Being thrown fifty meters into the air and to still be standing afterwards was an impressive feat. "We will need to find the summoner and break his control first."
"You can't override his control?" Shisui questioned.
"His Sharingan is more advanced than mine."
"Sharingan?" Shisui replied through gritted teeth. "No matter, we need to take care of that chakra mass before it flattens the village. Kakashi, use your Kamui."
"Already on it." Besides them, Kakashi had already pushed up his forehead protector, revealing his Sharingan, which had already formed into the Mangekyo pattern. The veins in the eye was already visibly strained as Kakashi locked onto the center of the ball, slowly sucking away the chakra.
His concentration broke, sweat dripping down his face as he only managed to take away a bit of the chakra. Never once in his training did Kakashi ever warp away anything of this size, but Konoha was counting on his success.
Fueling up chakra to his eye once more, Kakashi tried again, this time effectively warping the large mass of chakra away steadily. The action constantly tugged at his abysmal chakra reserves, greedily sucking away. When the large ball of chakra was finally completely warped away, Kakashi clutched at his bleeding eye, collapsing backwards from chakra exhaustion. Shisui caught him before his back could hit the ground.
A large toad suddenly poofed into existence, squashing the fox. The fox fought back, thrashing under the toad's weight, but moments later, both the toad and fox disappeared. The village fell quiet once more.
"The Yondaime," Shisui said, eyes in awe at how Minato simply teleported the huge being away. "We should go assist."
Grabbing his two comrades by the arms, Shisui began teleporting through the village, in short bursts to conserve energy. And to prevent his two friends from experiencing a huge whiplash at the end, if he crossed too much distance at once.
Shisui followed the Kyuubi's massive chakra signature. He sighed; if only Rin was there, she would be able to pinpoint their exact location, not him wandering around the general location.
"Rin…"
Was she still alive?
As she promised, Rin stayed hidden in the shadows in the very corner of the room. She had donned her Anbu gear, complete with the Cat mask to avoid additional questions from the others. She would just be another Anbu guard, among the many who were already stationed within the room and outside of it. There was even an impenetrable barrier, that only Minato could cross with his teleportation technique. If any foreign chakra came intact with the barrier, the sensor team would be immediately alerted.
The sound security measures helped to alleviate Rin's concerns, slightly. There was no was the enemy could get through the barrier.
Except her presence hadn't changed anything regarding the security measures, so if the barrier was already in place in her dreams, then…
Rin shook her head, ridding her mind of those thoughts. No, she wouldn't think about it. She would concentrate on sending comforting words, in her head, to a pained Kushina.
Childbirth was a lot more dangerous to a jinchuuriki than Rin had anticipated. Constantly throughout the process, Minato had to reinforce the seal, only for it to break again. By the time Naruto's head appeared, beads of sweat were running down all over Minato's face.
Biwako, the Sandaime's wife, continued to encourage Kushina to keep pushing, giving her constant updates on what part of Naruto she could see now. With one last look of determination, Kushina pushed and the sound of a wailing child pierced the air. Biwako caught the baby, turning away to clean the baby, while Minato worked to strengthen the seal once more.
Rin didn't miss the tender look that Minato shot at Kushina before whispering to her it would be over soon.
Then Rin felt a foreign chakra appear out of nowhere. That split second tip off had been enough for her to avoid the kunai to throat, nicking her shoulder instead, as a man in black flashed through the room at lightning speed. In seconds, everyone laid dead on the floor, save for Kushina, Minato, and herself.
The man stopped, holding Naruto in one hand, with a kunai pointed at Naruto's bawling face. Rin noted the black cloak that covered the man from head to toe. Only a white mask with black curves and one eye hole was visible. Not a recognizable pattern of any masks worn by shinobis from a different land.
"Cat, remember what I told you," Minato instructed.
For her to escape? No, Minato sensei needed her help.
The mask man demanded Minato step away from Kushina, whose seal was tearing apart by the moment. Rin could practically feel the man smirking from behind his mask as he tossed Naruto into the air. Minato flashed towards Naruto, catching him mid-air, before finding the cloth covered in explosive tags.
Both the masked man and Rin dove towards Kushina at the same time. Rin beat him there, hands moving to close the seal. Her knowledge wasn't as advanced as sensei's, but she needed to buy time until sensei came back…
Rin barely repaired the first level of the seal when she saw a black metal rod pierce the side of her body. Channelling chakra to her hands, Rin used her inhuman strength to break the rod into two, preventing him from pushing it further into his body. Fist ladled with chakra, Rin moved to punch the masked man, ready to scatter his mask when her hand past right through his head.
She felt him coming, but was unable to stop the momentum of her punch and dodge his next blow. Her body was tossed aside, her back slamming against the wall. Through the holes of her mask, Rin watched as the masked man took Kushina before disappearing.
A teleportation technique, Rin analyzed. It allows the user to phase parts of his body so that a direct hit can't be landed. But he needs to materialize to land hits on others.
What was the jutsus weakness? How long could he phase his body for?
Rin grunted as she yanked the rod out of her stomach, already activated her strength of a hundred seals to heal it. Pushing herself to her feet, Rin headed out of the door, using her sensory skills to try to pinpoint his location.
Nothing.
Until his chakra signature magically appeared into existence once more, just like the first time. Rin ran in the direction of his chakra, feeling scared as the Kyuubi's chakra began to intensify. It was leaking out...it wouldn't be long until it broke free.
By the time that Rin reached the area, the Kyuubi was already set free. Kushina collapsed forward, landing on her stomach. Still alive, but barely. From her angle, Rin saw it. The flash of red in the eye hole as he placed the Kyuubi under his control.
Knowing what was coming next, Rin sent chakra to the soles of her feet, pushing herself to reach Kushina in time. The shadow of the Kyuubi's paw loomed over both of them.
A flash of yellow appeared, whisking Kushina away. Rin stopped, ducking and rolling out of the Kyuubi's reach as his palm slammed against the ground, sending earth and rocks flying everywhere. A few stray rocks hit her, but any damage done was healed instantly.
Rin felt the masked man and the Kyuubi's chakra disappear into thin air. Then felt it once more three seconds later, in the direction of Konoha.
Shit.
She scrambled to her feet, moving to head to Konoha. She wasn't sure what she could do there, but like hell was she going to stay still.
Only for a man to swirl in existence right in front of her. The masked man.
His chakra felt real, but why did she feel the same exact chakra mix, still in Konoha? Both his other chakra and sensei's flared in the distance, but his chakra was considerably weaker than the version in front of her.
A clone.
Rin pulled the flute out from her holster from her back, pointing it straight at the masked man.
"Undo your control on the fox."
As of now, Rin didn't have a viable solution to counter his intangibility, but that didn't mean she wouldn't try.
"How foolish. A mere girl thinks she can fight me and win?"
"If you didn't deem me to be a threat, then why come after me?" Rin retorted, launching senbon at the masked man. He didn't even seem to be fazed and merely took a few steps forward, allowing the senbons to pass through his body, arms, and legs.
Not just the head, but also his torso and limbs. So he can phase any part of his body at will.
"A sensor ninja is too troublesome to leave alive," was his only explanation.
Rin attacked, unrelentlessly trying to land a hit on him. One punch had been thrown with too much force, leading her unable to stop her momentum forward. The masked man allowed her body to phase through his entire being, chakra already pulsing towards his left hand.
He's going to materialize and grab me as soon as I pass through.
Jamming the tip of her flute to the ground, she used it to somersault over the chains attached to his arm, meant to trap her, no doubt, just out of reach when the masked man materialized. Capitalizing on the small opening, Rin tossed a few senbons.
The masked man was quick to become intangible once more, allowing him to avoid the poison.
The chains clanged against the metal of her flute. The masked man froze as the flute fell flat to the ground. Rin took advantage of the few seconds of opening to rush at him, chakra scalpels already formed.
With alarming speed, the masked man broke out of the genjutsu, quickly immaterializing himself right as Rin dealt the worst of the damage. A thin cut ran down his mask, but wasn't deep enough to break it open.
His hands wrapped around her throat, pressing against it so tightly that Rin could barely breathe.
"Genjutsu of that calibre doesn't work on me," the masked man hissed. "Although it was a clever trick, but that's all it will be."
With the last dredges of her strength, Rin channelled chakra to the soles of her feet, kicking at the masked man. Having predicted her move, the lower half of his torso and legs were already intangible.
Rin saw his Sharingan flash, tomoes spinning until it formed the same pattern that she had seen on Kakashi.
Was it possible for two different Sharingans to have the same Mangekyo pattern? In all of the Mangekyo Sharingans she had seen, every pattern was different, so why was theirs the same. Unless…
She didn't have time to ponder over it any longer as she felt the air near the top of her head get sucked in. Despite her resistance, her head jerked forward with such a force that her neck almost snapped if she hadn't stopped resisting.
If he's trying to suck me in, then he can't become intangible, right?
There was only one way to find out. Her hand formed a chakra scalpel once more, the chakra flickering on and off due to her inability to concentrate.
She attacked.
The masked man spluttered, releasing his bone crushing hold on Rin. She tumbled to the ground, head pounding from the manipulation of the space around her head as she gasped for breath. The masked man stumbled backwards, mask cracking in half as he hunched over his torso.
Once her vision came into focus again, she realized it hadn't been her doing. Something had slammed into him, tearing a large hole in his cloak. Blood was dripping down his entire torso, starting from his face where he violently coughed out blood.
His face… Only one visible eye, the Sharingan, and a crushed right side.
"Obito." Wasn't he dead? Why was he alive?
Scrambling to her feet, Rin yanked off her Cat mask, letting her hair frame her face as she approached Obito. Cautiously because she wasn't sure of the man's identity.
The Sharingan registered her presence.
"Rin." Her eyes widened.
"Obito," she whispered. "Why? Why are you attacking Konoha?"
"You have no right to demand answers from me, you imposter," Obito hissed, despite the burning pain that ran up his torso. The right side of him didn't feel anything; in fact, the Zetsu part of him had already detached itself from his body from the moment the bijuu bomb slammed into him. The left side of him felt searing pain, like his whole body was set on fire.
And a fucking imposter had to appear right in front of him.
Rin was dead. Obito saw her die personally with his eye, impaled by Kakashi's chidori. If sensei hadn't interfered, Obito would have gone to her, to cradle her one last time. None of that mattered though; she was dead. And Obito would create a world with her in it.
"What are you talking about?" Fake Rin was saying. "Where's the Obito who wanted to become Hokage? Where's the Obito who was always late because he was helping old ladies? Where's the Obito who swore to never abandon a comrade? Who have you become?"
Obito might have scoffed at her question, but realization hit him. An imposter couldn't possibly know all of those details about him. Not when Team Minato were the only ones who he shared his dream of being Hokage with.
"You...didn't die?"
"No, baka," Rin said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "What made you think I was dead? You should have come back to us!"
Logically, Rin knew Obito was the enemy; Obito was the one who unleashed the Kyuubi on Konoha. But emotionally, Rin knew she couldn't let Obito die, so she began to heal him. Even as her healing chakra poured through his body, both of them knew it was too late for him. Not even her seal could save him; not when he didn't have enough cells to regenerate his body before he bled out.
"Take...me to...sensei." Rin strained to hear him. Releasing her healing jutsu, Rin began to form the hand seals to the teleportation jutsu that sensei taught her yesterday. Right before she formed the last seal, her hand latched onto Obito's dying body, dragging the both of them through space, before landing in front of an open clearing.
Kushina's yellow chains were keeping the Kyuubi subdued. Minato's chakra flickered at the sudden arrival of two chakra, his head jerking around to see them.
"No..time. Lend...your hand."
Rin shot Obito a questioning look but allowed him to use her right hand. His remaining hand moved her fingers along with his, forming a sequence of hand seals.
"What are you doing?" The pattern was unrecognizable, nothing even remotely familiar to her.
"What...I should...have done."
That was the last thing that Obito said before he formed the last seal in the sequence, a ram. A flash of light appeared before them, so bright that Rin and Minato had to shield their eyes.
The Kyuubi knew he didn't have much time left. At the flash of light, he tried to kill the baby once more, refusing to be sealed inside that brat. A green skeletal hand reached out, stopping the Kyuubi's claw mere millimeters before it was due to pierce Minato's back. Pushing chakra to his claw, Kurama broke through the skeletal hand, shattering into many pieces before his nail dove into Minato who desperately tried to use the soles of his feet to stop the momentum.
Kushina was next to be impaled, arms wrapping around the nail. Like Minato, her feet moved to stop the Kyuubi's momentum forward. His nail stopped right above Naruto, before he poofed out of existence, the white light consuming him thoroughly, before the light hit Naruto's stomach.
It disappeared, leaving behind a seal on his stomach.
Rin didn't want to leave Obito, but he was already dead and sensei and Kushina needed her help. Rushing towards their falling bodies, Rin noted the heavy amount of blood loss. They had less than thirty seconds to live. Pressing her hands to their bodies, Rin activated the strength of hundred seals once more, letting the black markings spread over their bodies. Opening two reservoirs of her chakra, she channelled an immense amount of her healing chakra through both of their bodies, hoping to close their wounds in time.
Fifteen seconds into healing Kushina, Rin felt her heart stop beating. Dejectedly, she released her hand from Kushina, instead channeling the chakra into Minato sensei. At the very least, saving her sensei's life would be the last thing she would do.
She felt a steady heartbeat. Weak, but steady. Rin almost wanted to cry out in relief, but knew he wasn't safe yet.
Other chakra signatures had arrived at the scene, but her thoughts were too jumbled to actually focus on the newcomers. All she saw were other medics, gently prying her hands away from Minato. Rin wanted to fight back, insisting that she could finish healing him, but her body was too tired to disagree.
Kushina was dead. That fact hit her even harder when she saw the medics carting her away in a body bag. And Naruto, poor Naruto was made into a jinchuuriki barely an hour since his birth.
Rin felt the comforting presence of her team, sitting down on the grass beside her. All three of them looked worse for wear, varying cuts and scratches, and chakra exhaustion. She began to absently heal them, starting from Kakashi's bleeding eye. When Rin began healing Itachi's dislocated shoulder, her green chakra flickered on and off.
Shisui grabbed her hand, pushing it back down to her lap.
"That's enough," Shisui ordered. "Save your chakra and heal yourself."
She didn't even feel any physical pain. No, all the pain was in her heart.
"What do we do now?" Her teary eyes gazed in the direction of the village, smoke still dissipating into the sky. The wreckage in the clearing was obvious, with the roots of trees upturned and the earth torn out of the ground. Blood stained the entire clearing. Obito's body, or what was left of it, was still burning, leaving the air with the smell of a burnt corpse.
"We heal."
A/N: Hey again! :)
So this chapter...I think we all knew it was coming. :( I know one of my reviewers speculated that it was possible for Obito to mistake Rin for dead, but at the same time, he should have realized she was alive during his multiple trips to spy on the village. My explanation: Zetsu did all of the spying this time around and reported false information to Obito.
I have so many different endings to this chapter that it was ridiculous. Even as I was writing the first half, I kept thinking of how I wanted to end it...in the end, I had to force myself to decide, so here it is. As much as I would like to keep everyone alive, Kushina wasn't going to survive since the fox had been extracted from her. Minato is currently in critical condition and his situation will be addressed in the next chapters.
And Obito. If it wasn't clear, the "thing" that hit Obito was the tailed beast bomb that Kakashi had warped away with the Kamui in the first half of the story. And Obito managed to survive it for a bit (I stand by it since he survived all sorts of things during the 4th Great Ninja War, so what's a tailed beast bomb? lol), long enough to seal the Kyuubi into Naruto. And honestly, Obito is going to die here in my story. I always thought he was kind of wacky for starting an entire war over a dead girl? Yes, I know he was also brainwashed by Madara, but damn.
Next chapter is called Aftermath. (How creative of me, I know hahaha)
Anyways, let me know if this was what you predicted/if there are any alternate endings that you would like to see. Let me know what you think and until next time!
-MM