Chapter Fifteen: His Legacy

Exactly two hundred and twenty two days since the Kyuubi's attack, the Fourth was proclaimed to be dead. It happened in the middle of the night, one of the rare times when Rin wasn't there, and the machine flatlined. The medics on duty tried to save him, but due to his vegetative state, his brain shut down a lot faster than it normally would after the heart stopped beating.

A minute later, he was proclaimed dead.

As his body was wheeled into the morgue room, a debate broke out in the hospital as who would be the one to inform Rin. Those who had seen her in the beginning of her teacher's comatose state had grown to fear her crankiness and mood swings when she was bothered. The medics had learned to just stay away, watching in awe as a silver haired shinobi was the only one to successfully enter the room and not get kicked out.

Since then, if Rin showed any concerning symptoms, the medics would talk to the silver haired shinobi instead.

As time passed, Rin had become better, almost her usual cheerful self, save for the fact that she worked relentlessly to do anything to help her sensei. A good way to channel some of her anger and grief, a psychologist would say.

Still, the other medics were still wary of getting too close to the grieving girl. That wasn't to say that they weren't secretly happy to have the best medical ninja back within their ranks in the hospital, where she ended up in multiple life saving surgeries, created many antidotes to a variety of cases that had been deemed a lost case before she came along, and well, boosted the overall moral of the hospital. The comfort of knowing that she was there, someone to fall back on if they were unable to figure out a cure was an irreplaceable feeling. One that Tsunade gave them when she was the head of the hospital, then Rin.

But how could any of them break the news to her?

It turned out that their worries were completely unfounded. It started with the night shift medics being relieved from duty and passing along that message to the day shift medics. Then the night shift medics went home and told their spouses, if they had one, about the Fourth's death. A few of those spouses were shinobis, who immediately went to the Hokage Tower to inquire the validity of what they heard. In turn, the Third reached out to the head of the hospital for confirmation. He received the confirmation and immediately issued a grieving statement to the village. Preparations for the funeral were made, to be held in three day's time.

Kakashi was the first to have heard, arriving first to the Anbu locker room. A fellow Anbu member had directed him to one of the notice boards, that was plastered all over Konoha. With a comforting hand pat, the Anbu left Kakashi to his own devices.

By the time that Itachi and Shisui arrived to report for duty, they were both already made aware of the Fourth's death. Shisui from the gossip that spread through the streets of the Uchiha compound and Itachi, from his father, who as clan head, had received a messenger hawk informing him of the sudden circumstance.

Team Ro wasn't the type to skirt their duties, but they couldn't deny that the thoughts of the Fourth's death and by extension, Rin's wellbeing was on the forefront of their minds as they mindlessly carried out their surveillance duties.

Once Izumi heard, she immediately headed for the hospital, thinking Rin would be there. However after scouring through the entire hospital, including double checking the morgue room and asking the staff, there wasn't a single trace of her. The receptionist had even confirmed Rin hadn't stepped foot inside of the hospital, not since she left yesterday afternoon.

On the other hand, Kurenai and Asuma were convinced that Rin would either be at Kushina's grave or one of her favorite food shops, as the girl was known to stress eat on many occasions. Per Kurenai's lead, the duo went to every shop that Kurenai believed to be Rin's favorite places to eat.

There hadn't been a single trace of her.

Stopping along the way to Kushina's grave at a Yamanaka shop, the pair picked up a bouquet of flowers to pay their respects to Kushina. The two of them did just that, but didn't feel a trace of Rin's presence here or seen any sign there had been anyone here at all. The memorial stone was the next viable option, but it was empty. Not even Kakashi, the most frequent visitor, was around.

Rin's apartment was the last stop, but it was empty, like they expected. In fact, the insides were so dusty that the pair suspected that there hadn't been an inhabitant in a few weeks. Upon closer inspection, Kurenai was the one to note that a large chunk of Rin's wardrobe was missing from her closet, as well as some essential toiletries.

Kurenai and Asuma knew they weren't supposed to bother the Anbu when they were on duty. In fact, they were supposed to pretend to not know they were there and continue their day as they normally would, but Asuma really couldn't pass up the chance when he saw a familiar mop of silver hair flash step across the rooftops. Getting Kurenai's attention with the tug of her arm, Asuma pointed in the direction where Kakashi had gone, with the two Uchiha cousins in the vicinity.

Scaling the wall of a dango shop, Asuma and Kurenai landed on the rooftops and began to head after the trio. If there was anyone who would know where Rin was, it would be these three. And if there was anyone who could understand Rin's grief, it would be Kakashi, who had been equally attached to the Yondaime.

The black haired Uchiha had been the first to halt, turning around to face them. A mysterious hand sign later, the black haired Uchiha had successfully garnered the attention of his other two comrades. Kakashi, who had been one building ahead of them, backtracked and landed right in between his two Uchiha comrades.

His right hand went to his face, lifting his mask and pushing it to the side of his face.

"Oi, we're not supposed to reveal our identities," the black haired Uchiha hissed. Kakashi's face remained impassive.

"It's not like anyone doesn't know who we are at this point," Kakashi drawled. "Besides, Asuma and Kurenai followed us for a reason, right? So they must already know who we are. So, talk. The Third doesn't like it if we are idle for too long."

"I'm sure you've already heard the news," Kurenai managed to rush out. Speaking to Kakashi had always been intimidating for her and this time was no different. "We wanted to find Rin, to give her some moral support, but we can't find her anywhere. Do you know where she would go?"

Kakashi's expression was unreadable. "If she doesn't want to be found, then no one can find her."

After all, it simply wasn't that hard for Rin to feel their chakra signatures coming and if she wanted to avoid them, then she would.

Kurenai frowned. "I see."

"Thank you for the concern though. I'll pass that along if I see her."

None of them missed the way Kakashi said if rather than when like even he wasn't sure if Rin would want to meet him. If that was the case, then Rin would see no one.

Replacing his mask in its rightful place, Kakashi motioned for them to get a move on. The three Anbu flash stepped to the next rooftop, leaving Asuma and Kurenai to dust.

"Nothing more we can do."

The two of them went on with their day, and eventually got called into the Hokage's office for a mission briefing. They proceeded to tackle the mission as normal, except for the small part of their minds that wouldn't let go of the worried feeling they had for their peers.

There were minor talks of replacing the Hokage, but it was quickly hushed, deemed inappropriate to talk about so soon after the Fourth's death.

Later, they said. At least after the funeral.

Team Ro's shift seemed to drag on more than normal. Surveillance was an incredibly boring job to begin with, but combine that with a recent tragedy, there was no doubt their thoughts were everywhere but on surveillance.

The Third was forced to end their shift early, after multiple reports from other Anbu about their lack of concentration. He sighed; he supposed it was inevitable that they would need some time to coup, especially since they had been particularly close with the Fourth.

Team Ro had been surprised to receive three days off, per order of the Hokage, but didn't question it. In different intervals of the evening, the three of them took turns to pay their respects to Kushina, as well as visit the memorial stone for those whose bodies were unrecoverable. Kakashi stayed the longest, just sitting in front of Kushina's grave. There wasn't much to say to her. All there was companionable silence as Kakashi shed silent tears, soaking through his mask completely.

He was almost certain that Kushina was weeping along with him.

At some point, he moved to the memorial stone, to update Obito on their sensei's death. The only response he received was a slight breeze of the wind.

Then Kakashi picked himself back up and retreated to the confines of his own apartment. From there, Kakashi began to dig up every last memento he had of his sensei's, from the three pronged kunai that he gave him as a jonin gift, to the special plated sword he had gotten for his birthday, to the various scrolls and books given to him in his chunin days, to the various tupperwares that Minato kept forgetting to retrieve after bringing him Kushina's cooking, and finally, to their team picture.

Team Minato. Formed at the age of nine. Disbanded at the age of twelve.

Kakashi piled everything into a box, excluding the sword. He would carry the sword everywhere, replacing the standard Anbu issued katana. It would serve as a comfort, that Minato was always there to watch his back. The picture, Kakashi kept on his desk. Everything else, including the special kunai, Kakashi put in the box before sealing it shut with his newly acquired fuinjutsu knowledge.

Kakashi pushed the box under his bed, vowing to one day to impart the box to Naruto, sensei's son, when he was old enough.

The Third no doubt already sent some Anbu to clean out Minato and Kushina's home, the least that Naruto could have was some memento from his parents. Something to remember them by.

Turns out, the Third did send Anbu to pack up Minato and Kushina's home, except the Anbu were all sent away by an angry Rin. She had chased them away, flailing a piece of paper, which she repeatedly said was Minato's will. The Anbu reported the incident to the Hokage, who turned to the archives.

Indeed, the archives came up with Minato's will, stating everything was to be left to his students. No more Anbu were sent.

The damned piece of paper was hidden in Minato's favorite book, The Tales of a Gutsy Ninja. It had been a complete accident that Rin found it in the first place; all she wanted to do was curl up on their couch and read her sensei's favorite book to find out exactly why it was his favorite book. And supposedly, he had even named his son after the main character of the story. She opened the book, to find a signature from Jiraiya and a folded piece of paper.

It had taken her an hour to finally stop crying when she first saw the news of her sensei's death. Unfolding the piece of paper had only set off the waterworks once more as she found that Minato had left everything to Kakashi and her. Obito's name had once been there, but was eventually crossed out.

Flipping through the pages of the book, two more envelopes fell out, one addressed to her and one addressed to Kakashi. Setting aside Kakashi's envelope, Rin shakily opened her letter. In no way was she emotionally prepared to read it, but she read through the whole thing, while tears continued to slide down her cheeks.

Rin,

I'm sorry that you are reading this letter because that means I died before I was supposed to. The truth is, I've started writing these letters even during the Third Great Ninja War and occasionally updating it because in our line of profession, our longevity isn't guaranteed.

Don't cry. I know you are crying since you were always the most expressive of one in our team. But don't cry. I know it's hard, but I want you to be happy. I'm just glad that Kushina and I had gotten the opportunity to watch you grow up.

As I am writing this, Kushina is pregnant with our son. I'm not sure if our son will be born by the time you read this letter, but if he is, can you take care of him in our stead? When he's older, please tell him that we are sorry that we weren't able to see him grow up. But tell him, we'll love him, always and unconditionally.

This is Kushina here. Minato worries too much, I have complete faith that you will look over our son for us. Unlike that Hatake, you were always the most trustworthy one. Che, be sure to remember your promise to me; that you will teach our son fuinjutsu. I'm sure there's some more books on fuinjutsu lying around the house; they're all yours. Don't let the Uzimaki sealing techniques die with me; that would be terrible.

Like Minato said, don't be sad. We'll be watching you from above and everytime you cry over us, you can expect to feel a ladle hit your head.

Minato again. Thank you for being a wonderful student. Don't feel too guilty if you were there; I know you did everything you could to save us. Perhaps the only thing that I regret was spending more time teaching the two knuckleheads on your team. As a parting gift, I have enclosed the sealing formula and instructions to using the Hiraishin. I'm not sure if it's enough for you to learn how to use it completely, but I have faith in you.

If you are interested in learning the Rasengan, Kakashi can teach it to you.

Perhaps one day, you will become an even greater shinobi than I ever was. Goodbye.

Minato, Kushina.

The back of the page was filled with Minato's familiar scrawl, with the secrets to Hiarishin.

After reading the letter, it had taken her another two hours for her to finally stop crying. Though sensei and Kushina nee told her not to cry, it was impossible not to, not when the two people who died were practically her only remaining family.

Surprisingly, Rin held it together well enough to begin exploring the house and packing. Both of their clothes were packed away in boxes; perhaps, Naruto would be interested in having them in the future. The expired food was tossed away. The books and decorations stayed; that was one thing that Rin was never going to change about the house. With a simple water jutsu, she watered the neglected plant on the windowsill.

It was probably past saving, but it was worth a shot.

Both of their weapons stash were combined with her own. There were scrolls and scrolls of weapons, as Rin quickly found out as she began to unseal some of the storage scrolls. There was everything ranging from standard kunai and shurikens, to katanas and chakra suppressing chains. Rin set it aside; she would sort this out later with Kakashi, who was bound to show up anytime soon. These weapons would probably be more useful in his hands, in the hands of someone who actually knew how to use them.

Their weapons stash was flooded with Minato's standard three pronged kunai, each of them wrapped in the sealing formula. Rin peeled off the sealing formula from the handle, almost ripping the fragile paper before she began studying it, reaching to grab the letter. Using the instructions and explanations given and her own knowledge of seals, Rin began to pick apart the design.

For two days, Rin stayed at their house until Kakashi finally showed up. When he did, his eyes were rimmed red, evidence of crying as hers probably was too, but neither one of them mentioned it. Instead, Kakashi just casually stepped aside the mess that Rin made on the floor of the living room, including many stacked boxes and scrolls scattered everywhere. On the coffee table was the Hiraishin formula, three sheets of paper full of her own handwriting from decoding the formula.

"You're late," Rin simply stated, before tossing his letter, still unopened at Kakashi. Kakashi caught it, stared at it curiously, before tearing open the envelope. His lone eye roved over the words. She averted her eyes when she saw the first tear slip down his face.

"You got one too?" Rin nodded, jerking her chin towards her own letter.

"Ne, sensei left you his technique?" Kakashi questioned, moving to take a seat next to her on the floor. Rin slid the paper over to him; his eyes already taking in everything. After he finished, Kakashi reached for the unfurled sealing formula, then her notes, flipping through it and reading it at an incredibly fast pace.

"We'll figure it out together," Kakashi assured her, setting down the papers.

"Did he leave you anything?"

"Ah, sort of. You know how sensei has always been trying to combine his wind nature chakra into his Rasengan? He just left me some theories to work with, if I ever was interested in finishing his technique."

"You should," Rin told him. "At least so you can pass the memento on to his kid when he's old enough."

"Ah, I'll have to see about that. Are you ready to go see him?"

Rin stood up, nodding. It was now or never; tomorrow was the funeral, where he would be buried six feet under, in his own plot right next to Kushina.

The morgue room was cold, but it felt even colder to her, knowing that her sensei was lying in one of these body bags. Kakashi said nothing as his lone eye took in his surroundings, the piles of identical bags, simply identifiable by the lone tag that hung from the zipper. He helped Rin to locate the one with their sensei's name on it and helped her haul it onto the cart in the middle of the room.

Rin's gloved hand reached for the zipper, pulling it down, revealing their dead sensei. His skin was deathly pale. Kakashi's fingers itched to touch his sensei once more, but he refrained knowing that the body had already hardened to the point where it didn't even feel human anymore.

Rin seemed to not share the same qualms as Kakashi did. Instead her fingers reached to inspect Minato's entire body, moving his stiff limbs so she could check the underside. Once Rin was done with the front, she lifted Minato's body, checking his backside as well.

Something caught her eye. Placing Minato down on the bag, Rin reached for his neck, twisting his stiff neck slightly so that she could get a better look.

"What's there?" Kakashi asked curiously, peering to get a closer look. He didn't see anything odd.

Rin pointed at something. "There's a hole. Like the size of a needle. It's very thin, like they tried to use a needle that resembled the size of the pores of our skin, but I can tell the difference. Besides look."

Rin gestured to Minato's right arm, where there were visible needle holes - at least visible to Kakashi's untrained eyes - from where he was hooked up to the IV drips.

"That's hospital size," Rin explained. "Even the smallest needles that appear in the hospital aren't that small."

"Are you suggesting that it's an outside job?"

Rin grimly nodded.

The two of them kept quiet on their findings. Rin slinked into the lab, allowing Kakashi entrance as she hunted down the last bit of blood sample taken, by one of the medics that had been on duty an hour before Minato died. Kakashi watched as Rin donned her lab coat, tied her hair up, and put on googles and began to inspect the blood sample with so many different machines and at different angles.

For a proclaimed genius, Kakashi genuinely had no idea about anything relating to experiments. Or medicines. All he knew was some basic first aid tactics, courtesy of said kunoichi that was in front of him, and did read up on poisonous plants to keep himself out of trouble.

But that was the extent of his knowledge.

While Rin spent the next couple of hours in the lab, examining and running tests on who knows what, Kakashi's eye roamed around the room, spotting a lot of books and random equipment that he had never seen. The smell of antiseptic wasn't as strong here, but it was still prominent to bother his sensitive nose.

By the second hour, Kakashi was itching to leave - how did Rin stand it here all the time? - but he kept quiet and silently waited for Rin to finish. After all, this concerned whether or not his sensei was murdered in cold blood. If that was the case, then like hell was Kakashi going to let him or her get away with it.

"There's a foreign substance in his bloodstream," Rin finally said, shaking the vial in her hand. "Upon closer examination, I found that it's a type of poison. I just started working on breaking down the components of the poison. Once that's done, I'll be able to narrow the potential list of suspects."

"It's already pretty low," Kakashi pointed out. "Hypothetically, it was an outside job. The person would need to be able to break through all of Konoha's security measures and get past the Anbu guards. Seeing how neither reported anything suspicious, I highly doubt it."

"And if it's an inside job?"

"If it's an inside job, it would be a familiar face, one that the Anbu would let in without too many questions. And if it's like you said, the person would have to be a poison expert, to create such a poison."

"So someone like me, but not me," Rin mused. "Why don't you draft a list of anyone fitting that description while I work on cracking the poison?"

They went their separate ways. Kakashi spent the last of his day off drafting that list, but had to table it when he was drafted for a sudden mission. Since being placed back on active roster, Kakashi worked in between his shifts, even taking advantage of having access to the Hokage's archives to dig through the database. Itachi and Shisui noticed that Kakashi was working on something and inquired about it, but Kakashi merely responded that he would tell them once it was confirmed.

Two more days in the lab and Rin left it, heading up to the Hokage Tower to request permission to leave the village. The Third gave her permission after Rin vaguely told him that she was missing an herb to complete the antidote she was working on.

Five days later, Rin returned to Konoha, heading immediately towards her lab. Rin was almost certain she had cracked the components of the poison. There was only one foreign plant, while the rest of the mixture were things commonly found in Konoha or the Land of Fire. And one of these foreign plants was in her basket, right now.

Ten failed batches later, Rin finally got a complete match on her eleventh batch. The mysterious plant was Atropa Belladonna, only found in one particular part of Kusa.

But how would that help narrow down their search? Kusa was a territory they often crossed to get their destinations and the plant could have been retrieved at any time. If the person was a typical medic like her, they would have picked up any rare plant the moment they saw one.

But who would do such a thing? Someone with a grudge against the Fourth? Someone who always wanted to usurp his position?

Rin recalled Minato sensei always having rifts with the Elders and Danzo. The Elders mostly because of their different ways of thinking, due to the generational gap between them. As for Danzo, he hated Minato for dissolving his Foundation, but never showed any physical resentment. Just a constant thorn in the side as Danzo never supported any of Minato's ideas.

Danzo? From the history books, Rin never recalled any mention of Danzo with any knowledge on poison. He had shown the skillsets of an average shinobi, with a greater speciality in wind jutsu.

An accomplice? Someone who hated Minato as much as Danzo did?

Rin met up with Kakashi later that day, in the privacy of Minato and Kushina's old home. Rin informed Kakashi of her findings, which hadn't been that helpful. Kakashi showed her the list he made, with many familiar names as most of them worked at the hospital at one point or another.

"Hypothetically, the person has a grudge against sensei," Rin began. "My first thought was Danzo, but he doesn't have any knowledge of poisons as far as I am aware, so I'm thinking he either had an accomplice or it was done by someone who hated sensei as much as Danzo did."

Rin went through the list, ticking off people's names as most of them she knew personally. "I can cross reference and double check if they were in the village at the time."

"Orochimaru?"

Kakashi shrugged. "His files noted that he is very knowledgeable in poisons."

"Wasn't he in the running for Yondaime? I heard some things about him becoming bitter and reclusive after he wasn't selected."

"He hasn't taken any missions after the war as far as I am aware. It's very likely that he was in the village at the time," Kakashi concluded. "Also, do you think there's a possibility that there's an accomplice involved, besides the poison mastermind?"

"Highly unlikely. The vein that was pierced to inject the poison is a very thin one and one that is often overlooked. Very few people are aware of its existence well enough to attempt an injection there...and to even do it perfectly in one try is even harder. I suspect the original maker is also the one who injected it."

"I see. I'll start investigating Orochimaru and let you know what I find."

Rin nodded. "I think it's time I rejoin the team, ne?"

"Welcome back."

A/N: Hi again!

So disclaimer, I don't really have much medical knowledge so take all medical knowledge exhibited in my story with a grain of salt. I try to make it plausible, but at the same time, I don't really know, so for the sake of the story, I'm going to roll with this.

Anyways, I toyed with the idea of allowing Minato to live, I wanted him alive as much as you do, but I had to do it. However, his death does differentiate from canon, so there will be some changes in regards to that.

Next chapter is called The Investigation. lol how obvious.

Also, I can't believe we are already so far into the story, but don't worry, there is still a lot to come! I haven't had time to write, but I have been plotting the ending for a while now, so once I get the time to write again, I should finish this story soon. And I know this is kind of premature, but I have another KakaRin story brewing in the back of my mind now (and so far, the plotline seems to be working out better than this one lol) so would you guys be interested in reading that?

As always, let me know what you think! Thank you for reading and until next time!

-MM