Hello Readers,
Thank you for all your responses. I have decided to mix it in with a little bit of AU and time skips, but I am extremely grateful for all your opinions and advice!
I have a Sneak Peek of the next chapter ready. I just want to know what you guys think about this new story development? And please ignore the spell and grammar errors. It is still a work in process and I will iron it out with the Chapter full release.
ShirouKuroEmiya
Chapter Four Sneak Peek
Rin Tohsaka, no it was Rin Hyuga in this life, she corrected herself, looked at the summary of the various research projects that she was overseeing. Sometimes she really missed what mages were capable of doing. In general, magecraft was much more varied in what it was capable of compared to Ninjutsu.
"No, what am I thinking!?" Rin berated herself for falling into a wrong line of thinking.
In theory, Ninjutsu was just as capable of magecraft. The likely reason Ninjutsu was not as widely applicable of what it should be capable of was due to its violent past, where Ninjutsu was solely devoted to military applications. After the Third Shinobi War and the following peace, Ninjutsu was developing the roots for non-military applications. If Ninjutsu was given a few centuries of mostly peaceful development then it would likely become just as diverse as magecraft.
She started to put the research reports on the walls, ceiling and floor, keeping them stuck with a simple gluing magic spell that was easy to undo.
"Byakugan!" Rin chanted as her eyes' features became more distinct and the veins near her temples bulged.
The first thing Rin noticed was that everything became clearer. It was like she had slipped on binoculars that could zoom in and out with just a single thought. She could even see the things that had been impossible before like the individual pores of her skin with the clarity of using a microscope. The next thing that Rin became aware of was that she could see in every direction, even where her eyes were not looking. Combined together she was able to read the papers glued to the ceiling, floor and walls, which were daily research reports of several dozens science projects under her management.
Without the Bakuya, the progress of reading so much information would have taken days, but thanks to her eyes the time it took to analyze was significantly shortened. Yet, it still took several hours. Rin was able to further shorten her time by employing several magic spells like Parallel Thinking and Thought Acceleration that augmented the human brain as the magic spells lasted.
"Ha..." Rin groaned after undoing the magic spells augmenting her mind and stopped using Byakugan. The mental strain of analyzing all the reports started to hit her for the first time.
She massaged her head as the most important details of what Rin had came to the forefront of her mind. Progress was slow. Yet, it was expected as non-military application research of Ninjutsu was a relatively new field, and the research designs she had made were based on methodology and knowledge of mages, not civilians and former ninjas.
Rin was about to write up a list of what she needed to do when a familiar voice called out to her.
"If something is troubling you then you can always ask for my help," said a man as he entered Rin's office.
"Orochimaru-sensei, if I need your assistance then I will not hesitate to ask," replied Rin as she turned to her Ninja teacher of her reincarnated life. "Is there something in particular you need, Sensei? I thought you were busy meeting with the Konoha Council to request additional funding and manpower."
"All my meetings with the Konoha Council have been put on hold for the foreseeable future," said Orochimaru as he glanced around the glued papers. "You might have not heard of it since you have been holed up in your office all this time, but there has been a kidnapping and assassination on the Fourth Hokage and his family."
"Is Minato-sama, Kushina-san and their newborn baby okay?!" Rin shouted in alarm, completely worried the worst could have happened.
"No they are safe," smiled Orochimaru.
"Thank god," sighed Rin in relief. "That's great to hear!" She turned to Orochimaru and asked, "So what are your plans now that the Konoha Council would be unable to meet you until the chaos dies down?"
"I am extremely tempted to accept Danzo-san's off-"
"-Sensei!" Rin quickly interrupted in a panicked voice.
Suddenly, Rin was hit with a memory of the past. A time in her reincarnated life that she had been kidnapped and raised by ROOT. It was at ROOT where Orochimaru had been selected to be her teacher. She shuddered remembering the Orochimaru of that time. Her soon-to-be teacher had all the signs of a brilliant prodigy going down the wrong path and ultimately becoming a mad scientist, who had the potential of becoming a blight to humanity.
Thankfully, I happened to know quite a bit about human biology and soul thanks to my time in Chaldea, interacting with some of the greatest human minds and inventors that had graced Earth..." Rin sighed. If I hadn't been around... She shuddered. Orochimaru-sensei would have become a great threat to Konoha with his mindless pursuit of immorality.
She remembered it just like it was yesterday when Orochimaru had first contemplated kidnapping people for his illegal and unethical human experimentations with stolen DNA of Hashirama Senju. Thankfully, Rin had been able to sense Orochimaru's intentions after knowing him for several years as his student, and she had been able to satisfy Orochimaru's thirst for knowledge about immortality with what she knew about the human body and soul.
Returning back to the present. Rin asked, "Sensei since you are one of Konoha's few kage-level ninjas, why don't you help out calming the public? I bet Hiruzen-sama and Minato-sama would appreciate your help."
"That does seem like a good idea," hummed Orochimaru. "If I was to help out Minato and Hiruzen-sensei would owe me a favor. A favor that would help greatly in getting the additional funding and manpower I am requesting for our research institution."
Rin smiled at how her teacher was responding. It was just an example of how her hard work to change Orochimaru had been largely successful. She wiped her brow remembering the rudimentary divination attempt she had made a decade ago after meeting Orochimaru for the first time. Any novice of divination magecraft might have done better, but Rin had known enough on the arcane discipline to peer into a likely future, which had failed to manifest, that if she hadn't interfered then Konoha would have faced an incredibly intelligent and powerful rogue ninja that would have done anything for his goal of finding immortality.
Still... Rin glanced at her teacher's expression he would have when he was scheming. If she wasn't around, Rin swore that Orochimaru might easily fall into the path of evil if things didn't go his way. He wasn't the type to just accept obstructions to his goals. Rin knew that if it wasn't for her influence over the years to tone his ruthless and cold personality then Konoha and many innocents would have suffered for getting in his way.
"One of the leaders of the kidnapping and assassination attempt on Minato, Kushina and their newborn child was a S-rank Missing-Nin," said Orochimaru with a growing smile. "Kakuzu from Takigakure."
"Kakuzu... Takigakure..." Rin repeated as she tried to recall where she had heard that name. "Oh! The user of Takigakure's iconic Kinjutsu, the Earth Grudge Fear." She turned to Orochimaru and asked, "Why hasn't the corpse of Kakuzu arrived at our research institution? Everyone in Konoha knows that if it is related to immortality then it comes to us in exchange for the medical discoveries and inventions we produce."
Orochimaru looked in displeased as he responded to Rin, "The savior of the day claimed the corpse as part of his reward for foiling the kidnapping and assassination attempt on Minato and the Fourth Hokage's family."
"Oh," Rin muttered as she could easily understand why her teacher was not in a good mood. Anything related to immortality was something that he would fight tooth and nail for. She didn't doubt that if she had reformed Orochimaru then he would have not been afraid to be labeled as a traitor and S-rank Missing-nin to steal the corpse.
The interesting thing was how her teacher's expression lightened up quickly, especially when normally his reformed personality would have been lobbying hard with Konoha Council for ownership of any material related to immortality to him.
"Oh, I have never forgotten my ultimate desire for immortality, but something has caught my interest." He smiled. "I heard the hero happens to possess several dozens of Minato's iconic three-pong kunai, the Flying Thunder God Kunai." Orochimaru paused as he shook his head. "There is no way that could be true. Those weapons are amongst Konoha's greatest weapons and secrets. Minato has taken great care in keeping track of every one of his iconic kunai and every kunai is accounted for."
Rin nodded her head in agreement. The words, "great care" was a gross understatement of how much care Minato and Konoha had placed in keeping track of every one of his legendary Flying Thunder God Kunai. The throwing weapons itself, while more impressive than the mass-produced kunai that regular ninja used, its true value lay within the fuinjutsu formula that made Minato's legendary name, the Yellow Flash, possible. A space-time ninjutsu that allowed Minato to travel unknown distances in an instance and slaughter hundreds of ninjas at once in a heartbeat.
By itself, the Flying Thunder God Kunai used by Minato could kill hundreds in a moment, but that just was the tip of possabilities what it could be used for. These possibilities could rival the value and destructive power of a nuke from Rin's previous life on Earth. This came in the scenario of moving troops and materials anywhere on a whim. A devastating game-changer on the battlefield.
Hence, each Flying Thunder God Kunai was treated similar to a nuke by Konoha, and the ninja village even had a special division to keep track of each of Minato's kunais and to recover them at all costs if one was found to be lost to prevent the secrets of the Flying Thunder God technique being stolen by rival ninja villages.
"So, we have two possible scenarios before us." Orochimaru continued. "One, our hero has the connection or the ability to steal Minato's kunais. Second, he has the ability to replicate the Flying Thunder God Kunai down to its space-time ninjutsu fuinjutsu formula."
Suddenly, Rin was reminded of her husband from her previous life. She quickly shook her head as the ninja world she found herself in had all sorts of abilities that were passed down genetically or unique to each individual. It wasn't too surprising to Rin if someone had the ability to replicate a weapon, but she doubted anyone with such similar abilities to her husband could replicate Noble Phantasms.
"What is the name of the hero?" asked Rin.
"His name is..." Rin suddenly felt her heart tighten for some reason. "...Shirou." Her eyes dilated as she stared at Orochimaru. "...Uchiha."
Her heart relaxed and pupils returned to normal. "Uchiha?" She asked. "If this 'Shirou' prevented an assassination and kidnapping attempt on Minato-sama and his family then at the very least Shirou would have to be a kage-level ninja. I don't ever recall a Uchiha of such strength with that name."
"The general reaction from the Uchihas seems to be that they were also unaware of a kage-level clansman by the name of Shirou. According to the rumors that are flying around in the public, Shirou seems to be descended from a branch of the Uchihas, whose ancestors had refused to migrate to Konoha," replied Orochimaru. "My contacts in the Uchiha clan confirm what I just said."
Rin wanted to dismiss the coincidence in first name, but she couldn't shake off the stifling feeling that this "Shirou" could be her husband from her previous life. It was incredibly unlikely for this Shirou to be her husband. Yet, she herself was living proof it was possible.
"Do you have a picture of this Shirou Uchiha?"
"I thought you would be interested," said Orochimaru with a smile as he took out a folder from his robes and handed it to Rin. "Inside is everything that my intelligence network has been able to gather and verify."
She took a deep breath before opening the folder slowly with heart-pumping anticipation. Her eyes widened as Rin stared incredulously at the picture. It wasn't a perfect match, but Shirou Uchiha had a very close resemblance to her husband from her previous life. That was if her husband had the black hair and iconic eyes of the Uchiha clan, the Sharingan. Rin continued to stare only at the picture as she debated the possibilities that this could be her husband reincarnated or a look-alike.
"Oh, how could I forget!" Orochimaru clicked his tongue. "Do you remember Sakura Nara, who you want me to keep track of?"
"Yes," I nodded as my eyes tore away from the picture to look at Orochimaru. Sakura Nara was someone that Rin paid very close attention to because she was very likely Rin's reincarnated younger sister given the Nara's look-alike appearance and personality. "Did Sakura Nara recently do something important?"
"Why, yes." Orochimaru nodded his head. "My contacts inside the Uchiha clan has told me that Sakura Nara just approached the current Uchiha clan leader, Fugaku, for his blessing to marry Shirou Uch-"
"SHE DID WHAT!?" screamed Rin as she unknowingly ripped apart the folder in her hand. "Sensei, please tell me that I misheard what you just said?" Sadly to Rin's great disappointment, Orochimaru shook his head. If you are my sister from my previously life then I am not letting you off from trying to steal my husband!?
"Rin-chan, where are you going?" asked a very confused Orochimaru as Rin quickly walked out of the room.
"Stopping Sakura from stealing my husband?!" Rin blurted out furiously, without realizing what she had just said as the door slammed behind her.
"You were married? Since when?" said an incredibly shocked Orochimaru.
What do you guys think about what you read? Is it good, bad or meh? Any recommendations to improve? Please let me know.
Thank you for reading!
