Present

Chapter Ten: Truths and Half Lies

Kakashi's fingers trembled as he moved to pull the syringe out of Rin's neck. He succeeded in grabbing the tail end of it, yanking it out of her prone body. With a fire jutsu, Kakashi burned away the evidence.

He stared at her. Kakashi hadn't meant to plunge the syringe into her neck; it was purely reflexive, but it was too late now.

He had done it this time. A month to gather the courage to kill her and it happened, by accident. Kakashi let out a heavy sigh. The cogs in his mind turned, trying to figure out his next move. He tamped down all of his emotions; there wasn't time.

Either he escaped before he was found or he sentenced himself to death.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi spotted a movement. He craned his head to get a better look. Blinking twice, he wanted to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. Kakashi could have sworn he just saw Rin move.

Her chest slowly rose up and down in four second intervals. Eyes widening, Kakashi moved over, pressing two fingers against her neck.

There was a pulse. Kakashi sighed in relief, sagging onto the floor of his tent. He didn't kill her. She wasn't dead.

But how? Kakashi had been sure that he didn't miss the vein in her neck. Only one conclusion came to mind.

The contents of the syringe hadn't been lethal.

In that case, he needed to get both of them out there before Itachi found out the plan didn't work. He needed to find out what Itachi's motive was and there was one person perfect for the job if Rin refused to talk.

Kakashi chuckled softly to himself. It looked like he would be returning to the Senjus after all.

Asuma was on watch duty with Kurenai. He took the opportunity to confide in her about what had transpired earlier that day and much to his surprise, Asuma wasn't met with any judgement at all. He figured that he would be scorned for letting an enemy get away, but throughout the entire ordeal, Kurenai had been nothing but supportive.

But of course, this was Kurenai, who saw the best in everyone. Not everyone would be as understanding as her.

"You don't blame me?" Asuma questioned, feeling a desperate need to hear a confirmation from the woman herself.

Kurenai shook her head. "It's all in the past now. There's no use in blaming you for something that has already happened, so stop blaming yourself."

But that was what happened to Kakashi's dad, Asuma thought to himself. He almost voiced those thoughts aloud, but Asuma recalled that Kurenai hadn't been around when that happened, so she wouldn't understand the reference. Besides, Asuma was sure that Kakashi would hate him if he went around advertising his father's demise.

It was better he never spoke of the incident at all.

Halfway through his shift, Raidou came up to him, informing him that Minato had requested his presence. Even if he was the Sarutobi heir, Asuma didn't get too involved in strategic planning or any of the other political matters. He left all the headache to his father and Minato. Exchanging a questioning glance with Kurenai, the two of them headed back towards the center of the outpost.

Outside of Minato's tent, Asuma announced his presence before he lifted the flap upwards before ducking down and entering. Minato saw Kurenai standing outside the tent, clearly unsure of whether or not she was allowed inside. Minato motioned for her to come in.

Kurenai's gaze was immediately drawn to the prone figure on the cot. Edging a bit closer, she got a better look at the person's features.

Eyes widening, Kurenai let out a gasp, garnering the attention of everyone in the room.

"Rin," Kurenai whispered.

"You know her?" Minato asked.

Kurenai nodded vigorously. "She, we grew up in the same village until the village was devastated. We were separated and I thought she was dead." Kurenai's teeth gnawed the bottom of her lip. Sort of a twisted truth, Kurenai couldn't exactly explain that they had met when they both became enslaved by Daisuke. They didn't and couldn't know of her ties with the Uchihas.

Minato nodded in understanding, not pressing Kurenai for any more details.

"Who is she?" Asuma questioned.

Minato let a few moments stretch out between them before he answered. "An Uchiha medic."

"What is she doing here?" Asuma demanded, stepping forward. Minato raised a hand, blocking his path to Rin.

"That's what I would like to know too," Inoichi commented dryly. "But no matter. We can retrieve valuable information from her when she wakes up."

Asuma nodded in acquiescence at Inoichi's answer, but Kurenai felt her heart drop. Her mind started to race, eyes constantly flickering over the exit, then back onto the three figures in the room. Asuma stood next to her. Inoichi sat in the corner of the tent. There was quite a bit of distance between her and Minato, but Kurenai knew that distance wouldn't be a challenge for him.

There was no way she could make a run for it without raising suspicions and being stopped.

Her red eyes landed on the unconscious girl, then slid over to Inoichi. If he sifted through her memories, Inoichi would definitely recognize her in Rin's memories. Then he would know of her ties with the Uchihas and question how Kurenai had made it out. She could lie and say that she escaped, but the chances of escaping from the watchful eyes of the Uchihas.

That only left one possibility and Kurenai would be executed on the spot when they figured it out.

Asuma cocked his head towards her. "Are you alright?"

Kurenai forced a smile. "Ye-yeah." Her voice quivered. "I just didn't expect to see Rin alive, that's all."

Despite Asuma seemingly buying into her lie, Kurenai still couldn't stop her pounding heart. When Rin woke up, it would all be over for her.

Her only option was to kill the girl before she woke, to shut down her brain before Inoichi could retrieve those memories. Kurenai's fingernails dug painfully into the palm of her hands as she tried to still her trembling hands. Kurenai didn't want to have to kill anyone; all she had ever wanted was her freedom. The Uchihas gave her that, in exchange for information.

Kurenai didn't realize it would come to this.

The sound of the tent flap being lifted jolted Kurenai out of her thoughts; she hadn't realized she had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she hadn't sensed his presence. Inoichi briefly looked up to greet the newcomer. Besides her, Asuma froze as his eyes took in the newcomer's features, from the armband that signalled his loyalty to the Uchiha to his trademark gravity defying silver hair. He remained utterly speechless as the two former friends simply stared at each other.

Asuma finally found his voice. "Kakashi."

Kakashi? The name sounded familiar to Kurenai, but she couldn't quite place where she heard it from. All she knew was that she felt extremely uncomfortable under the weight of Kakashi's stare. It was like he was peering into her soul; there was no way he knew, right?

Asuma stepped in front of Kurenai, shielding her from Kakashi's view.

"Just because I hesitated earlier, I won't hesitate to kill you now. I don't know how you got here, but Hokuto is our territory now."

Minato placed a hand on Asuma's shoulder, pulling him back when he took a menacing step forward. "Relax Asuma. Kakashi is on our side."

"Our side?" Asuma repeated. "What do you mean he's on our side? I saw him earlier and he was killing-"

"Kakashi is our spy."

"Spy?"

Minato nodded. "For Kakashi's safety, only a few of us know about it. Sorry to have kept you in the dark, but the fewer who know, the better."

Asuma relaxed, putting down his weapon. "So if you're a spy, then why are you here? Shouldn't you be with the Uchihas?"

"I've been found out." Kakashi jerked his chin in Rin's direction. "They sent her to kill me, but the syringe she used to kill me was nonlethal. It didn't kill her, only knocked her out when I used it on her. We need to interrogate her to find out what Itachi's motives are."

"And," Kakashi continued, swinging his gaze onto Kurenai. "Do you want to willingly confess or make me force it out of you?"

Kurenai's heart drop. Her entire body went still as a cold feeling crept its way throughout her body, sapping away all of the warmth. Her teeth gnawed at her bottom lip while her mind went into overdrive to figure out how she could get out of this mess.

Nothing was coming to mind. Feigning ignorance wouldn't work. Any sort of excuse didn't seem plausible.

Kurenai was trapped and her only way out was to tell the truth.

"Oi Kakashi, what's the meaning of this?" Asuma demanded. "Kurenai hasn't done anything wrong."

She couldn't handle the pressure bearing down on her anymore. Kurenai dropped to her knees, tears spilling from her eyes, while she choked out an apology. The palm of her hands were pressed against the ground as she bowed over and over again, forehead touching the ground each time, while a garbled apology slipped from her lips.

Asuma looked taken aback by the scene, reaching down to pull Kurenai to her feet. Kurenai struggled against his hold, crying for him to let her go.

"What's the meaning of this, Kakashi?" Minato question. Kurenai remained a sobbing mess on the ground. The majority of her words remained incomprehensible save for a couple apologies.

"She works for the Uchihas. I've seen her before."

"I was forced into it!" Kurenai cried in between her sniffles. "My village was ravaged in the last war. The Uchihas took orphans and enslaved them. They told me that I could have my freedom in exchange for information, so I took it. I know I'm still a traitor, but - but I didn't mean to!"

Her voice cracked. "I didn't have any other choice."

"And how do we know that you're telling the truth?" Inoichi asked. He crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for Kurenai to offer him to probe her memories.

But she didn't. Instead, her eyes flickered over to Rin. "You can ask Rin. We were enslaved together."

"That's not important right now. Tell us what you know," Kakashi demanded. Kurenai did, spilling all of the information that she had passed along to the Uchihas over the past year. She even divulged into the method of communication when prompted by Minato. Kakashi could practically see the cogs turning in his mind, his sensei was already plotting the next step.

When the interrogation finished, Asuma was ordered to take Kurenai away. Asuma was reluctant to follow Minato's orders, but the rational part of his mind told him that he couldn't make up excuses for Kurenai anymore. She had admitted to her crimes; Asuma couldn't let his emotions cloud his judgment like he did with Kakashi.

Grabbing Kurenai by the crook of her elbow, Asuma pulled her closer to him while he summoned chakra restraining cuffs from a storage scroll. Resigning to her fate, Kurenai extended her wrists towards him, allowing him to clasp the cuffs on her. Asuma placed a comforting hand on Kurenai's shoulder.

"I'm sorry," Kurenai whispered. "I'm sorry for lying to you."

Asuma could do nothing more than shake his head sadly. He nudged her forward, prompting her to take three steps towards the exit of the tent before Kurenai abruptly stopped. Kurenai craned her neck to look over her shoulder.

"Kakashi san, please don't kill Rin. She saved my life once, so I owe it to her. If you need to kill someone, kill me."

Kakashi didn't say anything, just simply nodded at her request. Shooting him a grateful smile, Kurenai turned to face forward again, letting Asuma guide her out of the tent. The thickness in the atmosphere lingered even when the two of them were gone.

"What are you thinking, Kakashi?" Minato prompted. Kakashi fought the urge to smile; even after all these years, his sensei was still the only one who could read him like an open book.

"Kurenai didn't warn the Uchihas that you were planning an ambush on Azuma," Kakashi stated. "This fact baffles me."

Minato frowned. "Perhaps she is not as loyal to the Uchihas like she claims. Either way, we'll have to be careful to not advertise this incident. We'll be able to use her channel of communication to plant false information."

They didn't get an opportunity to continue their discussion. Rin let out a pained moan, her right hand moving to touch her forehead. Inoichi stood up, dragging his chair to sit by the cot. Rin stirred, rolling over on her side before she fell back to lying on her back. Both Kakashi and Minato inched closer, with Minato taking a spot near her head while Kakashi was at the other end of the cot.

Slowly, Rin's eyes slid open. For a few moments, she looked completely dazed, staring blankly at the ceiling of the tent. Eventually her gaze fell onto Inoichi, then onto Minato. It was a split second transformation. With the help of her elbows, she immediately pushed herself into a sitting position while her hands swiped at her waistband, only to be met with air.

Rin balled her hands into a fist, posing them in a defensive stance. There was a menacing expression on her face, but to the three shinobis that surrounded her, it completely lacked the intimidation factor.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you," Minato tried to placate, holding his hands out in front of him so that she could see that he was weaponless.

Rin was still wary.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it while you were unconscious," Minato added. "I didn't have to wait until you were awake to do that."

Slowly, Rin lowered her hands back to her side.

"What do you want from me?"

"We want to know why you tried to kill Kakashi," Minato said, jerking his chin in Kakashi's direction. Rin's head snapped in his direction, truly registering his presence for the first time. Kakashi noted a flicker of remorse in her eyes before her gaze slid away, downcasted to her lap instead.

"I wasn't trying to kill him," Rin confessed quietly. "Itachi told me…"

"Who?" Rin asked.

Itachi met her gaze. "Kakashi Hatake."

A few moments of silence stretched out between then as the wheels in her mind turned, trying to comprehend what Itachi had just said. When her brain finally registered the name, her reaction was instantaneous.

"No!" Rin practically shouted, uncaring that she was raising her voice against the leader of the Uchihas. In that moment, all her mind could focus on was the bomb that Itachi had dropped on her that she neglected the fact that she was speaking back against an Uchiha. An Uchiha with substantial power.

Never in her life had she ever spoken back against an Uchiha, even if she was being wrongly accused of something. Rin knew where she stood. She was a nobody against a somebody.

But today, Rin didn't care.

"I'm not going to kill Kakashi," Rin stated firmly.

There were no visible changes in Itachi's expression at her rejection. It almost seemed like he had predicted it.

What now? Would Itachi send someone else to do the job? Rin's mind was already whirling, planning her escape so that she could at least warn Kakashi of the impending danger…

"I'm not asking you to kill him," Itachi stated evenly.

"Then what-"

Itachi cut her off before she could even finish her question. "Take a closer look at the vial. I trust that you'll be able to identify the contents of it."

Rin still didn't believe him, but she knew it wouldn't hurt to do as he asked. Slowly stepping forward, Rin reached out and swiped the vial from his desk before she quickly backed up, feeling more comfortable with distance between them even if she knew this amount of distance was nothing for a shinobi of his caliber.

She raised the vial towards the light, examining the liquid from every angle. Maybe Itachi was telling the truth, the viscosity of the liquid seemed to be different from poison. Popping the cork off, Rin raised it to her nose and inhaled.

Definitely not poison. The pieces of the puzzle began to slide into place. Rin jammed the cork back onto the vial.

She raised her eyes, locking her eyes with Itachi's. "Anesthesia. Why are you giving me this? What are you trying to do?"

"Kakashi is a spy for the Senjus," Itachi announced. "To put it simply, you'll be my backup plan. I've already laid a trap for the Senjus, but I fear Kakashi is too clever for his own good to be caught in it. If the plan to recapture Hokuto fails, then I want you to use it on him."

"How can I trust that you're telling the truth?"

Itachi shrugged. "I don't need you to trust me. Either you can drug him or I can execute him. It's your choice; if you care about him, then you should do as I say."

"I won't be able to get past his defenses. He's a highly trained shinobi."

"Kakashi trusts you. He'll let down his guard around you."

Behind her back, Rin wrung her hands as she contemplated his words, but no matter how hard she thought about it, there seemed to be no other route. It would be all too easy to have Kakashi murdered instead.

Rin took a big breath before she spoke. "I'll agree, but you have to tell me why you're doing this."

"Simple. Kakashi was the student of the Yellow Flash. He'll become a valuable bargaining chip."

Rin let out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding. She certainly hadn't expected for Itachi to divulge the reasoning so easily, but she would take what she could get. If Itachi wanted to use Kakashi as a bargaining chip, then that meant he would keep him alive, for the time being at least.

Rin nodded; she needed to buy him some time.

"Can you verify it, Inoichi?" Minato instructed. Inoichi nodded, reaching his hand to touch Rin's forehead. She backed away, ducking her head away from his touch.

"I'm not going to hurt you. My jutsu allows me to see your memories, but I need you to relax and let me in."

Rin didn't trust him, but with a nod of reassurance from Kakashi, she allowed Inoichi to touch her forehead. Both Rin and Inoichi's eyes slid shut as he began to channel chakra into her brain.

Inside her mind, Inochi went to work, examining her latest memories first. While he looked for the memory of Itachi's meeting, Inoichi took the opportunity to sift through the rest of them, to see if Rin happened to know anything else of importance.

Nothing in the past month. Inoichi found the particular memory he was looking for, skimming through it, only to find that it was exactly as she had described. Inoichi had been about to leave her mind when he heard Minato from the outside, asking him to verify Kurenai's story too. With no time frame to go off of, Inoichi opted to start from her earliest memories.

Only to run into a block in her mind.

Inoichi examined the block from all sides, concluding that it wasn't a product of her own mind, rather it was man made. Puzzled, Inoichi went to the memories that followed the block in her mind to look for clues.

There was nothing. The people around her acted like nothing was ever wrong and she didn't seem to question it either. It was like...Rin didn't even know her memories had been sealed. Fifteen years worth of memories, locked.

There had to be something important.

Inoichi left her mind.

"What she said was true," Inoichi informed Minato. "I tried to look further back to validate Kurenai's story, but there's a block in her mind at fifteen."

Addressing Rin, Inoichi asked, "What do you remember about your childhood?"

Rin shook her head. "It's all a blur to me. What do you mean there's a block in my mind? Is it from the brain's aversion to remember traumatic situations?"

"No. The block is man made. Someone locked your memories on purpose. If it was simply trauma, only a part of your memories would be lost, not the entire first fifteen years. It makes me wonder what kind of secrets that they didn't want you to reveal."

"Can you undo it?" Kakashi questioned.

"I could," Inoichi replied, his gaze sliding to Rin's. "But-"

But he was hesitant to do it without Rin's approval, even if she worked for the enemy. There was always that sliver of chance that his jutsu would fail and cause permanent brain damage, but that wasn't what Inoichi was worried about. He was worried about what those fifteen years contained.

If there was trauma, Rin would have to shoulder that for the rest of her life. He wouldn't be able to reverse the sealing once he undid it.

Rin nodded in understanding. "I want you to do it. I want to know."

Inoichi shot her a comforting smile before he entered her mind once again. Inoichi meandered his way through the recent memories, coming across the seal that locked her childhood memories. The seal wasn't too complicated, in fact, it was the easiest that it could get. The difficult part was that it was hard to notice, even by the user affected by it.

Inoichi wagered on the Yamanakas to be the only ones that had a chance of noticing it.

He performed the hand signs to reverse the seal and he watched the seal disintegrate into nothing. Yet her memories didn't appear like he expected, it remained a complete blank slate.

Inoichi stepped forward into the abyss, feeling the air ripple around him with each movement. He turned slowly, in a full circle as he eyed his surroundings.

Genjutsu on the mind. Rin had been manipulated the entire time.

Inoichi broke the genjutsu, watching with satisfaction as the nothingness broke into a million shards, revealing the scrolls containing memories for the first fifteen years.

Eventually, Inoichi stumbled upon the memory of Kurenai. There was no reason for him to keep looking, but Inoichi was curious to see how she ended up the way she did. He kept sifting through the memories, the remainder two years that led up to when she was fifteen.

Inoichi saw it. Abruptly, he exited her mind, stumbling back a few steps upon his revelation. Rin's eyes snapped open along with his, but her eyes quickly rolled over and she fell unconscious. Kakashi caught her head before she could hit the ground, manuveuring her body to lie down on the cot.

"What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost," Minato commented lightly.

"Kurenai's story was true. They both worked as slaves at the Feudal Lord's manor."

"But?"

Inoichi swallowed. "Genjutsu. She was under a genjutsu all along to work for the Uchihas."

A/N: Hi again!

Guest: Whoop, yes I know I'm evil lol but hopefully this chapter made me seem a little bit less evil, besides yet another cliffhanger of course.

Jelly Fur-Coat: Thanks! That means a lot to me because that was exactly what I was aiming for. :)

Radical Dreamer 57: I didn't set out intentionally mirror canon but now that you pointed it out, it sure did seem that way. :)

The Quincy: haha no worries about contradicting yourself, I think those were some great guesses. Originally when my Beta read the chapter, he also thought she would have antidote or something along those lines rather than it being nonlethal.

Well the spy for the Uchihas has been revealed! I tried to plant hints when Kurenai appeared in Rin's childhood story and then in one really small scene, she was shown to appear to be on the Senjus side. The reveal didn't quite go the way I wanted it to, so hopefully it was still up to par.

Now onto explaining Inoichi's last comment in the next chapter before we get to the end of the story. Sad that it's ending but I started writing something else that I think you might like too.

Thanks for the feedback and reading! Until next time.

-MM