Past
Chapter Nine: Stranger in the Woods
Aiko bounded into the room, with Aki nipping at her heels. The young girl scrambled straight to the counter, pulling herself into the stool. Aki curled up into a ball, resting at the base of the stool while the girl swung her feet back and forth, rocking the stool lightly.
Rin shot the young girl a stern look, placing a hand on Aiko's. "Stop that. You'll fall over."
Aiko's movement immediately jerked to a halt. "Ne, Rin nee san…"
And Aiko proceeded to spill the entire details of her afternoon, including going to the marketplace with her two best friends, running into her crush and how she unfortunately embarrassed herself in front of Haru. While Aiko buried her face into her hands and lamented at how idiotic she had been in front of Haru, Rin half listened to the younger girl while she gathered the medicinal herbs that the customer requested. With a smile, Rin extended the package after receiving the payment, bidding the man a farewell.
"You're too young to be worrying about this kind of thing," Rin said. She squatted down, retrieving the rag and bucket of water that she had set aside earlier. Rin tossed the rag onto the counter, slamming the bucket down with enough force that sent some of the water sloshing out of the plastic container. "If you have this much free time, help me clean."
Aiko pouted, but did as Rin asked of her anyways.
"What do you mean I'm too young? I'm not that much younger than you."
"Exactly. You don't see me with a boyfriend, do you?"
Aiko shook her head, a frown still plastered on her face as she wiped down the countertops. "Well you should have one. Which boy isn't infatuated with you? You're pretty, young, talented, and smart. Not to mention, you're the best medic in the entire town!"
Rin leaned down, propping herself with her elbows. "Listen Aiko, that's all superficial. What's important is what is in the heart. Do you like Haru for who he is or simply for his reputation or for his looks?"
"I mean...Haru is really nice."
"You don't sound very confident."
"Okay fine, fine," Aiko conceded. "I don't know much about him, all I know is that he's the most popular boy our age and he's really handsome."
"Well maybe he is a really nice person," Rin suggested after seeing Aiko's downcasted expression. "But you won't know that unless you actually get to know him. Perhaps if you don't place him on some sort of pedestal and treat him like a normal person, you won't be so nervous around him."
"But he's not just some normal person, I can't-"
"Yes you can and I promise, he's just like any other person in this town. He might have more friends than the average person, but he's only human too. And if he's as popular as you say he is, then he probably has a lot of girls who are infatuated with him too. On the contrary, if you treat him like a normal person, he might appreciate it more."
Aiko remained silent for a couple moments before she spoke up again. "Hmm, what you said makes a lot of sense, but how do you know? Did you have a lot of experience? Maybe you were the popular one back then?"
Rin scoffed. "Of course I wasn't. I'm just putting myself in Haru's position and figuring out how I would feel if I were him."
The chimes at the front door sounded, garnering both Rin and Aiko's attention. Mikia, Aiko's mother, stepped into the shop, a basket of vegetables and fruits dangling from the crook of her arm. Aiko tossed the rag into the bucket, running up to her mother and hugging her tightly by the waist. Aki lazily got up from his position to make his way over to mother and daughter, barking once in greeting. Aiko took the basket from her mother's arm, lugging the contents to the second floor while Mikia bent down to lightly rub Aki's head.
"Thanks for watching Aiko for me. You said you wanted to go gather some more herbs today, didn't you?"
Rin nodded, retrieving an empty basket from underneath the counter. "I'll try to be back before it's dark."
Mikia nodded, taking Rin's spot behind the counter. Aiko returned to the shop, her footsteps thundering loudly as she descended the stairs.
"I want to go," Aiko stated right as Rin had been about to step out of the shop. Rin turned to glance at Mikia to gauge her opinion, but Aiko didn't even let her mother speak.
"It'll be good practice for the future if I want to take over the shop," Aiko insisted. "Besides, I'm already learning how to become a medic and knowing how to identify herbs from poisonous plants is something I should know. It'll be a good learning experience for me, please kaa san."
Mikia sighed, giving her daughter an exasperated look before she nodded. Aiko happily bounded out of the shop and was already halfway down the street when she realized that Rin hadn't followed her.
"Come on nee san!" Aiko called, waving her hand wildly in the air to get Rin's attention. Rin exchanged a look with Mikia, silently promising her that she would watch out for Aiko before exiting the shop with Aki at her heels. She caught up with Aiko, leading the way to the woods.
Once in the woods, Aki ran off like usual but circled back every few minutes or so. Rin let him be and began to explain the basics of identifying herbs to Aiko who listened intently for all of five minutes before her concentration dissipated.
Rin gave up. "Don't randomly touch anything; there's a lot of poisonous plants around here."
"But I thought I was going to learn…"
Rin lightly poked Aiko's shoulder. "I can tell you weren't even listening to me. I'm sure you just wanted to come and play in the woods. Go join Aki; I'll come find both of you when I'm done."
A sheepish smile formed on Aiko's face. "Thanks nee san! You're the best!"
Rin shook her head, smiling slightly to herself as she watched Aiko run off to play a game of catch with Aki. Once she made sure that Aiko wasn't leaving her line of sight, Rin bent down, shifting through the plants once more.
The sun gradually went down during the past two hours and Rin's basket was mostly full at this point. Placing two fingers between her lips, Rin let out a loud and sharp whistle. A minute later, Aki bounded out of the bushes to her right, but Aiko was nowhere to be seen.
A bad feeling crept up in Rin's chest. Oh kami, she shouldn't have been so careless and let Aiko out of her sight. She shouldn't have been so focused on what she was doing to the point where she didn't even realize the sound of barking and playful laughter faded.
Aki let out a whine before jerking his head in the direction where he had just come from. Rin nodded, following Aki as he leapt over the bushes once more. She followed suit, lightly jogging to keep up with his trot. Aki craned his head back every so often, as if to make sure that Rin was still following him.
Aki led her farther than she would have liked, too close to the war zone for comfort. Rin was ready to scold Aiko for wandering off so far, for almost stumbling upon one of the recent hotspots for skirmishes even if the Uchiha and Senju have supposedly reached a ceasefire agreement.
Rin was filled with utter relief when she realized that Aiko was unharmed. Her medical instincts kicked in when she spotted Aiko next to a boy, whose hands were clutching the wound on his stomach. Blood leaked through his fingers, coating his hands red and staining the dark fabric of his pants.
Rin rushed over, kneeling by the boy's side. Ripping the bottom of her shirt, she quickly layered the strips into a makeshift pad. Gently prying the boy's hand away from his wound, she quickly slid the cloth underneath before she let his hands rest against his stomach once more.
"Can you hear me?" The boy let out a groan.
"Can you walk?" A very strained nod followed. Making eye contact with Aiko, Rin handed the basket over to the younger girl.
"Go back with Aki first and get your mother to set up supplies for stitches."
Aiko shot her a hesitant look. "Are you sure? I don't want to leave you alone."
"Yes." While Rin had begun the first step of the healing process, knitting together the damaged veins, arteries, and muscles, Aiko turned to leave.
"I'm going to partially close the wound so I can bring you back to town without you bleeding out," Rin told the half conscious boy. "Your wound has been infected so I'll have to reopen it later to clean it, but don't worry. You'll be fine."
The boy didn't give any reaction, he bobbed in and out of consciousness from the way his head drooped for a few moments before he would suddenly jerk it upwards. Aside from emitting a few pained groans, the boy would occasionally mutter something incomprehensible underneath his breath.
"Can you stand?" Without waiting for a response, Rin swung the boy's hand over her shoulder and began to stand, only to buckle underneath his weight. Grunting, Rin tried once more, gently coaxing him to his feet. Her shoulders hunched from underneath his weight but she moved forward, one small step at a time. The boy cooperated, putting one foot in front of the other albeit swaying unsteadily on his feet from time to time.
"What's your name?"
"Obi," the boy murmured, slurring so much that Rin had to strain to figure out what he was saying.
"Okay Obi, listen. There's a town not too far from here and I can fully treat your wound when we get to town, but I need you to keep going."
Obi nodded, but Rin wasn't entirely sure that he registered her words.
She kept going, constantly having to grab his arm to keep it from slipping off of her shoulders. Obi kept putting one foot in front of the other, yet he was so out of it that he managed to trip over the root of a tree, sending both of them sprawling onto the ground. Rin's forearms had taken the brunt of the damage, while her body served as a cushion for Obi's fall.
Obi let out a pained groan, rolling off of her and laying flat on his back as he clutched his stomach once more. Seeing that it had started bleeding again, Rin channelled healing chakra to her palms, allowing them to hover over his wound.
After the bleeding stopped, it had taken a great deal of strength for Rin to maneuver Obi into a sitting position and then getting him to stand again. The journey back to the town continued, at the same agonizingly slow pace.
Aiko was sitting at the doorsteps of the shop. Upon seeing Rin arrive with the ailing boy in tow, she clambered to her feet, calling for her mother. Mikia rushed outside, alleviating some of his weight off of Rin by aiding him on the other side. The trio made their way inside the shop and down the hall, to the extra room that had been converted into a medical ward. Once inside, Mikia and Rin gently maneuvered the boy onto the bed.
"Do you need my help?" Mikia asked.
"No, I got this." Mikia nodded, telling Rin to holler if she needed anything before leaving the room.
Rin went to work.
A loud groan forced Rin to snap her eyes open. The first thing she saw was white bed sheets before it dawned on her that she had fallen asleep after she sat by Obi's bedside to monitor his condition. Rin lifted her head off of the bed, leaning back against the seat to stretch out her aching muscles, sticking her arms out in the air.
While she did so, she made eye contact with a pair of black eyes. A forced smile crept its way to her face.
"You're awake. How are you feeling?"
Obi stared at her blankly for a few moments before he parted his mouth. The only sound that came out was a raspy croak. Letting Obi know that she would be right back, Rin left the room, went to fill up a glass of water in the kitchen before she rushed back to the room. Placing the glass on the small table, Rin aided Obi into a sitting position, propping the pillow for his comfort.
Rin handed the glass of water to him. "Here, drink it."
Obi seemed to eye it suspiciously - did he really think she poisoned it? - before he brought the rim of the glass to his parched lips. He took small sips each time; a couple of minutes passed before he was well enough to speak.
"I'm fine. Thank you for taking care of me."
Rin relieved Obi of the glass, placing it back on the table.
"So Obi, how were you injured in the first place? You were awfully close to the war zone...are you one of them?"
Rin supposed it was highly unfair of her to assume that Obi was an Uchiha, but he had the trademark features that belonged to the Uchiha clan. She wasn't entirely sure why she was trying to fish that information out of him; what if he was an Uchiha? What would she do then? Would she have the heart to kick him out just because of her hatred for the Uchiha?
At least she hadn't seen the Uchiha clan symbol anywhere on his clothing, so perhaps she was just overthinking it.
"Ah, my name is Tobi, must have told you wrong when you asked," Tobi said, grimacing slightly. "And well, I was just passing through...got caught in the crossfire. Guess they thought I looked too much like the enemy so they attacked me."
Rin felt a wave of relief wash over her at Tobi's confirmation that he wasn't an Uchiha. She really wasn't sure what she would have done then.
"So you're a civilian?"
"A traveling merchant, specifically," Tobi told her. "But I guess I have nothing to sell since all of my goods were damaged from the crossfire. Thank you for saving me though, I thought for sure that I was going to die."
"You should thank Aiko. She was the one who found you. What will you do now? Any plans?"
"Ahhh, I'm not entirely sure," Tobi confessed, a sheepish smile forming on his face. "I hope you don't mind if I take a few days to recover here."
"Of course not!" Rin insisted. "I wouldn't let you leave even if you wanted to. It'll be another few days until the stitches are ready to come out, so you'll have to stay until then."
"Thank you. I will find a way to repay you once I recover."
Rin quickly found out that Tobi was certainly an interesting character; she would have never thought he would be able to make her laugh as much as she did, even if his jokes were a bit corny. At some point, Aiko barged in on the conversation, feeling tired of being left out. Tobi and Aiko instantly clicked, leading Aiko to spend most of the day accompanying Tobi while Mikia watched the shop and Rin ran a couple of errands, as well stopping by to check up on some of the villager's health.
All along the way, there would be a couple of villagers to stop to talk to her, whether to inquire about something related to illness or to simply make small talk. Rin took all of that in stride, even agreeing to an impromptu check up when a man recognized her at the marketplace and pleaded for her to find out what was wrong with his father.
An hour later, Rin left the man's house after leaving a piece of paper with instructions of how to care for his father and the prescribed medication.
The last person that Rin expected to run into was the Chief, the leader of the village.
"Rin san."
Rin politely nodded back, addressing him by his proper title before she briefly wondered if she would be allowed to go. Luckily, he saved her the trouble of the awkward moment by speaking up.
"Someone told me that they saw you carrying a wounded boy back. Is he dangerous?"
Rin quickly shook her head, understanding the town's reservations towards shinobis. "He's not a shinobi. He's a civilian who happened to be caught in the crossfire...I promise he's not dangerous."
The Chief nodded, letting out a defeated sigh. "I hope that their battles will not affect us. They have moved closer to our territory if you were able to find the boy nearby."
"I think we will be alright," Rin assured. "War hasn't completely broken out yet and we are surrounded by forest. I think it will be a lot harder to fight in the forest."
"Ah, but we shouldn't underestimate them. They are shinobi after all." The Chief left after that, leaving Rin to ponder exactly what his words meant. According to her limited knowledge, shinobis were incredible, able to accomplish all sorts of things with their chakra, but that didn't mean they were infallible.
When Rin returned to the shop, Tobi was already well enough to be seated at the dinner table, slowly chewing his food while he listened to Aiko babble on, most likely giving him all of the details of her entire life.
"Aiko, I'm sure Tobi doesn't care about all the details of your life," Rin teased as she plopped down in the empty spot next to Tobi.
Tobi lightheartedly laughed. "It's quite alright; it's interesting to hear about other people's lives."
"What about you Tobi san?" Aiko piped up. "Do you have any interesting friends and family?"
A grin immediately formed on Tobi's face. "Well most of my close friends are my family. There's Tachi, he's the youngest one and always wears a frown on his face like the entire world owes him something. Then there's Sui; he and I always team up to play pranks on Tachi to get him to smile and it worked a few times. Tachi is always too observant for his own good."
At this, Tobi rolled his eyes good naturedly. "But both of us still love Tachi. Then there's Shiro, he's a family friend who often comes over to play with us when we were younger. And there's a guy, Kashi, who recently moved into town. I keep trying to become his friend but he keeps pushing me away, but I'm not going to give up."
"But why?" Aiko questioned. "If he doesn't want to become friends with you, why do you keep trying? Isn't it a waste of your time?"
"Ignoring him would be easy, Aiko chan," Tobi began. "But anyone can tell that Kashi is lonely, even if he doesn't want to admit it. I'm really sure that he's an orphan...and if no one else can be there for him, at least I can, right? Even if I may come off as annoying to him, but at least he's not alone, right?"
Aiko's mouth parted, forming a shape of an 'o.' "Wow, Tobi san, that's so noble of you."
Tobi reached across the dinner table, lightly patting Aiko's head. "Promise me if you ever meet anyone like Kashi, you won't give up on him."
"I promise! I will be everyone's friend!" Aiko chirped, a huge smile plastered on her face. "Ne Tobi san, how old are you?"
"Sixteen," Tobi answered without hesitation. "Why do you ask?"
Aiko's eyes flickered back and forth between Tobi and Rin. By the third round, it dawned on Rin exactly what Aiko was thinking and she attempted to stop her before the words came out of her mouth, but Aiko beat her to it.
"Nee san is fifteen. You can be her boyfriend!" Rin's hand clamped over Aiko's mouth, but even that wasn't enough to muffle the wicked laugh that she emitted. Rin released Aiko, shooting her a warning glare while Aiko smiled innocently at her, like she didn't do anything wrong.
"Don't take anything Aiko says seriously," Rin told Tobi, who solemnly nodded, but she didn't miss the way Tobi and Aiko shot playful looks towards each other. Rin had no doubt that there would be more tricks to come later, most likely at her expense.
Definitely at her expense. Aiko spent the rest of dinner telling Tobi all of her embarrassing stories while Tobi tried to pretend that he wasn't laughing at her. Yet through his furtive glances shot her way to gauge her reaction, Tobi was definitely laughing at her. And he was enjoying it too.
When Obito Uchiha opened his eyes, he felt sick to the stomach. Two years ago, Obito saw her for the first time, battered and broken after incurring Daisuke Uchiha's wrath. Two years ago, Obito overheard the conversation between Itachi and his father regarding their plans with her. Two years ago, Rin was freed from the Uchiha's hold.
But was she really?
Obito hadn't expected to see her again, much less to find out that she had been the one to save his life. Bile rose to the back of his throat as he lied straight through his teeth, fabricating a story about how he had gotten his injuries. He forced himself to keep a straight face as lies continued to pour out of his mouth with each question that she asked.
How could he tell her the truth? She hated the Uchihas.
His heart clenched when he noticed Rin's relief when he told her he wasn't an Uchiha; his forced expression almost crumbled. Obito so badly wanted to stop this madness, to stop this lie, but it was too late now. The more that he spoke, the deeper the hole that he dug for himself.
Obito tried to tell the truth whenever he could, like when he was asked about his family, only that he changed their names a bit. Throughout the entire story, Obito would often sneak glances towards Rin, to see if she picked up on anything. When her expression didn't change, Obito was relieved.
That relief was short lived.
Obito couldn't sleep, no matter how much he tossed and turned. In the end, he finally gave up and rolled out of bed, unsure what he was going to do. He quietly padded down the hall, carefully masking his footsteps with the grace of a shinobi. Obito passed by Aiko and Mikia's rooms, deciding that he would head towards the kitchen for a glass of water when he spotted an open window.
Curious, Obito approached the open window, climbing the ladder before hauling himself out onto the rooftop. There he spotted Rin lying flat on her back, staring blankly up at the stars. Her eyes flickered to meet his for a brief second before she merely just patted the empty space next to her.
Obito accepted the invitation, lying down slowly in an effort to not irritate his wound.
"You should be resting," Rin murmured.
Obito shrugged, even though Rin couldn't see him. "Couldn't sleep. Why are you out here?"
"Being out here helps me to think and alleviate some stress. It's pretty soothing."
"What are you thinking about?"
"Learning shinobi arts," Rin answered. "It seems that war will break out any moment and at the very least, I want to be able to protect myself. I mean, I already know the fundamentals of utilizing chakra."
Obito found himself ready to offer to help her train, but kept his mouth shut when he remembered that he was supposed to be only a civilian.
"That's good." If Rin noticed his half hearted response, she never acknowledged it.
"You should too, so that you don't get injured again. I won't always be around to save you, you know."
Obito let out a pained chuckle. If Rin only knew the truth…
As Rin continued to confide in him, Obito silently vowed that he would never let the battles get too close to this town. Obito wasn't sure how he would do that, as he wasn't high up in the rankings, but he could probably convince Itachi. He couldn't tell her the truth, but at the very least, Obito could protect the village that she cared about.
"If war were to ever break out and I was forced to pick a side," Rin was saying. "I would join the Senjus. The Uchihas are despicable people."
Obito's heart sank. Verbally, he found himself agreeing with Rin, offering half hearted criticisms of the Uchihas, but his heart was wracked with immense guilt.
"If there's one thing I hate the most in this world, it's deceit."
Obito nodded in response, but said nothing, letting the conversation fade out.
I'm sorry.
A/N: Hi again!
It's been a while since the last "past" chapter, so as a recap, this picks off right at the end of the last chapter where Obito went missing after Kakashi's skirmish with the Senjus. And if you go back further to the end of part 1 for Rin's story, Itachi saved her from Daisuke's grasp when she was 13 and she's 15 here. So 2 years have passed since then. And this is part 2 of her backstory. :)
Fun fact! This is the chapter that started this entire story! Can't believe it, right? Since it's so near the end of the story. I honestly have no idea how a simple concept of "girl finds wounded boy in the woods" spawned into this storyline. Believe it or not, the early concepts of the story was focused on Rin as the main character, but then Kakashi took over. And somehow he's a double agent. No idea where that came from lol. If you're interested, I can definitely tell you more about how this story came about/the original idea for this story - which is nowhere near what it is today.
Either way, I'm glad to know that some people are enjoying this story even if it doesn't get much traction. :)
The Quincy: Sorry for making your head spin from all the plot twists! That was the last one...I think lol. Haha your guesses are great, but we shall find out all the answers in the next chapter.
Radical Dreamer 57: No, Kurenai isn't dead. Honestly I haven't decided what happened to her, even though I should know lol.
Guest: I'm glad that you're relieved! You can relax a bit now haha. Yup, I created the Uchihas this way intentionally...but since the focus isn't on the Uchihas in this story, there's a lot that is yet to be uncovered. There's still some good ones out there, believe it or not. I guess you can say that the Uchiha's story is so complicated that I wrote an entire sequel to cover it. :O
5 more chapters left! Are you guys excited? I am. Thanks for the feedback and for reading! Until next time.
-MM