AN: It brings joyous tears to my eyes when I read your review for my work, XxNoblesse12. I read part of it on my email on my phone, but when I read the entire review on my laptop on this site. Tears just poured, and I can say it is one of the best and wonderful reviews I have read so far. Even to Rose Thorn Catli, when I read your review my heart was warmed. I won't give up on this one, that I'm sure of. Thank you for the reviews, and thank you to the readers that I know read this but aren't part of the site.
Anyway, on with the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just Iruna.
POV: Itachi
The following day there was no sign of Neesama in the house that morning, Obito-san came to train and Shisui came to drag me with him to the Hospital to see Rin-san once more. We were on one of the main road to the Hospital.
"ITACHI!" I heard from behind us. I recognized Neesamas' voice anywhere. I turned around to see her rushing towards me, and from the look on her face she was furious. Shisui tried to block Neesama, but he had stepped out of the way when Neesama activated her sharingan and her eyes widened.
"Out of the way Shisui." Neesama growled at him.
Shisui nodded and stepped out of the way. He gave me an apologetic look, not that I blame him for moving out of the way. Neesama can be intimidating. Neesama by then grabbed me by the front of my clothes.
"Did you use the Great Fireball jutsu to burn my sealing tools?" She asked me evenly.
I wondered why she would be asking me that but I nodded in answer.
"What?!" Shisui I heard yell out near us.
"YOU IDIOT! YOU BURNED MY SEALING TOOLS AND ALONG WITH IT ALL OF THE SEALS I MADE!"
"So he burned your seals, what's the deal?" Shisui asked. A bit insensitive of him, he does know Neesama works on seals.
"What's the deal?" Neesama turned her cold angry gaze to Shisui. "What's the deal? Numbskull, seals are activated by chakra."
My eyes widened in realization of her words. I burned her seals with—
"Yes Itachi! You burned all of my chakra activated seals, and didn't get blown to bits for doing so!" She growled and shook me. "We're you even thinking?! Do you realize what could have happened to you? Damn it, Itachi! HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK WOULD I AND MOTHER FEEL IF ALL OF MY SEALS WERE TRIGGERED?! YOU WERE NEAR IT! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED YOURSELF!"
There was a loud crack and with it my cheek was burning. Neesama kept her sharingan activated eyes on me and there were tears.
"Don't burn my seals again. Better yet don't touch them, Itachi. I swear to kami I will make sure you regret touching any of my sealing tools or my seals." She said before she pulled me into a hug. "I could have lost you yesterday." She whispered the last bit, and only I heard it.
POV: Obito
Two weeks passed from when Itachi had burned away his sisters' sealing equipment. Iruna had told me she had bought a new set and had it stored in storage scrolls, and that she and Itachi had different rooms. While I was at their house, Shisui often came to the house to drag Itachi with him to the hospital. That brat has been going to the hospital to see Rin, and giving me cheeky grins from then on.
I asked Rin before about Kakashis' eyes if she could heal it, she shook her head then.
"His eye has to be replaced. I've asked Iruna-chan about combining fuinjutsu with medical ninjutsu to restore his eye, she said it's impossible. Healing has always been a volatile subject when it comes to seals. The healing chakra needs to be directed and used right away. There are certain seals used to practice some medical ninjutsu, but those seals are for aiding beginners to direct their chakra to the subject."
"Isn't there any donor for these kinds of thing?" I asked her.
Rin shook her head. "I don't think it's that easy. The Hokage would have to draft such a law, but no one would be willing to do that. Maybe, if the person's dead, but just taking their eye without permission..."
I understood what Rin is trying to say to do that means you'd be desecrating their body, and even the dead also deserve respect.
"Has Iruna-chan mentioned Itachi burning her sealing tools?" I asked Rin.
"Oh, that" Rin said indifferently. "Shisui-kun told me two weeks ago when they came to visit. He said Iruna-chan had been furious."
"I would be if I were in her shoes."
"I asked Iruna-chan about it when she came for her check-up. She had been furious the night before that Itachi-kun destroyed her seals, and then she recalled she left some of her seals which were chakra activated with her sealing tools even some of her explosive tags. She had been furious with Itachi-kun for being careless. Itachi-kun would have died then."
"But Iruna-chan has her own room now."
"She asked that from their mother so Itachi doesn't repeat the same mistake. She's even made sure to place seals on her room so that she could only enter her room. I think she mentioned adding some traps or that was Kushina-san."
"How do you know that?" I asked her.
"Oh, Iruna-chan sometimes comes over at my place." Rin replied smiling. "She's been having cuts every now and then from her training she comes to me to get them healed."
POV: Itachi
Iruna-neesama has been going out a lot lately. It's her usual routine, go out to make her morning runs and then meet her sensei for her training either it was kenjutsu or fuinjutsu. Sometimes she would join in helping Obito-san get used to his sharingan. She would come back after dinner and tell mother she already ate either with Kushina-san or with Rin-san. Shisui had been coming a lot of times at the house to drag me with him to the Hospital in search of Rin-san.
"Ah, Shisui-kun, Itachi-kun" Rin-san smiled as she saw us approach her in the hallway. "What do you guys want to learn this time?"
Ever since Shisui had been dragging me to the Hospital just so he could stay there with Rin-san, he thought to give an interest to medical ninjutsu. Being dragged with him, I've learned to apply first-aid or what to do under some situations. She had even taught us what a medic-nin learns first like the human body where the internal organs are and their function. I realized how much knowing about the body can help in dealing with a wound or making a lethal blow. I wonder if Shisui is even learning anything from what Rin-san tells us. He always seemed lost when he stares at Rin-san.
After another visit to the Hospital, I went back home and Obito-san was still there and helping mother cook. He had been staying until dinner after a day of training his sharingan, by the time he would leave that's when Neesama would return.
Neesama is too enthusiastic about seals, after I burned them she came up with an idea on making her seals. She told me it was because of me that she thought of it. She was working on seals that didn't activate with elemental chakra, like the Great Fireball jutsu. The sole trigger would be raw chakra, meaning one had to push their chakra into the seal. Then there's the seal activated with elemental chakra.
"You're a great inspiration to me Itachi!" Neesama said as she gave me a crushing hug then. "I'm going to call it R-triggered and the other will be E-triggered."
I don't understand how Neesama managed to find something good from what I did. It was wrong of me to burn her seals and sealing tools, but she had blown over that and forgave me. Neesama is too forgiving, but I love her for that. I thought she would hate me for what I did, but she didn't.
Shisui and I were by the business district on a chore then to buy ingredients for dinner at home. It had been a clear day and it was peaceful even with the war going on. That day had caused a bit of a ruckus and a shock to everyone or a sort of warning to everyone. Three uprooted bushes dropped from the sky onto the wide road of the district, the main road.
"Raining bushes?" Shisui said, as one of the shoppers was outraged with the suddenly appearing bush.
It had been ignored though as a prank, and in that week from bushes, nuts appeared, pebbles, large rocks, tree stumps, and at the end of the week two trees dropped close by the North gate as Father mentioned when he returned.
I only heard it from Father, but after the trees fell from the sky Neesama and Kushina-san followed then dropping from the sky and landing near the trees. Almost like Shunshin, but this one was done with a seal note not hand signs. They had been testing a seal Neesama was working on and thus the raining objects from nowhere. That bit had traveled around the village, that she had been the cause of the raining objects.
The Uchiha Police Force received complaints about it, with Father hearing it directly because he had been at the station. Neesama and Kushina-san were forced to transfer their tests away from the village center and near the uninhabited parts of the village. While they had complained that the seals were dangerous. I thought Neesama was getting somewhere. It would help with the delivery of some items to designated places. Neesama just has to learn how to make it that it's on the ground and not in the air.
POV: Iruna
Time passed swiftly. During that time I remade my old seals and made a different set of them as well. An improvised version of them, and there was the seal I had been working on. It was the opposite of the summoning seal I made to save Team Seven. Kakashi asked me before if it was the same like Minato-sans. It isn't. Kushina-sensei showed it to Minato-san and he said it himself that it wasn't. While he based his from the Niidaimes' technique, mine was born from a mistake from making the summoning seal. It had been two extra strokes and a difference happened.
Kakashi got used to using one eye, as Obito got used to his sharingan. Obitos' sharingan only had one tomoe, and I wonder how he'll achieve three. During our spars there were times I had to go against Obito and Kakashi together. They had been working on some sort of tag-team technique. Their teamwork was getting better and most of the time I had to remove a level of restriction to avoid any hits. Rin-san had two assistants, one is my heart eyed filled cousin when it comes to Rin-san and there's my dear twin brother dragged along by our cousin. Itachi doesn't mind though he goes anyway, he's told me he's learning interesting information from her.
I was able to recreate almost all of my seals by then, and had them categorized also placed in different storage scrolls before me and sensei had to go somewhere with Jiraiya, the Toad sannin. I didn't know where we were going and Kushina-sensei was tight lipped as well. The last I saw the Toad sannin, was after I told Kushina-sensei everything I know and then the Hokage along with Jiraiya and Minato-san. I had to mention to them about knowing about the tailed beasts and Kushina-sensei being a jinchuriki. Even about the Kyuubi or rather Kurama getting pulled out of Kushina-sensei, but I didn't tell them all the details as I didn't know what can happen in the near future.
POV: Itachi
"What do you want to do today, Itachi?" Shisui asked me when he arrived at the house.
It was already in the afternoon, and around this time we would have been headed to the Hospital. That stopped because Rin-san had left the village for a mission. Rin-san didn't mention any details of where their mission would be. Obito-sana and Kakashi-san would be going with her, and that left Shisui with nothing to do.
"I'm going to the library." I answered. It was the only place I go to with or without Neesama around.
"Again?!" Shisui complained.
"I'm not telling you to come with me."
"It's boring in there!"
"Then don't come with me."
Even when Shisui said it was boring in the library, he would come with me. After listening to Rin-san explaining and teaching us some things about being a medic, I found myself interested in it. Being a medic requires knowing a lot about the body and how it works or what organ does. With Rin-san out on a mission I decided to go to the library to read medical books. Shisui blanched at what I was reading and would go to a different aisle in search of a more interesting read.
It was becoming colder and Neesama had yet to return from her mission along with Team Minato. Shisui had been keeping an eye out for Rin-sans' presence at the hospital. We would go to the hospital on a weekly basis in question of Rin-san—for Shisui, for me I made some inquiries about the jutsus they used as a medic-nin. I've noticed that mother has getting tired easily, has headaches, and dizzy spells. Father wasn't in the village and was sent out again. It was left to me to watch over mother, and so I asked one of the medic-nins about my observations.
"Maybe you should bring her here? Not that I don't trust what you saw Itachi-kun, just to make sure." The female medic-nin said.
POV: Kushina
Jiraiya-sama and I were looking at the large scroll and the locked trunk we found in my home village hidden in the cavern by the cliff behind complex seals and blood seals. It was nostalgic to be back, and it panged my heart that my home village fell to war and greed.
Jiraiya-sama was trying to pick the lock of the trunk when Iruna-chan popped in using shunshin.
"Sensei!" Iruna-chan called. "Team Minato—"
Hearing the name of the team, I turned to Jiraiya-sama and nodded to him leaving to him the scroll and the trunk while I went with my apprentice to see the three. I followed Iruna-chan as we rushed in the direction of the old port of the town and towards the beach behind the village. On the sand facing upwards were Obito, Kakashi and Rin. All three of them had their eyes closed, but I noticed Rin was covered with a cloth. I glanced at Iruna-chan she was staring blankly at Rins' body. I checked Obito and Kakashi for their pulse and found they were just unconscious, while Rin I found no pulse. Being a shinobi I've long seen a lot of dead bodies, and Rin was the same. I lifted the cloth covering her chest to find a hole in the middle. I placed it back and gritted my teeth. Obito would be devastated and Minato would mourn the loss of one of his students.
I looked at Iruna-chan by then as I got to my feet. "You know what to do Iruna-chan." I told her.
Iruna-chan had been the first to see them, and she was the first to see Rin dead. It's good that she was able to stomach seeing someone she knew dead. I'm frightened of what's really in her thoughts. She told me as much as she can and what she thinks we should know. She knows more, but she won't tell us anything else. She's had a troubled look on her since she told me that she knew I'm the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox. When I heard that from her, I doubted her and that she thought of me as a monster, but by our interactions she didn't.
"We should be grateful to you that you're keeping 'him' inside of you. If he wasn't then Konoha would have been long destroyed. It's a sacrifice chosen for you, not by you. You deserve thanks, sensei, not judgement. You didn't choose to contain him. The nine-tailed fox is the same he would have preferred to live peacefully and away from humans, but as a being of chakra he's used as a weapon. Even if he's considered as such he has feelings. The other jinchurikis' manage to utilize their bijuus power. They don't control them. I think they consider their bijuus their partners and not as something they hate. They cooperate with each other."
How Iruna-chan came to such a conclusion still confuses me. She has a different perspective than I do. She was anguished when Itachi destroyed her seals and didn't support her when she asked him, but then her concern for her twin overpowered what she felt. I don't know whether to be glad or worried that she was forgiving.
POV: Obito
I woke up in a jolt to find myself in a tent, with the sound of crackling outside. I eased my breathing telling myself that it was only a nightmare. Rin is fine. She's fine. I just have to go outside and I'll see Rin with Kakashi by the fire. The pep talk I told myself didn't work as I came out, the faces of Iruna-chan, Kushina-san, Jiraiya-san and Kakashi turned to me. I looked at all of them and didn't see Rin. Dread came up to me, and thought that maybe she went to gather some herbs nearby. Yet, the thought of Rin leaving without even a companion in a time of war offset that thought.
I swallowed. "Where's Rin?" I asked.
Jiraiya-sama, Kakashi, and Iruna-chan looked away a grim look on them. Kushina-sans' gaze remained on me a sad look in her eyes.
We just returned from the Hokage tower to report from our mission. Iruna-chan, Kushina-san and Jiraiya-sama remained while Kakashi and I left. On our way out and to the hospital we came across Shisui and Itachi.
"You're back! Where's Rin-san?" Shisui asked us.
I glanced at Kakashi.
"She—" I started.
"Dead" Kakashi answered flatly.
"What?" Shisui stared at us with wide eyes. "No!" He glared at us. "That's a lie! She can't be dead! You're lying!"
"I'm sorry, Shisui." I told him grimacing myself.
I cried manly tears when Kushina-san told me that Rin is dead. The person that was kind to me and cared for me is dead. The person on our team who wanted to be like Tsunade-sama is gone. She won't be healing any of our injuries anymore. She won't be nagging at me for overdoing it. She won't be there to act as the peacemaker between me and Kakashi. She won't hear it when I tell her I love her. I won't be able to see her smiles anymore. I won't be able to hear her voice or her laugh. The person I love is gone. She's gone. No force, forbidden jutsu or anything will bring her back to the living.
Three days later was Rins' burial. Iruna-chan was there together with her cousin—who was crying a river and her twin brother. Like all of us we were all wearing mourning clothes even Gai for all his love for his green jumpsuit he managed to change out of them to a more appropritate attire. Minato-sensei wasn't present and had a mission it was only Kakashi and I from Team Minato who were present. Kushina-san had been there for us. She had one hand each on our shoulders. The burial was solemn. I cried for the lost of a team mate and a loved one. Kakashi, I don't know, he was silent the entire time. He just stared ahead.
Right after the burial, Kakashi went off who knows where. I stayed there with Kushina-san, and Iruna-chan. Itachi left with Shisui.
"Rin-san really captured Shisuis' heart." Iruna-chan said staring at the ground where Rin-sans' body was buried.
He's not the only one. I thought to myself.
An anbu by then appeared and whispered something to Kushina-san, after a nod from Kushina-san the anbu left.
"I have a summons, Iruna. I'll see you tomorrow, same time and place." Kushina-san said before she disappeared as well.
I walked out of the graveyard with Iruna-chan in a sedate pace. There was no rush. We didn't have anything to do that day. We were free from shinobi duty for a week.
"Do you think Shisui is going to be fine?" I asked her. I don't like the brat, but he became attached to Rin like all of us did.
"I hope so. He's been sad for the past days. His mother went by our house the other day to ask about Shisui. She said he's been gloomy for the past days, doesn't even make that much noise." She replied. "He really liked Rin-san. Itachi told me they went to the hospital everyday when Rin-san was on duty. They also went there every week to see if Rin-san returned."
We were entered Kushina-san and Minato-senseis' house to find it was empty.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I looked at Iruna-chan looking around the place.
"Kaka-nii isn't here." She told me.
"Why?"
"Obito-nii is an idiot." She said whirling towards me glaring. "Kaka-nii thinks of his team as his family. You guys are the most important to him now. He doesn't have any other family. His chidori went through Rin-san. Who do you think blames himself for her death?"
How does she know that? I haven't told her what happened and I'm sure Kakashi wouldn't have told her too.
"He won't kill himself!" I said incredulously shaking off the earlier thought. Bakashi isn't one to kill himself off!
"I'm not saying that!" She shouted at me. "We can't leave him to his thoughts. He can be more of an Uchiha than I am!"
"Eh? What are you saying?" I asked her confused.
"I don't like to admit it, but Uchihas can be brooders when they're in a mood. Don't you get into those kinds of moods?"
"I don't recall brooding before." I replied.
She stared at me for a while, and it was a bit creepy. "Right." She said.
We left Kushina-san and Minato-senseis' house and went around the village in search of Kakashi. We have yet to find the one-eyed cyclops until it was late in the afternoon. For a chuunin and a genin it took us a while to search for a jonin. We didn't know where the places Kakashi haunts were so that was one reason, but we did find him up on the Shodaimes head watching the sunset.
"Kaka-nii!" Iruna-chan shouted as she jumped Kakashi on the back surprising him. He had lost his footing and both of them fell onto the ground.
Kakashi glowered at Iruna-chan next to him as he sat on the ground.
"Don't blame yourself!" Iruna-chan told him. "It wasn't your fault Rin-san died! I know you know that, even Obito-nii does!"
I did. I was the one who saw everything in slow motion. Just as I shouted at Kakashi to throw his chidori at the incoming shinobi Rin jumped in Kakashis' way and the chidori went through her. How we even got away was a blur to me then. It was all just chaos now. I remember everything going bright before I recall rushing away. I don't even recall if it was Kakashi who carried Rins' body or me.
"It was the jutsu I made that killed her!" Kakashi growled. "It was my hand that went through her! Her blood is on my hands. It was my fault. I was the leader for the mission and I let her get kidnapped again."
"If you let her get kidnapped, then the same goes for me." I said to him coldly. "The both of us were supposed to look out for her. It was also my fault that I couldn't protect her."
"It's my fault, and you know it Obito!" Kakashi shouted. "You were under my command and as the leader. The responsibility of someone's death under my command is mine. Not yours."
"Don't take every responsibility as yours. You may have been the one in command, but the responsibility of having each others back lies on all of us. That's why we're a team. We cover each others weaknesses."
"It's still my fault. I couldn't use my chidori without your help. If you weren't helping me then you would have had kept your attention on Rin, and she would still be with us. This is because of my eye."
"OH, WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP ALREADY?!" Iruna-chan shrieked. She had a hard look in her eyes as she glared at me then Kakashi. "IT'S NONE OF YOUR FAULT, YOU IMBECILES!" Ouch. I never heard Iruna-chan insult anyone, but how does she know that word? "YOU WOULDN'T HAVE KNOWN WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED! YOU WERE OUTNUMBERED. YOU TWO BETTER APOLOGIZE TO RIN-SAN FOR YOUR SELF-PITY!" Tears were coming up her eyes by then, and looking at her. It looked like she was more in pain than us, her team mates. "She wouldn't want you two to blame yourself or each other for her death. You two better work on your team work and get stronger if you don't want anyone else on your team to die. Idiots!" She finished before she disappered upon stepping back away from us.
At her disappearance, Kakashi and I shared a look.
POV: Iruna
Hmph, listening to those two blaming each other was idiotic. 'It was my fault', 'no, it was my fault'. It was a pain to hear it. It sounded like they were whining! If I hear them like that again, I'm sending them to the Forest of Death or to the middle of the largest lake in Konoha or better yet in the middle of the ladies hot springs.
They didn't know that Rin-san would die. I wasn't even sure if she would die. I thought she would live with Kakashi and Obito with her, but I was wrong. Even with the two of them there, Rin-san was still nabbed.
I returned home just in time for dinner. Father was present for dinner, he had returned late in the afternoon almost the same time we were on the Shodaimes' bust. Right after dinner, I was about to leave but father said there was an important announcement. I wondered what it was. Father met Itachis' gaze and nodded to him. Okay, so it involved Itachi.
"I'm going to be a medic-nin and I want to enter the academy the coming term."
Right, so were already seven turning eight this year, just the right year to enter the academy. Then again, Itachi is a genius. Did he already activate his sharingan? Father would have told us if Itachi did. I have no problem with Itachi being a medic-nin. I wonder what that would mean for his career as a shinobi though. Medic-nins have rules to follow.
"Are you fine with this Father, Mother?" I asked them.
Both of them nodded.
"The both of you will be turning eight the coming year. It would be the right time to enter." Father said. "Iruna, Itachi, you two realize that with your choices you are also taking in new resposibility. Itachi with your entering the academy, I hope to see great results from you." I didn't have top grades in the academy while I was there. I was there so I can be a shinobi. "Iruna you failed the chuunin exams on your first try for the promotion exam. I am not saying it was because of your imcompetence, but because of your body. I do not want you to push yourself so much that it would cripple you. There are far worse things to consider than failing, rememeber that."
Okay, so I'm getting told to be more responsible for my health, but why the topic on it?
"Iruna, as the heiress, you carry a much heavier burden than your brother. Even with that, you still look out for Itachi and the same goes for you Itachi. I hope you two will look out for your younger sibling the same way you look out for each other." Father finished.
My heart stopped for a second when I heard the words 'younger sibling'. You have to be kidding me?! What about the war? Was it over? I haven't heard about the war ending yet. There's also Minato-san becoming the Hokage and that's under a year he became Hokage. Will Kurama even be controlled again?
"You two will act as good models to your younger sibling." Father said sternly and eyed me. "That means no causing problems to the Uchiha Police Force."
I just knew he meant me, especially with my seals. After the announcement of Itachi attending the academy and wanting to be a medic-nin and that Mother is pregnant. I can't help but dread what would happen next year, not only will I be retaking the chuunin exams it would also be the year that Kurama will be pulled out from Kushina-sensei. I'm not even sure what will happen, but isn't there another way to seal Kurama away without Naruto losing both or at best one of his parents?
I've told them about Kurama getting pulled out of Kushina-sensei, but I didn't tell them how that happens and who would do it. Does it have to be the Shiki Fuujin, does it have to be that seal so they can seal Kurama into Naruto easier? I only have a year to what exactly? To make a seal? To suggest an alternative for the Shiki Fuujin? It seems impossible to do. Is there even a more powerful sealing technique than Shiki Fuujin?
AN: And that's it for now! Any thoughts? Tell me! I would like to know. THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR WAITING AND READING. Until the next chapter! ~burst-enna