Please bear witness to one of the most intense fight scenes I've ever written. I hope it works. If you're squeamish about blood and violence, maybe skim through.

Chapter 14.

Kakashi woke up screaming as Kuriarare pressed down hard on his shoulder wound. Sweat beaded on Kuriarare's upper lip and his eyes were hard. The pain was excruciating, sharp and stabbing and precise. Kakashi could feel the blood seeping out of the wound and into the white pad Kuriarare was pressing down. It was hard to think. His arm burned burned burned.

Kuriarare hissed something under his breath. Kiri dialect – Kakashi was too woozy to catch the clipped consonance and strangely formed vowels. At least they weren't moving anymore. It occurred to him Kuriarare was probably trying to keep him from dying. His heart seemed to thunder in his chest. Hypovolemic shock, he thought. Words he had read a thousand times but never had to apply to himself.

Kuriarare's own wound was neatly bandaged and taken care of. His movement was a little stiff, perhaps, but he was at no risk of dying. Kakashi's condition had to be quite the inconvenience. No use carrying a prisoner home if he was already dead. And bloodline limit eyes only worked while their host bodies were still alive, so he would be useless even dead.

He wasn't scared anymore. It seemed like a thick fog had descended on him, keeping all emotion at bay. There was only the pain, and the rain coming down on them everywhere. He felt cold.

A branch snapped somewhere to the left. Kuriarare's head snapped up. Kakashi could see him swallow. He felt Kuriarare's chakra reach out to sense their surroundings. Kakashi could only smell iron and rust and Kuriarare's sweat. He hoped whoever had broken the branch was Konoha. He hoped they were strong.

Kuriarare lifted him up into his arms and deposited Kakashi at the foot of a tree. He put Kakashi's legs up over one of the roots.

"Put pressure on this," Kuriarare said, grabbing Kakashi's good hand and placing it over the pad. It felt soaked, but that might have been the rain. Kuriarare straightened out and put his eerie mask back over his face. He looked like a wraith or a ghost, so tall and thin and otherworldly. He pushed out his chakra to make himself seem bigger, but there was something else in the forest, drowning out the pressure.

A shiver ran down Kakashi's spine. Something was coming. He could feel it now. Something big and looming and dangerous, that made the more animal part of his brain want to scramble and flee. He could barely keep up the pressure on his wound. There would be no running.

The closer the thing came, the stronger the chakra pressure. It seemed to push down on Kakashi, speeding up his heartbeat and making breathing more difficult. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing through his nose. The worst thing anyone could do upon encountering killing intent was panic.

Kuriarare cursed. Kakashi opened his eyes and rolled his head to the side to see. His vision blurred.

The creature wasn't very big. Glowing red chakra cloaked slender limbs and a narrow figure, a long tail bubbling up behind her. The creature's eyes glowed magenta, and her hair floated around her head as if caught in some invisible wind.

There was something familiar buried underneath that overwhelming, red chakra. Something Kakashi knew as well as he knew himself. Something...

" Well well well," Kuriarare said, only a slight tremor in his voice, "if it isn't the prodigal daughter, returned at last."

"Let him go," Nohara Rin, dear Rin, growled, "or Sanbi will tear you apart."

"What a pretty little bluff," Sanbi crooned in her head, his voice overwhelmingly loud. "It's almost as if you think you can control me."

Rin was on fire. Her skin burned and burned and burned. She had never felt so much chakra in her life. With this she could, she could – she could level forests, raise tsunamis, burn down whoever stood in her way.

"With time, maybe we will," Sanbi said, and he showed her himself, towering over a village and smashing it all down. It was only a flash of memory, tinged not with glee but with a distant kind of frustration, like a gardener pouring boiling water over an inconvenient anthill.

"You disgust me," Rin hissed.

The man before her lowered himself into a fighting stance. His mane of hair hung limply around his featureless mask. His blade was long and thin like a needle.

"Kuriarare Kushimaru," Sanbi said with Rin's voice, her lips, her mouth. She could feel Sanbi's joy. Her body shook from the excitement of his bloodlust. She couldn't stop him at all.

The man called Kuriarare tensed. Behind him, Kakashi was barely moving and far, far too pale.

Just save him, Rin thought, desperately. Just save him, and it will have been worth it.

Rin's body seemed to move of its own volition. She barreled towards Kuriarare, her shoulders low and hands at her side, curled up like claws. Her nails grew long and sharp. This wasn't her – this was Sanbi, pulling her strings like a puppeteer.

Your body is too damn slow! Sanbi hissed, and twisted her right foot to throw her out of the path of Kuriarare's counterattack. His blade slid past them – her, the long metal wire it was attached to unfurling behind it. Rin reached out, caught the wire in her hand, and jerked it towards her. The metal cut into her palm.

Kuriarare grunted but didn't lose his balance, so Sanbi-Rin gave the wire another jerk, planted their-her foot into the dirt and pounced towards him, their-her right arm outstretched and ready to strike like a hammer.

Kuriarare slid past her, just out of reach. His injured arm jerked on the wire. Something whistled through the air, coming closer and closer –

Rin's right palm touched the ground and pushed off, letting her body sail over the needle blade once more. Her fingers tangled together in seals she barely knew. Her chakra twisted the rain around her into sharp torrents that raced towards Kuriarare, all of it so fast that the torrents had already reached him before her feet touched the ground again.

This wasn't Rin. She wasn't this fast. She was no prodigy. This was –

Human bodies are clumsy little things, but I have had plenty of practice, Sanbi growled, and for a moment Rin was someone else, somewhere else, small and nimble but powerful even without Sanbi, fighting against a red-eyed shadow.

Kuriarare twisted around the first water torrent, then brought up his hands and caught the second between his palms, the water billowing out into a liquid ball, made harmless. Sanbi snorted, and a second later the water ball began to hiss and steam between Kuriarare's fingers. Kuriarare jerked away and the water fell to the earth, no longer alive with chakra.

Rin's hands formed seals again. The next torrent of water spears hissed and boiled and left trails of steam behind as they hurled towards Kuriarare. Kuriarare scrambled to get out of their path. Rin's eyes followed him and so almost missed the glint of metal coming from her right.

Stupid girl! Sanbi roared and threw her body back. The needle blade scored a line across her upper arm, taking some of the fabric with it. Sanbi snarled and Rin snarled with him, more animal than girl, and together they chased after Kuriarare.

Do you want to know what they did to me, girl? Sanbi snarled. Rin's body moved faster than it ever had before.

Do you want to know what they did?

Her body twisted through the air, perfectly dodging the currents of water still chasing after Kuriarare.

Do you want to know that they tortured me?

Her right arm twisted behind her for balance as her left rocketed towards Kuriarare's mask.

Do you want to know that they chained me with stakes through my hands?

Kuriarare's head turned to meet her, his eyes wide behind the mask, his injured left arm too slow to block her hand –

Do you want to know that they kept me in darkness for decades?

Her fist connected with Kuriarare's temple with all the force of Sanbi's rage. Kuriarare's head snapped to the left from the sickening blow, and she would have felt sorry, she would have, if he hadn't – if he wasn't –

Humans are monsters! Sanbi roared in her mind, straining against his chains. Humans are animals, who fight and fight and fight! You are no better than us!

Kuriarare stumbled, his hands slackening –

You are beasts!

Kuriarare fell away, only just catching himself with his hands. His mask crumbled and blood came running down his face. Concussion, Rin thought, brain hemorrhage –

Kuriarare roared in anger. His chakra rose up and up and up within him, shaking the air around him as he pulled his blade back into his hand. He stood there, legs spread and bloodied head raised proudly, and she knew then that he would not back down without a fight.

Good! Let him show me what he can do! Sanbi said. Then I will show him better! She felt her lips curl into a smile.

"Rin –" said a cracked voice somewhere behind her. "Rin –".

Kuriarare and Rin clashed, chakra blazing so brightly that the rain hissed when it touched their skin. His blade pierced cleanly through the shell of her ear, slicing through skin and cartilage. The thumb of her right hand found his shoulder wound and pushed. He roared in pain but barely faltered. His large hand grabbed the back of her tunic and threw her to the ground. Her back hit the dirt hard but the pain seemed distant and unimportant. Her legs snapped out and kicked at his knee so it buckled beneath him. His free hand wrapped around her ankle and pulled her towards him. The hand holding the blade came down.

Rin rolled away and the blade missed her. The kick aimed at her rib cage did not. Sanbi growled and threw up a wall of boiling water between her body and Kuriarare. His forward momentum cost him as his left hand pushed through the wall before he could change direction. It flinched back towards his chest, red and blistered.

Rin's rib cage pounded, somewhere behind that haze of adrenaline and chakra. Blood trickled from her ear down her neck. Intellectually, she knew there would be hell to pay for her body. Soon.

But not yet.

Kuriarare wobbled, his balance shot from the blow to his temple. His left arm dangled at his side. "They stabilized your seal," he croaked. "But how –"

"Rin –" the voice said again, and this time it made it through the haze. Kakashi. That was Kakashi. She turned her head for a split second. When she turned back, Kuriarare was nowhere to be seen.

Sanbi roared furiously and chakra around her blazed. Don't let him get away! You can't! I was finally having fun!

"He – he'll go back to – Kiri. Rin, you can't let him. He'll tell – tell them about you," Kakashi said. "They'll know. They can't – can't find out." He sounded hoarse. Like he'd been screaming.

They tortured him, girl, they tortured him, go get your revenge! Go get it – stop dawdling! Sanbi screamed.

"You're like a little child," Rin said softly, "throwing a tantrum."

KILL HIM.

"My friend is dying. My friend is more important than revenge," Rin said, because there was too much blood pooled around Kakashi's shoulder. And he had been tortured, and she would get her vengeance, but what would be the point if Kakashi was dead? She forced her body to turn, strangely aware of the sound of her footsteps. It was so quiet, when they weren't fighting.

"Rin, no–" Kakashi gasped, because she was facing him now, and he knew what she was about to do. "No, you can't."

"I can," Rin said, feeling more sure of herself than ever before, "and I will." Sanbi roared and roared but her own fury was fading. Slowly, she became aware of her heart pounding in her ears, in her bruised ribs and painful fingers. By the time she reached Kakashi, she was staggering.

But she had plenty of chakra left.

And yes, Kakashi wanted her to turn around and stop Kuriarare for the sake of Konoha, but he also wanted to live, so he didn't stop her when she pushed his hand away from his wound (hand, singular, because his left arm was mangled and broken and bloody and would not move without help). The wound was still seeping.

"All I need to do is close it," she said. "Then I can get you to a hospital."

There wasn't any time to think. There was no space for logic or reason in her mind. All she could think was, I'm not losing him too.

The mystic Palm technique's usually jade green chakra tinged red at the edges when she called upon it, and Kakashi hissed when it touched his skin. She could smell something burning, but she could also feel how it forced muscle and organ tissue back into place. Kakashi made a horrible sound in the back of his throat, his free hand clawing at the ground even as his eyes threatened to roll away.

Rin restored his ruined shoulder blade and watched as the skin around the wound became waxy and blisters burst open.. She pulled muscle back into place and fused broken arteries back together. Kakashi screamed something unintelligible as his skin seemed to melt away. She resisted the urge to throw up.

Even as she healed him, she was burning him alive.

"Just a little bit further," she choked out, "I'm sorry. Hang on for just a little bit longer."

One more twist of her corrosive chakra drained the internal bleeding from his chest cavity and twisted his skin away. Rin pulled her hands back instantly, stopping the flow of chakra from her hands so abruptly it made her fingers tingle.

They were both panting in the silence that followed. Kakashi was pale with pain and exertion. The skin that had been split from the wound looked horrifically twisted and thin, torn in places and blistered in others, but Kakashi's breathing no longer rattled and he had stopped bleeding.

Rin dropped back onto her heels, staring wide-eyed at what she had done. Kakashi looked at her from the corner of his eye for a few more seconds, his expression unreadable, and then he faded into unconsciousness.

Now, all Rin had to do was keep him from going into shock.

Her legs were shaking. Sanbi was eerily silent in her mind. The chakra that had cloaked her was altogether missing. She hadn't even noticed.

She looked up. Where had Pakkun gone? Had she hurt him too? He'd been scared of her, she had seen it in his eyes. She couldn't see him in the clearing.

She turned back. Her strength was quickly disappearing. How on earth would she get Kakashi to a hospital? Had it all been for nothing? Had she – had she lost?

"No, Rin-chan. No, I don't think you did," said a familiar, warm voice, and Rin twisted around to see him.

Namikaze Minato smiled, looking as impeccable as ever. Pakkun stood beside him, panting and shaking with exhaustion. There were other shinobi too, but she could hardly see them through her exhaustion.

"It's okay now, Rin-chan. You've done so well. I'll take care of the rest," Minato-sensei said, and with that Rin passed out.

Rin came to in a field hospital tent, white canvas flapping in the wind. It was still raining outside; she could hear the drops overhead.

Kakashi was on the field bed next to hers, still unconscious. He was stripped to the waist, a compress packed onto his wound, and someone had been kind enough to pull a surgical mask over his face.

"He's going to be okay," an unfamiliar voice said, from much closer than she had expected. A dark-haired woman stood near the tent's entrance, looking at them with sad eyes. She was dressed in a jounin uniform, with the Uchiha crest stitched onto her upper arm.

"Uchiha Mikoto-san," Rin realized, and hurriedly pushed herself up. Her ribs protested and she fell back with a grimace, clutching her waist against the pain.

"And you must be Rin. I have heard a lot about you. Do you mind?" Mikoto nodded at the small chair between the two field beds, and when Rin shook her head, took a seat. Mikoto took a deep breath and let it out slow and measured. "You won, if it helps. Our hunters are still chasing Kuriarare, but you did good."

Rin's heart skipped a beat. "He saw me. He knows my seal is stable."

"Yes, I'm afraid so. But can you really say you regret it?" Mikoto said, and gave her a knowing smile. She angled her body so Rin could see Kakashi. "You saved his life, you know. He'll have a nasty scar, but that's better than being dead. And scared the hell out of my men."

Kakashi would live because of her. Rin filed that somewhere in the back of her head, along with people will know and things are going to change, and instead asked, "Is everyone okay? Did we... Did the negotiations go well?"

"Hmm. Our little dalliance in the village was a nice show of force that did exactly what it was supposed to do: intimidate." Mikoto pulled Kakashi's blankets up higher to cover more of his torso, and then stood up. "But I'll leave you to it. I'm sure the Hokage will be able to tell you more. I just wanted to check up on my student."

Rin blinked. "Oh – I – yeah. Thank you. I'll let him know you came by."

Mikoto nodded, and left.

For a few minutes, all Rin could bring herself to do was sit and stare as her thoughts raced. She… She'd used Sanbi's powers in public, against actual people. People had seen her and known her for what she was. People would judge her for it. But…

She looked at Kakashi and watched his pale chest rise and fall slowly. She had hurt him – she made him scream in agony, twisted his skin up into permanent scars – but she had saved him as well.

She had a feeling he would mind the new scar less than she did.

Still Rin knew such a destructive form of healing had no true future. If he had been hit anywhere else, if the damage had been more extensive than muscle and skin and bone… If she had had to repair organs –

She would have killed him in trying to save him. Even now, she could only hope she had not done irreparable damage to the muscle tissue in his shoulder.

" Rin-chan, are you up? Mikoto-san said you were, but then she likes to play tricks on me, she's a devious woman – oh, you are," Minato said, smiling as he ducked into the tent. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you're all right. You scared us. You both did."

Rin smiled. Minato-sensei never failed to cheer her up, with his beautiful smile and bright eyes and, best of all, that cheerful voice. "I'm okay," she said. "Just… I think I'm still processing."

Minato nodded. "That would make sense. You've been through a lot. When Kushina sent me the message –" he shuddered and gently took her hand. "I worried I might lose you. And then suddenly Pakkun was there to tell me why you have left the village."

He nodded at Kakashi. Beneath his tan, he looked remarkably pale. "The two of you will turn my hair gray before I'm thirty."

"I'm sorry, sensei." Tears prickled in her eyes. "I've caused you even more problems. If Kuriarare makes it to Kiri, they will know Konoha has two jinchuuriki –"

And Minato would be held responsible. Kiri would know that the delicate balance that the first Hokage had created by dividing the bijuu over the shinobi villages had been broken.

Minato's brow furrowed. "Did you know that the seven-tails used to belong to Suna? And now they have only the one-tails left. It was a bigger problem for them than it was for the village that stole their bijuu."

Rin's eyes widened. "I didn't know that. But, I always wondered – the division never seemed fair."

Minato nodded. "One and seven went to Suna, three and six to Kiri, four and five to Iwa, two and eight to Kumo, and the strongest of all, the nine, stayed in Konoha. It was thought to be a fair balance. One could not attack the other without facing equal opposition. The first Hokage thought it might be enough to create a lasting peace."

Rin burrowed into her pillow. "So he did make mistakes, after all."

Minato chuckled. "Well, even he was only human. But the point is that this has happened before. If it leaks, it will be bad – but I believe we can see it through. Kiri will suffer the most for their mistake. They won't want other villages to know just how badly they have been weakened. When the seven-tails was stolen Suna kicked up quite a fuss. They insisted it was unfair, and forgot that in a world of shinobi it is better to keep quiet when one is weakened. They were overrun and nearly destroyed barely a week later. Their current economy still suffers from that blow, decades after the fact. "

"Whoa. Jinchuuriki are that important?"

"Yes and no. One single jinchuuriki may only do so much damage, but the knowledge that they exist, that they could be powerful enough to level a village, that is their real strength. So each village keeps the status of their jinchuuriki under wraps. For all we know, Kiri's six-tails currently resides inside an infant, and their losing Sanbi left them without a single trained jinchuuriki. On the other hand, the six-tails could also be inside their Kage. Our uncertainty protects them."

"That's another reason why I'm not allowed to tell anyone, isn't it?" Rin asked.

Minato nodded. "The fewer who know, the better. Especially while you are still training. It's not as bad if other villages know about you when you are grown up and well-trained. We know several of the other village's jinchuuriki's identities because we have met them on the battlefield. It's just that they are too strong to just take down, and too rarely sent out for us to predict their movement and set a trap."

"That's why Kushina-nee rarely takes missions," Rin realized.

Minato pulled a face. "Well, the baby also has a little something to do with that because pregnancies tend to destabilize seals, which I personally think is because each seal is only calculated to handle a certain number of individuals and when a pregnancy – a third person – comes into the mix – I'm sorry, I'm rambling. None of that is relevant for you yet, but I'll be sure to explain it again if you ever decide you want children –"

Rin blinked as she tried to keep up, but it was to no avail. Sensei could get like this sometimes, when his brain would move too fast for anyone but Kakashi to keep track of what he was saying. She filed away something about pregnancies and decided she could ask later, when her mind didn't feel like it had been wrapped up in a giant cotton bud.

"Thanks, let's do that," she muttered.

Minato's face fell a little. "You must be exhausted. Your ribs are bruised, too, and your ear – ahh, well – it's a little chipped, I'm afraid, but it shouldn't pain you. Your chakra system is a little fried so we're keeping you on bed rest for the time being…" He trailed off awkwardly. "I'm sorry. I was never very good at comforting people."

Rin choked on a sob. She smiled anyway. There was a chip in her ear, she could feel it through the bandage. Perhaps she would have minded it more a few years ago. "It's okay. I'm – I'm glad just to have you here, sensei."

Minato squeezed her hand. "Good. I'm glad. I was feeling pretty useless out there, you know. I got to you too late, again. I sent Kakashi out into danger, and he almost –" he ducked his head.

"But he didn't," Rin countered. She wanted to tell Minato he didn't have to fight every battle, that it wasn't his fault if things went wrong, but she wasn't sure how to put it. He was the Hokage, and much older and wiser than her. What could she say to comfort him?

Minato nodded anyway. "I know. I know, I'll just – well. I look forward to all of us being at home again, safe and sound. Kushina will be happy, too." He smiled, though it didn't quite reach his glistening eyes.

Rin smiled back anyway.

Kakashi didn't wake up on the long trek back to the village. Rin kept looking in his direction to see if the medic carrying him wasn't making any mistakes with the blood transfusion. Kakashi was type O – they knew that, right? They had to know.

It didn't seem to matter how often she chided herself for those ridiculous thoughts; they kept coming, anyway. She was relieved when they finally reached Konoha, and the hospital, where the best medics in the world worked.

She was less pleased when they rolled him off towards the surgery room but carried her towards another ward. She was given a private room, and as it turned out it was a little hard to stay angry when her back hit the mattress. She fell asleep almost instantly. She didn't dream at all.

Rin was more than a little alarmed to wake up and find twelve hours had passed. Her head felt cloudy. Why had no one woken her up? The sun was starting to rise outside. She blinked blearily in the sharp light as her brain started to reboot.

Kakashi. How had the surgery gone? Was he okay?

She kicked the blankets off and pushed herself out of the bed. The floor was cold and smooth below her bare feet. She was only wearing a hospital gown – closed at the back, a quick inspection revealed – but that didn't matter either. She just wanted to see him.

There were very few people in the hallways, but one of the nurses managed to direct her to the correct room. The surgery had gone well, the nurse said, but Rin would have to be quiet.

Well, Rin knew that perfectly well, she was still medic at heart, and like a medic, she grabbed Kakashi's chart before she even looked at him. Heartrate stabilized, blood pressure steadily returning to normal, a slight fever but no sign of infection. Further notes on the original injury showed some damage to the muscle tissue of his lower arm, the blade's first point of entry –

Rin had to put the chart back down. She breathed in deeply through her nose. Anger, no matter how righteous, would wake Sanbi up again. She wasn't ready for that. Not yet.

She looked up.

Kakashi looked dreadful. His face was still ghostly pale underneath the oxygen mask. His left arm was bound to his chest and his torso covered in bandages and healing seals. This was exactly why she had checked the chart first – injured people usually looked worse than they actually were.

A single dark eye blinked lazily at her. Rin flushed. She hadn't even noticed he was awake, and he was practically half naked, and she was in a hospital gown –

"Hi," Kakashi croaked, and because he was Kakashi, waved at her with his good hand.

"Hi," Rin said stupidly.

"So. I'm not dead."

"Not for lack of trying," she said. He was on a morphine drip.

"Hmm. That's usually how it goes."

"Why were you –" she said, just as he said, "was it you who –"

"Sorry."

"Sorry, yeah."

"You go first."

"Oh, okay. Did you – was I hallucinating, or did you save me?" Kakashi asked, blinking owlishly.

Rin flushed deeper. "I think I did. Unless I was hallucinating too."

"That seems unlikely."

"It's not medically impossible."

"I prefer the version where you swooped in and saved me."

Rin giggled, despite herself. "I do, too."

"Thank you," Kakashi said, after a moment. "I don't remember it very well, but thank you. Are you okay?"

That was a remarkably thoughtful and, well, long sentence, for Kakashi's standards. Perhaps he was better at talking when he was on morphine. "You're welcome," Rin said in a small voice.

Kakashi nodded, then frowned, and said," Where have all my clothes gone?" Because, well, morphine.

And if Rin flushed even brighter, well. She'd had a hell of a year.

AN:

Yay for another chapter! We're nearing the end here, folks. All aboard the pain train… Seriously, it's going to hurt.

fun fact, by laying Kakashi flat on the floor and putting his legs up Kuriarare was treating the symptoms of hypovolemic shock, or severe blood loss. Guess he did something right in his life. Anyway, do you think he will be caught?

I put a lot of effort into this chapter, so let me know what you think!