Chapter 16

Rin woke up to an overwhelming sense of urgency. Strong hands pushed her back down, and a soft voice said, "It's all right, you're okay. Please stay calm."

A baby cried, somewhere nearby, and Rin thought, Kushina. When she opened her eyes, though, it wasn't Kushina's gray eyes that looked back at her – these were a deep, inky black, like Obito's had been.

"It's okay," Mikoto said again, brushing a hand over Rin's cheek but glancing over her shoulder at the baby. It was her baby, not Kushina's. Her eldest boy held him close to his chest, looking pale and worried.

Slowly, Rin's memory started to return to her.

Fugaku had kept his promise. He had knocked her out, and left her with his family for safekeeping. Away from the kyuubi, and away from her friends.

"How – what happened? Please, I have to know –"

"Breathe," Mikoto said. "Deep breaths."

Rin gasped in some air, willing herself to calm down. It didn't do much to alleviate her state of mind, but if she could at least convince Mikoto she was calm... She eyed the children. Mikoto wouldn't want her around them if she thought Rin would pose a risk.

She looked around. They were sitting in a dark room, lit only by a torch just beside the dark entrance. It was cool, and the walls were rough and uneven. The evacuation tunnels. It had to be.

"What's happening? Is the village still under attack?" Rin asked. She couldn't hear anything, outside. She heard only the baby, and further away, the restless murmur of the other villagers.

Mikoto frowned. "From what I understand, the demon vanished into thin air an hour ago. They say the Hokage finally appeared and took it elsewhere. I haven't heard anything since then. They asked us to stay in here just a little bit longer."

Rin bit her lip and stood up. Minato sensei. She felt a little dizzy, but otherwise all right. She couldn't hear Sanbi. The Sharingan really was amazing. "I can't stay here."

Mikoto's expression softened. "I thought you might say that."

"I – Kushina-nee is –" Rin said defensively, before she could catch herself. But she was so worried, it was hard to think of anything else.

The chances of Kushina even being alive – her breath hitched.

"I know," Mikoto said. "Trust me, I do." Her eyes were soft with worry and her voice genuine. She was truly Kushina's friend, then perhaps she already knew the source of Rin's concerns.

"Things have gone quiet outside. I will go and look going on and – and whether everyone is okay. If I think it's dangerous, I promise I'll come back," Rin said, although it was a difficult promise to make. Could she really do it, if pressed? Could she place the needs of the many above those of her loved ones?

Yes. If there was no other way – yes.

Mikoto held her gaze for a moment before nodding. "I trust you," she said. "Don't let me down."

The halls outside their little chamber were dark and damp, and filled with people. Occasionally Rin passed through a larger chamber or past rooms like the one Mikoto and her family stayed in, but most people had to make do with whatever space they could find. She spotted a few familiar faces, but although she allowed her gaze to linger long enough to check for injuries, she couldn't afford to stay and say hello.

There was no time.

The only shinobi in the caves were genin and young chunin like herself, as far she could tell. Have they been sent back, away from danger? If so, what had become of their active shinobi force? How many of them would still be alive?

The closer she came to the cave's entrance, the more injured people she saw. Thin-lipped medics passed her by, each of them pale and exhausted. Some of their patients whimpered softly. One man was crying like a child, although he looked injured. What had he lost?

Rin's heart pounded in her throat. This was her nightmare come to life. This was what she had almost died to prevent, five months ago. I failed. Please forgive me.

"Rin? Rin, is that really you?" A voice croaked and oh, she knew that voice, had known it all her life, and still loved it, despite herself.

She stopped. She could feel the fresh air from outside on her face and it would be so easy to just keep walking.

But how could she walk away from her own father?

She turned around and spotted him in the crowds, sagging against one of the stone walls. There was blood in his dark hair and he was paler than she had ever seen him. "Is that my girl?" He asked, and reached out with one bloodied hand.

His left hand was gone, leaving only a neatly bandaged stump.

"The – the house collapsed," he offered, catching her eyes. Sweat beaded on his forehead. "I was trapped underneath – they took it off." He sounded a little surprised.

Rin kneeled next to him to take his pulse, all the while trying desperately not to feel. His heart beat strong. The stump didn't seem to be bleeding, so whoever had treated him had done a good job. He would live.

"My girl," he said again, and brushed her bangs away from her face. "This wasn't you, was it?"

Rin froze. Her father's hand was warm against her cheek, and he still smelled of fresh bread and home, just as he always had. The milky blue eyes she had always so loved were feverish and seemed to glide past her when he tried to focus.

He was burning up with fever.

"Was it you? Oh – if it was, if it was," he moaned, and buried his face in his remaining hand.

"Dad," Rin said, very quietly. "It wasn't me."

He moaned again. "But it could have been!"

Rin surged forward and put a finger to his lips. "You are ailing. You should rest," she said. Her voice trembled.

She still loved him, probably always would, but she didn't think she knew this man who could accuse her of leveling a village and simultaneously very nearly out her greatest secret amidst strangers. This man who kept pushing her away.

She didn't know this man at all.

He nodded a few times, like a child, and leaned against his neighbor. "Yes, yes, you're right. I should sleep. My daughter is so smart. Isn't she smart?" He moaned again. "But she can't live with me, no. No, it's not right. My baby girl." He buried his face in the neighbor's shoulder, who accepted it with a resigned sigh and a shrug for Rin.

At least no one took the words of an ailing man seriously.

Rin felt heavy when she turned away and left the cave. She did what she always did when her heart was rent in two: she persevered. She would hold all feeling inside until she found herself somewhere where she could let it burst out and think of disappointing fathers and threatened mothers and missing friends. Not yet, though. Not yet.

She kept moving.

Most of Konoha was still standing, but nearly every building had taken some form of damage. The windows had burst everywhere and many of the doors had been pulled from their hinges as if people had torn them out trying to escape. The only people still in the streets were dead.

The closer to the gate she came, the worse the damage. Many of the houses had been leveled completely, as if they had never existed at all, and others had collapsed under the strain. Like her childhood home had. There were a couple of shinobi, at least, grimy and shell-shocked but alive. When she asked, none of them had seen Kakashi, Minato or Kushina.

A second group pointed her in the direction of the jounin commander – a young Nara who had received a field promotion when his predecessor met the business end of Kyuubi's claws – who recognized her as the Hokage's pupil and indulged her enough to take her along with him into the forest outside the village.

"Hokage-sama used his Hiraishin to take the beast out of the village, so they could fight without obstruction. It took us a while to locate them, but..." He trailed off. "Nohara-kun, there is no good way to tell you this –"

"Nohara Rin, isn't it?" Said a small, slender figure as it stepped out of the shadows. The Sandaime Hokage looked older tonight than he ever had before. He sighed deeply, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll take it from here, Shikaku-kun. Go home, to your family."

Sandaime led Rin through the forest with a gentleness that reminded her he was Asuma's dad first, Hokage second. His hand was warm on her shoulder. His eyes were red. "Rin-san, it will not surprise you to learn I know of your situation," he said, when they were out of earshot of his guards. "Therefore I understand exactly how personal all of this must feel to you. However, I must ask you to remain composed as well as you can. You have been very brave, but you're going to have to be brave for a lot longer."

There was a clearing up ahead. Rin saw a familiar silver-haired figure sitting on the ground, his head very nearly between his knees. Her heart sank.

"Are they dead?" She asked, her voice small.

Sandaime's hands tightened on her shoulder and he stopped walking. She had no choice but to join him.

"You, better than anyone, know what it is like to be a jinchuuriki. What you do not know is the strain that something as biologically complicated as a pregnancy puts on chakra seals," he began slowly. "An unknown assailant did know, and he... Abused this knowledge. He attacked Minato and Kushina while she was giving birth, and the kyuubi was set loose."

"They're dead, aren't they?" Rin whispered again, and she could feel it building up inside for now, that overwhelming chaos of pain and regret and anger and grief she hadn't felt since Obito.

"Kushina hails from the Uzumaki clan, which means she clings to life with a strength unlike any other. Minato saw fit to seal part of the Kyuubi back inside her, which... Should at least give her a chance," Sandaime said.

Rin's breath shuddered.

"And the rest of Kyuubi?"

"Their child. I suppose there was no other way."

The child. Naruto. The baby they had so looked forward to welcoming into their family.

"Is he okay? The baby?"

"... Yes. As much as he can be."

"What about sensei?" Rin forced herself to say.

Sandaime seemed to grow smaller where he stood, his shoulders stooping forward. "The sealing technique he used required the greatest sacrifice," he said simply.

Rin shook off his hand and moved past him towards Kakashi on automatic pilot. She felt so tired.

Minato sensei was still in the clearing where he had died, a lone figure lying spread-eagled on the ground, his blue eyes staring up at the sky above him. His coat was ripped and torn away from his body. For some reason, it bothered Rin that no one had put it around him properly. Kushina was further away, surrounded by medics. One of them held a mewling baby.

"I was too late," Kakashi muttered. "I'm always too late."

Rin sank down to the ground next to him, instinctively leaning into his warmth. His chakra felt strange, from this close – like it was roiling inside of him, threatening to boil over. "Kakashi –" she began, concerned.

He looked up. Obito's Sharingan glowed in the dark, shining with an unfamiliar geometrical pattern unlike anything she had seen before. He was crying.

"Kushina-nee isn't moving," Rin observed numbly.

"Coma. One of the medics said. They thought I wasn't listening," Kakashi said.

Rin nodded, not really surprised. If the world had seen fit to tear life as she knew it apart every other year, it might as well try its hardest.

"What happened? To you? I lost you in the crowds," she asked instead.

Kakashi shrugged and turned his face back to his knees. He squeezed his eyes shut. "I couldn't find them. Then Yuuhi-san tried to send me back, Kurenai's dad, but the Kyuubi killed him –" Rin's heart constricted, "– and everything went a bit hazy after that. Minato sensei appeared in the distance but I couldn't reach him in time before they both vanished. I had to summon the dogs to track them down, but by then –"

He made himself even smaller. "I got here just in time to see him collapse."

Because that made sense too, in the worst sort of way: where Rin lost people whenever she looked away for just a little bit too long, Kakashi always had to watch them die.

The universe was a cruel bitch.

She pressed herself closer up to him, not caring who would see or what he would think. He was warm and breathing and alive, so it made sense to get as close to him as she could. She became slowly aware that she was crying. That made sense too.

"What do we do now?" She asked. She felt terribly small.

"I don't know," he said. "I just don't know."

Rin was the first to move, of course. She was the one to approach the medics holding the baby and find Naruto still covered in his mother's blood. She was the one to scoot over to Kushina and find a faint, thready pulse. She was the one they told that Kushina was in a vegetative state she might never wake up from. That she would have been dead already, if not for her clan blood.

The baby's name was Naruto. Kushina had told them during the dinner two days ago, when they had all been so happy and optimistic. Naruto wouldn't stop crying, and blinked up at Rin with wild blue eyes when she was finally allowed to hold him. In the end it was Sandaime who carefully pried the baby loose from her grasp and told her it would be okay.

The third Hokage tried to comfort them, because he liked to think of himself as a good man. He was, in some ways. He also wasn't, in others. If he took up the reins again, Konoha would remain the same.

Jiraiya wasn't there to hold his godson and do his duty. Tsunade wasn't there to wake Kushina from her coma.

No one was there to tell Kakashi and Rin to go home, whatever was left of it, instead of waiting and waiting until someone picked up Minato's body. In the end it was Anko who had been sent to collect them, her own face tear-streaked.

The apartment was still standing, against all odds. Rin didn't really want to go inside. She didn't really want to go anywhere. It didn't feel real. None of it did.

Kakashi still hadn't said a word. He'd seen –

Minato.

Minato sensei was dead.

"Minato sensei is dead," Rin said, because perhaps saying it would wake her up from this nightmare.

It didn't. It just made her breath catch in her throat and an intense pain spring up in her chest. Kakashi made a strange, strangled sound and marched into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

"I need to go home, " Anko said softly. "My mom –"

Rin nodded, and waited until she could no longer hear Anko. Then she went and opened Kakashi's bedroom door. She stepped in and closed it behind her.

Kakashi lay curled up on the bed, his back towards her. She could hear his breath shudder.

Minato was dead. Kushina might never wake up again. That crying boy on the bed right there was the only remnant of team Minato Rin had left. Him and the baby, a brand-new jinchuuriki already secreted away by people who were not his parents.

They wouldn't grow, from this. They wouldn't learn. This just hurt.

Rin's knees gave out. Somehow, she landed on the bed. A hand reached out and grabbed hers, trembling.

So they lay there curled up together, clinging to each other like they were the last people on earth- and in a way they were. The two brightest stars in their firmament had died, and left behind only three grieving children.

For once, Sanbi was silent.

TBC.

AN:

*Hands you tissues*

So, that was the end of part one of Regeneration. Part one, you say? Does that mean there are going to be sequels? Well – yes and no. I definitely have plans for this universe because I can't leave the kids hanging like this, can I?

Lil' summary of the next installment:

With Minato gone and Kushina's fate still uncertain, Kakashi and Rin navigate new responsibilities in the form of an infant jinchuuriki who has no one else to depend on, dangerous new enemies, and disturbing new powers.

my readers: I'm considering moving to AO3 permanently rather than cross-posting, as the uploading system is a lot kinder. Consider subscribing to me there! ( Hiiraeth)

Couple of notes on the conclusion:

- I figure if Obito can unlock Mangekyou by watching Rin die, Kakashi can unlock it by watching Minato die.

- Kushina survived extracting kyuubi. I've never understood why Minato didn't try to save her life by sealing it back in. I'm sure there's some obscure bit of trivia that explains it, but I like this better.

- Madara did indeed transfer his consciousness into Obito's body. How? Err... He's an evil genius? (And this makes much more sense for Obito as a character!)

-The reason Sandaime didn't think to bring the children back home is because aside from the chaos wrecked upon his village, he also just lost his wife and doesn't yet know what became of his own children. I think he deserves a break for that.

Let me know what you think!