Shirou felt really embarrassed.
Thinking back, he should have been more careful. Every magus, even a half baked one like him, should know the fundamental pieces of identity; form, purpose, origin and history. And as the Faker King, he should know better than anyone how effective it was to recreate even three of the four.
Through his traces, he could imitate any weapon's form, purpose and history. Even the fakes were unable to tell that they were not the originals, and while the difference in origin allowed the World to see them for what they were, they could still wield tremendous power.
The form of Lancer had been placed over his own by Rin's modified transformation jutsu, and the history of Lancer had come from his weapon anchored deep within Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works. It was something that he often pulled from in order to draw on the skills and combat experience the warrior had possessed.
From the very beginning of their little mission, Shirou had felt a little off, but it hadn't been until his 'Master' had ordered him to stand outside like a guard dog that purpose had also been copied.
Throughout his fight, Shirou had believed he was Lancer as well as Shirou. Lancer's little quarks, his speech patterns, his moves, his personal beliefs, everything about the man had been copied and mingled with his own to the point where Shirou was losing his grip. He hadn't realized how bad it was until he had to restrain the urge to give a wolf whistle at the sight of 'Rider's' butt, an extremely non-Shirou-like action that would have definitely gotten him killed.
So the following day found Shirou out in his garden, trying to reorganize his thoughts as his body preformed the mechanical task of pulling out the weeds. His thoughts started at his origin and spread outwards, recalling what it meant to be Shirou. Though through thinking about it, he came up to the philosophical questions that came from the fact that he wasn't Shirou, not really, but at the same time, he was.
He was just lucky Rin had decided to use Lancer's form instead of Archer's, knowing how much Shirou disliked being reminded of his relation to the possible future. If he had been pretending to be Archer, then this would have been an entirely different level of headache.
Shirou wasn't sure why Rin had chosen Rider's form. He supposed she just looked the part of an infiltrator. Rin had never really had any personal opinions about the Servant, as far as Shirou was aware, though she had hated the Master more than anything else that had ever existed. Caster and Gilgamesh were the only Servants that Rin had really hated, so it was no wonder that Caster hadn't been her first choose.
Rin was not suffering the same problems as Shirou, as only Rider's form was copied, the weakest of the four piece of identity. She had only started laughing when Shirou confessed to the problem. A Faker really needed to be careful about what he pretended to be.
Shirou was regaining his sense of self when a now familiar disruption to nature entered his immediate area. Sure enough Naruto was walking along, hands in his pockets with an upset look on his face as he kicked around a stone.
"Something the matter, Naruto-kun?" Shirou asked the boy.
"Hinata-chan ain't come out of her room! I want to play ninja with her but she's been acting all weird! So I tried to show her how much fun we'd be haven't, but she started crying and Rin-san hit me!" Naruto complained angrily. "What's the matter with her!? I just wanted to play outside!"
Shirou understood what was going on and sighed. "Poor Hinata." He mumbled sadly. "Naruto-kun. I know you are just trying to be a friend, but you are going to have to try to be a bit more understanding. Hinata-chan went through a lot. She's still scared because of the kidnapping."
"But that was forever ago! Why should that mean we can't play now!?" Naruto said, stumping his foot like the child he was.
'Forever ago? It's been two days, Naruto.' Shirou thought, shaking his head. Sometime Naruto's lack of understanding of others was a headache. It wasn't that he was self centered really, he didn't value himself over other, he just didn't understand what anyone else needed. Shirou supposed that was the nature of most children his age. Even sweet little Hinata was like that at times.
"These kind of things are hard to recover from. Hinata was really scared and confused. She was thrust into a very dangerous situation when she was supposed to feel safe, and because of that, she is having a hard time feeling safe anywhere. To you, it is just going outside to play, but try to think about it from her perceptive. Even if she knows that she is safe, there is fear rooted deep inside of her now." Shirou said, trying to be patient with the four year old boy.
Naruto was silent for a few moments, his face screwed up in through as he tried to figure things out. "So, you're saying that she's not feeling well, right? Like she's sick or something. It's not that she don't want to play with me, she just isn't up to it. Like when I had that tummy ache and couldn't eat the ramen, even though I really wanted to."
'That was because you ate melted ice cream you found in a dumpster.' Shirou still hadn't figured out what had motivated the boy to do that. Nothing about that stuff looked even remotely appetizing, and it smelled horrible. Oh well, it was as good of a point of reference as any he supposed.
"Something like that, but while you got better after a good night's sleep, this is going to take a lot more time for Hinata to bounce back from." Shirou said, trying to think just how you explain post traumatic stress disorder to a four year old with ADHD. It was amazing that Naruto's attention span had lasted this long.
"So what your saying is... we need to get her some ramen?" Naruto asked, taking his best shot at it.
Shirou closed his eyes, resisting the urge to just go and get Anko to try to explain it to him. She was better with getting the kid to understand things, though it usually resulted is some kind of traumatic event. "No Naruto-kun, this isn't something that ramen can solve."
Naruto gasped in shock, and a look of worry crossed his face. "Is it really that bad!?"
"We will do everything we can to help her, but this could take years to recover from." Shirou said, a world of fire appearing inside of his mind's eye.
The screams of the people desperate for help echoed in his ears as he was forced to keep walking, ignoring their cries. His own body battered and bleeding. Smoke filled his lungs making it hard to breath. There was blood in his eye, but his arm wouldn't go up to wipe it away.
Shirou had to surprise a small shiver as he came back to reality. "It will probably stay with her for the rest of her life, in one way or another."
"No!" Naruto shouted, seeming angry though the little boy wasn't sure about what he was angry at. "I'll make sure that Hinata gets better! If I can't, then what right do I have to call myself the fifth Hokage!" He then turned around and ran back towards the house.
"Since when did he have any right to call himself that?" Shirou's head dropped. Then he turned back to his gardening.
Hiruzen walked straight through the hospital. No point asking for directions when he knew exactly where he was going. He could smell the scent of flowers in the air from three corridors down.
Sure enough, when he opened the door to the blond ninja's room, he found it completely filled with flowers to the point where there was hardly enough room to walk. "I see your wife and daughter have again ignored the hospital's judgment of what constitutes a reasonable number of flowers. I'm going to get a complant about how this interfers with cleanliness protocol, I just know it." Hiruzen mumbled as he entered the room. He pulled out a small piece of cloth he brought with him and tied it over his face to protect himself from the overwhelming aroma, before moving a large purple flower from the visitor's seat so that he could sit down.
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but you know how Yuri-chan and Ino-chan get." Inoichi said with an apologetic smile.
"I'm not going to be the one to try to stop them, just try to stay out of the hospital so I don't have to hear about it." Hiruzen said, grabbing a clip board of the tests they had done on the man so he could check his health for himself. He had learned that when asked, people usually just told him they were fine. Inoichi was not fine, not yet. He would probably be bedridden for a week at the very least. "Inoichi-san, what happened?"
The intelligence officer leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes. "I don't know how to even describe it. It wasn't a genjutsu barrier, but his mind itself that did this to me. It was like... being inside of a volcano. The conditions inside his mind were just such that my consciousness could not survive there. I'd never seen anything like it before in my life. I plan on searching through my clan's recorders after I am released from the hospital." The Hokage watched as the man before him began to chuckle. "So this is what happens when a mortal dares to step into the realm of a god."
"You really believe that Kuroshi-kun holds the Path of Asura?" Hiruzen asked the man.
Inoichi nodded. "I only saw it for a moment, but I can't think of anything else it could be. It was... an entire world of weapons. You should have seen it, Hokage-sama."
"Considering what seeing it has done to you, I think I will pass." Hiruzen grunted, putting the clipboard back where he found it. "You heard what happened with our Kumo guests last night?"
Inoichi nodded. "Yeah, I heard about the trouble with a pair of strays in the big house. I find it a little hard to believe though."
"Don't we all." Hiruzen agreed. "What's your opinion on these 'strays'?"
"There is only one thing I can think of that might be able to do what that woman did." Inoichi said, looking up at the Hokage from his hospital bed. "I'm guessing you thought of it too, the reason she was covering her eyes."
"The Mangekyō Sharingan." The Hokage guessed, receiving a nod in response. "Dammit. The Uchiha are not going to like this."
"It would also explain why there is a missing nin from Kumogakure that we have never heard of. They would want to keep anything to do with stolen eyes as quiet as possible." Inoichi said. "The spearman's name is odd, and spears themselves are a rarity among skilled fighters, as they are looked down on as being grunt weapons. There are only a few real schools of combat that focus on spears, and all of them are from the Land of This. This 'Lancer' is most likely a descendant of a Rounin, or maybe even a Rounin himself that somehow got mixed up with Kirigakure. Though that doesn't explain why we have never heard of him before. It could be that he is on Kirigakure's records as dead rather than missing."
"So a spear wielding, wonder, pacifist Samurai and an unknown woman with a stolen pair of the most powerful eyes have taken an interest in the Path of Asura. Doesn't explain why, or how they even knew? Perhaps the Mangekyō Sharingan has something to do with that too. Each awakening is unique and brings different effects." Hiruzen said, scratching at his chin.
"Were they alone or part of a larger group. Did they have a man on the inside? How long have they been in village and are they still here? Did they only find out about the Path when we did or have they been watching Kuroshi-kun before then? If they were watching the child, have they noticed Uzumaki Naruto as well? There are too many questions, and we have so few ways to get answers." Inoichi said, shaking his head. "We should move the children, put them somewhere where we can keep an eye on them and keep them safe, away from the rest of the village. Either inside of the Hyūga or Uchiha compounds would be best."
The Hokage scoffed. "I'm sure that would go over well. The council would throw the mother of all fits if I suggested such a thing. Besides, Hikaru-chan isn't likely to go along with it, and trying to force her to do something she doesn't want to do will only lead to disaster. We couldn't move them even if we wanted to."
Hikaru had made it very clear her stance on staying at the Hyūga complex very clear, and the council would collectively wet themselves at the idea of moving Naruto in with the Uchihas. The Hyūga Clan would take it as a personal insult if he suggested that their heirs move in with the Uchiha for protection. Not to mention the balance of power issues involved in placing Kuroshi anywhere. The only reason the Clans weren't in a panic about the possible union between Kuroshi and Hikaru was because they believed that Hikaru had finally had enough of her grandfather and intended to separate herself from the rest of the Hyūga Clan and create a new Clan with the boy, her little sister, and Naruto as the starting point. Strong as such a Clan would be, it would still be rather small.
"If we can get the council and the children to understand the danger, then they might be more willing to agree." Inoichi suggested.
"...Maybe. But I want to give them a chance to be children." The Hokage said, lacing his fingers together and looking up at the ceiling. "They deserve that much at least." A moment of silence passed between the two men. "I think I can hear footsteps coming this way. Visiting hours are probably over. Get some bed rest and don't overdue it on the painkiller. Can't have you getting loose lips on us."
"Yes, Hokage-sama." Inoichi said, giving a short bow of the head as the Village Leader left. Returning to his office to find even more paperwork waiting for him. Dammit, just as he thought, letters from the hospital involving all of those stupid flowers.
Rin tried to struggle, but the bounds holding her hand and feet wouldn't budge an inch. Her limbs felt numb from lose of circulation and her body ached from the struggle. Her magic circuits were sealed and she was tired to chair in a dark basement.
She could feel her own helplessness pressing down on her as her pointless struggle drained her more and more. Fear and desperation pumped through her body, clouding her mind and causing her breathes to become increasingly rapid.
"Why are you struggling?" A flat voice echoed through the darkness that surrounded her, causing her to shiver. She knew that voice. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see him, not wanting him to be there, but for some reason, even with her eyes closed, she could still see. She could see Kotomine Kirei standing their in his priest's garb, with the cross of the church around his neck. His cold eyes staring vacantly towards her as he remained indifferent to her suffering.
No, not indifferent, there was an upward twist to his lips. The psychotic bastard was taking pleasure from Rin's struggle, from her fear of him.
"Is this what you wanted, Tohsaka-san. To be able to touch the Root." Kirei said walking towards her, his footsteps seemed to cause the world to shake. Rin wanted to get free. She wanted to get as far away from his man as possible.
"Stay away!" She shrieked, pulling at her binds with all her strength, but to no avail.
"Do you think you can fight against this? It has been your fate to be a part of this ritual. Your entire life has been purely to serve this purpose, to become the new Holy Grail." Kirei said. Rin turned her head away from him as he stood straight in front of her, but the man grabbed her chin and forced her to look forward. He held something up with his other hand. Something that made Rin want to gag. It was a heart. "Now, become the new vessel!"
He pulled back his hand, and drove the heart straight into Rin's chest.
Rin's eyes shot open and she found herself in the room she had taken at the Ena residence, in the same bed with little Hinata.
Her body was shaking and covered in sweat. Her muscles were numb from the tension. She couldn't control her breathing. "It... was a dream..." She said to herself again and again, trying to get her body back under control.
She got up, his legs still shaking a bit and stumbled towards the door. She didn't want to wake up Hinata. She didn't want her little sister to see her like this. She didn't want anyone to see her like this.
To see her scared.
Rin moved off towards the kitchen to pour herself a glass of cold water. Something to help her cool off.
It was an oxymoron, a flooded mind. To many thoughts to think. Her world buzzed as she tried to regain her focus. She hated it. How could something as stupid as those second rate fools trying to kidnap her shake her so much. They had nothing on Berserker. They had nothing on... that man.
She shivered again at the thought of Kirei. Berserker had been a feral monster, but Kirei had been something different, worse even. While Berserker was insane, Kirei couldn't be described as either sane or insane. He was true evil, a deviant who found pleasure in cruelty. Even All the World's Evils hadn't made her skin crawl quite like that fake priest had.
"Rin?" She jumped at the sound of her own name, the glass of water falling from her hand and spilling onto the ground as the cup rolled away from her. She had been so confused that she hadn't paid any attention to her surroundings.
"Dammit Shirou, don't sneak up on me like that?" Rin said, trying to regain her poise.
"Rin, what's wrong?" Shirou asked her as he took a hand towel and started to clean up the split water.
"What makes you think that there is something wrong?" Rin said defensively.
"Rin, its six in the morning. I'm pretty sure the Nine Tailed Fox could have leveled the entire village and you still won't wake up before at least ten if I didn't wake you up." Shirou said giving her a questioning look. Rin's sleeping habits hadn't changed since reincarnation, that is for sure.
"Nothing is wrong, Shirou!" Rin said. Her voice was not convincing and Shirou could see her shaking slightly. "I'm not... a child. I can take care of myself." Rin closed her eyes, trying to get a grip on herself. This was not her. She was not weak.
It came as a surprise to her, the pair of arms wrapping around her as Shirou pulled her into a hug.
"Shirou?"
"You don't need to tell me anything, and I might not be able to understand, but I will always be here for you. You don't need to be afraid to open up to me." Shirou said, patting Rin on the back. Rin's lip trembled and then it came out and she broke down into tears. She stood there for a long time, crying until all the stress left her body, and Shirou stood with her, right by her side, just like he always had been and he always would be.
Shirou, Rin and Hinata all have PTSDs, and Naruto has ADHD.
Debating whether or not to have Shirou and/or Rin interfere with the Uchiha incident, and how I could go about setting it up.
If I'm going to, then I would need to start setting the scene next chapter. So I suppose you will all find out soon what I decide. Either way there will probably be a fair sized time skip.
I remind everyone that not everything I say is canon. I am using various things from Philosophy for the mechanics for Magecraft/Ninjutsu, rather than anything said in canon or on the wiki. Nor is my knowledge of the history or story canon in either Fate or Naruto entirely accurate. Not that I personally care too much. That kind of stuff is like history, and history was always my least favorite subject in school, and a good self contained story can be written without it.
If you wish to suggest changes or additions that you think will improve the story, then feel free, though I maintain the right to disagree with you.
If you have complaints without any suggestions then you can fuck right off, because that's not how criticism is supposed to work.
PS. Powerlevels are bullshit.
PPS. The Sharingan is bullshit.