Notes: Uh? It's my old friend, too-much-dialogue?

Warnings: Vomiting, convoluted and dubious elaboration upon Isobu's powers, inelegant time-skips, fratricide, and everything bad associated with Haku's backstory.

Relationships: [Nohara Rin & Uchiha Obito], [Nohara Rin & Isobu | Sanbi | Three-Tails], [Nohara Rin & Haku], [Nohara Rin & Momochi Zabuza] (all platonic).

Title: Precision Work

Summary: Rin knew three things for certain: One—jinchuuriki could regrow vital organs in seconds. Two—she didn't die. Three—she couldn't go back. [Rin-survives!AU.]

Precision Work

— V —

Rin had died for her team. She underwent the ultimate sacrifice and duty that a shinobi has, and she did it coolly, without hesitation, and at the cost of her teammate's sanity. For her village, she'd endangered the emotional stability of her team.

What more was there for Rin to give?

It was after a nightmare that Rin had the idea.

"Chakra strings!"

'What?'

"It's how I'm going to practice my chakra. Chakra strings." Isobu didn't understand so she explained, "Sunagakure is popular for using them in tandem with their puppets—it's how they control them, you see, and it takes an amazing amount of precision to use more than one, let alone to control individual parts of a human-resembling body with extra compartments. The Sunagakure forces could devastate a platoon with more shinobi because of their puppets."

'... I'm following.'

"Right, so—the puppeteering is favoured because Sunagakure is in the Land of the Wind, which has a lot of scorpion and poisonous flowers and stuff, so the puppets are an effective way of administering that poison without endangering themselves. Um, the perfect offense and defense in one, yes? But chakra strings aren't limited to the puppets. We just haven't been creative enough to think of what else they can be used for,"

'And you are? Creative enough, that is?'

Rin flushed. "Not—not yet, but that's not the pressing matter anyway. First, I have to learn how to do them, and then learn how to do a lot of them at the same time. Then I can start thinking about new applications,"

Isobu asked, 'Why not just learn Puppeteering? If it ain't broke…'

"It doesn't suit my fighting style,"

'You have a fighting style?'

"Yes. It's called, 'minimal'."

'That's cowardice, isn't it?'

"I'm a pacifist!"

'If you say so… you should learn something cooler than chakra strings, though. How's your throwing?'

"Terrible. Why?"

'As my partner, you have the ability to use my coral and foam in your jutsu. As you well know, coral is not pleasant to be hit with. As long as you didn't embarrass me, you could use it as a projectile as well. Area of effect jutsu, too.'

Rin clapped. "That's amazing—" Wait, onlookers. 'That's amazing, Isobu-kun. Your mist acts as a hallucinogenic too, doesn't it? Does that mean you're good at genjutsu?'

Isobu nodded. 'Only the Uchiha can break my illusions, and not even that clan can read the heart of a person the way I can. Are you saying you want to learn?'

'If you wouldn't mind. The more I know, the better. My arsenal of jutsu is kind of pathetic right now. Take what I can get. I'm good with poisons already. And I still have my medical knowledge, wherever that becomes relevant.'

'Senbon for acupuncture,' Isobu said simply, 'since you're a coward.'

'Pacifist, Isobu-kun.'

'Whatever, same thing anyway, Puny-Rin! Don't forget your water jutsu. You have Foam Release to work on as well, and with my chakra connected to your chakra, you can create water out of nothing.'

Oh, yeah. 'I get to use all of your fancy tricks as well, don't I, Isobu-kun?'

'I'll show you how to use my shell,'

'Yay!'

'But I'm not showing you how I teleport.'

'That's fine, we don't have to share everythin—you can teleport?'

'I'm not showing you how.'

'SINCE WHEN HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT?!'

'That's not for you to know. Focus, Puny-Rin! You need to find a weapon that will conduct my chakra, withstand the spontaneous growth of coral, and direct my water attacks.'

Rin whimpered. Teleportation. Surely he was kidding, right? 'Where am I going to find a weapon like that?'

'... Step back,' Rin took a step back, somewhat confused. Then she lost control of her body and things made a bit of sense. Isobu sat down and squinted at the dirty road in intense concentration. Rin wanted to know what he was trying to achieve but didn't want to risk disturbing him, so she watched him watch the pebbles and drew upon her saint-like patience.

Isobu seemed to reach a decision. He cleared his throat, then cleared it again, and started to hack, as if he was choking on something. 'Isobu-kun, are you alright?!' Could Rin perform the Heimlich maneuver if her own body was the one that was choking?

Isobu mentally waved her away impatiently and continued to cough his lungs out. Rin fretted in the back of their mind, wanting desperately for him to stop destroying her throat. Isobu slammed his hand against his chest—with one final gag, a… lot of sea foam streamed from Isobu's throat.

And it just kept coming.

Rin's concerned disgust distracted her from the fact that the foam wasn't just splashing across the ground: it was solidifying into a shape. An elongated one, like a staff or a club with wicked barbs and hooks from either end and the sides—it was as if the sharp coral was a substitute for a bladed weapon.

At least swords cut cleanly. A coral-weapon would be messy, and it would tear. Ouch.

Isobu coughed a few more times before he was done. The foam indeed solidified into exactly what it looked like it would be: a staff-like weapon morphed with wicked-looking coral. It was multi-colored in random patches, pink, yellow, purple, and orange the primary ones. Altogether, bright and unforgiving.

Rin gulped. That looked like it would hurt to hold.

"It will," Isobu assured her before he returned control of her body to her. 'I'm going to mess up your hands—don't you dare heal them.'

Rin blinked. "What?" Her hand grabbed the coral staff. It hurt just as she expected it to, and tore up her soft skin instantly. "Ow, Isobu-kun! Why?!"

'Being my jinchuuriki and this weapon being a product purely of my own chakra, you'll have a slight immunity to my coral. One which you can build upon to complete immunity. Once you do that, you can use the weapon in combat. See? Cool, right?'

It hurt!

"Can't I use something else?"

'No. And don't let go of the staff until I tell you to!'

Rin sighed but did not argue. "I don't know bōjutsu."

Isobu didn't mind. 'You will learn. I'm gonna teach you, so don't worry about any of the jinchuuriki abilities. Focus on your dumb coward ones first. You won't be able to do a simple Water Mirror Technique with your control as it is right now.'

Rin closed her eyes. 'Simple Water Mirror Technique,' he said, as if Rin was not very aware of that that technique was A-ranked and out of her previous-capabilities. Either Isobu had no idea how powerful he was, or he was screwing with her.

Either way, the next few years were going to be torture.

They were.

Luckily, Rin thrived in the hellish conditions she set upon herself! As expected of someone like her, under pressure, her hands did not shake. There were growing pains that came with the cultivation of her present skills and an even worse ache that came with learning completely new things, such as bōjutsu and all of Isobu's fancy water techniques.

To Rin's complete lack of surprise, improving her accuracy was tedious and boring. No one liked throwing needles in the same place over and over, and in the end Rin was forced to settle for mediocrity in this field. Besides, she never intended on mastering all her studies—being a jack of all trades was better than being the master of one.

Rin's chakra control was kinder to her. The results of her relentless training to keep her chakra from acting like a wild animal were successful. On top of regaining her tree and water walking capabilities, Rin's Mystic Palm jutsu was no longer overpowered and didn't send her patients into a coma-like state.

Also, chakra strings.

Did you know that you could combine the dissecting power of a chakra scalpel with chakra strings? Rin knew... Rin knew.

Having a deeper arsenal of jutsu meant nothing if she couldn't test them in combat. Besides, she needed an income. Rin was now a self-employed shinobi—otherwise known as a mercenary, or a nukenin if you were braver. She took the odd job from whatever town she stopped by. If she really liked someone, she made sure they has a way of contacting her. It was a way to get her name out there.

Rin already has a reputation as a kind, capable fighter who kept casualties to an absolute low. Her clients were assured by her presence; when you traveled with Rin, you knew that no one died.

Not counting the enemy. They died. In the kindest ways Rin was capable of. Pressure points, medically-induced sleep followed by a drowning, drug overdose, a quick kunai across the throat. Rin's kills were fast and quiet and clean; there was none of Kakashi's lightning or Obito's scorching flames or Minato-sensei's Bingo Book-level teleportation.

It just was. Rin was not making a production of their lives like that.

Honestly Rin was a bit more popular with civilians than expected. She was more approachable than others, but still. She wasn't used to all the attention.

And if she was being honest, she didn't mind it either. It was a guilty pleasure that way, but considering who Rin's team was, she didn't think it was entirely evil of her to enjoy being the focus in a way she wasn't usually. Besides, she was using her reputation to help others, so she wasn't being greedy, was she?

Convoy missions were boring, and incidentally, Rin's favourite type of mission. A carry-over from her (now previous) medic career: Boring is best. A merchant needed an escort into the Land of Snow, and she was the most efficient bodyguard he could find with rates that wouldn't leave him bankrupt at the end of the job. Rin welcomed the work—it had been a slow couple of weeks, she could use the excuse.

Her client was a thin man by the name of Toshiyuki who made a living selling weapons that his blacksmith older brother, Yuri, produced from their home in the Land of Grass. Not a man with much significance dogging his heals, the most fascinating part of him was his long goatee—the cause of a great deal of amusement for Rin and Isobu; they both liked the way it looked when Toshiyuki mansplained his merchandise.

Really, as if Rin didn't know how to take care of a well-made blade. She used to be a shinobi. Everyone knew that. Why on earth did Toshiyuki feel the need to explain this stuff to her?

It had been two and a half weeks since she accepted this client. Rin and Toshiyuki had just passed the border into the Land of Snow, and he was showcasing to her a set of bronze tomahawks. Yes, bronze.

"Toshiyuki-san," said Rin in a Very Patient tone, "I assure you, I know how tomahawks work and don't need a demonstration from you."

"Psh! This isn't anything like those shuriken or senbon that you favor; this is sophisticated work, artistry of the metal, and I guarantee that you have never seen a weapon with as much destructive power as this bad boy! And you see with the way Yuri worked the bronze, your weapon will never lose its shine, appealing to your aesthetic requirements—"

Rin closed her eyes. Isobu groaned from the depth of her mind. 'Humans. You think you know everything.'

Usually, Rin did her best not to encourage that kind of negative mentality. But in desperate situations such as this, it was all she could do to not agree with him. Two and a half weeks. Sixteen days and sixteen nights of this. If Rin were a lesser person without such a saintly patience, she might have figured out a way to permanently silence the man.

'You need the money, Rin,' she thought desperately. Toshiyuki had put away the tomahawks, catching onto her disinterest with the weapon, and was rifling through his pack for something more 'feminine,' as he'd described it. 'You need the money. You need to finish this job. You need to deliver this client to his destination, and that's all. No blood.'

'Not even a little bit of blood?'

'None, Isobu-kun. We need him.'

Isobu's sigh was bereft, and for a moment, Rin understood him on a deeply spiritual level. Toshiyuki presented to her what he claimed was a weaponized fan for the standard kunoichi. "It's very sharp," He told her, unfolding it with flourish. "See, even the paper—ouch! Ah, the proof is right here!"

"You gave yourself a papercut, Toshiyuki-san."

"Because the weapon is so sharp, Mercenary-chan! It's expert craftsmanship!"

Rin flattened her mouth and glanced at him from the corner of her eyes: he had stuck his cut finger in his mouth, tears in his eyes. The fan had been thrown back into the cart. She wouldn't be surprised if he 'accidentally' threw it into their fire tonight. Hopefully, he would be dropped off at his destination and she wouldn't have to find out.

The finger left his mouth with an audible pop, and she could hear him whispering to himself. The longer it went on, the less concerned Rin became with maintaining her reputation as a bodyguard who didn't kill her clients. 'Make it stop,' Isobu begged. Toshiyuki sounded like he was going to cry. 'I grow tired of this man. End him. Puny-Rin, I order you!'

'This is a partnership, Isobu-kun.'

'I ordered you nicely, didn't I?'

Rin wasn't even going to get into it. She stopped, the cart that she was pulling alongside her rattling to a halt as well. Toshiyuki was so concerned with his cut that he continued until he collided with his cart, a startled yelp falling from his lips. He turned to her, eyes wild with paranoia, and said, "Are we under attack?!"

They'd been attacked by a few desperate bandits earlier in the journey. It was nothing Rin couldn't handle, but Toshiyuki lost a few years of his life from fear in the aftermath. "Does your finger hurt?"

The reedy man lifted his hairy chin. Rin's eyes watched the way the goatee bobbed up and town with great interest. "There's no need for your concern, young girl! I assure you that I can deal with my wound, it's a hazard of the job, I'm afraid. My hands are littered with scars born from mishandling my brother's weapons!"

'He shouldn't be proud of that.'

"I can heal it, Toshiyuki-san."

Toshiyuki stared. "No you can't," He sounded offended by the idea. "Only shinobi can—wait, don't tell me..."

"I am. Literally everyone knows this, Toshiyuki-san. When you were referred to me, did no one mention my former occupation?" Judging by Toshiyuki's bulging eyes, no one had. Rin held out her hand and twinkled her fingers. Numbly, the man laid his finger on her palm, choking when she healed the small wound. "How does it feel?"

"M-Much better. I didn't… you were a shinobi? Of what village?"

"That doesn't matter," Rin replied, short.

Of course it mattered, but it hadn't been long since the war's conclusion and there was still bad blood. She'd escorted clients from the Land of Stone who would have never accepted her services if they had known that she used to serve Konoha; that she might have killed someone they knew. Better to keep her affiliations to herself.

Toshiyuki swallowed, nodded, and reclaimed his hand. He squinted at his finger with sharp interest. When Rin started moving again, he fell into step behind her without another word. He didn't try to sell her a weapon either, something she was grateful for. She did notice that he took care to stand back further than he did earlier, but Rin kept the observation to herself: there was no telling what kind of history Toshiyuki had with shinobi—any civilian would be wary.

After a period of blissful silence, Toshiyuki worked up the nerve to address her. "Might I ask how you're able to pull the cart through the heavy snow, shinobi-san?"

"I'm not a shinobi anymore, you don't have to call me that," Rin then followed that with: "I'm using chakra."

"...Chakra. That's real?"

"Yes, Toshiyuki-san."

"What—what is it?"

Rin tilted her head, looking back at him over her shoulder. The look on her face shut him up. "It's not something I should be telling you about in great deal, Toshiyuki-san. I hope you don't mind. Village secrets, and whatnot."

Besides, if Rin went around telling all her clients about how to access their chakra, she wouldn't have a business to begin with.

"I… I understand. I'm not going to be—you know, because I asked, will I?"

'We'd be so lucky!'

"You'll be fine, Toshiyuki-san," Rin reassured him, careful to keep her voice light and soothing. His relief was palpable. "All you have to worry about is getting where you need to be. You're safe."

"That's nice to hear, Mercenary-san. Since you aren't a part of your village anymore, does that mean you need someone to supply your weapons?" Toshiyuki sounded rejuvenated all of a sudden, and in unison, Rin and Isobu groaned. "I'm sure I could convince my brother to give you a discount on all his items!"

Nothing Rin said would convinced Toshiyuki that she didn't require his services, and she resigned herself to trudging through the snow with two burdens on her shoulders instead of simply the cart. Isobu clicked his tongue. 'This is why we aren't nice to strangers, Puny-Rin. They get ideas above their station!'

Rin was never going to regret her knee-jerk reaction towards compassion, but Isobu… certainly was making a good argument for himself. It was a dreadful trip; when Rin arrived at Toshiyuki's cousin's house, she gladly dumped her load and turned to her client with her hand out. He thanked her repeatedly for what she'd done for him and finally paid her. She plastered a smile on her face. "Of course, Toshiyuki-san. Take care of yourself."

"I will! Oh, and before you leave, take this!" He pushed the hand-fan he demonstrated earlier into her hands. "Free of charge!"

Isobu perked up. 'Please let me destroy that.'

'That would be rude,' Rin replied, stashing the fan in her back pocket. Maybe she'd keep it around. She never knew when her next trip to Suna would be, and a fan was always helpful to tolerate the dry air. "Goodbye, Toshiyuki-san!"

Isobu kept a steady commentary as she leaped across rooftops towards the border. It was exhilarating to travel at her preferred speed again: civilians were so slow. '—I just think that it would be very therapeutic for the both of us if you allowed me to dispose of any and all reminders of that man's temporary presence in our lives! You're the one who's always nagging me about having a 'healthy outlet for my stress!''

'That's because your usual way of venting involves wrestling control of my body from me so you can sit at the bottom of a lake for two years.'

'It's an effective destressor. You should try it.'

Rin had. She was there with Isobu. It wasn't as fun for her as it had been for him. 'I just think it would be rude to get rid of a gift he gave us in good faith, don't you thi—'

That's when she registers the explosion: not one of fire and smoke, but of chakra. It bled into the air, heavy and thick and Sage, how could this be? The Land of Snow had no shinobi academy, there was no way for civilians to know where to begin with opening their chakra channels! And Rin was not a sensor—if there was enough in the air that she could feel it, that meant—

Isobu had calmed in her mind, a still reflection over deep water. 'A bloodline?'

'No way,' Rin dismissed immediately. She changed her course toward the open wound of chakra; there could be an attack on this civilian village, and she'd help if she was able. 'Kiri wiped all those families out. If any survived, I doubt they'd show-off like this.'

'Humans are foolish, prideful little worms,' said Isobu, and his mental focus blurred into hers until her instincts sharpened like she was about to jump into battle. 'It wouldn't surprise me to find it's just someone showing off, threat of execution be damned.'

Truthfully, it wouldn't surprise Rin either. She'd grown up in the same village as the Uchiha and Hyuuga clan. Bloodlines did funny things to a person's thinking. 'Let's hope it isn't anything serious,' Rin thought, not very convinced that the situation could be so easily handled. She really wasn't a talented sensor, and this was a lot of chakra. A dangerous amount. The culprit was either a powerful shinobi or a prodigious child unlocking something they couldn't control.

Such a thing was never without consequences.

Isobu directed her to take a left. From there, Rin didn't need his expert navigation. The house was recognisable from a great distance: the ice had punctured through multiple places in the ceiling, nearly tearing the house a part. Were she close enough, Rin didn't doubt that she'd see the crumbling walls, smell the blood. There was no way to avoid casualties. The placement of the ice alone…

'They're concentrated,' Isobu noted. Rin agreed. 'Targeted. This was an attack.'

A trained shinobi would not risk exposure with such an attack within Kirigakure's reach. An Ice bloodline could easily be honed for subtler approaches. The odds tipped further in favour of their culprit being a child. Still, Rin hoped it wasn't. If she had to put down a feral child—well, she wouldn't be happy if that was necessary.

Rin landed in the snow softly, ears strained to listen for movement. She could hear crying: but was it from pain, or something else?

Whatever it was, someone was alive in there. Rin went in through a hole in the wall, ducking under a large spike of ice to manage. The first thing she saw in the darkened room was a body, punctured clear through by an icicle. Narrowing her eyes, Rin saw that all of the spikes had claimed a life. That was… interesting. This was a lot of armed men to squeeze inside of one house.

The sniffling grew louder. Rin eyed the ice critically—pumped full of chakra—and tucked away her kunai. Isobu squawked. 'Did you just disarm yourself?!'

Rin waved him away impatiently. 'Shh, Isobu-kun. I still have the staff.'

'Don't you dare shush me, Puny-Rin!'

But shushed he was. Rin passed another corpse: a woman with dark hair and a scream frozen on her face, a knife in her chest. Tears were frozen on her cheeks. The crying abruptly stopped, and when Rin turned to her right, she found the origin of all this death. It was a child with long brown hair, curled in the corner of the room like he was trying to disappear into the shadows. His face was a mess of snot and tears, and his eyes—red-rimmed, terrified, paranoid—urged her to raise her hands in surrender.

A child, like she'd thought. Attacked in his own home. Judging by the resemblance, the woman had been his mother. He'd witnessed her death. Panicked. The emotional response would have triggered his bloodline limit to jump to his defense. Assuming that he'd inherited the ability from his mother, then this attack could have been a continuation of the bloodline limit purge.

Self-defense was the likely motivator.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Rin told him, hands steady in the air. The boy sucked in a trembling breath, watching her like a cornered animal. "I felt the chakra. I came to investigate. I thought I could help if a civilian was being attacked, offer some healing."

The child said nothing. His hands, besieged by terrible tremors (shock was more than likely), curled into fists. The crying had stopped: he was too keyed up for it, she guessed. Rin smiled, found that it wasn't too hard at all. "Can you tell me what happened here?"

When he didn't respond, Rin nodded. "I see. Can I tell you what I think happened? Are you okay with that?" Hearing no rejection, she continued: "I think that woman is your mother. And that some bad people came into your home and hurt her. I think it scared you—and I don't blame you, I swear, I don't blame you at all—and that made you want to hurt those bad people back. I think this ice comes naturally to you, and in your panic, you couldn't help it; that's why it's so powerful, you see? You had no control. That's okay. When people are scared, their body does things without talking to the head first. It isn't your fault. You were just… scared, right?"

The child stopped holding his knees to his chest, bottom lip caught between his teeth. "...I didn't have a choice."

The sound of his voice—high-pitched and shaking—stole the breath from Rin. It'd been awhile since she'd dealt with upset children. Even in the war, she'd stayed back with the boys while Minato-sensei calmed down the civilians. He was the best at things like that. It's why he was going to make such a great Hokage, should have been on the seat for years and years and ye—

'Focus, Rin. Focus.'

"I know you didn't. These men, they broke into your house and hurt your mom. You had to protect her."

He shook his head. "I— I didn't— Mom was already—" He covered his face and sobbed. "Dad had already… and he was coming for me, and… he killed my mom—"

"Was it because of the ice?" Rin asked, and the boy flinched violently, head snapping up to watch her. He looked on the verge of a panic attack. She'd be worried about one of those spikes coming down and finishing her off if she wasn't so sure that he'd already exhausted his chakra supply. "The Purge… Did these people attack you and your mother because of what you can do with the ice?"

Mutely, he nodded.

"Then they deserved it," Rin sent the body closest to the boy a filthy look. She wasn't Kirigakure's biggest fan to begin with—and here, Isobu called, 'Who in this room is?'—but the bloodline purge had always bothered her. In an occupation that demanded she participate in a never ending cycle of meaningless violence, the Mizukage's campaign to extinguish bloodline limits within the Land of Water had disgusted and frightened her to her very core. That much death, for such a fickle reason—it was against nature.

It could have been Obito, she'd thought. It could have been his entire clan, wiped out in a night. The Hyuuga as well. They were jerks, but they didn't deserve to die just because they might pose a threat to the reigning Kage.

They were still people.

"They… they did?"

"You were protecting yourself. You and your mother did nothing wrong! Absolutely nothing to deserve that you be hunted down and executed like—ugh!" Rin breathed deeply, needing a moment to orient herself. This wasn't the time for a tirade. "You had to. It's their fault that they didn't have enough kindness in their hearts to spare you the pain of this. Their fault, little boy, not yours. I can promise you that much."

He stared at her in blank shock.

Then he rather suddenly vomited down the front of his shirt, and began to sob.

"My mom— he killed my mom, he killed— Mommy — I didn't, I didn't want to, I was just — it's all my fault!" Manic. Rin moved quickly to his side, cringing as she pulled him into her side and felt some of his sick on her outfit. She was a medic, gross bodily fluids were a part of the game, but she wasn't a medic anymore and this was — unfortunate.

But then the boy clutched at her clothes and cried into her stomach, wailing about his mother and his part in all of this, and thoughts of laundry vanished.

She rubbed her hand up and down his back and soothed him with pleasantries. She told him that it's okay now, there is no more danger, it isn't his fault. His mother isn't hurting anymore, she's at peace in the Pure Lands. She wouldn't be disappointed with him. She loved him, and didn't blame him. It wasn't his fault. He's forgiven. It wasn't his fault.

He cried himself to sleep in her arms. Rin left him in the corner wrapped in her haori, and regarded the ruined house. 'Well,' said Isobu, 'let's go.'

She sighed sharply. 'Isobu-kun, we can't leave him here alone. His entire world has ended. He has no one to take care of him.'

'So what? That isn't our problem.'

'I just don't feel comfortable leaving him alone…'

'He'll figure something out,' He said dismissively. Rin hummed absently, not thinking much of anything. Yet, Isobu roused to life as if she had suggested something outrageous. 'No. I know what you're thinking, and no. I don't want him. The boy can figure something out for himself!'

Rin used a chakra scalpel (with the assistance of Isobu's chakra, as her own didn't seem to be enough) to cut through the ice and dislodge the men. One by one she dragged them out of the house. 'He doesn't have anyone else, Isobu-kun, and I just soothed him to sleep. I can't leave him now!'

'Tell those maternal instincts of yours to go away! It's crowded enough!'

'Isobu-kun… you're being a brat.'

'I. Don't. Want. Him.'

Once all the men are outside, Rin set them alight. Toasty. Besides, she figured the kid would appreciate not waking up to their accusing lifeless faces looking at him. 'I don't know what to tell you, Isobu-kun. I'm not leaving him behind. I refuse to.'

'Puny-Rin!'

'Isobu-kun! If I find a nice place to drop him off, I'll do that, but for now—he comes. Got it?'

Isobu snarled in worldless frustration. She wasn't surprised when he disappeared out of her head. Good. She didn't want to talk to him when he was being dumb and possessive anyway. Put-out, Rin kicked some snow. Why did Isobu have to be like this?

'Whatever,' She thought viciously. 'Who cares what he thinks? I'm not leaving the kid alone. That's cruel.' Obito would be so disappointed in her if she did. And if Obito was disappointed, it meant that it was truly a cruel, devilish act.

And no offense to Isobu, but in a competition of who she would rather use as a moral compass, Obito easily came out on top.

'So suck it!'