Title: Rin

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Warning: Unbeta and horrible grammar. Language.

Chapter 23

"Ow, ow, ow! It's hot!" I threw away the burning paper and waved my hand frantically.

Iruka smirked and laughed at my reaction. His paper already became soot on the ground. We both turned our gaze and focused at Hanan. His paper became soggy and stuck on his hand.

Inoichi-sensei amused with the result and stared at Hanan and Iruka. I simply shrugged; waiting for our sensei spoke out his mind. I also had something which might be similar with the blond haired man.

"Surprisingly the result was different that I had in my mind, I thought that Iruka-kun would have water chakra type and Hanan-kun would have wind type. This test is always kills your curiosity."

I smirked; it seemed that Inoichi-sensei spoke out my thought exactly.

Iruka crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "I know that my name sounded very watery or something like that but it doesn't means that I'm going to have water type of chakra."

"I have same reasoning like Iruka here." Hanan defended his affinity.

"That's just my opinion but Iruka-kun, I guess that yours second affinity is water since you can do healing jutsu easily. It isn't an accurate point since there are also medic nin who don't have water chakra nature." Inoichi added.

"Maybe," Iruka shrugged and stared at his palm.

"Then, why we do this test?" Hanan asked. "I already know my chakra nature shortly after graduation."

"Yeah, I also know mine before this." Iruka added.

"Um, sorry you guys but I don't know what my chakra nature is until today," I said and looked at the blond man. "Thank you Inoichi-sensei for doing this test."

"You're welcome Rin-chan." Inoichi-sensei nodded and shrugged slightly. "At least one of you is appreciating with this test. That paper was pretty expensive."

"We're sorry, Inoichi-sensei, Rin." Iruka and Hanan bowed their head slightly.

"Kai!" I broke another genjutsu and looked at Inoichi-sensei. The man nodded sagely and formed another hand sign, preparing another one.

My eyes widened as I scanned my new surrounding. It seemed that I was back at my own world but I wasn't since I was stood silently at different angle and saw the accident and how I stayed still on the ground. Wait, I was alive but why my body didn't move? No, this was wrong. Forming hand sign, I closed my eyes.

"Kai!" I shouted and panted. Looking at Inoichi-sensei, I sighed. "Sensei, that's cruel…"

Inoichi-sensei smiled little bit. "I'm not, that's your mind playing some tricks. I just initiate it."

I huffed and looked at the field, where Iruka and Hanan were sparring.

"I think, you three are ready by now," The man said and nodded.

"Ready for what?" I asked.

"You'll know soon."

"Aw…"

"As what Inoichi here had reported, three of you are now ready with C ranked mission," Sandaime spoke calmly and pulled a scroll from a stack on his desk.

Our eyes widened at his statement and we changed our excited gaze. Inoichi-sensei chuckled softly and faked a cough so we would focus what was the next thing Sandaime would tell to us.

"Well, here is your first C ranked mission, team six. Good luck out there," The old leader said with a smile as he placed a scroll in front of us. Inoichi-sensei took the scroll and tucked under his flack jacket. Iruka grinned and raised his hands, Hanan and I slapped our hands to the brunet and the latter winced slightly.

"Ouch, that's too much Hanan!" Iruka groaned.

The Hyuuga simply smirked and I laughed softly.

Ren-sensei who sat beside the hokage nodded at three of us and smiled proudly. We smiled back at him, bowing to both of Sandaime and him before left the mission room following our blond haired jounin.

"So Inoichi-sensei, what's our mission?" Iruka asked excitedly as we left the hokage tower. Hanan nodded behind the brunet and I simply smiled at their reaction.

Inoichi-sensei hummed and stopped from his walk before focusing at us. "Meet at usual place after lunch for briefing."

"Can you tell us now?" Hanan asked. While he looked the calmest member among us three but I knew he was still excited especially when he discovered new things.

"Patience Hanan-kun, Iruka-kun. Why both of you can't be calm like Rin-chan there?" Inoichi-sensei pointed at me and that made I received all of the attention from the boys. I chuckled awkwardly.

"Um, I'm excited too but you must have reason for not telling us right now," I said as my gaze focused at Inoichi-sensei.

Inoichi-sensei nodded. "Indeed, now go back first and meet at usual place later, got it?"

Hanan and Iruka nodded slowly. Inoichi-sensei looked at the boys with unsatisfied gaze until we all listened stomach grumbling sound. It was pretty loud for one person so I thought there were two people who were hungry right now. The boys blushed heavily and stared at the ground with shame. My question was answered and Inoichi-sensei shook his head slightly.

"Go back and please have lunch or your concentration will go away when I'm briefing you guys. I don't feel like repeating on our briefing just because of it," The blond haired man said and sighed. He rubbed his head. "Boys…now I'm glad having a daughter instead. At least she will listen and understand the reasoning behind."

I shrugged and laughed softly. Somehow, I felt that his daughter wasn't going to be an easy going girl when she grew up soon.

I was stepping out from weapon store when we bumped on each other. I rubbed my nose and took a few steps back. Slowly opened my eyes, I stiffened. Kakashi stared flatly at my direction before looked up at the store name. He frowned slightly.

"Oh, hi Kakashi," I said and waved my hand casually.

"Hn, what're you doing here?" He asked.

It had been quite long time since last I met him. I eyed the silver haired shinobi, he became a little bit taller and he looked pretty relaxed in his stance with both of his hands in his trouser pockets. His outfit also looked different than the last time, now he wore dark blue black sleeveless shirt with mask attached with, same hitai ate and dark trouser with calf length sandals. Wow, those sandals were looked pretty spiffy. I looked up and stared at his exposed arms, wow porcelain kind of skin? I shrugged and let my gaze stopped at his upper left arm, tattoo? Anbu tattoo, I guessed.

"Replenish my weapons, what else?" I patted my shuriken pouch on my tight.

"Are you going to go somewhere?"

"Yeah, mission."

The silver haired teenager narrowed his single gaze. "What mission?"

"Mission," I said casually and stared flatly at him. "What're you genin? I can't tell anything okay."

Kakashi snorted and rolled his eyes in mocking style. I clenched my teeth and looked away. This boy sometimes really could make you angry without any words came out. Just from his reaction, my blood boiled.

"Inside or outside?"

I looked at him and we had staring contest. Now what should I say?

"Outside," I answered his question and looked away. Now my eyes were sore after that unofficial staring contest.

"…" Without any words, Kakashi grasped my shoulder; I eyed his hand before focused at him. Now what? He couldn't do anything anyway. I shrugged.

"Kakashi?"

"Don't die out there," He simply said, tightened his grasp and entered the store, leaving me alone.

I stared at the store entrance dumbly and left the area. What a weird reaction. I thought he would bring up another session of his talk or weapon clashing moments so he could stop my carrier. I guessed he had changed? Shrugging and smiling, I walked back to my apartment.

I looked at the big gate of Konohagkure and smiled. "This is it," I said softly and tightened my fists at my sides. I eyed Iruka who stood silently beside me; he also was staring at the big gate. I couldn't read his mind this time. There were too many feelings showed in his dark brown eyes.

"What're you two doing?" Hanan asked as he approached us.

I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Nothing, I just mesmerize the moment here. This is going to be our first journey after all."

Hanan shrugged. "We did walk through this gate too many times already since most of the training fields are outside."

"Well, this is our first time stepping out from this place to somewhere else, not the training field." I countered.

"When you say it like that Rin, now I do feel a little bit nostalgic," Hanan said softly and looked at the outside of the gate. "Haru and I always waited for our father here until one day he never came back from a deadly mission or precisely a war." He added and stared at one of the big door. "After that, we never came here anymore."

I sighed softly and looked away. "I'm sorry for your lost."

"Thank you. Father was a good shinobi; he died protecting us, everyone here in Konoha. I'm proud just for being his son."

I looked at Iruka's back. He remained standing still without moving at all. Iruka must feel the same with his parents, I added silently in my mind. Closing my eyes for a moment, I looked at Hanan and patted his shoulder. "You're going to be a good shinobi, Hanan."

The Hyuuga smiled and patted my shoulder. "You too Rin," He said and turned to Iruka. "And Iruka too."

Iruka turned around and grinned at us. "Well, we're going to do our best, right Inoichi-sensei?"

I turned around and looked at Inoichi who was walking towards us, smiling he nodded at Iruka's question. "Yes, everyone here is ready?"

"Yes!" We answered firmly and nodded at our blond haired sensei.

The mission was sounded pretty simple during our briefing, but now I knew why it was classified as C ranked mission. We were needed as escort for merchants from neighborhood country to Konohagakure since the route was pretty famous with bandits. A battle was highly anticipated thus why it was being ranked as C rank but the battle was not at high level of danger. Inoichi-sensei did look at my direction from time to time and I knew why he did that. I also wondered if this was the route where the real Rin here were being attacked. I guessed this was my chance to find the jutsu, if I was really lucky. But right now, the jutsu was my least of worries since we were engaged a contact with a group of bandit. Our survival and the merchants group were the priority at the moment. Hanan already sustained an injury, a clean cut on his arm. He had received that when one of the bandits tried for a kill of merchant leader. With his fast family technique taijutsu moves, he managed threw away the bandit but surprisingly his absolute defense wasn't properly activated. Good thing was it wasn't very deep and Iruka was doing his job by healing it. I was stood in defense position near the merchant leader while his members already went hiding and protecting their goods.

"Shinranshin no jutsu!" Inoichi-sensei casted his jutsu and most of the bandits stiffened before they were moving around unwillingly and attacking on each other. The blond man quickly jumped down to the ground and stood beside me. "I know, I banned you from using it, but they are just too many for us and we need to move fast. Just this time I let you to use it, Rin-chan."

I looked at Inoichi-sensei and nodded. Iruka and Hanan already moved around and defending the merchant members from several bandits that had managed avoiding Inoichi-sensei's jutsu. The merchant leader nodded at another instruction from our sensei and they slowly moved away with their wagon. Quickly jumped on few branch I placed my pepper bomb seal. This wasn't much but at least it could hinder the bandit's movement for a moment.

"I'm ready," I said loudly and jumped away from the area while making hand signs.

Hanan and Iruka quickly followed and Inoichi-sensei was behind us. He gave a nod at my direction and I released the seal. A loud explosion sound was heard followed with many nasty curses.

I smirked and landed on the ground near the group of merchant which waited for us. Iruka stopped beside me and Hanan behind him.

"Rin, that's sounded pretty loud back then, how much did you use?" Hanan asked.

I checked on my equipments. "I think, I used almost of it."

Iruka shuddered and patted Hanan's shoulder. "Somehow, I feel bad to them."

Hanan snorted and looked at his bandaged arm. "They deserve it. Thanks for healing me, Iruka."

"You're welcome, I'm doing my job!" Iruka grinned. He really improved his healing techniques from time to time. Even Shiro had praised at Iruka's work.

Sensing something near to us, I quickly stood in defense position. Iruka and Hanan followed and we looked at Inoichi-sensei who was making sure the merchant group was okay. The blond haired man was quickly joining us with serious expression.

"It seems that those bandits are really persistent. Hanan-kun, you go with merchant. Protect them. Iruka-kun and Rin-chan, you're with me. We are going to stop them from reaching the group."

Hanan quickly went away and I stood warily beside Inoichi-sensei and Iruka.

"Ready," Inoichi-sensei said.

We both raised our hand with kunai.

We managed to arrive at Konoha before sunset. We didn't talk much during our journey, after thanking us, the merchant group went their way and left us at the gate. Inoichi-sensei sighed and patted our shoulder or head in my case. Iruka and Hanan stared at the ground and shrugged. I closed my eyes as my hand grasped my bloodied sweater.

"I had my hunch that this is going to be happened sooner or later but I don't think it is going to happen in this first outside mission we had. To think that three of you…" Inoichi-sensei sighed and crouched in front of us. "I'm not going to do any consoling or anything like that. This is the thing that you have to overcome yourself. My first kill wasn't very pleasant too but it's the thing that comes together in this field of work. Go back and think about it, find me if you need to talk about it."

"Yes, sensei," We said and nodded.

"Tomorrow, meet at the usual place at eight."

Washing everything and hang it on dryer, I closed my window. I looked at the clock on the wall and shrugged.

"Dinner time," I said softly and walked into the kitchen. Checking the ingredient I had in my refrigerator, I shrugged. "Onigiri then."

I was picking up my dinner when a knock was heard from my door. Putting down my rice ball, I stood up and walked to it and unlocked it.

Slowly opened the door, I looked at the figure who stood in front of my place. I raised my eyebrows. "Iruka?"

"Can I come in?"

"Sure," I said and let the brunet entered my apartment. I closed the door and looked at Iruka who was staring at my dinner.

"How can you eat after we killed someone?" Iruka asked.

I shrugged and sat down on my cushion. "I'm hungry."

"You still have appetite?"

"…" I ignored him and stared at my food.

"Aren't you feel guilty or something? Our hands had killed someone today; I still can feel the blood on my hand! And you're just acting like it was nothing!"

"Are you done Iruka?" I asked softly.

Iruka snorted and looked away. I sighed and walked to the window. "You know, life is cruel. We gain and lost something along the way. We protect and being protected from time to time. There are good people and bad people around us." I stared at my trembled hands. "Honestly, I was pretty shocked with my first kill, scared too but I'm not regretting it. Why? Because I was protecting you." turning around and looked at Iruka, I smiled somberly. "And you did the same to me and Hanan protected the merchant leader. If not, we might not have this conversation right now."

The brunet blinked and looked at the table. "But we took someone else life."

"I know that's why we aren't going to forget it. We aren't going to enjoy it. The job scope did mention about killing but we aren't going to do it for fun. There're always reasons behind it."

"Yes…"

"Iruka thank you for saving my life."

"You too Rin, I'm glad that we are all safe," Iruka said and smiled at me.

I smiled back at him.

"Even if you manage to find the jutsu, what're you going to do?"

I was staring at my trembling hands as Rin's question came to my mind. Closing my eyes, I sighed.

"I'm not going to find the jutsu anymore. She is not me, she is not a ninja. She didn't kill someone in the mission."

Opening my yes, I looked at the dark night sky from my window. "This is my world."

Thanks for reading, following, favorite and review this story. Not the best chapter this time but the next one is going to be something. Thanks again for supporting this story!