Chapter Four

Rin groaned on the dojo floor where her new teacher had deposited her. The redhead was apologetic. Somewhat.

"Sorry about that," Kushina said. "You know, I'd been hiding out for hours and I was getting a little twitchy. And you looked like you were still waking up."

"Consider me awake then, Sensei," Rin answered from her place on the floor.

"Not yet. We're going to start off with a light spar. Get the blood flowing, you know?" The redhead cracked her knuckles. "Believe me, you're going to need your wits about you for this."

[NRE]

Tsunade Senju stared at the report on Obito Uchiha. She was hailed as a genius, an expert on pretty much every medical practice under the sun. Yet, she could not make heads or tails of the borderline crime against nature the boy had been forcibly turned into.

The boy in question was messing around with the replacement limb, accidently shedding a poor sculpture of a cat he had been growing onto the floor, where it neatly shattered.

Running a hand through her hair, Tsunade sat down on the chair that she had gotten for her temporary office.

"I'm not even sure how it happened," she began. "It's like someone affixed part of a tree onto your side and let it grow into you, linking up with your chakra network and nervous system. I'm still scratching my head over that one, not to mention some of the other modifications that I'm having to puzzle out. The most obvious is something that comes across as photosynthesis, so eating isn't as much of a problem for you. Same goes for sleeping."

"I kind of noticed," Obito muttered bitterly.

"I would normally recommend taking something to help you sleep, but that brings up the next modification I noticed. Your cells regenerate at an accelerated rate, partially fueled by the aforementioned photosynthesis combined with your normal chakra reserves, which is also inexplicably increased. You'd metabolize any foreign substances before they could do anything, damaging or benign."

"Wouldn't that be because of having the wooden thingy stitched to me? Doesn't that make me like some sort of pseudo-Shodiame?"

Tsunade looked at the boy, utterly flabbergasted. "No! That's not how biology works! You can't just yank out various body parts, especially foreign material like this, and plug them into someone else and expect them to work. Not without risking some serious complications. Even mundane organs have to have be tested for compatibility, let alone Kekki Genkai, and even if the tissue and your immune system doesn't violently reject the implantation, it doesn't automatically give you god-like powers!"

"Then how did Rin transfer my eye to Kakashi?"

Tsunade opened her mouth, then snapped it shut again. "I don't know, but I plan on grilling her when she comes by later." She turned around, pitching the clipboard at her desk. "If she's going to violate the laws of nature and acceptable medical practices, she should damn well appreciate the fact!" Calming down, she looked back at the report. "Also, I should probably have her finish on Kakashi's eye. That drain on his chakra is going to kill him if he's not careful."

Obito pondered the medic's rant. "And the Mokuton?"

"Your own Mokuton is not quite the same as my grandfather's, even if they are a bit similar." Another concern, the Sannin thought, then shook her head. It could easily be another bloodline that produced this variation. The alternative was too disturbing to consider. "He worked more on growing things around himself, instead of growing things off of himself as you do."

"Oh."

"And while we're on that subject, you're probably not going to hear too much from my family. Though, if there were any eligible bachelorettes, I'm sure you'd be seeing marriage proposals when they realize what's up."

Obito blanched so suddenly, Tsunade was concerned he was about to go into a fit.

[NRE]

A final kick sent Rin rolling across the dojo. Her muscles burned and breaths came in short gasps as she struggled back to her feet.

Kushina clapped her hands once. "Right, that's enough for now."

Thank the gods! Rin breathed heavily, gracelessly plopping on the floor across from Kushina. "That's what you call a light spar?"

Her teacher walked to the corner where a pair of canteens were stashed. "Once you get use to channeling that massive reserve of chakra, you bet'cha! Now, get yourself comfortable, well, not too comfortable, 'cause now we get to do classroom, you know?"

Sitting back up, Rin swept her hair out of her face and caught her canteen, watching as Kushina walked around the room.

"What do you know of the Demons?" the older woman asked.

Drinking deeply, Rin tapped her fingers together as she childhood stories and abstract lessons came to mind.

"Creatures made of solid chakra, presumed to have originated from another plane."

Her teacher inclined her head at her answer. "Mostly correct, there's a little more to it than that." Kushina plopped down in front of her protégé.

"I think I read something somewhere that some of the kekkei genkai possibly originated with some of them, though I'm not sure how much of that was factual."

"Wouldn't surprise me." Kushina took a huge gulp from her canteen. "There's been plenty of demons in the past, and they have, or rather had their own hierarchy. By the time of the Warring Clans Period, most of them had been hunted to the point of extinction or went into hiding in obscure parts of the world. But the big ones, the Great Tailed-Beasts were a league unto themselves."

Sitting up straighter, Rin leaned into the conversation.

"From what Mito-baa-sama said, there's supposed to be nine in total, starting from one tail and working up to nine. Each one of them were practically forces of nature, calamities incarnate wandering around the countryside as they laid waste to all of mankind's creations. You've got the Sanbi, formerly of the Kirigakure."

"Do they get stronger the more tails they have?" Rin asked.

"Far as I can tell, no."

"Then why are there nine?"

"Beats me. All I can say is there are definitely nine of the same class – no more, no less –and one of the first tasks the first Kages tackled was restraining these beasts, which was pretty easy, since some of them had already been sealed away, you know? Anywho, once that was finished they got distributed amongst the Big Five, but we can address that later." Kushina flashed a grin. "Next question: are you familiar with the concept of Jinchuriki?"

Rin shook her head.

"Well, in short, you're a Jinchuriki. Longer version, you're one of the vessels to contain the aforementioned Demons of legend."

Rin's hand instinctively went to the seal on her stomach. "Why would people do that?" she asked.

Kushina shrugged. "Because it's easier than stuffing them a jar and better than letting 'em roam 'round with impunity," she replied, "gives the vessel some additional defenses and hides them in plain sight. The Tailed Beasts exist, and continue to exist despite all efforts to kill them, so measures were developed to keep them from destroying everything. While the existence of the Jinchuriki is sort of known, the exact identities are traditionally kept secret." She paused, prodding the floor with her foot. "It's also easier to use us as weapons, or super soldiers."

Rin's eyes widened at the pronouns Kushina used. "You mean-?"

"Yup, you're looking at the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi," the Uzumaki said, then jabbing her thumb to her chest, "and who better to teach you the ins and outs of your new status than Konoha's very own?"

Taking a breath, Rin blinked. "Um…this is a lot to take in."

"Well, that's why we're taking this powwow in bits and pieces," Kushina said, tussling Rin's hair. "By the way, I put a security seal on the room before we started. So, whenever we're doing these sessions, if you want to talk about anything, whether it relates to being a Junchuriki or you just want to do some private girl-talk, you don't have to worry about eavesdroppers."

"Okay."

"Now, Minato had to do some tricky maneuvering to get your seal stabilized, as I don't think the idiots who originally sketched it out had any intention of you surviving the ordeal. Luckily for you, he's a genius, so we can go through with today's training without issue."

"What are we going to do?" Rin asked, hesitantly.

"You're going to try to make contact with your new tenant."

"Already?"

"Don't worry. I'll walk you through it. And if it gives you trouble, I can yank you out and put a kibosh on any escape attempt."

[NRE]

"Norio, you're married, right?" Obito asked from his end of the office.

The Yamanaka barely paused. "Yes."

"Did you ever love anyone else? Before her, I mean."

Norio froze, fixing Obito with a stare. After a moment, the Uchiha mentally backpedaled.

"Sorry. That does sound kind of bad. And more than a little personal, um…you don't have to answer that."

"Relax," the Yamanaka said, raising a hand. "Why do you ask?"

"Um…" There was no easy way around it, so Obito gave as abbreviated of a summary of events. "I had a crush on someone, and that someone moved on after everyone thought I was dead. I was wondering if you had any advice."

The mind-reader was quiet for a time. "To answer your question, yes. I did love another before I started dating Yusako."

"How did you move on?"

Norio took off his glasses, taking out a cloth to wipe them down. "Part of it was Yusako admitting her own feelings. It was a rather…tense time for us. Having a brush with death tends to do that. It still took some time before I reciprocated." Pausing to replace his glasses, he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I guess that's the best advice I can offer: give yourself time."

"Even if it hurts?"

"Especially because it hurts. Just like your body is recovering, your heart needs time to recover. Just remember to lean on your friends. And who knows? You may find the answers when and where you least expect."

Obito was skeptical, but it was something to think about.

[NRE]

The field around the memorial stone. Obito stared at the names listed, frequently checking back at his own, as if expecting it to disappear the moment he looked away.

He wasn't sure what to think of that was good or bad.

"You ever feel like you're dead, but everyone's just too polite to say anything about it?"

"Sometimes," Rin replied, kneeling in the grass. "Why do you ask?"

"My name," he explained. "They still haven't removed it."

Kakashi glanced at Rin, then to Obito. "We're still at war. They probably won't get around to it until after the fighting is finished."

Obito winced a little. Even though they had all gotten back together, there were still so much they needed to talk about, but didn't know how. So they just asked awkward questions and got awkward answers in return, going in circles.

A rush of wind prompted the trio to turn to a freshly arrived Minato, mercifully ending the uncomfortable silence.

"Good," their team leader said, "you're all here."

"What have you got for us, Sensei?" Kakashi asked.

"I'm getting to that." Minato cleared his throat. "Obito, you're mostly recovered. Once you're cleared for light duty, you'll be joining Orochimaru's team for scouting missions."

"Seems kind of overkill for one of the Sannin," Rin wondered aloud.

"He's working with several genin teams, either fresh out of the Academy or recomposed from broken teams, and getting them all up to speed. As a chunin, you're going to be helping him facilitate their training and speed it along."

"Okay," Obito said, furrowing his brow. "What about Rin?"

The girl in question frowned. Minato rested a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Rin's off the field for now," said Minato. "With the recent disturbances in her chakra pathways, she is going to have to be reevaluated before she can resume her duties as a medic."

Disturbances, Obito thought with a twinge of bitterness. A funny thing to call having a demon locked in your gut. He didn't voice this, and nodded numbly. "What about you and Kakashi?"

"Kakashi and I headed back to Kusa in a couple of days.

Rin and Obito glanced towards each other. "So soon?" he asked.

"Even though it's winding down, the war is still ongoing," Minato said. "Don't look at me like that. We'll be back together soon." He huddled the team together. "By the way, Obito. I'm leaving it up to you and Kushina to take care of the place while I'm gone."

"Oh." Obito gulped, suppressing the shiver crawling up his spine. He had spent months with Madara, he could handle working with Kushina. Right?

A/N: Okay, it's been awhile since I posted something to this story. Reason for that is because I added a character to the Konoha lineup that necessitated a reshuffle of the cast and certain plot threads I had originally envisioned. On the plus side, I was able to trim or combine extraneous characters and cut down on some filler that I was struggling to justify.

Aside from that, there was a bit of exposition, including a verbal dump on the Sharingan/Mokuton Singularity that dominated later canon. While both have significance that will be explored later, they aren't the magical superpower that anyone can pop into themselves. For now, I'll just say that I do have a plan and explanation for the how it works.

As for the next chapter, the Sannin all make an appearance:

Jiraiya pays the Namikaze house a visit.

Rin experiences the joys of Tsunade's training methods.

Obito gets introduced to Orochimaru and Anko.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Feel free to leave a review or a PM, and I'll see you on the flipside.