Bodies were just bodies.
Between all the body types, heights, statures, bodies were just…bodies. Nothing extraordinary. Slight variations of the same code, the same structures repeated millions upon millions of times. The same components: skin, fat, tissue, muscle, bone, blood.
Blood. Always boring blood.
Normal bodies, and they'll cave when hit with the extraordinary. Blood splashed across Kakashi's uniform on cue, splattering on his face. The body shuddered, as they always do. Cried, as they always do. Scrabbled at his arm, as they always did. Died. The bones of the rib cage barely scratched as he withdrew his hand, right on cue.
(Rin's ruined ribs left scars on Kakashi's arm. Remarkable, even in death.)
"Kakashi."
He barely turned, suddenly dizzy. His body couldn't hold anything, extraordinary or ordinary. So Kakashi turned his head, and the remains of a ration bar splattered on the floor, right next to the body.
"Kakashi!"
Kakashi would have ended up on the ground next, swaying as he was, but Sensei was there, blood-encrusted hand tight around his waist. There were others, he knew, some who probably didn't make it off the battlefield, others who looked at Kakashi and Sensei like they'd soon stab their comrades. He couldn't focus on them.
Instead, he stared at the sea of broken, boring bodies. Between him and Sensei, there was no competition. Kakashi was there as part of the backup, not meant to get in Sensei's way, but he knew the Flying Thunder God technique in a way that the remaining awe-filled squad didn't. He could fit his new technique in the pauses of Sensei's technique without getting himself killed.
(Too bad he couldn't join Rin and Obito.)
His stomach turned once more, and Kakashi was suddenly in front of a small cave.
"We're almost there," Sensei was saying. The man was walking towards the small space where he woulddieand Kakashi didn't think, jumping out of his arms (onto an injured leg, ouch) and shoving him out of the way of the entrance.
"No!" The scream tore itself from his insides. Kakashi would come back alone and they'd all know that he killed his last teammate and they'd hate him but Kushina-nee would probably kill him first.
"…Kakashi?" Sensei looked at him, then the entrance of the cave. Something like realization widened his eyes, but Kakashi couldn't think of that any longer, not when his stomach twisted painfully once more.
He threw up again, and it said something about Sensei's mental state that he only apologized twice, moving them closer to a stream nearby. Kakashi cupped water in his hand, and tilted it to drink—
Before dropping it. Everything, from his elbow to his fingertips, was caked in red. Sensei looked like someone had taken a bucket of blood and thrown it at a human canvas.
There wasn't enough water to wash, and he shouldn't use it to clean when his dry throat ached and this water could be poisoned by Iwa, but he couldn't help it. Kakashi thrust his filthy hands inside the stream and cleaned once, thrice, six times—
"That's enough, Kakashi." Firm, deft hands wiped the blood from his wrists, his arms. Sensei paused on the marks left by Rin, barely healed, before stopping. His hands were still filthy, and Kakashi has the urge to scrub or sob, but Minato-sensei's grasp wouldn't let him.
And just like all those bodies, Kakashi would cave when met with the extraordinary too. He bowed his head, ready for the rebuke—
But Minato-sensei's arms squeezed around him. He smelled like rusted copper and old sweat, but Kakashi didn't mind. "You weren't supposed to fight, Kakashi. You were just meant to be my backup," Sensei's voice came out in a rush, like his words were trying to keep pace with him. "I'm so glad you're okay. I'm sorry."
"I'm fine. We can go back."
"You're not," Minato-sensei said quietly. His blue eyes looked uncomfortably sad. "I was wrong. Requesting you as my backup doesn't help. Kushina was right." When did he have time to talk to Kushina-nee?
"What are you saying?" Because there was a note of finality in Sensei's voice, and fewer people were more stubborn than Namikaze Minato.
Sensei, to his credit, only gave him a confident, sunny smile, through all that blood. "How do you feel about your Academy cohort?"
Minori was right: Rin heard the fighting before she even saw Taki.
Rin doesn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn'tthis;bodies laying beside shallow pools, barely breathing or already gone. Pools of what looked to be blood and mud, rather than water. A sixth sense honed by Minato-sensei told her to hide, and she took refuge up in the trees. Broken arrows littered the floor.
We need to move quickly,Ashura said.
Rin dashed through the nearby forest, thankful for the protection of the trees. If she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend she was on Konoha's training grounds. As endurance training, Minato-sensei would have them try to catch him as he ran through the forest. Kakashi, Obito, and Rin would spend hours chasing the man through different parts of Training Ground 12, until Obito usually complained that he needed a break. Minato-sensei would just smile, and switch the roles of the game, until the three of them were trying to escape the fastest man in the village.
Focus, Rin!
Rin shook her head, as if to clear it. There would be time to reminisce later.
Judging by the bright slant of the sun, it was close to midday. She hovered in the trees, taking in the sight before her.
The battle must have been recent, because the corpses hadn't been collected. The corpses held different symbols—the Konoha leaf on the back of one corpse, an Iwa arrow through the heart of another, a few Taki symbols, but not many. There didn't appear to be any clear winner.
Before we continue—apprehension radiated in her mind. Rin didn't waver, but she could imagine Ashura twiddling his thumbs.We should check the bodies.
For what?She thought, as she flipped to the forest floor. The trees had begun to thin out, and she crouched behind a rock. A severed arm rested on the ground beside her.
A good chance of finding sealing paper.
Rin made a face. The corpses might have supplies, but were most likely rigged with some trap. Shinobi wanted the bodies of their dead, and someone, usually a genin, would be charged with sealing the bodies into scrolls. As chunin, Obito and Rin just missed that particular task.
(Kakashi breezed by it—)
Rin didn't want to touch an Iwa shinobi's body—she had seen others fall into sinkholes when they tried. Konoha shinobi had exploding tags that would detonate if not handled in a precise way.
Look for a Konoha shinobi's corpse. You'll know how to disarm the traps.
Though she was a kunoichi, though she had fought through war, something about stealing from a deceased comrade irked her.
We don't have options, Rin.
Ashura was right. Rin sighed and began to search. Her eyes caught on what might have been the entrance to Taki. She frowned.
The entrance to Taki, if it could still be called that.
In her history books, Taki had a grand wooden bridge leading over a larger moat, dug to catch water from the massive waterfall above. Thousands of traders and merchants flocked to the area every year and passed through that bridge, giving it the name Golden Alley.
Now, the bridge was rubble. The water no longer held the sparkling teal color of her books. Instead, remains from the broken bridge floated aimlesssly, carried along by murky water.
Earth and fire jutsus had decimated the surrounding buildings. The famous gold and white-tipped roofs had been decapitated, leaving broken buildings and bodies at their sides. Rin passed by the first Iwa shinobi's corpse, by the looks of it, a genin. His face was a mirror of surprise—eyes wide, and mouth open. The scent of burnt hair flooded her nostrils—charred remains of blond hair barely clung to his scalp.
Rin walked carefully through the bodies. The air felt too quiet, for the violence it contained. It didn't take long before she reached a Konoha shinobi.
The face was unfamiliar. Green unseeing eyes, barely distinguishable after a fire jutsu had burned through part of his face. Rin might have passed this shinobi in the market, or stood behind him in line at the missions desk. They could have crossed paths at the hospital. Rin could havehealedthis man.
She hesitated.
We don't have a lot of time, Rin,Ashura whispered.Genin and chunin corps will arrive soon.
Her hands shook as she slowly drew her chakra into her body, and held her breath. She placed one hand on the corpse's torso, and the other on the shinobi's weapons pouch. One, two, three.Rin's hands burned with chakra, just one pulse. The hidden tag on the weapons pouch flared once, twice—
She waited, and when the shinobi didn't explode, sighed in relief. Slowly, she began to take inventory of the supplies.
One kunai. Better than nothing. Some bandages, with dubious stains. Rin set them aside. With a grin, Rin reached over and pulled out a canteen. Perfect—now she'd have water. Isobu hummed happily in her mind.
Alongside the water, she found half a ration bar, ninja wire, and dog tags. A small piece of paper lined the bottom of the weapons pouch. Rin flipped it over.
When you come back, let's go on that date, okay?It was signed with a lipstick print and a scrawled heart. Swallowing, she tucked the note in the shinobi's pocket, and the tags carefully underneath the shinobi's shirt. Rin removed the weapons pouch, securing it around her waist. Her heart ached.
It would end soon, she reminded herself. The Third War would continue for a few more months. Obito would try to convince the Ame trio to join him in a handful of weeks. Then it would end. Rin would be able to go home.
Oh, Rin—
She shook her head. There was nothing left to say.
It took her rolling over a few more bodies to find sealing paper, a small, dirtied roll. Hopefully, it would be enough.
Perfect! All we need is ink, and we should be ready to—
Snap.
Rin's head swiveled to a cracked stick, and the Konoha shinobi that stood over it, watching her. She counted three, two behind a bush, but the leader grabbed her attention. Rin recognized this face.
In the Academy, they had completed projects together. They had briefly volunteered at the hospital together before he was removed for maltreatment. When they were originally sent off to war, they were sent in the same cohort. Before the scars, Rin could say his face was vaguely friendly.
Now, he stared at her like she was worth nothing more than the dirt under his boot. Sharp brown eyes glared at her from underneath his headband. The first scar was fresh, a barely healed slash across his mouth. The second only highlighted his sneer. He kept twitching, like his anger was ratcheting up in bursts.
Morino Ibiki walked in front of her, snarling, "What thehelldo you think you're doing?"
—-
She ran.
Faster than Rin knew she could move, she darted across the expanse of bodies. She jumped around the soldiers, sending an apology to the Pure Lands for those she landed on. Ibiki stomped after her, his two friends stumbling after him. Rin ran deeper into Takigakure, a rush of sound and color. She blurred by a small boy, holding what appeared to be all his belongings—a small bundle. His hand tightened on his belongings as she ran past.
"Stop!"Ibiki shouted.
More villagers circled a large, smoking mass in the center, and Rin could barely navigate through the masses. Rin could hear crying, but couldn't see the source. It seemed to swell around her, a chorus of grief. She ducked into the crowd, hoping Ibiki and his friends would lose her.
They didn't. Rin cleared through the crowd, and stumbled into the remaining forest. Refugees watched her as she continued running, jumping up into the trees. She cursed the instinctive action. Ibiki followed her just as well, as his friends started to close in from the sides.
You might lose them better on the forest floor, Rin!
Or she could become a target. The black clothing she was given would be out of place to any Konoha shinobi. Rin continued jumping through the trees, veering left to avoid a cave. She didn't notice how far Ibiki's friends had gotten until she was tackled.
They rolled out of the tree and to the forest floor. Once she was down, it was all over—Ibiki wrestled her to the ground.
"I've never seen you before, yet you move like a Konoha shinobi." Sour breath fanned over her face. "You don't wear a headband. Are you a spy?" His hands clenched down on her forearms, as Ibiki's friends held down her legs. Rin struggled, but there was no escape. She stayed quiet.
"Not gonna talk? That's fine, I just learned a bunch of new tricks." He spun kunai on his finger, and slowly began moving the knife to her face. Rin winced as the metal dragged a red line down her cheek.
Isobu roared.
Burgundy mist began leaking from her body. It was thick, almost opaque, filled with chakra caustic enough to prickle her skin. Rin watched, wide-eyed, as its plumes spread towards the three boys, wrapping them in the mysterious gas. Ibiki jumped back, and his friends staggered away, but it was too late—they had already inhaled the mist.
For a brief moment, all Rin could hear was the wind whistling through the trees. Then, one of the friends began to scream.
Rin had never heard a shout sound so inhuman. Small brown eyes stared out at nothing as he let out a high screech. He fell to the floor, shaking hands snaking into his hair.
"Shuto? What's—" But Ibiki's pupils had blown wide, and he began cowering, shielding his face from an imaginary intruder. His breathing picked up. "Not again!" he cried. The other friend was swaying in Rin's peripherals, kunai glinting in his hand as he swiped the air. Beneath it all, Isobu's satisfaction thrummed in her chest.
Isobu? Rin questioned as Ibiki shook in place.What is this?
The turtle hummed quietly, saying nothing.
Rin?Ashura said.You might want to keep moving, before they snap out of it.
Rin didn't take another second to wait. She took off in the opposite direction.
—-
No matter where Rin turned, someone was crying. Taki carried this otherworldly sadness, something dull and heavy that choked the air. Those who had stayed in the village had paid the price—blood rushed down the face of the man next to her, whereas his wife cradled a broken arm. Children walked in a tearful procession with no parents. A man cried as he sat in the rubble, taking in the disaster around him.
It's the civilians that pay the most for war, Rin,her aunt Toshiko said once. Like the rest of her mother's friends, she stared down at Rin with wide, lifeless eyes. She had been too young to understand why, then. All she had done was curl deeper into her aunt's side, in her mother's widening absence.Your training will have you forget. But the civilians, the civilians will always remember.
A scream caught her attention. Worried she had been followed, Rin turned.
A girl around her age screamed into the surrounding rubble. Trembling fingers scrabbled at the remains of what could be her home. Nearby civilians tried to console her or drag her away from the ruin, but she remained screaming, scraping the ground to clear more space. Rin crept towards the scene.
We should try to find ink—
Can I do earth jutsus?Rin asked inside her mind. She had never been good at them, before, relying on fire or water jutsus to get by. Minato-sensei always said she needed to practice earth jutsus more.
A weighty pause filled her mind. Rin finally reached the crowd, peeking over the shoulders of the surrounding villagers.
"He's gone, Himari—"
"No!" the girl pushed the speaker aside with strength that belied her thin frame. "My brother's still in there. Kenji! I'm coming." She continued pulling away the rocks she could, but the entire building had collapsed. Large broken sections of rock were in her path.
You're carrying my chakra,Ashura said finally.No chakra nature is out of your use. But your chakra isn't controlled, Rin. It will hurt—
That was all she needed to hear. She jostled the crowd in her path, slipping between who she could and elbowing those she couldn't. When Rin reached the front, her heart dropped. Himari's fingers were blood-soaked and raw, but she didn't stop clawing at the remains of the building.
"Where is he?" Rin asked.
Himari didn't hesitate, pointing towards a miniature hole in the wreckage. "That's the last place I heard him."
Rin's fingers jumped through the hand seals. "Earth Style: Hiding mole," she whispered. When she laid her hands on the ground, a flash of pain stole her vision. She staggered. All breath left her as she sunk beneath the surface. The gasps of the neighboring villagers were swallowed by the earth.
Be careful,Ashura's tired voice called.
She was underground and surrounded, once again. Pushing away her panic, Rin began foraging under the rubble. Unlike the times she used the jutsu on the training grounds, this earth felt heavier, and harder to maneuver. Still, Rin picked her way through the rubble, searching for any signs of life. Her limbs shook with effort.
You don't have the chakra control to stay down here long enough.You should come back up—
When I find him,Rin shot back to Ashura.
She surfaced in a small alcove under the building and immediately coughed out dirt. Everything ached, and her lungs rattled in her chest. "Kenji!" she called, trying not to jostle the fragments of the building with her leaking chakra. "Kenji!"
No answer. Rin looked at the dust and plaster-coated items in her space: multiple dented pots, a broken tatami mat, books, fragmented wood. A family had lived here. Rin could only hope that everyone besides Kenji had made it out.
With one deep breath, Rin sunk back beneath the surface.
She couldn't tell how much time had passed, moving towards different sections of the building and calling the boy's name. What she did know was that when she finally resurfaced and saw a dusty, wriggling foot, she couldn't help but a relieved sigh.
"Kenji?" she said. The foot jerked.
"Who—who's there?" Kenji's voice was small, and already resigned.
"I'm Nori," she said. "I'm going to help you."
"I'm trapped."
"What do you see?"
He described the small room he'd been in for hours—a small portion of his bedroom. When the Iwa soldiers came, believing Konoha to be hiding out in the village, his mother told him to run. That was the last he'd heard from her before the roof caved in. Rin swallowed painfully.
"I'm going to get you out," she promised. "Your sister is waiting for you."
Except his footwasstuck in the rubble, and trying to push it up wouldn't work. She couldn't push him up, but maybe… Bracing herself for the pain, Rin dug back into the ground. She could tunnel her way around Kenji's room to make her way towards the rest of Kenji.
Rin, your chakra—
She shook her head. She already knew. Her entire body felt like a bruise, every pathway thrumming with pain. Isobu's discontent rumbled in the back of her mind. Rin was using far more chakra than she should without her talisman. Isobu's chakra was helping, but she was far from used to it, and she could feel its burn in her chakra coils.
The boy was frantically pulling at his leg as Rin dug out of the ground. Kenji flinched as she coughed her way back into his existence. "You're a shinobi," he said, like an accusation. Rin didn't miss the betrayal in his voice.
"I'm here to help," she replied. Her hands went through a few seals, and the small enclosed space lit up with deep red, chakra-fueled light. Her fingers spasmed with pain, and the chakra light flickered. "I won't hurt you. Can you see me?"
The dim light showed his fear—barely hidden in his black eyes. He nodded, resigned to whatever happened next. Rin inched slowly towards the crack in the floor, where the boy's foot was wedged. From the sickening angle, it looked broken.
If she used the wrong jutsu, she could bring the rest of the rubble crashing down on them. No amount of earth jutsu would bring them back from that. None of the water or fire jutsus she could think of would help their situation. She didn't have much time, not when they had so little oxygen.
Ashura?
Follow these signs.She could hear his anger, but he dutifully recited the signs for an earth jutsu that crumbled the rubble around Kenji's foot. The boy screamed as the foot was jostled. But the jutsu worked a little too well—cracks began forming in the nearby rocks. A sick sort of shifting sound filled the air.
You need to get out of there. Now.
Rin found the nearest bit of earth and leaned on it, hoping it was enough. "We're getting out of here. Can you take a deep breath and hold onto me?"
Kenji nodded. Rin took a breath, gathered up her chakra, and dug back into the earth—
as a rock came down on her back. Rin bit back a scream. Her vision swam. Kenji, startled, leaned back, and let out a scream of his own as his broken foot shifted. She could barely move. She could barely breathe, and it was only luck that she didn't fall unconscious.
Rin tried to breathe through the pain. They would die if they stayed in this small enclosure. If not from the lack of oxygen, then the shifting rock that rumbled around them. Covering herself and Kenji in the jutsu used too much chakra, but they began their slow ascent, picking through jagged pieces of rock.
Minutes or hours later, her head surfaced. Kenji's broke through the ground a minute later. Back on fire, Rin could barely move, and after a few moments, the villagers seemed to understand, pulling them both out of the earth.
Later, Rin would think of the look of pure amazement on Himari's face, how she had cupped her brother's face in her hands and wept. Later, she'd remember how Kenji had forgotten his foot as he stumbled into his sister's arms, sobbing for the entire gathered crowd to hear. In the present, all she could think of was that in this world, at least one more sister would be able to come home to a living sibling. Himari wouldn't have to know a home of ghosts.
That is, until Rin's eyes rolled into her head, and she slumped unconscious.
Minato lived in the afterimage of everyone he tried to save.
His parents were long gone before he was old enough to register their loss. Konoha orphanage brought a type of family. Loud as they could be, rambunctious as they were, his friends at the orphanage gave him the stability he needed growing up in the Second War.
But Team Jiraiya had given him his first whole family.
Stubborn Miho, who swore she would be Hokage one day. Dekai and his shy smiles. Jiraiya, his books, and the ever-present smell of sealing paper and ink. Random drop-ins from Princess Tsunade and Orochimaru-san, who constantly complained that Jiraiya was running a nursery but answered their questions on ninjutsu and taijutsu.
It was good. Great, even.
(If only he'd been fast enough to save them—)
But it ended. He swore he'd be better, faster, make sure Jiraiya-sensei didn't have to go to another funeral. Minato tried. He took on Miho's dream of being Hokage, and tried to fill the hole she left with questions on ninjutsu. Minato tried to radiate Dekai's calm in all situations. He'd gotten faster, fast enough for the front lines of the Third War. He thought he was strong enough to get his team through it.
Now, he'd be lucky if any of his team survived.
He watched Kakashi sleep, in the dim light of the fire. The scars from his encounter with Rin were still healing, and in the flames he could see the scratches her ribs left on his arm. Minato swallowed.
He'd always wanted to be a sensei. Minato had gotten a head start with Kakashi, given him all the time he could in the wake of Sakumo. Kakashi had a genius that wasn't seen often, and was quiet, always following orders. But Kakashi didn't have a Miho who could drag him out of his thoughts with ninjutsu battles, or a Dekai who could commiserate with him, show him he wasn't alone.
It was Minato's idea to train two genin, and why not the two students who already had near chunin-level teamwork? Kakashi could learn teamwork and make friends, and his new students, Obito and Rin, could learn from Kakashi's natural leadership and jutsu abilities.
It took a village to bring up some genin, teach them how to fight and how to survive in their world. Kushina immediately jumped into the fray of teaching his kids, dragging her teammate Mikoto with her. Mikoto could help Kakashi with kenjutsu, Minato could increase Obito's speed, and Kushina could teach Rin sealing.
For a while, it was good. Running with Obito in Konoha's forests, watching Mikoto best Kakashi in a kenjutsu bout, only for the boy to demand one more match. Coming home to Kushina teaching Rin about arrays and matrices of sealing, and sending her off to an empty home with too much food.
Then Obito died, the team fractured, and Minato made his first mistake.
Kushina wouldn't leave her bed for days. Rin had a breakdown in the field, and Kakashi looked haunted. Minato pushed to keep going for all of them. Kakashi dismantled himself with that same prodigious efficiency he showed in training, showing up late to dinners and gatherings just like Obito, with a familiar but deadend excuse on his lips. Sometimes, Minato thought the excuses were not because Kakashi wanted to remember Obito, but that he was stuck in a memory.
Kakashi offered not one word to defend himself when the Uchiha demanded his head for "stealing" Obito's sharingan, instead showing a distant sort of relief that made Minato's hands sweat. He wore his forehead protector at a slant and barely spoke in training, simply watching Rin with a hawk-eyed stare he must have copied from Obito. Minato held more responsibility after Kannabi, and wasn't able to come to as many team meetings. But he should have known… things weren't right.
He mistakenly believed that Rin fared better in the wake of Obito, trying to convince Kakashi toactuallyhelp old women cross the street like she had begun to do in Obito's place, or throwing herself into medical sealing jutsus to see if there was something to be done about the chakra drain from Obito's eye. She smiled at team dinners and helped Kushina cook, but she never seemed to be sad for Obito. Not in a way Minato could see. This time, there was no Obito to show him that something waswrong.
Because...Kakashi still had Minato's kunai, and Rin had to have known he did. In fact, he had given Rin a kunai of her own to put in her pouch, and explicitly told them its purpose. After Kannabi, he didn't want to be late again. Even if he had to walk out on Lord Third. They were kids, and they werehiskids.
Rin had to have known, and she chose…
On his better days, he told himself that Rin, like Kakashi, forgot about his Flying Thunder God marker, and she felt that committing suicide via teammate was the only way to save the village. On his worst days, he remembered with painful clarity, trying to merge Rin and Obito's fighting into something cohesive with Kakashi, because it wasn't separate, because they were baby genin with chunin level teamwork. He remembered constantly telling Rin she was leaving her left side exposed after Kannabi, and her never fully fixing the error. He remembered that Rin and Obito had beenRin and Obitobefore they even met Kakashi at the Academy.
Minato failed Obito. Minato had failed Rin by failing Obito, and failed her again by not being attentive. He never realized just how much until it was too late. Now, Team 7 was just another iteration of team 6, stuffed with ghosts.
"Let me keep one," he found himself saying, eyes locked on Kakashi's sleeping form. They would head back to base tomorrow, and Minato would do his best to keep Kakashi alive. "Gods help me, let me keep this one."
A trill caught his attention. The Ryukyu robin perched on a nearby branch was far from home, just like its summoner. Kushina had traveled back to Uzushio to create her summoning contract. The robin held out a little leg, on which a scroll was tethered. He unraveled it slowly.
Kashi needs his friends, right now. Not the front lines.
Might go dark for a few days. The area around Kikyo is getting tense.
Mikoto and Zashi say hi! Love you!
-Kushina
The robin pecked his fingers, before taking flight. Minato smiled. As usual, Kushina was right. His plan to keep Kakashi in his sight at all times wouldn't work, or serve either of them. All he could do was give him as much attention as he could, and surround him with those who could help him most.
"You're going to make it to the end of this war, Kakashi," Minato said to the sleeping boy. "If it's the last thing I do, I will make sure yousurvive,Kakashi."
