AN: New chapter.


"I'm kind of getting worried." Jade was actually reading over the latest papers to come to her desk. She had Kakashi and Obito vet them, only give her what they thought mattered and get rid of the rest. Consequently, both were busy in her office when she spoke up.

They stopped their race to fold a thousand paper cranes.

Jade had the entirety of their attention.

"It's only been a week." Obito was just as concerned as Jade. If she hadn't brought it up, he likely would have once Kakashi stopped distracting him. "We shouldn't doubt Rin but…"

"No one's invincible. Even as a Jinchuriki, Rin's not unstoppable. Doubly so when she's got three Genin to take care of if they end up in any trouble." Kakashi set his stack of papers down, eyed the two piles of false birds the pair of Shinobi had created. "But Rin's not one to be underestimated either. She's not called 'Tsunami Rin' because of a neat party trick. She's only behind Kushina in strength because of the sloppy seal the Hidden Mist used on her throttling her access to the Chakra from the Three-Tails. If she runs into trouble, she's got plenty of ways to deal with anyone dumb enough to challenge her."

"I'm not worried about Rin because I doubt her strength." Obito sighed, one of his hands rising to cover his eyes. "She's stronger than both of us. Even when we go all out." He uncovered his eyes, the twisted Mangekyou Sharingan that had helped make him famous taking hold. "I'm worried about her because she's out there with three kids. She's going to be more worried about them then herself. One on one, I'll always bet on her to get the win but that's not the case right now. She's out there with three kids, one of them our sensei's son. The Hokage's son. If it comes down to her getting hurt or them, she'll put herself in the way of anything."

"That is a problem." Kakashi admitted as much with a nod.

Jade sent a paper airplane at both.

"Hey. Don't think I didn't set up something too. I thought about the same stuff." Jade made a show of summoning her little insurance policy. They floated free of her hands a moment later, shuffled from side to side.

"Ah. I almost forgot you started using those. So Rin's got a few?"

"More than a few." Jade allowed her take on the Hana Fuda Cards to drop from her hand to the desk beneath her, neatly stack themselves together. "She's even got one for me directly."

It was really her solution to Orochimaru's demand two years ago. She had just repurposed them since then. Ten different cards that could summon either one of the nine Shadowkhan Tribes under her control or just call to her directly. Most of them had been handed out to the other Jonin put in charge of a squad of Genin for the exact same reason that Obito had listed:

The kids with them were handicaps. If things got dangerous, she could intervene.

She had already done it a handful of times since she had given them out. Even if most Shinobi were afraid of her, they also knew she could save their lives.

"If she's in any danger, she'll call me. Or Naruto will."


From where he sat, Naruto felt the need to lean over to his two teammates, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. "Is this always going to happen?"

Both could only shrug.

None of the three really understood what was going on.

Their C-Rank mission to the Land of Waves had turned into…whatever this was.

Rin Nohara, the Jonin in charge of them and the Jinchuriki of the Three Tails could only groan as she fell face first into the massive bed that came with their suite.

"I can't believe they're still doing this!" Her words were muffled courtesy of the pillow her face was in but the three Genin still heard her. "I knew I should've picked the Land of Waves. Why did I think they wouldn't bug me in the Land of Hot Water?"

The talented Jonin didn't pay the stares from her three students any mind. Not at the moment.

She was more concerned with how exhausting this mission had turned.

"Should we tell her those guys showed up again?" Sasuke's question only earned a look from his two teammates. It told him: You can. I'm not. He wisely didn't say anything.

Rin only continued to lay in the absurdly comfortable bed she wasn't paying for. In the luxurious room she wasn't paying for. In the resort she wasn't paying for. She hadn't paid for anything in days. Ever since she had led her team into this…this trap!

"Why can't they just leave me alone?" Rin finally found the strength to roll herself over, stare up at the ceiling of the suite. "Is that so much to ask?"

A presence settled around her.

You know why. The Three-Tails spoke to her. As long as you remain a Jinchuriki, they'll seek you.

"I don't want to deal with you today." Rin spoke to herself, her three Genin, even if only having been her students for a short time, knowing who she was talking to. They didn't interrupt.

At a look from Naruto, he led the three out the room to give their sensei some privacy as she spoke to her ever-present "guest".

I know that. But your emotions are running high. You and I both know what can happen if you let you irritation bled into anger.

"It won't. Even if it does, Kushina double-checked her seal before she left. Besides, I'm not angry."

Yet.

"Shut up." Rin returned to the pillow, considered it better to hold this conversation "in-person" when she closed her eyes.

She opened her eyes inside a massive pipe, clear water up to her ankles. She knew at the end the Three-Tails awaited. The countless pipes around her, stretching higher than she could see, poured water down into a pool the Tailed Beast resided in.

She sat down at the edge of the pipe. Clear water flowed around her and down to the pit.

"You usually don't bug me like this. It's weird for you to insist something may go wrong." Even after all these years, more of her life spent with the Three-Tails than without, she still couldn't tell how exactly she felt as she gazed down at the powerful beast that had been unwillingly sealed inside of her.

A rare thing for the Tailed Beast, both eyes were open and gazing up at her. Dark water surrounded the beast in the cavernous pit, allowed the monster sealed inside of her ample space to swim around in.

"I usually don't have strange feelings." The Three-Tails was towards the center of the dark water, seemed content where it had partially submerged itself. "Something is going to happen. And it's going to happen soon."

"And I should be worried?"

"You should be cautious. You're surrounded by foreign Shinobi after all."

Rin didn't bother holding in her groan, debating letting herself fall back into the clear water behind her. It never behaved like water but the flow of her and Kushina's Chakra it represented helped calm her.

"Don't remind me." She settled on staying upright. At least for now. "But why are you worried?"

"I do not wish to return to the Hidden Mist." The Three-Tails gave an answer that made Rin only more confused.

"Really? I thought we were all the same to you."

"My recent time spent with you has changed my perception." The Three-Tails shifted in the water, one of its tails raising out of the water for a moment before settling back down. "You are preferable to the alternative."

"…Thanks? I think." Rin stared down at the beast, tried to see if, as Kakashi would say, there was anything "underneath the underneath" to what it was saying. She couldn't find anything. She rose from her seat at the end of the pipe, would only need to focus for a moment to return to the real world. "…I'll be careful."

"Be cautious." The Three-Tails was gone in the blink of an eye, silently submerged in the dark waters that represented its own Chakra.

Rin found herself back on the bed in her gifted suite.

She rolled over to stare at the ceiling again.

'As if I didn't have enough to deal with. 'Be cautious'. What does that even mean?' Even if the Three-Tails wasn't going to be any clearer than that, Rin rolled the words of the beast over in her head. She didn't quite get it.

This wasn't the first time she had gotten advice from the Tailed Beast and, likely, wouldn't be the last.

But it was left to her to figure out what exactly 'Be cautious' meant.

She brought an arm over her eyes, sighed.

"Alright. Once this mission is done, we're gone. I can keep it together until I'm back home."

Her free hand slipped into her Flak Jacket, counted the cards kept there.

'And, if there's any trouble, call for help.'


AN: Next update in 2-3 weeks. May lean more towards 3.

Review/PM if you want.

Peace.