Author's Note: The first arc begins in earnest now. Rin's prologue sets the stage for the single most important "what if" change in the entire story. Everything else stems from these first few chapters. I hope you enjoy the story as we shift into some combat oriented character building chapters.

Human

Rin's Capture Arc

Chapter 1

Kakashi

Kakashi Hatake was exhausted. Exhaustion was probably putting it mildly, he considered, but it was a decent enough descriptor of his current status. The fatigue he felt carried all the way through to his bones, but that did not mean he had the luxury of resting. His mission had become a disastrous nightmare, a repeat of the single worst day of his life, and it was more urgent that he continue now than ever.

The Third Ninja War was drawing to a close, ninja from nations all across the world were being recalled as hostilities wound down, and it was common to see them past the borders of the countries they had been aggressors in. Rin and Kakashi had been sent out as scouts, to ensure their eastern border was secure. A routine patrol for seasoned ninja. It should have been painfully simple and dull.

It should have been easy.

The mission had gone terribly wrong, of course, as was the long standing tradition of all missions assigned to squad seven. Manpower was short, so Rin and Kakashi had been trusted to handle the mission as a pair instead of a full squad of four. The first day had been by the book, they had swept a large sector of the border leading to the ocean, which was the closest border the Land of Fire shared with the Land of Water. They spent the day looking for any stragglers needing to return to their homeland.

Rin and Kakashi were ninja of Konohagakure no Sato, The Village Hidden in the Leaves, which was the central source of military power in the Land of Fire. And while it was technically true that the Daimyo of the Land of Fire was the chief authority in the country, the leader of the Hidden Leaf Village (Konoha as it was colloquially called), the Hokage, was the one truly in control of the fate of the nation.

In much the same fashion, the Land of Water had a Daimyo, but it was a nation controlled in all but name by Kirigakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Mist. Most countries had hidden villages, but only the five most powerful were granted leaders called Kage.

The Third Ninja War had involved them all.

The Land of Fire was central on the continent, and shared borders with many nations. However, it was the island nation of the Land of Water that his superiors were most concerned with. The war had raged for years, but with the massive victories won by the Leaf Village in recent months, the fighting was nearly done. Other nations had bowed out of the hostilities, and peacetime treaties, ceasefires, and armistices were being drafted. The Mist Village was the last hold out of hostile nations.

And it had been a mission to seek out any potential outposts or hidden bases that the Mist ninja may choose to keep up and running. Kakashi should have returned home with Rin unscathed and triumphant, but that was not the case.

Rin had not come back from her predetermined scouting route at the end of the second day. And Kakashi had been searching for her trail ever since. That had been three days ago. When he could turn up no sign of Rin, Kakashi employed the ninja art of summoning to help find her.

Summoning was a rare art, where a ninja could summon chakra touched animals to help them. Chakra touched animals could mould chakra, same as humans. They could learn speech, same as humans. And they had their own societies, same as humans.

Kakashi had been given the honor of signing a contract, in blood, to summon Ninken – Ninja Dogs. It was dead useful in tracking situations. The leader of the pack, Pakkun, and the rest of the dogs Kakashi could summon, had sniffed out Rin's trail in no time at all.

Over the course of their pursuit of Rin's captors, Kakashi pieced together that no fewer than eight enemy combatants had been involved. He didn't like his odds against eight enemy ninja. But he sure as hell wasn't going to abandon Rin.

Their trail ended at the end of the tree line. There were several massive boulders between the trees and the ocean. Kakashi could see the almost imperceptible cave entrance before him. It was well hidden. He likely would have overlooked it if he had not been looking for it. But it did confirm that there was, in fact, a hidden enemy outpost.

Mission parameters stated that he was to send word back to Konoha and wait for reinforcements. That was not an option. Rin was in danger now. And so he would go in to the enemy base alone, but he did need to get word back to Konoha.

He turned to Pakkun. "I need you to go back to the village. Whichever of you can run the farthest the fastest. Get word to the mission desk, the Hokage, the Jonin Commander, anyone. Rin has been captured and has been taken to the edge of the Land of Fire. At least eight hostiles. I am infiltrating to gather intelligence. Will only engage if necessary, primary objective is to exfiltrate Rin."

Pakkun bobbed his head, and turned to leave.

"One more thing," Kakashi said. "Minato-sensei can get to us the fastest."

"I'll try to find him," Pakkun said. And then the dogs were dashing through the trees. It was now up to him, exhausted though he was, to rescue his teammate.

Kakashi turned his attention back to the cave mouth. There were no visible signs that anyone had noticed his use of jutsu. But perhaps there were signs not visible to the naked eye. Kakashi lifted his hand to the headband that adorned his forehead and marked him as a ninja of the Leaf Village.

Kakashi wore his headband sideways, so that it covered his left eye. He lifted it now, and uncovered his greatest ninja tool, a Sharingan eye that had been a final gift from a dying friend. It gave him the ability to see chakra, and break through any genjutsu. There was more to the eye than that, much more, but in this moment, that was its purpose.

There was nothing. No guards on the outside. They were gambling on nobody finding the place at all. Kakashi wagered there would be lookouts posted just within the entrance that would have to be dispatched with haste.

He covered the eye once again. Best not to waste precious chakra keeping the Sharingan in use, especially because he was already sleep deprived and low on energy.

Steeling himself, Kakashi checked his surroundings for any other hostile ninja before heading inside.

It was quiet, eerily so, and Kakashi found no traps or lookouts at the entrance as he suspected. In fact, there was nothing to suggest this was an enemy hideout at all. Not until the cave opened up and split down two paths was there anything unnatural at all.

Standing before the forks were two ninja wearing the headbands of Kirigakure. All of his suspicions were confirmed, hostile ninja were still in the area, this was their hideout after all, and they had taken his teammate hostage.

At a glance, Kakashi could see that the guards were bored, and barely on alert. Clearly they did not think anyone was coming for Rin. Did they assume she had been a lone scout? Such assumptions got people killed on the battlefield, and it would cost these guards their lives.

From his place in the shadows of the cavern, Kakashi drew his tanto and surged forward. Sped up by chakra and years of training to kill with brutal efficiency.

It was over in seconds. The first guard fell to the ground with only the sound of his blood dripping onto the rocks, and in the moment the second guard noticed his comrade's death, he, too, was cut down where he stood.

He wiped the blood from his kills on the second man's clothes, and returned his tanto to its sheath. After looking down the two tunnels to be sure nobody had been alerted, he raised his hands and formed a quick series of hand signs. He felt his chakra rise up from within him once again, and he pushed it to the ground. Seconds later the bodies of the two fallen ninja had been pulled into the earth.

Not wanting to wait any longer than necessary, Kakashi set off down the left tunnel in search of his teammate.

Kakashi found himself at a dead end almost immediately, so he backtracked and headed down the second tunnel, which also dead ended. Kakashi frowned, was it a genjutsu? He lifted the headband from his left eye once more.

Months ago, when his life had been much simpler, Kakashi had been part of a three man squad. Rin, of course, had been a teammate, but so had a boy named Obito Uchiha. During the battle of Kannabi Bridge, which was the greatest victory scored by the Leaf Village during the Third Ninja War, Obito had died and Kakashi had lost an eye. And a friend.

As a parting gift, Obito had given Kakashi his eye, and the eyes of an Uchiha were powerful things, as the Uchiha eyes possessed the Sharingan.

The walls in front of him were solid stone, which meant that it wasn't a genjutsu, or that the first path had been the one blocked by illusion. Kakashi cursed internally and returned to the first tunnel, and there he saw the illusion. Designed to look like a jagged, but otherwise solid, wall. The illusion gave way at the faintest push of Kakashi's chakra.

Kakashi found himself in a narrow corridor, no doubt carved by earth element ninjutsu. Doors lined the walls, and Kakashi set about checking each room in search of his comrade. A storage room, an empty kitchen, three rooms outfitted as sleeping quarters, and no sign of Rin.

The corridor turned up ahead, and Kakashi pushed up against the right hand wall, creeping forward as slowly as his feet would take him, and staying hidden within the shadows.

Around the corner, there was another, even longer hall, and at the far end, Kakashi observed that there were two more passageways. This compound was far larger than Kakashi had hoped. If a small team of enemy ninja had taken Rin captive, then the amount of hostiles that could be housed here was well over fifty.

Kakashi was good, but he doubted he could kill fifty enemy ninja by himself while in unfamiliar territory behind enemy lines. The only choice was stealth.

He checked the next five doors he came across. They were empty rooms that could be used for storage. Either the supplies had run out or they had been moved, it didn't matter.

He came to the end of the hall. Right or left?

Knowing that hesitation was suicide and also the death of Rin, he chose left.

Four feet before him, a door opened and Kakashi flattened himself against the wall, and used a simple genjutsu to encourage nobody to notice him.

Three men exited the room. Two in standard Mist Village mission gear, and a third man with a strange mask.

"You have your orders," the masked man said. "Notify me when the prisoner wakes, and continue to monitor for changes."

They walked past Kakashi, who was still as the grave. He hadn't breathed since the door opened.

And then the masked man stopped and glanced behind him, at Kakashi, and then down the hall. Kakashi had to remember to keep his breathing even. Slow, quiet, deep. It didn't work nearly as well as he wanted, so Kakashi settled for holding his breath.

"Something wrong, sir?" One of the ninja asked the masked man.

The masked man said nothing for several tense moments, observing the seemingly empty hall behind him. Eventually, he said, "It's nothing."

And then they were gone.

After a moment, Kakashi dared to breathe, and then he dropped his genjutsu and wrenched open the door the three Mist ninja had just used. His hands were trembling from nerves and tiredness.

There was a single small light hanging from the ceiling of this room, swaying ever so slightly and casting its dim light almost as far as the walls. In the center of the room was Rin, strapped to a table and unmoving, wearing what was left of her mission gear. She looked terrible. Hell, she looked dead.

He rushed to her, gently pressing a hand to her neck and feeling for a pulse. She was alive! It took him only seconds to free her from her bindings, and pull her into an upright position. Kakashi gave her a once over, holding her up with one arm.

"Rin," Kakashi whispered, patting her cheek to wake her. "Rin, wake up."

Her eyes were open, but unseeing, and her mouth was agape. Kakashi put a finger to her forehead and pulsed his chakra once to dispel genjutsu, but nothing happened.

Kakashi cursed under his breath. Not a genjutsu, then. Rin had been tortured into semi-consciousness. Rage boiled up from the pit of his stomach, and he took several deep breaths to calm himself. He needed to keep as clear a head as possible if he was going to get her out of this alive.

He pulled her forward to the edge of the table. He could assess more later, now was the time to get her out of this hellhole. He'd just carry her out of the base, and get her as far away as possible. Then he would deal with her trance-like state.

Kakashi wedged himself into a position to hoist her onto his back and leaned against the edge of the surgical table while he dug into his pockets for a bit of wire or string. Anything to keep Rin secure while he made a mad dash to the exit.

Rin lulled forward, but grunted groggily. Her weight shifted as she regained consciousness. Rin blinked once, then twice, she smiled when she saw him.

"Ka...shi…" Rin slurred.

And then her eyes snapped open, her expression flashing instantly to one of terror.

"You can't be here!" Rin almost yelled.

"Shh!" Kakashi said, head snapping to the door even as he spun to face her. He put a finger to her lips. Nobody could know he was here, that Rin was freed from her detainment, that they were escaping.

"You have to go. They did something—it's a trap." Rin said desperately, pushing against his grip and trying to back away from the door.

"I figured that," Kakashi said, maintaining his grip. "We gotta go, trap or not. Come on." Rin was surprisingly weak, considering it had only been a few days since he'd seen her. Whatever they'd done had drained most of her strength. He won their tug of war easily, and Rin reluctantly followed behind him.

"Kakashi, please listen. I can't go with you. They did something to me," Rin protested.

"Follow close behind me, and stay quiet," Kakashi said, ignoring her. "We're only going to get one shot at this and I don't know how many more Mist ninja are in this base."

Rin looked conflicted, but nodded once solemnly.

Kakashi cracked the door open, glanced left, then right. The hallway was empty. He took one deep breath and dashed out into the hall, moving full pelt down the hall, taking care to muffle the sound of both his and Rin's footsteps with his chakra.

They made it to the first turn, Kakashi hugged the corner and Rin followed behind him. The second turn, and there was a Mist ninja walking down the hall with his back to them. He didn't hear them coming.

The tanto slid from its sheath on Kakashi's back, and Kakashi impaled the man from behind, just as he was turning to face them. He gurgled quietly, and Kakashi clamped a hand over his mouth as he lowered the Mist ninja to the ground. They ran past the dying man without so much as a second thought.

Back at the fork in the cave entrance, Kakashi led them down the long tunnel and outside, the light was blinding and the air was clean and fresh. He wanted to whoop for joy, to scream from the rooftops that they were free. If they could make the tree line before pursuit began, they'd be safe. Then he could carry Rin the rest of the way home.

A sound from behind him crushed his fantasy of an easy escape.

His world became a tangle of limbs and fists as his eyes adjusted to the light of the outside world. He went down to his knees after a particularly painful strike to the back of his head. A Mist ninja had him in a vice grip, and one of Kakashi's arms was pinned uncomfortably behind his back.

Kakashi's tanto fell to the dirt. He was pinned and disarmed. This was bad. Very, very bad.

A fist slammed into the side of his head and Kakashi saw stars. Kakashi would have staggered from his half kneeling position, but he lacked the freedom to move away from the Mist ninja's grip.

"Rin! Keep going! I'll catch up with you." It wasn't a request, it was an order. But it didn't come out very forcefully. Two blows to the head left Kakashi dazed. He probably had a concussion, but that could wait, he figured.

Rin hesitated, but did not move forward to fight. Eventually, she ran into the tree line and out of sight, leaving Kakashi to deal with the Mist ninja.

Kakashi gathered his chakra and used to to propel himself both up and forward.

The imbalance of weight sent Kakashi and his assailant tumbling to the ground and Kakashi rolled left, breaking the grip of the Mist ninja who had grappled him.

The ninja rolled to a crouch at the same time, and grabbed Kakashi's tanto.

Kakashi drew a kunai from the pouch on his leg, spinning around his finger and flipping it into his palm. He flexed his grip experimentally, and the fight resumed. They rushed together, steel met steel. There was a metallic clang, sparks flew, and then they were past each other. Kakashi whirled around, made a hand seal, and a mirror image of himself phased into existence.

The clone jutsu was a simple enough technique that existed somewhere between ninjutsu and genjutsu. It made a mirror image of the ninja who created it, but was neither solid nor threatening. It was just a trick to be used to gain an advantage.

Much like Kakashi planned to do now.

They ran towards each other again, Kakashi made another hand seal, and then another.

There was another shimmering of the clone jutsu, and the smallest poof of smoke, one you'd have to really be looking for in order to see.

When they were about to meet in melee, the Mist ninja leapt and spun, reaching out with foot and tanto, to hit both copies of Kakashi at the same time. A valiant attempt to see through the trick.

But the Mist ninja did not see through enough. Tanto and foot passed harmlessly through both Kakashis as they faded from existence, and the Mist ninja, who had been expecting solid contact, landed awkwardly.

It was all the opening the real Kakashi needed.

Kakashi burst from a nearby tree, where he had moved by use of the substitution jutsu, and cut the Mist ninja's throat with his kunai.

As the man fell, Kakashi grabbed his tanto, returned the kunai to it's holster, and then leapt to the trees after Rin. No doubt the pursuit would begin immediately.

Author's Note: I'd like to take this time to request some feedback and support. But only if you really want to give it. We're going to have different POV characters pretty much every chapter, so stick around for your favorites. Thanks in advance for any follows, favorites, or reviews.

Cheers!