Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Prologue

Rin

Ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump!

Rin Nohara woke slowly. Her mind was foggy and her thoughts distant, but it was clear immediately what had called her to consciousness. She ached, but in no way she recalled ever aching before. And problematically, in that moment she recalled very little. It felt to her as if her chakra, the source of energy, life, and ninja arts, was trying to explode out of her. It was most prominent in her chest, in her erratic heartbeat, her quick pulse.

Seconds slipped by, and Rin was unsure how long she lay in her fog. After a time, she became aware that she was, in fact, laying. She tried to look down at her body, but found her head unable to move. Curiously, there was pressure across her forehead. She tried to move her head again, with no success. She was laying on something hard and cold. She was strapped to something hard and cold. There was no world where this situation was good.

She needed a moment to think, to collect her thoughts. She had time, yes, but she could not focus. Why was she here? What had she been doing before she was here? Rin searched for any useful or relevant memories, but found nothing concrete, only muddled images, half remembered phrases, and people she could not name. What did she know?

She knew her name, she knew how tall she was – five feet, two inches, her age – fourteen, her favorite food – strawberries, and any any other number of useless facts about herself. Something was stopping her from remembering everything else. Everything that was not intrinsically linked to who she was was just… gone. Except… except… yes… she was a ninja. A highly trained soldier. She owed her allegiance to…

Ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump!

Well, she didn't remember everything about her profession, but being a ninja, she surely could get out of a few leather straps. But how? It wasn't as if she really remembered anything about training as a ninja. She wanted to cry, but she knew if she did, she'd never get off of the damn table.

What did she know about being a ninja? She knew that her body was full of chakra, which was the source of… something. Chakra did something. She had known just moments ago, hadn't she? Was focusing on something what was stopping her from accessing her knowledge?

It was impossible to know for sure, but it was worth a shot. Rin turned her attention to her surroundings. It was a small room, lit by a single, dim light-bulb hanging precariously from the ceiling. There was one door, large, heavy, metal. It looked rusted, but that could have been the lighting.

And, oh!

Genjutsu!

Rin was probably under the effects of a genjutsu. One that was preventing her from thinking. She just had to temporarily disrupt the flow of her chakra through her body's circulatory system. It was simple, and she knew how to do it.

She closed her eyes, and reached for her chakra. It was easy to touch, and to mold into the shapes and directions she needed it to move. That she remembered. But before she felt the familiar tug of energy that would allow her to increase her strength, command water, create fire, or dispel genjutsu, she felt the fluttering of her heart grow even faster. It refused to settle.

And then, quite suddenly, everything was white and her body was struck with pain.

Rin did not know if she screamed. She couldn't see, hear, or smell anything. There was only white hot agony. It went on forever and then forever again. Rin knew that she could never escape it. All she knew was crippling, consuming pain.

It burned in a way that nothing else had ever burned before. It was coming from within her, threatening to burst forth and consume the world. It was coming from the void around her, threatening to consume her entirely.

Eventually, mercifully, it faded into a dull ache. She was aware of her own trembling, her own erratic heartbeat, her own wheezing. Was it over? Had she died? Were her nerves damaged beyond feeling pain?

She must have spent several days just staring at the ceiling, mouth agape, feeling and thinking nothing. She could not control her shaking, her sweating, her heartbeat.

Ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump!

A thought wormed its way into her mind. A part of herself returned. Crawled back into her conscious mind. She was a shinobi, a ninja, a soldier.

She didn't feel like it. She felt like a terrified fourteen year old girl.

She needed to find something that would get her out of the hell she found herself in, but she did not remember being captured, or being sent on a mission. Was it possible she was in her village? Which one was it?

She closed her eyes and saw leaves on towering trees, a high wall, a tower with a red roof, and a mountain with stone faces. Konoha.

Was it possible she was being held in Konoha?

But that didn't make sense. She was one of their own, a ninja in their military structure.

She couldn't be in Konoha. So where was she?

The last thing she remembered before this was…

...Obito, crushed beneath a rock, dying and in pain. He was offering his eye to Kakashi, who had been blinded by an enemy. They were crying, holding hands, saying goodbye. And then Rin was performing field surgery…

No!

No.

That memory was unwelcome. And she knew, knew that it was old. Months, she thought, maybe years. How long had she been prisoner in this chamber?

She couldn't remember. Why couldn't she remember? Panic swelled forth, and she fought back the wild thoughts of her own demise as best she could. But she knew she was going to die here. She was going to die if she sated here. She was going to die. She was going to die. Die. Die. Die die die.

Think, she told herself. Just think. Why are you here? What were you doing? What mission were you sent on?

...She saw an office, the Hokage handing her a scroll. She was leaping through the trees, and then camping out with Kakashi. There was a kunai at her neck. She saw the coastline...

Rin let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. So there had been a mission. It certainly sounded right. She and Kakashi had been sent to the stretch of land in the southeast of the Land of Fire. Their orders were to… to…

The more she focused on it, the more it slipped away from her.

Shit! Rin cursed internally. Why had they been sent to the border? She supposed it would come to her eventually.

Something echoed to her left, where she could see the door. Her head would have snapped towards the sound of the noise, but she was still strapped to a table. Her neck protested at the reflex, and she felt the tendons strain in protest against the strap across her forehead.

Footsteps, coming toward the door.

This was it, she realized. This was the moment she would die. Whoever had captured her would kill her. Or violate her body in unspeakable ways before leaving her to die. She whimpered in fear.

The footsteps stopped outside the door, and Rin stopped breathing.

Ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump!

Rin closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing. Maybe if this person thought she was asleep, she could buy herself more time.

The groaning of metal signaled the door's opening. Her body tensed involuntarily. The person was at her side in two steps and there was a hand on her neck. Whoever it was took her pulse.

A deep voice chuckled.

And then a hand struck her face. Hard.

Rin yelled in protest.

"Ah, good. You're awake," The voice said. It was a deep, voice, laced with cruelty and malicious intent.

Rin opened her eyes and glared at the man.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" She shouldn't have spoken, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She was terrified, and speaking out in defiance gave her even an imagined amount of control.

He laughed, and struck her again.

The sound of her scream was muffled by his hand over her mouth. "My name is of no importance to you, little girl. But you will serve me, and my purpose. For now, you will remain here, because your body needs time to… adjust." She could hear the sick, twisted smile in his voice, and it would have stopped her heart with fear if it wasn't beating so damn fast.

Ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump!

His hand trailed down her neck, collarbone, and chest. Rin tried to squirm away from his touch, but she could not move. His hand stopped at her chest, above her breast. Right over her heart.

Ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump! Ba-bump ba-bump!

She felt a spike of his chakra pierce her heart. A tremor of energy surged through her, prompting the liquid fire of her own chakra to consume her again. She threw her head back and screamed as she was lit aflame from within. Her world turned white with agony.

The last thing Rin heard was the sound of laughing.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

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.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Rin's Capture Arc

Chapter 2

Kakashi

Breathe, he told himself. Just breathe, that's the key.

Mist ninja had pursued them from the cave mouth at once, and Kakashi had discovered that Rin had not taken to the trees. He ran beside her slow, staggering gait.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi asked. "We are being pursued by a platoon of enemy ninja and you're running on the ground. Without chakra. We are ninja of the Leaf, we have an advantage in the trees."

Rin glared at him. "I told you," she panted out, "I can't do anything. They did something to me. I can't use my chakra."

"Can't use your- why didn't you say something?" Kakashi asked.

"I tried! You wouldn't listen." Rin stumbled and nearly ran headlong into a tree.

Kakashi pivoted and steadied her. "You're going to be okay. Keep running, I'll buy us time."

He turned and headed back towards their pursuers, slapping explosive notes on tree trunks as he went.

With ten remote detonated bombs in place, Kakashi changed direction and leapt for the trees.

Less than a minute later, Kakashi saw two Mist ninja break from the tree line. He pulsed his chakra, turned, and ran back towards Rin.

The explosion shook the trees, birds shot into the sky.

There was precious little time. Kakashi didn't dare stop to see if their pursuers were dead. He ran until his lungs burned and his legs felt like they would give out.

Three days. Three days with no rest. Kakashi was spent. He stopped running, and leaned against a tree, drinking in deep, gasping breaths.

Five minutes rest he could spare.

Except… there were more pursuers. Kakashi heard them before he saw them, and slipped into the shadows that the tree branches provided him.

He dug a hand into a provisions pouch, and dug out a small pill. It was a food pill, designed to stimulate the body into producing more chakra. Use in situations like this almost always resulted in chakra exhaustion and hospital visits, but Kakashi needed more energy if he was going to fight.

He swallowed the pill, and shot off after Rin.

As his body produced more energy, his speed increased and he caught up to Rin in a matter of moments.

She looked dead on her feet, face red and skin clammy. She was gasping for a breath that would jot fill her lungs, and she was clutching at a stitch in her side.

"They're still in pursuit," Kakashi said.

Rin didn't answer, choosing instead to focus on breathing and keeping her feet moving.

He kept pace with her and pulled a ration bar from a pocket, then he unhooked his canteen from his belt loop.

"Stop. Catch your breath. Eat and drink. I'll slow them with a genjutsu. It will buy you maybe ten minutes to rest."

Rin took two more feeble steps, and then fell to her knees, and retched. Bile spattered the forest floor. Kakashi placed the food and drink at her side.

He moved fifteen paces away, and began weaving the hand seals for his illusion. A simple visual distortion that would make it appear that their trail went off in a different direction. The wider the area of effect, the more chakra it would cost him, but the longer it would buy them.

He weighed his options for the briefest moment before pumping as much chakra as he could into the genjutsu.

He expanded the range until he was sweating from the exertion. His strength had never been in his chakra capacity, and the borrowed energy from the food pill was faster to flicker out.

He fell back, panting. He had two more pills. If he took them both he would end up in a coma, but if this kept up he likely would have no choice. He hoped Pakkun was making record time back to the village. If Pakkun had been held up... Kakashi didn't want to think about it.

His eyes were so heavy...

He fought against unconsciousness as his body screamed that it needed rest. Instead, he popped another food pill into his mouth and swallowed it down.

Chakra flared within him once again. He wondered if Rin should have one, but reasoned that in her current state of mind, it was not a good idea.

"Can you keep walking?" Kakashi asked Rin.

"Yeah," She said. She sounded so small. So defeated

"Let's get a move on," Kakashi said.

He wanted to sit, to sleep, to do anything but run.

They had to keep going, Kakashi told himself. Rest was a death sentence. It became a mantra in his mind. Keep running. Keep running. Keep running.

If the ninja from The Village Hidden in the Mist caught up to them, then they were done for. He had used far too much chakra to risk pitched battle while operating on food pills. Flight was their only option, and even then there was the very real possibility of them being overcome before they were safely in Konoha.

Their pace was almost civilian.

Deep down, Kakashi knew the mist ninja would catch them, and he would have to fight soon. He was ready to die to protect Rin, who was in no position to fight right now. If he was being honest with himself, neither was he. Their mission was nothing short of a disaster, even if they had discovered an enemy outpost.

They kept up their slow pace for fifteen minutes.

For thirty minutes.

An hour.

Two.

He heard the whistling of the air before he sensed danger, and barely managed to get out of the way of a barrage of shuriken.

"Hurry!" Kakashi ordered. He pivoted around, lifting the headband from over his left eye as he did so. Using the Sharingan to scan behind them quickly. He could see the chakra of their pursuers closing fast. 'Dammit, they're going to catch us. We aren't able to move fast enough like this. One last fight, then. "Rin! They're going to catch us! You keep going and I'll buy you as much time as I can. Leaf ninja should find you soon. I sent Pakkun to find Minato-sensei. He'll get you home."

Rin slid to a halt, defiantly facing Kakashi. "I already told you," she said, gasping for breath. "I can't go back to the village. They did something to me. I'll hurt someone."

Kakashi grimaced. "No. You won't. No matter what, you won't. I believe in your strength."

"You aren't listening!" Rin shouted.

"I heard you," Kakashi said, sparing her a brief glance. "But I know you, Rin. You're kind and gentle, and most importantly you're loyal to the Leaf Village. You won't hurt them."

Rin shook her head, blinking back tears. "What if I do? We can't take that risk, Kakashi. You have to kill me or give me back, and you have to do it now!"

"Never!" He declared.

Before Kakashi or Rin had time to argue any further, one of the Mist ninja was upon them. Kakshi slid his tango from its sheath. With blinding speed, Kakashi parried the kunai that cascaded from above them. When the falling projectiles ceased, Kakashi turned to Rin once more. "We don't have time to fight about this, Rin. I promised Obito that I would protect you. And what's more than that, I couldn't bear it if you were hurt."

"Kakashi," Rin whispered, a sad smile ghosting across her features. He thought that maybe, just maybe, she looked determined.

"If you're so worried that you'll hurt someone, tell Minato-sensei before you reach the walls of the village." Kakashi turned away from her now, and was ready to face the mist ninja. "Rin, you have to go now. I promise that I will catch up to you."

He heard her retreating footsteps, and let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Things had definitely not gone according to plan, and Kakashi could not help but feel that today was much like the disastrous battle near the Kannabi Bridge. The same battle that had claimed the life of his teammate Obito. The same battle that was considered the Leaf Village's greatest military victory during the last war. However, he was determined not to make the same mistake he had made during that mission.

Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash!

Nobody would die today.

Four pursuing shinobi were upon him now, and Kakashi watched them each in turn as they surrounded him. This fight had to end quickly, for both his sake and Rin's.

"Kill him, quick. Then we go after the girl." One of the Mist shinobi said.

So that's their leader, Kakashi thought. I'll make sure he doesn't survive long enough to reorganize the pursuit.

Two of the Mist ninja closed with Kakashi, each wielding a katana. Three strokes and three parries later, Kakashi was retreating slightly to reassess the battle. They were skilled with kenjutsu, that much was very clear, but Kakashi had the advantage of the Sharingan. The combatants rushed forward again, and the steel of katanas flashed in the afternoon sun.

Kakashi ducked and blocked each of their cuts with his tanto. He pulled a kunai into his offhand. An extra blade for defending himself, or for attacking if he had the chance.

If this drags on, they'll overpower me. I'm not even close to one-hundred percent.

Kakashi's thoughts were cut short by another attack, this time from all four of the Mist Shinobi.

Four blades impaled the silver haired Jōnin before he could react. Kakashi slumped to the ground weakly, broken and bleeding. A chuckle of amusement passed between the mist ninja. "How pathetic," the leader sneered.

"Pathetic, am I?" Kakashi asked from directly behind the leader of the mist ninja. "If I'm pathetic, you must be something much worse than that." With that, Kakashi drove his kunai into the leader's heart. The mist ninja slumped to the ground, blood pooling around him. That's the leader down. If I can disengage quickly, Rin and I might have a chance to gain enough distance to shake their pursuit.

"What!?" One of the other attackers exclaimed.

"How!?" Demanded another.

Kakashi smiled at them underneath his mask. "I used the substitution technique. It's a ninja's bread and butter in a fight where he is outnumbered." He indicated the log that had been impaled in his stead. "I'm just surprised you fell for my trick so easily. Jōnin level ninja are supposed to be the shinobi elite. But you aren't at that level, are you?"

"We'll show you!" the Mist ninja who had refrained from speaking before roared. Kakashi's attacker raised his katana and darted forward. They exchanged a flurry of blows, Kakashi using the advantage the Sharingan gave him to block his strikes before they were fully executed. His preemptive counter attacks only served to make the mist ninja more angry. Kakashi's blocks stayed true even as the attacks became more erratic and less disciplined. Kakashi slipped inside his enemy's guard.

The mist ninja backed away after Kakashi landed a grazing blow, and the two circled each other before leaping forward once more. Kakashi scored a killing blow against the mist ninja, successfully getting within his guard after a particularly wild strike. The second dispatched Mist shinobi slumped to the ground like the first, just as lifeless as his commander. That leaves two.

Kakashi turned to the remaining two ninja. There will be more coming to back them up soon. I have to end this quickly, or disengage them entirely.

Kakashi didn't have time to deliberate, however. The mist ninja, sensing that closing with Kakashi in melee combat was likely to prove futile, began forming hand seals for a ninjutsu attack. Glancing between the two, Kakashi realized that they were going to use different techniques. Clever. I can't copy both attacks at the same time. I'll have to come up with something else.

"Water Style!" Both Mist shinobi declared.

"Gunshot!"

"Tearing Torrent."

The water jutsu projectiles fired towards him closed quickly. Kakashi grimaced. Their jutsu were closing fast, and at this short range he'd be unable to dodge them without using ninjutsu of his own. Which was doable, but he was already so exhausted that using a technique was likely suicidal at this point.

With a speed far greater than his adversaries, Kakashi's hands blurred for a moment, as he focused his chakra for a jutsu of his own. "Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole Technique." Kakashi slipped beneath the dirt road just before the onslaught from the mist ninja reached him.

That was too close.

Water rushed over the path, flooding the area, impacting trees, splintering wood, and knocking several large boulders aside. The flooded area drained slowly, and the rampant destruction caused by the onslaught of water based projectiles became apparent.

"He's gone," one of the Mist Shinobi declared.

"We killed him?" the other asked.

"I don't think so," the first replied. "But it looks like we've eliminated him for now."

A hand shot up from beneath the two mist ninja, grabbing one of them by the ankle. They both let out less than masculine shouts of surprise at the sight of a disembodied arm rising from the earth. "Eliminate me?" Kakashi mocked as he rose from the ground, and pulled the mist ninja under the earth in one movement. "Hardly. You were firing those attacks like blind and deaf Genin."

With a shout of anger, the still standing Mist shinobi swung his katana wildly at Kakashi, who leapt away from the attack. Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the mist ninja. "I think it's time we end this." He made a set of hand seals and clapped his left hand on his right forearm. "Chidori!"

A visible wave of chakra filled the newly created clearing. Bolts of electricity shot from the swirling energy gathering in Kakashi's hand, growing more frequent and powerful by the second. The mist ninja backed away, eyes wide with fear, looking for an escape. Sensing his enemy's desire to flee, Kakashi chuckled darkly. "There's no place for you to run. This ends now!"

Kakashi ran forward, right hand cocked back in preparation to strike. It's an all or nothing strike. If I don't end this fight now, I'm done for. I won't have enough chakra for another attack.

From his right there was movement, and then Kakashi watched in horror as Rin bounded into his line of attack, successfully placing herself between Kakashi and the Mist ninja. She had her eyes closed and her arms spread wide, as if she were welcoming death. Kakashi was moving too fast, he was too close.

"Rin!"

No. No! No! No! No!

Kakashi dispersed the chakra he'd gathered for his finishing blow and twisted his upper body as fast as he could. The result was that his still dissipating Chidori grazed her right arm and his back slammed into her torso, sending them both tumbling to the ground in a painful heap of flailing limbs and dust.

He was completely drained, but the adrenaline from the battle kept him awake. He glowered at Rin.

If looks could kill...

"Jumping in front of me like that and attempting to use my attack to kill yourself? I can't believe you! What the hell were you thinking?" Kakashi demanded as he regained his footing, spinning around and ready to defend against an oncoming attack. The Mist ninja, however, had taken their chance at Rin's interference and fled. Kakashi relaxed slightly and took in Rin's bedraggled appearance. His Chidori had done significant damage to her arm, despite the grazing blow, and it hung loosely at her side, dripping blood onto the dirt.

Kakashi sheathed his tanto, holstered his kunai, covered his Sharingan, and tried to control his shivering. It was exhaustion from this mission, it was anger at Rin, it was fear that they would die, regret that he'd nearly killed her.

"I can't go back to the village as I am now." Her eyes were full of unshed tears.

Kakashi glared at her, angry and confused and hurt all at once. "So you would use me to end your own life, without any thought as to how that would make me feel? Why are you so ready to give up? You know as well as I do that Sensei will be able to help you. Hell, Rin, I told you as much."

She lowered her head. "It doesn't matter. He can't undo what was done to me. I'm a monster now. The masked man said so himself. And only a monster could endure so much pain."

Pain? What pain? What exactly had they done to her?

Kakashi's anger blunted in an instant. He took three shaky steps toward her, so that they were inches apart, and took her still good hand in his. He traced a gentle circle over the back of her hand with his thumb.

"No, you're not. No matter what has happened, you are no monster. Minato-sensei can, and will, help you. All we have to do is evade our pursuers for a little while longer. Once we cross into frequently patrolled territory, their continued pursuit would guarantee their deaths. Rin, I need you to do this with me. Please. Let's find a solution that isn't your death."

She raised her head, and for a long time she said nothing, staring at him with teary eyes and a pained expression. Eventually, she spoke. "If I go with you, you have to promise me that I won't go within ten miles of the village until Minato-sensei finds out why I feel like my whole body is on fire when I use chakra."

Kakashi nodded, relieved that she was at least willing to try. "Of course. I can promise you that. Now let's get a move on. There's a lot of ground to cover and I don't doubt that those Mist ninja will be back for us once they regroup with their allies." Rin nodded, and gave him a thumbs up, but the accompanying smile did not reach her eyes. Kakashi was unsure if anything he could say would comfort her at this point. That was something Obito had always been better at than him, and he wished dearly that their teammate was still with them now.

But Obito could never be with them again. A sorrow they both had to bear. In his stead, Kakashi vowed to keep Rin safe. And now she was in more need than ever before. Truthfully, Kakashi was terrified that he'd fail, especially considering how exhausted he already was.

Together they set off once again towards Konoha, staggering along as fast as they could. It wasn't an impressive look. Kakashi was exhausted and Rin was both injured and mentally drained. It would have to do, of course. Any faster and they'd both inevitably collapse and wind up dead.

They kept it up as long as they could.

Which was longer than he thought.

They had been on the run together for half a day. It was pitch dark, and Kakashi kept crashing through thorny bushes. He could barely keep his eyes open.

"We need to stop," Kakashi said, slowing his pace and coming to a stop against a tree.

Rin shook her head and stepped past him. "No."

Kakashi grunted and caught her good hand. "Both of us are exhausted. Beyond exhausted. If we push ourselves any more we could end up past saving. I've exhausted my chakra on two food pills today. Any more jutsu from me and I'm gambling with my life."

"And if we stop those ninja from the Mist village might catch us. We're in no condition to fight them." Rin's voice cracked, thick with emotion. She was right. They weren't going to elude them forever. He was spent, she was… well Kakashi didn't know what was wrong with Rin.

It was probably worse than exhausted.

"I told you earlier that Pakkun is heading back to the village. Sensei doesn't need travel time. Once he knows we're in trouble, we'll be safe.

"When was that?" Asked Rin.

"Maybe six, seven hours ago," Kakashi said. "I infiltrated the base before midday, and we have been on the run since. But I spent days tracking you, so we are at least a full day from Konoha."

"We have to survive out here for another eighteen hours?" Rin said. "We're going to die!"

Kakashi shrugged. "We may encounter those Mist ninja again, but I don't think we will die. For now, we should find a place to hide - and to rest."

Rin spun in a circle, examining their immediate surroundings in the darkness. "Where? There isn't anywhere to hide here."

"No," Kakashi agreed. "We'll have to keep looking. But that should be the objective. If we can find a defensible spot, we may be able to hold for a few hours of rest."

"Let's go, then," Rin said gravely.

The farther they went in search of shelter, the harder Kakashi found it to stay upright and moving. His eyes were so heavy. It would be so easy to just drift off to sleep. . .

He was on his knees, the ground looked so comfortable.

Kakashi knew he was down for the count. He tried to get to his feet, but it was no good. Instead, he settled for calling out to his teammate before unconsciousness took him

Rin...

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Rin's Capture Arc

Chapter 3

Rin

It hurt to walk. It hurt to breathe. Hell, it even hurt to blink the sweat from her eyes.

She had never so much as exercised without chakra before today, and she had pushed herself far beyond any limit she thought she had.

What was more, she was probably going to pass out from blood loss before they got back to Konoha. What had she been thinking, jumping in front of Kakashi's Chidori? She was certifiable.

He was probably so mad at her. He'd risked everything to get her out of there and she'd repaid him by attempting suicide. With his jutsu.

On the bright side, the clarity brought on by the pain of having her arm decimated allowed her to think.

She considered that she may have been under a genjutsu before she'd been hit with the Chidori, but she would never know for certain.

Rin vowed to make it up to Kakashi somehow. What she had attempted wasn't fair to him. Or to herself.

Or Obito.

"Rin," Kakashi rasped from behind her. She stopped moving, back ramrod straight. This was it, he was going to lay into her for being a thoughtless bitch. She turned around in the darkness just in time to see her teammate fall face first to the ground.

"Kakashi!" Rin said, panic stricken

Kakashi was not allowed to faint right now. Rin was in no condition whatsoever to fight.

She rushed to his side and rolled him to his back. He was breathing, but it was faint, and his pulse was not strong. "You can't faint on me Kakashi. I need you. I can't do this without you."

She tried to fight back tears in her panic at being alone in her situation. She took deep breaths and looked around for any signs of hostile action. When nothing happened immediately, Rin focused again on Kakashi.

They had at least a little time.

"Please wake up, Kakashi. I can't exactly fight right now. My chakra is… my chakra is broken." Once she started, she found she could not stop A floodgate of confession had opened. She started babbling as she knelt over her comrade.

"I want to thank you properly for keeping me safe. I thought I was going to die every moment I was held captive. The man in charge of those ninja, he… he… tortured me. Pain I didn't know was possible, Kakashi. And then when you rescued me, I knew in my heart that the only way to keep you safe was to die. But that isn't true. We can fix this. We can go home and… and… and live." Her tears were falling freely now, dripping with soft pat-pat-pats onto his Chunin vest.

"I'm so sorry I jumped in front of your Chidori. I was out of my head. It was stupid and so, so cruel." Rin put her forehead on Kakashi's chest. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know it's my fault you're tired. If I was stronger, I wouldn't have been captured. I'll work harder, okay? Please wake up. Please…"

She cried until she was thirsty and no more tears would fall. She took long, deep breaths, and forced herself to count down from ten.

10…

She needed to secure a location while they rested.

9…

That would require finding somewhere even remotely defensible.

8…

She had to do this without using any chakra.

7…

And with one arm.

6…

Her mission gear was gone, likely back at the Mist hideout.

5…

She could go through Kakashi's things, and put together a plan.

4…

They couldn't risk a fire. Not without genjutsu to hide it.

3…

She was cold, but they could cuddle for warmth if the temperature fell any lower.

2…

She needed to move Kakashi so that he was hidden.

1…

She could do this.

Rin raised her head, breathing steady and even, and deep. She began emptying Kakashi's mission gear and pockets, taking stock of what supplies she had available to her. Kakashi's tanto would be useful for cutting branches. It was infinitely sharper than a kunai. Kakashi also had smoke bombs, ninja wire, and a handful of shuriken. He had a small scroll on him, contained within were key things like a tent, sleeping bag, medicine, and foodstuffs. Unfortunately, Rin could not hope to access those without use of her chakra. And she didn't dare try to use her chakra again, not after her attempt while in captivity.

First thing's first, Rin thought, I need to clean up my arm, make sure it doesn't get infected.

Rin clipped Kakashi's water canteen to her belt, and grabbed Kakashi's tanto.

With Kakashi's tanto in hand, she set off to find a beehive. It took her almost an hour in the dark, but she did eventually spot one. She found some dried twigs on the ground, and piled them up beneath the hive. Then she found some larger branches to use as fuel. She found some supple and young branches from nearby trees, and set those aside as well.

Then she set about starting the kindling she'd collected. She lined them with the larger branches, and set the green leaves and young branches atop them. The resulting smoke would drive the bees out of the hive, and then she would have access to the honey.

While she waited, Rin tore the sleeve off of her bad arm, removed her wrap, and tried to make a sling. It was frustrating with one hand. By the time she had something even remotely serviceable, the bees were swarming around the smoke, and Rin cut open the hive.

There was a lot of honey. Thank god, Rin thought.

She took Kakashi's canteen, and poured the water over her bloodied arm, gently rinsing the dried blood and dirt away. Rin put the tanto between her teeth. Then reached into the hive and scooped out a handful of honey. She grimaced and bit down. This was going to hurt. A lot.

She covered the wound with honey. It burned like holy hellfire. She screamed into the tanto, biting even harder. When her arm was slathered in honey, Rin forced her arm into the makeshift sling.

Everything was sticky, but the Honey would prevent infection, and give her arm time to stop bleeding. Satisfied with her work, she stomped out the fire. Leaving it any longer was asking to be found.

Rin returned to Kakashi and assessed her situation once more. With her wound temporarily treated, she was safe to move without blood loss or risk of infection. She needed a place to work from.

She moved all of Kakashi's accessible gear to the base of a large, nearby tree, then took Kakashi's right hand in her good one, and dragged him into a nearby cluster of bushes. She grabbed his tanto from the pile at the base of the tree, and hacked off a few low branches that had thick leaves. It was awkward, but after a minute of rearranging the branches, Kakashi was hidden from anyone who did not know he was there.

She then took a lap around the area where Kakashi was. Roughly fifteen minutes in every direction. There were no positions that were any more defensible than where Kakashi already was. And considering there was no way in hell she could move him any major distance it would have to do.

Once she was at Kakashi's side again, she checked him over once more. No external injuries. She hoped he would wake soon. The likelihood she would survive a confrontation with an enemy combatant was non existent.

Rin took up the tanto again and hacked down several more branches, doing her best to create a small shelter for her teammate. Then she started to set a perimeter for defense. Rin tied wire traps with what kunai and shuriken Kakashi had. She sharpened tree branches and set those with wire when she ran out of steel. Next were the smoke bombs, set to go off as a warning and to obscure the other traps.

When she had rigged up as much as she could with one hand, slow going though it had been, Rin wiped her brow and started covering her tracks. Leaving no signs that she had booby trapped the area. It took forever. By the time her handiwork was all but invisible, the sun was rising.

But she knew she could not afford to rest. If she stopped moving she would fall asleep, and Rin was afraid that sleeping would result in both their deaths.

Instead, Rin began laying false trails in varying directions. A half hour walk in one direction, followed by careful backtracking. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

By midday, Rin was spent.

She settled for standing guard near Kakashi's location, changing her position every time she felt her consciousness slipping.

Rin maintained her vigil for an hour, before she slipped into unconsciousness.

It was a fitful rest, full of panic, terror, and agonizing memories.

...In her dreams, she did not survive the Chidori...

The sound of a smoke bomb detonating woke her. Rin blinked awake just as her kunai traps were triggered. Through the smoke, she heard a man scream in pain. Another man barked orders, several sounds of affirmative, and then a water jutsu tore through the forest.

A group ninjutsu! Rin realized too late.

Rin was engulfed in the flood, trying desperately to swim with one arm. The current overwhelmed her and she was flung an unknown distance from Kakashi. Rin hit a tree hard, and she lost all sense of direction. She was going to drown.

When the water receded, Rin sputtered and coughed, gasping desperately for breath. She pulled herself to her knees, and choked out water she hadn't even realized she had swallowed.

"Shit," Rin said to nobody in particular. "Fuck. Shit. Fuck."

Everything hurt. Everything. Everywhere.

She tried to stand, but her left leg buckled and pain nearly robbed her of consciousness. There was no way she could fight back like this, she knew, but she had to try. Rin forced herself to her feet, and settled her weight on her right leg. She cast around for Kakashi's tanto, and saw that it was impaled in a tree fifty yards away.

Rin hobbled to it. And desperately tried to pull it loose with her left hand. It took several seconds of frustrated tugging to pull it free. When it came loose, Rin went with it, tumbling to the ground. The impact sent more pain coursing through her injured arm and leg.

Rin cried out in pain, eyes blurring with tears. She blinked to clear them away.

There were footsteps behind her, and then the cold steel of a kunai was resting against her throat. The tanto was pulled from her grip. Rin's stomach dropped, and a dread settled within her.

"The game is over, little girl," A man said. "Though I admit, you and your little friend gave us more trouble than we thought possible. So know that he'll go to his death screaming in pain, and you'll come back for further experimentation."

Rin snarled. "Don't you dare touch him!"

Several men laughed.

"As if you could stop us," Another voice taunted.

"What are you going to do about it, girl? You're crippled and your friend is unconscious." The first man again. A hand fisted in her hair and she was pulled unceremoniously upright into the air, not quite able to touch the ground.

"Ahh!" Rin screamed at the pain.

"You can watch him die if you want," The Mist ninja said.

Counting the man holding her, there were five of them.

Two of the Mist ninja pulled a waterlogged Kakashi forward. Rin tried to claw at the hand holding her up, and received a punch to her stomach that knocked the breath from her lungs for her trouble. She choked and coughed, desperate for air.

More laughing.

"Eyes up, girl," The man said. "Your friend is going to get his fingers cut off one by one. You should watch."

"Screw you," Rin said. She reached for the man's hand again. Her effort was batted away with ease.

The kunai that had been at her throat pierced her flesh, clear through the bicep of her left arm. Rin opened her mouth, but no sound came out, she convulsed in midair, and her head lulled to the side, left arm limp at her side. She wanted to just drift away until there was nothingness. She let herself fade...

A hand cracked across her face, bringing clarity back to her.

"No time to rest," The man said, grabbing her jaw and holding her head up. Blood dripped from her mouth. The last strike had split her lip and cut the inside of her mouth against her teeth.

"Kakashi! Kakashi wake up!" Rin slurred around the blood. Her voice was desperate, raspy, emotional.

Another strike left Rin reeling. Her scalp was numb and her cheeks swollen. Kakashi did not stir. Rin began to struggle against the grip of her captor, desperately trying to save her.

"She's feisty!" The man holding her said to raucous laughter. "Let's put a stop to that."

In a flash, Kakashi's tanto was glinting in the sunlight. He buried it to the hilt in her stomach. Blood ballooned from her mouth, and Rin spasmed. She couldn't breathe. This was how she was going to die, she knew, but she wished Kakashi could live. He deserved better than to be killed because of her weakness.

"Kill the boy. We need to get this brat back to the base before she bleeds to death."

No! Kakashi can't die. Not now. Not like this. Please not like this. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

She had never been this scared in her life. Never so wild and blind with panic.

Rin felt something brush her mind, something dark, dangerous, powerful. It could help her, she realized. The power could save Kakashi. She reached for it, and chakra flooded her body. To her carnal delight, it did not hurt. She was alive with power! Kakashi's tanto flew from her flesh, and was flung somewhere into the trees. Rin twisted with a rabid ferocity, her hair tore from her scalp and she pulled away from the Mist ninja who was holding onto her. She clawed out the throat of the man who had tortured her with her bare hand, and felt an overwhelming rush of glee when his blood covered her skin.

He collapsed with a gargle and lay still. She giggled.

Oh yes, she felt good. Better than she'd ever felt. Powerful, unstoppable, mighty.

Rin ripped her arm free of its sling and smiled at the remaining ninja. She flexed her arm experimentally. No pain, only strength, only the ability to kill these people. To protect Kakashi from their filthy hands.

She pounced on another ninja, this one, she vaguely realized, was very badly burned. Her hands clasped upon his shoulders and she drove her knee into his groin before biting his neck and pulling out his jugular. The taste of blood filled her mouth and she reveled in it. There was noise behind her, and she wheeled on her next victim, her feral grin was now sick, twisted, bloody.

Rin felt her sense of self slip from her. She was death incarnate. She was life. She loved this new power. Nothing would ever take it from her! She could protect and kill at her discretion, and nothing could stop her.

"What are you?" The man shouted, his face pale, and voice wavering. He was terrified. Rin laughed. The full laugh of someone without worry or regret or care. The laugh of someone who enjoyed that this man was afraid. Afraid like she had been.

"Die!" Rin yelled in a voice far too deep, and wild and unhinged to be her own. The Mist ninja swung a kunai at her, shaky and desperate. She drew back her right fist and easily batted away his kunai with her left hand. The metal blade shattered beneath her fist. She punched with her right, and drove her hand straight through his heart. Whatever part of Rin that had taken over greatly enjoyed watching the man die. With a newfound casual disinterest, Rin lifted the man and threw him backwards over her head. His blood cascaded on her hair and shoulders as his lifeless body arced over her, and she fixed her gaze on the last three men, all of them were standing around Kakashi, two holding weapons.

She'd kill them for even being that close to him.

A primal roar escaped her throat and she charged. The closest of the three managed to evade her first two fury driven punches, but the third swing caught him in the face and she watched as his jaw was ripped clean from his face. Without a second glance she spun around and delivered a kick to the next mist ninja. He was lifted off his feet and thrown over the third man. He collided with the trunk of a tree, and light left his eyes when his head snapped back violently upon impact.

"Stop," the last man said feebly.

"No! I have to kill you all. I have to protect my friend." Rin growled.

"Please," he asked her.

Blinded by her rage, Rin jumped toward him and drove her fist into his stomach. It would have been a killing blow like all the others, but the final man had twisted at the last second. Instead of killing him, she enjoyed the crunch of his cracking ribs. He grasped her wrist with his right hand as he twisted, and they both fell to the ground. He tried to untangle himself from her, but she was faster, stronger.

Rin was on her feet first. She grabbed her final enemy by the collar and dragged him upright. With an ease she hardly thought possible even minutes before, Rin carried him to the nearest tree.

He tried to break her grip, but couldn't. How pathetic.

She roughly shoved him against the trunk, and his head slammed against the tree with a satisfying thunk. He grunted in pain and she released him. He slumped down, knees buckling. Rin lifted him back to his feet, and pinned him against the tree with one hand. She punched him, once, twice, three times, but he didn't die.

"Rin," the man wheezed. "Please stop. Please come back." His voice was so quiet. So broken. So weak.

She headbutted the man, and blood fell from his brow to his eyes. She raked her hand across his face and he convulsed violently. His mask fell from his bloodied face, torn by her fingers.

"I'm here," he whispered. "I'll always be right beside you."

Why did he know her name? Why wasn't he running, or fighting back?

She couldn't see him clearly. Everything was a haze of violence, and glee, and arousal. She blinked. Was his hair silver?

The bloodlust left her eyes and she saw that she was holding Kakashi against the tree. Kakashi, not a faceless Mist ninja. Kakashi, who was hovering on the edge of life and death. She recoiled, and he fell gracelessly to the ground.

"K-Kakashi?" Rin asked after a very long moment. She was shaking. She fell to her knees. She crawled to him, she shook his shoulder. Nothing, no response. She checked his pulse, he was too still. He wasn't breathing, she realized. He wasn't breathing!

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Rin's Capture Arc

Chapter 4

Kushina

Kushina sat in the lotus position, her hands in the tiger seal. She was in the ancient shrine on the edge of the Leaf village. She came here to meditate often, to focus her chakras, and to be close to the only known standing memory of her clan. Around her was a history that she was determined not to forget, the history of her clan, her people.

What little had survived the destruction of Uzushiogakure, the Whirlpool Village, was now here, stored and sealed away until the day her clan was restored. Though she had little hope of ever finding another member of her clan. It had been years, and there was never a sign.

Tomorrow, she would make her annual trip to the ruins of her birth village, and see if anyone had arrived. As a clan heiress, and Jonin, Kushina had organized and paid for a D rank mission with no end date. Every ninja outpost and allied village was supplied with information for any members of the Uzumaki clan to rendezvous in the old Whirlpool village on a certain day every year.

She had paid for this mission every year since she'd been promoted to Chunin, but never once had anyone showed up. She didn't expect any change. But she had to keep hoping.

With a final slow, deep breath, Kushina opened her eyes, lowered her seal, and got to her feet. She needed to get home, pack for her mission, and rustle up some dinner. She'd probably eat out tonight.

Her fiancé was on a mission, so there was little reason to head home first. That meant it was ramen time. She exited the shrine, bowing with respect to her fallen clan, closed the door, and reapplied the seals that kept the shrine in pristine condition, and kept anyone who wasn't her out.

Five minutes later she was back in the village proper, and a moment after that, she was entering the newly established ramen shop run by Teuchi - a recently retired Jonin. He'd suffered a very nasty wound during the Third Ninja War, and could no longer use ninjutsu.

"Ah, Kushina," Teuchi said boisterously when she entered. "Good to see you!"

"It's good to see you, too, Teuchi. How are you adjusting to civilian life?" Kushina asked, taking a seat at the bar.

"It's as good as it can be, I suppose. I think I've really got down the miso recipe now. Hopefully business will start picking up soon," Teuchi said.

"Well you know I'm a loyal customer. Have to look out for my former squad leader, after all," Kushina said.

Teuchi chuckled. "I was your squad leader in war time, and only for a few months. It's not like I was your Jonin sensei."

Kushina shrugged. "We're friends, Teuchi. You know that I always look out for my friends. And I love ramen."

Teuchi really laughed now. "My ramen is terrible. I chose to make it a ramen stand because you took me out to eat at a ramen stand when I got out of the hospital. Stuck with me for some reason. Gave me purpose, no matter how small."

"You'll become a great ramen chef, Teuchi. I know it," Kushina said, beaming at her former captain.

He smiled at her, a bittersweet expression crossing his face in a flash. It was gone in less than a second, but Kushina had seen it. She felt horrible for him. She didn't know what she would do if she lost the ability to safely mould her chakra. Losing a limb wasn't necessarily a deathblow to a ninja's career in the same way that a permanent injury to the chakra network was. It would have been kinder if he'd lost an arm.

Teuchi waved a hand dismissively. "It'll happen or it won't. What'll you have?"

Kushina ordered, and Teuchi turned to prepare her bowl. She swiveled on the barstool, throwing an elbow onto the counter and leaning back. People bustled this way and that, as they finished their business for the day, and Kushina enjoyed the few moments watching them. Konoha was peaceful at night, and she liked the sleepy feeling that permeated the air.

A squad of Genin entered the ramen shop, talking animatedly to each other. "I can't believe our first mission was to pull weeds!" One of the Genin said.

His teammates agreed.

Kushina laughed. She did not miss the pointless missions that all young ninja started with.

"Here's your ramen," Teuchi said, putting a bowl down in front of her. Kushina swiveled in her bar stool, barely able to contain her eagerness, and reached for a pair of chopsticks.

"Thanks for the food, Teuchi," Kushina said. She broke apart her chopsticks, and looked at her bowl with a smile. She hadn't had a bowl of ramen in nearly a week. And while it wasn't a record, it was still up there as a testament to her own self-restraint. The steam brought the warm aroma to her nose, and she breathed in the inviting smell of the broth. Even if it wasn't the best in the village, she knew it would hit the spot. Ramen always hit the spot.

"Kushina Uzumaki!" A voice said from behind her.

She paused, her first bite halfway to her mouth, and sighed. The official tone of the ninja behind her could only mean that she was being called to the mission desk or to an intelligence briefing. And leaving meant no ramen. Unacceptable. "What is it?"

"You have a mission. You are to report to the Hokage at once." Kushina put her chopsticks in her bowl, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I know I have a mission. I'm scheduled to leave tomorrow morning." Maybe if she just said no she would be allowed to eat the ramen. Yes, that would totally work. Kushina picked up her chopsticks and plucked a particularly delicious looking noodle from the broth.

"You misunderstand. You are being assigned to a new mission, effective immediately. You are to report to the Hokage's office."

Kushina slapped her chopsticks back into the bowl, and turned around with a scowl on her face. A young Chunin she did not recognize was standing a tactically sound amount of steps away from her. He seemed nervous. And she liked that. Because even if he was just following orders he was interrupting ramen time.

Ramen time was sacred.

"All right," Kushina said with a long suffering sigh. She fished money from her pocket and slapped it on the counter next to her untouched ramen. "See you next time, Teuchi!"

Kushina ditched the Chunin on principle, and made her way to the Hokage's tower, using the rooftops to avoid any foot traffic. She landed gracefully outside the tower, and opened the large doors.

"Can I help you?" Asked a receptionist.

"I've been summoned by the Hokage. Uzumaki Kushina reporting in."

The secretary nodded, checked a sheet of paper on her desk, and said, "You are requested for an urgent assignment. Priority one. Go on up."

Kushina took the stairs three at a time, turned the corner and followed the curved hallway until she was in front of the large double doors of the Hokage's office. She knocked.

"Enter."

She pushed the doors open, and entered the office. One she hoped to call her own some day. It was spacious and circular, lined with bookshelves along two walls. The back wall was taken up by windows overlooking the village, and in the center of the room was a large wooden desk. The Hokage was seated behind the desk, hands folded in front of his face.

"Thank you for coming in such short notice," Hiruzen Sarutobi, The Hokage, said as Kushina stepped into the room.

"Is there a complication with my mission to Whirlpool?" Kushina asked, stopping before the desk. There was a dog she recognized as Pakkun drinking from a bowl near the desk. Were Kakashi and Rin back already? They'd stopped by before they left on a scouting mission to see their sensei, but Minato had already departed on a long mission to the Land of Earth. She'd promised to pass their mission details along if Minato returned before his students.

"No," Hiruzen said. He took a deep breath, and fidgeted with his pipe. "There's no easy way to say this, Kushina, but I have an urgent A rank mission for you. Kakashi and Rin ran into some hostile ninja on their scouting mission. Pakkun delivered the report that Rin was captured by enemy ninja - their route would suggest hold outs from the Mist village, but Kakashi didn't give Pakkun specifics on their origin. He tracked Rin and her captors to a hidden base, and sent Pakkun to get backup."

Kushina clenched her fists. While they'd never officially been her students. She'd spent countless hours with her fiancé's team, helping them learn, eating with them, laughing with them, and crying alongside them. When Obito had died, they'd all felt his absence deeply. She couldn't even imagine how Kakashi must be feeling. Losing a second teammate, especially so soon after Obito had passed, would be devastating.

"Is my mission to back them up?" Kushina asked. Already she was making a pre-mission prep list.

The Hokage nodded.

"Parameters?" Kushina asked, putting her exuberant personality behind the competent, professional ninja training.

"Find Kakashi Hatake, back him up, and recover Rin Nohara. If possible, capture an enemy for possible interrogation," The Hokage said. He opened a tin on his desk, and picked out a small amount of pipe tobacco.

Kushina nodded. "Am I meeting with anyone else, or is this a solo mission?"

Hiruzen packed the tobacco into his pipe, lighting it with a snap of his fingers. "We don't have time to organize a full team, and our forces are spread thin in the aftermath of the war. I need you to leave within the hour. However, if you come across anyone on your way out of the village, you have my permission to recruit them for your mission. Within reason."

"If I find anyone, I'll let the Chunin on guard at the gate know," Kushina said. "What about Minato? He can get there faster than any of us. Do we have a way to get a message to him?"

"Unfortunately, he is deep in the field, and the only one who could send him a message is Jiraiya, who is in the Land of Storms, which is in the opposite direction." The Hokage let out a long breath. "It's not an ideal situation, but that's war."

"The war is over, Lord Hokage," Kushina said.

Hiruzen smiled wryly. "If only that were true. Our wars are never over. They are just less overt from time to time."

"You should still send someone to Jiraiya, and to Minato. The more pieces we have in motion, the better off we'll be." Kushina crossed her arms, trying to keep her temper in check.

"Our resources are spread thin enough as it is, Kushina. Sending more ninja away from the village now will leave us vulnerable. And as much as I hate to say it, Kakashi Hatake and Rin Nohara are hardly our most valuable assets." The Hokage said.

She saw red. "They're just kids, damnit! They're good kids who have been through more hell than they should ever have to." It was true. She'd already been in a relationship with Minato when he'd taken the squad on as their Jonin instructor, so she knew the kids very well. She'd been their unofficial second sensei for years. They were part of her family.

"They are fully qualified ninja of the Leaf, and they are doing their duty," The Hokage said.

Kushina scowled, and bit the inside of her mouth hard enough to draw blood. "Yes, sir. I understand that your orders are in the best interest of the village." She tasted blood, and she all but spat the words at their leader.

"Then you are dismissed," The Hokage said. "Take Pakkun with you, he can guide you to Kakashi's last known location.

Pakkun rose and trotted across the office. "I'll follow your lead."

Kushina turned to leave, but paused at the door. Taking a breath to steady herself. "Lord Hokage?"

"Yes?" He prompted.

"What about my mission to Whirlpool?" Kushina asked. "I know it's not likely that anyone is there, but… but it's important to me. Are we spread too thin for that, as well?"

"You are free to head to Whirlpool after this mission has been resolved," The Hokage said.

"Thank you, sir," Kushina said, and she exited the office in a huff.

She and Pakkun took the streets instead of the rooftops. Kushina was hoping against hope that she'd bump into another off duty Jonin. Or at least a full squad of Chunin. Chances weren't high. It was getting late. Most ninja were resting for tomorrow's work, or already off on missions.

"How far out are we going, Pakkun?" Kushina asked Kakashi's dog as they turned down a small street that led towards the outer ring of houses near the east wall of the village. Kushina and Minato had just moved into a brand new home that was constructed on the edges of the village. While out of the way, it was the perfect place to raise a family.

Not that they wanted kids just yet. But someday soon, perhaps. Like after Kushina was Hokage. Then she'd be stuck in the village anyway. Which made it the perfect time. But for now they had to focus on rescuing what remained of Minato's team.

"I ran non stop for almost a full day," Pakkun said. "They were about as far away from Konoha as you can get before falling into the ocean."

"That's not good," Kushina said. "We'll have to make good time, if we want to have any impact on the outcome of their mission."

When they arrived at Kushina's home, she was in and out in a matter of minutes. Dressed in her shinobi uniform, headband tied in place, with several scrolls of sealed ninja supplies, food, and medicine in her vest, and a ration bar half eaten in her mouth.

"Let's go!" Kushina said with her mouth full.

She and Pakkun made a mad dash for the village gate. The buildings flashed by in a blur, and they touched down at the exit to the Leaf village in under a minute.

A team of Chunin was showing their documentation to the guards at the gate. Kushina smirked as she strode towards them. She only recognized one of the kids, a member of Maito Gai's Genin team, Genma Shiranui. The other two she was sure she'd seen before, but she couldn't put names to their faces.

"Man," Genma said after he handed his ninja id to the guards. "I am so glad we're done with that mission. Three weeks escorting a construction crew to outposts. What an absolute bore."

"I can't wait for a hot shower and a warm meal. Trail rations are the worst!" Another of the Chunin said to a chorus of agreement.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I am going to be taking your squad on a high priority mission," Kushina said.

"What? Now?" Genma asked. "But we just got back, and we haven't even reported to the mission desk yet."

"Yes, now," Kushina said. "I have permission from Lord Hokage to take any backup I deem necessary. It's more a matter of timing than preference. I had less than an hour to prep and get out of the village, and your team just so happened to be here when I touched down."

"What's the mission?" Asked one of Genma's squad mates.

"I'll tell you en-route. We'll be pushing it. No rest tonight," Kushina said. She turned to the guards. "Please pass along to Lord Hokage that I am taking command of this unit for my mission and that they will report the details of their previous mission when we return."

The Chunin guards nodded, and Kushina motioned for Pakkun to lead the way.

"First things first," She said. "Sound off. The only one of you I know is Genma."

"Genma Shiranui," Genma said.

"I'm Raido Namiashi."

"And I'm Iwashi Tatami."

"Nice to meet you all," Kushina said. "I'm Kushina Uzumaki, Jonin, and this mission is A ranked. We're being sent as backup for Kakashi Hatake and Rin Nohara. They were on a routine scouting mission when Rin was taken by hostile ninja - Lord Hokage suspects they were from Hidden Mist, but it's not confirmed. Kakashi went in pursuit and sent Pakkun here to inform the village. That was over twenty-four hours ago."

"That's not good," Raido said.

"Are you and your team in good enough shape to travel without rest?" Kushina asked.

"We are," Genma said. "It was just an escort mission to some of the outposts, we haven't been in combat for weeks. It was Iwashi's first mission as a Chunin squad leader."

"We can do this," Iwashi agreed. "Let's go save our comrades."

"Good to hear you're ready for this mission. It's sure to be dangerous," Kushina said. "I'll need to get a basic idea of your abilities before we get there. Genma, you start."

They turned from the road, following behind Pakkun as he took to the trees. They were running to the east, away from the setting sun, and into potentially hostile enemy territory. But they would have the advantage of being Leaf ninja in a dense forest.

"Right," Genma said. "Let's give you the rundown of our skills."

Rin

The chakra cloak that surrounded her would have burned under normal circumstances. But it didn't. It was warm, and powerful.

There had been fear.

And then uncontrollable anger.

There had been a bloodlust that she couldn't sate.

And then the carnal pleasure of violence.

Rin slowly came back to her senses, body trembling and breath erratic. She was covered in blood, everywhere. The smell, the wetness, the stickiness were disgusting. Around her were dead men, and before her was her dying teammate. Her dying best friend.

She'd done this. She'd done that to him. He was going to die and it was her fault. But she felt the energy of the monster with and around her. She was a medic, and she could fix him. Willing herself not to break down and cry.

If she panicked now, he was going to die. But if she attempted ninjutsu, the pain would return and she would feel only agony. What choice was there, though? Kakashi was on death's door and it was her fault! She had to try, despite the risk.

"I can do this," She said in a voice not her own. It was deep, guttural, powerful. What had she been turned into?

Rin made the hand seals for the mystical palm jutsu and watched as her chakra cloaked hands turned green. Or what should have been. The chakra that was leaking from her was turning everything gray and purple.

She looked Kakashi over. He was a mess of blood and cuts and bruises. She put her hands to his leg and focused on restoring him. It was the smell that alerted her first. Burning flesh.

With a gasp, she pulled her hands away from Kakashi's leg and saw, to her horror, that instead of stemming the flow of blood from a wound, she had cauterized the cut and burned the skin off of nearly a foot of his upper leg.

"No!" Rin screamed, falling away from Kakashi and scrambling back until she was up against the trunk of a nearby tree.

She brushed her body with her hands blindly as the panic swelled within her. She tried to pull off the chakra that surrounded her as one might try to pull a spider web from themselves. Rin knew nothing but overwhelming fear as she screamed in terror and blindly scraped at herself. All she wanted was for the chakra to go away, but it persisted. Flaring wildly around her as she lost all control and sense of herself.

Rin thrashed about wildly, slamming herself against the tree as she flailed.

The world around her faded when she slammed the back of her head against the tree. She wanted it to stop. She hit her head again, and again and again until there was nothing.

Rin drifted. She ached, but somehow she was comfortable. She was calm in this place. It was away from the reality of her mission. Of her dead or dying teammate. She could forget here.

Everything was too loud and too quiet simultaneously. Darkness and light danced together in infinity. Distance was, and it wasn't.

The world was too close, and laughably far away.

It was like… well it was like floating in an ocean, only everything was dark. But dark didn't describe it well, because she could see her hands just fine, and a turtle was visible some ways away. There just wasn't any need for light, even if everything was visible here. And her surroundings were shrouded in darkness. Or perhaps nothingness.

And where here was, Rin didn't know. It was here, and it was there. Then and now.

There were sounds from elsewhere, and Rin sat up to look for them. Or, she thought she stood up. But she hadn't really been lying down to begin with. Or had she been sitting already when she stood? Or had she not moved anything but her head at all?

The sound, she eventually decided, was too far away and there were things more interesting here in the place with too much light and darkness.

She stood up, or so she thought, because when it came to it, Rin wasn't entirely certain she'd been lying down in the first place. And hadn't she stood already? Or sat up?

It was just... too hard to focus. She wasn't there, in that other place. She was here, in her dark and light place, with a turtle. It was off in the distance, swimming around in the nothingness. It looked cute.

A turtle? Why a turtle?

Rin had never had a turtle as a pet, or talked to one by any of the rivers or creeks in Konoha. She didn't think she'd seen one anywhere except for in books. She decided she liked it.

It wasn't her turtle, though, so why was she in this nowhere place with a turtle?

Perhaps the turtle would tell her what to do. Or at least explain what was happening.

Yes. That made sense. The turtle would explain. She could tell it knew what was happening, because it was swimming around without a care in the world.

She walked towards the tiny turtle, but it felt like floating. Or maybe it felt like flying through the air. Or swimming.

It quickly became clear that the turtle wasn't small, it was just very, very far away. Relatively speaking, at any rate. There was no way for her to tell how far she had or hadn't gone.

When she did finally get to the turtle, she was surprised to see that it was larger than any building she'd ever seen. It was big, and gray, and it had three tails. Rin wasn't even sure if regular turtles had tails in the first place. And she was sure she was supposed to be afraid of it. But this place was like no dream she'd ever had, and she felt nothing and everything all at once.

"Excuse me!" Rin called to the turtle.

The turtle shifted, and suddenly she was in front of its single, massive eye. The other one was closed, or missing, she reasoned. The turtle said nothing.

"Where are we?" Rin asked.

The turtle said nothing once again. It felt almost like it was sizing her up, but the turtle had to know that she was smaller than it was. Rin decided it was a silly turtle.

"Are you lost, too, Mister Turtle?" Rin asked.

The turtle blinked. "What do you want, human?"

"You can talk!" Rin cheered. But her voice was wrong. It was echoey and far away, but it was also too close and too loud.

"What do you want?" The turtle repeated.

"Want?" Rin asked. "Why would I want anything? I'm just here to float. There's nothing to worry about here."

"You took my chakra," The turtle said. "I did not give you permission."

"Took your… chakra?" Rin said. "But then you're the…" Rin screamed and tried to swim or fly or run away from the Turtle as fast as she could. But it was like she was caught in a riptide. The turtle never got farther away.

"Why are you in my prison?" The turtle asked. Rin didn't know why she was here, or how she got here.

"Go away!" Rin shrieked. "You made me kill Kakashi!"

"What you did with the stolen chakra is not my responsibility, human. You took a power you cannot hope to understand, and now you fear it. You fear my power." It was not a question. It was a statement of fact.

The nothingness trembled with power, and ripples of chakra flowed out from the three-tailed turtle. Rin couldn't breathe, couldn't think. All she knew was terror.

"Help!" She called to the nothingness. "Help me!"

But no help came, and she was swept away into the infinity of darkness and terror.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Rin's Capture Arc

Chapter 5

Kushina

What they found when they arrived was, to say the very least, not what Kushina had expected. Pakkun had smelled it long before they arrived on the scene, and had informed them that he could smell Rin and Kakashi - and blood, lots and lots of blood. Their course was corrected accordingly, and Kushina noted that this location was hours closer than Pakkun had predicted. 

The poor dog nearly collapsed when they arrived. “I can’t pick them out. Too much blood in the air,” Pakkun said. Instead, he clambered up onto Kushina’s shoulder and sat as a sentinel.

“What the hell happened here?” Genma asked when they touched down.

“I… I don’t know,” Kushina said. The ground was covered in mud, trees had been upended or blown to pieces, and there were bodies strewn everywhere. The sight was one of the most disturbing she’d seen in a long time. “Spread out and look for them!”

“Must have been one hell of a battle,” Raido said offhandedly.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Iwashi asked.

“I don’t know,” Raido said. “It doesn’t look like anyone survived. Let’s hope the damage was done by Rin and Kakashi.”

“Just focus on finding them,” Genma said. “Battlefields like this aren’t known for their good news.”

She knelt down and turned over a body that was face down in the mud. She grimaced when she saw the still oozing hole in his neck. Someone had torn out his throat. Her eyes flicked to his forehead. Mist Village. She pushed the body back down and moved onto the next one.

A man with a hole straight through his chest. It was big enough to be someone’s fist. The lack of cauterization led Kushina to believe that it was not Kakashi’s Chidori that did the damage. Kushina gagged and bit back bile. 

The gore and the smell were beginning to get to her. She’d fought in battles before, but she’d never personally scavenged one hours after it had taken place. It was equal parts disgusting and disturbing. 

Whatever had happened in this part of the forest had been unmistakably, unforgivably violent.

“I found one of them!” Iwashi called. “It’s the girl, Rin.”

Kushina was across the battlefield in an instant, eyes looking over the girl. Kushina pushed Iwashi aside and knelt beside the girl. She was covered in blood from head to toe, and one of her arms was covered in something both muddy and sticky. Rin had a heartbeat, however. And she was breathing. “It looks like she’s not in any immediate danger,” Kushina said. 

Carefully as possible, she sat Rin against the tree she was closest to. Kushina checked Rin from head to toe, cursing the fact that she was no good at medical or diagnostic jutsu. Her clothes were torn and dirty as sin, but she was not openly bleeding anywhere. Unless she had severe damage internally, Kushina felt confident that Rin was going to be okay.

She started to turn away when she felt something strange in Rin’s chakra. Kushina Uzumaki possessed the rare gifts that her clan’s blood passed on genetically. One of these things was a sensory ability that let Kushina feel and see chakra much more effectively than an ninja who had undergone intense training to achieve the same result. 

Kushina paused, and put her hand on Rin’s head. She closed her eyes and reached out with her chakra, feeling and listening. Rin’s chakra was usually bright and hot, not unlike fire. But it was colder now, more subdued, and there was something lying just beneath the surface of it, something that was foreign and not entirely unfamiliar all at once. 

Whatever it was, it was enormous. Kushina couldn’t help but note that it was dangerous. Likely, she reasoned, it was some kind of seal. Seals could, after all, contain incredible amounts of chakra. And much like her long dead clan, she was an expert in the mostly forgotten art of sealing.

“This doesn’t look good,” Kushina said, opening her eyes and scanning Rin for any obvious ink markings. 

“What is it?” Iwashi asked.

“Something is amiss with Rin’s chakra, but I’m not sure what it is,” Kushina explained. “I’d like to take a look at her, but this is a terrible place to do it.”

“We can always look at her back in the village,” Iwashi said. “The hospital has medics to do that.”

“I don’t think it’s medical,” explained Kushina, taking a kunai from the holster on her thigh, and slicing open Rin’s shirt. “I think there’s a seal on her somewhere. The feel of it is all kinds of weird, but it’s like I’ve seen this kind of thing before.”

“Can I help?” Iwashi asked.

“Either roll up her sleeves or tear them off. Tell me if you see any chakra paper or ink on her,” Kushina ordered. “It’s in our best interest to do this quickly.”

“Right,” Iwashi said.

They worked in silence, Iwashi checking her arms, while Kushina looked at Rin’s torso and back. 

“I don’t see anything,” Iwashi said when he was finished.

“Neither do I,” Kushina said with a frown. “Something about this is all wrong. I just wish I knew what.” She popped her neck and got to her feet. “We shouldn’t stay here too much longer.”

“Kakashi!” Genma said from behind her.

Kushina let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding. Kakashi was here, too. That was good news. Hopefully he was okay after this battle. She looked to see Genma and Raido about ten meters away at another tree, then she turned to Iwashi. “Iwashi, get yourself ready to carry Rin. We’ll take shifts, but you’re up first. Whatever you need to do to secure her. We aren’t staying here any longer than is strictly necessary.”

“Yes, captain,” Iwashi said. He reached for his pouch and pulled out a length of cord, and began creating loops for him to slip Rin’s arms and legs through.

“Oh no,” Genma said when he crouched down next to Kakashi.

“Is he…?” Raido asked, from Kakashi’s other side.

Kushina whirled back and saw Genma and Raido crouched beside a body. Or what was left of one, at least. She was at their side as fast as her legs could take her. When she saw Kakashi, she inhaled sharply, and it was only her years of ninja training that stopped her from crying, or reacting openly. 

Kakashi’s clothes were unrecognizable, leaving large patches of skin exposed. His skin was covered in cuts and bruises and even a nasty burn on his right leg. His mask was in shambles, and she saw his face for the first time. He looked so peaceful… so young. 

Pakkun let out a whine, but didn’t move from her shoulder.

Don’t be dead, She thought.

“Let’s go help Iwashi,” Genma said quietly. Kushina barely registered Raido and Genma moving away.

She reached out with trembling fingers to feel for Kakashi’s pulse. She felt nothing but the friction of her shaking fingers against the ruined material of his mask. Her blood ran cold and she felt her stomach drop. If his heartbeat was faint, she was unable to feel it. 

No, no, no, no, no….

She tried his nose next, ripping what was left of his mask away. If he was breathing, she could not see it.

Kakashi...

Kushina gathered Kakashi up in her arms, cradling him to her chest, willing him to move, to breathe, anything. He was so light, so small and fragile. “You three are to follow as close behind me as you can, bring Rin. I am going to outpace you. Kakashi’s not… he’s not… he can’t be… I have to get him to a doctor as fast as possible.” 

If anyone ever asked her how she managed to give orders without her voice cracking, she wouldn’t have been able to give a coherent answer. Kushina would tell anyone who asked about that moment how all she could feel was dread.

“Go,” Raido said. “We will follow with Rin.”

And Kushina was off, faster than she could ever remember running before. It wasn’t fast enough. Her legs moved and the trees sailed by as she ran, pumping chakra into her movements. It wasn’t enough. She needed more. She reached down within herself, feeling for the chakra that she had spent years learning to control, and she pulled on it with more force than she had ever done before.

She fell into her seal, only barely aware of her moving, physical self.

Kushina found herself face to face with the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox demon, defiantly facing it down from within the seal. It was, to her mind, modeled after an old shrine or castle. But the intricate writing on the gates and doors made it impossible for the fox to leave.

“Why are you here?” The foxed asked with a growl.

“I need help saving someone,” Kushina said.

“What do I care if that child dies?” The fox asked.

“I don’t think you understand,” Kushina said. “This isn’t a request. I need to get Kakashi to a hospital. And the only way I can think of that will get him there alive, is with your chakra.”

“You would take from me without permission?” The nine-tails asked, leering.

“I’d prefer not to, but time isn’t on my side here,” Kushina said.

“Well I don’t feel like helping,” The nine-tails said.

“We’ve come a long way, ya know?” Kushina said. “And I’d like to imagine that we won’t hate each other forever. But I’m taking your chakra.”

Kushina reached out, and took hold of the fox’s chakra with her own. She tugged. Malevolent orange energy flowed from the gates of the shrine, and Kushina was engulfed by it.

When she opened her eyes, they were no longer soft violet, but crimson.

“Hold on Pakkun,” Kushina said as the orange chakra flowed from her seal and surrounded them. “We’re going to pick up the pace.”

She rocketed forward, speed increased threefold, trees turning into green and brown blurs as she leapt through the canopy. Pakkun, she noticed, was clinging to her shoulder for dear life as she rocketed towards Konoha. 

Be alive!

In record time, Kushina was through the gates, offering no explanation, and running into the hospital. She skidded to a halt in front of the reception desk, a trail of dust following her into the building. “I need every available doctor, nurse, janitor in the whole building!”

The receptionist looked at her, cloaked in amorphous orange chakra, holding a dying teenager in her arms, with a dog perched on her shoulder. She blinked, then really looked at Kakashi, and was on her feet. A nurse arrived fifteen seconds later with a gurney, but it felt to Kushina like a lifetime. “Hurry!” Kushina yelled. A team of doctors took him down the hall and Kushina moved to follow. 

She watched in horror as the doctors began their work, talking rapidly, hands glowing with chakra as they moved him down the hall and to an operating room. A nurse blocked her from entering with ease, and Kushina was forced to watch in horror as the doors to the operating room closed, and Kakashi vanished from her sight.

“Miss, please, let us do our job,” The nurse said as she reached for Kushina’s arm. 

“Just please help him,” Kushina said, desperately.

“We are going to do everything we can,” The nurse said gently. “Why don’t you stop using that horrible chakra? It’s scaring patients and medical staff alike.”

Kushina, who hadn’t even registered she was still cloaked in the chakra, blinked in confusion, looked at her shoulder, and allowed the chakra to dissipate.

 “He’s in good hands now,” The nurse continued. “Why don’t you go home and rest, and get yourself some clean clothes? You can come back for an update when you’re cleaned up.”

“What?” Kushina asked, feeling completely detached. She looked down at herself. Her arms, shirt, and vest were caked with blood and dirt. “Oh, right.”

“Do you need someone to walk you home?” The nurse asked.

“No,” Kushina said, blankly. “I’ll be fine. It’s not my blood. I didn’t even fight.”

They were standing just outside the hospital now. When had the nurse steered her to the door? “We’re going to do everything in our power to help that boy,” The nurse said. 

“I’ll be back in an hour,” Kushina said. “I’ll just get cleaned up and then come back and sit in the waiting area.”

The nurse nodded. “Just as long as you don’t interfere with his treatment.”

Kushina turned and walked away, moving her arms and legs robotically. She was in shock, she realized. The same way she’d been when Minato had come back from that mission to the Kannabi Bridge. The look in his eyes that day broke her heart, and she hated that she’d likely have to see it again when he came home. She wasn’t a medic by any stretch, but she hadn’t felt a heartbeat. She hadn’t heard Kakashi breath. Nothing.

She was a block away from the hospital when she realized that Pakkun wasn’t with her anymore. When had he separated from her? Kushina looked around, but she didn’t see him anywhere. She hoped that he was coping better than she was. Kushina wasn’t entirely sure how summoned animals reacted when their summoners died. 

The road split four ways at the next intersection, and Kushina stopped. Her shoulders shook. It wasn’t until she saw the road at her feet speckled with dark spots that she realized she was crying.

When had the world gone so wrong? Kids their age shouldn’t be soldiers in a war they couldn’t hope to understand. She screamed at nothing in particular and stumbled to the nearest bench. She collapsed onto the seat and let her tears fall freely. 

She’d pull herself together in a moment.

It took longer than one moment. Maybe closer to five or six. But when Kushina calmed down, she realized two things. First, she had entered the village unapproved and had not reported to the Hokage. Second, Rin was still out there with Genma and his team.

Then, finally, a thought that wasn’t horrible floated into her mind. The doctors had taken Kakashi to the O.R., not to a morgue. He had still been alive. Kakashi wasn’t dead!

There was a chance, even if it was slim, Kushina thanked all the stars in the sky for a chance. The fact that Kakashi wasn’t dead yet wasn’t a particularly happy thing. He could very well still die, even in the hands of the medics. Kushina hated knowing that. She hated knowing that some wounds just couldn't be healed.

Kushina arrived at the Hokage’s tower, and made her way past the receptionist desk without a word. She knocked twice on the Hokage’s door, and waited.

Was the Hokage even awake? It was nearly dawn. Surely the man had to sleep.

“Enter,” Hiruzen called.

Kushina did so. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t know how to even start.

“What is the situation?” The Hokage asked.

“Bad,” Kushina said before she could stop herself. 

The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

“Kakashi is in the hospital - in surgery,” Kushina clarified, and was unsurprised to find her voice so detached and emotionless. “I brought him here directly from the field. He might already be dead, I couldn’t tell. Still warm.”

Hiruzen let out a long breath. “And Rin?”

“She’s being escorted back to the village by Genma, Raido, and Iwashi. She’s unconscious but in better shape. Something weird with her chakra, though. Rin needs a sealing examination. I’d like to do it myself when she arrives.” Kushina crossed her arms, but they were sticky with Kakashi’s blood, so she dropped them back to her sides. “I don’t know how far behind me they are. I used the Kyuubi’s chakra to get here as fast as possible, and they were just returning from another mission. It’s possible they stopped to rest once they were out of harm’s way.”

The Hokage gave her a sympathetic look. “You need to rest and reset, Kushina, but I need to know everything you saw out there. Let’s get a full debrief over with now, and then you can rest for a few hours. I’ll send someone along to fetch you when Iwashi and his team arrive with Rin.”

Kushina nodded, and started talking.

An hour later, Kushina stumbled out of the Hokage’s tower. She considered going back to the hospital, but she was still in bloodstained mission clothes. Deciding to go home and change, Kushina leapt to the rooftops. She was home in less than a minute

She kicked off her sandals and made her way upstairs, undressing as she went. Kushina dumped the soiled clothes onto the floor unceremoniously. She fumbled with the knobs in the shower, before stepping in and letting the hot water wash away the blood and dirt from her outing. Somehow she felt dirtier now than she ever had after a kill of her own.

Carrying Kakashi’s body like that had been horrible. He’d always been capable and independent. Seeing him like that made her heart break. Chances were that he’d been beyond saving before she’d left the battlefield. Try as she might, she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread, nor remove the sight of Kakashi’s mangled body from her mind.

They weren’t her students. They weren’t, technically. But she loved them all the same.

Hands braced against the front wall, she let the water run over her hair, and she didn’t fight the trembling of her shoulders or the gasping of breath when the tears came.

Rin

In the void of unconsciousness, Rin found only suffering. It spiraled around her and drew her into its depths. She tried, in vain, to swim upwards, but the weight of her suffering was too heavy. There was no peace. Rin wasn’t sure there ever had been as her ghosts and doubts shimmered in and out of her sight.

All that was left was a soul crushing fear that she could barely understand. She was sure the turtle was to blame for her nightmares.They flashed before her, constant, morphing, allowing her no respite. Some of them were even real.

Kakashi impaling her with his Chidori instead of turning away. She could feel the blood coming from her mouth as she tried to apologize.

She felt the stabbing pain of the jutsu as it pierced her flesh. She felt her life bleed away. And then it was over, and happening again. And again.

Rin pushed away from the nightmares, but she could not escape the tendrils of smoke and darkness. She tried to run, but she was stuck in place. Her legs could not deliver her from the hell she was stuck in. She closed her eyes, but nothing changed.

There was something bubbling up from within her.

Obito, crushed, broken, pleading with them to take his eye and run. Rin’s tears never dried.

The scene had plagued her dreams constantly since his death. She watched it again now with a pit in her stomach. Rin tasted bile on her lips and knew that she’d forever be guilty of unforgivable weakness. Rin heaved and her bile spattered the dirt beside Obito. 

And then he was being crushed under the rocks again. Rin tried to reach him, to take his place, but it was always the same.

Her mother’s body, lifeless and still in the hospital. She’d vowed to become a medic, but she couldn’t do that anymore. She was a beast.

“I’m sorry!” Rin screamed to the darkness. “Mom, please, come back.” She repeated the words as she had so many times before. It didn’t change anything. The sickness that took her mother was deadly.

Rin knew how to save her now. The treatments, if started early, were effective. But each time she tried to explain, she felt her mother’s hand go still. Again and again until there was nothing but the ache of a child growing up without her mother.

Her father, hitting her after too many drinks. Just like it always was.

Rin knew too well, having covered up the bruises before. They didn’t hurt now like she remembered. He hadn’t been strong enough to hurt her for years. She knew she could pull away from him, and she tried to, just as she had in real life. His hands always seemed to reach her in this darkness.

She hated what her father had become after her mother passed. She hated him more than she’d ever hated anyone. But at the same time, her heart broke for him. Rin did not know what kind of pain he must have endured, watching the love of his life wither and die.

With each nightmare, the bubbling grew stronger. From within her the power of what she was grew more pressing, more urgent. She wanted to make it go away.

“Make it stop!” Rin screamed into the nothing. 

Minato-sensei and his fiancée Kushina in a pool of their blood and tangled limbs, eyes unseeing. Rin was crying. Their funeral. Guilt. A baby screaming.

It was familiar, like something out of a lost dream. She rushed to them, trying to summon the chakra to heal them, but it was too late. She tried everything she could think of, but nothing ever worked. No amount of begging, or pleading, or chakra could stop the blood from covering her hands. Nothing could make their eyes see again.

“I want to go home!” Rin screamed. Her voice echoed in the nightmares.

Kakashi hitting her after too many drinks, blaming her for a failed mission. She knew it was her fault.

“Stop!” She yelled. “I’ll do better, I promise!” He didn’t. 

She endured his beatings and his blame. But she was sure this was wrong. Kakashi wouldn’t hit her. He’d never hit her. The more she thought that, the more the evidence disagreed with her. His single, detached eye watching her as she shielded herself. 

Minato-sensei dismissing her from the hospital room while he wept for his dead wife. Rin hadn’t been strong enough to help her during a mission.

She watched in horror as he destroyed the room, saying her name like a curse. “No!” Rin screamed. “It wasn’t me!” 

Minato looked up at her yell. She opened the door, and she was sitting next to him again. He was dismissing her again. She was leaving and watching as she was blamed for the death of Kushina.

The energy was at a fever pitch now, and she struggled against it, but the darkness of the nightmares forced her forward - to one horrid possibility after another.

Her mother, abandoning her for a different daughter, a better daughter.

“Mom! Mom please!” Rin screamed. Her mother never turned away, leading the girl from her. “Mom I’m right here!”

Everywhere she turned her mother walked away from her, holding the hand of a girl who wasn’t a monster. They were laughing and smiling as they walked. Rin was crying harder than ever.

Obito, blaming her for his death, for her death.

“I know,” Rin cried, trying to hug him. She was never close enough to reach him. “I got caught and we are both dying because of it. Kakashi, too.” She needed Obito to understand. She was sorry. So, so sorry.

Kushina, reminding her that she was less than dirt.

Rin bowed her head, trying not to show the hurt on her face. Kushina had always been kind to her after her home life fell apart. Kushina had been the one to help her find her own apartment when she’d earned enough money from missions to get away from her father.

Lord Hokage, stripping her of her status as a ninja. She was an exile.

Now there was nobody left to protect her. She was alone, her teammates were dead. Her mentors hated her, and she was exiled from the village forever.

Alone.

The bubbles exploded all at once, and Rin felt that all encompassing pain in every nerve of her body once again. She screamed, and all that was black turned white.

Rin thrust into the waking world as chakra exploded from her with more force than a dam giving way to a river. She recoiled from it, but she was stuck to something.

She screamed violently. She screamed in fear and agony and desperation as chakra exploded outwards from her.

“Shit! Get her off me!” 

“We can’t get close, there’s too much chakra!”

“It burns!”

There were voices, too many voices, from within her head and from without. She didn’t know which way was up, all she felt was burning agony, and fear. Her heart would surely burst from her chest.

She needed to get free so she could get away from the chakra that was consuming her.

“Oh god, Raido!”

“We have to get her off him, his skin is burning.”

She heard a scream of agony, and then she was jarred into a state of awareness as she landed on the ground, shoulders and neck first. There was a pop and she felt all the air leave her at once.

“What’s happening?” One voice asked

“I don’t know, but Raido needs a doctor,” Said another.

“She is a doctor,” The first voice said again.

“Not right now, she isn’t.” 

“Guys, just... one of you, run to the village for help. We’re barely an hour away now.”

The village? She couldn’t go there. She knew she couldn’t go there. She had to tell someone, but she couldn’t breathe. Something was stopping her from getting enough air.

Focus, she told herself. You need to focus. It was easier said than done. She felt like her whole body was about to explode, she was unable to control any of it.

And she was gasping, desperately, for breath. 

Despite all that, she had to focus or else her nightmares might become reality. She picked a spot and willed her eyes to pick out a detail, fighting valiantly against her body as it shook with pain.

Above her, the canopy of the trees slowly came into focus, tinted to the wrong color by the chakra that emanated from her. 

She forced herself to sit upright, noting that her ribs were broken, and her right arm didn’t work right. The pain was everywhere, it was all of her. Her heartbeat hammered and threatened to release all of this chakra at once.

Finally, she caught sight of the ninja she’d heard talking. They had Leaf village headbands, which was a welcome relief, but they were on their guard. Genma, who she recognized immediately, was holding a kunai, and watching her with wary eyes. He was standing over the prone form of another ninja she could not see the face of, but it was clear even from where Rin was propped up that he was injured.

She tried to speak, but the air left her and she found herself on her back again. Curiously, she brought her hand to her chest, feeling for the reason. And there it was. She had a collapsed lung. One of her ribs must have punctured it.

She forced herself back up, doing her best to ignore the horrible pain. When she was upright and stable enough not to topple back over, she signed to Genma using Konoha standard sign language.

Are you okay?

His eyebrows shot up. But he nodded at her. “What’s happening to you? Why can’t you talk?” He asked.

Injured. Seal. Chakra. Can’t control. Rin wished there was a more complete form of communication, but the Konoha sign language had been developed for teams to communicate silently while in the field. A lot of words were missing.

“How do we stop it?” Genma asked.

Don’t know. Hide? Rin frowned. She didn’t know the word for suppress, if there was one, in sign Language.

“Hide?” Genma asked. “You want us to hide? Are you going to lose control completely.”

Rin shook her head. Conceal, she signed.

Genma’s eyes lit up with understanding. “We need to suppress it somehow.”

Rin nodded. She grimaced, maintaining focus was so hard. 

“We can do that back in the village,” Genma said. “Can you control it long enough to get there?”

Terror shot through her, she shook her head frantically. With hands shaking she signed. Compromised. Trap.

“Great,” Genma said. “Just great.”

Rin closed her eyes and tried to force the chakra to settle, but she had no luck. It needed to dissipate, so that someone could figure out what was happening to her. If she was cloaked in chakra like this, nobody would be able to get near her.

She followed her chakra back to the source, desperate for a solution.

The chakra was focused from her heart, and was being circulated through her system violently with every beat of her heart. This is bad, Rin thought. She tried calming her chakra as it pulsed out of her, but it was like trying to drain an ocean with a bucket. 

“Do you know how to make a chakra suppression seal?” Genma asked, bringing her back to the present. She saw he was holding up a blank piece of chakra paper. He had a scroll unrolled before him.

Rin shook her head. She didn’t. But if she somehow lived through this, she would learn. Genma hung his head in defeat. Sorry, Rin signed.

She went back to meditating and trying to get a handle on her chakra. It was exhausting work, she felt like she was burning up from the inside out. 

When she imagined she could take no more pain, Rin felt the chakra falter, and fizzle, and it began to fade. As it went, the burning of her nervous system faded, and was replaced by the hurt from her broken down body. She found air harder and harder to gulp down and she looked to Genma with wide eyes.

He was at her side in a second, and he caught her before she slumped to the ground.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Rin's Capture Arc

Finale

Kushina

Kushina found them leaning against a tree. Raido, asleep and injured. Genma, alert, tired, but grinning at the sight of them. And Rin, slumped against him, drawing ragged breaths but her eyes were open. Behind her Iwashi and a medical team touched down.

They set about unsealing hand held stretchers and checking on the three injured Chunin.

“Genma, report,” Kushina ordered.

He stood up once the medical ninja had their hands on Rin and she wasn’t slumped against him. “I’m sure you’ve heard what happened from Iwashi,” Genma said.

Kushina crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow. “I want to hear it from you.”

Genma shrugged, bent down, plucked a long piece of grass, and started to chew it. “Well, once we got about ten miles from the village, Rin started convulsing and all this chakra came shooting out of her. Raido was carrying her at the time. It burned him pretty bad, like the chakra was corrosive or something.”

Kushina frowned. “Corrosive chakra is usually indicative of ill intent, or chakra density. Sometimes both. What happened after Raido was hurt?”

“Well, first we had to get those carrying loops off. So Iwashi and I managed to cut them with some Kunai. Singed my hand a bit, but nothing serious. Then I pulled Raido away from Rin and sent Iwashi to the village for help.” Genma looked up at the sky, now golden in the morning sunlight. “Rin was awake by then, she couldn’t talk for some reason. But she communicated with me through Konoha Standard Sign Language. She seems to think that whatever is causing that chakra to come out of her is some kind of trap, and that she shouldn’t go back to the village.”

“She might be right,” Kushina said. “I’ll examine her thoroughly once the medical team has had a chance to look at her. If there’s anything amiss with her chakra, I’ll find it.”

Genma nodded. “If that’s all, I’d like to get my hand looked at.”

“Go ahead,” Kushina said, and approached the medics examining Rin. “How is she?” 

One of the medical ninja looked up. “She’s got a lot of internal damage, but it looks like something is accelerating her healing. Whatever it is closed up some of the wounds on the surface, but they’re still causing problems with her organs and bones. She’s got seven broken ribs, a punctured lung, a concussion, her right wrist is fractured, her left wrist has severed tendons, and her stomach and lower intestine have been pierced by something. We need to get her to a hospital for long term treatment.”

Kushina shook her head. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. You have to get her fixed up here. We can set up for as long as you need, and I can send someone to the village for more supplies if you need them, but Rin cannot return to the village right now.”

The ninja scowled at her. “I’m a doctor, and she needs treatment. Real treatment, not a field triage!”

Kushina glared right back. “I know! But something is off with her chakra system, and it makes her a potential danger to herself and others. We can’t risk taking her back to the village in her current state. Heal her. Tell me if you need help. And let me know if you find anything out of the ordinary with her chakra pathways.” She turned away and went to check on Raido.

“He’ll make a full recovery, but he’ll have a scar,” The medic told her.

Kushina sighed. The poor kid was gonna have a nasty burn scar on his face for the rest of his life. And Kakashi was maybe alive. And Rin was... she didn’t even want to believe it, but she was sure Rin was a Jinchuriki, based on reports and her own observations. The lingering chakra in the air here and at the sight of the battle were eerily similar to the Kyubi’s chakra. 

How could things have gone so wrong? Rin was a good kid. Nobody deserved to be made into a Jinchuriki.

Kushina sat against the base of a tree, crossed her legs, and closed her eyes. She focused on the chakra around them. Listening to it, feeling it with her own, and watching for any change in Rin’s. 

Upon closer inspection, Kushina discovered that a powerful foreign chakra was bubbling just below the surface of Rin’s chakra. Kushina could feel it, but it was hard to distinguish beginnings and ends. It was like oil in water.

Kushina watched Rin’s chakra diligently until the medics stopped tending to her. 

“That’s as good as can be done today in the field,” one of them said.

Kushina opened her eyes and nodded. “How is she?”

The medic shrugged. “She’ll make a full recovery, eventually, but it will take a long time outside of a facility where she can receive treatment and physical therapy daily.”

“Thank you for doing what you could. Will she be able to walk when she wakes up?” Kushina asked.

“It’s hard to say.” The medic was putting away his things, and shouldering his bag. “She’s suffering from one of the most severe cases of chakra exhaustion I have ever seen. It would be ideal if we could monitor her for a few days to see if her body is producing chakra correctly.”

Kushina gestured to the trees. “By all means, set up a camp and stay. But Rin can’t go back to the village until I figure out what’s up with the foreign chakra in her system. I’d appreciate it if she gets a checkup when she wakes, anyway.”

The medical team exchanged looks. “We need to get Raido back to the hospital, the buns on his face run the risk of serious damage without a skin graft. Or is he to stay here, too?”

Kushina shook her head. “No, Raido is free to head home. As are Genma and Iwashi.”

“Then we should go,” The medic said. “We have injured shinobi returning from missions every day as hostilities die down, and we really don’t have the manpower to spread around. Our medical teams aren’t as numerous as they were even five years ago. Have her come by the hospital when she gets back to the village.”

“I will,” Kushina said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to send a few messages back to the village with you.”

“I can stay until your messages are ready,” Iwashi offered.

“That’s fine,” Kushina said.

“Make sure Nohara doesn’t use any chakra or get into any intense physical activity,” The medic said.

And the medical team left with Raido and Genma. Kushina popped open a pocket of her vest, pulled out two scrolls, and tossed one to Iwashi. “Unseal and set up two tents, and then something for us to eat.” Iwashi nodded.

Kushina unrolled the other scroll, and set about writing messages for both Minato and the Hokage.

When Rin finally did wake up over a day later, Iwashi was long departed. The night air was cool, and Kushina was sitting at a small fire, using the light of the flames to recreate the seal that kept the Kyubi within her on a large scroll. Her eyes flicked up from the heavy paper when Rin poked her head out from her tent.

She looked exhausted, and Kushina gave her a warm smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Everything hurts,” Rin said quietly. “I feel like I’ve been trapped in a nightmare for a long time.”

“From what I’ve pieced together, you’ve had a rough time of things,” Kushina said. She patted the ground next to her. “Why don’t you come sit with me and have something to eat.”

Rin considered for a moment before nodding and making her way over to the fire. Kushina noticed how slow Rin moved, and the half concealed grimace on her face.

“How far are we from the village?” Rin asked, tucking her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her shins.

“Only a few miles,” Kushina said. “But you can’t go right now.”

Rin hung her head. “I know,” She said quietly.

“It’s not forever,” Kushina said, trying her level best to reassure the girl.

Rin nodded glumly and let out a huff of air, staring at the firelight with a somber expression. “Who changed my clothes?” Rin asked after a few minutes, fiddling with the sleeve of her clean shirt.

“I did,” Kushina said. “Your other clothes were beyond saving, and I figured you’d want something clean.”

“I… thank you,” Rin said.

Kushina put an arm around Rin and pulled her close. “Don’t mention it. You wouldn’t have gotten any rest in those old rags anyway.”

Rin held strong for a second, before she sagged against Kushina and started to cry. Kushina stroked Rin’s hair, and let Rin get out whatever she needed to. “What did they do to me?” Rin choked out eventually.

“Nothing good.” She didn’t know how to explain other than to explain as directly as possible. Pull the bandage off and work on healing the wound. “I haven’t done a thorough check of your body and chakra, Rin, but I think whoever captured you sealed a tailed beast inside you,” Kushina said. 

Rin clutched at her and heaved another sob. “They wanted me to hurt my friends,” Rin cried. “They wanted me to and I did. I killed Kakashi!”

Kushina hummed and hugged Rin. “Hush now, Rin. Kakashi’s in the hospital right now, the doctors are looking after him.”

“Is he okay?” Rin managed through her tears.

“I won’t lie to you Rin,” Kushina said. “Kakashi’s in bad shape, and I don’t know if he’ll pull through.” Rin whimpered. “But I need you to understand that this is not your fault.”

“But I’m a monster now. I was the one who-” Rin started, but Kushina cut her off.

“No. What you did was go on a mission that you were assigned. You went on a mission and tried to come home with your comrade. The Mist ninja who captured you are to blame.” Kushina shifted so she could look at Rin, but the girl would not raise her eyes. “Rin, look at me, please.”

When Rin didn’t, Kushina hooked a knuckle under her chin and brought her head up. “Rin, you are not a monster. You are still you, and you can beat this thing.”

“How?” Rin asked, looking to the side. “I already failed.”

“If I’m right, and they did seal a tailed-beast inside you. Then you didn’t fail. You’re still here and the beast isn’t destroying the countryside.” Kushina smiled at her. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Rin slumped and turned away from her. “I don’t want to think about it,” She said quietly.

“You’re going to have to, eventually,” Kushina said. “But maybe not yet. Let’s get some food in you, and then I’ll see about finding the source of that chakra.”

Kushina busied herself, setting water to boil, and then going to check the trap she’d set earlier. There was a single rabbit caught in it. While Kushina skinned and gutted the rabbit, Rin stared into the fire. She didn’t move until Kushina handed her a haunch of lightly salted meat, and a steaming cup of tea.

“Eat,” Kushina ordered. “You’ll feel better with some food in you.”

Rin took the skewer, and considered it for a few seconds, before biting into it. Kushina smiled. Rin finished her food in record time, and took a large drink from her tea. Kushina handed Rin the skewer she’d been about to eat. “Here.”

Rin ate the whole rabbit. “I didn’t realize I was so hungry.”

Kushina laughed. “When was the last time you ate?”

Rin rubbed the back of her head, sheepishly. “I don’t know. I guess it has been a few days.”

Kushina smiled warmly and filled Rin’s cup. “We’ll have to make sure you’re eating regularly from now on, so you make a full recovery.”

Rin sighed. “I don’t know if I ever will. I don’t feel at all like I used to.”

Kushina nodded. “It’s a big change. But you’ll overcome it.”

“How do you know?” Rin asked.

“Lie down and let me have a look at you,” Kushina said, dodging the question. It wasn’t really her favorite thing to divulge the open secret of her status as a Jinchuriki. “I’ll explain everything when I’m done.”

Rin complied without resistance, and lay back in the grass, feet to the fire. Kushina pulled out a small piece of paper and placed it on Rin’s forehead. “This seal is going to temporarily interrupt the flow of your chakra. It will allow me to find any inconsistencies in your chakra pathways. Whatever was done to you, I can’t find with my eyes. I gave you a once over when I changed your clothes, but there’s no sealing ink on your skin that can be activated by chakra. I think it’s hidden somehow.”

Rin nodded. “Okay,” She said nervously.

Kushina activated the seal with a small flash of her own Chakra, and Rin made a sound of discomfort. Kushina felt out with her chakra sensory ability and frowned. In the absence of Rin’s chakra, the foreign chakra was trying to fill the space. It seemed to be coming from Rin’s chest. 

She pulled back the collar of Rin’s shirt and channeled chakra into her hand. Nothing appeared above Rin’s breast.

“Well this is concerning,” Kushina said.

“What?” Rin asked.

“Take off your shirt and sit up,” Kushina said.

Rin didn’t argue. 

Kushina held up one hand and focused chakra into her palm until it became visible. She pushed until her hand glowed with blue light. She held her hand near Rin’s skin as she examined the skin on Rin’s chest, and back. She swore when she saw it.

Underneath Rin’s left arm, and to the side of her breast, was a small, quickly healed cut. The seal was literally, physically inside of Rin.

“What?” Rin asked again.

“This business with your seal is going to take longer than I thought,” Kushina said, extinguishing her chakra light.

“Why?” Rin asked, voice trembling.

“Because I can’t interact with the seal. It’s not on your skin. Whoever did this is equal parts brilliant and evil. Whatever was sealed inside you was done so directly onto your heart, lungs, or ribcage. Inside your body.” Kushina put a hand on Rin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, but we won’t be going back to the village for a long time.”

Rin looked stricken, disturbed. Kushina couldn’t blame her.

“We just have to keep you safe until I can come up with a way to move that seal off your heart,” Kushina said, trying to reassure the girl as best she could. “You’ll have a better time controlling that chakra if it wasn’t threatening to kill you by giving you a heart attack every time you used it.”

Rin looked at Kushina, searching for something. “How are you so calm about this?”

“I’m the best with seals in the whole village,” Kushina said.

“You aren’t afraid of me, but you should be. I could lose control again and really hurt you.” Rin turned back to the fire.

“I seriously doubt you could,” Kushina said. When Rin didn’t respond, Kushina huffed out a breath. “You know there are nine tailed-beasts, right?”

“So?” Rin asked.

Kushina put her hand on Rin’s shoulder. “Since the founding of the ninja villages, all of them have been sealed away in humans. They’re known as Jinchuriki.”

“So I’m a Jinchuriki now,” Rin said. “I expect nobody will want anything to do with me when they find out.”

“Well I know, and I don’t think of you any differently,” Kushina said.

“Why?” Rin asked, voice rising, desperate.

“Because it doesn’t define who you are,” Kushina said. “Konoha has two Jinchuriki now, and you have met the other one.”

“I have?” Rin asked.

Kushina nodded, smiling at Rin. “You have.”

“Who is it?” Rin asked.

Kushina pointed at herself. “I am.”

“You don’t have to lie to make me feel better, Kushina,” Rin said, curling in on herself.

“I’m not,” Kushina said. “Here, watch.” And Kushina closed her eyes. Chakra slowly seeped from her, orange, dense, vicious. When she was sure it was visible, Kushina opened her eyes, and looked at Rin. Where Kushina’s eyes had been purple a moment before, they were scarlet now. “Believe me?”

Rin, eyes wide and mouth agape, nodded in awe. 

“We’re going to stabilize your seal,” Kushina said, letting the chakra fade, though her eyes were still crimson. “And then I am going to teach you how to control the chakra. You don’t have to be afraid.”

Rin blinked away tears, wiping at them with her sleeves. “I believe you.”

Kushina hugged Rin. “I think you should probably go back to sleep. Your body needs rest.” Rin nodded against her chest. They stayed like that for a moment, until Rin was ready to move, and she shuffled back to her tent.

Kushina watched her go, and once Rin was settled in her tent, she entered her mind to speak with the Kyubi.

“What do you want now?” The fox asked her.

“Can you tell me which tailed-beast is sealed within Rin?” Kushina asked.

The fox growled and slammed a claw against the gate of Kushina’s seal. “What makes you think I would know?” 

Kushina shrugged, leaning against a wall. “You’ve told me before you can see what I see if you choose to. I was sort of hoping you’ve been paying attention lately.”

The fox laughed without mirth. “Even if I was, how should I know which was sealed into that pathetic little girl?”

“She’s stronger than you think,” Kushina said, glaring.

The Kyubi rolled its eyes. “I have little patience for this.”

“Do you know or not?” Kushina asked.

“Yes,” The fox said.

“Which is it?” Kushina asked.

“I have no reason to tell you,” The Kyubi said. 

Kushina considered that. “I suppose you don’t. I can’t give you anything in exchange for your knowledge. The only thing you’ve ever asked me for is freedom.” Kushina gave the fox her friendliest smile. “I don’t suppose you’d do it for a friend?”

The fox snarled. “Get out!”

Kushina felt her conscious mind forced out of the seal, and sighed. The fire crackled before her and she considered the problem of Rin as she stared into the flames. There was a lot of work to do, and Kushina worried they’d be away from the village for months.

Unsealing a travel ration, Kushina set about cleaning up the camp and getting ready to turn in for the night herself. Starting tomorrow, there would be a lot of work to do.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Rin

Chapter 1

Rin woke with the sun, her body still ached something fierce, but she felt lighter emotionally after her fireside talk with Kushina the night before.  She stretched and found that the range of motion in her arms left a lot to be desired. If only she could heal herself, she could speed the process along, but Rin was terrified of her chakra. Every time she’d touched it since she’d been captured, it felt like her entire body had been lit aflame.

There was nothing to do but let her body slowly heal over time. Rin fiddled with her clothes, standard navy blue shinobi fatigues, and wondered where her mission pack had ended up. Likely it was still in the enemy base, or maybe with Kakashi.

She sucked in a breath when she thought of Kakashi, and blinked away at the burning sensation of her eyes. Guilt, remorse, self-loathing, and more swirled in her head. She considered going back to sleep. She could just wait until the whole thing was over and done with one way or the other. Either she’d heal and Kakashi would live, or she’d give up and wither away in this tent. 

With that decided, Rin flopped back down onto the sleeping bag and covered her face with her hands. Her stomach growled and she sighed.

“Rin, are you okay?” Kushina asked from outside the tent. “I heard you rustling around in there.”

“‘Mfine,” Rin mumbled into her hands.

“If you say so,” Kushina said with a laugh. “Come on out and eat some breakfast. It’s a long walk to Uzushiogakure. You’re going to need your strength.”

Rin sat up. “Uzushiogakure?”

“What’s left of the Whirlpool village, anyway,” Kushina said. “I go every year to see if there are other members of my clan still alive. This year you’re coming with me, so I can keep an eye on that seal of yours.” 

It took Rin another five minutes to muster up the will to leave the safety of the tent, and another minute to get her feet into her sandals. When she made her way to the fire, Kushina was humming and boiling water for tea. 

“How are you feeling?” Kushina asked without looking up.

“Honestly? I feel like I fell off a cliff,” Rin said, collapsing into a seated position by the fire. “Everything is sore and achy.”

“You’ll get better with time. Or you could heal yourself once you’ve recuperated some chakra,” Kushina said.

“No!” Rin shouted.

Kushina looked at her, eyebrow raised, but Rin didn’t think she looked very surprised. “No?”

Rin shook her head. “No. I… I can’t use my chakra anymore. It hurts. A lot.”

Kushina nodded, as if she had confirmed a suspicion. “It’s probably got a lot to do with the way that seal was put on you. The chakra in the seal is interfering with the chakra your body naturally produces, because of where it’s located. The two things cannot coexist in their current state.”

Rin hung her head. “What’s that mean for me? For my life as a ninja?”

“It means that you’re going to have to work harder than ever to stay healthy and in tip-top shape while we design a new seal,” Kushina said, offering Rin a mug of tea. Rin took it gratefully and held it in both hands to stave off the morning chill.

Rin nodded. She could try, at least.

Once the tea was cool enough to drink, Rin took a large sip. She sighed in happiness, for a cup of tea made in the middle of the woods, it was very good. Kushina handed her a ration bar and an apple. “Eat. I’ll pack up everything and get it sealed away. When that’s done, we’ll get moving.”

“Okay,” Rin said, glad to be free of physical chores like striking camp, and ate the apple with gusto. The ration bar she ate more slowly, but she was still finished eating five minutes before Kushina had everything put away.

“Ready?” Kushina asked. Rin gave her a thumbs up. “Then let’s go.”

Kushina kept their pace slow and sedate on purpose, and she allowed Rin to stop and rest whenever she lagged behind. Rin was grateful for the leisurely pace of their walk. It took them until midday to get to the main road, and once they were near enough to see the dirt path that led to and from the Leaf village, Kushina sat Rin down and forced her to eat another ration bar.

Trail rations were bland and hard to chew, but Rin was ravenous, and she devoured the bland food in two massive bites.

That night, Kushina sat Rin down at their campfire, and handed her a small book. “What’s this?” Rin asked.

“You’re going to be learning the basics of Fuinjutsu,” Kushina said matter of factly. “It’s better that you know what’s happening when I start changing that seal around. That book was written by my grandfather, and it’s one of the few remaining copies that survived the destruction of the Whirlpool Village.”

Rin held the book delicately, reverently. “I’ll take good care of it.”

Kushina ruffled her hair and laughed. “I know you will. I’m going to get the tents set up. Once you’ve read a bit of the book, we can talk more in depth. Ask me for clarification if you have any questions.” 

Rin watched her go until she was no longer illuminated by firelight, and then turned her attention back to the book. An Introduction to the Noble and Ancient Art of Sealing, the cover read. It was a small brown, leatherbound book. A golden whirlpool was embossed on the front. The author’s name was faded, but legible. Rin traced her fingers over the name. Masakado Uzumaki.

She knew without opening the book that Kushina was offering more than just an understanding of sealing. This was a declaration of trust and affection, too.

Rin opened the book, and read the introduction, which outlined the ideology and frame of reference that the Uzumaki clan used in their sealing art. It was entirely different than what she expected. In the Hidden Leaf, and Rin assumed the same was true in the other hidden villages, sealing was only used as a means to an end. A seal was just another tool in a ninja’s arsenal.

The Uzumaki had treated sealing like a true art. It was directly compared to painting and kabuki in the text. It was fascinating to think of Fuinjutsu in a way that wasn’t strictly utilitarian. It was difficult to see the broader purpose, though. Wouldn’t sealing be better if it was streamlined and more efficient?

Rin pondered the benefits. She had always been taught that the most efficient method of doing something was the best. Why waste time in a fight when you could take a life by slitting a throat? Her medical field training had been much the same. Heal those who would be able to return to the battlefield first.

When Kushina returned, Rin had the book half open, bookmarked by a finger, and she was lost in thought. 

“You want to talk about it?” Kushina asked her.

Rin started and nearly dropped the book into the dirt. “What? Oh, uh, not necessarily. I was just thinking about how differently this book is written. It’s long winded.”

Kushina nodded.

“Not that that’s a bad thing!” Rin continued. “It’s just that all the seals we use in the village are…”

“They’re made that way on purpose. If they’re simple, effective, and impossible to screw up, then everyone can use them,” Kushina said. She sat down, and Rin watched her settle into a comfortable sitting position. “Real sealing isn’t like that. It requires you to think outside the box. And sometimes the most direct solution is the wrong one. A real seal master has to unlearn what they have learned in the shinobi system, because it’s the only ninja art that requires you not to think like a ninja.”

Rin nodded, though she wasn’t entirely sure she understood. Kushina snorted. 

“I don’t expect you to get it on the first day, Rin. Learning Fuinjutsu takes years, and nobody really ever masters it,” Kushina said.

“But the author of the book is a seal master,” Rin found herself saying. “And Minato-sensei, too.”

“Minato is brilliant, Rin. He understands seals almost as well as I do, and he created one of the most famous techniques in the Elemental Nations with his knowledge. But he would never call himself a master of sealing. And if he did, he’d have to call me a grandmaster. Let me explain it this way: Granddad was very good at Fuinjutsu. He developed the seal that holds the Kyubi within me. Neither Minato nor myself have ever done such a thing. But he would never have called himself a master of the art. Because it’s art. No artist is ever a master of their craft. That’s not the way they think about it.” Kushina leaned back on her hands.

“Then how does anyone learn if there are no masters?” Rin asked. 

“The same way an artist learns to paint, or a dancer learns to dance. The basics are the same, no matter how you look at it. Those are easy to learn, and even without knowledge of sealing, you can practice useful things. Perfect your handwriting, study mathematics.” Kushina leaned forward as if she’d just realized something, made a fist with her right hand, and tapped in into her left. “Oh! That’s actually a good idea. You should work on those things. You’re a medical ninja, so your handwriting is probably terrible.”

“Hey!” Rin said, flushing. Her handwriting had certainly never been as pretty as the writing of other girls her age. 

Kushina laughed. A full bodied laugh, with her head thrown back and eyes closed. “I’m just teasing.”

Rin crossed her arms and huffed, which only served to make Kushina laugh harder. When the older woman's mirth subsided, she handed ration bar to Rin. “Trail rations for dinner?”

“Unfortunately so,” Kushina said. “We walked all day, and I didn’t get the chance to catch anything for us to eat. But we’re not too far from a small village, and we can stop there tomorrow and see about buying some real food.”

Rin nodded, and accepted the ration bar from Kushina when it was offered. Conversation turned away from sealing, and when Rin did crawl into her tent later that night, she found that she was too tired to have a nightmare.

It took them all morning to get to the village.

Rin watched in excitement as Kushina sealed rice, dried pork, and an assortment of fruits and vegetables into a scroll. They’d eaten ration bars again for breakfast, and Rin was looking forward to having real food for dinner that night. 

The village they were in was more than willing to serve them food for lunch and sell them food for their travels. Kushina bartered for their fare, but Rin felt like they certainly got the better end of the bargain. Trail rations were not tasty. At all.

When they were back on the road, Kushina passed the time by springing random math questions onto Rin. 

“Square root of two-hundred fifty-six?” Kushina asked.

“Uh… Sixteen?” Rin replied.

Kushina nodded. If Rin got the question right, she’d move on without a word. If Rin was wrong, Kushina would ask her to try again. “Prime number that comes after seventeen?” 

“Twenty-three - no - nineteen!” Rin said.

“Internal angle of a hexagon in degrees?” Kushina asked.

Rin looked at Kushina. “Why would I know that?”

Kushina smirked. “You’ll have to commit it to memory. Shapes are important in sealing.”

“Well how many degrees are the angles inside of a hexagon?” Rin asked.

“One-hundred twenty,” Kushina said. “Surely Minato went over Fuinjutsu fundamentals with you and your teammates.”

Rin shook her head. “Not all at once. I think maybe he taught… Kakashi some when I was in medical training. And I don’t know if he ever taught Obito.” She hoped Kushina didn't notice her stumble over Kakashi’s name.

She did. Of course. Rin was convinced that Kushina noticed everything. “He’ll be up and about when we get home.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know if he was okay,” Rin pointed out. 

“Oh, I don’t. I’m just being optimistic,” Kushina said.

“Well I’m not so sure,” Rin said. She’d really hurt Kakashi when she’d lost control of herself to the chakra that had been sealed within her.

“Of course you aren’t,” Kushina said. “You’re too much of a downer.” 

Rin bristled. Kushina certainly didn’t mind ribbing her. “I’m not a downer,” she complained.

“Of course you are,” Kushina said.

“Am not!” Rin said indignantly.

“Right. Of course not. I must have mistaken you for someone who didn’t brood when she thought nobody was looking,” Kushina said. “I’ll just go and find Rin. Sorry to have bothered you, stranger.”

Rin swatted Kushina’s shoulder. “I’m not that bad.” Kushina raised an eyebrow. “I’m not!”

“Rin, it took you seven minutes to put your shoes on this morning.”

Rin didn’t dignify that with a response.

They fell into a routine after that, traveling as far as Rin could go while injured and without chakra, and resting when Rin needed to. In the evenings, once Rin was up to it, Kushina led her through several basic katas to help her regain flexibility and strength.

Rin would read as much of An Introduction to the Noble and Ancient Art of Sealing as she could at night, but Kushina seemed determined to keep her busy and worn out. She was sure it was to distract her from Kakashi, and sometimes it worked.

Kushina kept a close eye on Rin’s seal, and performed in-depth checks of Rin’s chakra every other day. Rin, for her part, avoided anything that even had a chance of requiring her to use chakra.

It would have been the best time of Rin’s life, had the circumstances been better. Kushina was an amazing teacher, and an even better source of support and guidance for everything else. Rin loved her like she would an older sister.

A little over a week after they’d set out together, Rin found herself on the deck of a small ship that Kushina had chartered to take them to the Land of Whirlpools. It was a series of small islands off the coast of the Land of Fire.

She was sitting against the railing, doing her level best to ignore the swaying of the ship as she tried to meditate. Kushina had instructed her to do so whenever she had free time, so that she might align the two sources of chakra within herself enough to use her own chakra without causing extreme pain.

Unfortunately, it was easier said than done, as she’d had little luck over the past several days. And the rocking of the ship in the ocean water didn’t help any. She tried for an hour, but eventually gave it up as a bad job.

Rin had never been on a ship before now, and meditating was a no go in the choppy water. It was impossible to sit still. Awkwardly pulling herself to her feet in the swell, Rin set off to find Kushina.

She found her temporary sensei and guardian leaning on the rail of the ship, watching the waves go by with a wistful look on her face. Rin wondered what it would be like to suddenly be the lone surviving member of a clan. What would it do to a person? Rin had lost her family, sure, but that was different than a whole clan. And Kushina had been a little girl at the time.

Was it really right for Rin to accompany Kushina on this trip?

Rin rocked on her heels for a moment, before turning away. She’d go below deck and read that sealing book instead.

“You don’t have to leave on my account,” Kushina said.

Rin froze mid stride. Seriously? How did Kushina do that? 

“How did you know I was even there?” Rin asked, turning around. “I didn’t make any noise.”

“Chakra sensor. Remember?” Kushina said.

Oh. Right. 

“I can feel your chakra no matter where you are on the ship. You can’t really sneak up on me,” Kushina said, finally turning away from the water to face her. “What’s on your mind?”

“You don’t have to worry about me, Kushina. You should focus on your trip to your home village,” Rin said. 

Kushina gave her a warm smile. “I’ve taken this trip enough times to know I shouldn’t get my hopes up. Nobody will be there.”

“Now who’s being a pessimist?” Rin asked.

Kushina snorted. “That’s fair.”

“You should hope for the best,” Rin said. “I think there are members of your clan out there still.”

“I hope you’re right, Rin.” Kushina looked back out to the ocean, and to the small island on the horizon. “I hope you’re right.”

Rin walked over to the railing and wrapped an arm around Kushina, putting her head on the older woman’s shoulder. Kushina, in turn, wrapped an arm around Rin. They watched in silence as the island slowly drew nearer. 

It was bigger than Rin thought it would be. She recalled it being rather small on maps.

“Was it hard, leaving your home to come to the Hidden Leaf?” Rin asked.

Kushina didn’t answer immediately, and when she did, she spoke softly, voice barely carrying over the wind. “More than anything. I was sent to the Leaf Village for the sole purpose of becoming the container of the Kyubi. It felt like being banished, ya know? And I wasn’t there when the village was destroyed.” 

Kushina hung her head, regret plain on her face.

“I’m sorry,” Rin said. Not that an apology could make it better. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

Kushina shook her head, and smiled sadly. “No. It’s okay. I probably should accept what happened. I think talking about it will help, eventually.”

Rin grinned at Kushina, and turned her gaze back to the island, content to wait in silence until they arrived. Even if she couldn’t use chakra, and she was a wreck as a ninja, she could bear the weight of Kushina’s loss, and help her finally put the ghosts of her past to rest.

“Hey, Rin?” Kushina asked.

“Yeah?” Rin said.

“Seventeen times three.” Kushina said, a devious smirk on her face.

Rin couldn’t help herself. She laughed. “Seriously, sensei?”

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc 

Rin

Chapter 2

When the ship docked, Rin could feel the tension that followed Kushina around like a cloud. She’d never seen the usually exuberant and friendly woman like this, and it was strange to see her so melancholy. Rin gathered her things, of which there were few, and hovered near the ramp that would take them to shore while Kushina thanked the captain, and handed him a small pile of money.

Kushina led Rin from the worn wood of the dock that still stood, and down an overgrown path into the wildlife of the island. “The Village Hidden Among the Eddies used to cover most of this island,” Kushina said. “It’s name, obviously given for the difficult to navigate whirlpools that surround the island, has not been uttered here in a long time.”

Rin said nothing, but followed, sensing that Kushina was saying these things more for herself than anything. The path forked and Rin was surprised by how dense the trees were. Foliage towered above and around them, and Rin was certain she would have become hopelessly lost if not for her guide.

“We’ll be staying here for at least a week,” Kushina said. “I am hoping to have your seal figured out by the time we leave. And certainly by that time, you will have an adequate knowledge of Fuinjutsu.” Kushina grabbed her by the arm with one hand, and made a strange seal that Rin had never seen before with the other. The world around them shimmered for a moment, and then Rin was standing in the middle of an empty street, looking at the broken and run down buildings that had once been a hidden village.

“Where did we go?” Rin asked, eyes wide, looking around, wondering suddenly why the dense forest path was so far behind them.

“We didn’t go anywhere,” Kushina said with a wistful smile. “Some of the seals that protect this place still function. The illusion of the overgrown paths keeps out any curious travelers that may stop on this island. Only those who know the art of sealing can see this place for what it is.” And then Kushina looked at her, answering the unasked question. “This is one of the things I plan to teach you while we’re here.”

Rin flushed. This was Kushina’s home. Or at least, it had been. It felt somehow disrespectful that she would be learning how to come here whenever she pleased. But perhaps that was the point. Kushina was trusting her with the knowledge and ability to come here, and also trusting her not to abuse the privilege. Rin certainly knew she’d never take another person here.

“Well it doesn’t do us any good to stand around,” Kushina said, dropping her hand from Rin’s arm and instead grabbing her hand. “I’ll show you around, and then we’ll settle in and get to working on that seal of yours. Have you managed to align your chakra with the chakra in that seal in your chest?”

Rin shook her head and allowed herself to be pulled forward. Kushina’s grip was just tight enough to be uncomfortable, but Rin didn’t complain. It was obviously hard for her to share this, her history, with Rin.

“I, er, well…” Rin struggled to find the right way to explain. “I have been meditating like you said, but I haven’t actually tried to use my chakra… because it hurts… so… I…” Rin looked at the ground, embarrassed, as her explanation slowly became incomprehensible mumbling. 

“It’s no big deal, Rin. We’ll find a safe place for you to try tonight. I’ll be with you, so there’s nothing to be worried about.” Kushina offered her a smile that made Rin feel like she was safe from the world. It was the same smile Kushina had given her when her mother had died, and again when she’d moved out of her father’s house.

Rin nodded. “Thank you. For not pushing me about it. It’s been hard.”

“I know,” Kushina said softly. “Believe me, I know how terrifying it can be to suddenly have more chakra than you know what to do with, and to have no idea how to control it in a safe way.”

“Does it hurt when you use the Kyubi’s chakra?” Rin asked.

Kushina shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. It has never caused me physical pain to use the Kyubi’s chakra. It can be harmful to others, but I think the pain you feel is caused by the seal, and not by the chakra within you. It’s something we’ll need to confirm before we start altering that seal.” Kushina glanced at the buildings they were walking past. “Ah, first stop.” Kushina pulled them to a halt, and vaguely gestured at the wreckage of a house. “This is where I lived when I was a little girl.”

Rin studied the building. It was in no better shape than the other houses on this street, which was to say, much worse shape than the row of buildings that Rin had first seen when she’d been allowed inside the effects of the protective seals. “You lived there with your parents?” Rin found herself asking, looking at what remained of the roof, curiously.

“And with my older brother and sister,” Kushina said, voice far away.. “They were active duty ninja when I was… selected by the village elders to take Lady Mito’s place as the Kyubi Jinchuriki.”

Active duty ninja likely meant they had been killed in the fighting when the village was destroyed. Rin wasn’t trained as a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but the guilt that Kushina must have lived with was hard to overlook. Being the only one not in the village. Not that it was her fault, but she’d dealt with her fair share of ninja in the field after missions gone wrong during the Third Great Ninja War. Survivor’s guilt was a hell of a mindfuck.

“You had a brother and a sister?” Rin asked.

“I don’t remember what they looked like. I was a stupid kid and didn’t take any pictures with me when I was sent to the Leaf Village,” Kushina hung her head. “I’ve never gone inside.”

Rin didn’t know what to say. She could empathize, certainly, but she could never understand how it felt. “But you come here every year,” Rin found herself saying before her brain could catch up to her mouth.

“I set the date every year and send the information to every village that I can in the hope that someone will show up. In the past, I’ve only ever come for the one day. Then it’s back to the Leaf.” Kushina looked at Rin, eyes dark and shining with tears that did not spill. “I’m too much of a coward to do more than that.”

“Kushina-sensei, we don’t have to stay here,” Rin said. “We can go somewhere else.”

Kushina held up a hand to stop her. “This place is the safest. It’s not just for your own protection, Rin. If we mess up and accidentally release a tailed beast, it’s best that nobody else is around. The village is still well hidden. It has to be here.”

Rin swallowed, suddenly feeling very small. At least Kushina had a contingency plan for failure. Rin had done little more than accept death when Kakashi had rescued her. This was better. Optimism tempered by realism.

“Shall we move on?” Kushina asked, dragging Rin away from the house.

Rin didn’t protest, understanding Kushina’s need to be away from the house. Why did she tell me all that? Rin wondered. Was it just something that Kushina needed to get off her chest? Was it a request for Rin to enter the house? She didn’t think it was that, but it was impossible to know for sure.

They turned up another street, and stopped in front of the burned out husk of a building. The whole thing was little more than charred wood and ash. “This was our library. Generations of knowledge about sealing, countless other shinobi arts, history, art, fiction… all of it gone,” Kushina said.

Rin’s eyes scanned the wreckage. Nothing could have possibly survived. “That’s so sad,” Rin said.

Kushina sniffled. “Yeah…” She said thickly.

“Why are you showing me all this,” Rin asked, taking a step towards the building and turning to face her mentor. “It’s obviously hard for you. And while I appreciate it, I don’t want you to have to reopen old wounds for me.”

Kushina considered Rin for a long moment. “How many streets have you walked on?” She asked.

Rin opened her mouth in disbelief. “What?” She asked, stupidly.

“How many streets have we walked down?” Kushina repeated.

“What does that have to do with-?” Rin started.

“Answer the question,” Kushina interrupted.

“Four,” Rin said in exasperation.

“Right,” Kushina said. “And I’ve shown you a landmark on every other street. There are seals still left untriggered from the battle that took place here. The path we’ve walked is the one I know is safe. The rest of this place is potentially fatal.” Kushina shrugged. “Minato came with me the first time. We made sure it was safe to walk from the shore to the town square and back. That’s why I’m showing you. So you’ll be safe if you wander around.”

Well, now Rin felt stupid. And like a bitch. “You didn’t have to answer all my questions if you didn’t want to.”

Kushina gave her a look that Rin didn’t know what to do with, and then Rin found herself wrapped in a hug. “I know I didn’t have to. But I’m not really good at hiding things from people I care about. Makes life too hard, ya know?”

Rin nodded into Kushina’s vest. Her eyes were suddenly blurry with tears. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”

“You’re a good kid,” Kushina said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

They stayed like that for a moment, more for Kushina’s sake than Rin’s. When they did break apart, Kushina said, “Come on. There’s one more landmark and then I’ll show you where we’ll be staying.”

“Right,” Rin said.

The final landmark was the administrative building, which was a blown out husk, too, but was structurally sound. It looked more abandoned than destroyed. Kushina eyed the building with longing and reverence. She would have taken missions from here , Rin realized. 

This time, they were silent, and Rin allowed herself to be led away when Kushina was ready. 

They set up camp in a house that was almost entirely intact, save for the broken glass of the windows. One of the rooms had no windows, and Kushina and Rin were able to drag some old mattresses that were in decent shape from a house next door into their temporary lodgings. Kushina unsealed some field blankets to cover the mattresses, and then unsealed their sleeping bags to lay on top of those.

It wasn’t perfect, or even particularly comfortable by the standards of a warm bed back home, but it was better than the ground.

After their sleeping area was prepped, Kushina sat down with Rin, each of them on a mattress. “We should lay out a schedule. I want you studying Fuinjutsu and working on those katas to help regain your strength as often as possible. And we need to set time aside for me to try and help you with your chakra, and to try and fix or move your seal.” Kushina considered for a moment, before crossing her arms. “Katas first thing in the morning, and before bed. Seal studies after your katas in the morning, until lunch. Then we’ll meditate, and you’ll be free to rest for an hour or two when we’re done. I’ll monitor your seal, and in a few days, we’ll see if we can make it easier for you to use chakra.” She smiled at Rin. “We’ll throw in some kenjutsu training, or elemental jutsu to keep things interesting.”

“My chakra nature is fire,” Rin said.

“Well it was,” Kushina said ponderously. “You might have two chakra natures now, or a different one entirely. Sealing tailed-beasts into people can change their chakra. Of course it’s entirely possible that your chakra nature hasn’t changed at all.” 

Rin considered that, wondering if she’d have power over water or something equally strange because of the turtle. If the turtle was what was sealed within her, and not just a manifestation of whatever had occurred on that mission.

She supposed she’d find out.

“Do you know which tailed-beast is sealed inside me?” Rin asked. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t. The Kyubi wasn’t any help, either.” Kushina said.

“You can talk to it!?” Rin found herself asking.

“Well of course. From what I know, all Jinchuriki are able to interact with their tailed-beasts. It’s just a matter of finding a way to coexist. It’s nearly impossible to have a copacetic relationship with a tailed-beast. In my experience, they are proud, quick to anger, and resentful of humans for imprisoning them,” Kushina said.

“Well that makes sense,” Rin said. “I would be angry, too, if I was trapped inside a seal forever.”

“Tailed-beasts are dangerous. They were sealed away to keep people safe,” Kushina said matter-of-factly. 

“Still…” Rin said. Curse her bleeding heart. She hated when anyone, or anything, was miserable. “How do we find out which one I have?” Rin asked, steering the conversation back on track, and away from a philosophical debate.

“Have you tried talking to it?” Kushina asked.

“I… maybe?” Rin said. “I remember talking to a really big turtle when I passed out after - after killing all those Mist ninja.”

“A turtle, huh?” Kushina said. “It could be the Three-tailed beast. It’s supposed to be a turtle with three tails. Did it have three tails?”

“It did,” Rin said. “I don’t think it liked me.”

Kushina snorted. “Why would it?”

“I want it to?” Rin said, waving a hand as if that explained everything. It made sense in her head. “I want us to get along if we’re stuck with each other. Or can you take it out of me?”

Kushina shook her head. “I can’t. And even if I could, I wouldn’t. The process of removing a beast from it’s container has always been lethal. You’d die.”

Well, that sucks. Rin hung her head, heaved a sigh, and rubbed her temples. A solution to her predicament was not forthcoming. 

“Shall we get started on trying to use my chakra, then?” Rin asked. “You said we’d try that tonight.”

Kushina nodded. “We can if you want. Or we can eat first.”

“I’d rather do it now, if that’s okay. If this goes bad, the pain will make me throw up anyway. I’ll eat after,” Rin said.

“Okay,” Kushina said, getting to her feet. “Let’s do this in the living room.”

Rin followed. 

Kushina sat Rin down and had her begin with meditation. For a full hour they sat in silence, Rin trying to align the chakras within her. “Feel your chakra. Know it as only you can,” Kushina said. Rin, with her eyes closed, felt for the flowing river of energy within her. It was warm, familiar, safe. “Let it flow freely,” Kushina instructed. “It is yours. It is safe.”

Rin reached for her chakra, and felt her heart rate quicken. She grimaced. No. I can do this. I can control it.

“Deep breaths, Rin,” Kushina said. “Go slow, take your time. Just gather the chakra in your stomach, where it’s easiest.”

Rin did so, her body trembled, it was like liquid fire. It was uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt like before. She could feel the sweat forming on her brow. She sucked in a pained breath. Her pulse was racing. “I can’t-” Rin started to say, but Kushina interrupted her.

“You can. You must.”

Rin nodded, breathing shaky, but continued to mould her chakra in her stomach. She was covered in sweat a minute later, and the pain was building. I can do this, Rin thought. 

“You’re doing well, Rin,” Kushina said. Rin could hear her moving around the room, but she didn’t dare to open her eyes and give up her concentration. “Don’t allow the chakra from your tailed-beast to interfere. Keep them separate.”

It was a lot easier said than done. Rin could barely contain her own chakra in a small quantity. The tailed-beast chakra pulsed through her, battering against her control, making her heart race, her temperature rise, and her veins burn. She held the chakra in her stomach for thirty more seconds, and then the dam broke, and she saw white.

The scream that was ripped from her throat barely registered as she convulsed and lost control of her chakra. It hurt.

But just as fast as it came, it was gone. Rin blinked. She was in the living room of the house in the Whirlpool Village again. She was panting, drenched in sweat, and exhausted, but she was there. It didn’t hurt.

She tried to move, but found she couldn’t. Rin frowned, and tore her eyes away from the ceiling. She was wrapped in glowing, golden chains that were coming out of Kushina’s sides and back.

“How are you holding up?” Kushina asked.

“I’m okay,” Rin said, voice hoarse. “What is this?”

“Chakra chains. An Uzumaki bloodline ability. It was rare, even when there were many of us. The chains are powerful, and can contain and suppress chakra. It was one of the reasons I was chosen to host the Kyubi,” Kushina said. “I wrapped you up the moment your control slipped.”

“Thank you,” Rin said.

“That’s why I’m here, Rin. To keep you safe and healthy. Plus, you did well.” Kushina retracted the chains, and Rin took the opportunity to unstick her hair from her face.

“I don’t feel like I did,” Rin said. “I could barely touch any of my chakra at all, and it was so difficult.” She watched in wonder as the chains slowly sunk back into Kushina’s body.

“I wasn’t expecting you to manage it at all, from the way you talked about your chakra hurting you. This was good. I think I understand what the seal is doing to you.” Kushina sat down beside Rin, who was still laying on her back.

“How can you understand from just that?” Rin asked.

“Well, a seal that contains a tailed-beast has to be designed a certain way. There are certain elements that have to be there, ya know? Which means that I can use that as a starting point. And judging by the way the seal affects you, we can conclude that it has a trigger. The seal wants to give way to the chakra of the beast, which would overwhelm you and force the beast free. It explains why the chakra hurts you so much,” Kushina said.

“It does?” Rin asked, blinking. She didn’t follow at all.

“Yeah!” Kushina said excitedly. “Since the seal is on your heart, it leaks chakra from the tailed-beast whenever you touch your own. Since the chakra circulatory system works much like the cardiovascular system, you are literally pulling the chakra of the beast to every one of your chakra points when you use chakra. It’s clever, devious, and cruel, but also effective.” 

“I’m doomed,” Rin said.

Kushina poked Rin’s nose, but nodded. “The way the seal is now, you’ll never be able to use your chakra safely without running the risk of breaking the seal and releasing the Sanbi.”

“So my career is over?” Rin asked. “For good?”

“Did I say that?” Kushina asked. 

Rin shook her head.

“We need to pull the chakra out of that seal and into another, more stable seal that is safe for you to have,” Kushina said. “The seal on your heart needs to be removed entirely.”

“But you said removing the beast from a seal would kill the host!” Rin shouted in fear.

“I know I did. That’s why we have to move the beast without it ever leaving your body,” Kushina said.

“How are we going to do that?” Rin asked. 

“I have no earthly idea,” Kushina said cheerfully.

Rin closed her eyes. She was going to die, she just knew it. She wasn’t meant to survive with this monster inside of her. She didn’t want to die. It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair! She felt bitterness roil in her stomach, and choked on the air she breathed.

When the tears came, Rin didn’t fight them. Nor did she protest when Kushina pulled her into her lap, and cooed softly to her. Instead, Rin snuggled into Kushina’s warmth while she sobbed, hoping and trusting that Kushina would figure something out, because Rin wanted to go home, she wanted to see Kakashi again and apologize for hurting him. She wanted to see her friends Kurenai and Anko. She wanted to keep studying medicine, and keep training to be a ninja. 

Rin let all her frustrations out, gripping Kushina’s shirt desperately.

“It will all work out, Rin. That’s a promise. I can fix it. I can fix it.” Kushina’s voice was gentle, and Rin thought distantly that she’d make a good mom. She certainly made an excellent older sister. Everything about Kushina was warm and welcoming. Rin really believed that Kushina could fix it, but she was still frustrated and terrified.

When she could cry no more, Rin sat up and rolled off of Kushina’s lap, rubbing at her puffy, swollen eyes. “Sorry,” Rin said quietly, feeling embarrassed at breaking down in front of Kushina.

“No harm done, Rin,” Kushina said with a warm smile, and rose from the floor. She brushed the dust from her pants and stretched. “I’ll be back with dinner in a little while, take as much time as you need to work through it, Rin. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re here to get you back in shape, and I’ll be in the other room if you need me.”

While Kushina busied herself preparing dinner for them, Rin collected herself. I need to get myself together. I can’t be crying and giving up when I need to be learning how to control this. But if she couldn’t control it, or if Kushina couldn’t fix it… Rin felt her lip tremble with worry. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Curled in on herself she felt safe. If she wasn’t exposed to the world, then she couldn't be hurt, right?

She rocked herself back and forth and stared at the wall, not really looking at it. Her mind raced with negative possibilities. In the absence of Kushina’s comfort and warmth, Rin felt herself spiraling into panic and darkness.

She tried to steady herself with deep, measured breaths, but it wasn’t nearly as effective as she wanted to me.

Rin wondered if this was her punishment for being captured on the mission that had claimed Obito’s life. The universe surely was punishing her for being weak, for being unable to keep Obito safe. The universe was punishing her for hurting Kakashi.

Rin felt so pathetic. So useless.

She put her forehead on her knees and squeezed herself tighter. Maybe if she pretended she didn’t exist for a little while, she’d calm down.

“Everything okay, Rin?” Kushina reappeared with a steaming cup of soup, interrupting Rin’s self-destructive line of thinking. Rin raised her head, blinked, and accepted the cup. The warmth of the soup spread through her hands immediately, and she inhaled the warm smell of the steaming food. She blew on it. 

Kushina sat beside her, offering companionship and support. Rin was grateful for it. When she wasn’t alone, her traitorous thoughts seemed so much farther away. It had become so, so easy to doubt herself.

The change in her moods couldn’t possibly be healthy, Rin knew, but she was not at all prepared to face the reality of her mental state. It could wait until her body was healed, couldn’t it?

She needed to get control of this thing. Nothing would work out otherwise. 

When she finished her soup, she placed the cup down beside her and looked at Kushina, trying her best to sound collected and confident. “Can we try again?”

Kushina studied her face for a moment, but nodded. “If you’re ready. We can always wait until tomorrow if-”

“No!” Rin said, maybe a little too loudly. “No. I want to try again now.” Her voice cracked.

“Rin…” Kushina said.

“I’m terrified. But I don’t want to be. I want to beat this thing.” Rin looked at the floor, tracing the lines with her eyes while she tried to stay strong. “I want to do this.”

“Okay,” Kushina said. “You’re right. I won’t try to stop you. I’ll just be here to keep you safe, and to study your seal. In fact, do it without a shirt on, so we can monitor if the seal manifests itself visibly on your skin when you use chakra.”

Rin grinned at her, and removed her shirt. Kushina could fix anything if given enough time and ink. Minato-sensei had said that once.

Rin moved back to her meditating position, legs crossed, fists together, and closed her eyes. She focused on her breath. In. Out.

She focused on the way her chakra naturally flowed throughout her body. She breathed in.

She focused on the beating of her heart. She breathed out.

I can do this, Rin told herself.

Again, she molded the smallest amount of her chakra and held it in her stomach. She grunted when the chakra from her seal started to leak into her system. She forced her breath to stay steady and even. It hurt, but she was in control. It hurt.

A ninja could push through the pain. She could push through the pain.

She held the chakra for five minutes, then ten. She channeled more of her chakra into her stomach. Her pulse was racing. Her skin was on fire. She held the chakra in place, and pushed back against the chakra coming from the seal.

It wavered for a moment, before pushing back. Rin’s control slipped and everything went white with pain.

Before she could scream, Kushina had her wrapped up in chakra chains, and Rin was panting for breath, completely spent.

“You held it longer than last time,” Kushina said. “But what happened? Last time you slowly lost control. This time it looked like your control snapped.”

“I…” Rin gasped for breath. “I tried to use my chakra to force the chakra to go back into the seal.” She wiped the sweat from her face. “The three-tails didn’t like that. It pushed its chakra against my own, pulled back, and then smashed away all my control.”

Kushina unraveled the chains, and knelt beside Rin, who was content to just lay on the floor forever. Fighting against a tailed-beast that was trying to kill you from the inside out was exhausting. Kushina’s hands were on her. Kushina felt her forehead, checked her pulse, and then started poking around where her seal was. 

“Find anything?” Rin asked, face twitching when Kushina’s fingers found a particularly ticklish spot on her ribcage.

“Nothing visible when you were meditating,” Kushina said with a frown. “But I think I have an idea.”

Rin blinked. “Already?” That was fast. Kushina hadn’t even had the makings of a plan the last time Rin had tried to control her chakra.

“Well it’s just an idea. And it’s dangerous,” Kushina said. “But yes, I already have an idea.” She shot Rin a smile and a wink. “Let’s get you in bed. I need to draw out some seals to see if what I’m thinking about is even possible, and you look exhausted.”

Rin nodded, but didn’t move. “The floor’s fine.”

Kushina laughed. “No. You’re going to sleep in those beds we set up. You’ve been sleeping on the ground for long enough. A real night of rest is what you need.”

Rin was hauled unceremoniously to her feet, and found that her legs were very wobbly. She almost fell over, but Kushina steadied her, and guided her to bed. She struggled into her sleeping bag, and was asleep before Kushina left the room.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Rin

Chapter 3

Despite sleeping for eighteen straight hours, Rin was tired. The strain on her body from the previous day’s attempts at controlling chakra had left her completely spent. She stumbled into the front room of the hold house as the sun was setting. “Wasn’t it nighttime when I went to bed?” Rin asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

Kushina looked up from a small pile of notes, scratched her nose with a pen, and nodded. “You needed to recuperate your chakra. Your body and chakra system are nowhere near recovered from your last mission. Honestly we probably shouldn’t have pushed it so hard yesterday.”

Rin considered that, but nodded. “I feel like shit.”

Kushina laughed. Rin waited for her to finish, but arranged her expression to convey that she did not find it funny at all. 

“Is there food?” Rin asked, when Kushina had settled down.

“There’s a whole mess of ration bars,” Kushina said. “But I think you’ll enjoy the ducks I caught earlier a lot more.”

Rin nodded, thankful for the real food, and allowed herself to be led to the kitchen. Kushina had done an amazing job patching up the house, cleaning out the old dust, and making it mostly inhabitable. On the table were the field utensils and plates, holding a rather delicious looking pair of birds that were plucked, gutted, and cooked. Rin’s stomach growled.

She practically threw herself into a chair, tearing a leg off and biting into it ravenously. “Please remember to breathe while you eat,” Kushina said as she sat down and took a much more reasonable approach to the meal. Rin grinned sheepishly, mouth full, but did not slow down. How was she so hungry?

After... Dinner? Breakfast? After they ate, Kushina cleared off the table, and they took the bones outside to dispose of. Kushina showed Rin the way to a small creek, where they could safely wash their dishes. “About fifteen minutes walk upstream there’s a pond you can bathe in,” Kushina said. Kushina put their dishes down, pulled a scroll from her pocket, and unsealed a bag. Rin eyed it curiously, but Kushina shooed her away.

Rin left Kushina with the dishes, and wandered up the stream. The water got deeper after she clambered up a small waterfall about as tall as she was, and Rin found the pond a few moments later. The water was swirling slowly, because of course it was, and Rin was surprised that it wasn’t as cold as she expected it to be.

She sat on a large rock at the edge of the pond, removed her sandals, and dangled her feet in the water. Rin opened the bag next, and found soap, shampoo, conditioner, a towel and a change of clothes waiting for her. She smiled. Kushina really did think of everything.

Putting the bag on the rock beside her, Rin found herself looking at the now emerging stars. She wondered if Kakashi was recovering, if he was even still alive. The thought that he could be dead at her hands made her feel sick, and she fought the all-consuming guilt that had so often accompanied thoughts of Kakashi since she’d set off with Kushina. 

Wasn’t it supposed to get easier to deal with? That was what Kushina had told her. But despite the week that had passed, Rin still felt as emotionally raw and devastated as ever. Perhaps it was too optimistic of her to be feeling any better so quickly, but she wanted to be able to function without the presence of someone to distract her.

Rin sniffled, and wiped her eyes. Bathe. She needed to bathe. She could mope later. 

Forty minutes later, Rin was returning to the house, clean, and feeling at least able to focus.

“Still feel like shit?” Kushina teased when she stepped into the house. Rin grunted noncommittally and offered a ‘so-so’ gesture with the hand that was not carrying the toiletries bag. Kushina chuckled and rolled her eyes. “When you’re up to it, I want to talk you through what I have in mind for your seal.”

Rin nodded, put the bag in the bedroom, and returned to the table where Kushina was sitting. “Now’s good.”

Kushina nodded and took her outside. Around the side of the house, Kushina had constructed a sort of blackboard on the wall, but she couldn’t make it out in the dark. As if reading her mind, Kushina walked around the area in a circle, and activated several seals that began to emit light, until it was like being in the Konoha stadium at night.

Rin looked at the wall and gaped. 

Kushina had drawn what looked like scribbles all over the wall in charcoal. It was a joke. It had to be a joke. 

“Okay,” Kushina said. “This is my complete first draft of the seal. I’ve been tweaking my notes since you fell asleep, and I drew this out while you were getting cleaned up. It’s easier to digest when it’s bigger, I think. I don’t know if you’d be able to follow along if we were looking at the version I drew in a scroll.”

Rin looked at Kushina. “Oh don’t worry about me following along. I definitely won’t.”

Kushina ruffled her hair fondly. “I think you’ll do just fine.”

Rin silently agreed to disagree. Sealing was complicated.

Kushina picked up a stick that had one end covered in soot. “I started with my seal,” Kushina pointed at a strange spiral-like set of markings with her stick. “My seal contains the Nine-Tailed Fox, and allows me to use my chakra or the fox’s chakra without harming myself.”

Rin nodded, that was pretty straightforward. Not that she would have been able to figure that out on her own. But it was still easy enough to follow along.

“Your seal doesn’t let you use either your chakra, or the beast’s chakra, safely,” Kushina continued. “What I want to do is move all of the Sanbi’s chakra into a seal identical to my own.”

“That sounds good,” Rin said, tilting her head and trying to figure out what any of the other scribbles were supposed to represent. 

“Indeed it does,” Kushina agreed. “But it leaves us with our first problem. We can’t unseal your beast and reseal it without killing you outright. So we need a workaround.” Kushina tapped another drawing, one that sort of looked like the eight gates if she had to describe it. “I have been working on a massive chakra sink of a seal that we can anchor to an existing seal.”

“Anchor?” Rin asked, looking away from the drawing.

“Basically connecting one seal to the foci of the other. In your case, we’ll be trying to connect to the chakra distribution pathway above your heart, so that you can transfer chakra from the Sanbi to the new seal.” Kushina smiled at her.

“But you said that would kill me!” Rin said.

“Well that’s just the thing. Unsealing the beast and resealing it is the only way to move it.” Kushina held up a hand to forestall Rin’s oncoming panic attack. “Tailed-beasts regenerate any chakra they expend just like we do. So my idea is for you to transfer enough of the chakra from the Sanbi into this seal,” Kushina tapped the second seal she’d sketched again. “And for us to trick your body into thinking it wasn’t losing its new source of chakra.”

Rin didn’t follow anymore.

Kushina plowed forward. “We can unseal a tailed beast directly from one seal to the other without it actually manifesting physically, but we cannot transfer it from one seal on your body to another directly. There has to be a stage where the Sanbi is sealed in something outside of your body. If you can output enough chakra into the temporary seal to keep yourself alive for a few minutes without the three-tails, then I can move it to a safer seal that will allow you to use your chakra again safely.”

Rin rubbed her eyes and blinked, looking from the scribbles to Kushina and back with a completely dazed look on her face. “This sounds really dangerous.”

Kushina put a hand on her shoulder. “It is. But it’s either this, or you retire to civilian life somewhere outside of the village.”

Rin hung her head. “What are the chances this actually works?”

“With just the two of us? I’d give you sixty-forty odds to make it through. If Minato gets my note and arrives with Jiraiya or a team from the sealing corps, your chances are very good,” Kushina said.

“Can we wait for that?” Rin asked hopefully.

Kushina pursed her lips. “We can, Rin. But we might be here for a long time. Months, potentially.”

Rin nodded. “I’d like to make it through with more than a sixty percent chance of survival.” 

“Then we’ll wait,” Kushina agreed.

Rin turned back to the markings. “So we have this seal.” She pointed to the one that Kushina said was her Kyubi seal. “You’re going to draw one of these on me?” Rin asked, and Kushina nodded. “But only after I am able to channel chakra from my current seal into this one?” Rin pointed to the next seal. Kushina nodded again, and Rin found herself moving onto the next one. “What’s this?” It looked like a… well Rin didn’t know what it looked like. But it was easily the largest seal.

“That’s the seal that will temporarily hold the Sanbi in an inanimate object,” Kushina said.

“Why is it so much… more?” Rin asked, tracing the lines with her fingers.

“Why do you think?” Kushina asked.

Rin considered it. It was no more intricate than the other seals, but it was massive in comparison. But the longer she looked at it, the more she saw similarities to the human cardiovascular and chakra networks. Not the shape, but the clusters of simulated tenketsu and arteries. “It’s because the human body isn’t there to pick up the slack,” Rin said. “The seal has to be able to store and circulate chakra like the human body.”

“Very good, Rin,” Kushina said. 

“How is that even possible?” Rin asked incredulously. 

“A lot of chakra theory, a bunch of Fuinjutsu intuition, a small amount of anatomical knowledge, and some testing to make sure it works,” Kushina said.

“Testing?” Rin asked.

“I’m going to do a small scale experiment with my own tailed-beast chakra before we do the real thing with you,” Kushina said. 

“But you said it was dangerous! That it’s potentially fatal!” Rin turned to Kushina, determined to stop her. 

Kushina waved away her concern. “I am not going to unseal the Kyubi, Rin. I just want to make sure this seal will be able to hold a significant amount of chakra without overloading or breaking down in some way.”

“But…” Rin said.

Kushina shook her head. “I can go over the theory a thousand times, Rin. But the truth is, nobody has ever tried this before. I want to make sure you’re going to be safe.”

Sensing she couldn’t win the argument if she wanted to, Rin dropped the issue, and allowed Kushina to talk her through the seals in more detail, and then again they went step-by-step through her plan to relocate the Sanbi. 

Despite the danger, Rin knew that it was a good plan. The first step for Rin was to be able to differentiate her own chakra from the Sanbi’s when molding chakra. Not an easy task, but Rin was glad of the chance to do something. To be proactive, instead of being swept up like a leaf in a river.

They returned to the house shortly after, and Kushina retired for the night. Rin, who had only been awake for a few hours, decided to read her sealing book in the kitchen. It was hard to concentrate with her mind analyzing the discussion of the sealing procedure. She closed the book with a sigh, and got to her feet, stretching her arms above her head.

Deciding to let her mind wander, Rin took to the streets of the once revered ninja village, and followed the path that Kushina had shown her. She wandered the streets listlessly, trying to calm her fraying nerves at the thought of extracting and relocating a tailed-beast in a potentially deadly sealing experiment.

She slowed to a stop in front of what remained of Kushina’s childhood home. A strong sense of curiosity overcame her, and she stepped up to the doorframe. Rin hesitated. She wanted to go inside, really she did. She wanted to find something of Kushina’s past, to return it to her, but Rin knew it would be a gross violation of trust.

Rin lingered, looking into the shadows of the house from the entryway. She took a deep breath, and stepped across the threshold. The old wood creaked beneath her feet as she stepped inside.

It was dark, save for the little moonlight that filtered in through the holes in the roof. It was enough for a ninja to navigate by.

There was little left in the way of furniture. What had likely once been tables or chairs was now little more than splintered and rotted wood. Rin tried to imagine the home with the lights on, the furniture intact, and with Kushina’s family inside. Three children, running down the hall, laughing as they played a game, their parents sharing an exasperated look.

But in the dark of night and among the ruins of the home, Rin could do little but imagine ghosts. 

Equally curious and somber, Rin explored the kitchen, opening up the old rickety cabinets that were still mostly in one piece. She ran her fingers across the old, cracked dishes and the rusted cutlery. There was an old cracked mixing bowl among the remains of what had once been a small kitchen table.

She found her way down the hall, cracked picture frames and photographs that had faded with age and exposure littered the floor. The bedrooms were thick with dust and cobwebs, and Rin found her hair sticking up when she went into the first one. It felt like she was being watched by someone. 

She poked her head back into the hallway, but saw nothing. Nervous, Rin noticed for the first time just how loud her breathing was, and how much noise she made just by walking around. A creak echoed from farther down the hall. Rin gripped the doorframe. “Hello?” Rin asked the darkness. 

Stupid, Rin told herself. She’d just given away her position. But there wasn’t supposed to be anyone here. Maybe it was an animal?

“Kushina?” Rin asked.

Something thumped from another room, and Rin nearly jumped out of her skin. Deciding that her poking around could wait until there was daylight, Rin dashed for the exit. She slid to a halt in the hallway and stood stock still when she saw what looked like the silhouette of a person at the front door. 

Rin held her breath. There was more banging from behind her. The floorboards creaked, Rin turned her head and peered down the hallway in the dark. There was nothing. She whipped her head back towards the door, and the silhouette was gone. She crept forward, looking for any sign of who had been there, but she found nothing.

She waited at the porch, looking, listening. It bore no further information.

She eventually backed away and walked back to the house they were staying in. That had been close, too close. Something about the Whirlpool village suddenly felt very wrong to Rin. She decided that she’d only nose around during the day until she had her chakra back. Once in the house, she sat back down at the table in front of her book, and vowed not to stray towards Kushina’s childhood home again. She wasn’t a superstitious person, but that house was most definitely haunted. 

What made it all the more terrifying was that Rin could not ever tell Kushina. The horrors of the last hour were Rin’s burden to bear.

Rin found herself drifting off a few hours later, it was clear her body needed more rest, and she wasn’t willing to fight it. She slid into her sleeping bag, and waited for sleep to come. When it did, she rested fitfully, her dreams plagued by the feeling of being watched and the outline of a person in the darkness.

The next several days found Rin and Kushina falling into a routine, and Rin did her best to hide the fact that she wasn’t sleeping particularly well, but she suspected that Kushina was aware. Thankfully, the older woman never brought it up.

They would wake up, eat breakfast, and then Kushina would lead Rin through kata that Rin was unfamiliar with. When asked about it, Kushina explained that the kata were the basic practice forms for the style of Taijutsu that she’d learned as a young girl. “The Whirling Palms style is fluid, like water in a whirlpool, redirecting and controlling the ebb and flow of combat,” Kushina had said. “The form of my family’s martial art is ideal for your rehabilitation because it will force you to move in unfamiliar ways. The kata for the Academy Basic Taijutsu would be far less effective.”

After their morning exercise, Kushina would begin experimenting with her seal, and Rin would read, or be given basic sealing work to do. She’d made a storage scroll, she learned to create explosive tags, and while the process was slow going, Rin found herself enjoying it. She just wished she could use her chakra to actually see if they worked.

They would break for lunch, and then Kushina would supervise Rin while she tried to use her chakra. It was dreadfully slow and exhausting work, but Kushina insisted that it was the most important part of their day, and that Rin would have to be able to learn to channel the Sanbi’s chakra separately from her own if their plan was to succeed.

So, they worked at it. Day after day after day.

As Rin slowly regained control of her chakra system, she found her physical condition improving. Kushina eventually moved on from the first and most basic kata, and started teaching Rin the kicks, punches, and blocks of the Whirling Palms style. 

Rin had never been one for Taijutsu, but the more fluid and defensive fighting style was easier for her to grasp than the rather aggressive and direct fighting styles that were common in the Leaf Village. Or it was because she was older now, and more focused. Either way, she found the exercise invigorating and worthwhile.

On the fifth day of rigorous training, Rin managed to separate the Sanbi’s chakra from her own. The result was that Rin immediately lost control of both streams of chakra and was once again brought back to that white void of excruciating pain.

“What happened there, Rin?” Kushina asked her as her chakra chains slowly unwrapped the girl.

“I… had it…” Rin panted. “But my concentration slipped. Keeping them separated is hard .”

“I’ll bet. I had a hard enough time learning to utilize the Kyubi’s chakra alongside my own, and my seal is actually designed to help me, not hinder me.” Kushina offered Rin a hand, and helped her to her feet. “You’re making remarkable progress, Rin. You should be proud of yourself.”

Rin heaved a tired sigh. “It doesn’t feel like I am. I haven’t been able to use my chakra for real in weeks. I feel trapped in my own skin. Helpless.”

Kushina nodded. “I wish it could be easier, Rin.”

Rin stretched her arms over her head, but didn’t reply. 

“We can spend more time working on Taijutsu if you want,” Kushina offered. 

“I think I’d like that, actually,” Rin said. “I’ve never been great at Taijutsu, but what you’ve been teaching me feels a lot better than what we learned at the Academy. Or anything that Minato-sensei taught us, for that matter.”

“That’s because the Academy Taijutsu style is structured to teach only the fundamentals of hand-to-hand combat. And Minato’s preference for Taijutsu involves speed and hard hits. You need something that works for your body type and personality. Everyone should seek a Taijutsu style that works for them after the Academy.” Kushina grinned at her. “This one works for me, and I’m glad it works for you. The other style out of Uzushiogakure I am definitely worse with.”

“There’s another style?” Rin asked. 

Kushina nodded. “It’s called the Vortex Fist.”

“It’s more aggressive?” Rin guessed.

“That’s right,” Kushina said. “There’s a lot of strong forms and direct attacks. It took me a long time to learn it, but I certainly don’t prefer it.”

“You learned both Taijutsu styles well enough to teach me before you came to Konoha?” Rin asked.

Kushina laughed. “Not at all! My Aunt Tsunade taught me. I was just old enough to enroll in the Academy when I arrived. I hadn’t even started Ninjutsu training at the time. My Taijutsu was super rudimentary at that age.”

Rin’s eyes bugged out of her head. Tsunade was super, super famous. What did she have to do with Kushina’s Taijutsu training? “Tsunade of the Sannin?”

“That’s her,” Kushina said with a bright smile.

“She’s your aunt?!” Rin exclaimed.

Kushina nodded. “Technically she’s my cousin, I suppose. But she’s my only family, and we’re pretty close. Her grandmother and father were both members of my clan, so she's, like, half Uzumaki, and she learned the style from her parents. She taught me when I graduated from the Academy.”

“Was Tsunade your Jonin sensei?” Rin asked, maybe a little envious. Minato-sensei was awesome, but Tsunade was the kunoichi almost all girls in the Leaf village looked up to.

“Not officially. She was more like my personal trainer whenever we were both in the village,” Kushina said. “Tsunade was out fighting wars and revolutionizing the medical teams. She never officially took on a Genin team.”

“Did she only teach you Taijutsu?” Rin asked.

Kushina shook her head. “Tsunade taught me a lot. She helped me work on my really poor Genjutsu and chakra control. Hell, she tried to teach me medical jutsu, but I was never any good at it. My chakra control isn’t precise enough for it. She did make me take basic field first-aid and triage classes though.”

“I see,” Rin said, nodding.

“I was terrible at them,” Kushina said. “You’re a better medic even if you can’t use your chakra right now.

Rin smiled at her, grateful for the praise and confidence that Kushina gave her.

“Do you want to try again?” Kushina asked.

Rin considered the spot where she’d tried meditating, and shook her head. “Not today. I’m tired, and my chakra didn’t want to cooperate anyway.”

Kushina ruffled her hair. “Okay. How about a trip with me to see if there’s anything in our traps? I’d rather not have ration bars or miso soup every day while we’re here.”

Rin agreed entirely, and they set off to the edge of the village. Finding a few birds, rabbits, or even a deer would be welcome after several days of boring fare. Though Rin wished they had more vegetables. The ones Kushina had purchased from the farmers had run out.

After another week of work, Rin could hold the chakra separated within herself for a period of time that Kushina deemed acceptable, and she showed Rin how to start channeling chakra into the seal that would contain enough tailed-beast chakra to temporarily sustain Rin’s life.

The more Rin was able to put into the seal, the longer the window would be for the resealing of the three-tails. Of course, the amount that Rin could channel in one sitting was pitifully small. Not to mention it was exhausting, she could only do it twice a day before she had to sleep, so she saved her second session for after dinner.

The nightmares plagued her less this way, when she was too worn out to even remember if she had dreams at all. Rin was grateful for the mostly restful sleep.

Kushina, for her part, kept pushing Rin harder and harder. They had moved on to sparring in the mornings, and Rin was confident that her Taijutsu was better than it had ever been before. 

They had now been in the Whirlpool village for over two weeks. Kushina had started to explore some of the areas of the village, putting to rest the ghosts of her past. Rin was happy for her, and she was happy that she sort of had an excuse to poke around in old houses. Not that she wanted to, but if Kushina did end up in her childhood home, at least the signs of her trespass could be explained away safely.

Of course, Kushina had purposefully avoided the street where she’d lived altogether. She seemed content to slowly remove any old traps or seals that were still in place (and still potentially dangerous) from the area immediately surrounding where they were living.

It was during these forays, the Kushina taught Rin how to locate active seals. A subtle bit of ninja craft that Rin had no natural aptitude for. It took dozens of tries over several days for Rin to find an active bit of sealing paper without any help.

“Well done, Rin,” Kushina said, walking over to where Rin had found a paper bomb set to go off if anyone opened an old door. When Kushina did confirm it was a paper bomb and not something more nefarious, she said, “Now that you’ve got that part down, show me how to disarm it. We’ve gone over all the theory.”

Rin nodded and crouched down beside the paper seal. 

“Talk me through it,” Kushina instructed. “Make sure you know your stuff, and I can make sure you don’t blow us up if you make a mistake.”

Rin pulled a small bottle of ink and a brush from her pocket and ran her eyes over the seal. “It’s more advanced than the standard Konoha explosive tag seal. The radius is…” She traced her finger along a small cross section of ink. “The radius is fifty meters.”

“Good,” Kushina said, leaning over Rin’s shoulder to see the seal “What else?”

“It’s designed to go off if the paper is pulled off the wall,” Rin said.

“How do you know?” Kushina pressed.

Rin pointed to small anchoring symbols in the corners of the sealing paper. “These are chakra anchors, and when the paper is removed while the chakra in the seal is active they ignite.”

She could feel Kushina beaming at her proudly. “So if you can’t remove the seal physically, how do you proceed?”

“We have to destabilize the seal by changing how the chakra moves through the sealing matrix,” Rin recited. “I have to make the seal into something that won’t explode.”

“Just cover it up?” Kushina suggested.

Rin shook her head. “No can do. Uzumaki seals are too well designed for that. More chakra conducting ink in the wrong places would just make the explosion bigger.”

Kushina chuckled. “Just making sure. So what do you do if that won’t work?”

“I need to identify the areas where I can make changes to redirect the flow of chakra to make the seal malfunction or cease to work entirely,” Rin said. She ran her pointer finger along a curve in the seal near the right edge of the paper. “I can add the symbol for light here, by crossing over this line.” Rin pursed her lips, examining the tag and searching for the solution.

Seals were like puzzles, really cool, intricate, dangerous puzzles.

“This line here is what channels the chakra to the explosion. And these symbols determine the size and force of the blast.” Rin hummed and ran her fingers over the seal. “So if we change the symbol that determines the force to be next to nothing, the seal should just…”

And Rin drew her brush across the seal, which glowed for a moment before emitting a small puff of smoke and light.

“Very well done, Rin,” Kushina said.

Rin itched her nose sheepishly. “Well I learned from the best.”

Kushina laughed and stepped back so Rin could put away her ink and brush. “You want to try another one?”

Rin grinned. “Let’s do it!”

“Okay. Let’s move to the next building, I think this one is in the clear,” said Kushina. Rin nodded in the affirmative, and followed Kushina towards the next ruined house. As they crossed the threshold, Rin felt once more like she was being watched. She cast her gaze around nervously, but she saw no one else.

“Everything okay, Rin?” asked Kushina.

Rin started, and noticed that Kushina was already peeking her head around the corner to a different room while Rin stood absently in the entryway. “Oh! Uh, yeah! Coming!” She hurried through the house to the bedroom where Kushina was waiting for her.

“Well, you know what to do,” Kushina said. “Find the seal that is still active in this area and safely disable it.”

Rin, still not able to shake the feeling of being watched, tried to shake off the uneasy feeling in her gut, and started scouring the room for the seal. She moved slowly and carefully, so as not to accidentally trigger the seal. She knew that Kushina would step in and stop her if she was about to do something really stupid. Likely, Kushina had already found the seal and identified what it was for.

As she moved from wall to wall, she rotated around the room, and when she once again faced the door, Rin saw a silhouette of someone standing in the shadows of the room across the hallway. The feeling of dread nearly ripped a scream from her throat. She froze, eyes panicked, and stumbled backwards, tripping over a loose floorboard and falling gracelessly to the ground.

“Rin!?” Kushina asked. “What’s wrong?”

Rin raised a trembling hand and pointed to the shadows in the room across the hall.

Kushina followed her fingers and stepped into the hallway, opening the door to the other room. The door creaked as Kushina pushed it open, and Rin desperately huddled in on herself. Something about the shadow-figure disturbed her. It was worse this time than it had been in Kushina’s home. Kushina stepped into the room, glanced around for a minute, and then returned to Rin. “There’s nobody there, ya know?”

The shadowed figure was still there.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Kushina

Chapter 4

To say that she was worried was a gross understatement and misrepresentation of the situation - Kushina was panicked half to death. Rin was staring in terror at the doorway to the room across the hall, eyes fixed on something, or someone, that wasn't there.

Kushina could not see this apparition, or smell it, or sense it with her chakra. 

In no world was this a good thing.

It could be the Sanbi influencing her. Or the seal that contained the beast. Or any number of seals placed in Uzushiogakure that Rin may have inadvertently triggered when she wasn’t under supervision. 

Kushina rushed to Rin's side, grabbing her shoulder and shaking her gently, trying to get her attention. "Rin. Rin! Rin, sweetie, I need you to look at me."

Rin was taking ragged breaths now, paralyzed by her fear and locked in place, not hearing or reacting to outside stimulus. Fear of the thing that Kushina could not see gripped Rin like a vice. Kushina cursed under her breath, and scooped Rin up into her arms. She cradled the younger girl against her chest and held her steady. She needed to get Rin back to their temporary home, and then figure out what was happening to her.

Kushina made for the door and Rin screamed in terror, eyes still fixed on the ‘something’ that wasn’t there. So, she believed it to be in the hallway. Kushina could work with that. “Rin, I need to get us out of the building. I need to go through the door, do you understand?”

Rin said nothing, eyes still fixed on the doorway. She was shaking now, and covered in a thin layer of sweat. Kushina didn’t want to make the situation worse for her charge, but she didn’t want to blow out the wall behind them and trigger any seals that may be hidden there. She took another step forward, and Rin convulsed in her arms, chakra lashing out and trying desperately to keep her away from whatever perceived danger she saw. Rin’s lashing chakra once again caused the rapid release of the Sanbi’s chakra to burst forth. Kushina was forcefully blown backwards by the sudden, massive surge of energy. 

Rin fell to the ground with a loud ‘thump’ as Kushina collided with the far wall of the room. Kushina felt the air explode from her lungs upon impact, but caught herself and landed on her feet.  Rin, she noticed, was writhing in either fear or pain or both.

The force of Rin’s chakra expulsion, coupled with the foundation shaking impact of Kushina hitting the wall triggered the seal in the room. Splinters, lengths of wood, and old rusty nails filled the room with a bang as the explosive tag beneath a loose floorboard detonated.

Kushina crossed her arms in front of her face to shield her from the shrapnel. Heat washed over her and she felt the peppering of splinters as they pierced her skin.

“Shit,” Kushina said. “This is not how today was supposed to go.” She let her chakra swell and explode from within her. Golden chains of chakra materialized and wrapped themselves snugly around Rin. 

Kushina’s chakra battled ever so briefly against the boiling wrath of the three tails, before Rin stilled and her chakra returned to normal. 

“Now to figure out what the hell happened here,” Kushina said.

She took Rin back to their temporary home, and laid her in her bed. First, she looked Rin over, but her prone position had shielded her from nearly all of the blast. There were a few small cuts, and a short nail sticking into her thigh. Kushina dug out the metal, sanitized and bandaged the wound, and was pleased to see that the Sanbi was, at least, doing its part to heal her.

While Rin was out, Kushina took additional measures to make sure that their living space was heavily sealed, trapped, and otherwise impenetrable. On the off chance that they were dealing with a hostile ninja, she did not want to take any chances.

She returned to Rin’s side and woke her with a spike of chakra. Rin lurched abruptly into consciousness, sitting up quickly and gasping for breath. Kushina steadied her with a hand on her shoulder. “What happened?” Rin asked.

“I was hoping you could tell me, ya know?” Kushina said.

Rin furrowed her brows, thinking. “We were across the Whirlpool Village. I was working on disabling a seal… no. I had just finished with one, and you were going to take me to look at another one you picked out. And then it’s a little fuzzy. I remember being scared, but not why.”

Kushina gave Rin’s shoulder a squeeze. “Do you feel scared now?”

Rin shook her head. “No. Everything feels perfectly normal.”

“Well that’s something, at least.” Kushina sat back on her own bed, arms crossed. “We need to figure out what caused it, though. It’ll be impossible to get your chakra sorted out if we’re dealing with this as well.”

Rin nodded, and swung her legs off the bed. "I felt like I was being watched the entire time we were in that second house, right up until it happened."

"So it's possible that you triggered a seal and were under its influence. But then why wasn't I affected the same way?" Kushina frowned. "Something doesn't seem right. I checked that house specifically to make sure it was suitable for teaching you seal work. It can't have been a seal. At least, not there."

Rin opened her mouth, but didn't have anything to say, so she closed it again.

Kushina leaned forward and put a hand on Rin’s cheek. “Don’t worry so much, Rin. I can figure this out. I didn’t make Jonin for no reason, ya know?” Rin nodded, but her eyes were cast down. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I need to have a look around and see what I can find. But I’d prefer if you were here where I know you’re safe.”

Rin balked and latched onto Kushina’s arm. “I don’t… I don’t want to be alone.”

Kushina’s heart melted for her charge. She crossed to Rin’s bed and pulled the girl into her arms. “It’s gonna be just fine. I promise.”

Rin sniffled and buried her head in Kushina’s shoulder. “I feel so helpless. I can’t defend myself or help you because I can’t use my chakra. I don’t want to be a burden to you, but I feel like I am. And… and… you’re so confident. So confident that you can fix all of this. I’m scared. What if I never get back to normal? I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die, either.”

Kushina held Rin close while she babbled. She could feel Rin’s body tremble while she fought against tears, and Kushina wished there was more she could do. Rin was family.

"I'm confident, because this is something I know we can overcome - together," Kushina said. She hugged Rin a little tighter.

"Thank you," Rin said.

"What's family for, if you can't count on them when you're in need?" 

Rin said nothing, but they stayed like that, wrapped around one another for comfort, until Rin's breathing slowed and evened out. Kushina stayed for another hour, gently rubbing circles on Rin’s back. Eventually, Kushina extracted herself from Rin, and tucked her into the bed. 

Kushina made her way back to the kitchen and collapsed into a chair. She didn’t stop the hot burning of frustrated tears from falling onto the table, nor did she move to wipe them away. She wished, more than anything, that she could do something to make Rin’s situation all better, but there was no easy solution. What they faced was terrifying and dangerous - and that was before this new complication of not-there hallucinations were involved. And, if Kushina was being honest with herself, she wasn’t even sure if Rin was going to survive what was to come. The idea that Rin could die was too much for Kushina to bear. 

She fought bitterly against the righteous scream that tore at her throat, and clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound. She felt like she was suffocating on dread and anger and self-doubt. But there was nothing for it, because she absolutely could not fall apart right now. There was a kid in the next room that she loved. And that kid needed her to be a hero right now.

It took her a few minutes to collect herself. There were things she could do while Rin slept, like tear apart the house where her charge had had her episode one floorboard at a time while searching for any clue as to what the hell had happened. 

She was back across the village as fast as her feet would carry her.

Once she reached the house where Rin collapsed, Kushina got to work. She began with a sweep of the perimeter, searching for any signs of life. There was nothing, of course. Even an invisible ninja would leave footprints or signs of their passage, but she felt foolish for believing she’d encounter anyone else. Nobody besides her (and now Rin) ever came to the ruins of Uzushiogakure. 

When Kushina was satisfied she would not be ambushed by a hostile ninja, she returned to the front door and started searching for a seal that could induce paranoia or hallucinations if activated. Kushina found nothing on the splintered door or on the front porch and headed inside, where she roughly peeled back the drywall and searched for an errant seal secreted within the walls of the entryway. When that produced no results, Kushina started prying up floorboards, and while she did find seals from time to time, there was nothing that could explain Rin’s episode.

Kushina continued through the house, one room at a time, searching for her errant seal. But doubt grew in the pit of her stomach, leaving her worried that either the seal within her, or the Three-Tails itself, was the source of Rin’s newest ailment. 

Kushina worked until she felt Rin’s chakra flutter, signaling to her senses that the girl was waking up. 

When she arrived back at the house, Rin was sitting up and blinking sleep from her eyes. Kushina smiled warmly at Rin, she was okay. It meant there was still hope. Kushina held onto that, and returned to her seat at the kitchen table, unfurling a scroll and fully intending to brainstorm a solution to her newest problem.

“Feeling better?” Kushina asked when Rin trudged out of the bedroom.

“A bit,” Rin said. “Sleeping helped calm me down, at least.”

Kushina put an elbow on the table, frowning at her blank scroll. “I went back to that house while you were sleeping. Searched for hostile ninja as well as any seals I may have missed, but I didn’t find anything that explains what happened when you were there.”

“So it wasn’t a seal?” Rin asked, taking a seat.

“It could be. But I’m starting to think it’s a little more closely related to your other problem,” Kushina said. 

Rin shifted uncomfortably and covered her face with her hands. 

"Hey, look at me, we can beat this. I know we can," Kushina said, and she half believed it.

Rin hesitated before dropping her hands into her lap and fixing Kushina with an unsure look.

"You are stronger than you know," Kushina said. 

Rin sniffled and wiped at her eyes.

Kushina smiled at Rin, wishing desperately for a solution to simply fall into her lap. When none was forthcoming, she returned her attention to the scroll before her.

"Are you going to make a seal to keep us safe?" Rin asked.

Kushina, who had been lost in thought, blinked and looked up. "Huh? What? No. No I'm not. It's hard to ward off whatever it is because I don't know what it is. I was trying to figure out what kind of thing could affect you in the way it did without being visible or even detectable to me.”

“How can it be undetectable?”

“Well that’s just it. Because of my ability to sense chakra, it shouldn’t be possible for whatever this is to hide from me as if it didn’t exist. The only other chakra I can sense, or have sensed, in the entire village is yours.”

Rin said nothing, but drummed her fingers on the table nervously.

Kushina rolled the scroll back up, and put a hand on Rin’s to settle her nervous fidgeting. “Let’s not stress about it tonight. Instead we are going to make dinner and then we're going to spend the rest of the night playing card games to unwind. We'll figure it out tomorrow."

Rin nodded mechanically, still quiet and obviously lost in thought. 

They made dinner: miso soup and seared rabbit, and after Kushina fished a deck of cards and some candy from her supplies. Slowly, Rin warmed up and let her troubles fade away. They played cards into the late hours of the night, and Kushina was careful to keep their conversation light and untroubled.

The next day came with overcast skies and the sense of impending conflict. Kushina felt it deep within her, and she was certain Rin could feel it as well. 

Kushina slipped on her sandals and led Rin outside for their morning Taijutsu training, trying her best to act as if nothing was wrong. After their practice, they had lunch and spent the afternoon working on Rin’s chakra separation exercises. 

They did not venture into the village to work on disarming seals; Kushina did not think it wise, given the circumstances, and Rin was happy enough to remain in and around the safety of their temporary home. Kushina did note, however, that Rin seemed more run-down than she had been. She looked, to Kushina at least, as she had looked in those first days after becoming a Jinchuriki. And what was more, she lost her temper often. Frustration and the redness of cheeks appeared whenever she made a mistake or got lost in her own thoughts.

The day passed. Kushina worried.

The following morning, Rin had bags under her eyes, and had even more trouble focusing. Twice, Kushina landed a free punch when Rin focused on something far away, and both times Rin was more concerned with whatever she saw than with the bruises she was sure to have. 

When it happened a third time, Kushina called a halt to their morning Taijutsu practice. 

“That’s it. We’re done,” Kushina said.

“What? Why? I can keep going,” Rin protested from where she lay, spread-eagled and clutching her jaw.

Kushina sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re distracted, ya know? More than just lack of sleep, and definitely more than just being worried about something. You keep zoning out, staring at things I can’t see, and you can’t hide from me that you’re scared .”

“I… but… I like the Taijutsu practice,” Rin said.

“Why?” Kushina asked.

“Because I can focus on something other than being afraid,” Rin said bitterly, sitting up and working her mouth open and closed.

“Not today you can’t,” Kushina said, offering her a hand.

Rin batted her hand away. “Yes, I can.”

Kushina’s temper flared, but she counted backwards from three and bit the inside of her cheek. It’s not her fault, she reminded herself. She’s just stressed.  

“It’s not that I don’t believe you’re capable. It’s that something is keeping you from focusing. What’s distracting you?” Kushina asked.

“Nothing,” Rin snapped. 

“Don’t get snippy with me when I’m trying to help you,” Kushina said, crossing her arms.

“Oh yes, I’m so sorry that I’m being rude. My mistake. I only got turned into a demon by some war criminals. I only killed my best friend. I only lost my ability to use chakra. I can’t sleep. I can’t concentrate. And now I can’t stop jumping at things that aren’t there. But since it’s my attitude that’s the problem, let me just fix that for you!”

Kushina blinked at her student’s outburst, torn between sympathy and wanting to cuff her about the head. Had Rin ever lost her temper before? Kushina had never seen it. But the all encompassing teen-angst that accompanied her outpost was the most normal thing that had happened in over a month. Still, Rin shouldn’t take it out on her. “You done? Got it out of your system? Can we have a conversation now?” 

Rin glowered at her, got to her feet, and stomped towards the house. “I’m tired,” she said.

“Rin, talk to me!” Kushina called after her, but Rin did not turn around. She watched as Rin slammed the door to their house and winced. “That went well.”

She probably could have handled it better. She wanted to go after Rin, but figured it would only lead to an argument. 

If Rin was going to nap, Kushina could take advantage of the time to search the island again.

Turning away from the house with a frown, Kushina sat in the center of their sparring area. She folded her legs into the lotus position, formed the tiger seal, and spread her chakra sense as wide as she could. Perhaps there was something very subtle that she was missing.

She focused on her breathing, trying to find calm, and the detection of small changes in the chakra of the world that accompanied it. The village was as empty as it ever was. Kushina could sense Rin, a beacon of chakra close by, and she could sense the birds and other animals that lived on the island.

Beyond that… nothing.

Kushina couldn’t help the errant fear of failure from taking grip in her heart. She felt, now more than ever before, that she might not be able to get Rin back to the Leaf Village alive.

She kept up her sensory exploration of the village for an hour, but the only thing she noticed was that Rin’s chakra was far more turbulent than usual. Her battle with the three-tails was taking its toll.

When it became clear that she wouldn’t find her solution through her chakra sense, Kushina gave it up as a bad job, and got to her feet. Rin was, presumably, still asleep, and she was no closer to solving this problem.

What am I missing? Kushina wondered. It must be something.

But…

What if it wasn’t an external threat, and the three-tails really was the culprit after all? She’d been hoping it was anything but. Kushina didn’t know how to stop that. 

Beyond the fact that the three-tailed beast was a turtle, and that it had previously been in control of the Hidden Mist, Kushina knew painfully little about it. There was maybe information in the old library once upon a time, but not now. The Mist village had pilfered after they had conquered. And that left only one source of potential information.

Kyubi.

Kushina allowed her consciousness to slip into her seal.

“What now, human? You have come here quite often of late, and I grow tired of your presence.”

She smiled apologetically at the large fox behind the bars of its cage. “Sorry to keep bothering you, but you know how it is, one body for two entities and all that.”

The Kyubi snorted derisively. “What do you want?”

“I was hoping you would share information about the Sanbi if you know anything about it,” Kushina said. “Rin’s been experiencing what I can only describe as hallucinations, and I can’t—”

“I cannot help you. Leave.”

“Please,” Kushina said, voice cracking with desperation. “Just please listen. I know you hate me. I know and I understand why. But I can’t change that. But please, Rin was used as a pawn by cruel men in an equally cruel scheme. She’s… she’s not the one who should suffer for this.”

“I do not care what ails you or any other humans you associate with.”

“But—” Kushina started.

“I said no!” The Kyubi’s massive claw slammed into the gate of the seal. Even in the chakra-scape, Kushina nearly lost her balance as the entire chamber rumbled with the fury of the nine-tails.

“She’s going to die if I can’t help her,” Kushina tried again, undeterred by the threat of a painful death at the claws of her prisoner. “And it’s just one thing after another, ya know? She can’t catch a break and I feel like I’m letting her down.”

The Kyubi said nothing. It watched her with massive, hate-filled red eyes for a long time before turning its head away from her and sank back into the darkness beyond the seal.

Kushina felt a desperate panic swell from within her. She needed help. Information. Anything. She stepped forward, placed her hands on the bars, and tried once more.

“Can the three-tails cause hallucinations? Do you know?”

She was met with silence.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Chapter 5

Kushina

Rin’s condition deteriorated to the point where Kushina flat-out refused to let her do her chakra exercises, but she couldn’t tell if Rin was grateful for or upset by this change in their routine. Instead, she kept Rin busy by pouring over Fuinjutsu lessons, and teaching her what she knew about shinobi battle tactics and cooking. Otherwise, they played card games.

Despite Kushina’s best efforts, Rin had become moody and combative and preferred solitude to company. Kushina hated seeing her so miserable.

Whatever tenuous control they had managed to exert over their situation had slipped away, leaving in its wake a brittle tension that settled over Uzushiogakure. It had Kushina on edge and Rin jumping at shadows. 

Three passed by, albeit slowly. In that time, Kushina found herself unable to determine the source of Rin’s mysterious assailant.

On the fourth day, with her nerves on edge, Kushina rose early and stepped out of the house while Rin was still asleep. As she had done each morning since Rin’s collapse, Kushina swept the village, looking for signs of an intruder, and feeling for a source of chakra that didn’t belong to either herself or Rin. And as had been the case each morning, she found nothing.

Until, of course, she made one final perimeter sweep at the edge of the island and found several of the seals protecting the outskirts of the island had been dismantled. Kushina examined the wreckage of the seals, expertly dismantled, and found no trace of residual chakra from whoever had destroyed them. 

Someone had come to Uzushiogakure, though Kushina thought it unlikely that this person was what Rin was afraid of. There was something else going on.

Kushina reached out with her chakra sense, and searched for the new arrival. She felt Rin first, the massive beacon of chakra lighting up her mind immediately. And far, far off the coast to the east, were two chakra signatures that were large and focused enough to belong to ninja. They were moving southwest. If their trajectory held, they would pass by and make landfall somewhere in the Land of Fire or the Land of Noodles. 

“Hard to say if they were involved,” Kushina muttered, rising and making her way back to the center of the village.

She was careful as she went, double checking everywhere to make sure nobody had managed to slip past her sensory abilities to hide within the ruins of the village. She found nothing. 

Back at the house, Kushina busied herself with preparing breakfast when she returned to their house, and set the table before going to wake her charge. Rin was in a deep, but fitful sleep, the bruising beneath her eyes clear even in her sleep, and her forehead slick with sweat. Kushina let her be, and had breakfast alone, hoping that the extra rest would help.

Throughout the day, Kushina patrolled the village, and occasionally checked on Rin, who stayed sleeping. 

As evening approached, Kushina found herself once again on the training ground. She moved slowly, purposefully through her katas, seeking a tranquility she knew would not come. Still, she persevered.

As the sun set, she again took up her lotus position to meditate, and to sweep the village with her chakra sense.

Her eyes snapped open when something in the fabric of the village snapped . There was the uncomfortable silence of a terrible calm before the storm for the briefest instant, and then the village was embattled by an explosion of chakra from a Biju.

Kushina staggered to her feet, disoriented as she was by the waves of chakra pulsing outward from the cabin she’d shared with Rin. 

No, no, no! Kushina raised an arm to keep the dust and dirt out of her eyes and took off towards the house. 

She crashed through the door and slid to Rin’s bedside in record time. Given the history of Rin’s condition, Kushina was grateful that Rin slept on as the three-tails chakra went haywire. Nevertheless, waking her would, perhaps, end the episode.

“It’s okay, Rin,” Kushina said. “Wake up. You’re dreaming.” Rin thrashed violently in her sleep. Kushina caught an errant limb and tried to still the girl. Rin fought against her grip.

“Rin!” Kushina shouted, shaking the girl’s shoulder. “Rin, wake up. It’s just a dream, it’s not real. Rin!”

But it was no use. Whatever nightmare gripped Rin held little interest in letting her go.

Kushina attempted to wake Rin by disrupting the flow of her chakra, but that was no more effective than shaking the girl.

Beneath the surface, Rin’s chakra roiled and raged and fought against the influence of the three-tails. What to do? Kushina wondered, biting down hard on that little part of her that wanted to panic. It was her job to figure this out. The chakra emanating from Rin was so dense, and so acrid, that it was visible to the naked eye. Very few things created tangibly visible chakra, and when they did, it spoke volumes about their immense power.

“Gotta contain it,” Kushina muttered, reaching down to pull Rin out from her sleeping bag and onto the floor. The chakra from Rin’s seal redoubled itself, and Kushina pulled her singed fingers away. 

Chains burst forth from Kushina’s back, wrapping themselves around Rin and battling with the three-tails chakra directly. It did not go back quietly as it had before.

Rin

Birds chirped merrily, leaves rustled in the breeze, and the sweet smell of honeysuckle wafted in through the window alongside the lazy sunshine that peeked through the clouds. It was warm, not hot — comfortable. Rin stirred slowly, enjoying the warmth and sunshine and the fact that she was finally, after months of suffering, comfortable. She snuggled deeper into the soft sheets of her bed, enjoying their warm embrace. It was nice to be away from the road and grime that she’d become so accustomed to.

A door slid open, the sounds of people from beyond the door reached her ears for a brief moment. The sound was cut off as the door closed again. Someone approached her bed and she heard shuffling at her bedside.

Rin blinked the sleep from her eyes and sat up with a yawn.

“Good afternoon, miss Nohara. How are you feeling?”

From beside the bed, a woman, a nurse, was smiling at her softly. She was wearing the cream-colored jacket and dark pants that were standard in Konoha’s hospital. Rin was home. 

Tears pricked at her eyes and she rubbed them away. “I’m good,” she said. “Real good.”

The nurse smiled at her. “That’s excellent news. We were worried about you. Your condition was touch and go for a while, but you pulled through. The doctors were very pleased with the speed of your recovery once your condition stabilized.”

“My condition?” Rin asked.

“Yes, when Uzumaki-san transferred your… guest to it’s new home, your heart stopped for a few minutes, and your body had a hard time readjusting to the change. If not for your timely arrival back here in Konoha, you wouldn’t have pulled through.”

Rin considered that for a moment, staring listlessly at her bedsheets. “Oh…”

“Don’t worry too much. The fact that you’re awake now means that you are on your way to recovery. We’ll give you another check up to monitor your chakra, and then you can more than likely be released and placed on rest in the comfort of your own home.” The nurse smiled sweetly at her.

“You remind me of my mom,” Rin blurted, and then slapped a hand over her mouth.

“That’s very kind of you to say, Nohara-san.”

Rin nodded, and tried to will away the flush that made its way to her cheeks. 

“I’ll go and get your doctor so we can get you checked out and on your way.” The nurse made to leave the room.

Before she got to the door, Rin blurted, “What’s your name?”

“Gaido Yume. You are free to call me Yume, of course.”

And then she was gone with a click of the door and Rin was sitting alone in her room. She sat like that for a few minutes, and then slid out of her bed and padded her way over to the window. It was open already, and Rin sucked in a deep breath of the Konoha air. The aromas of plants and flowers hit her nose, and it was a welcome change to the salty sea-air that had been the standard in the Whirlpool Village.

From her window, Rin could see several of the streets of her village, and she watched the distant forms of the villagers as they went around their business.

She was home. She was home! She couldn’t stop the broad grin that took over her face. 

Her weight sagged against the windowsill as she took it all in. She had been so certain she would never see any of it again. Never see her home, never see her friends… Kakashi .

Rin whipped around and staggered hastily towards the door. She made it halfway across the room before the door slid open again, and a man who must have been her doctor entered the room. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw her up and out of bed, but he hit it quickly enough with a warm smile. She thought that it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Miss Nohara,” he said. “It’s good to see you up and walking. We were quite worried about you.”

“I— thank you,” Rin said.

“But of course!” He said, and Rin once more felt a sense of wrongness from the doctor. It sent chills down her spine, and her entire body screamed danger! “It’s my job to take care of shinobi such as yourself.”

Rin nodded. “Do you know when I’ll be able to go home?”

He chuckled. “I should think you’ll be able to leave the hospital after you’ve had a physical examination to make sure you’re recovering fully. And of course you’ll be placed on leave with strict instructions not to do anything strenuous for a few weeks.”

“Okay,” Rin said, shuffling back to her bed. 

The doctor, Rin didn’t know his name, made his way to her bedside, took her temperature, and then ran a glowing palm across her from head to toe. Rin cringed away from the touch. Something about him was wrong wrong wrong wrong.

She forced herself not to tremble. He would be gone soon, she told herself. Soon.

And then he was leaving the room. “You’ll be discharged soon. I’ll have a nurse get your paperwork together.”

“Right, thank you,” Rin said, forcing herself to smile. Just like they teach in kunoichi class.

The instant the doctor left and the door closed, Rin was out of bed and searching for her clothes. She found them in the third cabinet she checked, washed and folded - the same standard issue shinobi garb that Kushina had given her. 

She dressed quickly, eyes flicking to the door every few seconds, dreading the possible return of that doctor whose smile did not reach his eyes, whose touch was like a poisoned knife.

Once dressed, she forced open the window to her room and stepped up onto the windowsill. 

The door slid open. 

“Miss Nohara!” Nurse Yume shouted in alarm. “What are you doing?”

Rin cringed and turned on the sill to face her nurse. “I was, um, leaving.”

Yume sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Ninja are all the same. Anything to get out of the hospital faster and avoid paperwork. Please get down and let me discharge you the normal way.”

Rin balked at the idea of going back into the hospital, but the disappointment on Yume’s face convinced her. She stepped down from the window and shrugged sheepishly.

“Well, follow me and we’ll get you all sorted out at the nurse’s station.” 

Wondering if she’d manage to get out of the hospital without seeing that doctor again, Rin followed her through the door.

“...and you’re not even listening to me. Hello? Hello? Rin!” 

Chopsticks waved in front of her face, and Rin jerked up with a start. She was sitting at the bar of a ramen stand, staring at an annoyed Kushina Uzumaki, and wondering how exactly she’d gotten there.

“What?” Rin asked. “How?”

“What do you mean?” Kushina asked, but Rin didn’t acknowledge her question. She spun on her stool and walked to the exit, looking out into the street. It was night, and the lanterns were lit. The cool air floated lazily into the ramen stand and brushed across Rin’s face. 

Hadn’t it been just before midday?

How had she come here from the hospital?

Rin turned to ask Kushina, but the question died on her lips when she saw the shadowy figure behind the bar, watching her, featureless. That same fear she’d felt all those days in the Whirlpool Village rose up again and Rin stood rooted to the spot, trembling.

How had it followed her home? 

It couldn’t be here.

She was supposed to be safe here, but she wasn’t .

Rin reached for a kunai with a trembling hand, but found she wasn’t wearing any mission gear. She looked down and found she was wearing civilian clothes. 

With no weapons, and an unknown grasp on her own chakra, Rin knew she was done for.

“What do you want?” She screamed.

The silent, shadowy figure did not answer. It did not move, or give any indication that it had heard her at all— and that made it all the more unnerving.

Kushina rose from her seat and stepped to her side. “What does who want?” She put a hand on Rin’s arm, and that horrible, crawling feeling of wrongness that had been present in the hospital with the doctor came back in full force.

Rin jerked away from her and stumbled back, out of the ramen bar and into the cool night air.

Only she wasn’t standing in the street outside of a restaurant at all. She was sitting beside her mother’s grave and watching the sunrise. The cool, hard surface of the gravestone was comforting, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized she was alone.

She took several breaths to collect herself and stop the shaking, before surveying her surroundings. It was the large graveyard in Konoha near where she’d grown up. It wasn’t the only gravesite in the village, nor was it the largest, but it was where her mother had been laid to rest.

For all that the graveyard was as she remembered, it was the little details that were wrong. The buildings across the street were amorphous and too heavily shadowed for the time of day, and the names on the graves were not as they should be.

Obito’s name was etched into the stone beside her mother’s, and the one past that had Kakashi’s name.

Rin inhaled sharply.

She had to escape this hell, whatever it was.

From the wrong buildings across the street from the wrong graveyard came the shadowy figure she’d seen too many times before. It strode towards her with cold, detached purpose, and Rin knew it meant to kill her.

Minato

Minato returned to the village just as the sun was setting. His mission to the Land of Earth had been tiring, stressful, and far too long. Pulling the Leaf’s forces out of formerly hostile territory was no small task. Small groups of ninja on both sides refusing to follow the orders of their superiors and ignoring the terms of the armistice had extended Minato’s mission time by weeks. Trying to de-escalate violence against the ninja of Iwagakure was not a simple task, and it was made much more difficult because of his role in winning the war on that front. The ninja of the Land of Earth hated him. And honestly, he believed it was justified. Minato had personally killed countless hundreds of Stone ninja.

He was called the Yellow Flash of the Leaf, he was listed as an S-rank ninja, and had a do not engage order in every village’s bingo books. Sending him had been… shortsighted.

While the mission had been undeniably important, Minato felt that the mission would have gone smoother if another qualified Jonin to the Land of Earth. A man with his reputation was a poor choice for the mission. He would have been far more suited to a mission in the Land of Lightning or the Land of Water.

Even children were petrified of him. He’d heard their stupid chant when he’d stopped to help a farmer who’s cart had broken an axle. It reminded him of a nursery rhyme.

‘If you see the Flash, your neck has a slash, with blood comes pouring laughter. He comes in the night, His jutsu is bright, you’ll rest forever after.’

Still, he had done his duty and seen the mission through to the end.

He was tired.

At the gate of the village, he produced his ninja id card and was allowed through the gates by the Chunin on duty. He stretched his neck from side to side, and tried to relieve some tension in his shoulders with one hand as he walked to the Hokage’s tower to debrief and get the forms for a full mission report. Not that he wanted to. He wanted to go home and curl up with his soon to be wife, Kushina.

But that wasn’t the mission.

The mission was to go to the tower, give his report, and hope that he wasn’t immediately sent back out in the field. 

He was allowed into the Hokage’s tower with little fanfare. “The Hokage will see you in his office,” The secretary had told him before ushering him upstairs. His office, not the mission desk, which meant that the old man wanted to speak to him about something. Minato sighed as he took the stairs. This was just great. More work.

He knocked twice on the door to the Hokage’s office.

“Enter.”

Minato pushed the door open and stepped into the office. “You requested my presence, Lord Hokage?” 

Hiruzen gestured for him to take a seat. He did so. “How was your mission, Minato?” Hiruzen asked.

“I think anyone else would have been a better fit for the mission. I’m not exactly on friendly terms with people,” Minato said.

“You were in charge of withdrawing our forces, Minato, not making friends,” The Hokage said as he lit his pipe.

Minato grimaced. “Still… those people are terrified of me. It was cruel.”

“No, it was effective,” The Hokage said. “Nobody would consider risking sparking hostilities again when the one in charge of the withdrawal was the Yellow Flash. Calculated, efficient, tactically sound. The concessions we requested were accepted, were they not?”

Minato nodded. All of that was certainly true. “Still, Lord Hokage, the duration of my mission was extended for over two weeks because of my reputation.”

Hiruzen puffed out a cloud of smoke. “Is there anything that can’t wait for your full mission report?” 

Minato shook his head. “No. Nothing that can’t wait. It was all rather routine, besides the kicking and dragging of feet.”

“That’s good. That’s good. You can fill me in on the finer details in your mission in your report.” The Hokage began fiddling with a scroll on his desk, idly puffing on his pipe as he turned something over in his head. Minato found himself growing tense. “Minato, I called you here because I’m afraid I have some bad news, and it, unfortunately, cannot wait.”

Minato was sitting forward in his chair now, hands on his knees. “Is everyone okay?”

Hiruzen let out a long, slow breath. “No. I’m afraid not. Both of your students have met with rather unfortunate circumstances.”

“Where are they?” Minato asked cooly, rising to his feet. 

“Minato, please remain calm and I will explain,” The Hokage said.

Minato scowled at the Hokage, his entire body tense, but he made no move to leave the office. “Kakashi is in the hospital, condition critical. Rin is with Kushina in unknown condition. They are not in the village.”

“What. Happened,” Minato managed. It felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him and he forced himself to stay upright.

“It was a rather unfortunate turn of events on what should have been a routine scouting mission, I’m afraid,” Hiruzen said. “It seems our conflict with the Hidden Mist may not me as concluded as we once thought. Though problematically, I admit there is no indication that this was an officially sanctioned action. All signs point to a rogue cell.”

“I’m going to need the details,” Minato said, swallowing the lump in his throat. “All of them.”

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Chapter 6

Rin

She braced herself for the inevitable end that would accompany the shadowy figure, muscles tense, and eyes locked in terror on her pursuer. Except something large and powerful and within her crackled beneath the surface and ordered her to move. Rin did not stop to question what it was, but she did stumble away from a blade as equally as amorphous as its wielder. Where had the shadow blade come from? One second it hadn’t been there and the next it had been.

The shadow lunged at her again while she was off balance, and this time her ninja training took over. She let her backwards momentum carry her and transitioned from an awkward stumble to a purposeful back handspring that carried her over a headstone and into another row of graves.

It advanced, unimpeded by the graves, walking through them as if they weren’t there. It swung again.

The shadow’s blade passed harmlessly by her and she fell into the first stance of the Taijutsu style that Kushina had taught her. Adrenaline kept her focused, despite her racing heart and trembling limbs, and she waited for the shadow to swing its blade, which resembled a sword, again.

When the attack did come, Rin was ready, she stepped towards her assailant and spun around so that the sword whizzed past her left shoulder and then struck at the shadow with her right fist. 

She made contact. 

She mostly made contact.

Her fist plunged into the shadow in much the same way a person might plunge their arm into a bucket of water. It had no visible effect in a combat sense, and Rin yelped in pain. It was cold. So cold that it burned. She yanked her hand back and retreated from the shadow, back through the headstones where she could take a measure of her opponent.

It watched her go, sword held loosely in one hand. Otherwise it made no outward indication that it regarded her as a threat, or that she could escape it if she did run. 

When she stopped it moved— slowly, purposefully, inevitably— towards her.

Rin glanced around the graveyard, and found nothing immediately obvious that would help her to fend off her attacker. She couldn’t fight it head on, but maybe she could outrun it long enough to find some other solution.

She could use chakra against it. Destroy it with Jutsu. A powerful enough attack with fire might— no. No.

Her chakra was poison. Fire Jutsu were out of the question.

But what if—?

No.

A fight was not winnable right now. She took off with a deep breath, sprinting between the gravestones away from the shadow and towards the city center of Konoha. As she ran she rubbed at the knuckles on her freezer burned hand. It throbbed painfully, and the skin on her hand was a bright, angry pink.

The graveyard gave way to a side-street, and Rin followed it onto a more major road, zipping past the buildings as fast as her legs would carry her.

She needed a safe place to hide, where the shadow couldn’t find her. Somewhere she could formulate a plan.

But where?

Her first thought was her house, but something told her that such an obvious choice wouldn’t give her much time to actually collect her thoughts before she was found again. But if not her own home, the place she would feel the most safe and secure, then where?

Perhaps the large training ground where she had been trained up in her ninja squad would work, but that was a large open space with very little cover. If she was to hide, it would not do.

Deciding on someplace random, Rin checked to make sure the shadow had no line of sight to her, and then slipped into the nearest building. It was a small apartment walk-up, obviously civilian owned. 

It was perfect.

Rin had never been here before, and there was no reason to suspect she would have chosen this particular place to hide.

She took the stairs three at a time, trying the apartment doors on each landing. On the third floor, she found an unlocked door. 

The apartment was small but well cared for, and Rin made her way into the small living room. It was clean, and Rin ran her fingers along a small blanket that was thrown over the back of the couch in the center of the room. 

It felt much different than it looked. It was coarse and almost spongey. 

Feels a lot like my sleeping bag, Rin thought. She didn’t have long to ponder why, because from the kitchen of the apartment came the shadow, and Rin felt her stomach drop.

How had it found her so quickly? How had it made its way to the kitchen without her even noticing?

She flung the wrong-feeling blanket at the shadow and all but threw herself out the door and back down the stairs. Rin stumbled as she reached the ground and used the wall of the building to propel her back down a side-street.

Rin didn’t know how far she ran, but she took random turns and let her feet carry her far, far away from that apartment. 

She ran past houses, shops, the ninja academy, and several clan compounds. She ran until her lungs burned and she was sure she’d slipped down every side alley she found, and that nobody could reasonably have followed her while moving at the pace that shadow figure seemed to walk at.

In the middle of the large road that led to the gates of the village, Rin stopped, hand on her knees to catch her breath. After a moment she noticed that the streets of Konoha were empty. Not a single person was on the main street, and she didn’t remember passing by anyone while she’d made her dash away from the graveyard or when she’d run from the apartment.

It was broad daylight.

It was impossible to traverse the Hidden Leaf Village at any time of day without passing at least a dozen people. A ninja village never slept. Missions were a twenty-four seven kind of thing, and there were a not insignificant number of shops that were open around the clock to cater to those that came and went at all hours as their missions demanded of them.

So then how was nobody around? It didn’t make sense. 

Then again, Rin thought. Nothing has made sense at all since I got back to the village.

And then a thought fell over her. A cold, horrible thought that gripped her heart and made her doubt everything.

If I got back to the village.

Was she dead?

That seemed unlikely. From the way that her heart hammered in her chest, to the way her hand ached from its icy burn, and the way she was covered in a thin layer of sweat from her mad sprint through the village, she had to be alive.

She had to be.

But then that would mean that the shadows she’d seen around the Whirlpool village had coalesced and created a false version of her own home.

Her solution was in the Whirlpool village. A place she had no desire to ever return to.

Rin glanced around for the shadow, and for once saw that it had not yet caught up with her. She turned her back to the village, and stared at the large gates leading out into the world, or at least some odd imitation of it.

The way she saw it, she could stay here and look for someone or something to help her here in the village, or she could go and try to put an end to it in the Whirlpool village. 

She stepped towards the gate.

Kushina

Kushina strained against the unfathomable power of the tailed-beast sealed within Rin. Her adamantine chains trembled against the chakra that roiled and pulsed outward in waves. The sheer force of it was something Kushina had never contended with before, and she worried that, perhaps, she would be unable to hold it at bay— let alone shove it back into its container.

The house they’d taken over groaned under the pressure of chakra, and the sound of cracking wood joined the chaos, but Kushina did not move. She would stay and fend off the tailed-beast if it was the last thing she did. A house collapsing on her wouldn’t change that.

Rin thrashed violently, and Kushina was lifted off her feet by the chakra emanating from her. The roof of the house gave way under the force of chakra, and Kushina was buffeted by splintered wood and dust. 

Chakra surged from Rin once more, redoubling its intensity, and Kushina heard her chakra chains creak through the deluge of collapsing house and dust. 

No!  

Kushina grit her teeth and more chains tore through the back of her shirt and snaked their way across what was left to the room to encircle Rin and exert more pressure against the too-close to escaping Three-Tails.

Her body trembled as she again touched the ground. Her feet dug into the ruined wood, and the splinters dug their way into her skin. Kushina’s usually unflaggable chakra was stretched thin, nearly as far as she’d ever tried to spread it all at once. Her vision went to static, but she held on. Until eventually, thankfully, the tumult died down and Rin’s sweat-soaked form went limp once again.

She let out a shaky breath, relief flooding through her. That had been close. Too close. But it was over now, and there was still more time, if only barely.

The problem, as Kushina saw it, was that there was no more time to wait, to prepare, to make it safer to try and change Rin’s seal. She was degrading, and the chakra from her tailed-beast was ripping her apart.

Kushina didn’t know if it was best to wait for Rin to wake, or to try and pull the tailed-beast into its temporary seal while the girl was still asleep. In either case, there was a chance Rin would die. And no matter what, Kushina knew she would feel responsible if anything happened to her.

Wait or start? Kushina asked herself. Wait or start?

She stood in the wrecked house, breathing heavy, covered in debris, and staring at the too-still form of Rin for a long time, going back and forth.

Hesitating.

Avoiding.

In the end, she knew it was time. Nobody from Konoha had come, and it had been weeks. Over a month by her count, since she’d last been in the village. Since she’d passed a message back and taken Rin away from home. They were alone, and it was up to her to fix it.

With a nod to nothing in particular, Kushina dug her supplies out from the rubble, and moved them to the training field. She made two more trips for the tailed-beast container and for the seal containing all of the extra chakra Rin had been storing. 

With everything assembled, she set about placing things where they would be most useful to her, and double and triple checking that she had everything.

Once she was set up, she pulled Rin’s chakra battery to her and reached out to it with her own chakra. It was full of energy, but it was barely half of what she wanted, and perhaps a quarter of being the best case scenario.

If she started now, Rin would have perhaps an hour to live, and Kushina would have to work quickly and efficiently. But it was possible. Kushina had gone over it a hundred times. The theory was sound. Transferring the tailed beast to a temporary cage that would contain it for a handful of hours at most, and connecting Rin to a source of chakra that would keep her body alive while she worked on the seal without.

One hour.

One hour to do what had never been done before.

Kushina went back to the house, and retrieved Rin from the ruined mattresses, picking her up gently, and cradling the girl against her chest. She took Rin to the training field, and laid her gently on the ground in the center of the field.

“Hang on, Rin,” she said. “I’m going to fix this, okay? Just hang on.”

She grabbed her brushes and ink, as much as she had left, and prepared them gently, purposefully. 

And then Kushina drew. 

First a circle around Rin, to represent an endless loop of energy. Unbroken. She lined it with symbols for stability, for serenity, for water, earth, lightning, wind, and fire. The elements, contained within an endless coil. For heaven, earth, yin, and yang. And from there she drew lines, arcing out in eight spider-like tendrils onto the ground. Each an anchor, grounded by a representation of the chakra gates: Opening, Healing, Life, Pain, Limit, View, Wonder, and Death.

From each anchor, connected to one another in concentric rings from a center. Ripples spiraling. A whirlpool, funneling energy to a point. Control. Surrender.

The spiral continued to Rin, and when Kushina once again arrived at her charge, she knelt and removed Rin’s shirt so she could ink the girl’s skin. The spiral continued, funneling energy ever inward until it would concentrate in place around Rin’s belly-button. A focal point.

She arced tendrils of ink out from Rin and formed the anchors of the eight gates on Rin’s skin, where they existed beneath the surface.

Kushina’s hands were steady as she worked, and as the web of chakra-laden paint grew from the Rin, to the ground, and outward from there. Connecting, in their time, the container for the tailed-beast, and the seal containing the additional chakra for Rin. 

When she was finished, dawn had broken and the warm sunlight splashed across the ground, illuminating Kushina’s work. Tens of thousands of brush-strokes covering an area some fifteen square feet.

Kushina wiped her face, smudging ink across her nose and cheek, and went to double check her work.

Rin never stirred.

“This is it,” Kushina whispered to herself. “No going back now.”

She knelt beside Rin and formed the seals and unraveled the seal on Rin’s heart. 

The effect was instantaneous. The three-tails shot out in a pillar of energy so large and so bright that Kushina closed her eyes. She anchored herself to the ground with her own chakra to keep from being blown backwards by the sheer volume of energy that was being released.

It was over as soon as it started, the seals were in place and crafted masterfully. Before the beast could fully form, it was dragged away from Rin and into its container — a small urn that shook violently once the beast was within.

Kushina watched as the seal that sprawled across the ground lit up with the extra chakra from Rin’s battery seal and pumped energy into the girl's body.

Rin’s breathing was ragged, but present, and Kushina felt relief flood through her. It was working!

She started the work again, drawing with the ever-diminishing supply of paint the path that would draw the tailed beast from its temporary container and into the newly crafted seal on Rin’s body. One stroke of the brush, and then another and another. It took shape, and Kushina knew it would work. Knew that Rin was going to be safe. Knew that—

There was a trembling in the air as the barrier seal that kept the Whirlpool Village hidden from the world broke and faded away.

And then Kushina felt them. Two sources of chakra, powerful, controlled, cold, and coming straight for them.

Kushina swore loudly, but got to her feet all the same, and darted to the edge of her work, drawing new seals beyond the border of her masterwork. She drew four seals, as quickly as she could before tossing her brush to the ground and forming the Ram seal.

For a moment, Kushina seemed to shimmer in place. And then there were five of her. The original and four copies, all solid, tangible versions of her. And they took up places at the four new seals. 

A purple light flickered to life boxing in the copies of Kushina and Rin and the massive seal behind them. Kushina nodded at her hasty work. A four-points barrier seal could keep in, or out, pretty much anyone if they did not know how to remove the seal.

She walked a dozen paces away from the seal, to the large open road leading to the center of town, and waited.

She did not have to wait long, not with ninja of their caliber. Kushina could feel their chakra as they approached, two ninja with enough chakra between them to level a city. They appeared before her in the blink of an eye. To the untrained eye, they may as well have appeared out of thin air. Kushina raised an eyebrow when they stopped before her. A man and a woman, both wielding strange blades. They wore headbands from the Hidden Mist Village and Kushina recognized them as members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, the most elite fighters from the village. 

And now they were here, standing ten feet away from Kushina. From their body language and the way their chakra seemed ready to spring out of them, it was clear they were looking for a fight.

The man was very tall and very thin. He wore the mask of a hunter ninja, and his straw colored hair spilled out from every direction. He carried two pointed blades connected by a fine length of ninja wire. The woman was shorter, but her hair was as red-brown as dried blood and arranged in one of the oddest hairstyles she’d ever seen. Her swords were short and had spiked protrusions along their lengths.

Both of them eyed her curiously. It was to be expected. How could they have planned on finding an Uzumaki here after all this time, and one who was clearly doing something with Fuinjutsu at that.

“Well, well,” the woman said, voice like a growl. “Look what we found. A little Uzumaki trying to save her dead village.”

“What do you want?” Kushina asked.

“You have something of ours,” the woman said. “Something you stole from us.”

Kushina raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t steal anything, ya know?”

The masked man scoffed. “We have incredibly accurate intel. A woman matching your description made off with our tailed beast.”

“You mean the one you forced into my student against her will. The one you planned on leveling Konoha with?” Kushina asked.

“We did no such thing!” The woman barked.

Kushina ignored her. “It seems to me that you lose the right to call it your tailed beast when you do something so evil and so stupid. Now, if you don’t mind, I am in the middle of something.”

“Either you give us the tailed beast, or we take it by force,” the masked man said.

Kushina sighed. She didn’t have time for this. Rin didn’t have time for this. “Not gonna happen,” she said.

“Then you die,” the woman said, mouth splitting in a wide, devious smirk. Kushina saw her sharpened teeth. They reminded her of a shark.

Ameyuri Ringo, Kushina realized, was her name. She had finally put a name to the face (and the swords) she’d seen in the Bingo Book hundreds of times. She carried the twin blades called Kiba, which were supposedly the sharpest blades ever forged by the Hidden Mist.

And the other was Kushimaru Kuriarare. He carried the Nuibari. Konoha had less information about him. Not enough of their own forces had survived encounters with him to have an accurate assessment of his skills.

This was bad. The Seven Swordsmen had their deadly reputation for a reason. They only took the most gifted sword wielders from their village, and they were often sent on the most dangerous missions. Their success rate, at least as far as anyone in the Hidden Leaf was aware, was nearly one-hundred percent. 

While she was a Jonin herself, and the Jinnchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Kushina was unsure if she could defeat them, and even if she could, if she could do it fast enough to still save Rin’s life. They were likely far more combat experienced than she was. The Leaf Village, for all that they needed her strength, were hesitant to send her into active combat, both because of her status as Jinchuriki and because she was the last living pure-blooded Uzumaki.

“I would prefer if we could save the fighting until after I finish what I was doing,” Kushina said, praying for a delay of the inevitable.

Ameyuri laughed. “Do you hear that? She wants us to let her finish harnessing the power of our tailed-beast.”

Kushimaru drew his blades. “An outcome we cannot allow. The Mizukage wants his prize.”

“That he does,” Ameyuri said. And then she, too, drew steel.

Kushina cracked her knuckles, and drew a kunai from the holster on her leg. She palmed it carefully, so that her opponents would not see the sealing paper wrapped around the handle. 

“Aww, does the little girl not have a sword to play with?” Ameyuri taunted.

“Sorry. I left mine at home,” Kushina replied. And then she threw the kunai.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Chapter 7

Kushina

The kunai flew true, and Kushina ducked her head down and closed her eyes even before it detonated in Ameyuri’s face. The metallic clang of Ameyuri’s sword, Kiba, knocking the kunai aside was followed by a string of colorful swear words that let Kushina know the blinding light had passed. She opened her eyes and took stock of the field. Ameyuri was rubbing her eyes furiously with a forearm, and Kushimaru was making his way toward her.

Kushina moved. Her hands flew through the well practiced hand seals of the fireball jutsu while she sprinted away from her four pointed barrier— across the street and down an alleyway. Kushimaru followed her, and he was fast . He closed the distance between them quickly, and sprinted up the alleyway behind her, swords at the ready. 

But Kushina was counting on it. Mist ninja were supposed to be fast, particularly master swordsmen and assassins. Once they were both between the buildings she spun around and exhaled. The flames erupted from her mouth as chakra surged through her, engulfing the alleyway and incinerating the walls of the buildings.

Kushimaru was engulfed by the looming shape of the massive fireball, and Kushina lost sight of him. 

Fire was not her speciality. Kushina much preferred wind and water based ninjutsu, they came easier to her, but given her massive amounts of chakra, and given that they were standing in an alleyway, she figured it was worth the risk.

When she ran short of breath, the fire died away, leaving her in the smoke and rubble of two buildings missing walls and rooftops. She could sense Kushimaru’s chakra still, agitated like a hive of angry insects.

He hadn’t died, which was unfortunate but not unexpected. Killing an enemy combatant who had made their way into another nation’s Bingo Book, a catalog of the most deadly ninja and samurai in the world, was difficult on a good day. One jutsu was hardly going to do it.

And besides, Kushina would hardly consider her day good. She hadn’t slept. She’d used far too much chakra containing the tailed-beast sealed within Rin. She wasn’t at her best.

So, while she could sense Kushimaru, she couldn’t see him through the smoke. And what she could not sense was the needle-like sword flying at her through the smoke. It tore through the air so fast she barely saw it coming, and only just managed to lean enough away from it to stop it taking out her eye. As it was, it left a long, thin cut across her cheek.

The sword clattered to the ground behind her and Kushina ran forward. She could tell where Kushimaru was standing thanks to her chakra sensory ability. Channeling chakra into her arm as she darted forward, she cocked back her fist and threw a haymaker at Kushimaru’s head, but connected with nothing. 

The mist ninja ducked under her attack and delivered a savage blow to her back with the pommel of the sword he still held in his hand. Kushina stumbled forward out of the smoke cloud, and fell to the ground gasping for breath. 

“How?” she asked.

Kushimaru walked up to her, a deadly coldness to him. “You really thought visibility would affect my ability to fight? We of the Hidden Mist fight in thick fog more often than we fight in the open. Why should the smoke of your fire technique be any different?” And then he was driving a blade down to impale her.

Kushina rolled, put her weight onto her arms and pushed herself into a handspring. Her foot connected hard with Kushimaru’s head, cracking the mask and forcing him to reel away from her in pain. Weight still on her hands, she pivoted and pushed her entire body off the ground. As she flipped to her feet she drew another kunai and threw it at Kushimaru. He deflected it easily enough, dazed as he was from the kick to the head. But it gave her enough time to get to her feet and put distance between them.

She did not have time to collect herself. Ameyuri chose that moment to rejoin the fray, coming at her from behind with a mighty swing of her Kiba. Kushina ducked underneath the swing, feeling the crackle of electricity as the blades sailed overhead. 

Kushina fell into the circle-walking pattern of the Whirling Palms taijutsu style, pivoting her weight from one leg to the other even as she was in a low squat, and twisting her leg around. She delivered a powerful blow to Ameyuri’s side with her elbow as she spun away, palms open, and fell into the first form of the Whirling Palms.

Ameyuri glared at her. “How did you know I was there?”

“She can sense our chakra,” Kushimaru said, taking his place beside Ameyuri. “She tried to fight me in the smoke of a fire jutsu.”

“Would have been a good tactic against ninja from a lesser village,” Ameyuri said.

Kushimaru nodded.

How did they figure it out so fast? Kushina wondered.

“Though she’d be dead if she couldn’t sense me. That last attack should have taken her head clean off.” Ameyuri said. “Fucking chakra sensors. It’s a blessing that their kind were wiped out. Especially the Uzumaki.”

Kushina’s blood boiled, and her outward calm was replaced with a snarl. “Don’t talk about my clan. You have no right!”

“Don’t we?” Kushimaru asked. “After all, we of the Mist led the charge against the tainted blood of your kind.”

Kushina saw red.

She charged forward, rage boiling through her every sense. Ameyuri met her blow for blow, and Kushina found herself dodging swings from the spiked swords more often than she was able to throw a punch. But she did not stop. With each dodge or twist of her body, she pressed Ameyuri back with the sheer force of her own ferocity. And then, finally, she managed to catch Ameyuri’s left hand with her right and pull the mist ninja forward so that her fist crashed into the other woman’s face.

Ameyuri was lifted off her feet from the force of the chakra reinforced punch, and sent head over feet through the air and into the barely standing wall of one of the fire-singed houses. She went through the old, brittle wood with little resistance, falling into the building and out of sight with a crash. The rest of the building collapsed on top of her.

Kushina, breathing hard, but with a fierce and triumphant grin on her face, turned her attention to Kushimaru, who was standing calmly with both of his swords in his hand. When had that happened? Hadn’t his second blade been thrown beyond the buildings?

But the glint of the light caught the ninja wire, and Kushina realized that unless both blades were taken from him, he would not be disarmed.

“My my,” he said. “Such a savage display of barbarism. All that yelling and punching. Putting you down like the animal you are will be almost as rewarding as returning the tailed-beast to Lord Mizukage.”

“Shut up!” Kushina yelled. “What do you know anyway? I lost my family!”

“Do you think your loss makes my revelry any less intoxicating? Don’t you see. You deserved to lose your family.” And he laughed, cruel and unhinged.

Kushina charged with a battle cry, fists raised. She realized her mistake too late. Kushimaru had not been idle while she had been trading blows with Ameyuri. He had been setting a trap. 

Senbon, a ninja’s throwing needles, burst from the ground at her feet at the same time a length of chakra infused ninja wire wrapped itself around her middle. The needles pierced her feet and ankles and stopped her legs from cooperating while the ninja wire held her suspended, feet dragging painfully along the metal protruding from the ground.

She screamed in pain.

Blood dripped from her feet.

Kushimaru laughed harder.

“Don’t you see that it is hopeless? You will die and we will have our prize.” Kushimaru walked to her, stepping deftly between the needles in areas that were safe to walk. Kushina watched his footsteps carefully. 

When he was right beside her, he grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. Exposing her neck. “As much as I would love to make it slow and painful, our orders are to get the tailed beast back to the village as quickly as possible.” 

He raised the Nuibari and placed the point of the blade against her throat.

“Sorry I’m going to have to keep you from your appointment with the Mizukage,” Kushina said. Chains of pure chakra burst from her back, broke the ninja wire, and crashed violently into Kushimaru. He was pushed back and Kushina fell towards the senbon. But she caught her weight with the chains and then tenderly put her feet where Kushimaru’s had been. 

The pain was unbelievable. But Kushina forced herself to stay upright. With a grimace, she stepped forward, one foot and then another, and followed Kushimaru’s path out of the needle trap.

“That fucking hurt,” Kushina said. The chains behind her flicked menacingly, like glowing angel wings.

Kushimaru tensed and fell into a low crouch with his swords pointing up at diagonal angles. She could hear his cold laughter still. “I’m impressed,” he said. “It’s been a long time since anyone survived that attack. Killing you will be so much fun! ”

Two more chains came from beneath Kushina’s armpits and snaked their way down her arms until she had the chains firmly grasped in her hands. The length of them trailed onto the ground.

They moved in tandem. Kushina swung her chains down at Kushimaru at the same time he rolled to the side and threw the sword in his left hand at her.

Her chakra chains slammed into the ground, creating a divot over a foot deep.

The sword sailed past her harmlessly, just as it had the last time Kushimaru had thrown it. This time, however, he flicked his wrist, and Kushina knew the errant blade was pointed at her back. She leapt to the side just in time. The needle-sword pierced the air where Kushina had stood less than a second ago.

There was no time to waste. Kushina flung her arms forward before Kushimaru could send the Nuibari at her again. Her chakra chains wrapped around Kushimaru’s leg and she pulled. He fell onto his back, hand concentration temporarily broken. 

Kushina took advantage of her moment, leaping forward and driving her knee into Kushimaru’s stomach. Her full weight drove the air from his chest, and she let her momentum carry her into a forward roll. She came to her feet just past Kushimaru, arms down behind her, and let her chakra chains wrap themselves around the downed mist ninja. 

She lifted him off the ground with the chains, his arms pinned to his sides. Kushina punched him in the face, and the stomach and in the ribcage.

Kushina felt the crackle of electricity and the surge of chakra an instant before she saw it. A massive bolt of lightning shot from the wreckage of the house Ameyuri was in and caught Kushina square in the chest.

Her chakra system went haywire as her body was electrified. Her chains loosened their grip and Kushimaru fell to the ground. She was launched back and into the much more intact wall of the barrier seal. Her breath left her and she slid limply to the ground, vision blurred from the pain and the lack of oxygen. Her muscles spasmed violently. 

The chakra chains flickered once, twice, three times, and then faded from view.

Kushina watched dazedly as the two mist ninja approached her, blades in hand. Both of them were dirtied with soot and ash. Kushimaru was battered and clutching at broken ribs. Half of his mask was missing. Ameyuri, on the other hand, had barely a scratch on her. 

Even as they approached, Kushina was vaguely aware of the itching sensation of a wound that was closing too quickly. 

The Uzumaki clan had been renowned for their vigor, and it translated on the battlefield to immense stamina and the ability to shake off even major wounds more quickly than the average person. Kushina was doubly blessed in this way, because Jinchuriki were also cursed by the beasts they imprisoned with an ability to recover from wounds quickly.

Kushina got to her feet and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. “You’re going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that if you want to get into this barrier, ya know?”

“How the hell are you still standing?” Ameyuri asked. “That lightning jutsu should have killed you.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Kushina said. She reached for her kunai pouch and her fingers closed around the blade’s handle. Last one.

They faced off once again, and when Ameyuri’s blade swung for her chest, she batted it aside with the kunai, trying to look as confident and arrogant as she could even as she fought her own body’s protesting muscles.

It was a fast exchange of blows, Ameyuri would attack with enough power to level a building, and Kushina would either parry the blow or step aside. And though she didn’t show it, Kushina’s arm felt the jolt of each blow all the way up to her shoulder. Ameyuri was strong.

Going blow for blow with her was not a winning strategy.

Kushina danced away from both Ameyuri and Kushimaru while her mind raced for a strategy that would end their battle quickly. Precious minutes had been wasted that Rin did not have. She turned down one alley, and then another, and ducked behind a half collapsed wall to catch her breath.

Kushimaru and Ameyuri were going to wear her down and win because they were both just as good as she was— if not better. Kushina had the advantage of stamina, and she knew she had more chakra than both of them combined. But Kushimaru was faster than she was, and Ameyuri was stronger.

If only she could reliably use the power of the Nine-Tails. I’d be able to flatten them .

But she couldn’t. She sometimes took the smallest bits of chakra from the monster to help her move faster, or to heal from an injury quicker. But it was difficult to control, especially in battle, and the onslaught of rage that coursed through her scared her to death. 

Every time she used the Nine-Tails chakra in battle, she was on the edge of losing control of the monster (and of herself). And the last time she’d done it to win a fight, she’d woken up in the hospital over a week later covered in chakra burns.

She dismissed the idea of taking enough chakra to destroy them. If she did, she didn’t know if she’d remain in control enough to let the power go. Enough to save Rin.

So what did that leave? Kushina was better at Taijutsu, but against two swordmasters it did her little good. While they were both wielding those deadly swords, Kushina didn’t like her odds. If she could disarm them, then maybe she could win. The question was: how? And if she couldn’t? 

Well she might be able to—

Kushimaru’s Nuibari exploded through the wall she crouched behind, and Kushina dove to the side, rolling over her shoulder and coming up from the ground in a sprint. 

She sensed the surge of chakra behind her, and knew another lightning jutsu was coming right for her. But it was coming at her at the wrong angle. She dug her feet into the ground and gripped the side of a building to change direction as abruptly as one could while running at super-human speed. 

The lightning jutsu blew a hole through another half collapsed house. Kushina didn’t stick around to see what was left in the rubble.

I need to separate them, Kushina thought. But then, she could, couldn’t she? Kushina could just make clones, both the intangible ones, and the more solid and tangible shadow clones — like the ones holding up the barrier around Rin. Kushimaru and Ameyuri were not chakra sensors, and as far as she knew, neither of them had dojutsu or any other way to specifically differentiate the decoys from the real thing. 

Dozens of clones, more than she had ever made before, popped and shimmered into existence, and took off in every direction imaginable. Kushina stumbled as she ran as her chakra stretched and diminished in so many different directions. She felt dizzy.

Can't stop now.

From behind her, she could hear Ameyuri’s shout of dismay as the Mist ninja caught sight of the many, many copies of Kushina. The chakras of her pursuers slowed and then veered in two different directions. Kushina slowed her pace and ducked into a house, slumping against the door as it shut behind her and catching her breath.

The needle pricks on her feet and legs had already healed themselves, she saw, but the burn from the lightning jutsu that had struck her square in the chest still throbbed painfully. The attack from Ameyuri had burned a hole straight through her flak vest, her shirt, and the thin layer of protective mesh she wore underneath. The seared flesh was tender and itchy as the wound slowly, painfully, healed itself.

She felt her chakra flutter as her clones were destroyed one by one. Not much time, I need to try and take them out .

Kushina fished into the gear she had on her. Besides the empty kunai holster and the kunai she held in her hand, Kushina had little. Most of her ninja gear was at the house they’d taken residence in. And in the one pouch she had attached to her belt, Kushina found a single smoke bomb, a ration bar, and a blank piece of chakra sensitive sealing paper.

“Well that’s not good,” Kushina said, blinking in disbelief at the contents of the pouch. Had they really been here so long that her things had been moved elsewhere? She supposed they must have been.

Another flicker of chakra crossed her senses as a clone was destroyed. Kushina blinked the minor disorientation away.

Ameyuri and Kushimaru were very far apart now, dispelling clones with impunity, and Kushina had nothing to—

Kushina grinned and pulled the blank sealing paper from the pouch. She pricked her pointer finger with her kunai, and pressed the paper firm against the door with one hand. In a flash, she drew out a seal, and dried the blood with a low-powered wind jutsu.

A minute later, she stepped out into the street and towards the closest of the two chakras, which belonged to Ameyuri. Kushina found her on the rooftop of the administration building, shooting lightning jutsu down on any of Kushina’s clones that dared get close.

Kushina circled the building so that Ameyuri was facing away from her, and scaled the building. Her skin tingled each time Ameyuri attacked a clone with her lightning jutsu. Surely she’ll run out of chakra soon . 

It was wishful thinking.

Still, the woman was laughing and taunting the clones as she destroyed them, and seemed not to have noticed Kushina sneaking up to her position.

“You can’t hide forever, Uzumaki!” Ameyuri yelled out into the village as she launched another lightning jutsu. The accompanying thunderclap and ripple of chakra left static in Kushina’s mouth that tasted like carbonated water.

Kushina slipped her kunai and the sealing tag back into the holster on her leg, and instead summoned her chakra chains back into place from beneath her arms. When the golden chains coiled on the ground at her feet, Kushina grabbed the chains where they fell past her hands. She waited for her moment (when Ameyuri began firing off another lightning attack) to strike. 

Golden chains whipped forward, wrapping themselves around Ameyuri’s forearms pulling taught and forcing the Mist ninja’s arms into an awkward position. Ameyuri gave a shout of surprise and tried to turn to face Kushina, but Kushina didn’t give her a moment to recover. With a mighty, chakra enhanced heave, Kushina pulled on the chains. Ameyuri was pulled clean off her feet and straight into Kushina’s waiting fist.

The punch, which Kushina had placed in Ameyuri’s stomach, left Ameyuri sputtering and gasping for breath, even as she lost the grip on Kiba, both blades clattering to the concrete of the rooftop. The chains hefted Ameyuri upright.

Ameyuri was held aloft by the chakra chains now, arms spread wide and legs dangling helplessly over a foot off the ground. “How… are… you still… standing,” Ameyuri said between gasping breaths, all the while kicking and tugging at her restraints.. “Some of those clones were solid. You can’t have that much chakra or stamina. Both of us landed direct hits on you.”

“I’m an exceptionally gifted ninja, kind of like the Seven Swordsmen. Only difference is, you don’t know who I am,” Kushina said.

“I don’t need to know the name of an Uzumaki.” And then Ameyuri laughed, and the bravado it contained earned her another punch in the gut. Bile and spit came with the air this time, and Ameyuri’s breaths became labored.

There was a flickering of chakra as the last of Kushina’s clones was dispelled halfway across the village. She blinked the disorientation away and shook her head.

“So you do have weaknesses,” Ameyuri said smugly.

From where she hung, Kushina didn’t feel Ameyuri was very intimidating, but she needed the woman to go down and stay down. Kushimaru’s chakra was closing in, and fast.

“I’m gonna have to make sure you don’t get back up,” Kushina said. 

“Can’t let that happen, sorry,” Ameyuri replied through a mouthful of blood, and made a single seal with her right hand.

Electricity arced between them, and despite Kushina’s chains conducting a vast majority of the deadly attack, the painful jolts and tremors still racked Kushina’s body. She had to let go of Ameyuri, and fast. With a heave of her chains, Kushina threw Ameyuri over the side of the building.

Ameyuri crashed to the ground with a dull thud, an awkward flailing of limbs, and a swirling of dust.

Kushina let out a breath and let her chakra chains dissipate. She took a shaky step towards the edge of the roof, trying to reconcile all of the disorientation that came with being electrocuted multiple times, and using more shadow clones than was ever recommended. Her balance gave way and she staggered awkwardly before falling forward, catching her weight with an outstretched hand.

She was tired, but the fight was far from over. Kushimaru’s chakra was closing in fast.

With a supreme effort of willpower, Kushina forced her body to move. She stumbled to her feet, and staggered her way to Ameyuri’s swords. She picked them up the same moment Kushimaru reached the rooftop, and turned to face him.

“You’re giving us quite a bit of trouble, Uzumaki,” Kushimaru said. “And I don’t like it when I stab someone and they don’t die.”

Kushina gave each of the swords an experimental swing. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve never been one for taking direction from others, ya know?” She readied her swords.

“Do you even know how to use those?” Kushimaru asked.

“Just stab your opponent with the sharp end, right?” Kushina replied, flippantly.

Kushimaru’s chakra prickled with annoyance. “You disrespect the Swordsmen.”

“I kind of feel like it’s my duty as an Uzumaki, to be honest with you.” 

Kushimaru closed the distance between them in two bounding steps and fell upon her with the fury of a tidal wave. Kushina blocked his blows, but she was the worse swordsman, and was forced to give ground with every other parry. 

His superior speed and skill with a sword forced her to the edge of the rooftop in moments, and Kushina allowed herself to be pushed from the rooftop. The clash of blades did not cease as they walked down the side of the building, their feet stuck to the wall with chakra.

Kushina’s foot slipped into a blown-out window as she retreated down the wall, and her balance tipped backwards towards the ground. Kushimaru pressed his advantage, slipped his Nuibari through her guard, and disarmed her of the blade in her left hand.

The sword flipped past her head and fell to the ground, glinting in the sunlight as it fell out of her reach.

Kushimaru redoubled his onslaught and Kushina swung her weight through the window and into the building to escape the biting metal of his blades. As it was, they passed over her head with a whoosh . Something tugged on the back of her head, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep moving. She found herself in a ruined office on the second floor of the administration building, and not wanting to wait around for Kushimaru to join her, dashed through the half-rotted door. 

She was down the hallway and around the corner as fast as her feet would carry her, searching desperately for the stairs, or a place to hide, or something to take down Kushimaru.

Stairs came first, and she took them three at a time, as she went down one flight and then another. The surging chakra of her pursuer was a floor ahead of her, and she was sure he could sense her well enough to follow.

Outside, she felt Ameyuri’s chakra flicker and stretch itself. She could tell from the angry, agitated feel of the chakra that Ameyuri was going to rejoin the fray. 

Not good.

She was on the ground floor now, gripping Kiba tightly in her right hand. Above her was Kushimaru, and outside Ameyuri waited.

Rin

The journey through the false Land of Fire was not an easy one. The weather was always warm, but it blistered at this time of year, and Rin could tell no difference between the real world, and the strange one she found herself in. To make matters worse, she could do nothing to make her journey go by quickly. Her pace was far slower than she had figured it would be, even without chakra. Each step made the heat feel a thousand times worse.

She stumbled off the beaten road and into the trees, hoping the shade cast down by the trees would lessen the scorch of the midday sun. To her chagrin, it did not. If anything, it was even hotter off the road.

But that doesn’t make sense, Rin thought. 

She had traveled for hours and the sun had not moved at all in the sky. And now it was somehow warmer in the shade than in the direct sunlight. Sweat poured off of her face, and she couldn’t catch her breath properly. It was like her body wasn’t using its chakra to offset the physical expenditure of energy like it should be.

It wasn’t a problem she’d encountered before. Actively channeling and using chakra for jutsu had been out of the question, but the natural way the body absorbed chakra had never been affected before. 

Rin forced herself to keep moving, staggering back to the road. And that was when she saw it.

Less than two-hundred meters away were the gates to the Leaf Village.

Rin was going to cry.

But at the gates was someone, a person, standing and waiting for her. Rin squinted, the figure wasn’t a shadow at all. It was someone wearing a cream colored jacket and dark pants. Rin stepped towards the gate, curiously.

And then she was at the gates, blinking in confusion and staring at the nurse from the hospital that had been there when she’d regained consciousness. 

“Nurse Yume?” Rin asked, looking around, trying to figure out how she’d gone from the treeline to the gates of the village in the space of a single step.

“I’m sure you’ve realized that things don’t work quite the same way here,” Yume said.

“Where is here?” Rin asked, crossing her arms and peering back into the village to make sure the shadow figure was nowhere to be seen.

“It’s your mind, technically. But it’s also the creation of a seal that was designed to incapacitate intruders,” Yume said.

“I don’t follow,” Rin said. “How is it my mind and a seal? Doesn’t it have to be one or the other?”

Yume smiled cryptically. “Your understanding of sealing fundamentals is solid, but you lack the requisite experience and training to fully grasp how the seal that currently affects you was created. You could learn, with time, but first you must survive this place.”

Rin held up a hand. “Hold on. Why are you helping me? If the seal was designed to stop intruders to the village, shouldn’t you be my enemy?”

Yume laughed good naturedly. “I should be exactly what I need to be. Had you been an enemy of the blood, I would be your greatest adversary. But you are not, so my purpose here is not to be your enemy.”

Rin blinked owlishly. That explanation helped not at all. If anything, Rin was more confused now than when she’d been running in place for hours trying to leave the village. “What?” Rin tried. Yeah, that basically summed up her feelings. 

“What you must know is that this seal was designed to remove enemy combatants from the field. To have them jumping at shadows— make them paranoid. Eventually, they would see an enemy in everyone and turn on their own comrades, even after the battle in which they triggered the seal.” Yume gestured to the village behind them.  “The doctor, your mentor, and even the shapeless shadow that stalked you here from the waking world are all manifestations of that.”

That was certainly familiar. Rin nodded.

“The creator of this seal recognized that accidents happen on the battlefield, however. And so if a person who was not an enemy of the Uzumaki were to accidentally trigger the seal and not have the knowledge to disarm the trap on their own, then I would a appear to guide them through their dream.” Yume offered a hand to Rin. “Are you, Rin Nohara, prepared to face your worst fears? In doing so, you will find a copy of the seal here, in your mind, and will have the opportunity to disarm it.”

Face her worst fears? 

She didn’t want to do that at all, but what choice did she have?

“Why my worst fears?” Rin asked.

“Because the seal makes you afraid, and you must master your own fear to conquer the power of the seal,” Yume said.

“And none of this is because of the monster sealed within me?” Rin asked.

Yume tilted her head in confusion. “You don’t have a monster sealed within you, Nohara-san. Not right now.”

…What?

Rin sighed in defeat and confusion, and took the hand that was offered.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Chapter 8

Rin

Rin followed behind Nurse Yume as they made their way back into Konoha. Nervous anticipation set her senses on high-alert, and her eyes darted wildly from place to place, checking and double checking to be sure that the shadow-man who had stalked her through this bastardization of the village was nowhere to be found.

She was so worried about the sudden appearance of her attacker, that she failed to pay attention to where she was going until she found herself standing outside of her father’s house. When she laid eyes on the front door, she stopped breathing.

“Worthless,” her father’s voice echoed in her mind, and Rin’s hands clenched reflexively. 

“Your first fear is within,” Yume said.

Rin didn’t move. Couldn’t move. 

“I…” Rin tried. How could she explain? How could she explain to a seal that her father was a monster? That he had treated her like she wasn’t even a person after her mother had died. She hadn’t spoken to him since she’d become a Chuunin two years ago. 

I don’t want to speak to him, Rin realized.

“I have nothing to say to my father,” Rin said.

Yume looked at her, and nodded. “Do you fear your father?”

Rin, who had been ready to walk away from the house, hesitated. Was she afraid of him? 

Her father, the man who had once been warm and kind, and who had taught her to swim, and had taken her to the markets on weekends, was not scary . He had become bitter and cruel when her mother had passed. But she didn’t think she feared him.

He wasn’t a ninja. Sure, he belonged to a family of ninja, but he had never taken it upon himself to learn the arts. And by the time Rin was ten and her mother was buried, he couldn’t physically harm her if she didn’t want him to.

Her hands trembled.

She remembered.

Remembered what he was.

And who he had been.

Rin hated her father, but she wasn’t afraid of him.

“I don’t. I’m not afraid of my father,” Rin answered.

Yume smiled now, and gestured to the house. “Then that is not what you must face,” she said.

“If not him, then what?” Rin asked. “It’s not like I’m afraid of mom.”

Yume considered for a time, before she eventually answered. “I cannot say what you must face.”

Rin sighed. Yume was cryptic, if nothing else. But she supposed it made sense. The woman wasn’t technically real, after all— or was she? Rin frowned and looked at her. She was slender, and a few inches taller than Rin, with dark hair that she was only now realizing was red. Well of course it was red, Yume was the creation of an Uzumaki. But why hadn’t she noticed it before?

In the hospital… Rin tried to remember. Yume had looked the same as she did now. Same clothes, same face, and, she supposed, same hair. Rin had been so preoccupied with being home, and then with that scary medical ninja that she hadn’t really paid as much attention as she should have to the people or her environment until later. 

That left bluntness, which usually made Rin uncomfortable. But, as the saying went: ‘When in the Land of Iron...’

“Are you real?” Rin asked.

“In this place, I am as real as anything else,” Yume said.

That… wasn’t an answer. And, she realized that Yume being real didn’t matter much in the traditional sense. Everything that had happened here certainly felt real, and Rin remembered in the distant way of dreams that each fear and exertion she’d felt in her dreams since arming the seal had culminated in very real side effects in the waking world.

She changed tactics. “Tell me, then, how this works. I face this fear— whatever is in my father’s house, and then I wake? Is that what happens?”

Yume shook her head. “No. You will face more than this one fear.”

Rin resisted the urge to huff in annoyance. “Would you care to elaborate?”

“If that is your wish,” Yume said. “You must face what was,” she gestured to the house. “What is, and what may yet be. Only then, will you be allowed your opportunity to wake.”

“How could the seal know my future?” Rin asked.

“Nothing is set in stone,” Yume replied as if that settled everything.

It did not.

I’m not going to get any more out of her, I don’t think. It’s all just speculation. And for all I know, she’s just telling me things I already know because this is my dream to begin with. 

Without a look back, Rin stepped onto the small wood porch that ran across the front face of the house and opened the door.

The inside of the house was dark and still, but otherwise as she remembered it. The hardwood floor was stained with spilled alcohol— likely sake, and several takeaway food containers littered the floor. The art that had once been so carefully chosen and placed along the walls was stained and crooked. The air carried an acrid stench, spilled alcohol, rotting food, and the stink of a person who took no care of themselves. And everything, from ceiling to floor, was covered in dust.

It had been more than two years since she’d been inside this house, and Rin weighed her desire to turn away and never come back with her need to get out of her never ending nightmare.

Has to be done, she reminded herself.

With a great effort, she stepped through the doorway. It swung shut behind her, and Rin knew without looking that it would not open again until she faced whichever fear lurked within her childhood home.

The sound of her footfalls echoed through the entryway with muffled thumps as she disturbed the long settled dust on the floor. Rin stepped over the discarded food containers and made her way into the living area.

Through the murk, Rin saw the shadowed outline of a person sitting in a chair, facing the window to the backyard. At first, she thought it was her shadowy pursuer, and her heart leapt into her throat. But the person, whoever it was (her father, perhaps), was solid in a way that the translucent shadow had not been.

“Father?” Rin asked, and was displeased to hear the tremor in her voice. She wasn’t afraid of him.

She received no response.

Steeling herself, Rin crossed the room. Or she tried to. After only two steps, something crunched underneath her foot, and Rin looked down to see something glinting up at her in the dim light.

She bent down, and picked it up. It was a picture frame. And it contained a photograph that she was familiar with. The photograph was one she had in her apartment— the last happy photo of her family before her mother had passed. All of them beaming at the camera from a picnic blanket.

Except this photograph was wrong.

Her parents were there, smiling, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t even in the picture.

What?  

Rin fumbled in the dark for a surface to put the cracked picture frame down on, and then turned back towards the chair where the figure sat. And she found herself nearly nose to nose with her mother. Her mother whose face was distorted and disproportionate and twisted into a scowl.

Stink emanated from her open mouth, her eyes were all black, and her hair was filthy and matted.

Rin screamed and stumbled away.

“You!” her mother shrieked. “What are you doing here? I told you when I sent you on your way that I never wanted to see you again, you freak!”

“Mom, what are you talking about?” Rin asked, voice cracking. 

“You let your father die. You let me die. And you know that neither of us could ever love what you are.”

Unbidden, tears filled Rin’s eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s your fault! Your fault! Your fault! Yourfault, yourfault, yourfault !”

With each shriek, Rin felt her resolve waver and diminish. Her mother blamed her for it. For all of it. Rin had often wondered if that was the case. If somehow she had been the reason for her family breaking. She’d been told it was survivor’s guilt, been given ways to try and come to terms with it, but now she knew. She knew that it was her fault.

Rin bolted from the room, down the hall, and into what had been her childhood bedroom. She slammed and locked the door behind her, collapsing into a heap of self-loathing on the floor as soon as she was sure it was shut.

There was a moment of quiet before the nightmare started. “Your fault!” came the shriek of her mother from the other side of the door. And then came the pounding, on the door. It rattled in its frame as her mother tried to pound it down, all the while screeching, “Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!”

Rin curled in on herself and wished it would end.

The roar of noise swelled, and grew louder and louder and louder until it seemed like the door would collapse and the rage from beyond the room would spill over and consume everything. Tears spilled down her face, and she covered her ears and scrambled to try and drown out the cacophony. 

When she ran short of breath and her throat felt scratchy and raw from screaming, she realized the sound from the other side of the door had stopped. Everything was still, too still. Rin was curled in on herself in the center of the bedroom, too shaken to face her mother, to get up, to even move.

What did it mean to face this fear? Was it as simple as acknowledging it was something she carried around with her? Was it about shedding the fear, letting go of the guilt and the doubt?

She forced herself to get up. It was a slow, shaky movement, guided by frayed nerves and crushing guilt. But she did it. She got to her feet and made her way to the door, pressing an ear against the wood and listening for the nightmare to come back.

All she heard was silence.

Panic swelled up in her gut, because somehow the terrible silence was worse than the screaming had been. When there had been screaming, Rin knew where the fear, where her mother, had been. Now, in the silence, Rin was facing the unknown again. She shivered.

The only course of action she had was to open the door, but she didn’t want to. Without crossing the room and trying the window, Rin knew that it wouldn’t open no matter what she did. When the front door had closed, the house had become an all encompassing prison. 

She could stay in the room, alone. I’ll die here.

She could venture forth and face the darkness. I’m afraid.

And that was the crux of it. She was afraid of being the reason her mother was gone, that her father was a broken man, that her family had fallen apart. 

Rin was afraid.

She pushed through the feeling of paralyzation that gripped her. Fought it. Wrestled it into submission. Because she was a ninja, damn it! She could face her past and escape from a seal.

But what if it is my fault?

The roiling guilt started back up in her, and she forced it down.

So what if it is?

Rin didn’t know if she could ever, would ever, be in a place where she entirely believed it wasn’t her fault. She would carry it with her for the rest of her life. Her family was broken, gone, and all she had was the memory of what it had once been.

She opened the door, stepped into the shadowed hallway beyond, and walked purposefully back into the filthy living area.

The figure of her mother was once again in a chair, facing the window. Rin crossed the room and sat in the chair beside her mother. Rin could feel her skin crawl with unease as the thing that wasn’t her mother turned its head to look at her, but she didn’t look back. She focused on the window, looking out into the backyard.

“I miss you,” Rin said, voice thick with emotion.

“Your fault!” 

Rin only nodded. “It might be, mom. But I’m still here, and I have to live with it.”

A warm hand rested gently on her cheek, and she thought she heard a lullaby from her early childhood.

And the world around her melted like so much paint mixed with turpentine; the house and everything in it falling into a puddle. The chair Rin was sitting on dissolved beneath her and she found herself falling backwards through murky nothingness until her feet touched the ground.

She was standing outside her house in Konoha, and Yume was beside her. Rin fell to her knees and stared at the house without really seeing it. 

“Congratulations. You have faced the fear of your past. Are you prepared to face the next fear?”

Rin said nothing. She didn’t move, didn’t even blink. Distantly, she recognized that she had been spoken to.

“I… what?” Rin asked. With a great effort she tore her eyes away from the house. She was almost surprised to see Yume there, waiting patiently.

“You have faced a fear from your past, and overcome it. Are you prepared to face the fear that is?”

Rin blinked. She had forgotten there was more, if only for a moment. That feeling, her mother’s hand gently caressing her cheek… it had been nice. But to face something new? She wanted to say no. Instead she stood up and nodded. “I don’t see myself ever really being ready, but sure. Let’s get this over with.”

Yume nodded, and helped Rin to her feet. As soon as Rin was upright, Yume pushed her, and the world changed again. The sight of Konoha dissolving around her as she stumbled and sank into the ground.

The sensation of falling made her heart jump, but before she could shout in alarm she was once again standing on solid ground, but she wasn’t in the village anymore. She was in the Whirlpool village, alone amongst the ruins.

She knew the shadow was with her— that horrific entity that had become a waking nightmare. Rin had to stand up to it. Had to.

And she knew for a fact that she couldn’t just hit it with something. 

Rin felt it coming before she saw it. The sensation of her hair standing on end all down her neck, and that feeling deep in her gut to run away right now was all but overwhelming, and Rin closed her shaking hands into fists.

Chakra.

She had to use Chakra.

But…

But what if it destroyed her? Kushina wasn’t here to save her from it if she lost control. If she lost control of it now, she would die in agony. Alone. Trapped in a dream.

Rin reached out to touch her chakra, but flinched away from it almost by instinct. Instead, she coiled her control tight, and made sure she didn’t accidentally use it. She would have to find another way. She had to.

But there would be no time to work out how it was done, because at that moment, the shadowy figure stepped out from what had once been Kushina’s house. When she saw it, her stomach dropped and her pulse quickened. Not again. Not this. Not now.

Rin bolted, a futile effort that had already been attempted in the dream version of the Leaf Village. But she was nearly blind with panic and rational thought was an afterthought.

Down side streets and in between buildings Rin ran, desperate for an escape. She came to a stop near what she thought may have been the area where Kushina had taught her taijutsu. But the ground was damaged, there were gouges and scorch marks, and flecks of blood spattered about.

It was enough to kick her brain into action. Looking around and really seeing the village for the first time. Smoke rose from several buildings that surely hadn’t been that ruined. Would the village slowly be eradicated from the face of the earth if she kept running? Would her dream, her fear, remove even the ruins?

Rin hung her head, fear and shame and doubt whirling within her.

She felt the shadow approaching again, and instinctively took a step away. But she only got one or two paces before she forced herself to stop.

All she had done since she had been captured and forced into the life of a Jinchuriki was run away. All she had done was back away in fear from what she had once been, and all she had once aspired to become. Kushina had so much faith that she could do this, that she would be able to overcome what seemed like an impossible handicap. Rin had always felt that Kushina was just telling her what she wanted to hear. That she could get better. But she had never believed it. Not really.

But what if Kushina was right. What if, when the cards were down and her life was on the line, she could do it? What if she could beat her own weakness and self-doubt and fight?

So much time had been wasted in the room of that ramshackle house, staring at the ceiling with a heavy heart and convincing herself that she was never going to recover enough to be a ninja. That she’ed have to rediscover who she was after the thing that had given her life meaning, purpose, and strength had been taken away from her.

The pain she had to endure every time she used her chakra lit up her nerves like fire. But maybe, maybe the pain was worth it if she could still be who she wanted to be.

She had survived this far thanks to Kushina. But there was nobody to hide behind now. Nowhere to run to that was safe from this. She was terrified to use her chakra. Terrified of the pain it caused her. Terrified of the shadow that followed her in her waking dreams. Rin was afraid of all that and so much more. 

But it was past time to be a Ninja of the Hidden Leaf and face that fear head on.

Rin turned around to face the shadow across the ruined training field.

There was no turning back. If she ran, she died. If she didn’t use her chakra, she died. If she lost control, she died.

Kill, she thought. Kill or be killed.

It was a wartime situation. She recognized it for what it was now. And she had been a soldier in a war, after all. What was one more battle where her life was on the line?

The shadow took a step toward her, and Rin matched it, reaching down within herself and letting her chakra fill her for the first time in what felt like a lifetime.

All of the control exercises Kushina had put her through were being put to the test. She felt full of life and power, but she could feel that if she was not in perfect control for even a second, she would be destroyed. Rin was on the razor’s edge, and she’d never felt more alive.

The shadow lunged at her, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. Rin evaded it with a back handspring, so effortless with chakra, and once on the ground again, she formed the hand seals for a fire jutsu.

The flames engulfed the shadow a moment later, and Rin felt what had once been an unceasing fear melt away. Relief flooded her as the brilliant light of the flames was carried away on the wind. The shadow, or whatever it had been, was scorched into the ground. The outline of a person. 

She stood on the battlefield, and all she knew was peace as she released her gathered chakra and let it ebb away. 

But the scorched outline had other ideas. As she watched, it became a three dimensional shape. Solid and tangible. The charred shape slowly gained color and features. A dark cloak and…

Rin’s eyes were wide with realization.

… and an orange mask.

But before the man could so much as get to his feet, the world was once again melting away, and Rin was sitting at the little table in the ruined house she’d been living in.

Yume was sitting across from her. “You have faced a fear from your present, and overcome it. Are you prepared to face the fear that may yet be?”

“Hold on,” Rin said. “What about the masked guy? I was about to fight him.”

Yume’s reaction was one of confusion, or perhaps misunderstanding. Rin couldn’t tell which. “Your strongest fear in the present revolves around the present. You have faced that fear.”

Rin pursed her lips. That may have been true enough. But then what about the shadow man and the masked guy?

“Are you ready?” Yume asked again.

“I…” Rin sighed. “I suppose I am.”

The world fell out from underneath her.

She was standing in darkness in the woods on the eastern coast of the Fire Country.

It took her a moment to understand why.

What about the forest contained her fears? She had grown up in the Land of Fire, surrounded by forests, where she felt comfortable.

And then she saw them…

Bodies littered the ground, weapons were impaled into trees in every direction, and the ground was wet and sticky with both mud and blood. The acrid smell of human death and decay, sickly sweet and horrible, assaulted her nostrils.

The only source of illumination was through the trees. A strange light that seemed to emanate from nowhere in particular, but clearly came from a singular direction.

Rin followed the light until she reached the tree where Kakashi lay broken and lifeless. 

There he was, right where she’d left him. 

His mask was torn, his usually messy hair matted down with filth, and his eyes were open and unseeing. He lay so still, and she remembered all too clearly how his breath had stopped, how she wasn’t able to find his pulse.

The panic that had overtaken her then, roared back to life and swelled up from within her. A terrible symphony of self-loathing.

Rin  squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “It’s not real,” she told herself. “It’s not real.” She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to will herself back to the village.

The falling sensation did not return, would not return, and Rin balked at the idea of seeing Kakashi lying on the ground, broken. It was a reminder of what had happened to him, what she had done to him. It had been her. She had lost control and beat him to death. All Kakashi had done was rescue her. His reward had been death.

My fault , Rin thought.

After what felt like hours, but could have only been a few short minutes (it was impossible to tell in this place), Rin opened her eyes again and forced herself to look at Kakashi.

Until now, this had been a distant reality, something only half remembered in bouts of self-loathing and doubt. But here, now, she was faced with it head on.

Kakashi was dead.

Kushina had lied to her. 

She could see well enough for herself what her failure to control the beast inside her had wrought. I remember, Rin thought. I remember how he looked when I regained control of myself. He wasn’t breathing. I killed him.

Her breath came in ragged, panicked gasps, and her vision swam before her. Focusing on nothing, and then Kakashi. He was equal parts too close and too far away. Her vision tunneled, fading to nothing outside of her immediate object of focus. Blood rushed in her ears and the sound of nothingness had never been louder.

Rin collapsed, falling to her hands and knees, desperately trying to regain control of herself. But the panic gripped her in a vice-grip. 

“I didn’t mean to,” Rin said, trying to justify it between gasps for a steady breath.

"I didn't mean to..."

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Chapter 9

Kushina

Kushina fumbled with the latch on the old, rusted door that led to the basement. The old metal creaked and resisted her efforts to get down the stairs, but eventually, she managed to pry the old door open wide enough to step through and down the stairs.

Kushimaru and Ameyuri had regrouped and were standing together just outside the front doors of the building. 

I don’t have a lot of time, Kushina thought.

It was too dark to see anything past what little light made its way halfway down the stairs. Kushina used a simple fire jutsu to make a small ball of light in one hand, and made her way down. 

The basement was the most unscathed place she’d seen in the village. The old pipes and substructure were in good order, and filing cabinets lined the walls everywhere except where doors led to what were likely more and more storage rooms. They likely contained records of missions, census data, birth certificates, tax records, zoning information, and so much other bureaucratic paperwork that Kushina wouldn’t know how to describe it.

A tangible record of her people. 

Probably not an arsenal.

Kushina crossed the room and put the one Kiba blade she still had on top of a filing cabinet. She opened one drawer. It was filled to bursting with hundreds of file folders. She tried another, and another and another. Every time it was more of the same.

Information about the Uzumaki, the Whirlpool Village, and everything that had happened on this island. A treasure trove of information that needed to be preserved. And Kushina was disappointed in it.

No seals, no kunai, no shuriken, no weapons or tools of any kind.

She had one kunai, the seal she’d made, and half of a pair of legendary swords. Kushina had no idea how she was going to stop the mist ninja. She had clashed with them both viciously and had barely made it inside the building alive. One on one, she might be able to take either of them out. But both of them at the same time? They had the advantage of their weapon proficiency, and a great deal more experience in battlefield situations.

“Gotta think,” Kushina muttered. “Not a lot of time left to take them down and help Rin.”

If only she’d had the opportunity to take Ameyuri down on the rooftop…

But there had to be another way. Something that would let her actually pull it off.

Kushina glanced at the sword on top of the filing cabinet, and considered her options for a long moment. Disarming them was her best bet. She reached out and pushed the sword off the back of the filing cabinet so that it slid down the wall and lodged itself there in the darkness. And then she made her way back upstairs.

On the ground level again, she slid the old door shut and forced the latch back into place. 

All that was left was to try to get the other half of Kiba away from Ameyuri again. Not that it would be so easy a second time. But still, she had to try. Rin was counting on her.

Kushina made a shadow clone, complete with a replica of Kiba, and then headed for the front door. She took the kunai from her pouch and nodded to the copy of herself. With a heave, she flung the doors open and dashed out into the sunlight.

Kushimaru and Ameyuri were both injured, but far from out of the fight. The way they held themselves was enough to determine that. She stopped maybe twenty feet away from them.

“Finally decided to come out here and finish the fight, Uzumaki?” Ameyuri taunted her.

“I am going to finish it,” Kushina agreed. 

And then she made a run for it. Ameyuri was hot on her heels, snarling. 

At the same time, the shadow clone she’d made of herself made a show of sneaking out of the building. 

“Ameyuri! That one’s a fake. The real one is trying to escape.” Kushimaru caught Ameyuri’s attention, and the pair of them left their pursuit of her for the clone.

It gave her time to find a space that was wide open enough to fight in. And there was the one near the buildings she’d burned down at the start of her fight with the Swordsmen. 

She dug a small patch of the dirt up, just enough to lay her seal into, and covered it again. One detonation. One chance. A single use attack that would hopefully grant her the edge she needed to stop them. Oh, but it was risky.

Kushina felt her shadow clone pop, and the disorientation that came with it’s defeat was nearly enough on its own to bring her to her knees. As it was, she found herself bent double, hands on her knees as she tried to stave off waves of nausea. Overuse of the technique had its downsides, and Kushina was experiencing them now. Mental fatigue and headaches were basically a guarantee when using the jutsu as she had been.

“Probably best not to make any more clones,” Kushina said. “The information I get back is starting to be too much for one day.”

From across the village, a massive bolt of lightning arced into the sky. No doubt Ameyuri was furious at having been duped. Frustrated opponents were dangerous in that they would not hold back anything. But they were also easier to force into making mistakes. Kushina needed them to make mistakes. Needed to bait them back to her position.

She set off for the administration building again, trying her best to seem as at ease as possible. She wanted them to think she was unfazed and unbothered by the exertions of their battle so far. And so she found a large piece of concrete that had once been part of the roof of the large building, and sat on it, legs crossed.

After less than a minute of waiting, Kushimaru and Ameyuri returned to the front of the building. They were both covered in soot.

“You!” Ameyuri screamed. 

Kushina glanced at them, adopting the most nonchalant expression she could. “Oh, you’re back. Finally managed to pop that shadow clone, did you?”

“Where’s my sword?” Ameyuri seethed.

Kushina ignored her. “Seems like it got the better of you for a while there. Fire jutsu?”

Ameyuri leveled the one sword she still had at her, and fired an absolutely massive bolt of lighting over Kushina’s right shoulder. It was an impressive display, and a massive waste of chakra.

Kushina waved a hand dismissively. “That old thing? I broke it by accident, so I threw it away.”

“You’re gonna die, Uzumaki.”

“Sure, sure,” Kushina said. She hopped off the concrete and stretched, before twirling the kunai around her finger. “Shall we?”

Ameyuri growled at her, teeth bared, and came at her in a flurry of hate and steel. Kushimaru joined his teammate, and pressed down on her with all of the fury he could muster. 

It became a deadly dance, a flutter of steel as the two swordsmen pressed the advantage of three blades to one. It was all Kushina could do to deflect and dance away from the deadly blows that threatened to end her life. She had to maintain her composure or the ruse would never work. Even as it was, Kushina accrued more than her fair share of cuts as they whirled and parried one another.

Their fight carried them away from the administration building each time Kushina ceded ground, and they traveled down more than one street. The closer they got to her trap, the better. If she could just get them right on top of it. If she managed that, then— 

The dance was broken when Ameyuri’s Kiba sheared the blade of Kushina’s kunai clean in half and Kushimaru took the opportunity of Kushina’s surprise to drive both halves of Nuibari into Kushina’s side.

The long swords pierced her clean through. Several inches of steel protruding from exit wounds that dripped blood onto the ground. She looked at the handle of the broken kunai with a shaky hand, and then at Ameyuri and Kushimaru. The broken kunai dropped to the dirt with a dull thunk. before she fell to the ground with a gurgle, vision fading to blackness.

“Oh no you don’t,” Ameyuri said. “You don’t get to die or pass out on me yet.” There was a flash of light, Kushina’s muscles went tense but she flooded back to consciousness and fumbled lamely for the swords that were to their hilts in her flesh.

The smell of electricity lingered in the air, and Kushina watched Ameyuri take a hand from her chest.

She was hoisted to her feet and held upright by the other woman, who looked at her as though she was a piece of meat. Vaguely, Kushina realized that she couldn’t feel her legs. Before another thought could cross her mind, Kushimaru pulled his blades from her flesh, and she gasped. Blood poured from her body unrestricted now, pattering onto the ground in great viscous puddles. 

The next thing she knew, she was thrown unceremoniously through the door of the nearest building. Kushina crashed through the wood of the door, taking the old rusted hinges apart with her. She rolled across old dusty floorboards that creaked under her weight, until she came to a stop, and lay still.

From outside the house, and so distant now, she heard laughing. “How does it feel?” Ameyuri taunted.

Bad . Kushina thought. Hurts.

Her eyes, listlessly took in her new surroundings, not really seeing where she was. Not really seeing anything as her lifeblood escaped her. But it was, somehow, familiar .

Darkness closed around her, a slow, inescapable looming. But a thought drifted past her darkness. One that kept her present.

Rin .

Vaguely she became aware of her four points barrier collapsing as her clones disappeared.

No.

Kushina tried to move. But she couldn’t find the strength. She felt cold, and tired, and if she was being honest, just staying still was okay. The ground— she was on the ground, right?— was so comfortable…

… She was sitting on a low bench before a vanity, looking at her reflection in the mirror while her mother gently brushed her long, fiery hair. Her mother was humming softly, and Kushina reveled in the gentle touches as the sound of her mother and the smell of lilac perfume overwhelmed her.

Home . Kushina was home. 

Even though the face looking back at her in the mirror was far too young, and even though nobody from the Leaf Village would be there, she was home.

She picked absently at the corner of upholstery on the bench that was beginning to peel while her mother worked, all the while swinging her legs that were too short to touch the ground. When her hair was brushed so finely that it shone under the light pouring through the window, her mother pulled it back into a low braid that fell down her back.

“There you are, Kushina dear,” her mother said. 

Kushina hopped off the bench and gave her mother a hug. “Thank you mom! Now my hair won’t get in the way when I’m playing.”

And it had been that way hadn’t it? Easy and playful. Safe and warm. It had been home unlike any other she had tried to know since. Nowhere else had been so carefree. Everything afterwards had been stressful pretending and hiding what she was. Hiding who she was.

She ran from her parent’s room as fast as her legs would carry her, down the hallway, past her room, her brother’s room, and her sister’s room, and into the living space. It was a family gathering room on one side, a kitchen and dining area on the other. It was simple, but it was home. And it was all she had once known.

In many ways, she wished there had never been a need to know more of the world.

Her father was busying himself with the loose floorboard by the front door, the one that creaked every time you stepped on it. She remembered it bothering her mother. He had the floorboard pulled up, and from her place by the hallway, she could see him putting a wrapped bundle in the compartment in the floor beneath the board.

He must have sensed her because before long he turned to look at her and give her a warm smile. 

“Ah, Kushina. I see your mother is all finished with your hair.” He opened his arms to her and she ran into his embrace.

She clung to him tightly, buried her face in the crook of his neck, and let his strength and warmth wash over her. He smelled of pipesmoke, well worn paper, and cedarwood. Kushina closed her eyes when he picked her up and tucked her gently against his side.

“I had hoped you two would take a little longer back there,” her father said conspiratorially. “I was just about finished getting that floorboard fixed. I wanted to surprise your mother.”

“Surprise me?” Kushina’s mother asked from the hallway. “If you can fix that old thing it’ll be a miracle, honey. It’s like the house wants to creak.”

Her father laughed and Kushina let the low rumbling of his voice wash over her. She liked listening to them talk. Liked listening to the way they loved each other.

Kushina desperately wanted that with Minato when they had children. If they had children. She realized that because she was here, with her family, the likelihood of her having such a privilege was slim.

“Would you like some lunch, Kushina?”

Kushina blinked here eyes open groggily and fixed them on her mother, who was smiling at her softly. “Yes please,” she said.

“I’ll make your favorite.”

Kushina nodded, and when she did, she saw a mess of red out of the corner of her eye. It pooled across the floor and seeped into the rug beneath the dining table. But when she moved her head to get a better look, it was not there. All she saw was the floor as it always was. 

But it had been blood, had it not?

My blood .

Her father set her down and gently guided her towards the kitchen.

She wondered if she was in the afterlife or a memory, though she did not wonder for long, because lunch was ready, and she hurried to the table to eat while the food was still hot.

Her mother hummed softly to herself while she boiled the noodles and made broth for ramen, and Kushina found herself looking around the kitchen and living space curiously. It was so much more vivid than she remembered. But the details, she knew, were right. From the garlic cloves hanging over the spice rack, and the well-worn cutting board on the counter to the katana resting on a small stand by the front door. 

Her father’s katana.

It was sheathed in beautiful lacquered redwood, and inlaid with gold filigree. The guard was a beautiful bronze, and the wrap down the handle was a beautiful teal color that reminded her of the shallow water in the sea surrounding the island. 

She stared at the sword, curiously.

Hadn’t she used a sword recently?

She couldn’t have. She was just a child, and children didn’t use swords. Especially not swords made for blademasters.

Because her father had been an expert swordsman, she remembered that. How come it hadn’t been obvious when she’d come to the village in years past?

Years past…?  

Kushina blinked, and for a moment, the house was dark and empty, covered in dust and cobwebs, and with a roof half-collapsed.

Red blood spilled across the floor, seeping into the long neglected wood.

Kushina shook her head, and everything was back to normal. Back to how it was supposed to be. Her parents were making her food, because she needed to eat to get her strength back for the battle she still had to win.

Battle? 

There was no battle. Why would she need to fight a battle? 

The ramen was placed before her, and a pair of chopsticks were in her hands. She inhaled the steam coming off the noodles, and they smelled exactly as she remembered. Exactly how they had been when she was a little girl.

But… wasn’t she a little girl now?

Kushina raised the noodles to her mouth.

And then, from miles away came voices.

“I think she’s dead. She hasn’t moved or made a sound since she went through the wall,” said the first voice.

“We should make sure,” said the second.

“Our mission isn’t the Uzumaki. Our mission is to capture the tailed beast. We saw her barrier come down. That means she’s dead.”

There was a rustling that was accompanied by the retreating footfalls of the Swordsmen. Kushina couldn’t find the energy to stop them, and truth be told, she could scarcely remember a reason why she should.

Memories flickered past her eyes

Everything that had happened, in an instant, was clear again.

No matter how much she wanted this moment. No matter how hard she wished things could be this way again. They were not and could not be. But she would enjoy this moment, because it could be her last.

She took a bite of the ramen. A memory of wonderful flavors danced across her tongue and she let the warmth of home carry her within herself.

Down to the seal that housed the monster she imprisoned. The house where she stared aimlessly at the walls in the pool of her own blood, and the house where she ate her mother’s ramen at the kitchen table became the large gate and a pool of water.

“What do you want, human?” The Nine-Tails demanded of her.

It took her a long moment to answer. The strength of memory had taken her this far, but her own strength was fading with each pulse of her heart as her lifeblood spilled across the old wooden floor.

“I’m dying,” she managed. “I figure that’s bad for both of us, but I was wondering if you could…” Kushina trailed off. Wondering if it could do what? She didn’t know if there was anything the Nine-Tails could do, but it was worth a try. A desperate prayer in her final moments of consciousness.

“Your chakra will heal you in time, provided you stop bleeding,” said the Nine-Tails.

“No time,” Kushina said.

“What do you want me to do about it, human?” 

“Can you stop the bleeding?” Kushina asked. “Is that something that’s even possible?”

The beast roared and slammed a massive paw against the door of its cage. “You doubt my power?”

She hadn’t said that, had she? It was hard to know. She wanted to say more. To ask the fox to help her save Rin. But she knew it was futile. The monster had no interest in helping her. It never had. It never would. She opened her mouth to argue with it, but the image of the large gate shimmered. Everything seemed so far away. Her eyes drifted closed as she listened to the rumbling of the fox straining against its prison.

She was on her side in the old house again, there was blood everywhere. Too much blood for anyone to survive losing. 

She thought about all she’d hoped to achieve, all she’d hoped to become. She thought of her friends. Thought of her teachers. Of her student, Rin. And she thought of Minato and all her hopes and dreams for a future with him.

One by one they slipped through her fingers, joining the broken dreams of her life in that pool of memory on the floor.

If only she could get back to that bowl of ramen at the kitchen table.

“Mama?” Kushina whispered. “Mama help me. I’m scared.”

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Whirlpool Arc

Finale

Kushina

Her old house was still.

Everything had settled. Wood no longer creaked and adjusted, the sound of blood no longer dripped onto the foundation of the house through the floorboards. The sound of silence roared in her ears even as darkness loomed at the edge of her vision. She could see the room before her, but it seemed so far away. To make matters worse, it kept changing between the old, warm home she had known, and the dank, dusty ruin it now was. 

Somewhere chakra surged. An immense wave of power washing over the ruins of the village all at once. It was the most chakra she’d ever felt from anywhere except for….

It was the three-tails, Kushina realized distantly. The temporary vessel had been tampered with, and their time was up.

Kushina had to get up. Had to stop them, had to save Rin, and reseal the three-tails.

She had to do a lot of things, but she couldn’t find the strength to move. She couldn’t find the strength to get up again and fight against the two strongest opponents she’d ever faced in a life or death situation. 

Kushina had battled them, and she had lost.

The single, rusted old kunai had been cleaved in two, and she’d fallen as a result. What remained of her village had not produced a way for her to win, to prove that the Uzumaki deserved to survive, to live on. To prove that they could come back from annihilation.

When would the suffering of her people stop?

When would it be enough?

Somewhere in the village thunder clapped and a beast roared its defiance.

The surging of chakra produced another wave of incomprehensible power.

Whoosh!

The sound of dust falling from the ceiling registered in her ears, and moments later the light tickling of it falling on her skin.

Creak!

Of the house shifting and settling as something buffeted it, chakra she concluded. Or perhaps the force of the air being pushed around by chakra.

CrashI

Glass breaking as a cabinet was knocked from the wall in the kitchen. Her kitchen.

Bang!

A building collapsing somewhere nearby. Her village was being destroyed again.

Boom! 

The thunderclap from another bolt of lightning.

Roar!

A sound so close and so loud it could only belong to a monster.

Hiss!

The sound of her blood, boiling as chakra seeped from her seal.  Rage was all she knew in those moments on the floor.  Rage stemming from hatred of the enemy ninja, for coming to her home and threatening her and her student. Rage stemming from loathing of herself for failing to overcome the enemy, to protect Rin, and find another member of her clan. For not being better she loathed herself.

The smells of home, of dust and blood faded away slowly as her vision came into focus, and were replaced by the metallic tang of blood and electricity. The weak, far away stillness displaced by a rushing, itching, burning power. Beneath her, the floorboards splintered and cracked as the chakra from her seal came rushing forth.

And finally, she could sense what had caused those sounds. Ameyuri and Kushimaru were battling against the three-tailed beast. And they were losing.

The chakra being thrown around was so severe and so intense that she couldn't sense Rin at all. If she was even still alive to sense in the first place.

Her hand tensed, and she felt her elongated fingernails bite into the splintering floorboards. 

Strength was returning to her. The bleeding had stopped. Kushina saw red, not from her blood or her hair, or even the nimbus of chakra that now cloaked her, but from the nigh uncontrollable rage that fueled her strength.

Kushina sat up with a snarl, only vaguely aware of her overlong canines digging into her gums. The pain was an afterthought, because even if she did draw blood, it would heal itself anyway.

She wanted to fight. To roar her defiance and superiority over the Three-Tails, and to prove that she was the most powerful. The part of her that was cognizant of the fact that those desires were not necessarily her own, wrestled them into submission. She needed clarity, control, a level head.

Getting to her feet, Kushina took in the house consciously for the first time since she'd been a child.

The door was shattered from where she'd been unceremoniously tossed through it. The floor was a mess of splintered wood still damp with blood. And the kitchen was a dusty ruin of broken glass and destroyed cabinetry.

A distant part of her remembered the fond memories of the place, but the boiling rage that now gave her strength kept her from doing more than giving her surroundings that cursory glance. There would be time to go through the rubble after.

Kushina stepped through the door, her chakra splintering the wood. Something beneath her feet sizzled and went up in smoke. She looked down, trying to find the source, but there was nothing. She did notice the gleam of something gold under the floorboards.

The sight that greeted her was one of destruction and chaos. The Three-Tailed Beast was the size of a small mountain, roaring its defiance and doing its level best to put down the two small figures that danced around it, buffeting it with water and lightning release jutsu.

They were having little effect.

Kushina leapt to the rooftops, bouncing from building to still intact building, until she was just a hundred meters from the tailed beast.

Distantly, at its massive feet, she saw the tiny body of Rin. Her power surged and the density of her chakra cloak increased. Her desire to rip-tear-kill everything nearly overcame her, and she wrestled it back down.

She was on a knife's edge.

The metallic smell of lightning about to strike filled the air, and Kushina tensed. From somewhere above her and to her left, she heard the telltale thunderclap of a lightning jutsu, and when it struck the tailed-beast in the eye, Kushina took advantage of its roar.

With the beast so clearly focused on squashing Ameyuri, she made her way to Rin's side. When she was close enough to sense the chakra, albeit no more than a faint fluttering, of her student, Kushina let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

Rin was still alive, and there was still time to save her life.

The complication, however, was that the intricate seal she'd drawn to move and contain the Three-Tails was completely destroyed. The ink on the dirt had been ruined by the chaos, and the temporary container had been destroyed. 

Which meant the only intact seal remaining was the one it had originally come from. The one on Rin’s heart. Resealing it there might very well kill Rin, but not trying would certainly do it.

The question was, did she have time to take out the mist ninja before Rin was out of time? She didn’t think it was worth the risk, but trying to subdue a tailed-beast while fighting two enemy ninja was ill advised at best. Realistically, it was suicide.

Her one advantage was that Ameyuri and Kushimaru either did not know or did not care that she was back in the fight. Kushina took full advantage of that fact, and when Kushimaru was knocked unceremoniously aside by a massive sweeping blow from one of the Sanbi’s three massive tails, she took to the rooftops.

She caught Kushimaru by the neck before he could hit the ground and slammed her fist into his face. The force of the blow rocked his head back, the Nuibari fell from his grasp into the ruins below them as they soared over the buildings. He grunted in pain and gripped futilely at her forearm, trying to break her grip. 

“H-how?” He rasped an instant before he was slammed unceremoniously through the roof of a building.

Kushina hopped away from the rubble, red chakra carving divots in the ground as she skidded to a halt and waited for Kushimaru to get up. He wasn’t dead. Kushina could still feel his chakra, but she’d caught him off guard, and separated him from his swords. She’d bought herself time.

His chakra was unmoving within the building, and Kushina took the extra second to take note of where the Nuibari had landed. Both blades were point down in the dirt some fifty feet away in the space between a half collapsed wall and a pile of splintered wood. Out of the fight for now. Kushimaru would have to come at her with something else. 

And that gave her the advantage.

From within the ruined building, rubble shifted, and Kushimaru’s chakra fluttered with activity.

A barrage of needles burst from the house, thousands of small pieces of metal poised to pierce her flesh rained down and sought their target.

Kushina clasped her hands together, interlacing her fingers, and channeled chakra into a tempest of swirling air and wind. Dirt was kicked into a dozen dust devils, splintered wood and shattered glass were flung about, another building creaked and collapsed under the deluge, and the needles were batted away.

Wind was Kushina’s element, and she had more power now to affect the air than she’d ever dared hold before.

With a roar she focused her energy and pushed.

The glass, dust, dirt, wood, and other rubble launched themselves at the house. With a loud crash, what was left of the building was pulverized by the whipping winds and shrapnel. Kushimarus chakra flickered once, then twice, then dimmed as he was flung away.

If nothing else, he was unconscious and unable to continue the battle. It was hard to say if the dimming of his chakra was to a life threatening injury without looking, but Kushina couldn’t spare a moment.

Kushina wasted no time, turning and dashing back down what clear places there were to maneuver. She used chakra to propel her across the village. To an untrained eye, she would have looked like nothing more than an orange blur.

Ameyuri was still leaping about, shooting lightning at the tailed beast, and Kushina intended to put her down for good.

With each thunderclap and blast of lightning jutsu, Kushina could sense Ameyuri flagging from fatigue. They’d been in a combat situation that had only escalated for something close to an hour at this point, and expending that much chakra would no doubt exhaust even the most seasoned combat veterans.

To make matters worse, the attacks seemed to be doing little more than pissing off the Three-Tails.

It took Kushina only moments to cross the ruined village, and she collided shoulder first with Ameyuri when she touched down after a particularly intense lightning jutsu.

Together they tumbled, exchanging blows fiercely. Ameyuri’s sword against Kushina’s chakra hardened and claw-like fingernails. 

In her berserker state, Kushina was able to force Ameyuri back. With the part of her brain that still held rational thought, she steered Ameyuri to the place where she’d originally set her trap. When they were within the radius of effect of her seal, Kushina slammed a fist into Ameyur’s chest, sending the other woman staggering backwards. 

And then Kushina made a hand seal.

Kiba slipped from Ameyuri’s grasp, falling to the ground with a thump. Ameyuri cursed and doubled over to collect her sword, but it would not budge.

Kushina closed the distance between them, and attacked. It was more of a street-fight than a proper battle with taijutsu. Kushina’s form was wild and sloppy, her mind not able to focus through the onslaught of hate-fueled chakra. 

But Ameyuri still could not keep up. Kushina was faster and stronger.

Eventually, Ameyuri was knocked to the ground by a kick to the knee, and the fight devolved into an intense grappling match.

After thirty seconds of rolling through the dirt and over rotted wood and shattered glass, Kushina was sitting on Ameyuri’s chest. The other woman struggled in vain against Kushina, but was pinned. The surging chakra coming from Kushina was searing Ameyuri’s flesh, and Kushina found herself enjoying the agony she was inflicting.

“How… the fuck… are you alive? We’ve landed at least three killing blows on you” Ameyuri managed between attempts to struggle free and grunts of pain.

Kushina bared her teeth in the gross approximation of a smile. She was drunk with the anger and power of her tailed beast. “The Sanbi isn’t the only tailed beast, ya know?”

Ameyuri’s eyes widened with realization and fear. “N-no!”

Kushina laughed, a twisted, dark sound that was not her own. But the whimper from Ameyuri that followed it was like music to her ears.

“You’ve caused enough trouble, don’t you think?” Kushina snarled. 

“We’ll let you and the kid go,” Ameyuri said desperately.

“As if you had a choice.” She was going to enjoy killing this one. And it had been so long since she’d had the freedom to kill. Kushina raised her hand above Ameyuri’s head, fingers down and elongated nails poised over the eyes. It would feel wonderful to cause this woman pain.

Behind them, the Three-Tails roared, and another building collapsed under its flailing. 

Kill her, a voice that was not her own commanded.

And oh how she wanted to. This psycho woman had taunted her over and over again about the death of her family, of her people.

But she wasn’t in the habit of killing people if she could help it. 

And hadn’t she embraced the chakra of the Kyubi because Rin was in danger?

Kushina’s hand trembled as she fought herself for control. Kill or protect?

Ameyuri stared at her hand with wide, fearful eyes. She drew shallow, panicked breaths and her body shook with a combination of terror and pain.

Kushina stared into her dark eyes. She wavered. 

“By rights, I should kill you,” Kushina said. Her voice was too deep and gruff to be her own, and she hated the way it sounded. “Your village is responsible for the death of my family, my clan, and the village of my birth.”

“I know,” Ameyuri said. It was a statement of fact, not an apology. Even so, Kushina could feel the fear in Ameyuri’s chakra. The horrible power of the tailed beasts did that to people. The scope of the power was so large, and the horrible intent of the chakra so vile that people just shut down. It was impressive that Ameyuri could talk at all.

“I hate you. I don’t know if you took part in the raping of Uzushiogakure, but I heard you talk about it as if the genocide was good. As if it could ever be justified.”

“I was too young to go,” Ameyuri admitted. “But I would have. It would have been a privilege to go in my village. It would have brought honor to my name”

Kushina screamed, wild with hate and rage and drove her fist downward.

There was a moment of silence even in the collapsing ruins of the village. But it was broken by the soft patter of liquid dropping onto the dirt. Kushina stared at her fist, buried into the ground beside Ameyuri’s head, and realized that she was crying.

Ameyuri’s eyes were scrunched closed, waiting for the end.

“I vowed that I would get strong enough to build it all again one day,” Kushina said. “That I’d become the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf and use my power to rebuild my home.”

Ameyuri opened her eyes. “And have you become so powerful now, Jinchuriki?”

“No,” Kushina admitted. “I wasn’t strong enough to beat the two of you without my demon.”

“You are the first person I’ve ever met that fought more than one of the Seven Swordsmen at the same time and won,” Ameyuri said. “We aren’t given the swords to keep as our own until we’re marked as S-Ranked in another village’s Bingo Book.”

“It wasn’t enough. My people are still gone, and what was left is now debris.” Behind them, the Sanbi roared, and the earth shook beneath them as it rampaged.

“You aren’t even in the Bingo Book,” Ameyuri continued. “It shouldn’t be possible for a no-name shinobi to stop us, Jinchuriki or not.”

“I have a name,” Kushina said. She was surprised how tired she sounded. Not from the battle or her injuries, though they contributed to her exhaustion. This was a tiredness of her soul. She was tired from the years of being ostracized. The hard hours of being forgotten and looked over even as she excelled and surpassed her peers and superiors. 

Kushina was tired of holding on to a legacy that only ever made others look upon her as inferior.

The anger and the hate that fueled her ability to use the Kyubi’s chakra were still present, but Kushina realized they were no longer in control. That vitriol had been replaced by a heavy sadness and resignation. Kushina knew she wasn’t going to kill Ameyuri. At least not like this.

“Kushina,” she said at last. “Kushina Uzumaki. I think I’m the last one. I fear I’m the last one.”

Ameyuri’s face was twisted with agony and coated in a thin layer of sweat.

“Battling you has been an honor, Kushina Uzumaki.”

Kushina looked at Ameyuri for a long time. The fight had gone out of her, and Kushina knew she was no longer a threat. She released the woman and rolled off of her. 

The two of them panted side by side for several moments. The only sounds were their heavy breathing and the roaring destruction of the tailed-beast. Ameyuri lay on her back, broken and defeated and only half conscious. Kushina sat, cloaked in orange chakra, and trying to center herself enough to face the Sanbi.

Sealing would be no good if she couldn’t focus.

“Are… all… Jinchuriki… so powerful?” Ameyuri asked, voice thin and weak.

“I don’t know,” Kushina admitted. “I’d never met another one until my student showed up as one after whatever botched mission she’d been sent on.”

“I… see…”

Kushina turned to look at Ameyuri, and was surprised to see the other woman staring at her. 

“Why did you do it?” Kushina asked. “Why turn her into a weapon of mass-destruction and send her back to us?”

Ameyuri tried to shake her head, but instead hissed in pain. “We… didn’t. Our… beast… went missing. We were sent to… get it back.”

Kushina didn’t know if she believed Ameyuri, but there was no telling sign of the lie. No shifting of the eyes, or shuffling of the chakra that would indicate a deception. She didn’t have the focus to deep-dive that conversation right now.

Insead, she said: “I see.”

Ameyuri coughed violently. Kushina could see her body was broken, but her chakra showed no signs of burning out. She’d likely lose consciousness soon, but not her life.

“If you can walk, you and your teammate should get out of here,” Kushina said as she got back to her feet. “I have to reseal the Three-Tails.”

Ameyuri hissed as she tried to sit upright, but the scorched clothes and burned skin did little to help her other injuries, and she collapsed back to the earth before she’d gotten more than halfway there. “I don’t think so, Uzumaki. I’m spent and too hurt to move.”

Kushina nodded. She could feel Ameyuri’s chakra slowing, the agitated buzz of her lightning nature relaxing.  

Chains sprouted from Kushina’s back and wrapped themselves around Ameyuri. The woman grunted with pain as she was lifted from the ground and moved farther away from the three tails. Kushina deposited her there without even turning around. And when Ameyuri was propped up against a large slab of cracked concrete fifty feet away, Kushina let the chains return to her.

It was time to face the Three-Tails.

She strode to what had been the large main street of the village, and stood face-to-face with a monster.

In her life, Kushina had never attempted to harness more than what the Hokage called ‘two tails’ worth of the Kyubi’s power. As far as she understood it, a Jinchuriki could access the chakra in stages.

First, the eyes would change to match the beast sealed within you. In that state, a Jinchuriki’s power was augmented, but they were still in complete control. Then the chakra would manifest physically and cloak a Jinchuriki in it. At that point, Kushina often found herself struggling to wrestle with the rage of the beast and the darkness of her own personality flaws and biases.

And this was the level of power Kushina used now. The power she’d grasped to defeat the Mist Ninja.

After that, a Jinchuriki could manifest virtually limitless power by doubling the potency of the chakra cloak. This was what the Hokage had called Tailing. According to him, the previous Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, her own great-great aunt Mito Uzumaki, had been able to harness a cloak with three-tails worth of chakra before succumbing to madness.

The fox sealed within her had nine-tails.

Kushina had never even managed one.

Chains burst from her body. Not the two that she often employed for battle, or to help Rin with her chakra, not the seven that she’d previously been able to manifest. Not ten, or twelve, but fourteen chains of golden chakra sprang from her body.

Kushina howled and let the chains extend, farther than they’d ever gone before. When the chakra chains reached the limit of their range, Kushina forced more chakra from the nine-tails seal. The Sanbi roared its defiance as the chains wrapped around it. Around its legs, its neck, and its tails. They wrapped around its body and lifted it off the ground. A mountain of chakra that, despite everything, Kushina lifted from the earth. 

One chakra tail had formed, but Kushina still did not have the strength to force the Sanbi back into a cage.

She needed more.

Her body trembled with the exertion of grappling a tailed beast on her own, with the strain that she’d put her body through, and with the massive amount of chakra that she was forcing through her.

No one person was built to do this. Not alone, and certainly not like this.

But Kushina had no other choice. If she didn’t manage the impossible, Rin would die. And what kind of Hokage would she be if she let her student die? No, failure was not an option right now.

She reached within herself and pulled up more of the horrible power contained within her.

A second tail of chakra formed. Her control slipped. She wanted to let all of her power out, wanted to destroy the Three-Tails and prove she was the mightiest of the nine. Kushina snarled, eyes wild with power.

The chakra chains began to tighten around the Three-Tailed beast. It let out another cry, and Kushina hoped it was afraid. Afraid of the fate it would meet by her claws. Hands. Kushina had hands. These thoughts, she knew, were not hers. But they were such strong thoughts, and she’d never felt so powerful before. Why not just let them run free while she basked in her own glory?

The chakra chains wrapped themselves tighter, and lifted the Three-Tails a little higher off the ground. Just a little more power and she’d be able to destroy the Three-Tails, she’d prove herself the better.

But Rin would die.

Kushina argued with herself, or the tailed beast that sought control, or whatever part of her wanted to kill the Three-Tails. She couldn’t do that. Not now. Not ever.

She had to keep control. 

Had to be the bridge that let the Three-Tails cross back into Rin’s seal.

She strained, not against the massive force she grappled with, but against her own desire to let go, and forced herself to stay present. She had to do so for just a little while longer. 

As the third tail of chakra began to form, Kushina forced herself to create another chain, this one to wrap itself around Rin and bring her close to Kushina. The effort of controlling something separately from the rest of the chains nearly made her pass out, but she widened her stance and gritted her teeth. All she had to do was focus. 

Inch by inch, the chain that had wrapped itself around Rin made its way back to her, and Kushina could feel that she was stretched too thin. There were so many things to keep herself in control of that she felt like she was going to be ripped into a thousand tiny slivers of herself. Rin, the chakra chains, the Three-Tails, the Nine-Tails, her own rage and hatred, the control of her chakra, and her bone-deep exhaustion all swirled around within her as she heaved and strained against the impossible forces outside and within her.

Once Rin was at her side, Kushina made a series of hand seals, sending chakra up her chains to the Three-Tails, and down the one chain to Rin.

Kushina braced herself. She was going to be the conduit. The missing ink that had been intended to connect them again later. Kushina could funnel it through herself to Rin. 

She had never tried something like this before, but there were three things she absolutely knew were true about what she was going to attempt. One, it was going to take a long time. Two, it was going to hurt like hell. Three, it could kill one or both of them in the process.

As Kushina weaved a sealing jutsu, the world shimmered around her.

Chakra moved in great heaving motions like waves in a storm, battering her as she stood stalwart on a precipice facing oblivion.

When the sealing started, foreign chakra passed through her that burned like molten metal, igniting her nerves with fiery, white-hot pain. Kushina screamed in agony, vision blurring, and fell to her knees. But still she persevered. She held on.

To what, she was not sure. Hope, perhaps. Or maybe it was her own stubbornness.

It went on forever. And the forever that it lasted was horrible and agonizing, and somehow impossible and possible at the same time. At a certain point, it must have been a thousand years later, Kushina felt the dam give way. The Sanbi gave one last massive roar, and was pulled back into the seal it had come from.

The surge of chakra was like a thunderbolt to every part of Kushina that could feel pain. She stiffened with a wordless cry of agony, her chakra chains flickered from view, and she fell face first into the dirt beside Rin.

Uzushiogakure was still, the Swordsmen were defeated, and the Three-Tails was nowhere to be seen.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Far From Home Arc

Chapter 1

Rin

One moment, Rin had been sobbing next to the broken body of Kakashi, the next she was being flung about by a tidal wave of chakra. The problem, however, was that she was almost certain the tidal wave had come before Kakashi was ripped to shreds. Almost. And then, before she could do more than wonder for a moment of a moment, she was gone from his side— pulled into the torrent.

Images swirled in the murk around her. She saw Uzushiogakure, quiet and abandoned as it always was. And she saw the Kannabi Bridge, a horrible reminder of her other great failure. She saw her childhood home, the tree where Kakashi died, the training field Minato would take her genin team to, and Konoha in all its verdant glory. 

Each place, significant to her in their own ways, shimmered before her as if she was seeing them refracted through shallow water. Rin reached out, trying to stop the rush of chakra, trying to steady herself and stay in just one place, but despite her efforts, images continued to swirl, more and more images and places stacking upon themselves before her.

The chakra surged through and around her, an avalanching kaleidoscope of energy and emotion, until, finally, Rin was falling through darkness. And the only thing she could see, so far away, was the tiny three-tailed turtle that wasn’t really tiny. It was a massive creature, and it was within her, part of her. Her own personal demon.

It was the thing that kept her from being human. It was the thing that pushed her ever closer to becoming a monster.

They spent an eternity there, together in the dark water-that-was-not-water. She floated, afraid and doing her best to hide from the three-tails. Despite her best effort, her monster seemed to know where she was. And no matter how small she tried to make herself, or how fast she tried to swim, it found her. 

Each time it did, her pulse would quicken to the point she thought her heart might explode, and she tried desperately to escape. But each time she managed to get away, the three-tails found her a little more quickly the next time.

Eventually, she couldn’t escape at all. It was as though the three-tails swallowed her up.

And then there was blissful nothing.

Rin was not quite sure how long it took her to realize that she was not in the restless dark of her nightmares any longer. Nor was she floating through the void of darkness through the water where the three-tails resided. It was, for lack of a better description, the soothing darkness of waking from a long slumber. That slow, groggy feeling that came with shuffling and yawning and refusing to open one’s eyes.

She was laying down, she realized eventually. Her fingers flexed at her sides, and she felt dirt give way beneath her fingers. The cool, coarse earth was a welcome in its mundaneness. No dreams, no emotions, no chakra. Just dirt, cool and coarse and dry.

Except…

Why dirt?

Rin had been sleeping in a bed, had she not? She couldn’t quite be sure. If only she could open her eyes. But that seemed like too much work. And besides, she was so comfortable. Surely a few more minutes of sleep would be fine.

The darkness of sleep grew somehow brighter behind her eyelids, with that same coloring of napping under a tree in Konoha. But that made no sense. She was indoors, surely.

Perhaps it was still a strange dream. Perhaps Yume would come and tell her what she had to do next. She did want to wake up, if she could.

A breeze ruffled her hair. It gently tickled against her skin and…

Rin blinked. 

A breeze?

Her eyes were heavy and crusty in the way they were when waking from a heavy slumber. She yawned and stretched and was surprised at the soreness of her body. She ached and felt the sensitivity of her muscles. She felt like she’d woken up with a cold after a particularly intense workout the day before.

The sun nearly blinded her when she finally opened her eyes long enough to see for the first time.

In those next moments, when Rin battled herself for the willpower to get back up, she slowly took in her surroundings. She was no longer in their little house, but out in the small street the house had been built upon. The house itself was no longer there. It was little more than a smoldering pile of splintered wood, bent metal, and broken glass.

But that made no sense. Rin looked to the other side of the street. Maybe she was more disoriented than she thought. But the houses there were all completely destroyed as well. No more were there dilapidated homes slowly rotting and crumbling. Instead, everything had been leveled, as if there had been a battle in the abandoned village.

She sat up, and immediately regretted it. Her entire body screamed in protest, and her muscles ached with the effort, but she managed it.

Rin’s head twinged uncomfortably, and threatened to split open from directly behind her eyes. She hissed in discomfort and put a hand to her head. Her arm felt like it was going to fall off, too, which didn’t help things.

The splitting headache made her feel dizzy and turned her stomach, and Rin sat there in the ruins of a village with her eyes closed and waited for the spinning to stop. When she no longer felt like she was about to empty the contents of her stomach, Rin opened her eyes again.

And for the first time, she saw the still form of Kushina covered in blood, soot, and debris. A shriek of horror tore itself from her throat, and she awkwardly scrambled to her hands and knees and crawled the short distance to Kushina’s side. Once there, she ducked her head and willed the contents of her stomach to stay where they were.

Kushina’s hair was matted, singed, and shorter than it should have been in a few places. It covered her face, and Rin was afraid to brush it aside lest she see the sightless eyes of the dead. And it wasn’t an unfounded concern. Kushina’s clothing was ripped and tattered and the shredded fabric barely clung to the woman. Her skin was filthy, and at a glance, Rin couldn’t tell what was grime, what was her blood, and what wasn’t.

Rin’s hands trembled, frozen in place half a foot from Kushina.

She was half seeing what was before her, and half seeing the collapsed form of Kakashi in that forest on the border of the Land of Fire.

If Kushina was dead…

… If Kakashi was dead.

If it was her weakness that cost the life of her closest friend. 

If it was her inability to overcome her own ineptitude that resulted in the death of her mentor.

If it was her fault.

She wouldn’t go back to Konoha again. 

She would let the beast free, and walk into the sea.

If…

She took a shaky breath and blinked the intrusive images away. She needed to focus.

Rin rolled Kushina onto her back, a task that took a great deal more effort than Rin would have liked to admit. Just rolling the weight of her teacher made her head start spinning again. She felt so disoriented and dizzy that she was concerned she wouldn’t be able to do even basic field first aid.

Blinking to clear her vision of spots, Rin reached a shaky hand to feel for Kushina’s pulse. It was there, strong and steady. Kushina was alive!

But then, what had happened? What thing could have leveled the city and… and done this to Kushina? Rin knew, of course. On some level, deep down, she knew what precisely had done this. She had. But she couldn’t face that, and so she buried the thought deep within herself. 

Instead of wrestling with that beast sealed within her, Rin focused on Kushina. She put her hand back to Kushina’s neck and counted her pulse. It was low, even for someone who was asleep, but it was steady.

“Pulse,” Rin muttered to herself. “Forty… one beats per minute.”

Likewise, Kushina’s breath was slow but steady. 

And then she moved onto assessing the wounds of her teacher. Rin started with Kushina’s head and neck, and worked her way down the torso. When she was done, Rin sat back, exhausted and confused. Kushina had obviously been in a fight, but she had no external indicators that she’d been in a fight. Where her clothes were torn, Rin found only dirt and skin. There were no open wounds.

How?

Satisfied that Kushina would not suddenly die on her, Rin staggered to her feet. She needed water to clean the grime from Kushina. She needed to see what was left of their supplies. They’d need some kind of shelter for Kushina to rest comfortably in.

When she was standing upright, Rin took a step, and her legs gave out beneath her. Her muscles spasmed and she collapsed back into the dirt. 

Rin gasped in shock when she collapsed, realizing before she landed on her tailbone - hard - that her body was not producing chakra normally. The signs were there: Kushina had been difficult to roll over, she’d had to crawl to her mentor, and now she couldn’t walk. Something was very, very wrong with her chakra system. She couldn’t feel it thrumming throughout her body like it normally did. It was all tangled up, and there was more than ever pooling in that seal on her chest.

Panic rose in her chest, followed by barely contained bile.

She was going to die. The human body needed chakra to live. Needed it. And Rin couldn’t even produce chakra naturally anymore. It was just the seal, creating too much chakra in only one place.

Her breathing was becoming rapid and ragged, and there was a ringing in her ears. Her hands were shaking and the ground seemed so very far away. The world spun away from her and, try as she might, she could not get the world to orient itself again.

Minato

Minato had sat in the same chair nearly every hour of every day for the past month, staring forlornly at his comatose student and blaming himself for what happened. He shouldn’t have left for the Land of Earth again. He should have stayed with them. He should have protected them. This was the second time he’d taken time away from them, and the second time their team was ripped apart by tragedy. 

His blonde hair and blue eyes, usually so bright and alert, were dull and tired. The grease of his unwashed and matted hair matched appropriately with the dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. He was a wreck, and he felt the world bearing its weight to bear on his shoulders. It was a suffocating, existential feeling. The sort of feeling that made him question the meaning and purpose of everything he’d ever dedicated himself to, everything he’d ever fought for. What was the point, if all that happened in the end was that the people he loved got hurt worst of all?

Kakashi had died.  

When Kushina had brought him in, he’d been mangled nearly beyond recognition, and his heart had stopped at some point in the intervening minutes between recovery on the battlefield and treatment at the hospital. The medical staff at Konoha’s hospital had worked tirelessly and dutifully around the clock to resuscitate what was left of his student.

Minato himself had arrived sometime after that, and had been told that Kakashi was undergoing surgery. What he had not been aware of at the time, was just how many surgeries Kakashi would be taken in for. 

There had been surgery to get his heart beating on its own again, after which Kakashi had been hooked up to a machine that breathed for him, because his body had been too badly damaged to do it automatically. Then there had been surgery to repair his over-stressed chakra system enough that the lack of natural chakra regeneration wouldn’t kill him outright. After that, the surgery on the organs that had sustained the most ferocious damage from the physical trauma of being beaten to death by someone’s fists. And after that, the intramuscular surgeries to reset all the shredded parts of him. There had been follow up surgeries, skin grafts, chakra transfusions, blood transfusions, and an amount of drugs administered intravenously that surely could have maintained a small army during a war.

Minato had been there for nearly all of it, and the best anyone could say was that his chances were better than zero. Kakashi had been unconscious for the entire thing, and the doctors had started changing their rhetoric about his recovery. At first they had talked about the road to recovery when Kakashi recovered from his injuries and came to. Now they phrased things as if he may not wake at all.

Insofar as Minato understood it, not being a doctor, the damage done was so severe that nobody on staff knew how to fix parts of Kakashi. He’d been broken beyond repair.

And that was only one of his students.

Rin had been abducted by foreign ninja and turned into a Jinchuriki. The seal placed upon her was faulty, and Rin couldn’t come home because she kept losing control of her Tailed-Beast, and risked losing her control permanently. At least, that was what they had gathered from Kushina’s letter and intel gathered in the field.

A young Chunin had suffered third degree chakra burns trying to bring Rin home. A full medical team had done a half-day of field triage to stabilize Rin’s condition, and his fiancee had taken her far away from civilization to try and repair the seal and teach his pupil how to control her newfound power.

The whole thing was a mess.

Calling it a mess was putting too mildly, of course. But what other word was there? What else could possibly describe the caliber of the absolute shitstorm his team had faced this time? Things didn’t just kind of go wrong for them. There were no missions where someone forgot a sleeping bag and they had to work around it. No, when something went wrong for Minato’s team. People died, or fell into permanent comas, or were turned into weapons of mass destruction by foreign militaries.

Minato wanted to spring into action and fix everything. But he didn’t know how. Didn’t really know if there was anything to fix.

And to top it off, the Hokage had told him to wait. Told him that leaving the village when not on an officially sanctioned mission as they transitioned out of war time would put the village at risk. Told him that his duties and responsibilities to Konoha came first. 

The worst of it was that Minato understood where the Hokage was coming from. He understood the logic and the need for him to be in the village while so many of their most powerful and prestigious ninja were out of the village on missions. His presence in Konoha was likely known by the other villages, and that alone would make them less likely to try anything underhanded as the elemental nations transitioned out of war time.

He didn’t know why he listened to the logic of the Hokage. He could probably at least go and check on Kushina and Rin before anyone noticed he was gone. Whether or not he chose to come back in a timely manner was different.

What he did know that he wanted to punch the old man in the face. He needed to follow Kushina to Uzushiogakure and see that she and Rin were all right. The note Kushina had written had asked him to come when he was able.

Can’t come home for a while, it had said. Someone sealed what I think is a Tailed-Beast into Rin. I’m taking her to my village. It’s isolated, and we’ll be safe from harm there. If anything goes wrong, nobody else will get hurt. I’m going to need a hand when things are settled, I think. I can’t see the seal to explore it, so I’m going to have to do a lot of guesswork. And I’ve never tried to reconstruct a Jinchuriki seal that already has a beast in it.

The note had gone on, almost rambling in that way of her’s that he was so fond of. But the important bit of that message that hadn’t left the front pocket of his vest unless he was rereading it for the thousandth time, was that he needed to go to Uzushiogakure, or go get Jiraiya and then go to Uzushiogakure. Or maybe he needed to commandeer a team from the barrier corps and bring them to Uzushiogakure and find a way to make it work.

All he knew was that he certainly didn’t want to be sitting in Konoha, where the prognosis was ‘stable but unresponsive, likely vegetative from injuries and lack of oxygen after heart stopped beating in the field.’

Maybe he could at least have one student whole and healthy. Well, as whole as a teenager who’d been turned into a demon’s prison could be. But still more than ‘permanently comatose.’

When visiting hours ended that day, he shuffled out of the room after a squeeze of Kakashi’s hand and a promise to return. They were words he’d uttered thirty times before, and words he’d utter as many times as it took to get his student back.

The night air was warm, as it so often was in the Land of Fire, and that was neither a comfort or discomfort. It simply was. 

For all that Minato was a bundle of anxiety and bitterness, Konoha seemed so normal. People went about, laughing, mourning, shopping, eating, making memories, and generally just enjoying the lives that needed to be rebuilt after a period of brutal war.

He hated that it bothered him.

These people deserved to find their own happiness, but all he felt was bitterness that he and his students couldn’t be counted among them.

Minato walked the well trodden path from the hospital to his house slowly. He had little desire to spend time in the empty house. But where else could he go? If he left now, he’d be labeled AWOL. And that was the best case scenario, because if he did leave, and something happened to the village…

He knew he was in for another anxious, restless night. 

With little hope of sleep, he pulled the house key from his pocket, and let himself into the empty house.

Ameyuri

She was surprised when she woke up. Not surprised that she ached, or that she was laying in the dirt, or that she could taste blood in her mouth. No, she was surprised that she woke up at all. She’d been so certain that her life was forfeit when she’d finally lost to that— thing from the Leaf Village. 

Kushina Uzumaki was a monster. An incredibly powerful ninja, who had the power to call upon something even greater than she.

Had that woman managed to stop a rampaging tailed-beast in addition to putting both her and Kushimaru down? Was that even possible? Could a single person, Jinchuriki or no, be that possible?

For a time, she lay still and listened to the silence of the ruined village. However it had ended, it had ended. The distinct lack of her feeling the sickening chakra of a tailed-beast rolling over her told her how it had concluded. But she couldn’t wrap her head around it 

When Ameyuri’s limbs cooperated with her, if only barely, she forced herself to sit up. She grit her teeth at the pain, but if she could sit up she would. And if she could sit up, then nothing in her upper body that was life threatening was broken beyond repair.

Once she was on her feet, she cast her gaze around for her sword. It was half covered by dirt and an old broken piece of wood. She staggered over to the blade, and bent to pick it up. She pain that shot up her spine nearly drive her to her knees, but she was a Swordsman of the Mist, and she would stand in spite of that pain. Her hand closed around the blade, but she could not move it from where it lay.

The seal was still in effect.

“Fuck,” Ameyuri swore under her breath.

No swords then. Because the other was likely long gone, and she had no idea where Kushimaru or his swords were. 

She left the sword, because she had no fucking clue how to undo an Uzumaki seal. And even if she could work out what that seal was, she assumed there was a second one that would blow her arm off for the trouble.

Ameyuri picked the direction that she thought had been the way towards the tailed beast and staggered through the village. All that remained were the piles of rubble that had once been buildings. Almost nothing was left standing. 

Uzushiogakure was well and gone.

In the end, the Hidden Mist had eliminated them entirely.

She felt no joy in that fact, and it surprised her. All her life, she’d been spoon fed that the Hidden Whirlpool Village was evil beyond recognition. But the Uzumaki woman had fought honorably against them both to defend her student.

The Uzumaki weren’t supposed to have morals. The Uzumaki weren’t supposed to show mercy. But this woman had shown mercy and fought to protect something dear to her.

And then she heard the shuddering breaths of the girl.

Ameyuri found her in moments, half concealed by the wreckage of what had probably been a large home. She was sitting next to the still form of the Uzumaki woman, eyes wide and staring at her trembling hands while rocking back and forth and gasping for breath that would not come. 

The kid was having a panic attack, and the woman was unconscious. She could still finish the mission. Before she really registered what she was doing Ameyuri had a sharp piece of glass in her hand and was crouching beside the unconscious Uzumaki woman. She put the blade to the woman’s throat.

I have a name… Ameyuri paused at that echo of her voice. Kushina…

She hesitated.

Ameyuri gripped the shard of glass tighter, and let the pain of the glass piercing the skin of her fingers focus her.

This was the mission. This was the job. She lost the fight, true, but she could finish the mission.

She pressed the glass into Kushina’s neck. A bead of blood dripped over the jagged glass.

The girl let out a sob, and Ameyuri’s head snapped to the side, ready to fight her off. What she saw was a girl who was so trapped in her own mind that she didn’t even notice that her master was about to be assassinated.

Ameyuri considered the glass.

There was no honor in killing like this. No sport. No accomplishment.

But I am a ninja, she thought. I do not need honor .

It was her mission. Her status in the village would be greatly bolstered with this kill and the acquisition of the three-tailed beast. And yet she hesitated.

For a dreadful, painful moment, she crouched there, blood trailing from her fingers down the glass. It would be so easy. And despite that fact, she knew she wasn’t going to kill the woman or abduct the panic stricken child. 

The fight was over, at least for today. With a flick of her wrist, the glass hit the grown and shattered into even smaller pieces, now stained red with blood. 

Her decision made, Ameyuri turned her attention to the girl. Shuffling to her side, Ameyuri took the girl’s chin in her hands and forced her head towards her own. “Look at me, kid,” Ameyuri said. “Look at me.”

The girl’s eyes were fixed on her, but she did not see. Ameyuri swore. She snapped next to the girl’s ear. “Focus, kid. You’re having a panic attack.”

The girl grabbed her forearm and squeezed, Ameyuri nodded. That was good. For the first time, the girl was seeing her. “Stay with me, kid. Try to take a deep breath.”

Her rapid shallow breaths continued for a few seconds, and then the girl took one shuddering, gasping deep breath. As her breaths shortened and shallowed, Ameyuri spoke again. “Good job, kid. Can you take another deep breath?”

It took a moment, but she did.

“Focus on that. Focus on breathing. Think about inhaling for three seconds, and then holding it for three, and exhaling for three,” Ameyuri settled to the ground from her crouched position, and for another few minutes, talked her through just breathing.

In. Out.

In. Out.

“My name is Ameyuri,” she volunteered eventually. “What’s yours?”

“R-” the girl tried to speak. Her breath hitched, and Ameyuri watched as she fought to take take a steadying breath. “R-Rin.”

“Rin,” Ameyuri repeated. “Just keep breathing. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”

“I-I…” Rin breathed, gasped really, and tried to wipe tears from her face. “I… I’m not.”

“You will be,” Ameyuri said. “You’re having a panic attack. It will pass.” Rin choked on a sob. “Stay in the present, focus on your breathing, and it will pass.”

“B-but,” Rin managed between sobs and labored breaths.

Ameyuri put a hand on her shoulder. “What you’re experiencing right now is scary, Rin. But it isn’t dangerous. You just need to breathe.”

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

“How,” Rin gasped.

“You’re already doing it, Rin. Your breathing is already more steady. Just keep counting those deep breaths.”

Rin complied. And for a time, the only sound was Rin’s labored breathing. When Ameyuri thought she was past the peak of the attack, she spoke. “Count backwards from twenty.” She did.

“Good, now raise your arms above your head,” Ameyuri ordered. Rin did so. “Keep them up and count from twenty again. Good job, good job. Put your arms down and count from one to twenty.”

The process repeated itself once, twice, three times, and with each repetition, Rin’s breath evened out. And eventually, Rin was breathing normally, her shaking had stopped, and her red rimmed eyes no longer shed tears. Rin’s arms fell back to her sides, and Ameyuri stopped her from counting again.

“Good job, kid. You did it. It’s passed now.”

She hung her head. “I’ve never had a panic attack before.”

Ameyuri could feel her shame, like it was a physical thing. 

“Most ninja experience them at some point or another,” she said matter of factly. “That’s why ninja villages have people who specialize in mind healing. It’s not uncommon, and it’s not disqualifying.”

Rin didn’t answer right away. Didn’t have anything to say. And she didn’t need to. 

“Kid,” Ameyuri began, and then corrected herself. “Rin, you haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t know the rules of your village, but I’m sure they won’t take your headband away for this.”

“You’re a ninja,” Rin said after a moment.

“Yes,” Ameyuri said, but did not elaborate.

Rin looked up at her, and Ameyuri saw her taking her in for the first time. “You have red hair,” Rin said.

“I do,” Ameyuri agreed.

“Are you here to meet, Kushina-sensei?” Rin asked.

Ameyuri blinked. What? Why would she be here for that? She reached up to her forehead, and was surprised that her headband wasn’t there. It must have been knocked loose or torn off during the fight.

“I was unaware she was expecting someone,” Ameyuri said.

“She wasn’t really, I don’t think. But she comes here sometimes,” Rin said sadly. “She misses her family.”

Ameyuri didn’t know what to say. And she really didn’t want to go down the line of questions that ended with the girl asking if she was an Uzumaki. She got to her feet, dusted her tattered clothes off with her hands, and looked around for any sign of… she didn’t know what exactly. Something useful she supposed.

“You must be thirsty,” Ameyuri said. “I will get us some water.”

Rin nodded. “Thank you.”

Ameyuri took her time walking out of the ruined village, not that she could have gone much faster than her slow, hobbled walk even if she wanted to, and searched in several piles of rubble for Kushimaru or his swords. In the end, she found nothing. But she also had no earthly clue where he’d been put down by Kushina Uzumaki.

She found a small pond about three hundred meters outside the ruined village, and scooped it into a waterskin that was still, mostly, intact— if she held it sideways so it wouldn’t leak. She drank her fill from it, refilled it, and made her way back to Rin and Kushina.

Rin drank as if she’d not had water in days, and after she put it aside, Ameyuri asked where their supplies were. It took Rin a moment to work out how far away from where they’d been staying they currently sat, but Ameyuri was directed to a pile of rubble all the same.

Their sleeping supplies and cooking utensils were ruined, their packs in need of repair, and what ninja tools Ameyuri could find among the debris were damaged and chipped if not outright ruined. Rin ruffled through one of the packs until she found a small book, and when the girl saw that it was unharmed, she clutched it to her chest.

Ameyuri made a pile out of the ruined sleeping bags that would accommodate Kushina, and rolled the unconscious woman onto the tattered, makeshift mattress. The girl, Rin, watched her work with sad eyes.

“Your teacher will live,” Ameyuri said.

“I know,” Rin said. “But she was in a terrible battle with…”

‘Me’ was very clearly left unsaid. Ameyuri would have found it funny under different circumstances. Because no, Kushina hadn’t battled Rin at all. She’d battled a demon, and Rin seemed to have no idea that the battle with the tailed-beast had been almost an afterthought to the blows Ameyuri herself had exchanged with Kushina. 

“She won,” Ameyuri said. “But she’s got to be exhausted beyond belief.” Because how could anyone have battled two of the Seven Swordsman and a Tailed-Beast and won. Not just won, but survived. Nobody, not even the Mizukage himself could say the same. At least, she didn’t think so.

And that thought made her reconsider just killing them both and being done with it. The Leaf Village would have two of these monsters at their disposal. Could the Mist go blow for blow with them both?

She shook off the thought. She would battle Kushina Uzumaki again. And when they exchanged blows again, Ameyuri would win the right to kill the last Uzumaki on the field of battle.

“Do you have food in your bags?” Ameyuri asked, changing the course of their discussion.

“I don’t think so,” Rin said. “Sensei might have some sealed away somewhere.”

Ameyuri paled at the thought of touching any seal made by an Uzumaki. “I will find food.” And then she was retreating away from the girl before the kid figured out that part of the reason her teacher was unconscious was because she’d blasted the woman in the chest with a bolt of lightning.

When she returned with two skinned and dressed rabbits, she found that Rin had emptied their packs and was studying a large scroll that had any number of strange symbols that Ameyuri did not understand. It was clearly a scroll of seals, which made Ameyuri nervous, but the kid wasn’t afraid, and she didn’t seem to know who she was, so Ameyuri didn’t think she was in any immediate danger.

“I wanted to see what else we had,” Rin said, holding up the scroll.

Ameyuri raised an eyebrow. 

“There’s another set of cookware in here,” Rin continued.

“So get it out?” Ameyuri said. She was holding two rabbits. 

Rin frowned. “Can’t. No chakra. But you can get them. It’s really easy.”

Ameyuri’s face paled. The kid had figured her out. The seal was going to kill her or incapacitate her or… or…

She didn’t sense any killing intent from Rin. “Is it?”

“Yeah, if you put your hand over this symbol here, and channel just a little bit of chakra, it’ll unseal the cookware. I’m sure there’s something we can cook those in,” Rin gestured to the rabbits.

Ameyuri reached out and put her hand on the sealing scroll. Her hand didn’t shake through sheer force of will. It was going to be just like any seal from back home. It was just an ordinary seal. 

But it was made by an Uzumaki.

And their seals had been the work of devils and demons. They were designed to slaughter ordinary ninja.

She swallowed, she channeled her chakra into the seal…

… and there was a pot, a pan, and a cutting board in front of her. Inside the pot were small bowls, plates, and cutlery.

Ameyuri released a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding, and then she cooked dinner.

After, when the food was eaten, their cookfire was out, and Rin had gone to sleep, Ameyuri departed the Village Hidden Among the Whirlpools. She walked across the water in the dim light of the stars cascading down to earth from a cloudless sky. On the island behind her, she left behind her swords, her teammate, and her headband.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Far From Home Arc

Chapter 2

Rin

The next morning, Rin woke early. She still felt sluggish, and something was clearly still wrong with her body’s chakra system. However, her head felt clearer, her mind was more at ease, and she’d moved from the spiral of doubt and despair and onto the critical thinking and problem solving phase. It was all thanks to the kind, mystery Uzumaki woman who’d come to the village. Rin had meant to thank her before she’d fallen asleep, but she’d been all over the place.

She sat up, which was harder than it should have been, and inwardly she cursed her aching body and failing chakra, and looked around for the woman, Ameyuri. She was nowhere to be found near where they’d camped for the night.

Rin assumed she’d gone off for more water, or food, or to find a place to do her business. She would talk to the woman when she returned. In the meantime, Rin poked around her arms and legs and tested her own strength. From what she could tell at a glance, her arms and legs were in good enough health, but her body wasn’t supplying them with the amount of chakra she was used to.

Could her muscles handle the strain on their own?

Rin felt shaky and weak, and was afraid she’d be unable to walk on her own ever again. She awkwardly pushed herself to her knees and balked at the effort even that took. She sat for several moments on her hands and knees, panting from the exertion. 

She was weak.

She hated that she was weak.

Had she always been so weak?

Rin tried to think of a time where she’d felt mighty. Or at least strong enough to be proud of herself, and her first thought was the half remembered moments when she’d been suffused with the power of the monster within her and that power had allowed her to fight off a platoon of Jonin from a foreign village. Of course, that power had also resulted in the death of her friend and teammate, and that lone did not make it a strength.

She pushed the memory away and desperately sought out a different, better memory. 

She thought of how she’d felt graduating the academy, of how she’d felt when she passed Minato-sensei’s bell test. She remembered their first C-rank mission, and how Kushina smiled at her when she got back up after losing control of her chakra.

Rin stood, muscles screaming in protest, body aching, legs trembling. But she stood .

For a painstaking moment, Rin did not know if she’d be able to stand, and her arms flung out to her sides to help her balance. She could do this. She would do this. 

And then she took one step. A shaky step, but a step nonetheless.

Another.

And another.

And soon she was hobbling around in a small circle, fighting the trembling in her legs, and wiping the sweat from her brow.

Two laps around their little camp was enough to drive Rin to exhaustion. She collapsed into a heap near Kushina and caught her breath while she perused Kushina’s sealing scrolls, looking for a hidden stash of rations.

She hoped Ameyuri would come back soon. She seemed nice. 

By midday, Rin still sat alone, but she had found a few ration bars. They were flavorless and dry, but they quelled the grumbling of her stomach. 

After she’d eaten, Rin looked over Kushina again. With no chakra, Rin could do no more than a civilian medic in any number of towns and villages, but from what she could tell, Kushina was fine— save for the fact that she was comatose.

Wanting something more to do than sit around, Rin battled to her feet again and set off in search of water to put in the damaged waterskin. It was slow going. Rin moved from pile of rubble to pile of rubble, stopping to lean against the largest pieces of debris so she could catch her breath. Doing anything without chakra circulating properly through her body was incredibly difficult.

Over an hour later,  she arrived at the pools of water she’d bathed in when she’d first arrived with Kushina. Rin collapsed on herself in a heap of sweat and tired limbs, and while she sat there, she stripped the clothes from her body and slid into the cool water. It felt wonderful to be weightless, to wash the grime from her body, and drink the crystal clear water that bubbled over the rocks and cascaded into the pool.

When she was scrubbed clean she clambered back up the rocks to her clothes, which took a lot longer than Rin cared to admit. She wrestled the clothes back onto her damp body, and filled the waterskin before starting the long trek back to her sensei.

Kushina was still asleep, and Rin forced down that horrific feeling of dread as best she could. But try as she might, the feeling of vertigo and the ringing in her ears brought her to her knees.

“No, no, no…” Rin moaned. “Not again.”

Kneeling in the dirt, Rin wrapped her arms around her middle and forced herself to breathe. It did not pass quickly. And Rin had to weather the storm alone.

When it did fade, Rin felt exhausted. She took a sip of the water from the waterskin, managed to get Kushina to drink a few drops, and then curled up beside her sensei. 

The chakra building up in her chest was growing more uncomfortable by the hour, and Rin was worried what would happen if she didn’t try to circulate it. She was more worried about what would happen if she did. There was always the chance that the seal containing the Tailed-Beast would break and kill her no matter which course of action she took.

What do I do? Rin asked herself. She stared at the rubble for a long time, weighing her options.

When she woke the next morning, Kushina hadn’t moved. Rin sat up, rubbed her eyes, and tried to work out some of the stiffness in her arms and legs. She felt somehow both stronger and weaker than she had the day before. 

The first thing she did after stretching was look over her sensei. Kushina’s lips were chapped and her skin was showing the redness of a sunburn from being out in the elements. Rin coaxed more water down Kushina’s throat.

“At least I know what I’m doing today,” Rin muttered as she got to her feet. Kushina needed some form of cover from the elements, and Rin had to be the one to provide that shelter. 

She made her way to the rubble that had once been their basecamp, and started shifting splintered wood out of her way, looking desperately for anything that might be remotely useful. There was very little. Ameyuri had already recovered most of their things, damaged as they were, but Rin was hoping there would be an old tarp or… or something.

What she did find were two wood posts that hadn’t been snapped in half. They would work well if Rin could find something to drape over them to create a makeshift tent. She took them back to where Kushina lay.

Once again she resumed her search for materials to make a shelter, plodding along from one destroyed building to another. It was slow going. Not only was she crippled by her lack of chakra, but there was very little of use; not to mention, each pile of rubble could, conceivably contain untriggered seals, which meant Rin had to be ready to deal with trouble if she did find it.

While she worked through the debris, Rin considered her chakra problem. It felt like it had when she’d first awoken in the Mist Ninja base, only worse. Whatever had transpired while she was unconscious had somehow worsened her condition, and without a way to properly diagnose what was wrong on her own, Rin could only speculate. 

There was a chance she could resume constant meditation and focus on separating the tailed-beast chakra from her own. It might even correct the flow of chakra within her own body, and that, at the very least, would put her back to square one.

It was as if she’d taken one step forward and three steps back since she’d set out with Kushina.

Rin sighed, it was a bad situation. She hoped Ameyuri would return shortly to help her. It would make things easier. Rin could use the extra hands.

In what had probably been an alleyway once upon a time, Rin found a strange sword half buried in the ground. It was long and narrow and it came to a viciously sharp point. From it’s hilt, a length of ninja wire ran around a corner. She followed it until, to her surprise, she found another identical blade.

She collected both of them and watched in awe as the length of ninja wire adjusted its length as she brought the blades closer together.

“How neat,” Rin said, stretching her arms apart and watching the wire lengthen.

She brought the swords back to the makeshift campsite and put them with the long pieces of wood. She could stretch the wire to hang something over Kushina and, coupled with the posts, make a passable tent.

Her search continued from one part of the ruined village to another, and Rin found enough large pieces of cloth to make a passable tent cover, as well as a couple of intact jugs that could be filled with water.

Before midday, Rin was bone tired. She slumped to the ground and caught her breath between two large, broken pieces of concrete. A light breeze blew through the village, and Rin was grateful for it. On that wind, however, Rin caught the scent of death.

It was a familiar, uncomfortable smell. 

The first time she had smelled death she’d arrived at a battlefield with her teammates and Minato-sensei. It was a routine mission to deliver supplies to an outpost controlled by the Leaf Village in the Land of Grass. They’d been some miles away from the outpost when her team came upon the remains of a merchant's caravan that had been raided, either by bandits or rogue ninja Rin didn’t know, and Minato had not deigned to tell them.

What she remembered most from that day was the smell. 

Sickly sweet rot that seeped into the dirt and the grass and the air.

Rin gagged.

She used the chunks of concrete to help pull herself up, and she followed the smell to the ruins of a building. In the street, were needles and glass and splinters of wood, and in the ruins of the building from where the smell emanated, Rin found the corpse of a Mist Ninja. He was tall and lanky with hair the color of straw.

Had he been somehow sealed in this place, lost to time, until she’d lost control of the demon within her? Had she killed him?

Or was it more immediate? Had Mist Ninja followed them here? Was this the only one?

Rin retreated back to Kushina, scooping up as many of the senbon as she could on her way, now on alert and actively looking for any signs that there were other people in the village. Once at her master’s side, Rin erected the wooden posts, and used the swords with their stretchable ninja wire to build a frame for the canopy of the tent. Then she examined the large pieces of cloth she’d found. She used the senbon to stick them together. It was piecemeal and not at all as comfortable as a real tent would have been, but it was shelter from the sun.

Rin dragged Kushina under the canopy and sagged when she was done. She was exhausted.

There was just enough room for Rin to sit beside Kushina under the tent’s canopy, so that;s where she sat. Beside Kushina who was, in all ways that mattered, Rin’s closest family. She had to be strong for Kushina, she had to . 

Rin crossed her legs and tried to meditate the way Kushina had taught her, but to her dismay, and no matter how many times she tried, Rin could not feel her chakra at all. Eventually, she gave it up as a lost cause for the day, and set about getting water for drinking, and trying to find something to eat.

The following morning arrived with the pitter-patter of rain and Rin found herself grateful for the meager shelter she’d constructed with what was available. She sat up, and tried to massage away the buildup of chakra in her chest to no avail.

She stretched her arms over her head, yawned, and peered out at the rubble around her. 

“No point in getting soaked,” Rin muttered to nobody. 

So she meditated, but try as she might, something was preventing her from accessing her chakra properly. It was as though a dam had been erected between her and the chakra and she couldn’t tear it down or open a sluice gate or climb over it.

Rin frowned. There had to be a way around it. It didn’t make any sense that there was no way for her to use her chakra. Chakra had to be present for something to live, so Rin knew she was getting chakra somehow. But it was like it could only be used passively, to keep her alive. She had no ability to manipulate the energy.

And despite that fact, she could feel that it was there, tantalizing and out of reach.

She wished she could ask Kushina about what had happened while she’d been unconscious. 

It continued for another day, both the waiting and the rain. Rin made little sense of her newfound chakra problem, but she vowed to herself that she would overcome it.

Kushina

There was the soft pitter-patter of rain somewhere nearby… It was nice.

Kushina liked the sound of the rain, she always had. It didn’t rain often in Konoha, being in the heart of the Land of Fire as it was, but she always opened her window to listen to it when it did come. Rain reminded Kushina of home.

The first thing she saw when she finally opened her eyes was the tattered canopy of a tent. And as she stared at it groggily, she realized she had no idea where she was or why. Her head felt like it was full of cobwebs, and her thoughts were slow. Coherent thoughts slipped from her mind like water through fingers and it did not improve as the seconds passed by.

The second thing she noticed was the aching of her entire body. From the hairs on her head all the way down to her toes, Kushina hurt.

And little by little, memories of her battle came back to her.

She’d won against the Swordsmen, but what had occurred after she’d tried to reseal the thrice damned tailed-beast all by herself?

“Rin?” Kushina croaked.

There was a surprised gasp from somewhere off to her left, and then rustling as someone shifted around inside the tent. “Sensei!”

And then Rin was smiling down at her with watery eyes and a smile that was probably brighter than sunshine itself. “Good to see you, kiddo,” Kushina said.

“You must be thirsty,” Rin said. “You’ve been out for a while. Not sure how long before I woke up you were out, but…” Rin trailed off, gently cradling Kushina’s head and helping her drink from an old waterskin. She drank greedily, but Rin would only give her small swallows at a time. “Not so fast, Sensei, you’ll make yourself sick.”

“Yes, doctor Nohara,” Kushina said, laughing weakly.

Kushina allowed herself to drift in and out as Rin checked her over. She was so tired. She knew it was chakra exhaustion, probably the worst case of it she’d ever had, but knowing what was up didn’t make staying awake any easier than it did. She let Rin’s gentle stroking of her hair lull her back to sleep.

When she next awoke it was dark, and Rin was curled up next to her. One of her hands was resting softly on Kushina’s forearm. She smiled down at the girl, who must have been worried sick in the aftermath, however that had looked. She hadn’t been nearly coherent enough to see the village outside, and now that it was dark, she likely wouldn’t get a good look either. And besides, she could tell just from being awake that she didn’t have the energy to get up and walk around.

Instead, Kushina rolled to her side and watched Rin sleep. A soft smile made her way to her lips. “I love you, Rin. I’m glad you’re safe,” Kushina whispered, and snuggled close to the girl. After everything they’d been through, they were no closer to fixing the damn problem, but Rin was alive, and Kushina thanked her lucky stars for that.

Over the years she’d had her family and teammates and friends taken from her forever in various ways. The lives they led were not safe or peaceful, and the hurts and scars from those losses never, ever stopped stinging, but Kushina had done her best to live with them.

As she’d grown up, it became normal to mourn the dead and move on.

But the older she got, the more she let certain people in, the more she realized that if one of her most precious people died, she wouldn’t ever recover. And Rin was right at the top of that list. It wasn’t by blood, or by village decree, or anything other than circumstance, but Rin Nohara was Kushina’s little sister, and she’d fight like hell to get her sister home.

She held Rin close, a warm reassurance that there was still hope, that everything was going to be okay, and she cried.

When the sun Rose, Rin was still snuggled close to her, and Kushina was grateful for it. For the closeness, for the soft sound of breathing, for another chance to do the impossible. She stayed like that until Rin stirred and sat up.

Once she was awake entirely, Rin went into doctor mode, and checked Kushina over, made her drink water, and forced a ration bar into her hand. Kushina complied with all of it. 

When it was done, Rin helped Kushina get up and out of the makeshift tent. Kushina leaned heavily on Rin, who was shaking from the exertion of helping Kushina stay upright. For the first time, Kushina surveyed the damage. There was nothing but rubble left of the old, abandoned village. Every dilapidated building had been reduced to broken bits of wood, concrete, and glass.

Kushina looked around wistfully at all of the destruction. “It’s really all gone for good now.”

“I’m sorry, Sensei,” Rin said. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t lost control—”

“No!” Kushina snapped, turning to face the younger woman. She took Rin’s face in her hands and held her there gently. “Loot at me, Rin. Look at me. You don’t get to blame yourself for this, Rin Nohara. None of this was your fault. Every terrible misfortune that has happened here, no matter when it occurred, was no fault of yours. Most of this place was obliterated in  a battle before you were even born. And the rest, in a battle before your tailed-beast got out. I saw to that while I was beating the piss out of the Seven Sworsdmen of the Mist.”

Rin’s eyes went wide. “The Seven Swordsmen? Aren’t they all like, flee-on-sight status? Which one did you fight?”

“I fought two of them,” Kushina said.

“W-what? How? They only ever send one, don’t they?” 

“I think they really wanted their tailed-beast back, but I wasn’t gonna let them have it, so I did what I had to to keep my little sister safe, ya know?”

Rin flushed scarlet. “S-sister?”

“Yeah,” Kushina said, nodding. “You’re my family. You were before all of this, but… especially now.”

Rin hugged her and tried not to let Kushina see the tears leaking from her eyes. Kushina cooed softly and ran her fingers through Rin’s hair. “I love you, kiddo,” Kushina said.

Rin’s muffled, “I love you, too,” made Kushina laugh.

“As much as I’d love to sit here and hug all day, I really have to pee, and I can’t walk so well. Would you mind helping me out?”

When Kushina had taken care of her business, Rin helped her to the pond so she could wash the grime from her skin. When she was finally, mercifully clean, Kushina leaned back against the rocks, letting the cool water soothe her aching. It felt good to feel so weightless.

Rin was lounging on the rocks staring out into the trees, a sealing scroll open and forgotten on her lap, she seemed more at peace than she had since their whole misadventure had started. “You wanna talk about why you’re having trouble holding me upright?” 

With a sigh, Rin sat up and scooted to the edge of the pond. “It’s… my chakra. I can’t access it, like, at all. But it’s not circulating normally, either. I can feel a buildup of it here.” Rin pointed to her heart. “It’s uncomfortable, but I don’t think it’s hurting me right now.”

Kushina nodded. “Once we’re off the island I’ll take a look at it. Not sure how many of my sealing brushes survived the fighting. Or ink or chakra paper.”

“Probably not much,” Rin agreed. “But the book you gave me is in one piece.”

“That’s good. Not that it would have been a problem if it hadn’t.”

“But you said your grandfather wrote it!” Rin said.

Kushina raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think for one second that I give a shit about that? You’re still in one piece, Rin, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything, do you hear me?”

Rin blushed and looked away. “You trusted me with the book and I… I just… I don’t want to let you down.”

“You couldn’t if you tried,” Kushina said fiercely. She rose from the pond and sat on the edge by Rin. “Nothing you do could ever let me down.”

“You say that, but—”

“It’s not up for debate. I’m telling you. Nothing. Never.” Kushina kissed the top of Rin’s head. “I don’t suppose that sealing scroll had any spare clothes?” She poked at the scroll in Rin’s lap. “I really don’t want to put my bloody rags back on.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Right here.” Rin held up the scroll.

“Wonderful,” Kushina said, and with a poof, several fresh sets of clothes appeared. The world spun for a moment, and Kushina blinked the dizziness away. “Okay, no more chakra right now. Not ready yet.”

Rin helped keep her upright, and when the dizziness and fatigue abated, Kushina dressed.

The trek back to their campsite was slow going, and Kushina paused before they got there. “Do you mind taking a couple of detours with me?” 

Rin shook her head. “Where to, Sensei?”

Kushina pointed down the street. “Let’s start with the old admin building, if you don’t mind. I want to see if I can get into the basement, or if we’ll have to wait until one of us can use chakra.”

Rin nodded, and grunted with the exertion of helping Kushina walk. “Right.”

Both of them were breathing hard by the time they arrived at what was left of the old building. What had once been a four story building, was now a hollowed out shell that looked like a bob had gone off inside of it. The highest piece of load bearing structure still standing was a pillar about fifteen feet high.

“Let’s try the… door?” Kushina gestured to a hole in the wall where the door likely once was.

“What are we looking for?” Rin said between labored breaths as they hobbled forward.

“There’s a sealed door that leads to the basement,” Kushina said. “I left one of the Seven Swordsman’s blades down there while we were fighting. Need to take that with us. And there’s… like fifty years of records down there. My whole village’s history.”

“But we can’t use chakra right now to open the door or put anything into a new seal,” Rin pointed out.

“I know, I just want to see if we can even get there right now.”

As luck would have it, with some careful maneuvering, they could get to the door, but a massive piece of the concrete ceiling was in between them and even trying to undo the seal. “We’ll come back,” Kushina said. “But it’s good to know that it won’t be so bad.”

“You said a couple of detours, right, Sensei? Where to next?”

Kushina smiled sadly. “My old house. I’m not going to come back to this island ever again, I don’ think. Time to face my demons.”

Rin gave her a gentle squeeze of support. “Sure thing, sensei. Let’s just… take a break first. I’m too tired to walk anymore.”

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Far From Home Arc

Finale

Kushina

With a pained grunt of effort, she shifted the last few pieces of wood out of the doorway that had once marked the entrance to her childhood home. She was on her knees, breathing hard and doing her level best to avoid using any chakra to help her move the old planks of splintered oak. 

“What couldn’t wait until we’ve had more rest?” Rin asked from behind her. The younger girl was leaning against a half collapsed wall that was mostly in the shade.

Kushina wiped the sweat from her forehead. “When I was fighting, I had this— I dunno memory, I guess. I got hit real hard and thrown into the living room,” she gestured at the rubble. “But I remembered there was something here.” 

“What kind of something?” Rin asked as Kushina started trying to pry up the floorboards in the entryway with her bare hands. 

Kushina didn’t answer as she strained against the old wood. It would have been child’s play if she wasn’t so fucking exhausted. After a minute or so of heaving, she flopped backwards and gave it up as a bad job.  “Fuck. Chakra exhaustion sucks. I can barely stand up, let alone pry the damn floorboard up.”

“Here,” Rin said. A moment later, a kunai embedded itself in the dirt within arms reach of her. “I don’t have any more energy to help you right now, sensei, but if you’re really determined to do this before we get some sleep, then maybe that’ll make it easier.”

Kushina gave her a tired grin and a thumbs up, though she supposed it was more a thumbs down considering she was laying on her back and looking upside down at Rin. “Thanks.” She didn’t move right away, instead letting her tired body rest while she lay sprawled in the dirt.

“I’ve been thinking about what we should do, once we’re both fit enough to get off the island,” Kushina said after a few minutes. “Obviously we can’t go back to the village until we figure out how to deal with your little problem. And insofar as I’m aware, nobody who’s strong or skilled enough to help us has been briefed yet.” Kushina stretched and yawned. “I think we should go to Tanzaku.”

“The gambling town?” Rin asked. “Why on earth would we go there?”

Kushina sat up, rubbing her neck. “We need help,” she said. “I need to know that when I try to reseal the three-tails, someone can watch my back so I don’t get interrupted again. And you need someone who’s a competent medic to take a look at your chakra network before I do that. So we go to Tanzaku.”

Rin made a noncommittal noise. It was a long way from Uzushio. “It’s not a ninja village, and we don’t have an active outpost there.”

“No, we don’t. But I do have an aunt who’s a big gambler and a genius ninja medic,” Kushina said as she picked up the kunai and flipped it around in her fingers. “She can probably get your chakra problem sorted out. Then I can reseal your tailed-beast into a place where you won’t have any issues when we go home.”

Rin blinked at her, a disbelieving look on her face. “You’re taking me to see Lady Tsunade?”

“Nobody better,” Kushina said, stabbing at the floorboards of the entryway. 

“I didn’t think anybody knew where she was,” Rin said, shuffling over to sit next to Kushina. 

“I don’t,” Kushina said, prying a nail loose with the tip of the kunai. “But there’ll be information about her whereabouts if she isn’t there.”

“I suppose rumors would follow someone of her notoriety around,” Rin mused.

“There is that,” Kushina said. “But I mean that she’ll have left a way for me to contact her.”

“She does that?” Rin asked. “But she’s been out of the village, and off active duty for so long!”

Kushina grunted as she pried up one of the floorboards. “She’s my family, Rin. I can always get a hold of her if I need to. I just… I try not to. She’s working through some things right now, and the ninja life isn’t good for her.” She tossed the old piece of wood aside and smiled at Rin. “But for you, I’ll make an exception.”

“I— thanks, sensei,” Rin said.

“Of course, Rin. I told you I’d get you home safe, ya know? I plan to see it through.” Kushina started stabbing at another of the floorboards with the kunai. It was slow and frustrating work, prying out old, bent, and rusty nails from withered wood floorboards.

A week ago, Kushina would have balked at even entering her childhood home, let alone prying up the floor. But now, as the entirety of the village was leveled to little more than broken rubble, Kushina found the act of reclaiming even the smallest piece of her lineage to be a balm on her tired soul. 

The wood creaked as the nail was ripped free. 

“Seriously, sensei, what’s under the floorboards?” Rin asked, shuffling across the dirt to sit beside her. Even that left the young woman short of breath, and Kushina glanced her way to make sure she wasn’t about to pass out. “I’m fine,” Rin waved her off.

“If you say so,” Kushina said, returning her focus to the floorboards. “I think something that belonged to my dad is here.” She hoped she was right.

The next floorboard came up with a crack as the old oak split in half. Kushina was about to toss the old bit of wood away when something caught her eye. An old seal paper was stuck to the floorboard. Curious, she flipped the board over in her hands to inspect it better. Her eyes shot up in realization. 

A seal like this would certainly explain a lot of what had happened prior to the arrival of the Seven Swordsmen.

“You went inside the house,” she said, looking at Rin. 

Rin turned scarlet and hung her head. “Yeah.”

Kushina’s fingers brushed over the paper, which looked as if it had been burned by chakra. After a moment of puzzled observation, she realized that it was likely the nine-tails’ chakra that had burned out the seal.

She handed the old wood to Rin, so she could see the sealing tag. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You told me not to, and I didn’t mean to! It’s just— I was curious, and… and…” Rin’s words trailed off as her breathing hitched and she started shaking.

Kushina’s eyes went wide with alarm, immediately scrambling up to check on Rin as best she could. “Woah! Woah! What’s wrong?”

Rin grunted, arms wrapping around herself as she rocked back and forth and tried to breath. Kushina had her hands on Rin’s shoulders to steady her.“P-p-panic a-attack.”

She nodded, reaching out and rubbing gentle circles on Rin’s back. “Okay. Just breathe. Focus on that.”

Kushina did her best to coach the girl through her labored breathing. Panic attacks weren’t uncommon in their line of work, though Kushina was personally not accustomed to dealing with them. Not knowing what would work best, Kushina decided to just talk.

She babbled about whatever she could think of for fifteen minutes, as she gently rubbed Rin’s back and rocked side to side with her. As her breathing settled, Kushina gave her a once over to see if she was okay, and aside from her trembling, she seemed like she was going to live.

“How long has that been going on?” Kushina asked, adjusting the way they were seated, so Rin was settled firmly against her side, where she could relax and Kushina could run fingers through her hair.

Rin groaned and leaned her head into Kushina’s hand. “Since I woke up after…”

“Mmm,” Kushina hummed. “How many times?”

“Four or five, I think.” Rin let out a heavy sigh. “I’m… sensei I’m really broken. No chakra. Can’t keep my shit together. I can barely even walk.”

Kushina’s heart ached for Rin. The kid had been through so much so fast. Hell, even before the stupid jinchuuriki incident, Rin had suffered more than enough trauma for one lifetime. And now, after all they’d seen together, Rin was starting to believe that this was what her life was going to be like going forward. She wouldn’t stand for it.

“You’ll heal up soon enough, Rin. And then we’ll fix this mess. I promise. I promise you I won’t go back to the village without you, okay?” Kushina hugged her tight.

Rin squirmed in discomfort. “If you say so, sensei.”

Kushina’s heart dropped. She didn’t know what she’d do if Rin just gave up. “I do say,” she said quietly.

There was silence between them for a few moments, and Kushina felt the growing discomfort in her gut. She reached out to grab the piece of wood with the sealing tag on it. “Tell me what you see.”

“It’s a seal,” Rin said, glancing at the old plank.

“Come on, Rin. What does it do?” Kushina asked.

Rin sighed and reached out to take the floorboard and really examine the seal. “It’s… for trespassers, right? These symbols are for an unwelcome person.”

Kushina nodded. “That’s right. Someone who crossed the threshold protected by the seal would be affected if they weren’t allowed. What’s the trigger?”

“Blood,” Rin answered, fingers tracing over the seal. “I’m not of your blood.”

“And the seal was activated when you went into the house,” Kushina confirmed.

“But what did it do?” Rin asked, eyes lifting to meet Kushina’s.

Kushina gave her a small smile. “When did you start seeing things that weren’t there?”

“The night that I…” Rin trailed off, eyes going wide. “Oh! Oh! It was this? It wasn’t the tailed-beast?”

“That’s right,” Kushina said. “Just this little thing.Though I think it certainly contributed to your issues controlling your chakra. You weren’t sleeping well, and you were always on edge.”

Rin pursed her lips, staring at the seal. “I didn’t realize it was something else. I thought I was… losing to the three-tails.”

“You’re tough, Rin. More than strong enough to handle a little tailed-beast chakra invading your system.” Kushina chuckled. “I’m glad I found the damn thing. For the life of me, I had no idea what had caused it. But now that I’m seeing it. It’s really very clever.”

“What do you mean, sensei?”

Kushina pointed to the most singed section of the seal, right at the bottom of the plank. “It looks like it was originally designed to kill hostile ninja, and that makes sense. A seal like this would have been invaluable when the village was attacked.” She took a deep breath to steady herself. Thinking of such things always made her upset. “But it’s been modified. See the ink layered over the top that’s changing some of the symbols? It’s not necessarily designed to kill anymore. It looks like it was changed to incapacitate and then…” There were symbols for self and spirit on the tag as well. “I’m not sure what would come next. Something about how chakra interacts with a person’s spirit or sense of self, or something.”

Rin was very still and very quiet while Kushina spoke, and for a short time after. “I met an Uzumaki inside the seal.”

“You did?” Kushina asked, suddenly eager for every detail. “Who?”

“I’m not sure it was a real person. More like the idea of an Uzumaki, or the manifestation of the seal itself.” Rin fidgeted. “She called herself Yume. Gaido Yume.”

Kushina blinked in disbelief. “She was there to… guide you?”

Rin nodded. “I think so. She made me face my worst fears. Said the only way out was through. But I didn’t get to finish. Something else woke me up.” She poked the burned edges of the sealing paper. “Something broke the seal before I faced the last one.”

Kushina nodded, examining the seal closely as Rin spoke. “How many?”

“Just three,” Rin said, but her voice was quiet. “It was like a storybook, almost. Past. Present. Future. I had to see my mom, and accept that my chakra was different. But when I tried to face the last one, I… I just— I couldn’t do it.”

Kushina hugged the girl tight. “Hey, you shouldn’t have had to deal with any of it. And it’s over now. You got out.”

Rin sniffled. “I didn’t though. I’ll have to face it eventually, and I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

“What is it, Rin? You know I’ll be there to help you.”

Rin’s voice was barely a whisper. “Kakashi.”

And if that wasn’t a punch to the gut, then what was? Rin would have to face Kakashi and the consequences of her last mission eventually. They didn’t even know if he was alive, and if he was alive, if he’d recover enough to be a ninja. “I’m sure he’s fine.” Kushina wished she sounded more confident.

“Maybe,” Rin said, voice still whisper quiet. “I just… its my fault.”

“No, it isn’t,” Kushina said, a firmness in her voice. “What happened is not your fault.”

“I’m the one who hurt him. I beat him to death when I lost control of the chakra.” Rin curled in on herself. 

Kushina held Rin for a long time, trying to somehow make all the wrong that had been done even a little bit better. “It’ll be okay. Not now, but someday. It’ll be okay.” She ran her fingers through Rin’s hair and returned to rocking her back and forth until her sniffling ceased and the girl’s weight settled on her in sleep.

She held Rin until her own exhaustion started to catch up to her, and awkwardly scooted them back up against the slab of concrete Rin had rested against earlier. She could just finish looking in the floorboards after a little nap.

Ameyuri

She hadn’t gone back to the Mist Village right away, she had needed time to think. The days since leaving the ruins of the Whirlpool Village had been quiet and filled with aimless wandering. Her mission had ended in failure, her teammate was more than likely dead, and her swords were gone.

What was worse than all that, was that her worldview had been challenged and shattered by Kushina Uzumaki. The woman had not only bested her and Kushimaru in combat, but the stupid woman had spared her life, and in turn, Ameyuri had spared hers.

She would live with her decision, even if it cost her status in the village. Even if it cost her life.

The Lord Mizukage was not well known for his mercy. No, he was a brutal man, and had taken delight in cultivating the village’s current moniker: The Bloody Mist.

And so, Ameyuri stood still as a statue in front of the Mizukage. He was a tall, handsome man with dark hair and gray eyes. The tired lines of his face aged him more than his forty years, and the deep frown that he wore kept her frozen in place. He was an incredibly powerful ninja, as was fitting of a man in his position.

He sat behind an ornately carved desk, arms crossed, and looked her up and down. That calculating look had been the undoing of no small number of ninja who thought they could usurp the Mizukage.

“You return to the village with no Tailed-Beast, no swords, and a dead partner.”

“Yes, Lord Mizukage,” Ameyuri said, head bowed.

He folded his hands into his lap. “And you claim that you were defeated by one Uzumaki woman.”

“Yes, Lord Mizukage,” Ameyuri repeated. 

“There are no Uzumaki left living, Ameyuri. You claim that you battled a ghost.” 

Ameyuri swallowed thickly. “No, Lord Mizukage, she was real. She had the Three-Tails container with her. And she was-”

“Quiet,” the Mizukage cut her off with a snarl.

Her stomach lurched and her heart rate spiked. 

“Yes, Lord Mizukage.”

“Never, in all my years in this village, has a mission failed so spectacularly.” He placed his hands on the desk, and she felt the force of his chakra filling the room. Even for someone like her, who was not a chakra sensor, she could feel it. “I send two of our most powerful shinobi to recapture a child, and only one comes back to me in disgrace!”

Ameyuri winced. Perhaps if their intel had been even halfway correct, things would have played out differently. How was she supposed to know that the Hidden Leaf was going to send a woman that could beat down two S-Rank ninja at the same time. If either of them had engaged her alone it would have been ugly. 

Even though they’d lost… it had been close, at least.

“Here is what’s going to happen. You are no longer a member of the esteemed Seven Swordsmen. You have no swords, and as such, will no longer be among their number. What is more,” he glared at her. “You are going to spend the next year doing desk duty. Once that’s done, maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you back out in the field. Get out of my sight.”

With a wave of his hand, Ameyuri bowed and retreated as fast as she could from the Mizukage’s office.

It could have gone worse, she told herself, it could have gone so much worse. She hadn’t been struck down, at the very least. She still had her life, and she could spend a year in penance for failing.

She made it just a few streets over before her hammering heart and spiked adrenaline faded, and she sank heavily onto a bench. That killing intent that the Mizukage had let seep into the room had her fight or flight instincts screaming at her to do something. But she knew her place. Her life belonged to the village. She’d have stood by and let herself be struck down.

Knowing that didn’t make it better. She was disgusted with herself. Though strangely, not for losing to the Uzumaki woman. No, she was disgusted by her willingness to just roll over and die. 

Her worldview had been challenged and subsequently shattered. She’d never met an Uzumaki until she’d gone after the three-tails, but there had been fierceness and loyalty and honor. And perhaps most ironically of all, the woman who’d unleashed the power of the nine-tails had not been the monster she’d heard about as a bedtime story. 

Ameyuri sat there in silent contemplation until the sun sank low to the horizon and the evening mist that gave the village its name settled around her.

Rising from her bench, Ameyuri stalked off to her apartment, trying to decide what she was going to do with herself. When no answer came, she grumbled in annoyance.

Her apartment was in the older part of town, and had been renovated before she moved in. With all the modern amenities that came with it, she’d been unable to pass it up.

“Sister!” A blur of red hair nearly tackled her right back out of the door she’d walked through. She let out a surprised shout and stumbled backwards before her arms were around the girl before her.

“Shit, Kaoru, be careful!” Ameyuri hugged her little sister tight and felt the unease and tension start to leave her. It was good to be home, even if it came with all of the bullshit that failing such a high profile S-Ranked mission would bring her way.

“Sorry! You were gone for way to long. I missed you.” Kaoru looked up at her through red bangs. 

“I missed you, too. Now, what’s for dinner? I’m starving,” Ameyuri said, patting her sister’s head, and for the first time, really noticing that her younger sister had darker hair than she did.

Unbidden, the voice of that kid floated through her mind.

Are you here to meet, Kushina-sensei?

She misses her family.

No. Nope. She was not even going to consider the possibility. It wasn’t true. It wasn’t possible. She shook her head and listened with a soft smile as Kaoru dragged her into the kitchen and started putting rice into a bowl to wash while she babbled about what she’d been doing as a newly promoted Chunin since Ameyuri had left town.

Kushina

When she woke, Rin was sitting a little bit away from her, arms wrapped around her knees and eyes glassy with unshed tears as she looked out at the rubble all around them. Kushina stretched her aching muscles. Sleeping upright against a slab of concrete was definitely not the best idea, but she’d live, and it wasn’t as if she was capable of carrying Rin around in her current state anyway.

As it was, Kushina felt miles better after sleeping for a few hours. Her chakra was still small and quiet within her, but it was within reach, and her legs and arms didn’t feel so much like jelly now.

“Hey there,” Kushina said to Rin through a yawn.

Rin turned to look at her and hastily wiped at her eyes. “You sleep okay?”

Kushina nodded and go to her feet, stretching her soreness away. “I feel way better now, honestly. Still basically out of chakra, but it should be enough to collect those things from the old admin building.” She walked to the old floorboards she’d been tearing up. “But first, I gotta finish here.” 

With a heave, she pulled up the last half-splintered floorboard, pushed it away, and peered into the little hole she’d created, and let out a gasp. Beneath the old creaky floorboards that had once marked the entrance to her home, was a small bundle and a beautifully made katana.

She breathed a sound of awe and sank to her knees, reaching for the sword and the bundle with shaking hands. Her hand closed around the scabbard of the sword, and she could almost see her father before her, practicing his sword kata in the backyard. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she pulled the sword up with one hand, and cradled the small bundle in the other.

“Woah!” Rin exclaimed. “That’s a pretty sword!”

“It is,” Kushina agreed. It would have been nice to have earlier.

Her eyes were fixed on the sword before her. Her father’s katana, just like she remembered it. From the lacquered redwood and gold filigree, to the bronze guard and teal rope wrapping its handle. Like the shallow waters of the sea.

“What was that doing there?” Rin asked, shuffling over and looking into the hole Kushina had dug. “How did you know it was in there?”

“I didn’t.” Kushina ran her hands over the sword genty. It was so beautiful. A physical reminder of who she was and where she’d come from. “It was my father’s.”

“And he put it in his floor?” Rin asked, curious.

“He was always trying to fix the floor from creaking right in the entryway. But the house wouldn’t have any of it. No matter how many times he replaced the floorboards. I saw him do it so many times as a little kid,” Kushina didn’t bother to wipe the tears sliding down her cheeks, or hide the bittersweet smile on her face. “The last time I saw him do it was maybe two weeks before I left.”

She hugged the sword to her chest.

I found it, papa. I found your sword.

The little wrapped bundle slid off her lap when she pulled the katana close, and Kushina’s gaze settled on it. Setting the sword down gently beside her, Kushina picked up the little wrapped bundle. It was about the size of a loaf of bread, but surprisingly heavy. Kushina took a breath, and pulled the leather cord that held it shut. The leather wrapping of the bundle opened to reveal two small books, two scrolls, and a folded envelope.

She turned the books upright first, so she could read the titles scrawled on their fronts. They were books on sealing, like the one she’d given to Rin. One was by Masakado Uzumaki, A Treatise of Seals and Their Functions. The second was authored by a Shinta Uzumaki, The Sealing and Understanding of Chakra. She trailed her fingers reverently over the titles. These were books that she’d never even seen before, and she figured it was likely that nobody in the leaf village had ever so much as glanced at the knowledge they contained.

Eager to read them later, she set them next to the katana and turned her attention to the scrolls.

The first was tied with a rope, and marked on the outside as a family register. Everyone in her family, as far back as the scroll had been in her family, would be documented here. It was perhaps the most precious thing she’d ever held. In her hands she finally had her family.

That scroll was set aside, too, and she looked at the second, and her mouth opened in surprise. It was a summoning contract, though for what manner of creature she was unsure. The old scroll’s paint had worn with age, and whatever manner of beast would have to be discovered with a use of the jutsu to summon it. Still, it was exciting! She hadn’t been aware her family had made such a partnership.

When Kushina unfolded the envelope, which was surprisingly well packed, she choked out a sob. Photographs of her family slid into her hands, and at least half a dozen notes and letters, which, at a glance, were all addressed to her.

She felt Rin’s hand on her shoulder, offering silent support as she looked down at the faces of her parents and her siblings. Faces she’d been unable to remember were looking back at her, too young and too happy. But they were real.  

With trembling hands, she put everything back in the envelope. The letters she could read later, when she was ready. For now just seeing them again was more than enough.

Over the next day and a half, Kushina insisted that they spend most of their time resting. She hadn’t found the strength to read the letters from her family, or look at their pictures again. Nor had she unfurled the scrolls or cracked open the books. She hadn’t even drawn the sword that had once been her father’s. Instead, they all sat carefully arranged inside the makeshift tent Rin had built.

As her chakra exhaustion ebbed away, she was much more mobile, and on the second day after retrieving her family’s things, she took Rin to recover the sealed sword that she’d stuck to the ground when she’d battled Ameyuri, and then to the old administrative building, where she spent the better part of an afternoon sealing the records of her birth village into a scroll.

With Kiba and Nuibari safely recovered, and her injuries mostly healed, Kushina felt ready to leave behind Uzushiogakure for the last time. There was no reason to return. No more memories to recover, no more ghosts to put to rest. The village was gone and what family she’d made for herself belonged back in Konoha, belonged back home.

Before now, Kushina had never really considered the Leaf Village her home. She’d always held out some hope that she’d find members of her clan some day, but it had never happened. And she’d spent so many years chasing ghosts that she’d failed to enjoy what she did have to the fullest. 

She could get home. She could be happy with Minato and Rin.

“You ready to go to Tanzaku?” Kushina asked her after they’d disassembled the camp and sealed what was still useful back into scrolls. Everything Kushina had found and recovered was safely sealed away into a scroll as well.

“I can’t use my chakra, so unless that boat we got here on is gonna come get us…” Rin trailed off.

“I’ll carry you to the continent,” Kushina said with a grin. “Then we’ll get to Tanzaku and get your situation dealt with for good.”

“If you say so, sensei.”

“I do!” Kushina said. “It would have worked the first time if not for two S-Rank ninja interrupting me in the middle of dealing with your scaly little problem.”

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Tanzaku Arc

Chapter 1

Rin

It was a testament to Kushina’s incredible stamina and endurance that they made it to Tanzaku at all. Rin was in worse shape than she thought, particularly when it came to walking long distances. Without chakra circulating through her body regularly, she tired quickly, and her muscles ached more than ever. As it was, Kushina had carried Rin on her back from the islands of the Land of Whirlpools, and then across much of the Land of Fire, because Rin could maybe handle two hours of non continuous walking a day before her body just gave up.

Over the two weeks that it took Kushina and Rin to travel from Uzushiogakure to Tanzaku, Rin did her best to regain any semblance of physical fitness. And while it was pathetic, incremental, and painfully slow-going, Kushina was positive that she was, in fact, getting stronger as the days went by. 

Rin was not convinced quite so easily, as she couldn’t get past the fact that she got tired so quickly, and that her heart felt like it was going to explode from the chakra slowly building up within her. But as Kushina kept reminding her, there was little to be done about it until they had help.

When they arrived in Tanzaku late one afternoon, Rin slid off Kushina’s back, and leaned against her sensei while she walked, mostly under her own power, into the city. It was a busy place, bustling with commerce and people far too concerned with their daily affairs to notice two travel-warn ninja strolling through the gates.

“More people live here than in Konoha,” Kushina said to her as they passed a large market.

Rin nodded, eyes scanning the crowd for signs of danger. So many people crammed into such a space was a perfect environment for hostile activity. Not that it was really expected, so deep in the Land of Fire. “It certainly feels like it. There are people everywhere.”

Kushina hummed an affirmative. “It’s not a ninja village, it’s a full on city, and the largest center of commerce in the northwestern Land of Fire. People from all over the continent come here to do business.” She pushed through a crowd, dragging Rin with her. “Plus, there are lots of very well known gambling houses here. That draws its own sort of person to the city, because in less populated areas, there won’t be as much of an opportunity.”

She followed her sensei, keeping one arm wrapped firmly around Kushina’s, less they get separated in the jostling of the crowds. “People come to Tanzaku just to gamble?”

“Sure do,” Kushina said, leading them down a side-street and away from the main part of the city.

“That seems… insane?” The shops and stalls they’d left behind gave way to hotels and bars and other, less tourist focused businesses. Eventually, Kushina stopped a large hotel and slid the door open.

“People will spend their money on anything. Gambling included,” Kushina said, ushering Rin inside. 

Rin said nothing, but it seemed like a waste to her. The whole point of gambling was that, you know, you could lose all of your money. 

Kushina walked them up to the counter, and greeted the hostess with a warm smile. “We’d like a room, please.”

The woman nodded. “We have a room with two beds on the third floor. Does that suit you?”

“As long as it has a shower, we’re good to go,” Kushina said with a nod. She paid for their rooms, and Rin leaned against the counter to keep herself upright.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” The hostess asked them.

Rin shook her head, eager to get upstairs, but Kushina stayed put. “There is, actually. Is the rope of a thousand hands tied in the forest?”

The hostess’s eyes went wide, but she nodded abruptly. “A rope is tied only as tightly as the hands who wield it.” The woman bent below the counter for a moment, and when she stood upright, she handed a folded piece of paper to Kushina. 

“Thank you,” Kushina said.

“Of course, lady shinobi.”

Rin curiously eyed the paper, but said nothing. Of course her sensei wouldn’t take her just anywhere to rent a room. She should have known better. Kushina always had a plan, which was less of a surprise now than it had been when they’d first set off to hide in Uzushiogakure. Before, Rin had loved her like a sister, but Kushina had always been the loud and boisterous assistant sensei, and she’d had a very by the seat of her pants approach to just about everything.

But the stakes then had been so low, and Rin understood that when push came to shove, Kushina was just as smart as Minato-sensei, and if her beating the snot out of two of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist while simultaneously dealing with a rogue tailed-beast was anything to go by, she might be stronger than he was, too.

Which was, you know, crazy to think about.

Minato was an S-Rank famous ninja. And Ninja didn’t typically get super famous unless they were exceptionally gifted and somehow used those gifts in a way that was impossible for the world at large to ignore.

Kushina pulled her from her thoughts by wrapping an arm around her and gently guiding her away from the counter and up the stairs. Climbing up three flights of stairs was a test of determination and endurance for Rin, but with Kushina’s help she managed it. The help was, of course, mostly leaning all of her weight against her sensei as they moved up the steps at a snail’s pace.

The room was the most welcome sight Rin had ever seen. How long had it been since she’d seen a real bed in a real room with a real shower? “I’m so excited to take a shower and sleep in a real bed!” Rin exclaimed as she hobbled into the room.

Kushina laughed, full bellied and with her head thrown back. “I am, too, Rin. I am, too.”

Her sensei crossed to the bed closest to the door and sat down on the edge of it. She flipped open the folded piece of paper, read it, and then slipped it into her pocket.

“What did it say?” Rin asked, sitting on the other bed.

“It’s a coded message,” Kushina said. “But she’s in Tanzaku, or she was very recently. She shouldn’t be hard to find.”

“Well that’s good, right?” Rin asked, deciding that the mattress was nice and soft, and that sitting up was too much work. She flopped backwards and flung her arms out to either side of her.

“Mmmm,” Kushina agreed. “It is. I’ll go and talk to her if you want to get some sleep.”

Rin considered it, really she did. Sleep sounded awesome. More than awesome, and it would be in a real bed, too. She rolled onto her side, so she could see Kushina. Her sensei was leaning back on the heels of her hands, and staring at the wall.

“Do you want to go alone?” Rin asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“No. Not necessarily. If you want to go, then you can,” Kushina said. “I just. Convincing her to help might be a pain in the ass, and I don’t really want to get into a fight with her.” She sighed and sat forward. “I’m going to take a shower. You should get one, too, before we leave. We both stink.”

Rin nodded, but didn’t get up. She was so comfy. Kushina unsealed their toiletries and headed for the bathroom. 

The next thing she knew, Kushina was shaking her awake. Her red hair was still slightly wet, and Rin caught the fresh scent of soap and shampoo emanating from her. Rin groaned and rubbed her eyes.

“Rin, sweetie, it’s your turn,” Kushina said softly. “Sorry to wake you.”

“Ungh,” Rin managed to say, willing the world to just go away for a little while. It didn’t. “Being awake is stupid,” Rin muttered as she heaved herself upright.

Kushina laughed.

When she came out of the bathroom, feeling decidedly more human than she had in weeks, Kushina was dressed in a fresh Konoha uniform, and had a clean change of civilian clothes laid out for Rin.

“How are you?” Kushina asked. “You were in there for a while.”

“Hot water is magic,” Rin said in answer as she started to dress. 

“I’m not going to disagree,” Kushina said.

Five minutes later, Rin had her arm wrapped around Kushina again as they made their way down the stairs and out of the hotel. Kushina led her down the street and back to the main street of the village. Rin huddled close as they bustled back through the crowds, eyes alert for any signs of danger. Not that she’d be able to fight, really. And she knew Kushina would notice before she did, but she couldn’t help it. Being like this, Rin was more on edge than ever. She was so helpless.

Her eyes scanned the crowds and storefronts, but eventually lingered on a mural painted on the side of a building. It was an advertisement for a sort of gambling, she thought. But it wasn’t a typical game like roulette or poker. It was for placing bets on some kind of taijutsu event. The mural was complete with a detailed rendition of a fighter with messy brown hair wearing a training gi, arm raised triumphantly. 

How odd that people here would bet on combat. That was something she’d expect more back home. She knew for a fact that people placed bets on the inter-village Chunin exams and other similar events.

Not that she had much time to dwell on it, of course. Kushina pulled her into one of the massive casinos a moment later, and the smell of booze and tobacco made her wrinkle her nose in disgust.

“Stay close,” Kushina said as if Rin weren’t literally holding onto her for dear life as they made their way through row after row of too-loud men and women playing cards and other games.

Towards the back of the massive gambling hall, there was a raised platform, where a few finely dressed men in more traditional clothing sat drinking expensive alcohol. At one end of their table, Rin saw her.

Tsunade Senju.

The most famous kunoichi ever. A woman known across every elemental nation for her remarkable skill in battle, and her unrivaled mastery of medical ninjutsu, who had been the lynchpin that ultimately decided Konoha as the victors in the Second War. Men wanted her, and girls, Rin included, wanted to be her.

And she was… laughing boisterously, face flushed. A cup of sake spilled over her hand as she rolled some dice, which came up snake eyes, much to Tsunade’s dismay and the joy of the finely dressed men at the table.

“It looks like you lose again, Princess.” The man who had spoken was leering at Tsunade, his hair oily and slicked back and his kimono far too fine for an establishment like this one. Rin decided she didn’t like him.

“Damn it!” Tsunade shouted, reaching for the dice again. “I’ll win the next one for sure.”

“Lady Tsunade,” said a girl on Tsunade’s right. She was young, likely the same age as Rin herself. A waitress, maybe? But no, that wasn’t right. She looked familiar, but Rin couldn’t place her. “Maybe we should stop for the night. You’ve had enough, and your losing streak has been… impressive.”

“Ah, shut up, brat. I’ll decide when I’m done.” Tsunade hiccuped and rolled the dice again. 

Snake eyes.

Tsunade swore.

The men cheered.

“I look forward to receiving my money, Princess,” said the man Rin didn’t like. The men began to disperse.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tsunade said, waving him away as she tried, and failed, to get to her feet. She made it about halfway before she stumbled. Kushina disappeared from Rin’s side and caught Tsunade before the older woman hit the ground. Rin blinked, she hadn’t seen her sensei even move.

“Come on, you’re done,” Kushina said. “Let’s go sleep it off.”

“Don’t tell me what to— oh. You’re here. Great.” Tsunade slapped Kushina’s hands away. “Tell the old man I’m not interested, okay?” Tsunade took an unsure step, and staggered into the table. Dice clattered to the floor.

“Hey! Watch it!” One of the other men said.

“I’ll do as I damn well please,” Tsunade said. “And not you or the fucking Hokage can stop—” she burped. “Me.”

Rin stared, open mouthed at the scene before her. This was Tsunade Senju of the Sannin? She was… well there weren’t any polite words to describe it.

Kushina reached out to steady the older woman. “Come on. You need water and sleep.”

“Didn’t I tell you to fuck off!” Tsunade growled, taking a wild swing at Kushina, who stepped away from the punch. Tsunade, drunk as she was, lost her balance and fell forward. Kushina caught her, arms wrapping around the woman gently.

“I’ve never been great at following directions,” Kushina said. Tsunade struggled, but Kushina held her firm, she turned her focus to the dark haired girl. “Do you and Tsunade have accommodations?”

“Yes, senpai,” the girl squeaked. “We’re staying at the inn across the street.”

“Then we’ll go there,” Kushina said. “And Tsunade can sleep this off. Rin, can you walk on your own?”

“I’ll be fine,” Rin said. And she mostly meant it.

The procession out of the casino was awkward, and Rin shuffled after Kushina and Tsunade, while the girl that Rin felt like she should know led the way.

“I’m hungry,” Tsunade slurred as they stepped outside.

Kushina sighed. “Does the hotel have a restaurant attached to it, Shizune?”

Ah! Rin did know her. They’d gone to the academy at roughly the same time. Different classes, but they’d been there all the same. It explained why she looked so damn familiar.

“It does, senpai,” Shizune said.

“Good. Then we can eat there.” Tsunade started to protest, but Kushina cut her off. “We can eat there, or you can go straight to bed.”

Tsunade grumbled, but acquiesced. 

They made their way across the street, into the hotel, and towards a small restaurant on the ground floor. Kushina dumped Tsunade into a booth and rubbed her temples with her hands before trapping the drunk woman in the corner by sitting next to her. Rin slid into the booth on the opposite bench with Shizune.

An awkward silence stretched out between them, and Rin fiddled with the salt and pepper shakers that were on the table while everyone continued to say nothing. Shizune looked concerned, either for the situation she was in or for Tsunade’s safety. Tsunade was swaying back and forth with flushed cheeks and half lidded eyes, grumbling about something or other. And Kushina had her arms crossed and was very clearly doing her best not to be pissed off— she wasn’t doing a very good job.

Eventually someone came and offered them menus, and Rin hid behind hers studiously.

“We need a round of sake,” Tsunade said to the waitress.

Kushina slapped her hand on the table. “We certainly do not. No alcohol at the table tonight. No exceptions.”

“Sake, now,” Tsunade insisted.

“What’s your name?” Kushina asked the waitress.

“Suki, miss shinobi.”

“Yes, Suki, thank you. No alcohol. She’s had more than enough for… probably an entire lifetime,” Kushina’s threatening smile left no room for argument. “Just tea, please.”

The waitress all but ran from the table.

Rin peeked over her menu and found Kushina and Tsunade glaring at one another. She ducked her head back beneath the menu and turned to Shizune. “Is it always going to be like this?” She whispered.

Shizune raised her own menu, effectively creating a wall between them and the brewing fight across the table. “Lady Tsunade is very… combative, shall we say? Especially since…” 

Since what, Rin did not know. But she’d been a shinobi long enough to know that something had gone wrong and a mission had failed or someone had died. She didn’t press further. “Well, maybe we should just leave them to it?” Leaving the table and going literally anywhere else seemed like a good idea.

Kushina and Tsunade were both unleashing a not insignificant amount of killer intent towards one another, and the other patrons at the restaurant were starting to take notice. Uncomfortable glances were coming their way.

“I can’t leave my lady’s side,” Shizune said. “She’s… she needs—”

She needed professional help, maybe, Rin thought. Needed a therapist. She probably didn’t need a teenage girl following her around. Which, when Rin thought about it, was kind of the situation she was in with Kushina, so she wasn’t going to say anything.

The sound of Kushina and Tsunade arguing invaded their little sanctuary, and Rin peeked between the menus.

“No, we’re not ordering sake. Get water.”

“I want sake.”

“You can have tea.”

“I don’t want tea.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’re being ridiculous!” Tsunade suddenly shouted. 

“You’re already drunk! You don’t need any more fucking sake,” Kushina snarled back.

“I’m perfectly capable of deciding how much sake I should or should not have,” Tsunade said.

Kushina scoffed. “Clearly not, you’re shitfaced.”

Tsunade reached out to strangle Kushina, but Kushina, being sober, locked Tsunade in an armbar and pressed the blonde woman’s face into the table. 

“I’m gonna beat your ass when I can feel my face,” Tsunade grumbled.

“So never?” Kushina spat. “You haven’t been sober in at least a year.”

Tsunade’s face twisted with fury, and she forced herself upright, in spite of Kushina’s grip. “What would you know about it? The little girl I remember loved to run from her problems. So who are you to lecture me, huh? Look at you, little princess. No problems in the whole world to worry about.”

“Don’t start that shit with me, Tsunade,” Kushina said, voice low.

“Or what? You’ll run away again. You don’t know shit about what I’m going through. Your precious Minato is still alive, isn’t he? It’s not like you’ve ever lost—”

Kushina snarled and the loud crack of her palm slapping across Tsunade’s face echoed through the restaurant.  The sounds of hushed conversations and the clinking of silverware on dishes ceased at once, and the entire room fell into absolute silence. “You know what? Order your damn sake for all I care. I hope it fucking kills you.” And she was up and out of the restaurant in one enraged, sweeping motion.

Rin sat in shocked silence as she watched Tsunade, eyes wide with surprise, reach up and touch the red mark on her face with trembling fingers. A look flashed across her face, remorse, maybe, and then it was gone in an instant, replaced by anger and a forced expression that looked like amused disinterest. She scoffed and then called the waitress over to order sake.

Disbelieving, Rin slipped from the table and fled the hotel restaurant as well.

The evening air was cool on her skin, and darkness had settled over Tanzaku. She knew how to get back to the hotel, but at that moment, she found that she didn’t really want to. Whatever bad blood was between Kushina and Tsunade would need to be resolved, and it wouldn’t happen fast.

Rin put her hand over her heart, and tried vainly to massage the knot of chakra away.

What was there to do? Tsunade needed to sober up, and that wasn’t a likely outcome anytime soon. What was more, the woman was an absolute bitch. How much of that had to do with the drink had yet to be determined, but Tsunade’s impoliteness and willingness to attack a person’s vulnerabilities with hurtful words reminded her far, far too much of her own father.

She sighed, and groaned.

Walking the streets to clear her head was a nice distraction from all the bullshit that was currently going on. It was hard to dwell on everything when she was out of breath and sweating just from taking a sedate stroll through the well maintained streets. 

Doing physical activity without access to any chakra at all had been a very interesting experience, but her muscles and cardiovascular system had done their best to compensate from the complete lack of support from her chakra network. There was enough energy still flowing through her body to keep her alive, as was evidenced by the fact that Rin was up and about, but beyond that, she was functionally a civilian.

A civilian who knew an awful lot about combat and assassination.

She turned down a random side-street, lost in thought and wishing there was something she could do to just get this whole situation over with. But what was there? First and foremost, Tsunade Senju needed to sober up, and there wasn’t really any way to force it.

And then she stopped dead in her tracks. What am I thinking? Of course there is.

Drugs existed to make people feel sick when they drank. It was a process designed to help alcoholics stop drinking, and it had once been offered to her father, but he’d refused on much the same grounds she’d heard from Tsunade at the restaurant.

‘I can stop whenever I want!’

She’d been beaten that night.

Shuddering, Rin wondered if there was a hospital or apothecary in town that could supply her with the drug, or the ingredients to make it herself. Tsunade would likely be furious, but that would be a problem to deal with when it arrived. Rin wasn’t going to get treated by a stumbling drunkard.

As it was, most shops were closing for the night, so she’d likely have to wait until morning anyway.

When she turned down another side street with the intention of looping back towards the hotel she was staying at with Kushina, she heard a woman cry out in pain, and the loud clanging of a trash bin being knocked over.

There was more shouting, and Rin picked up her pace to try and find the source of the noise. Down a nearby alley, a man was looming over a woman dressed in a serving kimono, and laughing as she sobbed and apologized.

Rin saw red and stalked towards them. The man raised his hand again, and the woman threw her arms over her head and cowered.

“Hey!” Rin called out. “The fuck do you think you’re doing?”

The man looked up, eyes glinting with annoyance and surprise. “Listen, little girl, you need to back off right now. This doesn’t concern you.”

“Yeah, no. You’re not gonna beat on that poor woman,” Rin said. “Lady, get out of here. I’ll deal with him.”

“Kyoko, stay on the fucking ground,” the man said. “Looks like I need to teach two women a lesson tonight.” He stepped towards Rin and cracked his knuckles.

Rin slid into the opening stance of the Whirling Palms style, suddenly very aware of how tall he was and how weak she felt without her chakra. She took a breath to steady herself. For a moment, everything was still, and then the man threw a punch.

And for a civilian, he was fast .

Rin saw it coming, but she was less than a fraction of her normal self. By the time her hand was halfway to swatting his fist away from her nose, she was seeing stars and staggering backwards. The loud crunch that accompanied his punch let her know that he’d broken her nose. Her back slammed into the wall of a building and she blinked the tears from her eyes as he loomed over her.

He threw another punch, but Rin fell to the ground, spinning on one knee and slamming her palm into his stomach. He let out a pained breath, but it was clear he wasn’t very affected by her, admittedly weak, strike. She just didn’t have the muscle mass. 

He kicked at her, and she managed to cross her arms in front of her chest before his foot made contact, and she was sent sprawling onto her back. With the breath knocked out of her, and the man stalked towards her. Blood from her broken nose ran down the sides of her face.

She cast her eyes about for anything to end the fight with, because on strength and speed alone, she was not going to beat him. He raised a foot over her chest and she reached out for the first thing she saw.

As his foot came down, she caught the force on the lid of the garbage bin she’d grabbed. He grunted with effort as he tried to crush her with his weight. With a great heave, she rolled out from under him, and pulled the lid of the bin with her. In the moment that he was off balance from her awkward rolling maneuver, she got to her feet and raised the metal lid between them like a shield.

“That’s not gonna help you, kid,” the man snarled. “Admit it, you’re beaten.”

Rin scoffed, feigning confidence. “Are you kidding? I could do this all night.”

“It's your funeral,” he said with a shrug, and he lashed out at her again.

Rin managed to catch his fist with her improvised shield, but the force of the blow still sent her staggering back. She was up against the wall again, which was not to her advantage, and the man knew it. He punched three times, and the force of his blows kept her back firmly against the wall of the alley so she could tank his punches with her shield.

With every blow, her arms rattled all the way up to her shoulders.

This is bad, Rin thought. I can’t get an opening to hit him anywhere it’ll really hurt.

She’d have to make one somehow, and it was gonna hurt.

If she let him hit her again, he’d drop his guard and give her the opening she needed.

Rin lowered the shield, pretending to be out of breath and his knee found her stomach. Oxygen left her and she sank to the ground gasping and sputtering for breath. She just needed to focus long enough to hit him in the groin with the metal lid. He'd fall to his knees and she could brain him over the head with it. Her hands gripped the lid as she tried to orient herself. She could do it! She could—

His knee collided with her temple and the world spun away from her.

Chapter Text

The Long Road Home

Tanzaku Arc

Chapter 2

Kushina

Kushina couldn’t remember a time when she’d been more furious than she was as she stalked away from the restaurant, hands balled into fists at her sides. She was shaking from the barely restrained rage. How dare Tsunade insinuate that Kushina didn’t understand loss? Where the fuck did that woman get off? If Kushina had it her way, she’d beat the woman within an inch of her life.

But she couldn’t, because Rin needed Tsunade’s help— in a field that Kushina was of no use in. So she’d left after slapping her aunt across the face as hard as she could, and she’d try again tomorrow, because if they spoke again before Kushina slept, there would be a fucking murder. Kushina was entirely certain she could throttle the life out of Tsunade, drunk or not, and she didn’t really want to kill her aunt. It wasn’t as if Tsunade’s abhorrent behavior had been a surprise, or entirely unfounded.

She sympathized, really she did. Kushina knew why Tsunade was as broken and messy as she was. Losing your kid brother and the love of your life to a war and a system that you didn’t really even believe in was enough to tear down even the strongest person. Couple that with the pressure of being who and what she was… and anyone would reach a point where they couldn’t handle it anymore.

But that didn’t mean that Tsunade had to go and insinuate, tactlessly, that she’d fall apart in the same way if Minato died. Which was a low blow.

And maybe she would fall apart, but Kushina was no stranger to grief and losing loved ones. She didn’t know if her soon-to-be husband would be the death that crushed her irreparably. There was a very real chance that it was, and dwelling on it made her feel sick to her stomach. So she shoved it away and focused on her fury.

The evening air did little to cool off her simmering anger as she stalked off down the road, glaring at anyone who got too close to her. She could not deal with more bullshit right now. She stopped at a stall that sold onigiri, and then at one that sold dango. The poor vendors fell over themselves to get her food to her quickly, afraid that her ire would be focused on them. She didn’t bother to placate or reassure them that her rage was not for them.  

Kushina explored Tanzaku as she ate, trying to will a solution to all her problems into existence. None came. It would be so nice if something just broke her way for once. No bullshit, or hurt kids, or tailed beasts, or attacks from S-Rank ninja. Which didn’t really seem like too much to ask, but if the last… however long it had been at this point was any indication, there was little chance of anything going smoothly on this godforsaken quest to fix Rin’s messed up seal.

Her walking through the streets and her people watching allowed her mind to wander, and she tried to figure out the best angle of attack to convince Tsunade to agree to help them. First, she’d have to force some measure of sobriety from the older woman, a task that would take a supreme amount of effort on its own. Tsunade was very firm in her belief that she should drink herself to death.

And if, somehow, she managed to get Tsunade to stop chugging sake like it was cold water after a workout, Kushina would still have to talk her into doing actual ninja work to help her. She crumbled the empty wrappers of her food and balled them up, grumbling as she walked. 

It felt so fucking hopeless. 

But… she was in Tanzaku. She could send a message to Minato, or the Hokage, or someone, and request some fucking backup. An actual medic and a few people who knew their way around some sealing paper.

With the thought in mind, she turned from her wandering and returned to the hotel. She could pen a message that night and hire a courier to take it to the Leaf Village in the morning. There would be at least one in Tanzaku that would take messages to the ninja village.

There was a chance, at least.

If nothing went wrong, as events seemed so determined to do.

When she arrived back at her room, she flung herself onto the bed and tried to think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts that were far, far away from her current troubles. She thought of ramen noodles, and gatherings of her friends, and stolen kisses with Minato under the starlight. 

The taste of his lips, the little smudges of ink that the both of them seemed to always be covered in.

The moment he’d told her he didn’t care that she was a Jinchuriki, that he loved her anyway, that he’d always love her. And that had done it. She’d been smitten before, but after that, she was his forever.

When they’d taken that C-Ranked mission, and Minato had used his Hiraishin to get it done within the first three hours of them leaving the village… they’d taken a week long vacation at a hot-spring. She had been genuinely surprised she didn’t get pregnant on that mission, because it wasn’t for a lack of trying, however unintentional a child would have been at the time.

Kushina flushed at those memories, warmth pooling in her stomach. He’d been on an extended mission to Iwagakure at the end of the war, and now she was on a mission that refused to end. She hadn’t been with him in months, probably close to half a year, and she missed him terribly. His smile, his messy hair, his sense of humor… his touch.

Throwing her chakra sense to make sure Rin wasn’t on her way back, Kushina’s fingers slipped beneath the waistband of her pants, desperate to ease the ache that had flared up in her stomach. Thoughts of her Minato flashed through her mind, her breath hitched desperately as she remembered the last time she’d had him in her bed. It must have been six months ago now, and oh how wonderful it had been. Minato was very attentive. Lips, teeth, tongue, hands and… She peaked quickly, back arched, cheeks flushed, and breath heavy.

Her anger at Tsunade and their argument faded into a dull ache of longing for home. The fight was well and truly out of her now, replaced by a want for Rin to get home safe, and for Tsunade to get the help she needed.

She rolled onto her side, letting her breath even out, and enjoying the tingling sensation that coursed through her body.

When Rin came back to their room, they could come up with a plan of attack for tomorrow…

… Kushina blinked as the first rays of sunlight crept through the window. She’d fallen asleep atop the blankets, fully clothed. She supposed the exhaustion of the past few weeks had caught up to her and she’d lost the battle to stay awake while laying in a real bed for once.

She sat up with a yawn and rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. When her eyes finally decided to focus, she noticed that the room was empty and Rin’s bed was still made and untouched. There was no sign she’d come back the night before.

Kushina reached out with her sensory ability, searching for Rin. But Rin’s chakra was on the fritz, and her charge had been unable to use it for a prolonged period of time. Kushina could find no trace of her. It shouldn’t have been possible for a Jinchuriki to mask their chakra from her, but Rin’s case was a unique one. She hadn’t noticed it on their trek from the Whirlpool Village, Rin had been close enough to her that she could sense her student, and she hadn’t considered that the weakened state of her chakra would be difficult to track in a city.

“Fuck,” she swore, sliding on her sandals and slipping out the door.

Tanzaku was already a bustling mess of people going about their business, and Kushina tried to sort through the ocean of chakra signatures to find Rin’s. It was a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack. Or maybe like looking for a needle in a needlestack. 

There were very few chakras in the city that could belong to a ninja. The largest of which had to be Tsunade, and she was only with one other person. That had to be Shizune. Rin wasn’t with them, but it was possible that they knew where she was.

Kushina leaped to the rooftops with a surge of chakra and bounded across the city in two massive leaps, ignoring the surprised shouts of the people who were seeing a ninja in action for the first time. 

She touched down outside the hotel where Tsunade and Shizune were staying a moment later, eyes scanning the crowd for any signs of Rin. When she saw nothing, she pushed open the door and followed her chakra sense to the third floor.

Tsunade’s chakra was serene, like a koi pond in an arboretum. It was equal parts earthy and watery and it was very pleasant most of the time. Over the years, she’d sought out the feel of Tsunade’s chakra when she was upset or scared. And it had been miserable when Tsunade had left the village. She’d never really kicked the habit of seeking out comfortable chakra when she was agitated, but she’d found herself seeking out her fiance, Minato, or her best friend, Mikoto most of the time since then. 

Kushina knocked on the door, though knocked was largely an understatement. Kushina’s fist pounded against the wood, and the door shook in its frame. 

It was Shizune who answered, bleary eyed with her hair mussed from sleep. “Senpai?”

“Have you seen Rin?” Kushina asked.

Shizune shook her head and yawned. “Not since the restaurant last night. She left right after you did.”

Kushina swore. She pinched the bridge of her nose, reaching out with her chakra sense again, hoping to feel an inkling of the girl’s chakra. There was nothing. 

“Is everything okay, senpai?”

“Rin didn’t come back to our room last night,” Kushina said. “I hadn’t had a good night’s rest in almost two weeks. I fell asleep.”

“Sleeping is good for you,” Shizune pointed out, rubbing her eyes now. Kushina noticed how tired she looked. Likely Tsunade had kept her up all night. And that was its own enormous fucking problem.

“How is she?” Kushina asked, eyes flicking into the room beyond Shizune.

“Not good,” Shizune said. “She drinks too much, but letting her sleep is good. She has nightmares most nights, so she’s always tired… It’s the anniversary of Uncle Dan’s death tomorrow.” Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears, and Kushina gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder. 

“It’s been a few years now, hasn’t it?” Kushina asked. Dan had been killed at the tail-end of the second war, and Tsunade had crumbled to nothingness with him. The vibrant, proud, fierce woman Kushina had idolized as a little girl practically vanished overnight, and what remained was a husk— lifeless and scared and running from a hurt so deep that she couldn’t handle it.

“Three,” Shizune nodded. “I miss him, too. But…”

“I know, Shizune,” Kushina said softly. “I know. It sucks and it isn’t fair. Losing your family is awful.” Kushina felt like she was about to cry, too. “But sometimes, you can make a new one. If you’re tenacious and you fight for it.”

Shizune sniffled. “Is that what you did?”

Kushina swallowed thickly. “Yeah. And speaking of, I gotta go find Rin. I’m worried about her.” She turned on her heel and strode down the hall. “If you can keep Tsunade sober long enough to have a real conversation, I do actually need her help. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon.”

And then she was around the corner, taking the stairs three at a time.

With every second that passed, Tanzaku became busier. It was early morning still, barely seven o’clock, and the streets would only grow more packed as the sun crept higher in the sky. She looked both ways up the street, lips pursed. Where had Rin gone when she’d left the hotel restaurant?

Rin liked to wander when she was upset. Liked to walk and clear her head, but… which way? Kushina picked the direction that led away from their own hotel, and slowly picked her way through the morning crowd. 

Last night the streets had still been plenty busy. She’d stomped away from Tsunade during dinner time, and, according to Shizune, Rin had followed only moments later. Which meant Rin would have taken side streets, to be away from the evening crowds. 

Kushina turned down a side street, eyes scanning for any clues. Nothing was forthcoming, but she had a good feeling about where she was walking. Kushina walked up and down each street, eyes alert and chakra sense probing for Rin.

And then she felt it, the smallest flutter of Rin’s chakra. Kushina sprinted up the road and then up an alleyway, until she was standing over the broken, bloody form of her student. Rin was laying, spread-eagle in the alley, collapsed atop the lid of a trash bin. Her eyes were blackened, her nose broken, and a lump was forming on the side of her head. Rin’s entire face was one big bruise.

Kushina’s heart nearly stopped when she saw how hurt Rin was, and she scooped her up in a swift motion, hopping onto the rooftops and dashing back to Tsunade and Shizune. She didn’t take the time to use the door or walk up the stairs again. Instead she pushed the window to their room open with a gentle wind jutsu, and deposited Rin onto Shizune’s bed.

The black haired girl squeaked in shock and then gasped when she saw Rin’s injuries. “What happened?”

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna kill whoever did it,” Kushina snarled. “Can you heal her?”

Shizune’s hands were already glowing with chakra. “I’ll do my best.”

Kushina was a bundle of nerves, pacing back and forth in the room and trying to ignore the grating sounds of Tsunade’s snoring. Minutes trickled by, and then an hour. When Shizune’s hands finally dimmed and the thrum of chakra subsided, Kushina rushed back to the side of the bed.

“How is she?” 

“I fixed her face up just fine,” Shizune said. “But there’s something else. With her chakra, I mean. I don’t know how to fix it, so I left it alone.”

Kushina nodded, shoulder still tight with anxiety and tension. “That’s why we’re here. I want Tsunade to take a look at her.”

“What is it?” Shizune said curiously, eyes going back to where Rin lay.

“Ah…” Kushina said. “You know about my… situation?” Kushina’s hand settled over her stomach. Tsunade knew, and Kushina had always been awful at keeping it a secret. It had defined so much of her life, especially when she’d been a Genin and Chunin. Learning to control the massive ocean of chakra inside of her had led to more than one disaster.

“You’re pregnant?” Shizune asked. Her hands lit up again. “I can check if you—”

“No!” Kushina’s face was redder than her hair. “No. Not that.” She chuckled nervously and then sighed. “You know about how the hidden villages control the tailed-beasts, right?”

Shizune’s medical ninjutsu faded away again. “I think so. The villages control them somehow, right?”

“Control is a strong word,” Kushina said. “The tailed-beasts are sealed away, to be used as weapons.”

“I’ve never heard about it,” Shizune said. “But what does that have to do with Rin?”

“Well… that’s the shit part of it,” Kushina said. “The tailed-beasts are sealed inside of humans. I have the Kyubi sealed inside me, and someone kidnapped Rin on her last mission and sealed a beast inside of her, too.”

Shizune’s eyes were wide, and Kushina could feel the tremor of fear in her chakra. 

“Someone turned Rin into a time bomb. She can’t go back to the Leaf Village without her seal breaking— we think. I need to try and fix her seal, but something is messing with her chakra, and I’m afraid to try without having an expert take a look first.” Kushina sat on the edge of Rin’s bed. “I’m just trying to get her home.”

“I’m not skilled enough to do that,” Shizune said. “I’m sorry. Lady Tsunade probably can, but she— she’s not much help most days.”

Kushina chuckled, though her breath was shaky and the sound was strained. “Might be an understatement, Shizune. I’m hoping she’ll latch on to the chance to be the best ninja medic in the world again, and maybe it’ll help her take that first step to healing.”

A silence fell over them, and Kushina busied herself with brushing Rin’s hair out of her eyes, taking off her sandals, and gently holding her hand. And when Rin finally did stir, Kushina hovered over her like a mother hen.

“How are you feeling?” Kushina asked her gently when her eyes fluttered open.

“I got in a fight, Rin said, raising a hand to feel her face.

“I know,” Kushina whispered. “I found you in an alley. Shizune patched you up. What happened?” She shifted her weight to sit more comfortably beside Rin on the bed, and gently ran her fingers through her hair.

“There was a man hitting some woman. She couldn’t defend herself. I wanted him to stop, but my chakra… and he was fast. Like, faster than he should have been. I thought I could beat him.”

“Do you know who he was?” Kushina asked.

Rin shook her head. “No. I didn’t recognize him. I don’t think he was a ninja.”

There was a knock at the door then, and Kushina looked up from Rin while Shizune picked her way through the now too-crowded hotel room and answered. A man stood there, dressed formally and wearing a smile that didn’t meet his eyes.

“Good morning. I bring a message from Mister Kashiwagi.” He pulled an envelope from a pocket and handed it to Shizune. “Please pass that along to your master, he’s eager to see her.”

And then he was gone.

Shizune was staring at the seal on the envelope as she came back into the room.

“Everything okay?” Kushina asked.

Shizune shook her head. “It’s from Satori Kashiwagi. He’s collecting his debt.”

Kushina winced. Tsunade was a big gambler, but she lost a lot more than she won. “How bad?” 

Shizune opened the envelope and read the message. The poor girl’s hands trembled and gripped the paper tight. “Four million.”

“That can’t be right,” Rin said, forcing herself to sit up. “That’s an absurd amount of money.”

“No, it is,” Shizune said, hanging her head. “But I don’t know how she’s going to pay it back.”