There was so much that could have been said, in those seconds of dead silence as the two regarded each other with wide eyes. Rin had been gone for months, if not an entire year, and it was clear to her, looking at her teacher's narrowed eyes, that he wasn't exactly take her survival and appearance for given.

But there was no time to talk. It only takes one glance at the still squirming pieces of plant matter to remember – Tobi might be gone, but it hadn't been the only one.

"There are more of them," Rin blurted, taking advantage of the return of her control over her own body. "At least half a dozen. They can use Mokuton and travel underground - Madara already knows what happened, the others will be here within minutes –"

Minato-sensei widened his eyes at the mention of 'Madara', but thankfully, didn't stop to ask. He nodded once, decision made. "Then we will have to leave now."

Rin shook her head. Even now, it was only the large amounts of healing chakra she was pumping into Obito's body that he was even breathing, albeit increasingly shallowly. Any interruption in that, even as quick as Sensei's Hiraishin… "Sensei, in his condition… Obito won't survive the journey. I know how to heal him –"

There was pity in Minato-sensei's eyes. "Rin… with injuries like that, Obito won't survive either way." His words were halting, and his voice cracked at the end. It was a fact that he didn't want to acknowledge either.

But it wasn't a fact. He didn't know about the Zetsu plant matter, or how it had helped her survive the boulder. Nor was it something she could explain without sounding insane – which wouldn't be surprising to Sensei at all, considering the conditions of most prisoners of war.

"I can do it," she repeated, knowing full well that Minato-sensei could transport them against her will. "Sensei, please –"

A twitch, at the periphery of her thoughts, felt in the same way she could feel the power of Mokuton at her fingertips during the battle. Something was moving underground under her, a hundred feet – fifty – twenty-five – ten –

Her eyes widened, and Minato-sensei leaped in her direction just as Rin threw herself to the left with a grunt, eyes narrowed with the effort of keeping Obito alive. A second later, the earth erupted, and what could only be described as a monster, inhumanely pale with swirling tendrils, emerged and dove toward her, maw opened wide –

Sensei met it halfway with another Rasengan, but this time, the technique was far less effective. It only succeeded to force the creature back and away from Rin and Obito, where it began to consolidate in a vaguely humanoid, familiar form.

…Is that what Tobi looked like, unraveled…? It was an odd thought, borne half from hysteria. Rin shook it from her mind.

"They can regenerate – you have to destroy them completely!" She exclaimed.

Minato-sensei nodded, and, incongruously enough, smiled hugely. "I see. I'll take care of this. Just… Rin-chan, please, do what you can for Obito. Once this is over, Kakashi and Obito will be glad to have you back in the village!"

And with that, he dove forward – and Rin looked away, unable to keep the tears of joy from coming to her eyes. The prospect of finally going home again and seeing everyone again – her dad, her boys, Genma and Gai and all the rest of her friends… It seemed unbelievable. It would have been unbelievable just a few minutes ago, but now…

A quick twist of her arm essentially severed it, the plant matter collapsing into goo at the point of pressure. A simple modification of its structure made the rest of arm lose its shape and become soft and malleable.

It felt almost too easy… but then again, Madara hadn't been trained in medical ninjutsu. He had been a warrior forced into the role of scientist and researcher, and he had approached his resources the same way as he would any battle. He had figured it out over decades of seclusion. But Rin did have medical training, and she had been stuck underground for almost a year with nothing to do but investigate and develop. Medic-nin knew their way around the human body, and Rin was no exception.

The sounds of battle was deafening, and Rin had to work against the numbness stretching out from her chest – no doubt, Madara trying to exact his control again – in order to meld the plant matter with the edges of Obito's gaping wound. It was difficult, especially so with one hand with increasingly reduced mobility, but this was Rin's entire future at her hands. Going home again with her boys… depended on Obito surviving.

It was precision work. Rin could see now that Kakashi's chakra tail had punched right through Obito's upper abdomen, destroying the lower pair of ribs and luckily, missing his heart. That... was something even Rin could not heal.

But as inhumane the plant matter was, it took human cues very easily. It melded with human flesh and bone as if that was what it was meant for - and maybe it was. Rin didn't have the time to contemplate the frightening similarities between this plant matter and human flesh, however. Under the green glow of Rin's healing chakra, what had been two different substances entirely merged, leaving a disconcertingly pale splotch in the midst of pink, regrown skin.

Rin slumped back, satisfied by Obito's slow, constant breathing – asleep, hopefully, not unconscious. Without the pressing concern of Obito's health, she could again feel Madara's will asserting itself – returnreturnreturn was the refrain repeating itself in her mind with bring the boy as an afterthought, and she found that she had to force herself to stay in place.

Footsteps, behind her. With difficulty, she turned her head.

Minato-sensei looked between her and Obito, an unreadable expression on his face. "Rin, is he…?" He asked softly and hesitantly, as if he didn't want to know the answer.

"Stable," Rin managed with some difficulty. "Sensei, there's – a seal, over my heart, I can't – Take Obito back, but you have to destroy –"

She blinked. There was something that felt like paper stuck to her forehead, obscuring part of her vision.

Which was – blurring, darkening around the edges, and why couldn't she feel her chakra?

"A seal," Minato-sensei said simply, a somewhat sheepish expression on his face. "I used a similar one on Kakashi. Sorry Rin, we just need to get out of here now."

Ah. Right. Sensei and seals. Why didn't I think of that? Rin wondered, somewhat woozily, and fell forward.

She opened her eyes to see a cracked, white ceiling, feeling soft mattress under her body. Soft. After months of living in a cave, that was a word she didn't expect to use again.

Rin blinked. It took her a few seconds to realize just where she was, because unlike some people she knew, she didn't spend most of her time in the village resting up from really unnecessary injuries, thank you very much. She did spend a lot of time here in the Konoha Hospital, but... not from the patient's point of view. Most injuries she sustained in the field, she took care of herself.

Konoha Hospital. Konoha Hospital. She was back.

She couldn't stop the wide grin that appeared on her face, or the tears of joy that had begun to accumulate at the edges of her eyes - not that she wanted to, not at all. Rin let out a hysterical giggle - she was home!

"...Did you hear something?" Said someone from outside her room. Then, much more urgently, "Oh shit, no, Gai, stop -"

The door to her room slammed open with a bang - Rin didn't even have to see the green jumpsuit-ed leg in the doorway to know that her visitor had kicked it open.

"Rin-chan!" Gai shouted, tears streaming down his eyes and turning his jumpsuit a darker green. "My friend... you have finally awoken!"

Behind him, a rather uncertain-looking Genma peeked around the doorway, and visibly relaxed at the sight of her awake. "Dodged a kunai there," he muttered, walking in and shutting the door gingerly behind him. "If I let Gai storm into your room under a false alarm, that asshole teammate of yours would put me underground in pieces."

Somehow, Rin doubted Kakashi would do that. She smiled, however. "It's... good to see you two again, Gai, Genma."

"It's been a... pretty long time," Genma agreed, voice suspiciously choked.

Rin could tell. The passing of time didn't seem to register, with || unaging and effectively immortal. But Gai and Genma had grown a lot - there were muscles rippling under Gai's skintight jumpsuit than there was before, and baby fat had disappeared from both of their faces, making them look more angular.

More adult. Really, they had all been kids when Rin had... left - kids who had already taken lives, but kids nonetheless. Just like Obito -

She froze. Where was her team? "Gai, Genma... did Kakashi and Obito... are they okay?" Her mouth felt dry - Rin almost dreaded the answer.

Genma suddenly looked very awkward. Even Gai seemed to look a bit serious.

Rin slumped. "Please -" She choked out.

"It's... not as bad as you think," Genma said finally. "They're not dead." Still, it was clear that he was deliberately not saying something. "It kinda has to do with the reason why they're not here. I mean, Gai and I are probably not the welcome committee you expected. The Yondaime and his wife spent a lot of time in here after you came back - three or four days, at least. But I mean, the Yondaime's still the Yondaime, no matter how much he gives the clan heads the death glare, and his wife had to train with Kakashi. They recruited us to take their place during the day, but hey," he shrugged, "Gai and I would have agreed to it regardless."

The torrent of information made Rin blink. "The Yondaime - that's -" Memories of the white cloak. "That's Minato-sensei, right? And his wife..." No way... "Don't tell me -"

"Uzumaki Kushina is indeed the wife of the Yondaime, Rin-chan," Gai offered.

Rin punched the bed. "What!" She exclaimed, furious. "I - I can't believe it. I spend years setting them up in every way possible... and I missed their wedding! What the hell!"

Years of fantasies, down the drain. "Being the bridesmaid at Sensei and Kushina-san's wedding" had been up there with "having Kakashi as a boyfriend" and "cheering at Obito's swearing-in as Hokage" in terms of life goals. And that was robbed from her by a giant rock and a creepy old man.

"Rin, please calm down," Genma practically begged. He had been Rin's staunchest (but unwilling) ally in getting the two lovebirds together, what with asking Kakashi a very, very bad idea and Obito completely oblivious to most things romantic. "It's a bit of a secret anyways, and I wouldn't even be surprised if they had another ceremony -"

"I -" She was about to break into another tirade when - "Kushina-san's... been training a lot with Kakashi? And... three or four days? How long have I been here?"

"Two weeks," he said apologetically. Rin blanched. "Well... Apparently they had to run a lot of check-ups when you first got here. I probably know less than you do - heck, we didn't know you were alive until you had been in the village for a week. I guess it's some top-secret stuff, but..." Genma shrugged. "I don't know anything about what's going on with Kakashi. You'll have to ask him when he's -"

He turned pale. "Oh shit, we forgot to tell one of the nurses that you were awake! Shit, Gai and I are gonna get killed by the fucking Hokage, the Red-Hot Habenero, and Hatake fucking Kakashi -"

"I am certain that my Dynamic Entrance made that fact well-known," Gai offered.

"Okay," Genma replied sourly, expression haunted. "No murder, then. Just a hospitalization or two."

"I... don't think my team would react that badly..." Rin trailed off. Maybe Obito, but Obito would have to try very hard to put Gai or Genma in the hospital.

Gai and Genma exchanged a look. "Rin," said Genma finally, "you have no idea. Look, like I said, things changed a lot while you were gone."

Rin didn't ask further, because it was a clear attempt to steer her on a much happier point of conversation - and several mental pieces were clicking into place for a conclusion that made her guts twist coldly. There was one member of her team that Genma and Gai were both avoiding as if their lives depended on it. "...What happened to Obito?"

She hadn't known Gai could shuffle awkwardly, but he did so now. "You see, Rin-chan, upon your team's triumphant return to the village, my Eternal Rival -"

"Obito's in a coma," said Genma bluntly. "He's been in one since your team returned."

Rin blanched, the fingers on her single hand gripping the metal railing of the bed tightly.

"...What?" She croaked, disbelieving. Rin had healed him, she had been sure he was just sleeping, if the plant matter had allowed her to survive without half of her body, surely - "But - he was -"

For the second time that day, the door slammed open. Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at the horrifying abomination standing at the doorway into the room - eyes glowing a malevolent, poisonous yellow, blood red-tendrils of hair whipping around the air, several of them already wrapped around and dragging an unfortunate victim.

"YOU TWO!" She shouted, pointing at Genma and Gai, murder in her eyes as she stomped inside. "You were supposed to tell me directly, 'ttebane! But instead, I got a medic-nin crashing our training session and that moron over there," she gestured at the struggling victim entangled in her hair, "just went ballistic -"

"K-Kushina-san?" Rin interrupted weakly. The woman in question turned to stare at her with wide eyes, as if she hadn't fully registered her presence. What had been twisting tendrils of murder suddenly became regular hair, and Kushina's victim tumbled to the ground, revealing familiar gray hair and - "And... Kakashi?"

There was a moment of mutual silence, interrupted by Genma seeing an opportunity for escape. "Let's catch up later, Rin," he whispered, and before she could respond, ran quickly out the door, yanking Gai with him.

The door shut again with a click. Kakashi pushed himself to his feet to a grunt - just from first glance, the only change that Kakashi had underwent was that he was just a bit taller. Same messy hair, same obscuring face mask, same half-lidded eyes - though now boring into her with frightening intensity.

"Rin," he said in a monotone.

"Kakashi...?" Rin replied, a tad uncertainly. Where... was this going?

He just kept staring. She blinked uncomfortably.

Kushina twitched angrily, obviously fed-up with the lack of... well, anything. "Stop being a moron, dammit!" She exclaimed, jabbing a finger in Kakashi's face. "You can't just stare at her, 'ttebane! Ya know you have to say things out loud for other people to hear, don't cha?"

She shook her head, and straightened back up. "Good thing it's someone who's not gonna take your weirdness personally - Rin-chan knows all about your emotional constipation... doesn't she?" Kushina glanced over at Rin, who froze under the sudden spotlight.

"...Yes?"

Kushina sighed. "He's just pretending that he didn't Shunshin all the way here the second that nurse broke the news. And I still had to drag him in with me just because he was too scared to open the damn door and walk in, 'ttebane."

Rin stared at Kakashi, who carefully avoided her gaze.

"Kakashi, you were standing out there the whole time?"

He scoffed unconvincingly. "It would have been a waste of energy to travel the traditional way. Besides, you already had visitors with you. I was just waiting for them to leave."

Kushina put her face in her hands, muttering about 'men.' Rin couldn't help but smile - and sobered up just as quickly at the reminder of what Genma had told her.

"What's wrong with Obito?" She asked urgently. Both Kakashi and Kushina twitched at the question. "Before he left, Genma told me he was - that he was in some kind of coma. Did it have anything to do with the..." the plant matter, the unorthodox kind of healing that she had tested for the first time on him, she wanted to say, but couldn't get the words out.

"It was my fault," Kakashi said bluntly, but with the tone of a man heading to his executioner. "I... lost control and the seal was weakening, and Obito -"

"I know," said Rin shortly. "I saw how Obito got injured." Kakashi stared at her. "But I'm not talking about that... I tried healing him in the field with -" Well, she wasn't especially excited to explain the composition of half of her body to two laymen to medical science. "With an experimental technique. Since he's still alive, I guess it wasn't all for nothing... but why isn't Obito waking up?"

"To tell the truth," Kushina answered thoughtfully, after a long moment of contemplation, "nobody knows for sure. Experimental technique... you're talking about the stuff that's making up half of your body right now, yeah? And the stuff that's plugging up the hole in Obito's abdomen. I'm definitely not the best person to ask about this stuff, 'ttebane... but all I can say is that half the medic-nin in this hospital would give an arm to examine the stuff up close."

Rin's lack of an arm suddenly felt very conspicuous. Kushina turned red. "Dammit," she swore, "Sorry Rin-chan, it was just a -"

"It's not a big deal, Kushina-san." It really wasn't, not when losing an arm meant Obito would - might - live. "But... is there something wrong with how his body is reacting to it?"

"The medic-nin can't figure out why, 'ttebane. Obito-kun should be waking up, but for some damn reason, he just isn't." Kushina shook her head in frustration. "But... Oi, Rin-chan. Don't worry about Obito-kun too much, alright? He's tougher than you might think - he survived this long, didn't he? Besides," she added conspiratorially, "word of Minato is... Obito's going to get looked at by a Sannin."

"T-Tsunade-sama?" Rin gasped.

"Eheh... no, 'ttebane." Kushina scratched at the back of her head. "Well, I'm sure my idiot husband will hunt her down if we end up needing her, wherever she's hiding. No, Orochimaru agreed to help... surprisingly enough, 'ttebane. But hey, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth."

"Orochimaru-sama...?" she repeated, somewhat blankly. Out of all the people Rin would have expected to help out, the Snake Sage would not have been on the list at all.

But then again, Obito had actually enjoyed the man's company in the few times Sensei left them in Jiraiya-sama's care, who promptly roped in his teammate to help out - meaning, of course, to do the actual work while the man himself went to peek at girls in the bathhouses. It had been Obito who stayed to talk with the man while Rin and Kakashi practiced by themselves - when Rin had asked once, from pure curiosity, just what exactly the two had talked about, Obito had muttered a vague, "Parents." Though Rin really wasn't sure what that meant, per say, it was significant that Orochimaru hadn't made any attempt to avoid said conversations.

"Yeah... okay, honestly, I find the guy a bit creepy," Kushina admitted. "But when it comes to weird stuff like this, he definitely knows what's going on. Maybe even more than Tsunade."

"I'm not too worried about that," Rin admitted. "But... if it's possible, at all... I would like to talk to Orochimaru-sama. I'm sure he knows much more overall than I do, but I might know a bit more about Obito's specific situation. I mean... it happened to me too."

"...I have to warn you, the guy's not exactly the best conversationalist, 'ttebayo -"

"It's not an issue." Not when her best friend at stake.

Kushina nodded, though she didn't seem very enthused at the idea, just as an orderly peeked his head in through the doorway.

"Shinobi-san," he said respectfully, "I'm afraid visiting hours are over for today. The two of you can come back tomorrow - we allow visitors starting from seven in the morning."

"Visiting hours... over...?" Kushina blinked, staring at the dark sky outside. "No way - don't tell me we've already been here for -!"

"It's alright, Kushina-san," Rin said. "I'm actually feeling a bit tired now. I think... I have all my pressing questions answered for now," not really, "and I'm still going to be here tomorrow!" She tried a weak smile.

"Agh, fine," the other woman acquiesced. "Kakashi and I will come see you early tomorrow, then. Don't forget!" And then, in a confidential whisper, said, "...My idiot husband will be coming along too, 'ttebane. But... not entirely on personal business. Those asshole advisors of his are demanding to know where you've been, and how you survived - they want someone to blame for the Kiri catastrophe, 'ttebane - but like hell if we're going to let them!"

She gave her a thumbs up and a wide grin. Rin smiled back - and then the two of them were gone.

The orderly clicked off the lights and shut the door, and Rin found herself alone and left in darkness, suddenly feeling very empty.

Maybe she had expected too much – that just by coming back to the village, everything would be okay. But Obito was in a coma that nobody knew how to get him out of, there was something off with Kakashi that he didn't feel at all comfortable to say, and without an arm… Rin wasn't exactly fit for duty. In fact, with the Hokage's own advisors coming after her… and where was her dad? Did he even know she was still alive?

She sighed softly, and leaned back – just as a dark figure jumped through her open window and landed on the ground with a thump.

The only reason Rin didn't attack automatically was because the person's chakra signature was familiar and - "Kakashi?" She whispered, surprised. "Why are you here again?"

Kakashi straightened up, his silver-gray hair a beacon in the darkness. "I didn't have time to say what I needed to say," he said simply.

"Kakashi, you did just… stare at me for a whole minute," Rin pointed out weakly.

He shook his head. "That's beside the point. Rin – you said that you saw… saw what I did to Obito."

"I was – there, yes."

"At what point?" He persisted. She told him, in short, blunt sentences what exactly she had seen.

Kakashi looked sickened, but somewhat satisfied, as if something had been confirmed to him. "The timing was too coincidental," he told her. "You could have arrived minutes before, or minutes after – but just at that moment… means that events had been arranged specifically for things to play out as they did."

"My captor –" Rin stopped, suddenly very unsure. "My captor wanted me to leave at that exact time," she said again, but there was something missing, and she just couldn't put a finger on it.

"Who was your captor?" Kakashi asked, eyes narrowed and alert.

And it was then that Rin realized… she didn't know. It was as if her memories of the past few months had been… blurred, like what wind did to sand on the beach. They were there, and she knew vaguely that she had been underground, had gained Mokuton, had left – but who it had been, where she had been, why – it was all a mystery. Once she had penetrated the veneer, there was nothing there.

It was frightening, that something or someone could just – go into her head like that, and pluck out her life and experiences. "Kakashi, I don't know. I can't remember –"

There was an odd sound that Rin identified only after a few seconds as the grinding of teeth. "The seal," Kakashi said at last. "Sensei said he removed a seal from your heart with great difficulty, but there could have been some kind of complications –"

"Then – how am I supposed to testify? Nobody would believe me, not when I don't remember anything specific about months of captivity –"

"It wouldn't be as extreme as that," Kakashi disagreed. "But… the emphasis the advisors had put on your testimony… it's odd, especially since they wanted someone to blame with what happened to Obito and me. It means… someone knew that you wouldn't remember."

Rin blinked. "Someone knew –" And that someone would have to be somewhere in the upper hierarchy of Konoha's political power. "Does Minato-sensei know about this?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No… Obito and I suspected something going on after certain... activities were occurring without Sensei's approval, but Sensei was too close to the possible suspects. If the perpetrator knew that Sensei had any suspicion…"

"But – Minato-sensei is the Yondaime," she argued. "He's the Hokage."

"Rin, trust me. Konoha isn't as simple as any of us thought it was."

Rin was silent. "This is why… you didn't want to talk to me with Kushina in the room, right? And why you waited for Gai and Genma to leave." He nodded.

She let out a long breath. "Kakashi, you said - "what happened to Obito and me." That day, your chakra was... monstrous, you're training with Kushina-san, and you mentioned a seal. Are you... a jinchuuriki?"

There was a long moment before Kakashi sighed. "Yes. I am the jinchuuriki of the Sanbi - the Kiri nin had sealed it into me so I would destroy the village... at least, that is what the official report says. Personally... I think there was another reason why."

"...What... are you saying?"

"Rin. There is someone with a great deal of political power in this village who wanted Obito and I to kill each other - and for you to see it. They never expected Obito to use non-lethal measures, and for him to survive my attack." He grimaced. "Someone who is either working with your captor, or is your captor."

Kakashi's eyes turned serious. "And... I think I know who."

[A/N: Ridiculously late, and far longer than I initially expected. I'm pretty exhausted from typing all of this up in the span of a few hours, and I'm not sure how this fic took the turn it did - it was supposed to end in sappy, saccharine reunions and a straightforward happy ending, but I just got swept away halfway through this chapter. This is definitely not my best writing, but I rather get it out now than scrapping it again like I did with the last 5 drafts of this chapter...

Of course, I'm sure there are timeline issues. Orochimaru's still in the village - for reasons that stem from butterflies due to Obito remaining within the village - and probably not as evil as he is in canon. Yes, the blackkkat Orochimaru-redemption bug has finally bit me. The reference to Orochimaru and Obito's conversations is based off of their relationship in ShikiKyuu's fics (read them, they're amaaaazing) but they'll probably be built on more in Obito and Kakashi's side of the story [which is coming... one day. Maybe even later than I expected because this fic isn't ending as quickly as I expected...]

For reasons stemming from that particular butterfly... Danzo, Tenzo, and various others will have slightly different origins/roles than in canon. I dunno for sure. I might be getting too complicated, but... eh.]