"Tch. What an annoyance. Die already."

Rin grimaced. She had managed to avoid being impaled by the Iwa-nin's ice pillars, but the one-sided fight was getting ridiculous. How did a ninja from Stone know ice ninjutsu?

"I'm a medic! I thought Iwa follows Yashua Rules of Engagement!"

"Does it look like I give damn, little Leaf-nin?" With a maniac grin on his face, the ice-using Iwa-nin continued his onslaught.

Rock and ice rained down. With honed skill and sheer luck, Rin avoided most of the shrapnel. A javelin of ice materialize in front of her torso as she readied to hop from a tree branch.

"The battle is over, kunoichi. It is my win."

"Kawarimi no Jutsu!" Rin exchanging herself with a mixture of branches and snow. She had just dodged what would have been a sure kill. As the ice spear collided with the kawarimi, the mixture shattered.

Rin took the opportunity and distanced herself from the enemy.

"No use delaying the inevitable, the outcome of this battle has been predicted the moment your teammates decided to charge in head first." The Iwa-nin spoke to the empty battle ground.

Rin understood her situation perfectly well. She was near chakra depletion, with lacerations all over her body from battles days ago. She searched through her inventory of ninjustu. Things weren't looking good. But Rin held firm. She was a shinobi, and shinobis made their own luck.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu." She whispered.

It was a far-fetched idea, but it could work. She remembered Minato explaining the theory behind the technique. And she was counting on the more convoluted nature if the technique. It was said that under dire situations, with the right intention and spiritual energy, it was possible to summon a creature to aid you, even without a contract.

Rin's eyes widened with hope as the summoning circle expanded and unwound under her palm. But what little sliver of hope she had literally died with a puff of smoke. The summon failed.

The Iwa-nin smiled. "I see you, little girl." She could almost hear his hands move as seals were rapidly made. She recognized the jutsu. It was the same technique that wiped out her teammates. The Iwa-nin was going to use a mid-range area effective technique. "Let's see you evade this!"

Rin watched with trepidation as eight spheres made of ice and stone levitated from the ground. "Dodge!" she commanded herself. But she wasn't fast enough. While the spheres were easily avoidable, the waves of rock and ice shards it shot out were not.

Rin was dying. She could see one of her foot lying a meter away. "How lame."

"I'm tired of this cat and mouse game, little Leaf-nin, you have performed adequately for a genin. I will finish this quick."

The sound of metal meeting flesh echoed throughout the battlefield.

Chapter 0 - From the Future

Rin was floating, up and down, up and down, in a simple sine wave pattern. Up and down, up and down. Then the world crashed down on her as she regurgitated everything in her stomach.

"I'm dead?"

"No, the dead do not get motion sickness." The voice did not sound amused.

Rin tensed. Was she being transported toward an Iwa camp?

"I would prefer you did not throw up on me. What is your name, genin?"

"I'm a chunin." She didn't know whether to laugh or be offended.

"You fought like a genin. What is your name?" The voice commanded.

Rin answered by promptly vomiting again and passing out.

The man carrying Rin frowned. She was also bleeding over him too.

"Genin, wake up. You are bleeding on me."

Rin couldn't tell how much time has passed since she's been perched on his shoulders. But she could still feel the rise and fall of the man steps. "What am I going to do, I need to contact Konoha," she thought to herself.

"You can stop pretending, I know you are awake."

Alarmed, Rin peeked through one of her eyes. She caught the sight of his tattered and bloodstained robe fluttering in the hair.

"I can tell that you're a Konoha-nin. What were you doing in Iwa?" The voice continued.

Rin held her lips shut. The enemy was lacking information. That was her advantage. She heard him sigh and felt herself being laid onto the ground. "Let's get you healed up first, maybe then you will be more willing to talk."

Rin's captor gently laid her on the ground. The man was a few years older than her. His golden hair was messy and unkempt while his navy-blue eyes appeared to suck in all the light surrounding him. Rin noticed the teal jounin vest that he wore underneath his robe.

"Pay attention to your leg, I need your full cooperation if you want to walk again."

A wave of a nausea hit her as she looked at her legs. She was missing a foot. Rin was a medic and understood what was implied. The chances of her having a full recovery approached zero.

The man noticed her weary expression. "Do not worry, I will fix you."

"Who are you," she started to ask, but was interrupted by having her pants taken off without notice.

"Quit squirming." His gaze was stern.

Rin reluctantly nodded and observed with interest. At the end of her leg where a foot should have been, only a seal tag existed. She was further disturbed when her captor took out a seal-covered foot from his backpack along with a brush and a jar of ink.

He looked into her eyes and commanded, "do not move."

Rin was felt uncomfortably vulnerable as he hovered over her. Before she can comment on the situation, a peach tone graced her cheeks. Much to Rin's annoyance, the seal's origin was anchored to her inner thigh. She couldn't help shiver as his brush delicately danced across her skin.

It took what felt like forever for the seals to be applied. He looked at her. "I need you to channel all the chakra you have to that leg when I say so, understood?" It wasn't a question.

"Y- yes." She felt disgusted at how meek she was.

The man made an incision in his palm. Beads of blood trickled and rained down on to her leg. She saw the seals unwind and slither as if they had a mind of its own. Warmth spread throughout her. "Now."

Rin gritted her teeth and forced chakra into her leg. Her body was on fire. What was the man doing? Just as she was about to ask, he aligned the tags on her foot with the seals on her leg and pieced them together. It was the strangest feeling. The seals started to beat in synch with her heart. Nausea washed over as her world dimmed.

The scene that greeted her as she regained consciousness was unfamiliar. The starry sky above her, the trees around her, and the man sitting next to her - everything was unfamiliar. He lightly coughed to get her attention. Rin looked at him. That was the man that saved her. Judging from his hitai-ite and how he sat, the man was probably a high ranking Konoha-nin, possibly nobility. But she has never seen him before.

He looks like Minato-sensei, maybe he's a relative coming back from an extended mission.

Her musing was cut short. "You should be able to walk once you get some sleep. But it will take you a few month to regain full mobility."

The ability to reattach appendages wasn't unheard of, but it was certainly a rare skill.

But to be able to do so under such unaccommodating conditions and using only fuuinjutsu!

The seals on her leg and foot were meticulously interwoven. Rin looked at her savior in wonder.

"Here," he handed her a scroll, "Your appearance is indecent."

"What?" Rin gasped at her state of attire. "You asshole. You're the one that ripped off my pants in the first place!"

"They were dirty, you would have gotten an infection."

"Sh- Shut up!"

"I'll go set up camp."

A pair of neatly folded white pants fell into her lap as she activated the scroll. "These are!" Rin's eyes shinned in recognition. She couldn't help but wonder, "Who is that guy?"

Dinner was a simple affair, ration bar and herb soup.

"This taste bad. Shouldn't you be feeding me something delicious for a speedy recovery? And why aren't you drinking that horrible soup?"

"Huh," He nodded. "I will cook tomorrow. The ration bar replenishes calories. The herbal soup is a blood supplement. I did not sustain any injuries so it is unnecessary for me to consume any."

"You're being an asshole now."

A moment of silenced followed.

"Thanks for saving me and all. But it's not like I needed your help."

He continued diligently eating his ration bar and did not respond.

"And sorry about the whole vomit and blood thing." Rin laughed sheepishly.

"Do not worry about it, I burned the robe."

Embers danced and the firewood cracked.

"Who are you?" They asked simultaneously.

Silence.

The man finished eating. "I am Uzumaki Naruto, Rokudaime Hokage."

A mouthful of herbal soup was sprayed all over Naruto's face.

"That's impossible, Namikaze Minato was just appointed as the Yondaime Hokage a month ago."

"Oh."

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