Making friends with demons
What is a person meant to do if they survive death the first time? When that person has truly accepted their bleak fate, no matter the time they have to accept it, and decided to act on it, only for it to fail in the end. They might leave unfinished business in the end, but in those moments of clarity nothing is left on their mind, but how their sacrifice can help the world. How can that person live with themselves if that sacrifice ended up being for nothing and only ends up hurting more people in the end?
It took some hours to get a clean break away from the Konoha Hospital, making sure Rin wasn't followed or being tracked by anyone, and finally being able to go someplace for a little peace and quiet. Unable to remember the last time she had truly been able to be left alone, the desire to escape the ideas of reality was something the newly awakened jinchuuriki desired most in the world at the time. It was just something that she needed to be patient with and wait for the perfect opportunity to achieve. Before her, capture, the jinchuuriki would have never thought she would have ever wanted to leave a place made for someone like her as a medical kunoichi, but the environment was turning Rin crazy. She was no longer someone of use to the hospital and now instead was a healing victim.
She felt too cooped up now that the world had changed since she woke up, and though she had a little more healing to do to her chakra system, her mind was not listening to her body. But with her skills being brought almost down to the level of an academy graduate, Rin had to do some old-school planning and timing for the nurses to properly slip away. Well, and smoke bombs to escape the guards that were placed to watch her. It wasn't hard to tell that Minato sensei was being pushed to place guards over her with the fear rising from people finding out that she was a jinchuuriki. It only took the one wrong person to find out what she was for all of Konoha and Kirigakure to end up in a political nightmare.
"Probably have thirty minutes before I'm tracked down, but it's better than hearing that damn heart machine. I can't be the only one annoyed with that thing." Looking around the familiar terrain, the female was just happy to have gotten to her desired location with no real issues, though she knew that wasn't going to stay that way for long. Her hand patted her stomach, mostly the seal, as a way to try to talk to her passenger whom neither of them signed up for. Rin always tried to see the positives in life, and the change in environment was good for both of them.
It didn't take long for the outside environment to bring a new sense of calm to her life, even if it was during the nighttime. She was just enjoying the clean fresh air blowing through her now longer hair and enjoying the smell that didn't like cleaning solution, alcohol, or antiseptic spray. The jinchuuriki was curious to ask if the smell annoyed the bijuu as it annoyed her, but Rin doubted she would even get a response of any kind.
The kunoichi counted down the time since leaving the hospital to see how long it took to get there to her destination. The idea of time was a foreign thing for the still-healing jinchuuriki, but she was used to counting hours or minutes, and not the days. The hospital workers refused to tell her what will happen to her after she gets better to finally leave and never have to come back, but Rin didn't care about the future at that moment. She only cared about the peace of mind she was going to get for the next little bit of time.
The moon was high in the sky and was used as the only light for most of her trip once she was on the outskirts of towns and homes of people. It wasn't like she needed light to remember the way to the training grounds, but it did make the night seem a bit more peaceful than during the day. Panting a few times from overdoing it, Rin had to stop in her tracks several times, but not any longer than a few seconds to catch her breath. She felt like her lungs were on fire and that her heart was going to beat out of her scarred chest, but she wasn't going to stop, she was too close to stop.
Coming up to three huge log stumps, the jinchuuriki placed her hand on one to lean on for a few more moments. "Almost.. there. So close." Even thinking was exhausting, but she found a bit more energy when the site of her true destination came into her view. A huge smile crossed her lips as she pushed off the vertical log and jumped over to the very bright monument. "I know I could make it." The female whispered with pride as the memorial stone came closer with every step. She stopped in front of the giant blue memorial stone and stood up straighter in front of it. After a few more pants, still with a smile on her face, she looked at the sky, then once her breath was handled, she looked down at the stone.
Two or three more breaths passed her lips and she wasn't surprised that mist poured from her lips a few times as well on the way there, but luckily it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared so it didn't give away her position. The jinchuuriki's brown eyes glanced over the moonlit shine coming from the stone and noticed that sensei was right about it getting repaired after she had a mental break and the bijuu caused her to crack it a week or two prior. That memory hurt more than actually walking out of the cold hospital the first time, but this walk was less painful than the last. And of course, knowing her strength meant she wasn't going to put her hands anywhere near the stone. Not until she was able to train with Maito to help control this new monstrous strength.
Placing her hands together, Rin closed her eyes and started to pray for the gods above and more importantly to say some words to her best friend up there as well: Obito Uchiha.
It was quiet for a few minutes as Rin tried to pray all she could and think of, only for the quiet to break from a surprising guest speaking up from within her body. If not for several things, the jinchuuriki would have forgotten he was there. Opening her eyes, the jinchuuriki gasped out when she wasn't in the real world anymore, but in a strange place that only she seemed to be able to enter. Something called a seal domain or whatever Lady Kushina had called it, either way, it was still something that frightened her when she appeared there out of nowhere.
"What's with the rock? You came out here for this rock, again?" The seal was completely pitch black and silent if everything was still, but that was rare for the inhabitant to stay still like that, not when it hadn't met his new host that much. Every step she took agitated the water's surface and caused a beautiful ripple of blue light to erupt over it. The splashing had a lasting effect too, stretching out for as far as her eyes could see until the water settled down again when Rin stopped moving.
It took a moment or two for her eyes to get used to dark lighting, and from what very little memory she had of the place, Rin started to wade through the ankle-deep water until she felt what she was 'looking' for. Carefully her foot found the bars that were below the surface of the water, the only thing telling her of their placement was the different feeling they made when she walked on one. If the jinchuuriki wasn't careful, she could have fallen through the bars too, but luckily that wasn't going to happen.
Leaning over in the disgusting hospital gown she was forced to wear, Rin swallowed some slight fear, hesitated a bit, but ended up looking down at the giant chasm-like well in the ground. The well-like structure was deep enough, filled to the top with matching dark water like that all around her, but no matter what little light she could make when shuffling through the water, Rin couldn't see the bottom of the hole. It was probably for the best that the jinchuuriki also listened to her other inner voice, telling her not to just jump in or else it would be the end of her life. Even now, that voice was screaming for her to get away from the hole, but she couldn't just ignore the voice forever. That would get her nowhere. "What did you say?" Rin called out to the giant hole, only for huge waves to start being produced and the whole area to erupt in full blue light when the creature within the hole started moving upward toward the surface.
The bijuu moved so effortlessly throughout the hole that it barely made any splashes. The only blame for the splashes came when the water moved around its spiky hide and hit the walls of the small well, allowing the bioluminescent water to slowly light up the bijuu's long body.
Taking a step back in fear, Rin had to swallow it and hold her ground when a giant red eye came to greet her to the best of its ability... Only one was open, but it wasn't hard to see it was attached to an even bigger spikey beast, and she was unable to see the very end of it because it was shrouded in darkness. The beast floated just out of her view, her only real company was the iridescent red and yellow eye, but Rin was being patient for something that didn't deserve such a thing.
"I couldn't hear what you said before, what did you say, sanbi?" The jinchuuriki questioned the bijuu as she tried to take the chance to finally speak to the beast, but couldn't hide her frustration when she was pulled into the seal when they only had minutes to spare in the real world. She could only guess the frustration also melted in from the pain and exhaustion Rin felt in the real world and some mixed emotions from the bijuu, itself, but didn't know how that worked yet. Trying to be strong in the moment, Rin couldn't help but gasp out in fear when the bars of the water cage were suddenly grasped by the turtle's hands and she fell back in fear. Her eyes widened and she scooted back even further down them and onto the actual side of the sealing well, the only thing saving her was that the bars didn't bend, break or shudder against the pathetic attempt by the three tails.
It was hard to ignore the burning in her stomach from the newly placed seal upon her stomach each time the sanbi tried to break out, but it was more extreme when inside the actual seal. "H-hey! S-stop that. Please.. stop.." Rin pleaded as she crawled back to the edge of the water on her knees and clinched to her stomach as this was something even she could feel within the confines of the seal. With the pleading and lack of progress, the turtle let go of the seal only to hiss in pain from its actions. It looked down at its hands and saw the scorching marks of electricity that seemed to be lined throughout the bars and seal. Rin didn't feel the effects, but it was an extra precaution put up to keep the injured jinchuuriki and village safe from the three tails' wrath.
Sitting on the butt as the water seemed to still once again after a few moments, when the turtle stopped moving completely in the water, Rin questioned if he had floated down to the bottom, but once she started to shimmy over to the side, she was surprised to see that the bright red eye moved to look at her again. "T-thank you for stopping that… Now, What did you say?" Asking in a softer tone, the jinchuuriki clinched her arms around her legs and looked down at the strangely still turtle. The turtle stared at her, only for it to slowly come up closer to the water, but Rin could feel the cautious emotions from the beast.
".... Why did you come here..?" Repeating itself, the turtle watched his new jinchuuriki's reaction when he repeated himself only to glare at her for a bit when she didn't answer right away. It was sure that Rin had heard him, but wasn't sure where her manners had gone at the moment, only for his inpatients to come early when she finally answered his question. "This is a memorial marker for a teammate. His name was Obito Uchiha and he was my best friend. He was a victim made during the war before we met, three tails." Returning to the real world, Rin opened her eyes and used her hospital gown sleeve to clean off Obito's name, only to sigh again.
"I guess it's been a while since I've come to visit, huh, Obito?" Whispering again, the jinchuuriki stood up and turned around to look at the training field. She had other plans to do while there, but couldn't just leave things like they were.
"Thank you for being quiet while I prayed." No outer reaction from the turtle, but Rin calmed down enough after a minute or two to dip her bare feet into the deeper water while she sat on the edge of the chasm within their seal. She knew she was still fast enough to get away if the turtle tried something, but something told her that he wasn't even going to try. The turtle blew some bubbles as if he was sighing as if defeated by something. "When did this Obito die?" Able to hear the turtle better, Rin softly smiled down toward the turtle and shrugged. She didn't know the answer. "Maybe two years ago, but I'm still trying to understand how much time we've been together.." Of course it had been longer, maybe almost two and a half, but she had no real concept of time yet. Only really knowing all the bad things she caused by her failed attempt.
"Give me a second. Let's just test how badly I have reverted my skills as a ninja." Rin looked down at her hands in real life, slowly getting used to the pain that hit her whenever she reverted from the seal and back to reality. " It couldn't be that bad, but maybe it was.." With slight hope, she was going to prove the medical staff at the hospital wrong. She couldn't be that screwed up. Especially with her being a newly made jinchuuriki, those were pretty powerful beings, if she was anything like Kushina. Just had to be positive.
Starting with the basics, the female slowly walked past the three logs and toward the water of a river that flowed nearby. Focusing the chakra to her feet, Rin didn't feel any different than any time she did before, but she did feel a strange pulling sensation from her chest and stomach when she reverted her chakra. " So you have a lot of chakra as a demon, sanbi?" The female questioned as she stood on the shore with a little fear of what was going to be the truth if this failed. The name seemed to cause the turtle's glare to turn harsher and hiss in disgust, even slowly moving closer to the surface of the water. Even in real life, Rin's subconscious self sat on the side of the seal with her feet in the water and within grabbing distance of the turtle. It helped that she was distracted too.
"Isobu.." The turtle spoke out loud, but Rin was focused and feared the truth too much to pay more attention to the turtle. Hesitant for another minute, Rin paced the shoreline before taking a deep breath and just jumping onto the surface of the water. Landing as if it was a flat surface, the female gasped out as she seemed to wobble but held the jutsu pretty well. "Okay..okay I think I got this.." Whispering out loud, the jinchuuriki looked down at her feet with a small grin. "Maybe not a genin. So that's good." She spoke out again as if talking to herself, trying to keep herself calm, but couldn't hide the smile that grew upon her lips from what little progress she made.
"Itoba..? What did you say?" RIn asked as she slowly took some steps on the water surface to check her skills, waiting for the turtle to repeat himself. "Girl, pay attention!" Hissing in frustration, the sanbi headbutted the cage and caused Rin to lose focus out of fear and discomfort. Losing it in real life, Rin looked as if she tripped over something causing her to plummet into the water. It was shallow enough that it wasn't hard for her to jump back to the surface of the water, but she landed dramatically on her side on the rocky shore. "D-damn beast.. why is it so cold now?.." She whispered and whimpered softly from being wet.
It wasn't normally an issue, but Rin was far from being prepared to be completely drenched like that. Even testing out the water walking jutsu, the fear of failing and getting wet was an issue that passed her mind, but she didn't think it would end up with her whole body becoming soaked like that. Especially since it chilled her to the core."Isobu.. that's what you said right!?" The jinchuuriki grumbled out in her head as she clenched tightly to her damn thin hospital gown. Turning her body to sit on her butt again, she managed to pull the gown enough to reach and untie the straps in the back of it. She opened the front to look at the wet bandages underneath. Her whole chest was wrapped in drenched, white bandages that covered her full chest, shoulders, and upper stomach.
"What is 'Isobu'?" While sitting on the back side of her gown, Rin started to rip her worthless bandages off in frustration. With each bandage rip-off, more scarring started to peek out from underneath it, but Rin took a deep breath, just lifted her head, and chose to look away toward the memorial instead.
"Damn wench, I'm Isobu. That's my name, yeah." The two glared at each other in the seal as Rin quickly got over her fear of the turtle, and the frustration of getting wet helped push that button. "You're Isobu? You beasts have names?" The female clinched her eyes shut in real life and ran her fingers over the scarring over her breast, even letting out a small whimper from the different texture. The cold water brought her extra pain, but it was more the memories of it all that still haunted her as if it was just yesterday. "Yes, girl, we have names. You, humans, refuse or have outright forgotten about them throughout the years of us being alive."
Letting out another few bubbles, the turtle moved closer to the surface and closer to the kunoichi. He could feel the pain and depression that came over the two of them when she felt the bumps and ridges caused by the Chidori scarring. They hurt him just like they hurt her. "What makes you think you deserve the right for me to call you by your name?" Rin pulled back from the side of the well-like structure and paced around it while Isobu watched her every movement. Kicking the water's surface as she knew she had no real power over the beast's movements within the seal, but she just tried to get out some of her frustration. Poor bijuu didn't deserve that pointed anger sent his way, something Rin would think about later.
"What do you mean 'deserve'? That's my name. You humans have no right on this planet to call us anything else, yeah!" The three tails kept his back on the edge of the chasm so she was in his sights fully, but they knew they couldn't do anything to each other. Well, to a degree. "And you have no right to treat me like a piece of garbage. Don't you think we've been through enough without you calling me a brat or wench? My name is Rin Nohara. And because of you, I'm all wet."
The female stomped her foot down and paced a few more times to try to stay calm. The sanbi thought for a moment before hissing softly, knowing how to push the button once again. "And you're the reason we have a broken vessel now." Those words made Rin stop in her tracks and she had to put one hand on her head as it felt like it was on fire. She knew she was broken, and ugly with these scars. No one had the full to tell her to her face yet. Not that Rin trusted the three tails by a long shot, and the jinchuuriki wasn't sure what to make of this newly formed relationship, but it still hurt to hear it from the three tails.
"And you lost your right to be called Isobu, three tails." Rin glared down at the beast and cut off her ties to seal for now, ignoring the burning that came from her stomach from the bijuu's way of complaining back.
"It's not like I chose to survive. " Putting her arm back in the front of the moist gown, the jinchuuriki reached back to try to grab the ties but failed to even get her arm past her chest without the pain in the scarring of her shoulder causing her to pull her arm back and clinch her shoulder with her other hand. She was going to need physical therapy to get her limbs and muscles back in working order if she was to pull through with this. If the fates didn't have any other plans for her.
Getting to their feet, Rin rang out some more water from the fabric and held her arms over her chest with a shiver. Getting wet was never an issue for her, but she felt like her temperature was out of control ever since she first woke up. Just one more thing to bring up to the doctors when they forced her to go back to the hospital, which she knew would be any moment now. Or even sooner. "Look at the predicament I'm in now, Obito. I'm sure you would have saved me from the hospital long ago." She spoke out as she looked at the sky, only for her to rest her fingers on her neck to feel her erratic heartbeat. As she started to shiver, her finger clinched to the wet cloth for dear life.
Looking at the area surrounding her, Rin started to catch on that she was being watched. She felt as if her reaction time was faster now than any time before her accident, but even then she felt like she could be faster with it. It wasn't hard to count the watching eyes on her, and something about the chakra streams attached to them felt familiar, but she ignored them. She needed to try out something before they forced her to go back to that damn place. Something that she had tried to master in her free time as a tribute to her best friend, Obito. Something that was making real progress until she was kidnapped.. again and turned into a freak. A monster to her village. Something that shouldn't have survived.
"Please.. please let me have this one thing. I don't care if I have to rework from the bottom, I just need this one thing.." Looking down at her hands, taking in a few breaths, Rin got to her feet and paced over toward the flowing river as a way to not cause too much damage if she messed this up and began to perform some hand signs. "At least I can remember your technique, Obito.." Flexing her hands a few times, she could feel how out of shape she had been with being bed bound for so long.
Snake, ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger! "Fire style: fireball jutsu!" Thinking up the jutsu after doing hand signs, Rin took in a big breath of air as she focused on nothing in particular as a target but anything over the river, held her thumb and pointer finger over her lips, and was ready to blow. She felt it working, maybe she wasn't as broken as she thought.
As she began to blow, her eyes grew wide with shock as the wrong element filled her mouth. Rin felt as if she was drowning as pools of water produced down her chin, causing the female to grasp her neck and fall to her knees. Water poured from her lips as the poor kunoichi begged for breath that simply wasn't coming. Clenching her hands into fists, she watched as water poured from her mouth and into the river in front of her, but felt no stop to the jutsu any time soon. "Water? It's supposed to be on fire!" Coughing out more water, the female felt her skin crawling as the two watching figures started to make their way toward her with incredible speed.
Whoever was approaching her, the jinchuuriki could only hope that it was a friend and not a foe. Not like she was in any condition to protect herself.