Kakashi's POV
It's been half a month since Rin and I were stationed on the Mist border.
Our orders were simple on paper: reinforce the eastern front. Minato-sensei had been sent elsewhere, his assignment deemed too critical to join us. I understood why. He was more valuable where he was.
Still... I wish he'd been here.
The moment we arrived at the border camp, the real situation made itself clear. Intelligence had confirmed it: Over two hundred elite Kiri shinobi had been deployed to overwhelm this region.
Not disrupt. Not harass. Overwhelm.
Since that day, Rin and I have barely slept, barely breathed.
Every sunrise brought another wave of coordinated attacks, precision strikes meant to grind us down. Every night, we moved in the shadows, trying to bleed them back with ambushes and sabotage.
But no matter how many we killed, more came. It was like emptying the ocean with a cup.
Yesterday, we were ordered directly to the warfront. I was placed in command of a six-man unit and sent into a kill zone alongside other Konoha forces.
Fifty Mist-nin. All elite.
We clashed under a sky blackened by fire jutsu and ash, the battle dragging through the night like some cursed dream. Screams echoed through the smoke. Steel clashed. Jutsu exploded across the field like lightning splitting the earth.
My blade moved automatically, parrying, stabbing, cutting. I lost count of how many fell into my hand.
By dawn, it was over.
Barely.
I stood in the silence of the aftermath, the metallic tang of blood in my nose, dried chakra residue on my skin, my body too numb to feel anything.
And then I looked for her.
"Rin!"
I moved through the carnage, eyes darting from corpse to corpse. Torn vests. Burnt flak jackets. Slashed faces. None of them hers, but that didn't ease the pressure choking my throat.
She wasn't among the living. Or the dead.
The silence grew louder.
I searched more desperately now, pushing bodies aside, stepping over broken kunai and shattered masks. I called her name again and again.
No answer.
My heartbeat was all I could hear, thudding louder than the wind.
Then, I spotted someone.
One of my squadmates. Barely alive. Slumped against a boulder, blood soaking his side.
I rushed over, kneeling, hands already pulling out supplies. First aid. Medicine. I pressed a clotting agent to his wound, forced a soldier pill between his lips, and stabilized his breathing.
His eyes fluttered open, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.
"C-Captain… Rin-san…"
I froze.
"What happened?" I asked, barely able to get the words out.
"She was healing me… last night… after the ambush. We were separated from the others."
He coughed. Shuddered.
"I tried to stop them. I tried. But… they got her. Took her. I think… I think they were Mist ANBU…"
The air vanished from my lungs.
I didn't realize how tightly I was gripping the bandage roll until it crumpled in my hand.
They took her.
I let them take her.
For a moment, my vision blurred, ot from pain, not from blood loss, but from something heavier. That crushing weight that comes when a promise starts to break under your feet.
I had sworn to Obito that I would protect her. That I would keep her safe.
And now she was gone.
No. Not gone. Not yet.
I stood slowly, the cold wind drying the sweat on my face. My limbs screamed in protest, but I didn't care. I turned to my wounded comrade, forcing calm into my voice.
"You did well. Reinforcements are on their way. Hold on."
Then I moved.
I formed a single seal, forcing my chakra to stabilize.
"Summoning Jutsu."
My palm slammed to the dirt. A ripple of black ink spread outward before exploding into a white cloud of smoke. From within it emerged seven dogs, alert and silent, surrounding me in a tight formation.
At their center sat Pakkun, calm as ever, scarf fluttering lightly in the breeze.
He looked me over once, then said dryly, "Looks like you've been through hell."
"I don't have time to explain," I said quickly, unwrapping a cloth bundle. " Rin's been taken. I need to find her. This—" I held out the med kit she'd made me, "—she made this. It's hers."
Pakkun sniffed it, then nodded. "I've got the scent."
He turned. "She's east. Let's go."
We moved fast through the treetops, wind tearing past as we closed the distance. I could feel the minutes slipping through my fingers. The further she was taken, the smaller my window became.
After a few miles, Pakkun slowed.
"There." He pointed with his snout.
A clearing. A rocky outcrop. A cave.
And surrounding it, Mist shinobi. Well-armed. Alert.
I dropped into the tree cover, crouching low. I counted forty guards outside, no wasted movement. Clean chakra signatures. Likely elite Chūnin. Maybe some disguised ANBU.
Inside, I could sense twenty more. At least eight of them were Jonin. Cold. Precise. Dangerous.
Pakkun looked at me. "She's in there."
I nodded once, calculating fast.
"Dig a tunnel. Quietly. Get as close to the cave's interior as you can."
Pakkun barked an order, and he, along with one of the black-furred ninken, began digging beneath the surface. The others moved into position to create a distraction, just enough to draw eyes away from the ground.
As the dogs moved, I knelt behind the trees, gripping my arms tightly.
Should I call Minato-sensei?
No. Not yet.
This was my responsibility.
My promise.
If I failed now, I would not face him again.
The tunnel opened beneath the stone floor of the cave.
I stepped out into darkness, Pakkun beside me, my hand already on my blade. The air was damp. The silence was oppressive. Somewhere ahead, I could hear faint breathing… and chains.
We moved through the shadows.
And then I saw her.
Rin.
Tied to a pillar, chakra suppressors embedded in the ropes, a faint glow of genjutsu humming over her body. Her eyes were closed. She wasn't unconscious, just trapped.
I dropped to one knee and placed two fingers against her temple.
A surge of my chakra shattered the illusion.
Her eyes flew open.
"Kakashi—!"
I clamped my hand over her mouth gently. "Quiet," I whispered. "We're getting out of here."
She nodded, eyes wide with shock and recognition. Her chakra, still disoriented, spiked faintly as I cut her bindings.
We moved toward the tunnel, slow, careful steps. Pakkun scouted ahead, his ears twitching at every sound.
We were almost out.
Then, a flash of chakra pulsed from behind me.
I turned.
Rin's chakra had surged.
Uncontrolled. Instinctive. A flare from being jolted out of genjutsu too fast. I reached for her hand—too late.
"Intruders!" someone shouted down the corridor."They've got the captive—stop them!"
Chakra signatures flared all around us like stars igniting in the dark.
We were surrounded.
I drew my blade.
No more running.
"Stay behind me," I said quietly.
And I stepped forward to meet them.
I moved forward with a blur of speed, lightning crackling at my heels.
The Mist Jonin nearest me reacted fast, faster than I expected, parrying my blade with clean precision. His footwork was tight, grounded in years of combat. Sparks flew as our weapons clashed in a tight, brutal rhythm, neither of us giving ground.
But I wasn't trying to win, I was buying time.
As we fought, I tilted the exchange subtly, guiding him away from the path Pakkun and Rin were taking. They slipped behind me, unseen, unnoticed, until they reached the tunnel mouth we had dug.
Now.
I broke away from the clash and flew through hand signs, slamming my palm into the rocky floor.
"Earth Style: Rock Breakthrough!"
The cave groaned, then screamed as boulders cracked loose from above. The ceiling buckled, and in seconds, it collapsed behind us. The tunnel's entrance was sealed tightly with rubble.
We made it out. But barely.
As we stumbled into the open, we were met not by relief, but by a wave of killing intent so heavy it crushed the breath out of the air.
Forty… no, fifty Mist shinobi.
Jonin. Chunin. Masked. Armed. Surrounded.
Twelve of them had the posture of ANBU-trained elite, still, focused, unforgiving.
My heart thudded, but I didn't let it show.
I weaved a seal.
"Wind Style: Dust Cloud!"
Dust exploded around us in a thick wall of haze, and in the same motion, I created two shadow clones—one of me, one of Rin—and sent them sprinting in opposite directions.
The Mist chased, splitting their ranks.
It was all I needed.
I grabbed Rin's hand and formed another seal.
"Headhunter Jutsu."
We vanished beneath the earth. Silent. Quick.
By the time they realized we were gone, we were already crawling out of the soil on the far end of the tree line, just inside the forest canopy.
We ran.
Hard.
Rin's breath was uneven. Her steps were unstable. But she kept pace, pushing herself.
The trees blurred past us as the rain began again, drizzling, then falling harder, soaking into our uniforms. Thunder cracked overhead like the roar of an angry god.
Still, something felt wrong.
Too easy.
We had just escaped fifty elite Mist nin, including multiple jonin, from a high-level hostage operation—and yet…
We were alive.
It was like they let us go.
Before I could finish the thought, I felt Rin's hand grab my shoulder.
I turned, eyes sharp. "What happened?"
She was pale. Her chakra was spiking again, uncontrolled and wild.
"Kakashi," she said quietly, trembling. "I feel… strange. Like there's something inside me. Something dangerous. I can't control my chakra, it keeps leaking out."
Her face was tight with worry. Her chakra flared again, unconscious, erratic, wrong.
I swallowed the growing fear and tried to stay calm for her.
"Rin… we'll figure it out. But first, we need to get out of here. If anything happens before that, I'll call Sensei."
But fate didn't give us time.
Thirty-five chakra signatures surged ahead of us, blocking the forest's opening.
Ten more approached from behind.
We were caught. Trapped on a rocky clearing beneath the storm, rain splashing at our feet. Lightning lit the sky in jagged flashes, casting the battlefield in brief, violent light.
I stepped forward.
"Stay behind me."
I weaved hand signs, sharp and quick. The lightning answered.
Purple lightning wrapped around my arm, roaring to life and solidifying into a claw-like construct. My speed surged, power thrumming through every nerve.
Raiton: Shiden (Lightning Release: Purple Lightning)
Then I moved.
A blur of rage and resolve.
I tore into them.
Chunin fell first, struck through, cut down, thrown into the mud. I didn't hesitate. Couldn't. My hand was a line between life and death, and I drew it without remorse.
I wasn't fighting to win.
I was fighting to protect.
Because I had failed once.
I wouldn't again.
Not now.
Not her.
I drove through four Mist-nin before my body slowed, vision blurring. The chakra was burning through me fast. Still, I pushed to the fifth enemy, aiming for the kill—
But Rin moved.
She jumped between us.
Time slowed.
No—why?
I couldn't stop. I was too fast. Too close.
In a heartbeat, I twisted the angle, using the malleability of the purple lightning to redirect my strike around her.
My hand pierced the Mist-nin behind her instead, striking him through the heart.
He crumpled silently.
Rin stood frozen, her eyes wide and unfocused.
"What the hell were you doing?!" I shouted, grabbing her shoulders.
She didn't answer.
Her body trembled slightly, and her eyes, her eyes weren't seeing me. She was in a trance. A genjutsu? Or…
I tried to break it.
Nothing.
I surged more chakra and tried again.
It rebounded. Violently.
Too strong.
Her chakra was pulsing again, erratic and overwhelming.
I reached out and shut down her chakra points manually. It was the only way to keep her from flaring.
She went limp.
But the threat hadn't ended.
I looked up.
Thirty Mist shinobi. All focused. All advancing.
Rin was unconscious. My chakra was half gone. And I could take maybe twenty, at most.
But the rest?
They'd go after her.
And that I couldn't let happen.
I looked down at my arm.
The seal Minato had placed there burned slightly as I pushed chakra into it.
Now.
I turned, blade ready, breath steady.
"I'll hold them off until you get here, Sensei."
And I stood between the storm and the girl I swore to protect.
Rin's POV
We were being overwhelmed.
Not by numbers, not by sheer force, but by exhaustion. It had been half a month since Kakashi and I were stationed on the Mist border, and the pressure had only gotten worse.
The battlefield had become a living nightmare. Every day blurred into the next, injured shinobi dragged in by the hour, chakra slipping through my fingers like water as I tried to hold people together with nothing but willpower and broken jutsu.
I wasn't on the front line. I couldn't match Kakashi in battle. But I could heal. And as long as I was doing that, I felt like I mattered.
That night, as the sky burned red with fire jutsu, I found another Konoha shinobi, slumped at the foot of a bloodied boulder, his chest torn open by a deep slash. Without hesitation, I dropped beside him, pushed chakra into my hands, and began healing the wound.
My hands were shaking. I hadn't slept in two days. But the bleeding slowed. He was stabilizing. I reached for gauze—
Then I felt them.
Ten chakra signatures. Close. Fast.
I barely had time to turn before they were on me—Mist-nin. Elite. Armed.
'How did they get here?!'
I jumped to my feet, tried to form a seal, but the first one struck me across the side of my head. The second landed a blow to my ribs. The third swept my legs out from under me.
My vision blurred. My knees gave way.
The last thing I saw was one of them raising a hand, a blue glow building in his palm.
And then—
Nothing.
I woke slowly.
My head throbbed. My limbs were numb. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming until I saw Kakashi.
His face was tense, covered in grime and blood, his eyes sharp but soft the moment they met mine.
"Ka…Kakashi?" I murmured, my voice cracking.
He knelt beside me, slicing away ropes I hadn't even realized were binding me. "Stay quiet. We're getting out of here."
I blinked hard, trying to focus. My chakra felt off—dense, like it was coated in something. Something that wasn't mine.
We moved through the cave, Pakkun silently scouting ahead. Every step I took made my chest tighten. Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
Then—
My chakra spiked.
Pain surged up my spine. A sudden, violent flare. My knees buckled, and I grabbed the wall, gasping.
Kakashi stopped and turned.
"Rin?"
" I don't know…" I whispered. "My chakra—it's not listening to me. It keeps leaking, like it's alive… like it's not mine anymore."
He looked at me for a moment, then nodded sharply. "We'll handle it later. We need to move."
Somehow, we escaped through a tunnel Pakkun had dug, emerging into open forest.
But we weren't alone.
Fifty Mist shinobi. Waiting.
Killing intent poured from them like suffocating smoke. I froze. Kakashi didn't.
He immediately cast Wind Style: Dust Cloud, then created clones of us both. While the enemy focused on the fakes, we slipped into the ground with Headhunter Jutsu.
It was cold, damp, and silent beneath the surface. My heart hammered in my chest.
We crawled until we surfaced again, this time deeper into the forest. Rain had started to fall. Gentle at first, then harder, soaking us as we sprinted beneath the trees.
But something inside me was unraveling.
The chakra that had flared in the cave hadn't gone dormant. It had simply been waiting.
And now it lashed out.
I collapsed mid-run, dropping to one knee.
Kakashi turned, grabbed my arm.
"What is it?"
"I—I don't know… It's like something is inside me. I can't control it. It's heavy—wrong." I was panting now, clutching my ribs. "Kakashi, it hurts."
He nodded. "We'll deal with it. Just hold on."
But the pain wasn't just chakra.
It was a memory.
Flashes.
Runes on the cave floor. A circle of mist shinobi chanting. My body is convulsing. A glowing mass, red, monstrous, shifting being forced inside me.
The Three-Tails.
I trembled violently.
No. Please no.
I couldn't process it. Couldn't understand how I was still standing. But I knew, some part of me knew, I wasn't just Rin anymore.
And then—
Black.
Not sleep. Not unconsciousness.
Genjutsu.
Powerful. Overwhelming.
I was trapped again, like watching through dirty glass. I could see my body. Feel it. But I wasn't in control.
I couldn't stop myself.
I moved.
Straight toward Kakashi.
He was fighting now. Lightning flaring from his hand, purple lightning, wild and deadly. He cut down enemy after enemy, ruthless, focused. He didn't see me at first.
I stepped between him and an enemy he was about to kill.
Kakashi, don't—
His eyes caught me mid-strike.
Confusion. Horror.
I wanted to answer. I wanted to scream I'm not in control! But I couldn't speak.
My body was frozen.
My mind howled.
Maybe this is better, I thought. If I die, I won't become a weapon. They won't use me to destroy Konoha.
But then I looked at him,
Kakashi's eyes weren't just afraid. They were desperate.
And it shattered me.
I would never get the chance to tell him the truth. That I loved him. That every day beside him gave me a reason to believe I could be more than a medic. More than a mission.
But I couldn't even whisper it.
He twisted his attack at the last second, purple chakra veering around me to strike the Mist-nin behind me clean through the heart.
I collapsed forward.
He caught me.
"RIN! What were you doing?!"
He sealed my chakra points. My body went limp.
I dropped into the mud as he turned to face the oncoming shinobi, thirty of them. Alone.
I screamed inside.
Run. Leave me. Please don't die here. Not because of me.
But he didn't.
He fought.
Even broken. Even half-spent.
I wanted to help.
I begged my body to move.
Please—don't make me watch him die.
But I couldn't move. Couldn't speak.
He stood in front of me, bleeding, wild, roaring with lightning, as a wall between me and death.
And then—
A yellow flash.
A blur so fast it lit the rain.
Three Mist-nin dropped instantly.
The pressure vanished.
I looked up, vision blurry with tears and rain.
Minato-sensei.
He was there. Finally.
His cloak rippled in the wind like something out of a dream.
And for the first time in what felt like years...
I smiled.
"""
Chapter Length-3100 words
(A/n)-According to the votes
Kain-10
Create a oc-9
Yugao-4
Shion-3
Yukie-2
Anko and Guren-1
from the votes Karin will be the new Herione I will adjust her character to be older than sasuke by 3 year and 2 years younger by Akira.
"""