To Those Who Knew Me [Naruto Fanfic] [Beta]

[Beta] Chapter 27

(A/N: oDdLy, not really, people can't seem to realize that this fanfiction is in 1st person so in the last chapter, Rin did not actually break the fourth wall-)

     Warily, the three Konoha Jounin allowed them to venture to the Hokage's office without having their limbs restricted. Letting them out of the village, especially with the supposed immortality, could give their enemies more power than they needed to.

     Still, it hurt them to see people that looked like their friends. There was one problem that they realized with the situation and how it didn't add up. "Rin" only looked a couple years older than she was when she had died. On the other hand, Obito aged as though he had never died. At those facts they should've never believed them, but why did they hesitate?

     Rin bounded up and down with glee as she looked around the village with her full-self. That was until her eyes landed on a familiar street and home yet Rin Nohara never lived in it. Rin Maru had lived in it instead.

     Feeling a lump in her throat, Rin swallowed thickly, hoping to push down the guilt of taking away the couple's daughter. Their only daughter. The pride and hope of their family. Why was she so selfish in her actions?

It's impossible to save them all.

     That prodding line snaked its way into her head but she tried to shake it off. It had failed. "... Obito, am I cruel?"

     Her footsteps had faltered into a complete stop and Obito quickly turned around to face her. "What do you mean? If anyone's cruel then it has to be-"

     "Obito, I took their only kid away from them."

     He frowned, not understanding what she had meant.

     "I didn't miraculously survive death. My soul was put into another body... Which also has its own soul."

     It finally clicked in his mind. "You mean..."

     "That family is suffering because I chose that this person would be me. My time already ended and I decided to restart mine by ending another's. I'm a terrible person."

     "You had to do what you had to do."

     "No, I didn't! Everything would've turned out okay in the end! My meddling hasn't changed anything!"

     "Of course it did!" he scoffed.

     He didn't know what information was poured into her head when she had been reborn. That was why she didn't want to do anything to stray from the initial path. However, her selfish actions got the better of her and she changed the direction of the story onto an entirely new and different track.

     Wiping away her tears and tearing her eyes from the nostalgic-yet-not home, she continued on the path to the Hokage's office. Rin hated how much she was at fault for so many things in the world. 

     Knocking on the door, Asuma muttered, "We have... Visitors."

     "Let them in."

     Swiftly the double doors opened to the Sandaime with the iconic stacks of paper on his desk. Some things never change when it came to Hokages and paperwork.

     "Ah, Rin, " he mused before his old eyes flickered to Obito, "And it appears that he's alive and well also. I must say that it doesn't seem as though he was reborn into a body of a child."

     "Yes, " she replied quietly.

     "It also seems that you aren't rejecting yourself either though I must ask what happened when you left the village."

     At those words the first thing that flashed in her mind were magenta eyes and silver hair. A shiver went down her spine as she uttered, "I was decapitated."

     His eyebrows' arched in disbelief. "Well, that's..."

     Realizing the sensitivity of the topic he ordered, "Everyone leave the room, including Anbu personnel."

     They followed order in suit and the three were the only ones left standing in there. Obito sheepishly rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm back... I guess?"

     The Sarutobi clasped his hands together and looked them dead in the eyes. "Do you realize how much work I have to do now?"