Heaven's Regulations {Rewrite}

Chapter 42 ~ Dangerous Demeanors

"But that's because we saw her before... at the Akatsuki!" 

Obito stopped. So did Rin. The Uchiha, however surprised, knew to keep his mouth shut as she played dumb and tilted her head. 

"Sorry, what? You saw me with the Akatsuki?" 

Minato shot a sheepish glance towards her. 

"Yeah. Someone matching your appearance was at the Akatsuki." 

"You guys... attacked the Akatsuki?" she asked. "Just the two of you?" 

"We were scouting," Kakashi informed quietly. 

"Then we saw a guy. He was throwing up and looked like he was about to pass out, so we took our chances. Turns out, he was as weak as he looked. However, the organization caught up to us in no time." 

"Oh. Okay." Rin glanced away. "Are... Are you guys okay?" 

"We're fine." Minato looked puzzled. "But I'm confused as to why they let us go alive." 

"Lucky," Obito chirped, playing his part. Rin discreetly shot him a grateful glance. "I'd probably have died if I killed one of their members. They must have been in a good mood!" He laughed, faking a joke, but he knew it was true. They would not have hesitated to kill if one of their members were murdered in front of their faces. 

Rin stared down at her ramen in silence, while the other two remained looking doubtful of Obito's hypothesis. 

"They're a highly dangerous criminal organization. I don't think-" Minato cut Kakashi off with a smile. 

"Well, let's forget about criminals and odd occurrences. We're all back together, so let's celebrate!" 

Everyone cheered. 

No one felt like it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Rin yawned, completely at ease. Kakashi regarded her curiously. 

"Did you not sleep well, Rin?" he asked. 

"Good question." 

Obito laughed, knowing she would never answer it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

It looked to Minato as if Obito and Rin had a special kind of understanding about one another. He saw it in the way the Uchiha laughed at things Rin said that sounded perfectly normal. He saw it in the way Rin looked at Obito sometimes, as if she were passing a glance that told him something unexplainable with words. 

Blond brows furrowed in thought. 

They were quieter - even Obito. They were colder - even Rin. 

He settled temporarily on the compromise that they had just matured. 

It seemed, amongst the three, Kakashi was the one to have changed the least. 

Well, it looked like the team had also cleaned up on their tardiness, he thought as he found them all waiting for him on Training Ground Three. It was useless to worry now. Putting a smile onto his face, two bells jingling at his side, Minato approached his reformed team. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Nobody was surprised when their teacher held up the bells. 

"So, you all remember this, right? With the same rules, let's-" 

"Three, two, one, go." Rin had interrupted him. 

And everyone had followed her lead. 

MInato dodged as three shinobi attacked him in a flurry, working out their old attack combinations.