**Authors Note:
Alright then let's get started! I also have the poll up and running for who Rin should end up with which I will provide a link to in the comments as well as in the about me on my Profile :)
I'm not sure how long I'll keep voting open for, but most likely up until before I begin the war. That may change though. So vote, vote, vote while you can!
**Edit: Voting closed as of 2016**
Please comment, vote, and of course enjoy!
**
Neji
Rin's jutsu did take time and patience. She explained it as simply as she could. She would extend her dark chakra outwards, as far as she could all while using others shadows to increase her reach and eventually it would connect to the shadow she needed. I understood more now why she needed a guard, she didn't seem very aware of anyone's presence. Kakashi and Shino came and went as they pleased, they mostly came to just mark off where they had searched. Rin paid no attention, just sat in her meditative state.
"He's not in the rain village" Rin eyes opened when Kakashi walked in. I was a little startled to see the white in her eyes had dimmed. Rin closed her eyes again, releasing a slow breath and the shadows seemed to fall back into place as they drifted from her body, her dark chakra seeping back into her skin. Kakashi was behind her in seconds so that she fell against his legs rather than to the floor.
"Easy Rin" He said gently. Rin's chakra was lowering, she wouldn't be able to use this jutsu for much longer if at all this evening. Her dark chakra coursed through her network, overtaking but not completely absorbing all the regular chakra.
"She'll be alright; she's just exhausted her abilities. She been in that trance since sunrise" I assured him and he nodded as Rin came around. This time the whites of her eyes were clear as she looked between me then up at Kakashi whi extended his hand.
"What was it you said?" She asked, taking his hand and he helped her to her feet.
"He's not in the Rain village, my dogs have returned." He explained and Rin steadied herself before walking to one of the maps. She took a pencil marking off the Rain village.
"So he's on the move" I noted and she nodded.
"The question is where" She replied.
"Do you have any leads?" Kakashi asked and Rin sighed.
"None yet. I've found Sasuke and his team and other Akatsuki members but he's not with them." There was annoyance in her voice and I noticed her glance at a map where she had me mark a location. My assumptions was that's where her brother was.
"What do you know about Sasuke?" I asked and she glanced at me.
"Nothing new, other than he's working with the Akatsuki and he was sent..." She paused, her eyes widening and a grin coming to her face.
"Rin?" I questioned and she practically leaped as she pulled Kakashi into a hug.
"I know where Pein could be!" She yelled, excitement in her voice. Kakashi laughed nervously and I could have sworn he was blushing when Rin let him go, but her attention was on the maps.
"Okay so the main objective of the Akatsuki was to capture the tailed beasts, the stronger your team the stronger the beast you were sent to retrieve. Sasuke's an idiot but he is powerful, his first mission was to capture the eight tails" She explained.
"Assuming your correct, how does this tell us the location of their leader?" I asked.
"They don't kill the hosts, otherwise the beast dies with them. The host dies after the extraction, so they basically beat them to a pulp and bring them to..."
"An extraction site" Kakashi realized.
"Like the one they took Gaara to" He recalled and Rin nodded.
"Exactly, so if Sasuke defeated the eight tails then they're at the extraction site. If we can figure out which one, then we can follow Pein's movement from then on." She finished and Kakashi chuckled as he put his hand on her shoulder.
"Nicely done Captain"
"I'm not a Captain yet but thanks" She replied, a grin on her face.
"Alright, I hate to bring this energy down but what makes you so certain that Pein will be there?" I asked but she did't falter.
"It takes three days with a full team of Akatsuki members to extract a beast, they've lost almost half the organization. If they want this beast sealed efficiently then the whole gang has to be there" She explained confidently.
"So where are the extraction sites?" Kakashi asked.
"There are ten in total, and I want all our efforts switched to checking them all." She ordered as she circled the locations on the maps.
"You'll want to look for huge and sudden spikes in chakra, even the animals will act differently in the surrounding area." She explained.
"Neji, can you alert Shino of the change in plans and I'll slip back into my jutsu while..."
"You need a break" I reminded and she glanced at me.
"As do I, I've had my Byakugan activated for hours to monitor your chakra. The dark chakra is beginning to spike, your curse mark could release and that poses a danger to us. It's time for a break." I said firmly and Rin sighed.
"Fine, I guess you're right. We'll go at it again in a few hours. Kakashi and I will go let Shino no about the change in plans." She replied and I smiled slightly.
"You must be in a good mood if you're actually agreeing" I teased and she rolled her eyes.
"Don't push it Hyuuga" She warned but I knew she wasn't serious. I opened the doors walking out after them and closed them behind us. Rin reset the seal on the door before stretching.
"Alright, we'll see you in a few hours."
Kakashi
Rin waved behind us as we left the compound, Neji taking off in the direction of the Hyuuga estate. She had chosen to leave her mask behind, and while I shouldn't be telling anyone to not where a mask all the time I had to admit it was nice to see her without one. It still, somewhat, felt like a dream to see her in a Leaf ANBU uniform. Like if I bumped her she would vanish into thin air and I'd wake up in bed wondering if she was okay or alive.
"So our first break in the mission" I started and her smile returned.
"I know, I'm so relieved. Finally, some good news for Lady Tsunade and Naruto" She replied.
"Naruto?" I questioned.
"He hasn't spoken to me since Lady Tsunade informed us of Jiraiya's death" She explained and I nodded slightly.
"He doesn't blame you" I replied and she sighed.
"I know, but I also know what he must be thinking. I was there to help with Gaara, and even with Sasuke, and Asuma and the one time he really needed me to be around I was absorbed in my own problems"
"Naruto knows how much you care about your brothers; he just needs time. Besides, I saw him with Shikamaru the other day and he was looking better." I assured her.
"Really?"
"Yes, he's helping decode the message Master Jiraiya left us." I explained.
"I guess Shikamaru has already asked you and Lady Tsunade about it, Naruto will be his last source to get it right." She replied and I nodded.
"How are things with you two anyways?" I asked and I noticed her eyebrow raise.
"I-If I can ask" I added quickly and she laughed slightly.
"It's fine Kakashi and good, I think."
"You think?" I questioned and she nodded.
"He's kind and understanding and we've always been close so dating feels easy almost, but he just looks at me like I'm glass"
"Glass?" I questioned and she nodded again.
"I know when I came back I wasn't exactly stable and to be honest I don't know if I am now, but my time for mourning has passed. I have missions now and a life to re-build as a leaf shinobi, I'm trying to move on but he always seems to be waiting for me to break again and I just want him..."
"To believe in your strength" I finished and she smiled slightly,
"Yeah, exactly" She agreed.
"He'll come around" I assured her.
"You think so?" She asked.
"Yeah, I mean even I was startled to see you so broken." I admitted.
"So what changed?" She questioned and I shrugged.
"I knew you'd find the strength in yourself to press forward, you always do" I replied confidently and noticed her smile before her attention was taken elsewhere.
"Rin, Kakashi" Shino greeted as he approached us.
"There's a new search plan, I want all our efforts switched to checking out the Akatsuki extraction sites. The locations are back in compound" She explained and he nodded.
"I'll look at the locations and redirect my bugs, but I am here to relay a message" He replied.
"What's up?" Rin asked.
"Shikamaru and Naruto need Kakashi-Sensei, they're with the Cipher division."
"Alright, I'm going to head over with him to see how they're doing on their end but I'll be back at the compound in about three hours" Rin replied and he nodded.
"See you then" Rin gave him a small wave as we turned our direction towards the Cipher division's location.
"You think they found something?" I asked and she nodded.
"Knowing Shikamaru, they have and that's why they need you"
Shikamaru
We finally had something on Jiraiya's code. It wasn't all numbers, in fact, the first one a character. TA disguised as a nine because of a writing quirk. Naruto had finally connected this to Jiraiya's penmanship habits. We had realized then that this code was meant for Naruto. After years of reading his handwritten drafts, only Naruto would be able to connect the dots.
"You called" I glanced up as Kakashi walked in, slightly surprised to see Rin following behind him.
"Y-Yeah, we think we may have figured out the code" I replied and Rin smiled when she saw me.
"You have the first copy of Make-Out tactics, right Kakashi Sensei?" Naruto asked and he nodded, pulling the book from his back pocket.
"Yes, a gift from Master Jiraiya." He replied and I noticed him switch hands when Rin glanced at the book.
"That was the same book Pervy-Sage was working on during our training together" Naruto confirmed.
"We think Jiraiya's code is hidden somewhere inside his written work" I explained and held up the photo.
"This first character isn't the number nine as we originally thought, it's actually TA. So we think the other numbers could possibly represent word order, number of lines or page numbers" I added and he nodded.
"This TA is the first character in the book, of all his work this is the only one that has a title that contains TA" Kakashi confirmed.
"Alright so we should start with page numbers and work our way up from there. According to the numbers in the code we have to look through six pages' worth of information. So let's start with page 31" Shiho explained. Kakashi flipped to the page and I noticed Rin glancing over his arm, her lips pressed into an amused smile.
"Okay, what now?" Kakashi asked and Rin smirked slightly as Shiho continued speaking.
"First we look at the first word of that page, so please read the first letter out loud" Shiho asked and Kakashi's face fell, as he made panicked glances between us and the book. His face burning red as Rin burst into laughter. She shoved his arm earning a small glare in return.
"C'mon Kakashi, it's for the sake of the mission" She taunted and he sighed as he started reading, his voice shaky and embarrassed as Rin snickered beside him. I could feel a heat in my cheeks as we went through each page, and found it somewhat strange that Rin wasn't bothered by this erotica. I was thankful for when we finished and Shiho completed the last sentence.
"There finished" Shiho announced.
"What's it say?" Naruto asked eagerly.
"Well if I read it in the proper order it says; the real ones not among them" She said circling the first word of each sentence. Naruto seemed confused and I hated to admit that I felt the same.
"Rin, any ideas?" Naruto asked and she seemed startled that he spoke to her.
"U-Um I might have a clue, but first we should speak with Lady Tsunade and the toad that brought us the code" She replied.
"Alright, let's do this"
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Shikamaru
It didn't take long for the five of us to get to Lady Tsunade's office. Lord Fukusaku was already waiting along with Shizune and Sakura. We handed him the decoded message and he looked it over.
"The real one is not among them" He read.
"Geezer-Sage, what do you think? Does this make any sense to you?" Naruto asked as he stared at the paper.
"I'm not sure, it's still all too unclear to me" He replied handing back the paper.
"But you do have some hypothesis right?" I asked.
"I've already told you everything I know about Pein; he seems to be able to come back from the dead. Under these circumstances it's still too dangerous for anyone to take him head-on, not until we figure out how he works" Fukusaku replied.
"What do you mean when you say he comes back from the dead?" Rin asked suddenly and our attention went to her.
"When we fought, no matter what Jiraiya threw at him he always bounced back" Rin nodded slightly.
"When you fought, did you notice black marks on his hands?" She asked and it was silent as Fukusaku thought back to the battle.
"Yes, I believe three of them..."
"Three" She repeated.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's just, when I worked with the Akatsuki Pein always had eyes on me. I used to think it was just lackeys he hired to follow me around everywhere but they were almost to good at keeping out of sight and out of range. Plus, I started to notice the similarities it shared with Pein's chakra" She explained.
"I began to use dark ninjutsu in an attempt to immobilize who was following me. It only worked three times but I never saw the results in the Pein that I encountered."
"The Pein you had encountered?" I asked.
"Yeah, I mean it is possible isn't it that he's more than one person? What Fukusaku has told us, what I've experienced and why Amegakure thinks he's some kind of higher being. It adds up" Rin explained.
"Still, we can't go ahead and assume what you say is correct. That could lead in many deaths" Lady Tsunade interrupted and RIn sighed knowing she was right.
"We'll have to wait for the interrogation and Autopsy to be completed" Tsunade added.
"How long will that take?" Naruto asked.
"Shizune is leading the autopsy so it should be quicker than usual, but at minimum that could be a week" Sakura answered and he seemed angered by this response.
"Then I'm going to go speed them up"
"Naruto if you get in Shizune's way I'll make you regret it!" Sakura threatened and he stopped walking.
"I will avenge Pervy-Sage, I can't just sit around and do nothing" He replied coldly.
"Now that we've decoded the message there is nothing going on that involves you. The autopsy, the interrogation and even the tracking will all take time." Lady Tsunade said calmly.
"What are you trying to say?" Naruto spat back.
"You're not strong enough" Rin said flatly. Her gaze didn't waver when Naruto glared at her.
"What'd you say?" He replied through gritted teeth.
"You know she's right Naruto. Even Jiraiya couldn't defeat him and if couldn't do you think you could?" Fukusaku interjected.
"Well, I-I guess not" Naurto replied slowly, his voice defeated.
"If you were to fight him now you would merely die a senseless death. Furthermore, being asked to come here was quite opportune, you see I've been needing to speak with you Naruto. Tell me then, do you want to come and train in sage jutsu under my guidance?" Fukusaku asked.
"Train in Sage jutsu?" Naruto repeated.
"I am as furious as you, I also want to avenge my student Jiraiya but I believe the only that can do that is you Naruto" Fukusaku admitted.
"So what do you say Naruto, will you allow me to hammer the Sage technique into you the same way I did to Jiraiya?" He asked.
"Will it let me win? Could I stop Pein?" Naruto replied.
"There are no guarantees, it all depends on you" He answered.
"If Pervy-Sage was able to master it then so can I." Naruto said firmly.
"You can count me in"