To Be Lost On The Road To Life

Moonlit Flower

Nohara Rin was always the plain wallflower of her team.

Actually, even in the Academy, she wasn't considered much. Sure, she had ended up as the "Top Kunoichi" of her year, landing her in Team Minato AKA Team Seven, but it was always Kakashi, Obito, or Minato himself that people heard about. Rin was always, "that girl," or "the one on the team with the Hatake genius," or "the one who picks up after that Uchiha boy," or in worst cases, "that useless girl with the up-and-coming Jounin as a sensei."

Sure, she was considered somewhat pretty amongst her peers, and many boys had confessed to her over the course of her time at the Academy. The vain girl she used to be back then, she actually used to feel somewhat empowered by the confessions.

But now, as a Kunoichi, she knew how useless that sort of thing was. She knew how useless she was, compared to her teammates; Kakashi with his all-around prodigious streak, Obito with his strength and latent charisma, and Minato who was just plain amazing.

She had always felt beneath her teammates, and that was partly the reason why she had gone into Iryo-ninjutsu. She had reasoned that, with her teammates being the reckless and occasionally foolish powerhouses they were, they would need a trained medic on their team to make sure they never actually hurt themselves. She had only started recently, and though she was still technically "in-training," she was often told that she could be the next Tsunade. Her chakra control was good, even considered great for her age, and she had satisfactory training to actually support her teammates, now. Her work at the hospital only helped her competency with the human body(and as such, healing wounds), and quite frankly, Rin had become satisfied. She found her niche, and her way to make herself useful to her teammates—her family.

However, the day that Obito woke up after the fire was the day that her carefully crafted and nurtured confidence all but shattered.

Rin had been ecstatic when Obito woke up, but she knew something was wrong the moment the boy slapped her hand away. The boy who had helped support her when she was still vacillating on her decision to become a medic. The boy who was almost always there for Rin, no matter what. The boy that always accepted her and listened to her troubles, no matter how small and petty they seemed to her. He slapped her hand away, rejecting her.

She knew something was wrong, and in hindsight, Rin realized she should've acted on her instinct. Instead, she continued trying to act as though nothing was wrong, as if the possibility of Obito having tried to kill himself wasn't there.

Oh, she knew.

The rest of her team most likely didn't think that she knew; they probably thought she wasn't sharp enough to catch the hints. It may have been because she was a girl and was therefore innately more emotionally sensitive, it may have been because she simply knew Obito very well. She could see the dead look in his eyes, even though he tried to hide it. No longer were they filled with their usual sparks of mischief and wonder for life, but with hatred and darkness that was only seen in some of the most broken of individuals. Regardless, whatever had happened to Obito was something of extreme impact, leading to the boy wanting to commit suicide.

And when Obito had yelled out that name, "Kaguya," Rin was certain. She wasn't analytical and with extreme genius like Minato and Kakashi; she had no web of mystery or blatant "amazing-ness" to prove her theory, because most of it was just a gut feeling. But she trusted Obito, and she trusted that she knew Obito. And what she knew was that something had happened to rattle the boy, something excruciating. This person named "Kaguya" was definitely the cause of Obito's change, and Rin was terribly frightened.

She was frightened for her teammate, who could possibly be a target for this "Kaguya." Frightened for the rest of her team that could possibly be in danger. And most of all, she was frightened for her very home that could possibly be in danger from whatever individual it was that attacked Obito and left him in this state.