Kenji walked to the corner of the cave where two unconscious Kiri ninjas lay bound and gagged. They were members of the squad that had been pursuing Kakashi and Rin. His Transparent Release puppet had captured them during the chaos, dragging them back here while everyone else was distracted. He examined them briefly, then selected the one who looked stronger. He knelt down and released the consciousness seal keeping the ninja unconscious, but before the man could fully wake, his hands were already moving through seals.
"Mind Clone Switch Technique."
His spiritual energy split, a portion of it shooting out. The man's eyes snapped open for a brief moment, pupils dilating in shock and horror as he felt something foreign invading his mind. Then his expression went blank as Kenji's consciousness crushed his own, taking complete control.
The possessed ninja stood up and walked toward the operating table where Rin's body lay. Kenji himself stepped back, positioning himself where he had a clear view of everything.
What came next was full of unknowns. He had to stay alert.
The controlled Kiri ninja turned his head toward Kenji, who gave a small nod.
The ninja's hands moved through a completely different sequence of seals. When the final seal locked into place, he pressed both palms against Rin's chest directly over the wound that had killed her.
"One's Own Life Reincarnation!"
Chakra appeared in the ninja's hands, but it looked nothing like normal medical ninjutsu. It flowed into Rin's body like water finding its level, pouring endlessly into the dead girl.
The forbidden technique used the user's entire chakra reserve as a medium to transfer their life force to another person. It could resurrect the recently dead or extend the life of someone on death's door.
The cost was the user's life.
Through the Mind Clone connection, he felt the technique's effects clearly. Not just the Kiri ninja's soul and life force were being drained, part of his own spiritual energy, the portion he'd invested in the Mind Clone, was flowing away with it.
The loss was permanent. That spiritual energy wouldn't regenerate, it would simply be gone forever. But the amount was manageable, maybe a few months' worth of natural growth. With how quickly his mental strength increased these days, he could recover it soon enough.
The bigger problem was the Kiri ninja's consciousness. As his life force continued draining away, his suppressed mind began fighting back. The survival instinct overrode everything else. Kenji had to concentrate fully to keep him restrained and prevent the technique from being interrupted.
He watched the Kiri ninja's body slowly wither. The man's breathing became shallow.
He felt no guilt about that. The guy had been trying to kill Kakashi and Rin just an hour ago.
But.
He did feel guilt about something else.
Standing there watching the forbidden technique work, he couldn't avoid the truth. He could have prevented Rin's death entirely. He'd had the Flying Thunder God mark on her. The moment Kakashi's Chidori had pierced her chest, he could have teleported in and stopped it.
But he hadn't.
He'd stood there invisible in the trees and watched it happen because he wanted to observe the Mangekyō awakening. Because the opportunity to study that phenomenon was too valuable to pass up. And because his goals took priority over one girl's life.
The realization sat heavy in his chest.
Living in this world for so long had changed him. Back on Earth, in his previous life working at Miami Metro, death had been everywhere. Bodies on slabs, crime scenes painted in blood, killers wearing human faces. He'd gotten used to it, learned to compartmentalize, and developed the ability to treat death as just another problem to analyze.
That mentality had followed him here. Maybe gotten stronger. In the shinobi world, people died constantly. Enemies, allies, civilians caught in crossfire. After a while it stopped meaning as much.
He was goal-oriented, always had been. When presented with a choice between saving one person and achieving an objective, the calculus was straightforward.
But that didn't make it right.
If it had been Haruto, Kaede, or Aoi instead of Rin, he would have acted instantly, forgetting the Mangekyō research entirely. Because he cared about them.
Rin, Kakashi, Obito... he knew them, sure. But there was no deep emotional connection. They were comrades in the general sense but not people he'd risk everything for.
And another factor, one he wasn't proud of: he'd known he could revive Rin afterward. The gamble had seemed acceptable because he had a backup plan. Even if she came back traumatized from the experience, that was better than death.
Cold logic. The kind of thinking that kept you alive in this world but slowly eroded the parts of yourself that made you human.
He'd hoped he could be more like Naruto someday. That optimistic kid who valued every life, who'd go to insane lengths to save even his enemies. But he knew that wasn't who he was. He'd killed too many people, and made compromises. Sure, they'd been enemies. But that excuse only went so far.
The Rin situation just made it explicit. He wasn't the good guy in this story. But he could accept that. Because pretending otherwise would be a lie, and self-deception was more dangerous than acknowledging truths.
Movement in his peripheral vision snapped him back to the present.
Kakashi was stirring in the corner where Kenji had dumped him. His visible eye opened slowly, staring blankly at the cave ceiling. His Mangekyō Sharingan was hidden behind the forehead protector he'd shifted over it, probably instinctively.
"Rin..." His voice was hollow. His eye remained fixed on the ceiling, but Kenji knew he wasn't seeing it. He was seeing the moment his Chidori had pierced through her chest. The memory playing on loop.
Tears leaked from the corner of his eye, running down toward his ear.
"When you wake up, the first thing you should do is check whether your surroundings are safe. That's basic ninja discipline."
Kenji's voice cut through Kakashi's fugue state. The Copy Ninja's head jerked toward the sound, his eye finally focusing.
"Kenji-senpai... Did you... did you save me?"
"More or less," Kenji confirmed with a slight nod. "I was on a mission nearby when I sensed your chakra fluctuations and detected a large number of unfamiliar Kiri ninjas. So I headed toward the disturbance."
He gestured vaguely. "But before I arrived, a different chakra signature appeared and eliminated the pursuing Kiri ninjas. By the time I got there, whoever it was had already left. I found you unconscious and brought you and Rin back here."
The explanation was technically true. Whether it was the Hashirama cells or the Mangekyō's influence, Obito's chakra signature had changed completely from what it used to be. Even Minato, who was exceptional at sensory techniques, wouldn't recognize the masked man's identity during the Nine-Tails attack. The transformation was that thorough.
At the mention of Rin's body, Kakashi's entire frame trembled. His hand moved to clutch at his chest where phantom pain seemed to lance through. His breathing became uneven.
It's harder than I thought it would be, Kenji realized. Does that make me a little more human? No.
He watched the grief play across the younger ninja's face.
"Stop wallowing in guilt. Rin might still be alive. Come, get up."
"What?" Kakashi's eye went wide. He scrambled to his feet, stumbling slightly before catching his balance. He crossed the distance between them in three quick strides and grabbed Kenji's arm, fingers digging in with desperate strength.
"How? I watched my Chidori pierce straight through her heart. There was so much blood..."
The memory was too vivid. But even as he protested, hope ignited in his eye. A tiny spark that he was afraid to acknowledge because having hope crushed would be worse than having none at all.
"Ninjutsu can accomplish things that seem impossible," Kenji said, gently extracting his arm from Kakashi's grip. He pointed toward the operating table. "The treatment's already underway."
Kakashi followed his gesture and finally seemed to register what was happening. Rin lay on the table, and beside her stood a Kiri ninja with his hands pressed to her chest, chakra flowing between them.
"That's a Kiri ninja?" Confusion replaced some of the grief on Kakashi's face. "Rin is already dead. How could medical ninjutsu possibly help?"
But even as he questioned it, he chose to trust. This was his only chance, however slim.
"This isn't ordinary medical ninjutsu." Seeing Kakashi's expression, he decided there was no point hiding the truth. "It's a forbidden technique I acquired from Suna. It's called One's Own Life Reincarnation."
"One's Own Life Reincarnation?" Kakashi repeated the unfamiliar name, clearly having never heard of it.
"Right." Kenji kept his explanation simple. "The technique was originally a hidden art that Suna puppet masters used to give their creations a semblance of life. But through further research, someone figured out it could also resurrect a ninja whose body is intact and who hasn't been dead for long. However, the cost is severe. The user must exchange their own life force. Essentially, one life for another."
"Using the user's life..." Kakashi's gaze snapped to the Kiri ninja performing the technique. "Then he's...?"
"He's the user," Kenji confirmed calmly. "But it's not voluntary. This Kiri ninja was one of the enemies who was chasing you. I've taken control of him using my clan's techniques."
"What about you?" Kakashi's expression twisted with conflicted emotions. "Does this technique affect you?"
He clearly wanted Rin to live more than anything. But the thought of another comrade paying the price was agonizing.
"The technique transfers all of the user's chakra and life force into the target. That means the portion of my spiritual energy controlling him will also flow into Rin along with his life force."
"That's..." Kakashi's face went pale. He understood enough about the Yamanaka clan to know that spiritual energy was as vital to them as chakra reserves were to any ninja. Losing it permanently was a serious sacrifice. He opened his mouth to protest, but Kenji reached out and placed a hand on his head.
"Don't worry about it. My spiritual energy far exceeds that of ordinary people. Losing this amount won't impact me."
Kakashi's lips moved silently. His gaze drifted to the Kiri ninja's body, which was visibly deteriorating now. The man's skin had turned grey, his breathing shallow and labored as life drained away.
After a long moment, Kakashi managed to force out some words: "Thank you... Kenji-senpai."
The gratitude in his voice was overwhelming.
Kenji smiled, but the expression felt wrong on his face. Wry and bitter in a way Kakashi probably wouldn't notice. He didn't deserve thanks, not for this. And not when he could have prevented Rin from dying in the first place but chose to stand by and watch because it served his purposes.
The irony was almost funny. Here was Kakashi, grateful, completely unaware that the person he was thanking had allowed his teammate to die.
Some hero.
"Don't overthink it," he said, patting Kakashi's shoulder. "We'll just wait here and see when she wakes up."
Kakashi nodded, settling into a position near the operating table. His eye remained fixed on Rin's face, watching for any sign of life returning. His expression held hope.
Kenji stood beside him in silence, keeping his thoughts to himself.
He wasn't a good person. But he could live with that. As long as he protected the people he cared about, the rest was just pragmatism.
Cold? Maybe. But in this world, the alternatives were usually death or slavery to someone else's ideals.
He'd made his choices. Now he'd see them through.