Rin Nohara

Nohara Rin (のはら リン) was a 11 years old Chunin level ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village, a medical nin (medical ninja) and a member of Minato Namikaze’s team alongside Kakashi Hatake and Obito Uchiha. She killed herself by committing suicide on Kakashi’s Raikiri after getting captured and turn into a jinchuriki as part of Madara’s plot to corrupt Uchiha Obito, to encourages him to join his cause.

Since Madara had realized that Obito had strong feelings for Rin, she knew that this was an elaborate plan by the Cloud Village to destroy her own village. Rin willingly chose to sacrifice herself to ensure the safety of the people she loved.

Story Plot

Rin Nohara was born on November 15. She spent most of her childhood living with her invisible mother, while nothing was known about her father. She also spent her early childhood playing alongside her close friend, Obito, encouraging him whenever he was in trouble.

On the day they entered the Ninja Academy, Rin was present when she saw her name on the list, as were Asuma, Anko and Kurenai. Shortly after, she saw that Obito had arrived, the ceremony already completely over. She happily handed him his entrance documents, for which he was very grateful.

During her classes, Rin was mostly researching medical ninjutsu, but she watched Kakashi from afar. After Kakashi lost his father, Rin watched him train with Hiruzen.

During one night, Rin and Obito were unfortunately surprised by Kakashi while they were both hiding in the brush of his house. That same night, she and Obito learn that Kakashi lives alone, and are amazed at how well he can cook fish. Rin even tells Kakashi that the fish he cooks is just like the fish you eat in restaurants. They both laugh when Kakashi says that he doesn’t want to be a cook. The next day, while they were in class with Obito they encourage Kakashi who was fighting against Guy again.

Rin is also the first to congratulate Kakashi after he graduated from the Ninja Academy a year ahead of the rest of his class, as Kakashi got his own frontal protector after successfully completing the “Kage Bunshin no” technique.

However, she knew that Obito was extremely angry about this and had encouraged him to do the same, which made him happy.

After graduating a few years later, Rin was placed under the jonin tutelage of Namikaze Minato, alongside Obito and Hatake Kakashi. During their final test to become official genin, Minato tasked his three potential students with taking one of the two bells he held in live combat.

At first, the team attacked Minato independently, with Rin and Obito easily outnumbered by the older ninja. Kakashi convinced Rin and Obito to work with him, however, which eventually allowed them to take the bells from Minato by showing teamwork as their sensei had intended.

In the first C-rank mission, after catching cats thanks to Obito. Their team had to protect a foreign ninja until the border. While trying to reach their ally, the team is attacked by an enemy ninja. Kakashi tells Rin to go ahead while he stalls the enemies.

One of the escort members is hit and falls off a bridge into a river. Arriving near his destination, one of the escorts thanks Rin and Kakashi, but the other two turn out to be traitors and attack their fellow shinobi. Confident that Minato will not be able to reach them in time, the traitors prepare to attack Rin and Kakashi. After being attacked by the two traitorous escorts, Minato and Obito arrive to support Rin and Kakashi, but one of the two traitors escapes.

The last escort asks Minato to make sure the scroll is real, as two of them were given scrolls. It is discovered that the scroll was a fake and the other escort who fell had the other scroll. Obito immediately leaves to save the escort and the others reluctantly follow. The escort is found and is attacked; however, Obito and Kakashi arrive just in time to save him. In the middle of the fight, one of the pursuers grabs the scroll and they retreat.

Team Minato returns the scroll and completes the mission. However, it is later discovered that their team was sent as a decoy and that both scrolls were fake. Another group is sent to deliver the scroll to make sure it is not stolen by enemy ninjas.

During the team’s training sessions, Kushina would regularly join them to help with their training. Rin took particular pleasure in her visits, enjoying the food that Kushina prepared for them. When she told her that she liked her cooking, Kushina became very attached to the girl. Rin would get confused every time Kushina kissed her on the forehead, but she also saw Obito arguing with Kushina.

Chunin Exam

When they participated in the Chunin exams, Rin gave Obito confidence by writing him a note during the writing test.Soon after, she and Kakashi were standing outside the gates of the forest of death waiting for Obito to arrive. She told Kakashi that Obito wouldn’t be late and that she was happy to see him when he arrived. While in the forest, they are confronted by Maito Gai, Shiranui Genma and Ebisu, but before they can attack as a team, she is shocked to see Obito go on the attack, who is knocked down by Gai. Later, she dresses her wounds and talks to Obito who professes his pride in his clan and his dream of being the Hokage. After Kakashi becomes a jonin, Rin throws him a top secret party, much to Obito’s dismay, who was hoping to use this moment to tell him that he loves him.

3rd Shinobi War

During the Third Shinobi War, Team Minato was tasked with destroying the Kannabi Bridge. During the mission, Rin was kidnapped by Taiseki, and Kakko, another of her captors, attempted to interrogate her using genjutsu to see if she knew anything about Konoha’s war efforts. Rin’s will, however, proved too strong and was not respected under the genjutsu. She was then rescued by Kakashi and Obito. Although they managed to save her, Obito was crushed in a collapse caused by Kakko.

Obito’s death

Before Obito “died”, he asked Rin to implant his Sharingan into Kakashi’s left eye socket to replace Kakashi’s damaged one. Wasting no time, Rin immediately began the procedure, after which she and Kakashi were forced to flee as enemy reinforcements arrived and continued to sink into the collapse. Later, Minato arrived on the scene to rescue them and defeat the Iwa-nin. After Kakashi recovered, the team continued their mission and destroyed the bridge.

In the anime, after the Kannabi Bridge incident, it is shown that Rin was sent on a mission with Kakashi and Gai. While their situation looked grim, Gai used himself as a decoy to get the shinobi away from Iwa, and Kakashi went after him. Rin then returned with reinforcements from Konoha, causing the enemy to retreat. When the Third Shinobi War was finally over, Rin, along with Kakashi and Minato, once again mourned Obito’s death by attending a funeral for all the victims who were killed.

Rin’s capture and death

Some time after the events at Kannabi Bridge, Rin was kidnapped by Uchiha Madara in the guise of Kiri, and had Isobu locked up inside her. She was also branded with the puppet master’s seal and programmed so that the tailed beast could be released into Konoha. To ensure the tail beast’s recovery, several Anbu level Kiri jonin and shinobi were sent after them.

Wondering why she had been transformed into a jinchuriki, Rin asked Kakashi to kill her in order to protect the village. Kakashi refused, because he promised Obito to protect her. However, Rin chose to commit suicide rather than risk the safety of Konoha, which she managed to do by intercepting Kakashi’s Shidori, which was intended to hit a Kiri-nin, impaling herself in front of the person she loved just as Obito arrived. They didn’t know Obito was alive and saw him, just as Rin was dying.

Rin used the last of her strength to whisper Kakashi’s name (and perhaps even “I love you”) before she sadly died, and fell to the ground after Kakashi removed his arm from her lifeless body. Once the shock wore off, the Kiri-nin decided to retrieve Rin’s body in an attempt to get the tailed beast back.

Rin’s death was also responsible for awakening both Obito and Kakashi’s Mangekyo Sharingan, but as an exhausted Kakashi fainted, Obito who had been watching from the sidelines responded by viciously and mercilessly slaughtering every enemy ninja in sight, consumed by grief and rage, creating a bloody battlefield with the moon even turning red.

Standing there with the corpses all around him, Obito looked around and grimly concluded that he was in hell. While holding Rin’s body, Obito vowed to recreate a world where he and Rin could finally be together again.

It is not known what happened to Rin’s body after her death, but it is assumed that Obito buried her or that, when she and an unconscious Kakashi were discovered by Konoha reinforcements, her body was brought back to Konoha and buried in the Konoha cemetery. Since Rin’s death, Kakashi regularly visited her grave, even sharing top secret information with her such as the birth of Uzumaki Naruto, as witnessed by Obito, who had snuck into the village in disguise. In the afterlife, Rin spent her time watching Obito, as she had assured him long ago.

Rin’s death impact on plot

Rin’s death had a huge impact on her friends. Initially, it caused Kakashi and Obito, who survived the collapse and watched the events unfold from afar, to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan in each other’s eyes and eventually caused Obito to take revenge by killing all enemy ninjas in sight while sparing Kakashi.

Impact on Kakashi

In the anime, Kakashi developed PTSD from killing Rin, having numerous nightmares of her death (which would persist into adulthood), one of which involved Rin being impaled and whispering Kakashi’s name before shouting it in anger, which woke Kakashi up and left him extremely terrified and guilt-ridden. Since Rin’s death, Kakashi had been visiting her grave regularly to clean her headstone and leave flowers for her, even sharing top secret information with her, all the while ignoring the fact that Obito was hiding.

Rin’s death, like the death of every person she cared about, affected Kakashi but more than usual since Rin had loved Kakashi and also used him to kill her with his own hands. Even being on the verge of death himself during Pain’s invasion of Konoha, Kakashi lamented his inability to protect Rin and said that he would see her alongside the rest of their team. When his death was mentioned much later, Kakashi was visibly stunned, to the point of being unable to move.

Impact on Obito

Rin’s death had an even deeper impact on Obito. The site of Rin’s corpse shattered Obito’s idealism and caused him to embrace the curse of his clan’s hatred, growing to hate reality itself for allowing such a system to allow senseless deaths. Rin’s death also served as motivation for Obito to carry out Madara’s Moon Eye plan – to create a new world where heroes would not have to stand on graves and make pitiful excuses. Obito even claimed that Rin was the only light in his life. In the end, despite the dark path he ended up taking, Obito was somehow able to keep the promise he made to Rin when he gave his life to protect Naruto, which would prove crucial in sealing Otsutsuki Kaguya, meaning that Obito’s act of sacrifice indirectly saved the world just as he promised Rin all those years ago.

 

Personality

Rin Nohara was a sweet and friendly girl who cared deeply for her classmates and her village. Like Hinata, she often acted as a peacemaker during Obito and Kakashi’s many spats, while remaining objective. Rin was also an intellectual person, as evidenced by her ability to learn and use high-level medical ninjutsu at such a young age. She showed insight under stress, as seen when she thought Obito was dead and after being captured by the Kiri shinobi, she concluded that she must not return to Konoha or the village would be attacked.

Rin was a dedicated person, as evidenced by her refusal to abandon Obito, even when her own life was in great danger. She had a very strong will, for even if under what seemed to be the hardest genjutsu, she would not break. While Obito had romantic feelings for her, Rin did not share them, but had romantic feelings for Kakashi which only became apparent shortly after Obito’s incapacitation.

Nevertheless, Rin cared a lot about Obito and was always ready to help him in almost any way, either by healing his wounds or by giving him moral support. She was one of the first people to recognize him as a person and a ninja. She was even convinced that he would one day become the Hokage, as she always supported his dream and hoped to be by his side if that happened.

She was also deeply saddened by Obito’s incapacitation during the cave and mourned his presumed death. Rin also never seemed to be disappointed or angry with Obito for his actions after his death, and assured her that despite the fact that he never kept his promise to her, she knew he was doing his best. Rin was also very devoted to her village and willingly sacrificed her own life to protect it rather than risk playing a major role in its potential destruction.

Age

Academy Grad. Age	9 years old
Chūnin Prom. Age	11 years old

 

 

Appearance

Rin Nohara was a fair-skinned girl of medium height. Her most distinctive features were her dark brown hair, cut into a chin-length strand that framed her face, and her matching colored eyes. She also had two rectangular purple marks on each of her cheeks.

As a Ninja Academy student, she wore a simple outfit consisting of a light-colored blouse with a bow tied in the middle and a simple sleeveless haori. As a genin, she wore a long-sleeved black top and a light purple apron skirt, under which she wore black shorts. She also wore a navy blue Konoha front protector, black sandals and red stockings that stopped at her thighs.

On her missions, Rin carried a backpack instead of a pouch containing her equipment. She also wore a small red bracelet on her right wrist. It should be noted that the bracelet itself is visible in the anime, it is also visible in some pages of the Naruto manga.

In the anime, during her mission with Kakashi and Gai, she wore the standard Konoha bulletproof vest over her light-colored outfit and shuriken-patterned apron skirt.

 

Skills

As a chunin and doctor-nin, Rin Nohara was a competent kunoichi with a strong will. Her willpower was so incredibly strong that she was able to resist any information leakage while under Kakko’s genjutsu. In the anime, Rin showed at least some basic taijutsu skills during her genin test against Minato.

– Medical Ninjutsu

As a medical ninja, Rin’s first duty on a mission was to support her teammates, which she did with great skill and was even able to teach them first aid. Despite her age, she showed great skill with medical ninjutsu, being chosen for a high ranking mission in the Third Shinobi World War. During this mission, she managed to implant Obito’s left Sharingan into Kakashi’s damaged orbit in a short time and with only basic medical tools, given the difficult circumstances the team was in at the time.

– Chakra Elements

Rin was able to use the natural transformations of fire, water and Yang.

 

Conclusion

Overall, Rin died as a shinobi loyal to her village, despite being kidnapped and jinchuriki in an attempt to bring chaos to Konoha. She chose to die, choosing to commit suicide rather than risk bringing destruction to her home. As such, she strongly exemplifies the will to fire inherited by Konoha’s generation of shinobi.