Karen, Princess of Shadows.
A Naruto fanfic by DeathBoo
The squeal to "Shadow of Life"
Well, here's the story, enjoy it, hate it, or simply worship it…
Disclaimer: I do not claim to hold any writing \ producing \ distributing rights over the Naruto anime or Manga, Kishmonto holds the rights, not me.
Chapter 1: Genin
Soun was watching the genin tests, he was a 19 years old chunin, the first one to enter was Inuzuka Hob, Soun looked at the two types of forehead protectors, if Hob will pass he will be granted with one from the left suitcase, it had the village symbol with a few adjustments, to announce that Hob wasn't a total sound.
His parents were refugees from the leaf, they all escaped when the Kyubi reappeared, the one who alarmed them was the leader of their community at the sound, Uchiha Sasuke, he held a position close to that of the sound kage, and he was in good terms with him.
"Now, show me an henge" he asked the kid "and don't try pulling anything with the dog" he warned him, the genin test was about regular jutsus, family ones were better kept until later years, and some of the clans insisted that the child should first prove himself worthy by turning into a genin before any secret jutsus should be taught to him.
"Henge no jutsu!" the boy shouted, a perfect mirror image of Soun was standing there, from the posture up to the black bags, courtesy of sleepless nights trying to make the test hard enough to block leaking of not-good-enough students into the rank of genin but that would still leave space to students who had one bad skill or could be great if they get a good teacher.
"You pass, good work, Hob, you are now a sound Genin, you'll get the forehead protector at the ceremony tonight at seven, and you'll meet you teammates tomorrow morning" Hob was a sure pass, he was good at all jutsus, and was smart enough to know he wasn't meant for brain fights, and so he avoided mental conflicts, "a shinobi knows which battle to fight" was also a shinobi saying, after all.
"next! Uchiha Gray" Gray entered the room, he had blond hair which was tied down by a small pony, he was already 13, he failed last year, but worked hard with his dad and today he was considered the best of all students, "Gen-Henge!" Gray shouted, the room shifted a bit, and now Soun was standing in front of himself, the kid was great, using genjutsu to replace the room settings, he made it look like Soun was the student "Nice, you pass, congratulations, really well made illusion, but you forgot to change the shadow from the sun, so you still have to work about it" Soun pointed at the special sound protector, he's suitcase held four of them this year, he had already gave away half.
The ex-leafs were good shinobies, and under the 3rd sound kage management, they helped the sound grow and it was now expected to surpass the leaf in a generation. "Doro, come in" the sound came in, he was one of the girls crush targets, and Doro enjoyed every second of it, "Henge!" he said quietly, in a flash of smoke another Soun appeared, but Doro was a sound expert and he also wanted to impress the tester, so he disguised his voice as Soun's and they both spoke together "Good work good work, I'll I'll see you see you tonight tonight at seven (at seven, be there be there".
The rest of the tests passed as expected, 11 passed until that point, Rock Tack has outdone himself, actually transforming into an exact copy of Soun, which was an improvement from the too short or over fat versions he produced throughout the years, he probably got lessons from his mother, Sakura was an expert at those things, even if Lee was ever worse than his own son.
Soun sighed, he pushed the last ex-leaf student to the back of the line, he hated admitting it, but he was afraid of her, she had a fox always running around her, she burned more than 5 times the chackra needed to use the most basic jutsus, and on top of all, her chackra was different than anyone's else's, a chill passed through his bones whenever he felt her, Karen was simply scary, even if she was only 12.
"show me a henge" he asked, masking the fear with tiredness in his voice, she started gathering chackra, she didn't use it to transform normally, she had a talent in body metamorphic no justu, it wasn't a common jutsu, it was mostly used by spies and thieves, and was almost never taught to kids. Her hand grew much larger, he body longer, smaller eyes, all the signs of her being a female were gone, only then she performed the jutsu, "you pass, congratulations, be here at seven to get the headband" he said quickly, Karen just sighed and walked to her apartment.
"you aren't going to do it!" Ino yelled at her husband, the ceremony was over and now he was on his way to the Kage, they needed to discuss the teams placements, "o.k… I won't put Gray with her, but I really don't see any reason not to, he's her best friend" he said, but he knew exactly why she resented it, Karen was Naruto's daughter, and missions weren't afternoon playing time, Karen could slip like Naruto did sometimes, or worse, let loose of that thing, like Naruto did.
Sasuke still remembered that night, Ino walked to his place, Gray was asking for Ramen, and the store was closed, since Sasuke had none, they walked together to Naruto's place, they always had Ramen, no matter the hour, when they got there they saw the lights were on, they snack in, Naruto and Hinata were nowhere around, but Karen was crying, Ino picked her up when he saw the blood prints, he quickly followed them out, they led to the Hokage momentum, he saw Naruto there.
Sasuke was about to talk to him when he saw how Naruto moved, chackra was irrupting from him, he was like a samurai who has taken off his armor, willing to sacrifice his life for a bit more speed, and then Sasuke saw what happened to Naruto, he was growing larger, a tail sprouted out, and by that time Sasuke knew he had no chance, he called the alarms, but only few families managed to escape the falling village.
Sasuke brought them to the sound, he begged for audience with the kage, but after the meeting the leaf shinobies were a part of the sound. On the other side, Ino was supposedly dead, so they married the next week, and he adopted Gray as his new son, and Gray accepted him easily as his father, mostly because Gray was at boarding schools most of the time, and knew nothing about father-son relations.
"four men groups, I got it!" he said to Tsubakauro "Karen, Hob, Doro and Shally will be group… what number it is? Group 13 of the sound" he said in victory, it was balanced, 2 sound nins and two ex-leaf, two boys and two girls, "who should we assign as a jounin instructor?" Tsubakearuo asked, they needed someone trustworthy, after all, the jounin instructor will be in charge of Uzumaki Karen, and he will learn about her heritage, which was a secret until now to anyone other than those who were in the leaf, and they didn't talk about it.
"what about Sarg?" Sasuke asked "bad idea, Sarg's too strict for them, he can work well for Tack, 13 instructor should be someone who knows how to deal with demon power, we can't ignore the reports about demons anymore, Ealla got back last week from a scouting mission, I think she can be a good teacher" Tsubakerou said, Sasuke just nodded, Ealla was a fine shinobi, she was smart and strong, she was never afraid of anything and was eager to see everything, team 13 was special enough to interest her so that she'll train them.
"can't you keep your pet away from mine?!" Hob cried in anger, Shu-al was harassing his dog, and Shu-al was much bigger and was scary, not that he'll allow Karen to know he what he thinks, "just shut up… come here shu-al, don't try to eat that puppy, he probably tastes as bad as he looks" she said in a tired voice, she had Shu-al ever since she was young, and now he was her only family.
"Someone's coming, lets try to act like a team now, o.k?" Doro said, his ears picked up the sound of the door closing but no footsteps, it meant that a good shinobi entered the building, so it had to be their Jounin instructor, "idiot, she's already here, she snuck in through the window ten minutes ago, I thought that at least you'll notice" Shally said in disappointment, even if Doro looked good, she wanted someone smart to be with, no just looks, though it didn't hurt.
"yep, I'm here, and you guys are really boring, like what are you thinking about? I expected to be discovered by all of you, especially the dog kid, but I guess that's what you get when you train losers like the four of you" Ealla said in boredom, "well, we should introduce ourselves, I'll start: my name is Ealla, I'm at my mid twenty's, I have a lot of hobbies you're too young to know about, and that's about all there is." She said while looking at the four, the first impression was very important.
"my name is Shally, I joined the sound when I was a baby, basically I want to be a good shinobi and see the world, I love traveling and hate explaining myself to stupid people"
"I'm Hob, I wish to be a great shinobi like my father and to be an ANBU one day, I love walking my dog and I really hate cats and people who don't know when to let go"
"Doro, I'm named somewhat after my uncle, my goal is to be the sound kage one day, and to make everyone see how great we are, I hate people who stick their noses where it shouldn't be"
"they seem to be quite the normal bunch, I guess they can be fun" Ealla thought to herself, "what about you, the name is Karen, right?" She asked the last girl in the room.
"yes, I'm Karen, anything else?"
"well, likes, dislikes, goals to the future, anything?" Ealla asked
"Nothing really"
"well, I'll see you all in three hours at this spot, we're going to have a night train, if you fail it then you go back to the academy, got it?" Ealla announced the exam terms, it was planned to be a test of teamwork, they'll have to work hard, mostly because she knew all their abilities and they knew nothing about her. But now she had to go meet the sound kage and discuss the teams, he said that she has a special team, Ealla hadn't seen anything that could imply it, but she still kept her hopes.
"what I'm about to tell you is a top secret information, if you choose to hear it you'll pledge yourself to that team, and refusing to train them will be counted as a personal crime against me" Tsubakarou said, "I see, I assure you that I have no intention of leaving the team, I know my duties well" she answered, she looked at the man besides her, it was Uchiha Sasuke, the official representative of the ex-leafs at the sound village, "if he's here, it means it has something to do with either Hob or Karen" she thought to herself.
"Very well, we chose you as their jounin instructor because of your past experience with demons, we have a valid reason to believe you'll encounter at least one wherever you take them" Sasuke said, Ealla was surprised, she had met demons over the past few months, most of them were just small beasts, with the inelegance of a wild animal or so, but she met also a few who were geniuses of battle, she barely escaped the last fight alive, so she knew that demons were varied from weaklings to super powerful death machines, and even those were nothing compared to the true demons, monsters such as the Kyubi and the monkey king, which were higher beings that came to play with civilization once a while and to kill what they could, but the rumors stated that some of the demons were finally really dead, at least that was good.
"Why do you believe that?" she asked them, "It's because Karen's father held the Kyubi, and by shu-al behavior, it's highly possible that she carries a part of him as well" the sound kage answered.
Karen was walking back home, she held a cup of instant Ramen, Ino gave it to her, Gray had his survival test at the morning, so he planned to take his brother out and train a bit with him, "I'll see you later, Karen, good luck" they said to her, Karen knew it was a fake, Ino has always watched her like a bomb going to explode, and Gray just thought she was annoying, but his father asked him to watch over her and hang out with her, just so she won't be lonely.
She looked at the Ramen cup she held, it disgusted her, everyone thought she liked Ramen for some reason, she watched the noodles spin, it reminded her of her father, she remembered how he was always doing stuff, she never saw him focusing his entire concentration on anything, even when he was making dinner or cleaning the room, he always found the time to complain about something, she felt a tear forming at her eye, "you basterds…" she whispered to the Ramen, remembering how both her father and mother left her alone, she was rescued by Ino, her father and mother never survived the attack, nobody talked about them anymore, when she asked Sasuke about her father he just answered they were good friends, he avoided any of her questions about what happened to him, "you'll never leave me, won't you?" she turned to the fox.
The fox was sleeping there as usual, but this time two other beasts were there as well, she looked at them, they were bigger than normal dogs or wolves, they had black fur and red eyes, even though they were standing in the light column, they had no shadow, she looked at them, trying to figure out what they were, she looked at Shu-al, words exploded in her head: lowlifes-weak-soldiers-peons-subordinates-meat shield-slaves. But from all the words, she liked only one: "expandable".
Well, since this is the first time publishing, I'll give you the treat of an extra chapter!