Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto franchise or it's related concepts and characters, but Masashi Kishimoto and his affiliates do.
[ST]
The Second Trapper
[ST]
Having been in the Leaf Village for quite some time, Gennō, once known as the Trapper of Heat Devil Village, had been planning to take revenge for the loss of his village when he encountered an orphaned Ninja Academy student that reminded him of his own son that he lost. Naruto Uzumaki was a positive young man in spite of the frequent hostility he received from his neighbors, civilians and otherwise, and actually strove to become the next Hokage of the Leaf Village. Seeing a new hope in the Leaf Village and something more than revenge to focus his remaining years on, Gennō decided to train Naruto to be a better ninja. Although it took effort in hiding themselves from the Leaf ninja while they did so as well as time for Naruto to adapt to the teachings, the latter had been making progress since graduating from the Academy and had passed the second stage of the Chūnin Exams by the time he went to Gennō to both tell him and see how his new friend from the Forest of Death had been doing.
"Hey, Gennō Sensei." Naruto greeted upon arriving at their usual meeting place. Turning to the red-haired girl next to Gennō, he then said. "Hey, Karin."
Karin, Naruto's previously unknown clanswoman who he helped defect from the Grass Village during the second stage, smiled kindly at him. "Hello, Naruto. How did you do on the Exams?"
"I think I did great! I just need to take some more training, beat down some genin, and I'll be one step closer to Hokage!"
Gennō chuckled gladly. "I'm proud to hear that, Naruto. Still, something tells me your jōnin will see to it that you're properly trained for all the Feudal Lords to see, so keep your wits about you."
Naruto nodded with determination. "I will Gennō Sensei! Thanks! I'll head out now to meet up with my teacher for the third stage!"
Before Naruto could head out properly, though, Karin surprised him and amused Gennō by leaving a kiss on Naruto's cheek. Once she parted, she then said with a blush. "For luck."
[ST]
You got to admit, even if the anime filler content for Dragon Ball and Naruto aren't as popular as the manga original stuff, they do present interesting concepts that could be used for alternate universe fanfiction stories. Naruto rescuing Karin in the Forest of Death is one of them, but compared to being trained by Gennō, it's more often used. I guess you could say I was partly inspired by CRed1988's FFN story Whirlpools Among the Eddies, except that I recognized that Karin wasn't recruited by Orochimaru until some point after the Chūnin Exams. Not that CRed1988's story is bad by any chance, I'm just saying that a good amount of research is critical when it comes to writing.
This is also the last of my one-shots for now. I'm pretty convinced that I should see to other projects from writing longer stories to reading and watching things beyond my own work. I've also decided to get back to posting things first on Ko-fi a month before I post them elsewhere. If anything, it will inspire me to focus on other things that don't involve typing out fanfiction.