Hello everybody! Well, this is my first fanfic ever so I hope that you help me if you see any weird plot holes that I may not been covering properly. I really like Karin and Naruto together. For some reason I think that they could make a really cool and funny couple. The next pairing that I have found interesting involving Karin is of course with Sasuke and maybe Sai. This fic may have a little Sakura bashing so take the emotional precautions needed if you like her. I have been writing this fic in Spanish and I thought, what the hell lets translated it to English, if no one likes it at least I practice my writing skills.

I started with some weird punctuation preference of mine but later I realized that it was not fair to the readers as they are accustomed to some rules that do not apply in Spanish. So for the sake of respecting the audience and English language I re-write the couple of chapters that were on English and posted the third with the correct punctuation. As I am not very skilled with this way of writing please let know of any mistakes!

So the dialogue will be enclosed in ""

The thoughts will be written in cursive like this.

I hope you find it good! :)

FIRST ENCOUNTER

This story takes place four years after the fourth shinobi war's end. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto get along as good teammates and even as friends.

After the war Sasuke decided to roam the world alone so he could find his true path in life, to think of a way and a purpose for living life. His brother had made a mistake yes. He had committed a terrible mistake… however he forgave him, he forgave him because first of all he loved him very much and second because he could not live with the grudge and resentment that revenge demands. Additionally he forgave himself and took the decision to live. To get to this point it took for Sasuke one year of rolling solo by the paths and valleys of the lands of fire, water, thunder and rock and also it took for him to see as everything around him -despite the war- chose life over destruction. As soon as he decided to forgive himself and as soon as he realized that he may have a second chance as well, he chose to go back to Konoha. There he met the one that would become his girlfriend and later on his wife, Hanabi Hyuga. He entered the AMBU and was considered one of the strongest and most competent Jounin of the village.

Sakura is the chief of medicine at the Konoha's Hospital been only surpassed in rank by Shizune. After the war, she came to the village with her heart and her mind in order. She did not longer loved Sasuke in an irrational way. She surpassed her capriciousness and coward behaviors, proper of past adolescent weaknesses and now she also have given herself the opportunity to look to other boys, to fall in love again… although this time in a healthier way, without comprising other people's lives. In those four years she had had some romances but nothing serious. She felt quite well as chief of medicine at the hospital, occupying her time between the task that her work demanded and the missions that occasionally Tsunade assigned her.

Naruto, meanwhile, is one of the highest ranked Jounin of Konoha. He is an AMBU. Although unlike Sasuke, Naruto occasionally is also assigned to group missions. He… still has some adolescent weaknesses, mainly concerning Sakura. Although his feelings had diminished and he no longer felt the same as before for her, he still had a small little hope that she will finally notice him. Naruto stayed the four years that had passed since the fourth shinobi war's end in Konoha as a top Jounin. He was a full grown man now, better dressed and a little more prudent. No longer was he as loud as before or shouted as when he was younger…, just a little less but not too much. He still was the energetic kid, happy and fun. He lives in his old apartment where he has now as a neighbor a former enemy, Karin.

Due to their collaboration in the war against Madara, it was offered to Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo to be part of Konoha as shinobi, to be only accepted by Karin. The other two opted to follow other paths outside the villages.

Karin wanted to change her life and start from scratch. She saw the opportunity when Tsunade offered to the former Taka teammates the possibility to live in Konoha and be part of a village. She never had been an active part of any community. She had always acted in ways that facilitate others to achieve their objectives, as she did not have objectives of her own. That's why she worked along with Orochimaru in his experiments and later followed Sasuke with his revengeful mission. Since the war started and also since Sasuke stabbed her, wounding her chest with his chidori, she decided that for the first time she needed to find a purpose of her own, a purpose different to what she have been doing all of her life, something different from been a follower of other people's dreams.

And so it was that with all the hope that a change of live brings that Karin attended to her first day of training as a Konoha ninja where she received her hitai-ate and it was assigned to her a place to live. She would remember later on that first day as one that will give her clues as how she will be treated in those four years following the end of the war, lived in Konoha…

"Karin! Here, there is your hitai-ate." Hayate trowed the piece of clothing contemptuously falling in front of her feet. Karin picked her up. Despite the roughness of his jester, Karin had arrived to the armory that morning with the world's entire disposition to have a good day, cheered and even a little flirty. Thus she will not be feeling bad so easily.

"Ok, thank you….! Emmm… you have not told me your name yet" Karin said with a smile. Hayate looked at her in a serious way for a moment, a stare mixed with a little of resentment and annoyance.

"Hayate"

"Ok Hayate-san, thank you for the hitai-ate. Now…, where will I live? I hope that the place has a lot of trees and air flows, maybe a little balcony—" Hayate started laughing mockingly at Karin

"Look… Karin" He pronounced her name with derisive contempt "you must be grateful just to have a place to live, not everyone has that privilege. I do not know what the reasons were for Hokage-sama decided to allow you to live with us…, but you must be certain that you are anything close to a savior or hero in our village. You are just… a guest… and you have to earn your place as a Kunoichi" Hayate finished his discourse slowly with a note of mystery in his words.

"jumm, ok I was not expecting a mansion either! Rude…"

"This is the address of the place you will be living in" Hayate handed a paper and a key to Karin "Tomorrow at 6:00am you must present yourself at the Hokage's office. Now get the hell out!" His last words were said calmly and serious. He then ignored her, staring at some papers he had over his desk.

Karin a little disappointed by the tone of Hayate's words but at the same time happy because she finally had some place to call a home, left the armory with a destination in mind, the address that was on the paper. Whilst she walked towards her new home, she unconsciously ignored the stares that some village people gave her, some of them of distrust others of disgust.

She was happy to have a place to call a home. She even started to think on the colors for her curtains: pastel yellow.

Soon she arrived to her destination. She looked at the building that the address showed and could not help but to grimace.

"mmm, such an ancient building! Well maybe is better inside"

She climb up the stairs energetically and quickly arrived to her floor. She saw that there were two doors, which indicated two apartments. Karin looked at the paper which indicated that her apartment was No 302. She walked towards her new apartment and opened the door. It was a huge surprise when she found out that her new home was a dumpster. The furniture comprised a bed without mattress, an old little kitchen and a simple wooden table without chairs. Everything was covered by a layer of dust and spider webs. The bathroom was in deplorable conditions, not running water, the pipes were clogged. The bathtub was broken and the shower did not work. The sunlight did not enter the place as the windows were covered in layers and layers of filth. The ceiling had two mayor leaks right above were the bed was and when she closed the door behind her and tried to turn on the lights a spark jumped from the bulb blinding her momentarily, creating a short circuit leaving the place without electricity. In the dark it appear to her that a rat came out running from what in other time seemed to be the pantry but that now seemed the entrance to hell.

"well, well, it will not be a palace but it is mine. Now let's work!"

Despite the state of her new home, Karin did not lose her cheerful attitude. It would take her a few months to make her place habitable for a human, contrary at what was when she first entered, somewhere that resembled more of a place for rats and bugs. The first months were the hardest and not only because the living conditions of her home were awful, but for the amount of work and the conditions that she would be subjected to. The missions followed one after another leaving her with little time to make the proper arrangements to make her place a home. She was assigned to suicidal missions from which she saved herself by sheer determination. In those four years she did not have much more than a week off at the time between missions. Then she will be surprised with the amount of work she accomplish with her apartment in the little time that she had free.

As the time went by the enthusiasm for her new life started to diminish, primarily due to the amount of missions she was assigned to. Little by little she realized that no one else in the village, that no shinobi was given the amount of missions that was given to her, or so closed to each other. She barely had met her neighbor Naruto. She had saw him from time to time leaving his apartment that was right next to hers when she arrived from her endless missions, but it never went beyond a hello with him.

She just had made one single friend in Konoha in those four long years. She was a regular team mate. Although she did not have a fixed team, Hanabi Hyuga was one of the kunoichi with whom she had spent more time in missions and she was close to her. Later on life Karin would thought that, by not assigning her a fix team of fellow shinobi , the village had made impossible for her to have solid relationships, but this did not crossed her mind when she was still living there.

Occasionally when Tsunade did not assigned her missions from one day to another (which occurred rarely), she hanged out with Hanabi. The couple of friends went to bars for drinks and dancing. These nights out happened before Sasuke arrived to Konoha. For a year they were best friends. When Sasuke arrived, Hanabi and he enlisted into AMBU where they finally met each other and became boyfriend and girlfriend. Due to the fact that Sasuke until that point in time have not ask her for forgiveness, for all the things he did to her, especially when he almost killed her in the fight against Danzo, Karin and Sasuke did not speak to each other so as a consequence of Hanabi and Sasuke becoming a couple, Karin and Hanabi were not as close as before.

That would be the life of Karin for those four years, those four years up until that night.

Karin had been assigned to a mission with Anko and Hanabi. Although she was not longer as close to Hanabi as before, they still got along quite well. They were inspecting a field where was reported a sight of strayed ninjas. Hanabi was on watch checking the surroundings with her Byakugan whilst Anko and Karin were watching some traps that those stray ninjas leave behind.

"It is weird that they leave this traps so shallow" Anko observed

"Yes…, it would seem that they left the work behind half done, but why?"

"emmm girls I think I know why they leave everything half-done… RUN!" Hanabi suddenly shouted.

A herd of deers enter rapidly into the clearing where the three kunoichis were. Anko and Hanabi could evade quickly the herd that moved with great strength by jumping to the closest tree, however, Karin tripped with a tree root that protruded from the ground.

"KARIN!" both Anko and Hanabi shouted at the same time

Karin fell on her side dislocating her shoulder. In the ground with her dislocated shoulder she could not avoid an adult deer that stomped his way through the clearing, stepping on Karin's other arm and foot.

"Karin, are you Ok?" Hanabi asked when the herd finally passed.

"I… I think..so…, I just have a dislocated shoulder" Karin could barely speak because of the pain.

"It is better that we return to Konoha, it is getting darker and you need that shoulder checked" Grabbing her by her non dislocated shoulder, Hanabi helped Karin return to Konoha.

As always in the hospital after been brought hurt from yet another mission, Karin was treated dryly and rudely.

"Well Karin I have to go back home. Sasuke is waiting for me, it's been a long time since we saw each other!, it seems like Tsunade does not give him a break!"

"It is Ok Hanabi, I get it, I don't get much breaks either… but… thank you for accompany me to the hospital."

"Soon the Dr will come and will see you. Please forgive me for leaving you" She made a little vow to Karin and left the room running as fast as she could.

Karin sighted and flinched from the pain as involuntarily she had moved her dislocated shoulder. Dr Shizune went out to attend the patients that were in the waiting area. When she saw Karin, her expression changed, hardening.

"Now what did you do to yourself?, are you not aware that there are other people that are really sick and need medical attention?"

"Shizune-san, I fell in a mission that your boss assigned to me in the last minute. I have not slept in two days because I had just arrived from another mission but she did not have that into account. You are the ones that are not aware."

Upset, Shizune proceeded to fix her shoulder and then she put a sling holding in her arm. She checked her other wounds confirming that there were no other fractures or dislocations. She bandage her other arm and her foot. Everything was made very professionally but without a single touch of amiability.

"Take this meds, you have a three sick days leave." Shizune put the meds with indifference on the table.

"Thank you. Oh Shizune-sama I almost forgot…"

"what?"

"Tell your boss that I will not be going to her office to inform her about my accident. This time I will not go. You go."

Shizune did not say anything, leaving the room without saying goodbye.

Karin thought about her return home. She also realized that three days of leave were not a lot and despite been an Uzumaki she did not believed that she would heal so fast. It would take a little while, she felt tired and breathless. She took her meds and slowly started walking home. After some long minutes she arrived to her building and started climbing the stairs with difficulty. She thought that it was a superhuman effort to climb the three floors to her apartment's door but still she did it as always.

When she finally arrived to her door, she realized that it would be a little difficult to reach her apartment's key as she usually put it in her kunai's pouch located in her right side, precisely the side of her dislocated shoulder. With her left arm, that was also hurt, she tried to open her pouch with unsatisfactory results as that hand was holding the bag of meds.

"Damn key. I'm sooo stupid! I should have let a spare copy under the mat."

In that particular moment Naruto had just finished climbing the stairs. He had just arrived from a reconnaissance mission, nothing too hard. He had never notice or gave much thought about the existence of his neighbors. Usually he was late for everything and thus he left his house running all the time, jumping over the neighboring houses' rooftops without putting too much attention to the people living in them. However, that night, he was in a good mood, was not late for anything and had tons of remaining energy as the mission of that day was quite simple and he made it without problems. That was why he notice that someone was cursing in front of the next door apartment. It was her neighbor Karin.

"Hello! Problems with the door?" Naruto approached her.

"amm Hello!" Karin answered distractively whilst she tried to open her pouch. She didn't even looked up to match Naruto's eyes.

Naruto noticing her estate, a little beating up, her arm in a sling, decided to help her. He open the pouch, took her key and open her door.

"Oh… thank you…" She said with a little surprise in her voice. It was strange that someone help her out. Since the moment that Karin accepted to be part of Konoha as a Kunoichi no one had done anything to help her out or had done something nice for her (besides Hanabi) on the contrary it seemed that the village wanted for her to fail.

"It is nothing really… seems that you have a rough day" Naruto stare at her with a little curiosity. Why would she be like that?

Sighting, Karin avoided his curiosity filled stare by entering her apartment. She felt a little examined by his eyes, like a guinea pig. She then turn to him and with a tired glance she said "As always…"

She lock eyes with Naruto's, hiding her tiredness. She said goodbye giving him a sincere smile. If she were to be a little less tired she even would have flirted. But she did not have the energy so she did not do it. "Arigato Naruto-kun, you have been really nice. See you later."

Naruto returned the smile and said "Ok take care!" He felt a little bad for her. It seemed that she had been beaten badly. He felt the urge to ask for her day, but a sudden shyness took hold of him; maybe she did not wanted to be disturbed, he thought, she was tired and maybe she did not wanted to talk about her day. Thus he turn around and entered his apartment.

As soon as he entered his apartment Naruto started to plan his dinner. "Well tonight what kind of ramen should I eat?..." He asked himself. Looking at his instant ramen drawer filled with boxes of different preparations he said to himself "mmmm what could possible Karin make with her arm like that, I don't think that much…" Looking at his ramen selection he chose the largest one and he headed to his neighbor's apartment. That night the two of them would kill their loneliness for a bit.