Stubborn and Red:
The Story of Karin Uzumaki
Chapter 2
Scene 1
Nagato sat in a blue chair in the hokage office just to the right of Naruto's desk. He was twirling a pen around in his hand impatiently. "Any idea's why your dad said it was so important for us to be here?"
Naruto sighed as he twirled some instant ramen around in his chopsticks. "No idea!" He took a huge bite out of the ramen before twirling his chop sticks again. "All he said was that I needed to get you and Kiba over here and that it was important. He said that he and Gaara were on their way."
Just before Nagato could get any more impatient there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" Naruto said before stuffing his face some more.
Minato walked into the office followed by Gaara.
"Oh good! You're finally here!" Nagato said standing from his chair. " Is everything alright?'
"Yea dad. Whats up?"
"Is dog boy here?" Gaara asked looking aroud the room?
Just then a man with brown hair and red lines on his face walked into the room. "I heard that! And im here!"
"Your late! We called you thirty minutes ago." Nagato said looking at Kiba.
"I'm sorry. I was in the middle of training so I took a quick shower." Kiba said mildly irritated.
"Explains the smell of wet dog." Gaara said rolling his eyes.
"The reason were here? I could be home with my beautiful wife right now. Instead im here! Dad whats going on?" Naruto said tossing his empty instant ramen pack in the trash.
"Okay…well I'll keep it simple." Minato took a big sigh and said.."We found Karin…well Neji found Karin…"
Naruto raised his eyebrows but didn't say a word. Nagato stopped twirling his pen around and looked Minato in the eyes.
Kiba's eyes widened. "Found her? Where is-"
"She's safe! " Gaara snapped. Gaara and Kiba don't exactly get along. They often argued because Kiba felt that around Gaara Karin was wild and didn't always make a lot of fantastic choices. Gaara always felt Kiba was a stick in the mud and always tried to control how Karin lived her life. And Gaara resented Kiba even the more because inspite of everything he still lost his best friend. But at least now he could breathe easy because she was home again.
"She's at the hospital." Minato briefly explained what happened at the forest.
"Has anyone contacted her step father?" Nagato asked pulling out his cell phone.
"Zabuza is still away on a mission. He wont be back for another year." Naruto answered staring into Zabuza's file.
"Ok. Well should I set up a place for her to stay when she gets out of the hospital?"
Kiba interrupted with his own version of a solution. "I have a room at the guild. She could stay with me until we get her on her feet."
"I'll have her stay with me before I trust her with YOU again!" Gaara objected.
"Her getting kidnapped wasn't my fault!" Kiba snapped walking over to Gaara.
"Right! Only the fact that she got snatched because she was running from you and her dads obsessive behavior!"
"Shes not staying with either of you!" Minato interrupted walking in between the heated argument. "I've already called Kushina. She's preparing Karin a room at our house as we speak. She's going to stay with us. I like you both but your still men..with men brains and she's still my niece! You get the picture." He grinned.
"Gross sensei. She's practically my sister." Gaara rolled his eyes.
"Yea but you live with your brother. Ive seen him stare once or twice."
Kiba decided he'd heard enough. "Whatever. I'm going to the hospital to see her." He stormed out of the room.
Gaara sighed. "Well I should probably get down there…make sure he doesn't smother her to death. You coming sensei?"
"You go on ahead." Minato answered . "I still have something to talk to Naruto about. I'll be there soon."
"Ok." Gaara said before leaving closing the door behind him.
"Well ill let you guys talk." Nagato said before walking toward the door.
"Actually Nags, you should stay. We could use your brain.." Minato said leaving Nags staring with a confused face.
Scene 2
Neji sat out in the large waiting room to hear something anything. Sakura had already taken Karin to the back to examine her to see how to proceed in fixing her. He was scrolling through his phone when he heard a familiar voice. "Neji?"
Neji looked up from his phone to see Sakura walking up to him.
"How is she?" he asked.
"Stable….considering she's been through fresh hell." Sakura tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I should have known.."
"What do you mean?" Neji asked confused
"I should have known she was in trouble."
"Wait. .you know Karin already?" Neji put his phone in his pocket and folded his arms.
"Yes….she delivered Sarada. She was so nice that day. I had no idea she was being held against her will. Had I known…I would have gotten her out….or at least said something to somebody."
Neji smiled at Sakura. "Well like you said….you had no idea. And at least she's fine now…I'm sure you both will have some catching up to do "
"And I plan on it..for now…I have patients…and she'll be waking up soon. Do you mind keeping her company? At least until her Uncle gets here.. it would suck if she had to wake up alone."
"No problem!"
"Aw thanks! You're a life saver…literally! Sakura laughed. "She's in room 208. I'll check on her as soon as I can!"
Scene 3
Neji wandered aimlessly through the halls until he reached room 208 where Karin was. He opened the door and slowly walked inside. He walked over to the hospital bed and looked at Karin's face. Her eyes were still closed. He whispered trying not to wake her. "Sakura said you've been through a fresh hell. I wonder if I can see deeper." He activated his Byakugan and began to slowly scan her over. First he examined her chakra as a whole.
"Its increasing at rapid rate." He thought. "If it continues like this she should be out of the hospital by tonight." Then he began to scan the rest of her body. He noticed something on her body…everywhere. "Marks?...what the hell have you been through?" As he was scanning something distracted him..curves. He began to study her curves. They seemed to be in all the right places. He scanned down to her thighs and legs. "Okay damn. ..nice thighs!" He thought to himself before feeling a hand grab his wrist.
"Are you using your Byakugan to be a perv?" Karin said to him clearly awake and glaring at him.
Neji tried to redeem himself. "No of course not!" He grinned.
"Your lying. Your chakra fluctuated when you told me no."
Neji laughed. "So what are you…like a human lie detector test?"
Karin grinned. "Something like that….I'm a sensory type."
"And your really really good at it I can tell."
"One of the best." She smirked. Neji pulled up a chair close to her and sat down. "Well, cant blame a man for trying." He grinned right back at her.
"Uh huh sure." She giggled. "Lets just not try it again hm?"
"Sure thing boss!" Neji said sarcastically. "So before you decided to resume your nap you were going to tell me the hidden secret requirement for being your friend?"
Karin laughed. "Its no secret Neji. All I ask for is your honesty. You have to be completely honest with me at all times. No matter what it is. Even if its its something you feel will hurt me or you feel like I cant handle it no matter what it is. Always tell me like it is. If you can handle that…im sure we'll be friends forever. You see I ask this because the friends I have now….they care…they care so much…in fact they care so much that they have been known to lie from time to time..they claim there protecting my feelings but I need at least one person in my life who wont censor anything with me…I need a completely open and honest friendship ya know? I need a friend who will understand that im a big girl. And that I can handle myself."
"Well you have my word miss Uzumaki. I will always tell you the truth…even if it's the ugly truth. Just understand one thing" Neji said looking at her.
"Hm?"
"This open and honest friendship. It works both ways little red." He smiled. "Always tell me like it is. No matter what. Be that one friend I can always trust with any secret. Besides…its not like I have a lot of people I can trust either. And people tend to tiptoe around me as well. Or I have to deal with some people being fake nice to them because of who I am or what I can provide them with…like…toast for instance."
Karin laughed. "Is he still calling weed toast?"
"So you know what it is?" Neji smirked.
"Hell yea I know what it is." I dabbled…ya know…before I was captured."
"Really?" and who was lucky enough to take your toast virginity? Wait let me guess? Red head like you? Green eyes? Has a thing for the sand? Currently still technically Kazekage of a village he doesn't even live in anymore?"
Karin laughed. "Yep. Gaara started it back when we were teenagers. We did everything together. Practically joint at the hip since we met when we were kids."
"How'd you guys meet?" Neji asked pulling a bottle of water out of a mini fridge in the corner of the hospital room that was put there for guests. He also pulled out another bottle and brought one to Karin.
"Well I was five…my family and I were visiting the hidden sand village. My step dad was on a top ranked mission so we would be there for a few months until he finished up. Then he was talking about us all moving to the hidden leaf to settle down. Dad was gonna be a leaf shinobi and enroll me into the acadamy when the time wad right. At that time I didn't have any knowledge of being a Ninja. I barely understood how chakra even worked. All I knew is that I begged and begged my mom to let me go off to the park on my own that day to go play."
"Wasn't she nervous about sending a five year old off on her own?" Neji said as he gave Karin her bottle of water. "Drink. I was able to tell your dehydrated. That can get serious if not dealt with."
"Thanks." Karin said as she opened the bottle and took a sip. "Of course she was nervous. Naturally. But I begged so much and she didn't want to disappoint me by not letting be go because she was so busy around the house. She couldn't go on any missions of her own because she had just become pregnant with my little brother."
"You have a little brother?"
"Yea. Another subject for another day. So she finally ley me go to the park on my own. Of course she gave me an entire speech on being safe and behaving myself and not talking to strange grown ups."
"And did you talk to any strange grown ups?" Neji said smirking.
"No…turns out the grown ups weren't the problem. "
"What happened?" Neji said looking slightly concerned.
"Well shortly after arriving at the park I saw some older boys playing. They looked to be about 7. Naturally being the nice and friendly person I am…I walked over there to them and introduced myself to them and asked them if they wanted to play and be my friends."
"And how did they respond?"
"Well turns out they were the village bullies. One of them kicked me and the other began to pull my hair. "
Neji clenched his fist but Karin continued on. "Turns out word about members of the Uzumaki clan had gotten around because my aunt Kushina was a jinchuriki . And eventually she wasn't but my cousin Naruto was. But being the not so intelligent boys they were . The Uzumaki's were labeled as freaks. So they continued to beat me up saying I was nothing but a little freak to and that it would be a matter of time before I would be a monster to."
"It's a good thing you didn't know me back then." Neji said taking a sip of his water.
"Why?" Karin asked.
"Because I would have made them suffer. Ya know I wasn't always this level headed."
Karin laughed. "Don't worry It gets better. After they had kicked and punched me around enough Gaara actually heard what was going on. He heard them calling me a freak and he ran over and yelled at the boys to leave me alone. They turned there attention to Gaara for helping a freak like me and told him he was crazy for trying to defend a freak like me. He told them to lay off which only pissed them off more. They joked that they were only having fun with me since I wanted to have fun. Then proceeded to shove my face in the dirt."
Neji was clearly getting mad listening to this. "And you weren't able to defend yourself at all?"
"Well I was 5..and not skilled in the arts of the ninja. My parents kind of sheltered me. I didn't even have any real useful knowledge of my clan back then. My parents were trying to shield me from as much information as they could before they were ready for me to learn. But I had overheard them talking a few times so I learned what I could here and there. I had at least learned about my cousin and aunt being the jinchuriki to what was called the nine tailed fox. I had heard that even uncle minato harbored half the fox before he died…and then came back. But I wasn't really sure what all that meant so I didn't dwell. Plus at the time I was too busy being bullied in the park to stop and think about it.
"Your uncle had put half the fox in him and half the fox in Naruto to protect him at the time "
"Well yea I know that now. I had no idea back then. Anyways… after pushing my face into the ground Gaara decided he had seen enough and his anger kicked in…and back then when Gaara got angry….he got scary.."
"He was still the jinchuriki of his own tailed beast at the time wasn't he?" Neji said twisting the cap back on his half drank watter bottle before pulling out a snickers bar he had in his pocket and opening it.
"You know about Shukaku?"
"The one tailed beast. Yea I know all about him. A real pain in the ass if you ask me. Not as bad and loud mouthed as Kurama the nine tailed fox but..he was something. Did he surface that day?"
"Well not completely. But in a way yes. At the time Gaara couldn't really do ninjutsu and didn't really have much control over his sand. Shikaku had a mind of his own and hated Gaara so he used his sand and nearly strangled the bullies to death. Gaara and I had been just that close ever since. People had called him a monster to. I told him he looked like me…so there was no way he could be a monster."
"So you look out for eachother basically?' Neji said sitting back down.
"Always."
"Hmmm well Karin now that we have this amazing new friendship I have a question for ya!"
Karin looked to her right at Neji. "Ask away!"
"Ya wanna tell me what all those marks I saw on you are?" He smirked.
Karin was taken back for a second. She opened her mouth to say something when she was interrupted.
*KNOCK KNOCK!*
The door peeped open and a voice was heard. "Karin?"
**CLIFFHANGER***