Stubborn and Red:

The Story of Karin Uzumaki

Chapter 3

Scene 1

Karin looked up at the sound of the voice coming from the door way. "Whew! Thank God. I wasn't ready to explain." Then Gaara came running into the hospital room followed by Kiba who came straight for Karin.

Neji who was standing on the other side of Karin looks around the room real quick before sticking his hands in his pockets. "Well it seems your in capable hands so im gonna go ahead and take off now."

Karin frowned her face a little bit and looked at Neji as if saying "don't leave me here alone..there gonna kill me..or eachother". Of course the look of desperation went right over Neji's head. "Oh, its alright! Besides Minato will be here soon and I need real food before I start to get "hangry". The snickers just isnt cutting it!"

Karin giggled and sat up a bit. "Alright then.. I guess I'll see ya later then."

"Sure thing. Just stop by the guild whenever you can." Neji said before proceeding to leave. Kiba watched as Neji left out of the hospital room. He turned to look at Karin and he started to get a jealous feeling but remained quiet about it…at least right now. "Karin im so sorry. I should have done better. If I hadnt been so-" he started before Karin interrupted him. "Don't do that. It's not your fault. I got pissed. I ran. Nobody forced me to."

"Yea but Orochimaru never would have gotten a hold of you if I had just backed off."

Karin smiled. " Look at me. Its over now. None of that matters. All that matters is that I'm here now.

Gaara made an attempt at trying to abruptly change the subject because he was growing tired of listening to Kiba whine and Karin defend him. "So Karin how ya feelin?"

"Well im getting my energy back. I'm also starving!"

Gaara laughed and headed for the door. "Good ole Karin! I'll get us something from the cafeteria!"

After Gaara walked out of the room Kiba took it upon himself to sit in the chair next to Karin. "You know…I really missed you."

A blush creeped up across her cheeks. "I really missed you to."

"Are you sure?" He answered her with doubt in his voice.

"What do you mean?" she asked looking concerned.

Instead of actually answering her question he just sat back in the chair. "So what did you and Neji talk about?"

And just like that her blushing cheeks went back to normal. She scrunched up her face. "Are you kidding me?"

"What…did you and Neji…talk about?"

Karin was clearly aggravated and almost ready for him to leave. "We talked about life! And I told him how I met Gaara!"

Kiba instantly got offended. "You talked about Gaara….and you didn't tell him about me at all?"

"Are you seriously making this about you?!" She said as she glared at him and folded her arms.

"I'm your boyfriend Karin! Your supposed to tell people about me!"

Karin was angry now. If she glared any harder you could mistake her eyes for sharingans. "Get out."

Kiba refused to leave and instead got closer to Karin. "Don't try to dismiss me because you don't like what I'm saying!"

Karin sat straight up and yelled as loud as her lungs would let her. "GET OUT!"

Gaara came running back in the room hearing Karin scream. He immediately put the food down on a table and grabbed Kiba's neck with his sand and slammed him against the wall. "She said get out. Now you can leave calmly…or I can make you leave." He released the grip from Kiba's neck.

"Tch!" was all Kiba could say before turning and walking out of the room.

"You okay?" Gaara asked closing the door behind them.

"Yea im fine. Im not worried about him. He'll realize he's being an idiot and come around." She said sliding the food table closer.

"Well if ya weren't stuck in the hospital I'd get you some toast to help blow off the steam." Gaara said taking a bite out of his sandwich.

Karin laughed. "There will be PLENTY of time for that later." she said taking a bite of her own sandwich.

Scene 2

Minato arrived at the hospital and walked to the front desk. He saw a lady sitting behind the desk. She was short and plump with dimples on her cheeks. "Ah lord fourth! We were expecting your arrival.

"Is Sakura available?" he asked.

"I just paged her. She should be here any se-"

Sakura came running around the corner. "I'm here! I'm here!" She walked over to Minato. "lord fourth! I've been expecting you "

"How's she doing?"

Sakura smiled. "She's doing fine. She's recovering in her room."

Minato let out a sigh of relief. "Do we know what could have caused her to fall out like that?"

"Well when I was examining her earlier I noticed she had marks on her. They looked like teeth marks…all over her body. "

Minato frowned. "They didn't just look like teeth marks…they are teeth marks."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "You already know about the marks?"

"Karin has a…a gift..her blood…it heals."

Sakura took a step back and pushed her hair out of her face. "Her blood….heals?"

"Yes. It heals. Any wound…no matter how serious. The only catch is the person needing assistance has to…bite her."

Sakura looked deeply concerned. "They have to bite her?"

"Yes. We tried to keep it secret for as long as we could because every bite consumes chakra from Karin. Obviously Orochimaru found out and went overboard and it almost killed her."

"How much chakra does something like that consume from her?" Sakura asked staring at Karins file in her hand.

"A lot. Her gift becomes dangerous if used more than once in a 24 hour period."

Sakura sighed. "They were all over her. Arms, legs, thighs, her back. But..I passed by her room a few times and heard her talking so at least I know she's up."

"When will she be able to come home?" Minato asked with a reassuring smile.

"Well I was already on my way to her room to go check on her. You can come with me. Ill have an answer for you then."

"Lead the way.."

Scene 3

Karin let out a huge burst of laughter. "No! I only took your toast that day because you took mine the week before!"

Gaara laughed back at her and took a sip of his cola. "I did not! You lost it!"

"Okay maybe! I have needs! Plus that was 6 years ago!"

Gaara smiled. "Well im really glad your alright tomato. I really missed you. Kankuro's been getting on my nerves and Temari still terrifies me." He chuckled.

"Well I see you survived."

"Barely."

"And..before you even form your mouth to ask….no I don't want to talk about what happened at the hideout." Karin interjected.

"I understand. And I know when your ready you will tell me everything."

Karin smiled and pushed her food tray to the side. Before she could say anything else there was a knock at the door. She looked up to see Sakura open the door and peek her head inside.

"Karin? I'm here to check on you!"

"Come in!" Karin said as she sat up on the bed.

Sakura walked inside. "I brought company!" Minato followed behind her.

Karin grinned hard at the sight of her favorite uncle. "Uncle Minato! You made it!"

Minato laughed. "Well I'm impressed. Already up laughing and talking!"

Sakura walked over to Karin's side. "So how are we feeling?"

"Well I feel a lot better thanks to you!" Karin said folding her arms in her lap.

"You wanna try standing for me?" Sakura said clutching her clip board.

"Sure!" Karin climbed out of the hospital bed and did a pose. "TADA!"

Gaara folded his arms. "Now are you sure your ok? Or are you lying just to get home?" He looked at her suspiciously.

Karin rolled her eyes. "What? Do I need to prove it to you?" Karin applied her chakra to her feet and began to climb the wall until she was standing upside down on the ceiling. "LOOK MA! NO HANDS!" Karin flipped off the ceiling and landed on her feet and smiled. "See!"

Gaara laughed and rolled his eyes. "Yea she's fine!"

Minato smiled over at Sakura. "Well Sakura my dear you are truly a miracle worker!"

Sakura smiled. "Well in that case Karin you are free to go. Im gonna go work on your discharge papers now but your free to leave whenever. Once you get settled in we can set something up to go out for drinks and catch up! Ill see you later!" Sakura smiled and left the hospital room.

Minato looked at Karin and Gaara. "Alright you two lets go. Kushina's cooking dinner now at the house and if were not home soon she will beat us with the same pans she cooked with."

"SWEEET!" Karin yelled out before jumping on Gaara's back. "ONWARD!"

Gaara looked up over his shoulder. "Welcome back! You psychotic nut job!" He started walking towards the hospital exit.

Karin let out a smirk and said in her signature devious tone of voice. "The bitch is back!"

Stay tuned for chapter 4 where we time jump one year later!