YAY! I'm back once more, and with another chapter for your enjoyment! Sorry it's short though. It couldn't be helped.

On another note, READ NARUTO CHAPTERS 660-661 right now, well after you read this new chapter :3

And REMEMBER: THIS IS NOT A HAREM! (I'm merely adding competition for NaruKarin to happen.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 7: The Desert Trap

Naruto smiled at the redhead as she took a quick swig of water from her large water bottle. He ran a hand through his blond spikey hair and sniffed the air for a moment. The doors of the checkpoint swung open revealing a disheveled and quite messy looking Iwa team. Kurotsuchi glared at the boy but Akatsuchi tried to calm the girl down.

"Good to see you have made it." Naruto smiled.

"Sure." Kurotsuchi grumbled before tossing her scroll to the shinobi behind the counter.

"Would you like some water?" The jounin asked.

"Huh?" Kurotsuchi looked confused. "Why does this place look like a pit stop?"

"Because it is Kurotsuchi-san." The jounin sighed. "During missions, even though messengers go for long distances and even through combat, they still need rest. These checkpoints are designed to simulate that."

"What if a team wants to sleep and rest?" Kurotsuchi asked while massaging her aching shoulder.

"They have every right to do so, but like in real battle, if the messenger sleeps for too long, or too little, it can be a hindrance to the mission and ruin the timeframe designed for whatever strategy or contingency is in place."

"Hmm…" the girl nodded her head when a chunin walked in with water bottles.

"I needed that…" Kurotsuchi sighed as she chugged her water. "It was rough out there Naruto."

"Indeed Kurotsuchi." The blond laughed. "That snake sure did pose a challenge."

"Not for you." The Iwa kunoichi replied, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Nah…it was still a challenge." Naruto said. "That snake could have killed all of us if I wasn't careful in how I attacked it."

"Good thing you're not as stupid as most make you out to be Naruto-kun." Karin secretly slurred the honorific while giving Kurotsuchi a glare. Neither Naruto, nor Kurotsuchi's teammates caught the look or the slur, but Kurotsuchi sure did. The kunoichi glared at the redhead and clenched her fists, causing the leather of her gloves to rub.

'It seems that the redheaded whore has the hot's for the Hero of Konoha.' Kurotsuchi glared. 'It seems that this Blondie is perfect for promotion, the redhead though…I don't know. She sure is a great healer and she has a strange kekkei genkai. Wait, now that I think of it…'

'She's strong, too strong to be a genin.' Karin narrowed her eyes at Kurotsuchi. 'I can sense her chakra, but something feels so familiar about it, almost as if I've sensed it before. But her chakra wasn't what I was intending to sense. I know it. Yes, I remember now…holy fuck…I know her!'

'She was at the Kage Summit!' the two girls thought at the same moment. Karin shot from her seat with her hand wrapped tightly around Naruto's wrist, causing him to drop his water. Kurotsuchi did the exact same thing but instead, grabbed her own teammates from their seats, causing them to spill their waters before they could even get a drink. Naruto was about to protest, but Karin flashed him a look that seemed familiar. Naruto looked back to the Iwa team to see that Kurotsuchi was doing the exact same to them.

"Thank you for the water. We'll be on our way." Naruto bowed before he and Karin broke off into full sprint.

"Jounin-san." Kurotsuchi said with a different tone than what she used before. "Get this message to the Kage's. I have information about Uzumaki Naruto and his companion that might seem interesting, especially to my Grandfather."

"Understood Kurotsuchi-sama." The jounin bowed. "Will you go off and continue pursuing the Uzumaki?"

"Sure, why not." Kurotsuchi laughed. "I was tasked to do so by the Hokage herself to test him. Might as well see how high of a tolerance level he has for pain!"

Akatsuchi and their teammate stared at Kurotsuchi with sad eyes and felt a small pang of sorrow for Naruto and Karin. Kurotsuchi gave them a look and glared menacingly before taking off after the golden haired boy and the redhead.

What the hell is the Hero of the Leaf doing with an Akatsuki?

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto and Karin were making great distance from the checkpoint and were already backing into the desert. So far they hadn't encountered any other teams, but they were sure that there would be opposition sometime soon, especially since there were only a few more hours left before the evening hit. Karin was worried that Kurotsuchi might have noticed who she was.

The two Uzumaki jumped over a large cavern in the middle of the desert and landed safely on the other side. Sand was blowing in their faces as the winds picked up to a violent speed, nearly blowing them from their positions and into the cavern below. Naruto struggled to keep his footing and nearly slipped because of the sands whirling beneath his sandals.

"Karin!" Naruto shouted. There was something strange about this cavern. Suddenly, images of his first time summoning Gamabunta flashed through his head. He looked down and realized that the cavern had the same build and physical terrain as the cavern back in Konoha. There was a heavy gust and pushed Naruto off his feet and into the cavern.

"Naruto, hold on!" Karin caught his arm as quickly as possible, making sure that she wouldn't lose her grip. "I've got you."

The winds were now threatening to push her into the cavern as well. She looked down to see Naruto smirking at her and shaking her head. He mouthed the words, it'll be alright, and released his grip around Karin's forearm. The redhead's eyes shot open as she screamed out his name, terrified of the prospect of him dying.

Naruto shook his head, feeling the need to laugh at her naivety, and spun around in midair while speeding through hand seals. After looking around the cavern he wanted to laugh at how easy it was, almost exactly like summoning Gamabunta. He bit his thumb and finished off the final seal and shot his hand forward and called the jutsu.

But nothing happened. Naruto's smile dropped immediately. His heartbeat accelerated. He sped through another set of hand seals ready to try and summon another toad, but with no success. He looked over to the sides of the cavern walls, and quickly grabbed onto the ledges that jutted from the sides, only to be blown back and forced back into freefall state.

What the fuck?! The cavern is designed to kill people! What is wrong with Suna?! Naruto cried within his mind. He channeled in whatever senjutsu chakra he could muster and nearly felt his heart sink into his gut. The walls were covered in seals that were designed to suck chakra from jutsu, rendering techniques or anything revolving around the use of chakra, completely useless. Within a few seconds, he felt his senjutsu chakra leave his body and enter the crevices of the walls.

Naruto turned down and learned the hard way of why he shouldn't be such a show off.

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Karin stared in fear at what she just saw. Naruto was lying face down at the bottom of the cavern with a large pool of blood spreading around him. She sent out a quick blast of chakra to sense whether or not her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she quickly realized that Naruto's chakra signature wasn't responding. She couldn't sense it. She couldn't even sense the Kyuubi's chakra from within Naruto.

"N-Naruto…?" Karin whimpered softly as she stared at the boy lying at the bottom of the cavern. "Please get up…"

The winds stopped, allowing the blaring hot sun to sizzle into her skin; but never had she felt so cold. The warmth that came with Naruto's chakra was gone, completely non-existent. It was a signature that she would never forget, one that she knew that she would always remember; one that she was looking forward to for the rest of her life. But now; it was gone.

She waited a few minutes, knowing how Naruto usually is, but he continued to lie down at the bottom of the pit, face-first, with a large pool of blood surrounding him. Karin knew that if Naruto wouldn't survive the fall, she wouldn't. She shook her head violently; knowing that there was no way that Naruto could die! She sent out another chakra blast, but this time, using as much concentrated chakra as possible and did a distant diagnostic of Naruto's body, hoping to kami that Naruto was still ok.

What she sensed made her heart shatter. Everything was mush; jelly. His bones, shattered completely, his brain suffering from a massive hemorrhaging, and his skull was cracked in eight different places. But what really hurt Karin; three of his ribs snapped and dug into his heart in three places, impaling the organ, stopping it completely. Tears formed, stinging at the corners of her eyes and threatened to fall, if she continued to stare at the boy at the bottom of the cavern.

She sensed another group of chakra signatures and clenched her fists as the tears finally fell. She reached down and grabbed a handful of kunai and shuriken. She narrowed in on the source of the incoming chakra. It was Kurotsuchi. Karin shot to her feet and jumped up, hurling her weapons, blowing the Iwa shinobi off of their course, causing them to scatter.

Karin grabbed another bundle of shuriken and started spinning on her heel while keeping a steady barrage kept on the Iwa shinobi. Kurotsuchi was surprised by Karin's sudden increase of skill and jumped for the redhead to take her on personally. Karin saw this and hurled the shuriken in a blind rage towards the Iwa kunoichi.

Fuck! Kurotsuchi jumped to the side dodging a large barrage of projectiles, but felt the sands slipping from beneath her feet. Her eyes widened in complete unaltered fear. Kurotsuchi sped through a few hand seals and slammed her hands into the ground, trying to form a wall of earth beneath her feet to bridge the gap, but the rocks that shot from the cavern walls merely crumbled and collapsed. With the chakra being siphoned from the stones, it made the bridge impossible to hold anything.

What is this?! Kurotsuchi started sliding down towards the opening of the cavern. She threw her arms back, in a wild attempt to keep her grip on the sands and rocks protruding from the ground around her. The sands started moving faster. Karin noticed this and Kurotsuchi knew it too. The redhead drew out a kunai and threw it towards Kurotsuchi's head.

Now fall. Karin narrowed her eyes. The black haired Iwa kunoichi did exactly what Karin thought she would, she dodged the attack. But because of how powerful the moving sand was, Kurotsuchi had no choice but to dodge and practically jump into the cavern. Kurotsuchi's eyes were never so wide, and never had she been so scared in her life. Karin glared at the Iwa kunoichi and hurled one more kunai, embedding it within the sand next to Kurotsuchi's face.

Now's my chance! Kurotsuchi grabbed the Kunai and turned ready to throw it back at Karin, but found that she was no longer there. The girl turned back and around as the sand had finally disappeared and the darkness of the pit was all she could see. She cocked her arm back and hurled the kunai down towards the left side of the cavern walls, and threw up the tiger hand seal.

"Kai!" The kunai and explosive tag exploded, breaking off large boulders and rocks from the side of the wall. She descended knowing that there was almost no way of getting out of the cavern without some injuries. She looked forward and found the blond haired Hero of Konoha, covered in his blood and lying face down on the ground.

She was deeply surprised at the scene. He was virtually untouchable so far in this exam, and yet, a simple tumble from the side of the cavern, he was dead. Kurotsuchi shut her eyes and got her body ready to take the full brunt of the impact with the rocks and boulders stacked upon each other. She turned onto her side and smashed right into the top boulders, and forced her way through each one, forming pebbles and little rocks.

Once the smoke and dust died out, she was standing with her right arm limp, hanging at her side with blood pouring from the massive gashes up and down her arms and shoulder. She gritted her teeth and glared softly at the dead Uzumaki lying on the ground. Kurotsuchi limped over to his body and collapsed onto the side of the wall as well.

She was just a few moments away from collapsing and passing out, but she was vigilant and tried her best to stay conscious. She limped forward to Naruto and simply, broke down. Her body was slowly fading, as was the light. She placed an arm around the dead shinobi and shook her head before realizing that she herself was gone as well.

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Karin stared in awe at what she'd just done. Kurotsuchi's chakra was flickering, but was slowly fading away. While the damage done to her body was nothing compared to Naruto's, she was surprised at the amount that the Iwa kunoichi had taken. Karin looked to Kurotsuchi's teammates to see them flabbergasted, but not angry.

"Don't come near me!" Karin shouted threateningly, in a failed attempt to seem powerful. "You two will join her if you come anywhere near me!"

"Calm down!" One of the other teammates shouted back while scratching the back of his head. "We meant no real harm to you or the Blond!"

"W-What?" Karin glared and tightened her hold on her kunai. Her chakra started kneading. She wanted to see if they were lying.

"It's true!" Akatsuchi said with a grunt. "Your Hokage tasked us with keeping you and Naruto on your toes…"

"W-What?!" Karin was wide-eyed; anymore and her eyes might even pop from their sockets. "What do you mean?! What are your true ranks?!"

"We were all already chunin." Akatsuchi replied. "Kurotsuchi is already getting groomed for jounin position."

"B-But…" Karin looked back down the cavern and fell to her knees. "Damn it…I probably just started something unintentionally…"

"We need to get to the next checkpoint and tell them of what happened here."

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The winds were piercing, despite the night being in the middle of summer. The bright white moon above shined down upon the entire desert as small desert animals and even the large ones, scurried about, trying to make the most of the night and gather as much food as possible. Desert scorpions and snakes were, even in the night, the most dangerous hunters out.

It didn't matter much to the kunoichi lying at the bottom of a dark cavern. She was slowly forced from her pain induced sleep by the soft splotching of water onto her cheeks. The girl looked around with her dull-pink eyes with confusion evident in her features. She clenched her fist and wrapped her arm over to her shoulder to find that it has been wrapped in a red cloth.

Her entire body was sore, burning to the bone with pain, but the girl sat up anyway. The only light she had was the dim illumination of the moon. She looked around with her breath hitched. It was already night time. She looked to her side, but found an outline of a man in a pool of dried blood. She drew out a kunai with her good arm and struggled to her feet.

There's no way in hell that Naruto could have survived that fall! Kurotsuchi growled as her kunai clicked. She stumbled slightly, but managed to put her hand on the wall of the cavern and used it as a crutch. Limping her way through the darkness, Kurotsuchi was seriously regretting getting up from the ground.

Rustle…

Her head snapped up and hurled the kunai in the direction of the sound. There was a loud thud and a small cry of pain. She quickly hobbled over through the darkness and found a dim, but orange light going through the cavern. She suddenly felt a burst of energy and ran over towards the source of the light and found Naruto sitting on a rock with a fire burning wildly in front of him. The surprising thing though, the fire wasn't using wood, just rocks.

Naruto looked over to Kurotsuchi and gave her a small smile and motioned for the Iwa girl to sit with him. Kuro shook her head but headed over anyway and plopped on a rock next to his. She trailed her eyes over his physical features and found nothing wrong, nor was there anything bruised. His haori though, was torn and matted in all places and directions. The cloth used as a sling was apparently from the hem of his haori.

While being lost in her muse, she completely forgot that she was actually really hungry. During her moment of unawareness, her stomach grumbled like a truck's engine and nearly had Naruto rolling. The boy held in his laughter and snapped Kurotsuchi from her thoughts with a desert rabbit on a stick. The girl looked at him with an incredulous look for a good five minutes before she realized that the boy was offering her some food to eat.

"Don't worry. I've made sure that the entire thing was cooked right." Naruto smirked. "It's not going to jump off the stick and attack you!"

"Sorry about that!" Kurotsuchi laughed softly and took the rabbit. "So, where are we?"

"I have no idea really." Naruto shrugged.

"So you're telling me that you don't know what this place is?" Kurotsuchi asked. "I thought you and Jiraiya of the Sannin traveled all over the elemental nations for training."

"Oh we did- wait." Naruto caught himself. "How did you know that?"

"Hmph." Kurotsuchi huffed. "I guess we should have a proper introduction eh?"

"Agreed. You go first since you were the one that tried to kill me and my teammate for the entire day." Naruto laughed.

"Alrighty. Kurotsuchi is the name. Daughter of Kitsuchi and Granddaughter of Oonoki, the Sandaime Tsuchikage." The girl replied with a smirk. "Judging by your reaction, you know of them."

"How can I not?" Naruto replied. "Training with Ero-sennin, he made me learn and memorize the current great shinobi of the different nations. Kitsuchi and Oonoki were no different."

"Interesting…oh well anyway, I…nevermind. Deception is after all a shinobi's greatest weapon right?" Kurotsuchi smiled.

"Indeed." Naruto nodded his head. "Well, I'm Uzumaki Nami- I mean, Naruto. Hero of Konoha."

"That's all you're going to give me?" Kurotsuchi feigned a look of hurt. "Is it because you don't know me that well?"

"Heh, nice try." Naruto laughed. "Just eat your damned rabbit and then we can try and find a way out of this stupid cavern."

Naruto stared into the flames and released a sigh. Kurotsuchi was obviously thinking about something and it was beginning to bother him. He tried his hardest to pay no attention to her obvious thoughts, but it was starting to grate on his nerves. He slowly lowered his cooked rabbit and turned on his seat to face the black haired girl. She merely looked him back in the eyes and looked back to her food.

"What is it that you wanted to ask or say?" Naruto asked. "I won't do anything."

"So is that redhead your teammate, or is she…?" Kurotsuchi used her hands trying to get what she was trying to ask across.

"My girlfriend?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea." Naruto grumbled softly. "We've kissed…a lot, but we haven't made a relationship out of it. Not only that, there's another girl back in Konoha that I've been seeing, and then this other girl who confessed to loving me, and then there's-"

"Forget I asked." Kurotsuchi deadpanned. "You Konoha shinobi are so strange."

"I like to think that it's just me."

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The time around the fire went by quickly, leaving the two young adults with almost nothing to talk about. Kurotsuchi chose to hit the sack and sleep on the rocky floor ahead of Naruto while he went scouting for an exit. He spent a good three hours looking around through the cavernous bottom, but found no discernable exit or even entrance besides the opening above them. He was tired and wanted to rest.

Little did Kurotsuchi know, his body was on fire every time he'd take a step, or even breathe. He was in pain, but didn't show it. Behind the scenes and deep within the recesses of his mind, his mother and inner demon were surprisingly working together to remove the ribs that entered his heart. So far, they were able to remove two of the ribs, but they weren't as bad as the final.

One false move on Naruto's part or theirs, the sharp tip of the snapped rib would slice open his aorta no matter which way they go. And if that happens, Naruto would only have, even with Uzumaki blood, just a minute maximum to survive. Naruto had been though a lot of pain, but nothing could match getting a chidori plunged through his chest, at least until now. The Kyuubi was having a headache from how important it was that he didn't kill his container.

As much as the Kyuubi hated being caged, he knew that Naruto was something else. The Kyuubi sighed and went right back to channeling his chakra towards the bone and the heart, keeping it pumping and healing the holes formed in the organ. It was easier to heal his chest from the chidori attack because Naruto was able to make the chidori miss his heart, even if it was by a little, but this was a fall from kami-knows-how-many feet.

This was an entirely different level of expertise. Something that the Kyuubi had never experienced in his immortal lifetime, especially since neither of his previous jinchuriki were stupid enough to try and show off his skills when his teammate could have easily helped him up. The Kyuubi was laughing so hard when Kushina went on a rage about the stupidity of Naruto, but quickly shut his mouth and started channeling chakra into his body to strengthen it. He knew about the seals and what they'd do, and he even knew a loop hole.

The only way to beat the cavernous walls, was to use bijuu chakra. But, the Kyuubi couldn't just load the blond's body with bijuu chakra because the chakra would go straight to his chakra reserves and into the blood, and straight to the heart, which was extremely weak at this point. If there was an overload, along with the chakra being used to move the bone out of place, he could end up causing the heart of rot and decay from the boy's chest, killing all three of them in the process.

Damn humans and their need to show off…

Kushina sighed from within the mindscape and picked her nails with a kunai that she fabricated. She sighed and stared at the dark walls while the Kyuubi continued his job of keeping his jailor alive. Kushina stood from her seat and paced back and forth, channeling her own chakra into the seal and making sure that her own will would be transferred to Naruto's heart, in an attempt to strengthen it.

The Red Death of Konoha looked up at the Kyuubi with a smug look on her face and fabricated a chair. She unceremoniously plopped down onto the seat and looked at the giant fox with a funny look.

"You know Kurama…you don't seem like such a big-mean- fox." Kushina chided with a shit-eating grin. "If someone were to see this, they'd think that the great Kyuubi no Yoko was turning soft and protecting some teenager."

"How many times do I have to tell you…NOT TO CALL ME THAT!" Kurama roared, but Kushina didn't budge one inch and merely waved her hand back and forth in front of her nose.

"You know, Kurama, you're breath hasn't changed at all." Kushina laughed. "I think you might need some breath-"

"Why did it have to be two disrespectful Uzumaki?" Kurama sighed. "At least with Mito, she was smart enough to respect my power!"

"I respect your power baka-fox! You're just fun to piss off! Dattebane!" Kushina yelled back.

"The feeling is mutual." Kurama suddenly had an evil glint in his eyes.

"Don't you say it you baka-fox." Kushina growled menacingly.

"Tomato."

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Morning suddenly came, and Naruto was kicked awake by a restless Kurotsuchi. She was still using the walls as her crutch, but she was managing. The blond, being the man that he was, he didn't care and suddenly hoisted the girl over onto his back, but the girl lost her grip with his arm, and accidentally slapped him just over his heart.

FUCK! Kurama roared.

Oh no! Naruto rambled.

The pain seared through his body, tightening his muscles and nearly making him go back into a near death state. Blood was forced through his throat and out of his mouth. Naruto dropped Kurotsuchi and collapsed onto the ground, coughing out, spattering blood in all directions. He fell over onto his back and started coughing more blood, spraying his face and his clothing once more.

"Oh shit, Naruto!" Kurotsuchi cried out. "What's wrong?! What did I do?!"

"N-Nothing…Kuro-chan, it wasn't your fault…" Naruto groaned as a large trail of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth and onto the ground below.

"Kushina…the bone."

"Don't tell me…"

"It's pierced the aorta."

So that's that! Will Naruto survive? Of course he is, but it won't be as easy as you think!

Ja ne!

gottahavekyuubi