Remember, what I don't knows, I makes up, that's the beauty of being a fanfic author.

All things Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and not to Dwellin.


Chapter 7


Karin straightened from her bent position and leaned a hand on the rough bark of the tree where she had just finishing vomiting on its knotted roots. Wiping a sleeve across her mouth she took that moment to catch her breath. The flight to freedom was not going as well as one could've hoped.

Nearby she could hear water lightly splashing against large rocks. From the sounds, it had to be only a few yards away. If she could follow it out of the Land of Fire she would have drinking water and even a source of food.

"Yuck," she breathed softly. Her bolting off had been cut short by the overwhelming urge of her body to forcefully eject everything on the inside of her to the outside.

Taking in a shaky breath Karin glanced around at the inky depths of the forest and even though she couldn't make out much, grim reality told her that she hadn't gone as far as she would have liked before being violently sick. With a sinking feeling she thought, I probably only made it a few scraggily bushes and a handful of trees away from camp. This has gotta be the most pitiful escape ever!

It was hard to gauge how far she had come in the dark but it was highly doubtful that the distance achieved had thrown her new friends off the scent or would discourage them from following. Oh yeah, she had quite the crazy-quick disappearing ninja skills.

Falling to her knees because suddenly trembling legs refused to hold her upright any longer, the runaway took a deep breath and, making sure to avoid all the messy ick in the process, began crawling to the stream.

Upon reaching the water's edge, she collapsed on her belly. The red-haired woman cursed the fact that even that bit of exertion had worn her out. She reached back and grabbed her hair and pulled it out the way before palming water over her face and finally rinsing out her mouth. Only then did she begin gulping down mouthful after mouthful to slake her thirst. When finished, Karin was disheartened to find that while her thoughts were clearer she was just as weak as before.

After rising and sitting back Karin began to ponder the next move in the grand getaway plan. Obviously it all depended upon kinks in the plan; kinks of the troublesome, two-legged variety that is. If they couldn't catch up in the next couple of minutes her opinion of at least one of them being the shinobi worlds' elite ninja was going to take a nose dive. And wouldn't that just hurt his feelings!

"Yo! Were you able to get that sour taste out of your mouth?" A voice spoke from behind her causing her to stiffen.

She wondered what the repercussions were for a failed escape attempt and how the Leaf nin punished their runaway escapees. Surely this time they would torture or punish her. Then she did an inner shudder upon remembering some of Orochimaru's punishments but quickly squelched the thought. It wasn't helping. However, it didn't stop the thread of dismay and panic running through her before she managed to tamp that down also.

Gathering her courage, Karin looked over shoulder noting that the famous Copy Ninja was standing close enough that the outline of his form could be distinguished from that of the uniform darkness of the trees surrounding them. She sniffed and pushed up her glasses.

"Oh thank Kami you found me! Your tracking skills are beyond amazing! Not just any ninja could follow a hundred-yard pee and barf trail!"

Despite the sarcasm Kakashi watched as the girl's shoulders visibly sagged with relief. He had seen a few people over the years suffering from chakra burnout. Obviously the kunoichi had known she was going to be caught and was secretly relieved she had been. He doubted at this point she had the strength to even think about running.

He walked over, crouched down next to the worn out Uzumaki and said, "Now that we have the obligatory first escape attempt out of the way, let's head back, shall we?"

Karin flapped a hand at him, "Thanks for the concern but no, you go, I'm good right here. Don't think I can do more than crawl anyway, so…"

The next thing she knew, he reached over, scooped up her up and turned back in the direction of the camp. He had lifted her as easily as if lifting a pillow! She made a mental note: no close quarters fighting with this ninja!

"Right," Kakashi said, and she could hear the humor lacing his voice. "Not to worry, yet again I'll carry you. After all, we can't have you wandering around in the dark in this condition."

Startled she looked up to find that crinkled eye aimed at her with what appeared to be a bit of an impish gleam to it or maybe what she thought she saw was just a trick of the dark. Whatever it was, it was disconcerting, this strange hinted at smile hidden behind a mask.

Instead of punishment, she was on the receiving end of someone who seemed more concerned about her welfare rather than punishing her for trying to get away. What she wasn't expecting was humor.

Karin narrowed her eyes, unsure of what to make of the deceptively mild manner of dealing with a captured enemy; it had to be a ploy of some kind! Deviously clever! It wasn't something she, herself, would ever have thought of.

"And you should be more careful," his low voice broke in on her thoughts, making her start and look up.

That lone eye fixed on her again and for no reason she could think of, made her feel out of sorts. In a huff she crossed her arms and turned her face away.

"I don't need anyone to worry about me and I also don't need to be carried, I am…"

"About to fall on your face," he finished for her. "Obviously you have never suffered from the danger of extreme chakra burn-out. I suppose being from one of the only ninja clans that had more chakra and life force flowing through them than one could shake a kunai at; you wouldn't. Well, the rest of us not so gifted have suffered from this at least once in our lives. It's not fun, but you'll recover."

Karin went still. Of course she had heard of it and he was right, she had never gone through this particular aspect of using one's chakra up to the brink of total physical systems collapse.

"I'm just surprised you got this far." This time his attention wasn't on her but on winding through the trees and brush. She couldn't help but be impressed with his silent passage, quiet as a ghost in the murky darkness pressing in about them. Brushing aside her bangs, the recaptured prisoner took the opportunity to scrutinize him without him noticing (hopefully).

As he walked Kakashi was wrapped in his thoughts until her voice, strangely calm, broke through, "I expected the loud one would be with you."

Karin could feel the deep chuckle reverberate in his chest before he answered, "Oh, I did start to send him before wisdom prevailed. Upon finding you, especially in so critical a condition, he would have grabbed you up in a joyful, sister-loving, bone-crushing hug. I saved you from that bit of unpleasantness so you owe me. And I also saved him from being deceived, which he doesn't need right now."

There was a silence for a beat or two as she stared up at the weird shadows above her in the leafy canopy overhead. It amazed her that Kakashi was able to navigate through the forest with such graceful ease even in the darkness.

Still ill at ease, she asked, "So, what do you think? Is he really serious about this adoption thing or is that just another devious Konoha ploy?" Not that she expected the truth. The life of a ninja didn't lend itself much in the way of truth-telling.

Here Kakashi could feel her stiffen in his arms bracing for the answer as she continued with weary bravado, "Because if it is, I'll have you know that I'm immune to…"

Kakashi entered the small clearing and began walking toward her bedroll and stated the obvious, "We're here,"

"Immune to what?" asked Naruto in a loud, brash voice.

"Anything that requires considerable reflection before action," replied the jounin with light humor evident in his smooth baritone voice as he kneeled down and gently deposited his burden on her blankets.

The former warden still expected some form of punishment. A lip came out in a stubborn pout and stared up at the two ninja from Leaf standing over her. I'm ready! Bring it on nin-boys! Her resolve was, well, resolved.

The blonde Leaf was studying her with an odd look and she tensed, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"Want a S'more?"

Naruto leaned down and thrust a brown square at her smelling of chocolate and burnt sugar, shaking and wagging it in her face before holding it still. Her eyes crossed trying to focus on the strange Leaf food being offered to her. It may have taken her eyes a second or two to adjust, but her stomach was light years ahead of her sense of sight and immediately demanded she take it.

"A.. what?" A puzzled frown formed as she scrutinized the square food in his hand mouth already salivating.

"A 'S'more'. They're treats we make whenever we're on a mission; well, not before the mission, but something for afterwards as a reward for a 'job well done'."

Karin eyed the melting, tantalizing mess in his hand with nose twitching and had to admit that it did look sumptuous and smelled even better. Delicately she reached up and took the gooey, sticky confection from his hand and then lifted it up to her nose and deeply inhaled with eyes closed in bliss.

"Well, just a bite, you know, to make sure it's not poisoned." God these Konoha nin were devious! Warm chakras, smiles, laughter, concern for her health, absence of beatings or lack of mistreatment of any kind, and now delicious food stuffs being shoved in one's face. Would the cruelty never end?

From around a mouthful of graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallow, she stated, "And listen here leaf-breath, I'm not the reason for a 'job-well-done'!" With each word graham cracker crumbs spewed out in all directions.

Then her eyes rolled in bliss "These are great! To die for! So worth it! Okay, what do you want to know? I'll tell you everything. Let's see, here's a few I can think of off the top of my head: Kimimaro's disdain of all yellow vegetables, Oh, and did you know he had an absolutely phobia of rabbits? Rabbits, I tell you! The mammal voted least likely to stalk a human. And Kabuto has a habit of clicking his teeth when thinking! Highly irritating, nearly drove me mad when I was forced to work for him." She finished by licking and sucking on her fingers and then looked up questioningly at Naruto and asked, "Got any more of these?"

Kakashi's eye widened as he mentally absorbed and catalogued the odd tidbits for later pondering that had just gushed out of the escapee. Most likely it was all rubbish information, but one never knew what little thing could be useful later on. When they were back, he would put it all down in his mission report. Still, these were strange enough personal things that one didn't get to read about in the bingo books.

"Really though, was that the only one?" Her voice was laced with disappointment even as she leaned to the side to peer around the two sets of legs blocking her view of the campfire. Red eyes did a quick search before she straightened to look up at them with the obvious disappointment of a nonverbal "That's it?!"

Naruto stared at the redhead in surprise; that was the swiftest conversion of a new S'more fanatic he had ever seen. He started to open his mouth to comment until Kakashi elbowed him in the side.

"Naruto, I think that means she likes them." Then dropping his eye down to their female charge he asked, "Got any more gossip for us?"

"Only if I get more 'S'mores…OH, that's why it's called that!" Karin chuckled lightly and Naruto laughed along with at her visible pleasure of having figured it out.

"So that means our cook should whip up… S'more". But both Uzumaki's turned and gave him blank looks. He rubbed the back of his neck. Tough crowd.

Kakashi lifted his nose and sniffed the air before drifting over to the fire. Something was close to being done.

For Naruto, who had turned his attention back to his sister, it was the first time seeing her face looking anything other than angry, exhausted or careworn. A smile totally changed her appearance and he was resolved to make sure there were many more times in her life that she had a chance to laugh and smile.

"So, you've never had a S'more before?" grinned the blond youth before returning to the fire to make her another one.

"No, never." She shook her head in emphasis, the sides of her long red hair flipping about her face. "If I had known Konoha had this though I might have defected to them instead of following Sasuke-dummy."

The mention of Sasuke's name brought an immediate change in the mood of the camp. Both men watched as a morose change came over Karin. She crossed her arms as she stared at the ground. The dramatic change of attitude was such that even Naruto paused in sliding a marshmallow onto a stick.

Kakashi shot his former pupil a glance and saw that he too had frozen for a heartbeat before turning to match gazes with him. A look of understanding passed between them before they went back to their activities acting as if nothing had happened.

Kakashi went to check the dinner because he didn't trust that his partner had read the directions even when asked to do so, while Naruto, continued to slide marshmallows onto the stick he had sharpened earlier.

The jounin crouched next to the fire, lifted the lid of the pot and stirred before casually asking, "You were going to defect?"

"Well, yeah, after I heard Orochimaru was killed, I was kind of at loose ends as to what to do with myself. Stay there and guard prisoners nobody wanted guarded, or leave. Then, well you know who showed up and gave me a different option."

She shrugged, looked down and pushed up her glasses, eyes locked on Naruto. "What else was I going to do? I only stayed with the organization because I owed Orochimaru for taking me in. I'm not super fond of anyone else there and I certainly wasn't going to work for Kabuto!" She affected a shudder at the thought, but even so, her eyes followed Naruto's every move as he went through the process of making her another one of her new favorite food group, "S'more for me".


It's that time of year, snow falling, sledding, tinsel, hot cocoa, and wreaths! I'm feeling jolly so I might post another chapter in a couple of days. Fa la la la la.

~Dwellin