Ohhhh I'm back again, earlier than what I'd originally planned! I hope this made things a lot better than what you'd imagined. So guys, I know that there's going to be a lot of hinting towards another relationship, just know, like in real life, relationships don't form suddenly, sometimes there are other relationships (relationshits) that happen before the one that was destined to be, happens. That's why I fuck with the pairings even though I tell you that there is only one. But there is ONLY ONE!

On another note: Please check out my other fanfics! Please! PLEASE PLEASE! Especially my new one, A New Age! It would make me a very happy person! Also please check out my profile and follow the link to my book on wattpad! I'd like to know what y'all think!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto


Chapter 9: A Heart of Rock

Naruto was fast asleep and snoring slightly, but Karin was starting to worry about the bone still lodged into his aorta. While her blood could heal any and all wounds, she wasn't able to force bones back into their place, but rather, only form knew ones to replace those that were lost. So as of now, she was completely confused and had no idea what to do to help Naruto get better.

At least it punctured. Karin sighed. If it sliced, Naruto would have bled too quickly and I probably wouldn't have been able to save him. But if it did just slice, the bone could have been easily removed from his heart cavity instead of being a permanent part of his heart. Shit. Why did he have to be such a problem half the time?

"Karin…have you tried just doing the surgery right now?" Kurotsuchi asked. "We're already almost at Midday and we're still here in this cave."

"I have, but I don't know how to make Naruto stay stable for the time being while I do the operation on his heart." Karin replied. "I'd gladly do it if you had some ninjutsu or something to stop a person's heart for a short time."

"I see." Kurotsuchi sighed and leaned against the rock walls. "So."

"So…" Karin replied after a long and awkward pause.

"What's an Akatsuki doing with the Hero of the Leaf?" Kurotsuchi asked without cracking. "It seems kinda ironic if you ask me."

"So you really were at the Kage Summit." Karin growled. "Your kage tried to turn me into dust."

"I guess I'll have to say great job to my Jiji-san" Kurotsuchi replied. "I could kill you and say the Akatsuki girl tried to kill me and no one would complain, but you're a necessity for Naruto here, to live. And believe me; he's more important than you are."

"What is your true goal here?" Karin narrowed her eyes. "In this cave, I have total control of my chakra since the seals weren't drawn here. So, tell me. Why are you really here? Akatsuchi and Hiro told me your mission, but I want to hear it from you."

"I guess you people don't like surprises eh?" Kurotsuchi sighed. "Hokage-sama wanted to have Naruto here promoted to Jounin. Especially after his heroics in successfully fighting off the Akatsuki invasion. So, my job, since I too was getting promoted to a jounin, was to be a thorn in Naruto's side and test him to the highest point and evaluate him on his performance."

"And?" Karin asked. Shit. She isn't lying.

"And, Naruto has exceeded my expectations." Kuro replied with a smirk. "You on the other hand…we'll see in the final round. If we make it."

"Alright." Karin growled. "Besides, where the hell are Akatsuchi and Hiro?"

"Who knows. They're probably going off looking for some wood or something flammable." Kurotsuchi replied. "We still don't know how the hell Naruto made a fire using rocks."

"Right." Karin sighed. She let out a silent groan when she realized that there was probably going to be nothing they could do for the time being. But then she received a thought. "Hey, you were assigned to do this right? So you were probably tasked with keeping them up to date right?"

"Yeah, but, I already turned in a report yesterday." Kurotsuchi replied. "That was the only one I was required to send."

"Shit." Karin mumbled. "So they're not expecting another one are they?"

"Nope." Kurotsuchi shook her head. "Well I guess we'll have to think of another solution…wait."

"What is it Kurotsuchi-san?" Karin asked.

"There is something that we do in Iwa should things like this happen." Kurotsuchi said. "It might not be appropriate."

"How so…?" Karin asked giving Kurotsuchi a weird look. "I don't think it would be too weird."

"It's called the rock heart; the Iwa no Kokoro." Kurotsuchi said. "It causes the heart to freeze in its tracks and stops all blood flow without killing the victim."

"Now how does that work?!" Karin asked sounding offended by what the girl was saying. "I've gone through thousands, hell, tens of thousands of medical ninjutsu, and-"

"It's a ninjutsu used to assassinate someone." Kurotsuchi spoke with a near dead tone.

"A-Assassinate?!" Karin roared. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"I'm the one that came up with the only viable solution for the time being." Kurotsuchi replied with a glare. "Oh, I bet you just want to leave the bone in his heart for the entire time until help arrives huh?!"

"No…" Karin's said quietly.

"Exactly what I thought!" Kurotsuchi replied. "So, here's what's going to happen."

"When I turn that heart into stone, you pull that bone right out alright?" Kurotsuchi replied. "It'll be a little hard to do but you can do it."

"So how does that technique work?" Karin asked.

"Everything that is part of the aorta and the vena cava, and the heart itself, will be turned to stone, along with whatever is in it." Kurotsuchi explained. "It's also a bit dangerous if there is too much stress done to the victim or stress placed onto the caster."

"So how do we go about not putting stress on either of you?" Karin asked.

"You, and if or when the others return, leave." Kurotsuchi replied.

"What the fuck?!" Karin screamed once more. "I am not leaving him with you!"

"Well you will have to if you want his heart to heal up." Kurotsuchi replied with a glare. "I need to…how do I say this…perform CPR."

"CPR…?" Karin asked with confusion. "How the hell does that fix his heart?!"

"I won't be pushing onto his chest, but instead, I'll be pushing earth chakra down his trachea towards his lungs." Kurotsuchi said. "The chakra will then be placed onto his blood and then moved down towards his heart because of the arteries in the lungs. From there, the earth chakra will depart from the oxygen and into the heart's flesh. It'll take about ten to twenty seconds to fully change his heart into-"

"YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO KISS HIM!" Karin grabbed Kurotsuchi by the collar of her shirt. "HE'S MINE!"

"I-I know that!" Kurotsuchi punched Karin back into a wall.

Karin glared as she pushed herself from the cave walls and channeled her chakra to heal the damage done to her spine. The redhead ran a hand through her hair and fixed her glasses. She stared at Kurotsuchi with an expression that spelled death.

This time I won't be as stupid as to charge in blindly like I did with Danzo. Karin had never felt more embarrassed then that moment. Never again will that happen.

Karin jumped forward with her kekkei genkai shooting off. Kurotsuchi was getting her chakra ready for a high leveled ninjutsu. The redhead jumped over to the right and dodged the incoming quicklime blob just in time. She sped through a few hand seals and shot forward a basic fireball technique, not enough for Kurotsuchi to feel afraid or anything, but it was enough to break the Iwa kunoichi from her stance.

Kurotsuchi jumped over and barrel rolled on the dirt and hurt a large handful of shuriken towards the redhead. Karin smirked and blocked each projectile with perfection. Karin wanted to laugh at her luck. Kurotsuchi was using chakra in every attack she launched out at her. This was going to be a walk in the park.

Karin charged for Kurotsuchi's right flank, while sending a shadow clone towards the left. Kuro though simply laughed at the strategy and headed for the left Karin and popped the shadow clone in less than a few seconds. Karin, the real one, did a jump flip and hurled off a great amount of kunai and shuriken, catching Kurotsuchi in a trap.

Kuro looked to her right and picked up a kunai from the ground and started deflecting them with a speed that could rival Sasuke's. Kurotsuchi spun the kunai in her hand and hurled the knife towards Karin as she recuperated from the attacks. Karin bent back using her flexibility to her advantage. The knife sped right past her head. She shot right up and grabbed onto the kunai and spun it around her finger before turning back to face Kurotsuchi.

"I don't think you'd want to do that Karin." Kurotsuchi growled. "My kunai will plunge through his heart, ending the work that you put through to heal him."

"You wouldn't." Karin gasped. "Why do want to help him so badly?"

"I was told to keep him alive. That bone in his heart, from what you told me, will probably kill him later on." Kurotsuchi replied. "I'd rather not have the Hero of Konoha's death be on my head. My father and grandfather would be pissed off beyond relief, and my chances of becoming Tsuchikage go out the window. So please. Do us both a favor and leave for the time being so I can fix this poor boy."

"I…" Karin gripped the kunai tighter than before. "You…"

"Let me reiterate. I am trying to help him!" Kurotsuchi shouted. "How about this, I'll call you over when his heart is stone. From there, do your magic. I won't do anything until the bone is completely removed from his heart, alright?"

"Understood." Karin sighed and backed away from the two shinobi and walked off towards the exit of the cave and shook her head.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Meanwhile…

Akatsuchi and Hiro were walking through the rocky caverns and found something that really interested them. Hiro shot forward and knocked on the wood that had strange kanji written all over rocks in front of them. He quickly motioned for Akatsuchi to follow and examine the rocks with him. It was strange since they couldn't recognize the rock's kanji. It was definitely kanji for fuinjutsu, but they couldn't tell what it was for since the kanji seemed ancient.

"I wonder what would happen if we put chakra into it." Hiro laughed.

"Don't do anything stupid Hiro." Akatsuchi said in a worried whisper. "I think that we should leave that rock alone."

"But what if there's something in there that could possibly help us out with this stupid test?" Hiro said.

"I highly doubt that there will be anything- HIRO! DON'T!" The boy didn't listen and channeled chakra into his hands and placed them against the stone face.

The kanji grew bright, with light shooting off in all directions. The rock, after a good five minutes, moved to the side and came to reveal a large and dark tunnel that led to somewhere deep within the cavern. Hiro looked over towards his teammate with a small smirk on his face right before taking off into the tunnel. Akatsuchi took a moment to weigh his options, but found that going after Hiro was the only one that made sense.

The burly shinobi bumbled through the darkness in search for his friend. The fat man didn't know any better and started shouting out for Hiro, hoping that he might be able to get a reply. But suddenly, from the darkness, a man reached out and grabbed the boy from behind, and wrapped his hands around his neck.

Akatsuchi struggled in the deathly vice-like grip. The hands were calloused and strong, almost as if the being weren't even human. Akatsuchi was running out of air and tried to cry out for Hiro once more, but the boy couldn't even breathe. He gasped out as the last bit of air left his lungs. The moment Akatsuchi stopped fighting back, the man dropped him onto the dark and dry ground below.

Without another word said, the man started walking nonchalantly, stepping over the dead chunin and whistled a small tune. But Akatsuchi's body turned hard, and soon enough, brown and cracked. The man swiveled on the heel of his sandals and stared in disbelief that the boy wasn't dead. Akatsuchi's body crumbled loudly, echoing throughout the tunnel, and within ten seconds, collapsing completely into a pile of rock and dirt.

The man walked up to the rocks and ran a hand through the dirt, surprised that it was laced completely with chakra. Without a second past though, a fist shot from the rocks and lodged into his cheek, sending him through the wall and into one of the caves nearby. The man shot through the rocks and into another cave three tunnels down. Akatsuchi stopped himself as he exited from the rocks and looked down the tunnel wondering if he should follow after his idiotic teammate, but shook it off and charged for the man who just tried to kill him.

It was a long way to go since the tunnels could wind through the rocks for unbelievable lengths, and even go in circles after making you think you've been going straight. There was also the risk of genjutsu being cast. So, just as a precaution, Akatsuchi sent a large burst of chakra, sending his chakra outwards, but found that there was no genjutsu placed.

"I guess I'll have to chase after him." Akatsuchi sighed and grabbed a chocolate bar and shoved it into his mouth before charging through the tunnel.

With Kurotsuchi…

She looked at Naruto's sleeping form and took a deep breath knowing full well how awkward it would be if he woke up. Might as well do it now she thought. She took a deep breath and stared at Naruto's lips and how clean and soft they looked. After all, he hasn't had water for an entire day. She looked back over his face and found that he looked so cute asleep.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she leaned down and softly, but still with enough force, and started channeling chakra down his throat. She held her lips against his for a few minutes, but she started to get a strange feeling in her gut. Her face lit up as blood rushed to her cheeks. Kurotsuchi didn't know what to do, after all, this was her first kiss, or at least first time pressing her lips against another person's.

The corner of her lips threatened to curl up as she deepened the kiss to send more chakra. Even though she knew that the kiss meant nothing, she couldn't help to think against those thoughts. Her heart tightened and her heartbeat rose as the seconds passed. She shut her eyes and held Naruto softly, and carefully, almost the way a lover would.

What she didn't know, Karin was leaning against the rocks and staring at the actions take place. While deep down she knew that it was to save Naruto, Karin could help but to feel her heart tighten. Her eye brows furrowed as her anger and jealousy started to fester and grow. Karin clenched her fists and tired her hardest to control her growing and dangerously erratic breathing. She shook her head and her crimson eyes trailed away towards the sky above them.

It was the second day of the second stage of the exam. She and Naruto needed to hurry if they wanted any chance of making to the second checkpoint in time, hell even the third. It wasn't going to be easy to make it to the next three checkpoints with the only teammate she had incapacitated. Karin wasn't a strong girl, nor was she weak, but she knew that she'd wear herself out if she chose to run through the desert with Naruto on her back.

Kurotsuchi paid no attention to the obvious flares in chakra and emotions coming from Karin. In truth, Kurotsuchi was in bliss, complete and utter bliss. Never before had her heart raced to such speeds and it was all just from a kiss. It wasn't even a serious kiss. She wondered what would happen if she kissed someone she truly felt something for, something on the level of love.

She pressed deeper, but then her mind started going on auto-pilot as her nerves went blank. She built up chakra at the tip of her tongue and her tongue went into Naruto's mouth, awaking the boy from his sleep. Kurotsuchi with her eyes still closed, didn't even realize that he'd awakened from his rest and continued pressing chakra into his mouth. He too, went into auto-pilot without even making a word and started kissing back much to both of their surprise.

Kurotsuchi pulled back and stared at Naruto with wide eyes. Her cheeks were on fire and her body was suddenly cold and pouring sweat. She raised her fist and with a quick motion, knocked the boy back out so she could continue the operation. Kurotsuchi shook her head knowing all too well that she was getting emotionally compromised and almost completely forgot the true reason she was even pressing her lips against his in the first place.

With Naruto out once more, she bent down and went back to kissing him, but tried her hardest to not make out with him again. She started the chakra flow once more and again the heartbeat rose again. Kuro looked up to see Karin looking at her and Naruto with a glare. Turns out, Karin sensed the sudden burst of emotion from Naruto and went to see what had happened. Karin was debating whether to knock Kurotsuchi out for hurting Naruto or letting the Iwa kunoichi continue what she was doing.

"G-Good thing that you're here…" Kurotsuchi responded quite sheepishly. "His heart is ready…"

"Alright. I know this might sound ridiculous, but you might just have to kiss him again." Karin said with a grunt. "His heart may be stone, but you'll need to keep channeling chakra into his body to keep him sedated from the pain I'm about to cause him."

"Understood." Kurotsuchi said with a small unnoticeable smile. She quickly bent down and started kissing Naruto once more, shoving chakra into his body.

Karin shook her head and reached up to her glasses and pulled out a scalpel from the arms of the glasses. She opened Naruto's shirt underneath his jumpsuit and cut open the skin revealing bone and lots of flesh. But upon closer inspection, the heart was indeed made of stone. Karin looked to Kurotsuchi to see that the Iwa girl wasn't even paying attention and was too engrossed with Naruto's lips.

Karin shook her head and channeled chakra to her hands creating a chakra cover over her palms and fingers almost like a blade and cut cleanly through the ribs and opened the chest cavity where the heart and lungs were located. Karin looked and found the final rib still embedded in the stone aorta. It stuck out like a sore thumb. Karin grabbed the bone and pulled softly, but found that the bone was stuck. She grunted with another pull, the bone was still stuck but managed to shift out of position.

She wrapped both hands around the rib and pulled with all of her might and managed to tear the bone from the aorta, sending her back a few feet because of how much power she put into her pull. She stood up and patted herself down and walked up to Naruto only to fall down to her knees. Kurotsuchi shot up from Naruto and looked to Karin with eyes as wide as plates, almost as if the girl was saying 'what have you done?'.

Naruto's rock aorta and heart crumbled almost completely half-way. With rock dust and other contaminants going onto the rest of his body, Naruto started convulsing and twitching. Karin was frozen completely, never has something like this happened. She looked to Kurotsuchi and glared while channeling chakra once more.

Kurotsuchi pushed Karin away and sped through an unknown hand seal pattern and placed her hands onto Naruto's chest but didn't say a single word. The boy suddenly stopped moving. Naruto was still and laid on the ground in silence. The rocks and the pebbles started reforming and combining together once more. Kuro figured that Karin might do the arm biting ability again, but knew that it wouldn't fix the heart-of-stone technique.

Kurotsuchi after completely reforming Naruto's heart and aorta, she kept her hand on his heart and went over to kiss Naruto once more, this time channeling chakra into his body both through the mouth and through physical touch. Karin sat down and stared in awe of what Kurotsuchi was doing. As she forced chakra into Naruto's body, strengthening and freezing the heart into stone, she was also taking away the chakra and turning the organ back into flesh, almost like a mold.

Within a few minutes, Naruto's heart was back to normal and free of damage. Karin was dumbfounded. Kurotsuchi gave her a look and grabbed her arm and shut Naruto's skin closed and sunk Naruto's teeth into Karin's arm. Karin screamed out in pleasure it seemed, and soon enough, Naruto's body began to heal and seal shut. Karin could sense Naruto's body returning to normal and his heartbeat softening. Karin herself was trying to calm her racing heart.

"K-Karin-chan…Kuro-chan…?" Naruto looked confused and stared off at the two girls sitting next to him.

They looked disheveled in completely in fear, or at least, recovering from a lot of it. He tilted his head slightly and gave the two of them a small smile before lying back down onto the ground and falling back asleep. He was suddenly forced back awake by Kurotsuchi and Karin shouting at him. Naruto raised an eyebrow with an obvious scowl on his face and was pulled to his feet by both Karin and Kurotsuchi.

"Why do I have to move so much?" Naruto asked with a growl. "Why are you two shouting at me?"

"Because Naruto-kun, we only have one more day left for the exam! This day is already coming to midday and we still have seventy-five miles left to go Baka!" Karin shouted. "We also have to find Akatsuchi and Hiro since they haven't returned from their search for food!"

"Why are you shouting Karin-chan…?" Naruto gave her a dull look. "Wait. Don't worry! Let me meditate for a while."

The boy shot down and got into a meditative stance and shut his eyes channeling nature chakra and building up his reserves for sage mode. The Kyuubi was stirring within him as was Kushina. The two of them were wondering what was happening as well since the two have been gone for quite some time. Kurama narrowed his eyes through Naruto and started sensing a great deal of shinobi making their way through the caverns walls and through both natural and manmade tunnels.

Naruto shot his eyes open to reveal the eyes of the demon-sage mode. Naruto's whiskers darkened and his eyes turned into a deeper and bloodier red color. He shot forward, launching Karin and Kurotsuchi back and lodged his fist into the wall of the cavern behind them, shattering the cave completely. The resulting explosion shot all of the chakra signatures back into the tunnels and caves within the wall. Naruto shut his eyes once more and channeled a great deal of yōkai before shooting it out in all directions, frying the fuinjutsu all over the caver walls.

"You two go on and deliver the scrolls to the next checkpoint. I'll get Akatsuchi and Hiro out of the caves and meet you two there." And with that, Naruto dashed into the hole.

Screams echoed through the dark tunnels and the sound of slashed flesh and cracking bones reverberated within the cave the two girls were standing in. It didn't take long, but the two girls disobeyed Naruto and dashed into the hole after him knowing full well that Naruto might do something that would endanger all of them or even more. He was annoyingly known for doing such things it seems.

Karin shut her eyes and sent out another chakra burst trying to sense where Naruto was. After all, he was the brightest and the most peaceful chakra source there was. Despite being washed down in complete darkness by the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto's power was exceeding what it normally was in sage mode, and was starting to drown out all other chakra signatures slightly causing Karin to worry.

"Right!" Karin motioned for Kurotsuchi to follow.

The two girls dashed down a large hallway that was almost perfectly rectangular with angles and a perfect ceiling. Karin was worried for Naruto at first, but now she was completely terrified. The walls were almost too perfect reminding her of the bases that Orochimaru made all over the elemental nations. The patterns on the walls really gave the impression. This wasn't something she was hoping to encounter.

It was either some Oto shinobi that were left after the dissolution of Otogakure, or they were joining together under another upstart. The most likely was that Kabuto was trying to build an army again, but in the name of Orochimaru most likely. Karin smacked her lips and continued the chakra flow following after the massive darkness that was plowing through the tunnels and structure.

"Left!"

Karin jumped in front of Kurotsuchi and took off down another tunnel that within a few yards of running, brought the two of them to a T-intersection of the tunnels. There were two ways to go, left or right, but at this point, they were so close to Naruto, Karin couldn't tell which way he was since his chakra was just so great, not only that, but while there were lights on the walls, the walls themselves along with the floor, was covered in corpses, mauled and ripped to shreds.

It was terrifying to Karin since never in her entire life, even under the servitude of Orochimaru had she seen such carnage. The redhead ran a hand through the unkempt side of her hair and made a quick choice and chose to go down through the right side following the most blood and the trails that led to other directions, possibly another tunnel that could lead to Akatsuchi and Hiro.

Karin took a deep breath when the tunnel they came up to had its door bashed down and the walls surrounding the doorframe ruined and splintered completely. She pushed the door down and sighed in relief when she found Naruto cutting Akatsuchi and Hiro free from the robes and chains that bound them against some pillars. Naruto created two shadow clones that picked the two boys up and carried them on their backs.

"Good thing that you two don't listen to orders, or else I would have been worried." Naruto replied with a smirk.

"So you knew we'd follow after you?" Kurotsuchi gave him an incredulous look. "How?"


So how was it y'all? After this chapter, we'll be getting back to the rest of the Chunin Exams and onward to the war! YAY! I have some pretty amazing things planned for this fanfic and all the love that this keeps getting only makes me want to keep making more and more for this. So keep it up you guys! The love is making me all giddy! xD

I know I said this in the AN up above before the chapter began, but please! Read the other fanfics! They need some love too y'know! And if you like Kurotsuchi and Naruto together then go and read Kogane no Oji! It won't be a waste! I promise!

Till next time!

Ja ne!

gottahavekyuubi