The Shade of Uzu

by defiasstone2

The village of Whirlpool was destroyed in the third Shinobi war, and the few survivors that weren't wiped off the map were scattered across the entire elemental nations. However, there are those that were not present in the village during the time of its destruction, whether for good reasons or ill. This is one of their stories. Naruto-centric, OC's

10. Trips, Trouble and Torment

A/N: The long wait is over! Sorry guys and girls, between writers block, work and other things I have had to put my writing on the back-burner for a while. But now we have the biggest chapter thus far, lots of stuff happens and I hope you guys like it!

Previously on The shade of Uzu:

"But Sak..." She cut him off by holding a finger to his lips and smiling brightly at him. "My heart is my heart, and I chose to listen to it this time. If anything your concern about Sakura and I just proved that my feelings are suitably placed." She turned away and jumped up to the lowest tree branch before turning her head to grin at him once more.

"Are you coming Naruto-kun?" And then she was gone into the trees and Naruto cursed himself out of his daze and hurried to follow, trying his best to ensure that he didn't wake the girl in his arms as he did so, the giant grin on his face never fading at the memory of what had just happened...

Chapter 10- Trips, Trouble and Torment

"Kari-chan, you need to tighten up your stance, it is too loose for this type of combat. Naruto you need to dodge more than you are currently doing so. Or is it that you like having your face smashed in every time we spar? I thought that was something you only liked my goddaughter doing to you."

Naruto snorted as he rose from where he had been sent flying back to his feet, wiping a small trail of blood that was trickling out of his mouth before adopting the first stance of the Uzukage style once more to face his opponent, Saki moving to stand beside him in her own Uchiha stance as Kage looked at their bruised and bloodied forms with something of a smile on his scarred face. "So are you two going to attack anytime soon or are you going to try and keep looking cool for the rest of time?"

Kage had arrived back in Konoha a week after the Sakura incident to find himself with a new relation and student. The Hokage had made him an ally of Konoha on the official books, but they still tried to keep away from the main areas of habitation as much as they could.

Kage wounded a shinobi on his first visit to Konoha after all and that wasn't to mention the ones he had injured at the bounty station. Kage had been slightly leery of accepting Saki for training when they had first met, prompting the girl to actually beg for his help in a manner that Naruto had never seen her act before, even when she had been requesting his silence about her gender.

Kage had eased up seeing that and allowed her to join in the training, finding it hilarious that Saki and he were somewhat seeing each other, commenting several times that he had never expected for Naruto to end up going out with a cross dresser of all things. Once the two of them had finished yelling at him and blushing at each other he asked for an update of what had happened whilst he was gone in an obvious effort to change the topic of conversation.

Naruto quickly summarised the events since his return, doing his best to ignore how Kage chuckled at the incident that revealed Saki to him as female, though that soon morphed into a frown when he mentioned Sakura spying on him and why the girl had been doing it. Naruto skipped over it as best he could, it had been solved the next day after all, but had ended up causing him a bigger problem that he had barely managed to solve before Kage had returned…

*Flashback*

He had managed to get the sleeping Sakura home without incident, but that didn't stop her older sister from giving a few teasing jabs at him as he followed her up the stairs to Sakura's room. It seemed that Sakura was telling the truth about her family not knowing about her problems seeing as her sister, Rukia, didn't stop asking about what her and her friends had been doing to cause her to fall asleep due to tiredness.

Naruto dodged that little pothole by claiming he had merely been training nearby when he had come across Sakura sleeping behind a tree, so he assumed they might have been playing hide and seek or something similar. She had thankfully not commented further on that and had instead taken him to Sakura's room, which was both the same and different from what he had been expecting when he had imagined it in his head.

The walls were sky blue rather than pink as he had rather stereotypically thought and her room was a bit of a mess, with fluffy toys a little strewn all over the floor and half drawn pictures scattered somewhat haphazardly across her desk. Her bed was a rather simple one and he had laid her on it just in time for the front door to open and Sakura's mother to announce her return to the house.

Rukia had seemed to understand his unwillingness to meet her mother and had let him escape out of the window in Sakura's room before heading to the entrance of Sakura's room shouting something inaudible to her mother in reply.

The next day he was up earlier than normal, the night having been one he spent at his flat rather than the Uchiha compound, mainly to give him some time to come to terms with what was happening between him and Saki. He showered and changed quickly before heading out to Sakura's house with a specific purpose in mind.

Sakura was very predictable at the academy now that he thought about it some more, she always arrived at roughly the same time, sat in the same place and always ate the same lunch which she brought with her each day. This meant that if he was right she would be leaving her house right about… now. True to his predictions he saw the pink haired girl leave the house with school bag over her shoulder, saying something inaudible to those inside as she did so.

He let Sakura get about fifty yards before he dropped down beside her, causing her to jump before realising who it was and blushing embarrassedly at him as she bowed her head to him, speaking quietly so that she couldn't be heard by others in the street that might be listening. "Uzumaki-san! I am so sorry for yesterday; I shouldn't have followed you in such a creepy fashion. And then I fell asleep on you as well…"

He placed a hand on her shoulder, wincing slightly as she stiffened under his grasp, going silent and bowing her head once more. "Sakura, it is fine I swear, I know how you feel and that is why I am here today." She flinched when he mentioned knowing how she felt and realised she obviously thought it had been somewhat her fault that had been the case before he had left with Kage.

He pressed on before she could get any more upset, knowing that his offer would hopefully counteract that soon enough. "Sakura, I am here to offer my friendship to you and so that we can start anew without the past weighing upon our actions, what do you say?" He was surprised when she didn't accept straight away, instead turning her head towards him and shaking it worriedly.

"But Uzumaki-san, if we were friends at the academy I would just drag you down socially, it's not like the popular kids want to hang out with the…" Her voice dropped to a mumble at this point and Naruto failed to catch what she said exactly, but the idea was clear enough to him.

His hand shifted from her shoulder to round her waist in a smooth movement that made her both blush and squeak slightly before she calmed down once more and settled for looking down demurely, her face still tinged pink from her embarrassment.

"Sakura-chan, let's think about what we want, not what the stupid idiots that gossip all the time want instead okay?" She nodded weakly, blushing at his return to the familiar suffix at the end of her name and Naruto beamed at her, glad to see that he had gotten through to the Sakura he remembered once more.

*Flashback End*

Looking back upon it now Naruto realised that might not have been the best move considering that was the first sight that Saki saw of him that day, with a blushing girl on his arm and a content smile on his face. She had been rather cold to him for the next three days, not turning up to training and ignoring his calls at her house to find out what was wrong.

It had only been when he had managed to catch her training as Sasuke in the Uchiha training ground on the fourth day after he had officially befriended Sakura that it had become clear how much he had messed up. In a fit of fury she broke both his nose and two of his ribs in the proceeding fight before shouting at him at how much she hated him and storming off, leaving him even more confused about the situation from where he was lying in the middle of the training grounds.

Never one to give up over something as small as broken ribs, Naruto had doggedly pursued her whilst creating a shade to go and fetch him some things for him to start covering his apology attempt. Saki hadn't gone all that far, hiding in the woods as she cried quietly, something that broke Naruto's heart even as he wrapped her in a hug that she unresistingly allowed herself to be pulled into.

They hadn't talked about it straight away, simply eating the dango that his shade had brought for him as the beginning of his peace offering. It was only once they had finished, leaning against each other to keep warm in the cool autumn evening that Saki asked very hesitantly whether he regretted the kiss at all.

It had been at that moment that he actually had a moment of brilliance that was far beyond his usual level of intelligence, leaning in and kissing her once more rather than trying to compose how he felt into words. He had no doubt that an attempt at such eloquence would probably have ended up getting him in even more trouble with Saki.

After a few minutes of soft kissing with only breaks being to get their breathe back Naruto had pulled back, looking Saki straight in the eyes as he firmly stated that he hadn't regretted the kiss for one moment.

Saki had refused to let go of him for the rest of the evening, even once he clarified several times rather firmly that he wasn't going to ignore her now that Sakura was his friend. This was something she obviously was rather worried about considering that she kept asking about it, the last time she did so being as they were tucking in for bed at the Uchiha compound. He hadn't tried to resist his sleeping location choice being made for him as Saki had started to drag him in that direction, some battles were just not worth fighting.

It had taken until he introduced her to Kage and gotten the man to agree to train her before Saki stopped being so clingy and returned to normal. Saki was obviously appeased that he wasn't going to throw her aside for whatever reason she had conjured in her head considering that he had done as she had asked and introduced her to Kage. This was even with the embarrassment she obviously felt at having to prostrate herself before the man and beg for his help before he finally agreed.

Though Kage's statement that they would be going on a trip a month after he returned had very nearly set Saki off again, especially when Kage informed her very firmly that she could not accompany them. Naruto imagined that old man Sarutobi had been hard enough to get to acquiesce to Naruto going along with Kage without trying to take the last Uchiha as well, especially considering that they were heading out of Fire country on the trip.

Saki had tried everything, from begging the man and then the Hokage to trying to bribe Naruto to smuggle her out with him when he went. Thankfully Kage had stepped in and talked with her about it instead of leaving it to Naruto to sort out, as he would probably have caved in to her eventually if she had kept asking him and he knew that would not end well for either of them.

Eventually she backed down, on the two conditions that firstly Naruto spend every night with her until he left, which had caused raised eyebrows from both of the older ninja followed by a rather awkward birds and the bees chat from Sarutobi that had left Naruto red in the face every time Saki hugged or kissed him for the next few days.

Her other condition was to make the alias of Kari Nobunaga official in Konoha, so that she could travel the village without the pressures of the Uchiha clan present everywhere she went. This was something that Sarutobi agreed to when he heard about what had happened with Sakura and Naruto's worry that Sakura might start to grow suspicious if she did decide to look into the girl and found there were no records of her.

Speaking of the pink haired girl, she now hung around with Naruto before and during school, doing her best to not act the same as she had before he had left with Kage though he knew it still affected her actions at times. The rest of the class had been very leery about the bond between the two of them, and several of the more popular girls had tried to break it by trying to convince Naruto that Sakura was not worth his time and that he should hang out with them instead.

Naruto had dismissed them calmly and coolly stating that he had no time for girls who only wanted to befriend him because someone else already had done so. This had caused Sakura to tear up and hug him tightly, promising that she would never let him regret his choice.

She had taken to helping him with the homework that the academy had set for the day, and he was hugely surprised at how much knowledge the girl had inside her head, able to remember obscure facts and figures that he definitely could not remember being brought up in class at any point.

With both Sakura's and Saki's help his work began to pick up, moving from C's to low grade B's in the few short weeks. He had tried repeatedly to convince Sakura that she didn't need to help him with his school work because he was her friend. But Sakura had merely shrugged and stated that she liked spending time with him, and if helping him was a way to hang out with him more than she didn't mind doing so.

With that and Kage beating several new stances and techniques into him during the torture that he pretended was training, Naruto was feeling confident that even with the time he would be spending away from Konoha he would do more than well enough in the field trip that would take place after the Christmas break.

He broke out of his thoughts to focus back on the training session at hand. With a look to Saki who nodded her readiness, Naruto charged forwards once more, trying to surprise Kage by summoning two shades to the man's left to support him as Saki fell into position on his right, they would bring the man down this time, he was sure of it!

Timeskip:

They failed awfully, the older man not even reacting to the increase in the number of his opponents. Kage was obviously holding himself back enough to still be able to let them practice fighting against him rather than going all out and crushing them without them learning anything about the fight. It didn't mean he was gentle with them Naruto thought as he gingerly felt the bandages on his chest, wincing at the pain the movement forced on his bruised ribs.

He was stood by the main gate with Kage, about to go on their month long trip. The trip had two purposes; firstly the pair were visit Grass once more for the sensor girl. This was to see whether Naruto had any better luck with talking with her about her heritage than Kage did.

The second part was to crash the slave auction at which the Oni girl was to be sold at. Of course they hadn't mentioned that little bit to Sarutobi when getting his permission to leave. It wasn't going to be anything more than an easy hostage rescue mission so there wasn't all that much that he needed to be concerned about anyways.

Ignoring the chill that ran down his spine as he thought that final thought he instead focussed on the crying Sakura in front of him, a matter he knew would require his whole attention sooner rather than later anyways. "Sakura-chan, I am not going to be gone more than a couple of weeks okay? So it isn't even going to be the whole school break. I will be back before you notice I am truly gone."

Somehow that didn't help things and she hugged him fiercely to her as she continued to cry into his shoulder, muffling her words but he could still make them out. "That's what I thought last time, and you were gone for two years! Promise me you will be back before the end of next week Naruto, please!" Sighing in defeat, he put one arm around her as he spoke in a dutiful tone.

"I promise I will be back by the end of next Friday, otherwise Sakura-chan may have an entire day with which she can get me to do anything she wishes me to do as long as it is legal in the eyes of the law." Surprisingly this was the second time today that he was making this particular promise; Saki had extracted the same promise from him but two hours before hand. This had been when she had said goodbye privately at the Uchiha compound, seeing as Saki couldn't come and see him off in person without people wondering who she was just yet.

The effect of the promise was exactly the same with both girls however, the tears slowly drying up before Sakura looked up at him with a hopeful expression on her face. "Do you really mean that?" Like with Saki Naruto couldn't help but wonder whether she meant the promise of his return or the promise of a day of him doing what she wanted if he didn't.

Not that it really mattered either way as he meant the first promise so wouldn't need to worry about the second one. "Of course I do Sakura-chan, as I said I will be back before you know…" Any further words were cut off when Sakura leaned up mid-sentence and kissed him on the cheek, part of her lips meeting with his own in a weird semi kiss that left him stuttering as Sakura blushed bright red at what she had done and ran off before he could react to the kiss in any fashion.

He broke out of his confused thoughts when Kage chuckled behind him, the older man grabbing his shoulder and turning him so they could shadow walk to the first waypoint that Kage had picked out on the way to grass country. As Kage began to work through the sequence of seals for the technique Naruto turned his head back to the inside of Konoha, hoping that Saki hadn't been watching Sakura kiss him otherwise it would end badly for both of them…

Persona Change: Sakura Haruno

Leaning against the wall of the side alley that she had rushed to after her stupid actions with Naruto at the gate, Sakura couldn't be any more mortified at what she had just done. Admittedly over the last three weeks her feelings for the blonde haired boy had quickly grown into something of a crush, his confidence and willingness to be friends with her despite the actions of the other members of the class being large contributions to the feelings that were even now warring in her stomach.

And now she had probably gone and ruined all of that by kissing him, when he got back he would probably work to create some distance between them. She knew that whilst he had been fine with being her friend again despite her past with him, there was no way he would accept a relationship with her in case she started acting like she had done when they had first met.

Naruto had been set on her from the first day he had met her, and though they were in different classes he had always come and hung out with her and her friends. She honestly admitted that she loved the fact that an older boy was fixated on her, and she knew that she had started to take advantage of it, getting him to do things for her and her friends that she couldn't be bothered to do herself.

The first time he had truly annoyed her with his doting had been after her first rejection by Sasuke and in a fit of anger she had levelled him with a right handed swing. Though she felt a lot better after the punch she guessed that this would be the last time she saw him, it wasn't like many people saw violence an attractive trait after all.

True enough that would be the last time she saw him for two years and with the slow loss of her friend group that had been the incident that Sakura looked back on with the most self-loathing, thinking that she had been the one that had made him leave without even saying goodbye to her. Even when he had finally returned and was placed in her class he avoided her other than in that class when she attacked him with a kunai of all things.

Suddenly there was a cold and familiar voice from behind her that broke through her depressive musing, making Sakura jump and turn round quickly. Looking up only caused her to pale even further when she found herself face to face with Kari, the girl that Naruto had introduced as his teachers god daughter and a very scary girl in general. "You do realise that was my boyfriend that you just kissed don't you Sakura-chan? Perhaps there is something you wish to tell me about you and him?"

The cold glare definitely didn't help Sakura's nerves as she hurriedly bowed her head, hoping that a sincere apology would stave off the inevitable beating that the other girl would eventually give her for her unknowing indiscretion. "Kari-sama, I am so sorry! I didn't realise that Naruto-kun was taken, I meant no dishonour on either you or him I swear."

She kept her head bowed; hoping that if the girl did decide to attack her it would not be on her face or neck. Any other injuries would be easy to hide from her family, who she really did not want to know about her actions today. She saw Kari's feet approach her and couldn't help shutting her eyes tightly as she came to a stop directly in front of her.

Then a small but calloused hand gently touched her cheek and pulled her up so that she was standing up straight, Sakura not resisting in case that angered the girl further. This time when Kari spoke her tone was softer and kinder. "Sakura-chan, open your eyes please, I won't hit you for an honest mistake on your part. I am angry that it happened but I am prepared to let it go this time."

Opening her eyes slowly she saw that the glare had faded to be replaced with a small frown, Kari's hand staying lightly gripping Sakura's chin as Kari stared deep into her eyes for several moments longer before sighing and releasing her, hand returning to the girls hip. "Sakura-chan, how long have you liked Naruto-kun that way then? From what he told me of you before he went training there was no real sign of your liking of him then."

Sakura gulped deeply as she realised that there was no way she was getting out of this conversation without confessing the truth one way or the other. Building up her courage as best she could, she spoke quickly in an attempt to get it out of the way.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning Kari-sama? It started the day I met you…" This was definitely going to be the most awkward conversation in her life, including the one when Rukia decided to explain the birds and the bees to her in rather exquisite detail…

Timeskip:

Persona: Naruto Uzumaki

Cursing his own stupid confident statement that nothing could go wrong at the start of the trip, Naruto tensed slightly as another of the missing-nin jumped through the tree branches below him, obviously looking for him and the girl on his back. The trip to the land of Grass had been uneventful, Kage quickly determining that the sensor girl was still too well guarded to risk Naruto trying to talk to her.

So after two days of probing the edge of the village patrols he had led Naruto to the north of Grass where they had done a few days training instead. They were focussing on Naruto's speed and endurance, in preparation for the 'rescue' as Naruto had termed it inside his own head.

That had turned out to be a good thing to do; for once they arrived at the town the slave auction was taking place in Kage had sensed several fairly powerful missing ninja as well as those that were meant to be being sold, obviously hired to deter anyone trying to take one of the slaves by force like they had planned to.

Kage had therefore decided on a two pronged attack with him attacking to occupy the ninja present whilst Naruto snuck in to free the girl. She hadn't been too hard to find with Kage's description, she stuck out from the other slaves due to the fact she was in her own separate cell and heavily manacled with chakra absorbing chains. She was probably a couple of years older than him, though she was obviously underfed and weak from her captivity.

He wished there was time to rescue the other slaves, but the moment he opened the door to the Oni's cell an alarm went off loudly elsewhere in the building. This left him cursing as he wrenched the chains out of their wall sockets and hoisting the somewhat unresponsive girl over his shoulder and started his sequence of seals, finishing them as the shades he had put on guard started fighting someone round the corner.

The two of them slipped away through his transportation jutsu to the pre-arranged meeting point that Kage had agreed with him earlier on the outskirts of the town as the first of the missing nin rounded the corner.

However Kage hadn't showed up before Naruto sensed other presences approaching his location at speed. Assuming that the missing nin had a sensor ninja with them to be able to find him so quickly Naruto hurriedly created three shades to act as decoys.

As they jumped off in various directions Naruto leapt up into the trees, settling himself in the highest branches before wrapping his arms and chest in the chakra absorbing chains that the girl still had attached to her wrists, hoping that it was his chakra that they were trying to follow.

The chains immediately lowered his chakra output massively, but also messed up his already bad chakra control to the point that he would be lucky to pull off a replacement jutsu, let alone any other jutsu of his repertoire without messing it up badly and drawing all the ninja in the area straight to him.

Luckily the chains seemed to do the trick, meaning that the ninja ended up following his shades whilst he stealthily made his way out of the area, though he knew with the reappearance of the missing ninja in the area it would not take long for them to find him, reduced chakra or not.

So he had two choices, which were to either continue to try and sneak out of the area or to teleport sufficiently far away that the sensor could not work out where he had gone and follow him. Either option would mean that he would have to leave without Kage, but he was sure the man could look out for himself just fine and at worst they would meet back in Konoha.

After a few more moments thought Naruto decided that teleporting away was certainly the less risky option, as long as he could be sure that there was enough time to perform the handseals at least. The question was where should he go to, it wasn't possible for him to teleport straight back to Konoha from here…

His thoughts were cut off when the girl in his arms awoke with a cry, ruining any chance he had of a quiet escape. With a flourish Naruto disentangled his arms from the chains, forming the seals for the shade technique even as he spun to remove the chain from his chest.

Ten shades appeared around him and immediately moved into defensive positions around him. Before he could complete the teleportation though he would need to calm the girl down first lest she panic and try and run or something similarly stupid. Leaning over her he barely resisted the urge to growl angrily as she froze up and looked up at him in a terrified manner.

"Shh, my names Naruto Uzumaki and I am in the middle of rescuing you okay? I just need you to grab on to me and not let go okay?" Her eyes lit up at his surname and she nodded weakly before grabbing his jacket as firmly as she could with both hands. Beginning the hand seals, Naruto realised he still hadn't decided on a location to teleport to.

The image of their safe house near the Grass village sprang to mind unbidden and with no other ideas Naruto focussed on that even as the first of the missing ninja engaged his shades. Luckily they seemed to focus on the attacking shades rather him, so that as the last shade fell Naruto finished the last hand sign and the two of them disappeared from the forest, leaving the three missing ninja standing in the suddenly empty clearing.

Persona- Karin, genin of the Grass village.

It had been a rather difficult couple of months if Karin wanted to be entirely honest with herself. She was barely 6 months into being a genin of the Grass village and she had already been interrogated and then impounded in the village due to the actions of the missing ninja Nobunaga Kage.

The old man had first approached her whilst she was on an escort mission outside the village to one of the other cities in Grass country. And after incapacitating her teammates and her jounin sensei Kage had tried to sit down and talk with her about something of all things.

Luckily for Karin Kage had no time to do whatever he had planned as a squad of Kusa ANBU happened to be in the area. They had swooped into combat with Kage and made him withdraw from the area after the pair of them exchanged only a few words, though two of the ANBU had needed to be healed by her bloodline after Nobunaga had meticulously taken them apart. After the ANBU had returned they had called for reinforcements to take the mission on in Karin's teams place, a whole squad of chuunin taking the genins place.

The team were rushed back to Kusa where Karin was put under constant watch as her team continued to complete d-rank missions. There had been two more attempts by Kage to get too her in the following week, but the ANBU dissuaded him before he even got into sight of Karin. The man only retreated to the outskirts of grass, where he seemed to have a hiding place he liked.

She supposed it was curiosity as to what such a powerful and dangerous missing ninja could want with her that stopped her from informing the ANBU where he was hiding, just on the edge of her sensor range when she truly concentrated. She kept watching him, only to be disappointed when he left the next day and did not return that night, or the next night or the night after.

Despite the words she had said at the initial meeting about his chakra being so dark, she found herself exerting herself more and more every day to feel for it. Kage had very… expressive chakra, to her at least and it hadn't fluctuated even after she had made it clear she could sense it. There had been no malice or other dark tumultuous feelings that disrupted his chakra even in the combats he was involved in, which wasn't something she could say about some of her watchers as the weeks went by without further incident.

Karin liked to think of herself as intelligent, and she could work out why there was as much suspicion and distrust behind her 'guard' detail as there was genuine loyalty. They obviously thought that Kage was either trying to or had succeeded in subverting Karin to spy for him on Grass. It just went to show how little the idiots knew of her true allegiance to Orochimaru before joining their village.

Because of the increased guards, she had been unable to meet with her handler that would pass on her information to Orochimaru. With the arrival of Kage and his actions having been the talk of Kusa for a month or so after it happened, Karin had no doubt that Orochimaru was aware of what had occurred, and on a small level that worried her more than she would like to admit.

When she had been younger Karin had been fascinated by Orochimaru and his chakra, which had been different and was still different to any chakra she had ever encountered. But she knew the man was callous and paranoid to the extreme, hardly surprising considering his missing ninja status and very high bounty, and if he suspected Karin was now working for Kage then he would ensure that she did not live out the year.

But there had been nothing out of the ordinary even after the guards had been withdrawn and Karin started to think that she was in the clear. Even when she had tentatively met with her handler, one of the village's chuunin by the name of Faize, he had merely asked for a full report about the time she had been under guard as well as the interaction with Kage.

It was the lack of reaction that worried Karin the most, some shadowing of her by her handler or another of Orochimaru's spies in the village at the very least but there was absolutely nothing that she could detect with her sensor ability. Just when everything was returning to some semblance of normalcy she felt Kage on the edge of her senses once more at his usual hide out area.

The desire to see if he was here for her was overpowering and therefore Karin had started slowly walking towards the edge of the village that Kage was based. It was then Karin felt the warmest chakra she had ever come across follow behind Kage. It was like a fresh warm summer breeze to her senses, her heart increasing its pace and she very nearly stumbled.

Karin barely managed to return to her apartment and claimed illness for the next couple of days so that she could simply enjoy more and more of the mysterious chakra. When the two of them left on the third day after checking the edges of the Kusa patrol regions, it took every fibre of her self-control to stop herself from chasing after them. For the next week everything seemed so pale and uninteresting to her and she went through the motions as if in a daze.

Karin was sure her team had noticed but they didn't bring it up. It didn't mean she was better; she would sometimes get completely lost in remembering the feeling, picturing on focussing on the image just like she was now. Reaching out to where she imagined the chakra would be, she nearly dropped her frying pan in which she had been preparing dinner when it was there. It was so much weaker than she remembered it though, even in comparison to the almost none existent signature that was next to it.

There was no choice in Karin's mind even as she rushed to the door of her apartment. There was no sign of Kage's chakra and with the weakness of the second signature Karin could easily justify to herself that she was going out there to save them rather than to meet the owner of the warm chakra. It did not take more than twenty minutes for her to pass through the gates of the village and into the grasslands that gave the village its namesake.

The hiding place would have been impossible for her to find if it wasn't for her ability to sense chakra so well, though the entrance was impossible for her to find. Suddenly there was a rustling through the bushes behind her and she barely had time to turn around, unable to sense anything in that direction.

Stood there was a short muscled man with yellow irises that reminded her eerily of… "Orochimaru-sama thought there might be truth to the rumours you were now with the shade of Uzu. With your sensor abilities someone like me must come as a surprise… This isn't personal of course, but you should have known this was coming when you betrayed Orochimaru-sama…"

Now more than ever, Karin could only hope that Kage's interest in her had been passed on to whoever his associate was. Or she was going to be his shortest lived informant in history…

Persona- Naruto Uzumaki

It had been a very difficult jutsu to perform, even more than he had thought it would be and as such he had come to rather slowly from the unconscious state he had fallen into upon arrival. The chakra draining cuffs had made the jutsu that much harder to maintain than normal, and travelling such a great distance meant that he was more than a little out of it after reaching the hideout.

Naruto was vaguely aware of the Oni girl's weak breathing next to him and with her weak condition he managed to force himself to move the girl to the bed area of the hideout. The hideout was an underground set of rooms that were hidden using a set of entrances that utilised no chakra in their camouflaging. This was done deliberately given that the girl he was meant to have met was a sensor.

Naruto froze as the sounds of movement above him became clear over the hideout, could someone have sensed his arrival and come to investigate? Stepping towards the nearest entrance he pressed himself against the entrance door to listen to what was going outside. The worst situation was that it was a squad of ANBU who had sensed his arrival and in that case he would have to give himself up to stop them harming the Oni girl.

It's not like he would be in too much trouble, he had no village association they could pin him with and though they might hold him for a couple of weeks he didn't have to hide what he had been doing. He could catch a conversation occurring outside the hideaway, which was hardly in line with a group of hardened killers, though the name mentioned caused him to freeze in place.

"…Isn't personal of course, but you should have known this was coming when you betrayed Orochimaru-sama…" There was a very feminine gasp almost next to the hideout entrance he was waiting at and Naruto realised that if he did nothing he was about to witness an Orochimaru ordered execution. Drawing a kunai he shoved his shoulder against the hideaway entrance, sending himself flying out.

Sighting the man he had obviously heard speaking before advancing on a red haired young woman wearing a Kusa headband round her right arm with a long bladed kunai in hand, Naruto drew his blade as he adjusted his run to engage him.

The man reacted in time to block Naruto's strike, a small smirk appearing on his face as he forced Naruto back with a grunt. "So this is the lapdog that Nobunaga has protecting you Karin-san? My master told me to withdraw if I encountered anyone other than you… Consider yourself lucky this time…" Before Naruto could go to strike at him again he leapt back into the grass, his footsteps rapidly moving away from their position.

Getting over the small adrenaline rush the small encounter had given him Naruto sheathed his blade in time to remember the name that the man had spoken. Karin was the girl Kage had been talking about him meeting in grass right? He turned at the sound of movement only for the girl to be stood there holding a kunai in a shaky hand near his throat. He sighed even as she glared at him; this seemed to be a bad habit of his being attacked by women he didn't know at any rate.

He went to hold his hands up diplomatically only for her to twitch dangerously close to his neck as she squeaked out a warning.

"D-don't move, understand?" Her tone showed that she was more scared of him than he was of her and was overcompensating with bravado. There was a groan from the hideout entrance, where the Oni girl seemed to have woken and slowly moved towards the door where she was now leaning weakly as she looked at the two of them in a very confused manner.

Yes, this definitely was not Naruto's day in the slightest…

Persona- Karin

Karin whirled round in a pivot at the sound of someone else behind her. With the whirlwind of chakra the blonde boy was releasing to her sensor abilities it was hardly surprising that the weak signature of the girl with him had slipped her notice. But after the scare with orochimarus minion Karin didn't want to take any chances. Her spin took her round the blonde boy so that she was holding him in a more classic pacification stance and seeing him not react hostilely she decided to try and keep control of the situation that had developed.

"Go inside girl, and don't try anything stupid or your friend gets hurt, understand?" The girl just looked even more confused at her demand, but before Karin could repeat herself her erstwhile captive spoke up quietly. "Listen, you are of the ONI clan right? We are well away from the slavers here so you will be safe here. Karin and I need to talk things through and I would much prefer to do that inside rather than out here."

The girl stiffened up and a small look of fear crossed her face at the mention of the word slavers and looking closer at her Karin noticed her arms were clad in chains that were visibly draining her chakra. What was she getting mixed up in with this pair? Luckily the girl seemed to listen to the boy and walked unsteadily back into the hideout, leaving the pair of them alone once more.

Kunai still held firmly against the boys throat, Karin gently jerked him forwards with the other hand. "Walk slowly inside and then we can talk, but with this talk of slavers there had better be a very good explanation." He nodded very slightly, obviously buying her bluff, before taking a small step forwards with his left foot. His chakra was still oozing into the air around him and the effect was like nothing Karin had ever encountered before.

It made her feel so warm and happy that it was taking everything she had not too drop the kunai and hug him to her like a plush toy. But caution was prevailing at the moment and until she was satisfied with the story she would be happy to keep it like that.

The transition inside was slow but remarkably smooth, the boy leading her down the corridor, stopping briefly to shut the entrance to the hideout. The place was very bare, obviously made with the only intent being its function to hide in, the room he ended up leading her to a prime example. Two futons were spread on the dirt floor, on one of which the girl was sat, nibbling at some dried fruit that she had appropriated from somewhere.

Realising the boy had stopped and seemed to be unsure of what to do next, Karin went to put her hand on his shoulder to push him further into the room. In a flash the boy had pushed away the hand holding the kunai to his throat and spun round, sweeping her feet out from underneath her. She hit the floor with a soft thud, the shock fading in time for the boy to knock the kunai from her hand with one foot as he drew his sword and held it near her face.

He spoke once more, his tone serious as he looked down at her. "Now, to be clear if I wished you ill for whatever reason, I could do it now and there would be nothing you could do to stop me." Karin nodded, uncertain of whether she should respond to the statement. It seemed to have been the right thing to do as he sighed slightly and relaxed, moving his blade to his shoulder.

A small smile crossed his face as he spoke once more, extending his free hand to her in an obvious gesture to help her to her feet. "Well, now that we have sorted out that mild misunderstanding, I suppose introductions are due before I start explaining everything." He turned his head so that he was looking at the other girl even as Karin accepted his hand with both of her own, chakra not fluctuating in the slightest as she pulled herself up showing that he trusted her not to try something once more.

Trusting not only her instincts which had led her out here in the first place but also in her sensor abilities, which had yet to fail her on this front, Karin settled for standing besides the chakra juggernaut who had rescued her, taking in as much of the warm feeling of his chakra as she could. Such was her distraction she only just made out as he started speaking once more.

"I will go first as I brought us all here, I am Naruto Uzumaki, last of the Uzumaki's of whirlpool village. I rescued you both not only because it was the right thing to do, but also because I think you might also be survivors of that village too..." Karin was brought back to focus with these words.

To be told she could be a member of the rather legendary minor village that had been the greatest casualty of the previous Great War was definitely the last thing she had expected to hear today. It made sense though given that Kage was a missing ninja of that village, if he thought she was a survivor then it made sense for him to try to talk to her about it.

Whilst it was a rather long shot it was the only chance she really had left, given that Orochimarus agents were probably decrying her as a traitor even now. Leaning into Naruto's shoulder, which was just as warm as his chakra was, Karin decided that this last change of loyalties could definitely be the best she had made thus far...

Persona- Naruto Uzumaki

With the girl who had minutes before been holding a kunai to his throat now snuggling into his shoulder in the manner that reminded Naruto of some of the alley cats he had befriended on his travels, he turned his focus to the other girl present, who whilst not aggressive towards him was still looking at him very suspiciously.

I"How am I to know you are actually an Uzumaki? Kaa-San had said you had all been wiped out with the fall of Uzu village. The only reason she survived was that she had been on a mission at the time." It was a good question that he couldn't really answer, primarily because there was no real way that he could prove it.

The Uzumaki bloodline wasn't anything flashy that he could show off, and whilst Kages jutsu were clan jutsu of the Kage clan. Until the man himself got here it could be argued that he had just found a scroll with them in somewhere. He held his hands up helplessly.

"You make a good point, I cannot truly prove to you that I am an Uzumaki, but my master Nobunaga Kage can vouch for me and I hope that is enough for you." The girl lit up slightly at the mention of Kages name and her suspicious look morphed into a more apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I realise that I am hardly being gracious considering that you rescued me from my captors and don't seem to be expecting anything as a reward. I am Cho-li of the ONI clan, and if you truly are an Uzumaki I will pledge myself to your service as my clan have done since Uzu's founding."

A small blush rose to Naruto's face as Cho-li forced herself into a full reverent bow, which extenuated her rather full bust through her skimpy ragged clothing. Shaking his head even as he stored that image away he freed his arm from Karins grip and strode forwards , kneeling by cho-li and grasping her shoulder fondly.

"Never bow to me Cho-li-chan, I will not have servants or followers when I can have friends and family. Now lets see about those chains you have on and then we can discuss what you wish to do next now that you have your freedom once more." He looked over to Karin and grinned at her as well. "You too Karin-chan, though I am sure you can just stay as a grass genin if you wanted to?"

The offer of choice obviously surprised both of them, but after having so many choices in his life made for him, Naruto refused to do the same for others if he could avoid it. As the three of them sat down to talk, Naruto wondered where Kage was at that point and when he would see his old master again.

Persona- Nobunaga Kage, missing ninja of Uzu village

The rescue could have gone better, there had been more missing Ninja than he expected and whilst he had dealt with two or three of the more despicable ones permanently, the others had forced him to withdraw faster than he would have liked. Since then he had been sneaking in to find out news between checking out the meeting point at regular intervals.

There was no sign of Naruto but he expected he would have heard or seen something by now if the boy had been killed or captured. Kage had gone out of his way to free several other captives there in order to cover their true objective, though the idea of leaving any of these people to their fates disgusted him.

A pair of missing ninja from Yuki passed underneath his hiding spot, talking to each other loudly enough that Kage didn't even need to strain his ears to hear them. "And then the blonde kid disappears with the ONI girl right in front of my eyes, Friya-sama couldn't even sense where he had gone this time. The boss is going to be real mad and I sure don't want to be the one to tell hi... Urgh"

the man was cut off as a kunai came out of nowhere and pierced his chest even as Kage dropped on the other missing ninja and knocked him out with a heavy blow to the head. Seeing as the kunai was not of the make Naruto carried and he definitely hadn't thrown it Kage was on edge as he extended his senses.

Before he could get a true feeling for his opponent the person in question jumped from the bushes, landing softly half a dozen metres in front of him, arms raised defensively but not in an offensive manner even as a soft smile played across their face.

"Nobunaga Kage, I must admit when I heard rumours of an ONI clan member being in the slavers pens I guessed you would make an appearance. Now how do you feel about helping a little girl rescue some more of her friends?" With her intent now somewhat obvious, Kage relaxed a little as he checked the condition of Yuki ninja who had been stabbed.

He would live with some treatment that Kage could give him as the two ninja got down to business. "How about you first tell me what is in it for me? After all, helping the worst enemy of the mizukage is something I definitely don't want added to my wanted posters without good reason... Mei Terumi."

From the saucy grin on the woman's face even as she moved forwards to help him move the bodies, she would enjoy the negotiating part of this as much as he would. With the Yuki nins admission that Naruto had escaped with the ONI girl, Kage knew he could leave getting back to Konoha up to the blonde, he had done it before after all. Earning some allies amongst the missing ninja population was therefore very high up on Kages list of what to do with his free time...

Persona- Naruto Uzumaki shade

"So you not only have you stirred things up with the grass village by helping one of their most promising genin defect but you also rescued this girl from a slave ring under guard by more than a dozen missing ninja when you aren't even a qualified genin yet... Anything else you want to tell me before I ban you from leaving the village with Kage ever again?"

It was almost refreshing to Naruto to be being dressed down by Old man Sarutobi once more, after two days of travel with just girls he had to admit that even he was feeling a little drained by it all. Deciding to get the worst of it over with now, he brought up the next topic even as he gripped his sword in a just in case fashion.

"Ano, there is one other thing Jiji, Karin-chan here used to work for your old student as a spy... But let's not do anything hasty! Karin-chan has already agreed to give you whatever information she has in return for being able to stay here as a ninja." It had been one of the many things that the three of them had discussed once Naruto had revealed his village of origin to the two of them.

It had taken some work to get Karin to talk about her time serving orochimaru, both before and after she had also joined the grass village. It wasn't the sort of thing that Naruto wished to risk hiding from the Hokage, best to be honest about it from the outset and let Sarutobi get it all over with in one big swoop.

On the other hand, Cho-li had agreed to return with him until they could make contact with Kage and she could verify what Naruto had told her. Then she was torn between staying and helping Naruto build up funds to set up a true clan compound for them to stay in or helping Kage search for more of their dispersed clansmen.

Looking as sarutobi's face paled slightly as ANBU quickly surrounded Karin swords drawn, Naruto decided the discussion about Cho-li's future could wait for a later time. After a few moments of staring at Karins terrified face, Sarutobi waved the ANBU off dismissively his face set in a stern visage as he gestured her to step forwards.

"You shall explain everything to me now, and then I shall decide what is to happen to you next depending on how truthful I think you are being. If you are an Uzumaki as Kage and Naruto suspect then I have no problems accepting you into the village. You will be watched of course but that is procedure for any who try to find refuge here from other villages and I will make sure you are not known for your association to my ex student. His name still is a tarnish upon this village even after all these years..."

And Karin began her story, her voice initially wavering as she got over the fright of the ANBU surrounding her but growing stronger as she got further into her tale. The shade of Naruto which had been sent with the two girls wondered at this point how the real Naruto was doing with Saki who he was sure would be 'happy' to see him again.

Persona- Naruto Uzumaki, apprentice of Kage

Saki, or Kari as he now supposed she was to be called in public, had been surprisingly relaxed about his return being a little late, though that may have been to do with the company she was keeping as much as anything else. He had eventually found her eating lunch in a small bar near the Uchiha estate with Sakura of all people to keep her company.

Kari had engulfed him in a hug as he landed near their table from his vantage point but had been her usual aloof self about the whole thing, letting Sakura take the lead with the questioning about his latest adventures. The look in her eyes when he mentioned both Cho-li and Karin told him that she was not happy about him hanging out with two girls by himself.

He'd refrained from mentioning how clingy Karin had been for the first day until she worked out how uncomfortable he had been with it, such talk would definitely have left Saki steaming with fury. The two would have to get along though, as Karin was one of the few whose chakra sensing was strong enough to be able to tell that Kari and her alter ego Sasuke were one and the same even with the seal Kari had on her.

With that in mind he drew himself back into the conversation with a question he knew he might regret later. "Kari-chan, what are you two doing tonight? With Karin and Cho-li being new to Konoha I thought that it would be good for them to meet some new people here so that they don't feel so isolated."

Sakura beamed at him and nodded her head eagerly, but Kari looked a little sceptical before speaking with a thoughtful expression slowly breaking through. "But you are just back in the village after being away for so long. How about I come and do the cooking whilst you look after your new guests?" Or in other words, Kari was going to come over so that they could have a proper conversation before anyone else arrived.

"That's a good idea Kari-sama; it would be a proper way to welcome Naruto-kun home. I will be more than happy to help... If you want me to that is." Sakura's enthusiasm quickly fell from her tone as Kari levelled a glare at her and the pinkette bowed her head slightly in defference, making Naruto wonder how much interaction he had missed between the two of them whilst he had been gone. There was a moment of silence before the raven haired sighed slightly and nodded. "Of course you can Sakura-chan, the more the merrier."

The pink haired girl looked up, her soft smile surfacing once more, before the two girls began discussing what they could cook for dinner and where to get the ingredients for the various meals they were thinking of. Sipping the fruit drink that he had just ordered, Naruto simply smiled as the two girls bonded over food, something he could only hope would happen again tonight.

It was only at the end of the meal, when Naruto had been about to leave that Kari grabbed his arm firmly. The girls moved so that they were sat close to him on either side, Sakura grabbing his other arm with equal grip to ensure he was firmly stuck in place. Kari spoke first, a serious but playful glint in her eyes.

"Before you run off Naruto-kun, when were you planning on telling me about Sakura-chan's little indiscretion on the day you left? Or were you hoping that it would just slip me by? Let's also not forget that today is Saturday, meaning you are a whole day late back…" Seeing Sakura nod with similar determination in her eyes, Naruto hastily re-evaluated his previous statement. If this is how much trouble he was going to getting into with two of them, how much trouble would four girls getting along be?

A/N: Hope it was an enjoyable, if a bit all over the place, chapter. Please review and tell me what you think :)