Much thanks to Tavina, Anita_Magia, and Desdendelle for beta reading. As ever, mistakes remaining are all on me.

"I can't believe I still can't get one that fits me," Sakura complained. "Does Kakashi-sensei have a bad reputation with Supply, too?"

"Probably," Naruto said.

We were in a very different-looking bedroom, but it was obviously Naruto's. No one else would have an advertising poster for instant ramen cups on their walls. Or bright orange walls. At least, I hoped not.

The room was on the smaller side, and one wall— an outside one— was curved. The orange walls made it much brighter from the light coming in through the window, filtered through the leaves of the tree branches outside.

Sakura was sitting on the bed which was against one wall, and Naruto was partially hanging out of the low windowsill, surrounded by his potted plants; he was a blot of yellow, orange, and blue against the green around and behind him. I was sitting on a chair that was next to a desk.

All of the furniture was new, if simple, lightly stained wood. Part of a set. Only the blanket folded on the end of the bed showed any signs of age. Naruto's Team Seven photo was on the nightstand. Unlike the one I remembered from the show, the Naruto and Sasuke in the photo weren't making ugly looks at the camera— or in Naruto's case, at Sasuke. It occurred to me that I hadn't even bothered to look at the copy of the photo at Sasuke's apartment. It was pretty sparse, and a little messy, but that wasn't that surprising.

Looking down at myself, I wasn't in one of Sasuke's mildly ridiculous wide-collared shirts. Instead, I was wearing the flak jacket from last time, with a normal blue long-sleeved shirt— round collared, unlike the mock turtlenecks for the full uniform— underneath. I was still in the shorts, though.

It looked like Sakura had taken the promotion to mean she needed to be a bit more practical about how she dressed, even if she was stuck with a flak jacket she couldn't wear. Her hair was pulled back in a braid again, and she had made some changes to her mission clothing; mesh armor reached down to her wrists from under her sleeves, and she had paired it with plated fingerless gloves. Someone had taken a cue from Kakashi, it seemed, but she had managed to find a pair that was a dusty pink. Bright pink handguns marketed to women were a thing in real life. Pink armored accessories were similar enough.

Naruto's clothes were still the same.

Even with the obvious reminders that he hadn't been promoted, Naruto looked elated, and it seemed to be connected with the fact we were in here, in his bedroom.

Sakura sighed. "Probably," she agreed. She looked over at me. "Sasuke-kun, how are you doing with everything?"

I shrugged. I had no idea what to say there. For all I knew, Sasuke was doing great. I sure as hell wasn't. There was also no way in hell I was going to bring anything up to them, because dream or whatever terrible thing this was, they were still kids. I wasn't so desperate that I was going to ask probably-imaginary middle schoolers for advice.

At least not yet.

If I hit the point where talking about my feelings or getting advice from Naruto was on the table— whether he was imaginary or delusion or something else— it would be time to drag my ass out into the desert and become a hermit or die of exposure.

Sakura made a face at me. "Fine, then," she said, audibly disappointed. "What about you, Naruto?"

He groaned. "I didn't know how much paperwork was involved. I should have said I wanted to stick with one of you when I had the chance."

"I thought you were excited when Shizune asked you if you wanted to be a runner for the Hokage office?" Sakura asked him.

"That was before I knew how much real running there would be! And stairs! The inside's all old and stuff and apparently, Jii-Jii didn't really trust computers or printers so everything that gets printed for administration stuff is in a second-level basement, and Baa-chan's getting a lot of stuff printed. I go down a bunch of stairs, have to check in with the security chūnin, get a box, go back up, and then right back down!" That sounded exhausting. "I even got sent out to get more paper at one point because all the printing made the supply run out! I didn't even know where to go! I only found out 'cause I ran into Iruka-sensei."

Sakura grimaced. "You're right, you really should have asked to work with one of us instead, even if it would have been weird. How is Iruka-sensei?"

"Uh, kinda cranky," Naruto said, taking one hand off the windowsill to scratch at his neck awkwardly. "He's still trying to get back onto the active duty roster, but they won't let him until he can do E-rank jutsu again. I'm gonna get ramen with him later today."

There was a terrible sort of equilibrium to that whole situation.

There was a moment of silence until Naruto tried to break it. "What's it like? Being a chūnin so far?"

I had no idea.

"Kind of weird, so far," Sakura admitted. "It's harder than I thought it would be even though it feels like I'm not doing anything? There's a senior chūnin supervising the bigger group we're part of to make sure all of the working teams have enough people and have the right tasks assigned and that we're not working against each other. Even if I want to help out directly with taking a load of supplies or working on something, I'm not supposed to."

"What? Why not?"

"It's a lot more involved than the group assignments at the Academy," Sakura said, wrinkling her nose. "I have to make sure we know where we're going, sign off for any supplies we take, let whoever's in charge at the construction site we're going to know that we're there and with what stuff and get them to sign off on it too and if something's missing or that there's something they were supposed to get that they didn't get find out and get it and make sure nothing goes wrong or if anything happens. So if we're going through a part of the village that isn't under construction I have to make sure there's no one in the way or anything, especially if we're taking an upper-level path so we don't drop a plank or something on someone." She made a face. "I didn't realize how hard just watching people was. It's awkward sometimes, too, because one of the genin working with me has to be eighteen or something and sometimes points things out that I missed. I feel like she knows more than I do!"

"Probably," I agreed.

Sakura looked at me with half-lidded eyes. "That's not funny," she said.

"It wasn't meant to be. If she wanted, she could be making things harder for you, but it sounds like she isn't." I punctuated that with a shrug. "Especially if she's that much older." Not that eighteen was that old, at least not to me.

Sakura huffed.

Naruto looked between me and her, poorly disguised alarm on his face.

Before he could come up with anything though, a shout rose from the ground.

"Naruto! Get your ass out of the window before you fall out and land on someone! That's not a seat, you clumsy brat!" Jiraiya.

Naruto let out a surprised laugh as he turned and did almost go through the open window when he released his grip on the windowsill, Sakura lunged, grabbing his arm and pulling him back in before he pitched any further back, knocking over a couple of the potted plants in the process.

They ended up in a tangle among the plants and I was still helping prop the fallen ones back up so they could get up when Jiraiya filled the door frame.

"Told ya," was all he said, arms folded.

Naruto gently pushed the intrusive leaves of a pothos away from his face. "You surprised me!"

"You're supposed to be a ninja," Jiraiya said, rolling his eyes. "Get off the floor and shake the dirt off. There's someone you need to meet. I'll be downstairs." He turned around and left.

"Huh." Naruto looked contemplative for a moment as I offered Sakura a hand to get up.

"Did you see anyone outside with him?" Sakura asked, brushing the potting soil off her dress.

"Just Ino's dad, but I didn't get a good look." He stood up finally and gave one of the plants a careful pat.

"It was nice of Kakashi-sensei to get you some plants," Sakura said.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure why he did, it's not like I had that many," Naruto answered, sounding mystified. "Maybe it's because the one I had in my room lost most of its leaves when my apartment got destroyed? It's still alive though."

I vaguely felt like that was my fault, but I wasn't sure why.

Naruto led the way out into the hallway. There were a few other closed doors and while it was clean, it was a bit too clean. Like it had seen a recent thorough one to be suitable for people to live in the space again.

The stairs loudly creaked the whole way down. Jiraiya had gone up and down them without us even hearing him.

Inside the living room, which didn't have the same too-clean impression lingering in it, Karin was standing between Inoichi and Jiraiya, no hitai-ate, no holster, just dressed in a light blue long-sleeved blouse and a ruffled skirt over leggings. Her eyes widened at seeing us. Someone recognized us from her mortifying moment during the first exam, then.

Naruto scrunched his eyebrows together and looked between the two adults. "Isn't she a Kusa-nin? What's she doing here?"

"This is Uzumaki Karin," Inoichi began. He was in his grey Interrogation get-up. Karin bit her lip and ducked her head, staring at the ground. "She's going to be staying with you and Jiraiya."

Naruto looked like he got sucker-punched, blinking. "Uzumaki? Like me?"

"I— Not really," Karin muttered. "That's not—"

"Just because that isn't what was on your documentation in Kusagakure, it doesn't mean you don't have the right to be called that," Jiraiya said. "The hair is a big hint to anyone who knows."

Sakura frowned. "But she's a genin, isn't she? Where's her hitai-ate? Did she…" She clearly didn't want to finish the question.

"She caught our attention during the exams," Inoichi explained. "While normally we wouldn't have pressed it, the attack attempted on Sasuke that Iruka-sensei intervened in was by one of their ninja. Even though that was by a traitor, it pushed things in our favor. They didn't want to risk trouble under the circumstances." His voice was just a bit too crisp through the whole explanation.

Naruto managed to put it together. "We took her?" he asked indignantly. He focused on Karin with an intense look in his eyes. "Did you want to come here?"

Karin's hesitance to answer was all he needed.

I yanked Sakura by the arm as I stepped away.

"I thought we were supposed to be better than that!" Naruto erupted. "Not— not stealing people and taking them against their will and all that! And don't give me that crap about 'we're ninja'! I'm not that dumb! Everyone made it obvious what a big deal it was and why Orochimaru became a missing-nin! What's the difference between this and what he was doing?" His chest was beginning to heave. "When we were leaving Wave, Kakashi-sensei had to offer Haku all this stuff to try and get him to want to join Konoha. Was he supposed to try and drag Haku here against his will, too, if he didn't want to? Or was it because he's strong and had Zabuza with him that he got to have a choice?" The whisker marks on his face were darkening, red pouring into his eyes. Not like in the forest, but it was still clearly happening all the same.

Karin flinched and took a step back, eyes shut, her face full of fear.

Jiraiya shifted to stand in front of her, arms carefully, tellingly, crossed. Inoichi was taking his cue from Jiraiya, not moving out of the way he was standing even though from here he wanted to, shoulders tensed and fingers splayed. "Calm down, brat. Does it look like either of us are that happy about this? This was all done back in July. It's too late to change anything, and she's better off here anyway, from what I've heard, especially since Grass has got itself into another stupid spat.

"There are reasons she's going to be staying with us, and it's not because I got it into my head to be domestic," he continued, the easy-going jab at himself not quite matching his tone; despite signaling with his body language that he was unimpressed, his voice was too careful. He was trying to talk Naruto out of blowing up. "I'd at least want a wife if I was going to do that, and there's no one volunteering that I'd want anyway." There were a whole bunch of implications in all of that, and the one I wanted to think about least was the implication that Jiraiya did have women somewhere out there who were interested in marrying him.

Then again, he was supposed to be a popular writer, and fandom was a scary place.

It was enough at least for Naruto to start calming down— angry chakra fox monster-themed meltdown avoided— but no one spoke until he only looked sulky with blue eyes again.

"While there were plenty of options as far as people she could live with for the time being went," Inoichi started, as though pretending that whole outburst wasn't worth mentioning, "Tsunade-sama was the one who suggested that living with you and Jiraiya would be the best option due to that connection."

"Why not her instead?" Naruto asked.

"Huh?" Sakura went.

"Baa-chan is related to the Uzumaki clan too, isn't she?" Naruto continued, while we all stared at him.

"She is?" Sakura stared at him, visibly gobsmacked.

She wasn't the only one, because now Naruto was staring at her in complete surprise. "Yeah? It was in one of the little books they taught us from in the first year of the academy, talking about all the Hokage. The Shodai married an Uzumaki." He scratched the back of his head, self-conscious. "I guess I still remember because it was the first time I ever heard that someone had my name before."

"She's the Hokage," Jiraiya finally answered. "Do you think she's got time right now to deal with setting up a teenager? She hasn't even got her own place set up yet."

"As for why she doesn't have a hitai-ate," Inoichi said, "whether from Kusagakure or here, for the time being, she's being treated as a civilian. She's currently on a probationary period before she can go active—" this garnered a scowl from Naruto— "if she wants to serve as a ninja here."

Karin's expression was very carefully blank.

"In the meantime, she needs furniture and more clothing, which is why Jiraiya wanted you three to be here after you were done for the day." I wondered how much extra work this was being for Inoichi.

The mention of shopping had Sakura perk up a little. Naruto only gave Inoichi and Jiraiya a skeptical look. "With what money?"

"Because of the circumstances, she's being provided the genin base-pay stipend with a starting fund. You don't have to worry about dipping into your savings account."

Naruto only gave Inoichi a blank look. "What savings account? I just have a normal one. I don't use it most of the time 'cause it doesn't make sense when I'm broke and most of my money can fit in my wallet after paying for everything. Or at least before it didn't, since I'm not paying rent I guess it'd be better than trying to keep my pay under my mattress, even if they take a whole chunk of it every deposit."

There was a long and heavy pause as Inoichi and Jiraiya looked between each other, and I couldn't help but frown.

"What do you mean, you don't have a savings account?" Jiraiya finally asked once he gathered his words. "The village bank isn't supposed to have fees for anyone." There was an incredibly dangerous undertone to his voice. The perverted goofball act— which had barely hung for the whole conversation and was running on vapors earlier— had completely disappeared. "You've got your bank book somewhere, don't you? Go get it."

Inochi was also frowning, but he didn't look like he was ready to leave a giant-toad-shaped crater somewhere.

Naruto took off running for the stairs without making any response— dumb, clever, or otherwise.

It was a very tense few minutes before Naruto finally returned, bringing back a little book with his name on its front. It showed some signs of light use, but it reminded me of my checkbook. In the over a decade of having my own bank account, I had written a check out all of three times.

It occurred to me that when I woke up I should make sure I knew where my checkbook was. It had been a few months since the last time I used it.

Jiraiya plucked it out of Naruto's hands and opened it, quickly looking over it. The thunderous and deadly mood disappeared so quickly and thoroughly that it was almost hard to imagine that it had been there at all in the first place. He barked out a laugh, and lightly smacked Naruto over the head with the book before pushing it back into Naruto's hand.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You have a savings account, you little idiot! That's where all that money's going!"

"How was I supposed to know?"

"Because it says that. Right there." Jiraiya grabbed the book back, flipping it to an already filled page, pointing at a specific spot on one line, holding it in front of Naruto's face. "Going with every month it's recorded a deposit, it's had that as a transfer right after. See?"

Naruto squinted."Huh. Oh yeah, that's the character for 'savings'. That was in that huge vocabulary list Ebisu made me go over. So that's what that is. I got my bank account at the same time I was moved into my apartment, but nobody really explained anything and I didn't really pay attention to all of it. I just remembered that all the money in the account was supposed to be used for my rent and bills and stuff." He looked up at Jiraiya, still squinting. "Wait, does that mean I actually have a ton of money?"

Something about that, between Naruto being himself and how that was phrased, set off several alarms.

Jiraiya seemed to have caught on as well. "If you have more sense than rocks have chakra, you'll leave it in there until you're older."

"But rocks don't have chakra."

Probably for the better, Inoichi appeared to be deciding that ignoring that all of that had happened was the wise decision to make. He had turned towards Karin, who was looking a bit stunned, pulling out a similar-looking booklet to the one Jiraiya was busying himself with bonking Naruto over the head with. "Your account's already been set up for you." He cast a sidelong look at Naruto before returning his focus to the red-hairedgirl. "As long as you choose responsibly, it will be more than enough for a set of bedroom furniture and some new clothes."

"I understand," Karin said, reluctant. She hesitantly took it.

Inoichi looked over at Sakura. "Sakura-chan, why don't you see if Ino would like to help with this shopping trip. Her team usually finishes around this time."

Sakura nodded.

Jiraiya shoved the bank book down Naruto's jacket collar. "Just get outta here," he said, shaking his head. "Look for furniture first, so that it can get delivered before tonight."

We got turned out of the house not long after that.

From the outside, it definitely was on the older end and showed signs that no one had been living in it for a while until recently and that it was still in the middle of being brought back up to livable. The roof was new; the windows were the sort that you saw only in old buildings that hadn't been updated.

We walked in awkward mostly-silence, Sakura's attempts at asking Karin about herself failing. Even Naruto wasn't being that chatty for him. Mostly Karin just stared a lot at me and Naruto when she thought we weren't paying attention.

I decided to pretend it wasn't happening. I was not going to let myself get wrapped up in speculation on if Karin had a crush on Sasuke at this point or not. I hoped not. I sure as hell didn't run into or save her from a bear, so either she got out of it on her own or that just never happened like everything else that had changed.

She probably had a better time in the forest than in the show.

She was still a thirteen-year-old kid displaced into a new environment against her will though, and while Sasuke's saving her triggered her initial crush in the series because it had been kind behavior, the idea of going out of my way to be cold to avoid it from happening just filled me with preemptive guilt. This wasn't the same Karin from after the time skip.

It took less time to find Team Asuma than I had expected. Sakura had both a better sense of direction — I 'knew' where things were supposed to be only if I didn't think about it— and the knowledge of where Ino was supposed to be.

There were more people on the field than just Asuma's team when we were approaching. Hinata, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru were present as well, just not with Kurenai.

Anko was there instead, tossing a drink can up and down, letting it twirl in the air fast enough that I couldn't make out the label. Hopefully, it wasn't carbonated; or that if it was, she didn't plan on drinking it anytime soon.

"What's she doing here?" Naruto asked, baffled.

"I should ask you the same thing," Anko immediately shot back with a grin. She slid the can into a pocket. "I'm filling in for Kurenai. Did Tsunade-sama make the village run out of paper and that's why you were able to escape?"

"That's not funny!" Naruto grimaced and tilted his head slightly as he examined her, before shifting his attention around, looking not quite directly at Hinata, who was sandwiched between her teammates, before looking back at Anko. "Yeah, but why are you filling in for her? I know she's been working in the Hokage's office, but isn't her team supposed to be more important or something than paperwork?" That had rings of Kakashi to it.

Asuma gripped the back of his neck. "Kurenai's on maternity orders for the time being." He was trying to sound casual about it, as though it wasn't big news or important to him.

That was also a hell of a change and about three years early.

Sakura let out a surprised and happy gasp. "She's going to have a baby?" Before she got caught up in the idea she paused. "Wait, isn't that something she should be bringing up herself?"

Naruto squinted at Asuma. "Yeah, why are you saying this? Aren't babies supposed to be a big deal?"

"Who do you think got her pregnant?" Shikamaru said. There was far more resentment and vitriol in his voice than I would have expected.

"Uh, not Kakashi-sensei then?" Naruto guessed. I had no idea where he got that idea from, and I didn't want to know.

Asuma choked. "No, it's not him."

"Okay, because he was acting really weird around her." Naruto focused his attention on Asuma. "Wait, is it you?" He wrinkled his nose. "Ew."

Sakura elbowed him.

"All this time he had us training with Team Eight was just an excuse," Shikamaru grated out.

Ino frowned. "Shikamaru—"

Shikamaru immediately turned on her. "It was your stupid idea in the first place that let him get away with it, Ino," he shot at her.

Ino took a step back.

Chōji glanced between them, visibly unhappy. Before Ino could reply, he cut in. "Do we need to do this right now?" There was an unsaid, but still present 'Again?' in his voice.

He wasn't the only one who seemed to be tired of this, because Hinata spoke up, her fingers plied against each other. "It's not our business that Kurenai-sensei is pregnant or that she and Asuma-sensei are together and it's not right that you're judging them for it." The words tumbled out of her loud and almost too fast, but it still resulted in everyone staring at her. She was slowly turning pink under the attention.

"Yeah, what Hinata said," Kiba agreed. "Just because you're too full of yourself to get over it doesn't mean we are." Akamaru let out a bark in what I guessed was supposed to be an agreement. Kiba bared his teeth in an unfriendly smile. "Or are you envious of a baby that's not even going to show up for six more months?"

This was starting to reach some high and complex drama for thirteen-year-olds.

Anko seemed to agree, because she threw her hands up, palms at both Shikamaru and Kiba. "Alright, this is enough for me, I'm calling it quits for the day. Team Eight, you guys can go do whatever you want, just as long as it doesn't get me in trouble for encouraging dumb genin drama." She rubbed at the back of her neck. "I'm going to go take Kurenai lunch and see what she can hold down. Any ideas?"

"Nothing fried," Shino immediately answered.

"I'll keep that in mind." Anko went over to Asuma and hooked her arm around his, ready to drag him off. Anko wasn't that short, but Asuma still towered over her, and the act pulled him down a bit. "Come on, if they're going to draw blood we don't want to be around. It'll give them a chance to lie, feel sorry about themselves, and maybe make up without us getting too involved."

"What sort of advice is that even supposed to be?" Asuma asked.

"Way better than I thought it was when I first heard it," Anko said. She flashed us a smile before she resolutely began to drag Asuma off. "Bye! Don't kill each other!"

Orochimaru was supposed to have been Anko's sensei when she was a genin, wasn't he? In that context, that advice made a lot of sense. I settled for waving.

It was only when Asuma and Anko were a distance away that Sakura realized what hadn't happened at all when she looked over in Naruto's direction and remembered Karin was there. Who had witnessed all of this. Poor Karin. "Oh no! We came here for a reason. This is Uzumaki Karin."

Karin was turning red, if slowly, now that everyone's attention was on her. Maybe it had been for the better that the drama had happened first, after all, since now she wasn't the weird one, it was everyone else. "Nice to meet you all," she said, quiet and without any conviction.

Ino was point-blank staring, but the others were at least being a bit more polite about it.

Chōji looked between Karin and Naruto. "Uzumaki?"

"Yeah, she's gonna be living with me and Ero-Sennin," Naruto said. It wasn't at his full usual ebullience, and I couldn't tell if it was because of the drama that had sparked with our arrival, or because he was still trying to decide how to feel about it. Probably both.

Hinata offered Karin a small smile. "It's nice to meet you, Karin-chan. You visited Konoha during the exams, didn't you? I hope you're able to become comfortable here." There was something just a bit careful in Hinata's word choice. She must have recognized Karin from the first one and put enough of it together from how Karin was dressed, without a hitai-ate.

Karin nodded but didn't bother to elaborate.

Sakura raised an eyebrow at Ino. "Ino," she started, slowly and with the sort of patience that came from getting used to having to get someone's attention when you weren't sure if they were zoned in enough to even be found to begin with, "Your dad dropped her off with Jiraiya-sama; he said I should ask if you want to help us go shopping."

Ino blinked. "Oh! What are we shopping for?"

"I need bedroom furniture and some clothes," Karin answered, not looking at anyone. Her eyes were focused on the ground.

Ino's expression and how she was holding herself changed entirely, as a smile drew upon her face. "Ooh, sure."

Shikamaru only scowled. "Come on, Chōji." Without bothering to wait, Shikamaru shoved his hands into his pockets and began to skulk off to the adjoining street.

Chōji frowned but didn't follow Shikamaru right away. Instead, he focused on Karin. "He's normally not like this," he apologized. He ducked his head. "I hope you have a good time shopping." Chōji spat the words out quickly, before taking off in a full sprint for Shikamaru, not looking up. Even so, from where I was standing, I could see that his face was burning red. Judging from the lack of reactions, I seemed to be the only one who had noticed. Everyone else was focusing on Karin or Shikamaru's retreating in the distance.

Well, that was interesting. Then again, hadn't he ended up with that one redhead?

"It's not usually like this," Sakura said to Karin. She looked over at me with a thin and desperate smile. "Right, Sasuke-kun?" She was trying to save the situation from being a wreck more than it already was. I wasn't sure what could be done at this point, between Naruto's earlier burst of temper probably scaring the shit out of Karin and then the drama between Shikamaru and everyone else, when Karin already wasn't happy to be here.

"No, it's usually this bad," I said instead.

Sakura looked at me, betrayal in her eyes, and slumped, but Karin let out a gasp from trying to hold back laughter, before pressing a hand to her mouth, eyes wide.

In comparison, Kiba didn't bother, laughing loudly. "Yeah, something always seems to be happening around them," he agreed.

Shino pushed his sunglasses up, turning towards Kiba. "If the point of this is to acclimate her to the village, making her feel uncomfortable for no reason won't help anyone."

"Well, she's gonna find out eventually, isn't she? She might as well be prepared," Kiba pointed out.

"You don't need to put it like that," Naruto grumbled, before speaking up a bit louder. "We should get going so we can have enough time to look for furniture and get it delivered in time. When we got back, we didn't do that in time and Ero-sennin had already gotten rid of the old stuff. I had to sleep on the ground with a blanket, and I have a feeling it won't be Karin-chan sleeping on the floor if it gets scheduled for tomorrow."

At that, Ino turned towards Hinata. "Oh! Hinata, you should come with us too, you probably know different places than Sakura and I do, and it's not like the boys are going to know where to look for deals."

"Those two might not, but I do!" Kiba spoke up, which got a confused look from Naruto. Kiba made a face. "Who do you think gets dragged along when my mom and sister go shopping?"

"Uh, you?" Naruto asked.

Kiba stuck his tongue out.

"Um... I might know a few places," Hinata admitted, ignoring the exchange between the two boys. "I've gone looking with Kurenai-sensei before."

"I'll go too," Kiba insisted.

This was going to be a crowd.

"Good luck," Shino said, decisively. "I'm going to go see Kurenai-sensei and then go home and tend to my insects."

"What, not gonna come with us?" Kiba asked.

"At least one of us should stay out of trouble," Shino responded. "And I don't think it will be any of you." He turned to look at Karin. "I hope you're able to settle in the village well."

With that, Shino left, leaving me to wonder if I should cut and join him instead.

If I left, I wouldn't get caught up with whatever was going to happen— and I refused to think that something wouldn't happen. But it would also leave this particular group of children to try and problem-solve their way out and I wasn't sure that Hinata or Sakura were actually up to that. The rest of them definitely weren't.

The walk afterward into the more built-up parts of the village was awkward, Sakura determinedly trying her best to pull Karin into conversation with her, Hinata, and Ino. So far, she was only being met with failure in the form of one-word answers, Karin going stiff each time she was addressed before she stopped replying at all.

Eventually, Hinata and Kiba exchanged a look, and Kiba spoke up. "Akamaru's getting tired of walking," he suddenly announced, before scooping the puppy up. Without warning, he stepped over to her and gently pushed Akamaru against Karin's chest. "Here, you hold him, since I'm gonna end up carrying stuff."

Karin blinked as she moved her arms to suddenly account for the surprise dog. "Uh—"

Akamaru let out a little bark and licked at Karin's face, which got a surprised giggle out of her.

"Oh, he's really soft…"

"Of course he is! I take care of him!"

I refused to allow myself to envy Karin. If I wanted to pet a cute dog, I could stop by the accommodations office on campus after spring break ended and visit the therapy dog there. Akamaru was cute, but I was not going to forget that he had a piss jutsu and was also a combat animal. Karin was obviously being allowed to cuddle Akamaru. I definitely was not.

Akamaru was off-limits.

Hinata gave Karin an encouraging smile that lasted up until she had picked up that Kiba's move hadn't just helped relax Karin, but had left Hinata standing next to Naruto.

Naruto was too busy staring at a large building that had a sign declaring it sold refurbished furniture, decor and art displayed next to its doors, which were up a flight of stairs that headed up further to join one of the higher walkways that spanned the street. "How about this one?" he asked.

Sakura frowned. "Naruto, if it's refurbished, that means it's used."

"I know that!" he insisted. "I was suggesting it only 'cause Ero-sennin and me went looking through places like this for my stuff." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. That was a surprise. I had pegged it all as new. It had certainly looked like it. "Some of the newer places are really expensive and the furniture isn't that nice. This way she can keep the rest of it for stuff she'd want besides furniture and clothes. Uh, if that's okay with her. Um, Karin-chan?" He darted an unsure look over towards Karin, who had her arms wrapped around Akamaru.

Karin blinked. "Uh…" I had the sudden terrible suspicion that Karin wasn't used to being asked her opinion on anything. "Yeah, I'd like that. Being able to have money left for other things."

Sakura— and Ino— clearly had mixed feelings on it, but before they could say anything, Hinata spoke up, pressing her fingertips together.

"If she's able to find things she likes, buying older furniture is a more responsible choice," she said, eyes focused on the store's doors. "And um, if it's because it wouldn't be as stylish, that would probably be too expensive since it'd be imported and there's a shortage going on because of all the homes being rebuilt."

Ino made a face. "You're right."

We were able to get into the building without any further complaints or issues. Inside, it was wide open and well lit, filled with furniture that was only somewhat organized, paper price-tags hanging on some things, and stands with the price marked in front of others. It was surprisingly full of people for a store like this.

"Welcome to our store, please let us know if you need any— oh!" To our— and her— surprise, Tenten was the one who greeted us, a bit further in, standing on a stool in the middle of putting a box away. She wasn't wearing her hitai-ate, and her usual blue top and green pants had been changed out for a blue full-sleeved one paired with long black pants, a black shop apron around her waist. "Hi. This is a surprise."

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, not bothering to modulate his volume. It attracted the attention of several other people, some of whom frowned when they saw who it was and promptly went right back to ignoring Naruto's existence. He ignored them completely.

"Gai-sensei's out on a mission, like a lot of the jōnin," she answered, as she walked over. Once she was closer, I was able to tell she was wearing a little bit of makeup in the form of a pink gloss and a light purple eyeshadow. Someone was dressed to make a nice impression. "This is my uncle's store. Since my team's only doing D-ranks and we don't do as much training without him, my mom asked if I could help him out because of all the extra customers. I was more than happy to help." She looked around for a bit before saying, in a lower volume, "He promised to buy me this sword I wouldn't be able to afford otherwise if I did."

That was completely legitimate. I had spent a month of one of my summer breaks helping one of my uncles by doing secretary-type nonsense to save up for the first iPhone. I didn't get the iPhone in the end when my mother realized how much the phone was supposed to cost and refused to let me get it on principle. Hopefully, Tenten wouldn't encounter the same problem, but given she had quieted down when she brought it up… she was probably expecting pushback. She was trying to be sneaky.

"Huh," went Naruto.

"What brings you all in here?" Tenten asked, giving Karin a somewhat curious glance. If she recognized her, she wasn't saying anything.

"This is Uzumaki Karin," Sakura answered. "She's come to live in the village and she needs bedroom furniture. We're helping her look."

"Ooh," Tenten went, smiling at Karin. "There are full sets on the second story," she said, as she pointed to some stairs that were behind her, leading up to a balcony floor. "I even helped redo some of them myself!"

Naruto squinted in thought. "You guys have delivery people, right? Because we need to be able to get it set up tonight."

Tenten beamed. "That's why I got asked to help out! I'm able to seal almost everything into a scroll, which frees up the employees who would be doing deliveries in the village to go buy furniture from other places to bring back. Since it's a family business and it's staying inside the village, I'm allowed to do this however much I want, get all the supplies I need bought for me and it's great practice." No wonder Tenten had no problem helping, especially with a promised sword on top of that.

"Okay," Naruto went, apparently won over. He looked over at Karin. "Uh, you wanna go look?"

Karin hugged Akamaru tighter. "Um. Okay."

There was something hilarious, if slightly tragic, about the whole situation. They both got to have family to claim, but they were both so awkward and clueless about to handle it that Naruto's usual boisterousness and confidence had almost entirely slid off.

"Thanks for letting us know," Sakura told Tenten. "Hopefully we find things here that she likes."

"No problem! I need to go make sure everyone on this floor is doing alright, but I'll head up there to help after!"

I took the lead in heading for the stairs, leaving everyone else to trail behind me since there wasn't enough room to spread out on the floor. Soon enough, I was almost to the top of the stairs, mid-step, when I suddenly felt like everything was distant and out of focus, body not responding. I teetered backward, falling. The sensation stopped almost as soon as it had hit me, too late, even as I tried to grab the handrail I was too far away from.

"Sasuke!"

Someone's chest thudded against my back as they yanked me towards the side of the stairs, giving me the chance to righten, heart pounding in my chest. I gripped onto the handrail as I turned around. That had felt too real and was too close for comfort.

Naruto was looking up at me, a serious and worried look on his face, Sakura and Hinata right behind him, just as worried. Kiba was frowning, Karin had shut her eyes, and Akamaru was wriggling to loosen Karin's tight hold. Ino was still on the ground floor, hands together and staring in shock.

"Are you alright?" Hinata asked.

"I'm fine. I just lost my footing," I lied. There was nothing to tell them that I was interested in divulging. I didn't want to get treated as crazy in these dreams on top of all the increasing concern from others during my waking hours that I was trying to ignore.

It was, judging from their varying expressions, not a very credible lie.

"No one questions Naruto being clumsy," I snapped, not entirely sure where the words came from.

I pulled away from Naruto and went up the rest of the stairs with my hand tight on the rail this time, ignoring the silence that followed me up.

The worst of the mood— and thumping in my chest— had disappeared by the time we made it to the bedroom furniture in the back, and idle conversation had gradually picked up among the others again in fits and starts, drifting in and out around the various beds, nightstands, and dressers laid out, some lightly decorated with lamps and other things that all had price tags attached to them. Akamaru had finally been let go and was trotting around, Kiba keeping a firm eye on his puppy after we had seen a sign declaring that customers would have to pay for any damaged goods.

Karin had ended up mostly tuning Ino and Sakura out, who seemed to have forgotten the shopping trip was about her, and I caught her examining a set of pretty multicolored glass perfume bottles that were scattered across the top of a light wood makeup vanity, all trimmed with gold. They looked out of place compared to the rest of the mostly East Asian-looking decorative baubles we had seen so far. If anything, they looked like the set I was told my dad had got me on his final deployment. My stepmother was the one who had actually given them to me, almost a full year after he had returned.

"Be careful," I said when she leaned over to touch one with a delicate-looking blown glass flower as a stopper. She looked up at me, startled. "Those are fragile."

"I know that," Karin answered. She was giving me an unsure look. "I— my mom used to collect perfume with me." Her eyes dropped, focusing on the bottle. "They've all probably been destroyed or taken by now..."

"If you like them, you should get them." I picked up the bottle closest to me, examining the tag. 'Land of Wind style glass perfume bottle'. The price, as far as I could tell, wasn't that expensive, not that I had bothered to figure out what things were supposed to cost in these dreams. Even so, I doubted that Tenten would be up for ripping us off.

Then again, she had a fancy sword on the line, so maybe she would.

Karin straightened up, looking at the price tag attached to the vanity mirror, setting her shoulders. "I want the vanity, too!" Finally, a sign of life.

Sakura looked over from the bookshelf she had been examining. "Huh?"

"I think Sasuke happened," Naruto said, turning from the dresser he had been in front of.

"Oh. He must be feeling better."

I decided to ignore that whole exchange to pretend it didn't happen. It wasn't my fault children were so easy to accidentally enable. Especially since nothing I had said was a signal for Karin to want a vanity, which meant it was all on her.

I moved away so Karin could look at the vanity better. In the process, I jabbed my side on something, but when I turned, there was nothing there at the right height.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"It's nothing."

I woke up with my phone poking me in the ribs. It was unplugged, and the charge was at 72%, and it was already past three, even though I had rolled myself back into bed after brunch yesterday and spent most of the day snoozing, only getting up to eat the rest of my leftover menudo.

My stomach chose that point to remind me that it was hungry, and I ambled out of my bedroom and to the kitchen. Nothing I had left was calling my name, and it didn't help that I was running low on groceries. The last time I had gotten groceries was over three weeks ago.

I did not want to or feel up to going grocery shopping, and found a small yogurt cup— plain, since the rest were too sweet for my tastes— hiding behind the pitcher of cold brew coffee I kept in the fridge.

I ended up swiping through my phone, looking through the delivery app as I spooned the yogurt into my mouth. It would cost more, but there was a strong appeal in not having to drive somewhere, order from a person, wait, and drive back, or have to make a phone call for pick-up to begin with. All I would have to do was answer the door and retreat.

I ended up going with my favorite Chinese place instead when nothing on the app appealed. They did huge takeout servings and the delivery was free. Between the crab rangoon, the hot and sour soup, sesame beef, and chow mein, it would keep me fed for a few days.

I could go grocery shopping later.

I didn't allow myself to look at my phone's browser until I had picked through half of the chicken chow mein I had put into a bowl. I had finished off all of the crab rangoon.

To my utter lack of surprise, the latest tab in the browser was on Karin's page.

It looks like most of the characters are having some downtime to relax or at least try to adjust, asides from, er, Shikamaru. Poor Shikamaru.

I'm sure everything will go smoothly for the next few chapters for everyone and poor Socorro will get to have some rest in her waking life. :) Between writing this chapter's end cap and the last one, I've been craving menudo. I probably shouldn't have allowed her any.

Moving is a terrible affair filled with being sore and suffering, friends, and I'm sadly going to have to do another round of moving in a few short months! Both terrifying and quite frankly horrible, I'm still a little bit sore and haven't yet found everything I packed and unpacked yet. I'm 100% expecting it to be just as unfortunate come January.