"So you're an Uzumaki." Hiruzen dragged on his pipe, exhaling crisp smoke through his nose.
The heavy scent of tobacco diffused the air of the Hokage's office. It was a much smaller, less grand office than Karin envisioned it being, but still, the coziness couldn't be understated. Considering how much of the Hokage's lives were spent in this room, it wasn't a bad idea to make it comfortable. The same couldn't be said of her chair, however. The wood was stiff and the back upright, nobody short of a contortionist could make themselves comfortable sitting in it. Her backside hurt and she'd only been here a scant few minutes.
Naruto's sensei had all but dragged her to the Hokage's office after the preliminary matches ended. Naruto hadn't taken too kindly to it and demanded to come along, only being calmed down with the assurance no harm would befall Karin. The only pain she was feeling now was from the cheap chair.
"Tell me, Karin is it?, how much do you know of the Uzumaki Clan?" The Hokage asked. He didn't expect much from the young girl. The adolescent generation knew nothing of them and their parent's maybe little, only those in Hiruzen's generation knew their might. The scouring of Uzushiogakure at the hands of Mizu and Kumo and the subsequent annihilation of most of the clan members were regrettable. He wished he could've stopped the devastation, but at least Kushina had survived.
"Only that we have red hair and large chakra reserves. That's all mom ever said. Dad never talked about it." Karin answered.
Hiruzen puffed on his pipe again and took a drink of his warm sake. "And how are your parents if I may ask?"
"They passed away a few years ago." Her response was soft, despondent almost.
"Ah, my apologizes for being insensitive."
"It's okay, you couldn't have known."
The Hokage knew. He knew everything about her from the exam entry form sent by the leaders of the Kusa-Ame-Ishi alliance. There was always the possibility she was sent as an agent of snakes underfoot in an attempt to steal away the Jinchuriki with the promise to him of never being alone again. Naruto had always declared his loyalty to Konoha with his dream to be Hokage, but temptations always abounded and the promise of a family to an orphan is very attractive. She seemed to be as her profile described, a normal kunoichi.
Dead silence impregnated the relatively small office.
"Is this about me being related to Naruto? Because we don't actually know about that for sure."
"Your first assumption would be correct." Hiruzen exhaled another plume of smoke. "As for the second, make no mistake, Naruto is of Uzumaki blood, despite his nonconforming to the typical appearances. That is all I can say on the matter."
Karin felt a sense of relief. It was good to have confirmation on the whole debacle though she still wondeded what he wasn't telling her.
Her chakra didn't seem to fluctuate anymore than the average person did when meeting a foreign leader. She was as clean as whistle, much as he could tell.
"Kakashi tells me Naruto has grown quite attached to you. Impressive considering you've only met a few days ago." Hiruzen shifted the conversation.
"You're telling me, he hasn't left me alone since we met. It's been nice, even if I want to choke him quiet sometimes." The girl huffed in faux annoyance. "Did you know he wants to be Hokage? I sure do."
The old man chuckled. "Yeah that's Naruto alright, he'll talk your ear off if you let him." That boy had always been a ball of energy. "Are you planning to stick around for the finals? Your team was eliminated but you may stay if you wish. Naruto would certainly appreciate you sticking around."
Karin thought for a moment. She'd love to stick around, any reason to stay away from home for longer. She wished she never had to go back to that dingy hellhole of a shack her parents left her. No running water and poor electricity. The hotel she was staying at was better than that.
"By your expression, I take it you want to stay." Hiruzen guessed.
"I'm not exactly eager to return home, if you can call it that." Karin spat.
"I can arrange for you to stay longer if you so wish."
"Yes!" The redhead exclaimed, shooting up from her chair. A blush covered her face as she realized what she had done and sat back down meekly, unable to look the Fire Shadow in the eye in embarrassment. "Uh, yes, that would be nice."
It took all of Hiruzen's willpower to not crack a huge smile at the girl's outburst. Just like Kakashi said. "Hand me your papers."
A scribble or two later, the documents were back in Karin's hand. She couldn't tell what it said, even if she could read leaf dialect, she was sure The Hokage's penmanship was more like chicken-scratch than legible writing. He should've been a doctor.
"It says you have direct permission from the Hokage's Office to stay for the duration of following month until the end of the finals of Chunin Exams. After which, you will return to your home in Kusagakure."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage!" she beamed gleefully.
"Think nothing of it." He replied with a warm smile, motioning to the door. "Please, enjoy your stay."
As the Uzumaki girl left, Hiruzen's smile faded a little. He was still unsure of her intentions. She seemed harmless enough but appearances could be deceiving. 'Better to err on the side of caution.'
"Neko, keep an eye on her." One could never be too cautious.
A small gust kicked up in the room. The old man quickly glanced around the room to make sure he was alone then pulled out an orange book, giggling as he read.
Karin was ecstatic. She didn't have to go back to the grass village, not for a while at least. Her sensei wasn't anywhere to be found, Karin guessed she already left when the rest of her team's bodies had been recovered. The rumor was their whole bodies were crushed into mangled heaps of limbs.
She shuddered.
'It was probably that Suna ninja.' The mere thought of that psychopath made her skin crawl even before watching him permanently crippling that weird kid with big eyebrows. She could still hear the sickening crunch his arm and leg made when Gaara's sand clamped down. A chill ran down her spine.
Karin didn't want to think about it.
Deciding she had nothing better to do, the Uzumaki Girl sought out her now confirmed relative.
She felt his bright burning chakra before she saw him. Karin dived into the warm pool with her Mind's Eye. The cold chill in the Konoha air nibbling at her arms and legs disappeared, swallowed whole by the almost burning maw that was Naruto's chakra pool. She dived deeper in, submerging herself. She wanted to coil up and bask in the glow.
Suddenly she felt something. Something blistering and boiling, sludgy and vile as if it were made from pure hatred. It reached out at her with a dark tendril, snatching her and pulling her further down into the abyss where it lay. She thrashed and fought to free herself, only liberated by someone shouting her name. ' What the hell was that?'
She returned to the conscious world, finding herself standing in public drenched in chilled sweat and trembling. Whatever dwelled deep within him scared her more than anything she had seen before. She wanted to vomit, to purge all remnants of whatever that was from her body. She felt her face run cold and the blood flee elsewhere.
"Hey Karin!" A familiar voice called. It was Naruto. After hearing him talk almost non-stop for three days, she'd recognize his voice anywhere. "What did the old man want?"
She couldn't bring herself to talk. Whatever evils dwelling that boy terrified her more than anything she'd ever faced before. Watching her parents waste away from a plague that bypassed herself, realizing she'd be alone in the world from that moment onward was dwarfed by the unadulterated malice he contained.
It took Naruto a moment to realize the girl's ghastly complexion and untamed jittering.
"Karin! Hey! You okay?" He was concerned that much was clear to her. She offered a slow, pitiful nod that couldn't have persuaded a blind beggar. "You sure? You don't look too good. You're all pale and shaky."
"I'm fine Naruto." She lied. "I'm just hungry." That wasn't a lie. She hadn't eaten anything except the cheap, cold rations could barely stomach in the week since entering the Forest of Death. A hot meal sounded perfect.
"I know just the place that'll fill you right up." He took her hand without care. "Come on, I'll take you there."
The bowl placed before contained more food than Karin thought she'd eaten in the entire last month. The scents of ramen made her mouth salivate like a starving dog being teased with a medium-rare wagyu steak. A score or three of thick cream-colored noodles drowning in a light brown broth covered by a liberal plethora of freshly chopped vegetables, tender cuts of steak, and a pair of eggs. She wanted to scarf it all down, heeded solely by steaming heat the large bowl radiated.
Naruto slurped his noodles down with a certain glee, a glee Karin herself had seen very little of in her short life. It brought a diminutive smile to her face. It was almost infectious in a certain manner.
Saying a quick prayer, Karin snapped the chopsticks and dug in. Her rubies shot open wider than they had ever been before. She tasted everything all at once. The salty juices of beef tangoing with the mild flavors of daikon and the doughy textures of the noodles created a beautiful sonnet of flavors on her tongue. She wanted to cry burning tears of joy, holding them in through the power of her own will.
Naruto shoveled a slice of his pork into his mouth. "I told you ramen was the greatest food ever."
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Naruto, especially when you have company. It's impolite." The brunette girl, Ayame as Naruto had called her, behind the counter snapped.
The blond boy scratched his head. "Right, sorry."
"It's delicious." Karin announced, swallowing her first mouthful. "Best thing I've ever eaten."
"I knew you'd like it. Who wouldn't? Freaks, that's who."
She would've liked any hot meal if she were to be honest with him, but this place blew what few expectations she reserved clear out of the water. Frankly, though, this was the best meal she'd ever eaten, her second mouthful confirmed it.
"So, who's the girl?" The older man, Teuchi as his name tag read, asked the Leaf Genin. "Friend of yours?"
"She's actually a relative. Not sure what the specifics are."
The two that ran this ramen stand were happy to hear that news, Karin could tell by the way their chakra coils fluxed. Ayame's were small and almost unused, typical for a civilian, but her father's coils were staunchly different. They were expanded and well used like a shinobi's, perhaps he was once upon a time. They resembled his daughter's own now, having dilapidated significantly in the years since his retirement she guessed. They were good people, truly ecstatic from Naruto's news.
She smiled solemnly.
Naruto decided to show Karin around the village after they finished eating. Now that she was staying for the next month, it was probably best she did learn where to go for whatever she might've needed.
"So what do you do for fun?" Naruto asked her out of the blue.
'Peeping.' Karin wasn't surprised at the first thought that came to mind, she couldn't tell him though. It was less about actually seeing people naked and more about seeing them at their most vulnerable. At least, that's what she told herself. It didn't stop the occasional nosebleeds. "Reading." She settled on answering. Hopefully, that'd suffice.
"Reading?" Naruto squinted. "That's boring. All reading is, is just staring at words. Why not do something cool like training?"
"Training's more like a job requirement, so, y'know, I don't get killed." Karin replied. "Nothing I would consider any sort of fun." Or even pleasant.
"What about learning jutsu? You ever do that?"
"Nothing outside the basics."
"What‽ You don't know any jutsu?" The Blond asked stupefied.
"Do you? I've only ever seen you use Shadow Clones and The Transformation Jutsu." The girl retorted.
Naruto bluffed. "I do! I have two in fact. I made them myself!"
"Oh yeah? Show me." Karin called.
With a quick handsign and puff of familiar smoke, Naruto was gone. Replacing him was a girl with a pair of the longest legs she had ever seen, a soft flat tummy, a full chest, and a flowing pair of sunny twin-tails. Her most intimate areas were conveniently covered by thin clouds of white.
This was his self-made jutsu? This reprobate transformation?
"Idiot!" She yelled, decking him in the face.
'I should've known this would happen.' He thought as he skidded across the dirt street.
Karin's face was red and her brow was tensed. It was amazing, stupid, and perverse all at once. The transformation poofed and Naruto stood up, slightly dazed and rubbing his soon-to-be bruised cheek. 'It just had to be the same cheek that crazy snake lady cut.'
"That's your self-created jutsu?" She vexed. "Some perverse transformation? Is the other one any different?"
"Yeah."
"How?"
He mumbled something she couldn't interpret. "Say that again." The redhead all but commanded.
"It uses shadow clones."
Visions of a harem of tanned, leggy blondes passed through the girl's psyche, sending another twitch to her eye. She let it go, just barely deciding one solid punch was enough penance.
"That's all you can do? Transform into some stacked bimbo?"
"Hey! I knocked out a Tokubetsu Jonin and the old man with those techniques!"
The Third Hokage covered his face with hands, having seen and heard the whole exchange through his crystal ball. Behind her mask, Neko's face held a special kind of disappointment in The Hokage.
"Should we just call each other cousins, for simplicity?" Karin asked as she drew another card. "It'd sound better than saying 'relative' or 'family' every time someone asks who I am."
Naruto discarded a few cards from his hand. "Yeah, that makes sense." He drew crap again. He barely knew how to play this game, only knowing the scant rules he did from eavesdropping on his landlord's weekly games.
The girl caught him tense slightly when he saw his new cards. A sinister sneer crooked her thin lips up to her cheeks. She had this in the bag. 'I got Three of a Kind, should be enough to beat whatever he has.'
The boy was sweating. 'Crap! All I have is a high card! Why did I throw away that pair of fives‽' He panicked. He reached to throw more cards.
"You can't throw anymore, you already discarded twice.
'Shit!' He stopped.
Karin bit her tongue, suppressing her laughter. 'He's got nothing!' "Alright, show 'em." She laid her hand down. Naruto stared with open eyes. Three Kings, two red and one black.
He relented reluctantly, lowering his cards unto the table. Karin's smirk flattened out when she saw his splayed hand. 'Four twos and a six.'
"You win." He said weakly, staring down at his cards. And just as quick as it fled, her wicked smile returned.
"Yeah, I do."
Author here. Criticism is wholly welcome. Updates will be irregular. Chapters will be more or less 2.5K words, longer if stuff is happening. Have a plot-lite in mind, however this is more or less just happenings between Naruto and Karin.