The hospital room was a blank, sterile and cold environment none, save the doctors and nurses that practically lived here, would find comforting. The dull buzzing of the off-white florescent lights devoid of any other noises drove Naruto up the wall. He couldn't stand being forced to sit still like he was now. He didn't even have that many injuries aside from stressed chakra coils and the wound on his neck where that branch stabbed him, but that had scarred over by now thanks to Karin's weird healing ability and a little of his own rigorous vitality.
The fox didn't do much to heal his host. The beast already granted too many requests for his chakra in the last twenty-four hours, he couldn't get overly friendly with the boy and let him get cocky thinking he tamed the Kyubi. In truth, the Kyubi only granted the boy his final request of chakra out of nothing more than petty spite for the weakest of his siblings.
Sakura recovered first before the rest of her team, having suffered only a cracked rib or three. She passed out from the lack of oxygen and the intense pain the likes of which she'd never felt before after Gaara had nearly suffocated her in his sand. While her ribs were still a little tender, the girl had been discharged from the hospital and was able to return to duty by the end of the following week.
Naruto was found by Kakashi, unconscious but otherwise healthy next to an also knocked out Gaara who was taken prisoner along with his two siblings. They were ransomed back to a regretful Suna council who proclaimed they were led astray by Oto and Orochimaru. It seemed likely as Orochimaru and Oto ninja were able to kill The Third Hokage during the attack.
Sasuke's markings receded to the curse seal on his shoulder and stayed there yet he had to wake from his nigh week-long unresponsive state. He was alive and breathing however feeding tubes were necessary to keep his body from cannibalizing itself. Sakura and Ino had visited him non-stop, showering him with gifts of flowers and get-well-soon cards.
Naruto felt that sting again when Sakura gave him a single, rather plain card. As the days passed while he was still bedridden, Sakura's flaws which he'd hardly noticed before were beginning to become more prominent. The green of her eyes looked duller, her pink hair began to lose its luster and her forehead seemed to grow that much bigger. Karin scraped the barrel empty of her longanimity to not destroy every single present that those two left at the Uchiha's bedside.
Karin bargained for herself to stay in Konoha a bit longer, using her familial bond with Naruto, her wish to see him recover, and her action of taking a POW on behalf of an allied state as her main reasons. She was granted a staying period of a little over a month, forty days to be exact, but whatever amenities she would need would be her own problem to solve. She accepted without hesitation, spending the next few days visiting Naruto while he recovered and sleeping on his couch when she had to leave. Karin already didn't have much money so crashing at Naruto's place with the key he gave her and eating his food didn't drain her already dry purse.
He also told Karin about his conversation with Gaara after the battle and the apparent emotional breakthrough the previously unstable Suna Genin had before they both collapsed.
The village at large had been repairing the damage the invasion had done to its infrastructure, all the while mourning the loss of their great leader. Naruto was crestfallen when he was told of the Hokage's death. His heart sunk into his stomach like a steel boulder in an ocean of misery. He pulled the curtain around his bed and slept most of that day away, hoping it to be some kind of nightmare that would end when he woke up enough times.
Karin let him mourn for his surrogate grandfather undisturbed.
The morning he was released, Naruto sprinted the entire trip home back to his apartment, happy to use his legs again after nearly five days of laying doing nothing but laying in bed and eating the swill they called food. He found Karin asleep on his couch, not surprising as he'd let her stay there in the meantime, empty instant ramen cups were strewn about on the small coffee table, and the TV playing some cheap romance flick. She snored and drooled into the pillow and blanket she'd taken from his bed. It put a diminutive smile on his face.
It faded the moment he opened his pantry.
His whole pantry had nearly been rendered bare. Naruto's jaw dropped. The whole cabinet had been full during the finals, how much did that girl eat‽ That was weeks worth of pay (After bills of course.) just gone!
Karin snorted loudly and woke herself up abruptly. Blinking the leftover sleep from her red eyes, she stood up, stretched, and yawned loudly. Naruto watched without making a noise, his face and ears burned a bright crimson.
Holy shit.
Naruto could see almost every inch of Karin's smooth ivory legs she usually covered with mesh fishnets or a pair of pants. The boy's eyes traced over the girl's near-flawless flesh. He couldn't pull himself away from the glorious sight held before his young eyes. She was still growing, as was he, and that thought put his hormonal thoughts into overdrive. How much longer would those legs get?
He finally snapped back to reality when Karin cleared her throat, having covered herself with the blanket unbeknownst to her daydreaming cousin.
"You done staring?" The redhead asked. Whether or not she was annoyed, he couldn't tell. Social queues weren't his strong suit. Naruto thought she'd be pissed or grossed out by now. He'd take not being beaten as a win.
"Uh, I guess." He dully admitted without a calculated thought. I just admitted to perving on a girl right to her face! Naruto swore he heard the Kyubi laughing in the back of his head. He wanted to curl up into a ball and make the world go away.
Karin's heart was racing. She wished that he'd woken her up when he came in but it was his apartment anyway, he didn't owe her anything. When she'd woken up and saw Naruto staring at her with that dumb vacant expression on his face, she wondered why until recalling her lack of lower garments, save her panties. She covered herself quickly but his brain failed to get the memo.
It was new to her to be looked at like that, with desire rather than contempt. It filled her stomach with giddy butterflies and her limbs became lighter than air. Her heart was going to explode at any moment from its rapid beating.
Karin was torn between wanting Naruto to keep staring at her and covering herself in embarrassment. Upon realizing he was off in La La Land, Karin covered herself with the blanket and cleared her throat.
Neither of them spoke a word about the morning's incident for the rest of the day.
"Sasuke's still hasn't woken up yet." Naruto said glumly. "I'm beginning to think he might never wake up. Kami knows how much the girl's have been trying to wake him up with all the noise the make." More than once was he woken up to Ino and Sakura bickering over some trivial crap regarding who would do what when Sasuke woke up.
Karin chuckled, remembering the same non-sense when she visited. "They keep giving him kisses like its some kinda fairy tale. It's pretty sad honestly."
"He's not even awake and still getting more action than me." The boy hung his head to an exaggerated low. "It's not fair, dammit!" He faux-cried.
"Are you actually mad about that? Sasuke wouldn't appreciate the affection anyway." She asked.
"Eh, kinda." Naruto shrugged. "They're still fawning over him after blacking out while I busted my ass fighting Gaara, won, and only got a card for it. Little hard for it to not bother me."
"Did you fight him because you thought it would give you attention or something?"
"No I really wanted to stop him from destroying the village." He huffed. "It just would've been nice if I got more than a piece of cardboard with 'thanks' written on it is all I'm saying."
"I do have a Thank You gift in mind actually, but you'll have to wait to get it."
I mean he did fight off and beat a friggin' Biju, he deserves something. If he doesn't at least make Chunin for that, this place is gonna lose a lot of my respect. The girl thought. Speaking of Biju, he still needs to tell me about his, if he is indeed a Jinchuriki; if he is I have a good guess which one it is. That's not important right now, better to ask him later.
"Ah c'mon, give me a hint."
"Nope. You gotta wait."
"Aw."
"Hey kid!" A deep, older voice called. "Naruto!" The great white mane and tall stature indicated it was Jiraiya. "Been lookin' all over for ya."
"Sorry Pervy-sage, I had to go home for a bit. I don't think I could stand another minute in that place."
"Couldn't wait to get your girlfriend back into your arms, eh?"
"And what if I did?"
Karin's face now matched her hair. Did he ever think before he spoke?
"I'd be proud of you for once."
Naruto groaned. "What do you want, Pervy-sage? Need me to keep watch while you peep again? Make a shadow clone instead of bothering me."
"Nah, my research is done for the day." He clarified. "I need you to gather some supplies because you're coming with me on a trip."
"What‽" Both Uzumakis shouted in unison. "I just got outta the hospital and now you wanna drag my ass on a trip‽ Bite me!" Naruto raved. "C'mon Karin, let's leave this old pervert and go find something to do."
"Look kid, I didn't want to tell this because I didn't want you to panic." Jiraiya flatly stated. "There's some real bad guys after you and they're here in the village right now."
"I took down Gaara, didn't I? I ain't scared of them." The boy thumped his puffed chest.
"Your sensei's in a coma because of one of those guys. You don't stand a chance against them, kid. They sneaked in, nobody noticed them until they wanted to be found. Then Kakashi went one-on-one with one of them and got put into a Genjutsu he ain't waking up from anytime soon. Not without a certain someone's help, and that's who we're gonna go find on this trip." explained Jiraiya.
"He some kinda medic?"
"Greatest in the world. She can probably fix up your friend Sasuke and that Lee kid too." Jiraiya added. "She's the most beautiful woman in the world with the rack to match."
"Ah go to Hell you old perv! I ain't interested." His apprentice declined. "You're fulla crap and I got better things to do."
Jiraiya placed a hand on the short boy's shoulder. "You're coming with me whether you like it or not, kid." The blond was taken aback momentarily. The Sage had never spoken so seriously to him before.
Naruto looked to Karin with a visage full of worry and frustration. All he wanted to do was spend a relaxing day with his lone clanmate and the world would have none of it. He wanted to punch everything all at once.
"If you're leaving with Naruto, then I'm coming with you." Karin openly declared. "If these enemy shinobi they're looking for Naruto, then that makes me a target for them doesn't it? If they could just sneak into one of the Five Great Villages without being detected, then take out Kakshi of the Sharingan without incident, what's to stop them from capturing me, the one family member Naruto has, to bait him out?"
This girl is a pain in the ass, but she's right. The older man exhaled mildly exasperated that he couldn't refute Karin's point. He dragged his eyes over to Naruto. The kid was uncharacteristically quiet, but it was easy for the sage to see his student was agreeing with her. Seems like he wouldn't let me leave her behind anyway.
"Alright girly, you win." Jiraiya relented. "Both of you hurry up though, we don't have a whole lotta time. Oh and Naruto." The older man pulled out a sealing scroll, released the seal, and out popped a green flak jacket. "I've been authorized to give you this and tell you 'Congratulations.' You're a Chunin."
Naruto couldn't stop running his hands over the sturdy leather jacket he'd been given back in the village. He'd dawned it immediately and barely contained himself from announcing to the world he'd made Chunin. To him, it was another step completed on the path to Hokage that he was happy to have passed so quickly.
He wore that vest with pride, wearing it underneath his orange jacket he now left unzipped. He wanted to let everyone know with a single glance that Naruto Uzumaki was a Chunin now. His smile didn't fade at all even after the three of them left the village.
Karin pulled him into a tight hug.
"Congratulations!" She said.
The redhead felt a timid chakra signature flare up to a dangerously malicious spike. It didn't last long, about half a second, but she certainly could feel it laying dormant.
The hotel room Jiraiya booked in the outpost town's single motel was small and more cramped than the claustrophobic box he called home. There was just enough room for the three of them to sleep on the futons, though Jiraiya was absent, leaving the two alone, watching the small TV provided.
He's probably getting drunk and railing some floozy he met at a sake stand. The new promoted Chunin thought.
"Hey, Naruto." Started Karin. "Do you remember that promise you made me? About telling me what your red chakra is?" She sensed his chakra tense up. "Can you tell me now?"
He said nothing for a few moments.
"Can you promise me something in return?" The boy's tone was unlike his usual self. The pitch was flat with no inflection or the suggestion of any emotions. "Promise me that you won't hate me after I tell you."
"How could I ever hate you?" She asked. "Meeting you is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I was about to be eaten a massive bear when we first met until you showed up. I doubt there's much you can say to change that."
The Blond was silent again.
"That red chakra of mine." He hesitated. "What it comes from." A heavy sigh escaped his lips. Just say it and rip the bandage off already! "I'm the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi, The Nine Tailed Fox. The red chakra comes from him."
"So that's the beast inside you." Karin responded. "I should've figured that out when you transformed that toad into a giant fox."
"Y-you knew?" Naruto stuttered.
"Kinda. Temari helped me put that one together by accident. I noticed Gaara's chakra felt a lot like your red chakra and when he started the Perfect Possession, she said it was the Shukaku. Pretty much put it together on the spot, just didn't know which beast it was." She pushed up her slipping glasses.
"S-so you don't, hate me then?"
"How could I hate you for something you had no control over?"
Something inside Naruto broke. He didn't cry, he refused to in front of a girl but it didn't stop his body from quivering.
"Thanks." Naruto uttered, his voice shaking. She wrapped her arms around his short frame and held him close. With each consequent breath, the boy reclaimed himself.
"Do you want that Thank You present now?" Karin asked.
"Yeah."
Naruto felt Karin's lips touch his own.