"Talking"
'Thinking'
Jutsu/ Bijuu/ Summons
Flashbacks, Letters, and Setting
I don't own Naruto
Chapter 47: Unexpected Help
Sakura was still disoriented from the bandaged Sound nin's attack, but she knew she still had to get out of his grasp if she wanted to have any chance of beating him. They were already outnumbered, and if she wasn't able to keep him occupied, she knew her teammates would be in greater danger, and she didn't want to be the weak link that brought her team down.
When she thought he was distracted, she drew a kunai, and tried to sneakily stab the teen's foot, but he easily raised his leg to dodge her surprise blow and brought it back down to stomp on her wrist, rendering it immobile and disarming her.
"A feisty little bitch, aren't you? Didn't expect to see that with your long, pink hair and all, but I'll admit you have more bite to you than I expected."
Sakura struggled as she fought against his foot to free up her arm while she quickly reached over to draw a kunai with her free arm.
The Sound Genin yanked her head back roughly, nearly snapping her neck, to disrupt her movement. He then smacked her square on the face with an open hand, cutting her lips open, and causing her nose to make her eyes water.
"I said you had more bite that I expected, but that was only because I didn't expect anything from you. You're still a pathetic bitch, so don't try anything funny or I'll slit your throat."
He then turned her head around by her hair to show her how her teammates were faring. Each of them was facing two opponents at a time and had their hands full. It seemed like they were always just one step away from disaster, and barely keeping their heads above the water.
"Your friends seem to be handling themselves surprisingly well despite the numerical handicap. But how well do you think they'll do if that 2 on 1 became a 3 on 1?"
Sakura's eyes began to water as she cursed her weakness. If only she was stronger, her friends wouldn't be in danger. Despite all of the hard work she had put in with Kurenai-sensei, she was still too weak to help her friends.
"What is it that you want from me?" Sakura asked in defeat. "Please, leave us alone. We'll give you our scroll."
The bandaged teen threw his head back in laughter. "You think we care about the stupid scroll? We want that other team that you're protecting back there."
Sakura looked over at the unconscious bodies of Team 7, then looked back at her two teammates who could possibly die in a vain effort to protect Team 7.
"Y-you want us to hand them over? To you?" She asked incredulously. Did he expect her to betray them? Betray her Sasuke-kun?
"Hand them over? Like we need your permission to get them in the first place? Nah. We're going to take them by force. Meanwhile, why don't we watch the show?"
Sakura looked over at her comrades as they continued to go on the backfoot at the onslaught of their enemies, a sight her captor was watching like it was simply a source of entertainment for him. She wished she could help, but without a proper opening, a wrong move could end up with a kunai in her throat.
"Is dodging and running away all you're going to do?" The Kusa Genin fighting Shino shouted out as he swung his whip composed of special thorned vines that grew in Kusa. If only he could get one good hit in, the poison would do the job of paralyzing him.
"If you weren't constantly talking and getting in my way, I would have gotten him already! Now shut up so I can do my thing!" The Sound kunoichi shouted as she threw several senbon at Shino once again.
Shino jumped to the side to dodge the senbon, but it was getting more and more difficult to keep track of all of the senbon that was thrown at him, having to keep his eyes on the Kusa Genin's constantly moving whip as well.
He didn't know what the bells on some of the senbon were for, but he wasn't trying to find out, and silently ordered his insects to cut the strings connecting them, something the Sound Kunoichi didn't notice.
He reasoned he could easily take care of one or the other with his kikaichu, but he wanted to keep them discrete until he could set up his attack to deal with both of them simultaneously, so they couldn't develop a counter for them. He'd have to stay patient and wait for them to slip up or wait until an opportunity showed itself.
"Come on Akamaru! Gatsuga! (Fang Passing Fang)"
Kiba and Akamaru began to spin like a drill as they tried to attack both of their opponents at once.
The two spinning drills of destruction flew towards the spikey haired Sound Genin and the injured Kusa Genin simultaneously, trying to use the principle of good offense being the best defense.
'Got him now!' Kiba thought to himself as he flew closer and closer to the injured Kusa Genin, inches away from tearing into him.
However, he was left shocked when he simply passed through him, as if the Kusa Genin was composed of vapors.
Kiba skidded onto his feet as he came to a stop.
"What the hell is going on here! Is this some sort of genjutsu?" He began sniffing the air to get a sense of where his enemy was. Even if his eyes tricked him, he could always trust his nose.
'Ugh, what's this strange smell in the air?' Kiba thought as he tried to ignore the smell and locate his opponent's scent to make sure he was seeing correctly. 'But his scent suggests he's right here? But I just went through him like he was a ghost! What's going on here?'
"Heh. You won't be able to find me with your pathetic sense of smell, you dumb mutt." The Kusa Genin taunted as he saw the confused face on Kiba.
Kiba growled in anger. "Why you! I'm gonna tear you to shreds!"
He lunged at the teen again with his sharpened claws, but his hands simply passed through the teen again.
Meanwhile, Akamaru wasn't having better luck against the spikey haired teen, who kept blasting him away when he got close.
"What's the point of having a strong attack if you can't even land it?" The Sound Genin mocked, as Akamaru landed next to his master to regroup.
"Grrr… have any idea what's going on here, Akamaru?" Kiba asked.
"Bark! Bark!"
"Huh? You think it has to do with this sweet smell in the air?"
The Kusa Genin chuckled. "Looks like your dog is smarter than you, huh? Hehehe took you long enough to notice my pollen jutsu. Each time you sniff, you take in more and more of my genjutsu inducing pollen. So go ahead, try to sniff me out, mutt."
Kiba was furious, but also confused as to what to do next. What could he trust in when he couldn't trust his nose?
He decided to ignore the Kusa Genin for now. He was injured anyway, and he figured he'd just make himself hard to hit for the crippled enemy while he focused on someone else. He turned around to take on the spikey haired teen, who he could at least see.
"Alright, if grass boy wants to hide, then I'll just take you out! Akamaru!"
Kiba and Akamaru got in their stance as they prepared to launch their combo attack on the spikey haired Sound Genin. With the two of them attacking simultaneously from different directions, it would be hard for him to blow them both away.
However, when they tried to launch themselves towards him, they found themselves unable to move.
"W-what the hell? I can't move a muscle! Akamaru! What's going on?"
Akamaru barked to tell Kiba that he was just as confused.
"Heh, are you so scared that you're frozen stiff? Pfftt. I mean, what do you expect from a green-ass rookie?" The Sound Genin mocked Kiba as he pointed both of his arms towards the Inuzuka Genin and his dog.
"Well, now that you're finally still, I guess I'll treat you to a front-row seat to a jutsu you've been missing out on. Say hello to my Zankukyokuha! (Extreme Decapitating Airwaves)"
Kiba gulped as he continued to try to move. He had seen the devastating effect of the Sound Genin's attacks on the trees around him, and tried to jump out of the way as he wanted no part of this elevated version, but he had no control over his body.
It looked like this was the end for the young Konoha Genin and his companion.
However, being way too caught up in the moment, both parties were unable to see the thin shadow that was connected to Kiba and Akamaru.
Zaku grinned with wicked delight, waiting for the cloud of debris he kicked up with his attack settled down, expecting to see the mangled corpse of the Konoha Genin and his mutt.
"KIBA!" Sakura shouted in fear for her teammate's safety, as she watched the massive air wave get blasted towards him.
"Well, well. Wasn't that quite the show? Aren't you glad I kept you alive to see it?" The bandaged teen said sarcastically.
However, when the dust settled down, everyone was shocked to see Kiba and Akamaru pick themselves up far from the center of the blast, having been pushed out of the way.
Instead, they found the Kusa Genin who had been injured by Kiba in the beginning of the battle, in his place and strewn over a log that had been blown back with him, his body cut and broken in numerous places.
"W-what the hell!? Why did you get in the way!?" The spikey haired teen shouted out in anger and confusion, but the Kusa Genin was obviously no longer in a state to reply, apparently having thrown himself into harm's way for some strange reason.
The two enemies that Shino was facing quickly glanced over at the commotion to see what was happening.
Shino took that second to quickly release a small swarm of his kikaichu stealthily.
The two were only distracted for a few seconds and resumed their attack thinking their position to be the same as just a couple seconds ago. However, in the short window they took their eyes off of Shino, the tables had already turned.
The Kusa Genin swung at Shino with his serrated grass whip again but was left shocked when it basically disintegrated.
"What the…" The Kusa Genin gasped out as he looked at his once trusty weapon.
A closer look revealed a bunch of insects chewing up the whip, quickly consuming it.
"What the fuck? What are these bugs?" The Kusa Genin shouted out in confusion, as he tried to brush the insects off the handle of the whip. However, that proved to be a mistake when the bugs jumped onto his arms instead.
"AGHHHH!" The Sound Kunoichi shouted in terror a bit further away as hundreds of bugs began to crawl all over her as well. "What the hell are these things? Where did they come from? Get these off of me! Get them off!"
Shino looked at them silently as he stretched his arms towards the screaming enemies. Now that they were occupied with the kikaichu, he could go on the offensive without distraction.
A black cloud began to fly out of Shino's sleeves, and the number of insects on the enemies began to grow and grow until they were completely covered and appeared to just be a black mass.
Their screams died down when the kikaichu quickly drained them of their chakra. They soon went limp and collapsed, and the kikaichu returned to Shino. He then turned around to see if he could help Sakura.
The bandaged teen could see the situation had turned against them, and when he saw Shino take out two of his allies and Zaku struggling to keep up with Kiba's dogged attacks, he pulled out a kunai to slit Sakura's throat and jump in the fight to salvage the situation.
Sakura closed her eyes shut in fear as the kunai came swinging down to her throat. It looked like this would be it for her.
"What the hell?"
She opened one eye to see what was happening when the expected slash from the kunai didn't come.
Sakura opened her eyes to see the bandaged teen frozen mid-motion, trying to force himself to complete his attack.
"W-why can't I move?" The Sound Genin asked himself as he continued to strain against the force that kept him restrained.
His body moved on its own, and he was forced to throw the kunai away and let go of Sakura's long hair.
A blonde kunoichi quickly jumped in to grab Sakura and dash off next to a rotund Genin who stood a short distance away, where she turned around to face him.
"I-Ino? Chouji?" Sakura gasped out in shock.
"You keep your dirty hands off of my friends!" Ino shouted out towards the bandaged teen, who began to walk forward as Shikamaru emerged from the bushes behind him, mirroring his movement.
"Looks like you're our hostage now." Shikamaru commented as he stepped forward. "I'm sure you can see that your numerical advantage is no longer there."
The bandaged teen knew he could still use the device on his arm, the melody arm, to attack even from a static position if necessary, but he could see the writing on the wall. If they continued to fight, there was very little chance of him and his teammate Zaku taking on 6 Genin and coming out on top.
"Alright. You got me. I can see that we no longer have the upper hand."
"You sure don't!" Ino shouted. "Not so fun when YOU'RE the hostage, now is it?"
The bandaged teen knew he had to calm down the rash blonde, or there was the chance that she could potentially whip up the others into a fury and kill him.
"Look, you win. I'll admit that. Now I ask that you let us go. I'll hand over our scroll in exchange for our lives."
"Hmph! You think we didn't hear you when you turned down Sakura's proposal for the same thing? What makes you think we shouldn't just kill you now?" Ino fired back.
"Well, first of all, I don't believe you're capable of killing anyone." He replied.
"What? Why you little- Why don't I show you th-"
"Second," The bandaged Sound Genin interjected, cutting off Ino. "I didn't kill your friend, did I? Even though I had the opportunity to easily do so? I can't say for the others, but I never intended on killing any of your friends."
Ino didn't buy the Sound Genin's claim of not intending to kill anyone, but she couldn't deny the fact that he did indeed let Sakura live for whatever reason until the situation went out of control. And she also didn't want to admit it, but she was not ready to kill anyone yet, no matter how mad she was right now.
The Sound Genin smiled under his bandages when he saw Ino's expression. He seemed to have convinced her, and judging by how talkative she was, she was some sort of leader figure in the newly arrived team. Maybe he could get out of this alive after all.
Ino looked over at Chouji and Shikamaru, asking for their opinion. They gave her a shrug to show that they'd go with her decision.
"Well, fine! Hand over your scroll! Better yet, tell us where your scroll is before we release you, so you can't try anything sneaky!"
"It's in the upper pocket on my left leg." The bandaged teen quickly replied. He wasn't worried about losing some stupid scroll. He knew he could easily pick off a few of the weaker teams and get them back. Besides, as long as he completed his mission, his master would promote him anyway. This temporary setback would be fine.
Chouji stepped forward and searched the aforementioned pocket and found the scroll. He raised it up to show his teammates.
"An earth scroll. That's quite convenient. Now I guess we don't have to worry about searching for our scroll so much and we can relax a little." Shikamaru commented.
"You can relax AFTER we get to the tower, you lazy bum." Ino replied as she rolled her eyes.
"Now tell your friend to surrender too, or we'll help Kiba finish him off!"
The bandaged teen looked towards his friend who was looking ragged after taking on Kiba and Akamaru's relentless attacks, despite having dodged the majority of them.
"Zaku! Quit fighting! We're leaving." The bandaged teen shouted out to his teammate.
Zaku was pissed. He couldn't believe they had to surrender to an inferior enemy, just because some other randoms got themselves involved. Still, he couldn't deny that he was struggling in his fight. It was just a bad match up with his opponent's numerical and overwhelming speed advantage. He'd get his revenge later though, he thought to himself.
"Grrr… I can't believe we're being forced to run with our tails between our legs…" Zaku growled to himself.
"Fine, Dosu. Let's get going then."
"You think I'm gonna let you go, now that I have you against the ropes?" Kiba asked with a grin on his face.
However, his smug grin fell off of his face when his pink-haired teammate yelled at him.
"Just let them go Kiba! We're done! We won. Don't make this into a bigger mess than it needs to be!"
Kiba rolled his eyes. Right when he was about to show this arrogant Sound bastard who was boss.
"Fine…" Kiba said in resignation. "Take your beat-up losers with you and get outta here. If I catch you again, I'm really gonna show you what happens when you mess with an Inuzuka!"
Dosu stumbled forward when Shikamaru released the jutsu holding him.
"Take Kafun with you, I'll take Kin and Toge." He told Zaku as he picked up the unconscious bodies of the Genin defeated by Shino.
The defeated Sound Genin picked up their comrades and began to walk away from Team 8 and 10, before Dosu turned his head to address them one last time.
"I'd be careful if I were you. That team you have in the tree? They'll bring you more trouble than they're worth. Don't get yourself involved in things that are beyond you."
With that parting statement, Zaku and Dosu left with their defeated comrades on their shoulders.
"What the heck is he talking about?" Kiba asked as he came to join the group.
Shikamaru shrugged. "Who knows. But he's not wrong. That team is probably the most troublesome team out there."
Despite his nonchalant and unconcerned tone however, Shikamaru couldn't help but be concerned for his friends. He looked over wondering if they were alright. What the hell had happened to them?
Ino felt the same way, but unlike Shikamaru, she ran over immediately once the coast was clear.
"Narumi-chan! Sasuke-kun! Hinata-chan!"
She dropped to her knees and immediately began looking over Team 7.
"Sakura! What happened to them? Are they alright?" She asked as she went over the many small injuries that were all over them.
"They're alive, but they've been unconscious ever since we found them a couple days ago." Sakura responded. "I can't seem to figure out what's wrong with them."
"Where did you find them?" Shikamaru asked as he joined Ino, though he stayed on his feet.
"My Kikaichu found them in this state after they apparently lost to a powerful enemy. I have not been able to track the enemy down, but I'd prefer to stay away from such a foe if they're capable of taking down the strongest Team from our year on their own." Shino answered.
"Man… I still can't believe there are people in this competition at that level… You should have seen the place. It looked like several storms and a wildfire wrecked the place." Kiba recounted.
"They were put in this state by just one Genin?" Ino asked in shock. "How is that even possible?"
"Team 7 is strong for a rookie team, but most teams here have way more experience than us. The other villages use the Chunin Exams as a stage to show off their strongest Genin to show their villages strength, you know. It's not unheard of for villages to hold off on promoting a Chunin level Genin so that they appear stronger to other villages during the Chunin Exams." Shikamaru explained. "Is it that hard to believe that they could have run into one of those teams?"
Ino felt like she was in way over her head in this competition. How was one Genin able to take on Sasuke, Hinata, Narumi, AND all of Narumi's clones? Alone? Narumi alone could probably beat 5 of her.
The two teams became somber at the thought of such competition being in this forest with them. One unlucky encounter, and their lives might end that day.
"Sooo… you guys have your scrolls yet?" Kiba asked, trying to break through the awkward silence.
"We just got ours from that Sound Team." Chouji replied.
"Hey! We did most of the fighting! How come you guys get to have the scroll!" Kiba complained.
"Their timely arrival gave us the opening we needed for our counterattack, and they saved the life of our teammate. I believe it is fitting if they keep the scroll." Shino told Kiba.
"But still… we need our scroll too…"
"Ummm… what do you say we stick together for a bit? At least until Team 7 wakes up? If there really are competitors that are way stronger than us, wouldn't it be a good idea to stick together?" Sakura proposed. "After all, they never said we couldn't, right?"
Shikamaru nodded. "That's not a bad idea. Besides, if we team up, we can split the work, and that means we don't have to do as much work individually."
Ino rolled her eyes. "Of course, you'd say that."
Sakura and the others chuckled at Ino's reaction, until Ino addressed her.
"By the way Sakura, there's something I need to ask you."
With Karin
A pair of red eyes squinted open as the sunlight came in through cracks between the curtains on the windows and interrupted their rest.
"Ugh. Stupid sun. Let me get a couple more hours of sleep." The redhead owner of those eyes mumbled to herself as she turned away from the window to get into a more comfortable position on the super comfortable bed she was on.
She hummed a small purr of satisfaction as she settled back into a comfortable position, and slowly began to drift back into sleep in this soft but still firm bed that was magnitudes better than any bed she had ever slept on before.
'Hmm… they sure don't have beds like this in Kusa…' she thought to herself. 'Or at the lodging they gave us in Konoha…'
She laid in her bed, content, for a few seconds.
She then realized something. She wasn't in Kusa, and she wasn't in the forest, and she wasn't back at her team's lodging.
Then where was she?
She jolted up from her comfortable position and began patting around for her glasses.
Her hands landed on her glasses which were on the small drawer that was next to the bed.
She put on her glasses and took a look around to see where she was.
She admired the relatively simple, but high-quality room, which was decorated with numerous pictures, posters, and stuffed animals, the most notable one being an orange fox, which gave the room a cute and cozy atmosphere that was fit for a young girl.
Her memories of the previous night came pouring back to her when she saw the pictures of the owner of the room she was staying in.
Flashback
While Karin tried to pick her jaw back off of the floor at the revelation of her newly discovered clan head being the son of one of the most dangerous shinobi to ever exist, which by extension meant her friendly new friend and cousin was the daughter of said man, Naruto addressed Narumi's clones.
"So did you just want to introduce her to me, or is there something more?" Naruto asked, already suspecting that there was more to this than a simple introduction.
"Oh… well you see-" Narumi began before she cut off by a loud growling sound.
The Naru siblings simultaneously turned around to face the source of the sound.
Under their gaze, Karin's cheeks reddened to match the color of her hair and eyes.
"S-sorry… Didn't mean to do that…" She mumbled out, embarrassed of the inopportune growling of her stomach.
"Say, did you have dinner?" Naruto asked Karin, now curious of the journey she took before she came to him.
"Yeah, she totally stole the ramen I was gonna have!" one of the Narumi clones complained.
"You made another one! Stop complaining!" The other one scolded.
Naruto chuckled as the clones argued with each other. "Man, Narumi is gonna be pissed her clones ate up the ramen she was saving."
Karin sucked on her teeth when she found out she had eaten something Narumi had been saving, feeling bad at having eaten stuff without Narumi's permission. Wait, or did her clone's permission count as hers? But seeing how the clones seemed to argue with each other, they seemed to have differing thoughts or personalities. How did this all work out?
She was taken out of her contemplations of clone dynamics, when Naruto addressed her.
"So, I hear you like ramen? How would you like to try the best ramen in town instead of some instant ones?"
Karin didn't want to be a burden to someone she just met and was planning on politely refusing, but when her growling stomach made its presence known again, she couldn't help but nod, which caused Naruto to chuckle.
At Ichirakus
Soon after, the three Uzumaki soon found themselves at Ichirakus.
"Hello, Teuchi-san, Ayame-san." Naruto greeted as he lifted the half-curtains of his favorite ramen stand. "It's been a while."
"Naruto my boy! Welcome! It sure has been a while! You haven't been here in nearly 2 weeks!"
Teuchi then noticed 3 redheads who walking into his store.
"Narumi! Wait, Narumis? And who is this?"
"Hi old man! Ayame nee-chan! Say hi to my new sister! Karin!"
Teuchi and Ayame looked shocked as they turned to look at Karin.
Ayame quickly changed her look of shock into a smile as he greeted the newest patron of their ramen stand. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Karin! I'm Ayame!"
Meanwhile, Teuchi gave Naruto a confused look. "Sister…?"
Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose as the 3 redheads took a seat.
"She's apparently from the Uzumaki Clan. That would make her our cousin of some sort, but it seems Narumi is keen on calling her a sister for whatever reason." Naruto replied.
"Well, it's because I always wanted a sister, but we couldn't get one before! But now, we have a new family member!" One of the clones explained, as the other clone looked over the menu to see what she wanted.
"Wow! That's pretty cool! It must be so exciting to discover members of your clan that you haven't met before!" Ayame commented.
Narumi nodded with a huge smile. "Oh, you have no idea! I already know we're going to be best friends!"
Karin felt warm inside at being accepted whole-heartedly already but felt a little awkward at meeting so many new people at once. She just sat there with a polite smile, giving short answers or nods to the questions that came at her.
"So, what can I get you tonight?" Teuchi asked the only guests that were in his stand in this lateish hour, it being close to closing time.
"I'm alright. I've already had dinner." Naruto answered.
"I'll have 3 tonkotsu ramens!" Each of the Narumi clones shouted out in glee.
Naruto shook his head. "Oh no you won't. We're only here for Karin."
Narumi's clones put on her puppy dog face and pleaded.
"B-but nii-chan! We're your sister!"
"Clones. You guys are clones of my sister. I'm not spending money on clones." He then turned to Karin. "What do you want to have?"
Karin looked at the large variety available and had trouble choosing. She hadn't really had ramen like this often and wasn't even familiar with most of these variations.
Narumi's clones could see the trouble Karin was having and decided to help so they could enjoy it vicariously through her.
"How about the tonkotsu ramen? Or the miso ramen? Oooh! The shio ramen is real good too!"
"Oh. That sounds pretty good. I'll have the first one she mentioned." Karin replied.
Teuchi gave her a smile as he nodded. "Ayame! Prepare noodles for 1 tonkotsu!"
As the father and daughter duo got to preparing Karin's meal, the Uzumakis began to talk.
"By the way nii-chan, why are you so dressed up?" Narumi asked. "I didn't even know you had clothes like this!"
Naruto began to scratch the back of his head as he chuckled awkwardly.
Narumi's eyes widened as a thought came to her head, one influenced by the shoujo mangas she liked to read. "Wait, could you have been on a date?"
Naruto shut her down immediately. "A date? No no no. I just had dinner at some fancy place, and they apparently had some sort of stupid dress code."
Karin smiled a little lecherously as she thanked the restaurant in her head for the eye candy they provided for her. I mean, there was nothing wrong with just enjoying his good looks, right? It wasn't like she wanted anything from him, and they were probably distant cousins after all.
"Who did you eat with?" the other clone asked her brother, now in full blown interrogation mode.
"It was supposed to be Izumi, me, and Shizune-san, but Izumi couldn't make it."
Narumi's eyes widened again. "So, you just had dinner alone with Shizune nee-chan at a fancy restaurant? That's totally a date! Oh my gosh that is SOOO cute! How was it? Are you guys a thing now? I totally support it!"
"Wh-what? I told you it wasn't a date! Me and Shizune-san have nothing going on!" Naruto replied quickly, trying to shut down any confusions about his relationship with Shizune.
Still, he couldn't help but think back to the dinner he just had with Shizune. He did have a good time with her once they got over the initial awkwardness.
However, he couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if it was a date with Mei. She would have been very pleased at him finally dressing up in clothes that wasn't just shinobi attire. Maybe she would have even rewarded him for that. His cheeks lit up at the thought.
Then he remembered the fact that they couldn't be together. He sighed as he reminded himself that what they had couldn't be anything more than a past fling. Still, that didn't make him miss her any less.
Narumi and Karin observed his facial expressions as he seemed to drift off into thought.
What the heck was he thinking about that caused him to go from nostalgic, embarrassed, to sad?
Narumi was about to voice her questions, when Naruto seemed to snap back from his thoughts and asked Karin a question before anyone could address him.
"Anyway. So, what was it that you wanted to speak to me about?" Naruto asked.
It took Karin a moment to gather her thoughts and courage, but she soon opened her mouth.
"I-I don't want to live in Kusa anymore. I want to live here, with you and Narumi. I want to be with my clan." She began.
Naruto's eyes widened. Wow. That was a bomb. Sure, they were part of the same clan and that was cool and all, but a foreign ninja wanting to leave their village to join another? That sounded like a nightmare to sort out.
"I-I hate Kusa! I hate how I'm treated there, and I don't want to be used like some object like my mother was! M-my mother died because of them! I hate that place!" She began to scream as she became more and more furious the more she thought about why she wanted to leave.
Naruto, Narumi, Ayame, and Teuchi were all taken aback a little at her sudden outburst after she had been relatively quiet.
Ayame put the bowl of ramen in front of Karin and quietly retreated to the back.
Karin stared at her toes, feeling awkward after letting her emotions loose like that. She couldn't bear to raise her head and meet the eyes of the people around her.
She was surprised when Narumi's clones on either side of her put their arms around her to comfort her.
"Don't worry. If anyone can help you, it's my nii-chan. Isn't that right?" Narumi's clones asked Naruto.
Naruto gave Karin a warm smile as he tried to comfort her. "That's right. We're family after all, aren't we?"
Karin's eyes widened as she looked at Naruto in surprise.
"It won't be simple, but I'll do anything and everything I can to get you here, so don't you worry about it, ok? I promise you that as the clan head of the Uzumaki Clan."
Who was she that they'd go so far to help her? She had never had anyone like this in her life ever since her mother passed away years ago. It was honestly a little overwhelming for her, and Karin's eyes began to tear up.
Naruto patted Karin's back. "Now let's not let your ramen go cold, or Teuchi-san is not gonna be happy, isn't that right?" he joked in an attempt to brighten the dark atmosphere.
Karin wiped her eyes and smiled as she picked up her chopsticks. The food in front of her looked and smelled absolutely delicious, and she sure as heck was not about to let it go cold.
Flashback End
Karin looked at the pictures of Naruto and Narumi that were all over the place and smiled.
If things went well for her, she would be part of this loving family. That was all she had ever wanted.
*knock knock knock*
"Yes?" Karin asked in response.
"Karin? Are you awake?" Naruto's voice asked from the other side of the door.
"Yeah. I'm up." She replied.
"Great! Would you like to come down and join me for breakfast?"
Karin's smile widened on her face.
"Of course! I'll be right down!"
She threw her blanket off of her and slipped her feet into the slippers she was given before heading for the door.
It looked like things were finally turning around for her.
With the Sound Trio
"Yeah, it looks like he's not coming back." Dosu confirmed after he put down Kafun's lifeless hand.
Kin looked nervous as she paced back and forth after being revived from her unconsciousness.
"Oh no… this is a disaster… What are we gonna do when Orochimaru-sama finds out we failed our mission?"
Zaku slammed his fist into a tree next to him. "Damn it! If only those fucking bastards didn't stick their nose into our business! We could have easily beaten those damn weaklings and gotten those Uchiha and Hyuuga brats!"
Kin swallowed her saliva nervously as she wondered what would happen to them. "D-do you think he'll p-punish us? Wh-what do you think he'll do to us?"
Dosu helped bandage Toge up before addressing his team.
"It's not over yet. We can still kill them later on in the tournament. All we have to do is stay in the tournament long enough until we can face them. After that it doesn't matter."
Kin's face regained a bit of its color when she heard that. "Y-yeah. You're right. We can still do this… right, Zaku?"
Zaku cracked his knuckles as he scowled. "The next time I come across those bastards, I'll tear them to pieces."
Dosu nodded. "Once we get the job done, everything will be fine. Even if we get disqualified from the tournament, Orochimaru-sama promised he'd promote us as long as we got the job done before the event."
The three Sound Genin were reinvigorated at the thought.
"So shall we go get us some of these scrolls then?"
Kin and Zaku replied to Dosu with a smirk.
On the 4th day in the Forest…
"Hah! Did you guys see that? I told you me and Akamaru can handle anyone if we work together!" Kiba bragged as he walked back into camp with Shino and Shikamaru after getting another scroll.
Shikamaru picked his ear with his pinky as he tried to ignore Kiba's boasting. "Yeah, yeah whatever. We wouldn't have needed to engage them all at once if you weren't so loud and troublesome in the first place."
"It was still an improvement compared to the previous encounter. Why? Because Kiba didn't forget his role this time." Shino commented.
Shikamaru shrugged. "Eh. I suppose that's true. I'm just glad we got the right scroll this time, so we don't have to go out again."
Chouji was coming back from foraging some berries when he noticed the team sent out to get scrolls coming back.
"Ino! Sakura! They're back!"
The two girls exited the small cave under the tree to greet the team.
"Were you guys able to get the right scroll this time?" Ino asked.
Kiba nodded. "Yup! It was easy too! You guys shoulda seen the way I was kicking ass!"
Kiba began excitedly explaining the story of how they got the scroll, and having nothing better to do, the team that stayed behind sat down with the returning team and listened.
The 6 Genin were having a relatively good time talking, when Narumi began to squirm.
"Ughh… where am I?" She mumbled to herself with a raspy voice, but nobody noticed she was awake yet.
As she tried to make sense of where she was and what happened, the memories of what had happened before she was knocked unconscious began to flood her mind.
She jolted up in fear when she remembered what had happened to Sasuke and Hinata.
"NOOOO! SASUKE! HINATA!"
Team 8 and Team 10 jumped up from their position and turned to look at Narumi when they heard Narumi's wail.
Seeing that Narumi was crying and freaking out, Ino rushed to her side and embraced her with a hug, patting her back gently to calm her down.
"I-Ino?" Narumi stammered out through her tears. "W-What are you doing here?"
"Shhh… everything is alright. We found you, Sasuke-kun, and Hinata-chan hurt, so we came together to look after you guys." Ino replied.
Narumi pulled herself away from Ino's embrace and looked over her teammates and best friends.
Looking over them, she could see that even though they were unconscious, their chests were rising and falling as they breathed.
"A-are they ok?" Narumi asked nervously, still trying to understand her situation.
Ino nodded and gave her a soft smile. "They're hurt, but they're still alive."
Narumi's shoulders began to shake as she began to cry. "I-I thought they were dead! I-I saw her kill them!"
"Who?" Shikamaru asked, leaning by the entrance of the root cave. "Who is 'her'?"
Narumi's face paled as she remembered her fight and how they were completely dismantled like they were academy children.
"I-I don't know… but she was so strong… stronger than anyone I've ever seen… Stronger than some Jonin…"
She calmed down slightly when Sakura brought her some water to help her calm down.
"Thanks…"
Once she drank her water, Shikamaru started his questioning again, trying to get some intel.
"Narumi. What was the person who defeated you like? Is there anything you know about her?"
"Umm… she was from Kusagakure I think… She was really creepy though. She moved so weird. It was like she didn't have any bones. And she used snakes." She shivered at the memory. "Super creepy."
Shikamaru got up from his leaning position and peered into the cave to make eye contact with Narumi.
"Do you happen to know anything about these marks?" He asked in a serious voice that Narumi was surprised to hear for the first time, as he pointed at Sasuke and Hinata's necks.
"What marks?"
She looked at the side of their necks and found strange symbols at the place where they were bitten.
"This is where that snaky woman bit them!" Narumi gasped in shock.
She began to look at them more closely, curious at what was going on. "They seem to be some sort of seal…"
"Huh? A seal?" Kiba wondered out loud.
She traced her finger around the seal, to get the feel of the stroke movement.
"This looks like Sasuke's Sharingan pattern… but these characters around it… it's like… some sort of… cursed seal…"
"Cursed seal?" Shikamaru asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Yeah. Regular seals are mostly used for storing things. But cursed seals can be used for a bunch of different things, and they're often used to do bad things. That's why they're called cursed seals." Narumi informed Shikamaru.
Sakura looked at Sasuke with concern. Cursed seal? What did that mean for him?
"Hey, aren't you good with seals? If they're bad, can't you get rid of them?" Ino asked Narumi.
Narumi shook her head. "I haven't learned about cursed seals yet. But I know you can't just get rid of them. It's more complicated than that."
"So, there's nothing you can do?" Sakura asked in concern.
Narumi thought for a moment before responding. "Well, I can't get rid of them, but I can do something to keep it under control for a bit."
"You can?" Sakura asked in surprise. She knew seals were really complicated things, and usually only the most erudite of shinobi would have any experience with them. Not to bag on Narumi or anything, but Narumi didn't seem like she would be someone who would have that kind of knowledge.
Narumi nodded. "But it'll take a lot of preparation, and I can't be disturbed while I do it. You guys will need to make sure I'm safe."
Ino gave her a confident smile. "Well, what do you think we were doing this whole time! You can leave it to us!"
Narumi smiled. "Alright! But this time, let me help you out! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Technique)"
When the puff of smoke that appeared with their summoning dissipated, Narumi expected to see a gang of clones which could help her.
Instead, she only got one clone to appear, which shocked her.
"Wha- What the heck? Where are the others?" Narumi wondered out loud.
The clone looked to her right and left before she shrugged at Narumi. "I dunno. You tell me."
Narumi sighed. There was something wrong with her too, and sorting all of this out was going to be… troublesome…
*Author's Notes*
And that was the latest chapter! Hope you guys liked it!
So, there were a lot of questions or comments from the last chapter. Why did Narumi's clones with Karin and Naruto not know what was happening with Team 7? Well to explain that I have to explain how shadow clones will work in my fic.
I don't know how shadow clones work in canon for sure, as there were parts that were vague or confusing, but I'm applying my own headcanon for this story, so there may be some differences. So basically, when clones are created, they have all the knowledge the user has at the moment of their creation. So that's how they're able to work in tandem so well, because they know what the user wanted to do when they were created. When they're dispelled, the knowledge they have goes back to the user, along with the chakra they have left. This next part is what might be different from canon. The knowledge goes ONLY to the user, and not the rest of the clones. The clones are not connected to each other or the user, they are basically self-functioning. The next batch of clones the user makes after she gets the memories from the dispelled clone will have those memories as well, but not the ones that existed before.
Also, clones will not dispel just because the user was rendered unconscious. They'll continue to exist until all of their chakra is used up. I hope these two explanations clears up the situation with Narumi's clones with Naruto and Karin.
Also, a lot of people were wondering why Orochimaru marked Hinata. Well in canon Orochimaru mentions that most people don't survive the application of a curse seal. He had no guarantee that Sasuke would be one of them. So why not mark Hinata too instead of putting all his eggs in one basket? The Byakugan is extremely valuable too, and how often would he have the chance to get the body of an unmarked, main family Hyuuga?
Besides, the Byakugan would be invaluable for a researcher like Orochimaru. Imagine how much better he could conduct his research if he can see the flow of chakra, the tenketsu, and see inside people's bodies to see how they work. It would take his research abilities to the next level and have him be more resistant to genjutsu as well, something he'd want seeing how he lost to Itachi with a genjutsu.
Another thing I wanted to explain was something from this chapter. I didn't feel the need to state it explicitly in the chapter, as I thought it was inferable, but here's an explanation if you didn't get what happened with Kiba and Zaku. Shikamaru used his shadow binding jutsu on Kiba to draw Zaku's attack, and then Ino possessed Kafun's body and then pushed Kiba out of the way, making Kafun take the damage instead. Ino was not affected by the genjutsu pollen because she was further away.
Anyway, that's everything I needed to address, I think. Let me know if you have any questions! I try to respond to you guys wherever you guys comment, but it's easiest if you contact me on my discord! Feel free to join if you want to ask questions, make suggestions, get announcements, or just have discussions or chat. Here's the code for the discord! (/HetEMkjYAv)
I hope you guys stay safe and have a great day! Until next time!