(A/N) HELLO! TBNkurama: You didn't know that? I referenced it in both chapter 17 and 18. Also, This is chapter 20! That's like, a lot. Almost double what most of my other stories are at. (the ones that weren't just started, anyway)
Fuu was sleepy. She would admit this was probably the best time to attack them, so she was summoning Chomei early.
She turned her back for all of ten seconds, disguising the making of a scale clone as a summoning jutsu, and when she turned back around, three idiots, the ones they'd been hunting, had attempted to ambush and kill them in their sleep. Or maybe it was just to attack Fuu. From the way they were looking around, it was clear they couldn't see the sleeping forms of either Sasuke or Hinata. She sent Chomei down to wake them quietly while she held off the idiots attempting an ambush. Just held them off, because her teammates would totally kill her if she defeated and/or killed the intruders without them. Well, Sasuke would. Hinata would stand there looking mildly disappointed. Which was maybe slightly worse.
She hopped down in front of them, smiling brightly. "Hello!"
They looked mildly disturbed. "Hi." The apparent leader said. "What scroll do you have?"
"Depends~" Fuu sang. "You?"
Apparently, they took it to mean that Fuu and her team had multiple scrolls. Which they didn't. They would soon though! "Earth, give us your scrolls!"
Fuu grinned, her teammates jumping out to stand beside her. "Good! We need one of those!"
"Hinata, can you take care of the kunoichi? She has a lot of chakra, so she is probably either a ninjutsu type, or a taijutsu type," Sasuke said softly.
Hinata nodded, a slight blush on her cheeks upon realizing Sasuke hadn't bothered putting his shirt back on to fight.
Fuu had continued antagonizing their opponents, until the leader lunged for her with a kunai, only to be stopped by Sasuke's crossed blades. A katana in his left hand, Kisame's kunai in his right. Fuu took the other male, spraying scale powder in his eyes. Hinata faced off against the Kunoichi, who just sort of stood there, paralyzed.
Sasuke shoved the leader back, uncrossing his blades as he did so.
"A dual wielder are you?" He taunted. "Any skill with it?"
"Killing you wouldn't even make me work up a sweat," Sasuke returned, grinning, or rather, baring his teeth at the Kusa nin.
They lunged at each other, Sasuke holding off the other's kunai with his katana before going in with the kunai. The Kusa nin lunged back to avoid being bisected.
"Oops, that was close," Sasuke said innocently, his grin far less innocent than his tone.
"Wouldn't want to die too quickly!" Fuu called.
"N-None of you die," Hinata said, pausing the staring contest with the kunoichi to stare disapprovingly at Sasuke and Fuu. They shrugged and went back to attacking their opponents.
In the end, Sasuke brutally dislocated his enemy's arms, and Fuu just tied hers up under threat of Chomei.
Hinata and the kunoichi still hadn't moved.
"So, are you even a fighter?" Sasuke asked suspiciously, circling the red-head.
She shook her head nervously. "I-I'm just here to keep them a-alive and full of c-chakra."
"Rude," Fuu muttered. "So, name?"
"K-Karin," she stuttered.
"Any last name?" Sasuke asked.
"U-Uzumaki."
"Ah, related to Naruto." Fuu said wisely. "Hey, can we keep you?"
Karin blinked. "Wh-why would you keep me?"
"So you can learn to fight," Fuu said, like it was obvious.
"And we could probably use a medic with Akatsuki, if you didn't mind," Sasuke agreed.
"O-oh, uhm, okay," Karin managed.
"Hey, d'ya mind if we kill these two?" Fuu asked, kicking the leader. "Or are you attached."
Karin shook her head. "I don't mind."
"Cool!" Sasuke said, pulling out his katana and removing the leader's head. Fuu borrowed his instead of pulling her tanto out and removed the other guy's head.
"Alright, so, you don't mind leaving some blood here, right? We gotta make it seem like you died here so we can get you out sneakily."
Karin didn't seem squeamish about that, which was quite helpful. She quickly slashed the back of her hand, dripping blood in the spots Sasuke indicated. While she did that, Hinata quickly packed up their stuff, readying it for travel.
"With any luck, they'll think that a large predator took you," Sasuke said, surveying the clearing and accepting his stuff from Hinata. "Thanks Hinata. Okay, so lay down right there, I'll drag you off, then we pick you up and keep moving."
"Why do I need to be carried?" Karin asked defiantly.
"Because we've only left two sets of foot prints, it would be suspicious if a third suddenly appeared. Fuu flies." Sasuke said, gesturing to the ground. "Come on, we have to make it look like you died. Maybe not smell like it, but we can probably take care of that."
Hinata got the hint and activated her byakugan, looking around for a large predator in the area.
Karin reluctantly laid down, and Sasuke grabbed the back of her shirt, and dragged her off into the underbrush, Karin with a rather resigned look on her face. He walked back into the clearing, Karin in his back.
"For the record, I can walk by myself," Karin said.
"Oh, we know," Fuu said tiredly. "Naruto never stops going."
"I-if it bothers you so much, we can swap shoes next time we swap, and that way it won't be s-suspicious to let you walk while I'm carried," Hinata offered.
"I would say you two are about the same weight, so it should be fine," Sasuke agreed. "Alright, we have a tower to reach."
"Fuu, there's a giant l-leopard thirty meters that way," Hinata said softly, pointing off to Sasuke's left.
"Cool! I'll meet up with you guys in a bit!" Fuu buzzed off in the direction Hinata had pointed, Chomei following.
"How far is the tower?" Sasuke asked Hinata.
"It's s-still outside my range," Hinata said softly.
"So, at least until noon, great. We can stop when Fuu rejoins us for breakfast," Sasuke said. "Technically we still have another shift to take care of, but we can't really stay here."
"W-we've gotten less sleep anyway," Hinata agreed. "One n-night won't do much."
"We should be at the tower three days early anyway," Sasuke agreed. "You good, Karin?"
Karin nodded against his back, where she'd buried her face and not looked up since they'd started tree leaping. "J-just a bit nervous, I-I dont so well with h-heights."
"Alright, if it becomes too much, we can walk on the ground," Sasuke said.
Karin made an affirmation noise, and fell silent.
Fuu rejoined them two hours later. Chomei was nowhere in sight, but no one bothered to mention it. Sasuke and Hinata knew where he was, and Karin would know eventually.
"So, the leopard apparently had kittens, and oh my gosh, they're adorable!" Fuu cooed. "So small and fluffy!"
Sasuke didn't bother answering her.
"Y-you didn't touch them, d-did you?" Hinata asked.
"What do you think I am, suicidal?" Fuu scoffed. "Nah, just watched them play. They really were so cute though!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes, and stopped in the next clearing. "We should stop here temporarily for breakfast, then continue moving. Fuu, do you think you can manage hovering this entire time? So we don't leave four sets of prints here."
"Aren't you being a bit over careful?" Karin asked, after being set down.
"Not in the slightest," Sasuke insisted.
"Better safe than sorry anyway." Fuu agreed. "Not that there are probably any actually good trackers in these exams."
"K-Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, and I would have been a tracking team," Hinata offered.
"Hey, Karin, you're from Kusa, do you have tracking based teams?" Fuu laid down in the air, hovering in front of Karin's face.
"A couple. My… old team, I guess, was one of them," Karin admitted.
"Tracker teams don't usually need dedicated medics," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes. "Someone with slight medical training, yes, but not a dedicated medic."
"I-I'm a s-sensor too," Karin admitted quietly.
"Ah, that explains it," Fuu admitted.
"We should get a move on," Sasuke said, standing up.
Karin reluctantly stood up, and Sasuke crouched down to let her get on his back.
"N-not going to take me up on m-my offer?" Hinata asked.
"I don't think I could manage tree jumping, or whatever it is you're doing," Karin said apologetically. "I barely am now."
"Alright, let's just get to the tower, then we can pass you off to my brother maybe." Sasuke said, leaping up, Fuu following in the air, and Hinata close behind.
"Alright!" Karin squeaked, burying her head in Sasuke's collar again.
They reached the tower late that day. They opened both scrolls, and out popped Iruka.
"Hello, should've figured you would reach the tower early," he said, smiling proudly at them. "Who is that?"
"This is Karin," Sasuke said, letting the said person slide off his back. "We're keeping her. Her team is dead."
Iruka spluttered. "Y-You can't just keep people!"
"I'm fine with going with them," Karin offered. "And his big brother, whatever that means."
"His brother is an S-ranked criminal!" Iruka squawked.
"So was my sensei!" Sasuke said indignantly.
"He killed your clan!" Iruka continued.
"For good reason!" Sasuke shot right back.
Fuu sighed, fluttering in between them. "Let's not do this right now, alright boys?" Pointed glares brought her point home, and both back down, Iruka more reluctantly.
"Congratulations," Iruka said finally. "You pass this section of the Chuunin exams."
(A/N) SORRY! They got chatty! But yes, Karin is now joining them. So, I have a poll up on my profile that is for an open update spot. Go vote now! Bye!