Another chapter is here!

Enjoy!

"Welcome home," Karin told Naruto as he walked through his door later that evening. "How was your day?"

"I went to visit a friend in the hospital after the meeting." He wrinkled his nose as he caught the scent in the air and his stomach gurgled. "Did you stay the entire day to cook?"

"You don't mind, do you?" she asked. "I thought that, since I made you late, I would make you a meal while finishing some research. I can pay you back for the ingredients tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it," he said, slipping out of his sandals by the door. "It's just that I don't think a girl's ever cooked something for me besides Ayame-nee. It smells great."

"Wash your hands and face while I set a place at the table for you." As he went into the bathroom to do so, the sound of the water pouring out of the faucet reaching her ears, Karin gave it a final taste test. It was passable, but not the best it could be. Naruto didn't have all the spices that she would have liked, but he did have enough of the base ingredients for her to work with.

Naruto emerged from the bathroom without his orange suit, instead wearing a pair of loose pants and his black shirt as he sat at the table. His eyes shimmered as she sat the plate down in front of him, showing some kind of stew on rice that had a mouth-watering scent. He used a spoon to scoop up some and took a bite into the hot meal.

His back tensed as the flavors played on his taste buds. "This is pretty good! You're a great cook, Karin-chan!"

She chuckled slightly at the compliment, smiling as she brushed her hair. "It's nothing. Just something I learned to make growing up." Her expression sobered a bit as she readied her own plate. "Will your friend in the hospital be okay?"

"She seemed better when we visited her, but the doctor and her sensei said that she won't be leaving for a while because of the injury she got in the Preliminaries." Naruto's grip on his spoon tightened. "I'm going to pound her cousin for that."

Karin didn't know enough about the situation to comment, so she just sat down across from him to eat at the small table with her own plate. Even with the quiet, she found it nice to be able to just enjoy his company. Naruto was genuinely warm to her, not like her teammates in Grass or the cold intrigue that Orochimaru had with her.

When they were done, Naruto childishly patted his stomach with a grin on his face. "That hit the spot. You'd make a great housewife with cooking like that."

"I don't see myself retiring so easily to remain at home, but your compliment is accepted." Karin picked up one of the books that had been spread open to reveal an old map of Hidden Leaf's territory. She pointed to a spot on it that had 'Shrine' written on it. "I found this shrine related to the Uzumaki a few hours ago."

He squinted at the icon. "It's pretty far from the village, right on the outskirts. Do you want to go check it out?"

"I would, but it wouldn't do for me to leave out on my own," she told him. "I was wondering if you could ask your tutor to be our guide."

"No problem," he said.

"Thanks." She rinsed the plates off and organized the scattered books around his home. It wouldn't do to leave a mess for him to clean up when she had been his guest. Afterwards, she slipped her combat sandals over her sock-laden feet and stood at the door. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Eh? You're leaving?"

"I spent the entire night here by mistake, so if I don't get back it could raise questions." She opened the door and the cool evening breeze rustled her hair. "Remember to put the leftovers away when you're done for the night. The rest can be used for lunch."

"I'll walk you back," Naruto offered, rising out of his chair and slipping on his own combat sandals.

She welcomed the company on her journey back.

[0-0-0]

They took off the next day. Naruto went to Gama the first thing in the morning and told him about Karin's suggestion. He agreed to it and told him to get Karin to come with them, stating that they may as well go together. Now all three of them—no Anbu in the range of her Mind's Eye—were heading there by weaving through the dense trees that made up the forests surrounding the Hidden Leaf Village.

Naruto turned his head around to towards Karin, who was trailing after them. "Do you want us to slow down?"

"I'm okay, Naruto." She touched one foot on the tree limb gingerly and then pushed off, leaping further than before with precise control to end up next to him. Her smile carried a sense of assurance. "Remember, I'm a kunoichi so I'm used to traveling quickly like this. I just don't in the village because I don't want to cause any problems while I'm visiting."

"Don't get your hopes up on finding anything spectacular," Gama warned from a tree ahead. He wore a standard set of clothes and a pair of dark glasses. "If it still remains, the building will likely be in ruins."

"I honestly expected it to be somewhat like that." She adjusted her glasses. "After all, most of the maps made after the one I found didn't have it marked. It had to have been neglected for decades at least. However, there may be something left inside."

Despite her words, even she came up short when they finally arrived at the site. The building was a wooden temple, decrepit as even the broad pillars holding the entrance up gave way, leaving the top that bore the clan's symbol to lean in exhaustion after so many years. Truly a somber sight if there ever was one.

Karin pressed her lips thin and stepped forward almost absentmindedly, slowly climbing the stairs with Naruto and his tutor following as she walked under the slouching doors, perpetually left open. It was dark inside, patches of sunlight filtering in through the breaks and gaps in the ceiling. Roaches, along with other insects and small vermin, skittered about at the presence of the three intruders. The only thing that hadn't been battered by age, insects, and harsh weather was the podium at the center that housed a number of masks divided into three rows.

"Why are these masks here?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe it was a storage temple for them?" Gama held his chin in thought before setting his other hand out, stopping Naruto from getting ahead of him. "Don't step closer until I've checked to make sure it's clear."

"He's right," she added. "The mask and podium are untouched, despite how the rest of the temple is. That's not natural—something has to be preserving them."

"Given the clan's skill at Sealing Arts, it's a safe-bet that's the cause." The Jounin began making hand-seals. "I'm going to use a technique to scan for any seals. It's not perfect, but most will show up."

Karin looked down at her feet as he finished the hand-seals and a wave passed over them. Her Cursed Seal of Subjugation didn't react, but Naruto held his stomach and muttered something about it feeling tingly. She briefly wondered if that technique had exposed his Jinchuuriki seal beneath his clothes, but she didn't pay it much mind when she noticed that nine of the masks were shuddering.

"Are they supposed to do that?" Naruto asked as the masks fell from the podium.

"I'm going with 'No,' Naruto," Karin answered as she took a step back towards the exit.

Rather than hit the ground, the masks loitered in the air. Some kind of fluid or material seethed from the inside of the masks. They began to take form—a tortoise, a dragon, a snake, a bird, a tiger, a priestess, a reaper, and two sages—becoming nine creatures adorned with the masks as their faces.

"Trespassers of hallowed Uzumaki grounds," whispered a chorus of voices, devoid of any emotion. "You have defiled this place with your presence."

"We need to leave," Gama said. "Before they—"

The words died as the tortoise proved to be a lot faster than expected when it threw itself at them, leaving Naruto's tutor to grab them both and leap out of the entrance before it exploded in a shower of wood dust and splinters as the large creature broke through the barricade. The others broke through the dust and came after the shinobi, with the agile bird decorated with plumage cutting off their escape route with the priestess on its back. She used her ribbons as whips and lashed out at them, forcing Gama to turn so that they didn't get hit. The impact against his unprotected back sent them all to the ground.

Naruto was up on his feet with a kunai in hand not a second afterwards while the masked creatures tried to surround them. "Karin-chan, Gama-sensei, are you both okay?"

"I'm fine," she told him as she picked her glasses up off the ground and replaced them in time to see the snake and dragon were coming for them as the sages looked on. Gama threw himself forward and smashed them both aside with his fist and leg, proving to be stronger than he looked. Then Karin abruptly stiffened as her Mind's Eye picked up the flow of chakra beneath them and she grabbed Naruto, pulling him to the side as sealing script etched in purple appeared where they once stood and erupted in a column of purple light.

"That was close," Naruto huffed before noticing the reaper was coming for them, scythe brandished. Naruto pushed her back as he followed, throwing them both largely out of the way of the attack before making a cross-seal. Small plumes of smoke erupted, and where there was once one Naruto, there were now many.

With over a dozen Narutos standing between it and the two Uzumaki, the reaper swept its scythe out and sent forth a large colorless wave. The fang-like wave raked through all of them, dissipating them into nothingness as Naruto and Karin ducked low to avoid. Naruto still found himself on the verge of passing out. "No way… I can't…"

"Naruto, what's wrong?" she asked, catching him before he could collapse onto the ground. Her Mind's Eye noticed that his reserves were nearly bottomed out. He'd lost most of his chakra in an instant.

"All of the chakra I sent into the clones are gone!" Naruto said, sounding exhausted. "But I don't know how."

She could take a guess. The Shadow Clone technique used a set amount to create each clone's body and mass before dividing the remainder of the original's chakra into them, making them capable of using techniques without vanishing until what went into molding it was taken. All of that chakra was supposed to return to him when they were dissipated, but the technique the reaper used stripped them of it.

"Not gone," Karin said immediately as the reaper raised the scythe higher and spun it around, releasing eight more slashes towards the other masked creatures. "That wave tore it out and sent it back to the one with the scythe. And now it's redistributing the chakra to the rest of them."

The moment the wind-blades came into contact with them, the masked creatures grew stronger. If their movements before had been sluggish comparatively, as if to conserve strength, then they were now free to move far faster. The beasts that Gama had been fending off on his own became more feral, hitting harder until the tortoise and bird managed to hit him into the serpent. It used its elongated body to coil around him until only an upraised arm was free.

"Look out!" Karin called to Naruto as the reaper came in again with its scythe. Exhausted, Naruto was unable to avoid the blade completely as it cleaved through the front of his jumpsuit and into the flesh laid bare beneath it, sapping the rest of his chakra and drawing blood. He managed to kick it in the face with the last of his strength, driving it off, before the priestess' ribbons found their way around Naruto and squeezed as they raised him in the air, threatening to crush his bones as he struggled fruitlessly and dropped his kunai.

"R-Run!" Naruto yelled. "It's coming for you again!"

She looked to see the reaper was closing in once more and her heart stilled in her chest as she felt another barrier being erected around her in a wider scale, one she couldn't get away from. She was trapped with the reaper in the circle, death closing in. A thought occurred then, recalling the words from before, and she let herself be heard by all who would hear her.

"IN THE NAME OF THE UZUMAKI, I COMMAND YOU TO STOP!" Karin yelled, holding the dropped kunai in front of her as she took a defensive pose. To her surprise, all of them did. The masked creatures, including the reaper with its blade now inches from her face, came to an absolute standstill.

"Thy claim to be of Uzumaki birth?" asked the reaper.

"I am a survivor of the Uzumaki clan!" she continued, shaking in place. "My blood is that of our clan's, which has been wiped out since you last walked the land! As is the boy the priestess squeezes the life out of at this very moment! How dare you raise your arms against me and my allies when I possess the blood of your creators and have every right to all within the shrine!"

"Y-Yeah, what she said!" Naruto added. "You should be listening to us! Not attacking us!"

"Submit proof of blood," the reaper ordered, holding the blade forward. Karin immediately slit her finger on the tip and felt a tinge of her chakra being absorbed by it. The reaper withdrew his blade. "Your blood is that of the oldest blood. Your claim is valid."

"Then harm us no further and return to your slumber!" Karin ordered. The creatures acquiesced to the order and vanished, their forms retreating into the masks that clattered onto the ground. The beautiful, almost gossamer-thin ribbons that had bound Naruto disappeared and he fell onto the ground with a yelp, clutching his wound afterwards. Karin was by his side, lifting her sleeve to expose her forearm. "Naruto, you need to bite me."

He looked both puzzled and pained, but there was no time to delay. She placed her forearm in his mouth and then forced his jaw up to clamp down hard enough to trigger her ability. It sent an electric trill throughout her body, pleasure of an almost forbidden nature eliciting a sensual cry from her lips despite her best efforts to stem it.

Her body tremored in place as the high was followed by shuddering breaths until she noticed both of them staring at her. Karin's face turned crimson. "A-are you okay now, Naruto?"

Naruto blinked when the question registered. He poked into the opening in his jumpsuit to find knitted flesh. Her Mind's Eye told her that the excess of the chakra used to heal his wound fed into his depleted reserves, relieving the chakra exhaustion. "Whoa, you can heal people?"

Karin was still red in the face as she sat on her knees and nodded, refusing to meet his eyes. She lifted her sleeve slowly to show a few other bite marks on her skin. "Mother said that our clansmen and clanswomen are often long-lived, and sometimes that manifests in different ways. Mine is that, when people bite me, it transfers my Yang chakra into their bodies and heals them."

"Interesting," Gama said, even as he scribbled something down on a notebook. "I can understand why you'd keep it a secret, for more reasons than one. Good thing we were alone here."

Naruto seemed to recall the expression and sound she made at that moment, considering he blushed himself. Then he looked down at where his teeth were impressed upon her skin. That sobered him. "Um… will that go away?"

She lowered her sleeve. "The marks don't heal. It's not something I like showing others, or letting them know I can do it at all, but you got hurt because of me. I… I wouldn't have been able to stand doing nothing and watching you die for it."

"How did you know they would listen to you?" asked the Jounin as he picked up a mask and turned it around in his hands. He then looked back to where the others laid and the temple that looked even more battered with the entrance now a gaping hole.

"I didn't," Karin claimed. "I gambled on the fact that they could talk meant they had intelligence, and that they were guarding an Uzumaki shrine meant they'd listen to me. It was all pure luck."

"Right, well I'll need to report this." He created his own Shadow Clone and handed over the mask and a few tags before he turned back to the kids. "My clone will set up a couple of barrier tags and stay behind to watch it while we go back. I'll tell the Hokage about this place and he'll send some people to guard it and figure out what to do next."

"I'm going to have to leave the village, aren't I?" Karin asked, looking down. "I wanted to follow a lead, but I nearly got you all killed."

"Relax." The Jounin set a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You did good finding this place, and you acted quickly enough to avoid any serious injuries. You found a small piece of your clan's legacy that had been lost until now, even if it turned out to be more than expected, and you showed something you wanted to keep hidden in order to save Naruto. You didn't do anything wrong—if anything, the Hokage might have people comb over the old documents and records to see if other places like this are still around after the Finals are done."

Naruto nodded his head in agreement. "And if the Old Man does try to kick you out, I'll march into his office and tell him otherwise! Promise!"

Karin doubted he could do that, but the fact that he would try brought a smile to her face. She pushed her hair behind her ears and told them, "Thank you. Both of you."

[0-0-0]

Later that day, in the Hokage's office, 'Gama' gave his report to Sarutobi. The Hokage was pensive as he listened until the end, taking these new developments into mind. Once the report was finished, he reached for his pipe and took a puff before softly exhaling a stream of smoke.

"Were they really that difficult to handle?" he asked. "These constructs bound to the masks?"

"You told me not to expose myself and nine-to-one while protecting the kids would have given me away," Jiraiya said. "I was getting ready to pull a Substitution with the Naruto using a clone and would have gotten serious when she called them off, but they weren't stupid. They were fighting smart and on limited chakra at best—at least before Naruto got drained. "

"Hmm…" Sarutobi exhaled a ring of smoke. "Well, what's done is done. The masks and scrolls found in the hollowed out podium have been confiscated and will merit some investigation before we decide what to do with them. As for Miss Uzumaki, I find it fascinating that she would possess such an ability. "

The disguised Sannin nodded in agreement. "Yang chakra is that which interacts best with physical energy and the body. Kushina manifested them as chains that could suppress chakra, but in her case it seems the surplus is offloaded into whoever bites her to restore them. Princess would have loved that… Has there been no word from her?"

"No, I'm afraid not." Sarutobi sighed. "I have Anbu tracking her down as we speak, but I doubt they'll find her before the Finals. We'll simply have to be ready without her aid, but afterwards… I suspect we'll have to force her back."

He didn't argue against the point. He hoped it didn't come to that, but she was still a kunoichi of the village. If the Hokage made the summons official, Sannin or not, she would be forced back—even if Jiraiya had to bring her himself.

"It may be time for you to assist Naruto in accessing the fox's chakra." Sarutobi settled back in his chair. "It would be useful should he find himself in such a pinch again. I'll leave the details to you, but warn him not to mention it to Miss Uzumaki."

"As you wish, Sensei."