Blood is Thicker Chapter 2
A/N: Welcome to Chapter 2! Thank you to everybody who followed and favorited peeps!
King Nintendo: Thank you! Here it is!
Starfire201: Thank you for the advice, and yes, I do know. Right now I'm setting everything up! ;)
charles cdv: Here it is!
NarutoLuver896: The worst is over for Hinata!
dbzgtfan2004: Thank you!
Two weeks had passed since the war ended. Tsunade sat at her desk, catching up on her overload of paperwork. She had so much paperwork, she even gave Sakura and Shizune a massive stack each to do as "An Extension of the Hokage" she liked to say. Tsunade was even considering taking on another apprentice due to the workload.
Today, the Hokage had 2 urgent meetings. First, she had to settle what she liked to call "the Karin problem", and then she had to follow up with Kakashi. He was of course going to be late, so she yelled for Shizune to let Karin in. The redhead was escorted by a guard from the Interrogation Corps. She seemed rather pale, and tad skinnier than she remembered, however her face was determined and her chin was held high.
"Karin, I presume?" Tsunade asked, after dismissing her guard.
"Karin Akamine."
"Well, Karin, Inoichi Yamanaka seems to think you'll be able to join Konoha without a double-cross, but as you can see, I'm in no position to let you go do as you please with Leaf asylum."
"I... So... I can't?" Karin began nervously, starting to fidget.
"So here's what I'll do. I know a guy who is kinda sorta out of a job because of Danzo, so I'll assign him to be your personal guard and you can bond over a shared hatred, kay?" Tsunade said with a slight wink.
Karin gave a nod, and caught the leaf headband Tsunade lazily threw at her head. The busty Hokage then began to rifle about in her desk. After finding what she was looking for and pulling a clipboard out of a stack of papers like a Janga expert, she handed the citizenship papers to Karin to fill out.
As Karin filled out information, she also watched Tsunade turn to her and take a swig of Sake. Karin snorted to herself and finished her paperwork, just as a person entered the office, presumably her guard. She handed her clipboard to Tsunade, who flipped over the information with a rubber stamp in hand in order to approve it. The guard looked to Karin.
"You're Sasuke's girlfriend." he said with a false smile on his rather plastic face.
Karin was taken aback, but quickly angered by the statement.
"I was never his girlfriend. Are you my guard?" she asked, sort of recognizing the fellow. Tsunade interjected. "This is Sai, he's your new roomie!" she said, stamping the clipboard, before looking up. "So I see you know a thing or two medicine-wise?" she asked, hopefully.
Karin nodded, not quite sure why she asked. Tsunade smiled, almost devilishly.
"Great! I now pronounce you my new medical apprentice! I have paperwork for you to do tomorrow morning." she chirped happily.
Sai smiled even wider. "You seem to be Tsunade-sama's new bitch."
"Damn straight! And Sai, you can help!"
Meanwhile, in the waiting area, Kakashi sat atop Shizune's desk, reading Icha Icha Paradise. Shizune grumpily looked up at Kakashi, as he was blocking her from doing her share of paperwork, which she did more efficiently than the Hokage, she might add.
"Ne, Kakashi-san, I can't do my paperwork!" she said with a pout. Kakashi looked down at the diminutive woman below him.
"Tonton is sleeping in the waiting chair," he said before tapping Shizune's Tsunade bobble head and going back to reading. Shizune huffed and tried to push him off her desk.
"Tsk tsk Shizune, if you want to touch my butt just ask," Kakashi said with a giggle as Shizune tried with all her might to push him off. Eventually, she gave up, grabbed a stack of paperwork and huffed away to the staff lounge.
Kakashi smiled and then proceeded to enter Tsunade's office when he saw Sai and Karin leave.
"You look happy, Tsunade-sama," he said, looking up from his orange book of naughtiness.
"You sure bet I am! Anyhow, have you thought over what we discussed?"
"I have, and I think I'd rather see Naruto as the 6th Hokage. He's young, but you still have a few years left in you..." Kakashi said, trailing off.
"Very well, but until that time, if I croak before Naruto's ready, you're looking at a promotion."
"Indeed, it would appear so." Kakashi drawled before walking off.
Now that her business was finished, Tsunade happily poured herself a glass of sake in preparation for her afternoon nap.
Naruto wiped a bit of sweat off his brow before attacking 5 more of his own clones. When the smoke cleared, it revealed Sakura, standing there with a hand on her hip.
"Training already, Naruto? It's not even 10 o'clock."
"Morning, Sakura! What do I owe the pleasure?" he asked, extinguishing all of his clones with a poof.
"I was going to ask you to to breakfast, and was going to tell you about the Karin thing, but I couldn't find you!"
"What did Baa-chan decide?"
"She's officially a leaf Kunoichi, Sai is assigned to be her detail for a probation period."
"We should go say hi! Come on!" he said before grabbing her hand and setting off for Sai's home at his normal exuberant breakneck pace.
When Sai answered his door to see Naruto and an out of breath Sakura, he smiled to his usual degree of fake and kindly greeted his guests.
"Small dick, ugly hag, how nice of you to visit!"
Naruto had to hold Sakura back by the collar of her shirt while she tried to pummel Sai, that is, until they noticed Karin had approached the doorway. Naruto smiled, and Sakura regained her composure.
"Hello Karin! It's me, Naruto! Sakura and I have come to visit you!"
"Welcome to Konoha, Karin," Sakura added.
"Oh hello, and thank you," Karin said, a little stiffly. "I'm afraid I was about to run some errands. I haven't any belongings, really. I need some clothes."
"I could go with you, Karin, I know where the better stores are," Sakura offered.
"They may not be in my budget I'm afraid..." Karin mentioned with a frown.
"Didn't Hokage-sama give you some money?" Naruto asked.
"She made me an apprentice." To this, Sakura erupted in laughter.
"You're her bitch now!" the pink haired medic said through sobs of laughter.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?"
Sakura sympathetically patted her on the back and motioned for Karin to follow her down the street. "You can pay me back later..."
This left Naruto still standing on Sai's stoop.
"Thank you for visiting, Naruto." he said politely before slamming his door, leaving Naruto by himself.
Matsuri walked into Gaara's office with a stack of paperwork. All the Kages were terribly behind on it. The redhead caught sight of his student and groaned. He had been a little distracted lately, staring out the window, even taking breaks to go walk around. Everyone assumed he was finding it hard to go back to normal after the war.
He'd barely slept, even for his standards. Gaara was simply consumed. Matsuri frowned. She always had a crush on him, and had tried several times lately to make things more romantic. She'd made him lunches, worn nice things when she talked to him, even pretended she was going on dates and sending flowers to herself. Her efforts were to no avail, as he seemed to barely notice, however, it was driving Kankuro nuts with curiosity.
"Matsuri."
Upon hearing her name, she paused from arranging files and looked up, giving the Kazekage her undivided attention.
"Get me Temari."
She frowned the slightest bit, and went to fetch his sister, and dutifully brought her to his office. When the blonde arrived, Gaara looked to her.
"Pack your bags, Temari. We're going to Konoha. Matsuri, send a hawk to Tsunade alerting her ahead of time. Kankuro is in charge, see that he doesn't make too much trouble please."
Matsuri watched him leave within an hour, and sighed as she turned to Kankuro spinning around in Gaara's chair. She straightened it with a huff and stomped off, leaving Kankuro dumbfounded.
"What's got your panties in a knot?"
A/N: And that's all she wrote, peeps!
Thank you, and please review! ;)
-MyHikari
***IMPORTANT NOTICE, PLEASE READ***: Yes, I am fully aware that Karin is an Uzumaki. However, in this story, she will claim to go by "Akamine" meaning "red peak". This is because, A) We don't know if Karin knows, B) She could be hiding it if she does, or C) Is an Uzumaki but on her mothers side. I haven't decided which yet, but after receiving approximately 4 reviews stating something I already know, I just want to warn my readers in advance, so they don't get confused!