Chapter 2

An unexpected request

Naruto had momentarily forgotten that he was currently enjoying one of the things in the world that made him the happiest, as his mind registered the information Sasuke had just broken down to him. It was something that he had never expected to hear, having assumed for a long time that he was probably the last 'Uzumaki' in the Ninja World. That thought, of course, had been changed after he had met his mother, but even then, she still confirmed what he had always believed to be true; the Land of Whirlpools had been eradicated in the past, so there was little to no chance of finding any others like him out there. It made him strangely lonely when he realized it at first, but later on, he realized that he still had his comrades from the village, so there was no reason for him to mope around. Still, the news that he had received from Sasuke hit him like a bombshell, so he stared at the man for a few minutes, his mouth agape in astonishment.

Sasuke paid no heed to his teammate, choosing to indulge himself in whatever was left of his meal, finding it surprisingly more and more palatable with each bite he took.

"Are you serious, Sasuke?" He asked his teammate, voicing his doubts over a story that still seemed to be good to be true. In his mind, he tried reconstructing a mental image of the girl that he had seen albeit only once, and what first came to mind was her red hair. It was the same shade of red as his mom's, something which he realized he had completely overlooked the first time, but now, he wondered how he had missed such an important factor. Of course, Karin's hair wasn't silky smooth like his mom's, on the contrary, it was a bit rough around the edges, but it was still red nonetheless. Could it be? Was there a connection between his mom and Karin?

"Yeah, I'm serious. Actually, I remember something the Second Hokage said before we left the village for the war about her," Sasuke continued, and beside him his teammate was inching his face nearer and nearer his in order to listen closely to what he was going to add on," he said that according to her chakra and her red hair, she is from the Uzumaki Clan. I think that's more than enough proof that she's one of you." Sasuke calmly said. At first he had found it hard to believe that one of the members of the team he had gathered had the same surname as his former teammate, at the time, but the more he thought about it, the more and more it made sense. He had expected Naruto to be disbelieving at first, so the current manner in which the blonde boy was acting was perfectly understandable.

Within Naruto's mind, however, his thoughts had been thrown into massive disarray owing to the second bombshell Sasuke had dropped on him in a matter of minutes. Now he had two things that he had to think about regarding the girl. Her red hair…..and her chakra. Now that he thought about it closely, he remembered his mom telling him about how the people in the Uzumaki Clan were possessed with special chakra, which made them a force to be reckoned with by the other Hidden Villages. Was Karin the same? He tried to remember whether he had per chance come across another member of his clan, realizing that there may have been more than met the eye in this case, and luckily, he was able to remember another, who was probably like Karin.

A time not so long ago, before the Hidden Villages had all gone to war with the Akatsuki, he remembered having a talk with Nagato on the outskirts of the village after having defeated his Six Paths of Pain. He realized that for the second time that day, he had not been paying keen attention to the man, but now that he remembered him vividly, he realized that Nagato himself also had red hair upon his head, and it was exactly the same texture of silky smooth like the one his mother had. His breath caught in his lungs at this realization. Not only that, but after seeing the level of destruction that he had caused the village, and the fact that he was still able to fight a fresh Naruto on the same playing field, even overpowering him at one point, spoke volumes about the man's chakra levels. Not any ordinary shinobi could have done that, plus the fact that he even had chakra to cast his last technique that miraculously revived all the villagers he had slaughtered in the siege of the village, something that had made his once red hair turn ash white. It had probably been the result of squeezing out each and every last drop of his chakra, and even then he still had enough of it to revive all the villagers he had killed, that were a really large number. Naruto had to admit that the man was a chakra monster. Just like his mom, just like him, and more recently, just like….Karin. The news still seemed like a cock and bull story to Naruto, but the more he thought about it, the more and more it made sense. This was quite unbelievable.

"Hey Sasuke, you were in the Akatsuki, right? Did you ever see a man called Nagato when you were part of them?" Naruto asked his teammate once more, a last minute effort to confirm his lingering doubts. If what Sasuke was saying turned out to be true, he realized that he had something he wanted to do; something he had thought about for a long time but had never really had the chance to act upon. It seemed like something out of his wildest dreams, but he had to go through with it, or else his mind would never grant him peace.

"I don't know who that is," Sasuke stated bluntly, as he took in the last contents of his bowl.

For a maddening second, Naruto had thought that Sasuke was probably teasing him again and playing dumb, but he realized that even him, when he had found Nagato within the tree he and his partner Konan had hidden in, the man had been a good distance away from the village, plus his puppets. Perhaps that was also how he operated when he was a member of the Akatsuki, only a few members having seen his real face. Coming to this conclusion, he decided to ask his teammate anew, this time phrasing his inquiry in the proper way.

"Then, did you ever come across a member by the name of Pain?" Sasuke paused momentarily, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth, "Ah, that's the guy you defeated when he attacked the village right?" Naruto felt a bit embarrassed at this, rubbing the back of his head cheekily as he struggled to form a coherent response. While it had been an amazing thing what he had done for the village, he had still not gotten used to being praised by the villagers for what he did. Moreover, his best friend, and the person he had always sought acknowledgement from, had never brought the matter up before, so hearing Sasuke telling him that now caught him as a surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless. Sasuke took his bashfulness as a sign of affirmation, and carried on with what he was saying, "Zetsu told me about him." At this, the bashfulness that Naruto had been feeling was replaced by a wave of confusion, wondering who on earth Zetsu was. He wasn't exactly one to remember people he had only met once by their names. As his face scrunched into an expression displaying his current confusion, Sasuke huffed, taking note of this and deciding to simplify things for Naruto. "The aloe guy," he stated bluntly. However, once the words had escaped his mouth, he suddenly felt embarrassed about saying something so simpleminded. To his satisfaction, however, Naruto realized who Sasuke was talking about, hitting his fist to his hand in a show of remembrance, and the slight 'Oh! That escaped his palate then being further proof of this.

"According to Zetsu, Pain was an exceptionally powerful shinobi, possibly the strongest member they had. But why are you asking about him now?" Sasuke asked. Naruto frowned slightly that Sasuke knew nothing about the then Akatsuki 'leader', even nothing about his origins, but his intuition was screaming to him more and more that he was spot on about his doubts. Realizing that staying here and talking about it with Sasuke amidst speculations and rumors would do him no further good, he decided to take action.

Sitting up from his stool abruptly, catching Sasuke slightly by surprise, who by then had finished his meal, he turned to leave the store. Sasuke, slightly curious at Naruto's sudden movements, called out to him," Wait. Where are you going?" Naruto stopped in mid motion, just as he was about to take one step outside the ramen stall, Sasuke's question triggering something that he had forgotten to ask. It was a minor detail, but nonetheless important, lest he wastes his energy running around the village like a fool looking for a single person. He turned back to look at Sasuke," Sasuke, where does Karin stay?" If there was anyone who knew where Karin was at the moment, it was probably Sasuke. After all, he was the only person she knew well in the village, aside from the rest of the members of her team, who by then were someplace he did not know.

Sasuke replied, a bit surprised at Naruto's suddenly random question,"Karin? She's stays within the new residential areas that were recently set up in Konoha by the Hokage. Why do you ask?" He added on the last question, but at this, Naruto immediately bolted out of the shop. "Thank you! Sorry, I'll tell you about it once I handle this. Make sure you pay my bill too, Sasuke-teme!" This immediately brought Sasuke's attention to the half finished bowl of ramen that was beside him, which surprisingly his blonde teammate had forgotten to touch halfway through their conversation.

"Bastard," Sasuke muttered under his breath, as he watched Naruto's retreating form heading deeper into the village.

As the blonde walked into the village at a slightly quickened pace, he realized that Sasuke's answer had made him remember something that he had forgotten a while back. Ever since the events of the war, and Sasuke had been recognized as a hero by the Five Elemental Nations for helping to stop Madara and Kaguya, the Hokage, on persuasion by Naruto, had agreed to rebuild the Uchiha residence where Sasuke and his clan used to inhibit in the past. The area of land had been left untouched after the massacre by Uchiha Itachi, closed off from the rest of the village since the higher-ups believed the Uchiha had brought on the massacre upon them. However, Naruto, realizing Sasuke had made a change for the better, and knowing just how much Sasuke loved his clan, figured that he needed a place to live in once he had returned to the village. As per his request, Tsunade had decided to build up some residential areas in the old piece of land, assigning ownership of the land, and telling Sasuke that in case he wanted to get to his goal of reviving his clan, he and his descendants would be allowed to live there. Sasuke, on the other hand, being Sasuke, had not yet gotten to that part of his goal yet, but fortunately he had taken Tsunade up on her offer and lived there ever since his return to the village. While it had been hard at first, since he had seen his kinsmen murdered before his eyes in that very same land, he had slowly grown accustomed to living there, and after a while he had come to recognize the place as home.

Additionally, and coming as a surprising fact to Tsunade and Naruto, when Sasuke had first been granted ownership of the land, his first request had been to allow the members of his team, Taka, to take up residence in the village with him. Tsunade had been adamantly reluctant at first to this request, citing the facts that while Sasuke was an Uchiha and a member of the village, the other members of his team were all residents from other villages, and having them in the village might cause political constraints with their home villages. To this point brought forward by Tsunade though, Sasuke had a rebuttal of his own, stating that Suigetsu was not overly enthusiastic about returning to his home, as he did not know how they would welcome someone who had clearly shown no intention in maintaining ties with them. For Karin, acting upon the information he had received from Kabuto and Orochimaru, he stated that her homeland was no more and she had nowhere to go, so the more reason that she should stay in Konoha and with him. Jugo, who had lived most of his life under Orochimaru, having no clue of where the rest of his clansmen were since he had been brought out of his homeland at an awfully young age, so he had no memory of where his home lie. Moreover, the orange haired man had pledged that he would spend the rest of his life protecting Sasuke, as it was part of Kimimaro's will, so convincing him to stay away from Sasuke would probably not be easy. Tsunade, trying to respond to his information, since she was not one who was overly happy about being caused grief by other villages regarding their shinobi, realized she could not argue against Sasuke's logical points, much to her chagrin and to Sasuke and, additionally, Naruto's relief. In the end, the blonde woman agreed reluctantly, but to find a final standing point with the last Uchiha, instructed him that as long as the other members of Team Taka were in the village, Sasuke was put in charge of them and was supposed to make sure that none of them stepped out of line, or Sasuke would be the one to take responsibility. At this, Sasuke shot a rare small smile at the Hokage, that Naruto silently took note of, before agreeing with the Hokage's terms.

Still, Naruto thought, as he neared the newly formed Uchiha residence, for Sasuke to vouch for outsiders to stay in the village with him, they must have been really important to him. So Sasuke had this side to him as well, Naruto thought, as he stood outside the entrance to the residence. It was a reassuring thing, since he knew that in the case him and the rest of Team Seven were not there for him, by a chance of fate, these people would be there for him. Realizing this set his heart at ease. As he took the first step into the residential area, the first thought that came to him was how oddly desolate the area seemed, as a small breeze blew through and sent his the frisks of hair going in its direction.

In this new residential area, each of the houses that had been recently built had name plates built outside them, for easy reference when looking for someone here. This had been Naruto's suggestion, much to Sasuke's dismay, the blonde citing the fact that in the case the area would be brimming with population in a few years time, it would be difficult looking for a single face within the horde of Uchihas. Sasuke, a man who loved his privacy more than anything else was against the idea, but Tsunade, realizing that she had already gave him more than enough leeway already with his earlier suggestion, refused to concede this time. Sasuke's current house, of course, had been set at the forefront of the compound, respecting his status as the soon-to-be clan head. As Naruto walked past Sasuke's house, making sure to pay attention to the name plates at each door as he looked for the name 'Karin', he did not take long to find the woman's house. It was a stone's throw away from Sasuke's.

Naruto found the woman outside her residence, currently occupied with airing her clothes. He was surprised at finding her house that close to Sasuke's, but the more he thought about it, he realized that she and Sasuke had a strangely close relationship. The manner in which she carried herself and talked about Sasuke somehow signified that there was probably something more than friendship on her part regarding the dark haired man, and somehow, he found her behavior strangely reminiscent of his around his pink haired teammate. He surmised, with a bit of a flushed face, that if he and Sakura were probably living together within the same compound, he would have probably been the first person to claim residence in the house next to his female teammate. This was done out of a desire to be close to the person, and as Naruto watched the girl carry out her duties while silently humming to herself, he ridiculously wondered whether that was a mannerism of Uzumakis that were in love. Dismissing the thought as ridiculous, he took a step forward, intending to make his presence known to the red haired girl.

Karin, however, had already sensed him the moment he had appeared outside the compound of the residence. She would never mistake that bright and warm chakra for anyone else, having gotten a taste of it before in the presence of the blonde man. Still, she wondered just what had brought him to the place, on a day when Sasuke was clearly away. He obviously didn't have any other business with anyone else in the compound. Or did he?

"Yo, Naruto," she greeted the blonde man casually. Of course, any friend of Sasuke was a friend of hers. Much less, someone who Sasuke had openly acknowledged Naruto as his strongest bond, in the presence of foes and allies alike .The blonde had also played a huge role in saving the world alongside his teammate, so Karin realized that she owed him a huge measure of appreciation for that as well. "What brings you here?" She asked the blonde boy, as she finished airing the last of her clothes. An idea popped up in her head that Naruto had come to say hi to her or any of the other members of Taka, who were the only other residents in the area apart from Sasuke, but on second thought, Naruto wasn't exactly on close terms with the Suigetsu, Jugo and her, viewing them as acquaintances more than anything else.

Naruto, realizing that he was alone with the girl for the first time since he knew her, took the time to pay attention to her physical features this time, in order to make sure that his doubts would be cleared completely. He had come to believe that what his best friend had told him was the truth, but it didn't hurt to be cautious, right? It was then that he took note of her red hair, which was now tied in a white head cloth and tied up into a pony tail. The last time Naruto had seen her hair, he remembered it had been in a bit of a frilly state, admitting that this time her hair definitely looked prettier. Perhaps she was doing it to impress Sasuke, Naruto thought, inwardly chuckling at the thought. Well, it wasn't exactly a bad thing to try and catch the attention of someone you had feelings for. More importantly, however, Naruto had no doubts regarding the heritage of the woman. Karin was definitely an Uzumaki, through and through.

Naruto's earlier thought resurfaced, and he decided to voice it to the woman, half hoping and half praying she would agree to his suggestion. The other half of him told him that it would probably be too ridiculous a suggestion and she would first laugh at him before denying it. It was worth a thought, however, so he started a bit unsurely of himself," Karin, I have a favor to ask you." The woman, who was now emptying the residual water that had been left in her bucket after finishing her laundry, perked up her head to listen to the blonde. Naruto took this as a sign that he had caught her attention, and decided to continue, this time a little more confident," Would you be willing to come to the Land of Whirlpools with me? I want to go and see what my homeland is like." He stated clearly. He then braced himself inwardly for the response he would receive, which, it turned out later, was a good response.

"Huh?" Karin replied, her voice displaying the disbelief she was feeling at Naruto's request. Naruto caught a small glint in her eye, further cementing how sure he felt about her heritage at the moment, and he allowed himself an inward smile. For a moment, she thought that her ears were playing tricks on her, but seeing the somehow astute expression on Naruto's face told her that she had definitely heard him right. The Land of Whirlpools,huh? Now that was a name she had not heard since eons ago. However, as much as the name of her old home brought back a slight sense of nostalgia, she did not want to leave the current happiness she was enjoying in Konoha, which was primarily due to Sasuke's company day in day out. Just the sight of his face daily was enough to put a smile on her face, and she realized, she was content with that.

"No," she responded to the blonde man bluntly, after finally wrapping her head around his ridiculous statement earlier. A small part of her mind, however, berated her inwardly for failing to catch on such an obvious fact earlier. The first time Naruto had been mentioned in the headquarters of the Akatsuki, at the moment, she had been focused on his status as a Jinchuuriki, and not him as an individual. She was sure the rest of her teammates had also failed to realize that the boy's surname was 'Uzumaki', save for Sasuke, of course. She, unlike him, had been aware of her heritage as an Uzumaki ever since she was a toddler, having spent some of her life in the land. Ever since her homeland was destroyed, she realized that she had chosen to completely block out all her memories and thoughts of her homeland, as they brought her more pain than happiness. However, being in the presence of someone who she had known for quite some time, she realized that she should have realized that the two were related sooner than now. The thought somehow made her feel ashamed of herself, but even then, she realized, she was not going to comply with his favor, since, she, unlike him, knew that there was nothing else left for her in that place.

Naruto's expression dropped at her reply, something she silently took note of. Of course, he realized, this would not be easy. He had to convince her completely to come with him, since if she came half heartedly, there would be no meaning to the trip at all. He decided to try again, this time his voice more hopeful and confident about what he wanted to request," Karin, please. I want to go see where my mother hailed from," Karin batted an eyelid at this, her hands now folded at her chest as she wondered what Naruto was going to say next since he seemed as if he was not about to give up yet and go back. "I recently met my mother, she was really pretty. Her name was Uzumaki Kushina," Naruto started to dabble on about his mother, caught up in the nostalgia he felt after remembering his mom, for what was the second time that day. Somehow the memory brought him joy anew each time he remembered it; it was his treasure.

Kushina. Karin echoed to herself inwardly. Now there was a name she also hadn't heard in a long time. Even while she was leagues away from her home, within Hidden Grass Village, she had gotten wind of that name on the tongues of a few of her fellow village mates at the time. Uzumaki Kushina, more commonly known as 'The Red Hot-Blooded Habanero', was a legendary name that was known across the Five Great Nations. The woman was one of the strongest kunoichi to have bloomed in the Ninja World, and to boot she was the wife to the Leaf's Hokage, The Yellow Flash. At first, Karin had been surprised to find out that the woman's surname was Uzumaki, bearing a similar one to her own, but when she heard that the woman sported a beautiful shade of red hair just like hers, she realized the rumors really had a bearing. She felt proud at this fact, realizing that one of her fellow clansmen had made a name for themselves in the Ninja World already, and a bloody good one at that. This gave her a little courage as she strived on her own path to being a Kunoichi. Nothing in the world, however, would have prepared her for the fact that the boy standing before her at that moment, recognized as the world's hero, Uzumaki Naruto, was Kushina's son.

Karin was reluctant to believe his story at first, but from what she could tell of Uzumaki Naruto so far, he seemed the type to never lie about such a sensitive matter. Much less, she had not sensed any disturbance in chakra from him, something that was always evident whenever one lied. So she had no choice rather than to believe him. For a moment, however, she realized that she had not been listening to him, only watching his mouth move and his hands sway in the air, trying to convince her to come with him. Deep in her thoughts, Karin realized that she was for the first time contemplating going back to a home that she had banished from her memories ages ago. Was it really worth it? She wondered to herself. Still, this time she would not be alone, she added on, since she would be in perfectly good company, and the company was actually going to be one of her relatives. This made Karin feel at ease. She closed her eyes, and huffed, releasing a small breath that displayed her doubts about this entire matter, and then opened them to meet Naruto's blue orbs once more. He seemed to have finished explaining himself to Karin, as he was now looking at her with an aura of tension around him, patiently waiting for her reply.

Ah. Whatever. Let's just get this thing done and done with.

"Okay, okay, Naruto, I'll come with you."

The vibrant smile that she witnessed on Naruto's face would remain an important part of her memory from that day forth.

A/N: To be continued.