She stays at the base for the night, trying her best not to overstay her welcome at the snake's den. Thankfully, Orochimaru was off somewhere else with Kabuto, and the man who managed the base shrugged her off and ordered her to stay in specific rooms and stay out of others.
Karin is… quiet to say the least. Withdrawn, shy and flinches at every touch. She's not very good at taijutsu, ninjutsu or genjutsu, but her chakra reserves were extraordinary. Tamako surmised that since her reserves were so large, she must have trouble manifesting her chakra in more finely-tuned exercises.
But when Karin shyly hands her back her inkwell full of potent chakra mixed finely with the ink, Tamako knew that this was her calling. Her own mix of ink and chakra was always subpar, just barely enough and hence created mediocre seals.
So, she sits on the floor in seiza of the private lounge, Karin taking non discrete glances and Sasuke on the other side of the room with his back leaning against the wall, feigning disinterest. She pushes back the sleeves and ties them up with a tasuki sash.
Spreading out the papers, she dips the brush into the rich inkwell and moves, her wrist following each loop and swirl, messily creating a seal she knew by heart. The main intent is nice and large, the lessers are brushed, but not without afterthought. Everything about Fūinjutsu required intent and purpose. Just writing without meaning, without deep into the thoughts could create a faulty seal, it was an art that required the utmost focus.
After a few seconds, she places the brush back into the inkwell, pulsing her chakra out to dry the ink. It's a simple AOE barrier-alarm seal, capable of alerting its user when someone walks into the range, silently. With the new ink, its range was nearly double and she sighed, Uzumaki chakra was just too potent.
Karin shuffles to her side, sliding into a simple lotus with wide eyes, "What is this? The chakra is so... intense, and it spreads out in warm waves." Of course it's Karin who can sense it, she's always been good at detecting chakra. Her eyes are curious, and for once, she doesn't mutter her words nor trailing off as if she were afraid Tamako would lash out.
"This is Fūinjutsu. What I made is a barrier seal, a simple one. It alerts the user when a presence bypasses the area. It's good when you need to set up camp." She carefully wraps the paper into a scroll, and hands it to the red-headed Uzumaki. "Take it, it was your chakra that created this."
The girl takes it gingerly, fingers afraid that one touch would rip the piece of art. "T-thank you..." She trails off, her face warm. Tamako pats the girl again with a smile, then grins harder at a specific thought.
"I can teach you."
Karin eyes widen, nearly dropping the seal and scrambles to keep it clenched lightly in her grubby hands. "I-i'm no good when it comes with jutsus..."
Tamako's arms cross, her palm holding her own chin, "Hm, I'm sure you'll take it like a fish to water. Don't you know? The Uzumaki were infamous for their Fūinjutsu." Then she patted the shorter girl's shoulder, "Remember, it was your chakra that created that."
So she overstays her welcome, teaching the red-headed Uzumaki everything she knows about Fūinjutsu. It didn't surprise her that after just a few lessons, Karin's imagination and inherent talent surpassed her own skills, solving her stasis seal in just weeks after the first lesson. It's a good seal, something that Tamako's low caliber could never make.
Tamako brute-forced her way into Fūinjutsu, her intents often not matching which resulted in a lower-quality seal, but Karin's seal was good. In a year, they could be masterful.
Each lesson is ironically accompanied by the silent Uchiha, keenly interested in Fūinjutsu, but not quite having the same talent as Karin. It bothered the Uchiha more than he liked, that something so small and weak could beat him, but after Tamako's words that Fūinjutsu was a dead art that required either innate talent or a good teacher, he relented. But that didn't stop him from learning the basics, and he was ingenious with his thinking, and good at poems.
His new wrist-band had a small seal that he painstakingly copied from Karin's masterful one, squeezing the characters as small as he could with his Sharingan and sealed a few shuriken and kunai. It's something she recognized Sasuke would obtain during his Taka era, but she shrugged, the early development would be handy anyways.
Slowly, Tamako incorporates the red-headed girl into their spars, in the beginning she's not so good. Her arms flailed when the either two got too close, tripping on her own feet and sometimes outright passing out when the Uchiha just got a little too close. It was cute, this little puppy love crush.
She had a soft spot for Karin, watching the girl slowly leave her shell and be more confident of herself. Karin had began to wear long flowy sleeves, not as long or oversized as Tamako but she could see the inspiration just by the small red hue on her cheeks. Eventually, Karin get better at her chakra chains, incorporating seals that absorb a bit of her sea of chakra and outputs it when she spikes her chakra, releasing an air-blast that literally blows Tamako away into a tree.
It's only by luck and quick reflexes that the periwinkle haired girl maneuvers fast enough and lands sideways on the tree with a massive grin. Sasuke is not so lucky, skidding back on the dirt before twisting his palm into the ground and lands on his feet heavily. There's a nasty glare on his face and he pushes forward. In seconds, he has a kunai to her throat and the spar ends.
The Uchiha grumbles and Karin's face is a mix of both joy and horror.
Tamako laughs.
. . .
After two months, she's figured that any longer she'll get gutted by Orochimaru and she leaves. Karin has her in this embrace and begs her not to go, asks her to join Orochimaru so they could stay together, learn together and fight together. There's warm tears in her eyes.
Sasuke is indifferent, he knows she'll be back eventually, and not stupid enough to off herself. He crosses his arm and nods in her direction.
Tamako nods back before turning her attention back to the slobbering Uzumaki. They were always so emotional. She returns the embrace and softly pats her back, "Don't worry, Karin." She pulls away and slightly bends down to meet her eyes. Tamako has always been tall for her age, and Karin has always been a little too short. "We will meet again."
Karin sniffles, her sleeves moving up to rub her eyes and in the process, her glasses move up her face. Tamako adjusts her glasses one last time and smiles. "You two, take care of each other, okay?"
The two had a peculiar relationship. At times, it looked like Sasuke could barely tolerate the Uzumaki, recoiling at every slight touch and averting his eyes. Her exuberant attitude during Fūinjutsu lessons must remind him of Naruto. Her bright coloring of Sakura. The three, last time she had seen them all together, were on good terms. Good teamwork, no doubt from her own meddling during Team 7 vs Gaara.
Karin on the other hand, was smitten. She confided in the periwinkle haired girl of how wonderful his chakra felt. It was the aftermath of forest-fires and pillowing clouds ready to pop, thundering about. The calm after the storm. His chakra was smooth, fiery during battle and sometimes warm when he enjoyed himself in training. The girl said all of that with red splattered on her cheeks as she laid down on the two futons pushed together. "I wish he would smile at me."
Tamako felt sorry for the girl at times. What Sasuke would do to Karin in the future, and sometimes of how he was nearly incapable of understanding his own feelings when his one-minded goal consumed him. His curse-mark had only made him darker, but Sasuke was still in there, somewhere. Recoverable, savable, but only redeemable when given the chance.
But she's watched the boy for a while. He cared too much at sometimes and the boy knew it, that's why he left. The gazes he held towards Naruto, the burning look he gave to his rival and enabled every argument, every fight and every competition because it took his mind off his worries. His harsh gaze that would always soften at the back of Sakura's head, eyes trailing at the locks. He always let her sit beside him without protest, and he didn't know why.
Tamako's eyes glazed over at her thoughts before shaking her head, smiling at the Uchiha.
Sasuke huffs at her words and turns away, retreating back to the snake's den and Karin nods furiously. The Uzumaki wasn't allowed to stay outside without the Avenger by her side, so she sniffs one more time and retreats back to the snake's den.
At the sight of bright red and pitch black disappearing, she turns on her heel and shunshins away. Her time at the south-base of Orochimaru was well-spent. Sasuke was a good sparring partner and Karin ended up being much more useful than she realized, completing her seals, improving them and ensuring that Tamako wouldn't need to spend years on completing any seal hypothesis and brute forcing the art.
Plus, she had plenty of photos to share with Itachi. He would like it, paint-smeared Sasuke was equally cute and scary, she would never forget his red-piercing eyes that narrowed, but just once glance at his cheek choked a chuckle out of her.
She enjoyed bonding with the younger versions of the characters she loved, and soon enough, this world will force everyone to grow up, murder, maim and kill. It's just a shame she couldn't bask in this small hint of innocence just a little longer.
Her feet dragged her across the continent, visiting counties she's never heard of and landscapes she wished she could paint herself. The overflowing rice patties, the skyscraping snow mountains to the murky wetlands to the east. It's calming, if not a little lonely.
She saves a remote village from drought, casting a light suiton that softly rained down onto their barren fields. Crafting a well with a doton, spewing suiton down the hole and placing one of Karin's seal that draws moisture from the surrounding air and ground and deposits it back in the well in slow drips. These villagers had never met shinobi, their location between two mountains had cut them off from most traveling merchants, and location to be unimportant.
They call her goddess, bowing at her feet but she quickly corrects, "Shinobi."
Tamako stays in the village for a few more days, teaching a young boy, just a few years younger than her, how to climb trees so he could gather bird eggs, reach the fruit high in the air and scale the mountains for rare herbs.
She watches with a haze at the blue windows at each generous act, her negative reputation slowly decreasing and waves it off. After three more days, she embarks, crossing lands that were unmapped and messily continues the map herself. It feels almost self-healing.
She's a poor sketcher, her pencil not so fitting her hand as well as a brush, but she makes do. Tamako crosses more mountains, past a desert that reminds her of a bygone home and creates shelter from doton to shield people from a long sandstorm. It wouldn't be wise to stay out in weather where she could get lost, so she stays with the nomadic group she's found.
They are wary of her at first, hearing tales of the destruction that shinobi bring to the lands where she claims to hail, but they slowly warm up when she shelters them, creates drinkable water and lights a small fire to keep warm during the sandy nights. Desert nights were cold, colder than Yuki at times.
These nomads soon gift her a beautiful bracelet that she keeps close. The sandstorm doesn't let up for another six more days, but she teaches an older girl the basics of a minor suiton before leaving at dawn, quietly like a ghost.
She reaches the capital of a foreign country, its large and bustling, the citizens here have sharper noses and features, and Tamako realizes that she's no longer close to the Elemental Nations. The people here treat her like an exotic animal, peering when they think she isn't looking. Her features must be rare, and she's always been an orientalist beauty, checking off the marks of traditional beauty back home. Here, she's almost alluring to the point of kidnapping.
On a quiet night at a hotel she's paid with a shouton created jewel, all sparkly and beautiful with its sharp cuts, and three people sneak into her room. She's awake and alert, more curious than afraid.
So she lets them throw a blanket over her head, wrapping her body in another and cover her mouth. They sneak her out through the window and launch into the air, no doubt chakra being used.
They fly through the air for a while and she stays limp on someone's shoulder. These men snicker, speaking derogatory terms that she still hasn't picked up yet. The language they spoke was similar to English and German, so she got the general gist.
They deposit her onto the ground harshly, metal biting into her shoulder and the impact shoved air out of her lungs. She could hear whimpers and the like before a screeching shut of a metal door. A clink sounds out from the door being locked, and the pounding footsteps fade away.
Slowly, she feels a small chakra reserve approach her, reaching for the bag over her head and tearing it off like it was a common motion. Her eyes are glazed first and settled quickly. She meets brown eyes that are teary, eyebags apparent.
The girl reaches over to her binds and loosens them, they fall to the ground.
Tamako rubs her wrists before glancing around her.
There are many women huddled in the back corner of this cell. The woman who freed her looks no older than sixteen, Tamako herself fifteen now. She grimaces at the young girls who are completely filthy, noting that one girl seemed to be only twelve, her hair matted with dark eyes.
"Thank you." She says awkwardly, still trying to twist her tongue in a way she hasn't for decades. The woman, now that she has a better look, smiles. Her hair is dark, her skin tanned and her eyes are a deep shade of chocolate brown. She's beautiful, almost like a lady. Her clothes are tattered, but beautiful aqua blue is embroidered at the edges, still unfrayed.
She must've been here for less than a week, then.
The woman speaks in another language, not quite the English-German of this nation, something closer to Arabic from her last life. It's not quite there, possibly closer to Hebrew, or even Yiddish. Tamako knows the two languages are sematic languages, meaning just as close English and German are, or French and Spanish.
She tries anyway, "Thanks." She says in Arabic. It's one of the few words she's memorized in Arabic, from bygones of post-secondary education.
The woman's eyes brighten, rapid fire spitting words faster than Tamako could process, and she grabs the woman's shoulders and shakes her head. "No." Then points at herself, "No."
The woman deflates, but she understands what she means.
Then she turns to another woman, she has wavy blonde hair, pale blue eyes and red lips. She's shaking, her dress stained and her high-heel sandals almost falling apart. She must've been kidnapped tonight, just like her.
Slowly, she approaches and the woman watches her with a wide gaze, not trusting her so much. "W-what do you want?" The blonde says shakily, this time in a mix of German and English, perhaps even Dutch. She understands. Simple phrases like these are almost familiar to her.
There's a cut on her knee, no doubt from when they threw her in here. Slowly, she says, "Me." and pauses a little, "Help."
She knows that these two words in all three languages are similar enough, and the woman slowly nods, scrunching at her accent. She crawls to the woman, careful not to frighten her. Palms over the scape and they grow green.
Instantly, the dark cell glows from her Medical Ninjutsu, reflecting against her dark eyes and illuminates the small surrounding. The woman around her gasp, backing up fearfully before itching slowly when the wound recedes into smooth skin.
She bats away the level-up screen of the foreign language, now able to understand just a little better. "Thank you so much." The blonde says, "Can you ecpsae?" Tamako frowns at the word, her minding linking it with escape. She nods quietly.
She walks to the cell bars, blowing a small but beautiful butterfly past the bars and out with one-hand sign to focus. She urged the butterfly to fly close to the ceiling and by the shadows, mapping out the underground building they found themselves in. Her kidnappers are at the end of the hall, laughing and drunk playing some sort of card game. Their cheeks are red with alcohol andtheir chakra moving slow like molasses. They seemed untrained, their chakra potency low, almost genin level or even academy level.
Past them are some stairs and a doorway, her butterfly barely squeezing past the slightly opened door that revealed an alleyway to a still busy main street. She cuts her chakra hold on the butterfly, feeling the little creation splutter and disappear like puppet strings snapping.
Her hands glows into her favorite bastardized chakra scalpel, it's perfect for silently cutting metal, and slowly her hands swipe at the bars, watching her cut melt the iron before the whole cell is separated. She quickly holds the loose bar, setting it to the side and oversteps into the hall. Still silent, she creeps closer hugging the shadows and forms a few handsigns into the only genjutsu she was proficient in.
Light feathers fall around the men, their eyes are dreary and slowly close, succumbing to sleep that came so easily with the alcohol. Once they're asleep, she ties the three together and throws them into an empty cell, locking it.
Then, she turns to the woman huddled behind her.
It's strange that just three men are capable of all of this, and while she was aware this was a civilian capital, these people must not have a deep grasp of chakra as did the Elemental Nations. There was a larger group at hand, and these three were merely workers.
She slid open the door, peering at each side and signaled the woman to quickly leave, they flood the street and quickly gained the attention of nearby police. Some girls are crying, others are so relieved they fall to their knees. Before any could point in her direction, she shunshins away. The local police can deal with this nonsense trafficking.
Tamako departs from the capital after purchasing a few items she found interesting, a little soldier nutcracker with a large green hat, a wood carving of a horse with wheels for hooves and even a children's book that spoke of a pale sage who held six pure black spheres that hovered above his palm. It's an interesting story, how he pilgrimages around the world to save and teach the common folk of connecting oneself with many. It's a children's story about love, connections and family, but Tamako knew this book was referring to Ninshu.
Her feet sent her to many lands, but she never gave up contact with either of the Uchiha brothers nor Pein, who accepted her monthly reports via messenger. Her clones kept her in detail about the events of the Elemental Nations, often sending messages in her steed.
The boiled wurst she ate on the road wasn't so bad, but she definitely missed the spices of Suna and the warm foods of Konoha. The sashimi in the Wave and the pickled bamboo from Iwa.
She wanted to go home.
. . .
Tamako was sixteen when her feet crossed the border. It was a long one year journey back and forth, but each strange experience and new lessons warmed her heart. It was nice to just explore and train with new scenery everyday. She's met new people, experienced foreign yet familiar cultures and nearly lost her resolve when a young girl asked if she could live with them.
The Elemental Countries are constantly in conflict, the nations she visited also had their problems but it was so easy to forget the uphill battle that would only get harder. Her return was necessary.
She's learned a lot, her skill levels increased, worldly view expanded and she could feel all the wisdom skill points she received like it was candy. It felt easier to mold her chakra, it took less CP for each action and increased her chakra control to the ninetieth percentile.
Each step, she could ripple chakra to the ground and feel the environment, map out the area around for a few meters. More aware of the sounds of the humming bees, the morning chirps of the birds and the light clash of a nearby stream.
No, her journey was needed.
She's always been wondering about why she was doing all of this. Pity for the Uchiha, yes. Pity for the deaths and misleading Black Zetsu who shaped the Elemental Countries history like a shogi game.
Her resolve hardened, her fist clenching, yes, she knew what she was here for.
She will kill Black Zetsu.
A screech of a hawk breaks her thoughts, and she lets the winged beast land on her arm. On its talon, it clutches a scroll. Carefully, she retrieves the scroll and offhandedly throws the last of her wrust at the creature, and unravels it.
It's Sasuke, she's not sure how his hawk was able to find her, since she's been only sending messages and not receiving them for the past year, but she shrugs it off. Perhaps he taught his hawk messenger to memorize a few chakra signatures and the poor animal had been flying for months.
The scroll had one character in the middle. Soon.
She pats the hawk silently and throws it into the sky, watching it disappear into the skyline.
She claps her hands into the rat sign, forming two falcons that flew into two different locations. One for Itachi, the other for Gaara.
. . .
It's midday when Gaara finishes up a meeting with the Council. Lady Chiyo in particular was especially harsh that day and the rest of the Council followed her lead. It took the combined force of him, Kankuro and Temari to finally dissuade the older woman from raising a particular bounty, and she quickly shuts up after they mentioned her estranged grandson.
He sat at his desk with a heavy sigh as Temari smirked, "Tired, little brother?"
"Very." He sounded out, he hasn't slept so well recently with the Ichibi being particularly disagreeable the past few days.
His relationship with his siblings had considerably been repaired after two and half years, and it took equally as long for his people to trust him. There were a few who were unhappy with his rise as Kazekage last year, but there was no one more powerful than Gaara to take up the mantle. The Kazekage position had to be filled to ensure that no other Village got any silly ideas.
Then he froze, sand rising in apprehension and Temari slammed down her giant fan onto the floor, ready to blast inside the building. He held up his hand to stop her from doing anything drastic, feeling the chakra getting closer. It was familiar, but small.
It flew straight into his office, landing on his desk with a tilt to its head. A crystal falcon. It was beautiful with giant jewels for eyes. It flapped its wings into the air but didn't lift off, drawing the two's attention.
It perked its head to the side one more time in such a bird manner that Gaara almost assumed it was a real bird encased in crystal like some cruel joke, then it head-dove into the floor. Instantly, it shattered, and Gaara raised sand to block his sister from any potential attacks.
The sand slowly receded back to the ground when he noticed the crystal shards formed characters on the floor.
Dawn approaches at dusk.
Silent as a river, aided by the beaver.
At night, they pounce.
For a meal of a Tanuki would be all too sweet.
The two freeze at the words, it was a simple poem. It was not misleading in its message and not as arbitrary as its writer.
"Dawn approaches at dusk." Temari states slowly, her eyes peeled at the poem. It was almost obvious. They'd been keeping track of information such as this with the help of Konoha. In fact, this very group has been the bane of her existence since she's learn of their increased activity. "She refers to the Akatsuki."
Gaara crouched low, repeating each line silently, then again out-loud. "The Akatsuki arrives at Suna with the help of a beaver?"
Temari's eyes narrow, "Beaver's are native to Konoha. They create dams that are sometimes good for the local environment, other times not."
This was a riddle that called for Temari. How did their long-gone friend know of the older girl's diplomatic exchanges? She hasn't been seen in years. Not a single sight.
Then, Temari snaps to him, "The river could mean Suna's sand dunes. We don't have rivers, and our sand dunes often flow like a river." She points at the character for beaver, "The beaver creates the dams. Does she mean Sunagakure's cliffs that protect the village?"
Gaara's eyes widened, it makes sense. But what are the beavers? They create these dams, nest in them for protection, just like our cliffs. They watch over the dams—
He snaps his head to his sister, "Shinobi. The beavers mean shinobi. Our ancestors created those cliffs to protect the village." He was close, he was missing something. What did she mean by aid?
"Beaver. Only one beaver. That means one shinobi." Temari slams her fan to the ground, "Spy! She means we have a spy in our ranks!"
"Then, the Akatsuki arrive at Suna by dusk with the help of a spy. After the sun sets, they will attack... me?" Gaara finishes his words with confusion. The Ichibi took the form of a tanuki, as did the Kyuubi with kitsune and the Matatabi of a neko.
"Gaara, we need to increase the guards. If what she says is true, the Akatsuki will attack today."
He frowns at her words. He knew that they would come eventually, having known about them since the debrief with Konoha and their encounter with Uchiha Itachi and Kisame for Naruto. But why would Tamako warn them? She was no longer a Suna Shinobi, and how did she know?
That old friend was only a memory to him, but a deep stain on both Kankuro and Temari. Tamako's former teammates were interrogated for months, and only released after Temari had vouched for their character. No one really understood that girl, who many believed would take the mantle of Kazekage after his father. She was under tutelage and had great expectations. Maybe it was those expectations that made her snap and spy on her own village. But why? She was perfectly set up to inherit the position, and she threw it all away because she dug too far, knew too much, and was too suspicious.
Everything was too suspicious, but he had a village to protect. They would go after him, in the middle of the city. He had to prepare. "Temari, assign more jounin at the border of the entrance, assign a few more to the rooftops."
He was the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure, he would do anything to protect his people, just as Naruto had preached. He has his precious people to protect, he had to protect Temari and Kankuro, and those two would not stand if he was kidnapped.
He will not fail.
Character Status
Name: Tamako
Class: The Gamer
Age: 16 Years Old
Title: Momma's Little Gem
Status: Motivated
Level: 379
HP: 18,560- HP Regen: 1 per 1 seconds
CP: 16,995- CP Regen: 1 per 1 seconds
Strength: 307
Vitality: 399
Wisdom: 435
Intelligence: 396
Dexterity: 401
Agility: 400
Luck: 380
Fame/Infamy: -2100
Sunagakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Konohagakure Genin acknowledges you and hunting you
Yukigakure no Sato Appreciates you
Money: 15,783,370 ryo
Unspent Points: 410
Author Note
I wanted to try my hand on something different, and I was always curious of the world beyond Elemental Nations. Sorry it it stretched a little too much or was a little too ambitious.
And yes, I'm rewriting Karin, its such a shame that Kishimoto created all of these girls and just forgot about them and gave the same personality copy 'n paste with a little sprinkles.