Chapter 4

[Karin]

She could almost hear Kazuhiro's teeth grinding against each other as he continued evading Yota's attacks. The black-haired boy wasn't even trying to approach him this time. Instead, he continued throwing fire from his hands at the clan heir without stopping, not giving Kazuhiro any room to breathe. It was the best approach he had against the blonde, since he had chakra to last forever and that way he barely needed to demand anything from his fragile body.

It grated on her, but not participating in the spar made things much easier for the two of them. Yota didn't need to move to try and keep her out of things, which meant that his stamina problems didn't hinder him as much. Kazuhiro didn't need to cover for her so that she wasn't burned by the flames either. Instead, they could focus on each other and the spar, giving it their all.

Resolutely, she turned towards the dummy she was practicing basic katas from a style that Kazuhiro had provided scrolls for. In the blonde's words, no teammate of his would use basic Academy style. So, she continued training against the thing, punching it, kicking it and more while also keeping herself moving. The style was, after all, a more widely spread version of the one Kazuhiro used.

A disengage style, basically, mostly used by people that were range fighters. She wasn't, but she wasn't considered a fighter at all, so she was training to stay out of the fight entirely and leave things to the other two. She was there to be support, and the least she could do was not hinder them.

It hurt, but she'd admit that they weren't wrong.

"Keep those legs light, Red," their teacher told her "helpfully" from the tree she was resting under. A book in hand and a nice refreshing drink beside her while a stoic woman in Kazuhiro's clan clothes fanned her.

Apparently, Yota and Kazuhiro had figured out a way to get their self-proclaimed not-sensei to do something other than watch from a distance. It was just a matter of simple bribery. Waggle some nice clothes or food in front of her and the woman would be all too happy to throw pointers here and there. Or insults. Sometimes a mix of both.

"Is the illustrious heir going to keep dodging forever?" the menace of a woman asked loudly to the sparring pair, before drinking obnoxiously loud from the straw on her drink.

Karin didn't hear him, but just by the way his presence in her sense shifted, she was sure that he was growling. Regardless, when he dodged the next fireball, he seemed to decide to hear that piece of "advice". A quick, short series of hand signs later, Kazuhiro was throwing thin lines of lightning towards Yota.

Lightning Senbon, probably with his clan's Solid Chakra technique applied to them for extra annoyance. A deceptively simple Technique from the Kiyoshi Clan, that was. From what little she knew, it was basically the use of Yang chakra in a jutsu in a special way so that the Jutsu itself gained mass and tangibility. Simple on paper, but extremely complex in execution given that it basically meant restructuring a whole jutsu and maintaining stability even when the Yang chakra offsetted the Yin one.

It proved its worth though, as the jutsu projectiles pierced right through the flames, like a needle going through a balloon. Seeing the Lightning Senbon come his way, Yota was naturally forced to move to dodge them. Not a terribly complicated task, but enough of one that it gave the clan heir a moment to breathe.

Karin cursed when she felt chakra coming her way from Yota. A fist-sized fireball had been thrown her way when he dodged, apparently, forcing her to move this time. It was part of the training. Occasionally, one of the two would send a weak attack her way. It was meant to keep her aware of her surroundings at all times and get her used to keeping an eye on her sensing, which she wasn't used to doing.

After all, until recent times, all she'd been expected to do was be bitten, either by her previous team or by patients at the hospital.

"Head in the game, Red. Come on," Himari called loudly to her, making her grit her teeth this time. As if she didn't have a hard enough time training taijutsu and keeping her metaphorical eyes open for random threats, she also had to deal with the annoyance of a teacher. She didn't complain though, she never did. Karin knew she was weak, a liability, even before she'd been told as much.

So, she would do all she could to make sure that she stopped being one.

"And back on the backfoot the heir was. Are you doing ok, Kazu? Do you need help?" Himari asked then, being deliberately patronizing. Karin didn't need her sensing to know that she'd probably struck one of the biggest nerves Kazuhiro had. His pride.

"I-" the boy said, being interrupted by having to dodge another myriad of fireballs. Yota seemed to have decided that if power was not going to cut it, then he would just throw numbers at the problem. A storm of fist sized fireballs coming out of his hands in volleys without rest. "Don't patroni-!" he didn't get to finish before dodging again with a growl.

Karin already knew they would start fighting again after the spar. Their "teacher" seemed to find amusement in poking their resident clan heir buttons. Even more than the rest of them, which was saying something.

Keeping her eyes firmly on the dummy as she continued training herself, Karin turned her attention – through her sensing – towards Yota when he seemingly went through a longer series of hand signs. Apparently, he either decided to change things up or he'd gotten Kazuhiro where he wanted.

Immediately after, he threw a Great Fireball, which Karin wasn't sure could be called that, really. She'd seen the jutsu once or twice used by other people. Yota made those look like they were a whole rank below his. He didn't stop at that though, going through hand signs again.

Kazuhiro managed to get out of the way of the fire wave that was somehow called fireball. However, Yota wasn't done just yet, having used the Flame Burst jutsu from his hands, as he often did. The black-haired boy propelled himself right on Kazuhiro and she felt the realization dawn on the blonde a second before the pain of Yota's punch, solid and precise.

"You are losing~" Himari sing-songed from the side and she wasn't wrong. Karin had seen enough spars to know when they were leaning more towards one of the two. Yota getting a solid hit of any kind was one such case.

Kazuhiro managed to power through the pain and disorientation by using some kind of fire jutsu that transformed the floor under him into raising spikes. Yota disengaged quickly, understandably unwilling to be pierced by the spikes. He might have an abnormal resistance to fire due to his chakra nature, but the clan technique of the Kiyoshi made the threat of being speared by those things very real all the same.

Still, even though he managed to get Yota away from him, it was obvious to everyone around that the damage was already done. She was fairly sure that Kazuhiro's nose was broken already and it was only a matter of time before the fight leaned completely towards the apparent victor. That turned out to be the right prediction too. A few minutes and about half a dozen small attacks thrown her way later, the spar was over.

When that happened, Karin found herself surprised by the fact that Kazuhiro decided to heal himself with Healing Arts instead of just biting her, again. Since that first day when they met, he had never asked for her to heal him. Neither had Yota, for that matter. It was kind of… weird.

"All I'm saying is that if you had decided to man up and attack like you meant it-"

"Your brutish brain might not understand this, but there are more intricacies to a battle than just rushing forwards and cutting things," Kazuhiro answered their not-teacher.

"...and how did those work out for you?" the woman said with a smirk. Making their leader – a self-proclaimed position, but neither Yota nor Karin herself had disputed the claim – growl all over again like a grumpy dog. Not that Karin would ever call him that to his face. He was scary enough as it was, she didn't want to make him even more so.

"Um," Karin tried to start, instantly drawing into herself when both Himari and Kazuhiro turned towards her. They'd been at it for quite a few minutes since the spar ended and, well… "I need to get to the hospital soon for my shift," she mumbled, uncertainly. At least she was grateful for Yota's less intense presence, because the other two made her want to just disappear every time they focused on her.

"... The mission should come before anything else," Kazuhiro said, frowning as if he didn't quite understand. "Why are you still working there? All secondary duties should have been called off by now."

"I… It's my duty. It's… what I'm good for," Karin said, shrugging. Once more, she saw Himari pull back from the team as she had from the beginning, basically saying that they were on their own. Her expression shifted to that placid calm she'd displayed at the training grounds where they met and she moved to lean against a wooden support on the veranda to their side. "I can't just stop."

Kazuhiro was very clearly not pleased with that. His mouth opened to say something but was interrupted before he could speak.

"But," Yota's muffled voice reached them and, as it often did, it called for all their attention. After all, he hardly ever spoke and when he did, it was always because he felt it was important. "Do you want to?" he asked, tilting his head and looking at her with his weary red eyes.

"... I have to," she repeated, trying to put as much will as she could in those words. All that got out of the black-haired boy was a hum as he continued staring at her for a long moment. His eyes went to Kazuhiro for a moment and they seemed to have an unspoken conversation for a second. Ultimately, he seemed to let the matter go, relaxing and nodding. Before turning his gaze back to her.

"I'll go too," he said simply then.

"I can go by myself," she started arguing, but the boy simply fixed her with another red-eyed stare.

"Check up," he said, and she felt it. She felt that he was lying, but he continued looking straight at her. He was daring her to call him out on it. She didn't, because then she was sure he'd call her out on her lie if she did.

"I- Uhm. The team meeting. I'm sure that, even if I am not here, you two could probably-"

"I will be putting that on hold. I also have other matters to attend to this evening. We will modify our schedule for tomorrow," Kazuhiro ordered them and then made a signal towards a stoic servant, who bowed and disappeared in a blink. "The gate guards will be informed of you two retiring early for the day."

"Let's go," Yota said beside her.

"I… I guess we should… yeah," she mumbled, unsure of what else to do. In the end, the two of them just walked out shortly after and started moving towards the hospital. She wasn't sure what to make of that whole interaction, she'd admit. She wasn't sure what to make of her team either, even after spending several days with them preparing and training.

At that point, Karin was starting to think she never would make up a solid opinion on them.

That seemed to be the way of things so far.

[}-o-{]

The walk from the Kiyoshi clan's compound to the hospital was… fine, Karin supposed.

A little awkward, but otherwise it was fine. Yota was always pretty quiet, so over the days she'd sort of gotten used to being in his presence and the slightly uncomfortable silence. It was still very much that though, but at least Karin didn't find herself panicking to try and fill the void in conversation or making things worse by asking stupid questions that would require too long an answer for Yota to actually reply to.

She almost wanted to tell the boy that he didn't have to come with her, but she knew she couldn't. Nor could she say anything along those lines, really. If she did, they'd be stuck in the situation they were in before leaving the Kiyoshi clan's place. He'd call her bluff if she tried to make him leave, she knew. A part of her though, was almost tempted to go for it anyway.

She didn't like working at the hospital, after all. The boy wasn't wrong about that. However, she couldn't stop going. She knew that if she did, the people would look for her and drag her back. It was how it had always been. Even when she was on leave because of mission wounds.

So, instead of saying anything, Karin just continued walking until they reached the place.

"There you are," Zoshi called almost immediately after she entered the hospital. His rough voice made her flinch, especially because he was in a foul mood. She didn't get why though, since she wasn't even late. However, he was almost always like that. There was no point arguing or trying to reason with the man. "There's patients waiting for you. Where were you?"

"Training."

Karin blinked.

It hadn't been her that answered, after all. Instead, it had been the muffled voice of Yota from beside her. The unexpected development gave Zoshi, her Jounin handler at the hospital, pause. The man frowned, but Karin was surprised to see that he didn't tell the boy to fuck off or something of the sort.

"She's part of my team now," Yota continued and Karin was surprised to notice no sluggishness in his voice. It was firm in a way that she'd never heard it before. "She was training with me and Kazuhiro Kiyoshi. You might have heard of him."

Karin blinked at her teammate. Not because of what he was saying, but because of the way he was saying it. There were no pauses, no coughs, no breathy voice. He spoke like anyone else would have and she was surprised by that.

Then she realized…

'Is he forcing himself to speak like that?'

"We have an important mission on behalf of Kusagakure itself and she has to focus on that," Yota continued, staring at Zoshi with his blood red, unnerving eyes. Karin wasn't even the target of the glare and she almost wanted to inch away from him all the same. And she thought Himari and Kazuhiro were intense… "And she will, without repercussions, or we'll go to the Village Chief."

For the first time, the boy paused. He breathed deeply then, filling the hospital's entrance with the rough sound of the air harshly going through the filters on his mask. Then Yota tilted his head to the side.

"Was that clear?"

"... Yes," Zoshi answered, sounding like he wanted nothing else than to gnash his teeth together and punch Yota. He did neither thing, but he looked far from pleased.

Karin could only look in awe from the side. That was the first time she'd seen Zoshi back down like that. Especially when she was involved. Yota wasn't done with just that though, no.

The boy then turned towards Karin herself.

"I'll be around, yeah?" he told her, his voice back to the normal, slow, softer and rougher tone she was used to.

"... Y-Yeah," she answered, still processing what she'd just witnessed.

To that, Yota simply nodded before turning and giving Zoshi one last look. Sure enough, when he started walking again, he didn't go out the hospital door. Instead, he moved towards one of the side halls and disappeared inside the building.

After watching him leave though, Karin turned towards Zoshi, dreading his mood now that her teammate was gone. To her surprise, however, the man's face twitched into several emotions that she picked up on easily through her sensing, anger, frustration and many others flickered through his chakra… But ultimately he did nothing.

"Well, are you going to stand there all day?" he asked her, narrowing his eyes. Not what one would call kind, by any means, but that was downright fluffy when it came to him when he was in a mood. Karin simply shook her head and moved to get to work without saying anything.

As the time passed while she either applied medicine, used Healing Arts or, in many instances, was forced to let others bite her, she had to wonder what was up with Yota. Why had he decided to come with her and do that? Kazuhiro even looked like he was in on all that too. Was she missing something?

She was training as hard as she could and even if they helped her with the hospital, that didn't mean that she could just not go. So, that was training time wasted anyway. Why would either of them bother doing something like that? It made no sense and it just had her mind going over that again and again through her day.

As she worked though, she noticed something interesting.

Yota was still in the hospital. After spending time around the boy as she had, it'd become downright impossible to miss that massive concentration of chakra. Not only was it comparable to most Jounin around, but it was also very distinctive in its fiery nature. She might have missed it whenever she did bother to do anything other than treat injuries before, but now that she was paying attention to her sense more and she knew him, she couldn't miss Yota if she tried.

Same went for Kazuhiro, really.

That was how, at the end of her shift, exhausted and grimacing from the lingering pain of bites, Karin's curiosity got the better of her. Instead of leaving to get home, she found herself moving through the hospital halls in the direction of the miniature sun she could pick up on with her sensing. Slowly, she got closer and closer, going to a part of the hospital she'd never gone to or she didn't remember going to, at least.

Usually, Karin would simply stay on the shinobi side of things, mostly on the Chunin and Jounin wings. Genin and civilians were considered to be beneath the use of something as useful as her bloodline, after all. So, all that wing of the hospital might as well be another village for all that she knew about it. That was the main reason why it took her a little bit to get to her destination, seeing as she took the wrong corridor once or twice. Her sense didn't tell her the path there, after all, simply telling her where Yota was in relation to where she was.

Ultimately, she did manage to get there.

When she reached the room Yota seemed to be in, she noticed that he seemed to be surrounded by very weak chakra signatures, some in pain, some ill. She frowned though, because most of them were too weak. Or, maybe it was better to say that they were too small instead of weak. There was less chakra in them than she had seen in… Well, most people, really.

Eventually, she found herself peeking through the thankfully already open door and she was given an answer to the small mystery of those chakra pools. They were kids, spread all over the room. Some were sitting on beds, some were on the floor and some others were on actual seats. Then there was Yota, on the floor with a boy hanging on and looking over his shoulder and a girl sitting on his lap. All of them looked anywhere between three or four to… nine, at most, Karin would guess.

They were all sick, or wounded, she also noticed. Some had IVs connected to them, some had bandages wrapped around them. There was a boy sitting on a wheelchair to Yota's side. On one of the beds laid a girl with an oxygen mask on her face. Even if she couldn't see all that though, she'd have noticed after thoroughly checking on their chakra with her sense too. No wonder they seemed so small and weak to her sense.

Her eyes found themselves very easily attracted to what Yota was doing, with one of his hands extended forward and a fire bigger than his head dancing over it. It was literally dancing at that, the licking flames seemed to twist and turn into actual, very defined shapes. There were people and creatures peeking through the fire as if the flames were a window to another dimension.

Then, with a wave of the boy's hand, the fire turned into a bird, mock-flying over his palm as it "glided" this or that way without actually moving. Karin picked up on the fact that every change was caused by a request from one of the children around her teammate too. That went on for a while, although she wasn't paying too much attention to the passage of time, really. At some point she just leaned against the wall outside the room and simply continued watching as the boy she'd seen be able to turn entire training spaces into hellscapes made a small fire dance for children.

Through her observation – or spying, depending on how one looked at it – she noticed something else that caught her attention. The boy hanging from Yota's shoulders seemed to take out a band aid and stick it to her teammate's neck. Then he left, leaving the spot for another of the children, who ended up doing the same thing somewhere else after several minutes.

"No wounds," Yota had told her that first day and it seemed that Karin had found the answer to one mystery regarding the black-haired boy. It wasn't the only one though, far from it. Because the girl on his lap held the answer to another once she actually paid attention to what she was doing.

After all, she didn't seem to be looking at the fire, interestingly enough. No, instead, she was looking down at something she held in her hands. Yota's hand as it turned out. The girl seemed to, very slowly, very carefully, be painting the nails of Karin's teammate with the same mate black color she'd seen before. 'And that's where that comes from, I guess,' she noted to herself. Curiously, she observed the girl for a little longer though, because she was no stranger to painting nails and there was no need to go that slowly-

'She's blind,' Karin realized after observing the girl for a few minutes.

It was… a bittersweet picture indeed, one that only got more so the more she looked at it and the more she went over it in her head. Because, she could easily understand how it had all come to be. Yota was, after all, one of those children himself, even if he was older and a ninja. Karin could imagine him, younger, sitting there in that bed where the girl had the oxygen mask on, and she could do so with no trouble at all.

Had Yota grown there, in that room or one similar? She imagined he had, from what little she knew of him. He seemed to always have had that condition, from what she picked up from comments made by Kazuhiro and Himari. Karin had never dared to ask the boy himself, but it wasn't necessary, she supposed.

'And I'm kind of intruding, I think,' she told herself entirely too late as she slowly backed away and left from where she came from.

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: Awww~

Arc: Who would have thought that indoctrinated murder machines could have feelings?

Karin: Yeah, who would- Wait, what?

Adrian: And there was a solid training scene before that, giving some more details about our two boys and Karin's training.

Karin: Wait, can we talk about th-

Arc: Indeed we got a bit more of them, but I can assure you that not all. Both of these guys (and Karin) have plenty of hidden aces to still show us. Isn't that right, Karin?

Karin: What did you mean before, Arc? With the-

Adrian: We did tell you all about us rolling dice to decide the characters' talent in the different skills a ninja can have, right? It was fun and interesting, I gotta say.

Karin: Guys?!

Arc: And with that said, we have run out of time for the A/N. Karin, want to do the honors this time?

Karin: sigh Please remember to follow and leave a review or two for us…

Adrian: Seriously, do it. Reviews are the only thing keeping these characters alive.

Karin: What?!

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