Disclaimer: I do not own "Naruto" or any characters associated with the series
Chapter Twenty-one
She hated to admit it, but she was feeling a bit lonely.
She had agreed—not without a fight—to give Jiraiya and Naruto some time alone. He had wanted to take time to do things as "men"; honestly, Karibi wasn't sure what that meant, but Naruto had an eager look on his face, and she had learned at that moment that she couldn't seem to say no to that face. And so, she reluctantly agreed to let the two go off on their own on the condition that once they were done with whatever Jiraiya had planned, she would be immediately contacted.
At that second, the kunoichi was seated at a table in a dango shop, munching alone. She had a grimace on her face, glancing at the clock that hung on the wall and letting out a heavy sigh; time was moving rather slowly. "Damn it," she muttered to herself before she popped the last snack into her mouth and chewed quietly. Swallowing the dango, Karibi sighed after looking down at her empty plate. Deciding that she had wasted enough time in the shop, she left the money on the table and headed out, shielding her amethyst eyes from the beaming sun above her. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness within seconds, allowing the woman to pulled her hand away from her face and gaze up at the blue sky for a moment.
"Kari-chan?" Blinking, said woman looked to her right and smiled widely as a friendly comrade in green approached her ever-so enthusiastically.
"Guy!" It had been awhile since she had spoken to her friend. "What brings you around here?"
"Ah, I was going to visit Lee!" Karibi's expression remained the same, but her heart dropped; she had nearly forgotten about the genin's condition.
"Well, if you don't mind, maybe I could join you." Guy's entire face lit up as he grinned widely and nodded vigorously.
"Of course! Your presence always fills me with joy and energy! I'm sure Lee would love seeing you!" The redhead chuckled before she began to walk side-by-side with the man.
They chattered casually along the walk, Guy going on about what he had been doing since the chunin exam and Karibi explaining that she had begun training; Guy avoided the topic of Lee and Karibi did her best to leave Jiraiya's name out of the conversation.
Upon arriving to the hospital, the two made their way to the front desk, signing in as guests and heading down the hallway. Silence fell over the two as they strolled down the hallway, turning left and stopping in front of the first room. With a heavy fist, Guy knocked three times before the muffled voice of Lee answered on the other side.
"Sensei! It's—Oh, Karibi-sensei!" Surprised by the woman's presence, Lee smiled from his bed, a light shade of pink appearing on his cheeks. The redhead smiled sweetly to the genin, trying to ignore the pity she felt at the way his casted leg was elevated by a stack of pillows. "I didn't know you were coming!"
"She wanted to check on you, personally!" Guy explained with a grin as he wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders. The woman chuckled sheepishly, nodding her head and taking a seat at the boy's bedside.
"I'm glad to see you're up. How do you feel?" She could tell by the way his expression faltered and his eyes gleamed with a hint of despair that things were not as good as she had hoped they would be. Still, she didn't press on the matter as he answered with a "it's been good!"
"How is Naruto? Has he been training hard? I hope to be able to see him for the final part of the exam!" Lee said excitedly while Karibi chuckled and nodded.
"He's been working hard—and I think a part of it has to do with you, Lee." The young boy blinked, caught off guard by the jonin's words. "Naruto's met a lot of people who have inspired him to work hard, and you're one of them." She smiled at the way the recovering genin blushed more. "And for that, I have to thank you."
"I—It's nothing to thank me for!" Lee exclaimed with a wide smile. "Naruto has inspired me, as well!" Karibi didn't miss the way Guy's expression fell for a second.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck, then!"
Time passed quickly with Guy and Lee. Karibi found herself laughing as the jonin told her a story about his team and himself on a mission. Lee added his two-cents, grinning from ear-to-ear, and although their happy meeting was fleeting, these were the kind of moments that people held on to; the kind of moments that brought joy and laughter.
"Get some rest, Lee. Naruto and I will come by some time and check on you."
"I'd like that, very much!" The genin saluted to the woman before she nodded, walking out of the room with Guy behind her. The man slid the door shut, a sullen expression coming over him in that moment. The two remained in the hallway while other passed by, minding their own business. Karibi tried to find the right words to say in order to ease the obvious pain that her friend was going through, but as she thought hard, she realized there was nothing she could do or could say in order to help him; the only thing she could give him was an ear to listen.
"...They say his business as a ninja ends here," Guy slowly began, standing upright from the door and heading down the corridor. Karibi silently followed after the 26-year-old, waiting patiently for him to continue on with his explanation. "They've already told him...but he's stubborn when it comes to admitting defeat. Especially with this." The younger jonin nodded with an understanding gleam in her eyes.
"It's reassuring to see him not give up so easily." Guy didn't respond. He merely kept his eyes on the way ahead, unsure of how to feel about the predicament that his student was in. On one hand, he was relieved that Lee was conscious and breathing. But on the other hand, he was told by almost all the staff that Lee's hopes of becoming a strong shinobi were hopeless. Being a shinobi, himself, Guy wasn't sure how to react to that. And with Lee being so determined to prove everyone else wrong, he had no idea how he was supposed to handle the situation; he wanted to be delicate, in favor of Lee's feelings, but a part of him knew that things would not be so smooth.
"...Are you alright, Guy?" Said jonin let out a tired breath, having no words to say. Karibi frowned at that, knowing that when he had nothing to say—that was when she needed to be worried. "...Guy?"
"I suppose it's fair to say I'm at a loss, Kari-chan." The kunoichi's gaze softened as she stopped in the middle of the lobby, Guy a few steps ahead of her. She gazed at the man's back, his broad shoulders straight and his head hanging low. Strangers brushed past the pair, but neither paid them much attention. The air was thick with sorry and despair, and Karibi wasn't sure how she could remedy this moment.
"You're not going to always have the answers," Karibi finally began, approaching her comrade's side and standing beside him with her hand gently placed on his shoulder. "You're not supposed to. So, don't blame yourself for not knowing what to do."
"What can I do?" Guy asked quietly, causing a chill to run up the redhead's back; he was acting so uncharacteristically defeated.
"...You can support him and be there for him. Not that I'm a professional, but learning from my own mistakes, I've found that when someone needs you, you have to be sure to show them you're there—no matter what." Karibi smiled kindly to her friend, who finally turned his head to meet her gaze. "Be there for Lee. And eventually, things will work themselves out." Guy stared at his friend before he relaxed and nodded, smiling ever so slightly.
"Thank you, Kari-chan."
§
"You sonofabitch!" Karibi's hands had Jiraiya's kimono styled shirt tightly in her fists as she bared her teeth at the man out of pure fury. The sanin remained unfazed by her malice, merely holding his hands up as a sign of compliance to whatever the woman was going to do and say to him. "What the hell were you thinking?!" Naruto's shrill screech of fear echoed over her voice.
She had been walking aimlessly after departing from the hospital when a toad had suddenly appeared to her; a messenger from Jiraiya. The creature had simply stated that her presence was requested and that she needed to hurry; a strange tingling began to form in her gut. Having been given coordinates by the amphibian, the kunoichi rushed towards the location. She pushed past shrubs and branches and weeds, and when she was nearing Jiraiya and Naruto's location, her eyes widened at the sound of a familiar scream.
Something was wrong with Naruto.
Not thinking twice, the guardian to the jinchuriki darted through the forest, jumping out into a clearer part of the woods and skidding to a stop. Her purple-hued eyes widened from bewilderment as she nearly fell over the edge of a jagged cliff; had it not been for the strange and sturdy hand holding the back of her collar, she was sure she would have fallen.
"Naruto?!" Karibi's voice bounced off the rock walls, Naruto's horrified scream bellowing out over her voice. The woman instinctively tried to jump after the blond, only stopped when the hand holding the back of her collar moved to hold her wrist.
"Let him go."
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Whipping around, Karibi turned to snarl at her training partner, the man gazing steadily at her. "What is this?!"
And so, Jiraiya revealed the truth to his intentions. He explained that he had taken Naruto to do all the things he thought he should get out of the way—just in case his plan didn't pan out the way he thought it would. And then he told Karibi that in order for Naruto to truly tap into the power that was bottled up inside of him, he needed to awaken the feelings of desperation and fear and determination; pushing him to his death would, hopefully, do just that.
"What the hell were you thinking?! There's no possible way that at this level he will be able to tap into the Nine-tail's chakra!" Karibi hollered maliciously as Jiraiya defiantly shook his head.
"That's not true. Naruto is capable of drawing out its chakra and power. He just needs the right push."
"I think you're taking this way too literally!"
"I'm doing what you're too afraid to do for him," the older man simply stated, causing Karibi's eyes widened.
"And what the hell is that?!"
"I'm helping him focus his true potential—the power of the Nine-tails. You can't tell me that you haven't avoided this up until now." Karibi gritted her teeth before her grip on the man's shirt tightened.
"Listen, you good-for-nothing bastard! It's not your decision whether or not Naruto is ready to harness the power of that thing."
"It's also not yours."
"I never said it was!"
"If that's the truth, then why have you avoided all conversation about the Kyuubi with Naruto? Why have you not fully explained what happened to him and the true power within him?"
"That's not his power! He doesn't need the strength of a monster!" Karibi was red in the face and her eyes were teeming with anger and violence; she was livid, beyond belief. But Jiraiya remained unmoved by her hostility, his composure still intact and his resolve unwavering. And as the two glared intently at one another, Naruto continued to scream, falling to his inevitable death.
It was all happening so fast—Naruto had no time to think of any other way out of falling; even if he could, there was no other way out. His heart thrummed painfully in his chest as the adrenaline pumped through his veins. His vision tunneled as he gazed into the darkness that was below, his voice cracking as he continued to scream. Although the wind was whipping past him, his palms were clammy and a sheet of sweat was forming on his forehead; the idea of dying was alarming and terrifying and breath-taking.
Shutting his eyes tightly, Naruto did his best to think of something.
And then, something unexpected happened.
Opening his eyes, the genin found himself no longer falling to his untimely demise. Instead, he was standing in a dim and dank corridor—resembling something like an underground sewage line. He felt cold water envelope his feet as an icy draft flittered past him. And although he was extremely confused as to where he was or how he had gotten there, he couldn't help but notice this strange sense of familiarity come over him.
The red chakra.
"Out of my way!" Karibi snarled as she tried to shove past Jiraiya, the man matching her every step and stopping her in her track.
"You have to give him a chance, Karibi."
"To hell with that! I'm not going to stand here and let him fall to his death!"
"He's not going to fail!"
"You don't know that!"
"You believe in him, don't you?" Karibi faltered at Jiraiya's question, his expression earnest and his tone sincere. "If you believe in him, then believe he can accomplish this summoning jutsu and give him a chance." The jonin hesitated, her heart beating loudly in her ears as her jaw clenched tightly shut. Her mind was stuck between faith and doubt, her heart and soul jumping back and forth from believing and not.
But before she could ponder longer on the thought, she realized that an eerie silence had filled the air.
"Naruto!" Shoving past Jiraiya, Karibi leaned over the edge to gaze down at the abyss below. The older man beside her did the same thing, narrowing his eyes as he watched closely.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A surge of undeniable power and heat blew past the older shinobi as they watched dust rise from the crag. Karibi shielded her eyes from the dirt and dust while Jiraiya smirked proudly; it had worked. With a cough, the 22-year-old quickly looked back at Naruto, his figure now covered in a brown and gray cloud. Her eyes widened as a frightening sense of chakra consumed her, swallowing her whole; she remembered the Nine-tail's chakra so clearly from that first night, and it terrified her.
"Nice work, kid." Jiraiya looked over at Karibi, the woman hesitantly meeting his knowing gaze. She narrowed her eyes at the man before she scoffed, shaking her head at the way he smugly continued to stare at her.
"Don't say a damn thing, bastard."
"I wasn't even thinking it!"
"Liar."
"Maybe. But I was also right!" That earned the man a hard punch in the arm from the kunoichi.
*Two Days Later*
A warm breeze blew gently through the opened window as Karibi sat patiently beside Naruto's bedside. She held a little, orange book in her hand—courtesy of a certain masked jonin—and let out a confused sigh as she raised a brow. How the hell did they end up in that position? Shaking her head, the young woman glanced up from the page she was reading, frowning at the unconscious genin's silence.
"Still not up?" Glaring at the sanin, Karibi turned back to the blond and stuck her nose in the air.
"No thanks to you, sonofabitch."
"Don't be like that! Everything worked out, in the end."
"Shut up."
Jiraiya approached Karibi's side, his curious gaze on the comatose genin. He smiled fondly at the boy, proud that he had been able to gain the trust and favor of Gamabunto; he was a difficult one. His gaze then drifted to the redhead, who kept her eyes on the first book of his series. He smirked widely at that, leaning over the woman's shoulder and catching her attention. She gave the man a narrow-eyed look as a lecherous grin spread across his face.
"What'd you think?"
"You wrote this?"
"That's right!" Jiraiya stated proudly while the woman scoffed before shaking her head.
"I think it's ridiculous."
"Hey!"
"And I also think that all of these positions you have the characters use seem painful."
"Sometimes pain is pleasure."
"So I've been told."
Karibi shut the book and stuffed it back into her pouch, knowing how heart-broken her friend would be if she lost his favorite reading material. She stood up from her chair and quietly made her way back over to the window, shutting it carefully before she looked back at her training partner. "So, then. What now, for you?" Jiraiya glanced at the blond before he met the woman's curious gaze.
"I did come back to Konoha for a reason." The kunoichi's expression darkened as she frowned deeply.
"...What—"
"It's nothing you should worry about." Surprised, Karibi watched as Jiraiya smiled reassuringly to her. "Just be sure to keep an eye on this one and continue your duties with the chunin exam."
"But—"
"Karibi." The 52-year-old approached her before he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Leave this to me." She had done enough and had been through enough; this was something that Jiraiya would handle.
Hesitantly, the woman nodded, silently gazing upon the man as he turned and headed out the room. She remained motionless in Jiraiya's wake, letting his words sink in before she shuffled her way back to her seat and sat down. She took this moment of peace to reflect on the past month and on all the things she had been juggling—Naruto's training and planning the festival of the chunin exam as well as the arrival of the Kazekage and the organization of the battles to come. A smile crept upon her lips as she placed a hand on the resting boy's hand, a proud gleam in her eyes.
"You've made it this far, short-stuff," she whispered before shutting her eyes and frowning.
Why have you avoided all conversation about the Kyuubi with Naruto?
To simply put it, she wasn't ready. Every time she thought she made progress with herself and Naruto, all these realizations of just how far away she was from being ready made her want to give up. Because she was always so disappointed in herself after realizing just how selfish and scared she still felt whenever the topic of the past and the Nine-tails came up. But she refused to give up, for she had promised Naruto and herself that she would stop running and stop avoiding the problems. She just needed to take her time; hopefully, there would come a moment when she and Naruto sat down and talked about all of the bumps from the past.
With a smile, Karibi leaned back against her chair, pulling out Kakashi's book once more. Shaking her head, she prepared herself for what was to come in the rest of the book, muttering complaints to herself as her eyes absorbed all the words.
But not once did she put it down.
I've returned from the dead!
Not literally, but I have returned from the writer's block dead!
I'm going to start with a sincere apology. I'm not sure where time when, but by the time I got the time and the energy to get back here and post, months had passed...but I am not giving up on this story nor am I tired of writing it! First, I love writing so getting tired of writing is just ridiculous sounding to me. Second, I have a long timeline for this story and how this is going to go, so I hope whoever is here reading is ready for the ride!
So, here we are. Getting very, very close to the final battles of the chunin exam! I wanted to keep this part relatively similar to the original plot of "Naruto" because I think learning the summoning jutsu was essential to the story and his character. And it needed to come from Jiraiya. But there are more things to come and there are more twists to happen with Karibi being around! I can only hope that whoever reads this story will enjoy said twists!
Thank you to everyone who had read, followed, favorited and reviewed. I am very thankful for all of the support and all of the comments! But mostly, I am thankful that you guys are enjoying this! I put a lot of work into each chapter, and although I consider writing this story more of a past time than anything else, it still brings me relief and joy that people like what I post! So thank you!
Reviews:
premierchikk0: Thank you so much for sticking with this story for this long! I know this has been a long journey, but I appreciate you reading and bearing with me through post after post! I only hope you continue to enjoy reading this :) I can't imagine re-reading a story like this! A few stories that I've followed and favorited I've contemplated re-reading, but then I look back at all the chapters and hesitate—it's so daunting! But if you do happen to re-read this, hope you like it LOL Thank you so much for your support!
bored411: Yes! It's nice that the two of them finally reconciled and there was a bit more romance with them! There will be more with Karibi and Kakashi to come, but there is also going to be a lot more to come with Karibi and the other characters! Jiraiya included ;D Thank you so much for reading this story! And I hope you enjoy when I post about the chunin exam!
TokyoGirl7: Hi! I am so glad to hear that you are liking this story so far! And thank you for taking the time to leave a review and for your positive thoughts! It honestly makes me really happy to hear you like Karibi. As a writer with posts stories about OCs it's always a relief when readers feel connected and like the OC. I've tried to make Karibi make sense to the "Naruto" original plot and the vibe of the series, if you will, so it's amazing for me to hear that you think she does! And I'm also sincerely glad to hear that everyone else is in character. I think I've mentioned in many chapters before, but that is something that I ALWAYS aim for, and it's a pet peeve of mine—when characters aren't in character. So thank you so much! I'm impressed that you got through this in one sitting! Thanks so much for reading :)
XiiiKakashi: I can definitely see where you're coming from with Kakashi ships. I haven't read much on other stories with canon ships, but I understand what you mean! This arc in the series was super hectic, just like you said! There was a lot going on and I just wanted to make sure that there was a good way to make Karibi fit while not taking away from everything that was going on here! But there will definitely be more Kakashi and there will definitely be more Jiraiya in the future, just you wait ;) Thank you for reviewing!
bookdragonslayer: Yes! They kissed! They've (spoiler to anyone randomly reading this and is somehow not at this part of the story) kissed in the past, but I think this is sort of the part of the story where we see more progression with these two! Thank you for reading!
Fahdza: I apologize for making you cry! But also, that makes me soooo happy because I know from personal experience of reading other stories, when you're that emotionally invested, you really like whatever you're reading. So that's great to hear :D Thank you so, so much for reading!
tanithlipsky: Hi there! Thank you so much for saying so and for reading this story up until now! I hope you continue to read this and enjoy it as much as you have been! I appreciate you taking the time to read!