Chapter 31
No Need For The Tower
The Forest Of Death
Team 7, Minus Naruto.
It's been a while since Naruto left to whatever it was he needed to do, at the moment Sakura was worried, she may have gotten slightly better, training-wise and eating right, but like with everything, it takes proper time for such hard work to show itself, "When this exam is over, I am SOO upping my training," A sudden cracking sound was heard, causing the pinkette to jump slightly, "That's if we get out of here alive, I HATE THIS FOREST!" She finishes with waterfall-tears, not screaming her hatred out-loud in-case others were to hear her.
Not realising she was being watched by a certain team with musical-notes on their headband, waiting for the young pinkette to be too tired to defend herself.
With Naruto.
At the moment, Naruto was slightly upset with Mimi, "I can't believe this happened, thanks to you attacking me we ended up getting turned around from Sakura-chan and Sasuke." Turns out because of Mimi trying to get Naruto out of his Shikamaru-funk, he couldn't fully concentrate on where he was flying and because of that they were in another area of the forest.
Luckily, Naruto and Mimi were able to map out where their team was and how far the cabbit and hybrid are from them.
"Nya, nya nya nya NYA!"
With Mimi not taking that laying down she started on him, with Naruto sighing, "Alright, alright, I get that you didn't want me to be all "Shikamaru-like" and that you felt I needed a wake up call, but you could've told me instead of attacking me."
The little cabbit understood that she could've done that and apologised to her big brother, with Naruto grabbing her, quickly looked around, making sure no-one was there, once he finished he gave her a big hug against his cheek, "Oh you're such a lost cause, ha ha, but what are little sisters for." Naruto says jokingly to the cabbit, with the two laughing together, with Mimi giving Naruto licks on his cheeks.
"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"
That is until they both heard a girl screaming just under them, both looked down and saw a young red-haired girl about to be eaten by a giant bear, seeing such a sight, Naruto jumped down standing between the bear and girl, the bear just stares at Naruto, it was about to attack, that is until it's eyes settled on Mimi.
Before Naruto could do anything, the bear ends up scampering away, causing Naruto to be confused, but just so the bear gets the idea and he was feeling slightly vindictive, Naruto fired a little energy-blast at the bear's backside, causing the bear to leap in the air and away from them. (A.N. To get the idea of what I'm talking about look up on youtube "Big Bear Chase Me! - The Great Outdoors (10/10) Movie CLIP (1988) HD" I thought that scene fits well with this part.)
While Naruto was thinking, "Just be glad your fur'll grow back in time." Since he doesn't want to hurt animals, minus when he needs to hunt for survival.
"AND DON'T COME BACK!" Was what the young girl heard from the person who saved her, nether knowing it was Mimi that scared the bear off, Naruto moves towards the red-head, "Hey, are you alri-?" Looking closer, Naruto couldn't help but blush a little, "R-Red hair!" He whispers to himself. (A.N. You can always count on Naruto to like red-hair. lol)
The young girl looks up, at the moment all she sees is a blond blur, she moves her focus back down to try and find something, "W-W-Where are they, where are my glasses!?" She was still feeling scared after the bear-attack.
Thankfully she question knocked Naruto out of his stupor, allowing him to find her glasses for her, picking them up and holding them out to her, "Here, I've found them for you."
Seeing the red framed glasses, she quickly grabbed them, since she wants to see who it was that saved her.
Once they were on, she looked up to Naruto and blushed. (A.N. It's hard for me to describe Naruto in a girly standed of hot so I'm skipping that part.)
But the one thing that really caught her was Naruto's eyes, full of kindness and mischief, but most of all, worry for her.
Naruto, holding out his hand asked the young red-head something that really got to her, "Are you alright?"
Looking towards Naruto's hand, then towards his face, she slowly reaches out towards him, though she was still shook up about her experience, once their hands connected Naruto pulls her up, causing her to stumble into his body, causing the poor red-head to blush even more.
Naruto just looks down and smiles at the girl, guessing it's because of what happened to her, though he'd only be half right, "Hey there, my names Naruto Uzumaki, what's yours?"
Her eyes widened, she looks up at him and thinks to herself, "Can he really be a Uzumaki, he doesn't have red hair!?" But she could feel his chakra, he was telling the truth.
Knowing she has to answer, she quickly replied, "I'm Karin Uzumaki, thank you for saving me." Suddenly realising she subconsciously said her full name without thinking, seeing as she was distracted by how handsome he was and his full name.
Naruto's eyes widened, another Uzumaki, "WHAT, THAT'S AMAZING, NOW ME, MY MOM AND GRANNY AREN'T THE LAST OF OUR LINE!" He shouted out in excitement, hugging the shocked red-head, who just so happens to be blushing, being able to feel his muscles holding her, she couldn't help but think of pervy-things.
But of course, all things came to an end, putting the girl down, which made said girl pout, since she was enjoying the musc- hug, she meant hug, Naruto, knowing what the girl was thinking, since Kurenai and Anko are into the same thing, but he could smell her pheromone, granted it's a lot stronger than Ino's and Hinata's, though Hinata isn't far off, but it could be because of the attraction to red-heads.
But that doesn't mean he wasn't gonna tease Karin about it later, "Anyway, since we're family, you can come and live with me, mom and the mad-scientist, just, try and have the others with you if ever you're alone with Washu,"
Wondering why he was trying to keep her away from his granny, but she left it be for the time being.
Naruto continued on, "Anyway, since it seems your team got eaten, or something, by the bear, I guess you'll have no use for the scroll-"
Before Naruto could finish, someone's hand popped out of a near by bush, scaring Karin into hiding behind Naruto, it turns out to be one of her teammates, with claw-marks on his back, showing he was tossed by a paw strike, he was desperately trying to reach Karin, "W-Woman, g-g-give me your arm, p-p-please, let me bite you so I can live."
Naruto's eyes widen at that, but then they narrow with anger, "So in order to heal you bastards have to bite her, well here's a newsflash," Pointing his arm towards the injured boy, an orange orb in his palm, "She doesn't belong to your village anymore." With that said, Naruto fired the orb at the Kusagakure ninja, ending his life.
Looking towards Karin, seeing her shaking form, Naruto reaches out and pulls her into a hug, turning her away from her ex-team member, who is now missing a head, whispering in her ear, "It's alright now, from now on, no-ones gonna hurt you ever again, not as long as me and our family are around."
This caused the dam to burst, Karin, gripping hold of Naruto like her life depended on it, cried her eyes out, for years she had to suffer healing the damn Kusa ninjas by letting them bite her, ever since her mother passed away because of the biting, but now, someone wants to be apart of her family, someone who wants to protect her, not needing to bite her in order to heal, if what she saw in the first exam was real.
Naruto just smiled, "Well, would you want to come home to be with the family."
Karin pulls away, happy tears streaking down her cheeks, almost hysterically she yells, "YYYYEEEEEESSSSSSS~" Pulling him back in for more hugs, which Naruto has no complaints about, since at the moment Karin was feeling venerable.
After 5 minutes of crying, Karin gave Naruto the scroll, with Naruto creating a Shadow-clone, Causing Karin to be confused, though Naruto answered her confusion, "This clone will take you to Ka-san and the others, they'll look after you, since I'm still apart of the exam, my clone will vouch for you, telling them who you are and what happened, I'll be back home as soon as the exam is over."
Understanding that Naruto needs to finish his exam, she agrees, plus it'll be nice to see her other family memebers. (A.N. If only she knew.)
With Karin in the clone's arms in a bridal-carry, causing her to blush, the clone vanished from the forest, heading towards the Masaki household, while the real Naruto, along with Mimi, since she was sleeping through all of that in Naruto's hair, she didn't know what happened.
While making his way towards his team, Naruto can't help but wonder, "I certainly hope Washu won't turn Karin into a guinea pig, it's bad enough that she's doing it to me and Tenchi, though if she could heal the bite-marks that I saw on her arms, then hopefully she won't be too bad."
Suddenly Naruto felt a shiver up his spine, "Whoa, what was that!?" Looking around quickly and seeing nothing, he shrugs his shoulders, "I hope I didn't just jinxed myself."
Masaki home.
What Naruto doesn't know was that Washu had set up hidden cameras all over the forest, just to see his progress, though now, her face was red and she was grumbling, "I'll show him, I'll not only help that girl out, but I'll make it so he'll be my guinea pig for a week." This started her planning on how to "teach" Naruto not to bad mouth her.
The others just smiled and laugh awkwardly, feeling sorry for Naruto when he finishes his second exam, with each one, minus Mihoshi, thinking "Poor Naruto, I hope you survive."
Mihoshi on the other hand looks closer to the tv, "Say Miss Washu," Gaining everyone's attention, "Is that girl apart of the family!" She finishes with a happy smile, with her hands together, causing everyone to face-vault.
With all of them thinking, "Only Mihoshi..."