But there must have been a few drops of chakra left within her, for she was still alive—and with that, she was left to lie down in a corner to recover.
They had learned their lesson with her mother.
...
In her crushing weariness, Karin closed her heavy eyes—and when she opened them again, sunlight streamed painfully into her eyes. As soon as the stars had disappeared, she saw the head ninja of their village, Zōsui, appraising her with his cold grey eyes.
His words for her were as usual, emotionless and to the point: "The Hidden Leaf will be hosting the chūnin exams this year. You're going in one of our genin teams. This is your chance to redeem yourself from your failure in Sunagakure, and I'll be personally there to watch this time...you know what will happen if you fail me again." With the threat hanging in the air, he left her to pick up after herself.
The memory of the look on Zōsui's face when he found out that none of the Kusa genin had passed the chūnin exam still brought goosebumps. She suspected the only reason why she hadn't been drained of her chakra on the spot was because the daimyō of their country had personally commended Karin on her fight in the third test.
Zōsui had said it to her: "Your only use is your chakra."
Karin lived alone in a hut along the fringes of the village. The area was empty; despite the increasing shortage of ninja as of late, Kusagakure was sending more and more out on missions to earn money for the village. Two houses down, there was an older woman named Midori who had used to share some of her food with Karin. She had been sent out five months ago and had never returned.
Just as she closed the door behind her, Karin's stomach growled loudly and she considered her options: She could go back to the medical camp for food...but her chakra reserves were still low, and she knew they would make her heal again.
So instead, Karin lay herself down on the ground. It was early morning, and a few rays of daylight seeped into her hut through the cracks in the roof. However, in the haze of her weariness, everything seemed dark. She shut her eyes, but it was the same. There were no chakra signatures around her; it was dark, and she was alone. She felt herself drifting away, and wished she would never have to open her eyes again.
Time passed, and hunger pains shook her awake. Sluggishly getting up, Karin put a hand over her grumbling stomach and made up her mind: Though she lacked the energy to go hunting, there were plenty of patches of mushrooms and greens to placate her hunger.
The sun shone high in the sky. It burned the back of her neck as Karin slowly gathered what she found in a woven basket. As she got farther and farther away from her village, she eventually found a riverbed. Taking care to put down the basket, she lowered herself by the water and rinsed the dirt off a mushroom. Closing her eyes, she opened her mouth to eat it when she froze.
While she hadn't been paying attention, there was a large chakra signature in her vicinity. It couldn't belong to any of the villagers it was so large, it far eclipsed theirs. Was it in the water? Reaching for a kunai, Karin backed away from the river's edge and retreated into the forest. Though it was possible the owner of the chakra had already caught sight of her, she suppressed her chakra and watched from the shade of a tree.
A beat passed. And then two the river's surface broke.
A bare-chested boy—no, a teenager, stepped out of the water on the other side of the riverbank. The first thing she noticed was his hair; it was red, burning like fire in the sunlight. The second thing she noticed was that he was holding a large fish in each hand, which explained what he had been doing in the water.
Her gaze shot to the basket she had left by the riverside. However, he didn't seem to have noticed as without a look back, he began to head into the forest.
There was something familiar about him, both physically and in his chakra. His hair color was the same as hers, and it wasn't a common color by any means. Everything still felt cloudy, but she wracked her mind and soon, a hazy memory drifted into her consciousness: A small red-haired genin, holding a blade to her neck.
Could it be him? The Leaf genin she'd fought against in the chūnin exam?
Karin closed her eyes and checked his chakra signature again. She shuddered: It was him. It had matured in the years since she'd last felt the chakra, but it shared similarities to the one she remembered—cold and guarded, and intermixed with an immense dark chakra that made her stomach twist.
However, as she probed deeper, she started to note several differences. Where it had previously been cold enough to cause her to flinch, it was now cool in the way the river water had felt on her hot hand. And where it had been rough, it now seemed more worn down; there were rounded edges in the place of sharp corners. It was chakra full of contradictions, and Karin wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
When she opened her eyes, the chakra signature disappeared and all she could see was the riverbank. No—she peered her eyes and checked: There was something there. After making sure nobody else was around, she came out of her hiding spot and waded through the river to the other side. There, where the teen had been standing, was one of the fishes he'd been holding, flopping about on the rocks.
Karin felt her heart stop. There was no way he'd dropped the fish on accident. Had he noticed her before she hid her presence? Why had he left this fish behind? Was it poisonous?
Her stomach rumbled. After a moment's pause, she added the fish to her basket.
When Karin returned home from scavenging, she cooked the fish over a campfire. The smell of freshly cooked fish caused her to salivate, and she quickly tore into it, burning the roof of her mouth as she did so. It hurt, and she was no stranger to pain, but for some reason, her eyes began to sting. Taking off her glasses, she rubbed her face clean.
Had food always been this delicious?
The fish must not have been toxic for that night, she found herself still alive, and she wondered why. She wondered whether Zōsui would knock on her door. And as she lay on the ground looking up at the dark sky through the cracks in her ceiling, she had a sudden thought: Had that boy left the fish behind for her?
Just before she drifted away, the memory of her last fight as a genin came back to her. It had been far away from here, in Wind country, where the air was dry and the sand shone in the moonlight. They had brought out a white cloth there with names etched on it in black, showing the match-ups for the third exam.
She could remember it now. It had been the very first name –
Uzumaki Naruto.
...
Jiraiya called it 'gathering research' for his novel series. Naruto called it peeping on the women's bath.
Once they had reached Snow country and took up residence at one of the inns, the older man had made himself comfortable in front of the wooden fence that separated the gendered baths. It was not an unfamiliar sight for Naruto—though the last time he had seen Jiraiya in such a position, they had been strangers.
Naruto paused beside him. "You're a pervert, aren't you?"
The sage seemed to take offense to this. Tearing his eyes away from whatever vision he had been admiring, he shook a finger in Naruto's face. "Such mislaid accusations! You don't seem to realize the considerable following my books have. If these ladies understood how much of this is for the greater good, they'd be lining up for a chance with the great Jiraiya. And there's something you seem to be mistaken about." Drawing back and straightening his shoulders, he pointed at himself. "I'm not just a pervert... I'm a super pervert!"
Naruto found himself at a loss for words. Without responding, he left Jiraiya to his own devices and returned to the outdoor springs. It was empty, and as he settled in, fresh water was pumped into the spring, filling the air with hissing steam.
Snow drifted down from the sky. Several flakes landed on his skin, and the rest disappeared into the hot water.
He knew he was alone. And yet there in the spring, he thought he could hear someone whispering beside him. Closing his eyes, he let his body sink into the water and everything fell silent.