Co-Written with ISpeltEclipseWrong this is a 'What if?' fic in which Karin is found by Naruto and several discoveries are made. The POV is subjective all third person, and the time line and terrain had been altered very slightly for our purposes.

Feedback is welcome, let us know what you think!

We don't own anything.

The Uzumakis Reject Reality, Substitute Their Own

Chapter 1

Naruto was running faster than he'd ever ran before, his teeth clenched tightly and grinding together in determination. Sasuke was close, fighting against Danzo from what he'd been told. Sakura and Kakashi had gone on ahead, and Naruto was racing to catch up. He would defeat Sasuke, and bring him back, just like he said he would. He had to end all this, it was insane.

Naruto slowed to a stop on a thick tree limb, smelling blood close by. He looked down from his perch, seeing a girl with bright red hair leaning her back against a tree trunk. The smell was coming from her, and she seemed close to unconsciousness. He dropped down from the tree limb, landing with ease close by the girl.

"Hey! Who are you?" He called, approaching the girl with caution. "You're hurt."

Karin had felt the boy before he had gotten close to her, and reacted accordingly. With no knowledge except the niggling feeling that she had felt his chakra before a some point, briefly, she pulled out a kunai and tried not to pass out. 'Try' being the key word. She had lost a lot of blood, and that was taking its toll on her body, trying to trick her into closing her eyes. She could feel it staining the dark material of her tattered Akatsuki cloak, most likely ruining it.

Red eyes snapped up when the voice reached her ears and the girl frowned. A blond haired boy stood a bit to close to her, orange peaking out from under the cloak he wore. His chakra was… well it was warm. It felt like the sun had been bundled up and put into the boy(who couldn't have been older than her). She hadn't felt anything like that in a very long time. Blood was starting to fill up her right lung and when she first tried to say something she choked. Crimson liquid exploded from her throat, coating her tongue and splattering unpleasantly on the ground before her.

Well, that had been a failure in communication.

When the boy saw the red blossom bubble and burst from the girl's trembling mouth he took an instinctive step backward. He was no stranger to carnage, being the victim and cause of much blood and gore in his career as a ninja, but he hadn't been expecting that. After a moment, his widened eyes narrowed in determination and he took a few steps closer to the girl.

"Whoa, okay there. Just calm down, I'm going to help you, alright? Just hold on." Naruto assured, his voice softening to something less gruff and more comforting. He knelt down beside the girl and pried the kunai from her hand. It wasn't that hard a feat with her in this state. He pressed a hand down on her wound to stem the bleeding and helped her to sit up, allowing her to clear her throat.

"Who are you?" he asked again.

On her second attempt to vocalize her answer she actually managed to succeed, even if it was a bit garbled with the amount of sticky liquid in her trachea.

"K-Karin," she tried to make a gesture for his name but her arm wouldn't move anymore. "Who're you?"

That had sounded mostly understandable. His hand was stinting the blood flow out of her body, but the amount flowing into her lung was still too much. She struggled against the urge to give in and pass out, focusing on forcing healing chakra to the injured area. It would have worked if she wasn't so low. She could have just bitten herself if she weren't so low. The only reason she had so little was because she had spent so much trying to heal the one that stabbed her.

"Hello, Karin," Naruto said calmly, shifting the girl closer to him, "My name is Naruto. I'm going to pick you up, okay? I have a friend who heals people and she shouldn't be too far off. We can take you back to our village and get you treated."

Without waiting for and answer, Naruto slipped his arms under the girl and stood up smoothly with her in his arms. She was normal weight, but he was strong enough for it to not be a problem. He shifted her weight to cradle her with one arm, the other hand going back to stop the blood out of her chest, and leaped into the trees. He ran quickly, sending out a flare of chakra to let his team know he needed help.

"Who did this to you, Karin?"

Who? Had she been able she would have started shouting in the sudden wave of anger. All of the things she had done for him, left the post that been given to her by Orochimaru, put up with her annoying teammates, risked her life! And he stabbed her. Didn't even give her warning to move or a single word of apology.

If you can be taken hostage so easily all you are is a burden to me.

Anger rolled off of her in waves and her chakra flared enough to keep her from loosing that lung completely. She spat his name out like a poison.

"Sasuke."

Naruto slowed down in his surprise, stopping for a few moments on a tree branch before he remembered himself and kept going. He pushed off the branch that snapped under his weight and doubled his speed to make up for his pause. He gritted his teeth and helped Karin lean forward to expel more blood from her lung.

"Oh?" he said, trying to sound non-nonchalant. The girl was wearing an Akatsuki cloak, so she was obviously with the enemy, but... He'd just hurt his comrade like this and left her to die? God... "What do you know about Sasuke? Unless you're still loyal to him, that is." He really hoped she wasn't, and she didn't seem like it, but you never knew with these types...

"No," her voice was quieter that time around. She wasn't loyal to him, not anymore. The chakra that had once been so wonderful had become something dark and tainted. She may have been devoted to the boy who had saved her so many years ago, but she was no fool. She wouldn't be going back to him. Suigetsu and Juugo maybe, but Sasuke had done the unforgivable. Wind flew by, blowing stray locks of red into her vision. She looked back up at the face of the boy who had helped her, taking idle note of the marks on his cheeks and the symbol on his forehead.

"What do you want to know about him?" she asked after a few minutes. That rush of fury had helped clear her head, something that seemed to have been clouded for years. How had she been that stupid? Thinking if she followed him like a lost puppy he might find interest in her? She had been a fool.

"What he's been up to, where he might be going, what his plans are," Naruto listed idly, feeling the distant twinge of his team's chakra when he really stretched his out to find them. They weren't that far off, but he picked up speed anyway. He sent more chakra to his legs, trying to hurry.

"He was my best friend, you know, but left the village to join the Snake Sanin to become more powerful. He wanted to kill his brother, and I heard he did, but now... I don't know what he's doing, but it's bad. I need to stop him, bring him home, and stop all... this." Naruto sighed, and shook his head a bit.

"Are you doing okay?"

"There's blood in my lung, what do you think?" she asked irritably before reigning in her temper. Her glasses were skewed, making it harder to see but she could still tell that the boy was trying to be nonchalant. And not doing a great job at it, either. His jaw was too tight.

"Sasuke has been getting stronger. He killed Orochimaru and then recruited me and two other to track down his brother. He took his brothers eyes after he killed him, and now he wants revenge on Konoha for making his brother, Itachi, kill their family," she blinked a few times, the adrenaline starting to wear off and the blood loss coming back. She was starting to get dizzy.

"I thinks that's about it," she murmured, trying to think if there was anything she was forgetting. There was plenty she left out, but her throat was still clogged and talking wasn't fun at that moment.

Naruto was startled by this revelation. Itachi had been made to kill his clan? By Konoha? But... That didn't make sense, Konoha had always treasured their clans. He'd have to ask her to elaborate later on, but for now he had to focus on saving her life.

"Sorry, dumb question. Blood in your lungs isn't fun." Naruto answered quietly, deciding not to comment on the other information for the time being. He felt the other just up ahead. "Hold on, Sakura should be able to help."

"OI, SAKURA-CHAN! I HAVE SOMEONE WHO NEEDS YOUR HELP!" He called up ahead to the other two who had stopped to wait for him, a few moment's later landing beside them on a tree limb.

"Her name is Karin, and she has some valuable information on Sasuke. I don't think she's going to be exactly loyal to him after he stabbed her, but we should report her to Tsunade when we get back. She's not stable right now, and she's lost a lot of blood."

His volume made her cringe, not that she had any room to talk. She usually shouted much louder at her silver haired teammate. Karin's head lolled to the side, cushioned by an orange (What kind of ninja wears orange?) covered arm. Her eyes landed on two very strange people; a man about a decade older than her and Naruto, and a pink haired girl their age, probably 'Sakura', the apparent medic nin. She didn't look like much, but then again neither did Karin.

In her mind she was going over the conversation, the fact that this sunny male had been one of the teammates Sasuke had mentioned on very rare occasions. He had never said any names, but he didn't seem to fit the description of 'complete idiot'. He knew enough to slow down her bleeding if nothing else, so he had to have some intelligence. Her chakra was near non-existent at this point, so it was a good thing they had reached help when they had. She couldn't slow down the bleeding anymore.

Naruto shifted Karin in his arms and knelt down, lying her down on the thick tree limb and holding her steady. Sakura looked at Kakashi, who nodded, and then went to kneel at Karin's other side. She cut the girl's cloak and shirt open down to right under the wound, which was on her upper chest. Luckily, this didn't make showing anything unmodest necessary. She opened pulled the fabric back and quickly examined the wound.

She pooled green, healing chakra into her palm and laid it over the wound, sending out a gentle, probing charge. Once she's gauged Karin's internal injuries she started to mend the lung and muscle around it first, pressing down to stem the bleeding to the outside. A few long minutes later and finally Karin could breathe again.

"Naruto, go grab Karin a plasma pill from my bag. She needs to regain some blood." Sakura instructed as she started to heal up the external wound. Naruto nodded and was back in a flash, helping Karin to sit up and take the pill.

"Feeling better?" He asked, smiling brightly down at her. He laughed a bit, "Thought you were going to die on me a second there."

Karin huffed and turned her nose up at the suggestion.

"As if I'd die that easily," she retorted, not sure herself if she was being serious or trying to get over the ordeal of almost-death-via-teammate. Didn't Konoha teach their kids to value each other? She was pretty sure that was something they had emphasized in the chunin exams. She faltered for a second and looked up at Sakura, then at Naruto. Of course, it was the chunin exams. That was where she knew their chakra from. She had been so preoccupied by trying to survive she hadn't made any lasting memories of anyone but Sasuke there.

The medic was clearly skilled if she had managed to heal the damage so quickly, though she didn't like the cold air on her exposed, bite riddled shoulder. A necessary discomfort she supposed.

"What happens now?" she asked, trying to sit up and wincing. Her shoulder would be sore for awhile, the red head predicted.

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other briefly before looking up at Kakashi. The older man sighed and shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"We'll be bringing you back to Konoha with us," he informed her, "We'll report to our Hokage and she'll tell us what to do with you. This will probably include her sending you to the hospital for evaluation and any further healing necessary, and then putting you into custody of our T&I Department to extract any information you have on Sasuke, and the Akatsuki. After that... Depends, since you said you are no longer loyal to Sasuke. We'd have to confirm that though, as you could be lying."

Sakura looked up a Kakashi, "We could always ask the Yamanaka clan to send someone to Mind Walk her, makes sure she's telling the truth..." Kakashi nodded in response.

"I'll have to ask the Hokage about that."

Meanwhile, Naruto was helping Karin to her feet. "Can you walk, Karin? Or would you like me to carry you?"

"I can walk," she stated, though she did use his arm as support until she had feet properly planted. A Mind Walk sounded very strange, though compared to other things she had seen (and done) she doubted it would be too horrible. It wouldn't be the best if Konoha found out about all of the experiment she had helped with, but what could they do? She was just a worker, admittedly a very good one.

It took Karin a few moments to regain her sense of balance and when she did she pulled her cloak back against her body, once more obscuring the permanent scarring left from the healing she had done. It was a clan technique from what her mother had said when she was a child. Very draining, but she had good reserves so the only real problem was that the marks never went away.

"Where is Sasuke?" she asked suddenly, casting her senses out. She couldn't feel him at all. There was Juugo, apparently unconscious, and Suigetsu as well, also passed out. Probably from chakra exhaustion.

But the Last of the Uchiha (or not) was nowhere to be found.

"Sasuke escaped. We were following him, but we wouldn't have been able to catch him anyway," Kakashi stated bluntly, making sure they had all their things together. "We were hoping that with the information you give us, we can find him."

Naruto made sure that Karin was steady before letting her arm go and stepping away. He looked up at his teammates and gave a sheepish smile. "Ready to go?" he asked, and they nodded. Kakashi and Sakura took off in the direction of Konoha, but Naruto instead matched his pace with Karin's slower one. Every now and again he'd look over to her, making sure she was alright.

"He's probably in that other world," she said after a few miles and several minutes of thinking. They didn't really have a base set up, and she doubted that Sasuke would go to any of Orochimaru's old lairs. From what she could feel other ninja, Kumo from the 'looks' if it, had taken in her teammates and they were now long out of her range.

The blond was the one that stayed at her pace, slower from the injuries and lack of chakra. She could give it all she liked, but redirecting and absorbing chakra was a whole other thing. Theoretically, she could, but she had never put it to the test and didn't feel like trying it when in the presence of former enemies, even if they were being nicer to her than she would have been to them. She wasn't even tied up!

Naruto made a small 'hm' sound, a bit startled by the sudden comment. He tilted his head at Karin, looking at her with a confused look. "What other world?" he asked.

They were approaching Konoha, now. They'd traversed more ground than Naruto had first thought, he must have really been going fast when he was bringing Karin to the others. He was still iffy on letting her run on her own, but she seemed to be doing just fine.

"It's something Madara can do," she explained, looking over at her rescuer, "He pulls people into a world that's mostly just a bunch of grey blocks and darkness. He had me heal Sasuke in there once, just before he killed Danzo... and stabbed me," she grumbled the last part to herself bitterly. The cold mountains had fallen far behind them and they had struck bright greenery that she felt like she hadn't seen in years.

It had been years, actually. The last time she had been in Konoha was for her exams, which she had failed. Who knew she would end up back in this place so soon?

"I haven't been here in a long time," she voiced her thoughts as the trees surrounded them, filling the air with bird sounds and flashing emerald leaves. The Land of Fire was aptly named.

Naruto's eyes widened and he swallowed passed the lump suddenly in his throat. He had his entire own world? As if the Tsukuyomi that Itachi had wasn't bad enough... He definitely didn't want to get sucked into there. He still felt bad for Karin, and more than a little angry at Sasuke, for what happened. Teammates don't just stab their teammates!

"I hope you know we Konoha nins aren't all like that. Sasuke has always been difficult because... Well, he's Sasuke." Naruto laughed slightly at his lame ending.

"You might be staying here awhile. If you've truly left behind your old life, you could even live here. It's not so bad."

"I don't have much to go back to. Orochimaru is dead, Sasuke is… and my old teammates are probably in prison right now. Not that they will be for long but," she shrugged, biting back a sigh, "I might stick around for a little while. Konoha was nice when I was taking my exams, except that Ibiki guy."

To her twelve-year-old self, Morino Ibiki had been the scariest person she had ever met. That no longer held true, but his reputation was undeniably fearsome. If she remembered correctly he was head of the T&I department, so she was probably going to him soon enough. Well, she would just have to deal with that.

"Yeah, Ibiki wasn't the nicest guy, no. He's also more than a little terrifying, " Naruto huffed a quick laugh, "Either way, you won't have to face him quite yet. We have to deal with Tsunade and the hospital first," Naruto shrugged, "Shouldn't be too bad."

They were approaching the gates to the village, the other two were already standing around the check-in desk waiting for them. They landed close by and walked up to the desk, being waved into the village by the chuunin there. Naruto put a hand on Karin's lower back, helping to guide her through the crowded streets in her weakened state and keep her from running off.

"I hope not," she stated, weaving through the unfamiliar streets with help from Naruto. Karin had to wonder if everyone in the leaf was as nice as he and his teammates or if it was just a result of Sasuke. He probably sucked all the negativity out of them before he left, like some kind of vampire.

The red head snorted at the thought, a foolish one, and blamed it on the lack of blood. The plasma pill had helped, but she had lost quite a bit. On the upside she could breath again.

Naruto grinned and turned his head towards Karin. "What's so funny?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. The Hokage Tower was just up ahead, and the foot traffic around this area was worse. Naruto feared how Tsunade would react, but she'd seemed worn out and apathetic the last he'd seen her; too much paperwork, too little sleep. He hoped that meant she'd go easy on them.

"I was just thinking you and your teammates are so nice compared to Sasuke, and he always has been dark and little brooding. And with his skin so pale," she couldn't help but start to grin on her own, "He could be a vampire."

Oh god, she was starting to sound like Suigetsu. It was contagious. And on another note, Naruto's smile seemed to be infectious. The girl stepped to the side, duck a group of genin carrying several boxes too big for their size. For a town that had almost been wiped off the map, Konoha was looking pretty good.

"A negativity vampire?..." Naruto paused and his grin widened, he snorted a laugh, "Yeah, maybe." The remains of Team Seven + Guest entered the Hokage Tower, speaking briefly to reception. An ANBU was beside them in a flash, bowing slightly before leading them up to the Hokage's office.

Kakashi knocked on the large door, and they heard a muffled 'Enter' from the other side. They opened the door and were greeted by Tsunade, her piles of paperwork had greatly diminished and she seemed pleased if not also very tired. Good.

"Who's this?" She asked, gesturing to Karin.

Though she had never met the woman personally, Karin was a very well educated Kunoichi, and Tsunade of the Senju clan was very well known. Even with the foreknowledge that she used chakra to look young, the redhead was still surprised by the appearance of the Hokage. None the less, the girl straightened up and fixed her glasses, a reflexive habit.

"I'm Karin, an ex-teammate of Sasuke Uchiha and former subordinate under Orochimaru," she explained, not bothering to beat around the bush. There wouldn't really be a point to it by then.

The woman's chakra was strong and steady, but there was an undercurrent beneath the flow that spoke volumes of the need to avoid angering the woman, something Karin was going to attempt to do.

Tsunade merely raised her eyebrows, the action doing little to open her eyes already droopy with sleeplessness, in an expression of 'welp'. She blew air out of her mouth in a raspberry and leaned her elbow on her desk before leaning her cheek on her hand.

She gestured her head towards Karin, "I see you aren't tied up or otherwise restrained, so I assume you've renounced such affiliations?" she asked lazily. She nodded the girl's tattered clothing and the bloodstains around it, an injury recently healed.

"That's right," Karin agreed, nodding. Why would she stay with someone who stabbed her? Konoha was supposed to be her enemy and they were treating her better than many of her old affiliates had. It was almost sad really. And this Hokage, well, she had heard many things of the legendary Sanin, and of all things she expected the exhausted woman in front of her was not it.

There was no good reason she wasn't in chains, by all rights she could have been lying. The entire things might have been a trap. These people… they were really weird.

Tsunade nodded and sat up straight, flexing her fingers and letting out a deep breath, "You could be lying, is anyone here willing to vouch for you?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto stepped forward and spoke up, "I am. I don't think she'll go back to them, and she hasn't done anything to make me think she'll betray us yet."

Tsunade nodded. "I'll get someone from the Yamanaka clan down to T&I tomorrow to Mind Walk her, right now get her to the hospital. I want a full check up and some blood work done on her, and make sure that she's all healed up. We'll see how it goes from there."

"The hospital it is then," the red head commented, glancing at the team around her. She couldn't very well go to the hospital alone, an unknown ninja in a foreign village, only days after war had been declared.

Naruto nodded at the Hokage, and the others murmured something similar to 'Yes, Lady Tsunade' as they bowed. Naruto turned to Karin and placed a hand on her back again, turning to lead her out of the room. He smiled over at her and shrugged.

"I'm vouching for you, I guess I should take you to the hospital as well," he said. Within a few minutes they were at the Konoha General Hospital, signing into the front desk while mentioning they'd come under the Hokage's orders.

"You didn't have to do that," Karin stated, tapping her heel restlessly as they waited for a doctor to appear. She sent a scrutinizing look at Naruto, red eyes narrowed.

"You didn't have to do any of that. Why would you? You didn't even know my name, and I was in Akatsuki uniform. What if there had been a trap waiting for you?" She didn't even realize she had started scolding the boy, falling back into old habits. Was the kid trying to get caught? Did he even know what was going to happen if Madara got all of the Bijuu? Maybe not, but still. It hadn't been the smartest things to do. Up until then she had been so preoccupied on not dying and being angry at Sasuke she hadn't put much thought into it.

Naruto looked over at Karin when she spoke up, noting how she was getting restless with her legs. He leaned back in his chair as she continued, simply shrugging at the end. He hadn't put much thought into it, actually, and he supposed he just assumed if there had been something he could have just fought his way out. It was stupid, but it was also probably true.

He put his arms behind his head and grinned at her. "Why bother with the 'if's? There wasn't a trap waiting, and I'm fine. I saw a girl losing a lot of blood and passing out, and I guess it was the optimist in me that said nothing bad would happen. I wasn't going to let you bleed out, you know."

A few minutes later, a doctor came by.

"Are you Karin?" The woman said, her green-grey hair pulled back in a bun. "...Just 'Karin'? No last name?"

She nodded carefully, grown used to the question through the years. 'Just Karin?' her academy teacher, genin team, jonin sensei, even Orochimaru. Always the same question.

"Just Karin," she confirmed, and followed the woman when she started into the hallways of the hospital. Part of her hoped that Naruto came with her, if only because he was somewhat familiar and the waves of welcoming chakra he produced were therapeutic to a person like her. He was a bit of an idiot, she concluded. An optimistic, reckless boy that didn't take proper precautions.

He could have let her bleed out. Hundreds of other would have.

What a strange person.

Naruto waited back a few seconds, but quickly got restless when Karin wasn't in his sight. He stood up and followed them, trying to look nonchalant. In typically Naruto fashion, he failed. He smiled at Karin and shrugged. "Well, maybe they'll at least let me stay outside the exam room, or maybe even sit with you when they take blood."

It turns out, that's exactly what they did. During the exam portion they had him sit outside so they could get a better look at Karin's wounds and heal up the remnants. They said she'd be fine, if a bit tired for awhile. It was nothing some good food and sleep wouldn't cure.

They let Naruto sit with her as they took a small amount of blood, going off to test something or other.

"So, what'd they say?" Naruto asked.

"That I should be dead and I won't be able to do any extraneous activity for a few weeks," was her reply. Karin had always been quick at getting over injuries; her mother, back when she was around, had said it was a 'clan thing' though Karin still had no idea what that meant. She was just Karin; no last name, and no clan to speak of for all her mother's explanations. So, with her healing rate it would about two weeks before she was back to normal, but even with her life force she would have died on that mountain if not for Naruto Uzumaki. The red head sighed.

"I guess I owe you for rescuing me," she stated, pulling her sleeve back down. The medic had tried to get her to tell what all of the marks were from, but with several quick dismissals she gave up, probably assuming it was jutsu related. Not that she was entirely wrong.

Naruto snorted a laugh at that and shrugged. "Aw, it was nothing. I'm not going to say you'd do the same for me, but I just couldn't leave you there, could I? Just try to be good from now on, that's all I ask. You find life is easier when you're not constantly running from ANBU and all that," Naruto gave her one of his large, bright grins, "This might be a bit late, but Welcome to Konoha."

It was a slow day at the hospital. Despite war recently being declared, nothing big had happened yet. The blood lab was especially empty, and the sole technician was glad for the small amount of work to easy the boredom. First protocol when a foreign nin showed up was to put them in the computer and identify any bloodline limits they might have. The technician was surprised when the blood sample he put in almost immediately got a match, then even more so when he saw who it was...

A few minutes later the doctor appeared again, but didn't talk to Karin. She called Naruto into the hall, where they talked for several minutes too low for Karin to hear. Naruto came back into the room, looking a bit nervous.

"Karin? Can I talk to you?"

Karin hesitated, not liking the look of his face. Naruto had never looked nervous, not even when it seemed she might die. What in the world could that doctor have told him? Did she have cancer? Degenerative heart decease? Poison in her system? Some kind of lightning-caused mutation in her RBCs? Her WBCs?

"Sure, Naruto," she said at last, sitting on the exam rooms bed, "What is it?"

"Well, ah... Where did you come from, um, originally? You don't have any blood relatives, right? That you know of?" Naruto shifted back and forth on his feet, swallowing deeply and trying to keep calm. She looked scared that this was bad news, and maybe it was bad news. It didn't seem like it to him, though. God, he wanted to hug her. "And that you don't have a clan or last name either?"

"I was born in Kusagakure. My mom raised me for awhile. She's not around anymore though, life of a kunoichi and all that. If she had a last name she never told it to me, but she mentioned 'clan features' a lot. She never told me anything else though," she had looked away when she began talking, the wounds still fresh despite being almost a decade old.

After a few seconds of gnawing on the inside of her cheek Karin looked back at Naruto, forcing herself to meet his eyes. He looked... Well, she didn't even know. He looked nervous, anxious, ready to burst. It kind of scared her. His chakra was restless, not helping matters.

"Why?" she asked at last, pushing her glasses up.

"It's not exactly true, all that, you see... Um, the blood relative, er... Thing. You see, I thought that too, that I didn't have any family left and I..." Naruto trailed off and sighed loudly.

"One of the first things they do when they get a blood sample from out of village is put it in our database, take notes of any genetic bloodlines we know of, and all that stuff. When new Konoha babies are born, they do the same thing. When they put your blood in, they... They got a match."

"Karin, you do have a blood relative... Me. I'm your cousin, um..." He trailed off again, scratching the back of his neck and smiling nervously. "And you do have a clan name, if you're willing to take it; Uzumaki. I mean... I already vouched for you and stuff, welcomed you to Konoha... Konoha is the only family I've had, so I guess I've already asked you to join that, too. My family, I mean."

Karin was silent. She didn't say anything for a long time, repeating the words over and over in her head. She had family. She had a clan name. It was too good to be true. When she young, just after her mother had died, she had dreamed that members of the mysterious clan would appear and take her home with them. No more 'Just Karin?'. It had never happened of course, just a child's dream and a coping mechanism for being left alone, but before her now, standing not five feet away, was her cousin.

Her Family.

Karin Uzumaki.

She couldn't seem to find words, or think of anything to say, so she just stared, shocked. What do you even say to that?

"O-oh," was all she managed.

"Yeah, I know. I said that too; Oh." Naruto babbled before starting to pace a bit. It wasn't so much step-step-step-step-turn as it was step-turn-step-turn. Vaguely, Naruto worried about making himself dizzy, so he stopped and stood perfectly still. He started to fidget, so that didn't work. He sat down suddenly next to Karin when he realized he felt kinda wobbly.

"Really glad I didn't let you bleed out," he joked, but it came out flat. He swallowed and looked at Karin with wide eyes, flexing his hands. What if she didn't accept? What if she didn't want to be his family? He bit his lip and hugged her, while he still had the chance. He'd never had family before, and she seemed nice.

"Well? Will you stay and be my family?"

Her first response was to jerk away. She quashed it violently and twisted into Naruto's hug. Her arms locked around him, almost desperately, as though if she let go he would disappear, and she nodded, swallowing thickly.

"Yes, I will."

With that news Konoha would have a hell of time trying to get her to leave, and he wanted to know if she was going to stay?

"How could I say no? Uzumaki… Uzumaki's have to stick together right?"

Naruto nodded, then nodded again. He laughed and hugged Karin tighter, trying not to crush her. "Yeah, we have to. I think we both have been alone too long, eh?"

He laughed again, and just lay his head on her shoulder.

Uzumaki.