Meeting A Cousin

Our fight against team Kabuto was... anticlimactic. Hinata was on the losing end of her own battle and Shino was on par with Yoroi. Kabuto, on the other hand, pretended to have subpar skills while dodging by a hair's width most of my "lethal" attacks. I of course wasn't planning on revealing my big boy weapons, but it had gotten annoying. After around fifteen minutes of fighting, Kabuto began acting as if he was tired and offered us their scrolls in exchange of letting them go.

I couldn't allow them to know that I was suspicious of them, so I had to agree in the name of "helping" a fellow Konoha team. Hinata and Shino, completely oblivious to the situation, were just glad that we had the Earth scroll we needed. We waited for a while for Hinata to recover, since she had put in a lot of effort into her fight, and once she was back to shape, we began heading towards the central building.

"Guys, I feel a single scent coming from that direction"

"Hm... a lone scent? Could it be someone who got lost?"

"I don't know, but it feel familiar, I'll go check, you keep going"

They didn't bother trying to stop to stop me from splitting up from them, probably knowing that I would be allright on my own. Thus, I simply Body Flickered towards the scent. Upon my arrival, I had a very nice surprise waiting for me.

'Red hair, check. Glasses, check. Kusagakure, check.'

Karin Uzumaki, mine and Naruto's would be cousin, was standing with her back pressed against a tree while in front of a huge bear, trembling in fear. I smiled seeing her. She was one of the few Uzumaki alive and, in this life, part of my family, even if it was from a far relative.

Without hesitation, I jumped on top of the bear and, like Sasuke would've done, kicked it hard in the head. The only difference was that it took only one kick for the bear to drop on the ground, knocked out.

"Hey there, you ok?"

"Huh? O-Oh yeah I-I'm ok"

"Here you go, I doubt you can see me without them, right?"

I had just passed her the glasses that were by her side on the floor and, when she put them on, I could swear I saw stars in her eyes.

"Y-Your hair, i-it's red! L-Like mine and like mom's was! A-Are you an..."

"Uzumaki? Not in name, but my dad was. Ryota Inuzuka, at your service, dear cousin"

I expected her to be happy and excited to meet a possible family member, but her reaction wasn't the one I expected of her. She went weak on the knees and fell to the floor crying while holding on to my hand for her dear life. I couldn't help but feel pity and a bit of anger when I saw the mental state she was in.

"It's ok now... it's ok..."

That was when I saw her arm, full of bite marks. I had to contain my anger from lashing out in anger. I couldn't help but want to tear someone's head off. Daring to treat my family like a walking medicine...

"Come on, hop on my back. I'll take you to the building so they can attend to your injuries"

Now slightly sobbing, she didn't protest and happily got on me. It was quite the uneventful trip and, by the time we got to the building, Karin was asleep. Hinata and Shino were waiting for us there and it didn't take long for them to ask about her. Question to which I said simply that she was family. Probably seeing our hair colour's they didn't doubt my words. Either that or they trusted me a bit too much.

Apparently we were one of the first teams to get there, having taken a bit less than 10 hours. Kurenai, who was already waiting for us in the building, asked me about the girl on my back. I asked her to talk in private, since this was a very serious conversation. After we moved to a private room, she asked me again.

"So, who is she?"

"Her name is Karin Uzumaki, same surname as Naruto and, according to Hokage-sama, my father"

"So she must be a refugee from the Uzumaki who is living in Kusa! Any relatives she told you about?"

I told her about how I met Karin and her reaction when she learned that my father was an Uzumaki, which prompted Kurenai to think the worse. Reality was, Karin's mother had already passed away from her healing capabilities being exploited by the damn Ninja from Kusa.

In the end, Kurenai agreed to take Karin to Konoha's hospital and talk about her with the Hokage. I told that, if push came to shove, she could live with me. I was sure my mom wouldn't care about it. In fact, I'd bet she would be happy.

"Ok, now that that is settled, I received a piece of news saying that if we found a a Nin from Kusa we should try to capture him by all means. Apparently you were the one to first inform of him being suspicious"

"What can I say, I got keen senses for emotions and danger"

After Kurenai told me the Hokage wanted to talk to me once this Stage was done, I simply left and went back to my team.

I knew that while I was relaxing here, Naruto and Sasuke were probably suffering at Orochimaru's mercy. But I wasn't worried about them. It was character development and something they had to facem or else we woud all die in the future.

"Ok for those of you who are already here, you can pick any room you want and rest in it. There are still five days for people to arrive"

The message came from a random Chunin and, after hearing it, Hinata and Shino both looked at me as if asking for permission. I simply went and chose a random room, in which we decided to rest for the coming five days. Before taking a nap, though, I had to act like a good leader.

"Shino good job on the fight today. That guy had a tricky skill but you managed it well. And Hinata..."

"I-I'm sorry for m..."

"Good job! You fought against a very hard opponent who was sort of your literal counter, since you couldn't hit him in his chakra points, but you still held him in place and didn't lose your ground against him. You've certainly grown from the time we had just formed a team"

After that, we all began accomodating ourselves in the room and quickly made ourselves comfortable. Not much later, I was already napping in one of the beds.