Karin's Gratitude

As all the matches had finished, everyone standing near the railings walked down. The Konoha genin teams along with their jonin instructor approached Yami, Guy, and Kakashi.

"Sensei can we go see Lee?" Neji asked. The Neji from before would have never asked such a thing and Guy was a little surprised at Neji's behavior. He was happy that finally Lee had made some good friends.

"Not yet...doctors are still operating on him and he won't be awake for a day or two. He has multiple fractured bones due to over exhaustion."

"I didn't know you and your father had mastered such a powerful jutsu Guy." Asuma complimented. Even during his academy days he never saw Guy as a competition and that continued till he became a jonin. But now seeing how much power Lee acquired using the eight gates jutsu, Asuma was sure that he would be no match for Guy.

'He can definitely open more gates than Lee did. I wonder how much strong he becomes when he does that. It won't be a surprise if he says, he can open all 8 gates. But Kakashi did say that the price for such power was severe.' Asuma thought.

Kurenai stepped forward and said "Guy though the technique is powerful, what Kakashi said is also right. The toll it took on Lee's body was tremendous. I think most of his fractures may have been the result of pushing himself too hard."

Guy nodded and said "Yes Kurenai, you are right about that. My father told me to only use this technique in extreme situations and I passed that on to Lee as well. Lee has always seen Yami as someone he wants to surpass and so even I permitted him to go all out."

Kurenai sighed and looked at Yami "Kid you really put every one of us in a hard spot."

Yami who was in his own thought looked at Kurenai and asked "What do you mean by that Ms. Kurenai?"

She looked at her students and then at other Konoha genins and said "Seeing you fight with so much power did a number on our students. Now we will have to train more or they won't be able to come out of your shadow."

'She is right. I thought my life would be a little easy but this monster is just making it worse day by day. And what angle does he look younger than us.' Shikamaru had an ugly expression as he thought.

Kiba quickly retorted as he heard that "Kurenai sensei don't worry. We ain't gonna live in his shadow. We will surpass him in no time."

"Yea he is right. I will defeat him and become the Hokage." Naruto also chimed in.

Asuma gave a hearty laugh when he heard Kiba and Naruto's self-encouraging words "It's good that you weren't born in our times Yami or else dad would have made me train double the amount."

"You saying something, Asuma?" Hiruzen's voice was heard from behind the group. They had totally forgotten that the leaders of 2 villages were still in the same room as them.

Everyone turned back and bowed to Hiruzen in respect. Asuma laughed a little embarrassed and said "No nothing. I was telling the kids about our academy days."

He then looked at the genins and then at his students and said "Kids let's go. We need to train harder for the next chunin exams and Shikamaru your 3rd round is next month."

Everyone tried their hardest to cover up the giggle. They never expected the laid-back cigarette-smoking Asuma would become like this in front of his father. Everyone started leaving the tower along with their team except team 7. Naruto said he wanted to talk to the Hokage about something so everyone stopped. Team 7 knew he wanted to talk about Karin and Kakashi and Hiruzen decided not to tell him that they knew about this beforehand.

Yami decided to leave and headed straight toward his home. He wasn't physically tired from his match with Lee but was mentally tired. His chakra core supported him in maintaining the lightning cloak to its full extent and Yami felt he could make it even stronger if he used purple lightning, but Yami had never fought such a battle before so his mental exhaustion was obvious. As he entered the Uchiha compound he noticed that there was movement in his house. For a second he was suspicious but then he remembered that Sasuke had to take Karin to their place. He walked home and saw Karin was reading a book. Karin looked up to Yami and asked "What happened to your clothes?" Yami realized that his clothes had been tattered due to the fight with Lee and he walked all over to his house from the tower with tattered clothes like this.

'Damm it...what must have people thought when they saw me like this. Thank god I don't look a total beggar in this and the condition isn't too bad." Yami thought as he looked at the torn sleeves of his kimono.

"As the kids who passed the 2nd test were more than everyone expected, the village decided to add a preliminary round. My match was the last one so I didn't have time to change and came home directly." Yami said as he kept his sword on the table. Karin filled a glass of water and handed it to Yami.

"You came alone? Sasuke didn't come with you?" Karin asked as she looked behind Yami. She expected both brothers to come together as the rounds had finished. "He stayed behind with his team." Karin nodded when she heard that. She looked a bit nervous and fidgety as if she wanted to say something but didn't have the courage to do it.

"Spill it. What is it you want to say?" Yami said in a serious tone causing her to yelp.

"I-I wanted to thank whatever you all have done for me. I thought about what would happen if my village found out I am taking refuge here, I don't think I should stay here for long. It could become a conflict and I don't want your village to suffer because of it." Karin said in one breath and quickly closed her mouth. Her breathing got a little heavy by saying all this together.

Yami stood up picked his sword and said "The grass won't say anything. Cause if they did they will also have to answer how your mother died and as an ally of the Uzumaki clan Konoha will take action and besides, Hokage-sama has agreed to let you stay." Karin quickly looked up as she heard that. Tears started streaming out of her eyes as the ray of hope which was about to fade away shined brighter than ever before.

As Yami started walking toward his room Karin asked "Who talked to lord Hokage for me?" She didn't think she was worth enough for someone to mention her to a village leader.

Yami opened the door to his room and said "Naruto did."

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