Rare Encounter

This Inn is straight trash

It's not even an Inn. It's a cabin I found on the side of the road that catered to merchants and shit

OK, who am I kidding? I found this place on the outskirts of a small town towards the northeastern end of Hi no Kuni completely empty and decided to squat there for a few days

Don't you look at me like that! In case you haven't noticed, I left with no money

Even if I wanted to sleep in a shitty motel, I wouldn't be able to afford it anyways.

...That kinda hurts. Like in a weird spiritual way, my belly button is stinging right now because I can't afford a shitty hotel

Whatever. I stand by my case though - This house is straight trash

Moving on, I'm about 60 miles? southeast of Konoha. I know I'm right by the edge of Noodle country - which, by the way, I'm so sad I can't try their noodles. Money is a serious issue right now…

Which brings me to why I'm currently walking down the town roads to look for any odd jobs they may have me do

I mean, hey,  I got like 3000 Ryo after milking some cows and shit, that's a great deal

The walk was going pretty great, actually, until I heard-

"KYAAAAAA! NOOOO!"

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Oh great, another damsel in distress mission, who else but the MC could or would save herrrrr?" And I totally agreed with you until I saw just who the girl was

I'll let you guess real quick. What clan has this really red hair? Aw shit, you got it already?

Yeah, it was a damn Uzumaki. Basically Kushina's twin. Apparently she had taken the wrong turn into a shady alleyway and is now on the verge of being either robbed or molested by the most non intimidating guy I have ever seen in any one of my lives

I'm serious. I can clearly see his ribcage from the 8 meters away that I'm standing from them. Legit, if a small Gust of Wind blew through this place he'd actually fly away as if he were just team rocket blasted away

And he's scaring this Uzumaki girl….

Rule #1 about the characters in Naruto - Most of them lack any sliver of common sense or free thinking

Why else would Naruto's Talk no Jutsu have ever worked?

Anyways, of course as the hero I obviously was, leaving that girl to get robbed was against me morals…

Why are you looking at me like that? It's true!

Jeez, I quickly took the robber down. The guy literally flopped like soggy cardboard onto the ground after I slapped him on the back

Turning to the girl, she was surprised at the "show of force" and backed up to the wall of the building behind her

I sighed and put my hands up to show I was pretty harmless

It took a moment for her to calm down, but it eventually happened

"What's your name?" I finally asked after she relaxed

Probably the wrong thing to do since she tensed right back up like a clam with stagefright

Took another 5 minutes or so with my hands up for her to relax again…

"Ah… It's Akari…"

Hmmm? Red Village? Of course they would name one of the last Uzumaki after Uzu…

Examining her, she looked malnourished and obviously abused. Adoptive family that never wanted her?

"How old are you?"

She looked wary to answer, obviously afraid I was going to do something to her if she said something wrong, which I wasn't but what are you going to do, you know?

Again, she eventually answered in a small voice

"Im.. uh… 13 years old…"

Ok, yeah, whoever she's living with is going to get their ass beat. This girl looks like she's at most the same age as me. I mean, she's smaller than me and I'm like 4 feet right now!

I reached down and held my hand out as gently as I could. Even so, she flinched and curled up into a tighter ball

Sighing, I just sat there and stared until she stopped claiming up. Even if Uzumaki are crazy as hell, I'm not just going to leave her alone like this

I certainly wasn't also following the voice in the back of my head that said she looked exactly like Kushina, no siree…

I eventually ended up sitting on that dirt road for almost 45 minutes. Yeah, 45 fucking minutes, until she loosened up and took my hand with her shaky one, before frightening her as I lifted the girl to her feet

Letting out a heavy sigh, I made as best eye contact I could with the girl and laid out my plan

"Deal for you"

Akari looks confused, of course, but shakily nods

"I can take you out of this village and give you a li-"

Before I got to finish my sentence, the girl latched onto me and started sobbing her eyes out. Legit, the floodgates were set loose

Only one word could come out in between sobs

"Please.."