So you both are from this Uzumaki clan, then?"
Karin glared at him, daring him to say anything.
"Yes, we are. This is… Uzumaki Indra. We're pretty distantly related."
Naruto didn't like lying to Sakura, and he got the feeling Karin didn't either, so they'd try to keep it as vague as possible.
Sakura just nodded. "I see."
"But more importantly." Karin adjusted her glasses. "Where the hell have you been?! Everybody in the village is super worried, 'yaknow."
Sakura winced. "Ah. That."
Karin waited, arms folded. "You didn't write or tell… anyone. Even Ino."
Sakura sighed. "Yeah. Sorry. It's a lot of things, but the gist of it is that I took a chance to get out of the village… And here I am."
Karin looked so unsatisfied by the answer that Sakura let out a small laugh.
"Look, I'll tell you… Later." She gave Naruto a side-look.
The meaning was clear. She didn't know or trust the newcomer, even if he was her family. Karin saw him put his best poker face, trying not to look as if he took it personally. She held back a laugh.
Karin relaxed somewhat.
"Well, the least you could tell us is what you're doing here, then."
"Sure." Sakura nodded. "I've gotten hired to take care of a little problem."
"A problem?" Naruto asked. "Like finding something?"
"Yeah, sort of." Sakura smiled dryly. "There are a few cultists I'm going to murder."
'Ah. Okay.'
He didn't know why he was this taken aback. Both of them were mercenaries, if in an apparently different way.
Still, what he remembered of innocent Sakura and this more jaded version had him feeling conflicted.
Well. It wasn't his business anyway.
"Care to tell us more?"
She looked at him. He stared back.
"Apparently, there are some people in this region who got involved in some sort of ritualistic murder." She ended up saying. "Kidnapping and killing kids, all sorts of grimy things."
"A cult dedicated to the Ōtsutsuki, then?" Karin asked.
She hesitated. "That's the part where it gets a bit confusing. My client is from the Land of Waterfalls, where some of them started doing the same. Rumors had it that they came from here, so I came to investigate. The only cult I heard about was this one, so I thought…" Sakura sighed. "Well, there doesn't seem to be any sort of Ōtsutsuki cult still going on. At least, not in the southern part of the country. This is the first time I see somebody in these ruins."
She looked at Karin, with a half-smile. "Definitely didn't expect to meet an old friend, though."
Karin smiled back. This was still Sakura, in the end, even if she was very different.
"So what are you going to do, now?" Karin asked. "You can come with us, we're looking for some ruins."
Sakura laughed. "Sounds nice. I can't come right away, though. There's another point of interest I need to check out before the sun comes up. Apparently these rituals take place during the night, so… Can't rest now." She gave them — but mostly Karin — an apologetic smile.
She nodded. "I understand. I'll try to track you in a few days, if you're still around here."
"There's a good chance I will. Are you a tracker now?" Sakura asked.
"Once I feel someone's chakra, I will always recognize it. And if I focus on a specific one, my range is several dozen kilometers."
Sakura's eyebrow rose to her hairline. She whistled. "That's… something. I'll count on you to find me, then-"
Karin took her into a big hug, to her surprise. Still, he hugged her back.
"Take care of yourself, Sakura."
"Of course." She nodded. Sakura gave a brief salute to Naruto.
"Indra-san. See you next time."
"Before you leave… Can I ask you something? What is this gauntlet you're wearing?"
She looked at him, hesitant. Him being with Karin must have been enough for her, in the end.
"This?" She flexed her hand. "I'm still not sure. Once, I kinda… summoned it? I have no real explanation. It sure came in handy a few times, though."
"Does it do anything in particular?" Naruto asked. Maybe he'd finally get some clue about his own, which he had baptized Thunder Gauntlet. In a very literal way.
She squinted her eye. Maybe that had been too much.
"Sorry, but I don't feel like telling you yet."
Naruto thought and went off his hunch. "Is this how you teleport around?"
She stiffened. He nodded. That had been it.
"How do you…?" She sighed. "Well. I guess the cat's out of the bag. Yes, that's how I move around."
"Between the marks you put?"
She definitely didn't like being quizzed. "Something like this, yeah."
"And from the way you used it, I would assume you can only have a certain amount at the time?" Two was his guess.
She glared at him. "Look, if you really want to talk about this, maybe next time. Maybe. I'm going, now." Her tone was frosty.
She left. On foot.
He likely had been right, then.
Karin looked at him strangely.
"What?" He asked.
"I think you could have waited a bit more. No reason to antagonize her."
He was ready to retort. Then realized she was right.
"…Yeah. My bad. I got too curious."
"Anyway, let's get back before Anko uproots the whole town looking for us."
"Sure."
Anko had been sleeping soundly, it turned out.
Naruto was not very impressed, but well, if she trusted them enough to let them go, he was not about to do anything to change that.
They fell asleep quickly.
There was nothing holding them in the small town, so they left at sunrise.
As they went closer to the North, Karin started to feel uneasy.
"What is it?" Naruto asked, seeing her discomfort.
"I… Don't know. Something feels weird."
"Let's stop here, and make sure you're okay, then." Anko said.
"No. No need. It's nothing physical. Let's continue."
She insisted and so they went on.
The feeling only worsened, the more they went.
The land itself was becoming stranger and stranger, the sky of a strange color and birds that looked like they belonged to a different era altogether flying around, making squeaky noises.
There were more of the gigantic corpses, and they were bigger, too.
Karin shivered.
"There's something wrong with this region. Some weird feeling in the air. I… can't explain it."
"Maybe there is something to the superstition, then." Naruto said.
"If you want to head back, give me the word and we'll leave right away." Anko said, uncharacteristically serious.
"There's a strong lingering chakra in the air. About fifty kilometers away."
"You can feel it from here?" Naruto asked, surprised. This was way over her usual range.
She continued, tight-lipped. "There's nothing normal about this."
"What do you mean?"
Karin hesitated. "It feels like… Tailed Beast chakra. Nine-Tails, in particular."
They were at the source of it in less than two hours.
"Are you sure it's in here?" Anko asked, tapping two fingers on the rocky mountain in between them and the lingering chakra.
"Absolutely. It's in front, and down." Karin confirmed.
"Yeah… I think I can feel it too. There is something of the Nine-Tails, for sure."
"Anybody inside?" Anko asked.
Karin held a Ram seal and focused. She let out a cry, stumbling back.
"Karin! Are you alright?"
"Yes… Yes. There's no one alive in there. But there was something huge, at some point."
"Is it safe to go in?" Naruto asked.
Anko thought.
She decided. "Let's go, then."
"How will we get in?" Naruto asked. No Ground-Eater seal would be enough, unless they had days.
She bit her thumb and summoned a large snake with a rock-like pattern.
"Well, then… Get in!"
Anko motioned at the snake, who opened its mouth wide.
Karin and Naruto looked at each other, hesitating. Anko was already inside the snake, so they followed her in.
It sank into the rock as if it were water.
"I'm going to repress this memory, just so you know."
Anko laughed.
"This is just the Tunnel-Snake. It's not that bad, really, just takes a bit of getting used to."
Karin preferred not to ask what would qualify as bad to her.
They moved through the ground.
The snake came to a halt a few instants later, and spit them out. It sat there, waiting for them to be done.
They were standing in a cavern, where some sort of mostly rotten roots covered half the floor.
Chakra residue was still in the air. Something of the Nine-Tails had definitely been here.
'But a while ago, then.'
There was nothing useful here, and Naruto sagged in disappointment. His senses picked up something else.
There stood a throne-like wooden chair in the middle of the room.
To Naruto, it might as well have been a beacon. He got closer.
It was saturated in chakra. One that he knew very well.
Indra.
It felt as though it was calling to him. He reached it and touched it.
Everything in the room disappeared.
He heard Karin scream something he couldn't hear.
He was standing in a dark room. The same mirror as the one he had seen last time hung against the wall.
It had been a real place, he was sure. He looked at his hands. They were his.
"So, you've come."
Naruto's head whipped around.
A man in his prime, dressed in fine clothes. He would have been handsome, if not for the oppressing power he let out, making it impossible to focus on anything else.
His red and black eyes stared at Naruto directly. For a moment, they seemed to become openings to something else.
Thunder, crashing with a deafening sound. Roaring flames.
Naruto tried to escape. There was no way out.
"Is this another dream?" He asked, trying to force himself to wake up.
"Dream? Is this what you think this is?" The man asked, amused.
"Who are you?" He knew exactly who he was.
"You know exactly who I am." He said, as though he were reading his thoughts.
"Ōtsutsuki Indra."
"Do not say that accursed name in front of me." The void opened once more behind his eyes.
Naruto froze.
"I am Indra." The man said simply. His eyes met his own again. "Are you to become mine then?"
"Yours…?"
"Call it however you want to call it. In the end, you will be consumed. Just like the others." The man said, indifferent.
Naruto stared, his teeth gritted. "You are a dead man. Don't meddle with the living."
"Dead? Is that what you wish to believe?" He stood up, amused. "I live, yet again."
He stepped closer to him, taller and stronger.
"I won't use your power." Naruto said, panting.
"My power is your power. Your power is my power. There is nothing you can do. You will become host to my will, whether you choose to fight… or not."
He smiled, his eyes wide.
"I will take you. And once you die… I shall take the next one. Over and over again, until our war is settled for good."
Their noses touched.
"Or until the end of time, whichever comes first."
"I won't let you do as you please."
Indra laughed. "Fool, I already am."
Naruto fell back and found himself in the cavern, once more. He took a big shuddering breath.
Karin held him, while Anko looked on, worriedly.
"I think we should get back. There's nothing else for us here." He managed.
"What was this about?" Karin asked.
"I'll tell you once we're out of here. Please."
They nodded and left.
A man with the Sharingan swirled in the room, minutes after they were gone.
His alarms had gone off. There was nothing of interest in this place anymore, they had moved everything to a more defensible shortly after having captured the Nine-Tails, for obvious safety reasons.
There were still traces of Chakra in the air, and a few small pieces of snake-skin on the ground, that he found after inspecting the entire cavern.
There was only one person who'd come here on purpose, using snakes.
"Orochimaru, then? …Well, I guess it's about time we take care of loose ends."
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