73: Karin Uzumaki

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Chapter 73: Karin Uzumaki

Arc: The Uzumaki Clan

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto, please support the original work.

*****

"They are in the land of sound," Naruto said after opening his eyes. Gaara didn't say where they were and judging from his hurried handwriting, Naruto could guess that they are under pressure from some unknown source.

"Gaara's chakra is very chaotic. He might be fighting against someone," Naruto said. Before Gaara and his siblings departed from the group, Naruto attached a seal to Gaara. The seal was a simple seal to monitor Gaara's chakra and rough location.

"Let's go," Naruto said and flickered toward the west. Hinata, Zabuza, and Haku promptly followed after him. They had already crossed the sea and arrived at the land of fire, but they still had to cross the land of hot waters in order to get to the land of sound.

It didn't take them long to arrive at the land of hot waters. After doing so, Naruto contacted one of his men.

'Huh. I just realized. Orochimaru has his personal village while I also have a puppet village. We share quite a bit of similarities, eh?' Naruto chuckled.

"Master," a man dressed in black clothing came out of the darkness as Naruto activated a seal. The man had red hair and his eyes were dark brown.

"Ichiro. Tell me what happened in the country while I was gone," Naruto said and stopped Ichiro from kneeling down. They didn't have time to spare, and Naruto wanted to see if anything happened in the land of hot waters as it was adjacent to the land of sound.

"Master, nothing of importance occurred in the country. The ninja forces are growing steadily, and your fame is rapidly increasing. Secretly, of course," Ichiro said.

"Good. Well, we have to go now. I trust that you will manage the country well," Naruto said.

He planned on having the land of hot waters as his base of operations on the mainland as the land of whirlpools was too tricky to go through.

*****

"You're finally here," Gaara said as he watched Naruto arrive. Not long after Naruto's arrival, Zabuza and Haku flickered next to the redhead. Gaara was about to ask where Hinata was when he saw Naruto putting someone down on the ground... It was Hinata.

"Hmm. Well, let's go straight to business," Naruto said to Gaara, who was looking at Hinata. Hearing Naruto's words, Gaara averted his gaze and looked at Naruto before reporting.

"Naruto. It's best for me to recount our tale," Gaara said and uncrossed his arms.

[Flashback]

"Temari, Kankuro, stay still," Gaara ordered, though his voice was as faint as a fly. Right now, there were hidden behind a lush tree. The tree looked rather odd compared to the others around it. Its bark looked a bit grainy, and its leaves had a rough texture.

However, from afar, you wouldn't recognize anything wrong. After all, who'd be free enough to look at a tree and say, "This tree looks weird?"

As for why the tree looked odd...

"The tree will crumble if you keep moving," Gaara warned in a whisper. The tree was made out of sand. They'd just run away from a ninja of Otogakure, and somehow, the village had developed some unique sealing tags.

One such sealing tag would make the target hear random sounds for an extended period of time, or their hearing senses will be multiplied a hundred-fold.

Kankuro was affected by the former, while Temari was affected by the latter.

Kankuro couldn't bear the annoyance and would constantly clutch his head, making faint rustling sounds. Temari used chakra to dull her hearing, but her hearing senses still made her ears bleed.

With Kankuro's moving, her anger and pain had reached the maximum. The only thing keeping her from acting out was that she was afraid that her eardrums would burst if she did anything.

FOOSH!

Suddenly, a ninja passed by.

THUD! SHRRR...

As the ninja from Otogakure passed by, Temari winced and covered her ears. Gaara helped her by silently blocking her ears with sand, but she was still in a sea of pain as the leaves rustled against each other.

SWIIIISH—

She cursed her luck when a strong gale of wind passed by, making leaves rub against each other to produce crisp sounds.

"Ah, fuck," Temari cursed. The forest was not a quiet place. Insects and animals constantly made sounds.

"Hmm. I'll seal you up for now. Sorry, Temari," Gaara apologized. He didn't want to wrap her sister in a cocoon of sand as it was uncomfortable and frightening to experience, but he had no other choice. Temari didn't seem to have complaints either as she nodded her head.

"They are alert," Gaara mumbled. Just moments ago, they encountered Orochimaru while they were traveling. Gaara recognized Orochimaru, and he used his sand to ready a protective shield around him and his siblings.

Seeing sand rising up, Orochimaru thought that Gaara would attack, so he attacked first.

Chaos ensued, and after using his sand to bury Orochimaru in a makeshift desert, Gaara and his siblings ran away.

Gaara was low in chakra, so when hundreds of sound-nins showed up to kill them, he and his siblings struggled to drive them away. At the end of the battle, the sound-nins managed to put a sealing tag in both Temari and Kankuro.

Suddenly, Gaara saw the sound-nin stop.

"Why are you all so rowdy?" A girl with red hair shouted as she walked out of a hidden trapdoor. 'Impressive...' Gaara didn't even know there was a trapdoor there until the girl walked out of it.

'Red hair... and her chakra signature feels a bit familiar. Is she an Uzumaki?' Gaara wondered.

"Karin. Lord Orochimaru told me to—" The sound-nin said when the red-haired girl frowned and slapped the ninja in the face. BANG! The poor sound-nin flew into the nearby tree with a bang. The girl ignored the man as her brows furrowed before she clenched her fists.

"Orochimaru? HMPH! If he wants something from me, that bastard, let him... ahem! Lord Orochimaru, what did you wish to inform me about?" The girl, Karin, was raging like a demon when a long, black-haired man flickered behind the sound-nin.

"Karin. I heard you yell out my name. Did you want to tell me something?" Orochimaru smiled. "Nothing at all, Lord Orochimaru," Karin calmly declined as she fixed her round eyeglasses.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Gaara saw Karin look at his "third eye," before looking at their general direction. 'She can sense us from so far away?' Gaara was shocked. Orochimaru didn't even sense them, how could Karin do so?

'I guess that's an Uzumaki for you,' Gaara thought. He already marked Karin as an Uzumaki. Gaara was about to leave when he saw that Karin had no plans in exposing their location. Instead, she took Orochimaru into the hidden trapdoor.

Gaara observed for a while and when he saw that no one was coming out of the trapdoor, he sighed in relief.

"Ah, the sealing tag is finally losing its effect!" Kankuro said. His voice was excited and a bit relieved, but after receiving Gaara's stare, he instantly quieted down.

"Maybe Temari's seal is starting to lose effect too?" Kankuro whispered. Naturally, he knew why Gaara sent him a side-eye.

*****

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