Narukarin (For One Night)

Chapter 4:An Outcome (home)

No floor.

That was the best way to describe myself at the time. When Naruto started talking about the Uzumaki, the red swirl in my pajama kimono that, until now, until that moment I didn't know the meaning. It was like taking an information punch to the chest, endless anguish came as the blonde told me the story, and images of my unusual childhood with my parents came to my head. "Don't look back, Karin. Everything will be fine", "I wish I could tell you so much...!", these and other loose phrases from my parents echoed in my mind before they disappeared from the house and, days later, found their beheaded bodies in the center of Kusagakure.

I was five years old. "Daddy... wake up, Daddy... I caught your head", said a Karin who still didn't understand what had happened, and who thought that taking the decapitated head and putting it close to her neck would magically make it come back. "Mommy... wake up". A Karin who did the same to her mother, a Karin who didn't want to be alone, didn't even know what it was. A Karin who saw, from an early age, the blood stain her clothes and the grass, the ground; tarnish the memories, the body and the heart; smear eyes under her like "The crazy girl who lives in that horrible house".

I know. I knew about these lines that ran among the residents. No wonder we lived in the wealthiest corner of Kusagakure...

I was still this Karin, deep down. I was still this Karin looking for answers. I was still this Karin in need of comfort, of a friendly word, of something telling me "it's going to be okay". I still... was.

I couldn't hold back the tears at the words of Naruto, who was also an Uzumaki. He told me. He knew better than anyone the anguish in my chest that afflicted me in those eternal and painful moments, especially when he showed me that necklace that already seemed a little familiar to me. Exactly at that moment, I had no ground. No base. A bottomless black hole opened under my feet and I dove straight in, praying for someone to save me. And that someone needed to be Naruto Uzumaki, the blonde that he was all that and more. In such a short time, he had become much more than a mere guest. A lot more.

And I would miss him terribly when he left for Konohagakure, but it would be the right thing to happen: I had to accept. I cannot be selfish and ask him to stay. He had his life, and I had (?) mine (???). Perhaps harboring him had been a mistake after all? Perhaps, but a mistake I would never regret.

Then I could stop thinking about those things for a moment: knocking on the door. Naruto and I wiped my tears, and soon he asked me to be quiet and hidden. Tiptoeing, he went to the entrance. I felt a tense mood in the air, a shiver that bristled through me, an uncontrollable feeling that tragedy was about to happen. At the same moment, Naruto approached the window, and my heart squeezed me to scream at the blonde to get away, but it was too late: two rocks sank into the floor as they broke through the window, shattering it and hitting Naruto, covering him. with glass powder. My biggest fear could have come true, since he hadn't shielded his face in time: a moan of discomfort at something in his vision was loud as he ran towards me. At that moment, bangs coming from the solid wooden door interrupted us: I could see,we negotiate":

- What criminals without a word! Naruto exclaimed as I helped him wash his face and remove the shards that were still on his clothes.

"This is Kusagakure, I replied, quickly bandaging him," word doesn't mean anything around here!"

A second stone shattered the kitchen window. Then it all went too fast for me, where there was no time to stop and think about exactly what to do. The door had just come down, and a fat henchman in a tan shirt and black trousers stepped on it and came towards us with a victorious smile and brandishing his spiked club. Naruto shoved me back, defending me from the blow, but he was hit full in the chest by a punch from that big one, grunting in pain as he stumbled backwards. Quickly, the blonde composed himself, drew his katana and delivered a light blow to the left leg of the club "ogre". I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, ready to help my blonde, I nudged that guy, and when he turned around, I shoved it in his eyes, making him howl in pain and spurt blood all over me and onto the floor like a jet.