Pausing from his series of body flickers in the Forest of Death, Kakashi couldn't help but feel like he had forgotten something.
Idly dealing with flesh-eating leeches that tried to prey on him with a kunai, Kakashi wracked his brain, trying to remember what it was he was forgetting.
Mentally going over everything, Kakashi still couldn't understand why he had a sense of urgency.
'What could it be?'
Subconsciously flinging the last leech off his kunai, Kakashi began to grow frustrated; it was like the thought was playing keep-away in his brain.
'Orochimaru? No. Kabuto? No. Sasuke? No. Sakura? No. Naru-'
"Karin!"
Kakashi exclaimed in realization, turning and shooting back into the heart of the forest at full speed, hoping with all his hope that the changes he had made wouldn't be the cause of her death.
'Shit, Shit, Shit!'
Every team that Kakashi passed only glimpsed trailing sparks of purple, some having to channel chakra on tree limbs to keep from falling from the intense gusts of wind.
Kakashi's Observation Haki worked at max capacity, shrinking to cover the forest and providing more detailed information and the general feel of every living organism in it.
Many signatures and many emotions flooded in; a majority ignored them or looked into them further, but thankfully, Karin was an Uzumaki, and if the Uzumaki were famous for anything, it'd be their abnormal chakra reserves compared to their peers. So, once Kakashi filtered the other larger reserves, like Naruto and Garra, Karin was easy to find.
'She's running from an animal. Large one.'
Kakashi reached the location with a series of thunder steps.
Seeing the exhausted and terrified girl backed into a tree by a large bear, Kakashi leaped onto the bear's back and snapped its neck in a fluid motion, the large chakra-powered bear falling to the ground like a puppet without its strings.
Karin flinched at the unpleasant snapping sound, opening her eyes to see the bear that had terrorized her lying dead with its head nearly bent off its neck. A man with a shock of silver hair and a dark fabric face mask covering the bridge of his nose and the rest of his face, his headband tilted to cover one of his eyes.
"T-Thank you."
Kakashi sighed in relief.
"Do you happen to be an Uzumaki?"
Karin hesitated, subconsciously grasping at her left arm out of habit.
"W-Why... Who are you?"
Kakashi made no move that could come off as threatening to the clearly on-edge girl.
"I'm Kakashi Hatake, Jonin of Konoha. I asked because my late sensei's wife was an Uzumaki, and she had the same hair as you. And the fact that the Uzumaki clan was the biggest ally of Konoha before their destruction in the Second Ninja War. One of my students is an Uzumaki as well, half, but still an Uzumaki."
Karin's eyes gleamed; her mother had told her a little about the Uzumaki clan, and she wanted her to seek any other survivor if there were any.
"Y-yes, I'm Karin, Karin Uzumaki."
Kakashi glanced at her headband, already knowing her past with the Grass village, but wanting to have a reason to take her to the Hokage.
"Tell me, is the Grass village treating you well?"
Karin tensed ever so slightly, and Karin knew that the Jonin in front of her likely noticed the change.
"N-no.... T-They don't."
"No need to explain further, I think I got it."
Kakashi spoke softly, not expecting the girl to bear all her emotional and physical scars.
"Would you like to come with me to see the Hokage? I can guarantee that he offers you a place in Konoha."
Karin was stunned; she was a foreign ninja, someone who shouldn't be accepted by any other village, for fear of conflicting loyalties and espionage.
"B-but the Grass village... they'd-"
"Do what? Fight Konoha? No, they don't have the political or military power for that."
Kakashi interjected firmly, but not unkindly; the confidence he held in that opinion was absolute.
'And besides, if they do try something, I could always kill them.'
He added mentally, not against a slaughter of all the ninja in the village that used Uzumaki survivors as nothing but spare chakra. Had Kushina been alive and learned of this, the Grass village would be past tense before they realized death was upon them.
Karin hesitated, not knowing whether to jump into the unknown or return to the bleak certainty, knowing that the Grass village would keep her alive only for her chakra, as they did to her mother. She'd be nothing but a convenient chakra refiller.
Gazing up into the lone eye of the Jonin, Karin didn't see the same gaze the Grass ninja always gave her.
'He sees me as a person.'
Karin nodded, taking a deep breath and looking down, suppressing the stinging pain in her chest and eyes.
Kakashi sat down across from her and spoke, his words hitting the heart of it and shattering her emotional wall like glass.
"Let it go."
He said softly, continuing when her eyes gazed up, eyes already on the verge of spilling tears.
"People cry, not because they're weak. It means they've been strong for too long."
Kakashi let the girl cry, looking away so she could release all her pent-up emotions without feeling self-conscious.
Karin wiped her tears a couple of minutes later, standing with a much lighter feeling than she had felt since her mother was still alive.
"Ok, I agree. Please take me to see the Hokage."
Kakashi walked to her side.
"I'm going to body flicker us through the forest, but that means you'd be leaving your team."
Karin shook her head.
"They left me for dead after getting the chakra they needed."
Kakashi nodded and body flickered them through the forest and past the village center, stopping at the top of the stairs to the main Hokage building.
Kakashi knocked in a distinctive pattern and was invited to enter.
Kakashi introduced Karin, explained her situation, and her wish to leave the Kusa and live in Konoha.
"An Uzumaki survivor, I'll admit that I didn't think I'd ever see one."
Hiruzen caught a glimpse of a mark on her arm and narrowed his eyes.
"Are you injured?"
Karin shook her head and hesitantly rolled up her right sleeve, showing the Hokage and Kakashi her bite-covered arm.
Hiruzen lowered his hat to cover his eyes so as not to scare her. The killing intent Hiruzen held back wasn't a small amount, and he had no desire to scare the clearly nervous girl.
"Well....."
He paused, quickly getting his emotions under control.
"I don't see any problem with it, but you'll need to stay with someone as a probation period for two months. The probation will start after the Chunin exams have concluded, and your Chakra will be sealed for that duration. If you wish to stay."
Karin nodded, fidgeting slightly.
Hiruzen smiled, recognizing that she wanted to ask him something, but was perhaps too nervous.
"Ask away, child. If I can do it, I'll accept whatever you ask."
Karin swallowed softly, hoping that the Hokage or Kakashi wouldn't deny her request.
"Can I stay with Kakashi? I don't really know anyone else in this village."
She asked, eyes moving back and forth between the two.
'Or trust.'
She mentally added, a bit unwilling to be supervised by just any random person, since Kakashi had gained some trust in the short time they had known each other.
Hiruzen looked over at Kakashi with the unasked question of
'Do you mind?'
Kakashi shook his head, not minding.
To Karin, this looked like a refusal, an internal disappointment rising.
"It's decided, then. You'll be under Kakashi's supervision at all times, which should allow you to meet some genin your age. I'm sure you'll get along well with him and his team.
Now..."
Hiruzen smiled warmly, reaching into his desk drawer to produce two headbands, laying them on the table—one with a blue cloth, the other with a black cloth.
"Pick whichever you prefer."
He paused, his expression turning slightly more serious.
"Oh, and... not that I'm worried about the reaction of Kusa, but it would be best if you wear a transformation while walking around the village. Best to let them think you didn't make it out of the forest, after all."
'Best not attract even more attention at a time like this.'
Hiruzen thought, pulling out a paper for her to fill out her information. Birth, name, sex, blood type, that sort of thing.
After she finished filling out the required information, Hiruzen stamped it with his approval, naturalizing her on the spot with the agreed probation, making sure the case was air-tight so his former teammate wouldn't try to raise a fuss with the council.
"Welcome to Konoha."
Hiruzen smiled as Karin picked up her black cloth leaf headband and tied it around her arm.
"Thank you, Lord Hokage, Kakashi."
Karin bowed, handing her old headband to Hiruzen.
Hiruzen stored the headband in his drawer as he nodded, Kakashi eye-smiling.
"I suppose you'd like to see where you'll be staying?"
Kakashi asked rhetorically, escorting her out of the office and through the village after Karin transformed the color of her clothes and hair. Her hair is now a much less eye-catching brown, and her clothes are a mix of dark green and navy blue.
Kakashi made a brief stop at Ichiraku, not surprised to see that a love of ramen was an Uzumaki trait.
Kakashi paid for the three bowls that Karin ate and the one he ate.
Walking through the village, Kakashi showed her the many shops, giving his opinions on the ones he preferred for different things.
Kakashi took his time and let her look at everything that caught her eye, making it to his house an hour later after all the browsing. Even though she was too shy at first, Kakashi would make an excuse to enter a store when he noticed her looking at something.
Entering the house, Kakashi showed her to a guest room, the last bedroom in the house that was never used.
"This will be your room. Feel free to change it to your liking. We can get you clothes and the like later."
Kakashi paused, thinking it'd be better to send a woman with her to do the shopping.
'Well, Anko. I'll be asking for your help sooner than you'd expect.'
Kakashi thought before he left to give her time to familiarize herself with her new room.
- Chapter End -
A comment pointed out that I basically forgot Karin. Thank you for that. Hope I fixed my mistake in a good way. I also found a way to let Anko help out Kakashi, because while he's good with Naruto, he'll need help with Karin. Hope you liked the chapter. Kakashi is becoming a full-time therapist. Making two girls cry in one day. (Talk-No-Jutsu LVL-MAX). And I didn't forget about the rewards, but I won't make a big deal out of every little change. I'm done yapping now.