The summer breeze slowly ruffled the trees, rattling the leaves as if the entire forest were alive. The sounds of crickets, birds, and animals were profound in this place, leaving behind a sense of calm and uncertainty within this vast natural metropolis.
However, for the two teenagers sitting side by side against a tree, it was as if all of this was invisible. Both were too ashamed to look at each other, let alone observe and admire nature's beauty.
This was Sukuna and Karin—one ashamed of her earlier outburst, now finally calming her raging hormonal mood swings, and the other similarly awkward after trying to console her.
Both internally ignored the topic afterward, choosing instead to let the silence speak for them while they calmed themselves and simply enjoyed each other's company in quiet.
At least, Karin did.
Ashamed out of her wits, she might have been, but still, her head found its way to his shoulder after a while, resting there, slowly enjoying the moment.
So what if he wasn't looking for a girlfriend? She was—and she knew who she wanted. She, Karin Uzumaki, would have him.
Believe it.
Sukuna wouldn't have minded letting her head rest there before, but after she had so openly displayed her affection for him, he was not so sure. Letting her might just embolden her ideas, while he himself wasn't sure what he felt.
He had never experienced love before dying to know any better, and right now she was too young for his mind to see her as anything besides a friend, little sister, or at best, a companion.
But what about a few years later? He wasn't sure. It would be cruel to let her dream like this if he ended up not wishing to continue… whatever this was.
It wasn't often that he felt this lost in his life. Strangely enough, it was a matter of affection—a concept practically nonexistent for Ryomen Sukuna in his time.
Sigh.
For now, though, he let the girl be. He'd answer when he had an answer for this question. Until then, he'd just maintain the right distance so he didn't break her heart. That was the best he could do.
"Ahem... I almost forgot I have to feed that glutton," Sukuna cleared his throat, slightly shifting away from her and disturbing the girl's sweet dreams.
A big pout appeared on her face right away, her earlier outburst already forgotten. But upon seeing that he was up to something, she began observing intently.
"What are you doing?" She blinked, watching as half of his hand moved slightly, as if the very air around him shifted, and then a swirl-like pattern appeared before suddenly a cylinder with a black surface materialized in his hand.
It wasn't very long but was quite thick—made of glass, if she guessed right—and the inside was completely black. However, to Karin, someone with the Mind's Eye of Kagura, she saw more than just with her eyes.
Before he could explain, her technique had already explored the depths of its inside, and when she was done, her eyes widened.
"It's... it's alive," she uttered, squinting her eyes and holding her glasses close to see what exactly it was.
"Yes, it's alive. And before you ask, no, I don't know what it is," Sukuna said calmly and began to slowly pour his CE inside it.
To Karin's amazement, whatever was inside the large cylinder reacted to Sukuna's unique chakra signature.
No—
Whatever that thing was, it also had a very similar chakra signature to Sukuna.
Both were dark. But there was more. While she always sensed negative emotion from Sukuna, she knew he was far from evil. But these things—whatever they were—felt truly bad.
Like they were made entirely of negative emotions. Only darkness.
"Why feed it your chakra if you don't know what that thing is?" Karin asked, curious but also more than a little wary of it.
"Because I wish to know what it is. I found it when I raided Danzo's Root all those years ago. I have a feeling that it's like an egg or something. Well, not exactly an egg, but you get what I mean, right? Once it has enough chakra, it might come out. Whatever it is," Sukuna said, eyes gleaming with curiosity.
Was she the only one who felt this was a bad idea?
"Hmm… you think this is the right thing to do? It could be dangerous," she said, definitely not sharing his fascination. If anything, she'd rather he didn't bring whatever this dark and twisted thing was to life.
It was like the boy was asking for trouble.
"Don't worry. Whatever it is, I assure you I'll rank higher on the danger scale. I'll take care of it if it's too late," Sukuna smiled. However, that reckless optimism wasn't confidence-inspiring at all.
And since when was being dangerous and causing trouble something to be proud of?
By the time Sukuna finished pouring his chakra inside the cylinder, the tube stopped quivering, going back to its quiet self again.
In the hope that one day he would get to see whatever was inside, he had been feeding his cursed energy to this little thing for five whole years. And he could feel that sooner or later, it would come out.
"Let's get out of here. I'm getting rather hungry." Sukuna effortlessly tossed the thing back into his Kamui dimension and grabbed her hand.
"This might be a little unpleasant—being space-swapped, that is. Brace yourself," Sukuna said, and Karin immediately threw herself completely onto him, holding him tightly.
She had only traveled like this with him once—the very first time they met—and while she had never shown her dissatisfaction, having had far more serious problems back then, it wasn't exactly pleasant. It felt like being squeezed through a small hole.
Not her preferred mode of transport, but it was very convenient—and arguably the only one they had aside from running across treetops.
She was in her developing phase, but Sukuna could already feel the softness against him. Not letting himself get distracted, he opened his Kamui, and soon both vanished in a Uzumaki swirl.
...
[Konoha]
Team 7 was at their breaking point. Day after day, their missions had been nothing but chores. Picking up garbage, chasing cats, pulling weeds for cranky old villagers—it was endless.
In that sense, their fate wasn't much different from Sukuna and Karin's, or for that matter, any genin in the village.
Naruto finally snapped. As they stood in front of the Hokage's desk for their next mission, he stomped his foot. "No more cats! I swear, if you make me chase that demon cat Tora again, I'll—hand it over to Sukuna. He'll make a nice meal out of it! At least no more cat chasing!"
Good thing he said that once the fat lady—the cat's owner—was away. Both Hiruzen and Kakashi sighed in silence.
Sakura groaned and held her forehead. "Naruto, don't say things like that in front of the Hokage!"
Even Sasuke, who usually stayed quiet, muttered, "Hn. He's right though. This is pointless."
Hiruzen puffed on his pipe, hiding a smile. "Missions are meant to build teamwork and discipline, Naruto."
"Teamwork?! Discipline?!" Naruto threw his arms around wildly. "How is pulling weeds helping me become Hokage?! If you want weeds gone so badly, give me a fire jutsu and I'll burn them all down in one shot!"
Kakashi scratched the back of his head, his visible eye curving in amusement. "You know, Lord Hokage, they might be ready for something a little more… challenging."
Naruto slammed his hands on the desk. "Yes! Finally, someone gets it! Give us a real mission, old man!"
Sakura quickly bowed. "What Naruto means is… maybe something slightly harder?"
Sasuke only gave a sharp nod.
Hiruzen let out a long sigh. Not even bothered by Naruto's ruffian-like behavior, he thought to himself that the boy had picked up many good things from Sukuna—but there had to be some bad ones as well, right?
In this case, he couldn't do much; he had a whole village to run. He couldn't go around teaching every disrespectful brat himself.
Though his eyes twinkled. "Very well. You'll have your wish. I will assign you a C-rank mission—an escort to the Land of Waves."
Naruto pumped his fists in victory. "Yes! No more cats!"
Hiruzen added with a sly smile, "But to be safe, I'll send two more genin with you."
Naruto blinked. "Wait, what?! We have to share our mission?!"
'How's that safe?' Kakashi thought as well. Wasn't this old man just giving him more work?
...
A/N : I truely feel Kishimoto did Karin dirty. Man she got potential but we never saw what more can come out of it.
xxx
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