Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sage, she fucking hated Grass Country. She hated how dry the air felt rasping through her throat, she hated how clear the blue skies were, how it made her sensitive eyes water, she hated that there weren't any goddamn roads in this godforsaken land and they had to walk through thick grass that grew as tall as her hips. Most of all, she hated how the deceivingly calm landscape contrasted with the cruel and vicious people hiding under the tall grass. At least in her homeland, people were always warm in contrast with the constant rain, when in Grass Country it was always the opposite.

“Let's take her with us!”

“No.”

“But Konaaaaan-”

“Yahiko, we already have our hands full with taking care of our own.”

Konan didn't want to be the bad guy in this situation. Contrary to what most of her colleagues at Akatsuki might think, she wasn’t a heartless bitch, she was just… a bit on edge since Yahiko almost died that time against the Salamander. She was cautious and if that came across as cold, so be it, as long as it kept her loved ones safe, as long as it kept Yahiko and Nagato safe. Even if the self sacrificing idiots weren’t making her life any easier. 

But she wasn’t heartless, she wasn’t blind to other people's needs, she could see the girl in front of her, big red eyes, wild red hair a bit like Nagato's, trembling hands and wobbly legs covered in teeth and biting marks. 

Those were the reason why she didn’t want to take the girl in. Maybe there was a reason for all these bites or maybe her previous caretaker was crueler than Konan cared to think about, either way this kid was prized by someone. She was dirty and scared but she seemed well fed enough for a country in the middle of war, which meant they wouldn’t be taking in a poor orphan abandoned and uncared for, they’d be taking someone else's property. And that was always a pain in the ass.

“C'mon Konan, do you want to just leave her here to die?”

Konan ignored Yahiko's guilt tripping arguments. She nodded to the girl’s arms. “Hey, kid, what’s up with those marks?”

She didn’t answer. She only hugged her knees tighter and buried her head in her arms, making herself small, as if the world could disappear if she only closed her eyes hard enough. Konan knew what that level of desperation felt like. She should know. She’s been that same girl countless times already.

“Sage Konan, what are you doing talking like that to a five year old?”

Despite Konan's harsh treatment, the girl still seemed to favor Konan over friendly Yahiko and neutral Nagato. She’d clearly had a bad experience with men. Konan prayed that it was only because of the bite marks.

“Konan, I want to take her with us.”

Konan had to do a double take to look at Nagato. He had been silent during the whole conversation up until now, like he usually was. But now his voice had no room for discussion. Konan sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose trying to figure out who back in Amegakure could still take in yet another orphan from war. Maybe they could take the kid in for a couple of days until the good orphanages had some vacancy.

“Ok.”

“ Ok ? Just ok ?!” Yahiko repeated in outrage before whining to her. “Why do you only listen to him ?”

It's not that she only listened to Nagato, it's just that Nagato rarely wanted or asked for anything. He was always so agreeable and low maintenance, never thinking he could be loved or deserving of anything but the bare minimum, it didn’t matter that she and Yahiko tried to shower him with love the best they could.

So yes, she would listen to Nagato on this one, even if she herself thought this was a hell of a bad idea.

“C'mon, kid.” She took a few steps forward and crouched to be on the same level as the kid. Konan extended her hand, but the girl simply looked at it with wavering eyes. “C'mon, we'll take you somewhere safe.”

The girl's eyes darted from Konan's hand to her eyes and back repeatedly. Konan kept steady, she knew better than to force herself into the girl's private space. They waited for sometime, Nagato was silent and still, Yahiko was shuffling on his feet behind her, and the girl was shivering and scared, but eventually she reached back and Konan grabbed a hand too small to be so badly scarred already.

“It’s a bit of a walk, but I promise you'll be taken care of, kid.” 

The girl's red eyes were trained on the ground and Konan felt her heart clench. It didn’t matter how jaded she was by now, how many times they'd seen the blood, the gore, the grief, the misery. She always hurt a hundred times worse when it was a child.

Her blood was curdled by the time they crossed the border back to Rain Country, and she was just relieved to be back at home. The next time she stepped foot on Grass Country would be a million years too fucking soon.

***

The little girl had yet to utter a single word. Konan told him to be patient, that she must be still scared of them, but he couldn’t help but feel antsy. Yahiko wanted to at least know her name, but she wouldn’t say it no matter how many times he asked. He kept calling her by “little girl” or “little one” when talking to her, he hated it. Konan was perfectly fine calling her “kid” and Nagato just called her “hey” or “you”, and Yahiko was exasperated by the lack of touch of both his girlfriend and boyfriend.

“Don’t worry too much Yahiko, we're just taking care of her until Yumeko-san gets a vacancy.” Konan crossed her arms over her chest with finality and Yahiko wanted to pull the hair off his head.

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve basic human decency! Sage, Konan!” Nagato nodded in agreement with him. She didn’t say anything, but she looked at the disapproving look from both of them and sighed.

“Ok, I'm sorry.”

Yahiko knew what Konan was doing, what she always did. She was trying not to get attached to avoid getting hurt in the end, and really, who could blame her? They've had too many fallen friends, too many orphans killed in the crossfire, too many victims from war they couldn’t save.

But that didn’t mean they should stop trying, that they would be as ruthless as those that hurt them! No! The Akatsuki was going to end the cycle of violence, even if it’s one damned act of kindness at one damned time!

Yahiko grunted at Konan's lack of tact, but couldn’t get mad at her. He pecked her on the lips quickly and grabbed the food tray that Nagato had been preparing for their unplanned guest and headed to the little girl's room. As he crossed one boring corridor after the other, Yahiko noticed how the Akatsuki building wasn’t the best place for a kid. It was gray and boring and filled with deadly shinobi and deadly weapons and not child proofed and no environmental enrichment or-

It would really be in her best interest to hand her to Yumeko-san, to someone who knew what they were doing. But while Yumeko-san didn’t have an opening, he'd rather have the girl in the Akatsuki building temporarily, even if it was unfit for a kid.

Yahiko sighed as he knocked on the door of the girl's room, which was just a spare dormitory. She'd been there for four days and still hadn't said a word, they would come by to drop her meals and leave and she wouldn’t move from the bed, always hugging her knees, big red eyes almost popping out of her skull like a scared baby deer caught on the headlights.

He opened the door to see her in that exact same position and sighed again, not really surprised. He forced a welcoming smile. “Heeeyyy theeeere little girl. How are you feeling? Doing ok?”

No word from her and Yahiko’s forced smile faltered.

“Alriiiight, I'll just leave your lunch on the table, ok? I'll drop by later to get the empty tray, ok?” At the lack of response he answered it himself. “Ok, alright.”

He left the tray and moved to sit against the wall opposite from the bed to repeat his, by now, daily routine of attempting to make her talk.

“So, today it’s still raining outside. I hope you can get used to this, it rains a lot over here, at least compared to Kusa.”

He always started with the weather report because her room didn’t have a window, then he’d move on to talk about random gibberish, anything that could catch her attention, but again, no words, only eyes were so big and frightened that he wondered if she was even blinking at all.

“Yeah… so… Konan's going out today, you remember Konan right? The pretty woman with purple hair? She’s visiting some villages on the border, they need help with their rice fields… and Konan's really cool, she has biiiiiig wings made of paper! She's like a bird, or, like, like an angel!” He opened his arms excitedly trying to mimic Konan's wings to the girl, hoping it would spark some interest from her. “So she can fly to the border and come back super, super fast, it’s really cool.”

The girl blinked. Ok. Alright. That’s some progress right there, isn’t it? Blinking? 

“Nagato is super cool too, he's the guy with the red hair, remember?” The little girl seemed to perk up at Nagato’s mention. Well, she blinked and seemed to move one centimeter closer to Yahiko. That’s ok. Baby steps… baaaaby steps. “His hair looks like yours. Today he's helping build a house here in the city. He looks skinny but he’s suuuuuuper strong really, and he never gets tired!”

Yahiko put a hand to his chest. “And there’s me. I'm Yahiko, I try to help everyone I can. I wanna help you too… What’s your name?”

The girl didn’t move at all at his question. He held in a sigh, he didn’t want her to think he was disappointed with her, he was just frustrated with this whole situation, he hated that she was afraid, that she needed to be wary of new people, he hated whatever was done to her. 

“Ok, alright… no problem! Yeah, ok. Sooooo…” He got up to his feet and pointed to the door. “I'm going. I'll be back soon to get that tray ok? I hope you like the food.”

When he turned to leave he heard something. He first thought it was some sort of meow, but he knew that there weren't any cats on this floor of the building. He turned to the girl again and she was looking at him, her face no longer half hidden behind her arms. She put a small hand to her chest just like he did before.

“Karin.”

Yahiko felt the biggest grin opening on his face.

“Nice to meet you Karin-chan!”

***

Nagato felt like he knew her. Maybe from another life, maybe from the image in his mirror. The similarities were undeniable and he couldn’t leave her behind when he first met her. It felt wrong.

Karin was staring at him.

He was staring back at her.

They had the same hair color, she had the same eyes as his father and her face strangely reminded him of his mother. He might just be going insane, but he kept staring back trying to understand if they were connected somehow. She was so small, sitting proudly on the too big chair, little crossed arms over the kitchen table with her chin resting on them, as if analyzing him just as much as he was assessing her.

“What are you guys doing? Is this a staring contest?” Yahiko teased them as he got into the kitchen too. 

“Nothing.” He averted his eyes to the floor, a bit embarrassed. 

“Nothing!” Karin yelped shyly.

After Yahiko miraculously managed to make Karin start talking again, Nagato started to notice her talkative nature. She was always excited when people talked around her, opening her mouth to say something and then biting back her tongue, jumping in place when she observed something that caught her attention, wanting to join in when the “adults” were talking. He could see her wanting to speak and do things, but she still restrained herself. Did she not trust them yet? What could he do to make it better? “What about some dinner?” Yahiko looked at them sitting on the table with a little glint in his eyes. “I was thinkiiiiing… maybe ramen?”

“Yes!” Both Nagato and Karin exclaimed as Yahiko laughed and got to work. That was another thing, they both loved ramen, especially with narutomakis. It might be a stupid thing, but Nagato felt like this was somehow relevant.

Konan walked in and got a good sniff of what Yahiko was cooking and groaned, startling him from his staring contest with Karin again. “Fucking hell, not ramen again.”

“Konan! No cursing in front of Karin-chan.” Yahiko exclaimed and Nagato rolled his eyes. Konan should know better than to let her dirty mouth run unsupervised like that, they've been living with a child for more than three weeks now. 

Konan sighed and turned to the girl. “... sorry kid.”

Red eyes narrowed at her and Karin answered in a small voice. “It's ok.”

“Karin-chan, can you get me some green onions from the fridge?” Karin nodded enthusiastically to Yahiko’s request and jumped from her seat to open the fridge door. She seemed to have boundless energy, but maybe that's just how six years olds were.

“How was your day, Nagato?” Konan hugged his shoulders from behind and kissed his cheek in a way that always made him melt. She was always so strong and ruthless, so when she became loving and mellow, it was always surprising. And only he and Yahiko were allowed to see her like that.

“It was pretty uneventful… and yours?”

“It was ok, they're almost finished building the new retirement home, I helped there today. And since I was in the neighborhood I checked and Yumeko-san still has no vacancy, she said it might take a while.”

Nagato turned his eyes to the girl going through their fridge, looking at the foods intently before putting them back on the shelves.

“We're not handing her over to anyone that's not trustworthy!” Yahiko stated plainly what he was thinking too.

“Of course not. I'm with you two on this, don't worry. I just want her to have a good place, and I don’t think we can offer that.” Konan had her arms crossed, her head shaking. Both Nagato and Yahiko were silent about that. They also had their own doubts about that too.

Karin was clueless that they were discussing her future, switching between a handful of leek and green onions, putting them up close to her face as if trying to decide which one Yahiko had asked for.

“It's the one in your right hand Karin-chan. Yeah, the darker one.” The girl put the leek back in the fridge and handed the green onions to Yahiko. “Thanks, Karin-chan. Hey, careful don’t get too close to the stove.”

Nagato watched her narrow her eyes again at the pan and realized something.

“Karin, do you wear glasses?”

Yahiko and Konan's shocked eyes kept moving from Nagato to her, waiting for her answer. She nodded repeatedly and Yahiko almost dropped their dinner.

“Whaaaaat?! Why didn’t you say something before, Karin-chan?! We're gonna get you glasses tomorrow!”

It turned out that Karin needed glasses, and a lot. They left the eye doctor with a prescription for some very thick lens. They took her shopping to choose a new pair of glasses, she not so surprisingly chose a thick rimmed red pair. Nagato thought it suited her. After that, they had no more staring contests with narrowed eyes.

***

Their temporary living situation was turning into a not-so-much-of-a-temporary living situation.

Konan walked past Karin's bedroom and noticed purple bed sheets complete with a little purple cat plushie. She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep and slow breath to calm herself. She already knew who was responsible for it, so she stalked to the kitchen with determination.

“What the actual fuck, Yahiko?”

He was by the stove with an exasperated look in his face. “Good morning to you too Konan, honey, how can I help you?” Fucking Yahiko, thinking he's such a funny little smartass.

“Don’t honey me Yahiko, what the fuck do you think you're doing?”

“Breakfast?” He asked sounding genuinely confused, and it was too fucking early in the morning for Konan to be dealing with his shit.

“Why did you buy all that shit for her?”

A look of realization dawned on him and Konan conceded that maybe she didn’t give him any context as to why she was mad. But then his face changed again to that headstrong and obstinate look that he got whenever he was fighting for something he believed in, and that she always loved seeing on him. Except when it was directed at her, then it became annoying and stubborn. She wanted to hit his head with the pan he was using to cook. 

“I bought bedsheets for Karin because she’s living with us and deserves basic human treatment .” He explained in a sassy tone.

“You're getting attached.”

He threw his arms in the air flailing at her implication. “Damn right I am, have you seen her?! She’s super cute!”

Konan sometimes wished she wasn’t so madly in love with a fucking idiot. “She’s going to leave.”

“I know that, but it doesn’t mean we can't treat her well until then.”

“This is not treating well , this is getting attached .”

“And what’s so wrong with that?” He sassed her again and she was losing her temper.

“What’s wrong is that you're not her family, she doesn't belong here, with us. She’s going to the orphanage with Yumeko-san.”

She was raising her voice, she hated that, she hated when she got this way, but Yahiko only shook his shoulders to her and her temper flared even more. “I know that too, Konan. We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it.”

“And what about when whoever owned her in Kusa comes back to get her?! What about then?! What about when we can’t take care of her and she dies when Hanzo’s followers attack us?! What about when you have to take her to the orphanage and abandon her like everyone in her life?! And when she never hears about you ever again because you died for the Akatsuki?! For another ideal?! What about fucking then?!”

Yahiko’s gaze was half shock, half repulsion and she hated it. She wanted to shrink under it, ask him to forget she ever said such awful shit, that she didn’t know when she stopped talking about Karin and started talking about herself. But she just held his gaze with her own glare.

She heard a noise to her right and both she and Yahiko snapped their heads to the side to watch Karin clutching her stupid purple cat plushie.

“Karin-chan-”

“Kid, wait-”

 Both Konan and Yahiko reached for her but Karin turned around and ran as fast as her legs allowed her.

Yahiko held a hand high to stop Konan on her tracks, and the hurt in his eyes burned holes in her skin. “No, Konan, back off! You already did enough damage!” 

Fuck. 

She always fucked everything up.

She watched Yahiko’s back disappear through the door and she wanted to punch a wall. Why the fuck was she like that?

She did what she does best and shook it off to hit her day’s tasks with renewed hatred. But after a day of fucking annoying work that extended too fucking late, she only got home after dinner, feeling even shittier. She walked down the labyrinth of corridors and rooms that was the Akatsuki, not wanting to eat, nor take a bath, nor sleep. None of that would make her feel better.

Konan stood in front of Karin's door. She sighed so hard it felt like it deflated her whole being and her head sagged forward. She was so ridiculous, why was she acting prideful like that with a goddamn fucking kid?! She had hurt the kid and was cowering behind the door like a fucking idiot.

Said door opened slowly to reveal those big red eyes in which Konan often saw herself reflected. Karin just stood there, waiting for whatever the fuck Konan was there to do, not that Konan herself knew what it was.

She looked down at her, clutching desperately to her dumb purple cat and wondered what did she even know about this girl? She had probably gone through hell, maybe she was abandoned and discarded, or people only wanted her for some fucked up reason, maybe she was slaved like a lot of orphans were in this region, maybe she was in a cannibalistic cult where people bit her and that’s why she got those weird scars.

And then Konan had gone and added up to all of that, another fucking entry in the fucking list of fucked up shit that happened to this girl.

“I’m so sorry…” Her voice sounded tight and raspy and not like herself and Konan hated it.

“... it’s ok.” Karin answered like she always answered.

“It’s not ok.” Konan sighed. Children were hard to deal with. Adults were harder. Broken children that became broken adults, like Konan herself? Now those were the hardest. “I hurt you, it won’t happen again.”

Karin moved from behind the door and hugged her legs together with her purple cat.

“Don’t cry Konan-san…”

Goddamnit, only now Konan noticed a couple of stray tears on her cheek. What the fuck? A six year old kid was comforting her? She was so useless.

“It’s ok kid. Look.” She willed her few tears to stay inside and kneeled to be on the same level as Karin, holding her by her skinny shoulders. “We’re happy that we took you away from the people that harmed you. And we’re happy you’re here with us. You can stay as long as you want, ok?”

Karin opened the cutest smile that made her thick rimmed glasses rise in her cheeks. “Ok Konan-san!”

Karin hugged Konan again and she felt like her chest wasn’t as tight anymore.

***

“It's crooked.”

“For the. Last. Time. It's not crooked!”

“Listen to Nagato, Yahiko.”

“It's perfectly fine, you two back off!” Yahiko was tired of their judgemental comments when all his girlfriend and boyfriend did was stand on the sidelines with their arms crossed and do nothing but criticize him.

Nagato turned his head to the side like a puppy, and Yahiko would’ve found it cute if he wasn’t being such an insufferable little shit about this. “It's asymmetrical.”

“You guys don't understand a thing about fashion!”

“Do you ?” His other insufferable little shit of a partner asked him in a sarcastic tone and a smirk so small that other people wouldn’t have noticed it on Konan’s usual stone cold face, but Yahiko did because he loved her and knew her like the back of his hand, and he was insulted by that smirk.

“Shut up Konan!”

Karin turned those big red eyes of hers up in question and Yahiko sighed. It was crooked. It was asymmetrical. It didn’t have anything to do with fashion. But damned if he was gonna let those two have the last word.

“Karin-chaaaaan. What do you think?”

“I dunno.” Yahiko smiled at the girl. She was talking more now, not shy at all anymore, and a thick accent was showing in her voice, an accent they didn’t know where it was from, there was definitely a bit of Kusa in it, but there was still something else. He thought it was cute, Konan said she sounded like a hick, and Nagato always chastised her, saying their girlfriend was being mean. But Yahiko could still see a small smile on her lips whenever Karin spoke, it was the same one he had on his face too.

“Go look in the mirror then. Go on.” Karin jumped off the chair and skipped to the bathroom that she was using to look at herself excitedly.

“It’s terrible, Yahiko.” Konan scoffed and crossed her arms, Nagato just nodded with a small smile.

“Next time you two do it then. I give up.” He threw his arms up and Nagato took the opportunity to hug his waist from the side.

“It’s ok. It’s just hair.” He said in his low, cute voice. “Plus, maybe she’ll like it.”

Konan scoffed again. “She’s cuckoo enough to like it. She’s a weirdo, that one.”

“Oh yeah?! Says who? The woman that likes folding origami bombs in her free time?”

Yahiko saw a twitch in Konan’s mouth and both him and Nagato laughed at her. “It’s good to be prepared!” She tried to defend herself loudly, shaking her fists.

“Please Konan, your Kami no Shisha jutsu already has like, what? A trillion paper bombs? Do you really need more?”

“Only half a trillion. It obviously needs more.” She stated like this wasn’t a sign of psychopathic behavior, but Yahiko loved her despite her being a bit psycho. Maybe because she was a bit psycho. He felt Nagato smile against his chest and knew he felt the same about her, which made him smile harder.

Before he could retort, a mess of bright red, and now asymmetrical, hair came bouncing back into Karin’s room where they were waiting for her verdict.

“I love it, love it, love it, love it! Thanks Yahiko-niisan!”

Karin jumped to hug him and hugged both him and Nagato at the same time. He looked at Konan where she had crossed her arms again, back in her cool and unbothered persona, but she had a big closed mouth smile on her face as she watched Karin jump repeatedly while hugging them.

She looked up and when her eyes met Yahiko’s, she mouthed “Yahiko-niisan?” as a question, an elegant eyebrow lifted and he could only shrug. He had convinced Karin to call him Yahiko-niisan because she looked so cute while doing it! Though she was still calling Nagato just Nagato and Konan by Konan-san because she was slightly afraid of their girlfriend. Not that she should, Konan would never hurt her, but he could understand how she might come off as too serious.

He loved how Karin was easily warming up to them after the initial shock, to them and everyone in the Akatsuki really. She revealed herself to be an extroverted blabbermouth, running around clumsily, breaking things, climbing on stuff, talking her ear off to anyone who would listen. It was hard not to like a little menace like her, but Yahiko would never have guessed she was like that under all that paralyzing fear from when they first found her.

“I wanna cut ma big cat’s hair too! Just like mine!” She jumped excitedly and grabbed the new purple lion plushie that Nagato had bought her to keep company with her other cat plushie, and was shaking it in front of Yahiko.

He was relieved that she liked her new haircut, he just wasn’t sure if he could repeat such a feat next time he cut her hair or on the poor lion.

“Oooook, I’m going to try, ok?” He grabbed the scissors and started butchering the poor little plushie’s hair too, Karin looking at it with stars in her eyes and Konan and Nagato snickering in the background. 

***

Nagato woke up with the feeling of anxiety running through him as if he'd just been chased by something. He sat up on the bed startled and though Yahiko's comforting snores continued the same rhythm, unbothered, Konan was stirred awake and raised herself on her elbows.

“Nagato? What is it, my love?” She looked sleepy and unguarded in that beautiful way that pulled at his heartstrings, and Nagato loved to be one of the only two people in the world who were allowed to see her like that.

He leaned and kissed her on the lips. “It's ok Konan. Just a bad dream.”

“Want me to stay up with you? We can wake Yahiko too…” She suggested rubbing some sleepiness out from her eyes.

“No need, relax. I'm going to sleep too.”

“Alright.”

He watched Konan lie down again, her silky hair falling all over her face, snuggling closer to Yahiko's side, leaning her head on their boyfriend’s broad chest. Nagato sighed in satisfaction, his love for them both swelling in his heart and relaxing his body, and he was ready to try to sleep again, so he pulled the covers up to his shoulders.

A bad dream. That's what he told Konan, but he wasn’t sure himself. He remembered the feeling of being chased, but not what he had dreamed, or what had prompted it. That was weird for him. Most of his nightmares revolved around losing his loved ones, Yahiko again, Konan, his friends, or even the death of his parents that happened so long ago. Not being followed, that was different. It set him on edge as he closed his eyes to try to sleep again.

Another wave of anxiety washed over him before he managed to close his eyes. He got up again on the bed feeling now more confused than afraid. One look to the side and Nagato noticed Konan and Yahiko sleeping peacefully, undisturbed by whatever it was that was eating at him. Then it struck him.

Karin.

As he silently walked down the empty corridors getting closer to Karin’s room, he could feel the fear and despair getting stronger. He knocked on the door lightly but heard no answer, only more anxiety rolling off the room in waves. He knocked again and softly warned Karin that he was going inside.

She was sitting on her bed, back against the wall and frail arms holding her knees, her head tucked between her elbows, like she was when they first saw her. He knew what it was like. He'd been in that same position a million times before. He could still recall the feeling from when he was a child. If you cover your head and close your eyes hard enough, everything else would go away. That’s what he used to tell himself at least. It never worked. All the sadness and the loss and the despair and the hatred and the anger could still reach him, no matter how small he made himself.

It seemed like it was the same for Karin. She was shaking, he could see it. She was now safe from any external threats, Nagato personally made sure of that, but sometimes there’s no escaping your own thoughts.

Nagato sighed and slowly sat on the bed with her.

“Karin?” He whispered the question but there was no answer again, though her trembling stopped at least. Maybe she stilled herself trying to gather the courage to open her eyes again. Nagato remembered how it was the worst part from hiding like that. Having to come back to reality.

“Bad dreams?”

This time there was a small nod, and he lamely followed it with: “I see…”

How do people comfort children after a nightmare? Nagato had no experience with that. There wasn’t anyone to comfort him back when he was a kid. Now at 25 the memories of being a six year old like Karin were faded and unclear. He remembered that there was just a lot of pain all the time, a few drops of happiness spread thin over the years . What would his six year old self have wanted?

“I'll stay with you until morning.” He declared to Karin's mess of red hair, unable to find her downcasted eyes. “You can try to sleep again if you want.”

Karin jumped to hug him, keeping her face hidden against his belly. Some droplets wet the fabric of his t-shirt and he knew she'd been crying. He tentatively patted her hair, red like his, and now there were hiccups shaking her body and she continued to cry. He was unsure if he did the right thing.

It took some time, but Karin's breathing slowed and she drifted off to sleep with her head on his lap. The next day he woke up with a stiff neck from sleeping sitting against the wall. At least, Karin seemed to have gotten enough peaceful sleep for herself and Nagato was happy. 

After that, whenever she had a nightmare, Nagato would also wake up in the middle of the night and go to sleep on her bed and make her company. Sometimes he would wake up to soft steps echoing in the hallways, a small sliver of light reaching their room as Karin opened the door to check inside. Nagato would already be awake by then. He could always sense whenever she wasn’t well, especially in the dead of the night when his thoughts were louder and the ghosts were walking around the halls of his memories. He would call her in with, and Karin would nestle in between them, Konan shifting to make room for her and Yahiko in his deep sleep would only notice the new addition to the bed by morning. And with Karin tucked between Konan and Nagato, the double bed that was made originally for two adults, and was usually filled with three adults, some nights would also have a kid in the middle of them. Nagato found that he always slept better in a cramped bed anyway. 

***

It was her turn to babysit. Yahiko and Nagato both ran away saying some bullshit about how they had to help some poor people and that Konan was the one with no missions today, which meant she was stuck with the kid. At least it wasn’t raining today.

She’ll admit there was something peaceful about watching the little brats running around the playground playing fight. She scoffed a humorless laugh. They were pretty bad at it. She couldn’t relate, as far back as she could remember she’d always been a good fighter, even when she was a brat herself, even before Jiraiya-sensei’s teachings, she was going around beating people twice her age and size. After all, somebody had to protect Nagato’s sweet smile and Yahiko's big mouth.

She shook her head as if that could get rid of such memories. Those had been other times, war times, bad times. Everybody needed to know how to fight back then, or they'd lose their lives, their loved ones. Now times were… better. The Akatsuki had gone and done the impossible and brought peace to Rain Country, even if sometimes she couldn’t believe they achieved such a great feat. At least internal peace, there were still conflicts with other countries, but now Rain could stand together united against outside threats. The Akatsuki was fulfilling Yahiko's dreams despite her skeptical inclinations in the beginning. Well, his dreams were more something along the lines of “why can’t everybody just get along and end the cycle of violence already?” and Konan and Nagato had helped him to translate that into an organization and real, actionable plans. Stopping the civil wars had been a big milestone in working towards their peace goal.

Amegakure had changed. Nobody needed to sleep with a kunai under their pillow anymore, and the kids could run in the playgrounds playing fight, instead of really fighting. Shinobi activity was still in high demand, and the kids would still eventually go to the Academy and learn how to defend themselves, but… right now, they were just kids. No one was allowed to steal youth away from kids. She smiled to herself as she heard Karin’s loud, boisterous laughter followed by the other kids’ giggling.

She looked at Karin, with a big grin on her face, running around the mud. The rain had finally let out for a bit, that’s why the playground was full. She was a loud mouth, too energetic, too competitive, bullheaded, stubborn to a fault. Konan would never have guessed so back when they rescued a scared girl that couldn’t say a word to anyone and tried to constantly make herself smaller so as not to call attention to herself. Her chest clenched as she evaluated what a difference some months in a good place could make to the kid.

They did this. The Akatsuki helped protect those laughs. They really did it. It was easy to forget it, to take it for granted. With how much more was there to be done, it was easy to lose sight of where they had started. She looked again at the kids being kids, and decided she had judged them too harshly. There was no reason for them to learn how to fight and defend themselves when there were now loving adults and a reasonably organized government to protect them.

Some little asshole kid tripped Karin over and she fell face first on the mud, probably crooking her glasses. Konan nails tightened around her arms where they were crossed.

Yes, there was no need for them to protect themselves. Still. One could never be too careful.

“Oi. Kid.”

Konan’s tone was neutral, not above her talking voice, but all the kids in the playground froze. They probably knew her, knew of her, who she was. People in Ame would call her Angel or Konan-sama respectfully, which was bullshit, she knew in reality some were afraid of her, of her powers. Nagato was much stronger than her, and Yahiko was a deadly shinobi with his sword, but she was the one people respected more, always on edge whenever she talked. She guessed it was her resting bitch face, and apparently the kids thought so too.

Karin turned around instantly at Konan's voice, and she nodded her head, calling Karin back to her bench. “Come here.”

She bounded to her feet. “What Konan-san?!”

Konan got up from the bench and got into a basic stance. “When you’re running, make sure you bend the knees this way, so you’ll have better balance.”

“Like this?!” Karin asked, mimicking her posture with a smile.

Konan tapped various points of her body, fixing their position. “Chest open. Straight arms. Shoulders forward, think about leveraging your weight.” Konan hummed in satisfaction when Karin ran a bit in the correct posture. “Do you know how to channel chakra?”

Karin nodded with a big smile. Konan wasn’t expecting her to answer yes, she was just six, most kids got to learn that at seven or eight when they got into the Academy, so she was a bit surprised. She wondered who could have taught her that and why, but as always, even thinking about what the hell Karin had been through was a sure way to sour Konan’s mood, so she kicked those god awful thoughts out of her head.

“Good. Channel them to your feet when running. That way you’ll always stick to the ground and not fall. Or you can push them to jump higher or run faster.”

“I know that one! I know that one!” Karin exclaimed with a raised hand and dropping to the running stance again, Konan felt a surge of chakra flow out of her as Karin jumped almost the whole extent of the playground.

She felt her eyes widen and the breath knocked out of her. “Holy fuck.”

“What did’ya say Konan-san?!” Karin screamed from the other end of the playground.

“Nothing kid. Come back.” Konan motioned her hand and in a jump Karin was already almost landing on Konan’s head, had she not sidestepped in the last second.

“Alright kid, I’m going to teach you how to fight.”

“Fight?” Karin looked genuinely confused, as if she had never considered doing that in her life.

“Yes. So next time a motherfucker trips you over, you can break his face.”

“Ah! Yahi-nii and Nagato-nii don’t like you cursin’ Konan-san!” She pointed an accusatory finger to Konan’s face and she rolled her eyes at her two goodie-two-shoes boyfriends.

“Tough fucking luck. This is a girl’s secret. Do you want to do it or not?”

“Yeah!” Karin jumped in place repeatedly and Konan started heading back to the Akatsuki tower where there were some dry training rooms for them to get started.

Konan would sleep much better at night if she could make sure that Karin was able to send any asshole that messed with her to hell all by herself. She ended up taking up a lot of babysitting duty after that, though Karin liked to call it “super secret girl training”.

***

Sometimes leading a shinobi organization into a bright future to stabilize their country and end the cycle of meaningless violence had its not so glamorous days. Today was one of them. Today Yahiko had to fix the leaks in the Akatsuki tower, and they lived in Amegakure for Sage’s sake. There were a lot of leaks.

He was only halfway done when he met Karin in the kitchen area stuffing her face with yesterday’s okonomiyaki, cold and straight out of the fridge. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. He hated to agree with Konan but the girl was indeed a bit odd. Not that he of all people was in a place to judge.

“Oi! Karin-chan!”

“Yahi-nii!” She put the plastic container back in the fridge and ran towards him to hug his legs and Yahiko just wanted to pinch her cheeks. 

“The rain stopped a bit, so I’m going around fixing stuff, do you want to come with me?”

“Yay!” She just exclaimed and started following him like it was supposed to be a fun activity. It wasn’t. Yahiko hoped to at least trick her into entertaining him enough to make the afternoon of repairs go by a bit faster.

“Hi theeeeere Doc, heard there was a leak in the medical bay?”

“Yahiko-sama! But you’re fixing the leak yourself?”

“Ya sayin’ Yahi-nii can’t fix it?!” The girl put her hands on her hips and tapped her feet furiously.

“No, no, of course not, Karin-san!” Yahiko snickered when he heard a 40 something old doctor using “san” when addressing Karin and his heart warmed. It seemed she was very respected here in the infirmary. 

“No worries Doc. We all live in the building, we all need to take care of it, right Karin-chan?”

She nodded vehemently and helped him as he got to work, passing him his tools, having to try several times to get it right, and coming up with new names. A wrench became a turning-squary-thingy, the screwdriver a pointy-thingy, and when he asked for a phillips screwdriver, this was updated as the real-pointy-thingy and the regular screwdriver as a straight-pointy-thingy. It took him longer to fix the ceiling, but it was entertaining, and the doctor didn’t seem to mind them babbling about hand tools and all the other topics Karin’s six year old mind could conjure up.

Some nurses dropped by, wanting to ask the doctor some questions but they all got too distracted with Karin’s cuteness, coddling her and pinching her cheek, instead of talking to the doctor like they had intended. A couple of patients were coming in too, none in serious condition, most with kunai cuts that couldn’t be treated in the field during missions and needed to be sewed up in the infirmary. They passed by Yahiko and Karin grunting and groaning in pain, but putting on a strong front to greet their boss (who was fixing a leak, but was still their boss) and the little girl waiting around for her niisan. Karin was not bothered by all the blood and scalpels like the patients were. Yahiko tried not to think about the obvious implication that she had been around blood and scalpels her whole short life probably, it was all familiar to her.

“Karin-sama, Yahiko-sama.” The shinobis greeted them and Karin started talking with them about nothing and everything all at once. She asked if their injuries hurt, but they said it didn’t, obviously, even if they winced every time the doctor pierced the needle through their flesh. Karin watched the work of the doctor's deft hands mesmerized, a sight that made everyone else green with nausea. Maybe she could become a great medical nin someday, Yahiko mused, or at least a seamstress.

“C'mon, Karin-chan, we need to go to the roof. Say goodbye to your friends.”

“Buh-bye.” She waved them theatrically as they waved back, but they couldn’t walk two steps before bumping into yet another of Karin’s fans.

“Isn’t that our precious Karin-chan?!”

“Yay!” Karin exclaimed and ran towards the big blue scary man without a hint of fear. “Kisame-chan!”

“Kisame-chan?” Yahiko asked with a lifted eyebrow as the man picked up Karin from the floor and raised her up high, almost hitting her head against the ceiling.

“She wanted to call me Sharky, so we both compromised on Kisame-chan, right Karin-chan?”

“Yeah!”

As Yahiko watched the big burly man play with a little kid, he was happy they took a gamble on Kisame. He was a missing nin from Kiri when they met, but they managed to bring him to their side. Turns out he was a good guy, if given the opportunity.

“C'mon Karin-chan, we’ve got a lot of work to do.” She bid Kisame farewell and followed Yahiko up the stairs heading to the roof.

It seemed that Karin had amassed some sort of fanclub in the Akatsuki in the eight months she'd been around. It wasn’t the best environment for a kid, so he appreciated the effort his comrades were doing to welcome her the best they could. And also her sunshine disposition helped brighten the gloomy halls of the building, her presence changing them all little by little.

“Yahi-nii, are you Nagato-nii and Konan-san married?”

Yahiko took that back. Karin wasn’t a ray of sunshine, she was a nosy brat that asked too many invasive personal questions and never knew when to stop.

“No, we're not Karin-chan, you see-”

“But y’all kiss! When y’all have babies Konan-san is gonna be a mother of twins?”

Yahiko sent her an apologetic smile that probably looked too painful to be genuine. Konan and Nagato were going to flip when he told them of this.

“You seeeeee, Karin-chan…”

***

There was something calming about gardening. Something rewarding about helping living things grow and thrive and prosper. Even if it was just his potted plants on the only window in the whole Akatsuki building that had some indirect sunlight. 

It all started with a cactus. There was some mission down at Suna and Nagato was awed at how those resilient plants managed to survive the harsh environment. He brought one of their cacti back to Ame. It died in the first week. He was so distraught that Konan and Yahiko had to cuddle with him for the rest of the day when he found out. When he tried again with a plant natural from Rain Country, it was a success. It was still alive to this day. The dark, big leaves were more adapted to low light and high humidity places like their home than a cactus made for a sunny and dry environment. 

Since then, Yahiko joked that Nagato had developed an addiction. He bought plants all the time, and even got some as gifts from the rest of the Akatsuki and the villagers, so his collection was taking up a lot of space and now they had a room of their own. Konan had offered to turn that little room into some sort of greenhouse for him, widen the windows, maybe add some temperature control. He loved her for that but he couldn’t ask her for even more of her time. 

“Whaddya doin’?” He heard Karin's voice behind him. He could feel her coming from one floor above so he wasn’t startled.

“Spraying the leaves.” His bed of herbs and spices all had sensitive leaves, and Nagato took pride in them, Yahiko even used them for cooking sometimes.

“Why you do that?” She was jumping in place, trying to see what Nagato was doing.

Nagato turned to fix his eyes on her. She was wearing a purple unicorn pajama with long sleeves, which made her look cute. “These plants are used to a lot of rain.”

“Can’t ya just leave’em outside?” Karin turned her head to the side looking confused and Nagato felt stupid. Yes, he could just leave them outside, no need to keep doing useless things and occupying so much space. He felt his face grow hotter. 

“I… like taking care of them.” His voice was small, as if he was the kid in the conversation and not Karin, but the girl just opened up the biggest grin that made her round cheeks raise and her eyes close.

“I know.” She giggled at him.

“You know?”

“Ya always here.” She said with certainty and Nagato felt a small smile creeping to his lips too. 

“I suppose so.” His face continued to grow hot, but Karin just jumped in place, spinning around his little makeshift greenhouse.

“It’s lik’a forest here! I like it! I wanna try!” She reached her grabby hands towards Nagato’s sprayer and he couldn’t help but giggle.

“Alright Karin, come here.” He explained to her how to do it, how much to spray, and answered all her questions on what the plants were.

She pulled her sleeves back as she went to the sink to fill the watering can, revealing her scars. They were almost circular, teeth marks of various sizes and shapes littering the skin of her arm up to the back of her hand. Nagato’s heart clenched uncomfortably inside his chest. Him, Yahiko and Konan have discussed at length about the scars, they didn’t know what they meant, if there was a reason behind them, or if Karin’s previous caretakers were abusive on a whole new sadistic level.

Over the course of the several months that she’d been with them, they'd tried to ask about them, but Karin completely shutted down whenever her scars were mentioned, almost reverting to the scared cat she was when they first found her. So they just gave up the topic altogether. Konan had some contacts in Kusa ask around some questions but no relevant information ever came back, so she decided to just ask Kisame, who had some experience in the black market, to monitor the bounties and anyone looking for a red head kid. So far any issues that Kisame encountered were revealed to be just coincidences, which made Nagato sleep better at night.

He knew it was stupid, he knew he shouldn’t but… he already considered Karin almost like a little sister, maybe even a daughter considering their 16 year gap. Konan kept saying nonsense about not getting attached, but it’s been almost a year since she’d been living with them and Nagato loved her with all his heart. At first he was curious and intrigued, and of course, he could empathize with any war orphan forced to live on the streets because he had been one too, but now… he just loved the little person Karin was, so bubbly, a real social butterfly, always laughing and smiling, being goofy with Yahiko, jumping up and down the whole Akatsuki tower, making friends with everyone. She was such a precious child, and Nagato wouldn’t know how to live his life without her anymore.

“Naga-nii, Naga-nii! What about this one?!” Karin was smiling clueless to Nagato’s inner thoughts, pointing to another plant on his herbs bed.

“This one is coriander, try to smell the leaves.”

“Ugh, it stinks! Yahi-nii puts this on the food sometimes, I hate it!”

Nagato smiled at her. “I don’t like it either, but Konan loves it, so I grew it for Yahiko to put on her plate.” Karin just shook her head and made a barfing sound that made Nagato laugh.

With time, at Karin's request, Nagato started giving her some separate pots for her to care for, and Karin had a surprisingly green thumb. She gave each of her plants a name, the snake plant was Airi-san, her peperomia was Cho-san, the bromeliad was Mi-chan and so on. Karin was always hanging around Nagato’s plants, or as she liked to call it, his garden, even though he told her there were almost no flowers. It was nice to have someone else sharing his hobby.

***

Yumeko-san did get an opening eventually, after more than a year of Karin staying with them at the Akatsuki. Konan didn’t even ask her about it, she just came up and told her so when they met at the central hospital on just another Wednesday.

“Yeah, Konan-sama, please bring Karin-chan over and I’ll take her in.” Yumeko was holding a baby with a running nose on her arms, her reason to be at the doctors while Konan was getting some updates with the director. 

“No need for - sama .” Konan answered dumbly because what the fuck else was she supposed to say.

“Our guardian angel is too humble, Konan-sama!” Yumeko patted Konan’s shoulder as if she’d just said something silly. “Anyways, it was good to see you, just make sure to bring her before classes at the Academy start next month!”

Konan could only nod, because her throat was strangely blocked and Yumeko-san just smiled back at her with that same familiar, motherly smile of hers. 

She walked back to the Akatsuki tower with a strange taste in her mouth. They would need to get Karin’s stuff to send her to Yumeko-san’s place. That would be a pain in the ass because her shit was scattered around the whole damn tower, and she kept forgetting her stuff everywhere she went. And they would need to make sure Yumeko-san was ready to take care of Karin, because, well, because the kid was a handful, and very special too. They would need to get her plants from Nagato’s garden, Sage knows the brat now had a whole fucking forest of her own up there. And all her plushies too, Konan doubted she could even tell where her mattress was anymore, with so many stuffed animals on top of it. And their lessons, she was training Karin daily now, how could they continue with their lessons living in different places? Besides, Karin’s chakra was very flashy according to Nagato, because she had a big amount of chakra and it looked different from other people, so what if someone at Yumeko-san’s noticed she was different and sold the information back to Kusa? Not that she didn’t trust Yumeko-san, it’s just that you can never be really sure can you? How could Konan protect her when she was on the other side of the village? Or what if she was safe, but people started asking questions about her, about her scars and where she got them, and making her feel bad and sad and- people could be real assholes, but Konan wouldn’t be around to deck any shitheads that made Karin uncomfortable. What if-

“Konan, just in time.” Nagato smiled sweetly at her when she crossed their kitchen’s door without even noticing it. He was glowing, happier than she had ever seen him before, and she was only now noticing how much.

“Yep, we’re making dangos! What flavor do you want?!” Yahiko smiled like he always did. He had always been a ray of sunshine, but now he shone even brighter.

The kitchen was a goddamn fucking disaster. If a fucking hurricane had passed through it it wouldn’t be as bad. Karin’s hair was covered in rice flour, Nagato was carrying maybe 15 half empty bowls and even more littered the kitchen counters, Yahiko had what appeared to be soy sauce staining half his shirt, the floor was sticky, the sink was filled with dishes and she wondered how could three people make such a fucking mess.

“Matcha.” Konan answered instead, still too caught up on her head, too caught up on Yumeko-san’s invitation, to say anything else.

“Seeeeee?! I told’ya Konan-san wanted matcha! She don’t like sweet stuff!” Karin declared triumphantly as if she had said something groundbreaking and as if Konan’s boyfriends didn’t know her favorite dango flavor, but Nagato and Yahiko indulged her, saying something about how mitarashi is better or strawberry is not that sweet.

And Konan’s overthinking brain could only come to one obvious conclusion.

Fuck it.

“Let’s move the kid to our floor.”

“What?” Nagato and Yahiko asked in a chorus.

“Let’s move her closer to our room.”

“We only have the armory for kunai and-”

“Then we empty it. Let’s move her. Later.” Konan added and both Yahiko and Nagato sent her knowing smiles that she hated. Yeah, she knew she was late to the party, and that she’d been resisting Karin’s cuteness for too long, and that those two sassy motherfuckers she called boyfriends were right all along, but- but-

Fuck it.

Fuck Kusagakure, fuck the Salamander, fuck fucking Grass people who hurt Karin before, fuck Yumeko-san, fuck the orphanage, fuck the wars, fuck getting attached, fuck getting hurt, fuck being careful.

The three of them and Karin were a family. At least, as much of a family as any of them, as broken fucked up people, could be. And nobody was touching Konan’s family. Nobody was touching Konan’s kid.

“Thanks-thanks-thanks-thanks, Konan-san!” Karin jumped over the counter to hug her middle, rice flour, sugar, matcha, soy sauce and all, ruining a perfectly good Akatsuki robe.

Konan hugged her back, swearing to the Sage that if anything ever happened to Karin she would set the record straight with the gods themselves.

“Drop the ‘san’ kid.” Konan told her in a choked out voice that she hated, that was too filled with emotion and sounded nothing like Konan, but Karin just smiled up a grin so big it almost split her face.

“Thanks Konan-nee!”

Konan hugged her tighter as Nagato and Yahiko smiled behind the counter and she prayed that Karin could stay this cute and innocent and youthful for a bit more. But if anything happened, Konan, Nagato and Yahiko would be right by her side to help her too.

“And don’t think you’re getting out of cleaning duty!” She exclaimed feelings a bit more like herself. “You three better clean this kitchen after the dango, it’s looking like a fucking pigsty in here.”

Nagato, Yahiko and Karin all pointed at and chastised her. “Language!”

***

“Stop biting your nails or you're going to eat your fingers too.” Yahiko shoved his fingers on his uniform's pockets and stuck his tongue to her.

“Leave him Konan.” Nagato's low voice chastised their girlfriend and she only crossed her arms and turned her nose up.

They were at the Academy reception waiting for Karin to leave. They had been waiting for 15 minutes now because they decided to get there earlier, because all three of them were anxious about it, even if Nagato and Konan wouldn’t admit it. It was Karin's first day in the Academy, first day in any sort of school for that matter, from what she had told them, so naturally they were all nervous about how it was going to go.

Damn it Yahiko was biting his nails again. To be more accurate, he was biting his cuticles because his nails were gone already, just like Konan said. Damn her for knowing him so well.

They had all been teaching Karin self defense and fighting in general, but they agreed that it wasn’t enough, and she needed to practice with and befriend kids her age. She was super excited when she heard them talking about enrolling her in the Academy and was running around the Akatsuki tower like crazy the whole night yesterday until she got tired and fell asleep, and Yahiko then carried a slack Karin back to her new room. This morning there were no signs of her lacking sleep and Yahiko wished he still had that youthful energy himself.

Karin sent them a crooked smile with missing teeth as she went inside the building earlier today and Yahiko felt tears forming in the corner of his eyes as he waved her goodbye. He saw those too in Konan and Nagato's eyes but he didn’t mention them, and just kissed them, happy that their little-adoptive-sister-or-maybe-daughter-by-now was entering a new stage in her life. They had spent all day imagining how she was doing at school, discussing if she was already the prodigy in her class since they began teaching her early, or if she was making friends. Their home felt empty and silent without her, they had too much time on their hands and were anxious to know how her first day had been, hence why they got there early.

Yahiko was not anxious to see a teacher exit the room bringing Karin and another kid with a bloody nose to them.

“Yahiko-sama! Konan-sama and Nagato-sama too, are you the ones responsible for Karin-chan?” The teacher called to them with respect, like all the other Ame citizens, even if she was older than them.

“Yes?! What's wrong?”

“She got in a fight with Kotaru-kun here.”

Both Nagato and Yahiko dropped to their knees to hold Karin's shoulders in concern.

“Are you ok Karin?” Nagato's voice was broken with worry.

“Did you win?!” Was all Yahiko managed to ask before the teacher's hand slapped his head.

“Yahiko-sama!” She exclaimed in a chastising voice but Karin just smirked up to them.

“O’course I won!” She nodded in a cheeky grin with her hands on her hips, and then it was time for the teacher to swat her head next.

“That's not the point! We can't have you kids fighting each other like this!”

“What happened?” Konan's voice was as cold as ice, and her tone sounded like she was more than ready to blow the Academy up if Karin was in any way the victim here. Yahiko didn’t want to be in the poor teacher's shoes right now.

Luckily for the frightened teacher, Karin stepped up and pointed an accusatory finger to the boy. “He called me weird, said my hair was ugly, and said I should go back to Kusa!”

Konan's sharp eyes snapped to Karin’s colleague holding his bloody nose. “What the actual fuck is wrong with you, you little asshole? Do you have a fucking death wish shithea-”

Yahiko clamped his hand over Konan's mouth before she introduced the kid to more curse words in one sentence than he had probably heard in his whole life.

“Sorry senseiiiiii!” Yahiko smiled apologetically to the poor teacher, now stunted by Konan's murderous intentions pouring out of her.

Nagato sighed and from his kneeled position he put his hands on the girl's shoulders again. “Karin, sometimes, even if you have a good reason to punch someone, it doesn’t mean you should.”

“But Naga-nii…” Karin complained with those puppy eyes that she probably knew always worked wonders on them. “He said our red hair is ugly.”

“Your hair is beautiful kid, he doesn’t know shit, goddamn little motherfu-” Yahiko covered Konan’s mouth again. Sage, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her for not even one second or she would traumatize the boy and the teacher for life.

Yahiko let out a forced laughter. “Alrighty! I’m sorry for this sensei, and I’m sorry about Karin getting into a fight, it won’t happen again, pinky promiiiiise! Ha, ha!” He tried to grab his murderous girlfriend, his clueless boyfriend and his pissed off adopted kid and flee the building before the teacher could get back to her senses and force them to talk to the kid’s parents.

“I swear to the fucking Sage I almost beat the everliving shit of that asshole kid. Who does he think he is?” Konan muttered as they walked briskly back home.

“Yeah, Konan-nee! You tell that fucker!” Karin joined in an exciting voice, punching the air and Yahiko was mortified.

“Look what you taught her now!” Yahiko threw his hands in the air in desperation. “Nagato! Help me out!”

“Kotaru’s mother should have taught him some manners if she didn’t want him to get punched in the face.” Nagato nodded in a solemn tone and Karin squealed.

“Yeah!”

“Not you toooooo…” Yahiko grunted defeated.

***

Yahiko got hurt again. Of course he did. Nagato was the one with the precious eyes, and Konan was the one with the rare jutsu, but it was Yahiko who always got hurt defending them. Nagato would be more exasperated about his boyfriend’s martyr complex if he wasn’t desperate on his knees and covered in blood.

“Yahiko! Yahiko! Don’t close your eyes!” Konan had always been great during stressful situations. She wasn’t great right now. “I’m going to fucking drag you from hell just to kill you again if you die! Fucking asshole!” She wasn’t great at all. Not with her trembling hands shaking Yahiko from his sleepiness and the unshed tears on her eyes.

It was supposed to be a routine check in the borders close to Grass Country, and of course it was Grass Country of all the places. Tempers flared and the temperature rose between deadly shinobi, no matter how much he tried to defuse the situation. They clashed, Yahiko jumped in front of him, again, and he got hurt defending Nagato, again.

They were able to make it back to Akatsuki thanks to his eyes, but the doctors still weren't here. Yahiko had lost a lot of blood. A lot of it was in Nagato’s hands and clothes.

“Yahiko, please!” Nagato was scared. He was scared of losing Yahiko. He was scared from seeing Konan getting like this. He was scared of a world where their dreams wouldn’t come true. Because Yahiko always spoke of it as if by simply wishing for it, the three of them could make whatever they wanted come true.

And now Yahiko was bleeding in his arms half dead already.

“Yahi-nii?”

Nagato and Konan turned to look at Karin on the door. Her eyes were so big in shock it looked like they might pop out of her skull.

“Kid! Get the fuck out of here!” Konan yelled in a broken voice that broke Nagato's heart too. He turned his eyes up to see a distressed expression in Karin's face through his watery vision. She was paralyzed, little legs rooted to the ground, eyes too big on her face also looking glassy behind unshed tears.

Karin didn’t move, no matter how much Konan cursed and yelled at her. Nagato tried to plead with her too because, like Konan, he didn’t want Karin to see Yahiko like that, he wouldn’t want this to be her last memory of him, his eyes lost, mouth sputtering blood, body slack, face contorted in pain instead of his ever present sunshine smile. Karin ran and sank to her knees next to him.

“Yahi-nii!” She yelled a wet scream that broke Nagato's heart all over again.

“Karin, don’t look, don’t look…” Nagato repeatedly tried to reach for her to cover her eyes, drag her away, but she simply batted his hands away. He could still remember how it was like to watch his parents be killed in front of him, he didn’t want the same for her, she probably had already endured enough, no need to see her niisan die like this too.

Yahiko opened his eyes slightly and sent an unwavering smile to the girl.

“It’s ok Karin-chan… it's ok…” He kept muttering as Konan kept cursing back at him about how this was not ok while also barking back at everyone who could hear her about where the fucking hell were the fucking doctors.

“Yahi-nii! Bite!” Karin pulled her long sleeve up to her elbow and nudged her wrist on Yahiko's mouth, making all three of them confused on top of everything else. “Bite me! I’ll heal you! Bite me”

“You’re cute Karin-chan… don’t worry about me…” Yahiko shook his head and Karin pushed her hand forward, tears running freely down her red cheeks.

“Please! Yahi-nii!”

Yahiko did that thing where he rolled his eyes with a smile that he always did whenever people worried about him, making Nagato even more anxious. He bit on Karin’s slim wrist and suddenly healing green chakra started to flare from her skin and pour into Yahiko's body. Nagato couldn’t believe his eyes but he could see the chakra clearly with the rinnegan, so there was no denying it. 

He bit her skin stronger as if now noticing that it was working. He got better, his life force surging rapidly and Nagato and Konan were left to stare in shock. 

Blood dripped down Karin’s arm from where Yahiko's teeth connected to her skin but she didn’t flinch or wince, not even blinked. She bore her desperate eyes in Yahiko as if holding her breath until he got better, not wanting to lose anything. He let go of her arm and his head hit the floor.

“Yahiko!” Konan jumped on his neck trying to check if he was alright.

Nagato put his fingers on Yahiko's pulse to check once again what the rinnegan was showing him. His heartbeat was strong, breathing was steady and his chakra levels were off the charts.

“He's fine.” Nagato sighed in relief and turned to Konan to catch her desperate lost eyes. “He's fine Konan.”

She turned her eyes down at Yahiko's peaceful expression in surprise. She scrambled to get to the kunai wounds on his chest, tearing the fabric of the Akatsuki's uniform to check the skin.

“What the fuck.” Konan whispered to Yahiko’s scarred, but otherwise perfectly healed skin. She brushed her hand roughly on his chest, trying to wash off some of the blood to see better, also not believing her eyes just like Nagato. “What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck…” She kept muttering as she brushed more and more the clothes and blood aside, checking for Yahiko's wounds from different angles and finding nothing. She turned to Karin and gaped in disbelief.

“Yahi-nii is better now!” Karin said simply, her clothes by now also smeared in a mix of Yahiko's and her own blood, a relieved tear trailing down her cheek and a grin splitting her face, and Nagato couldn’t help but to feel better at that.

***

Konan headed to the infirmary floor of the Akatsuki building feeling like her body didn’t belong to her. She had busied herself with everything and anything that might need her attention to avoid thinking about how they almost lost Yahiko again today. She opened the door and two messes of bright red hair turned to the door to watch her.

“How is he?” She asked them but Nagato only shook his head in a negative answer.

After Karin's miraculous help, Yahiko passed out on the floor and hadn't woken up since. The medics arrived soon after and carried him back to the medical bay, and after a quick examination they explained that Karin’s healing chakra was so powerful and sent such a sudden rush to Yahiko's chakra system, that his body shut down for some time to process it all and finish healing, but he was already out of danger and would wake up any time now. It was hard to believe in everything that happened, when Yahiko’s face was so peaceful while sleeping, and his skin didn’t show any cut or bruise, just a slightly reddish scar that seemed from something that happened months ago instead of hours ago. Nagato had stayed by his side, not able to tear his eyes away from Yahiko’s still figure, quietly praying for the best, the way he always did during these moments.

Konan wished she could be like that. She wasn’t that in control of herself. After yelling at the doctors, and cursing at the universe, and pacing back and forth in the room, she decided to leave Yahiko to Nagato and Karin and go busy herself with whatever mess was left from Yahiko’s most recent near death experience. She dispatched teams to the Kusa border to help with the conflict, she helped bandage the other wounded shinobi, she took over hers, Yahiko's and Nagato's obligations for the day and she even cleaned the blood Yahiko left on the floor. And it was a whole fucking lot of blood.

Now at almost midnight, there was nothing more left for her to do in this goddamned building besides sit and wait. And she hated it. Each second she had to look at Yahiko's sleeping face made her want to gash her own eyes from their sockets. She tore her eyes away from the man she loved lying on the stretcher and turned to the other man she loved. Nagato looked tired and he probably hadn't had anything to drink or eat all day while waiting. She sighed and threaded her fingers through his silky red hair now plastered with dried blood, earning a low whimper from him, as he let his head fall in the direction of Konan's hand. He had always been a sucker for headpats. Poor Nagato, always such an airhead, she was going to get something from the kitchen for him, she didn’t want her two boyfriends passed out in front of her, one of them lying on the infirmary was already one too many.

She turned her eyes to Karin and noticed she was still bloody from earlier, probably hadn't had anything to eat either, and was almost sleeping on her seat, so Konan decided to do something more productive than sit and wait and fucking agonize over almost losing Yahiko all over again.

“Kid. C'mon. Let’s get you to bed.”

Karin looked at her exasperated. “But Konan-nee! I wanna be with Yahi-nii! I think I hurt him and, and-”

“Karin, we talked about this.” Nagato’s voice was soft and comforting as he held Karin’s hand. “You saved Yahiko, he’s only alive because of you.”

“But, but… why isn’t he wakin’ up?! They always wake up after bitin’ me! So why-”

“C'mon kid. There’s not much you can do now.” Konan sighed, sad that Karin was feeling guilty in any way when she had been the one to save Yahiko.

“Yes Karin, you already did everything you could for Yahiko. The doctors say he's fine now. Go rest a bit, I'll go get you if he wakes up.” Nagato joined Konan and Karin finally looked convinced.

“Ok… thanks Naga-nii…”

Konan took Karin's hand in hers and guided her to their bedroom quarters.

“Do you think Yahi-nii will be ok, Konan-nee?”

Konan didn't want to lie to her. She tried to stick to the facts, maybe to convince herself too. “The doctors said he would.”

“Ok…” Karin easily agreed, sounding unconvinced, and honestly, Konan felt the same. She would only allow herself to relax once Yahiko woke up and she knew it, but there was no need to put an eight year old through that too.

“Kid, since when do you know about this ability?”

Konan had been wondering about that the whole day, replaying the scene in her head, unable to believe it even though she saw with her own two eyes. Karin was the one who told Yahiko to bite her, which meant she knew about this ability of hers already, so why did she never tell them about it? Was this why she was covered in bite marks? Why she was valuable to Kusa and was kept well fed despite the other obvious signs of abuse? Was she a daughter of a noble clan? Was that a kekkei genkai? She obviously didn’t want people to know she could do that, so what now? This could put her in danger, Kusa could come for her again, they could go against the whole Akatsuki. Konan needed to protect Karin, protect Yahiko, Nagato, protect everyone.

Konan's brain was swimming on possibilities for answers for what the actual fuck had happened but there was just a long stretch of silence following the question and she decided to drop it. Konan just walked with her as the usually upbeat girl stared at the floors.

“You mad, Konan-nee?” Karin asked after a long time and her voice was dejected, making Konan’s heart tighten in her chest.

“Of course not, kid. You saved Yahiko, I could never be mad at you.”

Karin was silent for a lot of steps after that, and Konan decided to try to reassure her, even if she wasn’t good at it.

“Don’t worry. You don’t need to tell me anything. And I’m not mad you didn’t say anything before this either.” Konan squeezed the little hand she was holding, trying to make it comforting somehow.

“Mum told me… she told me to keep it a secret. Said people wanted our power. But in the town… the bad man found out about me.”

“It’s ok. We’re not mad about it. We understand why you did that. We… me and Nagato, we’re grateful for you saving Yahiko. You did good, kid.”

Karin let go of her hand to hug Konan’s side tightly. “Thanks Konan-nee…” Her voice was subdued and tired, so not-like-Karin that Konan almost winced.

She let her hand fall on the red hair and pat it reassuringly. “No problem kid. Let’s get you to bed ok? It’s been a long day.”

***

Yahiko felt like he'd been sparring for the whole day straight. With both Konan and Nagato. While drunk. And he was now hungover and beaten up.

“Ugh, my heeeaaaad…”

“Yahiko?!”

“Too loud, Nagato, please…”

“Sage, thank you! Yahiko! Yahiko!”

Nagato jumped to hug his neck and even though his own arms felt like they were made of lead, Yahiko circled his boyfriend’s waist lovingly, happy that his was the first face he saw after waking up. 

“I was so worried!”

“I'm sorry about that.”

Yahiko cupped Nagato's cheeks to give him a kiss on the lips even if his own mouth felt as dry as Suna's sand. 

“Nagato, my love, what happened?” He whispered trying to get his jumbled mess of a brain working back again. 

“You got hurt… because of me again…”

Poor thing. Nagato always felt guilty about the smallest stuff, but Yahiko never wanted to make him feel like that when he saved him, he just wanted Nagato to stay alive. It was all he could think about. “Shhh Nagato, I was the one who jumped in front of the kunai.”

“And you need to fucking stop doing that.”

Yahiko looked up to see Konan standing by the door holding a tray of food. Her hands were trembling, he could hear the dishes clicking against each other because of the tremors. Her eyes were glassy from unshed tears and Yahiko felt guilty for making such a beautiful face twist into such a sad expression. 

“Yeah, maybe I should stop jumping in front of kunais.” But then again, he just loved these two too much, if Yahiko had to choose between his or their lives, the choice was a nonbrainer. “I'm sorry love.” Yahiko told Konan and heard her inhale deeply as she tried to control her emotions so as not to cry, like she always did. She hastily came inside the bedroom and put the food tray with too much force on the bedside table, knocking off a glass with water, and jumped to hug Yahiko's neck just like Nagato did a minute before. 

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you so fucking much! Why do you do that?! Do you know how worried we were, you asshole?!”

Yahiko could see by the tears rolling down Nagato's purple swirling eyes that this time he had really almost died. He was rubbing his slender hands on Konan's back trying to calm her down, and Yahiko decided to do the same while hugging her. 

“I'm sorry. I love you two so much.”

“Just… don't pull this stupid shit ever again. Promise me!”

“I promise.” Yahiko lied to comfort his girlfriend. He didn't regret anything. He would sacrifice himself without a second thought if it meant saving Nagato and Konan. 

Nagato tried to dry the tray off and offered him some of the water that Konan didn’t knock over as they sat again to munch on some late night snacks. The clock in the infirmary showed it was 40 minutes after midnight, and Yahiko was starving, but Konan swatted his hand and told him to go easy since he was still recovering. 

“But really guys, how bad was it? Was it really Karin that saved me?”

Konan and Nagato exchanged looks and she spoke with a sigh. “Yes. Apparently she has a shitton of very powerful healing chakra according to the medics, and when you bit her, she was able to transfer her chakra to you.” 

A horrible realization dawned on him. “Oh Sage… Don't tell me… the bite marks on her arms and legs…” Yahiko couldn't even finish his question, the thought made him sick to his stomach. 

“Yes, I…” Konan sighed and inhaled deeply again before going on. “I think she was used in Kusa as a healer- not a medic, most likely she was just a slave.”

Nagato shook his head and picked at his hair like he did when he was nervous. Yahiko himself felt so much rage and hatred he wanted to get out of the hospital bed and go back to Kusa and kill everyone who ever hurt Karin before. 

“I want to fucking annihilate that godforsaken piece of shit country.”

“Konan.”

Nagato's leveled voice dampened the fire inside Yahiko's chest and apparently in Konan’s too. They both sighed knowing very well it was wrong to wish for this, to seek pointless violence and fruitless revenge. But it was easy to forget about it sometimes, especially when your loved ones were the ones getting hurt. 

Yahiko decided to put his ugly feelings aside, focus on what they could do as of now. “Ok. Alright. But how can she do that? Who is she? I thought she was just another orphan on the street. She must be someone important. At least the daughter of someone important.”

“She told me her mother could do the same, that she was the one who told her to keep it a secret otherwise people would exploit it, just like with Kusa.”

Yahiko nodded suddenly somber, thinking how could they have missed such a crucial piece of information. 

“But… but she's been with us for almost two years…” Nagato’s voice was small and wavering, his hands pulling strands of his hair. “Karin is… Karin is ours… right?”

Konan instantly turned to hug him tightly and kiss the top of his head. “Yes Nagato, dear. Nobody’s going to take her from us. Nobody.”

Konan repeated to drive her point across, a menacing edge to it, and Yahiko believed her. It was heartwarming to see how protective of Karin she became, even if it took her sometime to admit it. 

“Karin’s been doing a good job at hiding this from everyone, but maybe we need to make sure this doesn’t go out, talk to her teachers, or even think about training her at home.”

“I… I’d prefer if she could still have friends…” Nagato said before Konan could continue this line of thought and Yahiko smiled at his boyfriend, brushing his fingers on his cheek while Konan cradled his head against her chest.

“She'll have friends. A ton of them.”

“And she’s not going anywhere.” Konan repeated and both Nagato and Yahiko nodded. They would make sure Karin was safe.

Yahiko yawned despite himself. “There's no use discussing it at one in the morning, we could all use some rest.”

“Says the one responsible for all this mess.” Konan bit back in an annoyed voice and Yahiko tried to send her his most charming smile to get him off the hook. It didn’t work. He could tell both Konan and Nagato would nag him at least for the rest of the year after his little stunt.

***

“Karin… Karin, wake up…” Nagato shook her small shoulders to wake the girl. It was a tougher task than it seemed. She slept like a rock. And snored too, but in a cute way.

“Naga-nii?” She groggily rubbed her eyes and face trying to drive away her sleepiness. Her eyes looked much smaller without the glasses and puffy from sleep. Maybe from crying too. She slept late yesterday, and was still early, but Nagato wanted to give her the good news, Sage knew she deserved it.

“Yahiko woke up and it’s better now.”

“Yahi-nii?!” She kicked off her covers and was up and running through the hallways even before Nagato could finish his sentence.

He let out a short laughter and grabbed her glasses and slippers following the tangled mess of red hair down the stairs to the infirmary floor.

“Yahi-nii!” Karin yelled again as she jumped on Yahiko, and Nagato laughed at his pained expression when she stepped on and kicked him without care on several places before settling in a more comfortable position for both of them. She was always a clumsy one, and now that she had grown so much since they found her, she was getting too heavy. And her right hook was starting to pack a punch, Yahiko knew.

“Karin-chaaaaaan! I heard you were the one who healed me, is that true?!” Yahiko asked in an excited voice and Karin nodded with a boasting smile. Nagato shook his head thinking back of how she was blaming herself yesterday for killing her precious Yahi-nii. Truth is Karin could bounce back from anything, he didn’t know if it was just how kids were, or if she just had this amazing strength and drive in herself that helped her get through these hurdles of life. Sage knows it wasn’t as easy for Nagato.

“Thank you so much Karin-chan!” Yahiko exclaimed repeatedly as she laughed on his hug.

She sat on Yahiko’s bed and started talking loudly about yesterday’s events that he missed because he was asleep. Nagato put the thick rimmed glasses over her eyes as her mouth kept running non stop, and put on back her slippers as she joyfully swung her feet back and forth from the stretcher.

They talked at length, nurses came in and out, Konan sticked for a while before going back to running the Akatsuki while Yahiko was still resting (which Nagato knew she preferred instead of lingering idly around the infirmary), the doctors dropped by too to congratulate Karin and she smiled pridefully about it, all the while talking to them about anything and everything, Yahiko always encouraging her.

“Reallyyyyy?! And what did you do next?!”

“Yahi-nii, ya won’t believe it!”

“No!”

It felt good. To decompress like that. It was clear that Yahiko was out of danger, Karin was well, things had worked out.

“Karin, we wanted to ask you something.” Nagato started, finally getting a chance when the little blabbermouth paused to eat something. His more serious tone immediately made her flinch and Nagato already felt bad for the topic at hand. “We wanted to know if… do you have a family? Parents, siblings?”

“I have Yahi-nii, and Nagato-nii and Konan-nee too!” She answered excitedly and Nagato’s heart warmed inside his chest. He never heard that directly from her before. And even if he considered Yahiko and Konan his family, his husband and his wife almost, it all sounded more official now that Karin said it with her own eight years old words.

“Aaaaw, we love you too Karin-chan!” Yahiko instantly grabbed her by the neck and proceeded to squeeze the cuteness out of her while she giggled. 

But they needed to find out who she was with back in Kusa, to make sure to keep the tabs on them and that nobody was looking for her anymore. Healing powers this strong were sure to call attention wherever she went. “But we meant before us, did you have any family before us?”

Karin was silent for a second before speaking in an uncharacteristically low tone. “I had mum.”

“You had a mom?” Nagato pressed, trying to pry more information from her.

“Yeah. She died. Then Zosui-san took care o’ me.”

“Zosui-san? Your mother asked him to take care of you?”

Karin was silent for a long time, Nagato even thought she didn’t hear his question in the first place, but he didn’t want to ask again. He could feel the turmoil on her chakra that these questions only had created.

She moved her hand to circle her other wrist where there were several bite marks piling one on top of each other, and muttered in a low voice. “Zosui-san… wan’t good.”

Yahiko pulled her into his arms and Nagato got up from his chair to hug her too. “It’s ok Karin-chan, we won’t let anything bad happen to you ever again, ok?”

“Yes, we’ll protect you.” Nagato nodded in agreement with Yahiko.

Karin didn’t stop shaking for sometime after that, but they hugged her tightly through it.

***

“What ya doin’ Konan-nee?”

The long answer was that she was feeling anxious and making origami always helped her calm her nerves. She had been in fight or flight mode ever since Yahiko got hurt again even if it’s been more than a month, so when she got tired of dealing with people and dispatching Yahiko to dangerous missions and thinking that she might never see him again, she holed up herself on their room and obsessively added more and more paper bombs to her by-now-city-level-destroying jutsu. Maybe her boys were right, no need to reach a trillion paper bombs right? If only they would fucking stop getting into dangerous situations and getting her so worried.

But the short answer was: “Paper bombs. Want to help?”

“Yeah! I wanna!”

Karin kneeled in front of the low table where Konan was sitting in seiza, all her shinobi stationary stuff sprawled around, and started to show Karin how to make the origami. There was no need for Konan to write her own explosive tags, she could buy them at the store, and there was no need for her to fold the explosive tags into origami after that for her jutsu to work, but it helped her pass the time. Especially when her time was filled with anxious thoughts about her loved ones.

“Alrighty! How many d'ya need?”

Konan shrugged at Karin’s question. “Whatever you can or want to do. Don’t worry about numbers.”

“Okaaay… but why d'ya need so many?”

“It’s for a jutsu I'm creating. It needs a lot of paper bombs.”

“Wow, like what? A thousand paper bombs?”

Konan snorted at the pitifully low number of paper bombs. If Karin only knew how many paper bombs there actually were in her jutsu. “Definitely more than a thousand paper bombs.”

“Wow, that’s so coooooool…” She extended her vowels in a way that reminded Konan of Yahiko and she let out a small smile. “Yahi-nii and Naga-nii always talk ‘bout how cool your paper jutsu is.”

Konan felt a bit under the spotlight but didn't show it. “Do they now?”

“Yeah, I think it’s cool too.”

“Thanks kid.”

“Why do you need a super big jutsu?”

Konan… didn't know the answer for that question. She just needed it to be powerful, annihilating, to instill fear in the hearts of their enemies and who else thought of hurting Nagato or Yahiko to avoid such a thing. And if in the end she couldn’t save them, then she at least wanted the person to face divine judgment for such a sin. But sure, something that could level a city was a bit over the top for only one person or group.

But it always came down to the same thing. “To protect the people I love, Yahiko, Nagato, you…”

Karin giggled from hearing Konan mention her name, squirming in place. She did that whenever they were affectionate with her and Konan had to admit that the kid was so silly, it kind of melted her ice cold heart, as Yahiko liked to joke.

She pointed to one of the creases that Karin had just folded to show her how to do it correctly. “Here, it’s better if you mark the paper before folding it, then the origami looks neater.” 

“Konan-neeeeee, can I write’em? I think I’m better at that than doin’ the origami.”

She felt her eyebrows scrunch up together. “Do you know how to?” Karin had only been in the Academy for a few months, did they already teach how to write seals?

“O’course!”

“Sure.” Konan shrugged and moved the piles of paper around the low table and the ink and brushes for Karin to get them.

Once she saw Karin taking the brushes with familiarity and dipping them carefully and with precision on the ink, she shifted to focus on folding the tags, using her painted nails to crease the paper, trying to make her folds perfectly symmetrical. It was strangely relaxing, but well, everybody needed a hobby. She grabbed one of Karin’s explosive tags next to fold into an origami and was awed at the perfect handwriting. She would never expect that from someone who just started the Academy, and especially not from a klutz like Karin. Bless her heart, the kid was great, but truth be told, she really could pay more attention to her surroundings and be less clumsy.

“This is some really good explosive tag, kid.” She let her surprise show through her tone. Nagato was reading some books on parenting and he had told her that it was good for Karin to receive compliments whenever she did something good, and that he knew it wasn’t one of Konan’s strengths but she should try it, so she did.

A smug grin split Karin’s and Konan smirked back. “He, he, thanks Konan-nee.”

“You must be the best one in your sealing class, uh?” Konan added, impressed with what only a couple of words of encouragement could do for a child.

“We not learnin’ sealin’ yet.” Karin answered, making Konan confused.

“Then how do you know how to write the seals?”

Karin was silent for a couple of seconds before answering. “Ma mum taught me.”

Of course. She should’ve known. This was yet another one of Karin’s hidden abilities, along with the biting thing, her insane levels of chakra and her knowing how to channel it even before going to the Academy. She kind of wished Karin trusted them enough for her to talk openly about it, after all she’d been with the Akatsuki for two years already. Konan didn’t know why, but somehow it pained her to think she wasn’t as close to Karin as she could be.

She racked her brain for something nice to say, because she couldn’t let the topic of Karin’s mother be so heavy forever, or she would never open up to them in the future.

“She taught you well. These are amazing.” She said with the softest tone she could manage for a child, and Karin’s face lightened up.

“Yeah! Mum was awesome!” She sent Konan a shiny smile and she kind of understood what Nagato meant now.

“Was she?”

“Yeah, she had the best letters, all her seals were super pretty!”

So Karin started talking like a maniac about all the things she liked about her mother, besides her handwriting and calligraphy work, mentioning her mother's cooking, her healing abilities, how well she could sow too, her beautiful hair that almost reached the ground. 

“I wanna have mum’s super pretty hair when I grow up.”

“I’m sure you’ll do, kid.” Konan nodded with a small smile on her lips.

“Konan-nee, d’ya think I’ll have big boobs like ya when I grow up?” Konan ripped the paper tag she was working on in half when she heard the word “boobs”.

“What?” She asked, mortified. 

“Ma mum’s boobs weren’t big, but ya have big boobs, d’ya think I’ll have big boobs too?” Karin asked excitedly and Konan wanted the ground to swallow her whole right that moment.

This kid was a weird one. Not that Konan could judge, not from the top of her half trillion of paper bombs. But still, what a weirdo, Konan chuckled thinking to herself as Karin whined more about boobs and some other weird shit.

***

They never got much warning about when Jiraiya-sensei was going to drop by, but this time, it was even less, only a summoned toad with a handwritten note in terrible calligraphy saying how he would drop by Ame the next day and stay for maybe a few weeks. Yahiko pitied Jiraiya-sensei’s editor, having to make out those drawings of letters for a whole collection of books must be a nightmare. 

Though… Yahiko was indeed curious about the next installment of Icha Icha Paradise, he liked reading it during his alone time, he wouldn’t deny it. And he loved that Konan always looked annoyed whenever she caught him with the book, a disgusted look on her face probably wondering how could she ever love such a pervert. And he loved that Nagato only blushed prettily before darting his eyes to anywhere else besides the book, probably imagining what perverted things could ever be written, if they did such perverted things together in bed. As if those two perverts weren't in a three-way relationship with him and getting it on on a regular basis.

Of course he was getting a lot less action in that department since Karin got in the picture. At first she got nightmares often, so Nagato was always sleeping with her, or she was on their bed. When she started getting better and having fewer nightmares, the three of them were still always careful of how they were carrying themselves, because Karin almost caught them making out on more than one occasion.

“Yahi-nii! Yahi-nii! Look what I learned today!” She would come jumping to their room to show a new kunai trick or something and he and Nagato would need to disentangle themselves one from another. “Oh Naga-nii’s here too! Yahi-nii ya so silly! Why ya on the floor?”

“It’s just so hoooooot these days, Karin-chan…” He would try to cover for them by sending her a confident smile. 

Yahiko was falling from his bed a suspicious amount of times since Karin started living with them, with Konan and Nagato always staying on their bed looking unbothered but with a tinge on red on her cheeks on her case, or completely flushed to his ears and acting coy in Nagato’s case. All very suspicious. He wondered who would fall off the bed in case Karin ever walked in on Konan and Nagato making out, he should ask them later. 

Not that they missed their time before Karin or anything. Once she had a school trip overnight to learn about camping as a shinobi, and the three of them got hyped and excited to have some alone time, only to sit on the dark worrying if Karin was doing well with her friends and teachers and whether or not they should go pick her up on the location the teacher gave them. They were able to stay on the bed instead of drop unannounced on Karin’s class, and even sleep, eventually, but the three of them were relieved when she got back the following morning.

Yes, they weren’t perverts, at least not like Jiraiya-sensei. Yahiko just liked messing with his boyfriend and girlfriend.  

“I'm excited about sensei's visit. He's going to be here longer this time.” He snickered, sending a knowing look to both Konan and Nagato to see who would take the bait.

“Cut the crap, you're only interested in getting your hands in his newest book.” Konan was the first and Yahiko laughed harder at that.

“Jiraiya-sensei is a mangaka?” Karin-asked innocently and Yahiko almost groaned and hit his face on the table at his own idiocy. Of course the girl would pick up on it, children only listened at the worst possible timing.

“Did you have to say it, Konan?” Nagato sent both Konan and Yahiko a dirty look, mad that they were mentioning the book in front of Karin. But he didn’t need to worry, she didn’t even understand what they were talking about, she wouldn’t understand for a long time.

“I'm sorry.” Konan grunted in response.

“Jiraiya-sensei is a sensei not because he's a mangaka, it's because he’s a legendary shinobi.” Nagato explained calmly and they all held their breaths hoping that Karin would drop the book subject.

“And he writes too?! So cooooool!”

There was a collective groan and Karin giggled at them thinking it was funny. It wasn’t.

“It's boring stuff that adults like. It’s like stinky tofu, we like stinky tofu but you don’t like it, understand?” Nagato tried again and Karin made a barfing sound and shook her head, finally dropping the subject. He sent a murderous look to Yahiko and Konan though. 

Jiraiya indeed arrived the next day. Laughing loud, making terrible jokes and holding a sake bottle, drunk off his ass even though it was still only 9pm.

“Where are my favorite students?!”

“Jiraiya-sensei!” All three of them exclaimed as the big man busted the kitchen door open while they were having dinner.

“Look at you all grown up!” Jiraiya started hugging them while swaying in place to keep himself steady. “Kids these days grow up so fast, you’re making me feel like an old geezer!”

“An old geezer that can still kick ass!” Yahiko laughed as he hugged the man last. They were far past their growth phase, none of them were getting any taller, even if they hadn’t seen each other in a year or so, last time had been during a mission in Konoha. This was just Jiraiya being a sentimental drunkard. “C’mon Jiraiya-sensei, we’re only getting shorter from now on! Just like you!”

“Respect your elders brat! Now is this lady here the famous Karin-chan?!”

Karin had miraculously managed to stay silent for a whole conversation for once, and Yahiko was impressed. Maybe she was a bit shy to meet the famous Jiraiya-sensei.

“Yeah, it’s me!” She said with a little less strength that she usually used and Jiraiya’s smile faltered.

“My, my, if you guys had told me you adopted a Uzumaki I would have drunk more!” He let out a boisterous laughter and slapped his knee as if he’d just made the best joke ever. 

Yahiko turned to Karin and then to Konan and Nagato with probably a very confused face, wondering what the hell was a Uzumaki and why Jiraiya had said it as if it was supposed to be common knowledge, but his partners also seemed at a loss too. It was Karin that raised an accusatory finger at Jiraiya’s joke.

“Why d’ya know my name?! Mum told me to keep it a secret!”

Every adult in the kitchen was stunned into silence at that. Yahiko saw his confusion reflected on Konan’s and Nagato’s faces, and Jiraiya just looked like he was speedrunning the five stages of grief, or just had a massive headache from his drinking all of a sudden.

“Damn, the Hot Blooded Habanero’s going to nag my ear off. I knew I should’ve drunk more.” He shook his head as if he’d just made a bad decision and Yahiko still didn’t know what was going on.

“What’s going on?” He voiced his obvious question, but Jiraiya just sighed and executed some sort of medical ninjutsu that seemed to immediately cure his drunkenness and sobered him up to everybody’s surprise. If Jiraiya had always known this jutsu a lot of uncomfortable situations could’ve been avoided in the past, especially uncomfortable situations including unpaid bar tabs that Yahiko had to pay and angry onsen owners that caught Jiraiya spying and Yahiko had to, again, bail their sensei out. He felt a bit betrayed right now, he wasn’t going to lie.

“What’s going on is that this Karin-chan here is from a very special clan, and I’m guessing you didn’t know that.”

“Is that clan these Uzumaki people you mentioned?” Konan asked, also looking wary of their teacher.

“Yeah, just like Nagato, they’re both Uzumakis.”

“I’m a what?!” Nagato’s usual soft voice reached new pitches never heard before and Jiraiya’s face twisted again as if his jutsu had cured his drunkenness but not his headache.

***

It turned into a long Thursday night. Karin, thank Sage, had slept in the middle of it and Yahiko was kind enough to take her to bed, while Nagato continued to talk to Jiraiya-sensei.

His whole life felt like it was turned upside down.

“I just… I thought I was from Rain Country.”

“You are Nagato, but most likely your parents were from Uzushio, or at least your grandparents.

“But- but how can we be sure? Where is everyone now? Is there a place for the displaced Uzumakis to go?” Jiraiya’s silence was more than enough of an answer. Konan rubbed Nagato’s back soothingly as his head continued to hurt with all the implications of what Jiraiya was saying. “Not even… a community…? Or…”

Jiraiya’s expression was somber and Nagato trailed off before finishing the question, feeling defeated. His heart was clenching inside his chest and he didn't know what to do with all this new information.

There was a void in him that felt all consuming, all destroying. A void that attracted all sorts of horrible feelings and twisted thoughts, orbiting around his bleeding heart that now felt more like a blackhole through his body. He once had a family, a real one, not only his mother and father, but a loving community, cousins and friends and people just like him, that had their own traditions, their own life. 

And it was all taken from him.

Again.

He felt the same brand of grief melting through him as that time he watched his parents die. How many more times was he going to lose the ones dear to him? Was this his fate in life? To lose and mourn and miss? While others would just take and kill and covet? Did his pain mean nothing to this cold, uncaring world? How he wished that everyone, every single soul out there could feel the pain that he felt, he wanted to inflict pain on all of them, he wanted to be the one to take and kill and covet for once, massacre the elemental nations that attacked his real home, squash Konoha who killed his parents and failed to protect Uzushio, kill all the greedy damiyos that waged war against the Uzumaki's powers, disintegrate Kusa for exploiting Karin and her mother for their heritage, it would be so easy, to use his eyes to step on them all like ants, like the disgusting insects that they were and just-

“Nagato… my love… it's ok…”

“Yeah honey… you'll see… we'll make it better…”

Nagato was startled out of his thoughts by Konan’s and Yahiko's voices. He was still sitting on the table with them hugging him and holding him close, but everything else was pressed against the walls, including Jiraiya standing on the far corner in a defensive pose. All the chairs, dishes, foods, drinks, kitchen appliances, even the fridge, it was all crumpled and broken against the walls in piles of undistinguished rubble. He must've activated the Shinra Tensei without noticing. Thank Sage he didn’t hurt Konan and Yahiko, or Jiraiya-sensei.

“I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…” He started to cry uncontrollably, ashamed for almost hurting the ones he loved, for losing control, for having such horrible thoughts, for-for destroying their kitchen, and Sage, Konan and Yahiko should just give up on him-

“We're not going anywhere Nagato.” Konan stated softly but assertively, as if reading his mind, or maybe he spoke his thoughts out loud.

“We're sorry too.” Yahiko continued cooing at him, hugging tight and patting his hair. “We're sorry for what happened to you baby, to your people. We're going to make this world better, so it will never happen again.

Nagato closed his eyes hard and prayed that he could believe in Yahiko's words once again.

That night he cried himself to sleep in the arms of his partners on their bed. They didn’t mind his hiccups and running nose, or how it took him a few hours to finally close his eyes and give in to the exhaustion left by emotional turmoil of the day. They didn’t mind his nightmares that made him mumble and cry in his sleep, wake up gasping for air, Konan and Yahiko only hugged him tighter as if this could protect him from the demons inside his own head. In a way, it did. It helped a little.

He woke up again a bit after six, after maybe four hours of sleep cut by several nightmares, and he felt awful. Since he didn’t make any noise this time, Konan and Yahiko kept sleeping soundly. Nagato slipped out of bed, he didn't want to wake them, they must've had a terrible night taking care of him. He thought of going to the bathroom, maybe washing his face and trying to hate himself and the world a little less today. His feet took him inside Karin’s bedroom instead. 

Her face was the same as always, peaceful, snoring and drooling on her pillow, as if nothing major happened yesterday. Nagato chastised himself for resenting Karin’s peace, he didn’t know how she was really feeling after all. Sage, he was such a horrible person. Karin's been through so much, she already knew all about loss and mourning and missing. All about pain. Even if she was much too young for that. Maybe the idea of missing something that never happened was something still too abstract for her child brain, even if a brain already scarred by the harsh and inevitable reality. She couldn’t grief for what ifs and misplaced nostalgia like Nagato could, and maybe that was for the best, he wouldn’t wish so on his worst enem-

Well. He was… working on that. On not wishing for bad things. They were going to end the cycle of meaningless violence after all. He should practice what the Akatsuki preached. No matter how hard it was. And today it was very hard. Very.

He laid down in Karin's bed and tugged on her covers, and she immediately shuffled to accommodate him and then hug him tight, all without waking up. She always slept like a rock. It was a bad thing for a shinobi, but Nagato hoped she would never change. She deserved resting a bit, after what she went through.

As Nagato felt Karin’s little tremors while she snored, he wondered what a coincidence it was that they had taken her in. He remembered that bright day in Kusagakure, when he felt like he needed to put his foot down and save this girl. It all made sense now, why he felt that, why he could sense her better than the others, why they were similar. Maybe it was no coincidence at all. Maybe there was a call from Uzushio, from the Uzumakis, between them. Who could tell? Not Nagato who until last night had no idea about all this.

And now, in the bleak light of a rainy Ame morning, he was still unsure about what to do and what to feel about it all. But… things were… fine, now… yes, life was good… maybe things might really turn out… ok… even for them… even for him… he would make sure of that, for Karin. 

***

Years later

“Did you get the antidotes? You're going to cross Wind Country territory, you know how nasty they are with poisons.”

Karin groaned for what felt like the millionth time today and it was like, still seven in the morning. “Yeeeeah, Yahi-niiiiiii, you told me that already.”

“What about paper bombs?” Konan chimed in with the. Most. Konan. Question. Ever. And Karin wanted to groan, again.

Karin shook her shoulders where an already too heavy bag was sitting on. “Konan-nee, I think I have more than ‘nough paper bombs.” She tried not to sound too sassy with her onee-san but she couldn’t help it.

“There can never be enough paper bombs.” Karin rolled her eyes at the older woman because that was the. Most. Konan. Answer. Ever. But then she received a light slap on the back of her head. “Watch it kid, respect your elders.”

“Y’all only 16 years older than me!” She whined in a voice that sounded much more like an annoying teenager than she was aiming for and she felt a bit like a loser. Yeah, they were older than her by a lot but they were like, her older brothers and sister, not her parents !

“Do you have Konan's tracking origami?”

“Yeah Nagato-nii, it’s in the bag and- y’all stop! I’m ready, ok?” She tried to raise her arms to push her overbearing guardians away from her. 

Nagato just shook his head at her. “Carry it with you on your clothes. It’s better.” He said in an even voice completely ignoring her words! Sage! She almost groaned out loud in frustration, again!

“Yeah, what if you get mugged?! They're going to take your weapons away and then you'll be helpless!” Yahiko was being dramatic again.

“I ain’t helpless Yahi-nii! Sage! And I ain’t gettin’ mugged, I’d fight’em!” She punched Yahiko’s shoulder for saying these insane stuff and doubting her.

“Oh noooo, I don't like this idea.” Yahiko rubbed his shoulder but waved off her punch, and only shook his head and turned his pleading eyes to Konan and Nagato. 

“I'll summon one of the paths to tag along with you.” Nagato nodded, agreeing with Yahiko’s unsaid request and creeping Karin out with the way they always read each other’s minds. 

“Great idea!”

“What?! No way! Besides, I already have my team!”

“Just the animal path then?” Nagato tried to negotiate. 

Konan snapped her fingers at Nagato’s suggestion. “Maybe Jiraiya-sensei’s toads could help us.”

“Sage, guuu-uuuys, I'm only staying out for a month! And it's Fire Country! It’s a-okay!”

“Are you insane Karin-chaaan?! People in the elemental nations never respect people from the smaller countries, Konan! Nagato! Tell her!” Yahiko threw his arms up in the air, making a whole big deal about it.

“He’s right, Karin, unfortunately.”

Konan looked at Nagato in agreement with a solemn air to herself. “If anyone talks shit about you or Ame, just fucking deck them.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t go.” Nagato suggested and she wanted to tear her hair off her head. They’ve already been through this!

“No, guuuuys! You said I could go to the exams! No takin’ backsies!”

She couldn’t let them back out now! It took her so much time and convincing them that she would be alright in this trip, she asked her jounin-sensei to vouch for her a hundred times, she let Konan bully her teammates into protecting her, she learned the idiotic toad summon just so she could send them recurring messages when she was in long missions, she- hell, she turned herself inside out trying to get her registration in this exam, she was not letting them back out now!

Truth be told, she still couldn’t believe that Konan, Nagato and Yahiko finally, finally , let her take the chunin exams. Her teacher wanted to recommend her when she was 11, saying that she was more than ready, (Karin always said that to everyone who asked or even didn’t ask) but her idiot overprotective brothers didn’t let her go! Only now that she was 15, and after all the strings she pulled, they were letting her go. 

Of course she was excited to go to the exams and meet new people and new cultures and new fighting styles to get better, but! But she was also super excited to meet the other Uzumaki kid her age that Perverted-Sensei talked about. She couldn’t wait to talk to him about all the stuff he might know that she didn’t. Perverted-Sensei also said the Uzumaki guy was friends with a medical nin girl that studied with Tsunade-sama herself! Tsunade-fucking-sanin! She didn’t know how she was even able to sleep with all this about to happen!

Besides, this was only the second year that Amegakure was participating in the chunin exams, and last year she heard from her senpais that they were almost on equal footing with the big elemental nations, even if they weren’t from big fancy clans. They only had one genin team on the exam last year, with two people making it to the final rounds and one becoming chunin even though she didn’t win her fight. That meant that it was more than super possible for Karin to become a chunin on. Her. First. Try! She was so excited to try it and just beat everyone else she couldn’t stop shaking!

“We’re not taking anything back, Karin, we’re just worried about you.” Damn it. Whenever Nagato used that tone she always felt guilty for contradicting him in the first place. Here she was, ready to kick everyone’s ass and represent Ame in the super popular chunin exams and her brothers and sister were treating her like a five year old!

“Naga-nii, I can take care of myself, c’mooooonn…”

“Sage! Just fucking go kid, I can’t listen to all this goddamn nagging anymore.” Konan feigned disinterest and waved her off as if she hadn’t been nagging Karin about safety too just a second ago. Konan-nee could be such a tsundere sometimes.

She jumped and hugged Konan before she could rethink what she just said. “Thank youuu Konan-nee! Bye Yahi-nii! Bye Naga-nii!” She quickly kissed her brothers on the cheek before dashing out of the door before any of them changed their minds.

She could hear things that faintly sounded like “be careful” and “send a toad if you need” and “don’t take any shit” and could guess which one of the three said what.

When she graduated Academy second of her class (because she wasn’t good at studying things that involved books, let’s be honest, no matter how good of a shinobi she already was), Konan, Nagato and Yahiko almost had a heart attack when she got her first mission out of the village, and then another heart attack, maybe coupled with a stroke, when she got a mission outside the country. Tracking origami and annoying toads were not bad at all compared with the Deva Path of the rinnegan walking with her every step of the way, especially with her idiot teammates poking fun at her being a “daddy’s girl’. They stopped poking fun at her after she knocked all the teeth out of their mouths. Whenever they smiled a line of perfect uniform white teeth she couldn’t help but smile in pride at the knowledge that none of those were real. Though their jounin sensei did say she should stop creating the injuries she was going to heal later, or it defeated the purpose of having a medical nin in the team. Which, yeah, ok, made sense, but they started it!

This time around leaving the village had a different taste to it, as if her Ame headband felt heavier, felt shinier. She was happy with that additional weight. She couldn’t even remember what life was like back in Kusa, she couldn’t even begin to phantom how she could defend in the chunin exams a village that treated her and her family so badly. For as far as she was concerned, she wasn’t even sure she was born in a village in Grass Country for that matter, so to hell with them. Maybe Konan’s hatred for that country was beginning to rub on her, but whatever, it was all true. Ame was her home, Ame with a little addition of a whirlpool sowed to her clothes and weapons with Nagato’s help. Yes, that’s where her loyalty lied.

“Finally the princess is here, we can go now.” Her teammate muttered and rolled her eyes, so Karin kicked her on the shin. “What the fuck Karin?!”

“Karin-chan, Natsume-chan, please stop…” Kisame sighed and leaned in on Samehada. “Look, I’ll pay you each 20 ryo if you both shut up until I have some breakfast.”

“What- but-but-but Kisame-chan! Duckface started it!” Karin exclaimed outraged.

“Technically four eyes started because she was late to the meeting.” Her teammate retorted and Karin almost kicked Natsume again. This stuck up bitch always thought she was so much better than Karin just because she got perfect scores back in the Academy, which was super idiotic because they graduated from the Academy forever ago, like three years ago. The girl couldn’t get a hint!

Kotaru, the boy on their team said in a small voice. “Guys, can’t you just be friends with each other just on this mission? We’re finally going to-”

“Nobody asked you!” Both Karin and Natsume yelled on his face loud enough for him to fall back on his butt.

“C’mon you two, we talked about you stop bullying Kotaru-chan…” Kisame sighed again as he pulled Samehada over his shoulder. What an asshole, he liked bullying Kotaru too! What was he saying?!

They all pulled their coats closer together and lowered their jingasa to step out of the narrow marquee they were under. The familiar cold rain hit her shoulders and Karin thought it was strange to be out and about without their rebreathers, but there would be no need for them today, as they were leaving Rain Country by the end of the day and would spend so much time in a wildly different weather.

“Why were you late anyway Karin-chan? Does the boss have anything for me?” Kisame asked as they walked calmly through the rain, eyes checking around for any open restaurants where he could buy his breakfast. Being a shark sage apparently demanded a lot of fish in his diet.

“No Kisame-chan, they didn’t say anythin’, they just worried.”

“Of course they were worried, their precious little princess is going to lose the chunin exams.”

Karin raised her fist but Kisame talked over her. “Natsume-chan, don’t be mean…” So Karin just sent her a smug smile.

“Your favoritism is getting ridiculous sensei, just because she’s the daughter of the Amekage doesn’t mean you should always take her side!”

Karin was about to retort when Kisame cut before her again without looking back, just continuing to walk in search of some ikayaki stall or something. “Karin-chan is Konan-sama’s little sister, and you treat your Amekage and her sister with respect.” Karin snickered again at Natsume’s frown and stuck  tongue out. “Karin-chan, stop it, I can see you, don’t be a bad winner, Natsume-chan’s your teammate.” The sharkman stopped her with a defeated tone in his voice.

Karin didn’t even know how Kisame could see them but ok, whatever, shark sage stuff.

“Ok great, ikayaki. Anybody want some?”

“No sensei, thanks…” They all let the burly man go over to the stall and buy most of their squid inventory before they could continue with their journey.

“You’re such a sore loser!” Karin poked fun at Natsume again, just because.

“Goddamn four eyes, with your stupid hair red like-”

“Oi! Watch it! The last person that talked shit about my hair was Kotaru and he doesn’t have any balls anymore!”

“I knew I should've declined when Konan-sama assigned you as my genin Karin-chan.” Kisame had four sticks of squid in each hand and was trying to keep them off the rain as they started walking again.

“You should have. She isn’t even from Ame, are you allowed to compete with our hitai-ate?” Natsume sent Karin a dirty look that by now she was too used to.

“Do I need to remind you, Natsume-chan, that I’m also from another village?”

“... No, Kisame-sensei.” Natsume answered in a reluctant small voice.

“And do I need to remind you that loyalty has nothing to do with birth and everything to do with your moral compass?”

Natsume winced at that jab. They all heard stories about how Kisame left Kiri, but he never confirmed nor denied any of them, which only meant that his back story might have involved teammate killing and/or defection from a major hidden village. So he knew what he was talking about.

“No, Kisame-sensei.” Regardless of what happened to him in the past, Kisame was the type of shinobi to put a lot of importance on loyalty, teamwork and honesty, and they all knew that, even stupid Natsume.

“And do I need to remind you that all three of you performed the same amount of missions for Amegakure, so you’re standing as equals as Ame shinobi?”

This time all three of them answered together. “No, Kisame-sensei.”

“Good. Now. Quiz time!” Kisame exclaimed and all three of them groaned together, even Natsume who was a bookworm. Kisame’s quizzes were always difficult, no cross that, unanswerable! And often resulted in them paying for their wrong answers in crunches.

“What are the two elemental releases of the fifth Mizukage?”

“Natsume, please tell me you know this one…” Kotaru begged with dread in his voice and Karin hated to agree but the stuck up asshole was their only hope.

“Shit, I only remember the lava release.”

Kisame clicked his tongue but continued in a suspiciously cheerful voice. “That’s one, this means you’ll only do 50 crunches instead of 100.”

“No! Kisame-sensei!” They all pleaded again with him as he ate his third squid.

“What is the name of the Earth Country’s damiyo?”

“Why the fuck do we need to know that?!” Natsume and Karin yelled together and Kisame tsked again.

“100 crunches for not knowing the answer and additional 50 for Karin-chan and Natsume-chan for being two little shits about it.”

The girls groaned again as the crunches pilled up. And Kisame never even gave them the answers, they just had to hit the books and look for it themselves if they didn’t want to spend the rest of their lives doing crunches.

“What is the name of the first jinchuriki for the Nine-Tails?”

“I know! I know!”

“Why the hell would you know that?” Natsume looked at her with disdain but Karin could only exclaim.

“It’s Mito-sama! Uzumaki Mito-sama!”

“Correct Karin-chan. Natsume-chan and Kotaru-chan, you'll only do 50 crunches since Karin-chan knows the answer.” Kisame put another whole squid in his mouth looking entirely too satisfied with himself. 

“Sage save me…” Kotaru hung his head and prayed to the gods above at the height of his misery of 200 crunches and counting.

Natsume, always confrontational, put her hands on her hips and turned to Karin. “So you only know stuff about your family?” The ungrateful bitch, Karin had just knocked 50 crunches from her punishment.

“Well, at least it’s a kick ass family, ok?” Karin crossed her arms and Natsume couldn’t disagree with it, looking sour about it, which made her own smirk grow wider. 

Yeah, she loved her family, the biological one and the adoptive one, Mito-sama sounded like a girlboss from what the Perverted-Sensei told her, her own mum made the most beautiful seals Karin’s ever seen, Nagato-nii didn’t need no introductions, Konan-nee and Yahiko-nii were also pretty kick ass, with her being the Amekage and he being the leader of the Akatsuki, she loved them so much, also together with the Perverted Sensei and his hoard of silly toads, and Kisame-chan, everybody back at Akatsuki, Doc, who taught her medical ninjutsu formally, and the nurses of course,-

“What is the kekkei genkai of the Yuki clan?”

All three genin groaned and pulled at their hair in desperation of how many crunches they would have to do by the end of four days of journey and impossible quizzes.