Naruto: The Prince of Lust

Chapter 261 - 261

Karin shakes her head, no, adding, "I've always been a pretty good sensor-type," to which Ino smirks with a nod.

Sakura asks, "are any of them stronger than us?"

Shaking her lush red mane, no, Karin adds, "all have low chakra reserves with weak potency."

Eying Karin with pupil-less blue eyes, Ino notes, "impressive," before Sakura declares, "come on." She loosens her shoulder by rotating her arm as she says, "I'm going to be pissed if we don't clear them out in a minute."

Though Karin can defend herself well enough with her taijutsu, it's never been her strong suit. Healing and sensing are her niches and she's happy with that. Still, with Sakura's surprising one-hit knockouts and Ino's quick counters, the three kunoichi easily dispatched of all twelve gang members, sending the conscious ones running. On the rooftop, looking out to the iconic stone monument in the distance, Sakura was the only one that seemed tired, however, that had nothing to do with fighting the hoodlums.

Ino is primping her lustrous platinum-blond hair when she asks Karin, "so, what do you think?"

At a loss, Karin nervously answers, "uh, I don't get it? Think of what?"

"I guess we didn't explain much," Sakura replies with a tired smile.

Nodding, Ino begins recounting, "yesterday, we had Sakura's family over for dinner. Sakura's mother, Mebuki-san, works in the civilian council and she's been having a really hard time with this property. Apparently, any cash buyers or investors who seem interested in the place are scared off. As the price of the building and area continues to drop, the village bleeds ryo, causing a lot of headaches on the council."

"...Okay," Karin hums deep in thought before offhandedly asking, "you're suggesting our clan invest in real estate?"

Nodding, Ino reveals, "this used to be Naruto's apartment before he moved to Iruka's. It's seen better days, which is saying something, because full disclosure, it wasn't much before."

"It may not be much to look at but it's got potential," Sakura admits. "Since your clan has ryo to invest in a business, we thought this might be a good option. If you think it's an option you might pursue, I can ask kaa-san for more details."

"But please, no pressure," Ino quickly informs her. "There's no obligation to do anything other than what you and Naruto want to. It's not our intention to overstep. We just want to help in any way we can."

Looking around the cluttered streets below as well as other shabby buildings on the street, Karin felt even closer to her caring cousin as she absentmindedly asks, "Naruto used to live here?" Karin didn't mean to ask her rhetorical question aloud, but they answered anyway. Inspecting the similar living she apparently shared with her blond cousin, she notes, "the neighborhood looks horrible too,"

The beautiful kunoichi look at each other nervously before Ino voices, "...Yeah."

Karin wanted to put her all into building the Uzumaki clan with Naruto but standing on that rooftop, she felt something profound blossom within her. A connection to her selfless mother and what it could mean to help here; like a motherly smile from the heavens above. Fighting back melancholy tears, Karin boldly proclaims, "I like it."

Taken aback, Ino and Sakura ask in unison, "you do?"

"It's shit, but that's fine," Karin honestly conveys to them. "Hope doesn't survive long in places like this but that just means there's a lot of opportunity. We can buy low, fix it up, improve the neighborhood and other businesses in the area. So you're damn right I like it!"

Touched by the redhead's conviction—that oddly reminds them of Naruto—Ino and Sakura look on for a moment in reflective silence before the three sprint back to Iruka's. They were late but not by much, and as ordered, Sakura was forced to sit and relax as Haku, Ino, Karin, and Kurenai prepare lunch. Hinata was kind enough to give Sakura a much-needed massage while stories were shared around the table. The Hokage attended but only stayed at the luncheon long enough to greet the recovering Chūnin and his ninja.

Following the renowned leader to Kami knows where is the perverted, and somehow equally caring, Jiraiya. When Naruto introduced them, Karin was happy to add another member to their family, however, she was less thrilled by his pervertedness. The tall, broad-shouldered elder with his long, spiky, white hair toed the line between full-on deviant and eccentric elder perfectly, leaving Karin to both love and hate the man depending on the situation.

Many of the Konoha ninja couldn't stay. So close to the final exam, those participating in the tournament—Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru, and to everyone's surprise, Sasuke—had to continue training, taking their sensei and or teammates with them. Though it was explained Sasuke's participation was merely to round out the tournament, Karin wondered if there was more to it. The last Uchiha was brought up often in Kusagakure's threat assessment. Out of all of the genin participating, Uchiha Sasuke was an opponent ranked in the top one percent. It would be in the best interest of other countries if he didn't participate in the finals, so Karin can't imagine how much political strings must've been pulled to authorize re-entry into the public tournament despite having already lost in the private one. Far too embarrassed with dirty thoughts about the handsome boy, Karin didn't approach him to ask.

The only ones to stay and have lunch with Iruka are Rock Lee, Haku, Sakura, Temari, and her brother, Kankurō. The Sand siblings were another source of wonder for Karin. Though polite and friendly, their chakras felt restrained and alert, as if they didn't genuinely mean what they were saying or how they were acting. When she brought it up to her cousin, he assured her it was fine but it still bothered her. Regardless, the lunch was fun and full of interesting classroom stories about Naruto and people she didn't know. Such an enjoyable lunch felt like fuel to Karin, and she couldn't wait to pitch her idea of helping Naruto's old neighborhood to him.

NARUTO

Naruto feels close.

'Focus,' he tells himself. A dozen of his clones have been at it all day and he joined them on Mount Myōboku right after lunch.

Days ago, Pa had taken Naruto to an otherworldly landscape on the Toad mountain that was made primarily of jagged limestone formations, like a forest of stone spikes anywhere from fifty to a hundred feet tall. On the very tip of these tall spears, Pa has ordered Naruto and his clones to sit on a square stone plate, become perfectly still, and accept natural chakra into his chakra system. In the beginning, it seemed impossible without the oil and it took Naruto nearly all day to ignore the cold wind, stop thinking about falling, and most importantly, to stop wobbling. Two days and hundreds of clones later, Naruto is nearly balanced on the unforgiving stone slab, moments away from being perfectly still and molding natural energy.

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