A strange new life [Naruto fanfiction]

It was evening and getting darker fast. For a while now, Karin had been quiet. There were no enemies around us, and we were so far away from the prison that the sound of battle didn't reach us anymore. Somehow, Comm-chan was still alive and exploding things. I could feel the beacon moving with her, and if I paid enough attention, caught glimpses of the action on the other side.

I know I prayed for her to kill as many as she could, but did she need to transform every enemy she could put her mittens on in a bomb carrier? Wasn't that a tad too much? Even if the body count wasn't as big as I thought it would have been, exploding enemies was somehow, way worse than just killing them. Was Comm-chan trying some sort of mind game or something against the enemies?

Cold darkness fell. With the clouds blocking the sky, there was no light to help me see. No star light, no moon light. Just pure darkness. I pushed out with my threads to sense the surroundings. I had to move slower to avoid tripping, but the important thing was to keep moving.

As soon the threads spread out, Karin-chan gasped. "How're you doing that?" She looked this way and that. Finger touching some of the threads. "It's beautiful."

That was nice to hear. I think my control, and thus threads, was my most developed skill. I spent literal years training this stuff. Felt good to be appreciated. Karin didn't seem to be waiting for a response. She kept trying to grab the threads, and at some point, it became almost like a game. It was a good bit of distraction that kept me moving late into the night.

I kept fleeing but even so, I had my limits. I was tired, cold, hurting, hungry and thirsty. I wanted water so bad. So much for a place called Land of Waves. There was no river or water nearby. No lakes or ponds. I wasn't even sure if we still were in the Land of Waves.

But now it wasn't just being tired anymore. Moving around wasn't enough to keep warm, not when I had barely anything to wear. The cold wind cut deeper than any kunai.

From running, to jogging to walking to shambling.

At some point, my clone, the drama queen Assassination-chan met her end. I was proud of her, and maybe a bit scared. Was I that dangerous when I didn't have to worry about anything else? She led the enemy in circles, abusing the teleport to strike from places they wouldn't expect, planting explosions whenever she could.

She… made a mess. But now with her memories, I understood why. She wanted to attract attention. Maybe that would also help the others escape. Maybe that would prompt Kiri to investigate. We could only hope.

The beacon was still there with one of the enemies. He didn't seem to know what my kunai was for. He had bagged it, and now was lugging it around. I kept part of my attention on the guy, hoping to find any clue to what was happening. The nameless shinobi had put it among other items that looked like contraband or loot. He left soon after, but there were people nearby.

And people talked, and stuff was discussed. Two of the masked shinobi were talking around the contraband. Most of it was in some sort of code or shorthand I couldn't understand, but there was one word that stood out above all else.

ROOT.

I could even hear the capitalization in the words. I should have guessed. I'm kinda mad I didn't.

In the show, Sai was emotionless and disconnected from his emotions due to ROOT training. Now, here he was, seven years free from Danzo, supposedly not part of ROOT and yet still emotionless and disconnected. Why hadn't I seen it? Was I that blind?

I stumbled, almost dropped Karin, who had fallen asleep while I carried her. She yelped, windmilled, grabbed my hair, pulled it.

I couldn't keep going this way. Now that the adrenaline had faded, and the cold snuck in, the past how many days of abuse was catching up. Karin might have healed my injuries, but that didn't erase the mental strain. I changed focus from moving away to find somewhere to hide.

In total darkness, I carried Karin through a small cave opening.

Jagged rocks and twisting paths made it look like a nice place to hide. However, it turned out to be a dead end. The passage wasn't long, and it tapered off in a small crack in the stone that wasn't big enough for Karin or me to fit through. I considered staying here, but I didn't like being trapped with only one way of escape.

I turned around and walked away from the cave. My hazy meandering led me to the base of a massive tree. From what I could gather with my threads, it might take at least five of me, hand in hand, to wrap around the tree's base.

My chakra threads retracted, and I tried to think through this. Going inside a cave was a big no-no. Hiding on the canopy of a tree? That might be better. It was open space and I could flee in any direction if needed. On the other hand, it would be way colder than the cave. With how cold the air cut me, I wasn't sure that staying out was feasible. Somehow, I couldn't decide what to do. It was like my brain OS had blue-screened.

"Hey, are you asleep?"

I blinked; Karin's hand was on my cheeks. I hadn't seen her moving.

"The chakra lines disappeared, and you've been quiet for a while now."

I pushed my threads again. Noticed that my beacon had disappeared. Had I fallen asleep standing?

"Hold on tight." I whispered, and before Karin could say anything, I coated my feet with chakra and climbed the tree. A few branches up, I found a nice place to sit down, then plopped myself with my back to the trunk. As for the cold, Karin would have to take responsibility and help me deal with that. I adjusted the redhead so she was on my lap, back pressing against my front. Karin let out a startled yelp. Don't blame me, I had the most innocent of thoughts. It was just cold and I was butt naked, with only a flimsy shirt. Karin could deal with a bit of awkwardness.

There was a moment of silence, until she started speaking again. "What's your name?"

I wasn't keen on speaking, it was time to try something else. I formed words with the threads. "Hinata." Karin could sense them. Would she be able to read it?

"Hinata?" Karin read back to me. I slumped forward, head pressing against her back. I nodded. "Same as the dead Hyuga girl?"

I stiffened. What was she talking about? I scrambled to write more words. "What dead girl?"

Karin wiggled on my lap, adjusted her seating, and pressed us closer. "You don't know? I thought everyone in Konoha did. Mom told me about it. Even in Kusagakure, it was a huge scandal." She stopped, picked up my arms, and put them around her waist. Her arms were all lined with gooseflesh. "Someone stole the Hyuga Princess right under their noses. The poor girl was also named Hinata."

I felt numb. I wrote. "Yeah, like that Hinata."

"Thank you for saving me Hinata-chan."

Again, I nodded. I don't know why hearing that from someone else startled me this much. I wasn't dead, dammit.

The silence stretched again. The night was quiet, and the cold wind rustling the leaves was almost therapeutic. I closed my eyes.

"Hinata-chan." Karin's whispered call startled me awake again. How much time had passed? "They're coming."

I didn't need to ask who or how. They're ninjas, and I didn't do anything to hide my tracks. I forced myself up and adjusted Karin so she was on my back instead of a princess carry. Her hand grabbed my shoulder and squeezed before I could move.

"They're around us. Five of them."

I still couldn't sense them. I needed more information. "How strong?" I wrote.

Karin looked at the invisible words. I could only tell because I had threads on her to keep up with her movements. "Stronger than you. Their chakra feels… different. Too controlled, dark, bitter."

What could I do here? I wasn't in any condition to fight. Assassination-chan had burned through most of her chakra. When she dispersed, I barely got anything back. I hadn't recovered enough to put up a serious fight.

Could I use the beacon? I cast my mind again, then shook my head. It vanished when I fell asleep, and even if it hadn't, what about Karin? If I used the beacon, I'd leave her behind.

"What do we do?" The redhead asked. Her voice was a whispered whimper.

A crazy idea hit me. It was so crazy that it might just work. "I… have a crazy idea, I can't promise it will work."

"Is it dangerous?"

I tilted my head, then wrote more when I realized she couldn't see it. "There's a chance it won't work at all. There's a chance we'll be separated, or it will work only for me. I don't know."

Karin patted my shoulder, released my neck and dropped down. She grabbed the kunai I gave her at the start of this mess. "Do it," she whispered.

That was kinda cool. And foolhardy. She didn't even know what I wanted to do. Still cool.

I moved closer, hugged Karin. She let out a strangled yelp. "H-hinata-san?"

Huh, why the formality? I shook my head. Wrote with my threads. "Hug me as tight as you can. Don't let go." She did just that, arms sneaking around me and pulling me closer. I popped out more of my threads, made them tangible, but instead of spreading them around, I wove them around us, like an invisible cocoon, then used it to press us even closer.

The surprised gasp from Karin sounded wrong, even to my ears. Not the time, brain. It was life or death here. By now, I could already feel the jounins approaching. They finally entered my sensing range. Karin was right, there was something wrong with them. Their chakra was too still, too controlled, and an absolute fuckton.

I brought my hand to my mouth, bit my thumb until it drew blood, then I willed the Kuchiyose no Jutsu I learned from Naruto from what felt so long ago. My already low chakra got sucked up by the activation, and when it ran out, my threads started to disperse. I couldn't let them. I pushed and pulled from reserves I didn't know I had; it drained something else I couldn't put into words, but my threads remained.

The world spun, and it was like I was being pulled in all directions at once. It wasn't painful, just disorienting.

It ended as soon as it started, and we fell into a warm, dark area. Soft, warm earth beneath us, a strong musk scent, and pale crystal-looking lights in the sky. No, not the sky, the ceiling. The faint light illuminated the cavernous walls and the small — was it a hill? — nearby. Karin was still with me, breathing loudly.

I didn't have time to be glad my gamble paid off. My threads cocoon unraveled. I didn't get up. My whole body burned. Worse yet, a familiar onset of agony spiked. It took me back to that time in the Forest of Death, with Orochimaru burning heretical knowledge into my mind. My body ached, my bones burned.

Karin looked up, gawked at the ceiling and wall. She grabbed me by the shirt, shook me like her life depended on it. "What the fuck did you—" She didn't finish. The redhead froze, woodenly looking around. It was like she'd seen a ghost.

Try as I might, I couldn't answer. I knew this feeling all too well. The seals on my bones were trying to kill me, and I had no chakra left to suppress it. An agonized scream escaped my mouth. Karin yelped, let go, and I fell back on the ground, hands trying to dig into my skin, reach my burning bones.

The nearby hillock shifted, shattering the quiet of the place. From all around, I heard hustling, grunting, chattering, and growling. From behind the moving mound, a car-sized black-furred triangular face with beady eyes approached and stared at us.