"You know that we're not actually related right?" I pull off my scarf. "Technically I'm adopted. That's the best term I've got for it."
"Holy shit." Karin goes wide eyed and all color drains from her face. She takes a hesitant step away from me and takes off her glasses. Then she rubs her eyes and puts them back on
...
"I know right?" I agree with her. "Who would have guessed that Orochimaru-sama would adopt? Well I do sorta look like him – the result of some sort of chakra imprinting thing, not really sure exactly how that happened – but there's no blood relation at all."
I take off my shirt next, baring my torso to the world.
"Holy fucking shit." Karin pinches herself on the arm hard enough to draw blood.
"Yeah! Finally someone agrees with me. How does that even work? It's not like chakra makes up our physical appearances so how'd that even happen? Maybe he flooded me with yang chakra on accident? Or is it yin? I always get those two mixed up. I don't think that he'd make a mistake like that though. Oh well what's done is done."
I don't think I'll ever understand how the Edo Tensi works, not to mention my special case. I casually turn around to place my neatly folded shirt onto the gurney, inadvertently showing Karin my back.
"KAI!" Karin shouts while clasping her hands together.
"Uh... you alright over there?" I look over my shoulder as I take off my sunglasses. "Hm, probably should have taken the shades off first. Oh well, not like it harmed anything."
"KAI KAI KAI KAI KAI!" Karin chants like a mantra.
"Dude. Why are you trying to dispel a genjutsu? I can't even use most genjutsu. Whoops, shouldn't have said that. Stupid Alvarcus, real stupid. Don't reveal weaknesses like that!" There's just something about the shivering terrified girl in front of me that made me slip that out.
"That's not a genjutsu?" Karin rasps out like she's under great strain. "Please say that's a genjutsu."
"Uh... no? I don't even know what you're talking about." What's her problem?
"All that!" She points at me with a shaky hand. "Those are real?"
"Oh." I glance down at what she's pointing at: my chest. My chest that's littered with scars. From the long gash that spans the entire torso from one of my first uses of the Jiongu, to the fused shut flesh over my heart, to the fist sized scar Orochimaru himself gave me, to the minor stab wounds and slashes. Then there's my arms, they have light slash marks, deep puncture wounds and even circles from when I lost them. Not to mention all of the exit points for the Jiongu everywhere on me. "Yeah they're real. Sorry I should have warned you."
"A-and that one?" She taps the side of her neck. "It goes all the way around."
"Yep." I gingerly touch the scar. "Kinda gives a whole new meaning to losing your head when you've actually lost your head. Puts it all into perspective. It also gave me a healthy respect for sword users."
"Y-y-your back?" She forces out the faint whisper.
"My masks?" I turn so my back is towards her displaying the five white masks. "They're stitched on."
"W-why?" Karin's eyes are tearing up.
"It's better than having pulsing lumps on my back." I offer up a shrug. "I used to say necessity but I don't actually need them. I want them to make me less... freakish. Sadly I'm not sure how well they work though. I'm still..." I halfheartedly gesture at my body, "yeah. Plus the pure black eyes really don't help that image out at all."
"I-I'm so sorry." Karin says as a lone tear spills down her face. "I'm so sorry."
"Eh you get used to it." I pick my shirt up and put it back on. She doesn't need to see any more of me, plus it hides my scars from her so she can pull herself together.
"I'm so sorry." She says again.
"Okay stop that!" I round on her. "I get that you feel bad that I've been through hell! I get that you can't comprehend how I've lived though one of those wounds not to mention all of them! But I don't want your sympathy! I don't want you to look at me and feel pity! I am one of the most dangerous people on this whole island and I will not walk around with everyone looking at me like I'm broken!"
"But you are broken." She softly says. "I can feel your chakra."
"Great you're an empathetic sensor." I groan out. I forgot about that, I just remembered that she's got a huge range and acute sensor capabilities.
"You're not the only one." Karin looks at me through watery eyes. "I know how you feel. How you don't want others to look at you and see something broken."
"You have you're own share of things you'd rather have hidden, don't you?" I know what she's talking about already.
"Yes." She pulls back one of her sleeves to reveal countless bite marks. "I don't want pity either. I don't want sympathy. Because no one gets it, no one understands how it really is. But we do. These scars, these bites, are a mark of shame to me."
"I am not ashamed of my scars." I correct her thoughts. "They are a testament to my strength, my sheer will to keep moving forward regardless of what happens. That's how I feel about them. Others see failure crisscrossed over my body while I see victories. There's one fact that everyone seems to always overlook: I survived. I may not have won the fights but I did not lose. Even when I was stabbed in the heart, even when my limbs were severed with impunity, even when my head was taken from my shoulders I survived."
"Mine aren't that way." Karin looks at her arm in disgust. "They're a symbol of a little girl who couldn't protect herself. They disgust me. How can someone possibly think I'm anything but repulsive now?"
"Oh and I'm the epitome of the male specimen?" I snarkily say to her. "Hello! I've got masks stitched to my back, that's not normal or attractive! At this rate I'm never going to get laid! At least my face is pretty, don't you think so?"I dramatically flutter my eyelashes at her.
"Ha!" Karin lets one laugh leave her. "We're a pair of misfits aren't we?"
"Speak for yourself." I smile at her. "I'm not a misfit, I'm a badass. There's a distinct difference."
"Alright Mister Badass, I think that will conclude your first physical." Karin laughs quietly to herself at my antics.
"About time! We just met and you've already gotten me half naked!" I make my way over to the door, then something finally sinks in. "Wait. First?"
"Of course. We need to have check ups to make sure nothing changes." Karin's eyes gleam dangerously. "I have a whole bunch of rubber gloves I need to use on someone. Thankfully I've just been assigned two patients."
"NOPE!" I sprint out of the room.
"He's strange." Karin says to herself while looking at the door I escaped through. "To go through all of that and not feel like hate and anger? He has more than his fair share, but nowhere near what I would have expected."
The door flies open and I step back inside and snag one of the hanging lab coats off the wall. "I'm taking this!"
Then I sprint out of the room again.
"Haha you brat!" Karin laughs. "Keep the damn coat!"
...
"Summoning Jutsu!" I slam my hand to the ground.
"Oh." Shirokumo says as the smoke clears. "We've got a change of scenery. Is this the new base?"
"Yep." I confirm his guess. "In fact this is my new room."
"That would explain the couch." Shirokumo chuckles to himself. "Ah dammit! I've got to make a whole new web here now! I was quite attached to the old one too. Dang."
"Or... and I'm just throwing this out there... you could not do that?"
"Nope. It's happening." Shirokumo speedily darts up a wall and starts on construction. "Right now. It's happening right now."
"Fine, it won't bother me. It was for everyone who is bothered by having a massive web constantly hovering over their heads concealing who know what kind and how many spiders." I shrug in indifference and plop down onto my couch. "Oh this is wonderful. So glad I stole this."
"You've got issues." Shirokumo blandly says as he's spinning a web. "Anyways what's going on with you? Did you just call me here to check out the new room?"
"No, I've got a task for you." My mood shifts from its usual openness to frigid. "Keep tabs on Karin. Let me know if she gets any unsavory orders."
"Karin Uzumaki, the one with the interesting healing power via biting and is a highly accurate sensor. Why is she getting special treatment?"
"She's trying to befriend me." I icily explain to my loyal summon. "She's trying to get close to me."
"And that's bad how exactly?" Shirokumo halts his construction to observe me.
"I don't want another Tayuya."
"Right. That would be bad." He agrees with me.
...
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