"Uzumaki Naruto!"
After collecting his money, Naruto left the Hokage building, but just as he stepped outside, he ran into someone he didn't expect.
Karin!
"What are you doing here?" Naruto looked at the red-haired girl in confusion.
"You told me to leave Kusagakure, didn't you? I had nowhere to go, so I decided to stay in Konoha!" Karin smiled slightly.
"Besides, all those Kusagakure ninjas died here. They must think I'm dead too, so they won't come looking for me! And even if they do, it doesn't matter. Here in Konoha, they wouldn't dare cause trouble!"
Wouldn't dare?
Didn't they kidnap Kushina back then?
And when Hinata was little…
"So how are you living in Konoha?" Naruto wasn't concerned, just curious.
Karin paused, looking a bit uneasy, but quickly forced a smile: "I'm working in a restaurant. The boss is super nice—gives me food and a place to stay, and pays me too!"
Naruto noticed her strange expression and gave her a closer look.
She was still wearing the same clothes from the Chunin Exams. Now they were wrinkled and dirty.
Her face and hands had some grime, probably from doing chores.
As for her once bright red hair, it looked dull and messy now, like it hadn't been washed properly.
Clearly, she wasn't living as well as she claimed.
"So what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.
This was the Hokage building exit. She couldn't be working inside, right?
"Oh, right! I'm delivering food. I need to hurry back after this or the boss will dock my pay again!"
Karin said this while running off in a hurry, but then suddenly stopped and came back, her face red and a little nervous as she asked, "Um... can I ask where you live? I don't mean anything weird... I just made a little money recently and wanted to treat you to a meal~"
Looking at Karin in front of him, Naruto was silent for a moment before saying, "If you want to treat me to a meal, then let's do it now."
"Huh? Now? But I still have to work… maybe… in a few days, when I have time, I'll come find you?" Karin said in a flustered voice.
"Now. I don't have that much time." Naruto spoke with no expression and walked straight toward the direction Karin had just come from.
Seeing this, Karin had no choice but to hurry after him.
"But Naruto, I…"
"You haven't been doing well, have you?"
That one line from Naruto made Karin, who had been trying to make excuses, freeze. A moment later, she lowered her head with a defeated look. "I'm sorry, I lied to you."
"The truth?" Naruto asked.
"The truth… the truth is…"
Just as Karin was about to explain, a frying spatula suddenly came flying over and hit her hard on the head.
"Ahh!"
She clutched her head and fell to the ground.
Then, a fat and ugly woman walked out of a restaurant with another spatula in hand, cursing, "You worthless girl, where did you run off to? I told you to deliver food, and you take this long?!"
Naruto frowned slightly, his eyes cold as he looked at the fat woman.
The woman was startled by Naruto's gaze and instinctively took a step back, but then, embarrassed and angry, she snapped, "What are you looking at? Trying to stick up for this outsider? Filthy brat, no mother taught you manners, just because you have a pair of eyes you think you can glare at people? Go on then, glare at me again!"
The moment those words left her mouth, Naruto's eyes shot out a beam of light that instantly burned her into two halves.
"See? You asked me to glare at you, and now you're unhappy about it." Naruto muttered, looking at her two halves, her face still frozen in anger.
"You… you killed her?" Karin's eyes widened in disbelief, clearly not expecting Naruto to do something like that.
Naruto looked at Karin. "She told me to glare at her. I only did that. So I didn't kill her, I just fulfilled her little last wish."
"…"
That… actually makes sense. I can't even argue with it.
"But won't this get you in trouble?"
Karin looked around.
This wasn't a busy street, and it wasn't a peak hour either, but there were still some people passing by.
Strangely though, they acted as if nothing had happened, just walking straight past.
"I cast a genjutsu. No one will know."
Naruto said, then used the same beam of light to erase the body completely, leaving no trace of the woman behind.
"Come on, treat me to dinner. I'm hungry."
"Ah… okay!"
Half an hour later.
"Didn't you say you'd treat me? You only have this much money?"
Looking at the crumpled hundred ryō note Karin handed to pay the bill, Naruto was speechless.
"S-sorry…"
Karin's face turned red, and she lowered her head, whispering, "I'll work at this shop to pay off the rest, it's fine. You can go ahead first."
Naruto rolled his eyes, paid the bill himself, and walked out.
"Follow me."
His tone left no room for refusal. Since the bill was already taken care of, Karin could only follow behind him in shame.
"You came into a barbecue shop with no money? Were you already planning to work here to pay the debt?" Naruto asked as they walked.
"Mm…"
Karin answered in a small voice. "I was planning to find another job anyway, so…"
"…."
"You've been in Konoha for a few months now, right? How do you only have a hundred ryō?" Naruto asked in confusion.
"I… I don't have official papers in Konoha. After the Chunin Exams, Konoha was on lockdown. I didn't dare get checked, so I could only work at that restaurant secretly," Karin said in a low voice.
As a former Kusagakure ninja, if she was caught during the lockdown, at best she'd be expelled, at worst she'd be treated as a spy and dragged off by Anbu for interrogation!
She couldn't risk exposing herself.
But with her face being so easy to read, the boss had noticed something was off. Using that as leverage, he threatened her, leaving her no choice but to give in.
Now that the boss was dead, she no longer had that burden.
After a short silence, Naruto asked, "Where do you live?"
"I…"
Karin didn't dare to answer. It was obvious she didn't really have a place to stay.
Maybe she had been living under a bridge, or even up in a tree.
Naruto never thought a ninja like Karin would be living this badly. That fat woman really let her off too easy by just killing her!
It wasn't that he pitied Karin—he just really hated that kind of fat woman!
"You can stay at my place for now."
"Huh? No… that doesn't feel right, does it?"
"If you think it's not right, then forget I said anything."
"…I suddenly think it's pretty fine, hehe~"
"Don't get any ideas. I'll sleep on the bed, you'll sleep on the floor."
As he said that, Naruto led her into a maid… no, a women's clothing store.
"Why are we here?"
"To buy clothes."
"This…"
"Stop talking nonsense, just pick something."
"Uh~"
Karin looked like a scared little rabbit. She carefully glanced at Naruto, then followed the clerk to pick out clothes.
After a while, she ended up buying the cheapest set.
Naruto didn't care if it looked good on her or if it was comfortable. He gave her the choice, and whether it looked good or not, whether it felt comfortable or not—that was her own decision.
"Take two sets. Pay for them!"
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