Naruto: I'm Just a Younger Brother

Kushina looked at Karin's red hair and sensed the Chakra within her, deciding that this child was probably a member of her clan.

No. 001 gently pushed the timid Karin, who was clutching the corner of his clothes, forward. "Don't be afraid. Everyone in this room is family. Tell us about yourself. How did you end up in Kusagakure? Were you treated well there?"

Jiraiya smiled happily when he heard Naruto classify him as family.

Kushina looked at Karin with concern. "That's right. I might even be your aunt!"

Karin had not been cared for like this in a very long time. So she slowly told them everything—when she was very young, she had wandered around with her mother. Her mother had told her that their hometown had been occupied by bad people.

They wandered into the Land of Grass and were taken in by Kusagakure. But outsiders like them would not be fed for nothing. They were barely assigned a place to live, and even finding enough food was a problem.

Then one day, the Grass Ninja discovered Karin's mother's special ability—so long as someone bit her and absorbed her Chakra, even severely wounded patients deemed beyond treatment could quickly recover.

From that day on, her mother often went to the hospital to help in exchange for food. And from that day on, no matter how hot the weather was, her mother never wore short sleeves at home again.

Little Karin had always thought her mother was simply working an ordinary job. This went on for a long time. One day, Karin waited at home as usual for her mother to return, but all that came back was a cold corpse. She saw her mother's arm hanging down from the bed, covered in bite marks.

Karin cried. She was terrified, but the Grass Ninja did not spare her. They took her to the hospital as well, and unfortunately, Karin possessed the same ability as her mother.

So Karin fell into the same fate as her mother. Day after day, she was bitten by different people in turn to heal their injuries. Even while asleep, she worried that someone might suddenly carry her to the hospital. It was as though this had been the meaning of her birth.

That was what the Grass Ninja said too. You mother and daughter were nothing but outsiders. The village had fed you for so long, so shouldn't you give something in return?

Now, Karin's arms, shoulders, and legs were covered in dense bite marks.

Karin was terrified because her mother's miserable appearance was still vivid in her mind. She did not know when she too would die such a miserable death. She hated her own ability beyond measure.

As she spoke of these things, Karin's shoulders trembled, and she was already sobbing too hard to continue.

Jiraiya silently stared out the window. He had seen many tragic things, but to do this to a child... Kusagakure...

Minato clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Tears glimmered in Kushina's eyes. She understood the confusion and helplessness of being stranded in a foreign land. As a child, she had also endured the heart-rending pain of having the Nine Tails sealed inside her. But she had long since found a home and gained the strength to protect herself. This child, however...

Kushina wrapped Karin in her arms and comforted her. "Good girl, from now on, I'm your mother, and you're my daughter. No one will ever dare bully you again!"

Karin feared the Grass Ninja to her very bones. "But if they come looking for me again..."

"They wouldn't dare!" Kushina's red hair flew wildly. "I was planning to settle the score with them anyway! If they dare say one more word, I'll smash their Dog Heads!"

"I'll deal with Kusagakure. Don't worry. You're my daughter now too, and your dad is the Hokage," Minato said with a reassuring smile.

Looking at Kushina's flowing red hair and Minato's warm smile, Karin was suddenly filled with an incomparable sense of safety. She threw herself into Kushina's arms. "Mom—Waaaaah!"

Karin cried her heart out, as if she wanted to release all the grievance, pain, sorrow, and fear she had suffered over the years in one burst.

Kushina simply held her with one arm while gently stroking her vivid red hair, so much like her own, with the other.

Time seemed to pass for a long while. Only after Karin's voice had grown hoarse did she slowly calm down, her cries fading into soft sobs.

No. 001 looked at the calmer Karin and asked Minato, "Old Dad, do you know how many Grass Ninja made it into the second round?"

Looking at the report Ibiki had submitted, Minato said, "Including Karin, there are nine in total."

"That means there are still six left."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Collect a little interest, of course. My little sister was bullied. How could I, as her older brother, not make even the slightest gesture?"

However, Minato pulled Karin's file from the contestant information submitted by Kusagakure. "But according to this file, Karin is older than you, Naruto."

"Huh?" No. 001 froze on the spot. "So I'm just a younger brother?"

"There's one more thing." Minato deliberately tried to ease the mood as he pulled out another report. "Care to explain why you got a zero on the written test?"

"Ah, well—"

Seeing that Karin had calmed down, Kushina egged No. 001 on. "You actually got a zero, Naruto. Call Karin big sister, and for Karin's sake, I might let you off. Otherwise..."

Well, this... No. 001 looked at Karin, who had wiped away her tears and put her glasses back on, then reluctantly opened his mouth. "Big... Sis..."

"Mm. Please take care of me, little brother who got a zero," Karin replied with feigned seriousness. Then, seeing No. 001's conflicted expression, she burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha..." Everyone in the room laughed along. Only Naruto's wounded world had been achieved.

"Then I'll be going first. I need to send a message to the original body." No. 001 suddenly saw the bright side. He was just a clone, after all. Better let the original body be embarrassed instead. Then he decisively dispelled himself.

The clone's memories returned. About an hour had passed.

Along the way, Naruto and the others defeated a group of nameless Rain Ninja and Hidden Waterfall Ninja, dealt with a tiger and a bear along the way, and continued onward.

After just lecturing Sasuke with the famous saying, "Set the mountain on fire, and you'll spend the rest of your life in prison," Naruto suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky.

"So am I fated to be a younger brother?"

Kimimaro was one thing, but even Sasuke was older than him. And now Karin had shown up, and she was older than him too.

Naruto felt that when he was three, he had merely made an offhand joke. Give me a younger brother to bully, or a younger sister to spoil would be nice too...

Seeing Naruto's ever-changing expression, Sasuke asked, "What's wrong?"

Sakura stopped as well. "Did you sense an enemy?"

"No." Naruto gathered his thoughts and said viciously, "I'm going to stir up trouble!"