What Do You Mean, Just Came Back to Life? Is That Even the Language of the Shinobi World?

Karin carefully pushed the door open.

Morning sunlight streamed into the room through the gap.

She tiptoed inside.

The covers on Naruto's bed were wrapped tightly around him, even covering his head.

Huh? Why did Naruto-kun sleep with his head covered this time?

Karin hesitated. What if lifting the covers woke Naruto up?

But she really missed him.

Aunt Kushina and Grandma Mito were both wonderful people, but Naruto was Naruto. He was different.

Though her mind hesitated, Karin's body kept moving.

She quietly approached "Naruto's" bedside.

Her fair, slender hand gently lifted a corner of the heavy covers.

"I missed you so much, Naruto-kun!"

Karin's whisper brimmed with the sweetness and eagerness of reunion. Her fiery red hair slipped over her shoulders as she leaned down, and her eyes behind her glasses curved into delighted crescents, fixed on the mound beneath the covers she believed to be the person she missed.

But the instant she saw what lay beneath the covers, her radiant smile stiffened and froze, little by little, like a spring flower struck by a cold snap.

There was no dazzling blond hair beneath the covers, nor the familiar, sunshine-filled presence of her "Naruto-kun."

Instead, there was an unfamiliar figure curled up asleep. It was a black-haired girl, sleeping soundly, her dark hair scattered across the pillow and setting off the pretty, pale half of her face that was exposed.

Seemingly disturbed by the sudden light and movement, she shifted unconsciously and mumbled:

"Mmm... Naruto Uzumaki, is it time for breakfast?"

Her voice was husky and drowsily sweet from just waking up. Clearly, she had mistaken the lifting of the covers for a certain person's wake-up call.

The voice stabbed into Karin's ears like an icy needle, jolting her out of her stunned disbelief and igniting a