6.10.k

    Karin knew that participating in the chunin exam in Konohagakure was a terrible idea. The team she was forced onto was wholly unprepared, and the higher-ups in Kusagakure somehow believed that because she could heal her teammates, they were qualified to compete against the geniuses of the bigger villages.

    Case in point: she was the only survivor of her team after they entered that damnable forest. Karin should have, by all accounts, died as well. She remembered the bear and trying to fight it. She remembered the claws that should have taken her eye. She remembered the pain and the teeth. Then she woke up in the hospital with a scar to remind her that it hadn’t been a dream.

    Karin considered if she should just flee. The life of a missing-nin looked more appealing than the forced servitude her own life was. She looked down on her arms and the many bite marks from abusing her healing ability. The jounins in her village knew she risked her own life every time they overused her lifeforce. Karin’s mother was proof of that. Kusagakure’s ninjas didn’t care. Every time a battle broke out, she was dragged to the battlefield.

    The same day she woke up in that hospital, Zosui took her away from Konohagakure and back to her village.

    Her life of enslavement continued, day after day, week after week, until, once again, she was taken to the battlefield to heal injured ninjas. Or that was what should have happened.

    Days away from Kusagakure and preparing for the confrontation, Zosui commandeered the village’s elders’ house for the night for him and his squad. Karin got the cellar treatment. Locked in the damp underground with no hope of escaping. That same night, Karin sensed a large group of shinobi approaching. She found a dank and dark place and hid. For two days, she waited alone in the dark.

    The skirmish lasted all night and all day. In the chaos, no one came to find her in the dark cellar. Karin escaped into daylight again once she couldn’t feel anyone outside anymore.

    The village had been razed, and her minder was nowhere in sight. Hopeful for the first time in her short life, Karin ran, but not for long. Not two days passed, and she was accosted by two shinobi who recognized her cursed lineage.

    Karin tried to put up a fight, but they were stronger. She blacked out after a well-placed kick to the head. The next time she woke up, she was somewhere underground, surrounded by shinobi. Strong shinobi with bitter and rotten chakra.

    The whole situation was more than disheartening. Karin was ready to give up. Why keep struggling when, at every turn, things become even worse? Fate, however, didn’t seem keen on letting her go.

    Karin stared for a few uncomprehending seconds before the yells of the other prisoners woke her from her surprise. She tried the keys and managed to open her cell on the second try. She pushed the door open, and as much as she wanted to help the dying girl, she needed to do something else first. She ran toward the nearest cell—it was the older teen''s.

    “Here!” Karin yelled, thrusting the bundle of keys at the boy.

    The decision to save the dying shinobi wasn’t wholly altruistic. If injured and unarmed this ninja managed to kill most of the jailers, saving her life would also improve Karin''s chances of surviving this whole fiasco. Now, she just needed to wake up a half-dead shinobi and make that person bite her arm.

    From the moment she decided to heal Hinata, Karin never would have imagined she’d now be in some godforsaken cave, staring down a mountain-sized honey badger, while Hinata screamed herself hoarse.

    Karin was petrified. All at once she wanted to help Hinata, run and hide, scream hysterically, but she ended up doing nothing. That massive, triangular face and beady eyes kept her rooted in place. Worse, that wasn’t the only one. All around, the cave had come to life. She heard grunting, rustling, growling, and chattering.

    Another hoarse groan from Hinata broke the standoff. Karin flinched. Looked at the contorting girl at her feet. She didn’t dare to move more than that, however.

    A rumbling, deep voice cut through her panic. “Tend to your companion, unworthy one.” The voice from the massive badger resounded in her whole body. “We can decide what to do with you once the heretical summoner isn’t about to die.”

    Karin stared at the massive animal before her, still frozen stiff.

    “Or you can let her die.” The voice rumbled, amused. All around, the tittering and chattering grew. “It’s been a while since our little cubs ate an unworthy one.”

    Karin whirled and dropped to her knees. She pulled her sleeves up on the arm that wasn’t bandaged. Not enough time had passed since she last let Hinata drain her life force, which would probably mean another set of scars. These, at least, were her choice. The big one behind needn’t threaten her into helping. She wasn’t about to let Hinata die.