[Karin]
It's a warm morning like any other in the land of fire, and the sound of a wagon's wheels seems to awaken one of its occupants.
Karin, the girl kidnapped no more than half a day ago, wakes from her deep sleep, curled up in blankets inside the wagon. Her glasses are misplaced, her hair disheveled, and a trace of saliva can be seen at the corner of her mouth.
The girl seems not to notice at first what is happening around her, simply observing the other passenger in the cart, a young woman much older than her, also sitting in the cart and whose strange gaze seems lost in the horizon.
"Are you awake, Karin-chan?" The young woman asks, causing Karin to realize that she is no longer in her home and perhaps not in the village either.
"Where am I? Who are you?" the girl asks, after almost jumping up from her position and standing on guard against the young woman.
"I'm the one who got you out of that horrible place" the young woman answers, still staring at the horizon.
"I don't know what you're talking about" Karin says, quite nervous.
"Don't worry, Karin-chan. We know what you were going through. The man driving the cart is an acquaintance of your mother, and he came to help you"
Karin is surprised by the young woman's words, as she notices a man driving the wagon, his back to her. "Really?"
"To say I knew her is perhaps too much. I don't even know her name, but the truth is that she once saved my life when she found me dying a long time ago. I immediately knew she was a special woman, and I assume you are too, but at the time I didn't have the strength to protect her and return the favor. That has changed now, but unfortunately a little too late" the man says, maintaining the wagon's slow pace.
The man's words hit the girl hard, who never imagined that someone would remember her mother and be willing to help her. Tears stream down Karin's face as she collapses back into the wagon. "She died a year ago, and I've been alone ever since"
"It's okay, Karin-chan. Master is a good man. He'll take care of you like he did with me. By the way, my name is Suki" the young woman says, after hugging Karin, who lets all her emotions spill out.
The girl's crying lasts for several minutes, partly muffled by the sound of the wheels crossing the road.
"Are you an orphan too?" the girl asks, once she's calmed down enough.
"I've been here much longer than you, but the teacher took me in when I was around your age" Suki answers, never meeting Karin's eyes.
"Is something wrong, onee-san? Your eyes?" the girl asks, also noticing that Suki's eyes have a strange whitish tint.
"I've been blind, my dear, all my life" Suki replies with a smile.
Karin is surprised and immediately remembers that it was Suki who brought her out of the village. "But... How did you bring me out of the village?"
"Because I'm a super warrior, ruler of the night and the mist" Suki says extravagantly, waving her hands and casting a heroic gaze toward the horizon. Then she ends up laughing.
The girl simply smiles, not knowing what to believe. "Really?"
"Something like that" This time, Suki's voice is serious. "Even though the master planned everything, he's the one who's truly powerful"
"Like ninjas?"
"Very similar, but we're much, much, much more dangerous" Suki comments with a grimace.
"Why?"
"Because no one expects anything from us. The master has almost no chakra, and I'm blind. Do you think a ninja would fear us in any way?"
Karin thinks for a moment and begins to look at the two in detail: a seemingly simple man, who doesn't emanate even a hint of the power that the ninjas of her village emitted, and a seemingly fragile young woman, who isn't yet an adult and is also blind. "Not at all"
"Exactly, we're invisible, that's what makes us dangerous"
"So the fog…"
Before the girl can continue delving into the details of last night, the man interrupts her -Karin, the first thing you need to learn from us is that we don't talk about our secrets in public, because even if you don't believe it, sometimes there are ears where you don't even imagine there are any. Second, you're familiar with how the ninja world works, so you have to understand that knowing too much can sometimes be a curse in certain circumstances. In due time, I'll tell you what you need to know. For now, what matters to you is that we'll take care of you and give you the life and home your mother would have wanted you to have-
The little girl pauses for a moment, still in Suki's arms, who gently strokes her head. Then she simply smiles, adjusts her glasses with one hand, and stares up at the sunny sky, which, for once in a long time, seems warmer than ever.
…
[Touki]
For Touki, Karin's infiltration and extraction from Kusagakure was the most incredible success he could have imagined. In the first place, it should never have been so easy to fill a village with fog without the authorities being able to do anything about it, as the operation was carried out as a test, and only four fog generators, poorly synchronized by timers, were used.
But the village was powerless to prevent the fog from reaching even their headquarters. The generators were designed to run until they self-destructed from overheating, but they still pumped out fog for nearly five hours, leaving much of the village defenseless, so Touki improvised all subsequent actions.
The explosions were merely a means of distraction, where prototype bombs constructed from small, hollow metal spheres were used, using a program designed to concentrate electrical and fire energy until the material could no longer hold and unleash its energy violently. These bombs were never tested, and Touki only had four, including one made from a chakra metal alloy, but he didn't hesitate to use them on the outskirts of the village, yielding quite promising results, considering the sound they emitted from miles away.
In the end, the rescue only considered the not insignificant difficulty of having to navigate the village almost blindly, with Suki being the only one able to see, but Touki the only one who knew where Karin was.
If Touki had to give the operation a rating, it would be 7 out of 10, because even though everything went well, luck and improvisation were huge factors.
According to Touki, it was time to end the long adventure that began more than six years ago and return to Konohagakure, since he was tired of hiding and there were many things he needed to check.
But first and foremost, Touki had to do something about Karin, as the girl was the clear image of a member of the Uzumaki clan, and he highly doubted anyone wouldn't notice. So the first thing he did was get some dye in one of the towns he passed through and dyed Karin's hair and eyebrows blonde, so no one would notice her ancestry. He also changed Karin's last name to Ichizen, to pass her off as his little sister.
Karin wasn't too keen on the name and image change, but with the understanding that they would look like a real family and that Kusagakure wouldn't be able to track her down easily, she reluctantly agreed.
They arrived in Konoha in early July and stayed in Touki's old house, which luckily was still standing, but unfortunately was too small for three people to live comfortably and with privacy, so Touki decided to look for a house within the village that met the characteristics he needed.
It took Touki a while to find what he was looking for in the village, as he also had to register Suki's identity and create a new one for Karin, nothing that money and a little patience can't accomplish. Touki was also able to verify at his bank branch in the village that his account had continued to grow over time, so money won't be a problem from now on.
Feeling much more confident, instead of a house, Touki decided to go for something a little bigger and more practical from the start. So, scanning the shopping district, he came across a promising two-story building next to several restaurants. Touki remembered how happy Suki was working at the candy store, so he thought it might not be a bad idea to open something similar, as a source of income and a front to avoid raising suspicions.
The man didn't hesitate too long and bought what had once been a general merchandise store, with a large living room, storage rooms, a basement, and four bedrooms on the second floor, plus three bathrooms in total. Remodeling was necessary, as was replacing much of the furniture in the living area, but the contractors he hired took only two weeks to complete the work that would have taken months in his old world.
Touki couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself, of how far he's come in this world and of his current ability to at least defend himself. The future is still quite uncertain, but at least there are the tools to fight it.
Touki and his two "sisters" moved into the village in September, and to Touki's surprise, just a block away, he noticed a peculiar ramen shop named Ichiraku. At first, the name didn't ring a bell, but when he decided to try the food with Suki and Karin, he immediately recognized the manager and his daughter.
'What a small world' the man thought, as certain ideas began to form in his head.