Chapter 51.4- Gamer of the Desert

She’d told herself that it was impossible. That there was no way anyone would ever want her for who she was, rather than her ability. Kusa hadn’t. Orochimaru for sure, hadn’t. No one had. Not since her mother died, and not since Sasuke-kun saved her with no idea of her ability. Not until now at least. She’d thought it was a trick- some dsort of long con to get her to drop her guard and not watch out for what she was sure was coming. The whole thing about being family- she was sure it was a trick to get her to heal him.

And he sure did need healing. Nagato Uzumaki was sick. The only thing keeping him alive was the Uzumaki family vitality and his massive and dense chakra. The problem with that was that both things were too busy keeping him alive that they didn’t have the room to heal him. That was where she’d thought he would have expected her to step in and help him, but she had learnt that he actually didn’t seem to care about being healed. They’d spoken about her ability before. He knew about it for sure. He was also intelligent enough that she knew he’d have figured out that her ability could help him. There were few things she couldn’t heal. Whatever he’ done to himself wasn’t one of them. But even as they spoke about her ability, his interest was almost entirely academic. He was more concerned with using the ability to trace her family tree and figure out just what branch of the family she’d spawned from rather than worrying about using it to heal himself. Part of her wanted to ask, but she wasn’t sure she’d like the answer. That was what she told herself for years.

She looked across the library. There he was. Not in person, of course. In the form of one of his puppets- his paths. She’d deduced the jutsu a while ago. The chakra rods acted as receivers and transmitters across long distances. He sent chakra through the rods, and his puppets used that chakra to carry out his will. Said will was also transmitted with the chakra. He could also feel and see everything his puppets did. It was a much better technique than what Suna had, and this was a much better library and any one she’d ever been in. Nagato had told her that he had gathered the greatest collection of Uzumaki texts in the world, and she was beginning to believe him. Even Orochimaru hadn’t been able to get any scrolls on the adamantium sealing chains, an ancient technique of her clan and arguably the most powerful, but Nagato had nearly a dozen. She read them all- devoured them, really.

She could do it now, she felt. Focusing on her chakra for a few seconds was rewarded with a single glowing chain making its way from her back to wrap around her arm. She didn’t know any barrier techniques so the sections of the scrolls that went on about using the scrolls as an avenue for using fuinjutsu techniques like that didn’t really apply to her.

She stared at the chain. So focused on it, that she didn’t even notice the puppet move until it was right in front of her. She eeped and the chain disappeared into nothingness as the chakra maintaining it slipped past her guide. “Beautiful work, Karin” Nagato spoke through his puppet and she smiled at him. Maybe it was the joy at getting the technique down, or maybe her curiosity had finally gotten the better of her common sense but she turned to him and asked, “Why haven’t you asked me to heal you?” She asked. He stared at her with those ringed purple eyes of his. She could feel the weight of his gaze though the puppet.

“I don’t need you to” He finally replied, and if there was one response that threw her for a loop, it was that one.

“What do you mean? I’ve seen your real body, Nagato. Your chakra can only keep you alive for so long. You need a healthy body.” She retorted.

“Yes, at present rates, I will be dead in the next seven years. But that matters little. I would have achieved my goal by then” He said in reply.

“Surely, you can’t be serious.”

“I am”

And that was the end of the conversation.

XXXXXXX

It took her a week to find Konan, and gain the courage to speak with her. It had gone from a situation where she feared being used and wanted only for her ability, to realising that the one person who wanted her for her had a clock on his life, and she could help but he wouldn’t let her help. Part of her had wished that he’d turn out to be some sort of asshole or something. Something that would make this situation less scary. But he wasn’t. He was a visionary who saw the world in his own way. A man who wanted to build a world where suffering like what happened to her mother would not exist. A world of shared pain leading to shared understanding.

When she explained her worries, she hadn’t expected the infuriated look on the woman’s face. Hadn’t expected the woman to question her over and over again on whether she was sure she could heal him. And when the woman was satisfied, she collapsed in paper.

That night, she hadn’t seen any of Nagato’s paths around. She didn’t see Konan either. In fact, she saw neither of them for a week, until she was suddenly accosted on her way to the library. “Follow me. Nagato has seen the error of his ways” was all the woman had said.

That sentence brought no small amount of joy to Karin’s heart. They took the stairs down to the basement level, and there Nagato was. He looked even more tired than usual. In fact, he looked positively exhausted. When his eyes fell upon her, it was almost like he was looking through but not at her. She wondered what it was like. What she looked like through those eyes. The eyes of God.

“Help him, please” Konan asked, while Nagato remained silent.

Nevertheless, when she walked forwards and placed her wrist in front of his mouth, he obediently bit down. Almost immediately, she felt a drain she’d never felt before. But even as her head began to lighten, and her feet began to become unresponsive, she noted the changes that began in him. It started with his hair. Down from his roots, his hair darkened from the dead gray they’d previously been to the same blood red she’d shared with her mother. His body also changed, swelling and shifting. His thin frame filled out in no time.

When she felt his healing complete itself, she fell to the floor, exhausted. The voice that screamed her name was much stronger than it had ever been. She smiled, even as darkness encroached on her vision.

A/N; End of the chapter. Yeah, Nagato is getting a massive buff. He’s going to need it.