A.N.- I don't know if Karin is a missing nin, I just thought it fit. I'm seriously out of practice with writing fics, but I think this one came out half decent. So yeah…whatever. Spread the love. 3
"What are you thinking about?" Suigetsu shifted on the ledge next to her as they stared out over the valley spread out below them. It was another one of those rare moments where they weren't fighting, but they were become less rare as time wore on.
Karin sighed. "What do you think would happen if I just left?" The sun flashed off her glasses and lit her flaming hair and Suigetsu felt his heart flip. He hated that she could do that to him; and she didn't even know it.
"You mean left Taka?" Suigetsu snorted. "Knowing Sasuke he'd hunt you down and kill you." Karin stared forlornly out over the land. That's what she was afraid of.
Suigetsu watched her quietly. He'd learned to read her expressions over time, read her body language and gauge her moods in a way the others couldn't. He'd watched her slowly withdraw into herself over the past few weeks. She'd stare out into the distance more often and fall into lapses of silence that bothered him. Being with Taka was slowly killing it; it was suffocating her soul and he hated standing by and watching it happen.
"Why don't you just leave?" It came out more accusatory than he'd intended. He just wanted her to be happy. Karin turned him, her eyes searching his, but for what he didn't know.
"And where would I go?" she asked.
"Anywhere!" Just get away from here.
Karin shook her head sadly. "And what would I do Suigetsu? I'm a missing nin because it's what I'm good at. I don't know how to do anything else."
"Liar." Suigetsu pursed his lips and glared at her. "I've seen you scratching in the dirt. Why don't you just get a pen and some paper like everyone else and be an artist or something?" Karin laughed, a bitter, broken sound that made his heart ache.
"Yeah, that'd be great wouldn't it? Missing nin turned artist. And tell me Mr. Bright Ideas, who would take me in? No village would want me and no one would dare to take me in."
"So go somewhere else. There's a whole world out there Karin, beyond the hidden villages. You could go anywhere. Start over. Be somebody else."
She shook her head again. "I'd be hunted from the rest of my life."
"Like you are now." It wasn't a question. "We're already being hunted and we will be until we're dead."
"But at least I'd have purpose. At least I'd have a reason for living. Without Sasuke what am I?" She shook her head again, fear alighting in her eyes like a bird on a dying branch. "I can't live like that."
Suigetsu stared at her. "And if following Sasuke gets you killed?" His voice was cold.
Karin shrugged. "Then at least I had purpose." The sun had set and Karin rubbed at her arms, the chill finally getting to her. She rose to her feet and headed through the darkness. "I'll see you back at camp."
Suigetsu watched her leave, a longing filling his heart. "You could have purpose with me."