Wrote this quite a while ago, thought it was about time to post it. I actually have a considerable number of SasuKarin drabbles and short oneshots, sometimes just moments between them that I've been thinking of posting as a drabble collection. This might as well become it, but I'm not sure yet.

Please don't hesitate to review and tell me if you are interested in reading more pieces like this. I'm really interested in reading your feedback. The title is also tentative, since I'm not quite sure I'll make this a drabble series or not.

But, NO. FLAMES. ABOUT. SASUKARIN.

That was for the flamers. Now, people who can actually express their opinions rationally and have something constructive in them, are more than welcomed. Though I really, really do not care to hear about why someone doesn't like SasuKarin, but the point stands.

And of course, this scene takes place when Sasuke arrives to Konoha [whenever that might be], somewhere after chapter 431. So, spoilers ahead.

Something beautiful, among the broken

By: Kanae

His command had been simple enough.

"Split."

The action that followed was simple enough as well.

"You come with me."

Karin blinked. Taken aback, she fought down the blush that threatened to spread across her cheeks and clung to the surprise instead as she stared at the hand firmly grasping her wrist.

"Why?"

She had asked, curious. Sasuke turned, starting to walk forward.

"We'll watch each other's back."

After a beat, Karin started to follow after him.

Among the chaos, Sasuke lead the way; walking tall and unperturbed a blink of a step ahead of her. But truthfully, it was Karin the one that directed them, much like the conductor of an orchestra; telling what roads should be taken and what corners to avoid.

Absentmindedly, she was aware of the sensitive skin of her wrist tingling where his fingers had lingered; heat emanating from it and expanding through her arms toward her upper body.

The sensation reminded her of the conflicting emotions on her heart and the confusing thoughts in her mind as she walked forward, but she forced herself to shut them out and focus on the hundreds of different chakra signatures moving frantically around them instead. This was not the right time, nor the right place to consider such thoughts or dwell on such feelings; later—later she'd have enough time to think things through, and depending on the conclusions she reached, she'd speak her mind to Sasuke.

But for now—for now she had work to do.

"The street ahead is crowed. I can also detect some of the people that were in the group tracking us back in that forest. What now?"

Sasuke gave her a sideways glance. Their shoulders touched as he halted.

"We take a detour."

Said detour had consisted of jumping onto the nearest building and going the opposite direction; rounding two rights, one left and going forward for a minute or two. The more they moved in that direction, wherever it was they were headed to—the farther they left the mixing chakra signatures and the closer they became to be almost alone.

Almost, because Karin would still feel everything around them. The chaos could be heard, as well.

Regardless, when they suddenly stop and Sasuke stands still for a long moment, Karin decides to ignore the rest of the world.

"What is it, Sasuke?"

He doesn't answer immediately; instead looks up toward the sign hanging above the closed entrance of the street they were standing in front of. Karin imitates his action, and with slight surprise recognizes the symbol of the Uchiha clan right atop of it.

The realization makes her rephrase her question.

"Where are we, Sasuke?"

This time, his answer reaches her at the same time he gives an step forward.

"…My home." Karin watches as he cuts through the ropes forsaking the entrance with a single swing of his sword, "…What used to be my home."

As she steps inside, it's as if a freezing veil of water had been wrapped around her; it's ridiculous, she thinks, how she has a hard time breathing and has to struggle to do so as they make their way along the empty streets. The signs of destruction and broken pieces of what used to be happy memories still being all too visible, all too easy to feel.

For a moment, Karin wondered—if this is hard for me, then just how hard must it be for Sasuke?—quietly, in the confines of her mind. She knew better than to voice her thoughts aloud; if he felt the need to do so, he'd speak by himself. There was no point in pressuring him in things he wished to ignore. Things he wished to pretend he was unaware of.

Karin understood that. She understood it well.

So she simply skipped one step and stood tall by Sasuke's side; subtly leaned toward him. Their fingers brushed as they walked.

Sasuke didn't move away. Neither did Karin.

"My Clan," Sasuke says all of a sudden, out of nowhere as they round a corner, and Karin stops trying to discern just how big the house they were heading to was and signals that she is listening instead. "Used to be the Police force of Konoha. They were a very strong clan, well-known and respected on the outside; and in the inside, they were hard-workers. Everyone knew each other, they were all close."

A pause. Something foreign is mixed and added to his walk.

"My brother and I were the only children of the head of the Clan. Everyone was always on the lookout for us; gave us all the help we needed, and in return, expected great things from us both. Especially from my brother, who was a genius."

"Just like you."

"I wanted," continues Sasuke, not paying heed to Karin's unexpected interruption. "To be just like him. Just like my brother; more than my father, my brother was the role model. He was everything I wanted to be, everything I wanted to surpass. I lived for the sole purpose of becoming greater than him in every possible way."

They enter the house. It's not hard for Karin to figure out this was the place where Sasuke used to live; for a moment, she thinks she can picture him running around the empty halls, a smile on his face, laughter in his eyes.

But then she is reminded of the lost, little boy standing close to her and she decides there was no use picturing things that could never be again.

There was no point in mourning over spilled water. That, she knew well.

"One day," they stop in front of a very large room. The black doors hiding the contents from curious eyes opened with a loud creak as Sasuke slowly parted them. She can't help the widening of her eyes as she notices the fading blood stains on the floor. "I came back late, only to find everyone slaughtered on the streets. I arrived here just in time to see my brother killing my father. My mom was already dead."

Sasuke makes as pause, as if waiting for her to say something.

Karin remains silent.

There was nothing that could have been said.

"Afterward—afterward my purpose in life wasn't just to surpass my brother; but to kill him. Kill him and avenge my Clan. Avenge the blood he had spilled."

"…Even then," Karin says; more a statement than a question. "You loved him, didn't you?"

Sasuke looks at her for a long moment before closing his eyes. He walks forward, stands on the center of the room. The fading drawings of fallen loved ones clearly visible under his feet.

Karin finds the scene beautiful. Tragic, but beautiful.

"… He had lied to me all along. I grew up in a lie; every smile, every caress, every word had been a very intricate deceit that Itachi had planned from the start. I hated him; I despised him with every fiber of my being—

"—And I despised him even more because my love for him was as great as my hate was."

His admission is silent; haunted. And Karin realizes that this was probably the first time Sasuke had ever said this to anyone. Perhaps even, the first time he had been this honest with himself.

She resists the urge to step closer to him; her inward battle doesn't last long, for Sasuke turns around and his eyes meet hers.

The breath gets caught in her throat as she sees the emotions swirling behind those endless pools of black, but she tries to remain unaffected on the outside.

"And now, now I know that what I was fooled to believe was a lie was the truth. And what I clung to as the truth was nothing but a cruel, white lie. Safe, but cruel none the less. Just like this place." He looks around, past the walls and into things and memories and feelings that Karin cannot see.

"…It makes you feel safe, by locking you up inside its four walls. But the truth is, once you get out from them and see the outside world for yourself, the reality is more painful. And you realize that you were being lead on all along. And there's nothing left to do but to hate the people, the place that was fucking you up.

"…Do you understand now, Karin?" He asks her, as his eyes fall on hers again. "Do you understand now, why I wish to destroy this place? Why I want them to taste at least an ounce of the pain I've been feeling all along?"

"Do you understand, Karin?"

Do you understand me? Do you think I'm right? Can you justify me and dissipate any doubt I might have?

The underlying meaning behind his words doesn't pass unnoticed, and lingers between them alongside the silence of the room in the long moment that Karin takes to search his eyes. To search his eyes and harden her own with the answer—the only answer she could have ever given him.

"Yes."

There's something old and dark that leaves his eyes and something new that shines in them in the moment he hears her words, but it's gone as he blinks and nods at her.

"Then let's go. We've detoured for long enough."

"Just where are we heading to, Sasuke?"

Karin asks, realizing that even though she's as aware as always of her surroundings and is jumping fast through the rooftops, she has yet to hear what their destination is.

"The Hokage's tower."

She blinks, arching one eyebrow and giving him a questioning glance that he doesn't bother to answer.

"Do you really think those old hags will be there? The towers are always the first thing to be targeted, they should have evacuated already."

"They will be there," Sasuke states, with a security strong as steel. "They're senile, selfish, careless, vain and conceited; they won't leave their little home. It would be like a loss for them. And they are nothing without the supposed power they have."

"…But that's okay, it just makes things easier for us."

She couldn't see his eyes, but she didn't need to; she was sure they had narrowed as his voice darkened.

"…I'll make them pay."

Karin said nothing.

They had moved through the obstacles as if they weren't there at all; Sasuke had no time to waste, and had ignored everyone—even those who fought hard not to be ignored, like the pink-haired girl fighting to gain time as the blonde one fought for all their lives—and had reached his destination.

He had been right. The elders were there.

Once again, Karin remained silent as Sasuke smirked; a predator's smirk. Aggressive. Intimidating. Lethal.

"I've found you."

People were yelling around her; demanding, begging Sasuke to stop. But as he stood there, the old man's neck held in a deadly grip as the other two elders watched in quiet horror, it was as if they weren't there at all.

The noises shot up drastically as he drew his sword, but Karin did not join them. She just waited, stared on and waited for something—for a sign to tell her what she should or shouldn't do.

The sign arrived in the form of a split second hesitation of Sasuke's wrist as the sword descended towards the old man's neck. The hesitation had been brief and barely noticeable; but for Karin, for Karin it had meant all the difference in the world.

It had been all she had been waiting for. What she had been expecting from the start.

So she spoke; spoke in a voice that should have been impossible to hear among the desperate screams but that he heard either way.

"That's enough, Sasuke."

The air around her seemed to halt at the same time he did; she could feel the relieved breaths on her neck, the shocked stares on her back—but her eyes never left the back of Sasuke's head.

"That's enough, Sasuke."

She repeated less loudly, but just as sternly. Just as commanding.

Red met crimson.

His eyes were deadly enough without adding his tone of voice; regardless, Karin doesn't back down. She stands tall, proud, and angry.

"Leave it already. You've done enough."

The tomoe of his sharingan swirl dangerously.

"Enough, you say?" and his voice is as lethal as his stare. As the sword he still held at a breath's distance of the man's neck. "How can it be enough when these monsters are still alive?"

Karin's eyes narrow. "Look around you. Is this really not enough?"

"What is this about, Karin?" he asks, with indignant disbelief. "I wasn't aware you cared about sparing people's lives."

"I don't," Karin says, brutally honestly. "But you do."

There's a slight widen of his eyes as her words make it through to him; but he narrows them again in a split second. "… I thought you understood me. I thought you supported my goals."

"And I do understand. But open your eyes, Sasuke!" Karin suddenly explodes , her arms uncrossing as emotion took over her careless façade. "Do you really think you'll be able to live with yourself if you kill this man right now? No matter how much you hate him, you don't kill people. That's just not like you!"

"This is different!"

He snaps back without missing a beat. But Karin wouldn't have it.

"How come? Blood is blood. Taking a life is committing the same sin regardless of whose it was. If you do this right now, Sasuke, you won't be able to live with yourself." She makes a pause, hardens her gaze and narrows her eyes, "You and I both know it."

Sasuke averts his eyes, remains silent and Karin finds herself holding her breath against her better judgment.

And then Sasuke turns his back on her and faces the elders again. And the breath Karin had been holding is let free in the form of a tired sigh.

"Then this is as far as I'll go."

Sasuke's shoulders tense as his eyes widen with disbelief; he turns toward her so fast that the sword drops a quarter of an inch and makes the old man hold his breath in fright.

"…What are you saying, Karin?"

"What you heard. If you don't stop this nonsense right now, I'll leave." There's no space for doubt or hesitation in her voice or stance; she means what she's saying. "Even if it's empty, the southern base is still my home. I could find a way to get is back to how it used to be."

"… You wouldn't."

She almost snorts, amused. "Oh, you bet I would." But the amusement behind her eyes dies as she gets serious once again. "I joined this team for you, Sasuke. If you could truly deal with it, I myself would help you slaughter as many cities as you wished; but you can't. And I prefer to go my own way before having a part in how you destroy yourself."

It was an important admittance; much more for her, the kind of girl who hated to wear her emotions on her sleeve and hides behind a façade of rough indifference. Confess, directly or indirectly, so openly and with her own words just how much she cares was a new low for her.

Sasuke seemed to be aware of that, because his expression and eyes are open enough to allow her to read him. So that when he averts them and stares thoughtfully at the floor, Karin already has an idea of what was going through his mind; she allows herself to relax her tensed body.

Her lips start to curve upward in a smile the moment Sasuke's sword is lowered.

"…I understand."

He says, his voice devoid of emotions and his face of feeling as he looks down at the small and insignificant man in front of him. "These people aren't worth me dirtying my hands for them."

Behind him, Karin's smile turns into a smirk.

As if feeling her, he turns around. His eyes met hers only when he's standing right in front of her, their bodies so close that they were almost touching.

"Let's go, Karin. Let's find Suigetsu and Juugo and get out of here."

There are whispers of surprise around them, and Karin tries to hide the pride and adoration behind her smile but fails miserably; they come out twisted, and the tug in her smile is somewhat crooked. But Sasuke knows that she means it more than she means any of those cutting words and conflicting gestures she has ever given him before.

"Thought you'd never say it."

She says, and Sasuke finds himself returning her smile.

They leave the room, together.

Neither of them turns back.

end.

SasuKarin for the win. There's something about them and this weird and dysfunctional intimacy they share that entices me. They would be one hell of a pairing, in quite a lot of senses, which I'm more than willing and eager to explore in the next few pieces I'll hopefully get around to upload.

Forgot to say that english is not my native langue, so please point out any mistake!

Thank you for reading, and looking forward to hearing your rewiews.