... i really like sasukarin.

anyway. i started writing this back when it first came ou that karin's an uzumaki, and thankfully it got me back to writing them! i feel like this is one of my best works for them as of late. either way, i like it. also chess metaphors. yyeeaahh. feel like it might be a little bit of a pwp just cause i really wanted to write them interacting again. alas.

When Sasuke is captured and taken back to Konoha, the first person he asks –no, demands to see after he has been interrogated is Karin. And she comes, guarded by ANBU on both sides, wearing the white outfit worn by many a hospital patient. The way that she slides into the chair across from him and simply waves the ANBU away is scary in itself, an eerie reminder of generations past.

"Sasuke." She says in lieu of a greeting. "Funny seeing you here."

He sighs, his weariness barely concealed. "I could say the same to you, Karin."

"How've things been?" she asks lightly, looking at him through the glare that reflects off of her glasses. "Did you have fun? You know, you didn't need to come visit me."

"Don't play coy." He snarls, standing abruptly, eyes fiercely focused on her. "Why didn't you tell me?" He fumes, clutching the desk separating them so hard hairlines cracks race up and down it. She blinks, cocking her head too innocently.

"Tell you what, Sasuke? That you would get captured, just like the utter idiot you are? I had no idea. You tossed me away, remember? Just like a leaf in the wind."

"That you- That Naruto – that you're related to that infernal beast!" He screeches, his hands closing into fists on top of the table.

"Related?" she pushes her glasses up, crossing her legs under the table. "I've got no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play me, Karin. You're an Uzumaki and you knew it."

"I didn't, actually." She states, voice cold as she stares him down. Slowly, he sits down, not breaking eye contact. "And even if I had, I wouldn't have told you. Do you know why, Sasuke?" her voice shakes, almost cracks, but she points her chin at him and takes a sharp breath. "Do you?"

"What do you think," he growls. She smiles, tart and full of pity.

"Because you don't like your pieces to have an origin story. You got rid of your rook and your bishop because they were in the way. And then you exiled your queen because I knew too much. You got too attached, so you panicked. And there sat the lone king, high on his throne with no one but a fallen knight to feed him his daily serving of lies. And you liked it that way." She takes a deep breath. "That is why."

"That explains nothing. Do you see why I desired the destruction of this horrid place? It dulls-" you, he almost says, but he bites his tongue. He does not get emotionally attached. He is Sasuke Uchiha of the fallen Uchiha clan, and he does not display emotional attachment to a mere sensor, a fallen visage of a queen once powerful. "It dulls its inhabitants."

"It explains everything, you idiot." She snarls through her teeth. "I wouldn't have told you even if I had known because I am tired of being your leverage. I am not your knight as surely as I am not your shield."

"You aren't my queen, either." He states coldly. She smirks tightly.

"Says the fallen king. Tell me, Sasuke, how are your eyes?"

He goes quiet, for once without reply.

"Why are you in the hospital?" He finally asks, voice indifferent as if he couldn't care less why her skin is sunken and pale and her bites look abused.

"You should know why," she purrs, uncrossing her legs and extending a pale arm, marred by fierce bites. "Feeling hungry, Sasuke?"

"I have no taste for Uzumaki's." he bites out.

"How ironic. From what you've told me, all Naruto wants to do is sink his teeth into you."

His features twist as he fumbles for a proper reply. Karin smiles pityingly at his tight expression. The strain of his village spreads his mind too thin. "I'll bet he'd rather go after you."

She smiles. "Oh no, Sasuke. You should know you are the only person I can allow to bite me. It simply isn't the same without you, you know? No matter how much of an idiot you are." She taps her fingers impatiently on the smooth wood of the table. "You are my idiot."

"I belong to no one." He hisses then, his eyes lighting up with fury. He stands abruptly, lightning crackling under his fingertips. Immediately the ANBU guards outside of their room stand at attention as they file in, ears tuned to the crackle of lightning.

"He's okay-" Karin begins to say, standing quickly and lunging forward to grab his wrist. "Let him stay."

The ANBU tense, on all sides of the temperamental boy, and Sasuke heaves a breath, chest rising and falling as she attempts to control his fury.

"I will never belong to anyone." He finally says. If Karin has any mind to protest, she does not, for me speaks again before anything can be said. "And asking to see you was a mistake." And then he turns, holding his arms out for the ANBU to shackle.

And as he is lead out with three ANBU, Karin only grits her teeth. "You needed me once, you stupid boy! You are mine as much as I am yours!"

But again, her cries fall of deaf ears. Without another word, the remaining ANBU lead her out, pressing the bruises on her arms. With her eyes set on the figure of the betrayed king in front of her, Karin chuckles a low laugh.

"Make me your queen."

Yards in front of her, Sasuke stiffens.

review, review!