I like evil lairs. Hebi's is warm, cozy, with our enemies heads mounted on the walls. I miss it. Instead Sasuke sent me to Konoha on a crappy spy mission, and I'm stuck in a horrifically purple bedroom. Ino Yamanaka's, to be precise.
"Karin? Are you okay? You look kind of sick," Ino says. She, Sakura and Hinata lean in, all staring at me curiously. "I-I'm okay." I'm sweating. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my idiot ex-boyfriend, Sasuke. Maybe I'm the real idiot, trying to win him over by carrying out a successful mission.
"Have you seen Kurenai's baby? He's soo cuuute!" Ino squeals. Hinata nods agreeably. Sakura combs her strawberry-colored hair into bangs. "Should I cut my hair like this?" Sakura asks. "I think it looks cute," Hinata says, "Go for it. What do you think, Karin?"
"It looks fine," I say. Does it really matter, anyway? "Ino, cut it right now," Sakura says, staring intensely into the mirror. What's her problem? It's just a hairstyle. I've had mine for the past 8 years. Ino grabs a pair of scissors from her drawer and cuts the bangs evenly. "Like that?" Ino asks. Sakura brushes her hair and smiles. "Yeah. Like that!"
"Sakura, have you maybe heard that Sasuke-kun is returning to Konoha?" Hinata asks. At first Sakura doesn't react. She stays stone still. But the quieter she is and the more we stare at her, the redder her face gets – from a rosy pink until it's a flat out tomato. Ino lets out a defeated sigh and inside I'm raging angry. There's no way that pink bimbo is going to steal my Sasuke-kun away from me! I'm seething, until I remember one important detail: Sasuke isn't returning to Konoha yet. That's why he sent me to spy on it first. The next time Sakura sees him, she'll be fighting for her life.
"Hinata, why do you think Sasuke is coming back?" I ask. "I heard my father speaking about it with the Hokage," the soft-spoken girl answers. Hm. I wonder what that could mean. "Do you think he's coming back for revenge?" Ino asks worriedly. "Knowing Sasuke… I wouldn't be surprised," Sakura says. Her eyes hold a strong emotion. Could it be determination? Determination for what, exactly? What's her plan?
"Karin, you worked with Sasuke for a long time before you returned to Konoha on amity. What do you think?" Ino asks. She stares directly at me. I try not to give off signs of nervousness, despite sweating bullets under my clothes. "I-I-I think Sasuke is probably with A-Akatsuki," I stammer, "I doubt he'd attack the village." Ino's gaze lingers on me a second longer than expected, and I let out a small sigh of relief when it finally turns towards Hinata.
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata trails. Suddenly Sakura's expression softens as she looks at the ebony-haired Hyuuga through the mirror, but Ino on the other hand, looks like a predator overlooking her prey.
"Hinata, didn't you see Naruto at the market the other day? Did he ask you out?" Ino asks. "N-no. W-why?" Ino lets out a growl of frustration. "We went through a lot of work to hook you two up at that specific point! The least you could do is follow through with the plan and date!" she yells. Hinata has turned paler than normal. "W-what plan?" she squeaks. Ino throws up her hands in defeat. "You're hopeless! The both of you are more hopeless than… the most hopeless things in the world!" I chuckle along with Sakura. This is one of the finer points of staying in Konoha. It's nice to be around other girls, whereas in Hebi I'm the only one among a pack of idiot boys. The biggest idiot being my evil ex-boyfriend. I let out a sigh. Sasuke.