Etched in Red, a naruto fanfic

n1:. Photo Cover belongs to Nasshi via /deviantArt/

n2: Dedicated to both my betas, MelancholyMadness and Aldedron, and my forum friend Ryu/Aramaria.

n3:Poll. Profile. Take.

Title: ambient scarlet.

-xXx-

-xXx

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. "-C.S. Lewis

-xXx-

Do I really love him?

A haze of cigarette smoke gently rose up to tickle the ceiling above the redheaded kunoichi, a pair of crimson eyes staring blankly at the roof as Karin smoked to her heart's content. It was a filthy habit, she knew that, but hey, Sasuke was no longer here to bug her about it.

(That bandage around her chest was proof enough of that. He'd tossed her away like rubbish, and left her for that pink girl to dispose of. Obviously the bitch had left her alive, not that Karin was grateful for that. She didn't ask to be saved.)

Did she even know what love really was? Was she just imagining something that was never meant to be? Karin snorted weakly, rolling the cigarette between her fingers before she sat up, clutching the sword wound with more force than was actually necessary. The pinky, Sakura, had told her to not use too much effort or else she could reopen the wound she'd barely survived the first round of getting.

(Not like Karin didn't already know this. She was a fool in love-infatuation; whatever she was going to call this stupid thing, not a fool who was clueless when it came to her body.)

Flicking the butt of the tobacco stick across the room, the girl slid out from the bed where she had been confined for the past month and moved across the room to gaze at her reflection gazing back at her with a set of accusing crimson eyes.

Did he ever care for me?

[No way in hell did he ever care for you, you silly child. What? Were you expecting him to lavish you with love, and concern? Please.)

Karin saw a lot of things in the mirror as she stood.

She saw her red hair, mussed on one side, pin straight on the other hanging flat and limp on her pale, sallow cheeks. She saw her crimson eyes, pupil less and peeking out from behind circular brown glasses looked…well they looked sick and tired.

They just looked done.

Done with it all.

Done trying to impress a boy who never gave two flying shits about her. Done trying to protect a boy who was always more interested in her talents and never saw her for her, never caring about what she felt, what she wanted, what she was. He never cared for her personality. Not. One. Bit.

(How many of those scars on your arms came from him Karin? It's more than twenty isn't it? Forty? Sixty? How many times has his mouth come into contact with your skin?)

Oh, his mouth came into contact with her skin on a regular damn basis, it did. But not like she'd ever wanted it to. He'd never kissed her, never whispered sweet little damn nothings into her ear, never bothered to deal with her unless it was to drain of her of the only thing she'd ever had to make her special.

He used her like a fucking battery.

Walking. Talking. Completely rechargeable. Come and get your walking Karin charger today. Half off if you get her from the nearest hideout-.

(Punching your fist into the glass won't make what happened go away. Idiot. He used you. And you fucking let him. You damn idiot.)

Blood with a scarlet hue that was so bright and so similar to the hair on her head, dripped onto the white of Sakura's carpet, staining it with her impurity. She was tainting the pure little blossom's house. Yeah, she liked the sound of that. Karin wasn't anything but a whore who was as vulnerable as a newborn and obviously just as naïve, while that, that, that overachievingluckycaringbitc h was the strongest girl around here. The little pretty in pink blossom everyone worshipped, yeah, the damn cherry that hadn't even been fucking popped yet, the little saint that just had to come around and save her damn life!

She flung out her hand, crimson streaks falling onto the floor, little red dots sinking into the carpet while Karin's lips turned upwards into a twisted grin. She'd show her…God damn, she'd show them all.

(Show them what? What are you trying to prove by flinging blood around in such a childish tantrum?)

She'd show them.

-oOo-

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit."- Peter Ustinov

-oOo-

Why did he leave her?

Green light bled from the palms of every medic-nin, every capable person with chakra, to convalesce within every person so needing the medics' attentions: a bleeding warmth that, by the hands of a capable user, could ensconce and enclose—could mend—the most dire physical wounds.

A user such as Haruno Sakura.

[Though, perhaps she hadn't been near as capable as she'd thought. Her skills, her determination, her everything were still not good enough for him. She'd been lying -obviously- but he had still moved to strike her.]

The medic shook her slightly as she finished with her shift, and giving a short nod to her superiors, began her way home, her eyes trained onto the foreboding gray of the sky.

Why had he left her?

[Quit thinking of yourself, selfish bitch, you know why he left you. Think of the damn girl he left behind.]

She'd saved the girl Sasuke, her Sasuke, had used a shield that just so happened to be a person, tossed aside like trash, left on the ground like roadkill, for dead. Or, for Sakura to kill. He'd wanted her to take the redhead's life.

[And you considered it. You actually thought for a moment that if you did it, that he'd take you back into his 'waiting' arms like nothing happened, like it was all going to return into the old days. Fool.]

Sakura clenched her fists together, the appendages shaking from the sheer strain, before releasing them. Who was she going to be angry at? Sasuke? For what being the sadistic bastard he'd turned into? Red? Just because she was with Sasuke in every way that she'd ever dreamed about?

No, she couldn't be, could she?

[You thought he'd welcome you in didn't you? You thought you could replace thought you just might, might be a little bit good enough to be accepted by the damn boy. But why should he accept you? You don't-can't- even accept yourself.]

She was jealous all right, jealous of the fact that he'd taken the girl that was weaker than her, taken in the girl that was nothing compared to her and made her a part of his team. Oh, he'd taken that little redheaded skank in, but he wouldn't take her with him? She'd asked to go with him!

She'd pleaded to go with him, asked him to stay and if to not stay, to take her with him so that she'd never have to watch him stray from her. And he'd refused her, silenced her, returned her to the village out cold.

And yet, he'd take her? A filthy little traitor to her own village? He didn't even know the little skank, the little hellraisingscarletwoman. What was she to him? Some damn prostitute he'd picked up that just so happened to be useful?

[Breaking bricks? That's not going to help your case at all. Still useless. You're still simpering over the same damn boy, who's done the same damn thing to you time after time. You can't make it go away. No matter how strong you get.]

A choked scream escaped from Sakura's lips as she gave the thick stone another slam with her fist before feeling it shudder and crumble to her feet, wincing as her bones did the exact same thing. Shattered under the impact, her hand throbbed and she grabbed it. Heal it here? No, she'd more than likely go back to slamming the wall again. She could do it at home.

[So you can what? Slam it into the bitch's face and watch as red spouts from her nose? Watch as you break that smirk and bitchy grin right of her-]

Of her damnspoiledface.

-xXx-

"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love; it is the faithless who know love's tragedies." –Oscar Wilde

-xXx-

A crimson droplet rolled down Sakura's face as she clutched the bloody hand of Karin, attempting to cease the young woman's thrashin on the newly dyed rust red carpet, her strength barely enough to keep the screaming girl down. Her nails dug into the pale violet of her 'patient's shirt, ripping through it and digging into the pale skin that lie beneath. Karin's hand was flailing, a loud scream coming from her parted lips. The pinkette could barely make them out; it sounded like Karin was screaming out nothing but absolute nonsense, but one word did ring clear once she opened her ears.

Sasuke-kun.

"Sasuke's not here! Now quit screaming! You're getting blood in my face!" Sakura's voice cracked as she yelled to overcome the wails emanating from Karin, her green eyes flashing, "He's gone you stupid bitch and he's not coming back! He hated you! He tried to kill you!"

The redhead shook her head violently, her body still shaking pathetically, still tainting the dove white of Sakura's carpet, and her screams still escaped her. Silence followed the harsh noise of a loud smack and Karin could only stand there, gazing at Sakura in disbelief and confusion, her jaw hanging open before tightening into a grim line.

"Get a hold of yourself." The words coming from Sakura's lips were hollow and brittle, "Sasuke's gone. He's left us both. Now, get over that and give me your arm."

Karin just held at her arm, her eyes widened in shock from behind her glasses. The pink brat had touched her? She'd slapped her. She'd told her-

"Your arm. Now. I don't need any more blood staining my carpets." The med nin's voice was clipped and as Karin weakly held her arm out, the other snatched it into her grasp a warm light emanating from it as she frowned. The girl was sick, her body warm with fever and Sakura frowned, looking around for a cigarette in the room.

"Karin. You've been smoking again…." She said, dropping the girl's arm and picking up a cigarette butt off the floor, "I've told you that it's a filthy habit and it—"

"Could severely hinder my recovery. I'm not stupid." Even weak, even in shock, Karin's voice still had a hint of a snobbish undertone to it and her eyes narrowed weakly before she gave a hoarse cough, "I know what it's doing to me, okay? Thanks, now bye."

"You could be more respectful to the girl who saved your life you know."

The crimson girl snorted before looking at her cherry counterpart, "I didn't ask to be saved. You could've just left me to die. I wouldn't be the first corpse someone's stepped over and damn well I won't be the last."

Her words were too uncaring for Sakura's taste and that look in her eyes, that look of a complete disregard for her own life sent Sakura's mind reeling. How could she not care, how could she look at Sakura with those unconcerned eyes and not care about her own life?

"I was going to die for him you know." Karin's voice snapped Sakura out of her reverie, sending Sakura's green eyes over in her direction, "I was. He'd used me for all I had to offer him. He didn't need me to track out anyone, and hell, once you showed up, he thought he'd never have to use me for healing." She shrugged weakly, pulling another cigarette out of her shirt pocket and lighting it, "So, tell me this Cherry, if no one needs me around, why can't I enjoy a smoke? It'll only speed up the process."

A grey haze filled the airspace in front of Sakura's face, barely able to make out the slight tear trickle that was falling down Karin's cheek.

"You still talk about him you know..." Sakura said softly, wondering if now was a good time to mention Red's sleep talking, "You call out for him in your sleep."

"So do you."

They sat in silence for a moment, watching as the smoke dissipated, before seeing that they both had matching tears falling down their cheeks and onto the tainted fabric of the carpet, each girl clenching her fists as she cried. The masks of unconcern, of toughness, of a sense of pride and self-centeredness began to drop and shatter on the floor, soaking into the blood. The two were no longer rivals, but two girls, two women, in pain.

"You're the enemy… I don't want to sympathize with you… so… so don't… don't cry like that in front of me…! Damn it…"

end.