Disclaimer: It's been a while since I've dedicated myself to writing SasuKarin, so I did these prompts to try and get used to their characterization again. This will have around 5 chapters, 2 of them (including this one) gathering sets of prompts, and 3 containing individual drabbles that I originally posted back in 2010.
I hope they are enjoyable.
fragments of then, now & tomorrow
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Set 1: prompts taken from 13drabbles (livejournal)
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GANMA
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#7 - Tell
Sasuke does not need to say a single word, and he knows this. He knows that with just a mere look or gesture Karin will understand what he means; what he wants, what he seeks, what he is thinking—he can tell that Karin gets it all in an instinctive level that was sometimes so sharp that it took him aback.
It frightened him, sometimes. The feeling of knowing your mind is being read—the feeling of not knowing just what Karin would do with that knowledge.
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#2 - Follow Me
"Karin," he says, and her name sounds like a plea even though his voice remained its usual impassive baritone. She does not hesitate, and her eyes never leave his as she walks towards him.
"Anywhere," she states in reply to his unasked question, and Sasuke's gaze clears like a sky after a storm.
Even to hell.
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#5 – Quirky
"Hey, Karin, could you—?" the Uchiha trails off as Karin jumps, startled, hurrying to attempt to hide the object she was holding behind her back. But she is not fast enough, and he catches a glimpse of a very familiar shirt.
His shirt.
He blinks. His lips part—and then he thinks better of it.
"W-what is it?"
"Nothing," he says, "forget it."
He was probably better off not knowing what Karin was up to.
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#4 – Fear
She had never been scared of him. Not really. Not even when he spoke and raved on and on about revenge, not even when his cursed seal took over and his bloodlust overtook the whole room like a ghostly veil. Not even when black became crimson and his tomoe spun crazily in the middle of the lava, promising to brew a volcano.
Not even as he stared down at her and behaved like the cold and uncaring person he had always pretended to be, did she fear him. Not even as his Susano'o mercilessly crushed every obstacle in his way.
She did not fear him not even as he stood over her with a chidori in his palm, said his goodbyes and prepared himself to finish her off.
No, not even then.
All along, Karin had only been fearing for him instead.
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#9 – Dance
They dance together all the time, the ball of life&death. She was always his first choice, his most loyal partner. The identity of their opponent never did matter, Sasuke did not care about looking after himself because he knew Karin had his back; they had always functioned well that way. Seamlessly. Like two pieces of a puzzle.
But then he started to step on her feet, to lose the rhythm and forget the beat—and so Karin lets go of his hand.
She no longer trusted him to lead her.
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#8 – Heartbeat
There is a small, tear-shaped scar lying right atop of her heart. The lighting spear that had caused it had never touched the organ, not really—but the eyes of its user had not missed. They had hit the bull's eye, mercilessly tearing it apart with his callous words and his disregard for everything she had ever fought for, everything she stood for—her wound had been healed and the organ continued to fulfill its job just fine, but it had never quite started to beat again.
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#3 – Glow
Her eyes don't glow—they burn, as if there was a fire threatening to burst out and consume him whole like the flames of his amaterasu.
Too bad, Karin, Sasuke thinks as he holds her gaze, unflinching—her pain due to his betrayal was nothing in comparison with his hatred and desire for vengeance, boiling in the pattern of his sharingan like an inferno.
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#11 – Power
All Sasuke sought was power. Karin knew that. When it wasn't the power to kill his brother and avenge his clan, it was the power to crush Konoha; and when it wasn't the power to crush Konoha, it was the power to kill Naruto. It always came down to that.
Power, power, power. That was fine with Karin. She liked power herself, and Sasuke's strong personality was one of the traits that had attracted her to him in the first place. But… there was a limit to everything, and the kind of power Sasuke lusted after was becoming more and more dangerous.
Karin sighs.
… If only Sasuke cared about the type of power he had over her.
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#10 – Time
Suigetsu and Juugo know there is no point in bothering with 'if' when all it came down was to 'when'. Not to when Karin would finally get Sasuke where she wants him, no—rather, to when Sasuke would open his eyes and realize the redhead had trapped him in her web thread a long, long time ago.
DELTA;
#1 - First Time
The first time Karin sees his smile—his real, genuine smile—she feels its warmth so vividly that it felt like sunrays dancing across her cheeks, warming them up and tinting them pink.
After their paths cross again and Sasuke becomes a permanent part of her life, Karin realizes that she would do just about anything to see his smile again.
And so she does. Goes all the way and then an extra mile; she loses her hope once in the process, but continues holding on regardless.
Because she refused to believe there would only be a first time.
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#2 – Difference
He's not the Sasuke you once knew, she says, and she does not know if she is trying to convince his old team or herself. Because out of them all, Karin can feel that difference the clearest—warmth had become cold, kind had become ruthless, desire had become bloodlust. So Karin knows, and states as much.
But there's a part of her refusing to believe the Sasuke she fell in love with has been lost forever. And so she repeats it—over and over—until that hopeful part of her quiets down and allows her to believe she has had enough.
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#4 – Eyes
Sometimes Sasuke had a hard time looking away from them. From her eyes, he means. Karin's.
They were red, and penetrating—forceful. Sometimes they spun and whirled with emotions he could not label, and sometimes they were like the calm before a storm.
They reminded him of the sharingan.
Sasuke tells himself that was the sole reason behind his apparent fixation with them.
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#8 - The Past
Their past is tainted with blood. His clan's, her village's. Their own as they work their hardest to overcome their liabilities and rise from the ashes in order to soar—Sasuke as the hawk seeking revenge, Karin as the wings that he could—absolutely—not do without.
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#10 - The Present
Their present is tainted with blood. His, hers spilled by his hands. And as Sasuke tears his wings apart—encumbrances—and discards them, he crashes to the depths at full speed. But his sight is too blinded by darkness to notice the swiftness with which he was nearing the ground, and his mind is too high on revenge to realize he was falling, in the first place.
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#9 – The Future
Their future is still unknown. But among all the uncertainty, Karin realizes there was a truth that irrevocably anchored her to Sasuke, despite everything.
And that was that Karin will cushion his fall. Because, as she finds out—even if she could not be his wings, he had been hers all along.
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#12 – Someone Missing
She feels his absence as if it were a corporeal being twice his size. Ominous, empowering, intimidating and chillingly cold. She fights it on a daily basis, tries to pretend that she is blissfully unaware.
But Karin has never been good at pretending, and when that fails she tells herself that even being hollow as she now was, was better than the feel of his cold chakra consuming and sucking her dry.
Eventually that falls apart, too.
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extra; Understanding
Sasuke does not want to be understood. He does not care about understanding anyone, either—he just wants to be left alone. Alone with his ghosts and his pain and his revenge. Everyone else was just in the way, additions he needed to dispose of. All of them condescendingly thinking they could understand some part of him.
Fools, all of them.
No one understood him. No one.
He would always make sure of that.
And so he leaves Karin behind.
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Thanks for reading, reviews are more than welcome and appreciated.
- Kanae
