Karin sat on top of the Hokage Mountain, and watched the rain fall over the slums of Konoha. She had smoked her cigar to the butt, and finally flicked it off the mountains with her fingertips, watching it nose dive into the murkiness of it all. This was her last moment, dying next to a comrade from battle.

A fleck of light illuminated her face as she light up another cigar.

"That's a nasty habit." She heard her comrade say. "If you lived, you would've died of your addiction." Karin chuckled lightly and ran her fingers through her friends pink hair.

"I'd like to say the same to you and Sasuke." She scoffed, tossing Sakura's warnings over like dry cleaning. "We all die from our addictions." She said, exhaling a cloud of smoke.

"I thought I could do it."

"You almost got yourself killed from being addicted to him." Karin teased. "But it the same way, so did I. remember that day? It seemed so long ago."

The both of them sat on Tsunade's head on the mountain and watched the rising ash disappear into the atmosphere. No, Sakura replied bluntly.

You're the enemy… I don't want to know what you think or how you feel. So please…please don't..

Sakura clenched her fits, and tried to block the memory of Sasuke's obsian eyes looking at her with nothing but the intent of killing her. Karin was probably thinking the same thing—wondering why Sasuke's aimed chidoi didn't just kill her. Sometimes she wished it did.

Please don't look so sad… Please don't cry!

"Come on Sakura, it's time you forget about him. You're so stupid…" Karin said, looking away from the frail pink haired girl. She had bruises on her porcelain skin and her eyes were stained in tears she had cried. Karin had almost felt sorry for her and her stupidity, but she knew if Sauske wanted something, he was going to get it.

She knew that she and Sakura were stupid and Sasuke's abandonment was well deserved retribution.

"It's not that easy Karin." Sakura said wiping the dried blood from her lips. "Don't you think I know how stupid I am? I know and I hate it!" She said. "You can't just forget about someone—it doesn't work that way." She added.

Karin looked at Sakura and rubbed her weary eyes. She looked down into the beautiful village Sakura once loved and her eyelids shut like she was snapping a picture of the wreckage. Sakura had belonged to this place, and this was where she had lived. Karin, well, she had never really belonged anywhere.

Karin laughed. Not in the sweet, bubbly kind of way. Karin's laughter was a violent hyena scream, that tore through Sakura's ear drums. "Look at you Sakura." She said, marveling at the pink haired girl. "You know better than me." She paused. "You can admit to defeat, and what's even better is that you don't pretend something's don't hurt. You may be stupid…" She said, looking off into the black ash, "But you sure are honest."

Karin shut her eyes, and felt a cold drip of rain touch her skin—the feel of sadness creeping up on her, and seeping through her pores. Like Sakura, Kairn tried to forget that day she was almost killed by the man she had adored, but the memory stains like ketchup on a white shirt.

I just wanted to see that face once more…

"See ya."

Sakura looked at her red haired friend, and closed her green eyes. There were so many things she wanted Sasuke to know about her. Like how her favourite colour was not pink or green—it was blue. A bright blue like the sky. She wanted Sasuke to know how much she loved to be touched on the nape of her neck, and how she loved to drink tea on hot days. But unfortunately, those were petty little wishes she had to keep to herself.

Sakura thought that the sky was clearing, and that the war had ended peacefully like a good dream—but that was not the case. There were many things she had been addicted to; like Sauske's stupid grin, and Naruto's laugh. Naruto….oh and Naruto.

Before almost collapsing into a state of unconsciousness, Sakura looked at Karin and her exhausted figure. She must have seen some terrible things to end up that way.

She was lucky to have encountered Naruto and Sauske, her boys. "Sauske.." She whispered,

"Thank you."