A man with white hair and shark like teeth, carrying a big sword, looked over at his companions. One was a girl with long red hair and red eyes that had glasses over them. She was wearing a pretty slutty outfit; well that's what he thought. The other was a big man with orange hair and kind eyes, but he knew not to let that fool him. This man was the first one to bear the curse mark and even though he seemed nice, he knew what he was capable of.

"What is taking Sasuke so long?" the red head girl said aloud.

The white haired man smirked at her and said, "You just can't wait to see your Sasuke now, can you Karin?"

The girl, Karin, glared at him and said, "Shut up, Suigetsu."

Suigetsu and Karin continued to fight, while the big orange haired man sat down and sighed. A bird landed on his shoulder and he gently caressed its feathers. He smiled and started talking to the bird just so he could pass the time. Plus, it was better conversation than he would ever have with his teammates.

Just as Karin was about to hit Suigetsu, a voice all of them knew all too well said, "Stop."

The bird flew away from the orange haired man and the other two froze in their tracks. Karin reluctantly brought her fist back down to her side and Suigetsu smirked.

Then all their eyes landed on the person just behind Sasuke. A girl with short pink hair and piercing green eyes; She was very small and petite. Karin's jaw was dropped and the other two just couldn't find just what to say.

Sasuke pointed at the pink haired girl behind him and said, "This is Sakura. She's a new member of our team."

This time Karin spoke. "What can a little pip squeak like her do?"

Sakura glared icily at her and said, "Probably more than you can do, bitch. I'm a well-trained medic and I'm a hell of a lot stronger than I look."

Karin's face became red and she was about to argue when Suigetsu cut in. "Well, well she's a feisty one. She's gonna make things very interesting…"

Sasuke glared at him and said, "She's not to be touched or anything of the sort and if you do, I'll kill you. I can always find another one to fill your place."

Suigetsu gulped because he had a feeling that Sasuke meant exactly what he said. Karin was in shock and was really pissed off. Sasuke had stuck up for that girl. What was so special about her? She was too small to scare anyone physically. Her pink hair was rare, but she didn't do anything with it. Her green eyes were… different. She seemed to have a temper problem too.

"Did you guys manage to find a place to stay?" he asked impatiently.

Karin nodded and replied, "Yeah, an inn just a few miles from here."

Sasuke nodded and took off. All of them followed, including Sakura.

As they made their way to the inn, Sakura looked over at the big orange haired man. He had such warm eyes that made you want to smile at him every time they looked at you. He seemed the only decent one out of them all. She moved closer to him and asked, "What's your name?"

He looked down at her and then back to the ground and mumbled, "Juugo."

"That's a nice name, Juugo," she said, "my name's Sakura."

He smiled at her and said, "I know. Sasuke told us, remember?"

She laughed and said, "Oh yea…. I remember now."

He even let out a sort of laugh too. Juugo reminded her of a quieter, shyer version of Naruto. He drew people towards him, instead of pushing them away. Unlike someone she knows and her eyes shifted to Sasuke. She noticed that his shoulders were a lot broader since the last time she had seen him. His hair was shorter too. He also had this feel about him that he didn't have before. Even though he was right there, it seemed like he was on another planet. Before he was reachable, but now, now he was heading down a very lonely and empty path. If he ended up getting to the end of that path, she just knew something inside her would die as well.

"A broken heart never stops bleeding." Brittany Shain