Spice and Ice and Everything Nice
By TwinEnigma
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or make profit from this.
31. Breathe
Itachi is dead and everything has turned on its head. Everything he'd believed is a lie. Inside his eyes, he can see the ghost of his brother, etched in an unending loop of memory, and he can feel them burn with grief. It's agony and every nerve in his head is screaming like fire.
He's bawling like a baby when his team enters, curled in on himself to shut the pain and the world out.
Karin orders them out.
He hurts and he hates and it's too much. The pain is unbearable: he wants to die.
But, Karin is there and she won't let him give up. She pries his arms apart, shoves her arm into his mouth and forces his jaw to close, pumping her chakra to her skin.
He doesn't want to be healed, but he's too weak to push her away and, instead, he sobs as she pulls him closer and forces her chakra down his throat.
"Don't fight me," she orders. "Just breathe."
The burning pain slows, slowly fading, and his sobs melt into steady breaths.
"Just breathe," she says, resting his head against her chest. "We still have a long way to go, you and I."
He can hear her heartbeat, steady beneath her ribs, and her fingers run through his hair in a soft, familiar way. He's suddenly more tired than he's ever been.
"Just breathe," she says.
He sleeps and dreams, her heart beating in time to his breaths.
32. Grey
No matter how he turned his head in front of the mirror, he could see them.
It started innocently enough – a single strand here and a single strand there. He'd hardly noticed, since he had to be standing just so to see them. But now, there was a definite rebellion on his hands.
"Honestly, if it bothers you that much, Sasuke, dye it," Karin said, brushing her hair.
White had begun to encroach on her hair as well and it made her look like she'd streaked it with pink, like young civilian girls were fond of doing. Both of them now had fine lines at the corners of their eyes and they didn't seem to be going away this time.
"Give me the armies of the five great nations any day over getting old," he sighed, tugging at the grey hair absently.
Karin giggled, standing on tip-toe to lean over his shoulder and kiss him on the cheek. "Now, now, you're still the sexy man I married."
He was about to whine a little more about his obvious aging when she grabbed his butt and squeezed, a familiar mischievous look on her face.
"...You're just more experienced," she whispered, her lips brushing his ear.
His brain shut off somewhere between the movement of her lips and the downright sexy way experienced rolled off of them.
"The kids are gone," she said, winking at their reflections in the mirror and then sliding away, back towards their bedroom.
"Experienced, huh?" he murmured, turning to follow her.
He grinned.
That sounded about right.
33. Monstrous
Karin watches as the curse seal crawls across his flesh like flames, darkening his skin and lightening his hair as it tumbles over his shoulders. Wings unfurl from his back in a parody of giant, webbed hands and, at last, she can see the black four-pointed star color his nose.
The ninja on the other end of the arena wet themselves with fear and she crinkles her nose at the stench.
Sasuke moves then, a blur of furious chakra brighter than lightning, and descends on them like a giant bird of prey. His sword impales the first (he was just following orders) and splits the second from spleen to sternum in a spray of hot blood (he touched her). He spins, slashing through another (he threatened her) and then abandons the sword as he stalks after the leader of the group. This man, he dirties his hands with, using his fists and claws (because he attacked her and touched her lewdly).
Orochimaru laughs in delight, clapping his hands at the spectacle.
Sasuke stands, drenched in blood as the curse seal recedes, the bodies of the ninja who'd ambushed her patrol strewn in pieces around him. His eyes find hers and she stares back evenly, unafraid.
Karin knows who the real monsters are.
Sasuke isn't one of them, even if he sometimes looks the part.
34. First
Karin takes a single step forward, her hands held out ahead of her.
The tiny fingers curled around hers briefly press and their baby takes a shaky step forward.
A second step follows and then a third, a fourth and the baby is moving steadily.
She lets go and panic flickers across Sasuke's face.
With a happy squeal, the baby runs straight into Sasuke's waiting arms.
"I told you he was ready," she said, adjusting her glasses.
He gives her a look that's all sulk.
"I love you too," she giggles, kissing him.
"Papa!"
Sasuke stares at the baby in surprise and then breaks out in a proud smile.
"Don't look so smug," Karin said, smirking a little. "He knows who spoils him."
Sasuke pouts and the baby mimics him.
Karin can't help laughing.
35. Reincarnate
There is a girl kneeling at the other end of the field, her haori sleeves tied back and her hair, a bright crimson, peeking out from under the cloth wrapped around her head as she practices the long strokes of calligraphy. She's not like the other girls around here – they are crass and common, beneath his notice – and he has the funniest feeling he should know who she is, like he's seen her somewhere before.
"State your name and business," she demands, standing, the servant girls brandishing tanto and naginata as they flock to her defense. He can see the finery of her haori and hakama now and the necklace of magatama around her neck – she was no commoner. She was a priestess, likely of high birth, judging by her clothes, her guards and the manner in which she addressed him.
A lesser samurai would have struck her down without even considering how out-of-place she seemed.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," he says, standing loosely as he threw back his traveling cloak to reveal his family mon, the paired swords of his birthright hanging visibly at his side. "I'm hunting the criminal who has murdered my family."
The girl gives him a calculating, imperious look. "Perhaps we can be of use to each other, Sasuke Uchiha. There is a man I seek to punish as well."
He raised an eyebrow.
"My name is... Karin," she said diplomatically, and withdrew a polished copper mirror from her sleeve. "I am the eyes of Amateratsu."
She raised her red eyes and the swords at his side began to rattle in recognition.
He smirked.
Perhaps it was fate.
AN: Angst buckets, lolz, symbolism, cute, reincarnates going back or forward in time?
