'Naruto' and 'Naruto Shippuden' are the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo.

Self-Combustion

MetaMirage

10

Karin watched Sasuke's chest rise and sink. With breathing shallow and induced he bordered panic attack. Everything, her touch, voice, the air had become unbearable. He jerked away from the campfire, closing his eyes and loosening his collar against the heat. When he finally did speak the words cluttered, imposing as law. "He murdered my brother. I'm going to kill him."

"No." She stumbled to his side. "Sasuke listen."

He repeated himself methodically. Each incantation pieced his fury together with perpetual force. Not much terrified Karin. Watching Sasuke steady his breathing by giving into his anger did. It governed him, comforted even. It was a survival mechanism that he had wired into himself so meticulously it owned him.

Somehow she had to break that. She grabbed his shoulders with the same boldness that made her share Deidara's confession. "Deidara could be lying," she said strongly. "No body, no proof."

Karin relied entirely on the rational. She was artificially fearless, spinning grand commands in the hope he would hear her. "We're going to that watermill. We need all the information before we plan our next move. Itachi might not be dead."

There was a strange stillness, similar to temporary seize fire on the battlefield. She found herself waiting for any change with the same suffocating dread of the trenches.

His dark eyes remained glazed, "Okay."

They exposed chalk white roots, frantically digging to the riverbank where the earth became sludge. Sasuke was tireless, hacking and shovelling until he was past six feet under. They found nothing. No bones, no matted hair, no fingernails or foul stench of decomposing. Not even evidence of earth being freshly turned.

Karin listened to the waterwheel as it turned rickety, carrying water up and over with heavy sloshes.

"Deidara lied," she announced. She didn't expect Sasuke to stop digging, let alone reply.

"He still could have killed him." He hoisted himself to ground level, "but we can't know."

Insensitively she found herself smiling. Not because Itachi's whereabouts remained a mystery and murder still probable. Sasuke's return had left her so relived it was either smile or collapse. It was early evening and exhausted she imagined sleeping till noon the next day.

"I'll rile more information from him," she offered. "You start hitting up people on Itachi and Deidara's association. We'll figure this out."

He buried his head, rubbing dirt through his hair. Despair hung heavy, not just loss but being at one. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Sasuke had always chosen silence. His struggle to change that captivated her. He balled up his hands and stared in her eyes almost feverishly. Eventually he just retreated to submerge himself in the river.

Black smoke billowing into the air made Karin break into a run. An eruption of light had exploded into the night, engulfing part of the village. When she got close the blacksmith's workshop was in flames, villagers rushing to form a bucket brigade. The blacksmith and his family huddled together, stunned by the disaster. The youngest daughter coughed uncontrollably, whooping loudly over the crackle of burning timber. The metals of the forge began to glow red, casting unnatural shadows over the ground.

When the first bucket was doused on the building Karin was horrified to see the fire flare. The villagers backed up and continued to fight as it spread. The water fed the fire as if it was oil.

"Stop throwing water on it!" she shouted in alarm. She couldn't explain how but they were making it worse. She froze when the blacksmith turned on her, his whole body racked in rage.

"You!" his voice was hoarse, deadly. "You did this!"

Karin sweated from the heat and the murderous intent in his eyes. "I didn't."

"You Akatsuki did this!" he bellowed. "You've destroyed everything!"

He reached for the axe at his side and lunged. Surrounded by people a claustrophobic sense of terror filled Karin. Backing up she tripped, barely dodging the axe when it descended. She chocked when she was grabbed by the neck. "You almost killed my daughter!"

Before she could bury her kunai in his throat they were both knocked to the ground. In the scuffle she was dragged away, the blacksmith howling in anger. When they cleared a dozen streets she panted out her gratitude. "Thanks Sasuke."

He squeezed her hand tightly.

"Stop moving."

"You're being ridiculous Sasuke, it's a scratch."

"Scratches can get infected."

"It's not deep enough to- ah."

Sasuke pressed his thumb against her ankle bone making her fidget when pain shot up her leg. She vaguely remembered cutting herself when she tripped during the fight. She lost her hold on the ledge and he lifted her effortlessly. Eye level with a particularly nasty glare she still squirmed, becoming more flustered in his hold.

He hissed. "You were stupid to confront him."

"I didn't! He just- ah!"

She bit down the yelp when he lifted her leg. It was more from embarrassment than anything else. He was treating her like a child.

"I thought it was just a scratch?" he mocked.

"It is!" she argued looking to the medical kit. She hardly needed all that and tried to jump down to great protest. "Stop treating it like an operation. Are you about to amputate or something?"

"You. Drive. Me. Insane." He said through clenched teeth. She could bandage herself without wasting saline solution. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders as a warning when he kept his hold on her waist.

"For fuck sake Karin," he said thickly. "You helped me earlier, let me help you now."

The acknowledgement made her grip slack. He was referring to her talking him down about Itachi's suspected death. Suddenly she felt hot, afraid he could see a deep flush in her skin. "Fine," she piled her voice with reluctance, trying to compensate her actual surrender. Somehow though, she knew he'd seen through it.

He got to work cleaning her cut and bandaging it. He was precise and careful until she couldn't stand the insufferable kindness. She thought, I hate it when you are gentle with me Sasuke. It made her entertain something more on his part. That everything wasn't entirely physical frustration for her anymore.

He cut her musing with a curt, "Was that so difficult?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, more to dispel her own trance. "The bandage is a little tight."

"It's perfect," he said cockily, "like everything I do."

She scoffed but quickly stopped when he offered to help her down. Without thinking she took his hand. She tried to rescue herself.

"I could have handled him." She gestured towards the neat bandage, "And this."

"Yes. Kill an innocent man with half the village as witnesses. Good idea."

Despite the sarcastic bite he began to carefully touch her neck as if to soothe the earlier bruising. "There's something I need to ask you."

And she knew the question. He wanted to exhume what had happened in the underground network of Root as badly as the plot of land beneath the Kousa Dogwood tree. He wanted to scour and upturn and unlike the empty grave there would be remains. The incriminating, shameful truth she denied.

She brushed him off, passing the street's empty windows. "I'm tired."

It was an early morning scandal. Five soldiers met with the Akatsuki for questioning, imposing themselves throughout the bar. They spoke Kakuzu's language, agreeing innocence and no trouble over fistfuls of money. Bribery was sure-fire art, the new wave of the era. She listened to Kakuzu grumble under his breath and watched Deidara listen with disinterest. The whole organisation was to lie low and regroup to avoid targeting. In the eyes of every citizen they were directly involved in the fire. Karin was unsure what to believe herself, only knowing news of a hit that big would have trickled down. The only buzz had been the new shipments of fertilizer and seed for the Gato and that was hardly unusual.

She tried to diffuse the tension when Sasuke and Deidara caught each other's eye. Sasuke was seething and Deidara frowning in the slow churn of recognition. Although knowing nothing of Itachi's appearance she could now reason he was Sasuke's spit, a frightening dead-ringer.

She whispered in his ear, "You said when we got the chance we'd see Konoha."

Grudgingly Sasuke nodded, knowing there would be no greater window to see Shisui. She cast Deidara one last look. Her smile grew with nursed thoughts of ending him.

They hid in a cart that was set for the granary district in Konoha. They got off just before the silos and Karin put complete trust in Sasuke's navigation to get them through the city. Paranoia quickened their step as she imagined patrols at every bend. When they made it to the printing company she stayed on watch so Sasuke could jimmy the door to the stairwell before they made it to the hideout inside.

"Shisui?"

Much to their worry Shisui hadn't responded to the secret knock. Shisui had been a light sleeper during their last visit, so in tune with the rhythmic noises of the printing company the slightest divergence would wake him. Now he wasn't even responding to Sasuke's call. She fisted her hand in the fabric of Sasuke's sleeve as they slowly moved through the pitch darkness. She could hear nothing but their own footsteps and was alarmed by the lack of obstacles they blindly encountered.

They struck a match to find the hideout empty. Only the printing press in the far corner remained, all other traces of life vanished like vapour in the air.

Sasuke hunched over, trying to quell the dread of nausea. The Autumn Leaf had been compromised and his cousin was probably being tortured. Once again Danzo was tearing everything away. His unsteady hands cast a jittery shadow in the moonlight. His reality had become a monochrome nightmare. Again he was trapped by chain link and barbed wire, everything closing in.

"He's alright."

Karin. He'd forgotten about her and suddenly he was struck with the overwhelming urge to laugh. Was she joking? She didn't believe the worst outcome had befallen him?

"There's no sign of a struggle."

She squeezed his hand and he was back in the cart with her sad excuses to touch him. He pulled away, unable to decipher the blurred lines between ravaging affection and genuine concern.

He shook his head. "He's been arrested."

She was always persistent. "We can't be certain of that. We need to get in contact with the Autumn Leaf. If we can't then we know it's over. We have to get all the facts."

He took in her words until they struck logical. Wouldn't the printing company have been crawling with guards and smashed up if a rebel force had been discovered? For all Danzo knew the entire company could be involved and would therefore be under investigation. A conversation he'd held with Shisui about his communication role became prominent. They did need all the facts and that was one way to get them. "Do you remember any of the code words for 'Danzo Certainty'?"

There was a deep knowing in Karin's smile. A self-satisfied understanding that her ideas would play out exactly as anticipated, that her judgement of the people and world around her were accurate. He supposed her track record only bolstered her. "That's plan b. I've come up with something much simpler."

He considered her scheming mind and wondered by how much she had outdone him.

"Remember that receptionist Ami? We just need to follow her home and talk to her. It will be easier than crashing any meetings."

Ah. She was miles ahead. Ami would turn up in the morning. They'd wait out the day before tailing her. Hopefully she'd head straight home and they'd decide the best time to confront her.

Like before, Karin was keeping him steady. He got to his feet.

Karin eyed Sasuke over her book. Trashy romance novels were the only cheap indulgence in her otherwise fine repertoire of taste. When she'd spotted the particularly suggestive cover she knew a goldmine of unresolved sexual tension, plots hinged on big misunderstandings and crude sex scenes awaited. It was an added bonus Sasuke seemed repelled like an opposing magnet anytime he spotted her reading it. "If you would just let me smoke her out-"

"No," Sasuke repeated. "It could arouse suspicion."

Karin shut her book in a huff. He'd rather have a ridiculous stake-out than trust her? They had to find a break in Ami's living pattern before they could confront her. That could take days of surveillance. "Sasuke if you'd simply let me-"

He cut her off with a stiff, "concentrate."

Oh that was it. What gave him any right to boss her around and speak down to her? It was her plan and as usual he had taken over.

She slyly set her book down before sitting next to him. They'd managed cover pretty well. An abandoned bakery was adjacent to the apartment and luckily the loft needed some patching. It created a perfect enough window without being entirely obvious.

Sasuke tensed when she sighed against his neck. "You're the boss." She smirked before pressing a kiss to his jaw. He didn't even spare her a side glance and she sneered at his poorly concealed discomfort. Still he kept sentinel with the patience of a gargoyle perched upon a cathedral. She had always found him unmoving as stone.

"You're so diligent..." she murmured against his ear before trailing down his neck.

"Karin-"

"Concentrate." She taunted. Cracks she wasn't privy to before made his eyes close and breathing hitch. Not as unmoving as originally thought. She tried to maintain her pout when he recovered, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger.

She raised an eyebrow under the inquisition of his stare. His eye contact was so intense it was almost sultry. "Smoke her out."

She raised her arms with the zeal of worship. "Thank you."

She stopped her teasing and began digging through her bag. Even Sasuke wasn't as alluring as avoiding an all-nighter.

It was simple enough. Karin would claim to have found Ami's missing wallet to the doorman. Ami would have no choice but to come down and verify the wallet. Meanwhile Sasuke would break into her vacant apartment. She glanced to the letterboxes on the left hand wall. Thankfully there was only one Ami in the building; Ami Takahashi on floor 3 which matched their intel.

"Excuse me, I found a wallet belonging to an Ami Takahashi, her papers say she lives in this building. I would like to return it."

The doorman turned from his lock up with an accommodating smile. "Thank you for your honesty. I will hold it for her until morning."

Karin straightened up to her most imposing height and drew the wallet to her chest. It was going to take a little more persuasion. "How do I know you're not going to steal it?" she accused rudely.

The man looked shocked. "I assure you Miss, that as a keeper of this building I will present it to her first thing in the morning-"

She intended to cause as big a ruckus as possible. "Oh I see what's going on. You plan to steal her papers and sell them to some foreign terrorists! This is identity theft! I should report you."

He paused as if deeply wounded by the accusation and came to terms with a solution. "Would it put your mind at ease if you gave her the wallet directly?"

Karin folded her arms triumphantly. "Very much so! Get her now. I'm not following a man I don't trust."

Proudly she watched him climb the stairs alone.

She could tell Ami recognised her. The woman took the wallet nervously and inspected it before deciding it was hers. After leaving Karin entered through the fire escape and made the climb to the third floor.

The bitter smell of cigarettes wafted through the apartment as Karin critiqued the surprisingly bare abode. Her eyes traced the bookcase that bowed with leather bound books to the mismatched armchairs and empty glass vase.

"I'm hardly home," Ami muttered, catching Karin's attention. Ami's hands shook as she took a long, deliberate drag. Their little stunt had frightened her but Sasuke got straight down to business and bombarded her with questions. It became apparent that The Autumn Leaf was still very much active.

"Where is Suishi?"

"He followed Danzo on his campaign."

Sasuke leaned back against the door. "Danzo's not in the city?"

"He's on the front. Shisui's gathering intelligence for our next attack. It's easier if he's close."

Ami suddenly looked excited, her eyes glinting fanaticism. Karin wondered what had caused this uptight, bookish woman to turn rouge against Danzo. What made her break autonomy with the rest of her nation?

"I heard what you two did," she said with a nod of recognition. "It was bad luck you got the body double but the Autumn Leaf is about to land something big. What Shisui has cooked up this time will work."

Sasuke was unaffected by her expectant tone. "How can you be so sure?"

"We're going to strike on Conquest day." Each word burst from her in a brilliant rush. Sasuke raised his eyebrows as if impressed but the reply meant nothing to Karin.

"Conquest day?" she asked.

"I forget that you are foreign," Ami said, delicately tapping the ash from her cigarette. "Before Danzo took power he attempted a coup against the Saratobi government by trying to seize the Tanzaku Quarters. Over two thousand of his supporters disguised themselves in masks and struck during a dancing festival on November the 3rd. Although a failure Danzo views it as the spark of his revolution and declared it a national holiday. We celebrate with a masquerade feast. Danzo always makes it a very public event."

"I see," Karin said piecing it all together. At a masquerade it would be easier for the Autumn Leaf to remain anonymous and would give greater access to the target. It was impossible to know the finer details but she could see the framework of a solid attempt.

Ami nodded and crushed her cigarette against the ashtray. "Shisui thinks it's the perfect time to strike. Danzo's honour bound to hold a ceremony. It's when security will be at its lowest. That being said the Autumn Leaf needs more manpower. Can we count on you?"

Sasuke didn't bother to consult Karin. "Of course."

When Ami smiled her lips thinned. "Shisui said you'd both prove valuable assets." They watched as she shuffled to the bookcase and fished through one of the volumes. Her search produced a sealed envelope. "In fact he figured you'd both track me down and asked if I could pass this on. It's his address and date he expects you if you want to remain involved."

Sasuke took the envelope, hesitating as if something wasn't adding up. It became his concern as he asked Ami who Shisui was staying with and if he was safe.

"He's staying with his fiancée. I'd say he's not only safe but happy."

When they returned to the village they split up to find more information on Itachi. Sasuke joined a bunch of members roaming the street and Karin went to find Deidara in his studio. She was disappointed to find it empty and stood in front of her mother's plate to think. Suddenly a fresh mound of clay caught her eye and she had an inane urge to sculpt it. I'll show him pedestrian, she thought. It had been years since she had shaped clay but the practice couldn't all be lost.

When she sat down she noticed a sheet barely covering coils. Beneath it she found a new centipede statue lying on its side, possibly to replace the one lost in the blacksmith fire. She investigated the craftsmanship, finding the statue was in fact hollow with an open base. Then how did they end up so heavy? She dragged her gaze over a sheet of metal and a large funnel near the antenna. There were more funnels on a shelf holding strange jars filled with amber liquid and small wooden bowls with white powder. She slowly spun out a theory and picked up a jar.

The liquid smelt pungent and faintly acidic but she couldn't place the scent. Carefully she took some water and added a few drops to the jar. She backed up when a small fire erupted. The water acted as a catalyst, mimicking what had happened in the village fire. The jar blackened around the lip as she nervously waited for it to burn out. She carefully took a pinch of powder and dropped it into the solution. She backed up when the glass split. Her suspicions churned together and Karin paled.

Deidara filled the statues with the amber liquid, casting them with a metal bottom before coating them in the explosive powder. When the statues cracked they detonated and left an unquenchable fire in their wake. The whole village was filled with the statues and a ticking bomb.

"So you've figured it out."

Recognising the voice she took a deep breath. She slowly turned to see Deidara blocking the door, a perverse smirk plastering his face. She was wary of the small dog statue in his arms, balling her hands up nervously.

"Figured what out?" She tried to play dumb with a coy head tilt, curious gaze. Deidara's head shake made her ploy transparent as ice.

"The artists scope, the magnum opus, my very own fleeting slice of infinity."

She slowly edged backwards as he offered up the Jindo, its ears triggered on alert and tail curled. "They will remember my name."

In a blur he launched the statue and the studio erupted.

Karin crept around the shipping containers of the warehouse. Her ears were ringing from the explosion, making it difficult to pinpoint Deidara. She relied heavily on her eyes and held a steady grip on her kunai. She was fortunate to have been able to use the eruption in the studio as a cover and not be left a corpse.

She stilled and flattened against sacks of fertilizer when she spotted him. Without her bow she wasn't confident in making a clear shot.

"I know you are still in here! Hiding like a coward!"

She could be a coward but he was an idiot for giving away his position. She took the opportunity to move, edging closer.

"Do you know why I was so particular about the placement of my statues?"

Her stomach dropped with the domino effect, one statue blasting the other to life in a chain. The village would be gone in a matter of seconds.

"You're quite the annoyance making me start early!" He made no effort to conceal his footsteps anymore. "Oh well. I'll just set it off now."

Sasuke was out there. Following Deidara she rolled past a container and landed in a crouched position. She had to stop Deidara at any cost and bet everything on his vision. He'd only searched for her so thoroughly because he didn't want to start yet. He had a plan, she compromised that.

She decided to misdirect his attention. Unable to find anything to throw she sacrificed one of her kunai, letting it clatter off metal lockers across the room. He looked but didn't stop; biting her lip she had no choice.

"Why is the Akatsuki doing this!"

She moved quickly to a new location, dashing into one of the open crates. She barely heard him run to her old spot, the success fear-inducing. She had his attention, now she had to keep it without dying.

"The Akatsuki?!" he hollered.

The Akatsuki were insane. What benefited blowing the village off the map? What happened to the Gato industry they wanted to corner? The fires were uncontrollable and would destroy many fields. They may as well just salt the earth and be done with it. Why waste all their resources buying soil and property?

"You think they could have come up with such genius?"

He was acting alone? Her mind was spinning when she made a break for a corridor she knew looped back around. If she could get behind him she'd have him.

She screeched to a halt when a giant clay tiger greeted her, fangs bared. She stumbled backwards only to gasp when she spotted Deidara at the end of the hall. She managed a few sprinted steps before there was a terrible heat behind her, the tiger igniting in an awful bang. She stumbled but kept running. She leapt out the corridor, trying to put as much distance and obstacles between them as possible. She took out a kunai, hissing when she noticed she was bleeding.

What if she left a blood trail? She may as well have given him a detailed map of her location.

"It's no use now."

She froze when she noticed a carefully crafted tentacle near her left foot. She swallowed, following it along to the hooded figure of a giant squid. It was reared up as if ready to spray ink, its lone eye piercing her.

"Do. Not. Move."

Her eyes darted to Deidara as he approached her. If she tried to run he'd throw a kunai at the squid, killing her. If she stayed he'd try to disarm her. Despite his orders she kept backing up as he got closer, confident she'd be able to deflect the kunai in his hand. He entered the blast radius fearlessly.

"Drop your weapon."

She screamed when a Kunai swung through the air and embedded in Deidara's shoulder. She turned to its origin of trajectory to find Sasuke atop a crate, poised with another kunai. He didn't know the statues were explosive, that he was going to burn her to death with one fatal crack.

Deidara's laughter echoed throughout the warehouse.

"Sasuke-!"

She only managed mere steps and Sasuke's name before he released another kunai. Deidara deflected, burying it into the hood of the squid.

Everything seared white.

She wailed hopelessly. Surrounded by flames her body was a bundle of reflex, rolling on the floor and tearing affected clothing. Still the fire spread until her back was blistering pain. Sasuke appeared periodically like a mirage she begged to vanquish. She shouted at him not to touch her and screamed when he tried to throw water on her. "NO!"

He would have lit her up like an effigy. She resided herself to a slow death. Deidaria was right. She was a coward.

Still it came too quickly. The air above her became the pitch, moist darkness of earth. Motionlessly she was held in place, her airways packed with dirt. She was crushed and eroding, smothered by her worse nightmare. The mind still nagged, pronouncing her buried alive.

Then she was viciously pulled out the darkness by her hair. She took gasping breaths to find she wasn't dead but had been buried. She was knee deep in a flash flood of fertilizer, a bay broken and still spilling at the mouth. Sasuke's arms were wrapped around her, the fire that had licked her body gone.

She collapsed outside the burning warehouse. Sasuke's shouts were answered with her stunned silence, her complete exhaustion. She watched the crumbling warehouse through cracked lenses, imagining everything that had happened inside being torn down with it. She had almost died. She tried to make amends with that as quickly as fire was consuming timber. Then a glinting fragment of blue caught her attention in the rubble. It was now the jagged piece of a wrecked puzzle. A spoiled slither embedded so deeply into her heart it could only ever tear.

It had been her mother's plate.

She burst into tears. The type of crying she could never abide, the body shaking, hopelessly sobbing mess she'd cut out of herself so ruthlessly. Why had she survived? What separated her from the other piled corpses of her village? Why was someone wholesomely good like her mother doomed to damnaito memoriae?

She quivered pathetically when Sasuke carefully wiped her tears away. Such weakness should disgust him but his careful embrace made her realise the failing they could never tolerate in themselves was the others to cherish.

"I will always protect you. Always." The fierceness in his voice struck hard. She never thought Sasuke would seriously care for her. Soon she was shrinking into his body, believing entirely.

MetaMirage: These chapters are getting pretty long huh. So... Deidara's chemical concoction might have been a thinly veiled version of Greek Fire. I'm steadily becoming more obsessed with the weaponry in this story as no chakra would equal creative and advanced technology. As always please review :)