For the guest who reviewed that this is a humor story, I agree now that I've reread it all xD I write pretty much how I talk, so I guess it's funny in a weird way. In Sasuke Shinden we see Sasuke gain a slight dry sense of humor, so I'm okay with it!
I however think it's still a hurt/comfort story too, so I added humor to the description :)
Without further ado! Enjoy!
Sasuke has always thought of himself as a smart man, he really has. Now, even in his academy days he'd admit (only to himself) that Sakura Haruno was one of the only people in his life he considered smarter than him. In his genin days Shikamaru's genius weaseled its way up there with Sakura and the jonin. Regardless of all that, Sasuke still had always known he was a genius, maybe not as much as Itachi, but a genius nonetheless.
So why, oh why, had he only asked if Orochimaru would be at this hide out?! The stupidity of his optimism was something he could only blame on Sakura, as she looked at him half about to fall over laughing and half about to murder someone.
The moment they had gotten near the hide out near the Hidden Grass, a little after dark, the very one Sakura had pointed out that she'd seen him for the first time in when they were 15; the most annoying woman in the world had come bouncing out of the exposed rock doors.
And he may have several times referred to his companion as the most annoying woman in the world, but that was good annoying, you see. To Sasuke Uchiha, every person on this planet was annoying, some he didn't care about, like his fan girls, some were good annoying like Naruto, Sakura and most of his comrades, and then there was Karin.
Fucking Karin.
Now, he knew part of his redemption counted for her as well, he'd come a lot closer to killing her than he did to any other comrade. And it's not that he hated her, looking back on his life he had realized about a year ago that Itachi had always been right; he'd never really hated anyone, other than Danzou and the other village Elder's. But they were all gone now. He'd seen to Danzou's destruction himself and the other two elders had mysteriously been exiled from the Land of Fire the same day Itachi's name had been added to the Uchiha monument more than two years ago. He never knew who was behind it, but Sakura and Tsunade's smug smiles had clued him in a little bit.
So he could admit in his new self-aware state, that he neither hated this woman nor wanted her dead, but he did want her to get off of him right now.
"Sasuke-kuuuun!" the red-head cooed loudly, "I missed you sooooo much! Why are you here? Oh never mind! Come on, come on! Let's get you inside, you probably need a bath! I'll set one up! Oh, do you need help? Only having one arm, I'm sure you do! I would be happy to help, as your physician!"
She literally did not shut up (he was becoming slightly worried she hadn't breathed either), the entire way into the hide out. As she led them through the labyrinth he knew all too well, she clung onto his good arm so he couldn't push her off like he used to. If she noticed Juugo and Sakura, she hadn't let on yet.
"Karin, get off," he tried in a calm tone, but she continued on with her ramblings as she led them to the updated, and he had to admit much brighter than before, living quarters.
"Karin, off!" he was louder and clearly showing his disdain now.
Never discouraged enough, she simply tsked as she moved away from him to unlock a door. "You're no fun, Sasuke-kun! I was just being friendly!"
"If you were being friendly, you could have greeted us as well, Karin-san." It was Juugo who spoke up behind him. He could feel Sakura's amused scowl behind him as well.
"Oh right, Pinky, Bipolar, what'cha doing here too?" Karin threw over her shoulder as they follow her into a long hall of new looking bedrooms. At the end of the hall was where he remembered a large empty room with only a snake skeleton had once resided. Now, it seemed Karin had redecorated and made it into a very large but plain looking modern living room. The woman had even convinced the old snake creep to get her a TV he noticed.
Sakura stopped at his side at the entrance to the room and cleared her throat. "Hello to you too, Karin," she said with strained politeness and a twitching smile he'd been seeing since they were children. "Sasuke-kun and I just went and got Juugo-san, and I'd like to use your lab here to see if I can help Juugo-san with his condition."
Karin gave an incredulous laugh, "Help him? If Kabuto, Orochimaru-sama and I couldn't help him, what makes you think you can, Pinky?"
Sakura's not very well hidden anger boiled off of her as she said through gritted teeth, clearly showing behind her cracking smile, "You don't know the half of what I can do, Karin. I'd be happy to show you though."
Sasuke and Juugo exchanged glances, both knowing Karin's temper. They weren't worried about the redhead though. The pinkette was legendary, even to Juugo, having already surpassed her Sanin teacher, without enhancement and a blood line like he did, and without a tailed beast as Naruto had. She was a class of her own, and if they wanted the hide out to last much longer, they needed to stop the two annoying women immediately.
He sighed to himself, his journey was more entertaining with Sakura but he never had to constantly try to defuse bombs like this when he was alone. Pros and cons, he guessed, everyone had them.
Juugo was the first one to speak, his serene voice came out the moment Sasuke nodded, "Karin-san, we're very tired from our journey, perhaps you could show us to our rooms, and we can start the experiments Sakura-hime would like to preform tomorrow."
Sasuke could have face palmed. 'Good going Juugo, calling Sakura a princess in front of this woman.'
Karin seemed to not have noticed however, and her face lit up for a reason he couldn't discern. "Well, at least somebody is making sense. You guys get some rest, yeah!" She put her finger to her chin and gave an evil smile. "You can play at your science experiments tomorrow! Now, I have two bedrooms other than my own with furniture. Sorry! I wasn't expected company."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow as she blushed and walked up to him with her hands clasped in front of her. When she was close enough that she could smell the cinnamon off of her, she cooed in his ear, "Looks like we'll just have to share a room, Sasuke-kun!"
And that's all it took. Sasuke quickly had to form the Susanoo around himself and Karin, as Sakura's chakra filled punch came at the redhead. Everyone but Sakura gave a shocked gasp when her fist made contact, not from the fact that she lost her temper, they'd been waiting for that.
Her fist settled inside a crack she'd made in his ultimate armor. Her hand was lodged a good inch into the purple bones. Karin looked at Sasuke with unmistakable fear in her eyes, and he nodded. Hopefully that'd shut her up for the rest of his life. One could only hope.
When Sakura realized she'd almost killed the redhead and Sasuke as well, she backed away from the purple aura and started laughing in that nervous way that she had, while waving her arms.
Letting go of Karin and dispelling Susanoo, he nodded to the other two that all was safe; He quickly checked to make sure Juugo wasn't going to lose it next. Honestly, how did someone with her temper plan to fix Juugo's anger issues?
"Right, well. Karin, Sakura and I will take one of those rooms, Juugo, do as you wish."
With absolute, slightly terrified silence, they were shown their room just down the hall, and Sakura was pointed in the direction of the lab.
Once they were alone, "I've always liked Karin!" Sakura said happily to Sasuke.
He nearly fell over. "Explain," was all he could say to that.
"Oh, she's annoying, yeah. But so am I Sasuke-kun! After we found her back then we talked a few times. She's weird of course, but we all are. And she…" Sakura seemed to ponder how to put it to him so he'd understand her crazy line of thinking, "she reminds me a lot of how I used to be," she decided.
Sasuke thought about this long and hard as they unpacked their gear. "Then why'd you attack her just now?" seemed to be the most logical question he could think of.
"Why'd it take you both losing an arm to get you and Naruto to be best friends again?" she countered.
Well, she had him at that.
"I'm gonna go get some blood samples from Juugo-san and see what herbs Karin has here, don't wait up." Sakura told him, pulling out several scrolls marked with various medical symbols.
"Are you sure being alone with Karin is wise so soon?"
"She's only like that around you, we'll be fine." She winked and walked over to kiss his cheek, he hated the way it was left warm from her lips. He dismissed her with a forehead poke and went towards the bathroom before she even left.
The warm water from the shower did wonders for his sore muscles, though he had to admit he much rather being showering with a certain pinkette. With a sigh, he decided he'd indulged enough about 30 minutes into his shower and got out.
Sasuke wiped the condensation from the large mirror and looked at his reflection for the first time in days. His hair was still much longer over his Rinnegan eye, his normally pale complexion was slightly sun-tanned and his face seemed… brighter? He'd noticed it the last time he looked at himself too, in puddle back in Ametaiga. His face had looked happy, even if it was blank. The dark circles he'd become accustomed to seeing under his eyes were entirely gone. Sakura was even managing to change his appearance.
His eyes trailed down to the half arm at his left side and pondered Sakura's early rhetoric. Why'd it take you both losing an arm to get you and Naruto to be best friends again?
He didn't exactly have an answer for that, he'd been trying to come up with one every time he saw his half arm, or felt a phantom pain over the last two years.
He'd come up dry every time.
But what he did know, even the first time he'd woken up in the hospital and Tsunade had gone on about a limb replacement, was that he needed to keep it the way it was. Though he was unclear of the lessen losing this limb had taught him, he knew somehow that he needed to be reminded of it every day. He couldn't go back to how he was when he was a whole man, losing this arm had marked him gaining part of himself back.
Maybe that was it, he pondered as he shook his image from his head and moved to get dressed, maybe he just needed to reminded of what he had almost lost, what he had almost taken.
What he had almost become.
As he'd come to accept himself, he'd had to face the fact that he had, indeed wanted to kill Naruto and Sakura. He had wanted them to be the first of the long list of people he'd kill to create his new world. He couldn't simply deny it and shove it aside as a fluke as Naruto had done, and told him to do. He had to embrace the fact that he had wanted them to die, and die by his hand. By remembering and accepting that fact, he was sure to never make the same decisions that led him to that line of thinking ever again.
When he was fully dressed and sleeping nor eating seemed to sound like a good idea at the moment, he decided to go find Sakura and Karin and make sure everything was up to snuff. He hadn't heard any screams or explosions, so nothing bad had happened yet, he surmised, but always better safe than sorry.
As he walked in the direction of the lab Karin had earlier pointed out, he was once again taken aback by how much even this place had changed. Though still creepy and bringing back bad memories, he had to admit it seemed so much more vibrant, maybe even full of life.
Even if one of the world's most crazy and annoying person lived here.
He nearly tripped over his own feet when he heard the unmistakable laugh of the girl he was now fully convinced he was in love with mixed with the cackle of the redhead he wished he could hate. As he rounded the corner and walked through the opened door, he found them both looking into microscopes, with sake in hand, laughing with each other.
"Sasuke-kun!" they both blurted out in unison, which only served to make them both laugh even louder.
Honestly, he'd left her alone for only about an hour, and she'd already made friends with a woman who he'd expected to hate her, and was very clearly drunk. He honestly couldn't take the woman anywhere!
"Hn, Sakura," when she gave him a scolding look over her alcohol flushed cheeks he added, "Karin."
"We're almost done for the night, darling!" Sakura said in a voice that reminded him of bells. She blushed when she realized she'd called him darling, but seemed to be pleasantly surprised when he didn't comment, and only walked up to tap her forehead.
Karin said nothing, but seemed to hold some form of warmth he couldn't place as she looked at the couple. What had happened while he was showering? "Want a drink, Sasuke-kun?" the woman offered.
"Hn," was his reply as she poured him a big glass of his own, he quickly gave Sakura a look to make sure it was safe to drink it to which she nodded, and reveled in the burn down his throat as he gulped the whole thing.
Pouring himself another, he settled at the couch in the corner and watched women laughing and talking about Ino and new medical advances since the war, and running tests on Juugo's blood together. Whatever had happened while he was in the shower, it seemed Karin shared the same feelings Sakura had, and even called her by her name about half the time.
About two hours into their "party" as Karin had called it, though drinking in front of microscopes only seemed to be an entertaining pastime of theirs and the fifth Hokage's so he didn't really agree to that sentiment, Sakura excused herself to go to bed, wobbling out of the room with a giggle. He was about to follow her, when an idea racked at his brain.
"Karin," he called out, trying with all of his might to keep the slurring out of his voice, if she knew he was drunk, she might try to rape him or something, and though he'd be able to put a stop to it, he would not be able to put a stop to Sakura's fists as easily.
The redhead stopped her tidying set up of the lab for the night and looked over at him, adjusting her glasses. "Yes, Sasuke-kun?"
"What happened when I was in the shower?" Hopefully she'd be more candid than he could Sakura to.
She giggled and went to sit down at the opposite side of the couch. "We got drunk," was all she seemed to have to say.
Okay, maybe with different wording? By god, this woman would explain something to him, and why wasn't she being annoying (not that he minded), was it the alcohol? He hated being in the dark about anything, which he admitted was hypocritical as he'd kept everyone who cared about him in the dark for most of his life. "You two seem friendly now?" he made sure to put the question in his voice.
"Yes."
With a sigh, "Karin."
"It was her chakra, and Naruto-kun's, and well, all of the Hidden Leaf's chakra," she explained. He raised an eyebrow, showing her he wasn't following. "It was so warm, and when she saved my life, when you tried to kill me…" she trailed off and pushed up her glasses.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
She nodded, "She was crying when she saved me. She could have probably achieved her goal if she had killed me, but she saved me and cried instead," she explained further with a sad smile.
"So that's why you're friends now?" He tried to ignore the stabbing in his chest from the memory of having almost killed them both. So Sakura had cried that day too? Of course she had. He mentally added those tears to the growing list of tears he had to make up for with her smiles.
"No, there's a lot you don't know about women, Sasuke-kun." He snorted his affirmation to that one, causing her to smile more brightly. "I thought I loved you, maybe I did, maybe I do… I'm not sure."
He averted his gaze at that; the word love had always made him uncomfortable, even from Sakura.
"But she knows. And we were rivals, even if we didn't know each other, rivals for your love and attention. But the thing about her and me is, I didn't even want your love, or your happiness. I just selfishly wanted you."
He scoffed, seemed true enough, but nodded for her to continue.
"But she cried for me, and for you. She loved you so much she was willing to kill you to stop what that path you were taking, while I just blindly made it worse, so you'd stay with me. I wouldn't have even minded if you'd have killed me."
He knew he was staring, but this side of Karin was so raw, so new to him, he couldn't help it. If she'd have ever talked to him like this before, maybe they could have been real friends, never lovers, but friends.
"So anyway, the thing you need to know about rivals for love is, you're only rivals until one of you wins. And she won." She waved her hand like this didn't bother her in the least. "But a girl like her would have smiled and been happy for you even if you had chosen me, or another, or no one at all. As long as you were happy, she would have smiled and been happy just because you were. So I'm gonna try that Sasuke-kun!" She turned to face him, giving him a genuine, and he had to admit pretty smile. "As long as you're happy, I'll be happy for you!"
She got up and walked away to continue her tidying. He was dumbfounded with all of this new information, and decided to get his drunken ass to bed. Just as he reached the door, Karin's call stopped him and he turned to face her.
"But Sasuke-kun, if she ever makes you unhappy, I'll be waiting. Kaaay Sasuke-kuuuun?" she cooed in her annoying manner, winking at him.
She was back to her old self now, but Sasuke couldn't find it in himself to be annoyed at it, so he just smiled and said "Whatever, Karin," as he waved her away.
Maybe like that, they could actually be friends. And like most wondrous things in this new life of his, it was all thanks to that damned annoying woman he found passed out in the chair beside their bed, with only one pant leg off.
If she could do that to him and Karin, he had little doubts she'd be able to completely fix Juugo in no time.
Sigh... I hate Karin... I really do, but I tried to write her in character, but a little less cringy. I don't character bash in my stories, so I didn't want to be like aaaah fuck Karin, ya'know?
This is how I see her becoming their actual friends, let me know if you agree!
As always, have a great day, and let me know what you think! :D