Chapter 21

A few days later, Karin heard from Hinata that Sasuke's team had returned to the village. They were all okay, although Sasuke had apparently almost died. She still wasn't completely sure of the details, so she asked Karin if she wanted to go see Naruto with her. Karin agreed, although she felt really anxious about seeing Sasuke again.

Karin found Naruto at the Hokage's headquarters. As soon as Naruto saw Hinata, his entire face lit up. He nearly crushed her with a big bear hug.

"I missed you so much," he groaned into Hinata's ear.

"Na-naruto-kun!" Hinata yelped, blushing.

"Naruto, you're either going to kill your girlfriend or kill me from the mushy-ness overload," Karin said, snapping an embarrassed Naruto out of his lovey-dovey state.

"Heh heh, sorry Cuz. How are you doing?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Fine, thanks. It's been a bit boring around here without you. But now that you're back, I'm assuming things are taken care of. Is…Orochimaru-sama…?" Karin asked hesitantly.

"If you mean he's gone for good, I'm not sure. Sakura-chan did something really amazing with medical ninjutsu to incapacitate Orochimaru; I was fighting Kabuto but he saw what happened and went after Sakura-chan like mad. Sasuke ended up taking a really huge blow for her, which put him out for awhile. That actually ended up working to our advantage because they didn't want Sasuke dead, so they basically surrendered. Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, and I tried to talk things out with them, but in the end, Sasuke sealed both Kabuto and Orochimaru in an alternate dimension using some genjutsu. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but what they were going to do to Sasuke was really freaky…I don't even know if I should tell you…"

"I've worked under Orochimaru for years. I've seen all of his horrific experiments and I was part of them myself. Nothing you tell me will traumatize me further at this point," Karin replied.

Naruto sighed. "They basically had about a hundred girls with special bloodlines locked away in cells. Some of them were as young as twelve; it was horrifying. Their intent was to impregnate them all with Sasuke's…uhhh…you know." Naruto's face turned bright red as he looked away. Hinata looked utterly repulsed. "Orochimaru wanted to create his own hidden village and breed an elite shinobi army. Needless to say, doing that without Sasuke's consent didn't fly well."

"Yeah, I basically could guess as much, but I had no idea that Orochimaru had kidnapped that many women for that purpose. That's perverted, but it's not surprising. Sasuke did the right thing; too many people have suffered because of that bastard," said Karin coldly.

"I can't argue with you there," Naruto agreed.

"So where are your teammates? I know they're around," Karin questioned.

"Uh, well Kakashi-sensei is talking to Tsunade-sama about what happened and why Sasuke sent Orochimaru and Kabuto to another dimension even after they'd been incapacitated instead of holding them for questioning. Sasuke is in the hospital and Sakura-chan…uhhh…I actually don't know where she is. Strange… she told me she was going to talk to Tsunade-sama about providing health assistance to all of the kidnapped women…"

Karin focused on finding Sakura's chakra. She smelled a faint scent of cherry blossoms and felt a fire-and-ice sensation. "She's with Sasuke," Karin stated.

"Alone?" Naruto asked, a bit wide-eyed.

"As far as I know, yeah," Karin said.

"That's really interesting. There's been…uhhh…how should I say this…a lot of tension between them lately," Naruto said hesitantly, trying to find the right words.

"And I'm sure that includes the sexual kind," Karin said nonchalantly, causing Naruto to freak out.

"It's-it's not like that! Okay, maybe Sakura-chan may kinda sorta still be into him but he doesn't care! He's like, 'I'm too cool for you because I love Karin so much!'"

"Do you think I was born yesterday?" Karin asked raising an eyebrow. "Sasuke would never say that."

"You're right…shit. But he, uh, portrays it in his body language! Yeah!" Naruto laughed nervously.

"Eh, well, we'll see. I've been looking for a good excuse to break up with him anyways and this might be it." Karin shrugged as she started walking in the direction of the exit.

Naruto gasped. "No way! I'm going to have to be there for Sasuke's emotional support!"

"You lying liar. You just want to see him get dumped," Karin retorted.

"Yeah, kinda." Naruto snorted a bit. He wrapped his arm around Hinata and gloated, "Especially because I have a girlfriend and he doesn't!"

Hinata nonchalantly moved Naruto's arm over her head and off her back. "You know I love you, Naruto-kun, but I am not going to be a pawn in your unhealthy lifelong bromance…I mean…battle…with Sasuke-kun."

Naruto gasped. "HINATA!" Karin chuckled. "See? She's secretly quite sassy now, isn't she?"

"You're…you're not breaking up with me too, are you?" Naruto pouted. Karin and Hinata looked at each other and laughed.

"Yup. She's totally breaking up with you because she hates you and your orange jumpsuit is embarrassing her," Karin teased.

"I know, I mean it's so obvious how much I hate Naruto-kun. He's just so cowardly and lame and ugly. I can't help but faint around him because he is just so disgusting," Hinata giggled.

"Haha. Not funny, you two. You stop corrupting my girlfriend, ya' hear, Cuz?"

"No worries; Hinata was corrupted long before she met me. Don't you worry, Naruto boy, Hinata has some quite detailed plans about what she wants to do to you—" Karin started mischievously, but Hinata covered her mouth. Her cheeks and ears were burning.

"I just remembered that I have a family meeting in a half hour. Better get going!" Hinata ran off with her head to the ground. Naruto just stood there blinking.

"I am so confused."

"Well, that's because you're a dumbass, but Hinata loves you anyways. You still coming with me to spy on Sausage and Pinky?"

"Yes, but only because you just called Sasuke a sausage and you are officially my favorite cousin now."

Karin laughed.

Karin really didn't know what to expect or how she would react to Sasuke. Knowing him, she didn't expect him to be doing anything lovey dovey with Sakura, but maybe he would surprise her today. Karin secretly hoped that she didn't walk in on anything like that—not because it would make her jealous, but because she wanted to be the one to dump Sasuke. She couldn't let him have an edge on her.

They finally approached the room. Naruto banged loudly on the door. "Sasuke! It's me and Karin! Can we come in?" They both heard quiet whispers and what might have been some sniffles, but no answer.

Naruto and Karin looked at each other.

"Should I open the door anyways?" Naruto whispered.

"I wouldn't have even knocked," Karin replied.

"Damn, I hope Sakura-chan doesn't punch me. You owe me ramen if she punches me, okay?"

"Okay."

Naruto gulped and opened the door. Sakura was sobbing into Sasuke's chest, while Sasuke held her shoulders, looking utterly burnt out. Karin had never seen him look this….vulnerable.

"Ummmm…sorry for intruding!" Naruto laughed sheepishly. Sasuke just looked at him. Then he looked away.

"Karin, just give us a minute. I want to talk to you," he said calmly.

"Uh, sure," mumbled Karin as she quietly closed the door. There was an awkward silence.

"Well, that was awkward," Naruto said, trying to diffuse the tension.

"Yeah, but it looks like Sasuke is finally sorting things out like a normal human being. He doesn't show his feelings easily, but when he does, I think it really overwhelms him," Karin observed.

"Yeah. But that's the strength of Sakura-chan's feelings for ya'. I think he's only figuring out now how lucky he is," he said quietly, feigning a lopsided smile.

"Does it upset you?" Karin asked.

Naruto paused. "Upset is not the right word; it's more like a bittersweet feeling. I think it's great that they may find happiness with each other, but I think it will be a bit more lonely for me around them….which is silly, because I have Hinata and so many other friends. I am definitely falling for Hinata, don't get me wrong, but it's hard to get over your first crush..." Naruto's voice trailed off.

"It's not silly; I know exactly how you feel. There are different kinds of love; you don't have to feel bad about loving more than one person at once."

Naruto looked at Karin. "What about you? How do you feel?"

"I feel…content," Karin replied.

And that was that….

…until Sakura slammed open the door, yelled, "NARUTTTTO YOU DUMMY!" and punched him square in the face.

"On second thought," he muttered, looking up at Karin with a black eye, "I'm content too."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sakura snapped. She looked at Karin, "I'm sorry about that, Karin. It must have looked like—"

"Oh, I don't care if you were just having a heart to heart or were shoving your tongue down his throat. Give me five minutes with him and then he's all yours." Karin shrugged as a blushing Sakura was rendered speechless.

She walked through the door to Sasuke's room and took a deep breath.