Ink's Notes:
It is 12:45 AM, but I can't sleep because I took a three-hour nap today, so I spent some time writing and now I have a this. Fight scenes have never been my forte, but I suppose I needa work on it eventually. Here we go!
Also, when I wasn't looking, the story reached 100 favs? Dear gods you guys I didn't think this would wind up becoming so popular o-o;; Um, do you think I should do something special to celebrate, or maybe make omake chapters, or something? Thoughts? I feel like I should celebrate somehow...
Krazyfanfiction1: HER WORLD WILL SHATTER AROUND HER. BREAK, MY PRETTY, BREAK, AHAHAHAHAHA-
The Keeper of Worlds: That would be an... interesting experience, but I'm not sure how likely it is to happen. Depends how long it takes Marco to figure out how to fight the Sharingan, I guess.
Cyricist001: Well, we have Karin vs Vivi now, so we'll see how it goes. As far as Sasuke's treatment... well, when you pity someone, you help them along, no matter how subtly it is, and around Chunin exams he started getting practically handed power-ups (cursed seal, chidori, etc). With the whole Gaara thing... I feel like that wasn't really explained that well, Kakashi could have gone to Naruto and said "Hey, I'm doing the thing because of this, but I've contacted a guy who can help you and he'll probably be here like tomorrow or something, but in the meantime you can train with this guy to go over the stuff you missed at the academy, and once the exams are over I can give you a proper training session but for now I needa make sure Sasuke doesn't die," y'know what I'm saying? I guess that whole bit just frustrates me, though.
Allykrau: I feel like the series won't end when they find the One Piece, somehow. Like, not in the sense that it'll keep going, but in the sense that it'll be the catalyst for the finale. Y'know?
rainwolf024: We'll see how Sakura vs Tashigi plays out when it gets there, but for now... RED HAIR VS BLUE HAIR PLACE YOUR BETS
Fairy of the Friz: ...are... are you okay?
Skipper917: WELL HERE IS THE NEXT CHAPTER~
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Karin looked her opponents up and down, focusing her senses on the blue haired woman and her abnormally large duck. The two didn't look like much, but she needed to be sure – Tashigi hadn't looked like much either, and she'd been able to match up to Sasuke with swordsmanship alone, no matter how short the fight had been.
Karin frowned. Her sensory skills were largely useless against people from wherever it was that Tashigi was from. They only had the most basic of chakra pathways, and even then those pathways clearly weren't useable. When she was feeling them out, she was able to tell where they were because there was a lack of chakra flowing in their position, not the other way around. In fact, as she tried to sense out her opponents, she noticed that they didn't even seem to have anything vaguely resembling chakra at all. Karin strained her senses to see if she could pick up on anything, any sign that her opponents were about to do something, to the point where she began to feel the other people in the clearing as well. Her expression changed as she noticed that, besides that Shinobi the group they were facing off against had been traveling with (hadn't Sasuke called her Sakura?), there were two other people in her group who had chakra.
…No, Karin mused to herself. It wasn't chakra. It just felt like it to the untrained senses. Behind her, the feeling was very close to chakra, but it felt empty, depressing and hollow. In front of her, facing off against Sasuke, what she could only describe as gentle yet passionate flames that seemed to act and react like chakra would.
Flames that had such a high degree of sheer rage that it made her shiver. She needed to get past this woman and her duck so she could help Sasuke. He had the Sharingan, yes, but the man before him wasn't a Shinobi. If what she'd vaguely caught Tashigi saying to that Sakura woman was true, he was a pirate. A pirate who had something almost like fire instead of chakra. A pirate whose techniques weren't jutsu, whose fighting style they knew nothing about, whose abilities they knew even less about.
A pirate who was barely masking his rage, who was furious, who was directing all of that towards Sasuke…
Karin needed to move, to at least warn him of the danger that he was in. She adjusted her stance and moved forwards, only to be intercepted by the woman's duck. While she'd been musing over what to do, she'd lost track of the woman, who was nowhere to be seen, but Karin needed to get to Sasuke. She readied her kunai, only to get pecked in the face by the duck's large bill. Stumbling backwards, she brought the kunai upwards to swipe at the duck, which jumped backwards in response. When her arm was in the air, she felt something wrap around it and pull it backwards, and Karin yelped from both the uncomfortable position and the feeling of cool metal piercing her skin. She turned her head to see the woman behind her, one arm holding and pulling a string of sorts, the other spinning a peacock slasher and readying herself to attack. Karin followed the path of the string to her arm, where another peacock slasher had been wrapped around her wrist. Karin took a step towards the woman, turning her body and arm as she did to a more comfortable position. She dropped her kunai so she could grip the wire around her wrist as she moved her arm, wincing from the razor-sharp wire, but ignoring the pain. The blue-haired woman seemed to understand her intentions, though, and as Karin tugged the wire to pull her off balance, she simply ran forwards with the movement, wrapping her hand around and gripping the wire as well. With the distance rapidly closing between them, Karin prepared another kunai, only to pick up on the duck in her sensory range and have to drop under him swiping a wing at her head, leaving her open to the blue-haired woman slamming her knee into her gut.
Karin coughed, forcing herself to keep a firm grip on the woman's weapon as she smirked and looked up at her. The woman herself didn't seem to be afraid, as far as her senses could tell, and if anything she had a blazing determination to help the people around her. Karin mentally cursed herself for being a support type, before straightening out and deciding to try a different tactic.
"Why won't you let me help him?" she asked, slowly and methodically reaching for another weapon. "He's precious to me. I don't want him to get hurt too badly."
The woman frowned in response, tugging on the wire that was keeping them close to one another. Karin winced in pain, but attempted to keep a friendly disposition while dealing with the woman.
"Your friend hurt one of mine," she responded. "I've learned a lot of things in my travels, but if one thing stands out, it's that only the worst of the worst insult others' nakama." The duck quacked in agreement as Karin's hand reached her weapon pouch. "So you, who support such a man, are either being fooled or are just as bad as he is."
Upon hearing those words, Karin decided to completely forgo even the premise of being friendly, grabbing a kunai from her pouch and positioning it in her hand. "How dare you! Sasuke is far greater than you could ever know!" She brought the kunai towards the woman, only to have to adjust at the last minute as the duck attempted to peck her again. The woman reached out and grabbed Karin's hand, holding it firmly in place even as the kunai pierced her skin while the duck quacked out in panic, flailing and checked her over.
"It's okay, Carue. I'm fine. Don't worry about me," she smiled at the duck that was apparently named Carue, who gave an overly dramatic sigh of relief. The woman then turned her attention back to Karin. "Listen to yourself! You're praising him when he insulted our group right in front of you! Why do you follow him!? What kind of hold does he have over you that makes you so willing to take his side no matter what he says or does?!" Karin felt the passion of the woman's emotions even as she struggled against her grip, in an attempt to break free and fight back. "A good man doesn't insult other people's nakama! Stop this nonsense! Nobody has to get hurt!"
Karin slowly felt herself stop struggling as the woman's words and emotions hit close to home. Was it possible that she was right? That Sasuke wasn't really the man she thought he was, that had saved her so long ago? She felt her body shaking even as the woman slowly released her, and she fell to her knees, staring at the ground. Much to her surprise, the woman put away her weapons and offered her hand with a smile, and her senses told her that there was no hostile intent behind the motion.
"What am I supposed to do?" she slowly asked, staring at the woman's hand. "If he's really that sort of person… if that's really the case… what do I do with my life?"
"Find your nakama," the woman smiled, reaching down and taking Karin's hand in her own. "They're out there somewhere. I was at my worst point when I found mine, and not only did they save me, but they saved my home as well."
Karin allowed herself to be helped to her feet and slowly nodded. "…My name is Karin," she forced herself to say with a weak smile.
The blue haired woman smiled in response. "Vivi. It's a pleasure to meet you."
So... I wasn't quite sure how to go about this at first. See, Karin doesn't do much fighting, especially in the area of the series that this is slated to take place in - so we don't really get a gauge on her combat abilities, aside from that she's a healer and a sensor. Her specialty is supporting others, so when she's facing off against two opponents who work in perfect sync with one another, she's going to have at least a little bit of trouble. Vivi, on the other hand, I have absolutely no way of knowing how strong she is in comparison to the others. Her last visible fight was way back in Alabasta, but it's been at least two years since that happened, and who's to say she didn't also train during the time skip to help keep her country safe? Ultimately, I decided a battle of words and wills was better suited to these two... and in doing so I accidentally paved the course for the rest of the fights as well.
What do I mean by that? Well... you'll see next time.
-Ink
