Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit and five more shits.

Karin was there.

Sasuke could just picture how this was going to go down. Karin would take one look at Sakura, become instantly territorial, a massive catfight would ensue and both girls would wind up in jail. He honestly didn't know who would win if it came to blows. Sakura was scrappy (he could personally attest to that) but Karin was a madwoman. She behaved as if she owned Sasuke, and reacted to his being around other women with violence; she took her job of possessing him very seriously, and if it came down to it, he knew she would fight with the strength of a mother lifting a car off of her child.

It didn't matter that he had never done anything with Karin, never even considered it. In her mind, they belonged together and no amount of cruelly-voiced rejection would get through to her.

He and Sakura pulled away from each other in time for Karin to stalk up the stairs and throw open the bathroom door. She was wearing a tight-fitting black dress and red heels, her hair was the same as he remembered it, and her makeup was heavily, artfully applied. She beamed at him through black glasses, then saw Sakura, and her eyes narrowed.

"Hey!" she snapped. "What goes on here?"

Sakura blanched before her eyes narrowed. Fuck, this is bad, thought Sasuke, as she pushed him to the side and neared Karin.

"I don't know who you are," Sakura said, squinting hard at Karin as she advanced on her. "But I just want to know one thing."

Sasuke inwardly groaned. He was going to have to spend the night at the police station bailing Sakura out of jail. All his hopes of a wild, exciting night with her flew out the window as he mentally calculated if he'd have enough money to post bail.

The girls glared at one another before Sakura asked her question.

"Did you get that dress at Forever 21?"

Sasuke smacked his forehead.

Karin, whom he had only ever known to be territorial and aggressive, changed tact completely. Her previous animosity towards the strange girl wrapped around her Sasuke-kun vanished in the wake of a talk about fashion, of all things, and she replied brightly, "Oh, yeah, I got it offline, it isn't in stores yet. Do you like it? They had it in pink and blue, too, but I figured with my hair, you know, it would clash."

"Oh no, black was definitely a good choice!" Sakura replied. "It looks great on you, especially with those heels. I love colorful heels with a neutral outfit!" She indicated her own pink heels and Karin gushed.

"They're great, are they the ones from Charlotte Russe?"

"Yes! I got them marked down because there was a scuff on the side, but I painted over it with nail polish and you can't really tell so I'm awesome. I'm Sakura by the way, who are you?"

"My name's Karin! Nice to meet someone who knows their shit like I do!" The two girls shook hands and Sasuke stared at them with his mouth agape. He'd been prepared for a million outcomes following the inevitable confrontation between Sakura and Karin, and all of them ended in violence and hellfire and damnation. This was an outcome he did not expect: instant, feminine friendship.

"So you're one of Sasuke-kun's friends? From Oto High?" Sakura was smiling as she slid her hand through Sasuke's, and he glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. She was not overtly possessive, but the gesture conveyed subtly that they were together. He liked it way, way more than he thought he should, so he didn't shake her off and call her a name.

Karin eyed their linked hands, sighed once, and then giggled almost in resignation.

"Yeah, the four of us, me and Sasuke and Suigetsu and Juugo, we all hung out a lot," she replied. "We missed you when you transferred back to Konoha, Sasuke. Whatsamatter? Couldn't slum it here anymore?"

There was no flirtatiousness in her voice, no animosity whatsoever, nothing to suggest that she was upset by Sasuke's ambiguous relationship with Sakura. He was stunned. For years, she'd chased him down with all the devotion and tenacity of a seasoned psychopath. And now, she flat-out accepted that he didn't reciprocate her affections, with nothing more than resignation?

He should have brought Sakura around years ago.

"Tch," he scoffed. "Karin."

Karin giggled and turned back to Sakura. "Suigetsu's calling just about everyone in Oto, they're starting to come in now. Party's starting downstairs. But Sakura your hair, is it natural?"

"Unfortunately," sighed Sakura, running a hand through her pink tresses. "Worst luck, right?"

"No, it's great! My hair blows. It doesn't hold dye so it's just stuck this awful red."

"The color's gorgeous, are you kidding me? And the cut's so edgy, I never saw that before but I want it. I cut my hair off years ago and just recently grew it out since you can't do anything with short hair but I would kill to be able to rock that style."

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose to combat an oncoming headache. He had not been prepared for the unlikely scenario that Sakura and Karin would hit it off right away. And now, forced to listen to what looked to be an hours-long conversation on hair, he almost wished they would have gone for the catfight.

xoxoxo

Ino had to hand it to Oto. They knew how to party.

In no time at all, Suigetsu's enormous house was flooded with teenagers from Konoha's rival school, most of them toting bottles of their own, along with a number of other illicit substances. Suigetsu's house boasted a killer sound system and one of the kids set up a DJ station and was blaring music from the living room. Everyone was dancing, grinding, flirting, drinking, making out, arguing. In short, an ideal house party. Even if Oto's reputation was somewhat unsavory, and she could sort of see why.

She was playing a game of beer pong against a girl with hot pink hair and a foul mouth, surrounded by people. If there was one sport at which Ino would completely dominate, it was beer pong. Even completely out of her mind inebriated, like she was now, she could put the little ball in the red Solo cup every single time.

Kiba was standing beside her, an arm looped lazily around her waist and a handle of vodka in his hand. Whenever she sunk a ball against her potty-mouth opponent, he would murmur something absolutely sinful in her ear that made her giggle and blush. He was doing everything right, and Ino did not regret her decision to move on from Shikamaru (who was no doubt sleeping upstairs) and give him a chance. He was most definitely getting laid tonight.

Ino wondered vaguely how Hinata was faring with Naruto, after her ballsy love confession at the top of the roller coaster. But she was so drunk and Kiba's arm felt so good and she was having such fun that she decided to let Hinata work this one out for herself for once. She returned her focus to the game and to Kiba and to living it up the best way she knew how.

xoxoxo

Naruto was worried.

Hinata was drinking. Heavily.

Whenever they drank with their friends, Hinata would partake of a limited amount of alcohol, considerably less than what everyone else consumed, and she stopped before getting out of control.

But here she sat slouched on the floor, gulping down as much of the foul-tasting Jungle Juice as she could. It sloshed out of her mouth but she merely giggled in a frighteningly hysterical way and raised her cup for more.

Naruto wished it wasn't so damn loud and so damn dark and so damn crowded. Usually this was the kind of party that he would fall in love with, but now that he had to worry about Hinata-chan, who was normally so sensible, he loathed the whole damn thing. She was on a sloppy path to self-destruction, and part of him told him it was because of her unexpected love confession at the top of the roller coaster.

She'd taken it back, and it had deeply hurt Naruto. He was crushing on her hard, after all, and to hear that she liked him back made him happier than he could remember being in a long time. But then she'd rescinded it.

That hurt.

But it didn't explain why she was flying off the handle here.

"I think you should slow down, Hinata-chan!" he said loudly, over the din of the music and the pounding of the bass.

"No way!" she cried gleefully. "Not a chance!"

"Hinata I'm serious." Naruto frowned and grabbed the cup out of her fumbling hands. "This isn't like you. What's going on?"

"Who cares?" she snapped, and he recoiled. Hinata never snapped, especially not at him. "Sakura drinks. Ino drinks. And they both have better luck with guys than I do so maybe I should drink, too."

She was slurring her words, but not stammering them. Naruto was taken aback at her attitude, and aggravated at her complaints. Who was she to complain? Who was fucking Hyuuga Hinata to complain about having no luck with the opposite sex, when just that very day, she'd told him she loved him and then took it back?

Abruptly, he saw red. She had absolutely no right to bitch about anything, not when she went out of her way to get his hopes up and then tear him down. He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet before half-leading, half-dragging her up the stairs.

"What are you doing?" Hinata demanded, stumbling along behind him. She had the spins, he could tell, and she was apparently a very angry, very violent drunk, compared to happy slutty drunk Ino and dramatic hilarious drunk Sakura. "Naruto stop. Let me go!"

"You're sloppy right now, Hinata!" he snapped. She flinched at his volume and he regretted speaking so sharply to her, but she was out of control. "Come on, don't fight me on this."

She showed every intention of wanting to rebel against him, and when they reached the top of the staircase, he finally lost his temper and flipped her over his shoulder. She was heavier than she looked and he panted with the effort as she kicked and flailed and demanded to be released, but with the resolve of a ninja, he stalked into the bathroom, kicking out a guy hooking up with two girls with a few choice words, and tossed Hinata into the tub.

Fed up, Naruto gave the water tap a vicious twist, and Hinata squealed when freezing cold water poured from the showerhead, soaking her instantly.

What a stupid freaking party.

xoxoxo

Karin knew she was superficial.

That was what guided her one-sided attraction to Uchiha Sasuke so badly. He was gorgeous, and being the girl to snag him would boost her ego and her social status. The whole time, it had always been about her, this unreciprocated infatuation; no wonder Sasuke never even gave her the time of day. She hadn't been in love with him. She hadn't wanted to fall in love with him in the first place.

It was a competition. Getting to be the best one of all the girls, the one to nail fineass Uchiha Sasuke and hold her head high.

Karin knew that, and that was why she couldn't even be mad when meeting Sasuke's girlfriend.

Granted, Sakura never called herself his girlfriend and Sasuke didn't introduce her as such, but the chemistry between the two was so undeniable that they didn't need the actual label. Karin had known Sasuke to repel any girl's advances, but they held hands, complete with affectionate thumb-rubbing. Everything in his posture, in his face and his eyes, practically screamed that they were together. And it didn't look superficial at all.

Karin was fully prepared to dislike the girl who had stolen Sasuke away, but they hit it off right from the start. She couldn't blame Sakura for having genuine feelings for Sasuke, when hers were rooted in superficiality. She made him happy, Karin could tell. So she wouldn't be the bitter bitch about it.

Besides, Sakura seemed as obsessed with fashion as she did, which automatically made her a wonderful person. Anyone who could rock pink hair and hot pink heels and not look like a douchebag was all right by her.

The longer they talked, the rowdier and louder the party below became. Suigetsu jogged up the stairs to see what was keeping them.

"Oi, Uchiha, go say hi to everyone!" he called, pressing a beer into his friend's hand. "Take your girl, too, everyone wants to meet you, too, dollface!"

Sakura giggled and Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"All right, guess we should head down," Sakura replied. "Oi Karin let me holla at your phone numbaaaa. You are an incredible person and I would like to text you nonstop from now on."

Karin giggled. She didn't have many girlfriends, but she would make an exception for Sakura, who seemed to be her Konoha counterpart. They exchanged iPhone numbers and high-fives before she and Sasuke headed back downstairs to join the party.

That left Karin with Suigetsu. There was an enormous shit-eating grin on his face as they watched Sasuke and Sakura descend the staircase hand in hand.

"That's the girl from the picture!" he revealed, pointing to Sakura. "The one he kept in the pocket of his baseball uniform! I told you, you dumb broad. I told you he was hung up on her!"

"Oh, get over yourself, you stupid manatee. I'm so over that anyway. Besides Sakura's way hotter than Sasuke-kun."

"Ooh, switching sides now?"

"Tch. It'd break your heart."

Suigetsu's violet eyes flashed before he wound an arm around her waist. "Come take a shot with me," he ordered. "And I'll stop saying 'I told you so.'"

Karin felt a flutter of butterflies in her stomach at the look he was giving her, and, unable to think up a clever retort, she merely nodded.

Soooo not the reunion with Uchiha Sasuke she expected, but...

Dayum Suigetsu was hot.

xoxoxo

note.. Hey there! My Phillies won last night, so I'm updating in the middle of an organic chem lecture because I can. More drama to unfold next chapter, complete with naive Sakura and jealous Sasuke and angry Naruto and drunkdrunkdrunk Hinataaaa.

And yeah I made Karin friends with Sakura. Because Forever 21 unites us all, ladies.

Dedicated to Roy Halladay for being the best pitcher in the universe. And Shane Victorino. Because he is sexy. And Hunter Pence for that awesome catch he made last night. DO IT AGAIN PHILS.

Love you guys. See you soon!