The end of this chapter was based on a dream I had the other night after brain storming about what I was gonna do about the whole Sasuke vs Itachi arc.
I'm pretty happy with this to be honest! Sasuke might be a bit ooc at the end here but he went through a lot that day so I think it's justified. He's in shock and needs a bit of lovin'.

I hope you all enjoy!

xoxo

Team Hebi had travelled for hours at full speed. The trek to the hideout where Itachi was located at was grueling with obstacles but it was barely the worst trip the team had been through. Karin would get shivers thinking back on the time it rained for three days straight and the team had been caught in the cold, wet wilderness with no shelter. That was by far the worst. That was the only time Karin had ever envied Suigetsu, he had no problems with it.

What made this trip so tough was the fact Karin was feeling unwell and Sasuke refused to let them take any breaks on the way and insisted Karin keep her focus on her chakra tracking to ensure no one was onto them. Including the leaf ninja, they were running from. They had run into a shadow clone of one of the hidden leaf ninjas, Naruto Uzumaki, and it explained why Karin had been sensing erratic chakra points all over the place around the ten-mile radius she scouted. Sasuke disposed of the shadow clone easily and they continued forward, speeding up to escape capture.

Karin couldn't stop thinking back on the previous night, the way Sasuke had spoken to her and the way he barked orders at her in the morning. Karin hated nothing more than being told what to do. She wasn't his maid or his slave. She wasn't just a mindless minion and it hurt her whenever he would treat her as such. The Uchiha's superiority complex and the dismissiveness he continuously pushed was getting on her last nerve. The inconsistency was grating on her. If Karin could have three wishes, she would have wished to see him smile genuinely, for him to reciprocate her love and to be able to read minds. Things would be so much easier if she could just dive into his mind and see what he was thinking because using words were not his strong suit.

Karin truly wished she could be the fire that would melt the icy Uchiha.

It didn't take long before the team dashed through the trees and came into an opening, which started to look like a small village. This was the hideout? It was beautiful, despite most of it being in ruins. The buildings that were still intact were made of stone and had dark blue traditional rooftops. The team jumped onto the rooftops and ran full speed ahead for the entrance. The redhead peered over at the leader of the team and noticed his chakra was inflaming inside. Growing deeper and darker. He was seething, but that wasn't the only chakra she felt. Something powerful was coming.

"Stop!"

The redhead shouted to her team and stopped running. They followed suit and Sasuke raised a brow but before he could say or ask Karin closed her bright red eyes and extended her hand and pointed in the direction of the one and only Kisame Hoshigaki who appeared from a flurry of water on a pillar, a vicious smirk on his blue lips. Karin's first instinct was to take the Akatsuki member out and continue forward. He was standing in their way. Kisame noticed the redhead's defensive stance and chuckled.

"You made it, Sasuke. You can tell your dogs to stand down. Only you may proceed, Itachi's orders. They are free to wait here with me."

The scaled blue haired man sat on his heels with his sword in hand when Karin protectively took a step forward and looked at Sasuke and suggested taking Kisame out. Four on one. She really didn't realize how strong the defected Kiri nin was. Sasuke shook his head at her and reassured the agitated woman. His aggressive woman.

"It'll be alright, Karin. Don't worry, you need to stay put."

Karin opened her mouth to refute but Sasuke had already dashed away into a multitude of trees and disappeared before her eyes. She let out a long sigh and crossed her arms over her chest, sitting down on the rooftop and proceeded to watch Suigetsu get a hard-on for Kisame. "Oh, here we go." The redhead mumbled under her breath and rolled her red eyes vehemently. Jugo stepped around Suigetsu and joined Karin and sat beside her. Not too close. He watched as Suigetsu and Kisame argued back and forth, preparing to fight. Karin rested her elbow in her thigh and rested her chin in her hand, worried about her lover and lazily watched her teammate go back and forth with an S-rank missing nin. Idiot.

"Hmph. Unlike your brother, you're quite the cocky child. Maybe I should cut you down a few notches."

'Please do. Maybe beat some intelligence into his little brain.' Karin thought.

And with that last insult from Kisame, the two men began to their little sword fight much to Karin's annoyance. At least she and Jugo were obedient. They both sat there and watched the fight nonchalantly when Jugo turned his ginger head and began to speak. The sound of clinging swords muffled his words, so she got a little closer.

"How are you feeling?"

The gentle giant asked genuinely in his deep voice, but his face showed no concern. His lips were pressed in a thin line and he showed none of his emotions on his face. Maybe he was just trying to pass the time. They were sure to be there a long time. Karin didn't look at the man beside her and sighed softly.

"I'm fine."

The man took his turn to sigh and shook his head.

"You were ill."

How did he know she had been feeling sick? Her stomach had been upset all day. Karin raised her crimson brow and finally averted her gaze from the battle and looked at her teammate and glared.

"I don't…How did you?"

Jugo let out a soft but deep chuckle and leaned back on his hands.

"Your facial expressions are worth a thousand words, Karin. I could see it on your face. You were in pain."

More like queasy than in pain, but yeah…Deflect, deflect, deflect.

"They're called lady-problems, Jugo. And I'd rather not discuss them with you!"

The redhead whipped her head in the opposite direction of her teammate and crossed her arms, clearing her throat awkwardly. What the hell did he care?

"It is only natural-"

Those words. Those words triggered something in Karin and it made her cringe, triggering memories of her time with Kabuto under the experiments he performed on her. He always used those words to justify his actions when he would take advantage of her. When he would use her. Claiming sex was natural and that it was for the better of his experimentations. 'You don't want to disappoint Lord Orochimaru, do you?'. Kabuto Yakushi was a sick and twisted man, he knew her fears and used them against her. She was young, vulnerable and attractive to the man and he preyed on her. The most fucked up part of it all was that each and every time he abused her, he would embrace her and give her affection. A wicked tactic to control her and keep her from leaving. It would confuse her into thinking it was love when really it was sadism to the core. It was a classic abuser and victim relationship, and she had no idea until it was over. Regardless, that was the past. Orochimaru was dead and Karin reminded herself that Sasuke would never let Kabuto touch her again. She was convinced and held onto that hope for dear life.

A single tear fell from her crimson eye when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she jerked back in fright but came back to her senses and came back to reality. She turned and Saw Jugo closer to her with an orange brow raised inquisitively. Confusion hit her hard.

"Karin?"

"W-what? Don't touch me." She jerked her arm back and chewed her lower lip. He listened and gave her space.

"I said would you like some medicine for the pain."

"O-oh…I spaced out. Uhm, yeah. I'll take some. Thanks."

Jugo nodded and dug into his bag and pulled out a pouch with pills and gave her the painkillers with a canteen of water and she took it, ingesting the pills and drank water after. Suigetsu and Kisame were still going at it and she sighed, her mind drifting back off to Sasuke, praying he was alright.

'Come back to me, Sasuke.'

Had Karin know it would take this long, she would have brought a book to entertain herself. But all she had was two Kirigakure native nins sparring and a gentle giant silently watching. For hours. And hours. The team must have spent at least most of the day waiting outside in the ruins of the hideout, waiting for any sign of life from either Uchiha brothers. Their sign would come in a different form than they were hoping for, unfortunately. Amidst Suigetsu and Kisame's duel, the floor on the pillar they were on began to warp and a figure enveloped by what looked like a venus fly-trap slowly began to rise out of the ground, interrupting the fiercely lame battle. Seeing this unfold, Karin shot to her feet immediately and stumbled forward hopefully.

"The hell is that?"

The white haired man asked in a not so polite way. Kisame revealed the two-toned man to be Zetsu. Karin had thought Kisame was freakish looking but this one took the cake. His body was as black as darkness and the other half was white as light. Karin stepped up and shouted at the intruder.

"Where's Sasuke!? Please…Tell me he's-"

The second Akatsuki member turned and face the redhead and she got a sinister feeling from him. She guessed he had two distinct personalities due to the pitch in his voice drastically changing at times.

"Alive. We have transported Uchiha to the Akatsuki hideout you all know too well."

She didn't need to be told twice. All Karin needed to hear was that Sasuke was alive and his location. She knew where this lair was thanks to Jugo's intel from the previous mission they had gone on. The redhead spun on her heels and snatched her bag up from the floor and began to rush towards the Akatsuki hideout, not caring at all if she was rushing off into danger without her team. All she had to go off of was that he was alive, but he didn't say if he had any dangerous injuries. Physical and/or psychological. He needed her. Zetsu soon disappeared back into the floor and had gone off to wherever it was Zetsus went and the rest of the team caught up to Karin easily, when Kisame took the lead. The look on the blue skinned man was murderous, he had just lost his long-time partner and ally. Karin knew that feeling all too well. But all she could focus on was her love. He needed her, now.

"I'm coming, Sasuke."

It took far too long to get to the hideout for Karin's liking. The redhead complained the entire time for her team to step it up and move, earning very loving words from Suigetsu. Laziest man on earth. When they finally set eyes on the hideout, it was nothing but a normal looking mountain but as ninja, they knew better, especially having worked under Orochimaru. There were wards implanted everywhere. Traps were set. The perimeter was was covered in what could be considered landmines. No one who came close to the Akatsuki's living space made it out alive unless you knew how to counteract the safety measures. Since they were already being taken there without capture, Karin figured they would be joining the Akatsuki by common sense.

The team came up on the entrance and she impatiently waited while Kisame opened it, revealing a door in the mountain and before the blue-haired man could even protest her walking inside, she yelled at him to move aside and ran inside, using her sensory abilities to locate Sasuke, which she did within seconds. Kisame growled at the running woman but let her go. Can't go pissing the last Uchiha standing. There was a reason Tobi saved the guy so, might as well let his team make themselves at home, right? Annoying. "How do you guys live with her?" Kisame asked the two men behind him nonchalantly.

Upon entry, the space looked familiar to her, it truly looked like one of Orochimaru's hideouts. There were torches lighting the halls fire orange that felt like one large maze. The walls and the ground were all stone, which appeared to be colored shades of red and orange from the lighting. Her footsteps resonated through the halls as she ran down corridor after corridor, finally coming upon a wooden door and she could feel that dark chakra inside. Dark and broken chakra. Oh no…

Without even thinking, the redhead barged inside the room, whipping it open with a loud bang as it hit the stone wall behind, and she saw him. He was sat in a small bed with his back against the wall. His head and his body were bandaged up, his eyes were dark and gloomy. More than usual. A thin brown blanket was pooled in his lap and covered his lower body. She could tell he was in fact wearing pants, black pants cut at the calves. He was just blankly staring down into his hands when she came in.

"Sasuke…"

She frowned and rushed forward, launching herself on the floor and kneeled, looking up at him., red eyes glittering and watering as she moved up onto the mat and wrapped her arms around the raven-haired man and buried her face into the crook of his neck, whispering "You're okay." Over and over again. Until what he did next stunned her and rooted her in place. He slowly and hesitantly returned the embrace. He wrapped his arms around her middle and fiddled with the wispy ends of her crimson hair casually before he rested a weakened hand on the back of her neck and held her in place, letting out a soft grunt of pain since she basically threw herself into his lap.

The hug was held for several moments before she pulled back. He still didn't speak as she looked into those empty dark eyes and her frown deepened. He was hurt, physically and psychologically as she suspected he would be. They sat in silence for a while, Karin didn't know what to say. How could she make him feel any better with her words, which she misused often? She decided to stare at him until he spoke. He did. Barely.

"Karin."

He spoke in a low and broken tone. She didn't know but Sasuke had been healed by Tobi and Zetsu and was given new information, he was given the truth about his brother and the hidden leaf village. Devastating news. It had not been a good day for the youngest Uchiha. Karin perked up.

"I-I'm here! Do you need something? I can-"

His dark eyes rose from his lap and up to hers, tired defeated eyes stared into her anxious ones that awaited his demand, a demand she would make no complaints about because this wasn't about her. It was about the man she loved. In a husky tone, he made his wish.

"I need you."

He needs me. The redhead moved up to the man and sat next to him, pressing her back against the wall after removing her cloak and spread over herself and Sasuke to use as a blanket. The blanket he had looked awfully thin and in no way could heat someone up.

She knew what he meant when he said he needed her. He didn't need sex, which is pretty much what he'd used her for so far and quite frankly he was in no shape to even do it. He wanted her to hold him, for once. Even the strongest and most ruthless of shinobi needed affection. He could deny his emotions all he wanted; she knew the truth she had convinced herself about.

"Here." Karin tapped her chest and the scowling man followed, lowering his head against her small chest and she wrapped her arms around him, not as tight as before but enough to be reassuring. She rubbed his back gently to soothe him and it somewhat reminded Sasuke of his mother. The way when he would get hurt as a child and cry, his mother would cradle him and rub his back. It was a nice feeling. Karin rested her cheek on his head and comforted him as best as she could. She wasn't one to show much compassion. Truthfully, he was the only one she would ever do this for, she didn't care about anyone else. Call it an obsession, but he was all she had in the end. Sasuke whispered a muffled and quiet thank you.

Suigetsu and Jugo appeared in the doorway of the room and thankfully, Jugo managed to read the room before Suigetsu could cause trouble. He had opened his mouth and made a loud sound which seemed to be the start of a greeting when Jugo forcefully pushed him out of the doorway and he closed the wooden door slowly, shooting Karin a small smile before the door shut. The redhead just sighed as Sasuke slowly fell asleep in her arms. She kissed his head softly and whispered, never once stopping herself from rubbing his back until the power of slumber overtook her.

"I love you."

He needs me…