Just a bit more filler and team Taka shenanigans before the Killer Bee fight next chapter! Not really looking forward to it because I'm absolute trash at writing out fights lol. After that we do the Five Kage Summit and THEN things will get good, I promise!
I wanna say thank you for the super supportive reviews as well, if it weren't for you, I would have given up long ago. Thank you thank you thank you!
xoxoxo
The previous night had shown itself to be greatly uneventful. Normally the team would have spent time discussing strategy and battle tactics for the upcoming fight but without any information on their target, it was impossible to come up with a plan. They were being sent into this mission completely blind and Karin didn't like that, nor could she understand why the rest of the guys were so unfazed. Zero regard for their lives, essentially. Suigetsu is an idiot and an adrenaline junkie, Jugo does whatever Sasuke wants and Sasuke is too cocky to be afraid. For good reason, he is amazing.
Suigetsu and Jugo arrived at the inn 30 minutes or so after Karin came to the realization that she wasn't as important to Sasuke as she thought she was. It was a very disturbing revelation that agitated the redhead, engulfing her in sadness but also resentment. Here she was doing everything for him, giving herself to him, he'd taken her, body and soul yet the mission was still worth more than she was. Had she not been so confused by her hormones and what was happening to her body, she would have chewed him out then and there, but all she could do as he revealed this, was cry. All she could manage to come up with were tears.
The rest of team Taka entered the small bedroom, Suigetsu stepping first, holding absolutely nothing while Jugo carried everything. Karin rolled her eyes at what she was seeing, what an asshole. Jugo closed the door behind him with his foot and set the bags of take-out on the bed since there were no tables in the room other than the nightstands. Karin greeted them and licked her lips as the scent of fresh, hot food began to waft through the room, exciting her but that mood would go sour when Suigetsu just couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Kami, Karin, you look like shit, why're your eyes so puffy? You dyin' or something?" The water ninja could hear the shower running, clearly Sasuke was still in there so he decided to shout for him as well. "Hey asshole! Food's here!"
Jugo began to unwrap the bags and began taking containers of food out, handing out the orders he'd memorized, wincing as Suigetsu shouted.
"Must you be so loud?" The gentle giant asked in a low tone. Karin glared at Suigetsu and opened one of the containers and devoured a couple of pieces of karaage, swallowing audibly before responding to her verbal assailant.
"Yeah, and can you keep your negative comments to yourself, you degenerate?"
"Jeez slow down on the fried chicken, I want some too ya know!"
Karin slapped her palm into her face as her rebuttal was just completely ignored and went right over his head. Total jackass! He took a few steps to her side and picked up one of the pieces and popped it in his mouth, his sharp teeth just chopping through it as he spoke.
"You'll get a stomach ache if you eat too fast, idiot."
Karin rolled her crimson eyes at the shark toothed man's warning and looked down at the food in her lap and smiled softly. If only he knew the stomach pains, she had been feeling the past few weeks. Anyway, hearing Suigetsu show a little bit of concern felt nice. The best thing to come out of joining Taka was the sense of belonging she felt, Suigetsu and Jugo truly did feel like family, like siblings she'd longed for. Sasuke was her lover, no matter how rocky or cold he would act towards her, he had her heart. Her loyalty would never sway from this team, not how her loyalty to Orochimaru and Kabuto had wavered, mostly due to the atrocities she faced under their care.
The redhead grabbed a rice ball and took a bite when the bathroom door swung open and Sasuke emerged bare chested and wearing simple gray pants, toweling his jet-black hair dry, that same scowl on his face. Karin's cheeks reddened at the view and kept eating in silence.
"Keep yelling and we'll get kicked out." The Uchiha muttered, tossing his towel into the corner of the room and grabbed a black t-shirt from his bag, throwing it on before he came over to Karin's side and picked up one of the riceballs in the container on her lap. Suigetsu chuckled at the comment and gave a toothy smirk.
"They can try, I'll kill 'em. Hey, wanna hear some gossip Jugo and I heard at the tavern?"
"I thought I smelled alcohol." The redhead scrunched her nose up and adjusted her brown frames on the bridge of her nose. Sasuke ate the rice ball and raised an eyebrow at the water swordsman.
"I just had one drink! Anyway, apparently there's gonna be a meeting held in the Land of Iron and all the kages are gonna be there. It's just a rumor though, could be bullshit."
Sasuke's attention was caught now, he crossed his arms and narrowed his dark eyes at the information. If a meeting between kages would be held, then whoever is the leaf Kage would be there and it was Sasuke's plan to take out the leaders of the leaf.
"Seriously, Suigetsu, can we finish one missi- "Karin began to chastise the water nin before she was interrupted by the leader of the team.
"We will entertain it after we capture the Eight tails. That way we can use the Akatsuki to complete our mission."
"That's what I was saying…"
The redhead mumbled beneath her breath as she popped another piece of chicken in her mouth and the team finished their dinner a midst idle chatter and some arguing between Taka's feistiest members. They each showered, one after the other and decided to turn in for the night and go after their target in the morning.
The morning light came in through the window much faster than Karin had anticipated. She had not realized how tired her body was, falling asleep almost immediately after her head hit the small pillows on the bed. She slept so hard she hadn't even dreamed about anything, which she was grateful for. Her dreams were most often nightmares of the past. She seemed to have been the first to wake up, feeling an arm draped over her waist, a hand resting on her stomach and her back had little distance from the hard chest behind her. The bed felt warm and comfortable with him holding her loosely. A rare comfort she wished would last forever. She stirred a little and turned over, seeing Sasuke snap his dark eyes open. He was always alert and slept as light as a feather. You had to as a shinobi. A good shinobi, at least. He tightened his hold on her for a short moment, like a lazy half-assed hug, and she smiled softly before he removed his arm and sat up in the bed, the sheets pooling at his lap and Karin followed suit. She looked over the bed to see Suigetsu sprawled out on the floor, sleeping with his mouth open, snoring and Jugo was silently asleep in the small chair, his back was surely going to hurt.
"Wake them up. We leave in an hour."
The Uchiha ordered, swinging his legs off the side of the bed and stood up, stretching casually.
"You could at least say good morning first before barking orders at me. I'm not a dog."
After she spoke, she could have sworn she heard a small chuckle come from her love as he made his way to the bathroom. Karin rolled off the bed and pressed her hand to her stomach as she felt a bit of nausea come up, but she ignored it. She shook her head and slipped some of the unruly red hair from her face back and put her glasses on. She stood and walked over to her favorite teammate and kicked his cheek, lightly enough that it wouldn't hurt, but hard enough to wake him. He growled in response, cursing her under his breath and she responded by kicking him in the chest harder, a loud 'oof' escaped his lips before walking over to the sleeping giant and gently touching his shoulder.
"Jugo. Sasuke needs you to wake up."
It was important to mention Jugo's idea of the second coming of Kimmimaro to subdue his uncontrollable rage. Waking him up suddenly was a dangerous suit and could trigger him. They had learned this early on when they picked him up from the northern hideout. He opened his fire-colored eyes and groaned, sitting up straight and stretching his back out. Sasuke came out of the bathroom fully changed into his gear and stood at the window. Suigetsu finally got up and was about to head for the bathroom when Karin suddenly felt her stomach come up into her throat and she bolted for the bathroom, pushing past the groggy white-haired nin to his surprise.
"Hey, I was going in first!"
The door slammed and Karin took a dive on the floor in front of the toilet and ejected all the contents she had for dinner the previous night. Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes. Jugo stood up in concern and Suigetsu growled and grumbled.
"Told ya you ate too much!"
"Should we perhaps…Take her to a doctor?"
Jugo asked in a low tone, specifically directing his question to the leader of the group but Suigetsu quickly got involved.
"Yeah, we'll take her to a doctor and then have a whole damn platoon come after us. We're kinda criminals, man. She's got some medical training, she's fine."
"I can hear you; you know!" The redhead shouted from the bathroom floor, slowly getting herself together.
"Enough. Karin can hold out until our mission is over. We'll keep her off the front lines and in the back as support, like planned. She's not useless yet."
Karin listened to Sasuke defend her from behind the bathroom door after she'd rinsed her mouth out with water. Her heart skipped a beat hearing him say she wasn't useless. 'I'm still needed.' She thought to herself. No matter what, she wasn't getting cut from the team yet. She exited the bathroom with a sigh and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste from her bag next to Sasuke's and returned the bathroom, ignoring Suigetsu's protests about having to use the restroom. The Uchiha had paused for a moment before continuing the planning.
"Roughly, our plan is this: I want Karin as far from the Eight tails as possible, while we three take him head on. With my new eyes and the fight being three on one, it shouldn't be a problem. We adapt to his abilities as Karin analyzes him. Got it?"
Jugo and Suigetsu nodded and Karin shouted a muffled 'yes' from the bathroom as she was purging herself of the awful taste in her mouth. Looking at herself in the dirty mirror, she frowned. She was nervous. Looking at herself closely, her fears were coming true. She knew what was wrong with her.
"Stay useful. He needs me."
The redhead spoke to herself in a quiet voice as a few tears pooled in her ed eyes. She closed her eyes tightly and fought the emotions away and got herself together and went out.
And with that, Team Taka gathered all of their things and set off on the final trek to confront Killer Bee in the land of Lightning.