When the spark faded Itachi stared back at the woman and her strange pupiless eyes and slowly withdrew his hand.

She leaned forward and held hers out for him to see, wiggling her fingers at him with a smile. "See? It's as easy as that," she said with a pleasant tone, like they were old friends and not captor and captive.

He eyed her warily, unsure of what she was attempting to convey. If she considered that bargain to be easy he was not sure he wanted to know what would qualify as difficult to her. "I want to see Sasuke. You have to fulfill the terms of your bargain, woman."

Her smile faded and she nodded, breaking eye contact to watch the gate as though she were still expecting a visitor, fidgeting in a way that almost seemed anxious, clenching and unclenching her hands.

"It's Karin," she eventually replied, turning back towards him again. "You should call me by my name now, Itachi."

"I want to see Sasuke," he repeated, firmer.

Karin let out an irritated sigh but complied, beginning to walk towards the mansion, beckoning him to follow with a hand. "Well, fine then. Might as well show you around anyway. I left him in the house because he's kind of a dick."

Itachi breathed a sigh of relief, ignoring Karin's blatantly wrong opinion of Sasuke, and trailed behind her, pulling his injured arm to his chest to avoid aggravating it. "He is okay, then?"

She shrugged, her back turned to him, and opened the door, holding it open so he could walk into the building. "He'll live, if that's what you're asking," which was vague enough to send a spike of fear through him that was made all the worse by the discomforting feel of a house that seemed to be entirely formed by magic.

The interior was large yet empty; Itachi had to angle his head upwards to see the ceiling but, well, there was very little to see. The walls were the same blanched white as the outside of the building but there were no furnishings, no pictures lining the long hallway. They passed several doors as Karin led him down one hallway and then another, all of them a dark hickory color with bright brass door knobs, all of them pulled shut. Karin snuck a look behind at him but only smiled and picked up her pace.

In an aesthetic sense it was much nicer than the University had been; clean, warm, well-lit, where the University had been shadow and stone, cold and damp. The floors here were made of some light pink stone so well-polished he could see the slightest reflection of his own shoes in it though he doubted Karin herself had been cleaning them. Their footsteps echoed as they walked, hers quick and purposeful, and Itachi couldn't help but wonder if they really were alone in such a large place.

Karin turned another corner and they started down another equally long hallway. He had not been able to see the full exterior of the building but he was almost certain it had not appeared to be this large.

"He's in here," she said after stopping in front of a door and stepping back with a dismissive wave. "You can open it yourself, Itachi; little bastard keeps hurting himself trying to kill me."

He jerked his head over to Karin but she rolled her eyes.

"Oh gods, calm yourself. He's fine, just irritable. I had to move him all the way back here because he wouldn't stop yelling threats at me."

If he had been unpleasant, Sasuke had been entirely within his rights. Itachi walked over to the door door, the knob somehow warm under his hands. "Sound echoes like crazy here, so it was annoying," she said, unprompted, as he turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Immediately the rest of the door was wrenched open, someone on the other side knocking against him in order to dart into the hall.

Sasuke.

But he was okay. Sasuke was okay.

Sasuke seemed startled to see him, but he quickly recovered, pausing halfway between the doorway and hallway. "Itachi?" he asked, blinking in confusion.

"Sasuke…" Itachi whispered, beyond relieved to see Sasuke awake and walking and coherent. "You're okay."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked between Itachi and Karin and back to Itachi again. He stepped back to allow Itachi to walk into the room and Karin followed behind, pausing in the doorway.

"What are you doing here? What did she do to you?" Sasuke demand, his normally calm composure slipping, worry creeping into his voice.

"You're free to go. I'm taking your place," Itachi replied, as calm as he could manage.

"What? How?" Sasuke's eyes flickered to Karin's, accusatory. "What did you do, Itachi?"

Itachi shook his head. "What's done is done," he said, knowing there was no argument left to be made.

Sasuke's whole body flinched. "No, it's not; it's stupid! You can't trust anything she says! You of all people should know better than this. Why would you do something so stupid?"

He remembered Sasuke walking into Itachi's room and announcing he would succeed on his own, without his older brother's help. Without his protection.

What could he possibly say to Sasuke, who had always looked up to him and sought to surpass him? Forgive me, Sasuke, your brother had no choice but this. Sorry, Sasuke, your brother would pay any price when you are the one who is at stake.

What identity had Itachi ever cherished more than brother? Whose life had ever held so much meaning, and whose future had been as bright to him as Sasuke's?

He remembered sitting a much younger Sasuke on his lap and reading stories to him. Sasuke had come to him a clean slate but Itachi had filled his mind with heroics, tempted him with glory. They were, in a way, promises he had made, dreams he'd given to his brother.

It was sensible he would be the one to make them possible.

When he went to speak his mouth had gone dry and he could find no easy way to make his feelings clear. He settled for the most honest response he had. "I'm sorry, Sasuke," and, even though physical contact was far from common within their family, he pulled his younger brother to him with his good arm.

"I will be fine," he whispered into Sasuke's ear. Realizing this could be his last chance to impart any truths to his younger brother, he added "You mean more to me than anything."

He could not see Sasuke's face but he could feel the way Sasuke stiffened, and wondered if that had caught him off guard. When was the last time he had hugged his little brother? The last time he had told him honestly how he felt?

"You can't just stay here," Sasuke objected. "She's a monster; we can overpower her together, Itachi, we—"

"It's getting awfully late," Karin interjected, still standing in the door with her arms crossed. "If you plan to get home before dark you ought to head out soon." Her eyes were stuck on something down the hall, her mouth downturned. "And don't expect me to give you any weapons back, either."

The sky was still blue from what Itachi could see out of the window and he couldn't help but wonder if time would pass at the same rate within these walls as it would without.

"She's right, Sasuke," Itachi said, finally pulling away. "You should leave soon."

"What? No! I'm not just going to leave you here with… that," Sasuke hissed.

"Sasuke," Itachi repeated, more insistent. "It's getting late."

For a moment it seemed as though Sasuke would stay and continue to argue, his fists clenched tightly by his side.

"I'm going to come back," Sasuke eventually snapped, clenching his fist and turning to glare at Karin. "I'm going to come back with more people and we'll get you out of here."

"Good luck, kid," Karin said with a shrug, stepping out of the doorway so Sasuke could leave.

Sasuke paused at an arm's distance from her, both of them staring down the other. "I'm coming back for you, Itachi," he said, though he never broke eye contact with Karin.

In a way, Sasuke was still the same haughty, proud child who would come home with black eyes and split lips from fights with Naruto but would never complain about them.

"Wouldn't count on it," Karin said to Sasuke's retreating back. She waved him off. "Down the hall, make a left then a right. Nice knowing you."

Sasuke disappeared down the hall and Itachi could feel his heart pulling him to follow, to catch every last image of Sasuke that he could. Instead he found himself stuck there, listening to the sound of Sasuke's heavy footsteps growing fainter and fainter for what would be, he could only assume, the last time.

"He's… got a personality," Karin said, hesitating somewhat, and Itachi did not reply. "It's not your problem, though, Itachi. You aren't responsible for what happens to him now. He should be fine."

Still, he could not bring himself to look away from empty door frame.

She fiddled with her glasses for a few seconds, then moved into his line of sight, forcing him to make eye contact with her. "Hey. You should let me take a look at your arm."

Itachi had seldom ever hated another person. His exposure to other people had been somewhat limited but he had interacted with his colleagues as a ranger and through that work had met a good number of people he wouldn't hesitate to call unsavory.

Though he did not truly want to kill his opponents he did not necessarily like them, either. Too often they were thieves or highwaymen or terrorists, and by eliminating them he was doing a service to the potential victims of their crimes.

He hated what they did, but it rarely was it so personal enough that he hated who they were.

Karin might be an exception. "I do not require your help," he replied and then turned to leave except, well, where could he possibly go now?

Itachi had agreed to stay here but beyond remaining within the grounds he had no idea of what that truly meant. He stepped out into the hallway and she followed, closing the door behind her with an audible click.

"You can let me touch you. I don't bite," Karin insisted, leaning with her back against the door, her eyes locked onto his own.

There was no way to convey exactly how distasteful that idea was, and so Itachi did not attempt to do so.

After a few seconds with no response Karin moved forward, reaching out with her hands and gave him a dirty look when he backed away in response. She scowled. "You probably broke something; I can tell it's already swelling. At the very least it probably hurts like a bitch."

Itachi took another step away from her, looking down the hall for any possible place he could go run but of course there were none. He turned back to her. "I do not need your help and I do not want it."

She snorted, giving him a once over. "What, are you gonna wrap it yourself using your non-dominant hand?"

He stood firm but did not reply.

Karin's hands were fidgeting again, her fingers curling around nothing in particular. She looked up at him, then away, then back at him before sighing. "I know you probably don't like me but you're stuck with me. You might as well get used to my company because I'm the only person you're ever going to see again."

And—well. Of course he knew that but to hear it out loud…

He would never see his parents again. He would never see Sasuke again. He would never see Shisui or Naruto or Yamato or—

She was suddenly a lot closer than she'd been before; if she stood on the tips of her toes their noses would almost be touching. "It's harsh but the sooner you get used to it the better off you'll be. I'm really not as bad as you think I am."

He startled at their sudden closeness and backed away until he was flush against the wall behind him.

"How about another bargain, then?" Karin asked, cocking her head to the side. "I'll make it a good one this time, you'll like it."

"I have no use for one of your bargains," he snapped, willing her to get bored of this already and leave him be.

"Let me take care of your hand and then I'll show you where you can stay. Unless you were going to sleep in the hallway?"

Itachi turned around and tried to open the door behind him but it didn't budge. Karin made no attempt to stop him as he made for the door to the room they'd just left but that one was locked too. He braced his foot against the wall and tried tugging and pushing harder but it didn't even budge, the doorknob hardly twisting no matter how much force he put against it.

"It's my house. It's not going to do anything I don't want it to," Karin explained, her tone flat.

Itachi tugged harder and eventually gave up, moving to the next door and the next and by the fifth door he realized she was right, that not only was he trapped here but he was trapped with her, wherever she wanted him.

Karin footsteps echoed behind him. "You know it's just easier to take what I say at face value. I've got nothing to gain at this point from lying to you, right?"

"You have nothing to gain from any of this," he spat, brow creasing.

"Maybe," she said, stopping a few steps away from him. "Maybe not. Are you going to let me help you or am I going to have to follow you around the house until you tire yourself out?"

He gave her a once over.

What could she possibly be getting out of this? Did she become stronger with each bargain they made? Or, alternatively, would each bargain he made weaken him somehow? Put him more and more at her mercy?

Did it matter when he was already here forever?

"Fine," he said, holding his hand out, but by only a few inches. "I accept."

"It'll help you to know," she said, excitement creeping into her voice as she wrapped one hand around his and another around his forearm, "that you don't need to be so dramatic with every bargain. Or just let me do things without me having to keep making them."

Her hands were cool and soft but repulsive all the same, all artifice and lie like everything else in her damn house. She gave a small smile and tightened her grip, a brief flare of pain arising under her touch, then her hands began to glow and the pain began to dissipate, a warm prickling sensation overtaking it as if circulation had just been restored.

Karin pulled away her hands and the glow faded along with the prickling feeling. "So. There, that should do it."

"It worked…" he said, staring dumbfounded at his hand, flexing it experimentally but feeling no pain or discomfort.

"It's not my magic exactly but it's mine to use," Karin said, jerking up suddenly to look him in the eye. "It's here for me so… I can do what I want with it. And now you're my guest so I can use it to help you too."

Itachi pulled his arm back to him, reestablishing a comfortable distance between the two of them. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I want you to know you can rely on me," she said, once again ignoring his personal space and coming uncomfortably close, her face inches away from his own. "I had to be harsh to get you to stay but now that you're here…"

She was entirely too close and too interested for his liking.

Itachi groped the wall behind him until he could feel a doorknob, then wrenched the door open and slammed it behind him. Despite knowing he could not keep her out if she truly wanted in, he held the knob to him, preventing her from opening the door.

"Hello?" Karin called, sounding genuinely confused from the other side of the door.

"Go away," Itachi insisted, his heart racing.

For a few moments neither of them spoke, though he could hear her hand slip down the frame of the door as she withdrew.

"Are you going to come back out?" she asked.

Itachi did not reply.

He hoped she would take the hint and leave him alone entirely, but he could hear her shifting on the other side of the door. Through the window on the other side of the room he could see the sun had begun to set, the sky turning a faded orange.

Eventually she spoke up again, using a lower, softer tone than she'd used before. "Do you want to marry me?"

For a moment Itachi was too stunned to even respond to that. "Leave me alone," he insisted and then, in case she wasn't paying attention, added "I do not and will not ever want to marry you."

Outside, he heard Karin let out an angry snort and she banged her fist against the door. "Fine, then! You're welcome, asshole. Enjoy your empty room!" and the sound of her footsteps heading away down the hall was the greatest relief he'd felt in days.

When he was reasonably sure she had left for good he allowed himself to slump forward and let out the breath he'd been holding.

Itachi looked around the room, seeing it was in decent condition. It had clearly been decorated by a more feminine person but it would function all the same; pink bedsheets and curtains would function just as well as any others.

It was, though, as she said, mostly empty. There was no furniture aside from the bed and a small dresser but it would do just fine given how little he had brought with him. He felt for his backpack and realized he must have left it outside and made a mental note to go after it at some point.

He let go of the knob and, seeing the door at least had a lock, turned it. It wouldn't keep Karin out if she truly wanted in but at least she'd be reminded of how little he cared to be around her.

Finally. He was alone.

A/N:

Hey everyone! Sorry this took so long omg. Finals will be over in a few weeks and then I can get on a more consistent schedule! In the meantime thanks for being so awesome and patient and I'll do my best to get one more chapter in between then and now!

As always, I am beyond appreciative of all of your comments, questions, fanfiction themed conspiracy corkboards, and favorites!

You can find me on tumblr as cherryberry-ao3