A/N- DRAGONCAVE NERDS, HO!

...Yeah. I'm too lazy for the presenting jizz. Next chapter I'll make it extra special.

--

Kakashi was the first watch that night.

"Who was she?" Sasuke asked suddenly.

Karin looked up from her borrowed scroll as he spoke, while Suigetsu ignored him entirely, flipping through the magazine he had managed to bring with him. Naruto was off somewhere, talking with Sakura, or some such. The only lighting in the windowless room was a lantern, but Sasuke still saw the brief flash in the man's one revealed eye.

"A comrade." He said simply.

"When did she die?"

"A long time ago."

Sasuke scowled. "How did she die?"

Kakashi looked at him, eye crinkled in a smile. "I don't think that's very important, do you?" He said, tone light.

Sasuke's scowl faltered, and he averted his gaze. "I suppose I didn't do that very well." He managed, "I'm...supposed to help the ghosts move on."

"Is that so?"

Feeling his pride slowly trickle down a figurative drain as his shoulders slumped in the slightest, Sasuke elaborated. "I died for around six minutes. I had a talk with Sandaime-sama, and Itachi-ni-- ...and Itachi." Kakashi raised a brow at the falter, but said nothing. "And apparently, I...was given a task. I have to help all of you...the people I knew. Godaime-sama, the rest of the Rookie Nine, Gai's team... a lot of you are being haunted, or so I was told."

He hung his head for a moment. "And until I can help you, I'll be cursed to see dead people for the rest of my life."

"My mother isn't here, is she?" Suigetsu cut in abruptly, looking around wildly.

"No." Sasuke replied flatly, "The last I saw of her, she wanted grandchildren from Karin." Karin herself appeared horrified from this information.

"She wants me to sleep with that bitch?!" Suigetsu demanded, "No way in hell!"

In an instant, horror shifted to outrage. "WHAT?!" Karin shrieked, offended. "You should be drooling at the thought, you ass!"

"Maybe in your dreams! By the way, you talk in your sleep."

"It wasn't about you!" She snapped, "If I had a dream about you, it'd be a nightmare and I'd be too scared to go back to sleep!"

"Why the hell are you still dreaming about Sasuke?!" Suigetsu demanded, scowling.

The aforementioned Uchiha cocked a brow. Interesting change of topic...

"It wasn't about him either!" Karin shouted, then froze, eyes wide and face coloring once again.

Suigetsu opened his mouth to retort before he, too, realized what was said. "There's someone else? God, Karin, you really get around!"

"SHUT UP!" She screeched defensively.

A pink head peaked in the door. "Care to take your own advice, princess?" Sakura inquired, appearing far more irritated than was expected.

"Okay, that's it." Karin growled, moving to stand up.

"So!" Kakashi interjected, "Sakura, have you been sleeping well?"

The kunoichi glared at him balefully. "What do you think?" She shot another dark look towards Sasuke, for added measure.

Safe to say a good portion of the blame for her lack of sleep was going to be given to the poor, (currently) defenseless Uchiha. Even though the situation would have been the same without him.

Great.

--

"Rise and shine, sweet tarts!" Yamato's voice rang out cheerfully.

"I thought it was sweatheart..." Somebody wondered aloud.

Something about Yamato's voice was disturbing when he replied, "Isn't my way better?"

"...y-yes..."

It was silent in their windowless room as they all stared at the door with bemused expressions.

--

Karin was nervous.

No. No, that was an understatement. A huge one.

A tiny voice at the back of her head was telling her she had made a huge mistake, and that she was going to die (in the case of which she would then haunt Suigetsu, because it was all his fault anyway...though, if he died, too, she didn't know who she was supposed to haunt).

She'd decided to join this stupid team primarily because Sasuke was, well, hot. And cool. Funny how someone could be both hot and cool at the same time. And not, like, ha-ha funny, because... it was more of an odd funny, and all... yeah. Odd.

But now... she'd been given the decision to split the team or avoid danger entirely. She should have chosen "avoid danger!" like it had been flashing neon lights with male dancers promising entertainment at its finest, but she'd gone with keeping their little team intact.

And she didn't know why.

Why had she put her life on the line just for three oddballs with mental(/emotional) issues? Her attraction to Sasuke aside, that would almost be considered an act of insanity. For all she knew, she'd die the moment she hit the gates of Konoha, just because she'd been allied with Orochimaru not too long ago.

Karin wilted, curling in on herself.

"You gonna eat that?"

She jumped at the intrusion to her thoughts, glancing blankly towards the speaker. The boy with marks on his cheeks, Kiba, was gesturing at her food.

"Hello-oo...did you hear me, or what?"

Karin blinked, then blinked again. "I made a huge mistake coming along, didn't I?" She asked quietly.

Kiba's expression twisted in suden confusion. "What?" The gigantic dog at his side tilted its head.

"I'm going to die the moment I see your stupid gates." She intoned with dread, "And there's nothing I can do about it."

"Oi! Nobody's gonna kill you when you're with us!" He was looking at her as if she had said he resembled a fish, "Geez! And you seemed smart for a little bit there, too."

Karin flushed. "Go to hell!" She snapped, snatching up her food in irritation.

Why do I feel better?

--

The travel stretched onwards, nerves fraying to their roots in many more ways than one, each day making the destination loom in the distance, growing ever more intimidating.

When Sakura commented that Tsunade might just say he wasn't worth the trouble and have him executed, Sasuke realized two things.

One, the girl could hold an impossibly long grudge, and be impossibly bitter in her interactions with the cause of that grudge.

Two, he had never thought it possible to feel a burning need for anything other than revenge, the least of which being a need to lash out in retaliation to the latest quip at his expense. Violently.

Poor Naruto was stuck trying to decide which side to fight for (possibly literally) even more desperately than before.

At one point, Karin had accidentally gotten in Sakura's path to the door. There was an awkward dance where the two tried to move around the other and failed miserably. Sakura had growled.

Growled.

It was then that the pink-haired kunoichi was deemed inapproachable at best.

--

"I don't know," Karin sighed absently, "I just really don't want to die, you know?"

Suigetsu scoffed. "And here I thought you'd be clinging to Sasuke's arm and blindly trusting his every whim."

Karin scowled at him. "It's not like that! And how does this not bother you?!"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because I'm not prone to overreacting?"

Karin barked out a short laugh. "I've got two words for you. Duck-man."

He nearly tripped over his own feet. "BITCH! I thought we agreed we wouldn't talk about that! Like, ever!"

She shot him a pointed look.

Suigetsu rolled his eyes. "Whatever, she-wolf. It just doesn't bother me. It's better than being all alone with you, anyway."

With a "hmph!", Karin stalked off. Suigetsu stared after her, an amused smirk playing at his lips.

Hinata, walking slightly behind him, looked between the two, slightly confused.

If it didn't bother him, why had he been so jittery towards the beginning of their journey? And why would he lie to his teammate if it did?

--

Naruto stretched casually, appearing quite happy with himself as he mentioned they were a day or two away from their destination.

It went a little quiet for a moment, before the sound came roaring back.

Sakura stood off to the side, gazing into the distance with clouded eyes. She looked particularly tired, at unease for some odd reason.

You didn't see his face. You didn't see his face.

"Sakura-chan?" She jumped a bit, blinking a few times to return to reality. Naruto stood at a relatively safe distance, pensive and confused. "I mean, I understand why and all, but, I don't, and..." He faltered. "Do you hate him, or something?"

Sakura was silent a while. "Unfortunately, I don't think that's possible."

Naruto sighed in relief. "So I won't have to break up any beatdowns, or anything?"

A faint smile graced her countenance as a wicked gleam entered her eyes. "I never said that. I just said I couldn't hate him."

The distinct look of someone being very torn, conflicted and confused was worth it, Sakura decided around giggles. And so was that pout; good lord! "Ne, ne, you're mean sometimes, 'tebayo!"

"Well they seem to be getting along." Suigetsu mused, vaguely sulking.

"I have no idea why," Karin commented, raising a brow, "but I guess they're both just nuts."

"Sakura used to practically hate him," Sasuke supplied, "But then again, so did nearly everyone else..."

He left out the bit where they had seemingly swapped roles, but when one is followed by particularly perceptive ghosts, leaving out tidbits becomes a mite difficult.

"Being disliked bothers you?"

Despite the fact it was a fairly passive question, Sasuke shot his 'spirit guide' a look. "What, and it didn't bother you?"

He was blessedly left alone for a few minutes. He could almost feel the inward twitch from ten feet away.

Surprisingly enough, he had time to actually think for the first time in days. And yet, he couldn't help but remember all the things he never wanted to since they happened. All of the death. Sasuke barely refrained from glancing towards Itachi, knowing that he'd notice.

Was he still supposed to hate him? He had been stuck between a rock and a hard place, left to decide for himself if he should prevent a war and quietly kill everyone in the clan... or if he should let the war happen. War, which he hated most. There was a small chance the war wouldn't even happen.

And yet...

Sasuke frowned.

I can't hate him anymore. I don't think I could ever let it go, but now... maybe he was wronged as much as I. But he didn't give the Hokage a chance...

He didn't even want to be thinking on this topic, really, but brooding always was a talent he possessed. The thoughts just came.

He made a choice. I've done that just as much as he. We're more alike now than I thought. Who am I to expect forgiveness when I don't know if I can give it?

Sasuke closed his eyes a moment, left alone with the realization that he didn't know what he was doing or why.

--

A/N- Wow. It's been a while. Oops.