How Can I Begin to Tell You?

by iEclipse13

Karinami hates Sasuke, and he has no idea why. When they're forced to go on a mission together as a two-man team, sparks fly, but could it be that they just don't understand one another?

4. Chapter 4

AN: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters or settings. I can't quite remember who to give credit to, but the only thing that I made up is Karinami Iruzika and everything having to do with her, including Roka and her lineage. For some reason, I made it so that the characters are 15-16 years old but…they're still Genin. NO they aren't dumb. I just made it that way—Dattebayo! Also, some of the people may be a little out of character. I am not an expert on Naruto. The end.

*Karinami's POV*

I knew that I was awake because I could feel a gut-wrenching pain searing through by body, but I could not move. I could not speak. I could barely think. I simply was, I was existing; I wasn't walking or talking or running or jumping…I just was. I guess I was lying down and breathing, but is that really considered to be an action if you cannot control it?

The first coherent thought that I was able to accomplish was only a simple truth: one way or the other, I was moving. Not physically using my arms and legs, but I was being moved by someone. My next coherent thought? Could be bad person moving me. Need to stop them. Hurt them. Knock them out. Do something.

Naturally, my most valuable weapon without moving is the Yuribikari. Willing myself to be furious, I gathered the energy that I had and fed it to my anger. I could feel weak sparks gathering in my heart. They would not be enough to murder, only stun. I braced myself for the fall, but—

"Hey, stop that, you could kill yourself." I felt my Kekkei Genkai die.

My brain whirred to life in recognition. Slowly opening my eyes and wincing at the light, my suspicions were confirmed. "Sa-Sasuke?" I muttered slowly, confused.

His eyes glared down at me and his voice turned sarcastic. "No, it's Kakashi. Of course it's me, who else?"

"Oh," was all I managed before closing my eyes again. It took a moment for my brain to link together three essential points: 1) Sasuke, 2) carrying, 3) me. Wait… I reminded myself. I don't even let Roka carry me! So what is this jerk doing…why the heck am I letting him treat me like I'm two?

"Hold on a minute!" I gasped, my eyes flying open. This surprised Sasuke—who stopped and nearly dropped me.

"What the heck?"

"Why in the world are you carrying me? I can walk!"

"Yeah, right," he agreed. "And pigs can fly."

"No, seriously!" I insisted, trying to get up. "I'm fine."

"No way! You just got stabbed three times. I wouldn't be surprised if you—"

He was thinking that I might die, I knew, but that didn't matter. "Look, I'm fine, just put me DOWN!" And, ever so gracefully, I swung to my feet—only to loose my balance at my extreme, dizzying headache and fall flat on my butt.

"Ow," I pouted, realizing that Sasuke was right—pigs were going to be selling tickets for aerial shows before I could even stand up without aid. Nonetheless, I hoisted myself up with the help of a tree branch and motioned to Uchiha. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."

Sasuke chuckled, a half-smile playing on his lips. "Seriously, Karinami, you're not gunna make it like that." Was that worry in his voice?

"Come on, then, we'd better get moving," I pressed, and tried to take a step. Big mistake. What had been a throbbing pain where I'd been stabbed elevated to an agonizing deathblow that nearly made me throw up.

Sasuke, expecting my inevitable failure at walking, steadied me instantly, sighed, and looked at me with that caring but sarcastic 'you're an idiot but I will tolerate you' look. "Ready to give up now?"

I groaned. Watching my parents die had made me want to never give in and to always be strong which was why I so often rejected help, but there was no way out of this one. I just couldn't do it. "Yeah," I finally admitted, hanging my head.

Sasuke shook his head slowly, seeming to read my mind. "Everyone needs help sometimes; they just don't want to make others think that they are weak." He looked at me oddly as he picked me up. "Anyone who can take what you have both emotionally and physically is not weak."

He began to walk again, and I was left in stunned silence.

*later*

The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the darkening sky from a patch of grass next to the trail we'd followed earlier.

"You're up," Uchiha, who was setting up camp, acknowledged.

"Wh-where are we?" I mumbled.

"An hour or so away from Uta's village I'd say. We can get help for you there."

"NO!" I surprised him by shouting. "We have to go back to Konoha. Everyone will be worried AND if those two freaks are following us or something, we could endanger the people of that village. Konohagakure has walls and guards; they could not hurt anyone there."

"That makes sense," Sasuke admitted, "but we have to hurry. You're not getting any better and you could get an infection."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I massaged my temples, and even that seemed to hurt.

"Think you can eat anything?"

"Hah, fat chance. I'd puke most likely."

He sighed. "That's even worse. You'll starve to death on top of everything else if we don't get back soon. Kakashi wasn't planning on this mission being dangerous, so we didn't bring much stuff for wounds. They seriously mislabeled this job and we shouldn't have been allowed to go anyway! This is a Chunin mission, technically and we're just Genin."

"Yeah…" I agreed weakly. Ignoring my uncomfortably wet bandages and the searing pain, I curled myself up into a ball of agony and let myself drift off again.

*later*

After two sleepless nights and carrying me for hours on end, Sasuke was beginning to get visibly exhausted. Luckily, Konoha was looming on the horizon.

"Okay, so I may have let you lug me halfway across the Land of Fire, but you are NOT going to carry me around Konohagakure like Akamaru or something," I persisted.

Uchiha, unsurprisingly, allowed me to walk but insisted that he at least support my weight so that I didn't trip and 'hurt myself'. I sighed. The day before yesterday, I would've loved to kill him. Now…I couldn't even bring myself to call him a baka after all he'd done to save my sorry, wounded butt. Avoiding attention, we took the back roads of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"We should get you to a doctor," Sasuke urged.

I was feeling sick and lightheaded not to mention the ripping pain from Kakuzu's knife-thingies, but protested haltingly. "We…should report to Kakashi-sensei. He…needs to know what…happened so that eh can tell the Hokage to…send some Chunin or Jonin to…investigate."

My partner nodded. "Right. Where would he be, do you think?"

"Uh…training with Naruto and Sakura? They should be back by now; their city was much closer to Konoha than ours."

Correcting our route, we set off towards the training grounds. As we neared the field, I could see Kakashi sitting with Naruto and Sakura, not facing us.

"So, what did you two think of the mission?" He was asking them, still oblivious of Sasuke and me.

"What did I think?" I interrupted. "Two words: Never. Again." Kakashi nodded in acknowledgment without turning around, amused at our sudden arrival, but Naruto and Sakura whipped their heads around. Naruto instantly realized something was wrong.

"Karinami-chan, what happened to you?" He screamed. The short, ten-syllable sentence immediately set Kakashi-sensei on 'alert'. He too swiveled around, suddenly worried, and his visible eye widened as he saw Sasuke helping me stumble up.

"What happened?" He asked, next to us in a heartbeat.

Uchiha filled him in. "We met two Akatsuki guys at the end of the trail. One, named Hidan, led me off and then knocked me out whereas the other one, Kakuzu, decided to engage Karinami in a fight. They were both extremely skilled; neither of us stood a chance. If I would've had to fight as well, we'd be dead of blood loss in the middle of nowhere."

Kakashi paled. "Naruto and Sakura, take Karinami to the hospital. Sasuke, go and tell Iruka-sensei exactly what happened and that he should alert the Hokage. You may rest after that. I need to go and tell Roka."

Naruto put his arm around my waist and my arm over his shoulder as Sasuke dashed off and asked, "Shouldn't you tell the Sand Siblings and Kiba, too? They're related as well."

Kakashi sighed. "Knowing Gaara, he might go off and try to kill Kakuzu for even laying a finger on his cousin since they are so close, but I'll tell all of them anyway. They'll be very worried—especially Temari; she thinks of Kari as her sister almost." He paused and looked at me. "D'you think you'll be okay for now, Karinami?"

I made a face but nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can make it." Even my voice sounded weak and distant, I realized.

"C'mon, Kari-chan, let's go," Naruto coaxed, his tone worried and urgent. "Hey, Sakura, how 'bout you run along ahead and make sure they know we're coming? That way, we can get help pretty much as soon as we walk in the door."

"Okay," she agreed, not arguing for once.

By the time we reached the corner of the street, I felt ready to crawl into a hole and die and Kakashi had disappeared. The only thing that remained where we had all met up was a scattered trail of my blood.

*Kiba's POV*

"Good work, Hinata, you're definitely getting better!" Kurenai called to the lavender-eyed girl who had just exited the obstacle course. "Shino, you're next. Come on, this is the last time before we have to go off and help Fujita-san."

Out of the blue, I glimpsed the Sand Siblings running towards us. All three of them looked worried and surprised.

"Kiba-Shinseki!" Temari hailed.

"Hey, Tem-chan!" I replied, waving.

"You have to come with us—now." Kankuro insisted as they stopped.

"Excuse me," Kurenai interrupted, a little sharply. "We're in the middle of training here. Why should Kiba and Akamaru be dismissed without my authorization?"

Gaara stepped in, speaking in a dangerously low voice. "He should be dismissed, sensei, because his cousin's two-man team was attacked by the Akatsuki and she is currently in the critical ward of the hospital without the complete assurance that she will live. Now, would you like to continue your training and have us come back later to tell them the date for the funeral?"

Kurenai looked shocked, ignoring his rudeness towards his elders. "WAIT A MINUTE! WHAT HAPPENED TO WHO?"

My heart stopped as I realized what Gaara was saying. "Karinami-chan?"

"Rowf?" Akamaru scratched at my hood incredulously.

"Hai, Kakashi just came and told us. He's making sure Roka-sensei knows." Kankuro looked grim.

Kurenai looked flustered. "Kiba, you and Akamaru may go."

"Thank you Kurenai-sensei!" I thanked her and turned to my cousins. "Can we go and see her?"

"Yeah, I think so," Temari answered. "And if we aren't, I'm gunna bust my way in whether they like it or not." I blinked—Tem-chan wasn't usually so violent. It had to be serious for her to get all gung-ho.

"See you tomorrow, I guess!" I yelled over my shoulder, following the Sand Siblings. As we headed towards the hospital, I threw another question onto the table. "Wait, so how the heck did Karinami get all bloodied up if Uchiha was there? Isn't he supposed to be the best or something? Heh, I knew he was a fake."

"Not really," Kankuro explained. "As is to our knowledge, the Akatsuki members that attacked Kari and Sasuke were very skilled. Kakashi even looked slightly aghast at the thought of them being the attackers. Apparently, they are very formidable. Plus, I don't quite think it helped the situation when one of them drew Sasuke off and knocked him out so that he couldn't do much."

I crowed. "Uchiha? Put in his place? Dang, I would've paid to see that."

"I agree," Gaara admitted, "but we can't exactly go off on him. He literally carried Karinami the whole way here so that she wouldn't die—or that's what Kakashi said. Maybe I heard wrong, though, he was talking pretty fast." The One-Tails' host snorted. "If he was in any way responsible for Kari getting hurt, I swear I'll beat the living—"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up." I skidded to a halt, and Akamaru growled. "Karinami—our persistent, stubborn, I-don't-need-your-help cousin—seriously let that stuck up brat carry her? You have to be kidding me. Maybe you guys don't remember, but I was there when Roka tried to carry her and he totally regretted it. She about blew up in his face. I think Kakashi got the story mixed up or something—that is not the Kari-chan I know."

Ignoring Temari's protests that Uchiha was 'kind of cute', Gaara stopped and sighed. "Exactly. That's what made me finally realize that this wasn't some ill-conceived hoax. Kari-chan would never let anyone carry her unless she absolutely without a doubt could not walk. If this were a joke, no one would've ever thought to make that a part of it because we'd never believe that she'd actually let that happen and then the whole joke would be a complete failure. There's no way that Kakashi-sensei or someone like that baka Naruto would've made something like this up. So…if it's not make-believe, that means that our cousin is really in the hospital having a heck of a time staying alive."

I sighed. "Then we better get going." There were mumbles of agreement all around, and before long we were in front of the Konoha Hospital. Rushing in, we were stopped by one of the medical corps.

"Are you here to see your cousin Karinami?"

"Heck yes, so move it and I won't have to set Crow on you," Kankuro growled urgently.

"Aah, I'm afraid visitors aren't allowed in for another five minutes. You can wait outside her room with Roka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, and two of her teammates, huh? The room number she's in is 26."

Gaara nearly blew it. "Five minutes? Are you kidding?"

"No, unfortunately, but I wouldn't worry. Last I heard, she was going to pull through just fine with a couple days or weeks of rest."

Temari cut in. "Okay, okay, whatever; let's just go. We can wait five minutes, surely." She shot a glance at Gaara, who looked dangerously close to mincing the guy into tiny pieces with his sand.

Akamaru wined and pawed at my hood again, but didn't squirm.

Giving one last nasty glance at the apprentice who'd only been the bearer of bad news, Gaara stalked off to the right room and we all followed. Even if none of us could read, it was blatant which room was Kari's—it was the one with Roka, Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto waiting outside. As soon as she saw us, Sakura jumped up anxiously.

"'''ve,like,killedherIstillcan''vethought—"

Kakashi stopped her mid run-on. "Sakura, calm down. Everything's going to be fine. Just sit down, please."

"If I had any sense, I'd have gone after that heartless zombie the minute I found out what'd happened," Gaara growled as Sakura plopped down onto the floor. "He's so dead if I ever get my hands on him…"

"Yeah, if I don't kill him first," Temari huffed.

"No one's killing anyone; at least not for now," Roka reasoned his face white and his voice shaky. "Besides, the Akatsuki shouldn't be treated like they are inexperienced or unorganized. One wrong move with them could spell out your doom." He managed a laugh. "And apparently, Kakuzu has 5 hearts or something. So…he's not such a heartless zombie if you think about it."

Before anyone could come up with a reply, an advanced Chunin from the medical corps stepped out of the room. He looked around. "Sorry for the wait. You can go and see her now, though I wouldn't quite expect her to talk much."

There was a slightly wild stampede as we all funneled into the chamber. Kari was curled up tightly in the bed—though a clipboard on the bedside table clearly stated that she was to sleep on her back as to not disturb her wounds—with a needle in her arm, most likely giving her some blood. As we entered, she opened her eyes a little.

"Hey…why the long faces, guys? I don't look that bad, do I?"

Roka let out a nervous laugh and literally ran over to her side. "You had us worried for awhile, I'd say, but no—I think you'll be fine."

Karinami grinned weakly and then groaned.

Instantly, Roka began the fatherly questionnaire. "What? What hurts? Is there something wrong?"

"Needles," she replied. "I hate needles. It was bad enough accidentally driving a senbon through my arm that one time…but needles? Do I have to keep it in?"

I laughed. "They're giving you some blood since you lost so much while you were travelling. Unless you think you're gunna be okay without it, heck yes you have to keep it in!" Akamaru barked in agreement and pounced onto the bed, curling up at Karinami's feet.

"Wait…do I have to explain what happened?" Her eyes looked sad.

"No, no, just rest for now," Kakashi reprimanded. "I sent Sasuke to fill Iruka in and then Iruka should be able to tell the Hokage after gathering a little more info on the men that attacked you."

Kari laughed. "Technically, I think we attacked first, but it wasn't to kill or anything…Sasuke just got all mad 'cause they were under the impression that we were just Genin brats…"

Naruto snorted. "Brats? Ha, they wish! If I'd been there, they'd have been sent home crying for their mommies—Dattebayo!"

My cousin laughed again, then winced at the pain. "I'm sure they would have, Naruto. That'd give them something to complain about." She looked around. "Thank you for coming; I know it's totally a pain to visit when someone's in the hospital." We all shrugged modestly, but exited as she said a last word of thanks and fell asleep again.

*Karinami's POV*

When I woke up, I figured that I'd—oh so rudely—fallen asleep while all my visitors were still here. Meh, stupid wounds. Turning over carefully as to not disturb my bothersome blood transfusion needle, I reached over to the window and pulled the curtain back a few inches. The sky was mostly dark except for a patch of glowing, dim light to the east. It had to be about 5 in the morning, then.

Letting the curtain fall back into its original position, I tried to convince myself that the ceiling pattern was very interesting as I memorized each tile. Small rays of light peeked through the cracks between the curtains as the minutes cycled by, and I began to hear the increased activity of the medical corps outside the door.

Just as I was about to die of boredom, a quiet knock jerked my mind from its stupor. "Uh, come in," I announced, feeling like an idiot.

To my surprise, a rested-looking Sasuke entered through the door instead of Roka or a doctor. My eyes widened. "Sasuke? Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be with Kakashi for training or something?"

He shot me a sarcastic look. "Are you serious? I carried you practically halfway across the dang country and I'm not allowed to make sure you aren't dead yet? Besides, Kakashi's in some bigwig meeting with the Hokage and some other ninja, so we're off the hook for now."

"Oh," my face turned about ten previously unknown shades of red. "My bad. And I—I guess I should thank you, since I'd kind of be dead and all…"

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Even if I hadn't have felt the need to help you, I would've—if I hadn't, it would've been my funeral. Between Gaara and the rest of your cousins, I would be so dead for not at least trying to keep you alive."

My head hurt. Was he saying that he wanted to help me or that he helped me so that he wouldn't get his butt whipped? He was using way too many words for both this hour of the day and my painkiller-numbed brain.

"Okay, I'm lost," I admitted.

I nearly died of shock as he—was I imagining it?—half-smiled. "Forget it. I'm just rambling. I'm probably gunna get it from the doctors for disturbing your rest anyway, but I had to make sure that you were still among the living." As he finished, I could here a cry of "Sa-su-keeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Where are you?" from outside my window.

Uchiha cringed. "Ugh, it's Sakura. I'd better blow this joint before she finds me and starts following me around." I just blinked at him. Since when did he care? And since when was he so talkative? Had he seriously taken that much of my rude, loud, hate-filled rant to heart? Maybe he wasn't such a jerk after all…I mean, he did kind of save my butt…

I snapped myself out of la-la land and faced him. "Uh, yeah, she can get kind of possessive sometimes."

"Sasuke-kun, where are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?" Came another call from outside, followed by Naruto's voice.

"Be quiet, Sakura, this is a hospital! People are trying to sleep!" I was surprised that he stood up to his crush like that, but also very thankful.

"Hn," Sasuke huffed, sounding like his normal grumpy self. "See you later, Karinami. And if Sakura comes in here and asks, you haven't seen me since yesterday, tadashii? She is so annoying!" I nodded, and he traipsed out the door, leaving behind one very emotionally confused girl.

*Third-person perspective, in the Akatsuki's rendezvous point*

"Hey, Kakuzu, you're back!" Kisame laughed jokingly. "And Hidan! Why the heck were you guys gone so long? All you had to do was get some money."

"Eh, not exactly, fish boy," Hidan corrected.

Sasori jumped in as he heard the tone in Hidan's voice. "What, did you guys get the feeling you were being followed, too? Deidara and I heard some voices, so we took a long, confusing route back. We never saw who was tracking us, but I don't think they were very experienced."

"We saw 'em," Kakuzu's eyes shone wickedly. "Some little Genin- or Chunin-ranked brats from Konoha followed us, but we set a trap 'cause we heard one of the villager's at that town saying they were going to request help from the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

"Ah, yes, and Kakuzu went a little too far," Hidan shot a death glare at his partner. "The goal was to see who they were, not to nearly kill the little~"

"'Nearly kill them'?" Itachi questioned warily, cutting Hidan off before he could curse up a storm.

"Yeah," Hidan agreed. "The girl may be dead already, come to think of it."

Deidara blinked. "I'm confused, un."

Hidan went on as Kakuzu began cleaning some blood off of his weapons. "The night before we saw the Shinobi that were following us, we heard a lot of loud shouting; and the voice was a girl's. It seems that the little Uchiha and his teammate were on extremely bad terms with one another."

"Sasuke?" Itachi inquired, suddenly interested.

"Oh, yeah, he was one of the two *bleep* kiddies that was tracking us. He's actually quite fast, all things considered."

"Could you hear what they were saying?" Konan asked.

"No, but it sounded bad." He paused, and then continued to narrate. "The next morning, as expected, we ran into our trackers. One was Sasuke, like I said, and the other one was that new member of his team—you know, Itachi, that little girl whose parents you killed near the Village Hidden in the Mist? Karinami was her name, I think." Unseen by the other Akatsuki, Deidara paled. "Your d*** brother got all riled up when we called them little creampuffs or something, so I was forced to lead him off and knock him out—I nearly missed, he's so fast—but Kakuzu here," Hidan snarled at his partner, "decided to give the little girl something to remember him by."

Kakuzu crowed. "Eh, she wasn't that bad for a Genin, too. She was fast, faster than Sasuke, I'd wager, and maybe even faster than some higher-level Chunin and Jonin. She was also pretty smart in a fight, using her Funayureiinabikari like she did, but it was useless. There are some battles you just can't win, given the odds."

"What did you do to her, Kakuzu?" Sasori demanded. "You shouldn't have attacked in the first place, especially if you end up killing a soon-to-be formidable Shinobi that could be recruited."

"No, un." Deidara barked, still white in the face.

"What was that?" Zetsu looked at him oddly.

Deidara refused to answer, but Itachi let out an evil laugh. "Oh, I'd nearly forgotten—you're her cousin, aren't you? You definitely can't adopt her now. You're just worried that she's dead, eh?"

Deidara looked away uncomfortably. Kakuzu had gone too far. If Kari was dead, there'd be consequences—even if it meant activating the mouth on his shoulder. Even if it meant dying.

Hidan ignored the blonde-haired ninja and commenced with the story. "Anyway, so after Kakuzu and I met back up, we waited a little while to see what would happen. As soon as Sasuke woke up, he used marks he had made back to where we set the trap and found Karinami. They may've hated each other the night before, but when it comes to life and death they're obviously willing to put their differences aside. We followed him—carrying her—for a couple hours until she woke up. Sasuke knew that she would die without medical attention, but the little girl was smart enough to know that if we were following them, which we were, the nearest village wouldn't be safe whereas Konohagakure has a wall and Shinobi to keep us out. After that, it was simply pointless to track them so we returned to where we'd left the money and…well, brought it back here."

"Are you serious? Two still-learning Shinobi were seriously sent to fight two fully-fledged, experienced Akatsuki? Has the Hokage gone mad?" Konan scoffed.

"No, I'm assuming that their mission was just to follow the trail and see if they found anything. I don't think that the *bleep*es were expected to have to fight us."

Deidara still looked grim. "You say she was still alive when they neared the smaller village, un? That doesn't tell me much of her state considering the wounds she probably received. It's still a ways from there to Konoha, un."

Kakuzu, surprisingly, was the first to offer even the slightest consolation. "Don't worry about it, osanai kodomo, if your cousin can stay alive for that long with those wounds that I gave her, she'll last a little longer."

Deidara sighed and decided to step outside, ignoring the glances that the rest of the Akatsuki members were giving him. I miss you, un, he thought. I wish I could just ditch the Akatsuki, but I can't…how can you ever forgive me? I told you that, as soon as I was old enough, I would adopt you…Roka even agreed to it, but look at me now, un. Forced to steal and kill for everything that is not right because I wasn't strong enough to beat that stupid Sharingan…Kari-Shinseki …I am so sorry…how can you ever forgive me?

AN: Thank you to all those who have reviewed so far! Your comments are appreciated! I hope you've enjoyed what I have so far; I'll update soon. And, of course, comments are welcome! The end.

Mini dictionary:

Osanai kodomo: little child

Dattebayo: Believe it! (I forgot to put this in earlier. Sorry!)