Thank you to those who read and reviewed! Since it took me so long to update, I will post two in a row. This light-hearted, crack-ish piece was written for Karin's birthday back in 2012.
Rating: K+
Summary: Karin is packing to leave to the Southern Base when she receives an unexpected visit.
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reading between the lines ;
by Kanae
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Stupid Orochimaru.
Figures he would push her transfer to the Southern base to tomorrow, out of all days. At the tender age of fourteen, there are many things that Karin has shed and discarded—girly emotions and interests that she has cut loose as a meaning to let go of unnecessary weights that would do nothing but hold her down.
This particular weight, though, was proving to be quite hard to seize and dispose of. It only comes once a year, after all.
And now it would be ruined.
The thought makes her lower lip stick out in an indignant pout, which promptly gives way to a scowl as she concludes—not for the first time—that the man probably did it on purpose.
No, he definitely did it on purpose. Nevermind that such a childish action should be leagues beneath a power hungry maniac like him; when it comes down to it, Orochimaru's hobby is making people miserable. He gets a kick out of it, so in retrospective Karin guesses she should have seen it coming.
Still, stubborn and proud as she is, she did not give him the pleasure; she took the news with a straight face and easily slipped into the act that had taken her months to perfect, but that started to bear its fruit.
Understood. You won't be disappointed, Orochimaru-sama.
The man simply smirked, mirth in those gashes he has for eyes. I know.
Karin knows, too, though she rather wishes she didn't.
It is embarrassing—more like humiliating, actually—to acknowledge that, while she has gotten playing the part of the loyal subordinate down to an art, she has yet to master the act of concealing her feelings for Sasuke.
She does well most of the time; great, actually. No one would dare to second-guess that she holds no interest in the boy aside from a begrudging partnership.
But then Sasuke unexpectedly does something—a brief touch, a compliment, a look—and her façade bends at the seams and the truth sneaks out in the form of traitorous blushes and awkward stuttering.
Stupid Sasuke, Karin curses inwardly, her frown deepening as she airily pushes another shirt inside her bag. Making her expose her only weakness while simultaneously remaining completely oblivious about it.
It is no wonder that Orochimaru wants to separate them. Karin saw that much coming a mile away, so while disappointing, it had not been a surprise. But this—the freaking timing was definitely beyond her worst expectations.
So focused is she on her thoughts that she misses his approaching chakra.
"Still packing, Karin?"
Startled, Karin turns only to find Sasuke casually regarding her from the threshold of the door, against which he was leaning. It takes her all of two seconds to get over her surprise and a couple of extra ones to stop chiding herself for letting her guard down.
"I'm almost done," she states, shifting her gaze back to her open bag. Not like she has much to pack, anyway; she had not taken anything with her when she left her burning village to join Orochimaru—Sasuke—almost whole year ago, and since then the items of clothing she has acquired have been scarce. Such commodities were unnecessary given the new type of life she lead. Moreover—"Tch, Sasuke, when will you learn how to knock? I could be changing, for all you know!"
Karin does not look at him, there is no need to; she can easily picture the way he tilts his head to the side, bangs falling on his eyes and giving him an impossibly sexy aura as he smirks. "Hn. You would've stopped me from coming in, if you were."
Damn him. All plain logic even in the face of the prospect of seeing her in her underwear; why did she have to fall for such a clueless, hormone-less idiot, again?
Oh. Right.
It takes her a considerable amount of will to repress the sigh that wants to leave her lips. "Whatever."
She hears him shifting, straightening; and her hands halt in expectation, her thoughts and irritation quieting down to a soundless tune as she patiently waits for the words that will follow.
"…You shouldn't leave your door open like this, there."
He says, at last. Karin is thankful her back is to him, or else he may have noticed the way her gaze softens. "I know."
It's Sasuke's turn to wait, now. He seems to know it as instinctively as Karin herself did, so he does not utter a single word until she has gathered the enough courage to ask what she has been wanting to—but refusing to—ask all along. She hates to be perceived as weak—as scared. "How is it…? The Southern base, I mean."
"I've never been there."
"… I see."
Silence. For Orochimaru to have never taken Sasuke there, it can only mean one thing—
"…Orochimaru told me it's the less dangerous of them all." As if to confirm her thoughts, his voice carries a different savor within it—one reserved to accompany his gaze whenever he regarded Orochimaru, or Kabuto, or those that bit—"You won't have much on your case, aside from…"
He does not need to finish; the unsaid rings loud and clear between them and both direct a look to her exposed, tarnished arms. There weren't that many scars in them, yet—but she gets the feeling there will be, soon. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why Orochimaru wants her as the sole jailer of the base. The thought makes her stomach clench. Karin pushes it away before the feeling could threaten to take over her.
She does so by focusing on the one thing—the one person that had single-handedly managed to help her endure everything she has gone through ever since she lost her family and village.
Sasuke.
"Heh, so you asked him?"
He must have heard the mocking note in her tone, because he crosses his arms across his chest and furrows his brow. "Hn, what about it?"
She pretends to not have heard him, throwing him a roguish look over her shoulder and enjoying a little too much the way his frown deepens in response. He can be so amusing, sometimes. "You should know better, Sasuke; you don't need to worry about me, I can defend myself just fin~e."
"I'm not worried, Karin."
Karin snorts, "Sure you aren't."
Sasuke wisely keeps his retort to himself, as expected. It's been a while since he realized that arguing with her takes him nowhere. Both of them are too stubborn, and unlike him, Karin isn't planning to put leashes on her temper anytime soon.
Anytime soon.
Her eyes widen.
"Say, Sasuke, did Orochimaru say for how long I will be there?"
He does not answer immediately; and in his silence, Karin hears the reply loudest of all. "… It's undetermined."
"Oh," is all she can muster, suddenly all too conscious of a single fact. Just how long will it be before she sees Sasuke again? He is busy training and Orochimaru rarely lets him out of his sight as it is, and she—she will have her hands full handling the base by herself.
Chances are she won't get to talk, feel or bicker with Sasuke for months.
Perhaps even years.
The thought alone is able to make her blood run cold, and she almost lets out a startled gasp when Sasuke's voice breaks through the heavy silence, as if reading her very core.
"… It won't be that long, Karin."
When she looks at him, she finds a dangerous glint sharpening his eyes and at once knows what he means.
Orochimaru won't be around for much longer.
Karin swallows, a shot of adrenaline reigniting her veins.
It is the unavoidable future; one that had been decided even before their paths crossed again, and one that Sasuke set in stone ever since. Nothing Karin can do or say will change his mind, and so all she has left is to trust him.
"…Right." She smirks, makes a point of passing her concern as taunting mockery. "Just make sure you keep your head attached to your neck until then. You won't have me around to heal you anymore, so you will have to get used to Kabuto."
"Hn."
She sees his scowl, his derisive eye-roll—and somehow is suddenly acutely aware, to the point where she can almost feel it as a physical affliction, of how much she is going to miss him.
Everything about him. From his ways to his silence to the way his chakra feels and the way he makes her feel, in turn.
And for the briefest of moments, Karin cannot help but to indulge herself and wonder if he will miss her, too—though she knows better. Sasuke is too single-minded, too focused on his revenge to give a thought to anything else, but still—
Of course he will. He is only human, even if he would rather pretend—believe—otherwise, and she is the only person he speaks to out of his own volition. The only person he trusts; enough to rely on, enough to keep her around. If he is not lonely yet, then he is going to be lonely now.
As will she.
It is that thought that prompts Karin to entertain being forward for a change and asking Sasuke to spend the night—if only as a birthday present.
She is merely wetting her lips and preparing to take the chance and let out a say, sasuke when he beats her to it and calls her name.
Flabbergasted, Karin can only catch the pouch that is suddenly thrown at her."Huh?"
"Poisoned kunai," Sasuke states with a slight, nonchalant shrug before sticking his hands into his pockets. "I thought they may come in handy."
She feels warm all over, and prays that Sasuke won't notice the way her face seems to be burning like a bonfire. "R-right."
"See ya, Karin."
"Later, Sasuke."
Admitting it is almost as embarrassing as her treacherous blush, but for a moment Karin had actually thought—
"Pft, as if."
I should have known better—Karin thinks, as she opens the pouch and takes out one of the kunai. Sasuke is not the kind to care about birthdays; and neither is she, for that matter. Not the Karin she is growing up to be, at least; she has no doubt that by next year, June 20 will be just another date.
Still… while it isn't a birthday present, it is a nice gesture nonetheless. And then he goes around denying that he cares, the nerve of him.
Seriously, Sasuke, you can be so basic sometimes. The thought makes her smile fondly.
She is just about to put the pouch away when she notices the inconspicuous little fan carved on its backside, just a small dot of reds and whites in what is otherwise an immaculate sea of beiges.
She blinks—once, twice—and then her smile morphs into a full blown smirk, her fingertips longingly tracing the pattern.
Sasuke probably did not even notice it—old habits die hard, after all, and he seems to be as obsessed with that crest as he is with his revenge—but that hardly matters, for at the end—
At the end, it all amounts to the same.
"Happy birthday," Karin mutters, an enthusiastic glint in her eye. "Uchiha Karin."
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end.