Notes: When I first thought about writing this story, the idea was to abandon my usually overly descriptive writing-style in favor of a more direct one, in order to focus more on the happenings rather than on everything surrounding them. I went for that during most of this chapter—so if my writing style seems a bit more blunt and concise and the flow of the story a bit more to the point, that is the reason for it.

That said, thank you to all those who reviewed the previous chapter! I'm really thankful to you guys for taking the time to give me some feedback. So, sorry for the wait!

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Chapter 6: Get Ready

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Karin squints, standing on her tiptoes. Despite that it is only barely that she manages to make out the numbers written on the blue card nailed atop of the door.

200

Karin curses under her breath; for a moment there the last 0 had morphed into a 9 and she had gotten her hopes up. But no such luck. She would have to walk further down the hall and hope she would not bump into anyone on the way. Being without glasses sure was a big pain on her behind; plus it brought her headaches, too.

One door, two doors, three doors… seven doors down—her heart gave a quick, little jump in her chest; almost there—then she raises her face and comes to an unsure stop, her eyes slightly widening.

Huh?

There were two guys standing outside of what should be Sasuke's room. They were dressed in black from head to toe (with the exception of a gray vest) and were as immobile as statues. The two men were also wearing something bizarre on their faces and upon closer inspection, Karin realizes the white blurs she had seen were actually masks.

Not any kind of masks, either. There were some odd red marks engraved onto them—she could not make them out well without her glasses—and moreover, they were shaped after animals. To her left, there was a hawk. And to her right, a cat.

The cat cleared his throat. Karin gave a start and a step back out of reflex; she had been so immersed in her staring that she had not realized she was basically standing on the cat's sandals.

"S-sorry! I'm looking for Uchiha Sasuke's room, this is it right?"

The cat looks down at her, and while she cannot see his eyes she gets the feeling he is giving her a wary once-over.

…Just what was going on in here?

"Sorry, but no visitors allowed."

The man states finally, and Karin frowns. "But—"

The hawk is the one to talk this time, a hint of detached annoyance in his voice. "We said—"

But he does not get another word out as the door is suddenly opening and out of it comes a black-haired boy sporting an oversized blue shirt and the set of loose, ankle-length pants courtesy of the hospital. Sasuke fixes his eyes on hers and the faraway sound of birds chirping freely across the blue sky outside his window is the only noise in the hall for a long moment.

At least until he lets out a casual yo which is soon accompanied by a: "so your glasses aren't back yet, huh?" as he snuck his hands deep into the pockets of his pants.

Before Karin can get to reply to his greeting however the cat has stepped between them, his back turned to her and his attention focused solely on Sasuke, "Go back inside, Sasuke. The orders haven't changed."

"Hn, really? And who will make me stay?"

There is a daring leer hanging from his every word just as there is a clear warning present on the way the hawk-masked man draws out Sasuke's name. The boy however remains utterly unfazed by this and by the tense atmosphere that was building up between him and the two men.

"Since she can't come inside, I'm going out."

And just like that Sasuke sidesteps the ANBU guard; his eyes meet Karin's for the briefest of moments—a tacit command to play along—and then he is walking up the hall, right the way Karin came from.

"Let's go, Karin."

He calls back over his shoulder, and the redhead takes another hesitant look at the masked duo before hurrying after him.

"What was that all about?" the girl asks as she easily falls in step with him, looking up curiously at his profile as she did so. Sasuke had his eyes closed, and his voice remains utterly impassive as he explains:

"ANBU. You haven't heard about them, have you?" it's more a statement rather than a question, but he still waits for Karin to confirm it before continuing, "They're Konoha's special assassination and tactical squad. Something like elite jounin, I guess. Though not quite."

The questions behind Karin's eyes shift and change shapes.

"My sensei tends to overdo it half the time," Sasuke offers with a nonchalant shrug. "He wants to make sure I won't try to leave before I'm done recovering."

The girl is not entirely convinced—despite the nature of the exams, she had not seen a single one of those so called ANBU around. Only normal jounin or chuunin making sure everything went according to the rules, but no more than that. For such a special squad to be employed to guard a mere boy's room… that had to mean something. There was something Sasuke was not telling her.

Despite that, Karin nods and turns forward without making any more questions. And Sasuke—who had been looking at her from the corner of his eye and knew pretty well Karin had noticed the voids in his explanation—finds the corner of his lips turning up in an unnoticeable smile. His teammates—and Kakashi—could learn a thing or two from the girl.

"Is it okay for you to leave your room, then?" is what Karin inquires instead, earning a snort from Sasuke.

"Hn, as okay as it is for you to go around without your glasses, I guess."

At that Karin can't help but to grin up at him. Sasuke smirks back.

"Where are we going, anyway?"

"We could go to the backyard!" when Sasuke simply regards her with slight interest but with no objections, Karin reaches out and starts lightly pulling him by his wrist, leading the way. "That's where we go whenever Ryuu-kun drops by to visit. It's a nice place, and we can get some fresh air, too."

"Ryuu? Your other teammate?" now that she mentioned it, he could sort of remember the guy. He guesses he must be the ashen haired boy with the big nose that fought and lost against Aburame.

Karin gives him an absentminded nod, still too focused on leading him to the backyard without tripping or running face-first into a wall after rounding a corner. It's precisely due to the apparent lack of attention she was paying to him that Sasuke is surprised when the redhead replies to the question he was just thinking of making.

"He is okay," she states, seemingly out of the blue. "Ryuu-kun is a good boy, nothing like Kurotaro-san."

As he stares at her slender back, Sasuke turns her words over in his head and something falls into place. When he visited her yesterday, there had been something that struck him as weird when she talked about the ass she had for a teammate. Back then he had not been able to put his finger on it, but he could see it clearly now.

He decides not to ask.

So far the girl had respected his choice each and every time he decided to keep something to himself. The least he could do was to pay her in kind. Besides, he was not the type to stick his nose into other people's business.

He had enough on his plate as it was.

Karin halts and unknowingly saves him from the unpleasant mind-trip that had been about to follow. Blinking, Sasuke realizes they had reached the stairs that lead to the first floor.

"Hold on, Karin. I'll take it from here."

He announces, sidestepping the hesitating redhead and taking the lead. He usually tended to his own wounds at home, but he has lived in Konoha all his life; he knows the village's Hospital like the back of his hand.

Of course he knows the place better than you do, Karin!

Before Karin can feel stupid for letting such an obvious thing fly over her head Sasuke is raising his elbow and offering it to her, "Be careful or you may slip."

He warns and Karin nods, grateful, "Right."

Once she has a good hold of it, Sasuke gets moving. He does so slowly, mindful of Karin's sight shortcoming. And with each and every step they take the redhead feels her chest swelling with appreciation for him.

He really is kind she thinks fondly, in slight and silent awe. The thought sticks to her mind and grows roots as they make their way down the stairs, and not for the first time the girl muses about how Sasuke's kindness must—surely—be one of the reasons of his strength.

Unaware of Karin's train of thought, Sasuke coolly turns left as soon as they reach the first floor, turning away from the hospital's welcome desk and into the hall that would lead them straight to the backyard. He does not know if Kakashi had talked to those nurses, too—but knowing the guy, he probably had. He may as well save himself the trouble of having to deal with more nuisances trying to keep him locked up.

Meanwhile, Karin lets go of his elbow and takes a light hold of his wrist instead. Sasuke says nothing of it, and Karin stops trying to make out anything and simply lets herself be led by the boy.

They're halfway down the hall when they come across an open door. Sasuke takes a glance inside from the corner of his eye, unconsciously, only to stop dead in his tracks.

Rock Lee laid inside.

Obliviously, Karin bumps into a Sasuke whose back is as stiffen as a board.

"Huh?"

But Sasuke is still too shocked to speak. He can only stare at the sleeping guy—Rock Lee, who was always so energetic, always so flamboyant in his unorthodox and ridiculous green spandex and bright orange weights and that ugly bowl cut. Rock Lee, who had more or less kicked his ass during their first meeting and had consequently saved Karin's life and Sasuke's own chances to go into the finals.

Rock Lee, who was so strong and endurable was now basically reduced to a mummy tied down to a hospital bed. His left arm and leg both prodded up and bandaged to their roots. Huge, puffy strips of gauze stuck to both his cheeks. It was a pitiful sight, and it made Sasuke stare with solemn, faintly horrified surprise.

"… Sasuke?"

Karin inquires again, now uneasily. She had felt him stiffen, and she had also felt his pulse quicken through the tender skin of his wrist. She does not know what he is seeing—she has turned and is trying to look inside the room, squinting but still unable to make out much. All she sees is a white, immobile maze lying on a bed—but she knows that whatever it is, Sasuke was not pleasantly surprised by it.

"… Rock Lee is in there. He…." his lips set in a tight, firm line, "he looks really beaten." Looks like crap is what he had meant to say, but somehow referring to the boy's state in such terms made him feel uncomfortable.

Karin, meanwhile, was trying to tie some dots together.

Rock… Lee?

She gasps, fireworks of recognition going off inside her brain. "Ryuu-kun told me about him! He told me a lot about his fight."

Her earnest eyes meet Sasuke's who nods, understanding by her look alone that what he was about to hear was not pretty. Not pretty at all.

"Let's go," he commands, guiding them down the hall again, "Or we'll wake him up."

'They were both crazy strong. Like, crazy strong, seriously. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before.'

'So, it was a good fight?'

'No, more than that. It was just… it was brutal, Karin. The guy pitted against Rock Lee—that Gaara guy, he was downright cruel. Like, batshit-insane-bloodthirsty cruel. Rock Lee was already done for and the guy just went and crushed his leg and arm with sand—just like that! Just for the sake of it! And the look on his face when he did it, oh boy, Karin… I'm not kidding you when I tell you that's the kind of shit nightmares are made of. The guy's a freaking psycho. I pity whomever is up against him in the finals, I seriously do.'

They're sitting at the backyard now, tucked under the kind shadow of an oak tree. Karin has told him everything Ryuu mentioned; from the way Gaara controlled the sand around him as if it were an extension of his body to his ruthless ways. Sasuke has taken it all in silently, but they are sitting close enough for Karin to be able to pick up the amazement from his eyes alone. It was easy to think that maybe Ryuu had been exaggerating, but from the look in his eyes Karin knows Sasuke thinks no such thing; he is taking seriously every word she is saying, and once she is done talking he looks away and falls into a pensive silence.

Karin stays silent too for a long moment, respecting his need to meditate the information. But she can't really do anything to hold back the comment knocking against her teeth, eager to get out.

"… There's something really wrong with that guy. With that Sabaku no Gaara…."

Sasuke's eyes are back on her, but she is not quite seeing him anymore. Instead she sees sharp, hard-edged aqua green eyes home to endless pools of coldness.

A shiver runs down her spine just at the thought of them. She had almost forgotten everything about that brief look he had given her back when she, Ryuu and Kurotaro had finally reached the tower.

"His eyes are really cold. Just one look and I felt like I was frozen to the bone. It wasn't a nice feeling… and the look in his eye wasn't a nice look. He is bad news, Sasuke."

She states gravely, sounding somehow older and as Sasuke attentively listens, a rush of wind rustles the leaves of the tree above them.

When the last leaf lies still again, Sasuke turns forward.

"I'm matched against him in the finals."

Silence befalls upon them after his even revelation, a silence during which Karin feels her intestines twisting into a harsh, unpleasant knot. Her throat dries up.

"… Seriously?" her voice comes off sounding very small, but if he notices it Sasuke says nothing of it, simply nodding instead.

"I wish I could've seen his fighting style. That thing you said about the sand sounds interesting." He slides his gaze towards Karin again and finds the girl fixing him with a preoccupied stare that was not quite hiding how uncomfortable she was at the prospect of him fighting Gaara. Sabaku no Gaara out of all people.

He looks away after a moment, not liking the feeling of being responsible for the look in her eyes. They reminded him of Naruto's whenever the blond worried about him. "Hn, it won't make much of a difference, though," he smirks, sounding self-assured. "I'm going to beat him, anyway."

It's slowly but surely that a smile draws itself across her lips, her crimson eyes clearing like a sky after a storm. "I'm sure you will," she agrees, no hint of doubt present in her voice, and Sasuke turns sideways in order to meet her eyes, smirk still in place. "But… the guy is dangerous, Sasuke. He really does sound like a crazy, blood-lust driven psycho… It won't hurt to have a better idea of his jutsu. I could ask Ryuu-kun more about them, if you want."

The edges of Sasuke's smirk soften without his notice. "Thanks, Karin."

Karin grins up at him in response. Then she is struck by a thought, and can't help but to say it aloud in wonderment: "You know, I wonder if those three from the Sand are seriously related? They look nothing alike, and their techniques are really different, too—that guy with the puppets, Sabaku no Gaara and his sand, and Temari with her fan—but they give off the same feeling. Like they enjoy seeing people get hurt."

She is frowning by the end of her little remark, but rather than commenting on it there's something else that has caught Sasuke's eye.

"… You don't use any suffix for the Sand girl."

"… Huh?"

For a moment Karin is obviously confused, but then her eyes widen with slight surprise. It seems she had not quite noticed she was doing that.

"I… I guess I don't."

This time Sasuke decides to hell with it. For whatever reason he was unnaturally curious about the matter, and even more so now that it looked like his impressions were correct and it was more of an unconscious thing on Karin's end rather than a conscious decision, like dropping the –san with him had been.

"Then, why do you call Kurotaro 'Kurotaro-san'? Hn, someone like that guy doesn't deserve such displays of respect."

Yet again Karin is startled by Sasuke's unexpected question. And as her eyes slowly return to their normal size, a cloud of thoughts darkens their usual red. Sasuke observes these changes with curiosity, almost not noticing the way they now reminded him—again—of the Sharingan.

"I don't know. I mean… I know he doesn't deserve it, but I don't know why I still do it. I guess I feel like it's the least I can do; if I were to be rude to him like he is to me, then things between us will just worsen. I don't want that." She frowns, hesitates, and then slowly—as if carefully measuring every word—adds: "I guess there's also a part of me that thinks that if I don't treat him unkindly, maybe one day he will get tired of being a jerk."

She gazes into Sasuke's eyes then, a sheepish grin in her lips. "Pretty silly, isn't it? … Kind of cowardly, too, when you get down to it."

Sasuke ponders her question. "Hn, do you really think he is the type to change because of that? Or maybe," his eyes sharpen, the hints of a sneer curving his lips, "Maybe he is the type who learns only after a fall. Like—"

"—Temari." Karin finishes for him, her grin losing her sheepish quality and becoming impish instead as Sasuke nods, amused. "Heh, maybe that's why I dropped the suffix with her. She underestimated me and I proved her wrong. Maybe, just maybe…."

She trails off but her unspoken sentence is clear enough to the both of them. That was the difference between Temari and Kurotaro; Karin had been able to prove her worth to the blonde, but she felt that she had yet to do so to her teammate. Until she managed to do it, she would continue to be docile with him. It was a thing about honor, in a way.

They both knew that much without Karin having to come out and say it. And they also felt equally iffy about the prospect. The thought of Karin—of anyone having to stand the shit of such a worthless guy made Sasuke feel indignant.

'By the way, Sasuke' his teacher had said yesterday, 'if you want, you can tell her to come to our trainings.'

Kakashi's words had been on his mind for a good part of the night but he had forgotten all about them after the morning's annoyance at still being locked up. And then they had been pushed even further down his mind when he heard the ANBU talking outside and knew right away just who had dropped by to visit.

He remembers them now though, and finds that for better or for worse, it seemed like he had finally come to a decision.

"Say, Karin…"

"Hm?"

"… You can come with us if you want. With me and my sensei, I mean. Once I start training."

Karin's looks positively incredulous. "Huh?"

"Your senses… they aren't bad." Sasuke assesses with a small tilt of his lips that is almost encouraging, finding yet again that the redhead's unguarded expressions egged him on. "They just need more shaping up. And since Kusagakure won't be able to give you that, you might as well take advantage of your stay in Konoha."

Kakashi would probably have a riot if he knew Sasuke had more or less quoted him, but for the time being the Uchiha could not be bothered by the thought of the jounin eavesdropping on them again.

"But… won't your sensei mind?" inquires a Karin whose eyes are beginning to light up, but whose eyebrows still remained knitted in a hesitant frown.

"Heh, he was the one who suggested it in the first place."

Now that takes Karin by surprise. Sasuke can't blame her; he is still quite surprised—and intrigued—himself.

"Huh? How come?"

"Don't ask me," he replies, honestly. And then closes his eyes with a smirk. "I don't know the way his mind works."

As expected, Karin recognizes the words easily enough—she had said the very same thing to him less than 24 hours ago when talking about Kurotaro. The fact that Sasuke remembered and had thrown them back at her like that makes her grin widely, momentarily forgetting her stupor at Sasuke's invitation and subsequent revelation.

"So, I take that as your agreement?"

The smirk in Sasuke's lips is enough to drive away the hesitance, so all that remains inside Karin's guts is nothing but excitement and anticipation.

"Yeah," she says, eyes sparkling and boring into his. "Count me in!"

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A nurse comes to Karin's room extra early the morning after she and Sasuke had the talk under the oak tree, and the redhead is ecstatic to see her repaired glasses laying on the woman's hand. Being back to the clear, vibrant world made of nothing but straight lines rather than blurry specks of colors feels nothing short of wonderful and she is on her merry way to Sasuke's room first thing after having breakfast to tell him the good news.

Surprisingly, the ANBU are still there but Sasuke is not. They do not try to stop her from knocking on the door this time, and they also make no effort to hold her back when—at the lack of response from Sasuke—she opens the door to peak in only to find his empty mattress. Far from feeling happy at the ANBU's apparent new state of acceptance of her presence, Karin is peeved.

"Geez, could've told me Sasuke wasn't here."

She mutters under her breath as she walks away from them, unconsciously making sure she would still be on their hearing range as she said so. Karin still does not know why they were there—and she is sure they would not tell her even if she asked. Which she would not, because Sasuke must have his reasons for not saying it—but she does know that whatever the reason, it is no excuse to be pricks.

The redhead is pleasantly surprised to find Ryuu waiting for her when she gets back to her room; almost as pleasantly surprised as he is to see her glasses back in their rightful place. They talk for a while as Ryuu updates her as to what he and Kurotaro have been up to, but as soon as the boy has ran out of things to say Karin wets her lips and asks what had kept her awake through a good chunk of the night.

"Say, Ryuu-kun… can you tell me more about Sabaku no Gaara's techniques?"

Karin blames her curiosity on having seen Rock Lee's pitiful state, not wanting to reveal she was truly doing some scouting for Uchiha Sasuke, who Ryuu did not know and did not care about—and who had kicked their teammate off the preliminaries, at that. Karin knew that Ryuu did not like Kurotaro any better than she herself did, but if Kurotaro were to find out… well, let's just say she would rather not take any chances.

Ryuu tells her as much as he can—in other words, he describes everything he saw—but he sadly can't go much further than that as there is not much that he knows. There's something he says, however; the words 'his sand is like a shield of some sort. A second-skin. Like an absolute defense or something' stick to the wall of Karin's forethoughts like glue, and once Ryuu is gone she wastes no time in getting up again to go and try her luck.

As it turns out, Sasuke is not in his room yet. This time the ANBU do tell her as much even before she has come to stand before them, and Karin thanks them for their effort before doing a 180º and heading back to her room.

Except she does not quite get there, as none other but Sasuke himself was making his way up the hall—no doubt to go back to his own room—right at that very moment.

"Sasuke!" she calls out, shortening the distance between them in quick strides.

"Hey." Is his nonchalant greeting, but he at least replies to Karin's beam with a small smile of his own. "So your glasses are finally back, huh?"

Karin nods happily, unknowingly pushing her glasses further up her nose with her index finger. She looks kind of funny, doing such a trivial thing with a face as happy as that, and Sasuke can't help but to snort with amusement, "Heh, good for you."

"I've got good news for you, too! I talked to Ryuu-kun just now…."

She proceeds to tell him, with practically perfect accuracy, every single thing Ryuu had said to her. Or well, at least everything she deemed as useful. And when she gets to the part that had struck her the most, Sasuke nods his head.

"An absolute defense, huh…?" he echoes thoughtfully, looking past Karin and into the end of the hall.

Karin quietly lets him weight things over in his mind. It is only when his eyes land back on hers that she tilts her head to the side and asks what she had been wondering all day. "By the way, where were you, Sasuke?"

"They wanted to run some tests on me," he explains, and as was slowly but surely becoming a habit between them, he continues onto replying to the questions written across Karin's eyes. "They said I'm getting better… but that I'm not fully recovered yet."

His brows slightly furrow, and Karin would have giggled at the stubborn, unhappy way in which he uttered his last words had it not been for what he said next.

"… It'll have to do for now, though."

The tone of finality present in his voice makes Karin stare, taken aback. "Huh?"

Sasuke's eyes fall on hers again, this time sporting a serious look. "Karin. What I told you yesterday… are you ready?"

Karin blinks. Had it not been because his offer was yet another thing that had been on her mind all day, she may not have gotten what he meant. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think so."

The Uchiha nods. "Good. The training begins tomorrow."

A dumbfounded huh? is the only thing Karin can manage, but Sasuke pays it no heed and simply offers her a short offhanded-wave before heading back to his room.

Once inside he states, seemingly to thin air:

"Tell Kakashi I'm leaving tonight."

There is an almost inaudible shuush! as the ANBU who had been crouched on the roof outside the window leaves to deliver the message.

Uchiha Sasuke smirks with anticipation, his veins already burning with adrenaline.

That night, there are no ANBU guarding his room.

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End of the 6th chapter

This chapter was actually supposed to end after Karin agreed to join Sasuke and Kakashi on their training; but considering that barely anything happened up to that point, I decided to add some chunks of Chapter 7 to it.

Now, about Kurotaro and Karin; through their dynamic I am trying to explore yet another difference between this Karin and canon!Karin. That is: that the Karin we know and love does not hold back when it comes to voicing out her opinion, and does not care about coming off as rude about it. The reason for this difference is that this Karin does not have half the amount of self-esteem that canon!Karin has lol but she has already started to improve in that regard, and will continue to do so through this fic. After all, I refuse to give up on the fun that developing her character will bring me lol

I am also playing along with some of the aspects that are present in the dynamic between Sasuke and Karin in canon; like for example, the fact that he actually does bother to explain things to Karin when she asks something. In this case though, I am mixing how I envision them during their time in oto (aka, Sasuke like some kind of mentor and inspiration to her) with the… innocence, maybe? that their part 1 selves still had; particularly Sasuke, because he was at his nicest right up to his fight with Gaara. And I'm of course, going a bit further due to how Sasuke went out of his way to smile at Karin in a way he had never smiled to anyone before, for example.

Regardless, there are reasons as to why Sasuke seems to be so receptive to Karin in here—he will be musing about them himself as the story advances though, so I won't spell them out yet.

As for Karin and her fixation with Sasuke's kindness; the emphasis Karin gave to the changes in Sasuke's chakra in canon (and how it being cold was the complete opposite to how it usually was) has lead me to believe that is precisely one of the things that lured her to him in the first place. So I am just exploring that here.

Ok I think these are long enough as it is so I will shut up lol see you guys next time!