Note: This ends the short mini-arc that began back in Chapter 09, and now you will understand why I said that it contains "a good chunk of the soul & heart of this fic." – this is a turning point, in a way. So, prepare for some serious SasuKarin development up ahead; and for Sasuke to not be entirely clueless about the matter. Plus, for those wondering about Sasuke's behavior around Karin, I think Sasuke here will help you understand the reasons behind it (or at least, I hope so!). Also, we will finally see glimpses of tsundere-ish Karin showing up… though she will stay mostly dere—for now.
Finally, one last warning: overused scenario is overused and cliché, and I bow my head in shame because of it. But, it wrote itself and hey! who am I to stop it? haha Plus, SasuKarin had yet to get its own version; so, here it goes!
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Chapter 11: Sasuke and Karin
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The morning and most of the afternoon flew past Karin almost without giving her the chance to assimilate them at all. Training had kept her busy—she had finally worked her way around the leaf training, and once she had gotten the first leaf to fall she had been unstoppable. Turns out Kakashi had been right; it really was a matter of focus and concentration of chakra. What had slowed Karin down was making it flow properly into the leaf; but she had been luckily able to do it properly that very afternoon.
"It's so easy!" Karin exclaims in good-spirits, satisfaction coloring her words and making them sound more like boasting rather than a mere statement.
… She has been spending too much time with Sasuke, hasn't she? Is the thought that goes through Kakashi's mind as he watches his impromptu student, but the girl is too focused on her task to notice the look in his eye. And so she also misses the way his gaze sharpens for the briefest of moments as he reaches out to take the leaf off her forehead, her chakra softly prickling his fingertips as he did so.
"Huh? Kakashi-san…?"
The man simply smiles. "It's time for lunch, Karin. You've earned it."
As her confusion dissipates, a self-satisfied but merry smile takes its place. "Alright! May I ask Sasuke to eat with me?"
"Go ahead," Kakashi agrees, and his languid voice does a perfect job at hiding just how deliberate his reply had been.
Once Karin is too caught up on Sasuke to even remember he was there, Kakashi pulls back his hitai-ate and sets his sharingan on the leaf—the leaf that was still impregnated with Karin's chakra. The colors he sees are not as vibrant as they could be, but he can still see the roots of what they would become, and the familiar sight is enough to make Kakashi's hold on the leaf strengthen as he carefully pockets it, sliding his hitai-ate back on.
… Don't jump to conclusions, he reminds himself. It is too soon to tell.
And holding onto that thought, Kakashi saves his musings for later and approaches the two teens; Icha Icha book in hand and deliberately uninterested expression in its rightful place.
After lunch, Kakashi had suggested they find out what was Karin's chakra's elemental affinity; idea that that been promptly abandoned as the redhead tried—and failed—to learn a suiton jutsu, which resulted in a soaked Karin, an apologetic Kakashi and an amused Sasuke—much to Karin's chagrin.
Sadly, her attempt at a suiton had taken place a little over an hour ago, so Karin was still very much drenched… and the fact that the sun had already begun to set was not helping matters any.
Her mind is, however, practically unaware of her current state. Instead, it is preoccupied with one fact alone—and that was giving Sasuke the perfume she had made. It had taken her a couple of hours and cost her a good part of her sleep, but it had all been worth it as she was pleased with the result.
She just hoped Sasuke would be, too.
"Heh, maybe you should have gone for a katon instead." The aforementioned boy comments lightly, watching her as she finished arranging her backpack.
The redhead absentmindedly gives a noncommittal drawl as only response, her fingers curling around the bottle hidden inside her bag. She had been waiting for the chance to give it to Sasuke all day long, and now that Kakashi was finally gone, she guessed that it was then or never.
Ah… so why was it that she was hesitating, now?
Sasuke frowns curiously, noticing that Karin was not quite listening to him at all. She was simply there, crouching over her bag with her back turned to him, seemingly preoccupied with something. Intrigued, the boy walks closer. "Karin…?"
He almost has to give a step back, taken aback as Karin suddenly raises and wipes around to face him, roughly pushing something into his chest without even looking at him. "Here, have this!"
Sasuke can only blink, startled still, before his gaze lowers and he realizes that the girl was holding something out to him—for him.
It was a bottle. Long and oval-shaped at the bottom, closed by a spherical lid that seemed to be made out of cork. The bottle itself was made out of a dark and green tinted glass that gave a clear look at the translucent liquid held inside.
"What is this…?"
"It's perfume. What else could it be?" Karin says, briefly stealing a look at his face before turning sideways, her nose on the air and subconsciously pressing the bottle further into Sasuke's chest, prodding him to take it. "It's not that good, but… well, I hope you'll like it."
Sasuke allows his surprise to show in his features as he looks at her, "You… made it yourself?"
After a moment Karin nods, reluctantly, and Sasuke parts his lips once but then promptly closes them. It is slowly that he looks away from her and back to the bottle, hearing Karin's earlier words playing inside his head.
A… perfume, huh?
Truth be told, shinobi were not supposed to wear perfumes; such a luxury could cost your life on a mission if your enemy happened to have a keen sense of smell. Everyone knew that. But Karin, being raised in what mostly was a civilian village, probably did not have a clue about such a basic rule.
And—Sasuke found—for some reason or another, he could not bring himself to educate her about the matter.
Even as he finally reaches out and takes the bottle from her hands, frowning faintly, Sasuke does not open it. He warily observes it instead, not quite understanding why the present seemed to interest him as it did, but not being able to help himself either way.
It was not the first time he received a hand-made present, not by far; girls insisted on getting him all kinds of weird stuff on Valentine's Day, after all. But this would be the first time he willingly accepted one. Inwardly, Sasuke wonders if that meant anything—and if it did, he wonders what. What did it say about him? What did it say about Karin?
No reply comes to his mind, and so Sasuke lets the question fade as he plucks the cork out and takes the bottle to his nose, smelling the perfume at last. What greets his smell is a fragrance that somehow managed to be at once mild and potent; he could not pinpoint the exact smells involved in creating the mix, but as he breathed it in he was reminded of autumn. An autumn that smelled of cinnamon with the faintest hints of mint, hinting at the winter that was soon to come.
It was… a pleasant smell.
And above all—it fit him. Somehow.
"Why…?"
The boy inquires, almost involuntarily. His voice hardens along with his gaze as he meets her eyes and states: "I thought I told you I didn't care for my birthday…."
Karin simply shakes her head, already having expected such a reaction from him. "It's not because of your birthday, Sasuke. This isn't about celebrating the day you were born, rather…."
His frown deepens out of wary curiosity, his tone expectant. "Rather…?"
Karin's eyelids fall half-way as her stare softens, the rays of the setting sun flickering like bonfires over the contours of her face and the sky's orange darkening the reds of her hair, setting it alive like a match as the wind played with the glimmers of flame her locks had become.
Sasuke finds that he can't look away from her. From her eyes and her smile and the fire blazing vividly from within her—a fire that did not threaten to burn, but to overwhelm.
"…It's about celebrating that you're still alive," Karin reveals, and it is only then that Sasuke realizes that at some point, he had forgotten to breath. "There's nothing hard about being born, is there? Heh, but living and staying alive… that's what the challenge is all about."
"So," the redhead grins. "I made this perfume as a token of my gratitude to you, Sasuke. Thank you for being alive and for everything you've done for me."
Thank you for inspiring me to find my own worth is what she had truly meant to say, but she found that the words evaporated as she looked into Sasuke's striking eyes.
Still, her silence did not make them any less true. It was a powerful truth, one that Karin felt Sasuke would be able to understand even if she did not say it aloud.
Truth was, up to a month ago Karin had been living an aimless life. She went through the day's notions with a smile on her face, but with no real purpose of her own. No real goal that was meant for her and only her. Entering the Chuunin exams and meeting Sasuke had changed all that, however.
She can't possibly imagine all the pain and hardship Sasuke has had to go through, but she does know that he has come out stronger out of it. Strong enough to aid and inspire her the way he had. Yesterday, as she worked on the perfume, Karin had realized that she no longer cared about not knowing about his past—the things she had yet to know, they no longer mattered. All she wanted was to be able to help the present Sasuke the same way he had helped her.
To be able to help the boy standing in front of her at that very moment.
Said boy slightly lowers his face; and while the movement made his bangs obscure his eyes from her sight, his lips were still exposed for her to see. As such, while Sasuke does not realize when his lips start to upturn in a faint smile, Karin does. And so it is then that she allows her shoulders to relax and her grin to widen to its full length, her heart expanding in the comfortable silence that trespassed between them.
During that silence, the sun finishes setting. It is only as the first stars begin to spread across the night sky that Sasuke's eyes finally hold hers.
"… Thanks, Karin."
Without the aid of the sun, all Karin can make out are Sasuke's eyes. She hears rather than sees his smile, and hopes that the darkness will mercifully envelop her, too; because she felt her cheeks burning up at the glee invading her. It was almost like she had just managed to scratch Temari's cheek all over again; it felt as if she had just won a huge battle.
She was glad things had turned out this way. "Heh, you're welc—achoo!"
Karin's sudden sneeze does a wonderful job at dispelling the atmosphere that had seemed to surround the two teens, without either of their notice; and so the oblivious redhead hugs herself, suppressing a shiver, as Sasuke blinks with surprise.
Oh, right. Karin was soaked. How in the world they had managed to forget all about that?
"Ugh… I need to come up with something to say to Ryuu-kun and Kurotaro-san," Karin frowns, grabbing at her bangs to see whether her hair had begun to dry off or not. "Or they won't stop making questions."
Sasuke observes the girl quietly for a moment, weighting the options in his mind. He figured there was no damage that could possibly be done if he were to make her the offer, so he carefully puts the cork back in place and pockets the bottle of perfume.
"You can come and dry off at my place, if you want."
Karin stops trying to warm herself up, her eyes just about ready to pop out. "Huh? Are you sure that would be okay, Sasuke?"
The black-haired boy simply nods, now crouching to pick up his own back-pack. "Yeah," he flings it over his shoulder and then stares at her, easily noticing the reluctance reflecting in her eyes. "… If you're worried about being a bother, don't be, Karin. I live by myself, so it's fine."
Had it not been so dark, Sasuke may have noticed the way Karin's gaze sharpened for the shortest of moments. As things are, however, he takes no notice of it; and as such, all he knows is that the question he had braced himself for never comes.
Why do you live by yourself, Sasuke?
Instead of it, what Sasuke receives is a resolute nod from Karin, accompanied by a thankful smile that the Uchiha cannot help but return.
With Karin's wet clothes hung on his right arm, Sasuke stepped into the small room behind his kitchen and turned on the lights. It was the room where his mother used to store all her cleaning utensils; nowadays there were hardly as many as there used to be, back when Uchiha Mikoto was still alive and looking after the house's cleansing, but Sasuke still liked to keep the tradition alive.
It's not hard to spot the set of logs attached together with strings and wires that the Uchiha used to employ to tend their wet clothes, and once Sasuke grabs it he goes back to the kitchen and carefully sets up the device. It was created to function as a blow-drier would, using the warmth from an Uchiha katon to evaporate the humidness from the articles of clothing hung on the wires. The clothing always ended up a little stiff, stiffer than they would be if they were to be dried the old, sunshine-way, but at least it was considerably faster. Besides, it wasn't as if there was any sun around at this hour.
A quiet rustling reaches Sasuke's ears, the unmistakable sound of a shoji door sliding open. His head perks up automatically—how long had it been, since there were any noises aside from his own in that house?—but he soon returns to his task, keeping his memories at bay and focusing on the facts: Karin was probably done changing.
Karin.
On their way through the deserted Uchiha compound, the redhead had not said much. Naruto would have probably said the compound gave him the creeps, and Sakura would have probably hidden her uneasiness behind a smile and said that the place was lovely, Sasuke-kun! but Karin? aside from a whoa, this place is huge! she had mostly kept to herself, and if he were to be perfectly honest, Sasuke would admit that he did not know what to make of that.
Karin's perception was keen—outstanding, even, though she was most likely not aware of that herself. He doubted she had not noticed the fact that every single house, every single shop on the compound was utterly vacant. Their tidiness and well-kept state may have fooled another outsider, but not Karin. That much Sasuke knew.
So then, why hadn't she asked? She had also not uttered a single question about the fact that he lived alone in such a big house—why?
It could not be a lack of curiosity. Karin was a curious girl, even if most of the time her senses told her when to prod and when not to do so. Plus, he had seen no questions in her eyes as he lead her down the compound and into his house, and then down the hall to his room. Not a single question. Not even once.
So then… had the redhead already found out?
But, how?
Maybe Kakashi told her, Sasuke thinks, only to shoot down the idea soon after. That was not possible. He was always with Karin whenever the jounin arrived, and also whenever he left. And Sasuke does not think Kakashi could have gotten away with telling Karin such a thing during their training; not only were they always within Sasuke's earshot, but what could have possibly warranted Kakashi—private, lazy Kakashi—to reveal such a thing out of the blue?
So no, that had not been it. If Karin had found out, she had done so from a different source.
Alas, Sasuke can't picture the girl asking around behind his back. She was the type to make her questions directly, like Naruto and Sasuke himself.
So, it puzzled him. It really did.
But, at the same time… he was not bothered by it.
If Karin did know—somehow—Sasuke finds that, after all, how she did so did not quite matter. All he cares about is that the way she looked at him had remained unchanged despite that.
'But… living and staying alive, that's what the challenge is all about.'
A reflexive tug edges his lips upward. If he were to assume that she knew, then her unexpected words made all the sense of the world. She was sly, that Karin.
Karin, you're quite something, alright.
He had not been wrong to think so back during her fight with the Sand girl, that much was for sure.
It is with those thoughts in mind that Sasuke makes a couple of hand-seals and breathes out a small surge of fire into the grid. It lights up instantaneously, and once he makes sure that Karin's clothes are hung at a safe distance from the grid, he turns around and leaves the room in search of the girl.
He finds her standing in the yard, softly tracing the contours of one of the fans drawn across the wall with her fingertips. The fan's colors, which were once so vibrant, were starting to ebb away; but they still were unmistakably of the same white and red coloring than the one knitted on the back of the midnight-blue shirt Karin was wearing.
'… I've lost all hope for this pathetic clan.'
Itachi's voice reaches him as if carried by an unwanted breeze, and Sasuke can still remember all too clearly the dry thuck! the kunai had made as it cracked the clan's symbol. Almost as clearly as he can remember the jaded and unforgiving look in Itachi's sharingan as he stared into their father's eyes….
"Sasuke…."
Her call mercifully breaks him free from the harsh chains of the past, and Sasuke jerks, startled by the present. Karin returns his look for a brief moment before turning back toward the fan, thoughtful. "I've been wondering for a while… what are these?"
Leaning sideways against the shoji door and safely tucked in a mosaic of lights and shadows, Sasuke allows himself to smirk. He had been right; Karin really was the straightforward type. The smirk does not last long however, as he contemplates the subject of Karin's question.
"…It's my clan's emblem. An uchiwa fan, for the trait of the Uchiha clan is the manipulation of fire, which also symbolizes our mind."
Words said to him by Uchiha Fugaku a long time ago. He has held them close to his heart ever since, but this would be the first time he recited them aloud to someone else. It makes a moist sensation spread through his body—one he knows only too well despite his best and constant efforts at keeping it away.
"I see…." Karin muses, and Sasuke holds onto her voice and the sight of her to fight against the chilly waves of nostalgia. "Heh, that definitely suits you," the redhead smirks up at him, the glow of the moon chiseling her features and taking away the baby-fat from her cheeks, giving Sasuke the illusion that he was looking at an older, more mischievous Karin. "Stubborn as a goat but resourceful and determined. Passionate, too, though it may not seem so at first glance. Your mind is like fire, alright!"
"…Pft." Sasuke looks away from the redhead, in order to hide the fact that his cheeks had warmed up at being read so accurately. "I'm not stubborn as a goat."
Karin giggles, "Heh, so you say!" and Sasuke finds his eyes darting towards her, his shoulders relaxing. He does not know that he is going to speak until he hears his own voice.
"The Uchiha crest… an Uchiha becomes worthy of wearing it only when he is capable of using a katon. Only then is he seen as an adult by the eyes of the clan's members."
He does not know why he was telling her that. It may be the nostalgia taking hold of him like a puppet on a string, or it may be that he had never brought anyone to the compound after what had happened to his family. Or maybe it was just… Karin.
Or maybe it was just that no one had ever bothered to ask before. Everyone just gaped at the fan he proudly wore on his back, offering him respect or pity but never bothering to ask what it stood for. Never asking what it meant to him.
It could be anything, really, and Sasuke cannot pinpoint the exact reason. But when Karin asks: "Is that so? Then… for how long have you been an adult, Sasuke?" with those curious but observant eyes of hers, he realizes that for better or for worse, he would not be able to stop talking even if he wanted to.
"Since I was seven," he admits, and Karin's surprised gasp sets ablaze the flames of pride that had burnt his soul the same way the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu had burnt his mouth that day back at the deck, when his father had finally told him the words he had longed to hear all along.
'As expected of my son.'
His smile is wistful, his thoughts and memories replaying loud enough for Karin's reply to remain unheard. "That day… I achieved what I had always longed for, ever since I can remember. And as a member of the honorable Uchiha clan, I was then assigned the duty of improving, and then soaring to great heights. And also…."
'Also, I will say one thing… Do not follow after your brother.'
Sasuke's back tenses, his slightly parted lips resting devoid of any words. He had stumbled across an unpleasant memory—Karin could tell that much from his body language alone, and so the redhead clears her throat, determined to bring him back to the present before he could get chewed out by his past.
"The Uchiha," the words come out deliberately slowly, buying the enough time for Sasuke to look up from the floor and at her. "It… really does sound like a remarkable clan."
"Yeah…" Sasuke agrees, his eyes glazing over by memories that were as painful as they were once pleasant. "It was…."
"Is," Karin corrects without thinking, and Sasuke flinches at the abruptness of her statement and the finality of it. Her lips were set on a straight line, her gaze focused and penetrant—stern. Her voice seems to deepen, as well. "You are still here, Sasuke. And you are as much of an Uchiha as anyone could ever hope to be."
For an instant the moon's glow plays a trick on his eyes and Karin looks eerie. Translucent. As if she were nothing but a figment of his imagination, a ghost to listen and tell him the things he had not known he had wanted to hear.
In that instant that seems to stretch on forever, Sasuke feels the urge to reach out and touch her—to make sure she is real, that she was really there, with him—but then the instant ends and Karin becomes earthly once again, stepping away from the shadows of the wall and into the glow of the moon and towards him, who has to force himself to swallow down emotions he did not dare understand and to close his gaping lips.
"…Right."
Karin's features lose their kunai-sharpness and soften into a pretty smile as she takes a seat on the hardwood floor. Sasuke watches her for a moment, hesitating over the remains of the vivid and forlorn emotion that had just disoriented him. Then he forces himself to move and to come off it, taking a seat by her side.
They sit like that, in comfortable silence, for a while. Karin looking up at the sky above, her bare feet lazily dangling and softly ruffling the tips of the grass below them, and Sasuke with his head raised up towards the night sky but with his eyes shut close. Now that his mind had cleared, he was finally free to simply enjoy the silence.
Sasuke was a silent guy by nature, and he is grateful that if Karin did not enjoy it the way he did, she at least seemed to not be bothered by it. She never tried to fill the silence with meaningless babbler, and never tried to make him talk more than he wanted to. Most of the time Sasuke would actually feel as if they communicated through it, in some way or another.
He liked that. It was… liberating, in a way. He felt that he could relax and just be when she was around. It was not something he would ever tell her, but Sasuke figures that maybe there was no need.
His dark eyes lazily open, and he turns his head sideways until his gaze lands on her. He finds the redhead struggling to undo the bandages covering her arms up to her elbow, action that seemed to be costing her quite a bit of effort given the focused and frustrated frown adorning her features.
"Let me, Karin."
He does not wait for a reply, simply reaching out and starting to work at the bandages himself. His fingertips brush Karin's bare skin accidently, and his skin inexplicably pickles. "You shouldn't tie them so tight, Karin," he lectures, eyes deliberately set on his task, "It's bad for your circulation, and it may affect your aim."
Karin grins, apologetically, "My bad."
"It's fine…" the bandages of her left arm fall undone. Sasuke places them aside before motioning that she should extend her other arm. "Tomorrow, I'll teach you how to do it properly."
"Really? Heh, between you and Kakashi, is there anything I won't learn?"
"Plenty," Sasuke meets her gaze with a slight smirk before returning his attention to undoing the other set of bandages. "You'd have to move here to learn everything about the art of shinobi, Karin."
"Moving to Konoha…" Karin muses aloud, her eyes tracing the skillful movements of Sasuke's long fingers. "I would like that. But…."
Sasuke nods; she did not need to say more. "I get it."
The redhead smiles; a tight but fond smile. "Still, I wish I could stay here longer…."
Sasuke's fingers slow down to a stop. The bandages cascade down Karin's arm and flutter down onto the floor. His eyes follow the motion, and so he sees the way Karin's fingers curl. He focuses his attention on them—not daring to raise his eyes to her face, strongly feeling that if he were to do so, and if the redhead were to return his look….
He does not know what would happen, then—but something would. And Sasuke got the feeling that it needed to be avoided; whatever it was.
So he looks at her legs instead, her bandaged calves showing from under the hems of the pair of pants Sasuke had leant her, which were a little too loose for her despite the fact that they were almost the exact same height.
Karin seems to understand what was going through his mind, because she pulls her knees to her chest and smiles, "It's okay, I can unwrap these myself."
Sasuke nods and the roles inverse; now he is the one left without a task to distract himself with, and with nothing left to do but to watch her. "… How's your ankle?"
"As good as new," she tilts her head sideways and looks at his cheek, grinning with mischief. "I see your bruises are gone, too. See? Told you that ointment was good!"
"Hn, I heal fast." Sasuke lies, and Karin deadpans at him until an amused smirk makes its way to his lips. Satisfied, the girl finishes undoing the bandages on her left leg with a smile of her own.
It is curiously that Sasuke watches as said smile becomes thoughtful, and so he is almost expecting it when Karin starts, "Say, Sasuke…"
"…It's about the presents, isn't it?"
Karin looks at him, taken aback. Inwardly, Sasuke can't help but to smirk. Apparently, Karin's knack for reading him didn't work only one way.
The girl nods after a moment of hesitation, and Sasuke leans back and props himself up with his palms, looking at her all the while.
"They're from the villagers, for my birthday," he explains, referring to the load of presents stacked by the door of his house, carelessly thrown aside. He had noticed the way Karin had looked at them while they made their way inside his house, but the redhead had said nothing then and Sasuke had seen no reason to bring it up. "They used to try to knock and come in to give them to me, but nowadays they just leave them there."
"You… haven't opened a single one, have you?"
Despite the way it's voiced, Sasuke recognizes it as more of a statement rather than a question, and as such offers no reply. Karin holds his nonchalant gaze for a moment before looking away, going at the wrappings of her right leg.
"I think it's… kind of rude," she admits; voice thoughtful but steady, "for you to leave the presents disregarded like that, Sasuke. It's not nice for those who went out of their way to get you something."
The face and grin of a certain blonde Yamanaka are shining clearly on Karin's mind right then, but Sasuke does not know that. As such he gives her a quizzical look for a quiet moment before starting his reply by a careless shrug.
"I don't care about them." It's a disagreeable truth spoken too bluntly, but Sasuke does not mince his words and Karin does not flinch. She meets his eyes head on, her own gaze unwavering, and so Sasuke complies and gives her the explanation she was waiting for.
"… Every year people who don't know a damn about me get me stuff for my birthday. They do so every year, Karin. It doesn't matter if we have ever talked or not, or if I have bothered to reply to their greetings or not—they do it anyway. Most of these people I have never even met, not even back when I was a child. It's stupid, and hypocritical. They don't give me presents because they care about me, Karin. They do so because it has become some sort of pointless tradition and they don't want to be the ones to break the norm. That's all there is to it.
"So tell me then, Karin… why should I bother to play along?"
It's a rhetorical question, Karin knows. He sounded apathetic—jaded, at best, and Karin cannot blame him. If anything, for a moment Karin comes close to agreeing with him.
But then Ino's forlorn expression as she stared at the present she had so carefully wrapped for Sasuke comes back to the redhead, and Karin frowns. In that remembrance Karin realizes what Sasuke's obstinate perspective was missing, and also finds the fuel to argue it.
"You may be right, but… there are always exceptions, right? Like Kakashi-san… and your teammates, too." Karin had seen it. She had seen the portrait Sasuke kept inside his room, the one with Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, and the loudmouthed blonde. Just that alone showed that they meant something to him. So, how come Sasuke could keep that picture while ignoring its meaning was beyond Karin, who shakes her head, trying to hold herself back from going off into a tangent about it. "Listen, Sasuke… maybe you're right about the rest of the village, because they don't know you for you… but your friends do, don't they? So at least their presents are genuine."
As Karin spoke Sasuke's expression shifted from one of apathy to one of contemplative disbelief, and by the end of her speech the boy had lapsed into a pensive silence which he breaks only to snort.
"Pft… Not as if Naruto would get me anything, anyway."
"Naruto…?"
Sasuke flickers his gaze toward her for a moment and then he looks away again, his eyes focusing on the floor by Karin's hand. "The dobe I have for a teammate. He is… the closest thing I have to a friend, I guess…." he trails off, his voice a mere whisper.
It felt weird to acknowledge that aloud, but it is something Sasuke has instinctively known for a while. Ever since their fight against that Kirigakure nin, Haku, where he had risked his own life for the blond without even thinking twice, his revenge against Itachi coming to him solely as an afterthought.
Things had changed since then, of course. What happened in the Forest of Death had made Sasuke reopen his eyes and refurnish his desire to attain his goal, but while he had started to truly consider Naruto a rival—and not only an annoying idiot, if at least entertaining to be around—the fact that the blond really was the closest thing to a friend that Sasuke has ever had remained unaffected.
The closest thing to a friend… or perhaps his closest friend? By now, after everything… which one was really it?
It was rare for Sasuke to seriously contemplate such a thing, but before he could get too far, Karin has reclaimed his attention.
"What about Sakura-san?"
Sasuke ponders about the pink-haired girl for a moment, and then sighs; she had become an important comrade to him, but he could remember as many instances of Sakura fretting over him as of Sakura squealing at him for something or another or asking him out on dates. The first, though bothersome, he could understand and maybe even appreciate to an extent, since she only wanted to help. The latter, however, were plain annoying. "Sakura has got me stuff for years… even before we were teammates. When it comes to this, she is not any better than the rest of Konoha."
Karin puffs out her cheeks in an unhappy, obstinate pout. "Now, don't be like that, Sasuke. She looked really worried about you when I ran into her at the Leaf Hospital!"
Sasuke snorts, stubbornly closing his eyes. "Hn… that's nothing new."
"See? You just proved my point!" Karin leans forward and into him all of a sudden and Sasuke leans back out of reflex, taken aback by her proximity and by the determination brimming in her eyes. "Don't be so hardheaded, Sasuke…! People worry because they care! And I'm sure Sakura-san isn't the only one, I bet there are lots of people who care about you, but you haven't realized it because you haven't given them a chance!"
Sasuke frowns. The redhead was getting a little too passionate over the subject, and truth be told he was already tired of discussing it. He had already done enough soul-searching for the day. He is parting his lips to say just that when Karin beats him to it.
"I mean, look at me!" she says, and Sasuke does just that, dumbfounded by the sudden track change. His puzzlement gives way to something else entirely however, as Karin's resolute features ease into a kind of smile that Sasuke can't quite remember having seen her sport before. And it is precisely something in that smile, and in the change of her demeanor, that makes Sasuke's mouth dry. He can almost taste the words Karin is about to say, as if they were something tangible threading between them.
"I've known you for less than a month, Sasuke, and I care. I promise you, I really do."
For some reason unknown to the redhead, admitting that aloud made her cheeks warm up despite the cool breeze playing with their hair. But she pays it no heed, more concerned about how something in the way he was looking at her made her stomach feel fuzzy inside. Karin cannot pinpoint what it is, just like she can't name her feeling—and before she can even attempt to do either of them Sasuke is standing up, his hands morosely coming to rest inside his pockets.
"…Hn, it's getting late."
When Karin looks up at him, she finds that all she could see of the Uchiha was his profile, his gaze hidden by his bangs and set somewhere inside the house.
"Come on, Karin… your clothes should be dry by now."
And then he starts walking, making his way into the house. Karin looks at his retreating back for a moment before standing up and following him inside, fuzzy feelings and unwarranted blushes already forgotten.
They mostly kept to themselves after that. Sasuke lent her his room again so she could change back into her clothes and waited for her outside. Once Karin came out, a little disheveled but otherwise fine and most importantly, dry, Sasuke walked her to the door, intending to see her off from the compound's entrance.
As she walks by the stack of presents however, Karin can't help it. The sole reason she had decided to bring them up in the first place is because she thought she had recognized one of them—and as she kneeled down and picked it up, she had no doubt that she had been right. The red ribbon was impossible to miss.
Sasuke is standing a few steps ahead of her and giving her an inquiring glance, but she simply offers him a smile and shortens the distance between them. Once he is at arm's length, she offers the present to him. "Just opening those from the people who care is a good start, right?"
His eyes clung to the box for a moment, and then he turned to look at her and at her expectant eyes and smile. "You won't leave it be if I don't, will you…?" the redhead grins and Sasuke heaves a sigh. "…Fine."
It is morosely that he reaches out to grab the present, and even more so that he flips the small card over to find out who the sender had been. His brow lightly furrows as his eyes land over the all-too-familiar name.
"…Ino, huh?"
Figures. Out of all the possible presents Karin just had to pick one coming from one of his most loyal admirers. Sasuke closes his eyes and sighs, inwardly. He guessed it would do no harm to acknowledge the blonde's affections, if at least for once.
Karin's smile enlarges as she watches the boy slowly unwrap the present, and her fond expression becomes one of awed appreciation at the sight of the black, high-collared shirt Ino had gotten Sasuke. It was very similar to the one Sasuke usually wore, except for the fact that this one was long-sleeved, and Karin could guess from its material alone that the kunoichi had paid a great deal to buy it for him.
"Wow, cool!" she marvels, and while Sasuke remains silent, it is obvious that he was also quite pleased with the present. "It'll look really good on you, Sasuke!"
The Uchiha stiffens and hastily turns sideways, one eyebrow twitching. "…Whatever. You should get going Karin, or else your teammates will get suspicious."
"Crap, you're right! See you tomorrow Sasuke, thanks for everything!"
Karin does not wait for a reply before starting to run, only looking back over her shoulder to wave at the boy who was watching her leave.
By the time she leaves the compound, she is beaming with happiness. Sasuke probably would not be opening any more presents, except perhaps Haruno Sakura's—he was too hardheaded for more than that—but that had been a start. Maybe next year, he would open more.
Maybe next year, he would let more people in.
Karin wants that most of all, because while she would not be there to watch it, at least the she would know that Sasuke was in good hands—and happy.
And Sasuke deserved to be happy; he really did. Karin was just glad that she had gotten to contribute to it, however slightly.
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End of the 11th Chapter
Anti-climatic end is anti-climatic, sorry about that! lol Below is a light-hearted, crackish omake to make up for it haha but before that:
About this chapter; this was extremely fun to write. Not as fun as the upcoming chapters, but pretty fun nonetheless~ The point of this arc was to allow Sasuke to emotionally bond with Karin, even though Karin has not yet felt the similar pain of loss; I honestly loved exploring Sasuke remembering and talking about his deceased family, so I hope it came out well. Like I mentioned before, this Karin is more naïve than her canon counterpart for obvious reasons (which is why she had no issue admitting that she cared about Sasuke to his face); but I feel that here you can see her inherent wisdom in full glory, and in this case it spawns from her emphatic nature. The point at which we see that side of her the clearest, in canon, was in Chapter 483 in her little exchange with Sakura; and so I wanted to parallel that here, making Karin empathize precisely with her.
Sasuke talking about Naruto may be OOC; but Sasuke is very honest with Karin, which is what I have been building up to now (so hopefully the transition felt natural) – and Sasuke, by this point in canon, arguably already felt this way about Naruto. And his inferiority complex had yet to kick in, so they were all good.
Now, as for SasuKarin… well, let's just say that every single thing that happened in the previous chapters was in order to get them to this state. What will come out of it though remains to be seen lol
Oh, and the overused scenario I mentioned before is, evidently, Karin coming to the compound to dry off and wearing Sasuke's clothes, haha. Hopefully its execution made up for how cliché it is!
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REVIEWS;
Thank you to adicctioncr-lovespn, BlueKaida, ashira23, Zoey and everyone else who reviewed! I really appreciate your encouragement, and I'm happy to read that you guys have been enjoying the story so far :D
Greece: Teachan! Of course I remember you, I miss to see you around the FC, so I am very glad to hear from you! Thank you for taking the time to leave me a review, and sorry for the wait! About Karin, I am glad you like this version of her; that is precisely what I've been trying to portray here, that while Karin does feel inspired by Sasuke, her desire to improve herself and reach her full potential is hers and hers alone—it is something she wants to do for herself, indeed. I am relieved it came across that way haha As for Sasuke; as you put it "And he sure has shown in part 1 that he CAN be a caring person... just he didn't choose to." - bingo! that is the difference, here; when it comes to Karin, it isn't a matter of choice – due to the reasons Sasuke explained in this chapter. I hope his POV makes sense :D
Queen Happo: This is the most open they will be about discussing the subject in this timeline, I must confess; but I hope you are satisfied with it, I tried to stay as true to them as I possibly could, while letting them write themselves haha I loved to see you say that 'Sasuke is rubbing off on Karin', which is absolutely true (Kakashi agrees!) and your observations about the townspeople and their reaction to Sasuke (Sasuke agrees! Lol). As always, thank you thank you for your support, Tox. Truly!
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And without further ado, the crack-ish omake!
Omake;
The next morning Karin becomes aware of it as soon as she reaches the field. It was hard to not recognize a fragrance you had made yourself.
To say that she was delighted would be an understatement, but despite his usual nonchalant attitude Karin could easily discern that Sasuke was not comfortable about wearing it; and so she pretends to be blissfully unaware, making no comment whatsoever.
Kakashi, however, is not nearly as considerate.
"My, Sasuke…" the man says, sniffling. "Is that… perfume you're wearing?"
"Tch! Shut up, Kakashi," the flustered boy retorts, arms crossed over his chest and chin held high and angled away from the teasing man. "It's none of your concern."
His behavior only seems to further Kakashi's amusement, his eye positively brimming with mischief. "Hmmm smells good, though!"
Sasuke gives a noncommittal drawl in response. And Karin—Karin almost has to bite on her knuckles to drown out her snickering.
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