Disclaimer: Kakashi's explanation about the Chidori is (partly) based on Gai's words during Chapter 113 of the manga.

Note: It pains me to say it, but from here onwards starts the countdown to the final chapter—but no worries, there's plenty of SasuKarin to go before we get there! Like I mentioned in the previous chapter, now that they've gotten to the desired stage, I can explore their interactions freely; and I'll pretty much dedicate to that. So, rather than development, what you will see is… the fruits of the development they've had so far, so to speak.

Oh, and of course—now we will also have more characters intervening in the story. So, without further ado: here is chapter 12.

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Chapter 12: The final phase

the night before.

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A sleepy Karin rubs her eyes, slouching her way to the inn more out of habit than out of any real orientation, as she was too tired to pay attention to her surroundings. Luckily for her the street wasn't that transited, most being too busy closing their stores or having dinner with their relatives.

She was late; for the second day in a row, at that. This would feed straight into Kurotaro's wrath and Ryuu's growing suspicions, and for the life of her, Karin cannot come out with a believable excuse to offer them this time around. Her best bet would be to sneak in unnoticed, but the chances of Ryuu and Kurotaro not being on alert were slim at best.

So preoccupied is Karin by what was awaiting for her at the inn that she does not notice the person rounding the corner at that very moment until they bump into each other, the impact being big enough to almost send Karin flying flat on her butt.

"Whoa, what the—!" exclaims a voice, and while its hoarseness rings some bells of recognizance in Karin's conscious, they are quickly hushed by her own voice as she hurriedly musters some apologies for her absentmindedness, holding the bump in her head all the while.

"S-sorry!"

"Don't sweat it, 'ttebayo! I wasn't watching where I was going, either!"

Karin's eyes snap open, then; the bells of recognizance chiming louder than ever.

That voice…!

One look at the orange jumpsuit is enough to confirm her thoughts. It was the loudmouthed and courageous blond from the written test; the one that had calmed everyone's nerves, including her own, by his sudden and passionate outburst.

Sasuke's teammate.

Oblivious to the surprise marking Karin's features, the blond leisurely makes his way past her, and she cannot help but to turn and watch him do so, her eyes lingering on his back as she attempted to recall his name. Naruto, was it?

To her surprise, the boy suddenly stops walking.

"Wait a sec…!"

Naruto looks over his shoulder and points an accusing finger at her, his eyes squinted so much that they had shrunk to mere slits. "…Aren't you the redhead who fought against the Sand chick on the prelims? Ka-ka… Ka-ka something…!"

"—Karin," she supplies, before he could have the chance to butcher her name up any more, all the while trying to keep her eye from twitching.

"Aha!" Naruto exclaims, hitting his fist with his palm as he spun to face her with a big grin. "I knew it, I knew it!" He chants excitedly before running towards her, ignoring the barriers of personal space to the point Karin has to give a stunned step back to put some space between their faces.

"O-oi!"

"You were awesome!" he rants, successfully quieting Karin's surprised protest. "You really showed that bitch that underdogs shouldn't be taken lightly! She has no right to call anyone loser!"

"Uh, t-thanks...?" Karin manages, more than a little overwhelmed by the unexpected vehemence behind Naruto's words. Said boy straightens, offering her a happy grin.

"Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto!" He reveals proudly, puffing his chest out and pointing at it with his thumb. "You better not forget it, dattebayo! You're looking at Konoha's next Hokage!"

The next… Hokage?

Karin blinks, her brain apparently too tired to even attempt to catch up with the alarming speed at which the boy switched gears.

Huh… is he for real?

A loudmouthed, orange-clad ninja wasn't exactly what came to her mind when she thought about the authoritarian but gentle figure of a Kage. But then again, who was Karin to judge? No one thought anything of her at first look, but she was working hard to become someone—whoever that may be. So if this boy wanted to be Hokage, then she would not be the one to doubt he could make it. Specially not when he looked at her with eyes full of unshakable confidence.

It is the look in his eyes that makes Karin's lips quirk upwards, her smile quickly morphing to mirror Naruto's contagious grin, "Alright. I won't forget it, Naruto-san."

"Naruto-san…!" He echoes, his blue eyes widening and his mouth hangings open with awestruck disbelief. "No one ever calls me that! Hehe, you're funny!" Rubbing his nose with his thumb, Naruto's eyes once again transform into mere slits as he smiles happily up at her.

Before Karin could say a single word, however, the boy has yet again done a 180º. "Oh, oh! Right! You aren't leaving before the Main Event, are you? You'll me missing out if you do!"

Karin finds herself beaming; partly because the boy was just too amusing, and partly because his words just reminded her that the finals were almost there. "I'll be there!"

"Great!" Naruto exclaims cheerfully before striking another pose and going off on a tangent, his eyes all fired up. "Keep your eyes on me, Karin! I'll show that Neji guy that destiny can be beat, and I'll beat that Sand chick, and I'll also beat Sabaku no Gaara and that bastard Sasuke! I'll definitely win the finals, dattebayo!"

The redhead can only stare, fascinated. This guy… he was certainly something. She could clearly see now why it is him out of everyone whom Sasuke acknowledges as a friend.

No, wait. According to Naruto it isn't Sasuke, but—

Sasuke teme, eh? The teme and the dobe. She could definitely guess what kind of friendship those two had, and the thought makes her snicker with amusement, colors warming up her cheeks.

"Sure! Good luck, Naruto-san! I'll be cheering you on!"

… As long as he wasn't pitted against Sasuke, that was.

But if the blond were to know that, he would have a riot for sure. So Karin wisely keeps her loyalties to herself as Naruto stares at her for a moment longer and then relaxes his stance, crossing his arms behind his head and giving her a grin so warm and bright that it was almost blinding.

"Hehe…! I like you, you're nice!" His honest and heartfelt words take Karin aback, but Naruto is already turning and beginning to walk away by the time Karin finds her voice. "But call me Naruto, alright? See ya, Karin!"

And as Karin waves back, stupefied enough to forget how tired she was, she can't help but feel like a whirlwind had just passed past her.

"Heh, that sounds like the dobe alright," Sasuke says with a smirk once Karin is done reciting what had happened the night before. Thinking about the blond makes Sasuke think about his own progress, and his tongue voices his curiosity aloud before he could have the chance to try and chain it. "I wonder how's his training going…."

"Now that you mention it, he looked pretty beat," Karin assesses thoughtfully, after a moment of silent contemplation. She had not registered the dirt covering his clothes and the bags under his eyes due to how hyperactive the boy was, but now that she had gotten some rest, it was easy enough to notice how tired Naruto himself had been.

Sasuke nods and then falls silent, lost in his thoughts. His stare settles on the back of Kakashi's jounin vest, who was currently guiding them to a different part of the field and further away from the cliff that had been used to improve Karin's chakra flow and Sasuke's resilience.

Rather than breaking the silence, Karin simply waits; by now, she knew well that whenever Sasuke got that look in his eye it meant that he was either considering or planning something. Sometimes both. And whenever that was the case, he always voiced his thoughts sooner rather than later.

And sure enough, two minutes later he was calling out Kakashi's name in low murmur that was almost a drawl.

"Hmmm?" the jounin inquires obliviously, looking away from his current Icha Icha copy in order to shoot the two teens a look from above his shoulder.

"There's less than a week left to the finals, Kakashi… don't you think it's time to get serious?"

More than questioning, his tone is demanding; Kakashi looks into Sasuke's narrowed eyes for a moment before looking back ahead, offering them a nonchalant shrug. "Hn, I don't know… do you think your control of Lee-kun's taijutsu has become good enough yet?"

"You know it has," Sasuke all but spat through gritted teeth. Kakashi remains deliberately silent and carefree however, and so Sasuke narrows his eyes again and prepares to put his plan to good use.

"Kakashi…" He drawls out, and to Karin, it sounds like a warning. "If you don't get serious, I'll tell Naruto where we are training."

The effect of his words is immediate. Kakashi stops dead in his tracks and turns toward him with an alarmed look, "You wouldn't…!"

Sasuke remains impassive, "I will." His eyes narrow a notch more. "Don't try me, Kakashi."

Karin can only look from one shinobi to the other as they engaged into what could have passed as a staring contest. One from which Sasuke emerges victorious, as the white-haired jounin turns away with a sigh.

"…Fine. You're evil, Sasuke." Airily complains Kakashi before starting to walk again, missing the self-satisfied smirk that curved Sasuke's lips.

Once she was sure that Kakashi was out of earshot Karin leans in towards Sasuke and whispers, mock-accusingly, "Heh, you're such a bluffer!"

Sasuke only snorts proudly.

Ahead of them, Kakashi comes to a stop and looks around. "Hm… This should be good enough."

"Kakashi-san…?" Karin inquires, taking a look around them.

The part of the field they had stopped in was full of rock-peaks; most of them around Karin's and Sasuke's height, others taller than even Kakashi himself.

The jounin turns to face them with a smile that was noticeable only from the crease of his eye. "…Today, we'll be starting the third and final phase of your training."

"Hn, about damn time," grumbles Sasuke, only for his eyes to widen with realization. "Wait a sec… you already had this planned, didn't you? Why didn't you say so before?"

Karin can practically feel Kakashi's amusement. That man loved to tease Sasuke a little too much. "I wanted to see what you'd come up with. I have to say, threatening me with Naruto was a low-blow, Sasuke."

"Tch, whatever. Just get to the point, will you?"

"Now, now, don't be so impatient! I assure you it'll be worth the wait." Sobering up, Kakashi meets Sasuke's eyes with a look that makes Karin's back straighten with anticipation.

"… The technique I'm about to teach you is an A-rank, offensive jutsu that I developed myself a couple of years ago. Given its drawbacks, it is only suitable for those with Sharingan… so counting you, its number of users would be two." He pauses to let it all sink in, before adding: "If Sabaku no Gaara's defense really is as strong as it seems… then this is what you need to penetrate it."

By then Sasuke is already smirking with anticipation, obviously excited about the prospect. "Heh…!"

But his confidence does not lighten Kakashi's serious demeanor. "… I must warn you, Sasuke. This is not an easy jutsu. It employs a wide quantity of lighting chakra… it will take you a while to master it."

Sasuke's smirk only sharpens, his stare resolute. "We'll see about that."

It is easy to perceive that the boy saw Kakashi's warning as a challenge; one that Sasuke did not doubt he would be surmounting. Heh… I didn't expect any less of him. Kakashi knows then more than ever that deciding to teach him one-on-one had been the right choice.

Alas, that left him with something else to do. The jounin turns towards Karin, who was looking in high spirits at the prospect of Sasuke learning a jutsu good enough to beat Gaara's absolute defense.

"… You, Karin, will also enter the real point of your training."

Karin blinks, startled. "Eh?"

Seeing her surprise, it occurs to Kakashi that Karin probably could not think of anything else he could possibly teach her, since she had come into the training assuming that she would be simply learning the basics.

…Kakashi's had always had something else in mind, however. And given the way Karin was developing, the next step was only too obvious.

"Karin, are you familiar with the concept of Genjutsu?"

After a moment of remembrance, Karin gives a hesitant nod. "They are illusory techniques that manipulate the flow of chakra in the victim's brain, thus messing with their senses… right?"

"Correct," Kakashi confirms with a smile. "But it's more than that. As part of the techniques belonging to Yin Release, Genjutsu holds a great power on the energy that governs the imagination. As such, not only can it be used to manipulate others, but also to trick the body into believing that it is in physical pain. It comes very in handy, and if used correctly it can be as effective as any ninjutsu or taijutsu…."

Kakashi trails of, and when his eye opens again, he is staring at Karin with the same seriousness he had regarded Sasuke earlier. "Karin, you will be learning how to realize you are under a genjutsu, and you will also learn how to break free from it without wasting any unnecessary chakra."

Karin swallows down any hesitation she may have had and nods resolutely. So far, Kakashi had never told her to learn something that she did not have aptitudes for. So if he thought she could achieve that—despite how hard he made it sound—then Karin believed that she could. Plus, Kakashi was a good teacher and she was sure he would—

"… But you won't be learning it from me."

Shock takes over Karin's expression. By her side, Sasuke himself does not look much better, his features contorted with surprise and an evident lack of understanding. Kakashi's stare remains impassive however, not giving anything away.

"Like I said to Sasuke just now, the jutsu he'll be learning is a difficult one. Teaching it to him will require all of my attention, so I'm afraid I won't be able to look after you anymore, Karin."

The girl looked stricken. "Then… who…?"

Kakashi smiles inwardly, continuing as if he had not heard Karin's question. "So from now on, Sasuke will be overseeing your training."

An echo of huh? resounds through the field as Karin and Sasuke stare back at their teacher with varying degrees of surprise. The amusing sight of their matching expressions makes Kakashi allow his smile to show, this time.

"Now, don't look at me like that, you two. Sasuke has good chakra control, but he is not that good at building it. In fact, he is downright sloppy. This way he will have no option but to learn how to build it properly, as he will have to make sure to have some leftover chakra to teach you genjutsu, even after having spent all day practicing his jutsu. Plus, he has the Sharingan, which makes executing genjutsu a lot easier."

"…You have it, too." Sasuke deadpans under his breath, but he remains silent otherwise. By his side, Karin had fallen into the same kind of silence. The one where, despite not agreeing with what was being said, you cannot find any flaws to point out or any logical fallacies to counter.

Her red eyes flicker towards Sasuke, who seems to feel her gaze, because he returns her look. Meanwhile, Kakashi watches the exchange with discreet interest, wisely keeping his observations to himself; it would be no good to interrupt them when Karin seemed to be making sure that Sasuke was okay with training her.

His reply is reflected on his stare but he reaffirms it with a nod, and Karin hesitates for a moment before turning towards Kakashi, a slight frown knitting her thin eyebrows together.

"… Alright, Kakashi-san."

"It's good to see you two agree!" His smile disappears as he sets his stare on Sasuke. "Now, go warm up, Sasuke. We're going to begin now."

The Uchiha nods and jumps away, so Kakashi is left alone with Karin. "Karin, from here onwards I'll spend all day training Sasuke, so you are free to come only when it's time for you genjutsu training, if you wish." The man hesitates inwardly for a moment, before deciding to continue. Hopefully, Karin would not be inquiring as to why. She was sharp, but her knowledge of shinobi techniques was fairly limited, so while for an experienced shinobi seeing through his words would be easy, their meaning should pass completely over Karin's head.

"…Staying and watching may be good for you, though."

Is all Kakashi says, and Karin does not have to think much in order to reply, a smile slowly drawing itself across her lips.

"Then I'll stay, Kakashi-san."

The man finds himself returning the gesture. "Heh, I thought you'd say that."

The technique Sasuke was meant to learn turned out to be called Chidori, as the sound the lighting chakra made when being concentrated like that was reminiscent of a thousand birds chirping and running towards you.

…Or at least that is what Kakashi had said.

Had Karin not been so awestruck by the sheer quantity of power she could feel eradiating from the man's palm as he showed them the jutsu, she would have probably teased him at how unimaginative the name was.

As things were though, it had not been only Karin. Sasuke also had forgotten any and every snide comment he could have made, and had simply stared in stunned silence at the insane amount of damage Chidori was capable to make. A simple stab and one of the rock peaks taller than Kakashi had been blown to half its height. It was simply amazing.

And fearsome.

'It's a technique special for assassination,' Kakashi had explained then. 'But the speed of the stab, the great amount of chakra and the heightened flesh should be contra-rested by Gaara's defense, so the damage he will take shouldn't be fatal.'

Sasuke had been more concerned in learning all the hand seals rather than in that kind of triviality though, and so the rest of the training session had resumed without any unnecessary talk. From her spot at the feet of one of the rocks, Karin had witnessed how Sasuke tried with everything he had, over and over again until the point of near exhaustion, only for his efforts to yield no results.

The farthest he had come had been to concentrate a slight quantity of electricity that had quickly faded away, its sound barely audible.

'I told you, Sasuke,' Kakashi had commented, in that deadpan tone of his that did nothing to help Sasuke's foul mood. 'Chidori is not a technique to be taken lightly.'

Sasuke's mood had not improved since then; if anything, it had worsened, his stubborn nature using his frustration as leeway to get the best of him. At the end, Kakashi had demanded that they stop the training for the day; not only was Sasuke being uncooperative, but he had already wasted way too much energy. Besides—

'You have to teach Karin genjutsu. You haven't forgotten about that, have you?'

Realization had dawn on Sasuke's face then, and when the boy turned to face Karin the anger and frustration had mostly subsided from his eyes.

'…Fine. We'll continue tomorrow.'

And so Kakashi had left them to their own devices. Too tired to begin the genjutsu training right away, Sasuke had taken a seat by Karin's side and given himself a few minutes to catch his breath.

By the time Sasuke finally stands up, signaling that Karin should do the same, she is starting to feel sleepy.

"Karin… you already know what a genjutsu is, but do you know how to realize you're under one?"

The girl roughly shakes her head, using the movement as excuse to will the sleep away. "We learnt the theory back at the academy, but we never practiced it."

Sasuke nods, already having expected such a reply. "What you have to do is pay close attention to your chakra flow. If you notice anything off, then it is likely that an enemy has extended his own chakra flow through your nervous system and is trying to put you under a genjutsu."

The Uchiha waits for Karin to signal her understanding with a nod before proceeding, all the while trying to picture how Sakura would go about explaining it. "Once you've realized it, you must do a Genjutsu Release to break free from it. To do that, all you have to do is stop the flow of chakra in your body, and then apply a power stronger than the one the caster is using in order to disrupt the flow of his chakra. Do you understand?"

"I… I think I do. Basically, all I have to do is stop my chakra flow and then build up a chakra quantity larger than the one that's disrupting my system, right?"

"Yeah, that's about it."

Sasuke smiles, at once pleased and relieved by the girl's quick-thinking. He was knowledgeable about the subject, but he was nowhere near as good as Sakura at explaining things. It was a blessing that Karin was no Naruto in that regard.

"So, are you ready to put that into practice, Karin?"

Truth was, she could not be farther from ready. All Karin felt was hesitation, the confidence she had mustered earlier apparently having gone away on a trip—somehow, she got the feeling that learning under Sasuke's scrutiny was only serving to her nervousness.

Despite that, the girl shoves her reluctance aside and locks it away, nodding and sliding into a waiting stance, legs spread apart and body slightly hunched. Once in position, her brain started to send signals of alert to every inch of her anatomy, and she began to focus on her chakra flow with such intensity that her head started to hurt.

"We will start with normal genjutsu before moving onto sharingan induced ones," Sasuke says, and then he inquires once more; for one last time: "… Are you ready, Karin?"

Her palms are sweating. Her temple throbbing.

She is not ready. But what slips from her lips is the complete opposite—

"Yes,"

—And suddenly Sasuke is not there but poof'ing away, and Karin feels it.

She feels his chakra flowing into hers, tickling and prickling and prodding and overwhelming her from the inside out; taking over her senses to the point Karin loses her focus in the alien sensation and can't do anything to fight it off as her surroundings change and a rain of autumn leaves begins cascading down on her, around her, like a tornado threatening to lift her off her feet and swallow her whole, and—since when is it autumn?—and Karin can hear Sasuke's voice like a distant echo—Karin!—but there is nothing she can do. She feels her knees giving in, her mind going blank.

A sudden rush of air picks her up like a leaf and then everything turns black.

"Karin!"

Sasuke is catching her before her buckling knees even have time to brush the ground, both arms coming to circle her waist and keeping her on her feet by supporting her against his chest.

"Karin!" he calls again, but his voice falls on deaf ears. The girl was out-cold, and she gave no signs of regaining consciousness anytime soon.

Damn, Sasuke cannot help but think as he adjusts his hold on Karin, trying to keep the girl from sagging downwards. Out of all the possible outcomes that had crossed his mind, Karin passing out was definitely not one of them; Sasuke had imagined the redhead having a hard time at successfully breaking the genjutsu, and the training session perhaps ending in as much of a failure as his own had been, but they would be able to deal with that.

Karin would have actually been awake then, after all, and she would have probably said something that would have raised his own spirits and helped ease his frustration—but there was no point in thinking about that now, was there? Not with Karin like this.

As if to remind him of her state, Karin's body begins to slide downward again, and Sasuke's hold slips to her hips in order to keep her upright. This is no good, he thinks, moving a hand up to Karin's neck to prevent her head from tilting backwards; if they stayed as they were, soon enough his arms would start cramping and both of them would end up crumbling to the ground. Sasuke looks around them, and once his eyes fall upon the familiar shapes of their discarded backpacks, Sasuke knows what to do.

"Hey," he tries one last time just to test his luck, but he does not wait for a reply he knew would—most likely—not come; rather, he bends down and slips an arm below Karin's knees, lifting her up bridal style in order to have an easier time moving her.

A glint of glass catches his eye as he does so, and Sasuke looks down only to notice that Karin's glasses had fallen off. Making a mental note to come and pick them up once he has laid Karin down, Sasuke gets moving—action that results surprisingly easily, considering that he was carrying on his arms a girl that was practically his height.

She's… light, is the alien thought that crosses his mind as he looks down at her, her face hid in his chest. Were he not looking at her and feeling the warmth of her skin, Sasuke would have thought he was carrying nothing but thin air. Something about noticing such a thing makes something inside of Sasuke squirm with wariness, and he is just about to trace the sensation down when Karin shifts ever so slightly in his hold, so that her nose was now fully pressed against his chest, and Sasuke finds himself freezing for an instant—his sandal taking a second too long to scrap the ground again, his stomach tightening for no apparent reason.

It makes him feel uncomfortable—to have his body reacting without any logical explanation behind it, to have his senses picking up needless details like Karin's weight or how warm her skin was to the touch. It is not like him to take notice of such things—and it was certainly not like him to care about them, in the first place.

When he finally reaches their backpacks and lies Karin down on the ground, letting go of her comes as a relief—to the point where he almost sighs. Rather than doing so however, he reaches out for his backpack and places it below her head as a sort of make-shift pillow, before heading back to pick up her fallen glasses.

Karin is still immobile when he gets back, and Sasuke cannot help but frown as he sits down by her, cross-legged. …Did I overdo it? He wonders, before dismissing the thought altogether. He had casted nothing but the most basics of genjutsu, not even intending to show Karin anything shocking at all; and while it was not uncommon for some to lose consciousness over a genjutsu—it had happened to Sakura too, after all—it was definitely not normal to remain unconscious for this long.

Something was not right.

Turning his sharingan on, Sasuke gives Karin's chakra a wary once over—but he finds no anomalies in her chakra flow, confirming that the genjutsu had stopped the moment he had used the release, right before rushing over to her. His frown deepens slightly as he reaches out for Karin's wrist, in order to feel her pulse; but once again he finds no irregularities there. If anything, the beatings of her pulse were utterly calm.

Weird, he thinks, taking his hand back.

…Karin was weird.

It was true. It was something he had thought from the moment he had seen her giving her all in the preliminaries, risking her life despite not having the need to, just because she could. Just because she wanted to.

Or so had Sasuke thought. He had since long understood that more than wanting to, the redhead had needed to do so—but that did not make her any less weird. And if anything, what had happened two days ago had only made Sasuke be surer of that assessment.

'I mean, look at me!', she had said to him, and before Sasuke could try to keep the thought at bay, Karin's voice reaches him like a tide leaping over a dam; 'I've known you for less than a month, Sasuke, and I care. I promise you, I really do.'

"… You are weird, Karin," Sasuke mutters, his eyes set on her. "Caring about me, when you don't even know who I am…."

But was that really true, by now? After everything?

And even more so—didn't that make him a weirdo, too? After all, even if he would rather not say it, the truth was he—

Sasuke is startled out of his thoughts by Karin, who lets out a soft and unexpected snore.

Sasuke cannot help but blink, almost not believing what he had just heard.

Is she… asleep?

A second snore—softer than the first but still just as hard to miss—chooses that very moment to come out, as if in reply to Sasuke's unasked question.

So it wasn't the genjutsu, then. A third snore reaches his ears and causes an amused smile to quirk up Sasuke's lips, his shoulders relaxing; it seemed he had been concerned over nothing, then.

He should have guessed that it was just the accumulated exhaustion from the previous days finally getting to her. And now that he thought about it….

Sasuke stifles a yawn, suddenly feeling very tired himself.

Taking one last glance at Karin's peaceful sleeping face, which did nothing but confirm that she would not be waking up anytime soon, Sasuke allows himself to reach out for Karin's own back-pack with a snort.

When her eyes open again the first thing she sees is Sasuke's face.

He is lying by her side and facing the sky, and it takes Karin a long moment to comprehend that the reason why he was so blurry was because she did not have her glasses on. What she does not get, however, is why he is lying down—seemingly asleep. Or why is she, for that matter, but soon enough it does not seem to matter.

She did not need her glasses to find him beautiful.

The relaxed curve of his eyebrow, the lack of tension in his jaw—Karin cannot remember a time when she has been able to see Sasuke looking this at ease, this relaxed, and the thought makes something in her chest constrict in a way that is both pleasant and unpleasant at once. Still, she does not look away—and Karin does not notice the way her body was inching forward to him until Sasuke turns and stares right into her eyes, making her freeze and choke on the breath she had been holding.

"Karin," he says, and Karin shots upwards, sitting up so fast that her head starts to spin.

"Ugh," she groans, grabbing onto it in an effort to get the world to stop spinning, and behind her Sasuke begins to incorporate, too.

"Are you alright?"

"Y—yeah!" Karin hurries to say, extending an arm back to keep Sasuke from getting any closer to her, "I—I'm perfectly fine!" just, stay where you are! Is what she does not say, disoriented still but not nearly enough to not realize how nonsensical that sounded. All she knew was her cheeks were so warm that it felt like her face would catch fire, and that preventing Sasuke from seeing it somehow felt like a life-or-death matter.

Her heart all but skips a beat when a hand is placed on her shoulder.

"Your glasses," Sasuke coolly says before she could have the chance to ask, and Karin takes them from his hand without looking back at him.

"T—thanks," she mutters in return, willing her heart to stop hammering inside her chest as she put them back on. Seriously, what had gotten to her? This is just… weird.

"… Are you sure you're alright, Karin?"

"I am, just—w-what happened?"

"You passed out," Sasuke states, and Karin feels the painful weight of embarrassment spreading from her cheeks down to her abdomen, helping chase away the bizarre edginess that had seemingly possessed her just mere moments ago, so that she is finally able to look at him again.

"…For how long was I in the genjutsu?"

Sasuke blinks, and Karin almost regrets asking.

"Less than 15 seconds, I think."

The redhead groans and shuts her eyes close, defeated. "Ugh… I suck."

"Heh, kinda."

Karin frowns, not being able to help the affronted pout that makes her lower lip stand out and her cheeks puff out as she stares at Sasuke's amused smirk, "You aren't making this any easier, Sasuke."

Ignoring her jab, Sasuke tilts his head to the side and lets his smirk soften. "You're only starting, so you can improve. Genjutsu isn't as easy as it looks, Karin. A lot of high rank shinobi have issues casting or releasing them. It isn't a technique for just about anyone, so give yourself a break."

Karin stares up at him and his amused expression for a long moment and then finds herself smiling, her chest warming up and her spirits soaring. "Heh, you sounded just like Kakashi-san."

The boy frowns lightly. "Hn… I should take offense to that."

Karin chuckles, and once they die down all that remains is an apologetic smile. "…Thank you for staying and looking after me even though I messed up, Sasuke."

The boy sighs, airily looking away from her. "You really need to stop thanking me for every little thing, Karin. I don't nearly do that much."

"Heh, that's what you say. But to me it's a whole different story!"

"Hn… you're too easy to please."

Sasuke flickers his gaze towards hers for a moment before beginning to stand up. Before he can do so however, Karin beats him to it and offers him her hand, grinning widely.

"And you, Sasuke-sensei, are too hardheaded."

Despite her teasing, Sasuke finds himself taking her hand and returning her grin with a smirk of his own.

"Heh, look who's talking," and as the rest of Karin's comment dawns on him, Sasuke frowns. "And don't call me sensei, Karin."

"Whatever you say," Karin agrees merrily, before an impish smirk twists her lips upward, "Sasuke-sensei."

—

End of the 12th chapter

It couldn't have been just me who was waiting for Naruto to pop up, right? Those two last scenes were originally written way differently, but I think they flow better like this. Also, before anyone worries: no, Karin is not going to become a genjutsu type~ She isn't one in canon, so she won't be one here; there is however, a reason why Kakashi is making her undergo this particular training. But you guys will see why, soon.

Thank you to those who read the previous chapter, and even more so to those who took the time to review! You guys are especially awesome. Sorry for the delay in uploading this chapter, hopefully it isn't that lackluster!