Note: Phew, sorry for the delay! Don't think I forgot about this story—at the contrary, it's because I didn't forget that it took me this long to get this chapter up. Sounds convoluted, but it's true! I'm actually going through with updating this right now because I'm worried I may regret it and make you guys wait even longer, which I'd hate to do.
This is actually an extra chapter, born from all the demands I got of having more SasuKarin romance in this. Stepping too far into that territory would compromise the story as I envisioned it, but I'm really thankful for the support you guys have been giving me, so I tried to find some middle-ground—it's up to you whether I succeeded or not, haha.
Just, before you keep reading—it's time for one of those ugly 'warning: use of a clichéd scenario coming up ahead!' but hopefully this one will be worth it, too? I can only hope~
And wow, is it just me or this is the longest chapter of the story? Who would have thought the extra chapter would end up taking that title, the irony!
Thanks To: Thank you to all those who have favorited, put into alerts and reviewed (specially you, guys! I'm really thankful to every single one of you) the story so far. We're nearing 100 reviews, and I can hardly believe it: so, thank you all! And a special dedication to mickytaka558, who has been making me super happy with her gorgeous SasuKarin art (check it out at her DA!)—thank you for everything, and I hope the added SK'ness will make you at least half as happy as your fanarts made me, dear!
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Chapter 17:
Bonds
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The Leaf Hospital is bursting with activity, people going in and out nonstop. It is only shoehorning her way through the crowd that Karin manages to reach the counter, having to get on her tiptoes to catch a nurse's eye.
"Excuse me," she gets out with much effort, an elbow digging into her back. "Uh, I'm looking for Uchiha Sasuke."
The nurse barely spares her a glance as she replies, too busy attending to the newcomers. "Sasuke-kun isn't here."
Karin blinks. Now that was a surprise. "Are you s—?"
"Oi, I'm looking for my wife! She was brought here, right?! Ueno Rie!"
Karin shoots a reproaching look to the man that had just talked over her, but one look at his concerned visage is enough to ease her annoyance into sympathy, so she steps aside without uttering a complaint.
As she backs away to the nearest wall, absently watching the newcomers struggling to inquire about their relatives, Karin cannot help but to let her mind waver to yesterday's afternoon.
The news of Sandaime's demise had seemingly drained any remaining strength from the group. No one had said much on the way to the Hospital, where Asuma had instructed Kanden Tekuno to take them before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Karin had accompanied them to the ward only to be separated from the group by a nurse, who had ranked her injuries as minor and had taken her to get a cursory inspection instead. She had fully intended to go back to check-up on Sasuke and the others, but on her way out of the examination room she had ran into none other than Ryuu and Kurotaro, who thankfully seemed to be fine; if only confused and a little disoriented.
The encounter had been enough to make her forget the thought of going to look for Sasuke and she had gone back to the Inn with her teammates, assuming she would be able to find him in the morning. She had been obviously wrong, but Karin guessed that was for the best; if Sasuke had been discharged already then that meant his injuries weren't anything serious.
That's a relief, Karin thinks. But her smile does not last long, as the memory of a flame-like marking creeping up Sasuke's neck slips into her mind, uninvited. Unwelcomed.
In its wake, her stomach tightens with unease.
"Karin!"
The familiar voice came from behind her. Karin turns only to find Yamanaka Ino, who beckoned her over with a beam and a friendly wave. The sight of the cheery blonde serves to drive the unpleasant feelings away, and Karin finds herself returning her smile as she runs over to her.
"Ino! What are you doing here, are you hurt?"
Ino gives a dismissive wave of the hand. "Ugh, I'm sound. Don't remind me." Upon seeing Karin's puzzled look, the blonde lets out an airy sigh. "I missed out on all the action! Seriously, my village was getting invaded and I was out-cold; what a disgrace! Hell, even that lazy-bum Shikamaru got to do something!"
Ino's heated rant carries on, and soon enough Karin is giggling at the blonde's antics. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Ino. Barely anyone escaped that genjutsu," she rationalizes, wisely omitting the fact that she had been among those who had, as to not agitate Ino even more.
"Tch, you sound like my mom," Ino deadpans, letting out another dramatic sigh for good measure. But despite her theatrics, a dazzling smile soon returns to her face. "I'm here to visit foreh—I mean, Sakura. What about you?"
Before Karin could reply Haruno Sakura in the flesh makes her way down the stairs, halting once her eyes land on the two girls.
"Oh, speaking of the devil!" Ino greets, grinning boisterously. "Nice to see you aren't as pale as you were yesterday, Forehead; you could've given a ghost a run for its money, ya know!"
Sakura simply rolls her eyes, "Shut up, Ino-pig."
And then, to Karin's surprise, the pink-haired girl is looking straight at her—a meditative look in her eye; one that Karin does not know how to read and that makes her stand a little straighter, at a loss of what to say.
She did not seem to be the only one, though. Ino herself was now cocking her head to the side, darting her stare from one to the other with apparent confusion written over her features.
"…Your name is Karin, right?" Sakura asks at last, with a timid but kind quirk of the lips. "I'm Haruno Sakura, Sasuke-kun's teammate. We met a few weeks ago, when you came to visit him."
"I remember," Karin confirms, smiling back. "Nice to meet you, Sakura-san."
Sakura's shoulders seem to relax, as does her expression, which loses the edge of uncertainty and settles into a pleasant look. "Nice to meet you too, Karin-san."
"Ugh, you two," Ino groans, promptly smacking her forehead. "You're the same age, stop with all these formalities, jeez! You act like grandmas!"
Sakura's eyebrow twitches and in less than the blink of an eye the two are lapsing into friendly bickering, chance that Karin takes to properly scrutinize Sakura's complexion. Nara Shikamaru—or the 'lazy-bum', as Ino had called him—had been the one to carry her to the Hospital while Karin had her hands busy with Sasuke, so she hadn't really gotten the chance to take a good look at the girl's state. Nonetheless, what little she had seen had been enough to know Ino had been right; Sakura had been strikingly pale, which was never a good sign. Plus—
"Karin, earth to Karin!" Ino drawls, waving a hand in Karin's face—only to then throw a mischievous look at Sakura. "What, did Sakura's billboard brow get your tongue?"
"It's not that!" Karin hurries to say, before Sakura could have the chance to respond in kind to her friend's teasing. "I was just thinking I'm glad to see you're doing better, Sakura-san."
Sakura's eyes widen with something akin to realization. By her side, Ino blinks at Karin with bewilderment. "Huh? You had seen her already?"
"Actually, I—" Karin starts, but she is cut short by Sakura, who is thoughtfully looking at the ground.
"I knew it," she absentmindedly murmurs. "Yesterday, when I was coming to my senses… I could've sworn I heard a voice, along with the others. It seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it… until now."
Sakura raises her face, then, and meets Karin's gaze with her troubled one. "… It was you, after all."
'Oh… So you came to visit someone! Could it be… that you also wanted to visit Sasuke-kun?'
'Ino!'
'Ah… yes, that's right.'
Ino looked amazed, but there was something in Sakura's demeanor that made Karin feel like she had said the wrong thing.
Déjà vu settles over Karin like a blanket as she remembers the one occasion where Sakura had given her a similar look. The redhead feels like there was something for her to grasp, if she only were to outstretch her fingertips—but something keeps her from doing so, just like it keeps her from confirming Sakura's guess with anything apart from silence.
Neither of them notices the knowing look Ino gives Sakura before clearing her throat, deliberately breaking through the uncomfortable silence that had washed over them.
"Ah—that's right! I remember Shikamaru saying something about a 'troublesome redhead' leading them to Sasuke-kun's team yesterday… Heh, I should've guessed it was you." Ino snorts with amusement, apparently not sharing Sakura's inner conflict. "How did you get involved in that mess, anyway?"
Kakashi's name makes it as far as the tip of her tongue before Karin forcefully bites it back, flickering a wary gaze in Sakura's way. Admitting Kakashi had been the one to send her to the forest would make them question as to why her, out of all people, a question she would not be able to reply to without revealing Sasuke's training, which Sakura was not aware of. To acknowledge that she knew about it—and worse yet, had been there herself… Karin had the feeling such a thing would only make the pink-haired girl feel even more troubled.
Unexpectedly, it's Sakura herself who ends up saving Karin from the trouble of coming up with an excuse.
"I… don't know what happened yesterday, but… whatever it was, thank you for your help, Karin-san," the girl says, and Karin feels her face warm up with embarrassment under the sincerity filling her green eyes.
"W—well," she stammers, looking anywhere but at Sakura and self-consciously scratching her cheek. "T—that—"
"Haruno-san, there you are!" suddenly calls a nurse, rounding in on the group. "Sorry for making you wait, we're a little short on hands right now. Come on, let's give you that check-up so you can leave."
"Right!" the girl agrees, before managing one last smile for Karin. "It was nice seeing you, Karin-san."
Karin returns her smile with one in kind, "You, too."
Ino watches Sakura walk away with the nurse for a moment before turning to Karin with an apologetic grin. "I'll go with them, okay? I'll see you later, Karin!"
"Later, Ino!" Karin waves, as the blonde runs to catch up to Sakura.
Once they're out of view, Karin cannot help but to heave in a sigh. That was close.
On her way out of the hospital, every thought about Sakura's weird behavior is promptly pushed aside as her eyes lie upon the lonely figure of a blond sitting on the grass, clad in the Hospital's pajama-like attire. He is propping himself up with his palms, his face angled away from her and toward the sky—but Karin does not need to see his blue eyes to be certain it is Naruto.
Out of reflex, she gives a step forward, wanting to inquire about his condition—yet something stops her from moving any closer, and she finds herself observing him from a safe distance, silently taking in his demeanor.
He looked lost in thought, so taciturn and different from the energetic ray of sunshine she had gotten used to; seeing him like that made a sharp feeling flutter in her chest… one that also seemed to tell her it was better to leave him be.
Flicking one last concerned look at him, Karin reluctantly turns away from the sight.
Once she has stepped out the Hospital's gate she lets her gaze wander up and down the street, frowning with apprehension over the vestiges of chaos that still remained in the Invasion's wake, extending as far as her eye could see. The scenery of crumbled buildings, broken windows and distressed villagers; it all gave her a sense of foreboding that she could not quite explain, but she waves it away with a shake of her head, reminding herself that she should be looking for Sasuke.
Where could he be? she wonders, before realizing what the most likely answer probably was. If he wasn't in the Hospital, then—
After a moment of hesitation, Karin closes her eyes and hones her awareness, guiding her senses to the Uchiha compound. Given its location and extent, it does not take much prodding for her to find the sole chakra signature that inhabited it—Sasuke's.
As expected.
Karin opens her eyes and lets out a relieved breath. She had been holding herself back from using that weird ability out of fear of being overwhelmed by all the distinct chakra signatures, just like had happened yesterday; luckily for her however, it seemed to be fine as long as she focused her senses on a specific place.
Not that I know how to do that, though. Karin reminds herself, frowning. Finding Sasuke just now had probably been a stroke of luck—she had the feeling it would be much harder if she were to try and find someone she wasn't as familiar with.
Hell, she isn't even sure of what its limits are, what she is supposed to do with it or where had it come from, either—she had even half-expected the ability to be gone when she woke up this morning, yet had known that was not the case the moment she came into herself, acutely aware of Ryuu and Kurotaro placidly sleeping beyond the tatami door.
She wanted to ask Kakashi about it, and badly; he was the only one she knew who could possibly know what was happening to her. But he had not come to the Hospital yesterday and he was nowhere to be found today, either.
Maybe I could… but the thought isn't even fully formed before the deterrent side of her is putting its foot down. Looking for him with her perception, without first having at least the slightest idea of where could he be, would be too hasty.
More than a little frustrated at her own shortcomings, Karin bites the inside of her cheek.
Tch... nothing I can do about it, I guess.
And with that thought in mind, Karin stubbornly straightens her glasses and starts to the compound.
Just like that night, the entrance of the compound is desolated—and so is its parlor street.
Karin lets her eyes wander along the empty shops, wondering what it must have been like when they were brimming with activity, run by people with eyes as kind and resolute as Sasuke's own, an uchiwa fan proudly knitted on their backs. The thought makes her feel unexplainable nostalgic, and she lets it slip away like sand through her fingertips, feeling she had no right to wallow in it.
Sasuke must already have enough with his own memories, as it was.
She finds him outside Uchiha Senbei, picking up what seemed to be scattered remains of wood and broken glass from the ground. The sight alarms her, and Karin speeds up her pace at once.
"Sasuke! Is the place okay!?"
The boy had apparently not noticed her presence, because he looks startled as he sees Karin rush over to him. It lasts only for a moment, for then a shadow seems to fall over his features and he returns his attention to the fallen rubble. "…Yeah, it's nothing serious."
Coming to a halt in front of him, Karin takes a wary look around. As far as she could see, aside from a broken street-lamp and the crumpled parlor of the rice crackers store, all shops and houses seemed to be standing. But then again, Sasuke's was at the back of the compound, so no way to make sure from where she was standing. "What about your house, Sasuke?"
Sasuke feels her eyes on him, but he does not bother to lift his gaze from the debris. "Hn, the wavelength didn't reach that far."
Despite his indifferent answer, Karin heaves a sigh, "That's good to hear."
If he hears her, Sasuke does a wonderful job at pretending not to.
What's up with him? Karin wonders, ill at ease. He's being weird.
It is apprehensively studying him that Karin takes notice of the broom resting against the wall behind him, and she welcomes the distraction with open arms. "Hey, I can help you clean this mess if you want, Sasuke."
Her offer is initially met with silence, and then received by a nonchalant shrug. "Suit yourself."
So Karin does. But she can't wipe the frown off her face as easily as she can dust off the shop's entrance. She darts a cautious glance at the Uchiha, looking for answers, but for once his back tells her nothing.
Karin's grip on the broomstick tightens.
She did not know the reason behind it—but there was a burden threaded between them and hanging from their silence, like a child in a swing. It was invisible but very much tangible, and Karin could almost taste it on the air they breathed.
By the stiff line of his shoulders, Karin guessed Sasuke wasn't as unmindful as he would probably like to be of its weight.
"I went to look for you at the Hospital," she ends up saying, as a way to make conversation. It wasn't like her to break through their moments of quiet with useless blabber, but this was nothing like their normal silence to begin with. Something was up with Sasuke, and she was determined to find out what that was. And if driving him up the wall was the only way, well, so be it.
So Karin clears her throat and forges on. "I guess your injuries weren't that serious, after all, huh? That's a relief."
As expected, the boy gives her no response. But that's just as well, because the thought of his injuries has reminded her that there's something she has been meaning to check.
Stepping forward, Karin allows herself to discreetly spare a sidelong glance at the side of his neck; sure enough, it was spotless white once again, just like his face. No tell-tale sign of those black marks or of the dark feeling that had oozed from his chakra, no trace whatsoever of either of them—and yet it was as if she could still see them.
All over his face, a new marking burning bright like a flame and then ominously creeping up his neck, like a curs—
'It wasn't me.' He replies, eyes narrowing. '… It was Naruto.'
Karin shakes her head hard, in an effort to clear her mind from the bad feeling the memory had brought her, and in her stupor blurts out the first thing that comes to her lips: "I ran into Sakura-san while I was looking for you."
For a long moment, Sasuke remains impassive.
"… How was Sakura?" he asks, at last.
A faint smile flickered at the edges of Karin's lips. Well, that's a start.
"She looked about ready to leave," the girl commented, casually busying herself with the sweeping, lips curled up in a cheerful smile. It was better if Sasuke didn't realize she had basically tricked him into responding. "I think she only needed a check-up, but got held back because the Hospital has been pretty busy."
Sasuke frowns, his already distant demeanor darkening. "… I can figure."
Karin hesitates for a moment, wondering whether to pursue the subject or to let it drop. At the end, her straightforward nature and curiosity win the battle. "What will you guys do, now…? We don't have a Kage in Kusagakure, so I don't know how you're supposed to go about this…."
"Find another Kage, I guess." Sasuke nonchalantly shrugs. "Hn, beats me as to whom."
His words make an idea light up in her head and Karin visibly brightens at the thought, awkward silences and heavy weights all but forgotten, so that she's positively beaming when she steps in front of Sasuke.
"Hey, Sasuke—!" she looks hopeful, if not a little childish, and her swift change of mood takes Sasuke by surprise, unintentionally easing the tension that had lingered between them. "What about Kakashi-sensei? He is strong and knowledgeable, and sure his timing may suck but he is reliable; he could make a good Hokage, right?"
Sasuke blinks at the girl for a few moments, befuddled still, and then gathers himself. 'Sensei'? No, not only that—Kakashi, Hokage?
He promptly snorts, at ease for the first time since Karin's arrival. "Pft, if Kakashi were to be made Hokage, Konoha would be doomed. He has no drive, and no will."
Her stubbornness picked, Karin pursues her lips. As per usual, this side of the redhead amuses Sasuke, who holds her gaze and arches a taunting eyebrow—daring her to prove him wrong.
After a few seconds of their silent battle, Karin clicks her tongue and looks away, reluctantly admitting defeat. "Tsk. You're right, I suppose."
Sasuke smirks. Always am, that smirk boasted. Karin takes no notice of it however, as she has gone back to grumpily sweeping the floor—and Sasuke finds himself taking in her profile, his amusement fading as he takes notice of the gauze adhered to her cheeks.
'Don't worry, the reinforcements are here.'
A very familiar redhead was at the head of the group, running towards him with a relieved look lighting up her features. 'Sasuke!'
'Karin…! What are you doing here?'
'Isn't that obvious?! I came to help!'
The memory makes a sour feeling—one of the many that have been pestering him since the aftermath of his battle against Gaara—nest in his stomach once more.
But none of them is the one to drown his voice to a mutter when he speaks next, and of this Sasuke is acutely aware, though he would rather not be. "…What about you?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Sasuke's brow faintly furrows and he looks away, wordlessly pointing a finger at her cheeks.
When his unasked question finally dawns on her, Karin can only stare, incredulously. It was nice of him to be concerned, really, but—"Huh… are you seriously worrying over some scratches when you're the one who's covered in bruises?"
She retorts somewhat airily, but to his credit Sasuke is unfazed by her lecturing—or perhaps he deliberately ignores it as to not address his own state. Karin could never know with him. "Hn. How did you get those, anyway?"
He sounds curious—and looks the part, she realizes, glancing at him. Whatever was bringing him down earlier seemed to be gone, for the most part at least, and for that Karin is glad, so she plays along with his subject change. "You heard what happened at the arena, right?"
After a moment of contemplation, Sasuke nods. "Yeah, more or less... Sakura told me about it."
Karin had guessed as much, so she skips over the general details and tells him about her personal crusade instead. From the first moment she noticed the ANBU, to when she realized Kurotaro and Ryuu had been put under a genjutsu and decided to go to Kakashi for answers, she does not keep anything from him.
When she gets to her unfortunate encounter with the Sound nin, Sasuke's eyes widen a notch and she feels her veins burning with pride—she knew the meaning of that look. He had looked at her the same way whenever she broke free of his genjutsu in record time.
"I thought he had me cornered, but I did that trick you and Kakashi-san taught me—you know, the one with the wires and the kunai," Karin grins rowdily, holding her head high. "Heh, the guy didn't know what was coming until it hit him!"
Literally.
The thought is enough to make her good spirits falter.
Oblivious to Karin's plight, Sasuke's lips quirk up with satisfaction. He had not been wrong when he thought Karin was a fast learner. It wasn't every day that a girl who had not even known how to do a proper defensive stance a mere month ago managed to pull such a trick, and with a successful outcome, at that—he kind of wished he and Kakashi could have gotten the chance to see her do it, but figured there would be chances for it at the next Chuunin exams.
Heh, what else will you have learnt by then, Karin?
In front of him, the girl in question had suddenly gone silent. It doesn't occur to Sasuke to wonder why until he notices her looking at the ground, her shoulders slouch. "…Karin?"
"… The kunai struck him in the back of the neck," she reveals after a long moment of pause, her voice heavy. "I… killed him."
There's the sound of a kunai dashing through the air and then there's the sickening echo of pierced skin and tissue followed by a sharp cry of pain and an intake of breath.
Karin releases hers then and snaps her eyes open, only to find the man looming directly above her—his eyes wide and unseeing.
With the awakening of her chakra perception, her worry over Sasuke, the Hokage's demise and reuniting with Ryuu and Kurotaro, Karin had barely had any time to mull over that episode. But once she was surrounded by the comfort and solitude of the inn, her mind had begun to roam—and it always found its way back to that particular memory; always, without fail, no matter Karin's best efforts to keep it at bay.
The remembrance of his vacant eyes had haunted her throughout the night, vivid and dissonant, like only guilt itself could be. The girl did not need to tell him any of this—Sasuke could see it all spelled on the dark circles under her eyes, across the grief-stricken look she was aiming at the ground, and he has to swallow to rid himself of the bitter taste the sight leaves in his mouth.
"I killed him…." Karin absentmindedly repeats, more to herself than to him. She had not been able to bring herself to admit that aloud in front of Ryuu and Kurotaro, and had ended up glossing over her battle against the deceased Sound shinobi.
It was different with Sasuke, though—it always seemed to be different when it came to him, for better or for worse, and while the admittance of the kill does not alleviate her guilt, it makes its burden lighter to shoulder, and for that she is grateful.
So preoccupied is she by her thoughts, that she does not notice just for how long Sasuke silently contemplates her before speaking at last.
"…So? If you hadn't done it, he would have killed you."
His words are blunt, and when Karin raises her distressed gaze to his, he hardens his own. "It was either you or him, Karin. Nothing else you could've done."
"I know that," she does. She knows it was the right thing to do—the only thing to do, and she would do it again were she faced with the choice. But since when did guilt listen to reason? "Still, it feels… weird, Sasuke," she licks her dry lips, hesitantly raising her gaze to meet Sasuke's own once more. "When I came here, I never thought someone would die by my hand."
Sasuke meets her eyes squarely, his voice resolute. "When you came here, you weren't a shinobi."
It's a simple sentence, but there is something powerful in his words—something that strikes a chord within Karin. It may as well be the unsaid, that which his stare was so aptly conveying.
But you are one now, Karin it seemed to be telling her, and Sasuke's acknowledgement washes away her uncertainty to the point it returns her smile.
"…You're right," her gaze softens. "Thanks, Sasuke."
The unhidden tenderness in the curve of her lips, in the look in her eyes, makes Sasuke's mouth dry—just like that day.
He forces himself to look away from the sight, irritated by both: his reaction and the memory it makes resurface, unbidden.
'I've known you for less than a month, Sasuke, andIcare. I promise you, I really do.'
…He didn't quite like how often that memory has been repeating itself.
"Anyway, Sasuke… what were you thinking, chasing after Gaara like that?" Karin remarks out of the blue, somewhat crossed.
"We had a fight to settle," Sasuke flicks a brief glance at her, at once relieved and thwarted to find a disgruntled look replacing her smile. "… And it was my duty as a Konoha shinobi, I guess," he adds as afterthought, remembering Hayate's words.
That kills the complaints Karin was going to throw his way, so rather than arguing, she ends up thoughtfully looking up at the sky instead.
"…Just what in the world happened, anyway?" she muses under her breath.
The ANBU, their genjutsu—the Sound Nin and the Sand shinobi. The fights, the deaths. Sabaku no Gaara's and Uzumaki Naruto's monstrous chakra. The beast and the toad. The Sandaime's assassination.
And also…—
'If it gets hard… focus on him and hold on tightly. Don't forget that, Karin.'
…What happened to me?
Inwardly, Karin swallows. She still did not know the response any better than she did then, when she had doubled over, dizzy by vertigo and by the myriad of chakra signatures she was suddenly, and unexplainably, aware of—connected to.
"…Hn, you still haven't explained how you ended up in the woods with Nara and his teacher, Karin."
Trust Sasuke to ask that, out of all things. His timing was too good to be a coincidence, and not for the first time Karin wonders if he is able to read her, somehow—maybe his doujutsu gave him the power to see the thoughts flitting across her eyes, lingering on her skin.
Idly, Karin wonders if she should be surprised at finding such a thing comforting.
"Karin?"
His call brings her back to the compound, and embarrassment prickles her fingertips as she realizes Sasuke was still waiting for a reply.
"Oh, right! Kakashi-san told me to go and wait for you and the others. I wasn't supposed to go in too deep, but," she gives him a sheepish grin, "I didn't really listen, obviously."
"Obviously," Sasuke repeats, dryly. Figures she would not listen to Kakashi the one time the man was right. "So, how did you find me?"
"Truth is… I'm not too sure myself," she starts, absentmindedly walking to the edge of the sidewalk. "I wanted to ask Kakashi-san about it, but I haven't seen him since the arena…."
The Uchiha presses his lips together. Karin may not have seen him, but he had.
Before his conversation with Kakashi could have the chance to resurface Karin is looking at him over her shoulder, and the traces of disquiet in her features banish every other thought from Sasuke's mind.
"What is it, Karin?"
They sit side by side on the sidewalk as Karin begins to explain. She tells him how things had suddenly gone awry once she was in the forest—tells him about the dizziness and that awful feeling of being ripped apart and pulled in a hundred different directions all at once. How Shikamaru and Asuma had found her there, weakened and barely catching her breath—and how she had instinctively known the sparks of awareness she felt all over were nothing but chakra.
Unconsciously, she leaves out the fact that it was his chakra she clung to—but Sasuke seems too amazed to notice any blanks. "Had you ever…?"
Karin shakes her head, understanding what he meant to ask. "I… suppose I had been feeling more in-tune with my own chakra since I got here, but I don't know why I could suddenly sense everyone else's."
"Hn, even so… that explains it," Sasuke mutters, and Karin turns to him only to find him thoughtfully looking ahead. Unknown to her, the boy was putting all the pieces together; how Karin had been able to know it was him in the Hospital, how she had been able to find his training ground—why Kakashi had wanted her to tag along in the first place. And also—"Everything you said about Gaara… weren't you sensing his chakra, then?"
Karin blinks, taken aback. "I… huh. You're… probably right, Sasuke."
In retrospective, it really did add up, didn't it? That's why she had been able to notice Gaara's presence even before Kakashi or Sasuke had—why she had known of the lethal, inhuman beast that seemed to habit within him.
But there was something left unexplained—the answers Karin cared for the most.
Just what was she? What was the extent of this ability? Why did she have it? Why had it awakened now, out of all times?
"Still… why me?"
His eyes flicker to the girl sitting beside him, her red hair softly swaying in compass to the wind. "Maybe it's a Kekkei Genkai, like my Sharingan," Sasuke suggests. It was no more than a blind guess, but he had the feeling Kakashi would be shedding light on the matter soon enough, so there was no point in wondering about it—especially not when there were more pressing matters to attend to.
He narrows his eyes, gravely. "Karin… you said my chakra was what led you to me?"
For some reason that subject startles her, makes her nervous. So she hurries to nod, eager to move onto a different matter. "Uh, y—yeah."
But Sasuke doesn't let it go. "Then… could you find anyone by their chakra?"
There is something odd in his voice—a certain solemnity that wasn't there before, and that seems to become a shadow that dances through his features, below his bangs and across his eyes, keeping his thoughts from her.
Karin takes notice of it like one would of a coming storm, and it makes her steer her voice, turning conjectures into facts. "As long as I'm familiar with their chakra."
"Can you show me, Karin?" Sasuke asks, uncharacteristically earnestly. "Say, find Kakashi."
The girl hesitates. Finding Kakashi is just what she has been keeping herself from doing all morning—she wants to tell him as much, but Sasuke is staring at her with an odd, penetrating look in his eye; one that makes her feel as if he were trusting her with something—something heavy and important like the world itself, and Karin finds that she loathes the thought of letting him down.
So she licks her lips, and readies herself. "Do you… have any idea of where he could be?"
Sasuke seems to weight the thought for a moment. "The Hokage Tower, I guess….?"
Karin shifts her gaze toward the building. Just thinking about it made the skin on her arms turn into gooseflesh, and she could almost feel the whirlwind of activity going on inside of the Tower, even despite the distance.
It makes her stomach turn.
But Sasuke's presence at her side is more vivid, more powerful than her reluctance—and so she shuts her eyes close, takes a deep breath, and focuses.
In her mind's eye, the Hokage Tower stands tall and distinct, as if she suddenly were right in front of it—inside it—rather than yards away. As expected, its corridors are filled with people—going up and down, in and out—but in the rooftop she finds what she was looking for.
A chakra she had never sensed before, not consciously at least, but that she intuitively knew couldn't be anyone but Kakashi's.
"You were right, Sasuke…!" Karin reveals, in a daze. "Kakashi-san is in there, on the rooftop, along with… 12—no, 15 others, including Asuma-san, and also the woman with the red-eyes, and… yes! The examiner from the second test is there, too, plus—!"
Sasuke is staring at her with wonder, his mouth agape—but his own trance ends as abruptly as hers does, as Karin chokes and holds her head with a wince. He is leaning forward before he even knows he is moving, his hand ghosting over her own, her name on his lips—
And then he realizes what he was about to do and recoils his hand, as if pulling back from a flame—a flame that began to light up in the confines of his mind as the memory of Karin's touch resurfaced, unhinged.
His bitter thoughts come to an abrupt end as Karin's fingers unexpectedly ghost over the flame-like markings covering his left cheek. His breath halts as he turns into the touch out of surprise, finally meeting her—
Her eyes meet his own widened ones as she gives him a feeble smile, unaware of what had just happened. "I'm fine, Sasuke… seems I got kind of carried away and bit off more than I can chew."
Sasuke acknowledges her reassurance with a nod, and then looks down at his hands, lost in thought. "…As long as you know the chakra, huh…?"
If Karin could sense chakra like that… then perhaps she could…?
Karin had gone quiet, taking to observing him as the nausea shrank back. It doesn't take her long to figure out what Sasuke's behavior was truly about, and the realization makes her expression harden. "…You're thinking about the man you wish to kill, aren't you, Sasuke?"
Sasuke sank back in surprise. He had never even confirmed he did have someone he wanted to kill. Karin offers his questioning gaze nothing more than an offhand shrug.
"Your chakra went cold, plus you were brooding, like this," and just like that, the redhead pulls the gloomy rug from under his feet by scrunching up her face in—what Sasuke guessed—was her best imitation of him.
Weren't it for her glasses, even the Uchiha would've been forced to admit they looked remarkably alike. It is partly this, and partly his pride that makes him sulk. "Tch. Stop that, Karin. You look foolish."
"Hn, that just means I got you right," she retorts, unabashedly giving him the side eye. And then, before the boy could even think of arguing, Karin's mouth is tilting reluctantly, like a smile she was trying to keep in, and that gesture alone finishes by pushing away the thoughts of Itachi, making Sasuke turn his focus to something else entirely.
Her.
Sasuke studied her, and pondered in silence.
He could still remember all too clearly the way Karin had regarded him yesterday—that curious, concerned stare with which she had traced the marks across his skin, for once not trying to hide the questions from her eyes.
Yet, she had not voiced a single one. Had not even tried to, not after he had said he would rather not talk about it. And it wasn't that she had forgotten it, either—Karin probably thought the glances she stole at the mark on his neck had gone unnoticed, but Sasuke had felt them.
It was hard not to, when it felt as if the mark was a being of its own. Weighting him down—reminding him of his short-comings.
On its own, his hand comes to rest against the marked skin, and Karin is sitting close enough for him to feel rather than see the way she stiffens—close enough for him to sense the weight of her stare as she studies him through her glasses and then looks away, not saying a word.
But her silence was loudest of all to Sasuke, because it was anything but unfamiliar.
It echoed of words she had spoken to him not too long ago.
'Plus, if you wanted me to know you would have already told me, right? So, I won't ask.'
The feeling it gives him is familiar, too. And this time, Sasuke acknowledges it for what it was.
So he makes up his mind, and blurs one of the many lands he had drawn in the sand of his life. "Karin,"
"Yeah?"
…It was time he paid her back by giving her some answers.
"…You saw the markings."
All of a sudden Sasuke is facing her again—giving her a look that makes the redhead sober up, her confusion evaporating.
So this was it, Karin comes to understand, with no short amount of wonder. The reason behind Sasuke's distant behavior from earlier, behind the strain he had regarded her with—all along, he had simply not known how to address what happened. What Karin had seen.
Most likely, Sasuke had not known if he wanted to, at that.
The fact that he had brought the issue up on his own accord, despite his reservations, makes a pleasant feeling reverberate through her and she has to resist the urge to give his hand a grateful squeeze.
It is empowered by this warm feeling that Karin nods, resolutely raising her stare to meet his uneasy one.
He was giving her permission to cross his boundaries, and to say she had not wanted to talk about those markings would be to lie.
She would not back away now.
"They have something to do with that weird mark on your neck, don't they?"
A long moment of thick silence transpires, and Karin thinks that at its end she would find no answers aside from a forget it, or a never mind.
But then Sasuke frowns and hardens his gaze—steadily holding hers in place. "…Yeah. It's called a Cursed Seal."
Karin blinks, now frowning as well. "Cursed?"
Sasuke nods, wistfully. "…I don't know much about it, myself."
Easily noticing that he was saying the truth, Karin switches tracks. "How did you get it?"
He pauses, and Karin doesn't need to be a mind reader to know he was remembering something unpleasant. His demeanor, his posture—the nails she could guess were digging into the skin of his entwined palms as he turns sideways; they were all signs of his burden. "… A man named Orochimaru gave it to me in the Forest of Death."
"Orochimaru?" there was something familiar about that name, but she could not put her finger on it.
Sasuke, however, could remember him all too clearly.
'My name is Orochimaru. If you want to see me again… then survive and pass this exam.'
The memory of his face alone was able to make Sasuke feel cold. Just how he had felt yesterday night, when Kakashi had come to find him in the Hospital, finally willing to disclose the information Sasuke had wanted to know all along.
'Listen closely, Sasuke… it's time for you to know who Orochimaru really is.'
"According to Kakashi… he is also the one behind the invasion."
"…You're kidding, aren't you?" Karin asked, voice flat.
Slowly, Sasuke shakes his head, his features contorted with disgust. And then he begins to talk once more.
The Uchiha tells her everything Kakashi had disclosed to him—and while it was obvious Kakashi had kept a lot to himself, what he did say was enough to get a clear idea of just how powerful that man was.
And just how dangerously twisted.
"Wha—he killed his own teacher…? What the hell does such a man want with you, Sasuke!?"
'Sasuke-kun will seek me… to seek power.'
"I don't know," he grits through his teeth. Remembering Orochimaru's voice made his whole body clench with the excruciating sensation of the seal being carved into his neck.
For her part, Karin is still racking her brain, trying to make sense of what the Uchiha was telling her—using the information as glue to puzzle together the pieces she had gathered throughout this month of knowing him. "That means… did you already have it, that time we met?"
'So you have the earth scroll too, huh?'
It feels like forever until Sasuke nods, a wordless corroboration that sends Karin's mind surfing through a whole new wave of thoughts.
The markings weren't there then, and they weren't there in the prelims, either, until his fight with Kurotaro. She never saw them during their training sessions, not even once—so their absence was consistent.
That could only mean one thing.
"Those marks," she begins, unconsciously edging toward him. "Does it mean the seal isn't usually active?"
This time, Sasuke hesitates. "… Kakashi sealed it after my fight with Kurotaro," he admits at last, and Karin can notice all too easily that he was keeping something from her. She gives him a quizzical look, but he had put his guard back up again and was not bulging. "Tch. Who's the one making a lot of questions now, Karin?"
"Sasuke!" Karin can't keep herself from berating; this was no time for taunting!
Sasuke stares at her for a long time, brows furrowed, and then shakes his head, as if to himself.
He looks ahead and away from her. "Three."
"Huh?"
"I will answer three more questions, Karin," he states, flatly. "Not one more."
Karin scoffs a bit. What was up with him, first he wanted her to make questions, and now he was limiting her? "...Fine. Have it your way," she concedes, knowing full well there was no convincing Sasuke after he had made up his mind about something. She would just have to think her questions carefully, was all.
As it was, the first one was glaringly obvious. "What were you about to say just now, Sasuke? Kakashi sealed it after your fight with Kurotaro, but…?"
"… It depends on me."
Karin gives him an odd look. "Huh. And just what do you mean by that?"
He braces himself, swallowing hard. There was no avoiding it this time. "Kakashi's seal… relies on the strength of my will."
His words are no more than a tight mutter and he is not looking at her, but he knows Karin hears him despite that. And her silence tells him she has realized what those words meant, too.
She must have understood, once and for all, that the activation of those markings had been a sign of his weakness. That his will must have faltered during his encounter with Gaara—either due his own shortcomings, fear, or—
Hatred.
"Sasuke—"
"You've got only one question left, Karin," he reminds her, his dark-browed stare set on the distance. "Choose it wisely."
Despite his warning, the redhead doesn't have to give it a second thought. "Is it… dangerous?"
With a start, Sasuke finally turns to face her, only to find the girl giving him such a piercing look that it gives him pause. She seems to take his stunned silence as ratification, because she leans forward and into him, something behind her gaze becoming more urgent. "It is dangerous, isn't it?"
This time, Sasuke does not lean back and away from her sudden proximity, holding his ground and meeting her eyes squarely instead—for they both knew.
Karin's words—they were a statement more than a question, for Karin has known the answer all along. She has known there was something wrong with Sasuke ever since his fight against Kurotaro—ever since he had clutched his pained shoulder and something had given her that intense, menacing feeling. Now that she was aware of the Cursed Seal and of Orochimaru's existence, everything finally made sense; including the presence of those ANBU guarding Sasuke's hospital room, and just why he had stayed hospitalized for so long.
It all made sense, now. Everything added up.
And just like that, Karin feels something in her chest squirm with distress—a quiet kind of anxiety building up within her as she remembers everything that happened during Sasuke's fight with Gaara and the state she had found him in—as she realizes, once and for all, everything that could have gone wrong.
And just how awfully wrong.
The feeling seizes her tongue—controls her lips so that the words come stumbling out of them, clumsily, like water spilling from a broken glass. "I thought we wouldn't get there in time, Sasuke," she admits, hoarsely. Sasuke's eyes widen in quiet surprise. "I felt your chakra weaken and I thought you would—"
She cuts herself short, at a loss as to how to put into words the way she had felt as she had sensed Gaara's chakra darken, like a hunter about to strike. Ironically, it was only now—now that Sasuke was right there, by her side—that she was feeling the true gravity of it all. Only now was she truly realizing how, at the prospect of Sasuke's life being in danger, any and every thought about her own safety had gone out of the window.
She feels overwhelmed by the largeness of it all—by the sheer intensity of the care she had developed for Sasuke while she wasn't looking. And Sasuke, he—
He has never seen her make such a face, not since the moment she went down the stairs to face Temari, shaking like a leaf.
Sasuke is not stupid—he does not need Karin to say so to know she had been worried about him, he had seen it spelled all over her face as she ran to him. But whenever she was concerned over him, her temper would get the best of her and she would end up lecturing him or berating him, always more irked by his obstinacy than shaken by concern.
It was different this time. For some reason he could not comprehend, Karin seemed to be struggling with herself in a way he had never seen her do before.
A part of him muses that it must be precisely that which made it so striking to him. But the other is too caught up in how uncomfortable the sight of her appalled features made him feel; uncomfortable in a way he was not entirely used to yet, at once similar and yet so strikingly different from how he felt when Sakura cried over him.
It puzzled him. It truly did, and it was something he could no longer ignore—something he could no longer pretend to be unaware of.
But as it always happened whenever his mind edged to such territories, an impending sense of foreboding came to hold it back, preventing it from going in any further.
Sasuke guessed that perhaps Karin noticed his conflict, because she turned her gaze away from his and straightened, seemingly getting a hold of herself.
"…I thought you would do something reckless," she winds up muttering, twisting the hem of her jacket. "And that you did. That's why the seal activated, wasn't it? You were reckless."
The redhead finds comfortable ground on the thought and welcomes the irritation it provides, now turning to Sasuke with narrowed eyes. He stares back at her for one long, wordless moment that seems to stretch on forever to Karin, and then rises to his feet.
"Hn. You already used your 3 questions, Karin."
"…As if you need to answer that," she retorts after a breath, and gets up as well. "I mean, seriously, Sasuke. Kakashi-san is right, you can be so has—"
Kakashi trails off, his stare sharpening as it bore into Sasuke's. 'If you pull a Chidori in this state… the seal may weaken.'
Seal? What seal?
Karin halts as the memory makes its way, impromptu, to the forefront of her mind. Ahead of her, Sasuke is too lost in his own thoughts to notice the redhead's silence, until the girl breaks it with a stunned murmur.
"No way… you tried to pull the third Chidori, didn't you?"
Sasuke freezes in his tracks. His bewilderment giving way to annoyance as he realized just how Karin had figured that out.
It is damning her good memory that he keeps on walking, not even turning to acknowledge her words—and so he misses all the signs of alarm and is thoroughly taken aback when Karin brashly takes a hold of his sleeve, pulling him to face her.
"You idiot!" she roars, unfazed by his astonishment. "Kakashi-san clearly warned you not to! What were you thinking, Sasuke? You could have died!"
Sasuke turns just in time to see the beast coming at him at full speed, ready to kill him—but for the life of him he cannot move a single finger, he could barely breathe through the pain as it was.
Sasuke grudgingly turns away, scowling but otherwise silent—there was no way in hell he was going to tell her that. But Karin seems to pick up on it either way, because she impulsively grabs a fistful of his shirt, refusing to let the matter go.
"You didn't have anything to prove to Gaara, Sasuke!"
'Is this all your existence means to you? Let me make it clear for you, then… You are weak!'
Sasuke lowers his face, bangs obscuring his eyes, stomach clenching up.
"That wasn't why…."
'You're too soft because your hatred isn't strong enough! The power of hate is the power to kill, the power to kill is the power of vengeance! Your hatred is weaker than mine!'
His gloomy utterance had been too low for her to hear. "What was that!?"
"I said that wasn't why!" Sasuke yells, temper blazing. Taken aback, Karin almost gives a step back as he abruptly raises his face, eyes flaring red, but he takes a rough hold of her fists and keeps her in place. "How can I kill Itachi if I can't even hold my own against someone like Gaara!?"
Karin stares, eyes wide and enquiring. "Itachi…?"
Sasuke stares back, his self-directed anger dispersing until all that remains is adrenaline—and heartache. Shaken by his outburst and by the memories it evokes, his hands go limp around hers and he lets his head hang once more, his eyes returning to their usual black.
…There was no turning back from it, now. Not anymore.
"Yeah… Uchiha Itachi, the bastard who murdered my clan," he admits at last, voice heavy but even, and Karin sees his lips curl with aversion—but nothing could have prepared her for the words that came next. "… And also my older brother."
Now, she knew.
She knew.
…And it was worse than she could have ever imagined.
Stricken, her hold on his shirt eases, but she does not let go, and Sasuke does not move away.
He remains still, and silent. Rage and grief welling inside him in equal measures, swirling across wounds that had never—would never—heal.
But neither of them wins the battle, as Karin breaks through the heavy silence.
"Th—then… that only makes you a bigger idiot."
Shocked, Sasuke raises his face only to find that Karin's eyes were brimming—either due to the resolve lacing her voice or the moisture hung on her eyelashes. Sasuke was standing close enough to notice both, but he could not tell which mattered more—not when her words tear through him with the force of a storm. "How can you kill Itachi if you die, Sasuke? If getting stronger is what you want, then getting yourself killed sure as hell isn't the way to do it!"
She pulls him closer, brow furrowed with determination. "You don't have to do it by yourself, either! I'll help you—I don't know how, but I swear I will—so don't go around taking your life lightly when you've got comrades willing to risk theirs for you! Don't forget you aren't alone in this, Sasuke!"
For a long, breathless moment Sasuke's mind is blank as he stares at her, wide-eyed and blown away—and then come the memories, overflowing like a current.
There's an unbearable moment that seems to stretch on forever, as Gaara's claw looms over Sasuke's body and the Uchiha thinks his moment to die had finally come—
And then there's Sakura's voice, "Sasuke-kun!"
And Naruto is suddenly before him, landing a potent kick right into Gaara's face.
He had thoughtlessly allowed the Cursed Seal to take over, and had jeopardized not only his own life, but Naruto's, and Sakura's. Worse than that—he had not been able to protect them. He had had to be protected by them instead.
Hadn't it been for Naruto and Sakura, he would have, unquestionably, died a pointless death.
Really… how many times already have those two had to protect him?
'Never again,' he says through gritted teeth, his back turned toward his friend. 'I already lost everything once before… I don't ever want to watch those dear to me die before my eyes again.'
He was always making them worry—not only them, but now also—
Sasuke stares into Karin's eyes, the frustration, anger and grief he had felt before giving way to something else entirely as he took her in and let his memories with her and his team take hold.
After everything they had gone through together in the last months, there was no amount of willpower on his end that could have prevented Team 7 from becoming this important—from becoming his precious people. Kakashi was his teacher—someone worth listening to, and who could help him get stronger. Sakura was a precious comrade who had greatly helped him, and to say that he was thankful to her would be an understatement. And Naruto, he—Naruto was someone he had always had an affinity to, even when he had closed himself off to everyone else. He was his closest friend. And his rival.
There was nothing uncertain about any of that. No doubts, no second-thoughts. No matter how uneasy it may make him at times, if someone were to ask him what Team 7 meant to him, the answer was clear.
So, then… what did that make Karin?
Karin… she was someone he could not put his finger on.
There had been no life and death situations, no constant missions, no shared childhoods to bring them closer and no teams to force them to stay together—and yet, a bond had formed.
And it was strong. The fact that she was there right now—that he had wanted to give her answers she had never even tried to ask for—that she had offered to help him with his lifelong goal without a second of hesitation—everything showed as much. He would have to be blind not to see it.
And it all only made the matter more pressing, more puzzling.
If someone were to ask him what did Karin mean to him, what would the reply be? Could he really define her with words like 'comrade' or 'friend', as he had Team 7?
He does not know. Sasuke sincerely does not know, and it is this that confuses him the most.
She confused him. Sasuke did not know how, did not know why—but she did. Always, without fail.
There had been no way around it, ever since he found her in that forest and the mere sight of her stole a smile from his lips.
…You confuse me, Karin.
"… Huh?"
It is only after Karin's dumbfounded face dawns on him that Sasuke realizes he had said it aloud.
Shit…!
He curses, inwardly, with no small amount of self-reproach. It makes him feel outlandish, and ridiculous, and to his ever-growing chagrin he suddenly finds holding her stare increasingly hard. It is avoiding her red eyes that he looks down and becomes aware that his hands were still loosely circling her own, so he hurries to stick them into his pockets, feigning nonchalance.
"Hn… you can let go of me now, Karin."
Blinking, still at a loss at the sudden turn things had taken, Karin lowers her eyes only to undergo a similar realization. Indeed, she was still grabbing a fistful of his shirt—speedily, she becomes alarmingly aware of just how carried away she had gotten, her body's temperature increasing more and more until she was sure she would boil at any moment.
In her stupor she makes the fatal mistake of flicking her eyes to his—only to become even more flustered as she finally noticed just how close they were standing.
A current of blood rushes to her cheeks and drowns her brain. Karin lets out an undignified croak, and in her eagerness to put some distance between them, she is at once pushing him away and stepping back, which causes her to lose her balance. Flabbergasted, Sasuke's hand shoots forward on its own and he manages to get a hold of her wrist, pulling her toward himself.
His attempt to steady her yields unexpected reasons however, and both teens freeze at the position they find themselves in.
Sasuke with Karin's body flushed against his own; one hand holding her wrist in between their chests, the other tentatively resting against her hip. Their chests were pressed together, their noses nearly touching—and between that and the look in Sasuke's widened eyes, Karin finds her heartbeat speeding up to an erratic, deafening pace that almost pushes away every rational thought.
Almost.
'Aha! So Sasuke-kun's charms have lured you in, too, huh?'
'This Uchiha guy… you like him, right?'
'Of course I do, he is my friend.'
Startled, Karin comes back to her senses and pushes herself off Sasuke, stammering all the way. "I—uh—I—!"
This time Sasuke cannot react fast enough to save her from falling flat on her behind. As a matter of fact, Sasuke seemed to be standing quite still—but Karin didn't dare look-up to check.
For a long moment, there is nothing but silence.
And then her agitated body registers the pain of the fall, and she cringes and lets out a low moan. "Owwww."
Her glasses have slid down the bridge of her nose, so when he slowly steps into her train of vision, he is no more than a mere blur; and she is instantly reminded of the day they met.
'See ya.'
The day everything had started.
"… For a shinobi, you're pretty clumsy."
His voice is as indifferent as usual, and knowing that she was the only one feeling unexplainably flustered over what had just transpired between them makes accepting the hand he was offering no easier—and certainly no less humiliating.
"…Shut up," Karin mutters, looking anywhere but at him and dusting her skirt off, trying to regain any semblance of dignity she possibly could.
Thanks to this, she misses the pale, traitorous blush that was coloring Sasuke's otherwise pale cheeks.
A few, long moments of tense silence go by.
And then Karin clears her throat—absurdly paranoid of Sasuke being able to hear the wild beatings of her heart in the quiet.
She turned her head just slightly, darting him a glance, and then she said, "H—hey, Sasuke, Ryuu-kun and Kurotaro must be wondering where I went off to, so I should probably get going, right?"
It's nothing but an excuse, but her sudden urge to put as much distance as possible between herself and Sasuke was very much true—and so she is inwardly thankful when Sasuke takes the first step, muttering a monosyllabic agreement and walking back to Uchiha Senbei's entrance in order to pick up his forgotten broom.
"I'll see you later, Sasuke!"
And with a hurried wave, Karin bolts out of the place without giving Sasuke the chance to say anything in return.
Preoccupied as she is by her thoughts, it never occurs to Karin that she never did tell Sasuke just why she had been looking for him in the first place.
She was leaving Konoha tomorrow.
—
End of the 17th Chapter
Holy crap, writing this chapter was such a rollercoaster. I wrote—and I'm not kidding—about 5 different drafts, +40 pages total, and every single time Sasuke and Karin would take things somewhere different. But none of those felt quite right—and the more I revised it, the more I took off chunks of that 'proper romance' I had meant to deliver for you guys. Sorry about that, but I guess these two aren't ready for anything like that yet—and to be honest, I wouldn't have them any other way, haha.
I know many of you are probably disappointed, but I can promise you that things will be much, much different in the hypothetical-sequel-that-I-have-really-fleshed-out-in-my-head-and-hope-to-get-to-write-one-of-these-days.
In this chapter there were also loads and loads of foreshadowing of things that will be addressed in said hypothetical-sequel.
Cough.
One more chapter to go and that's it! Thanks a lot for reading up to this point, guys, and please don't forget to tell me your thoughts in a review~!
Until Chapter 18 aka The Epilogue, everyone!