title: tipping point
summary: "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. That's just how sinners go, Sakura, you can't change that." But she'll try. She'll try. — Sasuke/Sakura
dedication: to the brilliance that is sweet chilli noodle salad, unff.
notes1: I don't even know where I'm meant to be going with this.
notes2: god, I'm just a writing machine today.
disclaimer: disclaimed.
.
.
.
.
.
When Sasuke awoke, it was still dark.
He lay still for a moment, the light sheets only half draped over his torso, his back a little clammy even in the snowy weather. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he scanned the room, the walls, looking to the clock that hung there; it was still too dim to make sense of the hands, but Sasuke didn't need a clock to know it was early. Early awakenings always left him feeling sour — he could feel the migraine kicking in.
Sighing, he swung his legs over the side of the bed.
He scanned the room again. In the double bed beside his own were Suigetsu and Jūgo, knocked out and snoring like babies. On the third bed, the single, was Karin, on top of the sheets as though she'd fallen asleep sitting upright. Looking closer, Sasuke saw notebook paper, scraps, written on in Karin's scrawling writing, crumpled in her lap — mind maps, they looked like. Even in the dark, Sasuke could identify obvious words, like 'planning', 'Konoha', and his own name, written again and again and again.
He pretended to no-one in particular not to notice. He hauled himself onto his feet, fumbling in the semi-darkness to cross the room to the small, ill-equipped bathroom. His dark, ruffled hair felt greasy against his forehead — he decided that his first priority would be to shower.
"Y'awake?" Karin's voice was hoarse and low and slurred as she spoke from the corner of the room. It was evident that she'd just jolted awake, as she'd certainly been asleep when he woke up — she looked at him through narrowed eyes. "Sasuke, s'tha' you?"
His lips spread into a thin smirk at the realisation that she couldn't see without her glasses, blind and sightless and looking pretty helpless. He couldn't help but smile — he could take a knife to her throat right then and there, and she wouldn't know any different; his secret would be safe from the only real intelligence of the team. The others would never figure it out (the morons), she'd never get any closer to the truth, and nobody would ever know any different.
"Sa — "
He appeared at her neck, kunai drawn.
"What're these, Karin," he deadpanned. "'Plot'? 'Sasuke'? So vague…are you planning against me?"
Karin took a shaky breath. She spoke with a quiet confidence. "Give me my glasses, Sasuke."
He dropped the specs into her lap, and moved slowly away. She placed them over her eyes, blinking at the sudden revival of her sight. She watched him without saying a word as he moved back across the room towards the bathroom.
"You're a smart girl, Karin," Sasuke hovered by the door. "I don't doubt you'll figure it out before the time's right. Keep quiet, though, and keep your life."
He closed the door behind him. Karin shut her eyes and waited for the shower to creak to life.
.
.
.
.
.
notes3: ominous, right? no? okay.