Naruto's rage knew no bounds. He sat in the hokages office, waiting for an answer. Waiting for an explanation. Why had he not been involved? Why was he so damn unhappy? "Naruto, as you know, Sasuke has been captured and returned." Tsunade paused, watching and waiting for a reaction that never came. "He is being placed on trial for treason, murder, man slaughter, theft, breaking and entering… my point is Naruto, that the list is endless. Naruto, my only choices are execution or life imprisonment, with the removal of chakra usage." Naruto looked down to his feet. The same feet that couldn't catch Sasuke. It was his fault. His weakness. "Who brought him in?" he asked in a voice to low and guttural to be his own. "That's classified." A short sharp answer meant to shut him up. "Who?"

"Sakura."

…..

Ino burst into Sakuras apartment in a whirlwind of rage and confusion. And their she was. Perfect, princess, pink-haired Sakura, in tears on the sofa. "I thought everyone would be happy, I thought they would be proud of me." The tears kept flowing, Ino's hate melted away into pity.

"No one likes to be kept in the dark Sakura." Ino said.

"I should know" Sakura muttered.

"No one blamed you."

"Not no one, every one."

….

News spread like wildfire through out Konoha, igniting a blaze of gossip and slander. Sakura was either praised or torn down. Karin could hear the guards murmuring outside her jail cell. "I would be furious." "Nah, I get it." "Good on her." And so forth, so forth.

She hated Sakura. The Sakura who captured them. The Sakura who made Sasuke bow down. The one who had a never ending hold on him, she had him wrapped around her finger. And Karin could only watch the inevitable un fold.

…..

Ino went back to see Sakura, the met at the bench. The bench.

Sakura sat, eyes red, her hair tangled, lip gloss smeared.

"Im sorry." Ino was the first to break the silence. "He's your team mate, not mine."

"Why did you stop talking to me?" Sakura said, all the worlds hurt in her eyes, the village on her shoulders, an undying innocence in her eyes, like she still had more to see. Ino knew she didn't, Sakura had seen enough.

"Because for a long time I hated you."

Ino sucked in a breath.

"Sometimes I hate me too."

Sakura looked towards her.

"Sakura, do you want to be friends."

…

"I would like that very much."

…

Naruto didn't see Sakura that day, or the next, or the day after, or the one after that. She didn't go looking for him. She was too scared for that. So she went somewhere she felt she ought too. Sasukes' cell.

"Hey." She speaks slowly, tentatively. All her fight and passion lost in a sea of nerves.

For the longest of times he doesn't, doesn't look at her.

"Thank you." He says.

"For what." She answers.

"For doing for me what I couldn't do."

….

Karin hears his words through the wall, and they are the kindest she's ever heard him speak. She hates that Sakura can draw that out of him. She hates her princess hair and eyes, her large forehead and her small frame. She hates what she has taken from her. Her way out.

Karin feels lost.

Cold.

Alone.

She doesn't have a way out anymore, no escape, no future. Just prison. Or death. Probably the later.

Her life is falling down around her; all her carefully constructed walls of feigned ignorance come crashing down. And she sees her self for the first time. And she hates it.

She falls to the floor, a mess of broken confidence and scarred imagination. She doesn't cry. She just lays there, eyes to the ceiling, mind on the stars beyond.

"Hello?" a feminine voice, filled with uncertainty.

"Can I come in?"

"Whatever." Karins voice comes out ragged and torn.

The first thing Karin sees is pink hair.

"Hi, im …"

"I know who you are." Karin answers, not moving from the floor.

"I just came to tell you that Konoha is considering letting you go."

"Why?"

"You weren't seen as being an accessory, just…"

"I guess I wasn't important enough for that huh?"

"I guess not."

…..

Karin is found the next day.

Hanging from a rope.

Dead.