Chapter 20 - Bitten Tongue

Sasuke had to send Go'on home shortly after Sakura left. He felt too distracted to even properly spar with his own student.

His mind overloaded with speculation and suspicion and stupidity and what the hell was he thinking?

It was just like before. Just like everything else. Just like everything. Else. He was just stringing things together in a twisted hope. Giving meaning to unrelated incidences, separated by years. He was just imagining things.

These same old damn delusions.

But he couldn't help it. The facts, in their proximity to each other, separated only by paper, were given a seeming sort of coherence, and it etched a delicious possibility in his mind.

Organ cultures - fantasies of full bodies grown from scraps of hair - no, no. None of these were related to the other.

But he remembered the horrors of Kabuto's work. Flash-grown, mindless…

It was possible. He knew it was possible. Possible that, maybe, somehow, someone out there had continued Orochimaru's - Kabuto's research to the point where…

Sasuke had to stop himself before he could continue this… insane string of thoughts. He rounded a corner and onto a familiar path, one that wound through all his old haunts, past all the echoes of the buildings of his childhood, past the dock and the artificial lake. He favored it over all other paths, especially when he needed to work out any frustration.

Hadn't he been tortured by this enough? He almost wanted to blame Sakura for this - she'd been the one to come to him about that damn Uzumaki - no, not Uzumaki, Taki, Taki, Taki Kiine. The one that had resurrected this mess in his mind after months of peace. That damn red-headed girl. Sakura had been the one to bring it to his attention and do those damn blood tests. It proved nothing. It proved nothing! And it might have stayed that way if she hadn't gone and rubbed it into his face and then just… just…

And now Karin. Karin and these… reports, these totally unrelated reports about body doubles and cloning and now he was thinking of Yakata and his brother's face and what if someone had brought his brother back from the dead and now his name was…

No. No, no, no.

Why. Why was he even thinking this?

Who would even be responsible for such a thing in the first place? Barring Orochimaru coming back from the dead - or even Kabuto - there was nobody capable of anything like that. You would… need labs and things, and assistants, and…

You'd need the knowledge. That was what was tripping him up. And beyond those two, the only person with that knowledge was Karin. And she kept it hidden away, under lock and key and the belligerent insistence that it never be used for anything more than good. And she had done good with it, that was undeniable.

His oldest, Hajime, was a member of that team that worked with the curse seal test subjects, the ones that used her vaccines, and Sasuke had half-heard things about her clinic and the advances in medicine that she was responsible for. Sasuke had a cursory knowledge of these things, it was true, but it had been decades since he'd actually spoken to the woman.

Maybe… it would be right to talk to her about this. Maybe she could tell him something.

Maybe he'd actually be able to get some damn peace of mind over this. Clear up all of this nonsense. Surely she'd know if there was anybody else who could have possibly done something like this. Surely she'd know if there wasn't anyone.

…and why would anyone, much less a disciple of Orochimaru, want to bring back his brother? Sasuke could think of a million reasons why he would, but…

…why was he even thinking about these things still?

Sasuke had reached the dock, without really noticing how long it had taken, and he sat down at its edge and stared out over the water.

Yes, this was something he needed to do. The last link in this chain of insanity and irrationality and…

…really, who was he kidding? There was something going on here.

…with Taki Kiine, at least. Yes. Only with her.

By talking with Karin, he'd be helping to solve another piece of the puzzle. Clear up something at least.

(He'd be able to find out if Yakata was… unrelated or whatever or. Whatever he was.)

At any rate, he'd be able to help Sakura a little. The sooner they solved this the sooner she'd stop… bothering him.

(He didn't stop for a moment to consider that, maybe, Sakura should have been the one doing this.)

Peace of mind. Some damn peace of mind, for once.

The surface of the lake was very still, and familiar.

(And maybe, just maybe, just… probably not.)

Probably not.

He stood up on the dock and the water rippled from the movement, slightly. He began back down the path, to the gate of the compound.

(He missed, by mere minutes and mere feet, a wandering Murasaki, who had with her well-wishes and words of congratulation. Which was probably for the best, for all of the parties involved.)

"I'm going on a short trip to the Land of Waves, to visit Karin," he told Naruto, entering his office, as usual, without knocking. "Just thought I'd let you know."

"Well, this is sudden. Why are you doing that?" Naruto asked, halfway between a laugh and a narrow, confused glance.

(And it was in that moment that, yes, it finally occurred to Sasuke that maybe it should have been Sakura doing all of this.)

"…favor to Sakura. But don't tell her I'm doing this, I don't know if anything will come of it," he said. "Understand?"

"Haha, sure, Sasuke. But…" Naruto leaned forward at his desk, fixing his mouth into a corner of his face. "I thought you were dead-set on nothing but training these days, y'know? Since you-"

"I think that my children and Go'on can handle themselves for a few days, thank you," Sasuke interrupted, though he only half-meant it. But he could make such sacrifices for something like this.

Naruto shrugged. "Hey, your call. I won't tell you how to train them, y'know."

"You shouldn't," Sasuke said, and left.

He left a note for Go'on at the academy, on the way home, with a mild suggestion of a training regimen and a promise of a return in a few days.

He announced his trip to his family at dinner, that night. He didn't mention Karin. "I won't be more than a few days, but I expect for you two to keep up with your training," he told Inou and Karai, who sat across from him at the table. "You understand?"

"Sure, Dad…" said Inou, sighing.

"Yep, sure! Masao-sensei's been giving me lots of extra work, it's gonna help a whole lot," said Karai, smiling.

"What's with the attitude, little bro?" said Takeru, when Sasuke didn't.

Inou didn't respond, disappearing slightly into his meal.

Their mother just sighed, picking at the dinner she had made.

(Praying there wouldn't be another argument, not like the night before.)

Nadeshiko wasn't present, but Hajime was, reluctantly, in an uncomfortable space between missions. He stayed out of it.

Sasuke couldn't sleep that night, after his bath. He lay in his bed with his hands beneath his head and he stared at the ceiling and thought of what he would do. What he had to do. The pages and pages of reports and speculation and everything flipped through his mind. He could practically feel the paper in his fingers, again.

He couldn't even stop himself from thinking about all of this any more, not with him finally deciding to do something about it.

Supposing it all was connected. Supposing there was someone still out there, doing these unnatural things.

Maybe Karin wouldn't know. He almost hoped she wouldn't. Or maybe she would. Then what?

He hoped the most, in fact, for a flat-out denial. To be told, told, that, no, this wasn't possible. That, no, his brother hadn't been brought back from the dead. There was no reason for that even to have occurred. There was no love for Itachi in Sound, after all.

He wanted to be woken up, really. To be shaken out of these dreams and fantasies and just all the rest.

(He wanted, the most, to forget about Yakata. But that seemed about as easy as forgetting about his brother, the man he seemed to be a shadow of.)

But he'd probably be proven wrong. Somewhere.

There was still that damn Uzu-Taki. Taki. Taki. Damn it, why could he never get it right? It was just a damn name.

Someone was behind her. Someone was responsible for her existence. Sasuke had read the reports on the cancer and her mother and he knew when something was blatantly impossible. Kiine's existence called everything into question. It was the little stab of pain that made him question whether or not it was all a dream - because, truly, there was no pain in dreams, was there?

And besides, why would anyone, Orochimaru or otherwise, want to bring back an Uzumaki female? Itachi, at least, had the Sharingan. Just like Sasuke had. And Orochimaru had coveted those eyes more than anything.

It answered nothing, but it made even less sense than the other option.

Kiine's existence called everything into question. And Sasuke needed an answer. Any sort of answer. No matter what Karin knew or didn't know. Whatever happened over there with her would happen.

He managed to get some sleep.

(Quietly, the day became July 24th. Sasuke had been forty-three years old for twenty-four hours.)

(He hadn't celebrated a birthday in years.)

He left in the morning from a quiet house, given the usual farewell, the obligatory kiss.

The voyage took him little more than an afternoon, and the harshness of the noonday heat was already beginning to fade away when he arrived in the town where Karin had established her clinic, Ryokyo. It was a little coastal town that he had to look up on a map and memorize the location of. Quaint.

Sasuke found himself almost feeling nostalgic as he went along down the street, savoring the lack of attention he was receiving. The Land of Waves was one rooted deeply in his past. His first real skirmish had occurred there, hadn't it? On that bridge with the obnoxious name. There had been a boy with throwing needles, in a mask. A man with a sword that had - didn't Suigetsu have that sword now? Sasuke didn't know. He hadn't even thought of Suigetsu in ages.

He supposed it was appropriate. It was a day for confronting the past, in a sense.

…nostalgic and poetic. Sasuke didn't know what seemed to have gotten into him.

The clinic was a modest building, interestingly enough, with little to differentiate it from the rest of the more traditionally-made buildings in the town beyond a sign advertising its services. Its size was impressive, however, especially given that, apparently, Karin was running it entirely by herself, both in terms of employment and funding.

She'd certainly done well for herself, Sasuke thought, and opened the sliding door.

There was a foyer, like any other home, at the mouth of a hallway filled with closed screen doors, except for a room to the right immediately near the foyer, whose door was left slightly open. Slippers were arranged neatly on the step for guests to use. None of the pairs matched each other. On the floor there were two pairs of shoes left behind: a pair of women's flats, and a pair of rough wooden sandals.

There was a sign on the right-hand wall, written in big red letters: "The doctor is IN. Please wait in the first room on the right to be seen." The "IN" was on a separate piece of wood that could be turned over for when, obviously, Karin was not around.

Sasuke took his shoes off and did as the sign told him, choosing a pair of light blue house slippers and taking a seat in the waiting room.

He did not have to wait long. He heard a voice coming down the hallway, a familiar one.

"I'll get that prescription for you ready by tonight, Ryouzai-san. And if you don't think you can come by to pick it up then I'm sure I can have my boy drop it off at your house, okay?"

Yes, that was definitely Karin. But who was "her boy?" An assistant, maybe?

Then, there was an older voice, dry and crackling, like autumn leaves. "Oh, he doesn't need to do that. I think I can manage."

"Oh, I know, I know. Now remember, extra rest. And don't be afraid to nag that husband of yours to wait on you, okay?"

"Like you need to tell me!" There was a shuffling, and the clack of wooden sandals, and women's laughter. "Take care, dearie."

"You too, Ryouzai-san."

The door to the clinic opened, and closed.

Sasuke waited, wondering why he was feeling a hollow pang of nervousness in his stomach.

"I know you're there, Sasuke. You don't have to stay in the waiting room, okay?"

Sasuke breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth. He stood, and exited.

Karin waited for him there in the foyer, a hand on her hip. She suddenly laughed. "Oh and look at you, you even put the slippers on…"

Sasuke found himself more than a little put-upon, for a number of reasons.

The first reason was the slipper comment. "It's the polite thing to do, would you rather I go around in my shoes? Barefoot?" he asked, even though he never really wore slippers elsewhere.

"Not at all. You just never struck me as the type to care too much about these things," Karin replied.

That was the second reason. Sasuke didn't respond to that.

The third reason was her, specifically. Her face had only aged minimally, mostly around the eyes, and her hair was only a little shorter, but still the same cut, the same vivid shade of red. That had remained much as he had last remembered, but time had not been kind to the rest of her body.

Her skin was flabby, pale and unhealthy in nearly every sense of the word. Her stomach and her thighs were especially bloated; she was rather pear-shaped, now, and the zipped-up, long-sleeved tunic she wore did nothing to hide it.

Sasuke tried not to stare.

(He also, subconsciously, tried not to compare her to Ino, who despite five children had lost only her youthful curves and become a bonier sort of creature in the process.)

"Well, come in, already. I assume you're here for a reason," she said, beckoning to him with a curt wave of her hand. "People like you don't just show up out of nowhere just to say hello."

"Hm," he said, and followed her. She led him through the hallway of sliding doors and into a kitchen near the back, where she pulled out a chair for him at the table and gestured toward it.

"Well, go on, I'm not going to make you stand, okay?" she said, pursing her lips slightly. "Are you thirsty?"

"Not terribly."

"Fine, then, I'll just get you a glass of water or something. Don't have time for tea," she said, and walked into the kitchen proper. Sasuke sat, putting down his bag and ignoring the growing, foreign pangs of awkwardness. Karin reached into a cupboard with a small "Oof!" and retrieved two glasses, and she filled them with water from a pitcher on the counter. She set them down on the table and sat down, with a small amount of difficulty, in her own chair.

"So," she said. "How have you been?"

"Well enough," he replied, automatically. He didn't acknowledge his glass. "Busy."

"Is that so? I hear about you from your son from time to time, you know, but he never really goes into detail. What's his name… Hajime?"

"Yes, Hajime," Sasuke said. His eyes narrowed. "What has he told you about me?"

"Not much, to be honest. Whenever he and the rest of the Seal Team come by they never last more than an afternoon. They're just there to pick up fresh vaccines when it's on their schedule, okay. I mostly hear that you've been busy, a few things about your other kids, your wife." She paused, resting her chin on her hand. "How is she, by the way? Your wife, I mean. I can't seem to remember her name."

"She's fine," Sasuke said, stiffly, and said no more.

"Mm." Another pause. "How many kids have you two had, anyways? I can never seem to keep track."

"Five." Much as he wanted to say he had only four, it was the truth.

"Five, wow…" Karin said, flatly. She exhaled quickly in what was almost a scoff, almost a laugh, but not quite one or the other. "Hm. Not bad. I bet they keep your hands full."

"I suppose you could say that," Sasuke said.

"Mm."

There was silence, for a while. And despite the many things Sasuke had to say, the obligation of small talk had an unusually strong hold on him, here, keeping him from bringing up the Uzumaki and Yakata, and he couldn't quite identify why. Perhaps it was the fact that they hadn't seen each other in years, a relative of the forced politeness that came from dealing with strangers. Maybe it came from their past with each other.

(He had never apologized for anything he had done to her, not once. But this was not unique to her.)

He didn't know.

"How have you been?" he finally asked, after clearing his throat. He still hadn't taken a sip from his glass. "You look… well."

She looked fat, and sick.

Karin laughed at this, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Sasuke, of all the people I have ever known, you are by far the worst liar."

His eyes narrowed further. "What's that supposed to mean."

She rolled her own eyes from behind her plum-colored glasses. "I look 'well?' Honestly? I look like shit, Sasuke. Don't deny it, okay?"

He didn't, but he didn't confirm it, either, saying instead, "So you haven't been well?"

"Don't even get me started." She sighed, and continued anyways. "I don't think I've ever felt sicker in my life. Hopefully I'll be feeling better once the little one arrives."

He blinked a few times. "The… little one?"

"Well, yes. Goodness, has it ever been giving me trouble. I nearly miscarried a few weeks ago…"

There were many ways in which one could interpret Sasuke's resulting silence. Even Sasuke himself wasn't sure what it meant.

Karin interpreted it in her own way. "Don't tell me you didn't notice," she said, a sort of incredulous smile on her face. It faded, quickly, into a tired sort of admittance. "Well, I don't blame you. I'm definitely not as thin as I used to be, okay…"

Sasuke could feel his face growing slightly warmer. He avoided eye contact. "…congratulations, then," he mumbled.

"Now what is that supposed to mean?" she said, this time with a real laugh.

"Isn't that what you're supposed to say when you learn things like this?" he replied.

"Hm! I suppose so," Karin replied. "Thank you, Sasuke."

"Mm."

"Kind of surprising, though, isn't it? I just turned forty-three and I'm only just now having a kid I can call my own." She sighed, leaning back in her chair and resting a hand on her stomach. "Sure started late, didn't I."

"I wouldn't know," Sasuke said.

(Hajime had been born only two months after his twenty-first birthday.)

"So, is it a boy or a girl?" he found himself asking. "Do you know?"

"Oh, I was hoping for a girl. But I already checked, okay. It's a boy." She sighed again, resignedly. "Can't have everything you want, I suppose."

"Yeah, I… guess you can't." He reached for his glass in a gesture of nonchalance. "So who's the father."

"Why do you care?" she asked. Her voice was soft, almost amused, rather than bitter, or offended.

"…just wondering." He took a sip.

(A part of him really did wonder what kind of person would have settled down with her at that age, in such a state.)

"It's nobody you know, anyways," she continued. "Surprising as it may seem, I do have something of a social life here, okay?"

(…someone extremely desperate, no doubt.)

"I'm not surprised, actually," Sasuke said. "You seem to have done well for yourself here."

"You think? I like to tell myself that, surely," Karin replied. "I've made a difference in this town and with the curse seal victims, at least. Poor things."

"Hm." He put his glass down, but he didn't take his hand off of it.

She was quiet for a moment longer, rubbing the top of her stomach slightly. It was a soft roundness, rather than the tight flesh that Sasuke remembered from when Ino had been expecting his children. Is that why he hadn't noticed, at first?

(Then again, Karin looked just plain fat, no matter how you sliced it. So it could have been anything.)

"So, why are you here, Sasuke?" she said, after a while, looking at him with a sideways glance.

He let go of his glass and laced his fingers together in front of his face. "I read the reports that you sent Sakura. Regarding Taki Kiine."

Karin sighed. "So she showed them to you, did she?" she said. He nodded. "Why'd she do that?"

"I don't know. Something about checking details," he said. "Maybe she thought I could give her some more information. Since, well." He cleared his throat, but tried not to show it. "So I thought to come and see what you thought about all of this. As a favor to her."

"Well, that's awfully nice of you," Karin said. "She didn't ask or anything?"

Sasuke didn't reply.

"Well, believe me, I'm as confused by all of this as the next person, okay?" Karin continued. "I don't even know how in the world Taki Kiine exists, nor do I know why she has blood cells like mine."

"Like yours?"

Karin nodded. "Apparently. Sakura sent me samples of Taki Kiine's blood so I could see for myself, even, and there it was." She reached over to take her glass, and drank from it. Nearly half of the water was gone by the time she put it back down. "It's bizarre, really. And it's more or less the only thing that's got me stuck in this whole mess, okay. I could have dismissed her as maybe some Uzumaki survivor adopted by the Taki clan - they're very big on adoption, you see. But those cells? That was something."

Sasuke nodded, uneasily. "Makes sense."

"So that's why I sent her those reports," she continued. "They all used my blood somewhere or another. That was the only lead I could think of, when I went to go look for reports to send her. I'm still looking for more, really, in my spare time, okay? Tell me," she said, "has Sakura come up with any theories of her own?"

So that was the real connection, Sasuke thought. Strange how he didn't notice before - but then again, how was he supposed to know?

"Not that she's told me," he said. He had his own theories, but his delusions didn't help in making them seem any more viable than something Karin or Sakura could come up with. "So, do you think that any of these experiments have anything to do with Taki Kiine?"

"Maybe… I haven't checked everything, yet, but these seemed the most promising from my first searches," she said.

"Then, this is this all you found?"

"No, no, I found others, but I only sent the relevant material. I mean, really, I don't think recipes for medicines that kept Orochimaru's body alive that happened to use my blood were terribly relevant, okay? Growing an entire uterus in a jar, though? That's a bit better, I think."

"Sure…" Sasuke swallowed, gathering the nerves he knew he had. "But who do you think is behind all of this?"

Karin looked at him over her glasses, her face incredibly still. "What do you mean, 'behind all of this'?" she asked.

"Well, someone's got to be responsible for Taki Kiine existing. Someone… for all intents and purposes, made her," Sasuke said. "So, the question is, who did?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Karin said. She crossed her arms, frowning slightly. "That's what I'm trying to find out here, okay?"

"What, by just digging through reports and things? What good is that going to do?" Sasuke felt the pressure of anger growing in his chest. "It'll just get us more confused."

"Well, if I have an idea about how she came to be, whether it's because someone restored Taki Mikan's uterus or if she-"

"That changes nothing, don't you understand?" Sasuke's fist rattled the table, and his shoulders rose and fell with his quickened breaths. "It doesn't matter how it happened, we need to know who's responsible!"

Karin's face remained flat, unfazed. "You're awfully upset about all of this, Sasuke."

He didn't respond. He managed to slow his breaths, but he failed to keep Yakata out of his mind. He took what he could get.

She continued. "I'm just saying that, if I figure out how this was possible, then I might be able to… get a better idea of who could have done it, okay? I knew the medical staff at the labs better than you, I'm sure. I knew their specialties."

"Right. Sure," Sasuke said. He drummed his fingers on the table. "Then, tell me, do you have anyone in mind, as of right now?"

Her mouth pinched in at the center. "I don't."

"Really."

"Honestly. So far, I can't come to any real conclusions, okay? I have no clues."

"Really."

"Would you stop looking at me like that," she said, glancing sideways. Her shoulders rose, and Sasuke stared at the table. "And I'm sorry, Sasuke, but it's not like this is something I can do full-time, okay? Any other time I'd do a full search of all my archives, but right now I have patients and, more importantly, myself to take care of," she added.

"Mm."

"But from the way things are looking there's nobody I can suspect right now." She paused. "Well, maybe Sanshi. She had a talent with fetuses, she might have done something with this research... But I know she's dead." Another pause. Her voice was very, very cold when she said, "And there's… one other option, but I don't even want to consider it…"

"What, you can't mean Orochimaru?" He looked up from the table. Karin had stopped crossing her arms and had her hands on her belly again. She didn't say anything, nor give any other indication of a reply. "But he's gone, why would you-"

"Mom, I'm home!"

There was a voice coming from the entrance of the house and it froze Sasuke's anger and sent it shooting into the pit of his stomach.

Who was that?

"They finished rehearsal early so I got out early too! So I went to the store and - Mom, where are you?"

Who was that?

"I'm in the kitchen!" Karin replied, her voice brightening suddenly, but clearly artificially. Sasuke noticed her muscles tensing, but he found that the voice preoccupied him more.

The door to the kitchen slid open and a young man walked in, no older than maybe twenty-three or twenty-four. He was wearing black pants and a white t-shirt, and he carried a plastic bag with him. His skin was the same color as the shirt; he had black hair that fell to his chin, and bangs that covered his face to the nose, concealing his eyes.

The young man leaned in and kissed Karin on the side of her forehead. "Hi, Mom. So, I went to the store to pick up a few things, since I had some extra time. Got some okonomiyaki sauce, since I knew we were running low…"

"You are such a sweetheart, thank you," Karin said. The young man smiled back at her. His mouth looked like it had been cut into his face. "You didn't have to do that."

"Yeah, but, well, it's your favorite," he said, and laughed slightly.

Sasuke found himself almost shuddering, recognizing that laughter, that deep, guttural, joyless thing.

The young man seemed, suddenly, to notice Sasuke. "And who is this?" he asked.

"Oh, well. Um. Ooda, this is Uchiha Sasuke, he's… an old acquaintance of mine," Karin said, after clearing her throat. "Sasuke, this is… Ooda. My son."

"Oh! It's very nice to meet you," Karin's son (Karin's son?) Ooda said, bowing awkwardly. He paused when he rose, and Sasuke could see, through bangs that would have otherwise hidden them, chemical-yellow eyes staring into his, angular and snake-like, bordered by thorns of purple.

He couldn't bring himself to say anything. He looked at Karin, whose face contained supreme discomfort, packaged in a smile.

"If… you don't mind me asking, Uchiha-san, are your eyes always like that?" he heard Ooda say, tilting his head slightly. "I've never seen truly red eyes like that before. It's..." And his voice grew soft there, disgustingly, disturbingly, familiarly soft. "...actually very beautiful."

"Ooda, please! Don't embarrass our guest…" Karin said, before Sasuke could even do a thing. She batted at Ooda's nearby arm, her smile growing more strained, and Ooda's knife-cut mouth twisted into a sheepish smile of his own.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it…"

Sasuke felt bile and anger rising in his throat.

"So, will Uchiha-san be staying for dinner?" Ooda asked.

"I think I'll be staying for a while," Sasuke said, just barely, "but I don't know for how long." He looked at Karin again, and there was a pained knowingness in her eyes. She nodded, slightly.

There was an explanation for this, for this "son" of hers. He knew it, he just knew it.

There had to be an explanation for this.

"Why don't you make us… something to eat anyways, Ooda? Something small, okay?" Karin said. "I'm not too hungry, though I haven't had much of a lunch yet."

Ooda's mouth dropped; even with bangs concealing them, Sasuke saw something like worry enter those awful eyes. "Mom, what have I told you, you have to eat."

In any other situation, Sasuke would have scoffed slightly - why would he worry about her not eating? - but not here. All he could do was watch, paralyzed as Ooda put his ice-white hand on Karin's stomach.

"You have to take care of yourself. Not just for you, but for the little one. Okay? Did you take your medicine either…?" Karin sighed in reply. "Mom…"

"I had three patients in a row come by, I had no time, okay?" she said. "But I took my medicine at least, goodness…"

"And you wonder why I never want to leave you alone…" Ooda sighed, shaking his head, and he stood up. He was very tall. "Well, I'll make you something. Is there anything you'd like to eat, Uchiha-san?"

"…no," Sasuke managed to reply.

"Then, I'll see what I can do." He smiled, so naturally, but it looked like it had been carefully learned, to Sasuke. He couldn't see such a warm thing on such a face as being anything else.

"We'll be in the living room, okay?" Karin announced, and started getting out of her chair. Ooda helped her stand, and supported her as she got her balance back. "Ooda, honestly! I'm fine." He set his mouth sideways in reply and went to set his plastic bag on the counter, and began taking things out of it. "Come on, Sasuke, this way," Karin said. She sounded very, very tired.

Sasuke followed, starving for answers, his chest burning with rekindled anger.

He had no idea how any of this was possible.

But Karin had to know.