INTERMISSION
HER BOYS
Chapter 74 - Aventurine Ox
Suigetsu's arm was broken. His whole body was, really. He didn't know how the fuck it had happened, but the fact was that it had started with his damn arm refusing to solidify and dripping all over the damn place and now it was spreading and he was constantly exhausted and he was starting to panic.
He'd gone to other doctors, yes. But they had no idea what was wrong with him. And in the meantime, yeah, it was getting worse. His skin hadn't been opaque in days. It was becoming harder and harder each time he tried to reform his body from a liquid state. He was getting scared.
He considered going back to the Mist. But then he remembered why he had left in the first place and besides what good would they do for him anyways.
Even the rural doctors, the ones he thought could help most, the ones with the least corruption, had no idea how to treat a Hozuki.
That was the problem, really. His was a disease that was unique to his family, to his blood. Normal people didn't involuntarily begin melting from the arm inward all of a sudden.
Nobody else knew what the hell.
…which was the only reason why he was going to talk to that fucking knuckle-bitch, Karin.
She had experimented on him with Orochimaru. Maybe she'd learned something in the process.
He sure as fuck hoped so. It was becoming difficult to travel and not attract stares, much less get anywhere without having to stop and rest every few minutes. Before, he'd been able to wrap his arm in a cloak when it was the only thing that was messed up, but no longer.
It had been easy enough to find her. Certain folks—folks with bloodlines, runaways, people like him—pointed him in the right direction. If you were sick, and you did not want them to find you, you could always count on her.
What hadn't been easy was figuring out how to approach her. He didn't want to cause a ruckus or make her panic or nothing because that would lessen his chances of getting her to cooperate. And he really wanted for her to cooperate.
He ended up waiting. A bit. Watching and seeing who was going in and coming out of her clinic. Even though he was assured that she wouldn't turn him away because she hardly turned anyone away but still, she knew him. They had, well. A past with each other.
But when a few hours went by in the evening with no visitors, he lurched across the street from his hiding place and dared open her door.
The house felt empty. So he wandered further in, with wet footprints. "Karin! Karin, where… where are you?"
She appeared around the corner of a hallway. "I sensed you were here hours ago. What did-" And she finally saw him. "…holy shit, what's the matter with you?"
And he finally saw her. She'd gained weight, and in any other instance he would have both ridiculed her for it and privately admired how it had… enhanced certain assets of hers, but now was very much not the time.
"I'm sick, I don't know what's wrong, help me," he said.
"Well that's—apparent, what happened, though?" she continued, leaning back on one foot. She was wearing pants, now, and not stockings. It was autumn.
"I was—fighting some guy, he did something to my arm, it's spreading and it's an effort to even keep myself this solid now. I know you can help, so help."
"What makes you think I can help?" she said. Her arms were crossed, but her voice was more concerned than mocking.
"I just—I was told you can help and I know it's more than just talk so just fucking do something!" He was halfway to his knees, supporting his weight with a cloak turned half to water that draped itself onto her floor.
And Karin said nothing more but "Fine, come with me."
(Wanting to complain about the water he was tracking on the floor, but knowing it was very much not the time.)
She led him down the hallway to an examination room, and gestured to the table beyond. "Go ahead and sit down, okay. Are you in pain?"
"No."
"Well, all right. No need to be so rude…" She sighed. "Let me get a look at you."
It didn't help much. "I can't decide if this is physical or psychological, okay," she said, in conclusion. "You said this started with your arm, after a battle?"
"Yes."
"Was there anything particularly different about this battle? The way you fought?"
"Fucker had some sorta thing with his fingers, I don't know, he hit my arm and it couldn't reform after that. Had to run off."
She sighed, again. "Might be psychological."
"There's nothing wrong with my head, it's my body."
She looked over her glasses at him. "Well, we'll see." She turned to leave.
He tried to reach out to her, but his reach was too short. His arm threw water across the floor. "Please tell me you can fix this. Please."
"…I'll try," she said. "Just… rest up, okay. I'm going to get whatever notes were made on you and see if I can figure something out."
Ah, and there it was. He took his arm back. "Hope it's worth it."
Halfway through the door, she turned around. "Excuse me?"
"All that—shit you did to me in the past. Guess it might be worth something now."
"…well I assure you, I won't do more than is necessary, okay," Karin said, and left.
Suigetsu flopped down on the table, his hair making a small puddle beneath his face.
Well, it was better than nothing.
Karin came back later with broth and water on a tray. "I remember you didn't like solid food much. You must be hungry, okay."
He'd fallen asleep without much realizing it. He felt far more half-formed than usual. "Huh."
"Well you didn't say anything but I figured you're going to be here for a while, okay," she said. "You gonna eat it or what?"
"Here a while…?" He managed to sit up using his one good arm. "Y'mean you haven't figured out what's wrong with me?"
She rolled her eyes. "Well of course I haven't. I've got an idea but I can't be sure until I do more research, okay?"
"Fine. Gimme that… soup or whatever, then, I'm hungry."
"Finally you say it." She put the tray down next to him. "Here. Sorry, it's not much."
He grumbled, even though he didn't care what the hell it was. He went for the broth first.
"…so what have you been up to, anyways?" she asked. "Obviously, you've been getting into some fights."
Suigetsu finished swallowing and put the bowl down to wipe his mouth off. "None of your business. I've been here and there. Why do you care, anyways?"
"Just… curious, okay."
"Sure." He picked up the soup and took another, long swig. The bowl was almost empty when he was done. "Nice clinic. Heard a lot of good things about it."
"From whom?"
"From people. You know. People like me. You have to know everything?" He reached for the water.
"It's just nice to know things, okay."
"Sure." He drained the water in one go. "How long can you keep me?"
"Long as it takes," she replied. "I can get you a nicer room if you want, you know. I guess I should have thought of it sooner."
"Whatever," Suigetsu said. "Just as long as you fix me."
"I will."
She crossed her arms over her stomach, and he tried not to stare at the emphasis it lent to her breasts and hips, taking the rest of the soup and gulping it down.
"C'mon, this way." She took the tray for him, and didn't look back over her shoulder as she led him, though he walked slowly. "Upstairs. If you're going to stay for long then you're going to have to promise me you won't go snooping around, okay? If you move anything, I'll know. Plus I have patients, you can't go bothering them."
"Calm down, I'm not gonna mess with your shit," Suigetsu replied. They began up the stairs. "Anything else I can't do?"
"Well try not to drip everywhere if you can't help it, okay," she said. "I mean, I understand that you're kind of not capable right now, but once you're recovered?"
"Sure, whatever."
She brought him to a plain room with tatami flooring, and got a futon out of a sliding-door closet on one wall. "You think you're gonna get the blankets wet?" she asked, laying it down, with some difficulty in bending over.
"…I might," Suigetsu said. "I mean, you could probably get me like a washtub or something."
A half-serious twitch of the eyebrows. "A washtub?"
"Well yeah, like… well I can just dissolve and sleep in it or something. Dunno how good of an idea it'd be, though, since I have no idea how well I'll reform later…"
And Karin said, "I'll… put some plastic down, I don't want you dripping everywhere, okay?" There was something like impatience, or gentleness in her voice.
Two days' worth of lethargic hours passed under those sheets, on the plastic, with Karin examining him in the morning and evening, after bringing him his meals.
Suigetsu did not like being in her house. The stretches of time in between her examinations were boring and uncomfortable, the nights especially, though he was too tired to leave and explore, find something to preoccupy himself. During the day he at least had the quiet chatter of her interactions with her patients to listen to, but all that existed at night was the wind, and the occasional, strange wail in the distance, like a child crying.
He'd have left if he could, but he had other things to consider.
She did manage to pinpoint the cause of the incontinence by the end of the second day. "It's an issue with your nervous system, okay," she explained.
"But I'm not nervous about anything. Just if this is gonna be permanent or not," Suigetsu replied.
She adjusted her glasses, smirking instead of laughing. "What probably happened in that skirmish of yours was that some pressure points got hit that messed with your ability to re-form. I'll work at finding the ones I need to press in order to restore control, okay?"
"Fine, whatever, awesome," Suigetsu replied. "Just fix me."
"I will," she replied.
And on the third day, she did. Through charts made when he was younger—and she told him this—she poked and prodded him in areas on his neck with her fingers, and gently clicked her tongue with each flinch.
"I'm honestly not hurting you that badly, am I?" she said. "Besides, Sensei used needles when he was originally charting your nerves and chakra points, so I'm being gentle in comparison."
And Suigetsu remembered those days, oh, those days, when his most merciful captor laid him on his stomach and held him there with leather straps, and dug into his skin with chakra-infused needles.
"If you melt into water, dear, it'll only take longer," he had purred.
…ugh, those days. Karin was being gentle.
And successful, evidently. By the end of it, his skin had regained its color, and he could feel more than just the phantom of his left arm; if he concentrated, he could form the outline of a shoulder, but very little further.
"Shit, there's not enough of me left," he concluded. "Can I, like, take a bath or something? Just get some water in me to help."
"Whatever you need," Karin said. "You know where it is. Just don't drip if you can, okay?"
"I won't."
The bath, hours-long and eventually quite cold, helped. A lot. And in the evening, when Karin brought him his soup and water, there was a discussion of payment.
"You will owe me, okay," she said. "I get that you don't keep much money on you but I will expect for you to come back."
"That's… fair," Suigetsu replied.
"I don't charge much anyways, okay," she added. "All you got from me was my time and a room in my house. That's not much."
"Not much?"
"Why are you acting like you're surprised?"
Suigetsu shrugged. "Seems generous for you. All of this."
She rolled her eyes. "Well some of us have actually matured over the years, Suigetsu," she replied. "I know now that it's not exactly a bad thing to look out for others, okay."
"Like Sasuke?"
Her expression turned very, very cold. "Why I helped him is not the same as why I'm helping you."
"Good to know you don't just want to get into my pants, then," Suigetsu said, dryly, not even quarter-meaning it.
Karin, blessedly, seemed to have gotten the sarcasm. Mostly. "I can make you leave any damn time I want, you know, okay?"
Why the hell was she so intimidating sometimes? "Okay, okay! I'm just sayin'! That guy wasn't worth helping anyways, I think." He shrugged again. "I mean, he did set me free and all, but all that shit afterward was way too much trouble."
"Yes," Karin said, "it was a fair bit of trouble."
He reached for his soup in the prickly silence that resulted. "Y'know," he said, after another gulp, "I hear he's married with a kid now."
"Oh, really," Karin said.
A third shrug. "I 'unno, just what I've heard."
"Well," Karin said, with a very slight smile, "good for him."
…fuck uncomfortable silences. Suigetsu put down his soup bowl far too loudly. "Look, I'll stay here another night or two to make sure I'm fixed for good, and then I'll go out and I'll get you your money, okay?"
"Sounds good." Karin picked up the tray and got up, stiffly, moving from the knees. "This doesn't work, there's always more we could try."
"Sure as fuck hope not," Suigetsu replied.
Getting the money would have been easy, anyways. He did mercenary work where he could. He could rely on his sword—though he'd left it behind in a safe place before seeking out Karin. Guaranteed way to attract attention, that sword. Wonderful as it was. He didn't need it here.
Point was, there was always a way to get money. And he comforted himself with this thought as he was falling asleep beneath blankets that were, for the first damn time in ages, warm and dry, as opposed to warm and wet. It was September or so. Things were starting to get cold, and he appreciated a good bit of warmth where he could find it.
And then he woke up with little fingers on his cheeks, and he found a very small, white face staring back at his, with great, golden, familiar eyes.
It caused him to spring back a fair bit in his bed, liquefying slightly in defense, and his eyes adjusted to the rest of the darkness.
The small, white thing was human-shaped and knock-kneed, wearing pants and a t-shirt that seemed just a bit too large. A child, with black hair and oh shit what was with that face?
Suigetsu didn't know whether to run or attack. Instinct told him to attack, so he did, springing forward to tackle the thing.
The child, however, was fast. And loud. "MAAA!" it cried, stumble-running, arms thrust out in front of it as it scrambled for the hallway.
Suigetsu, of course, followed.
"Maa, Maa!" the child continued, heading for the stairs, descending them by heading backward and climbing down them one at a time. Far too slowly.
Suigetsu would have grabbed it had Karin not appeared and scooped it up immediately into her arms. The child clung to her neck, babbling into her shoulder.
"Karin, what the hell!" Suigetsu said.
Karin, however, said nothing to him, mumbling things to the child instead. Her glasses were slightly askew.
"Be quiet," she said. "Oh, no, you scared him…"
"Quiet? How the hell can I—Karin, who the hell is that kid?"
The kid was still crying, and Karin finally put some effort into comforting it. "Shh, Ooda, Ooda, darling, be quiet…"
"Ooda? Is that its name?"
"Yes," Karin said, looking back at him again. "Go to the kitchen, I'm going to put him back to bed and then talk to you. Okay?"
"Okay. Okay, okay."
Suigetsu tried not to notice when the child in her arms, wiping its face with young clumsiness, glanced back at him again with golden fear in its eyes.
That kid looked way too familiar.
The wait in that kitchen was worse than all the nights spent alone, either in her house or outside. And when she finally resurfaced, he wasted no time in getting right to it. "So, Karin, the fuck is up with that kid? Where'd it come from?"
"He probably… was wandering around in the house, I told him not to, okay," Karin said. She was wearing a long sleeved shirt, a baggy one, and it hung over her body and made her look far smaller than she really was.
"No, no, who is he, Karin? Come on, I don't care what the fuck about your house or—come on."
"His name is Ooda," Karin said, evenly, "and he is my son."
"Your son. Right. Who the hell did you have to fuck to make a kid like that?"
She sighed, shaking her head. "I didn't fuck anyone, okay? He's a clone."
"…a what."
"A clone, you dimwit. I took a sample of Orochimaru-sama's tissue and cultured it into a biological copy of him. A clone. And Ooda," she added, proudly, "is the result. My son, okay."
"…why the fuck would you do something like that?"
"Well I needed someone's cells to act as the control, and I didn't feel like cloning myself," she replied, as if any other answer would be foolish.
"No no no, why the fuck would you bring back—that guy?" A greater issue shoved this out of the way shortly afterward. "Actually, WHY in the ACTUAL FUCK would you do this clone thing in the FIRST place?"
Karin sighed again, shaking her head. "Well you're taking this about as well as I figured you would."
"You've been experimenting on people, haven't you, you sick bitch?" Suigetsu lurched forward with an accusing finger. "Oh I should have fucking known you'd just continue on where he left off."
Karin pushed it aside. "Please. I have standards, okay? I've only been using myself in experiments. No outside test subjects."
Suigetsu paused, his face twisted in perplexed disgust. "…wait, what do you mean."
"When I said that Ooda's my son I kind of mean it literally, okay. I've actually got another one in the works right now, though that's kind of a secret."
He could only stare at her slightly-swollen belly, and her hand on it, for a flash-moment, before taking one step back, and then another, an uncomfortable horrible feeling creeping into his stomach.
(The sort of feeling that always came when Kabuto would approach the tank, adjust his glasses, and say they needed to make some observations that day.)
"Oh. Ew. That's just. That's. EW. What the fuck is WRONG with you?"
"Nothing, I'm just being practical, okay," Karin said.
He was pressed against the counter, now, as far away from her as he could manage. "Why would you make TWO of them! ONE WAS FUCKING ENOUGH!"
"What do you—oh, oh, no, Ooda is one-of-a-kind. I used someone else as a donor for this one, okay." She was rubbing her stomach in very subtle movements, now, and it only served to increase the squirming in Suigetsu's own guts.
"What the fuck is wrong with you," he said again, softly. "Bringing people back or—making clones or whatever. You fucking brought Orochimaru back!"
"Only genetically, okay. Goodness, will you settle down for a moment?"
He shook his head. "No-o, no, no, I'm, fuck, you're sick, do you realize what you've DONE?"
"Well, of course."
"I can't—what the fuck?"
She rolled her eyes, moving toward him. "You know, you're really not doing anyone any favors with this behavior, okay," she said. "Honestly, there's nothing to be freaked out about."
He tried not to let his laughter sound as disturbed as he felt. "You're—you're joking, right? You're bringing people back from the dead as your—demonic clone children! I have every fucking right to be freaked out!"
"I'm not bringing people back from the-"
"No! No, you just. Stop." He had his finger raised again. "I'm not gonna listen to another word, I'm getting the fuck out of here, thank you."
Yet another sigh. "Oh for pity's sake."
"No, seriously! I'm not gonna let that little—snake freak get his hands on me again! And that includes you!" He began forward.
"Suigetsu, Ooda's not even two. He's harmless, okay." Karin was almost laughing. "He's just a little curious, is all. He likes to wander at night."
Suigetsu stopped, sneering at her. "How the fuck can you say things like that?"
"Because there's nothing wrong with him, okay?"
He shook his head. "No, no, you—fuck. I'm getting out of here. I am seriously getting out of here." He left the kitchen. "AND DON'T BE FUCKING SURPRISED IF THEY COME TO TAKE YOU AWAY AFTER THIS, YOU KNOW!"
"The hell are you talking about?" she called back.
"Like I'm going to stay silent about this! You're just another Kabuto!" He reached for the door. "I hope they put you away and kill your little freak experiments too, you madwoman!"
It was shocking how quickly she caught up with him, with a hand on his shoulder swarming with paralyzing chakra, fingers in very specific areas. It felt like his back had turned to ice. "Stop. Who in the world would you tell, first off?"
Fucking bitch! "Well I'm sure that our friends back in Konoha would love to hear about this little operation of yours," he replied, unable to even squirm.
"Well I do plan on going to them eventually, to go public with my research," she said. "That is, once I manage to produce a viable Uchiha clone. So good luck going to them, okay, it wouldn't do you much good."
Suigetsu's eyebrows couldn't possibly have pressed together further, his mouth gaping. "…are you fucking serious?"
"Well, yeah."
"But you brought Orochimaru back from the fucking dead! I mean first and foremost!"
"Ooda is not Orochimaru. He's just a clone of him, okay?"
"Like that's going to make a fucking difference. Same face, same body, same person. That thing should be destroyed, and they will destroy it! And your little freak in the making, too, whatever it is!"
Karin's grip intensified. "And what makes you so sure?"
"What, you're honestly asking me?" he replied. "Fine, let me go and talk to them, then you'll see how well they'll take it. I swear, I honestly swear, they're gonna agree with me, you're just following in your dear Sensei's footsteps. And that'll get in the way of making your little Uchiha clone, won't it?"
Karin, he had noticed, had lost her veneer of confidence and was now very visibly upset. The hand that wasn't clamped to his shoulder was wrapped over her belly. "You wouldn't."
"Oh, I would. And y'know what? There's nothing you can do to stop me." She couldn't keep her hand on him forever, after all.
"You wouldn't…!" Her voice was shaking, now. "They wouldn't—I'm not hurting anyone, okay? I'm only using myself!"
"Like that makes a difference."
"I've made a breakthrough!"
"Yeah? And so did he. A lot of times. But those weren't always the best discoveries, were they?"
She was almost gasping for breath, now, her shoulders heaving up and down. "But I've done nothing wrong, okay…? And Ooda, he's—but he's only a child!"
"Freak of nature, if you ask me. He shouldn't exist."
With that, Karin adjusted her hand only slightly, in order to shove him into the wall. And no, she did not let him liquefy to soften the blow. "I won't let that happen."
The pain mixed with his disturbance and frustration and sublimated into sarcastic confidence. It was almost like he was leeching it out of her, the more she held him. "Oh, please. What can you do? You're just a sensor nin and wannabe scientist, and you're knocked-up to boot. You're dead."
And Karin shoved harder. And he noticed there were tears in the corner of her eyes. "I won't let them hurt my son. I won't let you."
"What, so you're going to kill me?" he said. "Keep me from spreading the word? Delaying the inevitable? Because if you're really going to go public with this, it's not going to be that much better. Trust me on this, sweetheart."
It took her a terrifyingly long time to respond.
(She knew how to put him back together, so there were doubtlessly countless ways for her to take him apart.)
(One touch from her hand had turned his back into stiff ice and there was nothing he could do about it.)
"…anything you want, I'll do," she finally said. "Just don't tell anyone."
"…what did you say?"
"You want me to augment your body, make you stronger? I can do that, okay." There was a frenzied passion in her voice, now. "Or I can… I can clone someone for you. Bring someone back. Anyone you want. I have the means, okay? Anything."
And that.
Something in that request.
Tripped his mind.
"Anyone, huh?"
"Anything within my means, obviously." She spoke very quickly. "Come on, surely there's something I can do for you? Please, you just—I can't let this happen."
And he narrowed his eyes and smiled, slightly. "This clone thing of yours can really bring anyone back?"
"…sure. I mean, given that I have a viable genetic sample, okay. Hypothetically I—just, okay, who do you want me to clone?"
It did not take him long to answer. At all.
"I want my brother Mangetsu back."
She blinked a few times. "Your… brother?"
"Yeah. My brother. You said anyone, right? I want my brother. I mean, if you're up for it."
"I am up for it, okay? Fine. I'll secure the samples, and after… this one's born, I can get to work on it."
"What, and that's it?"
"That's it."
"No questions?"
"I don't think I'm in much of a position to ask why you want a clone of your brother, so yeah, no questions, okay?"
(Why did he feel so excited?)
"Well… awesome. Now can you let go of me?"
She leaned forward. And she was very heavy. "I want your word that you aren't going to say a thing about this."
"Fine, you have my word."
She leaned forward further. "Don't screw around with me, okay? You aren't gonna say anything."
She was very heavy and her eyes were very hard.
"…fine, I promise."
"Good."
And she leaned forward and pressed her mouth against his, and bit him on the tongue.
It hurt.
Luckily, she had let go of his shoulder in time for him to jerk away and clap his hand over his mouth. "OW! The FUCK was that for?"
"A seal. To make sure." Karin was wiping off her mouth, getting her balance back.
"A WHAT?"
"A seal. You are now incapable of saying my name, Orochimaru's name, Ooda's name, or any other word related to the creation of my clones." A thin smile had returned to her face. "That is, if you don't want to suffer from excruciating pain, okay."
"You little bitch!" He managed to remove himself from the wall. His back felt mercifully fluid.
"What, you honestly think I can trust your word alone?" she said. "I'm not going to take any chances."
He ran his tongue against the sharp edges of his teeth, as if he could scrape the seal off, but it was a useless motion. "You really are just as bad as he was. Him and his curse seals and everything..."
"No, I'm not," Karin said. "Didn't I offer you something before doing this? You're getting a clone of your brother out of this, okay."
(Though, truthfully, it was also a stalling tactic. While she was stammering and pleading with him with genuine fear, her brain was tumbling around with keywords and mental blocks, and her mouth was burning with preparatory chakra.)
(She wouldn't have let the little shit go unmarked. This was a new fear and Karin was a quick thinker.)
(And she would rather die than let anything happen to her precious child. Either of them.)
"Besides," she added, almost in consolation, "I'll take the seal off when this is all over. Or I feel I can trust you. Whichever comes first, okay."
"Fine. Whatever," Suigetsu said.
Karin shook her head. "Listen, you should go back to sleep. We can… talk this over in the morning. When we're both more level-headed. Make a contract or something, okay?"
"Fine, whatever the fuck you want," he replied. He slouched down the hallway and around the corner, toward the stairs. "But you made me a promise."
And Karin sighed, returning to her own bedroom. She didn't get much sleep.
(Wondering just what sort of bullet she had dodged, here, exactly.)
(And seriously, seriously wondering if he was right about how people would receive her work.)
(…was she really only kidding herself when she thought that people would shower her with praise for these discoveries?)
(Would they really want to… kill her dear Ooda just on account of his origin…?)
(…was she really no better than Orochimaru?)
Suigetsu's thoughts were fairly clear as he nestled back in for sleep.
He tried not to think about the specifics of Karin's work. Doubtless it was twisted and messed up and an affront to nature. Apples never fell far from the trees, as they said.
Besides, like he wanted to know how she had impregnated herself with little copies of Orochimaru. Ugh.
He didn't try to think of the seal, either.
(He had tried to say her name, experimentally, and found himself nursing an awful headache a moment later. It was like she was punching him in the face in spirit, and he couldn't even liquefy his head in defense. Fucking fist-bitch.)
What he tried to think about was the promise she'd made him.
That she'd bring Mangetsu back.
…what would that be like?
It was a question he couldn't answer with words, only with an anxious and indefinable lightness in his chest, and ended up falling asleep as he thought it over.
They discussed things further over breakfast the next morning. Karin shared that she'd fed Ooda first, and had set him aside in his room in the basement.
"It's not a secret that he's my son in the village here, okay," she said. "You were just ill and I figured it'd be better if he didn't bother you. I mean, he loves poking around and watching me with other patients, but your case was pretty severe."
"Sure," Suigetsu said, with a hand-wave that called for a change in subject.
So she got right to the specifics. "Orochimaru had your brother's corpse in his possession, and as such, I have many samples from him in my library that I can use to form cultures from. It should be simple, in application."
"And you're just gonna jump to it after… this one?" Suigetsu said.
"Well… no, I waited a half a year after Ooda before starting on the next one and I don't think I'll make an exception for your clone."
"Sure." He crossed his arms. "What the hell are you gonna do with that second one, anyways? Whatever the hell it is."
"Well, I was planning on keeping it…" Karin said.
"What, and it's not gonna be a distraction?" Suigetsu said, roughly. "I dunno about you, but juggling two kids is hard fucking work."
"And you're speaking from experience?" Karin said.
He looked away from her. "I'm just saying. I don't want you distracted by babies when you could be working on bringing my brother back. Besides, the village people know you're expecting at all?"
"…well, no, I mean I'm barely showing but-"
"Well you don't want people saying shit about you and figuring out what's really going on, do you? I mean, come on, someone's gonna notice all these kids."
She didn't answer, lowering her head and tightening her expression.
"For fuck's sake, you didn't think this through much, did you?" Suigetsu said.
"Shut up," she replied.
"I'm just sayin'." He raised his arms and shrugged. "Y'know, honestly, I'm beginning to think that comparing you to Orochimaru was giving you too much cred—OWWWW SHIT. SHIT. OW."
Karin didn't even try to cover up her smile as he clawed at his temples. "Well if you have any suggestions I'm more than receptive to them," she said. "Maybe you can be the one to keep all these babies out of my way."
"No fucking chance," Suigetsu said, with one eye still closed. "I'm not good with kids."
"Then what were you expecting to do with your brother's clone?" she said. "You know he's not going to be born fully-formed or anything, okay. He'll be an infant."
"I'll… figure that out when we get there," Suigetsu said. "Hey, you can take care of him 'til he's grown up, can't you?"
"Not a chance," she laughed, in echo. "Your clone, your responsibility."
"Well I'm not gonna take care of the others! Maybe you should just give that second one to someone in town to raise, I don't know."
"I couldn't do that to someone in town," Karin said, shaking her head, a hand over her navel. She was sitting cross-legged. "Too close to home. Besides, if… having all these children will really attract attention as much as you say it will then it wouldn't help much at all, okay."
"Then what the hell? I'm thinking maybe you should just drop the damn kid on a doorstep in some other town, then."
"But then how would I know if it was okay…?"
The genuine concern in her voice snagged him. "…well, shit, I could always check in on it," Suigetsu said, with a thoughtfulness in his tone that surprised even him. "That'd be, like, no effort. Give it to someone else, I check in every now and then, just whatever."
"…you know, it really makes me think there's something wrong with me when you start making sense, okay," she said, and sighed. "I'll… keep it in mind, but for now, I plan on keeping this one until further notice."
"Well don't say I didn't warn you. You should be more careful with that—other kid of yours," Suigetsu continued, quietly, carefully, remembering the taboo of the name. "I mean, if someone else saw him."
"…this is a small town, a good town. Nobody knows anything. It's why I chose it. But… okay." Karin cleared her throat. "At any rate. You can leave from here but I expect you to come back in at least a half a year. All right? Maybe I will need someone to… drop this second one off. Somewhere. I have to think about it, okay?"
"Wait, so you're just gonna let me go?" He narrowed his face suspiciously.
"…well, yeah, I mean how else are you going to pay me?"
His face narrowed further. "But you're doing this—thing for me."
"Separate accounts," she replied, almost sweetly. "But yes, you're about as much a hindrance to me as these toddling infants you speak of. You're better off out of my hair, okay?"
"…you are such a bitch," Suigetsu said.
She just smiled back at him. "Come back with my money or you're not getting your clone, okay?"
"Fuck off."
Suigetsu left shortly afterward.
He didn't return for a half a year.