"Here, this one is for you!" Suigetsu hands his old companion Karin a fragrant jasmine blossom tea and tries to put on his most charming smile as someone from Kirigakure can only be.
Surprised that he has organized her favorite tea, Karin accepts the gift with surprise.
Embarrassed, she says, "Thanks..." like she did when she was around her beloved crush Sasuke, and she rarely thinks about him anymore.
Their relationship has improved over the past two and a half years since the Goose Mission where they reunited with Sarada and Mitsuki and met the 7th Hokage's son, Boruto. She wonders how the trio are doing and hasn't heard from them in a while.
Karin still can't believe Suigetsu has such a nice side and she sips the hot tea. Dreamily she looks at him over the cup and hides a smile behind the cup.
"You know. It's summer and it's the Lantern Festival in Konoha this weekend and I wanted to ask you...um...", Suigetsu scratches the back of his head in embarrassment, "... well, if we don't, just the two of us together on a ...", he searches for the right words, "if you want to go on a private mission?"
Suigetsu starts sweating from nervousness.
Karin is amused at his insecure manner, "Oh, is it an invitation?" and she blushes at the thought and smiles sweetly at him.
"Something like that!", and he can only stare at her smile and is happy that this smile is only for him this time. He has interest in her for many years and also has serious feelings for Karin for the past two years. But never had chances with her , because she had been in love with his former teammate Sasuke for a long, long time and grieved after him when he married his childhood friend Sakura and got a daughter together.
Their joint conversation comes to an end when the alarm sounds discreetly through the monitoring unit.
Annoyed, Suigetsu searches the monitors to find the troublemaker: "Oh man! Is it Yamato again? I'm telling you, it's starting to get annoying that he keeps raising the alarm with his jōnins..."
"Sasuke?" and he hears Karin drop the tea mug. Fragrant Yasmin tea runs over one of the keyboards.
"You better watch out! You cause a short circuit it and I don't want to be affected by it and besides, I don't think he'll pay us a visit," says Suigetsu, a bit irritated and worried about Karin's reaction.
"And Log ..." Orochimaru announces quietly behind them.
His former subordinate and former prisoner, and now more of a staff member, look over at him in surprise.
"You two should have paid more attention to what's happening in Konoha this day. Then you both would already know, what happened" ,he says coolly.
"Suigetsu, Karin! Prepare everything for two procedures. It's about Mitsuki and Sasuke's daughter Sarada. Both are in mortal danger. Suigetsu! You help me with Mitsuki and Karin, you have to help Sarada. She must not die under any circumstances. I don't need an Uchiha adult , who is freaking out with grief here!" With that, Orochimaru gives his order, which both must follow. Concerned about the situation, Suigetsu and Karin exchange glances and separate again.
It doesn't take long either, and Sasuke bursts in with his daughter in his arms. Weakly, the young girl can only cling to her father's neck.
What happened to the poor thing?
Karin doesn't want to imagine the tragedy Sarada went through.
Karin helps her former comrade and crush to put his daughter on a stretcher.
Without paying any further attention to Sasuke, she begins examining Sarada.
The reason for her condition is obvious : An open gash in her left eye socket which is empty. Karin only notices a weak chakra flow, which is already centered and now only supplies vital organs. Her condition is alarming.
Without hesitation, Karin takes one of her tools and seeks out one of her veins and connects herself to Sarada with a tube. Sarada urgently needs Karin's chakra to strengthen her self-healing powers. When that's done, she connects Sarada to monitors, which monitor Sarada's breathing, heart rate, encephalo work and temperature.
Concerned, she looks at the medical monitors and sees how Sarada's condition remains at least stable and isn't getting worse now. But she's not over the hill.
Important blood vessels and nerves around Sarada's eye socket are injured. At worst, Sarada's brain has been damaged.
"Mom, Dad..., Kawa..." she whimpers weakly.
Karin is relieved that Sarada's consciousness is still there, which is a good sign.
Sasuke looks worriedly at Sarada with his only functioning eye socket, which is outlined in dark.
Without asking him what happened, her father begins to explain:
"I found her badly injured with one of her teammates. He clung to her and wanted to protect her from me... She tried to say his name.
At the same time, Konoha was destroyed to its very foundations. Heck, it's just as bad as Ninja World War 4 against Madara and Obito. If not worse.
I had to take Sarada to her mother.
Sakura is..." Sasuke can't finish the last sentence. It would be like reality catching him up with what happened to his beloved wife.
Karin can imagine what happened to Sakura. The fact that Sakura is not with her daughter, although her life is in danger, is enough of a sign for her.
"Why did you send her to us and not to Lady Tsunade?" Karin asks him.
Sasuke shrugs, "You're right that Tsunade in medical jutsus would be a better choice for Sarada's condition.
But Tsunade has been out of Konoha since her retirement and is currently safely in Sunagakure. It would take 1 week for me to arrive with Sarada.
Time that Sarada doesn't have..."
Sasuke looks at Karin seriously, "Besides, Sarada already knows everyone here. She shows no fear even of Orochimaru."
As if on cue, Sasuke's former sinister master Orochimaru with a penchant for sadism and morbidity appears.
"I knew that you would only show up here if there was an important reason behind it. I don't need an explanation of what happened. I have already Mitsuki's memories analyzed," he looks worried for his standards, which seems odd. He sighs, "It doesn't look good for the boy. His body remained intact this time. But it seems that this time his soul has been damaged...
Suigetsu will now take over his surveillance and take care of his care according to my instructions..."
He looks down at Sarada, "Your daughter isn't in very good shape either, I see. Has she been in a fight? She wasn't with Mitsuki..."
Karin takes over the conversation, "Sasuke found her seriously injured along with one of her teammates. The cause of her injury is uncertain, but with the help of her mother's medical jutsu, she was able to survive the journey here. I'm stabilizing her chakra circuit now."
"Where is Sarada's mother Sakura?" Orochimaru asks Sasuke.
At the sound of her name, Sasuke felt a pang in his heart. Sakura's death is too recent to talk about.
He turns his gaze away from his former master, which is sign enough for Orochimaru.
"I've always told you that she's been your weak point ," he just says coolly and approaches the stretcher and inspects Sarada's eye socket,
" Losing her eye is a great loss for an Uchhiha. In addition, she is already weak for one of the strongest clans of ninja history and is next to the Uzomaki's and Hyuga's descendants of the Otsuki's...
What a tragic loss…" He smirks at Sasuke.
Triggered by this sarcastic remark, Sasuke lunges at his former master and throws him to the ground in anger, grabbing him by the neck and squeezing Orochimaru's throat with his remaining arm.
"Don't call the child of me and Sakura weak!...", Sasuke has activated his Mangekyo Sharingan out of hate and grief and he is so close to torching everything with his Amarterasu. The situation is very tense.
"Please Sasuke! It's all useless. Please keep calm. And Master Orochimaru, you better watch what you say!" Karin looks over at both opponents, concerned and angry at the same time.
Sasuke agrees and leaves Orochimaru in frustration. It's all useless.
It's about Sarada, not him or his suppressed feelings of his past.
"Still the old Sasuke..." Orochimaru chuckles amused at Sasuke's outburst of anger, but quickly regains control of himself, "However, Sarada's condition also has the possibility of a new beginning for her or an end for her."
He moves away from his former student to a shelf full of strange jars and pholia.
He takes one of the top jars with contents unknown to Sasuke, but giving Karin goosebumps.
"Orochimaru Sensei! You don't want to use his daughter as a guinea pig, do you?" Karin says, horrified.
Sasuke looks alarmedly at Karin, and then back at the jar.
" What's in there? Crazy old geezer?" he asks in disgust.
"Ts, ts, ts... Many have described me as crazy and twisted, but not old..." Orochimaru replies offended. He draws some of the unknown liquid into a syringe and walks towards the stretcher where Sarada is lying, still unconscious.
Karin points to the syringe, "These are cells from the 1st Hokage in there. Only a few were lucky enough to survive an operation with it. Known living examples include Captain Yamato and Captain Moegi. In the latter example, only a precise analysis and several tests, and it was her own decision," explains Karin Sasuke, "the cells are not safe..."
Sasuke shakes his head resolutely, "You're never going to inject my daughter with that stuff!"
Orochimaru puts the syringe back disappointed, "a pity. What a waste! You know, once removed from the vessel, I can no longer return the cells to the organic tissue and have to discard them."
Sasuke watches as the old man, who looks like an eccentric mix of woman and boy from the outside, puts the syringe down.
"Unfortunately, with your decision, your daughter and thus your bloodline will die out. Unless a woman would take such a grumpy and aging man..."
"What does this mean? Are you letting the poor girl die?" Karin shouts angrily.
"Don't interfere and just do your job!" replies her master, "he knows he has no other choice for his daughter. Tsunade is too far away from his daughter, Sarada would never survive the journey. Sasuke knows this and just needs some help with his decision."
Unfortunately, Orochimaru has all the arguments on his side and Sasuke definitely doesn't want Sakura's sacrifice to be in vain. Sarada is the only memory he has left of Sakura.
"I reluctantly consent to the procedure. I won't leave her side for a second though!" he tells Orochimaru menacingly.
"It's up to you. But your distrust offends me deeply," he replies mockingly and begins the life-threatening surgery...
"We need to strap your daughter to the stretcher. Her body will react immediately after the cell transplantation. It is for her own protection not to fall off the stretcher. Afterwards your beloved daughter dies from a bloody concussion and you certainly don't want that. Buckle her up. Karin has to keep her arm still so her chakra can flow into Sarada's circulation. I have to prepare myself," then he disappears.
Sasuke looks after his former master. He asks his former comrade skeptically, "Is he trustworthy?"
Karin looks at Sasuke thoughtfully and then replies, "He has no reason to lie to you and stir things up against you.
It's true. The operation is associated with very high risks. At the same time, it is a chance for your daughter to survive in this now devastated world."
Sasuke looks her straight in the eyes. Does she see a flicker of hope in his one remaining eye?
Who knows? And anyway? Actually, she shouldn't care any more than necessary. But when she saw him again for the first time after such a long time, it was almost like it was about 17 years ago when they were still working together in Team Taka.
"Moreover, it would be against all Konoha regulations, if he were to unleash a freaking Uchiha on Konoha," and makes a sarcastic remark.
Sasuke thinks about Karin's words for a moment and then starts to fix Sarada on the stretcher.
He carefully explains each step to his daughter, even though she is not conscious.
When he's done with that, Orochimaru appears in surgical clothes, surgical mask and surgical gloves.
"The procedure itself takes no more than 1 minute. The Hashirama cells do most of the work by themselves. As soon as the cells come into contact with Sarada's sensory cells and nerve tissue, they connect to her independently. At best, she'll survive with 100 percent vision recovered. In the worst case, she dies due to a rejection reaction. The reaction is immediate, should she survive the next few minutes she will fall into a deep convalescent sleep that can last up to 4 weeks and needs to be monitored," explains Orochimaru.
His explanation doesn't reassure Sasuke at all, but what choice does he have for Sarada?
And burying his daughter with Sakura is not an option for him.
Nodding, he agrees to Orochimaru, and his eccentric master immediately begins the treatment.
He again pulls out the syringe with the 1st Hokage's organic tissue, which looks nondescript except for the slightly milky looking consistency.
The experienced sensei carefully injects the liquid into Sarada's nerve tissue, which connects to her in a matter of seconds and grows into her.
The reaction of Sarada's body follows immediately. Her body tries to free herself from the stretcher with convulsive movements.
"She's having an epileptic seizure," says Karin, worried, watching Sarada's electronic encephalogram and all other monitoring units, "Pulse goes up, oxygen saturation goes down!"
Sasuke can't bear to see his girl writhing in pain like that. Screaming at a high frequency, Sarada tries to grab her affected eye socket with both hands.
"What are you doing there, Sasuke?! Help me hold your daughter! I need to inject her with a sedative," Orochimaru hisses at him impatiently, "Karin is busy monitoring her vital signs and stabilizing her chakra circuitry."
Sasuke hugs his daughter and says desperately to her, "Please my little peanut! You can do it, you've done everything you set out to do so far. Think about your dream of becoming the next Hokage in the future..."
Sauke thinks of all his daughter's wishes and dreams. He also thinks of a father-daughter conversation between the two, one week ago. The reason for this was that he had a sneaking suspicion that Sarada harbored feelings for Kawaki.
It was the first and only time they had such an intimate father-daughter conversation.
He still clearly remembers the words they exchanged with each other.
Sasuke started his conversation, "Sarada?"
Sarada answered him in her cheerful way like her mother : "What's the matter, papa? You are so serious."
Her father passed on a request to her and felt guilty about passing on his own dream to his daughter: "I want you to rebuild the Uchiha clan. I failed and made the mistake of taking the path of hatred in the past. If it wasn't for your loving mother, the Uchiha's would have died out.
Please, no matter what happens, weigh your actions with care and love. Don't let hate guide you, no matter how bad it gets for you..."
He looked at her gravely, and Sarada sensed what her father was getting at.
"But what about my dream of becoming Hokage in the future? Boruto said if I want to be Hokage, I have to stay single and give up family life!"
Sarada drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around her
That damn Boruto!, were Sasuke's thoughts, he himself was often with his former classmate Sumire outside of the missions and put this nonsense in Sarada's head.
His daughter looked at him questioningly and waited for his answer: "Dad?"
"Listen Sarada! You just need to find someone to help you achieve both. Someone, who cares for you and the village. I know that may sound difficult to you. But not everyone is like Boruto.
Just because I'm passing on my request to you. Doesn't mean you should give up your dream," he replied.
Sarada's cheeks turned a little red and she tried to hide them behind her knees.
"Kawaki?" she asked him shyly.
" Does he love you?" he asked her seriously.
She mumbled shyly in reply, "I don't know. He's so rough sometimes with what he says or how he says it, but he never lies and he's always there when I need help..." she then looked away in embarrassment.
Sasuke sighed in response at that. He knew this behavior of himself when he was young and if it wasn't worse.
"Listen, Sarada!" he answered her, "Boys are sometimes clumsy in what they say, they often speak through their actions. And don't let your failed sparring get you down..."
His daughter looked at him in surprise.
"I know everything what happened that day. Naruto told me everything...", her father laughed and ruffled his daughter's head, "you can't seriously believe, that Kawaki wanted to hurt you seriously in front of Naruto..."
That ended their conversation...
To Sasuke, this conversation seems like ages ago, although it happened a week ago.
He still holds her tight and cries for all the hurt that happened to her today. She suffered a lot of losses today. Her mother, her friends, last her homeland missed or wiped out in an instant. Sasuke sincerely hopes that her Uchiha genes won't set her down the wrong path.
After what felt like an eternity, her body slowly calmed down. Vital signs and encephalogram no longer give alarms and document normal values.
"Congratulations, Sasuke. Your daughter is the 3rd documented case, who has survived a contamination with cells from the 1st," Orochimaru says calmly, observing the data.
With this answer, Sasuke's collar bursts and he roughly grabs the surgical scrubs, roughly pushes him against the next wall and lifts him up with one arm.
"Repeat the words again, old sack! Don't tell me the surgery was so dangerous..." Sasuke growls angrily.
To Orochimaru's rescue, Suigetsu comes through the door and sees the chaotic conditions
"Are you finished you two?" he says dryly, "Mitsuki needs help, Orochimaru..."
Only Suigetsu, as usual, dares to address Orochimaru only by his name without any rank.
"How I would like to continue our loving conversation, Sasuke. But you understand, I'm needed elsewhere," his former master giggles maliciously.
Sasuke reluctantly lets go of him and turns back to his daughter
This separates the paths of the hated master and former student. Karin watches them in disbelieve.