Karin draws shapes in the condensation that's formed around her glass of water. After about an hour of sitting in the hospital cafe, drumming her fingers on the table and glaring viciously at the ceiling, one of the young teens working the lunch counter had brought it over to her.

He'd tried to strike up a conversation, asking gentle, non-probing questions about whoever it was she was waiting for, before her blunt stare and pursed lips chased him off.

He still sneaks glances at her every now and again in between orders, like some kind of pervert. If this wasn't Sakura's hospital, she'd have half a mind to do something about that.

There's a good amount of traffic as she waits, though no one she recognizes. Most are shinobi, still dressed in their training uniforms, covered in some mixture of dirt, blood, or ash.

Very few of them come alone, keeping company with other shinobi while they wait for their other companions to be released, laughing and jeering as they kill time.

The casualness of it pisses her off. Not only because it's boring - a few serious injuries would at least be entertaining - but because it reeks of a special kind of arrogance. The shinobi flirting with the receptionist have an impossible kind of levity to them, like the most serious injury anyone's ever suffered in Konoha is a broken bone or a few cuts and bruises.

Still, that isn't exactly the truth. Even in Konoha, a hospital is a hospital.

Even in the cafeteria, with the injured out of sight, the air reeks of acrid and sick chakra, a miasma of overripe, rotting signatures from the dead and dying, and the burned scent of the mednin's chakra.

Karin hunches further over the table, resting her chin in the sleeve of her shirt to mask the smell. She'd been hungry before, but being in the hospital as long as she has completely destroyed her appetite. If she'd been smart, she would have tagged along with Naruto and Sasuke when she'd seen him, and followed them around until they eventually had gotten something to eat.

Naruto and his friend probably would have paid for her too, gullible idiots that they were.

Sasuke obviously hadn't wanted her around, but who was he to tell her no? Not everything in her life is about him…

Just most things, but that's a matter of strict coincidence.

It isn't like they were doing anything important, either—just dumb missions, the type genin and even their Academy students should have been able to complete. There was no reason why Karin—though technically still a genin—couldn't have joined them, even if she wasn't an actual Konoha-nin. She might have even helped them, if she felt like it.

For fuck's sake, until very recently, Sasuke was a Konoha missing nin, which should have been a way bigger deal than her defecting to Konoha, something that probably happened all the time with shinobi like her, who came from shithole villages to start with.

Her stomach grumbles, and Karin pulls the now-empty glass of water closer to her, unwilling to give the guy at the lunch counter another chance to come on to her.

She scowls. Nothing to do but waste her time and starve. Stupid Sasuke, stupid Naruto, stupid fucking—whatever the other guy's name was.

She hates them, hates their stupid fucking around, their aimless errands, their harmless, friendly jokes with one another.

She hates their camaraderie, their hidden history, their stupid secrets, their—

"Karin, you're here!"

Karin jerks up, her spine straightening at the sound of Sakura's voice. She blinks, only to find Sakura several feet behind her, waving her down as she approaches, still dressed in her medic uniform, with a bag slung around one shoulder.

With a start, she realizes she'd been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed Sakura approaching.

She's caught off guard enough that she blurts out an awkward, "Yep."

Instead of laughing at her dumb response, Sakura smiles, a kind, almost motherly smile that rankles Karin's nerves. "I hope you weren't waiting long."

"Wha—no." She isn't sure why she lies, only that the truth - that she's been here for hours, waiting for Sakura to appear - is pathetic, even for her. "Pretty much just got here."

Sakura seems like the type who's always looking for a hurt puppy to nurse back to health.

In a sense, that makes her the exact kind of person Karin should cozy up to. Karin might not be as cute as a puppy, but she's sure as hell been kicked around a lot, and she's sure she's got stories tucked away that would be sure to upset Sakura's deliciate Konoha sensibilities.

Really, Sakura is probably the one person who would actually be upset to learn that Karin has just wasted several hours dicking around by herself, and yet…

And yet Karin doesn't like the thought of it all, for reasons she doesn't totally understand. The thought of Sakura throwing another of those damn pitying looks her way makes her want to puke.

"I've been walking around," Karin continues, crafting a very vague outline of a day she would have much rather had. "Seeing things. Making good use of my time"

Sakura gives her a tired, relieved smile. "Oh, that's a relief. I'll—well, one of these days when I'm a little better rested, I'll have to show you around the place." She swallows back a yawn, then runs one hand through her hair, tied back in a short, greasy ponytail that's on its last legs. "Are you ready to go?"

"Oh." Karin realizes she's still sitting, and immediately feels like an idiot. "Yeah."

Sakura laughs, weak but genuine. "Good, because I'm totally beat."

Karin scrambles out of her chair, covertly trying to stretch her sore muscles from having hardly moved at all in the last few hours.

"Do you…" Sakura trails off. "Do you have a bag or anything…?"

"Huh?" Sakura looks put off by the directness of her response, so Karin adds, "I—no. Didn't think I needed one."

Sakura's brow furrows. "Do you have a purse?" Her hand tightens around the strap of her own bag, before she leans in and asks, her voice falling to a whisper, "... or money?"

Heat rushes to Karin's face and she turns to avoid the intense look Sakura is giving her. "Some," she says, lamely, waving her hand as if to ward the other woman away. She growls, baring her teeth. "Of course I do!"

Sakura's brows furrow. "Oh, Karin," she says, her voice full of pity. She opens the clasp on her purse and starts to dig through it. "Of course you don't. I should have realized—"

"What? No!" Karin is startled by how frantic her voice sounds. She can feel the eyes of the other people draw towards them both, though she forces herself not to look. Her hands feel clammy, like the room has suddenly gotten much, much warmer. "You don't—"

Sakura pulls several bills out of her purse, which she stuffs into Karin's hands. "I do, though," she says, sternly. "It's sick that—that he would send you out into the village like that." She ponders it for a second. "Maybe Lady Tsunade would be willing to give you a stipend of some sort, just because you're…" Her other hand tightens around her purse strap, and she shakes her head. "Let me talk to her."

Karin stares, unsure how to process any of that. The bills Sakura shoved into her hands feel dirty, and she has to force one muscle at a time to wrap her fingers around them, before she shoves them into her shorts, loose and irregular. After a moment, she says, "Okay."

After that, Sakura leads her out of the hospital and through the village, over the areas Karin had tried to map out earlier that day. She chatters as they go, talking about the soldiers from the war that she's treating, her increasing responsibilities at the hospital, and her mentor's upcoming retirement.

"It's something of an open secret," Sakura shares as they walk, "but chances are, I'll be running the hospital in a few years, after Lady Tsunade has left. So now I'm trying to get as much experience working under her as I can, so that I'm prepared."

Karin nods along dumbly, saying little in response, though Sakura is eager to keep the conversation going.

They're headed towards a less densely populated area, it seems, and when they've been on the road for about ten minutes, Sakura waves towards the tall apartment buildings and says, "I only recently got my own place, so you'll have to forgive the mess." She shakes her head. "Before that, I was living with my parents, but it got a little… stifling, let's say."

Karin answers with a smattering of filler sounds - huh, oh, okay - as Sakura describes her mother's overbearing nature, her father's affectionate smothering. They're the most boring complaints Karin has ever heard a person make.

For a moment, she allows herself to imagine a life where the worst problems she has are advocating for myself and hovering and questions about grandchildren. It doesn't feel real.

Finally, they reach one building that has a cream-colored facade and a row of neatly arranged flowers in the front. It has its own little garden off to the side, which seems to be a rarity in the village proper, and the signatures within are a mix of high-powered shinobi, with some weaker ones and children.

"Did you not bring a change of clothes, then?" Sakura asks her as she unlocks the front door.

Karin is startled out of her thoughts. "Uh…" she starts, unsure whether this is a situation where honesty matters.

"Not to worry!" Sakura chirps. "You can have some of mine."

Have? Borrow? Karin puzzles over Sakura's choice of words - assuming she's heard her right - as she's led up several flights of stairs towards her apartment. Borrow, she decides. That's what she meant.

Despite Sakura's frequent apologies - it's such a mess! I'm still figuring out how to decorate! It's all a constant work in progress! - the interior is neat, if a little spacious, with a couch, a bookshelf, and two reading chairs set up in the living room around a glass table.

A few boxes are stacked in corners, and a bushel of laundry is set out next to the couch, but it's otherwise one of the nicest rooms Karin's ever seen in person.

"Maybe one day I'll get enough time to actually fix this place up," Sakura says wearily. "And then I can throw myself a proper housewarming party. You're invited, of course," she tells Karin with a smile. "We could even make it something of a slumber party, and you could stay here!"

That last remark feels more pointed than it should. Just what exactly is she getting at?

Sakura claps her hands. "Now, let me show you to the guest bathroom. You're probably dying to clean up. I am too."

"Would be nice." Self-consciously, though, Karin hopes that her desire isn't that obvious.

Sakura shows her down the hallway and opens a door, revealing a neat bathroom with immaculate white tiling, so clean that Karin hesitates for a moment before stepping onto it, as if she'll somehow permanently stain it.

"Just let me know if you need anything!" Sakura chirps, before closing the door behind her.

For the first time since that morning, Karin basks in the solitude for a moment, letting out a long breath as her shoulders relax. Then, resolutely, she begins peeling off her dirty clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor as she fumbles with the shower knobs.

The spray feels too damn good, like sunlight in winter, melting away the salt and prison dirt that's clung to her. Half blind without her glasses, she feels her way along the various pink and purple colored bottles orderly arranged around Sakura's tub before she finds shampoo.

Objectively, there's nothing wrong with Sakura. She's friendly enough for a near-stranger, and is the only one of Sasuke's friends who's taken an actual interest in her. She's nosy, a little bitchy, and clearly has strong thoughts about everything, but whatever her motives are, she seems to like Karin.

She seems to like Karin a lot, really, in a way that seems to draw from more than just a desire to please Sasuke, and whatever dislike or distrust she harbors towards his brother.

It has every appearance of a windfall, but Karin has learned better than to rely on dumb luck alone.

The door creaks open, and Karin immediately freezes.

"Don't mind me!" Sakura says. "I'm just leaving some clothes for you."

"Oh." In an instant, Karin feels foolish for being worried. "Thanks."

"And I'll take these too to wash!" Sakura says, followed by the rustle of fabric.

"Wait!" Karin pops her head around the curtain to find the blurry outline of Sakura with her mess of clothes bundled in her arms. She squints. "That's—you don't have to do that."

"Of course I do!" Sakura says with a laugh. Her attitude is so light and energetic that it's almost like she wasn't just coming from a days' work at the hospital. "At least until your washing machine is working."

"Ah…" Water drips down her face in a dozen little rivulets, so Karin reaches up to rub at her eyes and push her wet hair out of her face. "Well, thank you."

Sakura pauses overly long, staring. While Karin can't make her out, she gets the sense Sakura is uneasy. What the hell is her problem now? Do my clothes smell that bad?

"Are you…" Sakura's voice trails off for an unusually long time, before she seems to come back to herself and drops her eyes. "I'll go put these in the wash, and you can stay for dinner!"

The door slams shut before Karin can respond. She blinks, unsure how to process Sakura's quick escape, or her strange, almost pathological need to caretake.

It's weirdly ominous. Paired with Sakura's bright, carbonated chakra, her aggressive mothering is even more unsettling.

The vanilla scent of it becomes brighter and heavier as Karin finishes up her shower, noticeable even under the combined fruity scents of the various shampoos and soaps in the shower.

She scrunches her nose as she cleans the steam off of her glasses and dries herself off. Her glasses immediately fog up again, which she endures as she scoops her hair into one big pile on the top of her head, which she then wraps into a towel.

Given that Sakura has the clothes she'd worn - is she happy about that? That she now has clean clothes? - the only clothes she has are the ones Sakura left for her, neatly folded on the sink ledge.

The shirt is a light green blouse with short sleeves and a conservative neckline. While the sleeves are short for her taste, it's fine enough if all she has to do is get home in it.

It looks a little large when held up to her frame, but it seems fashionable enough, given the woman she'd seen walking around the city.

She holds up the pants, which are a pair of loose, grey capris. As she lifts the pants, though, something falls from the countertop, onto the clean tile.

Are those…?

"Oh," Karin says, as she looks down. "Fuck me."

Karin twitches, unable to do anything but stare at the cute little pink underwear lying on the tile.

Sakura's underwear.

A rash of hives break out across the back of her neck, and she cringes, unable to fully process the absurdity of the situation. Slowly, gingerly, with the bare tips of her fingers, Karin plucks the underwear from the floor, scrutinizing them as she does.

They're—well, they're clean. They look clean, at least. And she doesn't have her own, since Sakura took her dirty clothes, and yet—

Karin shakes her head, as if tossing off the thought. No way is she going to wear Sakura's underwear. What the fuck? Did Sakura think she would?

She shakes her head and crumbles the panties. Except she can't exactly leave them here, can she? Sakura would obviously know, unless Karin stashed them away somewhere in the house.

But then Sakura would eventually find them, and what could she say then?

No. Karin growls, frustrated at the endless stupidity she's been forced to endure since coming to Konoha. The only option is to take the panties with her.

"Karin?" Sakura knocks lightly at the door, startling her. "Anything you need?"

"Nope!" Karin replies, her voice sharp. Perhaps too much, because something bitter - shock? Upset? - shoots through Sakura's chakra. "All good!"

She imagines Sakura smiling on the other side of the door. "Just let me know if there's anything else!"

"Will do!" she grits out. No fucking more, she thinks. With no other options, Karin tugs the pants on, stuffs Sakura's panties in the pocket, and slips into the blouse.

Whatever. It isn't like she'll be here for long. As soon as her clothes are done being washed, she can head home and… and dispose of the panties. Burn them, or whatever.

Karin hastily combs her hair with her fingers. The result only barely looks intentional, but maybe it'll set better once it's had the chance to air dry.

With a scowl, Karin tosses her hair over her shoulder, opens the bathroom door, and marches out to find Sakura waiting for her by the little coffee table, flipping through the pages of a novel. Her hair is also drying, meaning she must have taken a much quicker shower at some point.

There's also a tea kettle in front of her, and a full cup next to her book, with an empty one set out across from her, presumably for Karin.

Somehow, this irritates her too.

"Karin!" Sakura says, clapping her hands together happily. "You must feel so much better after all that."

"Ah—" Karin strategically omits any mention of the panties and hastily takes the seat opposite her. "Yeah, thanks."

Sakura smiles, her expression as warm as the tea she pours into Karin's empty cup. "I'm glad—really, I'm glad for you." She nods towards the door. "I figured you were probably hungry, so I went ahead and ordered dinner for us both. It's probably going to be another hour until your laundry is ready anyway, so I figured… why not! We can have a fun little girls' night!"

Sakura's cheerful offer might as well be in another language. What the hell is a girls' night? It sounds like some made up Konoha bullshit. Is this some kind of competition?

"Sounds… good," Karin responds, as she sinks down onto the floor across from Sakura. It's a kind of carefulness she isn't used to. She spent years dodging the verbal landmines around Orochimaru, crafting each word of hers to skirt the very thin line between weak - and thus expendable - and insubordinate.

Strong enough to keep around; dependent enough to never leave.

With Sakura, though, it feels as though it's the exact opposite. She's drawn to the weak, but doesn't like weakness—she pities it.

She also isn't weak herself. If anything, she's assertive, and she has a temper—Karin has seen it often, and knows that it's an explosive one. When she's pissed, she makes sure the people around her know.

And yet, despite this, she handles Karin like porcelain—delicately, like she's afraid she'll break her with her monstrous strength.

But why her?

Karin isn't foolish enough to discount the possibility that it's an act—that Sakura could flip on a coin and turn her explosive temper onto her as soon as it becomes too difficult for Karin to walk away.

It's certainly possible, at least. Contemplating it, Karin stares down into the steaming cup of tea, schooling her face into a flat, neutral expression, betraying nothing.

She doesn't think Sakura is like that. Her chakra doesn't suggest that she is, at least. As quick as her temper is, Karin's never felt true fear of her. Her close allies don't seem to fear her, either. If anything, many of the lower ranked shinobi often show an embarrassing degree of deference to her.

So it isn't the same in that regard, either: Sakura's anger, while formidable, seems to be exactly that—and nothing more.

But why is she so restrained with Karin?

"So…" Sakura starts. "Sugar?" she asks brightly.

"I'm good." Karin wraps her hands around the cup, the warm porcelain just cool enough not to burn them, but hot enough to make her shudder.

There's another long pause, and Karin finds herself sipping at the hot tea, as if trying to placate Sakura by accepting her gift.

So!" Sakura continues, sing-song. "How have you been settling in?"

Does she really…? "Fine," Karin answers. She's barely had time to settle in, but she doesn't think that's the question Sakura is asking, if she's really trying to ask anything at all.

"That's good." Sakura rests her elbows on the table, leaning in closer towards Karin. "I can only imagine how tough it must have been to come out here, not knowing anyone except for Sasuke. And after being alone for so long too!"

"Ah…" What was she supposed to say to that? "It's not that bad." Is that what she wants? Is that what she's digging for? "It would be nice if I lived a little closer to the village, I guess," she adds.

"Oh! Yes, I'm sure it's hard to be out there. Especially you being—"

"They gave me some trouble this morning coming in," Karin continues. She almost feels bad cutting Sakura off, but she'd rather have Sakura upset than have to talk through her feelings. "Cause I didn't have an identification card or a headband."

"Oh?" Realization dawns on her face. "I suppose you wouldn't."

Karin bristles at that, but Sakura, in her enthusiasm, doesn't seem to notice. She waves it off. "I can talk to Lady Tsunade - tomorrow, even - and I can get all of that taken care of for you."

"That—yeah, that'd be good."

Sakura beams. "I know you and I—"

"What time do you think dinner will get here?" Karin asks.

"What?" Sakura recovers quickly from her initial surprise, and takes a second to think. "About half an hour, I guess. Hopefully you don't mind curry and rice. I like something a little more filling after a long day of work…" She smiles, somewhat sheepish.

Another lull falls between them.

For Sakura, maybe it's a peaceful quiet, but it makes Karin's skin crawl, tension like an explosion tag that hasn't blown when it's supposed to. Why is this so different?

Why is Sakura so different?

"So…" Sakura starts slowly, uncertain. "I've been wanting to ask whether, uh, everything, ah, is okay? With Itachi?"

Karin jerks her head up, caught off guard by the sudden question. "Huh?"

Sakura's face is firm, though her lip wavers somewhat. "I—it's not that I'm trying to pry or anything, but, you know… it's okay if you're honest with me. I can help you. I… I know a lot about what's going on, and all."

I can help you…? Karin scowls. For whatever reason, Sakura keeps tiptoeing around her, working with some kind of knowledge that Karin herself doesn't have. "Well I don't know anything," she grumbles. "No one seemed to think it mattered if I did or not."

After a moment, she adds, "And I don't really have that much of a problem with him, aside from him being—" She waves a hand. "A huge jackass."

If she was the type to keep a neat list of problems, he'd absolutely be on it, but she doubts he'd scratch the top twenty. He's a pain in the ass, sure, but her ass has dealt with worse.

"Oh." Sakura looks bashful. "There were—well, when things were getting settled, you know, there were a lot of conversations about… about, you know."

"I don't know," Karin says, more forcefully, "because no one has ever taken the time to tell me."

Sakura's cheeks redden, but thankfully, she continues, "It was—mostly it came from the Elders. They saw a lot of complications - mostly political ones, from other villages - with letting Itachi return. They… they wanted there to be more conditions for him, aside from having to stay in the village."

Sakura holds her hands up, almost defensively. "But there aren't! At least, not officially. Lady Tsunade chose not to adopt any of the ones the Elders were pushing, so it isn't like they're binding or anything. They were just things that were said at the beginning. It's just—well, given the history of what's gone on here, and given that we still don't really know much about Sasuke's brother…"

"What is it?" Karin demands. "Can you please just tell me?"

Sakura bites her lip and looks away, uncomfortable. "It's just that… when we were sitting down with the Elders, trying to work out how to do things… they… had some ideas about how to handle him returning. Sealing his chakra, having him undergo assessments with the Yamanaka… reveal certain jutsu."

"Okay?" Maybe some things Itachi would have protested, but nothing that matters to her. "And that was an issue?"

"Lady Tsunade turned down most of it." Sakura shrugs awkwardly. "But they also… they expressed an interest in ensuring that we had safeguards to, ah, preserve the Sharingan. The bloodline." Quickly, before Karin can react to that, Sakura adds, "And I wanted to be sure that it wasn't something you were being pushed into, since you really have nothing to do with any of that!"

"Wait—just—just hold on a second." She can hardly keep up with Sakura's retelling. "Preserving the bloodline?" she asks. She parses through exactly what that would entail, just as Sakura gives her a guilty look.

"You know… heirs. Babies."

"Babies," Karin echoes. She grimaces. "What the hell do babies have to do with me?"

"Nothing!" Sakura holds her hands up again, as if warding off an attack. She nods, finally getting back on track. "At least, it should be nothing. There's no reason it should be anything, but if it isn't…" She raises one threatening finger. "If it isn't, I want you to know that you can come to me about it, and I'll deal with it."

Almost reflexively, without wholly intending to, Karin starts laughing.

Sakura purses her lips, looking mildly offended, but she can't help it. "Listen," Sakura starts. Her voice takes on a matronly tone, almost reminiscent of the Kusa nurses. "It's—everything about your situation makes me uneasy. You're all alone with him out there, you hardly know anyone here, you have no assets of your own, and there are these… these ties between him and the Elders… Even now, I feel like we don't have the faintest idea of what he's capable of…"

Her genuine concern is baffling. "If you saw how things were when it's just the two of us, you wouldn't be worried." Thinking back to their conversation that morning, Karin adds, "I don't think they've really gotten through to him, if that's what they want. For better or worse, he doesn't want anything to do with anyone."

Sakura's shoulders loosen, and she visibly relaxes. "I just wanted to be sure," she murmurs. Her hand tightens on her own mug, before she adds, "I couldn't help but notice those scars you have…"

Karin instinctively moves to cross her bare arms, a futile attempt to cover the visible scars from Sakura. "What about them?" she asks. This time, she fully intends the harshness in her voice.

"I just noticed them," Sakura says hurriedly. "That's all. Sasuke had mentioned the whole… situation to us, but I'd never really seen them before. It—it was different from what I was expecting. But I completely understand why you'd want to keep them covered like that."

Karin bristles at that. "I'm not hiding them," she says curtly. At least—at least not for the reasons Sakura seems to think. They're identifiable and unique to her, and they draw a lot of attention. "People are too curious," she says instead, her voice practically a mumble. "It's just easier to deal with when they aren't out there."

At that, Sakura's lip twitches for a second, into something almost like a smile. "It's okay," she tells her. "That's why I want you to know people are here who are looking out for you."

"Sure."

As underwhelming as it is, it still makes Sakura beam, her warm vanilla chakra making the room seem even cozier than it is.

"So…" As nice as the ambiance is, something about the situation makes her skin itch, like fresh scar tissue. She jumps topics. "It's weird to see Sasuke doing chores around the village like a kid."

Sakura grins. "You must have seen him and Naruto doing D-ranks around the village with Sai. How they convinced him to join them, I'll never know." She shakes her head. "It's amazing how two of the strongest shinobi in the village are both somehow still genin."

"They're—" Karin makes a face. It isn't like promotions have much meaning to her - especially because she is also still, technically, a genin - but Naruto?

Sakura laughs, bright and bell-like. "It's a long story, but—well, I suppose we've got some time."

When the food arrives twenty minutes later, Sakura is just finishing her recount of yet another disastrous attempt to track down Sasuke. "... since Naruto had barely been gone for a year, I figured why not check myself - traveling three days, mind you - leave to go see what the merchant knew? And of course it was all a waste of time in the end, but…" She smiles, close-lipped and serene. "I suppose it was all worth it in the end."

As they pick through their curry and rice, Karin thinks back to the months she spent with Itachi, wholly isolated from the world and with no means of contacting anyone. There's very little she wouldn't have done to have made some kind of progress, even if it was just chasing down dead ends. "It must have been."

"And I'm guessing you met Sasuke not long after all of that," Sakura guesses. In a way, it seems like she's comparing them, but she doesn't sound smug enough about it to piss her off.

"Yeah, I guess." She pokes at her rice, her grumbling stomach not quite as insistent as she'd thought. The truth is, she doesn't think she has any stories that are on par to what Sakura has actually done.

Sure, there'd been plenty of times where she'd wanted to do things—times she sat in the Southern Hideout and watched birds on the wind and pretended they were messenger hawks, out gathering information from a nonexistent network of spies.

The things she does have - the feelings she has for Sasuke, the way Sasuke feels to her - these are things that can't be quantified or shared in the same way. In a jealous sense, she wants to—wants to show Sakura she cares just as much - if not more - than she does, and that she can prove it.

At the same time, though, she likes what she has now—likes the mystery of her relationship with Sasuke, the secret history between them, that no one - least of all his friends in Konoha - could understand. Things Sasuke had seen or done that he doesn't want them to know about.

What she has is a side of Sasuke that doesn't fit in Konoha, a version of him that isn't so neat or clean. Intellectually, she thinks, they're aware of it, aware of the years he spent with Orochimaru, the things he probably had to do to survive in Oto.

But that isn't the same as understanding it, or having seen it for themselves.

It doesn't get to the part of Sasuke that she's seen—that she's been a part of.

And that, at least, is something Karin likes.

"Well…" Sakura starts. "It's getting a little late."

Karin suppresses a frown and spares a glance at the door. "Yeah, seems like it." Though her food is half finished, she sets her chopsticks down and pushes away her bowl. "I can get out of he—"

"Oh no! No, no!" Sakura jumps up from the table, holding her hands out as if to stop her. "I didn't mean that at all. I just—it's dark out and everything, and you have such a long way to go. Wouldn't you feel safer spending the night here? There's nothing that says you can't head back in the morning. Who knows what kind of crazy people are out there!"

"Oh—" She's almost instantly on guard again, once more thrown off by Sakura's inexplicable, over the top kindness. Was it a kind of contrarianism, Karin wondered? A desire to support her, specifically because Sasuke had gotten tired of her?

Karin shifts, allowing herself to consider Sakura's proposal. There's obviously nothing in Konoha that makes her nervous about traveling there at night.

Itachi would also be fine on his own for the night—a quick glance towards his chakra tells her exactly that. He doesn't seem to care either way whether she's there or not. If anything, she assumes he's been enjoying the hours she's been away, where he has the house all to himself.

"But what about Sasuke?" Karin asks, after a moment's hesitation.

"Sasuke?" For a moment, Sakura seems to forget entirely that Karin's sole purpose for being in Konoha is to act as a makeshift babysitter. "Oh! Well, yes, there's Sasuke…"

Karin frowns, unsure of herself. Would it really matter if Itachi had a night to himself?

But of course it would, though maybe not to her. The fact that she's around the house is the only thing keeping Sasuke himself from moving in, after all.

Does she want to piss Sasuke off? Would she care if he was pissed off at her? Could she turn that to her advantage?

Would it give him a reason to pay more attention to her?

She wavers. On the same token, maybe he would want to find someone else if he didn't think she was reliable. And if all Itachi needs is someone to keep an eye on him, how irreplaceable is she really?

"If he shows up again first thing tomorrow and I'm not there…" she eventually starts.

"No, of course. I understand completely." Sakura shakes her head. "Forget I said anything."

For a moment, Karin really, really doesn't want to. After a moment's hesitation, she says, "But another time?"

"Yes!" Sakura's response comes out somewhere between a sigh and a shout, relief and excitement amplifying one another. "Yes, definitely…"

Sakura gathers her bowl into her hands and stands, before walking off towards the kitchen. "At the very least, let me at least pack some leftovers for you to take with you."