[FANFIC - HBD, SASUKE(?)] WILDFIRE; (SK)
now uploaded in fanfiction.net~! here; if you wish to comment but can't do so here, please feel free to review over there~!585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjwjSUF4gmx
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By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyL4uE4BiA0
Rating: M (some suggestive scenes, and some violence.)585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4HCN3pOOh
Word Count: 8.810585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfnET7STvV
Author's Notes: I got this plot-bunny a couple of months ago; the idea was to sit down and carefully plan it, but… well, life happened. So I decided to let it write itself instead. Posting it for Sasuke’s birthday project because, while his birthday is not the focus of this, it does get briefly mentioned (:hurr)~ Also, there are some credits, but I’ll be giving them at the end of the fic in order to not spoil anyone.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAIaK3IONs8
Warning: Some OOC-ness due to the fact that I'm working with future SK... among other things you will soon realize lol585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4XcyMN8ilp
Summary: It is a flame that was set ablaze by a smile. A fire that consumes everything in its wake. A wildfire that burnt them to ashes, down to their roots.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xpuGe4cDb
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A heartbeat that awakens from the ashes.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ18LXi6PXRO
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To the stars that played with the darkness585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYmFcAyV9Bs
I sang of love and burned up completely
Wildfire585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuB6vLky1FD
by Kanae585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhdujgktgt
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It happens a hot Thursday afternoon as he goes through the tourniquets of the subway and catches a glimpse of red from the corner of his eye.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡutvCpvxwNj
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Something in his chest tightens.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQnudW24Z99
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He is looking back before he knows it, uncharacteristically standing still as his eyes seek the source of the red; a girl’s ponytail.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8syEWqq3e
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Just a girl.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCUVgj2vLS2
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Sasuke all but snorts, mildly shaking his head and turning away in wonderment.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6MeEWQ8UPN
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He misses the way the girl stops, her back straightening as if bolted.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ65rJU9Lm55
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He has almost reached the escalators when someone steps in front of him, blocking his way—and he can’t help the slight widening of his eyes as he realizes who it is.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMO0tjTw1e
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The girl.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLdGC09ZNQT
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The redhead.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5BrqgtkqC2
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“Sorry,” she says, and she is a little out of breath. Had she run to catch up with him? “Do I know you?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC1QFwMvoDZ
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An alien reply makes its way from his chest up to the tip of his tongue, but Sasuke does not recognize it—and before he can even deem it worth his time, it is gone. And all that remains is the same disinterest from before. Just a girl.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZGZheMArY9
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“Don’t think so,” he replies, trying to sidestep her—but the girl blocks his way again.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiRlaz8pvGP
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“No, I do know you. I mean—” Sasuke narrows his eyes, irritated, but the girl looks too caught up in her thoughts to notice, “I have dreamed of you.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWlak8fw3k8
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Sasuke gives her a blank stare and the girl turns a little pink. “I-I mean,” she stammers, pushing her glasses further up her nose. The gesture stirs something inside of Sasuke, and it is powerful enough to the point he almost misses her next words “I know it sounds weird, but—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKCU2WRogiz
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“You’re right,” Sasuke agrees, clenching his jaw and walking past her.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtlLYUg1RyM
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“Wait!” she calls, and Sasuke finds his legs answering in kind even before his name comes out of her lips. “Y—your name is… Sasuke, isn’t it? Uchiha Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPZXuGaYq2C
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“… So what?” his reply is brisk, and it comes out through gritted teeth. This was ridiculous; both the girl and his reactions to her. What had come over him, anyway? He has never seen this chick. Ever. “Knowing that is no feat.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUrnT5vjxts
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It wasn’t. More than a quarter of the city knew his family’s name. Knowing who he was simply was part of the package.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7XdRqVPIer
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She falls quiet—and Sasuke thinks the odd conversation has come to an end.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKyb5CoiyOw
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He was severely mistaken.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKgtBbmt04K
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“And, when you were eight…” she suddenly whispers, her voice vague, “when you were eight, your mom gave you a dinosaur-shaped toy.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnqkwKPYXoe
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Sasuke’s eyes widen, his body freezing upright. Her voice gains momentum. “You said it was childish, and pretended to have thrown it away; but you still have it.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlx8ItLZXOP
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It is slowly that he turns towards her, eyes narrowed and heart galloping inside his chest. “How…?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdCHuU1MGsU
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Obsidian meets pointed red, and it is something in the calculating edge of her gaze more than her words that which turns Sasuke’s skin into gooseflesh. “…You keep it locked in a box inside your closet, just like you keep locked away that irrational fear of yours of losing them someday.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcqgQfaXWeq
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Them. His parents. The one thing he has never told anyone—not even his brother. The one thing he has never been able to face, regardless of how much he has tried to do so.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡip6CxhSzld
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He wants to say something—anything—but words just won’t come. He feels utterly intimidated and exposed before this stranger; before this redhead whose lips quirk up in the barest traces of a smile, her shoulders relaxing.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQe11LFnxdP
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“Come on, there’s a café down the street, we can talk there.” She does not wait for a reply, simply reaching out and taking a hold of his sleeve—and as she pulls him towards the escalators, Sasuke feels an unexplainable sense of déjà vu.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIGshoilOkd
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“Let me go,” he mutters, though he can’t find it in himself to oppose any resistance. “I can walk by myself.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnM69HGvTfb
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She does not let go of him.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2zc68gJPvP
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And the déjà vu only worsens.
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“Come with me, Karin. I need you.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKP6b3uTgrg
“Huh?! Why should I go anywhere? I’m in charge of this place!”
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“They started… around 3 months ago, I think,” the girl—Karin—says, after the waitress has brought them their respective orders; Sasuke, a black coffee, Karin, a cappuccino with amaretto.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡctTwRkjfch
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“The… dreams?” he questions, and feels utterly ridiculous just by saying it.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROkmXSm36T
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“Yeah, the dreams,” Karin agrees, taking a sip of her coffee and giving him a pointed look over the brim of the cup. “At first they were sporadic. Just once every few nights or so, but then I started to get them every night… every single night.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqxWNz0R9sx
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“And these… dreams, of yours. They were about me?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlukqsafDL6
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“Not all of them,” she retorts thoughtfully, if not a little defensively; but then she shrugs. “But you were always there.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2d55cL6GHH
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“Doing what, exactly?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy4S2KrIt2A
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“A lot of things. Fighting, mostly. You were a ninja, sometimes. Both of us were.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjE3xStX7pc
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“…A ninja?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOXJVrz6nIt
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“Yeah. A very powerful one, at that. Don’t—” she warns, before Sasuke could have the chance to interrupt with a snide remark. “I know how ridiculous it sounds, but it’s the truth.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvV6v0jH0Qv
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He crosses his arms with an eye roll. “That still does not explain how you knew about the dinosaur.” Just mentioning the toy makes a wave of embarrassment wash over him, but he tries to keep at bay and not let it show.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPbh0j8Z2r
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Karin smiles, and the gesture looks sour. “Not every dream took place in the same world, Sasuke. Those—the ones where we were shinobi, those were the firsts, and also the most recurrent. But I have seen you as you are, too. And as you were.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWBg4ZuCx4r
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“… What do you mean, exactly?” he prods with narrowed eyes.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgH7BbL5nY
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It’s her turn to cross her arms. “Tch, you already know, don’t you? You’re smart, Sasuke. Don’t take me for a fool.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5iIlFCxsse
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Sasuke frowns. He didn’t like her tone, and neither did he like where she was going with this. “Reincarnations?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XUVlHWzKF
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Karin snaps her fingers, “Bingo.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ42PyIm3aZc
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Sasuke snorts. “That’s ridiculous.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQfFNjjoXSy
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“I know you don’t believe in them, Sasuke. But that doesn’t mean they do not exist.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV9NtAoaKY3
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“Stop,” Sasuke demands, his patience running thin at being lectured by a complete stranger. “Stop talking as if you know me, Karin. You don’t.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwyDQenz5Pq
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“Actually, I do,” Karin shoots back without missing a beat, her red eyes steadily holding his even despite his threatening glare. “And from the looks of it, I know you better than you know yourself—stay there, Sasuke,” she stresses, and his glare only intensifies. He hadn’t even had the enough time to move a muscle. “I am not finished yet.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKEm88Svhp
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“But I am done hearing your bullshit.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxuZkka3ap
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Karin blinks at him and then promptly snorts. “The you in my dreams was nicer to be around, I’ll give you that.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1su9tnjqg
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He feels insulted, but he stays. And a little smirk quirks up Karin’s lips; as expected, that smirk said.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1drIka7Svi
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But any comments he may have had about her arrogance promptly disappear as the redhead utters her next words.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4KzmyHVOiK
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“I know why you’re so afraid of losing your parents, someday.”
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“Shhh” she coos, cradling his trembling form in her arms and making him sink his face on her chest. It’s her favorite new shirt and it’s getting soaked and soiled by his tears and the soot, but her heart is too busy breaking over him and his pain and her mind is too shaken by the explosion and the death—by the smell of burnt flesh, by the screaming figures of his parents and brother as they were consumed by the fire.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEQ9jOYAYXU
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“Shhh, Sasuke, it will be alright,” she isn’t sure if she believes what she is saying. Not when there are tears beginning to leak from her own eyes and dripping onto his hair—not when his sobs twist her soul and worsen the despair. Why did this have to happen to them? Why did they have to—? “I promise you, it will be alright, we will get through this.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRdXW3fRto
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They. Because that was all that was left, now. She was all he had left.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCGyduKZNj8
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“We will get through this,” she repeats, because they would. They had to.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYE23Jh6ZgN
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“You’re not alone. I’m with you, Sasuke. I won’t ever leave you,”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8gUpjLlJDV
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Despite her bravado her voice breaks at the end and Sasuke clutches her shirt—holds onto her for dear life and hastily pulls her together again.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfhyMPImAx0
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“I promise.”
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Sasuke fists his hands to prevent them from shaking as his very soul seemed to be doing. He sets his jaw, tries to regularize his breathing and his pulse—tries to not show any signs of inward struggle.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEkGxdfnI40
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No that it would make much of a difference, since Karin was deliberately keeping her attention elsewhere. She had barely looked at him from the moment she started to tell him all she knew—all she had seen—about his parents, and weren’t he so troubled by everything he heard, he would have realized he was thankful for her tact.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTDc5Jl9Xwb
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As things were, however, his brain was having troubles assimilating Karin’s words; how his parents had died over and over again. Killed by his brother (by his brother, out of all people! What kind of bullshit was that?), in an accident, in a fire—Sasuke had tuned out, then. The images such stories enticed were too vivid, too troubling—they made the hairs on his arms stand on end, made cold droplets of sweat roll down his neck.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeCjIBBIF0D
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Everything was preposterous, absolutely unbelievable—and even then he could not dismiss a word she had said, even though he desperately wanted to. Something in the way she had spoken—in the way her voice had quivered, her stare grave and set on her lap—and even more so, something in the things she had known; habits that Mikoto and Fugaku had and that no one but him and Itachi would know about, made her words all the harder to shake off.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1xDSupwqz
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So he aims for the next best thing—he tries to push the thought aside and latches onto another one, one that has slowly but surely been demanding his attention.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS8grYyvTXp
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“… Where do you fit into all that?” he murmurs, and has to swallow to help ease his dry throat. “Why is it you, and not me, who is having these dreams?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ5R6NZAKJh
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The ghost of a smile touches her lips, “I don’t know. I guess it’s because you’ve closed yourself off, again,” it fades. “You always close yourself up.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFdS6o8N7pj
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He has really run out of patience. “Stop with the riddles, will you? Just answer!”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1LGam5M49f
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Karin hardens her expression, her eyes squarely meeting his own. “In that first world, I was your teammate. In the second, I was your friend. In the third, your lover.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMjXULulkUu
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Sasuke cannot really help the way he feels his throat clog up, his cheeks warm. So he fakes a cough, looks away; “And this is the fourth?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxWXgSy7H15
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Karin shrugs, unfazed.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCwpopQSSdk
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“I don’t know, I guess there may be more. I haven’t remembered them yet, though.” Her voice lowers, “…I don’t know if I want to, either.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUAf8SgGKgu
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That catches his attention. “What do you mean?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ57s1E4TlNG
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“… They weren’t always nice, Sasuke. They rarely were.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlYlzbvmYhy
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Sasuke arches one eyebrow, curious. “What weren’t?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Mz5liEohF
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For the first time since they got there, Karin squirms in her seat.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSqbOXCqPxx
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“...You.”
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There is lighting prickling her skin and piercing her chest; it has missed her heart by an inch, a miracle improbable enough to be deliberate—but one that is a curse in disguise, for his eyes do not miss the mark.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡczLGcJVcKk
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They hit the bulls-eye dead on its center, and she feels it freeze and then wither and die, disintegrating into a worthless pile of ashes that, with every single word he says, scatter like the wind—never to be recovered again.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4t8blP2HNj
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“Karin… the moment you were taken hostage, you became an encumbrance.”
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She leans her head on her propped up palm, and the pair of red eyes that were fixed into his look sage and tired all of a sudden. “…But I guess it never made much of a difference.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwbEaY6pal2
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Sasuke hates it; having to repeat himself. But he moodily does, anyway. “What do you mean?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSBPX8rNbho
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUt0wzCqjhG
Karin does not reply right away; and when she does, her voice is the softest Sasuke has heard it sound so far.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFowoL1Bqcf
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8h7xvVEzK3
“I always ended up loving you all the same,” she admits.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8NNqS5hV5
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Then she looks at him again, and Sasuke finds that he can’t look away.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAJSKEfEC4B
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG45aZfp34n
“Always.”
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It happens on a rainy night.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiz8XBTiZ4d
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfjXTlP8xgB
The rain had started pouring out of nowhere. What a minute ago had been a clear sky became a gray maze of plump clouds and then thick, cold droplets of rain had started to cascade down over the town.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYlLAfpJeZ
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqJhiSdxWzw
Ever so slowly, the crowded street was left almost empty; for the exception of a few pedestrians who had been keen enough to bring an umbrella with them.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJSWl3CRTX
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She hadn’t been.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQk9XUZFSl2
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0o8uYOQBTm
As the traffic light begins to turn, she dashes out from under the improvised shelter of an awning only to stop dead in her tracks—in her haste, she had not realized the light included an advanced left-turn signal.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhH9X9w0xti
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So much for not getting wet, she thinks, and it’s then that an umbrella is placed above her.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq7kqsmK7q5
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdR13BU5bkh
Startled, the girl flickers her gaze upward only to find a dark-haired business man casually speaking into his cellphone, his eyes focused on the traffic light ahead. Their arms are touching, the warmth of his body seeping through to hers despite the long sleeves of his expensive-looking cloak, and she finds her cheeks warming up, her heart quickening at the unexpected gesture of kindness.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeybmpy4Mn5
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv04DbAx6da
The light changes and he moves ahead without hesitation, with the same kind of firm grace with which he had come to shelter her—and she is so transfixed by him that she almost forgets she is supposed to walk, too.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrLltnBe1OZ
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvrSWA2xDh
When they get to the other side of the street, the business man wordlessly leads her to an awning and then parts ways with her, not once glancing at her.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZjKdENkjjN
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5YYGyZVuJs
But she can’t look away from him—and before she knows it her legs are moving and the rain no longer matters.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT9fVbSvJuO
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtswIS8Zny
By the time he has hung up, they’re standing at the next intersection and she is soaked from head to toe.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7i3UTsX8VZ
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“Hey, you! Wait!”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDlGlTMA7xN
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRR7MXLitcX
The business man slowly turns around, painfully so, confusion apparent on his face.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pgrUlJY6l
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Onyx meets red and her heart skips a beat as his eyes widen ever so slightly.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG5xsA0bfvw
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaqMhVG8TL7
“Thank you,” she breathes out jaggedly and not exactly from the chasing, “for before.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCn5Ab5eMO9
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpV9wrxrWfj
“… It’s nothing,” he states, and though his words are nothing but an astonished murmur she hears them loud and clear over the thunders. “And it doesn’t seem to have helped much.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj23paMBVos
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc9vD4FqfbS
Her blush worsens under his pointed look, but the hint of amusement in those deep eyes of his edges her on. “I-I know of a good café down the street. If you aren’t in a hurry, how about I invite you something while we wait for the rain to let up?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHpU5AaMOyK
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcJxwZI0ZR
He tilts his head to the side, long bangs falling across his face. “… Hn, down the street, you say?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzkVJljkMp
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUyrMtJ63XL
“Yeah. It’s less than a minute away,” she gulps, “so, what do you say?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqG2dvOJxNq
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2q71ROPID
He smiles, and his whole face lights up. “I’d like that.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4JZjUgDGuN
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWP5BVyKjc
By the time they place their orders, she is already in love with him.
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He thinks that maybe he should be surprised, but the truth is that he isn’t.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIaQm0s1p0q
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsnJ0SMrlZO
Somehow, it felt like he had been waiting for it—waiting to see her walking through that door, ever since they had parted ways at that Café a little over a week ago.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROxPnYp3t1
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“… You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHNuvfbKnCa
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4BhVJm4G2J
Karin blinks innocently, a direct contrast with the amused smirk shamelessly painted across her lips. “What do you mean, Uchiha-san?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFsJ8UGbao
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“Drop the act,” he glares, matter-of-fact. “You knew I worked here.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFO1B9t2ozq
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9CrBiEUgF
“Oh, don’t be so conceited, Sasuke,” Karin waves a hand, puts the other on her hip and sways to the side. The movement is every bit of a taunt as it is sensual, and Sasuke finds himself blushing like a preschooler as a recurrent memory slips itself uninvited into his mind again.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9wKOiNUhD9
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGRKO99b4oe
'Always'.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsgTNBgRuj4
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkcht2xKBc6
“—so not my fault you basically own the damn city,” Karin finishes, and Sasuke blinks.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQxo6nNTtdB
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“Huh?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNo3zzIi32J
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She deadpans. “You weren’t listening, were you?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu75CEjRP2h
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFEuA3Bi2RZ
“I was,” he lies through gritted teeth, prodded by some unexplainable force. Damn, why did he always have to bicker with this girl?585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK4FKQBV2Ao
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“You are a terrible liar, Sasuke,” she remarks, and suddenly her face lights up. “Hey, did I tell you about the time I was a lie-detector and—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8xMebFNC4
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He all but groans. “Stop, Karin. Don’t bring that kind of talk here, someone may hear you.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK84JoHMb2H
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXwHMKjTKq
“Pft, so what?” she huffs, crossing her arms and swaying her hips again. “It’s not like I work here, right?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6lEhYzDNZw
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXtiXEcMW5
Her tone and most specially the glimmer in her eye as she looks at him told him otherwise.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdus8CbLv4M
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Damn her.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4bnUazVxMr
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“Talk to Nara on the second floor, he will give you your contract. And Karin—not a word to anyone about… about—” he refused to say us. There wasn’t an us. “—about what you told me. Understood?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXwJjCKNXqY
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrru6AaEfB4
She does a mock salute, “Right, Uchiha-san!” and Sasuke massages his temple, wondering what had made him agree to give her the job in the first place.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqRxsLr6Zhg
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As if reading his thoughts, Karin calls out to him from the door.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSEp2VGSbJh
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBOcj9SSgP
“Cheer up, Sasuke,” and Sasuke can catch a glimpse of her playful smirk before she closes the door behind her. “This isn’t the first time we work together, you know?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvh3LSIx6K0
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And for some unknown reason, Sasuke finds himself blushing.
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“I brought you the papers you requested,”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPv6fPNY3D
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpiicrzDEqj
She has barely finished the sentence when he has her pressed against the door and is claiming her mouth with his own, his hands roaming across her back and then down as she skillfully locks the door.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqUKwP7xhtf
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwQteYl1sAg
“Idiot,” she manages to reprimand between kisses, “what if someone sees us?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR11VDYkMi2
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKM58a328uM
“Who cares,” he retorts, his voice a throaty murmur that worsens the heat settled in the lower part of her abdomen, “let them watch if they want.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHw9qKOM3nz
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6iJqOl6rT
“Hmmm that’s kinky,” she teases, and her blood boils as he raises his face from her belly in order to give her a roguish look.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVPs7TDbty
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“Any complains?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeJK0DjpbAA
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRuY1GvAX1f
“Yeah… stop teasing me and get on with—ahh” she moans, her nails scrapping at the door as his head gets lost inside her skirt, his hands spreading her thighs apart.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH3kRFARVzi
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She has a mission to accomplish—but he makes her forget soon enough.
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“I’ll have some Okonomiyaki, please.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4jt8BesIFw
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The waitress nods and leaves—but not without giving Sasuke a hurt look from underneath her long lashes. He hopes Karin will let it slide; so of course Karin does exactly the opposite, her slim eyebrows arched high.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjTYtVbF4Kg
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gjTUJRxsz
“Whoa, Sasuke, That girl totally has a thing for you!”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQLxUmuo0Tp
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Sasuke rolls his eyes; he was so over this subject. “Tch, she and every other employee, what else is new.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPLCdEg5TRp
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1nehDj1hzF
Karin snorts, “Cocky, aren’t we? Do I need to remind you that I am one of your employees, too?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuBMD8kUCWw
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'Always'.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaIJfKxEG7
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpcQK5euzWn
Against his better judgment, he can feel all too easily the way his cheeks start to warm up. What was up with him and blushing around this girl? He was never like this, ever.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ7531GkTEq
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtbV9HXdm73
“Whatever,” he ends up taking the easy way out. Sitting across from him, Karin pouts, leans her chin on her hand and lazily waves a finger in his face.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhrHVdNOkCG
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLI9shr0an
“You really are no fun, Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnpcEsqNtbZ
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“Forget about that, Karin. You said you would tell me more about—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeeuOs5RyT1
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“Right, right,” she sighs, and her faked annoyance swiftly gives way to a leer. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see you so interested in us, but it wouldn’t hurt to focus on the current us.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dqNs3yIp3
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“Karin.”
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“This is enough for today, thank you for your cooperation, Karin,” she knows better than to give weight to his agreeable words. The way he doesn’t even look at her, too busy being transfixed by her blood instead, says everything she needs to know.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsks3aSbG7m
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDIf0ybMyG
So she recoils when he reaches out to bandage her—scowls, sidesteps him and stumbles her way out of the room, hating herself for the numbness in her legs.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLldpIUhBkC
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He is the first thing she sees when she comes out of the room.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDVkxuT6Fsp
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He is leaning against the wall, arms crossed against his chest—and then her knees give up and he is draping her arm around his neck and helping her walk, revealing the bandages held in his hands.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm1TCHIdDMw
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUfBaz87f6
“…I can walk by myself, Sasuke,” she lies, but he does not let go and she lets herself lean a little closer. Close enough to feel the dampness in his side. She looks down and finds blood—and then she is glaring at him from behind her half-lidded eyes.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhEDEx6FHr8
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ884wdFuW8F
“Idiot,” she hisses, and means it. “You are hurt, let me—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvmmdiVcHtI
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“You can’t heal anyone in your current state, Karin,” came his reply, calm and even despite the open wound in his side, and Karin hates the fact that he is right.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6oA28XfHNl
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHygpk3GAm
“…You should’ve gone to bandage yourself, Sasuke. I don’t need you to babysit me,” she says faintly, both embarrassed and touched at once.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4JDM3LI4CI
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUm8E2PB8jl
To her surprise, Sasuke snorts.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFQlO8dBeG0
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“What?” she snaps.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaqv6EYrRcQ
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“Nothing,” he says, and he is smirking. “Just, you’re the last person I want to hear that from, Karin.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSPLDwA2Ky
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She frowns, but her cheeks go red. She has a feeling she knows where he is going with this. “Tch, what is that supposed to mean?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvh8ZJfHPU
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He looks down at her from the corner of his eye, his smirk softening around the edges. “…I wonder.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrslqXZvhl
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And despite her blood loss, her blush only deepens.
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“Would you like more tea, Karin-chan?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHR1n1SWfik
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡITql0QNcme
Sasuke can’t hold back an eye-roll as Karin politely declines; this was the fifth time in a row, and he didn’t know what surprised him more—Karin’s sudden faultless manners, or the lengths to which his mother was going to please her. Hell, one would think it was the redhead’s birthday rather than his.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNPeikwieYt
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“Don’t be like that, little brother,” the voice comes from behind him, and is accompanied by a hand that affectionately ruffles his hair. “You know it’s not often that mother gets to attend a girl.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4NG653fVe
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGHPYDXJ0qg
Sasuke huffs, halfheartedly batting his brother’s hands away. “I know that—moreover, when will you stop treating me like a child, Itachi?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLVeQZXYY6h
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“Probably when you stop acting like one,” chimes in a female voice, and Sasuke sends her an airy look as Itachi chuckles behind him. He was definitely starting to regret having brought her along; what had he been thinking?585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCclfkIhBFC
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He does not get to say it aloud however, as Karin is now looking at Itachi with curious eyes. “Don’t tell me this is Sasuke’s first time bringing a girl home?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYL1oA3mqDA
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6F1CiW0nY
Great. So she had been listening in, huh? He should have guessed.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm3BUdCuBOg
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“Not quite,” Itachi replies, but Sasuke’s triumphant smirk is short-lived as his brother adds, “But almost.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ95C3xNY1y
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“Brother!” he reproaches, causing the older boy to chuckle again and Karin to smirk widely.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJIS9XWdj2X
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“You’re unbelievable, Sasuke; I mean, I knew you were an unsocial prude, but almost no girlfriends? Seriously?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT0U0qZ4ALN
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0BVbMXSgOb
He glares, mortified to feel the by-now familiar sensation of his cheeks heating up. “Shut up, Karin.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeEgnF0AolH
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“I would say that more than that, what is so remarkable is that this is the first time he brings home a girl who isn’t his girlfriend.” Itachi comments, his tone kind but knowing—and as Karin looks away from the older Uchiha and towards Sasuke, giving him a look that seemed to be clearly flaunting a oh, is that so? Sasuke airily looks away.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb2t6LrNhha
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Damn you, brother.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡECLStUvHMy
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“Hn, I don’t know what Itachi is talking about.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa1NJE8dz4u
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A twinkling laughter resounds through the room, effectively cutting the argument short; and the three of them turn only to find Mikoto standing by the doorway, a tray of biscuits in her hands and a happy beam in her beautiful face.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJyHMzSrdf
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“It seems you three are having fun,” she merrily observes, graciously moving to leave the tray on the tea-table. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Sasuke enjoy himself this much.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlFedKQCuCA
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAllzozqOW3
Despite his better judgment, Sasuke can feel himself blushing. “Who said I’m enjoying myself?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAZ8Pwiq32l
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But his indignant mutter remains promptly ignored as Mikoto takes Karin’s hands in hers and gives her a glowing smile. “You’re good for my son, Karin-chan.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSebyTHgS8v
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For a moment, the room is submerged in silence—even Karin herself is rendered speechless, and while in any other circumstance Sasuke would have reveled in seeing the girl this flustered—widened eyes, a pink hue in her cheeks—the truth is this time, it only adds to his own awkwardness.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBY0adMXhZQ
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“… Mother, you just met her,” he lamely ends up saying once he has found his voice, but he sounds more astonished than reproaching; and Mikoto rewards him with a thoughtful smile before setting her gaze back on Karin.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYveKqq05pS
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“I know, dear. But, somehow… it feels like you two have known each other for a long time.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhu4McKpHGV
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyr5yyI4PEs
Itachi says nothing—but the way in which he warmly squeezes Sasuke’s shoulder is eloquent enough.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡayaCIYwhhH
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrZrW9BAkiK
Wordlessly, Sasuke and Karin seek each other’s eyes across the room—and he wishes he wasn’t aware of the way he was slowly starting to mirror her smile.
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“It’s so stupid,” she assesses, looking at the field with apparent disinterest, “I mean, running like idiots after a ball, really? Pft, where’s the fun in that?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwVh2R4Dt6Y
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ36KmldlvAX
Sasuke would have been inclined to agree; if only he were listening to what she was saying. Instead, he has found himself distracted from his own homework by the way the sun seemed to be lighting her hair just so—by the way her ponytail exposed the stark whiteness of the nape of her neck; by the way she absentmindedly bit on her pencil from time to time as she read, brows furrowed in confusion or eyes light up with understanding—and she would tilt her head to the side then, stick her chin out with self-satisfaction—and Sasuke—585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnLxCSjQJwS
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJFPAWq7g6
“Sasuke—hey, earth to Sasuke, are you listening? I was just saying that—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFGuCYrMDYO
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdgWflFYEbm
But Sasuke doesn’t get to hear it, because his body is too busy being pulled to her like a moth to a flame and his brain is too busy shutting down as his lips meet hers. She freezes, and he is too much of a novice so the kiss isn’t much of a kiss—but he doesn’t quite mind.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc1UwuHVVLb
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkmFMHCBpTR
When he leans back he finds Karin staring at him, point-blank. He figures that perhaps he should try and say something; but he doesn’t feel the need to, so he just licks the lip-gloss off his lips instead.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCPGnv0HHu
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“Raspberries,” he states, and that seems to get Karin off her trance, because she blinks at him.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ptV1TtKcf
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And then she is grinning.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5sqr2FRMDZ
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“Had I known you would finally kiss me today, I’d have worn something less sweet.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVVY7cGvBbw
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP3WV9yzC5s
He can’t help but smile back. “I almost did, yesterday,” he reveals, as he carefully takes her glasses off. “And the day before that. And the one before that.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlnBs40TqO4
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5xXIaaqCPL
“I know,” and her grin becomes a husky smirk as she tangles her fingers in his hair. “You’re too easy to read, Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTGtmos5Vp4
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“Hn, you could have helped, then,” he says, but the truth is he is too lost in her to really mind.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLtqLckMk1d
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“Not a chance,” their noses touch and her voice lowers to a mere brush of air against his lips, “…it’s too fun to watch you squirm.”
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“You won’t find anything better for a more reasonable price, I assure you, Uchiha-san. This is the absolute best—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tzENzVa8k
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He goes on and on, but the words of the realtor start to become nothing but background noises as Sasuke’s gaze is caught by Karin’s vibrant red hair.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuezhrHwQO1
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“Excuse me.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7FfQ5uzIQ6
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Not waiting for a reply, Sasuke makes his way to the windowsill; Karin was standing in front of it, her eyes closed and her face showered by the rays of the sun filtering in through the glass. It occurs to him then that he has never seen her looking so serene—so at peace with herself and the world. So taken is he by the realization, that he does not notice he has stopped breathing until Karin’s eyes flutter open and she smiles at him.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFSVddd3yRi
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“This house is ours, Sasuke,”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeSLw7mHOKN
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Her fingers find their way around his, and Sasuke gives them a squeeze as he nods, his expression naturally mirroring her own.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG3OhX25J09
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He could feel it, too.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ59dbtBylC8
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Behind them, the realtor clears his throat but Karin cuts him short before he could get a single word out.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaerRPZvaYY
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“We’re buying it,” she states loud and clear, and she is positively glowing.
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She can hardly believe it.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1fhJAdkXhz
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Can hardly believe this. That the guy she once chased down a street in the pouring rain is holding her in his arms, his head sunk in her neck as he breathes in the scent of her hair.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmwq6K5SBt6
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1NK6VwXMP
It seemed like something straight out of one of those dramas she used to love to ridicule and secretly watch at the same time.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5GtQ4pojHZ
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQV7Q9B6lqM
Her kind businessman had turned out to be a gentleman through and through; smooth, reliable and above all, capable. He was everything she wanted in a man and then some; and to top it all off, he seemed to be as crazy about her as she was about him.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqxWGB5PenG
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUsIEsQHZaV
Now that she thought about it, it seemed more like something straight out from a dream rather than a mere drama. The thought makes her giggle, and she feels him smile against her neck, his arms holding her just a little bit closer so that she has to readjust her own hold around his neck.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdlTJw4kjDz
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4TXyAGsx54
“What’s so funny?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSwp0Og6ToJ
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She tells him; because even though the thought is childish, she has learnt that she does not have to keep anything from him. She trusted him with even the most embarrassing and ridiculous sides of her; those she wouldn’t show to anyone else.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjQWWwufnjn
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“There’s just one thing off, though—” she observes, as an afterthought, “where’s my rival in love?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntf0lB5tiZ
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“Nowhere,” he asserts, grave like only he could be about even the most foolish of things. “I am yours.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJHH9l7ge9
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaTRBCCNYdf
The line would have sounded corny in anyone else’s lips, but in his it sounds just like it is—a statement. A truth being bluntly spoken as he caresses her cheek and looks into her eyes with the barest traces of a smile.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDgpJXCsWMl
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She has barely begun to smile back when he is sinking his face on her hair again and brushing his lips against her ear—“And you are mine.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrkWt1i1ddh
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And he is breathing in her scent and tightly holding her in his arms—so tightly in fact that she can hardly breathe.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzBiryPlT0B
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“S-asuke—” she chokes.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZERUAoIdFN
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But he does not listen.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLAf6px0cJ7
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“…mine.”
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She soundlessly sneaks behind him and leans her chin on his shoulder.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6bYowHVbtc
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“Sewing again?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCDjZy0qhH2
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“Not my fault you have so many clothes,” is his simple reply as he continues to work the needle and the thread, slowly-but surely creating what would be a white and red fan.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYXD5AgYGrA
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Her fingers come to play with his hair, pulling and twisting some strands of raven black; “I don’t get why you do it manually, Sasuke. Sewing machines exist just for this kind of thing, in case you forgot.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZE19Epm8tx
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“I told you, Karin. It’s an Uchiha tradition, it’s supposed be done manually.” His voice is as light as her warm breathing against his neck, and they remain like that—he calmly sewing, she silently watching—until she suddenly straightens.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5U6UecYOt
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“Where are you going?” he can’t help but ask, and hopes the way he is already missing her doesn’t seep into his voice.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXALtlWj8xQ
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“For the sewing kit,” comes her matter-of-fact reply, and surprised, Sasuke arches one eyebrow. “Since I’m becoming an Uchiha myself, I may as well learn, right?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy13QoM7sXr
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She shoots him a playful smirk that looks too much like a smile before leaving the room, and Sasuke cannot help the way his pulse quickens at its sight.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEj3GxMGgTv
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And he finds himself smiling at her back, like one of those love-sick fools he always used to make fun of.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNqwUHUKbB
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But it’s just, back then—he had never thought someone could actually make him this happy.
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“Stop doing that, Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfTi9FpPrDJ
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“Doing what?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrQOrPulhNQ
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“This—making me happy,” her eyes are stern as she looks at him, but he does not take her honesty as seriously as he probably should.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBF9rVePLe
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“Or what?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV3O7LmsvsA
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“…Or I may fall in love with you, Uchiha.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrvGsA82E8
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She is both elated and horrified to see how soft and harmless his usual menacing and intimidating smirk looks as he replies.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBWjXC6XqLW
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“… Maybe I wouldn’t mind that.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4JYhJ1JlQE
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His naked form is gone before she can gather herself enough to reply; gone to the living room of the luxury-hotel-room to call for room service—and as she hears his voice drifting over to her from the other room, Karin digs her nails into her palms.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT4s7sMWAAO
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She was alone in the room, his suitcase forgotten on a nearby chair and his laptop on the table—she knows his passwords; has the knowledge and tools to get through what she does not know, and above all, she has the time to do so.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8iJENBhtbY
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Only a minute would be enough for a spy as skilled as herself.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGDTVtZOzmC
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By the he would come back into the room and make love to her again, it would be too late for him; and he wouldn’t suspect a thing.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8lrzPeOOA
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She could get away with it, if she were to go through it. She should go through it. This is what they sent her for—this is what she is getting paid for, not for screwing the target all night long.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNhB95J8ads
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She sighs, lays back down on the bed and thinks of his pathetic attempt at a smirk. It makes it easier to forget her duties, to forget the papers she should be revising, the documents she should be hacking into—585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEo0EGduST
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To forget the atrocities she would find if she did.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBElDW7zTyr
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And, really—who would have thought that a monster like Uchiha Sasuke was capable of making a face like that?
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Sasuke was just putting a plate aside when the sound of porcelain breaking reaches his ears.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTeBtdjs7ik
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With a start, he turns only to find Karin crouched on the ground, her feet surrounded by tiny pieces of what had just been one of her favorite sets of dishes.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwRJrdWMif9
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“Karin,” he calls, drying his hands on his pants—and he misses the way Karin’s shoulders tense, her back stiffening. “Are you alright?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNVh6EDKk2
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“Yeah,” she murmurs after a moment, and Sasuke blinks. She didn’t sound alright.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMcUouAdBc1
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“Karin,” he calls again, approaching her. “Leave that be, I’ll take care of it.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbR0YFf3qKs
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“I told you, it’s fine.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8hincWbSlV
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He frowns, concerned. “Karin—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXK78B4C48f
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But the words freeze in his throat as Karin yelps and slaps away the hand he had been about to reassuringly place on her shoulder.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQccWwGjkJr
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For a long moment, all they do is stare at each other—Sasuke staggered by Karin’s frightened eyes, by the raw fear contorting her features—and then the moment ends and Karin is standing up and taking a loud breath.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe6tc4Rvb4A
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“Sorry, Sasuke—I think I’ll go and lie down for a while.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡspeg2nRvMw
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Her voice is even, but Sasuke knows her better than that; and so he can’t bring himself to watch her as she leaves the kitchen.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBiCGBXBi3
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He doesn’t know what he would do if he were to see that same fright reflected in her eyes again.
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She jolts back as the lights go on and the shadows melt away into an all too familiar figure—one that is sitting on the one-man couch and that tilts his head to the side, dark bangs falling across his face and eyes as black as abysses centered on her.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ11Czd5x8xL
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“S-sasuke, what—?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYPUvGPBGvW
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“Where were you, Karin?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7LYFL6X3aj
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His question is smooth and steady; placid, even. Except that Karin knows him well enough; has gotten to know this side of him—this terrifying side of him, twisted and manipulative, brutally honest in order to hurt rather than to please—well enough lately. Enough to be able to see beyond and into the brewing storm.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAHnInt3ah1
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It reeks of lighting and promises pain—it frankly terrifies her.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwkxlCgGctv
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But she holds her ground.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmwdxSkyMvi
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“I—I was having lunch with my parents, Sasuke. They called to invite us today but you were at—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNQE7GR1Qet
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“Liar,” he grits out, and Karin’s blood runs cold. “I called them myself. You were not with them. So, where were you?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ64K4zZCHSR
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeXjoYMZu1
It is trying to keep her voice and hands from shaking that she says the truth. “I was out with the girls, Sasuke—but we were just eating and talking! We did nothing w—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQujbgouCP
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“Then why didn’t you say so from the start, Karin?” she freezes, like a deer caught in headlights—and then lowers his eyes. Slowly, Sasuke stands. “… Do you not trust me, Karin? Do you think I do not trust you? Is that it?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ2P4oKDr8S
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“Sasuke, I—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yBRz7fvRZ
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO4nyy6Ee1S
“Because I do, Karin,” he is standing before her now, his hand lovingly caressing her face, his eyes warm—and though Karin knows better, her body remains as loyal to him as ever and it betrays her; closing its eyes and leaning into the touch. “I trust you, because I love you. Do you not love me, Karin?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVeo2NiM0I
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaxE5AJ60uY
A part of her hates herself for how easily the answer comes forth to her lips. For how true it remains. “… I do, Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLb4PzI5rzN
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡufJYlzrSBK
She hears his smile, “Good. Then, you will stop seeing them, won’t you? Those girls.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFcFAYhpypR
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Her eyes snap open—and the Sasuke that greets them is once again back to being rough oceans and thunderstorms. “You’re better than them, Karin.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBbU32R7rH
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡivAwK1snrt
I want you all for myself—is what Karin hears instead, and she frowns. “Sasuke, you can’t be serious—they are my friends!”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxjI6OCj1FW
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNKEtCcGkYk
She comes to regret her words almost immediately, as his features snap into a mad grimace and his hand shots to her wrist, grasping it tightly enough to make her yelp—“And I not enough for you, Karin?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa5v6WfC3By
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcI0RQD2l1J
“I—” yes, he is—was. Is.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZmk3QmA71
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And that frightens her more than he possibly could.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpRN2tYDDc
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“—alright, Sasuke… you win.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLoakHdBTm
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwxVC793sRo
His features relax and his hands come to cup her cheeks again, a soft, almost child-like smile in his lips. Innocent enough to trick anyone.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxUgNJxFcYD
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Even himself.
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585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu203Hitgdh
The silence is deafening. The unsaid drawing knots with his vocal chords, until he decides that enough has been enough.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79uupDh4fa
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY8TNJTqm9t
“Karin, about yesterday….” He trails off, figures he will give her the chance to own up to what happened by herself, rather than attempting to play the game of pretend like she has been doing all day.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzvc007wr5L
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcdJP3YOIGi
She doesn’t bulge. “What?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT71hp3HFMu
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrP5lg29Y5O
And perhaps that’s what worries Sasuke the most.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLYixLXUGEK
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVk8bBIL4N1
It takes him a few moments before he is able to gain control of the ominous feeling pooling in his stomach; the one making it hard to speak.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKnU2p1wjAt
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6kj7aFKQd6
“Don’t try to avoid the subject, Karin. There is something you aren’t telling me, isn’t there?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTzIlXMY1dd
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJztxGzRciT
Karin’s hands pause for half a second—and then she is moving the chopsticks again, her lips curving in a mystifying smile that does not reach her eyes.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Gqyq41xHg
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZl394Hlm9b
And Sasuke wants nothing more than to ask her to stop—but he is too scared to do so.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnqajt7mIk
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“Eat, Sasuke. It’s going to get cold.”
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He rolls the raspberries between his fingers, memories swirling in his head.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPBq0yIyzAp
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡehFw9HArJJ
He has always had a very good memory; and throughout his life, it has proved to be a curse more often than a blessing.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98c6fvsDyC
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In this case, it is both at once.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAzj5fSEQM6
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFsJJLkriAQ
A redheaded toddler pulls him along to play on the backyard; a young girl holds him as he weeps for his parents and brother; a teenager kissing the raspberry lipstick off his lips.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88wkODZr8H
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuGRM537Ctr
A girl sending him off with a sad smile, and never looking back.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwj4PW1U7nQ
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAbHjGRjzdF
Broken promises.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ23xea5Hpb
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A call. A funeral.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG33DrruGPo
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And tears.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAoLGO2XLDG
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Heartbreak.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf4cZcpGbDB
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Loneliness.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1hKhYepRFl
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MLaW1AqSZ
…then there was nothing else.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGoGUGWmxME
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And then there was everything all over again.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeLHwQp3zNc
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Rinse and repeat over and over; relieving both the good and the bad, but not feeling the sunlight warm nor the pain sting. It was like a movie etched on his corneas—he saw it over and over whenever he had his eyes open, whenever he had his eyes closed. And by now he has seen it enough times to know every turn, every scene—and yet he can’t stop.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1eCX958uD
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUIUCXDQcsH
He can’t stop.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98A7SNE4Jy
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He does not want to.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpq5uYFvNAu
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbQDZxLkSaA
One of the raspberries snaps, juice rolling down his fingers—but he does nothing to clean it up.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmLP4T1Y6hq
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The door creaks open.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ63ImuESnx
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“Uchiha-san, you have to eat.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsCsrspuRVq
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvj2caux6QN
The nurse says, more out of habit than anything else; but he is too far away to hear—585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZZ4TG0YKi
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡReuCRdgE08
(“I’ll see you around… Sasuke,” comes her goodbye—and then there is a whirlwind of colors and images as the roll film reels back to their beginning.)585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBD5wjyfm5u
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8z2CEgnqQ
—and it’s been a year since the patient of the room 723 has pronounced a single word.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDsmpK6Bhaz
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4mfg50IfjZ
(And a five-year old Karin is smiling.)
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When the first rays of the sun slip through the open curtains, Sasuke awakens only to find that it was one of those rare days when Karin has woken up first.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCoHS4rAdYX
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZvg91QdIKI
For a blissful moment, he is ignorant; forgetful. He does not remember how weird she has been acting, does not remember the silences from the past couple of days—and so he is about to tease her about waking up so early when he realizes there was something very, very wrong—and any drowsiness is suddenly yanked from underneath him like a rug.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfSphsgS4HQ
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFdFrjidHrw
Karin was sitting on the bed, unnaturally straight and still; her eyes vacant and unseeing, telltale trails of dried tears on her cheeks.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmRcnpcN41
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡguXOMJoVkI
For an excruciatingly long moment, Sasuke is frozen in place—at a complete loss as to what to do. This was the first time he has ever seen Karin cry, and the sight makes an ugly feeling curl up in his gut.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtUEGCbUm4S
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MUhM9KBqK
“Karin…” his voice is faint; a tentative call more to spur himself into motion than to reach her. “Karin, what’s wrong?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwUj2qgC2UK
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa7ncCwI2Ow
She does not react—gives no signs of having heard him, and Sasuke is filled with a sense of foreboding so potent that it robs him of his breathing.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkcKhOvYvIb
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And then she parts her lips.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaSZpwQLIYB
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCDCdfXScX
“Sasuke… I had a dream… a new one.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLGZBHeNgfq
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLsdfLPOfk0
Sasuke swallows; what could she have possibly seen to put her in such a state?585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwgjnnvWzK
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHz6HcIgEpe
“Karin, I…” the redhead simply shakes her head, and to his ever-growing alarm there are fresh tears dripping from her eyes.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4o4yTh8UVF
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“Forget it, Sasuke… it’s better if you do.”
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She chokes on a distraught sob as she gathers his body in her arms, his blood seeping into her shirt and tainting it as crimson as her hair.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByfU35H3oy
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpxwuty70f
“Stop it, Karin. You were not supposed to care about him—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEhMfzpRSy
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJwaK812tXa
“And you weren’t supposed to kill him! This was my job!” she growls, her sight blurry by unleashed tears—and despite it she can still clearly see the apathy in her coworker’s face.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbsbQIB9ol
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It makes something in her tightly clench.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCmos3whdA
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“Hn, you took too long. We couldn’t keep waiting for you to remember your roots. Did you forget you’re a spy, Karin? You’re trained for riding the world of bastards like these.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgRP90pBmoe
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXTwqBBk5u
And then he distastefully kicks him—he kicks Sasuke’s side, as if he were nothing but a sack of bones and skin—and something in her snaps.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBWiGuK4wN1
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2JyS9teOJf
She is taking her gun out and blowing his brains out before he has got time to even think—and as the body falls to the ground with a sick thud, Karin wipes off her tears—smearing her cheeks with Sasuke’s blood—and loads the gun again.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUclEfo3AFt
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpV1Eq9SLN3
She can hear them coming from her, and she knows she won’t be able to escape—but that was fine.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQYE8QPLm3
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She would take as many of them as she possibly could before going down, and—585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZLVS01Rfz
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCGVdNz1iP
“…we’ll meet soon, Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUAApU7mDmH
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkmfo2qklUe
—and Sasuke had always liked souvenirs.
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He is crudely woken up by Karin screaming his name.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpzIA7QcTaR
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUUongBp9o2
Her yells are shrill and terrified; and they do not stop, no matter how much he shakes her, how much he calls out to her.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRNeVP8fHff
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡINl4Dr259G
In fact—she seemed to only be getting worse.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6okDXRM6s8
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMpSQveWwFO
“Sasuke, no—!”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjJgAxzkK0g
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdWw9thiiLF
“Karin! Karin, wake up!” he has her seized by her shoulders, but Karin trashes in his hold; so he brushes the bangs off her forehead instead, trying to soothe her nightmares with his touch. “It’s fine, I’m here, I won’t let anyone hurt—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGHrbHis3ya
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDX8tV4VNbk
But his sincere promise is cut short by her terrified sob.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyIBbvJuu0y
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlBi1qrptFa
“N-no, Sasuke—get away from me!”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNitItxfUdI
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Sasuke jumps back, as if burnt. “W-what…?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2iTHCpzn2
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdZWHGsMs9c
He could not believe his ears—she was frightened—of him?585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4MyUydTu3m
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhFTRH0oA2
He leans back; backs off the bed and steps into the cold floor, his mind whirling—and it’s then a memory sneaks into his conscious. Uninvited, and terrible with the clarity it brings him.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjNvPpgqX6a
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‘… They weren’t always nice, Sasuke. They rarely were.’585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJNmCMokwtj
‘What weren’t?’585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxyPG0NgHfT
‘...You.’585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdTs8bmLIBe
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The thought makes trepidation mercilessly grip his heart—and he can do nothing but helplessly watch as Karin twists and turns in her sleep, battling against ghosts he cannot see.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6VkwW05ZA3
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQkI9AzTUkl
Ghosts he has started to fear, too.
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585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0yc9AZ2kNT
“Karin,” he whispers affectionately, caressing her cheek with his right hand, “I need you.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx8CGpNupBT
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlZLiEvoiuw
Karin swallows the knot in her throat and forces her knees to remain firm, “I—I know, so plea—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiIlhRydoc7
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCEQpSorR2
“You’re the only one for me,” he talks over her, as if she hadn’t said a word. And Karin cannot fight the shiver that runs down her spine as something cold is pressed to her ribcage, right in between her breasts. “That’s why… I must to do this.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEB5NJs2Q6T
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAgxnPVv6fL
“Sasuke,” her voice is hoarse, her eyes begging him to rethink this—to be reasonable. But Sasuke simply shakes his head and smiles an impossibly sad smile, his thumb tracing her bottom lip, which has started to quiver.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNNbI6SL5BE
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ESm0QH6WC
“I’ll see you soon… Karin.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzaYnFqLiin
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZkAS1WukSE
He says, and his words are as loud as the gunshot that follows.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZaS8FM4eN
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And then her lifeless body is crumbling to the ground, his soon to follow.
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“What was I doing to you?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4CUeIS9Kdc
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfiLvyOTsl6
“… I don’t remember.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLyjaclHHD
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡapz08MiQcl
Sasuke shuts his eyes close, his hands gripping the sheets. It would be so much easier to pretend to believe her; to pretend there was nothing wrong. To pretend he didn’t spend the whole night fighting the desperation gripping at his core as he watched her shake in her turmoil-filled sleep; longing for it to end, dreading what would happen once it did.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRwdhanDue1
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But he has played that game long enough.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡam9xvR6gcU
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He cannot continue to allow himself to remain blissfully unaware while she battles on her own.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAPQBnyz510
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3SATqGuzCe
“Don’t lie to me, Karin.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfbgM5AmlUw
585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9mtj6svsQE
“I’m not lying, Sasuke… I can’t remember what I dreamed,” Karin whispers, and a shiver runs down his spine as she places her cold hand atop of his own; it was trembling. “…But I can remember the rest.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY1HfNR5w4V
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He is shaking, too—and so he uncurls his fists and entwines his fingers with hers, and makes the one request that would surely change everything.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpdmkE7oAj
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“…Tell me the truth, Karin.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ44LoqB2DHC
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Karin takes a deep breath, and Sasuke braces himself.
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The world seems to slow to a halt as she coughs up blood, the sword cleanly piercing her chest and stopping dangerously close to his own heart.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf780XKqpC8
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He can only stare, eyes wide, at the back of her head—the vibrant strands of hair tickling his face as she takes an involuntary step backward—and then there is a cold flush of liquid splaying all over his shirt as the sword is pulled out and she begins to crumble down like a leaf—585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDlZc9RzGoB
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And her name leaves his lips in the form of a horrified call—one that is cut short by her strained smile.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ijsirZMca
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“Idiot, I… told you… to move, Sasuke…”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwfXrNr3KAJ
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“Stop talking, Karin,” he ushers, and his vision blurs. Despite it he thinks he sees her smile widening, and he cradles her closer to his chest, tries to ignore the blood seeping from her body at an alarmingly fast pace. “You need to save your strength, Sakura is c—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ32x1iFmm71
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“Sa…suke,” and though her voice is nothing but a dying whisper, he is rendered silent at once. “Promise me… you won’t… die.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjAnDTQazrV
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His teeth clatter and sink on his lip, drawing blood—and suddenly he is yelling. “You are the idiot, Karin! Why?! Why would you do that for me? Did you forget what I did to you? I thought you said you wouldn’t! I thought you said you would—”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMPhWBw54cu
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“—make you… regret it… I know,” her smile looks like unleashed tears. “I admit… this… wasn’t exactly… what I had… in mind.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtipJ7nroG
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There is a choked sob—and he barely registers it is his own.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMJxXsrvZxc
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She does, though—and her fingertips come to softly brush away the tears from the corner of his eyes, leaving telltale traces of crimson instead.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7gYnqRC6AH
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“Don’t… all I want…ed… is for you… to smile… like that day.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyEI9tFVT5Z
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He knows at once what she means—but the memories feel light-years away; they are colored in grays and smeared with blood, and for the life of him—for the life of her—he cannot find it in himself the will to smile.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrfHDjKSbV
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And she slips away through his hesitation like he had always slipped through her fingers.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE4dxyCG3cM
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“See ya… Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYF2n7LcR2l
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Her hand drops and her body goes cold, and all his lips seem to be able to do is call her name—a name accompanied by lonesome apologies and regrets that would never get either of them anywhere.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5rNWEMRggh
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He never seems to be able to get anywhere, ever, not even when he is trying to—but if he could—if only he could do it all over again, he—585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLiemwkeoUD
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Mere hours later, his body is the one to drop lifelessly to the ground—and it’s all over before he can realize the smile that grazes his lips.
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A terrible silence has descended upon them.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCVf5JzrZCg
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He has retreated to the edge of the bed, his elbows sinking on his knees and his horrified face cradled in his shaking hands.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhJGh1It0J
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“Why…?” and he does not know it, but it always seemed to come to this very question. “Why are you with me, despite all the things I’ve done to you?”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqsW3GYVQ60
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Karin watches his desolated back and has a hard time swallowing the lump in her throat, “Because… they are not you, Sasuke.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuw9mDn83hc
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He says nothing in response—can not possibly wrap his mind around her words, Karin knows. And so she softly crawls to him and drapes her arms around his neck, leans her cheek on the side of his head, closes her eyes, and smiles.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEDCWP9tx60
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“And, above all…”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1tCK2yvUZd
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The smile is strained—but resolute. Serene. It says nothing and everything at once. And despite himself, Sasuke finds solace in her touch—his own hand coming to seize her own as her words carry over to him, a simple truth that at once gives him hope and clogs his throat with trepidation.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ02UGuVxdXE
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“…Above all, I want to see how this one ends.”
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It happens a sunny morning as she trips and a bear lunges at her, its roar so deafening that she thought her head would burst before the beast would get to sink its teeth on her flesh.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvKlmS3fWCl
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Except that it doesn’t get to.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqVHJ7TZt4
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And when she puts her glasses back on, her sight is met by a smile that would carve itself on her mind and set ablaze a flame that would burn just as strongly and lastingly as the eyes of the boy she would never, ever forget.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdCtcPQAj4f
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“See ya.”585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOJggN7U41
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This is what I give,585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ13zyv0wlvX
A circle is complete.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDhR6n2ynWV
Another circle spins585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmkbAUKZL8c
There's life within,585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2V8XWLLm6K
Within
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end.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡblz6H7XRBE
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Ok! Now you guys should understand what I meant by the warnings at the beginning; I tried to make each SK set of reincarnations distinctly different from each other, both in personalities, dynamics, and backgrounds; so they indeed diverge from the Sasuke and Karin we're used to, as they have all grown in different environments. All the same, I tried to keep some traits of their canon personalities, so hopefully, they aren't absurdly OOC.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkh8Fnzy1QV
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That said~! The song used at the beginning is Kitade Nana’s Tsukihana, and the one at the end is Blue Foundation’s Bonfires. Now, onto random details about the fic~ there are five versions of SasuKarin total in the fic; the originals, and 4 pairs of reincarnations.585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLR5gIWgP9
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The format of the fic didn’t allow me to expand and truly explain each particular set, so if you are curious about any of them drop me a comment and I’ll tell you their background and/or explain anything you may be wondering about~!585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNKgPF1mYFW
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For now, though, I must mention a couple of things about the 4th SK pair (aka, the most controversial - the one with cute!Karin and businessman!Sasuke); their meeting (the umbrella thing) was completely inspired by a real-life story I read here, and overly-jealous-and-possessive-Sasuke was inspired by might 'Anyone's Ghost' SK AMV, here. I debated a bit about this version because it's kind of hard to imagine a Karin who would allow Sasuke to be that way with her; but then again, this particular Karin is less headstrong than the one we know and love. So I decided to leave it as it lol Also, his overdone “I love you(s)” and cheesiness, while sincere, were meant to be creepy and manipulative; I really hope they came out that way lol585Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcxijbhl5oG
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Thanks for reading! ♥
Tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
ns216.73.216.100da2
