oflightningandfire / uchiha sasuke
☇ Something came over him. They took a simple seeming mission: help find a young girl who disappeared from the local orphanage of the small village they were passing through. Only later did they hear the full story. She was only eleven– lost her family during the war. A few kids that knew her before said that she changed, became hostile, distant, and cold. She’d been violent toward others more than once before up and disappeared a few days ago.
The story was too familiar, he supposed. Too easy to see the potential outcome. Darkness had plunged it’s talons into the chest of another person too young to understand how to cope with so much loss. They checked into a tavern hotel for the night and he quietly stepped into the bathroom to prepare for bed.
All it took was one look in the mirror for the first few tears to fall. A pain ripped through his chest intense enough for him to grasp at it. Feet backed up and all of a sudden there he was against the wall as if he could see it; could see it all… could see Itachi, could feel his forehead against his own. But he could see the damage, too. See it all so clearly. He could smell it. Rivers of blood. Mountains of people. The ache of returning home day after day to see nothing but caution tape and empty rooms. How lonely that was. How painful that was. All of a sudden, out of nowhere at all, everything he knew was gone.
Sasuke swallowed hard as his vision blurred. He tried so desperately to stop it; to stay quiet. Soon enough his body slipped down the wall and his face buried in between his knees. The Uchiha wasn’t even aware that someone had opened the door a crack until a small creak ricocheted through his ears. Shit. He had no fucking excuse for being on the floor like this and when he looked up, all words caught in his throat. He couldn’t even think what to say.
She did not mind doing those little missions. Sometimes was easy and gave them some money or any advantage. However, life is not a bed of roses. The village where they were now was looking for a girl, who ran away from the orphanage for reasons she did not know. Karin could handle it very well, she would simple trace the chakras of the region until found something that fit the description they receveid. It was what they did and not take long to run their errand. Still, she was strangely quiet all the way through. The excuse was the concentration she needed, although making it was natural to her. In fact she could not stop thinking about. A girl alone somewhere, desperately running away. A very familiar story. She could not really hurt herself, the ransom was on the way — but was impossible not to think that things could have been different if someone had chased Karin when she ran away from Kusa.
Reflecting a little she felt bad for chasing after the girl. Of course the orphanage had good reasons, it was there she found shelter and protection after all, but mistrust was automatic. Orochimaru also promised to take care of her and things did not go as planned. Anyway, Karin could not do anything for her. The mission was fulfilled, end of story. The girl had a background full of traumas and losses and she preferred not to know the details. It was better to forget, to enjoy the results of their success. Tonight she would sleep in a warm bed and would not let anything ruin her mood, no way. She drank something, had some food and then felt ready for a restorative sleep. Before going to the room she stayed with the team and watched when Sasuke stepped aside to go to the bathroom. No big deal. However, she soon found a reason to worry. Took him a long tiem to get back, even if she felt he was still there. And then she realized something was wrong. Karin had felt it before — he was bad. Terribly bad. A few minutes have passed, trying to give him the necessary privacy, but knowing that Sasuke was suffering and doing nothing about it was almost unbearable. She left the others without saying anything and went to the bathroom.
The door was pushed, creaking gently. Crimson eyes scanned the place only to find Sasuke shrunken in a corner, seated and with his face hidden. She felt an immediate twinge of pain. It was not an easy thing to see anyway, but if it was about him... The pain was indescribably larger. Karin’s first impulse was to run up and take him in her arms, but she managed to control herself in time. That would be worse. For someone who hid the feelings so much it might seem humiliation or something like that — she did not want to be disrespectful in any way. But when he looked up, his face bathed in tears, she could not wait any longer. Quick steps led Karin to him, kneeling beside — words were not necessary to understand what was happening. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him close, one hand touching her dark hair as the other stroked his back. Eyes burned, tears came rolling down, but she did her best not to sob. Her face was hidden on his shoulder, avoiding looking at what had broken her heart in a thousand pieces. ❝ I’m sorry... I’m so sorry... ❞ She did not even know why she was apologizing. Because they had accepted that stupid mission, because they had become involved with the girl’s story — because she had not realized how it had affected him before. If she had noticed she would have left the orphanage immediately and taken him away, someplace where painful memories could not be rescued one more time.
