[FANFIC - HBD, KARIN!] PÉRIODICITÉ (SK)
Title: périodicité429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ34Hq3YwOah
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQiLGXjw3Mi
Rating: K+429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9PBQf6pKhm
Word Count: 2.817429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9qEgzSIaZ
Author's Notes: Made for our "Karin's birthday week" over at the Ice&Spice FC @ NF ♥ I... don't even know what this is, or where it came from, and it's possibly one of the cheesiest pieces I've written for SK. But I kind of regret nothing lol - Oh and that novice drawing at the top of the fic? yup, mines. guilty as charged orz429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA5vs9mMu5d
Summary: June 20 has never been an ordinary day for one Uzumaki Karin.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjvzNyLp4Qk
périodicité (periodicity)429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLMuA0RJjm
"recurrence at regular intervals of time."
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périodicité;429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoohuamPVct
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by Kanae
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“Don’t look so down, darling. This is a great chance for you.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO3WVqP46Iw
“…Yeah… a great chance to make a fool of myself, you mean.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJWDgIdIyxY
A twinkling laugh, a delicate hand warmly lands over a girl’s head and—
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At twelve, there aren’t many things that Karin has done or that she wishes to do. She is just an ordinary girl from an ordinary family living in an ordinary village; there is nothing special about her, nothing out of the norm, nothing that makes her stand out—if one ignores her flagrant red hair, that is.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5LIj80WXH7
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But that is just what her father seems to have wanted to do all along.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMN294oag8C
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You’re going out? Don’t forget to put your hood on, Karin, he would say, whenever Karin had to wander away from the immediate realms of their home. Why, papa? She used to ask when she was no more than a little girl; but that was a habit that slowly but surely withered and died as she began to grow up—as she started to grow aware enough to notice the wary air her father’s kind, wise red eyes acquired as the reminder left his lips.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxdknuRJDnp
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As she grew older, Karin learned to recognize it for what it truly was: more a warning than a piece of advice; and she began to grow more jittery as result, more worn at the seams.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVOnLDHRtS
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Her red hair was her only outstanding trait, the only thing that made her different—without it, Karin may as well fade into the scenery.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rivemIzLf
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She may as well not exist.
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—and ruffles her hair.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7efoSRCFj
“Now, now, don’t be like that. I have a good feeling about this, you know?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtBt6O6j2DC
“…What do you mean, mama?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJij6w142oW
A secretive smile highlighted by—
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At thirteen, Karin nearly dies.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzpJ4unywdG
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And then she is saved—saved by a striking boy with a rich voice and eyes that warm her up to the core the moment he smiles—at her, for her—and suddenly, Karin does not feel so ordinary anymore.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe8DSuEN98o
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There is something different about you, her mother tells her once with a knowing smile, ever since you came back from Konoha.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡALhKij8ZZF
Karin jumps in her seat, awkward denial bubbling up in her throat and evaporating the moment her mother laughs, I like it. You look prettier, Karin.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeooHVh2AbQ
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She does not know about that—can’t see any difference as she looks at herself in the mirror, self-consciously pulling on some strands of red hair and squinting at her reflection.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzeR9J37lAs
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What she does know, though—what she can’t forget, is—429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6fioF0pzUq
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See ya, he had said, and it takes Karin a surprising amount of time to realize that, for the first time since she could remember, there was something she wanted.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZpEhctPTE
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Wanted for herself; not for her parents, not for those she cares about. Something that was completely hers, in all its staggering intensity and youthful hope.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTBHYcCLFT6
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See ya, he had said, and until then Karin had never quite known how good it felt to feel alive.
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—by amber eyes that seem to spark.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMzmZVFNbN
“Ara~ I wonder if I should tell you. It is a safely guarded secret, you see.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJiMUNMx5Sy
“I will keep it! I promise, I won’t tell anybody, mama!”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhH5Zpj52cx
A chuckle, “Alright, alright! Since you insist, I'll tell you. It—”
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At fourteen, Karin breathes her last breath.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IwPggcGF2
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There is no blood—not hers—involved, nor are there any wounds—not physical ones—or any white walls or tunnels and gates of light—no light, only dark—only smoke—only the smell of burnt flesh and intest—429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqdXbpqezwx
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There is, however, anguish. An agony so great that Karin bit her lip until it bled, fisted her palms until her nails left permanent crescent-moon shaped scars in the contours of her skin, new batches added to already cracked life lines.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRowKm4Hdj9
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There are silent, chocked sobs that made her throat burn and her sight blur until she has ran out of tears.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3Br1rgJR9
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And there is also horror; a burning, paralyzing sort of horror that reaches its peak and fades into a mute but perpetual tune stringing the chords of her being as she comes back and stares at the corpses of her father and mother, unrecognizable masses of ashes retching of burnt blood and bodily fluids that make a pile of vile crawl its way up to her tongue.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡezN5Vcu3KX
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And then, there is he—sidestepping the man with ominous dark chakra and extending a hand towards her, onyx eyes boring into her own with the same might with which the understanding in his chakra drove her horror away.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVNtZYmuARb
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You staying here will amount to nothing, but you leaving just might, he says. Come, Karin, he calls.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyDZigq1MvF
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She takes his hand, and there is hope.
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“—It is said that one too many women in our family have found their fate in the lands of Konohagakure.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvUcCgNpLVj
“Their… fate?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgs9njOSUOT
Her voice curls up around the edges, as if it were a spell.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP6Zmc8LA16
“You will understand in—”
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At fifteen, Karin has shed her skin.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmkcxulBiJ2
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There are now sharp edges where there used to be soft contours; angry frowns where there used to be kindness, smirks where there used to be smiles; buoyancy where there once was shame, barriers in what once were vast landscapes—and there are also scars.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCvNmBxYokl
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Tell-tale scars of the Karin she used to be and new, revolting ones from the Karin she has become. She hides the latter and denies the former; pretends they’re long gone, never aching, never hurting anymore.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dvfeivQw4
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Yet, he sees them all. As if she wore them on her sleeve.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp1BP6iZPaB
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“Say, Sasuke, since we’re alone how about we—”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgkYMefOS2E
“I have to leave soon, Karin.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRDKRzgNT1H
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She puts her glasses back on and crosses her arms with a frown, moving away from him. “Why did you even bother coming, then?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROFkRlxXlP
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Sasuke says nothing, then. He says nothing, and Karin straightens, her back suddenly assaulted by gooseflesh; could he—?429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Qyn03edrJ
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Could he have possibly known? Known how before his unexpected arrival, Karin had been hounded by her memories. Seeing familiar faces in the nameless prisoners of the base, ghosts come back to haunt her and pull her down with them to the depths of hell—a hell made of nothing but flames and guilt of mistakes she is not sure she would take back, even if she could.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGBVG6DHyru
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“…I had business here, is all.” His voice reaches out to her through the haze of her thoughts, pulling her back with nonchalant words that seemed devoid of any meaning.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡge4R6wijHy
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But as she turns and her eyes meet his, Karin sees.
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“—in due time, Karin.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ23pBytawNA
“Still, mama… it just isn’t fair.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnBVBT2P7kA
“What isn’t, dear?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMgQrPrFgf
“… I wanted to spend my birthday with you and papa.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlhjOmTzFK
Her smile—
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At sixteen, Karin falls.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo76PESMsvy
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She falls from a great, great height at appalling speed; she hasn’t even had time to acknowledge the abysm before she has hit rock bottom, her goals and dreams spilling through her open chest and pooling on the ground alongside everything she knows.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUSa5FzDSg
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Alongside everything she once held dear. Everyone she relied on. The one she trusted.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKuR3m6ft1C
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Now, there was no one left.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIq8PnB4qVF
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No one left but the roaming, empty carcass of the boy she once loved; the boy who taught her what it felt like to be alive, the boy who gave her hope and helped her find meaning back when she had lost her way, the boy who helped her to be reborn from her ashes into someone better; someone stronger, someone capable of standing up for herself and for him, too. The boy who flared her will and her drive with a single touch, with a single look, with the simplest of words—429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ88Uran6dBX
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I need you429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcgUJqWGdN
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“So much for that,” Karin mutters to no one, her back pressed against the cold walls of a cell and her fingers absentmindedly tracing the ghost of the wound that had taken her heart out for good.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtT08tUT2WG
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And then it comes. An almost unnoticeable flicker—too subtle to be perceived, but too longed for to be ignored.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSe3GgQ7bNd
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No… I’ve had enough, Sasuke but her withered heart is trying to beat again, and it makes up her mind for her.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12IYfVxB8X
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“…So much for this,” Karin murmurs to herself—and then she is on her feet again, her inner eye tracing his every move.
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—melts.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWFpTAFuWDD
“Cheer up, love. There will be many birthdays left for us to celebrate together.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXOQ7RmWdUe
“… You promise?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsIw9aOhlJc
Her gaze softens.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGvTzBkS5CX
“I promise.”
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At seventeen, Karin kisses him.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMsDrKOpMQG
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She impulsively crashes her lips against his, her arms thrown around his neck in a desperate attempt to hold onto him—to anchor him down before his essence could have the chance to fade into pitch black darkness again, to feel him before he could have the chance to waste his life—her life, their future—chasing phantoms all the way to the death.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNeRH1dPHJZ
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When the impromptu kiss ends, Karin sees him—the him she knows, the him she loves—flickering across his eyes for the briefest of moments, and she hears her name resounding in her ears even though he has not uttered a single sound.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1UwlX7dL3s
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She smiles ruefully; trembling eyes boring into his—and then wordlessly lets him go.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkP5MqqVB3Q
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She has given him a reason, but the choice is his to make.
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“Ha, so it was about a boy, I knew it!”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSMZheJEF3
“Shh, mama! I don’t want papa to hear! And… it’s not like I’m ever going to see him again, anyway….”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU63YQiajwF
Her mother has to hide her smile, “Actually, Karin… something tells me you just might.”
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At eighteen, Sasuke kisses her back.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMMih070rRO
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It is not nearly as passionate as her—their—first kiss had been; there is no desperation, no adrenaline—but there is craving all the same, waving through the serenity threading over her through the gentle pressure of his fingertips over the nape of her neck, enveloping her like a makeshift cloak and warming her down to her very core.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ6kSkNkgPB
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And Karin feels her very essence quiver under it—under the warmth and the way her heart seemed to want to leave her and jump into him instead, to claim the home it has always longed for; the home it has always fought for.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXypbjlxLlr
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The home it belonged to.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsl99h7NEEk
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As he kisses her, sunrays clumsily dancing upon her lips, Karin feels like she would vaporize into him if Sasuke were to take a single breath.
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“How do you know?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtug6T8d4S6
“Because, that’s how fate works, Karin.”
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At nineteen, Karin smiles.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVAKlazoO9B
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“Itachi,” she says, and Sasuke looks up to her, startled. “The name… Itachi. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCHEqUYHvSq
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Sasuke parts his lips—once, twice—but no sound comes out and soon enough he gives up altogether, lowering his eyes to stare at the bundle in his arms. It stares back at him, impossibly red eyes widened with innocent curiosity, pink tongue sticking out from underneath rosy lips.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXni8oH8Lkp
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“Are you sure, Karin?” he whispers after what seemed like an eternity, and Karin’s smile only widens.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAvjp1WJbcQ
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“Yeah.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2muK2OFNBM
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And as she sees them—as she sees Sasuke hold their baby as if he were holding the whole, wide world in the crook of his arms—Karin remembers her mother with such vivid clarity that she catches a breath of her perfume. The memory—the vision is bittersweet, and it makes Karin’s throat clog, because she recognizes that look.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGOoWQlp6Rl
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It was the way her mother used to look at her father and her, eyes brimming with love and pride, unspoken but ever-present, never changing. Karin had not been able to understand it, then—429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOa63AilJ7J
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But she did, now. And the understanding squeezed her heart in a way that was both, wonderful and terrible. To think it took her this long to finally understand, once and for all, what it all meant.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBW3ZofCZx2
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To understand who her mother truly was, what her mother felt, what her mother desired for her—and how her mother hurt.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjN8RgCWt9y
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You’re special, Karin. She would tell her sometimes, her eyes half-lidded and afflicted by thoughts she would never get the chance to say aloud. One day, you will realize that.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡITouuGpwFP
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She realized it, now; what it meant to love to her roots, what it meant to be a woman.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeBQkw0Q4ZB
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An Uzumaki woman.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDXc4K1uNBQ
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“… Thank you, Karin.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIRnWiWAcsf
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“Idiot,” she shakes her head, weakly, traitorous tears prickling at the corners of her eyes and threatening to spill. “That... should be my line.”
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“They will be here soon,”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWby5sEeuMJ
“Who will be here soon, mama?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeDNwc6zcHB
“It could be anyone,” she finally replies, and her hold is steady as she combs through Karin’s hair, “we have long since lost any care for their identities, Karin. What matters is… what their presence means.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJzS0mj7KgL
“And what is that?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhcWVd3aYx
Her silence provides the only answer; and Karin wishes it weren’t enough.
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At twenty, Karin celebrates her birthday for the first time in seven years.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsaZeNPOrd2
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And it starts with a soft but firm admittance whispered as she caresses the baby’s nose, all too aware of the pleasant weight of Sasuke’s gaze, of the feelings swirling in his chakra.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbuBdwukYZh
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Hearing them is unexpected, however—and her widened eyes snap to his only to find his lips beginning to curve, his own hand coming to caress her cheek in much the same way she was doing to their son.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUBm3mTa5r
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“W—what was that about?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsL6my2Sbti
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She asks; some habits are hard to break, and her awkward way of fighting down her embarrassment seemed to be as persistent as ever.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu7eHp4Dpkr
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Sasuke doesn’t seem to mind, though. If anything, his smile seems to morph into an amused smirk as he shrugs, noncommittally. “I just felt like saying it, is all.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVFyNPOK8Au
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“Dumbass,” she mutters, hoping the darkness will hide the way her cheeks have warmed up like bonfires, so reminiscent of her prepubescent days when all she could do was a dream she would one day lay with Sasuke the way she does now. “...You didn't need to.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZErrt1v6bx
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“I know, Karin,” and this time he is positively smiling, suddenly mutating back into the Sasuke that had stolen her heart so many years ago. “But it still felt good to say it.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMp91pudjiu
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Karin says nothing in response; simply snuggles closer to him, eyes on the baby as he opens his eyes and blinks, his little hands curling and uncurling up into the air.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1tkTbI3P03
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“He is going to be strong,” Sasuke assesses, and Karin would have mocked him by how ridiculous it was that he sounds that proud of Itachi when the baby hasn’t even said his first word yet, weren’t it because she felt the same way.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJHQyorSihz
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He was going to be strong. A little piece of herself and Sasuke—a memento of those who had given their life up for them; a torch for those who had granted them the chance to live this moment.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtLKwfyqNA1
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To live this happiness.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs6jp8pXYLB
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“Happy birthday, Itachi,” she whispers, and squeezes Sasuke’s hand. “I love you.”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlbiXfrLKZ
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The words feel dusty, and unknown—but familiar.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8BTwbgQEnS
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She knew them, once.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF0JVfVBTuq
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She has known them all along.
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I'm sorry, Karin.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGmW9lQ8ysE
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Were the last words her mother told her before her father ushered her out of the house and prompted her to run—run as far as she could, away from them—and forced her to leave them to die.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvUXSCYEy1s
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To survive.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdzZh9RXNzs
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Those words used to hunt Karin down in those nights when sleep refused to lend her its hand, the eerie walls of Orochimaru’s hideout caving in on her and Sasuke’s steady chakra being her only relief, her only shield.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmWMvflG5BU
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Yet, what haunted her weren’t the words themselves, but their meaning; Karin had instinctively known then, just as clear as she knows now, that her mother was not apologizing for forcing her to forsake them and live on.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMqQVQS6jtp
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No, that was not it—that was not the kind of woman her mother had been.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQxZ53MDttA
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Instead, she had apologized for something else entirely.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkojAvkKtV
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For the unsaid.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP9VJIJaJl7
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“What are you thinking about, Karin?”429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYOBhF5qoVa
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Her lips curl upward as he takes the seat by her side, repentances fading away into the evening sky.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ408pdcG7dN
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“Nothing,” she replies, threading her fingers through his and gazing back to their children, who were laughing and running together through the backyard, a lively mixture of reds and blacks; the Uchiha and Uzumaki crests proudly etched on their backs, on their hearts.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLUT3gg2ZMQ
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“Nothing at all.”
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"You will be fine."429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs1luWw1iYz
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And through the tears and the pain and the loneliness and the longing and the hardships and the fear, Karin should have known better.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtuAxbKAiWT
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Her mother was always right.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4HRqKMVGrn
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end.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZeyqFIMRc
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I... seriously don't know where all this came from; my best guess: Uzumaki feelings. Uzumaki feelings everywhere. lol, I tried to play with the different facets of Karin, and how she grows into each one of them; plus SK, of course.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbyZiyMlGBh
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The stuff I wrote here is not quite how I see things going, though; to do that I would have had to write about 395749574 vignettes per year, rather than only one lol so I went for rushed versions of a couple of scenarios I had thought about.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHE7ZhYEVgi
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Oh and while I did not state it in the fic: every vignette takes place on Karin's birthday, so the baby was born on June 20, too.429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIp3uw6bbOX
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Anyway, hopefully, it wasn't that terrible! ♥429Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxJ2x9KiSFL
tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
i'm : 
cheerful
listening to: never let me go - florence + the machine
ns3.145.76.161da2
