[FANFIC - HBD, KARIN!] PÉRIODICITÉ (SK)
Title: périodicité525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡycAFu2oJCI
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNs0oKDh5a4
Rating: K+525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrpITkYCpGq
Word Count: 2.817525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKLCspdGBs
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 orz525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUe9vAMlGLT
Summary: June 20 has never been an ordinary day for one Uzumaki Karin.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMC99eauCup
périodicité (periodicity)525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGK0wTaU8hH
"recurrence at regular intervals of time."
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périodicité;525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsEYbomVvL8
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by Kanae
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“Don’t look so down, darling. This is a great chance for you.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf2BC7OLCXs
“…Yeah… a great chance to make a fool of myself, you mean.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFHdw0Lpoto
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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyr9GDvV3Gg
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But that is just what her father seems to have wanted to do all along.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhcXOYjBYnm
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpyjKKdiCu1
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb3WpJtqelj
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI2Ysr4y1ZU
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She may as well not exist.
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—and ruffles her hair.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEhnTTH0tMu
“Now, now, don’t be like that. I have a good feeling about this, you know?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmt0DgjF1ic
“…What do you mean, mama?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2UowM7eN1S
A secretive smile highlighted by—
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At thirteen, Karin nearly dies.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeh8eeu9UKE
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZuI3dfgocH
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYISYYVphb1
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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNWUBCqJRl5
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy7ShYjSp8k
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What she does know, though—what she can’t forget, is—525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMI84ZFMw6v
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnhgzzVREB
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbNuMVHnfBs
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzQxMDkZte8
“Ara~ I wonder if I should tell you. It is a safely guarded secret, you see.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡamCQura0h0
“I will keep it! I promise, I won’t tell anybody, mama!”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX4r0ncgxEC
A chuckle, “Alright, alright! Since you insist, I'll tell you. It—”
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At fourteen, Karin breathes her last breath.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzyh0XyYUzY
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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—525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zRsfijxx3
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdSGEysedGG
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsJ3ATNNmjY
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wBUm4T9t9
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnVpWlbPTKj
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You staying here will amount to nothing, but you leaving just might, he says. Come, Karin, he calls.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Dn12hHitm
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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.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpFLWEsiZr7
“Their… fate?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGcnDLrNK79
Her voice curls up around the edges, as if it were a spell.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNzspDaHXQN
“You will understand in—”
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At fifteen, Karin has shed her skin.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2VCcy1S4iU
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡluq179JMeG
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQNj5kuQyR
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Yet, he sees them all. As if she wore them on her sleeve.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9hEEabM8RK
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“Say, Sasuke, since we’re alone how about we—”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT6oZaemM9F
“I have to leave soon, Karin.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhA0ndUSGK
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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?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhNErKj1cHS
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Sasuke says nothing, then. He says nothing, and Karin straightens, her back suddenly assaulted by gooseflesh; could he—?525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9NpNm4s03N
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7hSTxQppzI
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKEodGuPy2S
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But as she turns and her eyes meet his, Karin sees.
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“—in due time, Karin.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjnOnXkniuo
“Still, mama… it just isn’t fair.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSP7teq9OHD
“What isn’t, dear?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡecMi8w5F3Z
“… I wanted to spend my birthday with you and papa.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYAK4VOdUI0
Her smile—
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At sixteen, Karin falls.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76cDRpypav
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdyFXNUg24o
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Alongside everything she once held dear. Everyone she relied on. The one she trusted.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwoDrVApTx
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Now, there was no one left.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvWxOhfYLdm
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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—525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIj2SYu7grD
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7fx0lCZi03
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And then it comes. An almost unnoticeable flicker—too subtle to be perceived, but too longed for to be ignored.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94WWhuaDFa
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0ZcJWpCzV
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3aI6iIzFfk
“Cheer up, love. There will be many birthdays left for us to celebrate together.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz47BdGwr3o
“… You promise?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm0jOuSWN6T
Her gaze softens.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFjO29mBlDP
“I promise.”
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At seventeen, Karin kisses him.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdkEWtBUcwb
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ISAvXIKFk
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6cvGUstrwj
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She smiles ruefully; trembling eyes boring into his—and then wordlessly lets him go.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkyZkafRl7m
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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!”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1WcGtnNOeX
“Shh, mama! I don’t want papa to hear! And… it’s not like I’m ever going to see him again, anyway….”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjRssW1Y4C
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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUw5zt7djv
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9XSMETfIt4
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ8rc8jm3Nd
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The home it belonged to.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnNbcl1eWmK
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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?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZGA5kG7NwF
“Because, that’s how fate works, Karin.”
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At nineteen, Karin smiles.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpaRnSQVx9q
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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?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz5QqTAo1ru
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡahDfHFPXZI
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“Are you sure, Karin?” he whispers after what seemed like an eternity, and Karin’s smile only widens.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMbcEGCTQa
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“Yeah.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWahosiJWk0
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7eQc6cdrjz
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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—525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR53duuz2Po
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzhi00yOt0A
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGD00Li27EW
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu61bJeuCyU
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She realized it, now; what it meant to love to her roots, what it meant to be a woman.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYeXsGe0raY
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An Uzumaki woman.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Dc8fFqXTF
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“… Thank you, Karin.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkihAzB8lhP
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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,”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZNk0qlubo
“Who will be here soon, mama?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYvsui50Pko
“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.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wnsf2HAjj
“And what is that?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFS5AoVE7N
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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJbANpRZacH
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8NNJQVGD8
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1hRDP4VUR8
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“W—what was that about?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeXRAExgHnt
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcc8q59XjH
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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.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVvsRChpBPd
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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.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡryeGfL0oFz
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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.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDcSryJroLg
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkOf5PB7MAJ
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYIUQqhNHCK
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ578YI0CFFD
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To live this happiness.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlEJ0Ci3bse
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“Happy birthday, Itachi,” she whispers, and squeezes Sasuke’s hand. “I love you.”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2UPMF8poLT
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The words feel dusty, and unknown—but familiar.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFvzU6FL6kh
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She knew them, once.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡroW6D8F7Fd
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She has known them all along.
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I'm sorry, Karin.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaXavw9u0ho
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsfRPuDFjLR
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To survive.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE2YTNgj3pa
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlVEzeNhOYK
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqnxddfrXK
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No, that was not it—that was not the kind of woman her mother had been.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPnrJaACloP
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Instead, she had apologized for something else entirely.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7MtrHGyGu5
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For the unsaid.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DMiE8S9Kk
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“What are you thinking about, Karin?”525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsuQ3r0jRd6
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Her lips curl upward as he takes the seat by her side, repentances fading away into the evening sky.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoess4YopA9
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHajQiEjLhC
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“Nothing at all.”
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"You will be fine."525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZc5Oam4hyE
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmSL4cY3sF
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Her mother was always right.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcItkP3uHS
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end.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPZOYKVp4fW
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKPsLvrtbnd
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqEcjcf4MKU
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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.525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhW4dRr38N
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Anyway, hopefully, it wasn't that terrible! ♥525Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡueJwTLQ7DP
tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
i'm : 
cheerful
listening to: never let me go - florence + the machine
ns216.73.216.250da2
