"It is always darkest before dawn" was the saying etched in Juugo's head after the end of the war. The darkness had cleared and a new era arrived for Shinobi. So he had assumed that it also meant the same for him, that his darkness had cleared and his sun had finally peaked through the horizon to begin a new life. He had taken everyone else's happiness as if it were his own, not paying heed to the scars that still stung his heart like fresh wounds or the demons that whispered sins to his ear at night. He had truly believed that everything was okay, for the first time in never.

Until the truth had been dumped on his head like ice cold water.

Deep within, there was never a change, a revelation, or redemption. He had never saved the world or found love and peace like most people did after the war. Nothing had changed; he was still the same person as he was all those years ago. A monster of Orichimaru's making.

"Wow, I thought I would be the first to say sorry." Suigetsu scratched his head, caught aback by Juugo's sudden apology. "But why are you apologising for being scared? I just wanted an apology for calling me an uncontrollable baby."

Words can cut sharper than a sword, he realised. For that was the first time Suigetsu had ever seen Juugo look like he was about to cry. Suigetsu's words had a bigger impact on his burly friend than he'd ever imagined. And looking at Juugo's sunken gaze and sadly slouched posture, Suigetsu felt a twinge of guilt at the bottom of his stomach. It was not much, but it was enough to make him bow his head.

"Iㅡit makes sense, you know? Sasuke is the only person who gives you peace, is what you once said. So yeah, it makes sense that you rely on his word a lot, because you'd trust him with your life." Suigetsu started, feeling a bit uncomfortable speaking from his heart. Looking for something to focus on so it did not seem like he cared so much, his twitching fingers played with a kunai brought from his pouch. "Maybe I was just angry with always being ganged up on and Sasuke telling everyone what to do all the time."

The fire dwindled as a small breeze whistled past. Juugo's expression worsened, surprising even himself. He did not know he was capable of such. Of being so...transparent.

Juugo frowned. "You are trying to make excuses for me."

"No, Iㅡ"

"I don't want that anymore. I don't want someone to emphatize with the things I have gone through and use it as an excuse to make my actions look normal. It isn't normal. I'm not normal." Juugo stared at his hands like they did not belong to him. "I get angry easily, and my anger kills everybody around me. Sure, it has been getting better, but sometimes I feel an urge..."

Juugo trailed off, not needing to say anything more. Suigetsu had already understood him, he was sure, and Sachiki did not need to understand him.

Speaking of Sachiki, listening to Juugo had scared her shitless.

Obviously, shinobi were murderers, but only when it was necessary. They killed for the sake of a mission or for the sake of vengeance, not because of anger like Juugo had confessed.

Shinobi were not meant to let menial emotions drive them in battle, and Juugo was the spitting example of how the system had failed. If he killed people simply because got angry then Sachiki wondered how many innocents had died in his hands.

She wanted to think it was a small amount.

But the thought almost seemed laughable.

"I say you grab your shit and fucking run." Heila whispered.

"Okay, if you want to get help, get help." After a long round of silence, Suigetsu spoke up again. "But stop hating yourself. You killed people, so what? I'm from the mist, killing people was like, a requirement to graduate back then."

Suigetsu did not remember the name of the guy he had ruthlessly slaughtered, it was not important back then. What was important was surviving the academy and boasting to his brother about his achievement. Since he grew up in a nation shrouded by evil deeds, he never saw a need to question his morality. He was shinobi, and no matter what anyone else said, the truth of it was shinobi were groomed to kill.

"What I'm saying is; we're all Shinobi. You have the Shinobi that are so righteous they make you feel shitty, like Naruto. And then you have shinobi that have been used by their villages so much that they don't even care to remember the faces of the ones they killed. That's you and me. There's no reason to hate ourselves, the people we murdered probably sucked anyways, and it's their fault for being weak enough to die."

"Sachiki please just listen to me and run." Heila begged. "These people will kill you. Suigetsu's playing with his fucking kunai right now and that shit can easily be thrown to your eyeㅡ"

"Shut up, would you?" Sachiki hissed. "I'm watching a movie here."

Heila, for the umpteenth time, groaned in exasperation.

Juugo's expression had returned back to normal, so he had the courage to look at his friend again. The usual grin that Suigetsu wore was always borderline sinister, but this time, it had a softer feeling to it.

Juugo gave a half smile back. Suigetsu was right, but also wrong in some ways. Murder was neccessary in their world, but it did not mean it was not a problem. Nonetheless, it was a problem without a solution. There was no way to avoid murder, unless one was in a perfect world. And the Shinobi world was far from perfect.

In a perfect world, Sasuke and Karin still had their family, Suigetsu was raised properly, Juugo was not cursed by Orichimaru, and the Shinobi world was filled with people who wanted to help and not destroy. Juugo wondered if he could create an alternate universe like that. A happy place without war or murder or the demons of the past; something like the Infinite Tsukyomi.

A hollow feeling in his stomach told him he would never want that kind of world.

Because, it would completely suck to have never met the pack of bumbling idiots that were called Team Taka.

: :

The trees above could barely shield the two travellers from the glaring rays of the sun, so Sasuke had taken off his black coat and hung it over his shoulder whereas Karin simply took off her purple jacket completely and wrapped it around her waist, exposing her black crop top. Both parties had been silent through the journey, except when Karin tried to seduce Sasuke while half naked again, to which he ignored like the sexually unresponsive Uchiha he always was.

She was really beginning to believe he had skipped puberty.

Karin put her hair in a ponytail Sakura's hair tie. She had initially worn it as a reminder of the great friendship her and Sakura formed, then Sasuke had taken it off and she found his interest in her hair more important at the time. But the momentㅡ though she would cherish it foreverㅡ had passed, and since she was going to Konoha, Sakura was her priority. Wearing the hair tie was symbolic to her, that she cared about her friendship with Sakura.

It was also hot as fuck, so she needed to let her hair up.

Karin trailed behind Sasuke once her steps slowed and noticed Sasuke was not telling her to hurry up like he usually did. It showed that the trip was for nothing but leisure, and there was no need to rush. Karin worried however, that some dangerous people would attack Sasuke. After all, put an Uzumaki and a rinnegan bearing Uchiha together, and you have massive chakra signatures to pick up. And the larger the chakra, the more the threat they would attract.

She shrugged it off. 'Sasuke will protect me anyways'

It was hard to be scared when there's a fucking god by your side.

A whole lot had happened for Karin; some exciting, some terrifying. She honestly was not sure when everything had begun, but at some point, something she said or did had closed a large amount of distance between her and Sasuke. Before she was spiralled into a world she never believed existed, she had given up on any chance that Sasuke would see her as more than a comrade and accepted that he loved Sakura.

Back then, she had tried to break down his walls and failed over and over again, then realised there was another in his heart. She stopped trying, accepted her fate, and genuinely was happy for Sasuke, even if it was without her.

Why is it that in this new world where she did not try as much, Sasuke had created a door to his heart, just for her?

She did not think he saw her as more than just a friend, though. But she did not mind as much as she thought she would have, because just holding a corner in his life was enough for her.

If she were to die today, she'd die happy.

Karin was so engrossed in her thoughts she did not notice Sasuke throwing glances her way.

Of all the godlike powers the rinnegan had, there was not a single one that would allow him to peep into Karin's mind. Most times he did not need to,she was usually a very easy book to read. However, perhaps she had been hiding some pages, because there were times he'd watch her and he'd be unable to pry into her mind.

He realised Karin only showed what she wanted people to see. On the surface, Sasuke could see everything. But as he went deeper, her intentions and thoughts got more and more mysterious. Karin was not as cookie cutter as she portrayed herself to be, Sasuke had known that a long time ago, but nowadays he was truly seeing the amount of depth that she hid from the rest of the world.

It was the trait of a good Shinobi; a good Shinobi was the trait of misfortune.

'Is she thinking about Konoha?'' .He knew she had the worst impression of villages he had ever seenㅡand it really was not her fault ㅡ but it still bothered him a bit that she was not accepting his home. She was his team, his friend and newly his partner in the journey to redemption. And her opinion mattered more to him than ever before.

"Naruto is an Uzumaki," Sasuke stated out of the blue. His suddenness caused Karin to flinch. "I am sure you two will get along."

Karin almost stopped walking, blinking. The hyperactive, stupid looking blonde boy? His attitude resembled Suigetsu, without the sinister and twisted parts. Also, his chakra was the warmest she had ever experiencedㅡ not a bad thing, it just meant they would not be compatible at all.

He was an Uzumaki like her, but she felt no bond between them. Uzushiogakure, their hometown, had been destroyed long ago. They did not have any relation towards each other again other than the fact that one of their parents hailed from a lost clan.

Karin sometimes wondered what it would be like if history was different.

"Uh, no." Karin deadpanned, "He and I have nothing in common."

"Really?" Sasuke had slowed down to match her pace. He glanced at her with a raised brow, teasing. "I could think of a few similarities you two share."

"Please, do tell." She rolled her eyes. There was absolutely nothing she could see in that boy that resembled her, except maybe his loudness that Sakura always described. But Naruto was loud all the time, Karin was only loud when excited, nervous or annoyed. She really did not know how Sasuke managed not to kill himㅡwell, barely.

Sasuke pretended to think for a while so he could stare at her.

"You're both perverts."

Karin spluttered on nothing but air and some dust.

"Iㅡ you ㅡ I am not a pervert!" She yelled defensively.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow. "You have tried to seduce me on multiple occasions, and just this morning you chose a kiss as a prize if you won."

"That doesn't mean I'm a pervert!" Karin smacked the spot where his arm was supposed to be. She almost panicked for a second when all she could feel was cloth, but quickly remembered he had only one arm. "It just means that I...that I uhm..."

"That you what?" Out of all of Karin's surface emotions, her shyness when trying to admit her feelings was his favourite.

"Nevermind." She grumbled, feeling a bit offended that he thought of her as a pervert. Not that she wasn't a pervert, she just did not want him to think so. "Anyways, I'm more excited to see Sakura than anyone else. The rest of themㅡI don't care to meet."

Watching for any visible changes in his, a look of suspicion clouded her face when she noticed Sasuke had looked away for a split second. She knew that was a sign of guilt. What would he have to be guilty for?

"You and Sakura are close friends, correct?"

She did not need to think. "Yes."

Sasuke 'hn'ed in response, as if storing that piece of information into his brain for something he would use later. Karin's brow furrowed.

"You seem a bit troubled. Is it because of Sakura?"

Sasuke sighed. Karin was excellent at discerning a Shinobi's true intentions no matter how hidden. It was no surprise she sensed his underlying panic and worry.

"Yes. I had rejected her love and now we're going to Konoha and I do not know how to face her." He told his partner. "Especially since she might have reason to believe I lied."

Karin tensed. "What?"

'He lied?'

"Hn?" Sasuke gave her a confused glance.

Her heart sank all the way to her stomach again.
Bile rose up to her throat, like her heart was taking up all the space in her gut. Karin wanted to curl up in a corner; to slap herself; to run back to the Hideout and never look back.

'I'm so stupid'. She had hoped and she had dreamed, and once again those hopes were crushed under the heel of Sasuke's sandals.
Juugo had created a whole other universe for Karin to finally get the chance she needed, and still, even with that, she...failed.

"So you have feelings for her." She choked out, bracing herself for the impact. He had told her he did not love with Sakura, and he did not lie. But the question was not specific. She never asked if he had a crush on her, or if he was in love with her.

Sasuke shook his head as vehemently as a stoic Uchiha like him could. "No. I did not lie of my lack of romantic feelings for her, I am talking about something else."

Karin's eye twitched, whereas her heart had lurched out of her stomach and was currently soaring to the moon.

At the surface, she was pissed off.

"What theㅡ you can't be fuckingㅡ" Karin took a deep, calming breath that did nothing. "WORK ON YOUR DAMN COMMUNICATION SKILLS. YOU COULD'VE GIVEN ME A DAMN HEART ATTACK."

And he paled when Karin lurched forward with her fists raised.

As a rinnegan bearing Uchiha, he dogded it, (much to Karin's annoyance). The Uzumaki beside him mumbled under her breath, things he was sure were insulting. But he did not mind.

He kept Karin's strange reaction at the back of his mind, not wanting to be sidetracked. After all,there was bigger fish to fry.

He made a sequential list.

First, enter Konoha and try not to get mobbed.

That would be a challenge, considering the village did not trust him and would do everything in their limited power to either make him uncomfortable or just...enact revenge? A menial form of revenge, to Sasuke. (He was the god of vengeance; nobody could ever impress him).

Second, try to convince Karin that Konoha is nice.

Konoha 12 would be the people to meet to convince her. They were bright and optimistic with good hearts.

Though he was not too sure about what to do to insist that the system itself was good.

Third, try to get Naruto and Karin to form an Uzumaki family bond.

They both had similarities and Sasuke was sure Naruto would see a bit of Kushina and Jiraiya in Karin. A catastrophic mix, which would become even more catastrophic once he met her.

He was getting a headache just thinking about how loud they would be.

Fourth, talk to Sakura and apologize.

He had emotionally scarred his teammate. The least he could do was apologize, properly. Not a barely sounded sorry while his limbs were severed off and his chakra completely diminished.

A talk, over some tea, or a spar preferably. He would apologize and they would find a way to move from there.

He hoped to gain her friendship back.

Fifth, ask Sakura about Karin.

Girls understood girls better.

And finally, get someone he knew to explain why the hell he did not mind receiving a kiss from Karin in the end, even if he won.

Possibly Kakashi, since he was older and read romance (porn) like it was the holy bible.