"WOOOHOO, we made it-but where is this exactly?"

A barren land; not a sign of life blooming. The wind whistled and howled, carrying nothing but dust with it's pained melody. Karin, with her sensory abilities ranging far and wide, was met with emptiness. There was nothing here.

She frowned, "There's no one here. Are you sure this is the place? We better not be fucking lost."

Suigestu stared at the emptiness in front of him. "I...honestly don't know."

Rolled eyes. "Great, we're lost."

Sasuke squinted. Not precisely. His rinnegan had picked up something, minute, barely existing. Amplifying it with Sharingan, he was finally able to detect the barely there chakra.

Chakra of a hundred men.

"Juugo, left. Suigestu, right. Karin, get behind me."

Without hesitation, they all complied to his instructions. Karin asked, "What did you see?"

"Hidden, no, compressed chakra. There are people here, they're just in hiding."

Sasuke, with his Rinnegan and Sharingan, could only see the whistling wind. But in that wind, he could see the blue vapour.

And he realised. "The chakra is in the air."

"How does that even work?" Suigestu groaned.

Juugo replied, "The same way your water shit works, genius."

"Shut up."

Karin waited patiently for Sasuke's instructions whilst in deep thought. An ability that enables someone to compress their chakra with the wind? In all her years of working with Orichimaru, she'd never come across something like this.

Karin couldn't sense them. But she could observe the fight and report back to Orichimaru. He'd want to see this for himself.

Karin observed Sasuke's eyes, which moved with precision. Anticipating the next move. From the right, aimed at Juugo.

"Juugo, shield."

Juugo followed suit, the force of the wind pushing him back slightly.

"I'm the only one who can see them, I'll take care of this."

Sasuke wasted no time. He drew his sword and aimed for the specks of blue he saw coming at him. But with every slice, it was like the chakra seperated to dodge it. Sasuke put his sword back, it was ineffective.

'A large range justu would probably work better. Not fire. They use wind to fight.'

Lightning.

Sasuke raised his hand to thr air. It had been a long time since he used the jutsu, so he had to concentrate a little more than usual. He felt the shock flowing through his body, and knew, lightning is coming.

Kirin.

It took a wide range lightning strike to weaken them. They had been hurt, and now they were visible.

Karin noticed the uncanny resemblance in their dressing, but not in their looks. They all wore grey cloaks that blended well with the environment they were in, with bandages around their arms and legs and staffs at their back.

"Those are staffs, not swords, Suigestu." Karin grumbled annoyed, "Are you really sure about the information you got?"

"Shut up."

Karin groaned.

Sasuke asked, "Who are you?" once they had worn off from the lightning strike. One of them in the front - the leader, Karin presumed - smirked, trying to conceal himself in the wind once more. However, he couldn't. Confusion and frustration hit him momentarily until he saw the thin glowing chain wrapped around his leg.

It was Karin's turn to smirk. "You all can't hide anymore. I've got you in my grip. Better start talking before we get mad."

The leader growled, "Who the fuck are you, and how did you find us?"

"We're Team Taka. And we know everything. This idiot next to me wants a sword. Just give it to him and no one gets hurt."

Suigestu glared at Karin for the umpteenth time.

"We do not use such disgusting weapons." He snarled.

"Well, this was uneventful," Juugo sighed, "Let's never listen to Suigestu again."

"What?! You trust the creepy guy so easily?"

Karin said, "Suigestu's sword doesn't matter anymore. I want one of you to follow me."

"I'm afraid we can't let that happen ." was all he said, before pulling out the large staff strapped on his back, summoning a gush of wind, and breaking all the chains that bound them.

Without hesitation, both sides charged.

: :

The numerous ninjas lay beaten on the ground. The silence of the land was replacef by their ragged breaths and grunts of pain. Karin picked one up by the collar, assesing her appearance. Short puffy brown hair, dark skin, a scar on her left cheek. Her fingernails were long, which Karin believed held a significance. And there were signs embedded on her belly. Those weren't Japanese symbols, Karin had never come across them. The signs glowed a cerulean blue, the same colour as the woman's eyes.

"Fuck," she grunts, her body littered with bruises. It reminded Karin of her body.

"Juugo, we're taking her with us." Karin informed him. Juugo didn't need to be told what to do. He picked her by the waist and threw her across his shoulder, not caring about the yelp of pain she let out.

"Where's my sword tho."

"It's not a sword," Karin said, catching the whole team's attention. "It's her nails. There's a bunch of chakra in it, and judging from how loose they are," she played with her fingers, "I bet they can extend. Long enough to resemble a sword. She never used them to fight, so it must take a lot of chakra to use."

Suigestu shrugged, "We get her to Orichimaru's labs, pluck out one of her nails, and use it to make me a new sword."

Karin pushes up her glasses from the brigde of her nose, "It may not be that simple, but yeah. Let's go home."

Extending her arm for Sasuke to bite is always her favourite part of any mission. Call her insane, but the one thing that gave her nightmares as a child had become her greatest fetish. But only for Sasuke.

"Stop making that face, you fucking creep." Suigestu sneered. "A biting fetish? Really-"

And what did he earn? A direct punch to the face.

: :

Cerulean eyes peered at the redhead. The room was dark, lit with only two candles near the table the redhead woman worked on. She felt a heavy weight on her body, preventing her from moving her limbs.

"Did you paralyse me?"

Karin was hoping not to have a conversation with her. "Yeah. The poison was supposed to last a couple more hours. It means you have a strong immunity. I'm impressed, but highly annoyed"

"Why am I here?"

"Research," Karin replied simply.

She tried moving once again. Only her fingers responded.

"One of my nails are missing."

"Yep."

All she could see was the detachment in Karin's eyes as she replied.

She gulped, "Are you going to let me go?"

For the first time, she saw Karin's expression shift. From one of coldness and a hint of annoyance, to softness.

"Of course I am. After I'm done running tests on you, which will take three hours more, at most. And don't worry, none of your... 'clan members' are dead. They're hurt, but their injuries are easily treatable and they will recover. Also, I left some medicine at the battlefield."

She had so many questions to why they even attacked them in the first place. She was relieved, however.

"Thank you, but why did you attack us in the first place?"

"Suigestu wanted a sword."

"That's it?"

"Yep. That's it. I know, it seems stupid. But Suigestu's family, and we knew he was going to go by himself and get killed if we didn't tag along. So we did, and we hurt your family Sorry bout that, but that's just how it is."

"They're not my family," she didn't know why she felt the need to tell Karin that. "They're just people who taught me how to conceal myself. They call themselves 'The Wind'."

The initial irritation had worn off, and Karin felt herself enjoying the girl's company. "Why do you conceal yourself?"

"I'm running away from bad people," a shrug, she could move her shoulders a bit, she realised. "I planned to leave with The Wind, but someone there is kind of... scary."

"Does this certain person hurt you?"

"He tries to."

Karin sighed, it wasn't a sigh of tiredness or exasperation. It was a sigh of understanding, of knowing what it felt like to be running away from bad people, only to get stuck with even worse. "What's your name?"

"Sachiki."

"Sachiki. Why don't you stay here for a while? As long as you stay away from Sasuke, I don't think you'll have a problem here."

: :

"Have your damn sword, Suigestu." Karin threw the sword at him and watched with an annoyed but satisfied smile on her face as he squeaked and hugged the sword in joy.

"Thank you guys, and fuck you guys at the same time for doubting my knowledge."

Juugo smiled. It was a dumb, pointless mission, but it made Suigestu happy so everyone else was happy too.

: :

"So you want to keep her here?" Sasuke asked, though he was already aware of the answer.

Karin shrugged lightly, "She'll be a good asset to Orichimaru. And maybe to us, as long as she doesn't do anything stupid."

Sasuke trusted Karin's judgement, so he agreed with a nod of his head. A comfortable silence fell upon the two. Karin played with her hair whilst Sasuke stared at the grass.

"I thought about what you said."

"Hm, What did I say?" Karin asked absentmindedly, still playing with her long hair.

"Talking to Itachi."

Karin stopped momentarily, glancing at Sasuke. She said nothing, trusting that he would continue if he wanted to.

He didn't want to; he changed the subject. "Why is your hair like that?"

"Like what?"

"One side straight. The other spiky. It's uneven."

Karin scoffed, "Don't go around bad mouthing my hair when you have that duck on your head, bastard!"

A ghost of a smile danced on Sasuke's lips. Karin sighed and tapped her hair again, genuinely answering, "I'm a two-sided kinda person. I'm brash, loud mouthed, and rude. But I'm also a big softie who just wishes to be loved. So my hair kinda represents that."

Sasuke stared at his hands, hearing a bit of himself in her words. The him that even he didn't want to admit. The lonely one that was searching for affection from someone who saw his demons and accepted him all the same.

Karin gazed at the moon. She couldn't help but wonder how long this dream would last. When would Sasuke change his mind and decide to be with Konoha again? After all, his origin was there. His people, his rival, Sakura. His wife.

Sakura wasn't his wife in this universe.

Karin wanted to know why.

"Do you love Sakura?" the question made Sasuke to choke on his own spit.

"What?"

Karin stood up and sat down directly in front of Sasuke, staring deep into his eyes. She wanted to make sure there was not a single lie she wouldn't detect.

"I said, do you love Sakura?"