Karin stood in front of the defeated Grass nin, eyes shadowed by her own past.
'They are not the ones who killed your mother,'
'But it's possible their parents were.'
'It's not their fault.'
'Why should I care.'
Her mind was fighting with her own instincts. Her own convictions and her past demons.
She knew killing them wouldn't bring her anything but regret later on. They really weren't the ones who killed her mother. It was the adults of that village who did so.
But she just couldn't let go of the grudge inside. For so long she wished to just march to the Grass village and uproot it in its entirety.
But that wouldn't help either. Those adults sure deserved being killed slowly like they made her mother die, but the children from there. They were innocent.
"Please…. Let us go."
"Here, take our scroll. We don't want it. Just don't kill us."
Their cries of pleas just resurfaced more horrible memories rooted deep inside. The times when her mother begged those Shinobi in Grass to let her rest. They didn't.
Every inch of her mother's skin was scarred by bite marks. Even places which weren't even supposed to be out there in the open.
As a kid she never understood of course, but now she knew what kind of horror her mother withstood to just protect her.
'Please, not Karin. I'll heal you. Leave her out of this.'
She remembered her screams. Muffled and suppressed as they were, she remembered them. It wasn't just bites which made her scream.
She was naive back then. But later she learned.
On what audacity these guys asked for forgiveness if she hadn't even done a grain worth of what her mother had suffered to them.
Karin's eyes stung with the pain resurfacing. It was a constant fight of doing the right thing or doing what she wanted.
A tear trailed down her cheek with painfully slow descent.
'What do I do?' She muttered to herself, lost on what next action to take. She was strong now, they couldn't stop her anymore. The ultimate result lay in her hands.
'What would he do…' and upon not finding an answer inside, she looked for an answer outwards, in one person who she fell back to when everything was wrong.
The image of Sukuna came to her mind, asking herself again, what would he do. And the answer was rather simple. Wasn't it…
—-<>—-
By the time Karin returned, Sukuna could see the air around her had changed. There was more gravity to her now. She had her head lowered like she was some defeated general returning to her homeland.
Sukuna saw blood stains on her hands and just sighed.
"You chose your path, make sure not to regret it later." Sukuna added, not planning on consoling her by any means.
Karin slightly shook her head. "Would you have?"
"Huh?"
"Regretted it?" She asked.
'Damn, she didn't even ask whether I'll kill them or not, showing mercy wasn't even an option in her mental image of mine…' Sukuna grumbled.
Though he wasn't a hypocritical person, he really would have killed them if it was him in her shoes.
"Nah… I'll never regret it." Sukuna shook his head firmly. He made a vow to himself (not a binding vow) when he first arrived in this world. That he'll never hesitate to kill.
To gain strength, to wield a technique which was a sword in his hands. He'll never hesitate to draw blood. Never hesitate to kill.
She silently nodded. And after that didn't mention anything further.
Kiyomi, sitting a little further away from the girl, just looked at her downcast look and glanced at Sukuna.
"She didn't kill them, you know." She muttered, slowly so only Sukuna could hear her.
"I know..." Sukuna nodded, a smile tugging on the side of his lips.
"She has a weak mindset."
Kiyomi frowned upon hearing it. For some reason the boy saying that about the red head almost felt like an insult to her.
"However, she has a strong heart. Can never go wrong with that kind of a woman." He said the next second, grinning.
Kiyomi blinked. She was half expecting insults towards women like she used to back in the Zenin clan. She expected him to tell how inferior women are.
She had heard that all her life growing up back then.
And here, here he was. The strongest sorcerer of the past, not belittling them, not showing any prejudice.
For a second she was just frozen there, until Sukuna finally got up, dusting his back. "Alright, enough rest. We are moving."
"KARIN..." He shouted, shaking the girl out of her daze.
"Huh..." She looked back, eyes still dull but alert at that shout.
"What scroll did they have?"
'Oh...' Karin understood.
"Huh... hmm earth scroll."
"Tch... meaning we still have work to do. Where is the next team." He asked with an annoyed look on his face.
"Further west."
"Then that's where we're going." Sukuna nodded.
---<>---
While Team 11 was already chasing after other teams, Team 7 was a bit more restrained.
"Okay, do you remember the password?" Sasuke asked, making Sakura nod immediately while Naruto had sweat pouring down his back.
'Why the hell the password isn't a word but an entire paragraph...' He complained internally but wouldn't say it out loud in front of Sasuke.
Though much more skilled and strong than his canon counterpart, this Naruto was still Naruto. He couldn't remember long things for too long. Typical shonen protagonist trait.
Everything started when Sasuke suggested creating a password among themselves so others couldn't impersonate any of them. After Naruto had to go peeing and instead of him someone else came, impersonating him, arrived and almost sneak attacked them.
So, following that, Sasuke stated a long enough password that fried Naruto's brain like he opened his domain multiple times.
Of course he didn't remember any of it.
And just as they thought it was over, suddenly the entire air shifted.
"What now?" All three of them immediately alert at the sudden change of the air.
And following that was a giant row of air pressure rushing at them with so much force that it carved a trench in its path.
Their instincts kicked in just in time and they moved out of the way. Even Naruto reacted in time and got out of the wind attack's path.
"What was that?" Naruto shouted, confused at how that attack suddenly came at them.
"Someone is targeting us, be on guard, this ninja is strong." Sasuke pursed his lips together. By measuring the attack power, the ninja who used that wind style shouldn't be just another Genin.
"My my... and here I thought I'll be able to separate you three, seems like Leaf standards for their Genin haven't dropped that low yet." A low dangerous voice came from behind them, completely opposite of where the wind attack arrived, making them all tense up.
With a startled jump they turned around only to find a pale man with long black hair standing there, while his long, almost snake-like tongue licked his lips in an almost predatory grin.
xXx
A/N : Logicall I still think Orochimaru will go after Sasuke over any other Uchiha if he has to since he got interested in Sharingan (More like Mangekyo Sharingan) due to Itachi.
But unlike earlier, this time around he hasn't made his mind on Sasuke yet. If that make sense.
Hope you like the chapter so far. Stay tune for what about to up next.
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