Left Behind

Chapter one, Hot and Bothered

Karin was hot-hot tempered that is. She had a head full of bright, hot pink hair and matching eyes that she'd use to glare at her teammates as much as possible. Well, all of her teammates but one.

Sasuke... what a man... She thought. He's so cool and collected... and that black hair and those piercing coal colored eyes... There's no way I can resist his charm. Karin drooled as she watched Sasuke walk ahead of her. He has a pretty nice ass, too.

"What 'cha looking at, Karin?"

Not him again... Karin groaned as she narrowed her eyes at the teenager next to her: her other teammate, Suigetsu. For all she cared, he could die in a ditch somewhere. In fact, she'd prefer it. He had no tact, no manners, no mystery, and worst of all, he wasn't Sasuke.

This, of course, always made the kunochi bothered.

Karin sighed, considering if she should punch Suigetsu square in his smug face. Just as she had raised her fist she paused, lowering it back down to her side and looking at Sasuke, the group leader, with urgency in her tone, "Sasuke, someone's coming, I can sense their chakra!"

"How many people? Just one?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow. Just one? Why would a single person consider challenging his mighty group?

"Let's just keep walking. If it's just one person it's not a problem, we'll just defeat them if they try and attack us." Sasuke decided, walking forward.

"Of course, I'm sure it would be no problem for you to handle anyone." Karin flattered him as she pushed up her glasses and blushed, hurrying to Sasuke's side.

The squad kept walking as Sasuke had instructed, Karin clinging to his arm and Suigetsu sipping from a slurpy cup, Juugo seemingly in a relatively calm mood as he tagged along with his partners. It's getting closer. Karin thought, confident that whoever planed on attacking them would soon regret it.

"Sasuke." The female's voice sounded firm, standing only seven feet behind the group of S-ranked ninjas, all unbeatably strong (except Karin, that is, she had other abilities rather than fighting).

Karin spun around to eye the woman who had dared call out her loves name, yet she was met with a glare that rivaled her own, determined blue-green eyes sharp as kunai as they stared at Sasuke, who had yet to turn around.

"Sakura..." He answered her call, his voice tender and soft, unlike Karin had ever heard it.

Finally Sasuke turned around, meeting eyes with his former teammate-his first love. She had grown up, her body matured in all sorts of ways. Yet beyond her appearance, the thing that had changed most was her voice. Sasuke could tell the moment he had heard his name, as if someone else had borrow Sakura's voice. A voice that strong... she never used to sound that way... and she used to always say my name with such love and devotion... I wonder what happened while I was gone..

"I'm here to take you back to the village." She declared.

"It would be best if you went home now, Sakura. Forget about me." He sounded more like he was begging her than giving her advice.

"I'm bringing you back." Sakura raised one of her arms and adjusted her glove. "I'm not the person I used to be Sasuke. This time I'm not letting you leave."

"Then why don't you come with me?" Sasuke offered.

"What...?" Sakura couldn't believe what she was hearing. Years ago she had begged him to say just that, but had been utterly denied. Why now of all times had he turned a new leaf?

"Sakura..." Before Sakura knew what was happening Sasuke was standing in front of her, wrapping one of his arms around her waist and pulling her closer. "All these years I've missed you... and that idiot Naruto, even... but this is something I have to do, and I'm not backing down now... but... I can't continue to live alone, either."

Sasuke pressed his lips against Sakura's, the pink haired girl's eyes larger than her billboard sized forehead. Her face was red, her hands moving up to gently push Sasuke away. He merely held on to her waist tighter, placing a hand to the back of her head and grabbing a handful of her soft, well conditioned hair as he deepened the kiss, adding more feverish intensity. All the years he had missed her and finally he was able to taste her, inserting his tongue into her mouth ad kissing her like it was his last chance to ever see her again.

Sasuke... Sakura thought for a depressing moment. Years ago... this would have made me ecstatic...

Finally Sakura used her monster strength to push the teenager away from her, watching as he stumbled backwards with a shocked look on his usually calm face.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, but I already told you, I'm not the person I used to be. You didn't leave me behind, Sasuke, I left you." Sakura dug her heels into the dirt, raising up her gloved fists. "...But I can't forsake you as my teammate, and I can't allow Naruto to suffer anymore than he already has... that's why... today is the day you return to the village, Sasuke!"

Sasuke steadied himself, looking back at Sakura with a pained expression. "If this it the only way, then it looks like I'll just have to knock you out Sakura... just like last time."

"Try your best, but there was no 'last time'. As far as I'm concerned this it the first time you and me are fighting, Sasuke Uchiha, the first time we are truly fighting as equals!" Sakura reeled back her fist and swung at Sasuke, who pulled out his sword and prepared for battle, jumping out of the way of a punch that devastated the ground where he had stood.

"Well then, I'll just have to fight you with everything I've got." Sasuke smirked. "I won't hold back Sakura... because this time... you'll be my equal."

Karin stood in between Juugo and Suigetsu, observing the scene with just as much interest as she bore confusion. "Who is that harlot...?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe his ex from the leaf village... at least we know he's no gay now... I was starting to get worried with the way he ever takes interest in women. Now I can sleep with ease, my ass is safe." Suigetsu joked, taking another sip of his drink.

"Suigetsu! How dare you consider that Sasuke would be even slightly homosexual!" Karin ranted. "And your ass is certainly not safe, because in two seconds I'm about to kick it so hard you won't be able to sit down for weeks!"

"Jeez, and here I was giving you a compliment." Suigetsu mumbled, going slightly red. Anyone who wouldn't get a hard on from having a girl as sexy as you throw yourself at them all day long would have to be gay... that's what I thought... Suigetsu thought, his eyes darting back to the marvel of a woman standing next to him in a belly shirt and tiny black booty shorts.

Karin ignored him, unsure of what the words he uttered meant. I don't have time to bicker with Suigetsu right now... I have to focus on Sasuke.

"You're still too weak." Sasuke whispered in Sakura's ear. "You've grown so much stronger, Sakura, but you're still too weak. Do you know why that is...? It's because you still don't hate me, Sakura. You never aimed to kill me, and that's why you lost."

The words of Sakura's sensei returned to her at the sound of Sasuke's. "If you don't come at me like you intend to kill me, there's no way you can defeat me and get the bells."

That's right... I guess I do lack intent to kill but... not because I love Sasuke... it's because I care about Naruto... he's my dearest friend... and without Sasuke he would be crushed. Sakura thought, placing one hand on the blade that was lodged in her stomach, raising the other to cover her mouth as she coughed up more blood.

With one swift move Sasuke pulled the blade from Sakura's abdomen. "Hurry up and heal yourself before you die." He instructed her, placing his blade at her neck, "and after you're healed, you're coming with me."

"Looks like you won... for now..." The battered girl admitted defeat, pressing her hands to her bleeding stomach and letting a green glow admit from them as she began to close the small wound that the blade had caused. No vital organs, but if I don't heal this right away, I will die...

"Karin, would you..." Sasuke asked for her assistance.

"Of course." She ran over to him, lifting up her sleeve and revealing an arm full of bite marks. "Go ahead."

As Sasuke began to dig his teeth into Karin's flesh, a thought came over the ex-sound ninja. Sasuke's rejected me this whole time... showed next to no interest in me... yet this girl... he sees her for a few moments and is begging at her heels, kissing her so passionately... I bet that was his first kiss, too... that should have been mine...

The pressure on Karin's arm was released as Sasuke looked up at her, his wounds from the battle healed thanks to his new pink haired partner. "Thank you, Karin." There it was again, his face composed, his tone flat.

Sasuke hit Sakura on the back of the neck, causing her to flop over on the ground, her wound healed by then. Carefully, he picked her up, cradling her bridal style in his arms and looking down into her passed out face lovingly. "Come on, let's go to a hotel, we should stop some place to rest over night." Sasuke decided for the group.

A hotel...? He couldn't be planing on... Karin gulped, Suigetsu not helping the matter by adding in, "Nice dude, thing you'll score or know you'll score?"

"Shut up!" Karin wailed on her partner, hitting him harder than she ever had before, her eyes secretly glassy behind her thick frames.

If all goes well... Karin might finally have to let go of Sasuke... Suigetsu schemed as the crew made their way to the closest hotel.

"We're only getting one room?" Suigetsu frowned as Sasuke went to the counter and paid for their stay in a cozy little hotel in the middle of a equally small, equally cozy quaint village.

"We always get only one room." Sasuke reminded him. It was true, and Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo all knew it just as well as Sasuke did, yet they had all been under the shared impression that Sasuke had not actually come to the hotel to rest.

He better not want me to join him in some freaky five-way or anything... Suigetsu shivered. I joined him for my own reasons, just to get the shark skin from Kisame, I'm not going to take him ordering me around, and there's no way I'll take him getting all gay on me.

At least I don't have to worry about Sasuke losing his virginity for tonight... Karin let out a sigh of relief as they all walked into the small room and Sasuke asked the woman at the front desk if they could borrow some more mattresses.

Karin's eyes were glued to Sakura, who had been placed like a doll, propped against the wall in a sitting position. Her wounds healed but her clothes had blood stains that were a slightly deeper red than the shirt she wore, causing them to fade away in the dimming light as evening came over the group. Sasuke took the sleeping princess and laid her down on the bed next to him, yet made no other move to touch the vulnerable sixteen year old.

Before long, Karin was left the only one remaining awake in the team, Sasuke, Juugo, Suigetsu, and Sakura all deep within the depths of dreamland while she spend her time turning back and forth. It wasn't like the low quality of the hotel bothered her, she was used to placed like this. In her ventures with Sasuke staying at cheap hotels or even sleeping in the woods or wet caves seemed like nothing... but another girl... that was something that she had yet to be confronted with in her journeys with the Uchiha before that day.

Karin blushed, recalled the scene of Sasuke passionately giving his first kiss to Sakura. The scene gave Karin an emotion she knew, yet she couldn't understand why such an imagine would cause her to feel that way. I don't get it. She pulled on her uneven hot pink hair in frustartion.

I can't get to bed if I'm this... hot and bothered...