Absolution

Summary: An injured Sasuke, a blushing Karin, a sarcastic Suigetsu, and a worried Jugo. Upon rescuing the wounded Uchiha, As Team Hebi works together to heal their leader; Jugo realizes the importance of their group.

Rating: T

A/N Hello my faithful readers! This was supposed to be posted on Sasuke's birthday yesterday (7/23/14), but it ended up being longer than I thought and I wasn't able to finish it until today (7/24/14). I apologize, but I hope you like this story. I tried to keep everyone in character as much as possible. Sasuke might be a tiny bit OOC in the end, but it's only for a little bit. I hope you still enjoy!

"Karin! Have you found Sasuke's location yet?" Jugo asks, sprinting between his two teammates he was assigned to work with.

"Not yet." Karin replied, running along side of him. "He could be anywhere, since he and the enemy teleported."

"Hurry up Karin. Geez you are so useless." Suigetsu's toothy grin and aggravating words only further anger the red-headed woman.

"I'm trying Suigetsu! I need to focus so shut up and stop pestering me!" Seeing no obstacles in her path ahead of her through the forest, she closes her eyes in concentration, further stretching her talent out. "I… I think I know where he is." She whispers.

"About time." Suigetsu huffs, but Jugo's glare shuts him up.

"You think so? That's not like you to be unsure."

"I don't exactly sense him, but the chakra of the man he was fighting before… is flowing strong in that area. It's so overwhelming, I can't sense anyone else's chakra. There's a still a good chance-" she suddenly cuts herself off with a large gasp, freezing in her tracks.

The other two immediately stop, and turn back to look at her. "What's wrong?" Jugo asks. Karin's face is plastered with worry. "Sasuke's chakra… it's weak." She whispers, folding her arms against her chest as if the fear is stinging her heart. "It's… it's beginning...to fade."

"Let's hurry!" Jugo growls, and the two nod. Karin forces herself back to reality and the team picks up the pace.

"Where are they Karin?" Jugo takes the role of leadership since the Uchiha is gone.

The red-headed woman takes a second to concentrate. "Over there!" She points. "They're coming up fast at 2 o'clock!"

"Great… if the man is still there that means we'll have to fight." Suigetsu moans. "This is just great. I thought Sasuke had it under control."

"Something must have happened after the teleportation Jutsu. The enemy must have been waiting for him to be separated from us before revealing his real techniques." Jugo tells the smaller man.

"We're here!" Karin tells them, as they see a clearing coming up. As they break through it, they immediately see their leader, on the ground in a pool of blood, and the man standing over him, a long sword pointing directly at his neck. The Uchiha's eyes were pinched shut in pain, and he panted heavily, clutching at a wound at his chest. The team didn't know if he even realized the man had a sword pinning him there.

The ninja lifted his sword in the air, preparing to make his kill. Their leader didn't move.

"Sasuke!" Karin cried, making Sasuke's eyes snap open just as the sword was being pushed downwards. Karin's cry of desperation instantly brought him back to his senses with just enough time to roll away from the deadly path of the blade, which leaves a deep, but not fatal slash into his upper arm as he dodges. Jugo and Suigetsu waste no time lunging at the man, while Karin quickly follows behind to get Sasuke out of the way of danger.

"Agh!" The Uchiha gives a sharp cry of pain, clutching his arm that is now cut deeply open. He attempts to stand but falls back over as the agony and blood loss from the wounds take their toll. The man leaps towards him and bring his sword back, preparing to slash him in half. Sasuke can't do a thing but stare in fear as the man swings.

In an instant, Suigetsu is in front of him, his executioner's blade, colliding with the man's much thinner sword. The man is momentarily shocked, with gives Jugo enough time to come up from the side and slam a fist into the side of the man's head. He cries out in pain as he's blown a huge distance into a nearby tree.

"Man… it's almost like we're fighting that annoying rapper all over again." Suigetsu laughs, holding his massive sword over his shoulder. Karin rushes over to Sasuke's side.

"Sasuke… can you hear me? Hurry Sasuke, you have to bite me!" She pulls her sleeve up, revealing countless teeth marks running up her body. She lowers her arm down in front of her fallen leader. Sasuke weakly sits himself up, letting out a cry of agony as he does so. Karin watches in worry as her leader tries desperately to heal himself. She lowers her arm closer and Sasuke does clamp down, but he is too weak to dig his teeth in hard enough to suck out her chakra.

"Come on Sasuke. You can do it." Karin urges him. Sasuke tries again, and there's slightly more pressure, but not nearly enough to begin to heal. The Uchiha's eyes flicker, and he sways a little. "Sasuke!" She cries, "Hang in there Sasuke!"

"Karin…" is all he can manage, before his eyes roll back and he collapses onto the ground.

"Sasuke!" She realizes his chakra is fading rapidly, and turns to her other teammates. "Hurry up guys! We need to go!"

"Damn!" Suigetsu hissed, turning to face his orange-haired teammate, "Jugo! Can you handle him?"

"Yes. Just hurry!" He yells, using natural energy to transform his fist into a rock hard weapon. He lunged at the enemy, who dodged quickly and pulled a kunai out, slashing wildly at Jugo.

"Anyone who helps that traitor deserves to die!" The man yells at his attacker, performing quick hand signs, but Jugo slams a fist into his chest before he can finish preparing his jutsu.

Suigetsu makes it over to Karin, who is holding Sasuke up against her chest. She attempts to lift him, but he's too heavy for her, and she gladly accepts her not-so-friendly teammate's help. As she and Suigetsu together lift their leader up, his arms around their shoulders, they hear Jugo yell out as he creates jets on the back of his arms, and slam the enemy through a tree and into another.

"Let's go!" Suigetsu tells Karin, and together they haul Sasuke away from the enemy.

They are about ten minutes away when they hear heavy footsteps coming up from behind. Karin immediately uses her abilities. "It's Jugo. He's alone." She states, and they stop to wait for him to catch up. He returns back to his team, slightly panting from the run.

"It's over." He says simply, digging into his pocket. He pulls out a tiny book and flips through it, showing his team the contents. "See all these pictures? These are all missing nin from all over the world. The one's X'd out are ones that were killed." About halfway, he stops on a certain page, where a familiar black haired boy's picture stood out to them all. "Sasuke was his next target."

Suigetsu takes the book and glances at the ninja that were eliminated. "But these ninja, even though they were missing, were pretty weak. I mean, Kaoru Kitsumaru and Haku Aoi were known as pretty pathetic ninja in their village. They were simple petty thieves and never confronted anyone."

"So what's your point already?" Karin growled impatiently at her teammate.

"What I mean is, he never went after any strong ninja. The enemy couldn't have been that strong. So why was Sasuke defeated by him?"

Karin sat and thought about it for a minute. "Beats me."

"Sasuke did just shortly heal from his fight with the Akatsuki. Perhaps he did not fully recover like we thought he did." Jugo said softly, walking over to the three of them. He took Sasuke from the two and lifted him easily into his arms. "We should go. There is no towns nearby, so we will have to tend to his wounds ourselves."

Karin and Suigetsu nod in agreement. The three rush to find somewhere to safely rest before dark. Suigetsu and Karin search wildly, while Jugo is a little more gentle as he carries his fallen leader. Finally, after what seems like hours, they find a good spot. It's on the side of a grassy hill, with a few large boulders and a stream cutting through a flattened area just below.

"This will work." Jugo states, lying his leader down gently in the grass. "Karin! Do you still have the medical supplies?"

"Of course." She says, dropping to her knees beside Sasuke and digging through her backpack. She pulled out many different types of medical equipment, laying them out beside Jugo.

"I only know the basics." Jugo says as he begins unraveling the medical tape.

"Same here." Karin begins taking out some gauze and antiseptic spray.

Suigetsu watches boredly from the back, sipping on his water. When he realizes the bottle is empty, he groans, and stretches his arms in the air. "I'm gonna go get some water." He states simply, walking unhurriedly down the hill. Karin and Jugo hardly even hear him as the work on patching their fallen leader up.

"If only he was awake." Karin sighed. "I could just heal these wounds for him."

"It's fine Karin. You need to preserve your chakra so you can make sure there are no enemy ninja heading our way." Jugo rests a hand on her shoulder.

"I know. It's just hard to see him like this." Karin helps sit Sasuke up so Jugo can wrap the bandages around his chest. After he's finished, he helps Karin lay him back down.

"There. That's all we can do for him right now." Jugo sighs, leaning back. Karin nods and packs up the medical supplies.

"Say, Jugo. Why don't we start a fire? It's gonna be a cold night. The sun is already starting to set." Karin asks the man, who nods and stands.

"I'll go get firewood. You stay here with Sasuke." Karin hides a blush and quickly nods to her teammate. After he leaves, Karin turns to the Uchiha, her face as red as a tomato.

'Sasuke… I have you all to myself...' She grins madly, romantic thoughts running through her female mind.

"Ahh, much better! Jugo! Karin! How's Sas-" Suigetsu cuts himself off as he sees the lack of the giant man, and Karin looking at the Uchiha like she had just put him in a trance.

"S-Suigetsu!" Karin immediately straightens herself, fixing her glasses upon her nose. "I didn't think you'd be back so soon!"

Suigetsu blinks, in shock, and then breaks into laughter, slapping his knee and resting the hand onto his forehead as he bends over. "HAHAHAHA Karin! You finally made a move on Sasuke! I always knew you were gonna take advantage of him one day!"

"That's not it at all! I haven't even done anything to him! I swear!" Karin defended, standing up with clenched fists. She blushed even harder at the thought.

"Whatever! Is that why your face is so red? So Karin, was it everything you dreamed?"

Karin punched him across the face, making water splash everywhere. "Suigetsu you IDIOT!" She screamed in anger.

"Suigetsu, knock it off. You too, Karin." They both turn to see Jugo returning with his arms full of firewood. "Didn't I tell you to watch Sasuke?"

"It's HIS fault." Karin pointed an accusing finger at Suigetsu, who scoffed and turned away from her.

"Whatever Karin. I'm not the one who tried raping Sasuke while I was alone-"

"Shut up Suigetsu!"

"Both of you knock it off." Jugo cut their argument off abruptly. "I'm serious. It's getting dark. Let's start a fire and get to bed."

The two growled at each other, then turned away and walked towards Sasuke, with Jugo in between them. Jugo started a fire below Sasuke, and Karin and Suigetsu settled each beside their leader. Suigetsu had to hold back a sarcastic comment about how close Karin made herself beside the Uchiha. He knew arguing with Jugo would get him no where. He sighed and turned away from the red headed devil and groaned.

"No one wants your complaining." Karin growled at him from behind.

Suigetsu bit his tongue.

"It's starting." Jugo said, watching the fire burn brightly, heat radiating off and onto his chest. He sighed softly and stood up, making his way to sit above the Uchiha. He watched Suigetsu and Karin both take out their blankets, and he does the same, although he lays it on top of Sasuke instead of himself.

"Hey Jugo, you're gonna get a little cold there tonight." Suigetsu laughs, but Jugo just shakes his head.

"It's alright. I won't sleep tonight anyway."

"Suit yourself." He mumbles, crawling into his blanket, the heat of the fire already warming it up.

A few minutes later, Jugo can already hear the man's snores.

Karin stays up a little longer, but even with her worry about her leader, she too drifts off to the sound of the chirping crickets and cackling fire. The gentle giant sits patiently, watching the steady flame burn the logs below it. He glances down at the Uchiha, noting his deep heavy breaths.

'Maybe he's regaining consciousness.' Jugo thought, sitting back and looking up at the stars. Although he's not tired, he allows his mind to wander as he waits for time to pass.

He is suddenly zapped back into reality by a quiet moan. Jugo immediately turns to his leader as he sees his eyes slowly blink open.

"Where am I..?" He whispers quietly, glancing around uneasily.

"Relax Sasuke. It's me, Jugo." The orange haired man soothes, making his way beside his leader. He helps the Uchiha sit up. Sasuke looks around in confusion as he sees his teammates beside him.

"Ugh… what happened?" He asks, moaning as a headache suddenly pounds against his skull.

"You were fighting a man. By the time we had gotten there, you were already pinned and badly injured. We came just in time." Jugo explained, hoping to jog his leader's memory. Sasuke simply nodded, laying back down.

"Is he dead?"

"Yes." Jugo replies. "I killed him as Karin and Suigetsu got you away from him. He seemed to be after missing nin."

Sasuke sat in silence, watching the stars above him. "Thank you Jugo…" He whispered, beginning to drift off. Exhaustion was quickly taking its toll.

"You're welcome Sasuke." Jugo smiled, securing the blanket around him tighter.

Sasuke smiled softly. "Goodnight, Jugo…" He sighed softly, sleep pulling him back under. Jugo just smiled, seeing the cold, usually prideful and independent Uchiha let his guard down around him and be grateful to him. Jugo looked back up into the sky, once again getting lost in his own thoughts. He chuckled to himself as he realized just how perfect his imperfect team really was.

'Suigetsu and Karin don't get along. Karin wants to date Sasuke. Sasuke is annoyed with Karin. I need Sasuke as my cage. Suigetsu is unpredictable. I randomly get urges to kill. Sasuke wants to kill his brother,' Jugo smiles. 'Yet, these imperfections is what makes us perfect. Team Hebi is, in a weird way, perfection.'

Spending time with them had given him absolution. He knew at that moment, that he finally felt as if he was free.

Jugo looks back down at Sasuke, seeing his fingers twitch as he dreams. With a sigh of content, he lies back down in the grass, feeling the warmth of his emotions relax his body. He took one last the people who had given him the absolution he had always dreamed of, and closed his eyes and joined his friends in sleep.

A/N done! How did you like it? Please review and let me know!
And before I forget, happy (late) birthday Sasuke! I still love you even after all these years!

~SasukeUchihasGuardian