𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐑𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

Journey

Sasuke and Karin were hard to keep up with, that's for sure.

Hard, but not impossible.

Merely trailing behind the pair as they blitzed through the treetops of a forest just outside of the Uchiha enclosure made me realise just how inferior I was to them, in terms of both speed and skills. While they seamlessly dodged their way through the thickets and branches without a single noise, I found myself crashing through anything and everything that came in my path, which worked just as well, if you ask me.

"Karin, where is his nearest hideout?" asked the Uchiha as he blazed ahead of us, not even looking back at the Uzumaki.

"About two days north!"

"Two days?! How long ago did he take her?!" I exclaimed, quickening my pace to catch up with the pair.

"No one knew about it until this morning, so it's possible he took her at any point of time prior to today."

"I'll be able to sense him if we catch up to him soon," said Karin reassuringly. "That is, if he's headed towards the nearest hideout. God knows where he's headed to, but for now, that place is our best bet. We keep moving, we can make it there. I don't know if Orochimaru knows how to take care of an infant, but I know she'll be strong enough to endure at least a few days of neglect at his hands. That is, hoping that he doesn't do anything to her."

"What kind of things does Orochimaru do that makes everyone say that?!"

"Orochimaru used to work for the Senju, until they discovered he'd been performing inhumane experimentation on citizens of Konoha. Rather than face the consequences for his actions, he fled the city, and only returned to Konoha when the Uchiha took over and banished the Senju from the country. He picked up Kabuto and I on the way, yet I can assure you what he did to us was nowhere near as gruesome as what he did to those citizens."

"And then my lovely family offered a snake like him a job," came Sasuke's scowl from ahead, as he led me and Karin in the direction of Orochimaru's supposed hideout. "Because they wanted to get their hands on the results of his experiments."

"How could you employ someone as shady as that creep?!" I snapped, taking out my frustrations towards the clan on Sasuke. "Like, literally! How?!"

"Does it look like I'd know?!"

"Well, considering you're the son of the clan leader and a rather valued member of the Uchiha, I would assume so!"

"You act like you know everything there is to know about me, don't you?!"

"And you act like a prick, so I guess we're even, huh?"

"Don't you-"

"GAH! YOU TWO! YOUR DAUGHTER HAS JUST BEEN KIDNAPPED! CAN YOU STOP WASTING YOUR ENERGY ON EACH OTHER AND FOCUS ON WHAT'S IMPORTANT HERE?!"

***

When we stopped to set up camp for the night, I was surprised when Karin told me that we had actually covered a lot of ground.

"Considering how new you are, your fitness is superb," she noted as she unrolled her sleeping bag. We had stopped among a small patch of trees to rest for the night, each to their own as we unpacked our bags and took out what was necessary. For me, it consisted not only of drinking a lot of water and eating what I had in my bag, but lying flat out on my sleeping bag and getting used to the sensation of sweat drenching my skin. Going to sleep dirty made me feel gross; I could never get any decent rest unless I'd had a good shower. However, in the middle of nowhere, I didn't have the luxury of doing any of that, and it took me all my will to clamber into my sleeping bag without having my skin crawl.