Hikari; Cataclysm

Chapter 6

The trip back home was too fast for everyone's liking. Not everyone could bear Hiraishin's instantaneous trip. Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Sakura, and I were the ones that were fully unaffected by it whilst the others weren't faring much as disorientation was common for those who don't usually travel via Hiraishin. We arrived at the Hokage Tower with most of my friends bawling on the floor with their faces going green, ready to puke.

‘You're back? Anbu, apprehend Uchiha Sasuke, now!’ Tsunade-senpai exclaimed as she was surprised to see the frozen and stoic Uchiha. I hastily signaled the appearing Anbu to hold their ground.

‘Wait, not right now. Itachi's jutsu is running its course. We can't risk it right now, senpai. This must happen,’ I said as I immediately hovered in front of my stoic teammate as did Sakura and Naruto along with the redhead.

‘You sure that this will work?’ Tsunade-senpai asked.

‘Yes, if not, I’ll arrest him myself,’ I promised.

‘Che,’ Senpai grunted as she waved a hand to dismiss the Anbu.

‘Very well, Hokage-sama, Director,’ the ANBU collectively said as they now paid attention to the redhead.

‘Who's this then?’ the Hokage asked.

‘I believe that this is one of Sasuke's new companions. The other two had fled the scene in hopes of not crossing my path again while I am on my worst bad day yet,’ I explained as I walked towards Senpai's desk and stood next to her as I looked at the redhead directly. ‘Introduce yourself.’

‘I, my name is Karin,’ the redhead said, stuttering as she said so, and then she noticed that Sakura was healing Sasuke's wound. ‘What are you doing to my Sasuke, you damn forehead!’

‘What's that? Wanna fight?! What do you mean your Sasuke?!!’ Sakura immediately retorted. These two were too similar than we wanted. Fangirls, I was shivering already when I came to that conclusion.

‘Knock it off, you two,’ I said, irritated and they both glared at me with fiery eyes. Well, two can play at that game, so I glared back with the help of my Rinne-Sharingan.

‘Pardon?’ I dared.

‘Sorry, Shinigami-sama!!!’ Karin hurriedly said as she bowed down to her knees and shivered.

‘No fair! Nee-sama told you to not use it to your advantage,’ Sakura whined. I made my way to the redhead.

‘Whatever, I am not in the mood to care about that. I’ve just lost the most valuable asset to the village and Foundation,’ I said as I stuck out my tongue at my teammate to which, she was, as expected, fuming. ‘Do you want Ibiki-San to do it for me, Senpai?’

‘Well, yours is better and readily available. Have at it then,’ Tsunade-senpai agreed with a chuckle and I brought my hand to pat the girl's cheek. She blushed at the contact and made eye-contact with me. As soon as my third eye opened, my mind quickly went into her mindscape. The eye, much like its successor, allowed me to infiltrate her mindscape easily without worrying about her mental state or possible defense mechanism that was implanted into her psyche. This ability of mine was immensely handy compared to the Yamanaka's clan jutsu and a tad less impactful to the victim's psyche compared to Ibiki's top tier Torture and Interrogation techniques. When I was done, she was reduced to a shivering mess on the ground. It was expected because she had been forced to live through her memories once again and it was nothing but nightmares. Naturally, I felt guilty for invading her privacy like that.

‘She and her mother were fugitives in Kusagakure, they are Uzumakis. When her mother died of chakra exhaustion from healing the Kusa Nin during a war and she had taken the helm after the late Uzumaki. Sometime later, Orochimaru took her in and kept her as a warden when the snake had done his research on her. That is until Sasuke recruited her. She just has nowhere to depend on,’ I said for others’ sake. ‘I understand that Uzushiogakure had a long-standing alliance with Konohagakure, Senpai. I request that you leave her under my care. She had suffered enough. Karin, get up. I'm sorry I did that.’