Karin POV
The corridors were quiet, but my heart wasn't.
I leaned against the cold stone wall outside the room where he slept, arms crossed, staring at the door like it was an enemy I couldn't face.
Sasuke Uchiha.
The boy who had once made my pulse race with every glance. The boy who had abandoned me, who had used my chakra, my life, and thrown it away like it meant nothing.
I should hate him. No—I do hate him.
So why… why did my hands still shake when I felt his chakra?
That wasn't the same Sasuke I remembered. No, this was something else entirely. His chakra was heavier, sharper, more… divine. When it washed over me, I couldn't breathe. It wasn't just the Sharingan anymore. That other eye—the Rinnegan. I'd read about it in scrolls, whispered in old notes Orochimaru left behind. A power of gods.
And yet he carried it like it was just another tool.
I grit my teeth, adjusting my glasses. Damn him.
Still, something about the way he looked at me earlier burned into my mind. His eyes—cold, yes, but not the same emptiness they used to carry. There was calculation there. Awareness. As though he wasn't just Sasuke anymore.
Maybe he wasn't.
I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to steady my heartbeat. Why did part of me… feel relieved? Like his return meant something more than just another storm in my life?
Orochimaru wasn't here. He'd been gone for weeks, buried in some new obsession. That left me in charge of this base, of the experiments, of the soldiers. And now Sasuke—no, whatever Sasuke had become—was here, sleeping like a serpent coiled before it strikes.
I didn't know if I should wake him, stab him, or…
My cheeks heated. I shook the thought away violently, hissing under my breath. "Idiot."
I hated him. I hated him for what he did.
But even now, staring at that door, I couldn't deny it.
If he asked—if he really asked—part of me would still follow him.
And that terrified me more than anything.