Sachiki laid awake in the small bedroom that reeked of bleach, staring blankly at the ceiling. Her eyes twinkled in wonder, it had been a while since she had a roof over her head. Not a sound was heard, and Sachiki wondered where Karin had rushed to after being escorted to her room by the redhead, who told her that she could leave anytime she wanted to.

Sachiki had nowhere to go. But she didn't trust the people here either. She didn't trust anybody.

"So why stay?" a figure appeared, laying next to her in the single bed. She snuggled up next to Sachiki, placing a hand on her belly. "They might hurt you."

Sachiki sighed, "I know, Heila. But how long will I keep searching for a place to stay? The world's always going to be full of sick people, at least these people give me a roof over my head."

"But they cut off one of your nails."

The pillow shifted as Sachiki shrugged over-exaggeratedly, "Eh. It'll grow back."

"I'm worried about you. These people don't seem alright in the head."

"They're Shinobi. Of course they're not alright in the head." Sachiki stated dryly, "Did you see those bite marks on Karin? They remind me of baa chan's."

"I didn't notice. It doesn't matter anyways. Just because she was abused doesn't mean she won't use you to do some sick shit. She used your nails to make a sword, for God's sake."

Sachiki frowned. Though her lack of trust told her not to stay, a gut feeling was urging her to stick around for a while and see how everyone is.

"I-I want to stay for a while. If anything bad happens, I run away again."

Heila stared at her lover with worried eyes, but replied, "Fine."

A knock on her door interrupted her. Sachiki looked away from the door and back to her bed, and Heila was gone again.

Sachiki sat up when she saw the peak of red. Karin didn't wear a distinguishable expression as she asked if she could come in. Sachiki nodded, not sensing any malicious intent from her.

She kept her nails ready, just in case.

Karin went straight to the point. "If you want to stay here, then you either have to be a test subject... or a tester."

"What? Test subject?" Sachiki's brows pulled together. "What kinds of tests?"

Karin sat on the egde of the bed, paying attention to her expression shifts and body language, and how her chakra was steadily collecting at her nails. "Back then when solely Orichimaru ran this place, the experiments were sickening and done in poor conditions. But now that I'm the head of this hideout, the environment is much more condusive for the test subjects. Also, I don't imprison people for a long period of time."

'I didn't have to tell her that, but honesty is the best way to get people to trust you.'

Sachiki's hunched shoulders relaxed and Karin took note of that.

"The experiments are different ranging from person to person, but basically they're for information. I like gaining knowledge about different... odd powers and how to improve them. Also, I give medical attention to people with severe diseases and injuries." Karin told her proudly.

Karin had Sachiki's interest hooked, but chakra still remained at the tips of her fingers. They had just met; for all Sachiki knew they could be planning on killing her.

But she really wanted to know more about the Hideout. She didn't know why, but science had always fascinated her. Back in the day she'd rather spend her week cooped up in a chemistry book than to be out in the training grounds. She remembered the time when her father would reprimand her for not following her duties, telling her to focus on becoming a fine Shinobi and nothing else.

But life of a Shinobi was never for her.

"For today," Sachiki looked down at her lap, embarrassed by the childlike awe growing in her, "I would just like to see what kind of 'tests' you people really carry out."

Karin hid her smirk with her hand, "You won't be disappointed, or hurt. Trust me."

: :

"And what are these for?" Sachiki pointed at the torn skin along with bottles of chakra in an enclosed chamber.

Karin had shown her around the whole hideout, and Sachiki was left in awe with every passing test lab. The amount of scientific research and discovery that went on in the Hideout astounded her. Chakra mutation, genetic alteration, genetic reformation, physiology, biochemistry. Everything that a scientist could ever dream of.

Everything she ever asked for.

"That's my skin. And that's my chakra. I'm working on a better way to heal people." Karin replied, smiling softly as she watched the young girl gaze at every experiment with a child-like wonder.

Sachiki frowned as she remembered the bite marks she saw, "How so?"

"I have an odd talent," Karin chuckled, "When someone is injured, all they have to do is bite me and they'll be healed. For a year I've been studying my body in order to understand what exactly makes my skin so medicinal. And once I'm done, I don't have to worry about getting bitten again. I'll just figure out how to extract it somehow."

She said it with such nonchalance that anyone who wasn't paying attention would shrug it off and move on. However, Sachiki was one to pay attention to details. The light in Karin's eyes were gone.

"I'm baack," Heila sang, "Do you think those bite marks were from some sort of assault? Ask her what village she's from. I bet my ASS it's The Mist."

Sachiki gave Heila a look, but relented, "What village are you from Karin?"

It was the first time she saw Karin stiffen.

"I belong to nowhere, it's been like that since I was a kid."

Sachiki wondered if that was the real truth.

"Nah she's definitely lying," Heila whispered. "Liar liar pants on fire!"

"Shut it, Heila," Sachiki hissed.

Karin, who had been focusing on her documents, gave Sachiki a weird look. "Huh?"

"Don't mind. It's just this stupid-" Sachiki started, but then realisation dawned, "Nothing."

Karin raised a brow, but asked no questions, "Okay..."

"She can't see me, remember?" Heila rolled her eyes. "I'm a figment of your imagination. Never forget that."

And with those words, Heila was gone once again.

Sachiki subconsciously blinked away a tear, focused on the situation at hand. 'To stay, or not to stay?'

"Karin?"

"Yes?"

Sachiki took in a breath. She would just test it out, see how living in the Hideout was, then she'd decide if it was worth staying.

Heila wouldn't be happy to hear it.

"Give me a job. I want to see if I can be of any use."

The light in Karin's eyes returned.

: :

Darkness had a tight relationship with the rinnegan bearer.

It had it's claws on him since childhood. Back then, Sasuke kept the darkness at arm's length, only interacting when necessary. He could smile and have fun with Team seven without the weight of his past holding him down completely. However, progressing time favoured the darkness. Missions grew harder, hate grew stronger, and the darkness was let in more often. It fed on the hatred Sasuke had for his brother, the anger he felt towards Naruto for surpassing him, and the fear of losing everything for a second time.

He feared his fear. He was afraid his worry for his teammates would get in the way of what he aimed for. The darkness wrapped it's arms around Sasuke, coaxing him to forget them and focus on the hate inside. Sasuke fought, he honestly fought against the demon harder than any other battle he had with other people, but he failed. The monster crawled in, and darkness became his friend.

It was like a silly game of tag at first. Sasuke could control himself most times, except when the curse mark had him. He left Team seven and found team taka, and unlike team seven, team taka did not mind the obvious darkness that was next to him. Rather, they understood it. After all, they had all been at that point in life, one time or another.

Problems arose when the darkness began to act in place of Sasuke. Team taka saw it, he wasn't murdering samurai or fighting kages. The darkness had the pilot seat and moved the plane about how it saw fit. The darkness slowly but surely enveloped Sasuke, turning him into the very monster he once tried to fight.

The moment he stabbed Karin, Sasuke was gone.

What was left was the darkness. All the pain, all the anger, all the hate. It had all merged together to form a sick being, something one could call evil.

However, the darkness, like every monster, had a weakness. That weakness was no one other than a blonde idiot who wanted his friend back by his side before he became Hokage. That idiot fought the darkness with all the light in him, and the darkness was defeated.

Defeated. Not gone.

Sasuke served his time, apologized to whoever deserved it, and pledged his allegiance to the Hidden leaf. Everything was Sasuke, no longer the darkness. He was finally himself again, and at peace. But he knew the darkness still lingered, waiting for the right moment to ruin everything again.

Sasuke feared that more than anything.

"Sasuke! Sasuke! Sas-oh there you are. Wanna see me turn this air sword to a water sword-Wait, that's a stupid question. Of course you do! Okay okay, lemme just..."

Putting all his mental and chakral might on the sword, Suigestu literally crapped his pants when the once clear sword had turned into a blue one. Sasuke, dropping the non fiction he was reading, stared at the blue sword with a bored expression.

"Don't give me that face! I'll show you just how cool it is." A vase next to Sasuke's study table caught Suigestu's eye. Smirking, he aimed his sword at the brown vase and with a "swloosh" sound, the decoration was sliced neatly in half. Water pooled at the ground.

Sasuke's eye twitched, "Karin gave me that vase as a house gift."

"You're welcome."

An annoyed sigh. Sasuke really did not have time for him, "You ruined a perfectly good vase for a useless display of a wet sword. Fix that vase and mop up that water."

"What?" Suigestu ignored the blatant insult and instead focused on the direct order Sasuke had given. 'How dare he give me orders? Me! A whole Suigestu! Why I oughta-'

"Fix the vase and clean up the mess before Karin sees it." He repeated.

"You don't tell me what to do!"

"Would you rather have me call Karin to tell you what to do?" Sasuke raised a brow.

He groaned loudly. "Fuck you Sasuke. Fuck. You."

Suigestu appeared five minutes later with a mop and some glue. Sasuke pretended not to hear him as he mumbled things about his "stupid Uchiha face" as he cleaned up.

Then a loud voice made Suigestu go pale.

"Sasuke! you better not have cooped yourself up in your room again! What did I say about getting sunlight, you bastard-"

Karin saw the mess on the floor. And the guy who was cleaning it up.

'My vase. My beautiful, perfect vase.'

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

Sasuke ended up with a completely shattered vase, a wetter floor, and two teammates who grimly agreed to clean it up, arguing throughout.

"Are we all here?" Juugo poked his head through the door, then said with absolutely no expression, "Slumber party."

Sasuke's peaceful reading time was gone. But he didn't know that chaos from Team Taka was exactly what he needed to keep the darkness from making a reappearance. It never really liked the company.

"Do you know how much that vase cost me?!"

Juugo piped in, "We stole that vase together, Karin. It cost us nothing."

"Put a sock in it, Juugo."

"This is not how I envisioned spending my Saturday." Suigestu groaned, "I need a girlfriend."

"You'd need plastic surgery for that. No woman would ever want to fuck you with that ugly face."

Sasuke's eyes twinkled in amusement. The darkness sighed. It'd come again some other time, and hopefully Team Taka wouldn't be around to stop him.

: :

Just a note that I don't believe that Sasuke was cOnSuMEd bY dArKNess as a genin anymore.