Sub Rosa

His fingers, callused and rough, pulled the zipper of her shirt down slowly, brushing against her flesh like fire.

She's back on the bridge, a blade pressed to her throat and he is looking at her. His gaze feels like it’s boring through her flesh, straight through blood and bone and sinew, and back again, critical of her.

Her breath hitches as his lips press hungrily against her collarbone and then her sternum, as one of his hands finds her breast.

His eyes shift to that unholy star formation, fresh blood oozing from the socket, and his smile turns sadistic. His chakra is malicious, stinging, and it feels like frostbite.

His bangs ghost against her skin as he moves up her torso with his lips, a phantom touch that leaves her wanting for more and her over-sensitized skin tingling. He pauses, the barest hints of his teeth on her nipple, and he looks at her with dark and stormy eyes.  His lips press tightly, tugging, and it hurts -

The lightning cuts through her so fast and so suddenly that she hardly has the time to realize what had just happened.

She gasps, arching her back, up and up and into his burning touch, and his hands are supporting her, pressing into her back and buttocks as if she were going to turn to ash and vapor right there, but all she can focus on is the rhythm of their hips and the way his eyes bore through her.  He pulls back, his eyes shifting to red, and then his lips are crashing against hers, devouring her.

His lips are moving as he looks down at her, a cold stranger in a familiar face.

The Sharingan spins and spins and she feels like the world is melting. His eyes are flying apart and twisting into pieces of red and black. The tomoe are shards of darkness against a pair of red moons and suddenly they are stars. His touch is fire and his chakra ice and when his teeth break skin on her chest, blood blossoms like a camellia.

“I have no need of you,” he sneers, looking down at her. “Forget me.”

The lips that beg her to forget are pressed against her forehead and his callused fingers are cupping her face.

“Forget.”

Karin wakes.

"That dream again,” she murmurs, her hand unconsciously rubbing the fresh scar on her chest.

The details are already fading, scattering like grains of sand through her fingers, but she knows it was about the bridge and... “Sasuke,” she murmurs, scowling as she sits up, and licks her dry lips.

There’s a phantom taste there, like ash and electricity.  Hesitantly, she presses her fingers to her lips.

She remembers his lips were warm and they were moving, forming syllables.

“Karin...”

Two orbs of red, the tomoe spinning and expanding into a star, flash like a lance through her mind. 

“Forget!”

She gasps, grasping her head as pain ricochets through her skull.

The door opens, a pink-haired nurse entering quickly.  Steady, firm hands gently coax her arms back even as the pain begins to subside and she pants, greedily gulping in air as her hands find purchase on the nurse’s arms.

“Are you all right?” the nurse asks, “Was it another nightmare?”

Karin looks up at her with glassy eyes.  The scar in her chest itches and her skull throbs.  It takes her a minute to remember where she is.  “Yes,” she says at last.

“The bridge again?” the nurse gently pries, letting her steady herself.

There’s Danzo, rubble and rock and boxes, and it hurts.  Yes, she thinks, the bridge.  That’s right: the place where he disappeared behind the ice.  There’s something she’s missing though, but she can’t remember what and her head aches if she tries to think about it.

“I think so,” she says, still clinging to the nurse’s arms.  “Yes, it must have been.”

The nurse hums noncommittally and stays there until her breathing evens.

---

"Ibiki, I need to talk to you," Sakura calls out.  The medic nin jogs up to his side.  "It's about the patient."

"Prisoner," he corrects her.

"Patient," she returns sharply, holding out a file.

He takes it from her and skims the contents.  His scowl deepens.  "Is this accurate?"

"I checked myself, on scene," the medic nin says archly, indicating the file.  "And there's your verification."

"You realize what this means?" he grinds out, glaring at the younger ninja.  "We won't be able to use anything on her."

Sakura meets his gaze head on.  "I'm sure you'll think of something."