Cold rain washed over the jumbled footprints Hawk had left in the mud as they departed, but it could not wash away the chaotic chakra lingering in the air or the heavy sense of oppression.
Sasuke walked at the front. Though he had done his best to steady his stride, his faintly trembling fingertips and overly rigid back betrayed the immense pain and pressure he was enduring. Within him, the struggle between Indra's chakra and the Sacred Lord's residual power had not ceased. Ling's senjutsu intervention and Sasuke's own will had merely forced them back into a precarious balance for the moment. That dark power was like a venomous snake lying in wait. Though it had temporarily retreated, its cold, corrosive presence still lurked deep in his chakra pathways, and whispers and illusions continued to harass his mind like background noise. With every breath, he could almost feel that power greedily drawing on his negative emotions-his hatred for Itachi, his anger at his own weakness, his rejection of Konoha's interference-as nourishment for its growth.
Karin followed cautiously behind him, no longer daring to rush forward to heal him. All she could do was anxiously monitor the faint fluctuations of those two terrifying powers within Sasuke through the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, her heart clenched tight. Guren and Jugo guarded his flanks in silence. The atmosphere was thick enough to wring water from.
"Why... didn't you let me kill them back there?" Sasuke suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse and cold, breaking the suffocating silence. He meant Kakashi and Ling.
Karin froze, then hurried to explain, "Lord Sasuke, your condition at the time..."
"I know what condition I was in!" Sasuke cut her off sharply, a trace of irritation in his voice. The dark energy inside him stirred slightly in response,