I've had this idea for a while, and I would've put it up sooner, but....ugh finals. Luckily, I found time to get it up, rather than studying like I should've been... Anyhoozle, enjoy!
There's a slight Au to this one.. Instead of The Sasuke Retrieval groups taking two days, in this it took two weeks. Not a huge change, but it will make sense as you read.
Haruno Sakura was in the hospital in critical condition. And it was all Uchiha Sasuke's fault.
He was currently sitting outside the emergency room with Yamanaka Ino sitting across from him, glaring up a storm. She had every right to. It was his fault they were here in the first place.
It was his first mission since his probation ended. He had allowed Naruto and Sakura to defeat him, so that he could return to Konoha, though Naruto and Sakura said very differently. Team Hebi had really gotten on his nerves, and the still incomplete Team 7 was a perfect excuse. Avoiding getting raped every night was not the most fun activity in the world.
He and Sakura just had to track down a group of rogue ninja that had been causing trouble, and take them out. A pretty low mission for a bunch of 16 year olds.
Tracking the dimwits had been almost too easy. Even an academy student could cover their tracks better than these guys. They had been traveling in the middle of the road, not even keeping their guard up.
Fighting was where the problem popped up. Not only were the shinobi talented fighters, but he and Sakura were out of sync as well. Normally, Sakura would be the one at fault, but both were to blame. They had decided against combo attacks, and each took half of the ninja.
Sasuke had been doing well, only one of 'his' half remained, but of course that one happened to be the best fighter. Within a few minutes, Sasuke had been caught in a paralyzing jutsu. His opponent had then taken several kunai out of his pouch and aimed them at the vital areas. Sasuke struggled against the jutsu, but it was to no avail. He was a goner. He shut his eyes in defeat. It would save Sakura the trouble of doing so later.
When he felt no pain, he opened his eyes. He was covered in blood, and there was blood all over the ground, which he had expected, but there was one problem; it wasn't his blood.
Sakura stood in front of him with his previous opponent slumped over her delicate figure, dead. She threw him off as though he was little more than a piece of dirt. Sasuke actually thought everything was ok, but then Sakura turned around. His eyes widened in horror.
Sakura had kunai sticking out of her everywhere, as if they were growths. Blood was pouring out of her wounds like a broken dam. Her legs were shaking terribly in a feeble effort to stay standing. Despite this, she was smiling the most beautiful smile at him. The only thing wrecking the moment was the trickle of blood coming out of her mouth and dripping on her chin.
"Are you okay, Sasuke-kun?" Her speech was surprisingly clear, though quiet. "None of those kunai hit you?" Sasuke only shook his head as a response. After scanning the area for any more ninja, he turned back to Sakura.
" I'm taking you to the hospital." As he said so, he took Sakura's arm and draped it over his shoulder, and put his arm around her waist for support. She weakly protested but Sasuke ignored her.
They had slowly limped about a quarter of a mile before Sakura collapsed from blood loss. Sasuke scooped her up in his arms and raced to Konoha.
Ino had forced this information out of him, while visibly having to restrain herself from murdering him on the spot. The fact that she was only glaring was a miracle in itself. Sasuke wasn't one for chitchat, but calming down Ino seemed like a very good idea, the sooner, the better.
"Why does she do that anyway?" Ino blinked in confusion.
"Who?" Her answer was Sasuke jerking his head towards the emergency room. She actually smiled at him.
" Sakura has always done that as long as I can remember, as well as her." Ino looked as though she was remembering something fondly. Sasuke raised his eyebrow at the last part of her statement.
"Oh, Shitenshin can allow me to enter a person's memories for interrogation purposes," she explained, "With Sakura, though, I had her consent, or else I wouldn't be able to do it."
Now it was Sasuke's turn to blink in confusion. "I always understood that Shitenshin took over the opponents mind, rendering them not responsible for their actions." Ino nodded, and Sasuke went on. "It is a jutsu that cannot be escaped, unless the user cancels it."
"Ah, that's normally correct. Kudos to you, Sasuke!" Her face now became more serious. "Sakura has two minds, and I can only take over her conscious, or dominant mind, leaving me vulnerable to the wrath of the remaining mind. Sakura cannot be harmed by mind-altering jutsus."
This surprised Sasuke. He had expected some huge rant about invading your friend's privacy, not that Ino was actually unable to do that. Sakura had a defense that Sasuke could never have. What was this feeling...jealousy?
"She has two minds," he said slowly, to make sure he heard correctly. Ino nodded the affirmative.
"I found out the hard way during our first Chuunin Exam. I was nearly killed by her other mind, 'Inner Sakura'. It was by far the scariest thing that has ever happened to me." She shuddered at the memory. It was almost as though she could feel those hands crushing her, all over again.
Now this Sasuke wouldn't have known. Kakashi had made sure that the medical team had taken him away, and were treating him. All he had known was that Sakura had had to fight Ino, and that the result was a tie. At the time, Sakura's loss hadn't surprised him in the slightest. The fact that she had taken Ino down with her was slightly more shocking, but nothing for him to even suspect that something might be different with Sakura.
"Why were you going through her memories?" Even with Ino's explanation, he still didn't understand why Ino would want to in the first place. Ino already knew more about Sakura than anyone else, so why need to know even more?
This question made the glaring start all over again. Sasuke knew the answer before Ino even said.
"When you left, she was a wreck," she said sadly, " I mean, I was upset, but nothing like her. I wondered how she could be so torn apart when you hardly paid attention to her. She said I wouldn't understand, unless I had been there. When I said that I could be, she didn't even put up a fight." Ino looked at her knees. Just remembering Sakura's heartbroken expression was making it hard for her to keep a straight face. "Even 'Inner Sakura' didn't try to boot me out. That mind looked exactly like the one that everyone knows."
Sasuke shut his eyes tightly. He when he left all those years ago, he had figured that Sakura would be upset, but so much so that Ino would try to help…what he had done was almost torture.
Ino now looked up at Sasuke. "Shitenshin works the other way as well," Sasuke opened his eyes and stared at Ino with an expectant expression.
"I can show you my memories, and since Sakura's memories were so…potent, they are unspoiled."
Sasuke shook his head in rejection at this. Potent to Ino was different that potent to Sasuke. A stray cat might be potent to her, whereas Sasuke wouldn't give the cat a second glance.
The next thing he saw was very strange. Ino was smirking in the oddest way, as if she was trying to imitate his own infamous one, but she had mixed her own cocky one in as well. Ignoring his now raised eyebrow, Ino decided to test him.
"If you know enough about Sakura to not want to see through her eyes, please tell me why she cut her hair."
Sasuke remembered the event. He had woken up in that forest feeling raw, undiminished power flowing through his veins. The feeling had been so wonderful after being defeated by Orochimaru. Then he had seen Sakura.
Her body was beaten and bruised. There were moderate kunai injuries to her arms and legs, and she had some head trauma, but the thing he had noticed first was her lack of hair. He had seen pile of pink hair near the Oto kunoichi, and knew that the one who had hurt the owner of it was in some serious trouble. Oh, the rage he felt when the one who had hurt her was boasting about it. The fact that he didn't murder the idiot then and there was lucky for him. Sakura had stopped him before he could do anything else. After the Oto nin left, Naruto had woken up, ran towards Sakura and asked about her hair. Sakura had said…
" 'Just changing my image. An image change," he quoted confidently. "She said that long hair got in the way when she was in a forest."
Ino started to laugh at his answer, which caused him to narrow his eyes. "So she told you the same as Naruto! I thought she'd tell you the real reason why later when he wasn't around."
Real reason?
Ino continued, "Clearly you don't know Sakura. You should see everything Team 7 did as she did. You'd be able to hear her thoughts, including 'Inner Sakura's' as well. It showed me why 'Inner Sakura' existed, and made her easier to control afterwards."
Sasuke frowned. Ino wasn't making any sense. If Sakura was so depressed, controlling her should have been easy already.
"Afterwards?"
"Lee and I had a very tough time with her. We had to keep her under our watch constantly, so much so that we'd only let her use windowless bathrooms." When Sasuke gave her a look telling her to explain, Ino said forcefully, "She tried to kill herself."
Sasuke's jaw actually dropped, even if only for a second. His eyes were wide at the mere thought of Sakura dead, let alone by her own hand.
Ino saw this reaction as reason to keep going. " She and Lee would stay at my house, and Lee and I were on shifts to make sure that Sakura hadn't left. Every night, though, she would manage to escape, but we'd always stop her just in time."
"About a week after you left, after stopping her from committing suicide, I remember saying, 'Sakura, Naruto will bring him back, and if you do this, you will never see Sasuke-kun ever again!'" Ino gave Sasuke a thoughtful look, though the anger underneath it was evident. "That got her stable enough to where she wouldn't sneak off to try and kill herself. That's when Lee left to try and help find you. He had refused to go until Sakura was at least sane again. I tried to convince Sakura to grant him a date since he was so nice, but she never did…" Ino coughed, slightly embarrassed that she got off topic.
"Sakura began to train like crazy. I didn't have to watch her 24/7 anymore, but she would still spend the night at my place. Most nights she wouldn't show up, so I'd have to look for her. She'd be on the training fields, unconscious and barely alive." Ino sighed in an annoyed kind of way. "When she wasn't trying to kill herself purposely, it was happening on accident. Then when Naruto came back empty-handed… Well, she looked and acted fine, but in her mind were her real feelings. I've never felt such raw pain like that since," she concluded.
When Sakura had said she'd do anything for him, Sasuke thought of it as an empty promise of one was merely infatuated. Clearly, he had been very wrong. If he had known that Sakura would try to kill herself if he left, he wouldn't have done it. A close friend dying because of him…he couldn't bear it.
"I'll see," he said finally, "I'll see her memories." Ino smiled her first genuine smile at Sasuke for the first time in weeks.
"You won't be disappointed. Now, I'll be in control of only one of your senses; your sight. You need to stay put, or you will get very disoriented. Understood?" Sasuke nodded.
"Ninpou: Shitenshin no Jutsu!"
Sasuke didn't feel any different initially. The only reason he knew Ino had done anything was that her body had gone limp, and lifeless; like a doll.
'Sasuke, it's Ino. The jutsu worked!' It sounded like Ino was talking to him normally, but he was the only one who heard her. Sasuke frowned at the sensation.
'No wonder she said this was disorienting,' he thought bitterly.
'I heard that!' was her snappy response. ' Now before you come up with anything else clever, I'll show you how Sakura really saw.'
Suddenly, Sasuke was no longer in the hospital. He saw the outside of the academy in the distance, and he was sitting on a stone bench with his head in his hands. Only they didn't feel like his hands, they felt much too feminine. And the hair in his face was much too pink to be his own.
'Okay, Sasuke, we're in,' Ino assured him, 'I won't interrupt, so you can form opinions on your own. You will now feel what Sakura felt, hear what she heard, see what saw, hear her thoughts…Basically, you are Sakura.'
Ino's presence seemed to diminish and he now heard Sakura.
'Even if I wanted to seduce him, my figures are below average. Only the width of my forehead is above average. How can I…'
Sakura jerked her head upwards to see Sasuke staring at her with a small smile on his face.
'What?! For real?' Sakura perked up immediately. 'Sasuke-kun's looking at me! And he's looking at me with such intensity.' Sakura turned her head away, and blushed shyly, similar to Hinata.
Sakura then started to daydream about her and Sasuke. Sasuke was saying how her forehead was charming and that he wanted to kiss it. Sakura felt a surge of happiness, but it was short-lived.
Snapping out of it, Sakura came back to the real world. 'Who I am, a kid who still believes in fairy tales? That would never happen.'
"You have such a wide, charming forehead." Sakura head shot up to look at the now approaching Sasuke. "It makes me want to kiss it." Sakura gave Sasuke a look full of hope, her eyes shining.
'Shannaro! It's a fairy tale situation!' Inner Sakura cheered on her outer self.
"Not. Only Naruto would say something like that." Sakura slumped in disappointment. Of course it was too good to be true.
Oddly, Sasuke came over and sat beside her.
"I wanted to ask you something," he said. Sakura looked over at him in curiosity. "What do you think of Naruto?"
'Well that's an odd question,' she thought rather confused.
"He's become accustom to interfering with my love. He's having fun looking at me having trouble. Naruto knows nothing about me. He's just annoying," she finished darkly while Sasuke watched her.
Sakura changed the subject. "I just want you to accept me, Sasuke-kun." Sasuke repeated her statement as a question while looking confused and rather taken aback.
Sakura blushed at the sudden attention she was getting. "I'll do anything…" Then she leaned in to kiss him. She allowed her eyes to flicker shut and tried to think coherent thoughts. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweating slightly, Inner Sakura had grabbed pompoms, and she somehow had to not miss Sasuke's lips with all that going on. When Sasuke didn't run off, or tell her to stop, she saw this as a signal to keep going. She imagined she felt his breath on her face, as though he was leaning in as well. No, she wasn't imagining it!
Wait, he simply wasn't moving, so logically, if she were close enough, she would feel his breath. Deciding that she should probably invoke a reaction out of him before trying to kiss him, Sakura stopped leaning forward, but she didn't retreat.
"I'm desperate," she whispered, her blush still tainting her cheeks a beautiful rose color. For a second, he still didn't move. Sakura sat there waiting for some kind of response, when she felt his breath on her face much more prominently than before. He was getting closer!
Sakura resumed her previous movement, as though she had not stopped. As their lips were a hair apart, Sasuke suddenly jumped back in alarm. He leapt to his feet and ran off in the opposite direction of the academy clutching his navel. Now Sakura opened her eyes and was staring after him in confusion.
"What's wrong?" She had said it loud enough to where she knew he would hear her.
"I'll be right back," he called back to her, and raised his hand in a waving gesture while he ran. Sakura sat there staring after him with adoration written all over her face.
"Sasuke-kun is such a shy guy." She raised a finger to her lip in thought. "I wonder if he needs to settle his feelings?"
It had been a few minutes and Sakura had her hands on her knees, and was patiently waiting for Sasuke to come back. She had been contemplating why he would run off, and began to analyze his previous actions and compare it to everything she knew about the human psyche. Sasuke was walking his usual confident gait, and was walking towards the academy. Sakura noticed and stood up excitedly.
"Sasuke-kun, you're such a shy guy!" She was almost squealing in pure delight. "Are you emotionally prepared? I am." While she had been saying this, Sasuke had kept walking, not even glancing at her. He had walked right past her without even acknowledging her.
"W…Wait," she stuttered, not prepared for his coldness after he had been so nice before. "Sasuke-kun."
Only now did he stop to look at her from over his shoulder. He completely disregarded what she had said.
"Where's Naruto?" his voice lacked any kind of emotion. Sakura had her arms behind her back in a nervous way. She wasn't sure how to get back to the moment that he almost kissed her.
"Changing the subject again? Forget about Naruto." Sakura now looked rather cross and had her finger in the air, as if she was lecturing a small child. "All he does is pick quarrels with you. It's probably because he's had such an irregular childhood," she said haughtily. Sasuke shook his head in disagreement; there was no way that was the only reason.
"Oh, yeah, you know how he doesn't have any parents, right?" This appeared to have struck a nerve with Sasuke, as he turned to face her more, and was glaring.
Sakura continued nonetheless, "He's always doing selfish things. My parents would scold me if I did such things." Her hands were on her hips now, and she looked pretty sure of herself. Sasuke's glare only turned angrier, and his eyes were narrowed into slits.
"If you're alone, your parents wouldn't get mad at you. That's why he's so selfish," she concluded rather confidently.
The wind started to pick up, and was blowing leaves off of the trees. They were blowing around the pair of graduates gently, while making their hair flutter in the breeze.
"The solitude," Sasuke finally replied darkly.
"What?"
He was no longing facing her as he continued in the same dark tone. "You can't even compare it to the level of shame when your parents get mad at you."
Sakura looked concerned at his answer and probed gently, "What's the matter?"
Sasuke now turned to face her with a positively unfriendly expression. "You're annoying." Sakura made a surprised noise in the back of her throat. With that, he marched off towards the academy without a back glance. Sakura stayed frozen in place after he left with the wind blowing more violently now.
She was once again sitting on the bench, slouched in defeat. He hands were in her lap, and she looked miserable.
' 'You're annoying huh?' I see. Naruto must've felt the same way.' Sakura was going over what Sasuke had said, and compared it to what she had said to Naruto earlier that day. Sakura now was thinking out loud.
"Maybe I can be nicer starting now.
That was when the vision faded. Sasuke blinked a few times when the hospital walls had appeared before him again. He knew that there was more to await him, seeing as Ino was still unconscious. She had been right; he was not disappointed. Sakura seemed much more like a human being, rather than a nuisance.
Now he also understood that she had to deal with someone talking in her head every minute of every day. In retrospect, that would fit her sometimes-scatterbrained defense attempts. Sasuke didn't think she was crazy, but it was definitely not normal. This 'Inner Sakura' seemed to feel stronger emotions that the Outer Sakura let on.
The Sakura he knew was very different from the Sakura he had just witnessed. The one he had witnessed seemed rather unsure of herself, only confident in her intelligence. Her self-image was not at a healthy level. She might even pass for depressed.
Sasuke frowned at the beginning of the memory. He remembered the last part of their conversation, but for the life of him, he could not remember ever trying to kiss Sakura. Also, why on Earth would he care what Sakura thought of Naruto? That wouldn't affect him in any way at all. At the time, he didn't care about Sakura at all. Then it clicked; Naruto. That's what he did when Sasuke was tied up. When he had run away from Sakura, he must've had the same stomachache when he had run away from Sasuke. Before Sasuke could even begin to think about just how he should kill the dobe, Ino's thoughts appeared in his mind again.
'Sasuke, I hoped you learned something from that. Next, I will take you to the following morning.' Sasuke just leaned back and waited for the next vision to appear.
I originally intended for this to be a one-shot, but it'd have ended up as one hell of a long one-shot, so it'll be in chapters!
Reviews make me happy and more inclined to skimp off studying to update (that doesn't mean don't review just so I'll study! You can't make me do it!). Reviewers get cookies!