Reader's Note: Okay. So here's the story. It's been looked over and some changes have been made. (For the fifth time, you owe me Akemi!). To save room (seeing as it's not my story so I can't write a ton) here's some background info.

The OC is Akemi. It's set when Sasuke has returned to Konoha after the ordeal w/ his bro. She has not seen him since the time when he left his teammates 'n whatnot. And both sisters (my OC is merely mentioned) are skilled in mind powers. Everything should be explained as you read on. I like it. Hope you do too! Chappie ONE…

Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto…or Sakura (thank god) or Sasuke. We DO own our OCs. I do not own this story…my sis does however. What do you own?

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"He's been in a comatose state for two days now. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do at this point," a nurse was explaining to the two ninja in the sterilized white confines of a hospital waiting room.

"But he will wake up, right? I mean he did last time when he was recovering from that...the curse mark." Worried blue eyes, normally bright and confident, glanced towards the closed door down the hall.

"That was different, Naruto." His pink-haired teammate looked at him sympathetically. "The only thing we can do is wait."

"I don't think so! I'm not going to sit around doing nothing after all we've been through to bring him back, believe it!" Determination replaced his momentary depression as he rose to the new challenge, forgetting to keep his voice down in the infirmary. He could bounce back like a ping-pong ball. "What's wrong with him anyway?"

The nurse looked doubtful for a minute. "Right now we're attributing it to trauma."

"Of course it's trauma. What kind of trauma?" Sakura pressed.

The other medic-nin had hoped to evade that touchy question. "Well, he's sustained some nasty blows to the head. But Tsunade-sama believes it might be psychological," she read off her clipboard. "It seems to be…" she hesitated, glancing from one concerned face to the other, "a coma he doesn't want to wake up from."

Silence settled over them as the gravity of the diagnosis sank in. Finally, attempting to reassure the two, the nurse added, "Although there is one thing we haven't tried yet…"

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It had to be a dream...

The sickeningly medicinal smell of the hospital assaulted her as she pulled open the door.

She wasn't honestly doing this...

All too soon the main desk loomed closer. She routinely checked in and was directed where to go.

Yes she was.

Her footsteps sounded hollow; the echoes pounded in her ears, drowning out every other sound.

Three years...

The entire atmosphere only helped remind her why she hated hospitals.

And this would be their first meeting (if you could call it that) since then.

Stopping in front of the medic-nin waiting for her, she returned his greeting somewhat distractedly.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Akemi-san. We would've called you in sooner, but we wanted to make sure his condition was stable..."

She forced herself to at least half listen to what the doctor was telling her, even though she already knew what she was supposed to be doing there. Taking a deep breath, trying to clear the haze that clouded her psyche, she entered the intimidating room.

For a moment she couldn't bring herself to move closer. If she had thought the hospital in general was bad, the sight before her now made it hundreds of times worse.

He looked even paler under the harsh fluorescent lighting. His breathing was shallow, but one could tell by the discontent etched in his features that it wasn't a peaceful sleep. Every few seconds a high-pitched beep from one of the machines filled the silent void.

Akemi sank heavily onto the plastic-covered chair next to the bed and sighed. She had prepared herself, at least as best as she could, for this. She had even felt some grim self-satisfaction when she didn't cry or rush to his side after hearing he was back. And yet no matter how many times she'd told herself to leave her heart out of it, it proved to be easier said than done.

But why? she argued with herself, the same argument she always had. He had left her. She had gotten on just fine without him. End of story.

And now she had a job to do.

Focusing her chakra, the mind specialist submerged herself in a trance, blocking all else out. She was aware only of the heat on the back of her neck, a sensation that faded as she connected to his subconscience. It was relatively easy, but not surprisingly so, considering Sasuke's current vulnerability.

The first thing Akemi felt when she wandered into the fire-colored maze was pain, precise and shooting. She winced, her hand going instinctively to her left shoulder. She willed herself to separate her senses from his before she lost her concentration completely.

Then she saw him.

It was the same Sasuke, only older, and...colder. He pinned her with a black, emotionless gaze, his expression impassive.

Akemi froze, caught somewhere between fear and another emotion she quickly shoved away, though she was careful not to show either. She hadn't realized she was holding her breath until it came out in a whisper. "Sasuke…"

Recognition flashed in his eyes, but the next instant the mask was up again. "What are you doing here?" he asked dangerously.

Grasping for words, Akemi didn't know if she could answer that question herself. She had been wondering the same thing all morning.

"Trying to help you. They sent for me."

"They."

"The doctors. You're in the hospital, if you didn't know that."

"Hn. I don't need your help. Or anyone else's."

She tried to combat his self-assured statement by being reasonable, something that was getting more difficult by the second. "If you're perfectly okay here, why don't you just wake up?"

"I don't care what happens to me. I've severed all the bonds holding me to that world." He said it with no remorse, no sense of self-pity. It was just a cruel certainty.

"No you haven't. You're giving up. You'd rather turn into a vegetable? Let them take you off life support? Allow your clan to cease to exist? The Sasuke I knew had a future." Her tone dripped with bitterness.

A shadow of his trademark smirk appeared. "The Sasuke you knew was weak. And he's dead now."

A nauseating weight dropped into the pit of her stomach as if she'd just swallowed her heart. Fury rose up and strangled fear, dominated reason. Her eyes narrowed and she scowled openly. "Well what do you call yourself? You're dead, too."

He seethed with rage and pain, building up an impenetrable wall around himself. With inhuman speed he closed the distance between them. Soul-less eyes bore into hers as he hissed, "Then why are you trying so hard to save me?"

"I..."

"Don't say it, Akemi."

She hadn't been able to stop him once before. It wouldn't happen again.

He must have sensed her thoughts. Taking advantage of her hesitation, he growled, "You can leave now."

A raw blast of force pushed at her from all sides, driving her to her knees. Darkness devoured the color as a loud rumble tore through the atmosphere. She was being forced outside the icy barrier shielding his mind. He was the last thing she saw, blending into the surrounding black, before she was tugged back to her own body.

When Akemi came to, she was faintly aware of being pulled out of the way, breathless and struggling to stand against the wall. All hell had broken loose in the hospital room. Sasuke's heartrate had spiked dramatically, his brain activity off the charts. She pressed herself closer to the wall, hoping to get absorbed by it, as white-clad medic-nin rushed past her.

"Akemi-san, you'll have to come with me to the waiting room..."

The nurse's voice had a watery quality to it, making it hard for Akemi to follow what she was saying. Then she plunged into darkness once more.

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A/N: Chapter 1 out of the way! Good, bad, boring? This was just a setup for things to come. For those of you who aren't too fond of OCs, I'm trying to add other real characters as I go. Besides, it's more fun to write for Sasuke anyway. ; )