Haruno Sakura's temper was, at this point, quite well known throughout the village as being as bad as the fifth Hokage's. While usually a rational, calm person, it does not take much, when it comes to her loved ones, to have her explode into a fit of rage. It was on such an occasion when, unfortunately for the victim of her assault, she found out there was not much she would not do when her judgement is clouded by anger.

Konoha was in the middle of dealing with a lot of its ugly truths coming to light. The most important one being the truth behind the Uchiha massacre. The matter was supposed to be kept secret, and perhaps it would have been better that way, but Uchiha Sasuke did not trust the leaders of Konoha to do the right thing so long as they had the choice to simply forget the wrong they have done and pretend it never happened. He had decided, and was surprised to have Sakura's support, to expose the truth in spite of what everyone else was saying.

All of that lead to the Konoha Elders, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, being arrested, interrogated and held into custody until they could each have a public trial. It was Koharu Utatane's turn to be judged.

On a small bench, in a hallway next to the room in which she was being held in the company of the fifth Hokage, were Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura, waiting for the trial to start so they could attend as witnesses.

The tension was palpable, all three of them being, in some way, victims of the bad decisions made in secret by the leaders of the village. Sasuke, most of all, anxious to see if his decision to come back peacefully and trust in Naruto's promises of justice was the best course of action. Not even his usually talkative and cheerful teammates opened their mouths to say anything until the Hokage opened the door and asked Sakura to join her.

"What about us?" asked Naruto before Sasuke had a chance to protest.

"Not yet, Naruto. I need to go see if I can speed things up so we don't spend all morning in here. Sakura is the person I trust the most to keep an eye on her without doing anything rash." answered Tsunade, and her tone left no place for dispute.

Naruto sighed and threw his head back, closing his eyes and trying to not mind the long wait. Sasuke, however, kept his eyes on Sakura as she got up, walked towards the door and simply nodded at the Fifth before closing it behind her. He could tell immediately something was off. She seemed stiff, angry and she spent the majority of the morning staring blankly at the walls instead of trying to cheer them up, which was unlike her.

Stepping inside of the room, Sakura eyed the frail looking Elder. She was sat on a chair, her back to the door. Judging by the position of her body her wrists were bound together with chakra strings. Sakura walked slowly to the other side of the room and faced this woman she once thought of as respectable and wise, and could not help but be filled with disgust and anger.

"Tsunade sent in a seventeen year old to babysit me? How weak do you think I am?" said Koharu.

Every molecule of Sakura's body felt like it was on fire fire. She was looking down at Koharu, seeing not the woman but Sasuke and every moment she could remember in which he had to suffer for her decision. Her hands were tight into fists, her knuckles white and she wondered why this despicable being who toyed with the lives of tens of people would get a humane punishment and most likely only a few years of being locked up.

"You got to walk free for almost ten years after what you've done." Sakura's voice was filled with rage and her words seemed to hang heavily in the room.

Impulse was something Sakura tried not to let rule her actions. As an emotional person, that proved to be hard sometimes, but as an even more intelligent person she could control herself most of the time. This time, though, was not one of those. She did not want to control herself, she did not consider one sane person in the village would blame her for punching Koharu until she was in the ground. All she could think of was Sasuke, his family, his pain and it was enough to set her off.

The old woman was perceptive, sensing Sakura's murderous intent the second she decided she would act. She barely managed to dodge Sakura's fist, aimed at her face, and even though the hit was mostly avoided, a simple brush of Sakura's knuckles on her face was enough to cause severe pain. Blood was streaming out of her nose, her lip also split and she made a note not to underestimate the Hokage's student. Koharu dashed back, trying to avoid the rapid attacks thrown her way. Her back hit the wall earlier than she anticipated, and all she could do was move her head so that her skull would not get crushed.

The wall collapsed before Koharu even knew it, and she feared, with her bound wrists and no one on her side, that this girl would best her, have her killed for something she still believed wholeheartedly was in the best interest of the village.

Both Naruto and Sasuke were quickly alarmed by the commotion they could hear coming from inside the room. The thought crossed their minds that Koharu, underestimating Sakura, could try to escape but it was quickly dismissed when they saw the wall shatter not ten seconds after they noticed something was going on.

Sasuke was on his feet, activating his sharingan. He could see through the dense dust that Sakura was in fact the attacker. As the hallway cleared up, he saw the state of the old woman's face, blood dripping from various locations and he was unsure if he was going to stop the fight or not.

There was a fire in Sakura's eyes, burning bright and wild, making her seem more terrifying than she had ever been, and she could easily scare people with her immense strength. Sasuke recognized it as something that could be seen on his own face many times. The intense fury that came with wanting to take care of injustice with your own hands. It didn't suit Sakura, he thought, the kind and smiling Sakura whose love made him somewhat whole . He didn't like seeing someone he cared for in such a state.

He dashed over to Sakura, grabbing her and trying to get her away from the criminal who took away everything he had. It felt like he was going insane, protecting this monster claiming to be innocent, but then he realized he was protecting Sakura who would get in a lot of trouble if she was not stopped.

A number of shinobi came running from both sides of the hallway, restraining Koharu and attempting to restrain Sakura as well. Sasuke looked threateningly at all the shinobi around him.

"Step away. I've got her." he said.

Sakura's body went limp. She leaned back onto Sasuke, as if she was too tired to even try to stand up and closed her eyes.

"What the hell is going on here?" Tsunade's voice was loud coming from one end of the hallway. "Did she try to escape?"

Sasuke exchanged a look with Naruto, both of them considering lying for Sakura, not wanting her to get in trouble for being protective of Sasuke but before either of them got the chance to say anything Sakura spoke.

"I attacked her."

Her back straightened again, her chin help up high as if to show she was proud of what she had done. Sasuke would have believed it, if only he could not feel her shaking in his arms.

Tsunade looked at her student through narrowed eyes. She seemed both disappointed and understanding. She sighed and signaled for Koharu to be sent back into the room.

"Take her out of here. Go outside, we'll send someone to get you when you're needed. We'll talk about this later."

With Naruto on her right and Sasuke on her left, Sakura walked outside slowly. She wasn't sure what came over her, why she could not control herself. Her head was filled with thoughts of how irrational she had been. She wondered if Sasuke was mad at her, the person who had been least affected by that woman's actions, trying to be some sort of hero. She bit her lip until she felt the metallic taste of blood.

They arrived outside and sat down on the steps leading up to the building. Naruto, in a rare moment of seriousness, decided the upcoming talk about the incident could be reserved for later, and that it was best to leave Sakura and Sasuke to it for now. He made up an excuse about how he forgot he had to talk to Kakashi and quickly left.

There was a long silence, ignored easily by both of them, as they were thinking of what had just happened. Sakura felt guilty for many reasons, but not for the actual attack. Sasuke, on the other hand, felt a mix of pride and worry. He did not want to see Sakura like that, but he could not help but feel good at the idea that it was Sakura's care and protectiveness for him that made her do what she did.

"Thank you." he said as a smile was forming on his face.

Sakura's eyes widened, expecting a combination of many words, but certainly not those.

"Why are you thanking me?"

"I know why you did it. I'm not going to tell you if it was right or wrong, I'm just going to say thank you."

Her mind was cleared of all negative thoughts in a instant. Of course Sasuke would understand, she thought. She smiled at him, gently took his hand and after looking away said:

"Thank you for stopping me. I don't regret doing it, but I shouldn't have."

He tightened his hand around hers. It was a strange thing, still, having someone care so much. It was also odd seeing someone behave as he normally would have, namely, someone he cared about too. It crossed his mind that this might be just a small, insignificant fraction of how odd, even terrifying, it must have been for his team to see him in the dark place he had been in. He vowed to himself he would try to never put them in that position again.