I'm slowly losing my mind…

I'm pathetic.

Alone.

Lost.

Forgotten.

Only breathing, not living.

Mentally Broken.


He think's I'm some kind of freak. I can see it in his eyes. I scare him. What did I do wrong?

I can't speak about what He did. No no no…

Shikamaru would be so mad at me…

But I need to tell someone. And I did. The gummy bears… And… He thought, thinks, I'm being nuts.

I am no more crazy than any of them! I didn't want to die…

I just know the truth… I'd like to see you live with the truth.

The truth is a horrible thing to get used to. And it makes my head hurt, throb, ache… Until I keep seeing these things, apparitions, abominations, and in the center of it all…. Him.

Over, and over, and over, and over, and over…

I think He's under the bed.


Audio File:

Murder Investigation : #215

Length: 10 min. 26 sec.

"Forensic specialist Shikaku, Nara. Present at site two-fifteen. Three victims of the Oshenka household, ranging in ages from early adolescence to mid-forties. Two deceased, confirmed dead on December, twenty-first, 2011, at 4:34 pm…. The older of the two victims, both of which are female, has a great deal of bruising around the neck and collar area. No fingerprints have been found. And uh-"

-coughing-

"Uh, we can conclude that the… murderer wore gloves, gloves which were not present in the house. It is believed that the suspect wore these gloves in the kidnapping and potential murder of the woman's husband, however he himself still remains a suspect... The eldest daughter, and the youngest dead has suffered… thirty… seven stab wounds to the abdomen, four to the chest, and also appears to have bruising around the neck… further autopsy will show the cause of death, but it can be presumed that, like the mother, she was suffocated."

"The third victim remains alive, displaying odd symptoms of possible head trauma. Upon further investigation, it seems that the youngest daughter, and the lone survivor, was the cause of the second victims stab wounds, holding the knife in question. Further investigations onto the…"


"So… Shikamaru must have told you about me then?" Gaara walked into the room, slowly, casually, and as silently as possible, he fixed the chair, and began to clean up the mess of gummy bears.

The air was thick with silence.

And then…

"He did." It was also on your lab coat.

"I thought he would. Well then, Sakura, right?" Once the chair was upright, and the gummy bears were gone, that is in his pants pocket to later be thrown away, and the bed was straightened out, he took the liberty of sitting down beside her. Watching how, that even at an arm's length away, her frail figure tensed.

"Uh huh…" Her voice was soft, very a whisper. A completely different person than what he had met on his first encounter. This girl was fragile, like a glass doll.

"Sakura, can you tell me what all of that was? Why didn't you eat the gummy bears?"

There was another long pause, and Gaara was worried he may have pried too much too soon.

"You never said I was supposed to eat them, so I spoke with them." She spoke with them?

What the hell did that even mean?

"You spoke… with them? Like we are now? Some kind of… art form? Like your writing?" Gaara was already beginning to lose hope, but, this was something. Though he had that odd feeling that she was playing with her words to beat around something- her main objective versus his.

Shouldn't they be the same thing? To get her help.

Did insane people actually want to receive help?

"Uh huh…" She grimaced, the expression coming after he brought up the mention of art.

"You don't like art?"

"I don't like what this art portrays."

"And what is that?"

"…..Me."

"Sakura?"

"No."

"Kinari?"

"You ask too many questions, Gaara." Oddly enough, there was a small smile on her lips, though she wasn't looking at him, she had a gummy bear, presumably the last one in her collection, resting face up in the palm of her pale, boney hand.

"He said… Kinari died a long while ago, and so should any thought of her."

So is this where she invented Sakura?

"Alright, well, does that-"

"I'm hungry…"

Gaara sighed, they had been doing so well, he thought, to actually be getting her to talk, to get information. He did hear that a lot of it was thanks to Shikamaru, before him, she had refused to even utter a word, let alone have a mini conversation such as this.

"The cafeteria should be serving breakfast soon, I can take you there, if that's what you want?" Sakura peeked up at him, slowly moving her head in a nod. Her fingers curled around the gummy bear in a fist, before her arms moved out in front of her body, and she crawled towards him, stuffing the gummy bear into his pocket with the others in a childlike fashion.

He studied her, nodding and clearing his throat when she peered back up into his eyes questioningly, "Okay then, let's get going."

He stood up, offering his hand to her, for a little while she sat, slumped against the carpet, staring at his pale digits in a curious fashion. He was beginning to think that she wouldn't take it, and was about to end the awkward encounter by moving to the exit alone, but she seemed to develop the courage by then to grasp his hand, letting herself be pulled up.

He felt sick at how little she weighed. Like a bird.

It was still early, so many of the hallways in the building were deserted, the short walk down to the elevator, and then from there to the cafeteria on the main floor felt like an eternity.

On the small occasion when they did see some unfamiliar face, he noticed how she seemed to cling to him whenever they passed by, cowering almost from existence.

Then he remembered… she was Anthropophobic; in other words, she was afraid of people.

Especially when they all looked the same… Meaning, their dress.

And he wasn't wearing his lab coat. He looked down at the black shirt, then to her, he should have guessed it before. All the yelling and screaming, and then the sudden calm on their next encounter. Shikamaru must have worn something similar when meeting her.

But why didn't he ever tell Gaara that?

Gaara shook his head of the thought, Shikamaru had given him so much advice, he could have forgotten such an obvious detail. He should have been more careful with the way he presented himself to someone like this: lesson learned. Now at least he knew why she was acting so different, and that she wasn't as bi-polar as he once thought.

With that cleared up, Gaara felt a bit more confident walking into the cafeteria; a large, plain white room with bland, but plenty food choices. Bland as in tasteless, and plenty as in to accommodate all of the special diets here. You'd be surprised at all of the different nutritional needs that mental patients need.

"Getmeyogurt." The pink haired girl took off like a frightened animal, taking a seat in the far corner, giving the guards a wary look, as they returned it. Sighing at the thrown together sentence, Gaara complied, unsure if this was even in his job description.

Coming back with a small bowl of plain yogurt and some fruit in a separate bowl on the side, he sat down across from her, causing her to jump. He clenched his jaw, refraining from saying anything comforting. He had learned from many of the other patience that that would never work in certain situations, and in public was one of them.

He pushed the tray to her, along with a spoon. She didn't touch it at all.

"You must eat… too?" She spoke as if she had trouble formulating the sentence, as if she had recently had a stroke, though Gaara knew she hadn't. Her mind must just be somewhere else.

Since there was no use in explaining that it was four in the morning and that he wasn't hungry at all, Gaara stood to get something to eat, out of his options, he came back with a simple cinnamon roll. He was a sucker for sweet things, and since she was going to insist on him eating… May as well be something he would enjoy.

Sakura's pale lips pressed together as Gaara sat down with his newly put together plate, eyeing the pastry in distrust, and then doing the same with her yogurt and fruit. Gaara watched as she slowly, very carefully, picked up about a grain of rice sized amount of yogurt, and proceeded to place it between her lips.

No wonder she was so underweight. She looked like a bird because she ate like one.

Watching her eat only made him not want too, how could she even survive while eating so little? His close analysis brought in more of her design, things that he hadn't noticed before, things that came with being able to see her up close. The deep bags under her eyes, from her insomnia most likely. The paleness of her skin, sure, he was pale, but not sickly pale. She looked as if she were about to drop dead. Her hair hadn't been brushed in what looked to be years. The dye in it ended after a few inches from her scalp, revealing the very light brown shade of her natural hair color. Every few seconds, her green hues would dart from side to side, then she would take another minimal bite from her still full bowl of yogurt. It didn't even look as if she had been given the opportunity to bathe either…

She had to have, though, right? Shikamaru wouldn't have allowed that in Konoha.

But then again, Shikamaru had a lot of patients, being as highly regarded as he was, and he also probably had a lot more to deal with, let alone care for an individual's miniscule needs. He probably had others that were meant to do it, but obviously, they didn't do a great job. Or her fear of people wouldn't allow them too.

Or he didn't care…

"Eat." Gaara blinked, focusing his eyes back onto the task at hand, "huh? Not until you start. You haven't even made a dent in that… eat a spoonful and a strawberry, at least."

Sakura stared at him, furrowing her brows as he looked back down at the bowl, as if he was asking her to eat tar.

She set the spoon down, and went for the strawberry, which probably took another thirty minutes or so for her to devour. Then, more people began to flood the cafeteria, and she stopped eating altogether.

Realizing her fear for the third time that day, Gaara stood up, murmuring in what he hoped was a comforting way, that they should head back to her room. Sakura didn't hesitate to follow, seemingly relieved to get away from the stress.

"I want to be alone now." Gaara blinked in surprise, turning to face Sakura, they had not even been in the room for more than two minutes, and she was already asking him to leave. "Rest…"

She wanted to rest… That was it.

"Oh, alright… If you need-"

"Push the button."

"Right…" Gaara sighed, moving to leave her alone yet again. He had so much planned for the day, and so much to figure out. While this turn of events did lessen his work load for the day, it also snuffed out the possibility for any potential information he could have gotten out of her.

Such as the gummy bear incident.

With nothing left to be said, the two parted ways, Gaara to his office a few stories up, and Sakura to her bed, a few feet away.

He didn't realize it, but it was already noon by the time he had returned to his office and written down the notes for the day. He needed to keep a detailed description of what she did, how he reacted, how she reacted. This all included what she ate, how much, if the stairs posed any difficulty for her, if she looked fatigued than would be normal… Anything that could be observed was written down. It was a tiring task of memory, and of extreme detail where detail wasn't required to such an extreme. And yet, it was necessary at the same time.

He only recognized the passing of time by the growling of his stomach. That cinnamon roll had never been touched, as before he was far too engrossed in making sure Sakura actually ate, rather than his own meal.

And now it was about lunch time…

About a half hour later, Gaara stood outside Sakura's door, knocking to at least alert her of a presence, and then opening the door with some difficulty. It took a swipe of the key card, while both of his hands were busy holding two different food trays, so, in order to prevent from dropping them, he did what any other good doctor with his PHD: he grabbed the card between his teeth, and swiped it that way. Not once did it occur for him to set the trays on the ground, then open the door.

At least he managed to amuse Sakura as he came in, the card still stuck in his mouth.

"Having fun?" She grinned, wiggling her eyebrows up and down playfully from her seat at the edge of the bed.

"Eh?" Gaara blinked, a light pink tone covering his cheeks out of embarrassment. She was teasing him, and he did not cope well with teasing.

Still smiling, Sakura stood up, plucking the key card out of his mouth rather rudely, frowning when she realized that the little rope attached to it was also around his neck. She gave it a couple experimental tugs, earning a halfhearted glare from the male.

"Really?"

"Yep."

He was beginning to wonder if this was a good thing, that more and more of her personality was beginning to peak through, even in such a short amount of time together. He did remember hearing from Shikamaru that she liked to play games… And that she liked to cause mischief.

Note to self… keep the key card away from her…

"Why is your hair so red?" She was sitting in the chair now, backwards so she could rest her chin on her folded arms, staring up at him with a large, childish green gaze.

"Why is your hair so pink?" He retorted, the color from his cheeks only now beginning to recede as he set the trays on the bed. One was for her, a few thin slices of chicken, cheese, and a not-so-appetizing looking green smoothie. Honestly, he had only gotten it because she needed the nutrients from the fruit and vegetables that were in it, and it didn't taste as bad as it looked.

"Because, my name is Sakura. What does Gaara have to do with the color red?" He glanced over to her for a moment, then back to the food, shaking his head. "It doesn't…"

"Oh yea? Then what about that tattoo?"

For the second time that day, Gaara didn't eat his meal.


A/N I was going to put Gaara's interlude in with this chapter, but I had an Idea with it... Sooo, next chapter, will be Gaara and Sakura's pasts. Thank you for reading! Review please!