I feel like absolute shit right now. It's been a rough few weeks so, sorry for the delay. I'm still pretty out of it but writing is therapy, so after a night of intense drama… Here it is. PS: I miss my laptop

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Chapter 7: Sleep is for the Weak


It was a little crowded inside Yamanka Ino's office. Ino had just arrived and was still between sleepy and awake when two bickering males in her office surprised her the minute she walked in. Her rounded eyes stared at the males in front of her as she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that they were here at this time.

She was going to fire her secretary.

Ino's gaze slid from one person to another. There, standing before her, in her quaint little office, we two grown shinobi glaring daggers at each other. She set the book she planned on reading earlier down and rubbed her temples. What exactly was she? A therapist, peacemaker…Emotional punching bag? Someone needed to send her a memo because she was beginning to doubt what profession she was actually in. No one mentioned playing peacemaker for brat spats when she was trained under Ibiki to be a psychoanalyst.

She was just about to kick them out when Naruto piped up quickly; stopping her from saying anything. "Ino, consider us patients. Listen."

Irritation swelled in her chest at the blonde's blunt statement but the young woman sighed and walked to her desk in the slowest pace possible, to annoy them, and sat down with a groan before looking up at them—patience masking any trace of hostility.

"What is it?" she asked as calmly as possible, trying to shake the slight tremble of irritation off of her voice. Naruto looked at her with disdain and jabbed a thumb towards Sasuke's direction. "I thought you were supposed to deal with him? Why is he still an arrogant bastard?"

At Naruto's heated answer, Ino raised her eyebrow. What, did they barge in just to tell her she wasn't doing a good job? Her eyebrow twitched. Someone was asking for a kunai or two up his ass.

"I don't work miracles." She taunted. Her job wasn't to change people in the first place; it was to help them go through life and get better at it, well as good as a human can be at life anyway. Because even she still had her training wheels on.

Her blue eyes drifted to Sasuke's lithe form and travelled up to his handsome and now, annoyed face. "Dobe, so I broke a picture frame. Get over it." Ino heard the Uchiha say.

The male blonde next to him crossed his arms and grumbled. "It wasn't just any frame! It was my Team Seven frame and the picture got all crumpled." Naruto complained loud enough for the Hokage to hear.

Ino's jaw nearly hit the desk when Naruto blurted out the reason of their untimely visit. "Whoa, whoa—wait a sec… That was why you barged in here and demanded to talk to me despite my full schedule of appointments?!" Were they insane? She stopped herself for a moment marvel at her thought. It was Naruto and Sasuke she was talking to, of course they were insane.

But a picture frame?

"It isn't even the real thing." Sasuke growled before he roughly slid his seat back and walked to the door, slamming it as he left the room.

"It's not even the real thing…." His voice replayed over and over again in the psychoanalyst's mind, with each repetition, a different theory would slide into her mind as to why the Uchiha survivor would be so hostile over an argument about a broken picture frame.

"I don't even know when he broke it." Naruto said thoughtfully earning a slight eyebrow raise from Ino. "What do you mean?"

The Kyuubi host shrugged. "It was missing for a few weeks." Naruto said calmly. "I figured Kakashi lost his and wanted to make a copy but…" he trailed off.

"It's been months since I've last seen it and I was starting to wonder where it went, so I decided to finally clean the place." Ino silently prayed to Kami-sama for the last part. Naruto was never one to clean his apartment until he ran out of people to bunk with.

There was a tense silence between the two blondes as Naruto continued with his story.

" Then I found it near Teme's things all banged up and… Yeah." He finished with a sigh.

Ino, who'd been listening intently nodded and made a mental note to bring up this predicament with Sasuke during their next meeting together. "Ok, don't mention this to him again until I can figure it out with him, okay? Sasuke is still struggling with untapped emotions that's been pent up for years." Her baby blue eyes took on a serious look.

"If you push him too far, he'll end up closing up again. And that's something he can't do if he wants to be reinstated as a part of Konoha."

Ino tapped her fingers quietly. "The Hokage wants to be sure that he is no longer harboring anything that could possibly make him snap."

Naruto remained quiet. "Fair enough." He said quietly.

Ino smiled gently and patted Naruto's hand. "I'll handle it." She said reassuringly before she broke out into a malicious grin, giving Naruto chills from his neck down to his toes.

"So, do I send you the bill or would you like to pay up front?"

Naruto tumbled off his chair and onto the hardwood floors, bumping his head on one of the table's edges. Ino winced at the sick sound of his head meeting the table "What?! Why am I paying you?!" he yelled, rubbing his head and getting up to glare at her.

The other blonde flashed her pearly whites at the shocked Shinobi in front of her. "You consulted me in my office, as a therapist, did you not? Only Uchiha has free sessions."

The young man crossed his arms over his chest. Feeling insulted that Ino was charging him for one short appointment regarding her current patient. It was absurd and…Well she was Ino. "Oi, we consulted you as a friend."

Ino smiled. "Really now?" She asked him in a chastising tone. She put a finger to her chin and tapped it, pretending to think "I remember you saying something along the lines of 'Ino, we're here as patients. Now listen." Her mirth-filled baby blues held Naruto's annoyed gaze. "Or something like that… I don't really remember."

The self-declared Hokage in training, glared at Ino for what seemed to be the hundredth time. "Send the bill." He grumbled before standing to take his leave. Ino gave him a wide smile. "You just sponsored my Friday night out in the town with the girls. Thanks, Uzumaki!" she teased, as she got up to walk him out the door.

The male rolled his eyes and bid his friend goodbye. "Oh! And Naruto?" Ino called out last minute, stopping Naruto midstep

Naruto turned around eagerly, praying and hoping with all his strength that she was going to claim that it was a joke; that she wasn't really going to charge him. "I charge extra for walk-in patients."

Ino was nicer as a florist.


Sakura yawned as she shifted the papers that were attached to the chart holder, glancing at the patient every now and then as she read through his paperwork. "What exactly did you eat in Suna?" she asked the sick looking shinobi who looked like he was going to hurl in any second. The young medic made sure she had enough space behind her in case the patient decided to blow chunks.

"Some mushrooms…" he answered queasily, clutching his stomach as it growled painfully. Sakura winced and wrote down it down in his chart. "Did they happen to be…purple?" she asked in a calm manner, hiding the strain of held back laughter from her voice. After all, how a ninja of his caliber fell into a bout of food poisoning was rather funny.

Sensing her laughter despite Sakura's attempts to hide it, the male Shinobi glared daggers at Sakura who began writing doses of medicine for the nurses to give. "Isn't it funny how it's always you who seems to get poisoned?" the medic asked the brooding patient before her who looked like he'd very much wanted to rip her head off.

But she was feeling gutsy today, so she teased the poor ninja even more. "Really, Kankuro, you've got to be more careful." She scolded, putting a hand on his forehead to check if his fever was starting to sweat out.

The brunette rolled his eyes and met her emerald orbs. "I know you've been wanting to laugh since you've read my chart. Go ahead. Let it out." He said glumly.

Sakura bit her lip to hide her grin. "I'm a professional, Kankuro. I don't laugh at my patients.." she looked at him holding his stomach with a pained look on his face. "No matter how absurdly stupid their reason for being admitted is."

Kankuro threw her a playful dirty look. "So you do think it was stupid."

Sakura drew back and put her hands on her hips. "You live in Suna and you were poisoned from one of the most common non-edible fungus found in Suna. Tell me if that doesn't sound stupid." She challenged as she began packing away her things and setting them on the metal tray on a cart near his bed.

"Don't tell the nurses that." He pleaded. Sakura looked up from chart. "Tell them what?" she asked him innocently to mock him while she put the chart back in its holder attached to the foot of the bed.

Kankuro coughed. " That I practically fell prey to his country's natural defense system against foreign intruders."

"See, told you it was stupid."

The brunette sighed and settled himself in a more comfortable position on the bed; his arms were behind his head which was tilted up slightly as he stared at the ceiling. "Well, the room ain't so bad. Guess I'll take a break from being rushed over here by my brother."

Sakura rolled her eyes. Kankuro said that he had an option about staying in the hospital or not— he didn't. "You have no choice, you're staying here whether you want to or not." The young medic ordered sternly. Besides, you have a bathroom here, it'll be more convenient in case you—

Kankuro glared at her and dared her to finish her sentence.

"… In case you have to release the…toxins." Sakura stammered out. The brunette grinned and threw her a thumbs-up. "Nice save."

Sakura curtseyed playfully and decided to voice out a question regarding the sand-nin's sudden visit. "If you don't mind me asking, why're you—

"KANKURO!" the door banged open; hitting the wall with a loud thud, a string of tiny cracks sprung and spread through the wall that the door hit. Sakura swallowed hard and stepped away from the raging Sand kunoichi that had one hand on the fan strapped on her back.

"What did I tell you about those fucking mushrooms?!" she yelled as she stomped in, slamming the abused door shut and walking towards the bed.

"Te-Temari! It's good to see you." Sakura greeted from the foot of Kankuro's bed. The patient gave her a 'What do you mean NICE?!' look which she responded to with an uneasy smile and wave.

At Sakura's greeting, Temari turned to her and smiled, any indication of bloodlust completely wiped from her face and demeanor as soon as she acknowledged the ANBU officer and medic. "Haruno-san! Good to see you too! How are things?"

Kankuro gaped at his sister's surprising switch of emotion. What was she—bipolar?

The rosette's eye twitched as she plastered on a smile. "Heh…Great. Y'know the usual…"

Temari nodded and glared back at her brother. "Ah yes…The usual stupid ninjas who get admitted due to stupidity. For example: diarrhea from a fucking mushroom." She looked at Kankuro with a murderous glint in her eyes.

The brunette gulped.

"Sak, if you keep her in here, diarrhea won't be the only thing you'll be treating me for." Kankuro stated in panic as he watched his hostile sister near him.

The blonde female snorted. "She won't be treating you for anything…you'd be dead." She threatened as she plopped down on one of the chairs.

"Like you'd kill your own brother."

Sakura smirked and got ready to leave the siblings to mull things over. "It's been done." She said darkly with an eerie smile aimed at Kankuro who glared at her. "Not helping, Sakura."

Temari giggled. "I like you, Haruno." She said from her seat as she waved once towards Sakura before the medic closed the door.

Once the medic left, Kankuro's gaze drifted to his sister. "So, do I prepare myself to be smothered by a pillow or can I ask how the meeting went?"

The woman on the couch drummed her fingers on the soft cushion. "He really is back." Temari's eyes met her brother's and held his gaze. "Uchiha Sasuke is back."


Tsunade heard a knock on her door and called for whoever was there to come in. Her tired amber eyes watched the form of Yamanaka Ino walk in and stride over to a seat before the Hokage's heavy wood desk.

"We'll have to make this quick, Yamanaka. I've called for a meeting with Uzumaki and Hatake. Other villages are already hearing about the return of the Uchiha." She stopped to take a breath. "I've just met with the ambassador of Suna."

Ino's ears perked up as she laid the files on the table. "How did it go?" she asked quietly and waited for the Hokage to gather her thoughts.

Tsunades's deep voice echoed throughout the room. "I told her, he's being watched and analyzed; that it was likely that he would not be a liability." Her stern gaze enveloped Ino. "So I better hope your report is promising."

Ino took the older woman's silence as a signal to start her report. "So far, from the six months I've been with him, he's shown signs of cooperation and development. He's let go of any hostile feelings towards the village and is coping with the sadness from losing a sibling very well."

The young kunoichi showed Tsuande her notes and waited patiently as she read through them, tapping her foot nervously as the Hokage's eyes scanned the small notebook full of notes from her sessions with Sasuke.

"Go on, Yamanka." Tsunade said while reading. Ino straightened and nodded. "He feels as if he's finally honored his brother by returning but still doesn't seem to feel completely at ease with himself. Sasuke feels no regret but for killing his brother…"

Ino stopped talking and twisted her hands nervously. "There's also the matter of Sakura." At the mention of her student, Tsunade raised an elegant eyebrow. "Oh…and?"

The Hokage's tone was hard to decipher but Ino pressed on. "I think… I think he needs to at least be able to talk to her. We've been working on his suppressed emotions and are doing well but he still remains somewhat sad, despite him not showing or mentioning it." It was true, Sasuke had a lot to deal with but with every session they had, Ino began to realize that he had everything set, he'd moved on and was doing well. And yet, even through his improvement he still had a dark cloud hanging over him.

And she had a feeling Sakura played a big part of that cloud.

"They shou—

Tsunade thought it time to stop the young kunoichi. "That's enough, Yamanaka." She had no time for another debate session regarding the handling of Sakura and Sasuke's interaction. "Is he or is he not volatile?"

Ino huffed. "No, but he still has something eating him up—

The hokage rubbed her eyes. "Yamanaka, is he going to go against this village again?" she asked with a tone of steel that chilled Ino's spine. "No." she said in reply.

The busty woman nodded. "Good. Discussion over—that's all I needed to hear. Continue with the assigned procedure until I say you can finish the sessions."

Ino knew that this was Tsunade dismissing her but somehow, she found enough defiance to contradict the Hokage once more. Sasuke still wasn't happy. Happy in a sense that everything was fine, everyone knew that Uchihas were stoic but there was a difference between stoic and unhappy. Though, Sasuke has shown a lighter demeanor, the sole survivor still wasn't fully happy.

And he deserved to be happy.

"Sasuke isn't happy. I know it has something to do with Sakura. Just let them—

"His happiness does not outweigh the fragility of the situation, Yamanaka. You know that. I'm just glad I know that he won't defect again. Don't play God." Ino glared at Tsunade. "You sure I'm the one you should be saying that to?"

Amber eyes met blue ones. "You're dismissed, Yamanaka." The addressed female gathered her things and stalked out of the room with an aura of defiance.

The Hokage watched the door close and took a swig of sake, 'Tch. Using my words against me." She grumbled while taking another swig. "I don't have a choice." Tsunade slurred ungracefully as she wiped the sake from her lips. At this point, she had no choice but to try to control the situation.

She rotated her chair to face the huge open window behind her and gazed out into the town. Why was everbody making her look like the bad guy? The woman's gaze landed to her white porcelain sake bottle. "You're my only friend." She said, holding her bottle up and admiring it. "But you make me feel like shit in the morning… " And with that, she chugged down the rest of the sake.

She sighed. "I make people feel like shit….but it's for their own good." She rambled. "Ah shit…I'm a bottle of sake."


It was dawn when Kakashi found Tsunade passed out on her desk with, what looked like, fourteen empty sake bottles strewn all over her table. "I'm finally on time for a meeting and I get this as a thanks." He mumbled to himself while he cleared the table and cleaned up some of the spilled sake.

"Hatake…" Tsunade grumbled as she began to wake from her sake induced sleep. She blinked away the sleep from her eyes and looked at Kakashi warily. "Gaara wants to know how the Uchiha is doing." She said incredulously. "Can you believe it? Suna is getting involved. If the leader of Rain comes, I'm declaring a fucking war." She complained.

As if having a newly returned rogue ninja that had previously wanted to destroy the village and the people who lived in it wasn't already bad enough. Well take that, and add leaders of the surrounding nations sending representatives to make sure a person of his caliber and psychological standig doesn't go starting trouble again.

"That's the alcohol talking." Kakashi said as he quietly took a seat. His eye regarded the weary Hokage with a hint of sympathy; it was hard making tough decisions and having to put up with the aftereffects of those choices. "What of Sasuke and Sakura?" Kakashi asked, not going into details with his question—Tsunade would get it.

A strangled groan started at the back of the Hokage's throat; it sounded like a snore. Kakashi would've thought she'd fallen asleep if not for the sudden jerk of her head upwards so she could meet his gaze.

"Handle it."

She didn't go into detail either but she knew that he'd understand what she meant—and he did. The copy-nin stood quickly and bowed before doing a series of seals and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.


Sasuke didn't return home that night, in fact, the sky was beginning to bleed red from the sunrise and he still had not gone home. The sole Uchiha survivor found himself wandering the many forests of Konoha; he'd walked all over the damned forest and had ended up in the team seven training ground, staring at the three tree stumps.

He didn't mean to end up here—Sasuke just needed to walk and wallow in his thoughts so he could put himself together to face people again without wanting to shove a kunai down their throats. Guess the violent side of him would never wash out; it was just too ingrained in him as an Uchiha. However, he had remained in control of things; seeing rationality and reason more clearly unlike before, he'd have to give Ino some credit; maybe the sessions were a bit helpful.

The brooding shinobi stared at the iconic stumps as washed up memories resurfaced and played in his mind like a black and white movie without any sounds. A dark smirk crossed his features as he walked away.

Sakura always had been a bother, even with all the training she's gotten and even when she herself didn't even know him anymore. It wasn't like it was her specifically he was worried about. It was more of him being offended by being wiped clean from her fucking memory. He came back thinking he'd get things as close to normal as possible.

He knew of the probation, but it would lift soon and he'd be able to live like he used to but with Sakura's memory, he'd have to play a game It wasn't normal at all; it wasn't like home.

The Uchiha rolled his eyes at his estranged teammate and walked on further, with no destination in mind.

The cool wind soothed his whirling head as he passed through crooked trees and huge rock formations that still had kunais and shuriken still embedded on them. Sasuke mused with the thought of adding one more and with one swift movement, he slid a kunai out of a pouch and casually threw it at the rock with a lot more force than necessary.

It whizzed and hit the rock. Everything remained still while Sasuke continued his stroll, paying no heed when the rock crumbled from the sheer force he used to throw the kunai. It was better than hitting a person.

As the Uchiha pushed forward, the trees began to thin out into shrubs and bushes. And soon, the cloudless sky was now more visible, without the branches and leaves obscuring his view of it.

Absentmindedly Sasuke had wandered out of the forest and wound up near the gate, where the benches were.

His eyes caught sight of a specific bench and suddenly a ghost image of a twelve year old Sasuke putting Sakura down on it flashed through his mind; like some sick joke his head was playing on him.

"Hn. Even my head is against me." He grumbled to himself as he walked to the bench and sat down, feeling the cold hard cement on his back as he leaned back to make himself more comfortable.

"Uchiha?" a familiar voice called out from behind him. Sasuke lifted a brow and regarded the figure that neared him with a cool gaze. "Sakura." He acknowledged with a slight tone of surprise.

The rosette looked at him sheepishly. "I…uh come out here to think." Why would she come out to this bench specifically? Sasuke's eyebrow rose even higher and as if reading his mind, Sakura piped up. "It just feels so familiar. I don't know why."

"Aa."

Sakura was clad in a red fitted shirt and black shorts along with her knee-high ninja sandals. "What are you doing here?"

Sasuke looked at her and smirked. "It feels familiar."

Sakura rolled her eyes and sat down on the other end and put her feet up on the space between her and the Uchiha. "You better not be planning anything, Uchiha." She warned, giving him a suspicious glance over her knee.

"Hn." He grunted. "If I was, and you caught me, I would've killed you before you could even know it was me."

At this, Sakura's guard went up and her sense hopped into overdrive. "Don't push me, Uchiha."

All Sasuke wanted to do was taunt her; tell her that he's seen her as a genin and even though she'd gained a shit load of power, he'd still be able to put her away if he needed to. But that would require the use of her memories which, he thought bitterly as he looked at her, she did not have.

So he settled for bastard mean instead of inside-joke-kind-of mean. His obsidian orbs looked mockingly into her green orbs. "I'm light years ahead of you. It's you who shouldn't push me."

"You're a bastard."

Sasuke simply shrugged. "So I've been told." He smirked at her one more time before getting up and walking away.

Leaving her on the bench he'd left her in seven years ago.


Sakura watched the Uchiha leave with anger in her eyes despite the thoughts of him looking quite ethereal in the sunrise—he looked just as good as he did in the moonlight she thought. "He'd be more beautiful with a kunai or two stuck in his skull and a few disemboweled limbs." She grumbled to herself while she continued to watch him disappear into the town.

Her pink locks danced in the air when a cool wind blew; she relished the icy air and let it calm her nerves down. She tucked a piece of her hair behind her ears and gazed at the pinkish sky. She still had trouble sleeping—if it wasn't a splitting headache, she'd see flashes of light bursting and she'd wake up feeling woozy and confused.

She diagnosed the weird occurrences as part of PMS but it was far too erratic and it's been going on even when she wasn't bleeding.

"If this is what stress does, I'm asking for more vacation leaves." She said to herself while yawning and stretching her arms. Her thoughts wandered back to the rude shinobi who left her only moments ago.

What was eating him? She wondered. He seemed so moody and easily ticked off; she was expecting a witty and cool retort from him with her mild threat but he went off like a land mine with pent up force. She looked off at the direction Sasuke disappeared to and decided to let his outburst slide.

He probably had a rough day and needed a punching bag. Sakura settled back onto the backrest and closed her eyes. "Although, the next time he decides to take it out on me, I'll punch him all the way to Suna."


Sasuke arrived in Naruto's apartment with only one thing in mind: sleep. The walk had served him well but he was awake the whole night and needed some shuteye if he wanted to be normal for today. An hour or two would do him fine.

But when he entered the apartment, he was greeted by three males all gathered near the coffee table, looking at a map of Konoha.

"He's probably her—Teme! You're back!" Naruto yelled, jumping out of his seat and dragging the tired shinobi towards the group. "We've been up all night trying to locate you. Where the hell did you wander off to?"

The dark-haired shinobi shook Naruto's grip off and looked at the other two. "Nara. Kakashi."

"Kakashi-sensei." The silver haired nin corrected again. "Really, Sasuke. Get used to it." The said boy glowered at him from where he stood, making Shikamaru sigh. "Yare, Yare… Since everything seems fine, I'm going to leave." He grumbled in annoyance at their botched 'retrieval' mission. He told the blonde idiot that Sasuke would be back, but the latter insisted they form a group and find Sasuke instead.

"Kaka-sensei, Naruto." Shikamaru waved and looked at Sasuke. "Uchiha." Said young man nodded a goodbye to the brunette and watched him leave the apartment.

Naruto shoved Sasuke on the shoulder and sat down next to Kakashi, glaring at his teammate who began walling to the bedroom.

Kakashi raised a hidden eyebrow and held up a hand to stop Sasuke from leaving. "What are you doing?" he asked the already miffed prodigy who'd stiffened. With a slight tilt of his head, Naruto echoed his sensei's question. "Yeah, why are you heading to the room?"

Sasuke's finger nails dug into his palms as he balled his fists. "I'm going to sleep." He answered icily and made to move forward when he felt a strong tug at the back of his shirt and was dragged away. "What the hell?" he growled as he struggled against Naruto's grip.

Kakashi's grinning face was startling close. "We're training today, Sasuke. Didn't you get my memo?" his sensei asked innocently. "I left one here earlier last night."

"I didn't come home, you idiot." Was Sasuke's response.

The copy-nin feigned surprise. "Oh, yes… That's right. Too bad then." The older man gave Sasuke a dark look. "I'm sure you'll come out of this one alive."


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Done and done. Oh and to answer many questions about the unconventional couples: I can't tell you or it will ruin the story. Don't worry though, you won't endure them long like I said, it's just for the depth of the plot.

I miss my laptop OMG =( but it's still unpacked so I have to use the PC with a huge-ass screen that makes my eye balls feel like they're in a fryer.

THANKS FOR THE WELL WISHES DURING THE EXAMS~ my hip is better too…not fully healed but better.

And wow….I do feel better after writing. UGH. Life is just so whacked out sometimes..