Notes: I'm a bad writer. Yes, bad writer, is I. I'm so wretched, not completing my stories and keeping people waiting for half an eternity (for those who care to read my jumble of words strung together in a coherent pattern). Well, no more! So, I'll ask you to excuse me as I have several unfinished stories to rethink and create. One other—being a Naruto AU—and this one coming first and foremost. I'm going to become very confused soon; I can feel it.

He tried to will the wretched white thing away. It would not go. He glared at it, cursed at it, and at one point stabbed it with a pair of wooden chopsticks. Still the cast stayed and his arm itched like a mad thing. It was unbelievable how he could come to hate something inanimate with such intensity. The rising occurrence of violent nightmares did not help his mood either.

Uchiha Sasuke tried not to think of the dream that had become worse each time he had slept. It was like it was waiting for him just beyond the blackness of his closed lids and when he slipped into sleep it sprang upon him like a ravenous beast and would not release him easily. When he did struggle himself awake from them, sweaty and trembling, he would then run to the bathroom and throw up everything he had eaten earlier that very evening. The stench and stain of the blood in his night terrors even followed him into the waking world. He shuddered at the thought of it and mentally shoved it aside, giving a small grunt. Haruno Sakura—who had been sitting on the desk facing the room's window and gazing out—looked over at him with a mixture of worry and puzzlement. Sasuke pretended he didn't notice and went back to doing what he did best: brooding.

A slight noise told him she had slid herself off the desk and he faintly heard the pad of her bare footsteps as she approached him. "Sasuke…" she spoke softly and he again pretended he didn't notice her. He wasn't in the mood to hear it. "Sasuke, I'm sorry I tricked you into getting the cast, but," she began to speak faster, "I was only worried about you! You never really used to care about your own health, and now this injury is a thousand times worse than any broken bone or gash you've ever had! If you don't take care of it now, your arm will become useless, just like your—" And with that she clapped both of her hands over her mouth as her eyes widened with the realization of what she was about to say. Sasuke realized it at the same time and lunged out of his chair toward her, his good hand clamping around her upper arm.

"Like what?" he shook her roughly. "Like who? Say it!"

She shook her head quickly from side to side, denying it. "No! I didn't mean anything by it! I'm just worried, that's what I—"

With a furious cry he shoved her across the room. Sakura's arms pinwheeled for balance as she stumbled foot over foot, trying to right herself. He was right behind her, screaming something, but he couldn't make out what it was because the voice, the thing, was with him again: Get her! Shut her up! Who does she think she's talking to, comparing you to a dead man? Tell her! Show her the difference between a live Uchiha and a dead one! He saw she was crying. Sobbing and shaking all over, she crouched back against the opposite wall and watched him approach. He could feel his pulse throbbing in his temples, the chords standing out in his neck, his fingers on both hands flexing in rhythm as his unhindered arm came up and his fingers snaked around her throat and locked tight. Silent tears poured down her face as she reached up and tried to pry his hand off and her face steadily went from red to purple to blue. Kill her! The voice shrieked in triumph. Show her the power of your wrath! Kill her! KILL—WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!

With a strangled gasp Sasuke dropped his hand from her throat and backed away hurriedly, almost tripping over himself in his rush. Sakura slumped against the wall and began to cough fitfully. He could see red spatters of blood flying from her mouth

The Sharingan: blood red. The blood of a proud clan. A blood-drenched history. Severed ties within that history. Power lost and gained in the most corrupt of ways.

You need me, Sasuke.

Death of the clan. Death of the family. Death of the emotions. To feel was to lose this battle; they weren't his rules, but they were the rules that the game of revenge must be played by. Not set by him, but by his brother: Uchiha Itachi.

You need me, Sasuke, because

Itachi is dead, killed by his own blood-soaked hand. Now it was his turn—his duty—to carry out the curse of the Uchiha Clan. The blood-seekers, the death-bringers, those hardened to ice by their pasts. And now he needed all the power he could gather to face the world alone. Not with friends, but alone, like Itachi had shown him…

I'm you.

"Sasuke…why…?" she gulped in a lungful of air and then coughed it out again. He abruptly turned away from her, his shoulders beginning to shake noticeably.

"Get out of here, Sakura," he said.

"But…I don't…understand…" she wheezed, using the wall to keep herself standing. "Sasuke, why…did you…?"

"I said get out of here! Do you need me to spell it out for you? Don't ever come near me again!" He took a deep breath, his shoulders almost vibrating with suppression. "I HATE YOU!"

They stood that way for an endless minute, Sakura's chest heaving as she stared at his back, his shaking shoulders. She slowly began to slide away from him, toward the door. She fell over by the doorway, landing hard and then using her hands and feet to push herself away from him. He did not look back at her. He heard as she clambered unsteadily to her shaky feet and ran from the house, beginning to sob as she increased the distance between them. Sasuke finally fell to his knees, his chest hitching as he silently cried, his shoulders continuing to shake, suppressing the urge to wail aloud. He would wait for her to be far away.

"Sakura…" he sighed her name with a weak shudder. "I'm sorry…"

He'd noticed that Hyuuga Neji wasn't paying attention, but that didn't stop him from throwing the devastating punch. As luck would have it though, Neji saw the wrapped fist coming toward his face just fine and did his signature counter.

"Kaiten!"

"Dammit!" Rock Lee recovered quickly enough, crouching into his fighting stance, but instantly relaxed when he saw Neji was no longer participating in their practice spar. Things had been that way as of late, although he couldn't explain why: Neji just always seemed distracted by something.

"What's wrong, Neji?" TenTen—who had been sitting on a tree branch, watching them—leapt down nimbly and approached her teammates. Neji inclined his head slightly to the left, signifying that he wasn't sure.

"…I've been sensing a strange chakra lately," he told them, tilting his head in the opposite direction as his brow creased in a frown.

"What? Like a foreigner's or something?" TenTen guessed and Neji shook his head negatively once more.

"It's familiar, but I can't place it."

"I guess that means training is over for the afternoon, huh?" Lee sighed.

"I can't concentrate," Neji shook his head again. "It's like the chakra totally disappears, then just randomly flares up again. It's very distracting."

"Mood-dependant chakra?" TenTen made another guess.

"I don't know anyone in the Leaf with that kind of ability," Neji continued to frown. "Except Uzumaki Naruto, but it isn't his."

"If neither of you mind, I'm going to go home," Lee broke into the discussion again.

"Aren't you concerned about this?" TenTen scolded.

"No," he shook his head, "and neither should you two be. It has nothing to do with us. If we're going to become this easily-distracted during a training session, then we have a bit more to learn, I think."

For that, TenTen had no reply. Neji gave an approving look at his teammate. "Sorry, Lee. If you give me until tomorrow, I could find a way to block random chakra patterns from the Byakugan. Then we can spar properly."

"I'll be waiting," Lee smiled back and turned, falling into a jog as he headed back toward the city. He thought about what they had been discussing as he ran. Despite Neji saying it hadn't been Uzumaki Naruto's chakra he'd sensed, Lee still somehow felt the blond was involved in some way. It was the same type of angry chakra from what Neji had implied; a dark chakra. And dark people seemed to surround Naruto almost constantly. Like Uchiha Sasuke, for example…

Lee slowed when he saw a familiar figure leaning against one of the blossom trees lining the city entranceway. Her short pink hair covered the majority of her face, and she seemed to be limping, which blew all his other thoughts aside.

"Sakura?" he called. She looked up at his voice and he was shocked at what he saw: she was crying, and she had a large purplish-brown handprint smudge covering her neck. "What happened to you!" he rushed over to her. She shook her head quickly, turning away from him as she winced in pain, and she instantly began to struggle toward the path. He reached her easily and caught her up in his arms, restraining her, "Sakura, who did this to you?" She shook her head, more tears spilling onto his arm where he held her across the shoulders. In the arm around her stomach, he could feel her wheezing and her sobbing. None of her usual fiery strength remained; she felt like a fragile baby bird in his arms. "Tell me!" he pleaded with her.

"Naruto…" she gasped and broke into a fit of coughing. Lee felt his original train of thought slam back into him with a vengeance. "I need…to see…Naruto…"

"Not like this, you're not," he said, and lifted her up effortlessly into his arms. She made a startled noise and began to struggle again. "I'm taking you to the hospital," he turned in the direction he had specified.

Her hands clamped in the folds of his chunin vest and he looked down at her. She was still crying, and her eyes were glittering with pain, but he read them clearly anyway. She shook her head once from side to side, wincing again as fresh pain stabbed into her. He felt torn, and still wanted to take her to the hospital.

"Fine, we'll go to Naruto's house," he sighed, tightening his grip on her as he broke into a run once more. "But I'll find out who did this to you, Sakura, and I'll kill them."

She could only look away from him.