A.N.: you have no idea... how many puns I can make with this arc title (and how long it took me to realise that).

Barebones - Arc V: Road - Chapter 34: To the Roots

To see you again.

"Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha, working together to save a world."

Her blood runs cold, because she recognises that voice perfectly. Her eyes glaze over, mind assaulted by a thousand memories and emotions that she cannot control. Asphyxia, in a way that no amount of air can help. It nearly knocks her back, like a physical blow, and her gaze darts around the scenery, frantically trying to decipher where the voice is coming from.

Sakura has learned many things in her year as a student of senjutsu - how the slightest alteration of emotion can cause ripples that become tsunamis. The power of intent, if strong enough, can manifest itself in physical vessels; it can be as deadly as any weapon or technique.

And she knows very well how broken her own mind is. It is not something any amount of medicine, time or meditation could ever fix. There are things that, when taken or broken, can never be regained as they were. Overtime, the voices of phantoms grew louder, just as her body became more loose; her own chakra started to be difficult to grasp, as if it were slipping away.

"My, my, did the cat eat your tongue? I thought dear Sasuke-kun left you with one."

In this instant, the growing pressure she felt due to Sasuke's presence grows to nearly unbearable levels. Like Engetsu's phantoms, something in him is reacting to her - forces that attract and repel, that try to fuse and annihilate each other at the same time. A dichotomy that is forced to exist, augmented solely by their physical proximity to each other.

Her eyes meet his, as he stands under the threshold of the village's main gate; a place she had only dreamed of seeing again, and it's already enough to make her want to cry. He, too, can feel every minimal detail of what is happening right now. There is a flash of concealed panic, and pain, but what makes her heart ache is the understanding.

Just by standing in front of each other, their souls are resonating with the after-effects of the massacre. Sakura has avoided thinking about it as best as she could, because she couldn't even bear thinking about him for a very long time. But here, without the crazed look in his eyes, despite the façade that she knows the rest of the world can't penetrate, he seems so utterly bare to her.

She can feel his heartbeat as if it were her own. She can almost picture black thread, weaving through the air, tying them together. The clone's eyes seem to be glinting, her dark aura enveloping everything- no, it's Sasuke's aura. The darkness that devoured any light in his soul, quite literally, and that nearly broke hers.

Sakura's hand goes to her chest by instinct, and she knows that the pulsations under her skin are only a complex machination. She should be dead. She should just give up. There is no way she can win, anyway…

It takes less than three seconds, and the world is oblivious to the conflict developing between them. She's frozen, and it's almost as if a horde of rats was gnawing away at her sanity, eroding every rational thought and leaving only a chaotic void behind. It hurts.

Then, Sasuke closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and the heaviness in her chest fades just enough to let her inhale again. The clone, however, doesn't vanish; Sakura does notice how Sasuke himself looks at Sachi, who stands next to her in a defiant pose. She seems ready to jump at the doppelgänger and tear her apart.

Sasuke nods minutely, half-turning away and looking at the Hokage Tower. Sakura takes it as her cue, and motions at Tenten and Lee to follow her. There is no grandiose welcome, no happy cheers or familiar faces to greet them when they come back home. Some buildings are cracked or burnt, as if they had received collateral damage during multiple fights. The ground is dirty, as if it had been left to the elements for a very long time.

Most of the shops are closed, and there isn't a buzz of conversation, no laughter of children, no crowd of people milling about their day. Some shinobi stand on rooftops, watching them closely, but even among those, Sakura can't recognise Konoha headbands. They are few, anyway, and judging by the amount of natural chakra around her, not many more people are hiding away from sight. It looks like an abandoned town, and it pains her to see the village where she grew up in this state of disrepair.

There are no words spoken, and she wonders what Lee and Tenten think of it. Truly, there is no need; and where before she would have nervously tried to fill the void, now Sakura has to focus on keeping herself somewhere on this side of sanity. The world is blurring, the voices have grown in intensity, and her heart seems to have gotten stuck in a tachycardic rhythm. And she knows that, under the composed demeanor Sasuke is showing the world, his insides are churning in chaotic battle.

The office hasn't changed - though there's less papers than she remembers, and a twinge of nostalgia adds to the growing ache in her heart. It smells different, less like alcohol and antiseptic, and more like dust. Sasuke doesn't seem to have bothered with cleaning it, which seems odd; he is methodical and thorough. Then, she remembers that he has been in a losing battle against insanity. Truly, something as mundane as dirt wouldn't be high in his list of priorities.

"And again," the clone whistles. "Little Sakura cares about things that Sasuke-kun would never find important." There is something in his body language; it's not calm, and anyone would be able to tell. It's more like a coiled spring, ready to snap. She wonders if the others can see how he suppresses a flinch, how it's actually a titanic amount of self-restraint, that keeps him from losing himself entirely.

She should be thinking about fear, should be hurting about what could've been and will never be. Agonizing over memories of a terrible torture, and the loss of a piece of her innocence and soul. But she can't, because she's too aware of his reactions and the emotions that simmer under his skin. He is trying to hide them, but she can see through any wall now. Sakura wonders if it's pride, that makes him keep trying.

"What's the plan of action?" inquires Sachi, crossing her arms and scowling profusely. Sasuke sits behind his desk, and for a moment it feels like he'll just slump over and block out the world. Instead, he blinks, looking at Sachi while he pretends to be putting his eyes on Sakura. Her voice snaps both of them out of their reverie, and Sasuke finally lets out a breath that could pass as a sigh.

"As you have been informed," he begins, and Sakura realises it's the first time she hears his voice in a very, very long time. He pauses, apparently feeling the weight of her realisation, but resumes his talking after only half a second. "The moon is falling. You are the only ones capable of preventing damage to this village. Needless to say, any acts that go against its Hokage will be considered treason, and for that, punishment is capital."

It doesn't have to be said that they will find a way. That even if it's not now, they won't give up the fight. But it's not time - the enemy of one's enemy is an ally, and so for time being, against all odds, they have to work together. Sakura never thought she would be back home like this.

"How long do we have?" Tenten, as usual, is the one to ask the important questions. Sakura actually decides to let her handle this, because she isn't certain she could be capable of articulating a single word as it is.

"Three days until collision; a few hours until stray pieces start to fall into our atmosphere," he replies, swiftly; it seems that the conversation is a good anchor for his thoughts. Sakura, however, is busy trying to keep herself in one piece. This isn't even a fraction of what he has to be dealing with, but the intensity is new to her. For both of them, the bar has been pushed higher than ever.

She half-listens to Tenten inquire about the details, and Sasuke seems content with letting them know. That there are a total of seventeen Konohagakure shinobi on-duty and loyal to the village; half of which are genin. That Otogakure has crumbled apart, so they have a total of fifty-one operatives in Konoha, most of which would be just below jōnin level.

That there are exactly one hundred and seventy eight citizens left, discounting the hostages that were shipped off to Oto hideouts. Konoha's population used to be the highest of all the Hidden Villages, and this is all that's left. Just a bunch of cracked buildings and some scared civilians and clan members.

The Hyūga fled when Hinashi, Hiashi's father and re-appointed Clan Head, was brutally killed. Whatever is left of the Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka fled long ago into the forest; their attempts at guerrilla were shot down within months, and only some stragglers managed to flee or evade death by letting themselves be captured.

Sakura realises, then, that there is nothing left of what Konoha once was. The only representatives of clans left are merely puppets that follow Sasuke out of fear. The Hokage Monument is no more, and the Will of Fire has been dimmed to a shadow of its former self. It still burns in the hearts of those who fled, but didn't forget, and yet...

Konoha is gone. This is no home.

Sasuke's eyes snap towards her, but judging by Tenten and Lee's reactions, they didn't hear her thoughts. They jump into a battle stance within a second, and in that timespan the room's tension grows to nauseating levels. One wrong step, and a fight could break out.

She bites her lower lip, and sees in Sasuke's eyes a deep well of denial. It strikes her as ironic, that he is the one who has been clinging to desperate dreams, pushing on despite the truth that presses against him. His dream is shattered, and so is hers, but at the end of the day, that is their reality: Konoha is gone.

The dark aura that he irradiates grows in strength, and she can hear Lee and Tenten falling to the ground, overwhelmed. Sakura stands her ground, noting the increase in pressure with detached interest. She can't get her eyes off of his, but she supposes that looking or not won't really help much against someone like him.

He stands up, and something flickers to light in Sasuke's dark eyes. Sakura knows those colors, and is transfixed staring, stuck in a closed loop of memories. Those eyes have haunted her nightmares and waking times for two years. And as he steps closer, she realises that he's gotten significantly taller. It strikes her, like so many other things, that they were just barely children when they fought in a war.

Too young, and too broken. Time hasn't made that any better - instead, they've been alone, trying to survive for themselves. Look at them now, tangled together as they fall down a deep hole. Would it even matter, if he killed her now?

Sakura doesn't know how much time passes, but the spell is broken in a manner she never expected. He blinks, and blood stains his cheeks. Sasuke falls forward, catching himself on the desktop, but his whole body is trembling and tense. He outgrew his old clothes, and now she wonders if the long sleeved shirt he wears serves another purpose.

It doesn't take her long to feel the effect of his outburst, stronger than ever, and she falls to her knees on the office's floor. She doesn't tear her eyes away from him; she can't.

Because, as he stops looking at her, the color of the Rinnegan fills up with dark smoke, until its lavender tones have faded entirely from his iris. He screams, bringing a hand up to his head, trembling all over. The Ningyo closes around her with enough force to make bones crack, and she can't breathe anymore.

There is now open panic in Sasuke's eyes, and she knows her own reflect something similar. It has spiraled out of control; his Sharingan reverts to basic form, spinning madly as his instinct tries to help him with fighting an enemy he can't see. Before the smoke covers that eye too, the world fades.

The images around them waver, and the shadowy figures growl and circle them like predators, forcing them closer together. They are somewhere in the forest, halfway between his mindscape and hers, and the world is drawn in red and bloody lines that become fuzzier with each blink.

Sakura's back bumps against his before he realises she's there, but he doesn't have his sword to fight back. She ducks under his hit with better reflexes than he remembers her having, and from the ground she brings up her hands to stop him. Sasuke does, staring at her with emotions he can't comprehend.

There is rage, pure hatred, and pain; he is stuck in the middle of wanting to destroy her right then and there, and clinging onto her for his dear life. Konoha is gone. She shattered his dream, shouldn't she deserve it? Even if all she did was wake him up to reality (what she tried to do before; the last time, it ended so horribly), in a way she just took something precious away from him. From an Uchiha.

She seems to be perfectly aware of the struggle he is undergoing, but surprisingly, she keeps her mouth shut. And he feels that it's not because she doesn't want to help him; she just knows that panicking and spewing emotional words won't help at all. He supposes they are both emotionally driven people, so one of them has to take the more level-headed role. Sasuke hadn't expected it to be her.

There is a flash of six hundred days and nights. The many times she couldn't sleep, the many others she cried until exhaustion took her. Waking nightmares and dreams that never gave her a moment's rest. Her will to protect the few people close to her, the only ones left. The despair at the notion that, sooner or later, she would have to face him - and knowing that she would never be good enough to win.

Her eyes widen, and he knows she has seen too. How sanity slipped him more often than not, and in bouts of dementia he tore apart everything around him, even the things he once held dear, or were still important to him. How, ironically enough, he was blind to reality, manipulated and driven further into darkness by his own mind, and a piece of Sakura's.

She doesn't get up, similarly stuck in her own train of realisation. As if they'd found the missing pieces of a puzzle, everything they couldn't put together on their own comes to light. Her skin, raw and bleeding along the lines of the Ningyo, as she channeled senjutsu chakra; it ate her away, but it gave her enough edge to provide a chance. His eyes, unable to function as they used to; he woke up one day, and the Rinnegan was gone.

It seems the Ningyo's tendrils spread on both sides, binding them together; he, however, was too strong to be limited like her, even if he still felt the effect of it. And the clone found out how to abuse of it, how to push his buttons just enough to suit her purposes; abusing of the Rinnegan's power whenever it was convenient, just to see how it worked. She strained his body to massive levels, to weaken him.

He didn't remember ever summoning those creatures of old, but the strain it put on his body is too real now. The clone has tainted his pathways, much like Sakura's Yin Seal has been shut off; unlike her, he still has some degree of access to it, but when was the last time he looked in a mirror? He thought the blindness came from dementia, not from the fact that his eyes were clouded with literal darkness.

So that's why his Rinnegan wasn't activated most of the time.

Yes. The Rinnegan is a dōjutsu that can't be concealed by normal methods… but in her eyes, he sees that she wasn't even aware of that. He was blinded.

Mermaid Seal, Puppet Seal - two sides of the same coin, Ningyō and Ningyo. One side to lure wayward souls, another to control them. In reality, it traps them both in the same cage. His head throbs, and he holds his forehead with a hand, covering his eyes. They feel broken.

"This is your fault," he mutters under his breath, glaring at her through the gaps between his fingers. If not for the clone, none of this would have happened. If she had shut the fuck up back then, things would never have gone this wrong!

The familiar faces that haunt his nightmares have morphed into unrecognisable monsters, all burnt and mangled from the massacre. And they seem to cheer at them, to destroy each other utterly, to end this madness that are their lives. Sakura flinches, but can't react in time. The ground meets her back, and it happens again.

Never before had he seen anyone so deeply, so thoroughly - or felt so exposed, himself. Not even Itachi's predictions were a hundred percent accurate. Stripped down to the core elements of his soul, and having everything else splayed in front of both of their eyes, after having it torn to pieces. Just like Sakura.

She shudders, and he sees the bruises inflicted long ago reappearing on her neck, around his fingertips. She didn't think about it much, but under her own long clothes hide many scars that she can barely stand seeing. She doesn't look at her own body anymore, because it still hurts. Every time she looked at her own reflection, she saw brokenness and failure.

And she did it all without realising; she stopped taking care of her formerly cherished appearance, giving her an unkempt air; her hair was roughly cut, her eyes are marked by insomnia and the lines of stress and anxiety. He knows that she stopped paying attention to herself, as a self-defense method.

Torn to pieces, just like him.

It's surprisingly easy to hold her down in a physical sense, but he can barely keep himself from jumping away as if he'd been burnt. He wants to stop the replay of memories, because if they get there he doesn't know what he'll do. Oh, how he wants to know, and by the looks of it, she is aware. She thought it hadn't happened, but haven't both of them been deep into denial?

The roar of the phantoms becomes deafening, and he can't see anymore. Everything is dark, except her figure. She looks so small, so fragile, even though he recognises that her spirit is practically unbreakable. Sakura seems to struggle between the urge to look away and into his eyes, flinching every time his fingers twitch, as he too is caught in a dilemma: strangling her to death or letting go.

Everything goes quiet, and the lighting shifts. He recognises this cold, barren place. He can smell the blood and fire, and so can she. Sakura is trembling, looking around as if to see if they're really there. When she looks back at him, there aren't tears, just pure terror. He hadn't seen it directly - only glimpses of it behind her façades, as he was never aware enough to truly perceive it.

It fills his gut with dread, because she fully expects a repetition that won't end so luckily this time. He can see it and feel it, and Sasuke isn't sure of it, himself. He wants to hate her- no, he already does. Mightily, in fact. Sasuke Uchiha hates obstacles that he cannot overcome, and Sakura seems to be one of them, in her very unique way. With her, he can't win - he can neither destroy her or be on her side. It makes him feel stuck, powerless - something he despises.

A hand presses against his chest, and it surprises him that she has closed her eyes, her expression turning to a thoughtful frown.

If he still has a heartbeat, he's human. If he's still human, he's not a complete monster. If he's not a monster, it's not too late.

He catches her thoughts like words in a raging wind, and doesn't move to bat her hand away. He lets go of her wrists and neck, and instead opts for something that provokes new panic in Sakura, causing her to open her eyes again. Flitting memories flash in her eyes, and her ragged breathing comes to a halt.

She has a heartbeat, too.

"I'm not going to kill you," he states, flatly, the ire in his former words gone. There is only a sinking, weary emotion, that numbs out everything else. It's as much of a fact as his hatred is, but he knows that fear is another emotion that blurs rationality out. He needs to tell her, before she freaks out. "I can't."

Sakura breathes shallowly, as if trying to avoid pressing her body against his hand. She is also looking at him like he just grew a fourth head. And he can tell that she is trying very, very hard not to cry. It reminds him so much of the girl he used to know, that it hurts. They both have changed. He once thought she would be willing to kill him, but he was wrong.

She, too, can't.

Their stalemate has drawn out for too long, as he isn't going to take the steps forward (because if he does, he will have to kill her; she tenses a little more at that); and she is physically unable to manage it. The gap is too big, he knows. Other than letting himself die without putting up a fight, there is no way she could win.

She knows, too.

Yet, she hasn't given up. And he- he can barely bring himself to think about it anymore. It has haunted him for months. Maybe, without the doppelgänger, he would have been able to shove everything aside and pretend to forget about it. Every mistake, every second of torture, has been replayed - except the one thing that bothers him most.

There is surprise, then pain, and finally doubt in her eyes. She caught that thought, no matter how hard he tried to hide it; Sasuke pretends he doesn't want to look away. That either it didn't bother him that much, or he wasn't thinking about it in the first place, but it's too late.

She bites her lip, and for a moment there is only evaluation in her eyes, and then she nods to herself and pries her gaze away from his. Slowly, to ensure he doesn't see it as a threat, she moves her free hand down to the space between them. The long, lapislazuli clothes are splayed around her; he knows what she wants to do before she starts the motion, but he can't tell her to stop.

Sakura lifts her shirt, halfway up her ribs, uncovering the skin underneath. Her fingers tremble, but she seems determined, even if she can't look at him.

"I can still…" The threat is lost in the sparse air, as he can't voice the words. He hates that, too, and maybe his fingers close a little bit too hard. Nonetheless, she looks at him very briefly, and then tugs down at her pants, just an inch.

He understands now, and has to resist the morbid urge to touch her underbelly. It's littered with jagged, lightning-like scars, as if she had been stabbed with a blade and then had it dragged through skin and flesh, ripping through. The lines run under her pants, but he sure as hell isn't going to look there.

"You said…"

And he realises it's the first time he actually hears her voice. One word, a battle cry, is all he has heard of her through all their exchanges in the real world. She wasn't even talking to him. Her voice catches in her throat, and he knows it's hard for her to speak. He tries to remember for her, to maybe feel what she has to say, but the doppelgänger has closed off those memories. It's torture, for both of them.

"You don't deserve it."

He can hear two voices saying the same; hers is shaky, broken. The echo of his own is laced with hatred, with connotations full of disdain and scorn. There are no words for what it meant, what he implied, what he felt and tried to convey in the words. Things that she was too aware of. It was an insult, much, much worse than if he had just raped and abandoned her. Like opening a dam, as soon as the connection is made, the memories rush through him, stealing his breath.

The self-hatred she irradiates easily matches his own. The shame, the failure, the feeling that she will never be good enough to achieve anything; the fear of falling behind, or not reaching high enough. And she took his words to heart, like she took the blame for the massacre and everything that went wrong that day; she saw all of her shortcomings and mistakes, and the catastrophe that they brought. That even her dreams, what she had worked for, were worthless.

Just like she was.

And all of it, because she wasn't good enough. Now he understands why she doesn't act like she did before, why that aura of vivacity is nearly gone - there is only determination left. To prove herself, even if it costs her life. She doesn't have the unyielding strength that kept Naruto up no matter how many times he got beaten down. She doesn't have the dōjutsu and bred skills that Sasuke has.

She's just Sakura. Broken and hurt, and not giving up solely because of him. The reason she's like this in the first place. Is she trying to prove a point? Save him? Both? She breaks down, pulling her arms to her sides and bracing herself tightly. She doesn't look, she doesn't pretend it doesn't hurt. It's there, just as raw as it was two years ago; it was only buried and left to rot and fester.

It's not your fault, he wants to say, but she can't hear. You didn't do anything wrong.

Yet his anger makes him want to blame her, hate her, finish what he started. Because she did do stupid things, even if it was with the best intention. But he- he refused to listen. He let himself fall, and even trying to redeem himself (unconsciously) by saving Konoha wasn't enough. Those lives can't be returned. Her scars are there to stay, and he knows her mind isn't in a better state.

He almost wants to see them all - every single trace of his mistakes. Sasuke, however, doubts she'd let him.

He realises her legs must be going numb (if that's possible in this place, which he wouldn't doubt too much) from his weight, so he gets off and sits beside her, looking in the distance, at the battlefield. He doesn't go away this time, as he isn't sure he could be capable of moving.

She lies on the ground, beside him, but makes no move to get up. She's quiet, very quiet, and he knows she doesn't want to cry. Those tears are just beyond her control. Maybe it's because of her proximity, maybe because of his realisations, but his rage is subdued. It's still there, though small and almost silent.

I know why you hate me so much, so I don't understand why I'm not dead yet…

Judging by the way she looks at him, for the briefest moments, she noticed the newfounds tenseness in his body. He could ask something very similar, even if he can blame her attachment on a cycle of reincarnation that goes back to ancient eras. Even then, why would she keep trying, after so many failures?

The lighting changes very subtly, but he notices it - the sky is becoming a mix of day and night, an eclipse of a green moon over a red sun. Now, it's like there's two images on top of the other, instead of bubbles of different spaces and times. Like every breeze is jointed, stronger; it carries both the smell of smoke and summer.

Sasuke isn't a man of exposing emotion, or many words. Now, however, he wants to say so much… and he can't. Try to explain, perhaps; maybe if she understands, she'll stop crying. If she weren't stuck in her own pit of misery, she could probably feel it without need of words.

If you believe something isn't there, how could you sense it?

Right. He still hates her, and her justifications for why she isn't dead yet don't include anything remotely close to remorse. Sasuke doesn't like backing up on his actions - for the longest time, he needed to be certain about everything he did. He was open to new possibilities, since being stagnant is the death of bad shinobi, but he always tried not to regret.

The dichotomy is enough to drive anyone insane, and for a moment he wonders if the doppelgänger merely spurred his inner conflict. He doesn't know what to do about her, either. Short of killing Sakura, he doesn't know how he could get rid of an entity of that kind.

He could. She has no guard up, perhaps on purpose. He can tell she hasn't given up yet, simply because he still lives. Sasuke doesn't know how could this end in anything other than death, and maybe if he gets it over with now… it could almost be an act of mercy.

She catches that thought, of course, out of all things. Quietly, she's pleading, and the way her emotions twist makes his stomach turn inside out. Sakura knows it's not her choice at this point. More than ever, he wants to ask:

Why?

But he already knows the answer. And with one look at her, he tries to convey that it was just a passing thought. You're an idiot, he grumbles, though he doesn't know who he's talking to. Her eyes practically light up, and just like that it seems like she has regained her bearings.

It puzzles him, such a drastic switch in her mindset, but he decides it's just a Sakura thing. She does manage to look at him again, pulling down her shirt and readjusting her pants, and maybe she catches his confusion.

Because I love you.

Sakura slaps a hand over her mouth, with something that feels very similar to shame, even though she hasn't spoken. Her eyes look for something else to stare at, and a blush spreads from her cheeks, all the way to her neck. If he didn't know better, he would have thought she hasn't changed in the slightest.

Amusement finds its way to him, and that only makes her try to hide somewhere in the grass, which (needless to say) isn't tall enough.

"I'm sorry," she mumbles, plucking strands of grass just to have something to do with her hands. "It's just… seeing Konoha like this…" She looks up at him, fearful of another outburst, but the village stopped being a priority for him a long time ago. Right, she thought that it's because she undermined his task.

"I understand." She blinks in surprise, basking in the relief. He does, too. He isn't looking at her directly, as she sits a little bit behind him and to his left. Sasuke considers explaining why further, but decides against it.

Maybe it's better if she believes those lies, for now. He doubts she would be capable of fighting him at all if she sensed an ounce of weakness in the façade.

"...Can I go with you?"

This time, her mouth-covering slap is rather audible. Sasuke resists the urge of slamming his forehead on his knees. Silence should be enough of an answer for her, but then he notices that, unlike the broken girl he saw a few minutes ago, Sakura's attitude is now similar to how she used to be.

Meaning, she's going to start rambling if he doesn't put a stop to it.

"One day, Konoha will be rebuilt." And that's kind of impossible if there's only a smoking crater left. He grits his teeth, suppressing the doppelgänger's influence for as long as he can. It won't last, but he hasn't felt this free in a very long time. He isn't about to let go. "Once everything has calmed down."

He doesn't imply that it might take years, or his death, for that to become possible. If he survives his inevitable fight against Toneri.

"Is that a promise?" she inquires, almost demanding. He gives her a look and she shuts her mouth, embarrassed. "What happened?" Sakura adds, really looking at their surroundings for the first time.

"My Inner Sakura provoked me into trying to murder you," he states, flatly, trying to sound detached and knowing that, in a way he can't control, he's failing. "...My Rinnegan must have acted up and brought us here. I believe it pulled our souls closer together."

He also knows that she wants to argue about that very thing - how is she going to face someone like Toneri without control of his dōjutsu? Then again, she is smart enough to know that insulting his abilities like that isn't going to raise anyone's chance of survival. She's still worried, though, and that fact is becoming more annoying by the second.

Their moment of confluence is about to end. He can already hear distant cries once more.

"What do we do?" she inquires, scanning the woods around them. She must hear them too. "Can you cast a genjutsu or something?"

Sasuke shakes his head.

"This… creature has control of my chakra. She could warp it into anything." That works both ways, he knows, but the fact that she is willing to suggest something like that is still foolishly admirable.

"Can I… see it?" She is fiddling, of course. "I can still use some medical chakra, and if it's mine… maybe I can shuffle it around a little bit."

Do you know what you're asking of me? He doesn't say it, instead taking a few seconds to consider his options. She won't betray him now, so why should be deny? The balance within his soul and mind is very fragile, but he can't trust the doppelgänger to stay peaceful. Not when Sakura is so close, and could be killed in the blink of an eye.

He turns around, relaxing his posture to make it seems less threatening. Hesitantly, Sakura scuttles closer. Normally, she would sit behind her patient, but Sasuke knows she won't try that now. He is tempted to close his eyes, to avoid the sorry sight of her face, but decides against it.

Her fingers make contact with his temples a moment after she gets comfortable, and though she doesn't voice it, it's clear his gaze makes her nervous; he looks away, and senses her relax minutely.

Sakura's chakra is almost familiar to him, though in a way it feels much cleaner than what he is used to. It isn't dominating, merely exploring the pathways and trying to figure out how it works. Curious; playful, almost. From the corner of his eye, he sees how her expression becomes more entranced, filled with something akin to awe. He knows she might be the only medic to ever examine eyes like his this closely.

There is a prick on the back of his eye, erupting into burning a moment later. She bites her lip, but doesn't hesitate.

"It's gonna hurt. There is a lot of… stagnant chakra in there. It's very similar to mine, so I think I can move it… but I can't get it out, it would drain you. It's mixed with yours," she explains. Sasuke merely nods, and she takes it as her cue.

The voices rise in intensity, and then, very slowly, go quieter. The insides of his head start burning as she works on the different places, leaving him with a feeling of light looseness. Almost… clean. The dark shapes in his eyes recede, though not entirely. As good as she is, Sakura can't perform miracles, not in her state.

He doesn't miss how her skin is tight under the pressure of the Ningyo, looking raw and red. She deems her task finished after pushing the chakra somewhere else in his vast reserves, and says that it will eventually go back to his head again, but it should give him an edge. She looks a little bit tired.

Sasuke extends a hand to her forehead without thinking much about it, and in an instant she has deflected it as if he had struck her. She hasn't gotten up into a battle stance, but her instincts scream of sensing a fight.

"I can do the same," he explains, nonplussed. Sakura's apology catches in her throat, and she nods rather quickly, closing her eyes as if she was steeling herself for something difficult.

It's completely blocked off. If he didn't have a connection to her, he would be unable to feel her chakra signature at all. The seal is tightly wound around her, and he doesn't want to use force when it's something so delicate. He doesn't say anything, but when he retreats his hand without doing anything at all, she knows it's a defeat.

Sakura sighs slightly, having dared to hope only for the slightest moment. Her hands are just slightly bloated from the pressure. Sasuke offers his, trying to hint at her to do the same; she catches the meaning after only a moment of confusion.

Unlike with her Yin Seal, the pressure in the rest of her body isn't so high. The Ningyo responds to him, and like a snake, its embrace relaxes at his command. Sakura releases a sigh, unconsciously - Sasuke wonders what it's like, to have something like this on her body. It's restricting, like his Curse of Hatred, but in a physical way.

He notices her body has grown, changed slightly. Some of her fingers bend slightly in odd angles, proof that they were broken and pushed the wrong way. He tries to ignore that, and the marks of kunai that went through her palms, to hold her down. The electrical burn that has drawn pale, dendritic lines on her skin.

I did this.

When it seems like her skin isn't under pressure anymore, he gets up, tugging at her to follow. Sasuke releases her hands as soon as possible, but she still rubs them together, making him think they're tingling a little. Just like his own.

"Ready?" she mutters, not looking at anything in particular.

He doesn't answer, and instead he pushes chakra to the Rinnegan, separating them and dissolving the illusionary world.

A.N.: No hard feelings, but as an author, I hope you feel like you got punched in the gut. I would have, if I wasn't a sadistic little fuck. Y'see, I had honestly considered leaving this particular question involving sexual organs up in the air (or, like Monshroud said, use it as a method to make Sasuke go bananas). I think this is less expected - better, because I think it matches up in intensity just fine.

And yes, this is why there's barely any mention of Sakura's appearance or attire - this is another nail in her coffin of self-hatred and shame. Because of point of view shenanigans, which I warned you about, the extent of her scars was never specified in its entirety. You merely saw her sense of guilt, defeat and shame. I hope that, too, came out as a surprise of sorts.

How was it? What did you expect of this encounter - and did it live up to expectations? I've calculated we have 5 chapters or so left. All this time, I've tried to deconstruct these two characters, and put depth where a lot of people (myself included) found shallowness. Keep their personalities... theirs, while adding a new series of layers to the equation. So close to the end, I worry I might not be keeping up with the expected tension, and closure to this wild ride.

Up next on The Great Shitshow of Fucked Up Things and People: To the Moon (to save you).

Cheerps!