AN: I'm doing Sasuke's POV of the recent event and then I'll skip to Tuesday. Just to clear it up.

Sasuke

Sakura left the truck about three minutes ago.

I was getting a feeling, a bad one. I acknowledged my instincts and sat up. I could indeed not see her nor Naruto anywhere. I squinted my eyes and scanned the area I last saw Naruto standing. Unfortunately, the bed of a truck hundreds of meters away isn't providing a clear view.

I was about to get off and head down there until I heard a thud from about 200 meters away. It was dark so I got off the truck and walked in that direction.

Suddenly I heard muffled cries and realized they were coming from a section closed off in the parking lot. I scanned my surroundings and crept towards the back wall. When I finally saw what was happening I was driven.

Naruto had Sakura pinned to a wall and was doing something to her.

She was crying.

He slammed her against the wall. Naruto just...

I slowly got into position, ready to break him off her, hoping to catch him off guard.

Naruto had just begun to touch her hair as well, too focused on her to hear me- when I had finally had my moment. Within a second I swiftly grabbed Naruto and slammed him into the other wall, hard. Really fucking hard.

I pinned him against the side and punched him hard in the jaw. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Do you even know what you're doing? I yelled.

"She wanted it! I didn't hurt her!" Naruto said.

"You don't decide that shit man, it's Sakura!" I yelled. His body jerked.

All other sounds were blurred into background noise but faintly I could hear Sakura pleading in between bawls. It hurt. I slammed his head hard into the ground then I felt hands wrap tightly around my arm and pull me back.

"Stop. Let's just go. Don't hurt him more. Despite this, you will regret it." I heard Sakura mumble. Her body was shaking. She was choking on tears at this point.

I froze.

Naruto's not worth it right now. Itachi's wrong

I spun around and grabbed her arm, mumbled an agreement, and left Naruto lying there.

I was about to kill him.

...

That night I did whatever I could to comfort Sakura. She couldn't seem to stop crying. I had to give her Advil and ice for her head. I made her tea and to her pleading request, slept on the floor again. I asked if there was anything else I could do but she was phased and seemed to only respond mostly with nods and whispers, barely making eye contact. It broke me into thousands of pieces. It wasn't her.

At 4:00 AM Itachi called. I slowly picked up the phone, careful not to wake up Sakura who only managed to stop shuffling in her sleep 20 minutes ago.

"Yeah?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"I've got Naruto with me. Mind telling me your side of the story?" He replied in an exasperated tone.

"He hurt her. I don't regret any shit I did and don't you dare bring him here." I demanded.

"Chill. I know what happened. Naruto was out of it for half an hour and when he woke up he immediately started crying and wouldn't speak to us. When we finally got him to talk he managed to admit what he had done. He's not even mad at you. But he feels like shit, especially to Sakura. He's still crying. He's sorry, not that it makes it any better." He said.

My lips made a thin line. "It doesn't. Let him stay with you tonight. I'll figure out the rest later. Night." I said.

"Sasuke hold on how the fuck am I-," I hung up on him and shut off the phone.

I turned back around and glanced at Sakura. She had an exhausted face, even in sleep, and her cheeks were red and bruised from both Naruto and crying. I frowned and lightly tapped her forehead with my index and middle fingers.

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

Tuesday

I told Sakura she should not go to school and stay home but she insisted on leaving and doing something normal to take her mind off everything. She had recently become extremely fragile. Crying so many times. Naruto came back Monday. He tried to go into Sakura's room once but I ushered him back into his own. At one point she and he ran into each other in the kitchen. She freaked out, rushed into my room crying, dived into my bed, and didn't let go of my pillow for an hour. Not that I wanted her to. I kept an eye on her and let her tears drench my sheets.

Naruto was extremely battered. Bruises and cuts were all over his face and his back had a large gash. It pained me to see him in pain. Despite everything.

Sakura and I made sure to leave the house for class before Naruto woke up. I had barely spoken to him and when I did I was asking him to go elsewhere.

Sakura was timid. Flinching at every car engine on the road, hugging herself, biting her lip, tucking her head. It was a struggle to see her like this.

This was bad. What's going to happen to the three of us? One part of me never again wants to associate with Naruto again, the other part keeps telling me there's a way to work through it. If I'm not sure I could even consider forgiving him, what's Sakura thinking? She was the one he took advantage of. Yes, he was drunk, but he was also asked not to get drunk and you still have to have some control.

So yes, what Naruto did was his decision, not the alcohol.

I sighed as we pulled into the parking lot. Sakura hadn't noticed and was playing with a loose string on her skirt. I was about to notify her until I realized that this was the parking lot everything happened in. I immediately pulled out and drove to the front of the school, hoping she wouldn't realize why. Finally, she looked up and undid her seatbelt.

I grabbed her wrist as it reached for the door handle. She looked up with an exhausted pout. "Listen. I'll walk you to class, you can text me if you need, I'll leave my room and come." I said while staring straight into her eyes.

Her gaze softened and she had a defeated look. "Thanks. I will, but I think that just knowing there are more people will help." She looked down and after staying silent for a moment. "Also..." She clasped her hands on her knee. "I want to fix this. I don't know what- well what made Naruto... do what he did, but I want to fix it all. No, I need to. It hurt seeing you and him fighting, and now I can't even look my life-long friend in the eye. I don't know how we'll get through it but please I want to. Not now but soon." She looked up at me with wide pleading eyes.

I frowned. My subconscious self was relieved. If she felt this way that was possible.

The day was rough but bearable. She was able to leave feeling a little better and seeing her like that gave me a sense of accomplishment.

That's when I started to understand what Itachi was hinting at the other night.

No. She's a friend.

One who now needs you more than ever so please focus on that.