What was Inner Sakura?

Was she a split personality? Was she the offshoot of Sakura's repression of rage, rebellion, and defiance? Was she created in response to a need to distance herself from some traumatizing events that occurred in Sakura's past? Was Inner Sakura some sort of secret and extremely bizarre Blood Limit (or, at least, more bizarre than usual)? Or was she simply an ideal brought to life in Sakura's mind, consisting of everything that Sakura wanted to be and didn't have the courage to become in real life?

It all began many years ago when Sakura was a child. An invisible friend that you could blame all your problems, mistakes, and mischief on was the rage amongst Sakura's peers, and although Sakura liked to think of herself as slightly unconventional and unlikely to follow trends like a sheep off a cliff, she had to admit she gave into this one. Sakura was the only, much-doted-upon, very sheltered, and admittedly spoiled child of her parents; of the eleven pregnancies Mother Haruno had, only four lasted beyond the second month, and only Sakura, the fourth of the eleven, was brought to full-term.

At the time when invisible friends were in, Sakura decided to do something a little different, to address a desire other than a friend (which she didn't really have, considering how protective and choosy her parents were of the other village children), and that was a sister. Sakura only knew of three of her mother's miscarriages, if only because her mother managed to carry them beyond the sixth month and had believed they would be brought to full term as Sakura had been. All three times, Sakura helped her mother prepare a little nursery for a little brother or a little sister (although Sakura always hoped for a sister).

This was very important in the birth of Inner Sakura. Inner Sakura began as sort of a twin to Sakura, someone who looked and acted the same way. But somehow, throughout Sakura's childhood of not having friends and children picking on her because of her forehead and always depending upon her parents for help, Inner Sakura evolved from being Sakura's twin to Sakura's older sister, someone who raged and fumed and talked confidently to Sakura, much in the same manner as Sakura imagined an older sister would. Inner Sakura was everything Sakura wished she could be — free-willed, outspoken and brash, and courageous, and it was these characteristics that Sakura would sometimes imitate with the Inner Sakura's guidance. Inner Sakura became Sakura's refuge, someone Sakura could turn to when she was hurt or lonely.

Then there was one final evolution.

It began with the ninja academy. Sakura had wheedled, bribed, whined, and begged her parents into letting her go. The only way she managed to do it was (following Inner Sakura's directions) by planting the subtle idea of how their little daughter could become the greatest ninja, shining above all others as the ideal of intelligence, strength, and beauty, a creature of magnificence and pride who could take care of herself and everyone else.

Their little princess, the Hokage? You bet!

Sakura truthfully did not want to become Hokage; she merely wanted to learn how stand on her own, to become what Inner Sakura was, to be strong and forthright as she somehow couldn't be. Still, it took outside help to push her in that direction, and it was help that came in the form of Ino (someone even Inner Sakura admired — although this was admitted only twice in the entire time that Sakura knew Ino, and it was a very reluctant admiration born from hard-earned respect).

Perhaps it is more apt to say this change was more of a movement to a difference, or similarity, than it was an evolution. Did Inner Sakura evolve to better suit being a ninja and to better suit Sakura herself, who was slowly maturing from a spoiled, sheltered child to an adult? Did Sakura evolve and move closer to being Inner Sakura in spirit and notion, all the while retaining an identity separate from this ideal, this personality, that had adopted its own characteristics?

Either way, neither Sakura could say what truly happened, or how Inner Sakura was a separate entity. They were as they were, and both never really delved too far into why that was.


Naruto was under the fluffy pink covers and nearly asleep when he heard his bedroom door swing open. He tensed beneath them, and tried to move his eyes to see what was going on without alerting whoever it was to the notion that he was awake. He heard the creeping footsteps, and the loud creaking of the floorboards beneath the person's weight. The breathing was soft and even.

A voice spoke, soft in the darkness, "You're not asleep, Sakura-chan."

There was a click, and the floor lamp beside Sakura's bed was turned on. Naruto blinked tiredly at the bright light. "Hmm?" And then gawked.

The woman had to be Sakura's mother or a very closely-related family member. Sakura had gotten her pink hair, green eyes, curving lips, and wide forehead from this woman. What Sakura hadn't gotten was the extra twenty dress sizes. While the woman was huge, there was something about the curve of her bulk that spoke of more than weight. The way her shoulders were thrown back and the set of her arms as she sat down on the bed (which creaked, sagged immensely, and caused visions of snapping in two in Naruto's mind) told of a woman who was strong and graceful. She smiled sweetly at Naruto and swept back Sakura's pink hair with a chubby, long-fingered hand. "How was your day?" she asked softly. "I realize it's late, but I wanted to see you before your father and I left tomorrow."

Naruto gulped. He hadn't counted upon hiding who he was before Sakura's mother. "Oh, you know how it is," he said with a nervous laugh and a waving hand. "Had to clean all day; the attic was totally messy. Had to put up with Naruto, too," he added as an afterthought, remembering the note the woman had left.

Mother Haruno's face darkened. "That rotten child didn't leave you to do all the work, did he?"

Naruto couldn't stop the pained shock from showing on his face from the venom of Mother Haruno's voice. He had been overlooking the bitterness the villagers had toward him because of the nine-tailed fox ever since he became a Genin. In some way, he had hoped it had somehow disappeared and the note hadn't been so vicious as he realized it was. "No! I worked and S— Naruto worked, and we both did it, but we aren't done so we have to go back tomorrow to finish."

Mother Haruno sighed and turned away from Sakura, her face falling in the shadows. "Why did you have to work with him? Why couldn't you work with Uchiha-kun?"

"Because, M-Mother, Sasuke doesn't need my help. Naruto does."

Mother Haruno was silent for a long moment. When she finally stirred, it was with the look of resignation on her face. "Yes. He does need help. A lot of help." She rose to her feet, turned lightly around, and planted a dry kiss on Sakura's forehead. "Good night, my sweet," she said proudly, her wide face breaking into a jubilant smile. The love and tenderness clear on her face nearly took Naruto's breath away in surprise. Mother Haruno wasn't a bad person; no one who could love Sakura this much could be. "Tomorrow, we'll leave, so stay out of trouble. I have left directions beside the fridge, all your meals are labeled and in order," she frowned suddenly, all tenderness gone as she became a creature not to be underestimated, "do not forget to do the dishes."

"Yes, yes." Naruto cringed at the fierce look. He was beginning to see how Sakura could swing so swiftly from kindness (shown to Sasuke) to anger (him and nearly everyone else). Mother Haruno stared at him a moment longer, and then broke into another sweet smile. "Good night. I'll see you next week." She reached down, turned the light off, and walked across the room to the door. Naruto heard it open and close. After a moment of listening to the retreating footsteps, he burrowed beneath the fluffy covers and couldn't help but feel envious toward Sakura, despite how her mother felt about him.


When Sakura fell into a deep sleep, Inner Sakura fell further. In Sakura's mind eye, she could dimly see and make out Inner Sakura glaring at her surroundings of walls of yellow cement, overhead pipes that leaked, and the branching hall that plunged into darkness. It was sort of a dream where the dreamer could only watch and do nothing.

Inner Sakura rapped her knuckles sharply against the wall. "Somehow," she said with a hint of awe in her voice, "I'm not surprised I would find something like this within Naruto's head." She made her way down the hall, the darkness extending outward as if Inner Sakura was a source of light that pushed it back. She followed the hall and made random choices wherever it branched off, and eventually she reached the foot of a gigantic iron-wrought gate that extended upward beyond her line of vision. Beyond the gate was a darkness so profound and as deep as the darkness of a cave that had never known light. Beyond it, she could hear a rushing sound that rose and fell, like the breathing of a sleeping creature.

"What the hell?" Inner Sakura poked one of the bars. It burned cold at the touch, and she glanced upward. At the edge of the light, she could make out a paper charm plastered against the bars, and she somehow knew this charm kept the gate from bursting open and releasing whatever lay beyond it.

You are not the boy.

Inner Sakura jumped at the voice; its deep tones reverberated through the darkness, which pushed unexpectedly at the light. The floor beneath her feet shook and the bars on the gate vibrated. She found herself taking a step back as the darkness surged forward to strike at her light, but it paused just before the gate, as if wary to make contact with the metal bars. It rolled, a force that was alive and malignant, and then drew back slightly. In the deep darkness, something glinted as two red eyes filled with wickedness and evil even beyond what she had seen in Orochimaru's opened up and gazed upon her.

You do not belong here, filthy human.

As the voice spoke, the scent of blood wafted through the air as a breeze caressed Inner Sakura's face. The voice laughed, and the hatred within it was enough to make the hair on the back of Inner Sakura's neck stand on end.

Another foul human approaches me; more trash to be rid of. Images formed within Inner Sakura's concept of a mind — of rendered flesh and sprayed blood, intestines scattered and eyeballs dangling from their sockets with fear still reflected in their dimmed depths.

Inner Sakura reeled backwards another step, feeling sick from the scent and images. "You're - you're a demon!" She crouched, ready to spring away if the beast somehow forced its way past the gate and attacked her.

How astute. The words were drawn out slowly, caressed with the careful attention a person or creature that saw communication as an art form to be practiced so that every intricate detail would be clear. Pride in what it was rang in its tone, and the hatred for Inner Sakura was as obvious as the glowing red eyes.

"What is a demon doing inside of Naruto?" She had always known he was a strange boy, and that he became stranger than usual when he fought against Orochimaru and the gigantic snake during the Chunin exam, and against Neji. But this was beyond anything she had suspected of him. "Wait, could he — no. Naruto can't be the demon. You wouldn't be here otherwise." Was this why Sakura's parents had always disliked Naruto? Did they somehow know a demon hid within Naruto?

Laughter erupted from the darkness. The wave of hatred and desire to kill that followed the laughter was like a physical blow that knocked Inner Sakura backwards, and Sakura awake. She tumbled out of bed, flailing her arms about and grasping wildly at the tangled sheets. The laughter rang clear in her ears and hummed through her mind. Images of death and destruction, of what the demon had done before he was sealed in Naruto's body filled through her mind. A wave of nausea rose upward. She pressed a hand against her mouth and tried to force the sickness down.

"Mama?" The monkey peered at Sakura from where she had been curled atop of Naruto's windowpane.

The laughter continued.

"Shut up!" Inner Sakura screamed. Somehow, she had forced her way through the darkness and the halls until she stood before the great gate once more. Bursts of red shot from the darkness, lashing out against her and striking her with stinging whip-like blows. Each blow made Sakura's ears ring. "Shut up!"

I will kill you! Give me your blood — I shall draw it from you and suck the marrow from your bones before snapping them as the little twigs you vile creatures be!

"You can't get out! You are nothing! You can't move beyond this gate!" Inner Sakura choked on her fear, almost driven backwards.

I will grind your bones — when I am done with you, it will be your family, and your village, and every single worthless creature cursed to be alive!

"You talk shit, you pathetic demon! You're just nonsense living in the head of a loud and obnoxious thirteen year old boy who hasn't gone through puberty yet!" More laughter, the hatred still washing through Sakura, the feelings of despicability and scorn overwhelming. Even Inner Sakura bowed under its weight, though she continued to scream at the demon.

Sakura pressed her hands against her forehead and fiercely shook her head, as if she could dislodge what was going on within her mind. "Shut up!" she screamed desperately at the pair of voices in her head. "Shut up!" The laughter continued, the description of the violence, the images of death and gore, the scent of blood sharp in her nose.

Naruto. He had to live with this — he would know what to do!

Sakura scrambled desperately to her feet, her balance off and her vision skewed because of the red demon eyes in the darkness that overlaid what she saw in reality. She stumbled out of the room, tripping over the sheets and the pile of clothes that lay before the door. "Shut up!" The voices, the fighting, the blood followed after her, clinging and growing like a malovolent cancer. She clawed desperately at the door before she remembered to turn the handle. Flinging the door open, Sakura ran screaming into the night.


"Late, late, late." The Sound-nin stood perched on the top of a streetlight. It really was late, and the streetlight had turned off after 10 PM. No one who didn't know what to look for wouldn't be seeing his body outlined against the star-spotted sky, the lump of hair across his back and the curve of his ninja suit immediately pinpointing him as foreign, or at least not of this particular neighborhood. He stared critically at the watch in his hand, which normally couldn't be read by the faint moon and starlight, but somehow he knew what time it was (late). He impatiently snapped the cover over the watch and stuffed it into a hidden pocket before crossing his arms before his chest and staring resolutely at the street floor. Something was off; he sensed it in his bones.

"Did something happen to them?" he wondered out loud.

There was a stirring against his back.

"Orochimaru-sama will not be pleased, brother," a voice, identical to his own, replied.

"Ah." The Sound-nin was about to reply to the voice, but he stopped as running footsteps rapidly approached them. He crouched down, minimizing his body as a target, and stared into the darkness. A youth with blond hair, wearing only a pair of white boxers, pounded breathlessly and blindly through the streets. He clutched at his hair, tugging and pulling desperately; tears streaked his face. "Shut up shut up shut up shut up..." It was a mantra, repeated over and over in the desperate hope that it would come true. The boy approached close, and the Sound-nin finally recognized the features. From a hidden pocket, he withdrew a card and glanced at it critically before looking at the youth with a frown on his face. Uzumaki Naruto.

He had heard from Kabuto that the boy was off, even discounting being a demon's carrier, but why was the boy running through the streets in his underwear?

This place just gets weirder and weirder, he thought to himself as he tucked the card away. Naruto tripped just before the streetlamp, sprawling hard on his hands and knees. What a klutz, the Sound-nin thought scornfully. He could kill the boy now, and no one would ever realize it.

Why not? It wasn't as if he had anything better to do besides wait. He silently repositioned his hands and legs until he was crouching, his muscles tense, ready to pounce upon Naruto and strike a single blow.

Naruto pushed himself to his hands and knees, and screamed. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" He suddenly slammed his own head against the ground, the sound of impact loud enough for even the Sound-nin to wince at and pull back his attack in surprise. Naruto's head snapped backwards from the blow. "SHUT UP!" Again, Naruto slammed his head into the ground. With each cry, he smashed his forehead against the pavement. "ENOUGH! SHUT UP! ENOUGH! STOP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

The Sound-nin's head whipped around as a light in the far off distance turned on, shining through an open window. He saw the dark outline of a person approaching the window to peer curiously outward. Another light in another area flickered alive. The Sound-nin frowned as he studied the desperation of Naruto, the hysteria in the voice, and the body that shook from something not exhaustion.

Naruto either stood on the brink of insanity, or had already been pushed beyond.

Interesting. Lad, what is wrong with you? The Sound-nin's forming smile was sinister and cold. This could be useful. The only reason why this particular child would be driven insane was if the nine-tailed fox was pushing insistently against him.

Very interesting.

Naruto slammed his head against the ground one final time and remained still. A small pool of blood formed around his head, matting his hair. Naruto pushed himself to his feet and shakily leaned against the streetlight the Sound-nin stood upon. "Finally," he whispered in a ragged voice, his hands shaking as he reached up and carefully prodded his brutalized forehead. He winced and took a shaky breath that turned into a sob. "If it's not one voice, it's another," he grumbled, pushing away from the streetlight. He weaved an unsteady path down the street, half-running and half-walking, off-balanced and groggy from what could be considered a severe, self-administered concussion. The Sound-nin watched after, torn between hurrying after Naruto to learn more, and staying here in this spot in wait for his missing companions.

With a snort of ill humor, the Sound-nin folded his legs upon the streetlight and glanced across the street to Sasuke's darkened window. "You didn't wake to hear that?" he wondered. "You may have found it interesting yourself."

"Orochimaru-sama needs to be told," the voice from earlier said. "The nine-tailed fox appears to have made itself very known."

"Aye."


Sakura stood below her bedroom window. In her vision, there were three windows. The night was still and the moon had just risen. She could barely think through the agonizing pain that throbbed at her temples, around her ears, pushed against the back of her eyes, and centered around the area of broken skin. Her neck itched where the blood had just finished drying its trail down her face and neck, and she had triple-vision where it wasn't blurry. She sifted through her handful of rocks and pebbles. Her parents' bedroom was on the first floor and on the other side of the house; there was little to no chance of being discovered. She selected a pebble the size of her thumbnail and tossed it haphazardly at where she guessed the actual window was. The pebble struck the wall around the window with a soft thump and bounced off. Irritated, she selected a slightly larder pebble and threw that; it missed the window as the last one had.

She threw her last pebble. It managed to hit the pane with a solid thunk, and she finally heard stirring within. It's about time, Sakura thought viciously, her hands on her hips. There was a moment of neither movement nor thought on her part before she realized she had been expecting Inner Sakura to chime in with her own comment. Inner Sakura was as silent as the demon that had tormented both.

Naruto still wasn't coming to the window!

Tired, cranky, fearful and hurt, she heaved a rock the size of her fist at her window. She didn't realize her window was open until the rock sailed through and hit something solid, closely followed by a yelp of mixed surprise and pain.

Naruto appeared immediately at the window, rubbing his head and squinting down at Sakura. "Whaddya do that for?" he demanded tiredly.

Sakura leapt from the ground to the window, scrambling wildly for purchase at the pane and Naruto. She hauled herself through the window and sprawled on the floor, the pain in her head increasing and her vision worsening. Naruto fumbled in the dark before he managed to turn on the floor lamp. "Neh, Sakura-chan, is something—" He stopped speaking and looked at her in surprise. "Sakura-chan, what happened?" He folded his legs beneath himself and sat down heavily beside her. "Were you attacked? Do you need some ice or bandages?"

Sakura sat upright, gathered her thoughts together despite the pounding pain, and rounded upon Naruto so fast he fell backwards in fear. "You!" Sakura grabbed two fistfuls of the pink pajamas Naruto wore and dragged him close until his nose was pressed against hers. "You've got a demon inside of you!"

Naruto paled in shock as he reached up to twist Sakura's hands free of her pajamas. "S-Sakura."

"Why didn't you tell me? Wh-what do I do?" Sakura's face collapsed as tears of pain and frustration began to pour down her face. She released Naruto and fell backwards, plunging her hands into Naruto's short hair. They trembled, and she sniffled pitifully. "The voice…. They finally shut up. How can you possibly stand it?"

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto gazed at Sakura for a long moment, and then pushed himself upright. He folded his legs and clenched his knees. "I've never had problems with voices before," he admitted with some guilt. "I've only known about the nine-tailed fox since—"

"Nine-tailed fox!" Naruto clamped a hand over Sakura's mouth and glanced about surreptitiously, all too conscious of his surroundings and the parents living in the house. He waited a moment before he dropped his hand; Sakura stared at him with wide-eyed shock. "No wonder they hate you," she said finally. "How did such an evil creature get inside of you?"

Naruto pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He settled his chin in the space between his kneecaps and focused his attention on a spot on the floor. "How do you think the Fourth managed to stop the fox's attack? He didn't actually destroy it; he sealed it in me."

"That explains—"

"Explains what?"
"That..." Sakura's voice trailed off as Inner Sakura snorted. She heard nothing more from her alter ego, and beside her, Sakura was aware of how it was her body that was tense, her face that was both vulnerable and protective, and yet it was Naruto's body that the fox demon dwelled. She was Naruto. Naruto was her.

Her headache was getting worse just thinking about this. "It just explains certain things that you've done, like the fights with Neji and Orochimaru." She looked at Naruto. "That explains why everyone hates you."

"It's the adults," Naruto muttered with resignation in his voice, slightly muffled because he spoke into his knees. "The adults hate me, but the children don't know why because it's forbidden to discuss the demon. I didn't even know until someone who hated me told me right before I graduated."

"But why?"

Naruto shrugged, still not looking at Sakura. "Because that person wanted me mad."

She sighed in exasperation and tried to think past her migraine. "No. Why do people hate you?"

"Dunno. I know why people hate me, because they think I'm the demon — that I'm the demon or I could become the demon. But I don't know why I was saddled with having the demon sealed in my bellybutton. I mean, it's not as if I asked for it."

Sakura immediately glanced down, suddenly aware of what she wore — or didn't wear. She prodded her bellybutton, but didn't hear the nine-tailed fox's voice. What an odd place to seal a demon, she thought, feeling light-headed and dizzy. "But surely not everyone hated you. Because..." Again, her voice trailed off. Naruto finally looked at her, and she realized then why he seemed so tense and so vulnerable.

He was afraid of being rejected because of having an occupied bellybutton.

That shed a whole new light on his behavior and personality. With a second personality thriving in her own mind, Sakura found it easy to sympathize with Naruto, except while Inner Sakura was an identity that Sakura could find refuge in when she personally didn't have the strength to express in public, the nine-tailed fox was an unwanted and frightful resident that must never again be released upon the world. Sakura had to beat her head against the ground simply to overcome the nine-tailed fox's voice. But to live with it as long as Naruto had, and not know why people hated him?

"It must have been tough," Sakura said softly, forcing her fuzzy thoughts into concrete sentences, "living like that. You never had any friends," she said with dawning realization, remembering the dejected little blond boy who suddenly became a nuisance when he was eight years old. She hadn't exactly had any friends herself, until Ino – and even then, it certainly didn't last long before their rivalry engulfed it. "But what about family?" she asked suddenly. "Didn't you have family?" Was she and Sasuke Naruto's only friends?

Well, okay, so Naruto was now getting along with the other Genin like Hinata and Shikamaru, and then there was the self-appointed Konohamaru squad, and she would be hard-put to say he and Sasuke were friends (not-exceptionally violent rivals, perhaps, but friends?), but it was more of an acknowledgement of Naruto that saw beyond the nine-tailed fox. Sakura couldn't imagine what life would have been like without the at-first twin sister figure of Inner Sakura and her parents.

"Nope." Naruto seemed to gather strength at the absence of Sakura's conviction against him for harboring the nine-tailed fox. "If I had parents, they're long gone, and no one knows anything about who they are or if I've got aunts or uncles or grandparents. Or, if they do know, they won't tell me anything. Well, there is Iruka-sensei, who's like an uncle to me — but that was only after the Genin exam, Sakura-chan, 'cause he was there when I learned about the demon — but he told me he was too young to remember anything, and I believe him."

They both fell silent then, each regarding his or her thoughts and his or her experiences that corresponded with what they discussed. Knowing this about Naruto, Sakura felt the need to recuperate, to share and share alike.

Or maybe it was just her concussion that was talking.

"So what happened to your forehead?" Naruto asked. "I'd get some ice for you, except I don't know where it's at."

"Oh." She winced and bit the inside of her lip when she brushed her hand against her bruised forehead. "The bathroom's right in there," she said, pointing to a connecting door.

"I'll get you a wet cloth," Naruto said, standing up. "And that's the closet. I know where the bathroom is. Had to look for it to take a shower."

Sakura froze in mid-wince. "You did what?"

Naruto cringed suddenly. "Well, see, after the note from your parents, I, uh, figured it wouldn't be a great thing to sleep in your bed if I hadn't washed up, and there was things in your hair and I had left fingerprints on the door knob, and uh, um."

Sakura loomed over him, a dark, forbidding shadow that could have rivaled Orochimaru. It was frightful, considering the aura of chakra that Naruto was capable of. "Naruto." She cracked her knuckles. "You didn't do anything with my body, did you?"

Naruto squeaked and ducked, covering his head with his arms. "Um. I was very quick about it! And I did it with my eyes closed!" This was true; he had the bruises on his shins to prove it from where he constantly bumped against the faucet and toilet.

Sakura wilted into Naruto's regular self, except for the disapproving look that was very much her. "Well, just see to it that you keep doing that," she whispered, pressing another hand against her temple. "And there's some medicine in the cabinet above the sink."

"Er, right." Naruto scrambled, and soon returned, balancing a wet cloth, a large white bottle filled with pain relieving medication, and a cup of water in his two hands. "Here you go," he handed the pain relievers and the cup of water over, and then carefully and tenderly began to wipe away the dried blood, "I'll go to the kitchen later and get some ice for you," he said. "What happened?" he asked again when Sakura had finished gulping down four of the tiny pills.

"The demon spoke," Sakura said. She didn't know if she wanted to curl up in a ball and weep or fall into exhausted sleep once more. Except that was how the demon made itself known, and she didn't know if she could face that again. "I — Naruto, I..." She stopped. "There's no easy way to tell you this," she said as she tugged the wet cloth from Naruto's hand. She stumbled over to her bed and collapsed on top of it, stretching out and draping the wet cloth over her eyes and forehead. "I've had this voice, this person, inside my head since I've been about six years old. I can't explain her beyond the fact that she's not quite me, but she's not a demon. She's my creation, or perhaps she isn't, but while she isn't me, she is me."

There was only confused silence from Naruto's end, and Sakura sighed. "She can say or think things that I don't or can't. But she wandered down somewhere and came across the demon, and they began to fight. Typical of Inner Sakura, really," Sakura added nervously, "fighting, that is. And they wouldn't shut up, and the demon was so powerful and so evil, and began to tell me what it would do. It was horrible." She stopped when she sobbed. She covered her mouth and took several deep breaths to calm herself, waiting for her hands to stop shaking so fiercely. A few moments passed. "I had to talk to you. I didn't know what to do, if there was any way to get it to shut up. When I was hurrying over here, I, uh, tripped and hit my head against a post. Which is why I'm hurt." As much as she wanted to recuperate with Naruto, to show him how much she understood how he felt, she didn't need to tell him everything. "So, what does it do? What does it mean to have a demon?"

Naruto snorted in the dark. "It means a whole lot of chakra," he said, " 'cause this one time I talked with the fox, I told him to pay the rent of living inside of me because I needed the extra chakra for a jutsu I was practicing. I'm going to fetch the ice," he said quickly before Sakura could speak, "I'll be right back."

Naruto left the room and stumbled through the dark. While he was gone, Sakura thought of what she told Naruto, and mentally kicked herself for being so stupid to babble about Inner Sakura. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything; what if Naruto thought she was crazy? Sure, Naruto had a demon inside of him, but she didn't have that excuse.

Naruto was gone longer than Sakura expected, except he did have the right to become lost and to be cautious. When he returned, he silently handed her the bag of ice and lay down, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, and knee to knee with Sakura on the narrow bed. They were silent for a time; the only sound was the occasional soft breeze that stirred Sakura's curtains.

"Extra chakra?" Sakura asked finally, trying to prod Naruto into speaking with a perfectly acceptable opening.

"Mmm. I was thinking about the fight I had with Neji. He said his gentle fist closed off chakra points, and after he finished his what's-it sixty-four strikes, I shouldn't have been able to use the chakra. So I used the fox demon's supply. I figured that since the fox's in me even when I was never consulted in the matter, then it's my right to use the chakra, sort of like payment of rent. I'm stuck with him for the rest of my life. Pervert-sensei says there's no point to my having it if I don't use it, so why not use it?"

Sakura tried to imagine spending all of her life with a fox in her bellybutton. It sounded suitably daunting and frightful. "That's why you're so strong," she said. "I mean, you were an awful ninja back at school, never doing anything right and always failing in your exams. But you've come so far so fast. I could never keep up with you or Sasuke, but Sasuke was already ahead of both of us, and you caught up with him."

Naruto yawned in the dim light, his hands folded over the waistband of Sakura's pajamas. "Not all of it's the fox," he said, slightly resentful but mostly sleepy, "I use my own chakra for everything. Except for those times with Neji and Haku and, well, Gaara, and then there was Gamabunta, but that's it."

Sakura wondered if she should follow that line of Gamabunta, but decided against it. Haku? Naruto had used a different chakra for Haku – oh, yeah, that's how he managed to break through the ice-mirrors. "Wow," she said, because that was the only thing she could think. Naruto said nothing. She waited for an answer, and then realized his breathing was the deep and even of sleep. She was silent in the dim light, and too tired to reach across Naruto and turn the floor lamp off. Two days? She had to put up with this for at least two days? She would be driven mad long before that happened.

When the pain relievers finally took effect and her agonizing migraine was whittled into a low-level throb, she, too, fell asleep, but thankfully didn't dream of Inner Sakura hunting down and fighting with the nine-tailed fox.
author's notes: Well, this chapter is certainly darker than I had intended. Concepts of Inner Sakura/Sakura borrowed from various discussions that I lurked around at the AnimeSuki Forum for Naruto. And oh boy, I'm surprised no one mentioned anything about Orochimaru's special forces playing Go Fish!