The Forehead poke had successfully knocked all thoughts out of Sakura's head. For the first time in years her mind was completely silent. No terror at the results of the autopsy. No rage at the sick bastard responsible. No pain over Sasuke's betrayal or confusion of his actions. No ever present, loud internal monologue. Just silence and nothingness. The thoughtlessness brought with it a hazy but meditative calm that she never once remembered feeling. The only thing she was aware of was Sasuke's presence beside her, radiating a warm, protective, safe feeling that she associated with him since their first case.

She didn't even realize when they had reached the conference room, nor that Naruto was already there. She didn't snap out of the strange buzz until Kakashi, who she hadn't processed being there, started speaking to her.

"It's good to have you back Sakura, it's been a while."

"Sensei?"

"This will just be you three, primarily. I won't be officially a part of the team, but I'll be checking in regularly and aiding where I can. Now, what did you find?"

Reality slammed back into her and her bodily response was immediate. A new surge of fury rushed through her, her knuckles whitening against the folder she held. She turned to the board behind her and began taping up pictures.

"His name was Shiin. He's got a long list a priors, mostly thefts and assaults, although there was one case of arson that resulted in 3 deaths he was suspected in but never charged for."

"Wow, so this guy really sucked." Naruto commented inelegantly.

"Total garbage scum," Sakura consented, "but he still didn't deserve what was done to him…no one does." She felt the wave of nausea return as she looked back at the board, shortly followed by a pulsing need to punch someone. "It was nearly impossible to make the ID. Everything was…corrupted. I had to isolate individual strands of DNA, so the results aren't one hundred percent. Shiin's DNA to the DNA I ran only ran a 96.8 percent match."

"Corrupted?" Sasuke asked at the same time Kakashi questioned, "What accounts for the difference?"

Sakura stared at both of them, her expression stony. "The cadaver's DNA has been significantly altered, to a degree that it can't technically be classified as human. Human DNA comes in the form of a double helix, often referred to as a ladder. That means there should be two strands twisting parallel to each other, connected horizontally by base pairs. The DNA on this cadaver had a third strand of spliced animal DNA, which is impossible. Or so we thought. I had to essentially ignore the third strand when trying to make the ID. The body matches Shiin's DNA at 12 of 13 loci, the odds of which are 1 in 399 trillion. But it's not a total match and since the base pairs have been corrupted by this third strand it's impossible to make an assured ID…"

This was met with a horrified silence. The men in front of her looked about as sick as she had felt fifteen minutes ago. Finally Kakashi broke the silence, his voice slightly strained.

"How's…how's that possible?"

"Something like this has never been done before, it breaks all ethical medical codes. It's something along the lines of introducing a third strand of DNA and forcibly adding it into and existing code, and then inserting that DNA into stem cells and encouraging them to replicate. But it would inherently cause several imbalances in the body because it's unused to it."

"Is that the cause of death?" Sasuke asked. She knew he was trying to keep himself on task and not think about the disturbing details. But she could see by how still he held himself that he was clearly bothered.

"Kind of. There's signs of blunt force trauma to the skull, ligature marks on the wrists and blood under his…claws. Defensive wounds from a fight, but not what killed him. His lungs were so swollen that they crushed his heart and punctured themselves on his ribs. It's not a natural death, although it's hard to say what caused it. My guess is that the DNA imbalance, combined with some of the new genetic programming triggered an overactive stress hormone. The body responded by entering into a state of panic and hyperventilating, but since this body required more oxygen to feed the new appendages on his back, he wasn't breathing properly, his lungs over inflated and crushed his heart."

"What about the defensive wounds? Do they tell us anything?"

"He was Manacled and chained up, probably against a wall, based on the bruising pattern. The blood under his nails doesn't match any DNA we have on file. The head wound appears to be self inflicted or from an accident. There were trace purple fibers around his abdomen. The fibers match the kind used to weave rope."

Kakashi pondered the images on the board. Shiin, if that identity was correct, had been found naked. There were no signs of chains or manacles on him. That meant either someone had released him, who he most likely in turn attacked, or he had broken through the iron bindings himself. Which shouldn't be possible. But then again, neither should his DNA.

Sasuke beat him to voicing his thoughts. "Was he let go? Or did he break out?"

Sakura sighed, running a hand through her hair tiredly. This was frustrating. She had barely anything definitive for them, and everything she said just seemed to support mounting impossibility.

"It's impossible to say. My guess is he broke out. It shouldn't be possible for a human to break through iron with muscle alone, but he can't really be considered human anymore, genetically speaking. His body showed signs of increased muscle density and with the amount of cortisol present in his bloodstream, it's a good bet that he had enough adrenaline to back increased muscle strength."

Both Naruto and Sasuke let out a quiet "That's impossible."

Under different circumstances she might have laughed, it was rare they ever agreed with one another. She could understand their disbelief but all the proof was laid out right there in the grotesque body that was once a human being. "If you leave an egg in an empty box where nothing can disturb it, and later open the box to reveal that the egg is crushed, one can conclude that the fault must lie within the egg."

"Huh?"

"It's Howe's egg theory, moron. She's saying that when faced with evidence, the impossible becomes undeniable. Try reading occasionally Loser."

"Wanna say that again asshole?"

"Guys!" Kakashi growled.

Sakura wasn't really paying attention to their unsurprising argument. Of course Sasuke knew. The Implausibility Factor was one of the first books she had recommended to him. And the memory through her unceremoniously back:

It was their third case partnered together. Kakashi and Naruto were covering a Stalking case (not yet a violent crime, but there were signs of escalation and Naruto couldn't say no to the desperate crying girl) while Sasuke and she were after a guy who had stabbed his girlfriend although there was no proof it was him and they couldn't find the knife. When they had questioned him the guy was far from the grieving boyfriend you'd expect. He even had started hitting on her which made her skin crawl. He kept taunting them, popping up everywhere. While Sasuke was coming back from a lunch break she had forced him to take, the creep confronted him which resulted in Sasuke getting stabbed. Luckily it had been not far from the department. The guy was caught and Sasuke had been rushed to the hospital unconscious.

Sakura had wasted no time in getting there the second she heard, and had sat by his bedside until he woke up. He didn't have any family left to sit and be there for him so she'd taken the responsibility on herself. It was only natural after all. She was his partner. And as much as she could lie about it to others, she couldn't to herself, she knew she wasn't over her crush on him. If anything, it was getting worse.

She was relieved to hear the knife had missed his vitals and that he would be fine once he woke up. But he had been working without stop and pulling several all nighters on the case that kept him under for a while. She felt incredibly useless just sitting there, and the more she did nothing the more her own guilt began eating her away. So she did what she always had. She retreated to books. The Implausibility Factor By Doctor Ernst Howe. It was an interesting read as a detective. It was focused on how Science is far less concrete than people think and not to dismiss anything with black and white thinking. He brought in all sorts of examples from human psychology and neurobiology, to metaphysics and quantum mechanics. He even cited a few police cases. All in all it was a rather disorganized read, and while scattered, Sakura still found she liked and agreed with the theory he presented.

The book and given her mind enough of a distraction that while she sat there next to Sasuke's hospital bed, her thoughts finally calmed enough to drift into a light sleep on what would have been her forty ninth hour of straight consciousness. Sasuke hadn't been the only one pulling all nighters on the case.

She awoke to a pair of Onyx eyes staring at her unblinkingly. She shifted in the uncomfortable hospital chair and noted that Sasuke was sitting up. That was good. In fact he looked better than she probably did, which annoyed her a little since he'd just been stabbed. People weren't supposed to look that good after being stabbed. Genetics was a bitch.

"You're awake." He noted.

"So are you."

"The nurse says you've been here since I was brought in."

"That's because I was." She smiled. "Sorry, I meant to be awake when you woke up."

"You're still here." The light in Sasuke's eyes shifted to a questioning one. "Why are you here?"

"Cause my partner was stabbed." She said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"The guy—"

"Caught."

"The Knife—"

"Same one he used on his girlfriend. We got our evidence. Wished we could have done it without you being stabbed, but silver lining I guess." She could tell Sasuke was fighting a smile but the way his lips twitched and the amusement swimming in his eyes.

"Must've been some book to put you to sleep."

"Must've been some non-vital organ to keep you under."

Sasuke laughed. Short and small but he laughed. For a second she wondered if she was dreaming. She knew there was no way she'd feel her heart speed up the way it was now if it had been a dream though. Sasuke had laughed. Because of her. Her crush was getting so much worse, she could feel it. And she was determined not to let it show because it was obvious from their time in the academy that Sasuke hated fangirls. She had snapped out of that phase, managed to get him to respect her somewhat. They had a good thing going now and she didn't want to ruin it. Which brought her to the realization that she had been staring at him an inappropriately long amount of time. Shit. She quickly dropped her gaze back to the book.

"Sakura?"

"Sasuke-kun?"

"I asked what the book was about?" Damn. Shit. Shit damn. Now she looked like a vapid obsessed space cadet again. She had to play this off fast.

"I was just thinking about it, actually. It's about how there's more improbability in the world than people realize and what's believed to be impossible, isn't necessarily. Like you laughing. I should submit that to him to further his case."

"Sounds too fanciful."

"I agree, you laughing is too fanciful. Even Dr. Howe wouldn't believe it."

"May as well tell him you saw a unicorn." Now it was Sakura's turn to laugh.

"Well actually…" She said, thumbing through the book, looking for a specific chapter.

"You're kidding…" Sasuke blanched.

Sakura snapped the book shut with a mischievous smile, holding it up for him to see. "Guess you'll just have to read it and find out."

He was released later that day and cleared to work desk duty the day after. Returning to her desk from a coffee run, she noticed a small brown box with a note taped on top. Placing her coffee down, she opened the note. Thin, hard looping letters read "No Unicorns." She opened the box to see two hard boiled eggs inside and another note on the inside lid. "The eggs aren't crushed either. Stop skipping meals." She hadn't been able to stop smiling the rest of the day.

"Sakura?" She was slammed back into reality by a desperate Kakashi. "Please help?"

Naruto was crouching on the table holding Sasuke by the collar and yelling, Sasuke just goading him with "hn" and "loser." Sakura felt her barely existing patience thin.

"COME ON BASTARD I KICKED YOUR ASS ONCE AND I'LL DO IT AGAIN! RIGHT NOW! BELIEVE IT!"

"Just try it loser. You only won cause I pulled my punch at the las—"

"OH FOR FUCKS SAKE BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" Both turned to look at their fuming pink haired teammate. "Can you possibly pick a worse fucking time? We are in a briefing for one hell of a fucked up case to try and catch a psychotic sadistic murder violating every human right there is! We have very few leads and no goddamn suspects so quit your testosterone fueled bitch fit, shut the fuck up and focus so we can catch this garbage munching anal reject!" Silence pervaded in the wake of her explosion. But she didn't miss the way Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a glance at the word "suspect."

"What?" She was met with more silence. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Well…it's just that…we kinda do have one suspect…" Naruto muttered looking away from her.

"And no one thought to tell me?" Her voice was deadly quiet. Which terrified Naruto more than her yelling.

"Well…i-it's just that we don't have any proof yet and and it's really more—"

"Who?"

"Y-you see Sakura-chan it's not that we didn't want to tell you we just don't have any evide—"

"Who is it Naruto?"

"Orochimaru." Sasuke answered calmly. "It's the Prime Minister's suspicion. He was a former classmate of hers."

"And when were you guys going to tell me?" If looks could kill she would be imprisoned for first degree murder.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but Sasuke beat him to it. "When we had evidence to support it."

"Didn't you think I had a right to know?"

"It may have skewed your results if we had—"

"Bullshit. I'm a part of this team. I'm working on this case with you. If there's something you guys know or suspect you have to share it with me. This isn't like it was before. I'm different now. Stop leaving me out of shit!"

"We leave you out because it's dangerous!" Sasuke shot back.

"I can take care of myself!"

"Since when!" She felt everything shatter. Of course they didn't respect her. Didn't think she could handle it. Fragile breakable Sakura. She cast another withering glare at them and stormed out slamming the door behind her.

She didn't go very far. In fact, she only rounded the corner and pressed herself against the wall in an attempt to calm down. She had every intention of going back in. She had too. She was a professional, and they weren't done with the briefing. But she was too angry to stay in there without decking someone, which was most decidedly not professional. She knew she wasn't even all that pissed at Sasuke. As infuriating as the insinuation that she was unable to protect herself was, Sasuke didn't have much of a reason to believe otherwise. Back when he still knew her, she'd been hurt or held hostage in any case that became violent. She was slow, her hand to hand combat skills sucked, the only thing she had going for her was her sharp mind and her gymnast reflexes and flexibility. But in the moment she'd get too scared that those would go out the window. So as much as it pissed her off, she could reasonably give Sasuke a pass on this one. He hadn't been there the past three years to see what hell Tsunade put her through. He hadn't seen her fight recently. He didn't know the ability she possessed now. But Naruto did. Naruto had been there the whole time. He'd seen the training she endured. So why the fuck didn't he defend her?

Kakashi too. Although, she supposed the Orochimaru thing may have been news to him as well. Tsunade had probably shared that suspicion in the case assignment earlier, which he hadn't been called in for. He was helping out when he could but he wasn't officially a part of this case. Regardless, he still could have defended her when her capability was called into question. It honestly hurt her that neither he nor Naruto had. And since when did sharing a potential suspect put someone already on the case in danger?

She drew in a ragged breath. "Ok Sakura, take that rage and channel it into your work. Just like always," she muttered to herself, "catch this son of a bitch and prove them wrong. You told Lady Tsunade you could do this, you could work with him. Don't let her down now." With that small pep talk she took another deep breath, unclenched her fists, and rounded the corner back to the briefing room.

She heard all three men arguing from outside, but it all silenced the second she walked back in. She walked straight to the board not looking at any of them, and began to write out the leads they should be looking into.

"Genetic modification to this degree would require a gene splicer like CRISPR. There are only a few models and manufactures of it, so you can start by looking into their buyers. See if there were any private individuals. Experimentation like this would also require vast amounts of space and power. You can check with power stations and the national grid to see if there are any unexpected areas using a vast amount of power. Or check for any large facilities stationed near water sources. We're talking abandoned industrial complexes, hospitals, asylums, jails, power stations. Somewhere big with lots of room to work with. Probably either in a remote area or a highly noise saturated one. Experiments like this would be too painful, the screaming would be loud. They'd want to make sure no one heard it. Look into Shiin, as it's likely who this person once was. I'll check with Konoha University and the Hospital for records on Orochimaru. If he was in the training program with Lady Tsunade, they'll have some records of him, but only high ranking hospital officials will have clearance to look."

Sakura finished writing each separate lead as its own bullet on the board before capping the marker, turning around to see the three men, all of whom were standing, staring at her with eyes of blank shock. She met each of their stares with a gaze that dropped the temperature of the room below zero. "That's my report. Briefing over."

And for the second time that day, she walked out of the room, this time with no intention of going back in. She had work to do.

Author's Note: Thank you to Tale's of Xillia (a fantastic video game I highly recommend) for "Howe's Egg Theory" It essentially is just a "scientific" experiment version of Watson's principal in Sherlock Homes ("Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever's left, however improbable, must be the truth"). They're pretty much the same thing, but given how I'm trying to ground this story in plausible sounding-though likely inaccurate-science, Howe's Egg Theory fit better.

Also, don't take anything scientific in this story seriously. While I love science, especially biology, neurology, and quantum mechanics, I was an art major and the extent of my knowledge is hobby based and hypothetical at best.

Please review! It's a helpful motivator. Thanks for reading :)