Sakura leaned against the door to her apartment and sighed. She had no clue how to feel. She sunk to the floor pulling her knees to her chest, her head tilting up to the ceiling as she tried to process everything.

She'd actively avoided him for four months and suddenly in one day, she'd had more one on one interaction with him than she'd been ready for. "He's doing it again," she murmured. Walking her to her tasks, taking her out to dinner, dropping her off and picking her up—they were all things he'd done with her before. And she was annoyed that a piece of her wanted that. As much as she hated to admit it, him walking her to the morgue had been comforting. She had needed that break and to eat and she wouldn't have taken it if not for him. And public transit was exhausting—she always had to be on guard against someone trying to pick her pocket or cop a feel. It was nice feeling safe and looked after.

But he was also sending her emotions into a torrent of confusion and upset. She couldn't read the intention behind his actions—she never could. They could be the behaviors of an incredibly close friend, or of a boyfriend. She knew where she stood on the matter. She was in love with him. Still. Despite how much he'd hurt her when he left. Dryly, she realized that was how she knew it was love—it wouldn't have hurt nearly as much otherwise.

When she was in the academy, she was infatuated with him, largely because of his faultless appearance, but also his talent and skill. She wasn't disillusioned, she knew she wasn't all that impressive. Especially not next to her classmates, who all had skills, trades, or genetic advantages passed to them from their families. She was generally mediocre in a class full of specialists. And Sasuke was at the top. It had always been her dream to help protect and restore people's dignity, but next to her classmates, she felt like she had nothing to contribute. If Sasuke, the best of the best acknowledged her, then she knew she had to be worth something. So she, like all his other fangirls had done her best to try and earn his acknowledgment through the only way she felt it possible for herself. Using her femininity. A plan that backfired to such an extreme extent that she was sure he hated her, along with the rest of his fangirls.

When they'd been placed on a team together, she saw it as her chance to finally earn his approval. She'd been surrounded by hoards of other girls before, but now it'd be one on one and he could fully see her. But when their squad leader, Kakashi, nearly failed them on their first squad cooperation test, calling her out on her fixation on Sasuke, she wanted to just drop dead in shame. She'd completely lost sight of why she joined the force in the first place. After that she resolved to try and ease up on her infatuation—she couldn't just get over him, he was still incredibly attractive and skilled, but she did her best to keep her focus on their cases. However, her mediocrity made itself apparent in how she was constantly freezing up and not being much help. Sasuke explicitly calling her useless the first time they were partnered together broke her out of her fear. She was pissed and needed to prove that she could do what she had set out to, that she could defend and restore other's dignity. She was frustrated with herself that she hadn't succeeded. Sakura had failed to get to the innocent girl on time, she'd been injured and traumatized, and while Sakura fought her hardest to protect her from further damage, she herself ended up hurt and in need of rescuing. After that though, Sasuke had become considerably nicer to her. The closer the two got, her crush on him grew more and more, though she was determined never to let him know that and give him a reason to hate her again. It hadn't hit her she was in full blown love until the night she was watching him leave, desperately begging him to stay with tears streaming down her face.

It was so confusing though. He couldn't have thought of them as anything other than friends but she didn't see him act the way he did with her to anyone. Not to any other friends and certainly not to any other females. All of the behavior he exhibited with her was so coupley but it was always only in private. No one saw the way they conversed so easily with each other, or the way he always brought her coffee in the morning without having to ask what her coffee order was, or the way he always made sure she texted him to let him know she was home, on the occasions he couldn't drive her. If she forgot, he'd text her to check. He had also always texted her goodnight.

It couldn't be in her head that there was more to that than just friendship. There was something there. She didn't know what but it had been there. And no one knew about it. When he left, no one had understood why she was so broken. Which made it even harder. She couldn't go through that again.

But something was weird. Sasuke wasn't just rebooting old behaviors, something new was happening and she had no clue how to read it. He'd never made physical contact before, unless she was walking away and he had to grab her to tell her something. Sasuke didn't do shouting. But earlier he'd poked her forehead. It seemed like far more of a weighted gesture than just a simple act of teasing—there'd been a weird look in his eyes she'd been unable to decipher, and it seemed to surprise him that he'd done it in the first place.

Then there was the interrogation. He'd never gotten that physically close to her before. She was blushing just thinking about it. Thank god the shock of it had managed to keep the blush in check at the time. It hadn't shown but she certainly felt it—he may as well have just breathed fire on her face for how hot she felt. It had taken all her concentration to focus on his questions rather than his eyes, black as magnets, which seemed to exude a similar pull. If she had given in to their force and leaned just a little forward, they'd have been kiss—

Her eyes flew open, her face burning and her heart pounding so hard it could have filled the drum section of a punk band. "Enough, Sakura!" She growled to herself, "You don't have time for this right now. You're on a case. Stay focused."

So she did what she always did when something bothered her, she stretched while forcing her mind to run through medical facts. Today her mind focused on cells.

Dropped in a lunge on her living room floor, she proceeded to stretch her splits while murmuring, "red blood cells lack organelles or a nucleus. They're filled with cytoplasm carrying hemoglobin and are responsible for transporting nutrients throughout the body. Since they lack mitochondria, they require sugar for energy. The average red blood cell count in the human body for males is 4.7-6.1 million cells per microliter. For non-pregnant females it's 4.2-5.4 million microliters."

She began stretching the other side, moving on to white blood cells. "There are several different kinds of white blood cell, all part of the immune system. Neutrophils, Eosinophils, Basophils, Macrophage, Monocytes and Lymphocytes. There are three types of Lymphocytes: B, T, and NK, all originating from stem cells in the bone marrow, though the ones that travel to the Thymus are the ones that become T cells. B cells produce antibodies that combat different antigens…"

Sakura stopped short mid stretch. Had she missed something? Thinking out loud she recited the earlier results of the autopsy. "There was a high presence of antibodies in the blood stream but the white blood cell count was low…low white blood cell count indicates immune deficiency or immune suppression—but antibodies means there was an antigen…" She sat up abruptly. She needed to take another look at the blood work. She was ready to go right then, but her body disagreed, deciding to communicate with a large yawn. She needed to sleep. Sighing, she found the nearest pen and paper and made a note to herself—she'd look over the autopsy results again in the morning.

With at least her emotional turmoil somewhat calmed, she took a quick shower, and dropped into bed, her eyes automatically shutting. Despite how her mind was racing, sleep quickly over took her.

Her wrists were strapped down to a hospital bed, a huge bright light hung blindingly overhead. She flexed against the wrist straps but they didn't give way, and when she tried again, she realized her ankles were tied down too. Panic surged through her as she turned her head trying to get any concept of where she was. There were giant tanks filled with strange liquids, and as her eyes adjusted, she was able to make out the forms of naked humans. She tried to scream but she had no voice. A prickling in her hand caused her eyes to drop to her wrists and with a wave of nauseating horror she noted that her fingers no longer resembled human digits, but instead looked far more like talons. She tried again to scream but still her vocal chords refused to budge. A low, dark, masculine chuckle, erupted from behind her before she felt shadowy hands crawl down the expanse of her arm, injecting her with something. Her body erupted in an internal burning, she tried desperately to breathe but couldn't draw in a breath. A faint ringing resounded in her ears, growing louder and louder.

Sakura bolted upright, nearly joking on the desperate amount of air she inhaled. She wasn't sure where she was at first, only noting the darkness around her, before she was able to reorient herself to reality and confirm that she was in her room in her tiny shitty apartment. The ringing continued as she made a shaky grab for her phone, figuring she was needed in the ER. It took a second for her confusion to clear as to why the caller ID read Sasuke-kun, and not Shizune-Senpai. Then she remembered that she wasn't on active hospital duty anymore, she was working a hellish case which added a lot of context to her nightmare. Sasuke had saved her from pure terror. Again. And he didn't even know it.

She took a steadying breath before answering. He didn't even wait for her greeting, just got right to business. "They found another body. I'm picking you up. I'll be there in 45 minutes."

"Ok."

There was a long pause and then, "What's wrong?"

She almost let out of sigh of frustration. How did he always know? "Nothing. It's early."

"Hn…" She could practically hear his eye's narrowing in disbelief on the other end of the line.

"See you soon." She said, determined to end the call quickly before he decided to push the matter.

"Yeah." The line went dead.

She pulled the phone away and noted it was 5am. She had taken a shot in the dark with her "It's early" excuse, lucky she was right. Although, she supposed, she was used to 2am emergencies so for her this wasn't all that early. She had never been more grateful that being an on call doctor had trained her to be such a light sleeper. She didn't want to stay in that nightmare a second longer.

After quickly showering off the sweat she'd broken out in while she slept, Sakura stood in front of her closet facing a dilemma she hadn't had in a long time. What to wear? She'd been donning hospital scrubs every morning. What did she used to wear while she was on the force? Deciding it wasn't worth putting that much thought into, she threw on an old pair of black skinny jeans, a form fitting V-neck red hoody over a white tank top, and pulled a black blazer with white trim over it. Strapping on a white belt and clipping her first aid kit to the back of it, she grabbed the black bag with all the ME equipment Tsunade had given her the day before. She pulled her hair back messily, the ends spiking up and over the clip, and pulled on her boots before running out the door. Ever the one for punctuality, Sasuke's car was already waiting outside.

As soon as she sat down, a cup of coffee and a plastic bag were thrust into her hands. Looking in the bag she saw two pickled plum rice balls and an anko bread roll. Sasuke had gotten her breakfast.

"Stop skipping meals."

It was embarrassing how well he still knew her. Turning her face to hide her ashamed blush, she answered pathetically, "It's not like before cause of some dumb diet or anything…I just get too caught up in work and forget…" Yeah, she wasn't helping her case. She could tell by the snort Sasuke let out that he found her answer as lame as she did.

Against her better judgment she turned to look at him. His eyes were trained on the road ahead, black and bright—two contradicting adjectives that didn't really belong together and yet seemed to completely fit Sasuke. After all, he was just a mess of contradictions. Consumed with rage and yet completely calm, so fierce but incredibly gentle, emotionless yet caring.

Sakura had always loved puzzles, and that may have been a part of her initial crush on him. She, who had never met a puzzle she couldn't solve, was never quite able to make sense of how the pieces of Sasuke fit together. The one conclusion she had drawn was that there must be nothing in the world like being loved by a man who could hate the way Sasuke did.

It was when his bright black eyes slid to her in question that she realized she'd been staring too long. Shit. Inwardly she cringed. Now wasn't the time for fantasizing over Sasuke. Another body had been found. She needed to focus on the case.

"The body?"

"Discovered by three kids who called it in at 4:40am."

"What were three kids doing out at 4:40am?"

"Fuck if I know. Naruto knows them. Apparently one called him personally while another called it in officially."

"Near where the first body was found?"
Sasuke shook his head.

"And we're sure it's related?"

"Allegedly it has horns."

"Are the kids ok?"

She could read his confusion in the way his head cocked ever so slightly left.

"Discovering a body in that…state…that could be really jarring to a child Sasuke-kun—"

She immediately silenced herself. Sasuke didn't need to be told how jarring it would be to discover a corpse at a young age. He'd experienced it, walked in on his whole family murdered at the hands of his beloved big brother.

How was she always so insensitive? She should have been more aware, more careful, of what she was saying. She had to say something to him. To apologize for being such an idiot.

"Sasuke-kun, I'm so sorry, that was…" She trailed off as she turned to look at him fully. He was already looking at her. But not in the way she'd expected. Sakura thought he'd be glaring. She hadn't been expecting and wasn't prepared for the strange…warmth, in his eyes. Once again she felt drawn in to him by some almost magnetic force. Tunnel vision was a term she'd only ever heard or used to describe a mindset, but Sakura felt like she was physically experiencing it—her eyes were firmly locked on his and seemed incapable of shifting focus elsewhere.

Sasuke abruptly turned his head, his gaze settling back on the road. The car started moving again. When had they stopped? Oh. It was a red light. Dazedly she took a sip of the much needed coffee he'd gotten her. He still remembered her coffee order—vanilla coffee with a splash of milk and one sugar.

"What's wrong?" his deep quiet voice startled her out of her Sasuke induced mental haze.

"Nothing…"

"You didn't sleep."

"How do you know?"

He didn't say anything, not that he needed to. She knew she looked like a zombie. Sasuke didn't like having his questions go unanswered. He was surprisingly persistent when it came to getting answers. Sakura didn't want to share that the case was already giving her nightmares, that she was as fragile and breakable as he already thought her to be. But she also didn't feel like having the answer forced out of her at the moment.

"Fine. I had a nightmare. Happy?"

"About?"

"What do you think? The case." She snapped, not enjoying how vulnerable she felt.

"What happened?"

"I was tied to a hospital bed, and around me there were a bunch of incubator tanks. My hands didn't look like hands anymore, they were more like talons, and someone inject—" She stopped short. She had missed something, she knew she had. Her mind was racing with facts, bloodwork, chemical compounds, and calculations. She didn't even noticed the way Sasuke was looking at her.

"What?" He prompted. "Sakura, injected you with what?"

She could barely hear him. High presence of antibodies, low white blood cell count, something injected, burning. It had been a dream but her instincts were telling her that there was truth in it. "It's not a naturally occurring antigen…some chemical…"

"Sakura?" She had been murmuring quietly to herself. As she always did. It was hard to decipher the look Sasuke was giving her, something between confusion and…was that concern?

"Sasuke-kun…I think there's something I missed…in the blood work…"

"What are you talking about?"

"This attack is a cellular and chemical one. I completely disregarded the chemical aspect before but there had to have been a foreign substance introduced…"

"Poison?"

"Not quite…"

Sasuke shook his head and looked out the window. They'd reached their destination: a large open clearing ringed by woods on the outskirts of Konoha. Three thick posts were set towards the southern edge of the clearing. A great tree stood in the middle, slightly northeast. This had been their old training ground. This was where they had passed Kakashi's unpassable test that marked the true formation of Squad 7. Sasuke hadn't cared much for her back then, but despite that, she had been the first person he opened up to, ever, in the midst of an exam they were failing:

She'd been handed a golden opportunity. What better way to earn Sasuke's recognition then by helping him steal a bell off their new Sensei. Why they had to steal to pass a test in order to join the ranks of law enforcement was beyond her. Really it just seemed counter intuitive. And the excessive use of force Kakashi-sensei was expecting of them also seemed ridiculous, but who was she to argue with her new Sensei and captain?

More importantly, now was her chance. It would just be him and her, and she'd assist him and then he'd finally acknowledge her, and she'd know she was capable of accomplishing her goal. And god did she need that level of recognition. It was embarrassing how easily their Sensei had caught up to her and completely unraveled her with just a few words. Intimidation and interrogation tactics. She'd studied them at length but had been completely unprepared when they were used on her. She was mortified that she'd actually fainted in the shock and fear. But she had to make up for that now. She'd find Sasuke and—

"Sakura?"

She'd barreled through the trees and into a small clearing to find Sasuke handcuffed to a tree.

"Sasuke-kun? Kakashi-sensei even got you? Damn he's good…"

Sasuke sent her a withering glare and she felt her heart splinter. Wrong choice of words, he'd surely hate her now.

"Here, let me help you get out…" The glare didn't lesson in the slightest. Sakura felt her chance at gaining his recognition slip away with the passing seconds.

"Do you have a key?"

"…No." She muttered sheepishly.

Sasuke's dark eyes fixed on the handcuffs for a second before flitting imperiously back to her.

"Hairpin?"

"Why do you need a hair—oh." Her eye's widened in understanding. "Uh—yeah, here." She removed the bobby-pin from its place, her bangs flopping forward into her eyes. Handing him the pin, she watched him work quietly, aware that there was not much time left. Kakashi-sensei had given them until noon, and it was only ten minutes til. It was silly to keep trying at this point.

"Sasuke-kun, maybe we should give up. We've only got ten minutes left. There's no way we can get the bells in time, he's too strong for us—"

A guttural snarl cut her off. Her green eyes widened in surprise as Sasuke jerked against the cuffs so abruptly he broke skin. There was a small pause as his dark eyes closed and he took a deep breath, resuming his work at the lock.

"I'm not like you or Naruto. I need to get stronger, and to see his file. I need to track him down."

"Track who down?"

There was a small click as the cuffs opened, releasing Sasuke. He stayed facing the tree, and much to her shock continued talking.

"That night…I was crying…"

"…When were you crying?" It occurred to her that Sasuke was not familiar with voicing what he was saying. He kept hesitating. The way he had to stop and start like the words weren't familiar on his tongue…this was Sasuke's first time saying this out loud, to anyone.

"That night he—I need to avenge them…I need to find—"

He was cut off by the shrill call of an alarm resounding through the woods.

"Damnit! I wasted too much time here." And with that he took off, leaving Sakura, whose heart was sprinting at the fact that she was the first person he opened up to, behind.

Now, caution tape surrounded the area, police cars bathing it in red and blue light. Naruto was standing near the posts talking to three clearly rattled 17 year olds. Uniformed officers were pacing the field, cataloging evidence. Sakura felt heat burn through her. How dare they turn her team's training ground into a crime scene.

"You'll have to explain later." Sasuke's voice had taken on the edge it got when he was trying to keep his anger at bay. Clearly seeing their place covered in yellow tape upset him as well.

"Don't worry. You'll get a full report." And with that she stepped out of the car, preparing herself for the sight that would be equally if not more disturbing than the previous corpse.

All of the uniform officers guarding the area around the body looked a tinge green, Sakura noted as she flashed her newly reissued badge, Sasuke close behind. As she got closer she could understand why. She knelt down beside the corpse without hesitation, feeling Sasuke and Naruto come stand behind her. This time it was a young woman, at most two years older than herself. A strange black geometric pattered covered one half of her while the other half was as mutated as the first body. The skin on the left side was grey, her retina black with a yellow iris. It could be a case of heterochromia since her other eye was brown, but given the color and the rest of the left side of the body, Sakura figured it had something more to do with experimentation and genetic manipulation. The presents of what appeared to be gills on the woman's left cheek confirmed that for her, as did the strange set of ram horns growing from the top of the woman's head. A black line ran down from the bottom eye lid to the tip of the gills on her cheek almost like a type of war paint, but on closer examination turned out to actually be a part of the skin. Her long hair was considerably lighter—almost a pale orange compared to the right side of her head which had more of a dark strawberry blonde coloring. Sakura looked closer at the right side of her face. She looked like a broken doll glued back together, the way the black marks spread across her face and down her neck like cracks. Sakura stepped around to get a closer look at her right hand, noting the markings extended down to her long fingers. When it came time to do the autopsy, she suspected she'd see those marks down the entire right side of her body. She had ligature marks around her wrists as well, although the bruising pattern was a little different. They were concentrated on the upper part of her wrists instead of the inside the way Shiin's had been. She must have pulled up against her restraints—probably on a table like the one Sakura had been tied to in her nightmare.

"Anything?" Sasuke's voice cut through her examination.

"Most useful information will come from cutting her open. There's nothing much externally, so cause of death is probably internal, likely due to experimentation. Estimated time of death is four hours ago. Hard to say for sure because we don't know the full effects of the experiments on body decomposition."

"This may be a dumb question so please don't hit me Sakura-chan…but we're certain this is linked to Shiin, right?"

"If you're thinking of it as a standard serial killer case, there isn't the same concise MO that you might usually see—"
"—but it's safe to consider the level of experimentation and body modification as the MO. The odds that two murders with that level of bodily change—"

"—yeah. The scientific knowledge required and inclination to put it to this kind of use…it's unlikely there'd be two psycho mad scientists active at once." Sakura finished, unsurprised that Sasuke seemed to be on the exact same page.

"Are there any notable similarities between her and Shiin? Other than the ugly makeover then?" Naruto asked, with a weak attempt to lighten the mood.

"Not that I can tell from the outside. She does have ligature marks on the wrists, though the bruising's slightly different, she was probably bound to a table instead of a wall. It seems he's keeping all of them restrained in some physical way, although we can't declare it a pattern until we have a third case…"

A grim silence fell around the three. That was the reality of serial killer cases—as much as you wanted to protect people from them, you often didn't have enough information to catch them until there were at least more than three corpses. Nothing felt more useless than working a case where they had to wait for another body to drop in order to make any strides towards solving it.

"You said time of death was around four hours ago?" Sasuke questioned, his eyes scanning the entirety of their surroundings.

"Roughly."

"That puts time of death around 2am. Naruto, I need to talk to those kids. Can they handle being questioned right now?"

"Yeah they should be, I'll come with you though—they're more likely to talk to me than a frozen bastard like you, right Sakura-chan?"

"Heh. I'm coming too—I've found everything I can right now and I want to check their psychological health."

As the three of them made their way to the teens, Sakura realized she recognized these kids. They were the ones that always made a point of trailing after Naruto, looking up to him and calling him "boss." They had grown a lot, but Sakura could still recognize each one.

"Konohamaru!" The seventeen-year-old with spiky brown hair and a long blue scarf turned towards Naruto, his face pale and drawn. From his positioning, it was clear that he was still the leader of the group.

"Nii-chan…"

"How ya doin', kid?" Naruto asked, his tone a gentle mix of warm joviality and quiet concern. Sakura could tell he was trying to give the kid a sense of normality and safety, and she felt her heart warm. Naruto had always been like that, it was what won her over and made her his number one fan and supporter.

Konohamaru was at a loss for words, he kept opening his mouth and abruptly shutting it, unable to speak his fear out loud. It was the girl with thick orange-blond pig tails, Moegi, who spoke first although she didn't get very far.

"That body…"

"What's wrong with it…?" Udon, still sporting a bowl cut and thick coke bottle glasses, finished. All of them looked absolutely horrified.

"Uh…a lot actually. But we're working on it so no need to worry! Believe it!"

Naruto's placation surprisingly worked enough for the kids to crack a weak smile. If Naruto could smile and give reassurance in this situation, why shouldn't they?

"We need to ask you some questions." Sasuke cut in blunt and to the point. At least he'd had the sense to let Naruto try and cheer them up first. The kids didn't take Sasuke's statement well. All of them paled and she thought she saw the boy with glasses shaking.

"W-we didn't k-kill her, I s-swear!" Konohamaru stuttered out, his eyes widening.

Naruto actually laughed. Understandably. The idea was laughable. That three kids could begin to do what was done to that body was ridiculous.

"We don't think you guys did it, Konohamaru! There's no way! We just want to know if you saw anything." Naruto encouraged, elbowing Sasuke hard and receiving a glare.

"We didn't see anything," Moegi responded shakily.

"What were three kids doing out here in the first place?" Sasuke's eyes were focused in on them trying to pick up any hint of lies.

"Sneaking some extra practice. The police academy entrance exam is coming up. And Nii-chan said he always used to train here."Konohamaru answered in an attempt to get Moegi out of Sasuke's line of fire.

"How'd you notice the body?"

"We were doing speed and endurance training. Suicides starting here and going past the tree. As we were getting closer Udon said he thought he smelled something weird. When I passed the tree I noticed the silhouette, but I was the furthest in line from it and didn't see it clearly. Moegi was the one closest to the tree—"

"The way we lined up, I was arms distance from it. I thought I saw something orange when we got to the tree but we were going so fast—I turned away so quick—I just figured it was a flower or something. But when I got passed the tree…and s-she was just lying there—and she had horns and w-wasn't moving a-at all—and I screamed and—" Moegi's voice broke and she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Konohamaru and Udon immediately moved to comfort her. She took a deep breath before looking up at Sasuke again.

"Konohamaru called Nii-chan and I called it in officially."

"What time did you get here?"

"3:50, I think." Udon answered.

"Did you come together or separate?"

"Together."

"Did you pass any other vehicles going the opposite direction on the way here?"

"Five in central Konoha. But none when we got closer to this area."

Naruto turned to Sasuke. He didn't even have to say anything for Sasuke to understand, it was part of what made them such a great team.

"Given the location it's probably nothing. But we don't have much else to go on so looking into can't hurt."

"Thanks guys. We'll find this asshole, so don't you worry, believe it!" Naruto cheered.

He and Sasuke turned away, ready to follow up on their vague lead. But Sakura wasn't ready to leave the kids just yet. She'd made her medical assessment and it would be irresponsible as a doctor to just walk away.

"Hey you three, it's been a while. Remember me?"

"Sakura-neechan!" Konohamaru exclaimed. All their attention had been on Naruto and Sasuke, they hadn't noticed Sakura standing quietly behind the two. "What are you doing here? I thought you left the force."

"I'm the acting medical consultant for this case, speaking of which," she reached into her pocket and handed them all a business card with her number on it. "What you three witnessed was traumatic, and it's not only fully acceptable, but recommended that you speak to someone about it. There's the pediatric mental health clinic in the hospital, I'll give you a referral and they'll see you immediately, or you can talk to me directly if you want."

"But—"

"No arguing, Doctors orders." She said with a wink, making him flush slightly and look away. She gave them a warm smile, "You did good. You handled this well and you're all going to be fine officers. But it's not necessary to have this baggage getting in your way. So let's work on getting rid of it now, ok?"

The three nodded, and seemed to relax a little. Satisfied, Sakura turned to catch up with her teammates only to find Sasuke looking back at her, about seven meters away. The look in his eyes was the same one she'd seen earlier in the car, that strange…warmth.

They spent another 4 hours sweeping the crime scene before heading back to the station together, each with something new to add on to their previous research.

Sakura had another autopsy to do. This time she'd pay closer attention to the blood work. She knew she was onto something with this train of thought. Some enzyme or chemical would reveal itself and give them something new to latch on to, she was sure of it. And as disturbing as it was sure to be, she was almost excited to get to work on the autopsy. She'd planned to get right to it as soon as she reached the station. A plan that was completely derailed by an angry, blond, tactical and interrogation specialist storming up to her.

"WHAT THE FUCK FOREHEAD! YOU COME BACK TO THE FORCE AND DON'T EVEN TELL YOUR BEST FREIND?! THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

"Uh, hey Pig, good morning to you too."

"Oh don't give me that sass billboard brow! You haven't texted me back in two days! I was worried you were dead in that shithole park you live near! And then I find out from Kiba—KIBA—that you're back on the force? That is some world class bullshit, Sakura! Last time I checked, you were avoiding this place like it was an asshole ex-boyfriend!"

Sakura tried not to cringe, acutely aware of Sasuke behind her. And Naruto for that matter. He'd always been oblivious to the weird relationship she and Sasuke had, just chalking up her feelings to close friendship, but she didn't need him picking up on the tension now. Not while she still wasn't sure of what was going on herself.

"I'm sorry Ino-pig, but can we please do this later?" She ground out, glaring daggers at her best friend while also trying to telepathically scream at her that Sasuke was right there.

"Oh no we're not. We're doing this right the fuck now! You're going on lunch break!"

Naruto sheepishly tried to interject "Uh…Ino, it's only 10am, and we're kinda in the middle of somethin—"

"She's going on Lunch break!" Her glare making Naruto shrink, as she grabbed Sakura's arm and dragged her out the building, leaving two very startled men in her wake.

A lot of yelling and two bento boxes later, Sakura was seated across from a slightly calmer Ino in a cafe.

"Ino…I'm sorry I didn't text you back." She did feel bad about that. They usually kept a constant stream of communication. It was genuinely alarming if one of them didn't text back for over 24 hours. It happened occasionally when Sakura had to go into a particularly long surgery but she'd alway sent a warning text to Ino if that was the case.

"Yeah you should be. So are you gonna tell me why at least?"

"A lot happened—mainly I went right from emergency surgery into a crazy shift into a meeting with Lady Tsunade being forced onto a case into an incredibly…disturbing autopsy…"

"Disturbing how?" Ino never missed a thing. Like Sasuke, she had an ability to read others like a book, although for her it wasn't because of eyesight. She came from a long line of behavioral and criminal psychologists—it was the Yamanaka's specialty. Ino had duel majored in criminal psychology and behavioral psychology and duel minored in pediatric developmental psychology and abnormal psych. When Sakura had opened the mental health and children's mental health clinics within the hospital, Ino had been her main consultant. Even among her own family she was exceptional. She could get into another's head easily. She wasn't an interrogation expert for nothing.

"He'd been subjected to extreme human experimentation." Sakura answered quietly.

There was a clatter as Ino dropped her chopsticks, eyeing Sakura, her face serious. "Are you ok?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Don't try and pull the tough act on me, Forehead. That's a declaration of war on every single one of your beliefs. Don't try and tell me you're not bothered by it."

There was no point in lying. "I'm very bothered by it. We've got another body I need to do an autopsy on. I suspect he's got a whole ring of victims on standby and it's absolutely sickening. We need to catch him but we've got no leads. Actually I was on my way to go do the autopsy when you kidnapped me." She said giving her friend a pointed look.

"I'm glad I did then. You won't eat after because you'll be too angry and nauseated. Glad I made sure you ate at least once today." She said, picking up her chopsticks again.

"You and Sasuke-kun both."

"Sasuke? He made sure you ate?"

"Yeah he always…" Sakura realized too late what she was sharing. And with someone as sharp and gossip loving as Ino, there was no way she'd miss it. Sure enough, she didn't.

"Always?" When Sakura said nothing, Ino set down her chopsticks for a second time.

"Alright. What's really between you two? And don't give me any of this we're a team bullshit. I know you were in love with him and you never got over him no matter how much you tried to lie about it. I know that's why you were keeping a 50 meter radius from anywhere you thought he might show up. I didn't see you guys together that much but when I did, it just seemed like you guys were friends. So what didn't I see?"

She'd never told Ino before out of respect for Sasuke. He didn't seem like the type who'd want his relationship details flying around. But she was also confused, and hurt, and tired of hearing that she was over reacting or being crazy. She wanted a second opinion and an ally. And who better than her psychologist best friend.

"Sasuke-kun…before he left we were really close. But it was more than friends, at least I think it was. He'd always take me home or walk me places. We'd switch off getting each other breakfast or coffee. He knew my coffee order. Whenever one of us went out for a snack or a drink we always brought the other something back if they'd stayed behind. He used to help me train, back when I really sucked. We'd recommend books to each other, left each other messages. Talk, which doesn't sound like much but Sasuke-kun doesn't do talking. He told me stuff about his family, his brother. I could tell he never talked about that with anyone. We crashed at each other's apartments…"
She looked up to see Ino with her mouth agape. "What…?"

Ino shook her head, her expression changing from shock to rage. "No fucking wonder you were such a mess when he left! That asshole! You two were totally dating! How could he do that to you!" Her expression softened to one of guilt and empathy. "Sakura I'm so sorry. We all sucked and didn't support you at all. And made you feel like you were crazy and overreacting and being melodramatic…I'm so so sorry."

"Why? You never said those things."

"Yeah but I never defended you or told them off either. I knew you loved him and just figured it was that, I never realized there was any sort of reciprocation. Of course you'd want to avoid him now."

"Yeah. But you're right…I still…love him." She'd only said it out loud once before. The night he left. And it hadn't gone well. After that, she'd never admitted it to anyone, or even said the L-word out loud again to anyone other than family. It was terrifying to vocalize, even just to Ino. "And he's repeating those behaviors…"

"I'll kill him."

"I'd rather not see you thrown in jail."

Ino sighed. "You want my take on it? He likes you. A lot. Maybe even loves you. But he's not used to connecting to someone that intimately since his family, which didn't end well for him. He's traumatized of forming bonds that strong for fear of losing them again. But he doesn't know how to walk away from his feelings or ignore them either. Human's need to receive love. The more they receive, the more they feel the need to give. You've been the only one truly giving that love to him. And he wants, even needs, to give it to you."

"But the trauma's getting in the way."

Ino nodded. "He needs to give it to you, relate to you in that way, but so long as he doesn't acknowledge what that relationship is, so long as he doesn't put a name to the feeling, he can't lose it. It's a defense mechanism."

"A flawed one."

"Most are."

Sakura buried her head in her arms and let out a frustrated grunt. "The fuck am I supposed to do with that?!"

Ino shrugged sympathetically. "Fuck if I know…Why'd you have to fall for someone so complicated?"

She cast Ino a dry glare. "You liked him too at one point."

"But I never really loved him. Not like you."

"Oh, like Sai's so much easier."

"That's different. And he's getting better. Partially thanks to your mental health clinic." She said, giving Sakura a gentle smile. Nothing cheered Sakura up like knowing her efforts were really truly helping people. And she'd never know how much it meant to Ino that her initiative was helping Sai.

Sakura beamed back at her, her frustration temporarily forgotten. "He is? That's great! I'm so glad it's helping! We couldn't have set them up with out you, Pig!"

Ino just laughed shaking her head. Sakura would have found a way—come hell or high water. She never quit and that stubborn determination only grew under Lady Tsunade's mentoring.

"We'd better get back. I've got a body to cut open." Sakura said, standing up to go.

Ino nodded, rising as well. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

"You got it."

It was time to focus. She could think about Sasuke later. For now, she had blood chemical compounds to examine.

Author's Note: I'm sorry it took so long! Everything's been kind of crazy and I have a hard time with Sakura's chapters for some reason. Thank you so much for all the reviews though! Please keep them coming :)