I don't own Naruto. There are disturbing concepts in this chapter though nothing too graphic.

An orange sleeved hand deposited a cup ramen and a pair of chopsticks in front of her. She tore her eyes from her computer screen and up the arm to the tan whiskered face grinning down at her.

"Ramen. Why am I not surprised." She laughed lightly.

"Can't have our MVP collapsing of starvation, can we Sakura-chan?"

Naruto pulled his desk chair closer to hers and sat down with his own cup of ramen. The wave of nostalgia hit Sakura hard. How long had it been since they'd done this?

"MVP? I always thought that title belonged to our number one knuckle head detective."

Naruto chuckled. "Nah. Not this time. This time it's all you."

"Ok, spill. What's with all the flattery?"

"Nothing gets past you, huh?" Naruto sighed, and looked down at his noodles. "I'm really sorry about yesterday Sakura-chan. I should have said something when the Bastard was talking all that bullshit. I know you're strong and can kick my ass seven ways to Sunday. I should have said something. Sorry Sakura-chan."

Naruto was the kind of person she became easily angered with but couldn't stay angry at for long. As far as she was concerned she'd already forgiven him last night.

"Why didn't you?" She asked with out a trace of bitterness. She was just curious.

"Cause y'know…I'll always want to protect you. Just cause I know you can take care of yourself doesn't mean I want you to have to."

"Ok." Sakura smiled, "but imply I'm weak again and I'll completely cut you off from ramen. I can do it—don't test me. A lot of people owe me favors."

Naruto choked on his noodles, his eyes widening to the size of tennis balls. "You wouldn't! That's evil Sakura-chan! Not my ramen! I swear I'll never say you're weak again, believe it!"

She burst out laughing. She couldn't help it, Naruto took ramen more seriously than his own life. No matter who you were, it was objectively funny to see. Naruto eased when he saw her laughing, a smile replacing his previous terror. It had been so long since he'd seen her laugh like this.

"You still like Sasuke, don't you Sakura-chan."

Now it was her turn to choke on her noddles. "W-what?"

"You still like him, right?"

How her bone headed, oblivious, surrogate brother had picked up on what she tried so hard to hide was beyond her…but the last thing she wanted to do was explain it to him right now. Of course, she didn't really have an option. Naruto was a persistent one with a strong aversion to giving up on anything—ever.

"Still?…I never stopped." She muttered into her cup, avoiding his gaze.

She jolted up at his bark of laughter. "Really Sakura-chan, and people call me the persistent one."

This wasn't the response she'd been expecting…she wasn't really sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't that. It must have shown on her face, because Naruto laughed again, his summer sky blue eyes twinkling with mirth. "Come on Sakura-chan! Everyone tells me I'm the most persistent and stubborn person they ever met for aiming for Prime Minister since I was eleven, but I think you might actually beat me on that front. Dreaming of the same job for fifteen years is a lot easier than dreaming of the same person for seven. Dreaming of a person hurts way more. That takes a hell of a lot more strength."

She was quite taken aback at that. Not that she should have been. Naruto could brighten up a funeral. It was one of his superpowers. A small smile fought its way onto her lips as she shook her head.

"I wouldn't say that. Ardently pursuing a dream despite everyone telling you it's impossible—that takes a lot of strength Naruto."

"Yeah but my dream never told me it was impossible from its own mouth. He aggressively shot you down for three and a half years. And you still liked him but were ok with just being his friend—respect, Sakura-chan!"

"Yeah well, If you're going to tell me to give up on him now, save your breath. Him leaving wasn't enough to move me on. Your opinion certainly won't." She sighed resignedly. His blond head shook frantically.

"No way! I think that bastard needs someone as good as you! He far from deserves you but he needs you and—" He stopped short and looked around, trying to decide whether to finish his thought. Sakura raised her eyebrows, trying to gauge where his statement had been going. Naruto met her expectant look, and with a hesitant breath, decided to continue. "Well…it's just…I think he's trying. Badly. But still, trying. He's probably as oblivious and bad at feelings as I was with Hinata-chan, until you slapped some sense into me. But I think he's thinking of you a lot and I think it's driving him crazy. He was so moody that past four months whenever your name was brought up and I think he really missed you. And not just cause of Team 7 or anything, but you. I think he really just missed you, Sakura-chan."

The look he was giving her was so sincere that she found it impossible not to believe him. This wasn't coming from herself and her tendency to overthink and over analyze, or Ino making psychological speculations, this was coming from Naruto who was incredibly close to both her and Sasuke. He'd noticed a change in their friend's behavior in regards to her as well. It wasn't in her head. He also thought there might be something more to Sasuke's feelings for her than just 'friend.'

Her face began warming at his words and in the attempt to hide it from him, she quickly dropped her head to shovel more ramen into her mouth. "Thanks Naruto." She said, a small smile blossoming behind her chopsticks. Naruto grinned his sunshine smile before inhaling the rest of his ramen. It was quiet for a second before Naruto asked, "Hey Sakura-chan, what does 'ardently' mean?"

Sakura's face almost dropped into her soup. "Seriously Naruto, I support your dream 100% but you need to buff up your vocabulary if you're going to become Prime Minister."

Sakura was doing her absolute best not to shatter her computer screen with her fist. None of her medical leads were panning out to be remotely useful. None of the big supply companies had any unregistered private buyers. She still hadn't been able to isolate the components of the chemical in the victim's blood. Aside from a few angels of death who'd already been caught, none of the five nations had turned up any evil geniuses with a medical background. Her excitement at the discovery yielded by the autopsy had long since worn off and had been replaced by a disturbed feeling that tied knots in her stomach. Time was ticking by and they were no closer to finding this asshole. What was she even doing here? She should be in a surgery right now, saving someones life, or giving a diagnosis, or treating a patient. The hospital was where she was most useful. That had been proven by her past uselessness on cases.

She almost audibly growled. Naruto had gone off with Hinata to question all the human traffickers they already had put away about any potential connection to Tatsuya. Missing persons always kept an eye on human traffickers incase any connected organizations were related to their cases, so it made sense for Hinata to go with him, given that she was familiar with them already. Sasuke had come back an hour after his mysterious phone call, stoic as ever, and immediately got to work researching…Sakura couldn't tell, she was too busy with her own research. That and she already had a hard enough time keeping her mind focused and away from Sasuke. Studying his every move would be counter productive. But she was so frustratingly aware of him, she always had been, but the awareness seemed to have tripled since her conversations with Ino and Naruto. The way his eyes kept watching her reflection in his screen. The way they lingered on her whenever he passed by. The way he casually deposited a cup of hot jasmine tea next to her a couple hours back. Come on, that was practically begging her to read into it. Her mind kept whispering for her to overanalyze it just for something to do. It beat staring at her computer screen as the small spiral leaf symbol of Konoha spun. She'd been stuck on this loading page for half an hour in search of Orochimaru's files. Everything she tried, the search came up empty. The court, police, academy, and university databases had all come up empty. Now she was onto the hospital database and the damn thing wouldn't even load. And she could tell Sasuke was looking at her again, and holy fucking shit she just wanted to punch something.

"Bones?"

"What?" She turned to see Sasuke fully facing her in his chair.

"You've been muttering different bone names and how they connect for the last 45 minutes."
"Hm. Hadn't noticed. Grounding habit."

"Last time it was math problems. Or the entirety of the criminal law book."

"Yeah well a lot's changed since last time. Like my profession. Or hadn't you noticed." She bit out, annoyance seeping into her voice.

"Let's spar."

"What?" That came out of no where. The shock made her fully face him.

"Let's spar." Was he serious right now? If she was being honest with herself, the offer was tempting. She really really wanted to punch something and here was one of her sources of frustration offering to be punched. Another part of her brain was disconcerted by how he'd known…was her composure slipping or did he know her as upsettingly well as she thought he did? She really couldn't keep anything from him, could she?

She glanced back at her computer screen. It was still loading—it would still be loading for the foreseeable future. It was already 6pm. Totally reasonable time to clock out…her mind was failing to come up with a good excuse to get her out of the offer. Other than it feeling wrong to go blow off some steam while they should be looking for a psychotic scientist trying to play god.

"If you're worried about ditching work, then you can use me as an excuse. I haven't seen you fight yet so I'm still not sure if you're a liability out in the field or not."

She would have been insulted, but she could see he didn't believe it. Maybe he was curious to see her in action, but he seemed to believe she could handle herself. She could tell by how he threw away the statement. It wasn't a demand nor did he dwell on her potentially being a liability. It was as if he said it while rolling his eyes, except that he hadn't. Quite genuinely, he was just handing her a justification. And somehow it worked. Besides, she really really really wanted to punch something.

"Fine. One second." Syncing her phone with her computer's search was a must, she didn't want to miss out on any potential results just cause she'd been too impatient. Gathering the rest of her belongings, and her phone which now displayed the same loading screen as her computer had, she turned to Sasuke.

He nodded, messenger bag in place, before heading off with Sakura close behind.

Interestingly, the gym Sasuke took them to for the spar was Leaf Hurricane. It made sense, since he was trying to recreate old habits and they always used to come here together. It was also closer to her place and empty, completely practical. However, it was strange. Sakura still came here occasionally, but her visits had become far less frequent since Sasuke had left. The memories always super imposed themselves on her surroundings like a ghost haunting her. So she switched to Primary Lotus, which was closer to the hospital anyway.

She wasn't sure how to feel about how easy it was to walk in with him. Like he'd never left. Like the place hadn't been haunted with the ghost of his past self. And when they squared off on the sprung gymnastics floor, which they long ago discovered made for quite the fun spar, she tried not to dwell on how her heart fluttered while looking at him. Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't still angry, or that she didn't still want to punch him.

He seemed to be waiting for her to make the first move, standing gracefully in his stance she vaguely recognized as Taekwondo. That was new. When he left he'd only been a master of Japanese martial arts. It was unsurprising that he'd picked up new styles—that had been one of his motivations for leaving: he perceived his skill and growth had hit a plateau. He'd looked right into her face and told her that she and Naruto were making him complacent and weak, despite her tears and her desperate confes—focus. Now wasn't the time to be lost in past failures, she had to keep her mind on the situation at hand. Sakura narrowed her eyes, catching every detail of his stance. His left fist was clenched a touch tighter than his right, not surprising given that while Sasuke ate and wrote with his right hand, he favored his left for shooting and punching. His weight was evenly distributed, waiting to see what she would do.

He'd be waiting a long time. Lady Tsunade's laws of combat/field medicine played through her head as she studied him. 1. No combat/field medic shall ever stop treatment until the lives of their patients come to an end. 2. No combat/field medic shall ever stand on the front lines or initiate combat. 3. Combat/field medics must avoid fights and injury until they are the last of their platoon. 4. Only those who've mastered Lady Tsunade's combat training and evasion will be given clearance to break the first three rules in order to protect themselves or patients from harm.

Sakura was the only medic to accomplish rule number four, with the exception of Lady Tsunade herself. She was permitted to fight, and this was far from a 'battle field' situation, but she still wasn't about to attack first. That was a crucial part of Lady Tsunade's training, which proved a far more effective combat style for Sakura than anything else she had learned during her time on the force.

Sasuke seemed to be growing impatient, his eyes narrowed dangerously. With a very quick shift of his weight he charged, swinging a kick at her. Sakura made quick use of her flexibility, bending back so his leg swung over her, elbowing him hard in his extended leg and sending him off balance. She dropped fully, supporting her weight on her right hand as she kicked at his shoulder with her left foot. Unbalanced and surprised by the rapid and strange combination, Sasuke only just managed to catch her leg, yanking her to the right. She fell hard, but immediately rolled out of the way as Sasuke's left fist slammed into the floor where she'd been only milliseconds before. She broke out of her roll, sweeping her leg across the back of his with such force that she actually managed to get him to fully fall to the ground. He didn't stay grounded for long and had gracefully flipped on to his feet, Sakura matching him in leaping up and away to create some distance. Her best shot at staying ahead in this spar was to keep turning his own moves against him, and the more distance she had, the more time to analyze his actions.

He came at her again with a series of kicks, but she had already guessed he would do that from the way he shifted his weight. That and her knowledge that Taekwondo was a style that favored kicks. She dodged his endless barrage, weaving, jumping and flipping away, her eyes never leaving him, barely even blinking. Sasuke's feet planted, coming at her with a punch. The shift had been sudden, a complete style switch, and so subtle she almost didn't catch it. He was fast and she didn't have time to dodge the way she had been, forcing her to catch his fist instead. Not ideal, Sasuke punched hard. But she punched harder. In the instant she caught his fist she threw her first punch of the spar, incredibly fast and hard. Sasuke barely managed to shift so she collided with his shoulder instead of his chest. The force of the hit sent him back several meters, his freed left hand flying to his dislocated right shoulder.

"How many sandbags did you break?" He asked straightening.

"All of them." She couldn't help the swell of pride inside her.

"Hn." He smirked, even as he winced from the pain of popping his shoulder back in place.

"Good thing you moved."

"Yeah. A hit like that would have shattered a few ribs."

"And caused internal trauma, likely puncturing the lungs, cause temporary arrhythmia due to shock, and a fair amount of internal bleeding."

Sasuke's smirk widened. "Good thing I moved." He rolled his shoulder once, then very suddenly charged her again. He was incredibly fast. If it weren't for her quick reflexes and reaction time, she'd have been on the floor. His relentless speed and constant switches in fighting style left her little time to analyze and counter. It was all she could do to keep dodging. Sasuke was faster than Lady Tsunade, employing a range of different styles and techniques, but Lady Tsunade hit a hell of a lot harder and never pulled her punches or kicks. Sakura had gotten very used to dodging for her life during her training, sometimes for hours on end. She prayed his stamina hadn't increased as exponentially as his skills. She saw a brief opening and aimed a powerful kick at his hip, but he caught her leg, grimacing at the force. His irises tinged red, maximizing the visual and analytical abilities granted to him by his genetic inheritance. In a way it was gratifying, he'd never felt the need to use his ability when sparring with Sakura in the past.

"What technique is that?"

"Come on, I trained my ass off for this. You'll have to work a bit harder than that." She ducked a punch and switched her strategy, tackling him to the floor. He hadn't been expecting that. She slammed in to him with the same strength and force she had put into the punches and kicks, sending them both sprawling.

Sakura leaned her forearm near his throat, pressing into his upper left arm to immobilize it. She couldn't believe she actually pinned Sasuke. As strong as she'd gotten since he left, she'd never expected to best him. It didn't register how close she was to him until she was staring into his jewel red eyes. They were so near and somehow seemed to be getting nearer. It was like her mind was fogging over, his gaze was so hypnotic…no. Focus. She pressed down harder, her forearm inching closer to his neck. Then he started smirking, and despite knowing the medical implausibility of it, her heart dropped into her stomach.

"Hn. You're definitely not a liability." She felt his chuckle, and deep voice vibrating against her. All hope of focus flew from her mind. The pressure she had been applying lessened in her shock at him: his eyes, his voice, his smirk, his almost tangible aura pressing around them, and most of all his blatant acknowledgment. That was a mistake. A rookie one.

It took no time at all for Sasuke to flip their positions, pinning her beneath him, her wrists clasped in each of his hands, his feet hooking beneath her knees immobilizing her legs. A fight was never over until the opponent was dead, rendered incapable to continue the battle, or surrendered. She never should have lost her focus and loosened her hold on him. He wasn't loosening his grip, red eyes boring endlessly into hers.

He was so close. And he wasn't moving away. Time expanded so seconds felt like hours. There was something in his eyes she couldn't quite identify. The smirk was slipping very slowly from his face, replaced with an intensity so tangible she could have been pinned in a thunder cloud.

"Do you know why your eyes turn red?" The words breathed out of her, barely a whisper. She wasn't sure what made her say it, she didn't know why she whispered, it just felt right to.

Sasuke didn't give a verbal answer. He simply cocked his head slightly, somehow seeming closer than before. Was that just her imagination?

"When you fully access your heightened sense of visual perception, your body pumps more blood to your optic nerves and ocular muscles. The increase in blood flow to your iris, pupil, lens, and retina cuts through the pigment in the iris, temporarily dying it red…" The words tumbled out in a whisper. She wasn't even sure why she spoke them. She must have been trying to subconsciously ground herself by spitting out medical facts. Even in a situation like this…what a sexy habit she developed for herself.

"How do you know?" He said it so quietly yet she felt every deep vocal vibration as clearly as she felt his breath fanning her face. She became vaguely aware that he had released one of her wrists, bringing his hand to the space between her head and arm, yet she still felt utterly paralyzed.

"I…I studied it." She tired desperately to fight the way her face was reddening. It was a losing battle.

"Why?" She wasn't sure whether she heard him say it or felt him breath it.

Why? Because she wanted to be close to him. To understand him. To help him how ever she could. Because she cared about him and wanted to make sure he was ok. She couldn't say any of that. Her dazedness and blush had already betrayed her, he had to know she still felt very strongly about him. But she wouldn't allow her words to betray just how strongly she felt, not yet at least. She wasn't ready to say it to him yet.

"I'll tell you later." She murmured. It felt like she was moving through water with only a very dim awareness of what she was doing when she reached up with her free hand and poked him in the forehead with her pointer and middle fingers.

Sasuke looked stricken. It was with first time she'd seen him look so flagrantly shocked…was he…blushing?

He still hadn't released her, hadn't broken eye contact. The shock slowly began to melt into confused warmth. The paralyzing intensity was back in full force. He was only centimeters away but despite how her body screamed for her to close the gap, her emotions glued her in place. There seemed to be some inner debate raging in Sasuke. His muscles kept tensing and releasing against her. The warmth in his eyes remained but she could see conflict playing through them. Not that she was clear on what exactly that conflict was. The tension around them kept building.

A loud ding shattered the moment. He leapt off her like her proximity burned him and she jumped up equally as fast to grab her phone, simultaneously thrilled and disappointed at the distance.

She checked the notification. Orochimaru's full file had finally loaded.

Sakura sat next to Ageha's hospital bed looking over the file she'd been struggling with for the past hour and forty five minutes. After the notification had come in, she'd been unable to justify putting it off. It was too late to go back to the station and she was too keyed up from whatever just happened between her and Sasuke to go home. She needed something to take her mind off of that, which was exceedingly difficult. She found her prized focus kept slipping. Sasuke had been about to take her home when she asked him to take her to the hospital instead. He agreed begrudgingly. Nothing focused her mind like patients and although Ageha was no longer her patient, Sakura was her emergency contact. She was only a little girl and had no one else. The girl was currently asleep, hooked up to an IV, oxygen pumping into her nose. It was a sad sight to see on such a young kid. She'd been asleep since Sakura had gotten there, but as always the rhythmic hum of the heart monitor helped ground her, focusing her mind. She'd taken a seat next to the bed and begun pouring over Orochimaru's file.

Blood type B. Entered medical training program at age 16…he was a prodigy. His records were glowing…almost as good as Tsunade's, until things took a turn. He diverged from the path she had been on, of healing medicines, and treating patients, into the realm of research and experimentation. Supervisors, teachers, and mentors remarked that despite his brilliance and deep curiosity, he also displayed a disregard for ethics, pitching experiments that were far outside the realms of medical morality. He was finally thrown out of the program for following through on one of his experiments without the clearance from his supervisor. Most disturbing were his essays. That's what she was currently trying to stomach.

"Human beings are fundamentally flawed. We depend on delicate internal systems to keep us functioning—systems that fail at least once in any given lifetime. Systems that break when subjected to external trauma. Systems that cause the whole body to defect with one mutation to its genetic code. These failings could not only be corrected by direct change to the genetic code, but the body itself could be enhanced. Humans have claimed superiority over the animal kingdom, but our bodies are not the strongest. We don't have the natural weapons built into our physic. Lacking in the claws and muscle mass of animals physically superior, our survival comes down to external weapons, and when lacking in those, our own wit. We have long since prided ourselves on being the most intelligent of animals, but our intelligence has begun to plateau. Chimps, elephants, cephalopods are all incredibly intelligent and learning to become even more so. But there is a way to ensure we remain superior. Our natural evolution has become stagnant, but we now have the capability to control how we evolve. Self designed evolution is our new future. We can enhance our muscles, our senses, our skin density. We can increase our longevity. Eliminate disease. Old age. Disabilities. We can make ourselves gods. Direct editing to our genomes would allow for us to become an entirely superior species. We have the capability to engineer ourselves to be stronger, faster, more beautiful. The mythological beings we named gods, demons, angels, devils, may have been nothing more than creatures of genetic superiority. We can now become those beings by designing our own evolutionary future…"

Sakura tore her eyes away from the essay feeling sick. Ideologically speaking, it was a smoking gun. There were still more essays to go through, she hadn't even finished reading this eugenic manifesto yet, but she felt repulsed and ill. There were few fields of medicine more called into ethical question than that of genetic engineering. On the surface, some of the eugenic rhetoric actually held some merit. If you could stop a baby from being born with a high likely hood to develop blood cancer, shouldn't you? No question. But what about a baby with a high likely hood for downs syndrome? Maybe…if it was preventable shouldn't it be prevented? But that then renders all of those who do have downs syndrome, and have been living just as well, as "less than," or "mistakes that weren't corrected." Sakura couldn't stomach that. It inherently implied that their lives were less important or held less dignity than others. Her eyes swept over Ageha. She was suffering from Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a rare disease where the body produces too many immune cells, which in turn attack the internal organs. With some genetic engineering, her suffering may have been prevented, but would she still be Ageha? In preventing her HLH, what if the genetic change caused a domino effect and everything else changed as well? The science wasn't perfect yet. They didn't know what that shift might cause in her genes.

But Orochimaru's proposal went even further than just eradicating genetic based diseases. In pure mad scientist fashion, he talked about engineering a super human race. The concept of "superiority" was the driving force behind the entire paper. From where Sakura stood, might makes right was never a mindset that belonged in the realm of science.

"Sensei?"

Her eyes shot to Ageha, who was staring at her with a mix of exhaustion, joy, concern and confusion.

"Ageha-chan! You're awake!" Instinctually she began checking her vitals.

"They said you weren't my doctor anymore."

"That's right. You've got Dr. Yakushi now. They needed me to help with something at the police department. How would you rate your pain, 1-10?"

"4 right now. Yeah I know. I don't like him very much, he's not as nice as you Sensei."

Sakura looked up from the chart it now occurred to her she had no business filling in.

"Is he mean to you?" She asked sharply, concern bleeding into her tone.

"No, it's not that. He just feels…weird. Like he smiles but he doesn't mean it. When you smile I feel better, but when he smiles I feel worse."

"Hmm…He means well, and he has your care in mind, I promise. Some people just aren't great with people."

"I know…but I still like you more Sensei. You don't ask if I'm in pain, you already know the answer. You just ask me to rate it. And you don't talk to me like I'm stupid or try and keep things from me."

"Of course not. It's your body. You have a right to know and have a say in what's happening to it…and if anyone tries to keep you in the dark, tell them that, ok?"

She smiled and nodded just as Kabuto walked in.

"Sakura-san."

"Hello Senpai. I'm just visiting…Sorry I know it's not my place but I started filling in Ageha-chan's chart."

"Separation anxiety, right?"

"Eh, more like habit."

Kabuto flashed her a smile before turning to Ageha.

"Good morning Ageha-chan. Are you in any pain?"

The girl flashed Sakura a long suffering look. "Of course I'm in pain, my body's attacking itself," she muttered under her breath.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to speak a bit clearer."

"4 on the pain scale. Kabuto-sensei, it's 11pm. You don't need to wish me good morning."

Kabuto smiled at Ageha before looking over the chart Sakura had started filling in. "Well, you've done all the work here Sakura-san, so I'll just sign off on it for now. We'll be taking some more blood tomorrow morning, so you should get some rest, Ageha-chan."

"More? Didn't you just take some earlier?"

"There's nothing to worry about."

"Diseases like yours are really rare, so doctors need to do frequent blood tests to monitor how the disease is progressing, and if treatments are working." Sakura elaborated helpfully.

"Ok. That makes sense. Feels like a lot though." The girl sighed.

"Well I'll let you get some rest." Kabuto smiled once more at Ageha, gave a small bow to Sakura and left.

"I'll be right back, I just need to grab some coffee." Sakura said before running out after him.

"Senpai!" Kabuto turned to the pink haired medical prodigy chasing after him. He always wondered about her strange coloring. It surely couldn't be natural.

"Sorry, it's just my patients—well they're not mine anymore they're yours, but how are they doing? They were all pretty tough cases, are there any new developments or symptoms—are they doing alright? Actually—don't answer that, it'd be a doctor-patient confidentiality violation. I'm sorry, it's just—"

"Separation anxiety?"

"Yeah…I'm sorry. I don't mean to insult your abilities or anything. I'm sure you're taking care of everyone just fine…"
"Not at all Sakura-san. It's quite admirable how you care for your patients. Although I wonder if you maybe care a little too much…"

Sakura looked affronted. "I'd rather care too much than not at all Senpai."

"Of course. I'm taking care of your patients Sakura-san. There's nothing to worry about."

"Thank you, I mean it."

"Sakura-san, may I ask you something?" His eyes lingered on the silky pink strands of her hair.

"Sure! Shoot."

"Your hair…You dye it, right?"

"Nah, it's natural. Weird color right?"

"Certainly unusual." He agreed with interest. "How…?"

"It was some strange mutation. My dad's got red hair and my mom's blond. Both are recessive traits and when they got paired, since there was no dominant allele, there was no way for the trait to express itself so it mutated. Pink hair."

"Fascinating. You're a mutant."

Sakura laughed. "Technically yes, but without the cool superhero powers. Anyway I need to grab some coffee. Thanks again for looking after everyone!" She smiled an ice melting smile before dancing off to the elevators.

Ageha was asleep again. Fatigue was an every present symptom Ageha experienced. Sakura sat clammy, reading Orochimaru's sickening manifestos on genetic manipulation.

"Just as a computer is run by code, so too are humans. One might say we are slaves to our genetics, as they dictate everything from our appearance to our brain chemistry and by extension our behavior. But if computer code is programable, so too are our genetics. By combining the right genetic sequences, we could create the perfect soldier: strong muscle mass, increased stamina, team mentality, obedient. The perfect sex worker: perfect facial symmetry, appealing body proportions, immense need for sexual activity. Even the perfect mate, designed to be attracted to the pheromones and traits of the designer, or commissioner. Humans are really no different than androids, our choices and needs mapped down to our genetic code. Free will is really something of an illusion. It exists but only within the parameters of our individual genetic codes. The choice to not save someone dangling from an unstable cliff is a result of our genetic instinct for survival. Conversely, the choice to save someone in that same situation is the result of that individuals genetic predisposition towards prosocial behavior or the increased production of empathy related chemical processes. We keep operating as blind slaves to our genetics, laboring under the illusion of free will. Instead we should embrace these codes and start using them to our advantage, engineering them to suite us rather than allowing them to control us as they have so far."

Sakura thought she might puke. He really truly checked all the boxes on the mad scientist front. She numbly found her way up the hospital stairwell and out onto the roof. The cool October air washed over her, making her feel as if she'd been dowsed by water. She leaned against the concrete barrier, chewing on her bottom lip anxiously. She felt clammy, nauseated, and off balance. Her muscles twitched with nervous kinetic energy that made her normally steady hands tremble.

Lady Tsunade really thought Sakura was capable of rivaling this guys medical expertise? He was a warped genius years ago when Tsunade knew him and now he actually had the skill to put his demented theories into practice—which he may have been doing for years, and they were only seeing the results of now. There was no way she'd be able to keep up with a psychotic genius prodigy like that. She hadn't even been able to keep up with the geniuses and prodigies in the academy. Her own teammates had left her in the dust long before she even left the force—and one of them was supposed to be a total idiot. What would she realistically be able to do against this level of twisted ingenuity? His thoughts, his essays, his experiments, were so incredibly evil and twisted and wrong. But they were also brilliant. Up until doing that first autopsy, she would have thought all of his ideas to be medically and scientifically impossible. But she had the proof of it. Even with how sickening his theories were—she'd heard DNA compared to computer code, but never the extended analogy of programming and treating the two codes the same. It was thrilling and incredibly disturbing. What would she, with her perfectly calibrated moral compass, and recently acquired medical skill, be able to do against an experienced scientist who saw human life as nothing more than biochemical androids to be engineered?

"I…I can't do this…" She whispered to herself. It was the first time on the whole case that she felt so completely overwhelmed, hopeless, and out of her league. Like how she always used to feel. She hadn't changed at all, had she? She was still a useless little girl overwhelmed and paralyzed by just how evil people could be. "Damn. I thought I was passed this…" she growled. Tears she was determinately fighting burned at her eyes. She bowed her head, closed her eyes and took deep steadying breaths. She could practically feel her environment shift around her as she was overtaken by a recollection of the first time she'd felt this profound lack of confidence:

After Squad 7's excellent work busting the Gato Crime Syndicate, they were recommended to take a promotional exam. It turned out that the rest of their old academy class had been recommended for it as well, along with a team who graduated the year before them. That team's mentor held back from recommending them for a year so they could get more experience. Naruto and Sasuke were thrilled at the prospect of a promotion. It was the first time Naruto was excited by the prospect of an exam. But Sakura had been dreading it. She hadn't contributed much on cases, she was terrible in the field, often instructed to protect or remove civilians from the area, which she knew was code for "stay out of the way." The few times she'd tried to be of use on the field, she ended up a hostage with a knife at her neck. She didn't belong at a promotional exam. She hadn't done anything worthy of promotion. But her teammates had, so how could she refuse to take the exam? The second she showed up at their old academy, in the crowed of her brilliant, genius, specialist classmates, she knew she'd made a mistake in participating. She didn't belong or deserve to be there.

"Sakura-chan! Over here! What took you so long? You're not usually late!"

"Morning Naruto. Sorry guys…I just," one look at his excited face and she couldn't bring herself to tell him that she almost hadn't come, "overslept this morning." She lied, Naruto easily buying it. She felt eyes on her and turned to see Sasuke staring. Normally that would excite her, but now she just felt guilty. They had to enter as a team and she'd almost left them hanging. Part of her was betting that they'd have to pass as a team, and it would probably be her fault when they didn't.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun." She said, forcing a smile on to her face.

"…Yeah."

She looked back at their old academy with a feeling of looming dread, unaware of Naruto's incessant chatter about how their whole class was here, or of how Sasuke continued to study her out of the corner of his eye. She trailed after them as they made their way into the building. Their test was supposed to take place in room 301. When they reached the third floor, a large crowed had formed a few meters to the left of the stairwell. Two older officers were blocking a door into a classroom. Above it hung the sign marking it as 301.

"Please let us through! We have to get to our test!" A boy with a bowl cut and an atrocious green spandex suit was pleading with the two older officers.

"You really think a pathetic weakling like you deserves to be promoted?" Asked one of the two officers, roughly shoving the boy away, causing him to fall. Whispers and outcries against his treatment raced through the crowd. Naruto and Sasuke started moving in for a closer look, Sakura made to follow them but stopped almost immediately. Something was weird about the numbering on this floor. It had only been a few months since they graduated the academy, but Sakura remembered having class in 301, and hadn't it been to the right of the stairs? They wouldn't have changed the room numbers, would they? Buildings liked this were often built so there floors were copies of one another, which her memory of learning here verified as true. There were seven classrooms per hall. Evens stair-side, odds opposite, with 01-03 to the right of the stairs and 04-07 to the left. Based on what she'd glimpsed of the first and second floors coming up the stairs, 05 was still on the left of the stairwell. So why was 301 to the left of the stairs? From her fleeting glance at the emergency fire plan posted on the landing for every floor, the numbering should have been the same for the third floor as it was on the first and second. Unless they had changed the numbering recently and not updated the fire plan, but why do that? There was no point to that course of action.

"What are you doing?" She jolted to see Sasuke standing a little ways away, glaring at her. She must look like a moron just standing by the stairs. Was she overthinking this? What did she know, anyway? Sasuke and Naruto were the useful ones. She just got in the way…But she was sure everyone was technically standing in front of 305 right now, not 301.

"It's just…" She looked back at the sign reading 301, her brow furrowed in confusion as she looked down at the right of the hall. Sasuke followed her gaze the whole time, pausing briefly while looking to the right, before turning abruptly and calmly walking into he middle of the crowd, where the officers were now verbally harassing a young woman with her hair up in two buns who'd come to the defense of the green spandex clad boy.

"Nice speech. Now you can drop the act. If we head to the real 301, you won't stop us, right?"

"Real 301? what's he talking about?" She caught several people murmuring, as she came to join Sasuke and Naruto at the front of the crowd.

"So you noticed the trick, huh?" One of the officers smirked.

"Go on Sakura." Sasuke said, his eyes never leaving the guard.

"Huh?" He had caught her off guard.

"You noticed it way before us. You have the sharpest eyes and analytical skill on our team."

Warmth spread through her clammy form. He acknowledged her! She did bring something to the team! She wasn't useless—she'd noticed the mistake before he had! And Sasuke acknowledged her! She couldn't help the smile making its way onto her face.

"Well sure. I noticed it the minute we got up here. This is 305. 301 is the first classroom on the right."

…Thank you, Sasuke-kun.

Sakura felt her breathing calm, her vision no longer warped with water. An internal warmth had spread through her, combatting her clamminess. A dry chuckle found its way through her lips.

"The irony in him telling me that I have the sharpest eyes…clearly he wasn't accounting for his family gifts. But I've definitely got the best analytical skill—" Her musing were cut short by the weight of realization. She shot up straight in her excitement, nearly giving herself head rush. "And I've got everything I need to create a full psychological profile which will help us predict his next moves!" She ran for the stairs before stopping short again. Part of her didn't want to profile this guy. He was so dark and twisted and just reading his essays had shaken her to her core and stripped her of her confidence. She didn't want to go deeper into his head and try to understand him. What if she lost herself the way she started to earlier?

She'd think of Sasuke, that would anchor her the way it just did. But what if memories weren't enough? What if she wasn't able to dredge them up any more? What if she needed something more substantial? Something like what happened earlier at the gym. Just thinking about earlier sent her pulse skyrocketing. All his recent attempts at support and his unfiltered praise had huge impacts on her. They'd been comforting, and securing. The recognition pouring out of him in spades made her feel more confident, the only thing to top his praise being her own laundry list of accomplishments. But sometimes she didn't have that list on tap, and in those moments Sasuke was there reaffirming it for her.

He was also confusing her mentally and emotionally. But she was a mature adult. And so was he—hopefully. So they should be able to work through that if they talked it out. If she could put her emotional scars aside and let him in again…that was the hard part. She certainly couldn't all at once—just forget he ever left her and go back to the way things were. But she could start—they could start. She was a doctor. She knew healing took time. But she had her space. He had his, wanted or not. It was time to start trying to heal. Cause however frustrating it was, she needed him to keep her grounded. And she was beginning to suspect based on his behavior, and the input of her two best friends, that he might need her too. Her heart pounded as she dialed his number. It had barely rung before he answered.

"We need to talk."

Authors note: I'm so sorry for the wait! Action scenes are hard to write and as are the medical/scientific aspects. I do a fair amount of research into the science I use but it's all theoretical fiction and none of it should be taken seriously.

As much as a I think Sakura is strong and capable and self actualized, I also know from experience that when you feel overwhelmed or outmatched, it can be very hard to maintain your own confidence no matter how skilled you are. While I can normally talk myself out of it, there are times when what I'm facing seems too much and I can't. In those moments, hearing my skill verified by others, usually specific people, is the only thing that bolsters me out of that head space. I think Sakura is the same way-despite how capable and level headed she grew to be, I think there are moments where she needs to hear her skills reaffirmed by Sasuke and Tsunade in particular, since that's who she's placed as her definitions of strength and skill.

Anyways, thank you so much for reading! Huge thank you to everyone who's favorited, followed, and especially reviewed this story! Please keep them coming-they mean a lot to me :)