Prompt: Sanity

Rating: T

Title: Asylum

Summary: It is much bigger than any of them could imagine, she is only the first piece of this twisted puzzle.

xxxxxxx

"Her state is very delicate," the doctor begins, his voice slightly muffled by the surgical mask covering his face. "She refuses to talk, refuses to eat, occasionally she'll drink, but not nearly enough she needs to survive. I fear that if this continues, Miss Haruno will end up dying."

"So, Doctor Hatake," the doctor's dark-haired companion begins, as the two men continue down the uninhabited hallways of the hospital. "What makes her different?"

"Nobody deserves to die alone in an asylum," he responds, earning an incredulous look from the other man. "Her family, they were victims of a serial killer who is still at large. Miss Haruno is the only victim to survive facing him. Sasuke,"

The dark-haired man looks up at the sound of his name.

"There's something else."

"What is it, Kakashi?" Sasuke asks impatiently as he pulls out a platinum pocket watch when the doctor stops walking.

"There is evidence that the Sharingan has been used on her," the silver-haired doctor whispers hoarsely.

Sasuke drops the pocket watch back to his side at this, his attention caught. "What type of evidence?"

"You'll see for yourself," Kakashi says as he begins to unlock the metal door in front of them. Sakura Haruno is scrawled on a small chalkboard next to it, a mark of the patient residing within.

When Kakashi opens the door, Sasuke instantly understands what he is talking about. The room is small and unkempt with dust and dirt covering most surfaces. The only light comes from a small, barred window on the opposite side of the room. Underneath it huddles a girl in an off-white straightjacket dress with a mop of unruly pink hair bunched on top of her head. In the corner of the room, lies the remains of an extinguished fire, probably the reason the room is so cold.

The startling part, however, is the walls. From top to bottom, they are covered in intricate designs that appear to be created using blood and soot. Dried blood forming circles with soot tomoes inside of them, what appears to be bodies, scattered about, bleeding and dying. The most startling image though, is that of a girl drawn in the black powder. Rather than using soot, her eyes are smeared crimson, which runs all of the way down to her face.

For what limited resources she had on hand, Sasuke must admit that – in a horrifying way – the art is rather impressive.

"Sakura," Kakashi begins as both men slowly slip closer to the girl. "This is Sasuke Uchiha, he's here to help you."

The girl lifts her head up and brilliant green eyes peer at Sasuke from a dirty face. When she lays eyes on him, she lets out a blood-curdling scream before beginning to rock back and forth, chanting.

"I'm sorry, not me. Not me. Blood, blood, the raven flies through the window."

Her voice is disjointed and startled, but she continues spitting out the strange words as if her life depends on it.

"Sakura," Kakashi moves closer to her and sets a strong hand on her shoulder.

She grows rigidly still, silent.

"He won't hurt you," he reassures, gesturing for Sasuke to move up.

Sasuke takes a step forward, then another one, then another one. He continues inching forward slowly.

When he is almost directly in front of her, the girl rises to her feet and it is apparent that she is malnourished. Her bones stick out in odd places and even the straightjacket hangs baggily over her tiny frame. Rust colored stains dye the sleeves of her jacket, as if she obtained some wounds on her arms. Her legs shake and her torso heaves as if it takes great effort for her to stand.

Then, without warning, she charges forward. It's an awkward movement, but so quick and sudden, that Sasuke is taken off guard. She barrels into him, and if not for Kakashi's quick reflexes, Sakura would have fallen headfirst onto the cement ground.

Thinking quickly, the doctor opens his left eye – which always remains closed – and with a swirl of red, the girl begins to fade from consciousness. He cradles her in his arms like a loving father would a daughter, hushing and consoling her.

"The raven with demon eyes," she murmurs, the word drawn out. "He comes through the window… he wants me next."

xxxxxxx

"There's no doubt about it," Sasuke begins once he and Kakashi are seated comfortably in the doctor's office. "Her mind is being plagued with the Sharingan, but the question is, whose?"

"Sasuke," Kakashi begins hesitantly. "I think you and I both know the only one who could possibly do something like this."

"Don't even say it, Kakashi," Sasuke snaps back, sternly. "My brother is not involved with this."

"He has been gone for five years," Kakashi responds as he refills his glass of brandy. "He is the only Sharingan wielder that is no longer on the radar.

"It's. Not. Itachi." The Uchiha replies adamantly, before standing and turning away to stare into the raging orange flames in the fireplace.

He thinks back to Sakura, the way she reacted, her words, the drawings, they could very well all point to his brother. But he knows that Itachi would die before torturing some innocent girl.

"Why is her room still in such a state?" he questions, surely the staff cleans it.

"Last time we cleaned her room and brought her back to it, her condition worsened, she wouldn't move from the corner for a full week." Kakashi lets out a labored sigh and rubs his forehead as if to ease a headache. "She used to just use the ash from her fireplace, but then she started scraping her arms and using the blood from that. We put her in a straight jacket but…" He trails off, taking another sip.

"What do you want me to do?" Sasuke asks. "I can't even get near her."

Doctor Hatake sets down his glass and rises from behind his desk. "The only thing we really can do is sedate her in the hopes that she warms up to you."

"Sedate her?" Sasuke says a bit appalled by the idea.

"I don't like it either, but it's the only way." He pulls out a small notebook and begins scribbling a schedule of sorts. "We'll start out with a dose that is enough to keep her conscious, but not enough to move. From there, if she's responsive, we can starting waning the amount of sedative she receives."

The grey haired doctor leans forward, his eyes plagued with stress.

"Miss Haruno has a very dark and tortured mind at the moment, it will not be easy, but I think with your impressive Sharingan skills, you can pull the essential information from her, bringing us all one step closer to putting an end to this nightmare."

"I will try my best, but I have no promises as to whether I'll be able to cipher her thoughts. She simply seems too far gone," Sasuke replies, pinching the bridge of his nose in thought.

"Sasuke, I know that after you left my tutelage you had some more," Doctor Hatake pauses, trying to find the right word, "'unconventional' methods of teaching, but I must urge you, please try to play this by the book as best as possible."

He finishes his glass of brandy before continuing, "I believe that you will not only be able to extract the information from Miss Haruno, but mend her shattered mental state."

Sasuke nods silently, "If you'll excuse me now, Doctor Hatake, I must retire early. It sounds like we have some long, exhausting days ahead of us."

xxxxxxxx

"Miss Haruno," Sasuke Uchiha begins, pulling his coat a little closer together to block out the cold of the dark room. A small fire has been lit, but it does little to fight the gloom of the blood and soot smeared cell.

A table set and chairs had been brought in to help with the process. The tormented girl is slumped across from him, her green eyes barely opened, but eying him in fear. The rest of her body is deadweight, having been pumped with sedative, for both of their safety.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, we met the other day," he notices a slight widening of her eyes and writes down the response in a small notebook that he has filled with any and all information of the girl in front of him. He had spent a couple of days interviewing anybody who had interacted with her or her family, gathering whatever he could to help him solve the peculiarity of the attack on her family.

"I'm sorry about the sedation, but I need you relaxed so that I can do my work. You see," he straightens up, pressing his fingers together as he explains. "You can think of me as a detective of sorts. I'm here to find out who hurt you and your family."

Her eyes crease as if in pain at the mention of her family and Sasuke can relate to the pain. That pain is enough to drive anybody mad, it gnaws at you and takes over your life. After all, it is what caused him to be in this insane asylum in the first place.

"I'm here to conduct an interview of sorts, I know you encountered the Sharingan." He turns his head and glances at one of her grisly masterpieces of the Uchiha legacy. "Now I believe it was used to torture you, but I will be using it to see into your thoughts to help find who did this."

Sakura's eyes begin twitching, almost as if she is trying to draw back in fear.

"Miss Haruno, you are immobilized, please try not to fight it." Sasuke lets out a sigh, "I need you to look at me."

The pink haired girl closes her eyes in defiance. With a groan of frustration, Sasuke leans forward and pries her eyelids open. Staring into her fearful emerald irises, he concentrates and enters her mind.

He does not get a clear picture, the Sharingan does not really allow for pure mind reading, but he get images, flashes. Usually he can form an idea of what is going through the other person's head – using very strict concentration – but Sakura's mind is like a shattered mirror in a dark room. He only gets strange contortions of thoughts.

"I need you to concentrate Miss Haruno," he grits between his teeth. "Think of that night, think of what you saw."

Red flashes in his mind, he sees blood, a crow, and is able to pick up the sensation of pain on his arms, pain on his back. He feels a pressure in his mind as the symbol of the Sharingan appears. The black begins rotating, contorting into a new symbol. If he could just see the symbol, he could figure out whom it belongs to.

He just needs to push more. He pries deeper and hears the girl let out a cry of pain. But he needs this, he needs to know, he –

"Sasuke that's enough!" Doctor Hatake storms into the room and pulls Sasuke back.

"Damn it!" Sasuke curses, hitting the table. "I almost had it, it's there."

"You are suppose to be helping her," Kakashi scolds, his hands resting on Sakura's trembling form. Her whole body shakes like a leaf, almost as if she is convulsing. Strangled gasps tear from her throat and her eyes are almost rolled back into her head.

"I almost had it," Sasuke repeats, clutching his eyes as a throbbing pain mounts there.

"You may retire for the night," The older doctor says as he tries to calm to poor girl. "We will speak about this in the morning."

Angrily, he exits the room, banging the iron door in frustration.