Author's Note: Originally this chapter wasn't planned and I had a whole other chapter typed up and ready to go, but to everyone commented, thank you for your inspiration! I realized after getting a few comments that I really should dive into the minds of individuals so I've created this chapter to give some inside perspectives on the psyche of key characters. I hope it doesn't seem too out of place or off color from my previous writings. I do tend to write with inspiration from my own emotions so I'm well aware my writing style fluctuates a bit.

WARNING: DESCRIPTIONS OF TORTURE, HINTS AT RAPE, PTSD, DEPRESSION, SUICIDAL THOUGHTS. RATED M FOR A REASON.

TRIGGER WARNING

Again, Inoichi stood in the great burnt expanse of Sakura's mindscape, her doppelgänger standing at his side. Not much had changed in this arena, he noted, though he did feel as if there was a wavering mirage image of a tree some distance away from them. "Good morning, Sakura-San." He dipped his head slightly in a polite bow.

Impassive emerald eyes watched the special jonin carefully, her face carefully arranged in a blank mask. The kunoichi said nothing at his greeting.

"I wanted to thank you for the glimpse into your memories from last time." Inoichi began, maintaining eye contact with the Inner. It was difficult to gauge her blank looks. She gave a small nod, eyes unblinking. "I was hoping we'd have another chance at retrieving a few memories." Jade eyes darkened and narrowed in his direction. "You do not trust us yet."

A perfectly trim eyebrow pique, silently answering..

"If you don't trust us, then why show us a memory in the first place?"

The pinkette kept her eyes on his, gazing harshly into his skull searching for her answers to questions unsaid. "You would not leave otherwise." She answered coldly, after a moment.

"Ah, perhaps that is true." The blonde chuckled softly. Silence fell over the field afterwards. Clearly, the woman was not going to initiate any form of conversation. "So you can speak?"

"Yes." Her answers were haltingly direct, information being her one possession. Giving it up was akin to losing her sole purpose.

"And can Outer Sakura talk as well?"

"Can, yes. Will she? Likely not."

Interesting. She speaks as if they aren't one and the same. Make a note to bring it up with Riku. "Is there a reason?"

"Yes."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow. This woman was not forthcoming at all, making his job and her release all the more tedious. "Will you tell me?"

"No." Her arms folded under her busy in silent defiance.

Ino has said the Inner she'd met all those years ago was a spit fire, loud and boisterous. This woman before him was defiant, yes, but not nearly as he'd pictured her. Could her mind maturing have this effect? Had Inner matured before or after her year of captivity? More questions to add to the growing list.

The two stood in silence, both regarding each other with seemingly penetrating gazes. It could've been minutes or hours that they stood in that manner, neither giving nor taking an inch. He could understand how she got many of her scars now; an unyielding taciturnity. Still, his purpose was to get her to yield and in this, he was determined to hold his position.

"Your patience is impressive." He said at last, a small smirk on his face.

"As is yours." She said apathetically, her eyes were half-lidded, corners of her lips downturned ever so slightly in mild annoyance.

"I shall speak bluntly. You are in Konoha, whether you believe it or not. You won't be leaving the hospital or have any privileges unless you stick to the prescribed therapies, including this one." He thought he saw the traces of emotion in her eyes but as quick as it was there it was gone. "One way or another, we'll unseal the memories. Whether we do it by force is completely up to you." Bluff. They had no real understanding of Inner and how she worked, let alone trying to force open whatever kind of seal she was.

"Then we shall see you try." Now Inoichi could see the full blown defiance gleaming in her eyes. The atmosphere turned dense, black smoke encroaching from all angles as the fields in the distance burned with newly lit sparks descending rapidly on their location. "Good bye, Inoichi." A malicious smile spread across her cheeks as the flames consumed her, swiftly working to him.

Fuck.

Inoichi swore under his breath, dispelling his jutsu but not before the blaze licked at the skin of his ankles. The blonde's soul snapped back into his body rather forcefully and he let out a hiss as he felt the searing pain spreading on his leg. Instinctively, he reached down to his ankle earning a quizzical glance from his doctor colleague as he examined the extremity. Nothing. No burnt skin, no charred clothing. Odd. The blonde frowned at his own lack of understanding.

"Find out anything interesting?" Riku already had his pen poised above his notepad and Inoichi nodded before glancing at Sakura. Her eyes never left his. Whatever defiance that her Inner displayed was clearly not present on the outside.

"Let's go back to the office and talk." Inoichi was already out the door, the doctor scurrying behind him to catch up.

The two ANBU has watched the entire interaction, granted on the outside nothing seemed amiss. Until that is the few seconds after the mind swap jutsu was canceled and the Yamanaka practically recoiled in pain. Needless to say, that wasn't a normal experience and put the both of them on edge.

It would be easy to underestimate the slip of a woman laying in the bed, her pink hair giving her this illusion of innocence. They'd seen her in action before in ANBU enough to be weary of her.

Her jade eyes slipped to the sides, gauging them slightly with critical eyes. Of course she wanted to believe she was in Konoha, safe under her comrades' protection but she knew the trickery of genjutsu. She had, after all, been trained in many forms of advanced interrogations. Storing her chakra to dispel this genjutsu wasn't an option, chakra suppressant restraints were a bitch, so she'd have to wait to see their angle.

X

"Could it be a case of dissociative identity disorder?" Riku's pen already scrawling across his pad jotting down little notes and theories.

Inoichi shook his head at the brunette fixating his hard gaze to the odd pictures splayed across the doctor's office. Ink blots, hung like priceless art, mildly resembling certain feminine qualities were among the few possessions the doc had set up in his office.

"Her psych evals going back years were all clean. They would have detected it prior to her joining ANBU."

"Cannot rule out as a new presentation though."

The Yamanaka pursed his lips, still dissecting the black and white photos. "No. My daughter vaguely spot of meeting this 'Inner Sakura' during their chunnin exams years ago."

Without looking up, the doc drew hard lines through 'DID' and scrawled more notes haphazardly across the page.

"Hm, a bloodline trait?"

"The Harunos historically were a civilian merchant clan. Even still, her parents are long since deceased." He mildly remembered the pinkette spending weeks following their death at their house in a catatonic state, similar to now.

Riku let out an irritated sigh. "A seal then? She has a sea from ANBU that Ibiki released. Could she have more?"

"Mmmm," Inoichi narrowed his eyes slightly, his chin resting in his hands. "It's possible, though that would mean she's had it for years."

"We'll have to consult a fuinjutsu expert to further examine that avenue."

"Have you gotten anywhere with her psychiatric examines?"

Riku frowned, stilling the pen before setting it down. "She won't talk, though Tsunade says she's capable with the reconstructive surgery they've done." The woman was most certainly not the first kunoichi to have PTSD, but she was an enigma in more ways than one. "We need a new tactic. She doesn't trust us and at this rate probably never will. You can't go back in the mindscape without risking some kind of injury and talk therapy is likely not going to go anywhere." He was tired, frustrated, and oh-so caffeine depleted.

Inoichi nodded. He had a similar thought, only his was accompanied by the beginnings of a plan.

X

Kakashi found himself standing once more in front of the memorial stone, his hand running through his silver locks. Shame coursed through his body over his neglect to visit his friends with the recent resurrection of one of them. He tucked his lanky legs underneath him, hands resting on his ankles and elbows resting on his knees in a slouching but thoughtful pose. Who cared about his vertebrae anyways, it was comfortable.

"I'm not sure what to do, how to be what she needs me to be." He didn't address any particular one of his deceased friends, whoever was listening would do.

"She won't talk. She'll look at you but it's like you don't even register to her." He shifted and let out a hasty sigh. "I get it, on some level, I guess."

Kakashi thought back to the bubblegum haired, tempestuous girl she once was. The righteous fury burning in her eyes, fists surging with indignation. And now, she was a husky. Her hair faded to a dull pastel pink, eyes nearly lifeless and hands so bony they could snap with little pressure.

"I know she might never forgive me. I can live with that as long as…" Honestly, he wasn't even sure if he could live with it, but he wouldn't let that one slip to his friends. "I just need to make sure she's alright."

Nature answered him, the hum of cicadas rising and falling to match the ebb and flow of the air through the leaves. It was a rare moment of clarity for him these past few weeks. Something about the fresh air circulating in his lungs, pumping new energy, new hope through his body. It was in these moments he felt Rin and Obito at his side.

X

Sakura had just woken, yet still exhaustion wracked her body. Hooded eyes opened, noting the slumbering form of her former sensei hunched in a chair and an ANBU dozing lightly in another. Her other warden was no doubt watching from the opposite corner of the room, a corner she was too tired to locate.

Her gaze drifted to the clock. 0430. It was a habit she had developed under Tsunade, reinforced at the hospital, and made unbreakable during her short tenure in ANBU. It had only taken her a few short weeks to align her circadian rhythm back up to the clock, though now she was wondering if that was a blessing or a curse. With nothing to concentrate her energy on, it seemed it slipped through her fingers.

The pinkette closed her eyes. It would be shortly the nurses would begin the morning flurry: blood draws, diagnostic radiography, vitals, and assessments in quick succession. She should relish the peace of the moment, but her mind would not calm.

Worry and panic laced every thought, though she was careful to arrange her features into a mask of indifference as she had been taught so many times. Her breathing was forcefully even and controlled, refusing to accelerate with the mounting anxieties in her mind. Muscles were coiled tightly beneath her skin, both from tension and wariness, as she mentally prepared herself.

A man can only be beaten in two ways: if he gives up or he dies.

Sakura mentally recited her mantra, trying desperately to find comfort in the fact that she has done neither of those things. Yet.

She wanted to give up; so many times the thought that death would be a much easier escape than her current situation. Any attempts had thoroughly been thwarted though, the easy route was not exactly as easy as it was made out to be.

The pinkette rotated her wrist inside her chakra suppressant cuffs, the leather rubbing uncomfortably over long vertical scars leading from wrist to inside of the elbow. After two months of torture and interrogation, finding the courage to attempt such a bold act was easy and the act even easier.

Living was the hard part.

X

Fingertips brushed across the name of the medical file, before a large palm rest over the center of the Manila folder. He'd put off his duty to read the report for long enough. The blonde took a deep breath in through his nose and exhaled through clenched teeth. His stomach churned as his fingers found the edge of the cover and flipped it open.

Cerulean eyes clenched shut, his stomach tying itself into knots at the images first and foremost present in the file. He was the Hokage, Kami damnit. He'd seen these files before, but never had it felt so personal before.

He steeled his mind, still breathing through his disgust and opened his eyes.

The first image was a full frontal picture of his teammate in the nude, conveniently placed little black boxes providing minimal privacy to her more intimate parts.

From head to toe, he cataloged her injuries.

A scar traced down her forehead, across the bridge of her nose before stopping on her left cheek. Little nicks and cuts littered her neck and collarbones. A long jagged scar traced down the center of her torso, thick and none too pretty. Small ringed blemishes littered the slight swell over her breasts, a wound that Tsunade noted to be remnants of teeth impressions. At the time the injuries were cataloged, the skin of her arms were black, blue and a sickly yellow and her forearms had more length scars down their width. Self-inflicted, it had been noted in the margins.

Naruto's hand roughing rubbed at his chin in a rush of anger and shame.

Her twig-like legs were also littered with scars closer to her groin and her shins held multiple round blights.

Bile was beginning to rise in his esophagus. He flipped to the next image. This one was of her backside.

What was once the flawless skin of a skilled medic-kunoichi was now a mess of scars and brands up and down the prominent bumps of her vertebrae. The scars continued down the length of her legs but Naruto could no longer focus; he didn't want to.

He was pissed, red chakra sparking inside his stomach responding to his mood. He'd return to the report later, right now, he needed to destroy something.

X

Author's Note: Eyyo, let me know what you all think about this chapter. I hope it helps you get some insights into the characters but I've provided my own little analysis below if you care to know my reasonings. I'd appreciate your comments or messages on what the story lacks; I will make every effort to ensure you are getting the angles you want!

So I'm taking some liberties with the whole Inner Sakura deal. I'm well aware in the anime, she represents the repressed emotions of Sakura, but I feel like emotions and memories are so tightly connected, it just made sense for her to act in this sort of seal-like manner.

Inoichi and Inner Sakura Don't seem to play well together, ne? I don't want to force the words out there, but I imagine Inner doesn't like his continual prodding and though she initially went along with him, there are some memories and emotions you wouldn't just open up to anyone.

Riku is a dick; that is all. Kakashi, my poor damaged man; I wish I could help… Sakura, my beautiful trampled blossom, hang in there. It gets better, I think.

I might be missing in action for a while, I promise to update when I can, if I can.