Summary:
Meanwhile in the Hidden Leaf Village Sasuke screams. Like a lot.
Sakura appeared in front of Naruto and looked at Sasuke with a look he hadn't seen on her in years.
"Sasuke, you're alive. I was so worried." She had been crying. He knew well how her crying face looked like, even if she managed to hide it from everyone else.
"I'm not high right now." Sasuke mumbled, avoiding her sad gaze.
"What?" Sakura crouched beside him. "What are you saying?"
As soon as she took a step towards him, Sasuke went into a panic. "I'M NOT HIGH SAKURA!"
His whole body trembled. "I'M SOBER!" He looked at Naruto, his eyes wild. "TELL HER!"
Naruto's mouth dropped and he looked from Sasuke to Sakura. "Sakura, I don't know what's wrong with him."
Sasuke was biting his lip. He went to go stand behind Naruto and he looked at Sakura with scorn.
Sakura had to resist the urge to hold him. It was obvious that she made him anxious. "Is that really him?" Sakura asked.
"I don't know." Naruto looked at him standing behind him and leering at Sakura.
"Sakura." Sasuke's voice sounded as it did before, cold and authoritative, and they both turned to look at him with hope in their eyes. They thought only for a moment that Sasuke was back to normal. "I didn't do anything. I haven't relapsed." The tone of voice was just as they'd always heard, but he looked like he was about to cry.
Sakura ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him unable to restrain herself from comforting Sasuke. "What are you saying? You're scaring me."
Sasuke bit his lip harder this time, drawing blood. He hesitated, but he eventually held her back.
As soon as he did, he saw him leading her into an area he didn't recognize. She was going into labor.
"Ah!" He screamed and let her go. "What… what?" He started coughing. "What's going on?"
"Sasuke." Sakura's voice snapped him out of his panic. He looked at her with pleading, confused, eyes. "I'm sorry." She whispered.
"Sorry?"
Sakura effortlessly knocked Sasuke out and caught him in her arms. "Naruto, let's hurry back. I'm not sure what happened to him, but he needs our help."
Naruto was in a room with Sakura, Ino, and Shikamaru. Ino was preparing to use her jutsu, she had set up Sasuke to a machine.
Sakura was nervously looking down at him as he laid unconscious in the seat.
"Okay I'm about to start." Ino looked to Sakura. "He'll be okay Sakura. I'm not going to hurt him."
Naruto put his hand on Sakura's shoulder. "I trust you Ino." She gave her a smile.
Ino placed her hand on Sasuke's head. They saw as Sasuke's eyes shot open and he started to scream.
Sakura felt Naruto's hand around her shoulder tighten. She gritted her teeth and watched in apt attention as Ino performed her jutsu on Sasuke. He was crying now and he kept begging for them to stop.
It was only a minute, but it felt like an eternity.
Ino was shaking and Shikamaru went to steady her after she removed her hand. Sasuke was still screaming and crying, so Shikamaru used his chakra to put the man back to sleep. He knew that seeing him like that would only cause everyone in the room heartache.
"Are you okay?" Naruto was walking towards Ino. "Do you need a moment? Are you—"
"I'm fine Naruto." Ino shook her head. "I just saw…" She sighed. "Sasuke's memories."
"Is it really him?" Sakura was biting her lip. "Is he under a jutsu?"
"I don't know if it's him. I saw some other memories inside of him, but the ones that predominate are the ones of Sasuke as we know him today."
"What where those other memories Ino?" Naruto seemed frightened.
"Memories of his family."
"Sarada and me?" Sakura asked.
Ino hesitated for a moment and looked away a slight blush on her face. "No. It was of his parents and Itachi."
Naruto nodded. "Let me give you guys a full report. When I felt Sasuke's charka disappear I thought the worst, so I rushed over to him. While I was approaching, I heard screaming and crying. He was saying a demon had shown him this vision and that he was clean." Naruto shrugged. "Then when I got closer to him, I didn't recognize him. I told him to tell me who he was and he told me he was Sasuke and that he did transactional work? Or something like that. He told me he was thirty-two and uh…" He looked nervously at Sakura.
"Say it Naruto. I just want to help him." Sakura insisted.
"Right. He said he was single, that he hated kids except his nieces and nephews, that he didn't know how he had ended up here, and he begged me not to hurt him."
Sakura felt the air rush out of her, but she maintained her composure.
"He also told me that he thought his memories were just nightmares. I think that someone implanted false memories into him and that those memories distorted his sense of reality."
"False memories wouldn't explain the lack of chakra." Shikamaru released his chakra and Sasuke woke up again.
He was helped out of the machine by Shikamaru and he stood there in the room. His eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
"Please Dr. Yamanaka I promise you I'm not—"
"Hey, it's okay." Ino cooed. "I'm not… we're not going to hurt you. I know you're not using."
"Doctor?" Shikamaru looked at Ino.
"In his other memories. I'm a therapist. His therapist."
"Sasuke." Shikamaru got to eye-level with the man. The two made eye contact for the first-time.
"Shikamaru? Why are you here?"
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru tilted his head.
"I thought you got a new job."
Shikamaru looked to the others with a confused expression.
"Sasuke, you're not ma—" Sakura's voice cut in.
"I TOLD YOU I WASN'T USING!"
"Calm down!" Ino screamed.
Sasuke instantly bit his lip and looked at Sakura. "I'm not using Sakura. You didn't have to bring me here."
Sakura looked at Ino, but she was avoiding her gaze.
"Sasuke, why are you screaming at her?" Naruto asked suddenly.
"You're on her side?" He sounded flabbergasted. "You're supposed to be my best friend!"
"I'm not taking sides I just want to know what's going on."
"You want to know what's going on?" He scoffed. "I'M THE ONE THAT NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!" He was hyperventilating again, but he didn't bother to catch his breath.
"I wake up with a missing arm, attacked by a fucking demon, and then I get kidnapped by her" He leered at Sakura. "AGAIN! And I end up in Dr. Yamanaka's… AGAIN!" He was huffing. "And this time I'm not using, I'm taking my medication. I'm exercising. I'm eating well… I'm trying so hard and yet…"
He crumbled to the floor, his crying was insatiable.
"And yet I've gotten even worse."
Sakura once again resisted the urge to run up to him and console him. She clenched her fist and held back tears. Naruto rushed over to his friend and sat down next to him on the floor. "I'll tell you what's going on Sasuke. Listen to me buddy. We're gonna get through this. 'Ya know?"
Sasuke wasn't listening to him, he was in a crying fit.
Shikamaru studied the situation from the sidelines. "Ino, can you tell me more about the other memories?"
"I saw them, but they mostly didn't make sense." She shrugged. "It seemed like a fantasy world. He was always in an office, reading, and while I saw all of us there it seemed that the memories of the Sasuke we know overpowered his own. I just know that he thinks I'm his therapist because of the fear that he had of me. His memories consist mostly of Itachi, people I don't recognize, Naruto, and Sakura."
"Take me home! I don't want to stay here anymore, please!"
"Okay." Ino answered quickly. "Take him home."
Sasuke stopped crying and looked up at Ino. "Really?" He wiped tears from his eyes. "I don't have to stay?"
"No. Go home." She was careful with her tone. "No one is forcing you to stay here. We know you're not using. We know you're not…" She sighed. She didn't like using this word. "We know you're not crazy, Sasuke."
He smiled at her with a look of relief and then he looked at Naruto. "Drive me to the hospital." He commanded. "I need to go to have someone look at my arm. Sakura, call in some favors and—"
"Sasuke, let's get you home first." Naruto said simply. "Sakura, is Sarada home?"
Sakura nodded. "She is."
"Right. Let her know her know we're on the way—"
"Who's Sarada?" He sounded annoyed. "Or better yet, who cares who that is? I'm missing an arm. I need to go to a hospital. Sakura, do you think you could ask Tsunade to look me over?"
Sakura looked at Ino. "He doesn't know about Sarada, but he knows Tsunade?"
Ino shrugged stil blushing lightly. "He uh… " She cleared her throat. "Hates kids. He thinks he doesn't have any."
"What do you mean thinks?" Sasuke's voice was low but menacing. "I know I don't have kids."
The horrified look of the people around him shocked him to his core. "No. No fucking way. A kid? Me? I've never been with…"
A look of panic passed through him as a realization struck him. "No. It was real? That couldn't have been real."
He looked around at the serious faces of the other adults in the room until his eyes settled on Sakura.
"In the woods? REALLY?"
