A/N: Second update April 2, 2019

It was almost more surprising when they found him unarmed. Given the intensity with which he went for Sakura's throat, they had assumed he would be given weapons as well. This should've been an obvious tactic. Itachi was almost ashamed that he hadn't figured out what Orochimaru planned when handing Sasuke over so easily.

In reality, he hadn't returned anyone they knew. This was a poor copy with the emotional and mental dexterity of a puppet. He moved and glared like a silent killer, but his words were garbled. There was a certain kind of hesitancy when he turned corners and a full body tension when entering a new room. Cautiously, they had shuffled him at gun point into the meeting hall usually locked away when not in use.

There was no way this conversation would continue in the open gardens of the inner quarters. Even if reporters didn't usually scale the walls to peek in, they might just try to, given the circumstances. Itachi also wasn't tempting fate by letting anyone see Kakashi threatening his younger brother with a firearm.

"Naruto. Restrain him."

The young man leapt to action, despite the queasiness in his expression. Already carrying rope, he came up behind Sasuke who growled low and menacing when the rope began winding around him. Naruto muttered half-hearted apologies but looked minutely relieved when his best friend was bound. Slowly, Kakashi lowered the gun, snapping the safety back into place. The two men hovered on either side of Sasuke though, ready to shove him down at a moment's notice.

He wasn't looking at either of them though. His gaze hadn't wavered once from her.

Sakura stood beside Itachi, unintentionally itching to reach past him. He had very purposefully shielded her since arriving on the chaotic scene. The wariness in his eyes only aged him more, speaking of concerns that they couldn't possibly fathom.

"Do you know who we are?" Itachi asked quietly, standing several feet back.

Sasuke stilled even more, if that were possible.

His lack of an answer was enough. Naruto was shaking with the need to blurt out his thoughts, but he refrained. Bright blue eyes bore into Sasuke who didn't so much as twitch.

"Understood," Itachi murmured. "And what is your mission?"

That cold glare intensified.

"Kakashi, go with her to another room," the director ordered softly. He gently nudged Sakura who had been locked in a staring contest with their prisoner. The young woman jumped slightly, glancing at him before reluctantly moving away.

As the pair began toward the sliding doors, Sasuke reacted.

Although looking down the barrel of a gun hadn't phase him, somehow, when they pushed her into a separate room, he was livid. A snarl tore from his throat and the ropes strained around him. Dark strands of hair whipped around his contorted face as he started toward them, looking for all the world like a caged beast rather than a man.

Naruto caught him in a head lock, shoving him to the ground with all his body weight. Tears were forming at the corners of his eyes as he shouted over Sasuke's murderous screams. They sent shivers racing down his spine, but he couldn't release his writhing best friend either.

When the door shut behind them, Sasuke's voice became nearly unbearable. There were tremors of pain laced through the anger. The vengeance. Naruto couldn't understand what was going through his friend's mind anymore. Maybe that was the problem.

Nothing was going on up there. It was empty.

Naruto whipped up to Itachi, pleading for help. The director silently shook his head. "Hold him steady," he mouthed, the words fading under the tormented weight of Sasuke's shrieks.

Approaching them very unwillingly, he knocked his little brother out cold.

XXX

Night fell rapidly. All of them had long since silenced their phones to avoid the media storm. Despite having many friends, including Ino, calling to check on them, they refused to answer. What could they even say at this point?

"He's back, but not really." After all, he was not that snarling monster with venom in his veins and a piercing bloodlust for his most important person. That much was obvious, and no amount of further violent outcries could convince any of them otherwise. Whoever Orochimaru had given them was no longer Uchiha Sasuke.

"It's not your fault."

Sakura barely registered the words. The others had vehemently argued against her watching over Sasuke's slumbering form, but she had firmly dismissed them. It was true that they all had some form of field medic training, but she was the only one who could accurately control the anesthesia being administered.

After all the trouble he had caused upon arriving, they had immediately prepared to place him in a comatose state until they could determine how to proceed. Sakura had spent enough time familiarizing herself with general safety protocols for anesthesia, but more so, she could cheat. Make it safer.

Whenever he began to stir awake, she simply sent pulses of chakra back into his network and relaxed him. In doing so, she had found more than a few disturbing characteristics to his body's energy flow. There were thick, almost scar-like concentrations in his joints—as if he hadn't properly rested in years.

It probably wasn't an exaggeration to think that was true.

"Everything is my fault," Sakura responded faintly, wanting to laugh at her own melodrama. The furrow in Sasuke's brows was sweet and nostalgic and she brushed light fingertips over it. Even in sleep, he couldn't calm down enough to make it fade. "I was a catalyst, Naruto. Don't you see that? We all need to take responsibility for the things we do, and I'm tired of people comforting me by stripping away my mistakes."

"Your heart was in the right place."

"The heart doesn't matter when the consequences look like this."

Naruto slumped down beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Although Sakura had always been smaller than him, sometimes, he thought she had the broadest wingspan of them all. It could carry the burden of death and life. Risk and reward. Guilt and pleasure.

"You're a doctor," he spoke gently, resting his head against her hair. "Your job is to interfere in fate. People face you when they're at the brink of death and you tell death to fuck itself. Everything you do will have consequences and sometimes they'll be disastrous, but because all of us care about you, we don't want to see you shoulder that burden alone. You'll become permanently pissed off like teme."

She actually laughed at that, leaning into him. "He hasn't changed so much when you look at him right now," she whispered.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed firmly, squeezing her shoulder. "He'll be fine. We'll take it one day at a time. There's a way to fix this and Orochimaru was the dumbass who's underestimating you."

"It's the folly of someone at the top of their field," Sakura noted coldly, "they assume a creation is perfect because their ego says so. But this is far from it. It's deep conditioning. It's soldiering. Inside, he's still there. Somewhere. We just have to wake him up."

The doors slid open behind them. Kakashi silently entered, sitting down on the other side of Sasuke. Eyes scanned his former ward before lifting up. "How's he doing?"

There was a notable shift as Sakura straightened up and her voice took on a detached quality. "He's resting well, and his body is reacting positively to the nutritional supplements. It seems that he hasn't slept uninterrupted for a significant amount of time."

"Any troubling physical wounds?"

She pursed her lips. "There are some scars. Possibly enhancements, but I can't tell without doing a full physical and there isn't any equipment available here to do that. I'm more concerned about how to keep him calm enough for the psychological healing he needs. I can…," she trailed off, not wanting to explain the ridiculous energy network she could access. "There's a way to heal some of the mental trauma with medicine," Sakura hedged, "but the rest will have to come with time and reintegration."

"So like, I gotta make him my friend all over again?" Naruto whined.

"Yeah, something like that," she smiled, exasperated. She was quiet for a moment before adding in a much softer voice, "I think we all already know this, but it would be best if I don't appear in front of him anymore."

"At all?" Kakashi tilted his head, the question lacking judgment.

"Only when he's asleep like this," Sakura waved a bit, "will I come around to do his treatments. I've prepared some sleeping supplements for him. It's going to be a while before he's able to rest without the help of something."

They merely nodded in response, fully aware of how sideways everything could go.

"Trust us," Naruto patted her back, grinning wide. "Soon I'll have him making kissy faces at you all over again."

It felt like an empty promise, but nevertheless, she would take comfort where she could get it.