[Chapter 3]
Her first year at the academy had passed quickly, and before she knew it'd been the last day of school, all of the students being dismissed by a misty-eyed Iruka.
That summer had sucked.
Sakura wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed, with all the subtle hints her parents had been giving, but it was during the first week of summer break that she learned they had never intended for her to become a shinobi. Konoha had two educational streams, one for ninja and another for civilians. The first year at the academy wasn't mandatory for anyone planning on entering the civilian stream, which only started the year after, but Sakura's parents had sent her anyways, hoping it would set her a bit above the other students. They had been planning to move her to the civilian stream for second year. They had definitely not counted on Sakura wanting to become a shinobi.
They hadn't even outright told her she would be entering a different stream the next year, but Sakura had accidently saw the form being filled out for her mother, and a week-long argument had ensued. At the end her parents had outright refused to fill out the form for her to enter the shinobi stream. Sakura's eyes had blazed with an anger she never knew was inside of her.
She'd sought out Genma first. He'd held her shaking body as she broke down, and calmly told her what her options were. She could enter the civilian stream as her parents wished, or she could cut off all ties with her parents and find someone else to be her legal guardian. Sakura had chosen the second.
Genma couldn't apply to be her guardian, since civilian law demanded that to take custody of a minor you could not be an active ninja above the rank of jounin. It would provide an unstable lifestyle, was the explanation. Sakura knew if only she'd been born into a ninja family it would have been different.
She tried bluffing to her parents first, calmly telling them exactly what she planned to do if they didn't switch her out of the civilian stream at the academy. Her mother and cried, and her father had stared at her as if he couldn't recognize what his daughter had become, but in the end they had refused. They'd said they loved her, but that they were doing what was best for her. Sakura impolitely disagreed.
Naruto and Sasuke had finally found her a week later, crying inside the hollow of an old tree they had discovered a few months ago. She'd told them what had happened. Sasuke had stared at her for a second, frighteningly serious for a moment, before he'd ran away. Sakura had cried even harder when Naruto ran off after the other boy, yelling at him.
But when Sasuke returned, it was with a solution.
Mikoto had agreed to be her legal guardian.
Another week later, the black-haired woman had carefully explained her situation to Sakura over tea. She was a retired jounin, so technically that qualified her under civilian laws. As well, the entirety of her immediate family, with the possible exception of Fugaku, wholeheartedly supported her decision. The problem lay with the elders. Adoption, which she supposed this was in a way, was heavily frowned upon within the Uchiha clan, and especially since Sakura was a few months older than Sasuke, putting her in a position to be heir if Itachi passed away, Mikoto's request would never be approved.
The only option would be to do it in secret. It would mean that no one could know, and to the entire Uchiha clan she could only ever be thought of as 'Sasuke's friend'. Sakura had started crying and thanked her, knowing this was better than she could ever have hoped for. Mikoto had simply moved to sit beside her, calmly brushed the girl's petal-coloured hair through with her fingers, and poured her another cup of tea.
Sakura went home to her parent's house, and packed up all her stuff. That would be the last time she called the place home.
Naruto offered his house for her use, and Sakura moved in with him, not understanding how she could have been lucky enough to make such an incredible friend in just a year.
The rest of the break had been spent actively avoiding Mebuki and Kizashi, and mostly trying to regain a sense of normality by training and hanging around with the others. She'd put on a smile for them all, but more and more, mostly in the times when she was alone, Sakura found herself slipping into the personalities of her inners, pretending she was either Ahsoka, or Katniss, or Hermione. Anyone but Sakura Haruno, who missed her parents more than anything, but had still prioritized her dream above them.
September had rolled around, and her second year at the Academy started.
She'd applied for a scholarship immediately, knowing Mikoto wasn't in a position to financially support her as well. Iruka had been the one to approve her application, telling her in a serious tone that her tuition would be provided, as long as all her overall marks stayed above a ninety.
Months had passed, and her life had been getting back on track. And then it had all come crashing back down in one night.
Naruto and her were staying at the Uchiha compound for the evening, laying some extra futons they had found in the basement by Sasuke's bed.
Sasuke had pulled them both aside.
"Naruto, Sakura, my father will be joining us for dinner" he said quietly, seeming not at all excited by the prospect.
Naruto grimaced but still clapped the black-haired boy on the back. "We won't say anything stupid" he promised.
Sakura laughed at them, raising her eyebrows disbelievingly at Naruto.
The blond corrected himself. "Sakura won't say anything stupid. I'll just try my best to keep my mouth shut" he said, smirking.
Sasuke rolled his eyes but nodded, leading them downstairs to the kitchen, where Mikoto was humming while stirring a large pot of soup.
"Sasuke! You didn't tell me Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun would be staying over" she said happily, as soon as she caught sight of the trio.
Her smile was beautiful, and Sakura found herself once again wondering how she had married someone like Fugaku, who even Sasuke admitted he had never seen smile.
"Do you guys mind helping Itachi set the table?" Mikoto said. Without waiting for their answers she handed a basket full of cutlery, napkins, and bowls to Sasuke, waving them out of the kitchen.
The dining room was decorated elegantly, coloured a pale blue with an ornate wooden table placed in the center. Sakura inhaled deeply. The air was scented nicely too, mostly due to the small bouquets of flowers decorating the room. How Mikoto had time to maintain her beautiful household, on top of all her other duties as the matriarch of the Uchiha clan, Sakura didn't know.
"Nii-san! Kaa-san wanted us to help you set the table" Sasuke cried as soon as he spotted Itachi standing near them. He stuffed the basket his mother had given him into Sakura's arms and jumped at his elder brother, clinging onto him like a koala.
"Itachi-nii!" Naruto called as well, following Sasuke's example to hug Itachi from the other side.
The older Uchiha had dark circles under his eyes, and even as he gave the two boys a pained smile, Sakura could tell something was wrong. He looked over and met her gaze.
"Itachi-nii" she greeted, inclining her head.
Naruto had been the one to start calling him 'Itachi-nii' almost as soon as Sasuke had introduced them, and Sakura strongly suspected it stemmed from the blond boy wanting a family of his own. Sasuke had protested at first, not wanting to share his brother, but when Itachi had smiled softly as he poked the younger Uchiha on the forehead and said that he liked being called that, the boy had huffed and grudgingly allowed Naruto and Sakura to refer to Itachi with the familial suffix.
Setting the table alongside Itachi - Sasuke and Naruto having stopped helping after barely a minute - Sakura found herself worrying over the clan heir.
His long black hair was neatly tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck as usual, with not a single strand out of place, and he was wearing a simple clan shirt and shinobi pants, perfectly ironed and impeccable, but still Sakura could feel something wrong.
Pausing for a moment as she placed down a spoon beside a bowl, Sakura hesitantly tried to meet Itachi's gaze.
"Itachi-nii, are you alright" she asked quietly, not really expecting much of a response.
So it didn't surprise her at all when he simply nodded before breaking eye contact. Sakura didn't try again, pretending to be utterly focused on setting the table.
As Mikoto brought out the soup she had been making and spooned it out into bowls, Sakura found herself sitting between the Uchiha siblings, Sasuke on her right and Itachi on her left. She was relatively happy that the positioning of the table meant that Itachi blocked Fugaku's view of her though.
The Uchiha patriarch had joined them about a minute ago, sliding off his shoes at the door and padding silently in the room to sit at the head of table. Fugaku didn't move except to turn his head slightly as Mikoto gave him a quick peck on the cheek before taking her place one spot down.
"Haruno-san. Uzumaki-san" he greeted her and Naruto courteously, no real hint of emotion in his deep voice.
"Uchiha-dono" she said, as they both inclined their heads politely.
"Sasuke. Itachi" he nodded to his two sons. Sasuke smiled and nodded back, but Itachi ignored his father. Sakura frowned, had something happened between them.
Mikoto tried to ease the tension around the table, smiling at the younger three, and signalling for all of them to start eating.
There was no talking for a few minutes, the only sound being the slight clatter as a spoon would come in contact with the rim of a bowl, or the sound of a glass being placed back down on the table.
Fugaku finally cleared his throat, turning to his eldest. "Itachi, the elders demand that you attend the next clan meeting. They grow tired of your excuses" he said coldly. Any hopes Sakura had kept for a peaceful dinner disappeared.
Itachi didn't seem bothered by his father's gaze though, staring equally coolly back. "I will attend the meeting at my leisure" he replied. She noticed that despite not having seen him eating particularly fast, Itachi's bowl was already empty.
"You are being groomed become the Uchiha clan leader. You cannot simply attend meetings at your 'leisure'" Fugaku said, scoffing as he repeated the words Itachi had used.
Itachi didn't reply, but the look in his eyes wasn't hard to read. Suddenly Sakura felt a small tendril of fear brush her.
It's Itachi. How could I scared of Itachi? she thought to herself with a hint of panic.
"It's not you Sakura, It's me" inner Katniss said quietly.
The girl realized it was true. The irrational feeling of fear was coming completely from her inner. For some unknown reason, Itachi in this moment was scaring inner Katniss.
Looking to her other side, she noted that neither Naruto or Sasuke seemed to have felt the same fear the hunter inside her had.
"Itachi, tell us about your missions" Mikoto interrupted, in what had to be a completely blatant way conversation changer. "How's Shisui doing?"
All of a sudden Itachi tensed beside her at his mother's words, and with a frown on her face Sakura looked up from her soup. Itachi had paled significantly. Confused, she reflected on Mikoto's question. Had something happened on one of his recent missions? Maybe Shisui got hurt? It was the only possible answer she could think of.
Sakura looked under the table and saw Itachi's hand shaking violently, even as he clenched them into fists. She'd never seen him lose composure like this before.
Abruptly the black-haired heir stood up, pushing his chair back loudly.
"I need to go" he declared quietly.
Mikoto's forehead wrinkled a bit as she stared up at her eldest son. "Where do you need to go Itachi? Can't it wait until after dinner?"
Itachi simply repeated the same phrase with more volume as he walked towards the doorway of the dining room.
"I need to go." This time when he said it there was no doubt in voice. In a flash he was gone from sight, shunshining away from the compound.
"He didn't take his shoes" inner Katniss noted with surprise.
No one spoke for the rest of dinner, and even Mikoto didn't attempt to break the awful feeling hanging in the air, only staring longingly at the door as if she wished Itachi would return.
"Sasuke, what's up with Itachi-nii?" Sakura asked him later, as the three academy students climbed back up the stairs to his bedroom.
"I don't know," Sasuke replied with frustration evident in his tone. "I never hear anything from his room at night. So I finally went to check on him yesterday, but he wasn't there. I don't think he's slept for weeks."
Sakura's worries grew.
"Maybe it's because of his ANBU missions?" Naruto suggested.
"He's never been like this before" Sasuke said. "I think it's more on account of the clan elders. You heard what my father said at dinner, I don't think they really like nii-san that much."
"But he's a genius!" Sakura said, a bit shocked. "He's probably one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha!"
Sasuke grimaced. "I've heard them though. The clan elders. They call him a coward for some reason."
Naruto growled softly. "Itachi-nii isn't a coward! Your clan elders are stupid!" He said angrily, before looking around nervously to make sure no one else had been listening.
Sasuke scowled down at the floor, and Sakura wordlessly knew he agreed with Naruto.
"Hey, we can use the extra blankets in Sasuke's room to make a ninja fort" she offered, suddenly feeling uncomfortable about bad-mouthing the very clan they were in the house of.
Naruto brightened up instantly. "I brought my expired milk from home so we can prank people!"
Sasuke stared sideways at the two of them. "First of all, we are not going to trick people into drinking your spoiled milk Naruto. And second, real ninja forts aren't made out of blankets" he said arrogantly, his nose turned up a bit.
Sakura shrugged. "We could add traps to the fort?"
Sasuke considered it for a moment, before agreeing with a nod. "Ok, fine. But I get to be the ninja leader this time. Naruto ordered us to eat that gross food thing he made last time, and I was sick for a week."
Naruto grumbled. "Fine. But it wasn't thaaat gross!"
Sasuke entered his room first, sticking his tongue out for a moment before slamming the door in their faces. They both heard a distinctive sound of a lock clicking.
Sakura and Naruto stared at the closed door right in front of them, idiot smiles on both their faces, knowing they had made their friend brighten up a bit.
"Hey! Let us in teme!"
Sasuke didn't let them in for another ten minutes, and even then Sakura suspected it was more to save his own ears from Naruto's screeching then because he was feeling generous,
For the next few hours they worked on setting up their 'ninja fort' in his room, using ninja-wire to hang a large blanket between the closet and the wall. Brushing their teeth in the attached bathroom and then changing into their pajamas, all three of them crawled onto the single mattress they had managed to shove beneath the cover of the fort. Their bodies were still small enough that it wasn't really uncomfortable in the least.
Pretty soon, Sakura could hear Sasuke's even breathing from one side of her and Naruto's light snores from the other. But yet she had a hard time falling asleep herself. There was something, some instinct, telling her that she was forgetting something, that there was something important she had to do. Her mind whirled.
Sasuke had left the curtains open, and so Sakura quietly watched as the room grew darker and darker, soon only illuminated by a faint silver glow. She could see various pieces of her friend's clothing lying around on the floor, with a few kunai and pages of homework adding to the mess. She closed her eyes again, trying to find comfort in the way that Naruto had his arms draped over her, and Sasuke was close enough that every time he breathed it would make a few pieces of her hair flutter.
There was a small noise from the room right next to Sasuke's, and Sakura immediately gave up all pretense of attempting sleep.
"Itachi!" inner Katniss said, absolute certainty in her voice.
Sakura quickly sat up, gently removing Naruto's arm from over her and making sure not to wake either of the boys. The blond mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over. She crawled out of the fort they had made and stood up. Avoiding the traps around the fort which they had carefully set up earlier, Sakura quietly turned the knob of Sasuke's door.
It opened with a loud creak that echoed through the silent house, and Sakura winced. Tiptoeing into the hall and closing the door behind her, she made her way in the direction she had heard the noise.
She knocked quietly on Itachi's bedroom. She heard a rustle from inside but that was it. Sakura waited for a moment before knocking quietly again. Suddenly the door opened, and she found herself staring up into the eyes of the clan heir.
"Can I come in, Itachi-nii?" She asked meekly, looking back down at the floor. He raised the arm he had been leaning onto his door frame with, and she took that as an invitation.
Sakura studied his room. She'd been in here before of course, and she remembered how it had looked the exact opposite of Sasuke's, books arranged neatly on their shelves and not a single item out of place. Now though, there were pieces of shinobi gear scattered all over Itachi's bed.
"Are you leaving on a mission?" Sakura said quietly, turning to face Itachi who had closed the door behind her.
"Something like that" he murmured.
He was wearing a different shirt now from before, with a high collar that hid the bottom half of his face. He seemed to have been in the middle of putting a leather shinobi vest on when she came in. One of the shoulder straps was still undone, and the other hadn't been tightened properly.
Itachi sat down on his bed, the mattress barely sinking from his weight, and Sakura gestured towards his armour, silently asking permission. The Uchiha heir nodded.
Padding over to him on bare feet, she gently moved his unbound hair out of the way and fastened the first strap with nimble fingers. As she started on the second one, Itachi wordlessly picked up twin arm guards from beside him and put them on.
What felt like minutes had probably only taken seconds, but soon Sakura had finished securing his vest, looking it over once to ensure she'd done it correctly before stepping away from him.
Itachi stood up, tying his hair into his standard ponytail in a single fluid motion.
"Was there something you needed to see me about?" He asked quietly.
There were so many things she wanted to say in that moment. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, why he wasn't sleeping, if she could help. She shook her head.
"It's nothing" she whispered, her voice catching.
Itachi stared down at her calculatively for another moment, before suddenly his sharingan spun into existence, onyx black replaced by a blood red.
Sakura started as he moved a hand towards her, but he only poked her forehead softly, like she had seen him do to Sasuke countless times.
"Sleep, Sakura" Itachi whispered.
The pink haired girl crumbled, unconscious. She didn't hit the ground though, caught by a dark haired Uchiha boy who looked down at her form with sad eyes.
"Thank you" he said softly, to no one in particular.
.
"Sakura! Wake up! Sakura! Please wake up!"
Sakura woke up to a whiskered face hovering over hers, and Naruto frantically shouting.
There was no other sound coming from her surroundings except Naruto, but suddenly she heard whispered words echoing in her head.
What happened? she asked frantically, hoping maybe one of her inners would have the answers.
But although she could feel inner Hermione wanting to tell her something, all three remained suspiciously silent.
"Sakura! Please, I need you!" Naruto's voice came again, and he sounded half near crying.
Emerald green orbs met cerulean blue ones, and suddenly Sakura was aware of what was happening around her.
"Naruto?" She asked. There was something wrong, she could feel it. It was that awful sense of wrongness from the night before amplified a thousand times.
Naruto wiped his eyes with a sleeve. "Sasuke's gone. And -and in the halls there's, -there's" he couldn't continue, and Sakura watched his entire body shake like a leaf.
She sat up and noticed she was still in Itachi's bedroom, lying on top of his neatly made bed. She touched the mattress beneath her. He had sat here just the night before, as she helped him put on his gear. That much she remembered.
"I-I woke up" Naruto said, and there were tear tracks running down his face. "And you guys were both g-gone. And it was so quiet. A-And then I went out in the h-hallway."
All thoughts of Itachi were gone from her head for the moment as she grabbed Naruto's fisted hand in her own. The boy hung his head, his blond hair falling in front of his face.
"I-I thought it was paint" he explained, his other hand grabbing onto hers as well. "But it wasn't. And-And then the door was open and I saw you."
Sakura rolled out of the bed and wrapped her arms tightly around Naruto's body. She could feel his entire body shivering in her embrace.
"We need to find Sasuke" she said.
Naruto nodded shakily. "But… the hallways."
Sakura took a deep breath, trying to think rationally. "I'll lead you" she told the blond boy, who for once didn't protest.
Together, both holding onto the other, they made their way into the hallway and towards the stairs.
The white painted walls of the household had been splattered in blood. There was a body lying halfway up the stairs. There was more than one body. Sakura froze, and suddenly she couldn't move. Her vision filled with red, and she was shaking just like Naruto now. Everywhere she turned there was blood.
Faintly she could hear someone calling her name, but it wasn't Naruto.
"Sakura! Sakura, listen to me. You need to find Sasuke" inner Katniss was yelling at her.
There's blood everywhere. Sakura thought, her mind spiraling frantically, and she clenched her eyes shut.
"Sakura, focus on my voice" inner Katniss said slowly. "Focus on my voice. That's right."
"You've seen blood before, Sakura. You need to take deep breaths. Now, try to channel me. You need to become me, Sakura. I can help you find Sasuke."
Sakura pretended she was Katniss. She'd seen countless bodies in the games. She'd lost so many during the war. But Sasuke was alive, and she needed to find Sasuke. Naruto was depending on her.
It was hard to keep the mask up though, and as she and Naruto passed by a body with empty eye sockets lying limply in their path, Sakura just couldn't do it anymore. The idea of being Katniss faded and the panic was back in full force.
She heard a low growl in the back of her mind, and suddenly the ground was spinning and she was being pushed out of her own body and into a dark, blank, landscape. It was an odd type of dark surrounding her - there wasn't any source of lighting, but she could still see clearly see in the pitch black. Feeling solid ground beneath her feet, she chanced a look down. A sick feeling grew in her chest. Sakura clenched her eyes shut.
Blood rushed past her ears, and even with her eyes closed she could see all the corpses, all the red splatters. Where was she now? Was she dead?
She heard rustling behind her, and Sakura jolted, frantic.
"It's ok Sakura, open your eyes," the voice said softly, and Sakura faintly recognized it as inner Hermione.
Painfully slowly opening her eyes, she looked to her side to see a young girl with bushy brown hair wearing a black robe. Inner Hermione. Sakura felt relief sweep through her.
Hermione! Where am I? She asked, half sobbing, as she tried to wrap her arms around the other girl for support. Her arms went right through inner Hermione's body, as if she was just a spirit. Sakura stared down at her hands and tried to pat her own stomach. She didn't feel any resistance and suddenly she could see her arm sticking out the other side of her body. She started to hyperventilate.
"Sakura, it's ok. Everything's going to be alright, ok. You're in your mindscape right now. We're all just projections at the moment, so we don't have any physical presence," Inner Hermione said softly. "We've got you Sakura, don't worry."
Sakura took a deep, shaky breath, and looked down again. Below her feet dark clouds swirled around, broken by the chaos of black water thundering and crashing through clouded mist. There was something beneath her feet, some kind of glass, keeping her from falling into the hell that waited below her, but Sakura felt as if it could break any minute.
"Below you is the physical manifestation of all your negative emotions, Sakura. It wasn't this violent before, but well… after what you saw tonight in the outside world."
Sakura finally looked up, and beside the insubstantial form of inner Hermione, a second figure had appeared. It was Ahsoka, her face painted with delicate white lines, and her blue and white headdress blowing slightly in the nonexistent breeze.
My-My body, the rea-outside world, where is it? Sakura cried, trying not to even glance down beneath her, scared by what she saw.
Inner Ahsoka didn't respond and slowly walked away, gesturing for Sakura to follow. Within seconds the glass and roiling storm beneath her had disappeared, replaced by a simple black marble. They kept walking.
"We call it the 'viewing platform'," inner Ahsoka said suddenly, and Sakura followed the Togruta's gaze to see another large rectangle of glass set within the black marble floor. "It's how we view the outside world."
Sakura rushed towards it and kneeled down, already half-knowing what she would see. This time, there wasn't a dark pit of chaos beneath her. Instead, she could see a young pink-haired girl standing next to another blond-haired child, both of them surrounded by corpses and blood. Sakura shook a bit, remembering her panic, but it was different viewing it from this angle. More detached.
She cast her gaze to the form of Ahsoka beside her, and spoke softly. What happened to me?
It wasn't the padawan who answered however, but instead a voice that seemed to echo through the mindscape.
"You were going into shock, Sakura. It's Katniss, I took control of your body. I'll find Sasuke for you."
Sakura nodded mutely, her eyes fixed on the scene below her.
In the outside world, Sakura - no, it was Katniss in control of the girl's body now - stepped over the dead corpse of a clan member in front of her, holding onto Naruto's hands tightly to drag him along. It was even worse in the next room she entered, with not only blood covering the walls, but also splattered organ parts.
Katniss kept walking.
"I've got you" Katniss whispered to Naruto, holding onto him tighter. The boy didn't respond, and she could see him trying to keep a hold of himself. Together, they slowly walked past a few more bodies and into the main courtyard of the compound.
Under the light of the moonlight, she could see Sasuke kneeling on the ground, sobbing loudly. Katniss could feel an immense wave of relief sweep over Sakura, still stuck in the back of her own head.
"Sakura, can you handle this now? I need you to tell me truthfully" Katniss asked, and Sakura heard her, the hunter's rasping voice coming from an indeterminable place in the mindscape.
Y-Yes, she shakily replied, not knowing if Katniss could hear her. She could still see Sasuke through the viewing platform, and he looked to be in so much pain.
Immediately, there was an odd tugging sort of feeling, and Sakura could feel the glass beneath her feet disappearing. Suddenly she was falling, tumbling. She jolted back into her own body.
The outside world was dark in a different way than the mindscape had been, and it was less detached now, the way she could feel Naruto holding onto her tightly, and the awful silence surrounding the entire compound.
Thank you, Katniss, the girl thought, feeling the presence of her inner back in her mindscape, exactly where she had just been.
She loosened Naruto's grip from her.
"Naruto, Sasuke's ok" she told him softly, and she could feel the boy's shaking subside a bit.
Spotting the younger Uchiha, Naruto immediately withdrew from her and ran towards the other boy.
"Sasuke!" He yelled, coming to a stop beside him and crouching down.
The other boy ignored his friend, rocking himself on his heels and covering his face with his hands.
Sakura rushed over as well, falling ungracefully on the other side of Sasuke.
"Sasuke, we're here. Sasuke, we're right here" she said, trying to wrap her arms around him. There was silence for a moment, the only sounds coming from Sasuke's ragged breathing.
Suddenly, the black haired boy snapped and violently pushed Sakura away, causing her to painfully skid on the stones of the courtyard. He pushed Naruto in the opposite direction.
"Don't. Call. Me. Sasuke" he shouted through clenched teeth, and Sakura finally caught sight of his eyes.
They were hollow, and full of shock and horror and disbelief. And they were a bright, crimson, red. He'd awoken the sharingan
She ignored the scrapes on her body and picked herself off the ground. Sakura couldn't even feel the pain, her mind not processing all the information around her fast enough.
"Sa-Sasuke, w-who did this?"
The boy was glaring at her without really seeing her, and it sent a chill all the way to her bones.
"Nii-san called me Sasuke. Kaa-san called me Sasuke. NII-SAN KILLED KAA-SAN" he screamed, his hands covering his ears as if to protect himself from hearing something.
It wasn't for a mission. I didn't help Itachi put on his armour for a mission.
Her mind wasn't working.
Naruto took a step towards the Sasuke and the black haired boy instantly scrambled back, looking like a wounded animal.
"Sasu-" Naruto started.
Sasuke sprinted away from him. Back into the house.
Sakura caught Naruto's gaze, and in that moment the young boy looked so, incredibly, hopeless.
They ran after Sasuke. This time Naruto barely seemed to see the blood and bodies everywhere, and as he stumbled over the leg of corpse and fell to the ground, Sakura immediately helped him up.
Every single one of the corpses had had their eyes removed, hollow sockets staring at them, watching them, accusing them.
She could see Sasuke disappearing into his parents' master bedroom, and her and Naruto stumbled down the hall after him.
They entered the room and collapsed next to Sasuke.
Mikoto and Fugaku were both leaned against the headboard, and it wouldn't have been out of place, if not for the blood splattered over the covers, the gaping holes in their chests, and their empty eye sockets gazing emotionlessly out at them.
And that was exactly how Konoha's ANBU found the three of them hours later, in the middle of a massacre, huddled together and holding on to one another as if to keep afloat.
Sakura was seven when the Uchiha massacre happened.
She didn't feel seven afterwards.
.
Sasuke had never been the same after that night. Understandable, really.
They'd missed the rest of second year at the academy. It had been about a month after the massacre, and Sasuke had thought he'd be ready to move on and try and attempt a sense of normality. He'd taken one step into the classroom and seen gazes full of pity. He'd ran away and it had taken another month for him to recover.
Sakura and Naruto had refused to attend if Sasuke wasn't by their sides.
And so they had stayed by his side.
Sasuke had tried to deny anything had happened the first month, and Sakura had woken up to him yelling 'kai' in the middle of the night, or slicing into himself with a kunai to try and wake himself from a genjutsu.
Sakura had felt helpless.
The weeks after that had been anger. Trying to go get ramen at Ichiraku's, and then minutes later having to restrain Sasuke as he tried to claw out the eyes of a man with a similar build to Itachi. Constantly walking on eggshells around the boy for fear of him lashing out. Naruto and Sakura had taken to adding a '-chan' at the end of his name, as they found it reminded Sasuke of Itachi when they didn't add the suffix.
Sakura had felt as if it were wrong, as if Itachi didn't deserve Sasuke's hatred. She had instantly cleared that thought from her head.
The bargaining phase had started when the Hokage finally decided they were ready for him to question. Sasuke had broke down in front of Sarutobi and his council, and asked them to please bring his family back, that'd he'd give them anything. His life. The Hokage had asked to talk to her after the meeting, and with only a hint of pity had told her that due to her extended absence her grades had dropped below ninety. Her scholarship and means for becoming a ninja was gone. A day later Sasuke paid for her tuition with the Uchiha money he had inherited.
Sakura had felt disgust when she met councilman Danzo. He had looked at Sasuke as if he was just a piece of meat, a pawn to control.
It seemed like Sasuke had skipped over the fourth phase of depression, but Sakura had known that was a lie. It would be a long time before the boy was happy again. "Someday," Naruto had promised her, "I'll make sure he smiles again."
Sakura felt as if Konoha had failed her two boys, and she couldn't forgive her village.
Sakura wasn't a physcologist, but she knew the final stage of grief was acceptance. So she waited patiently for Sasuke to finally come to terms with what had happened. And eventually he did, right before the start of their third year at the academy. He hadn't cried in a while, not since the first few weeks after the massacre, but one morning Sasuke had woken up, had held onto Naruto and Sakura for consolation, and had sobbed.
He wasn't better, Sakura knew that. Not by a long way. There was still that forever burning hatred under his skin, but she didn't begrudge him that. He had made it clear he planned to murder Itachi in revenge, and while Sakura couldn't find it in herself to approve of his self-given mission, she hoped that once he did that anger simmering in his veins would finally dissolve.
And now that Sasuke had finally stopped consuming all her thoughts, Sakura's worries turned to her next problem.
After that night at the compound, she had been hesitant about facing her inners. Being trapped within her own body had stirred chasms of helplessness and panic in her, and for a while, despite wishing she could escape the harshness of reality to become someone else for a while, Sakura had been too scared to become one of her inners. Because in truth, she hadn't just pretended to be someone else that night, she had actually become someone else that night. Inner Katniss had taken over her body.
But with the constant maelstrom of grief around her, Sakura had finally needed to just escape. And so she'd had a long overdue conversation with her three inners.
Sakura had always believed, prompted in part by her parents, that she suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder, or possibly Schizophrenia. That the voices in her head weren't real, just imaginary personalities she'd created to fill in her loneliness.
She'd been wrong.
Inner Hermione had calmly tried to explain that they really weren't just fragments of Sakura's personality, or voices that didn't exist. They had thoughts and opinions and memories.
Sakura had never liked not knowing the answers. So she'd researched.
It was exactly two days later that she suspected she had a second soul - well, multiple second souls actually.
Apparently it wasn't exactly common, so as to how she, a completely average civilian girl, had somehow had four separate souls placed in her body, Sakura wasn't quite sure. She definitely didn't have a body mutation, such as multiple brains or duplicate organs - was that even possible? - but her inners had quickly assured her that they were pretty sure they were just a spiritual part of her, having no physical or material reality, and only able to think and will.
After that, it soon wasn't as simple as simply putting on the mask of someone else anymore. The first time Sakura hesitantly tried to give up control to inner Ahsoka, the exact same thing that had occurred at the Uchiha compound happened again. Suddenly, she was being pushed out of her body and she found herself standing in her mindscape, the endlessly stretching, dark barren plain, right next to two other figures. She wasn't above the darkened storm this time though, instead appearing right next to the viewing platform.
Sakura looked down, feeling the same nausea she had felt the first time at viewing her own body from this odd perspective.
Staring down through the glass that rectangle of her mindscape was made from, she felt like some sort of deity, watching over herself. In fact, if it weren't for the reassuringly solid feeling beneath her feet, Sakura would have thought she was floating in midair. She tried to touch herself, but again her body couldn't reach the physical realm, her fingers passing through her chest. The same, slightly odd feeling of and claustrophobia she had felt last time quickly welled up within her, but this time without the added panic of the Uchiha Massacre, it was easier to handle, and she shoved it down. She felt inner Hermione and inner Katniss moving to stand beside her.
Inner Ahsoka, now in Sakura's body, stretched her limbs, feeling as if she was finally awakening from years of slumber.
"This is nice," she said to Sakura, who was still stuck in the mindscape.
Yeah, I'm starting to get used to the feeling of seeing someone else controlling my body, Sakura thought back, laughing a bit to try and conceal her slight queasiness. Try moving around a bit.
Ahsoka danced around a bit, pretending she was fighting a lightsaber battle. She slashed and lunged at her imaginary opponent, and slowly she started to grow accustomed to the different limitations and physical requirements of her new body.
Remembering some of the more difficult movements Form V fighting had, she cautiously attempted a back handspring before jumping up high into the air and spinning head first towards the ground only to flip and land on her feet at the last moment. She staggered a bit at the landing, not quite keeping her balance, but she had done it.
Sakura stared down, stunned at her own body, never having been able to perform such complex movements before. Ahsoka… this is so much better than when you were only able to advise me on how to copy your movements.
She looked up from the viewing platform of her mindscape and turned to face inner Katniss.
Katniss, I need to know if theoretically you guys can take over my body at will, she asked seriously.
Inner Katniss frowned contemplatively, and Sakura found herself surprised at how much her inner resembled the actual girl-on-fire. Perhaps it was only her mind casting the physical image of the characters on to the inners? Except of course, Sakura was within her own mind. Her brain started to hurt and she dropped the chain of thought.
"I think you need to invite us into your body, much like you would invite someone into your house. What you called a 'viewing platform' is actually more of a doorway. Right now, it feels locked to me, but the night of the massacre I think your mind was so frantic and confused that it accidently opened, letting me take your place in your body," inner Katniss said.
So how do I get back into my body?
"It might be different for you, since technically the body belongs to you, and we are just spectators, locked in your mindscape," the dark-haired older girl said, "I suspect that you will be able to drop back into your body through the 'viewing platform' if you wish so."
Sakura bit her lip thoughtfully, staring back down at her body through the viewing platform. Taking a few steps so she was standing roughly in the center, she tried to will herself back into her body.
Almost immediately there came the same drag as before, except now it was pulling her back into her body and not pushing her out. Sakura opened her eyes and found herself back in the physical world, with a sun shining down from above and a soft breeze moving through the trees. It was so harshly different from the mindscape she had just come from, which had been colourless, and dark, and empty.
That was really, really, weird, Sakura stated as calmly as she could.
She promptly keeled over and vomited.