So I owe you all for waiting, but I know it's worth it.

I don't know for sure, but maybe this story will be ten chapters or a little over. I felt I had to say it ahead of time, but the feeling comes when it does. :)

Been busy with "Allure of Darkness" and "The Gutsy Jinchuuriki", of course, so here ya go!

Chapter Five

The Person Within

She was falling apart, and thought she would for sure when Kisame ushered her out of that room where her husband and the others were still in there. The howls and curses quieted down after what felt like forever.

"The sow is mine"...that did not sound like her at all. What if there is...someone else inside her? Something mental...oh, God, that would mean she'd have to be locked up at her age. Our little girl!

Izumi didn't want to think about that possibility, but if Dr. Yakushi suggested it, then what else could they do?

The door opened, and out came Itachi, Sasuke and the doctor who was red-faced due to the blow from the crazed girl. All were exhausted and frizzed from the tussling. "She's heavily sedated," Kabuto said. "Which means she might sleep through tomorrow." Kisame raised a hand to rest it on her back for reassurance, but she shrugged it off because even the slightest contact made her cringe.

"What the hell was going on? How could she...fly off the bed like that?" she hissed, looking at every single one of them.

"In pathological cases like these," Kabuto answered, "normal strength is induced, the best way to put it. Accelerated motor performance - for example, if a ninety-pound woman sees her child pinned under the wheel of a truck before going to lift the wheel half a foot above the ground." He reached to take off his glasses which had been broken into nothing more than a crack in the left lens, not enough to shatter.

"But what is wrong with her?" Sasuke asked, putting his hands into his pockets. "And don't give me the temporal lobe shit." His temper snapped and was enough to make Itachi do the same - just like it did to her. All three of them were in agreement.

"Yes, she acted like she was out of her mind," her husband said vehemently. "It pains me to say this, but it's like she was a split person!"

In other words: schizophrenia. There were more than hundreds of these cases around the world. That meant reasonable psychiatry would be in question, and that was also Kabuto's field of expertise. But that also means Sarada would have to be...

"I felt her spine when we laid her down," the doctor said. "It felt like a part of it was broken, but not enough to paralyze or kill her. If she does have a split personality, it's an extremely violent one, but we have to eliminate the possibility."

And that meant another goddamned scan, listening to her scream and seeing her flinch under those horrendously loud machines that lit all the way up and down her body just so answers could be given. But when that did happen, the X-rays once again showed negative.

In other words: Sarada was still normal.

~o~

Itachi felt like pulling his hair from his skull, Izumi unable to stop crying and using an entire tissue box, and Sasuke was hissing through his teeth and cursing under his breath. Their child was clean as a whistle on scans, but she was acting like she was torn between being one person and another. What the HELL was turning her from a great little girl into an uncontrollable lunatic?!

Questions asked: were there drugs or alcohol in the house? "Of course there aren't any drugs!" Izumi shouted beyond frustration. "And we keep booze, but not where she would get a hold!"

Then the subject was brought up about the cancelled fishing trip that was supposed to happen when Sarada finished school, and now that her father was home, he suggested that it be brought up again - but only after she got better, and whenever THAT would be! Itachi was so furious, his temper shorter than it used to be in his life.

And then Kabuto suggested the very thing, and that was he would resort to the psychiatrist aspect of his career, meaning split personality disorders would have to be on the table.

His wife was home for the while after explaining to her agent what was going on with their niece, and she had to go out for the day - to a spa with her mother since they hadn't seen each other in a while, and Itachi was the one to suggest it before she lost it any more than he had; they argued about it for a little bit before she finally relented and swore that he had better keep tabs and let her know so that she'd come straight home.

"I wish you could have this with me while Sasuke watches her," she said, just before he left that evening to meet with the doctor as planned. "You deserve some stress relief, too."

He sighed, agreeing with her, and half of him felt like a sinning bastard because their niece was suffering for something they couldn't even figure out, and which she had no fault over. It'll be all right again, he kept telling himself, but it felt too loose to hold the boat in place. It made him feel like the night her mother died birthing her.

Which was what he tried to convince Sasuke and failed miserably.

Thinking about his younger brother made his spinal nerves grow cold as he drove home that evening, having work caught up during the day so that he and Kabuto could talk, and the chill got worse as he imagined how a meeting regarding Sarada's mental health could turn out, and if she would be admitted to a psych ward with no hopes of getting out...that scared the daylights out of him.

Itachi saw the ambulance and police cars surrounding the area outside his house, but he thought nothing of it and assumed it was an accident that took place nearby.

As soon as he was inside, he called for Sasuke and got no answer. Scowling, he wondered if the fool ran off again as he couldn't take it anymore.

When he got to Sarada's room, finding she was sound asleep, his entire body hit subzero as he felt how COLD it was - like an iceberg. The damned window was opened, that was why! Livid, Itachi rushed over to pull the thing inside and lock it in place. I'm surprised you didn't wake to it, Sarada. And why on earth would you sleep through it with the covers off?! He rushed to get them back over her body so she didn't die of hypothermia in her sleep.

When he saw Kisame coming home, he lost his temper on the man for no reason, but because he wanted to know if he'd done it, just so he could save Sasuke for last. "What the hell was that about, Kisame?" he barked. "Sarada's window was wide open -"

"Itachi, your brother was still here when I left! I went to get more thorazine -" The man produced the items in the plastic white bag. "- and he stayed here to keep her company. I would never dream of opening that window at this time of night."

So, in other words, his foolish brother was responsible. He jerked his head up just as the door opened, and there was Izumi coming in, stricken to the face. "Itachi, you haven't heard?!" she cried.

"Heard what?" He hadn't meant to snap, because she flinched at his shortness; she answered anyway.

"I just came home, and I was cornered by a police officer." She took a few deep breaths to calm down before she finished. "Sasuke...Sasuke's dead."

~o~

The spa did wonders, as did telling her mom what was going on, and Hazuki could hardly believe it herself. "You don't suppose that she'll have to be..." She trailed off, refusing to say the horrible words, which Izumi agreed with her on. She didn't want to think about it, just like her husband didn't.

"Maybe there could be another reason behind it," Hazuki told her as they were getting pedicures, and she spoke in hushed voices. "If there isn't a scientific reason..."

Izumi interrupted her. "Mom, if it is, then it scares me. Itachi isn't even religious, so how can he believe it?"

"Might as well, if other options fail. You should just take matters into your own hands if everything else doesn't work out," her mom told her, somber and trying to be optimistic. "Because that child's life is at stake." And those words would haunt her as she would drive back home when the sun went down. No doubt Sarada was passed out at this time, her father watching over her while Itachi was speaking with the doctor again to see what the results were; if they were definitely negative in terms of something physical in the brain, then the word psychiatrist was once again in play.

Mom is right. If modern medicine won't work, who can we turn to?

She came home, seeing Itachi was already there, but before she could pull into the driveway, she was approached by a few police officers - and the lead detective, Kakashi Hatake, was the one to tell her why they were here, and what was with the ambulance.

When Itachi would hear this, he would get into a worse state than he already was. His moods had gotten worse than her hysterics had.

It looked like Sasuke must have been drinking and ended up falling out his daughter's window while she was sleeping. He went down the steps until he touched the bottom of the hill, breaking his neck.

So, when she told her husband that his brother was dead, he punched the nearby wall and broke down into breathless sobs, turning then to collapse into her arms. When they fell to the floor together on their knees, watched by Kisame, past words from Sasuke came back to plague her mind that she wondered if he ever told his daughter:

"I'm so sorry I was never a good father. I loved your mother, but I often would see too much of her in you. I deserve your hatred. And here I am while you are sick..."

There was no sense pondering what could have been.

So, the funeral arrangements were made the next day, the day to take place in four days, and it was a haze. Her Itachi was in such a depression that it made her feel so lost herself. Why was everything going wrong? Why did their niece deserve this, and how could Sasuke -? How could THAT have been just an accident?

Sleeping beside her husband now felt like sleeping next to a stranger. She tried to hold onto him, but he would just lie there and not return the embrace. Nor would he say a word to her.

But he did come downstairs after working - it pissed her off that he functioned well there instead of with his own family now - when Sarada was injected so that she didn't fuss, and she numbly sat in a love chair, staring at nothing in particular as Inoichi Yamanaka was called in so that he could perform the session at Dr. Yakushi's request.

"Are you comfortable, Sarada?" he asked, getting a blank "yes". "And how old are you?"

"Twelve."

Now here came the blow to the mind: "Is there someone inside you?"

"...sometimes."

Izumi covered her eyes and leaned forward rather than leaning into Itachi who furrowed his brows together and didn't utter a word. They hardened when Sarada didn't know who was inside her. Not even her mother, who at first was believed to be in this house, in spirit.

When Izumi found out about the ghost board the girl brought home from school that one time, she lashed out at Itachi for not stopping her from playing it with him. Resulting in nails scratching his face, and they were still there.

"I'm afraid," Sarada finally murmured. "I want them to leave..."

So if Yamanaka talked to the mysterious person, they might leave her. He spoke in a quiet voice, saying that if he or she was there, they were hypnotized like their host. "So, answer all my questions, and come forward..."

Something horrible happened in these forms: a picture of Sarada when she was six fell from atop the fireplace, but the glass didn't break. And then the girl herself contorted in the face, letting out the most demonic of snarls, and her lips chapped a little. The lines around her eyes made her look three decades older than she was. She coughed a few times, then stopped when Inoichi knelt over her and asked if he was talking to the person inside Sarada.

"Who are you?"

The eyes opened, and the face slowly turned to look up at him, the expression tight and most unfriendly...

...and her small, delicate hand which had become so powerful found its way to his groin and grasped him in a way that lifted him off the floor and threw him onto his back. He howled and screamed for help as the small girl found her way atop him, snarling like a wild animal.

Kabuto shouted as he came to grab her and take her off of the poor man. This session had made progress but had also gone nowhere, as Inoichi was nursing his pride with an ice pack that Itachi got him, his scowl having softened but his frustration no better.

Izumi had begun to conclude that this wasn't ordinary schizophrenia; maybe her mom was right, but she was going to keep her mouth closed for the time being.

After this incident, Sarada was strapped down to a gurney at Konoha General, snarling and thrashing, spitting profanities that tore her heart piece by piece. Kabuto said that this was rarely seen anymore except in primitive culture - but had he ever seen anything like her poor face being scratched red in places as if by fingernails?! Sarada hadn't even done that herself; no flesh underneath her nails, either!

That look in her eyes...the eyes of a child...

What was this: a delusion of an invasion of some kind now? Like an alien or a spirit? Admittance, after all, as a result?!

Thus she made her decision when she, her husband and Kabuto met with some other staff members who were with him to listen to the case. "I don't care what you call it," Izumi said, slamming her palm on the table. "Itachi and I are NOT going to put her away." He just looked at her but said nothing, only rubbed his eyes, and he exploded once more when Kabuto said he was sorry.

"You're SORRY! You doctors and your bullshit! Unless you give the real treatment, then go to hell! All of you!"

Izumi finally burst, unable to keep quiet anymore. The man she loved as well as herself were deteriorating as their niece was, Sasuke was dead in a goddamned accident in midst of all of this, and now she was going to bring forth her mom's suggestion because Sarada needed it.

"I may have an idea, and I don't care if it is crazy or not."

No one reviewed last time, and I wondered if it had to do with what went on with Sarada in here. :(

Anyhoo, new ones appreciated after the long wait. Let's see how Izumi's suggestion goes to her husband and the doctors.