(Previously)

"Hypnotism is a good way to cure phobias." Tsunade smirked.

"And so?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm asking you to use your Mangekyou Sharingan… to hypnotize her and cure her from her hemophobia." The Godaime Hokage said.

(Act 6 – Submission to Unfaithfulness)

Sasuke snickered at that, "What? Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Tsunade looked dead serious.

"No." Sasuke's snickering was reduced into a ridiculed smirk on his face, "I won't use my Mangekyou on her just to cure her. What do I care about her?"

"If you use the Mangekyou on her and cured her, I won't arrest you for treachery. I won't arrest you, at all!" she answered, "So, do we have a deal, Mr. Uchiha?"

The Uchiha prodigy sighed, "Look, if I use the Mangekyou Sharingan on her, she will become unconscious after a few memory attacks-"

"No problem, I can always cure her." Tsunade interrupted, "So, do we have a deal?"

"Are you sure you're not going to imprison me?" Sasuke aksed.

"You've got the word of the Hokage."

"Deal."

A few minutes later…

Machines were attached to Sasuke and to Sakura in the emergency room.

"We're going to keep track of how far you have been into Sakura's mind. We'll send an electric current to your system once we've detected that you're not in a good place anymore in her mind." A neurologist told Sasuke after putting the last cord onto his forehead.

Sakura was held by three nurses on a sitting position in front of him, as the neurologists were attaching the cords onto her head and her upper spine. Sakura had her head down, her eyes tightly closed, obviously, she was still unconscious.

"Okay we're ready." Another neurologist signaled after observing the brainwaves of the two.

A small charge of electric current was sent to Sakura's spine and she opened her eyes.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan. The nurses gently but firmly held Sakura's head – for her to be able to look directly into Sasuke's eyes.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Sakura tried to shake her head madly, to try to remove the nurses' holds on her, "Get off me, and stop it!"

"Hold her in place!" Tsunade demanded.

"What's this stuff all about, huh?" Sakura looked at Tsunade at the corner of her eyes as her head was held in place to face Sasuke.

Tsunade sighed and took a scalpel from the desk beside her. With one swipe of the scalpel, she made a small wound on her forearm, blood immediately gushing out from the wound.

"Blood… Blood…!" Sakura's eyes narrowed and she looked away from Tsunade and turned to look at Sasuke.

"Sakura, look away!" Sakura's inner self screamed, "Look a-"

But it was too late – Sakura's green eyes turned hazy as Sasuke successfully performed the Mangekyou.

"She's awake but… She's in the Rapid Eye Movement stage!" the neurologist observing Sakura's monitors said.

In Sakura's mind…

A medic nin named Sakura was seated on her seat in the receiving desk of the hospital. It was late at night and she was watching the clock.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock… tick… tock… tick… … … tock… … tick…

Sakura blinked at the clock and rubbed her eyes as she saw the clock moving slowly… until the hands suddenly stopped moving.

She stood up and approached the clock. The clock stopped a minute before it hit twelve in the midnight.

"The battery must be dead." She thought.

She sighed and decided to sign the logout book. What difference does it make anyway? It's not like she was going to do something when it's already 11:59, well, except sign her name on the logout book.

Finished, she finally got out of the hospital.

While she was walking, dark rain clouds covered the full moon and it began raining.

"Oh great!" Sakura said as she ran under the rain, trying to find the nearest shelter.

She has been running for quite a while now, but how come there were no shelters in sight? She knows there's one not too far.

She stopped running, and tried catching her breath. She slouched, with her hands on her knees and tried to slow down her heartbeat. She looked at her surroundings…

She has been running around in circles!

She made a handseal and said, "Genjutsu Kai!"

The visions before her blurred and she found herself in the emergency room.

… And Sasuke was in front of her, bleeding madly.

"Sakura, what are you doing! We're trying to heal his muscles! You just cut an artery! Focus your chakra right!" Tsunade slapped away Sakura's hands as she moved over to the said cut artery and healed it herself.

Sakura was brought back to all her senses as she just realized what she had done – she had just cut a major artery, instead of healing the muscles surrounding and near that artery.

"Tsunade-sama, he's losing a lot of blood!" Shizune panicked as she helped Tsunade heal the cut artery.

"Sakura, what were you thinking! You almost killed him!" Tsunade scolded.

Sakura took a step backwards and looked at her hands, her bloodstained hands. Her eyes narrowed and trembled. She looked at her clothes and saw that they were stained with his blood as well.

"Blood…! Blood…!" Sakura panicked.

She ran out of the room and went to the sterilizing area. She opened the faucet and tried to wash off the blood from her hands.

She splashed water onto her face frantically to get rid of the blood on her cheek. She looked at the mirror in front of her and was horrified to see the blood on her clothes. She saw them earlier but now that her hands and her face were free from blood, her clothes made her look like a killer.

She took off her jacket and her white shirt, until she was left with nothing on her torso except her bra. She went to the cabinets and took out a doctor's robe and she quickly put it on, buttoning the first six buttons that runs from her collarbone down to her bellybutton.

She looked at her clothes on the sink. She took them and threw them into the trash bin.

"Why are you so afraid of blood?" a voice hissed.

She quickly turned around, her senses still trying to be alert, amidst the fear that she feels all over her body.

But when she did turn around, only more fear took over her body.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED HERE!" she shouted trying to step backwards, in a desperate move to find the backdoor.

"You're a medic nin, aren't you supposed to be tougher than that?" Uchiha Sasuke asked.

Sasuke was perfectly fine! No signs of lacerations, injuries… just a serious look in his Sharingan eyes.

"When did you start caring?" Sakura said, "GUARDS! GUARDS! ANYONE! AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL HAS ENTERED THE STERILIZING ROOM!"

"They won't hear you, Sakura." Sasuke moved closer.

Sakura found a scalpel in the tools' drying and sterilizing area. She took it and charged Sasuke. Sasuke didn't move, surprised, Sakura only made a cut on his cheek.

Within seconds, she dropped the scalpel, realizing what she has done… and that was as soon as she saw blood on the edges of the scalpel. She looked at the man before her and saw that his cheek was bleeding.

Her eyes narrowed even more and she was running out of breath.

"I have a cut on my cheek. Heal me." He took her hand and placed it on his bleeding cheek.

He then showed to her his blood on her palm, "Look at it."

"NO!" Sakura closed her eyes as she tried to wiggle away from his hold.

"Why are you so afraid of blood?" he asked that question again.

She didn't reply… she just tried to wiggle out of his firm hold on her wrist.

"ANSWER ME!"

"Why? IT'S BECAUSE IT'S YOUR BLOOD!" Sakura finally replied, opening her eyes, "YOUR BLOOD MADE ME REALIZE THAT I WAS UNFAITHFUL!"

Sasuke just stared at her.

"Before you left Konoha, you thanked me. And I wanted to return the favor back to you by hoping for your return. And after 10 years, I stopped hoping. And just when I did, YOU have to come back! And the first thing that will slap me and will remind me that you're back… is your blood! And how I hated to see blood nowadays! I ALWAYS THINK THAT THE BLOOD I SEE IS YOURS!"

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows, "You were… unfaithful?"

"I loved you and yet I gave up on it!" Sakura's tears are now forming in her eyes, "I cannot forgive myself for that!"

"Are you done?"

"W-What…?" Sakura asked.

"Are you done venting out all your frustrations on me?" he clarified.

She was silenced and he took that as a 'yes'.

"Look at your hand now." He instructed.

Her eyes hovered on her palm and she didn't panic anymore.

"I don't care if you turned yourself unfaithful." Sasuke let go of her hand and he wiped the blood off his cheek with the back of his hand, "All I know is that I won't be leaving this town anymore… Although I hate to say this, but… the truth is… you're needed here in Konoha… I hate to believe it, but… Konoha needs you."

Her glare just got stuck on the blood on her palm.

Shaking her head madly, she said, "But I am nobody… I am weak. Why would Konoha need an annoying weakling like me?"

"That's because you believe you're weak when others want you to believe you're strong because they see you strong." After saying that, Sasuke felt like he wanted to punch himself. When did he learn to say that? He just denies it, but after seeing her now, deep inside of himself, he believed she had gotten stronger.

Sakura looked straight at his Sharingan eyes. She looked away and returned her gaze at the blood on her palm.

"Are you still afraid of blood?" he asked.

She closed her eyes and sighed, wiping the blood off her hand on the robe she's wearing. She told him, "Please leave now before the authorities catch you here."

Sasuke nodded and left.

Back to the real world…

Sakura's eyes glistened back to their normal emerald green hue and she closed her eyes. Her body felt heavy to the nurses holding her.

"I became unfaithful…" Sakura said before fainting.

Sasuke was panting a bit after using quite a lot of chakra on his Mangekyou Sharingan. But he did catch her words.

"Tsunade-sama!" a neurologist called, "She's entering the Coma 1 stage!"

"She's advancing to the Coma 2 stage!" another neurologist reminded.

"Tsunade-sama!" the head neurologist panicked, "She has just advanced to the Deep Coma stage!"

TBC…
--- --- --- --- ---
In sleep, Sakura recalls an event that she tried to forget but never would. And Sasuke remembers his trance with Sakura. This raises discomfort in his mind and decides to visit someone nobody would have thought he would ever confront again.

Act 7: Crystal Clear Memoirs

"Questions? About what?"
-Uzumaki Naruto

A/N: Anyway, sorry if it took me such a long time to update. I was just too busy with stuff, that's all. Any violent reactions?

I'd love to hear from you by reviewing!

+Releina Artemis+