Disclaimer: If I owned it, I wouldn't be writing fan fiction!

Warnings: Language, and some slightly disturbing imagery.

Finding Sakura

Chapter Eight

By Michiru's Mirror

Sasuke hadn't been to Konoha in a good three years, but he still remembered the hospital. God knew he'd spent enough time in it, thank's to Orochimaru's cursed seal and Itachi's tsukiyomi.

But it wasn't the place he'd known. It looked the same with unnaturally clean and sterilized walls, silver trays holding instruments of torture masquerading as instruments of healing, large counters behind which nurses were supposed to sit. Yet the feeling was all wrong—it was as though he'd just stepped into a genjutsu.

Well, he supposed that stepping into Sakura's mind was similar. It was no longer the "real" world, but one that she had created, just as all people did. He hadn't expected this because when he had gone into Naruto's mind months ago everything had been straightforward and easy to find and understand. Sakura's mind was obviously a little more complex.

That made sense. Naruto was a straight thinking kind of guy, so his mind would naturally be simpler than the mind of someone who ate textbooks whole like Sakura.

The hallway Sasuke walked down was empty, until suddenly it wasn't; there behind the counter was a woman who looked so much like Sakura that for a moment Sasuke was sure it was her.

Walking up to the counter he saw that it was indeed Sakura—sort of. On her forehead was written Uchi Naru Sakura, whatever that was supposed to mean.

He might as well play along. "I'm here to see Haruno Sakura."

Uchi Naru Sakura gave Sasuke a disapproving look. "Haruno-san is not accepting visitors right now."

"She'll see me."

"She's not seeing anyone."

"It's about her health," Sasuke said, getting a bit frustrated.

"Her health is best left to the professionals," said Uchi Naru Sakura. "Please leave."

"No," said Sasuke.

Uchi Naru Sakura blinked up at him, flabbergasted. "What did you say?"

"You heard me." Sasuke was walking past the counter before Uchi Naru Sakura could say a word, moving to the doors that lined the hallway past the counter. If Sakura was there, he would find her.

The first door he came to had a label pasted right in the center: Uzumaki Naruto.

Sasuke frowned. That didn't make any sense. He was inside of Sakura's mind—why would Naruto be here?

One way to find out.

Reaching out with his left hand and getting a firm grip on kusanagi with his right (just in case), Sasuke opened the door.

It was a patient room, with the standard two beds, privacy curtains and TV hanging from the top left corner. Naruto was nowhere in it. Sasuke entered cautiously, being sure to check his blind spot and keep hold of kusanagi, but there was no one.

Aside from there being no people, the only things that looked remotely out of place were the large file cabinets stuffed to overflowing with patient reports. Curious, Sasuke walked over to the closed file cabinet, which was labeled IRRITATION. He opened the top drawer and found that the files were organized by date.

Sasuke pulled out a file and saw that it recorded an incident from three years prior to the forming of Team Seven. It turned out to be a standard patient incident form, but it wasn't filled out like any he'd ever seen.

PROBLEM
At 3:30 pm Uzumaki Naruto, hereafter referred to as the patient, snuck up behind one Haruno Sakura and pulled her hair. Before Haruno could respond, the patient had run away, crying "I LOVE YOU!" behind his shoulder.

DIAGNOSIS
The patient has a severe and deeply annoying infatuation with Haruno.

TREATMENT
Hit repeatedly on the head until he goes away.

A slight, reminiscent smile spread across Sasuke's face before he could stop it. Oh yeah, he remembered that—he had done that sort of thing too, until the massacre of the Uchiha clan had wiped any interest in romance from him. Sasuke supposed he should be grateful that in the three years between this incident and the formation of Team Seven Naruto had realized that hair-pulling and mud-slinging were not very effective techniques at getting a girl to notice you. He could just imagine the team dynamics if Sakura had found Narutoeven more bothersome than she already had.

He replaced the file where he had found it, and took a look at the cabinet next to it. COOL AND MANLY, it was labeled. To his amusement, Sasuke realized this one was almost empty.

Next to that was a cabinet labeled FRIENDSHIP, and beside that was one labeled ROMANCE. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at those. Interestingly enough, files from these two cabinets were a mess, as though someone kept moving files back and forth between them haphazardly. It was as though the person filing wasn't sure where the files on friendship ended, and the ones on romance began.

Sasuke had to repress another grin. For such a smart person, Sakura could be remarkably stupid, especially when it came to her own feelings.

This was dangerous territory, Sasuke realized. A strong wave of fondness was sweeping through him, and whether it was his own feeling or something he was picking up from Sakura, he had to fight it. He had dedicated himself to becoming more than this, and couldn't let himself be brought down by a few sappy memories. Swiftly, Sasuke turned and walked out the door.

Each room was labeled, and Sasuke was not surprised to see his own name on the very next door. He did not go inside. He did not want to see what memories, thoughts and "treatments" Sakura had saved into her head. Whether he was worried about becoming weak or worried about seeing what Sakura really thought of him, he wasn't sure.

After UCHIHA SASUKE came SAI, and then HATAKE KAKASHI. Sasuke didn't read any of the files in these rooms, but he checked in each to make sure that they were the same setup as Naruto's: abandoned beds and stuffed file cabinets. They were.

Then, eventually, there was HARUNO AKIHIRO—Sakura's father, obviously—HARUNO KYOKO, and HARUNO SAKURA.

If he was going to find out where Sakura was, the files in her room might give him some clues. The Uchi Naru Sakura up front might not be willing to tell him what he wanted to know, but as long as Sakura wasn't deleting or destroying her own memories (or having them destroyed by the demon inside of her), things could be written down in the file cabinets.

Sasuke unhesitatingly grabbed the doorknob to Sakura's room and pulled it open, expecting to see beds and file cabinets once more. Thankfully he was well trained enough to not be paralyzed by the shock he felt at the very different sight that greeted him.

It was a cavern, a stone archway stretching almost as high and as wide as his eye could see. Far in the back, almost a speck, was Sakura.

Sasuke didn't hear the demon come up from behind him, but he could feel her nonetheless. Before the blade she held could chop off his head he moved through the door in a forward roll. Too late, he realized that had been the demon's plan; before he could turn around he heard the door slam behind him. He was trapped.

But not alone. In the split second that it took him to draw kusanagi and get on guard, he realized that the demon had entered the room with him. She stood now between him and the door.

She was a beautiful young woman, perhaps in her early thirties with long wheat-gold hair piled on her head in a messy bun. In her gloved right hand was a sword as long as Sasuke's own, and she was holding it as though she knew how to use it.

"Sasuke-kun!" she said, and her voice was warm and friendly, the voice his mother had. "Why, I never thought you'd come here in person."

"The demon, I presume," said Sasuke.

"Yep," the demon said.

"Why are you doing this to Sakura?"

"It's a trade off," the demon said, showing no hesitation or shame. "All the dark, nasty little fantasies in her head and heart, all the terrible things buried in her subconscious that she refuses to even acknowledge—I brought them to life. People she wants to hurt, insecurities she wants to feed, types of pleasure she would never dare to seek out on her own. I've given them to her. I give people the twisted things they're too afraid to tell themselves they want, and if I get a meal from those same twisted feelings, well, no one can say I didn't pay for it!"

She was stalking towards him slowly, sure that he was trapped and enjoying the moment. In response Sasuke tried to call his chakra to him—and found that he couldn't. Something in here was keeping him from his power, and he'd bet his sharingan that it had something to do with the demon in front of him!

With no other defense available to him Sasuke went on the retreat, keeping kusanagi between their two bodies and doing his best to keep his enemy talking. "You feed off of people's pain and shame? Your mother must be proud of you."

The demon threw back her head and roared with laughter, making Sasuke cringe. It was an unnatural, ugly sound that grated on him painfully. "Precocious scamp! Just like you always were!"

Sasuke's first impulse was to snap at her to stop acting like she knew anything about him...but really she did know him, because she knew everything Sakura did, and who knew him better than she, except Itachi and Naruto?

He felt sick, violated thinking of private things the demon would have learned about him from Sakura. Things that she knew were not to be shared with anyone else! "So what happens when your victim has all these repressed dreams fulfilled, then?"

"Ah well, I've usually eaten a little too much of them for them to live, but they die with all their desires fulfilled, and isn't that the best way to die?"

Sasuke took a quick glance behind himself. Sakura was much closer to him now, and what he saw of her sickened him further.

She was naked and suspended by what looked like electronic wires that wove in and out of her flesh at random places; Sasuke didn't need to see where the cords went to know that they were taking what the demon needed out of her so it could feed. Sakura's skin sagged and her breasts drooped, her hair grayed in places and there was an unhealthy sallow tinge to her flesh as though she had aged thirty years.

Worst of all was her face. Though her eyes were open, they didn't appear to see anything; a milky-white substance covered them like cataracts and her expression was vacant. A line of drool slid out of her parted lips to drip onto the ground in a steady flow.

"No," Sasuke snapped to the demon. "If a junkie fights for twenty years to clean himself up, you're not doing him any favors by making him take another hit. Sakura is going to undergo ridicule after what you made her let Sai do to her!"

"She would undergo ridicule if she lived," the demon said. "That's why dying after wish fulfillment is best—you have fun, and no consequences! She'll get it both ways! How many people can really say that?"

"Live ones," Sasuke said. There was no more point to having this conversation. He could argue until he ran out of breath, but it wouldn't help Sakura any.

New tactic.

"SAKURA!" Sasuke roared, not taking his eyes off of the advancing demon before him. "Sakura, wake up! You have to take care of this filth!"

For a moment, there was nothing...and then Sakura spoke. Her voice was horribly weak, but somehow Sasuke could hear her as clearly as if she'd been yelling.

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun..." She sounded beyond heartbreak. Hers was the voice of a person whose every hope had been abandoned.

"I'm weak, Sasuke-kun. I've always been...I can't do this..."

Sasuke stiffened, his eyes widening in disbelieving rage at what he was hearing. Before him the demon smiled widely, the corners of her mouth stretching wider then a human mouth was meant to go. "You see, Sasuke-kun? She wants my help! Poor, sweet Sakura—she always supported Naruto quietly from the background, always agreed with everything you said and didwhatever you wanted because she loved you so. That's who she is, a kind girl who can do very little on her own."

"...What?" said Sasuke.

Oblivious to the battle raging inside of Sakura's mind, Naruto, Chouji, Kakashi and Sai were holding their own.

Almost an hour ago Kakashi's plan had been put into action, and it had been as straightforward as it had sounded. The four of them had surrounded Sakura's body and began to blast away at demons while Sasuke leapt into the center of the square of protection they'd set up and activated his sharingan.

And then, they waited. They fought their way through a swamp of demon flesh and teeth and claws using jutsu, weapons and fists. They lost track of time, space and each other, lost track of everything but the feel of flesh on flesh. Kakashi and Naruto had jutsu that wiped out a dozen demons at a time, but for every one that fell another took its place.

They had to keep that space clear, had to leave Sasuke the space to work, or Sakura was lost to them.

Before the battle began, Naruto had gripped Sasuke hard on the shoulder and said, "I don't want it to be you who fights her."

Sasuke had considered being hostile; it would have been satisfying to see the look on Naruto's face had he said something like fuck you or you wouldn't stand a chance, dead last. But a belligerent Naruto could ruin the whole operation, so Sasuke decided to use logic.

"Even ignoring the fact that you don't have any way to get into her head and I do," said Sasuke leaning so close to Naruto that their noses almost touched, "Can you bring yourself to hit her?"

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"You heard me. I won't kill her if I don't have to, but you're dreaming if you think this fight is going to end without a few blows being exchanged. Even with your life on the line, do you think that you could ever, in your wildest dreams, bring yourself to raise your hand to her?"

"I..." Naruto trailed off, and that was answer enough.

Sasuke nodded. "Thought so. If you want to help, you need to be somewhere where you can do some good, and that's going to be against enemies you're willing to hit."

He had moved to walk forwards, but found his arm snagged once more. Biting his tongue to keep an irritated snarl from coming out, Sasuke turned back to see a tinge of red lining those familiar blue eyes.

"If she dies…" Naruto said, and then trailed off. Sasuke knew that Naruto had no idea of how to finish his sentence. His love for Sasuke was deep enough that Sasuke doubted the other boy would ever outright murder him. Still, there would doubtless be consequences should Sakura die...even if Naruto wasn't sure what they were yet.

Sasuke had no fear of Naruto, but he didn't doubt that the other boy was serious. And now, with Naruto fighting with all the strength he possessed to keep the space clear for him to work, Sasuke had thus far kept himself from touching Sakura physically. He had simply met her gaze, activated the sharingan, and let their two minds meet.

But now...

Kakashi, Chouji and Sai didn't notice what Sasuke did next. They were understandably devoting all of their concentration to the battle before them. Naruto tried to do the same, understanding that there was simply nothing he could do for Sakura except keep her body safe while Sasuke rooted the demon out of her head. But try as he might, he simply couldn't keep a part of his mind from focusing on the battle of wills happening just behind him, or keep his eyes from drifting back to the two people dearest to him in the world.

That was why he saw when Sasuke stiffened, walked over to Sakura, and slapped her so hard that blood spurted from her mouth.

Inside the cavern, there was a tiny earthquake.

The demon gaped at Sasuke for a moment, all decorum forgotten. "What—what did you just do out there?"

Sasuke, not turning to Sakura but clearly addressing her, yelled, "Bullshit!

"Helpless? You? Who are you trying to fool? You're a bitch! You've always been a bitch! You might fool Naruto, but you've never fooled me!"

The demon stiffened and hissed, her hands gripping her sword so hard that the skin began to redden. "How dare you! You...you..." Her mouth opened and closed like a dying fish, her outrage at what she'd just heard rendering her speechless.

Not for long. Before Sasuke could yell another insult, she had dropped her sword and raised her arms above her head. Though Sasuke could see nothing, he felt power grow between her hands. "And here I was going to give you the dignity of dying in battle. My mistake, I should have known you don't deserve it!

"Well, I've learned my lesson. This is a better death for you!"

The ground under Sasuke's feet shifted and changed, and though he tried to jump away he found himself rooted to the spot. Looking down, he saw why—solid stone had turned to tar that gripped at his feet and sucked him down little by little.

Fuck!

Sasuke abandoned any caution he'd held on to up until now. "Sakura! God damn it, Sakura, you stupid brat, what are you doing just sitting there? I need your help! Naruto and Kakashi need your help! We can't stop this demon, but she's plugged into your head so you can!

"And don't you dare tell me that you're not strong enough!" The tar had sucked him in almost to his thighs now. Sasuke hadn't been this emotional since confronting his brother three years ago, and prided himself on his control, but he knew that this was the end of the road for him. With his powers gone he had no control of what went on here—only Sakura did.

How could he have lost control this way? He had learned to use and dominate other's minds, but somehow this one was different! Was it because the demon was curtailing his power, because of Sakura's own abilities, or was there another factor he simply hadn't counted on?

Whatever, Sasuke knew that if Sakura didn't snap out of it, he was dead right here. His revenge would never happen, and the Uchiha clan would end with him. The thought was so terrifying that it made Sasuke scream, made him tell the truth in a way he simply never had before. It was truth or the death of his life and his ambitions, and there could be nothing worse than that!

"Kind, sweet Sakura? Gentle Sakura? Don't make me laugh! You're the nastiest, bitchiest, toughest girl ever born in Konoha!" Sasuke struggled to turn around and face Sakura's grotesquely mauled body while he spoke. Maybe if she could see his face it would help.

"What!" cried the demon behind him. "How could you say that? This is the Sakura who followed you around like a puppy and agreed with every word you said just to gain your attention!"

The tar was up to his waist now, but Sasuke smirked anyway at what he considered to be a ridiculous statement. "Sure, she followed me and did whatever I said—because she wanted to! Sakura, if you were really a puppy dog who did what you were ordered to do, you would have left me alone when I told you to! But you didn't, because that wasn't an order that you liked. You kept on my tail with all those annoying Sasuke-kun Sasuke-kun's, which is the opposite of what I wanted, and then expected me to believe that you were a weak, obedient girl! You stood up to my glares, my insults, to everything I threw at you, because that's what you wanted to do!

"And it's not just me, oh no. How about Naruto? I remember when he tried to tell you his deepest feelings and you just sniffed at him and walked away! On our first day as a team all he wanted was to sit next to you and you just rubbed in his face that you wanted to sit with me instead! Couldn't even wait until he was gone or say no politely, could you? No, not Haruno Sakura!

"Or Kakashi! I know all about how you decided he was an unsatisfactory teacher! You didn't say a word to him when you threw him over for Tsunade. He'd taken a year of his life showing you every trick he could, comforting you and pampering you when you pretended to be helpless, protecting you from harm, and you threw him away like garbage when he didn't suit your needs any longer! Did you even apologize? No, of course you didn't, all that mattered was that you get what you wanted like always!

"And Ino. Don't think I'm not aware of how your rivalry over me began. She had a crush on me and hid it, because she loved you and worried about your feelings. Then you found out that she had feelings for me, and it was you who threw her aside! She'd saved you from bullies and taught you everything she knew and then even put you before her feelings for me. That would move most people, but not you! Not Haruno Sakura! No, all you thought about was what you wanted, and you tossed her aside without a second thought to pursue it after all she'd sacrificed for you! God, is it any wonder she was so aggressive towards you after that? I'd never heard of such cruelty until I met Orochimaru!

"And now you're trying to tell me that you've become a girl so weak that she lets men slice her skin up and allows herself to be controlled by some pitiful, second-rate wannabe-vampire? I don't buy it for a minute! No one tells Haruno Sakura what to do! No one beats you and you know it!

"Your illusions of delicacy won't get me killed, Sakura! Wake up and be you, the bitch!"

The tar had reached Sasuke's chest by now, forcing him to hold his hands above his head to keep them from being sucked under. He was running out of time!

"Sakura!" he yelled, out of words to convince her and desperate to get through to her. "SAKURA!"

The demon was next to him then, raising her sword up high. Her beautiful face was twisting and changing, as though all the rage in her was coming out through her features.

The sword came down. Sasuke refused to close his eyes or look away. He did not want to die before Itachi was dead, but if this was where things ended then he wouldn't let himself go out bowing and scraping to a parasite that had hurt his dear friend.

"She'll stop you," said Sasuke, the panic gone from his voice and replaced with certainty. "She's the strongest person I've ever met. Something will convince her that she doesn't want you here, and when it does you're dead."

The demon shrieked with fury and brought the sword down—and Sakura's hand caught it before it could touch Sasuke's head.

She stood behind Sasuke now, bleeding and old but awake and alert, with the fire in her eyes that he knew so well. The tubes that had connected her body to the cave walls trailed behind her naked body, ripped from the walls and Sakura's own flesh when she'd torn herself free.

And Sasuke realized that he wasn't surprised, because he'd meant every word of what he'd said. There was no one bitchier, and no one stronger, than Haruno Sakura. It seemed Sakura had made up her mind to save him, and so he was safe.

Sakura's eyes were locked onto the face of the shocked demon, plainly spelling death as she uttered in a clear, strong voice made beautiful by conviction: "You're not welcome here."

Sasuke smiled.

A/N

The entire fic was based around this scene. I had it in my head for weeks before Monday's Dusk Noon finally gave me an idea for how to start the fic(great thanks once again to him). Finally getting to write it out was really awesome!

Before anyone asks, this is NOT a SasuSaku. But I am a big fan of the two of them as friends. They help each other out; Sakura is patient with Sasuke's faults in a way that no one else is, and Sasuke has NO patience with Sakura's faults, so he kicks her in the rear when no one else will. That can help both of them reach their potential.

The doors were in alphabetical order by the Japanese alphabet (which is why we didn't see Ino—she had a room too!).

Sakura has a mind stuffed with knowledge, and since I've never seen a computer in Naruto, I went with file cabinets to show that. I'm obliged to point out that Stephen King used the idea first in his fabulous Dreamcatcher book. The idea was so perfect here I couldn't resist it.