A/N: Aw, all the review love! :D It made my heart all warm and smilee like happy kitten face. Well, I've got some news for everyone who's confused and everyone who wants answers:

It's going to get far worse before it gets better. Teehee. But I promise answers will come. Eventually. And I won't abandon this fic for a mini eternity again. I PROMISE.

WARNING: Remember that bit in the disclaimer in the first chapter where I mention that there's sexual violence? Well, I meant it and it's hiding in this chapter. Lo siento mis amigos but it had to be done. : (

Sasuke nearly beat his fist against the warden's door. He was in no mood to attempt patience or manners. He didn't care if this was his supposed 'boss' if Orochimaru even was his boss. Sasuke had serious doubts that he was.

Although if Sasuke wasn't an employee at the aslyum then what was he?

Sasuke's hand dropped from the door as this thought started to come over him. Sasuke felt a sudden sense of fear. If he wasn't an employee than what was he doing in an asylum? Why was everyone keeping secrets from him? Why were people saying that he wasn't seeing things he clearly saw? What was he doing in this God forsaken place?

I- I'm a- I'm a...a pa-

Before Sasuke could get his himself to complete the shocking thought the door slowly opened. It almost seemed that instead of light into the room darkness leaked out of it. The dark crawled from the edges of the door frame and Sasuke felt an overwleming sense of terror. It wasn't so much that the dark scared him but it was what was waiting for him in the dark. Sasuke knew somewhere that it was just the warden but he also knew deep down that it wasn't the warden. It wasn't the warden at all.

Sasuke foot took a step forward and his body followed after it. Despite the terror there was a need to travel into the darkness. Sasuke had to know what was going on. He had to understand the world around him and his place it it. He needed that control otherwise he was going to go insane.

If I'm not already insane, he thought as he fully entered the room.

The door swung shut behind him but the slam of it didn't make Sasuke jump or flinch. Once the door was shut what little light was present was swallowed in the black. The dark was so thick and suffocating that Sasuke couldn't even see his hand in front of his own face. It was worse than the first time he'd been there if that were possible.

The first time I -

Sasuke began to recall his last visit to the warden's office. Darkness. A purple light. Eyes and hands. Heart hurting. Falling down. Orochimaru's face. Someone else's face. Then more darkness.

Sasuke felt the crippling pain of his heart attack him in one severe beat just to remind him of the pain he'd endured. Sasuke doubled over slightly and as he did the little plum latern Sasuke had remembered clicked on, a feebly guide and focal point in the black.

"I want answers," Sasuke said, holding a hand to his chest as if preparing to guard his heart from escape should he have an attack.

Orochimaru's yellow eyes seemed to glow in the dark behind his desk. He looked like a monster; the kind children pictured watching them from the closet or lurking beneath the bed. Those yellowed eyes dimly lit by purple light watched Sasuke intently.

"Things are falling apart, aren't they?"

The voice didn't match the monster. It was softer than Orochimaru's voice and it lacked the signature his. It wasn't the voice of a monster at all but rather a tender, masculine voice that called to Sasuke and hurt his heart in a very different way.

"Who- who are you?" Sasuke asked.

"It makes sense that you'd come to me," the voice continued, as if unaware that Sasuke had said anything, "You always come to me."

The words echoed in Sasuke's hea so much that he began to wonder if the echo was outside of his head. Nothing was making sense anymore but the words coming from the voice made no sense.

"Naruto's not like you and I, Sasuke," the voice continued, "We're different. You understand?"

As the voice spoke, the demon eyes sprouted hands from the abyss. They came into the light and in them was some sort of fabric. Despite all better judgement, Sasuke moved closer toward the monster and his gift.

"I'll never let anyone hurt you, Sasuke," the voice said, becoming softer and quieter.

The clawed fingers held in their loose grip a blanket. It was blue blanket, soft and made of fleece. Sasuke recognized it as his own and his fingers ached to touch it. He neared closer and closer toward the blanket, so intent on the sense of security it made him long for.

"Forgive me," the voice said in not much more than a whisper.

Sasuke noticed that the echo was outside o his head and that the voice he was hearing didn't belong to Orochimaru. It didn't belong to anyone. Sasuke noticed too late that there was tape player sitting on the table and that the voice he was hearing came from it.

The monstrous claws dropped the blanket and lunged ater Sasuke. Sasuke began to thrash around as the arms pulled him into the dark. The guidance of the purple colored light disappeared and all around Sasuke was black.

Sasuke felt himself being grabbed and forced and held. His body was pinned down onto the desk which seemed to have expanded. It was cold and hard to the body but Sasuke's face was shoved into his beloved blanket.

"I love you, Sasuke," the foreign voice spoke.

"Stop it!" Sasuke found himself yelling as if playing a part instead of truly responding, "You're hurting me!"

Sasuke suddenly felt naked. He couldn't explain why or how but he was naked. The floor was even colder than before. There were hands on him. Cold hands. They held Sasuke's struggling body. There were lips at his ear, chapped and dry that kept whispering something he couldn't hear. Everything was muffled and indistinguishable. A strong hand pinned Sasuke's arms above his head at Sasuke's wrists.

Then searing pain. Searing, hot, unimaginable pain. Sasuke screamed so loudly that his throat ached. No human being should be able to scream like that, so loudly but so silently to himself.

The pain went on for what seemed like forever. It thrusted in and out of him causing him to writhe and cry and scream until he couldn't anymore but the pain continued on and Sasuke simply had to surrender to it.

It went on and on. The restricting hands released Sasuke's arms knowing that Sasuke had no fight in him. One hand grabbed Sasuke at the hip and the other grabbed at his hair. The demon's fingers curled into Sasuke's locks tightly. Sasuke almost wished the monster would his hair out just so he could feel something, anything else.

Finally the pain stopped. It slowly rode out to an end and Sasuke laid there in the absence of it. Sasuke's hand moved slowly and grasped the blanket that his face had been hiding in. He brought it up around him, holding the soft fabric closer to him. He began to cry into the fleece, praying that what happened hadn't happened. He wished instead that he were crazy, just crazy and that it hadn't really happened at all.

A hand touched the small of Sasuke's back and he recoiled from the touch. There wasn't a response at first and that sparked enough in Sasuke to emerge from the sanctuary of his blanket. His face came up slowly and he opened his eyes.

Light flooded into his sight. He was back in the all white room. He was still naked though and something was pressed against his face.

"Still afraid of the water, aren't you?" Sai said.

Sasuke looked up at Sai with wide eyes. He felt embarrassment at being naked but felt too sore to cover himself. His entire body ached and even simple movement seemed to take more effort than it should. Sasuke looked down and saw that his blanket had inexplicably turned into a towel.

"It's okay," Sai said, his friendly fake smile plastered across his face, "You did better this time. I've got to say, your progression toward mobility is a bit of a double edged sword though. It's a lot harder to just move you around."

M-mobility? Progression? What are you talking about? Where's the warden? What's going on? Did that stuff really- I- I don't understand.

Sasuke tried to say all that but his lips didn't move. The words never made it past his mind. They weren't even a hum in his throat.

"Shame that you're still as mute as they come but-" Sai started to help Sasuke up, "-maybe you'll be able to speak one day too."

I'm not mute!

The words still stayed stuck on the inside and Sasuke felt panic start to rise. Why couldn't he speak? All this time he'd been able to speak and now nothing? What was going on?

Sasuke put his hands on Sai's chest. He grabbed Sai by the shirt collar and his eyes pleaded for him to hear his thoughts.

Tell me what's going on! Why are you acting like this? I'm not a mute, God damn it! I'm not!

Sai gentlyput his hands on Sasuke's. Sai was so good at making people think he gave a shit that it was almost chilling. Sasuke knew the difference. He knew what it was to be cared for and what is was to actually be cared about. Sai's fingers pryed off Sasuke's with false sincerity and Sasuke felt a sudden hopelessness.

"Uchiha," Sai said, looking up and away from Sasuke, "I could use your assistance with Haku."

Sasuke looked in the direction Sai was looking and saw himself standing in the doorway.

...how?

The clone gave a nod and approached them. The look on his face was that of apathy coupled with a hate. He didn't care about the world around him and yet he had hate in him. The hate seemed not so much to be directed but perhaps internal. Maybe he cared for nothing but the hatred of himself.

That's not me. Sasuke thought as he stared openly at his clone.

Sai and the clone began to dry off and dress Sasuke and Sasuke did nothing to stop them. He was too bewildered, too confused to stop anything. He just kept staring at his other self. He stared and stared to the point that the clone in all his apathy hinted at discomfort.

Each of the other boys took one of Sasuke's hands and they guided him out of the shower room and down the hallway. Eventually they took him to one of the cells, put in a code and unlocked the door. The led Sasuke inside and sat him down on the bed.

"You ever wonder what it is he's thinking?" Sai asked the clone.

The clone simply shrugged. Sai turned to leave and the clone followed suit.

Sasuke's hand shot out and grabbed the clone's sleeve. His eyes pleaded with clone. None of this was right. Why was there another Sasuke? Why was no one freaking out about another Sasuke?

Sai looked as if he wanted to chuckle but instead put a hand on the clone's shoulder.

"Seems Haku wants your company a little longer," Sai pointed out, "I'l leave you to him."

Haku?! Sasuke thought.

Sai left the room and the clone looked down at Sasuke. He then sat down next to him. Sasuke began to panic. Why did Sai say Haku? Haku wasn't in the room.

Afraid of water. Progressed toward mobility. Formly immobile. Mute.

Sasuke was Haku? How could Sasuke be Haku? It didn't make in sense! It hadn't the slightest bearing on any sort of reality. For a moment Sasuke thought he was a patient but he thoguht he was himself a patient not another patient and certainly not Haku.

Sasuke looked down at his hands, the nails were well kept, clean and the figners feminine. He touched his face. His lips were a little plumper than before. It was the hair that had done it though. Long, thick, damp, black locks hung down into Sasuke's vision. He grabbed at them and pulled at them, his panic increasing.

He looked to his clone and the clone's expression shifted from apathy and hate to caring and concern. The expression looked foriegn on the clone Sasuke's face to point that it almost seemed to change it.

Sasuke's clone grabbed the panicking Sasuke and brought him close. He embraced him, pressin Sasuke's face to his chest. He petted at Sasuke's hair and Sasuke could hear the clone humming a tune. It was the same tune that Naruto had hummed on the first day that Sasuke had met him in the asylum. It was a calming tune that came over Sasuke.

What had Sasuke been going through all this time? At this point he could safely assume that he was crazy. There was no other way to explain what he was experiencing. Alternate worlds, disappearing and reappearing objects, lapses in memory, hallucinations. Sasuke didn't even know what was and wasn't real anymore.

Sasuke let the tune continue to calm him. He closed his eyes and melted into his clone's embrace as the clone soothed him with the melody. He eyes were shut and the low, soft sound of the humming voice made everything bad seem to float away.

The hand gave gentle toss to Sasuke's hair. It was so different than the demonic fingers. The gesture was soft and welcomed and Sasuke suddenly had the urge to thank this person, whoever they were. He wanted to thank them or their warmth, for their scent (cleaniness and a hint of lavender) and their song. It all made Sasuke feel safe and Sasuke needed that so desperately that it didn't matter where it came from.

Sasuke opened his eyes and pulled away from his embracer to find that it was Haku. Haku was sitting there with a smile on his face and hsi hands still on Sasuke's shoulders. Sasuke was confused naturally but he tried to figure out some sort of sense to it.

Haku and I traded bodies. Okay, I'm going to assume that's natural. Ignore the how focus on why. Why..why?

Sasuke realized something as he looked at Haku. Haku's face was feminine. Sasuke had a similiar fair face but Haku's was softer than his. Haku had never smiled at him before. Hakue had simply gazed at him blankly and remained a statue. Now Haku looked at him, held him and not only that smiled the warmest and most loving smile Sasuke had ever seen.

"You were trying to tell me something, weren't you?" Sasuke asked.

Haku nodded which almost surprised Sasuke. He still wasn't used to Haku's movements which were fluid and graceful. haku reached up to a stray lock of Sasuke's hair and tucked it behind his ear.

Sasuke, sweetie, you're too handsome to let your face hide behind your hair, said a voice inside Sasuke's head.

"...mom?" Sasuke said slowly.

Haku gave another nod. This time it was slower and he closed his eyes with the nod. Sasuke elt a dull ache his head and it began to grow sharp. He held his hands to his forehead and Haku began to look worried. Haku morphed slightly, gaining the smallest formations of breasts and losing his barely existent adam's apple.

The pain in Sasuke's head grew even more and he screamed as it grew. Haku changed once more. The breasts disappeared. The hair went into a loose ponytail. Lines appeared starting at the corner of the eye and extending diagonally toward the cheek.

Itachi.

The world around Sasuke began to shift and merge. The stark white was blurring and shifting into and back from a darkness tinted by green light. Sasuke tried desperately to focus on the white and bring it back back but it continued to evade him.

Sasuke saw the being in front of him change one more time. The hair grew shorter and wild. The eyes took on a redness. It grew into an adult male and Sasuke no longer wanted to to stay in the world of white.

Uncle Madara...

There was momentary darkness and in that darkness any number of things could have happened. Sasuke no longer knew where he was or even who he was. He momentarily slipped into a state and place of absolute abyss and anonymity but it was all short lived.

"Welcome back, Sasuke" said Ino's voice, "We've been waiting for you."

A/N: See? I told you it was going to get more confusing. However, the next chapter will begin to have answers. I promise you this, childrens. I promise you. : | Note mah serious face.