Stockholm Syndrome

A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for waiting! Please enjoy!

Sasuke's POV

Life drags on slowly. It's been 2 months sense Mr. Kimbo started coming over for all of Itachi's therapy sessions. Itachi has not gotten better, in fact, I think he's getting worse. I visit him every night to find him reduced to tears. Mom and dad are worried. Mom has stopped trying to act as if we are a family. She often cries when she is alone. No matter the amount of comfort dad tries to give to her, she can't bring herself to be cheerful. She refuses to see a therapist, saying that it would only tare our family up even more.

"Sweetheart, it's only hurting Itachi and Sasuke more by just weeping..." dad said delicately. Mom shoved him away from her weakly.

"No! I will not go see someone just so they can tell me that I'm hurting my sons by being selfish! My boys need me here for them not in some cheap ass office with someone I don't know telling me how to raise my boys!" She screamed. Her face red with tears.

Dad held her close. "Darling, no one would dare tell you how to raise our boys. They. Are. Fine." he said firmly. "Itachi is just going through a rough patch. He'll bounce back soon and we'll be here for him."

Mom sobbed loudly, clinging to dad's dress shirt. "He's protecting us! My baby-he's protecting us from something- I know it! We gotta save him, Fugaku, we got to. My baby, my baby..."

I shake the memory away. My mom ended up locking herself in her room, not coming down for dinner or to clean the house. Only around midnight did she open the door finally to allow dad in so he could get some sleep. After careful persuasion on his part, might I add.

Sakura mumbles something to herself, her pen scribbling down some notes. She smacks a curious Naruto in the forehead when he tries to read what she's writing, mumbling something along the lines of, "Good detectives need to gather all the evidence before showing it to the public in order to lessen the chance of a flaw in the clues..."

Naruto grumbles to himself and sticks a fry into his mouth. I look around the courtyard ans spot my brother. He is sitting next to his big fishy friend Kisame and his other money grubbing friend Kakuzu. Both of them making my brother look small and delicate. He shakes his head as Deidara says something loud then starts laughing. Sasori silences him with locking lips with the blond boy. Itachi shakes his head again then looks to Hidan who seems to be saying.

Deidara brakes away from Sasori and yells something in an angry tone to the white haired guy.

I look back to my pink and blond haired friends. Both concentrating on different things. Sakura on Itachi's book and her note pad, Naruto on an ant hill. He gives it weird looks. Only to be scared away by the bug freak Shino does he return to us.

"Shino creeps me out," he says notchalently. Sakura murmrers something under her breath. Naruto gives her a look. "What did you call me?"

She glares at him. "A dumbshit, now shut up. I'm working."

"Sakura," Naruto gasps. "you work on that ALL the time. You arn't any closer to finding out what Itachi is trying to say, are you?"

"Naruto!" I snap, afraid that he'll upset the easily angered pinkette and she'll quit the project all together.

Sakura fumes. "Naruto! I am getting closer to the truth, you nimrod!" She growls and jumps up. She spitefully tosses all of her things into her backpack throws it over one shoulder and stomps away toward the bus stop.

I give Naruto a look and follow my pink haired friend with him on my heels, calling out apologies.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan! Please come back, I'm sorry!" Naruto calls.

Sakura keeps on walking, ignoring his calls. She takes out her phone and starts to dial a number-possibly her mother- to do something. Pick her up, maybe?

There is a screech and the strong stench of burning rubber. I look up just in time for Sakura to step out into the street and a car to hit her. My heart plummets in my chest.

"SAKURA!" Naruto and I scream. Surprisingly the car keeps going at an unimaginable speed like nothing happened or that they were being chased by the cops in a high speed chase. Naruto and I dash toward our friend, the smoke and dirt kicked up into the air. Images of my friend all bloody and unmoving flashing through my mind.

More people came running to the scene. Someone was callling 911.

I run onto the street and stop dead. Sakura was laying on the floor, unmoving. There was a tiny pool of blood around her head but she was not smashed and nothing looked broken. Her backpack was ripped open and everything was laying around her like a puddle. Some papers were floating down to the ground.

Sakura moans in pain and starts to sit up, very much alive. I rush over to her and cradle her in my arms. "Sakura, Sakura, are you ok? Speak to me, please!" I feel tears build up.

She moans again but rasps out, "I jumped out of the way... backpack caught... spun me around... possible concussion... nothing broken... nothing hurt... only head..." she slips into silence and takes shaky deep breaths. I feel her pulse to be reassured by the fast but true beat of her heart to signify that she was still living.

Naruto was saying something frantically and more people gathered around, but I couldn't hear them. My mind was racing at the speed of light, a thousand different thoughts run through my mind at once and I'm sure the ringing sound in my ears isn't a good thing. The final though that I think hits me like a ton of bricks.

Someone tried to kill Sakura in cold blood...

The Paramedics show up and take Sakura away. I'm in a daze, before I know it, I'm in Itachi's arms. He holds me tight and hums softly to me like he used to when I was scared of scary movies but tried to watch them anyway. When I got really scared, he would hold me close and hum loudly into my ears to block out the noise to help me forget.

It would always be my childhood lullabies.

Rock-a-by baby on the tree top,

where the wind blows,

the cradle will rock,

and when the bow breaks,

the cradle will fall,

and down will come baby,

cradle and all.

Sakura's POV

People. Voices. Frantic. Bumps. Bouncing into the air. Rumbles. Someone telling me that I need to stay awake until they can tell if I have concussion or not. The loud ringing in my ears play...

Something comes to me. A memory. My life had flashed before my eyes. I thought I was going to die. Maybe I did... maybe I'm dead. That doesn't matter, what matters now is a memory that sticks. That I keep seeing.

My dad and I walking down the street on our way to a crime scene. I was holding my dad's hand. I look to my left to see an orphanage. A fence that holds the kids in. A boy is on the other side, looking out at me. He only stares, saying nothing. I watch him as I walk by, I turn to look away, my eye being caught on a convenient store.

There were people getting beat up between two stores a few stores away from the orphanage. Upon spotting the two employees in the stores unaware of what was going on between the stores, I ask my dad why they do nothing.

"The owners soundproof their walls because of the dump right behind the shops, it can get loud because of all the scavengers looking for something to eat or sell. So, they never know when something is happening... even when it is right outside their walls..."

Upon hearing that, the memory continues to play in my mind. I slip into a deep sleep. Everything falling silent. The movie theater like world I created for myself, disappeared. Not, without the answer to everything coming to me though. I knew in that instant what had happened to Itachi that night.