So this is a continuation of the last part that got in my head. It's kind of old, and will probably be proven AU very quickly, but oh well.

For the curious: read on!


The next night, he finds himself in front of her cell yet again.

"That was very rude of you, I wasn't done speaking yet." She looks healthier today—more color in her face. Her hair is cropped to her chin now, enough that he can see the blue handprint around her neck, if he looks. Therefore, he is very careful to maintain eye contact, even if the eyes are cold and green and nothing like he remembers.

Sakura scowls at him, annoyed. "Not man enough to see your own handiwork? Really, Sasuke-kun—I expected better."

"Why am I even here?" Sasuke wonders aloud, annoyed at how his own mind refuses to recognize his demands. He knows his body is asleep, he knows that he has far more important things to worry about than an imaginary conversation with such an unimportant teammate. "I don't need to talk to you. I don't want to talk to you."

"Sasuke-kun, this is your subconscious. It knows what you really want, even when you yourself don't." Sakura makes a great show of rolling her eyes and yanking hard on her own hair. Sasuke can see the bruising darken further.

"Clearly," continues Sakura, "You have some subconscious urge to talk to the real Sakura, but since your conscience fails to recognize her importance, your subconscious is trying to compensate."

Sasuke scowls, "That explanation hardly sounds accurate."

"Well, don't blame me for it," Sakura flops down on her cot with a small huff. "As I am but a product of your subconscious so is my answer. Don't like? Read a book and find an actual answer. It's more productive than these little snits you keep getting into."

"Snits?" Sasuke snarls, offended.

"I get that you don't want to go home—and much as I hate to say it, you have semi-legitimate reasons not to," Sakura sits back up, rakes a hand through her hair. "But why do you keep acting so melodramatic? Just talk to them."

No need to ask which "them" she speaks of. And he is not melodramatic.

"They don't listen." Sasuke looks away again, attempting to avoid the subject by ending the conversation.

Sakura, however, is undaunted. Sasuke hears her sigh, then springs creak as she raises herself off the cot. Footsteps indicate that she is standing in front of the bars, and he's half-tempted to look, but his self-control is strong enough to ensure that he does not.

At least, until he hears the iron snap in half.

Sasuke jerks around to face Sakura's cell. Sakura's own face mirrors his surprise—for so long he has been stronger than her.

He remembers her words from the other night, and is forced to accept their truth.

He doesn't always understand what this Sakura represents—his desire to control his emotions? To keep back the ties he swore to destroy? Or just her—but he can guess what her freedom means, this breaking of barriers.

"Well, would you look at this?" Sakura sounds more amused than anything else, and Sasuke watches as she climbs sideways through the cell door that has been her bane the past year and a half.

He tenses up when she approaches, wondering briefly if she's going to hit him again. He can always stop her—that's not his concern—but rather…

Well.

He's so used to having control over what this Sakura can and cannot do; it's unsettling to think otherwise.

But this time Sakura does not hit him. Instead, she crouches down, settles herself down by his side. She's smiling a little, and Sasuke finds it nigh impossible to look away.

"You might as well look at me," she says, as Sasuke breaks eye contact and his gaze shifts to her other aspects: hair, nose, mouth. "You've worn your body out so thoroughly that it'll be a while before you can force yourself to wake up." She sounds almost…sad, that he is so weak.

Sasuke would normally be cutting at such an open display of pity, but finds that he feels suddenly tired, deep in his bones.

"This is pathetic," he whispers; a one word description of general state of affairs, not just mental.

"Quite so," agrees Sakura, shifting a bit so that they are actually pressed against one another. It's still a dream, but the feel of her body resting against his is disconcertingly real. Even more so the finger that runs down the seam of his shirt, down his chest, leaving a burning trail in its wake.

"I know you, Sasuke-kun." She informs him. "So I'm just going to give you some advice, and let you think it over. Find Sakura. Talk to her properly. Use everything you can to get her to listen. Chains, chakra string, whatever. She can heal herself of minor injuries. Answer her questions. Ask her a few. Then, fight."

Sasuke stares at her, for once in honest confusion.

"Fight? I would kill her."

And despite actions to the contrary, he really doesn't want to. Threatening her, making her cry—all matter of course. But not killing her.

Sakura clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, signifying her disapproval, and drums her fingers on his arm. "Only if you aim to kill, Sasuke-kun. You are very much an instrument of your own control. Besides, I mean a battle of skills. A showcase, if you will. You've never seen her fight—you don't know what it's like."

She grins. It is the first smile Sasuke has seen that holds no trace of negative emotion: bitterness, sadness, or anger.

"The two of you should fight each other as hard as you can. It will be magnificent."

She looks dreamy, almost pretty. Sasuke strains to burn the image into his memory as a tenuous link between the past and present; no matter that she's not real.

"So, how does that sound?" She asks, eyes clear and gleaming, almost joyful.

"Your logic is hard to follow," he begins, stiffly. "But such a course of action is unlikely to be a pointless expenditure of my time. Considering other options, you understand."

"Yes, yes, Sasuke-kun. You are surprisingly verbose when you are being obstinate." Sakura rolls her eyes, but she's still smiling, so Sasuke relaxes a little.

"Now was that so hard?" she murmurs, very close, sharing her warmth.

"Aa." Rather than answer, Sasuke simply makes a sound to approximate a confirmation, which is enough. The room he is in fades at the edges, starting with Sakura's cell, and creeping forwards, sucking away dirt and stone walls.

"That's good. Now rest," Sakura whispers, even as she too fades away, her lips gently touch his temple in a brief kiss. "Just rest."

For the first time in a long while, Sasuke truly sleeps.


…I miss sane Sasuke. And as it is I really, really want crazy!Sasuke and Sakura to have at least one kickass battle before the manga ends. I don't care how many flashbacks or monologues they cram in: just as long as the fight is awesome.

What do you think?