(A/N) Thanks for the reviews. I'm glad I like the twist. I hope this chapter lives up to any expectations.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Sasuke had never slept so well. He usually stayed up all night then fell asleep during the course of the day like some nocturnal animal but that night, he couldn't resist sleeping next to Sakura. If only to try it out once, he wanted to see if he could do it. He wanted to know if could allow someone that close to him. He had to know if he could cradle someone as they slept and make them feel safe.
When he woke up he regretted it immediately. They had slept facing each other with their arms around one another. Sasuke had buried his face in the nape of her neck for the entire night to inhale the milky scent of her skin through deep breaths.
When Sasuke drew back after he woke up, she gave a soft moan of protest and tightened her grip on his shirt. Instinctively, Sasuke froze so he would not wake her and the frown on her face ceased as she returned to a deep sleep. He watched her for a bit, regret settling heavily in his chest.
You're not supposed to let people so close, he thought. You're not like them. You're not supposed to let people this close.
But Sakura was already there, in his arms, in his heart and he hated her for it. He hated that he could have fought her way in so effortlessly like everything else she had done so elegantly.
He reached forward to brush a lock of pink hair from her face but he froze before he touched her. For a moment he thought he was hallucinating Sakura was being pulled backwards slowly. Then she opened her eyes and screamed as her entire body was dragged away, ripped from his arms.
"SAKURA!" He shouted.
He sprung up to his feet and looked around. He was surrounded by interns and doctors with covered faces, ropes and injections filled with sickly-looking liquid. So of them were carrying straight-jackets or crude ropes. There were at least twenty of them, menacing and faceless.
Sakura was twisted in the arms of a particularly large intern. He had a bulbous hand over Sakura's small mouth and his other hand was curled around her arm so tightly it bruised her porcelain skin.
Sasuke was shaking in anger at the thought of a splash of dark blue on her beautiful porcelain skin.
"Let her go!" He shouted, "She's mine. You're not allowed to touch her,"
Sakura struggled, looking at Sasuke with the eyes of a chased animal. Her screams were muffled and it looked like the intern who was holding on to her was choking her. In Sasuke mind, he saw the intern having a twisted grin beneath his mask and he looked at Sakura like she was a piece of meat.
Sakura bit the interns hand and flew out of his grip. Despite himself, Sasuke opened his arms to her and let her fold herself inside, burying her face into his chest.
"It's okay," he cooed softly to her, "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. No one allowed touch you, except for me,"
"Uchiha Sasuke, let patient 52 go immediately!"Shouted a gruff voice.
Patient 52?
The circle of interns around them started to close on them. Sasuke tightened his grip on her.
"Whatever happens, meet me at the main gates in three days," He whispered in her ear. He felt her give a small nod against his chest.
Gloved hands began to tear them apart. Sakura cried when they stuck the large into her neck and all Sasuke could think of, in his hollowed out mind that screeched and tore at his skull, was that the needle was going to leave its mark on the skin he adored so much.
Sakura woke up chained to a chair. She pulled at her bounds but it was useless, they were too tight. The door opened and Sakura's face jerked up in time to see her mother enter the room.
"Mom?" She asked, "Why am I here? Why am I tied up? Am I… am I in the main house?"
Tsunade didn't say anything for awhile. She was shocked about how much Sakura had changed. Her face was dirty, her hair was covered in oil and there were scratches and bruises on her arms. What had changed most of all, though, were Sakura's eyes. The emerald stillness that it had required in the extensive therapy had been ignited with a feverish desire. Tsunade sighed mentally. All her hard work had been destroyed by one boy.
"Sakura… yes, you're in the Hospital," Tsunade said softly.
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"You live here,"
There was silence then Sakura burst out laughing.
"No, I live with you. You're my mother. Stop trying to pollute my reality with your lies,"
Tsunade sat down at the other end of the table. She put her elbows on the surface then put her face in her hands in dismay.
"You were doing so well," She said bitterly.
"Mom, you're scaring me," Sakura whimpered.
"I'm not your mother,"
"What are you talking about? Of course you're my mother!"
"Think about, Sakura," Tsunade muttered, "Think back two years,"
Sakura fell silent. She looked around feverishly. She pulled at her bounds until they cut her wrists. Suddenly she began to sob then she began to scream,
"SASUKE! SASUKE! HELP ME! HELP ME!"
As Sakura continued to scream her lungs out Tsunade said, "You were doing so well. We nearly let you go home. You were my greatest success. I almost drove you sane,"
"SASUKE! GET ME OUT! PLEASE HELP ME!"
"He can't hear you," Tsunade said.
Sakura fell silent at those words then whispered hoarsely with a murderous taint in her voice,
"What have you done with him?" She asked terrified.
Tsunade ignored her and continued talking, "I took you into my home, Sakura. I wanted to prove that you could be rehabilitated. I gave you so much. I gave you a home,"
"Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here?" Sakura repeated the words over and over again, choked on sobs.
"You're different from Sasuke. There is no big trauma in your life. You were born like this. This is who you are and I was a fool to think that I could save you from it. You'll always be like this. You have always been like this. Nobody knows why, not me, but one day when you were three years old you killed a cat,"
"I'm in here because I killed I cat?" Sakura spat.
Tsunade laughed, "I wish that was the only reason but when you were ten years old you set your house on fire and when asked you admitted that you knew everyone was inside. That's why you were sent here. That's why you're in here, Sakura. You don't remember,"
Sakura shook her head, "You're lying. I wouldn't do something like that,"
But I would.
Sakura flinched when she heard the clear voice inside her head. It was like something else was in there and it was waking up.
"I don't feel well," She said although physically she felt fine. She felt like something was scratching at her skull from the inside. She felt her nose begin to bleed for no particular reason. Unable to use her hands, the blood dripped over her mouth and down her chin when she lifted her head to glare at her false mother, Tsunade was frightened by the terrifying look in Sakura's emerald eyes.
"Where is Sasuke-kun?" She asked in a threatening way.
"Sasuke is dead,"
Everything was still like it was suspended in the air then it collapsed as Sakura started laughing manically and half way through she began to sob. Tsunade stood up and looked down and the girl she had so desperately tried to fix then she swept out of the room.
In the hallway, she could still hear Sakura's insane sobs. She looked up at Danzou who was waiting in the hall with a smug look on his face.
"Please don't make me do this," She begged.
"It's what's best for both of them," he said.
Tsunade glared at him as she walked down the hall and into another room that looked exactly like the one she had just left.
And in that room, Sasuke was bound to the chair.
"Where is she?" He asked immediately, "Have you touched her?"
"She's dead, Sasuke,"
His eyebrows crease together slightly and he fell silent. He didn't move until they dragged him to a padded cell.
Whatever happens, meet me at the main gates in three days.
(A/N): sorry for the grammar mistakes.