Standard disclaimers and TW for violence and domestic abuse.

Red and blue lights bathed the field that used to belong to his team. The sight had been enough to jar him awake from the strong, complicated, pretty, pink-haired day dream of a woman occupying the passenger seat of his car. Sasuke was by nature territorial. This field belonged to his team. This was his territory. And as far as he was concerned, turning their field into a crime scene was a personal attack.

Sasuke followed Sakura to the body, his eyes scanning the surrounding area with growing unease. He spotted his idiot of a best friend talking to three scared looking teens he recognized as the brats that idolized the moron. They'd grown—appeared to be about seventeen now. The last time he remembered clocking their existence, they'd been thirteen, prattling on about how they were going to become detectives yet strangely referring to Naruto as "boss," as if they were in a gang. Naruto was perpetually cheerful and good natured, but it went twice so when he was with those kids. Naruto thrived off of attention of others, and having those three's unwavering recognition and support made him always shine brighter, louder, and clownier in their presents. Which made the grim expression and serious look in his eyes all the more concerning as he talked to them now.

While Sakura knelt to examine the body, Sasuke started his own preliminary examinations. It was a girl this time, so they could rule gender out on having any bearing on the victim pool. Her deformations didn't seem to extend to her whole body, which most likely meant either the unsub felt some level of pity/remorse and stopped, or more likely they were interrupted before they could get the results they wanted. Either way, this was another failed experiment.

Unlike Shiin though, it didn't seem like she had escaped and collapsed. She had been placed. This was a body dump—intentional. And careful. There were no foot prints, no broken branches along the tree line, no tire tracks found in the area. The girl had been carried, not dragged. Hopefully there'd be some forensic evidence left behind—coat fibers, finger prints, or skin cells from the perpetrator, but he highly doubted it. This guy was meticulous in the clean up. If he had wanted, he had the skill to not leave a body behind at all, which meant that she was left here for a reason.

Sasuke had poured over geographical maps the entirety of the night before, in a vain attempt to keep his mind off Sakura. It had been largely unsuccessful, as she always managed to dance her way into his thoughts, making him all the more pissed at himself. The upshot being that he had the entire geographic area memorized, complete with Konoha's full electrical grid and all surrounding body's of water. The area they were in now, was close to a small stream that trickled down from a nearby mountain, but it wouldn't be big or strong enough to run a piece of technology as powerful as CRSPR. There hadn't been an unusually high bump in energy usage from this area either. In other words, the field couldn't be near the unsub's lab set up. It was nowhere near where they found Shiin's body. Working under the assumption that Shiin had escaped, logically his collapse site had to be closer to the lab given the state of his injuries—he couldn't have gotten too far. But this field didn't make sense. It wasn't in a totally opposite direction of where they'd found Shiin. In fact they were in the same vicinity, not particularly close, but heading the same direction. If the unsub had been trying to throw them off a trail, it would have been better to place the girls body somewhere far away in the opposite direction of the first. This placement had nothing to do with Shiin or subterfuge, nor did there appear to be any ritual or remorse in it.

He chalked up his initial instinct of personal attack to his territorial nature, but the more he analyzed the situation, the more true it felt. It was deeply unsettling. Paranoia was an occupational hazard he was prone to, a dangerous one to be blinded by, especially while working a case. But Sasuke had learned to trust his instincts which were either very right or occasionally catastrophically wrong. His instincts were whispering that their enemy knew them well, and this was a threat. He was at war between immense paranoia and his gut feeling, and the tug between the two was threatening to send him into a downward mental spiral. He needed to ground himself, and in his attempt to clear his head, his focus fell on Sakura, as it always did. She was so calm and collected, despite the darkness she was surrounded by. Her calming energy was as infectious as Naruto's determination. He felt the knot in his gut loosen just looking at her.

"Anything?" He was glad his voice didn't betray his anxiety.

"Most useful information will come from cutting her open. There's nothing much externally, so cause of death is probably internal, likely due to experimentation. Estimated time of death is four hours ago. Hard to say for sure because we don't know the full effects of the experiments on body decomposition."

"This may be a dumb question so please don't hit me Sakura-chan…but we're certain this is linked to Shiin, right?"

He found it concerning that he hadn't processed Naruto standing next to him. Whether it had been because he was too wrapped up in his own paranoia, or in Sakura's relaxing aura, he wasn't sure. Either way it was a detriment.

"If you're thinking of it as a standard serial killer case, there isn't the same concise MO that you might usually see—"
"—but it's safe to consider the level of experimentation and body modification as the MO. The odds that two murders with that level of bodily change—"

"—yeah. The scientific knowledge required and inclination to put it to this kind of use…it's unlikely there'd be two psycho mad scientists active at once."

Naruto asked another question to Sakura, but Sasuke had stopped listening. She was right. Statistically speaking, the odds that two serial killers would be active in the same area with the same MO, scientific skill level and access was impossible. There was something that felt wrong in Sasuke's mind about that though. Maybe "serial killer" was the wrong approach. Yes, this person had killed two people through a similar process—experimentation. Yes, it was likely he had already and would continue to kill more. But this case didn't seem to align with serial killer psychology. Sakura used the term "mad scientist," which felt more accurate. There wasn't any remorse in the deaths, but maybe they weren't supposed to die in the first place. Killing wasn't the end goal.

He was trying to see a full picture from two puzzle pieces. He knew he was thinking too far ahead. They needed more information. And he had to focus on what was directly in front of him, not what was thousands of meters away.

"You said time of death was around four hours ago?" Sasuke asked, once again scanning the perimeter of the field for potential access points.

"Roughly."

"That puts time of death around 2am. Naruto, I need to talk to those kids. Can they handle being questioned right now?"

"Yeah they should be, I'll come with you though—they're more likely to talk to me than a frozen bastard like you, right Sakura-chan?" The jab was one Sasuke was used to hearing for the past four months and would have normally had no effect on him. But now Sakura was included in it, he felt a flutter of nerves at what her reaction might be.

"Heh. I'm coming too—I've found everything I can right now and I want to check their psychological health."

As they set off towards the teens, Sasuke thought back to their conversation in the car. She was not only acutely aware of psychological trauma, but very determined to help others through it as best she could. Mental health hadn't been a focus when he and Naruto were kids. After The Massacre, once the hospital was sure he was physically fine, there had been no follow up on his psychological trauma. His PTSD went unlooked after, he'd been expected to just rejoin and function in society without help.

But Sakura wasn't separating mental health from physical. To her they were equally important. Sasuke wondered if her experience with him and Naruto had something to do with it. If someone like her had been his doctor back then, he doubted he'd be as fucked up as he was now.

"Konohamaru!" Naruto called. One of the boys, the taller, less dorky one, turned to the loud mouthed blonde. With one glance, Sasuke could tell that all the kids were visibly rattled. Sakura's words in the car drifted back to him. "Discovering a body in that…state…that could be really jarring to a child."

She was right—an admonition he was starting to make more frequently. He was grateful for Naruto and Sakura's presence. He'd never been good at taking care of other's emotional needs. Sakura and his shredded relationship was evidence of that, and while there was some hope of repair, the process of stitching up the fabric of their interactions was a painfully slow one. But taking care of others came as naturally to his two teammates as breathing. Thank god for them.

Even now he could see the kids relaxing under Naruto's sunny platitudes. With the kids more at ease, he figured they'd be more willing to share now.

"We need to ask you some questions." It was immediately evident that it had been the wrong choice of words. Or tone. Sasuke'd never been particularly good with either. All of the kids tensed and paled. The dorky looking one with glasses started shaking. And if the kid's reactions weren't enough proof of error, Naruto and Sakura's glare was. In the game of good cop/bad cop, when paired with these two he would always be the bad cop. Even if he didn't mean or want to be. He just didn't have the soft touch they did.

"W-we didn't k-kill her, I s-swear!" Konohamaru stuttered out, his eyes widening.

Well no shit, they hadn't really thought that's what he meant, had they? Any idiot could tell that they were just traumatized witnesses. Were they really dumb enough to think he thought them guilty? What kind of shitty detective did these brats take him for?

Naruto laughed. Loudly. And if Sasuke wasn't so busy being mildly offended, he probably would have laughed too. Or snickered. He didn't really laugh out loud much. Thankfully, laughing in this instance helped diffuse the situation.

"We don't think you guys did it, Konohamaru! There's no way! We just want to know if you saw anything." Naruto's elbow drove itself into Sasuke's side, eliciting a glare. But it got the kids talking so he guessed he couldn't complain.

Unfortunately, their story didn't give them too much to work with. They hadn't seen anything which meant that the body was likely dropped before the kids got there. Estimated time of death was around 2am and according to Udon, they got to the field at around 3:50. There was a whole hour and fifty minutes to make the drop. The kids didn't find it or call it in until 4:40 so that added another forty minutes where the dump could have happened while they were distracted with their training. And if that were the case, he was even more skilled than Sasuke had initially guessed.

The only lead they had gotten was a very thin one—the five cars Udon had noted they passed in central Konoha. He could tell with one look that Naruto was on the same page with that one. Likely nothing, but when it's the only lead you've got…

"Given the location it's probably nothing. But we don't have much else to go on so looking into can't hurt."

"Thanks guys. We'll find this asshole, so don't you worry, believe it!" Naruto cheered.

He and Naruto both turned to head back to their cars. There was nothing else here to see and they had to follow up on this useless lead, as well as continue looking into others. He only made it about 7 meters before realizing Sakura wasn't with them. He turned to see her talking to the three kids. She was handing them her business card and flashing giving them a warm smile that was out of place in the red and blue bathed light of the field, swarming with grim faced officers. He couldn't hear everything she said to them, but he caught the words "mental health," "talk," "me," and "you did good."

Unexpected warmth spread through his body, pooling in his stomach and making his hands tingle. He was used to being overtaken by heat when he was angry, when Itachi was mentioned and his rage burned through him. He physically felt overtaken by fire. But warmth was new. And pleasant. How did she do it? How could she be so kind and aware of other's pain? Naruto made sense. He'd been put through the wringer as a kid. He'd experienced so much pain that he almost effortlessly understood others. For Naruto, he could have either turned down the wrong path and become a savage monster, or stayed on the good side and be able to understand everyone. Turn them around and set them on a good path with himself trail blazing the way as an example. Those were really the only two possible outcomes for him. But Sakura hadn't been through hell as a kid. She hadn't experienced loss or the hatred of others. So how had she come to be so sensitive to everyones pain and trauma. She was able to offer the right words, the right smile, the right care to anyone, despite not having felt the pain they experienced.

He hadn't been that aware of her in the academy—she was just another fan girl, seemingly unaware of his or anyone else's pain. That impression didn't change right away when they were placed on team 7 together. Yet, during their cooperation test, when Kakashi had gotten the better of him and Sakura found him, he began opening up to her out of frustration. And she had listened. She'd asked prompting questions to get him to continue. But other than that she just listened. No judgement. No claims of understanding. No trying to prove a point. Just listening. It seemed like such an easy thing to do but no one had until her. Who could have guessed that all they needed to do to plant themself in Sasuke's head was to just listen.

Since then she'd mixed that illusive skill with profound empathy. As far as he was concerned, she could heal anyone in any capacity. That was something that needed to be treasured and protected.

She turned, abruptly locking his eyes with hers. For a second, he watched several things flit through them: curiosity, shyness, hope, and…and then the shield went back up. She approached him with an oddly guarded ease. "Thanks for waiting. Let's get back. We've got work to do."

Sasuke knew better than to get in the way of the angry blond hurricane. It almost made him pity Sai, since he was dating her. How that boy, who was so ignorant of social cues, survived living with her was beyond him. And while he wanted to interject when Ino abducted Sakura, he knew it would be pointless. Their relationship had always confused him but from what he could gather, it was somewhat similar to his and Naruto's. Which meant whatever this forced 10am lunch break was, it would have the same effect as when he and Naruto sparred. There was never a time they understood each other more than when they traded blows. Those two needed whatever their meeting turned out to be. So he grabbed the back of a befuddled Naruto's shirt.

"Come on, Idiot. We've got four hours worth of CCTV footage to comb through."

It took less than an hour to discover that the lead was well and truly a dead one. Four of the five cars had one or more passengers in them, probably coming back from clubs or bars.

One of the cars actually belonged to Shikamaru, who had been dropping his girlfriend Temari off at the airport for a flight to Suna. Interestingly, after meeting Naruto, Gaara had done a complete 180, turned his life around and was now Prime Minister of Suna. They worked under something of a monarchy so he'd always been in line for the position, but during his psychotic episode, he nearly lost the seat. Apparently he'd worked hard and earned the respect and loyalty of almost all Suna citizens and was now the Prime Minister with the highest approval ratings ever. Temari was one of his chief advisors and the ambassador for foreign relations—primarily with Konoha. She was essentially a princess there, so her relationship with Shikamaru was rather controversial in Suna. He knew from Naruto enforced drinks and ramen dinners with the guys that it was something Shimamaru was actually insecure about.

The only car with a solo occupant belonged to Kabuto Yakushi, who was going home after a late shift at the hospital. When Sakura got back from her "lunch," she checked in with the hospital staff who corroborated the time frame. Sakura then left to begin the autopsy, taking off so quickly, he didn't even get the chance to walk her down. That left him and Naruto back at square one.

And square one wasn't getting them anywhere. Naruto made that abundantly clear by his loud, frequent, obnoxious, sighing. After yet another one of his connections failed to turn up any information, he let out a yell of frustration before turning to his emotionally constipated best friend. Sasuke's focus seemed to have drifted from his computer screen to their team 7 picture on his desk.

"It's nice, all of us being back together, huh Bastard?" Much to Naruto's surprise, Sasuke jerked up. Shocking due to the fact that he wasn't one to be caught off guard. He must have been really deep in thought. Nostalgia, maybe?

"Do your work idiot." Guess he recovered.

"Aw come on. You know we're not gonna turn up anything right now. We can't do anything until Sakura-chan's done with the autopsy. We've got nothing else to work with right now. What do you say we spar a bit and blow off some steam."

"Remind me again how a dim witted slacker like you got to be a detective."

"Seriously ass hole, you know I'm right. You're not getting anywhere either. I can tell you're frustrated. Let's spar. It's been forever!"

He was right. Sasuke was frustrated. On top of having no new leads and several dead ends, he couldn't keep his mind focused on work. Every few seconds he found his thoughts wandering back towards Sakura. Her kindness, her maturity, her intelligence. She'd grown so much—become someone so reliable and strong. It was impressive. Even he, someone so rarely impressed, had to acknowledge that. But the strange thing was, where normally he would acknowledge it and move on, with Sakura, his mind seemed to keep finding more reasons to be impressed. Any time he tried to move on, he was just yanked back to her.

He was too distracted. He was on a case. But he couldn't focus when every few seconds his thoughts drifted towards the intelligent, sharp, strong woman now serving as their medical consultant. Naruto was right. Physical activity and pounding the loud mouth blond's face in usually helped clear his mind.

"Fine. Punching bags were getting boring anyway." He pushed away from his desk, happy to be walking away for a bit. Naruto bounded up excitedly, racing past him towards the dojo facility next to the station, Sasuke trailing behind.

One thing that had to be said about Naruto was he was a power house. The guy had a never ending amount of energy that never seemed to wane. No matter how much of a beating he took. decked in the face, upper cut to the jaw, elbow to the stomach, kick to the back of the knee, thrown to the floor. Naruto would still get up swinging. He was resilient and oddly durable.

Sasuke was not. He didn't have the stamina Naruto had nor could he take a beating the way the blond could—no one could do that, except maybe Lee. That's why Sasuke's defense was so strong. His calculating mind and quick reflexes rarely allowed for an opening. Naruto had yet to land a clean, full powered punch on Sasuke. That being said, keeping a guard up against the ruthless unending barrage of Naruto's strong fists was exhausting.

The two of them stood opposite each other, sweating, panting, and bruised, yet smiling. Without ceremony, Naruto charged, ready for another round and Sasuke's guard immediately went up.

"Bastard—I've been meaning to ask, what you said the other night about you and Sakura—did you like her?"

Sasuke's guard faltered enough for Naruto to land a clean blow to his cheek, sending him sprawling.

"What the fuck, Loser! That's none of your business!"

"Actually," Naruto shot back, attempting to drop kick him, which Sasuke rolled out of the way of, "you're my best friend, she's like my sister, and you're both my teammates, so it's very much my business. Did you like her?"

Sasuke swept his foot across the back of Naruto's leg as he landed, knocking him to the ground. He was about to pin him there when Naruto head butted him, sending him reeling. Naruto took the opportunity to turn the tables and pin him. "Well did you like her or not, asshole?" Taking each punch the blond threw, looking for his opening to counter, it occurred to Sasuke that he didn't know the answer. Had he liked her back then? He knew she had a crush on him, no matter how she tried to hide it. He could tell by the way she would look at him that even though she stopped fangirling over him, she had still liked him. Had he felt the same way? How do you know when you liked someone?

Sasuke pushed against Naruto's right shoulder while he pulled back for a punch, throwing his weight off and flipping him over so that he was pinning him again. Now it was Sasuke's turn to pummel his best friend. He had plenty of frustration and anger—mostly at himself—to fuel the attack. How could he not even know his own feelings? He had respected her, how she had gotten to a point where she could keep her feelings in check. For people like him and Naruto, who were so consumed by their emotions even now, it was truly admirable. He respected how intelligent she was—always able to see through the tricks and false leads criminals would try to throw at them, even without the gift of eyes like his. He admired the innocence she had and wanted to protect that. He cared about her. Never wanted to see her hurt. But he didn't like her romantically. Not back then…but now?

His fist stopped midair. Naruto's clear blue eyes stared up at him, deep with understanding. They always understood each other best when beating the ever-loving-shit out of each other. He let him go and rolled off of him, collapsing onto the floor and staring at the ceiling. The best friends just laid there, breathing hard.

Naruto was the one to break the silence. "So now?"

"How do you know?"

"Ha! Jesus bastard, I knew you were emotionally constipated but I didn't know it was that bad."

Sasuke cast him a half hearted glare, making him chuckle.

"Well…I guess with me and Hinata, when I started liking her, it started just as noticing her more. Or noticing when she wasn't there. Then I started feeling better—but also nervous, whenever she was around. I really liked when she would talk, her voice would calm me down. And I wanted to be near her all the time and be there to protect her every time she went out on a case. I started thinking about her more and more until I couldn't keep my mind off her…Honestly I still didn't get it though. Sakura was the one to slap some sense into me."

"Of course she was, Moron…"

"So?"

"Yeah…Fuck."

"You picked a rough time to grow a heart, tin man."

"I know. Fuck you."

"We're on a really fucked up case."

"No shit."

"You already hurt her once—she was really upset when you left, man. She was the last one to see you, what happened that night?"

"I—I love you with all my heart! If you were to stay here with me, there'd be no regrets, because everyday I'll make it worth it, we'd be happy I swear! I would do anything for you! So please…please just stay with me!"

"That night…nothing happened."

"Don't tell me I have to beat the shit out of you again."

"Like you could, Loser."

"You wanna go!" Naruto shouted, bolting upright, and grabbing Sasuke's collar.

Naruto's phone interrupted them. Jumping up, he ran over to his bag, fishing out his phone. After a brief glance at the caller ID, he quickly answered.

"Hey Sakura-chan!…He's with me…Of course you did! You're awesome Sakura-Chan!…ah, yeah right, we're on our way!" He hung up and turned to Sasuke, who was looking at him expectantly.

"Sakura-chan finished the autopsy—"

"How'd she sound? Is she alright?"

Naruto shot him a curious look. "Dude, you caught the feelings hard."

"Shut up, dead-last."

"Briefing. Let's go. It sounded like she found something."

They walked into the briefing room to find Sakura covering the board with notes. He caught the double helix of a quickly drawn DNA strand, a chemical compound diagram, complex equations he couldn't even begin to answer…whatever she had found looked…involved. She didn't even look up when they entered, all her focus was on whatever she was working out on the board. Occasionally she would tap the marker against her chin or the board to think better, muttering her thought process under her breath.

The boys didn't even alert her to their presence. Naruto was trying to glean some understanding of the notes on the board now so that he didn't feel like a total dumbass later—and he wasn't getting very far. But Sasuke's eyes were on Sakura. There was something incredibly engaging about watching her in that state. Her hair messily clipped up, eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at one piece of the puzzle, her brow would crease occasionally as she wrote another note or worked out another equation. Her voice a barely audible hum as she thought out loud. There was something so alive about her when she was solving a problem.

"Eh-hem," a calm masculine voice cleared his throat behind them. It bothered Sasuke that he hadn't registered Kakashi standing behind them sooner. Sakura jumped and turned towards them.

"Oh good. You're all here."

"You've been busy." Kakashi noted, eyeing the board.

"Yeah. It's a bit confusing though, so stop me if you have questions." She was practically glowing with excitement, which Sasuke found strange given how much this case disturbed her.

They all took their seats as Sakura launched into her findings.

"I had a feeling there was something weird that I had missed about Shiin's blood work. So I went back over it along with Tayuya's—"

"Tayuya?" Kakashi asked.

"Oh right. Sorry. Victim's name is Tayuya. No sir name. 27 years old. Originally from Kusagakure. No known family—she was put through Kusa's foster system but was a frequent run away, and left the system entirely at 16. Lots a misdemeanors—some DUIs, couple of assaults, shop lifting, possession of a controlled substance, and prostitution. She last scene working at a strip club two years ago. Never reported missing."

"That's rough…" Naruto murmured sadly.

"It's not uncommon. Stripping and sex work are high risk professions. Lot's of cases that police don't want to take because they don't care or think the girls had it coming." Sasuke answered darkly. It was frankly something that sickened Sasuke. Yes, it's a high risk profession and women who did it needed to be aware of that—but that didn't make violence against them or kidnapping any less of a crime. For some, it was the only option they had, but that shouldn't have meant sacrificing their right to safety and protection.

A heavy silence fell around them. Sakura was looking away, her fist tightening around the marker. Kakashi broke the tension. "What were you saying about blood work, Sakura?"

"Right. The blood work. So, I thought there was something weird about Shiin's blood work yesterday. The white blood cell count was really low but there was a high presence of immunoglobulin. It's a kind of protein produced by the immune system to help fight off a foreign invader like a virus, also known as antibodies. Now, antibodies are produced by B-cells which is a part of the body's immune network. So whatever happened in the body triggered an immune response, but then you would expect to see a higher white blood cell count."

"So you're saying they were given an immune suppressant, like they do with transplant patients, right?" Kakashi asked. Sasuke could understand his confusion, he wasn't clear on what Sakura was getting at either.

"No. No immune suppressant would trigger antibody release like this. The body treated the substance that was introduced as an antigen, but in the process it suppressed the white blood cell response."

"What's the substance?"

"Unidentifiable. But it's man-made and multifaceted?"

"What do you mean multifaceted?" Naruto asked. It was clear from his expression that he understood next to nothing of what was being said.

"Most poisons or toxins attack one thing or serve one purpose. This one serves several. The body treated it like a virus at first because it behaved like one. The typical virus attaches itself to the cell, destroys all the organelles inside, and injects its own genetic material to create more virus, before detaching and moving on to the next cell. This substance did the same thing, except, instead of destroying organelles, it infiltrated where the nucleus where the DNA is stored."

Sakura pointed to the DNA diagram on the board. "Here you have a strand of human DNA, however, not all these spaces," she said indicating the space between where the two strands seemingly met, "are equally open. The ones that are tighter together are harder to read, so the body doesn't code for that trait. This is referred to as epigenetics. An epigenetic factor will attach itself to the histone tail of the DNA, essentially pinning it closed so the trait isn't expressed. However, these pins aren't permanent. Environmental factors could loosen them and change the gene expression."

"I don't get it Sakura-chan."

"You ever come face to face with a wolf before, Naruto?"

"No…?"

"But if you did, you'd be scared, right?"

"Well, yeah. I don't want it to eat me."
"Right. You were born and raised in a city. You've never come across a wild wolf before, so how do you know to be afraid of one? It's because thousands of years ago when humans lived in forests and small unprotected settlements, they knew to be afraid of wild animals. That fear and stress tied to coming across a wolf got coded into our DNA and passed down to us. Now we know to be afraid of wolves despite never seeing one. But let's say you were raised by wolves, Naruto. Being afraid of wolves wouldn't be practical to your survival. So your epigenetic factors would attach themselves to that piece of code and pin it closed, since it's unnecessary and even dangerous for that fear trait to be expressed."

"Oh! I get it! That's really cool!…and kinda weird. So what's that got to do with this poison?"

"Well it's not exactly a poison, but it served as a prep and a carrier for that strand of spliced animal DNA. It loosened certain epigenetic factors that were keeping some of their more pre-evolved, animalistic traits closed. It then transported and wove in the spliced DNA strand. I think having those more naturally animalistic traits reawakened allowed for the new strand to be integrated more easily."

"I don't think I want to know, but is there more?" Kakashi asked darkly.

"Unfortunately, yes. The substance also inhibits serotonin receptors and increases cortisol production."

"Which means?" Sasuke prompted, frustrated by the medical complexity of it all.

"It blocks your ability to process happiness or calmness and heightens stress, anxiety and anger."

"Lovely." This whole report was nothing but bad news. Anyone having this powerful of a substance in their possession was deadly, and whoever was skilled and warped enough to conceive of and make this was the Devil. The level of complexity was bothering him though. There was something familiar about it that he couldn't quite place.

"My theory is that it happens in stages. The first stage is the injection of the substance and spliced DNA. In this stage, a black three-pronged tattoo-like rash forms at the injection site. The second stage is when those black marks spread, which I think is the substance fully activating. The third is the start of the transformation and the final stage is when the transformation is complete. I think Tayuya died during the third stage. "

"Does this give us any leads?"

"Unfortunately not much. We can check mass orders for syringes. Based on Tayuya's background, she may have been sold off, which could also explain why she wasn't reported missing. In which case we can look into known human traffickers and see if they recognize her picture. I'm working on isolating the compounds in the substance. Identifying the ingredient list might narrow down a region or reveal a signature."

Sasuke stared at the DNA diagram Sakura had drawn. Complex genetic engineering, biochemical manipulation. Why was this sounding familiar to him. It reminded him of something from his time outside Konoha. A conversation he had with…Suigetsu…

"Well, some leads are better than none. This is truly incredible work, Sakura, to discover this much in such a short period of time. You keep working on identifying this substance and look into records of skilled medical staff from all the five nations. See if anyone has some non-demonstration skeletons in their closet. Include Orochimaru on that list. Naruto, you check in with Hinata on trafficking rings, see if she's got some…"

Sasuke couldn't focus on the rest of Kakashi's assignments. His mind was too busy conjuring up all his interactions with Suigetsu. The silver haired man was a mercenary, well known and feared in the criminal underworld. When Sasuke had defected from Konoha, he joined up with him briefly to help him track down and kill his brother. Suigestu had a peculiar ability to remain underwater for an absurdly long time without any sort of oxygen tank. He also seemed to heal unusually fast when submerged in water. Sasuke only asked him about it once, and his response had been: "Some real fucked up lab experiments. Crazy shit. But that's what you get for signing on with a psycho genius. Wouldn't want to go through it again but I ain't mad about the results."

Honestly he was mad he hadn't made the connection sooner. Even on the off chance these killings weren't done by the same psycho genius who dicked around with Suigetsu's anatomy, the mercenary still had his ears to the ground on all sorts of criminal activity. He'd surely know something.

"—Right." Sakura said with a determined nod.

"You got it Kakashi-sensei! Let's get to work! Believe it!" Naruto loudly affirmed.

Sasuke stood up abruptly. "I need to make a call."

He quickly strode out of the room.

"Well if it isn't Sasuke. Been a long time pal."

"Suigetsu. Who was it who experimented on you?"

"Always right to business with you, isn't it."

"Who was it?"

"Why so curious?"

"I'm working on a case with two victims who went through extreme experimentation. I believe your words were 'real fucked up lab experiments.'"

"Why should I tell you? I never got paid for the last time I helped you out."

"Actually you did. I broke into Kirigakure evidence lock up and stole Momochi's sword for you."

"Yeah you did do that…Was that really all I asked for? Man I shoulda demanded money too."

"I'll pay you. Five hundred for your answer."

"Five hun—Shit why so stingy, man? Didn't you inherit billions with the entire Uchiha estate?"

"Five hundred, and I won't turn you and mountains of evidence over to Kirigakure. Last I checked you're still number one in their bingo books and they love that death penalty."

"What you really think I wouldn't spill the tea on you?"

"I've already confessed to everything and been cleared. I'm under Konoha's protection. No one's protecting you though."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

"…You're a real asshole, you know that?"

"News to me. Now talk."

"Orochimaru. There was some other guy working with him too but I was in peak guinea pig mode and pretty out of it. Never caught his name or face. Your case sounds right up his alley. Haven't caught wind of anyone else pulling shit like that."

"How does he abduct his targets?"

"That'll be another five hundred and continued blind eye."

"Fine."

"He targets violent power hungry degenerates. Offers them power and they come running. The ones that don't come willingly are traded to him by a shady criminal ring called Akatsuki. Word is he used to be a part of them but they had some sort of internal dispute and he left. They still maintain some kind of working relationship though. Not too much is known about them but they're bad news. Like runs the darkest parts of the dark web bad. There's a rumor that your brother's actually a member, which explains why we had such a hard time finding him."

Sasuke nearly broke his phone with how tight his grip got. The anger stabbed him repeatedly in his heart, stomach, lungs. It left him winded, his pulse pounding furiously through his veins, filling him with an intense desire to hurt everyone around him.

"Your money will be in your account by tomorrow." He abruptly hung up. Turning, he rammed his fist into the brick wall of the back of the station. His filthy murderous brother was part of one of the darkest most corrupt organizations in the world. He shouldn't have been surprised. Tsunade had mentioned his brother's affiliation with them. But no one knew how bad they were—very little was known about them and their members. However now Sasuke had an idea of what they were like—the darkest parts of the dark web were nothing short of evil. They ran that. And his formerly beloved, now immensely loathed, big brother was a part of that. It was like Itachi was playing a game with himself of how much worse could he get. It made Sasuke sick.

He briefly considered going back inside but dismissed the idea. He was too riled up and would likely kill Naruto in this state. Instead he opted for going to the gym. He needed to beat something he was legally allowed to punch. He knew he was too angry to drive safely, so he caught a cab downtown.

Guy was the close combat instructor for the police force, as well as captain of the top SWAT team, comprised of Neji Hyuga, TenTen, and Rock Lee. Lee idolized Guy to a scary degree and Guy had more or less adopted him as a son. Since SWAT was a specialty unit, not often utilized, Lee and Guy had taken it upon themselves to open up several gyms and dojos throughout the city.

The first gym Lee had designed on his own was downtown and made no sense. Everything was on one open floor plan. Full gymnasts apparatuses and floor space shared the same area with punching bags, ellipticals, bench presses, weight racks, treadmills, and tons of other work out methods. Its strange layout made it one of the least popular and frequented gyms. Which was why it was one of Sasuke's favorites. He walked in to find it mercifully empty.

Shrugging off his leather jacket and button down, he squared up with a punching bag, fueled rage towards his brother. Rage at how low his brother had sunk. Rage at how Itachi had one-eighty-ed from his favorite person on the planet to his greatest enemy. Rage at how he had murdered their entire family—killed their mother and father in front of him. Rage at how he had left him alive. Rage at himself for allowing his brother to walk the earth this long. Rage at himself for almost becoming the same as him.

He pulled back his punch, ready to break through the sandbag with one hit, when the memory of a flash of pink stopped him short. He turned to look out at the empty gymnastics apparatuses and recalled the other reason why he always came to this gym. This was the gym that Sakura used to always go to. This was where he'd first learned of her skill as a gymnast:

Team 7 had just closed a domestic assault case. The almost hadn't made it in time. They came in to the horrible scene of a man beating his girlfriend bloody. Naruto charged in to stop him and wrestled him for a bit until the man managed to throw him off. In that time Sakura had run to the woman who was nearly unconscious. The man saw Sakura attempting to get the woman away and punched her so hard, she fell, the woman she was supporting falling with her. Sasuke and Naruto both tackled the man and successfully wrestled cuffs on to him.

Sakura had been unusually silent during the debriefing. Sasuke figured she was bothered by the case. The abuse the woman suffered had been brutal. She remained stonily silent throughout the entire car ride to her apartment.

The next day, when Sasuke got off work, he felt the need to blow off steam. He'd made no progress on finding Itachi. He felt like he was just sitting around. He wasn't getting stronger, he didn't have any leads, and he didn't have any answers. He needed to work off his agitation.

The problem was Sasuke had a big issue when it came to gyms. There were too many people, specifically girls. Specifically fangirls. He needed to work off the kinetic energy build up in his muscles though, so he looked up the least popular Gyms in Konoha.

The first hit was Leaf Hurricane. One of Lee's gyms downtown. The comments indicated that very few people went to this gym and very few happened to be Sasuke's favorite number of people.

When he got there he could see why. The layout was awful. Lee's other gym's were much better which he guessed had to do with Neji and TenTen's design input. But the equipment worked and 'very few' might have been an understatement. He'd be able to work out in peace here. That's when a flash of pink caught Sasuke's attention.

He turned to see a woman on the balance beam. Her short pink hair tied in a low pony tail. He watched as she did several back handsprings, an arial, and then a flip that she landed in a kneeling position on one leg, the other dangling over the side of the beam. She then kicked the dangling leg up and over bring her body upright in some sort of cart wheel. She spun several times on one leg before continuing the spin in the air, landing perfectly, and starting another handspring pass across.

It was strange. Never would Sasuke have called Sakura clumsy, but he'd never thought of attaching the word graceful to her until now. She moved with so much calm, control and balance, that she made complex flips look as easy as walking. There was such clean precision to her movements that she never once lost balance on the narrow precarious beam. She flowed from one move to the next so naturally she made it seem like the connection was intuitive. Sasuke could do a handspring, and he knew for a fact that none of what she was doing was intuitive. That came to a head when he watched her hold her leg up if front of her face and then just fall forward into a perfect split.

It was something that had to have hurt, but Sakura's face was so placid he wondered if she even felt it. He watched in fascination as her calm expression began to change a little. He eyes narrowed slightly, her brows gently furrowing. She let out a huff that was something between dejected and frustrated, shifting so she was sitting up facing out legs dangling. She looked up and froze when she saw Sasuke. There was a long pause before Sakura braved the silence.

"Uh, hey Sasuke-kun. What are you doing here?"

"Working out."

"This is hardly convenient for you."

"Fewer people."

"Fewer pe—ohhh." Her eyes scanned him up and down before she blushed and looked away.

"I can work out in peace."

"That makes sense. Sure sucks being hot, huh?" As soon as the words left her mouth she tensed.

"It's a burden." Sasuke agreed. Sakura let out a bewildered huff.

"How long have you been there?"

"Long enough."

"So you saw?"

"How long?"

"Since I was three."

"Competitive?"

"In high school. Regional champion."

"Why'd you stop?"

"Coaches, judges, competitions. They stop treating you like a person, more like a product. It's alienating."

"Sucks to be the best, hn?"

"It's a burden." Sakura agreed. Her eyes lit with a mischievous happiness that had been missing.

"So you did beam?"

"I was an all-arounder. Bars and floor are my favorite."

"So why are you doing beam?"
"Cause I was frustrated. Don't want to taint my favorites with frustration."

"Was?"

"Still am."

"Better get to vault then."

She laughed and made her way to the spring board, while Sasuke began his assault on the punching bag. He couldn't believe how different their frustration releases were. Yes, they were both physical activity, but Sasuke's came out in ragged, sloppy, abrasive strikes while hers was so controlled, precise, and relaxed. He respected her ability to channel her emotions so carefully to create something. All his did was fuel destruction.

Frustration usually lasted hours if not days inside him. Strangely, he felt his frustration dying down at an unusually fast rate. Instead it was being replaced by the curious need to watch Sakura's mesmerizing movements. Watching her flip through the air had a hypnotic effect on him, so while his body went on autopilot attacking the sandbag, his attention stayed on Sakura as she launched herself incredibly high.

They continued on that way for an hour, Sakura bouncing back and forth between apparatuses, Sasuke mechanically destroying the sandbag while his focus remained on her.

"Why are you frustrated?" Sasuke called out as she twirled across the beam.

"Cause I was useless again." She spat back through an arial.

Sasuke replayed the day before in his memory before shaking his head. "You weren't useless."

Sakura looked back at him from her hand stand as he robotically punched away. "I was sprawling with one punch and brought the victim down with me."

"You went to the victim first. You cared about her while Naruto and I cared about winning a fight. That's not useless."

Sakura cartwheeled out of her handstand and stood staring at Sasuke.

After a few seconds she asked, "Why are you frustrated?"

"No leads."

"Have you checked with cyber crimes yet?"

"No. Why?"

"Konoha protocol is to freeze all their bank accounts when someone defects. You need money to survive in this world and the quickest way for someone like him to earn it would be gun for hire. If he were doing it analog, you would have already caught a lead by now from someone who saw him. That means he's likely using a cyber bulletin to get jobs."

Sasuke froze mid punch. Why hadn't he thought of that? It was brilliant. Not only had his frustration melted away, but a new tracking route had opened up.

"Heh. I'll look into it."

Sakura smiled.

Coming to Leaf Hurricane together had become a common practice after that day. It was his first time coming to this gym since he returned to Konoha. In his upset, his mind had habitually directed him here. His rage dissipated completely at the memory of Sakura dancing around, fairy-like in her grace with her petal pink hair swirling around her. Was this what it meant to love someone, or just like them? He still didn't have a clear grasp on the strength of his feelings or what they meant. But Naruto said he felt calm listening to Hinata. Sasuke felt calm just thinking of Sakura. That meant…

"Ah fuck…I'm comparing myself to the Dead Last now." He grumbled.

Sasuke left the gym feeling much calmer, without having thrown a single punch.

Authors note: I'm sorry I took so long, life's been weird! But I finally finished! I make a really conscious effort to not have Sasuke focus on Sakura physically. I'm sure he finds her pretty but he's never struck me as a character who is attracted to people on a physical basis. Sasuke has always respected skill, strength, and tenacity and I think that's what he really finds attractive about Sakura. Anyways, thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed! Please continue to do so, they are excellent motivators!

Do not take any of the science I use seriously. I try to root the science I use in real concepts but I'm working off of my memory from middle and high school bio, and whatever I manage to glean from wikipedia. I'm an arts kid and while I love science I'm not going to begin to claim any sort of understanding, so don't use me as any sort of valid source.