CHAP 7 - MELATONIN

"A ninja !"

"A ninja ?"

"Hmm !"

"Honey, you have to be tough and brave to become a ninja. A battlefield is no place for a frail little girl like you."

"I'll become fierce ! And strong ! And everybody will be jealous of my powerful skills !"

"It's good to have dreams sweetheart, but you have to face reality sometimes too."

"Mebuki, Sakura's only three. Let her hope a little."

"She's not cut out to be a ninja."

—

"I graduated from the academy. I'm officially a Genin now. And I'm in Sasuke-kun's team !"

"..."

"You're not going to say anything ?"

"I still believe you'll quit."

—

"We completed out first mission today !"

"So you came here to tell us you're giving up ?"

"Of course not. I'm a kunoichi now, I have a duty towards Konoha."

"You'll come to your senses soon enough."

—

"Sasuke-kun left..."

"He must've seen your incapacity. Stop this nonsense, Sakura. This is proof that you are useless."

—

"For how long will you be gone ?"

"We're not coming back."

"So you're leaving me too ?"

"We don't want to witness the day when our failure of a daughter finally realises she's making a big mistake."

"...Goodbye then. Next time we'll see each other, I'll be the strongest medic-nin the world has ever seen. Stronger than Tsunade-sama."

"No, Sakura. There won't be a next time. You'll get killed before you reach twenty."

—

Hey, mom, dad.

I guess you're right. You've been right all along.

I'm not even nineteen.

... did I really mess up that bad ?

There is always light where darkness resides.

That's a simple principle, isn't it ?

Sasuke had managed to uncover peace and tranquility after all those dark years spent avenging his clan.

Kakashi had found harmony again in a team that wasn't much different from his old, cherished one.

Naruto had kept a proud smile on his face thanks to his unwavering goal even though his childhood had been rough.

Tsunade had rebuilt herself a family with her two prized students.

Therefore, in all logic, the painful memories that kept Sakura in a disturbing remembrance show had a light somewhere. A harmless memory, a happy one, warm, comforting, gleeful...

So why was finding that one flicker of light much harder than it seemed ? How did these four people manage to find solace in such a vast world when they couldn't find sealed memories in such a tiny body ?

"Maybe we're doing it the wrong way ?"

Tsunade sighed. Again. They were all completely worn out after looking for something that was as easy to find as a needle in a haystack. However many times Naruto tried to offer a new perspective to this annoying obstacle, he always failed. And annoyed everyone.

"No, Naruto, there is no 'wrong way', we just need to keep looking." Tsunade hissed through gritted teeth, a bit forcefully perhaps. But the loud boy did not seem to mind, continuing his protests instead.

"Looking for what ? We can't even enter her mind more than three times, and we've got no clue where to search !"

That was true. With only three attempts a day and barely two weeks before Sakura passed, they were thin on time. They couldn't afford losing a day to unproductiveness, not even mere minutes.

Tsunade had come across a forbidden scroll containing the perfect technique to disable the jutsu trapping the medic's mind. It consisted in locating the victim's secret garden, their private place, where their most precious moments were guarded, and forcing them out. Naturally, breaking into someone's secret garden was one of the most chargeable crimes of privacy violation. But this wasn't the reason why the technique was forbidden : forcing the intimate place open equalled toying with one's mind and emotions. Unlocking memories would also free the emotions contained within them, and repercussions were unpredictable.

But it was either this, or Sakura's actual death.

The choice was easy.

Yes, the choice was easy, but locating Sakura's secret garden surely wasn't. Did the woman even have one ?? At this point, Naruto was doubting everything and everyone. Tiredness had taken over his ability to assess things, and all he had in mind were more and more far-fetched ideas to find that damned garden.

His eyes widened as a less absurd idea bloomed into his head. Naruto started waving his hands around, ushering the others to look at him.

"Oh, oh, oh ! Why don't we mix up both techniques ?"

"Huh ?" The rest looked at him in confusion, Tsunade's dark aura and Kakashi's blank look hinting at their suspicion towards anything that was going to come out of Naruto's mouth.

"Hizoshi-san's mind exploring thingy and the solution Granny found in her scroll !!"

Naruto was getting excited at this point. Maybe this wasn't a stupid idea after all.

"Like, we could think about what Sakura-chan loves most and use this to find the memories sealed into her secret garden !"

"Would that work ?" Tsunade turned questioning eyes towards the nervous Sound-nin.

"Erm, well, I believe it could..."

Kakashi interjected. "But what would we use as a bait ? Anything can be linked to some painful memories that might just make us lose time."

"What does Sakura like anyway ?"

The room went silent once again at Sasuke's inquiry. The pink haired girl was easy to read and open about her feelings, but her likes and dislikes, the ones that were powerful enough to lead her friends to her secret garden, were unknown to them. Well, all but one.

"Er... Sasuke."

The silence weighed heavily after Naruto's answer. Hizoshi failed to read the mood and asked the dreaded question.

"Should we use 'Sasuke' then ?"

The firm reply was quick to come.

"No."

Confused, the Sound medic pressed on, only aggravating the atmosphere. "But-"

"NO."

Sasuke had made himself clear. Or so he thought.

"Why ?"

Apparently, while his tone scared Hizoshi to silence, it hadn't fazed Naruto, who was now whining despite knowing fully well he shouldn't have asked why.

Kakashi opened his mouth to change the subject but Tsunade beat him to it. "We all know why."

After yet another terse silence, she continued "Think about your fond memories with Sakura, times you remember when she was really cheerful, overjoyed even."

As his teammates did as they were told, Sasuke couldn't help but reflect on what Tsunade had implied earlier. We all know why.

Sasuke had probably hurt Sakura more than any blade or any attack ever could. So using his name to find her precious memories... was just stupid. Not Naruto-stupid. Useless, damaging, losing-stupid. That single word would attract so many painful memories that he couldn't even imagine where to start imagining.

"I'm trying to THINK, NARUTO."

Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts, his eyes landing on a fuming Tsunade barely containing herself, fists balled and eyes throwing daggers at Naruto, who was sheepishly rubbing his neck. He'd spent the last five minutes whispering -when it came to Uzumaki Naruto, whispering wasn't quiet- something to the Hogake, which obviously did not make her happy.

"Okay, okay, sorry Granny." The blond boy then turned around and half-murmured half-yelled at Kakashi the same blabber over again.

This boy was unbelievable. Tsunade started wondering how on Earth he was still alive. Considering the massive amount of self control Tsunade was deploying to not give in and kill the boy, she was sure someone less in control would gladly murder Naruto. Taking a deep breath, she gave up on recalling Sakura's good times to shout at the source of her headache instead. "Naruto. What. Is. It. ?"

The blond in question innocently peeked at the raging woman, not noticing -or pretending not to- how angry he had made her.

"I was wondering, why are we trying to free Sakura-chan of the jutsu ?"

The room completely stilled at this.

Tsunade felt like a rock had suddenly fell on her head. She knew Naruto was not a brilliant phenomenon... but this ? That level of stupidity had never been achieved before.

"Naruto, what do you mean ?" Even if only a single eye was visible, confusion could clearly be seen all over Kakashi's face.

"Well, Sakura-chan's kept in an artificial coma to slow down the spread of the poison right ? I know we can't wake her up, 'cause the rush of energy will stimulate the poison or something, and she'll die, but why are we trying to get rid of the jutsu right now when our priority is to find the antidote ?"

Tsunade was genuinely impressed at how much Naruto had remembered from the one report of Sakura's state she had given days ago. But that certainly did not make her think that he was less of an idiot. "I've already sent squads to retrace the events and find out about anything they can, and the witness they brought in last week is helping too. We have to obtain information about the poison too, and the easiest and quickest way is to look into Sakura's memories. Unless you want to go with the ANBUs yourself, there's nothing else you can do."

Naruto sighed, as if he was taking Tsunade for the dunce in the room. "Yes, I know all that, but when she got the poison in her, she didn't think it was the happiest day of her life, and I bet she didn't find it great either."

"What's your point ?" The Hokage was losing patience.

The disbelieving look Naruto sent her way rubbed Tsunade the wrong way. "We don't have to get rid of the jutsu yet ! Sakura-chan must've been in pain when the poison was injected in her, so instead of getting rid of the mind control thing that takes out the memories we don't need, we should keep it, finding what happened will be way easier !"

"You mean, by only letting the painful memories loose, this will narrow the choice of memories we'd have to look at to find the one we're after..." Ah. Maybe Naruto wasn't that stupid after all... Tsunade huffed.

"That's exactly what I said."

"Yes, but... she's suffering..."

All annoyance was replaced by worry on the Hokage's features. After losing her one time, the woman didn't want to see her student in pain ever again.

Tsunade jumped slightly went a hand landed on her shoulder. Lifting her head towards limpid blue eyes, she almost lost her composure at how earnest Naruto's gaze was. "Granny. I hate seeing Sakura-chan suffering too. But she can handle it. We have to make sure she lives before skipping to the next step."

His warm smile and the squeeze he gave her shoulder reassured the blond woman immensely. That stupid boy was comforting. Tsunade exhaled, relaxing a bit until Naruto began staring at her knowingly.

"Besides, she's a little conscious in there isn't she ?"

A light gasp was heard in the background, probably from Hizoshi.

"How did you figure that out ?"

Tsunade wasn't shocked at Naruto's words, and neither was Kakashi. It seemed that Sasuke and the Sound-nin were the only ones not aware.

"C'mon Granny, I know I'm not that smart, but give me some credit ! She used her freaky medic-nin techniques to pump her heart when she was dying, and supposed to be unconscious. So she has to be aware of at least her body's needs, right ?"

Sasuke's barely raised eyebrows furrowed. This seemed so simple and logic now that the Dobe explained it. He felt pathetic for not grasping it before Naruto did.

Tsunade sighed once more. If she could get a penny each time she did it, she'd be rich by now. However this time, it wasn't of annoyance or anger. It was tiredness. "You're right. She seems to be... Responding to a few things. We ran some tests, but the results were too vague, we can't confirm anything yet. But it's highly probable that... She knows about the poison. And her injuries."

Everyone had tried to ignore the injuries. Whether it was out of disgust from Hizoshi, helplessness from Tsunade, and rage from the other three, they all avoided looking at the disaster before their eyes. They didn't want to notice how bad Sakura had been torn apart.

"... And also, maybe, she might feel it when we go into her head."

There were many things Sasuke hated. The sun, for instance. Anything orange. Skipping training. Fangirls. Sweets. Feeling useless.

Of all those things, feeling useless was the worst. Knowing he held so much power within him, but not being able to use it in any way frustrated him more than anything.

And right now, the feared Uchiha Sasuke was awkwardly standing in the far corner of his teammate's hospital room, watching her crumble and suffer in utter helplessness. He couldn't chidori her enemy into oblivion ; and if he went on yet another avenging quest, he'd be banned fair and square from Konoha. For good.

Sasuke was pretty sure that alternative would not please Sakura when she woke up. If she woke up- when. When she woke up.

Sasuke would often praise himself for knowing a lot about the people that were more or less close to him, in case they became his opponents one day. He had never doubted his observing skills. Not until Sakura had suddenly shown up on the brink of death. The attempts to save her all involved some level of knowledge about her, which Sasuke had reluctantly realised he lacked. He had been so sure that after all those years of having the kunoichi fret over him, he'd know Sakura pretty well. But now he finally grasped how little he knew of the pink haired medic. Sasuke used to always be so focused on her superficial side that he had hardly ever noticed anything else other than her crush on him. And never would he admit it out loud, but it saddened him. Only recently had he started to take interest in Sakura as a person, a reliable teammate, but it still wasn't enough to fully understand her persona.

That's why, while Naruto and Kakashi were looking for a lead to find memories about what had transpired the day everything went haywire, Sasuke could only stand on the far corner of the room, hoping to merge with the shadows and recover his indifferent demeanour.

"So, what word are we going for ?"

"Toxin, injuries, pain, ambush, adrenaline, mission, attack..."

"Too vague."

Tsunade suddenly pointed her finger at Kakashi, her expression disturbed. "What did you just say ?"

A lone eyebrow shooting up, the silver haired man repeated himself. "Attack ?"

"No, no, before that." Tsunade was waving her five fingers at him.

"Mission ?"

Letting out an exasperated groan, the blond briefly looked at the ceiling before exclaiming : "You were saying something about-"

"Adrenaline." The copy-nin finished for her.

Tsunade pensively acquiesced, staring into nothingness, her eyebrows scrunching tightly together. Then, in a fraction of seconds her whole face shifted as she finally grasped why exactly that word was bothering her.

"MELATONIN."

Hizoshi squealed in fright at the woman's sudden outburst, while Naruto was obviously trying to understand what this complicated word meant.

Tsunade was going mad. Sasuke was sure of it. Barely a week locked up in her student's hospital room and she was already losing herself. If that was going to happen with every one of them, Sasuke wasn't sure he'd last long.

Noticing that nobody had gotten what she meant by that word, Tsunade rubbed her hands together and provided an explanation.

"When we do paperwork late with Sakura, one of us always dozes off, so we invented a code to prevent it. We repeat 'melatonin' until the other fully wakes up. By repeating the same word to catch someone's attention, the brain remembers it and will react whenever that word is pronounced. Which means that Sakura will unconsciously focus on anyone who uses this word around her."

"Would that mean that if we use it to catch Sakura's attention, then ask her to show us what happened, it could work ?" Kakashi asked, a finger on his chin, frowning as he contemplated the idea.

Tsunade shrugged, then turned to Hizoshi. "Theoretically speaking, yes. However, the expert here isn't me."

Said expert slightly cowered under Sasuke's inquisitive stare. Apparently, the Uchiha wasn't very fond of him. This didn't surprise anybody in the room. "I-I... maybe... I mean, y-yes ! Yes, it could work."

Sasuke sharply turned towards the rest of the group, his voice raising an octave higher as he, in a not so Sasuke-like manner, squeaked "What are we waiting for then ? Let's go in there and ask Sakura how she ended up like this."

Putting a hand on his student's shoulder to calm his nerves a little, Kakashi cracked a small smile before warning Sasuke that the phrasing of the question they were going to use was important. They couldn't be unclear about what they wanted.

All taking a steady intake of breath after settling for a structured and precise inquiry, the Sakura Rescue Team (as Naruto had baptised them) stepped into a circle and into their patient's mind.

Tsunade was gently gliding in a forest of whispers, her feet barely touching the ground. Or was it the ceiling ? She didn't know. Her only intelligible thought was directed towards a funny word. A funny word which she soon registered was being whispered by endless voices around her. She just had to reach out...

Melatonin.

"Did we succeed ?"

This was unexpected. No memory was showing up. Only an endless, dark void, deep and silent, in which five glowing bodies were slowly floating. They felt sleepy, but not entirely. None of them were sure about who exactly had asked the question, but it was a certainty : they had. They had managed to capture Sakura's focus.

"This feels… calming. Where are we ?" Naruto wondered, his voice strongly reverberating but quiet at the same time. Calming wasn't the word. Soothing felt more right, as the exhausted and on edge intruders were magically recovering from the stress of the last few days, a comforting wave warmly washing over them.

Tsunade, peacefully drifting next to Naruto, seemed to briefly inspect the mass of nothingness engulfing the five ninjas before answering the boy's question. "My guess is, we're located near Sakura's first chakra gate. Judging from the relaxing flow we all feel, she unconsciously transported us to the outskirts of her mind instead of the chaos of its center, since we manipulated her concentration. We should be able to direct ourselves towards her memories better from here… I hope."

"But Granny, Sakura-chan's chakra is green," Naruto was placidly moving his head from left to right, vainly trying to swim around to check something in every possible direction, "so why is this place blue ? It looks like Sasuke. Gross."

Said boy cringed at this statement. It had to simply be a coincidence, otherwise it would add a lot more weight to their relationship than what was already there. Which was so far pretty heavy.

"It's not her actual chakra, idiot. This area is just constantly buzzing with energy coming from her gate underneath, and some chakra tries to leak, that's why we can feel it. Otherwise, this place is simply a soothing spot, so its colour is one that calms Sakura. Anyway, we better focus. Are you all ready ?"

Sasuke grimly nodded, glad that Tsunade had changed the subject rather quickly, since his face had turned a slight but terrifying shade of pink and guilt had mercilessly started gnawing at his heart. He'd deal with those… emotions later. Or never.

Tsunade released a steady breath, gathering the four other bodies afloat around her own. This was their best shot. "It's now or never. On three."

Even Sasuke was anxious, against his own will.

"One."

Naruto was more concentrated than ever, mind blank and prepared.

"Two."

Kakashi had a good feeling about this. Not an overwhelmingly good one, but a shy, discreet one.

"Three !"

Five minds were projected into the vast unknown, as a single sentence reached out towards the far end of Sakura's most remote thoughts, aiming for answers.

Sakura, tell us exactly the reason why you're in your current state.