A/N: Me, spending an hour+ using gimp to edit a picture of cherry blossoms so they look fiery.

It wasn't even good.

*sigh*

Anyway, thanks for reading! Sorry I skipped last week – been looking for a new job and writing's been hard.

And to the one commenter who I said I'd try and write three chapters this weekend, I totally did – the other two were just for different fics… *sweatdrops*

At least I wrote, honestly I'm considering that a win.

ONE DAY I'LL GIVE YOU GUYS MAKE-UP CHAPTERS FOR MY TWO SKIPPED WEEKS.

"Aniki, train with me!"

"Hey nii-san, what's that book?"

"Aniki, are you busy?"

"Play with me!"

"You have a mission again? You're always gone now!"

"Kaa-san, when will nii-san come back?"

"Aniki! Tou-san and Kaa-san- the clan- why-?"

"Nii-san!"

Blood and death and glowing red eyes-

"Hate me, then, and live."

Sasuke wakes choking on air, drowning in his own panic.

The nightmare fades with every dazed blink, until all he has left is a hazy recollection that he dreamed of that night again. He pushes himself up, determined to go out and train until he shakes the rest of the dream off, only to stop half-way in surprise.

Natsu slips off him, thumping into the pillows with a mild groan, and everything in Sasuke goes cold.

I didn't even notice…?

One of Natsu's eyes cracks open blearily, and flutters shut right after. Sasuke slips out the… hospital bed? a bit more carefully, because he's not sure what's going on but he knows his teammates will make a fuss when-

"YOU'RE AWAKE!"

Natsu jackknifes into a sitting position so quickly he over-compensates and tumbles right off the bed, yelping as he hits the floor.

Sasuke refuses to find it funny.

"WAIT SASUKE'S AWAKE?!"

The door to the room slams open, and the dobe barrels in without pause, tripping over Natsu and sending them both sprawling all over again.

Sasuke chokes on a laugh because he refuses to sink to their level.

"This is a hospital, dobe. Stop yelling." Naruto stares up at him with a look so stupid Sasuke's pretty sure he didn't hear a word, and he sighs.

"Yeah Sakura, stop yelling."

What?

Sasuke turns to look at Natsu, confused, because if the most tolerable member of his team has cracked and gone insane he's defecting and that is it-

"I don't care if no one else can hear you! This is a hospital and Sasuke says yelling's against the rules! So stop!" Natsu tilts his head to the side, face scrunched in annoyance, and Sasuke's almost afraid to ask.

"Hearing voices now?"

Natsu shrugs. "Just Sakura's, for now. Sakuni's still back at the bridge, apparently, so I don't know if I'd be able to hear her too… I really wish I knew what was going on but Sakura-chan said I shouldn't bother Sakuni, so…"

"...what?" Sasuke stares blankly, because he's pretty sure Natsu just said that there are two Sakuras and if someone doesn't clarify something soon he's going to have to assume his whole team is cracked in the head.

Naruto steps forward, looking nervously at Natsu. "How much do you remember, Sasuke?"

"Enough," he answers on reflex, before Natsu straight up passes out on the floor and Sasuke thinks maybe he should seriously consider the question.

"We… goaded those Kusa-nin into a fight. Only two of them were clones, and the original was…"

Way out of our league, he can't quite say, the words a brand on his tongue. Something in him burns, absolutely furious, before it melts away far too quickly, and Sasuke freezes.

That's not right, he thinks, why shouldn't I be angry? I wasn't strong enough! None of us were!

I refuse to be weak!

The anger comes back, a slow, steady thing, and that's just as wrong as the there-and-gone inferno.

A sudden chill overtakes him as he comes up with the only possible explanation.

"Something's… messing with my head, isn't it?" He glances down at Natsu, now curled about himself, and has a vague memory of being pushed down just as fangs sunk into his flesh. He idly rubs at his shoulder where he remembers the pain coming from. "...Natsu's too?"

"WHAT?! Whaddya mean? Natsu's just sleepin' alot cause a'chakra 'xhaustion! No one said anythin' about somethin' in your heads!" the dobe panics, leaping forward to try and grab Sasuke's head like that would do anything.

Sasuke snarls, pushing the dobe out of his personal space, feels a brief urge to follow up with a kick, enforce his boundaries, and only stops short of following through to consider, because he isn't sure if that's his own thought.

Naruto's clingy, and always after physical affection, and it's annoying and Sasuke most certainly has wanted to just bodily throw him away until he got the hint, but… if he's being honest to himself, it's been a… while, since he last wanted to.

And he can't be sure, when that fury disappeared too quickly to be natural, especially for Sasuke, when he's so used to taking his anger and using it, not pushing it away…

Sasuke has no idea what's happening, and apparently Naruto doesn't either-

See how much they value teamwork? He thinks, because clearly someone lied to Naruto about his teammates' conditions, made him think it was just chakra exhaustion when it's clearly so much more than that.

How typical, preaching one thing and doing another, he muses.

And freezes again, because 'preaching' is not a word he uses often at all. He doesn't have time to think about it though, because the door swings open again not a moment later, Kakashi-sensei leaning against the frame.

"Yo!" he raises one hand idly, the other holding a bright orange book, and Sasuke feels his eye start to twitch.

"Sensei! You didn't tell me somethin' was messin' with Sasuke n' Natsu's heads!" Naruto yells for the entire hospital to hear.

"Dobe!" he snaps, fist cracking down on Naruto's head in what he's pretty sure is the exact same way Sakura used to before Natsu showed up and-

He stops mid-motion, confused. Because at first he was suspecting that Kusa-nin they'd been fighting, but if Natsu got hit by… whatever that was too, then…

"Is Natsu the one messing with my head?"

Something about that doesn't feel right, but he just brained the dobe the way Sakura usually does and Natsu's unconscious but was talking before like there were two Sakuras, and no one is explaining anything-

Sasuke breathes, letting go of Naruto and stepping away.

Kakashi only just got here, so of course no one's explained yet-

He turns his glare on the jonin.

"What happened."

Kakashi's book is nowhere in sight, and the man looks truly serious in a way Sasuke's still not used to seeing.

The real face of Hatake Kakashi, Konoha's top-rank assassin.

He thinks that thought might actually be his own, if only for the fact that he doesn't refer to Kakashi-sensei by his clan name.

And even Sasuke, genin though he is, knows there's a difference.

"Apparently," Kakashi starts with an even tone, "a lot more than we expected. What do you remember?"

Sasuke pushes down a flare of irritation at the repeated question. "Natsu trying to tackle me. And that Kusa-nin biting me?" he rubs at his shoulder again, remembering. "Nothing after that though."

"He was no Kusa-nin," Kakashi starts, voice still carefully even, "but rather Orochimaru of the Sannin. As I'm sure you, at least, remember from your lessons, he defected from Konoha some years ago. You were completely outclassed from the start."

Sasuke does remember, though the dobe's sheepish grin says he's likely the only one who does on this team.

"What does he want with me?" Sasuke asks, because the strange mark he feels under his fingers is a lot more concerning when he knows it was placed by an S-Rank nuke-nin. And he's hardly forgotten who the original target was - that entire fight, the Kusa-nin only cared about Sasuke, brushing off Naruto like an annoyance and not even trying for Natsu until the pinkette threw himself into the fight.

"We don't know." Kakashi says, voice sharp with irritation. "He tried to put what's known as a Curse Seal of Heaven on you - Mitarashi Anko, who was the proctor for the second exam, has one as well. A prototype version, we believe, with you receiving what should have been the final product."

Should have been. Sasuke scowls. "What went wrong."

Kakashi glances down at Natsu. "Natsu put a hand in the way - perhaps intentionally, perhaps not. He hasn't been conscious very much at all, lately, so we can hardly ask. Regardless, the mark got split between you - half on your shoulder, half on his right hand. We have no idea which symptoms come from the improvements made to Anko-chan's seal, and which might be coming from it being unnaturally divided between two people. And beyond that, with both of you being unconscious for the past two days, we have only a bare list of symptoms to work with anyway. Something lead you to believe you were being directly mentally influenced?"

"My anger disappeared too quickly - it was unnatural. After that, I paid attention, and a couple of things I've thought haven't sounded quite right. What's wrong with Natsu?"

"Only the teme would notice something wrong because he stopped being angry," Naruto grumbles, and Sasuke scoffs.

Kakashi's eye narrows in consideration. "According to Inoichi-san, Sakura-chan can now see and hear anything that Natsu can, and Natsu is able to hear her speaking as well. Beyond that, they've been unconscious too often for us to learn much."

"So who is Sakuni?" he asks, because Kakashi's answer explained all of nothing.

"Ah, well, I only know this second-hand from Inoichi, but apparently she's that older version of Sakura-chan you saw before? We don't know why she's older, but according to her, she's been a second personality of Sakura-chan's since Sakura-chan was born. That's all I really know about that."

Sasuke glances down at Natsu, but isn't quite sure he wants to waste time asking.

He just needs to go cut loose in a training field until he's too exhausted to think.

Kakashi-sensei must read the question in his quick glance though, because he speaks again. "We really don't know why Natsu's been in and out of consciousness so much, especially when you were completely out of it and didn't so much as twitch. We thought it might correct itself once you woke up, but that doesn't seem to be the case… but I'm afraid you can't leave quite yet."

That spike of fury is utterly expected, and Sasuke glares at Kakashi. "What?"

"Take a couple steps back if you like, and see for yourself. Naruto's bed should be far enough away."

Far enough away for what? Sasuke doesn't ask, instead turning to do as Kakashi suggested.

Annoyance builds with every step, and he spins back around once he reaches the bed. "And what is this supposed to be do-innng…"

Natsu's curled so tight on himself Sasuke's pretty sure it's gotta hurt, hands clenched tight enough to draw blood. And part of Sasuke wonders why Kakashi thinks he'd care about that, as the rest comes to a startling conclusion.

"He's… protecting me."

Sasuke steps closer, feels some of the annoyance bleed away even as he pushes aside the spark of worry with the ease of long practice. If his teammates are so weak that he has to worry about them, he doesn't want them. And that's been true for as long as he's been Team 7.

"Whatever's happening," Sasuke muses, kneeling down to touch Natsu's hand and suddenly feeling more himself as he does, "Natsu's… taking the brunt of it?" It comes out a question, but the hate bubbling through Sasuke's chest is very certain.

How dare he, Sasuke can't help but think, staring down at his unconscious teammate.

I didn't ask you to do this for me!

Sasuke swore to get stronger. For revenge, for justice, to finally silence the burning hatred that sometimes feels like it will eat him alive-

But also because, one day, he wants to restore his clan.

And he never wants to be so weak that he can't protect them again.

If I can't even protect myself, if I need other people to save me, then how can I ever be strong enough for that!?

He nearly gets up and storms away regardless - he can protect himself, he doesn't need Natsu's help, and the idiot will accept that sooner or later and stop hurting himself trying, but.

Natsu blinks awake, bright green eyes vague and out-of-focus.

"Sakuni's pretty cool, apparently she's been stuck in my mindscape for a while, which is why I didn't see her before, but now she's over in the bridge connecting mine and Sakura-chan's which is why she's gone."

"Huh?" Sasuke can't help but ask, because, what?

Natsu sits up, casting a quick glare at the ground. "Ugh I hate that! I just remembered that before I fell asleep you were confused about Sakuni and since I was still on the ground I thought maybe it hadn't been that long…" he trails off, glancing around, and his eyes land on where Sasuke is holding his hand.

"Wha- hey, what're you doin'?!" he yelps, jerking his hand back and staring suspiciously at Sasuke.

Clearly, Sasuke has miscalculated somewhere. But he's not going to waste his time explaining everything to the idiot when he can just prove it, so he stands up and walks away.

"Hey! Answer the question you jer-!" Natsu cuts himself off with a yelp, and Sasuke turns to see him cradling his head with one hand - the hand with a swirling black marking that Sasuke is suddenly certain will match his own. He nearly doesn't walk back, because if it bothers the idiot that much he can just come to Sasuke, but Kakashi's disproving look and the sense that that might not be his own feelings encourage him to step closer to his teammate.

Who isn't even looking at him.

Of course.

Sasuke stops just in front of Natsu and scowls down at him, waiting for the idiot to notice.

It feels like ages pass, and Kakashi rests a hand on the dobe's shoulder to keep him from interrupting, before Natsu shudders like he passed through the world's biggest cold spot and turns his gaze up to Sasuke.

"Y'know," he starts, lips curling into a grin that Sasuke knows is bad news, "I knew Sakura-chan had a crush on you. But I didn't realize Sakuni does too!"

"What."

Natsu's grin widens. "Well, Sakura-chan and I are both here. And Sakuni's missing. And I guess if this mark connects us somehow," he waves his hand in emphasis, nearly swiping Sasuke's stomach, "then it sounds to me like she's hanging out with you! Man that's gotta be weird!"

What.

.

AN II: a part of this chapter confused my beta reader, and I went back and added more clarifying text, but figured I'd throw some things down here just in case – Oro's spirit/fragment/thing in the curse seal is getting a liiiiiiiiiittle confused in Sasuke – since the curse is divided between two people that fragment is feeling two people, or at least aware of them – nevermind the weirdness that is Natsu's head right now. And because of that, it's sort of screwing up its attempts to manipulate Sasuke by doing so in ways that would work better on, say, Natsu. Or Sakura. AKA it's being more obvious than in canon because it has a lot more inputs than expected and, well, Sasuke's a bit more mentally stable too, so he's noticing.

Also please know that 0% of this chapter was planned but I decided to write it from Sasuke's POV so I could timeskip a little to set up the next chapter and suddenly all of this happened.

But it works with what I already have planned so I'm sticking with it!

Feel free to ask if something doesn't make sense, as a rule of thumb if I confuse my beta reader/best friend of fifteen years, I can fairly say I'll probably confuse other people.

Also final end note – Natsu's theory at the end is wrong. It's not a big spoiler or anything, so I feel no shame in saying he is very much wrong as to Sakuni's whereabouts, but it was just too perfect a way to end the chapter…