Part I

They had finally succeeded. Konoha village, the finest producer of ninja in all the lands, had finally erased her emotions. She thought it had been impossible. Hell, anyone would have thought she would have been a lost cause, as much as she tried to conceal it from those who didn't need to know. So many years. So many years had given her immense practice in hiding her feelings but hiding them and erasing them all together were two very different things.

She had been a much bigger project. Maybe even a bigger project than Naruto himself. He felt too much. But he was stronger than her. She had always been weak, and that's why she had struggled with this so much.

She thought that she perhaps was somewhat mad. Perhaps she had something of a personality disorder. It wasn't that uncommon. Lots of people with personality disorders were good at hiding it. Though she wondered how many of them where aware that something was wrong with them. She thought that maybe she was blessed that she was aware of her own weaknesses, as best to try to remedy them herself as much as she could manage. But other times she realized it was much of a curse to realize you were bat shit crazy and could do nothing to stop it.

A girl spilling a few tears from time to time was accepted of an ordinary human, but not a ninja. A child may cry, but not one of them, no matter the age. She had sobbed in front of too many people, the enemy, her comrades, pleading and begging for mercy. Weakness. She had always been weak.

Naruto was blind to such behavior and was perhaps the only one that didn't judge her for it. Her superiors were silent about it, for they didn't need to speak of her faults, just their disapproving looks made it clear that she was a mistake. The enemy never showed any mercy. She had to be rescued by her team numerous times.

She did a pretty good job at hiding it. As she got better at hiding it, the people around her assumed that she had only matured, grew out of her weaknesses, but no, her obsession had in fact grew out of control, just nobody knew it. It helped that her natural intelligence and ability to learn her job overlooked any breakdowns that she could occasionally have. She knew her stuff. She was Konoha's best medical ninja in practice. She was possibly better than Tsunade at this point, but no one mentioned so while the Sannin still breathed. Not only had she mastered her chakra control to work tirelessly for months on numerous patients without much rest or sustenance, but she was a quick thinker, steady with her hands, and had a much better percentage of success than anyone else in the village. She knew the human body like her favorite book, each and every cell like the letters of well-loved words and quotes. She could perform operations without any chakra if needed be, and what she was really good at was keeping people alive, if they wanted to be alive or not.

She had her doubts about her profession. Any day, she thought for sure Kakashi would come and tell her she was no longer needed, that she wasn't meant for this line of work, that she should just stay home. Even though she had past the academy, she had seen others dismissed just as easily. She knew, if she hadn't been as good as she was, her behavior wouldn't have been tolerated for nearly as long as it had, but she did her job, and no one said anything.

Keep the prisoners alive. That was all she had to do. She didn't need to think about it. She didn't dare to think about it.

Valuable information could be gathered from a prisoner, even if dead. The Ninja body was unique to each one, each with its own techniques and types of chakras. Specialized body parts could be taken. If the prisoner was still alive then even more valuable information could be gathered from their minds; plans of ambush, information of the enemy, the technique on the different jutsu themselves. Most prisoners would die before giving up such information. She was to save the suicidal.

Keeping the captive subdued and unconscious was the best way to prevent them from harming themselves, but sometimes, one would slip through the procedure and awake. She oversaw then saving their life. Usually it was poison. She knew every poison and could detect with just a graze of her fingertip. She checked on all of them routinely. Blood wasn't usually spilled but there was the odd man that would try to slit his own throat or wrists. She knew all their blood types and could supply a blood transfusing to anyone that may have lost too much blood before being found and healed. Keeping them alive had been what finally killed her emotions, she thought.

Or It had all been because of Sasuke Uchiha.

She knew, when still a Genin, the village thought that it was a good thing, or what good could come out of something so terrible, that Sasuke Uchiha had deserted. It meant that she would no longer pine for him. She would never cry for his pain, beg for his survival, think unclearly whenever he had something as simple as a scratch. He didn't show much interest in her, but it didn't matter. He was too much of a distraction. If he were gone, if he had finally succeeded in breaking her heart, she would grow to hate him, and then move on.

But it had only gotten worse.

She had never fancied anyone else over all the years, but that wasn't taken to be unusual. Most ninjas did not pursue relationships since their own mortality rate was so high. Sexual relationships were still common among the ninja, as the act, no matter who it happened to be with at the time, was the only sort of comfort that one of them may have been able to find during their short lives. This was kept under hush and no one talked about it. But she wasn't even participating in that. As a no-nonsense type of person, it wasn't odd. She had always been a stickler for rules, and she wasn't one that was going to be fooling around with people when there were better things to be done, such as training or taking up missions. She kept her mind busy, reading her medical books, training her physical chakra strength in the training fields, working at the hospital or signing up for missions. Her desperation to keep busy was what made her take up her new job.

She had moved out from her parents' house as soon as she had enough money saved to start paying her own rent. It was just one less pretense that she had to put up with. Her parents were easy to lie to, but they had heard her crying when she was still weak. They had once seen the harrowed look on her preteen face and remembered and worried. She didn't necessarily recognize her own loneliness as she was trying so hard not to think about it. She wanted to think of nothing.

During the brief times of peace were the most painful parts of ninja life. There were no living prisoners, no missions, and the few work she could find at the hospital were simple things. Ninjas smile during happy times, but they are never happy. She always chose to work with the children. They were the easiest to lie to. They accepted her smiling face, bandaids and candy. Watching their tears made her feel like she didn't have any. Besides, she didn't want her face to look like theirs, ugly and pitiful over something as insignificant as a scratched knee.

The nights were the worst. She could only hope that there was some emergency that would call her over to the hospital, but if there wasn't, simple skinned knees could wait until the morning.

Ino had given her a vibrator once for her birthday. She had said that every woman should own one. Ino had told her it would protect her from the curiosity of men. Ino never did have a very good outlook on men. Ino hated men. She thought their only purpose was for procreation, and perhaps that small split second of pleasure they could give on fleeting nights. As children were not ideal for any of them, the curiosity desire was a danger more than anything. That's what the vibrator was for. It took out the need for men all together.

She didn't hate men as Ino did. She knew there were ones out there who were respectful, honorable and loved just as much as anyone. But such people she was not interested in finding. She didn't long for that, she had thought. She didn't even think she had much desire for sex either but thought that was perhaps wrong of her, so she tried it anyway.

Orgasm did relieve stress. For that split second. Enough to want to try it again right after. She could see perhaps how one could be addicted to it, like drugs or alcohol, but the social aspect of finding a partner was too much of a hassle for her, so the vibrator she stuck with, and the vibrator was what she had during those peaceful nights without emergency.

There was never ever any peace. One could not simply place a vibrator on one's clit and except to get off easily and instantly. It was something mental she realized, to get off, you had to be turned on. To turn yourself on, alone, you have to be imaginative.

Her mind was a terrible place indeed. She hadn't seen him since she was a teenager. She hadn't known him since she was 12, but he was the one she thought of during those nights, as much as she knew it wasn't helping her.

It was always violent thoughts. She couldn't think of him in any other way. Though the whole image of Sasuke Uchiha was too much. No, if she thought about him entirely she would begin weeping again, so she thought of parts of him. The corner of his mouth with a rude sneer, the muscles on his back as he raised his arm to kill, the Sharingan in his eye spinning, always spinning. She fantasized him coming to her window and killing her. How dare she think of him this way? Thinking of his pale skin, speckled with blood, blood that was probably from someone on her side of the battle, that was what made her release her pleasure against the vibrator.

She never truly thought she'd see him again. Every time a new war started between the territories, she thought perhaps she would hear of his whereabouts. The other regions wanted him dead, but so did Konoha. Eventually he would find his downfall. He had no friends, no allegiance, no one to protect him. Someone would eventually kill him.

There was talk of him from time to time, of a heinous deed that he committed. He had killed a few Kage at this point, laying the villages in disorder and ruin. Sometimes this was helpful to Konoha. Sometimes this was not.

There was always that fear that she may run across him on one of her missions, fear or thrill. She figured if he did turn up again, she would be killed. Either he would finally succeed in killing her, or she would make a fatal mistake. She wouldn't be surprised if her own teammates killed her to prevent her from hindering the mission further.

But no. None of that happened at all. The unthinkable had happened. Twenty-one years after his desertion, Sasuke Uchiha was captured alive.

The village practically rioted, other nations poking their noses into the matter, all wanting him dead as soon as possible. Why was he being kept alive? All blame had gone to Naruto instantly as he was Hokage at the time. The talk was that perhaps it was Naruto keeping the mass murderer alive.

Naruto had changed over the years. They all had, but she thought it was most noticeable in Naruto. Naruto young, had the energy of the sun, and the faith of his morals stronger than the pull of the universe, or so she had originally thought. Now Naruto didn't seem like anything more than just simply tired. She knew he had given up on Sasuke half a decade ago. He was very much surprised on what to do now. He had a family, Naruto. He married Hinata and had children. The talk was that he had grown soft, but she knew better. He was just tired.

"What should I do?" He once asked her. Sometimes they would drink together, on peaceful nights in his office when she had nothing to do and was too afraid to be left alone with her vibrator. In the back of her mind she knew that Naruto never had times where he had nothing to do. This companionship was solely for her wellbeing.

Naruto stared at her, his cheeks hanging from his skull. She would liked to have used her chakra to heal the blood vessels around his eyes, but without him actually sleeping the procedure would be pointless the next day. His expression changed while watching her, realizing that he had asked the wrong question even though she had not responded.

"You know what I have to do."

She blinked innocently at him, holding the bottle of sake they were sharing in her hands. They never drank in public together. Only alone in the office, to make sure no gossip or talk would go around. Naruto being a married man made their friendship difficult sometimes, she thought bitterly, pouring him another glass. There had been times that she had thrown herself at him, sopping drunk. But Naruto never took her. He was one of those honorable types of men.

"He would be put to death," he said needlessly, still watching her, looking for a reaction, the sign of her weakness. But her emotions were dead. She said nothing. Naruto was used to her saying nothing. "I'm afraid." He didn't elaborate on what he was afraid of, as he drank the sake that she had poured. "Please say something."

"What?" They continued to stare at each other. She suddenly realized what he was asking for.

Her permission.

She almost scoffed but her face was too numb and drunk to succeed in it fully. She had no say in this. She had no place in politics or law, but Naruto was still looking at her expectantly. She wondered if he would do it, if he would simply free Sasuke just because she said she wanted him to. She was tempted to say it, just because of how absurd it was. Naruto would do anything for her.

Naruto was still in love with her. She had always known that he was in love with her. He had offered to marry her, if only to keep an eye on her wellbeing because he knew she was a lost cause. Only after she had told him no, that he married Hinata. Hinata had been his distraction, like medicine had been hers.

"It's alright," she finally said, feeling a sudden pity for Naruto.

"I want him to have a fair trial," Naruto admitted. "I know it doesn't change anything." He looked away from her and rubbed his face hard. "I just feel like I have to, but at the same time it's just prolonging the inevitable and I don't want... to be going through that. And we don't have much time. I'm afraid," he said again. She wondered if Naruto ever admitted to being afraid to Hinata. She felt a vile sort of flattery that made her want to slam Naruto bare ass against his glass window. She probably could if she used her chakra. She was physically stronger. But Naruto was cleverer. She wouldn't even be able to meet the three-foot distance between them, she was so drunk.

So was Naruto. He was crying.

Naruto sent her home at 2:30 in the morning. He offered to have someone walk her home. He didn't walk her home himself, for obvious reasons. She had declined and was just about to pull out her vibrator from the bed stand drawer when there was a tap on her window. She looked up to see an ANBU on her window ledge. "You're needed," was all he said, and she jumped at the opportunity.

It wasn't a hospital emergency. She should have known that with an ANBU coming to her. She kept up with him, though her vision was still fuzzy from intoxication. There was a coffee machine at the hospital that she was going to try to stop by before the surgery, but they weren't going there. They were going to the prison.

She knew the ANBU knew she was drunk. Once arriving, he had given her a hard stare, as if wondering on the decision of bringing her here. He must have thought he had no other choice because he said nothing and had her continue onward.

It was Sasuke.

He had already killed five people within a second of gaining consciousness. Ten more had died trying to restrain him. She had the thought, wondering, who's bright idea was it to keep Sasuke alive? She didn't think it was Naruto being stupid. But then again, he was afraid, and maybe so had been everyone else, like Sasuke Uchiha simply could not be killed.

Sasuke Uchiha had been on his way, willingly, to Konoha when he was captured. It was probably the only way to ever have brought him here. His reason for coming was most likely to kill Naruto since Naruto was now Hokage and that's what Sasuke did; kill Kage. It was all of Konoha's forces that took Sasuke down, but Naruto did the final blow. She hadn't seen it. She was thought of as too much of a risk in seeing Sasuke, so she was held in the back to tend the wounded. She had healed Naruto at the end as well. Naruto had not been wounded but the amount of chakra that he had used to strike Sasuke had nearly killed him. She had known if Sasuke had succeeded in getting a hit on Naruto, there would have been no Naruto left for her to heal. No killing blow was made by Naruto, but she had speculated that Naruto had tried with the amount of chakra he had used.

Unconscious, Sasuke was giving enough drugs to possibly kill him instantly, to keep him down, but yet he still awoke, now. One flick of his eyelid and a man was caught under his genjutsu, committing suicide for him. Anyone that came near him died without a touch.

"KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED!" she heard someone say as she got closer to the commotion. The wall that led to the prison surgical room was blown through, and she briefly saw a half-formed Susanoo arm flit through her vision before it flickered out. Among the bodies and rubble, when she finally laid eyes on him, she did not know what she was seeing.

Inhuman, she had thought, because he wasn't fully human. He wasn't a full person. He was literally missing parts of his body. He was squirming on the ground like a bloody worm. One arm was missing all together, while the remainder one had been secured by bounds that he had wiggled free from. He was using the arm mostly to support himself up, as his legs seemed to be useless. Blood flowed freely over his face as the one side of his head was missing the flesh and she could even see the gleam of skull in the light. He was drenched in blood, that she knew was his, bleeding and bleeding in his struggle. By all means he should be dead, she thought.

But his eyes were open, blinking, trying to get the blood out. Then they were open and focused on her, spinning and spinning. She knew what was coming. A genjutsu. She was trying to recall how to release genjutsu, too drunk to remember that one couldn't simply break a genjutsu from an Uchiha.

"Sakura," he spoke her name clearly, without trouble or pain hindering it. That had shocked her, and made her even more useless, but he had lost too much blood, and Sakura was able to count down the seconds to his collapse.

More orders were yelled. She wasn't sure if any of them were directed to her, not until someone had grabbed her arm. "His eyes are to be removed," she was told. "Intact," he added, as if he was afraid that she may sabotage them. Of course. Uchiha eyes were too rare to let go waste.

Sasuke was thrown onto the operating table unceremoniously. She took a moment to line the remainder of the limbs in some sort of order, rolling her eyes and muttering to herself for the carelessness of her companions. Their hastiness just wasted more time. She did a check on the vitals like she would do for anyone she was caring for. His breath was ghostly light, almost unnoticeable, yet she felt it like the whooshing of a stormy wind. His pulse, fluttering and inconsistent, like a dying butterfly, was so loud that she felt her brain rattle against her skull.

Exsanguination.

"He's bleeding to death," she heard herself saying, noting as her charka ran up and down his body. His charka was low too, but as long as he didn't move it shouldn't kill him. She could sense the emptiness, how much chakra he could carry if he was at full strength. It was near to Naruto's if not matching.

"Good. Let him die."

She glared at the person who said that, her tone cold when she stated, "The Hokage wants him alive for trial." They weren't supposed to let their captives die, ever. If an accident did occur, an investigation would happen. Naruto sure as hell would have done something about it if he suspected foul play. If he did not, Sakura would insist to the annoyance of everyone else.

The man that had spoken grimaced and knew. Everyone else continued, if reluctantly. "AB," she stated the blood type from memory.

An IV was attached to him as she continued with the rest of her analyst. He was not in good shape. She would have to work fast. She always worked fast.

There was quite a bit of damage to his head. She thought briefly how that was not good since it may have caused damage to the precious eyes that Konoha desired so much. It would serve Konoha right if they lost the eyes because of Sasuke's death. She knew the secrets. She knew that it was the village's fault. Konoha had turned Sasuke into this.

There were bits of skull, loosely still clinging to the body like the membrane of a cracked egg shell. She closed her eyes as she searched for all the pieces with her chakra, fitting them together like a puzzle, fusing the pieces together as soon as she was sure of their placement. Some of the pieces were microscopic. She made sure all were accountable, none floating around where they shouldn't be, and any missing all together she remade by stimulating cell growth.

There was brain damage. That was for sure, as the cracked pieces of the skull had torn into the tissues. She reconstructed the brain with one hand, as her other hand continued to fit the skull back together. She could put the head back together physically, but any sort of irreversible damage such as memory loss or neural transmission, could not be confirmed until the patient woke, if he ever woke again.

This took her an hour and a half. She could feel the uneasiness of her staff, but she paid little attention to them. She was obviously working on the head, and they assumed she was making sure the eyes were in perfect condition. All they cared about were the eyes.

Done with all she could do with the skull, she ran her hands down the rest of the body, still high on the adrenalin that the complicated surgery gave her, checking for more damage.

The stump of the missing arm was covered in old blood and had been left alone without attention for too long. One of her assistants had clamped it and made the bleeding stop, but it had already been infected with blood poison. She said so out loud, so that that her company realized. The eyes after all were still receiving that toxic blood, and she had made no move to attempt to rescue them so far.

While they were dealing with that she checked the rest of the body. Abrasion and bruises that could wait, a few deep wounds that were hastily stitched up while she had been concentrating on other things. His spine was intact, not paralyzed, though one femur had to be reset. Some tissues were inflamed, some muscles sprained, little toe and finger bones broken. She could have worked on this specimen forever.

Excitement. She was so thrilled. So much for her to do! But she was being pressured and pushed, told to hurry up. They wanted her to remove the eyes already.

She hastily finished her observation, though not allowing herself to skip over any of the human body systems. Just by sheer curiosity, she checked that the reproductively system was all there as well. That hadn't been damaged at all. How interesting.

Sasuke was a large man. Taller than even Naruto and Kakashi at 182 centimeters. There were certainly larger people out there, but any taller would have him look ridiculous, she thought. He should have looked ridiculous now, broken, bloodied and weak, but he wasn't. He was broad shouldered too, taking up most of the table that they operated on.

In the midst of cherishing each part of him before her on the table, each organ and system struggling to survive despite the damage (he was beautiful, so beautiful) someone jerked her into awareness with a shove on her shoulder. She could prolong it no longer. The patient was finally stable. Waiting one more second was too dangerous.

She proceeded the operation, more people than she needed crowding her space as if afraid that the traitor would wake up during the procedure, which seemed to indeed be possible. She moved slowly, which just brought up everybody else's anxiety, but she didn't care. She was still drunk. She knew she had repaired the skull herself but didn't have the memory entirely. How long ago was that? Did she do it correctly?

She found herself admiring Sasuke's face, relaxed and drained and horrible. Under the gleam of blood was his straight nose, the elegant curve of his forehead. She lifted his eyelid. She marveled at the way it moved under her fingertips, easily yielding. The eyes were blank from his unconsciousness, and stunningly black. For an instant it felt wrong, marring something perfect, like stepping on fresh snow, or a drop of black ink on a sheet of blank paper, but she knew it had to be done. Leaving Sasuke his eyes was too much of a risk. Besides, he would never be whole again regardless. As she maneuvered the knife to curve around the eyeball of where she knew the Rinnegan lay hidden, she thought that maybe this was right. That it was maybe her right to take something of Sasuke's since he had removed her heart all those years ago. The fresh blood that dripped down his cheek from the first incision was beautiful, a stroke of calligraphy, stating everything that meant anything.

But as the first eye was removed, she thought she was going to throw up.

Not entirely sure on how her companions would react to such disgraceful behavior she swallowed down the bile, letting it burn down her throat. She was afraid that they would remove her and find someone else to do this if they thought she was incapable, and selfishly she wanted to be the one. It had to be done, she told herself again. It might as well be done by the best. The other eye was even harder to do so she stopped thinking until both eyeballs were safety in a jar to preserve them.

"I need to tend to his wounds," she heard herself say without thinking about them. She saw one of the men get ready to argue with her before she cut him off. "He'll die if left the way he is." That was only true if he somehow gained a colossal infection from his more minor wounds at this point but was still a possibility. Besides she knew no one was going to bother with any aftercare for a prisoner who was guaranteed to die. So, she stayed to dress the rest of his wounds, cleaning and disinfecting them.

Once finished she would have paused to look at him. She may have stopped all of time to continue to look at him, but there were now talking about what to do with his eyes, and she could not let them take them. Why? Why did it matter? They would be kept safe of course, until the Hokage approved of what to be done with them, and that happening during any time in Naruto's reign was unlikely. But no, she couldn't let them take them.

"I'll take them," she said, picking up the jar to bring to the secure room where they kept the most valuable things taken from their enemies. It had a special seal that she had the privilege of knowing how to undo, as most of the things that were put in there were placed in by her. She was nodded at as they took Sasuke away. She briefly thought she made the wrong choice, choosing the eyes rather than staying with Sasuke, but what was Sasuke without his eyes? Besides, that was dangerous. Insisting that she should stay with Sasuke's body for any more reason, for any more excuses, was too obvious. She needed to step away.

What if the eyes themselves was where Sasuke was? He could be brain dead for all she knew at this point. Especially now, now that she had stolen his power like some sort of Delilah. She swallowed. She thought she was mostly sober now, but not entirely sure as it still felt like she was dreaming. She walked to the storage room to where the eyes were to be placed. She opened the seal to the door and walked into a room filled with jars of other strange and terrible things. She placed her jar on a spot on the shelf, but her hand didn't leave the glass. Her fingers and palm covered most of the jar, but she could see parts of the two orbs circling each other. Now one purple, caught her eye, and for a second she though that it had cast its spell on her. She blinked. No. A brain would have to be attached to the eyes for them to work. She should go, but she still couldn't remove her hand.

It was wrong. Stealing anything in this room was life in prison, at the very least, if not death, but when she brought her arm back to her, the hand still held the jar, and she stuffed it inside her jacket, leaving with it.

She went home fast, dawn breaking by the time she reached her room. If she wanted to she could go straight to the hospital now. There was bond to be something to do at this time of day, but instead she went into her bedroom with her stolen jar. She placed the jar on her bed stand, staring at the floating eyes. Suddenly she couldn't look at them anymore. At first the eyeballs held a strange elegance to them. Now they were terrifying. She screamed and covered the jar with a shirt and cried herself to sleep.

Naruto didn't usually come to her home. As she opened the door no words were exchange, just his serious blue eyes casted down at her, burning her. She was too afraid to speak. She waited, waited for him to tell her to go with him, that he knew, he knew what she had taken.

Instead he sighed when he realized she wasn't going to confess to anything on her own and gave her a gentler look. She had the thought that it would be polite to invite the Hokage in, so she stepped back and did so.

He went into her living room, familiar, and she followed him, both of them seating themselves across from each other.

"They shouldn't have made you do it," Naruto started.

She steadied her breath, staring at him, trying to figure out if he knew.

"You should have gone to me at once instead. We have other surgeons."

She found the courage to speak, her eyes demurely downcast. "From my understanding, it had been a state of emergency."

Naruto only grunted, grudgingly accepted that nothing was to be done about it now.

"Was my work not sufficient?" she asked, trying to get to the bottom of this without admitting to anything. Her heart was beating fast. Naruto was very good at reading people, especially her, but he was tired now, and distracted.

"No. No of course it was. It's just- I didn't give orders- It didn't have to be you." He stared at her. "Are you alright?"

She lifted her eyes. "I'm fine."

"You don't have to continue your duties with... with him. I'll understand if-actually just don't. Alright?"

Was that an order? Stay away from Sasuke Uchiha. She gave a nod of her head. "Would you like any tea?" Was it too obvious she was changing the subject? It didn't matter though. Naruto was obviously thinking about something else.

"No thanks. I best be going. Thank you, Sakura."

The Intelligence team were dying to get their blackened, bloodstained hands on Sasuke Uchiha, but the Hokage would not give his permission for them to have him. It was too dangerous. They couldn't afford any more people to be killed. Even though Sasuke's eyes had been removed, his one arm missing, and chakra nearly depleted, Naruto would not take the chance. Besides, Sasuke Uchiha had always been a one-man army. He wasn't affiliated with anyone, which had always been clear since he had cause mayhem to anyone regardless of nation. He had never been the type of person to promise others a reward for helping him. There was no one else out there that would be working for him, no other information to be gathered. Sasuke had always been very straight forward. His mission had always been to destroy the ninja's way of life. His mission would be over as soon as Sasuke Uchiha was over.

So, in the dungeon he stayed until trial.

"I hate to ask you this," Naruto asked her after a summons to his office. "But I feel you'd know better than anyone else. How dangerous is Sasuke now?"

She jumped slightly at the sound of the name. All day she was waiting to be arrested. They should know by now, that the eyes were missing, but no one had come for her. Even this meeting, which she was sure she had known what it would be about, seemed to have different purposes. She hadn't gotten caught yet. It was evening now. She had been getting ready to go to the hospital to work. Naruto had told her not to go to Sasuke. So far, she had not, fearing that someone would accuse her.

She paused in her thinking. "I haven't seen how he's being contained," she replied. Naruto nodded approvingly. "But he was critically low on chakra during ... the operation. I wouldn't be surprised if he was out of chakra already when he was brought in, but he obviously... tried to use it anyway. His body physically would need a lot of healing if he were to attempt to escape. And besides... his brain..." She paused. Naruto waited for her. She caught his eye. "You hit him in the head," she clarified. "Damage was done. I couldn't tell how much. But he won't ever be the same."

Silence.

She supposed her report was good news, yet there was a sense of despair between the both of them.

"I can look at him again if you like." She cut Naruto off before he could argue, "Of course I've been ordered not to."

Naruto sat back in his chair. "Sakura..."

"He doesn't affect me anymore," she tried, afraid she was sounding a little too desperate. She was. "I completed the operation without incident. It wasn't even until I arrived that the situation finally became under control." Though that wasn't necessarily due to her as it was luck.

Naruto heaved a giant sigh. He was always sighing at her, she noticed. "Fine. You can carry out your normal duties, just... talk to me, will ya? If you need to."

Sakura blinked at him, face unreadable. And then she was dismissed.

Most of the prison guards were fairly young, too young to have remembered Sasuke before his desertion, or to have much knowledge of her own past failures. Anyone older might have noticed, or questioned Naruto's decision. They were always questioning. Naruto didn't think straight when it came to Sakura. Sakura didn't think straight when it came to Sasuke.

She wasn't bothered or stopped. The guards let her proceed without hindrance as she visited each prisoner, each of her patients, to check on their health.

She saved Sasuke for last, to keep her head together and because he was in the deepest, lowest floor of the prison. There was some extra security to go through before reaching him, but she was cleared, holding her breath the entire time.

She had checked the storage room where she had taken the eyes before, just to see if anyone else could have been snooping around in there and discovered them missing, but everything was in place. No one had been there.

The prison was dark. She followed the guards, each one of them holding a light stick. She clutched tightly to her medical case with one hand, her other holding her own light stick.

There were no windows in Sasuke's cell, it being underground. It was also damp, and not ideal for any of her healing patients, but not much was spared for prisoners. They were lucky to get her.

Sasuke's cell was within solid iron walls, pulsating with infused chakra to keep anything from breaking them. The door had a small glass window that was too small to fit a head through. The light switch was outside the door. The guards neglected to turn it on before letting her in, used to their light sticks. She didn't notice their negligence right away, as she was trying not to faint, straining her eyes to see Sasuke Uchiha even before he could be in eyesight.

Inside, the room was divided with bars, so if a visitor were permitted they would be able to see the prisoner with some protection. This was as far as the guards would go. She would go even past the bars.

She was strong. She had been able to wrestle down her fair share of prisoners, and the guards had all seen her do it, but even them were nervous for her. This was Sasuke Uchiha. They had heard stories of him.

She turned to the guards. "You may go back to your post," she said. It was probably better for them to stay, as eye witnesses to her murder if they were unable to save her from Sasuke's wrath, but she wanted to see him without being pressured all the time, like on the operating table. She always had to worry about what her faced looked like to the people around her. Sasuke couldn't see her face. He couldn't use that against her.

The guards were all too happy to be as far away from the prisoner as possible anyway.

On the other side of the bars, Sasuke was chained to the far wall, his one arm hung up taunt over his sloped body. She used her light stick to search for life, only now realizing that the light had not been turned on for her. She muttered a small oath. They were somewhat loud when entering the cell but Sasuke didn't appear to have made any movement, not even a twitch of his fingers.

He could still be unconscious, she thought, or dead.

She walked over to him, scuffing her feet on the cold cement floor so that he should be able to hear her approach. She was hesitant about using her voice. Sasuke may recognize it. Maybe he knew that she was the one that had taken his eyes. Maybe he hated her for it. Maybe he would kill her.

"Sasuke?"

No answer.

"Can you hear me? Do you know who I am?"

He did not move. She wondered if he had memory loss, if he remembered anything. Would that make him the same person? Did he know why he was here or what he'd done? Did he deserve to die if he didn't know his own crime?

She knelt before him and could see that he was indeed still breathing, and he wasn't breathing deeply like someone asleep. He was awake.

Thinking she would lose her arm but doing it anyway, she placed her hand on his drooping head. He moved a little, but not by any muscle of his own, only swaying slightly from her pressure, pivoting from the chain above his head.

Her heart skipped a beat in panic. No, he wasn't dead. He was breathing. But she could see drool dripping from his mouth, and now that she was closer she could smell that he had soiled himself.

For a second, she was at a loss of what to do. Then she took a breath and left.

She returned shortly after with a water basin, soap, sponge, towel and a fresh prison uniform. She stared briefly at the arm chained above his head before making the decision to release it. She didn't have a key, but she could easily bend the metal to undo one link to take it from the wall. The chain itself wasn't infused with chakra, and she could see why. Sasuke wasn't going anywhere. As Sasuke's entire weight was leaning on the chain, she carefully let him fall onto the dirty ground, before undressing him.

She talked to him as she cleaned the feces from his skin, nonsense things, her voice pitched high as if she was talking to an infant. Once he was cleaned, she cleaned the floor, scrubbing it with a cleaning brush and draining the water down the drain that was in the cell.

There was a bed, but it was on the other side of the room, and no one had thought to move it closer to be used by the chained prisoner. She checked the wood tentatively. It was pretty rotten, but she thought it would hold his weight for now. Then she dragged it over to him, and heaved him onto the dirty mattress.

She checked the healing of all of his injuries, applying ointment on cuts and wrapping fresh bandages on any open wounds. The leg was healing fine and there was no signs of him trying to have use it. She checked the head last, afraid of what she may find.

She found the brain damage immediately, dead bits of flesh attached to the living tissue. The cells were too damaged for her to heal with chakra alone. She may be able to remove the dead tissues, so that new tissues could take its place, but even then, it wouldn't be the same. The lifetime of information that had been stored there would be lost.

The damaged brain tissue would explain any impairment with body movement or speaking. It may also impair vision but of course that didn't matter to Sasuke now.

Most of the damage obviously must have happened during the blow that hit him in the head but, biting her lip nervously she wondered if she had caused more harm to him in anyway. She distinctly remembered him saying her name before the operation. He had recognized her, could speak, now he seemed to be no more than a vegetable. His vital organs were all working. Could he be in shock? Depression?

Or was he faking it?

She thought it rather extreme for Sasuke Uchiha to shit himself all in the name of deception, but maybe she didn't know how far he would go. He had gone far.

Finished with what she had come to do, which was to tend to the mending of the wounds, she stared at him hard in the green light of her light stick. He had no eyes for her to test his pupils. She would need to do several tests that she knew the rest of the prison surgical team would hate her for.

"Sasuke," she stated somewhat louder into his ear. "It's Sakura. Do you know who I am? Nod your head if you recognize me." Of course, she doubted Sasuke would nod his head for her if he did know her. He would never do anything for her, no matter how simple the request.

She tried another tactic, getting annoyed now. She couldn't have inflicted more damage to him. The eye removal had been clean. The mending of his skull had been done with perfection. All brain matter was there. He had spoken to her.

"Your eyes are gone. Forever," she said, watching what she could see of his expression in the dim light. She was staring at the corner of his lips, waiting for that snarl, even if it was just the hint of it. "We've taken them. I've taken them," she clarified. She paused. Still with no sign of reaction she placed a hand over his nose, still feeling the breath under her palm. She forced his mouth open, letting it go. It stayed slacked, before slowly started to close. The jaw stopped before becoming completely shut. She clapped her hands in front of his face. Shouted. Then she took one of her surgical knifes from her medical kit, and gave him a small cut, quickly, on the lobe of his ear. Not so much of a wince, as the blood ran down his neck to pool underneath his shoulder. She promptly healed it.

She hadn't been sober during the operation. Could she have made a mistake?

Sasuke's one hand had turned purple from being chained over his head, but him now on the bed had raised him from the ground. She reattached the chain, his arm now laying comfortable on the mattress next to him. She wasn't sure if he could feel it, but better to be on the safe side just in case his hand decided to fall off due to no circulation.

Not knowing what else to do, she hurriedly left.

Before leaving the prison, she asked the other people who had been there the night that Sasuke had woken up before the operation. Did they hear Sasuke speak? Say her name? No one of course remembered during all that was happening. They were annoyed that she was even asking.

She went to report to Naruto.

Naruto didn't know what to do either. She found herself regretting telling him anything. It was agonizing to see him like this, sitting at his desk, face in his hand.

"I don't..." she started, then restarted. "About the trial. You said you wanted it to be a fair trial. Did that mean you wanted him to speak for himself? Because I'm not sure if at this point that he can."

"Will he ever be able to again?"

"I won't know without more tests," she said, trying to keep the hope out of her voice. She longed to keep working on Sasuke's body. Her hands were itching to put him back together again. He could never be completely whole. He was missing the arm, but there was research in prosthetics now, and as for his eyes, she still had those kept safe.

She bit her own tongue. Now was not the time to be fantasizing. She fantasied all the time, wishing she had the courage to actually preform all the sins she thought of, so that she could be punished for them, so they would kill her, and her misery would end.

"I... I wanted him to be able to face death with eyes wide open. I feel that's what he would have wanted. I..." Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't realized Naruto was speaking, though she wondered if he was indeed still speaking to her. "That's why I couldn't kill him. It's dishonorable to kill a man unconscious, you know, when he can't fight back, and you're saying now he isn't... conscious?" She doubted Sasuke would have felt it much better to die in execution rather than battle, but they weren't going to release him at this point. She thought perhaps the trial itself was a type of battle, but not one that Sasuke could ever win.

"He's conscious but I don't know how much of him is in there. If I could do the tests..."

"Do the tests. It's fine," and she held back her squeal of glee, keeping her face unreadable, and went straight back to the prison.

Giving Sasuke an anesthetic that he may not have even needed, she did several tests, and a few operations to remove the dead tissues from the brain. The brain was a wonderful adaptive organ. It healed itself fast, and she did all she could to speed the process.

She returned home every night to check to be sure that the eyes in their jar were still safe in her room. She always kept the blinds closed, the door locked. No more ANBU came to visit her.

She didn't want to have to look at them, but she needed to confirm they were there. She removed her shirt, steeling her gaze at her prize.

"Just what are you up to, Uchiha Sasuke?" She realized that the eyes, being only eyeballs, didn't have ears and therefor couldn't hear her. She repeated the statement again in sign language, her voice accompanied the statement louder, completely missing that she was being even more crazier than the first time she spoke.

One of the eye balls were turned away from her, as if watching its brother's back. "Are you listening to me?" She lifted the jar and gave it a tap so that the one eyeball swung around to face her as well. "Hmph. Fine be that way." She covered the jar with a shirt before getting undressed for the night.

She visited Sasuke every day. Over time he gained his reflexes back, and he would hold himself up in a sitting position but did not move else wise and made no attempt to communicate with her. He wouldn't eat at first, as any sort of food or water that she placed into his mouth would just fall out. After a time of supplementing the missing vitamins with an IV, she removed the IV and left a cup of water and a bowl of gruel within reach of him. She had placed his hand over the objects to be sure that he knew where to find them. Then she removed the IV and waited to see if he would feed himself if left alone.

He did not, and after him losing quite a bit of weight, she went back to feeding him herself. After awhile and some patience she was able to teach him to swallow.

Her other actions consisted of stimulating the growth of healing cells and relieving pain. He never made any reaction to pain, but she wasn't so sure he couldn't feel it. After he had regain most of his reflexes, she thought his body had begun to tense up, a sign that he was feeling discomfort, but yet not enough for him to cry out when she pressed on his wounds experimentally. Maybe he did have some irreversible brain damage. Maybe he did have memory loss. The tests did show some casualty, but not too much that she thought it would be this bad, that he would suddenly feel nothing, but it was hard to tell. Some things about the brain were still not understood. It could be that something else was damaged that she had missed. Or not. Or maybe she just couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that this could happen to Sasuke.

Could he simply just be depressed? His situation was rather dire. But then...

He must be faking it.

After a time, even with her suspicions, she got used to Sasuke's unresponsive behavior. The routine of feeding, cleaning, and healing everyday was comforting to her, like she had a purpose.

It was an absurd thought. This couldn't be her life's purpose. She had served much purpose to the village in other ways. This small part of her life would be insignificant.

Perhaps she felt pride that she could focus on one body for so long. It was much like caring for an infant at times, and she found her inner motherly instincts indulge in such activities. She would never have children. She had known she would never have children, but the thought, the responsibility of someone else's life, that sense of purpose, she had longed for it. It may have been the reason she was drawn to the medical field.

At one point in her life she had adopted a cat to try to feed that yearning, but working so many hours as she did, the cat grew a preference for Ino, who she had asked to feed the animal too many times. She wound up giving the cat to Ino, jealous that its affections had turned to her friend instead of herself.

She was always so jealous.

It was shameful.

He wasn't just one of her patients. She had known that though she tried to ignore it. She never wanted anyone else to care for her Sasuke. She wanted him to be hers, always.

He was healing nicely, and after the first several weeks, she was beginning to see signs that he was a human being rather than a vegetable. Each visit consisted of a 15 minute treatment of pain removal from his head. There was continuous swelling, but whenever she could she would bring it down with her chakra. Sasuke would relax when this would happen. She felt the tension in his muscles leave him. "That's better, now isn't it?" She talked to him, though he never made any indication that he could hear her. She held his head, standing before him as he sat on the bed. He was normally laying down unless she had moved him up right. She had to remember to leave him in a laying down position, because if she left him sitting up, after a time he simply fell over, his captive arm stopping him from falling off the bed and damaging his wrist further.

She would have liked to take the damn thing off permanently, but if someone else were to come in his cell after she had left and discovered it unattached, problems would occur, so she did her best to treat it every time she saw him, wrapping the wrist in extra bandages for padding.

After checking up on all his wounds, she would then feed him, help him use the chamber pot, then clean him, in that order. Besides of Sasuke's lack of helping her with any of this, he was still her easiest patient because he never fought her with anything.

She had later discovered the light switch the second time she had come to visit Sasuke. She had always felt bad about turning it off after she left, leaving Sasuke in the dark, though he was now blind as a bat and couldn't tell if he was in full lit sun or not.

He should be able to feel the warmth of the sun though, she thought. It was quite obvious that he could feel now. He was always cold.

The extra blanket that she brought for him were the first of many acts displaying her favoritism from the others. Before leaving she had tucked him in with it. His face blank as always, but she thought that the blankness was like one of surprise, surprise that he could feel warm. She hadn't been sure he had remembered what that felt like.

Next were clean sheets for his bed, extra pillows for his sore head, and clean clothes. She "accidentally" broke his bed, an excuse for the prison to give him a new one. She put an effort to make sure his food was warm, and of better quality. She brushed his teeth for him, though keeping him from swallowing the toothpaste the first few times had been a chore, after which she could get him to drool out the suds. She washed and combed his hair. She started to even shave his face when he needed it. He was her doll to play with.

Through all of this she talked to him, mostly about her days, her other work in the hospital, complaining about her coworkers. One of the benefits of chakra infused walls was that it tended to keep sound in as well.

She rubbed up and down his legs as he sat motionless on the bed, to keep circulation going through his body. "You think you may try walking today?" she asked him. He was starting to get bed sores. "Do you think you can stand?"

She got up. "Come now, couch potato." She placed her hands beneath his armpits and lifted. He wasn't heavy to her with her super human strength, in fact he was still underweight, but his height made it difficult for her to get him standing immediately. "Don't you dare let your knees buckle!" she scolded. He began to sway, and she pulled him back towards her so that he was leaning on her. She realized his knees had buckled anyway and gave him another shove. Still leaning all his weight on her, he was finally able to stand, his body warm against her face.

"Good job!" She patted his back. "Let's try a step now, shall we?" She undid the chain attached to the wall and began to walk him in a slow circle, supporting his weight. After completing the round, she decided that was enough for now and set him back on the bed.

Sakura reported Sasuke's improvements to Naruto every week, even when Naruto had seemed to forget about the scheduled meetings due to the natural tendency of his job. Sakura was proud of all of Sasuke's accomplishments, until Naruto reminded her that a date for his trial had not yet been set, due to not having the time to organize it. The pressure of people wanting Sasuke's execution immediately had died down slightly from the time Sasuke was first captured, but it was still there, and was forever being reminded by the elders. Sakura's head dropped whenever the trial was mentioned. "He's not well enough yet," she would say. It was just as well, as there was no date yet.

She spent too much time with Sasuke. Even when she had finished tending him and had nothing else to do, instead of leaving, sometimes she would just sit by him, touching him, stroking his head on her lap, petting his hair, feeling his skin.

There was a sense of innocents to him now that she had never known before. She wanted to protect him, to care for him forever, though she knew she wouldn't be able to. She couldn't save him. There was never ever any chance of saving him, from the beginning, but she chose not to think about it so that she could continue functioning.

His skin had gotten softer from the good quality soap she had chosen to use on him, his hair shiny from the expensive shampoo. He smelled nice, because of her, though there was still a hint of the ointment she used for his wounds, and the stuffiness of the sick or injured.

She did her best to keep him dry and warm, but the humidity battled her efforts. She would very much have liked a window to be somewhere in the cell, no matter the size.

On her way over to see him one morning, she noticed a juicy ripened tomato hanging from a vine in someone's garden. Sasuke's favorite food were once tomatoes. She didn't know what made her suddenly remember. It wasn't her garden, but she reached over and plucked the fruit. It practically fell into her hand with a touch. It was still warm in her palm from the sun. She took it with her to be part of Sasuke's lunch.

She wasn't sure if tomatoes were still what Sasuke liked. Often, the sense of taste changed after head injuries, but she fed it to him anyway, with a little bit of sea salt rubbed into its flesh. She had placed a slice into his mouth, wiping the juices off his chin as he did his best effort to chew it. "It's a tomato," she had told him. "Can you taste the sunlight from it?"

She rolled over onto her back, having trouble sleeping. She knew without looking at the clock that it would be between three or four in the morning. She always woke during somewhere in that hour. Her eyes still closed she reached for her vibrator. The drawer had been lazily left open with how many times she had used it.

After forcing herself to come to completion with it, she laid on her back, letting the endorphins rush through her veins, hoping it would relax her enough to fall back to sleep. Her eyes had opened sometime during this time, staring at the ceiling. She turned her head to look at the clock, but the shirt covered jar was in the way. Too lethargic to try to move the jar itself, she flipped up a corner of the shirt in the hope that maybe she could see the glowing numbers of the clock through the glass.

Instead her eyes locked onto an eyeball, staring directly at her. She gave a start of panic. None of the eyeballs were facing this direction when she had first covered it, but of course the smallest movement could have jostled their gaze. She forced herself to stare back, letting her heart and breath slow down. She tried to remember it was just a dead eyeball. It couldn't hurt her, no matter what powers may lay inside it. She glared at it.

"Pervert," she muttered, like it had been trying to watch her get off. A second later, still staring back at the eyeball, she switched the vibrator back on.

Sasuke was getting better. He could now walk on his own. She took him on strolls around his cell, leading him about by his chain like a dog on a leash. She still had to guide him through certain tasks, such as eating, drinking and going to the bathroom, but he would work with her to get them accomplished, causing much less mess. He still didn't respond to her voice. She was having a hard time figuring out if he could in fact not hear her or was just ignoring her. His life became routine enough that he didn't need her to tell him they were now walking or eating for him to go through the motions. He didn't smile, weep or show signs of being frustrated, though his character had never shown much emotion even before the accident, if one would call what happened an accident. She could tell that he was expecting her when she did arrive, already sitting up in the mornings. She wondered if he appreciated her care. Did anything matter to him?

"Remember that time during the Chunin exams?" she said making conversation as she delicately placed morsels of food into his mouth. "That is squid," she told him. He always chewed slowly, even when he must have been starving at times. "And Naruto... always being so loud and exposing our position?" She sighed in expiration. "He's not like that anymore. Not really. Well, it's hard to tell. Naruto is always so busy organizing things. It's maybe causing his skills to be getting a little rusty." Not too rusty that he couldn't take down Sasuke. But perhaps so, as Sasuke survived. "You were always good at that. At leading us, even though Naruto most times wouldn't listen to you. Eventually maybe he would have, once he matured. He turned out alright, Naruto. This is rice." She placed some rice in his mouth next. She thought if she kept speaking the words, even if he didn't remember, he would at least learn. "And do you remember when you fought for my honor against those Sound ninja? That was very honorable of you. You might have been quiet but you could be quite a gentlemen sometimes." She didn't talk about his wrong doings. She couldn't bare to bring up his desertion, his painful past. If he couldn't remember, she wanted him to not suffer from it.

She couldn't tell if he was suffering.

She thought about it. Every time she caught Sasuke's name spoken by someone else, his trial, his execution, the hatred, the pain. She had thought about it in her life, other times, if she truly loved him, she should put him out of his misery. She could do it easily. No one knew what she did with Sasuke in his cell. She knew she would hardly be punished for it, so many people wishing they could do it themselves. The only one that may think of punishing her would be Naruto, and he would never punish her. In fact, he would understand the most.

She could do it painlessly. Let him breathe in some carbon dioxide. Overdose him on an anesthesia.

But killing him now would be like killing a child. She knew what Naruto meant about striking down a man who was already unconscious.

And even if Sasuke was himself, even if he was about to kill her and destroy her village and everything she loved, she knew she couldn't do it then either. She had the chance once, or at least she thought she did, and hesitated. She couldn't do it. She loved him too much.

She put down the bowl and chopsticks, placing both hands on either side of Sasuke's face. "Sasuke," Still no sign that he heard his own name. "What do I do?" she whispered. There were some lines on his face. He was older, a full-grown adult. He wasn't a child.

"If you had asked me to, before... if you had let me come with you..." She'd probably be dead. She had no hope to keep up with him, not nearly enough cruelty in her heart to do the things he had done, but if he had let her try, way back then, when she was twelve, maybe she would have been able to adapt at that age.

"Would you let it end like this?" she asked. "Are you going to let them execute you like some dumb domesticated animal destined for slaughter?"

She had admired him since she first saw him, a beautiful genius. And when he turned against them she couldn't stop her admiration of his skill and intelligence even as he used his power for evil things. Even though he was terrible, there was no denying that he still demanded a sense of awe from everyone else. Even if they hated him, he was still magnificent.

Now he wasn't. He was nothing now. A husk, lifeless, laughable. There was nothing of him that she should admire, good or evil, and yet she couldn't stop loving him.

She pressed her lips against his, her hands squishing his face slighty, so the flesh of his lips were soft against hers. She inhaled his scent, intoxicated. He probably couldn't breathe but he didn't fight her. He never did.

"Sweet, sweet Sasuke," she stroked the hair from his forehead. "I will protect you," she promised, knowing it would be a lie. "I won't let anyone hurt you. You will be okay. Don't be afraid."

She cradled his head against her chest, and she cried for him again, for the billionth time.

As Sasuke's condition stabilized to what it was, Sakura slowly stopped reporting to Naruto. If Naruto noticed he didn't seek her out on it, most likely trying to avoid the subject as much as she was. If no one talked about Sasuke, no one asked about him.

She avoided her family, as well as Ino so that they wouldn't question where she had been all this while. Her family were accustomed to not hearing from her for long bouts of time, but Ino would wonder why she hadn't been working at the hospital as much.

The only way she knew that she could protect Sasuke was to keep him safe in the prison. No one could get to him there. That was her only plan. To have Sasuke live.

She started to eat her own meals with him, like picnics, she told him pleasantly. She told him she loved him and that he was safe.

Sasuke still gave no responds to her. He ate, and he would sometimes sleep as she stroked him. If this was all he knew, perhaps she could think of him as happy. If he didn't know what he once was, maybe he enjoyed her company and was at peace.

She would tell herself anything.

She did her best to keep Sasuke as comfortable as possible, but with no communication from him, she didn't know if he liked any of the presents she gave him, any of the treats to eat, any of the stories she told him, the smells of the shampoo she was using.

And then it happened.

Saukra thought she noticed a responds from him.

She was preparing to bathe him. She had obtained a stool for this purpose. Sasuke still had the tendency to fall over if pushed too much, not yet having a complete sense of balance. She would sit him on the stool, close to the wall so that it could catch him if he started to lean back too far. She scrubbed his body in a no-nonsense sort of way, accustomed of sponge bathing other sick men at the hospital. Occasionally, one would be a little too happy with her minstrels when washing a certain sensitive area. Such things she easily ignored and accepted. She did this procedure in the most professional manner, and as long as her current patient did not have anything smart to say, no one's teeth were knocked out.

Sasuke, with his accustom-ness to not have reactions to anything at all, was normally soft as a kitten during these times. The penis sometimes changes sizes randomly, for whatever reason, at times. She noticed it of course, but her main focus had always been whatever was the current task at hand.

Now, as she was scrubbing him with a soapy cloth, she noticed that it was a tad bit stiffer than normal. Still trying to ignore this, she washed other parts of him as she waited for it to soften again, not wanting to agitate it further. She left it for last and was just going to give it two good clean strokes with the wash cloth before moving on, but at the second stroke her hand slowed. She felt it expand in her grip and the shock of it made her stop in her tracks.

She looked at his face, still boring and stoic as ever. She almost wanted to burst out into laughter, with Sasuke's face so blank and his cock in her hand. He had to feel it. She watched him, even if it was just a change in his breathing pattern. If there wasn't... she wanted to know why.

Telling herself it was in the name of science, she began to stroke him up and down, using plenty of soap so there would be no chafing, all the while studying his face. His lips were parted, his jaw not clamped shut, but that was how he had taken to carry his face these days, lose and blank. She used her chakra to check his pulse. His blood pressure had in fact risen to support his now stiff member. Because of this his body would be needing more oxygen.

There it was. Sasuke had taken a breath. She felt her own body become to a suddenly submerge of arousal. "Sasuke..." she moaned quiet and breathy. The rushing of blood in his veins was causing his body temperature to rise, and in response, a slight sheen of sweat. She could smell it.

She moved her hand in a steady rhythm, feeling her own hips shift with it, Sasuke's breath settling down to match.

At his peak, Sasuke felt so hot in her hand she thought his flesh would burn through the wash cloth. Though she could feel the changes in his body, his face still remained blank, so she had turned her gaze downward to see what she was doing to him with her hand. She watched his seed slip through her fingers, landing partially on his stomach. She stared at it for a second before in a panic, quickly washed the evidence away.

Her head snapped to the door, as if someone would walk in and see what she had just done. She briefly looked at Sasuke, but of course he wasn't going to say anything. She quickly dried him off and dressed him, and as soon as she thought he would be okay for the rest of the day she left.

What did she just do? She practically sexually assaulted Sasuke Uchiha. She did. She molested him. That was molestation. Sasuke had responded, but only in the way that any male body would. Besides the normal responds, he didn't show any other indication that he knew what was happening to him, that he had asked for it.

Of course, he didn't ask for it.

She went home in a nervous wreck of nerves pacing back and forth. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" She felt she had violated a child. Sasuke wasn't a child. Still, he had no way to give consent. And he was a condemned criminal who she was supposed to be in charge of. What was wrong with her?!

She went up to her room, suddenly paranoid and wanted to make sure the eyes were still where she left them. Of course, they were, still staring at her.

"Are you happy now?!" she shouted at the jar, upset with herself. "Don't tell me you didn't like it. Your body did even if you didn't give a shit!" She suddenly screamed, stomping her feet, trying to rid her frustration.

She knew she was pretty. It had taken her more than half her life to figure that out, but she knew. Sasuke's rejection and her being teased as a child did not help in the matter, but after accepting that she would always be alone, she realized that it wasn't because of her looks. The fact that she tended to be a bitch for no good reason was another good way of keeping men away, but even with all that working against her, she still had suitors ask for her. Besides, most weren't concern about her personality as long as they could get laid.

If she was not in the mood, she could easily make the offending man shit his pants with an icy pale green glare, or an over powered punch to an unlucky inanimate object. If she was bored she would be a tease, baiting the unexpected victim until the last moment and then running for the hills. You would think the men would learn, but as stupid as they were, they would always try again.

Sasuke was a man, but never showed any sexual interest in her. As far as she knew, he hadn't shown it to anyone, but she didn't really know him. Not the true him.

She took off her shirt in a fit, throwing it on the floor violently. "Is this what you want!?" she screamed at the jar, before tugging off her shorts. "You could have had this, you know? Everyone else has tried, but you could have really had it." She flipped back her hair after she was done bending over from the shorts. She caught a glance of herself in the mirror, flushed with her anger. She was small, but strong. She wasn't squeamish over physical pain and she could have put up a fight if that's what he wanted. She had the stamina. She could please him. She could.

She unclipped her bra, knowing her breasts were small and maybe not every man's type, but she didn't care anymore. "This is me," she whispered. "This could have been yours." She kicked off her panties, grabbed her vibrator and flung herself onto the bed. "Watch," she told the eyes in the jar, and got off with them watching her.

She was almost too afraid to return to Sasuke the next day, embarrassed on what had happened. Curiosity forced her and of course, Sasuke wasn't any different. Their routine continued like nothing had happen. She thought that her life would return to normal, or at least the normal of what the last few months had been, but when she returned to her home, she discovered Ino sitting on her couch, despite the locks she had placed on her home.

"You've been avoiding me at the hospital," Ino stated as soon as Sakura had spotted her. "You know that just makes your behavior more obvious."

For a brief panicked instant, Sakura thought of running away from the spot, proving Ino further, but she stood rooted where she had entered her living room. Had Ino been in her bedroom? No she would have said something about the eyes. Or she wouldn't, knowing Sakura would run then.

"We've had Sasuke for months now, and the Hokage won't let Intelligence do their job. Why?"

Ino had a similar job to Sakura only in the Intelligence unit. Medical ninjas were required for healing captives after torture. Of course, Ino would notice Sasuke's absence, as she was in that trade, following in her father's footsteps.

"Sasuke had suffered brain damage. It would be pointless to send him over there. There would be no information to gain." All that could be gained from Sasuke were his eyes. She wondered if Ino knew where they were.

"Then the Hokage should let me take a look at him. I can unlock any memories that have been hidden."

Sakura shook her head, though noting that Ino may be right, "It's no use. Parts of the brain were dead. There's nothing there. I had to remove some of it."

Ino narrowed her gaze at her.

"Talk to Naruto about it if you're so concerned," she snapped.

"You have a better connection to the Hokage than I do."

"You want me to convince Naruto to send Sasuke to the Intelligence unit?"

"Why not?"

"What for?"

"Are you protecting him?" Ino finally asked bluntly. "Why is Naruto letting you work with him at all?"

"Because, I meet qualification," she said icily.

"If you meet 'qualifications' why isn't he recovered enough to talk. If it's his brain, I should be the one looking into it!"

"For fuck's sake you've always been so fucking jealous-" Ino stood up, and for a moment Sakura was scared. She knew she had surpassed Ino. She had surpassed her in medicine, and strength. If put against each other they both knew who would win, but Ino was using logic against her. Sakura had no chance against logic.

"I'm not going to tell the Hokage that you can do something better than I," Sakura said, flipping her hands up in the air. "Why would I ever do that?"

Ino scoffed. "Of course, you wouldn't admit to it."

"But go ahead and talk to him yourself. I'm not going to be bothering him more than I half to, and if he wants to put Sasuke in your charge instead, there's no way I can stop you."

Ino didn't answer for a moment, giving Sakura a steady glare before saying, "I just want you to be okay."

"I am okay! People asking me that constantly isn't going to change anything. Just let me do my work and be left in peace."

"No."

They fought. They always fought. And the root of their fighting, no matter how well hidden, had always been because of Sasuke Uchiha.

Eventually Ino left in a huff, gone away from Sakura's life until Ino had the grace to forgive her. Ino always forgave her and she didn't know why.

She sat on her bed, stroking the jar in her lap, and was disgusted with herself that she didn't care.

It had been about seven months since Sasuke's capture, at which point, Sakura didn't think any more improvement would show. She had given him the best care possible. This would be how he was for now on.

Sakura may have been crazy at times, but she wasn't stupid. She didn't let Sasuke's new personalty change the way she did things. She didn't leave him without the chain to his wrist. When she had him walk, she kept a firm grip on him at all times. This was mostly because she was afraid that he would fall and further injure himself, but her normal cautious habits when dealing with her work hadn't left her, or so she thought.

She had gained a key to his chain and replaced the entire thing when she thought the links were getting weak. She kept every item she brought with her within eyesight and made sure nothing would go missing. She left nothing for him when she left, except the bedding and his clothing. She only gave him enough food and exercise to help him heal, not necessarily to grow stronger. She even had a pager around her wrist that she always carried with her in the prison, which was to be pressed if for whatever reason, she was in a situation she could not control. Help would then be sent for. She had thought all of this had been over caution. The deadly criminal that Sasuke once was, was no longer in there.

But she was wrong.

It was no different than any other day. It had been Thursday. He had no recent improvements. There was no sense of anything being different. The guards had left her to do her business, and she was checking him over with her chakra, finding everything to be the same.

Sasuke never used his one arm. She would hold it over her shoulder when moving him, or place it this way or that, but he never moved it on his own. He had some control of it, she knew. The muscles tensed in the shoulder in an attempt to find his balance sometimes, but he never acted like that part of his body was a tool for him to use. Until now.

The new chain that she had replaced his with was long enough to have his arm rest comfortably at his side when laying on the bed. There was even more slack when he was sitting up, just enough for him to sling around her neck if she happened to be so close enough...

She must have taken some sort of step closer to him. She hadn't remembered how she had moved.

It happened so fast. The chain dug into the soft flesh of her throat so hard she thought that it had slit through. Her first reaction was for her hands to go to the chain around her neck, but the links had halfway disappeared into her skin and she couldn't get a good grip.

Her next reaction was to slam the buzzard on her wrist to alert the guards of the situation. Once she remembered to do that, she remembered she was stronger than Sasuke.

She broke the chain around her neck, oxygen floating back to her making her light headed. Only after she broke the chain did she realize that now Sasuke was free. She made a grab for him, intending to hold him down if it meant sitting on his head, until help arrived to restrain him again. He was slower than her too, weak, and she grabbed him by the arm, hauling him off the bed, ready to slam him onto the concrete floor.

Sasuke could no longer perform jutsus. Most of his attacks where genjutsu based and with his eyes gone, so was ninety percent of his power. Ten percent of Sasuke's power was still very powerful, but he couldn't create hand signs with only one hand, and unless he had a substantial amount of chakra and skill he shouldn't be able to perform any ninjutsu jutsus. All he could possibly have was his tijutsu, but Sakura had kept him weak, with only the minimal amount of chakra to keep him alive. She could defeat him easily in tijutsu.

She wasn't aware that Sasuke could perform ninjitsu without making a hand signal, not at his current state. She had checked his chakra every day. She had just finished checking it moments ago. He would die before completing the jutsu.

The arm she was holding had been the perfect current for the electricity. It sparked in quick blue flairs, thudding against his skin like his own heartbeat. It only took one heartbeat to reach her.

It was weak, but fast and shocking. She didn't lose conscious right away. She was awake when the blue chirping power tried to rip her life away, forcing her heart to spasm against her will.

The room was filled with the flickering light, and the power had short circuited the light switch. The light switch... That's where he had gotten the energy from!

She felt her body spasm and jolt, her hand clamped on his arm without letting go. She couldn't focus her eyes on anything and she could smell the scent of burning flesh.

She saw movement. The door to the cell had opened.

"Oh shit!" That was one of the guards. And then the door was slammed shut again. She briefly realized that she had been abandoned by the guard but was too busy dying to care.

Then she heard him, through the sound of chirping birds, a scream.

Sasuke.

His scream was tumultuous, frustration, fury, pain, agony, sorrow, and full of life. He was so alive. And he was screaming and screaming.

Then she blacked out, the Chidori still dancing across her body.

Something was pawing at her. She tried to open her eyes but failed. She tried again and blinked, realizing her eyes had been open, but it was too dark to see. She was injured.

Her body began the slow process of healing itself. She laid still to help her chakra. She had been attacked. Sasuke had attacked her.

She was still in the prison cell. And something was pawing at her.

She felt something hit her chest. It wasn't heavy, but it moved like it was searching for something. It had legs, no fingers, skimming around, feeling her, identifying what she was. The fingers closed and pulled, tearing her shirt.

Her arms and legs were too heavy for her to lift. It was best not to move while she was healing her own body, but Sasuke was in the dark with her, and he was free.

There was more tearing as Sasuke ripped her shirt open. Then she felt the calloused hand on her skin. That made her squeak, the rough fingertips carelessly pinching her nipples as it continued to search for what it was looking for.

She began to squirm, and the hand moved faster. She made another noise in protest lifting her head and the hand at once landed on her mouth, pushing her back down hard against the concrete. A new pain rattled in her brain, but before she could tend to that, she felt her pants be jerked and torn.

It wasn't until she was naked on the cold floor and he was in between her legs, did she actually thought she knew what was happening to her. Even after she knew what was happening, she didn't believe it until he was inside her.

She cried out in pain. Her arms, she could move them again, but they were numb and hard of feeling, they swung up over her head as if she could find something to pull her away. They fell down with nothing.

She could hear him huffing in a desperate sort of way. He held onto her hip, though she wasn't sure if she had succeeded in pulling away at all. He drove into her in a frenzy, wet fluids spraying from the friction and dripping down her thighs. Each thrust knocked the air out of her lungs, her voice whimpering with each lost breath.

Finally submitting, she curled her hips to him instead, angling it so she could feel the force of him hit her in her core. She moaned low and loudly, moving with him in a fierce battle.

She wanted him to destroy her.

She started screaming again, but it wasn't from pain. If anything, it was from frustration, that he could not destroy her fast enough. She had waited twenty-one years for him to do it.

Her arms flung up around him, clutching at him, scratching at him. She clawed at him and slapped at him.

And then she came, her body going into a frenzy, shuddering. Her arms dropped to herself to try to contain her soul from flying out into oblivion.

He suddenly, him still pumping into her, made a snarl that almost sounded like a sob and his fist flew into her jaw, cracking a few teeth.

She knew nothing more.