Purgatory
Fandom: Naruto.
Disclaimer: Nope.
Pairing/Characters: Sakura, Sasuke
Summary: In which Sasuke is detained, his mind half-crazed, and there is nothing Sakura can do for him
For corydrane @ help_japan . Some of the canon facts may not add up, and I'm really sorry about that because this really wasn't supposed to be AU at all. AND THIS IS SHIT LATE I AM SO SORRY.
It ends with a funeral, and a long overdue goodbye that he doesn't get to say.
Well I was there on the day,
They sold the cause for the Queen,
And when the lights all went out,
We watched our lives on the screen.
It starts with a pile of documents on her table.
A hill, perhaps, would be more appropriate. Or mountain.
"Uh," Sakura stares, "what are these?"
"Work, work, and more work," another large, floating stack of papers replies, and it takes her frazzled brain slightly more than a minute to recognize Kotetsu's voice behind the paperwork. There is another stack next to it, and Sakura stares listlessly as Izumo's voice drones, just as wearily, from behind it.
"Hokage wants to see you," the files are dropped unceremoniously on her table, and the room falls silent.
Konoha has a sixth Hokage now, Sakura reminds herself.
Sighing, she moves to sort them out. Words bolded in red should jump out at her; ANBU REPORT, CONFIDENTIAL, URGENT, but they don't. These are not unfamiliar, after all. She has been a part of countless emergencies and security situations, and experience has taught her to be pragmatic, efficient, and systematic.
But things don't always work out the way you want them to.
A knock, and Izumo comes in again, this time with only one file.
"Almost forgot this,"
A dark blue file. She frowns. All of their files are colour coded, but Sakura has never been given a dark blue file before. The words "INTERROGATION UNIT" scream out from the cover, not in her jurisdiction, really, and she flips open the file out of curiosity -
- and almost drops it.
.
There is a mug shot of Sasuke swathed in Akatsuki robes, hastily glued onto a cover page. The file contains all of two-hundred odd pages; about twenty with a brief summary of his work as a Konoha shinobi, and the rest with comprehensive, or as comprehensive as possible, information of his movements as a missing-nin.
.
"You wanted to see me."
Danzo regards her as she enters the room, and nods to acknowledge her presence. He does not gesture to the empty seat in front of his desk.
"You've seen the file," he says, more of a statement than an answer, and she says yes.
"Good. It's a simple job, Sakura. All you have to do is to supervise the treatment and the doses administered. It won't take much of your time and you won't have to make contact."
Sakura doesn't know this man. She doesn't know anything past his cold demeanour, his power over the ANBU root members, and the fact that he is the newly appointed Hokage. Everything is wrong with his request. She can't possibly effectively treat a person without coming into direct contact with him.
Danzo obviously does not trust her.
So Sakura thinks about Tsunade lying down with her eyes closed, Shizune by her side, and bows to Danzo, accepts the job, and walks out the office in silence.
.
True to his word, the job remains simple for a whole of two days. Sakura prepares the tranquilizers, the sedatives, and looks through the dark blue file at least three times a day.
(She pretends not to steal glances at the old team 7 photo still standing strong beside her bed.)
A medic without direct ties to Sasuke administers the drugs. A senior, more experienced medic, apparently, who gets himself killed after only two days. It is a well timed, well aimed strike to the jugular, and by the time Sakura arrives there is nothing she can do.
Five hours later, Sakura is informed that she is to take over the deceased medic’s duties.
Six hours later, Sakura prepares a cocktail of sedatives in addition to other medical equipment she will definitely need after Ibiki’s session is over.
Seven hours later finds Sakura standing outside Sasuke’s cell, hand hovering over the handle hesitating.
And all the while, the word “Reunion” drifts through her head like an ugly spot of mould on an unnaturally white wall.
.
A slow smirk spreads on his face when she enters.
"Oh, Sakura." he says.
She has heard these words before.
He's trying to provoke her, trying to force some sort of reaction from her, but she knows better than to give him anything. She's already given him too much. Instead, she stares at him impassively and stands in front of the chair he is chained to. You've been through wars, she reminds herself, you have experience, you know how to handle detainees.
"Lift up your head, Uchiha, I need a clean shot at your head," she states, and if Sasuke notices her new way of addressing him, he makes no show of it.
Slowly, he tilts his head up to the right, and Sakura moves in to administer the injection.
Things happen so quickly that her body reflexively reacts before her mind registers anything.
His chains were loose, a sloppy clean up job that some useless idiot had done after the previous medic have been killed, and his left arm is able to extend just enough to plunge a small but sharp piece of broken wood into her jugular, the same well-aimed strike that killed the previous attending medic, but she is ready for him and dodges before sinking the needle.
His kunai falls, he collapses, and a tiny drop of blood drips from Sakura’s neck.
.
Sakura pretends she hasn't felt this feeling before.
.
As the Kage summit creeps nearer, Ibiki and his interrogation team press harder.
Sakura no longer tends to minor cuts, lesions or bruises; Sasuke constantly needs stitches, suffers concussions at least twice a week, and even though Sakura has to force him to stay conscious at times, the manic look never manages to completely leave his red eyes.
Sakura continues to pretend she doesn't know him.
She wonders if she should speak up, if she should say something to Ibiki or even Danzo, but there is a constant flurry of movement and actions amongst the elders and the higher-ranked shinobi alike. The word “war” creeps up every so often, and as she carefully stitches close an ugly gash on Sasuke’s left cheek, Sakura prays silently for the boy she knew to finally close the door on his past.
.
It is another one of their training sessions.
They’re in a forest of some sort, and it is winter. He knows because Naruto jumps from one branch to another, slips on ice and falls in a manner that disgraces all ninja to the snowy ground.
It’s way too cold outside for this, and he’s not some sissy that forgoes training just because it’s too fucking cold outside, but this time it is, and he’s about to screw it and use the last of his chakra reserves for the Fire Release, when all of a sudden they fall, and he is falling, and nothing makes sense at all but he’s still falling when suddenly his lungs stop working and his vision goes black and he doesn’t feel anything at all, and he thinks
This must be what death feels like-
-when the cold hits him and his body starts working before his mind does.
Sasuke is the first to surface, and wildly he grabs onto a leg of the wooden pier that the current pushes him near to. They’re in some sort of icy river, Sakura is the nearest to him and Naruto goes down again, and he holds Sakura desperately in one hand and the leg of the pier desperately in the other, but the water is too cold, he can’t feel his hands at all, he’s about to pass out and something is wrong, something is wrong somethingiswrong, but he doesn’t know what it is and he doesn’t know what to do-
When Sakura opens the cell door, she finds Sasuke having a seizure on the ground.
.
She does go to Ibiki in the end.
They should tone it down, Sakura says, or at least stop. Sasuke is constantly having seizures and there’s probably some kind of underlying brain damage by now and he needs to rest if they want him to say anything at all.
Ibiki listens, then says that Uchiha Sasuke is too dangerous. He should be kept sedated and under narcotics at all times except when spoken to. Sakura is about to protest further, when his expression changes.
She realizes this is the reason why Ibiki is the head of the Torture and Interrogation Force.
“There is nothing to discuss.” Ibiki says, and leaves.
.
The bar is packed when she arrives, and it takes her awhile to find Kakashi’s hunched figure in front of the counter.
“Two shots here, please,” she tells the bartender after perching herself on a stool next to Kakashi. Then she turns to her former mentor, and smiles.
“I’m surprised you’re early, so this round’s on me.”
“I’m actually really late,” he says as he puts down his glass of beer, “I got the time wrong, see.”
Sakura laughs. “That explains it.”
The shots arrive, they toast to Naruto not pissing anybody off more than he already has whilst he’s out, and down them in one swallow. Sakura feels her throat burning, but she doesn’t care and she orders another.
Their conversation waffles between routine, past missions and what Naruto’s probably up to. Sakura doesn’t talk about Sasuke being back in Konoha. She doesn’t bring up the subject of his strange black-rimmed star eyes, she doesn’t mention the empty and haunted laugh that echoes in his cell, doesn’t say that he’s different. That she doesn’t recognise him anymore.
That she can't bring herself to acknowledge him because she's about to shatter.
Kakashi doesn’t say anything either, but inevitably they come back to the one topic that’s been a constant at the back of their minds.
“Has it been hard,” Sakura asks, “with security and all?”
Kakashi nods.
“A little, but we have so many hands on deck that it’s not that bad now.”
“Ah,” she says, and falls silent.
The crowd starts to dwindle, and they start running out of idle things to say.
“You know what he’s here for, don’t you.” Sakura finally says. Kakashi stays silent for awhile, picking up his beer glass, taking a sip, putting it back down and picking it back up again.
“Danzo isn’t a good person,” she says more to herself than to anyone, but Kakashi is quick to respond this time.
“We’re not the ones who should decide what happens.”
A small group in the corner starts the beginning of a bar brawl, and as the bartender races over to mediate the meaningless chit chat comes back to them. Afterwards, they fall silent for a long time, both lost in their own versions of the past and future that have slipped through their hands like sand.
Then Kakashi exhales, a quiet, muffled sound through his mask, and picks up his glass.
"I guess we're all just lousy at letting go."
She almost smiles.
.
The next time Sakura enters Sasuke's cell, it is apparent that something, again, is wrong.
"I can't get out," he says to her, eyes lost and bleeding.
"Have you been trying to use the mangekyo? You know you can't in here," she asks, barely able to keep the concern out of her voice.
He looks at her, startled for a moment and disoriented, and a wide grin spreads across his face.
He laughs, "You won't be able to keep me here."
She stares at him and he smiles back, and she realizes that his eyes are horribly unfocused. Horrified, she moves to his side, forgetting his previous attempt on her life.
"Sasuke, look at me," she holds his head gently, checking his pulse and looking for signs of recognition. His heart beat is erratic and he continues to laugh. Sakura looks desperately over to the tray she brought in, but in vain. There is nothing that can help. She stands up quickly and makes for the door, but Sasuke stops her.
His hand holds hers tightly, the room silent.
"I can't get out," he repeats, the lost look present again. "I took a left, then a right and it was a dead end, so I turned back but I can't get out."
Sakura kneels in front of him and holds his hand in both of hers. He's broken, she's broken and she so desperately wants him to come home. She takes him in, all of him; his broken eyes and his torrent of black hair and his scarred body and thinks that it's never too late.
"This is the last thing I have to do," Sasuke says quietly, confidently, more like his old self than ever, and she sees the recognition in his eyes.
A small, pearly tear falls down the left side of his bloodied cheek.
.
Security has been ridiculously tight.
They've known all along that he wasn't acting alone. His file states Akatsuki affiliations, gangs, mobs and the like. Uchiha Sasuke, though the primary driving force, rarely acts alone.
In the end, all it takes is one botched shift changeover which costs them exactly twenty-six seconds. Enough time for a person to slip beneath their radar and switch a single shot of tranquilizer for amphetamines.
Enough time for Sasuke to escape.
That is all it takes.
And the next time she enters holding cell B.02, Danzo is dead and the room is empty.
.
It ends with a funeral, and a long overdue goodbye that he doesn't get to say.
I hate the ending myself,
But it started with an alright scene.
FIN.
While writing the drinking part, I was wondering if Kakashi drank stuff through his mask LOL.
Also, I really REALLY wanted to give them a somewhat happy ending here, but I just couldn’t work one in. ):
Disclaimer: Nope.
Pairing/Characters: Sakura, Sasuke
Summary: In which Sasuke is detained, his mind half-crazed, and there is nothing Sakura can do for him
For corydrane @ help_japan . Some of the canon facts may not add up, and I'm really sorry about that because this really wasn't supposed to be AU at all. AND THIS IS SHIT LATE I AM SO SORRY.
It ends with a funeral, and a long overdue goodbye that he doesn't get to say.
Well I was there on the day,
They sold the cause for the Queen,
And when the lights all went out,
We watched our lives on the screen.
It starts with a pile of documents on her table.
A hill, perhaps, would be more appropriate. Or mountain.
"Uh," Sakura stares, "what are these?"
"Work, work, and more work," another large, floating stack of papers replies, and it takes her frazzled brain slightly more than a minute to recognize Kotetsu's voice behind the paperwork. There is another stack next to it, and Sakura stares listlessly as Izumo's voice drones, just as wearily, from behind it.
"Hokage wants to see you," the files are dropped unceremoniously on her table, and the room falls silent.
Konoha has a sixth Hokage now, Sakura reminds herself.
Sighing, she moves to sort them out. Words bolded in red should jump out at her; ANBU REPORT, CONFIDENTIAL, URGENT, but they don't. These are not unfamiliar, after all. She has been a part of countless emergencies and security situations, and experience has taught her to be pragmatic, efficient, and systematic.
But things don't always work out the way you want them to.
A knock, and Izumo comes in again, this time with only one file.
"Almost forgot this,"
A dark blue file. She frowns. All of their files are colour coded, but Sakura has never been given a dark blue file before. The words "INTERROGATION UNIT" scream out from the cover, not in her jurisdiction, really, and she flips open the file out of curiosity -
- and almost drops it.
.
There is a mug shot of Sasuke swathed in Akatsuki robes, hastily glued onto a cover page. The file contains all of two-hundred odd pages; about twenty with a brief summary of his work as a Konoha shinobi, and the rest with comprehensive, or as comprehensive as possible, information of his movements as a missing-nin.
.
"You wanted to see me."
Danzo regards her as she enters the room, and nods to acknowledge her presence. He does not gesture to the empty seat in front of his desk.
"You've seen the file," he says, more of a statement than an answer, and she says yes.
"Good. It's a simple job, Sakura. All you have to do is to supervise the treatment and the doses administered. It won't take much of your time and you won't have to make contact."
Sakura doesn't know this man. She doesn't know anything past his cold demeanour, his power over the ANBU root members, and the fact that he is the newly appointed Hokage. Everything is wrong with his request. She can't possibly effectively treat a person without coming into direct contact with him.
Danzo obviously does not trust her.
So Sakura thinks about Tsunade lying down with her eyes closed, Shizune by her side, and bows to Danzo, accepts the job, and walks out the office in silence.
.
True to his word, the job remains simple for a whole of two days. Sakura prepares the tranquilizers, the sedatives, and looks through the dark blue file at least three times a day.
(She pretends not to steal glances at the old team 7 photo still standing strong beside her bed.)
A medic without direct ties to Sasuke administers the drugs. A senior, more experienced medic, apparently, who gets himself killed after only two days. It is a well timed, well aimed strike to the jugular, and by the time Sakura arrives there is nothing she can do.
Five hours later, Sakura is informed that she is to take over the deceased medic’s duties.
Six hours later, Sakura prepares a cocktail of sedatives in addition to other medical equipment she will definitely need after Ibiki’s session is over.
Seven hours later finds Sakura standing outside Sasuke’s cell, hand hovering over the handle hesitating.
And all the while, the word “Reunion” drifts through her head like an ugly spot of mould on an unnaturally white wall.
.
A slow smirk spreads on his face when she enters.
"Oh, Sakura." he says.
She has heard these words before.
He's trying to provoke her, trying to force some sort of reaction from her, but she knows better than to give him anything. She's already given him too much. Instead, she stares at him impassively and stands in front of the chair he is chained to. You've been through wars, she reminds herself, you have experience, you know how to handle detainees.
"Lift up your head, Uchiha, I need a clean shot at your head," she states, and if Sasuke notices her new way of addressing him, he makes no show of it.
Slowly, he tilts his head up to the right, and Sakura moves in to administer the injection.
Things happen so quickly that her body reflexively reacts before her mind registers anything.
His chains were loose, a sloppy clean up job that some useless idiot had done after the previous medic have been killed, and his left arm is able to extend just enough to plunge a small but sharp piece of broken wood into her jugular, the same well-aimed strike that killed the previous attending medic, but she is ready for him and dodges before sinking the needle.
His kunai falls, he collapses, and a tiny drop of blood drips from Sakura’s neck.
.
Sakura pretends she hasn't felt this feeling before.
.
As the Kage summit creeps nearer, Ibiki and his interrogation team press harder.
Sakura no longer tends to minor cuts, lesions or bruises; Sasuke constantly needs stitches, suffers concussions at least twice a week, and even though Sakura has to force him to stay conscious at times, the manic look never manages to completely leave his red eyes.
Sakura continues to pretend she doesn't know him.
She wonders if she should speak up, if she should say something to Ibiki or even Danzo, but there is a constant flurry of movement and actions amongst the elders and the higher-ranked shinobi alike. The word “war” creeps up every so often, and as she carefully stitches close an ugly gash on Sasuke’s left cheek, Sakura prays silently for the boy she knew to finally close the door on his past.
.
It is another one of their training sessions.
They’re in a forest of some sort, and it is winter. He knows because Naruto jumps from one branch to another, slips on ice and falls in a manner that disgraces all ninja to the snowy ground.
It’s way too cold outside for this, and he’s not some sissy that forgoes training just because it’s too fucking cold outside, but this time it is, and he’s about to screw it and use the last of his chakra reserves for the Fire Release, when all of a sudden they fall, and he is falling, and nothing makes sense at all but he’s still falling when suddenly his lungs stop working and his vision goes black and he doesn’t feel anything at all, and he thinks
This must be what death feels like-
-when the cold hits him and his body starts working before his mind does.
Sasuke is the first to surface, and wildly he grabs onto a leg of the wooden pier that the current pushes him near to. They’re in some sort of icy river, Sakura is the nearest to him and Naruto goes down again, and he holds Sakura desperately in one hand and the leg of the pier desperately in the other, but the water is too cold, he can’t feel his hands at all, he’s about to pass out and something is wrong, something is wrong somethingiswrong, but he doesn’t know what it is and he doesn’t know what to do-
When Sakura opens the cell door, she finds Sasuke having a seizure on the ground.
.
She does go to Ibiki in the end.
They should tone it down, Sakura says, or at least stop. Sasuke is constantly having seizures and there’s probably some kind of underlying brain damage by now and he needs to rest if they want him to say anything at all.
Ibiki listens, then says that Uchiha Sasuke is too dangerous. He should be kept sedated and under narcotics at all times except when spoken to. Sakura is about to protest further, when his expression changes.
She realizes this is the reason why Ibiki is the head of the Torture and Interrogation Force.
“There is nothing to discuss.” Ibiki says, and leaves.
.
The bar is packed when she arrives, and it takes her awhile to find Kakashi’s hunched figure in front of the counter.
“Two shots here, please,” she tells the bartender after perching herself on a stool next to Kakashi. Then she turns to her former mentor, and smiles.
“I’m surprised you’re early, so this round’s on me.”
“I’m actually really late,” he says as he puts down his glass of beer, “I got the time wrong, see.”
Sakura laughs. “That explains it.”
The shots arrive, they toast to Naruto not pissing anybody off more than he already has whilst he’s out, and down them in one swallow. Sakura feels her throat burning, but she doesn’t care and she orders another.
Their conversation waffles between routine, past missions and what Naruto’s probably up to. Sakura doesn’t talk about Sasuke being back in Konoha. She doesn’t bring up the subject of his strange black-rimmed star eyes, she doesn’t mention the empty and haunted laugh that echoes in his cell, doesn’t say that he’s different. That she doesn’t recognise him anymore.
That she can't bring herself to acknowledge him because she's about to shatter.
Kakashi doesn’t say anything either, but inevitably they come back to the one topic that’s been a constant at the back of their minds.
“Has it been hard,” Sakura asks, “with security and all?”
Kakashi nods.
“A little, but we have so many hands on deck that it’s not that bad now.”
“Ah,” she says, and falls silent.
The crowd starts to dwindle, and they start running out of idle things to say.
“You know what he’s here for, don’t you.” Sakura finally says. Kakashi stays silent for awhile, picking up his beer glass, taking a sip, putting it back down and picking it back up again.
“Danzo isn’t a good person,” she says more to herself than to anyone, but Kakashi is quick to respond this time.
“We’re not the ones who should decide what happens.”
A small group in the corner starts the beginning of a bar brawl, and as the bartender races over to mediate the meaningless chit chat comes back to them. Afterwards, they fall silent for a long time, both lost in their own versions of the past and future that have slipped through their hands like sand.
Then Kakashi exhales, a quiet, muffled sound through his mask, and picks up his glass.
"I guess we're all just lousy at letting go."
She almost smiles.
.
The next time Sakura enters Sasuke's cell, it is apparent that something, again, is wrong.
"I can't get out," he says to her, eyes lost and bleeding.
"Have you been trying to use the mangekyo? You know you can't in here," she asks, barely able to keep the concern out of her voice.
He looks at her, startled for a moment and disoriented, and a wide grin spreads across his face.
He laughs, "You won't be able to keep me here."
She stares at him and he smiles back, and she realizes that his eyes are horribly unfocused. Horrified, she moves to his side, forgetting his previous attempt on her life.
"Sasuke, look at me," she holds his head gently, checking his pulse and looking for signs of recognition. His heart beat is erratic and he continues to laugh. Sakura looks desperately over to the tray she brought in, but in vain. There is nothing that can help. She stands up quickly and makes for the door, but Sasuke stops her.
His hand holds hers tightly, the room silent.
"I can't get out," he repeats, the lost look present again. "I took a left, then a right and it was a dead end, so I turned back but I can't get out."
Sakura kneels in front of him and holds his hand in both of hers. He's broken, she's broken and she so desperately wants him to come home. She takes him in, all of him; his broken eyes and his torrent of black hair and his scarred body and thinks that it's never too late.
"This is the last thing I have to do," Sasuke says quietly, confidently, more like his old self than ever, and she sees the recognition in his eyes.
A small, pearly tear falls down the left side of his bloodied cheek.
.
Security has been ridiculously tight.
They've known all along that he wasn't acting alone. His file states Akatsuki affiliations, gangs, mobs and the like. Uchiha Sasuke, though the primary driving force, rarely acts alone.
In the end, all it takes is one botched shift changeover which costs them exactly twenty-six seconds. Enough time for a person to slip beneath their radar and switch a single shot of tranquilizer for amphetamines.
Enough time for Sasuke to escape.
That is all it takes.
And the next time she enters holding cell B.02, Danzo is dead and the room is empty.
.
It ends with a funeral, and a long overdue goodbye that he doesn't get to say.
I hate the ending myself,
But it started with an alright scene.
FIN.
While writing the drinking part, I was wondering if Kakashi drank stuff through his mask LOL.
Also, I really REALLY wanted to give them a somewhat happy ending here, but I just couldn’t work one in. ):