Sakura had an advanced anatomy lab later that day, and after getting home and placing the new pink paint on the counter with a note attached to it, telling-read: ordering-both Naruto and Sasuke to paint the bathroom sometimes that day, preferably right after they got home from work, she sat down in her bedroom with a cup of green tea to go over her notes again for the pre-lab quiz they always had. Which made no sense, since they were always quizzed on topics they had never seen before right as they were getting to the lab that would go over those topics. It was a "You should know the all about the topics before you get to the class so the professor doesn't actually have to teach it" scenarios. Why, yes, Sakura and thousands of other university students were paying an insane amount of money and getting up to their ears in student loans to attend such a prestigious university.

But Sakura was a religiously good student, and the idea of ever getting anything below a "C" scared the absolute crap out of her, not to mention that she had to keep at least a 3.0 GPA to keep her scholarships. Before, when she was still in high school, the idea of getting anything below an "A" scared the crap out of her, but since getting into university her new life saying was "Cs get degrees."

Sakura had been studying and going over the future PowerPoint for that day and had already finished her first cup of tea when her phone buzzed with an incoming call. Blue, who was on her bed sleeping, huffed at the noise and rolled over.

When she saw who it was, she smiled and swiped her finger across the screen to answer it. "Hello?"

"Sakura, sweetheart," Kushina cooed. "I haven't gotten to see you in ages." There was some clanking of pots and pans in the background, which alerted Sakura to the fact that Kushina was likely going to use free food as a way to get her to visit. Smart woman. "I was just telling Minato that it's been months since you, Naruto and Sasuke have all been over for a visit. I still remember when you were all back in high school and would spend almost all your free time over here."

Sakura placed her phone between her shoulder and ear and started to close her notes and laptop. She knew if she kept it open while she tried to talk to someone on the phone she'd unintentionally start to read the words on her screen and completely doze out of the conversation at hand. "Yeah, I think we've all been pretty busy lately with the move and all, but I'll for sure make Naruto take us all over sometime soon."

Kushina's voice got all low and soft then. "Well, you don't have to come over with Naruto, Sakura, dearest. You know you're always welcome to come over by yourself anytime." More clanking of pots and pans. Scuffling sounds.

Sakura ducked her head, even though Kushina couldn't see her. "Yeah, I know. Thank you, Kushina."

"Of course, sweetheart. You know that you're practically family by this point."

Yeah, she did.

"And do you know who called me the other day? Mikoto!" Kushina scoffed. "And do you know what she told me?" She didn't wait for Sakura to reply. "She told me that you were getting close to her Uchiha boys! The gal of the woman!" Her voice rose higher and she laughed uneasily.

Sakura laughed uneasily as well. Even though Kushina and Mikoto had been best friends since they were both pregnant with Naruto and Sasuke, they had a kind of love/hate relationship. Both were incredibly competitive, whether it be about who had the best food to who had a more desirable husband to who had the more successful son.

Unfortunately, this competitiveness had included Sakura and which family she liked better.

Kushina was sure Sakura liked the Uzumakis better because she had practically lived with them during her senior year of high school when she still wasn't able to completely live on her own and be independent. Kushina and Minato had been more privy to her home situation then, Minato having stumbled upon Sakura and Naruto at one point when she had come over to visit and he had walked in on Sakura crying into Naruto's shoulder in his bedroom. Naruto had lived closer to her family home than Saauke did, and there had been many times when she knew that she had needed to get to one of them quickly, and Naruto just happened to be closer a lot of the time.

The Uzumakis had connections just as the Uchihas did, and it didn't take long for Minato to figure out what was going on. While the Uchiha family dabbled in a little bit of everything, from law enforcement to being CEOs of multi-million dollar businesses, Minato was involved in politics. At this point, Sakura couldn't really say which family was more influential or who had more money.

And Sakura's home life couldn't really be explained easily. It wasn't only one or two or even three major reasons why living there was so bad. It was a composition of thousands of little things that just made being around her parents . . . difficult.

They never hit her or slapped her. They never missed a PTA meeting or missed going to any of her award ceremonies. They never pushed her to be better or get better grades or make the right friends. They complimented her and seemed to love her. On the outside, they were the perfect family. They were middle class and happy, it seemed.

What people never saw, though, was that Sakura's father never stood up for Sakura when her mother would drop little catty comments about Sakura just being so perfect and didn't Sakura just understand how lucky she was to have parents as great as they were? Wasn't Sakura just so lucky and thankful to be born to such wonderful parents? Didn't Sakura realize she owed them for everything that they had done? Didn't Sakura realize that she was in their debt for taking care of her and raising her and dealing with all her depression issues and anxiety issues? They spent a lot of effort on her, you know.

Her father would leave the room when her mother would wave her hands franticly in the air and raise her voice about the fact that Sakura wouldn't hug or touch her mother as much as she would like. If Sakura ever stood up for herself and told her mother that her comments hurt and that Sakura wasn't a touchy-feely person, and just because she flinched back every time her mother tried to hug her didn't mean she hated her, it just meant that Sakura didn't want to be touched like that, her mother would get upset and angry, and everyone in their house would know it, and her father would eventually pull Sakura aside and gently tell her to apologize to her mother and make her happy again. Because no one was happy if Mommy wasn't happy.

Sakura had come to the conclusion a long time ago that her touching issues originated with her family, though she would never, ever voice that.

And so eventually, if things got bad enough, her mother would suddenly start to cry and yell at Sakura that Sakura just hurt her so much and maybe it was her mother's own fault, for protecting Sakura and standing up for her against the bullies in school and making excuses for her on why she wasn't coming out of her room on some bad days when the depression really set in. Maybe her mother shielded her too much and didn't make Sakura work hard enough. Maybe they protected her too much and that was why Sakura was such an ungrateful brat now.

And Sakura would just stand there and take it, quietly breaking apart on the inside. Because this was her mother speaking, and her father had left the room as soon as her mother's tears started and was hiding in her parents' bedroom watching some sport. He had never once stood up for Sakura, so why would he now? But this was still her mother, the woman who raised her, and after seventeen years of this happening, at some point Sakura told herself it was all true, all so very true, and she was an ungrateful brat. And while her mother said all these heartbreaking things to her, Sakura would adorn her indifferent mask, because she had gotten so very good at not letting her feelings show, and that would only enrage her mother more, because then her mother would tell her that she was too emotionless and this was just proof that she was spoiled and ungrateful and didn't love her mother at all. Oh, how much a victim her mother was.

Maybe Sakura was just too emotional for her own good. Her mother used to always tell her she wasn't emotional enough, that she was cold and stoic. But the truth was that Sakura was either way too emotional for her own mental health or would have to shut down her emotions to get through a day, to shove down everything until she lost herself to depression and anxiety at a moment when she was alone and nothing else could catch her attention. She could be the kind of emotional that would leave her catatonic in her bedroom, replying something someone said that may have been a little cruel or careless, or one of the many things her mother had said to her in that voice, the one that just made Sakura feel so very insignificant, like she would never have a voice of her own and if she tried, she was nothing - her voice was nothing. And that scene or moment that really shouldn't affect Sakura so much just never left her head, and so she would be stuck in that state, leaving her emotionally drained and depressed. Most of the time, Sakura could never stop any of those memories from taking her over, to stop the sick slideshow in her head of every embarrassing moment and every cruel or chatty thing her mother said to her. And so Sakura shoved it all down into the pit of her gut until the slideshow started again, when she wasn't wearing herself ragged doing schoolwork or something else.

Later, during her senior year of high school, Sakura's depression and anxiety had gotten so bad that no medication was working and her parents - once again - sent her to a therapist.

And that time, for that therapist, Sakura tried to explain what was wrong, explain the things her mother said to her. Because it wasn't easy to explain. Any one of the cruel things her mother told her could just be chalked up to having a bad day and maybe her mother losing her temper or that Sakura was just too emotional and it was all in her head . . . but the thing was that it was never just one time or one bad day. It was almost every day.

It took almost half a year to get everything out, with having at least one and maybe two therapy meetings a week. Eventually, her therapist convinced Sakura to let her hold a family meeting.

If Sakura's therapist wasn't already sure about what her mother and father were like, she was convinced during that family meeting. While Sakura sat opposite her parents, sobbing so hard she could barely talk, her mother sobbed right back, throwing her hands up and exclaiming that she was just the world's worst mother and she failed Sakura in so many things. And Sakura sat there watching her mother make herself the victim and her father with his head down, and Sakura wasn't even sure he was listening while he carelessly rubbed her mother's back and never made eye-contact with Sakura.

After the failed family meeting, her therapist told her that she was sure now her mother was something called histrionic. Someone who has to make everything about them, who has to always have the attention on them.

Sakura was told by her therapist that she needed to not care so much about what her mother said. But how could she? She was still her mother, and if Sakura couldn't be emotional about the hurtful things her mother said to her, what could she be emotional about? The little snide comments her mother said still would seep into her skin until she was so made up of what her mother said of her that Sakura forgot what she thought of herself.

After the family meeting, things got so much worse. The catty comments kept coming, and Sakura tried to tell her father the things her mother was saying, that her mother had told Sakura that she owed her mother for being born and being raised by them, and her father looked at her with sad eyes and said that he hoped that wasn't the case. And that was just his way of saying that he was sorry her mother said that, but he wasn't going to do anything about it. So Sakura just took it silently and got worse and worse.

Then Sakura's grandmother - her mother's mother - got in on the drama, and whenever Sakura was alone with her grandmother, her grandmother would tell her about how hard this was all on her mother, how Sakura needed to make things right. And Sakura just had the thought that this was none of her grandmother's business. That her grandmother didn't even know what she was talking about because she only ever got her mother's side of the story, and her grandmother was just as histrionic as her mother, so of course this was how she saw it.

Little things kept happening during that year after the family meeting. Sakura would be in the car with her family, and she would gasp when her father merged carelessly because everyone knew he was an angry driver, and her mother would do the same thing at the very same time, and Sakura's father would laugh at them both and look at Sakura and say something like, "You're just like your mother when I drive," and Sakura would laugh and grin and say to her mother, "I blame you for this!" And Sakura was talking about making her edgy when her father drove, and her mother would look back at her, all solemn, and say, "Oh, I know you blame me for everything." Not even her father missed her mother's meaning.

Sakura kept going to therapy. Her therapist finally told Sakura that she would never get better so long as she was living with her parents. Her therapist had never told a client until then that she needed to get away from her home, that family meetings weren't going to make anything better, that Sakura needed to get out of that house as soon as possible. Because things were just that bad. Toxic, her therapist had called her home life. Her therapist taught her about things like boundaries and not letting her mother push her around and not letting her mother control her in all her little snide remarks.

When Sakura started to push a little, when she started to call her mother out on things she was saying and tell her how much it hurt her, her mother laughed at her. And then her mother would say something about how this was so much harder on her than it was on Sakura, and she was just so selfish, and, oh, didn't Sakura understand that her mother was owed an apology for that embarrassing family meeting?

Or, worse, her mother would start in again about how she was just the worse mother ever and she just went so wrong in raising Sakura. When her mother would go on in that voice, the victim voice with tears in her eyes, it was so very much worse.

Her therapist wanted another family meeting. Sakura told her it wasn't going to happen.

When things got bad, especially right after the first and only family meeting, Sakura would stay away from her family home as much as possible. During that time, Naruto and Sasuke and Ino all understood the basic gist of her situation, and all let her stay with them from time to time.

But out of all of them, Sakura stayed the most with Naruto. Maybe it was because he lived the closest to her and maybe it was because he had the kindest family Sakura had ever met and they both loved her. Or maybe it had to do with that Naruto just always seemingly knew from one look at her that she just wanted to wrap herself in a ball in his bedroom and let him hold her. Just as easily, Naruto knew when Sakura just wanted to hide out in his house and not be touched. He was so good like that.

It was sometime during all this that Minato and Kushina either figured it out on their own or maybe Naruto finally told them what was going on or maybe a combination of the two, because they subtly let Sakura know that if she ever wished, she was welcome to move in. It wasn't like they had a limited selection of bedrooms.

And so Sakura did.

Near the end of her senior year, Sakura started to subtly move her stuff over to Naruto's home. She wasn't yet a legal adult, and she just told her parents that she was spending the night with Ino or something. Sometimes Sakura would spend the night with Ino, too. But mostly it was with Naruto and Kushina and Minato.

Sakura turned eighteen less than a month after she graduated high school, and that was when she completely moved in with Kushina and Minato and Naruto.

Her mother was not kind to her during this. There was crying and sobbing and yelling and many, many more catty comments. Her father didn't say much of anything.

But Sakura had money saved up, and when she started university, Sakura got her own apartment.

She didn't see her therapist anymore, and her depression and anxiety still raised their ugly heads from time-to-time, but it was so much better now.

Sakura no longer reached out to her family.

It was the best decision she had ever made.

Her mother had asked her many times during her senior year of high school if Sakura hated her. And always Sakura said that she didn't. And that was still true, Sakura thought. She didn't think it was wholly possible to really hate someone who helped give you life, but actually liking them was another thing completely.

Every once in a while she would get the odd phone call from her mother or father-more so from her father-and sometimes Sakura would answer it, but if they left a message because she was in class or just missed the call, it was rare for her to call them back. They were always awkward and in the case of her mother, still instilled little guilt trips here and there. They still hurt, but Sakura didn't want to curl up in a ball and cry afterwards like she would have done before. Her father, on the other hand, never mentioned anything about what had happened, but would just chat idly with her until he had to get home from work. He never called her when her mother was around. Sakura wondered if her mother even knew her father called her at all. He sure as heck would never tell her mother by himself, not if he could help it.

Sakura didn't talk about it much, but taking up self-defense courses was one of her reprieves from all that. It gave her a sense of control, and that was something she was sorely lacking before. She became obsessed with it. Both Fugaku and Minato had taught her on separate occasions, too. She was so small and soft looking, like any cruel word could break her apart. If they only knew.

Sakura wasn't happy unless she could best Naruto and Sasuke in a spar. She wasn't content unless she was the fastest out of them both or the strongest. She lifted weights until her arms felt like jelly and ran miles until her stomach revolted against her. It wasn't until she was on her back half dead to the world that she felt better and in control.

It wasn't until she had gotten some of the highest grades in school that she was content. It wasn't until she could read so fast that she used to finish a book in a day. It wasn't until she could go into organic chemistry and not feel like she was drowning in schoolwork, because she was going to make damn sure she was near perfect in everything.

Some would say this was obsessive behavior. Some would say that Sakura was still cracked at the edges from emotional damage and the chemicals in her head were a little off, and Sakura would agree with them. She was an obsessive person. She was emotionally damaged and chemically unbalanced in the head. None of the dozens of anti-depressants she had tried helped her. She reacted badly to them all.

So if she worked her body until she almost broke, so what? She was healthy and balanced. She wasn't killing herself. She would sneak up behind Naruto or Sasuke in a spar when she used her size and speed against them and whisper in their ear. "Tag," she would say, "you're it."

Catch me if you can.

There had been times when Sakura's mother would call Naruto's home, when her mother figured out Sakura was hiding from her there. It was like hide-and-seek. Sakura would hide in one of her friends' house, and her mother would have the task of stalking Sakura down. Because Sakura wasn't allowed to do anything without her mother's hands directly in it, stirring the pot.

Tag, Mother. You're it.

Kushina became her mediator. Kushina had a way of soothing her mother away from ordering Sakura home when she wasn't of legal age yet. You would think that Sakura hiding away from her mother all those times would give her an inkling of what was going to happen once Sakura turned eighteen and could legally have nothing to do with her family, yet it appearing to still come as a surprise to her mother.

During those times, Kushina would speak to Sakura's mother as if nothing was wrong, as if Sakura wasn't wrapped up in Naruto's arms, hiding away. As if Minato wasn't leaving snacks and tissues outside Naruto's bedroom door. As if Minato and Kushina weren't using their influences to make Sakura's parents think that spending so much time with a senator's son could only help her in the future. Sakura still wasn't sure how they had managed to do it so well.

But Kushina was a smooth talker - possibly picked up from Minato, who could so seemingly easily talk his way through anyone. Maybe that was why Naruto would radiate such a calming and agreeing aura - he'd inherited it from his senator father and loving mother.

So, yes, Sakura owed quite a bit to Kushina and Minato. But they never held that against her. She was their surrogate daughter, they told her.

Of course, Kushina would love nothing more than for Sakura to marry Naruto. Same with Mikoto wanting Sakura to marry Sasuke, or at least one of her Uchiha boys. But that was more a rivalry than anything else.

Sakura spoke to Kushina and Minato now more than she spoke to her own parents. When Sakura aced an exam she had worked so hard for, Sakura called Kushina and Minato to be happy with. When Sakura needed advice for her finances and other new adult things she had been thrust into when she suddenly left her family, it was Kushina and Minato who helped her apartment search and get everything together. It was them who she called to give updates on her life to.

Sakura smiled into the phone now. Kushina had heard all about Sakura's adventure at the Uchiha mansion from Naruto, who had the brunt of Kushina's "red hot habanero" anger on him. She was not pleased with him losing the bet that resulted in Sakura being kidnapped to the Uchiha mansion, to say the least. No doubt Mikoto had great pleasure in calling Kushina up and telling her all about how Sakura was going to fall in love with one of her Uchiha boys now and marry and have a dozen little red-eyed babies.

"You know how the Uchihas are," Sakura now simply said.

Kushina made an agreeing noise. "Anyway, sweetheart, I was hoping you would come by soon to visit. It's been so lonely now that Naruto moved out. Not that I don't think it's great that you're all living together now, of course," she rushed to add.

It was true - Kushina had been all for Sakura living with Naruto. She probably would have liked it better without Sasuke also living with them, but Kushina and Minato also saw Sasuke as a son of sorts, what with being longtime friends with Naruto, so they couldn't complain.

Sakura glanced at the clock on her desktop. "I could come over now, if that's alright," she said. "I don't have a class for another few hours."

"Really!?" Kushina gushed. "That would be fantastic, believe it!" Sakura could envision the fist-pump that went along with those words.

Sakura told Kushina that she would be over soon, and hung up. She wasn't sure if she would have time to come back home before she needed to leave for her lab, so she changed into her black scrubs and closed toe shoes. Swinging her backpack over her shoulder with her laptop and notes in it, Sakura left another little note next to the pink paint on the counter that she was going to see Kushina. Just in case Naruto or Sasuke got home early and she wasn't there studying in her room like she always was. Then she made sure to take Blue out one last time before she locked her apartment door behind her.

It was about a twenty minute drive to the Uzumaki mansion, which could give the Uchiha mansion a run for its money.

Once Sakura was let through the gate, there was also an impossibly long driveway up to the mansion, similar to that of the Uchiha mansion. But the security there knew her by name and let her through with no problem.

Sakura didn't even have to knock on the door before Kushina was there, throwing open the too large double doors and knocking right into Sakura, engulfing her in a hug that reminded Sakura so much of Naruto. Her vision was obscured by nothing but red.

Kushina held her for another moment before leaning back, her long red hair in a ponytail. She ushered her into the house, and Sakura immediately smelled something burning.

Kushina cursed under her breath and ran for the kitchen. Sakura followed behind, smirking despite herself.

For as long as Sakura knew Kushina and Minato, Kushina would always try to cook for her family, but was never very good at it. More often than not, Minato would cook or they would go out to eat. But Kushina never stopped trying.

Now, Kushina threw open the oven door and immediately a plume of smoke trailed out. Kushina cursed again and grabbed an oven mitten from the counter and stuck her hand inside the oven, pulling out a baking tray that had little burnt circles on it. Sakura suspected that it had meant to be some kind of cookies.

Kushina dumped the tray on top of the stove and threw open some of the kitchen windows, despite the chill outside. Sakura covered her mouth and coughed a little bit while Kushina wailed and threw her hands up in the air.

"I just wanted to make some cookies, believe it!" Kushina groaned. "It shouldn't be this hard to do after all these years!"

Sakura smiled at her behind her hand. Her eyes were beginning to water. "It's okay, Kushina. It happens to everyone."

Kushina turned to her, eyes wide and watering. "It's not fine! I just wanted to make some cookies for you and this happens." She waved her hands over the oven and the more-than-just-crispy cookies. Sakura couldn't even tell what kind of cookies they were supposed to be. "They aren't even homemade, Sakura! They're from one of those pre-made packages where all you're supposed to do is put it in the oven for fifteen minutes or something!"

Sakura swallowed her laugh. This wasn't all that surprising to Sakura. Even when she was still in high school she could remember both Naruto and Minato having to choke down Kushina's cooking from time-to-time to make her happy, even though it resulted in a stomach bug at times. More often than not, though, Minato came up with some excuse to do all the cooking and telling Kushina he liked doing it for her. Whether this was actually true or not was still to be determined.

Sakura took Kushina's hand and led her out of the smelly kitchen and into the living area, dumping her backpack next to the couch. Sakura was still trying to smother her laughter; it wasn't easy.

Once Sakura distracted Kushina enough with talk about the apartment and the ongoing Paint War -leaving out Naruto's recent battle strategy of putting blue dye in Sasuke's shampoo, which could go one of two ways: either Kushina would find it hilarious like Naruto did or she would bring down her own wrath onto Naruto, and, frankly, Sakura couldn't take another Uzumaki destroying her apartment-Kushina was finally able to relax into the couch and forget about the smell coming from the kitchen.

Finally, Sakura looked at a clock on the wall and asked Kushina when Minato was getting home. "Anytime now," Kushina said, smiling. "He's been working hard lately with a new bill he wants passed."

Sakura nodded.

Kushina fidgeted with the glass of water she was holding, tracing her fingers around the rim, again and again, smoothing out the condensation. Sakura waited for her to say something.

Finally, Kushina took a breath. "Sakura," she began, "your mother called today."

Sakura froze. Her face was solid, stoic. Her little pink smile stayed on her plastic face. She blinked, tilted her head just a fraction. "And?" she asked, her voice mellow and pleasant.

Kushina swallowed and looked straight at her, forgetting about her glass of water. "She wanted to know about you. Wanted to talk to you, but said you hadn't been taking her calls."

"Ah," Sakura said, nodding just barely. "I've been busy."

Kushina nodded. "Okay. What do you want me to say if she calls again?"

"Just . . ." Sakura began, twisting her head to look out the window on the opposite side of the room. How often had she sat in this very spot, on the verge of tears but telling herself to suck it up, to dispel the words her mother threw at her like little needles? Too many. Sakura shrugged and looked back at Kushina, who she liked so much better than her mother. "Tell her whatever you like. If you don't want her calling you anymore, I can talk to her."

Kushina stared at her for a moment and then shook her head. "It's no problem, Sakura. You know that. I'd rather she call me if you don't want to talk to her."

Kami, that was so nice to hear. "Thank you," Sakura whispered, looking down.

Then the front door opened, and Sakura was so grateful for the interruption. She didn't want to talk about this. Talking about it with Kushina wasn't bad, at all, just because she knew most of everything that happened and knew this wasn't something simple as forgetting and forgiving her mother, because her mother would never see as having done anything wrong. It was about keeping herself healthy, and that meant distancing herself from her mother. It was like having an alcoholic mother who said she didn't have a problem - sometimes, there's just nothing you could do.

Kushina jumped up from her spot on the couch almost immediately, running to Minato and throwing herself at him. Minato, grinning from ear-to-ear, caught her easily, hugging her so tight that her feet almost left the ground. Her kissed her, and Sakura looked away, smiling.

When he put her back down, Minato noticed Sakura and grinned wider. "Sakura! I didn't know you were coming over today." He threw a sly glance at his wife, who just continued smiling.

Sakura smirked. "It wasn't planned, but I have to leave soon for my lab tonight."

Minato nodded, one of his hand splayed on Kushina's back. "Care to stay for an early dinner, then?" He lifted up some To-Go boxes in a bag. "I always get more than we can eat anyways . . . a habit from raising Naruto, probably." He laughed.

So Sakura stayed for an early dinner. It didn't take Sakura long to see Kushina and Minato were suffering from "emptiness syndrome." Especially Kushina. She kept asking Sakura about Naruto, even though Sakura knew Naruto called his parents nearly daily. Listening to Kushina, you would think Naruto was halfway around the world and perpetually without any bars on his cellphone. And Kushina continued to add more food to Sakura's plate even when she said she was full. And when Sakura was about to leave, Kushina tried to push leftover food in plastic containers into her arms.

"I can't take these, Kushina," Sakura said, holding out the plasticware. "They'd never stay good in my car during my lab."

Kushina frowned but relented, taking the packaged food back from Sakura. Then Sakura was engulfed in Kushina's chest again, so tight she almost choked. After about a minute, though, Minato put a hand on Kushina's shoulder. But the moment Kushina released Sakura, Minato was there in front of her, gently wrapping his arms around her. His scent reminded Sakura of Naruto, and for some reason it made her sad.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Sakura's lab passed, for the most part, uneventfully. Which was completely fine with Sakura, was welcome, even. The only mishap was that she was not able to get a parking space in her normal parking garage, since some game or another was being held that night and the campus was near to bursting. So she was directed over to a dirt lot a little ways away from campus. Even so, Sakura was as early as she always was to her class.

Professor Yamato taught the lab by himself, Sakura was told by Lee, who sat near her again and who just happened to have the same lab time as her. But for some reason-some odd, unidentifiable reason-Professor Kakashi was there that night. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon, and the man who dressed like an assassin for whatever decided to attend a lab he was not obligated to attend. Professor Yamato's owlish eyes were about to burst out of his head, Sakura just knew it.

In fact, when Sakura first entered the lab, Professor Kakashi was already there, trading out his normal black attire for black scrubs. The scarf stayed, though. His little book was in his hands, and he sat in the front of the room so silently that you would think he had just gotten lost and somehow ended up in a university lab. When Sakura walked in, his white head raised just enough for him to glance over the top of his book at Sakura and give her a fond eye-crinkle, then returning his attention right back to his book. Occasional giggles were heard from the man from then on out until class started, not only freaking Sakura out, but many of the anatomy students as well.

When Professor Yamato walked in, nearly right when class was about to start, muttering apologies for keeping them waiting, Professor Kakashi, without ever diverting his gaze from his book, said, "Maa, maa, Yamato-senpai. It's not polite to be late," and casually flipped a page. Professor Yamato had been too stupefied by Professor Kakashi's presence to adorn his typical homicidal gaze, which Sakura figured was the natural look he held around his colleague.

After a moment, Professor Yamato shuffled over to Professor Kakashi and said in a harsh whisper, like he was trying and failing to not let the students hear, "What are you doing here?"

Professor Kakashi slowly lifted his head and slowly, so slowly, blinked at Professor Yamato. "Learning," he simply said, like Professor Yamato was a moron, and then went back to reading his book.

Professor Yamato just stared at him for about a full minute, not blinking, not moving, until his whole body deflated like it had already given up the battle the moment he'd entered the room but just now accepted it. He then went to the middle of the lab and started passing out the pre-lab quiz, studiously ignoring Professor Kakashi for the remainder of the lab.

For the most part, Sakura was also able to ignore Professor Kakashi. Even when she felt his gaze boring into her back. Even when she noticed that he hadn't flipped a page for the last ten minutes. Even as she was leaning over a cadaver and trying not to get anything on her scrubs-though that was a lost cause, as it always was-and was painfully aware how tight her scrubs hugged her hips.

When the lab was over, Sakura never once looked in Professor Kakashi or Professor Yamato's direction. Instead, she stuck next to Lee as they walked towards their cars. Lee had somehow gotten a spot in the parking garage, and when Sakura told him she was farther out in the dirt lot the campus used for overflow, Lee was against her walking by herself.

"Some evil man could grab the youthful Sakura-chan!" he had argued, to which Sakura had rolled her eyes and told him she'd walked through worse neighborhoods by herself at night, and that the dirt lot was lit and had routine security rounds. She'd be fine.

Eventually Sakura was able to convince Lee that it was nothing to worry over, and sent him on his way to his car. But not before putting Sakura's phone in her hand, Lee's number already on the screen, and made her promise that if anything at all seemed off, she'd press the CALL button and he'd come running, in all his youthful glory!

And so she waved him off, and headed to her car.

Despite her words, the dirt parking lot did freak Sakura out, but she really had been in worse places at night. And even if Lee did walk her to her car, he still had to walk back to his car in the dark parking lot, and that didn't make her feel any better.

So she speed-walked in her black scrubs, rubbing her arms from the chill in the air, smelling like formaldehyde, until she could see her car lit under one of the street lamps the campus had placed around the dirt lot.

Her finger hovered over Lee's phone number. Because Sakura was born a girl, she was taught nearly since birth what to look out for when by herself. She was told to never walk alone at night, even in the best of neighborhoods. She was taught to hold her drink a certain way when she was at parties or just out with friends and to always take her drink with her to the bathroom so no one could slip her something. Girls were taught to look over shoulders and through car windows for anyone who might be able to snag her from behind. They were the unsaid rules of waiting until the car next to your own car pulled out before you walked by the occupied passenger's seat to get to the driver's side of your own car, lest something happen. And even though Sakura knew self-defense better than more girls - and most guys - her age knew, that never really did stop the fear, and the knowledge that you could do everything right and still have shit happen to you.

Sakura had the feeling of eyes traveling up the back of her neck, and so when someone jumped out from a nearby car and landed one solid punch on her right cheekbone, knocking the phone out of her hand and hooking her around the waist, Sakura was only half surprised. Her heart gave a rough jolt and she slammed her heel back on the man's foot and it was a man, she knew, from his size and the possessive way his rough hands gripped her hips like he had more right to her own body than she did. It was too dark to see much of anything.

But it didn't work. Instead of slacking his grip on her, the man swung her around and off her feet - Kami, he was so much bigger than her - and slammed her onto the hood of another car. Sakura was slightly surprised that the impact hadn't set off the car's alarm, but that would have just been too good to be true, she supposed.

He was between her legs now, and it was singularly the most terrifying thing about the situation. Sakura wasn't completely sure how he'd gotten there, but when he swung her around like a rag doll, the man had gotten one hand around her throat and the other catching one wild punch she threw out. With her legs on either side of her, kicking him was nearly impossible.

She gasped in surprise. That move was so fast and strong that Sakura would only have expected it from someone as trained as Pein or Itachi. But this wasn't Pein or Itachi, and this was no friendly spar.

So Sakura flailed wildly and bit down on her pride and whimpered and tried to scream. The man tightened his grip on her throat and she immediately went still, staring up at him and making her eyes widen and tear up. She gave another small whimper.

He rotated his hips into her own and loosened his grip around her throat at the groan that came from his mouth.

Sakura saw red. Her heart tripled in beat.

Later, Sakura couldn't completely remember what happened, or how it happened, but the next thing she knew was that the man was on his back in the dirt and Sakura was digging her fingernails into his throat, straddling his chest and keeping his legs down with her own while he clawed at her arms in an effort to breathe. She couldn't think. Tears were clouding her eyes and she just wanted nothing more than his skin underneath her fingernails and blood underneath her hands. She wanted to show a man like this that it wasn't fun to be held down and forced to whimper and scream.

And so when this man below her began to choke and gurgle and even whimper, Sakura did exactly what other men like this did to girls like her.

She covered his mouth. It seems like the roles have been reversed.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Sakura sat in one of the private rooms of Red Dawn, holding an ice pack to her swollen cheek and thinking about how she was going to have to explain the black eye she was sure to have later to everyone who asked. She already knew she didn't want to tell any more people than necessary the truth about what happened in the dirt parking lot. Maybe she could get Ino or Karin to help her cover it mostly with make-up, but from the throbbing that was coming from her face, Sakura thought that might just be wishful thinking.

Her back ached from where she had been thrown on top of the car, and one of her hips was bruised and made sitting quite uncomfortable. Currently, Sakura was leaning on one hand, trying to keep most of the pressure off of that one side. Karin wanted her to lie down, and so she did, resting her head in Karin's lap. Ino wasn't there yet, but Sakura didn't doubt she would be soon.

The Akatsuki members and Uchihas were around the club, pacing like wild dogs or talking in rough, hushed tones. Pein and Madara had taken one look at her when she had stumbled in, Kakashi shouldering her weight and being one of the main reasons she wasn't falling to the floor, and ushered her into one of the private rooms with Karin, who had screamed when she saw Sakura's bloodied face.

Maybe it was the blood and the look on her face that made all the Uchihas and Akatsuki keep their distance. Maybe it was that her clothes were torn and dirtied that did it. Maybe it was the way she hugged her body and the way her eyes darted around the room like a skittish car or maybe it was the way that when Pein had tried to take her out of Kakashi's arms she had nearly had a panic attack and mumbled something about Coving his mouth, covering his mouth so no more screaming.

The police had already taken her statement. It was morning now, she knew. What time exactly, Sakura had no idea, nor did she ask. Karin had long ago stopped asking Sakura questions and had settled for keeping her pink head in her lap and running shaking fingers through her matted hair. Red Dawn had been emptied long ago and closed for the night. Sakura did not sleep.

At one point Kakashi had come into the private room and offered Sakura a wash cloth, to which she had stared blankly at it before Karin finally took it from him and began gently rubbing around her face and hands and arms. Sakura hadn't realized she'd had that much blood and dirt on her until then, when she could reach up to feel her face and touch actual skin and not slick blood and grains of dirt and twigs.

Kakashi had found her on top of her attacker, strangling him as he left long and deep scratched all up and down her arms and hands. He had heard her scream from where he was walking to his car, also parked in the dirt lot, his usual faculty parking space in the garage stolen by another employee. When he found Sakura, she was heaving and crying silently over the man, choking him of life.

Kakashi had attempted to pry her off him, but she'd only screamed again and threw an elbow up and into his face. She'd scratched at his arms and the ground while Kakashi called out to her and tried to calm her down, but he was on top of her and so, so heavy and Sakura had panicked. She'd busted open her hands and ripped her nails in an attempt to flee. She bloodied herself and Kakashi and the man on the ground, now unconscious from lack of oxygen.

Eventually Sakura had passed out. Kakashi had already called the police and the man was taken away and Kakashi had somehow managed to take Sakura to Red Dawn. She had woken up in a police car with Kakashi next to her and said something about the Uchihas, and because the Uchiha's family name could get you anything the police had taken her not to the police station or a hospital, but Red Dawn instead, just as she asked.

Since then, Pein and Madara had kept everyone besides Karin and Kakashi out of the private room Sakura was in. Naruto and Sasuke had come in all their raging glory, having heard about a pink haired girl attacked in the campus parking lot. They had screamed and demanded to be the ones to take care of her, but Karin had stopped them at the door upon Sakura's request and made another officer take her statement of what happened. Naruto and Sasuke were too involved and Sakura did not want to tell them what happened in the parking lot like that, under testimony and with a little notebook to write down things she said.

Ino came running in sometime later. She'd taken one look at Sakura and her shaking hands and offered her a pill, to which she took without a second thought. She would need to go to the hospital eventually, she knew. Pein and the police and many others had already tried to force her, but every time Pein came near her Sakura whimpered, and it was so unlike her that he masked his face and let her be. Nothing was broken besides her pride and there were only a handful of bruises, but nothing to warrant going to a hospital right away. Sakura knew what a fracture or dislocation felt like, and was confident that she did not have one.

Whatever Ino gave her must have knocked her out, because the next time Sakura woke up, she was in the hospital. Naruto was sitting in the chair next to her, one fist holding his head up from where he sat, still in his ruffled police uniform. His hair was even more disheveled than usual, and Sakura knew he'd been running his hands through it.

Now that she was paying attention, Sakura's hands ached. Looking down, she saw long scratch marks, bandages covering some of the worst ones, and ragged nails and bruises. Her bones felt fragile, and she remembered how it had felt to strangle a man underneath her; it hadn't been an easy task, but she had been high off of adrenaline and scared out of her mind.

She closed her eyes for a moment. She knew she was drugged right now - it was the only reason she felt as well as she did. Maybe they had given her a sedative to keep her relaxed - she couldn't remember.

Sakura looked at Naruto, still sleeping, and decided she might as well get this out of the way. She called out to him, softly at first, her voice much more ragged and dry than she'd first expected, and then louder.

Surprisingly, he woke up almost instantly, and then was by her side even quicker, almost knocking down the chair in the process and nearly falling on top of her in his haste. Sakura just blinked at him as he stuttered incoherently at her.

She licked her chapped lips. "W-Where's Sasuke?"

Naruto blinked at her for a moment and then groped his packets for his phone, feeling everywhere around his body for the magical pocket that would have his cellphone. Eventually he found it and began dialing the teme's number, who seemed to pick up instantly.

Nearly one minute later, Sasuke was at the door to her hospital room, breathing heavily, a cup of coffee in his hand and dark circles under his eyes. Like Naruto, he was still in his police uniform and his usual perfectly styled-now navy blue-hair was flat and oily looking. Sakura blinked stupidly, feeling her jaw drop just the slightest bit. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen him look so disheveled and . . . and just so tired.

Sakura swallowed thickly. "Hi," she said, because Sasuke was still standing in the doorway with that stupid Styrofoam cup of coffee and not blinking at her.

She watched as his throat bobbed as he swallowed, and Sakura thought his throat might just be as dry as hers. "Hi," he said back, and Sakura flinched when his voice cracked.

She locked eyes on his cup of coffee, still steaming. A trickle of black liquid was running down one side from where Sasuke had spilled it. It touched his finger and Sakura thought that it must burn, but he didn't pay it any notice. Sakura looked back down at her hands on the white sheets, covered in bandages. She spoke without looking up.

"So Kushina and Minato want us to come over to visit more often, you know," she said, scratching at her skin through the bandages. Her hands shook, and it was difficult to move. She swallowed again. "We should have dinner together soon, I think, lest Kushina flood our apartment next so we all have to move in with her and Minato-"

"Sakura," Naruto interrupted, making her look up. "Tell us what happened. Please." And, God, it was his voice cracking on the Please that did her in.

So she told them.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

8851 Words