Chapter 2
Troubled Reunion
"No chakra?" Naruto asked obviously confused.
"But that's not possible!" Kakashi said, his eyes betraying his normally cool exterior. "All living things possess chakra, even if they aren't capable of using it the way shinobi can. Life itself isn't possible without it! Are you absolutely sure Sakura?"
Sakura looked at him with daggers for questioning her but she responded calmly. "Yes I'm absolutely sure Kakashi-sensei. You can check her out with your Sharingan if you want. You should be able to see it...or rather, not see it. I don't know how to explain it but she's lying there, breathing and alive, but with no chakra at all. That's why it took so much out of me to heal her."
"Yeah I guess so." Sasuke spoke up but in truth, he wasn't paying all that much attention. All he could think about was how Gaara kept calling Itachi 'The Uchiha'. Like it was the name of some unspeakable bug. And while that shouldn't have bothered Sasuke seeing as he saw his brother in pretty much the same way, the tone with which Gaara said it was obviously intended to lump Sasuke under that same opinion. And he didn't appreciate that one bit.
"Not to mention that she shouldn't have been in a genjutsu at all without chakra." Kakashi said thoughtfully. Everyone looked at him surprised as they digested his words.
"You're right Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said sitting up straight. "Genjutsu is something that works on the opponents five senses by controlling the chakra flowing through and linking their cranial nerves. So how did he do it then? And so severely?"
"I don't know." Sasuke answered being brought out of his thoughts by Kakashi's revelation. "It could be because it was the Mangekyou Sharingan but I've never met anyone without chakra (cuz they shouldn't exist) much less tried to put them in a genjutsu so I have no clue how or why it would work."
"Wait." Naruto interrupted. "What does the girl not having chakra have to do with you being so out of it from healing her?"
"Naruto, you really are clueless aren't you?" Sakura sighed in exasperation. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke could swear he saw Gaara hiding a small grin. "You know I use my chakra to heal people but that's only half of it. I actually use my chakra to manipulate the patient's chakra to cause the individual cells to repair and heal themselves. Seeing as this girl has no chakra that I can see, all of the effort was on mine and the other nin's parts. And seeing how badly she was injured..." Sakura looked away suddenly as though the mere thought disturbed her to her core.
"How badly was she injured Sakura-san?" Gaara finally spoke up.
"The bleeding has been stopped and most of the external damage has been dealt with but...that other part..." She looked at Gaara seriously. Naruto was surprised when Gaara suddenly hit the table with his fist.
"What other part Sakura?" Kakashi asked cautiously.
"I don't know what he made her see but while she was under this genjutsu, she was being beaten and raped. Violently and repeatedly. The injuries to her internal organs are extensive. Her lungs were almost crushed and..." She paused and whitened visibly. "She'll likely have a hard time breathing properly for a while. I did the best I could but in truth, Tsunade-sama's probably the only one who could heal her completely." Sakura's eyes looked positively haunted by what she had seen.
Sasuke's attention was fully on Sakura now. "Itachi made her believe she was being raped? Repeatedly?" Sasuke felt sick and his sense of foreboding was tightening itself around his throat, making it hard to breath. What had his brother done? And for God's sake, why? He looked up when he felt Gaara's eyes on him. The malevolence in them was unmistakable. And he suddenly understood. Gaara was blaming him for what happened. He hadn't been able to kill Itachi who now was unleashing untold horrors on an innocent girl. Sasuke was angry but almost more than that, he was surprised that Gaara should care so much about some stranger. "Naruto was right." He thought. "Gaara has changed."
