Stumble [Rewrite]

Worry

That's it. You've officially lost it. Next chance I get, I'm going to Konoha and personally checking you for any abnormal brain activity or some mental illness your shrink hasn't found out about yet.

Expect me within the week, crazy.

~Marionette

What a hypocrite he was, calling her crazy when all his marbles weren't exactly in the jar themselves. She sighed a bit at the mention of her shrink, as she was about to walk into her appointment when she got the message. She didn't know why Ibiki kept insisting on her meeting with Inoichi every week. over a year of sessions had given her not even the slightest help with her problem.

They believed her story about the man in the civilian village and did their own investigating some time ago. Sasori had done a quick job of finding her "predator" and implementing fake memories in the small, unsuspecting population that lived there.

The investigators found no reason to believe anything other than her story, so her account went by without another question. Since then, she'd been treated for PTSD due to that incident and the death of her parents. Ibiki forbid her from receiving any medical prescriptions, understandably, which left her with four other options they tried: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Therapy, Group Therapy, and brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy.

"Good afternoon, Sakura," Inoichi greeted. "Go on and have a seat, then we'll get started." He pulled out his clipboard and her file, flipping to the back towards her session notes. "I heard you passed your genin test a couple of days ago. Good job. Why don't you tell me about it?"

EMDR had Sakura focus on other stimuli as Inoichi got her to talk about the bare minimum of her trauma, but it only led to her reliving some of the memories by having the stimuli somehow connect to what she was trying to forget. It was still a process in the works, so it was no surprise that it didn't work.

"There's not much to say. Naruto and Sasuke are my teammates like I thought and they were really excited when we met our sensei for the first time. He's Hatake Kakashi and Anko-san keeps telling me that he needs friends. And frankly, I agree."

Inoichi's lips quirked up.

"I asked about him. Rumors say he was taken out of ANBU just to teach us," she continued. "Apparently, the reasons aren't clear why, but I have my own assumptions. He trains as hard as I expected and Sasuke and Naruto are having a hard time keeping up. I mean, it's only our second day training so I'll wait a little longer before making suggestions."

Next they tried Cognitive Therapy. He tried to get the girl to open up and talk about how she felt about the trauma and its aftermath, but her vague descriptions and unwillingness to delve into detail hardly left him much to work with. He wanted to help her cope with her anger, fear, and guilt, but anytime he mentioned them, it only seemed to take root even deeper.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I doubt he'd take counsel from his student."

She huffed. "Kakashi will take it if he knows what's good for him."

"Kakashi? He lets you call him that?" he chuckled. "I met him a few times myself, and I don't think he appreciates that."

Following that attempt, they leapt into Group Therapy. She was the youngest in those meetings with five other PTSD sufferers and kept a tight lip whenever she was asked to speak up. She told him once that she wasn't grateful for the pitying glances the other attendees sent her. Just because she was young didn't mean she needed them to feel sorry for her. After two sessions, Inoichi pulled her out of the group and tried something else.