4Visiting hours for Kure-Ji-Taku were between 12:15 and 2:00, and if you had no visitors, you stayed in your cell or had your caretaker bring you outside. Those hours were the worst for Sasuke, as he was often stuck in his cell with his inmates and their caretakers. This had happened almost every day for the past two weeks, except when he convinced Chinseizai, his own caretaker, to take him into the garden. But today was different, as all three of them were headed towards the visiting room. Sasuke hadn't had a visitor even in his psycho ward days, so this visit was a complete surprise for him. The door for inmates was almost right across the hall from their cell, and the kunoichi rushed to the seats on the other end of the room with an excited shriek. Sasuke had never been here and took a long look around. There were five seats in separate booths with plated glass between the inmate and visitor side. Pretty simple all in all and Sasuke took the first seat he saw, the farthest one from the girls. A doctor was standing near the door, where he was arguing with a purple haired woman, whose conversation carried over the glass.
"What do you mean I can't visit my students?!"
"I'm sorry Anko, but seeing you would cause a relapse of their violent behavior. It destroys their reality because you don't fit in." Anko sighed.
"Alright Julia, give them my regards." A girl with large brown ponytails walked through the door, but it wasn't her who caught Sasuke's attention. Sakura walked in the room after her and headed towards the seat across from him, giving him a smile as she went. Despite having been a total smothering fan girl when she was younger, she grew up quickly when Sasuke finally dropped his genjutsu. She was the first to accept his appearance, as unlikely as it seems. When Sasuke nearly broke down or was close to killing someone because of what they called him, she was the first to grab a hold of his neck and pull him backwards out of trouble.
"Hey Sasuke, how's my little basket case?" She joked, taking her seat across the glass from him.
"Hey, don't make fun of the mentally ill!" He gave the glass a light punch with his blue fist. The two of them had gotten very close, even with his almost complete switch of loyalty and abandonment of her. Separation does strange things to people, even if its short.
"Sorry I couldn't come visit you earlier. Tsunade has me on a tight leash, complete with choke collar. But she's a damn good teacher and I'm getting stronger. I smashed a bolder yesterday." She held up her fist and gave the glass a hard tap. With a slight splinter, a small spider web spread over the partition.
"So what's it like in an asylum?" Sakura asked, resting her chin on that very dangerous fist.
"Arrgh! It's horrible! I'm living in a cell with the two crazy women who turned me into a fish in the first place!" Sasuke ranted and Sakura's eyes widened.
"Really? The same girls?"
"Yes! It's a living hell in here with them!" There was a slight cackle from the other side of the room, but conversation went on as usual.
"Have the doctors decided how long you need to stay here?" She asked with a tone of sympathy, putting her hand against the glass. The fish boy reciprocated by placing his own scaled palm to match hers.
"I don't know; they haven't decided. But the two week waiting period is almost over. They typically decide by then." Sakura stared at him sadly before standing up from her chair and pulling her hand from the glass.
"Alright, I've got to get back to work. Tell me how it turns out." She blew him a long kiss and reluctantly left the visiting room. All he heard now was the giggle and talk of the kunoichi to their visitor. Once again seized by curiosity about his captors, Sasuke moved a seat closer and motioned to his caretaker to leave him be.
"But anyway Julia, we've got new plans to move our base from the warehouse to the forbidden area. Much better access." That was Sabaku no Anna, judging from the fanatical map references.
"How's it going though?"
"Not well." Katie's voice.
"The guards are very vigilant and have so far thwarted our every attempt to investigate and claim the area." There was almost
a tone of childish resentment there.
"Oh, oh, but guess who were found here?" Anna's voice was bouncy with excitement.
"Who?"
"Sasuke. Remember him from when we turned him into a fish?"
"I remember you talking about him. Is he living in the….uh, warehouse with you?" Julia chose her words carefully so as not to fracture their reality.
"Yup! Don't know why he's here, but he's living with us in the warehouse. He's fun to bother." Katie yipped. Fun to bother? Sasuke thought menacingly, but the conversation kept going and his curiosity swept his thoughts away.
"But how's Shino?""Oh yes, how's Neji?" The blond pleaded, her inmate's voice joining to create a squealing chorus.
"Ah god, be quiet! Man you two are loud."
"You're right; we can't let the animals find us." Rolling her eyes, Julia ignored this comment and continued.
"Shino's fine. He sends his regards." Katie mewed in happiness.
"And Neji's still training hard. He say's he'll visit soon." Sabaku no Anna squeaked and clapped her hands together.
"And have you heard anything from Anko-sensei about when she'll let us out?" The two insane kunoichi eagerly asked their teammate. But that seemed to be a forbidden subject as there was no further noise from the visitor for a few seconds.
"Uh, I don't know…. I haven't heard from her in a few weeks, but I've got to be going, another area to scout out another meal to find you know what I'm talking about so bye!" The suddenly nervous kunoichi got quickly up from her seat and bolted towards the door, bumping into the guard as she went. But her teammates didn't seem at all perturbed; it fact, they seemed to expect it.
"Ah well. Guess we're stuck here a little longer." Anna sighed in a contemplative way.
"Yes. But guess who's with us?" Asked Katie, and the two of them slowly leaned over to stare at Sasuke with evil smiles on their faces. The fish boy froze and just before all chaos broke loose, their caretakers entered the room with the usual tranquilizer and straight jackets.
Dinner routine had been boiled down to a science by Sasuke. You walk in the door, surreptitiously take food from the trays provided, and very sneakily walk over to your table without your inmates seeing you. Always use a different table, never be predictable. Unfortunately for Sasuke, science was never his best subject.
"Why hello there, Sasuke." His inmates chimed in, each grabbing one of his shoulders. As usual, they were grinning in that manic way of theirs, each holding their food tray to the side. Sasuke's had the usual jar of fish food, as well as a new treat of his, a rock. He had recently developed a taste for them, especially granite, although he did not know why.
"Hello…" Sasuke answered dismally, slunking into his seat. Still grinning crazily, they took the seats across from him and began their regular routine of eating and glancing around in a paranoid manner. The fish boy shook his pink topped head, focusing all his attention on his food.
"No wonder Anko left you two here. You're unmanageable." That caught their attention and both of their heads shot up.
"Anko-sensei left us here as practice!" Anna said, taken aback.
"That wasn't nice Sasuke!" Katie yelled, getting up and slapping Sasuke across the face. This wasn't the first time they had hit him, but it was mostly over the head, never across the face. He must have really insulted him. But his usual asylum defenses took over first and he slapped Katie right back. Her head snapped to the side for a moment, a slight look of surprise on her face, but then slowly turned back around with a crazy grin. Why, Sasuke bemoaned in his head, why did he always to the stupid thing? But the insane side of his brain wasn't listening and was in fact enjoying the slap fight, as was evident by the smile on his face. They playfully slapped each other a bit longer, then Katie turned and slapped Anna across the face. The blond looked at her strangely for a few seconds, then slapped her right back! With a short bout of evil laughter, the sand kunoichi turned and slapped Sasuke. The slap fight continued, none of the noticing the doctors whispering to each other,"Someone tell the director that Sabaku no Anna, Katie Hyuuga and Sasuke Uchiha are misbehaving again." Their caretakers sighed, leaving their perimeter posts to attend to their charges.
"Calm down now."
"You still haven't eaten your dinner yet."
"Breathe in, breathe out." Their manic laughter subsided to suppressed giggling as they sat back in their chairs. Sasuke cautiously sank into his seat, keeping a wary eye on the now munching kunoichi. Ow, that hurt, he thought massaging his face. Those two could really pack a punch when they wanted. No wonder they were considered a danger to society. Looking back, the fish boy noticed that his tormenters had disappeared again. Oh well, he thought, at least he wasn't going to be the one dive-bombed this time.
Therapy had been going on continually since the time he arrived. His previous therapist had been replaced with an older man named Shidou by the third session; Sasuke was apparently too difficult a basket case for a beginner to try to unravel.
"So Sasuke, how was your day?" His therapist asked, preparing the day's notes.
"Yeah, good, fine." The Uchiha muttered, entranced by watching the fish swim back and forth in their tank.
'Any other violent outbursts recently?"
"Yeah, one during visiting hours, but I suppressed it." He responded, eyes following a fighting fish from side to side.
"Was it your inmates again?"
"Yes." The boy growled as his hands clenched over the glass.
"How are things going with them?"
"Well we had a slap fight at dinner today." The boy mentioned, as though this was an everyday occurrence. Shidou made a strange face and said "I see." writing this down in his notes.
"But they still torment me. I don't understand why!" The fish wailed, taking his eyes from the tank for just a second.
"Well maybe they-""Shush!" The boy hushed him suddenly, turning his ear to the fish tank and listening intently. The silence persisted for a while, then Sasuke cried,
"No he didn't!"
"What is it?" His therapist asked.
"The director hasn't fed his fish today!" Shidou fell over internally, but asked,
"How do you know that?"
"They told me!" The fish boy yelled, standing up and pointing to his evolutionary friends. His therapist sighed, counting down to the inevitable outbreak. 5, 4, 3, 2-
"FISH DESERVE EQUAL TREATMENT!" The Uchiha cried, prompting the boy's caretaker to enter the room. Chinseizai glanced at Shidou, his look asking what to do. The therapist nodded in despair and the doctor grabbed the boy gently but firmly by the arm, leading him away from the fish tank and muttering to Sasuke the way one would to calm a frightened animal. Again, Shidou grieved his job as the sounds of the enraged Uchiha echoed down the hall. He flipped through his notes one last time, deciding whether Sasuke would stay at Kure-Ji-Taku.
Mr. Uchiha arrived at Kure-Ji-Taku with an anger management/mania issues. He would attempt to kill anyone who mentioned his blue skin or transformation into a fish, or even anything about fish. Sadly, it is no longer the case. In Sasuke's two weeks here, he has changed dramatically and has in fact, gotten worse. Mr. Uchiha has been prone to random bouts of twitching as well as paranoia. He has taken to eating rocks, particularly granite, and believes he can talk to fish, although this has not been proven. He claims that his inmates are trying to kill him, and although they have pestered him numerous times, this fear is irrational.
There was one last line at the bottom of the page, where Shidou was supposed to put his suggestion on what to do with Sasuke. The man sighed, picked up his pencil and wrote
We suggest life commitment.