Chapter 28

"Alright then," she spoke happily, laying the bandage beside her, "Let's begin."

"…Wait."

Sakura paused, lowering her hands again for the second time; a vaguely worried expression came across her face, "What is it?"

For a moment Sasuke said nothing, but merely turned his head so that he was facing the floor. He licked his lips, and then inhaled a little, then let it out again. There was another short silence before he could say what he wanted to.

"I'm sorry," he muttered faintly.

Sakura blinked, so surprised that even Inner Sakura stopped to stare. Had she just heard correctly? Had Uchiha Sasuke just apologized? Her brows knitted together in worry; the Sasuke she had known had rarely apologized for anything, even if he knew he was wrong.

"Whatever for?" she asked quietly, knowing that she probably sounded confused.

"For what happened yesterday…with the curse mark… it shouldn't have happened," he replied, still not turning towards her.

This was a huge step for the prideful Uchiha, and Sakura could tell that he was having a hard time saying this to her. She felt compassion flood her when she looked at him, his head tilted away in a humble manner, his mouth set in a firm line.

"I couldn't control it," he stated gruffly, and after a moment's pause, "I'm sorry."

Sakura thought a moment about reaching out and grabbing his hand, but decided against it, knowing that that was probably going to far at this point. He still didn't entirely trust her, and she didn't want to destroy the fragile relationship they already had. She smiled sadly instead, and kept her hands in her lap.

"It's not your fault," she replied, shaking her head slightly from side to side, "It was partially my doing. I kinda provoked it into happening."

Sasuke continued to face the floor, and after another long silence he spoke again.

"I was never going to use it again," he told her, his voice quiet, yet firm and hesitant at the same time, "except once. I thought that I could use it to get around my blindness, and kill Itachi using it."

The expression on his face told her that he didn't want to talk much about it, but he was telling her anyways, despite not wanting to. Whether it was a return of the trust that she had shown him, or if he just felt the need to talk to somebody about the matter, Sakura didn't know. She glanced over to her left and noted that a bar on the bed frame had been conformed to the shape of, and crushed by, somebody's fist—Sakura knew very well whose fist it was.

"Sasuke, just because you're blind doesn't mean that you have to give up the life of a shinobi," she told him tenderly, "I may have been assigned to simply get you back on your feet so that you can live on your own, but ultimately it's you who decides when you want me to leave. If you want me to help you to rebuild your skills so that you can stay a shinobi, you just have to ask. And I know that there are others who would be willing to help you learn skills that I can't teach you. Nobody resents you for leaving Konoha, Sasuke—you were greatly missed. And as far as Naruto and I are concerned, you are still a citizen of this village, and always will be."

She let the silence drag out for a little while so that he could chew on her words, letting him think it over a bit.

"I would like to start the therapeutic process—if that's alright with you," she said tentatively, "I've recovered quite a bit of chakra since yesterday, and I can go for longer if you wish."

"Hn," he responded, turning his head towards her, opening his eyes. She knew he was still thinking about what she had said, and she gently laid her fingers on the chakra points, not wanting to disrupt his thoughts.

"Just relax," she told him, as she began to collect her chakra, "You don't want a sore back again."

Closing her own eyes, she focused the chakra and sent it out through her fingers, picking up where she had left off the previous day, healing the damage slowly and with care.

Sakura's words had touched something within him, making him feel undeserving of her devotion and determination to help him. The reaction he had to losing the curse mark made him feel selfish and ungrateful as he reflected on it—though he knew that he would sooner die than ever admit it.

He set his jaw as he recalled something Kakashi had once said to him—that if he relied on the cure mark, it would prevent him from ever growing stronger; and he wondered to himself if it was already too late for him. He should have never allowed the curse mark to be awakened, he could have killed Sakura, and then who knew what would have happened after that. He should have on no account gotten angry with her…he was the one who had acted out of line. The loss of the curse mark was entirely his fault, and he didn't blame Sakura at all for what happened—that was why he had asked her to leave the room for a while, he didn't want to take his anger out at her.

He thought of the deformed frame of the bed—that was what he had taken his anger out on. It was his own incompetence that had cost him the power he had been saving, and now it was gone. If he hadn't been so naïve about Orochimaru giving him power, or so childish in not acknowledging Naruto's improvements by striving to continue to believe he was better, he might have never ended up in the situation where he had to take his vision. He could have improved without Orochimaru—all he needed to do was ask for help.

He shouldn't have refused her help.

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