Chapter 19

Concernedly she approached him, but he waved her off as she tried to ask him about his head, which he was hanging onto. She crossed her arms stubbornly as he made it past the doorway and into the hall. This time he was a bit smarter, and put his hand against the wall for support. His balance improved instantly and he strode down the hall holding his head up in a dignified matter. Sakura followed after him.

"You're doing better than I thought," she remarked in a tone that clearly said that she was mocking him.

He snorted at her remark and increased his pace, trying to prove to her that he could manage. It was then that his hand ran out of wall as the hall divided up into an intersection. The sudden lack of wall caused him to tumble over sideways around the corner.

"Watch out for the corner, Saskue," Sakura remarked, shaking her head at his behavior, feeling bad for him, but knowing that she shouldn't let it show.

Pulling himself up off the ground he dusted himself off.

"I was hoping to go out to the gardens; some fresh air will do you good," she told him, trying to approach him again but he flinched away. She shrugged helplessly, "We'll just follow the hall you just discovered and take the elevator."

Sasuke braced his hand on the wall again and followed her instructions. Sakura shook her head slowly behind his back, keeping one step behind him; Tsunade would probably be unhappy with how she was treating her patient, but she knew it was good for Sasuke's hard head.

He reached the elevator without incident and pushed the down button to emphasize his accomplishment; he turned and gave Sakura a triumphant smirk.

"I'm over here," she said from his other side, as the elevator door opened. A smirk of her own decorated her lips as a low growl was emitted from Sasuke. Following her into the elevator he leaned up against the wall, his arms crossed. He said nothing to her when door opened again and he walked out—promptly running into a nurse who was waiting for the elevator on the main floor.

"Watch out for the nurse who's waiting for the elevator," Sakura informed her patient as Sasuke mumbled an apology to the poor woman and stood up again.

"Which way is the garden?" he snapped at her after she was done helping the nurse to her feet.

"Over in that direction," she said pointing off to her left.

Since she was standing on Sasuke's left, her head was turned towards him—to the right—and he mistook the direction of her voice as the direction of the garden, which is what Sakura had intended. She let him take a few steps towards the reception desk before she called out to him.

"It's the other way."

Sakura rolled her eyes as he turned abruptly about and stormed past her, muttering a long string of colourful words as he went. Amused, Sakura watched as Sasuke walked dizzily across the foyer, not having any walls nearby in which he could reference his direction. She walked after him, staying a step behind just to make sure he didn't gravely injure himself.

It was only as he took the first step outwards over the small set of stairs that Sakura spoke out, "There's a slight dip, three stairs deep."

As predicted, Sasuke was again picking himself off the ground and dusting himself off.

"Just a bit farther," she said brightly as she walked past and through the automatic doors.

Sasuke came up behind her, still seeming rather dizzy. She sighed inwardly, he sure was stubborn—she was hoping he would admit defeat by now. Oh well, obvious he hadn't been humiliated enough in order to ask for her assistance.

"We'll just walk along the path for a short while, okay?" she told him, and then added with deliberate emphasis, "You seem to be having difficulty, and I don't want you to strain yourself."

His facial expression was livid, but Sakura shook her head, smiling slightly. Taking great strides forward, Sasuke trudged onwards, not paying any heed to Sakura. Knowing that he would not get that far, she just simply watched him from behind.

What made the gardens of the hospital so unique was not the types of plants they had there, but more the wonderful exterior decorating that had been implemented. The garden was built on a slope, because the hospital was backing onto a hill, and the path did not continue straight, but divided into two, splitting directly left and right. The paths then wound down and through the gardens, where the patients who were recovering could enjoy the stepped flowerbeds.

Having noted that, Sakura watched as Sasuke stumbled onto the fork in the road, lose his balance because of the loss in his sense of direction, and tumble neatly over the edge into the first flowerbed.

"Watch out, Sasuke," Sakura informed him, just after he lost his balance, walking up to the ledge, "the path splits in two."

She watched him tumble through the air—the fall wasn't that high, only a meter—and when Sasuke's hands touched the earth, he turned his fall into a roll in order to protect himself. What he had not taken into account was the fact that there was another flowerbed a meter below him—he quickly realized the fact as he rolled over the edge and landed on a rosebay bush below.

Sakura who had had her arms crossed stubbornly, uncrossed them and leapt nimbly down to his side; this was getting to be too much—and apparently Sasuke thought so as well.

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