Chapter 15

Sasuke visibly stiffened at Tsunade's words; he turned his head away from them again, facing the window that he could not see. Sakura frowned uncertainly; bringing a finger to her lip she bit it nervously. Sasuke would most likely reject the prospect of her overseeing his rehabilitation.

"I refuse," Sasuke muttered, and Tsunade frowned at his words.

"Sakura is the one most capable for the job; aside from myself, there is no one better than her," she spoke severely, "You have already chosen the third option, and I will hold you to it. Sakura is to help you recover, whether you like it or not."

At that moment, Sakura was thankful for her sensei's stubborn will. She knew that if she had told Sasuke herself, she would have been unable to cope with his refusal. Taking a deep breath, Sakura stepped forward, her fist clenched in determination.

"Sasuke, I will not accept your refusal," she said fiercely, "I have been assigned to this task and I will stay with it. You are my patient, and as of right now, I am responsible for you."

Another long pause blanketed the room, lasting longer than any of the others had—if Sasuke had not known of her presence before then, he did not show it. He was thinking it over, Sakura knew, but no matter what he felt about the situation, she refused to give up. She would see him through this.

"Even after so much time has passed," Sasuke said finally, "you're just as annoying, Sakura."

Her fist slackened a little, and her body relaxed, Tsunade looked over at her to see how she would react to her response, but she merely closed her eyes and smiled to herself—she knew that it was his way of saying yes.

"If I have to, I will remind you of how annoying I actually am," she retorted haughtily, but a playful grin was on her lips.

It was because Sasuke's face was turned away from them that they did not see the change in his facial expression—they did not see the corner of his mouth curl slightly upwards into a small, amused smile.

When Sakura and Tsunade returned to the office on the fifth floor, Shizune had dutifully fulfilled the Hokage's request. All the papers that she had been working on were cleared and a stack of about five medical textbooks was sitting on the coffee table. Shizune was sitting patiently on a couch, holding Ton Ton in her lap; she looked up at the both of them when they entered.

"How did it go?" she asked, standing up abruptly, causing Ton Ton to tumble to the ground with some indignant squeals, but Shizune didn't notice.

"It went better than I expected to—though his response isn't exactly what I was expecting," Tsunade replied, bending down and patting an irritated Ton Ton who had run up to her, "I'm also surprised that he was so willing to consent."

"I assure you, Tsunade-sama," Sakura emphasized once again, "his words were that of agreement."

Tsunade straightened up again and looked at Sakura doubtfully, "Well, it wouldn't be how I would have said it."

Sakura shrugged lightly, a cheerful grin on her face, "That's the way Sasuke is."

"Well, alright," Tsunade responded, still sounding dubious.

"As for willing cooperation…I told him that his punishment for betraying the village was death," Sakura stated quietly, "He has a certain goal he wants to achieve, and I know that he will refuse to die before he meets that goal. I thought telling him that death was his punishment was the best way to convince him to accept the deal."

"Hm, well I did tell you to manipulate him in any way to get him to reveal information," Tsunade mused at Sakura's explanation, "It's a good story, and we'll keep that up. His punishment for betraying Konoha is 'death'. It should work as a good story for a while at least. –Anyways, thank you, Shizune, for bringing the textbooks here. Sakura, you recall our studies on the properties of the human eye?"

Sakura nodded, "We didn't spend that much time on it though, I can't remember much."

"Right now I'm having Sasuke cleaned up, which might take a while, all things considered," Tsunade told her pupil, heading over the coffee table and picking up the textbook on the top of the stack, "While you wait, I want you to review the human eye and try to regain your understanding of it. Sasuke's treatment is basic healing, but it works better if you know where to focus the chakra."

Sakura wandered over to the stack of books and picked up the second one on the stack, which was titled The Basic Principles and Anatomy of the Human Eye.

"You had better get started," Tsunade responded, putting back the textbook she had, "I have other matters to attend to—I'll be in my office if you need me. I've made arrangements for you to be notified when Sasuke is ready to begin treatment."

"Alright," she replied, sitting down on the couch across from Shizune, "Thank you for letting me do this, Tsunade-sama."

"Don't thank me," was her reply, "Could I have convinced you otherwise?"

Sakura smiled, "No."

"I thought not," Tsunade grinned, "Come Shizune, let's see how many hours of paperwork you have found for me to work on."

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