Chapter 31

"Well, I went up to the hospital today to go and…er…give a talking to someone who really deserved it, but Sakura wouldn't let me," Naruto sulked, swinging his legs back and forth in a bored manner, "Said that he was her patient and I couldn't bother him. This guy has never let any injury hold him down before, so why on earth couldn't I see him? I probably should have snuck in."

"Who were you trying to see?" Chouji asked, while Shikamaru put his chin in his palm.

"Can't tell you!" Naruto exclaimed proudly, "Tsunade-obaachan made me promise that I wouldn't tell anyone that Sasuke's back."

There was a stunned silence as everyone was trying to work out if Naruto had just given away the big secret or if he was making it up. The way he had revealed the information was so clichéd, that it seemed unlikely that anyone would ever make a mistake in exposing knowledge in that fashion. But taking into consideration that it was Naruto after all…the three of them quickly concluded that he was telling the truth—inadvertently.

"WHAT?!" Ino screeched so loudly that Naruto covered his ears. She looked like a blue-eyed demoness who had just crawled up from the depths of hell, Shikamaru observed, sweat-dropping, "Sasuke is back in Konoha and he's SAKURA'S PATIENT?!"

"Eh?" Naruto looked up at her and blinked a couple times in confusion, "If you knew already, then you just should have said so."

A tumbleweed blew by outside the shop with a dusty gust of wind, and there was an awkwardly dead silence—save for Ino's snarling.

"Why that little—" Ino promptly turned about and stormed out in the direction of the hospital, a diabolical aura pulsing around her, "Yeah right! Like I'm going to let Sasuke be her patient!"

"Aren't you going to stop her?" Chouji asked, turning towards Shikamaru questioningly as Ino griped to herself as she left, her fists clenching and unclenching. Shikamaru could have sworn her nails were now long and pointed.

"Ino's on a warpath," he shrugged, "To try and stop her now would be far too troublesome."

"Not to mention dangerous," Chouji grinned before ordering another ramen.

Shikamaru stared out after Ino for a second longer—he didn't know what it was, but despite her being absolutely unbearable, there was something about her that made him able to tolerate her. It was the strangest feeling… A cloud suddenly drifted across the sky and any thoughts that Shikamaru had were soon lost to distraction.

"Now, if you want to know who else is troublesome," Naruto was rambling on the other side of Chouji, "don't get me started on Kakashi-sensei."

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed quietly as the door to his room finally opened, his interrogator finally arriving.

The person who had just entered his room was late—extremely late, his internal clock told him; and Sasuke was not in the best of moods. Because of his interrogator's belatedness, he had grown extremely hungry, and was becoming more irritated by the minute.

"Kakashi," he said smoothly, his hands resting behind his head, not bothering to mask his displeasure at being kept waiting.

"My word," came the familiar laid-back and cheerful voice, "Sakura is doing a wonderful job in the rehabilitation if you can recognize people before they can even say a word!"

Sasuke found himself smirking, despite himself, "No…only you would be half an hour late for something like this."

"Only half an hour?" Kakashi sounded surprised, and Sasuke could picture his old sensei raising his eyebrows, "I thought it was more like an hour late. Hmmm. Tsunade-sama must have told me the wrong time again. Honestly, she should learn to keep better track of her time."

Underneath his bandages, Sasuke rolled his eyes at Kakashi's statement. He blinked a couple times to ease the tiny sting that came to them as a result. He was starting to keep his eyes open when he was awake; it felt more natural—even though he couldn't see a thing.

"It seems that you've recovered quite a bit since I saw you last," Kakashi continued cheerily, brushing the matter of Tsunade's time keeping aside, "I don't know if anyone told you, but I was on the team that found you in the woods. You were extremely lucky, we almost thought that you were dead. We were quite worried for you."

Sasuke couldn't recall anything of the sort, having the scent of the cherry tree as his last clear memory, so he merely responded: "I'm sure."

"Sakura worked very hard on keeping you alive when you were brought in. The irony of it all is that she didn't even realize that it was you!" Kakashi's cheerful tone carrying on, "I heard she was quite shocked when she found out—"

"People have not yet been permitted to simply drop by to visit me," Sasuke interrupted, wanting to get the interrogation over with, "I assume then that there is a reason for you being here?"

"Ah yes," Kakashi said thoughtfully, "I almost forgot."

There was a bit off rustling, followed by the sound of a scroll unfurling. Kakashi cleared his throat, sounding like he was about to read a long segment from a reading.

"You, Uchiha Sasuke, are being held under crimes that you have committed against the village of Konoha—" Kakashi abruptly stopped and after a pause, "Let's just skip the pleasantries. Okay, first question: Where is Orochimaru's hideout located?"

The first question was the first that he could not answer. Sasuke sighed—it felt like it was going to be a long morning.

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