Chương 11: Chapter 11

Sakura and Shizune flung open the doors to the small room where Tsunade was awaiting them patiently. The room in question was a small lounge, which the medical staff hung around during their breaks—Sakura had only been there a couple times, because normally she was too busy to take it easy. When they entered Tsunade could be seen sitting on a couch and bent over some paperwork that she had spread out on a coffee table.

"Ah, Sakura," Tsunade looked up from the form she was filling out in front of her, taking a sip of sake as she did so.

The Hokage indicated that Sakura should take a seat, while Shizune stood attentively next to the doorway. Trying not to yawn, Sakura went and sat down comfortably on the couch across from Tsunade, uttering a quick "good morning".

"You must have been exhausted," Tsunade remarked, looking at Sakura's disheveled appearance. Her black clothes may have made her appear slightly more poised, but it also accented Sakura's fatigue, "I had expected that you would have refused to leave last night, or at least shown up at the crack of dawn this morning."

Sakura raised a tired eyebrow and inquired, "Tsunade-sama, why on earth would I want to stay here the entire night?"

Tsunade looked over at Sakura with an astonished look on her face, "I thought you would have been worried about him."

"About the patient last night?" Sakura asked quizzically, peering at her mentor, "Is there any particular reason why I would be worried about him?"

Tsunade and Shizune looked at each other, before looking back to Sakura. "Didn't you recognize who we were treating last night?" Tsunade sounded surprised.

A little seed of worry sprouted somewhere in her dim and tired mind, where Inner Sakura was half-asleep. Had it been someone she knew? What if it had been her father? Or her older brother, and she hadn't realized? Attentiveness began to return as she spoke her response.

"No…the sleeves of your jacket blocked my view of his face," she said, a frown creasing her weary brow.

Tsunade put down her pen and brushed her bangs out of her eyes, then proceeded to put her fingertips together in a thoughtful manner. "So all this time you didn't know who—? No wonder you left and slept in! Oh well, it probably was for the better that you didn't know…you probably would have been unable to rest otherwise."

Sakura bit her lip nervously, her drowsiness quickly fading, "Are you going to tell me who was unconscious and dying last night?"

A deep sigh. "Perhaps you had better sit down—" Tsunade started to say.

"I'm already sitting down," Sakura interrupted.

"Oh, right…well…" the Hokage took a sip from her sake, "This may come as a shock to you, Sakura, but the young man we were working so hard to keep alive last night…was Sasuke."

Sakura suddenly leapt to her feet, her eyes wide and her throat going dry. Any grogginess still left was instantly evaporated, "Was?"

"Is!" Tsunade corrected hurried as she saw the look of horror on Sakura's face, "Heavens, Sakura, we didn't work so hard only to let him d—Shizune!"

Sakura had made a dash for the door, but as the Fifth Hokage called out to her assistant, Shizune stepped in front of her and blocked her path. Sakura skidded to a halt and glared at Shizune, then turned her head and glared at Tsunade.

"Let me pass," she growled through clenched teeth, her voice fierce and her fists balled, "Let me go see Sasuke-kun!"

"Sit down, Sakura," Tsunade ordered sharply.

"No."

"Sakura!" Tsunade's voice was strict now, a warning tone concealed in the edge of her intonation.

Reluctantly, and completely against her will, Sakura trudged back to the couch and plopped herself onto it, glowering at her teacher. "Why can't I see him?" she demanded impatiently.

"Oh, you can," Tsunade replied patiently, lacing her fingers together and resting them lazily behind her head, "It's just that there are a couple of important things I need to discuss with you first."

"Like what?" Sakura demanded. She knew that she should be showing more respect for the sannin, but Inner Sakura had gotten the better of her and was now going on a tirade, shoving her Outer Sakura aside.

"Sakura, you firstly have to realize that the Sasuke lying in that bed on the second floor may not be the Sasuke that you knew as a genin," Tsunade replied with admirable patience, "It may very well be Orochimaru down there, though the preliminary tests that we ran when he was unconscious seem to suggest otherwise. Additionally, Orochimaru would have most likely made an attempt to escape by now. But you still must be wary.

"The second thing you must be aware of is that Sasuke has to be interrogated before we can even begin to treat him like he is a regular patient in this hospital who is permitted guests, flowers, and the like.

"The third thing is that Sasuke suffered a major injury to his face, which I expect you could not see from your angle."

Sakura was suddenly anxious, "Facial injuries?"

"I managed to clean up the most of it, and there should be no scars left over from the incident, however…" Tsunade unlaced her fingers from behind her head, and rested them on her knees, bending over and looking Sakura straight in the eye, "Sakura…Sasuke is blind."