A/N: I like puzzles.
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Puzzles: Chapter 1
Corners
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Sakura sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor, staring intently at the colourful cardboard pieces lying in the puzzle box Tsunade had given her earlier, when she'd called her to her office. Sakura had understandably and confusedly asked what kind of assignment she was being given, question to which Tsunade had snorted and called two prison guards in.
"Our newly-retrieved deserter hasn't moved a muscle since we locked him up." Sakura's heart had skipped a beat. She knew she'd eventually have to deal with Sasuke. She however could hardly see why it meant being offered a puzzle. "He doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep and he doesn't speak," Tsunade continued, unfazed by Sakura's start. "He simply sits against the wall of his cell all day. His only vital sign is the cold he caught."
Sakura, while skimming through the little dented pieces, tried to imagine Sasuke, sitting alone in the dark, looking all gloomy and dangerous, before suddenly sniffling because of his runny nose. It made for a ridiculous mental image that she found extremely entertaining. She decided to use that image when she saw him next, just to give herself more courage.
She hadn't had the chance to see him conscious since an ANBU team, led by Kakashi, had brought him and Naruto back from wherever it was they'd fought. She and Sai were with Naruto when they met Sasuke near the Rain Country border, but the boys had sent her back to the village to send Kakashi as back up. He'd told her to stay behind and make sure the hospital was ready for any eventuality (be it one broken arm or a few mangled bodies), after which she'd just waited and waited until, one afternoon, an uproar from the streets brought her to the hospital roof, where she saw the shinobi filing in through the gates, Kakashi and Sai walking in the lead, transporting what she recognised were Naruto and Sasuke, completely knocked out.
Sasuke was the worst off, injury-wise, but it was only because the Kyuubi had already started healing most of Naruto's smaller wounds. The loudmouth woke up in a matter of hours and she was left tending to Sasuke, who conveniently woke up on her day off and was immediately sent to prison to wait for his trial, which had consisted of Naruto erupting into one of his heroic speeches about how Sasuke deserved a second chance and had ended up with Sasuke being sentenced to a year in jail and two years on supervised probation. Sakura had not attended the trial.
She'd been dreading the moment she'd have to face him ever since. But with a cold, maybe he'd be less intimidating.
"So... I have to bring him this puzzle?" She had asked, still confused.
Tsunade had let out a small chuckle.
"No. You'll be making this puzzle. With him."
"In... In prison?"
Sakura's hand froze over the pile of puzzle pieces as the thought of spending any amount of time in the village prison sent a shiver down her spine. It wasn't out of the ordinary for her to visit the place in order to heal prisoners, especially since the war, but the dark hallways, the damp floor and the cold, humid and musty air that smelled of decaying food and rat feces didn't make for a pleasant vacation spot, and the deeper into it she went, the more nauseous and uneasy she felt.
Which was why warm relief had washed over her when Tsunade had told her she wouldn't need to set foot in prison. Then, of course, the most natural question had followed.
"But, where...?"
The smile that had stretched on Tsunade's face held absolutely no sympathy or concern when she uttered her next words.
"He'll be staying at your place."
At that point, she'd wished Naruto was there to yell in disbelief like he usually did, just so she wouldn't have to do it.
She resumed her rummaging. Tsunade's idea, basically, was to experiment a new kind of criminal rehabilitation, for which Sasuke was the perfect subject, by forcing him to create – or, in this case, recreate – bonds over a trivial activity. She didn't have a name for it, so Sakura had decided to dub it "The Board Game Brainwash Technique", because honestly, only brainwash would ever change the mind of the stubborn mule she once had as a teammate, and there was strictly no way a puzzle was going to help.
She had argued, begged and even cried to convince her master to give the mission to someone else, because she really didn't want Sasuke anywhere near her personal space, but Tsunade had insisted vehemently and had offered Sakura an astronomical amount of money as compensation for the trouble they both knew she was headed for, money she absolutely needed because of the recent purchase of her new apartment, thus she had no other choice but to accept, albeit begrudgingly.
And now, she was simply waiting for someone to bring him over from the prison. She'd spent the entire morning cleaning up, buying groceries and hiding or dulling any sharp object he could have used against her. A little after lunch, a carpenter had come over to reinforce the doors and windows while a locksmith installed locks on every single door of her apartment, including the refrigerator, and gave her a briefing of the seven keys she'd need, all aligned on a metal ring she'd have to keep on her person at all times.
It sat next to her on the floorboards, innocently shimmering in the late afternoon sunlight that came through the window situated on the wall in front of her. Sakura, for some reason, felt like that silly little set of keys was going to be the only and most positive company she'd have throughout the entire mission.
She knew Sasuke wouldn't be swayed by the endearing event of puzzle-making and would probably make a point of demonstrating it any chance he got. Even before his evil days, it was nearly impossible to change Sasuke's mind about anything, and it was pretty much what got him to leave, so after years of detachment from any form of human relationship, a simple puzzle wouldn't be the death of his taste for violence, his desire for destruction or his ridiculous obsession with revenge.
So, with all due respect for her master, Sakura highly doubted this experiment would work, let alone make him better. However, being the idiotic optimist she was, she still hoped that she could somehow make a difference. Plus, it was a really nice puzzle. The image was a painting of some sort of flower market, with characters in brightly-coloured dresses, vibrant flowers, eons of green tree leaves and a giant orange tarp. Even if Sasuke ended up being a pain in the ass, this would be enough to cheer her up. Or at least distract her. And on that thought, she located one of the corner pieces of her puzzle, pulled it out of the box and set it aside on the floor before going back to the box in order to find the other three.
Just as she found the second one, the sound of her doorbell erupted from the living room – where the front door was situated. She jumped to her feet while her stomach flipped and her dinner came dangerously close to making a second appearance. She clumsily picked up the ring of keys and went to unlock her bedroom door, trying to hurry up despite her fingers that had started trembling nervously (as well as the rest of her body). Walking around her apartment was apparently going to be one tricky task, with all the doors to unlock and then lock again after using them. Of course, she understood that it was to prevent Sasuke from running away, but surely they could've simply put locks on the front door and the bedroom door. It'd still make it complicated for him to escape. Because, seriously, even the fridge?
She arrived at her intercom, fumbled with its buttons to find the right one (she'd never used it before), jumped when one of them made a buzzing sound. She heard a click, indicating her visitors had opened the first front door. She unlocked the second one and waited for them to climb up the stairs that separated the two doors, which they obviously did with a lot of difficulty as it took them several minutes to arrive at her level. Once they did, she understood what was holding them down. Her eyes grew as wide as dinner plates.
They weren't escorting Sasuke. They were carrying him. He lay completely limp in their arms, his head bobbing up and down with every step they climbed. He looked almost pitiful, and her memory flashed back to the day he was hauled into the village, in a very similar position. She'd felt sorry for him that day, but right at that moment, it was more of a gleeful sense of triumph she was experiencing. He was so... helpless. After his five years of constant power-tripping, it was almost refreshing.
Kotetsu and Izumo, who obviously weren't pleased about their assignment, looked about ready to dump Sasuke on the floor and be done with it. They were both panting loudly and didn't even bother to hold him up properly and just let his feet drag on the ground.
"Where do we put him?" Izumo grumbled, face red and sweaty.
"Um..." That was one thing Sakura had forgotten about. Where would he sleep? He could have her bed, but then where would she sleep? She'd been assigned to never let him out of her sight and never leave him alone in a different room. Her bedroom didn't have nearly enough space to hold a second bed or even a futon. "I... didn't really have a spot planned for him yet."
The two men frowned deeper.
"Well, can you, I don't know... Figure that out later?" Kotetsu sounded almost desperate. "We just need to put him down."
"Yeah, you have no idea how heavy this dude actually is," Izumo added. "We've been pulling him from all the way across the village and I gotta tell ya, I haven't hauled that much dead weight since the war."
A year ago, that statement would have made everyone in the room uncomfortable. However, the people of the world had reacted remarkably well to the material and emotional damage they'd suffered throughout the thankfully short-lived war, and by the time the first year anniversary rolled by, the subject wasn't taboo anymore. Mostly because everyone had fought together instead of against each other, there was no post-war awkwardness between countries. Or at least not as much as there'd been in the past.
The memories were still bitter and the losses extreme, but talking about it came much more easily than she would've imagined. Even older people who'd lived through more than one war claimed this time, it was easier to pick themselves up and move on.
"Sakura!"
She jumped, startled out of her train of thoughts.
"You spaced out," Izumo groaned.
"Please, just let us put him down," Kotetsu whined, readjusting Sasuke's arm around his shoulder.
"Oh, right, um... This way." She led them to her bedroom. Sasuke could lie there and rest while she figured out where they'd both sleep. He seemed completely knocked out, whatever it was they did to him.
Kotetsu and Izumo unceremoniously sat Sasuke on the bed and let him plop down on the mattress, exhaling sighs of relief and stretching their shoulder muscles to get rid of the pain. Kotetsu sat down next to the unconscious young man and poked him in the rib cage. He seemed satisfied that Sasuke didn't budge or bat an eyelash and resumed stretching. Sakura, who was busying herself with looking Sasuke up, noticed a pair of metallic cuffs on Sasuke's wrists. She knew for a fact that they weren't part of Sasuke's attire and so, she inquired about them.
"Oh, those?" Kotetsu asked. "Yeah, they're chakra-repellent. It's this new thing they developed in the Defence department. I'm not sure how they work, but with these on, he can't use his chakra at all. It's a precaution, just so he doesn't kill you the instant he wakes up. The only thing with them is, you can't use your chakra on him either."
"Sakura?" Izumo called. He wiggled a small plastic bag he'd been holding. "Could you come in the kitchen with me? I have additional instructions from Tsunade concerning Uchiha." The lack of animosity in his tone when he spoke Sasuke's last name surprised Sakura. Not because she expected either Izumo or Kotetsu to hold personal grudges against him, but rather because everyone else did, and it had been a while since she'd heard the Uchiha name be spoken without a trace of anger. He hadn't said it in a tone that reflected fondness either, but the indifference didn't seem forced and it reminded her of the old days, even older than her Genin years, when Sasuke still had his family and his sanity. Back then, only very few people spat the name out as if it were dirt on their tongue.
After a few minutes of locking and unlocking doors, which was already starting to feel tedious, Izumo emptied the contents of the bag on Sakura's kitchen counter. There were bottles of pills, bottles of a liquid that looked like a tranquilizer she often used at the hospital, a syringe with a small pack of spare needles and general additional supplies for the small medic kit she already owned.
"Right," Izumo said. "Tsunade thought up a way to stop Uchiha from destroying everything in sight once he wakes up. She had a medical unit create these pills right here."
He held up one of the little orange bottles.
"What they do is tone down Uchiha's strength by making his muscles feel exhausted."
Sakura's medical side kicked in and she hurriedly picked up another bottle to take a closer look at the pills. It was nothing she'd heard of before and she couldn't help but feel elated. Surely they'd have similar components to soporific products. She'd have to decompose one and see for herself, a perspective that made her fingers tingle in excitement and her lips stretch into a wide smile.
Izumo ripped the bottle out of her hand.
"You can analyse them on your own time, when you're not assigned to watch over a dangerous criminal," he said dryly, although she thought she heard a hint of amusement and mockery in his tone. Everyone knew she practically lived for medical innovations; she went on and on about whatever it was she'd recently discovered every time she went out with people and ended up boring everyone around.
"All you have to do is put them in his food or in his drinks. They dissolve in liquids and melt with regular microwave heat. The whole protocol's written here." Izumo pulled a couple of pages stapled together out of the plastic bag. "Don't ever forget to give him the pills. You know better than anyone how strong Uchiha is. You can't afford to have him regain even the slightest percentage of his strength."
Sakura shivered at the thought. It was true. Sasuke was frighteningly strong and faster than anyone she'd ever met. Even slowed down, he could still harm her.
"The syringes are for the tranquilizer, which Tsunade told me is just a standard anaesthetic you've used many times before," Izumo finished, checking the protocol to see if he'd missed anything. "Right, you should be good to go. Don't leave him out of your sight, don't take off the handcuffs, don't forget the pills and he won't be any trouble."
The way he said it, it felt like he was talking about a kid or a pet dog of his that she had to babysit. Was this what the mission was going to be, babysitting? Sure, the concept of babysitting Sasuke was hilarious and somewhat ludicrous, but for some reason, she only felt nervous and irked. Nervous because she knew Sasuke wouldn't be pleased with this at all and would just be execrable during the whole experiment; irked because dragging him around everywhere she went was not her definition of fun, nor the way she'd always wished her future with Sasuke would be.
Not that, you know, she still wished for a future with him. Or anything.
She bid the two men goodbye, locked the door behind them, retrieved the protocol and waddled back to her room, where Sasuke was still lying unconscious. She sat down on the floor, in the spot she occupied before the arrival of her pensioner, next to her puzzle. She obediently read the two pages through, taking in the information Izumo hadn't previously given her, like how and at what rate Sasuke could regain his strength not only by skipping a pill, but by eating anything outside the meal plan that was printed on the back of the protocol.
Basically, the pills stopped the nutrients in the food to reach his organism, and his muscles and articulation would respond like those of an untrained, morbidly obese man. Eventually, from the lack of exercising, his muscles would atrophy, and the pills wouldn't be needed as much, but it was extremely important that she kept him on the regime for the exact amount of time she was ordered to, maybe even longer, just in case.
Once she was done, she set the protocol up on her desk and happily went back to her puzzle. At least that was going to be enjoyable. She scanned the pieces, scrutinized them one by one until she'd collected the two last corner pieces, assembled them in a little pile that she set aside for later, then proceeded to separate the contour pieces from the middle pieces. It took her several hours, during which Sasuke didn't stir or make a sound, and once she was done, she decided to call it a night and go to bed early.
No need to fuss about sleeping arrangements. He was on top of the covers and she'd be under them, so, barrier number one. She could even make a wall of pillows between them. Plus, even if she were in the mood to move him around, she had nowhere else to put him inside her room, so he'd just have to stay there. He couldn't go anywhere, anyway.
She changed quickly, carefully locked her bedroom door, double-checked the window and finally slipped into bed. As she lay in bed, waiting until sleep took over her, she hoped the experiment went smoothly and painlessly.
She didn't expect it to, but a girl could hope.
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A/N: I don't think I've ever finished a chapter of something as quickly as this one. And that's not saying much, because this one took me about a week to complete.
By the way, the picture on the puzzle is a painting by Eugène Deully, called "Parisian Flower Market". There's one like that currently on my bedroom floor, halfway completed. I've been working on it since the beginning of March and I'm stuck on the stupid tree leaves.