A/N: Hey, guys! This was probably a really long wait (for anyone who's reading this), and for that, I am truly sorry! If you have ever read any of my other stories, you'll know that updating isn't really my cup of tea, and that laziness is…you'll learn to live with it, if you really care! Well, anyway, on to the chapter!
Chapter 1: No Privacy
Obsidian eyebrows furrowed, as a grunt escaped dry lips. The owner of those lips opened his eyes, so they were only half way open, letting them adjust to what little light was in the room. After a few short minutes of getting used to how his onyx eyes worked in the room, Sasuke finally opened them all the way, fighting through the slight pain he received from the action, and looked around taking in his surroundings.
His face gave off a confused, albeit disgruntled look, as he soon figured out he didn't know where he was. Looking straight up (as the small restriction in his body and the position the soft cushion beneath him didn't prohibit him to do), he noticed a large light above him, and out of his peripheral vision, he saw a couple more scattered throughout the room.
Sasuke frowned slightly; that didn't help in the least. How many places had he encountered with large lights hanging from the ceiling? Mentally slapping himself for the stupid question, the Uchiha thought over where he had been last, and what he had been doing…Itachi…pain…victory…more pain…
He slowly began to tilt his head to the left, neck cracking and twitching in defiance. His view was now a window with a half-closed curtain covering what seemed to be the outside of a busy building, and a bustling village a little further out.
So, it hadn't been some dream. He was really in Konoha now.
With a small grunt, he whipped his head (hesitantly), to the right side of him, and was now facing the machinery that was keeping him alive. Konoha Hospital… He was no stranger to the place with all the bouts he used to get into while he was a citizen of Konohagakure.
The young Uchiha was finally able to feel the pressure on a big chunk of his face that kept his breathing in check, and cursed himself for not noticing the oxygen mask earlier. He felt a twinge of pain erupt in his lung as he tried to wake his nerves up by moving his a body a little, but then ceased the actions understanding that these weren't injuries he could just walk off. He also (being healed by many medics in the past) understood that either his medic was a crazy bitch that hated him, or wasn't very talented at numbing the pain in his wounds.
Sasuke decided to settle with the latter, because he knew that he would probably be stuck with the person throughout his stay in the hospital, and he or she would be doing many "harmless" procedures on him. If there was one thing worse than a crazy bitch that hated him, it was a crazy bitch that hated him, and didn't mind inflicting needless pain on him while he was physically incapable of fighting back.
His eyes trailed to the door. Speak of the devil…
A young blonde dressed in a clean white nurses outfit with a white coat included walked in, glancing at her clipboard thoughtfully.
She gazed up at him, cerulean eyes widening for a split second, before narrowing slightly in a joking gesture. The medic stood still in her place, a hand on her hip, and a crude smirk spreading across plump lips.
"Get enough beauty sleep, Uchiha?" He responded with a glare.
She snorted snidely. "I'll take that as a yes." She strode over to him, long, tanned legs flexing and jiggling slightly with every step. He prompted to keep his eyes there for a while, not really caring if the blonde did or didn't know where his gaze had traveled.
When she had finally stopped moving, he noticed she was right in front of his bed, and he looked up to see the girl with a prideful smirk on her face, and a golden eyebrow raised. Ino had really gotten a bit taller, a bit curvier, a bit hotter over the years. If he did not have plans with the pink one, he might've considered her as a soon-to-be-wife.
Ino put her hands on her hips. "You might be Sasuke, but you seem to appreciate the nurses uniform like every other male patient I have…" She sent a short glance to his manhood that was poking through the sheer blankets, and then back to his emotionless face. Then again, that could just be Sasuke all the time. It had been a while since she last saw him, and that could just be another check on the list of Sasuke's hot body parts.
But like the boy had thought earlier, he didn't care, and his face said it all. "Hn," he grunted softly.
Ino bent over, pulling down the sheets on his practically naked body, and revealing his hard chest, and the black hem-line of his boxers. The blonde laid her hand on his torso, fingering the line that only about a day ago had been bleeding heavily, with a rib jutting through it. "Your wounds are healing well," she murmured.
Her hand trailed up over numerous cuts, to his face where she yanked the oxygen mask from his nose and mouth.
Sasuke coughed a little, not used to the horror of not having oxygen pumped into his lungs for him. He sat up and scowled as his "sweet" medic who was oblivious to his situation, and was most likely writing something useless on her clipboard.
Questioning aqua eyes finally caught his onyx ones, laughing in mirth, and then the owner of said eyes pulled up the chair, sitting in it and crossing her legs. "You're more over-dramatic than I remembered, Uchiha. You only needed it in your sleep, your breathing seems fine otherwise," she explained impassively.
"Hn."
"So, did you rest well? Have you enjoyed your stay at Konoha Hospital? Do your injuries still hurt?" she sighed, as if she had said it to 500 patients that day, and was hoping the words would burn in hell (which was probably accurate).
There was a short silence as the Uchiha with crossed arms looked the blonde's way. "No." He glared. "No, and yes…" His glare only became more intense as he said the last word.
Her plump lips smirked triumphantly, as if she were proud of herself, pencil quickly sweeping across the clipboard. "Good…" she murmured to herself. "And those eyes…" She looked up at him, face now serious. "Any stinging, burning, or throbbing?"
"No," he replied, his voice cold as usual.
Ino looked at him disapprovingly before uncrossing her legs, and putting the other one on top this time. "Well, I'm going to have to prohibit you from using the Sharingan until further notice," she sighed, closing the darkening blue depths of her eyes.
His eyes narrowed. "What?" he hissed. "Why--"
"I don't know why the Hokage cares so much about your safety; ask her!" she screeched, disgusted that he would even figure that all of Konoha gave a rats ass about him. His angered medic stood from her seat and put the clipboard on the door for her assistant that would most likely be checking up on him a few times. "It probably has something to do with the fact that you are the only Uchiha left."
He figured as much. The village council probably wanted the Konoha police back as much as he wanted to revive his clan.
The girl turned to him hesitantly. "It is true right? You did defeat Uchiha Itachi, didn't you?"
It was the small uplift of the right side of Sasuke's lip that answered Ino's question.
She gave her own smirk. "Good; we can't have you running away again! You'd be out of your mind to try and betray Konoha twice." She began to walk over to the chair as she threateningly pounded her fist against her other hand. "Sakura and I would personally have to beat the shit out of you then…"
There was a pregnant pause before a snide, sinisterly chuckle escaped the young Uchiha's lips. He closed his eyes, cockily. "You and Sakura? Last time I checked, she was the weakest one here, and you, not being able to even defeat her in the chunin exams…"
Ino's eyes widened, her mouth anything but agape, and nails digging into the wood of the chair.
"You're not far behind…" he recalled, his face showing total aloofness to his hateful words.
Cerulean eyes narrowed dangerously, as her lips thinned, fingers digging holes into the helpless chair. "Last time you checked was ten fucking years ago," she bit out through gritted teeth. She laughed bitterly, a dangerous aura surrounding her. "Do you know what can happen in ten years, Uchiha?"
He glanced over at her solemnly.
The kunoichi's lowly growl soon erupted into a shrill battle cry, as she chucked the heavy oak chair out the window, considerably shattering the glass into a million shining pieces that rained over Sasuke, the floor, and the helpless civilians below who were unlucky enough to receive the chair end of the gesture.
Her other hand stay fisted by her side, as the girl heaved, trying to calm her breathing down. Still in her throwing stance, she sent her piercing aqua eyes into Sasuke's forever-emotionless one, before stomping up to the guy, and getting so close to his face, he could smell the coffee on her breath and the flowers on her hair and clothes.
He frowned bitterly, for the Uchiha did not enjoy people in his space.
"This is the fucking last time I'll tell you to listen good, you bastard!" she spat loudly.
Lips thinning and eyes glinting dangerously, she pushed a button on the side of his bed to make his bed rise and support his back a little too much. "Comfy?"
"More than you'll ever know…" came his monotonous answer.
She grabbed his shoulders, clutching them in her small fists, knowing full well he couldn't do much in his weakened state, and not relenting her hold when he hissed because of the broken shoulder she had to be re-injuring.
He gave her a very cold look, sharingan flickering before a small pain entered his head, and he chose not to use his blood-line limit to intimidate the kunoichi at this moment.
"The world does not revolve around your egotistical ass! Whenever you decide to ditch a place, it doesn't mean that life as we know it has ended!" she screeched through gritted teeth, as she let go of his shoulders. "My hair has been growing," she said grabbing her long golden tresses, and then pointed at a clock across the room. "That clock has been ticking! We as a people have gotten a lot stronger than you will ever know! And we as a people, will not hesitate to kick your arrogant ass!" With that she turned on her heels and began to stomp towards the door, body shaking violently, and long golden ponytail swishing so harshly, it promised any person who dared to get in its way a concussion.
She put her small hand around the knob, and then paused. "Oh," she remarked cynically. "And you have company…" The blonde then proceeded to open the door with such force, she literally ripped it off its hinges. Growling in frustration, teal eyes glared holes into the door before she threw it to the ground and walked away.
"Hn," the Uchiha grunted in annoyance as he shut his eyes. If this went on, there wouldn't be anything left in the room by the end of the week. But by then, Sasuke would have some of his strength and chakra back, and would set the girl straight.
When the young sharingan user opened his eyes again, he noticed a hopeful Naruto and stoic-looking (and most-likely tired) Shikamaru at the door. The Uchiha quickly understood why Naruto was there, but the shadow possessor was a mystery. Seemingly reading his mind, the Nara spoke up, a hand absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck. "I was sent to make sure Ino exhibited self-control around her patients today, but I guess I'm…" His drag came to a halt as he looked from the shattered window, to the dismantled door. "…I guess I'm too late…"
Sasuke looked from the Nara to the Kyuubi container next to him. His mouth was agape and his eyes shimmered with sadness; happiness; joy; and betrayal all at once. The Uchiha snorted at the emotion-driven boy that called himself shinobi.
"Teme…" Naruto finally squeaked. "Dog-breath said you were here, but I didn't believe him…" His face began to crack into a smile as he jogged to the bed and embraced the paler boy in a bone crushing hug. "I cant believe it!" he chuckled warmly.
Sasuke scowled and grumbled something around the lines of 'Let go of me, dumbass', as his wounds screamed bloody murder.
But Naruto's face changed once he clutched onto the onyx-haired boys shoulders (Sasuke flinching involuntarily) and looked at him in the eyes, determination swimming in his aqua orbs. "I can't wait for you to get out of here; I swear I'll put you right back in, believe it!" he shouted loudly.
Sasuke smirked. "You have a death wish, don't you, dobe?"
The Kyuubi container rose a threatening fist. "I could ask you the same thing!"
Shikamaru sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright…" he drawled as he grabbed the blonde boy's bright orange jumpsuit, and yanked him back, Naruto growling defiantly.
Dark brown eyes glanced from the pouting blonde to the stoic Uchiha and then he crossed his arms, closing his eyes. "Word is you haven't even seen Hokage-sama yet. Man, when she gets a hand on you, it'll be troublesome…"stated the Nara in his usual monotonous and lazy way.
"Hn." Sasuke thought as much. Running away and joining Orochimaru wasn't exactly the same as stealing a lollipop from the candy shop.
"Yeah right!" countered Naruto. "Wait 'till Sakura-chan gets her hands on teme! He'll be so toast!" he yelled boisterously from behind Shikamaru. "Dude, she gets home from her mission in a couple days! You better heal soon, so you can run away when she comes at you with those fists!"
The Uchiha scoffed, not paying in heed to the blonde's warning.
Shikamaru gave a ragged sigh as he tilted his face to the ceiling, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Man, the kunoichi in this village are fucking crazy. Women are so troublesome…" he drawled mostly to himself.
There was a small silence before Naruto looked at the clock, his eyes widening. "Oh crap! I'm gonna be late to meet Hinata-chan at Ichiraku!" he squealed worriedly. "I would bring you along, teme, but it looks like you're having yourself a filling meal right there," he said, gesturing to the I.V. in his arm.
Sasuke growled, mumbling something incoherent under his breath as Naruto laughed, leaving him with a "Later, teme!"
Shikamaru took his hands from his pockets. "Yeah, I'd better head out too. I'll catch you some other time, Sasuke."
The sharingan-wielder watched as they left, before looking forward, his brooding face on. Who were those two talking about again? If he had heard right, it was Sakura…again…The girl couldn't have gotten that much stronger. He had heard from somewhere that she had defeated Sasori of the Red Sand (and more recently, of the Akatsuki) in a couple of hours, no less. But it had been with the help of Chiyo-sama of Suna, so he could care less. Always needing someone else's help, never doing anything herself. Weak…he decided.
But Sasuke couldn't help but feel the yearning in himself to see her again. To see those big, innocent turquoise eyes, happy smile, and of course, that annoyingly bright pink hair from which her name had come.
"Sakura…" The name felt like silk through his lips, and though he had tried, he could never relieve his mind of the name. It was stuck, implanted in his head, and for some reason, he liked it that way. With that, the young ninja closed his eyes calmly, hoping to get a little more rest.
Step forward: Sakura would be here very soon; steps back: his nurse was a crazy bitch that hated him, and with the window and door open like that, he wouldn't even dream of privacy.
A/N: Ok, so now the first chapters done! I know it probably wasn't fun because Sakura wasn't even there yet, but I tried to add something at the end that showed that Sasuke was AT LEAST interested! And plus...I had to add the Ino-bitch scene! Seriously, just by writing this chapter, I came to like Ino EVEN MORE!! YAY!
Also, so sorry if you think Sasuke is a LITTLE OOC, I didnt mean to! I'm working on it, and he is DEFINITELY hard to write for me! It's hard to write romance with such an emotionless bastard...I run into the same problem with my Gaara story! Just wait till you meets angsty, angry, but still bubbly (kinda in a fake way) Sakura! So anyway, plz review!! Luv u and laterz!
--SAYURI--