Sasuke didn't know what to do; which was a rare occurrence for him. There was a battle going on inside of him, and so far it seemed to be an even match.

Naruto continued to glare at his friend, waiting for an answer to his previous question.

Sasuke sat back at the window ledge and looked at the sleeping girl on the bed. The battle was nearing the end – and the truth side was winning. "Fine."

"I needed more power to be able to defeat Itachi. I wouldn't get stronger with just staying in Konoha so I left to seek Orochimaru's power."

"Why did you let Yukino go with you?" Naruto asked, "And why come back if you needed power?"

"Who said I was here to stay?"

Naruto was silent. He didn't want to believe that Sasuke was actually thinking of going back to the snake.

"Yukino followed me on her own will," Sasuke was finally answering Naruto's original question. "She had a curse mark even longer than I did so she could make her own choice. She chose to go back and then turned into one of his lab rats since she didn't have any other worth to him."

Naruto started to get angry now, "You knew what he was doing to her and you let him do it?"

"I had no say in what he did."

"She was a member of your team! You should have done something to protect her!" Naruto was only getting angrier. "She did so much to try to protect us in the past, to help us out. You just abandoned her!"

"Shut up!" It was Sasuke's turn to get angry. "Orochimaru knew that Yukino and I had a history. He used her to control me. He threatened worse experiments on her, if I didn't do what he wanted me to! I did my best to protect her…"

Naruto backed down, surprised at how emotional Sasuke was getting over all of this.

"Do you think I liked seeing her in so much pain? Orochimaru would make sure to take her with us when we'd switch bases. It was difficult on her, I know that!" Not once did Sasuke take his eyes off the sleeping Yukino during his speech. He slammed his fists down on windowsill. "I didn't know what else to do. I never had much time alone with her to be able to get her out of there."

"You're not planning on going back," Naruto summed up.

"I'm not strong enough to defeat Itachi yet." Sasuke looked away now from the girl to look at one of the walls.

"You can't go back," Naruto said, almost pleading. "Yukino would go after you to get you to come back. You'd both be in the same situation as before, if not worse…"

"I have to get my revenge, I am an avenger…"

"How are you even going to find Itachi?" Naruto asked.

"Go looking for him."

"Train here, with us. We've all gotten better while you were gone. He will come back around here, along with that fish guy."

"How do you know that?"

"Remember last time you saw Itachi? He was going after me…"

Sasuke turned to look at his friend. What was he getting at?

"I have something that they want, the Akatsuki." Naruto looked down to his stomach, where the seal was. "I have the Nine-Tailed Fox inside me, and eventually they will come after me again."

Sasuke looked at his friend, he was shocked even though it wasn't showing on his face.

"You'll see Itachi again if you stay here." Naruto looked back at Sasuke.

"We'll see," Sasuke now had bait to lure Itachi to him at least if he stayed here. He had to think things through.

"How do you think she'll be?" Naruto looked back to the sleeping Yukino.

"I don't know."

"You're worried about her."

"She is a member of our team."

Yukino had been fighting the darkness and was winning. She could hear garbled voices coming from one of her sides. Soon enough she was pulling out more and could start to understand the words. Naruto was still there, and talking with Sasuke.

'You're more concerned about her than that…how much do you really like her Sasuke?" Naruto had asked.

"I…" Sasuke started.

Yukino's heart started to race. Sasuke was concerned for her, and maybe actually felt something for her. She tried to calm her heart rate down. She could have sworn that the boys could hear it over there; it was so loud and fast. She tried to continue to look as if she was asleep; she wanted to hear what Sasuke was going to say.

"I…" Sasuke was starting, but was interrupted quickly when the door slammed open.

Sakura stormed into the room, "Na-ru-to!"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called to her.

"What are you doing here? It's late!" Sakura said loudly.

"But I was talking to Yukino earlier and now Sasuke…"

Sakura turned, "Sasuke!"

Immediately Sasuke's personality changed as a bored look crossed his face and he became more distant.

Yukino decided that after Sakura's loud entrance, she could seem like she was getting up from that. She wouldn't get anything more out of Sasuke with other people in the room. She sat up slowly as she blinked her eyes.

"Yukino," Naruto said, pointing out to everyone else that she had gotten up.

"Oh Yukino!" Sakura said excitedly. She walked over to the girl's bedside, "how are you feeling?"

"Alright, mostly."

"That's good," Sakura sighed, "You went through a lot with Orochimaru right?"

Yukino winced at the name as pain spread through her body. The pain had been tolerable before Sakura had said that name.

Sakura had noticed the change, "Are you ok?"

"Yea," Yukino gasped, "Just don't say that name."

"Oh, sorry!" Sakura responded quickly.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke asked.

"Right! Naruto its time to go!" Sakura said energetically.

"I'm not the one who woke Yukino and is wasting time now," Naruto said.

Sakura hadn't heard him, "Let's go!" she grabbed Naruto's sleeve and pulled him out of the room.

Once the door closed behind them, Yukino sat at the edge of the bed towards Sasuke. "How long was I asleep?"

"Not too long."

"Did you have a good talk with Naruto?"

"He hit me."

"What? Why did he do that?"

Sasuke just shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, ok.."

Silence followed after their brief conversation.