It was possible that Sasuke had overreacted.

He was self-aware enough to admit that. He wasn't an idiot. Clearly his approach to getting Harry to do what he should have had not worked. Had in fact had the opposite effect of having his cousin become even more difficult to work with. So clearly, Sasuke's approach to the problem had been flawed.

And maybe Naruto had been right for once. A nin could not talk to a non-nin the same way. Conflict was not handled the same. If two nin disagreed or one of them was being unreasonable, you had to trust that your teammates could look after themselves or you stepped in and made it clear that you at least were willing to back up your position with your fists. It was when nin disagreed and did not throw punches that you actually had to be careful. That meant someone was planning something. Or that they had enough power to not even bother arguing with you about it. But non-nin didn't work that way.

Then again, non-nin normally did not argue with nin about security issues. Anything less than that was usually solved by a bit of harsh language. Maybe a threat or two. Nothing serious.

But Harry was not a normal non-nin. He had his magic which made him just capable enough to think he could handle a dangerous situation. He was also one of the most stubborn, frustrating people Sauske had ever met and he had grown up with Naruto.

Sasuke should have known that things were not going to go well from the moment this all started. He had been foolish to think he would be able to control the situation.

This changed nothing. The main priority was still the same. Protect Harry. It did not matter if Harry was willing to talk to him or not. With the way classes were structured, they had no difficulty tailing him at all hours. They did not need close or personal access to him in order to efficiently protect him. Harry's sudden and firm refusal to even so much as look at them did not interfere with their ability to complete the mission at all.

No matter what the others might have to say on the issue.

"You're a moron," Sakura hissed at him as she elbowed another student out of the way so that she could take the one available seat next to him. Classes were still an exercise in obfuscation, so there really wasn't much point in pretending to be attentive. Most of the teachers had taken to leaving them alone at this point. As long as they did not actively disturb lessons, the Professors seemed more than content to focus on the students who might actually do something with magic and were willing to pretend that any abnormalities in their class simply did not exist. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement and one that left plenty of time for focusing on more important things. Or trying to avoid his teammates ridiculous assertions that this was somehow Sasuke's fault.

"Do something!" Sakura hissed.

Which was ridiculous, really. Both Sakura and Naruto had already tried to talk to Harry and his friends and had been firmly rebuffed. There was no point in Sasuke going over there to grovel as well. If Harry had decided his cousin was no longer worth listening to, then Sasuke doubted there was much he could do to sway him on the matter. That had been made perfectly clear that night, had it not?

The mere thought of it still made Sasuke's blood boil. Someone was using his cousin and the fool refused to see it. Sasuke was well aware of how vulnerable someone like Harry could be to outside powers that only cared about their own gain. And like hell was he going to let that happen to his family again. Sasuke may have made some poor choices in his life, but he had certainly never been this willfully difficult.

"Ignoring this is not going to fix it!"

"I am not ignoring it," Sasuke finally answered her, keeping his tone level and calm and pointedly not snapping back at her.

"Really? Because if this is your plan for how to fix it, then it needs some serious improvement. You haven't said one word to him."

"If you are so confident, then why don't you go talk to him?"

"I tried that! They wouldn't even let me say good morning."

"And you think my social skills are going to be more effective?"

"Well, it certainly can't make it any worse."

Debatable. Sasuke had certainly thought he had known what he was doing last night, but that had blown up in his face rather spectacularly, had it not? The Hokage would have strung him up if she had been there. He supposed he should be grateful that Kakashi was more concerned with Sasuke threatening the mission than anything else. Clearly, Sasuke could not manage something as simple as not antagonizing his cousin into never speaking to him again. In hindsight, he did not know why he thought he could manage this at all.

Maybe things were better this way.