With that time consuming mission out of the way, it was time to get back to some good old research. Making sure nobody followed him; Kurosuchi went to his home and went strait down to the basement. It looked very empty for a basement, all that was there was the door to a large locked freezer, a sink, and a big desk with a computer. After pushing in a stone near the back wall, a lab table with many drawers protruded from one wall and the freezer door on the opposite wall was unlocked. Kurosuchi turned on the lights and went into the freezer to get a few dead fish. He put these fish into a bucket of room temperature water and then went to his library upstairs to get his practicing scrolls. These were used scrolls that he usually used when just practicing reviving dead fish, but he had bigger plans for these fish. When he went back to the basement and opened the scroll on the lab table, he took out one of the fish to see if was thawed yet. If there was one thing that Kurosuchi didn't have, it was patience. When seeing that the fish had barley started to thaw, he decided to make something to eat before he did his studying. He went upstairs to his kitchen and began to thoroughly wash his hands when he heard a knock at his door. 'Damn it!' he thought, 'Why can't I just get something done without any interferences!?' He quickly walked to the front door of his inherited house still drying his hands and threw the towel to the side as he opened the door. "What!" he yelled. He quickly regretted yelling without seeing who it was at his door and found himself face to face with a very pissed of Tsunade. "I…I'm sorry Tsunade-sama. I wasn't expecting visitors today and you caught me at a bad time. How can I help you?" Tsunade held out a form for Kurosuchi to see.

"Where were you at 8:00 AM this morning? I'll tell you where you weren't, and that was at your therapy session!"

'Damn,' Kurosuchi thought, 'I didn't know she'd blow like this.' Kurosuchi tried thinking of an excuse. "Look, Tsunade-sama, I just…" He was about to say he forgot about the meeting, which was untrue, he just wanted more time for research, but Tsunade cut him off.

"You were supposed to be in therapy! Twice a week! Monday and Friday! Did you think you could just not show up!? Well you were wrong!" A moment of silence followed. Tsunade sighed continued, more in control. "Your Therapist called in sick today and you would have been sent home by his secretary. However, since I cannot trust you to go to a simple therapy session, I am going to have Sakura look after you for the rest of the day." It was only then that Kurosuchi noticed Sakura standing tall right behind Tsunade.

But then it hit him, "What! Your going to have you apprentice baby-sit me!?"

"You mean until you start going to your sessions regularly? Yes. I will have you watched every night after you leave the hospital by someone of my choosing. Tonight only Sakura was free, so she will have to do. I gave her a few books to study for while she is here, and she will give me a full report in the morning. She will be spending the night here as well, so you will treat her with the utmost respect. That is all." With that, and before Kurosuchi could argue again, Tsunade was gone in a gust of leaves. Kurosuchi was speechless, and it wasn't until Sakura spoke that he came out of his little trance.

"So were you thinking of going anywhere tonight or are we staying here?" Kurosuchi looked at Sakura with much dislike, and then moved aside to let her in.

"We'll be staying here. Let me go find you a room, and then I can start dinner. Are you hungry?"

"Yes, please." was Sakura's reply. She thought he was taking this rather well when he left to check for an extra room, but then heard him scream a muffled curse (probably yelling into a pillow) and some thumps from upstairs (punching the mattress). She waited patiently for Kurosuchi to return, and when he finally did she decided to ask him a few questions she was meaning to ask him ever since she met him a few days ago.

"So what is it you study Kurosuchi-chan?"

She was trying to sound very kind and friendly, but all that was returned was a pretty blank stare and a simple, "Your room is ready. I'm going to start dinner, is shrimp ok?"

Sakura was confused for a second. 'Why is he so nice in offering food and board but still so mean when it comes to talking?' "Shrimp is just fine thank you. May I watch you cook?"

Kurosuchi turned towards the kitchen and said, "I'd rather you didn't. You can put your books down and start studying in the room on your right, and I'll call you when dinner is ready."

Sakura watched Kurosuchi until he was in the kitchen and out of sight, then went to put her books down. 'Maybe I should be watching him…but I guess there's no harm as long as I know he's in there.' Sakura made sure she could hear Kurosuchi in the kitchen from where she was sitting before starting to read her enormous book. After a few chapters about bone marrow, Sakura heard Kurosuchi calling her into the kitchen. When she got there, there was a small table all set up for a fancy dinner with a candle and a cloth napkin and real silverware. 'Wow…I didn't realize he was such a fancy-do' thought Sakura. When she sat down, she was served a plate of what looked like a million dollar meal. With shrimp and rice and veggies all accounted for and cooked to perfection, Sakura knew that it was going to be delicious! Then, Sakura noticed that Kurosuchi had said something. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Kurosuchi cleared his throat and said again, "Do you want any sake?"

Sakura had to think for a second. 'Did he just offer me alcohol?' "No thank you, I'm under-age." Kurosuchi just shrugged his shoulder and said, "Never stopped me." He then lit the candle on that table and threw the match into a small glass of water.

Seeing Sakura's curious look, he explained, "It's to keep the smoke from filling the air and spoiling your sense of smell."

'Oh,' thought Sakura, 'I guess that makes sense.' She was about to start eating when she noticed that he was eating his food standing up near the sink. "Weren't you going to sit down?"

Kurosuchi looked at her, swallowed the food in his mouth, and then said, "I always eat next to the sink. It's a habit I picked up. Just finish your dinner so I can clean up." Sakura was about to do just that, but with a bite of rice and shrimp going towards her mouth, she stopped. She looked at the food questionably.

Kurosuchi would have chuckled if he weren't in such a bad mood, but said, "You're right to suspect me. I am the exact kind of person that would poison you and get back to work, but that wouldn't look to good on that report you have due tomorrow would it?"

Sakura thought about this for a moment. "Yeah, I guess that's true. It wouldn't look good at all." She took a bite of the food and was surprised that it tasted even better than she thought it would. She was about to compliment the chef, but it turned out he was already washing his dishes, and looking like he really wanted her to finish quickly so he could be done with it. She had to work really hard to not savor each bite, but instead she wolfed it down quick enough to give her dishes to Kurosuchi to clean. She was about to go back and start reading again, but remembered that she had to keep a watch on Kurosuchi.

She was watching him clean the cookware for a while, but then found herself needing to answer the call of nature. "Excuse me, could you tell me where your bathroom is please?" she asked, trying to sound very lady-like.

Without looking back at her, Kurosuchi said, "Upstairs and to your right. Turn off the lights when you're done."

When Sakura got back from the bathroom, she was shocked to find the kitchen spotless. It looked like no one had ever dined there before. She was just noticing how her chair was even cleaned off when she heard Kurosuchi in the library where she had left her books. She walked in and saw that he was looking at her reading material.

As soon as she was in the room, Kurosuchi put down the book he was looking at and said, "Very interesting homework Sakura. I see that you are working at setting and repairing a broken bone faster." Sakura was about to tell him not to touch her things when he said, "I'm going to go and work off some stress. If you want me, I'll be out back."

With that he left, and Sakura quickly picked up her books and followed. 'I know he's just trying to make me want to stay behind and not follow him, well it's not going to work!'

Once outside, Sakura felt a little better. Being in the soft cooling breeze and seeing the setting sun brought her back to her senses, and she sat down to read while keeping an eye on Kurosuchi. She watched as he started punching the bag hanging from a tree branch. He started off small, but very soon he was yelling and hitting the bag with all his strength and speed. It looked like he might have snapped and Sakura didn't know what to do. It only took a few minutes for Kurosuchi to calm down after hitting the bag. It had reduced enough stress in him to work productively in his lab, but then he remembered that he had to have Sakura watching him the whole time in there. He hit the bag once more, then sat down under the tree and took out a pill that was in his pocket. Before Sakura could ask what it was, he had already swallowed it, so instead of asking that, she asked, "So where did you learn to cook and clean like that?"

It looked for a second like he wasn't going to answer again, but then he said, "I had a lot of missions as a butler, and you pick up things."

It was a very simple answer, and Sakura knew that he didn't want to talk to her, but she was determined to know more about him. "And what are you researching in your lab?"

He looked at her for a while, again looking like he wasn't going to answer, and then said, "I guess you'll find out."

He went back to resting under the tree, and Sakura went back to thinking of more questions to ask. "I know this is none of my business, but why would you skip out on your Psychiatrist session?"

Kurosuchi stood from where he was sitting and began walking inside. "I had a lot of work to do and didn't have time. Why don't you ask what you want? Why don't you ask why I'm in therapy?"

Sakura would have replied, but Kurosuchi was already in the house again. 'Damn it! If he keeps moving around like this, I'll never get my reading done.'

She followed him in and asked where he was going. "I'm going to shower," he said, "and then I'm going to get to work. You should get ready to take notes for your report." With that he was gone upstairs, heading for the shower, and Sakura sat down to read her book while she waited.

It took longer that she thought it would, but Kurosuchi finally came back down from the shower wearing just black long pants and a white wife-beater and sandals. "Are you ready to see my work?" he asked. Sakura nodded, and then followed him into the basement. She wasn't expecting the basement/lab to smell nice, but it smelled like bad fish when she went in. "Oh God-damn it! I knew I forgot something." Kurosuchi poured out the bucket of water and fish that had been sitting out for a few hours now, then took one of the fish and put it on the already open scroll.

When he opened the drawers on the lab table and started taking out beakers and test tubes full of different liquids and powders, Sakura said to him, "I don't think your experiments will work without fresh fish. I don't think even Tsunade-sama could revive those."

Kurosuchi didn't turn from his work, but said to her, "I'm not going to revive them. That is not the reason for my experiments. Why would Hokage-sama need more researching on healing arts when she pretty much knows everything already?"

'That's a good point' thought Sakura. She watched as Kurosuchi started to cut open the fish.

It didn't take long at all for Kurosuchi to have the fish dissected and pinned open, and when he started putting the powders and liquids from his beakers into the fish, Sakura just had to ask, "What is it that you're trying to accomplish?"

Kurosuchi finished placing a small bit of paper near the fish's heart when he turned to her and said, "When I'm done, you will see. Please stop asking me that question." He turned back to the fish and started to stitch it back up. When he finished, Sakura was going to ask what next, but he had already started dissecting the head of the fish. Now she was really curious. After what seemed like hours but what were actually just a few minutes, he was done and ready to start the next fish.

Sakura was dieing of curiosity, but knew better then to ask, but instead asked, "Are you going to do the same thing to the other two fish?" He nodded. "Then I'm going to sit back and read some more. Please tell me when you're ready to tell me what it is your doing." Kurosuchi grunted his answer then continued to work.

After working for another twenty minutes, Kurosuchi was finished. He wrapped the fish, now with stitched eyes, mouth, and body, in moist cloth and put them in a cooler. He washed his hands in the sink and told Sakura that they were going to a river in the Forest of Death. Sakura told him that he would have to get special permission from the guards or the Hokage in order to go there, but he said he already had a signed form allowing him in. They walked down to the forest and it was now the dead of night. It didn't take all that long to get there, but now Sakura was wishing she had brought a jacket.

When at the Forest of Death, Kurosuchi led Sakura to a large river, and then began to set out the fish he had prepared for testing. "These fish," he started, "are for just this test. If I can accomplish my goal tonight, then I will make more to show the Hokage." With that said, Kurosuchi began to place one of the fish into the water. He then made a few seals with his hands, and then placed his hands around the fish. Some green chakara started glowing around the fish, just like it would if you were trying to heal it.

After a few seconds, the fish started moving. 'No way! That's impossible for that fish to be alive! He's missing organs and is in such bad shape! How can it possibly be? . . .'

Kurosuchi disrupted Sakura's thoughts by saying, "Its not alive you know." Sakura was confused. She asked how the fish was moving then. "I'm only using its body, kind of like a puppet. The only difference is that I'm also using its organs to make it seem alive and to circulate the chemicals I've put inside of it. Now I'm going to try and make it swim." Kurosuchi tried moving the fish in many different ways before he was able to get it to move properly. It would probably be easier on a land animal, he said to Sakura, while keeping the fish moving. The fish was then eaten by a larger fish, and Sakura almost laughed.

"Well," she said, "I guess that's why you brought three fish am I right?"

Kurosuchi chuckled to himself softly and said, "Nope, I'll show you why." Kurosuchi released his chakara with a "Kai!" and then waited. After a second of silence, the water where Sakura guessed where the fish was exploded, along with the larger fish that had eaten it!

"Holy shit!" yelled Sakura as she landed on her ass. "Was that a bomb note!?" she asked Kurosuchi in a voice a little louder than usual.

"No, a bomb note would have dissolved in the water or inside of the fish. And, unlike a note, the explosion you saw would get bigger with the size of the specimen. This has been my project. I have created a 'living' bomb. If you can get a creature and remove all the blood and most of the digestive track, you can replace those with certain explosives. Then all you have to do is remove the eyes and the part of the brain that feels pain and allows the senses to work, and then you have no problem moving the body to where it needs to go. Without removing those parts of the brain, the fish would have tried to be alive again after I had 'revived' it, and it would have fought where I wanted it to go. I now have only one or two bugs left to work out, and then I may be able to test on larger mammal subjects."

Sakura was stunned. She didn't think the Hokage would allow such experiments to be done, but she was looking into his experiments twice a week, so she must know about it. "It's still a work in progress," Kurosuchi went on, "but I'm sure that once I get it done, the ninja of Konoha will have no problem using this if and when another war breaks out."

Sakura was again shocked with what Kurosuchi was saying. 'Does he actually think another war will break out? Does he actually want one to!?' Kurosuchi tested the other two fish, releasing them and detonating them while taking notes, and then got up and brushed himself off.

"I think we should be getting back," said Kurosuchi. "You'll want to get some sleep before writing up your report for Tsoumada-sama about today's activities, right?" Sakura gave a slight nod, and then they started walking back to the house.