Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Author's Notes: A giant THANKS to all those who reviewed. Sorry it took me so long to get this up, the internet has been off and on the past few days. Also, I wasn't able to get back to everybody, and I apologize, but this time I will! Now, as promised, the Sasuke POV.

oOo

Don't get mad, get sadistic. -Anonymous

oOo

Sasuke's day had just become infinitely more enjoyable.

It hadn't started out well. Breakfast had been a cold mush of nutrition, and lunch had been the same. He had slept most of the day, and Naruto wouldn't update him on anything of importance that was going on in the city besides that Sasuke didn't need to worry about Orochimaru. He wouldn't even let Sasuke do paperwork.

Sasuke needed to do paperwork.

Boredom was like a constant, building itch in a place he couldn't scratch. Maybe the large television mounted on the wall, the rack beneath gleaming with every action flick and video game console known to man, would have been distracting enough for someone like Naruto, but Sasuke had been in bed for days, and his, admittedly limited, patience was at an end.

Then had come the cherry on top. Naruto had called Itachi.

Sasuke was pretty sure he had popped some stitches yelling at him about that one, but it had been well worth it. Naruto had no business meddling in Sasuke's affairs, especially when it came to his very limited, very psychotic family.

Naruto may have been like a brother, but he wasn't, and Sasuke was going to make sure he remembered it if it killed him.

Then, right on the verge of Sasuke launching into a Truly Epic Rant, the doorbell had rung and Naruto had marched out of the room, muttering. He had left, right in the middle of an argument, and it left Sasuke seething and bleeding from his popped stitches.

Sasuke's anger had waned while Naruto was gone, enough to let him think clearly. Naruto had been trying to help— the blond had the strange belief that family was important and should be loved beyond all other things. Just that Sasuke's relationship with Itachi was… volatile, didn't mean the two shouldn't interact.

Like Itachi was just supposed to forgive Sasuke for nearly killing him, and Sasuke was just supposed to forgive Itachi for lying to him.

Nonetheless, Naruto was Naruto, and Naruto was almost impossible to stay mad at for very long.

"Don't do it again," Sasuke said simply when Naruto came back in to tell him about the visitors, and Naruto had shrugged. It wasn't a promise, but it was an acknowledgment, the best he was likely to get. It grated on Sasuke's raw nerves, and seeing this Naruto said:

"Hinata's here."

Ah.

"What are you waiting for then?"

He liked Hinata. She was sweet, polite, cultured, and had a spine of steel. He had once seen her argue a hulking mass of male meat down from a temper with a few red-faced hisses while she was decorating the restaurant, and he had harbored a secret liking for her ever since. Better yet, she could control Naruto, and Sasuke needed all the help he could get in that particular department. He had blinked once, barely even a shift of his determined attention, and Naruto had started a food-fight with the visiting southern dignitaries, barely escaping from vicious third-degree burns from a thrown pot of melted butter.

However, the crowning glory of the day, the moment where the official one-eighty began, was when the pink-haired friend—Sakura, if he remembered right—walked into the room and froze on sight.

It was very gratifying, and mildly comical, to see her eyes widen to that saucer-like proportion, and then close in frustrated acceptance at his smirk.

Oh, but this was going to be fun.

Completely ignoring her, he turned his attention to Hinata, wincing as he caught another glance of the bowtie festooned mound of fluff in her arms. She said Naruto had asked her to bring it—and they were going to have a talk about that later—and had seemed so pleased he had tried to show some appreciation. He was grateful when she put it aside in a chair.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, fussing with brushing his bangs out of his face. Naruto's lip curled.

"Just fine," he said, gently pushing her hands away, and studiously ignoring Sakura's deepening glower. Obviously, she didn't like being ignored when she was expecting drama. He would have to keep that in mind. The red color in her face was actually quite… "Thank you. How are you?"

"I'm not the one who was shot!" Hinata said, pulling up a chair. "Are you in a lot of pain?"

"No," Sasuke said, and resisted the urge to shrug. He had tried earlier today and it had left his vision white. "Although you'd think I'd been tortured from the way the blond goes on about it. He's been forcing nutritious mush down my throat, and hiding my paperwork."

"The horror."

"You see, she agrees with me."

"Well I can only commend you," Sakura said to Naruto, inserting herself into the conversation. "Patients can be so hard to deal with."

"He's a whiner," Naruto assured her. "'I want this, I want that, the temperature's not right, it's exhausting."

Sasuke frowned at him. "Because you're so congenial."

"I—"

"Sasuke!" Hinata gasped suddenly. "You're bleeding!"

Sasuke looked down, and sighed in annoyance. He had popped stitches. Joy.

"It's fine," he said calmly, resisting the urge to poke at his stomach. Tsunade had said the organs were still very tender—likely to bruise or bleed if prodded too much. "I clot quickly."

"Popped stitches?" Sakura asked, already moving forward with single-minded determination. Her eyes were fixed on the darkening patch of his shirt. "From the yelling, probably."

"You heard that?" Naruto asked guiltily. "Oh… well, I can explain…"

"Yelling at someone who is sick is never a good idea."

"Well, actually, he was yelling at me…"

"Naruto," Hinata interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We should probably stay out of it."

Naruto looked dazed, and Sasuke knew it was from the contact. He nearly rolled his eyes. Pathetic loser.

Cool hands lifted up his shirt, and Sasuke barely stopped himself from jumping at the contact. Sakura's green eyes were focused, her long fingers sure, and he noticed that she smelled good—like apples.

"You're not going to be ripping my guts out are you?" He asked.

She blushed a little, a faint flush of pink on her cheeks, and Sasuke stared. Her blush matched her hair, and her lips, and that color couldn't be natural…

She looked up, her mouth half open to say something, and he found himself staring right into her eyes, which had little flecks of a darker green in them, like shadowed leaves. He licked his lips, and her gaze flicked to his mouth, back to his eyes and-

"Ahem," Naruto said, and Sasuke blinked, almost getting whiplash as he looked up at Naruto. He was grinning, and Hinata was politely interested in the garden outside. "Hinata agreed to stay for dinner, so we're going to run down and grab some supplies. Can you two… play nice while we're gone?"

Laugh, and I will roast you, Sasuke promised silently, and Naruto's cheeks puffed out as he tried to restrain himself.

"Well, um, I—I need—I mean! Um, yeah actually, I need some needle and thread… and um… disinfectant. Yeah. Disinfectant," Sakura stuttered, hands snatching back from the bottom of his shirt like she had been burned. "Yup. Those."

"Naruto, would you mind showing Sakura where those things are?" Hinata asked politely.

Leave was the unspoken message, and Sasuke hoped she wasn't going to try to talk to him about Sakura. That would be awkward.

Sakura all but ran from the room and Naruto followed, still grinning manically, leaving Hinata alone with him. She sat down on the bed.

"Sasuke," she started.

"Let me guess," Sasuke interrupted. "If I hurt Sakura—"

"No," Hinata interrupted. "Just some general warnings. She has a very stressful schedule, and just because she suddenly hangs up on you or doesn't talk to you for days doesn't mean she hates you. Also, she knows some martial arts and if you sneak up on her while she's tired, she might blacken your eye, so don't do that, and—"

"You're… warning me about her?"

"Yes," Hinata said firmly. "She can also be very, very protective because she's used to it. She will hurt you if you hurt her. Just… keep that in mind."

Sasuke felt like laughing. He could blow fire, turn rock into powder, and call lightning from the sky—and she was worried Sakura was going to punch him?

"I'll keep that in mind," Sasuke assured her, and she nodded happily.

"I'll go to the store then while she stitches you up," she said, gliding to the door. She paused in the doorway, looking back. "Oh, and Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"You hurt her, and she's not the only one you'll have to answer to."

oOo

Author's Notes: Please review!