Naruto: Blind

"Waiting for someone?" he echoed, but not saying anything more. The silence was enough to suggest that he was ordering her to explain.

"Before I can train you in the new method, I want to see how well your fighting skills have become," she explained lightly, letting the smell of the grass fill her nostrils, "I got a couple of people lined up to fight you this morning. Depending on how that goes, I either will or will not teach you the new technique."

"You've fought me," he emphasized, and she opened one eye to peer at his expression, "You should know how I fight."

"That's precisely why I want someone else to fight you," she replied, opening both eyes and pulling herself into a sitting position, "In your current state, you can't hope to beat me on your basic senses, but your basic senses have gotten you pretty far. I don't know how far, because I'm skilled enough not to be defeated by you. I want to know which skill level you can defeat."

"When is my opponent expected to arrive?" he sounded grouchy still; she smiled good-naturedly at his attitude, he was irritated at having her mention that he couldn't beat her.

"In about ten more minutes," she replied, feeling the back of her head for any grass that might have caught itself in her hair, "There's plenty of time, but not enough time to train."

"A strategically placed break," he muttered to himself and she smiled despite herself.

"Okay, stop dwelling on it," she reprimanded playfully, "Let's talk about something else."

"Like what?"

"Your birthday's soon," she said conversationally, "The twenty-third if I recall correctly."

He tensed slightly, a trace of confusion passing over his face, "How did you know that?"

She smiled in amusement at his reaction, and squeezed his hand, "It was printed on all the medical files at the hospital. It was blaring out at me the whole time you were recovering; I just decided to keep that little piece of information in mind. But that's not the point. What do you want to do for your birthday?"

"It doesn't matter," he replied evenly, "It has never been an important day for me."

"Oh come on, Sasuke," she frowned in disapproval, "You don't turn seventeen every day. What do you want to do for your birthday?"

"I said it doesn't matt—"

Sakura pinched his hand lightly in disapproval, "I asked you what you wanted to do for your birthday; can you at least give it a serious thought?"

Sasuke tilted his head downward in consideration, and she frowned slightly at this behaviour. Surely it wasn't so hard to think of what one wanted for their birthday. But he had also said that it had never been important to him before—sadness pooled in the pit of her stomach. It probably wasn't an important day because he had never had anyone to spend it with for the longest time. She didn't recall him ever mentioning his birthday when they were genin—but it would have been during the Chuunin Exam, so he was most likely busy training anyways.

"I suppose if I want to do anything…" he started; Sakura's interest piqued and she peered intently at him.

"Yes?"

"I want to go on a mission," he finished after her prompt.

Sakura smiled softly at him, even though he couldn't see it. "I'll see what I can do," she told him tenderly, doing her best to portray her expression through voice.

Sasuke suddenly grabbed a weapon from his pouch and threw it at the foliage of the nearest tree, a dark frown appearing swiftly on his face. Sakura herself was stunned for a split second, until she heard the panicked shout from behind the tree's leaves. There was another shout, but this one was indignant; after a moment, two figures dropped down from the branches, causing Sakura to frown in displeasure as well.

"Oi! Teme, that was uncalled for!" Naruto shouted at the glowering Uchiha, waving a fist unnecessarily.

"I would think that eavesdropping merits it appropriate," Sasuke replied coldly, a glare cast in Naruto's direction.

"Yeah, well watch where you're throwing those things next time—" Naruto blurted out, then caught himself, "Er, I mean, look out before yo—I mean, don't throw them blindly—ack, I…uh…"

"Naruto," Sakura stated sharply, glaring almost worse than Sasuke was, "Stop talking. Now."

Naruto promptly shut his mouth and fidgeted nervously. He seemed to find the combination of Sasuke's trademark glare and Sakura's own deadly glare a little disquieting. Deciding to change the topic of conversation, he indicated to the other figure present.

"Sasuke almost hit this guy here," he said after a second, "I brought him just like you asked me, Sakura-chan. Iruka-sensei says he's the best this year."

Sakura turned a friendly smile to the other person, dropping the glare which she had previously fixed on Naruto. There was nothing particularly special about this person, save that he was eleven, if not twelve, years old. Yesterday when she had been out shopping, she had stopped by the Academy on her way home to ask to borrow Iruka-sensei's best student, promising not to damage him too badly. While Sakura was out doing this, Sasuke was spending time with Naruto, Kiba and Lee—of course Sasuke wanted to train, but Sakura pointed out that the fridge did not fill itself and that she felt that he needed to spend time with his friends. Being isolated from people was not psychologically healthy, and it kind of showed in Sasuke, who had been isolated and alone for most of his life.

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