"Tell me, how do you feel about Sakura living with you?" her father continued as if there was nothing wrong. His wife was now incessantly kicking him under the table, but he continued to ignore her.
Meanwhile, Sakura was now tracing patterns onto his palm, forming the characters of words, and slowly he realized she was writing something into the palm of his hand.
'Don't tell him anything you don't want to,' was what she had quickly scrawled on his skin.
"She is very helpful," Sasuke replied honestly to the question asked of him, closing his hand over Sakura's under the table, "She has helped me come quite far in the way of becoming accustomed to being blind. She has done much more for me than I expected of her, keeping the house clean, cooking, and shopping along with rehabilitation and training. Additionally, she is good company to have around."
Sasuke could feel Sakura's wrist go slack under the table; she had been worried about his response, he realized. He squeezed her hand in what he hoped she would interpret as a reassuring manner; did she really feel that he didn't want her around?
"And how are rehabilitation and training coming?"
It was Sakura who answered the question: "It's going fine, things are running smoothly and improved tremendously in such a short time. I'm glad with the progress we've made."
There was a contemplative pause from Sakura's father, "So how long do expect before his training is complete?"
Another swift kick was delivered under the table and Sakura's voice sounded slightly irritated when she replied. "I can't rightly say. It could be anywhere from a month to three months."
"I see… May I ask you something, Sasuke?"
"You may," he replied without emotion, his patience the older man thinning.
"Why do you insist on being a shinobi? You are at a clear disadvantage, one that you clearly cannot recover from completely," the statement was said in a conversational manner, but the tension in the room seem to thicken, if that was possible, "What are you trying to accomplish through this rehab? Why stay a ninja?"
"I have a certain goal in my life that can only be accomplished through the shinobi lifestyle," Sasuke replied impassively.
"Uh-huh… And is there any particular reason why Sakura is the one who is assisting you in training?"
"I asked her assistance," the frustration he felt was bordering on anger, and he put his free hand on his knee, squeezing it to prevent himself from doing anything stupid.
"Yes, and I agreed to help him," Sakura stated firmly, sounding very irritated.
"I'm just asking," her father stated in a wounded tone, "Things seem to be going just fine. And Sasuke seems to be making excellent progress."
The way that Sakura's father was speaking about the issue strongly suggested that he was leading up to one main point—a thing that Sasuke was already convinced that he did not wish to hear.
"I'd like to see how far you've come," the older man continued, acting as if nothing was the matter, "I think that I should perhaps stay an evening at the Uchiha household—just to see how things are going."
"What?" Sakura asked, sounding absolutely dumbfounded, "You want to stay over at our house?"
"It's Sasuke's house, Sakura," her father corrected his daughter firmly, "And I don't see why not. You've both stated that things are well at the house, that progress is good, and that you're both okay with the arrangements. It sounds like nothing inappropriate has happened—"
Sasuke felt his strong dislike towards the older man double, while Kanaye snorted in nervous amusement. Beside him, he could almost feel waves of displeasure radiating off of Sakura, and it seemed like her mother had had enough.
"Perhaps this is not the best time to discuss this, dear," she cut in sharply, her voice dropping a broad hint.
"No, no," Sasuke found himself saying, though he did not know why. Perhaps it was because he wished to find out Sakura's father's full intent, or maybe he just did not want to appear like he was backing out of the situation, "let him finish."
Sakura's displeasure seemed to have been entirely replaced with agitation as she squeezed his hand apprehensively. All sets of eyes turned to where he was sitting, but he kept his face impassive.
"I just want to make sure that things are as you say they are," Sakura's father stated mellowly, the statement sounding more like a threat, "I'll come over tomorrow evening."
"Not tomorrow," Sakura interjected suddenly, "We're very busy, Dad, and I need time to set up a place for you to sleep, and to get extra food to feed an extra person. I won't have enough time for it to be ready by tomorrow."
"Not to mention that you have mission reports to fill and file," Sakura's mother added in, "The Hokage-sama wants those by Tuesday at the very latest."
"Okay, okay," came the grumbled reply, "Wednesday then, unless Kanaye can think of something that I have to do on that day."
"Um," Kanaye sounded like he had been jerked out distant thoughts, most likely having tuned out of the conversation in order to avoid involvement, "Uh…you promised to water the back lawn…?"
The statement clearly said that he pulled the notion off the top of his head, and would have been funny under any other circumstances. While intending to lighten the mood, Sasuke supposed he appreciated the small contribution in delaying the inevitable inspection.
"Wednesday—it's settled then."
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