Chapter 128

"Dad, this is my mission right now—my task," she spoke calmly and evenly, "I will stick to it until its end, and until then, nothing else should come first."

"This may be your task, but I'm sure Hokage-sama doesn't want your abilities to fall either. You've worked hard to make it to where you are, Sakura, don't lose it all now to ill-placed devotion," her father's voice was cold and severe.

Sakura said nothing in return to this comment, and Sasuke only remained quietly seething due to the pressure Sakura was applying to the hand she held. He was ready to launch into a full-blown argument with Sakura's bastard of a father. It wasn't his place to make the call on whether Sakura stayed or left. Who was he to come to this house and then criticize how she lived? His angry thoughts got exponentially worse.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, her father turned walked past the both of them and into the house. Sakura continued to remain still, and out of concern Sasuke turned his head slightly towards her, forcing himself to push his thoughts away. The lack of argument from her had him worried; did she really believe that she was weak? Or did she agree with her father on the ill-placed devotion?

It wasn't until a few minutes later that she finally spoke. It was a long string of fiercely muttered obscenities—something he had only heard once before: right after dinner last Saturday evening. This was the side of Sakura he didn't see that often, which was probably for the better—this side of her partially emerged when Naruto was being stupid, and came fully into the open when she was extremely angry. This was Demoness Sakura sitting next to him now.

"Losing my skill due to ill-placed devotion?!" she hissed violently to herself, "I'll show him who's grown weaker—next time he won't know what hit him."

Her vocabulary deteriorated from there, gradually growing worse as she swore more oaths to herself. Inside himself though, Sasuke found himself a little relieved by all this. She was alright, and she did not agree at all with her father's words. He didn't know when exactly it happened, but he wasn't mad with her any longer—it didn't matter anymore, what was done was done. To remain angry with her would only be stupid, not to mention put them both in ill favor with her father. And now, as he sat next to her, listening to her alternate personality continue to mutter curse words to herself, he found a need to pass her father's judgment. He didn't know why, and didn't care at this point, but he wanted her nearby.

It was late evening when Sakura finally bid farewell to her father at the front gates at the Uchiha manor. Rather glad to be rid of him, she said her pleasant goodbyes, reassuring him that she would be alright—though inwardly she was still raging at him for believing her weak. However, her anger was thrown off when he waved off her reassurances and told her that he was no longer worried for her while she stayed with Sasuke.

"He came to your side after you lost the match, to see if you were okay," he had said, sounding like he was reluctantly admitting it to her, "I used to be concerned that while you stayed with him, that you would both be misbehaving—" he had ignored the aghast noise she had let out at this point, "—but after meeting him that wasn't what I was worried about anymore. I was worried that he might mistreat you, or act ungrateful for your help. But when he went to see if you were hurt, I realized that I didn't need to worry about it. I still think your devotion is misplaced, and don't think that you can stay here any longer than you have to just because I'm not so worried anymore. Anyways, your mother is probably waiting, so I'm going to take off. See you later, Sakura."

He had departed shortly afterwards. Now she was walking back along the side of the house, the sunlight filtering in gently down from the end of the path. When she reached the corner, she paused at the edge of the veranda and looked out over the yard. After a moments pause, she turned her gaze over to Sasuke who was sitting on the porch's edge a little ways down from where she was standing. She let out a small sigh, still the feeling of guilt knowing in her gut. If she apologized for opening Itachi's room, would he get even angrier with her for mentioning it again?

'Screw it,' she thought wearily to herself, taking a few steps towards him, 'I'll just apologize one more time to show that I mean it. If he doesn't want to talk more about it then…'

She came to a stop about a meter away from him and observed his quiet form for a minute before daring to speak. "My father's gone now. We pass his inspection—just thought you should know."

He gave a grunt in return, but otherwise said nothing to her. Sakura felt a grim look pass over her face, somewhat discouraged by his cold demeanor.

"Sasuke…" she started quietly, "About opening Itachi's room… I really am sorry."

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