R E S I S T A N C E

the T R U T H : I K N O W

I stood in front of the door to Sasuke's room, holding a unopened bottle of sake in one hand and two ceramic cups in the other. I was frozen in thought, staring down with worried eyes at the brass doorknob separating me from the conversation I was about to have.

Should I just barge in? Should I knock? Would he even be in here?

I cursed myself silently. I didn't know how to go about this. I'd never had to have any sort of confrontation of this nature before, and nervousness was filling my mind because of it. I even went down to the small cafeteria off of the lobby and bought sake to hopefully calm my heart rate, but I was starting to have my doubts about that too.

Should I just turn around and forget the whole thing? What was I afraid of? I mean, Karin seemed very sure about how Sasuke felt. And even if I wasn't one hundred percent convinced that she was right, did I really have anything to lose? My mouth went dry.

No, I suppose I didn't.

Taking a deep breath, I juggled the items in my arms and reached for the door handle. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly before pushing the door open without warning.

The first thing my eyes landed on was Killer Bee sitting unconscious in the far corner of the room. He was still wrapped in Sasuke's tattered Akatsuki cloak, but now his forehead held a seal that kept him incapacitated until we were ready to hand him over to Tobi.

"Sasuke, I need to talk to you," I said with determination, closing and locking his door behind me to ensure that we wouldn't be interrupted.

The Uchiha was sitting on his bed over the covers, eyeing my hand slightly as I turned the latch on his lock. When I entered, he was looking out of the window on the far side of the room, probably lost in thought as he usually was. His hair appeared slightly damp, as if he had just taken a shower, and he wore a plain black shirt that I had never seen before. It was probably the first time that I witnessed him wearing anything without a high collar, and it gave me the perfect view of the droplets of water running down the side of his neck.

"Now is not the time Ayuka," he dismissed me, turning his head back to the window.

I gritted my teeth and took another deep breath before walking over to him and grabbing his arm, yanking him up from the mattress.

"H-hey," he winced as he was forced to stand, clearly still recovering from having the front of his chest blown out. I supposed I should have cared more about that, but I was determined to make him pay attention to me.

"I'm not taking no for an answer," I told him sternly. His eyes met mine, giving me an angry expression before he dropped his gaze to the sake bottle in my other hand. He looked back up at me, slightly less annoyed, and cocked an eyebrow in a silent question.

My only response was to drop his arm from my grip and turn toward the small circular table across from his bed. I sat in one of the chairs in a huff and set the items on the table, motioning for him to join me.

"Sit," I commanded, twisting the cap of the sake bottle. He stood in place for a moment, staring at me in confusion before complying and making his way over to the chair opposite me. I tried to hide the surprise I felt as I quickly poured the alcohol into one of the cups.

He actually listened.

Bracing myself, I tossed my head back and drank the stinging liquid before anything else happened.

"You drive me mad, you know that?" I asked, looking him in the eye. He was doing that thing again, where he was searching my face for something that I appeared to be missing.

"I could say the same about you," he answered, scoffing as he looked away and lifted his hand to take the sake bottle from me. He poured its contents into the cup on his side of the table and drank the liquid without question. This time, I couldn't hide my surprise as my eyes widened slightly.