Sasuke waited.

Nothing moved in the dingy, little room, except for an ant crawling across the cracked linoleum of the kitchenette, dragging a big crumb towards some unseen hole. Sasuke didn't stir.

Maybe there was something more he could have said, something more he could have done to persuade them...Not joining up with Orochimaru would have been a good start to that last list. That had come up during his interview. Repeatedly. 'Interview'...more of an interrogation, and Sasuke had been at Ibiki's less than tender mercies when he'd returned to Konoha last year, he knew what he was talking about.

Sasuke had stopped second-guessing himself hours ago. The chances had been slim from the start. At this point, he expected nothing. He waited.

The minutes ticked by, timed to his pulse, the only watch he needed. He'd been sitting on that small bed, back to the wall, arms on his knees, while the last six hours dragged by like the ant crawling across the kitchen floor, overwhelmed by the size of its environment and its task.

Something struck the door, a hard, sharp blow.

Sasuke was off the bed in an instant, fingers slamming together to form the Tiger seal, a habit he'd picked up in the last few years. But the door didn't burst open, there was no attack. He'd heard no footsteps in the hallway outside, felt no sense of presence.

It had to be them. It had to be their answer.

Sasuke walked towards the door without hesitation.

It swung open with a creak and a hard pull; the wood warped on all but the driest of days.

There was nobody in the hallway, of course.

A kunai had been slammed into the door's cheap wood, cracking the veneer.

From the blade piercing its large strap, a mask swung back and forth with a faint scratching noise as it brushed the door. It was white with two orange streaks, in the stylised shape of a dog. The mask of an ANBU.

Sasuke lifted it up gently away from the wood, stopping its pendulum motion.

They'd given him their answer.

He was in.