Things had been going well, and Sano had just started working on tying Yuffie's ankles together when she woke up and immediately assumed the wrong thing. Again.

"Damn it, calm down Ninja Girl!" Yuffie thrashing around didn't exactly make his goal an easy one; really, it kept it from being possible at all. So Sano changed tactics, moving to one side of the girl when she rolled and reaching out to grab her waist. "I'm not trying to be perverted here!"

Though it did probably look really wrong, especially from Yuffie's point of view. But Sano didn't mean it that way! If Ninja Girl would just stay still and stop struggling...

Obviously, thinking along these lines was not going to do Sanosuke much good. So he focused on his strong point, and that was physical. Just not like that. "I'm just trying to keep you from jumping into the middle of something. It's already bad enough as it is!"

Bad enough, but not beyond hope. Kenshin had said he wasn't going to kill Okita, and that was a good thing. But if Yuffie got involved and got hurt or worse, then the line would be crossed. Sano knew that better than just about anyone, but Okita knowing that at all was a really fucking bad thing, especially if he wanted to get the Battousai out of Kenshin.

So for now, Sano kept trying to hold Yuffie down.