Welcome Home
Title: Welcome Home
Rating: PG?
Wordcount: ~2300
Warnings: None? Near-future-fic, so almost definitely A/R. Pretty much Gen, though you can read it as KakaSasu, if you like ^^
Summary: Kakashi's dreams about Sasuke didn't mean anything. Nothing that he needed to worry about. Nothing that he needed to think about.
Written for the Homecoming prompt at copycock .
Kakashi didn't think too much about Sasuke, these days.
Oh, in the abstract, he thought about him plenty - in diplomatic terms, in military terms. Mathematical terms. Sasuke had become an unknown quantity to him, a variable to be solved for in all his strategic calculations.
So perhaps Kakashi did think about him. But he didn't reminisce about him... he didn't think back to the good times, and go all quiet and sad like Sakura, or clench his fists like Naruto. He didn't join in, the few times he'd joined them for dinner, and they'd started up a conversation; when they'd remembered together, out loud, that one time when Sasuke had shared his lunch when Naruto'd forgotten his, or that time Sasuke had given Sakura a new kunai holster as a gift when the fastener on hers wore out from overuse. As if talking about the old Sasuke would somehow keep him in existence - as if sharing anecdotes about his humanity would keep him human. As if.
Kakashi didn't harbor any such illusions. Sasuke had chosen his path, and he was well down it, and he'd come to the end of it soon. One way or another, his life as an Avenger would end.
Kakashi had accepted this, and he didn't reminisce, didn't hold any false hopes, didn't let his pulse race when there was word of another sighting.
He knew he'd probably never see the boy again.
But he dreamed.
That overflow valve for a strangled psyche, it fed him images of his wayward pupil, ones that sometimes woke him in the quietest hours of the night, shaking and cold.
He dreamed of Sasuke returned in chains, paraded through the streets to be scorned by the villagers as a traitor, and then locked away. He dreamed of Sasuke alone in the dark in the rain, looking up at the sky with blind eyes. He dreamed of Sasuke meeting him secretly in a grove of trees, to confess and gain forgiveness from the one person from whom he needed it.
This dream had Kakashi laughing when he awoke, laughing sadly at the egotistical presumption of his subconscious, and then rolling back over and sleeping through most of the day.
He dreamed of watching Sasuke die, he dreamed of healing Sasuke. He dreamed of keeping watch over Sasuke, the two of them crammed into his little apartment for weeks, months, years. He dreamed of Sasuke lost, of Sasuke found, of Sasuke living in the village as if he'd never left.
None of it meant anything, of course. It was just flotsam, detritus, vapor. Nothing that he should worry about.
Nothing that he needed to think about.
Not that he had time to think; the Fourth Great Ninja War had truly begun, and he was neck-deep in it. War Commander wasn't a job that one could muddle through half-awake, not a post that allowed for tardiness. For the past few weeks, his novels had been abandoned on the folding table beside his cot, which had hardly been slept in (and when he did manage a few hours of sleep, he awoke with the vivid image of Sasuke holding a blade to his throat burned to the backs of his eyelids).
He planned. He delegated. He directed troops. He kept the Raikage and the Mizukage from each others' throats even once they began sharing a tent. He almost lost Gai, when he sent him up against Kisame - but as he'd hoped, he ended up gaining another ally, one with powers approaching those of the jinchuuriki.
He did lose a few. More than a few, to be truthful, but many, many less than he could have lost.
He thought Minato would have been proud.
They were planning for another exploratory thrust into Madara's territory when the reports began trickling in. Madara was sighted - Leaf shinobi had crossed into enemy territory against orders. In his tent, Kakashi sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair, knowing exactly who it must have been; he'd put Naruto in charge of that company himself. In the face of some strident protests, to be sure, but he was after all the War Commander. And he had his reasons.
More reports came in as comm lines were opened closer to the action. Naruto had outpaced his men and had engaged the enemy. Naruto was losing ground. Naruto had taken grievous injuries - but had been healed, and was still in combat.
And then the reports became a flood.
Sasuke had been sighted. Sasuke was at the scene of Naruto's fight.
Sasuke was fighting at Naruto's side.
At that, something in Kakashi's chest, something he'd been holding in for years, burst, and he sucked in a deep breath and kept his finger pressed against his earpiece, so as not to miss a single syllable, a single burst of static. And he couldn't help but think about Sasuke now, after all those years of purposefully, consciously not thinking about him, because now -- Naruto and Sasuke were fighting brilliantly, beautifully enough that he could hear it in the inflections of his contacts' voices.
They were fighting together like they'd been born to do so.
And they were losing.
And Kakashi thought he finally understood. After twenty years, he really got it. Because although his leadership was important - entire armies were counting on him - although his obligations to his village, to his country, to the world, were so heavy that breaking them in this way could make him a traitor as surely as ever Sasuke was - although he knew that there were plenty of men at the front who could step in and assist his faltering students - there was nothing that could keep him from going there himself.
Even if it meant his death.
His earpiece squawked on his desk, still warm from his skin, as he flashed through campgrounds, over hillsides, following the impossible conflagration of chakra to the east. Dark clouds churned overhead and raindrops drilled into his exposed cheekbone, his velocity turning the gentle shower into high-pressure needles of water.
The scene of the battle was indescribable. Kakashi's senses couldn't even translate for him what was happening; there were layers upon layers of illusion, all warped by three distinct chakra signatures, each one a distorting maelstrom around its user. The forms of Madara, Naruto and Sasuke shimmered and stretched as Kakashi approached, all of them moving slowly, their motions disjointed.
Until Kakashi pushed through an invisible wall, and stood gasping as the immense weight of chakra crushed him. Pulling in a tortured breath, he shoved his hitae-ate up over his eye and rapidly evaluated the situation. Naruto was howling, his hair and clothing whipped into a frenzy by a fierce wind that encircled him, his fingers hooked into claws, glowing with energy - Sasuke was silent and pale as a sheet, his face set in a tortured rictus, fans of blood smeared across his cheeks and electricity arcing blue over his skin, as he prepared to make one more stand against - Madara, who stood on higher ground, his face a mask of cold contempt. Madara raised his hands to form a seal and -
"Raikiri!" Kakashi's voice was thunder as he hurled himself at Madara like a spear. It wasn't enough to even hurt him, Kakashi knew, only enough to give Naruto and Sasuke one second, two if he was lucky, and -
***
Kakashi cracked open a gummy eyelid to see the familiar ceiling of the Konoha hospital. He was, inexplicably, home. He breathed in, closed his eye, breathed out.
Opened his eye.
Sakura and Gai leaned in with almost identical gasps, and almost identical expressions of joyous surprise on their faces. The sudden oddness of it made Kakashi bark a short, quickly-regretted laugh.
"Be careful, my rival, you've only just awoken. I know you're overjoyed to see us, but save your exhortations for when you are healed!"
They bustled around him, two mother hens who were happy to have a chick to coddle.
"You've been out for two months, sensei." Sakura checked his pulse and made a notation, then glared at him. "We've been worried sick."
We. Could mean Sakura and Gai. Could mean Sakura and Naruto. Could mean lots of things.
It could mean - Team Seven. All of Team Seven.
Kakashi looked at Sakura, and she must have read the question in his expression, because her frown softened into a gentle smile. Even Gai calmed, and he stilled at Kakashi's side.
"He's back, sensei," she said quietly.
Kakashi closed his eye.
And submitted to the darkness that tugged him under, and dreamed of Sasuke, his so-young face fierce with determination, his right arm already blackened with chakra-burns all the way past his elbow as he tried again. And again, and again, and again.
***
Naruto stood at the foot of his bed, his hands behind his back, his body nearly shaking with energy.
"Good morning, Naruto-kun," Kakashi rasped through a dry throat.
Naruto didn't answer, but his face burst into a smile. He produced the distinctive Hokage hat from behind his back with a flourish.
Kakashi experienced a moment of confusion, and he was about to repeat his protests from what felt like a lifetime before, to say No, I don't want it, give it to someone else. Then Naruto settled the wide hat onto his own blond head, and Kakashi relaxed back into his pillow and smiled.
"Good morning, Hokage-sama," Kakashi murmured, determinedly not thinking about... anything at all. For that one moment, he was purely happy for Naruto. He could be self-absorbed and trapped in the past some other time.
"Looks good on me, doesn't it?" Naruto asked, planting his hands on his hips.
"Hmm... doesn't quite go with the... rest of the outfit," Kakashi said dryly, gesturing with the tip of his nose at the blindingly orange jumpsuit. It was all the gesturing he could do, at the moment. And it was all he could do to not ask, to not ruin Naruto's moment.
Naruto squinted at him. "You're still all messed up, aren't you?"
Kakashi made a non-committal noise.
"Well!" Naruto dropped himself into the chair beside Kakashi's hospital bed. "I've got some more good news."
Kakashi could feel his heart slamming in his chest.
"You get to go home today! Isn't that great?"
It was indeed. Kakashi passively allowed the hospital staff to inject something or other into him and then bundle him up for transport, focused on the next things Naruto had told him - that it was Sasuke who saved his life on the battlefield (and he'd had to fight to get to Kakashi's fallen body, and he'd shown a remarkable proficiency for the kind of healing arts Kakashi had needed). And that Sasuke was pardoned, for his assistance in vanquishing Madara, for his full cooperation in unraveling the Mad Uchiha's schemes and dissolving the remainder of his forces; allowed back into Konohagakure with only a few special conditions.
"You'll get to see him soon," Naruto promised as a pair of burly med-nin lifted Kakashi onto a litter with extreme delicacy. The room spun as the medication sank its teeth into him, and Kakashi's head lolled to the side when his litter was lifted for transport.
"You've got to have somebody with you, to take care of you, for at least a few weeks," Naruto explained in the corridor. "You did just come out of a coma, after all."
Kakashi grunted. Better to be at home, at any rate, even if he was going to be poked and prodded for a while. Almost anything was better than the hospital.
***
The sunshine blinded Kakashi when they emerged into the street, and mixed with the sedative crawling through his system, made him feel nauseous and light-headed. The close darkness of his apartment was a welcome relief. Kakashi barely felt his body when he was lifted onto this bed.
And then he realized that he was, as Naruto had so eloquently put it, still all messed up. Because he didn't notice until Naruto ushered out the pair of med-nin that there was another person in his apartment, standing in the corner of his little kitchen.
"Sasuke," he breathed, and he blinked in disbelief.
"Kakashi," Sasuke answered, his voice cool, and deeper than Kakashi remembered.
Kakashi blinked again, and he felt himself smiling under his mask. He closed his eye and let his dizzy head rest on his pillow.
"This has got to be a dream," Kakashi said to himself, and he laughed softly.
"Don't be stupid, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said, and there was a scrape of metal rings over the curtain rod, and sunlight glowed red through Kakashi's closed eyelid.
After a moment, Naruto spoke up again.
"Well, anyway, I've got to get going. Hokage stuff, you know."
Kakashi cracked his eye open to see Naruto grinning widely at Sasuke, and Sasuke... not grinning back, but not frowning, either.
"I'll let you two catch up," Naruto said. "Welcome home, Kakashi-sensei."
With one more bright smile at the two of them, Naruto tore himself away, and the apartment was silent for several long seconds after the door closed behind him while Kakashi and Sasuke stared at each other. And then Kakashi glanced around at the folded futon beside his desk, and the medical equipment on his bedside table, and he sighed.
"So I take it you'll be the one taking care of me," he said, his eye arcing up into a grin.
Sasuke made a little hmph sound in his throat, and then he shrugged. "Looks like it."
"You know, I never dreamed it would go this way," Kakashi said, his voice rough, his words slurred.
The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched up, and he seated himself on the edge of Kakashi's bed.
Kakashi was drifting off to sleep when he heard Sasuke say quietly, "Neither did I."
END
___________
A/N: This might not be totally different from what I usually write, but it sure feels like it is! Please feel free to point out any typos, bad grammar, etc. Any kind of feedback is appreciated! ^___^
Rating: PG?
Wordcount: ~2300
Warnings: None? Near-future-fic, so almost definitely A/R. Pretty much Gen, though you can read it as KakaSasu, if you like ^^
Summary: Kakashi's dreams about Sasuke didn't mean anything. Nothing that he needed to worry about. Nothing that he needed to think about.
Written for the Homecoming prompt at copycock .
Kakashi didn't think too much about Sasuke, these days.
Oh, in the abstract, he thought about him plenty - in diplomatic terms, in military terms. Mathematical terms. Sasuke had become an unknown quantity to him, a variable to be solved for in all his strategic calculations.
So perhaps Kakashi did think about him. But he didn't reminisce about him... he didn't think back to the good times, and go all quiet and sad like Sakura, or clench his fists like Naruto. He didn't join in, the few times he'd joined them for dinner, and they'd started up a conversation; when they'd remembered together, out loud, that one time when Sasuke had shared his lunch when Naruto'd forgotten his, or that time Sasuke had given Sakura a new kunai holster as a gift when the fastener on hers wore out from overuse. As if talking about the old Sasuke would somehow keep him in existence - as if sharing anecdotes about his humanity would keep him human. As if.
Kakashi didn't harbor any such illusions. Sasuke had chosen his path, and he was well down it, and he'd come to the end of it soon. One way or another, his life as an Avenger would end.
Kakashi had accepted this, and he didn't reminisce, didn't hold any false hopes, didn't let his pulse race when there was word of another sighting.
He knew he'd probably never see the boy again.
But he dreamed.
That overflow valve for a strangled psyche, it fed him images of his wayward pupil, ones that sometimes woke him in the quietest hours of the night, shaking and cold.
He dreamed of Sasuke returned in chains, paraded through the streets to be scorned by the villagers as a traitor, and then locked away. He dreamed of Sasuke alone in the dark in the rain, looking up at the sky with blind eyes. He dreamed of Sasuke meeting him secretly in a grove of trees, to confess and gain forgiveness from the one person from whom he needed it.
This dream had Kakashi laughing when he awoke, laughing sadly at the egotistical presumption of his subconscious, and then rolling back over and sleeping through most of the day.
He dreamed of watching Sasuke die, he dreamed of healing Sasuke. He dreamed of keeping watch over Sasuke, the two of them crammed into his little apartment for weeks, months, years. He dreamed of Sasuke lost, of Sasuke found, of Sasuke living in the village as if he'd never left.
None of it meant anything, of course. It was just flotsam, detritus, vapor. Nothing that he should worry about.
Nothing that he needed to think about.
Not that he had time to think; the Fourth Great Ninja War had truly begun, and he was neck-deep in it. War Commander wasn't a job that one could muddle through half-awake, not a post that allowed for tardiness. For the past few weeks, his novels had been abandoned on the folding table beside his cot, which had hardly been slept in (and when he did manage a few hours of sleep, he awoke with the vivid image of Sasuke holding a blade to his throat burned to the backs of his eyelids).
He planned. He delegated. He directed troops. He kept the Raikage and the Mizukage from each others' throats even once they began sharing a tent. He almost lost Gai, when he sent him up against Kisame - but as he'd hoped, he ended up gaining another ally, one with powers approaching those of the jinchuuriki.
He did lose a few. More than a few, to be truthful, but many, many less than he could have lost.
He thought Minato would have been proud.
They were planning for another exploratory thrust into Madara's territory when the reports began trickling in. Madara was sighted - Leaf shinobi had crossed into enemy territory against orders. In his tent, Kakashi sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair, knowing exactly who it must have been; he'd put Naruto in charge of that company himself. In the face of some strident protests, to be sure, but he was after all the War Commander. And he had his reasons.
More reports came in as comm lines were opened closer to the action. Naruto had outpaced his men and had engaged the enemy. Naruto was losing ground. Naruto had taken grievous injuries - but had been healed, and was still in combat.
And then the reports became a flood.
Sasuke had been sighted. Sasuke was at the scene of Naruto's fight.
Sasuke was fighting at Naruto's side.
At that, something in Kakashi's chest, something he'd been holding in for years, burst, and he sucked in a deep breath and kept his finger pressed against his earpiece, so as not to miss a single syllable, a single burst of static. And he couldn't help but think about Sasuke now, after all those years of purposefully, consciously not thinking about him, because now -- Naruto and Sasuke were fighting brilliantly, beautifully enough that he could hear it in the inflections of his contacts' voices.
They were fighting together like they'd been born to do so.
And they were losing.
And Kakashi thought he finally understood. After twenty years, he really got it. Because although his leadership was important - entire armies were counting on him - although his obligations to his village, to his country, to the world, were so heavy that breaking them in this way could make him a traitor as surely as ever Sasuke was - although he knew that there were plenty of men at the front who could step in and assist his faltering students - there was nothing that could keep him from going there himself.
Even if it meant his death.
His earpiece squawked on his desk, still warm from his skin, as he flashed through campgrounds, over hillsides, following the impossible conflagration of chakra to the east. Dark clouds churned overhead and raindrops drilled into his exposed cheekbone, his velocity turning the gentle shower into high-pressure needles of water.
The scene of the battle was indescribable. Kakashi's senses couldn't even translate for him what was happening; there were layers upon layers of illusion, all warped by three distinct chakra signatures, each one a distorting maelstrom around its user. The forms of Madara, Naruto and Sasuke shimmered and stretched as Kakashi approached, all of them moving slowly, their motions disjointed.
Until Kakashi pushed through an invisible wall, and stood gasping as the immense weight of chakra crushed him. Pulling in a tortured breath, he shoved his hitae-ate up over his eye and rapidly evaluated the situation. Naruto was howling, his hair and clothing whipped into a frenzy by a fierce wind that encircled him, his fingers hooked into claws, glowing with energy - Sasuke was silent and pale as a sheet, his face set in a tortured rictus, fans of blood smeared across his cheeks and electricity arcing blue over his skin, as he prepared to make one more stand against - Madara, who stood on higher ground, his face a mask of cold contempt. Madara raised his hands to form a seal and -
"Raikiri!" Kakashi's voice was thunder as he hurled himself at Madara like a spear. It wasn't enough to even hurt him, Kakashi knew, only enough to give Naruto and Sasuke one second, two if he was lucky, and -
***
Kakashi cracked open a gummy eyelid to see the familiar ceiling of the Konoha hospital. He was, inexplicably, home. He breathed in, closed his eye, breathed out.
Opened his eye.
Sakura and Gai leaned in with almost identical gasps, and almost identical expressions of joyous surprise on their faces. The sudden oddness of it made Kakashi bark a short, quickly-regretted laugh.
"Be careful, my rival, you've only just awoken. I know you're overjoyed to see us, but save your exhortations for when you are healed!"
They bustled around him, two mother hens who were happy to have a chick to coddle.
"You've been out for two months, sensei." Sakura checked his pulse and made a notation, then glared at him. "We've been worried sick."
We. Could mean Sakura and Gai. Could mean Sakura and Naruto. Could mean lots of things.
It could mean - Team Seven. All of Team Seven.
Kakashi looked at Sakura, and she must have read the question in his expression, because her frown softened into a gentle smile. Even Gai calmed, and he stilled at Kakashi's side.
"He's back, sensei," she said quietly.
Kakashi closed his eye.
And submitted to the darkness that tugged him under, and dreamed of Sasuke, his so-young face fierce with determination, his right arm already blackened with chakra-burns all the way past his elbow as he tried again. And again, and again, and again.
***
Naruto stood at the foot of his bed, his hands behind his back, his body nearly shaking with energy.
"Good morning, Naruto-kun," Kakashi rasped through a dry throat.
Naruto didn't answer, but his face burst into a smile. He produced the distinctive Hokage hat from behind his back with a flourish.
Kakashi experienced a moment of confusion, and he was about to repeat his protests from what felt like a lifetime before, to say No, I don't want it, give it to someone else. Then Naruto settled the wide hat onto his own blond head, and Kakashi relaxed back into his pillow and smiled.
"Good morning, Hokage-sama," Kakashi murmured, determinedly not thinking about... anything at all. For that one moment, he was purely happy for Naruto. He could be self-absorbed and trapped in the past some other time.
"Looks good on me, doesn't it?" Naruto asked, planting his hands on his hips.
"Hmm... doesn't quite go with the... rest of the outfit," Kakashi said dryly, gesturing with the tip of his nose at the blindingly orange jumpsuit. It was all the gesturing he could do, at the moment. And it was all he could do to not ask, to not ruin Naruto's moment.
Naruto squinted at him. "You're still all messed up, aren't you?"
Kakashi made a non-committal noise.
"Well!" Naruto dropped himself into the chair beside Kakashi's hospital bed. "I've got some more good news."
Kakashi could feel his heart slamming in his chest.
"You get to go home today! Isn't that great?"
It was indeed. Kakashi passively allowed the hospital staff to inject something or other into him and then bundle him up for transport, focused on the next things Naruto had told him - that it was Sasuke who saved his life on the battlefield (and he'd had to fight to get to Kakashi's fallen body, and he'd shown a remarkable proficiency for the kind of healing arts Kakashi had needed). And that Sasuke was pardoned, for his assistance in vanquishing Madara, for his full cooperation in unraveling the Mad Uchiha's schemes and dissolving the remainder of his forces; allowed back into Konohagakure with only a few special conditions.
"You'll get to see him soon," Naruto promised as a pair of burly med-nin lifted Kakashi onto a litter with extreme delicacy. The room spun as the medication sank its teeth into him, and Kakashi's head lolled to the side when his litter was lifted for transport.
"You've got to have somebody with you, to take care of you, for at least a few weeks," Naruto explained in the corridor. "You did just come out of a coma, after all."
Kakashi grunted. Better to be at home, at any rate, even if he was going to be poked and prodded for a while. Almost anything was better than the hospital.
***
The sunshine blinded Kakashi when they emerged into the street, and mixed with the sedative crawling through his system, made him feel nauseous and light-headed. The close darkness of his apartment was a welcome relief. Kakashi barely felt his body when he was lifted onto this bed.
And then he realized that he was, as Naruto had so eloquently put it, still all messed up. Because he didn't notice until Naruto ushered out the pair of med-nin that there was another person in his apartment, standing in the corner of his little kitchen.
"Sasuke," he breathed, and he blinked in disbelief.
"Kakashi," Sasuke answered, his voice cool, and deeper than Kakashi remembered.
Kakashi blinked again, and he felt himself smiling under his mask. He closed his eye and let his dizzy head rest on his pillow.
"This has got to be a dream," Kakashi said to himself, and he laughed softly.
"Don't be stupid, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said, and there was a scrape of metal rings over the curtain rod, and sunlight glowed red through Kakashi's closed eyelid.
After a moment, Naruto spoke up again.
"Well, anyway, I've got to get going. Hokage stuff, you know."
Kakashi cracked his eye open to see Naruto grinning widely at Sasuke, and Sasuke... not grinning back, but not frowning, either.
"I'll let you two catch up," Naruto said. "Welcome home, Kakashi-sensei."
With one more bright smile at the two of them, Naruto tore himself away, and the apartment was silent for several long seconds after the door closed behind him while Kakashi and Sasuke stared at each other. And then Kakashi glanced around at the folded futon beside his desk, and the medical equipment on his bedside table, and he sighed.
"So I take it you'll be the one taking care of me," he said, his eye arcing up into a grin.
Sasuke made a little hmph sound in his throat, and then he shrugged. "Looks like it."
"You know, I never dreamed it would go this way," Kakashi said, his voice rough, his words slurred.
The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched up, and he seated himself on the edge of Kakashi's bed.
Kakashi was drifting off to sleep when he heard Sasuke say quietly, "Neither did I."
END
___________
A/N: This might not be totally different from what I usually write, but it sure feels like it is! Please feel free to point out any typos, bad grammar, etc. Any kind of feedback is appreciated! ^___^