Chapter Text
You were but a lone star that had been drowned by the implacable darkness, and I, was but a coward who’d been too petrified to take the plunge for you.
Never again.
—
He didn’t need to hear Sakura beg. Her cries weren’t doing anything to persuade him into thinking that the path he chose was wrong, anyways.
Regardless of that, he knew there was no choice in the matter, in any way you looked at it.
There was a goal to be fulfilled, a life long destiny he had to follow to letter, and a certain someone who must pay for their sins, and he wasn’t about to waste another moment standing there and listening to her pathetic sniffles and pleading for him to stay. How disdainful he found it.
He was quick, dashing against the wind and slipping behind her before she even realized what was happening. He knocked her unconscious swift and painlessly, then darting his arms out to grab her before she had a chance to slump to the floor. The night’s chilled wind blew against them heavily, though he was unaffected by such and simply looked up, seeing loose leaves being carried away by the wind in a new direction, what a metaphor was that for his life now.
Sasuke slowly picked up Sakura’s lax body, holding her close in a bridal carry. He, at first, thought to leave her on the nearby bench, but had quickly decided against it, figuring it better to take her home instead. He may not return the same feelings she had for him, but he wasn’t completely void of care over her. The least he could do was make sure she was placed in her own bed, and not against a hard bench in the dead of night where she could possibly catch cold.
He didn’t mind taking the detour, as it wouldn’t take long to get her home anyways. The night was still young too.
He was in and out in only a few minutes, he’d manage to sneak her into her bedroom from her window, slowly placing her on the bed before making his exit. He halted, very briefly, and turned back to glance at her momentarily before leaping out of the window and down off the ledge.
He landed effortlessly, with his ever present grace that had always come so easy, into a crouch before straightening himself finally. He paused and dusted off whatever bits of dirt manage to catch onto his clothes in his dismount. “Right, time to go.” He muttered to himself and had turned into the direction of Konoha’s gates, ready to leap into the trees where coverage was best and detection unlikely.
However, his sequence of planning all halted in its tracks when he felt a sharp, sudden pain to the back of his neck, then before he knew it, he was falling over. It was much too rapid for him to even react to, whoever it was though, had clearly been lying in wait for him. The only sound he heard was of his own body as it connected with the ground, the dull ache from the fall vibrated through him before everything darkened.
Kakashi sighed softly from where he stood over the unconscious form of his most troublesome student. He had been expecting something like this for a while, yet, with such knowledge, it didn’t necessarily make the process of apprehending his student any easier.
He’d been staking out, waiting until Sasuke was about ready to make his move that night, and found himself close on his trail. During the
He’d have to figure out how to get through to him somehow, whilst pursuing some more rather questionable avenues. He simply scooped up his slack body and tossed him over his shoulder.
—
When Sasuke finally came to, the first thing that came to his immediate attention, was the fact that his arms, and legs for that matter, were completely immobilized as they were bounded by thick rope.
The unrelenting restraint held his arms fastened to his sides, with another set of ropes that kept his legs together tightly by the calves.
“Ah, you’re finally awake.” He heard the smooth voice roll, his gaze immediately shot up to see the masked jonin as he moved out of the deep shadow of the room where he had previously been lurking.
“What the fuck?!” Was the first words to leave Sasuke’s lips as he began to struggle against the unforgiving rope, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” The Uchiha spat in abject anger at being tied up like some hunted animal.
Kakashi crouched down to put himself at Sasuke’s eye level, moving close, but not too much so to give the other any ideas. “Shh, you should probably keep your voice down. Now, I need to understand how you could have possibly thought you could simply walk out those gates without me knowing about it?”
Sasuke frowned but kept quiet, however his mind was running a million miles a minute. Honestly? He thought he could get away with it. It’s not like his sensei seemed so concerned about his well being or either of his teammates’. The jonin was too preoccupied with other things from what he could tell, so paint him surprised by the fact the man actually made an effort to stop him from defecting from the village.
“Why the fuck do you even care?! It’s not like you gave a crap about me from the beginning!” He could hear the bitterness in his own voice and Kakashi simply stared him down with a blank look.
“What makes you think I don’t care? Have I not kept you safe on all our missions? Have I not personally trained you myself, even handed down my own personal jutsu to you? I’ve done nothing but given you the tools and training that you need to become a great shinobi, so tell me, which part of that highlights the exact fact that I’ve forsaken you in some way?” He made it out to be a rhetorical question.
Sasuke huffed and curled into himself, adamant on the silent treatment route indefinitely now, because, even though he wouldn’t verbally admit it, Kakashi was right.
“That’s what I thought.” He stood up then.
“I do apologize for such an aggressive take on subduing you, but I couldn’t risk you awakening and deciding there and then to make a break for it, even so you wouldn’t make it far anyways. But why leave it up to chance and spark an unnecessary chase in the middle of the night?” The jonin murmured while eyeing the pouting Uchiha.
“Keeping your face like that, is no good, it’ll get stuck that way.” He made light of Sasuke’s piss poor mood.
Slowly now, Kakashi took down the zipper of his flak jacket, the only active light of his bedroom was the simple rays of the moonlight as it poured into the room from the window. Sasuke’s eyes widened by how the man stood in front of him, practically stripping. “What are you doing?!” Breaking his silence and immediately demanded as the other undressed his jacket fully and placed it aside, about ready to pull off the dark, over shirt next but halted.
“Getting ready for bed, obviously.” He replied flatly and gave Sasuke a look of confusion when the Uchiha glanced away momentarily.
“Oh.”
“Oh? Were you thinking of something else that would require me to remove my clothes?” Kakashi tried. “Besides, if you thought I was about to bare myself, it’s not like you haven’t seen that before, not when you, I and even Naruto have shared hot baths together, it’s nothing you’re not used to seeing yourself.” He reminded.
“No!” Sasuke said a bit too quickly, a harsh snark in his voice as his face snapped back to see his jonin sensei. Even with a mask covering most of his face, giving any other person the incapability of gauging the man’s expression, Sasuke, as did the other members of Kakashi’s team, had quickly learned just what Kakashi expressed, whether it anger or mirth, without the need of a face to read, though the glint of amusement in Kakashi’s eyes this time was a dead giveaway.
Kakashi let out a small chuckle, “Nevermind that, I’m getting ready to sleep, and if you haven’t realized yet, that includes you.” Sasuke’s brow drew down in deep confusion.
“What?! I’m not staying here, if that’s what you think! Just because you happened to ambush me this one time doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of other opportunities to ditch your sorry ass!” Sasuke growled.
Kakashi didn’t pay much mind to the boy’s empty threats, for he held much confidence in his own ability to keep, what he would consider, a dog with a lot bark but no bite, on a short leash where he rightfully belonged.
“Right, of course, I’m not denying you wouldn’t try, however, that’s all you will do. Now how about we make this easy for both of us,” he moved back over to Sasuke, hands on the knot of the ropes.
“You could fight me tooth and nail, and I could simply leave you on the rug tonight, or you could act civil and allow me to untie you. Then we can both get some much needed sleep, before the long day tomorrow, which we’ll spend most of it discussing this incessant need of yours to want to chase blindly behind the silly notion of getting revenge.” Kakashi spoke tiredly, slowly undoing the knot.
Sasuke had settled down some, seeing as he was finally being released, he didn’t dare say or do anything that would remove the freedom. For now he’ll bite his tongue, and the minute he was able to, he’d beat it.
Kakashi pulled the ropes away and dropped them into a small pile. He allowed Sasuke the opportunity to stand on his own, which the Uchiha took eagerly.
“I trust that you won’t have a burning desire to escape tonight.” Kakashi pulled back the covers, gestured and waited for Sasuke to climb in.
The Uchiha had just looked at the bed initially, taking note of the bed spread’s decorations, small shurikens over a green background? He couldn’t help but let out a small scoff before resigning and slowly scooting himself into the bed. For the time he’d been there he hadn’t really taken the chance to scan the room, having been too occupied earlier by the fact that the older had practically hogtied him.
Once Kakashi situated himself next onto the bed, Sasuke completely turned over to only allow him to have a view of his back as he curled up and stared at the wall.
Kakashi didn’t speak and neither did Sasuke when he slipped into the bed and pulled the covers over them both. The only noises in the room remained the sounds of them shifting to discover more comfortable positions, coupled with sounds of cricket chirps from the outside.
He didn’t expect much protest from Sasuke given that this wasn’t exactly anything new. He and his team had shared close sleeping quarters quite often when off on missions, so the only stark difference between those times and now was the fact that they were sharing his bedroom, granted just the two of them in the absence of their other members, instead of an inn’s.
His gaze held on the back of the Uchiha’s head. Sasuke was quiet and still from where he can see, finally when he saw how his body had relaxed he could easily tell he’d had fallen asleep. He remained polite by keeping his distance from Sasuke, a good foot of space between their bodies since the large expanse of his bed could allow it.
However his outward appearance may show, Kakashi was well aware of how he felt for Sasuke.
It was something that had bubbled for quite some time, just beneath the thin surface of his own morality. It wasn’t until lately, when emotions were high, and tension thick that his own feelings had been coming forth full force.
He couldn’t blame Sasuke for trading his life here in the village in order to seek the true power he needed to defeat Itachi. Not when Sasuke’s whole world and existence had now revolved around that one goal. However, the burgeoning and, as he was aware, inappropriate feelings he had developed for his young student would not allow him the chance to escape to accomplish such feat.
He knew on the surface, beyond his own dark wants, that keeping Sasuke in the village simply on the notion that the boy needn’t end up in Orochimaru’s clutches for his own sake, was a good enough excuse into thinking what he did was not for his own selfish matters, because at first glance, there was some semblance of truth residing there. Though, deep down, the true, full reason behind stopping the boy was solely on the fact of knowing he couldn’t lose the one person in his life that he had such deep feeling for.
No one had to beat him over the head with the concept of common sense and decency for him to develop the understanding on how totally inappropriate this entire thing was. But in his mind, he deserved this. He should be allowed this one privilege as reward for saving Sasuke from himself and ultimately, his idiotic desire for revenge that would do nothing to satisfy him in the end.
He sighed softly, then inhaled sharply, catching the soft scents of Sasuke that laid by him. He was so tempted, but he wouldn’t dare, even though he wondered if Sasuke had ever felt the same in some regard. He was mindful of his young age, but couldn’t help to ponder as he could recall the chaste glances and awkward averted gazes when he would catch him in the act.
For now he’ll bide his time, as he always did when it came to the small Uchiha. It was only a matter of time before everything fell into place.