(misplaced priorities. an inability to predict unpredictability. this was never a conversation about the power differential between worlds. it's about the maltreatment of their respective populations.
that's as far as he's able to follow sasuke.)
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Sasuke, Konoha's your home. (deaf reassurance, inappropriately timed, sounds final. genuine though it might be, the fact that it originates from his failure to keep his ward safe within the village's walls cheapens it.
is he being asked for an apology?)
... Anyway, the train took us for a ride. By the time I hit the button—another ten blocks, maybe.
(kakashi gets quiet after that. they travel past another half dozen businesses in the time it takes for him to think on a less divisive subject.)
[ The blend of emotions he feels in response to Kakashi's reply is indecipherable even to himself, but it leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Disappointment? Anger? Some wry amusement? He should have known not to instigate the conversation, just as he's carefully sidestepped it in the past, but even an open-ended confrontation is dismissed by a man without the necessary context to understand he doesn't need to do any damage control. Not anymore, not when things have gone as far as they could go already. ]
Mm.
"Mastered" is a conservative way of putting it. I took what you taught me and improved it.
... besides, it's "Chidori", not "Raikiri". [ Raucous laughter mixes with the sound of distant vomiting as food stalls lessen in favor of bars, and Sasuke now questions their route. Not for its efficacy, but for the possibility of having to retrace any of this path with fresh food in hand should the closer train station not prove close enough. ]
So it is. (his only open eye closes briefly to express his contentment.
that's what any mentor wants to hear. the technique that he created has now been made sasuke's own, manipulated into something that suits him—he's certain without even seeing the end result that it does.
pride feels strange when it mingles with worry.)
You'll have to show me what you've come up with. We could spar, (he suggests, avoiding breathing too deeply as they leave the sphere of an acrid odour of bodily fluids and alcohol. ahead, a couple argues in the doorway of an apartment building. an old one that doesn't sink into the ground with the more advanced infrastructure when the city detects a monster.)
How about it? It'd be good to get an idea of where you're at.
[ Two high class shinobi can understand each other when in combat, isn't that how it is? The offer of a spar may be as simple as Kakashi presents it, but this tense air between them won't be removed until he feels he's given proper cause to abandon his paranoia. That will only happen when they're on a level playing field, and that is exactly what Sasuke is so keen to avoid. An impasse. ]
You want to spar with me when I'm using that technique? [ The implication here is not subtle. He reaches up to adjust the satchel hanging over his shoulder, offering Kakashi a brief side-glance. ]
Fine, but don't complain to me in the aftermath. [ There's a pause as nostalgia strikes him, wondering just what his teacher remembers of his capabilities. And it prompts a far more direct, far more damning question. ]
I know your last memories are from when I was younger. But the real last thing you remember, the exact moment... what is it?
(four words carry the weight of his approval. sasuke won't miss it, not when they've been speaking in half-sentences for the past two weeks. he taught team seven to read between the lines, and while this isn't a test, it takes knowing something about him to be able to truly understand what he's saying.
defeat at the hands of sasuke would make him happy.)
Ah... The exact moment? (the pause is telling; he's about to lie.) I can't remember.
Almost all of the genin who were sent to bring you back to Konoha were hospitalized and in critical condition—including Naruto. I was abducted in the days that followed.
His tongue presses against the roof of his mouth before it can form the word, instead giving him another of those glances that says enough. He wants him to know that he knows.
But he can't stay looking at him for long.
Not when he hears something he knows but a side of it he doesn't, well aware of his battle with Naruto and the clashes that preceded it but never did he have to actually bear witness to the bloody outcome of his actions. It stings in a wound that once festered, and it takes all his self-control to maintain that neutral expression. ]
"Abducted"? [ Telling, that this is what he focuses on. ] By whom?
(he knows. he can feel eyes on him. even if he didn't, he can hear what's held back by sasuke. maybe he needs to reevaluate his old method of leaving his team to guesswork.
the sky looks dark now like it might rain. figures. the weather enjoys reenacting the day he almost lost two of his three pupils. naruto looked dead; he'll never forget how limp his body was when he pulled him into his arms.)
By LILITH. I didn't come willingly. (the expected follow-up comes shortly after.) And judging by how you arrived, you weren't expecting to fight someone else's war either.
Are you going to tell me what you remember from before? The exact moment.
[ Ah, of course. Perhaps it'd be an amusing miscommunication between shinobi who had been through just enough to make the misunderstanding believable but not enough to consider it old hat. They both fall squarely within the second category.
The impending change in weather makes his arm throb, a phantom pain that plagues a limb recently lost. His last memory, huh. ]
You're really asking me? When you must already know what I'll say.
[ Here there's finally a flicker of something in his expression, a brief curve of lips but the emotion doesn't reach his eyes. ]
What you have to tell me about is an event I remember well. What I have to tell you wouldn't be understandable to you.
(is it Hypocrisy making you smirk at me? because it's definitely what's making your arm hurt. don't blame the rain.
the new expression is one he's never seen before. sasuke was always quiet and dour, and he'd even go as far as to say the boy had an odd sense of humour, but never had he known him to find unpleasant realities funny. the changes are obvious. does he wish they were a little harder to spot? or is he glad to be able to read what pitiful amount he can from him?
kakashi comes to this third conclusion: maybe with age, sasuke's become more like him. desensitized. overwhelmed enough to laugh at the joke. life.)
What makes more sense is that you don't want to answer the question. (without his forehead protector to stop it, his eyebrow raises into a white fringe of hair.) Not everything's a competition, Sasuke; I'm trying to learn more about you and what brought you to this point. And dealing with whatever comes my way... I don't exactly struggle in this department.
No, I'm not viewing this so frivolously. What I'm saying is you wouldn't benefit from knowing, and the story is one that isn't as easy to tell as yours. [ That's part of it. Of course, that's part of it. But Kakashi isn't wrong to approach it as if it's a small part. ]
... you won't like what I have to say, Kakashi. [ Finally, though it's quieter than before. ]
So what? (blasé rhetoric for something deserving of his full, sober attention. it emphasizes how positive he is that he needs to hear it, enough to be frivolous whereas sasuke can't.) Whether I like what you have to say or not doesn't matter.
(he no longer has the luxury of being able to pick and choose the things he wants to hear... if he ever did. unable to be there for his team when they needed him, he's now forced to let go of all of them. naruto is leaving with jiraiya, sakura has secured an apprenticeship with tsunade, and sasuke—if only he'd been less selective and listened to him closely from the start, maybe sasuke wouldn't have sought out orochimaru.
if this is his second chance, he won't fail this time.)
You're shouldering something alone, and it's my duty to share in that.
(they round the corner of the tenth block. his guess—or perhaps keen estimation—of their distance from the outdoor market was accurate. it's grander than the slums they just waded through, causing him to stare until colours blur and blend.
a single blink puts him back on track, and he casts a sidelong look at sasuke.)
Well... it looks like we'll have to discuss it later after all.
[ Giving him an answer now means the same as it did when he was his student. If it's in line with what he's being asked and feedback is welcomed? It's accepted. If it's against what Kakashi believes is best for him or his team? It can't be entertained.
Sasuke drew a line in the sand, Kakashi stepped over it.
And now here they are at their destination and he wants to table a conversation that's already over. Somehow, it's nostalgic, but not in a way that boosts his mood. ]
We've discussed it. You're relieved of your duty, Kakashi.
[ The tarps over the various stalls, dyed with clashing colors and presentations which defy any sort of structure or planning, are sure to provide at least partial shielding from the incoming rain, and as such Sasuke makes for the nearest one without bothering to check what's for sale. It's to his detriment when he's immediately offered free samples of some kind of fried mystery meat, but a dismissive turn away proves even more effective than a stern no. Disgusting. ]
(to beg to differ aloud would be to act petty in the face of a junior and kakashi can't have that. his duty will never be over; whether sasuke likes it or not, he's the closest thing he's had to family in years.
he joins him in dismissing the meat after that but manages a more polite "no thanks" in the wake of sasuke who proceeds further beneath multicoloured canopies. assuming the radishes are for pickling and becoming possessed by the desire to eat some, his eye sweeps the area for both them and any dangers that might disturb them, finding no sign of either.)
It's not looking good. There's a poor selection... We might have to look uptown.
(with his forearm, a curtain hung to separate stalls is parted. behind it, wooden boxes lie filled with vegetables of middling quality. sprouting potatoes, cobs of corn with patches of shrivelled kernels, eggplants with thumbprint bruises, and more of the same all the way down.
they're marked down in cost, but will they pass a sniff test? a too-soft tomato is held in hand, giving off a bittersweet scent that makes him turn his head to seek sasuke.)
Hey, over here. These might work if we cook 'em today. I'll bet all the bad ones are placed on top.
[ Kakashi doesn't respond to his bluntness, and while he should feel gratified instead there's that small part of him, that tiny part that still sees through the eyes of a young boy wanting his teacher's attention, that wants to get a rise instead. How annoying... it's childish to hang on his words, isn't it? One day he'll consciously accept and acknowledge that his teacher is more measured and patient than he is, but today is not that day.
Instead he turns his focus fully onto their task, nose nowhere near as sharp as the part-canine's behind him but the sheer visual spectacle of what's on offer doesn't inspire confidence. There's far more cooked than raw, and that already hints at the stall owners' insecurity about the produce on offer. Turning away from another vendor – this one trying to peddle fried rice – he returns to Kakashi. ]
... hm. [ Displeasure radiates from the single sound. ]
Nothing worth eating on its own, then. Even in a soup broth, this quality is– [ You can take the boy out of the noble clan but you can't take the noble clan out of the boy. ]
Very well. It'll pass. But in this case there's something else we should be looking for here, and that's soil.
Eh, (kakashi sighs. he isn't seeking to complete sasuke's sentences, but their thoughts on the food, at least, align well enough that it happens organically.
as organically as these vegetables aren't. there's something synthetic about them, which fits given the setting.)
Planning on growing your own, huh? (he's assigned both hands the task of digging down into the display bins for the best and brightest produce to present to sasuke over his shoulder.) Makes sense. It's better to know what you're putting in your body anyway. Who knows where these have been...
... You know, it might be enjoyable. As a hobby, I mean.
It'd be preferable for a number of reasons, though that one is the most important. [ It would also save him this trip. Save them this trip.
Being out and about isn't inherently problematic but he'd prefer to keep a lower profile, and being reliant on inconsistent food quality at the end of the journey just leaves an even more sour taste in his mouth. ]
As for your ulterior motive, you can stop while you're ahead. [ The calm accusation matches a placid expression, staring down at each vegetable as it's revealed. The rinnegan's violet is always present, so who's to say when its ocular prowess is or isn't activated? Surely he wouldn't need to abuse such keen eyesight for something so frivolous. ]
Everyone needs a hobby. (a point that's stressed while kakashi flees from eye contact with sasuke as "you especially" goes unsaid. he likes to think it forms its own statement in the crushing silence that follows.
using his eye for something so ridiculous—he suspects sasuke of it, but has no proof or desire to catch him up. it's one of the most boyish things he's done since arriving.
he's now letting three potatoes plunge forgotten back into the bin to unearth the one sasuke's indicated, perfectly happy to follow his order when it leads to something good. the only palatable potato is raised up like something holy. what sparse light there is shines through the clouds and focuses on it until it's gone all at once. the rain comes then, and not slowly or subtly. it drops what it's cached onto the canopies overhead that become distended like starving bellies.)
Aaah, I should've known. What a bother. (the potato noses into the bag over sasuke's shoulder with the help of a brutish push from kakashi. hold onto this, pack mule.) Our goal hasn't changed... Let's just continue to find what we need. Maybe it'll let up. What about those bins over there?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
that's as far as he's able to follow sasuke.)
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Sasuke, Konoha's your home. (deaf reassurance, inappropriately timed, sounds final. genuine though it might be, the fact that it originates from his failure to keep his ward safe within the village's walls cheapens it.
is he being asked for an apology?)
... Anyway, the train took us for a ride. By the time I hit the button—another ten blocks, maybe.
(kakashi gets quiet after that. they travel past another half dozen businesses in the time it takes for him to think on a less divisive subject.)
You must've mastered raikiri by now.
no subject
Mm.
"Mastered" is a conservative way of putting it. I took what you taught me and improved it.
... besides, it's "Chidori", not "Raikiri". [ Raucous laughter mixes with the sound of distant vomiting as food stalls lessen in favor of bars, and Sasuke now questions their route. Not for its efficacy, but for the possibility of having to retrace any of this path with fresh food in hand should the closer train station not prove close enough. ]
no subject
that's what any mentor wants to hear. the technique that he created has now been made sasuke's own, manipulated into something that suits him—he's certain without even seeing the end result that it does.
pride feels strange when it mingles with worry.)
You'll have to show me what you've come up with. We could spar, (he suggests, avoiding breathing too deeply as they leave the sphere of an acrid odour of bodily fluids and alcohol. ahead, a couple argues in the doorway of an apartment building. an old one that doesn't sink into the ground with the more advanced infrastructure when the city detects a monster.)
How about it? It'd be good to get an idea of where you're at.
no subject
You want to spar with me when I'm using that technique? [ The implication here is not subtle. He reaches up to adjust the satchel hanging over his shoulder, offering Kakashi a brief side-glance. ]
Fine, but don't complain to me in the aftermath. [ There's a pause as nostalgia strikes him, wondering just what his teacher remembers of his capabilities. And it prompts a far more direct, far more damning question. ]
I know your last memories are from when I was younger. But the real last thing you remember, the exact moment... what is it?
no subject
(four words carry the weight of his approval. sasuke won't miss it, not when they've been speaking in half-sentences for the past two weeks. he taught team seven to read between the lines, and while this isn't a test, it takes knowing something about him to be able to truly understand what he's saying.
defeat at the hands of sasuke would make him happy.)
Ah... The exact moment? (the pause is telling; he's about to lie.) I can't remember.
Almost all of the genin who were sent to bring you back to Konoha were hospitalized and in critical condition—including Naruto. I was abducted in the days that followed.
no subject
His tongue presses against the roof of his mouth before it can form the word, instead giving him another of those glances that says enough. He wants him to know that he knows.
But he can't stay looking at him for long.
Not when he hears something he knows but a side of it he doesn't, well aware of his battle with Naruto and the clashes that preceded it but never did he have to actually bear witness to the bloody outcome of his actions. It stings in a wound that once festered, and it takes all his self-control to maintain that neutral expression. ]
"Abducted"? [ Telling, that this is what he focuses on. ] By whom?
no subject
the sky looks dark now like it might rain. figures. the weather enjoys reenacting the day he almost lost two of his three pupils. naruto looked dead; he'll never forget how limp his body was when he pulled him into his arms.)
By LILITH. I didn't come willingly. (the expected follow-up comes shortly after.) And judging by how you arrived, you weren't expecting to fight someone else's war either.
Are you going to tell me what you remember from before? The exact moment.
no subject
The impending change in weather makes his arm throb, a phantom pain that plagues a limb recently lost. His last memory, huh. ]
You're really asking me? When you must already know what I'll say.
[ Here there's finally a flicker of something in his expression, a brief curve of lips but the emotion doesn't reach his eyes. ]
What you have to tell me about is an event I remember well. What I have to tell you wouldn't be understandable to you.
no subject
the new expression is one he's never seen before. sasuke was always quiet and dour, and he'd even go as far as to say the boy had an odd sense of humour, but never had he known him to find unpleasant realities funny. the changes are obvious. does he wish they were a little harder to spot? or is he glad to be able to read what pitiful amount he can from him?
kakashi comes to this third conclusion: maybe with age, sasuke's become more like him. desensitized. overwhelmed enough to laugh at the joke. life.)
What makes more sense is that you don't want to answer the question. (without his forehead protector to stop it, his eyebrow raises into a white fringe of hair.) Not everything's a competition, Sasuke; I'm trying to learn more about you and what brought you to this point. And dealing with whatever comes my way... I don't exactly struggle in this department.
So, all that to say... "try me."
no subject
No, I'm not viewing this so frivolously. What I'm saying is you wouldn't benefit from knowing, and the story is one that isn't as easy to tell as yours. [ That's part of it. Of course, that's part of it. But Kakashi isn't wrong to approach it as if it's a small part. ]
... you won't like what I have to say, Kakashi. [ Finally, though it's quieter than before. ]
And my answer isn't going to change.
no subject
(he no longer has the luxury of being able to pick and choose the things he wants to hear... if he ever did. unable to be there for his team when they needed him, he's now forced to let go of all of them. naruto is leaving with jiraiya, sakura has secured an apprenticeship with tsunade, and sasuke—if only he'd been less selective and listened to him closely from the start, maybe sasuke wouldn't have sought out orochimaru.
if this is his second chance, he won't fail this time.)
You're shouldering something alone, and it's my duty to share in that.
(they round the corner of the tenth block. his guess—or perhaps keen estimation—of their distance from the outdoor market was accurate. it's grander than the slums they just waded through, causing him to stare until colours blur and blend.
a single blink puts him back on track, and he casts a sidelong look at sasuke.)
Well... it looks like we'll have to discuss it later after all.
no subject
Sasuke drew a line in the sand, Kakashi stepped over it.
And now here they are at their destination and he wants to table a conversation that's already over. Somehow, it's nostalgic, but not in a way that boosts his mood. ]
We've discussed it. You're relieved of your duty, Kakashi.
[ The tarps over the various stalls, dyed with clashing colors and presentations which defy any sort of structure or planning, are sure to provide at least partial shielding from the incoming rain, and as such Sasuke makes for the nearest one without bothering to check what's for sale. It's to his detriment when he's immediately offered free samples of some kind of fried mystery meat, but a dismissive turn away proves even more effective than a stern no. Disgusting. ]
Keep an eye out for radishes.
no subject
he joins him in dismissing the meat after that but manages a more polite "no thanks" in the wake of sasuke who proceeds further beneath multicoloured canopies. assuming the radishes are for pickling and becoming possessed by the desire to eat some, his eye sweeps the area for both them and any dangers that might disturb them, finding no sign of either.)
It's not looking good. There's a poor selection... We might have to look uptown.
(with his forearm, a curtain hung to separate stalls is parted. behind it, wooden boxes lie filled with vegetables of middling quality. sprouting potatoes, cobs of corn with patches of shrivelled kernels, eggplants with thumbprint bruises, and more of the same all the way down.
they're marked down in cost, but will they pass a sniff test? a too-soft tomato is held in hand, giving off a bittersweet scent that makes him turn his head to seek sasuke.)
Hey, over here. These might work if we cook 'em today. I'll bet all the bad ones are placed on top.
no subject
Instead he turns his focus fully onto their task, nose nowhere near as sharp as the part-canine's behind him but the sheer visual spectacle of what's on offer doesn't inspire confidence. There's far more cooked than raw, and that already hints at the stall owners' insecurity about the produce on offer. Turning away from another vendor – this one trying to peddle fried rice – he returns to Kakashi. ]
... hm. [ Displeasure radiates from the single sound. ]
Nothing worth eating on its own, then. Even in a soup broth, this quality is– [ You can take the boy out of the noble clan but you can't take the noble clan out of the boy. ]
Very well. It'll pass. But in this case there's something else we should be looking for here, and that's soil.
no subject
as organically as these vegetables aren't. there's something synthetic about them, which fits given the setting.)
Planning on growing your own, huh? (he's assigned both hands the task of digging down into the display bins for the best and brightest produce to present to sasuke over his shoulder.) Makes sense. It's better to know what you're putting in your body anyway. Who knows where these have been...
... You know, it might be enjoyable. As a hobby, I mean.
no subject
Being out and about isn't inherently problematic but he'd prefer to keep a lower profile, and being reliant on inconsistent food quality at the end of the journey just leaves an even more sour taste in his mouth. ]
As for your ulterior motive, you can stop while you're ahead. [ The calm accusation matches a placid expression, staring down at each vegetable as it's revealed. The rinnegan's violet is always present, so who's to say when its ocular prowess is or isn't activated? Surely he wouldn't need to abuse such keen eyesight for something so frivolous. ]
... go back. The last one.
no subject
using his eye for something so ridiculous—he suspects sasuke of it, but has no proof or desire to catch him up. it's one of the most boyish things he's done since arriving.
he's now letting three potatoes plunge forgotten back into the bin to unearth the one sasuke's indicated, perfectly happy to follow his order when it leads to something good. the only palatable potato is raised up like something holy. what sparse light there is shines through the clouds and focuses on it until it's gone all at once. the rain comes then, and not slowly or subtly. it drops what it's cached onto the canopies overhead that become distended like starving bellies.)
Aaah, I should've known. What a bother. (the potato noses into the bag over sasuke's shoulder with the help of a brutish push from kakashi. hold onto this, pack mule.) Our goal hasn't changed... Let's just continue to find what we need. Maybe it'll let up. What about those bins over there?