Found You

A/N Thank you for the support. I realize now why it took me what looks like two years to finally continue with the progress of this story.

AFF continues to give me trouble with editing, and adding chapters.
It deletes them just fine. How convenient.

Regardless. Please surrender a round of applause for my one-and-only usuratonkachi, because that sod’s the one I’ve been using to upload the new chapters. Without his… assistance, despite his resentment for this project, it would not be continuing. At least, I think he resents it.

He liked Mate more. That’s all I’ll say.

Yaoi_is_my_antidrug : Heh, you didn’t review the first time around. I’ve been reading your stuff, too. But. Well. As my previous complaint with updating, it doesn’t let me review very well either. I can’t write raunchy like you do. *Envy*

Darkneko: Heard you loud and clear. Maybe part of why I lost my passion for it the first time around, on top of the not-updating bullshit, was the fact there just wasn’t enough.

With it’s own goddamn category I –have- to contribute.
Fuggin have to. Fuckyeah.

Pairing: Kakashi / Sasuke, Kakashi / Iruka later, as well as suggestive Sasuke / Neji, and Orochimaru / Kimimaro
Spoilers: Since it’s been so long since they got the rights to air in the States, not anymore. Thank fucking god.
Lemon: Just more sensual fluff. But, I promise, when it does get to the real lemon, it'll prolly blow your mind. ....Then blow Sasuke. =D I have dreams, dammit!
Revision Percentage: 4% A few sentence structures changed where it rambled too much, some character clarification, and a couple of sentences added in places, mostly at the end.

Cameo Notes: last chapter, there may have been small hints that were overlooked by the average reader. Such as: floral/flower green is the smell of Kakashi's top ninja dog, Pakkun's, shampoo. Confessed during the chase of Gaara and Sasuke after the third exam. Also used by Sakura, jokingly.

And, 'Kakashi' means scarecrow. Even more, the 'face' of Japanese characters that decorates the back of the dog teams' vests is the face often put on scarecrows, like the American thing of putting a pumpkin for a head and making a face out of numbers.

Kakashi in the anime is only portrayed as living in something similar to a low-rent hostel, but that doesn’t make for very good privacy.

Copyright: Don't own it. Kishimoto-sama owns my soul, though.

Disclaimer: I do not own the dinner rolls.

~*~ extended = start/end of fic
~*~ short = location/time skip
~&~ = flashback - which I hope to not have too many of

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doink.

Kakashi granted his sweaty, exhausted team with an upturned eye of a smile. "Nice work today, everyone. Same time tomorrow."

Any other team might have thought such a statement had two - major - problems: one, how he could tell anything about their work when he hadn't looked up from his book once in the last four hours - and had it open even now.

And two, he had a supreme deficiency at following his own schedule.

After a grump about the latter fact Naruto jutted his lip in a froggish manner, walking off the bridge with the decision between showering first and then ramen, or ramen first and then showering.

Such decisions.

Sakura, hard at work to not having her hair stained with sweat or her face even show the glowing strain of the day's exercises unabashedly followed the tallest of the pre-teens, batting eyes at him with a dedicated squeal of, "Sasuke-kun, do you want to get something to eat with me?"

"I'm busy," was his distant reply. Hands never left his pockets as he shrugged his escape down the beaten path back to town.

Minty green eyes blinked a few times, fixed on the red and white panel riding her love's back as her limbs hung there. It had taken a few of these refusals for her to stop picking her jaw off the floor. "He's always busy nowadays."

...But. He had stopped saying a flat-out 'no'. All of the sudden, too! Maybe he was caring for his team, if he was willing to carefully word his refusal like that.

The only compensation as she made her way home was that he must also be too busy for the Ino-pig.

Turning about on his heel the jounin began the complex task of finding his way home as he took a journey through the eyes of his favorite protagonist.

He wasn't in any particular hurry to get back to his home, considering he already knew what was there. His scarecrow wallscroll, his floral green shampoo. His cocoa. The milk was going to be bad by the end of tomorrow...

Thus, it was easy to understand his mild surprise when the door of his duplex clicked shut behind him and he sat down on the inner stoop to free his sandals when he caught sight of another, smaller pair already abandoned. The rest of his senses kicked in, leading him to roll his winter blue vision up to the second floor at the sound of water in his pipes.

What with living here by himself for as many years as it was, he wasn't quite familiar with the sounds of someone else here. A pleased sigh, olive shoulders bowing. ...Not that having someone else here was a bad thing.

If Sasuke was going to make stopping by a habit . . . Once was a fluke. Twice was a habit, as far as dealing with an Uchiha vouched.

Icha Icha vanished in to his back pouch, rising to his feet and heading back out the door.

~Sometime in the near-distant later . . . ~

Inky disks fled to the corner of his sight when he heard the door shut, but he didn't cease in his stretches. He switched to holding the other ankle when he felt more than heard the approach of his teacher to the kitchen nearby his spot on the downstairs tatami.

Kakashi rifled through the plastic sack of carry-out as he chided the boy with a casual, "Seems pointless to shower twice in a day," between sniffing each box for what was what.

"That idiot's been trying to kill me lately," the younger growled, wincing against the revolt of a muscle higher in his thigh as he leaned for another inch.

Their instructor had noticed, but he hadn't interfered. Ever since the Wave mission they had been strange.

~&~&~&~&~&~&~

Mercenaries and thugs en mass fled the bridge as a clone army of Narutos and Kakashis cracked their knuckles in the league of glares from not-so defenseless villagers. The kage bunshins dissipated and jutsu smoke fled over the side railings tumbling in to nothingness below.

As Naruto continued to bawl, tears frozen to lash and whiskers by the last fall of snow from dying purity, the entire village congregated there mourned. Not for the fact a pair of brilliant shinobi had fallen, so much as it was so tragic anyone died at all.

Shinobi died every day. It was not often they died for the sake of each other.

Kakashi, years ago, had come to terms with his grief. Had accepted crying made him feel no better, and that it tore at what he knew it took to be a ninja.

After all, there were nin out there more than willing to kill him. To cry over the basic truth people died was just... pointless.

Some came forward to collect the lain bodies, while others began to assess the damage to the bridge, or to congratulate their strange saviors.

"S...sakura..." The pink-haired kunoichi looked over to the source of pained speech, minty eyes falling wide with her own yelp at the collapse of the needle-infested Uchiha against her.

Both of them were sent collapsing to the cement, and at the sound the other half of the team picked their heads up.

"Sasuke!!" The toddling clap of sandals was followed by a hurried shuffle of more experienced feet. "Hey, Sasuke-teme! Don't fake it just to get all over Sakura-chan!"

The lesser of his bloody hands scruffed the ribbed neck of an orange jacket, startled blue eyes shooting up to him. "...Naruto," he sighed in gentle warning, the boy lowering his head as he tensed all over.

"I don't mind," the worried girl admitted. She buried her fingers in the unconscious boy's hair, scooting it away from the cuts on his cheek. "He's... he’s going to be okay, isn't he, Kakashi-sensei?" Her chin was already wobbling at restraining the urge to wail all over again, eyes still swollen and puffy from the last bout.

Once he was able to separate from an overjoyed Inari, the old man was shuffling over with a pair of his former workers, newly inspired to work on the bridge come next light.

A torn icy eye drifted over, keeping a ghost of a grip on Naruto's head lest he try to slap their Uchiha around for some chance at rousing him. "Tazuna-san, do you mind...?"

Adjusting his glasses the older man only nodded, looking to the pair of men that had followed him. "Jiro, Nasara, let's get him to my place." Bushy eyebrows lifted as he glanced over to the jounin, the pair of men prying a pre-teen's form out of the limp girl's arms. "He's going to be alright...? Those needles look pretty heinous. You shinobi are tough; even the young ones."

Hands fled in to his pockets, watching the sullied form be carried off with all the care of a new pane of glass. The cant of his head gave the elder man a smile past the shut lids of mismatched eyes. "I can take care of it. But I'll need some hot water, tools, and -- Sakura," he interjected himself, looking over his shoulder. "I'll need some first aid supplies. Meet me back at Tazuna-san's."

Satisfied with the chance to help she nodded then got to her feet with a swipe at her eyes, darting in to the crowd to hunt down someone with a store.

"Ano sa! Ano sa! What can I do, Kakashi-sensei!?" The blond boy's blindingly azure balls stared up to him desperately over clenched fists. It was no great secret that he felt obligated to help.

With a hop the jounin made it to the rails, and then walked around the bustle of villagers to make his way back for town. "Celebrate with Inari. Be sure to come back by dinnertime." Another set of hops and he had caught up to the men carrying his genin away.

Leaving a wide-eyed Naruto with his hands dangling numbly. Followed by a spastic shriek of, "WHAT?! Oh cmon!! I can do more than that!"

The small boy behind him stared out through his noodle-sifter helmet, clutching at his crossbow. "Naruto-niisan, you can be pretty stupid sometimes."

"EH?! I don't need to hear that outta you Mr. Hero!" He was still too proud of the boy to clock him over the back of the head just yet.

Inari didn't seem to notice, thoughtful eyes watching the retreating red spiral on the back of Kakashi's fading figure. "He's gonna help Sasuke-teme," he explained solemnly, tiny hands closing about the shaft of his weapon. "And he doesn't want you interrupting him." All of the sudden he was all teeth in his smile up to the dazed orange pile looking down to him in confusion. "He'll be so caught up that you'll surprise him if you bust in there to make sure he's doing okay!"

A world of sense bullied Naruto's shoulders down, somehow feeling horrible that he could make that bastard's condition worse if he made Kakashi jump in he middle of pulling one of those needles.

Honestly! Why couldn't that stuck-up bastard pull his needles out when he had owned the chance?! Naruto did! "Yeah..." ... He had to have removed them, to have punctures in his jacket and not be a porcupine now. Much of that fight was still a blur.

Tan, stumpy fingers closed around the burn under his naval at the flashes of Sasuke in his arms. ...Ready to cry at his own failure and despair. Confiding in a boy he had hated, his sin of not obtaining compensation. Trusting him to get through what even he couldn't. Gold lashes clamped over heavenly blue disks, turning his head away from the bile on the back of his throat. It still hurt just to think about.

And to know that was the last thing he remembered before he was staring in to a shinobi's broken existence past the shards of a deceptive mask.

All he remembered with crystal clarity was a pretty face that smiled at the prospect of his life coming to the end.

"...Hey, Inari." Tormented eyes took in the boy that looked up to him. He squeezed in to his best grin, hand falling away from his aching gut to aim at the clearing sky. "Let's go celebrate with everyone else. You DID save the day after all!"

"Right, Naruto-niisan!" Throwing a fist in to the air, the pair of them, they jogged in to the mass of cheers and promises of a village-wide pot luck dinner.

Naruto didn't know any other hands his adversary would be safest in. Yeah... Sasuke would be up and kicking his ass again in no time.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Metal whispered and congregated outside of the wiry white form they had been embedded in, rejoined in a tarnished basin of water. Another needle joined the abundant collection as he worked, having long since tuned out the feeble sobs emanating from the other side of the closed door.

As much as a girl would kill for the mostly-naked, if mutilated sight of Konoha's newest Top Rookie model, as opposed to last years equally-sangfroid Hyuuga - it was just better this way.

Depthless inky pools were transfixed on the ceiling, life drifting in to the Uchiha's features only long enough to prove it stung having another needle removed. Pliers closed around another deadly senbon in his shin, biting down a hiss as it was plucked out of the bone.

All of the others had been removed, Sasuke's arms at his sides, busying himself with the feel of sun-dried sheets as he laid there in only his shorts. The only thing they could afford to have him in until bandages were on.

"Almost done," the older man assured, his own form barren of fabrics save a pair of drawstring shorts. And that shredded masked undershirt that made sure to hide his grave expression. Betrayed only by the grave knot of silvery eyebrows in his concentration. "Just a couple more." When an annoyed sigh drifted to his ears he smiled over. "You can handle a couple more can't you?"

Sasuke closed his eyes to the question, head tilting away. It was frustrating, that Kakashi was giving him priority. Putting him first, over the gash spanning the full height of his own chest and was still seeping through the crude bandages he had managed in to.

That was an ANBU tattoo, blatantly there on his sensei's shoulder he had taken note of a while ago. The Copy Ninja, Kakashi. Their sensei was of a repute that even the bloodthirsty likes of Zabuza gave him consideration.

Maybe they wouldn't take him so seriously if they found out he did nothing save read dirty books all day. And that his legendary eye wasn't even his.

"Don't try to push yourself for the next few days. I'm proud of all three of you." His first team and their first real mission. ...He had been initially convinced it would be as tragic as the last time he had been sent in to such a scenario.

It couldn't be good for a person's esteem when they had a nasty habit of getting young Uchiha killed. Especially when they were so riotous at first, then - seemingly overnight - end up respecting him. As he had watched Sakura cheer and wave, and Sasuke give an affirming salute to an unconvinced blond, there had been a dizzying relief to settle over him.

When he hummed an amused breath the younger turned his gaze over to him, silently demanding an explanation. His throat still wasn't functioning properly. "Hm? Oh... I was just thinking." The last of the needles giggled in to the basin at being reunited with its brethren, gossiping about how they had spilt such rare blood. "Naruto must really care for you, to think you were a goner."

And to threaten the immediate world with the power of the Kyuubi, for a boy he had reportedly spent years hating. ...Admiring. Bitter rivalry. He knew it well.

That cryptic eye smiled down to him with the other scarred one still shut to begin with, his voice heavy with cozy sweetness. And laced with a soporific note that made Sasuke's eyes heavy. "I'm very proud of you, Sasuke. You did good."

Originally he had anticipated that the boy would continue to make burden of his team, and sooner avoid them all together. ...Not get himself torn to non-genin levels of hell. The fact he was willing to put himself at risk for the success of a mission –more, the survival of his teammates, meant... a great deal, to him.

He was still curious as to how precise his pupil's eyes were getting to have avoided slaughtering himself on the good two-dozen needles that had avoided such critical points. Even if Haku had been intending to avoid killing him in finality from the start, to have lasted long enough to obtain that many...

It was a bit early, though, to assume the last Uchiha of Konoha finally had his Sharingan. His instincts and eyesight were already critically sharp.

The jounin claimed a generous handful of bandages. What few were left after sealing the thin pillar of a milky neck and the iron, honed sinews teeming under adolescent smoothness of arms and waist. He noticed that unlike Naruto, Sasuke may have been prematurely - hastily - inducted to adulthood. Skin pliant and hair fine, but lacking the plumpness and innocence that could be afforded at that age.

Not to mention he had a venomously closed-minded personality. Like one of those crazy old grouches that hoarded game spheres unfortunate enough to land on the wrong side of the fence. ...Made cookies every day for people too scared to come and get them.

For years he had thought the case was peculiar. Now, as he sat there at the end of small legs and eased the boy out of his uncomfortable and filthy shorts one thin leg at a time. Let him keep some modesty with keeping his eyes closed in the task until he heard sheets fully in place to obscure himself. Icy toes settled on his bare knee, an old scar buzzing at the contact. In silence he gave numerous scrapes and gashes a cool, numbing rinse... Wrapped tender, punctured thighs and shins and concentrated on that task sooner than why his patient was so eerily, quiescently complaint about it.

Now, he understood a little more. He saw it before anyone else... It's just like Itachi.

Attention shifted when freezing white toes splayed and curled against the flat of his chest, lifting his faded blue eye to the grimace on the boy's face, weakened by his exhaustion.

He would have to remember that the lower-back of his Top Rookie's thigh was sensitive.

Setting the limb down when he was done with it, in turn with the other, he noticed how even the breathing was from a chest still childishly shapeless and barren of sun-rich color. In sleep, that face was still riddled with an unspecific frown.

For the longest time he sat there at his pupil's feet, not chancing to move lest this slumber be unlikely interrupted.

Sakura's head picked up from her tear-drenched lap and the basket of her arms, swelled lashes pulled wide away from hopeful jadine eyes. "K-k...kaakashi-s-s-ensei," her broken voice tripped, twisting her head around the now open door that her teacher stood in for a chance at seeing her love's condition for herself.

There wasn't a chance, with how watered her vision was and how briefly the man kept the door open, letting it slide closed noiselessly. One long finger rose up over his mask to indicate a hush.

"Wait here a little longer. I don't want Naruto going in there tonight." When he received a choked affirmation and a nod, he chanced moving to sit on his heels and smile to her up close. It took her a moment to lift her head, staring at the bowl of stained water and needles he was carrying. There was also the shade of red that had seeped through his own clumsy wrapping. "Don't make yourself sick out here though, mm? Go to bed when you're tired. He's going to be fine."

There was little point trying to order her to her own bed. At the very least, he could keep her from breaking his orders by making her do what she wanted to do.

And Sakura was about the only person Naruto was afraid to go through, even to see his bedridden bastard.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Resolved, the very first thing Naruto did after breakfast was march to Sasuke's room. Which happened to have been their room up until last night. He had ended up snoring on Inari's floor with the clamorous jive of the ocean beyond the open window.

Said Inari was currently smiling up to him, crossbow in lap, and right in his way of the door.

"...Inari? What're you doin' up so early?"

"Mission!" he chirped, hardly above a whisper.

The blond only stared. "Mission?"

A nod from the head in his steel colander helmet, grinning from one side of the chin strap to the other. "Mm! Kakashi-sensei gave it to me."

"Yeah well, lemme in there. I wanna chew that Sasuke-bastard's ass out for hogging the room!"

He stepped forward, only to have a six-year-old glomp to his leg. "I can't let you, Naruto-niisan!"

Arms lifted with his curiosity, staring down to the pile. ...And an arrow that was upright in its weapon.

Between his legs.

In a child's arms... that knew know to use it. Panic seized him in to fuddled whispers. "I.... Inari...?"

"No way! Kakashi-sensei told me to not let you in! The safety of the whole village depends on it!"

...Assuredly, the guy had to have more trust in him to not go tearing down a strange village in some fit of rage over the Uchiha. At the idea this truth might have been compromised his expression flattened.

First Sakura ushered him away in the night with the promise of skinning him alive. Bad enough that he had stolen her Sasuke's first and only-first kiss out from under her - but he wasn't going to see Sasuke in his current state either. She had looked haggard with the need for sleep, and out of sheer wanting to not stress her he had continued his waddling to the bathroom.

Now this. His own follower. His follower for all sakes!! Kakashi, that manipulative bastard.

"Ohayo..." sounded in that tired, uncaring baritone that shivered up Naruto's spine and made him clench with fear. The devil's ears had been burning, apparently.

Woodenly he looked over his shoulder to the half-asleep, quarter-exposed face of his sensei, pouting. "Kakashi-sensei."

"Mm...?" the jounin answered slowly, lowering his 'hello' hand from the air and roosting it in his pocket to match the other.

"Why can't I go see him?"

"Because Inari-kun won't let go of your leg."

"Not what I meant dammit!!"

The jounin sighed with a firm, "Settle down." When he was sure Naruto wasn't too heavy-set on breaking his way in to listen to him he continued. "He needs his rest, and you're not helping. So, you can either go practice," he offered in a stern whisper, before he was smiling in that eye of his. "Or you can make sure he's comfortable while he recovers for the next week or so."

"EEEEH?!"

"Quiet!" piped up from the growth on his leg.

What horrible options!! He attempted to protest, but was only granted an unyielding, blank observance from the dopey-glossed iris. Arms folded, releasing a humph as his leg was let go and he made his way for the stairs.

Grumbling something about 'wanting to climb trees anyway'.

~&~&~&~&~&~&~

"Well, you do goad him in to it," the teacher offered as he sniffed another box, then set it aside.

A growl from the other room told him that's not what the Uchiha had wanted to hear. Or that he was stressing another muscle. "I don't do anything. He's just a dumbass."

"I'm not quite sure how good it is to talk about your teammates like that when I'm right here." Sweatdrop. Sasuke always had to put everything so bluntly he thought while coming to the living room. With a grocery bag on each hand to he had to use his foot to knock over the table against the wall. There were two sides not making their way in to the corner. Two people.

It was fine right where it was.

"There's wasabi and mustard in the fridge."

"I'll go in a minute," was muffled by Sasuke's face nearly buried in to the woven tatami floor between his knees.

Sweatdrop. A hum in his sigh, head falling as he left the table. "...You'll pull something like that."

Inky pools peered out from the damp curtain of black sapphire. The cocky tail on the back of his head was still controlled by what was left of his shower, and his hitai-ate was nowhere in sight. "I don't need your help," he snipped, refusing to budge from his bend.

"Maa, you never need anything, do you?" he replied coolly, eye smiling shut. Sitting on his heels, he reached out to gather the boy's shoulders from their proximity to the floor. Right now, this wasn't his Top Rookie. This was an Uchiha in his home. "Come on now, sit up." His… guest.

Hatake Kakashi did not often have guests. Making sure they didn’t get hurt in their stay was his best guess at being a good host.

Giving a few blinks the pre-teen grudgingly responded, a little relieved to have someone help him up. Most times he left himself there until his legs wanted to work again, but he was guaranteed to be completely pliable again after bed rest. For a while he lay there relying on the hands at his shoulders, eventually eyeing the man with a wordless criticism.

"Lay back and put your leg up." ...Yeah. It sounded strange to him too. Sasuke's glaring was greeted with an indifferent icy eye, until the jounin broke the contact to observe the ankle he grabbed hold of.

It toppled the genin who emitted a grunt, scowling skeptically up to a man that still gave him that scriptless observance from a pallid eye. Only for shoulders to seize in their regular black tee at a stab of pain riding up his spine when Kakashi leaned over him. Lips twisted with displeasure, throwing his gaze away to disappear under his hair.

He paused hearing a breathy plea of, "S...s-stop... ah, shit..." The way ears pinked in strain as a spindly leg was stretched along his own longer chest, sure to keep a firm grasp of the quaking knee and thigh.

It was almost... cute, the way the Uchiha was biting his lip to hold down his noise, little more than a choked squeak that crashed against the back of his teeth.

Almost.

What few clean images were left of some Uchiha!Pet purring in his lap while he read a good book were pulling away fast.

Faster than he did, letting the acute angle of Sasuke's leg and rest of his body become more perpendicular. Muscles twanged, became lax, and stiffened again against the jounin's shoulder as the boy desperately collected air back in to his lungs.

As his senses came back in order, a fatigued annoyance floated out from scattered bangs to focus on his foot lodged against the large knot of the man’s shoulder. Then trickle up to masked features that smiled at him only through that sliver of metal lashes.

Tense air broke away from his smug hum. "Now..." he offered distantly, soothing the ankle in his grasp with one wide hand, and his rough thumb warmly massaging the back of the boy's knee. Keeping himself oblivious to the sight of the boy fidgeting against such a sensation. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

His answer was a feeble kick that knocked him on to his ass, chuckling softly as Sasuke gained his fours scramble away in no great hurry. Leaning back on his hands, he stared to the retreating short-clad tush of his escaped victim that made his way to the table, dumping himself down on the matting and hugging of the bags to himself.

He lifted a box to his nose, giving it a sniff. Stir fry, and somewhere he could smell fresh-baked rolls. A moment later his sour gaze lifted as Kakashi sat himself at the other edge of the table.

They ate in silence. Sasuke haughtily taking bits of rice and fried vegetables to his mouth, closing himself off from the surrounding world with eyes shut and no doubt humming a tune in his own head. Kakashi watching him with his masked cheek in a fist, shamelessly gazing at the heat in the Uchiha's cheekbones.

The wire of his brow lifted. "You're not going to eat?" the smaller asked, still sounding...

He shrugged, smiling in his eye. "Better than eating when you're mad. You'll get indigestion and bad teeth like that."

His efforts to give advice were greeted with a venomous look over a clack of teeth on chopsticks. It was better to ignore him, a breath passing out of his nose to resume his eating. A little more slowly.

...His student was definitely better company when he was gasping, stuck on his back in a world of his own strain and noises.

Or asleep, in his arms and guiltlessly exposed from a willowy hip up and his face, for once, devoid of his vengeful traumas.

Honestly, Kakashi hadn't been expecting to go without sleep that night. Tonight, it seemed, he wasn't going to be getting any rest either. And here, his student didn't have a clue as to what he was doing.

...Or did... and was going to make his sensei squirm in some unspoken, undiscovered revenge.

Avengers were fickle and exacting, like that. It made the jounin's toes tingle; dissecting a mind he had originally figured would be narrow-set and cut-throat. Had he known that his first team was going to have a noble-hearted prankster, a hopelessly romantic shrewd - and a temperamental deviant with a pension of knocking the wind out of him...

The icy disk lowered to his take-out box, pale gray fluff obscuring one half of his blush and his palm the other as he picked at the steamy mass inside. "I thought you said this wasn't going to be a regular thing...?" he asked slowly, trying not to sound interested in the motives of his young company.

"It's not," Sasuke assured, poisoned steel lingering in his murmur. "You're sleeping down here this time. My neck cramped."

Sweatdrop, an unbelieving blink fluttering out of him. "Is that so...? Last I checked, it was my bed..." Doubting himself he thought it out. He had to be sure...

"Hn." Setting the box down, a pale cheek was throned on his knuckles as he stared out with a familiar glint of confidence in obsidian shards through the thick trap of his lashes. "I remember you saying something about you liking it down here."

Kakashi was still attempting to decipher the possibility that... his student was flirting, with such an alluring twist in his features. No, he couldn't be. ...The Uchiha didn't have any experience.

And for one reason or another, he was flattered by the concept that he was who the boy was subjecting his charm to.

Or maybe people really were attracted to confidence. Not that a shy and witless genin with legs wrapped around him against a wall was so bad.

...Flattered, and disturbed by his own reaction to it. He concluded that even if the hitai-ate was off -- especially when it was off -- Uchiha Sasuke was still his pupil and responsibility.

And his Top Rookie. Whom was fawned over by every kunoichi and academy-elect. An idea.

"I guess if word got out that the Uchiha Sasuke is ticklish behind his knee, I could blame it on being tired..."

The instantaneous wrath was released as a doink of dinner roll bouncing off his silver head. Lifting a heavy lid from his dopey eye, he caught the tail end of horrified fury rippling off the genin's form. Sasuke went back to stabbing his dinner in silence.

Maybe, just maybe, he would be able to sleep this time, now that his Top Rookie just might be too angry to cuddle.

How low did a grown man have to sink to blackmail a boy half his age, half his size.

But three times his appetite. Sasuke claimed a number of boxes that had not been assigned to his bag.

Either he could make a joke that he worried the boy could get fat (which neither of them believed, he found out) – or he could risk his face being seen in the attempts to curb his hunger on something other than the wasabi and mustard standing sentinel in the fridge.

Tonight he may be able to sleep fine, but it was going to be on an empty stomach.