A Shadow Darkly

V

Kyuubi gently stroked Naruto’s back as the young man snuggled against his side. The day had been hard on him, from the funeral to the inauguration, and the killing intent felt from Sasuke. The blasted Uchiha had masked the intent well from the jounin surrounding him, but Kyuubi’s nose never lied. He hadn’t told Naruto, not wanting him to worry, and had distracted the blonde with images of the night’s activities. That had done its job well and Naruto had certainly been amenable to Kyuubi’s attentions once they were in their apartment.

Kyuubi felt Naruto shift and then felt a hot mouth against his chest, slowly moving lower. As he set his palm against Naruto’s bobbing head, Kyuubi let a lazy smile grow as he wondered how Kakashi was faring with his charge. After all, Sasuke wasn’t as amenable as Naruto to certain attentions and the Uchiha was rather upset at the recent turn of events.

Kyuubi sighed as pleasure washed through his brain and decided he didn’t envy Kakashi at all.


Sasuke hit the wall and slid to a crouch, pushing off the wall to tackle Kakashi down, missing by inches. Kakashi grabbed the young man by the collar he wore and with the barest muscle twitch sent the Uchiha crashing into the couch. It wobbled, toppled over, and Sasuke rolled to his feet, glaring at the silver-haired man.

They hadn’t even exchanged words when Kakashi brought Sasuke to the apartment, nor had Sasuke even made a snide remark before the jounin’s fist crashed into his face. After that, Sasuke had just fought to keep up with Kakashi. The nukenin could taste blood in his mouth and focused mostly on defense, trying to score a few blows on his keeper in revenge. Kakashi only sported a few bruises and a cut here or there for all of Sasuke’s efforts.

It wasn’t fair, Sasuke thought. He hadn’t done anything to warrant this. He’d behaved. He’d been good. He dodged left and spun around Kakashi, fingers crooked to hit pressure points. He was expecting to miss, expecting the clone, and when his fingers hit and Kakashi popped in a cloud of smoke, Sasuke dropped to his belly and kicked straight up. His foot connected with Kakashi’s sternum and the force shoved the jounin back a few inches, far enough for Sasuke to roll to his feet.

Then, suddenly, Kakashi was there in his face again, and Sasuke reacted the only way he knew how. Blinded by spit, Kakashi’s fist narrowly missed Sasuke’s nose, instead cracking against his eye and sending the Uchiha crashing to the floor with a hiss of pain.

“Finished?” Kakashi asked, panting only just slightly as he wiped saliva from his blue eye, uncovering the Sharingan to stare down at the winded, bloody nukenin. Sasuke glared up at Kakashi, his eye already beginning to swell shut. “Yeah, you’re finished.”

Kakashi hauled his charge to his feet and shoved him down the hall toward the bathroom. Kakashi couldn’t even remember how the fight stared. Sasuke had actually behind himself on the walk home and had done nothing to earn such a harsh beating (which, actually, was more like a friendly punch in Kakashi’s case). But Kakashi had felt something sinister exude from the young man and his only reaction was to attack it.

Ah, jounin paranoia.

Kakashi let himself get snarled out of the bathroom and wandered back to his small living room. He looked at the damage that had been wrought, shuddered, and moved to clean up. Iruka would laugh at him or doing this. Would have, Kakashi corrected himself. He would have laughed. Kakashi looked toward the bathroom where, using the Sharingan, he could see Sasuke’s vague image. Cut off from his chakra, the boy was merely a blur of natural energy, hardly a just punishment for murder. But the jounin understood the importance of keeping Sasuke alive. As the last of his clan, he needed to produce progeny to continue the Uchiha blood. Politics and all that.

The silver-haired man blinked as he felt liquid against his palms and looked down at his hands to find his nails had broken his skin. Sasuke was going to be a pain in the ass.

So how to deal with him? Kakashi was already going to have to explain Sasuke’s black eye. If he was going to beat the shit out of the boy, he either needed to get smarter about his hitting or change how he doled out the punishment. Uchiha Sasuke was like a rabid dog, though, and Kakashi was certain that more fights like this would occur – especially since the loss of Iruka was so fresh in Kakashi’s mind.

That in itself decided Kakashi.

To tame a dog one had to be forceful, kind, and understanding.

To break a dog, one just had to destroy its sense of self.

Kakashi figured he could do that to Sasuke just fine.

He heard the water to the shower shut of and finished cleaned up the mess that was his living room. Then the jounin sidled back toward the bathroom, waiting outside the door for his unwilling charge. Sasuke met Kakashi’s eyes with a glare, fighting back the wince that threatened to take over his muscles. Somehow succeeding (probably because there was no retaliation) Sasuke grew just a little more confident.

A hand to the back of his head lowered that confidence just slightly. Sasuke somehow was able to resist the urge to leap upon Kakashi and bring him down with a snapped neck when the elder gave him his back and solemnly followed him to the bedroom.

“Where’s my bed?” Sasuke asked a moment alter.

Kakashi have the nukenin a vicious smile. “Dogs sleep on the floor.”