Summary: Reforming a village is a lot harder than Sasuke would have thought, especially with people throwing coups and assassinating Hokages left and right. In other news, half of his team are crushing on him, Sasuke wants nothing to do with feelings, and who knows what Kakashi is thinking behind that mask of his.

Notes: This story happens in a timeline that is different from canon. Sasuke does leave Konoha and Naruto defeats Pain just like in canon, but Sasuke stays with Orochimaru until he is 19 - that is where this story starts. This means that Sasuke is an adult in this fic.

Pairings: KakaSasu, slight NaruSasu and NaruGaa/GaaNaru, one-sided SasuSaku

Warnings for this chapter: mention of suicide

1. Gathering Storm

November, the third year of peace
The Land of Snow

He gets caught for the first time in years.

He is on a mission in the Land of Snow, under orders to infiltrate the northern stronghold hidden deep within the high mountains, steal a scroll of a forbidden jutsu for Orochimaru and get out, all this undetected if possible. A simple mission, really, for a shinobi like him.

The problem is that the mission turns out to be anything but.

He sneaks over the tall walls surrounding the fortress, navigates his way through the long corridors of the building without a hitch and lets himself in the vault guarding the sacred artefacts of the Snow Country. But just after he gets his fingers on the scroll and manages to hastily send it to his master with his summon animals, a group of the pale ninjas of the Snow barge in the room.

Maybe they knew that Orochimaru would send somebody after the jutsu – it's no secret that the Sannin has been itching to get his hands on this particular scroll for months now – and the shinobis were just simply waiting for their chance to ambush the intruder. Maybe they knew, maybe not, but the only fact that matters now is that they caught him. The guards with their heavy armours and faceless masks corner him and this time the thousand birds singing in the palm of his hand aren't enough to get him out of there.

Sasuke is tossed into a dingy cell and kept there for what feels like days. Time is lost to him in the windowless room as he sits there with nothing to do, chains to temporarily seal his chakra weighing down his wrists. During this time of the year and especially this far up north, the sun doesn't rise at all, not even during the days, and Sasuke wouldn't be able to tell when a night ends and a day is born even if he was outside, his face raised towards the sky.

The shinobis from the Snow are ruthless in their ways of questioning him. They are fast to resort to outright beating him to find out why he is here and what Sasuke knows of them and their people. And most importantly, they want to know where he has hidden what he stole from them.

Sasuke refuses to say a word. He grits his teeth together and faces the pale ninjas with the arrogant contempt that comes so naturally to him. His silence is not caused by any mislead loyalty to Orochimaru – because there is no such thing in him – but because of who he is as an Uchiha. And if Sasuke knows exactly as much as the Snow shinobis about why Orochimaru wants this scroll – meaning he has no idea either – well, his captors don't need to know that. The Sannin didn't deem the reasons important enough to share with him, apart from telling Sasuke to get the jutsu no matter what the cost.

The air in the cell is so cold that Sasuke can taste the sharpness of it. By now his eyes have got used to the darkness and he can make out the faint, light form of his icy breath. The brick wall he is leaning against oozes freezing cold that makes his teeth chatter. The light clothes he is wearing are made for warmer climates and do not shield him from any of the chill.

The Snow ninjas know what they are doing – they took his thick wool cape away from him as soon as they tossed him into their underground prison, fully aware that beating somebody to pulp is not the only way to torture a shinobi. Half-delirious with the creeping hypothermia, Sasuke chuckles to himself that by trying to be so clever with the means of making him miserable, they might accidentally freeze him to death before they get anything out of him.

The door opens with a clang and Sasuke shifts his head a little to stare through the curtain of his messy hair at the burly guard that appears at the doorway. Satisfyingly, the man seems affected by Sasuke's glare even when he can't activate his sharingan. Sasuke is pleased to notice that despite the sorry state he is in, he does have some psychological power over his captors, no matter how little. At least the Uchiha name is still good for something.

The guard, quite wary of Sasuke and his bloodshot eyes gleaming in the darkness, is happy to wait until another guard arrives to assist him with their chakraless prisoner. Then the man walks into the cell to hoist Sasuke up when he doesn't get on his feet on his own. In the end, the two guards have to physically drag him out of the cell. Sasuke has decided to be as annoying to handle as possible – it was the snow shinobis' idea to imprison Sasuke and have him there to make their lives harder, not Sasuke's, so they might as well suffer the consequences. He wouldn't be anywhere near the fortress in the first place if it was up to him.

Sasuke is escorted through a multitude of dark, dozen turns, corners and crossroads. The imposing stone walls around them are just as freezingly cold as the ground under their feet and Sasuke's breath comes out as white puffs. One of the two guards ushering him forward – the younger one with a slightly crooked back – shakes and rattles the chains connected to Sasuke's wrists just for the sake being bothersome. There is a stupid grin across the little skin that is visible of his face from behind the mask, and Sasuke half-seriously plans to yank his end of the chain to make the guard trip over his feet.

Sasuke is pulled out of his thoughts by a sudden movement he catches from the corner of his eye. In the hallway on his left, there is just the tiniest hint of something shifting in the darkness. When he turns his head to take a better look, it's gone and there is only an empty, dim corridor to be seen.

Sasuke blinks in confusion and stumbles as he nearly loses his balance when the guards push him forward. He is not terribly surprised that his tired and malnourished brain starts to make things up, especially when the fortress is lit up with torches that cast dancing shadows on the stone walls. Imagining things seems most likely when the guards don't seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary.

After another series of turns to left and right that Sasuke memorises on the go, he finds himself ushered into a large room with a high ceiling. The space seems even darker than any other parts of the dungeons he has been in. There is a complicated, multi-layered seal drawn on the floor, covering the stone tiles from wall to wall. A hooded figure is standing in the middle of it, with carefully positioned feet so that every line of the seal remains untouched. Behind the figure is an old man – clearly someone who used to be a ninja during his younger days, judging by the way he still holds himself. The old man studies him with sharp eyes, but Sasuke pays him no mind.

Sasuke is pushed down onto his knees on the exact centre point of the seal circle. The guards don't hold back when it comes to the force that they are using, and Sasuke bites his lip as he crashes onto the cold floor knees first. His legs are sure to be bruised tomorrow.

"So, this is the thief that dared to invade our fortress and kill our leader," the old man gnarls. His accusing voice is so thick with a sharp accent that Sasuke has a hard time making out the words. But despite the translation problems, he is quite sure that he hasn't killed anybody on this mission yet, and that the old git is punishing him for somebody else's crimes.

Maybe he wasn't seeing things in the corridors – maybe there is another invader in the stronghold.

"You have taken the scroll that contains the sacred jutsu of our people, and so you shall be punished by the very same tradition you have stolen from us."

Sasuke's hands shake with the cold and his toes start to feel numb in his worn-out shoes. The tile floor under him is so cool against his legs that it's almost an aching pain that he feels. If he had known that this simple mission would end like this, he would have told Orochimaru to piss off.

The person in the cape with a hood drawn over their head takes their place behind him, signalling the guards to back off to the sides of the room.

Trying to find a clue of what all this is about, Sasuke eyes the marks on the floor again. They are drawn in ink, not blood, and for that he is grateful – ink is always better news than blood, at least for the unfortunate victim. The years spent studying under Orochimaru haven't all gone to waste, Sasuke notes dryly when he starts to recognize single signs and seals. Now he just needs to understand their meaning when they are used together.

Sasuke has to stop himself from gritting his teeth when he realises what is going on. The sigils on the floor are for blocking and draining chakra. The ninjas of the Snow are going to seal his chakra away, this time permanently. Sasuke can only wonder for what purpose – what use will he be to the people of the Snow without his chakra? By ruining his body unfit for a shinobi career, they will also lose any chance of blackmailing Orochimaru with him – the Sannin will want nothing to do with him if Sasuke is rendered useless.

It seems that the northern ninjas don't care about what Sasuke thinks of them or their reasoning as the dark ink on the tile floor starts to glow. It's an ominous sight that lights up the dark room. Sasuke would snort at the theatricality of it if he wasn't in the unfortunate position of becoming the next victim of the ritual. He is sure that a major village like Konoha wouldn't bother with all the torches and hoods if they were to seal off his chakra. The Hidden Village of the Leaf would be swift and efficient and done with the whole process in no time. But it seems that up here in the remote north shinobis are more prone to falling back into ancient traditions.

Sasuke feels the hooded person's chakra concentrating behind him, a mass of energy almost fuming in the air, ready for the act of sealing. They start the series of hand signs and the seal on the floor positively roars in return. There is a feeling of dread growing in Sasuke, and when he glances at the guards positioned near the walls, they seem nervous too. It doesn't feel like this is an everyday occurrence even here in the Snow.

But Sasuke won't give up this easily. He is an Uchiha, born and raised as one, and that means that he is going to stand up and fight. These bastards threaten to take away the last bit of his family's legacy he has left, and Sasuke will fight, even if his legs are shaking and his head is spinning.

Slowly, he brings his hands together to get them into a better position to attack the person behind him, careful not to make a sound with the cuffs. Sasuke measures the proportions of the room, counting how long it will take the guards to reach him after his first strike. He makes a show of wiggling his toes and stretching his legs to get his feet better under him. Now his weight is on his toes instead of his knees.

Sasuke draws in a deep breath, masking it as a sign of fear – and just as he is going to go for it, a warm, calloused hand lands on his shoulder.

There's a hot breath on his neckand a painstakingly familiar deep voice in his ear.

"Run when I say so."

With one swift movement Kakashi reaches down, slams his free hand on Sasuke's handcuffs and blast the seals open with a pulse of his chakra.

It's like being hit by a wave at a storming sea when Sasuke's chakra is released and his energy flows back to him all at once. He feels like he is drowning, but still at the same time, it's so much easier to breathe – like a weight has been lifted off his chest.

Sasuke has no time to marvel the return of his power further as Kakashi urges him to run.

"Go!"

Around him all hell breaks loose as Kakashi swirls around to hurl a kunai straight at a guard's head. The man never knew what hit him. Unfortunately, Kakashi isn't fast enough to down the other one, and the burlier of the two guards manages to shout an alarm into the hallway before the copynin of hundreds of jutsus gets him. Thousands of birds sing in the underground room, the eerie sound of the jutsu echoes in the open space, and Sasuke feels his hair stand up as blue chakra sparks electrify the air.

Another batch of pale, armoured shinobis storms into the room and Sasuke thinks it might be a good idea to finally get up. He scrambles up to his wobbly feet and manages to step aside just in time to avoid a body flying towards him.

"I meant it! Go!" Kakashi shouts at him, irked that Sasuke is still just standing there.

Sasuke scowls at nobody in particular, he is not in the mood for a lecture from his former teacher in a situation like this. He throws a quick look over his shoulder to make sure Kakashi is going to be alright and when he receives a quick, if not slightly annoyed nod back, he stumbles out of the room.

Sasuke rushes through the labyrinth of corridors, running his hand against the wall to keep his balance, and tries to remember the location of the entrance. He loses his footing a couple of times on the slippery floor, but his torn shoes keep frantically slapping against the cold stone as he runs.

Sasuke almost collides into a group of guards when he turns around a corner, nearly slamming straight into their arms. They must have been alarmed by the warning. There's a clear confusion among the group as the guards try to understand what is going and Sasuke is happy to take advantage of their befuddled state.

This time the ninjas of the Snow are no match for his screaming birds.

And then he is out of that damn place.

Once Sasuke gets outside, he is greeted by icy winds and a forlorn forest. In the forest, he finds a hiding spot up in a high tree. He is just far enough from the outpost that when he crouches down and studies the direction he came from, he can see back at the clearing where the entrance to the fortress is, but any remaining guards shouldn't be able to spot him without knowing where to look – not that they would expect him to hide in the trees instead of running away.

And then Sasuke waits.

He sits there for maybe five minutes – full five minutes of his heart pounding in his chest, his body shivering in the frozen forest and his teeth chattering, all the while telling himself that he is an utter idiot. A stupid, sentimental idiot because Sasuke still cares even though he has told himself many, many times over the years that he shouldn't.

Sasuke sits there, in the snow-covered tree, wiggling his toes and hugging himself to keep himself warm, until he catches a sight of Konoha's ANBU gear and a flash of hair just as white as the snow falling on Sasuke's eyelashes. This pair of eyes knows where to look, one sharingan finding another, and spots the pale Uchiha amongst the trees in no time.

Kakashi lifts his right hand into a lazy wave before disappearing into the opposite direction.

Sasuke makes a humming sound deep in his throat, annoyed that Kakashi had the audacity to expect Sasuke to be waiting for him. Then he dusts off the snow from his shoulders and begins his long march towards Orochimaru's hideout, already pondering where to steal a set of better clothes from.

o0o

That mission ends up being one of the very few ones Sasuke almost screws up in his history of serving Orochimaru, but this time he doesn't even particularly care. The Sannin teases him about it for the next two weeks, trying to get under Sasuke's skin by accusing him of being weak and not having enough power to accomplish even a simple mission like that without getting caught. Sasuke sees the taunting for what it is and lets the jibes slide. Six years ago, when he was just a thirteen-year-old boy who had lost his family twice, he had been prone to exploding every time Orochimaru used Sasuke's hunger for power against him, but now, at the age of nineteen, Sasuke is quite used to his mentor's usual tricks and couldn't care less.

The last six years have passed more quickly than he would have thought. Sasuke had never planned to stay this long, but the snake Sannin had more to teach him that Sasuke could have ever imagined, and despite the ghost of his brother haunting him tirelessly during the nights, the burn for knowledge and finally proving himself had kept Sasuke anchored to the dim hideout.

When the three-year marker had come and Orochimaru had been ready to take his body, Sasuke had subtly got himself assigned on a mission far away from any of the Sannin's headquarters and his lackeys. Then he had made sure that he would arrive late from that mission. While Sasuke had been away, the Sannin's health had declined drastically and Orochimaru had had to resort to somebody else, guaranteeing another good three years for Sasuke as the master of his own body.

When Sasuke had finally come back, pretending that he had no clue of what had been going on during his absence, Orochimaru had given him a dirty, glowering look, knowing exactly that Sasuke had purposely danced out of their deal, and promptly refused to teach him for the next two months. That had suited Sasuke just fine – he had in turn taken more missions, and had soon become an essential part of the Hidden Village of the Sound.

Otogakure has never felt like home, but Sasuke has learned to trust some of its ninjas who sometimes accompany him on his missions. Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin are the only ones he would even think of associating the word "friend" with, but as he slowly climbs the ranks among the Sound shinobis – and with time gets the role of a leader among these groups – Sasuke thinks he finally catches a hint of what Kakashi meant with teamwork all those years ago.

Sasuke grows to love the trips away from the hideout. During his missions, he sometimes stops just to listen to the sounds of deep forests and feel the wind on his face, infinitely preferring them over the murky tunnels of Orochimaru's headquarters. A few years back he would have hated these mission, claiming that they are preventing him from learning and gaining power. But after the years spent under the tutelage of Orochimaru and the constant pressure of defeating Itachi hanging over him, Sasuke has to admit that travelling across the Five Great Shinobi countries and beyond gives him a chance to lose the heavy role of an avenger. For a while he can banish every thought of his brother from his mind and just breathe and admire the diverse cultures and lives he comes across during his journeys.

The solo mission to the Snow is the first time during these six years that Sasuke has run into any of the members of Team 7 since he left Konoha. Considering that he left Naruto to die in the Valley of the End with a hole blasted through the boy's chest, it was quite amicable of Kakashi to bust him out of the Snow fortress. A large part of Sasuke tries not to care about Team 7, and he downplays the importance of seeing even a glimpse of one of them – because what are they to him but a nuisance?

But in a tiny corner of his mind Sasuke is happy to know that they are alive and about, and despite of everything, still willing to help Sasuke out of trouble. In a passing thought, he wonders why Kakashi was wearing the white of the ANBU, but he doesn't dwell on it too much.

Though Sasuke hasn't seen neither hide nor hair of his genin team up until now, he has heard of them. The news of Naruto defeating Pain three years back reached even Orochimaru's remote hideout, in fact the Sannin himself gloated about the news – wondering out loud if Sasuke was jealous of his former rival who had already saved nations while Sasuke himself was still stuck studying scrolls in dimly lit libraries and practicing his jutsus over and over and over again.

At that age Sasuke hadn't seen through the taunting, still too young and childish as he had just turned sixteen that summer. When his master had left him, Sasuke had spent that day outside the headquarters, frying everything in thirty-foot radius with his lightning chakra. After he had torched a good patch of the forest black, he had marched back, had Kabuto diagnose his hands with chakra burns and got himself a strict order not to use his chakra for two weeks. That hadn't exactly calmed his rage over losing to Naruto.

Now, over two years later, more poised and in peace with himself, he almost wishes he could see Naruto in person and hear the story of overcoming Pain from his best friend himself.

o0o

The 29th of December, the third year of peace
The Land of Hot Water

Another mission later Sasuke finds himself sitting in a tavern – it's probably more of a brothel than a tavern but that's what the sign outside says – waiting for one of Orochimaru's lackeys he was sent on this mission with. The two Oto ninjas split up soon after they had arrived in this civilian city Sasuke can't remember the name of, both of them having a mission of their own. The city, though large and filled with busy people, is so far away from the Great Ninja Countries that Sasuke doesn't recall even seeing it on the maps he had to study in the academy.

Sasuke has already finished his mission, a few days early, and has no other option than to try to make himself as comfortable as possible in the tavern he and the other shinobi agreed to meet in.

He leans his head on his hand, bored, and stares at the crowd with half-lidded eyes. The tavern is a shady place, not the kind of establishment he would normally find himself in, and the people occupying it are just as foul and repulsive. The smell of alcohol lingers heavily in the air, along with other scents Sasuke has no will to recognize. He has had to wave off far too many "friendly" fellow customers for his liking for the evening, and once again he is reminded of how much he hates the white yukata that hangs open over his chest and leaves nothing to the imagination, a custom in the Sound but seemingly nowhere else. Men and women, young and old, keep coming at him, apparently mistaking him for one of the tavern staff.

Sasuke drums his fingers against the surface of the table and colourfully curses the Sound shinobi he was sent here with for choosing this place where everything that moves is trying to molest him.

Speak of the devil, there is once again another desperate soul coming towards him. The man is huge, both in vertical and horizontal dimensions, sweaty and greasy, but his off-putting demeanour clashes with the expensive, well-cut clothes he is wearing. The garments don't quite fit and Sasuke comes to the unpleasant conclusion that he must have stolen them from someone – because surely no one with such a fine taste in clothes would come anywhere near a place like this. That and the red drunkenness of his face paint a picture of someone who won't take a no for an answer and Sasuke absentmindedly wonders if he will be kicked out of the tavern if he impales this guy with a chidori.

Something familiar catches his eye at the back of the room.

A tall man with light hair tinted with silver moves through the crowd, firmly pushing people out of his way. The drunkards are scattering away, scared of the katana strapped to the man's back and the one red eye glaring at them.

Sasuke hasn't got the time to ponder over what Kakashi is doing here – instead he launches into trying to make Kakashi notice him by staring at his former teacher as intently as he can and muttering curses at him under his breath. He can listen to a rant about coming back to Konoha if his old sensei just saves him from this mountain of a man that just landed on the chair opposite of him.

"Hello, beautiful," the drunkard mumbles and Sasuke turns to scowl at him, appalled by the lack of dignity and original pick-up lines of this guy. Sharingan spins into his eyes but the man doesn't seem have noticed it at all. His common sense has left him by now, it seems.

If the scary eyes don't work, then the only other option Sasuke is left with is violence, but he really doesn't want to be thrown out of the tavern. Even though he loathes the place, the room he has is almost decent-ish and he would rather spend the remaining few days inside than outside in the cold. And considering that it's almost New Year's Eve, Sasuke won't be able to find a room anywhere else as every hotel in the vicinity is full.

When Sasuke has decided that the large man is too drunk for any sudden movements he wouldn't be able to notice in time, he scans the crowd for the familiar head of silver, but the Kakashi is nowhere to be seen. Sasuke is half-way convinced that he imagined him – and then he feels a large hand land on his knee under the table.

"Get your hands off me!" Sasuke hisses, hints of Otogakure's accent seeping into his voice, sharpening his words, and he jerks his leg away from the man's reach. A drop of sweat is travelling down the drunkard's brow and Sasuke seriously weighs the pros and cons of sleeping outside in this weather.

"Are you here all by yourself?" the man slurs, his words slow and unclear, as the blasted hand finds its way back to Sasuke's thigh.

Just as Sasuke feels the electric sparkles coming to life in his left hand, someone sits down next to him and drapes an arm around his shoulders.

"He is with me, so I suggest you leave him alone. Now," Kakashi says, his face blank and words calm as he stares into the drunk man's eyes.

There's steel in his deep voice and the red, scarred eye spinning wildly makes him terrifying. Sasuke is reminded of the fact that his former teacher is one of Konoha's most dangerous shinobis, if not the deadliest one with a massive headcount under his belt, and not just the tardy, porn-reading jounin with a bad case of slouched back Sasuke remembers from his genin days.

Kakashi's arm is heavy and solid on his shoulders as the large, drunk man flees from the table with respectable speed for someone his size and level of soberness, spewing apologies at Sasuke and Kakashi both. They watch him disappear into the noisy crowd, a few of the customers turning to stare after the man with questioning looks.

There is an uneasy silence that Sasuke gets soon enough of. He tries to stand up before any justified rants start but his plan to escape is cut short when Kakashi unceremoniously pulls him back down on the chair.

Sasuke blows wayward locks of hair from his face, crosses his arms over his chest and stares adamantly at nothing, pointedly not even glancing at Kakashi.

"What do you want?" he asks, annoyed, when it's clear that Kakashi expects him to start this conversation.

"A 'thank you' would be nice."

"Thanks. Can I go now?" Sasuke growls through gritted teeth, and without waiting for the answer tries to stand up again, only to be pulled back down. Again. He slumps against the backrest and moves his glare to Kakashi's half-hidden face.

Kakashi glances back at him, a hint of amusement at Sasuke's short temper lingering in his eyes.

"Why are you here?" Kakashi asks in a low voice and turns his gaze back at the crowd, making a show of glaring daggers at everyone who even thinks of looking at their way. Sasuke examines his profile and wonders for the millionth time what the man looks like under the ever-present mask until he remembers to be annoyed at Kakashi again.

"I could be asking you the same question," Sasuke snaps back with an arrogant tone. When Kakashi tightens his hold on his shoulders and Sasuke can see how the no-nonsense expression he remembers from years ago starts to form under the dark mask, he gives up. "I'm on a mission," is as much as Kakashi will get out from him.

"For Orochimaru?"

"Yes," Sasuke answers and rolls his eyes. What kind of question is that?

Kakashi blinks, glances quickly back at him with a noncommittal look on his face, and then returns to keeping an eye on the people in the tavern.

"Why the ANBU gear?" Sasuke quips, trying to counter a question with his own.

"On a mission," Kakashi answers, repeating Sasuke's own vague words just to be annoying. The answer doesn't unfortunately explain the white uniform he is wearing.

Kakashi doesn't seem to have changed a bit from the days when Sasuke was still a genin of Konohagakure. For a wayward second Sasuke wonders if it is the ever-present mask covering half of the man's face that makes Kakashi seem like he is still his twenty-six-year-old self or if he just doesn't age. The only thing that is different from Sasuke's memories of him is the white outfit that Sasuke has in no way associated with Kakashi up until he saw him in the Land of Snow. It feels so strange to see his former teacher in the black ops squad's uniform – the white armour makes him look sleek and dangerous and deadly. It's not the Kakashi Sasuke remembers from six years ago.

A thought hits Sasuke.

"Could you do me favour?"

The words leave his mouth before his mind has decided whether he actually wants to ask this of Kakashi. He bits his cheek as Kakashi breaks his scanning of the crowd to take a sceptical look at him.

"It depends."

Sasuke huffs and decides that if Kakashi has deemed it necessary to drape an arm around him to keep Sasuke from running off, it won't stop Sasuke from making himself comfortable. He leans against Kakashi just to mess with him.

"These people here keep trying to get in my pants. Do something about it."

That makes Kakashi stop whatever he is doing to give Sasuke a look. After a pointed silence he drawls lazily: "Why should I bother? Can't you kill them yourself?"

"The manager will kick me out if fry their clients. I need my room."

Kakashi sighs and closes his eyes, and Sasuke knows he has won. If Kakashi, with his red glowing eye and a deadly sword strapped to his back, pretends to be his scary lover for this group of misfits, maybe they will finally leave Sasuke alone.

Sasuke lets a sly smirk grace his lips, but the expression is soon wiped off his face. Kakashi wastes no time to get this over with.

Kakashi is quick to move his arm from Sasuke's shoulders to wrap it around his waist and grab Sasuke's chin with his other hand, turning Sasuke's face towards his own. Kakashi's face is closer than Sasuke thought it would be, and he has to stop the automatic reaction of pulling back. He doesn't like people sticking themselves into his personal space.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke hisses.

"Just what you asked, you brat," Kakashi answers. His words are harsh, but his expression and the tone of his voice downright flirty as he puts on a show for the drunk people of the tavern. "Is there a window in your room?" Kakashi asks and pretends to run his fingers up Sasuke's cheekbone, keeping his fingertips just from touching his skin.

"Yes," Sasuke answers as Kakashi brushes a lock of his dark hair behind Sasuke's ear. That feels so weird that in any other situation Sasuke would probably laugh at the gesture. Now there's only the horrible feeling of an unwanted blush creeping on his face – he never said Kakashi wasn't handsome, and now that he is suddenly reminded of the fact, a rare moment of uncertainty and not knowing what to do hits him.

When Kakashi leans in even closer, Sasuke's alarm about their proximity must have shown on his face because Kakashi gives him an all-suffering look and whispers under his breath: "For crying out loud, I'm not really going to kiss you."

Sasuke tries to come up with a clever comeback, but ends up staring a little bit off from Kakashi's left shoulder, avoiding looking at the other's face. Kakashi sighs, the gesture so light that Sasuke would have missed it if they hadn't been sitting so close to each other.

"Is our audience buying this?"

At that Sasuke turns his gaze slightly to scan the crowd. Most of the customers of the tavern have turned to witness the show, and there are disappointed, even jealous expressions on many faces. When Kakashi shifts slightly, his katana gleams with the lights of the tavern, and many of the drunkards still glancing wistfully at Sasuke turn away, hiding their faces behind their pints.

Sasuke makes a noncommittal sound deep in his throat and Kakashi is willing to take that as a yes. He straightens up, makes a show of stretching his lean muscles, takes a dumbfounded Sasuke's hand into his own and pulls him up from his seat.

"I think it's time to take this upstairs," Kakashi exclaims louder than necessary and somehow manages to make the words sway in his mouth. His movements are purposely big as he starts to guide Sasuke away from the filthy table.

Sasuke wants to swat him for overdoing it, but he sticks with just rolling his eyes while Kakashi tugs him forwards with a deadly glare set on his face for their audience. With his fingers clasped tightly around Sasuke's own, Kakashi leads him towards the stairs at the back of the dim tavern.

They find Sasuke's cramped room at the end of the hallway, and the second the door closes behind them, Kakashi releases his hold of Sasuke, stepping back to a respectable distance.

"Was that a good enough show for you?" he asks, only half-interested in Sasuke's answer and walks through the room to the window. Sasuke nods at him. After their performance downstairs, he hopes he will be left alone for a few days at least – the guests downstairs are too terrified of the tall man with one red eye to get too close to Sasuke.

Kakashi rams the frozen window open and the sudden frosty wind blows his hair and makes it sway. Then he turns back to Sasuke, a hint of an expression that Sasuke can't quite place flashing on his face as he slowly blinks at Sasuke with his heavy-lid eyes.

"I suppose it would be of no use to try to talk you into coming back home."

Sasuke answers with a hum, tilting his head slightly to side, and waits to see if Kakashi can take the hint.

"I'm just going skip that part then," Kakashi exclaims in that fake cheery tone he is so very good at and brushes his disappointment away under a mask, both figurative and literal.

He is half-way out of the window when Sasuke stops him.

"Your mission, it's in this city – Konoha wants the mayor dead, right?" Sasuke asks and can't really explain to himself why he is doing this.

"Yeah?" Kakashi admits, his brows raising in his confusion at how Sasuke can have such information.

Sasuke takes a few steps towards his bed, crouches down to grab his bag from under it, and after a few seconds of rummaging through the bag he finds one particular scroll with a triumphant grunt.

"Here," he says and tosses the scroll at Kakashi. "The blueprints for the mayor's building, the patrol schedules and all that."

Kakashi looks first at the scroll in his hand and then at Sasuke with a lifted brow.

"And you're just giving it to me? Why?"

"Consider it a repayment for the last time," Sasuke says and thinks back to the fortress in the Snow Country. "I don't like being in debt to you."

Kakashi smirks at him in his own lazy way, the expression quite clear despite the mask covering the lower half of his face.

"And when will you repay today's favour?"

Sasuke, because of a reason that he tries to deny, wants to answer "Maybe next time", but instead he forces himself to just shake his head at his old teacher and tell him to get out.

He closes the window after Kakashi and loses himself in watching the figure clad in white and black disappear between the buildings of the city in the snowy night.

o0o

Sasuke isn't stupid, he knows that it will be soon been three years since he managed to avoid Orochimaru's last attempt to steal his body. Now the snake Sannin is surely readying himself for a new transfer and it's only a matter of time before he comes after Sasuke's body again. But Sasuke won't just sit and wait for it to happen.

After six years of learning from Orochimaru Sasuke thinks he has learned everything his master has to offer – or at least everything Orochimaru is willing to give. With the risk of losing the ownership of his body hanging over him and Sasuke's older brother still running around the country, creating havoc in his wake, there is no way Sasuke is staying at the Sound.

He kills Orochimaru to go after his brother only a few days after New Year's Eve, severely disappointed in how easy it is to beat the infamous Sannin. Sasuke leaves the hideout alone, not wanting to drag anybody else into something that is only between him and his brother. Confident in his abilities as a prodigy of a Sannin, he begins his hunt for his brother with his new sword Kusanagi at his side.

Sasuke finds Itachi soon after that and it's almost like his brother has been expecting him. That fight is something the younger Uchiha has been living for since he was only weeks short of turning eight and came home to the slaughtered bodies of his parents.

Considering how many times he has lived this battle in his head beforehand, Sasuke can't really recall anything of facing his brother afterwards. There is only the heavy presence of his brother's Susanoo, and Sasuke's Kirin flashing down from the sky, and the excruciating pain of Itachi removing his cursed seal.

The sweetest thing of all is the liberating sense of victory Sasuke feels when his brother falls to the ground, never to get back up again.

Sasuke soon follows Itachi to the merciful darkness, for once in his life willing to give up easily, and lets the unconsciousness take him.

He doesn't expect to wake in a nondescript underground base lit up by a single candle to a masked, slightly crazy man greeting him. Sasuke doesn't want to listen to him, he doesn't want to waste his time with this man when he is finally free of his revenge. His life is finally his own after a decade of dedicating it to his dead clan, and Sasuke has yet to decide if he wants to do something with his newfound freedom or join his family in death by his own hand, too tired to live without a goal.

The masked man takes that choice from him by telling Sasuke something he calls the truth about Sasuke's brother. Of Sasuke's Itachi, of the Itachi Sasuke just killed.

Sasuke doesn't want to believe the man, he can't believe him, he refuses to – because that would mean that Sasuke has killed his only brother who had been protecting him all along, who had loved Sasuke till his dying breath. And how Sasuke repaid him? Then comes the roaring agony and pain, and so immense a wave of guilt Sasuke feels like he will drown right there and then.

The masked man – Madara, he calls himself – gives him a direction, stops Sasuke from killing himself by giving him a diversion. "It was all Konoha's doing, their fault," Madara keeps repeating until Sasuke understands it too, and suddenly the hatred the Uchiha has been harbouring against his brother for years, maturing like fine wine, shifts towards his home village.

He will burn Konoha to the ground.

Just as the thought buries itself deep in Sasuke's heart, black flames erupt from his eyes. Sasuke doesn't understand what is going as the flames engulf the masked man. The amaterasu Itachi planted into his eyes comes too late to stop Sasuke from hearing the ugly truth, but the jutsu grants one of the elder Uchiha brother's wishes – Uchiha Obito, under the stolen name of Madara, dies in the black flames and so does the magnificent plan of the real Madara coming back to life and using the moon to cast the whole world under the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Sasuke, in shock and grieving, doesn't know any of this and wouldn't care even if he knew.

His brother has been unjustly killed by Sasuke's hand and the village of Konohagakure will pay for Itachi's sacrifice.

With that thought the mangenkyoo sharingan bleeds into Sasuke's eyes for the first time and his whole world turns to red and black.