Yamato stared at the shot glass in front of him, wanting to yield to its siren call, to obliterate how powerless he felt. Just for tonight; tomorrow, he would set about figuring things out.
A drop of condensation slid down the side of the glass, pooling on the marred, faded wood of the bar counter.
Yamato felt as powerless to help his team as to stop that condensation from falling. Like that drop and gravity, there seemed to be some undeniable, unstoppable force trying to make his team as miserable as possible before it killed them.
Earlier today, Yamato had overheard Naruto and Sakura talking about Uchiha Sasuke. They had been reminiscing, trying to make each other laugh but, to Yamato, it sounded more like they were trying not to cry. Yamato had wanted nothing more than to be able to give them their friend back. He knew what life with Orochimaru was like and he wouldn't wish it on anyone.
He wondered if the boy regretted his choice; by all accounts, he didn't choose Orochimaru out of blindness or ignorance of who the man was. If the Uchiha was, for lack of a better word, enjoying, his time with Orochimaru, that brought up a whole new set of problems. How could Yamato work to bring someone so toxic back into the lives of his teammates, let alone the village?
He couldn't, and that was why he was sitting at this bar, staring at a shot of whiskey.
If the Uchiha was that evil, the kindest thing Yamato could do for his teammates was kill him. Yet, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to cause them that kind of pain, even if it were in their best interest.
He just wished the Uchiha would see the light, or whatever the metaphor was. That he would return home humbled and penitent, seeking the companionship Naruto and Sakura so wanted to shower him with. Couldn't he please just do that and save Yamato from this ugly feeling?
Yamato pressed his palms to his forehead and groaned; his wish was never going to come true. If the Uchiha were ever to be back in the fold, he was going to have to be dragged there. Someone so power-hungry and irrational that they would choose Orochimaru over his village, over Naruto and Sakura and Kak–
Well, he could understand the Uchiha leaving Kakashi. Yamato had idolized him for so long that it felt like betrayal to think such a thing, but since seeing Kakashi's leadership choices first hand, Yamato's bubble had been burst. Kakashi was an excellent ninja, but he was not a good leader. It wasn't surprising to Yamato that the Uchiha didn't think he could learn much from Kakashi, even though he learned chidori from him.
In fact, Yamato had come to the bar straight from an infuriating attempt to engage Kakashi in a problem-solving session about this very subject. Yamato had nearly tried to take Icha Icha from the Copy-Nin and beat him over the head with it. Instead, he had come here to drink his frustration away...eventually.
The fact that Kakashi taught the kid chidori meant that he must have viewed and treated him differently than he did Naruto and Sakura. From what Yamato could gather, the Uchiha had already been curse-marked when he learned chidori, meaning Kakashi must have had great faith that he would not stray. That would have to mean that the Uchiha could be salvaged...or, so Yamato hoped. It was not uncommon to see good ninja become worse than any ninja who had started out bad.
Believing that Kakashi had not had great faith that Uchiha Sasuke would remain a ninja of the Leaf would mean believing that Kakashi spent more than a month in one-on-one training with someone he knew would turn against the village. Yamato knew Kakashi was loyal to the Leaf and would never put her in jeopardy. Still, it was unsettling to think that Kakashi's instincts had been so far off. It was more unsettling to wonder if the Uchiha had played Kakashi.
Yamato sighed and reached for his whiskey. As his hand wrapped around the glass, another bead of condensation fell, halted by his finger. Yamato lifted his hand slowly, staring at the moisture on his knuckle. He had stopped it. He had prevented gravity from fulfilling its mission.
Yamato slapped some yen on the bar and hurried out, headed toward Sakura's where he knew that she and Naruto and Sai were gathered for a movie. He would talk to them about Sasuke. He could clearly see now that their nostalgia earlier today had stemmed from a sense of powerlessness to do anything to reunite their team anywhere but in memory. Well, they weren't powerless, and neither was Yamato.
Nothing was going to stop Yamato from creating the world he wanted more than anything: a world where Naruto and Sakura were happily reunited with Uchiha Sasuke.