Disobedience
"Go home, you two."
Kakashi's frosty tone surprised Naruto and Sakura. Their Jōnin sensei was characterised by themselves and the rest of Konoha as a carefree, relaxed individual. Naruto had personally never witnessed Kakashi lose his temper, and only seen him get properly serious when he was facing off with other strong enemy ninja for the sake of protecting the lives of his young Genin. Witnessing Kakashi when he was at his most serious was a startling thing indeed, the waves of danger that seemed to roll off the experienced ninja reminding those in his vicinity that Kakashi was not only famous, but was positively deadly as well.
Right there and then, Kakashi was, for some reason, quietly angry. Naruto wasn't exactly the brightest ninja, but even he realised that something was terribly awry about the situation. Their sensei wasn't addressing them with his usual lazy gaze and slouched posture, instead standing up completely straight and casting a sharp gaze onto his students, a silent warning to leave before something bad happened.
"But, Kakashi-sensei-"
"You heard me, Sakura. Go home. I'll see you two tomorrow."
Kakashi's tone left no available room for discussion.
The third Genin member of Team 7 who was conspicuously left out of Kakashi's order was standing behind the Jōnin, wearing an expression and a posture that was, like Kakashi's, completely out of character. Unlike Kakashi's rigid and menacing stature, however, Sasuke looked positively downtrodden, his hands in his pockets and a gaze directed towards the ground that made him look more like a kicked puppy than a member of the proud Uchiha clan. Naruto frowned as he cast a confused and worried glance at his rival, the last Uchiha who he had, with the help of four other Genins from Konoha, just a week ago been successfully retrieved from Orochimaru's slimy clutches and returned to the village where he belonged.
It had been no simple endeavour, recovering the wayward boy. Their mission resulted in Hyuuga Neji and Akimichi Chouji nearly losing their lives, a fact that very nearly broke the spirit of Shikamaru, the first Genin in their class to be successfully promoted to Chūnin. Naruto had no doubt that the remaining three in their makeshift team of five would have suffered a similar fate if it wasn't for the timely intervention of a freshly recovered Rock Lee and the sibling trio from the Sand, who were unlikely but reliable allies. And just when all seemed lost, Naruto, the village's most unpredictable little ninja, had triumphed. Naruto had, with a ferocious life-threatening battle and rock-solid will, succeeded in breaking Sasuke's resolve and convincing him to return to Konoha. It had been nothing short of a miracle that Naruto's words had penetrated Sasuke's vengeance-driven heart.
Everyone had been relieved by their mission's success. Tsunade, the newly-appointed Hokage, was apparently justified in putting her trust in her newly appointed Chūnin team captain. Kakashi, while initially upset that Tsunade had sent out five Genins without the protection of more experienced ninja, expressed glowing praise at the significant level of growth that Naruto had shown over what was a very short span of time. Sakura had been tearfully grateful at Naruto fulfilling his promise, granting him a tight hug and a genuine smile when she saw her beloved Sasuke-kun in the hospital, slightly injured but very definitely back with them. It appeared that everything was right in the world again.
Except that now, there appeared to be something that Kakashi had yet to settle with his proudest Genin.
"I won't say this again, you two. Go home."
Naruto and Sakura both gulped at the obvious menace that Kakashi had placed into his final sentence. Whimpering a small "see you, Sasuke-kun" to the object of her affections, Sakura turned on her heel and walked away quickly from her suddenly scary sensei. Naruto stood his ground resolutely, his usual pout on his face as he prepared to argue his way out of his sensei's instructions as he always did. He then met Kakashi's single exposed eye, and froze.
"Naruto."
Kakashi's disposition had changed so much that even his voice had appeared to deepen. Naruto had no doubt that if he pushed Kakashi even an inch further, he wouldn't be spared the full wrath of Konoha's famous Copy-ninja. Biting his lip, Naruto slowly turned away from Kakashi and Sasuke, but not before throwing Sasuke a grim look and a sharp nod, which was returned, albeit a little weakly.
The moment he was out of sight, Naruto tried his best to disguise his chakra as he hopped up onto the saddle roofs of one of the buildings not far away from where his friend and his teacher were standing. Sakura-chan might have been happy to leave the two to their own devices, but with Kakashi almost leaking killing intent in a situation where they weren't in an obvious danger, Naruto wanted to at the very least see what the hell the two were up to. He had never liked being left out of things, after all. Maybe they were going to have a private training lesson on the power of intimidation. It wouldn't have been the first time Kakashi had tried one-on-one training with his rival.
He watched as an intense stare-off began between Kakashi and Sasuke, Naruto frowning a little in boredom as the two appeared to merely size each other up. He watched as Kakashi appeared to speak a few sentences, before being responded to in kind by Sasuke.
His eyes then widened in blind shock as Kakashi took an inhumanly fast step forward, stretched out his arm, and landed a stinging slap onto the face of the Uchiha prodigy, a blow that Sasuke didn't even appear to bother defending against. The slap was hard enough to send Sasuke flying, and Naruto trembled as he watched Sasuke raise his head weakly from the ground and wipe blood from the corner of his mouth.
Kakashi then turned, meeting Naruto's eyes with a steely glint in his own.
Within two seconds, Naruto was gone.
"Get up, Sasuke."
Kakashi's tone was completely frosty as he addressed his pupil lying next to a tree in their training grounds with blood coming out of a corner of his mouth. On any other day, seeing his students bleed would have been some cause for alarm, but for this particular situation, when he himself had been the one to inflict pain on his Genin, a vividly different form of teacher-student relationship had to be called upon.
Sasuke winced a little as he shakily raised himself to his feet, not bothering to wipe the blood from his mouth, as a small part of him knew that that wouldn't be the only blood that he would be shedding today. Sasuke didn't care much for bodily harm. He did, however, care about the fact that his sensei was standing in front of him, a vein next to his exposed eye looking like it was about to pop, his hands clenched into angry fists. Sasuke wasn't one to succumb to fear easily, but the image of a murderous Kakashi was sufficient to make him tremble in his boots, even if he tried his best to act as stoic as he always did.
"Kakashi-sensei-"
"What did I first tell you when I decided to teach you the Chidori?"
Kakashi had spoken so dangerously soft that Sasuke honestly didn't catch what his sensei had said.
"Sorry, sensei?"
"I said...what did I first tell you when I decided to teach you the Chidori?"
Kakashi was audibly clenching his teeth at every word, cause Sasuke to gulp at the anger that he appeared to be emanating. Before today, he didn't even think it was possible to actually feel somebody else's raw fury, and though he had already been expecting an unpleasant encounter with Kakashi when he made the decision to return to the Leaf, he hadn't expected his laid-back teacher to react in the way that he was doing right now. Sasuke raked his brain in wild panic as he tried to recall the first day where Kakashi had started his month-long training for the last stage of the Chunnin exams, all whilst Kakashi stood dangerously still, his eye glinting in the sunlight, his vein twitching more and more with every second that Sasuke took to think up the correct answer.
"You told me...never to use this technique against one of my own friends."
Sasuke didn't know when Kakashi even reached to push up his Hitai-ate, or when he had performed the hand seals necessary to perform his original technique, but the next feeling Sasuke knew was that of abject pain as his own sensei grasped him by his throat with his left hand and forcibly smashed his back against the tree that he had been standing in front of, Sasuke coughing up blood instantly as pain radiated from his entire body. Forcefully gasping for air and trying to resist Kakashi's iron grip that was simultaneously choking him and suspending him from the tree, Sasuke opened his eyes weakly, only to see Kakashi's right arm coiled back and hovering over his chest where his heart was, sparks of raw chakra flying off it.
Sasuke's eyes widened in shock and fear, his legs unconsciously kicking against the tree trunk in a desperate attempt to free himself.
He wouldn't.
"Ka...Kakashi-sensei..."
His eyes met Kakashi's single Sharingan, its tomoe spinning rapidly and lethally. Kakashi then spoke softly, and Sasuke instantly felt his blood run cold.
"This is how it feels, Sasuke."
Sasuke tried his best to raise his arms to protect himself from the incoming blow, but his limbs felt weighted as they hung uselessly from his torso. Sasuke could only watch helplessly as Kakashi, his very own Jōnin sensei, thrust his right hand forward at lightning speed. The feeling of a Chidori puncturing his chest didn't feel like much in its initial stages, as Sasuke merely felt a sudden warmth as Kakashi's hand swiftly passed through flesh, undoubtedly due to the mild cauterising effect of the lightning-based attack and the fact that his brain couldn't even comprehend what was happening. There were next to no touch receptors on internal organs, after all, and Sasuke barely felt Kakashi break his ribs and make contact with the heart beating wildly in his chest. It was testament to the Chidori's destructive capability that Sasuke didn't even feel the pain that was supposed to come with a fatal injury until Kakashi's entire right arm had impaled his torso, his heart destroyed beyond recognition, the tree trunk itself gaining a clean hole through its thick trunk as Kakashi's bullet of lightning burnt through its bark.
At death's door, it appeared that even stoic, rebellious Uchiha offspring were not spared the feelings of betrayal and grief of being hurt by someone they thought they trusted. Pain was a mere afterthought as Sasuke met Kakashi's eyes, hot tears springing to his eyes as he breathed his final breaths, blood pouring relentlessly out of his unrepairable chest wound and his mouth. Sasuke couldn't even breath properly to speak a coherent sentence as his tears betrayed his emotions, his lips trembling unrestrainedly as his mental state regressed to that of a toddler who had been let down for the first time.
"Kakashi-sensei..."
Kakashi's eyes were still cold even as they watched his student die at his hands.
"Doesn't feel very good, does it, Sasuke?"
Then, the genjutsu fell apart on itself with the cessation of the spinning in Kakashi's Sharingan. Sasuke gasped for breath as reality gradually sunk into his head, his hand feeling desperately over his own torso, a deep feeling of relief washing over him as he realised that his heart was still pounding, albeit violently, in his chest. He gritted his teeth in anxiety and simulated pain as he watched his sensei standing a short distance away, his back to Sasuke, then slowly raised a hand to his face and realised, to his surprise, that he was actually crying.
Sniffling a little as his unflappable exterior was finally broken apart, Sasuke wiped his eyes with the back of his hand as he struggled to compose himself. Kakashi turned back to watch his Genin, a little broken from the violent and powerful genjutsu, before striding back up to the boy, who instantly shot his gaze down onto the ground in fear. Standing over a still shaking Sasuke, Kakashi spoke softly but sternly.
"I talked to Tsunade after she inspected all of your fellow Genins' wounds when they returned from their mission. She was appalled, as was I, to discover that Naruto had apparently sustained a sizable chest wound that would certainly have killed him if he hadn't had the Kyuubi residing in him. It didn't take much for us to guess that he had been hit by a Chidori. Were you the one who had inflicted that injury on him?"
Sasuke, head still bowed as he continued to try and catch his breath, nodded.
"Yes, sensei."
"So why did you disobey me, Sasuke? Did you really want to kill Naruto? Were you not aware of how dangerous that technique is? Sasuke, look at me."
Sasuke hesitantly raised his head, and was somewhat surprised to detect a hint of what looked like sadness amidst cold anger in Kakashi's eyes.
"I'm glad you made the decision to return to return to Konoha, Sasuke, but there's no denying what you had done in your quest for vengeance. By blindly deciding to go to Orochimaru, do you have any idea what you had done?"
"I betrayed the village-"
"Fuck the village."
Sasuke's eyes widened in shock at Kakashi's harsh demonishing of his beloved village. It seemed almost blasphemic for Kakashi, a famed Konoha ninja, to say anything bad, let alone curse, the place which he lived in and defended.
"I'm not upset because you betrayed the village, Sasuke. I'm upset for an entirely different reason. Everyone talks about fighting for your country in times of war, but when you're knee deep in blood and fighting with every last breath that you can muster, you don't fight for your country...you fight for your friends."
Kakashi took a breath to calm himself before he continued speaking.
"Do you know how many of your fellow students' lives you compromised, or how much grief you brought to the people that cared about you? The team that was sent out to get you...they went up against skilled ninja from the Hidden Sound. If it weren't for the fact that they were all driven by the need to bring you back, or that they had received outside help, every single one of them would have died, Sasuke. I shit you not. It's near miraculous that I managed to convince the Hokage not to put you under arrest for the potential danger that you caused everybody."
Sasuke remained silent as Kakashi continued talking.
"You saw what Orochimaru was when he attacked the Leaf months back, Sasuke. You know what he had become. A hideous remnant of his past glory as one of the legendary sannin, experimented upon by himself in his blind need for power, returning to the village where he grew up only to make an attempt on the life of his sensei. Did you really want him as a role model? Did you really want to lose yourself in your own quest for revenge, and at the same time shed off all the bonds that you had gained back here in the Leaf? I know you don't care for Sakura's affections, but are you so socially inept that you were incapable of realising that she actually cared about you? What about Naruto, who you considered both your rival and your best friend...were you so blindly driven for vengeance and power that you were willing to sacrifice even him, even though he risked life and limb to bring you, at all costs, back to our village?"
Sasuke, walls already broken down from being mentally bullied by Konoha's copy-ninja, felt fresh tears prick at his eyes at the guilt that Kakashi was slowly introducing into his system.
"On our first day of training as Team 7, I mentioned a friend that I had lost in battle. I still remember the words that he said to me, right after I made a decision as team leader to leave behind my other teammate in order to successfully complete a mission. A ninja who doesn't follow the rules is trash. But a ninja who doesn't care about his own teammates...is worse than trash. Don't throw away those who exist and care about you for the sake of fighting for the past, Sasuke. I cannot do so much as to instantly convince you of this...but as your sensei, I have to try my best."
Sasuke involuntarily flinched back as Kakashi extended his hand, thinking that he was going to hit him again, only for Kakashi to place a hand on the unruly hair on Sasuke's head in a gesture of simultaneous austerity and affection. Kakashi then walked behind Sasuke, and placing both arms under his armpits, raised him to his feet. The piercing gaze in his eye then softened a little as he perused the small trail of blood leading from Sasuke's mouth to his chin. Using a finger to wipe off the spilt blood, Kakashi murmured softly to his young Genin, in a tone that sounded almost fatherly, a far cry from how he had addressed Sasuke just minutes before.
"I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?"
Sasuke was stunned by Kakashi's sudden change in demeanor.
"...No, sensei."
"You'll apologise to Naruto, Sakura, and those who went to get you at the first chance you get, understand?"
"Yes, sensei."
"Good. You're dismissed. I'll see you tomorrow."
As he watched Kakashi hop onto the roofs and disappear into the Konoha landscape, Sasuke thought back to what he had tried to achieve, and the means that he had haphazardly taken on his quest to kill Itachi. He was young, and the young made mistakes, but there was still no excuse for what he had done to everybody, especially Naruto. He could still feel the raw chakra burning on his hand, his arm drenched in the blood of his best friend, the sight of the blond boy hanging weakly off the ground, impaled by his arm, choking out blood as life drained away from his little body.
Sasuke shook his head to rid himself of the ghastly image. Then, another old memory arose in his head. Countless dead Uchiha lying on the streets of the Uchiha compound, his parents lying dead on the ground; his brother, the man he had to kill, standing over them with merciless eyes. Eyes...which he had gained by killing his best friend.
Sasuke hadn't seen it before in his blindness and bloodlust, but he could see it now.
When he had become the one person that he hated the most?
Wiping the last trace of tears from his eyes, Sasuke strode off towards the home of his own best friend. If he wasn't there, then he would check the ramen stall, then maybe the Hokage monument. He would check all of Konoha for the sake of finding him, if only to take him in his arms and apologise for what he had done.
He was never letting go of what he already had again.
Author's Note - One of the moments in Naruto where I was most stunned was when Sasuke actually pierced Naruto with his Chidori in the Valley of the End. It was such a devastating thing to see Sasuke turn against his friend, and I thought a one-shot featuring a successful attempt to bring back Sasuke, with Kakashi acting in the capacity of a sensei and a father-figure, would be nice. Hopefully you all felt so. I find that I'm a lot more confident when writing one-shots and short stories than I am about long stories, as there's little to no risk of me losing faith in my own ideas halfway through the writing process.
If you all liked this story, check out my other stories for the Naruto fandom, "Break Me" (featuring Gaara), and "Katsuobushi" (featuring Sasuke and Naruto). I'm also in the midst of attempting a romance/friendship mini story with "Candy", and though that has thus far been less successful...I'm working on it.
Reviews greatly appreciated. They really do help me out.
~SUITELIFEFAN
