Kakashi sighed deeply, wrenching down his mask and pouring himself a shot before slumping onto the couch. Today… well, to put it lightly, today was not a good day. His Sasuke's treatment had finally moved to the stage that signified desperation. Really, Kakashi could tell it was bad if the medics had given up on their own abilities to rely on such a method.
Ignoring the couch's groans of protest, Kakashi stood. He made his way slowly toward his room, adding his current clothes to the growing mounds of old ones.
Vest first, he found himself thinking. That was the one piece of clothing that didn't need to go in a pile, seeing as there was only one. He flung it across the room.
Shirt next. He pulled it off and added it to said pile.
Mesh armor. Me slipped out of it, actually folding the garment before setting it down.
Pants. He started to pull those off too, but met resistance around his thigh. He revised his mental checklist. Weapon pouch. Leaving his pants half-off, he unwrapped the leg binding.
Now pants. He began removing them again.
His hands shook violently.
--
Sasuke, in a wheelchair. Dark, Uchiha-crested clothes gone, replaced with those horridly white hospital abominations. His skin was paler then ever, translucent even, with Oruchimaru's mark and the surrounding seal standing out in stark contrast. Purple surrounded his averted eyes. His lips were shiny, but in the way the betrayed their dryness, not fullness.
His headband circled his neck now, worn only due to Naruto's impassioned insistence, creating a noose-like look. But the worst park, Kakashi decided, had to be the absence of his pupil's beautiful, dark hair.
Gone. As in, every single bit of it.
--
Kakashi allowed himself another shot. That disease of Sasuke's… not many people survived it, and those who did normally recovered only with the help of the medic-nin's own abilities. This type of treatment was too harsh, killing many harmless, good cells along with the bad ones.
He couldn't believe that the kid had reached that stage. Sasuke had so much more in store for him in life…
It was stupid, Kakashi decided. Plain and simple. It was a stupid way for the very last of the great Uchiha clan to die in such an utterly pathetic way. Ninja died in a blaze of glory, in battle, in honor of their village and their comrades. Not by some disease.
And it was pathetic- all of Sasuke's dignity had been stripped away. First went that dark, alluring look Kakashi knew that his student worked so hard to build for himself. Then went his goals- there was no way in the world for Sasuke to acheive all that he had strived for. His pride was still there, but it had taken a definite beating as he was forced to rely on others to get even the simplest things done. Not to mention the constant poking and prodding of the medics. Sasuke had had to let people-worse, strangers- see him at his most vulnerable, and he hated it.
Kakashi could never have guessed how much it would hurt, seeing Sasuke fade away like this. He had been sure to care for the boy as only a pupil. Admittedly, he had ended up becoming rather close to him, but it was still only a master-pupil relationship.
But Kakashi had forgotten. Uchiha.
Obito.
It hurt so much, he finally realized, because he couldn't even protect the last living memory of his Obito.
He'd forgotten, it seemed. Forgotten how painful it was to have attachments in this world.
Hn, I don't know what to say. This is weird for me. But I'm trying to get better at writing tragedy stuff for another fic I'm planning, so… well, I guess that's kinda self-explanatory. I think I put entirely too much boring stuff in there, though. Next chapter's got Sasuke and Naruto and dialogue, so hopefully it's a bit more readable… I'm so sorry oo