If he wasn't counting the time incorrectly, the first inklings of the plan that led to Kakashi being... ambushed, for a lack of better term, had started about a year and a half prior.

It was a day when he'd been in the village, with he and Sakura once again skirting each other and trying to figure out how they fit together now that so much had changed, that he found out that Naruto had broken up with Hinata. It wasn't spectacular, nor messy, but it seemed that they had, after a year together, come to the unanimous conclusion that for all that there was love, it didn't mean that they had the ability to make one another happy.

For Hinata, he later learned, it was deeply upsetting, but somehow expected, that her childhood dreams simply weren't met in reality by the person she'd been pinning them on. Naruto, on the other hand, couldn't understand what he'd done wrong. He couldn't figure out where the disconnect had been, and blamed himself for not having been able to make it work with someone who so clearly loved him. Hinata had gone to her team for comfort, and Naruto had come to Sakura. At least, he'd tried to.

Sasuke couldn't much blame him that Sakura was the one that first came to mind for that. At least, in terms of people their age. It's not like he was any kind of font of support now, nor had he been pretty much ever. Still, it bothered him to see Naruto falling apart even a little after how profoundly they'd changed the basis of their relationship, and he'd done the only thing he could do. He'd intercepted and sent the man off to Iruka before Sakura even got wind that anything was going on. Then again, she hadn't even been home when Naruto had come by, and Sasuke was just gong to be grateful that Naruto hadn't questioned what Sasuke was doing at her place.

It would be far too embarrassing to admit that he'd broken into her apartment to clean because last time he'd been there the place had made his skin crawl.

The redirection had worked. It had helped Naruto pull himself together before he could slide too far into introspection, a mercy, he was sure, as the next time he saw him, while the blond wasn't happy, he didn't look like he'd just been stabbed and was wondering how he'd failed to dodge. He would know, he'd seen exactly that look on Naruto's face in the past.

Still, somehow... he'd failed to take into account that this was Naruto. Naruto didn't do anything by halves, and if he felt like he'd messed up in a relationship, he was going to go out of his way to find the flaw, then train it right out of existence. Sasuke had, somehow, managed to completely overlook the most important part of that idea.

Naruto tended to use him as a focus anytime he did just about anything. He may feel like he failed Hinata, but it was Sasuke he was going to set his sights on to work out the kinks with before taking another run at her. In later reflection, Sasuke was sure that that had been Naruto's thinking.

It didn't actually work out like that at all though. No, instead Naruto had thrown the idea at Sasuke, and Sasuke, being the wise person he was, closed the door in Naruto's face and told him to go away. He'd even been tempted to further remove himself from the situation by requesting a mission, but he wasn't heartless, and he didn't want to kick Naruto back into whatever pit he was trying to use him to crawl out of.

He could already imagine the disaster if he went after Sakura with this idea. It ended with Naruto smeared across the floor, of course. He doubted he'd pick that temporary person who'd tried to claim team seven status during the war, thankfully, but did he really want to risk it? Probably not.

None of that mattered though, because as soon as Sasuke had closed the door on the blond, said blond had started pounding on the door insisting that he at least heard him out. It gave him time to think over the repercussions, to recall Naruto's stubborn stupidity, and to think of how terrible for just about everyone it would be if Naruto actually got an okay from someone who didn't really get it.

He yanked open the door during a lull in the pounding, then smoothly turned to the side so Naruto fell on the floor instead of him when he'd been about to resume. "Fine. Talk."

That was all the permission that Naruto needed apparently, and the blond was up off the floor, chattering before he could even get the door closed. "Okay, so I have it all worked out! It's super simple, see, I just need a dry run at a relationship. You know, working out how to do all the things that I think she wanted me to do and I didn't know I was supposed to? Then bam, I go swoop her off her feet once I'm practiced and everything's all sorted out."

"...Dobe, do you even know why you actually broke up?" He turned, heading back into his apartment without a word. It was still odd, not having a whole district to roam, or even a house... but it might have been for the best that it was ruined in the fighting and he had to start fresh.

"Teme. Yeah! Of course I know. I mean, she said." When Naruto fumbled for words, he just moved off to the kitchen to start working on dinner, the blond trailing after him as he tried to remember. "Um. She said that I don't pay attention to anything, and that maybe we weren't good for each other as more than friends. Yeah! That was it! So if I fix that then bam, all better, right?"

"No." He didn't continue, instead taking out the things he needed for the meal.

"Ehhh? What do you mean 'no'? It's foolproof!" Naruto was stomping around, but not sitting. That meant he was probably actually listening. No reason not to spell it out then.

"No, it's not. Did it not occur to you that she might have really wanted to just be friends again?" He worked steadily, carefully assembling everything as he kept an ear firmly on the restless blond behind him. "Some people are better that way."

"Nuh uh! No way! I mean. You and me are way closer than friends and it works out better for us that it's like that, so why wouldn't that work with her? I mean, she loves me, it's supposed to just work when you love someone, isn't it?" Sasuke had no need to look to know that Naruto was flailing his hands around.

"No. It's not." This time there was more steel in the denial, and he cut the carrot he had in his hand with a bit more force than strictly required.

It seemed that that had silenced Naruto pretty effectively, and though he could feel the blond's eyes on him, he didn't say anything for several minutes after that, letting him work in peace. He ended up actually stilling when Naruto did speak however, since his tone a lot softer than he was used to hearing out of him. It was oddly subdued. Honest. Apologetic even. "I guess- I'm sorry. I wasn't really thinking about it like that."

Instead of speaking, Sasuke just hitched up a shoulder in a shrug, then moved to wash his hands, back rigidly straight as he kept himself focused on his tasks, clearing the counter of debris. He lingered back at the sink, letting the silence draw out without looking at the blond.

"So... did you say no because of it being a Hinata thing, or because I was weirding you out?" The tone was lighter this time, and it was clear that Naruto was trying to bring the topic back to his original one.

Sasuke was irritated with himself that he actually felt grateful about that. "I said no because you're an idiot. No two people are the same, so dating one won't make you good at dating a different one."

The last thing he expected after drying his hands was for Naruto to be as close as he was when he turned around, his expression thoughtful. It was enough to alarm him a little, because the context wasn't one he was sure he knew how to approach. "Yeah... I guess you're right. Wanna give it a try anyway?"

"I am not being your practice relationship." He ducked around Naruto, moving to get dishes to set out at his table, his tone more clipped than it maybe should have been. Or maybe exactly as clipped as it should have been. Hard to say.

"Yeah, I got that... so. Maybe a real one?" He held up his hands defensively against the sharp look that earned him. It seemed Naruto wasn't completely filled with bad ideas today, only mostly. "Hey! Don't look at me like that! I'm just saying... maybe since we finally sorted out all our problems it might be better to, you know, go for the guy I know I love and know the rules for handling, and maybe, you know, go from there."

"You know that me and Sakura were talking about dating, don't you?" Which wasn't a no, but he wasn't going to be the one to tell Sakura that he was bowing out if this happened. He'd disappointed her enough without throwing another rejection on top of the pile. Besides... He didn't only want to try dating her for her sake.

Naruto chewed on his lip for a moment, clearly stumped by this question, but it didn't last. It never lasted. "In that case... Maybe I'll just have to ask her too and date you both!"

He had a death wish, that was the only thing he could come up with. "Just like that?"

"Yep! I mean, if I told her you were good with it it would probably go a lot better than if I didn't tell her you were good with it though so... are you good with it?" And there went Naruto rubbing at the back of his head, a nervous gesture he hadn't seen in months. He was really starting to get the sense that he was serious about all this.

So, Sasuke being how he was, he gave the only answer that he could that made any sense to him. He washed his hands of the whole thing. He could count on Sakura to handle Naruto. She was good at it. "...Fine. Don't blame me if she doesn't agree."

Naruto just grinned, then let the topic move on to other things, pestering him about what he was making, and otherwise just making a nuisance of himself. He'd stayed for dinner, and Sasuke had expected that to be the end of that, problem solved.

Instead, a week later the pair had come to sit him down and work out the exact terms of what the relationship was going to be. Or more like, tell him what they'd come up with and make sure he hadn't backed out of it in the meantime.

He hadn't, of course, but it had still taken months for them to really get used to the little changes that took them from teammates over into dating. The first few weeks had been an agony of awkward 'casual' touches and insistence on paying for things when they didn't have to on the behalf of the other two. And him? He felt like he hadn't gotten anywhere by agreeing to this save that Sakura was more relaxed around him instead of seeming so off balance every time they were alone. Clearly, it didn't last though, and it all changed the day that Sakura got fed up with something that Naruto was saying and kissed him to quiet him instead of using her fists.

They'd both been surprised, but after that? It hadn't been awkward anymore, that melting away into a higher level of affection that Sasuke sometimes still wasn't sure how to handle. However, he did find it nice, even if he was poor at reciprocating.

That didn't mean that they were perfectly in accord about everything though. Not even close. No, they still fought, even months into their relationship, and it was during one of those fights that Sasuke had noticed something was a bit off about Kakashi. It had been a distraction, looking in on the man. A whim while he was irritated at whatever stupid thing Naruto had said that day. He hadn't expected anything to come of it really. Maybe a conversation, something to cool his head before going back to deal with the blond idiot he had the dubious pleasure of calling his boyfriend.

Instead, he'd come face to face with someone who looked more haggard than he could ever remember seeing the man, even more so than when they'd been genin and he'd practically been comatose for over a day. No, this was a different kind of look, deeper and heavy in a way that distracted him from his irritations and made them seem less important by far. Kakashi wasn't meant to look like that, and while he'd stayed a little while, just sharing silence and observing his former sensei, he'd quickly come to the conclusion that this needed to be put to his teammates.

A solution needed to be found.

Of course they had to see for themselves, and over the next few weeks, all three of them spent time around the man, talking to him and seeing what they could do individually before sharing their observations with each other. Kakashi wasn't doing well. He was listless, and even for him seemed too tired. He wasn't spending enough time away from the office. He didn't seem to be eating enough. He was almost never spotted doing his reading anymore.

The list kept going, and the observation notes spread from only him to encompass the people around him, the ones he spent time with, the ones he used to. Naruto even had the gall to go and question Gai, and when that failed, asked Iruka to do it. Slightly better results had come of that, and some rather strange ones too, but it hadn't helped clear up how Kakashi had gotten to the state he was in now, just that no one seemed to be able to break in and fix it.

Which left it to them.

The suggestion, initially, had come from Sakura, and was meant as a jest.

She'd fully expected the idea of dragging Kakashi into their relationship 'since it had helped them so much' to get shot down and stay there.

Sasuke could have told her that suggesting anything that was meant as a joke to Naruto was a recipe to make sure it went ahead and became a reality. In fact, that she even did so, knowing how Naruto was, made him wonder at times if she'd done it on purpose so that Naruto would think that it was the best idea ever and do exactly what he'd ended up doing.

Taking it seriously and getting them both on board to make it happen.

Of course, it took months of careful watching after that before they did anything that involved Kakashi directly, but by then, they were very very sure, and no one could say that any of them weren't stubborn.

If that was a good thing would remain to be seen.