CHAPTER FOUR

Moving Sasuke into his house went surprisingly well after their little spat in the hospital.

At first Kakashi was surprised, but then he figured Sasuke would much rather spend the night with him than in the hospital.

Every time he looked at the teen he could see the gears turning. Sasuke had accepted the situation... and had been thinking of ways to get out of it ever since.

Once Sasuke had chucked his things into the guest bedroom and the two were in the kitchen it occurred to Kakashi that he had no idea what to do with Sasuke. The boy was sitting at the table with his arms folded, glaring out the window. And it wasn't even lunch time yet.

He could hardly send him out on a training excersize with Naruto. The two would tear each other apart. And he wouldn't stay with Sakura.

It was almost unsafe for him to be wandering around out in the forest even for training purposes. Not with Orochimaru sending ninja after him...

Yet, he couldn't exactly confine the boy to the house.

He had an idea... but it wasn't going to improve Sasuke's opinion of him any. It wasn't uncommon for a house to own a telephone, but Kakashi couldn't remember ever using his. I mean, think about it. He was a ninja. Jump across a couple rooftops or punch in a number on a telephone, you decide.

Sadly enough what happened next was the luckiest moment of his day. Gai picked up the phone.

"Hey." Kakashi said before Gai could start in on one of his long, unnecessarily drawn-out speeches. "Want to do me a favor?"

...

Five minutes later Kakashi was dropping Sasuke off at the training field. Gai's team was training there today and Sasuke was going to train with them. Well, sort of.

Gai's sort of training was very different from Kakashi's. Gai sent his team off to train on their own. From what he'd gathered this usually meant Neji and Tenten off on their own and Lee sticking around asking for help. Today, however, Lee would be sparring with Sasuke which Kakashi figured was much safer than having Naruto spar with Sasuke.

"I'll be back for you later." Kakashi told him cheerfully.

Sasuke glared at him and walked off. He didn't like the idea of Kakashi shuffling him off to other people who'd watch him just so he could get his 'errands' done. But he figured sparring with Lee would help him blow off a little steam...

...

Kakashi walked through the forest, figuring if he was ever going to get the chance to see Itachi it was now.

The clearing was up ahead.

Kakashi's brow furrowed as he got closer. Could the village really afford to have so many Anbu guarding one person?

He caught sight of Itachi through the trees before he was even in the clearing. The boy was leaning back against the bars of his cage, his face tilted up to the bright blue sky above.

Itachi looked up as soon as he got a foot closer, sensing the jonin's presence. The four Anbu standing guard at the four corners of the Uchiha's cell tensed the second Itachi became alert. Kakashi guessed that this was probably the most response anyone had gotten out of him all day. But Kakashi had also expected the boy to sense him drawing near. He wouldn't be deserving of his reputation if he hadn't.

Itachi locked eyes with him the minute he stepped into the clearing. It didn't surprise him that the prisoner had known who was coming. Their fight hadn't been too long ago. The elder Uchiha's eyes held wariness with a bit of underlying curiosity as to why the jonin had come to see him, but they betrayed nothing else.

Kakashi made sure his stance held no threat. It really didn't require much thought seeing as he meant the boy no harm. But for all Itachi knew he could've still been sore from their last encounter.

Kakashi went as far as to close his eye when he smiled at him. "Hi there." he greeted with the same cheerfulness he'd left Sasuke with.

Itachi nodded to him stiffly. "Hello."

Kakashi walked over and squatted down by the bars. The two stared into each others' eyes for a minute. From what Kakashi could read in Itachi's expression he could tell that he was just as hard to read as the younger man in front of him. Good.

It was Itachi that spoke first. "I apologize for any injuries you may have sustained from our battle."

"Apology accepted." Kakashi responded easily. This was interesting. He knew that Sasuke had been brought up with the same politeness... he just failed to use it anymore.

"I have nothing against you personally..." The older Uchiha continued slowly.

"That's good to know."

From Itachi's frown Kakashi could guess that the boy was more curious as to why he was here than he was sorry.

Kakashi's mind ran through all that had happened since yesterday.

The hidden scroll.

The dead Sound nin.

And the fact that Itachi was notorious for finishing out his missions.

Finally his mind rested on Sasuke's glare as he'd walked away.

He couldn't picture Itachi just giving up... but if he'd come to correct his mistakes...

Kakashi rose, ready to leave now that he had an answer.

Itachi watched him with a look that simply stated, that's it?

Kakashi was ready to leave him without a look back, but he stopped.

He wasn't sure why, but something made him turn back.

"You know," he said "Sometimes the stronger man is the one who turns his back on his duty in order to set right what he's done wrong."

For what Kakashi was sure was the first time in quite a few days, a smile tugged at the corners of Itachi's mouth.

"Thank you."

Review please!

Sorry it took awhile for an update... holidays are busy and I realized I couldn't ignore my other stories and only update this one. :P

Hope you liked it!