Sasuke was up before the sun, as usual. He didn't dwell on his difficulty sleeping the night before. It was only logical that he would be so on edge. Theoretically, their mission had not ended. True, Harry was in Konoha, but he was far from being safe. The first order of business was checking on his cousin. He disarmed the harmless, but noisy, traps he had set up outside of his cousin's room and noiselessly slid open the door wide enough for him to survey the room. Satisfied, Sasuke slipped silently out of the house.

He'd spent the early part of the night running over his various options for Harry's continued safety. Obviously, the preferred method was simply to take of the matter personally. There were several problems with that, however. Guarding his cousin would sharply conflict with hunting down his brother. Besides, he was finally back on active duty. Team 7 had been pulling regular missions ever since.

Sasuke stepped out onto the back porch and breathed in the morning air deeply. He stretched out his senses, but found nothing of concern. He should have plenty of time for his morning exercises and stretches. He stepped off the smooth wooden planks onto the wet soft grass. He preferred to do his morning exercises bare foot. He liked to feel the ground and soil and life beneath his feet as he moved and as it moved with him.

Sasuke need to come up with a back-up plan for the future. There was no other ninja family that he could call in a favor from. Sasuke had managed to sufficiently distance himself from all of the other clans. That didn't leave Sasuke completely without options. What couldn't be had by loyalty could often be had by money. Sasuke knew approximately how much it would take to hire appropriate protection for whenever Sasuke would be unable to see to his duty himself. It couldn't possibly cost more than Sasuke could make.

Sasuke moved until he was close to the back fence and positioned himself in a small clearing between the trees along the east fence and the gentle slope leading down towards the compound's lake. Normally, he'd have left for one of the bigger shared training fields. There was more open space there, the land well worn down from countless shinobi training. There was a generous amount of open land near the house, but it wasn't the same. The shade, the quiet, the soft rolling hill and the gently waving ankle deep grass that covered it was all different. Not that it truly made a difference in the end. He'd used the same morning exercises most of his life and could perform them anywhere.

Money had never been a concern for Sasuke before now, but he'd have to be careful with funds from now on. Some missions weren't paid, and many of the ones Team 7 drew were not paid enough. He needed to start thinking long term. His idea of what long term meant had to change. It was no longer one campaign at a time. It was no longer just his eventual revenge. He couldn't afford to ignore everything else any more.

Sasuke moved through one stance after another. His body was still slightly stiff from his battle the day before. He patiently worked each twinge of soreness out until he was once more satisfied with his body's flexibility.

He wasn't finished yet when he felt the signature energy of Kakashi-sensei flickering away from the house.

"Damn him," Sasuke grumbled before stopping suddenly and marching up to the house. "Meddling bastard." Kakashi-sensei just couldn't leave well enough alone. He wouldn't have left unless he'd accomplished whatever it was he came for and Sasuke had the suspicion it was something 'for Sasuke's own good." He didn't need help, damn it. IT was the first day. Nothing had gone wrong. Nothing had happened. Why did Kakashi-sensei insist on coming along behind him like he was some errant child that needed checking up on?

Sasuke sighed and took long enough to wipe off his feet before entering the house. He had a feeling this kind of meddling was going to happen far more often than he would like. There was no sense storming in there now. He would make his displeasure clearly known later.

The house was still silent. Sasuke shuffled his feet intentionally as he approached his room. Fixing the house was one of the many necessities now on his list of things to take care of. He (with the limited help of Naruto) had cleaned out the worst of the disrepair of the house when Sasuke had originally moved back in, but they hadn't wasted time on the finer details. He'd have to go back and fix that.

It felt weird to knock at his own door.

There was sudden movement from the other side. The sound of something being dropped. A muttered "bloody hell" came through the door, then a shuffling, before the door was clumsily pushed back. Harry was a little wide-eyed but otherwise perfectly fine. There were some crumbs still stubbornly clinging to the side of his mouth. The room smelt strongly of fried food and Sasuke raised one eyebrow slowly.

Harry blushed. "You're up," he commented inanely before flinching at his own words.

Sasuke was used to people shying away from him, but how pathetic was it that his own cousin couldn't say two words to him without shying away. "Yes," Sasuke replied just as inanely.

"Oh." Harry stepped back from the door, putting a little space between them. He reached up and tried to flatten down his hair. "Um, that man – ah, your teacher…he was here. Just a moment ago. Like literally, he was just here."

"Yes," Sasuke repeated. It seemed like that was all needed to be said, but Harry was still staring at him. "I know," he added simple and shrugged one shoulder.

"Oh," Harry replied.

There was a bag of take-out sitting incongruitously in the middle of his bedroom floor. "He brought you food?" Sasuke frowned. What the hell? In all the years Sasuke had known the older ninja, he'd never heard of him buying someone else a meal, much less delivering food. What did he think, that Sasuke couldn't manage such a simple thing?

"Sorry," Harry quickly replied. He scooped up the rumbled looking bag immediately. He even brushed the flat of his hand across the floor as if to wipe up an invisible mess. "I didn't know if I was allowed to eat in here or not."

Sasuke opened his mouth to dismiss Harry's concerns, then realized the very simple mistake he'd already made. In all of his thinking and planning last night, he actually hadn't managed to take care of the most elementary of needs. "When was the last time you ate?"

Harry juggled the paper bag awkwardly. He seemed to want to get rid of it, but didn't know how. He eventually settled for holding half hidden at his side. "I ate about half of them while I was talking to Kakashi-sensei, so I'm good. Oh! Did you want some?" he asked suddenly. He jerked the bag back out and held it up. "I don't know what they're called, but they're pretty tasty."

Sasuke glared at the bag and cursed himself. The evasive answer was more than answer enough. Sasuke had been so tense the night before it hadn't even occurred to him that it was time to eat something. He was used to missing the occasional meal during busy times. There was nothing Sasuke could say in response to such a failure.

After a long silence, Harry let the bag fall back down to his side. Harry sighed. "I'm sorry. I know this has to be a bother for you."

Sasuke scowled even more and gripped his fist \s tight. The relative calm of this morning had completely disappeared. Any feeling that he had control of the situation was long gone. "It's not your – damn it. There's food in the kitchen. Stop apologizing. If you need something, say so." This was not the way he wanted things to be.

And now Harry was openly glaring at him. Great.

"I'm fine," Harry replied finally in a curt voice.

Sasuke sighed quietly. He was smart enough to recognize when an approach was not working, but this was one of the few times in his life that he didn't know how to correct his tactic. So he followed traditional strategic logic. With a sharp nod, he pivoted on one heel and stiffly strode back to the door.

"Wait!"

Sasuke froze, unsure of what to expect. It was too much to expect Harry to know how to fix this. What if he hated Sasuke? Sasuke wouldn't blame him, but he didn't know how he'd manage protecting Harry if he hated him. It was going to make shadowing him more difficult.

Harry was still glaring at him, arms crossed over his chest. The display had little over the temper tantrums the S-class ninja Sasuke had known over the course of his life, nor the chilling demeanor both Sasuke's father and brother had been capable of. But there was something annoyingly familiar about it. With a little practice, it really would be something. It was certainly stubborn enough.

"Yes?" Sasuke asked slowly, keeping his voice carefully neutral.

"Kakashi-sensei said your team has light training, and that I'm to come with you," Harry announced. "Oh, and he said to tell you he doesn't approve of your bad manners. He knows you pretty well, doesn't he?"

Sasuke glared back but didn't rise to the bait by sheer will power. He was not getting into a sneering match with his civilian cousin. "He's my sensei," Sasuke replied. Never mind the brief sabbatical during which his "sensei" had most definitely not been Kakashi-sensei. "And what do you mean you're to come with us? You are not a shinobi."

"I'm not helpless you know," Harry snapped back.

"I never said that," Sasuke agreed compliantly. "You just might as well be compared to one of us."

Harry growled and stepped forward. "You're a real arse, you know that?"

Yes, Sasuke was well aware. He'd done a number of bastardly things. He wasn't going to deny it. But there wasn't really any reason to confirm it either. He was fairly certain that type of question was typically rhetorical. So he waited.

"Prat," Harry spat before sighing and rubbing vigorously at his face. It uncovered a thin jagged line running down his forehead.

Sasuke's eyes zeroed in on it automatically with the ease of someone trained to notice such minute details. "What is that?" he demanded, jumping shamelessly on the diversion.

"Eh?" Harry asked. Then he flushed an angry red and slapped his hand over the mark. He hastily tried to smooth his ruffled hair down over it. "Nothing," he denied.

It was almost more pathetic than watching Naruto trying to hide something. "Is it old?" Sasuke demanded. He needed to know. Any head wound was a serious wound and could have detrimental effects even months later. Sasuke didn't need to have Sakura's extensive medical knowledge to know that.

Harry looked away. All his anger seemed to have defused in the wake of what might have been embarrassment. It was hard to tell exactly what Harry's discomfort was coming from. "It's old," Harry confirmed quietly. "From when I was a baby."

Sasuke frowned. A scar that old must have been very significant. Traumatic, even. There was only one event in Harry's life that Sasuke knew of that fit that description. No wonder Harry disliked questions about it. Sasuke had been known to respond much more violently to lesser provocation. "Ah," Sasuke finally replied. He firmly resisted the urge to cover his own already covered mark.

Neither spoke for a long moment after that

"Are we going now or later?" Harry finally asked.

Sasuke sighed. Damn Kakashi. Apparently, Harry was coming with him to team training. If Naruto screwed up even one jutsu that placed his cousin at risk, Sasuke would kill both him and their stupid meddling sensei.