Title: Restraint
Author: desolate butterfly
Genre: drabble, gen
Pairing: KakaSasu
Rating: PG
Summary: Kakashi enforces some rules and Sasuke tests his boundaries.

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Sasuke covertly flexes the muscles in his arms to test the strength of the coated wire strings crisscrossing his chest and shoulders and holding him fast to the tree.

They give enough for him to take a shallow breath, but not much more. If he struggles hard enough, he could break the wires—but not without doing some damage to his body. Already he's twisted against the tree so much that a thin line of wire is biting into the skin of his right shoulder, giving it a shallow cut.

Sasuke is glad his shirt is black and hopes Kakashi hasn't noticed his efforts.

"Hold still."

Shit.

Kakashi's voice is mild and unconcerned and so disinterested that for a second it seems impossible that he's talking to Sasuke. But the fingers that press against the blood-sticky line of wire on his shoulder certainly verify Sasuke's existence. The wire is loosened and moved and Sasuke hisses at the sharp pain of metal sliding out of his skin.

Kakashi staunches the blood and tapes up the wound efficiently and quickly and Sasuke sits still through the entire procedure. Then Kakashi moves on to wrap cool bandages around the blisters and burns on Sasuke's hands and feet that show evidence of too much chakra forced through their surfaces at one time.

Kakashi kneels in order to wrap Sasuke's feet and Sasuke feels mortified in a way, that's he's brought his teacher to this kind of position of caring, and extremely gratified in another. The last bandage is smoothed into place with a little pat and Sasuke has to bite down hard on his lip in order to dispel memories of Itachi doing the very same thing.

"This kind of behavior will not be accepted Sasuke," Kakashi is saying, as he stands and loops the wires around his fingers, loosening them enough that Sasuke can take a deep breath and move his back away from the rough bark of the tree. "Do you understand?"

Sasuke nods and refuses to look Kakashi in the eye. He doesn't know what he might see there, and the risk isn't worth it. He does hear Kakashi's disappointed sigh, and that's almost enough to close his throat.

"Remember what I told you when we started this training—that if I caught you doing this I would restrain you," his teacher continues, sternly. "If you feel you need to be punished for something, I will be the one to do it as your guardian."

Then his hand is in Sasuke's hair, mussing the already tangled strands in a touch that widens Sasuke's eyes and makes heat rise in his chest and his cheeks. His eyes confusion must show on his face, because Kakashi sighs again and this time it's in amused exasperation.

The hand on his head pats once.

"I'm the one more likely to patch you up afterwards anyway," Kakashi muses, and then gathers the wire into his hand with a soft tzing and walks away.

Sasuke sits slumped against the tree a bit longer before gathering up the scattered shuriken and kunai and returning home.

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fin.

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