"Where is he?"

Sasuke turns from him, quiet, too quiet and knowing, and Kakashi doesn't have enough energy to deal with this so soon. "Successfully training a ninken includes actually attending with the ninken in question. Sasuke, where is he?"

"I don't know."

Kakashi tampers down the initial jump of frustration, channeling it all into a raised eyebrow he gives his student. Sasuke is appropriately contrite, the brat, he slumps a little at the shoulders and scowls deeper. The hands stuffed in black pockets dig further in, a testament to his discomfort at the situation.

"Maa. I don't know why you even thought to arrive here then." Kakashi cracks open his Icha and settles himself against the bark of the nearest training post. His back is a little itchy but the post has been well-beaten through, the splinters non-existent. The grass he plants himself on is rich and plush, the morning dew having long evaporated by now. Kakashi folds a knee and rests his orange book against there. Sasuke is hilariously surprised, his face frowns in confusion and Kakashi nearly smiles.

"Go on." He shoos him with a hand. "Find him."

Sasuke grumbles as he angrily speeds home to find the stupid ninken. He would've gladly stuck to training himself but he's finished his katas all in the morning, the review of the ninjutsu at his disposal quickly (sadly) exhausted of. What he's had in plan for himself didn't amount to much and it's too bad that he's long since had a training regimen, one that he honestly tires of. Sasuke doesn't know what more he can teach himself… though he supposes he can just observe others at the training grounds with his Sharingan. He doesn't want to do that, he doesn't want to copy off of genin, not that there'll be anything they do that he doesn't already know of.

And Kakashi. He still itches to find out the raikiri, see it then copy it for himself. But the man insists on strictly fuuinjutsu, all but ordering him to find the puppy. He doesn't... well. Sasuke ninja leaps past the gate of his family compound.

"Shiro," he says aloud though he doesn't expect a response. Sasuke walks among the many Uchiha houses and keeps an eye and ear out for fast brown movement. He doesn't see any puppy, only the same wooden houses, chipped at the edges, the paint cracked and old. Sasuke tires of the sight. He jumps onto the nearest rooftop, Old Uchiha Hiro's he guesses idly and oversees past the next few houses. When he spins a full circle and back a few times, he scowls.

Sasuke makes hand signs – tiger, boar, ox, dog – his brow twitching; he really doesn't want to bother. Kakashi pisses him off. In a clap, two other Sasukes appear looking just as disgruntled as he. He doesn't know where this dog is and he hopes he finds him quickly. This is too much a waste of his time.

It's been three hours. When he finds this dog he thinks he's going to cage him; this is ridiculous. There isn't a sign. Not a missed fur hair, not a paw print or scratch - like the dog was never here. Sasuke uses all the tracking skills he has at his disposal (which weren't much compared to an Inuzuka or Hyuuga) to find the damn puppy. He hadn't really wanted to look for him in the first place, considering that he doesn't want to train with the dog but his pride has been hit. Him, the last Uchiha Sharingan, can't even find a defense-less, 9-week old baby animal.

Sasuke keeps looking.

The sun sets behind the Hokage faces, lighting the founders of the Leaf and the hero of Konoha with red-orange shadows. Sasuke watches the shadows deepen. The darker it gets out, the harder it'll be to find Shiro, another day wasted. The more Shiro might get lost. (He's not worried.) Sasuke is strained, his chakra consumed down to the last flickers as he had jumped all over the village, searching. He still searches on foot however, and his feet blister in his sandals. He can't initiate another clone jutsu, he can't activate his Sharingan for better detail. His energy is depleted.

But he will find the dog. Shiro must be playing him, leading him on and Sasuke won't let himself get upstaged, if it's the last thing he does. He may not have been able to get to training with Kakashi but this is more important, this is personal.

Kakashi finds him like this still searching, but having taken a break on a bench. Sasuke wakes with a start and immediately his scowl sets. He can hear his teacher sigh. "Tomorrow, then?"

Sasuke struggles to concede and admit his failure, his brow furrows and twitches.

"Yes."

It's when he hears growling.

The sound is ominous, high but serious in its intention that penetrates to his human instinct, unused and hidden well deep within himself – but not forgotten. It's this instinct that adrenaline surges his chakra levels, that flint spark the neurons in his brain together that make his logical conclusions.

"Shiro," he says and the growling pitches louder.

He walks closer to the low bush, a prickly inconspicuous thing unmanaged long before his clan's massacre. The weeds are dry and rustic brown, enough of a good camouflage for Shiro - he's impressed. But Sasuke can see black pupils framed in thick dog lashes and he knows he's not imagining this. "Come out, would you?"

Shiro barks sharply.

Sasuke bites back a scowl, instead crouches low to the floor. "If you're going to growl at me you should at least do so to my face."

Shiro steps out from under the bushweed, predatory taps of small paws. The ninken circles him all the while growling, making his upset at his presence known.

But Sasuke doesn't give a care about that. He's here and he's found him finally (or Shiro found him and made himself present). Now, the puppy won't be staying any longer alone. If Shiro has a problem with that he can bring it up with his real alpha, Kakashi. Sasuke's not interested.

The dog snarls and Sasuke has half a mind to snarl back. But he's a human ninja, almost thirteen years old and that's too old to stoop to this level. "I hate you too," Sasuke starts and the puppy snorts violently. This knocks curious at the back of his mind, he didn't know ninken could humor. "But Kakashi told me to get you."

At the sound of his teacher's name, Shiro perks up. A fluffy tail twitches, he's personally invested in his words.

"And if you go back with me," the ninken begins a rumble and Sasuke could roll his eyes. "You can return to where you were. With Kakashi. That's what you want, isn't it?"

Shiro looks at him head cocked and Sasuke rises. "That's all I have to say. We don't have to see each other again. Do you understand?" Shiro snaps his teeth at him and Sasuke scoffs with little humor. He shrugs and turns from the stupid animal.

Obviously a no. Sasuke isn't going to force the dog, that isn't a part of his lessons and he isn't going to waste any more time. If the ninken insists on being obstinate then he has nothing to say and better things to do. He's made his truce offer and tried to understand, his mother's fans he's moved to another part of the household far away from intruders. He's done his part. His sandals glow warm blue as he generates the chakra to leave this dog and-

Shiro barks and runs ahead of him, interestingly in the same direction of where his teacher would be. Watching the receding furry form, Sasuke stops the charge of chakra.

Hmph. Whatever.

"Now that you're both here, Sasuke and-"

"Shiro."

"Shiro-kun. What have you two decided to specialize in? Then we can get started." Sasuke twists at the mouth and stiffly turns away. When he looks at the ground, he can see the ninken lick at his paws. No help there.

"I didn't come here to train," he says and Kakashi looks at him boredly.

"Oh?" the question is disgustingly loaded with fake interest, Sasuke bristles despite himself. "Then pray tell, why did you come?"

Isn't it obvious? "Don't you want him back? He does you."

Kakashi sighs loudly and the sound and length of it pisses him off. He glares as he was wont to do anyway but as always his glares is to no effect. He has the itch to activate his Sharingan.

"I've asked Shiro here to be with you. He's not mine."

Sasuke looks at the dog then, who promptly lays down with his head in small forelegs, napping. He looks back to his sensei. "I don't want him."

A gray eyebrow raises.

He rushes to explain. "I gave it a shot and I don't want to train with him. I don't want him."

"Maa, you must want for something then."

Sasuke flushes dark purple, caught. Kakashi sighs again, a put-upon front that he suspects is for his benefit. Exasperated as if he were a wayward child who just doesn't get it. And he thinks he was too transparent about his need of power, asked too often. Sasuke shrugs his discomfort.

"I don't know what has happened between the two of you… but Shiro is still willing to try even if he may not look it. What say you?" The Uchiha frowns in thought. He stares at the sleeping puppy at his feet. What say him? He doesn't understand the dynamic anymore. Kakashi, Shiro and him: he thought his teacher made all the decisions or the Hokage rather as he had said.

And he must follow the Hokage.

Yet Shiro came back of his own volition? Sasuke's confused at the notion, he's heard the yowling and barks after he's kicked him out. And Sasuke may not be an Inuzuka but he can hear. They weren't exactly forgiving sounds.

Yet here he is laying next to him. Not his teacher. Sasuke turns his face away and decides he'll refrain from speaking. Kakashi sighs. "So. Lesson one."

"If you were to have him identify genju-"

"I know!" Sasuke puts his hands together again, the clap they make stinging at his palms. Shiro barks for yelling at Kakashi. Dumb dog.

It's not like he isn't trying. He's doing his hardest to make an illusion close to his – Itachi's – and he's simultaneously addressing the multiple senses within genjutsu, as many as he can think of. The only problem being that this dog isn't normal or has some other sense that he's not conscious of… that isn't human. Sasuke tries again.

"Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique."

He can see Kakashi watching with a lazy eye, and Sasuke would be offended if he didn't suspect that the look is another front. This is what Kakashi does, act bored but is closely invested as the strongest jounin in the village. Sasuke tells himself this, brushes off the uncomfortable sensation of that one-eyed stare and tries focuses on the ninken before him. His Sharingan rolls and what he sees in his mind ripples to consume his reality.

The forest-clearing of the training grounds they were in dissipates, the change is obvious but well-immersing genjutsu isn't the lesson plan. They are trying to break out.

He decides with what he is most familiar. Shiro wanders along the imagined streets of his imagined clan, innocently curious at the things he's seeing but not worried. As he shouldn't be; Sasuke's not here to hurt him, deaths aren't going to be rewinded for the sake of this training. Though he fears when – if – it comes to the real thing there will be no such restraints.

… Even if he is a dog he doesn't want anyone to know. Sasuke frowns, the last thing he wants is for any being to see the things he's seen. To know of his shame. He didn't open the door sooner, he didn't fight back to save his parents-

He ran for his life.

Sasuke runs now to catch up to the dog who noses at the buildings and sniffs the dirt floor. He needs to focus on the lesson.

Smell. Touch. Taste. Sight. He imitates the air of a city of where many people live, and not the nature scent of the grass they actually stand on. He paints the roads, sun-bleached dirt and the signs of trampling shoes. When Shiro wags his tongue, Sasuke makes sure he tastes it all with not a drop of smelly air, imagined people and their sweat missing. He sees in black and white filter to which the ninken doesn't notice the difference. Then again, sometimes he can't neither.

Shiro barks, the noise a little ways away and Sasuke turns to the source. A cart. It's tipped over and barren, a crusty old thing that he's only added for realism and dismissed just as quickly. This has got to be pure luck on part by the dog. He can't believe he's been caught so fast by that. He waits to see what happens next.

Shiro investigates further, sniffing, then he opens his mouth wide. With a clamp of his jaw on the rotting wood the cart dissipates in a puff of smoke.

What.

The grounds are instantly back once more.

"Good job, Shiro-kun," the ninken thumps his tail wildly, responding with a happy bark. Sasuke grits his teeth and stares at the furry animal before him, this puppy that he thinks isn't much of a baby after all.

"Ah, Sasuke. You didn't let me finish." Kakashi bookmarks his page idly and the genin wants to strangle him to get to the point.

"Finish what."

"You're missing a big part of genjutsu that happens to be a dog's specialty - and some people as well, to be honest." When his Sharingan recedes, he can see his teacher who leans against the tree coolly, bored. The man slumps and the look only makes him feel more disappointed in himself. Sasuke keeps the traitorous thought bottled down. "You're making only half of the illusion."

"I'm not training to improve my genjutsu!"

"No, you're not. You're balancing your skills with Shiro's and frankly you're the one in need of catching up."

Sasuke twitches violently, his hands and his mouth, and he clenches his fists. He bites out. "Then help-me," the words taste bitter from his tongue.

Kakashi stares. "The reason why Shiro's catching you every time is because you are lacking emotion."

He frowns.

"I warned you dogs are emotionally sensitive. They can pick apart genjutsu simply reading the emotions from certain illusions, despite whether all the other senses have been addressed." A slight shrug. "This is ideal concerning your brother however, only if you can do the same."

Doesn't he get it? Sasuke doesn't want to be like him.

"Why should emotions matter? If you teach me Raikiri… none of this would be necessary."

He's finally done it. Kakashi looks at him closely but Sasuke stands stiff, he's sticking to his words. This is rude of him he's well aware, but he knows when he's right. Sasuke could learn the Chidori and drop this training with ninken, he could beat Gaara, hold his own against Orochimaru and avenge his clan. He wouldn't have to struggle with a dog that can't even speak, he wouldn't have to be sociable. Sasuke could accomplish his goal swiftly and efficiently and then everything would return to normal. No more nightmares, he could finally sleep. The elder ninja can't intimidate him into backing down; Sasuke won't let him. "Your brother, Uchiha Itachi, is the greatest his generation has to offer."

Sasuke bristles and twists at the mouth. "I know that."

"Did you know his main technique is illusions… and clones?"

He pauses, he doesn't understand where Kakashi is going with this.

"Much like Naruto, funny enough. No one, Sharingan or not, can tell if it's really him half the time. 90 % of the time. You will need Shiro." There's a scoff muffled by a mask and Sasuke narrows his eyes.

"How do you know this," he says darkly though he has no way to follow through to the man. That doesn't matter, there's no reason Kakashi should know so much about Itachi. His teacher's not an Uchiha.

"Before he defected I used to be his commanding officer," the ninja says, his words empty and restating the facts. Sasuke freezes. He has to manually swallow the questions he has sprouting in his mind. "And now I am yours."

Sasuke visibly falters at the last quip. There's something wrong about the way Kakashi's spoken, something reminding, something heavy and final. He could scowl at the obvious statement for he knows well that Kakashi is his commanding officer: he's not stupid and he doesn't need to hear him say it aloud. "I have the experience to tell you he is a genius in his prime, and Raikiri or not you will lose, do you understand me?"

"I-"

It's sudden. His sensei looms before him tall and threatening and only reminding of the power he carries locked tight, that this man is an assassin with the default to kill. Shiro whines low and Sasuke could copy the sound. He presses his lips tight not to do so. Sasuke wants to fight back the words because that's what Naruto would do and he cannot fail. He's promised on his parent's graves that he will avenge them and his clan and their honor as one of the fore founders of Konoha. This is true and valid, deserving of the Raikiri. He won't lose.

Though Sasuke has the dark intuition that Kakashi won't wait to listen this.

The ominous feeling disappears so fast he thinks he's imagined it and only the lingering smell of sour-sweet air tells him that he's not crazy. It's this air, leaving by the second, that when he blinks he feels a tiny spark of electricity. It stings, he thinks.

"Anyway, Sasuke. Try again."

He's home. After training with Kakashi – long, grueling hours of genjutsu – Sasuke's officially done. He's exhausted because aside from him and Shiro refusing to remain on the same page, he doesn't have the chakra control for all the minor details in the illusions. It's a pain. His Sharingan's his only saving grace.

And 'emotions'. Sasuke looks at Shiro then and now, following the furry thing as it hops on his couch and makes a place amongst his pillows. The ninken's figured out every illusion only minutes, if not seconds in. This was the worst waste of time in his life and he would walk away from it all if he wasn't so embarrassed.

He needs to get better.

When Shiro leaps onto his kotatsu padding to his plate, Sasuke's come prepared. He rolls his eyes as the dog eats his rice ball, luckily the fourth one he's already set aside on his plate. This is how it's going to be now, and he sighs heavily. Sasuke wonders how long it'll take.