We spend some time with Sasuke.

Chapter 15: Take these words and make them right

The Hokage's office was empty. Sasuke stepped back into the hallway, not bothering to close the door. Catching sight of a spiky head of brown hair, Sasuke fell into step with the other shinobi.

"Where's Kakashi?" he asked straight forwardly.

"Why?" Shikamaru returned, tonelessly.

"Mission."

Shikamaru shot him a sidelong glance. "The Fujiwara?"

"No. That mission is over and I couldn't care less," Sasuke said, a little too emphatically.

"Yeah, you seem unaffected." Shikamaru turned a corner, leading them down the stairs. "If it's not that, then the only open mission you have is —"

Sasuke's eyes widened before narrowing dangerously. "He didn't."

Shikamaru didn't pause in his lazy gait. "Of course he did. 'Come up with a dream.' It's registered as an official mission assigned to Uchiha Sasuke."

The back exit of the Hokage Tower opened to a small courtyard. A light dusting of snow from overnight covered the grass. Shikamaru made his way to a lone bench, slouching onto it. Sasuke stood at his back, body tucked into his cloak and away from the chill in the air.

"Are you going to answer my question? Where is he?" Sasuke asked testily.

"Where do you think? You know the man," Shikamaru said, pulling a lighter and a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He wore only a thin shirt under his flak jacket, but appeared unaffected by the cold. "He's only ever somewhat on time for missions. But paperwork? My guess is he won't show up today."

Sasuke didn't say anything, but his ire was a tangible thing.

"You seem to be in higher spirits," Shikamaru noted. He couldn't have seen the incredulous glare Sasuke aimed at the back of his head, but responded as if he had. "In comparison to the other day." Shikamaru pulled a single cigarette out of the pack and lit it before shoving the rest of the pack and his lighter back into his pocket.

Sasuke's jaw tightened. "I don't want to talk about that."

"What a drag," Shikamaru muttered, taking a long pull of his cigarette. He exhaled a plume of smoke. "Just making sure you don't go rogue on us again." It was difficult to tell from his tone if he was joking. Sasuke was inclined to think not.

"Maybe I should," Sasuke grumbled.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Avoiding triggers is an acceptable coping mechanism," he agreed, "But I'm not so sure I'd draw the same conclusion."

Sasuke really should have left as soon as he found out Kakashi wouldn't be here today. Shikamaru continued to smoke, unconcerned.

"And what conclusion would you draw?" Sasuke asked, the words coming out as if they pained him.

Shikamaru smirked around his cigarette as if amused by Sasuke. "The trigger was the mission, not Konoha. Knowing Hokage-sama, he gave you an out. You didn't take it."

Sasuke bristled. "I'm not weak. I don't turn down missions."

"Did you not just suggest running away from the village again? Seems more drastic than passing on a mission. Guess you were always a bit of a drama queen." Shikamaru exhaled more smoke, head tilted against the back of the bench as he took in the clouds in the sky.

"I really hated you at the academy," Sasuke said petulantly. It was the truth, though. Shikamaru's wasted intelligence and disinterest in applying himself had been abhorrent to Sasuke, who spent every minute of the day training with single minded purpose.

Now, with Shikamaru using his keen mind to poke at him while still managing to emanate an air of laziness, Sasuke might prefer the version that used to fall asleep during class and skate by with middling grades.

"Back at you," Shikamaru said. "Every time you showed up everything got so much noisier. It was bothersome."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, leaving Shikamaru alone in the courtyard without a word.

He arrived at Kakashi's apartment shortly. He ignored the door, sliding open the window and easily climbing into the living room. Naruto was sitting at a low table, surrounded by piles of paper.

They stared at each other for a second.

"I thought you were Pakkun," Naruto said.

"I thought you'd be Kakashi," Sasuke returned.

Wind ruffled Sasuke's cloak, reminding him to shut the window.

"Did you want to spar?" Naruto asked, excitedly, "Because I could definitely use a break!"

"I'm here for Kakashi. Are you doing his paperwork?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto swiped at his cheek where black ink was smudged. "He's out. And this is training," he explained.

"Being a successor gives you no authority, so pretty sure it's illegal," Sasuke said bluntly. "Kakashi's just being irresponsible and dumping his work on you."

Naruto only snorted. "Duh, I'm not an idiot." At Sasuke's disbelieving look, he stuck his tongue out. "I'm not, bastard! But I'll need to do this stuff soon, so I need to figure it out."

Sasuke shook his head. The dead last of their class, who couldn't sit through one class without causing trouble, was willingly reading through files, taking notes and filling out forms. "Always knew you were the crazy one. Alright, let's go. I have time for a quick spar."

"Hell yeah!" Naruto yelled, jumping to his feet.

The sun was shining brightly in direct contrast to the cold weather. Naruto clearly had a lot of pent up energy, keeping Sasuke on his toes throughout their spar. It ended in a draw, rasengan and chidori dispelled at the last second.

As they sat side by side in the snow, panting, Sasuke felt grateful for the fact that despite how many times he had fought Naruto with serious intent to hurt him, after everything they'd been through, they were still able to do this. The sins of Sasuke's past pervaded so much of his present, it was a relief to turn something bad back to good.

"Sasuke," Naruto started, voice uncharacteristically serious. "Is the reason you were looking for Kakashi-sensei to talk about Fujiwara Minoru?"

Sasuke's spine straightened and he frowned. "Why does everyone keep asking me that? What do you know?"

Naruto mirrored his frown. "He's being sent here. Yesterday, when Kakashi-sensei, Shikamaru and I stayed back in the capital, we had a meeting with the Fire Daimyo. Apparently the white zetsu in Minoru's neck started to grow back overnight. They can't keep him there like that. So he'll be transferred here for Konoha medical ninjas to try to fix whatever's wrong with him."

"What's wrong with him can't be fixed with iryō ninjutsu," Sasuke snapped, his face twisted into a scowl.

Naruto didn't say anything, redirecting his gaze to the sky. After a long stretch of silence, he asked, "Are you going to leave again? You never said how long you'd be staying."

Sasuke's expression slackened, thrown by the change in topic. "I don't know," he said immediately. Then after some thought, Sasuke answered a little more honestly, "There's a reason I came back. I left to atone and reflect, and I did, but there's only so much I could do out there. After a while, it felt like I was just wandering around aimlessly to avoid being here. So I came back."

"So you came back," Naruto echoed. "But did you find a reason to stay?"

Unbidden, lavender eyes, an aged photo album, lacquered wooden bento boxes and the thick scent of matcha flashed through Sasuke's mind. Blinking, Sasuke pushed the thoughts away and turned to focus on Naruto instead.

"So you still want to be Hokage after all this time? Badly enough to do Kakashi's grunt work?" Rather than answer, Sasuke chose to ask a question of his own.

"Of course. It's been my dream my whole life." A grin stretched across Naruto's face.

Sasuke grunted noncommittally. "…that's all? Being Hokage and nothing else?"

Naruto turned to him at this, forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What else is there?"

"As a woman, I would like to have a family with…someone I love."

The words ran through Sasuke's head as he stared back at Naruto's oblivious face. A bitter feeling churned in his gut. He stood. "Don't tell me you're that tired, idiot. I need to practice my Katon no Jutsu."

Naruto winced. "Seemed fine to me. Why does it feel like you just want to set me on fire some more?"

Sasuke raised a brow. "Giving up?" he mocked.

Naruto bared his teeth in a grin. "Never."

Later, after succeeding in singeing most of Naruto's jacket and some of his hair, Sasuke decided to walk home. The winter air was refreshing against his sweaty face. He mindlessly passed by a bridge before backtracking abruptly.

"Yo," Kakashi said with a jaunty wave, face buried in his book. He was leaning against the railing as he read.

"Don't you have a job?"

"Against my best efforts," Kakashi retorted. "Heard you were looking for me?"

Sasuke huffed. "For almost half the day."

"Ah, I guess my network of informants are slacking." Kakashi shut his book and looked at Sasuke directly. "But I'm always happy to help my cute little students. So what did you need?"

Sasuke studied his former teacher's face. The new lines of aging present. The worry hiding behind his unflappable persona.

"Is this about —"

"No," Sasuke said decisively.

He thought about his conversations with Shikamaru and Naruto and realized he didn't really need to talk to Kakashi anymore.

"…I just wanted to see if you were free for dinner," Sasuke said finally.

Kakashi's stupefied expression was priceless.

"Your treat, of course," Sasuke continued casually, starting down the street.

"Of course," Kakashi said, recovering from the shock. "I could hardly make my cute little student pay for the meal."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "If you're going to be this annoying the whole time then forget it."

Kakashi smiled behind his mask, catching up to Sasuke. "Mah, I'm feeling benevolent today. I'll even let you pick the restaurant."

"As long as it's not Ichiraku Ramen, I don't really care," Sasuke said with a sidelong glance. He blinked as he realized for the first time that he didn't have to look up so far. Kakashi was only a head taller than him, no longer the towering, grand figure from his memories.

Walking side by side down the street with Kakashi, Sasuke found himself standing a little taller, if only to close those last few inches in height.

Sasuke's processing things in his own way and not completely isolating himself.

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled SasuHina next chap!

Thanks to everyone who leaves a review ^^

And to that one persistent anti that even followed me to AO3, kind of offended that you keep calling me by someone else's name tbh. Are you like in love with that person or something? Maybe find a better outlet for your obsessive feelings.

MVH