There was a knock at his window. With a groan, Sasuke climbed out of bed, glancing at the clock. It was six o'clock on the dot. He pulled back the curtains, opened the window, glaring as much as he could as Kakashi climbed into the bedroom. Despite the fact that he had a house key, which he obviously did not mind using.
"Good morning, Sasu-chan," he said, patting his shoulder. It was light. The smile didn't reach his eyes either. "I came to see you off on your–"
"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asked, as he closed the window and pulled the curtains shut. It did very little to block the faint sunlight, slowly creeping into the bedroom.
Kakashi hummed. "Do you want the list alphabetically or by priority?"
Sasuke glared, eyeing Kakashi. The only time he'd been on time was when Itachi was back in the village, with his partner, after the Sound invasion. Kakashi was punctual that time to make sure Sasuke didn't see his brother first. "Don't get the wrong idea," he said. Very carefully, he bit back a sigh, "I don't care what's wrong with you, but you're my brother's advisor, and you shouldn't be a burden to him. He's already stressed."
"I'll keep that in mind," Kakashi responded with a stupid, cheery tone. "Speaking of not stressing out your brother, you should get ready or you might run late to your first day as a teacher!"
Sasuke eyed him, keeping his expression empty. He grabbed a change of clothes, black pants and a matching shirt, and headed to the bathroom. When he returned to his bedroom, about ten minutes later, Kakashi was gone. He grabbed his kunai pouch, just in case, and then headed to the kitchen. Kakashi was there, with his brother, who was holding a cup of tea, his face blank, but something in his eyes that Sasuke recognized as concern.
So much for not burdening his brother. Kakashi had been fine up until Sasuke fell asleep under the stars, though. He disappeared the whole day yesterday, not even leaving a clone with his brother. So whatever was concerning both of them now must have happened yesterday.
"Good morning, Sasuke," his brother said, as Sasuke entered the kitchen.
"Good morning," he replied, eyeing Kakashi again, glaring when he gave him the same stupid, cheery smile he had in his bedroom. He took out eggs and made an omelet, garnishing it with green onions. He handed a plate to his brother with a small smile, and then shoved the other plate onto Kakashi's hands.
"Have a good day," he said, to no one in particular, before he grabbed an apple, put on his sandals, and left the apartment.
He was hovering in front of the Academy's entrance three minutes later. It was too early to be there, he was sure, because it was still not seven in the morning. But he walked inside. He was doing his best to help his brother be less stressed and if he stayed outside the urge to flee the country would be too great. He made it to Iruka-sensei's classroom, who judging by the chakra signature, was inside already. He knocked once, but otherwise slid the door open, just as he'd done a few hours earlier.
"Thank you for making it on time, Sasuke," Iruka-sensei said, motioning with a hand for him to walk closer.
Sasuke…did. This was just a mission. He couldn't feel more nervous than he did when he was in the Hokage's office advocating to become Orochimaru's prisoner, that would be ridiculous, and yet, his stomach was coiling tightly. The apple had been too much for it, clearly. "Good morning, Iruka-sensei."
Iruka-sensei smiled at him. "The more punctual students will be arriving in a few minutes. Are you nervous?"
Being nervous at the prospect of facing a bunch of toddlers who couldn't even throw shuriken was pathetic. But even if it wasn't, why would anyone even think this was a good idea? Orochimaru had been his teacher. The person who thought the best training method was beating his student up until he passed out, and then beating him up until he gained consciousness, again. His stomach twisted. "No."
The smile remained on Iruka-sensei's face. "Originally, I thought it was a good idea if you appeared after I introduced you, but I can think of at least five students who would simply faint from excitement if we tried that, so we'll just have you greet them at the door as they come in. It'll be nice if you can greet them by their name."
His brother was the Hokage and Sasuke wanted him to be happy, and he promised him he would do his best, regardless of how unqualified he was to do this. Obviously, he was well-aware of his…emotional responses at…anyway, he was not qualified for Anbu, but that didn't mean he was qualified for this . But his brother was the Hokage, and Sasuke was going to do the best he could do because at the end of the day, the babies in this classroom would grow up to help his brother defend Konoha.
"When we head outside, they'll make a line. I'll take the front and you take the back," Iruka-sensei continued. He picked up two clipboards from the podium at the front of the classroom. "Then, we'll evaluate them on their skills on a scale of one to five; five is the highest."
With a nod, Sasuke made his way to the door, sliding it open, and leaning against it. It took two hundred and five seconds for the first student to walk down the hallway. It was a small girl, with hair darker than his own, tied into two ponytails. It was either Hikari, Ayaka, or Megumi, judging by the hair color.
Obviously all of them would look like toddlers, but she…seemed particularly small, and completely oblivious, too, walking with her eyes down, only looking up when she was standing in front of the door.
"Morning, Iruka-sen–" her eyes widened as they landed on him.
It was either Megumi or Hikari. What? The Sharingan couldn't differentiate between pictures of twins. He'd assumed that they would show up at the same time, but maybe they had a fight. Who knew? Not him. Still, it felt odd to have a toddler staring up at him, mouth wide open, eyes about to pop out of her tiny head, so Sasuke crouched down to be at eye-level.
"Good morning," he said, as softly as he could.
The girl froze.
Sasuke heard footsteps from behind, felt as Iruka-sensei stood behind him. "Sasuke-sensei will be joining us today, Megumi. Isn't that exciting?"
The girl nodded, her mouth wide open, still.
"It's nice to meet you, Megumi," Sasuke said.
She gasped, staring at Iruka-sensei, then back at him, then at Iruka-sensei, and back at him. "You know my name?"
He did now. He offered a smile, which felt very weird, but the girl beamed at him, so it couldn't have looked as terrible and awkward as it felt. "Of course I do. Let's have a good day today, okay?"
She nodded, the smile not faltering, and then stepped inside. When Sasuke glanced over his shoulder, he saw her do a little dance in front of Iruka, and then made her way to, presumably, her seat. Less than fifteen seconds later, Hikari walked inside, having the exact same reaction as her sister. They were identical, down to the dimple on the right cheek, but at least Hikari had her hair down, with a small, pink clip holding her bangs back. They sat on opposite sides of the room.
Three boys, Ren, Riku, and Kenji, arrived next. Kenji had the white eyes of the Byakugan, and a bandage across his forehead, and Riku had purple markings on his cheeks, and short brown hair, which must have been cut recently because it was longer in the picture from yesterday. Ren's clothes looked two sizes too big, the sleeves covering his hands, a few centimeters away from the floor.
They also seemed excited. Ren even showed him, not one, but two wiggling teeth that he was almost sure would fall out today. Sasuke did his best to smile back as Iruka-sensei ushered them to their seats.
Ayaka, Himari, Akane, Isumo, Kaito, and Asuka came in afterwards. Asuka almost tripped on the way to his seat as he attempted to dislocate his own head to keep staring at Sasuke, a smile even bigger than Megumi's on his face. Hana and Makoto came in afterwards, their reactions, thankfully, more subdued, except for when they took a seat next to Megumi, and they squealed . Hana was practically jumping up and down on her seat.
Right before class started, Hiroki, Kazuki, and Satoshi ran inside the classroom, followed by Sayuri and Yuzuru.
The Sharingan had clearly done its job. At least he knew all the names.
"Good morning, everyone!" Iruka-sensei began. Sasuke had no reference point as it was his first day, but to their credit, the murmurs and whispering stopped as soon as Iruka-sensei began to talk. "As you can see, Sasuke-sensei will be joining us today. If you do a good job, he might even join us tomorrow."
Sasuke glanced at Iruka-sensei. As far as lies went, it wasn't the worst one he'd heard and it was…admittedly, a tactical advantage to not mention that actually, Sasuke was stuck there for two weeks.
"So make sure you try extra hard today and pay attention."
"Yes, Iruka-sensei!"
It was definitely the trauma, obviously, maybe even some memory loss in there, but Sasuke definitely didn't remember his classmates, much less, himself looking so small and so excited to have an extra pair of eyes judging them.
"Today, we're going to practice our skills outside. Leave your backpacks and form a line by the door."
The speed at which they formed a line, alphabetically no less, would have put him to shame. Might have even put Lee and Guy to shame. Iruka-sensei looked a bit surprised, so obviously it wasn't a common occurrence, but Sasuke didn't mind him using him to make the kids behave better, even if it was entirely underserved. He accepted the clipboard and a pen, glancing down at it; alphabetical names down rows, with columns with skills ranging from taijutsu katas to henges, as columns.
Megumi and Hikari were the last in the line. He walked behind Megumi, listening as Satoshi told Hikari how nice her hair looked with a clip. The compliment was apparently good enough to make the girl blush, and she took Satoshi's hand, walking together. Megumi's shoulders slouched forward, tugging on her hair.
Once they were outside, Iruka-sensei brought out a cart with training kunai and had the students make six lines, three in each, in front of the target posts. Sasuke wasn't sure how harsh he was meant to be while scoring them, or allowed to be, but considering that Hikari, Kenji, and Makoto were the only ones who hit the posts more than once, and Kenji was the only one who hit the center of the target once , it felt disingenuous to give anyone anything higher than a two.
Similarly, Kenji was the only one who could throw three shuriken at the same time, even if one of them bounced off the post, not having enough strength to stick to it. Sasuke didn't give anyone anything more than a 1.5.
It was odd that not a single student seemed to be infatuated with any other student. Maybe they instinctively knew that none of them were particularly impressive, or they really didn't have any motivation to continue studying to be shinobi. But, to be fair, other than Kenji, none of them came from prominent shinobi clans. Itachi should actually consider holding them back. They looked as lackluster as they had yesterday, when Sasuke was spying on them.
Afterwards, Iruka-sensei had them stretch, demonstrating each stretch at the front. At the very least, all of them could stretch properly. But they were studying to be shinobi, not circus performers.
Afterwards, they did push-ups, Satoshi doing the most and earning a kiss on his cheek from Hikari for his effort, and crunches. Iruka-sensei set them out to run laps afterwards.
"I've never seen them run so fast," Iruka-sensei said, clearly amused. They were starting on the fifth lap. "They're usually walking by now," he said, jotting a number down on his own clipboard.
Sasuke was, admittedly, a little relieved when he saw that Iruka-sensei didn't have more than a handful of twos on his own clipboard.
"After you finish all ten laps, head over to lunch!" he called over.
It was lunch time already? Who knew babysitting a bunch of kids would make time go by so quickly?
The prospect of lunch seemed to motivate at least half of them, too. When only Makoto, Megumi, and Hana were left on the track, Iruka-sensei said he was going to put away the training equipment from the morning. Sasuke volunteered to go instead, but Iruka-sensei shook his head, motioning at the three kids with two more laps to go, their pace agonizingly slow, but still, not walking. Sasuke understood the message, so he stayed put, even smiling when they finished their assigned laps.
"Sasuke-sensei," Makoto grabbed his pants, pulling on it. He didn't sound as tired as his running speed would have suggested. "Can we see the Sharingan?"
Though Makoto was the one who asked the question, both Hana and Megumi were staring at him with the same curiosity. He crouched down to look at them, because having them look up at him still felt very weird. He made sure the clipboard was facing away from them.
"Have you worked hard this morning?" he asked.
He wasn't sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn't all three kids looking down at the floor, their shoulders hunched forward. Moments later, a sound that sounded an awful lot like a sniffle came from Megumi. Why did anyone think making him be there was a good idea? He assumed they were going to say 'yes' and then he was going to activate the Sharingan for them. Not look so…sad.
Hana put her arms around Megumi's shoulders. "We're much better at ninjutsu, sensei."
"Yeah! Megumi is the only one that can make Bunshin!" Makoto said.
"That's very impressive," Sasuke said. Megumi looked up at that, and she thankfully didn't look like she was going to start sobbing; there were only a couple of tears pooling at the corner of her eyes. "I can't wait to see your jutsu, Megumi."
"And Hana can almost make it, too!" Makoto said, as Megumi wiped her face, nodding along to Makoto's words. "Will you show us the Sharingan then?"
"Of course," Sasuke said, nodding in the direction of the classroom. "Make sure to eat lunch to build up your strength."
The irony of which wasn't lost on him, but they were little toddlers, and they should eat something, before they passed out from chakra exhaustion.
Makoto and Hana offered a grin, and even Megumi had a smile. They turned around, both girls giving one hand to Makoto, and then, ran towards the classroom, disappearing into the building. Sasuke made his way to Iruka-sensei, who was locking up the practice equipment.
"Let's head over to the staff room, Sasuke," he said. With a nod, Sasuke followed him.
He wasn't sure what he'd expected, considering that students weren't allowed in the staff room, but it was…just an empty classroom. The schedules were staggered, so that Iruka-sensei and himself were the only ones there. Sasuke hadn't brought lunch because he wasn't an idiot and understood that babysitting didn't expand as much energy, if any, as training did, but he still took the offered onigiri from the fridge.
"What did you think?"
He looked down at his clipboard. "Nothing to write home about, but I guess they're still young. Makoto said that Megumi was the only one who could make a Bunshin. Shouldn't…Hikari know, too?"
"I supposed in theory," Iruka-sensei said. "I've never had twins in my class before, actually, but Hikari is far more talented at Taijutsu and theory than Ninjutsu."
Sasuke gave a small nod and handed the clipboard over, watching as Iruka-sensei scanned it, nodding more than frowning. Which probably meant that Sasuke wasn't a certified asshole, even if he had made a kid cry just now. For a reason that still eluded him, but that shouldn't be surprising to anyone.
Again, he was under Orochimaru's tutelage for over three years.
Biting back a sigh, "Kenji was the best this morning, but it was rather lackluster."
"He's never done as well as he did today."
That was…sad. But he kept that away from his face. "Iruka-sensei?" he asked, biting back a sigh. "Why don't students learn to walk on walls by the time they leave the Academy?" Or at least figure out what their elemental affinity is. Something more useful than a henge.
"It's not in the current curriculum, but Hokage-sama has asked us to revisit it. This year's graduates will not learn it, but we'll teach it to the lower years. We've also talked about determining the students' elemental affinity before graduation, but that has the potential to make team assignments even more difficult than it is already. As you probably know, there are not many Jounin lining up to teach fresh-academy students and it would be terrible to know that we assigned a Genin to a Jounin who would be unable to teach them jutsu that is geared towards their affinity."
Sasuke nodded. It did sound like a nightmare. In the list he saw of the current ranking Jounin, there was no indication of their elemental nature. Maybe they should start by compiling that information. He supposed at least, he'd been lucky that he had the same affinity that Kakashi did.
Iruka-sensei glanced at the clock. "Ready for the afternoon?"
He gave a small nod, and followed him back to the classroom. By the time class started, all the students were back in their seats. Though they quickly lined up and they headed back outside.
Outside, Sasuke spotted Karin and Naruto and Kakashi and Sakura in a nearby tree–the same one he used to hide yesterday, although they were doing a terrible job at hiding themselves. Sasuke made sure that the students were paying attention to Iruka-sensei before he flashed the Sharingan at them.
Leave –he wrote on his forearm, as small as he could, before pulling the sleeve back down. The students' attention remained on Iruka-sensei, at least. They, in fact, did not leave. Fortunately, it was time for ninjutsu practice and as Iruka-sensei told him about yesterday, the kids were clamoring around him to show them a cool jutsu.
"Of course," he said.
The tree that they were in was conveniently within range. The kids cheered, half of them jumping up and down, repetitively. Iruka-sensei smiled at him, and Sasuke walked forward, closer to the offending tree and away from the kids. He paused and turned to face the students. Even while sparring with Naruto, he'd avoided using his lightning style jutsu. Slowly, he summoned a chidori, hearing the kids' cheers getting louder.
He let his hand fall to his side, holding the chakra there; a glance over his shoulder confirmed that all of them hadn't left, so he elongated the chidori into a thin blade, and pushed it backwards. In less than a second, it was cutting down a few trees. The message, this time, presumably clear.
The kids clapped, as did Iruka-sensei, who then took the learning opportunity to ask them to explain what they saw. Kenji, Hikari, Isumo, Kaito, and Asuka raised their hands and when Iruka-sensei called on Kaito, the rest of them sighed, clearly disappointed at not being called. That also, seemed to surprise Iruka-sensei. Kaito gave as much of an explanation as was expected from a kid his age; nothing wrong, but incredibly superficial. Hikari raised her hand and added the elemental affinities, and she seemed quite pleased with herself when Iruka-sensei congratulated her.
The 'coolest jutsu ever', as they called it, apparently was enough to inspire them to work on their hand signs and chakra manipulation. As it turned out, Makoto had been serious when he said the Megumi was the only one who could make a Bunshin, but judging by Iruka-sensei's, Makoto's, and Hana's reactions, it was the first time that it worked perfectly. Sasuke had never seen anyone smile as bright as Megumi did, not even when Naruto was offered a free bowl of ramen.
The glare that Hikari sent her sister was surprising, though. Megumi seemed oblivious to it, but Sasuke did see Hana return the glare with equal intensity.
Afterwards, there was Taijutsu practice. On average, they seemed to be better at it than they had been in any other skill, although Kenji was the only one who received a four, which was the highest score. Again, nothing to write home about, but then, Asuka asked if they worked hard and whether or not he would return tomorrow, and obviously, he had to say yes, because he was stuck there for two weeks.
But they all cheered. Sasuke even heard Ren and Riku talk about how they were going to brag to their older brothers at dinner time.
As they were leaving the classroom, Sasuke got thirteen high-fives and three things that would have felt like hugs if Asuka, Ayaka, and Akane had been taller and were not simply wrapping his legs.
Megumi, Makoto, and Hana lingered behind, rather slowly, walking up to him, staring up at him.
Sasuke crouched down. "You worked really hard this afternoon," he said.
"Did you see Megumi's Bunshin, sensei?"
Sasuke hummed. "We were all impressed."
"Are you going to show us the Sharingan now?"
A small cough that was decidedly a chuckle came from the direction of Iruka-sensei. Sasuke glanced at him, but was met with a small nod and easy smile. He turned his attention back to the kids, pushing the appropriate amount of chakra to his eyes. The room reddened and something pressed down on his chest. They clapped.
It was…a unique reaction to the Sharingan, certainly.
"Way cool!"
"Yeah!" Hana agreed, as Megumi nodded. "We'll work extra hard tomorrow!"
Before leaving they ran to give a hug to Iruka-sensei. Sasuke got another three high-fives.
And then the classroom was empty. Before he turned to look at Iruka-sensei, he deactivated the Sharingan. "Thank you for having me."
Iruka-sensei shook his head. "It was a pleasure, Sasuke," he said, nodding in the direction of Isumo's desk at the front.
Sasuke took a seat, Iruka-sensei joined him with his clipboard. Again, Sasuke handed him his notes, and again, there was more nodding than frowning.
"How do you feel about taking half the class tomorrow? I'd like for you to lead the shuriken and kunai throwing practice tomorrow, while I review their theory on Genjutsu. Then, we'll switch. We'll use lunch time to exchange notes and wrap up the day as we did today."
"I'm not trained to lead a class, Iruka-sensei." Sasuke cleared his throat, "I made Megumi cry today at the beginning of lunch because I…think they thought I didn't think they were working hard."
Surprisingly, Iruka-sensei shook his head. "Megumi…struggles. Today was the first time I saw her smile like that. At the end of last year, Hikari and she got into a fight; according to their parents, they haven't spoken since. I'm sure you can guess who feels worse about it. That being said, they should never spar together."
He couldn't help but frown. "It's that bad?"
"Honestly? They're worse than you and Naruto were in your last year." He sighed, "can we give tomorrow a try? If you don't like it, we'll continue as we did today in the future." When Sasuke nodded, Iruka-sensei stood up. "See you tomorrow, Sasuke. Make sure to rest."
"Have a good night," he replied, opting for the window.
He jumped on the nearest roof, which just happened to be the Hokage's tower. But then jumped on the next one, as quickly as he could, not wanting to risk seeing anyone. Literally anyone. He landed at his apartment's door, slipping in as quietly and quickly as he could. It was, thankfully, empty.
But he hadn't done anything today, so he walked past the kitchen, disappearing into his bedroom. He did push ups until he heard the front door opening. There was a knock at his door. Sasuke sat down. "Come in."
His brother did, no longer wearing the Hokage's robes. "How was your day?" he asked, as if he wasn't the person who sent him to the Academy in the first place.
But the question gave him pause. Until eventually, he shrugged, biting back a sigh, "fine, yours?"
"Alright," Itachi responded. "I bought barbecue for dinner. Please join me."
Sasuke had done nothing to warrant food, much less meat, but he stood up, and followed his brother to the table. There was a lot of food, which Sasuke sincerely hoped his brother didn't expect him to eat. Still, he took a seat, accepting the plate that Itachi handed him, watching as his brother added three pieces of meat, and a small scoop of rice, with takenoko on the side.
"Iruka-sensei said that you did well today."
"I didn't do anything other than cut down some trees."
"He said your presence inspired students to work harder than they had all year."
He shrugged. "They're four, they'd get excited with Pakkun."
"They're eight," he said. "To their credit, anyone would get excited with Pakkun. Did you hate it?"
Sasuke shoved the biggest piece of meat on his plate into his mouth, pausing at the question. Hate was such a heavy word, though, an emotion that had driven him to near death more than once; he hadn't felt that today, but that didn't mean he liked it. He swallowed. "If I say yes, will you relieve me from the duty?"
Itachi tilted his head. "Are you going to say yes?"
"No," he responded, biting back a sigh. "Iruka-sensei is under the impression that I'll be there for two weeks. But it's out of obligation, not because I like it." He paused for a second, but eventually swallowed the complaint about the spying. For all he knew, Itachi was the one who sent them to snoop around to check how he was doing. "And for the record, they are as pathetic as I told you."
"Oh, I believed you," Itachi said. "Like I said, that's why I sent you to help out."
The mental gymnastics that his brother must have done to get from point A to point B must be incredible, but he was the genius. Sasuke offered a nod, and then turned the rest of his attention to the food. He wasn't sure why, but it looked more appetizing than it should; maybe being a babysitter did take more work than it looked.
The next morning, Iruka-sensei handed him a clipboard except that this time, it had three pages, with half the class in one and the other half in the other one, with the rows more spread out to have room for written comments. The third page had the schedule for the day. It felt weird reading his own name as lead of the kunai and shuriken practice, but he kept that away from his face. Sasuke actually had no idea what an assistant instructor did or was because he didn't have one in his time at the Academy, but it was very much implied that he was there to assist Iruka-sensei, in whatever way Iruka-sensei decided was best.
Much like yesterday, Megumi was the first one to arrive, although this time she was joined by Makoto and Hana. Hikari, Satoshi, and Asuka came in afterwards. When Ren walked in, he pointed at his mouth and proudly showed off the gap from the missing teeth, saying that his older brother pulled them out the night before. A second later, he was running to show Iruka-sensei as well, who ruffled his hair.
After class started, Iruka-sensei split them into Group A and Group B, and then, very suddenly, before his mind could register what he was doing, Sasuke was walking out of the classroom, a line of nine kids following behind. At least he had the foresight to walk backwards, much as he'd seen Iruka-sensei do yesterday, to keep an eye on the students.
Once they were outside, with the baby tools available, he placed them in groups of three. Makoto, Megumi, and Hana; Himari, Akane, and Kaito; and Ren, Riku, and Sayumi. Broken up like that, they didn't seem like they were a lot or that it was a lot of responsibility.
He handed the people first in line one kunai each.
"Sometimes, you only have one kunai leftover, so you have to make it count," he explained. "We'll throw it on the count of three. If your kunai hits the post, I'll get it, otherwise, you'll get it. One," he said, watching as they all assumed the position. "Himari, make sure you spread your feet shoulder-width apart," he said, watching her spread her leg much more than shoulder-width apart. If Akane was mean, she could have tipped her over. He bit back a sigh. "A little closer." The only logical explanation was that his brother had leftover resentment towards him for not killing him; there was no other reason why Itachi would assign him this post, truly. "Imagine that there is a rope going from your shoulders to the ground, and place your feet at the end of the ropes. Just like that, good job, Himari. Two and…three."
The kunai went flying, vaguely in the direction of the targets. The kids ran to pick them up and handed them to the next person in line. Watching little kids throw kunai was mind numbing, but he was careful to keep it away from his face. They were obviously doing their best to impress him, not complaining once that they had to run each time to pick the kunai.
They didn't complain either when he handed each a single shuriken as well, though their speed at picking them up was considerably slower, though it was entirely possible that it was because they were worse with the shuriken and thus, there was a greater distance to run.
At 9:25, he asked Sayumi to collect everyone's shuriken and they headed inside, the kids as quiet as when they left, but walking much slower. When they arrived at the classroom, Group B was waiting, lined up against the wall. The group exchange was painless.
He repeated the same routine with that group. By the time they were done throwing kunai, Kenji had hit the target seven times and Hikari had hit it four times, so forcing them to pick up a single kunai had some positive impact on some kids.
"How was the Genjutsu lesson with Iruka-sensei?" He asked while they were waiting for the rest of the class to join them for stretches and endurance training.
"Boring!" They said; it was impossible to decide who said that.
Sasuke sat down on the floor to join them, ignoring the way that Hiroki and Yuzuru scooted closer to him until they were leaning against him. He even smiled down at them. "Really? I always thought Genjutsu theory was the best." Which was, of course, a lie because he preferred Taijutsu, but he was an Uchiha, and the students needed to want to learn theory if they were going to even have a chance of making up for their incredible lack of talent.
"Is it true that the Sharingan can see through all Genjutsu?" Isumo asked, while the rest of them scooted closer. Unfortunately for them, Hiroki and Yuzuru were already using him as their personal couch.
Sasuke hummed. "You guys tell me. What did you learn about Genjutsu today?"
By the time they were finally providing a vaguely correct explanation of the way that Genjutsu was connected to chakra flow, Iruka-sensei and the rest of the class joined them.
By the end of the day, Sasuke had shown a giant fireball three times and they learnt four new hand signs. In theory, they should have all twelve of them memorized, according to Iruka-sensei, but Sasuke wasn't holding much hope.
On the way out, Hana handed a piece of paper to Iruka-sensei, motioning for him to crouch down, whispered something in his ear, and ran out the door.
"Here," Iruka-sensei handed it to him.
It was a picture of… him and Iruka-sensei, holding Hana and Megumi's hands, with Makoto in the middle. The stick figures were labeled with their names at the top of the heads. Sasuke felt a smile come about, as he looked down at the fact that Hana had colored his stick figure with orange and blue. When he handed it to Iruka-sensei, he shook his head. It felt…odd to fold it and slip it in his back pocket, but he did, regardless, ignoring the way his throat constricted.
"Do you mind doing the same tomorrow?"
He shook his head. "Is it easier to keep their attention when it's only half the class?"
"Surprisingly it was," Iruka-sensei smiled. "I told the first group that stayed that they wouldn't go out if they didn't pay attention and the other group was happy to be sitting down when they came back. It helped a lot, Sasuke, thank you."
He nodded. "How quickly is it normal for them to progress?"
"Well, with their newfound work ethic, much quicker than before. See you tomorrow, Sasuke."
Sasuke raised his hand in a small wave, opting for the window again. He heard Satoshi telling Hikari that his mom "couldn't wait to meet him after school" but talking to parents really really felt like something Iruka-sensei should do, not him.
Thankfully, he made it to the training grounds without anyone spotting him. He climbed up a tree, and started to do crunches, hanging upside down. When he was satisfied with the amount of sweat on his forehead, he jumped down, and made a handstand, walking. He couldn't remember the last time he did this, but his shoulders began to burn more quickly than he would have liked. He fell down in the clearing where the memorial stone was, but that was entirely because he spotted Kakashi standing in front of it, no book in sight. Sasuke wiped his hands on his pants, hesitating for a moment, but then, figuring that Kakashi was probably deep in thought and did not want company. Not that Sasuke wanted to provide company, anyway. He turned around–
"How's school going?" If dead silence wasn't surrounding them, Kakashi's whisper would have been impossible to hear.
Slowly, Sasuke walked closer to him, pausing half a meter behind him. A sarcastic response caught in his throat. "It's fine," he said, instead. Biting back a sigh, he continued, "how's advising my brother?"
"Great," he responded, his voice sounding far away.
The silence dragged on. Maybe it was the fact that he'd spent the last two days hanging out with sweet children, but despite his best intentions, Sasuke couldn't bring himself to abandon the scene. "Shouldn't you treat me to dinner for my new job?" He asked, wincing internally, but keeping his face blank as Kakashi turned to look at him, a raised eyebrow, an exhausted eye, the smallest smile underneath the mask. "Now that I think about it, you didn't treat me for a successful mission in Sound either," he added, crossing his arms.
It took a minute, but eventually, Kakashi walked, closing the distance between them. "What do you want to eat?"
Absolutely nothing, but it had been his idea. "Sashimi."
Kakashi nodded, and they walked away from the memorial stone, towards the center of the village. For some reason, Sasuke always assumed that his brother and Kakashi had…conversations that did not involve their work, but if he was honest and allowed himself a moment of objectivity and clarity, his brother wasn't exactly the most emotionally skilled shinobi in the world. Neither was Kakashi, and obviously he wasn't anyone to congratulate, either, but Kakashi, walking next to him, looked more like a ghost than a real person. He wasn't even carrying his book, not in his hand or his pouch.
"Sasuke-sensei!"
Kakashi halted as fast as Sasuke did, turning around at the same time. Makoto, Hana, and Megumi were running up to him.
When they stopped running, standing in front of him, Sasuke crouched down. "Long time no see, what are you guys doing?"
"Practicing our hand signs," Megumi whispered. She was staring up at Kakashi, her eyes wide, a small frown on her face.
"Then to the library to get smarter," Makoto said. "What are you doing, sensei?"
Sasuke pointed up at Kakashi, a small smile on his face as he watched all three kids blink up at him, watched as Kakashi waved at them. "Kakashi-sensei and I are going to grab dinner."
They narrowed their eyes, clearly suspicious. Makoto leaned closer, "we've…never seen him in the Academy…"
Kakashi chuckled under his breath. Sasuke felt as Kakashi ruffled his hair, but he let it go, didn't move a single centimeter. "I'm not that kind of sensei," he said, sounding uncomfortably happy, nothing that the kids would pick up, but Sasuke did. "But you know, if Sasuke isn't a good teacher, you can let me know, and I'll set him straight."
Somehow, Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but couldn't help but smile softly when Hana proclaimed that he was a great teacher, as the other two nodded excitedly. Sasuke offered them a smile and sent them on their way, reminding them to eat dinner and get a good night's sleep. He didn't stop crouching until they had disappeared behind a corner, at which point, he stood up, and pointedly fixed his hair.
As soon as he did, Kakashi ruffled his hair, again. "Aw, Sasu-chan, I knew you'd call me 'Kakashi-sensei' one day."
The smile underneath the mask didn't look as faint as it had in front of the memorial stone. Sasuke, for countless reasons, ignored the way that his shoulders relaxed at that.
"Don't get used to it," he said. "It's only because if I'd introduced you as the Hokage's advisor, they would have fainted."
Kakashi chuckled under his breath, sounding…better. Sasuke followed him to the restaurant, eating more food than he thought he would. Kakashi offered to pay, but Sasuke took his wallet out first, telling him that he could pay another time. And then…followed him to his apartment.
It was easier to go there, anyway. Kakashi's apartment was considerably closer to the Academy. Kakashi didn't mention anything, but disappeared into the bathroom. The shower started seconds later. Sasuke took out his pen, jotting down a quick message to Naruto to stop by. Three minutes later, Naruto was knocking. Kakashi continued to shower, so Sasuke let him in.
"How's school?" Naruto asked, closing the door.
"Better once you guys stopped spying."
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. "Can you blame us? We couldn't pass the opportunity up." He sat down next to Sasuke, on the floor, leaning against Kakashi's bed frame. He accepted the offered pen, uncapping it and pulling his sleeve up to his elbow. "You looked like you were enjoying yourself, though. I…don't let it get to your head, okay? But, you know, I thought you were going to be awful at it." There was a small chuckle, "you know, I guess it's not much different than when we were in the Academy and all the girls adored you."
Sasuke groaned, "don't remind me."
"People can't help it if they think you're cool, Sasuke," Naruto muttered under his breath. Then, promptly, cleared his throat, as if that would decrease the sudden coloration across his cheeks, "you figured it out too, uh?" he asked, nodding in the direction of Kakashi's bathroom.
"I know something's wrong with him, but I don't know what." After a second, he hurried to add, "I don't care, obviously, but he needs to do a good job helping my brother."
"Would it kill you to admit that you care about people?"
Yes . He was careful to keep his breathing steady, despite the heavy pressure on his chest. He didn't want to care about anyone, if truth be told–he barely cared about himself, and the amount that he cared was out of obligation, nothing else. "The only people I care about are you and my brother, but I only care about you because I don't want to die yet," he said, flatly. Thankfully, nothing in that sentence sounded like a lie. "Is whatever making Kakashi depressed going to affect my brother?"
"Give Kakashi-sensei more credit. Sakura-chan said that–"
"Like I said, I don't care," he repeated. "As long as he can do his job correctly."
Naruto stared at him. It kind of looked like he was gearing up to start a stupid argument, which Sasuke was absolutely ready to win, but Kakashi came out of the shower then. If he looked surprised at Naruto, he hid it well, opting to pick up a book, not the purple one, or the orange one; this one was green. Sasuke spent the time watching Naruto doddle, until their arm was covered in cats and frogs up to their elbow, at which point, Naruto capped the pen and crawled onto Kakashi's bed, dragging Sasuke with him, snoring a second later.
Sasuke waited, until he was sure that Naruto was actually asleep, three minutes later, and then pushed himself up with his elbows, half-sitting. Kakashi turned the page. Forty-three seconds later, he was turning another page.
"You're fine, right?"
Kakashi hummed, his attention fixed on the book. "I am now that I have my two leftover Genin sleeping over, Sasu-chan."
He rolled his eyes. Still, he couldn't deny that he did sound better; the shower probably helped as well. Besides, Naruto's presence usually made other people feel better. He laid back down, staring up at the ceiling. "Don't wake me up," he said. Naruto's arm swung across his chest, and Sasuke would have pushed him away, except he was tired from walking on his hands so much.
"Even if you're running late?"
He rolled his eyes again. "I don't run late, Kakashi. That's unprofessional."
There was a warm chuckle. "Goodnight, Sasu-chan."
Going to the Academy the first half of the day and training until he couldn't walk anymore at night made the days bleed onto each other, until the second to last day of his tenure ended. But before he could jump on a roof other than the Hokage's roof, an Anbu stopped him to inform him that Hokage-sama requires your presence . Sasuke did his best to ignore the look both Itachi and Kakashi sent him when he climbed in through the window. In his defense, if they really wanted someone not to do that, they should lock the window.
"You called?" He prompted when it became quite evident that both his brother and Kakashi were content to simply stare at him, disapproving in their eyes. It was uncanny. Just further proof that they spent too much time together. Also a reminder that he should stop spending so much time with Naruto, if he didn't want them to end up like his brother and Kakashi.
"Tomorrow is your last day at the Academy," Itachi said. "I'd like to know your future plans."
His future plans ? Sasuke stared back at his brother, his attention drifting towards Kakashi, then back to his brother, who was wearing the Hokage's hat and robes, sitting behind the Hokage's desk, inside the Hokage's office. He cleared his throat, "aren't you supposed to tell me those?"
Itachi shook his head. "I'd like you to choose."
His attention drifted towards Kakashi again. Back to his brother. His chest was beginning to tighten with some familiar emotions that he couldn't afford right now. Why would he choose? Hadn't either man noticed that Sasuke was terrible at making choices? That he made the wrong one every single fucking time? That he was exhausted from making the wrong ones? Over the past days, he'd been sleeping better, waking up less agitated, with less inclination to start sobbing like a pathetic baby, but that was only because the kids at the Academy could throw kunai much better than a few days ago.
He thought that would make his brother happy, or at least less stressed. But if that was the case, why would his brother want to stress him out? His brother was the Hokage, telling the shinobi under him what to do was his job. He wasn't trying to be a crybaby, but the last time he really chose something, he chose to gag himself while he fucking choked on a chain.
"Sasuke, this isn't a test," Itachi said. "I'd like to support you in whatever you want to do."
He glared at Kakashi because it very much felt like a test and it was considerably easier to glare at Kakashi than his brother. "I know," he managed to say, his tone steady, not betraying his quickened pulse. Slowly, he turned back to his brother, "if I say I want to join Anbu, you'd assign me to it?"
Something shifted in both Kakashi's and his brother's eyes. It was Sasuke's imagination, but the room's temperature dropped.
"Do you want to join Anbu?" Itachi asked, nothing on his face, nothing on his voice. How stupid to try to call a bluff that…apparently wasn't there.
He glanced at Kakashi. There was also nothing on his face, not even a small frown underneath his mask. Despite the fact that Kakashi knew that Sasuke couldn't get the images of him murdering people out of his mind; despite the fact that Kakashi had spent days insisting that he cared about Sasuke, even though Sasuke told him that he didn't have to and there was no reason. Right now was the worst moment to learn that Kakashi took Sasuke's words to heart, though.
"If I do, you'll assign me to it?" he asked. At least he learnt plenty under Orochimaru and still hadn't grown pathetic enough to let the pain slip into his voice. Not in the middle of the Hokage's office. Maybe in his own bedroom—maybe in Naruto's; unfortunately, maybe even in Kakashi's apartment. But not here .
"If that's what you want to do," Itachi said. The emptiness in his brother's voice left Sasuke hollow inside. "Do you want to join Anbu?"
How long would he last in Anbu before it became easier to let himself be killed than to kill someone? How long would he last in Anbu before the realization that his brother was the one telling him who to murder? More importantly, how long would his brother last knowing he was assigning those missions to him? How many people would Sasuke murder before someone realized that no one should let him make choices? Itachi wanted to support him in whatever he wanted to do? But everything he'd ever wanted always led to pain.
"Sasuke?"
This wasn't fair .
Not that anything had ever been fair.
The deep breath didn't raise his shoulders. But all the same, it didn't help to decrease his heartbeat, either. He glanced down. On his wrist, there was a tiny cat slurping noodles. Naruto wouldn't survive Sasuke joining Anbu; he'd die in his sleep, bleeding out, after Sasuke ran into an enemy's katana, without being Hokage, without even realizing that he died, without even becoming a Chunin.
His throat burned as he shook his head, conveniently fixing his attention on the Hokage's desk, safely away from faces and potential expressions, or lack thereof. "I can stay in the Academy."
"You could," Itachi said. There was still nothing in his voice and Sasuke was too much of a coward to look at him. "Is that what you want to do?"
Sasuke pushed the scream down. And like an idiot, glanced up. Itachi's lips were curled up in that small way that Sasuke remembered doing anything and everything to see when they were younger. Even if it hadn't been a test, there had been a wrong choice. And like an idiot, Sasuke almost made it. Slowly, he nodded, before adding, "and take the upcoming Chunin Exams with Naruto and Karin."
No one was ever going to let Naruto become Hokage as a Genin, after all.