KakaSasu Ficcage
Oh God...I MISS my home computer...I DO.

Anyway...I LIKED this one. I loved how Sasuke came out here--it's so CLOSE to the Evil Darth Vader impression I have of him, while still being bad-ass silly-cute him. Like Hamlet! Without the Ophelia.

And I think Kakashi came out pretty well too...



"People...talk of second chances. It's a falsehood. Lie. Illusion. Because...after the second chance has passed, it can't come back. Won't. The dying...stay dead. You can't be five again. Twelve. But then," Kakashi continued raspily, "You already knew that."

Silence.

"The second chance is another first chance. Different. You can't...unkill. But you can hesitate the next."

Silence.

Was he asking for forgiveness?
A little late for that.

The darkness stiffled space and heat, like a heavy wool blanket made of snow. Kakashi's breathing seemed loud, but he never wavered--kept the quiet fierce pride that the old man's soul with a young man's body had always had.

He tried once more.

"The things we do matter."

Silence.

Then: "Not the way you think. Appealing to better nature doesn't work anymore--world's tired of it. You should know me better."

"You're still missing the point kid."

"So are you."

"...I want to be clear. What you're doing now will not change the past. Do you...or do you not, understand that?"

Idiot.

Silence. A rustle of clothing from the witness who hadn't bargained for this--a murder, not confessional.

"Whatever."

"...I see," Kakashi answered quietly. "Then," he shrugged gently in pain, blood dried in his hair. "You know what to do."

"Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?"

Kakashi closed his eye and the other and exhaled heavily, clearly tired and bored of the conversation. Bored bored bored.

"Because. I felt like it."

"Never stopped you before."

"First time for everything."

A pause stone cold, then with considerable heat, "You're not my father. Don't you dare."

Kakashi remained passive to the threat, like he had bigger and better things to think about.
Perhaps he did.

"I don't answer to you. I'll do what I like," he muttered carelessly, seeming worn and tired and far, far too old. With greater gravity, somberly, he continued. "Better my son than Itachi's anyway."

The witness pulled himself backward, supposedly out of harm's way.

The metaphorical pin dropped with a tiny, tinny sound.

Tightly, with a restraint he didn't bother to exercise most days Sasuke growled, "That's not your decision to make."

Kakashi finally opened his eye again. His left wrist was shattered systematically--no miracle near-death cheats from his hands this time. He could barely stand against the stone in the sheltered canyon. The Sharingan had exhausted him too much.

"A warrior's death? None of that slash and burn crap. Not in the back either." Kakashi pushed his should against the stone in back of him, levering to stand up straight on his feet and slipped back, wincing.

Something pretty for the scouts and coroners to find, if the body was to be found at all. Something noble. Something simple.

Sasuke shook his head, "Something stupid."

Nevertheless, he complied with little hesitation, his eyes not leaving Kakashi's.

Gently, like a mother, he pulled back and allowed the body to crumple. He stared down at it, and didn't clean the blood off his hand, knuckles clenched white. He swallowed.

After all this time...and I'm not where I thought I'd be.
I think...I'm a little upset by this.
But I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
Maybe I'm wrong.

...

Or maybe I was.

He and Kakashi had nearly been at eye-level. The Hatake clan would always have a few inches on the Uchiha, it seemed. But nearly.
Sasuke ignored the faint tremors going through him.

He spoke gently.

"Second chance...going...going..."

A hand held his shoulder.

Sasuke shut up. He didn't panic. He didn't like being touched. He'd forgotten what it was like, and wanted to keep it that way. But he didn't panic. The wind glided overhead, just enough to drown out whispers.

"Did...did you know? How? I can't believe...I thought you didn't like gambling."

Or was that me? Or was that you? What're you playing at? What do you want?

Sasuke sensed the shrug. He kept his eyes on the dead man in the rock gully. Felt the breath in his ear. He didn't panic. He continued.

"I meant what I said."

"So did I."

WIth a conviction he didn't feel and aggressiveness that, for once, he didn't want, Sasuke warned softly, "Opening's closed."

Then he startled. Again, with surprising control, he neither startled nor panicked nor struggled foolishly. He was growing up. The ice slid out of his entrails, freezing his skin as it passed out.

The back...he got me in the back. That's so...not cool.

"S'okay kid--I make my own chances."

Kakashi was gloating.

When Sasuke awoke, he could feel sunlight on his face through his eyelids. Veiny red and fleshy yellow. He was lying on something soft and flat, blindfolded and bound. He couldn't feel his arms. Not a single nerve ending.

"Morning sleeping beauty. Do you drink coffee yet?"

"You're taking me back?"

"Not quite that simple."

"What do you mean?"

A thoughtful silence, incredily different from the graveyard silence in the gully.

"You can't go back home again."

"I don't intend to."

"Good--then you've got nothing to worry about."

"What you mean?"

"You're not going back to your home. But I am taking you to mine."

"What, are we getting married?" Sasuke asked acidicly.

"Only if you want to," and Kakashi left the room.