A/N: I've had an idea for this for a very long time, but I've been debating one whether or not I wanted to tell it from Kakashi's point of view or Itachi's. You'll see the result here.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Kakashi found that Sasuke's hair just about summed up his entire existence.

Kakashi had never explained his theory to anyone. After all, nobody except for Kakashi would really understand what he was referring to in his rationalization. Kakashi was the only one who buried his face in Sasuke's hair every morning.

The appearance of Sasuke's hair was misleading. It seemed so perfect, silky smooth and soft to the touch. And on the surface it was. When Kakashi pressed his cheek against Sasuke's head, everything seemed fine.

But once you got a little farther underneath, the issues abounded. Huge knots and split-ends, things that had been festering for years in the mop that Sasuke never bothered to comb. Kakashi had attempted to fix it up at first. He used violent attacks from a hairbrush, and when that failed, gentle finger-combing. It never made much of a difference, and half the time Kakashi's actions just seemed to make everything worse.

So Kakashi learned to employ his subtlety. He worked through the masses of hair when Sasuke was sleeping or busy with something else, fixing the mess one strand at a time.

And it made more of a difference than he had ever imagined.

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A/N: Let me just say that this is inspired by the fact that I used to have hair past my waist that was about as thick as my neck when clumped into a ponytail, so I completely understand the feeling of ungodly knots.