A/N: 3/4ths of the way done, people. I appreciate comments as much as I appreciate blowjobs. :-P

XXX

Tagline: (Timeskip) As war between the Leaf and the Rock looms over the horizon, Hatake Kakashi is going to have to learn that, in a world where words and titles mean everything, one must put-up or shut-up in the face of the impossible.

XXX

You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.
And after a while, you can work on points for style

XXX

Splitting The Lightning

a Naruto fanfiction
by Pridefall

Disclaimer: I own nothing except what is mine.

XXX

Chapter 3
"Dogs."
Or
In Which Some Teaching Methods Are More Obviously Flawed Than Others

XXX

When shinobi were inducted into the ANBU Corps, they were instructed to write a single brief passage from a book, poem, or creed on the inside of their masks.

XXX

"First, we get in. That's the easy part."

Eight pairs of booted feet hit the wet ground, a staccato of soft footfalls echoing in the dead of night.

"Next, we split into two teams of four. Alpha and Omega – one team to each sub level."

Eight weapons flash silver in the pale moonlight, silencing more than a dozen patrolling guardsmen and early-warning alarm systems with deadly, pack-like coordination.

"We have to move quickly. Alpha team must reach the main laboratory before Omega team finishes planting the C4 in the basement. The guards'll know something's up when the first patrol doesn't make its report, so if you have to kill anyone in your way, make it quick and painless."

Eight leather armor-clad bodies sneak through the empty hallways of the compound, four of them quickly melding into the sturdy iron walls as easily as some would travel through water.

"No one can see you."

A hundred cameras and tripwires are rendered utterly useless in a manner of moments, but human error, however, is not.

"If they do, kill them."

"Who are-" Lightning flashes, electric-blue lances of energy splitting off of his student's hand and illuminating the hallways like the death knell of a dull white star. Kakashi lets out a low, biting whisper of "No." as his gloved fingers clutch at empty air.

"Alpha Team, you have a five minute window of "grace" between entering the compound and reaching your goal."

The body looks heavy; sounds even heavier; falls to the ground as the sound of a thousand chirping birds echoes throughout the compound. Kakashi drags his hand down the length of his face, suddenly feeling very, very tired.

"Once you're done taking care of your business, rendezvous with Omega team near the main entrance and high-tail it out of there."

Then the anger comes. A curse growled out between clenched teeth is met with a flash of blood-red light pierced by black teardrops swirling to life in the darkness. Before Kakashi can even react, Sasuke loudly inhales and blasts a fireball towards him that barely misses lighting his face on fire.

"Anyone left behind ends up becoming pretty black ash-outlines on the wall."

As the Rock-nin disintegrates, ruby red eyes meet a dark one; the look that the Uchiha receives somehow both half-condescending and half-disbelieving despite the mask and the smoke between them.

"What."

"The time is…"

"I can't believe you just did that."

"…Eleven minutes to midnight."

"They would have sounded the alarm…Or worse."

"You have less than seven minutes."

Kakashi shakes his head. "That's not the point, Sasuke."

"Make them count."

"Then what is? You wanted me to come here, Kakashi, not the other way around. I'm just doing what needs to be done."

"On my watch..."

"Your little…stunt could've cost us the mission, you brat."

"…Mark."

"Well, it didn't." the Uchiha shrugs, utterly nonchalant about the situation.

"Mark."

"Sasuke --" Kakashi begins, the sudden beeping of his watch cutting him off. Without another word, he takes Sasuke by the arm and shoves him through the wall and out the other side.

"Mark."

They land in a heap of tangled limbs. "What in the Hell -"

"Mark."

An explosion rends the night, shaking the earth and rumbling through flesh and bone like the fist of god itself has struck the earth. "Keep your head down!"

"Alright then..."

When he's sure they're safe, Kakashi helps the Uchiha to his feet and then, without warning, slams Sasuke against the ruined piece of wall behind him. "Look at me, Uchiha," he growls, the teen coolly averting his eyes and suddenly turning into the picture-perfect prince of haughtiness. "Look at me!"

"Move out."

"Sasuke, we play this game by my rules, not yours." Kakashi had to try very hard not to go postal on the boy's ass, not believing he could have been so callous. "If you do that again, I'll personally make sure you will never be able to again." He let got of the Chuunin, then, and turned his back on him. 'You won't cost me... us any more comrades, Uchiha. I won't let you."

Eight pairs of booted feet hit the wet ground, a staccato of soft footfalls echoing in the dead of night.

XXX

"I've never met someone so…" Kakashi began, rotating his hand as he searched for the right word "…Stubborn. Trying to get anything through that Uchiha's head is like trying to cut through a steel door with the dull part of a senbon."

Ishida shrugged, taking a drag from his cigarette in the slow, leisurely way that came to someone with experience. "What about that Naruto kid?" he asked, inhaling smoke he had just exhaled and blowing a small ring into the sky. "Isn't he exactly the same?"

"Well." Kakashi kicked his feet onto the table and leaned his chair backward enough so that it stood on two legs. They'd been wandering around their make-shift camp for an hour trying to just find a place to rest, and he wasn't going to let it go to waste over a petty thing like manners. "He's…stubborn, sure, but…" he laced his arms behind his head and leaned it on the back of the chair. "Eh, I don't know. Sasuke's different. They're both…Eh."

Ishida laughed, a sound somehow both jovial and disregarding "How can't you know? They're your students, man."

Kakashi shrugged, still not looking at the crimson-haired Jounin. "They're hard to predict, is all. Training them was like trying to keep several out of control trains from crashing into a village being razed by the undead and some maniacal demon-god eating at your brain in the background all at the same time."

"So, aside from the whole 'I hate you but love you' vibe they had going on…" Ishida started, smirking towards Kakashi like some kind of madman. "They acted like most horny teenagers?"

Kakashi laughed at his student's expense. "Ha, I wish." He scratched the back of his head, his eyes turning into happy curves. "If they were fucking each other to exhaustion instead then they'd probably be too tired to try and get each other killed on every other mission they went out on."

Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment. Naruto and Sakura would probably let themselves succumb to the all-mighty goodness of sex, but Sasuke? He's was the definition of a cold-shower. "Maybe."

Then again, Naruto did have that gods-awful stamina…"Probably."

"Most likely."

Ishida took another drag of his cigarette, his eyes closing as if to savor its flavor. Kakashi's left eye twitched in response, reminding him that Obito never quite approved of Ishida or his bad habits in the first place. "Those things kill you, ya know?" Kakashi said, rather half-nastily.

"And?" Ishida looked at him out of the corner of his amber-colored eyes, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. "So do those fucking soldier pills, but we use them when we need to anyway. There's no big difference, I think."

Kakashi opened his mouth and then promptly closed it. Though Ishida had a point – which was something Kakashi wasn't used to. Ishida was…bipolar with his insanity, to say the least – Kakashi still felt like he had top reprimand the red-haired Jounin for…something. How could someone just willingly kill themselves like that?

"That…It's different." He began, setting his chair down on two legs while Ishida cocked his head to the side and did his best I-am-a-clueless-moron impression. "Soldier pills save lives. Shit like tobacco just makes you feel good about yourself until you quit." Which, admittedly, was true about soldier pills, but Ishida seemed to forget about that while Kakashi continued. "Comparing the two is like saying that drinking gasoline and whiskey is the same thing because of the end result."

"Wait, what?" Ishida started; the look on his face both surprised and incredulous. "What's so different between drinking gasoline and whiskey, exactly?"

Kakashi blinked. Sometimes he forgot that Ishida wasn't quite as human as he seemed. "Well, uh…" He ran his hand through his hair, trying to figure out what to say. "Okay. What I meant was that you…Well, you can't expect someone to have the same kind of orgasm just because you've fucked them the same way you always do."

"Hm." Ishida started, rubbing his chin contemplatively as he looked at Kakashi. "Uh, Kakashi, you understand what you just said, right?"

Kakashi gave Ishida a quizzical look. "Eh?"

Ishida returned his look with a derisive snort, "Oh, come on man!"

"What, that Sasuke and Naruto are different? Of course. I've known that forever." Kakashi stated rather flatly, his arms crossed at his chest and his countenance screwed up in a look of defiance. "I might be clueless when it comes to them as a team, but I know where both of them come from."

Ishida finished off his cigarette and then threw it down to the ground and put it out with his heel. "Well, alright. But what you just said, don't you understand it? Two similar things that add up don't add up the same way all the time, right?"

Kakashi nodded. "Basically."

"Then it should be the same thing with your students, ne?"

Kakashi looked at Ishida.

Ishida looked right back at Kakashi.

Kakashi burst out laughing.

"What? I meant metaphorically, you crazy bastard." Ishida said, arching his eyebrow as Kakashi fell out of his chair and began to roll on the ground.

"Oh, I know! I know!" Kakashi cried out, still rolling on the ground. "It's…I-it's just that it's so simple!" He quickly sat up, and smacked himself on the forehead. The epiphany he had just had was like a blow to the back of the head. "Holy crap I can't believe I didn't see it before!"

Ishida arched an eyebrow. "…Did your mind break or something?"

Kakashi rose to his knees using the table as support, and wiped a stray tear from the corner of his eye. "No, no breakage here, Ishida. But…" the scarecrow-nin stood up to his full height, a smile tugging at the edges of his mask. "…I think…I think I know how to deal with Sasuke, now."

"Oh yeah?" Ishida asked, his face genuinely intrigued. "How?"

"It's quite simple, my friend!" Kakashi clapped his hands together. "When it comes to teenage drama and angst, the first issues of Icha Icha have all the answers!"

Ishida tilted his head to one side, his face slightly bemused as he watched Kakashi make his way around the tent in search of his infamous magazine-based addiction. "You're not seriously going to fuck your student, are you?"

Kakashi shot Ishida a look that could melt stone. "Of course not, you degenerate. I'm going to show him how the other half lives and prove it's, you know, better than angsting over everything under the sun."

Ishida began to nod in assent, thinking it all made sense now.

Then it hit him...

"That…and I could use this as an excuse to finally get some time off! Holy crap! Tsunade'll have to promote you to keep up with the slack in the paperwork!"

None of it did.

"Wait. What?" he blurted out; flabbergasted. "Whaddaya mean, Kakashi?" Ishida yelled, already noticing that Kakashi was long gone. "Kakashi! Hey, Kakashi! That's not funny, man! You know I hate paperwork!"

XXX

They landed amongst the kunai that peppered the ground, Kakashi gracefully hitting the earth on both of his feet while Sasuke stumbled onto his hands and then flat-out let himself fall onto his stomach. The display showed Kakashi the difference in skill they still had between each other, but the fact that Sasuke managed to stay conscious even though he was breathing so hard reminded the Hatake that the gap was beginning to close.

Scary thought, that.

'Well…' Kakashi thought, turning to look at the obviously exhausted Uchiha with a slight twinkle in his eye. '…I told him not to use the Sharingan for so long. S'not my fault he still doesn't pay attention.'

"You…" The Uchiha managed to gasp out between mouthfuls of water he gulped from his personal canteen, making Kakashi a little bit more proud of his student. "…Done ?"

Kakashi shrugged, leisurely – if not a bit condescendingly – walking a slow circle around Sasuke to show how relaxed he was. "For now. I don't really like smelling like burning leather."

Sasuke made a half-smiling, half-pained face, his hand instinctively going to his ribs when Kakashi began to nudge him with his foot. "That hurts, moron."

Kakashi shrugged again. "Then you shouldn't have stopped in front of my Ryuuka no Jutsu like you did."

Sasuke's took a moment to reply; closing his eyes as if he was picturing the moment again.
"True." Sasuke eventually replied as Kakashi sat down next to him, one leg stretched out in the dirt. Sasuke was breathing hard enough that he felt just a tad bad about wailing on him for as long as he did. Though he was still curious why the Uchiha let himself get beaten so many times. "Why did you, then?"

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, encircling his cheek and then holding it over his face like it was a mask. "Honestly?" the Uchiha chuckled through his fingers, which was slightly disturbing to watch. "I thought it was a stupid genjutsu."

Kakashi put his face in his hand. Sasuke thought that the giant ball of fiery doom he had sent at him was a genjutsu? That was his first excuse for slacking?

"That's…" he had about eight different insults on the tip of his tongue, but opted, instead, to finish his sentence with something less eloquent than "retarded on a level I've never seen before," when he saw how…well, tired wasn't what Sasuke looked, it was more like…

Broken?

Kakashi hoped not. He wasn't done with him yet.

"…S-Stupid." He stammered, not quite knowing where his confidence went. "Really stupid."
Sasuke shrugged. Kakashi knew the dark-haired Uchiha didn't care, but… "I mean, even Naruto wouldn't make that kind of mistake."

To his utmost surprise, the Uchiha didn't go berserk with rage.

'Huh? Why isn't he trying to stab me with pointy things?'

He looked at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye.

'…Wah?'

He was…asleep?

Nah.

Couldn't be.

Kakashi leaned over and waved his hand in front of Sasuke's eyes. Was Sasuke really that…"I'm just resting my eyes, idiot." The dark-haired shinobi growled, swatting at Kakashi's hand.

Ah. Natch.

"Sure." Kakashi rolled his eyes. Sasuke might've been tired and beaten, but he still managed to be an ass.

"Oh shut up. I don't want to play your games anymore."

The silver-haired pervert pouted, his eye drooping, the perfect picture of disappointment. "Mou... Sasuke, that won't do. You know how this game goes."

Sasuke opened one eye, his nose scrunching up in confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well…" Kakashi began, leaning back on the palm of his hands. "…We can throw harmless jibes at each other like this, or…" He smirked, here, and saw Sasuke tense out of the corner of his eye. "…We can quit for today, and I can hand you over to Gai. And you just know how much he would love to have a chance to instill some of his boundless flames of youth into you." Kakashi beamed. "It might help thaw that cold, black little heart of yours, Sasuke-kun!"

The youth mulled that over. Surely he wouldn't... right?

Kakashi clapped his hands together. "Ah, I see you agree then!" Jumping to his feet, he grabbed Sasuke by his wrist and tried to tug him up to his feet. "Well, let's go find him! Maybe he has a spare spandex suit for you to wear!"

Sasuke's eyes went wide. "Kakashi, you're kidding, right?"

Kakashi chuckled, but continued. "The green might really bring out those eyes of yours, Sasuke…"

Sasuke shouted despite himself. "NO!"

Another chuckle bubbled up from his throat. "I thought so. Ready for another round then?"

Sasuke finally took back his wrist (rather viciously, Kakashi noticed), and glared at his sensei.

"No."

Kakashi shrugged. "Ah well. Let's just…" When he looked back at Sasuke, the Uchiha was "not asleep" again. 'Dammit. I need to…Bah. Whatever.' Thinking that his student had the right idea, Kakashi lay back on the ground and closed his eyes. It was still a nice enough day outside to catch a quick cat-nap.

"Why did you rename your technique Chidori?" Sasuke blurted out rather suddenly,

Kakashi blinked his only visible eye. That...sort of came out of left field and beyond. "What are you talking about?"

"Your technique." Sasuke shifted onto his side and looked at his teacher, his eyes surprisingly concentrated. "Why did you rename it? Was Raikiri not outlandish enough?"

Kakashi didn't face him; choosing instead to gauge his student's reaction. "Hm…You don't really need to know about that, I think."

Sasuke openly glared. Kakashi shrugged as if it were the most inconsequential thing in the world. "What?"

"So that's it?" The Uchiha asked, quite put-off that Kakashi was being so tight-lipped.

"What do you mean?"

"You're just going to sit there and not tell me?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Kakashi stated matter-of-factly.

"Now I'm disappointed." Sasuke said, lying back down onto his back and looking up at the darkening sky.

He could have let it go there – should have, most likely – but the way Sasuke sounded…Kakashi just couldn't…"Eh?"

"You always brag about it. Even Gai holds it in high esteem, for what it's worth."

"And?"

"I'm just asking out of curiosity. Forget I even said anything."

And with that, Kakashi did. Sasuke didn't need to know...that much. Not yet, anyway. He'd made too many mistakes with the power he had already, and Kakashi wasn't about to give him more. Especially after last night's fiasco of a mission.

"…Did you really cut a lightning bolt with it?"

And yet the kid kept pressing the matter, making it Kakashi's turn to glare. "Are you serious?"
Sasuke looked absolutely resolute. "Yes."

"That's something I'd expect Naruto to ask, Sasuke." Kakashi stated rather flatly, rolling his one visible eye.

"So sue me. I'm curious and in enough pain from your 'training' to care about the truth."

"I would sue you for that Uchiha fortune I keep hearing about, but…You know what they say about lawyers. They'd stab you in the back and then slit your throat." He glanced at Sasuke, smirking behind his mask and his visible eye curving happily. "Sounds familiar, eh?"

Sasuke titled his head down. "Okay, I walked into that one." He said, half-laughing.

"'Well..." Kakashi stroked his imaginary beard. "That's a change of pace."

Sasuke's faint smile vanished. "J-just answer the damn question."

"Ask nicely." Kakashi scolded the Uchiha, wagging his finger for effect.

"Fuck you."

He'd expected the Uchiha would say as much, and continued their exchange. There was no way that Sasuke would actually stoop so low as to ask for anything. "Well, since you put it that way, I-"

"Fine." Sasuke almost-growled, surprising the hell out of Kakashi. "Fine. Please?"

Kakashi blinked.

Wow.

Did Sasuke just…

Were those the words…

Out of his mouth?

Wow

He had actually said please.

"Hm…" Kakashi had a minor crisis of faith. Sure, the kid was being obstinate and there was no way Kakashi could ignore the Uchiha short of beating him mute; but, damn. He'd said please and meant it. "…Alright."

Sasuke sat up; intent on hearing what Kakashi had to say. Kakashi tried to hide his smile and the growing sense of pride he had in his chest.

'Well hot shit, he really does want to know.'

"They're two different techniques. Just like the Yondaime's Rasengan and Naruto's Oodoma Rasengan." Kakashi began to explain, drawing a small diagram in the dirt. "Where the Rasengan and its variations mold a set amount of chakra into a circular shape…" he continued, drawing a sphere, "…The Chidori takes all of that chakra and channels it into one point in the center of your palm."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. "Alright. Then what's the difference between the two, then?"

Kakashi drew a bigger circle in the dirt around his original one. "You can control the shape or the size of the Rasengan by adding more layers of chakra to it, but the Chidori…" he drew a line through the two circles he had drawn, dissecting them. "Must always be the same size and shape to maintain its potency or else it'll lose its piercing edge and all that excess chakra you place into it won't be able to stay together."

Sasuke sat back, his eyes scanning the diagram. Again, Kakashi noticed with a small amount of pride that Sasuke was not using the Sharingan. "Alright, alright," Sasuke began, his fingertips tracing the diagram in the dirt. "Okay, so if the Chidori is a piercing technique then it can stab though the Rasengan, right?"

Kakashi shook his head. He knew that Sasuke would ask that question sooner or later. "No, and don't ever try to do that either."

Sasuke frowned, his eyes darting from the ground to Kakashi. "…Why not?"

Kakashi drew his hand across his face. "Because the damn thing isn't solid, you moron."

"I know that." Sasuke scowled, obviously taking notice of what Kakashi had just called him. "What I don't get is why the damn thing can't be pierced by a technique that's, by design, supposed to…."

Kakashi held up his hand. "You're over-complicating things again, Sasuke." Drawing another circle in the dirt, the Jounin made sure Sasuke was paying attention and began to fill the circle in with squiggly lines. "Even though the Rasengan only looks solid on the outside, in reality it's always moving in a quick spiral."

"I know-"

"Now," Kakashi interrupted, drawing a line leading into his original circle. "Tell me exactly what happens when you throw something solid into a tornado?"

"It either breaks or gets carried away."

Kakashi clapped his hands together. "Exactly. The Chidori may be able to stab into the Rasengan, but, and I'm ashamed to say this, it can't really stop it. Even if the technique does happen to have a greater capacity for killing your target instantaneously, the Rasengan is just a whole 'nother lever of jutsu."

"How is the Chidori a better technique, then?" Sasuke asked, his eyebrow rising in question.

Kakashi sighed. Sasuke just wasn't getting what he was trying to explain. "I never said it was."

"But you-"

"I know what I said. What you're not understanding is that there is a primary difference between the Chidori and the Rasengan that makes one better at one thing and worse at another when compared side by side. The Chidori is an assassination technique, and the Rasengan is a hand-to-hand technique. It's as simple as that."

"So then where does the Raikiri come in during all of this?"

Kakashi shrugged. "It's a variation of the Chidori."

"I realized." Sasuke bit off, obviously a bit peeved that Kakashi was being circular with him. "Now how do you create it?"

"You don't." Kakashi pointed out.

Sasuke looked at him as if he had just grown an extra head. "…What?"

"Exactly what I said."

"But if you don't form the Raikiri with your own chakra, then… What, you take someone else's chakra to use the technique?"

Kakashi smiled. "Nope."

"Then you manipulate electrical fields?"

"Ha! I wish. But, wrong."

"Then...what? How'd it get the name?"

"Figure it out yourself. It didn't get its first name just because it's flashy."

Sasuke opened his mouth, but seemed to decided against speaking. Kakashi shrugged, and, thinking that Sasuke was better if handled when distraught and open rather than wound up and closed, opened up a can of worms that he wasn't quite sure if he was ready to handle yet.

"…So…Uh. Anyway..." Apparently, he was, and proceeded with all the tact and grace of a friendly brick to the face. "Do you think it was it worth it?"Sasuke shifted uncomfortably under his teacher's gaze, his eyes catching Kakashi's for a moment before he went back to staring at the sky. "Was what worth it?"

"You know." Kakashi began, making the universal hand-movements for 'I don't want to say what you know I'm going to say so pick up on what I'm trying to say you idiot, Do I have to hit you with a fish to get through to you?' "That."

Sasuke's hand dropped from his face as he propped himself up on his elbows. "…I don't follow." He winced, which Kakashi thought was strange, and then he noticed the long gash he had on the inside of his arm. "What do you want-"

Enough skating. Kakashi dove in headfirst. "Betraying the village."

Sasuke looked as if physically struck, "I didn't betray anyone."

"Last I heard-"

"If you would let me finish," Sasuke interjected, rolling his eyes. "I didn't betray anyone that mattered."

Huh. Well, that was new. Kakashi tried not to look appalled by his student's answer. "Your teammates?"

Sasuke's eyes wandered to the horizon, his fingers interlacing underneath his chin as he entered what Kakashi liked to call "Brooding Teenager" mode.

After a fashion, he said. "Sakura…"

"Hm?" Kakashi's eyebrows went up. Did he actually care for the pink-haired girl…?

"…was a sycophant. She got over it."

Alright, he should've expected that. "…And Naruto?"

Another long silence, though this time Sasuke looked less brooding and more apprehensive, which, all told, was not an adjective Kakashi would normally attribute to the Uchiha.

"…I doubt he regrets it, much."

Oh. Oh wow. So he did care. Kakashi let him know he found out about it, too. "Aha! So you do at least consider--"

The Uchiha's eyes narrowed. "Don't put words in my mouth."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said. You just didn't get my meaning."

Alright then. If Sasuke wanted to build walls then Kakashi would have to knock them down.

"Enlighten me, Uchiha-san."

Sasuke opened his mouth, and then closed it. "They…" Kakashi leaned forward, expectant. What, exactly, could Sasuke say to explain himself? "…Shouldn't care. You shouldn't care."

The conviction behind his voice was lacking, sure, but…the way his eyes bore into the ground so hard…did he really mean it? "Well…Why not?"

"Because I don't."

Kakashi sat up. "That's…" There was no way Sasuke was that…stupid. "Really stupid. Like…Orochimaru trying to attack Tsunade on her period stupid. Are you telling me you don't care about yourself?"

Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes. "It's not important."

Kakashi crossed his arms. "And betraying everyone you know to have a chance at maybe killing your brother is?"

"I know you'll never get the extent of it; but, yes. It does."

Kakashi couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Even though Orochimaru was basically, you know, using you?"

"Yes."

"Even though you almost got Naruto killed?"

"Yes."

"Even though-"

"Yes." Sasuke practically hissed. "Always and forever, yes."

Kakashi looked at his student for a moment, trying to keep his face neutral. "Why?"

"Because!"

"Because why?"

Sasuke closed his eyes and refused to answer Kakashi's question. To which Kakashi responded to by poking Sasuke in the side until he did.

"…Could you be any more annoying?"

The scarecrow beamed. "Yes, yes I could."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

"Aw, did I push your big shiny buttons the wrong way?" Sasuke said nothing. The murderous intent radiating from his eyes was enough to make Kakashi laugh at him. "The Uchiha-death-glare doesn't do it for me, boy-o."

"That." Sasuke started, rolling his eyes and laying back down on the ground. "That right there is the problem."

Kakashi arched an eyebrow. "Eh?"

Sasuke put his head between his cross arms. "No one gets it, Kakashi."

"Enlighten me." Kakashi asked, crossing his arms.

"This…" Sasuke began, pausing for a moment as if he were planning out the rest of his sentence. "This is my life and everyone just treats it like…Like some kind of joke."

Kakashi highly doubted that, and tried to voice as much: "Now, listen-"

Sasuke would have none of it. "Why can't I make them understand!" he screamed, his voice reaching a timbre Kakashi had never heard Sasuke use.

Kakashi tried to jerk away as Sasuke grabbed him by the front of his undershirt and pulled him too close for comfort. ""My entire family is dead, Kakashi! Not just my friends, my comrades, or my fucking dog – my entire family!"

Kakashi forced Sasuke to let go of him and watched as the Uchiha belatedly settled back onto his knees. "Sasuke…my father killed himself," the Jounin stated tonelessly, the coldness of his voice rather surprising even to himself. "If you'd let me…I…I think I'd understand what you're going through better than--"

Sasuke beat his fist into the ground, breaking the surrounding terra into a web-shaped pattern of cracks. "That's only…That's only one person to you, Kakashi! How does that even compare!"

Taken aback, Kakashi's hand slowly curled itself into an obvious fist, but Sasuke continued on regardless. "I'm…I'm the last one left…Itachi killed everyone I cared about and...and…Do you even know what that feels like? To wake up in the night and go running into your parent's room just to find out that no one is there? Realizing that no one will ever be there no matter how much you want them back?"

Kakashi closed his eyes as the all-too familiar memory swam to the surface and, his clenched fist unraveling, voiced a small, fragile: "Yes."

Sasuke didn't hear him.

"I was six…SIX!" he screamed, still wildly running back and forth across the spectrum of human emotions. "…And…He took away everything from me!...Because of him…Do you know how many people are afraid of me? How many people on the council want me dead just because I'm related to Itachi?"

Of course he had heard the rumors, but…really? Was Sasuke so self-conceited that he thought that was the only reason the Council wanted him dead? Did he honestly believe that betraying the Village and running off to join the Sound meant nothing?

…Kakashi kept listening, anyway.

"Killing him means everything to me! I don't care who or what gets in my way anymore; my ends will always justify my means and Itachi's death is all that matters and I'll kill anyone who tries to get in the way of that!"

Sasuke probably expected Kakashi to be silent after that; for the Jounin to finally be silent and let their conversation drop then and there. Kakashi, however, couldn't help the next words that came out of his mouth.

"…Like Naruto?"

Sasuke looked to the ground, unapologetic even though he had said nothing.

"Like Naruto?" Kakashi repeated, his voice carrying.

"Especially Naruto." Sasuke whispered back, his entire body shuddering.

Kakashi…really didn't have anything to say to that. He'd…He'd suspected it for the longest time, but…"That's…Well, wow." It had never occurred to him that the Uchiha was this far…gone? Deranged? He didn't even have a word for it. "I'm really disappointed, Sasuke."

The Uchiha shrugged. "I don't…quite think I give a fuck."

"I doubted that you would. I just wanted to put that little tidbit out there." Kakashi stated rather flatly.

"What…Whatever, Kakashi." Sasuke said, ending their conversation right there whether Kakashi liked it or not.

The Jounin looked away, thinking about all the times that Naruto had put distance between he and Sasuke; had gone ahead in his life instead of staying in the past and looking for strength there.

Eventually, Kakashi whispered: "…They crucify traitors in the Rock."

Sasuke snapped.

"Then why the fuck did you bring me here!"

Kakashi rose to his feet with the Uchiha, their faces almost inches apart. "To try and teach you something, you ungrateful piece of shit!"

"By beating me?" Sasuke screamed, turning his back on his sensei. "By telling me everything I've lived for is wrong?" Sasuke whirled on his teacher and prodded him in the chest. "Who the fuck made you the all-mighty king of the world?"

Kakashi took Sasuke's hand and twisted it to the side, then kicked him in the side of the knee to force him to the ground. There was no way he was going to get anything through to him without violence. "I am trying to help you."

Sasuke stilled, his hands flexing at his sides. "What?"

"You, you idiot!" Kakashi snarled, grabbing Sasuke's hands so that he couldn't try anything. "I'm trying to keep you from fucking up your life again!"

"I don't need your help! I don't need anyone's help!" Sasuke screamed, struggling against his sensei's grip as if it would've done anything -- to which Kakashi kicked the Uchiha in the back of the knee and let him fall to the dirt.

"That's it!" Sasuke rolled forward, landing on his feet, and sprang towards Kakashi with a half-Chidori crackling between his fingertips and killing intent oozing from his every pore.

Kakashi didn't even have time to blink or breathe; he could only act.

"Raikiri!"(1)

XXX

The trick to wielding any kind of weapon, Kakashi found, was to never sacrifice your range of motion for a killing stroke. His father helped teach him this; helped train him to never fully commit himself to an absolute when there was always another option readily available to him. It was a rather simple lesson to learn -- rather, it was easier than the opposite because leaving yourself open got you killed more often than not -- and Kakashi, instead of searching for any kind of meaning in his father's words, took them at face value because it made sense

This was the reason why shinobi used deception along with their physical arts; why men like Hayate and Gai relied on speed and strength to kill their opponents and not just one or the other. It is why Kakashi, his body working in night-perfect tandem with his mind, moved through the trees like a flashing wraith and fell down on his confused enemies without a sound; why he was already moving onto the next group as his expert muscles completed the lithe movement that removed the head of their leader and carried him back into the trees.

Some would call it grand-standing. Some would call it recklessness. Kakashi just thinks it not so much style or grace that compels him to move as he does; its that he's committed to killing them insofar as that it doesn't get he himself killed. (To commit to something totally and wholeheartedly without questioning it, made you blind, and blind shinobi were useless.

"You can't base your life on just one goal." he'd told Itachi once while they were both still relatively new to the ANBU and hadn't learned to hide behind their masks. "It limits your vision; makes you blind to what other possibilities are in your grasp. If you're totally committed to one thing, and only one thing, then everything else in life just seems effluent."

It's not how he glares – hard, stoic, unnerving – or even how he speaks – clipped, like a brain-damaged shadow clone – that tells Kakashi that the Uchiha was far from pleased; it's how he stands, arms crossed and back leaned against the wall, so cool and composed like no one can see through his act and spot the teenager inside that Itachi keeps trying to murder. "Then what good are shinobi for, Hatake? What are we without order; without purpose?"

Kakashi could really only bring himself to shrug at that. "You make yourself, Itachi. No one else can decide that for you."

The Uchiha refused to talk to him for weeks after that, because, somehow, Itachi knew that what Kakashi had just said translated less into what he meant, and more into "I haven't figured that out myself, yet.") Kakashi was no different from Hayate; or, to an even lesser extent, was exactly the same as Gai. Granted…his father's tanto was lighter than a katana and heavier than a fist; Kakashi still needed speed as much as he needed strength, and as armor gives way to pressure and force, as steel rends flesh, organ, and bone, his tanto driving into the Rock-nin's chest in a perfectly executed counter-strike, he is already thinking: Where to go next? What do I do after this killing blow? Can I go right? Can I go left? Is there another enemy behind me? Is there another enemy above me?

Which paths do I follow?

Which paths do I not? (After the war, when the then-current ANBU General promotes him to ANBU and gives him the Mask, his sensei takes him out to lunch. They both say very little, but Arashi's warning was vague enough to make Kakashi commit it to memory.

"You know…There was once a missing-nin; I can't remember what they called him, but…He believed that the technique he had invented was more powerful than any his clan had learned before him.."

"How is this important?"

"He was an Inuzuka. One of the more powerful, if I remember right…He'd talk all the time about how he didn't need a Nin-dog to be the kind of shinobi he wanted to be and how his clan's needless use of 'lesser being' hampered more than helped them in the long run. Since, well, you know – dogs age faster than humans."

"And?"

"Well, for one thing, wolves kill their own kind when they go rogue."

"I still don't see your point."

"…Let's just say he wasn't and his Tsuuga technique weren't as strong as he thought he was. And neither are you or your Chidori."

He's left a little disoriented from the information. Is it a threat, or a warning? When he vocalizes as much, Arashi's long gone, and the last positive thing Kakashi thinks about his teacher ends up not having anything to do with how kind or brilliant the man was; but, 'I can't believe he left me with the bill.') As the blood of his latest enemy wells, falling to the ground in gouts of red and spurting into the air when he withdraws his blade -- some of it landing on him, staining his dark shirt even darker -- he is still planning; he is still thinking.

Hatake Kakashi knew never to fully commit himself to any action, but this time, somehow, on this battlefield filled with Rock-nin whom all have the same face, it's different. This time it feels entirely too personal; entirely too real, and maybe, just maybe, Obito's death has more of an effect on him than just a prosthetic eye -- because he'll never consider it his, truly -- and a handful of inherited memories.

It is the nature of shinobi; the nature of the murderer to always be aware of their surroundings, and Kakashi is damn good at what he does. It's why they call him, among other things, the Wolf-nin, the Copy-Eye, and the Tracker's Blade – he is known as the best scout in Konoha for a reason. Mental, physical, or even emotional, Hatake Kakashi notices things no matter how small or insignificant they may be. (Uchiha Sasuke openly gaped at what his teacher had done, his mouth open slightly at the sight and his eyes still wide from the raw power of it.

"That's…" the Uchiha whispered, letting go of the breath he'd been holding and resembling the child he tried so hard to never be. 'Incredible...' He wouldn't say it out loud, but the jounin could see it in the boy's expression.

Kakashi proudly smirked to himself, his hand still slightly smoking. It was nice that even Sasuke could be surprised once in awhile.

"I call it the Chidori."

The Uchiha was silent for a moment, a look of intense concentration on his face.

"I want to learn it."

Kakashi smiled, half-wolfish, half-impish, and stretched his arms. Ignoring the voice in the back of his mind -- the one that said, quite jovially: "No, no. I don't think I'll teach you this quite yet Hatake-kun – Kakashi put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, and said: "Then I'll teach you it. No questions asked.) It is this that teaches him to look inwards. This that teaches Hatake Kakashi that the Chidori, a technique without range of motion or possibility, was, at best, inherently flawed.

He should have listened.

(You cannot commit to one path, and one path alone. It hampers your ability to change, my son, and this, this is the failure of shinobi. We do not change.)

Thus, somewhere between Uchiha Itachi murdering his clan; between completing his mission and killing the man that killed Obito; between watching his sensei walk out of the hospital and into the fire with his head held high and his eyes shining like something beautiful, the Chidori dies, and the Raikiri is born.

XXX

Kakashi watched his student fall back onto the ground and merrily ambled towards his prone and slightly smoking form. He knew what he had to do, and the half-Chidori he'd been slowly re-charging behind his back came to life in the palm of his hand with scream of angry birdcalls; its nigh-clarion call echoing throughout the clearing as if a storm of unseen birds were squalling in protest to what was about to happen.

Sasuke groaned in pain. Kakashi couldn't say if it made him feel good or bad.

"Now," Kakashi began, grabbing Sasuke by the collar and hoisting him up to his knees as he aimed the half-Chidori right at his neck. "Will you listen to what I have to say or do I have to kill you and talk to your smoking corpse instead?"

Sasuke made a sound half-way between a throaty gurgle and yes, his Adam's apple moving in a slow, steady bop as small bolts of lightning crackled against his skin. Kakashi took the sound at face-value, and continued.

"I…I don't know why," Kakashi murmured, steeling himself for the inevitable backlash his talking down to his student would bring on him; his voice growing steadily stronger with every word: "You've been living your life focused on this one...on this one unattainable goal that, by very definition has you committing every single waking moment of your existence to killing your brother, and…" he paused, glancing up in thought, and then. "That's made you blind Sasuke. It's made you into this...this...this insane parasite who betrays his comrade's trust for something as fleeting as power. That would have you owned by the one man in all of the world who would never put you in the line of fire you want to be in."

"How much sense does that make?"

Sasuke, blinking in the glare of the half-Chidori, grit his teeth and said: "I told you, Naruto doesn't fucking matter to me! I only need the power to stop Itachi!"

Kakashi's single eye narrowed. "Even if that power would have killed you?" he asked him coldly, his grip tightening hard enough on the boy's collar that the fabric strained.

Sasuke, however, said nothing.

"Well?"

And then, the inevitable. "Yes. I would."

Kakashi's visible eye twitched. He'd…expected Sasuke to be so stupid, but…Kami. Where had he gone wrong? How had he failed this much?

"What is wrong with you?" he screamed, the half-chidori coming dangerously closer to piercing Sasuke's neck. "What if Naruto hadn't brought you back, huh?! What would have happened if Orochimaru got his twisted little fucking hands on you?"Sasuke said nothing, his eye wide as he watched Kakashi's hands and not his mouth.

"What then, Sasuke!" Kakashi continued, going so far as to shake the dark-haired Chuunin "Your dream means as much to him as Naruto's little pissant whining about being Hokage means to me! You have to know that, don't you?! What did you honestly think would happen?"

"I…"

"You...You kids don't fucking know what you want, alright? You're too young. Too…Agh. I don't even have a word for it." Kakashi sighed and lowered his hand. "But…I know this. I am NOT letting you make the same mistakes that I made when I was young, you got that? I am not going to idly stand by and watch you all destroy yourselves."

Kakashi dodged Sasuke's wild punch, already knowing that the Uchiha was at the end of his rope. "I'm not you, goddamit! As long as I have my bloodline and my will to survive nothing can stop me! No one will ever get in the way of me proving my worth!"

The half-Chidori in Kakashi's hand sizzled into nothingness, as he reared back and punched the Uchiha square in the face. "Goddamit Sasuke, Don't you get it?!"

Sasuke's eyes went wide, his collar finally tearing beneath the tenseness of his grip and the loud, sibilant crack of his nose breaking beneath Kakashi's knuckles echoing infinitely in the background, like white noise.

"Itachi killed Shisui for the same fucking kind of power you're throwing your life away for!"

Kakashi looked at him down the bridge of his nose, massaging his knuckles. Sasuke, mouth agape and the red slowly bleeding away from his eyes, only stared at his sensei as if the man had somehow just stabbed him in the heart.

"...I..."

Kakashi saw it, there. The thing he had been fighting for all along.

"...I..."

Sasuke swallowed, hard.

"I…You…"

…and then, his hands shaking, tried to wrap his hands around Kakashi's throat.

"You're a liar."

Kakashi grabbed his student's wrists, but otherwise did nothing as Sasuke continued to try and strangle him. "You. Are. A. Goddamn. Liar."

The force on his neck increased with every passing moment, and yet Kakashi still did nothing.

"Itachi…" Sasuke whispered, his thumbs ghosting over Kakashi's Adam's apple. "Itachi wouldn't…"

The dam the Uchiha had constructed inside of himself, so high and so dense, opened, then, a thousand years of solitude and a history of grief pouring out of his mouth and screaming into the sky. "They were brothers, Kakashi!" he screamed, tears glistening on the corner of his eyes "Brothers! Itachi loved Shishui more than anyone else in our entire family! More than anyone else in Konoha! …He'd never…He wouldn't…"

Kakashi sighed as the boy broke down in his arms, and, closing his eyes, he slowly pressed his forehead against Sasuke's and whispered, "…I am not going to let you destroy yourself for power, Sasuke."

The Uchiha shuddered and closed his eyes as a single tear ran down his face; pushing his forehead against Kakashi's as the Jounin grabbed his student's wrists and pried his hands from around his neck. "Okay?," he whispered, his voice soft.

Sasuke kept quiet, going completely still.

Kakashi shook him, hard. "Okay?"

"…Fine."

Kakashi smiled, pulling back and letting the Uchiha fall unceremoniously to the ground. Taking a deep breath, he sat on his student's back as Sasuke began to get back to his feet.

He may have had patience in spades, but Sasuke really was one of the few people in Konoha who could really get him riled up.

"Get off!"

"Nope," he said rather merrily, patting Sasuke's head. "You stay on the ground until you see how honest and true my good intentions are, so…."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, still fidgeting beneath Kakashi. "Nothing about this has 'good intention' written on it, Hatake-san! Get off!"

Kakashi shrugged, noting what Sasuke had just called him with a small bit of pride. "Come on, Sasuke! I'm just starting to think you might be worth saving after all!"

"You what?"

The Jounin just shrugged. "…Provided you get that stick out of your ass, of course."

More struggling, this time enough to unbalance Kakashi as Sasuke did a half-push up and deposited his sensei on the ground. "And you don't have one, mister hypocrite?"

Kakashi chuckled, rolling to his feet. "Of course I do."

"Well," Sasuke started, turning around to face his sensei. "But," Kakashi interrupted, raising his index-finger. "Unlike yours, the glass-coated stick from the seventh layer of hell, mine is coated in honey made by angels!"

"..." Sasuke looked like he had to fight the urge to slap himself on the forehead. "You do realize how disgusting that sounds, right?"

Ever obstinate, Kakashi nodded. "Yep, but it works well, right?"

Sasuke opened his mouth, closed it half way, and then, said: "You're insane," as he laid back down on the ground, his eyes closing in defeat. "Utterly, and completely insane."

Kakashi shrugged and lay down next to his student, smiling.

'There's a very fine line between madness and genius, Sasuke...,' he thought, reaching up towards the sun. 'I only hope you realize that, someday.'

XXX

Kakashi's ANBU mask – a dog, more by coincidence than choice – read as follows: 'There's none so blind as they that won't see.'

XXX

- TBC

XXX

Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze?
Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
And everything's done under the sun
And you believe at heart, everyone's a killer
- "Dogs", Pink Floyd