Back in January 07, I posted the original version of this story. It wasn't well written, there was very little description, and my heart just hadn't been in it all the way. Now, More than a year later, I'm reposting it. I think it's better this way.

Disclaimer: Naruto and all it's characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not to this girl.

Takes place: Post Chuunin Exams.

Six long months. That's the time that had passed since Uchiha Sasuke had been abducted in broad daylight. WHile training with his team, they'd been attacked by Orochimaru's right hand man, Kabuto. Disabling Naruto's ability to call on the Kyuubi, knocking Sakura unconcious and severing a tendon in Kakashi's leg, the medic-nin had given Sasuke some kind of drug and run off before ANBU Black Op's could arrive to help. By the time they did get there, it was too late. The sky, heavy with rain, had cracked open, washing away any trace of Kabuto or Sasuke. And Kabuto had been smart enough to cover his tracks, so the HUnter-Nins had been unable to find him. Naruto and Sakura had taken the news hard, with Naruto running off to train and Sakura locking herself in her room to cry. The day before Kakashi had gone to his own home, Tsunade checked him over herself.

"The damage isn't irreversable, just don't do anything stupid." The jounin had nodded, then limped away. It was almost a week before she'd seen him again, limping away from the last place he'd seen Sasuke. It made her sad, really. The adoption papers had almost gone through, Kakashi would have become Sasuke's legal gaurdian had Kabuto not taken the boy. Tsunade was jolted back to the present as Kakashi poofed into her office, and she glared at him.

"What is it?" Running one hand over the back of his neck, Kakashi withdrew a paper from one bag hanging off his arm. Slipping it in front of her, the Jounin poofed away. Eyebrows furrowed, Tsunade picked up the paper. It fell to the floor in her shock. Very few ninja's asked for what he was asking for, and even fewer got it.

Kakashi was quitting, and in no uncertain terms.

Spine cracking from sitting so still for the past 5 hours, Kakashi looked down at his tracking dogs. They were sniffing the ground below him, having finally caught a wisp of Sasuke's scent that wasn't so old they couldn't trace it. From where he laid his head on Kakashi's leg, Pakkun met his master's eye.

"Neh, Kakashi?" Kakashi looked to the tiny dog, apprensive.

"Hmm?" Pakkun took a deep breath, swallowing.

"Do you really think we'll find Sasuke alive? It's been six months, who's to say what Orochimaru's done to the pup." Kakashi nodded, understanding what the dog meant. Looking back down at the ground, Kakashi's voice cracked a little as he spoke.

"I don't know if we'll find him alive. But I know that if I don't keep hoping...I'll break." Pakkun frowned. He knew what Kakashi had been through all ready, and understood that the loss of his adopted son would be too much for the man to handle. One of the dogs below howled, catching thier attention. Kakashi leapt down, Pakkun at his heels. The relief that Kakashi was feeling could have been scented miles away, but Pakkun pretended not to notice as his master dismissed the Jutsu, running off in the direction they'd scented the boy. The forest before him was long, covered in fog. But the scent was stable, a one direction trail. Kabuto had slipped on a mossy rock here, and Sasuke had made a break for it. But the boy had tripped, and been recaptured. He'd obviously kicked the entire way back, no animal could make a mark that shape in a tree. Kakashi felt a little burst of pride well up inside him, this was a fully utilized Chidori mark. Several rocks and branches had been marked, a trail for anyone to follow through the misty forest. A little apprensive that this might be a trick, Kakashi followed the trail as fast as he'd dare. Leaping into a tree overlooking the fortress entrance, one black eye narrowed to meet a pair of dark blue.

"Itachi." The nukenin nodded in greeting, straw hat laying beside his foot.

"Kakashi-san. Here to save Sasuke as well?" The surprise that Kakashi felt was hard to keep out of his eye. Itachi was here to rescue the brother he'd tried to kill? Wonders never ceased in this world of thiers. Still, Kakashi nodded. Itachi stood, leaping to the ground. Kakashi followed after him, stopping when the younger man turned.

"I shall provide a distraction, so long as Sasuke is removed from here." When Kakashi withdrew a kunai knife from his pouch, Itachi smiled like a demon.

"I thought so." He whirled around, vanishing into the fortress. The racket he made told Kakashi to follow, and the Konoha Jonin leapt down the stairs. The feel of Sasuke's chakra was thick here, he'd obviously put up a fight. Kunai still out, Kakashi walked down the rows of blood-stained cells, feeling the prisoners eyes on him. One woman looked up at him, and her eyes filled with hope.

"You're...You're a Konoha Nin! You must be here for Sasuke!" When Kakashi nodded, the woman slipped one hand into her ratty shirt. The hand came out holding a bloodstained key, which she handed Kakashi through the bars. She wrapped his fingers around it tightly.

"Please. Take the poor boy as far away from here as you can. Forget about us and save him!" Understanding the woman's meaning, Kakashi ran off down the hall towards the dead end at the farthest side. The concrete wall showed only a tiny keyhole, in which the key he'd been given slipped perfectly. The scent of blood was strong here, but Kakashi kicked the door open. The kunai in his hand clattered to the floor when the light from the candles reached the cells only occupant. Laying on his right side, either unconcious or dead, in a pool of his own blood at the center of the cell, was Sasuke. Kakashi surged forward, splashing fresh blood around as he slipped a little. The shoulder he placed a hand on was warm, and Sasuke squirmed under his touch.

"..no..." Head falling to his chest in relief, it took Kakashi a minute to realize that Sasuke was still badly injured. Thin cuts round thier way around his wrists and ankles, telling the Ex-Jonin that he'd been suspended with wires, there was a badly healed kunai stab wound in his left side, and his chest was covered in whip markings. Unable to see his back very well, Kakashi could only guess more whip marks crisscrossed the skin there as well. With a pained groan as Kakashi assesed the damage, Sasuke came too. He snarled a little.

"Come to finish me off for your master, Kabuto?!" Kakashi stared. Sasuke hadn't opened his eyes. He couldn't see it was Kakashi. Still, his student deserved an answer.

"Kabuto's probably...busy, right now. I'm taking you home." In what must have been a surge of adrenaline, Sasuke skittered away, hitting the wall in the tiny cell.

"This is just one of your stupid Genjutsu tricks! How dare you use him!" The pain and sorrow etched on the boys face made Kakashi's heart sink, and he walked over to the teen, kneeling down and placing a hand on his shoulder. Sasuke jerked, muscles tensing as warmth from Kakashi's hand seeped into his skin. That was all it took. He reached out with one arm, feeling for his sensei in the darkness that had plagued him. Kakashi captured his arm, pulling the boy into a desperate, gentle hug. Sasuke clung to him, sobbing in relief and some other emotion Kakashi couldn't sense. While still keeping his hold on the crying boy, Kakashi managed to slip out of his vest, wrapping it around the thin boys cold shoulders. Sasuke hissed in pain as the rough cloth of the vest rubbed his wounds, but settled into Kakashi's embrace as the jounin stood. His cloth shorts, sticky with blood, clung to Kakashi's stomach as they ran down the corridor with cells. AS he'd been requested by the woman who'd given him the key, Kakashi kept running amidst some joy-filled cries that the boy was going home. When Itachi was suddenly flung through a wall, Kakashi skidded to a stop. Sasuke winced in pain, biting down on a grimace as he was jostled. Itachi shook his head as he stood up, wiping blood from his mouth as Orochimaru stepped through the wall, licking his lips with his snake like tongue. Sasuke stiffened at the sound, and buried his head into Kakashi's chest as Orochimaru turned to look at them.

"Kukuku...Just where do you think you're going, Sasuke-kun?" Feeling Sasuke's fingers clench into his shirt, Kakashi took a step back from the insane snake sannin. Using the distraction, Itachi leapt at Orochimaru, calling out towards Kakashi.

"Go!" Sasuke tensed again, but Kakashi wasn't wasting this chance. Leaping past the squabbling shinobi to fresh air, he left the bloody compound behind. Leaping up onto a tree, Kakashi snarled as Kabuto met him in midair. Before the Sound-Nin could act, a stream of water struck him in the face, knocking him to the ground and letting Kakashi get to safety with Sasuke still held in his arms. Itachi suddenly landed beside him, pulling him off the tree as the compound went up in smoke and flames. Kabuto screamed for his master, abandoning the chase after Sasuke. In the confusion, Itachi vanished. Kakashi adjusted his hold on Sasuke, and ran off into the night.

It was a few hours later when they bedded down, close to a calm fresh water river. The river served to wash Sasuke's wounds, but the boy wasn't able to do it alone. It took no small amount of struggling to get him out of the blood-soaked shorts, since it turned out that Sasuke's leg had been broken and not healed properly. When he was was washed, dried, and clothed in the spares that Kakashi had smartly -for once, Obito would have said- brought along, Kakashi got to making some semblance of food. The scent of roasting fish made Sasuke's stomach grumble, and the boy looked away as his cheeks tinged pink in embarassment. Kakashi smiled, ruffling the boys hair and wincing as he pulled away in fear. Kakashi returned to tending the fish, before he looked up as Sasuke began to speak.

"Don't you want to know what he did?" Kakashi shook his head, before realizing that Sasuke still hadn't opened his eyes. Removing the fish from the fire pit, Kakashi turned over to Sasuke.

"Only if you want to tell me. What I do want to know is why you won't open your eyes." Sasuke turned his head away from Kakashi's voice, taking a deep breath that must have been painful. He turned back to his sensei, and opened his eyes. Kakashi swallowed hard, falling back to land on his ass as milky blue stared back at him, unseeing. Having heard the 'thump', Sasuke closed his eyes.

"It happened a while ago. Some kind of ninjutsu." Shoving away the shock and fear for the moment, Kakashi placed a hand on Sasuke's head. The boy didn't flinch away this time, but leaned into the comfort as tears leaked down from his blind eyes. The fact he may not be a shinobi again scared the boy witless, a little bit more than Orochimaru did.

But the fact that Kakashi was here...no...the fact that his father was here...that somehow managed to chase his fears away.

Because Sasuke knew that Kakashi would never abandon him.

Heart's Note: I've come a long way since I first posted this last year, and I hope this reflects the changes in my writing.