We've got time

by somejustification, Twitterpation

Summary:

After hitting a wall with his training, Kakashi realizes that it's because Sasuke is absolutely exhausted, and isn't resting well. He decides to take the matter of Sasuke's sleep very seriously, but the process of taking care of him comes with... unintentional side effects.

Notes:

mind the tags! just like the last part in this series, this takes place in a universe where it's common practice for adult male shinobi to have sex with their male students. make good choices for yourself!

the events in this series are chronological, so the last part in this series is canon for this one, but you don't have to read it to follow along with this one, all you have to know is that sasuke and itachi fooled around when they were very young

Chapter 1

Sasuke hits the ground like a lead balloon, dust kicking up around the impact. Even from 10 feet away, Kakashi can see the tremble in every muscle in his body. 

"You're still not getting it," he says, lowering back into that same battle stance he's been slipping in and out of all day. Ten solid days of this, and Sasuke is still struggling to manifest enough chakra. Deep down, Kakashi doesn't want to be this hard on him, but he knows Sasuke needs him to be, and wouldn't tolerate it if he went soft on him. But watching him struggle to get up, exhausted and weary is just sad. 

The chidori is an especially difficult jutsu to master-- Kakashi would know better than anyone. Sasuke would be only the second person in the world to know it, if he manages to control it. In a sense, it almost feels like he's training his own successor, even though he knows Sasuke has his own goals for the future that have nothing to do with training to become a sensei for genin. The balance is tough, he keeps burning his hands with his own chakra, or losing control of it entirely and electrocuting himself, or losing focus and it fizzles out before he can even sever the chains that Kakashi has set up for him to slice through. And all the while, with every failure, Sasuke gets more and more frustrated, which only damages his focus further.

Sasuke is a savant, but he's still just a little boy. Of course, "little boy" barely means anything anymore. Kakashi himself was already well past Sasuke's level by the age of 6. He's got raw talent, and passion and dedication, but all of that can only go so far with the limits of the human body. He watches Sasuke stagger once as he tries to squat back into his own battle stance, and sighs loudly. Looking out across the cliff they've been training on at the orange sun slinking lower towards the trees, Kakashi stands up out of his battle stance, and holds his hands up in surrender. 

"Alright, I'm beat. Let's call it for tonight," he says. "We've been at it for almost 12 hours. At this point you're running on fumes. Besides, it's going to be dark soon. Let's head back to the village."

"But I haven't done it!" Sasuke snaps, outright losing his patience on his teacher. It wouldn't be the first time, it was  doubtless not the last. From where Kakashi had stood upright, Sasuke lands about 10 feet away, very obviously half-keeling over just from the effort of standing there. His foot breaks out of formation first, scraping across the gravel as he pushes himself upright. 

Sweat beads and drips down his face. Truth was he needed a wash. Kakashi had been going remarkably hard on him throughout this training, and frankly, good. It's the kind of training Sasuke always wanted, the kind he anticipated he would get when they said they were having a jonin of Kakashi's rank and renown train him in the ways of being a ninja. He'd expected intensity, he'd expected intention; what he'd gotten instead had been fine, the value of teamwork in the arbitrary is good, but Sasuke doesn't care about that. He didn't become a ninja because he wanted to do good.

In fact, Sasuke had very bad intentions with everything he's been learning over the last year, and he thinks they know that or they never would've saddled him with this team. With Naruto, who's volume and raw strength sit at an an even level, or Sakura, who's intelligence is admirable but arguably the easiest part of the life they've undertaken. Book learning can only get someone so far, if they have no active drive or pervasive influence, what was the point of fighting like this?

They each had their reasons, Sasuke's sure, but there's also a reason it's him standing here now, panting into the settling dust while looking across at Kakashi, sweat dripping to the ground, and the other two are left at home. 

"Just tell me why I'm not getting it first, is it my stance? Is it something I'm doing?" Sasuke's tone is haughty and demanding, "Just going home isn't going to do anything for me, give me something to work on."

"I could tell you, but you're not going to like it," Kakashi says, waving for Sasuke to follow him. For a moment it looks like Sasuke might stubbornly stay where he is until Kakashi acquiesces to his demands, but finally he starts moving to follow after Kakashi. He can see the exhaustion in Sasuke's body, the tremoring of dense but new muscle packed on in the last few months from hard work alone. Kakashi could never say one of his genin works harder than the other, but there's a quiet grimness to Sasuke's determination that Naruto lacks. 

As they start down the path to take them back to the village proper, Kakashi hangs back a little bit, just a foot or so behind Sasuke, to watch his feet and back for any sign of collapse. It looks like he's halfway on his way to his knees already, like a stiff breeze might knock him over. His tireless dedication has been as admirable to watch as it has been troubling.

Sasuke doesn't know what's worse, not learning something or being watched by an attentive teacher. He can feel Kakashi's eyes on his back, and he bristles to think that he's just waiting for him to fail, like it's natural for Sasuke to outright collapse in the face of what they're doing now. He sets his jaw and frowns, keeping his eyes on the village ahead, though his thoughts are entirely behind him.

"If you're going to say I'm not strong enough, forget it," Sasuke snaps darkly over to Kakashi at last. It was the only answer he could come up with that might garner that response. Sasuke could handle criticisms to his form or posture, or even if he's just not doing something right. He can do the work it takes to do a move, even if he didn't know the steps yet. He's walking with his fists clenched. Even now he has to expend chakra, just to keep his body over his legs.

"No, it's not that," Kakashi chuckles, like the idea is absurd. "I'm pretty sure you could do anything you put your mind to, with enough time. I don't even think this is out of your reach, it's just the deadline so fast approaching that makes it more dire than it should be."

Their shoes crunch on the ground as they reach the bottom of the path winding down the mountain, and start along the road that will take them back to town. Kakashi looks up at the orange and pink sky with a sigh, as if trying to decide whether he wants to speak at all. Impatience is emanating off of Sasuke in waves, but Kakashi, as usual, takes his time. 

"Let me ask you this," he says after a moment of silence. "How are you sleeping?"

The question takes Sasuke so off guard he actually turns to look Kakashi in the eye with a look of veiled disgust. He turns back around, and regrets it almost instantly as his foot fails to lift just a bit higher than he needed it. His shoe scuffs in the ground, and he moves on without acknowledging it. "Fine," Sasuke replies at last, like there was any sort of credibility after he says it like that, "I don't know. Fine. No better or worse than I usually do." 

Ah, there it is, that caginess that makes mentoring Sasuke so exhausting. His shoulders hunch like he's caught by the foot in a wolf trap.

"Mmm. And how is your usual?" Kakashi presses, not letting Sasuke get away with such a vague, unhelpful answer. "This is a serious question, Sasuke, I'm not just asking to gossip."

"What's your usual, and I'll compare," Sasuke bites back acidly. "I sleep about four hours a night by the time I get to it," He finally says, "Usually it takes that long before the meditation gives way." 

"Four hours?" Kakashi repeats incredulously. So much so that it has Sasuke's head snapping back around to look at him, as they pass underneath the arch to the city, nodding at the gate guards while they go. "You know that's not normal, don't you? No wonder you're struggling. You're exhausted."

"It's been this way for the last six years," Sasuke says in monotone, frowning up the street at nothing, flanked by the teacher he can't even see. Whatever. If he wanted to loom in his periphery, Sasuke might as well let him. He shoves his hands into his pockets, the road leveling out means he doesn't have to extend as much effort, and he can walk easier now, upright all on his own. "I haven't had a problem so far."

"I beg to differ. This, right now, this is a problem," Kakashi says. "I send you home with more than enough time to get a full eight hours of rest, what keeps you up for those four hours before you fall asleep?"

"What do you mean what keeps me up?" Sasuke turns back to Kakashi again, and this time stops altogether. They're still on the outskirts of town, not the biggest deal if they're overheard-- chances are good at this time of day that most of the adults in this area are home for the night anyway, so they only might be overheard by a curious kid. Still. Sasuke glares up at Kakashi, as usual unable to read a single goddamn thing in his solitary visible eye. And then, dramatically, Sasuke growls, "Everything does."

Kakashi sighs, and even without looking at him, Sasuke can tell he rolled his eyes. Calm and blasé as ever, he asks, "Can you be a little more specific than that, drama queen? I know your soul is tortured, but I'm looking for answers here."

Sasuke's entire body recoils, wanting nothing more than to charge at Kakashi and hit him or-- something for his insolence. But he knows as soon as he has the thought that it's irrational, borne of exhaustion and hunger, and not entirely an unfamiliar experience. Sometimes Sasuke has the urge to hit people he shouldn't. That had also been a problem borne of the last six years.

"When I get home, I bathe and make dinner. I study our training from the day, stretch, and then meditate. Unlike everyone else, meditation doesn't actually make me tired, but I do it until I feel tired enough to sleep. Then I do. Nothing's keeping me up." Except his thoughts, but he refuses to share those now.

"You meditate to go to sleep even though it doesn't help?" Kakashi repeats curiously. "And you don't see a problem with that?" He sighs again, like he's the tortured one. "I told you, you weren't going to like it. The reason you're not getting it is because you need rest. Your spirit may have the energy to go on indefinitely, but your body doesn't. You aren't giving yourself enough time to recuperate between training sessions. Sleep is restorative and healing, and you aren't getting nearly enough."

"I'm not going to sleep," Sasuke says it like Kakashi had just suggested he wipe shit across his brow. He looks disgusted, giving Kakashi a once-over as he feels acid bubbling in the back of his mind. 

Righteous indignation flares unwarranted in his stomach. He's mad, for absolutely no reason. Why was he mad? Didn't Kakashi know? Didn't everyone know what happened to the Uchiha clan? If that had happened to him, would it not possess his entire spirit until he received the vengeance he needed? Sasuke can't speak to that, doesn't dare put that hatred into words. If people don't get it, they don't get it, he'd heard enough people tell him to 'let it go' or 'move on' to last lifetimes. He's never letting go. He's never moving on. 

"So what do you suggest, if not meditation?" Sasuke decides to volley instead, "I heard in class it was the best way to get to sleep if you're restless. Clearing your mind and activating your deep breathing is supposed to trigger your nervous system. You know so much, what do you do to fall asleep?" 

"What do I do?" Kakashi seems surprised  by the question. "Oh, well, you know..." he waves a hand vaguely. "I spend a little... quality time with myself." He's walking beside Sasuke now, satisfied that the boy isn't about to collapse on the spot, and Sasuke looks up at him like he's speaking another language. "You know... personal time?" he tries, but Sasuke's expression doesn't change, like he's trying to puzzle out what Kakashi is saying. "Oh come on, you're about that age, aren't you?" he sighs. "A little... self-pleasure can relax the body, and release hormones that put you right to sleep."

Like an old friend, Sasuke's anger rears its head again. He feels it spark in his chest like flint, bubbling over into his veins and at least serving to renew him with fresh vigor, if nothing else. It's enough to make him turn his head and actually sneer this time, disgust darkening his eyes and coloring his cheeks, "I don't do that kind of thing," he snarls, with more heat than he surely means, but there's at least some honesty to this anger. Either way Sasuke doesn't catch it, and doesn't stop himself as he goes on, "If I knew that was going to be your advice I could've just walked into a locker room." And with that same audacity, Sasuke walks faster, like he's trying to outpace his teacher.

"At all? That's surprising," Kakashi says. He's right beside Sasuke again, even though Sasuke could have sworn that he gained at least a meter of space between them, and he didn't hear Kakashi jog to catch up. Sasuke glares at him again, and Kakashi holds his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry I mentioned it, but you did ask. Would you slow down?"

He grabs Sasuke by the bicep to stop him, but only because they're now standing in front of the ground floor of the building where Kakashi lives on the second. Normally this is where Kakashi dips inside, and Sasuke keeps going to his apartment. He can see the anger flare in Sasuke's eyes as his head whips around to stare his teacher down for having the audacity to grab him, but Kakashi doesn't let go. At least the road is largely deserted, at nearly 8 pm. Most people are inside with their families by now. 

Kakashi looks down at the arm in his hand, noticing just in time with Sasuke that the muscle under his hand is twitching, a constant spasm making it flutter under his hand. "You're exhausted," Kakashi says again. "Tell me, how seriously do you intend to take this training? What ends would you go to in order to succeed?"

"Are you saying I'm not taking it seriously enough?" Sasuke shakes Kakashi's hand off of him, if only to relieve the twitching he's now hyperaware of, and now the older man is, too. "I've dedicated my life to this, and if that's what it takes I'll die for it." Though Sasuke knew himself. There's only one instance where he'd allow himself to die, and that's only after he's taken his brother's life.

But there was Haku, on the bridge. He wasn't immortal. He was still weak. 

Sasuke loses just a bit of his fire, flagging almost as soon as he'd risen to anger. More rationally, he looks up at Kakashi. "I intend to do whatever it takes to achieve my goal," Sasuke finally recites, like he was answering a standardized personality test, "This is the next step to my life. If I can't even do this, I won't be able to achieve anything," Such a nihilistic view from such a young kid, but the life of the ninjas drew such a crowd. Sometimes Kakashi thinks they turn kids into adults too soon.

"Then come inside," Kakashi says, fishing his keys out of his pocket. "You're going to stay with me until we're done training." Kakashi starts up the rickety wooden steps to his second story apartment, but he doesn't hear foot steps behind him. He leans over the railing on the second floor balcony on one elbow, looking down at Sasuke who is staring up at him with his brows furrowed in confusion. He shakes his keys down at the boy. "Well, come on. I thought you were ready to do whatever it takes to reach your goals. Or was that a lie?"

What was it in him that makes Sasuke wonder if this is a trap? Surely not, after all this time-- or maybe exactly because of it. No. Sasuke knew his own instincts better. He scowls at him for a second, and then turns and heads inside, too, taking the steps slowly and intentionally, memorizing every one. He'd never been in this building before. Never any reason to be. He stops outside of Kakashi's door and stares at it with a frown, before just helping himself to the door, letting himself in. "Okay?" Sasuke drawls sarcastically. He knows better than to think this might mean they'll train for deeper hours, or he might get his hopes up. "Do you need me to help you wake up in the mornings?"

"No. I'm going to help you rest," Kakashi says, as he pulls the door shut behind them, and locks it, before flicking on the light. And to Sasuke's surprise, Kakashi's apartment is... well, it's barely an apartment at all. It's a single room, without even a kitchen save for a small fridge up against the wall, or a bathroom for that matter. Just a bed, some shelves, a desk, book cases, and that's it. Even Sasuke's apartment is bigger than this, with a separate master bedroom and kitchen and bathroom, this is just... a glorified closet. It's odd, to see the leader of his own team, such a supposedly renowned ninja, living so sparsely. Supposedly jonin are well paid, so what is Kakashi doing in such a dim, dingy little apartment, living as though he's in poverty?

Kicking off his shoes and stacking them in a vertical cubby beside his door, Kakashi unzips his vest and hangs it on the wall, while Sasuke looks around the tiny little space, with its various signs of life. A plant in the window, a couple framed photographs on the bookcase near his bed, one with Kakashi and his kids, and another with Kakashi as a child, and the team he was in back then. Sasuke could swear one of the boys in that picture looks like an Uchiha. 

"Make yourself at home," Kakashi says. It almost sounds like a joke. "There's a public restroom down the hall if you want to get cleaned up. But word to the wise, be gentle with the hot water, it goes from lukewarm to boil-you-alive in about a quarter of a centimeter. I can loan you some clothes and toss those in the washer downstairs. They'll be big on you, but you won't have to wear them for long. I've got some leftover takeout in the fridge, if you don't mind it cold, otherwise we can go out somewhere to grab dinner."

Sasuke just goes still, overwhelmed by how much it all is to take in. Or maybe... how little? The gesture alone is immense, the faith placed in him by Kakashi, the intimacy spending so much time with another person would bring. Already they spend the bulk of the day together, training until Sasuke physically can't-- on more than one occasion, Sasuke hadn't been able to catch his knees before they buckled, and Kakashi had had to pull him up and help him home. They had seen one another a lot.

"Is this a standardized housing unit for the village?" Sasuke asks incredulously, unable to get over that hurdle. Why Kakashi of all people wouldn't have a scrap of sentimentality... it's ridiculous to think he's somehow just as confounding in his personal space as he is as a goddamn person. It's infuriating. Sasuke does another brief glance through the apartment, making sure he didn't miss anything on the first pass and obviously finding he didn't. 

Focusing in on Kakashi again, Sasuke shakes his head, unable to parse the question laid before him. Dinner? Cold take out that wasn't even his? "What are we doing here?" Sasuke repeats, impatiently. 'Helping him rest' was too bullshit and nebulous an answer for his comfort.

"I told you already," Kakashi says, as he takes off his head band and sets it down on the shelf beside those two framed portraits. His hair flops down into his eyes a bit, but that red iris rakes knowingly over Sasuke's body as he sits on the edge of his bed. "I'm going to help you get some better rest. You asked what you could be doing to supplement your training-- well, this is it. Your quality of rest needs to improve. Think of it like this, you're like a bucket with a hole in the bottom, and water drips out of you all day. But instead of patching the hole, you just keep refilling the bucket when the water level gets low."

He can see Sasuke staring at him like he's speaking riddles, and sighs. "What I'm saying is, you aren't fully recovering each night from the day's training, so you go into your training the next day without being in top shape. Try taking a breath in, and then without letting it out, take another breath in, and then another. Your lungs only have so much capacity. The human body only has so much stamina. You need to balance it out with a healthy dose of restorative relaxation, or you're just burning the candle at both ends."

"I am relaxed when I go home," Sasuke says through his teeth, as all relaxed young men do. He scowls so hard it looks like it might develop into a headache, then turns away to look at the wall of pictures, then wander the small apartment like there was even much to begin with, at all. Kakashi had asked what he was willing to do for his goals, Sasuke had said anything; He hadn't expected the answer would be nothing at all. It definitely feels like a mean joke. 

Finally, after doing a full lap around Kakashi's apartment, Sasuke turns around, holding open his arms in an exasperated way, then dropping them. He could always go home. It's not like Kakashi was going to hold him prisoner. He could decide this was dumb and go home and keep pounding away at the problem until something gave. Brute force could work, he could just train hard enough. But still something in Sasuke is brought to pause. He doesn't jump to leave, when every inch of him says he can. Maybe because Kakashi... isn't dumb. Or at least he hadn't proven himself to be. 

"So what do I do?" Sasuke asks, like he was being asked a horrible favor.

"First, try to relax your face, you're giving me a headache with all that scowling you're doing," Kakashi says. Sasuke does not relax his face, and somehow furrows even deeper instead. Kakashi sighs. "I'm saying you need to wind down. Do whatever you need to before bed. Here." He stands up and opens a trunk, pulling out a long sleeved blue shirt like the ones he wears every day. Catching just a glimpse inside that trunk, Sasuke doesn't see anything that doesn't look like a uniform inside, as if Kakashi doesn't even own any casual clothes. Come to think of it, Sasuke has never seen him in anything outside of uniform. 

Out comes that shirt, as well as a pair of drawstring blue pants to match, which will definitely be too long on Sasuke's legs, but he can always cuff them up. Kakashi hands them both over to him. 

"Take those with you and go shower, change into them when you're done. I'll go out to find something hot for you to eat while you get washed up, and then I'll put your things in the washing machine when I get back," he says, already grabbing his keys again. "Once you've finished dinner, we can actually work on your... let's call it relaxation training."

At least those orders seem easy enough, though Sasuke takes Kakashi's clothes like he was reluctant to follow. He could probably make a case for him running home tomorrow, to grab some clothes and some things for an extended stay, considering how much longer they had to go. The orders are simple enough, and Sasuke takes the offered clothing and turns back on his heel to head for the bathroom, which aren't usually hard to find in facilities such as this.

Kakashi's warning couldn't've fallen on better ears, for Sasuke to know the shower could turn scalding any minute is almost a thrill. The facilities are neatly well-kept, all members of the community clearly taking lengths to keep it presentable for everyone on the floor. Sasuke is able to lock his particular room with his particular shower, and to see it wasn't a locker room at all was a relief that lets him enjoy it a little more. He even shampoos and conditions, not sure what's waiting for him on the other side of the door once Kakashi returned, and frankly putting off thinking about it.

His clothes are too big on him, but they both knew they would be. Sasuke tries very hard to cuff his pants, folding it over itself, but the height discrepancy is still so severe that he has to watch his heels while walking, anyway, which he does as he puts his clothes into a bundle on a shelf for Kakashi to take once he returns.

It takes Kakashi a while to return, enough that Sasuke was almost considering leaving anyway. But he finally comes home, holding a bag putting a delicious smell that reminds Sasuke he'd barely finished half of his lunch. Kakashi leaves him with his dinner of hayashi rice and youtiao, and takes his clothing downstairs to the washing machine, where he leaves Sasuke to eat in peace while his clothes wash and tumble dry. 

It's a relief, considering what a small space the apartment is. Kakashi probably took so long getting back because he ate while he was out so Sasuke wouldn't see his face-- his most closely guarded secret. Sasuke is able to eat without an audience, and even though he wouldn't ordinarily waste his money on superfluous sweets, he accepts the crullers since they're being given as a gift. By the time Kakashi is returning, Sasuke is just standing by the window with his hands in his pockets, looking out onto the street as the night life slowly comes alive. 

"Good, all finished?" Kakashi says as he locks the door again. The sight of Sasuke standing there with Kakashi's clothes hanging off of him like curtains is humbling. He really is small, but Kakashi was even smaller than him when he was his age. "Now strip down to your underwear and lie on the bed. I'm going to give you a full body massage to try and get your tense muscles to relax."

"A what?" Sasuke's arms drop from where he'd had them held behind his back. He turns quickly to face Kakashi now, eyebrows furrowing, though admittedly with a bit less heat. It was nice to not have to supply everything for himself, admittedly, he'd sort of forgotten what it was like to not have to feed himself or... worry, in general. As long as he was here, presumably, he was here under the guidance of his teacher, which meant he didn't have to decide if meditation was worth it, or if he should just read a book to pass the time... 

He looks down at his hands, partially obscured by cloth, and shakes them free so he can see them himself. He'd either gotten used to the tremoring in his muscles or surely they'd already relaxed enough, because Sasuke doesn't feel them twitching the way they had in Kakashi's hands earlier. He stubbornly wants to refuse, not liking the idea of stripping down around a man he isn't even allowed to see the neck of, but... Kakashi's words earlier come right back to haunt him. If he was serious, he would do this. It's just a massage, of all things, what's the worst that would happen?

After an obvious internal struggle wages on, Sasuke frowns as he finally relents, pulling his teacher's own shirt up and over his head, followed by his pants, folding them politely over the solitary chair in the room for safe keeping. He glances back at Kakashi, who's just watching him move with an even-keel expression, and then relents for the last time with a burdened huff of breath and a roll of the eyes, climbing onto the bed and laying down. He looks like a damn plank of wood laying there.

Kakashi comes over to sit beside him, cross legged and posture relaxed. Sasuke's body is so slim, but dense with muscle, just like Kakashi's was at his age. Young, but already strong enough to protect himself from death. Sasuke's very body is a grim reminder of the cycle of abuse that Kakashi himself wasn't able to escape. The boy flinches when Kakashi gently takes his arm, turning it over to look at his palm. It's still red, blistered with mild burns and when held at this angle, it shakes slightly. He sees Sasuke look away in frustration, and then lays his arm flat again.

"You see?" he murmurs. "You've been running yourself absolutely ragged. Your schooling tells you to beat yourself senseless against a brick wall until you brute force your way to success, but they're setting you up to fail. They say that so you won't lose sight of the importance of working hard, but what they fail to prepare you for is the reality that without proper rest, your body is doomed to fail you. Roll over onto your stomach, please."

Sasuke grumbles but does so, turning his face away from Kakashi and laying his arms flat on the bed. It feels vulnerable to be so naked beside him, but at least Kakashi doesn't seem to be leering at him in any particular way. Even though Sasuke had learned that grown men will often expect boys like him to give them access to their bodies in exchange for training, Kakashi had never once implied that he wants anything like that out of Sasuke.

"I'm going to send very mild electrical pulses into your muscles," Kakashi says as he shakes out his hands. That gets Sasuke's attention enough to make him turn his head to look at his teacher, watching as Kakashi laces his fingers and stretches them palms-down, giving his hands a healthy stretch, before popping his knuckles by pushing them into one palm, then the other. Once loosened, he makes a hand sign and his palms begin to glow a very faint blue. "You'll feel a slight tingling, and your muscles will twitch involuntarily, but it won't hurt you. If your heart rate increases a little bit, that's normal, but tell me if it starts to feel dangerous or unusual."

His large hands come down on Sasuke's back, and he feels immediately that Kakashi's hands aren't as calloused as most peoples' his age. His palms are actually pretty soft, contrary to what people assume of jonin. Even Iruka's hands had been rougher than this. Kakashi grinds the heels of his hands into Sasuke's tense shoulder blades, and Sasuke feels that first tiny pulse of electric current, which makes his muscles under Kakashi's hands seize up slightly, and then relax looser than they were before, left with a pins-and-needles sort of tingling. He repeats the gesture a little higher on Sasuke's back, grinding his palms up towards the back of Sasuke's neck with another pulse of that current that turns his muscles into jelly. 

Sasuke's breath hitches as, like magic, his body jumps, then goes soft, then releases, and for the first time in what feels like years (and really, might be) he relaxes. Muscles go soft that Sasuke had long thought had simply hardened with work and age and effort, but with just a few deft kneads of his fingers and jolts of lightning, he feels them release, and before long, Sasuke's shoulders have rounded out, and he's actually able to touch the bed with his arms all the way from the joint to his fingers. He doesn't even think about breathing, but it never becomes awkward or burdensome to deal with, mattress and blanket included.

A groan leaves him on the exhale, then, deep and guttural, resounding in his chest. His eyes slip closed as he allows himself to fall into the sensation of Kakashi's fingers, his hands, and most  importantly his chakra, flowing through him and setting him on fire-- or maybe shocking him was a better way to put it?-- down to bone.

Kakashi hums as he watches Sasuke sag deeper into the bed with every deep stroke of his hands. His eyes drift to the mark on the boy's neck, and the seal he'd put around it, and one of his hands moves up to rub his thumb gently over the spot with a feather-light touch, just once. 

"Does it hurt anymore?" he asks, as his hands move down to knead up along the boy's lower spine, massaging feeling back into those tense muscles until they too unclench. He can see Sasuke's muscles twitch and vibrate under his hands with every stroke before they relax, and he swears he can see Sasuke melting into a puddle under him. It's a small relief to know that he's doing something for the boy who guards himself so severely. He doubts Sasuke ever would have spent the money to get a professional massage, even though he has the money to-- and Kakashi is far from a professional. But he's glad to do what he can.

Without even meaning to, Sasuke's mouth twitches when Kakashi's thumb grazes that mark. It's sensitive, painful is the wrong word, but even the gentle graze of his thumb over the mark as him arching and squirming, head tilting partially like he was trying to avoid the touch, and partly like he might be leaning in. Sasuke's eyebrows furrow as he hears Kakashi's question, and struggles to form a coherent answer right away. He feels good. It's rare that happens, and the softness in his limbs is drawing him into a warm, fuzzy place that just feels... unfamiliar.

"No," Sasuke finally manages when he gets his voice back. He makes another noise in the back of his throat, surprised by it as much as Kakashi is, not normally one for being so vocal in any regard, but nonetheless this. He feels so vulnerable like this. "It's-- Okay."

"Good. That's good," Kakashi says, as his hands grind paths up Sasuke's sides, to his ribs. It's sensitive here, and Sasuke hisses as the mild electric shocks twinge just a bit painfully for the first time, where the muscle is thin and soft, but the way it relaxes after the fact makes it well worth the little sparks of pain. Kakashi's hands move next to his right shoulder, the arm that Sasuke has been using for his chidori training, and feels how tense the muscle there is. "This might sting a bit," he warns mildly. 

Sasuke's muscles clench and spasm all the way down his bicep and to his pectoral muscle on that side when Kakashi grinds his hands into the spot, and sends a fluttering current through the knots. He hears Sasuke grunt and sees him shake a bit, but then he relaxes when the muscle unspools, as if releasing tension from a fishing line. His hands move down the boy's skinny bicep, lifting his arm a bit to the side so he can wrap his hands around the muscle there and work it soft with his chakra. 

"You really are tense," Kakashi murmurs, as he works slowly down to Sasuke's hand, blistered and sensitive as it is. He's no healer, but even he can pump just a bit of chakra into the area to reduce some of the tenderness and stinging. "You don't give it away in your body language, but you're basically always in some level of pain, aren't you?"

A cold rush of relief fills Sasuke's chest, and he gasps like a man breeching air for the first time. Relief pours down his body in massive waves, making his back give, his chest, a rippling effect down from head to chest to gut as Kakashi unknots his arms, and shoulders, and spine. He grunts, a look of derision crossing his face, mouth pulled into a scowl. For a second, he really wants to just deny it, refusing to offer any more of himself to Kakashi than he strictly needed to give.

Yet, when he answers, Sasuke says, "When you work hard, soreness is to be expected," like some sort of battle-hardened soldier. Or maybe just one very well indoctrinated teenager. Shifting on the bed, Sasuke moves like he aims to nudge Kakashi's hands, not out of the way but rather pushing himself into them, but only slightly, hungry for more of those touches that flood him with molten warmth. The heaviness in him now is more poignant than any meditation, his body feeling heavy and slow from the treatment.

Kakashi hums thoughtfully as he climbs off the bed, only to circle around Sasuke at the foot of the bed, and climb back on so he can tackle his other side from a better vantage point. He could have just climbed over the boy, and the small effort made to go respectfully around him instead is noted. He sits at his left side, and starts to repeat the process down his left arm, starting at the shoulder and working all the way down to his hand. 

"I suppose you're right," he says with a wistful sigh. "I just wish the brunt of it wasn't taken by you children. 12 years old is awfully young to be in pain all the time."

Kakashi gets to Sasuke's hand, and this time he hisses as a sudden, sharp jolting pain makes his entire middle finger yank back as if pulled by a long, invisible thread,  a spasm of his mentor's lightning coursing through his body and rendering him stupid and speechless. It takes massive effort to force his hand to relax, and when he does, he's panting. Cheeks flushed and eyes faraway, Sasuke scrabbles just to breathe as he tries to force feeling to resume in his hand. 

Maybe it's a sign of his age, or maybe Sasuke just wants to make sure someone hears it, because Sasuke bites, "I'm 13."

"Hm?" Kakashi stops what he's doing and looks up at the boy, at his face turned away and his shoulders trembling ever so slightly. Kakashi's eyes drift over to the calendar on his wall. "Oh... that's right, it's July, isn't it? Your birthday was this month, right?" Sasuke's information, including his birthday, was written on the dossiers that Kakashi got on all three kids, but remembering the exact date wasn't exactly important.

Another deep grunt comes from Sasuke, who is feeling a familiar, cottony warmth beginning to spread through his gut. "Yeah," Sasuke grits through his teeth. Kakashi makes a curious noise under his breath, an inquiring 'Hm?' that denotes he didn't hear him, so Sasuke arches his back a little, lifting his head off of the mattress so he can mutter, "My birthday was yesterday," before he allows himself to fall back down, putty. 

"Oh." Kakashi pauses in his rubbing for just a moment, before he shifts on the bed, and the next thing Sasuke feels are his big hands grinding electric feeling into the sore back of his left thigh. His hamstring burns and twitches under his hands, and then like every other muscle in his body, relaxes as soon as Kakashi pulls his hand away to move farther down his corded thigh. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Sasuke makes another noise, damn-near a whimper, as he turns his face back into the pillow. The tension in his legs stretches deep, down inside, aching as his muscles unclench around bones for the first time in so long it aches. “What’s the point?” Sasuke asks at last, finally able to suck in a breath again, now relieved of his burden of tension, “We had other stuff going on.”

"I suppose," Kakashi muses as he leans over to repeat the process on Sasuke's other leg. "I don't really celebrate my birthday, either. I used to have a friend who insisted when we were younger, always made a nuisance of himself around my birthday, but... he's gone now. Flip over for me?"

Kakashi helps the boneless boy roll over onto his back on the bed, and just being flat on his back feels like heaven. Every muscle in the back of Sasuke's body melts like ice over a fire into the quilts on Kakashi's bed, as the jonin continues his work. He starts at Sasuke's neck, cupping a palm to either side and pressing in with the heels of his hands, sending a jolt of pain through the mark on Sasuke's neck, but it only lasts for a moment as relief unfurls in the boy's tense trapezius muscles.

Sasuke's eyebrows knit forward, and he's now forced to face Kakashi as he makes a face, because his teacher is right there. Stubbornly Sasuke moves on, refusing to feel shyness or humble himself further by offering embarrassment. So instead he just takes his relaxation head-on like it, in itself, was a trial; as if Kakashi coaxing calm into his muscles was a painstaking training exercise. The way he'd phrased it to date, it may as well have been. 

"Even if I'd said it, what would the point be?" Sasuke asks under his breath, voice dark as his shoulders melt back into the bed. He opens an eye, and at last Sasuke makes eye contact with Kakashi through his hair, "Would you throw me a party?" He asks, with a sly smile.

"I don't like parties very much," Kakashi says thoughtfully as he moves his hands down to Sasuke's chest. He cups his hands around the boy's pectoral muscles and grinds into his skin, sending a jolt of electricity into his chest. It feels... different here, than it had on his back. It reverberates through his chest cavity and takes his breath away, as if Kakashi had struck him right in the stomach. "And somehow I get the feeling you don't either. But maybe I would have taken you out for dinner," Kakashi continues, his voice mild as ever.

Sasuke's eyes narrow, and he quickly searches Kakashi's face or any sign of lechery. He's high on his guard, suspicious ever since Kakashi invited him into his home, into his bed, naked. Unable to stop it, Sasuke pitches his chin back, and lets out a quiet huff of air, as this new feeling swarms his body in a similar heavy-bodied relaxation that sinks him deeper into himself. Kakashi's hands are powerful and gentle. He runs one across the top of his stomach, and in an instant he's transported somewhere else entirely, a place with different hands, it was night--

"I'll--" He tries to respond, because it's normal. Sasuke tries his best to respond. But opening his mouth proves to be a mistake as his throat locks up around his next words, and suddenly Sasuke's barely-suppressed moan ekes out just a little, a quiet, throaty, "Mmm."

Kakashi either doesn't notice, or perhaps mistakes the sound for pain as his hands move from Sasuke's chest, down to his stomach. His core muscles are stiff and sore, perhaps worse than any other muscle in his body, and Kakashi can feel how tightly knotted his abdominal wall is just by ghosting his hands over them. He rubs his hands deep into Sasuke's stomach, making the muscles clench up as electricity is poured into them. 

It's a feeling Sasuke hasn't had in a long time, as every muscle in his belly goes tight and hot. Kakashi is looking down at his own hands, rather than at Sasuke's face, so he doesn't notice the way his expression pinches tightly as a sensation grips him by the lower stomach and floods heat downwards. It's strange, not exactly pleasure in the most literal sense, but more like relief. As if everything from his navel down to his groin were gripped very tightly in a vice, and then suddenly released. It's like the feeling of being stuck in a deep squat for hours, and then finally standing up and stretching out your legs, but combined with that residual warm tingle that Kakashi's hands have been leaving everywhere they go on his body.

Incredulous wonder fills Sasuke's chest, as he barely bites back another moan. Kakashi's hands were magic, this seemed like such a simple technique. He makes a note to demand Kakashi teach it to him later, if he could master this on his own, he could at least release the muscles in his thighs and arms and chest, himself. Maybe he would need to figure out how to get his back... but he could, probably. He was smart. Or maybe he'd ask Kakashi to help him again.

Ha ha. Right.

Kakashi's hands continue downwards, working in smooth, intentional paths, and Sasuke can watch through his lashes with barely-concealed heat. As his hands slip down again, Sasuke realizes his danger, and all at once his hands snap up, rigid with tension, so suddenly the rest of his body follows suit before long. He snatches at Kakashi's hands before they can take another stroke, circling his wrists with his own hands and yanking him away from his body, eyes wide and just a little wild, nostrils flaring with a barely-suppressed panic, "You don't need to keep going," Sasuke commands.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi looks as surprised as he can, with most of his face obscured. But his brows are raised, and his eyes a touch wider than usual. He doesn't wrench his hands immediately out of Sasuke's grip, letting the boy contain his wrists for now. He doesn't know why Sasuke reacted so suddenly and violently, but he can see real fear in his eyes. Maybe he'd done something to hurt him. "I was almost done," he says. "I just need to finish your quads, and then--"

Kakashi's eyes drift down towards Sasuke's thighs as he mentions them, and it's then that he sees the source of Sasuke's panic. There, tenting the front of his underwear, is an unmistakable erection. The sight of it makes Kakashi laugh softly-- he can't help it. 

"Relax, Sasuke. It's perfectly natural, especially at your age. The reason this technique works to relax your muscles is because it constricts your blood vessels, and then relaxes them to send blood flowing rapidly to the area," Kakashi says, still letting the boy keep hold of his hands, so he doesn't make him any more jumpy. "I forgot to mention that can happen as a side effect. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

That reaction, in a way, feels worse. The laughter, the condescending downtalk, the brief, informational blip; Sasuke feels indignation raise in his chest in ugly combat with the warmth also turning his body and limbs to goo. Vices around Kakshi's wrists, Sasuke squeezes his hands, frowning as he looks down at himself, then back at his teacher, heart pounding in his chest. What does he say, he's hard-- he hadn't even noticed when it happened.

Was it because of Kakshi's hands, so big and strong stroking long-forgotten paths across his chest? Was it the simple gesture of physical intimacy after six excruciating years without? Maybe it was just the matter of receiving this level of care, overwhelming him even on an emotional level, if nothing else.

Sasuke doesn't let go of Kakashi's wrists, refusing to even loosen the handcuff-like grip he has on the older man. "We can move on," Sasuke urges again, voice a sharp clip, but he doesn't seem to be relenting in the demand that they stop whatever part of Kaskhi's training involved this massage, as much as he might miss it. There was no way he'd allow it to continue, given his current state. It would be humiliating.

Kakashi tilts his head curiously to one side as he watches Sasuke's expression. He doesn't just look embarrassed. Kakashi has seen embarrassed children before, and they never look as frightened as Sasuke does. There's a real anger behind his eyes, a tension in his brow and jaw, as if he's daring Kakashi to do something. He looks ready to fight, he looks frankly tortured. This isn't a boy reacting with shame for an embarrassing bodily function... this is a boy running from something. 

"Sasuke..." Kakashi tugs gently at his wrists, and the boy relents, releasing his hands. Kakashi rests them on his knees to keep them in range of sight for the boy, so he can be sure of where Kakashi's hands are at all times. Kakashi takes in a slow inhale, as he carefully picks over his words to order them in the most productive way possible. "Did something... happen to you? When you were younger? You know... intimately?"

Sasuke feels it, then. His heart, plummeting through his chest. Head snapping up to Kakashi with eyes narrowed, ready to fight, it makes it pretty easy to see the answer to Kakashi's question written right there across his face, plain as day-- and yet still, his mouth sets into a frown, his shoulders tense up again, almost an hour now of labor alone, immediately snapped right back into place, undone in a matter of seconds. Of course Kakashi would know, this is what happened. He was an older jonin. There was no way Kakashi got away without knowing, when he learned the world so young--

"No," He says, when every other indicator screams yes, "Nothing happened to me. I had a normal introduction to intimacy." He repeats the word formally with possibly the least amount of convincing steam, "And we don't need to talk about it." He bites, before Kakashi has the chance to ask. 

"Well, I'm convinced," Kakashi says sarcastically, holding his hands up as if in surrender. "You sound really normal right now, you're right."

He drops his hands a moment later when Sasuke just scoffs and looks away, and he turns to face him completely, re-crossing his legs on the bed. "Was it someone older? An older man?" Kakashi asks, tipping his head slightly to one side, his tone as blithe as ever. "Was it willing?"

"Yes, can we move on?" Sasuke hates talking about Itachi this way, it wasn't like he could even say it. Saying 'yes', answering all three questions at once, was already more than Kakashi needed to know. He didn't need to know how he'd given his first (almost) everything to his brother before someone unworthy could claim them, he didn't need to know that yes, Sasuke understands, sees, and hates the irony that he lives in, now. His mouth feels bitter, and worst still, the heat hasn't faded with the time in between words, it seems to have crystalized, turning into a bundle of need that demands to be satisfied before fading away.

Kakashi hums low in his chest, and scoots to put his back to the wall beside his bed, crooking his legs up to put his feet flat on the bed, and he crosses his arms over his knees. He tips his head back so his face tips up towards the ceiling, but he looks down at Sasuke with just his eyes, that one red sharingan iris boring into Sasuke deliberately. 

"The same thing happened to me," Kakashi finally admits after a moment of silence. "With my sensei."

He lifts his head to look at the picture at the head of his bed on the bookshelf there, and watches as Sasuke's eyes follow to the photograph, where a man who looks... a lot like Naruto is standing behind Kakashi and his other two teammates, mirroring almost the exact same pose that Sasuke and his teammates are in, in front of Kakashi in the framed photograph right beside it. Seeing the pictures of Naruto and Kakashi's sensei side by side is surreal.

Sasuke takes a second just to stare at them. It's weird, seeing Kakashi so young, with a teacher of his own-- And yeah, it definitely looked like an Uchiha in the picture with him. They were all so young... Kakashi, especially, seemed younger in comparison to his teammates, but Sasuke remembers that he'd beat his chunin exams at six, so... maybe makes sense. Still.

"He made you strong," Sasuke says finally, after a pause that feels like it stretches too long. But it's a break, it's an opportunity, Sasuke talking where he previously said he would never, "You did what you needed to do. That's normal." For lives like theirs, at least. Looking at Kakashi's teacher, weirdly, though, he didn't look like the type to force such an exchange. Sasuke's mouth purses into a thin line, reinforced by the idea that it really is everywhere.

"Is that what he told you?" Kakashi asks. He doesn't know who this mysterious older man is that Sasuke is talking about, but he finds himself trying to deduce based on context clues. It was when Sasuke was even younger than he is now. Who did he even have in his life before? Suddenly Kakashi's eyes widen slightly. "It wasn't Iruka, was it?"

Repulsion crosses Sasuke's face. Not necessarily because Iruka was disgusting as a human, but the thought of.... that coming from him? That Sasuke would give himself to a chunin like him for power when he teaches children-- like Sasuke needed that, so early. "No," he finally says, "It wasn't Iruka."

Kakashi looks immediately relieved, though he doesn't elaborate on why. To Sasuke's relief, he doesn't keep guessing, or try to push for details on who it was, past that. It seems like as long as it wasn't Iruka, Kakashi is content to let it be a mystery. 

"This man who did this to you, did he tell you it was to make you strong?" Kakashi asks, once his posture has relaxed again. "Is he the reason you don't touch yourself ever?" He sees Sasuke's judgmental eyes snap towards him, and he raises his hands off his knees in surrender, his wrists still resting on them. "Look, your parents died before your father could have this sort of talk with you, didn't they? I'm not trying to do anything unsavory, I promise. Just talk to me."

It feels like a sin to talk about what he and Itachi had spoken of in private. The things he'd been told, he'd been told out of sympathy. People in the village probably don't talk often about the way their boys are pledged to their teachers before they even realize it. Itachi had done what he did to spare Sasuke of being taken advantage of the same way. 

"He told me about how younger shinobi are expected to perform for their mentors," Sasuke, too, picks his words carefully. It's painful to remember so long ago, words and memories he'd thought were locked deep behind a pain-wall, too sensitive to breech. "In exchange for our bodies, we're given access to their strength, and knowledge. We service them, and by making them happy they make us stronger. That's how this works." And again Sasuke's voice is sharp, clearly expecting the drop.

"That's... pretty much on the money," Kakashi says with a sigh. "It sounds like he went through the same thing when he was your age, then. That's how the cycle continues. It happens to them, so they do it to the next generation, who does it to the next, and on and on it goes." He looks over at the framed photograph again, his shoulders slumping slightly. He drops his chin down towards his chest. "It was willing with my sensei, too. Sort of. I was pretty confused at first, but... I warmed up to it. I wasn't with him for very long, though. I was 13 when it started, and 14 when he died. After that, I never let an older man touch me again. I was griefstricken."

Sasuke's eyes flick back to the picture, staring at it for a long time before looking back down at Kakashi. He doesn't really know what to say. Itachi wasn't really that much older than him when it happened, obviously not like Kakashi and his sensei. Slowly, Sasuke pulls himself into a seated position too, not quite wanting to be stretched out, bare and erect, when they were having such a serious talk. He draws his legs back to his torso, and tucks his hands into his lap, hoping to release just a little of the tension. 

Upright, Sasuke still doesn't look at Kakashi right away, if only because the story seems too vulnerable to just confront like that. But, he needs to, and finally Sasuke manages an awkward, "I'm... sorry," which is about the best one can expect from a traumatized Uchiha.

Kakashi seems to recognize the gesture for what it is though, his head tipping to the side and his eyes squinting in what must be a smile. "You don't have to apologize. Like you said, it's how this works. But I do know that hiding from your own body won't help you move past whatever it is you're struggling with, when it comes to the subject of pleasure. I can understand being shy about getting excited in front of an older man, but not even being able to spend personal time with yourself? Well... I went through a period like that, too. It took me a long time to move past it, but what finally did it was being willing to explore that side of myself with someone else for the first time after. If that's something you're comfortable with, I'd recommend reaching out to someone you trust. You'll be less afraid of the old, bad memories if you replace them with newer, positive ones."

Sasuke scoffs, leaning back and looking elsewhere, anywhere but there. Looking at Kakashi during this conversation feels too intense and vulnerable, t he simple fact being, "I don't trust anyone." Sasuke has to hope that's good enough, staring at the shuriken design on Kakashi's bedspread, and smoothing his hand down one. Begrudgingly, he adds, "It's not usually a problem... spending time with myself," Or having no one, for that matter.

"Isn't it? You told me you don't do that sort of thing," Kakashi says, quoting Sasuke from just an hour ago. 

“I mean I don’t usually need to,” Sasuke says again, but louder now, more insistent as his knees close in on himself.

"Is there really no one you trust?" Kakashi asks, not giving up on the subject so easily. "What about Sakura? You know she'd fall ass over kettle for the chance to be with you." 

“That’s the problem.” Sasuke can’t help the look of revulsion that crosses his face, though it’s far too extreme a reaction for Kakashi’s question. It’s unkind to Sakura, reacting that way— and Sasuke does, and doesn’t stop himself even after he realizes, “I’m not interested in using Sakura for my own satisfaction, leading her on, then ditching her once I’m done, and that’s all it would be. I do something like that, it devastates a person. It’s annoying.”

Kakashi hums in thought, as he drops his legs down to sit cross-legged again, folding his hands together in his lap. "That's very noble of you, Sasuke. I'd almost accuse you of being thoughtful about her feelings," he says with a little humor in his voice, and predictably gets a glare from Sasuke for his efforts. "It may not make sense to you, but I think this repulsion you have towards intimacy may be affecting you in ways you don't even realize. To be so uncomfortable in your own skin can damage your relationship with your own body in many ways. To refuse even the concept of pleasure at all angles damages your relationship with yourself. If the only relationship you have with your own body is one of suffering, pain and grief, it affects all facets of your life, from your self-confidence to your ability to form connections with others. I strongly suggest seeking someone out to explore this side of yourself, when you can. It's natural, at your age."

Sasuke tightens his own legs closer to his own body, frowning as he rolls his shoulders, in what Kakashi has learned by now is more of a self-soothing gesture than one of agitation or soreness. He was still anxious. "You're not hearing me," Sasuke sounds frustrated even to his own ears, and while he was raised to show respect to his betters, especially when they're as powerful and smart as Kakashi was, he can't help it. This line was drawn deep in the sand, etched there over years and years of repeated dismissal, of his own emotions, of his own needs, "I don't want to seek someone out. I want nothing to do with any of it. There's not a point when it never comes up. You said it yourself, this could happen anyway, it's just because you're down there doing, doing..." He gestures, annoyed and fruitlessly, at Kakashi's hands. Like he was doing anything.

Kakashi's head tips thoughtfully to the side as he absorbs Sasuke's words. "Do you truly not want to be intimate with someone?" he asks. "What are you so afraid of? What part of intimacy frightens you?"

"Afraid? I'm not afraid," Sasuke snaps, and bristles, too, feeling cornered and pinned down, where he makes his worst decisions. "I'm asking to move on," Sasuke reiterates for what he thinks is the third time. Kakashi doesn't have to listen to him, obviously, but Sasuke really puts his all into giving more Uchiha authority into his words, and Kakashi doesn't even blink at his effort.

"Because you're afraid of the subject," Kakashi says calmly, completely unperturbed by Sasuke's prickly attitude. "I'm asking you to examine that fear instead of running from it. It seems running is standard for you, when it comes to this."

Sasuke looks at the older man, clearly indignant at the implication and sour at having to confront it. He doesn't say anything for another long stretch, before he finally speaks through his grit teeth, "The person I was with last..." Sasuke can't say his brother, can't put a name to his experience, both for himself and his present company, "I don't know what will happen. If I go down that path with someone else. I don't... know how I'll feel. I wasn't lying earlier when I said it doesn't usually come up." 

Sure there were nights when Sasuke could feel the raging hormones of boyhood screeching for attention in his ear, but they were easy to ignore when there were other goals more pressing and urgent. Most nights he tried to work himself so hard he fell asleep easily, toppling into bed from sheer exhaustion and not waking up until the sun gets in his eyes. 

"Ahhh..." Kakashi nods knowingly. He tips his head back against the wall, to at least give Sasuke relief from being looked at. "When I lost my sensei, I pushed other people away for many years, because I was afraid to be vulnerable with another person and then lose them again. Losing someone that you have that close connection with is one of the greatest pains this world has to offer. Whoever said it's better to have loved and lost was a con man."

It's what Kakashi had said before, but Sasuke hadn't felt pressured to talk. He does now, and it's not the worst, but still, Sasuke can feel the pain of this topic deep in his chest, sitting on his lungs. "The last time it happened I was a kid," Sasuke confesses, and inadvertently gives Kakashi more than he means to. He implies he was younger than now, but this previous stage of his life was presumably when he was 9 and had freshly joined the school-- which meant it was likely an Uchiha, or the small collection of families their clan kept close. Made sense, they always say it's the people closest to you.

"Maybe I'm experienced but I don't... really even know what to do or where to begin. Going out with Sakura or some girl and fooling around would be... embarrassing."

"Why do you think it would be embarrassing?" Kakashi asks, his voice calm and nonjudgmental. "Do you think someone your age would have much more experience than you? I suppose your fear of not meeting expectations makes sense, given the pressure put on you constantly by every adult around you, including myself. Everyone expects great things from you, and you never fail to deliver. So when it comes to a subject you have so little experience in, you feel inadequate, and it's easier to pretend you don't have human needs like everyone else."

He sighs softly. "Not to mention your peers are cruel, and judgmental, and far more immature than you are in most cases. Most of them can't even come close to understanding the kind of grief and rage you carry, that forced you to grow up even more quickly than them. How could you ever hope to relate to them, much less be vulnerable with them?"

Sasuke is drawn to silence, made a little awkward and hesitant at just how effectively Kakashi seems to... summarize exactly what he's thinking. He falters, and looks down, quiet for a minute before replying, "....Yeah."

"It seems as though the cards have been uniquely stacked against you when it comes to trusting someone enough to have that sort of relationship with them," Kakashi says, looking back down at Sasuke, balled up so tight and small on his bed, almost completely naked and vulnerable, just like he's been talking about. He leans over, Sasuke clenching up in surprise, but a moment later he feels Kakashi peel back the quilt from his bed and pick it up to tuck around Sasuke so he can curl up into it safely. "I'm sorry to hear you have no one you can trust. You must feel lonely."

Sasuke feels the warmth of the blanket immediately, and relief puddles in his stomach, making him immediately, embarrassingly, soft. When was the last time such a simple gesture had made him feel so... nice? Genuinely wanted, softly cared for-- Sasuke's stomach cramps when he realizes when it had been, and it certainly hadn't been a day of self-care by his own hand. Taking that corner of the blanket, Sasuke pulls it around his shoulder and waist, thankful for the layer between them, especially now that he feels so vulnerable. 

Too vulnerable to go into more detail, still shocked at how their generally carefree and shit talking leader is reacting, Sasuke only manages again, "Yeah." He's quieter this time, and his head hangs now, focused in his lap.

Kakashi lets Sasuke huddle up for a moment, as the gravity of the situation seems to grow less severe with time. After a few moments of silence, he reaches out to buff his knuckles against Sasuke's bare knee. 

"Do you think you could let me finish your legs now?" he asks. "They're going to be particularly sore tomorrow if I don't relax the muscles. The rest of you will feel great, but your thighs will hurt like crazy." Whereas before he was talking like Sasuke had no choice but to submit to this 'relaxation training' as Kakashi called it, now he frames it like an offer-- one that Sasuke can either consent to or not.

Hesitating, Sasuke does relent after a moment, the hand worrying that blanket at long last going soft. He nods and drops the blanket, then slowly nudges it off of himself,  as Kakashi leans back to give him room. Sasuke doesn't dawdle or linger too long anywhere; he kicks the blanket off of his legs, and reluctantly lays himself back down onto his back, hesitant to assume the same sensitive position that left him open to such scrutiny. But he didn't have much of a choice, and instead just wills himself to stay soft this time, fully aware it probably won't work.

He knows the instant that Kakashi's hands, glowing with chakra, touch his thighs. It was a losing battle as soon as he relented to let Kakashi finish his massage. Heat floods back to the area even before the electric shock is applied, just the feeling of Kakashi's strong hands on his skinny thighs is enough to remind his body of what it feels like to be touched at all. Thankfully Kakashi doesn't look at it, and Sasuke does check to see if he's looking, but Kakashi's eyes are focused squarely on his own hands as they knead at Sasuke's thighs. 

Maybe it's the conversation they just had, but Sasuke could swear Kakashi's hands feel different on his skin now. Maybe it's just that they're touching such a sensitive area, as Kakashi gently parts his legs so he can rub his thumbs deeply into the tight, knotted muscle of Sasuke's inner thigh, striking a pressure point somewhere around his femoral artery that hits Sasuke in the belly like a mallet to a gong.

Another keening moan that Sasuke outright has to eat, nearly choking himself on a punched-out groan as that release of muscles and tension hits him all at once. It's unfair to expect stoicism from the boy, and in Kakashi's defense, he never did-- It was purely a self-inflicted torment, as their previous conversation had highlighted and underscored. Kakashi had made his suggestions on just what to do for Sasuke, and he'd said no.

So he focuses on his breathing, instead. The air is still cold, though it's warming from chakra expulsion by the second as Kakashi uses his abilities. Quickly, Sasuke seeks to breathe in through his teeth, to feel the bracing ice of the air against them as he looks back down the line of his body, landing on Kakashi and watching with serious intent as the man maneuvers him like he's worried he might now break the boy if he wasn't careful-- or like he was intentionally trying to avoid triggering him.

But Sasuke's body is young, and imperfect. His control over his body isn't absolute yet, like it might be for a jonin. Kakashi could probably will himself not to get an erection in this situation, Sasuke has heard all about the abilities that jonin have to control their blood flow and breathing and heart beat. But Sasuke is just a boy, and a tired one at that, and he rises in his underwear all over again. 

Still, at least, Kakashi doesn't look, but he can feel the tremble in Sasuke's thighs as he grinds the tension out of them dutifully. "You know, as your sensei, it's my duty to look out for you. I think that might apply here, too. There have to be options outside of the rookie genin that you could turn to for comfort. Maybe that girl from the sand village, what was her name? Temari? She's 16, she might be more around your level in maturity."

He's half joking, but also half serious. Maybe Sasuke really does need someone older, just so he doesn't feel like he's so far ahead of whoever he's with developmentally.

Humiliation burns in Sasuke's gut, though it's derived entirely separate from anything Kakashi said. Inherently, his teacher's words weren't awful, he didn't say them with any malice or mocking derision, and worse still is that Sasuke believes if he did say anything, Kakashi would probably take it in stride. If Sasuke mentioned the sand ninja girl being an option, he had no doubt Kakashi would lurk and try to figure out a plan of attack on how to seduce her. Truthfully, she is more his speed-- from what he heard, it seemed like they knew about him, but only in that way most people knew of the fabled Uchihas. If anything she'd probably want to conquer him. 

Unfortunately he can't give anyone that honor. It would be worse, to be vulnerable to her and let her cleave him open. Even more of a waste. He tilts his head back on the pillow, grunting in his chest as Kakashi works a knot out of his thigh that's so deeply-set that it makes Sasuke's toes curl when it releases. 

"Kakashi," Sasuke says, and it sounds like another warning for his teacher to behave, though he can't quite get the rest of the words out.

"What? I'm helping," Kakashi says, and now his words do take on a teasing tone. But it's light-hearted and gentle, like an encouraging but slightly out-of-touch father. "Or what about that girl from the sound village, Kin? She's a pretty thing, and older too. I bet she could keep up with you."

His hands switch to the other thigh, rubbing deep into the muscle along his inseam, where it's particularly sensitive. It isn't just that the feeling of old knots loosening feels good, just having warm, human hands on his skin at all feels good. Sasuke has gone six long years without being touched by anyone at all outside of combat or medical purposes, and it really shows in the way his skin prickles with pins and needles in the places where Kakashi lays his hands.

Sasuke's belly swoops and dives in time with those passes across his skin. How can he tell Kakashi what he's doing is everything he needs? How could he hope to get this from either girl from villages that would rather he be dead than satisfied. Even if he could get them to sleep with him for the pride of it, there's no reason either of them wouldn't kill him just because they had the opportunity. It really seemed like that's where these matches were going. It was one of the reasons Sasuke needed to get out of the hospital so badly.

He makes another noise as his thoughts are interrupted by Kakashi's hands passing over his hip, and Sasuke doesn't even know what they're doing up there, rearranging him, holding him down while he kneads, whatever-- Sasuke doesn't care. He makes another low noise under his breath and groans, "Fine," He says at last, arching his back as the diving in his belly takes another flipping turn in his gut.

"Really? I was kidding about Kin," Kakashi says, as his hands slip lower again, to check over the muscles in his thighs for any sign of tension. It's hard to tell because Sasuke is tensing them himself every few seconds when they quiver for a second. He can tell Sasuke is turned on, just like he was before, but he keeps idly talking to hopefully make Sasuke a little less afraid of his own body by showing him that it's nothing to be ashamed of or feel so strongly about. "But you know, I'm not above hiring someone if you need release. Someone you'll never see again, with no strings attached. She wouldn't even be a ninja."

Sasuke wrinkles his nose, making a frustrated noise from his throat, "Kakashi," Sasuke growls again, huffing as he remembers his breathing, he remembers how to ground; All things considered, Sasuke is doing everything right to stop himself from humiliating himself like this, and yet, here he was, embarrassed all the same. It's even worse now that he'd shown his hand. 

He raises his own from the bed, and grinds the heel of his palm against his eye, pressing in hard as he tries to center himself around the blurry feeling of his skin on skin. Gritting his teeth through another release that hits Sasuke right in the dick, he grunts again, "Are you-- always this annoying-- when someone's trying to do something--" Sasuke complains, toothless and equally boneless, heels digging into the bed as he squirms.

"Yes," Kakashi says, his eyes squinting as he looks up towards the boy's face. "I'm sorry, is there something you're trying to do? Do you have somewhere you need to be all of a sudden?" he teases, as he flicks a finger into Sasuke's thigh with a tiny zap, just to torment him, but that zap immediately jolts into his cock again, which is so hard now that it's begun to throb and leak into the fabric. Kakashi seems to finally realize how tortured Sasuke really is when the boy grunts and arches again, and his teasing attitude drops. "Seriously, do you want me to go find someone?"

An agonized noise leaves Sasuke's throat, and he leans his head back into the cool linen of the pillow. At least that feels nice against his neck, but it's the only thing giving him any reprieve. "I said fine," Sasuke repeats louder, strung out and needing just a bit more-- If he had no dignity his hands would be under the covers already, he'd be kicking Kakashi out of the room and dealing with it on his own. Maybe he should, if he hadn't been so stubborn before he could have. "To you," Sasuke finally growls the important bit out loud. He squeezes his eyes shut, unable to look at Kakashi or be looked at by him, and not wanting to know which was happening. He keeps them shut, hands now fisting in the blanket and releasing in a kittenish knead, "Just- can you just--" He feels humiliated, his stomach and chest and belly all feel white-hot with embarrassment. Asking his teacher to touch him like a child who doesn't know what's wrong, like he's an animal who can't take care of himself. 

Sasuke's eyebrows knit together, and he makes another breathless noise in his throat, "Please."

With Sasuke's eyes clenched tightly shut, he doesn't see the way Kakashi's brows raise in surprise. Sasuke was asking him to touch him. Kakashi's first instinct is to ask Sasuke if he really means what he's asking, but he knows if he doubts the boy, he'll just clam up even tighter than before. Kakashi was the one who was advocating for Sasuke to reach out to someone he trusts, and if this is him reaching out, that means he trusts Kakashi. And if Kakashi were to reject him now, he's quite sure the boy would just set himself on fire to escape the humiliation. 

His second instinct is to ask if Sasuke is sure, but he knows again, Sasuke would shrivel like a slug in salt if Kakashi displayed any signs of unwillingness after the boy had made such a herculean effort to ask him for help. The fact that Sasuke is asking Kakashi to touch him is a big deal, a huge deal, and that isn't lost on him. 

"Alright, alright," he murmurs. "It's okay. I've got you."

The glow of chakra recedes from Kakashi's hands, and he reaches up to cup one big palm over Sasuke's package through his underwear. His hand is big enough that it completely envelopes both Sasuke's cock and balls, and he grinds the heel of that hand into both, shooting searing heat up into Sasuke's belly.

"Ah..." Immediately, Sasuke's voice bears evidence of the touch. He moans brokenly, tilting his head back, those fingers going white-knuckled in the sheets. His back arches, the warmth turning into an inferno in an instant. His body reacts quickly, desperately rushing to the scene of touch with heat and blood that fills Sasuke with so much sensation so fast his stomach turns nauseatingly at the overwhelming feeling of it.  "Sensei--" It feels too vulnerable to say Kakashi's name like this, he wonders what he's even feeling.

He said he'd done it with his teacher, too. It was normal for them, he said it. Kakashi didn't ask for this, but he was doing it anyway, just because Sasuke asked-- did that mean he didn't actually want to? Was he pressuring his teacher in the reverse, manipulating with the pathetic nature of his writhing? 

Unfortunately he doesn't have the brain power for those kinds of thoughts. Sasuke turns his head to the side when tilted just isn't enough, furrowing his brow as his entire body trembles, already so close to falling apart with a singular palm and grind.

"Stop me if I do anything you don't like," Kakashi says, his voice calm as ever, despite the fact that he feels a little flutter in his chest. He can't help the fact that he feels... special, in a way. He's not so girlish and trite that he thinks he's special specifically, though Sasuke's trust in him does affect him profoundly. But rather this experience feels special. To be asked to take part in something Sasuke struggles with so severely, pushing away everyone his own age because of unimaginable trauma... Kakashi had said it himself, the boy couldn't relate to his peers. But Kakashi... he knows where Sasuke is coming from. He's never explicitly described as much in detail, but he gets the feeling Sasuke has picked up on it implicitly just by seeing his sharingan eye. 

He moves fluidly to sit between Sasuke's thighs, cross legged and polite. Ordinarily he would ask more questions of the people he beds, check in with them frequently to make sure they consent to every step of the process, but in this case Kakashi gets the feeling that would hurt Sasuke more than help him. He trusts Kakashi, and he doesn't want the boy to think that trust is misplaced. So he'll take the lead, and in kind trust Sasuke to stop him if he gets nervous, just like he did before. 

Pulling down the waistband of Sasuke's boxers to expose him, his cock stands pink and erect off of his hips, without a wisp of body hair to be seen. He's so smooth and soft looking, even in places where the shadows of early muscle cut lines into his torso and arms. Kakashi has never gone for the kid thing, even though it would be within his rights as a jonin sensei, but he's not blind. He can see the objective appeal in Sasuke's quivering form, shaking on his bedspread like a leaf.

"You're okay," Kakashi murmurs again, as he wraps his hand around Sasuke's bare cock, and gives him a firm stroke. Sasuke's cock is about as long as Kakashi's palm is wide, so he doesn't get a lot of mileage out of that stroke, but what he lacks in distance he makes up for with pressure. 

Those words ring in sickening parallel to the last time Sasuke had been bed, too. Itachi had always been very worried about it. Emotion suddenly wells from somewhere else in his chest, and the pleasure he feels coursing through his veins suddenly makes the rest of his body feel quivery and weak. He grits his teeth, abjectly refusing to go down that path, to feel  those emotions, too-- but Kakashi's hand strokes him so immediately and well it breaks Sasuke's emotional barrier down fast.

He gasps, and immediately cums into Kakashi's hand, just like that. It barely took a minute. Pleasure hits Sasuke like a sledgehammer, making him arch his hips and gasp and squirm, and then he sags, goes boneless, and he can already feel: It wasn't enough. Kakashi's hand hasn't even had a chance to pull away before Sasuke's cock is throbbing to fill again, desperate for another round, and leaving Sasuke groaning.

"Sorry, I don't--" He shakes his head, "It's-- you don't have to--" Kakashi had already done it once and that was all he could ask, it was Sasuke's fault for not taking advantage of the time to enjoy what few strokes he had, too stuck in his head to really feel what was going on as it was happening and forced to move reactively, instead. Self-loathing fills his chest just as pleasure rises its head again, a horrible hydra of sensation that seems less effective the more Sasuke fights it.

Kakashi can see how badly Sasuke is struggling, and some part of his weary old heart softens because of it. He doesn't know in detail what this boy has been through, but he can tell what suffering looks like when he sees it. Sasuke was so traumatized by the loss of whoever it was that he'd been with when he was younger. And while Kakashi could make an educated guess who, given everything he knows about Sasuke... he also respects him enough to not let that thought crystalize. It doesn't matter who it was. 

"Hey, deep breaths," Kakashi says. "It's okay. Just let me take care of you."

There's a shifting between Sasuke's thighs, and he opens bleary eyes to look down at Kakashi. His eyes widen as he sees Kakashi's hand reaching up towards his mask. It happens so quickly that Sasuke doesn't even have time to process what's happening before Kakashi's face is exposed to him. The subject of frequent debate between Sakura and Naruto that Sasuke pretends he has no interest in participating in, but even he isn't immune to curiosity. Kakashi is such a private man, and just like that, Sasuke can see his whole face. 

Handsome doesn't even really come close. There's a little beauty mark on his chin, the type that geishas draw on enviably, and his eyes flick up for just a moment to meet Sasuke's shocked expression, before he moves as fluidly as a snake to sink down to his stomach, and takes Sasuke into his mouth in one graceful motion. Sasuke's thighs are looped up over his shoulders, his bare feet resting on his back as Kakashi takes him right down to the root in one suck.

Sasuke barely has time to process what he saw. It was Kakashi's face, now burned into his memory, but a second later he's being sucked, and like muscle memory, his hand raises to his mouth, smothering himself before he makes a sound. Gasping into his own hand, Sasuke's opposite hand fists into the bedspread, finding no relief like if it were hair. He wished he could sink his fingers into his hair, Kakashi's looked so soft all the time, and while he'd never possessed the urge before, he can suddenly remember what it felt. 

But the gesture is too intimate, the acknowledgement is too strong. Gasping for his breath, Sasuke loses the fight to his emotions punching away at his chest, and the next time he gasps, it's through a sob. He doesn't even mean to do it, Sasuke certainly didn't want to cry, but Kakashi's mouth feels sinfully hot, wet and soft around his cock that immediately throbs and fills hard. It's not like there was much to erect, and Sasuke had a good heartrate. 

Sensei-- Kakashi-- Sasuke thinks both these words instead of says them, both of them feel wrong for different reasons. He screams those names in his head, though, the war in himself not even letting him relax all the way as he instead simply opens his mouth into his hand and cries out, hips arching as he seeks deeper into that mouth.

Kakashi lays flat on his stomach, his hands looped around to nestle in the hinge of Sasuke's thighs where they meet his hips. He hears the boy's hand tighten into a fist so hard it creaks in his quilt, so he unlatches it from his bedspread gently to move it to his hair, where it belongs. If Sasuke wants to move it again after, that's up to him, but Kakashi gets the feeling that without permission, Sasuke wouldn't touch Kakashi at all. 

The cock in his mouth is the most perfect size of any he'd ever sucked. He's not exactly the world's most prolific cocksucker, but he's had more than a few in his day, and he finds the dimensions of Sasuke's extremely satisfying to suck. His cock is exactly as long as Kakashi's mouth is deep, the head resting right at the entrance to his throat when his lips are sealed around the base. It's not very thick, though that's to be expected of his age, just the perfect size for him to wrap his tongue beneath like a cradle as he pulls up to the tip, and then swallows him back down. 

It's surreal, looking down at Kakashi, for more reasons than one. To see his face, uncovered so blatantly without even a word of warning, is an unimaginable gesture of trust. A reward maybe, for Sasuke's bravery in pushing his own comfort zone, or perhaps meeting him in the middle by offering him vulnerability in return. Or maybe he just doesn't actually care that much, and he only covers his face to give himself an air of mystery for fun. The fact that that's actually just as likely a truth about his enigmatic sensei is not lost on Sasuke.

But it's also surreal because any time Sasuke and Itachi fooled around, it was always under cover of darkness, in the middle of the night. It's getting to be night time now, the sky a dark purple turning blue-black with stars coming out where the sky is darkest, but Kakashi's lamp is on and the room is fully lit. Sasuke can see every detail of his mouth as it seals around his cock, and his cheeks as they pull tight and hollow with every bob of his head. He can see the determined furrow in his brow, and the white lashes where they lace together on his cheeks, his eyes closed in an expression of concentration. He can even see the slight pink flush on his sensei's cheeks, affected in his own way just by having Sasuke in his mouth.

Sasuke remembers how that feels, to be in Kakashi's place. He wonders how he must look like from down below. Daring to glance down, Sasuke chooses the exact wrong time, and makes perfect eye contact with Kakashi right away. He immediately balks, looking down or up or just away. He absolutely could not make eye contact, not yet, but even as a kid it'd been too much-- and he'd liked and trusted Itachi fully. His gut sours, and Sasuke squeezes his eyes shut again, another fresh twist of pain making him moan into the heel of his hand.

How unfair was this, to have memories of his brother in a time like now? Sasuke's mind is haunted by Kakashi's words, the advice to create new experiences to overlap the old. Ice fills his chest, so fast he has to gasp, "Kakashi," Sasuke breathes his name, now. The older man's tongue works diligent strokes over his cock, his cheeks going hollow as he takes Sasuke again and again, as easy as nothing. It makes the boy dizzy just to keep up, but he finds saying his teacher's name... does help.

It helps to say Kakashi's name, when the last one he cried for was his brother; it helps to sear the feeling of his teacher's fingers in his hair, similar but so different from the last he'd felt. Itachi's was thick and slightly coarse where Kakashi's was fine and presumably held up by chakra, since Sasuke didn't feel gel or hairspray like he'd always secretly suspected. His fingers can sink properly into his teacher's hair without feeling much restraint, and uses that hold to help his hips twitch forward whenever he feels a surge he needs to chase.

Kakashi takes every last jump and hitch of Sasuke's hips in stride, his pace not faltering as he meets every last one. His experience in this realm of intimacy is clear to Sasuke, his movements fluid and expert, unlike Itachi's curious exploration. This feels like a targeted airstrike, a relentless assault designed solely to take Sasuke apart with speed and precision. 

His mouth is hot and silken as it slips up and down over the length of his cock, milking pleasure out of him with every suck, while Kakashi's face is a mask of dignified stoicism-- unlike Sasuke's red-cheeked, wet-eyed mess. Kakashi opens his eyes to look up at the boy, charmed by how earnest he is with his pleasure, and how tightly controlled he's trying to be. He pulls off of Sasuke's cock with a slurp, which immediately has Sasuke looking down with a wild expression between fear and frustration, as Kakashi makes a couple quick hand signs, and a moment later, a shimmering blue film appears over the walls of the room. 

"There. Feel free to make as much noise as you want," Kakashi says, before taking Sasuke right back into his mouth, burying his face down between his thighs until his tongue grazes the tight little bundle of Sasuke's balls.

A silencing jutsu. Kakashi had put a silencing jutsu over his-- "Agh!" Sasuke shouts immediately, struck by the gesture, by the sincerity, by the feeling of Kakashi's mouth on his balls, a place Itachi had explored but not amply. They'd always just gotten right to the good stuff, they hadn't really taken the chance to get to know one another, just desperate, hormonal boys finding relief.

But Kakashi wasn't desperate, there was nothing uncontrolled about the way he was being devoured. It's hard to even describe what he's feeling, a horrible, miasmic hurricane of lust and hunger and, strangely enough, grief. Sasuke feels mourning in the way his teacher is so effectively caring for him, so much like his brother and so wholly apart. Without Itachi being who he was and doing what he'd done, Sasuke would never be here-- who knows what path his life would've taken--

Or maybe he would be. Maybe he was always going to end up here. Of anyone he knew, if it wasn't going to be his brother...

Sasuke yells as he arches his back, tipping his head all the way back to shout into the now-muffled ceilings. The impact of that feeling strikes home, he trusts Kakashi, just like his brother, better than his brother because he trusts him to put together what had been broken.

"Ah, ah, I--" And without warning again, Sasuke cums, this time down his teacher's throat, sobbing and gasping as he collapses back to earth, an arm thrown over his face.

Kakashi pulls off of him again, humbled by the honest pleasure of a boy who just a couple hours ago told Kakashi he doesn't even have a relationship with pleasure at all. He kneels up to say something to Sasuke, but sees in an instant that the boy had already passed right out. Kakashi smiles, and pulls his mask back up over his nose. He can't honestly blame the boy, he'd been awake for more than 15 hours and trained himself to the bone, and just had two orgasms in quick back-to-back succession. 

It's a testament to how hard Sasuke was knocked out by the ordeal that Kakashi is able to pick him up and move him without Sasuke stirring or fighting him in the slightest. He lays him higher up on the bed and covers him with the quilt, tidies up his bed space a bit, and then pulls his desk chair out from its spot to turn it around and sit on it backwards, folding his arms over the back of the chair to rest his cheek on them and get some sleep himself.