Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You're beautiful"

Username: 
Password:    
Remember Me
  • Create Account
  • IJ Login
  • OpenID Login
Search by : 
  • View
    • Create Account
    • IJ Login
    • OpenID Login
  • Journal
    • Post
    • Edit Entries
    • Customize Journal
    • Comment Settings
    • Recent Comments
    • Manage Tags
  • Account
    • Manage Account
    • Viewing Options
    • Manage Profile
    • Manage Notifications
    • Manage Pictures
    • Manage Schools
    • Account Status
  • Friends
    • Edit Friends
    • Edit Custom Groups
    • Friends Filter
    • Nudge Friends
    • Invite
    • Create RSS Feed
  • Asylums
    • Post
    • Asylum Invitations
    • Manage Asylums
    • Create Asylum
  • Site
    • Support
    • Upgrade Account
    • FAQs
    • Search By Location
    • Search By Interest
    • Search Randomly

fallen_kakashi ([info]fallen_kakashi) wrote in [info]fallen_leaves,
@ 2008-02-10 21:27:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:sore
Entry tags:itachi, kakashi

Show What You Know [Closed to Kakashi and Itachi]
Set soon after Night Vision

The jutsu, Kakashi realised, was almost identical to his chidori and yet completely different in every way that mattered. It was throwing him, in some cases quite literally. It crackled while the chidori spun in a neat, contained circle. Lashed out with random strikes while the chidori stayed bound to his palm, marking the skin with layers of white scarring. It warped his chakra differently, spinning it through an unfamiliar combination of seals.

Kakashi picked himself up once again and brushed leaf litter from his shoulder. The training ground around him had been swept mostly clean, the dirt hard and compact with the stamp of many hard working feet. Frozen solid by winter. It was now burned black in places, scorched by uncontrolled flares from his new replica. The air smelled of fire and ozone. Lightning. Kakashi sucked in a sharp breath between his teeth, feeling a trickle of sweat run down the side of his face, and blurred through the seals once more. Tiger, monkey, snake, monkey-- The Sharingan whirled, presenting him a picture perfect memory of the first time he'd seen the jutsu; about half a second before it had smashed Ginta ten feet back into a solid wall and cracked six of his ribs.

Kakashi faltered, lost his focus, yelped as the justu spun wildly out of control and landed on his back with a dull thump. "...fuck." He panted for a moment, and then climbed back to his feet. A glance at the sun -- just beginning to crest the top of the monuments now -- and a check of his internal clock told him he had a few hours left to master the jutsu before he was required to show it. Two and a half weeks since the mission. One and a half since Itachi's little visit in the hospital. Kakashi wasn't fully healed, not quite yet recovered, but he was close enough. His lungs were clear, nothing had been broken, he'd barely sustained a scratch. His chakra was still unpleasently low, but nothing would build that up except time and the little bottle of soldier pills rattling in his pocket.

Kakashi settled himself, steadied his breathing, and thought of nothing but energy and flow and the right combination of seals. Tiger, monkey, snake, monkey--

Ginta flying backwards, mouth clamped shut while his bones broke and his face burned because Kakashi couldn't move fast enough.

The copy-nin smacked down on his side and the jutsu crackled into nothing. "Dammit." He lay for a longer moment, watching his breath plume in the cold winter air, and scowled at an innocent cloud. Then he got to his feet, took a soldier pill, and began the cycle all over again.

(Post a new comment)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-10 09:37 pm UTC (link)
Itachi knew the appointed time of the jutsu demonstration. How could he not? He was not just to observe the duplicate jutsu, but to copy it to his own arsenal. So yes, he knew the time. Not that he much cared; the jutsu was pretty much as good as his.

His concessions to the cold were the long black pants and a lightweight white fleece jacket with embroidered Uchiha fan. It got annoying, sometimes, that the crest emblazoned every torso clothing item he owned. It made him stand out more than he liked. No one else had a 'shoot here' target on their back. But the clan had to be special, had to be noticed, because they weren't instantly identifible as, say, the Hyuuga. Itachi thought that a good thing. Too bad his relatives didn't agree.

Fools.

He walked through the snow, hands in his pockets, looking for Hatake. The man was free from the hospital, and the grapevine spoke he was pushing himself despite not being fully healed. Going so far to even set the date for the demonstration. Itachi wondered what drove him so hard. He himself despised being laid up with injuries, but he also understood the prudence of allowing the body some time to heal naturally and not be wholly dependent of medical jutsu. Hatake didn't have the same... discretion. And that lack piqued Itachi's curiosity.\

He entered the clearing in time to see Hatake go flying through the air. Sharingan showed his path and Itachi moved fast, using a suiton to grab the snow outside the training ground and form it into a sloped bank to provide a cushion lest Hatake crack his back on a tree trunk. "Are you all right, Hatake-san?" Itachi asked, eyes a solid black again.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-10 09:38 pm UTC (link)
Kakashi blinked and shoved aside the little mental voice that crowed '...heeey, soft thing. Fabulous'. He shook his hand out, feeling the crackly little tingles fade and then got to his feet. A second shake scattered a loose cloud of powdery snow, he followed that up with a sneeze. Then he regarded his... well, 'rescuer' was too strong a word. And 'provider of soft landings' struck him as faintly absurd. Kakashi shook his head a third time, scattering more snow, and attempted to knock a little rational thought into himself. The jutsu was clearly messing with his head.

Looking at Uchiha Itachi with both eyes was an interesting experience. Looking at him when one was fully conscious and masked, wary and slightly braced, made Kakashi feel closer to a ninja again, rather then a student who couldn't get his damn jutsu right. "Rookie," he said neutrally, "Lose your watch? You're early."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-10 09:44 pm UTC (link)
Itachi shrugged and returned his hands to his jacket pockets. "Early on purpose, Hatake-san. I thought I would watch how you practiced the jutsu before you demonstrated it for everyone," he replied. Seeing Hatake go flying from the jutsu did not exactly inspire confidence. But the man still commanded Itachi's respect outside a mission. Inside a mission depended on the orders handed down.

He knew Hatake was a lightning type; this sort of jutsu shouldn't be giving him too much of a problem. Being a fire type himself with a knack for lightning, Itachi anticipated few problems in mastering the jutsu. "Are you having difficulties?" he asked carefully. He wasn't about to accuse the man of incompetence.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-10 09:45 pm UTC (link)

"I practice the same way anyone does," said Kakashi after a thoughtful pause, "with lots of falling over." The last was added just a little wryly as he shoved his hands into his pockets. For a moment he debated leaving them loose by his sides, but warm fingers made faster seals. If he needed them, which he doubted right now. He was in much better shape then his last encounter with Itachi, and completely on his guard with the sharingan eye uncovered. He could feel the familiar aching spin of it.

"No difficulties," he added, with a crooked grin, "This is how I always test a new jutsu." He was not thinking about the shatter-crack of bones. "It really works it into the muscle memory, didn't anyone ever tell you that?" A few hours left and he was wasting his time with the Uchiha. "Which I should get back to. Be a peach and shove off for a few hours? Good rookie." He turned his back without waiting for a reply and started the walk back to his circle, muscles tensed and ready for any sort of... anything.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-10 09:46 pm UTC (link)
I'm sure, Itachi thought in reply to Hatake's muscle memory comment. He said nothing as he watched Hatake return to the pounded circle of earth. Legs apart in a relaxed sort of parade rest, he kept his eyes black. Copying incomplete jutsu, or uncontrolled jutsu, made things that much more difficult to unlearn. One of the problems with Sharingan-granted eidictic memory. You simply, literally, could not forget. So he would wait and see for himself how Hatake was doing before he copied anything.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-10 09:47 pm UTC (link)
Itachi wasn't leaving. Kakashi wasn't hugely surprised. Fortunately he was not one to suffer stage fright. He flicked at look at the Uchiha, marking the ninja on his mental map and getting a read on his unique chakra pattern to place him, to be aware if he moved, and then Kakashi turned his attention inward. An ugly headache was starting to gnaw at his temples. He breathed deeply and smoothed the pain away, letting it filter out of his awareness.

The seals were simple, even if the justu was complex. Kakashi focused on them one at a time. Tiger first. He shaped it with the twist of chakra that went alongside the move, and then released both. Monkey, he did the same. Snake, another twist. Monkey again. Kakashi went through each seal carefully, slowly, lining them up in his head and playing them out neatly. It was basic, very basic, and he completed each one flawlessly. Perfectly.

Good.

Kakashi took another breath, a deep, even one, in through his teeth and out sharply through his nose, and measured his chakra. Enough. He might have to take one more soldier pill at some point, but it was enough for now. He steadied himself, cleared his mind, and began. Tiger. Perfect. Monkey. Perfect. Snake. Perfect. Monkey. Perfect--

Ginta. Breaking.

Kakashi snarled as the jutsu snapped back on him, leaping to one side as it crackled and struck, chakra imploding and wrenching from his grasp. He landed in a crouch some ten feet away and made a deeply frustrated sound. "Dammit."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-10 09:48 pm UTC (link)
Itachi watched the whole ordeal with narrowed eyes, studying the handseals Hatake made and picturing how the chakra might move inside his body. He had seen nothing in Hatake's form to suggest a problem there, so for the jutsu to react wildly... It wasn't the form. It was something else. "What happened?" Itachi asked in earnest. He genuinely wanted to know what happened, what went wrong, and what could be done to prevent another almost-backlash. Hatake was good at avoiding the rogue lightning, and Itachi had no doubt he could do the same. Someone else? Probably not.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-10 09:48 pm UTC (link)
Kakashi resisted the urge to kick something like a petulant child for a moment, before getting warily back to his feet. The headache was back and even uglier, he breathed through the iron bands closing over his skull and straightened, shaking out his hands once more. He cracked his spine and then his neck, rolled his shoulders and stretched out, lean and limber. Then he looked at Itachi. "It backlashed," he said succinctly, fully aware that wasn't what the man had been asking. "Fortunately," he added, in a low mutter not designed to reach Itachi's ears, lip movements hidden by his mask, "I am a genius, jackass."

Kakashi moved back into his self-allocated starting position. Ginta had gotten hit. He'd broken some ribs. It happened. Shinobi broke bones, it was a job hazard. Nothing to be all worked up about. Kakashi took another breath, ran through the seals, let his chakra flow, and landed hard on his back as the jutsu cracked and shattered between his hands. He eyed the sky for a long moment, cataloguing complaints. "Before you ask," he said, apparently speaking to a low cloud, "That was also a backlash."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-10 10:06 pm UTC (link)
"Obviously," Itachi commented dryly. He offered a hand to help Hatake up, which was ignored. His choice. Itachi put his hand back in his pocket. "The question becomes, what happened to disturb your concentration? I'm not seeing anything wrong with your form up until the actual execution." He lapsed into silence, white plumes the visible sign of his even breathing. He didn't need to add that if Hatake couldn't reproduce the jutsu perfectly, more than a few people would be upset. Half the point of the mission was to make sure the jutsu came to Konoha.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-10 10:07 pm UTC (link)
Kakashi regarded Itachi from his floor angle. "It's really quite hard to take you seriously when I can see straight up your nose," he said thoughtfully, "Do you have any idea what your chakra pathways look like from this angle? It's fascinating." He pushed himself to his feet, shook out his hands for the several dozenth time, and then paused. Kakashi let his hands drop and shoved them back into his pockets. A glance at the sun said roughly three hours, a look at his internal clock said slightly less then that. He sighed very, very softly. The faint stream of air barely made his mask flutter.

"Your sharingan," he said quietly, perfectly seriously, "When you copy something. What does it look like for you?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-10 10:10 pm UTC (link)
Progress. Finally. "The chakra used in the jutsu is the same blue-white color at the beginning, though moments befor execution it will gain an additional color based on the intended elemental type. I See where the chakra originates, and I See how it flows. I pre-See the handseals needed to shape the chakra, and I can pre-See the shape the jutsu will take before the user wills the jutsu into being. One created, I then can pre-See the intent of how it's to be used." All with enough time to prepare the best response to the jutsu. Counter attack, defense, or simple dodging. Maybe even a partial, calculated retreat if the jutsu was that threatening.

"The stronger the jutsu, the brighter the shine and the truer the color." Itachi glanced up at him, monochrome eyes unreadable. "What did you See, Hatake-san?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-10 10:12 pm UTC (link)
Kakashi absorbed that, and his expression -- what was visible of it -- became thoughtful for a long moment. Then it wiped blank, still and perfectly peaceful. Body language relaxed. "I see my team mate taking the same blow. Every time." Six ribs, burned face, blind eyes, and a mission that went to hell in pretty much every way it could.

He should've moved faster.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:03 am UTC (link)
So that was the reason. "You didn't compartmentalize the memory, so when you run through the jutsu in your mind, it flows automatically to the pre-images of Sakamoto-san being attacked followed by the actual attack." Made sense. Hatake managed to bond with his teammates, even if they were never nothing more than teammates. They meant something to him. Probably had something vaguely to do with Obito. "And remembering that is throwing your focus on your chakra. Thus, the backlash."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:20 am UTC (link)
Compartmentalize the memory? Kakashi was not known as a genius for nothing, he understood immediately what Itachi meant, even if he was unsure how to go about the process. What did he need? What was unnecessary? The seals. The chakra. The shape. The intent. Anything else -- Ginta falling -- he needed to split off and store away. Hide it from his own mind's eye. Push it out of memory. Of course, it would never actually leave his memory, nothing the sharingan saw ever did, but it didn't have to be the focus.

Kakashi's shoulders squared slightly, the lines of his body became a little more rigid as his train of thought took him through old analytical patterns. He automatically stood as he had then, straight and tall. Soldier-like. The jutsu ran through his mind, a fast blur flicker-shot that seemed to slow as he watched; Ginta smashing back and the jutsu cracking around him. That was what he needed to separate. "How do you do it?" he asked, as his mind ticked over theories. "Is it like normal memory, or does the sharingan add a different element to it?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:22 am UTC (link)
"Normal memory?" Itachi sounded amused. "I couldn't tell you, Hatake-san." He had had his Sharingan for as long as he could remember. Any memories of his life before the nightmare that woke his doujutsu were muddled beneath the perfect clarity of trying to get his eyes under control. Consequently he recalled the fourth year of his life very well. "The Sharingan's ability with memory allows you perfect recall of everything observed with it, accessible at any time. How much do you care about Sakamoto-san?" he asked with an abrupt change of subject.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:24 am UTC (link)
Kakashi had opened his mouth to ask something like 'so how do you split those memories?' when Itachi's last question derailed his train of thought completely. Derailed it and set fire to it. He snapped his mouth shut. Shrugged after just a slightly too-long pause and spread his hands eloquently, "Enough that I don't want to see him dead. Beyond that..." he twitched one shoulder, rolling it back in an old bad habit. Feeling for a tanto that was no longer there.

And Itachi believed himself to have no normal memories. Or claimed he did. That was interesting. Did he see them all now as he did the still frames captured by his Sharingan? Perfect photocopies. That was an impressive talent. Kakashi filed that thought away to look at later.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:25 am UTC (link)
Itachi let the silence continue for a bit. "You care enough that even now, the memory affects you greatly.


"Humans are interesting creatures," he continued. "Association can create a stronger memory than the memory itself. People have recalled events from years past from something as little as a scent or a particular sound. Before re-experiencing the memory itself, softened by time, the tactile sense recalls an emotion associated with the memory." He looked into the treeline. "Your emotional attachment to Sakamoto-san, and the horror of seeing him attacked like you did, followed by the ordeal you suffered through, is destroying your concentration on the jutsu. You have to make it not affect you. You have to not allow yourself to care about what had happened to Sakamoto-san. That is the past now. It cannot be changed. Accept it, and get over it. You have to create the distance between yourself and the memory by your own choice and will. That is the only way."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:26 am UTC (link)
Kakashi considered Itachi for a moment, watching the teenager steadily. "If that's your long winded way of telling me I lack the appropriate detachment you're--" not, "--wrong." He shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, slouching comfortably once more. "A couple cracked ribs and half a day in a snow-drift hardly amounts to 'horror', rookie. Trust me on that." That was all it had been, really. A bit of bone damage, a bit of cold, and a long nap. It wasn't like they'd come that close to dying. It wasn't like they hadn't completed the mission. It wasn't like Kakashi had almost watched another team mate...

It wasn't like that at all.

Detachment was the key, then. Rule twenty-five. Kakashi would have smiled, but that rather broke the rule. Detachment he could do. Detachment any ninja could do. Any ninja that lived to make chuunin anyway.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:27 am UTC (link)
A quiet chuckle sounded from Itachi. Hatake was splitting hairs. "And yet the memory still manages to break your concentration so much you're in danger of injury from your own jutsu. If not horror, then supplement the appropriate emotional descriptor of your choice. The sentiment is still the same: you care too much and it's affecting your concentration."

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:28 am UTC (link)
Kakashi looked at the Uchiha teenager in front of him, laughing softly, and couldn't help but think about another one. Itachi's opposite in every way -- emotional and irrational and dead-last. First to die. One who'd told him he didn't care enough. There was, he suspected, a subtle irony in that.

Kakashi leaned back just a little on his heels, adjusting his weight, and lifted an eyebrow. "Perhaps I'm finally getting something right then," he said with a tiny genuine smile, crooked but real. It wasn't for Itachi.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:30 am UTC (link)
Oh? "What would that be?" Hatake obviously didn't mean the jutsu, and the slight irritation showed in the way Itachi stared. If being unable to do a copied jutsu correctly, or demonstrate same without a problem, was 'doing something right', then perhaps some of Fugaku's voiced opinions of Hatake had more merit than Itachi had previously thought.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:31 am UTC (link)
Kakashi tilted his head slightly, and then laughed very quietly when Itachi's scent changed, laced with something sharper. "That," he said, tone shifting to wry, "is confidential. Terribly sorry." He gave the Uchiha an ironic little salute and turned his back, taking the few steps once more to the centre of his circle.

"Now, I have some work to do, Itachi-kun," he added, without turning to look back. "So go play for a while. Wouldn't want to see your pretty hair get fried." He was already forming the seals.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:32 am UTC (link)
Itachi narrowed his eyes, but once again remained quiet as Hatake began again. A plan swiftly built in his head, easy as breathing. He counted to a certain number in his mind, then henge'd while moving too fast to be seen. When Hatake would go to actually execute the jutsu, Sakamoto Ginta would be standing before him. While a ninjutsu and not a genjutsu, Sharingan would pick up the distinctive 'look' of the henge's chakra-usage. So if Hatake really was attempting to separate himself, there would be no problem. If he didn't... Well, that's what contingency plans were for. A bit tricky because Itachi himself wouldn't be using the Sharingan (he wasn't about to copy the jutsu now), but he wouldn't be hurt, period.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:33 am UTC (link)
Compartmentalize. Split the memory. Kakashi felt just a little bit split himself. His focus divided between the Sharingan and its images, Itachi behind him, the jutsu he needed to perform, the snarling headache wrapped around his skull. Obito's eye ached. He would have to cover it again before he demonstrated the jutsu for real, or risk a spectacular collapse halfway through.

Kakashi breathed, found his stance and formed his seals. Split the memory. Ginta to one side. He cared, but he couldn't fix it. Couldn't change it. He had to put it aside. Chakra rose inside him as he called it and twisted it through the seals, guiding it, letting the sharingan guide him.

Ginta. Falling.

Put it aside.

Bones breaking with a green stick crack.

He couldn't change it.

Skin burning.

It had already happened. Ginta had healed. Put it aside. Ginta was fine--

Itachi was moving. Kakashi felt the slight flare of his chakra. He turned just as the jutsu crackled to life, a tangle of thread lightning between his hands. It grew as chakra rippled through him, feeding into it. What was Itachi--?

Ginta. Right in front of him.

Kakashi's eyes opened wide, giving him a perfect fractured double image of his team mate. Monochrome and true colour. Canary yellow chakra and bright blue eyes. Kakashi wrenched the strike aside, ripping the lightning away from Ginta. It backlashed, roaring with a sound that was nothing like a thousand birds, and this time he didn't dodge quickly enough. Electricity slammed into his chest, throwing him backwards.

Oh, thought Kakashi distantly as something went crunch, so that's what it feels like.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:34 am UTC (link)
Definitely not ready to demonstrate this, Itachi thought, dropping the henge. Sharingan active he again formed up a snow bank to catch Hatake before running up, hands already glowing with chakra for a medical jutsu. He quit the jutsu once he read Hatake's intent to attack, instead focusing on not getting kicked or punched. He could see the pain in Hatake's eye and the visible portion of his face, as well as the determination.

This could take a small while. Longest, until Hatake depleted his chakra. Again.

Itachi moved smoothly around Hatake's slightly clumsy attacks, though he did give the copy-nin credit for his speed. Not bad, but Itachi had trained long and hard with his cousins and consequently was well-versed with fighting against another Sharingan-user. He looked for an opening and took it when he found it. The jutsu had burned holes in Hatake's shirt, exposing body armor and partially fried skin. Hatake clearly meant to cause Itachi pain, whereas Itachi simply wanted the man still. The easiest way to accomplish the goal would be to prove that Itachi wasn't trying to hurt him.

He willed chakra to the first two fingers of his left hand before running said fingers along Hatake's burn mark. Instead of eliciting more pain from the applied pressure and the potential of heat from the chakra, the pain instead cooled dramatically, the burn soothed. It stopped where the body armor started, at which point Itachi was using that same hand to keep from getting clocked upside the head by Hatake's closed fist.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:36 am UTC (link)
Itachi caught his hand in the same moment Kakashi realized the blistered red flare of pain from his side was fading, not growing. The sharingan copied Itachi's medical jutsu and stacked it neatly with the hundred others lined in Kakashi's head, even while it presented him with the teenager's intent. He yanked his fist back, ignoring the grinding feeling in his chest from cracked ribs. He was already putting together facts, sweeping aside the tangle of feelings seeing Ginta's face had provoked. It had been nothing more then a henge.

Kakashi twisted his hand in Itachi's grip, breaking the hold and locking his own fingers around the Uchiha's. It stopped either one of them from doing seals. Kakashi yanked his other arm around, holding it in front of his chest instinctively. He watched chakra twist around a pair of mirror-wheel eyes, seeing red with his own eye, monochrome blue with Obito's. "Stop," he snapped, panting harshly, "Back off. What the hell were you doing?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:37 am UTC (link)
"Proving my point," Itachi answered. He stayed put, the fingers not in Hatake's grasp resting lightly on the other's hand. He was relaxed, calm. Not intending attack. Almost harmless (since no ANBU was ever truly harmless). Of course, he couldn't move away with Hatake clutching his fingers like he was. "Cover your eye, Hatake-san. And let me stabilize you so I can help you back to the hospital. Your chakra isn't yet depleted, but if you keep using that eye you're going to pass out within the next ten minutes."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:38 am UTC (link)
The vicious pain clamping around Kakashi's head supported Itachi's words, but he made no move to cover the sharingan. He did let go of Itachi's hand, and then pressed his palm to the teenager's chest, shoving him back hard. Kakashi sat up with a quiet gasp, feeling sharp agony gnaw on his ribs, and glared at the Uchiha.

"Do I have a sign on me somewhere," he demanded, voice tight, "that says I want or need your poor excuse for help, Itachi-kun?" He felt sick, it was probably the broken ribs.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:39 am UTC (link)
Itachi stumbled back a few steps when Hatake pushed him away. He made no further move to approach Hatake until the man tried to stand, listed and wobbled dangerously, and then found himself with his arm draped over Itachi's shoulder and an arm around his waist to support him. The Uchiha clamped his hand firmly around Hatake's wrist, making moving away a singularly not-bright idea.

"Do you, or do you not," he began in a quiet but clearly audible tone, "want to learn how to use that eye properly from someone who would see you succeed and also has the Sharingan?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:41 am UTC (link)
Kakashi tensed in Itachi's hold, arm automatically tightening around the unwanted but necessary support. His ribs protested loudly and Kakashi swallowed hard, feeling the blood drain from his face. He took a shallow breath through his mask, feeling the cloth press against his lips, and forced himself steady. This close, all he could smell was Itachi. The teenager smelled like any other ANBU; weapons-metal, the sharp odd cleanliness of issued armour, and the undercurrent of blood that never really went away. Beneath that was Itachi's own scent, indescribable by any word other then Itachi. Unique and just as distinctive as his own particular chakra pattern.

Kakashi pulled his hitai-ate down, returning it to the familiar slant across his face -- it was either that or black out and wake up in another week with medics yelling at him -- and tilted his head to look at Itachi with his other eye. "And why do you, Itachi-kun, alone of your clan, want to see me succeed?"

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:43 am UTC (link)
Why, indeed. No doubt Fugaku would have no small fit if he knew of Itachi's offer to teach, not that Itachi cared beyond the possible amusement value at his father's expense. "Because you have potential, and it would be quite stupid to ignore that potential because of petty politics. That eye was gifted to you. Intelligent would be to have trained you long before now, to see what someone not born to it could do. A very useful mechanism by which the clan might someday measure their own potential and see how much farther they have to go.

"Come on, Hatake-san. Those ribs need healing, and would best be done in the hospital. Where you will stay until you have fully healed before you even think of attempting that jutsu again." Carefully he nudged Hatake along, keeping the pace as slow as Hatake needed so as to not re-injure or over-exert himself. Once Itachi saw Hatake to the hospital, he would go find the observation committee and inform them of the delay in the demonstration.

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]fallen_kakashi
2008-02-13 12:44 am UTC (link)
Kakashi laughed, short and soft and wincing around the crunch in his torso. Because you have potential -- well there was a familiar phrase. "So this is simple science for you?" he said, when he had caught his breath. "And I get to be the control group. A yard stick to measure your own abilities by. That's interesting." He stopped, resisting Itachi's gentle pull. Logic suggested this could be an advantage for both of them, and an advantage for Konoha overall, if they improved. Logic also suggested that Itachi had more then one reason for wanting to work with him. Kakashi imagined he had a kunai holster full of them.

Instinct told Kakashi he didn't want the Uchiha that close to him. Instinct that sounded a lot like Hoshika -- The One Who Smells Wrong. Kakashi lifted his arm from Itachi's shoulders and pulled himself away, catching his balance with a flare of chakra. He inclined his head, every inch the respectful shinobi, and brought his hands together, palms flat. "Thank you, Itachi-kun," he said softly, voice giving nothing away, "but I decline your offer. My thanks for your... help." The hospital wasn't too far. ANBU headquarters was closer. There was a medic there, and Kakashi's apartment. He could tend to himself really, a few cracked ribs was a minor injury on the grand scale, and burns were nothing at all. One seal, a spin of chakra, a blur of leaves and smoke, and he was gone.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)


[info]fallen_itachi
2008-02-13 12:45 am UTC (link)
Alone now, Itachi let his irritation show. Narrowed eyes of anger and a curled lip of frustration. What was it, he genuinely wondered, that made people so stupid? He was offering to help. The only 'string' attached, if one could call it that, was that he simply wanted to know what Hatake could do. Apparently, even that was too much to ask.

Fools. Idiots. Morons. The clan was full of them, and even a part-clan like Hatake was joining their ranks.

Itachi inhaled deeply through his nose, held it, and released it in a long, thin stream, watching it go white with cold and drift on the air. Closing his eyes, he tipped his back so he could just feel. The aching cold seeping through his shoes from the ground below. The freezing breath of wind caressing his exposed toes, pinching his face, and whispering through the hair on his uncovered head. The difference between the sun's warmth and the icy shadow he himself cast. The cleansing sting of cold air along his nasal passages and throat.

He scented fresh snow. Probably wouldn't actually snow before the sun set today, but it was coming.

He opened his eyes to look at the clear sky above, bleached white by sun and cold. He stared at nothing, seeing everything, before he dropped his head down and turned on the ball of his foot. There was one person he knew who had potential, who was eager for any and all help, and who wasn't as close-minded as the rest.

Sasuke ought to be driving their mother nuts by now. Itachi would do the woman a rare favor and take the small boy off her hands for a bit.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Home | Site Map | Manage Account | TOS | Privacy | Support | FAQs