Chapter Eight-- complete!

Here it is!

Chapter 8
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A half mile out from the Forest of Death, Kakashi and Sasuke were building a house and getting nowhere fast. With the Hokage’s approval to build and experienced architects and contractors looking over their plans--to make sure the house wouldn’t fall down around their ears--they themselves were responsible for making everything else happen. Sasuke’s paranoia, pride and, Kakashi assumed, inherent idiocy, meant that not only did all the work have to be personally inspected by Sasuke, but also that he and Kakashi were the only ones allowed to work on it at all. This slowed construction to a crawl. It was a good thing Fire country had long summers and short, mild winters. Kakashi was now expecting that the house would not be done until the start of winter.

Kakashi had made a nice flat piece of land via earth jutsu for the house to sit on, but the two of them had labored for a week to mark off and dig out for the foundation and cellar. Kakashi winced even now when he thought about how the two of them had struggled to agree on a plan for the building…and a suitable location. And materials. They had fought over just about everything, actually. Little decisions got settled with a quick spar. Big ones involved a lot of stubborn silence and prolonged psychological tactics. Sasuke was better at intimidating than he used to be. Kakashi had more patience and could wait out almost anything.


Both he and Sasuke discovered that ninjutsu was simply not designed for the sort of work house building required. Their jutsu could cut through a swath of trees in ten seconds, but those trees were subsequently splintered into oblivion and completely useless as construction materials. Superior physiology, dexterity, speed, and other myriad advantages of high-ranking ninja did not protect Kakashi from the dangers of carpentry. Having one eye made using a hammer damn near impossible, but hammering his thumb repeatedly was more than possible. Getting the nail where he wanted it to go was proving challenging. Kakashi could have used his Sharingan to copy Sasuke’s elegant and flawless hammering technique. It wouldn’t give him the muscle memory to repeat it correctly. He needed to train himself, and nothing would do but more of the same hard work. He bore it stoically as Sasuke hovered nearby. Kakashi couldn’t fathom how such scrutiny was supposed to help. He was, however, glad that no comments, helpful or otherwise, broke the silence.

It was exhausting to do everything the long way. Kakashi had come back from A-rank missions feeling better. As gratifying as it was to see Sasuke covered in mud day after day, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as Kakashi had once imagined. Sasuke bordered on perfect no matter what he was doing. He was fast, strong, and seemingly tireless. Aside from the dirt, Sasuke didn’t seem to be affected by the work at all. He never ran out of breath, though as the days wore on, Kakashi noticed more and more that Sasuke was prone to sweating. Not that Kakashi minded. It wasn’t like Sasuke smelled bad. And he himself had no room to complain, considering how filthy he got every day.


Today, they were working to cut down some trees for timber. They each had separate trees so that the likelihood of accidents was minimal. Kakashi firmed up his grip on the axe and swung. He’d spent some time observing Sasuke, watching how he planted his feet on the ground and braced himself with his legs. The kinetic energy rippled up through his torso, flowed along the shoulders and out the arms--and by extension, the axe. Chips of wood flew out of the cut, and every few strokes Sasuke brushed out any remaining debris. Each time he did this, he resumed his stance. Once in a while, he’d wipe the sweat from his hairline onto his sleeve.

Kakashi modeled himself after Sasuke and tried to imagine how it felt to execute that seamless movement. It was a bit like learning a new taijutsu pose. The feet went like this and the balance went up into the calves. The abdominals and obliques moved to channel the force upward into the shoulders, to the arms, to the axe. Kakashi’s blade bit deep into the tree. Not, he noticed, quite as deeply as Sasuke’s, but it was much better than his first attempts.

“Not bad,” Sasuke said.

The unsolicited comment took Kakashi by surprise. He left his axe in the tree for a moment.

“You’re doing quite well yourself,” said Kakashi. What he really wanted to do was ask what this little round of self-congratulation was all about. He didn’t need Sasuke’s compliments. He was more than Sasuke’s equal, even if Sasuke had the edge on him here.

Kakashi made to pick up the axe again. He was preparing to swing when Sasuke spoke.

“Wait,” he said. “Not like that.”

Kakashi froze in place.

Sasuke crossed the forest floor between them, carefully giving the blade of the axe a wide berth. He stripped off his gloves. He molded his hands over Kakashi’s around the handle and shifted their grips a little. Sasuke let go again. He cleared out the cut in Kakashi’s tree, removing a handful of wood and bark. He returned to his own tree. He wiped his hand off on his pants leg. The fabric clung to the sap on his palm. Sasuke shook it off. He donned his gloves and picked up his axe. Kakashi noted that he held his in an identical manner.

“You’ll get a better result like that,” Sasuke said. “Try it. You’ll see.”

Sasuke ducked his head and started chopping again.

Kakashi tried not to puzzle over what Sasuke had just done. He needed a clear head right now, and thinking about the whys and wherefores of Sasuke’s behavior would not help. He tried using the axe with the new grip. The head thunked into the trunk. He snuck a glance at Sasuke’s work. He had actually gotten further into the wood than Sasuke that time. Kakashi thought about thanking him, but he had the distinct impression that Sasuke was now trying to pretend that he hadn’t done anything.

For now, Kakashi would go along with it, though it all made him curious. Where had Sasuke developed his aptitude for hard labor? Or was it more than simply talent? Sasuke wasn’t shirking, that was certain. Did he like this sort of work, then? Kakashi was half-afraid to ask, but he wanted to despite the niggling feeling that Sasuke might not respond well to this line of questioning. Kakashi decided to ease into it.

“Hey, Sasuke. You’re very good at this sort of thing…” He said.

Sasuke only grunted in reply. He didn’t break stride.

Kakashi stuck his axe in a log and leaned against another tree. It wasn’t really break time yet, but he couldn’t be casual while he was working so hard to concentrate on what he was doing. Besides, Sasuke was at his back, wielding a bladed weapon, and Kakashi wasn’t wholly comfortable with that.

Kakashi waited a minute and then tried a little harder.

“I heard that only the harmless prisoners got to do menial labor.”

Sasuke missed his swing and the axe blade landed an inch from the toe of his boot. A large bird squawked and flew away out of the trees. The forest was strangely quiet. Okay. Maybe that was trying too hard.

“This has nothing to do with that.”

He picked the axe up again and swung it harder than he had before.

A chip of wood flew through the air and grazed Kakashi’s forehead. Kakashi let it hit. He decided he’d rather not find out if Orochimaru would be a sufficient goad. Kakashi picked up his own axe again, and they worked in silence for some time.

“It was my father.”

Sasuke’s sudden, stark confession made Kakashi lose his rhythm. He took his cue from Sasuke and kept working.

“I work hard because hard work impressed my father.”

Sasuke wiped his brow and continued, head down and not looking at Kakashi. His face twisted into a frown. His voice was low and rough.

“Not that he ever noticed. Ita--my--he was all my father ever noticed.”

Kakashi took the explanation at face value. It explained the work ethic, maybe, but it said nothing about the force of construction he was now. Kakashi sighed. Maybe he was just getting old.


They worked in silence until lunchtime. Then Kakashi put down his axe and, before Sasuke could say anything about wasting time, slipped off to wash in a nearby stream. It was nice to cool down for a minute, to remove flecks of wood and tree sap before he ate. It was also nice to spend a moment away from Sasuke, alone in the greenness underneath the trees. As indefensible as a forest was, Kakashi had always liked these barked leviathans. With so many trees, it sometimes seemed as if they were pillars holding up the sky. Kakashi had always striven to be that sort of a ninja; deeply rooted, reaching upwards to support something greater than the woods. He snorted. What ninja with his experience still thought like that? He dove under the water and swam. His thoughts floated away.

Kakashi surfaced and looked at the sun’s position. He got out of the water. He toweled off with his shirt, which wasn’t very effective considering how dirty it was. A closer inspection of his clothes made him decide to put off getting dressed until he was fully dry. Having wet skin would only transfer more of the grime onto him, though going naked in the meantime wasn‘t ideal either. He lay down on a smooth rock to eat. The stone was warm, the breeze pleasant, and the sun was making quick work of the water that puddled around him.

Sasuke hadn’t come down to the stream, and Kakashi felt, guiltily, reprieved as he repacked the remains of his lunch. Sasuke was…driven to complete the house and he often loomed nearby, impatience undisguised. Kakashi still hadn’t managed to make him understand that he liked to take his time, even if Sasuke didn‘t need much in the way of breaks. A well-rested ninja made fewer mistakes and was less irritable to boot. Considering how abrasive Sasuke could be, he wanted all the patience and even-temperedness he could muster.

Kakashi rolled over onto a dry part of the rock. The heated stone was wonderful on his back. It was only midday, and he was already feeling the impact of his labors. Still, it wasn’t like Sasuke didn’t try to be a good working partner. He’d made a lot of restrictions about the work, but he did his best to do as much of it himself as possible. Kakashi often was forced to guess what Sasuke wanted him to do. He got riled up if Kakashi didn’t intuit the proper order of things.

He was working on drawing out more verbal communication. So far, engaging in conversations hadn’t done much except make Sasuke act more recalcitrant. He was fairly certain that he could get him to talk if he kept at it long enough, but he knew that this would make Sasuke blow up in the worst sort of way.

The breeze picked up, shaking the leaves all along the bank of the stream. Kakashi plucked a leaf out of his hair and gazed at it. He was now practicing not talking, and it seemed to be working. Sasuke made occasional efforts to talk to Kakashi that were not statements like “Put that log here” or “That’s not even.” Talking with Sasuke was still like pulling teeth, but at least he was saying something. With this rate of success, Kakashi wasn’t surprised that Ibiki’s people hadn’t had much luck in “debriefing” him.

Kakashi was dry now. He hopped down off the rock and started putting his clothes back on. He eyed the shirt with distaste. It looked bad, smelled worse, and was still wet from being pressed into service as a towel. He sighed. Looks like he’d be spending the afternoon shirtless. No sense in getting another one dirty today. He rinsed the offensive article in the stream and hung it on a bush to dry. A flicker of movement caught his eye and he turned, throwing a kunai at the same time.

It was a squirrel. Kakashi relaxed and walked over to his boots. He frowned. It had chewed off a couple inches of one of the laces. He wished he’d nailed the fuzzy-tailed rat, but he’d aimed to scare, not kill. He’d pinned a couple squirrel hairs into the dirt, nothing more. He wiped the kunai off and stuck it back in his pouch. Kakashi re-laced his boot, stretched, and headed back to the work site.

Upon reaching the clearing, Kakashi noticed something interesting. Sasuke was sitting on a tree stump, back to. Ordinarily he’d be pacing the clearing, waiting impatiently to get back to work. Kakashi took this as a sign of improvement.

“Yo,” said Kakashi.

Sasuke jumped up, bad attitude radiating around him. Now this was more like what he expected. Sasuke turned, and the scowl on his face morphed into something less readable, more confused than anything else.

“What?” Kakashi said. He watched Sasuke give him a look up and down. Kakashi looked down to see what it was that had caused Sasuke’s bemusement. Kakashi kicked himself. Of course.

“My shirt needed a wash,” he said. “I didn’t want to use another clean one.”

He stretched out, swinging an imaginary axe once or twice for practice. He picked up his axe and his fingers found their way into the grip Sasuke had shown him.

“Your boot lace looks ratty,” said Sasuke. “What happened to it?”

Kakashi took a hard look at Sasuke then. He lowered his axe. It wasn’t like him to notice small things like that…at least, he didn’t make mention of such discoveries. Sasuke was industriously preparing to chop at his tree some more. He was avoiding looking into Kakashi’s face, but that wasn’t anything new. Kakashi stared down at his boot. At that distance, he knew Sasuke wasn’t able to discern the state of his laces. Crap. Sasuke had, obviously, been spying on him.

Kakashi wasn’t sure if Sasuke was just being an idiot in letting him know, or if there was something else going on and this was the misdirection. Maybe he just didn’t care if Kakashi knew. Sasuke had been keeping tighter tabs on him since he’d come back from the mission, but he’d thought Sasuke was over the worst of that. Kakashi decided ignoring the bad behavior would be best. He shrugged. If it worked for training dogs, maybe it’d work on Sasuke.

“Well, there was a certain rodent gnawing on it,” said Kakashi. “I defended myself, but it got away.”

Sasuke held up a squirrel, the lace still in its paws even as it chattered at him.

“This rodent?” He said. “I saw it running by with what appeared to be some jounin-issue gear, so I caught it.”

He took the bit of string and set the squirrel free. Kakashi smothered a few chuckles. Sasuke would be the one to stop a suspicious-looking squirrel in the middle of the forest.

“Thanks,” Kakashi said.

He took the pilfered lace from Sasuke. Sasuke hesitated, just a moment, when he let go of it. It seemed like reluctance. Weird.

“I have a spare,” said Sasuke. “If you want it, you can have it.”

Ah, thought Kakashi. That was it. It was a generous offer, as far as Sasuke was concerned. Sasuke wasn’t in the habit of making such gestures.

“Tell you what,” said Kakashi. “I’ll trade you the old one for the new one.”

Sasuke nodded agreement. He fished the spare lace out of his nearby pack. Kakashi handed over the broken one and threaded the new one through the holes. He didn’t see what happened to the old lace, but he assumed Sasuke would throw it out later, when they next went to town. There was a definite lack of trash cans out here in the woods.

Sasuke waited politely until Kakashi hefted his axe again.

“Let’s get to work then, shall we?” said Kakashi.

Twin thunks echoed underneath the canopy. Kakashi was, for once, very comfortable with the relative silence. They didn’t talk for the rest of the afternoon.

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What is interesting about this chapter, I find, is that I think it reads more smoothly than the last chapter. I felt chapter seven needed less work, and this chapter needed mountains, but somehow I think it came out better. I don't know. Maybe the subject matter had a hand in that. I mean, chopping down trees in the forest has different pacing needs than what happened in chapter seven.

I am having some trouble deciding whether I am being too subtle in my hinting at future relationships/characters' frames of mind. Partly, what I mean is that the person whose perspective we see through is flirting on the edge of the unreliable narrator. I'm not sure how much truth the reader can reasonably expect to glean from him. I'm not sure if I'm being too subtle in showing how he is avoiding certain truths...namely, all his feelings.

Am I dropping enough hints so that you, the reader, knows what's what, even if the characters aren't saying it? And, on that same line, am I giving enough here and there to show the development of their relationship, such as it is? I'm not going to write either of them as being terribly showy about all this because I feel that would be taking them into the realms of out-of-character...which I don't want to do. I'm trying my best to show my interpretation of their characters, even if they differ some from the canon.

Anyway, I'm going to have a quick peek at chapter nine tonight and see what needs work. (Sometimes I feel like writing is a roller coaster. You struggle up, and zip down. And then you think it's over, but then you realize no, you're going up again, which means another down phase and probably you'll go up again after that too.)

Later!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All rights remain with its original creator, Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit from writing these stories.