Chapter Text
His wife was here.
And he, too, was here.
Who else, then, was here?
As they continued on down the road, Kakashi humming to himself every now and then as he kept his nose stuck in that book of his, Sasuke kept his eyes trained on the last member of his team.
There was nothing out of the ordinary about Naruto, though there was nothing out of the ordinary about Sakura or himself, either. They were simply as they were when they were young: children.
Then he recalled the day he met her, in this life, for the first time.
She’d knocked a girl out.
His wife was not a girl who did such things as a child. In her later years, yes; and always with purpose. But as a child, she was… Delicate. Insecure. Hesitant.
This girl was none of those things.
He glanced a look her way. She stood beside Naruto, whispering none too gently about Kakashi behind his back, a mischievous glint in her eyes that Naruto seemed to be sharing in.
Kakashi suddenly looked over his shoulder. “Hm? Did you say my name?”
Both Sakura and Naruto pulled apart. Naruto straightened with a constipated look on his face while Sakura stared admiringly at the thinning woodland to her right.
Kakashi tapped his chin and stared at them a moment longer, his gait never changing despite his eyes off the road. Then, he looked at Sasuke and winked before going back to his book.
As Sakura and Naruto sighed beside him, likely relieved to be off their teacher’s radar, Sasuke felt his thoughts swirl.
What was that wink? What did that mean? Was Kakashi making a joke? Did he joke with them like this, before they even passed their genin exams? Did it matter?
A touch landed at his shoulder. His entire body went taut.
The touch at his shoulder went away. Came back again with a clap of pressure. Then lifted. And returned. And again, the coming and going, happening in quick succession, with near-consistent pressure.
Someone was tapping his shoulder.
“Ah-haha! Look!”
It was Naruto.
Of course it was Naruto.
“Look! There’s a green turtle thing!”
“Naruto,” his wife sighed deeply, “Turtles are supposed to be— Oh my god. That thing is green.”
Sasuke stared carefully at his wife’s face. His wife’s very young, very child-like face. She was close, peering over the shoulder of her teammates, looking aghast at a turtle—
With a scowl, Sasuke copied his teammates and looked at his left.
It was, indeed, a very green turtle. A very large, very green turtle.
…There was something familiar about that turtle.
“Oh?” Kakashi came to squint over their heads, a hand shielding his eyes. “What turtle? I don’t see a turtle.”
“Are you blind?” Naruto demanded with a thrust of his finger. “There! Over there!” He scoffed and crossed his arms. “Man, just how old are you anyway?”
Kakashi suddenly drew back. “I’m not even thirty yet,” he said defensively.
Naruto gave a barking laugh. “Hah! That’s still old! We should call you Kakashi-ojisan instead of Kakashi-sensei. ‘Specially since you haven’t taught us anything yet!”
Kakashi visibly slumped. “Hey, now, that hurts my feelings.”
“Well, he’s right!” Sakura said, startling Sasuke with the sudden abrasiveness of her tone. Her green eyes snapped critically over their teacher. “You’re supposed to be teaching us!”
Kakashi rubbed his chin. “Hm. You do have a point there.” He closed his book and put it away, then turned toward them with an expectant smile. “Alright, then. Time for a lesson.”
Sakura’s eyes blew wide open while Naruto punched the air with a gleeful shout.
“Hell yeah! Finally!”
Kakashi seemed to be grinning widely at them.
Sasuke felt a familiar wariness trickling through him. Distrust, he recognized, and… some vague remnant of irritation.
Kakashi raised a finger. “Our first lesson—” He pointed out where they had all been staring just moments before. “—That’s a tortoise, not a turtle.”
Sakura slapped her hand over her face. Naruto let out a long, drawn-out noise that sounded like a dying whale.
“And here,” Kakashi said, turning around as he whipped out his book, “Is the road to success. Come along. It’s not good to be late, now, is it?”
Sakura looked incensed. “You’re one to talk!” she hissed.
“Yeah!” Naruto scowled for emphasis. “You’re late all the time!”
Kakashi stopped walking.
Turned around.
And looked at Naruto.
There was nothing that Sasuke could read on Kakashi’s face.
The prolonged stare made Naruto’s scowl slip. His brow still furrowed, his lips twisted with an uncomfortable frown. “What? Whaddya lookin’ at me like that for? It’s true!”
A laugh. A smile. A final, lingering stare.
Kakashi turned back to the road, closing his book and putting it away. “We’re almost there,” he said, and started down the path again.
Naruto’s scowl returned. “That’s what you said a whole hour ago!” he whined, chasing after him. “Are we lost?”
Kakashi ruffled the boy’s hair. “No, Naruto, we’re not lost.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“How much farther?”
“Hmmm… Let’s see, now…”
The two of them walked on, their voices trailing off the farther they went. Sasuke had yet to resume walking, choosing instead to take a moment to just watch them go.
A soft hand, warm and calloused, brushed gently against his. His chest wound tight again, coiling like a snake preparing to strike, until he turned and met the quiet gaze of his wife. He stilled.
She was looking at him, with her child’s face, saying nothing at all.
And yet, he heard her; understood her. But he could not open his mouth to speak. Instead, he looked down at their hands, hanging limply at their sides, not touching. Just there, side by side, close enough that he could feel the warm heat of her body singing in the narrow space between their hands.
She stood there for a moment more, sharing his silence, before she started to walk away.
He did not reach out to her. He did not call out to her. He stood as she walked on, leaving him to stand where he was, allowing himself to watch as she moved. Briefly, she glanced over her shoulder, looking solemn and still.
Then she smiled a soft smile, a smile that eased his thoughts, just before she quickened her pace to catch up to the others ahead.
His chest unfurled, like a snake no longer needing to strike.
He knew that smile.
He knew his wife.
And he knew himself.
He did not yet know if he knew Naruto.
He did not yet know if he knew Kakashi.
He did not yet know if he would need to know anyone else.
But he would stay, and watch. Listen. Piece things together. Learn to spot incongruities. Learn to be familiar with them. Learn how to best see two halves become whole.
And he would find a way, somehow, to look beyond this life’s vapid perceptions of a life he once knew, and learn how to live again.
The way he was supposed to.