[Closed] This handbasket is a little more hellish than anticipated.

[thebestuchiha]

Where: Konoha with a detour out of town.
When: January 4th, ridiculous early in the morning to late evening.
Notes: Sasuke had a simple mission. Then he went and complicated it all to hell on his way home. Time to fix it.

Obito hadn't actually made it all the way to the office yet when Sasuke tracked him down. Or ran into him, he still wasn't entirely clear if it had been intentional. Still, it was obvious something was up and since his place was closer, and the teen looked rather on edge, he decided to just drag him right back to his apartment, sitting him down on his couch as he took the chair across from him.

"Alright, what's got you spooked?" He paused a beat. "Is it something I need to activate a privacy seal for?"

Comments

[not_thedragon]

Fly back and walk around -- to look normal, Sasuke reminded himself. That meant that once they'd returned he'd need to head home and stumble in and out of shower as he often did after long missions. That would at least be convincing, and as for afterward --

"What kind of mood should I be in when we get back?" They'd had training sessions that ended with Sasuke exultant, delighted with a new technique, and they'd had sessions that ended with Sasuke sulking his way back home, thoroughly beaten and with an incomplete jutsu to struggle through on his own.

[thebestuchiha]

"Drag. It'll be easier for you and you tend to hole up when you're in a mood after that. I'll dig around for a jutsu to justify it." He tightened his hold a moment, then eased back. "That should make it simpler for you."

[not_thedragon]

It should have been more of an insult, perhaps, to find that his tendency to sulk after an unsuccessful training session was better known than he'd hoped, but that concern felt oddly distant at the moment. Instead, Sasuke simply nodded, inhaling deep before consciously fixing his shoulders where he wanted them, slouching his spine to what felt habitual.

"Alright?" He asked, more for confirmation than permission.

[thebestuchiha]

He examined him carefully. "That will work fine when we get back. Just remember to scowl if you're using that posture okay? You do that thoughtful scowl thing your dad does more and more lately when you're displeased."

[not_thedragon]

Sasuke was in the middle of scowling when Obito's comment caught him off-guard, making him break stance to stare at his teacher in surprise. He knew Fugaku's thoughtful scowl well enough himself -- he'd certainly seen it plenty of times to know it -- but it was weird to think that he'd picked it up.

Useful, but weird. He could make his face settle into what he knew Fugaku's expression looked like with considerably more ease than trying to fabricate his own.

"Like this?"

[thebestuchiha]

He examined him thoughtfully, then nodded once. "That looks about like you." He gave him a small, sad little smile. "You may take after your mother in looks but you've definitely got your dad in there too. Just don't get too serious, okay?"

[not_thedragon]

It wasn't the first time he'd heard that he looked more like his mother than his father -- oddly, nobody ever accused Itachi of the same, even with his decidedly girlish eyelashes -- but the memory of other times jarred strangely against the reality of the moment. It was easier to focus on the minutiae; too serious wasn't generally something relatives other than Obito leveraged at him, but he carefully relaxed his mouth a fraction.

"I'll find believable excuses to stay away from those who know me until I've --" Gotten over it? Stopped acting like a genin on his first kill? "Gotten myself under control."

[thebestuchiha]

He looked at him for a long moment, then reached out and put his hand on his head. "Just... you're not alone. I'm here for you through this whole thing, no matter what. Take the time you need, but don't think I won't come after you if it's too long, alright? If nothing else I'm sure your mom'll take notice sooner or later if you avoid her."

He had his head tilted to look into his face while he spoke. "Let's go, mm? Bird time."