sloaners:

Grassroot

(GotE editing is driving me crazy so have some ramblings of a post-war Sasuke fic I wrote today)

—-

Some part of Sasuke simply expected to be executed.

But his team goes to bat for him. Naruto and Sakura appeal to the alliance, to Tsunade, and all of Konoha.

And Kakashi shocks Sasuke when he offers to take custody of him, like he’s some poor unruly child rather than a war criminal.

Sasuke is restricted to the village, with the majority of his chakra—and his Sharingan—to be sealed. To add insult to both of them, Kakashi is assigned to design and apply it.

Even worse, while Naruto is off on his world tour as a hero and as Konoha’s diplomat not long after, Tsunade suddenly refuses to hand over the hat, citing the need to maintain stability in leadership as Konoha rebuilds. Sasuke can smell that bullshit for what it is.

But Kakashi… Kakashi just accepts that. Sasuke can’t believe it. His serious issues with the Kage role aside, he thinks Kakashi could be good at it. Sasuke would trust him. He should be in it now, where he could enact the best changes to the system at such a crucial time.

He paces his room in Kakashi’s apartment. He’s so angry and frustrated, not only with himself but that his sensei would let himself be treated like this because of Sasuke. With a snarl, he kicks through his desk chair. It’s not enough. He smashes his side table in a rage, and pulls apart his bookcase.

He finally comes to a stop, catching his breath. He now has a wrecked room, things Kakashi gave him, that he’s now destroyed, and he feels like shit for that.

Kakashi comes in later to find him, watching him pathetically try to clean up his room one-handed.

Kakashi doesn’t say anything; he just crouches down next to Sasuke and starts to pick up the remaining pieces.

They finally round up the lingering splinters, and stack the books where the bookcase once was. Sasuke perches on the corner of his bed, staring at their spines.

Kakashi’s still silent. It’s driving Sasuke crazy.

“…Are you going to say anything?” he asks, a little obstinate.

Kakashi sighs and sits down next to Sasuke on the mattress. “Honestly? I expected this sooner. Did it make you feel better?”

Sasuke clenches his fist. “Why are you okay with this? It’s my fault, I’m serving my time, but she’s still taking it out on you.”

“Ah,” Kakashi nods. “so it’s about that. It’s a nice theory why Tsunade-sama kept the hat, though completely wrong.”

Sasuke whips his head up to stare at him. What? “But—”

“I assure you, while Tsunade-sama didn’t exactly give me a say in it, this delay is… not a bad thing. And the reasons for this have nothing to do with you.”

Sasuke narrows his eyes. What the hell does that mean?

Kakashi ruffles Sasuke’s hair. “Maa, don’t look so suspicious.”

Sasuke bats his hand away and squints at him, even more suspicious.

“You look like an angry cat,” Kakashi teases. “As for the room…” he trails off.

Sasuke colors, embarrassed, and mutters, “I’ll pay for the damage.”

“No need for that. We’ll find another way for you to make up for it.” They both know Sasuke has no money, and really, no means of income for the foreseeable future. Who would want to hire a former war criminal with no chakra?

—-

Kakashi had given Sasuke some money to encourage him to try and leave the apartment, to maybe run an errand or buy something for himself as an attempt to acclimate to regular society again. Sasuke had kept it tucked under a loose floorboard, never really intending to use it.

But Kakashi is sick, refusing to go to the hospital, and since Sasuke can’t exactly drag him there, he knows something else that might help.

Sasuke is going out to Konoha’s new open market, borne out of the lack of yet-built storefronts, for the first time. He double-checks that he has the money, and then hoists one of Kakashi’s shopping bags up on his shoulder. It has little dogs on it.

He can do this. He’s on a mission.

–

The market is much bigger than he expected.

He walks through the wet market, hopelessly lost. He can see everyone shying away from him, or throwing him dirty looks.

Sasuke ignores them, instead trying to figure out where the hell he can find any ginger in this godforsaken maze.

He’s trying to decide whether to go left or right to another row of stalls when he hears, “…Sasuke?”

Sasuke carefully does not startle, and he turns to see Akimichi Chouji standing there, pulling an impressive cart of meats and vegetables behind him.

“…Are you looking for something?” Chouji asks, more than a little hesitant. But he isn’t glaring.

Sasuke’s reticent to ask for help, but he’s been stuck looking for much longer than he wants to admit. Of anyone, and judging by his impressive haul, Chouji would know where Sasuke needs to go.

“I—” Sasuke tries to put together a sentence. “Ginger tea.”

Nice going, Sasuke.

But Chouji simply nods. “Oh, okay, you need to go over to the west side; there’s a few sellers with ginger there. Are you adding anything else to it?”

Sasuke just stares at him.

Chouji’s awkwardly shifts his stance, and starts to falter again. “Like, um, honey or lemon? And camomile flowers make for a more calming tea—”

Helps with calm? Kakashi could probably use that. He nods, “Camomile sounds good.”

Chouji smiles. “There’s a Yamanaka seller with camomile a few stalls down that way—” he points, “—that you can buy in bundles, or even a whole potted plant if you want.”

“Hn.” But Sasuke pauses, remembering he ought to be polite. “…Thank you.”

“Oh, no problem,” Chouji says. They both stand there for an awkward beat. “Well… I’ll leave you to it?”

Sasuke nods, and makes his way back to the flower stall he saw earlier. That wasn’t too excruciating.

—-

It’s early December. The short winter in Konoha is starting off with an unusual dusting of snow.

Naruto will be back soon. His letters from Suna are funny for all the whining about the heat and the terrible doodles of succulent plants in the margins, but are otherwise vague.

Sasuke puts the letter away and shivers at his desk. It’s difficult to thermoregulate with so little chakra. He’ll have to tough it out for the market.

But Kakashi, in his favorite pastime of sneaking up behind Sasuke, stalks through the open bedroom door and plops a new coat over his shoulders.

“Maa, I thought we could go out together. Here.” He sets a cookbook on the desk as Sasuke’s shrugging off the awkwardly placed coat onto the back of his chair. “We’ll pick a few recipes for the week and try them.”

They skim through the book. Kakashi only vetoes one of Sasuke’s picks for some mysterious reason, and points out some eggplant thing instead. Sasuke shrugs and gives him the win; he doesn’t mind eggplant, and it seems easier to make, anyway.

“I sense a running theme,” Kakashi teases, as he writes out the ingredient lists for Sasuke’s chosen recipes. Yes, he likes tomatoes. As if Kakashi isn’t obsessed with fish and miso.

Sasuke grabs his new coat as Kakashi ushers him to the entryway. It’s a bit more poncho-like than a tight fit. He realizes it can be easily shut one handed, and the sleeves obscure Sasuke’s lack of arm than highlight it, which is thoughtful.

Kakashi eye smiles at Sasuke’s choice of shopping bag and pulls out another bag—shuriken print—and a cart. Sasuke blinks. When did he get that?

Kakashi tears the list down the middle and hands one half to Sasuke. “You’ll be responsible for finding those if we split up.”

Sasuke nods, grateful that Kakashi isn’t going easy on him or trying to hover.

Still, Sasuke sticks by Kakashi for their first stop, keeping one eye on the cabbage grocer fawning over his awkwardly chuckling sensei as he looks at his half of the list. They really have to buy everything, because Kakashi never got around to buying spices or other staples to stock his kitchen. Besides a lot of ginger tea, they’ve been eating mostly rice and miso soup and take out when either of them manages to remember to eat.

Sasuke suddenly realizes how daunting this is.