rims and edges

kakashi, sasuke.

it's been a while, ne, minna-san? XD

post-shippuden, uh, if you know what i mean. heh. meaning sasuke returned and all - and wait a minute, that's just my assumption that kishimoto intended for all this to happen. XD of course he would!!! (hopeful eyes)

very, very short. should be a drabble, but no, it has a plot. surprise, surprise.

oh. and that photograph back when we were younger. kakashi, sasuke

-

"Give me that." Sasuke snapped. Careful not to swing his elbows enough to spill the cups of green tea on the Ichiraku ramen bar table, the Uchiha couldn't believe he was actually standing on tip-toe to reach for something inaccessible within his grasp. He was glad for the matter that customers at this hour were few and in-between. Those sparing him glances were beginning to think he was, well, mad. Not like Sasuke didn't have a bad enough reputation without his sensei already.

Damn Kakashi and his height. And even after all this while (Sasuke's turning seventeen in three days' time), the gray-haired jounin never stop taunting his pupil about the apparent difference. A few inches still equate to quite an amount, Kakashi will rephrase it in his very lazy, ironic manner, and then earn himself a death glare from said insulted person.

"Eh, what's this?" Kakashi examined the contents of the wallet, until a piece of paper-like material fell out.

"Give. me. that." Sasuke tried hard not to flinch as Kakashi (Damn him!) got hold of the thin item in between his two fingers.

"It's..." Kakashi flipped the glossy material over, and his eyebrow arched so high, it disappeared behind his hair.

"Don't say anything." Sasuke warned, his tone hissing.

It was a picture of both sensei and pupil, five years ago, standing in the central village of Konoha where they had both witnessed the Godaime Hokage inauguration ceremony by the sides of Itsumo and Kotetsu.

Kakashi was rendered into a moment of quietude for a while, his eyes giving away nothing. Meanwhile, Sasuke chose to ignore his teacher, and decided (he secretly considered a handmade voodoo doll. He would ask Sakura how to make it later) that sipping his green tea and emptying the cup contents would be much more worthwhile than embedding that look (expression) on Kakashi's face currently into his memory - it's a classic, though, Sasuke thinks.

"I told you, don't say anything." Sasuke repeated. He rested his elbows against the wooden table, and began to brood. He'd think of killing Kakashi...later.

Kakashi slipped the picture back into the slot of the wallet, and lightly pushed it back to Sasuke. The latter retrieved it with another one of those death glares - that kind that could freeze even a snowman two times over. If Kakashi was an icy scarecrow living in the north pole, he'd be getting frostbite by now.

"I'm not saying anything." Kakashi still looked amused.

Sasuke considered unleashing Chidori in their sparring match later. They always had one unfailingly at three in the afternoon. (It's been a kind of one-year-routine by now.)

"You're not supposed to." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Five years." Kakashi looked thoughtful.

"Shut up."

The picture had looked old and tattered and yellowed with rims and edges and all.

"I'll pay for the meal, Sasuke." Kakashi offered, and took out his wallet from his pocket.

And then Sasuke was sure as hell this time that his sensei had meant the action deliberately, because when Kakashi had flipped his wallet open, the Uchiha hadn't exactly missed out the same old (rotten, torn, dirty) photograph carefully slotted inside at all.

owari

a/n:

i've always thought that picture of kakashi and sasuke with kotetsu and itsumo inside was a classic through and through. XD just my two pence worth of opinion. grins.