Song Call and Naruto musings

For all the good you say it does
It feels no better when you've had your say
You may believe it's just because
The words get colder when you've gone away
I thought I understand
What I was to you

I don't want to feel this way
I don't want to say I'm just a friend
I don't want to wait around here
'Cos you don't want to feel no pain again
We just lie about it
As we become shadows of ourselves

Some may fear committed lives
I sure am one of them without you
Does it come to you as some surprise
I laid the ground beneath to doubt you
Was it ever girl
Something you could hold

I don't want to feel this way
I don't want to say I'm just a friend
I don't want to wait around here
'Cos you don't want to feel no pain again
We just lie about it
As we become shadows of ourselves

I don't want to look away
I don't want to be the one denied
It ain't no fault of mine
Someone, somewhere told you lies
But we don't talk about it
We just become shadows of ourselves
- Duncan Sheik, "In the Absence of Sun"

I think Duncan Sheik makes up most of my Inner Kakashi soundtrack. When the guy does depressing, he does it damn well.

So, the newest KakaSasu challenge is AUs, right? And I'm thinking, "AUs, I like those, they're delicious like pie." Now, FFVI, in my head, gets the best AU ideas. The crazy Vegas roadtrip thing is still something I'd like to write, if it could only decide on how much angst and sex it wants to have. (Lots of both, I imagine.)

But now Naruto wants AUs. AUs everywhere, like babies, possibly including babies. And I'm not talking "OMG Naruto and every1 grows up and liek, have kids n stff," because I don't count those as AU.

No, in my head, the Naruto cast are all engaged in a reenactment of West Side Story. With dancing and everything. 'Cuz, you see, the Jets are like Konoha, right? And the Puerto Ricans are like Sound, so when Naruto finally asks Sasuke out, Sasuke puts on the pretty white dress and starts singing "I Feel Pretty," because it makes sense in my head, goddamnit. Only it doesn't, at all.

I have a fanart of Sasuke on my desktop- Sasuke with a lip ring, multiple ear piercings, a zoot suit, and a hat. This picture makes me want to write gay swingdance club fic with Kakashi, rolled up shirtsleeves, badly lit restaurant booths, and lots of cigarettes, for the sole reason that dancing Kakashi is amazingly hot. I'm getting my eras mixed up, of course; the zoot suits aren't swing, I don't think. They're more of a jazz kind of thing- but that works pretty damn well, too, in terms of hotness and people getting flustered in dark corners.

Those are just minor ideas that popped up for the purpose of Pretty, or Silly, and I'm not likely to ever write them. The idea that I'm much more likely to write would be the AU where Rin died to save Kakashi's life instead of Obito.

These bloody epic-style stories that Naruto keeps giving me all seem to come with their own working titles, which is kind of nice and kind of annoying at the same time. "A Little to the Left" is a little obscure, since it doesn't really have anything to do with the story- which is mostly just life being different with Obito still alive, up to and including Sasuke running off to join Orochimaru.

I don't normally do What-If stories, but I think I could maybe pull this one off if I kept it a one-shot.

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Obito watched his younger cousin watching his best friend saunter away and grinned like his face was falling off. Sasuke had a stick up his ass, sure- he was from the main family, it was to be expected- but sometimes the kid was so damned cute, it hurt.

Sasuke looked up at his guardian, a sour expression on his face. "What're you so happy about?" He shouldered his bag and walked off, not waiting for Obito.

It took him a few moments to catch up; Sasuke was moving quickly, but no so quickly that Obito would risk hurting himself to keep up. The boy wasn't completely heartless, after all. Obito extracted his revenge by tripping Sasuke with a crutch. His cousin caught himself before he fell, but that was beside the point.

"You like him," Obito sang as they walked. "Sasuke-kun's got a cruuush!"

The look Sasuke gave him communicated more than words ever could- in this case, "I'm going to stab you in your sleep and fill our house with the sound of my maniacal laughter before going off to join my brother in whatever nefarious dealings he's currently engaged in."

Obito, though only a branch family member and something of a black sheep all his life, was still well versed in the Uchiha art of eye communication; he responded to Sasuke's glare with a serene look of his own that said, "You're so cute when you're huffy. And please remember that I was doing missions in a warzone before you were born and, one leg or no, I can still kick your ass in my sleep."

"I hate you," Sasuke deadpanned, then submitted to having his hair ruffled.

Obito grinned knowingly. "Don't worry. It's just Kakashi. Everyone gets a crush on him at some point or other. You'll get over it eventually."

They walked (limped) in silence a for a few blocks; Sasuke kept his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the ground. "Did you?" he asked finally.

The elder Uchiha took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, not at all surprised by the question. "Of course. It's just Kakashi. He's a good person, really, just- well, you'll see what I mean eventually."

Sasuke seemed to accept that answer with the slightest dropping of his shoulders as he relaxed, just a little. He moved a little closer to his cousin as they walked, and began to talk softly about his first day of training.
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(For the record, Obito is straight like an amazingly straight thing. Hell, Jiraiya isn't even as straight as this kid. But Kakashi is a lot like Sasuke, and even straight people can't help themselves sometimes.)

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"Sasuke has a crush on you," Obito muttered around his noodles.

Kakashi stiffened ever so slightly; a normal person wouldn't have noticed, but Obito was the local expert on understanding Hatake Kakashi. He was the last true master of a dying art, really; it was a lot of work for minimal results, and even if you were his best friend, Kakashi was still an asshole.

So any random passerby wouldn't have noticed the faint tension in the jounin's shoulders, or the way his fingers tightened imperceptibly around his sake cup, but Obito did. And Obito's powers of observation (irony of ironies), had only improved after he'd retired; he was a better shinobi now than when he'd actually worn a hitai-ate. He could read Kakashi just as easily as he read the lurid books they both enjoyed.

"He'll get over it," Kakashi whispered, downing his sake with lightning speed to prevent stray glimpses of his face.

"Yes." Obito deliberately set his chopsticks down beside his bowl and turned his full attention on his friend. "He will. Because he's twelve years old, Kakashi. And he's your student, and my little cousin."

Kakashi closed his visible eye and nodded slightly, throat bobbing against the fabric of his mask as he swallowed audibly. "I know."

"Good." Obito returned to shovelling noodles into his mouth. "Because I don't want to have to kick your ass later on just 'cuz you can't help being a pervert." The words were almost lost in his ramen. "And Sasuke-kun's not allowed to date 'til he's thirty, anyway."

If Kakashi blushed, no one noticed it but Obito.
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Yeah, so fourteen years does a lot to mellow him out, but Obito will always always be a spazz.