Twisting Fate

Watched

"We're going back to Konoha for a little bit," Minato says, pulling Sasuke from his thoughts. He was staring out over the camp from the tree branch that has sort of become his sleeping place whenever he was in this camp. It's been a little over a month since Kakashi lost his eye and a lot of time was dedicated to teaching Kakashi how to deal with his handicap.

Sasuke even had a little bit to do with it. Sasuke was able to get used to his own handicap. Yes, he still had his eye, but didn't use it often anymore so it was a form of selective handicap. He was able to relate, though, so that's what matters. Or at least, it mattered enough to Minato to keep pestering him until he gave in. Damn, the man was worse than Naruto! There was just no winning against the Yellow Flash.

He was able to be annoying as all hell like Naruto, but he didn't have the same short fuse that Naruto did. So even though Sasuke was certain he was being a pain in the ass back to the older blond, the man usually didn't bat an eyelash at him. The most annoyed Sasuke has ever seen Minato express was a sigh, a rub of the shoulders and a droll look at the person who annoyed him; which was Obito. But he never got mad. He never raised his voice. He never got stressed out or lost his head.

This man was infuriating in how perfect he was.

The worst about all of it wasn't because he was Naruto's father, and annoying as hell like the younger blond. He wasn't loud and obnoxious and fidgety like Naruto was. He was in fact, the complete opposite. He was quiet and even after being denied, he would just stare at Sasuke with this impossibly keen blue eyes, like he was trying to persuade the blue haired boy with his mind. He was definitely stubborn and persistent like Naruto, though. He didn't give up until Sasuke had begrudgingly agreed to train Kakashi. At least in the sense of his handicap. Even then, Sasuke didn't know what to really teach him.

Sasuke could handle his handicap. His eyes were fast and keen enough for it. So he just taught young Kakashi what he learned his own sensei did when he kept the Sharingan hidden. He used his other senses. He became very strong in that ability. It became second nature to be able to focus a good portion of his hearing to that one side to make up for not using his eye.

Sasuke thought that he was fucking with Might Guy when he always asked if Guy had said something, after the man spent the better part of two minutes blabbering on about one thing or another (and most of the time, Sasuke feels it's safe to assume he was) but some of the time, he really couldn't hear him that well. Kakashi usually has his hearing focused on his non-dominant side.

After joining Orochimaru's side, Sasuke had plenty of time to reflect on things of the past and think about trivial things like that. He was able to analyze why his sensei was the way he was. He began to realized that when someone was more positioned toward his dominant side, where his ear was exposed, he would glance over at them while they were talking - reading their lips - whereas he usually didn't when they were on the other side because he could hear them perfectly fine. It was something odd that Sasuke had pondered in his spare time when he was meditating, it kept his mind keen and focused.

So Sasuke taught him to do that. He taught him to divert his sense of hearing to that ear, primarily. Use it to manipulate his handicap. Just because he didn't have an eye over there, didn't mean that he was completely helpless.

Kakashi took to the training immediately, picking up the trait like a genius would. It would have been a little odd otherwise, had the young boy been unable to pick up this form of training, since the Kakashi that taught Sasuke was the one who used it. After Sasuke had explained to Kakashi - and Minato who oversaw their training - his idea, both seemed pleased. Which was... good, Sasuke supposed.

"So are you really an Uchiha?" Obito had asked what feels like that thousandth time since Sasuke met him.

"No," Sasuke said flatly, dodging a strike by the white haired genius.