Chapter Text
You could say Kakashi is caught off guard by the jutsu.
Or rather, entirely blindsided and unsuspecting of whatever thing blinds him in the middle of his office during an attempt to finish off the every growing pile of paperwork a Hokage has to do.
He really had just been minding his own business, briefly standing up to stretch his sore muscles and take off that godforsaken hat (that according to Tsunade, was in fact mandatory to wear when in office) when his vision had whited out, and then he was definitely not inside the Hokage tower. So, despite having spent the past few weeks trying to psych himself and every other shinobi in the village out of a wartime mindset, he finds it simple to slip back into it.
The first thing he does when he gains back his vision, is lower himself into a crouching position and pull a kunai out from the holster on his thigh. Grey eyes survey his surroundings, but he immediately regrets it when he notices where he is.
Almost impossibly tall trees, sparse grass on the cracked dirt of the forest, and a rock formation that looks far too similar to what should have been Obito’s final resting place. A perfect replica of twenty years ago, where Kakashi had lost an eye, his comrade, and then another.
He can feel the blood drain from his face, but doesn’t waver in the slightest as he spikes his chakra to break the genjutsu.
Because obviously, that’s what this is. Somehow, someone managed to sneak into his office and put him under a genjutsu. He ignores the voice in the back of his mind that reminds him that no caster would try to catch him in a genjutsu this obvious. That no one is left alive with the knowledge required to recreate such a perfect illusion of possibly the worst day of his life.
When the disruption to his chakra does absolutely nothing to his surroundings, Kakashi simply does it again, and again, and again.
Once he hits the fifth attempt at disrupting the illusion, he drops his arms out of the seal he’d been using, and sits himself down on the dirt. The hand not holding his kunai comes up to grasp at the silver strands in front of his sharingan-less left eye.
It’s not an illusion. Or, it’s an illusion weaved so perfectly, that even he can’t escape it. Which is impossible. Almost as impossible as being back in the past to when he had just been made a jōnin and was on his first disaster of a mission as captain.
His eyes trail lazily to the stone cave built further into the clearing. He can’t see through the entrance based on his position, but the air smells like… himself. And another shinobi who reeks of fire and dried leaves and crybaby tears. And a kunoichi who always radiated warmth and keen intelligence underneath that deceptively floral scent. And someone else, drenched in blood and violent intent, the lingering rot of stone clinging to them.
Then, like a blade slicing through the fog of his mind, comes the sound of weapons being drawn. It echoes from the cave and rings in his ears like a bell, clear, despite the distance between him and where it originated from.
If this is no illusion… No, even if it is an illusion… He has the opportunity to do something about it. Unlike when he was twelve, Kakashi is strong. He’s fought and won two wars, has countless titles and jutsu and missions under his belt, and now he’s the Hokage.
He has the power to save his comrades. He has the chance to change his fate. He has the ability to be more than trash.
Kakashi doesn’t so much as blink before he shunshins into the cave, just in time to place himself directly between that damned Iwa-nin and young Obito with young him.
The nin has barely a second to process that Kakashi is in front of him and has stopped his dual blades in his tracks with a single kunai, before Kakashi has used his free hand to summon a new jutsu he’s been working on.
Shiden, a replacement for his chidori, spits across his palm, and he swipes it across the shinobi’s neck, effectively removing his head from his shoulders. It goes flying, landing somewhere behind Kakashi with a wet squelch.
He can hear the panicked stumbling of his younger self and young Obito as they change their course to avoid the new threat. Kakashi stays put, eyes fixed on the way the purple electricity dances around his fingers, sparking across the headless and bloody shoulders of the nin still in his grasp. He drops the body to the floor methodically, and lets the electricity fade away.
In front of him is Rin.
Twelve years old, currently under a genjutsu but relatively unharmed, and so alive. The last of his jutsu illuminates her features, and Kakashi hides the instinctive flinch at the sight of lightning and its light dancing across her skin.
“Who are you?!” a young boy's voice shouts from his right. Obito.
There’s the sound of someone adjusting their grip threateningly on a tantō from his left, which would be himself, if the wary silence is anything to go by.
Kakashi feels out of his depth. But he’s also a shinobi. He’s grown well versed in shoving all his feelings in a box and shelving it in favour of focusing on what’s in front of him.
He’s about to open his mouth to give some lackadaisical answer, when he senses that they aren’t alone.
At least eleven chakra signatures have made themselves known outside the cave. Reinforcements have arrived, but why earlier than last time?
It must have been the spikes in his chakra when he had been trying to break himself out of the genjutsu initially. He curses himself for not thinking of that at the time, but to be fair, it’s not everyday one finds themself back in their past. Or perhaps, a split in the timeline with how much he’s changed.
Because he’s definitely changed things. Simply by killing that Iwagakure shinobi before he had the time to perform his earth release jutsu, he’s saved himself and by extension, Obito, from being crushed by rocks. If he can just keep them alive for a bit longer, he can avoid the whole tragedy entirely.
“Answer him. Who are you, and what are your allegiances?” he hears the grating voice of his own twelve-year-old self ask.
Kakashi’s not wearing his hitai-ate, hasn’t had to since he picked up the hat really. Which means it’s not written on him anywhere that he’s from Konoha. Perhaps, he muses dryly, it’s for the best. At least like this, he has time to think of some cover for who he is and why he’s here.
“Maa, perhaps you should focus on saving your teammate there instead of interrogating your saving grace. We have company outside of this cave. And they don’t seem like the patient type.”
It’s the first thing he’s said since he found himself here. Even to his ears, his voice has a rougher texture to it than the smooth lilt he often employs when speaking to others.
At his reminder, he can see the silver blob to his left and the Uchiha one to his right jolt and turn to face their still incapacitated comrade. But they don’t move towards her.
Smart move. He’s clearly the biggest threat at the moment, and turning their backs to go untie an essentially useless Rin at the moment, would be more detrimental than helpful. They won’t move unless he makes himself less of a threat. So he does exactly that.
Raising his arms in a universal sign of surrender, he steps backwards so that the three of them are closer to each other than they are to him. Instantly, Obito is by Rin’s side, breaking her out of the genjutsu and asking her quietly if she’s alright, and Kakashi is stationed in front of them both, the ever present silent guard.
He finally locks eyes with his younger self, and is deeply uncomfortable with what’s reflected back at him. He knows what he looked like at that age, all pale and ghostly with limbs that haven’t even started their growth spurts and eyes that bore holes into whoever dared to speak with him, but it’s another thing entirely to see it from an outside perspective.
Little Kakashi, in all senses of the word, is just a kid. Twelve-years-old and a jōnin doing infiltration missions deep behind enemy lines, with clothes that hang off his thin body and hurt buried underneath the same mask he still wears, even twenty years later. His head must be hurting from having just lost his eye, but it’s been two decades since Kakashi lost his own, and any physical pain has long been buried under the losses of his comrades.
God, the version he’s looking at is twenty whole years younger than him right now. It’s enough to make him flick his eyes upwards to eye the structural integrity of the ceiling to the cave morosely.
Younger him follows his gaze, which is great, because the second after both of them look back at each other questioningly, there’s a very ominous flare of chakra from outside the place and then the ceiling is collapsing.
Both him and mini-Kakashi curse at the same time (he misses mini-Kakashi sending an alarmed and considering glance his way), and Kakashi steps aside from his place almost blocking the way out.
“Go!” he yells at them while pointing towards the exit. To their credit, the kids don’t even flinch, following his order like it was natural to listen to a random unaffiliated shinobi in war time.
Mini-Kakashi puts an arm underneath Rin and Obito supports her on the other side, and then they’re booking it towards where Kakashi stands by the exit, watching and waiting for the sign that something could go wrong.
He was right for doing so. Obito, the clumsy crybaby ninja who tried to end the fucking world in Kakashi’s time, trips.
He manages to disentangle himself from Rin first, so he doesn’t stop them as they run, but Rin and Kakashi let out strangled kinds of noises as they tumble forward without him supporting them.
They start to double back to save Obito, unaware of the boulder that’s been dislodged from the ceiling and is hurtling right towards where they’re standing.
Kakashi watches in slow motion as Obito’s sharingan flares brightly in the darkness of the cave when he wrenches himself to his feet, grabbing the thin arm of young Kakashi to drag both him and Rin out of the way of the boulder’s impact. Which also, unfortunately, puts him next in line to be crushed.
What is it with Uchiha Obito and self-sacrifice? He knows Rin was worth it, but was Kakashi ever that important in Obito’s eyes?
It seems so, if the way he’s willing to die for Kakashi all over again means anything.
He wastes no time in throwing himself towards the group. In one swift movement, he gathers mini-Kakashi and little Rin into his arms and uses the momentum of his spin to hurl them towards the exit. Ignoring their despairing screams, he pushes his body to be faster, and is suddenly close enough to grab mini-Obito.
He plasters a hand to the kid's upper arm, ignoring the snap of bone under his fingers from the force of his grip, pulling Obito into his chest and pushing all his chakra into his free arm. He punches upwards, and he can feel his momentum sweep across the falling ceiling and push it up and away (sending Sakura a thank you for that move as he does).
It takes a moment for the dust to settle, so in the seconds after Kakashi blasts a hole through not only the boulder but also the rest of the quickly crumbling cave, Kakashi focuses on the injured Uchiha still tucked securely into his chest.
Once he’s sure that the kid isn’t going to immediately die from rogue flying boulders, he steps backwards, releasing his now broken upper arm with a wince from himself and a hoarse shout from the kid.
“Fuck, sorry,” he says, cursing his carelessness. He had gotten so worked up over saving the kid, he had forgotten to regulate himself, still using his chakra to augment his body to make him get there in time to rescue him. With that comes strength that is beyond an average jōnin, so mini-Obito’s arm didn’t stand a chance against Kakashi’s grip.
The kid's head is still tucked to his own chest as he cradles his arm closer to himself and sniffles near silently. There’s dust coating him lightly (and probably Kakashi too) from the cave being torn to pieces by Kakashi’s jutsu, and he looks extra miserable with his hunched shoulders and torn lips.
Kakashi opts to ignore the pang of guilt and self-deprecation, instead turning around to see if he didn’t accidentally kill his younger self and Rin by throwing them directly under a rock.
When he spots familiar silver hair hovering beside a soft brown, he heaves a discreet sigh of relief and turns to mini-Obito.
“If you can walk, your teammates seem to be fine. You should go get patched up by the medic girl. It looks like your arm is broken,” he tries to say as gently as he can manage while still keeping his aloof persona up.
It immediately crumbles when Obito wrenches his head up to glare tearfully up at Kakashi.
“What do you mean ‘it looks like it’s broken’? You broke it!” he hisses, anger lining every inch of that familiar-unfamiliar Uchiha face.
Kakashi can feel his expression drop into something intensely guilty, probably visible from even under the mask. He’s gotten better at showing emotions through his body over the years, but it only serves to work against him now.
“I said I was sorry! I was just worried that you’d get crushed and I forgot to control my strength,” he explains, wincing at the righteous indignation growing on Obito’s face. He’s so angry there’s even a blush on his cheeks, red eyes fading to their normal black and darting around for some odd reason.
“No normal person is that strong naturally, he’s a freak of nature, of course I’d get rescued by the weirdo unaffiliated shinobi freak of nature who also happened to break my arm,” Obito mutters under his breath, but Kakashi picks up on most of it.
Weirdo unaffiliated shinobi freak, that’s a new one. He’ll give Obito points for creativity.
“Obito!” comes a chorus of little-Kakashi and Rin from behind them.
Kakashi comes to a decision, and gently places a hand on the kid's shoulder to guide him towards his teammates. He keeps the contact light, but Obito still turns to stone beneath his fingers, wary but willing to go along with whatever the ‘weirdo shinobi freak of nature’ is playing at. Kakashi deftly hides his snort at the suspicion dancing on those young features.
Little Kakashi and Rin have pulled themselves out of whatever pile they had tumbled into when the cave had collapsed, just outside its entrance and completely unharmed. Rin is the first one to catch sight of him, and jumps to her feet with tears welling in her big brown eyes. Mini-Kakashi groans, probably having been Rin’s cushion, and climbs to his feet unsteadily too.
“Obito! Are you alright?” she demands, stumbling forward and appearing on Obito’s side opposite of Kakashi’s. “We were so worried! I didn’t think you would make it, I thought the shinobi was going to finish you off once Kakashi and I were out of the range–”
“What happened to your arm?” mini-Kakashi interrupts before Rin can finish her rambling.
His voice, despite being young and pre-pubescent, is alight with rage and overprotectiveness, and when Kakashi steps away from Obito and Rin to give them some space, he meets mini-Kakashi’s eyes and sees nothing but hatred.
Everyone is silent when they look down at Obito’s upper arm, which is bent at an odd angle, even under the usually loose fabric of his jacket and shirt. Then, three pairs of eyes turn to face Kakashi, one bitter, one fearful, and the last furious.
Little Kakashi has drawn his tantō yet again, and is now pointing it at Kakashi, outrage spilling from his pores in an impressive display of killing intent. Honestly, Kakashi hadn’t thought it was possible to be that angry at that age, but he supposes he had just come to an emotional breakthrough not even a day previous.
“Did you do this?” little Kakashi demands to know.
Kakashi shrugs his shoulders and raises his arms in a peaceful gesture. “Maa, It was an accident. I was trying to pull him out of the way of a boulder, but it turns out the kids’ arm is made of paper.”
“You’ll pay for that,” is the response to his reasoning.
Kakashi’s jaw drops momentarily at the arrogance. Geez, he was confident, wasn’t he? Fearless even when entirely outmatched. It’s practically hubris, really.
He snorts, and then throws a hand over his scarred eye dramatically. “Oh no, whatever will I do when faced with a team of twelve-year-old Konoha-nin? How could I ever think to best them in combat, when all three are injured and barely look to be a threat?”
“Hey, don’t disrespect my fighting skills, weirdo shinobi man! And I’m thirteen!” Obito screeches, uninjured hand clenching into a fist in front of him.
Kakashi looks down at the kids (so small!) and then out to the twelve shinobi sneaking their way to surround them. He makes eye contact with himself, and raises his eyebrows in silent challenge.
The kid finally seems to notice they aren’t alone, and spins around swiftly to face the other threat. Kakashi watches in real time as the kid takes stock of his teammates and their fighting ability, then himself, and then eyes the other nin despairingly.
In that time, Obito and Rin have noticed as well and their twin gasps of shock sound throughout the clearing.
“When did they get there?!” Obito shouts.
Kakashi appears at their sides, crouching down and keeping his eyes on the threat. “They’ve been there since that Iwa-nin died back in the cave. I do believe this is what caused it to collapse.”
All three of them startle, and whirl at him. Kakashi can feel the vaguely impressed air from Obito and the fearful one from mini-him and Rin, but ignores it. Very carefully he holds out a hand towards the three of them, palm held upward.
“If one of you gives me some more weapons, I’ll wipe them out for you. None of you are in any condition to fight one of these men, let alone at least twelve of them. But I only have one kunai on me, so I need something else to get the job done,” he says, making sure his voice is even and calm.
Silence. The twelve enemy nin seem perfectly fine with leering at them from their places in the treetops, watching the show curiously. Perhaps they weren’t aware that there would be someone present other than an injured pair of chūnin and one feeble jōnin and are being slightly more cautious. Smart.
Kakashi tilts his head to regard his young team from his peripherals.
Mini-him is stone faced as he stares at Kakashi’s outstretched hand distrustfully, Obito is glaring at him openly, fear mixing with his outrage at being sidelined, and Rin… is placing two kunai from her pouch in his palm.
“Rin!”
“Don’t give the enemy weapons!”
Rin ignores the voices of her teammates. She’s biting her lip so hard it's torn the skin and is sluggishly bleeding, but her eyes are resolute despite the shaking of her pupils.
Rin was always the best at making realistic observations of missions. Kakashi was always too arrogant for his own good, and Obito lived with his mind in the clouds, but Rin had a clear head on her shoulders and her feet planted firmly on the ground. She was pragmatic in the way Kakashi wished he could have been far earlier.
She turns to face mini-Kakashi, who looks unfairly betrayed at the moment.
“Captain, you and Obito are injured from fighting, and I’m not combat-oriented like you two anyway. Even if you weren’t injured, the chances of us escaping is minimal. I know you’re in charge, but if I abandoned you here, or you died when I could change something, I’d never forgive myself,” Rin urges them, brows furrowed together and her palm closing Kakashi’s hands over the weapon so that he can’t turn down her offer of goodwill. Not that he will, these weapons are his key to saving the kids from dying.
“Those that break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash,” Obito murmurs to himself from Rin’s side.
Kakashi personally wouldn’t stand for Rin’s actions if it were in any other situation, but then again, there’s really no way this would’ve ended well without his intervention. At this age, Kakashi had been stubborn and willful enough to entirely disregard his teammates' opinions. Even with the change of heart with young Obito about saving Rin and teamwork, Kakashi knows (intimately, really) that this decision will chafe uncomfortably on his pride for years.
But pride is nothing when your could-have-been friend dies saving you. It means jack shit when your other teammate throws herself in your line of fire to kill herself. Pride is useless when you can’t save your sensei or his wife from dying to protect their son and the village.
So, in essence, fuck twelve-year-old Kakashi and his ego. Adult Kakashi has a team to save.
Little Kakashi looks a little like he’s been punched in the gut, grey eye staring right at Obito with something entirely unfamiliar to even himself. Kakashi narrows his eyes at the look. He really doesn’t recognise it, beyond the simmering betrayal at having the chain of command overturned, which is weird because that’s literally him but slightly less traumatised.
Whatever, he’s got more pressing issues than whatever is going on in his own pre-pubescent brain. Namely, the sputtering sounds of indignation from Obito when mini-Kakashi doesn’t refute Rin.
“We’re trusting this guy with our lives? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day! You’re seriously living up to your name, Bakashi,” he fumes, sharingan whirling to life as he stares down mini-Kakashi defiantly.
Younger him makes an odd noise at the fierceness in Obito’s, singular eye blown wide and mouth wide open underneath that mask. Kakashi cranes his neck to catch the blush on his ears underneath his hair. Huh.
There’s an indecipherable leer from the group of enemy nin, and Kakashi blinks himself back into focus.
He doesn’t so much as breathe in the kid's direction as he pockets Rin’s kunai and stands up from his crouch, dusting his pants off casually. He checks over his chakra stores while stretching his arms over his head a little. He’s pretty much entirely full, only having used the tiniest sliver to kill that Iwa-nin.
So it’s with a narrowed eye and the tiniest grimace under his mask that he watches the group of nin rush him all at once.
Piece of cake.
He shunshins behind the two closest, and activates his shiden to slice their heads off their shoulders.
They don’t even realise he isn’t in front of him when they die, and their bodies fall down to the forest floor, much like the Iwa-nin in the cave.
Of course, Kakashi is long gone by the time their bodies drop. He spins around to throw one of his three kunai at one of the nin at the back of the charge, knowing without having to check that it landed exactly where he wanted it to, up through his right eye and into his brain.
While doing that, he’s swung his hand covered in shiden through the chests of the oncoming shinobi to his right, skewering two within a second and then shaking them off.
Kakashi then moves his hands into a hand seal and inhales as deeply as he can, feeling his chest expand and burn bright with the force of the katon he’s summoning. He turns it to the shinobi to his left, burning the two unfortunate suckers alive instantly. They barely had the chance to realise he was even there.
Both he and his remaining four opponents land again on the forest floor, and after a second, the bodies of those land. Four with a wet squelch, and two that crumble into ashy remains instantly. He raises his eyebrows at the sight of a brain leaking out of the one he has stabbed with his kunai. Seems like he used too much force and tore a hole straight through him rather than impaling him like he’d planned. Yikes.
There’s a second of stunned silence from the enemy as they look at the forms of their fallen comrades and then back up at him. There’s undisguised fear in their eyes.
Kakashi shrugs his shoulders and stands still as three of the remaining four throw themselves at him, each forming their own hand seals as they do. He drops himself to the ground in a low crouch, and sends his chakra below to create a wall of mud around the group of approaching nin.
There’s something close to terror in the eyes of the closest one as the walls close in around them, and then nothing when Kakashi forms his shiden again, just to slice the man in half. His remaining comrades have no time to even process the fact that they’re doomed as Kakashi gives them the same treatment, pinning the last remaining one to the mudwall and pushing his hand straight through the bastard's neck.
Kakashi takes a moment to breathe, letting the body fall to the ground and releasing the jutsu. He had tried to be efficient with his fighting, wanting to kill them before they had the chance to pull out any of their specialisations or some kekkei genkai that would have caught him off guard. He doesn’t have time for mistakes.
He feels the presence of the final member of the team appear behind him, clearing intending to attack the kids. He applauds the move, knowing that his goal of protecting them was obvious enough for the remaining one to use their lives as bargaining chips.
Unfortunately for him, Kakashi had long thought ahead and planned for this exact scenario.
Just as mini-Kakashi has readied his tantō with a brave scowl on his young face, a kage bunshin bursts from the ground and uses the other kunai Rin gave him to impale him cleanly through the heart.
His clone uses the hold on the kunai to almost throw the body away from the trio of teenagers, and, with a quick nod to Kakashi, disperses.
Kakashi nods back, and then finally, turns back to face his kids. The whole ordeal would have taken less than a minute. Twelve shinobi in sixty seconds. Kakashi thinks that’s a new record for himself as he faces mini-Kakashi, Rin, and Obito.
The kids look, for lack of better word, terrified of him. Despite fighting in active conflict zones for the better part of the war, none of them are old or mature enough to hide their emotions as well as a seasoned shinobi would. Tragedy changed Kakashi, but he’s saved himself the same fate.
He briefly wonders if the kid in front of him, mutilated eye and thin, drawn face, will ever end up like him. He hopes not, but then again, if he was never forced to change through the deaths of his loved ones, can he confidently say he would turn out good?
Mini-Obito makes a sound like scraping metal and then he’s collapsing back onto the dirt in an undignified heap, still screeching loudly. His sharingan is locked onto Kakashi‘s hopefully bloodless form, pupils shaking in a very unsettling manner.
“What was that?!” the kid yells.
Mini-Kakashi positions himself in front of his team and keeps his tantō held protectively between them. Rin is pale as a ghost, lips pursed and something steely in the set of her slim shoulders.
“Who are you, and where do your allegiances lie? There are very few shinobi of your calibre that we don’t know about yet. Especially someone as old as yourself,” Little Kakashi demands to know.
Kakashi is a little offended at the age comment. He’s only thirty-two. Is that old to twelve year old Kakashi?
“You look even older than sensei, and I’d guess you’re just as strong. So why isn’t your name and portrait plastered in a bingo book?” Rin chimes in from behind Kakashi, crouching next to Obito laying in the dirt.
Now Kakashi is even more offended. If Minato is considered old at twenty-three, then Kakashi is practically a fossil. Apparently, none of these kids understand the concept of living past twenty-five.
Though, it makes sense. They’re all under fifteen and deep behind enemy lines, having been fighting in a war since they were just genin. Living to even Minato’s age is a luxury.
It’s at that moment, now that Kakashi is no longer in active combat, that some of his emotions leak out of the box he’d shoved them in. He’s older than his sensei.
Namikaze Minato, the fourth Hokage and Konoha’s Yellow Flash, had died before he was twenty-five, and at this moment in time (parallel universe/flashback/psychic break?) was around twenty-three years old. Kakashi was thirty-two, the sixth Hokage of Konoha, and had long outlived all of his family and his old comrades.
The feeling is a familiar kind of grief, settling in his bones the same way it did when he realised he had grown older than Obito, than Minato, than his father ever would.
“You haven’t answered our questions,” his own voice snaps at him.
He stares down at the kid (so young, so arrogant) and vainly tries to bury the feelings again, to only little success. He can feel sparks of panic and grief explode from the box in his head, but attempts to ignore them.
“Maa, I’m not here to hurt you, if that’s what you’re wondering. If I wanted to, I would’ve let those Iwa-nin or that boulder take you out,” Kakashi replies, keeping his posture open and relaxed.
The kid honest to god growls at him. Had he really been this… uptight? No wonder he had no friends. What happened to being grateful to your saviour, or trying to keep the peace with someone who is very much out of your league?
“Then why? You must know how it looks, a powerful unaffiliated shinobi interfering in a border conflict to help a Konohan team.”
The kid doesn’t relax in the slightest as he speaks, even at Kakashi’s reassurance. He’s got a point. Kakasha was always too damn smart for his own good.
“Well, if you don’t tell anyone what happened here, I’ll let you take the credit for it, hm? We’ll keep it a secret between us.”
“That’s even worse! You’d be practically signing out death warrants!” Obito (it’s starting to sink in that he’s looking at an alive Obito, oh god) finally jumps in.
The kid is still collapsed on the dirt behind mini-Kakashi, and mini-Rin is now trying to set his arm into a passable shape so she can heal it better. Even at a glance, Kakashi can tell she’s butchering it, and it won’t heal cleanly if she decides to keep getting distracted by what’s happening between her teammates and Kakashi. Her hands shake as she goes about trying to snap it into place, and Obito, without thinking, puts his own hand over hers to steady her.
“It appears you aren’t as stupid as you look then,” he muses instead of voicing any of his complicated thoughts over the exchange in front of him.
“You–!” mini-Obito starts, but quiets instantly at the clenching of Rin’s fingers in his own.
“He’s right. If we took the credit for this” –she gestures to the massacre around them– “it would be begging for someone more powerful to target us specifically.”
Kakashi can feel a surge of pride at the quiet but unyielding tone in the girl’s voice.
“But…” Obito trails off.
Rin purses her lips and continues for him. “But if he takes the credit, then the other nations will view Konoha as even more of a threat. You saw it right? He’s almost on the same level as sensei! If he openly allies himself to Konoha, we’ll be facing a lot more than just squads of Iwa chūnin.”
That’s the Rin he had almost forgotten about. Underneath the unexplainable feelings she had always held for Kakashi and the stubborn attitude to match Obito’s, Rin had always had the ability to assess a situation much better than he himself could.
There’s silence for a second as Obito and mini-Kakashi consider her reasoning. Mini-Kakashi has tilted his body so that he is towards them both but still keeping an eye on the threat (smart), and mini-Obito has pulled himself out of the dirt and is attempting to stand up without Rin having cleared him to do so (not so smart).
“What a dilemma,” he intones dryly.
If they just think a little more, they’ll arrive at the conclusion he wants them to, however it’s slow going. But it’s fine. Kakashi spent a long time as Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke’s sensei. He’s adept at walking people to the answers he wants from them.
“Dilemma?! You did this to us! Now we have to choose between being wiped out by shinobi higher than our pay grade, or the village being attacked on a renewed front!” Obito screeches, voice cracking in that uncomfortable way that only teenage boys’ do.
Kakashi ignores the loudmouth and focuses on mini-Kakashi and Rin’s reaction. He can easily see when his own grey eyes (eye?) widen with realisation.
The kid tightens the grip on his kunai, and gestures threateningly at Kakashi. “You stay right there,” he warns, and then bodily turns his back to Kakashi.
It’s a calculated show of trust (or, knowing himself, a show of misguided confidence in his own abilities), so Kakashi stays very still while younger him turns and kneels next to his comrades to whisper urgently to them both.
From his own position, Rin is blocked by mini-Kakashi and obviously he can’t see his little version’s facial expressions, which leaves him to make awkward eye contact with a very much alive and not-boulder-crushed Obito.
Obito keeps his eyes on Kakashi, which is sure to drain his chakra reserves, but whatever, not Kakashi’s problem if the kid wants to wipe himself out. He gets a very good look at the kid's face when whatever mini-Kakashi has said finally clicks.
“What the fuck!” he shouts.
Rin slaps his arm in admonishment, and Obito flinches at the contact on the injury. There’s a murmured apology from Rin and a blush adorning Obito’s face, and then considering eyes have turned back to Kakashi. Kakashi waves girlishly when the sharingan flares at him again, and Obito’s expression turns slightly horrified.
Then, little Kakashi is turning around to face him again, arms crossed and chin held high in the air. “Take off your mask.”
Kakashi blinks, and does no such thing. “I don’t want to.”
Little Rin peeks from around mini-Kakashi, biting her lips hesitantly. “If you want us to trust you, we need to see your face. For transparency.”
Surprisingly, Obito is silent. Kakashi does not take this as the good sign it would usually be. It probably just means the kid is cooking up something entirely outrageous.
“Transparency? Trust? A surprisingly naive request from active shinobi like yourselves,” he says as he narrows his eyes at Rin and then switches tracks to Kakashi. “What kind of jōnin captain goes around teaching his team to start up alliances with unknown shinobi?”
He’s meant to be admonishing them, the same way he’d lecture his own students when they were these kids’ age. What he isn’t expecting however, is the triumphant glint in mini-Kakashi’s eye. The kid gestures at him, singular visible eye sparkling.
“None of us mentioned that I was a jōnin captain for this mission. And that information is far too new for an enemy to know about. So how did you know?” he questions, sounding like a kid who’s just put together a puzzle rather than the serious captain he was pretending to be.
Kakashi inwardly winces. Damnit. A stupid slip-up, but a slip-up nonetheless. He knows all of this because he’s just mini-Kakashi but not so mini and somehow thrown back into the past (or in a weird drug induced coma, he reminds himself unhelpfully). But of course everything that happened here isn’t common knowledge, at least not at this moment.
“You know things about us that you shouldn’t, and seem very determined to protect us, despite never having met us before,” Rin says thoughtfully.
“And you look exactly like Bakashi, just a few years older! You even used the same technique he invented, it was just purple,” Obito finally speaks.
Yeah. Kakashi was right to be suspicious of whatever the kid was brewing, because of course Obito is the one to somehow piece it together. He takes a brief moment to be flattered by the fact Obito somehow thinks he’s only a few years older than twelve-year-old Kakashi (try twenty), but is caught unaware by mini-Kakashi speaking again.
“Are you some long-lost relative of mine? It would explain our… likeness,” he ventures.
His voice is hesitating, gaze glued to the scar on Kakashi’s left eye. The one that is identical to the one on the kid’s own face. Shit.
It’s fine. “I wouldn’t exactly say that,” he settles for.
If he outright tried to deny it, little Kakashi would probably do something drastic. It’s obvious what is happening here, but the idea of it is so ridiculous, mini-Kakashi is scrambling to find other ways to justify Kakashi’s existence. It’s not doing him any favours. He looks paler than usual, exhausted.
“If you aren’t his relative, then what are you?” Obito asks, voice cracking on the words in the way that all teenage boys’ do.
Then he screams as Rin snaps his upper arm back into place.
Kakashi watches with slight amusement as Rin calmly begins to make a splint out of a stick and some bandage, murmuring soft reassurances to a very teary-eyed Obito. Kakashi hadn’t even flinched at the sudden noise from behind him, seemingly lost in looking at Kakashi like he was some ghost.
“I would also like to know,” a hauntingly familiar voice says from their position suddenly next to little Kakashi.
It takes Kakashi an eternity to drag his eyes away from the kids to where the newcomer to the conversation stands.
Even without having to look, he already knows who it is. Who else would have been able to appear so suddenly, so silently to protect this particular team with such ferocity? Who else would be scheduled to make their entrance in the last act of this tragic play, through a neat hiraishin seal etched into a conveniently gifted kunai?
Still, Kakashi is still floored when he makes eye contact with Namikaze Minato, his sensei and frequent visitor in his roster of guilt-laden nightmares.
The first thing he notices, beyond the battle ready stance and protective hand on mini-Kakashi’s shoulder, is how young Minato looks.
He had been thinking this before, but it really is something entirely new to come face to face with evidence of the general twenty-three-ness of the man. Smooth skin that’s barely lost its teenage curve, determination etched into every inch of his flak jacket covered shoulders, and a face that looks almost exactly like his sons’ twenty years in the future.
“Who are you? And what do you want with my students?” Minato demands, blue eyes narrowed at Kakashi, and a kunai tightly gripped in his free hand.
Alright. So now that they’ve hit rock bottom in terms of conversation contents, there’s really no way it could get worse.
“The shinobi hasn’t given us his name, or any other information on who he is. All he’s done is attack the Iwa-nin that ambushed us,” mini-Kakashi reports dutifully, surprisingly letting Minato keep his hand on him. Kakashi couldn’t remember ever letting Minato touch him for that long at twelve, because he was a prideful jerk who thought he was above affection and support.
Maybe mini-Kakashi was really feeling the pressure or something. Kakashi doesn’t know, or really care because now he has to think his way out of the situation right now.
He can’t run away, Minato would catch up to him pretty much instantly. Kakashi is more of a hard-hitter, weathering attacks and coming back with his own. He specialises in stealth, since it’s part of the shinobi job requirements, but speed? He has nothing on the Yellow Flash of Konoha.
“Maa, it’s not very important,” he intones, mind racing as he thinks about how to escape mostly unscathed. “I was just passing through and decided to help this team out. No harm done.”
At his words, Obito makes a very loud and very annoying screeching sound before Minato can even open his mouth. “No harm done? You broke my arm! How many times do I have to remind you that that means there was harm done!”
“It was an accident, I said sorry, and it was to save you! What more do you want me to say?” Kakashi groans, holding back the urge to facepalm. “Would you rather be crushed under that boulder, or have one measly arm out of condition for a bit? At least with the broken arm, your little crush on the medic girl can be exploited!”
“What did you just say!” Obito yells back, face going an interesting shade of deathly pale and bright red.
Rin is also blushing, but at least she’s not freaking out over it just yet. Kakashi gives her five minutes before it properly sinks in that Obito like likes her. Rin was smart, sure, but in matters of the heart? As hopeless as most kunoichi really. Turns out putting a bunch of little girls in a classroom and telling them that their main job is to kill most men they seduce isn’t the best environment for fostering healthy relationships. Who would have guessed?
“Just passing through? On what grounds did you have the right to interfere with foreign shinobi and their mission?” Minato asks, expression still hardened and resolute.
“… Did you want me to let them die?”
“Of course not. I’m grateful you saved them, but can’t help but be suspicious of why. We’re in the middle of a war, in case you haven’t noticed. No one helps anyone out of the goodness of their heart,” Minato replies back instantly.
Kakashi sighs, making sure the exhaustion in his body is visible to the assorted nin in front of him. “Perhaps I wanted to be an exception. Be the change you want to see in the world, and all that.”
He really does mean it. Everything he’s doing is a calculated show of trust, knowing that Minato and the team will pick up on what he’s putting down and make a conclusion that hopefully won’t end in him being killed by his sensei. Because he won’t fight back. He’d let Minato tear him to shreds sooner than attempt to defend himself against the man who saved his life.
Minato’s eyes narrow at him dangerously, and Kakashi has a split second to regret not running at the first chance he had, before a hiraishin engraved dagger is being thrown at him.
Immediately, he shuts down the emotional response he has at being attacked by his sensei and throws himself to the side. He flickers in a swirl of leaves and lowers himself into a defensive stance once he’s stable. His hand doesn’t stray to the pouch he’s keeping his remaining kunai, it doesn’t even cross his mind.
He waits for the next blow, but it never comes. Instead, he’s faced with three shocked teenagers and one unreadable Minato.
“How did you do that?” he demands, and it’s by far the most impolite Kakashi has heard his sensei in this conversation, and possibly ever.
Ah. The leaves. A classic part of the Konohan shunshin. Unfortunately for Kakashi, it's also something entirely habitual to him. He’s spent a long time blasting his lovely students in the face with leaves, and had unconsciously applied the technique in his brief moment of distress.
“Maa, do what exactly?” Kakashi coughs.
He gets an eyeroll for his troubles, from Minato-sensei of all people! “You are from Konoha? A missing-nin then?”
Kakashi flounders for a moment. He himself had memorised every missing-nin during the war so he could enact whatever justice teenage Kakashi thought was acceptable at the time, which means anything he comes up with will be immediately rebutted. Plus, Obito’s sharingan already knows he’s not under a henge, knows that this is his real face and form.
“He looks exactly like me, sensei.”
Mini-Kakashi has finally pulled out of Minato’s grip, standing up straight and unflinchingly at Kakashi’s face. There’s something desperate in his visible eye, and a haunted furrow in his brows as he swallows harshly.
“Kakashi,” Minato warns, head turning to look down at his student with concern lining his face.
“He somehow managed to appear without our detection and kill the enemy Obito and I had been facing, protected all of us from an imperceptible attack from outside our range when the cave collapsed, knows Konohan techniques and performs them flawlessly,” Kakashi continues with a brave face. “And he looks exactly like me. Not like my father, or any other Hatake relative. Me. He even has the scar.”
Four sets of eyes lock onto Kakashi’s left eye, now without his sharingan, but still scarred vertically from when he had originally lost it. There’s dawning comprehension in their eyes, and Kakashi feels resigned at his cover being blown so quickly.
“You lost your eye, though. He still has a fully functional one,” Rin points out as she helps lift a stunned Obito to his feet.
Mini-Kakashi shrugs. “I haven’t exactly had the proper resources or medical treatment to salvage what’s left of it,” he argues.
“You seriously think he’s… what? You from the future? Did you hit your head or something, Bakashi?” Obito blurts out, jaw dropped as his eyes desperately jump from Kakashi to mini-Kakashi.
Kakashi stays very still as Obito unknowingly hits the bullseye. He can see that his silence is damning in Minato’s eyes.
Minato raises a hand to quiet his students, and a charged silence descends on their little clearing. Kakashi can feel every vein in his body throb to the rhythm of his heartbeat, erratic and spiking higher with every second that passes by.
Finally, Minato speaks.“‘Those who stray from the path of justice have no courage,’” he quotes, searching Kakashi over and over again with his eyes.
Kakashi buries the urge to laugh. He’s reminded of when he was fourteen and freshly grieving the loss of his team and identity, when Minato had spit a phrase at him and then had repeated it months later in his first speech as Hokage. Of course, this means Minato won’t speak this particular saying for another two years. A test, then.
“You’re testing me,” he says instead of finishing it, savouring the feeling of Minato’s tentative trust in him. “What if I get it wrong?”
Minato shakes his head, and Kakashi is reminded so much of Naruto when his sensei has that particular stubborn set to his mouth.
“You won’t.”
Kakashi smiles under his mask, making sure his eyes crinkle so it’s visible to his team. There’s varying degrees of shock from everyone present at the expression, but he pays it no mind as he decides to be selfish, just this once.
“‘But under the wing of a strong leader, cowardice cannot survive’. It’s rather dramatic, but I suppose that it suits you,” Kakashi finishes.
Since Minato and him are the only ones who know the saying, Obito, Kakashi, and Rin still look a little lost.
But there’s something unnameable in Minato’s expression, bewilderment and pity and curiosity swirling in his blue eyes.
“How?” he demands after a moment, stepping towards Kakashi and stopping only an arms length away from him.
Kakashi doesn’t move, mind stuck on the fact that Minato is alive and in front of him, and so is Obito and Rin, and he’s not Kakashi the friend-killer just yet. He can save everyone.
“I’m not sure. I was in my office, and then I was here.”
Minato’s eyes are tracing Kakashi’s features like he’s trying to find any discrepancies with the twelve-year-old version standing a ways off, expression solemn but intrigued. He raises a hand up to touch, but thinks better of it when Kakashi narrows in on the movement with a trained eye. The hand drops back to his side, and Kakashi tries not to mourn the fact he could properly feel that his sensei was whole and definitely not dead yet.
Then, his expression changes into an odd grimace-smile thing. “You work in an office?” he asks in a teasing tone.
Kakashi weighs the pros and cons of telling the truth about his office, since Minato clearly thinks he’s retired from active duty (which is true in a sense, but in a more burdensome way. There shouldn’t be any harm in it, right?
“Not by choice. Turns out the hat is a very heavy burden to bear,” Kakashi says.
He’s rewarded with a double-take and warm blue eyes bulging out of their sockets. “You, in the hat?! I didn’t know you even wanted it!”
“I did say it wasn’t exactly by choice,” he replies.
At this point, the kids have finally lost their patience and decide to cluster close. Mini-Kakashi slides right up to Kakashi’s side, still closer to Minato, but close enough to inspect Kakashi more thoroughly. Obito, with Rin dragging him over, taking up residence just behind Minato. Rin peeks around curiously, and Obito glares at him openly.
“Anyone care to tell us what’s going on?” Obito demands, sharingan long having faded and dark eyes slipping frantically between Kakashi, Minato, and mini-Kakashi.
Kakashi is sure that all three of them have their suspicions, but despite mini-Kakashi and Obito laying the groundwork for the reveal, it’s Rin who connects it first.
“You really are Kakashi, just like Obito said. Just… older,” she murmurs to herself, though everyone hears it. “That’s why you knew sensei’s quote, and why you knew exactly how to save us.”
Kakashi watches with equal parts terror at having it stated so plainly and dry amusement on the look on Obito’s face.
Obito goes an interesting shade of red as he oggles at Kakashi, dark eyes jumping over his masked features and body and steadily growing redder with each second. He sputters indecipherably at Kakashi, before letting out a long winded sound that vaguely reminds him of a kettle, which is very amusing.
Kakashi turns to look at himself, and promptly finds all humour sucked out of the situation.
Twelve-year-old Kakashi looks like his whole world is ending as he stares blankly up at him, though Kakashi can only recognise the expression since he’s so familiar with the sight of it staring back at him on the memorial stone. He’s sure that to anyone else here, little Kakashi just looks shell-shocked.
But Kakashi knows him, better than anyone has since Hatake Sakumo walked the earth, and can see the devastation clinging to those dark lashes, the hesitant tremble of his fingers before he clenches them into a fist, the swallow of a dry throat barely visible to an untrained eye. He’s spent the past twenty years ironing out those visible tells, making himself invincible to anyone he hasn’t purposefully let close (which is a startlingly little number anyway), but twelve-year-old Kakashi hasn’t found reason to do that yet.
Emotions to him are a weakness, sure, yet tragedy redefines that lesson and it digs itself a home inside an older Kakashi. He’s saved himself from that fate through protecting this Obito, and will continue to dismantle that lesson in a younger him, one life saved at a time.
“What was his favourite colour?” his younger self asks, voice shaky and weak.
Kakashi pities him, just a little bit. It’s almost miniscule in the abrupt swirl of hatred at his past anger towards his father, but it’s there nonetheless. This Kakashi has only just started coming to terms with the fact that his father was a hero, and not the failure the village pushed him into believing he was.
This Kakashi is also so young and barely hanging on by the looks of it, clammy and uncomfortable with his lame question.
“He said it was grey like our hair, but I always thought he was inclined towards a light blue,” Kakashi confesses, expression soft as he thinks back on his father, even after all these years.
There’s a rough punch of air from the kid. Kakashi can feel his brows furrow a little, but when he moves to step back and give the kid some space, he chases him.
“Are you really me?” little him says, and though his voice is still shaky, it’s gaining strength by the second.
“I’d say so,” Kakashi replies.
“How?” comes a chorus from mini-Kakashi, Rin, and Obito.
Minato smiles fondly and tuts at his students. “How is he Kakashi, or how did he get here? Because he already said he didn’t know, if you’d all been paying attention.”
“You’re too trusting, Minato-sensei,” comes Obito’s response, eyes rolling and turning his back to his sensei huffily.
Minato makes a pitiful expression and pouts. “It’s Kakashi! If I can’t trust my cute little students, then who else can I trust?”
That gets him three teenagers sputtering and blushing at their sensei being so sappy. Rin smacks the back of Minato’s jacket playfully with pink dusting her cheeks, little Kakashi harrumphs and turns his nose upwards with red ears, and Obito waves his hands around manically as he continues his crusade to become the first ever Konohan shinobi tea kettle.
Kakashi tries not to grimace at being called a cute little student. That’s something he usually reserves for his own students. Way to make him feel old.
“So you really don’t know how you got here?” Rin eventually prompts once Obito has calmed down and mini-Kakashi doesn’t look so snooty.
Kakashi shakes his head and digs a hand into his pocket casually. He ignores the miniscule tense in Minato’s shoulders at the action.
“I don’t. There was a blinding light and then I was outside the cave. Don’t be offended, but I’m honestly still convinced this is a genjutsu. We’ve been having some issues with those recently,” he explains dryly, thinking back to the infinite tsukuyomi plan.
But obviously, just the fact that he can remember it proves he’s not in it. Unless it’s a more advanced version somehow, despite the only people who knew how to do it being long dead. So unless it’s a more advanced version and the creators aren’t dead. Seeing underneath the underneath and all that.
Hm. Maybe he is too paranoid.
“What’s the future like?” Obito jumps in.
“Don’t answer that! What if that messes up the timeline or something and the world collapses?” Rin startles, reaching over and slapping a hand over both Obito and mini-Kakashi’s faces.
Kakashi admires her bravery for getting her hand within biting range of mini-Kakashi. Anything close to his mouth is free game, even with the mask in place.
“I like your thinking, but I’m pretty sure I’ve already irreparably changed this ‘timeline’ anyway,” Kakashi chuckles down at the three.
He earns four gobsmacked looks for his troubles. Minato even looks a little teary-eyed as he manually lifts his jaw back into place with his hand.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you laugh,” he murmurs while looking at his own Kakashi and placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I’m glad you get to grow up well, Kakashi.”
Now it’s Kakashi’s turn to feel a little teary eyed. Somehow, against all odds, Minato thinks he grew up well. Kakashi personally thinks that gives him too much credit. Alive, sure. Grown up into someone responsible and a good role model, not so much.
Obito yells something from underneath Rin’s hand, and she reluctantly takes it away so he can stop blabbering indecipherably and speak properly.
“What about me and Rin? And sensei! What are we all like in the future? Did we grow up awesome as well?” he begs, dark eyes gleaming as he goes back to looking Kakashi up and down.
Starting with the easy questions then. Kakashi suffocates the wave of guilt and shame that rises up at the mention of what could have been. Instead, he shrugs.
“Maa, I’m flattered you think I’m awesome, Obito,” Kakashi teases. It tastes like ash in his mouth.
“Rin already told you not to ask that anyway, dead last,” mini-Kakashi goads Obito, finally seeming to get himself under control. “But surely he can tell us what would’ve happened here if he hadn’t ‘irreparably changed’ the timeline.”
Kakashi laughs again at his own not so subtle probing. “You really don’t want to know.”
Minato’s eyes flash, but Kakashi is the only one to see it, considering the other people present are too short to make eye contact like proper adults.
“You heard him. Ask different questions that don’t threaten the integrity of the world,” he warns, lightheartedly trying to shift the conversation away from the topic. The set to his mouth tells Kakashi that he’ll be explaining what would have happened later anyway.
Rin snaps her fingers. “How old are you?” she asks, nodding her head in response to mini-Kakashi and Obito’s gasps of realisation.
“Right, we don’t even know how far ahead he is in the future!” Obito says.
Kakashi can feel himself sweatdrop. “Another awful question. Do I want to know how old you all think I am?” he questions cautiously.
“Fifty-six,” states mini-Kakashi.
“Twenty-five?” Rin tries.
“Twenty!” Obito guesses enthusiastically.
“I’ll stay out of this one,” Minato says while holding back a laugh.
Kakashi feels like he just got punched in the face. Repeatedly.
“None of you were even close. I’m unbelievably offended at some of you” –he glares at his younger self– “and slightly flattered at others,” he finishes with an approving nod at Rin and Obito.
“C’mon, tell us!” Obito needles, as his shadow of the day, Rin, nods her head frantically from beside him.
“We want to know!” she backs him up.
Preparing for the worst, Kakashi swallows some saliva and clears his throat a little. Who knew telling some kids that you’re way older than they thought you were was so nerve racking?
“…If you insist on knowing… I’d be just about twenty years older than mini-me over here,” he admits, keeping his voice light as he gestures with his thumb to little Kakashi.
There’s a long pause. In fact, it goes on so long, Kakashi moves it up the scale from pause to full-on dumbfounded silence.
Then, a whole lot of not-silence.
“That’s so old!” from mini-Kakashi.
“You’re thirty-two?!” Obito shrieks at the same time as Kakashi’s younger self.
“Kakashi! That’s rude!” Minato scolds them both with an apologetic-appalled expression.
“Yeah, sensei’s right! Thirty-two isn’t that old!” Rin follows up with, defending Kakashi’s honour like he’s an old spinster and not technically in the prime of his life.
He sighs. Maybe he really is old if he’s thinking things about how he’s in the prime of his life.
“He doesn’t look thirty-two though! Look at him! He’s all smooth and powerful and–” Obito cuts himself abruptly, face turning an interesting shade of red.
“I almost forgot how annoying you all were at thirteen. Even my students aren’t this aggravating. Safe to say none of you are doing very well at endearing me towards you again,” Kakashi announces. “Yes, not even you, Obito, with your backhanded compliments. I actually think you might be the worst.”
Obito sputters. “I’m not trying to be backhanded! You just caught me off guard. I didn’t know Bakashi would age so well…”
Kakashi very helpfully does not say that no one present except Kakashi ended up ageing anyway. That would be rude. And also has the potential to make him spiral or something like that.
“Obito’s right, you really don’t look your age!” Minato jumps in to try and salvage the situation.
Rin gets a crafty look on her face. “I’m sure you’re very glad that Obito thinks you’re handsome. He’s by far the most interested.”
“Rin!” Obito cries, expression pleading. “You know I didn’t mean it like that!”
Mini-Kakashi crosses his arms and lifts his nose into the hair haughtily. “So you don’t think I’m handsome?” he huffs, but from the way Rin cackles, clearly it was meant to be a joke.
Kakashi didn’t know he knew how to do that at that age. Interesting.
“You know I didn’t mean that either!”
“Enough, now,” Minato sighs, face warm but quickly growing wearier by the second. “As interesting as this is, we do still have a mission to complete.”
Four heads turn back to Kakashi from their squabbling. Obito slowly lets go of mini-Kakashi’s collar and Rin unhunches herself and forces down her giggles. Minato looks slightly troubled.
There’s an unspoken question in their eyes.
“…If he’s Kakashi… then doesn’t that mean we can take him with us for this mission?” Rin prompts her sensei.
Her brown eyes are opened wide and pleading, a perfect picture of innocence as she tries to manoeuvre her sensei to drag Kakashi along with them to finish their mission and probably back to Konoha.
It’s at that moment that Kakashi is hit with a strong wave of longing for his home. Despite having just been there an hour ago, there’s a tug in his chest that pulls him in the direction he knows Konoha is in, with its dirt paths and impossible architecture and leaf filled streets. Even if he’s entirely displaced in time (/genjutsu/psychological break/coma), Konoha will always be the same.
Which also brings another question to mind. If he hasn’t been dragged back home by now, then how long is he here? What if this is permanent?
The thought, as pleasant as it is in theory, terrifies him in actuality. He made a home for himself in his own time. He has three cute little students he has to take care of, one of which he only just got back, a village he’s steadily rebuilding into something new and safer, and the people he buried stay buried, where they can’t hurt him any more.
“While you raise a good point, I can’t exactly show up and start helping you all. First, it would be nearly impossible to explain to others and I don’t particularly want to live the rest of my time here in T&I. And second, as Rin mentioned helpfully before, having me back you openly would cause a lot of problems for Konoha on the warfront,” he finds himself explaining patiently, trying to keep his words laidback.
Minato’s face forms an expression that Kakashi knows means business. “Would you be willing to accompany us but stay out of the action? Once we’re done with the mission, we can bring you back to Konoha with us, and keep it on the down low.”
Obito, Rin, and mini-Kakashi groan in unison at the outdated phrasing. Kakashi buries his grin.
“Sensei, we told you to stop trying to sound cool! Be more like this guy!” Obito admonishes as he gestures towards Kakashi. “He doesn’t use any weird words, he sounds perfectly respectable!”
Rin puts her hand on her hip, poking Obito’s injured arm while he winces theatrically. “So, to summarise, you think he’s smooth, handsome, and respectable?”
“How flattering,” Kakashi intones dryly.
Obito seems to be growing resistant to the teasing though, only growing slightly red and waving a hand with faux-casualness. “My point still stands.”
Little Kakashi seems to have something to say, narrowing his eyes and squaring his shoulders as he looks up at Kakashi. Kakashi sighs internally at the stubbornness bleeding into the kid’s little body.
“I think you should do what Minato-sensei suggested. We can pass you off as a long-lost civilian family member if the need arises,” he commands.
How arrogant. How proud. Kakashi can’t help but be slightly miffed at the authority little him thinks he has. Kakashi absolutely refuses to outwardly admit it was a good idea and that he was definitely going to go along with it, simply just because the kid was annoying about it.
“Maa, it doesn’t sound like the worst idea,” Kakashi says indifferently. It’s the best thing anyone has said all day.
Rin leans over to stage-whisper to Obito. “He really likes doing that ‘maa’ thing, huh? Do you think it’s like some verbal habit he developed due to his handsome and respectable age?”
“Rin!” Obito whines back.
“It’s settled then! You can accompany us on our mission, then we’ll go back to Konoha and properly discuss this situation somewhere more secure. That isn’t T&I, of course!” Minato rushes to reassure him when Kakashi raises one unimpressed eyebrow.
None of the kids are childish enough to celebrate like Naruto and Sakura would at something like this happening to them, so Kakashi finds the ensuing silence slightly awkward. Wow, he misses his kids.
“Shall we get going then? That bridge isn’t going to destroy itself.”
“Yeah, let’s go!” Obito jumps into action, pumping his fist as he does. “Hey not-Kakashi, can you teach us all how you used that lightning move on the way? Bakashi wouldn’t tell us!”
Minato points them towards the tree foliage, and they all jump up there to go to Kanabi bridge, Kakashi up front with Obito by his side and Minato, mini-Kakashi, and Rin taking the rear.
He pretends to consider as he leaps from branch to branch, slowing down his pace so Obito can keep up. Obito lights up like a ray of sun at the hand he placed on his chin while he thinks.
Kakashi laughs right at his face. “Nope, don’t think I will. Finders keepers and all that.”
“You!” Obito yells.
There’s two chuckles from behind him, and one snooty huff from mini-Kakashi.
Maybe things aren’t so bad, Kakashi thinks as they speed off towards the final act of the third shinobi war. Everything might turn out okay.