Chapter Text
“You ready for this, Kakashi?” Tsunade says with a rough edge to her voice.
“I guess so,” Kakashi sighs, looking at the blonde woman sitting behind the paper-filled desk. “but m’lady, are you completely sure I’m best suited for this mission?” Kakashi says, trying to keep the distaste out of his voice.
The Hatake was never one to turn down a mission, especially one directly assigned to him by the hokage, no matter the cost. Kakashi would protect his beloved village with his life, don't get him wrong, but this was his one exception.
A few weeks ago these ‘monsters’ have been showing up around the Land of Fire. Big creatures spawning from nothing, though their strength was nothing compared to tailed beasts, but they were still very troublesome.
About a week ago the leaf village finally got a usable sample from one of these beasts, and once it was analyzed it was revealed they were connected to some sort of written jutsu that was set to repeatedly summon them at random.
Kakashi himself didn’t know much of the details, but Tsunade seemed to recognize it.
They needed a very specific sealing scroll, but unfortunately this scroll was destroyed many years ago, and without it, the beasts would continue to appear and destroy villages and take lives.
Kakashi's mission was to go into the fucking past. It sounds crazy at first, and it is.
The copy-nin was to be sent into the past to achieve the sealing scroll to stop the beasts.
“You’ll be okay Kakashi, just think of it as a simple retrieval mission.” Tsunade looks up to make eye contact, “The jutsu is set to last for a week, I’m sure you’ll find the scroll by then.”
That wasn’t the part Kakashi was worried about.
See, there was a small twist with this jutsu.
Space and time are things not to be taken lightly, they always need to be kept balanced while using them.
To keep the long story short, he’d be switching with a younger version of himself.
When the jutsu is activated he will be swapped with himself from the past, this way there won’t be two Kakashis in one timeline, and it would continue to be balanced.
Kakashi was already hesitant about the whole time-travel thing, but when he was told this fact, he was put into a completely new level of heistants.
He’d be swapping with his twelve-year-old self, to be more specific, himself just about two months after Rin died.
He wasn’t in the ANBU yet at that age, but one thing he did know was that he was a messed up brat, who probably wanted nothing more than death. Death upon others and himself.
Kakashi bit his already-bleeding lip, “..What about my younger self?”
Tsunade smiled, “We’ll make sure he’s okay.”
My reputation is gonna be gone by the end of this..
——————
As Kakashi does, he spent that half day stressing about the mission. The other half was spent actually planning for it.
Kakashi walked through the paths of Konoha, the setting sun giving everything a goldish tint.
What were they going to do with his twelve-year-old self? It was worrying him more than the actual mission. The Hatake knew it wasn’t going to be easy for anyone to look after a messed up kid version of Kakashi.
He still wonders how Minato-sensei put up with his bratty attitude for so long..
He was also worried about what would be revealed about himself. Kakashi enjoyed keeping his own rough past quiet around others, the only person he has actually opened up to was Tenzō.
His teammates already knew the basics, they knew about Rin, Obito, Minato-sensei and his father. But he’d rather keep the finer details in the dark for now.
The copy-nin knew if he told his other teammates they’d probably understand, but he felt that he didn’t really deserve that type of sympathy.
He could already imagine Sakura forcing him into therapy or something.
Kakashi sighed, he silently prayed that his younger self would refrain from exposing everything about himself.
The copy-nin was broken out of his thoughts as a dog trotted up to him, sniffing his shoe. A woman jogged up and quickly called the dog away, “Sorry about that.” She laughed, Kakashi smiled and nodded and kept walking.
The silver-haired man looked back to the small dog and was suddenly reminded of his own ninken. He should probably tell him about the mission before he leaves.
Kakashi made his way to an empty park, quickly made the hand signs and pricked his finger to summon his beloved ninken.
He slammed his hand down on the ground and a big puff of smoke appeared in front of him, as it faded away, it revealed all eight of his summons.
“No danger.” Kakashi said with a smile, slipping his hands back into his pockets.
“What’s up boss?” Pakkun spoke in his gruff voice.
“..Nothing much, just checking in with you guys.” It wasn’t uncommon for Kakashi to check in with his ninken. He enjoyed the presence of them all better when they weren’t in the middle of battle.
The copy-nin’s ninken, Bisuke, trotted up and Kakashi crouched down to pet the floppy-eared dog.
Apparently, his attempts of acting calm weren’t going too well. “You look nervous, kid, what is it?”
Pakkun spoke, and Kakashi wasn’t surprised, ever since he got his ninken, but especially Pakkun, they’ve been able to read him like a book, it was difficult to fool them.
Kakashi sighed and sat down on the grass, his ninken flopping by his side one by one. But Pakkun continued to stare at him.
“I’ve got a mission..” Kakashi finally said.
“Yeah, you tend to have those when you’re a ninja!” Bisuke jokes, in a bratty but playful voice.
Kakashi rolled his eyes, ignoring the deep laugh from Bull.
“What’s the mission?” Pakkun asked.
Kakashi sucked in a breath and continued to explain the mission, the time travel, and his younger self. It started to look to be more of a venting session rather than a mission explanation, and Kakashi was thankful that none of them asked too many questions.
“I’m not quite sure what will happen to you guys, but I assume you’ll just stay here,” He paused, “So if a twelve-year-old me suddenly summons you guys, try to not be alarmed.”
“You got it.” Pakkun repiled, like this was just another, normal mission.
——————
“Alright. We’re ready.” Tsunade stood in front of a maze of sealing writing on the ground, it sort of looked like the seal on Naruto’s stomach.
Sakura watched as Kakashi-sensei stood in the middle of the carefully written ink. He was fidgeting with his shirt, looking nervous as ever.
All of team seven stood, watching from the sidelines, Sai, Yamato-taichou, Sasuke, Naruto and herself.
Just as Kakashi did, team seven had a mission as well, to look after the twelve-year-old sensei. When they were told this, Sakura remembers Sasuke scoffing, “I don’t think it’ll be that hard to babysit a twelve-year-old for a week.”
But once Kakashi-sensei left the hokage office, Tsunade-sama made sure the five of them realized how important, and maybe difficult, this mission might turn out to be.
“Listen here, brats,” Tsunade grumbled, “This will probably be much harder than you guys expect. The Kakashi that will be swapped here will not be easy to deal with.”
“I’m sure we will be just fine!!” Naruto rested his hands on the back of his head. “We know Kaka-sensei more than anyone, it’ll be a piece of cake!”
Tsunade hummed, twirling an ink brush in her hand, “It won’t be. This twelve-year-old Kakashi would have experienced Rin dying only about two months ago.” Now that, made the room turn tense. She sighed, “He probably won’t be in the best condition.”
“Again, this Kakashi won't be easy to deal with,” Tsnaude narrowed her eyes at them,
“You guys must keep him alive and well at all costs. If this younger Kakashi dies, the older one dies too.”
Sakura didn’t like what that implied.
The medical-nin furrows her brow remembering the conversation, she’s now determined and ready to help and care for the younger Kakashi. Though, none of them really knew what to expect, even Yamato-taichou didn’t know Kakashi at the time.
They all stared at the Hatake in the middle of a ritual-looking circle of ink.
“Kakashi?” Tsunade spoke loudly, and Kakashi’s eyes snapped up to her. “Are you ready?”
Kakashi’s form straightened, arms pressed to his sides, “Yes Tsunade-sama, I’m ready.” He said, sounding oddly confident.
The blonde hokage smiled, “Alright then.”
The next few seconds were a blur of hand signs and activating words, until the ink glowed up a bright blue. Sakura covered her face as the blue light grew blinding.
A strong heat radiated off the area and Sakura almost feared for her sensei’s life. But she trusted Tsunade-sama knew what she was doing and had it under control.
The overwhelming feeling continued until suddenly it all stopped, and the room went dark again.
Team seven gasped.
Lying there, In the middle of the maze of ink, where Kakashi-sensei had stood just moments ago, was a small unconscious body.
The kid looked to be wearing a navy-blue outfit and had a sword tied to his back, he also had on a light green scarf with a few blue markings.
The kid wore the same face mask and had the same silver rats-nest hair.
There was no doubt that this was their sensei.
Tsunade huffed and looked as if she was going to fall over, Sakura rushed over.
“M’lady! Are you okay?” Sakura said, trying to stabilize her by putting an arm around the older woman’s shoulder. “Yes, I’m alright.” Tsunade breathed.
“Kakashi-sensei?..” Sakura heard Naruto mutter and she looked back to see all of team seven had gotten closer. Naruto’s toes stopped at the edge of the ink surrounding their sensei.
Tsunade must’ve noticed their curiosity, “You can go up to him, it’s safe to walk on.” she said as she lowered herself to sit down on the cold floor.
The boys of team seven rushed over to the small body and Sakura looked over to Tsunade, only to get a nod, encouraging her to join them.
And Sakura didn’t hesitate to run over to the kid as well.
“He’s so small..” Yamato mused and Sasuke hummed in agreement. “Yeah, and he’s still wearing that stupid mask!” Naruto squinted at the kid with a huff.
“I think he looks about the same,” Sai’s dull voice said, “though I do agree, he is quite small for a twelve-year-old.”
Sakura kneeled down to the boy and brought a gentle hand to card through the mess of silver hair. “His hair is the same, that's for sure.”
A silence fell over the team, with the only audible thing being the soft breaths of the small Kakashi.
“Sakura,” Tsunade’s voice boomed, “please bring Kakashi to the hospital and check for any injuries.”
“Yes Tsunade-sama!” And Sakura carefully scooped up the sleeping boy.
—————
“How is he, Sakura?” Sasuke asked, in a gentle and careful voice Sakura hadn't heard before.
She shrugged, the young Kakashi didn’t look so good. His blood pressure was quite low, and he was very malnutritioned, even while he was sleeping Sakura could hear the small stomach grumbles coming from her tiny sensei. She put him on an IV, because she couldn’t be too sure when he’d wake up.
Another thing she saw was the skin on the boy’s small hands were bright red and the skin was starting to peel, she wrapped those up carefully in bandages.
Sakura gazed over the boy wearing the light green scarf, this was no way a kid should be looking. Scars littered his body, most of them looking pretty new.
This twelve-year-old looked like he’d gone to hell and back. And Sakura wouldn’t doubt he had. Their sensei was very quiet about his past, but they all knew it wasn’t the greatest. What his students did know was the suicide of Sakumo Hatake, the death of Obito Uchiha who was the one who gifted their sensei his sharingan, and the death of Rin Nohara.
He never shared many details, but one thing the team knew was how Rin Nohara died. It made Sakura sick just thinking about it, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how Kakashi felt.
“He’s very malnutritioned, but other than that he looks okay..” Sakura trailed off.
“You seem worried,” Yamato was standing on the other side of the hospital bed, “are you okay?”
“He just has so many scars, this- this isn't what a twelve-year-old should look like.” Worry laced Sakura’s voice.
Sasuke hummed “He was a jonin by this age, it would only make sense-“
“What?! This tiny kid is a jonin!?” Naruto cut him off, Sakura looked up to meet Naruto with surprise and worry in his face. “I’m like, 4 feet taller than him! And I’m still a genin!”
Sasuke smirked, “Who would win in a fight, twelve-year-old Kakashi or Naruto?”
Yamato, Sai and Sakura all at once said, “Kakashi.” and Sasuke laughed out loud.
Naruto looked deeply offended by this, “WHAT THE FUCK?! ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS?!”
————-
“Sakura!!” Naruto smiled.
Sakura sighed, it was the early morning after the whole event, and Sakura was quick to wake up to check on Kakashi.
What she didn’t expect was her team waiting at the hospital entrance for her. It made sense, this was their mission too, but it made her smile at their dedication. Especially since it was 5am and Naruto was wide awake, now that was a rare sight.
The team continued to bicker as they made their way up to the room Kakashi was in, but when they got close, they all paused when an odd chakra was coming from the room.
Sakura finally pushed the door open, she was met with a nurse on the ground, an empty bed and an open window.
Sakura rushed over, “That brat put the nurse under a genjutsu!”
<<<———————>>>
The first thing Kakashi came to when he woke up was the sound of a pen scribbling on paper.
Where was he? His first guess was Minato-sensei’s house, maybe the annoying scribbling was sensei doing a mission report? It seemed unlikely, their last mission was a few days ago now, Minato-sensei always made sure to give a mission report in as soon as they finished.
Also Kakashi never really slept at Minato-sensei’s house, the older man always welcomed him, but Kakashi couldn’t risk his sensei seeing one of his bad nightmares.
He knew Minato-sensei only wanted to help him, but he also didn’t want to burden the man, he was just made hokage! The hokage didn’t have time for a lonely Kakashi.
Scribble scribble..
Kakashi forced his eye to crack open and was met with familiar white walls and medical equipment, he internally groaned. Another hospital.
The young jonin thought he already made it clear that he hated hospitals and if he ever got hurt to just leave him or something, bringing him anywhere but the hospital was good in his books.
How’d he even get here?
He racked his memory but couldn’t find much, all Kakashi remembers was having dinner at Minato-sensei’s home then he was walking back to Hatake compound.
Did an enemy attack him on his way back?
It felt unlikely since he didn’t feel hurt, Kakashi actually felt a little better than usual which was a bit odd.
Scribble scribble..
Kakashi was already getting annoyed at the hospital smell, this scribbling sound wasn’t helping, he turned his head to find the source of the noise, only to be met with a female nurse writing on a clipboard, he’d never seen before.
So it was her. She was making that annoying scribbling noise.
The nurse seemed to feel him watching her, because she looked up at him, her eyes widened at the boy.
“Oh! Uhm, Hatake! You’re awake!-“ The woman dropped to the ground.
Kakashi sighed as he pulled the sheets off himself, only to be held back by an IV on his arm, he ripped it out without hesitation. The boy grabbed his sword from the bed-side table they took off him, and reattached it to his back.
Kakashi got out of the bed, and he let out a dry laugh at the nurse on the ground. She wasn’t dead, but he always found it amusing how easy it was to put civilians under a genjutsu, especially with his sharingan.
He quickly made his way up to the windowsill to make his leave, as he usually did when put in the hospital, before something tugged on him.
Kakashi whipped his head back only to be relieved that it was just his scarf getting caught on the window, he almost forgot he was wearing it.
The light green scarf was a very special thing to Kakashi, he always valued it, but he hadn’t worn it since he was in the academy. Kakashi didn’t really know why he started wearing it again, he dug it up after, Rin, y’know.
Minato-sensei said it probably ‘ comforted’ him, in a time of distress and sadness. Whatever that meant.
Kakashi rolled his young eyes as he untangled his scarf and focused chakra to his feet before jumping out of the hospital window and onto a random civilian rooftop.
The scarfed boy was met with shock.
Something was wrong. The village looked wrong.
There were rows of buildings and houses he never remembered being there before, there were pathways and shops that he’d never seen before.
His village looked so, incredibly, unfamiliar. The boy never liked the Hidden Leaf, he actually had a strong hatred for the village, they killed his father after all, but this was too much.
But by far the most shocking, was the 5th hokage head that sat beside his Minato-sensei. The head looked to be a woman, there has never been a woman hokage before? There has never been a 5th hokage before.
Kakashi’s mind started racing with possibilities, was this a genjutsu? no, he had his sharingan out. Was he put on some hospital drugs that made him see things? Was he in a coma or something long enough for another hokage to come about?
Kakashi’s breathing started to pick up as the thoughts flew through his mind, he needed to calm down and assess the situation.
He drew in a deep breath before blinking at his surroundings, Kakashi was completely clueless.
Minato-sensei would know what happened.
His sensei always knew what happened, or what to do, or what to say. Even if he didn’t know the situation, he always knew how to solve a problem, or figure something out.
The kid didn’t have a second thought before bolting in the direction of his beloved sensei’s home.
————-
The home was empty.
There was nothing but dust and dirt building up on the old worn-out furniture.
All the warmth and welcoming that once lived in his sensei’s home was now replaced with a small shrub growing from the floorboards in the kitchen.
It made Kakashi want to throw up.
..M-maybe he moved houses?
Something in Kakashi knew it was deeper. The feeling in this house was one he had felt many, many times before. Darkness lingered throughout the rooms, and Kakashi’s emotions started to dull in a way he was used to by now.
Where was he? What was happening? Confusion ached in his heart as he stood alone in the middle of the house.
Kakashi clutched the scarf he was wearing, and held it close, burying his face in the soft material. This seemed to help calm him down. The scarf had a smell to it that nothing else could have- Kakashi was quick to scold himself for being weird, who likes the smell of their scarf?
His sense of smell was always better than anyone else’s, no wonder his father used to call him “pup” , he did kind of act like a dog, and his teeth were also kind of weird..-
Kakashi froze as he felt a presence watching him from the outside of the house, immediately he thought it was Minato-sensei, but this was definitely not him, the chakra signature was completely different.
He stood still and just as fast as he sensed the person, they were gone. Was it a shadow clone?
Shadow clone or not, Kakashi knew this was probably bad, who would just come to this old, abandoned house randomly. The person was also watching him . Kakashi did not want to be captured in this foreign, unrecognized village. Couldn’t they wait until after I figure out what the hell is going on?..
Kakashi didn’t let go of the light-green scarf covering his neck as he thought of what his next move might be.
And a great idea popping into his head.
A couple hand signs and a prick to his finger was all it took to summon his beloved Pakkun. The boy would’ve summoned all of his ninken, but he didn’t want to risk gathering attention, even if he was inside.
“Boss?” If Kakashi was thinking straight, he would’ve noticed the slight change in the pup’s gruff voice. “Pakkun!!” Kakashi quickly kneeled down to the small dog, and Pakkun stared at him with wide eyes, “K-kid?”
“Pakkun, report! Something weird has happened and I-“ Kakashi breathed nervously and his voice got quieter, “I have no idea what to do.”
When Pakkun didn’t respond Kakashi’s breathing hitched, “There- there’s- Minato-sensei’s house- it’s- I- the village- '' The boy felt his brain going far into panic as he kept stuttering over his words and shaking.
“Woah, kid, calm down.” Pakkun guided the young jonin to sit and the small dog flopped into his crossed legs. Kakashi petted the ninken and they sat there for a few moments, as the boy’s breathing started to return to normal.
The boy liked this routine, he had it with all his ninken, ever since he got them. They would always find a way to calm him no matter the situation. Just being around one of his ninken seemed to help him incredibly.
“Pakkun..” His voice cracked, Kakashi felt weak.
“It's okay kid. Everything will be okay.”
“I-it won't be Pakkun, the- the village is wrong , Minato-sensei- I don’t know where he is-“ His voice had calmed down but the words were still panicked.
“Listen, kid-“ Pakkun tried, only for the twelve-year-old to interrupt.
“Someone is following me, I think.” Kakashi whispered, though he wasn’t afraid of this, he could handle an enemy.
Kakashi knew how to take care of an enemy, he was confident that, whatever was out there, he could take them down. Maybe he could even get information out of whoever it was.
“Someone’s following you?” Concern in Pakkun’s voice. But Kakashi already wasn’t listening, he was planning his method of attack and information gaining strategy.
“‘Kashi, maybe-.. you should listen to whoever is following you..” Pakkun sounded slightly nervous, and he found it a bit suspicious that his ninken was siding with an enemy they didn’t know anything about.
But Kakashi trusted Pakkun, “What? Why?”
“I mean, were their chakra intentions bad?”
Pakkun actually had a good point, now thinking about it, the person had a pretty neutral chakra intention. Most enemies had vile chakra that felt terrible to even be around, Kakashi could sense they wanted to harm him from a mile away.
Hm, interesting, “I guess not, but still, I’d rather people not stare at me through windows.”
That comment made Pakkun look around, “Wait, where are we, anyways?”
Kakashi frowned, now reminded of his missing sensei. This house was completely different than the one he had dinner at just a day ago. But Kakashi assumed it wasn’t uncommon for people to move houses.
That brings him to his second question, what the hell happened? His best guess was a coma.
Kakashi had been knocked out badly like that before, it was when Obito and Rin were still alive.
They were all on a mission, Kakashi couldn’t remember the fine details, but somewhere on the mission an enemy got a lucky hit on his head. The next thing Kakashi knew he was in a hospital two weeks in the future.
He remembers Rin looking like she was on the verge of tears when he woke up and Obito muttering, ‘Good job on waking up, you idiot.’
But that time he was only out for two weeks , this felt like months had pasted , maybe even years. He didn’t even know if it was possible to stay alive in a coma for years on end. Kakashi also remembers being incredibly weak after being asleep for two weeks. Right now he felt just fine, maybe a bit hungry, but that was about it.
But a coma was the most, and only, logical answer Kakashi could come up with.
“We are at Minato-sensei’s home, believe it or not..” And Pakkun’s head snapped up to look at him, the pup’s eyes were filled with sympathy, hurt, concern. It made Kakashi uneasy.
“D-do you know something, Pakkun..?” He asked carefully.
The ninken’s expression changed to something Kakashi couldn’t recognize.
“No, no I don't.” The pug looked down at the dusty wooden floor with a sigh.
The two sat in silence for a few moments, the only thing Kakashi could hear was the soft breathing of his little ninken.
“Are you gonna go with the person following you?” Pakkun spoke, changing the subject.
Kakashi wasn’t sure, on one hand the person most likely had useful information that could probably help get him out of this whole situation. But he also didn’t want to risk going into a fight blind, with no knowledge of the actual enemy.
Kakashi bit his lip under his mask as he formed a plan in his head. He would have to be careful.
“‘Kashi?”
“Yeah, I think I might go with them, just to get information.” He said, simply.
The pug looked suspicious, “What? Really?”
Kakashi smirked, “Yes, come Pakkun, let’s go.”
————-