Hey guys…
Just a little idea I came up with, I noticed there aren't a lot of stories like this so I want to try my hand at it.
Sorry for not finishing my other stories, I just don't have the time or interest any more to finish them.
Hn.
Kakashi was panting, desperately trying to fill his lungs with air. He was known for pushing himself too far when his teammates' lives were on the line, but this was the farthest he'd ever gone. His Chidori was jammed into Obito's chest, and this time the hit connected.
"So… you figured out how to beat my jutsu… you always were a genius," the rogue ninja choked out, his blood welling up in his throat. He had been focused on the hand in his chest, and finally looked up to see his old friend crying, "Why do you cry, Kakashi? This isn't the first teammate you've killed."
"You still believe I killed her? I fought off rock ninja for as long as I could, and I would have fought on longer still if I could. It was Rin who chose to sacrifice herself, to try and protect me by impaling herself with my chidori. Instead of honoring her like the hero she was, you choose to wage war against the very people she died for," the Copy-nin responded.
Obito gasped, as if he finally understood what had happened.
"I… I never knew… she did that… oh, god… Kakashi," Obito said, staring into his friend's eye one last time, "I'm going to give you a chance to fix this. To do what I could not, and save this world. I'm… I'm sorry for blaming you, it was never your fault. I wasn't quick enough, or I could have saved the both of you."
His Mangekyo Sharingan swirled, spinning faster and faster as Obito gathered the last bits of his chakra, and with one final scream and a burst of white light he released his jutsu. Kakashi fell to the ground, blinded and disoriented, but when the light cleared he was not where he fell.
"Kakashi? Are you alright? You just walked in here and collapsed. Shall I call a medic in?" an old man's voice said. Kakashi sat up and looked into the wizened eyes of the Third Hokage.
Genjutsu? No, if Obito were capable of this he wouldn't have saved it for now.
"Mah, I'm alright. I… haven't eaten in a few days. I've been ill, but I'll be alright. What is it you were saying, Hokage-sama?"
The Hokage, who's eyes no longer held the black sclera that came with edo tensei as they had the last time Kakashi saw the man, sighed.
"You never were one for hospitals… I came here to inform you of your genin team this time around. I expect you to give them a fair chance, and I ask that you not be so harsh on them this time."
Genin team? What could he be-
"Your team will consist of Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura. You'll be meeting them in the academy at 3, but I'm sure it won't be until 5 that you actually get there?" the man said with a chuckle, "You still do that, just like that young boy on your team did. Obito… he had the right spirit to take this hat, it was a true tragedy what happened to him."
Kakashi nodded, "And Rin, too, Hokage-sama. They, along with Minato-sensei, they are true heroes of the leaf."
The two veterans, of different wars but equally tragic experiences, gave a moments silence.
So, that's what you meant by a second chance, Obito…
You sent me back in time. But why now? I could have saved Rin, I could have saved you…
Whatever the reason, I'll make sure I don't waste this chance.
At 2:55, Kakashi was waiting outside of the Academy's classroom of graduates. Standing with him was Asuma and Kurenai, along with other nameless jounin who's genin wouldn't pass the test. The first time around, Kakashi had a bit of faith that the others would pass their students, make them into fine shinobi, because he figured his never would.
Oh, how wrong he was.
Asuma was staring at Kakashi, confused and for good reason.
"You're wondering why I'm here so early?"
"Yeah… it's just weird seeing you on time."
"Hokage-sama told me I had to be here at 1."
"Ah."
"I'm ashamed to have been tricked, but I'm already here. Might as well do what I'm meant to, it'd be a lot of work having to leave and walk all the way back."
"Yeah, I guess."
Kakashi smiled inwardly at his friend's expense. At this point in time, Asuma had just returned from guarding the Daimyo with the 12 Guardian Ninja, and wasn't personally acquainted with Kakashi. However, Kakashi's strength wasn't even as infamous as his tardiness, not among the forces of Konoha anyway.
As the jounin slowly filed into the room to retrieve their genin teams, Kakashi prepared himself. The last time he'd seen Sasuke, they were trying to kill each other. Sasuke had just killed Danzo, and was about to kill Sakura. He knew this wasn't the same boy, but it would be one day if Kakashi wasn't prepared.
At last, his name was called, and into the room Kakashi went.
"My name is Hatake Kakashi, I'll be your jounin sensei. Meet me on the roof, as soon as possible."
He shunshined away (god that word just never looks right, but saying body flickered is even worse). The roof, this was where he made his original first impression of his team. Naruto would be loud and annoying, Sakura an annoying fangirl, and Sasuke would put the e in edgy.
The three students made their way to the roof and sat down on the bench in front of their new sensei. Last time, Kakashi appeared indifferent and uncaring, which set Naruto off. He learned throughout his time teaching Naruto that all he really wanted in life was recognition and being the old Kakashi wasn't going to help his student.
Besides, he never really taught him as a genin, did he?
"Like I said, my name is Kakashi. I'm sure you all know each other, but I will go through this anyway. Your name, likes and dislikes, hobbies, and your dream for the future. Oh, and maybe a fun fact as well."
"Shouldn't you give us a demonstration, Kakashi-sensei?"
He chuckled, one thing about this meeting wouldn't be changing, "I've already told you my name. As for likes and dislikes… hmmm… I have lots of hobbies! I guess I don't really have a dream for the future."
"You only told us your name!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison, those two really were much more alike than they realized.
"Blondie, you first."
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen, and hate the time it takes to heat up the ramen! I… don't really have any hobbies, but I do have a dream! I'm going to be the Hokage!"
"Stupid Naruto, you need to be skilled and smart to be the Hokage!" Sakura chided, but Kakashi laughed.
"Tell me, why do you want to be Hokage?"
"My whole life I've been alone, I just want the recognition of the village! I want them to see me for me, and not… not what they think they see."
Kakashi nodded, "That's a noble dream then. Now then, Pinkie, what about you?"
"My name is Haruno Sakura, my like, or rather the person I like is…" girlish squeal number one, "I hate Naruto! My hobby…" girlish squeal number two, and a glance at Sasuke, "and my dreams for the future are…" this squeal was so high pitched Kakashi's enhanced hearing caused him to cringe, and the stare that Sakura gave Sasuke almost made him feel bad for the boy.
"Alright… Now for you, what's your story Sasuke?"
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and kill a certain man."
"Gloomy. Remind me to talk to you about that later…" Kakashi said, remembering how Sasuke had babbled on about how he was avenging Itachi in killing Danzo, and Itachi's innocence and something or other… "Anyhow, we're doing a survival test tomorrow. You pass, you get to become genin. If you fail however, I get to send you back to Iruka."
Naruto and Sakura gasped, while Sasuke's eyes just widened.
Of course, he thinks his genius can pull him through any test. Sorry, Sasuke. Not this time…
"Now, I have a date with a book and a nice tree. I'll see you all tomorrow. Oh, and don't eat breakfast."
In a past life, Kakashi would have been content with sulking at the memorial stone, reading his book aloud to Obito while apologizing to Rin for the particularly vulgar parts. To his sensei he would usually just say, "Hey, your teacher was the author and you let him give us this book. Your fault."
This time round however, he wasn't content with just sitting around, letting his talent carry him through the fights. He would outwork even Gai in the coming months, and when Orochimaru came knocking he would be there to stop him.
He started with physical training, he wouldn't quite overdo it yet, but he would be going hard. Two thousand pushups, twice as many situps, twenty full speed laps around the village, followed by climbing the hokage monument with one hand.
Once he finished his warmup, he transitioned into chakra building exercises. Balancing on top of water that had about the same amount of movement as raging rapids with one finger was a good start. A half hour of that, and he moved on to his ninjutsu. His earth style was top notch in a defensive mindset, so he left it. His chidori, as Sasuke showed him, could use an upgrade.
It took him four hours of holding a chidori in his hand and trying to manipulate it to realize he wasn't going anywhere without help. Picture that, Hatake Kakashi who is hailed as the Leaf's strongest active duty jounin needing help with a jutsu.
Oh well, he needed to speak with the Hokage anyways.
"Kakashi, a pleasure seeing you here today. Is there something I can do for you?" the hokage asked, eyebrows raised inquisitively at the normally lazy jounin.
"There is, Hokage-sama. I've been trying to develop and expand on a new jutsu and I realize that I can't finish it without help. You happen to be the only ninja here qualified to teach me… If you'd be so kind of course."
Hiruzen laughed, "Am I being joked with? You're training again, while I'm happy to hear it I'm surprised. You haven't done anything like this in… twelve years now?"
"Eleven, I lost a bet to guy on the anniversary of… that day. He forced me to train with him for a month."
The hokage laughed again, before nodding, "I suppose I could help you out, you're to be in charge of a very… interesting group of genin. New jutsu will help you keep your sanity I'm sure."
"Also… there is another thing concerning one of my genin."
"Has Naruto done something to you already?"
Kakashi chuckled, "It's nothing to do with him, it's Sasuke. When do you plan to tell him the truth about the night his family was murdered?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi was hailed as a genius like that which had never been seen before. The Professor, or the God of Shinobi, was one of the most intelligent and wise individuals in the history of the known world.
And he was speechless.
"How do you… what do you mean, the truth? What have we said that isn't truthfull?"
"That Itachi did it of his own accord, of course. I trained that boy in Anbu, I groomed him to be a captain. He and Shisui were two of the strongest and most level-headed ninja I'd ever seen go through Anbu. I've seen Itachi cut down an enemy ninja and have trouble breathing for the next week because he couldn't bring himself to believe it was self-defense. There's no way a boy like that would ever do what he did. Not one who loves Sasuke that much, so I ask again: When will you tell him the truth?"
Hiruzen sighed, and then sighed again, "You really should take this hat from me Kakashi, you're far too intelligent for your own good.
That night, the Uchiha were planning a coup. Shisui had committed suicide two weeks earlier, but his eyes are missing. Itachi did what he did because his family was threatening his village, and he chose a side."
"Sasuke needs to know. Itachi was a hero."
When the Copy-nin of the leaf walked into his office, he never expected this to be what he wanted to discuss.
"You're right… Just as Naruto should have been told of his heritage, and his burden, Sasuke should know the truth. His one wish was that Sasuke be protected.
You'll tell Sasuke the truth, when you deem it necessary. And once you make Naruto into someone who can defend himself from someone of chunin strength you will tell him about your teacher."
Kakashi's eye widened, he hadn't expected that one.
The bell test went exactly as it had the last time, which was fine with Kakashi. It wasn't until later that Sasuke and Naruto had truly started fighting. For now, their petty arguments could be tolerated. The first week, he spent with them purely doing team exercises. And then, he went into tree climbing, and the week after he did water walking. He made them faster, stronger, and smarter. With Sakura, he had her working double the amount of the boys so she could catch up, and because she caught onto the chakra exercises so quickly it wasn't hard for her to make up that lost time in the second and third week.
His way of motivating Sakura was simple yet ingenius.
"Sakura, do you think Sasuke cares about looks? Your hair, your clothes, none of this will matter if you're weak. When he rebuilds the Uchiha, will he marry a weak girl or a strong kunoichi?"
The next day, she was up at 5am and running.
His own training was bearing fruit, the hokage knew the insides and out of anything involved in ninjutsu. Kakashi was good at doing things, and he could understand most anything fairly well, but the level of understanding that his new teacher had was otherworldly.
He had recreated Sasuke's Chidori Spear, giving him a whole new tool for battle. It wasn't as powerful as a chidori, but what it lacked in strength it made up for in sharpness. It was small, so when it didn't need as much power to punch through something. He had to study up on his human anatomy, not because he had forgotten so much as to make sure nothing new had been discovered since he last went through that material.
After the team training, his team started D-rank missions and those were not nearly as easy-going as his training had been.
It only took until the second mission for Naruto to try and knock Sasuke out. Sasuke's response was to roundhouse him into a garbage can, which brought on a whole new round of fighting. The two might have had headbands, but they were still just children.
He talked to Naruto first, knowing Sasuke wouldn't try to start anything if Naruto didn't.
"You want to be stronger than him, right? You hate the way he looks at you, the way he thinks he's better than everyone?" Kakashi questioned his young blonde student.
"Of course I do! I want to wipe that stupid look off his face, dattebayo!"
"When I was younger, my team was much like yours. I… I was Sasuke. I was the genius, the top of the class, the one everyone seemed to worship. I graduated at age 6, chunin at age 10, and jounin at 14. Fastest to ever do it," he said, bragging a bit, "but there was this kid who never once thought me to be better than him in any way. No matter how many spars, tests, missions I completed and things I did better than him, he never once thought himself inferior. Instead of trying to be better than me, he tried to get me to recognize him. Sure, we fought and sure we bragged and he always told me how much better he'd be, but in the end all he wanted was to be my comrade and more importantly…
He wanted to be my friend."
Naruto's head cocked in confusion, "Be your friend? Is he your friend now, like, did he succeed and stuff?"
"There was a mission, during the third ninja war. Our other teammate, she got captured. He wanted to save her. I… I wanted to complete our mission, at all costs. So he left, despite being outnumbered 5 to 1 he left me and went after her. It was at that moment I realized what being a leaf ninja was.
Had I gotten there quicker, we might have been able to save our teammate and get out safely. But my stupid, arrogant self was too slow. He died saving us."
Naruto's head dropped, his eyes locked to the floor.
"All you've ever wanted is recognition, right? Start with Sasuke. Instead of starting a fight because he can do something better than you, ask for help. If you beat him at something, offer to help him. You're comrades, when you start going on real missions it'll be your life in his hands and vise versa. Just… remember that."
Kakashi wasn't an emotional man. He didn't tell his life story to make Naruto feel bad, he did it because he knew the boy would understand if he had something to relate to. It really was uncanny how similar young Obito and Naruto were.
Even after three weeks, Kakashi had yet to tell Sasuke about his brother. Though he'd never admit it, he wasn't sure how to approach the boy. One night, after they finished training and eating a team dinner, Kakashi was walking with Sasuke back to his apartment.
"So… You and Naruto have been getting along much better."
"Hn. He's still an idiot," Sasuke replied, a slight smirk on his face.
They walked the whole way to the apartment in awkward silence, and as Sasuke was about to walk in he turned to his sensei.
"Why did you walk the whole way here? Do you need something?"
Kakashi nodded, rubbing the back of his head and looking at his student sheepishly.
"Can I come in? It'd be better if you were inside for this…"
Sasuke shrugged and lead Kakashi to his kitchen table. The two sat down, and Sasuke stared expectantly at his sensei.
"What do you know about the night your family was murdered?"
Sasuke glared, "More than you."
Kakashi just shook his head, "I have this directly from the mouth of the Hokage. You're a ninja now, and you deserve to know the truth. The elders of your family were planning a coup, to take the village for themselves. Your father tried to fight it at first, but eventually he went along with it himself. Your brother stopped it."
Sasuke glared, and glared, and his face grew redder as the seconds dragged on, before he said in barely a whisper, "What the fuck do you know about that? There's no way Itachi would kill his family for the village."
"But he'd kill them for himself? You probably don't know this, but I was Itachi's captain in Anbu. I mentored him, I knew him inside and out until six months before the massacre. That Itachi was the singlemost selfless man I've ever met. More selfless than the Hokage even, and he would never do such a thing to test his strength.
I went through file after file, everything that had to do with that night and Itachi himself. I'm sorry, but he just didn't do it for the reasons you think."
"So what, he was ordered? He did it out of the goodness of his heart, at least the goodness for the village and not his family?!"
"The only one he asked to be saved was you. And yes, he was ordered. And the man who did it is a man who I plan to deal with soon enough, but not before I make sure you and your team can defend yourself."
"Who was it? The hokage?" Sasuke hissed out, barely understood by Kakashi due to the sheer amount of rage in his voice.
"Does this mean you believe me? I'll only tell you if you swear off your revenge to Itachi."
Sasuke sat for a good while, nearly an hour, processing what was told to him. Finally, he looked up, sharingan active in his eyes.
"I swear it off. Who was it?"
"Shimura Danzo."
Moving to fast? Maybe, but this is just for fun anyway so I'm not too bothered. Leave a review with your thoughts.