Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, that belongs to Kishimoto
A/N: I wanted to thank all of you who liked, favorited and reviewed my story! Special thanks to 'st4t1c sh0ck' for being the first reviewer!
On another note, I went back and edited the last chapter. No major plot points were changed, but a lot of the wording and Kakashi's thoughts were altered (this will probably happen a lot throughout this story seeing that as time goes on, my writing will get better, therefore I will want to edit previous attempts).
note: I used a section of italics to represent a flashback
Without further ado – enjoy!
Chapter 2: Confusion and Evasion
"I'm in the past."
Kakashi whispered the words to himself, solidifying the outlandish fact. He knew there was no point in trying to deny the truth.
From all the things he'd seen so far, to the fact that he still hadn't woken up yet, there was no other conclusion he could possibly make.
Kakashi sat outside of the operation room twiddling his thumbs to pass the time. The the red operation light illuminated the dimly-lit hallway, it's crimson glow monopolizing Kakashi's senses, reminding him of a certain spinning eye.
The sharingan, out of all other things, was the most out of place. In his time, the sharingan was gone. No exception. So Kakashi was having a hard time understanding how he could have it now, especially since this time was before the 'Obito Incident'.
Kakashi thought back to his previous encounter with one of the more… intrusive medics. He had thought that due to the village's current hatred towards him and his father, he would be left alone. Apparently Kakashi had been wrong.
A kid was still a kid in a medic's eyes – even if there was some underlying hatred for him in their hearts. He'd barely dogged a bullet with that one conversation…
…
"Are you okay?"
Kakashi looked up at the medic blankly. His emotions were finally contained enough for him to put up the long-missed facade.
"Yep."
"Kid, I refuse to believe that. C'mon take off the mask and hitai-ate, I just want to make sure that you're not suffering any signs of shock. You may legally be an adult by ninja standards, but you're still only a kid by medical standards."
If only she knew.
"I'm perfectly fine."
Kakashi received a pointed look from the medic and decided to try a different approach.
Forcing his one visible eye to adopt a small smile (something his past self would have never done), Kakashi used the most pleading tone he could muster up and spoke a request that the medic hopefully wouldn't be able to refuse. "I just want to be close to my dad… Please let me wait by the operating room, that's the only thing that can really make me feel any better."
The medic looked away guiltily.
No, that was a look of pity – Kakashi repressed an instinctual eye-twitch at the thought.
"… fine. But what about your left eye? It's been covered for a while…" The medic slowly reached out, but Kakashi ducked away before she could wrap her intrusive fingers around the only thing keeping him from a long night in a torture and interrogation room.
"I said I'm fine. I just have a little headache is all – it's probably from the stress… Just please, leave me be."
Kakashi walked towards the door and placed his hand on the handle before he was stopped once again.
"Wait! One more thing!" the medic hastily spoke, as if remembering something at the last minute. "Where did you learn that thing you did with your chakra? The one that alerted the medics of your location?"
During the 12 years spent serving the Hokage as an anbu.
"I don't know, maybe I read it in one of my father's scrolls."
And with that, Kakashi finally left, leaving a confused medic staring contemplatively at the place he had stood not seconds ago.
…
Kakashi tried to stand up and - realizing too late that his feet were too short to reach the ground - clumsily stumbled onto the floor. At least no one was around to witness the embarrassing the event.
With a frustrated sigh, he headed for one of the bathrooms. Kakashi hadn't seen himself in a mirror since he had 'arrived', and he needed to take stock of his physical situation. Sitting down doing nothing was going to get him nowhere, despite his irrational urge to wait and make sure his father was okay.
He ignored a pang in his heart.
Kakashi opened the door to his destination. He didn't have the time to be thinking about things like this. Ironic, right? He trekked over to the sinks and extended his chakra. No one was in the bathroom with him, so he had free reign.
Kakashi pulled down his mask, pulled up his hitai-ate, and splashed his face with water. He looked up and saw himself for the first time since 'coming back' and noticed the tired rings around his eyes (the left one still being closed).
Even though Kakashi was aware that he was in the past, seeing it still took the breath out of him - made everything more real. Now if only he could remember how he got sent to the past in the first place.
Kakashi noticed that the scar that had once marred his face was no longer over his left eye, giving him mixed feelings. He knew that without the scar he could probably get away with walking around in public as long as he kept the eye closed. However, even if he bought contacts to cover the sharingan, it would still drain too much chakra to keep them open.
At least if he had the scar, Kakashi would be able to say that his eye was hurt in an accident. Then he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore, so long as he could keep the medics away from it.
Kakashi looked back up to the scar-less eyelid and braced himself. He slowly opened his eye and watched as red and spinning black stared back. It really was there.
He stared at his reflection for a few seconds before a thought popped into his head and he focused more chakra into his eye.
The mangekyo emerged.
Kakashi stepped back, suddenly wondering if maybe in this timeline both Obito and Rin had both met their respective fates early to compensate for his eye, before pushing the foolish thought away. There had to be a proper explanation, he just hadn't thought of it yet.
Right – information. He needed information if ever wanted to find out what was going on.
Kakashi dashed out of the bathroom and snuck out of the hospital, heading to the best place he could think of to gather the information he was so deprived of. The bookstore. After only three minutes of travelling at normal walking speed, he was there and formulating a plan.
Kakashi walked over to the alley and henged into some non-descript chunin with brown har and black eyes. He didn't want anyone in the library to recognize or remember him, so nothing flashy.
He then went into the store and perused the selection - he had quickly amassed a large selection of books and sat down to sort through which ones would be useful to him. By the time he was done he had picked out 5 books: An Introduction to Space Time Seals, Time Travel - A Theory, Chakra Unbound From Time, The Sharingan And Chakra – They're Not So Different, and A Shinobi's Guide to Sudden Memory Loss.
Kakashi was about to go buy the books when a certain orange cover caught his eye.
No way.
In an instant Kakashi was on the other side of the isle, reaching his hand out to grab the miracle gifted from the heavens. He hesitated for a moment. Should he get it? It would be out of character for the Kakashi of this time, but…
It didn't matter if no one knew he had it. Plus, it was one of the original first printings of the series! He couldn't pass this up!
So, there he was, buying his six books and receiving strange looks from the guy running the register. "You have very… diverse taste."
Kakashi (still in henge) smiled. "I'm a very diverse person."
"Er… right…" The young man quickly placed the orange book into a bag filled with the other five, and handed it to him, blushing profusely. "That'll be 480 ryo."
Kakashi sighed in relief, he had just enough. "Here you go. Oh, and keep the change… Maybe you can use it to buy your own copy." Kakashi held up Icha Icha and gave the man a wink (ah the joy of having two eyes).
The cashier sputtered and turned evermore red with embarrassment, but before he was able to shout out a retort, Kakashi was out the door.
It was 2:00 in the morning and the streets were filled with yells and drunken laughter. Civilians and shinobi alike were too inebriated to notice 'the traitor's son', making his walk more relaxing than it should have been.
Kakashi smiled at the lively shouts of his home, causing him to nearly forget that he was in the past, and that his father was lying in an operating room fighting for his life. The people of Konoha loved to party no matter what time period, Kakashi mused, pushing away the negative thoughts.
He could almost imagine his three students running up to him, yelling his name obnoxiously while dragging him along from one destination to the next. Kakashi would act nonchalant and ask them to stop dragging him around, but in reality, he would follow them anywhere, and they knew that just as well.
Sasuke's smirk, Sakura's laugh, and Naruto's smile. They were precious to him. Would he ever get to see them again?
Kakashi stopped in the street – he hadn't thought of that. If he changed something – which he already had – how much would the future be affected? Would he be able to accurately predict what was to come if too much was altered? Would his precious students even be born into this world? What were the chances that his students would have the same exact DNA, personalities, parents? What if –
"Aghh!"
Kakashi screamed as a searing pain shot through his left eye. Kakashi grasped at it through the cloth of his hitai-ate and hissed in annoyance. When he pulled his hand away again, he froze.
Blood?
Why was there blood?
The stabbing sensation shot through his eye once more and Kakashi stumbled off to one of the many alleyways to get away from the too-loud crowd. He slid down to a sitting position with his back against a dirty wall and left side leaning against dumpster, blocking himself from the view of any curious civilians or shinobi.
Kakashi pulled his hitai-ate off and threw it to the ground, noticing how his blood splattered unceremoniously across the concrete and dripped from his chin onto his clothes. There was puddle of some unidentifiable liquid lying next to him and he used it to look at his reflection
The world began to spin around him, and bile rose up through Kakashi's throat, but he pushed before he would be forced to add to the aforementioned liquid.
What Kakashi saw shocked him once again (hadn't that been happening a lot recently?).
A fresh, long gash ran through Kakashi's left eyelid from just above the eyebrow to slightly below the mask. It was exactly the same as the one he received during the Kannabi Bridge mission – the one that left a scar that he had previously lived with for almost all of his life. And it hurt like hell.
Kakashi leaned back again, pushing himself as far into the corner a he possibly could and wrapped his bloody hitai-ate tightly around his wound once more to contain the bleeding.
Kakashi tried to stand up so he could find a safer place, however, another stabbing pain shot through him and he fell back to the ground. It felt as though a thousand needles were being pushed into his pores, and his breaths came out in short bursts.
More blood. So much blood.
Kakashi only had enough time to push himself further into the corner before his eyes drooped and the darkness engulfed him.
…
The sun was bright. He had a headache. Ow.
Kakashi stood slowly, cringing slightly at the cracking of the dried blood caked against his body. He almost didn't remember what had happened – but only almost. He needed help, a place to stay. Somewhere far away from prying eyes and curious medics… A place that would give him enough time to figure things out.
Such a place did not exist.
Heck, he didn't even know when he was! Which Kakashi then concluded was stupid as he proceeded to buy a newspaper from the stand closest to him.
The date was a day after his father's suicide – everything appeared to be the same as it was before. Good, information was good.
Kakashi pocketed the magazine and tried to arrange his clothes in a manner that would make it appear is if he hadn't just passed out in his own blood. After making himself look semi-decent (for a person who was covered in blood), he walked, letting his feet take him anywhere while he contemplated his situation. It was better not to worry about his students, there was nothing that could tell him how or if they would come to be, and there was nothing he could do to force them into this world.
If he remembered correctly (which he did – there was no way he could ever forget these few days), Minato-sensei was out on a mission with Kushina and wouldn't return for a few days. This left no one to pester him, seeing as his father was… occupied, and he wasn't placed on his team yet.
Kakashi approached some destination and choked, feet suddenly freezing. It was the Uchiha compound. The still in-use, bustling, lively Uchiha compound that wasn't covered in blood and death.
Kakashi walked into the district
He knew it was foolish - he knew it was but…
The sounds of playing kids were drowned out as he approached a house on the outskirts of the compound. So foolish. He stopped outside the door. Foolish, foolish, foolish… He knocked. Why was he doing this to himself? The door never opened.
Kakashi stood still, slowly bringing his breathing back to normal.
Obito wasn't home.
IMPORTANT A/N: I'm making this author's note to explain how I arranged Kakashi's timeline (because plot holes).
4 Years old – Kakashi enters the academy (Obitobi = 8 years old)
5 Years old – He graduates the academy and apprentices w/ Minato (Obitobi = 9 years old) – this is the year Kakashi's dad dies, so this is where this story starts.
6 Years old – He joins team 7 and becomes a chunin (Obitobi = 10 years old)
9 Years old – He becomes jounin (Obitobi = 13 years old)
11 Years old – Rin dies (at age 15)
13 Years old – He joins anbu
14 Years old – Minato dies
15 Years old – He becomes an anbu captain
24 Years old – He is relieved of anbu
24 and 25 Years old – He failed two genin teams
26 Years old – He passes team 7
29 Years old – Shippuden starts
31 Years old – end of war, appointed Hokage
32 Years old – He travels back in time
(In case you haven't noticed, I like to call Obito 'Obitobi')
I have a lot of reasons for making the timeline like this (and yes, Kakashi is 3-4 years younger than Obito, Rin, etc.), so if you have any questions about it then leave a review and I will answer them in the next chapter… and if you don't have any questions, then leave a review anyways… hehe... please?
Until next time!