AN: Updates are on Saturdays now. I don't own Naruto. I am crazy. Et cetera.


Chapter 2


Older Mind-wiped Kakashi's POV:

As a precaution, Minato had insisted that his wrists and fingers be tied together behind his back in such a manner that would make hand signs impossible. Hatake didn't argue. Although he didn't quite trust them, he didn't want to get on the bad side of the blonde ninja. He wasn't one that the Hatake would want to cross.

When they reached the gates once again, Anbu instantly appeared at their side.

One with long blonde dirty hair silently tipped his head to the side at Minato in question.

"The rope is just a precaution, Boar." Minato said. "He shouldn't be any sort of trouble but we need him escorted to T&I for a mental evaluation."

Even with only one eye, Hatake's attention was drawn to the slight stiffening of the Anbu's shoulders as the squad flanked their small group in a single file line. He let his eye drift to make contact with the so called 'Boar's' eyes from behind the mask. Who was he? Why did he seem almost... He looked for the proper word for it. His mind almost went into shock when He found the right word. Fear. That man was afraid of him.

Hatake stopped in his tracks as he pondered how he knew that the Anbu were afraid, or at the very least tense, around him.

"Hatake-san?" He turned to see Minato looking back at him concerned. He looked pointedly at the stiff masked nin and then questioningly back at Minato. He then swore he saw the blonde man had winced at that.

"You... just look so identical to him that it makes even ninja veterans like me feel... uneasy." He said deliberately. "The sooner we see the Hokage and get you through T&I the better."

He nodded once, though he was confused as to who all these people thought that he was, and continued walking. He wondered what sort of person could have left such an impact on people who may or may not have really known each other.

He also wondered if this person, was actually him.

The trip was long, and it seemed like he was being paraded through the village like a wanted criminal, from the looks of disgust and hatred he was receiving. For some unknown reason, though, several times he got glared at, Kakashi was glared at too. The maskless Hatake bristled at that, and sent chilling glares right back to every person who's hatred swerved onto the younger.

Kakashi was a ninja of this village for Kami's sake. Just because they looked alike did not give any of those people the right to incriminate the boy. For some reason, he knew that their hatred was misplaced.

He hated ignorant people who did stupid things like that.

After about twenty minutes of walking, they arrived at a tall red tower with the insignia for Fire emblazoned on it. He had also successfully wedged Kakashi between himself and an Anbu to shield him from the view of any glaring onlookers. As they walked up the spiraling stairs, he looked to his right and up at the three faces carved into the mountainside.

Suddenly he felt uneasy. He felt like something, no somethings, were missing from the image.

He wasn't sure how he should feel about that.

Their group stopped right outside the entrance to the building and an Anbu pulled out a black piece of cloth from his pocket and motioned Minato to tie it around Hatake's eyes. Minato took it and eyed Hatake warily as he approached and tied the material on him. Hatake felt the man's fingers brush against the vertical scar on his eye and the involuntary twitch that had followed.

He knew what the other man was thinking. His eye should have been ruined, yet the telltale signs of a functional eye spoke otherwise. He must have had previously had some sort of eye transplant to gain vision back in his left eye, and there was definitely more to it than that. There had to be.

He was then guided along by two people on both sides, holding him by the arms, and into a place where their footsteps echoed mutedly as they walked. It must have been a long hallway of sorts. They then turned into another room as someone opened the door to let them in.

He practically felt the silence that followed and he was suddenly aware of more people in the room.

Hatake felt his muscles stiffen as he felt a whoosh of air and a small body tackle his leg and cling to it like a leech.

But he almost collapsed in shock when the little leech had called him Tou-san.

Something clicked within Hatake's mind and he felt an almost constricting connection to the child. Never had he met this boy in his life, he knew for sure, and yet the feeling remained. He was family, yet not. Closer and at the same time, so distant. The only thing that was remotely comparable to the mysterious feeling was a father-son relationship; one that he had never been on the father side of. However, considering the gaki clinging to him couldn't be his father, the warmth he felt pushing aside the initial shock must have been his parental instinct kicking in.

It felt as if he had stumbled upon something so precious and so pure that he couldn't help but treasure it.

That feeling, though, was short lived, as he heard one of the Anbu snatch away the child lightning quick and two others held him in place. He struggled desperately against them, but a chakra seal was slapped on him by a nearby Minato he suspected, and pushed gracelessly to his knees. A scream from the child was joined by two others, perhaps Kakashi's age, but all three voices were silenced quickly.

He felt a burning hate well up within his stomach.

"Boar, Rabbit, that is enough." An old deep voice said. "The man has done nothing to provoke our ire." The Anbu beside him silently released their hold on him but he didn't hear them move away from his position. Hatake grits his teeth and then uses a long, almost canine incisor to bite his lower lip.

The hate subsides as the pain numbs him and Hatake is deathly calm.

"You are a Hatake, no?" the old man asks, genially. Hatake doesn't move.

"Are you familiar with Konoha?" Again Hatake greets the question with silence.

"Did you know Sakumo?" A hazy image of long silver hair and a tired expression appears in his mind, but he does nothing to suggest he is familiar with the name.

"I'm not going to get any answers out of you am I?" More of a statement then a question. Hatake just continues to kneel silently.

"Kakashi, do you recognize him at all?" the man addressed the younger.

There is a moment of quiet before Kakashi answers. "I thought he was my father at first." He said. "But my father not only looks different, but he is dead. My only concern is that this man, was able to use White Chakra."

"White Chakra?" The old man asked.

"It's... a lost art of the Hatake bloodline." Kakashi said. "He could use it. But he abandoned me before he taught me anything about it. I found out about it in one of the old scrolls afterwards."

Hatake felt his insides tighten. Abandoned? Something must have shown on his face because the old man addressed him once again.

"Is this true?"

As if his chakra had heard him, it built up inside him, forcibly breaking the seal, burning off his bindings and blowing off his blindfold. He felt his body shrinking, shedding unnecessary fat to replace it with muscle and sinew. His clothes melted into him as the white aura of chakra grew. His hearing became sharper as well as his sense of smell and he felt his incisors lengthen into fangs. White fur covered his entire body as strong paws and a tattered tail completed the transformation.

He knew who he was then. His memories flooding back in a rush of red. He was Wolf. He was the Copy Ninja. He was Commander. His name was Kakashi Hatake.

Hatake's eyes snapped open to reveal deep charcoal black and clear crimson red with a vertical slit for a pupil.

He snarled, baring gleaming white teeth, and then in a streak of white, he escaped the room.


Minato's Mysterious POV:

When the mysterious Hatake was finally tracked down, he was found still in wolf form at the obsidian Memorial stone. Dutifully, like a guard dog, he was instantly on his feet when Minato approached him and snarling warily with his teeth bared. He was protecting their memories, even if they were not yet carved into the stone.

In an instant, a black figure attacked the wolf with a vicious kick and then rounded on Minato and the Anbu he was with. Feeling the dark killing intent that the figure was exuding, Minato sprang into action and tried to engage into combat with it. The thing sent him reeling back with a single kick and then followed it up with a shunshin and a wickedly fast sucker punch. Minato knew from that moment that he was outmatched, severely. Even with his speed, all he could do was try and dodge as his movements felt hazy and his reactions slow. He also had comrades to look out for.

A backfist to the back of his head sent him to the ground as his consciousness began to fade rapidly. The last thing he sees is a blur of white before he blacked out.


Older Kakashi's POV:

When the black figure attacked him, he knew instantly who it was.

The blow had been more than just an attack, because the black aura that tainted his chakra like a poisonous oil was a chakra that he would never forget. He was forced back into human form and writhed in pain as the Taint curled painfully within his chakra coils. Using his own chakra, he pulled on the White Chakra and his body burned as he felt the chakra purify the Taint in his body.

The pain slowly subsided.

By this time he felt the spike of chakra in the air and rushed towards it, knowing that Minato and him were battling it out.

He lunged forward, in front of Minato as the man falls to the ground, and sends crackling lightning at the blob of black. The figure dodges, but still gets a glancing blow from the spark-like energy.

It hisses slightly and turns toward him in surprise, clearly not thinking that he would be moving anytime soon. It snarls slightly as he rushes at it with two hands of bright lightning chakra.

Clearly not as powerful as it had been before, it was forced to jump back and fade out of existence in retreat.

He cursed at it silently, but he heard a groan from one of the people behind him and he rushed to help them. He felt like cursing again once he saw the wounds covered in the black Taint. He placed his hand on the most injured Anbu's most severe wounds and pushed his chakra into it. He then drew out the Taint and pulled it into his own body, purifying it while he used his meager medical ninjutsu skills to close up the gash as best as he could.

He felt the Anbu's heartbeat stutter.

No.

It began decreasing at a rapid rate. It stuttered again. Then it faded.

Damn it.

He moved on to the next Anbu. Already dead. He had bled out from the slice across his abdomen.

Damn it.

He then made a shadow clone and went to the last Anbu, who despite having a strong heartbeat, wasn't breathing as his clone went to Minato. He now expertly removed the Taint and he found that the Anbu had blood in his lungs and shattered ribs. He carefully sat the man up, pulled the porcelain mask up past his mouth, opened it, and then pushed his chakra into the man's lungs. The Anbu coughed violently, as his airways cleared, and sprayed crimson spots all over his uniform.

He then laid the man down on his back and pulled the Anbu's arms over his head to reset his broken ribs. The Anbu cried out in pain as his ribs moved back into place and he coughed up another spray of blood. Hatake then tried his best to ease the man's pain until help arrived. He stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly and sharply, trying to get someone's attention, and then concentrated on the Anbu's wounds.

His hands turned green with healing chakra as he tried his best to stop the blood from flowing into the man's lungs and depriving his body of its essentials. It was working. He was buying time for the medics. Beside him, his clone was helping Minato up from the ground.

'Medic!' he signed desperately to a half lucid Minato. 'Need a medic now!'

If Minato didn't understand, his clone sure did, as it threw Minato over its shoulder and took off towards the hospital.

When he felt the man's heart stutter, he nearly panicked and pushed more healing chakra into the man.

Don't bleed out. Please don't bleed out. He repeated the mantra in his head over and over.

He was surprised, however, when the Anbu spoke.

"Who are you?" He was able to whisper. "What... are you doing to me?" The edge of panic was clear in his voice.

In response, Hatake just pushed flare healing chakra into the wound, desperately trying to stem the blood.

"A medic?" The Anbu asked. He huffed a small laugh. "I thought I was so far gone that I was hallucinating. There's no medic on our team, and most medics don't volunteer to get involved with Anbu." The Anbu said sadly. But Hatake took that as a good sign. He was breathing easier, and retained the ability to speak. He could survive this. The bleeding was stopping.

"I thought I was going to..." The Anbu trailed off. To die. Hatake finished for him in his head. "Not speaking, huh?" He asked him. Hatake was silent, unable to answer. "I guess I'll just keep going then. I'll try to stay awake, okay?" Hatake nodded even though the porcelain mask was pushed up on the Anbu's face and into the dark spikes of hair, blocking his sight.

"Introductions first, huh? I guess I'll tell you, even though it's against the rules. My name is Kuroshi Uchiha. My codename is Bobcat. I like tomatoes and dango. I don't like my stuck up clan's rules or that stupid Fugaku who keeps picking on that poor Obito kid."

Hatake was surprised at what Kuroshi said. An Uchiha who despised tradition? Who didn't like how Fugaku was so harsh with Obito? That was rare. Like one in every seven generations rare.

" My hobbies consist of reading and... pranking I guess." he paused a bit in thought. "If you call pissing off the elders pranking. My dream... is to find peace." He chuckled again. Then frowned. "I don't think I've ever been able to tell someone all that. I've never told anyone that, ever. I always acted like... the rest of them." He almost spat.

Hatake stared at the Uchiha in shock. Discreetly pissing off elders? Finding peace? A random change of heart? What the hell was going on?

"Now that I've told you I feel... lighter. And... cleaner." He chuckled a bit to himself again. "Like someone went and took all the skeletons out of my closet."

Hatake let the healing jutsu fade as his expertise ended at stopping someone from bleeding out and had Kuroshi cough up the remnants of the blood still in his chest. Then he laid him down and tried his best to make the other comfortable. When he was finished, he silently sat by his side, not wanting to move him and cause further injury to his broken ribcage, waiting for the medics to come.

After a bit, the Anbu shifted nervously at the silence.

"Hello? Are you still here? Medic?" He asked, far too weak from blood loss to do any movement more strenuous than speaking. Hatake wasn't paying much attention anymore his clone popped and he saw people rushing towards them in the distance.

He immediately got up and desperately signed to the group as they came towards the battle site.

'Ambushed. Two dead. One injured and barely conscious. Needs immediate medical attention.' He gestured urgently. When he saw them tense up as if he was going to attack them, he held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender and then pointed insistently at Kuroshi. He then helped the medical team get the Anbu onto a stretcher and rush him over to the hospital.

Don't die. Don't die. Please don't die.


Older Kakashi's/Kikuto's POV:

When he was rushed back to the Hokage's office after the incident, he told the Sandaime everything he could about the fight. Of course, he left out the important detail that he knew the mysterious assailant, but he left no other detail out, including the analysis of the White Chakra and its 'healing' properties.

The Hokage was still suspicious of him though, as he was the only one who was came out of the battle with minor injuries, and Hatake didn't blame him. So told them that he was willing to help in any way that he could.

Inoichi was brought into the office then and the Sandaime explained that the interrogator would prove whether he was innocent or not. He would have panicked slightly if he hadn't already taken the precaution of sealing up his memories of the future tighter than Naruto's headband when he was alone with the Anbu.

Instead he submitted to the memory search quietly, and passed with flying colors. They settled on the name of Kikuto Hatake for the official papers and the newly named Kikuto decided that the boy's name, his 'son's' name would be Kazu. After everything was said, or signed in Kikuto's case, and done, he was allowed to leave in peace.

His worries, however, were far from over.

After he had proved not to be a threat to the village, Tsunade had barged into the room demanding to see the medic who had worked on Minato and Kuroshi immediately. Hesitantly, Kikuto raised a hand to tell her that it was him. She literally stomped up to him and dragged him back to the hospital with her by the shirt.

Once in her office, he was pinned against the wall as she demanded he explain why Minato was practically suffocating his students and his fiancé with affection after receiving a mild concussion and why there was an Uchiha Anbu who was smiling and playing with a child even after having his ribcage practically crushed.

He wanted to ask if the child was the boy he named Kazu, but he didn't dare. When he frantically tried to sign to her that it was some after effect of his chakra purification, she just lifted him off the ground (and made him feel the burn of emasculation) and screamed in his face.

"Speak up! What did you do to them?!"

Kikuto tapped his lips and then throat and shook his head, hopeful that he was able to convey to her that he was mute. She set him down after that, much to his relief, and repeated her second question.

"What did you do to them?!"

'Enemy used dark chakra. It Tainted their chakra. I was able to remain relatively unharmed because my White Chakra can purify it.' He signed lengthily. 'Perhaps too pure now?' he signed sheepishly.

She still wasn't convinced.

"Show me this White Chakra."

He held out a hand and twisted his chakra into the white energy he had used to get rid of the Taint.

There was a moment of silence before Tsunade literally dragged him out of her office and towards the hospital rooms. She didn't even knock as she entered Room 264 and pulled Kikuto to the room with a heavily bandaged, but recovering Kuroshi who was sitting up in his bed filling out paperwork.

Immediately, the Uchiha stopped what he was doing when they entered and a pleasant smile bloomed on his face.

"Is this him?" Kuroshi asked Tsunade.

"You shouldn't be sitting up! Lay back down in that bed right now, Uchiha! Do you want to re-break that ribcage of yours?" Tsunade yelled instead of answering. "Right?" She asked turning to him. Kikuto stiffened slightly as the attention was put solely on him and Kuroshi looked at him expectantly.

He nodded slightly.

Kuroshi laughed, but reached back to prop up his pillow so he could lay down and sit up slightly at the same time. "I feel so much freer now, after you treated me. What exactly happened? I know I got hit by this black energy, and it hurt. It was so dark and it made me feel like the weight of the mask was going to crush me." He trailed off.

Kikuto nodded in understanding. More than once, Anbu have succumbed to what was called 'the mask's burden' and either went off the deep end, resigned from Anbu, or got killed in action. One of the reasons why he had been practically legendary within Anbu was because he withstood 'the mask's burden' for over half a decade when most Anbu never stayed in Anbu for more than a few years and didn't go on nearly as many missions as he had.

"You've got a healing talent if you can take away the burden of Anbu with a simple chakra treatment." Kuroshi said seriously. He turned to Tsunade. "I haven't been brainwashed or anything like that." He told her. "I'm just saving my bad attitude for later when Fugaku finds out that I quit Anbu and am seceding from the clan."

Kikuto choked on his tongue and Tsunade's jaw practically fell off.

"What?!" She said. "Why in Kami's name would you do that?"

Kuroshi snickered a very Uchiha-like snicker. "I may only be twenty, but I've seen enough of this world to know that Fugaku's foolish ideals of clan before village, before loved ones is complete and utter bullshit." He said unabashedly. "I lost more than just teammates today in that ambush. I lost friends. And I am not going to go back like the unfeeling prick I used to be. No, I'm gonna be the prick with the opinion that matters because I know better than to swallow lies because it feeds my ego." He said confidently under his still amicable smile. "He better be ready for me when shit hits the fan."

"What caused this change of heart?" Tsunade asked in astonishment. Kikuto is wondering the same thing.

Kuroshi's smile falls off his face and is replaced by a frown.

"When you get the guilt and regret and sadness of you past thrown back at you tenfold, you realize that you were stupid and ignorant and that you absolutely have to change things or you might go insane knowing that someone you care about could end up just like you or worse."

Tsunade shakes her head and says, "Save me from reckless people. You better stay in that bed for the rest of the week. You hear me Uchiha? I will personally track you down and tie you to the bed if I have to."

Kuroshi snickered and Kikuto coughed awkwardly.

Tsunade blushed slightly at the insinuation but decided to drag Kikuto off to see Minato instead of retaliate.

When she barged in through the door this time, she was greeted by not one, not two, but six surprised faces, and Kikuto was surprised that they all fit in the tiny room.

His heart nearly stopped when he saw his younger self frozen in the middle of playing stiffly with another, younger, silver haired boy and he probably would have stayed frozen in the doorway if Tsunade didn't decide to practically throw him at the two. Kakashi eyed him warily but Minato smiled at him brightly and Tsunade called out to the boy.

"Kazu, you father's back."

Kikuto reached out to the boy shakily as if he were afraid that he would break, but he managed to cup a calloused hand over the boy's cheek and brush away the tears that were falling from the young boy's sightless coal eyes. In an instant, the boy threw himself at him and clutched him hard as he cried into his shoulder. Kikuto gripped him just as tightly.

"Daddy... Daddy..." Kazu cried. Kikuto turned and kissed the top of his head before resting a cheek on it and rocking the boy back and forth. Kikuto knew right then, that even if the boy didn't turn out to be his son, he didn't care. This boy was his baby. And there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Awws erupted from five of the room's occupants as Kakashi looked away jealously.

Spying a neglected family member, Kikuto opened up an arm to him too. For a moment Kakashi looked hopeful before he realized where he was and scowled and refused. Kikuto rolled his eyes at his younger self and remembered how much of a stuck up bastard he had been at that age. He looked to Kushina for help.

She smiled at him and gladly obliged, pushing the teen forward and closer to the hugging pair. Kakashi glared at her and then at Kikuto and Kikuto let out a wheezing laugh. That made Kazu look up from his father's shoulder and look at Kakashi with those two sightless pleading eyes.

Kakashi leaned forward.


AN: Whew... This was harder than I thought... *broods in a corner somewhere* Please review! Ideas come from reviewers too.