Kakashi was walking slowly to the training grounds, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his pants. His eyes stuck to the ground beneath his feet. He wasn't in any hurry, he would still be early for the days training. He always left with plenty of time to spare.
The boys mind kept whirling back to the time sage who had just been bleeding out in front of his apartment. He knew she had survived just fine, after all, she had appeared before him as an older woman the first time around. He wasn't worried about that. He was more worried about why she had been injured.
What kind of battle was she fighting? Where was she fighting? When did this battle take place and against who? He had so many questions and it was seriously beginning to bother him that he couldn't know the answers to them.
Kakashi kept walking, his head down but his mind full and his thoughts went from the sage to how time travel was even remotely possible.
He didn't understand anything about time travel. The young Hatake was a genius but even he wasn't conceited enough to pretend to understand all the intricacies involved with traveling through time. He wondered how she did it. Was it as easy as activating a jutsu? Or something more complicated.
As he passed the lake nearing the Uchiha compound, he paused to stare out to the outer bank. He watched as leaves on the trees swayed with the gentle wind, how the water rippled gently. But he didn't really see any of that. His mind was already filled with time travel and its possibilities.
They had barely covered the subject in his time at the academy. It wasn't something that his instructors thought of as important. The only thing they really said pertained the sage and how no one was to interfere with her.
But they never taught the children what to do if she kept showing up! How was he supposed to follow the rules when she made his curiosity burn brighter with every word? Every thing she said seemed profound and kept him in awe.
Snapping back to the real world, he realized that the sun was rising higher and he was running out of time before training began. He had been lost in his thoughts for longer than he cared to admit. He turned from the lake and hastened his steps, all thoughts of time travel and the sage fading to a dull roar in the back of his mind.
Rin and Minato-sensei were already waiting at the training ground when Kakashi arrived at six on the dot.
"Wow, this is a new one." The girl laughed, her eyes twinkling playfully at Kakashi. "Sensei and I made it here before you, Kakashi-kun!"
Kakashi just rolled his eyes and started to stretch. Minato spotted the eye roll and cuffed the back of his students head with a laugh.
"That's right, Kakashi. We were worried that even Obito would make it here before you!" He joked, "I thought that I may have to get Sandaime Hokage to send out an ANBU squad to find you!"
"Maa," Kakashi groaned out and swatted away his teachers hand that was attempting to ruffle his hair. "I still got here on time which is more than Obito-baka can say!"
His teammates only laughed, acknowledging the truth of that statement and continued their warmups, awaiting the last of their team.
A pop came from their side and the trio turned to the sound. Kakashi froze up as he saw the time sage standing there. She was older than she had been this morning, but perhaps a little younger than twenty. His eyes flickered to her previously injured side.
The woman noticed this and winked at him before turning to Minato, who looked just as stunned as Kakashi felt.
"How can we help you?" Minato tried to ask casually. It was obvious that he did not have much experience with the time sage either.
She waved a hand dismissively, "I just happened to be standing here when I traveled. That's why I appeared here. Sorry to interrupt your training, Minato-san."
Kakashi felt sick at her words. If she goes through time and ends up where she had been standing, then that means she was injured right outside of his apartment. But what battle took place in Konoha?
Minato looked somewhat uncomfortable but continued on, "Oh, we haven't begun training yet. We're waiting on.."
"Obito." The sage said and tilted her head toward the back of the group. Turning, they saw Obito heading towards them full tilt. When he finally reach the group, he put his hands on his knees and wheezed out,
"Gomen...sensei... I was helping this little old lady carry her groceries into her house but her back started hurting so I went ahead and put up everything for her!" Obito leaned up, a cheeky grin on his face, "All right! I'm ready for trai... Who's this chick?"
"Obito!" Rin admonished, looking embarrassed at his rudeness. She shot the sage a worried look.
The sage just laughed good-naturedly and greeted, "Konichiwa, Obito-chan."
Minato cleared his throat, "Obito, this is the sage of time."
The boy clearly didn't believe this as he cocked an eyebrow and brought his hands down to his hips.
"I thought that was just a myth."
Minato, always calm and collected, only shrugged at the young Uchiha.
"Would you care if I trained with you all?" The sage asked. Kakashi was surprised and he could feel the anticipation build in his body. He was always looking for new ways to test his skills and she was the legendary time sage. It would no doubt be a memorable experience.
"Y-yes, of course you can!" Minato responded with enthusiasm. "I actually have some reports to catch up on, would you mind training with my students while I finish them up?" The sage nodded and Minato grinned, "we were planning on some taijutsu training today. I was going to spilt them up and have us all spar but if you're here, why not make this a survival exercise?"
Minato held up the two bells and a groan came from his students.
Passing them over to the woman and ignoring his students complaints, Minato flashed over to a nearby tree and settled in to work on his reports and watch the battle. The man wasn't really sure how much of his reports he would actually get done. He was very interested in seeing the sages skill. If the rumors held true about her, that is.
The three students watched the slightly older woman warily as she tied the bells to her waist. Patting them, she smiled at the kids.
"It's been awhile since I've taken the bell test! Feels weird being on the other side."
"You've taken the bell test, time sage sama?" Rin inquired. Kakashi also wanted to know this. Who had she taken the test with before? How old had she been then? He discreetly shook his head. He needed to clear his thoughts of pointless questions. What did he care about this lady and her training? He wanted to see what all she had under the sleeves of that white cloak.
The woman looked thoughtful as she tapped at her chin with a finger. "Well, I can't remember all that clearly. I think it was with Tobirama-sensei. Or maybe..."
"You sparred with the Nidiame Hokage?" Obito interrupted, his voice in awe.
At the same time, Kakashi blurted out, "So, did you get the bells?"
The woman laughed, "I can't remember!"
The three teens all drooped their shoulders.
She pounded a fist in the open palm of her left hand. "Well, let's do this! I know Minato said you all were going to be training your taijutsu today but feel free to use any form you'd like. I'll stick with purely taijutsu, though."
She held up a finger when the trio of teens dropped into a fighting stance. "One sec."
Pushing up her sleeves, Kakashi saw that she had weights on her wrists. How old school, he thought to himself. Hovering her hand over each of the bracers, he saw a glow of faint chakra going into them. She proceeded to lift the bottoms of her pants to do the same to the weights on her legs. Lifting a leg, she gave it a small shake before nodding and letting it fall back to the ground. The loud thud when it hit had all the teens wide eyed.
"There we go!" The sage said cheerfully. "I'm faster than you all so I figure this will help level the playing field."
"Psh!" Obito huffed and stamped a foot on the ground, the sound significantly more quieter than the woman before them. "We could beat you with our hands tied behind our back!"
She leveled a severe stare on Obito, surprising Kakashi. He hadn't ever seen such a look of malice on her face before. The corners of her mouth tilted in a small smirk and she said, "I love it when people underestimate me. Seeing the stupid expression on their faces after they see what I can do is fucking priceless."
Obito looked shocked. Rin looked appalled at the harsh language. Kakashi was just confused at the killing intent radiating from the sage. The feeling dissipated when she smiled serenely and reach for her weapons bag. Kakashi tensed, wondering why the woman was going for weapons when she had just said she would be using pure taijutsu.
When she pulled out a book, the trio of teens just glared, gasped and sputtered in quick succession. It wasn't a book they recognized but then again, they wouldn't have even been able to buy such a pervy book at their age. A little ways away, a suppressed snort of laughter erupted from Minato-sensei.
She casually flicked through the pages, pausing to snicker at different intervals.
After a few long, awkward minutes, she glanced up. "Well, aren't you all going to attack me yet?"
Obito, who finally seemed to regain his speech, screeched in agitation, "why are you reading a book then?"
Her eyes met Kakashi's and she smirked before laughing outright, "Why? Well, because I want to see how it ends?"
She winked at him and Kakashi felt out of the loop. Like there was some kind of inside joke that he just wasn't getting. His brow furrowed and his eyes were questioning but she ignored him and went back to reading.
"Fine!" Obito yelled and attacked. She moved to the side, causing the boy to miss and fly by her. Rin joined in and Kakashi decided that it was time to join the fray.
The team fought efficiently, having gotten used to working together after so many missions but it didn't seem to matter much against this opponent. She moved so fast and countered so effectively that it was nigh impossible to land a hit on her.
It frustrated Kakashi to no end that she simply kept reading as the chuunin and genins continued their relentless assault. They weren't just lowly academy students pretending to play shinobi. They had been on many missions but she was acting as if they were children playing.
Hands flying through signals quickly, Kakashi launched his attack. "Raiton: Jibashi!"
It was a basic lightning release technique, one he didn't put too much chakra behind. It was strong to cut through rock but he controlled the current so it would only knock the sage out if it made contact. The wave of electricity bolted toward her and Kakashi was sure he had her when she turned and looked him dead in the eye, stepping to the side as if that was what she had meant to do all along.
Rin was performing several genjutsu in quick succession but the sage simply formed the release sign with her free hand every single time.
Obito, Kakashi noted with mild displeasure, had actually been making himself useful for once. While the sage was preoccupied with the elemental jutsu and genjutsu being thrust her way, the Uchiha was setting up wire traps and explosive tags behind her.
Not one for being shown up, he began to force her steps back, intent on driving her back towards the other boy. Rin, having noticed his determination, quickly analyzed, realized the plan and began to assist.
The sage smiled and stuck the book back in her bag as the two attacked furiously.
"This is more like it!" She exclaimed as they exchanged blows.
Obito gave them a thumbs up behind her back and disappeared into the nearby brush, probably to rejoin their efforts in driving her back.
Rin was slowing considerably, already exhausted and Kakashi began to pick up speed, not wanting to give the sage any chance to look behind her.
A sharp whistle sounded from behind and Kakashi dove to the left and Rin to the right.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Obito chanted as he appeared and released the Uchihas fire attack upon the woman.
When the smoke cleared, she was gone. Kakashi looked around, on high alert and feeling annoyed that the woman had obviously thwarted their plans for the traps and tags by disappearing.
He heard a strangled 'oomph!' from behind and whirled around to see the sage sitting on the back of Obito, casually smiling at the other stunned teens.
"H-how?" Obito gasped out. Kakashi edged closer to hear her reply.
"As an Uchiha, you understand how the Sharingan can predict and counter attacks, yeah?"
Obito gave a small noise of affirmative and she continued, "Let me tell you about my eyes."
The woman gestured to Rin and Kakashi and got off of Obito so he could sit up. Sitting on the ground, she patted the grass and looked expectantly towards Minato.
"You too, Minato-san. You don't have to strain to listen, you can come sit with us."
Minato appeared, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as he sat down next to Rin.
The sage nodded and tapped the corner of her right eye. "Now I can't really get into very many details but my eyes are called the Rinnegan. But it wasn't always like this. It evolved from the Sharingan."
"So you're an Uchiha, too?" Obito asked excitedly, looking somewhat proud at that fact. Kakashi had to resist rolling his eyes.
But the woman shook her head. "No, I'm not an Uchiha. Anyways, I was born with a permanent Sharingan."
Rin interrupted this time with a gasp, "that's incredibly rare, isn't it?" The girl sent a look to Obito, who nodded.
The sage shrugged and leaned back, palms flat on the grass as she looked up to the sky. "I suppose so but anyways, after some time, my eyes began to change. I unlocked many stages of the Sharingan at a young age and without all the sacrifices that it normally entailed. No one really knew why. Not even my family. Perhaps it is a side effect of my eyes always being active..." She trailed off for a brief moment before clearing her throat and looking back to the group. "I digress... My Sharingan finally transformed into the Rinnegan. So basically -"
Minato interrupted this time and the sage was beginning to look a little exasperated. Kakashi just wanted to hear the damn story.
"So, does that mean, in theory... That any Uchiha could unlock the powers of your eyes?"
She laughed. "No. Not by any natural means at least. Mine happened by pure chance. Anyways, my eyes are an advanced form of the Sharingan. That's why I could see what attacks you all were planning. With my eyes, my time traveling and my taijutsu training, I'm pretty much unable to be surprised. Not that it's impossible but it's still pretty hard. I just had to sneak one peek at you, Obito, to know what you were planning and how to evade and counter it."
This was it - Kakashi finally had his chance. He stood up and held out his hand loftily. He would never outwardly admit it but he had a flair for dramatics.
"I'm not too impressed. Your eyes must not be that great." Opening the hand, one bell fell from it and dropped to the forest floor. He was feeling quite smug at his accomplishment. He had nabbed the bell whenever she was gesturing for Minato to come listen to her lecture. It wasn't earned through battle but Kakashi still felt that it was an awesome feat.
Her eyes opened wide and she patted her belt.
Suddenly, she burst into rancorous laughter, falling back to the forest floor.
"Holy shit!" She rasped out and held her sides as she gasped for breath. "I can honestly say you called my bluff there." Holding up her hands, "you got me, Kakashi-kun. In all the timelines, this is a first!"
"Congratulations, Kakashi." Minato said with a grin. He was truly proud of his student. He wasn't really sure if he would have been able to do such a thing. Watching the sage fight had been eye opening and Minato suspected that if she truly had been actively trying to kill, then there would be no stopping her.
Rin gave her congratulations while Obito grumbled at the edge of their circle.
The sage just continued to laugh before sitting up, breathing deep and relaxing into a meditative position.
"On that note, I need to meditate now, if you all don't mind."
Minato-sensei stood first and Kakashi followed suit. Rin and Obito seemed reluctant - even Kakashi wanted to stay and hear more about the mysterious time sage but they all knew an obvious dismissal when they heard one.
Obito pumped a fist in the air as they walked away, "Let's get some barbecue for lunch. I'm starved!"
Minato smiled, "how about some ramen?"
Kakashi couldn't help himself and retorted with no small amount of snark, "You just want to go there because your girlfriend will be there."
He heard an objection from his sensei but his eyes were trailing back to the time sage. Her eyes were closed but a faint smile graced her lips. The more he heard of her, the more he wanted to know.
Kakashi wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about that.
A/N: thanks for reading! I hope it's good - I'm not that great at fight scenes :p also thanks to my two reviewers! I really appreciate it. Though my question may have gotten confused. I know that Hagoromo had the Rinnegan, I was just wondering if anyone knew of the existence of the eyes after him? Like when Pein showed up, were they just like oh shit he's got the Rinnegan! XD. Moving on, thanks again! Leave me some reviews! I'd like to know what people think of my sage!