Thank you Prescripto13, Ashelly and buterflypuss for reviewing the last chapter! :D
My sudden inspiration for this Chapter was brought by my schoolmates! Standing Ovation for them! ;3
Warning! "Blah blah" is Older Kakashi talking from inside the other's mind!
I don't own Naruto. Not even a bit.
Chapter 11: Planning and training
Jiraya handed a scroll to his sensei. The Toad Sage spent most of the week to develop a seal that could contain the Kyuubi imitator (he didn't try it yet, and hopefully he won't).
The demon already showed its freedom inside the faulted seal, thus the Sandaime ordered his student to come up with something, in case the demon tried to escape again.
If it didn't, then everyone would happily fight for Konoha somewhere else.
If it did, every shinobi would fight tooth and nail to protect the village.
The Hokage would have involved Minato as well, but the blonde jonin was needed on the north-western border: Kumo was trying harder to break the frontline, sending more ninjas more often.
Hiruzen dismissed Jiraya (who seemed to go towards the hot springs) and analyzed the seal on the scroll while there wasn't any emergency whatsoever.
"Why can't I say anything about the future?" Younger Kakashi asked annoyed "If we reveal the major events, Sandaime-sama could help us".
Kurama and the Older Kakashi looked at each other and the former raised a non-existing eyebrow: "Would you believe a ten-years-old kid if he declared he has twenty years of future knowledge and his older self in his head?" the demon asked mockingly.
"We have proofs! We could end the war –"
"- in a bloodbath" Older Kakashi cut off the younger "At this point of time, only a slaughter would end the war…" his eye unfocused slightly, like he remembered something awful "…causing the other villages to seek revenge".
Kurama snorted in agreement and growled: "We could accidentally start the Fourth Great Shinobi War, for all we know".
That was something to avoid. Definitely.
And Younger Kakashi couldn't tell anything without the other two knowing. Most probably they would stop him the moment he thought about it. He felt unnerved that his older self completely shut down his idea.
Chibi Kakashi wasn't exactly eager to involve more people, but he felt the need to tell someone else (something he didn't feel once in his short life).
He sighed in annoyance.
All the things that happened that month were unbelievable bullshit (and yet there was no way a demon would tell him all of that if it was a lie) and he could feel the nerve-wrecking stress of knowing what was to come (and everything pointed to the end of the world, just great!).
Kurama confirmed his nightmares were visions of the future, thus every single death (Obito, Rin, Minato-sensei, Kushina-san and so on) will happen if no one changes history's path.
Why should he work alone if he had the world's destiny in his hands?
The Sandaime Raikage was not pleased.
No one of the shinobi he sent behind Konoha's lines returned! How was that possible?!
"DAMN IT!" He shouted, shattering his desk with a punch (again). His expression was settled in a scowl and he seemed ready to just destroy everything (he would have if Kumo wasn't under his command and responsibility).
Mabui winced slightly but continued reading the report from the Communication Center: "Raikage-sama, the Fifth and the Sixth Divisions can't afford to send other shinobi toward the border. The Third, Fourth and Seventh are still fighting the Konoha-nins and can't move from their positions without reinforcements…"
The Raikage was even more angry and annoyed. Those damn Konoha shinobi kept causing trouble to EVERYONE! How were they still alive after all these years?!
He suddenly stopped himself from hitting the nearest wall. That could work!
He gleefully started writing a very important message, all the while laughing evilly.
Danzo wanted to shove the little Jinchuuriki in his ROOT program and use the demon's strength to become Hokage and lead Konoha to dominate the world. Absolutely possible and understandable.
After hearing the mission's report (because of his ROOT shinobi), the bijuu's 'chakra claw' and the Kumo jonin's death by the chuunin's hand (so young, yet so cold-blooded! Perfect!), Danzo's interest in the last Hatake increased exponentially.
If this was what he could do after only two weeks… the Elder smirked at the thought of a fully-trained Jinchuuriki ready to obey his orders.
The demon's collaboration was unexpected, and Danzo was eager to use it to his own advantage.
He continued thinking about the mysterious shinobi's face when he discovered his plan to destroy Konoha failed miserably, giving them a weapon with the strength of a bijuu (one similar to the Kyuubi, no less!) on a silver plate. If Danzo wasn't a master with controlling his body language, he would have laughed so hard…
The Elder could wait until he saw his moment to step in, then… he would become Hokage!
Kakashi opened his eyes. He could feel four ninjas outside his apartment.
"They're probably ANBUs" The Future him said "These four feel like Black Ops Shinobi".
The younger tilted his head and, sensing their chakra, he agreed with his new… guest.
Kakashi looked out of the window and noted that his trip in his own mind took more time than he thought. It was a quarter past five in the afternoon.
What was he going to do until evening?
"Practise your ability to suppress chakra. With larger reserves it's harder, but totally worth it" Older Kakashi suggested.
The main problem he had during his shinobi career were his chakra reserves, but the Kyuubi had enough energy for every situation (except for a freaking godness with three eyes, but Kaguya wasn't going to be resurrected this time), thus it was pointless suggesting it.
The ability to suppress all that chakra, however, was going to require some hard work. Sometime in the future, Kakashi could sense his blonde knuckleheaded student from entire miles away without even searching him. He heard that Jiraya gave up on teaching Naruto how to suppress chakra and the latter's method to hide was to completely coat his surroundings with chakra.
Only using other senses it was possible to pinpoint him, but this was definitely counter-productive in stealth missions, when sneakiness was required. It was like putting hundreds of 'I'm here!' signs pointing everywhere: no one knows where you are exactly, but they know you're there all the same.
Younger Kakashi, however, could learn how to suppress the chakra gradually with the Kyuubi's cooperation: plus, he could rely on both Kurama and older him to do it, decreasing the amount of leaking chakra to almost none.
It wasn't like he would survive if someone managed to extract them.
The little chuunin was going to exit when he sensed Gai approaching. He face-palmed and sighed when Older Kakashi chuckled.
"He may seem annoying…" he ignored completely the muttered "Seem? Are you kidding me?" "…but Gai is a good rival and friend. He's stubborn enough to never leave your side, strong enough to be a good sparring partner and blunt enough to tell you everything".
Kakashi didn't say anything after that, leaving his apartment (he didn't want him to destroy his stuff with his 'youthful enthusiasm') and waiting for his 'rival' to arrive and challenge him. He didn't need his thirty-years-old self to know that Gai was stubborn. Kakashi almost face-palmed again when he remembered all the times the green genin tried to propose challenges, finding him everywhere. Literally everywhere.
The fact that Gai managed to barge inside his apartment all those times confirmed that the boy was skilled enough to avoid the traps on the door and the windows. Maybe Kakashi had to give him some credit.
"YOUTHFUL ETERNAL RIVAL!"
Kakashi quickly avoided Gai's bone-crushing hug and looked blankly at him when the genin loudly showed his worry for the chuunin with long speeches about youth, winter, rivals and challenges.
'…You were right about bluntness' he thought awkwardly. Kakashi usually escaped (or kicked Gai out of his apartment) before the boy could start with his speeches.
"That human will go really far with his Taijutsu" Kurama spoke up "he could even harm that should-be-dead man with cursed eyes, mokuton and the Tree's power…" the demon growled the last part, clearly expressing his hate for the enemy man. Kakashi's curiosity skyrocketed and he was going to ask more about that, when his future self interrupted.
"He was right on Death's doorstep after his attack" the older Hatake deadpanned "If it wasn't for the Rokudaime Hokage, he would have died right there". It was clear he didn't want to talk about him. Kurama couldn't blame him, after seeing the corpse when it was crushed under one of Kaguya's attacks. It wasn't like he understood everything about humans' emotions, but he could guess the time-traveler didn't want to talk about Gai or Naruto.
Younger Kakashi didn't know why his future self was reluctant to name the Rokudaime (being inside his head, he could feel it but not know about the reason), but the chuunin wisely decided to not ask. He knew that he couldn't obtain anything if he pushed for information.
Realizing that Gai was still speaking (more like shouting), he quickly proposed his challenge: "Gai, if you manage to find and hit me before eight o'clock, you win. If you don't, I win. Do you accept the challenge?"
Kakashi really wanted to stop his self-proclaimed rival's speech and to train his ability to suppress his chakra: what better way to do both than challenging him?
Gai's eyes widened (was that the real Kakashi? Was he really proposing a challenge?!) and his teeth sparkled when he shouted "I ACCEPT, MY ETERNAL RIVAL! LET'S START IMMEDIATELY! IF I DON'T WIN, I'LL RUN TWO HUNDRED LAPS OF THE TRAINING GROUND 32 ON MY HANDS! YOSH!" Behind him, a sunset appeared dramatically.
"I'm still asking myself how he does that" Kurama deadpanned.
'You didn't discover it yet?' Younger Kakashi thought, surprised.
The older one sighed "Nope. He just does. No one ever understood how".
Kakashi quickly went to hide himself somewhere in the Training Grounds, sensing the four ANBUs following him.
Hound and his squad collectively raised an eyebrow at the challenge.
It was good that the kids found a way to train together, but the little Jinchuuriki would be harder to follow inside Konoha if he hid somewhere. Plus, the Hokage made clear that he wouldn't accept failure (their objective was endangered and/or the other people discovered the bijuu).
If they lose the Hatake in the crowd, he could be attacked or something (who didn't know about the security breach and the unknown shinobi's disappearance?): the Sandaime ordered to be alert all the time and stop every suspected enemy without being seen by anyone.
Hound felt the Jinchuuriki's chakra lowering and he found it harder to focus on his position, not seeing him from his position behind a building.
Cat seemed to be in a similar situation and decided to Henge in a random shinobi in order to follow their objective. Boar and Owl sneaked behind him from the rooftops while Hound took position in front of Cat, staying over the streets.
Telling apart the real enemies and the people who simply hated the Hatake was harder than Boar thought.
A lot of civilians and shinobi glared at the boy, who was doing an award-winning effort to ignore the stares and the whispers behind his back.
Were people really that stupid? This way, they were antagonizing the chuunin: he was a ten-years-old brat, but he was a shinobi (a genius, the prodigy of his generation) as well. If it was useless, upsetting ninjas for something they didn't do wasn't worth the effort.
The people didn't even think about the possibility of the little boy to snap and throw ninja tools. The experienced ninjas, at least, should be able to see the tight control he had over his emotions: that reason was enough to know no one should upset him too much.
It would be a pity if a promising shinobi becomes insane and goes on a killing spree inside the village.
Rin was training with Sarune Fuuma, medic jonin who agreed to help the little genin to learn medic ninjutsus. After seeing her amazing chakra control, she proposed almost two weeks ago to Minato to let her teach when he was busy and Sarune was free.
Minato accepted with a pround smile and the girl showed to be talented for iryo-ninjutsus.
The brown-haired kunoichi eagerly studied everything about that and focused more than normal genins could on her task.
Currently, however, Rin seemed to lose her concentration repeatedly.
"Stop" Sarune ordered when the girl unfocused again. The genin let her healing chakra fade immediately and looked at the jonin.
"What's the matter? You don't seem focused on healing this fish" the medic asked concerned.
Rin tensed a little, then sighed and mumbled an answer: "It's just that… I'm worried about Kakashi-kun, Sarune-shishou…"
The jonin blinked. She heard (like all the shinobi inside Konoha) that the little Hatake was apparently attacked by an enemy who managed to sneak inside the village. Sarune received the warning to look out for unknown ninjas 'that could target the children'; fortunately, she didn't see any threats and no kids got hurt under her watch.
"I'm sure Kakashi is OK" Sarune stated with all the confidence she could pull off "If he wasn't, the Hokage would have sent him to the Hospital, ne?" she smiled at Rin.
The girl's worry visibly eased and she nodded, resuming her training after Sarune confirmed that the kunoichi would focus.
A/N: Hey, this Chapter is longer! :D
Sarune is an OC. I don't know when or how Rin started her medical training, so I decided to let her begin before becoming chuunin. If I'm wrong… we can blame her early start to Kakashi's condition ;)
If there are other strange facts inside the Chapter… well, ask me! I'll answer in the next or through Private Message!
Beware of the Kitsune's rage!
-Shiiroi Kitsune21