Kakashi stood in the changing room of the bathhouse, steam filling even this room... but somehow not fogging up the mirror.
He was currently tying a large towel, around his waist, as he looked at himself, in the mirror.
His neck, up to his nose, was covered by a hand towel, instead of the mask he usually had, to cover those things... it was an old, clan, tradition, to keep your face covered. His clan might be too small, to have a seat on the council, or even a proper estate... but it was still a respected Clan, with a long legacy of Shinobi. As such, they had their own unique traditions and secret family Jutsus...
Most of which, Kakashi only knew, because his father taught him... but after the man had failed a crucial mission, in order to save his comrades... disobeying a direct order and effectively prolonging the war, through the missed opportunity... The man had been disgraced...
The only way for the man to maintain any honor, as far as the clan was concerned... was to perform a ritualistic ceremony... where he took his own life... It was meant to restore his honor, in death... and while the clan acknowledged that, in public, they condemned him in private.
Though the clan did continue to give Kakashi his stipend, but that was the end of their support... after all, Kakashi was the son of a "traitor"...
That had shaped a lot of the boy's own Shinobi career... his drive, to prove he was better then his father... then... the boy's determination to redeem his father's true legacy.
"Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." That had been Obito's words to him, just after the Uchiha declared Kakashi a disgrace to his father's memory... just before they went to save Rin... and Obito died saving them.
Even if Obito had later been saved, the impact of those words never lessened. It was a defining moment of Kakashi's life.
Looking deeply into the mirror, Kakashi looked at the scar down his left eye... it wasn't nearly as impressive a scar, as the disfigured flesh of Obito's entire right side of his body... but it was a reminder, all the same.
Looking into his eyes, Now that was an impressive sight... in addition to the Uzumaki traits, Lord Uzumaki had altered his genes to be more compatible with Obito's foreign eye, long ago implanted in his skull.
The Sharingan was no longer constantly draining the teen's Chakra... although it was still, always, activated... it was more like it was feeding off a small portion of excess Chakra, that was looping around in an endless cycle, around the eye. Kakashi couldn't use the Chakra, for anything else, but that was better then constantly draining him, whenever he opened his left eye.
The day Obito died... was the same day Kakashi lost his eye. Obito had given the boy his own, as "a gift for making Jonin" since the Uchiha neglected to get him anything earlier... his dying wish was for Kakashi to have this eye, and use it to get to safety... then... Obito came back.
The entire right side, of Obito's body, was badly scarred... and some mad god Shinobi implanted an Uzumaki eye into his head... but Obito was alive... it didn't feel real, sometimes... they had been through such hell, that day... their scars went deeper then flesh.
Kakashi sighed, looking at his mismatched eyes... they were exactly like Obito's, but reversed.
One Sharingan, granting the power to copy nearly any Jutsus seen... as well as manipulate the mind of those that look into it. It was quite the enhancement to Genjutsu, mind related techniques...
Then... the famous Rinnegan of the Uzumaki Clan. In all honesty, Kakashi had no idea how that eye worked. Oh he understood the Science, he couldn't not after Lord Uzumaki's lesson... but the sheer scope of it still baffled him. It was impossible to truly comprehend.
The Rinnegan could manipulate space/time... in order to... alter reality. It could do... anything. Anything at all. If you could think it... you could do it. The only limit lay in how much Chakra you needed to use.
Before the eyes had been awoken, in every Uzumaki, they had used somekind of mechanical... wand? It acted as a focus for their chakra, to manipulate it in ways that could only be called "Magic"... though the eyes could do it to a greater degree, but at a much greater cost. The thing really ate up Chakra, where as the wand used barely any... so most Uzumaki had continued to use their wands, for most of their Jutsus, and the eyes as a last resort.
Kakashi had been downloaded with all the "Spells", in addition to the Uzumaki Jutsus... as well as the Uzumaki history, TARDIS maintenance and operation, and the entirety of "Magical Theory"... which he had been using to think up new Jutsus and "Spells" with his mechanical "Wand"...
The wands were sacred to the Uzumaki... losing one was actually impossible. As Wand crafters would brand all Uzumaki children, with a Summoning-Storage seal, on the palm of their main hand. It was part of a 'rite of passage' ceremony, the kids underwent when they became old enough for schooling.
When an Uzumaki died, their wand immediately returned to the seal... where it remained for the rest of eternity...
Looking at his right hand, their was the tattoo/seal... burned into his very soul... Other clans do something similar, with their own sacred weapons... but the wand was more useful as a tool, then a weapon... it was considered a cultural taboo, to use the wand to kill... which is why the Uzumaki Admirals had stormed in, during the ritual to seal it into Kakashi... claiming the outsiders were unworthy of the responsibility.
Lord Uzumaki had simply looked at them, not even unleashing any killing intent... yet the men coward in fear. The old god had calmly informed, "I decide who is worthy of my mother's legacy." To which the men quickly apologized and ran out... Kakashi couldn't blame them... the cold stare wasn't even aimed at the boy, and HE wanted to flee.
Lord Uzumaki then did a complete 180, the moment the doors closed, and smiled at Kakashi. With a truly disarming grin, and a wink, as if he had just played a harmless trick on the Clan Elders. He simply apologized for "such an important moment, in an Uzumaki's life, being so rudely interrupted," before continuing with the ceremony... as if nothing had happened.
"Kakashi!" There was a banging on the door. Obito's voice bellowed, "Don't tell me you got 'lost on the road of life,' between the changing room and the bath!"
Kakashi couldn't help but smile. Lazily sliding the door open, he stepped out of the changing room.
Obito was glaring at him... and Kakashi got a good look at his scarred body. Half of it was made of somekind of flesh like clay. Obito could do some pretty amazing things with that, through minor shapeshifting into weapons and spikes, but it was still a disturbing sight to see.
Obito crossed his mismatched arms, and began tapping his foot... looking much like an ape's, if they had claws. Rin might like to ship Obito with Kakashi... but truthfully... and Kakashi hated to admit he was this shallow... but Obito was far too disfigured to be attractive.
Kakashi gave his friend a winning smile, from his eyes, as his mouth was covered. "There was a cat stuck in a tree." he joked.
Obito rolled his own mismatched eyes. "Come on, we need to hurry. We're supposed to give the Genin their final tests today. I'm not going to let you be late to that."
For the past month and a half, they had just been downloading all their knowledge, into their apprentices... That had actually taken longer then it should have, as the Jonin weren't yet used to their touch based telepathy.
The Chunin had enough mental discipline, to get the hang of the mental transfers... but the Genin's minds were so unfocused, it was hard to teach them, by way of Genjutsu. It would be easy to tear their minds apart... but harder to give them information, and have them retain it.
Still faster then trying to teach them everything, manually. Even if they were avoiding teaching them Clan Jutsus. The Admirals gave the okay for learning TARDIS maintenance, and piloting, but not other clan secrets. Which was only to be expected.
At one point, Lord Uzumaki had come by, and taught the Uzumaki Genin, everything he had the Jonin... and Kakashi couldn't help feeling incompetent, at the ease of which the old god did the mental transfers. It only took him an hour, and that included giving the kids a break in between each "lesson".
Strangely though... Mito had been summoned to teach Jiraiya, what the clan approved of. Lord Uzumaki suggested the man might be more comfortable "Getting someone you know to poke around your head." Both because the old god wasn't willing to let the sage get in his own, no more then Jiraiya wanted to be in his... but why the Captain hadn't done it... maybe politics were involved. Jiraiya was a very important man, after all, and Mito was an Admiral. That specialized in diplomatic affairs.
Though, Lord Uzumaki had said, it was Kakashi's and the other Jonins responsiblity to teach their own apprentices. That he had only been willing to make the attempt with Jiraiya's Genin, because the sage wasn't a part of their clan, and thereby couldn't teach the kids the Uzumaki Jutsus. Of course, he went on to say, that he had every confidence in Jiraiya teaching his Genin what the clan couldn't.
During Kakashi's own lessons, with his Genin, the Captain was beside them the whole time. Both to give the Jonin pointers, and to make sure they didn't accidentally hurt their apprentices... but it was still going slower then a fully trained Uzumaki would have done...
It took Kakashi days to get each individual lesson to "Stick"... and he couldn't help but feel like he was back under his Sensei, himself. Learning his limits, and the very basics of his abilities. The Jonin being the ones to perform the mental transfers... was obviously the Captain giving the Jonin their own lesson, on how to use their new Bloodline trait... and they were progressing as quickly as he had expected.
The Crew of "House" was really behind schedule. They should have left, for their mission, 2 and a half weeks ago... people were dying, because the Jonin weren't skilled enough in their new bloodline trait. They really weren't getting a good reputation, with the rest of their new clan.
If the apprentices passed today, the crew could leave tomorrow... so there was a lot of pressure on them all.
Kakashi sighed, heading over to the bath.
###
The bath was huge, at least the size of a small pool. The wooden floors offered a lot of traction, to prevent slipping. While the walls were covered in large boulders. Which were nice and smooth, though a bit cold. The water was the perfect temperature, yet there was enough steam in here to be a proper steam room. There were even a few small waterfalls... it was more like a luxurious hot spring, then a bathhouse.
The great sage, Jiraiya, was currently relaxing in the bath, watching his young apprentices joyously splash each other... though he was a little put out that the Bathhouse was in a concrete room, as opposed to an outdoor one... without peepholes into the ladies. Then again, the only girls on the crew were actual girls, and Kakashi liked ripened women. So he wasn't missing anything there... but he could be, in a few years.
His two male Genin continue to splash each other. Still not over the novelty of such a large bath... or any kind of bath, really. It had been far too long since they had just had childish fun.
"Can't you two find something more productive to do with your time." spoke the young, Uchiha, Chunin. Itachi, Jiraiya believed the boy's name was. Not even old enough to graduate the academy, and already a Chunin... that was one boy who seriously needed to learn how to unwind.
Thankfully, Jiraiya's boys responded to this, by turning their Splash War against the 7 year old, joining forces against him.
The little boy scowled and, remarkably, retaliated, with splashes of his own... of course, he was using water based Jutsus, he no doubt stole from Kiri ninja, through those eyes of his.
Jiraiya was about to step in, when the boy's own Sensei appeared beside the boy. Itachi immediately stopped, and couldn't stop himself from blushing.
Obito just smiled, "Good to see you coming out of your shell. But try not to take your splash wars so seriously. Stick to C rank Jutsus, when dealing with Genin."
Itachi was blushing even redder, "Hai, Sensei."