After delivering his charges back to their respective villages (and taking some special packages along the way) with a stern reminder of their training and keeping it secret, he is delegated to zip through the nations like a particularly big, non-volant messenger hawk.

Cutting through forests, fields and mountains, he still stops sometimes to record a sunrise here, a beautiful flower there, with his Sharingan.

Sometimes Sakumo is able to accompany him between one place or another. Kakashi likes riding the wolves, especially a speed-specialised one with a russet coat that moves so fast the world blurs away behind them.

It's especially handy to have Sakumo with him sometimes as an adult, as the recent reveal that Hatake Kakashi is 'one of' the Copy Kitten kids and affiliated with the travellers means people are even more alert to a potential child soldier in their midst and unaccompanied children are watched more closely.

Kakashi has been more careful using his orphan disguise for a while now, teaming up with other adults when possible - the papers are getting stricter for merchant families, even the homeless kids are being meticulously documented and ushered into safe houses at night.

It's amusing that Copy Kitten is such a threat that the mere name enforced stricter care for any children usually dropped by the system, even if only to maintain village security.

Still, villages have yet to fix a glaring weakness. Children can be easily bribed, especially the homeless ones, to switch places or spy for Kakashi. After interacting with so many he has become somewhat of an expert in charming children onto his side. (Should Kakashi be considering that a good thing?)

And when he is in the settlements, he even records the children playing around without a worry in the world.

He records them while they still exist.

Kakashi knows that Kaguya used divide and conquer as soon as she got to earth. Kakashi heard, long after the fact, that some of the strongest ninja they had as a defence kept getting side-tracked with protecting friends and family and inevitably didn't make it to the battle or were worn down by other fights before they arrived at ground zero.

And Kakashi tried not to show it but he was disappointed in his students for not understanding that protecting one comrade wasn't worth letting a hundred other comrades die - but he was even more disappointed in himself for teaching them that stupid, righteous bullshit about being worse than trash and pretending he even believed that sentiment for a second.

Because honestly, 'never leave a man behind' only goes so far when you're fighting against logic and pragmatism and Kakashi has seen too many people die, too many villages lost to still have the moral high ground in that kind of argument anymore.

Of course, Kakashi would always do his best to protect his friends, but sometimes protection just isn't a priority. Sometimes you need to take care of the threat first, you need to act instead of react, to destroy a danger before it can hurt even more people.

The travellers are all in firm agreement that it doesn't matter how many of them it takes as long as the mission is complete. If it's not feasible to block someone from a hit, they leave that person to die. If they can't find a medic, then they just get back into the fight, leave that person to die.

They are all very aware of what this is going to cost them - and what it's going to cost if they don't succeed.

"Um," the Kumo kunoichi tactician begins, tapping on the large Uzu meeting table. "Okay, and how long would that take?"

Tobirama pauses.

In theory, it would be both amusing and very final if they waited for an asteroid to swing by, and then used the immense power of the bijuu to pull it closer and add an extra push. It would (theoretically) smash into the moon and fling it, with help from gravitational pull, into the sun.

The extra debris thrown off from the collision could be sculpted together to create a new (if a bit smaller) moon. However, they would also cause horrific tsunamis and burning debris falling to earth and earthquakes, and such.

But Kaguya would really be very dead.

And the world wouldn't be totally annihilated, which is definitely a step up from last time.

The Ishi merchant, as the only one with a mind for ridiculously fast mathematics, pours over Tobirama's notes for a long moment before just sitting back. "Look, I don't know anything for sure, but going by the data this Hokage has, I'm coming up with easily more than sixty more years to wait for an asteroid that big."

Everyone looks at Kakashi.

"Oh, I'm fully planning on being dead by then," Kakashi admits. "I'm flattered but seventy is a bit much."

"I managed to hit seventy," the Suna tactician says, unimpressed.

"You weren't being hunted by the entire Elemental Nations because your missing-nin teammates ran around killing everything," Kakashi points out. "I don't think they'll forget that anytime soon."

Everyone takes a minute to contemplate this.

After yet another meeting breaks at around noon, two hours after it should have ended, Kakashi vaults out of a window to stretch his body. The Kiri tactician follows him out.

Kakashi drops into the splits and eye-smiles up at the man. "Come to argue with me some more?"

"We're not involving children in the final mission," the rarely seen Kiri tactician says, a frown on his face. "We don't have time to babysit and they're going to die and you're going to get upset."

"I can watch them," Kakashi points out, standing up with a frown.

"You need to be in the fight, not watching. Your report after the Zetsu matter was so edited I had to ask the Ame kids - and it was a shit show. You are not being wasted on fucking training children." The Kiri leans down. "I don't know how Konoha ruined you but it's a damn pity that you let them. You're a weapon, not a nanny. Refocus."

Kakashi stands there as the Kiri walks past, off to be an asshole to the other travellers he's been assigned to as project manager.

Kakashi should not stab the Kiri in the face six times - that would be a waste of his own time and the travellers would lose a valuable resource. As much as it pains him to admit it.

Kakashi stands there for a long moment before he takes a deep breath and shakes it off. He needs to help the sealing squad and then check in with the Suna tactician to help organize the tailed beasts. He might not be a specialised tactician himself but he knows how to lead a team, and among the travellers, Shukaku likes him best.