A/N: I have been reading books that contain archaic English words and short explanations of how they developed into today's words lately. That's my research so far on how to write characters from centuries ago. Yay!

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The boy smiled.

Orochimaru remained where he was, crouching over the younger snake, looking into his face, his eyes. The younger snake's smile faded into a contented expression, and he looked back. What are they thinking? Is it some kind of serpent to serpent communication?

Eventually, Orochimaru shook himself and stepped back. "Interesting," he mumbled, sounding dazed.

Kakashi would have asked if he was all right, but it was plainly obvious that the boy needed more attention right now. Kakashi gestured for Purple to help him lift the young snake to a sitting position. Purple lifted from behind, and Kakashi pulled the boy forward. He was also the boy's family; everyone understood that to mean he had first rights of introduction. He was the second person that the young snake saw.

The boy looked puzzled at the sight of him. Still contented, but puzzled. Kakashi grinned at this combination. For most shinobi, being confused was always coupled with being wary, or fearful, because confusion meant danger. The fact that the boy combined it with happiness indicated either that he was very sheltered, or that he had a native optimistic nature on par with that of the angels.

Kakashi raised a hand in greeting. "Hello." He's healed enough to open his eyes, but is he healed enough to understand speech? Kakashi hoped he was.

The boy's mouth moved. "Ay," he said, so softly that it might have been on accident. He still looked puzzled. Kakashi took a quick peek at his soul. Naturally, there was some organizing left to do. That was no fault of the angels; minds were organized too finely to simply be put back into proper order. Kakashi guessed that the boy was confused because something in his mind, some memory or feeling, was out of place. Well, it'll have to work its way back into place. I have no doubt he'll remember what it is in time. Kakashi patted the young snake on the shoulder.

The boy's brow wrinkled. He was now staring fixedly at Kakashi's vest. The blank contented expression left his face, to be replaced by a much more familiar expression. Familiar, but less preferred. Kakashi looked down. "Uh oh."

In a flash, Orochimaru was at his side. "Is something wrong with him?"

"No." Kakashi looked up. The boy still sat unmoving, but he blinked more quickly. Now he truly looked like a small child, a child young enough to be bathed in a mixture of confusion and fear and more confusion and upset and sadness whenever they were so much as lost. A lost toddler, stumbling around, turning in all kinds of directions, looking for Mom. That was what he looked like now.

"He's seen demons before," Kakashi muttered. "Oh gods, how did he survive?" He was speaking to himself, not to anyone else. The horror of this innocent little soul having seen demons before was too great not to be expressed, even unintentionally. How did he survive? How does he still look so optimistic at everything? Perhaps it was just a faraway glimpse. I can't imagine…

Kakashi reached out to put a reassuring hand on his little brother's shoulder. The boy's unsteady gaze happened to catch Kakashi's sleeve. Without any change to his facial expressions, he whimpered. Kakashi took his hand back, his hand that was clothed in darkness which did not bother to disguise itself as fabric. Should I leave, or should I stay? Any second now, the young snake was going to figure out why Kakashi's dark vest seemed important and why he was acting afraid. If Kakashi's impression of what other demons were like was accurate, the boy would have good reason to completely panic. Should he stay so the boy could see that he was harmless, or leave to give him time to get over his panic?

"'U be ye?" the boy whispered. He didn't seem to be aware that he was speaking, or of the meaning of what he said. Nonetheless, he was asking situationally appropriate questions. Kakashi decided that was good, and his self awareness would return in time.

"Kakashi," the demon answered.

The boy's gaze wandered back up to his face, and confusion returned as the dominant expression. Perhaps he wasn't as close to remembering why he was afraid as Kakashi had thought. Kakashi waved to Orange, who came over and crouched by his side. Directly to Orange's ear, with his hands cupped over his mask to further decrease the chances of the young snake hearing him, Kakashi asked, "What do I do when he remembers why my vest scares him?"

"Look nice," Orange advised.

"Thank you."

The young snake made his first movement, shuffling his left hand along the floor toward Orange. He looked at the angel with just as much confusion as he had looked at a demon. Orange smiled and lifted a hand in greeting. The boy's face didn't change, but he shuffled both hands forward. Purple was still supporting his back.

Orochimaru clapped a hand firmly onto Kakashi's left shoulder. "If he is scared of you, I'll convince him otherwise."

The boy made a small squeaking sound. He swung his head dizzily, swaying. He saw Orochimaru again. "Katta?"

Orochimaru placed a reassuring hand on the boy's right shoulder. The boy smiled again. "Interesting," Orochimaru noted. "Does not smile at the sight of an angel, but does smile at me. He possessed enough awareness of what we are to seek me out as a disembodied spirit. How can you sense that, and not sense an angel?" The boy continued to smile. He murmured that word again.

"That word might be an old way of saying brother," Kakashi guessed.

"Some inner lands call men of long age canters," Purple mused. "Older. Male. Closely known, like looking after youngers. Is it the same?"

"Or that." The captain has similar designs on his coat as the people in the storage space do. They must be more closely related to the people of long ago than we shinobi are. "Older male relative that's supposed to look after him. That's exactly what we are. Language itself must have changed since he's been alive, and your northern people speak in a way more similar to what it used to be than we do."

Now the boy was back to staring at Kakashi. His eyes were starting to become glazed. "Ah...I think we're overwhelming him." Purple lay the boy back down on the floor, and without any prompting, the boy looked around once at the ceiling and closed his eyes. Purple got up and fetched a short length of black cloth, which he put over the boy's eyes. Kakashi lifted the boy, cloth and all, and took him to his quarters. He tucked the sheets over the younger snake neatly and gently. He whispered, "Dream well, little brother," before closing the door and departing.

Orochimaru was in deep discussion with the angels when he returned. "There is no knowing," Orange said with a shrug. "No scholars are aboard. Serpents are long gone, longer than we are."

"So you have no idea how serpents like me relate to each other," Orochimaru hissed. "Wonderful. Just wonderful. I'll have to find out about my own kind myself."

"That is wonderful," Kakashi said with a smile. "You get to find out about your own kind yourself!"

Orochimaru paused in his pacing. "That is true."

Kakashi walked up to Purple and Orange. He nodded at each of them in turn, then bowed. "Thank you very much. My initial prognosis for him was that he would take weeks to awaken and months to be fully functional. With your help, he has already awakened and his recovery will not take very long. I am grateful."

Purple and Orange smiled back and, after a pause, decided to copy him and bow back. Kakashi stifled a laugh. "We are grateful for a kind dark one and two serpents," Purple exclaimed. "Amazing!"

"Very well." Orochimaru, having composed himself, returned to the two angels. "What do you know of serpents, in total?"

"There are shrines," Purple said, "and many heartbringers. Serpent shrines are for crops, death, birth, and healing in towns, and for the wilds in the trees. Serpent goddess is called Amita, and is kind. She does not move; her serpents move for her. They take healing, crops, death, all like that, and throw it out over the world." He made a gesture like a farmer throwing seeds over his field.

Kakashi elbowed his companion in the ribs. "What was that you said about dreaming of having a garden?" Orochimaru would have said something snappy in retort, if he hadn't been too stunned to. A few seconds after making this jibe, Kakashi was also stunned. Could he really have been dreaming of what he was supposed to be this whole time? Does his nature, this legacy he's supposed to carry, run so strongly in him that it can make itself known even when everything else in his life goes against it? That is powerful…

Orange rubbed his chin as he stared at Kakashi. "The little snake is smart," he said. "We had too much to speak of before. Now, what is this design?"

Kakashi explained to them about his clan. After explaining to them what his clan was, he pulled down his mask to reveal his own fang teeth. He did not speak; his fang teeth were visible when his mouth was closed, emerging from the sides of his gums as they did, and if he had spoken the rest of his teeth would have been too distracting. The angels had enough to marvel at already. They traced his strange double-fanged teeth with their eyes. "Are they useful?" Orange wondered.

Kakashi nodded.

"Do they hurt to grow, like back teeth? Do they hurt other teeth?" Purple asked.

Kakashi nodded, then shook his head.

"Is something wrong with speaking?" Orange asked.

Kakashi opened his mouth, revealing miniaturized and warped versions of wolf teeth. His front teeth were strong enough to bite through everything a human's wide rabbitlike front teeth should, but they were not wide. They were somewhat pointed, and unusually big. His canines were sharper than normal, but no larger; they only looked larger because the premolars that were supposed to be right behind them were greatly reduced in size. His molars made adequate chewing surfaces, but they were not flat enough for him to press his teeth fully against each other. Chewing was awkward.

The angels gasped. "How do you speak?!"

"The same way dogs do," Kakashi answered. His tongue didn't move quite right, either.

"Dogs…?" Purple gaped at him.

Kakashi pulled his mask up. "Dogs, birds, other kinds of animals too. Do you not have animals that talk up north?"

"Animals talk," Orange answered. "But what are dogs?"

Now it was Kakashi and Orochimaru's turn to gape. "Do you not have wolves?" Kakashi asked.

"There are wolves." Orange's face cleared. "Dogs is another name for them?"

"No." Orochimaru shook his head. "Dogs are the descendants of tamed wolves, who have become small and of many different shapes and live with people inside of houses. You people never tamed wolves?"

The angels looked confused. "Why?"

"They have sages everywhere," Kakashi remembered. "There might not be any need for domesticated animals up there."

"Not even as companions? Most people keep dogs just for company."

Kakashi shrugged. There might not be any need for that, either. As far as he could remember from his clone's experience living aboard the ship, there seemed to be a rather tight-knit informal culture where this ship came from. Animal companionship was probably appreciated, but not as fulfilling any kind of need.

"Understood," Purple murmured sadly. "Loneliness." What must he think of the sort of society they had described so far?

"Yes," Kakashi agreed. Come to think of it, what they must think is probably a lot like what Obito saw. Nobody caring for each other, war after war, goodness being despised and taken advantage of. I don't think our world is that bad. Is it? There are good people, and goodness can prevail. There can be peace. We're just struggling to get there…

Flashes of memory came to him. Kakashi was startled to realize he hadn't thought about Asuma's funeral in months. He was one of my closest comrades. How could I forget? Guy. Sakumo. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. Tsunade. All of these people came back in a flash, and Kakashi found himself in another world. Duty and obligations, but also pride and fun and silly games. Kurenai's baby, too. He hadn't had time to learn what its name was.

A hard knock on his shoulder brought him back to the present reality. Two angels and a demigod stared at him, a demon. Kakashi looked around. It seemed like they were concerned. He ought to respond.

"No. It is not lonely."

Orochimaru continued to study him. Purple answered, "Not lonely?"

"No." Kakashi closed his eyes. "I think of it like childhood. Fulfilling duties, discovering who I was, learning to navigate the world, and playing silly games in my downtime - yes, that was definitely childhood." He opened his eyes. "That was my experience, anyway. Others had different experiences."

Purple stayed silent. I can't expect him to understand. It was a whole other life. Even I did not remember, until I was entirely submerged in it. A whole other world.

Where does that tangle lead?

Where the hell did that thought come from? But now that he had thought it, it was a good one. Kakashi straightened and fixed the angels with a determined gaze. They sharpened up accordingly. "What properties do your souls have after death?" he asked.

Purple and Orange glanced at each other. Orange shrugged. Purple frowned back. "We do not know."

They were young, only about Kakashi's age or a little younger, and they lived in a peaceful land. "You haven't known any of your kind who have died, have you?"

Orange shook his head. Kakashi glanced at the door. "Would the captain know?"

"Why are you asking?" Orochimaru broke in. He licked his left fang unconsciously. He hadn't done that for a while, not since they had last had a juicy mystery or a literal prey beast to run down and sink his teeth into. Kakashi's tail began to wag. The enthusiasm was infectious.

"Angel souls can be made material and can move independently of the body, like my soul can," he said. "That means they may be able to move around between different parts of reality like I can, once free of their bodies. And if that is possible, then they may have already encountered the tangle."

Orochimaru's eyes lit up. "The mysterious soul-shredding tangle in the middle of reality that catches dead souls and tears off pieces of them."

"What?!" Even Orange looked very alarmed to hear about such a thing.

Orochimaru grinned at them. "Don't worry. It's only a little piece, like fur torn off an animal caught in a thornbush." As expected, he narrowed his eyes after that. There was no way the snake would say something only reassuring with no other purpose. Kakashi guessed from the grin that he was going to toy with these poor sweet innocent angels. "Puppy here has been unable to find out where those pieces of soul go," the snake added. "Who knows what happens to them."

The look in Purple's eyes was tempting. Very tempting. It was always good to join in a hunt. "They disappear into the tangle," Kakashi added. "I don't know what's in there. Does it lead somewhere? Do they simply become trapped inside, possibly to build up until so much is accumulated that they burst free? Does the tangle do something to them?"

Kakashi felt himself slide into a groove, into the part of the hunt where planning ends and one simply acts, moving in time with the prey and the land without thinking. That's why he was surprised to hear himself follow those questions, smoothly and without pause, like he had wondered before, "Does this tangle have anything to do with whatever stole my name?"

Whatever Orochimaru had been about to follow him with didn't happen. The snake visibly twitched all over before turning to look at him strangely. Kakashi flushed. Why did I ask that? He smiled nervously. "Mah, not that there's any need to worry about that. The tangle doesn't change souls, only take pieces off of them." The snake continued to look at him strangely. The angels continued to look bewildered. The attempt to change subjects plainly had not worked.

"The captain," Orange decided. "There is not very much work."

Kakashi sighed. Damn… I really didn't want to burden him with any more of my troubles. It's not as if my missing memories have anything to do with angel business. They don't, right? Uh oh. I hope they don't…

.

The captain was busy delighting children on the beach with tales of exotic animals and fog-drenched shores, people with wonderful facial markings that appeared and disappeared on their own and great stone serpents. It sent shivers up Kakashi's back to think that every one of the captain's words was completely true, and the children did not know. How many truths were disguised as stories?

Kakashi and Orochimaru had, of course, disguised themselves as they had been disguised before. Orochimaru pretended to giggle at the cute children, as a pretense for scanning the beach for foreign shinobi. Even disguised, the fact that they had entered the mystery ship, stayed some time, and left with two of the mysterious crew accompanying them was cause for suspicion. Unless the enemy shinobi were completely incompetent, they were going to have to use unusual methods to escape without being interrogated. It was never wise to bet on your enemies being stupid.

So as not to attract any more suspicion than they already had, they stayed back while Purple approached the captain. Orochimaru took the opportunity to whisper, "Why did you ask that? We were only supposed to be having fun."

"I got too far into the groove and it accidentally slipped out," Kakashi answered. "I haven't even thought of that question before. It must have occurred to me as I was in the process of thinking of terrible things the tangle could be doing."

Orochimaru readjusted her grip on his arm and snorted. "Might as well go with it. You don't think the tangle could have done that to your soul?"

"No." Kakashi shook his head. "Haven't I mentioned this before? I don't remember if I have or not, but I think I have. My name is like a brand on my soul, like salt in sea water. It is the thing that makes demons what we are. I felt even when I was a child that I should be able to answer the question of who am I. I should know that down to the roots of my being. The roots of my being are missing." He shivered. "If there's one good thing about the tangle, it's that it can't do that. It doesn't do anything incredible to the souls it catches. Thank the gods."

"Do you think it has anything to do with the angels?" Orochimaru asked. "Could something with the power to take away a demon's name influence them too?"

"I hope not." Kakashi shivered again. The sun was bright and high in the late afternoon sky. Whatever wind had dispersed the clouds was long gone, but even so, he felt cold. It was good to sit on one of the dock's poles and soak in the sun's rays. The sun wasn't quite as good a source of heat as a warm den filled with warm furry bodies curled around him would have been, but it was better than nothing.

The captain approached. He nodded to Purple and Orange as he did so. The two of them in turn nodded at others, and every member of crew on the dock knew somehow that the nodding meant they should form a border around the captain and his guests to give them privacy. People of the bay were gently forced away and out of hearing distance, allowing them to speak freely. "There is news?"

"I'm amnesiac," Kakashi began. "That's why I act so much like a normal, confused person. It's because I am. This is only the first lifetime that I can remember."

The captain looked him up and down. "You have no memories?"

"No."

The captain squinted off into the sky. Seabirds filled the air, crying out for festival food. More than a few settled directly next to the captain and other angels on deck, even on their shoulders. The angels did not feed them any more than regular people did, but that didn't matter. The birds must feel their angelic nature too, and that was enough.

Finally, the captain asked, "Names?"

"Demons are supposed to have names. My whole life, I have known something was missing. I should know who I am down to my very core. I should be certain of it." Kakashi repeated his previous analogies, attempting to explain just how fundamental a name was to a demon's soul. "Whatever removed my name obviously had a very, very strong effect on my soul, strong enough to shake it free of memories and established personality. I think losing my memories and losing my name was one and the same event."

"How long ago?"

"I don't know how long it takes to remove a demon's name, but I know how long ago it ended. My first memories are of being set loose in this world at almost the exact time that the body I have was born into it. 33 years ago."

The captain paused to listen to the sound of the waves again. Kakashi appreciated the breaks. Who knows what I've done? I might have destroyed parts of your society and changed your entire history in the past. If so, I'm sorry.

"There is also a tangle taking parts of souls."

"Yes. I personally saw it catch a soul and tear a piece off. The soul was heading toward a distant part of reality where many others awaited, a whole sea of soul lights. It felt familiar to try to approach, just like when I nearly entered the afterlife one time. The tangle was blocking the entire route to the afterlife; it was impossible to pass without having a piece of soul torn off."

The captain stood straight with his hands folded behind his back. "You think this tangle has to do with your lost memories."

"No," Kakashi rushed to say. "No, I do not believe that. The tangle cannot do what I have described to any soul. But I must admit that its formation and my memory loss are both strange and inexplicable, even to me who can see the substance of reality. They might be connected by some strange universe-bending force, or something."

The captain paused again. Kakashi wrapped his arm around Orochimaru's waist. They leaned on each other, offering and taking support from each other, and Kakashi felt himself relax. This was not a warm den, but there was a warm body next to his, and that was close enough.

The captain unclasped his hands and let his arms fall to his sides as he turned away from the waves. "It is true that our kind last after death." He glanced upward. "Just as we cannot see souls, we cannot see this substance of reality you talk about. But we can change it, use it. Lightbringers past look after others like them who are bodiless. They set aside places for them, wherever places don't already exist. Some souls go, become something greater than can be described as a mere 'soul.' Some belong to the gods and goddesses." He nodded at Orochimaru. "All others are looked after, given a home."

Kakashi's jaw dropped. "Angels built Heaven?"

The captain scrunched up his face. "I think so. 'Heaven' is a name for a good place where the bodiless go, yes?" Kakashi nodded. "Then it is so."

"Amazing!" Kakashi's heart swelled with gratitude. Obito! Mother, and Father, Asuma, sister, brother… They are all looked after by angels. His eyes swam with tears. "I...I have many people who are looked after by your kind, then. I can't express my gratitude enough. That is… Thank you so much."

The captain nodded. "The bodiless can come back. There are records. Some have come to give greetings or help the newly dead before. That's how I know. If this tangle is taking pieces off souls that should be whole and healthy, then there will be news soon enough."

Kakashi swallowed. "Have any bodiless angels come back in the past 30 years?"

"No."

"Do you think they would, if something was damaging souls or threatening to?"

The captain hesitated. "If there was something we here could do, I believe they would. We might hear news about souls that are missing pieces, because there might be something we could do here to make souls stronger, prevent them from losing pieces of themselves. But as for forces great enough to create such an obstacle… We might not receive news of that."

"Because there is nothing you could do," Orochimaru finished. Her fingers tightened on Kakashi's arm. That was the very same rule they had tried to live by, and look how miserably it had failed.

"Is there any way to contact them, to tell them about what a demon has to say?" Kakashi asked.

"Not directly. We can try to send a message through the gods carried in our shipboard shrines. It would be more likely to work at a real shrine, but we could try."

Kakashi turned to Orochimaru. "Your mother. You can talk to her. She knows me; she'll listen."

"She's stone almost all the time," Orochimaru answered lowly. "Not much of a goddess anymore."

"I thought Purple and Orange said she could be prayed to for birth and death and healing?" Kakashi looked to the captain for answers.

"There seems to be less need for shrines than there used to be," the captain said. "Seems to. The heartbringers do not bring as much of their hearts as they used to. Birth and death seem to be handled well enough without any gods."

"Because you haven't seen any demons in a long time?" Orochimaru guessed.

"That's part of it." The captain said nothing more.

"She might be weak, then," Kakashi muttered. "But surely she still has some ability to communicate, even if she can't be active?"

"I will talk to her," Orochimaru promised.

"So will we," the captain promised. "This is a very important problem, dark one. Thank you for speaking of it. We will help you."