Kakashi could give himself and his teammates some credit. They had come pretty close to taking out the main Pain body before failing entirely. If nothing else, Choji escaped with the essential intel of the enemy. A job well done, really.
Still, when he had closed his Sharingan eye, he had expected to either meet his loved ones or be sent straight to the depths of hell. Frankly, he felt like he deserved nothing but the worst. He wasn't exactly a good person, comes with the job unfortunately. Unless you're Naruto, who can convince his enemies to stop fighting rather than having to kill them himself. Most of the time anyway.
Instead, he opens his eyes to find himself in some nameless void, in a wooden chair faced with some ethereal being. Was this a God?
"Greetings, I am an angel from Heaven who has been sent down in the place of a Goddess. My name is Sol, and you seem to be Hatake Kakashi."
As his eyes focused some more, Kakashi could make out what indeed could be called an angel. She had the wings, the floating clothing, and the flawless complexion. Under normal circumstances, he would consider this all a genjutsu but considering his position when he used Kamui a final time, the odds of this being a farce were practically zero percent.
"Yes, that's me." Kakashi felt some whiplash from being immensely exhausted to perfectly fine in the span of less than a minute, but he couldn't complain.
"Alas, you have fallen in battle. You fought bravely and with a sound mind, and for that the higher-ups have recognized your valor and provided you with a second opportunity at life."
A second chance? At what? Perhaps he would be revived back in the Leaf Village revitalized? Would he be reincarnated or something?
"I see you seem skeptical. Unfortunately, I cannot bring your soul back to your original body. However, I can transport you to another world, where you could save the people against the tyranny of the Demon King."
Kakashi closed his eyes in resignation. So it seems he has truly gone from his past life. It hurts his heart like no other, to not be able to see Naruto or Sakura again, or even Sasuke. No Gai either, the poor man, who had been out on a mission for the village with his team at the time.
"And my alternatives?"
"You can be sent to Heaven as you were originally intended. But I beg of you, a man of your strength and caliber would be essential in the defeat of the Demon King." Sol pleaded.
Kakashi leaned forward, back hunched and his hands interlocked with his elbows on his knees. "While that's all well and good, what's in it for me?"
"Of course, if you defeat the Demon King, the Gods will grant you any one wish."
"Anything, you say?"
Sol nodded. "Indeed, anything at all."
"So, theoretically speaking, I could ask to be sent back to my world? In my old body?"
"While it's something we would rather you not do, it is well within the rules to allow such a wish." She grimaced.
He stood up in response. "Then it seems we have a deal." Kakashi held his hand out to the woman to seal it.
Sol clasped her hands in joy. She giggled with glee, shook his hand, and snapped her fingers. A blue glow emanated from under Kakashi's feet. As he was slowly lifted upward, the angel spoke one last time.
"Now, the language in this new world is different, but you will have it imbued in your mind so don't worry about that. Also, you will be given some funds to begin your adventure. Please, take care Hatake Kakashi."
Kakashi touched down in Axel, or at least that's what the locals call this place from the conversations he's listened to. Some people gave him odd looks, given his clothing, but Kakashi couldn't care less. He'd been stared at all his life. As an adult, it would probably be because of the literary works of art that he carried around in his pouch.
Speaking of...
"Phew, and here I thought I would have nothing to read." Relief washed through Kakashi that his coveted Icha Icha Paradise was still with him. It was unfortunate his full collection was lost in his home world, but he could make do with what he had until he got back.
After asking around for an area where he could begin whatever adventure he was supposed to be on, he was pointed towards a large building called a 'guild'.
"Excuse me, I'm new in town and wanted to begin adventuring." He told the receptionist at the front desk. While he wasn't a pervert like Jiraiya was, he would be lying if he didn't say that this woman was absolutely stunning. To be honest, she was dressed pretty dangerously, it looked like her breasts would fall out of her shirt at any moment. But anyway, he should look away before she gets the wrong idea.
"My eyes are up here, sir." The receptionist told him, eye twitching in annoyance. It seemed like he was a bit too slow with his observation. "I'm Luna, by the way, the Head Receptionist of this guild. You'll have to pay a fee first."
Kakashi rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Uh, sorry about that. Back home, women dress more... conservative, shall we say. Name's Hatake Kakashi by the way." He cringed at himself, that wasn't entirely true. But she wouldn't know that. Socializing wasn't something Kakashi ever specialized at, but it worked well enough with the ninja around him, but with civilians? Probably not. Regardless, he paid the fee.
"Right... well Kakashi, please press your hand on this card and we will see your statistics." She pointed at a blank card. Was this like chakra paper? He gingerly put his index finger on the paper.
Her eyes lit up. "Wow! Extremely high intelligence, above average strength and agility, and the rest of your stats have a great spread. You could pick a multitude of classes, but I would recommend you being a mage of some sort. You seem to have an aptitude for magic, but you could go the thief or ninja route as well."
Ninja you say? Seems meant to be. But there was something on his mind first.
"Er, what are classes, exactly?" Kakashi had always been a quick learner, so it was a bit of a jarring experience to have to start again from ground zero in terms of knowledge of things.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't even explain much, did I? Basically, as an adventurer, you have the choice of picking a class, or area of expertise in which you will focus your skills and abilities. For example, if you were to be a mage or wizard of some kind, you would likely focus on offensive magic that makes you a distant fighter, and not someone who likes to get in close to opponents. Of course, all of these things are dependent on what your stats will allow you. If you have no aptitude for magic, then the choice of mage would be impossible for you to choose."
"I see, anything else I should know about all this?"
She nodded. "You will start as a level one adventurer, but when you slay enemies, be it monster or not, you will gain what are called experience points. With enough points accumulated, you'll be able to level up and pick new skills from your respective class. Be warned, the higher up you go in skills, the more points you need to learn them, and the higher leveled you become, the more experience you'll need to raise it again."
This world was completely nonsensical compared to his last one, but he could make this work. "Alright then, thank you for the information. I think I'd like to be a ninja, please."
"Wonderful, the ninja class is one that prefers to attack more subtly through evasion and such, much like the thief class, but is more advanced in the sense that they can take on people in a head-on fight. Thieves are more supportive in nature to whoever brings the real damage, but a ninja can be the main person for that. Still, I recommend you party up with other people to cover any shortcomings you may have, like a healer in the case of someone being wounded."
No thanks, Kakashi had no plans on becoming close to anyone else here since he planned to leave eventually, and he preferred to work alone anyway. Less collateral that way. He had no idea what the level of threats here were though, so perhaps he could hire someone on a case by case basis once his funds were in order. It wouldn't look good on him if he just turned away from what he taught the three brats back home.
"I'll keep that in mind, thank you Luna." He gave her his signature eye smile before walking off. As he approached the exit, he was greeted by a blonde haired kid.
"Hey, you seem new here! Name's Dust, a veteran adventurer. See, newbies like you need to give a veteran like me a stipend."
Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow. He was beyond skeptical that a child like this was anywhere close to a veteran in much of anything, but then again, he was killing other men at age five so he had no room to talk. The Leaf Village itself was using child soldiers after all.
"So you say, but unfortunately for you, I have next to no money."
"Hmm, a broke guy huh? That's fine, once you get situated-ow!" Dust was interrupted by his friend, Rin, slapping him in the back of the head as she shook her head in exasperation. The boy rubbed the spot he was hit with his right hand.
"I can't believe you! I take my eyes off of you for just one minute and you go and harass this old man. Apologize!"
"O-old man?"
"Argh, fine. Sorry grandpa..." Rin dragged him away by the ear to their table afterwards, berating him along the way.
Kakashi blinked, shrugged his shoulders, and left. There were strange people in this town.
Once Kakashi made it passed the front gates, he saw a group of adventurers fighting some giant toads. Were it not for that, he would have complimented the luscious and beautiful scenery.
"Reminds of Master Jiraiya's summons." Kakashi lamented. Jiraiya's death was a pity, but he filed that away in the deaths of many friends in his life. "Although, it seems like they need some help."
One girl in red seemed down for the count or unconscious, the blue haired one was being swallowed alive, a blond haired one was getting swallowed too but did not seem too bothered oddly enough, while a small boy ran away from a third toad. Resigning himself to help, Kakashi sighed and hopped into action.
He ran over and took out a single kunai, slicing the throats (or at least where he guessed the throat of a toad would be) of the animals in a few seconds. Blood was plentiful, given the size of the damn things, but nothing Kakashi wasn't used to. He frowned when he realized he had no spare clothes and nowhere to wash them either.
"Are you kids alright?" He asked as he flicked the blood and viscera off his kunai. "You all seemed to be in trouble, hope you don't mind the interference."
The one clad in green picked the red girl off the ground, hefting her up onto his back. The blue one cried some and joined him. Blondie only came by when green asked her to stop enjoying the slime, whatever that means in this situation.
"Thanks, name's Kazuma. Satou Kazuma. This is-" Suddenly, the girl on his back sprang to life.
"My name is Megumin! An archmage of exceptional talent in the Explosive Arts! I am referred to as the best mage in the entire town, nay, the entire country!" Her piercing red eye stared into his soul, which made Kakashi immensely uncomfortable. But then, it widened in shock when she looked closely at him. "I see! You too cover your eye, perhaps for the same reason as me! With this eye patch, I hold back a deep and dark power that would destroy the world in its entirety if unleashed!"
'This girl reminds me of Guy. I'm not too sure if that's a good thing or not.' A moment of silence passed without anyone saying anything.
"Megumin, unlike you, this guy probably covers his eye for a legitimate reason." The small girl proceeded to try and choke the boy from behind.
A cough from the blonde one was heard.
"Anyway, my name is Darkness-"
"Lalatina." x3
"Stop it!" cried Lalatina.
"Ignoring Lady Lalatina, my name is Aqua. That's right! The very same Goddess of water, Aqua! You may pray to me five times a day-"
Kazuma spoke again. "Ignore her. She has this delusion of being some holy entity, it's really weird but we put up with it for her sake, you know?"
Kakashi nodded in understanding. He too had to deal with oddballs on the occasion. "I get it."
"I'm not crazy! I'm serious!"
"Still, Aqua is the healer of our group. Megumin is our arch wizard, and Darkness is our defensive crusader. Really, that's all she's good for." Darkness made a perverted noise of approval.
Kakashi glanced at Darkness. "Something up with her?"
Kazuma looked away, embarrassed, "You could say that."
"So, what do you do?"
"I'm the leader. Trust me, if these girls tried to lead themselves, it would spell disaster."
"I resent that." Megumin interjected. "But anyways, what's your name mister?"
Kakashi cleared his throat. "I suppose it's only fair I introduce myself as well. My name is Kakashi Hatake, I'm a ninja. I've got some good abilities..."
...
"That doesn't tell us anything but your name and class!"
"Ah, what's the fun if I just tell you everything? We're basically strangers."
Aqua took that moment to pipe in. "Hey, Mr. Kakashi, was your eye hurt? I could heal it for you."
Kakashi stood still for a moment. "No, thank you. My eye is more than fine." Well, if she could heal away the mental scars, that would be nice. Although, he doubted that was within her abilities.
"But hey, Kakashi, you can come to our place to clean up if you want. It's the least we could do for you for helping us out." Kazuma offered.
The man looked down at himself and saw the disgusting fluids that clung to him. Truth be told, Kakashi had gone without a shower for longer periods during missions than he cared to admit, but if he could get a shower he would surely take it.
"I would appreciate it." He stamped down his natural instincts to not trust these kids, but considering they were struggling against the toads, they couldn't be that much of a threat. Still, he would keep an eye on them.
