Thank you for your opinions on the romance. Don't worry, it won't ever play a pivotal role in the story (I don't know how long this fic will be yet.) IF it does appear, it'll be a background thing with little moments here and there. Also, it won't be a harem. I absolutely despise harems. Even then, it won't appear for a while and only if I feel it will add to the story or make sense. If it doesn't feel right for me, I won't add it.

"Again."

"B-but-"

"Darkness, if you don't keep practicing, you'll never improve."

"Couldn't I just use skill points to learn some sword skills?"

"Are you going to do so?"

"No..."

Kakashi opened his book once more. "And there we have it."

Darkness sighed but continued trying to land basic hits on the training dummy. They were once again in the training room, Kakashi with his book in hand while Darkness slaved away at her mission. Surprisingly, Darkness was able to hit the dummies, barely, when she really gave it her best attempt and did not avert her eyes from the target. In all honesty, Kakashi was baffled on how that was even possible in the first place. Regardless, Darkness did have potential. Her raw strength was very impressive when she didn't handle a sword, so combine that with a weapon and she could honestly be pretty deadly.

One thing that bothered Kakashi here was how reliant everyone was on this experience point system that was in place. Rather than ever train to learn something or hone their skills, they just got the skills from some magic otherworldly power. In some instances, it was probably fine for smaller things like cooking, but would it work with swordsmanship? Sure, you would have the skill, but would they understand why they did those motions?

Probably not.

The door to the spacious room opened, revealing Kazuma.

"Oi, Kakashi. We were heading out for a quest and was wondering if you would like to come with us."

Megumin peeked out from behind. "Indeed, I want to see you in action again."

With an over dramatic sigh, Kakashi stood up and went to follow them from the door. Once at the doorway he looked back at Darkness lazily, "Darkness, keep practicing your swings. And use the new stance I taught you, don't revert back to bad habits, yeah?"

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei!"

He doubted he would get used to that for a while.


"Okay, so the quest is asking for us to kill a bunch of goblins, so it should be pretty easy. They're all pretty low-level enemies." Kazuma summarized. "I could take them out easily enough, but with Kakashi here it should be way quicker."

Megumin tugged on his sleeve. "Hey, you seem to be forgetting about someone important here."

Looking at her while they walked to the woods, Kazuma stared, wholly confused. "Who could that be?"

The mage pouted and started hitting him with her staff. "How dare you-!"

"Ow! Stop that! I was just kidding, you'll get your time to shine." The boy rubbed his head to soothe the pain. "Kakashi and I will lure the majority of the goblins to you outside of the forest, and then we'll pick off the stragglers."

"Hmph, you should have said that, then. Don't you know how to treat a lady like me?"

"I don't see any lady here." Realizing his blunder instantly when Megumin made a cute noise of anger, Kazuma held his hands up in self-defense. "I-I mean, my apologies Lady Megumin, who is the most beautiful of the Crimson Demons! Forgive this poor adventurer for his mistake!"

"That's better." The girl relented, holding her staff at her side once more.

'What an odd couple.' Kakashi noted. He wanted to tease them about it before he detected a presence somewhere to the left of the trees. "Kazuma, Megumin. Stop, something's here."

"Hm?" x2

"I'm not detecting any hostility towards us, though." Kazuma claimed.

Kakashi didn't know if animals or monsters in this world were something they should watch out for in this area. "Can you tell what it is with that one skill?"

Kazuma shook his head. "No, but I can tell it's approaching us slowly."

"Stand back, I'll blow it up with my explosion magic." She readied herself before Kakashi moved her behind him.

"No, we need to know what we're dealing with before just attacking. If it's hostile, you can do your thing." Once he had been allowed to stay, Kakashi was briefed on their abilities at a surface level. "Let Kazuma and I handle this for now."

Theoretically, Kakashi could use some fire jutsu to smoke out the enemy or whatever the hell it was, but that would set the whole forest ablaze. Water was nowhere near by, and making it with chakra alone would use quite a bit of it, though the Second Hokage was famous for that, it wasn't something he ever did regularly without a body of water nearby. Earth wouldn't be good for this, but wind would...

"Kazuma, move behind me for a second. I'm going to make them reveal themselves." The boy looked at him questioningly, but obliged. Kakashi went through multiple hand signs with blinding speed before yelling, "Wind Style: Vacuum Blast Barrage!"

Arcs of sharp wind shot from Kakashi's mouth and cut through the trees in front of them, leaving no room for cover. He could have aimed lower, but he didn't want to harm whatever was there just yet. A loud yell was heard once the trees were cut down.

"Woah! What the hell was that?!" Kazuma yelled in awe. Megumin too had her jaw dropped.

"I'll explain later, right now we have an enemy to deal with. Get your heads into the game!"

"R-right!"

The trio stood there and awaited the being to reveal themselves.

"D-d-don't attack me! I-I-I was just watching..." Timidly, a short Crimson Demon revealed herself.

Megumin immediately looked away.

"Yunyun?" Kazuma wondered out loud. "What are you doing here? Kakashi almost killed you!"

"You know this girl, Kazuma?"

"Yeah, she's a nice girl."

"She's got red eyes like Megumin, are they sisters? They look alike.." Kakashi asked curiously. He hadn't really thought about it, but with his teams usually having orphans, family ties weren't typically something he asked about. Naruto was an orphan, Sasuke was, his anbu teams were many times as well. Sakura was honestly the exception.

Megumin whirled on him. "As if that girl could ever be related to me."

"M-Megumin's sister?! Ahaha, that sounds nice..." Yunyun giggled to herself while holding her cheeks in each hand.

"Stop that! Tell us why you're following us like some crazed stalker." Megumin demanded.

"Well, I was just looking for some people to play with and no was around so I thought I would ask you guys if I could join your quest at the gates, but then I couldn't get the courage to do it, so then-wah!"

Megumin grabbed the girl by her collar and shook her violently. "You are so irritating! Why don't you just stop being such a pansy and just ask us!"

While that banter went on, Kakashi was asking Kazuma some questions.

"How old is this girl? Megumin acts like they're similar in age."

"I know it may be unbelievable, but Yunyun is the same age as Megumin."

"Are you serious?" He asked looking at the difference between the two girls.

"I know what you're thinking, and I agree. Yunyun clearly has a better body than Megumin by a long shot."

Kakashi looked at the boy uncomfortably. "Uh, no. I was going to mention how Megumin seems much less polite than this girl, their maturity levels seem to be starkly different."

Kazuma had the decency to look embarrassed. "Oh! Of course, that is what I noticed as well." He finished with a cough lamely.

"No matter. Guess I'll introduce myself." Bracing himself for more social interactions, he went up to the crimson demons. "Yo, Yunyun was it? My name is Kakashi Hatake, nice to meet you." He offered a hand to her to shake.

The girl blushed. "O-oh! My name is Yunyun!" She went to shake his hand when Megumin slapped it away. "Ow! Why'd you do that?!"

"Tsk, you introduced yourself in a weird way. Do it properly."

"That was normal, you're the weird one!" Yunyun yelled, nursing her red hand.

"Do it."

"I don't wanna!" The girl was near tears.

Kakashi decided to cut the chit-chat. "Listen, you can join us if you want to, or else I suggest you go back to the city."

"I'll come with you!"

"Then let's get going." Kakashi smiled with his eye in an attempt to appear approachable. He was much taller than the present company and he knew that could be intimidating for people. Of course, in battle that was a good thing, here not so much.


After the quest went off without a hitch, which Kazuma noted with glee was an extremely rare occurrence, they all were walking back from the guild on the path to the mansion when Yunyun got an idea.

"Megumin, I just remembered we have a score to settle!" She said, pointing a finger to the girl on Kazuma's back.

"Are you stupid? I can't even move properly right now."

"But Mr. Kazuma can just give you mana so-"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Megumin retorted, swiftly moving her gaze away from the girl in front of her.

"Surely my rival won't back down from a challenge!"

Kakashi almost choked on his own breath.

"Surely my rival won't back down from a challenge!" Guy had told him one random day when they were both present in the village.

"Guy, it's six in the morning."

"Isn't the beautiful early morning the perfect time to showcase our youth!?"

Kakashi pinched his nose, beyond annoyed. "How about this.. if I win a game of rock-paper-scissors, you have to go bother someone else. If you win, I'll let you pick the next challenge, anytime and anywhere."

Guy smiled, assured of his victory. "Rival! You have yourself a deal! Ready?" Kakashi nodded at the bowl cut man.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" x2

With Guy having picked rock and Kakashi paper, the winner was decided.

Kakashi made sure to give Guy a good wave before shutting the door in his face. Right after, he could hear Guy yelling about running around the village dozens of times on his hands. Thankfully, somebody in his apartment complex shouted at him to shut up.

Indeed, today was a good day.

-ashi? Kakashi!"

"Huh?" Kakashi blinked his one visible eye.

"We're home." Megumin told him.

"Oh... right." Kakashi looked at them, Yunyun must have bid her farewell and he didn't even notice.

Kazuma looked at the man with concern. "You alright?"

Waving a hand, Kakashi told them he was fine and that he would just take a nap on the couch. Both believed it and went on to do their thing. As he sat down on the couch, removing his headband as he did so, he reminisced about his time here.

'It's only been less than a week, but I think I'm getting used to this place. But in the end, this is just an extended mission for me. Nothing more, nothing less..' Then, he drifted off.


"Get to the exit!" Kakashi, the newly-minted Jonin had ordered, as he and his team ran towards the exit of a collapsing cave. Unbeknownst to Kakashi, a rock was falling in his blind spot, so he took it head-on. It knocked him to the floor, and he felt the straps on his outfit pulled and his body thrown in another direction before a loud boom resonated throughout the cave.

"Argh, is everyone alright? Rin? Obito?" Kakashi asked looking around.

"Kakashi, over here!" Rin exclaimed, her voice telling him of her location. The boy ran to her, and he checked her over for injuries, having relief in finding none.

"Where's Obito?"

"Right... here.." A weak voice called out.

There, half of his body crushed by a boulder, was Uchiha Obito.

"Obito!" Kakashi yelled in horror. He attempted to push the boulder off the boy, but it was far from budging an inch. "I can't...!"

"Kakashi..." Obito began.

"What is it?!" The boy asked, putting his hands down on the ground.

Abruptly, Obito grabbed one of his wrists. "Why did you let me die? Why did you let Rin die!?"

"O-Obito?! I-I didn't-"

"Didn't what? Didn't kill her? You did, you stuck your arm through her chest like nothing." He narrowed his one remaining good eye. "You know what? I should have let you die in this cave."

Resigned to his nightmare, Kakashi could only bow his head. "You should have."

"I could have had my happy ending with Rin. Sensei and Kushina would still be alive too." He let Kakashi go. "If anything, without you, wouldn't the world have been better off? Sasuke would have had some family left after the massacre. I could have been that pillar of support for him, he'd have never left the village. Instead, he got saddled with you of all people, and look what good that brought him."

Kakashi could only nod his head at the facts being told to him. It seemed the people around him always suffered horrible fates. A never-ending pattern.

"Even for a sensei, you're so mediocre. Your students went to bigger and stronger people. What did you do? Instead of being the best ninja you could be, you sat in complacency. Barely improving to the point that even Naruto is stronger than you, the class idiot."

"You're wrong! Naruto worked for his power-"

Obito interrupted him with disgust. "Yes! He did, and you? What have you done? Nothing! Nothing at all!" His one eye bled red, showing the sharingan within it. "You've done nothing but abuse my eye to get by. To think, friend-killer Kakashi being too weak to even stop his own student's defection. Too slow, too late. Story of your life."

Tears flowed down Kakashi's eyes. They were hard truths he buried, but to hear them coming from Obito made them feel that much worse.

"Forgive me."

"Oh no, I can't do that. Doesn't matter anyway, you will never be able to take any of it back. You'll have to live with these things for the rest of your life." His sharingan manifested into the Mangekyo, its pinwheel appearance looking unnatural on young Obito's face. "Rin's death will forever be on your record."

"I-I..."

"Ka...ka...shi?" Suddenly, Kakashi was on his feet. His right arm extended with chidori in his hand, as Rin stood in front of him, blood flowing down her lips.

"No!" He tried to pull his arm out, but Rin held it in place.

"Why did you kill me, Kakashi?!" Rin yelled in his face. "Why!? Why!? Why!?"

Kakashi could only scream.


"Hey, we never did get to ask him about the weird things he did with the wind." Kazuma told Megumin as they sat down at the kitchen table together, eating the sandwiches Kazuma had made.

"Hmm, you're right. Why don't you go and wake him up?"

"What do you mean, me? You do it."

"Don't be lazy, Kazuma."

"If I do it and you don't, what does that make you?"

Just then, both adventurers saw the resident Goddess, Aqua walk into the kitchen. Both Megumin and Kazuma gave each other a look of understanding.

"Hah, that was a nice nap. Good morning!"

Kazuma wanted to sneer at her that it was already the afternoon but held himself in check. "Ah! Aqua, so nice to see you. We actually need you to do something for us. Something that no one else is capable of."

"Oh? You know, Kazuma, you'll have to make it worth my while."

"I'll buy you a bottle of premium liquor."

"Deal! What do I have to do?"

'What kind of idiot agrees to a deal where they don't know what they have to do to fulfill their end? Oh wait, I'm looking at her.' Kazuma thought depressingly. "We need you to wake up Kakashi, we wanted to talk to him about the quest we did today."

"Leave it to me!" Aqua skipped over to the living room, where Kakashi was sleeping. Not even aware of the sleeping bear in her presence, she poked at him without a care in the world. "Hey, Kakashi! Wake up! Wakey wake-GURK!"

Kakashi sprung to life, his left hand on her throat while his right held a kunai to her neck. But what drew Aqua's attention most was his glowing red eye that spun incessantly. She was transfixed by it, she couldn't escape its gaze no matter how much she wanted to move her eyes away. Aqua was petrified.

Just then, he abruptly let go as if burned by her. Aqua went to healing her neck which she knew would bruise without healing intervention. She coughed and sputtered as she tried to regain her breath.

Footsteps were heard from the kitchen as Megumin and Kazuma ran in to see what all the commotion was about.

"What the heck happened?" Megumin demanded as she saw Aqua on her butt on the floor, and Kakashi staring at her with his eye. Luckily, he had closed his sharingan eye before anyone else besides Aqua saw. He went to apologize, but Aqua beat him to it.

"N-no! Um, nothing happened. He just got up and bumped into me. Right, Kakashi?" The girl was shaking as she said it, clearly in fear of the man in front of her. It hurt Kakashi's heart a bit to see someone who should be an ally be afraid of him.

"That's right. It was just an accident." Aqua took the time to get up and use the excuse that she needed to 'wash up'. Kakashi knew better. She just wanted to be far away from him.

"I guess it was nothing, then. Megumin, want to head to Wiz's shop?" Kazuma asked the mage.

Her red eyes lit up for a moment before dulling to their normal hue. "Yes! Let's go!"

"I don't really get why you're so excited. That store is nothing but trouble, but I gotta speak with Vanir." As they both went to the door, Kazuma turned his head to Kakashi, who seemed to be in his own head and called out, "By the way, when we get back, explain to us how you did that cool skill today."

Kakashi stiffly nodded at them as the guilt ate him up inside. He really did make a mess of things. What the hell could he do to make things right? Once he heard the door click, he remembered that Darkness was still training. Sighing, he made his way over to dismiss her. He had completely forgotten about her.

It was just another set of failures under his belt.