Kakashi

Kakashi gasped as he bolted upright in his bed. Air invaded his lungs as his wide-eyes scanned the darkness. Sweat fell from his brow down over his clenched jaw as the horrifically vivid dream settled into his mind.

He tried to control his breathing and closed his eyes. He willed slow air to enter his chest whilst incredibly intense images of Akari dominated his head. He had been dreaming of her more often lately and he wasn't sure why. He wanted to growl in frustration. He hadn't thought of her for months, maybe even a year now until the nightmares began. He was finally moving on. It seemed all the absence of her piled up and released all in the last week. All he knew was that he needed more sleep than he was getting because of it.

He swung his legs over the side of his bed and sat there. Unable to stand up, he let his mind slip into blankness and his gaze held onto nothing at all. He knew his legs would shake under his weight so instead he just stared into the darkness and pretended everything was ok. Pretended that he'd never met her. Pretended that he didn't need it. Any of it. He was in control. He took a deep breath.

A loud rasp of knuckles sounded on the window as an Anbu's precedes invaded he Hokages senses. Kakashi resisted snapping his head to the invader.

"Enter," he calls evenly as if he hadn't just watched his lover die. His right hand Anbu operative slipped through the unlocked window and knelt into the usual fashion.

"Lord Hokage, there's been a breach in the walls." Kakashi's heart beat stronger singularly and then returned to its usual pace. "An unregistered person appeared through an unknown gateway in the centre of the Village 3 minutes ago."

"Send units 3 and 9 from Anbu to contain the breach and team 6 to secure the perimeter. Increase guards on duty Jonin and Anbu. Are they showing any signs of being a threat other than the obvious?" Kakashi's mind began to whirl into action as his logic rifled through all possibilities, outcomes, and threats. He understood the urgency in the Anbu's tone.

"No Hokage-sama, they appear to be sick and unable to stand." Kakashi nodded at the words once.

"Don't let your guard down, take them to a cell for questioning."

The Anbu nodded and disappeared before he could blink and Kakashi began to dress quickly as his mind raced.

Shikamaru was the first to greet him outside the interrogation building.

"Hokage-sama,"

"Shikamaru," he returned the greeting. For once Shikamaru seemed to lack his naturally bored tone, only heightening Kakashi's suspicions. He opened the door for them as Kakashi's pace never faltered. He walked in step with him down the long corridor.

"What do we know?"

"Next to nothing. They haven't said a word. She has stopped being sick at least. She possess the Byakugan. The team that brought her in, 3, is keeping the room secure."

"Good," is all Kakashi could say as his mind was too occupied with the threat to the village. "Join me, I will need you to observe for information."

The next swing doors sounded as they hit the walls forcefully. The pair of them almost ran through and turned to the occupied room. Anbu team 9 were dotted around the corridors in protection but inside the interrogation cell Kakashi couldn't help but falter in his step. He was looking through the one way mirror at the being that sat in the cell.

His heart didn't seem to beat for what felt like hours. He didn't notice as his ears failed to hear what Shikamaru was saying. Waves of strange feelings crashed through him until one erupted on the surface.

"How dare you use her like this!" Kakashi shook with a devastating anger. He snarled through bared teeth as he almost ripped the cell's door off its hinges. The imposter didn't even flinched at his entrance nor did she look up to him. Kakashi couldn't find it in him to care who saw.

"I am the Sixth Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Ha-ta-ke Ka-ka-shi." He flew towards her, ripping her from her seat still bound at the wrists. "You will reveal your identity to me or I swear to Kami you wont see tomorrow." He slammed her up to the wall, his forearm pressing into her throat. She gasped at the impact of her back hitting the wall but other than that she remained perfectly still, her face remaining impassive.

"Lord 6th," he faintly registers Shikamaru's warning. The Anbu didn't dare to move on their Hokage.

"I am formally Hirawa Akari of the Village Hidden in the Leaves." Her strained words seemed to only stoke the blaze writhing through Kakashi. She looked down at his face as she wheezed for breath. She didn't struggle. He looked at her, really looked at her. Kakashi felt her neck move under his forearm and pressed harder. The person he held against the wall of the cell had pale almost white skin like an Otsutsuki. Under the fluorescent light he could see her lilac hair, although it was shades closer to white than he remembered Akari's to be. Her once liquid silver Byakugan eyes now seemed solid and lifeless as if she had lived for centuries and turned to stone. Her impassive lifeless expression began to disturb him.

"How dare you use her like this, I demand to know who you are," he stepped back twice not being able to take the sight of her anymore. She fell to the floor coughing but soon regained the composure of an empress. She looked up and watched Kakashi as he shook with anger.

"I am the Akari once known to you, Lord Hokage." Her face barely moved as the words spilled from her mouth almost graciously.

"Dont fuck with me!" He roared. He backed further away from her, his eyes back on the imposters form. Something rose in him that he couldn't contemplate. There's not many times in his life he wanted to run away but this was one of them. She continued to stare at him blankly. "Akari is gone. She died. She gave her life to me."

He could feel his face contort into something beastly. He couldn't fight the tremble in his clenched fists as his breath heaved out of him.

"Get Ibiki" Kakashi uttered to the Anbu in the room when her response never came. He glanced to his right hand man, Shikamaru who was watching the spectacle wide-eyed. Kakashi couldn't seem to bring himself to care, even then. He looked back to her expecting fear, Ibiki being so well known as he was but instead she sighed as if she was being slightly inconvenienced.

She moved slowly and sat with all the grace of the Devine on the chair beside the table that he had previously pulled her from. He watched her breathe slowly with her eyes closed. It looked like Akari, only she was different. Her robes of white wrapped around her short form and fanned around her feet.

"We have more important things to discuss than my mortality status. I have little patience for such frivolity, Lord 6th." Her eyes didn't open and her expression didn't alter yet her tone was clipped as if she really was running out of patience with him. He wanted to scoff at the power exchange between them.

"I'm going to ask you to be respectful to me, as the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

"I politely decline." She snipped her eyes snapping open. The glare she gave him sent a wave of coldness through his body. Her dull silver eyes now seemed to glow with frustration. "I'm glad to see the life I gave you wasn't wasted," she snipped sarcastically reminding him that he was only alive because of her. He tried hard not to show how shaken he was but he knew he was failing. "I am disappointed to see how little you've amounted to. A non-sensical old man who can't even see reason when it is staring him in the face." her blank expression didn't match the venom in her words. It managed to hit its mark as Kakashi's chest began to fill with poison.

"You've appeared through a portal in the centre of our Village in the middle of the night." It was Shikamaru who spoke up then, "and now you've disrespected the Hokage. I don't know if you're brave or simply stupid." Kakashi knew what he was doing, Shikamaru was a smart man. He tried to rile her up and force her to defend herself against his words with her truth. He found himself thankful that Shikamaru could speak when he could not find words. Her blows had mentally knocked him back. He breathed silently regaining what composure he could to figure out what the hell was going on. He stood glaring at her with his face hardened.

"I am simply here to help you. Did you consider that, or is your subordinate so dense?" The false Akari glared only at Kakashi, ignoring Shikamaru's existence. He could feel his right hand man seething at the dismissal, knowing it wasn't from her sassing his intelligence.

"A strange way of approaching us, tell us, why not use the front gate and register if you're not a threat?" Shikamaru pressed his questions. Kakashi's heartbeat was wild under his ribs and sweat coated his palms. He couldn't take his eyes off the imposters form.

"I did not journey here simply, simpleton." She quipped but again, the venom in her words didn't match the blank look rooted in her face. "I stepped through a gateway between dimensions. Larger than worlds. It is no simple task. Unfortunately the control on the timing and location were-" she paused quickly catching herself about to divulge too much, " somewhat compromised,"

"Why does the Leaf need help, from you no less?" Shikamaru continued to question.

"I will be blunt, in exchange for information I wish to be reinstated as a Shinobi of the Leaf for the protection of the Village."

The silence was almost deafening. Not even the anbu shifted in their stances as they all stared at her dumbfounded. Kakashi's wild heart seemed to freeze at the words. He didn't need to look at Shikamaru to know they were thinking the same thing. Reinstating her as a shinobi and using her as one are two very different thing.

"Done." Kakashi finally spoke up and her eyes seemed to gain in intensity. "Tell us what you know." Kakashi approached the other side of the table she was sat at and Shikamaru came to stand next to him.

"It's the Otsutsuki." The weight of her words seemed too apparent. She took the air out of the room again whilst people processed what she was saying.

"We've already erased Kaguya." Shikamaru finally spoke up interrupting the painful silence. For the first time her eyes left Kakashi to look at his subordinate.

"Child's play compared to what's coming. She was a mere sacrifice to harvest the world of its Chakra. You've only stoked the fire that awakened the real beast." Kakashi couldn't help the frost that crept through his veins. It seemed to claw at his blood vessels and make its home in his chest.

"How large is the threat? When will it occur?" Kakashi asked, his voice forced evenly.

"The end of the world as you know it. Timing is an unknown." Her impassive face turned back to Kakashi as she replied to him.

"What do you want?" Kakashi found himself asking.

"Only the demands previously stated."

"What do you gain?" He asked curiously but the edge to his voice demanded authority but she sighed instead.

"You need to prepare for the threat. It is wasteful to involve personal feelings in such worldly matters. Let's keep it professional." Her eyes found his and she looked at him knowingly, as if she was willing him to accept her as Akari. Kakashi didn't know if his chest could take much more. The whole world seemed to slow as the information really sunk in.

"First, we need to verify your identity, how can you be trusted?" Shikamaru pushed.

"It is not about trust, it is about survival." She replied simply as if his question was ridiculous.

"Who are you, really? Akari is dead." He repeated the last part almost as if he was reminding himself. His eyes, he found, couldn't leave the form that claimed to be her. The reality of everything sank in. He wanted to stab a kunai into his leg to check if he was in reality. Was this some sort of genjutsu?

"I can tell you I am quite real, Lord 6th. No genjutsu is being used to influence you." He felt his brows crease into anger. He couldn't accept that the person in front of him is Akari. He tried to switch into his Hokage responsibilities but he was struggling to keep his personal feelings out of it.

"I need to discuss this in private." Kakashi nodded to Shikamaru and rose from his seat. The false Akari didn't reply she simply closed her eyes as the two men left the room.

"Everyone, leave." He commanded the anbu to leave the room adjacent to the holding cell. He found he couldn't take his eyes off the being inside the cell. The one way mirror the only thing standing between them. No matter how hard he looked it just didn't compute. The anbu he commanded swiftly left, leaving only Shikamaru and himself.

"Who is she? This Akari?" Shikamaru broke the silence.

"Akari, code name Amaya, was a former member of root and then ANBU. Konoha wasn't always her home, she was from the Land of Birds, a clan. After her father died when she was young she came to Konoha and was taken in by Danzo. I don't know much else until I met her. I was her captain, we were partners on some not so successful missions. Her sacrifice prevented wars between nations and helped rid the world of a large underground operation that was controlling High Lords." Kakashi managed to pry his eyes off Akari to Shikamaru. He could see the thoughts steam rolling behind his eyes as his finger tapped his chin. "A man she fought claimed she was half-human, half-Otsutsuki. Although I do not know if it was true. She died before I knew." Shikamaru's eyebrows rose to his hairline.

"I've never seen you… so uncomposed. Not even in the war." Shikamaru looked apologetic for his prying but he knew he needed all the information.

"She was also my lover," Kakashi couldn't bring himself to hold Shikamaru's stare and returned his eyes to Akari. She hadn't moved a muscle. Shikamaru didn't say anything, whether shocked, calculating, or just being polite he didn't know. He didn't care. "It can't be her," he whispered. If it was her, where has she been? Why did she not come back? How had he just given up on her?

"There doesn't appear to be anything off, it seems to be an authentic person at least. Why do you not think it could be her?" He came to stand next to the Hokage, staring into the glass himself.

"I almost died. I had a hole through my chest, I wasn't going to make it." He felt Shikamaru's eyes turn to him but he didn't look away from her. "I don't know how she did it, but she transferred her life force to me. It drained her and she dissapeared into a portal with an Otsutsuki she called her mother."

"So it's very possible Akari didn't die," Shikamaru said it so plainly as if it would make sense. Kakashi found his eyes wide and on his advisor. Is it that simple? Is that really the logical explination? Was he so blinded by his emotions?

"But I watched her as she drained herself of Chakra." He mumbled looking back at her. His heart began to speed up again. His chest rising shallowly but quickly.

"We don't know much about other dimensions, it's quite possible that she was able to survive in one." He guessed and Kakashi knew he was right. It was entirely possible. But, the woman who sat so peacefully didn't remind him of her at all.

"She's nothing like Akari. Even her colouring is slightly off." He watched as her eyes slowly slid open at that, as if she heard. Kakashi knew it wasn't possible because of the wards on the cell.

"How long ago was this?"

"15/20 years."

"That's a long time, a lot can change a person." Shikamaru's eyes were back on the Hokage. "If it was her, would you trust her now?"

"I don't know, as you said. A lot can change in that time." Could it really be her?

"The threat, her demands to become a shinobi again. The only bad intention that she could have is to gain our trust or gather intel. She's technically a rouge nin at the moment. Unless she is able to convince us she couldn't come back and her loyalties still lie with us then technically she's never not been a Leaf nin." Kakashi hmm'd in agreement vaguely still staring at her. She held his gaze as if she could see through the mirror. He sighed and looked down.

"We need to consider her status as Otsutsuki. If she claims the Otsutsuki is the threat, she could be double bluffing."

"I am Otsutsuki but, my loyalties lie with the Humans, they always have." The sound of her voice travelling through glass of the cell caused both Kakashi and Shikamaru to flinch. They gazed at her wide-eyed. She rose gracefully and released her hands from the warded metal cuffs as if they were no more than paper. They fell to the floor with a clang as she almost floated towards the mirror. "What would prove my identity?"

"A test?' Kakashi found himself saying as if it wasn't even his idea but she nodded. Her eyes slid to Shikamaru as if she was suspicious.

"Tell me what team you were on."

"I was partnered with Hatake Kakashi in ANBU under team name Rei. He was my Taichou and I, his subordinate. We conducted several missions, mostly intel gathering that were compromised. Before that I was part of team Kumo in ANBU until my team members demise."

"How did they die?" He snapped quickly.

"We were ambushed and after a few fell I collapsed the cave system killing everyone in it." She didn't even flinch. All the remorse she once felt never appeared at the surface. She recounted it as if it were just a fact sheet. Kakashi didn't know he was holding his breath until he let it all out. He glanced to Shimaru who was watching the pair. He nodded to him and they both walked back into the cell. They all stood watching one another.

"You gave me your life force to heal me." Kakashi didn't ask.

"I did," she confirmed without a flicker of emotion. Her face neutral and passive.

"Then how is it you're alive?" He tried to train his voice to be even and impartial. He found himself fighting the feeling behind. He watched her sigh slightly and close her eyes for a little too long.

"May we sit?" She asked before returning to her seat. She didn't wait for confirmation. Kakashi approached the desk but found he didn't want to take a seat. She looked up to the both of them as they looked at her expectantly. "My mother once did the same for her human lover. He was fatally wounded and transferred her Chakra stores into his body. We both possess incredibly unique chakra. No other two possess the eternal silver chakra we do. It is able to morph into another's chakra and heal them but at great cost to the original host. If it wasn't for my mother pulling me into her dimension I would've died as you suspected. But, the dimension my mother inhabits is unique. Time flows differently, not forward as in this one. The very essence of it was able to restore my chakra stores over 5 years but being there slightly altered me. It called upon the Otsutsuki in my DNA and increased its potency a little. We suspect it is only temporary and it will reverse the longer I remain on this plain." She hesitated and for the first time something human appeared in her eyes as she looked at Kakashi. She almost looked scared. Something snapped into place in Kakashi at that moment. It felt like the world disappeared under his feet and he was falling through space. It really is Akari. He swallowed hard and confused he didn't know how to process everything. He needed to focus as Hokage.

"I haven't aged, yet I have healed. My body remains to be 21 despite my greater age."

"If you were only healing for 5 years, what about the other near 10?" Shikamaru pressed for holes.

"There is a war in the dimension of Otsutsuki. You may be unaware, but it has been raging for 1000s of years. Our original dimension is able to supply us with the Chakra we need but it became over populated. Now, some seek other dimensions that contain large quantiles of Chakra such as this ones, trying to escape thr war. A few rouges have been travelling through dimensions to sap the planets dry of life for personal gain such as Kaguya. Although it was her entire clan that had acted then."

"That doesn't answer my question," Shikamaru reminded her.

"forgive me," she began to speak slower, "it seems I am in need of rest."

"Rest when you've finished answering the questions we ask." Shikamaru's tone was rightfully short.

"I'm sure you wish to return to your families," she looked between the two men and her eyes lingered on Kakashi. "Could we continue this after rest?" He words grew weaker as the sentence went on. She began to sway in the chair. Kakashi's feet moved before his mind knew. As her body fell from the chair his arms wrapped around her. The warmth of her, her familiar scent, the softness of her hair, it all engulfed him as he looked down to her. Shock etched into his face as she blinked up at him, her eyes barely remaining open.

"You did not find love in my absence?" Her words were weak but blunt. He didn't know whether it was the shock that caused him to answer but he wanted to snort in retort at the lightness of which she asked. He found himself only blinking.

"I was tired of watching the people I love leave. After you, I was done." He spoke evenly and watched as she didn't so much as move. As if she really were a statue of stone in his arm. She was Akari yet so far from the woman she once was. Not even micro-expressions flickered across her passive face.

"Our youthful love was immature. It had no place in the world to begin with." Her words were monotonous and her eyes were empty as they closed completely. Kakashi couldn't help the sudden collapse of his chest internally. He managed to keep his features flat but her words cut into his heart like daggers flung. Her breathing evened out in his arms but he found himself returning her with his words.

"Despite how immature it may have been, I refuse to go through that again."