Kakashi was a rule breaker, but there were some limits that even he wouldn't cross. After his little stint of breaking into the Hokage's office when he had been fourteen and getting caught by the Third Hokage, Kakashi vowed that he would never do it again. Not that he had to, considering the Third Hokage had given him free reign of the archives. Tsunade had basically wrangled him into being one of her right hand men, so he had access during her tenure too.
And then after that, well he became Hokage and since then, nobody questioned him anymore.
So when Kakashi found himself scaling the side of the Hokage Tower to access the small air conditioner chute, he was feeling quite annoyed. Annoyed that he had to break one of his vows, even if it was self-implemented. Annoyed that he was forcing himself to squeeze through the narrow opening and crawl through the chutes at an agonizingly slow pace. Annoyed that the guards didn't buy into his henge as Kakashi, which landed him into this predicament in the first place.
No matter how much he tried to convince them that he was Kakashi, he was turned away with threats of being thrown out of the building if he didn't leave.
His next thought was the window, but knowing that there were extremely complicated seals lining the window sill made him reconsider that option. Those seals had been intact since Minato became the Fourth Hokage and while Kakashi was confident that he could break them, he didn't know how much time it would take. And knowing his sensei, any fiddling with it would likely trigger an alarm.
Kakashi didn't need to get into trouble with the guards again.
The Anbu's secret entrance had been his next plan, but just thinking about sneaking through Anbu territory and all the way across the Hokage Tower to reach his destination sounded difficult. Even though he had been one of the best during his stint, many could easily detect his foreign presence.
So the air conditioner chute, it was.
Kakashi was not fond of being cramped in such a tiny space, while trying to mask his chakra and not make any noise; however, he didn't have much of a choice. The obscure bookstore didn't provide any useful information. After breaking into the library after it closed and scouring both the jonin and restricted section, there was nothing on time travel. To which, he lamented that he wasted his time and energy arguing with the librarians the other day.
His last resort was the Hokage's Archives, a place that had expanded exponentially under Hiruzen's tenure since he was known for his research. If Kakashi couldn't find it here, then that was it for him. As much as he enjoyed the temporary amusement from trolling others, Kakashi had his own world to head back to.
And there was no way that he was going to be complacent in being stuck in Sasuke's body for the rest of his life and relive puberty all over again.
With those thoughts in mind, it fueled him to keep going.
After ten minutes of crawling through the dusty vents, Kakashi finally reached the archive room. Thankfully during his time in the Anbu, Kakashi had taken care to study the blueprint of the entire building, even down to the most obscure things, so he knew exactly which way to go. If not, the entire ordeal would have certainly taken much longer and there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be lost in those vents.
It would have been a tragic ending for the last Uchiha.
Plucking the screwdriver from his weapons pouch - don't ask Kakashi why he carried one around - he began to unscrew the bolts on the crate. Setting the screws aside, he gently popped up the metal crate, set it down carefully next to him. Lightly brushing the dust off of his hands, Kakashi poked his head down into the room, confirmed that the chakra signatures he felt were actually outside of the room rather than inside, and swung his feet down. A small use of his chakra masked the inevitable thud, not in a large enough dose to alert the guards.
And then he got straight to work. Scouring title after title, Kakashi rummaged through the contents of every single shelf, upheaving some of the items. If he was a bit more careful, he would have chosen to wear gloves to not leave his fingerprints all over the books and scrolls, but if things went according to plan, then he wouldn't have to stay for much longer. Sasuke could be the one to deal with the consequences of his actions.
Consider it as payback for all of Sasuke's messes that Kakashi had to clean up over the years.
But as the sections of unsearched titles dwindled, Kakashi wondered if he had been overly optimistic in his quest. Of course it had conveniently slipped his mind when he first started this adventure that there wasn't such a book on time travel when he had been Hokage, so what made him there would be any seven years in the past?
Despite the sudden realization, Kakashi kept searching, holding onto the small tendril of hope that maybe he missed something when he went through the archives. Only so far his search only turned up titles that he had seen before. There was nothing new.
Out of desperation, Kakashi opened the fuinjutsu scrolls, hoping that he could find something related to what he had accidentally activated. Pages and pages upon the various usage and detailing how fuinjutsu symbols meshed together, there was no mention of time travel. Most importantly, there weren't any seals that were detailed to manipulate time. The closest that came to that was space, but without the time element, time travel wouldn't work.
What if he recreated the seal? If he recreated it and activated it again, would it reverse what it did the first time? Or would it send him back further in time? Or was it meant specifically for this purpose, to send him to Sasuke's body?
For the first time, Kakashi was actually picking apart the details. Why this time period? Why Sasuke's body? Why him?
Or was it not supposed to him? A sinking feeling settled in his chest as the possibility that it wasn't meant for him began to set in. After all, activating the seal was an accident. Was it meant for the cipher team? Kakashi shook his head. It couldn't be; what would their aim be?
Then it dawned on him. Sasuke.
The scroll was in a place that only he could find. He would be the first point of contact. For his eyes only. And Kakashi had distinctly remembered seeing a small marking in the upper right corner, one that he recognized to activate upon the trigger. If the trigger wasn't by opening the scroll, then what? What would make sure Sasuke fell into their trap?
The Sharingan, was the answer that flitted through his mind. If his theory was correct, then Sasuke would have been swept away the moment the scroll was opened. For everyone else, the seal would trigger since no one else in the world possessed the Sharingan. However, Kakashi just had go and be stupid enough to activate it.
He sighed.
For the record, whatever happened, it was all Sasuke's fault.
"And then?" Kakashi sensei prompted when Kakashi stopped speaking. "You got caught?"
Kakashi shrugged, like it was an everyday occurrence. "Hiruzen sama still has that way of sneaking up on you." Glancing over at Sasuke, he added, "Sorry that you got another misdemeanor on your record, but I figured since you have so many in the future, what's one more?"
Sasuke glared at him. Kakashi laughed. He cleared his throat, steering away from that topic of conversation. "Anyways after that, I tried to recreate the seal from memory. And since I don't have the Sharingan anymore-" At this, Kakashi sensei's eyebrows knitted together, like he couldn't decide whether or not that was a good thing or not. "-I don't remember the exact details. I figured that even if I did manage to copy it exactly, with my fuinjutsu knowledge, I wouldn't be able to create a counter seal to it."
"You were just going to wait around," Sasuke stated, in a very unimpressed tone.
"Maa, don't say it like that. I had a lot of faith that someone would notice that I was missing and look for me." The unimpressed look remained, so Kakashi plowed on. "And besides, I didn't intend to sit around and do nothing. If I couldn't go back to my own time, then the least I can do is make this world a better place."
Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don't even remind me about what you've done. You shouldn't have messed with the timeline like that."
The heat from their earlier confrontation about the same issue had long subsided, mostly replaced by annoyance on Sasuke's end. But the damage was already done. And whenever the real Sasuke had control of his body again, it would be up to him whether the events of the timeline fell into place again.
Except maybe...Kakashi glanced at younger counterpart. With the additional knowledge, would he be well equipped to prevent Sasuke from chasing revenge or will he fail again?
Kakashi sensei met his eyes and they shared a nod of understanding. When that little moment was over, Kakashi turned back to Sasuke.
"Oh there was an important question that I wanted to ask you, Sasuke."
"What?" Irritation was etched across Sasuke's features. Just because Sasuke wasn't pleased about the situation didn't mean he should take it out on him, but Kakashi took it in stride. He was too curious about the answer to be bothered by something so trivial.
"So…" Kakashi began, drawing out the word, as his way of building up the suspense. "Was Naruto really your first kiss?"
Sasuke sputtered. Redness tinged his cheeks. Never in his life had Kakashi seen his student look so uncomposed and he wished that he still had his Sharingan to document this moment.
But judging from his reaction, Kakashi had gotten his answer. It was safe to say that he had plenty of blackmail material to use for both of his students when he got back.
Having spent almost a year in this world, Kakashi was itching at the chance to finally go back home, even if he would be greeted by a pile of paperwork. Yet as he readied himself to ask Sasuke how he intended to remove him from young Sasuke's body, another thought flickered through his mind.
Kakashi subtly glanced at his counterpart, who was standing nonchalantly off to the side to give them space. He was giving off an air of being completely unaffected, yet Kakashi knew himself too well to know that wasn't the case.
Turmoil wracked him. Anyone would be, given sparing information about the future yet not quite knowing what to do with it. And Kakashi supposed old habits died hard, but he felt the sudden urge to give him advice, even if it was just to himself.
Who said he wasn't fit to be a sensei?
"Let me talk to him for a moment," Kakashi told Sasuke. Still not completely over the embarrassment of being reminded that Naruto was his first kiss, Sasuke didn't even bother to dignify his request with a response. Kakashi took that as a yes.
Not that Sasuke would really be able to stop him from doing anything that he really wanted to.
Kakashi sensei cocked his head to the side as he saw him approaching. "Oh? Aren't you supposed to be leaving right now?"
Kakashi jerked his head back in the general direction of where Sasuke was, a sly grin stretching across his features. "Maa, you know him. Needs some time to regain his composure."
And because they were the same person, the two of them chuckled at the same time, finding it particularly hilarious in what others probably couldn't find any humor in it. Maybe taking the time to speak with his counterpart wasn't so bad after all. All of his life, he'd been waiting and waiting for someone who was similar to him, who could understand him and Sasuke had been the closest he had gotten.
But in reality, the only person that could really understand him, was himself.
The playful atmosphere dissipated as the grin slid off of his face as Kakashi struggled to find the words to say to him. Even if it was to himself, he still had a hard time expressing his feelings.
Kakashi sensei's eye softened. "You don't have to tell me anything about the future, you know. Regardless of what happens, you know that I'll do my best to protect them with my life. After all-
"Those who abandon their comrades are more than scum," the two of them recited at the same time.
"Yeah. You understand. Of course you do. You're me," Kakashi sensei finished, mirthlessly.
If Kakashi was in his regular body, he most certainly would have reached out to pat him on the shoulder, or on the head for those who were shorter than him. It was his way of showing his support, since the words failed him every time. In Sasuke's body, it was impossible to do either, seeing that he barely reached up to Kakashi sensei's shoulders at the moment.
So he had no choice but to use his words.
"You'll be fine," Kakashi began to say, then stopped short when he realized exactly how ingenuine that sounded. Many had told him something along those lines in the past in regards to his team's death and he merely brushed it off as nothing more than meaningless courtesy. Here he was, delivering the same meaningless rhetoric to himself.
"A lot of things happened, but everything turned out alright in the end." There, a little better but still not the greatest. His only solace was that he was talking to himself so he understood exactly how awkward he was with words.
"That's alright. You don't have to bother." Kakashi sensei was waving him off. A typical go to move for himself because he didn't want to deal with the social interaction, but in reality, those were the conversations that Kakashi really needed to have the most.
Both of them knew it. Kakashi plowed on.
"I know right now that you don't think that you are a good fit to be a sensei even though you've been Team 7's sensei for almost a year now." It was true, even to this day, Kakashi still felt like he didn't teach them anything but the importance of teamwork. Probably the most important lesson, but something clearly went wrong along the way when Team 7 fell in shambles. Only now were they slowly picking up the pieces again.
"I think you'll do better than I did the first time around. Although you were assigned to this team because of your Sharingan, don't just focus on Sasuke. Remember that you have two other students, who will both become brilliant in their own right. Apply the skills that you learned in Anbu about forming a team and use it on them."
Kakashi sensei's eye widened. "That's…"
Kakashi nodded, getting the message without him needing to verbally express it. "Even though you probably don't realize it, Anbu has shaped me to become a better shinobi that I would have been. It has taught me a lot of things outside of the usual stuff that you think about. Patience. Leadership. Strategy. Stealth. Courage."
"I understand," Kakashi sensei stated slowly, mind still processing. Knowing him, he was probably connecting his memories to everything that Kakashi just mentioned. Soon enough, he would find that he was right.
"The ghosts of the past may forever linger in your mind, but learn to cherish the people of today. Look towards the future."
Kakashi sensei gave him an odd look. "You sound...different?"
"Is that so?"
His eyebrows knitted together. Creases along his forehead formed. "You sound...lighter? Freer?"
Lighter? Freer? Kakashi supposed those words were appropriate for describing him now although he never really contemplated that he indeed had changed since then.
"I suppose that I got some closure."
"Closure?" Kakashi sensei echoed, in a tone that suggested the word sounded so foreign coming from his own mouth. "Is that even possible?"
"Have some faith and hang in there. No matter what happens, you've already gotten to this point. You can make it."
When the other him finally asked Sasuke how they were going to get back home, Kakashi couldn't help but think that the madness was finally ending. The truth was quite a lot to process, but at least it answered the numerous questions that had piled up. And Kakashi was finally glad that he was leaving, so that he could have the Sasuke that he expected back.
Not that he wanted to deal with a moody teenager anymore than his counterpart did, but regardless of whether it was intentional or not, this old Kakashi was slowly driving him insane. With him gone, maybe he could restore a semblance of normalcy in his life.
It was ironic that it had been a result of his own antics and it made him wonder if his trolling ways came across as infuriating as he felt. Kakashi would say that he learned his lesson after getting a vicious taste of his own medicine, but that would be a lie.
Quite frankly, nothing would make him give up his schemes.
And if he was being honest with himself, Kakashi was quite proud of who he had become in the future. He had no qualms in admitting that his future self was the better self and hoped to reach that level soon.
"So how will you remove me from that body?" It was Kakashi who asked that question, but Sasuke addressed old Kakashi when he answered.
"I'm going to rip your soul out of the kid's body. Your chakra is attached to his and refuses to let go. I can only forcibly remove it."
Old Kakashi paled at his explanation but nodded anyway. Pushing up his headband, Kakashi used his Sharingan to document Sasuke's hand signs, mostly out of curiosity to explore the jutsu later. And who knew when a jutsu might come in handy?
However as Sasuke continued, Kakashi was quick to realize that it was only a power that he could wield since he possessed the purple eye...the Rinnegan the books called it. Based on the brief information Kakashi could obtain on the dojutsu, it was noted to be extremely rare dojutsu, even rarer than the Mangekyo Sharingan. As far as he knew, the only living beings to have been known to possess those eyes had it in both, so it was quite interesting to note that Sasuke only had it in one eye.
And he wasn't born with it.
His Sharingan picked up the outline of old Kakashi's chakra, as Sasuke extracted it in the form of a steady stream. The chakra piled up into a glob shaped structure, expanding and expanding until Sasuke finished.
Kid Sasuke fell, completely unconscious. Kakashi was quick to flash step over to his side, preventing him from toppling over with his knee supporting his backside.
Sasuke released the ball of chakra, allowing it to disperse into the air.
"What jutsu was that?" Kakashi asked, simply out of his own curiosity because he had never seen anything like that before. He wasn't expecting Sasuke to answer, so he was pleasantly surprised when the brooding nin did.
"With my Rinnegan, I possess the power of the Six Paths. The Human Path allows me to control souls, whether to remove them or insert them."
Kakashi nodded, silently thanking him for explaining it to him. It was certainly something that he would look up later, if there was any more information to be found concerning the Rinnegan other than what he had read.
Any moment now, Kakashi was expecting Sasuke to leave, following his counterpart's lead, but he lingered.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Did you want something? To erase my memories, perhaps?" It wouldn't be a far fetched demand; there was a reason why humans didn't remember their previous life. At the same time, it meant they weren't supposed to know about the future either: the future was called the future for a reason. Although old Kakashi didn't explicitly reveal the future to him, Kakashi was smart enough to put some of the pieces together from their conversation.
Sasuke surprised him again by shaking his head. "Maybe you - your other - has a point." Kakashi blinked, wondering if he was making this up in his mind.
"Do what you will with the information. Thanks for taking care of me," Sasuke rushed out, clearly embarrassed. Before Kakashi could open his mouth to respond that he should be thanking his counterpart and not him, Sasuke had already disappeared into the invisible portal, leaving him alone with his younger self.
Kakashi glanced down at young Sasuke.
An avenger, huh.
Not in this timeline if he had a say in it.
The End.
A/N: Hello, for the last time!
Well this is the end of the story and I hope that you were able to enjoy/laugh reading this story as much I did writing it. :) An ambiguous ending because I intended to write omakes of what happened when Kakashi went back to his world/how Team 7 deals with having the real Sasuke on their team, but I couldn't get around to it in time to add it to the end of this chapter. So I'll mark it as being "complete" and maybe eventually I'll circle back to this story to write out those bonus scenes.
Anyways, thank you so much for taking the time to read and review. I would love it if you do check out my other stories if you are interested! I write mostly Team Minato and have an obsession with time travel tropes apparently haha. Thanks again!
-MM
