The Hatake compound was clean, inside and out. The graffiti was scrubbed away, the floors were swept, the windows repaired, counters washed. Everything was as it once was.

The process had taken quite a long time, but with his ninken helping him, Kakashi was able to get everything done by late afternoon. He had surprised himself earlier by how easily he entered the room where his father committed seppuku. The flashes of memory were real, but after he'd forgiven his father, they were less painful than ever. And he may have imagined the faint smell of blood, but by the time he had finished cleaning, he could not smell it over the harsh scent of cleaners.

When all was finished, he began preparing a meal in the kitchen with items that his dogs had brought him, since Kakashi was doing all he could to remain at the Hatake compound rather than head back out into the village. Technically, he was supposed to be at the hospital, and he didn't want one of his teammates dragging him back there. No one would think to look for him here, at least not for another day or two.

Kakashi looked to his ninken. They were strewn out on the floor, lazing around after their hard work earlier today. It had certainly felt like a battle with the dirt ingrained into the floorboards.

All things considered, Kakashi felt better than he had yesterday, mentally and physically. To have his ninken around him again took a heavy burden off his mind. A dreamless, full sleep restored some of his chakra, though he still felt drained. His hitai-ate remained pulled down over his left eye, since using that eye seemed to be too much for now, although he was not sure why. It was that eye that was draining his chakra religiously. He could feel the buildup of it, throbbing painfully with every pulse of his heart. The pain was manageable, but what would happen if his chakra continued to be sent to his eye with no outlet? Surely it would blind him. Unfortunately, releasing the chakra seemed to be impossible at the moment. The last time he even opened his left eye he passed out.

In other words, whatever the hell was going on with his chakra was a problem for later.

After Kakashi served the meals to his dogs, he sat down with his own on the plush cushion in the living room, where the low table was. The other cushion adjacent to his own had long been put away in some closet (he didn't want to look at the empty spot).

As he and his ninken ate, they discussed what they had put off last night ⎼ theorizing how, exactly, Kakashi came to be in this particular timeline.

The discussion lasted until the sun sank, their empty dishes long disregarded, to be cleaned later. Finally, they came to a hesitant conclusion after establishing what they knew for fact. They knew the Kamui distorted time and space and that Kakashi used it as he died. His chakra managed to return to the past with him, and somehow his body advanced in age because of it. Most likely because his chakra system had been accustomed to a body with the Sharingan, his current body had changed to meet the standard requirements of his advanced chakra system ⎼ his thirteen-year-old body had a Sharingan.

The only problem was that he didn't have a Sharingan.

Again, whatever the hell was going on with his chakra was a problem for later.

As for time travel, the only theory they could best surmise was that Kakashi's Will of Fire had distorted the Kamui and brought him back, merging his former chakra system with his younger self, thus resulting in the not-quite-right body he currently had. Thus resulting in whatever the hell was going on with his chakra.

Kakashi really didn't want to think about it.

The plan of action was, for the time, to prepare his team for what was to come, and to train himself up. They needed to be ready for Kannabi Bridge. What had happened in the past could never happen again. That Kakashi was sure of. In order to do that, their teamwork needed to be solid. In the months to come, he would need to fix his relationship with Obito and establish with Rin that he wasn't someone to be involved with romantically.

He had a lot to do, and so very little time to do it.

へのへのもへじ

Minato didn't find him until the next day, and Kakashi had to admit that he was still impressed that his sensei managed to track him down at all. Minato should have thought that the Hatake compound was off-limits to the boy. Maybe that actually was what his sensei thought and the Namikaze had merely ran out of other places to check. After all, Kakashi had technically been missing for two days, now. Not that they had training until tomorrow, but disappearing from the hospital when in critical condition is not often taken lightly. Rin was likely scared half to death. Obito might be a bit worried, even, let alone his mother hen of a sensei.

He had still been asleep when Minato hesitantly approached the compound. Having sensed the chakra, his ninken woke him with nudging noses and quiet murmurs, as to not startle him into battle-ready awakeness. While Kakashi got his bearings about him, his sensei snooped about the cleaned building, both suspicious and worried. Kakashi couldn't blame him.

The child opened the front door just as Minato raised a hand to knock. The Namikaze spluttered briefly, caught off guard, but he quickly composed himself.

"Kakashi," he greeted stiffly.

Kakashi's response was much warmer. He gave his sensei a one-eyed smile, the other covered by his hitai-ate for the time being. "Minato-sensei," he replied. "Would you like to come in?"

Maybe the wrong thing to say, judging by Minato's blatant surprise. But Kakashi had a knack for failure, and the habit was a hard one to break. He stepped aside to allow his sensei into the home, guiding him further inside once he'd respectfully removed his shoes. At the low table, Minato kneeled on the sole cushion. Kakashi would sit on the floor, then. He was loathe to retrieve the spare cushion from its hiding place.

"Tea, Sensei?"

"Um, sure, Kakashi."

As Kakashi prepared the tea, his ninken came strolling out into the room. Another mistake on Kakashi's part, given the surprised expression that was appearing on Minato's face more and more.

He handed his sensei the steaming tea and took a seat across from him with his own glass. The ninken laid nearby, save for Pakkun, who laid pressed again Kakashi's thigh.

"Thank you," Minato started, and Kakashi nodded. "I… wasn't expecting to find you here. I'm still a bit shocked by it, if I'm honest."

"I can't blame you, Sensei. I'm sure I would be shocked too." A wry smile curled on Kakashi's lips, hidden by the mask. The irony was lost on Minato, but not on Pakkun, who snorted. Minato glanced at the pug briefly before returning his piercing blue gaze to Kakashi, who was once again reminded that he would not see Naruto again for some time. He ignored the ache in his chest in favor of the conversation.

"I don't remember you having so many summons, either."

Kakashi shrugged. "Maa… I haven't really needed them in battle. We've managed everything just fine on our own," he lied.

"Still," Minato said, then paused. "Eight is a lot. Especially all at once."

The Hatake had no response to that. He raised an eyebrow, but gave no verbal reply. His sensei sighed and let it go, setting his cup down on the table.

"Kakashi, you've been acting strangely these past few days. You're not yourself. What's going on? You know you can talk to me, about anything."

There was the familiar worrying that he had been expecting. Kakashi curled his eye in a smile and said, "Maybe I'm more myself than ever, Sensei."

Frustration briefly wrote itself across the blond's face before it vanished. "You're not. Please, you don't have to pretend around me. I'm only trying to look out for you. First you miss training, and when you do show up you faint as soon as you open your eye. Then you vanish from the hospital, only to reappear at your old home. Not to mention that it looks as if you've seen a lifetime of war! Something happened last week that I'm missing, and I'm just trying to fill in the missing pieces."

Kakashi looked away with a soft sigh. His sensei was so genuine, so caring. It made him want to tell him everything, to spill all his worries and fears onto the Namikaze and beg for help. He missed Minato's advice. But he reminded himself that he couldn't speak a word of his predicament to anyone. This knowledge was for him – and for his ninken – alone. He shouldered it alone. The future was not Minato's burden, not yet.

"Kakashi, please," his sensei tried again. "Give me something to go off of here."

"I've… come to a recent realization," Kakashi said. Minato perked at the new information. Clearly, he hadn't really been expecting his pleas to work, but it was with good graces that he absorbed everything Kakashi was willing to spill. "I don't want to continue down the path that I've set myself on," the Hatake remarked quietly. His lone gray eye bore into Minato's, and the Namikaze had to suppress a shudder. He had never seen his student look so dead inside, as if all emotion and feeling had been sucked into a vacuum.

Kakashi continued, "I want to change, to be better. I'm growing up, Sensei, and maybe it's happening a little fast, but it all… hit me at once, I guess. I don't want to fight with Obito any longer, and I want Rin to stop looking at me like she does. I don't want to act as if I'm better than either of them. In skill, I've got them beat, but when it comes down to what matters…" He trailed off, looked away. Minato waited patiently for Kakashi to work up whatever it was that he needed to look him in the eyes and resume speaking. "I want to fix our teamwork. I want to fix our team. I want to fix, well, me. I guess I'm just not sure how to start."

The both of them were quiet for a long couple minutes. Kakashi pet Pakkun while Minato processed what he had just learned.

"Kakashi," the Namikaze began, "some of your problems I might not be able to help you with, unfortunately. I can't change Obito's or Rin's mind. They're going to see you as they have been, until you prove it differently to them. But I can give you advice."

At this, Kakashi looked up. The look in his eye was a mix of hope and hopelessness, as if he wanted to believe but despair was too familiar to let go of easily. Such a defeated look had Minato's heart swelling with love, and Minato realized just how desperately he wanted to help his student. Kakashi went to him for advice, but it typically pertained to jutsu work. Never did he ask for life advice, and, in this one crucial point in time, when Kakashi for some reason chose to make himself vulnerable, Minato was not going to lead him astray.

"I think the answer is simpler than you believe, Kakashi," Minato continued. "You need to get to know Obito and Rin for who they really are, not for who you've perceived them to be. You look at them ⎼ and at your father ⎼ through the lens of the rulebook and judge them accordingly. But life is more than just rules and regulations. Take Obito, for example."

Minato wrapped his hands around his cup, letting it warm his cool fingers. "He's late just about every day. According to the rulebook, he is a worthless shinobi. But I don't scold him for being late, because I look outside the rulebook. I see a young man doing everything in his power to help those in need, and isn't that what shinobi do? We protect the village. Is Obito carrying an old woman's groceries not doing the same thing? Maybe not in the way you might think, but… To be honest, I almost think his work is more important than mine." He laughed breathily, and Kakashi furrowed his eyebrows. "We protect the village from outside attacks that may never come, from threats that are looming. Obito works to resolve the immediate threats and unhappiness in this place. Without people like him, people like us would have no village to protect."

Kakashi looked down at his tea, thinking. He had never heard this side of the story. He had Obito's side, briefly, before the boy was taken from this world, and then he had the side that he would make up, standing in front of the Memorial Stone. He had never asked his sensei's opinion about their clutsiest member.

"Does that make sense, Kakashi?"

Kakashi gave a small nod in response. Had he the mind of his twelve-year-old self, he would have snarled and said that Obito was looking at him through a bias, too, but Kakashi knew now that Obito only saw what Kakashi presented. Kakashi put forth a cold, shallow form of who he was, and Obito didn't want to look underneath the underneath. Who would? Rin, he supposed, but she was always too kind for her own good.

"So, you're telling me I need to be friends with them," Kakashi drawled, looking up at his sensei.

"You're already friends, Kakashi," Minato responded. "I'm asking you to reevaluate them. They're worth your time, and there's more to them than you know."

From nowhere, defensiveness boiled up and spilled over inside him. These were his comrades! He knew everything about them, inside and out. His thoughts were so often on them over the years. There was nothing that he did not have memorized. "I already know them, Sensei," he replied, fingers tightening on the teacup. "They're my teammates."

Minato offered Kakashi a small smile. "Why does Obito wear those goggles?" He asked. Kakashi's rising anger ground to a screeching halt. "What about Rin's bracelet?"

For that, Kakashi had no answer. He looked away, a blush heating his cheeks. He was thankful for the mask to hide his shame.

His sensei didn't hold an accusing tone, though, only a gentle, kind one. "When you can tell me those, Kakashi, then you'll really know your teammates. And maybe they'll know you a little better, too." Minato stood, then, and Kakashi rose with him, both their cups on the table still. "I'll get going now. I didn't mean to intrude for long. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Kakashi nodded, not quite responding. He followed his sensei to the door, holding it open as Minato stepped out into the warm sunlight of Konoha. "Sensei," Kakashi said before Minato walked away. The blond halfway turned, a question in his eyes. Kakashi shifted, uncomfortable with the undivided attention, and mumbled out, "Thank you."

Minato beamed, looking so much like Naruto in that moment that Kakashi wondered which timeline he was actually in. "Anytime, Kakashi. I'll see you at training tomorrow. Also, it might not hurt to get to know your other classmates, while you're at it."

Kakashi raised a hand to wave, and Minato was gone. He closed the door and sighed heavily, leaning against it and sliding to the floor. His ninken pooled around him, making sure he was alright while also wanting to satiate their own curiosity.

"Help me, Pakkun," the Hatake moaned. "This is so much worse than I could have ever imagined."

Pakkun set a paw on Kakashi's chest. "Boss?" He asked. Kakashi held his head in his heads and let out a pitiful wail.

"I need to make friends! Again!"