The world turns, creaks on its axis and sends tremors through its tenants. The presence of war lurks in every training session, biding its time even as it nips at the heels of children. Sakumo smells it in the blue lightning that blisters and scorches Kakashi's right hand; hears it in the new jutsu's whistle and shriek as Kakashi thrusts it through the air.
Kushina's silent entourage of ANBU grows and the shadows beneath Minato's eyes deepen with each meeting he attends. Rumours have it that he is to be the Yondaime should Hiruzen fall in battle. Nothing is impossible.
The Yamanaka visit the T&I with alarming frequency and the Uchiha Police step up their nightly patrols. Their doujutsus bring both confidence and unease. When one is under suspicion, there is either loyalty proven or nothing at all. Konoha does not tolerate traitors.
Sakumo is unsurprised when another ghost appears one day, since there must be more people trapped in these... strange circumstances. The kunoichi paces restlessly about the T&I building with a stricken expression on her face that morphs into fury just as quickly. After that first glimpse from afar, Sakumo makes it a point to avoid her despite his craving for social contact. He is simply glad that the ghost is no-one he had known personally. The implications are clear to all who can see it – the perpetual frown on the Head of the T&I's brow, the displeased twist to Uchiha Fugaku's lips. But the Hokage simply looks grieved.
It is a relief when she floats out of the village one day and doesn't come back.
Gentleness has no place in Minato's instruction now and Sakumo is glad for it, even if means that those rare moments of childish joy no longer appear so often. This generation will be one to see war. Every mistake corrected increases their chances and there is no question that Kakashi must survive.
Violence breaks over the horizon within six months of Team Minato's formation. The first week of hostilities finds Kakashi scrambling in the mud, his small hands clutched around the neck of an Iwa boy just years older than him, eyes wide with horror as the body beneath his falls limp. The Iwa-nin isn't the only one who dies that evening; the innocence in Kakashi's tear-bright eyes flickers and sputters out.
With Minato's concerned voice locked outside his apartment, Kakashi's muddied sandals skid against the tiles as he vomits into the toilet bowl, shaking so violently that the hitai-ate gripped in his fist taps a loud ta-ta-ta against the ceramic. Sakumo can do nothing but kneel beside his son – so young, so painfully young – brushing his hand gently through filth-streaked silver hair.
"S-sorry— sorrysorrysorry—" Kakashi stutters between the dry heaves wracking his body. Eventually his watery limbs lose the last of their strength and he slides down onto the floor, unfocused gaze haunted as he stares at the water-stained ceiling.
His own eyes stinging, Sakumo leans over his son on his hands and knees, unable to stop speaking even though his words can offer no comfort. "You're still Kakashi," he murmurs, placing his cupped palm just alongside the childish curve of Kakashi's tear-stained cheek. He doesn't dare let his touch chill Kakashi. "You're still my son. You're still human."
Sakumo doesn't tell him it's going to be alright, because it isn't. Somewhere underneath those heaving ribs, something has irreparably broken. Shinobi are only forgiven when they die and perhaps not even then. A droplet of water slips from Sakumo's eye, catching the light for a split-second before it disappears through the bruise blooming across Kakashi's cheekbone. The boy's eyes flutter closed, shadowing sickly pale skin.
Kakashi is a child that isn't.
(Having been suitably blooded, Kakashi is fast-tracked to jounin at nine, the youngest in Konoha history.)
A/N: There is quite a bit of controversy in the fandom as to whether Kakashi is 9 or 13 when he becomes jounin. Here he is 9 because it fits the story's timeline better.